Saturday 16 July: The Conservative leadership contest under TV lights has become childish

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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628 thoughts on “Saturday 16 July: The Conservative leadership contest under TV lights has become childish”

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.  A pleasantly fresh 13° at 06.40, to be followed by a very acceptable 21° later.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The Conservative selection process should have been confined to MPs – and not broadened out into televised debates – until two candidates were left standing. To see mature men and women proclaiming their ability to get things done and make decisions is hollow and degrading, and is more like the selection process for a form prefect.

    At least my grandson had the effrontery to bribe his supporters by bringing in cup cakes. He won.

    Malcolm Allen
    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    Your grandson is destined for greater things, Mr Allen!

    1. I wonder if his mother supplied the cup cakes, either through pocket money or baking them?

      A prefect analogy for modern politics, a supporter donates to the candidate unbeknown to the voters, the candidate uses the “donation/bribe” to then bribe the voters, gets elected and the donor gets to determine policy.

      2. Good morning, sos. I wonder if I give some of my rhubarb and gooseberry crumbles to the electorate if I might become the next Prime Minister?

    2. “…more like the selection process for a form prefect.” Even so. At my school prefects were appointed from above. There was no election. Only those who followed the laid down rules, conformed to authority and did not get into trouble were appointed as prefects*. We are watching an entirely similar process, with additional meaningless film-flam.

      (*Two people in my final year were not appointed as prefects. I was one of them.)

      1. Yes, appointed from above at my school too. This method was obviously seriously flawed because, to my utter amazement, I made it to Dep Head Boy – but only for one term because three of us were considered worthy of such a promotion, so we did just one term each. Somehow I survived mine. Presumably I never broke Rule 1 – Don’t get caught.

        2. One of the memories I have of head boys was the handing over of the little enamel badge saying “Head Boy”. There was a garden in front of the school with a broad set of steps leading down to a lawn. The retiring head boy climbed the steps on his knees to hand over his badge to the incoming head boy. The badges were used year after year. It was an example of frugality. The ceremony was not an official one.

          (The retiring head boy went on to become a British ambassador, and the incoming head boy is now a retired professor in Australia.

      2. Yes, appointed from above at my school too. This method was obviously seriously flawed because, to my utter amazement, I made it to Dep Head Boy – but only for one term because three of us were considered worthy of such a promotion, so we did just one term each. Somehow I survived mine.

      3. Yes, appointed from above at my school too. This method was obviously seriously flawed because, to my utter amazement, I made it to Dep Head Boy – but only for one term because three of us were considered worthy of such a promotion, so we did just one term each. Somehow I survived mine.

      5. It was normal for anyone appointed captain of any of the school’s first teams to be made a prefect at the same time.
        It also tended to apply to gaining first team colours in certain sports.
        Four years after my first set of colours and three years after my first captaincy I was finally made a prefect for my last term.

      6. Our class was the first ‘O’ level year that had no half-prefects. (Only 6th. Formers could be full prefects – braided blazer, tassle on cap or beret.)
        We must have been a particularly bolshie year.

        1. We wore ties with a white stripe (ordinary ties were maroon and blue stripes). The only concession to rank.

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.  A pleasantly fresh 13° at 06.40, to be followed by a very acceptable 21° later.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The Conservative selection process should have been confined to MPs – and not broadened out into televised debates – until two candidates were left standing. To see mature men and women proclaiming their ability to get things done and make decisions is hollow and degrading, and is more like the selection process for a form prefect.

    At least my grandson had the effrontery to bribe his supporters by bringing in cup cakes. He won.

    Malcolm Allen
    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    Your grandson is destined for greater things, Mr Allen!

  5. SIR – It is no accident that the Conservative Party, as successor to the 18th-century Tories, is Western democracy’s longest-surviving political party.

    As Andrew Roberts eloquently writes (Comment, July 14), that longevity owes not a little to a tradition of debate without personal rancour – that its members may differ as to means in pursuit of conservative principle but without descent into spite and viciousness.

    As a one-time active member, now living in Australia, I hope the present party heeds his wise advice. It is socialists who have a tendency to tear themselves apart, as exemplified by Ramsay MacDonald in the 1930s and the “Gang of Four” in the 1980s.

    It would be a tragedy, for both party and nation, for Tories to act in a similarly destructive manner.

    John Kidd
    Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia

    Too late, Mr Kidd, and this is only the start…

  6. SIR – Your environment correspondent reports (July 14) a meteorologist saying that “tropical nights” are likely between Sunday and Tuesday next week, with temperatures not falling below 20C for a full 24-hour period, posing a significant risk to health.

    Having lived in Kiribati for more than six years, where the night-time temperature rarely drops below 25C, I can assure her and your readers that this is a load of alarmist baloney.

    Dr Joe Cobbe
    Bisley, Gloucestershire

    It’s the humidity that makes it uncomfortable here.  Is it perhaps generally lower in Kiribati?

        1. ‘Morn – More or less. those were the new oilfields my FiL was engaged by the Kuwait Oil Company to project manage, fortunately (or not) he died shortly before their destruction, it would have broken his heart had he still been around to see that. He also had great respect for the Kuwaiti Arabs and was well respected by them, it probably helped that he taught himself Arabic.

          2. SWMBO speaks of Kuwait with great affection but this was from the 50/60s and the experience of an ex-pat. My FiL retired from there in ’71, obviously they missed his guiding presence

  7. SIR – Thousands of us seek a holiday abroad every year hoping to enjoy a warm weather environment. I don’t remember much cautionary information about the hot weather and how to deal with it before we go – it’s the reason for us escaping Britain.

    It’s interesting that as soon as we get holiday-type weather in Britain there are panic situations as if none of us have ever experienced hot weather!

    The powers-that-be should be less woke, perhaps limiting advice to use of sun cream and shade as necessary.

    Jack Hay
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

    Fat chance, Mr Hay; COBRA activated, schools closing, red alert for the No Hope Service…how we managed in ’76 without all this malarkey I’ll never know.

  8. If anyone is any doubt that the lunatics really are in charge of the asylum:

    Rochdale grooming gang ringleader who blamed his crimes on Western society for allowing young girls to ‘parade on the streets’ gets prison ‘equality’ role
    Shabir Ahmed was a ringleader of notorious Rochdale child sex grooming gang
    Former taxi driver, 69, is now appointed as ‘equalities representative’ in prison
    Chief crown prosecutor branded Ahmed’s prison appointment as ‘staggering’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11018733/Rochdale-grooming-gang-ringleader-blamed-crimes-Western-society-gets-prison-equality-role.html

    1. 354296+ up ticks,

      S,
      One paedophile will try and elevate another regarding
      positions of power.

      1. One does wonder how and particularly why the foul creature was appointed.
        Perhaps in return for silence or services rendered.

          2. 354296+ up ticks,
            S,
            Argue that poing after the echos fade from the rifle volley.

        1. Would look better with a red spot just above the bridge of his nose.
          And no, I do not mean him becoming a Hindu.

  9. SIR – A C H Irvine (Letters, July 14) wrote of the proposed solar farm near Stamford. That particular countryside is indeed a pastoral idyll, especially on a perfect English summer’s day.

    Mr Irvine is also correct that the loss of over 2,000 acres of prime farmland to a solar farm needs serious debate. However, we must acknowledge that to most farmers the income generated by a solar farm often outweighs what they can earn by working the land.

    No one forces farmers and landowners to lease or sell land for solar farms. It is a function of market forces and our planning system.

    We should be addressing how our farmers can be the nation’s primary food supplier, not merely guardians of a J M W Turner landscape that we can admire from the railway carriage.

    J S F Cash
    Swinford. Leicestershire

    Cheap food = solar ‘farms’ = lots more imports = even lower food security?

    1. The only reason why solar farms are profitable are the subsidies paid by the poor bloody taxpayer.

  11. Had a text fron SE Water reminding me to put drinking water in the fridge for the hot wather. I cannot print my reply here.

    1. The nanny state is in full cry, Johnny. It loves nothing more than a crisis, even a manufactured one.

    2. You’ll probably get one from the NHS soon, warning you not to drink over-chilled drinks and to be careful you don’t drink too much,

      excess water in the body causes the body’s salt levels to go down and the cells to swell. This swelling causes them to grow in size, and those in the brain press against the skull. This pressure causes a throbbing headache and may lead to brain impairment and trouble breathing.

    3. More advice for you!

      SIR – I have had a reminder from my provider about how to save water. One of the things they suggest: “Reducing your shower by just five minutes can save 50 litres of water.” How long do they reckon we spend in a shower?

      Gerard Galvin
      Basingstoke, Hampshire

      1. Yo Hugh

        Matelots shower
        Wait in queue for empty cubicle
        Enter
        Shout ‘Switching On” (water presure change will scold or freeze occupants of other showers in room)
        Get Wet all over(alert for other “Switching On ‘ shouts)
        Shout “Switching Off” (see above)
        Lather all over
        “Switching On”
        Rinse soap and shampoo off
        “Switching Off”
        Exit shower
        Dry yourself
        Dhobey undies in sink

        Although a ship is surrounded by water, it has to make its’ own Fresh Stuff.
        I have been on ships that have awnings rigged, chase clouds and collected rainwater.

        Washing the helo took preference over crew showering

    4. ‘Morning, Johnny, a prime example of the dumbing down that the nanny state wishes to impose upon us.

    5. From their point of view they will be thinking of the people who will run water from the tap, probably straight down the sink, until the water gets a little cooler.
      Society always seems to have to flow (ho ho) around the lowest common denominator.

    6. Yo Mr N

      I would have queried what I should do to
      Make warm/hot drinks
      Wash clothes
      Do washing up
      Shower
      Bath
      Clean car
      Water garden
      etc

    9. They’d be better off telling yer Millenials and actors to turn the tap off when they are cleaning their teeth and to sash up in a bowl instead of under a running tap.

      (Not heat related but those are two things that really annoy me)

  12. 354296+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Saturday 16 July: The Conservative leadership contest under TV lights has become childish,

    Reminiscent of the kids in Babarella nasty, vicious & dangerous.

    In my book and by what has been witnessed the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration, ongoing / paedophile PIE register being added to daily
    ( foreign incoming )

    Current supporters / members / voters coalition are a constant danger to both children and the elderly.

    If you have difficulty agreeing to that then you have for sure the brains of a rocking horse.

    1. It is just like observing a conversation between Sir Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan and Rab Butler.

  13. 354296+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Saturday 16 July: The Conservative leadership contest under TV lights has become childish,

    Reminiscent of the kids in Babarella nasty, vicious & dangerous.

    In my book and by what has been witnessed the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration, ongoing / paedophile PIE register being added to daily
    ( foreign incoming )

    Current supporters / members / voters coalition are a constant danger to both children and the elderly.

    If you have difficulty agreeing to that then you have for sure the brains of a rocking horse.

  14. Good morning to all. A pleasantly cool 9°C outside with a clear, blue sky with another warm day forecast.

      1. The way I’ve been sleeping lately, I’ve not been feeling like doing much.
        If I do get too hot it’s me into a cold bath!

  15. SIR – Alexander Larman’s feature on the new Railway Children film (July 14) comments on the back-story focusing on the US military’s segregation policy during the Second World War. The so-called “Battle of Bamber Bridge” was only one of many such incidents, when black GIs fought against white soldiers, and these conflicts were not confined only to the military police.

    Upon their arrival in Britain, the American authorities wrote formally to the British government seeking co-operation in upholding the segregation policies within their armed forces. To our credit, the British refused and in many cases black GIs was well received throughout the country.

    There were two main reasons for this. Initially, black servicemen were only utilised in non-combat roles and physical labour. They arrived first to set up the infrastructure for their white comrades. Secondly the majority of blacks had lived in rural America where their surroundings were simple and frugal.

    The result was a cadre of hard-working, polite young men who were treated with kindness and respect by Britain’s white population. There was a genuine mutual regard, often not enjoyed by the white GIs, who saw a tired, down-at-heel, backward country compared with their home.

    Soon after the war Nevil Shute, the author and engineer, wrote movingly about the relationship between black GIs and a Cornish village in his novel The Chequerboard. Shute used his wartime knowledge and experience to illustrate the horrors of racism.

    The US military continued its policies of segregation until 1947. As the writer Ralf Ellison, who served as a GI in Wales, put it: “They fought separately and died equally.”

    Dr Michael A Fopp
    Soulbury, Buckinghamshire

    Nice letter, and no hint of the BLM rubbish in those days. How did we do it??

    PS This letter has encouraged me to revisit Shute’s excellent books.

    1. Good morning Hugh.
      The infestation of Racism was, I firmly believe, an import from the USA.

        1. To be fair, racism was always a feature of the 20th Century UK, but it was at a much lower intensity and a from much smaller percentage of the population. One only has to look at the abuse suffered by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, perhaps England’s most promising composer of the pre-WW1 era to realise that.

          2. How much of that was more to do with snobbery rather than actual racism?

      2. Most imports from the USA have been negative for our society and us. I often wish that it had never been discovered…

          2. One of the early Norse settlements was only there because a film company went back in time to make a film about Viking settlements! All true, and lovingly detailed in Harry Harrison’s book “The Technicolor [sic] Time Machine”!!

          3. One of the early Norse settlements was only there because a film company went back in time to make a film about Viking settlements! All true, and lovingly detailed in Harry Harrison’s book “The Technicolor [sic] Time Machine”!!

          4. He never even got there but Columbus Day is still commemorated every October.

          5. That’s America for you, as I’ve heard it, “A day late and a dollar short!”

    2. Good morning Hugh.
      The infestation of Racism was, I firmly believe, an import from the USA.

    3. Just reread “No Highway”, last time read more than 25 years ago. A fascinating, well-crafted story, that kept me entertained for hours. I’ll have to get me a copy of Checquerboard – don’t know that one.

      1. Very much worth reading.
        I think the only Neville Shute book I’ve not read is The Slide Rule.

    4. Shute, who I think is a very good author, has recently been accused of racism in his writing, specifically his treatment of aborigines (and Japs if you can believe it) in A Town Like Alice.

      1. Only by people who ignore the subtle nuances in his writing and after all, his novels merely reflect the attitudes of the day.

      2. Shute is accurate about the times he is writing about. In Alice, women are not welcomed in pubs or bars. On the Beach should be required reading for every person in government world wide. Assuming they can read, of course.

    5. As I mentioned the other day- after reading the review of the movie, I looked up Bamber Bridge; similar incidents are featured, as also stated, in the movie Yanks.
      Nevil Shute is a great writer and story teller.

  16. Good morning all

    It is lovely to wake up to a blue sky.. 15c here , no breeze … a big but … house feels warm .. I think the loft must be cooking , we have two lofts, the house is sort of t shaped .

    When we had the last enormous heat wave in ’76 the home we owned then had no double glazing , limited lagging in the loft and no cavity wall insulation .. the water pressure was almost a trickle , and as time went by the drought really took hold .

    Houses these days are now adapted to retain the heat . The highest temperature recorded in June 1976 was 35.6°C, in Southampton on the 28th. Parents in law lived there and I can remember Ma in law ringing me up to tell me one the roads near them had become like glue!

    Opening of Rutland Water, the largest reservoir in England by surface area (1,212 hectares (2,995 acres) , don’t we need more reservoirs built?

    Inflation stood at 16.5% – lower than the previos year’s level, but still one of the highest since records began in 1750.[40] However, at one stage during this year inflation exceeded 24%

    James Callaghan was PM.

    1. Good morning Maggie.
      We don’t so much need more reservoirs, more like fewer people!

      1. The EU prevented more reservoirs being built and the EU are feeding us with the immigrants.

        1. HL: do you have a link for that? Here in Canterbury there were plans in late 1970s to flood the Broad Oak valley to create a 2 mile long reservoir, affecting just ONE property and making a fine recreational (and probably fishing) centre. Now we have fewer and fewer water sources in Kent (and quite a few daily arrivals!).

      2. The EU prevented more reservoirs being built and the EU are feeding us with the immigrants.

    2. ‘Morning, Belle. I’m sure there is something in the point that well-insulated houses take longer to cool down. Here in Janus Towers we open the loft hatch, which seems to help. A few open windows on the ground floor seems to provide a nice up-draught from the early evening onwards.

    3. Good morning TB, and everyone.
      James Callaghan served in the Royal Navy during the War.
      Of her 14 Prime Ministers so far, Jim was perceived as the Queen’s favourite one.

      1. Wasn’t it Dennis Healey who was Beach Master at Anzio?
        When Labour was actually worth voting for.

        1. Forgot to add that he was also a Sapper and is probably propping the Squadron Bar up at the Great RE Piss-up on Laffan’s Plain.

          1. Yet he scrapped TSR2, destroyed the jigs with mindless vandalism and ordered the American F111 but subsequently cancelled that. We were then forced to buy the Phantom but luckily we still had the Buccaneer which was released from the RN

          2. I saw a documentary about the TSR2 where Healey denied ordering the destruction.Yeah, OK, Dennis. The UK needed a loan from the IMF and this was the leverage.

      1. Yes. Real investigative journalism is thin on the ground. Much easier to sit at a computer and post links to other people’s work. Yes, looking at you, BBC.

    2. Bellingcat declared “undesirable” by Russian authorities.

      Of course it’s undesirable! It’s a CIA affiliated organisation!

  18. Good morning all – lovely sunny morning, swifts circling overhead, today we’re off to Stroud Show with the Hedgehog stall for the first time in three years. Spent hours yesterday afternoon sorting out stock to take and stuff to discard.
    We’re all three years older and slower so let’s hope we have a good day, raise some funds and don’t get heat-stroke or worse!

    3. Goodmorning J

      Hope you have a successful day.

      Because councils had stopped cutting roadside verges for months , grass has grown and whole areas are looking very full of tall grasses , the tall grasses have caused visual obstructions on corners and roundabouts , so now they are being trimmed back and sadly hedgehog nests have been disturbed …

      No answers to that..

  19. I’m glad I didn’t waste my time (and rising blood pressure) watching the so-called TV ‘debate’ which, if past experience is any guide, is usually a Parade of the Soundbites. The BTL posters should have avoided it too:

    Kevin Bell
    4 HRS AGO
    What a shocking spectacle the TV hustings was. None of the candidates had the guts to reach beyond the audience of what seemed like Labour activists and address the Conservative members who will vote in the final ballot. They sounded like a bunch of liberal democrats and I’m sure Tony Blair would be happier with them rather than the current Labour front bench.
    Where was a candidate with the nerve to say the Welfare State is too big and that over generous benefits are disincentives to people working? We have five million working age people receiving benefits. Or challenging the unjustified mythical status of the NHS, surely the most inefficient bureaucracy in the world? Or making a case for free enterprise, deregulation and energy independence?
    It was sickening to watch Sunak putting down those who want modest – and they are – tax cuts as irresponsible. He was the man whose profligacy has created the mess we are in and who has no idea how to grow our economy.
    And trust? Why didn’t Liz Truss say they didn’t trust Tom Tugentwit on Brexit? Or Sunak because he held a green card until recently and his wife preferred to pay her taxes overseas, probably in tax havens?
    And why didn’t they tell the smug presenter to go away with his gratuitous and offensive question about Boris Johnson?

    Chris Harris
    2 HRS AGO
    Did any of the candidates denounce HS2, Net Zero, uncontrolled immigration , OTT pensions for public sector fat-cats, public sector “management” , to say the least?

    1. I didn’t watch so really have nothing to say. I ‘m not a party member so have no vote. We will just have to wait and see.

    2. And why didn’t they tell the smug presenter to go away with his gratuitous and offensive question about Boris Johnson?

      Morning Hugh. Who was the “smug presenter”? There are endless negative comments about him on line but no one identifies him!

      1. He is a darkie from India (or some such). Very much up himself – Krishna double-barrelled.

        1. Jon Snow’s erstwhile sidekick co-presenter? Taught him everything he knows…

          1. Channel 4 accused of bias by Tory MPs after leadership debate
            ‘Woke presenter’ Krishnan Guru-Murthy criticised by Conservatives who said ‘candidates can barely get a word in’

      3. From the brief clip I saw on Guido Fawkes yesterday it was Gurning-Murthy, he of the overly-aggressive questioning, particularly of Tory interviewees.

      2. 354296+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Anne,
        I believe I’m it’s only fan. when it signals hurt I’m on target.

  22. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny & cool at 14C. Lovely! Already mugged by cats for some breakfast.

    1. Good morrow, Paul, I’ll bet you’re glad (and happy) to be home.

      Enjoy your relatative Norwegian freedom after the soulless UK bureaucracy.

  23. England braces for 40C temperatures as experts warn thousands could die. 16 July 2022.

    Thousands of people could die in the coming heatwave, experts have warned, as the government triggered the first ever national emergency heat red alert with a record 40C (104F) temperature forecast for south-east England on Tuesday.

    Health officials fear people living alone on upper floors of buildings are among those who could perish, as people did in Paris in 2003. Last year two lesser heat episodes caused about 1,600 excess deaths, according to official figures.

    Aaaaaaaagh!! We’re all gonna die!!!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/15/heat-emergency-declared-in-england-as-temperature-expected-to-hit-40c

    1. My local weather report for the south coast shows temps of mid 20’s C with clouds and rain on Tuesday. The only clear sunny day is next Friday.

      1. Of course one could argue that the excessive heat in 1976 affected our brains and caused us all to vote the wrong way in the Common Market referendum….

          5. I voted to stay in the Common Market – an economic club with no political aspirations to suppress our sovereignty, our law, our way of life and our institutions: I did not vote to be in a monstrous EU. But in my defence I was not even 30 at the time – I was still in my salad days: green in judgement, cold in blood and easily deceived by that liar Heath who conned me at the time but succeeded in leaving me staunchly anti-EU and full of total contempt for the vast majority of politicians.

          6. As I had been stationed in Germany during the late 1960s, I was impressed by their recovery and thought that what was touted as ‘The Common Market’ must be a good thing. I too was at that similar age, Richard, so, foolishly, voted for it.

          1. Actually, that was also a long hot summer, but 1976 seems to be the one that stuck in people’s memories. That was the year it snowed (in Cambridge) in early June, and was the herald of the weather which was to come. It was the summer of the sugar shortage, and the summer of the year I went to Corsica with a friend, only to arrive to suffer constant rain and thunderstorms from the day after our arrival. Our poor little tent did not recover. Meanwhile Britain was baking in 100 F temperatures …! Our predicament was caused by a ‘blocking high’ – very stable anticyclone – centred over the British isles and a ‘Gulf of Genoa’ area of low pressure off the coast of Italy. We abandoned Corsica after a week – we were tired of digging trenches around the tent and fed up (literally, in this case!) with Vesta packet meals and headed for Florence where we endured typically British cloudy, moody weather and found a little sunshine in Siena.

          2. I remember the wintry weather in early June 75.
            On the worst day I rocked up on the ward to sort out a student nurse who had been causing dissension and distress amongst the staff on every ward to which she had been posted.
            Let’s just say, her tittle-tattling crony rushed off the ward in floods of tears and madam herself went off sick for a week.

    4. 354296+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      Does it look like the death count could lap the premature death count of the jab, when finally known, and sentencing begins?

    5. Will these prophesised extra deaths be in addition to those currently happening (about 1,700 per week) caused by conditions that are baffling the ‘experts’ or will they replace those? Burying bad news, literally!

      1. One can see where this is going. All unexplained and ‘baffling’ deaths will be attributed to the effects of the weather and ‘climate change’ from now on. All Sudden Adult Deaths will be just that with a shrug of the shoulders, no need to look further. Move along folks, nothing to see here.

        1. According to reports from the USA, casket (coffin) manufacturers are receiving increased orders for their child size products. Nobody in authority appears to want to pay attention to these tragedies, let alone stop them. Where did all these callous people appear from?

          2. I was just reading this morning that in order to hide the number of child deaths (in the US) from the public, the bodies of small children are being rushed from the hospital to the crematorium, by-passing the undertaker. If correct, goodness knows what the excuse is that they give to the parents. Pressure on these facilities due to ‘covid’ perhaps, which keeps the myth going.

    6. The replacements coming in by dinghy will be far more resilient in a heatwave however won’t help much in the great energy saving push come winters. Others of their ilk I have worked with always went the heating on to the max in the office.

  24. 354296+ up ticks,

    DT,
    Penny Mordaunt exclusive: I am up to the job of prime minister
    Tory leadership contender hits back at critics, as she is challenged by rivals in first television…

    Penny Mordaunt exclusive: I am up to the job of prime minister, bill said so.

  25. “ My tomatoes wilt within hours of being watered, most of the garden is dying of heat and the pond needs topping up every evening.

    In Italy the longest river, the Po, has dried up. Europe is on fire, and southern Britain soon will be too, with fire brigades having trouble finding water to douse it with.

    Dig a pond? Where will the water come from to fill it this summer?

    Sue Doughty”

    Just how big do you think these ponds will be, Sue? Heavens above. We dig one a few years ago which is perfectly fit for purpose and hardly requires any water.

    also – loved the letter and picture re the speed li it’s: “20 for a reason”. Here in London, our wonderful mayor gave one reason, Richmond borough council a completely different one. It’s almost as if they make it up as they go along. But we WIlL be made to do 20, (maybe it’s a good idea – however, I would at least like to be consulted on it before it is imposed from above).

    1. I am waiting for the introduction of the “new” rule that demands a man with a red flag walks in front of every vehicle….

      1. You are obviously an out of date old fogey.

        Only electric or hybrid vehicles will be allowed on the roads and they will follow either a green or rainbow flag.

    2. The EU made up a rule some years ago “No more dams or reservoirs”

      Why?

      Anyone got any ideas?

      2. Someone identified, a couple of days ago, Janet, that it was an EU diktat aimed at Spain, because of their water shortages and, because the EU finds it impossible to regionalise, it was a blanket ban covering ALL EU members at the time.

      3. To stress the networks. Cause unnecessary suffering. To show you who is boss, peasant !

      4. And don’t forget that the flooding of the Somerset Levels a few years ago was entirely due to the EU rules about dredging.

        The now disgraced Owen Paterson (whom I think was stitched up) was the minister for the environment at the time and he was sacked by the wretched David Cameron for telling the truth.

        What is also interesting is that Paterson was replaced by Adultera Truss whose then recent exploits in the bedchamber had hit the MSM’s sporting sections.

    3. My tomatoes, either under glass or out in the garden, are doing very well. In addition I have, over the last few weeks, had a bumper harvest of gooseberries, raspberries and the blueberries are promising the same. The new grape in the greenhouse at the top of the garden has grown about 8′ so far this summer, promising a good rod for next year. I’m having to decide how to train the rod this coming Autumn, some reading to do and also speaking to the friend who gave me the plant. It’s a warmer Summer than the average, get over it, Ms Doughty.

      Doughty: determined, brave, and unwilling ever to stop trying to achieve something:

    4. I liked the sign under the sign except it doesn’t answer the question why it’s a 20mph zone.

    1. Good morning. Great lunch out yesterday. It’s nice sitting outside under an awning.

        1. As i was finishing my next door neighbour appeared. She was doing a bit of shopping. I got a lift home. Saved me a tenner on a taxi. :@)

  27. Good Moaning.
    Phone call from Sonny Boy in Cyprus. Apparently it’s hot and sunny.
    That Glowball Warmi Climate Change gets everywhere. I thought it was only Blighty that was so blighted.

  28. Bonjour tout le monde.
    To the Title – Tory Leadership? Really?
    Neil Oliver with his usual pithy insights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPdsRf0f1V4
    There is absolutely no prospect of a leader in this contest. They are all bought, paid for a pre-wrapped and if they were not they would be eliminated.

  29. Good Moaning.
    Phone call from Sonny Boy in Cyprus. Apparently it’s hot and sunny.
    That Glowball Warmi Climate Change gets everywhere. I thought it was only Blighty that was so blighted.

  30. JK Rowling backs parents told disabled daughter did not have right to female-only care
    Harry Potter author warns that special school’s cross-gender policy on intimate assistance endangers ‘extremely vulnerable girls’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/15/jk-rowling-backs-parents-told-disabled-daughter-did-not-have/

    Just what you would expect – the woke dogma where normal human beings’ rights must be subordinate to monstrous ideology.

    But The Daily Telegraph is itself so timid and woke that it still does not allow its readers to comment on any issue where the vast majority of its readers’ views are too frighteningly out of line with what the establishment wants them to think.

    1. The last lines in the piece say it all:

      “I can’t easily imagine a clearer case of an unjustified sense of grievance than any affront a male staff member might feel about not being allowed to provide intimate care to a disabled girl.”

  31. Summer 1783 to late winter 1783/84 Icelandic volcanic eruption (Laki): Primary eruptions (five) from June 8th to July 8th, 1783 (60% of the total volume of ejection), but minor eruptions occurred until early February, 1784. A major event, with huge production of sulphur & acid products, as well as the largest production of lava in recorded history. The majority of emissions are thought to have been confined to the troposphere, but the initial ejections of each of the five major events did penetrate the tropopause and entered the stratosphere. The intense period of eruption tallied with contemporary reports across Europe of a blue haze or dry-fog in the atmosphere, damage to vegetation and occurrence of respiratory problems (later analysis suggests that the mortality due to the sulphur-based haze was counted in tens of thousands dead): the effects noted at the time throughout summer & autumn. These effects are consistent with increased atmospheric loading of acid aerosols, particularly sulphates. Because of the (suspected) lack of major stratospheric impact, there is controversy surrounding this event: For Iceland itself, the following winter (1783/84) was known as the ‘Famine Winter’: 25% of the population died (many from wet and dry deposition of acidic pollutants). Note, there is still some argument as to whether this led to changes to the regional/European climate in the years 1783, 1784 etc., and / or by how much. (var, VOLC)
    late Winter / early Spring 1783/1784 January to April 1784 … notably cold, and persistently so by CET series. In particular, the winter (1783 December – 1784 February) CET=1.2degC, some 2.5C below the all-series average. The Thames was completely frozen in February and traffic crossed on the ice. (LW)
    In Scotland, the period around and after Christmas was bitterly cold with a ‘violent’ easterly storm 25th/26th December, which caused havoc along the Scottish east coast, and brought a large amount of snow which drifted significantly.
    (NB: the following winter/1784-85 was also about 1degC colder than average. This has been attributed to the Laki eruption event but there is some doubt about this – see above.)
    2nd/3rd January: Scotland – a severe snowstorm affecting at least the Aberdeen area, with much drifting. Drifts were reported to have reached around 5 or 6 metres in Aberdeenshire, seriously dislocating travel. Houses all down the eastern side of Scotland were unroofed, rocks were blown into harbours on the east coast, and stacks of corn & hay were carried away. Reports from Edinburgh suggest that widespread bad conditions occurred elsewhere. CET,
    8, 23
    Summer 1783 1. Hot dry weather set in during June after continual rains. The fine weather was marred until 20th July or later by persistent thick smoky haze and pall, apparently from an Iceland volcano [ see above ]. Overall though, noted as a ‘warm’ summer (London/South).
    2. July 1783 was a notably warm month (in the CET series), not only for July but for any summer month. The value of 18.8degC represents an anomaly of +2.9C over the all-series mean, placing it second warmest in the July lists, and also making it the fourth warmest any named month in that series (which starts in 1659.) [ The other summer months, June and August, were above-average, but by half-a-degree or less, so nothing special. ]
    3. A ‘high-summer’ noteworthy for it’s thunderstorm activity. There is a possible link with the high pollution (atmospheric aerosols) due to the ‘Laki’ eruption. 6, 8, CET
    1783 (autumn) https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1750-to-1799-ad/

      1. She is the embodiment of this phrase from the great epic poem written in the seventeenth century.

        Semblance of worth – not substance.

        [John Milton: Paradise Lost]

    2. Morning Korky. It scarcely seems possible but she will be worse than Boris!

      1. That’s probably the idea. Lazy, not interested in detail, economic with the truth and reality etc. seem to be ‘must haves’ on the cv for PM at the moment.

    3. Two observations on PM in today’s Daily Fail

      ‘She couldn’t run a tea party in Holland Park!’ Ex-boss reveals he despaired working with would-be PM Penny Mordaunt at a West London council because she was so ‘incompetent’ Lord Moylan said Mordaunt quit the role at council because she ‘couldn’t do job’
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11019065/Ex-boss-reveals-ousted-incompetent-Penny-Mordaunt-job-West-London-council.html

      Senior officers question Penny Mordaunt’s claims about Royal Navy credentials. PM candidate Penny Mordaunt claims to have experience in Royal Naval Reserve. She has not been deployed and does not currently receive a salary or train. But highly-decorated former senior Royal Navy officer questions her credentials. They went on to say ‘she’s never qualified or been commissioned’ in the navy.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11015669/Senior-officers-questioned-Penny-Mordaunts-Navy-claims.html

    4. “Please Sir, they’re bullying me!”

      Penny Mordaunt accuses Tory leadership rivals of ‘black ops’ campaign
      Trade minister says spate of negative coverage is an attempt keep her out of final round of voting
      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/15/david-frost-urges-kemi-badenoch-to-step-aside-for-liz-truss

      Penny Mordaunt: My rivals are running black ops – but there’s a reason why I’m topping every poll
      In a Telegraph interview, Tory leadership frontrunner says she believes in leaving the EU to her ‘core’ and insists she is ready to be PM
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/15/penny-mordaunt-rivals-running-black-ops-reason-why-topping/

      BTL in DT:
      chris brown
      Woke, lukewarm on Brexit, awol when the muck and bullets are flying, not too sure about what a woman is. Will supercharge levelling up while supporting the net zero that will wipe out British manufacturing. No thanks Penny.

      Neil Whelan
      Continuity Carrie.

      1. Once again the BBC News had a glowing report on Tom Tugendhat.

        They said on the news that he made by far the best speech last night.

        I wonder whether his speech included his visit to the Bilderberg conference, and what he agreed there to do?

        1. This is from a contact of mine, moderately right of centre and with a low opinion of modern politics.

          Truss looked like a robot dressed as Margaret Thatcher.

          Badenoch seemed to have to keep looking down at her notes, which didn’t convince, although she did manage a direct hit on Mourdaunt.

          Interesting that Mourdaunt seemed to be the one that none of the others liked.

          Tugendhat has the advantage of being able to distance himself from the Government, but he sneered a few too many times for my liking.

          Rishi, not sure he can convince people he’s done enough on the cost of living crisis.

          For me, the winner tonight was Boris Johnson. For all of his many, many faults, he’s head and shoulders above this lot.

          1. ‘Morning, William, “Interesting that Mourdaunt seemed to be the one that none of the others liked.”

            Probably because the others thought she is/was most likely to win.

        2. Anyone who receives a glowing report from the BBC should be viewed with deep suspicion.

      2. I do like “Continuity Carrie”! I’m not sure if Dormant would be better or worse than Dogendtwat or Truss, the warmongering, geographically challenged Foreign Secretary!

  33. Morning all 😃
    After receiving the daily verbal bashing from the latest experts, over the next few days, if and when I do dare to venture past my front door during daylight hours, I have decided to carry a bucket of water with me everywhere. Due to the fact that according to and interpretation of the advice of the latest experts.
    I might suddenly be subjected to self ignition ☀️🔥 and burst into flames 😳
    But I’ll manage asbestos I can.

    1. I should warn you that the extreme temperatures may make the water in the bucket heat up – and be a danger to you and passers by.

      I advise that you carry a large sign – and hand out warning leaflets.

      This advice comes from Her Majesty’s Government in Exile.

      2. Just been printing the leaflets.
        But but but……perhaps a rethink is an urgent consideration. They might catch fire in the sunshine 🌞. Hang on a mo……I think I’ve just invented something…..how to deal with government’s experts directives.
        I’ll give Morecombe and Wise a ring. 😊

  34. Electricity Prices
    Good Morning All
    Like most of you, my Electricity and Gas bills have shot up. As I am now the 24/7 Carer for my bed-bound wife, I have been laundering every 2 days, and using the tumble-drier as well to save me having to hang it all out and get it all back in.

    My latest Gas & Electricity bill analysis showed me that this was by far the biggest single user of electricity, so I emailed the Supplier to ask what times the Night Rate (9.37p/kWh) and Day Rate (16.08p/kWh) operated. Turns out they are Night (= Off-Peak) 00:15 – 07:15 and Day (= Peak) 07:15 – 00:15.

    At 81 years old I usually get up in the night about 2 to 3 AM for you-know-what so this morning I put on my first Night laundry load and in future I will kick off the Washing Machine and Dishwasher on my way back to bed. With this weather I am also drying it outside, after cleaning off 2 years worth of grime from the outside whirligig clothes line. I wouldn’t mind betting that many of you are doing this (night laundry) already – I just never seriously thought to do it before.

    I must add that now my wife (with deepening Dementia) sleeps about 20 hours a day and rarely speaks at all, I find that reading (and increasingly contributing) to NTTL daily keeps me sane and makes me feel a lot less lonely. Thank you for your up-votes to my other posts.

    2. Roughly, whereabouts are you? I think you’ll find, roughcommon, that the NoTTLe family is very supportive and, should there be anyone near, they are very likely to lend a helping hand when necessary.

      1. Tom, the ‘handle’ should give it away. Google ‘Rough Common’ and you will find it is a small village just 1.3 miles northwest of the centre of Canterbury on the road to Whitstable. I live about 500 yards from Kent College, where one of my most respected politicians, Sir John Redwood. went to school. My wife used to do Supply Teaching there and her boss told her that JR was one of the smartest pupils they had ever seen. I still read his daily blog: John Redwood’s Diary, and wish he would stand as PM.

        P.S. Tom, I downloaded, read and enjoyed your last e-book, especially the RAF bits. A school summer camp at RAF Halton started me on a path to win an RAF Flying Scholarship and a Private Pilot’s Licence as soon as I was 17. I was still flying solo from Manston Airport until they closed the airfield. I believe that more than one of the current Nottlers live not far away in East Kent.

        1. Thank you, both for the knowledge of small Kent villages and your complimentary remark about my book.

    3. Ah , bless you..

      Where are you.. which county.. Herts lass has a list of emails you may find useful .. Might help you feel not so isolated being in closer touch with bods ?

    4. I am So sorry to hear this RC, you have my deepest sympathy.
      My Father in law had serious dementia, not that i had to care for him but a having sen some of the problems i know what your going through.
      You take care of your self RC as well.
      Have you contacted citizens advice, you may be able to get some help and carers allowances.

      1. RE: thanks for your comments. My wife has had Attendance Allowance at the Lower Level for about 5 years (since the Lewy Body Dementia was diagnosed). I also found out about the little-known fact that 25% Canterbury Council Tax remission is available if you have someone living in the house with serious mental difficulties. I recently applied for the Higher Rate of Attendance Allowance (the 30-page form AA1 all over again) and got it. But with our prudent savings over the years we were assessed by Kent County Council as ‘not being poor enough’ to receive any help from them. You have to do the research and keep bashing on.

        2. Kent County Council as ‘not being poor enough’ to receive any help from them.

          That sort of comment from these people really annoys me RC. Like most of us i’ll expect you have worked hard and saved all of your working life. And your taxes and other commitments were helping other people with their health and financial problems, as soon as the elderly house owner with pension savings gets a health problem its dig into your savings and or sell the house. And go into to care then an all ready rich care home owner will fleece you for a thousands pounds plus a week.

        4. Yes if you live with someone with SMI (Severe Mental Impairment) you are eligible for the 25% discount as if you were the only person living there. There is no point in saving or being prudent; you’ll get absolutely nothing as I know to my cost (literally).

      1. Sorry, shouldnt be flippant. I do sympathise with everything you’ve said.

    6. That’s a bitter pill you’re chewing. And your wife too.
      I’m too far away to be of much assistance but, if need be, a trundle down over a couple of days could be arranged.

    7. Crumbs, that puts our minor inconveniences into perspective.
      Do you have anyone nearby to lighten the load?

    8. I sympathise. I lost MOH to dementia last August and Nottl kept me going. I always run the washing machine and dishwasher on economy 7 electricity. Before I had to change the machine I could set it up and run it off a timer in the socket, but the new one doesn’t start when the power comes on again if I set it up and switch it off, so I put it on before I go to bed (I’m a night owl).

    9. Really sorry to hear that you are going through this. I value your NOTTL posts as well!

      To save electricity, we dry clothes outside in summer and under the open porch roof or next to the woodstove in winter. The woodstove is particularly efficient because it sucks damp air out and up the chimney.

  35. Latest Breaking Granddad State News

    – The best way of surviving the hot weather in the UK is to cancel the newspapers and turn the tv and radio off,
    Experts with an ounce of common sense are warning that too much project fear may cause thousands or excess deaths over the coming week.

    Their advice is to enjoy it while you can, its a long cold miserable Winter ahead in the UK

  37. Is Boris going to set up his own political party?
    The Telegraph’s weekly Peterborough diary column offers an unparalleled insight into what’s really going on at Westminster and beyond
    Christopher Hope: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/15/boris-going-set-political-party/

    An interesting speculation. It would certainly be fascinating to see what would develop if Boris Johnson allied with Richard Tice, Laurence Fox and Nigel Farage to form a group dedicated to getting Brexit fully done and getting rid of the crippling environmental policies which are crippling us all. But in order for him to do anything about the latter point he would have to ditch Carrie because, for as long as she is there, he may literally be able to copulate and produce progeny but he is metaphorically castrated, impotent and unable to make sensible judgements and decisions.

    My own conclusion is that for as long as he stays with his current wife his political life and aspirations are over.

    BTL

    I do wonder if Carrie Symonds was under orders from some covert and sinister Schwab/Gates/Soros organisation to seduce Boris Johnson, get herself pregnant by him, marry him and poison his government at its core.

      1. My first thought was that the essence of the BTL comment would make a fine novel along the lines of Trollope or Thackery.

        Any takers? Or must I write it myself?

    2. Is Carrie actually Schwab’s pussy (cat) that we never see on the villain’s lap.

      1. A Classic Bond Script.
        Never say never ………….’But You’ve been had.’

    1. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an Afro-British composer and conductor.

      Of mixed-race birth, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the “African Mahler”

      Double-barrels appear to be inverted. One was a poet, t’other a half-caste african.

    2. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (15 August 1875 – 1 September 1912) was an Afro-British composer and conductor.

      Of mixed-race birth, Coleridge-Taylor achieved such success that he was referred to by white New York musicians as the “African Mahler”

      Double-barrels appear to be inverted. One was a poet, t’other a half-caste african.

    1. I note that the twitterati have marked it, “Politically sensitive content”. It’s obviously part of the WEF starvation agenda.

      1. reddit pops up a bot whenever Ben Shapiro is mentioned. The bias and spite of the Left knows no bounds. There’s no such ping over the Cortez woman being an ignorant child.

  41. They would say that, wouldn’t they? Would be Prime Minsters are excelling each other in spouting tosh about what they would do. Some may be easily written off as being economical with the truth, as we know how little they did when in office. Those who served Boris Johnson cannot be up to much.
    When John Profumo was discovered to have lied to Parliament, not only did Profumo resign promptly, but Macmillan, then Prime Minister, also demitted office not long after.
    Changed days. Then there were politicians familiar with ladies of very doubtful virtue, now it is the politicians who have little or no virtue.

    1. Well done, Horace, you had me googling ‘demitted‘ though the context and knowledge of the time, gave me a clue as to what to expect.

      1. Thank you. I know I can use big words here. Words that are expressive, perhaps unusual or archaic, perhaps falling into desuetude.
        Without being mocked… very much. I am dealing with a better class of people, intelligent, well-informed, with a sense of humour, hearts in the right place kind of thing. All strangely British.

        1. That’s the reason why both BoB and use ‘shew’ as the verb. Archaic I know but a nice distinction from the Dog Show.

          I’m happy to see BoB’s use of it, as someone will carry on with what my Mama taught me many years ago.

    1. Cathy Newman (of Jordan Peterson infamy) and the fact that C4 News pushed a presenter wearing a hijab put me off watching it ages ago.

      1. If the hijab wearer is so worried about infidels looking at her she should have stayed at home.

      2. I think she first appeared on BBC Look East, reporting on all things Luton.
        The first of her kind she was snapped up and retrained in propaganda.
        And there are starting to appear more often now.
        I really fear for the future of this country.

    2. I can’t bear C4 news or any of its presenters, Cathy ‘so what you’re saying is’ Newman, John ‘I like to think I’m down with the kidz’ Snow or Krishnan Supercilious Smugknob

      2. It is an ultra left-wing branch of the BBC wholly owned by the UK Government. Just another outlet for their Marxist, anti-British socialist propaganda.

  44. I am a great aunt! Heard this morning that my niece had a baby boy on 13th. Photos too- what a little cutie. Name to follow. Some lovely news to counter all the hysteria around us.
    This would have been my late brother’s first grandchild. He would have been thrilled.

      1. The Picts and The Martyrs is the novel in which Great Aunt Maria features.

        Bossy females who wish to take over are often the target of ridicule in both poetry and fiction. Hilaire Belloc gives a marvellous description of a wealthy aunt, Jane, who keeps everyone on tenterhooks and under her tyrannical control because nobody knows to whom she is going to leave her money.

        She is up before anyone’s down in the place
        That is down before anyone’s up!

    4. Because I am rather older than my lovely wife and my sisters are much older than I am, when she married me 34 years ago she became both an aunt and a great aunt as two of my nieces had already produced offspring. Indeed Caroline became a great-great aunt when she was in her 50s

      1. I am very happy for my niece- she’s a nice girl. She and her mum came and were witnesses at our wedding and treated us to a lovely meal after.
        The wee guy seems to have a lot of hair! Wonder what his name will be….

      1. Thanks Bob. Poignant in that my brother is not here to meet his grandson. C’est la vie.

    8. Rather presumptious of you:
      Great Aunt: have you checked with your local LBGT and Wokeristas that your genda is OK for the position
      One of them may declare you a Great Uncle.

      Congrats,

      1. Conners, we are. A wee lad but also so sad that my brother won’t meet his first grandchild.
        A good day here.

  46. Beware of women drivers and men with moustaches: Ian Fleming’s 13 curious ‘rules for life’
    James Bond creator’s notebook, in which he jotted down ideas while drafting You Only Live Twice, is expected to sell for £17,000 at auction

    Caroline is an excellent driver and I have a moustache so that’s both of us done for!

    1. He probably meant women drivers with moustaches – he obviously foresaw the present day idiocy.

      1. When my neighbours were getting married i bought them his and hers hair removal kits. Wrapped them up and he got the leg hair remover and she go the one for the face. Oh how we laughed. They did see the funny side of it. I had previously given them two potted Oleanders so they knew it was supposed to be a joke. She did use hers though :@)

    3. These are real official of the US, apparently. I’m not sure that the word “real”means anything.

    4. No, the travesty of that govenrment is reaching insane levels. Just get rid of it, America. The mentally ill – these two and biden – shouldn’t be running a country.

      While you’re at it, get that Cortez woman removed. She’s clearly stupid.

      1. Rereading the “Safehold “Series by David Weber can’t find anything new that grabs me {:^((

        1. I admit I prefer the Honourverse. safehold had me bored. I appreciate the discussion of sailing ships, but the heroes were unstoppable and I felt the author spent far too long inside people’s heads. I think 4 pages of what someone was thinking completely put me off.

          Have you tried Neal Asher’s writing? Or a more cerebral Peter Hamilton’s Pandora’s Star and Judas Unchained? I’m reading those and the problem (I have) is there are so many characters and I’m reading late at night I’m losing track of who’s who.

          Failing that, Cold Granite. It’s not science fiction, more a crime drama but it is a very good book. So much so I bought everything else the author wrote after finishing it. That said it is rather a running joke from the warqueen that I don’t buy books, I buy them by the shelf.

      1. Time to trot out the old favourite, Spikey:

        What’s the Vice Admiral’s vice?

        The Rear Admiral’s rear.

  48. Grizzly normally posts these updates from the Free Speech Union. I’ll have a go as I’ve just joined the FSU:

    Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    The Online Safety Bill to be paused: but is it goodbye… or just au revoir?
    Along with other civil liberties groups, the Free Speech Union has long been concerned about the impact of the Online Safety Bill on free speech and freedom of expression (you can read our briefing documents here, here and here and some of FSU General Secretary Toby Young’s recent articles are here and here). That’s why on Monday, with the bill at a ‘hair’s breadth’ away from the statute book, Toby wrote to all FSU members and supporters urging them to use our website’s new letter generator to write to their MP and ask that he or she look again at the Bill (the page is here), and ask, at the very least, for it be held over until the Autumn when a new leader is in place.

    The Bill was at report stage, and scheduled to have its third reading in the Commons next week, when we pressed the ‘send’ button on that request for support. Less than 72 hours later, news began to filter out of Westminster that the Bill had been dropped from next week’s Parliamentary business with a view to it returning “in the Autumn”. Politics Home broke the story, noting that “concerns have been raised by supporters of the Bill that it could subsequently be scrapped as its return later this year will be dependent on the focus of the new Prime Minister”.

    Has there ever been a more successful letter writing campaign in the history of western democracy? The idea was for members to correspond with their respective local MPs, not break them psychologically before playing on them as on stringed instruments. No matter. Clearly, the FSU owes a huge debt of gratitude to its members and supporters for using our new, fast and efficient online system to fire off so many compelling rhetorical salvos.

    Whatever the ultimate cause of the Parliamentary postponement, the FSU believes that in the circumstances it was the right thing to do. The bill is a complicated, far-reaching piece of legislation that will have a huge impact on what people can (and can’t) say online, and it was surely madness to try and rush it through while a leadership contest was taking place, particularly as one of the candidates – Kemi Badenoch – had called for a major rethink of the Bill.

    Will the temporary postponement quietly segue into complete abandonment? Some of the press seemed to think so, suggesting that the Bill had either “run out of time” (Times), or that it was to be “scrapped” (Telegraph), “killed off” (Guardian) or “axed” (iNews, Metro). Others were a little more circumspect, however, describing it as “paused” (Computer Weekly), “put on hold” (BBC, Evening Standard) or “delayed” (Mirror, Drum, Independent, HuffPost).

    In truth, much will now depend on what Politics Home described a little earlier as “the focus of the new Prime Minister”. Of the five remaining Tory Party leadership candidates, the only one so far to have mentioned the Bill in any meaningful way is Kemi Badenoch. Much to the annoyance of Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries – who has been a staunch champion of the Bill (Independent) – Ms Badenoch isn’t a fan, viewing the proposed law as little more than an exercise in “legislating for hurt feelings”, and one, moreover, that “will have some serious implications for free speech”. (Guardian). She also made clear this week that despite having “supported the government in every single bill since becoming an MP” she was “not going to be supporting it this week in its present form”. (Guido). Why? Because “it is in no fit state to become law”. (Sky News).

    All of which sounds distinctly promising… until you reflect on the phrase, “in its present form”. As with any politician, Ms Badenoch is leaving herself some wriggle room here, just in case she wins the leadership contest and needs to bring the bill back come the Autumn. There are, after all, many members of the Parliamentary Conservative Party who still believe in the Bill – as evidenced last week, for instance, by Priti Patel’s op-ed for the Telegraph.

    Given how unlikely it is that any of the other candidates will want to say whether, how – or even if – it will form part of their “focus” once they became leader either, the most we can say about this week’s postponement is that it delays by a few months the passage of either the Bill as currently constituted, or some watered-down version thereof, into law. The fact that it has been delayed is, nevertheless, a good sign. As the former MP Ruth Smeeth, now chief executive of Index On Censorship put it, the delay is “great news” (Evening Standard) because it provides campaign groups like the FSU with valuable extra time to try and kill the Bill or, at the very least, improve it via amendments.

    Just as importantly, the delay gives FSU members more time to pursue what thus far appears to have been a ruthlessly executed campaign of letter writing. In the coming months it’s going to be more important than ever to keep up the pressure on legislators, and one very effective way for members to do so will be to use our new tool to write to their local MPs. Letter writing of this kind can often seem like a bit of a long shot – a worthy exercise in representative democracy, no doubt, and one that unquestionably puts a Lockean spring in the step of all who try it… but a long shot, nonetheless.

    Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Parliament works on a constituency basis, which means that the more people write to their MPs, the more those MPs can ‘take the pulse’ of the areas they represent. Regardless of your MP’s party and regardless of whether you voted for them or not, they have to represent you and respond to your communications – which means the more we are able to demonstrate that a lot of people in any given area want this Bill rethought, the more individual MPs will be influenced to act, perhaps even tabling written questions that, in this case, will require a response from the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

    Besides, given that it took less than 48 hours for an initial fusillade of articulate yet firmly worded missives from FSU members to force the Government into dropping the Bill from next week’s Parliamentary business, one can only wonder at the sort of legislative havoc a sustained onslaught between now and the Autumn might not wreak.

    ‘Legal but harmful’: Clause 13 and the Online Safety Bill
    Leading by example on the letter writing front this week were nine senior Tories whom the Telegraph described as “demand[ing] that Nadine Dorries ditch plans to regulate legal but harmful content online”. The group, which included FSU Advisory Council member Lord Frost, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, as well as David Davis and Steve Baker, wrote to the Culture Secretary urging the Government to remove clause 13 from the Bill. “We are concerned,” they explained, “about both the legal precedent set by the state targeting so-called ‘legal but harmful’ speech and the censorious impact this measure would have.”

    On the ‘legal but harmful’ point, they reminded the Secretary of State that the concept of putting restrictions on such speech “undermines our long tradition of promoting freedom of expression”, and is therefore “as unConservative as it is unBritish”. The letter’s authors also took issue with the nature of the regulatory architecture envisaged by clause 13. To recall, clause 13 requires the Secretary of State to bring forward secondary legislation in the form of a statutory instrument (or SI) that will identify “priority” harms that providers will be under a particular obligation to protect us from. In other words, it will be in this secondary legislation (which, by the way, can’t be amended because SIs aren’t amendable), and not the Bill per se, that the ‘legal but harmful’ content will be identified. As Lord Frost and his co-authors point out, the SI would give the Government unprecedented powers to designate ‘harmful’ content, thus allowing a future secretary of state to “use the power to lean on the tech giants to remove speech they subjectively dislike”. And here’s the thing, because even if an SI brought forward by, say, Nadine Dorries isn’t overly censorious, what guarantee do we have that her successors will be equally restrained? Very little, say the letter’s authors: “The ratcheting effect on our civil liberties is already happening in real time,” they said. “The Labour Party”, for instance, “has [already] expressed its intention to expand the regulatory framework to include ‘health-related misinformation and disinformation’” (on which point, see Unherd).

    If there’s one point that FSU members should really try to get across to their respective local MPs (while, of course, utilising our new, email generating tool here), it’s that clause 13 needs either to be drastically rethought, or removed entirely, from the Bill.

    The FSU’s forthcoming Regional Speakeasies
    Some of you may already have come along to our in-person meet-ups in pubs and bars, where members can socialise in a ‘safe space’. During the remainder of July, we will be hosting regional Speakeasies in Birmingham (20th July), Edinburgh (21st July) and Brighton (27th July). Edinburgh is now fully booked, although members wishing to attend are welcome to join the waiting list as there will probably be some cancellations. Birmingham and Brighton have a few places available, so you should book now if you want to attend. You can check out the dates of these in the new events section of our website, with more details being emailed to all members separately. Details of venues and speakers are not advertised to the general public and will be emailed to members with Eventbrite links so they can sign up for the nearest event to them. Members are welcome to bring guests – particularly those likely to join the FSU!

    Free Speech Champions – the Living Freedom Event
    Earlier this month, the Free Speech Champions joined sixty young people in central London for the Living Freedom summer school – three days of lectures, discussions and debates, focussed on the erosion of our liberties. Speakers included Maya Forstater, Harry Miller, Arif Ahmed and our very own Toby Young. You can read an account of the event by the founder of the Free Speech Champions Inaya Folarin Iman here and another by literature student and Free Speech Champion Max Mitchell here. The Free Speech Champions were also part of a House of Lords event celebrating freedom of expression on Monday and their banner provided the backdrop to the podium from which Kemi Badenoch, Maya Forstater, Sharron Davies and many others declared their commitment to free speech. You can take a look at some of the pictures from the event on the Free Speech Champions Twitter feed (here).

    Double Jeopardy – download the new podcast now!
    Ken Macdonald QC and Tim Owen QC, both barristers at leading human rights set Matrix chambers, recently launched Double Jeopardy, a law and politics podcast. Ken was one of the co-founders of Matrix, and went on to become Director of Public Prosecutions and then Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. He is now a crossbench peer in the Lords. In the latest episode, Ken and Tim talk to philosopher Professor Kathleen Stock about science, gender, and the importance of free speech. You can listen to the third episode of the Double Jeopardy podcast on Apple here, or on Spotify here.

    Oxford University and the free speech group
    “It’s like asking Jack the Ripper to chair a forum on women’s safety.” So said FSU General Secretary Toby Young in the Telegraph on learning that the ex-head of controversial charity Stonewall, David Isaac, and the co-founder of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, Simukai Chigudu, were helping to draw up a free speech ‘framework’ for Oxford University.

    According to the Mail, the framework is the creation of the Oxford Free Speech Forum, a group understood to involve five colleges, including Worcester, Brasenose, Somerville, Magdalen and Mansfield. The group’s Chairman, David Isaac, is provost of Worcester College, where he was recently taken to task by the FSU after apologising to students for “distress” caused by hosting a Christian summer camp and then cancelling a provisional booking by the group for the year after. (Thanks to our efforts, the college later admitted it “misled” students over the event and released a statement saying it was committed “to the right to freedom of speech and religious belief” – you can read about the case here).

    The forum is seeking to “provide advice on how academics and students should interpret and act upon the Government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, currently going through Parliament” (Mail), with student groups apparently having been “sent away” over summer “to discuss the principles of the group’s free speech framework before its wording is finalised across the university in the autumn” (Telegraph). Having attended the group’s most recent forum, a student described it to the Telegraph as “sinister” and “backwards”, before adding that “the university has already rightly been criticised for restricting free speech many times before. Things are already worse than the public realise, for many students and staff members. As a world-leading university, I worry where exactly we are leading.”

    What’s particularly intriguing about this story is that the “organisers” of the forum – a category which surely must include Mr Isaac, as the group’s Chairman – describe themselves as wanting to “respectfully tackle difficult decisions about issues like race, disability and trans rights”. In the context of ongoing debates around free speech and academic freedom in higher education, “respectfully” is an interesting word for them to have used.

    In 2020, academics at Cambridge voted to amend the University’s proposed statement on freedom of speech which included an expectation that students, staff and visitors should “be respectful of the differing opinions of others”. The amendment, which was voted through, replaced “be respectful of” with “tolerate”. (BBC). Last month, however, the Times reported that academics at that same institution were now having to battle HR over the draft of another policy document that exhibited similarly problematic, academic freedom infringing language. The document’s stated aim was to “prevent inappropriate behaviour in the workplace” by creating “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect [!] and courtesy”. As one academic explained to the Times Higher Education, “it is unreasonable to expect atheists to respect the views of religious believers, or to expect climate change activists to respect the work of earth scientists who are trying to make mining or oil drilling more efficient. What is reasonable is to expect members of the university to treat each other with tolerance and courtesy.”

    Legally minded leaders like Mr Isaac tend to choose their words carefully, which makes it all the more difficult to believe that the word “respectfully” was plucked at random from the linguistic ether while this group sought to present its intended aims and objectives to the media. Is Mr Isaac’s free speech ‘framework’ about to repeat the mistakes of Cambridge University’s HR department? Time will tell.

    According to the Times, Oxford declined to confirm whether the voluntary new guidance will override its existing free speech policies.

    Sharing the newsletter
    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member, please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    Freddie Attenborough

    Communications Officer

  49. Grizzly normally posts these updates from the Free Speech Union. I’ll have a go as I’ve just joined the FSU:

    Welcome to the FSU’s weekly newsletter, our round-up of the free speech news of the week. As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture.

    The Online Safety Bill to be paused: but is it goodbye… or just au revoir?
    Along with other civil liberties groups, the Free Speech Union has long been concerned about the impact of the Online Safety Bill on free speech and freedom of expression (you can read our briefing documents here, here and here and some of FSU General Secretary Toby Young’s recent articles are here and here). That’s why on Monday, with the bill at a ‘hair’s breadth’ away from the statute book, Toby wrote to all FSU members and supporters urging them to use our website’s new letter generator to write to their MP and ask that he or she look again at the Bill (the page is here), and ask, at the very least, for it be held over until the Autumn when a new leader is in place.

    The Bill was at report stage, and scheduled to have its third reading in the Commons next week, when we pressed the ‘send’ button on that request for support. Less than 72 hours later, news began to filter out of Westminster that the Bill had been dropped from next week’s Parliamentary business with a view to it returning “in the Autumn”. Politics Home broke the story, noting that “concerns have been raised by supporters of the Bill that it could subsequently be scrapped as its return later this year will be dependent on the focus of the new Prime Minister”.

    Has there ever been a more successful letter writing campaign in the history of western democracy? The idea was for members to correspond with their respective local MPs, not break them psychologically before playing on them as on stringed instruments. No matter. Clearly, the FSU owes a huge debt of gratitude to its members and supporters for using our new, fast and efficient online system to fire off so many compelling rhetorical salvos.

    Whatever the ultimate cause of the Parliamentary postponement, the FSU believes that in the circumstances it was the right thing to do. The bill is a complicated, far-reaching piece of legislation that will have a huge impact on what people can (and can’t) say online, and it was surely madness to try and rush it through while a leadership contest was taking place, particularly as one of the candidates – Kemi Badenoch – had called for a major rethink of the Bill.

    Will the temporary postponement quietly segue into complete abandonment? Some of the press seemed to think so, suggesting that the Bill had either “run out of time” (Times), or that it was to be “scrapped” (Telegraph), “killed off” (Guardian) or “axed” (iNews, Metro). Others were a little more circumspect, however, describing it as “paused” (Computer Weekly), “put on hold” (BBC, Evening Standard) or “delayed” (Mirror, Drum, Independent, HuffPost).

    In truth, much will now depend on what Politics Home described a little earlier as “the focus of the new Prime Minister”. Of the five remaining Tory Party leadership candidates, the only one so far to have mentioned the Bill in any meaningful way is Kemi Badenoch. Much to the annoyance of Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries – who has been a staunch champion of the Bill (Independent) – Ms Badenoch isn’t a fan, viewing the proposed law as little more than an exercise in “legislating for hurt feelings”, and one, moreover, that “will have some serious implications for free speech”. (Guardian). She also made clear this week that despite having “supported the government in every single bill since becoming an MP” she was “not going to be supporting it this week in its present form”. (Guido). Why? Because “it is in no fit state to become law”. (Sky News).

    All of which sounds distinctly promising… until you reflect on the phrase, “in its present form”. As with any politician, Ms Badenoch is leaving herself some wriggle room here, just in case she wins the leadership contest and needs to bring the bill back come the Autumn. There are, after all, many members of the Parliamentary Conservative Party who still believe in the Bill – as evidenced last week, for instance, by Priti Patel’s op-ed for the Telegraph.

    Given how unlikely it is that any of the other candidates will want to say whether, how – or even if – it will form part of their “focus” once they became leader either, the most we can say about this week’s postponement is that it delays by a few months the passage of either the Bill as currently constituted, or some watered-down version thereof, into law. The fact that it has been delayed is, nevertheless, a good sign. As the former MP Ruth Smeeth, now chief executive of Index On Censorship put it, the delay is “great news” (Evening Standard) because it provides campaign groups like the FSU with valuable extra time to try and kill the Bill or, at the very least, improve it via amendments.

    Just as importantly, the delay gives FSU members more time to pursue what thus far appears to have been a ruthlessly executed campaign of letter writing. In the coming months it’s going to be more important than ever to keep up the pressure on legislators, and one very effective way for members to do so will be to use our new tool to write to their local MPs. Letter writing of this kind can often seem like a bit of a long shot – a worthy exercise in representative democracy, no doubt, and one that unquestionably puts a Lockean spring in the step of all who try it… but a long shot, nonetheless.

    Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Parliament works on a constituency basis, which means that the more people write to their MPs, the more those MPs can ‘take the pulse’ of the areas they represent. Regardless of your MP’s party and regardless of whether you voted for them or not, they have to represent you and respond to your communications – which means the more we are able to demonstrate that a lot of people in any given area want this Bill rethought, the more individual MPs will be influenced to act, perhaps even tabling written questions that, in this case, will require a response from the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

    Besides, given that it took less than 48 hours for an initial fusillade of articulate yet firmly worded missives from FSU members to force the Government into dropping the Bill from next week’s Parliamentary business, one can only wonder at the sort of legislative havoc a sustained onslaught between now and the Autumn might not wreak.

    ‘Legal but harmful’: Clause 13 and the Online Safety Bill
    Leading by example on the letter writing front this week were nine senior Tories whom the Telegraph described as “demand[ing] that Nadine Dorries ditch plans to regulate legal but harmful content online”. The group, which included FSU Advisory Council member Lord Frost, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee Sir Graham Brady, as well as David Davis and Steve Baker, wrote to the Culture Secretary urging the Government to remove clause 13 from the Bill. “We are concerned,” they explained, “about both the legal precedent set by the state targeting so-called ‘legal but harmful’ speech and the censorious impact this measure would have.”

    On the ‘legal but harmful’ point, they reminded the Secretary of State that the concept of putting restrictions on such speech “undermines our long tradition of promoting freedom of expression”, and is therefore “as unConservative as it is unBritish”. The letter’s authors also took issue with the nature of the regulatory architecture envisaged by clause 13. To recall, clause 13 requires the Secretary of State to bring forward secondary legislation in the form of a statutory instrument (or SI) that will identify “priority” harms that providers will be under a particular obligation to protect us from. In other words, it will be in this secondary legislation (which, by the way, can’t be amended because SIs aren’t amendable), and not the Bill per se, that the ‘legal but harmful’ content will be identified. As Lord Frost and his co-authors point out, the SI would give the Government unprecedented powers to designate ‘harmful’ content, thus allowing a future secretary of state to “use the power to lean on the tech giants to remove speech they subjectively dislike”. And here’s the thing, because even if an SI brought forward by, say, Nadine Dorries isn’t overly censorious, what guarantee do we have that her successors will be equally restrained? Very little, say the letter’s authors: “The ratcheting effect on our civil liberties is already happening in real time,” they said. “The Labour Party”, for instance, “has [already] expressed its intention to expand the regulatory framework to include ‘health-related misinformation and disinformation’” (on which point, see Unherd).

    If there’s one point that FSU members should really try to get across to their respective local MPs (while, of course, utilising our new, email generating tool here), it’s that clause 13 needs either to be drastically rethought, or removed entirely, from the Bill.

    The FSU’s forthcoming Regional Speakeasies
    Some of you may already have come along to our in-person meet-ups in pubs and bars, where members can socialise in a ‘safe space’. During the remainder of July, we will be hosting regional Speakeasies in Birmingham (20th July), Edinburgh (21st July) and Brighton (27th July). Edinburgh is now fully booked, although members wishing to attend are welcome to join the waiting list as there will probably be some cancellations. Birmingham and Brighton have a few places available, so you should book now if you want to attend. You can check out the dates of these in the new events section of our website, with more details being emailed to all members separately. Details of venues and speakers are not advertised to the general public and will be emailed to members with Eventbrite links so they can sign up for the nearest event to them. Members are welcome to bring guests – particularly those likely to join the FSU!

    Free Speech Champions – the Living Freedom Event
    Earlier this month, the Free Speech Champions joined sixty young people in central London for the Living Freedom summer school – three days of lectures, discussions and debates, focussed on the erosion of our liberties. Speakers included Maya Forstater, Harry Miller, Arif Ahmed and our very own Toby Young. You can read an account of the event by the founder of the Free Speech Champions Inaya Folarin Iman here and another by literature student and Free Speech Champion Max Mitchell here. The Free Speech Champions were also part of a House of Lords event celebrating freedom of expression on Monday and their banner provided the backdrop to the podium from which Kemi Badenoch, Maya Forstater, Sharron Davies and many others declared their commitment to free speech. You can take a look at some of the pictures from the event on the Free Speech Champions Twitter feed (here).

    Double Jeopardy – download the new podcast now!
    Ken Macdonald QC and Tim Owen QC, both barristers at leading human rights set Matrix chambers, recently launched Double Jeopardy, a law and politics podcast. Ken was one of the co-founders of Matrix, and went on to become Director of Public Prosecutions and then Warden of Wadham College, Oxford. He is now a crossbench peer in the Lords. In the latest episode, Ken and Tim talk to philosopher Professor Kathleen Stock about science, gender, and the importance of free speech. You can listen to the third episode of the Double Jeopardy podcast on Apple here, or on Spotify here.

    Oxford University and the free speech group
    “It’s like asking Jack the Ripper to chair a forum on women’s safety.” So said FSU General Secretary Toby Young in the Telegraph on learning that the ex-head of controversial charity Stonewall, David Isaac, and the co-founder of the Rhodes Must Fall movement, Simukai Chigudu, were helping to draw up a free speech ‘framework’ for Oxford University.

    According to the Mail, the framework is the creation of the Oxford Free Speech Forum, a group understood to involve five colleges, including Worcester, Brasenose, Somerville, Magdalen and Mansfield. The group’s Chairman, David Isaac, is provost of Worcester College, where he was recently taken to task by the FSU after apologising to students for “distress” caused by hosting a Christian summer camp and then cancelling a provisional booking by the group for the year after. (Thanks to our efforts, the college later admitted it “misled” students over the event and released a statement saying it was committed “to the right to freedom of speech and religious belief” – you can read about the case here).

    The forum is seeking to “provide advice on how academics and students should interpret and act upon the Government’s Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill, currently going through Parliament” (Mail), with student groups apparently having been “sent away” over summer “to discuss the principles of the group’s free speech framework before its wording is finalised across the university in the autumn” (Telegraph). Having attended the group’s most recent forum, a student described it to the Telegraph as “sinister” and “backwards”, before adding that “the university has already rightly been criticised for restricting free speech many times before. Things are already worse than the public realise, for many students and staff members. As a world-leading university, I worry where exactly we are leading.”

    What’s particularly intriguing about this story is that the “organisers” of the forum – a category which surely must include Mr Isaac, as the group’s Chairman – describe themselves as wanting to “respectfully tackle difficult decisions about issues like race, disability and trans rights”. In the context of ongoing debates around free speech and academic freedom in higher education, “respectfully” is an interesting word for them to have used.

    In 2020, academics at Cambridge voted to amend the University’s proposed statement on freedom of speech which included an expectation that students, staff and visitors should “be respectful of the differing opinions of others”. The amendment, which was voted through, replaced “be respectful of” with “tolerate”. (BBC). Last month, however, the Times reported that academics at that same institution were now having to battle HR over the draft of another policy document that exhibited similarly problematic, academic freedom infringing language. The document’s stated aim was to “prevent inappropriate behaviour in the workplace” by creating “a safe, welcoming and inclusive community which nurtures a culture of mutual respect [!] and courtesy”. As one academic explained to the Times Higher Education, “it is unreasonable to expect atheists to respect the views of religious believers, or to expect climate change activists to respect the work of earth scientists who are trying to make mining or oil drilling more efficient. What is reasonable is to expect members of the university to treat each other with tolerance and courtesy.”

    Legally minded leaders like Mr Isaac tend to choose their words carefully, which makes it all the more difficult to believe that the word “respectfully” was plucked at random from the linguistic ether while this group sought to present its intended aims and objectives to the media. Is Mr Isaac’s free speech ‘framework’ about to repeat the mistakes of Cambridge University’s HR department? Time will tell.

    According to the Times, Oxford declined to confirm whether the voluntary new guidance will override its existing free speech policies.

    Sharing the newsletter
    As with all our work, this newsletter depends on the support of our members and donors, so if you’re not already a paying member, please sign up today or encourage a friend to join, and help us turn the tide against cancel culture. You can share our newsletters on social media with the buttons below to help us spread the word. If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Best wishes,

    Freddie Attenborough

    Communications Officer

  50. I am just off to Narridge. I may be some time. I am very anxious – as the temperature may reach 24ºC (which was how warm the sea was at Cap d’Ail..)

    Have a jolly afternoon sticking pins in effigies of the candidates.

    A plus tard.

    1. I am suffering badly, the pool temperature is now over 30, but the thermometer is in the skimmer so it could be a degree or two more or less.

      1. You’ve a pool and the water temperature is over 30’c? That’s not warm, that’s nuclear!

      2. You’ve a pool and the water temperature is over 30’c? That’s not warm, that’s nuclear!

  52. Sent the oleander image from my new laptop, having decided that seven years continuous daily use is enough for anything. Another Dell, xps13 Plus with a beautiful Oled screen and Windows 11. Lovely machine that should last me until I’m 85+, if I don’t go first….
    Am having to fork out for a new Office copy, since the machine didn’t like my installation disk for Office 2003!

      1. I’m an MS man, tried the other ones, but they’re charging for them now as well, might as well stick with the Real Thing!

          1. I’ll look at it when I next swap the laptop!

            Delighted to find that even if Office 2003 had problems, my very old copy of Quintessential MP3 player, v 4.51, the final good version, still works well..

          2. Now I’ve stopped working I’ve moved totally to Linux and Open Source software. I know Linux well anyway as I started using it in the 90s to build applications which were originally Unix based and cost mortgage like prices. When Microsoft moved to subscription based pricing I decided to stop filling Gates’ coffers.

            You can install LibreOffice beside MS Office to try it. It takes a bit of getting used to in terms of the interface, but provides the same functionality as MS Office, and you can open and save MS Office docs in it.

          3. I’ve gone the other way. The only time I use a unix variant now is messing about with my various Raspberry Pi machines. And embarrassingly now, on one I wanted to play with this morning, I’ve forgotten the password. My usual Raspberry one doesn’t seem to work… Reinstallation will be a right *********….

  53. Emergency meeting to be held as heatwave threatens to put lives at risk. 16 July 2022.

    An emergency Cobra meeting – chaired by the Cabinet Office minister Kit Malthouse – will be held this afternoon to discuss the heatwave, while the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has increased its heat health warning to level four, a “national emergency”.

    “It’s going to be hot Monday Boris!

    “Yes I believe so!”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/16/londoners-urged-not-to-travel-on-monday-and-tuesday-because-of-high-temperatures

      1. They are the chief box tickers, just keeping the population in line and making sure they don’t actually enjoy the summer in any way whatsoever.

      2. Have you seen Katie Hopkins say just the same?
        “Get in the sea!” She says.
        I suppose to be fair not everyone can…

  54. Tom Tugendhat: I went back to work the day after a suicide bomb killed my friends. 16 July 2022.

    Tom Tugendhat has revealed he survived a suicide bomb attack while serving in Afghanistan, but still reported back to the same office for work the next day.

    The Tory leadership hopeful was helping to establish the first post-Taliban government in Helmand province when the terrorist struck on December 13, 2006.

    Is he bragging or complaining?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/15/tom-tugendhat-went-back-work-day-suicide-bomb-killed-friends/

    1. When at Staff College a long time ago we had tri service presentations where each service explained their roles and organisations.. The Royal Navy guy clearly had an inferiority complex as he opened his presentation with “You can all name famous WW2 Generals and Field Marshals, you can all name famous airmen. Who can name a famous WW2 Admiral?” The stage whisper answer was “Doenitz.”

  56. Paddy was having his first holiday in years and loving the Saturday
    night Cabaret at Pontins; couple of singers, a magician and then the
    grand finale, a ventriloquist who’d once had his own ITV show in the
    late 70s.
    He did the usual routine; Gottle of Gear and then drinking water
    whilst his dummy continued to speak and then he started telling jokes
    and then a few Irish jokes and then a few more and he was really
    hammering the Irish.
    After a while, Paddy had had enough and he rose to his feet saying, I’m
    sick to death of you English Bastards taking the piss out of us Irish.
    We’re not THAT thick!
    The ventriloquist was highly embarrassed , I’m sorry Sir, I really
    didn’t mean to offend., and Paddy replied, I’m not talking to you, I’m
    talking to that little bastard sat on your lap!

  57. The Government has been urged to apologise to everyone who lived through the summer of 1976 and were never warned you might need to leave the windows open for a while

      2. The one in the pretend Star Trek films (i.e the ones without Captain Kirk)

  59. Phew!
    The sweat is dripping off me and I’m about to run a cold bath.
    The S@H has taken over the yard shed and is doing a huge amount work to improve it, mainly stopping the damp getting in. Today he decided he needed some mortar and so we did a 15 shovel mix and split it between us.
    As the sun has now moved round to roast the bit of hillside that passes its self off as “my garden”, I’m not planning to do a 2nd mix today!

    Just noted this on an auction site, the way the weather is I’m bloody tempted!
    https://portal-images.azureedge.net/auctions-2022/witham10131/images/fcf665ec-2ea7-4103-aea9-aed101024dee.jpg?w=1920&h=1920&mode=max

    https://www.bidspotter.co.uk/en-gb/auction-catalogues/witham/catalogue-id-witham10131/lot-25f7c608-72a4-4808-b15f-aed101025cdf

    1. Are these hats?. Why not buy a Panama hat, keeps you cool and looks good?

      1. “S” Tanks. Royal Engineers field water supply kit.
        The hold a lot of water and make fantastic adult sized paddling pools!

    2. Just finished a couple of hours with the chainsaw and heaving large logs around – that’s me kernackered and dying for a beer

      1. Just back in from doing a ½h of bramble pulling up the “garden”. I had intended doing a full hour, but realised that would be too much in the direct sunlight.

  60. Another photo op by Trudeau has been abandoned.

    Apparently the little Emperor was supposed to make an appearance at some liberal party shindig yesterday. All were assembled, cheering mania practiced and flags a waving before they noticed half a dozen farm tractors lined up in protest format. That was enough to cancel the event and let him run away.

    It wax farmers opposing the soon to be announced limits on fertilizer use but the media are pushing it as an offshoot from the freedom convoy.

    Half a dozen farmers and he runs, what a wuss!

  61. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96ae0face49db526204e2d9d4a758ff5b3e8e3bc12d19740831d02b4921fa660.jpg Good morning! Condemned out of their own mouths….

    Note: So we have two bright sparks playing propaganda to keep the plates spinning below. The table is simple enough for the dullest intellect: 8,800 deaths, said to be of Covid in the period, had received the jabs.. 322 had not.

    The fact is that a third of the population have refused the jabs. If you propagandists want to explain how much more acceptable the figures are when massaged the way you want, go right ahead. Scare story, my eye!

    1. Statistically, the numbers should be adjusted relative to the proportion of the population to which they refer, i.e, percentage of their group?

        1. How then do you sensibly compare? Raw numbers certainly indicate scale. But if one is hoping to allocate cause, one has to go deeper.

      2. I read a couple of weeks ago that the number of triple vaxxed was very similar to the total of unvaxxed + 1 or 2 vaxxed. But the triple vaxxed would have a much higher proportion of elderly people so would expect that to have an effect on the number of deaths.
        Edit to add last two words.

        1. If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it is probably a BBC swan.

    3. Meaningless unless normalised to the number of unvaccinated/vaccinated/triple vaccinated. A scare story.

      1. From these figures I would deduce that the sample size is 288 + 4647 + 4215 = 9150

        If this is an accurate sample then 288 is 3.15% of sample. But is this a reliable calculation to make?

        If the unvaccinated population as a whole is under 3.15% then the mortality rate of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated is about the same – but if the figure for those who are unvaccinated is higher then this is not the case. If say, the number of unvaccinated people in the population is 10% then wouldn’t the figures suggest that you are three times less likely to die from Covid if you haven’t been vaccinated?

        I am no statistician and anyone who is will be able to rumble me immediately. But ‘Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics’ can be used conclusively to argue whatever conclusion you wish to arrive at!

        When I am asked if I have been ‘vaccinated’ against Covid I reply truthfully : “I have decided not to have the third jab!” But I fail to mention that I haven’t had the first or the second ones either!

        1. Like all statistics, the interpretation depends on the case that is being made. I don’t think you can make any assumptions about sample size, it might be the whole population. The other question is how they determine cause of death, are these deaths directly from Covid, if so what were the criteria used that defined death directly from covid (such as death certificate, was the cause of death an opinion or verified through testing) how did they screen out other contributory factors? The covid saga is full of smoke and mirrors and hidden agendas.

        2. In the early days of coercing everyone into taking the gene therapy, I was quite truthful and said I’d not been jabbed. Then, after several quite belligerent responses, I gave up and now just ask, when was ones medical history a subject for general conversation? it seems to work.

          1. Why do you keep calling vaccinations gene therapy?

            In gene therapy your DNA is changed. These vaccinations don’t even enter the nucleus to get near your DNA. The mRNA enters the cell and is consumed in the cytoplasm. mRNA encodes proteins for translation.

  62. Russian forces accused of storing weapons in nuclear plant – live. 16 July 2022.

    Russia is using Europe’s largest nuclear power plant as a base to store weapons, including “missile systems”, and shell surrounding areas in Ukraine, an official with Kyiv’s nuclear agency said.

    Lol! Actually that’s pretty cunning! They can’t be attacked with Ukraine’s new missile systems without risking a nuclear incident!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/jul/16/russia-ukraine-war-air-raid-sirens-in-kyiv-as-russia-intensifies-long-range-bombardment-latest-updates

    1. Egon Ronay admitted that nuclear irradiated prawns even past their sell by date tasted just like fresh ones.
      This was good news for the Chernobyl irradiated lamb in downwind Wales because it did indeed make our family’s eyes light up.

      The nuclear option shouldn’t always be dismissed out of hand like COVID-19 vaccinations!

      World Health Organization · 1992 — food writers and former restaurant critic, Egon Ronay, has conceded that, in blind tastings, the irradiated version often has superior taste.

      https://inis.iaea.org › _PublicPDF
      Harmonization of regulations on food irradiation in the Americas – International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

  63. I switched on the TV and BBC popped up. They are showing an athletics completion in the USA. One of the commentators in the US is Steve Cram, who slurs his words even when sober. Michael Johnson is the only one I consider competent.
    In the studio we had two females and Colin Jackson (who spoke not a word, couldn’t get one in edgeways). The two young ladies that completed the trio were black. So all black in the studio. They reviewed the competitors in the various races, most, if not all of the favourites were black, unsurprisingly. One of the ladies in the studio finished up by saying that, “…there’s a competitive element in spades.”

    Wonderful!

  64. This country is nuts and beyond. Schools may be closed Monday and Tuesday because of the heat. I remember going to school in summer, on the train up to London Bridge, wearing summer uniform. This was a cotton dress, a heavy blazer and a bloody awful Panama hat.
    Once we got beyond the view of the school, we peeled off the blazers and hats but then you had to carry them. Somehow, we survived.
    In the US, as far as I know and from memories- schools are only closed because of storms in the winter! I do not remember a single occasion when school was shut because of heat.
    Hurricanes, tropical storms and snowstorms are other issues but warm weather….

    1. Our concession to the heat in school when I was a pupil was that we were allowed to take out blazers off! The girls had cotton dresses as summer uniform.

  65. 354296+ up ticks,

    Was up the summer house for the Saturday
    lung workout, any questions, the lib dum moron brought on highest pitch with ” YOU thick Coooooow”

    Then one of the creatures partaking mention lab / morality in a pleasing manner
    forgetting totally 1400 / 1600 plus raped and abused kids in rotherham & outlying areas
    as in the whole country.

    THe lab party under the evil spell ( although not needed) of anthony charlie lynton, willie watcher extraordinaire PM, he triggered the latch lifting needed to introduce the original plague, the content of which comprised of in the main, Pakistani @rseholes.

    The lib dems / torys (ino) had to fall into step with lab, hence the coalition.

    As we type the snakes are assembling for the cobra meeting ( the climate scam) while the rest of the world build coal /wood burning power stations.

  66. I am off to the shops soonish as things are needed. Not looking forward to it at all but an evil necessity. And I don’t want to go next week- not because the heat bothers me but all the other nutters who will be on the prowl.
    Mind you, now I am a great aunt, I shall channel my inner Lady Bracknell…..

    1. I had a Great-Aunt Hilda. Closest I ever had to a grandma. Lovely, she was, and a real Battling Grandma. The council went in fear & trembling…

      1. I’m a Great Aunt to my niece’s daughter, who is 13.
        We get on really well.
        And my niece says I’m the nearest thing to a (her) mother.

    2. It’s one of those I’d go early if you can. It’s sweltering out there. It’s funny. Junior’s outside with Mongo in his pool under two umbrellas and a reflective canvas. The warqueen is doing nothing on a towel.

      I’m inside with the curtains closed wrapped in ice packed towels with a bad back.

    3. When I don’t want to go shopping for things like wine, beer and if we must, food (MoH has her priorities wrong as she puts food first) I get a delivery.
      Went out this morning to pick up two watches that needed replacement batteries and the wind (breeze) was quite chilly 🙂🙄
      There were people in shorts & tee-shirts!! they will be dead by Thursday. They obviously haven’t taken any notice of the dire prognostications coming from the MET office about the heatwave and what will befall us if venturing outside.

    4. Congrats on the family addition. I have four great nieces and five great nephews. Try to remember birthday cards for all of them but I’ve been known to slip up and miss one.

    5. One of my great aunts was 99.99years old when she died, missed the telegram by 3 days.
      She was fully cognisant (if that’s the right word) until she just popped her clogs.
      Althought I always found it strange that she always had a new hat when I saw her. Later we found that the local milliners would let her change her hat without charge because there was nothing to show she’d worn it.
      We also found quite a number of old white £5 notes pinned to the back of a heavy old oak wardrobe. Must have been there for years as she could never have moved it by herself.
      My other G.A was 96 when she left this world.
      So being a great aunt is definitely a positive.

  67. Covid deaths by vax. ststus England 1st April 2022 To 31st may 2022.

    Unvaxed 288

    Vaxed 4647

    Triple vaxed 4215

    1. A more useful statistic would be as a % of the totals of each rather than the absolute figures; either way I’m not sure I trust the figures if Covid is the cause rather than merely a contributory factor.

    2. There was an earlier post on this. My view is the figures are meaningless until normalised. These figures as presented don’t make a sound comparison.

      1. On these basis I’m still pondering the reaction of some of the medical people I spoke to at A&E during my two visits after my covid jabs. Most I spoke to agreed my heart problems were set off by the two jabs. And agreed with some of the people in cardiology departments later. Even my GP when asked agreed a booster wasn’t a good idea. But seemed to change his mind later, saying it’s up to you. Not really medical advice as I suggested.
        The professionals I believe are aware of the massive problems caused by these jabs. I imagine there has been a lot of heated discussions in private about all these deaths. I knew two people personally who where perfectly healthy and suddenly had heart attacks and one also had
        massive stroke.

        1. I agree. I had an extremely painful shoulder after my first vaccination, couldn’t lift my arm above horizontal. Went to a chiropractor and he said there were a huge number of side effects that were being swept under the table. I am convinced the powers that be knew of the effects of covid and the vaccination programme was rushed through on the basis of this knowledge. I am also convinced covid is the product of a bio weapons programme that was either deliberately or accidentally leaked.

          1. I agree with what you say. I’ve reached the stage now where I don’t trust any one. Well obviously Nottlers and close friends and family.

            I read something today about another variant on the prowl.
            And one in 18 people now have it.
            I think that’s more scare mongering I don’t know anyone who has it at the
            moment and I know more than 18 people.

    3. I don’t follow. 9000 people died solely from covid? In two months?

      Calling it an 8 week period, with 12,000 deaths a week (average for this country) 96,000 deaths, 10% of them were solely from covid?

  68. The Tories have six weeks to find a leader who can stop ‘inevitable socialist mediocrity’

    It is no good pretending to be Mrs Thatcher. But the candidates should admit they face a crisis worse than hers

    CHARLES MOORE • 15 July 2022 • 8:59pm

    All surviving candidates in the Tory leadership race have invoked Margaret Thatcher to support their cause. If they are women, they have subliminally and sometimes photographically implied that they are Thatcher reborn.

    This is a mistake. Obviously, it is right to pay tribute to a great predecessor, just as Mrs T’s generation used to include reference to Winston Churchill in their speeches. But Thatcherising yourself invites comparison, which may backfire.

    Take the case of Penny Mordaunt. She has tweeted that it was Thatcher’s backing for her when she failed to win a seat in the general election of 2005 that inspired her: “She told me to get back on my horse.”

    But where is the Mordaunt horse heading? One of Mrs Thatcher’s most notable qualities was consistency of direction. Last year, Ms Mordaunt co-authored a book with Chris Lewis, a Remainer PR man whose company has also advised the controversial Chinese telecoms company Huawei. Judging by his previous writings, it was Mr Lewis who came forward with her catchphrase about “the ship” needing more attention than the leader. In the book, she and he attacked what they saw as British nostalgia – “the idea that the past was so much better”.

    This week, with a political comparison in mind, Ms Mordaunt spoke at her campaign launch about Paul McCartney singing at Glastonbury: “What we wanted was the good old stuff that we all knew the words to” – i.e., “we” (so that includes her) want the past that was so much better. She was contradicting herself, for electoral convenience. She’s no Margaret Thatcher.

    Another key to Mrs Thatcher’s success was diligent mastery of policy detail. I know several ministers who worked with Ms Mordaunt in various departments. They agree privately with what Lord Frost is saying in public – that she did not do the work or know the stuff; she was often absent from meetings. In the early, desperate days of Covid, for example, she was the minister for civil contingencies. The most urgent anxiety was the lack of ventilators. She failed to remedy this. In the end, a minister junior to her had to step in to sort it out.

    There is another respect in which the Thatcher comparison does not work in the current situation. When Mrs Thatcher won the leadership in 1975, the party was in opposition, so the contest had been able to proceed slowly. She had announced her candidacy the previous October and taken the ensuing months to think boldly but carefully about how things should be different and then to speak her thoughts in public.

    On this page of this newspaper in January 1975, she set out the main Conservative ideas – “compassion, and concern for the individual and his freedom, opposition to excessive state power; the right of the enterprising, hard-working and thrifty … the defence of widely distributed private property against the socialist state”.

    She continued: “There is a widespread feeling in the country that the Conservative Party has not defended these ideals explicitly and toughly enough, so that Britain is set on a course towards inevitable socialist mediocrity.”

    Less than two weeks later, Mrs Thatcher became leader of the opposition. She then spent the next four years working out how to act on her convictions. So when the general election finally came, she won it.

    Whoever wins the current leadership race is very differently situated. The contest formally began only this week. When its second round ends in early September, the winner will have to go straight to the Queen and return to Downing Street as prime minister.

    So even if – as some accuse others – the leading candidates have been secretly preparing already, there is virtually no time for a careful rethink, let alone a public one. We seem to be facing something uncommonly like the “inevitable socialist mediocrity” of which Mrs Thatcher complained, and the Tories have hardly begun to confront this.

    Besides, the problem of being in government is that those best qualified for No 10 by experience are least able to speak frankly about what has gone wrong. These are the two Johnson-era Cabinet ministers left in the race, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. They must, after all, share the blame that goes with collective responsibility and, particularly in Mr Sunak’s case, for the actual policies developed.

    In a way, this gives a great advantage to the other three, Kemi Badenoch and Penny Mordaunt (who have held only junior government posts) and Tom Tugendhat (who has held none). They are much freer to speak up. Both Mrs Badenoch and Mr Tugendhat have been doing so, in the few days of the campaign so far, to good effect.

    And yet, in the middle of the most serious difficulties Britain and the whole Western world have faced since the 1970s, it seems perverse not to value experience. Voters might think the Conservatives insanely rash to prefer a novice over a front-rank minister for one of the most difficult jobs this country has ever offered anybody.

    In short, neither an outsider nor an insider feels satisfactory. This is one of the reasons why it was not such a brilliant idea to force out Boris Johnson without first being in a position to answer the question “What next?” The more one thinks about it, the worse the quandary becomes.

    There is a campaigning problem, too. Mr Sunak is clearly being advised to follow the usual tactic of the front-runner and avoid trouble. They want him to say as little as possible about the recent past – because it is such painful territory – or about the immediate future, because he will then be burdened with awkward commitments.

    He is trading on that most old-fashioned of all self-presentations which is that he is a “good chap” and should be trusted to get on it. He can say a little bit about how he would rather government did “fewer things, better”, but his team regards specifics as dangerous.

    This is normally good advice, and it fits Mr Sunak well: he is indeed a good chap and can be relied on to behave decently, work hard and approach problems intelligently. But that is a “steady as she goes” position and at present nothing is steady. We face the worst inflation for more than 40 years (extra painful because it hits fuel the hardest), a winter of strikes, a war of horrible aggression in Europe, a culture of self-hatred expressed both in “woke” and in economic self-destruction via net zero, and the active enmity of China. We badly need a potential prime minister to admit how bad things are in order to understand how he or she would make them better. Rishi Sunak might be able to do this, but I fear he won’t risk it.

    As for Liz Truss, she has less of the past few years hung round her neck but offers little analysis of the crisis either. Her campaign so far has been more a matter of corralling the party’s Right than of leading the country out of distress.

    As for Penny Mordaunt, see above. To use her analogy of the ship, she seems to be auditioning for the part of masthead, not of captain.

    So it falls to the two candidates least likely to succeed – Badenoch and Tugendhat – to inject something interesting into the debates, as both did in Channel 4’s last night. In the case of the former, her upward trajectory so far has been remarkable. Even if she loses, she will have done a service to party and country by telling the truth.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/15/tories-have-weeks-find-leader-who-can-stop-inevitable-socialist/

    1. Sunak oversaw giving away billions without oversight. The Department for health was shown incompetent – ministers do not do things, civil servants do.

      The Treasury, where Sunak came from is equally useless to the point of spite. Hiking taxes just after a massive pandemic to ‘get the money spent back?’ Dear life, what arrogance. The belief that it’s their money in the first place and that they have unlimited right to take what they want, and contrary to the needs to the public took what they chose as well as the ludicrous stupidity of robbing people just when they would need it most AND against the obvious fact that high taxes do not increase the tax yeield.

      It may as well have said ‘Up yours!’ to the economy and private wealth, common sense and wealth creation.

  70. Following on from Charles Moore, an opposing view. She doesn’t have much support BTL but the remarks about Truss are worth noting.

    Dear Tories, drop the snobbery over true blue Penny Mordaunt and get behind her

    Instead of unfairly painting her as a fake Conservative, the party should see her for the thoroughbred winner she is

    ALLISON PEARSON • 15 July 2022 • 9:30pm

    They say the flak is always worst when you are over the target. If so, Penny Mordaunt’s aim must be bang on.

    “They are desperate to shoot her down,” said a member of the campaign team as polls show Mordaunt is ahead in every region and every age group. The attacks grow increasingly dirty.

    As the overwhelming favourite among Tory party members (she would beat any other candidate in the leadership race by a huge margin), Mordaunt is clearly a problem for forces within the Westminster cabal who like to think they control such democratic matters.

    I mean, what does this blonde from a humble background with her rather suspect appeal to normal people think she is playing at? Surely, the wench should do the decent thing and stand aside for a weaker candidate who would repel voters and pretty much guarantee electoral defeat in 2024?

    I regret to say there is an unsavoury campaign to undermine, diminish and patronise Mordaunt. One newspaper ran a photo spread in which all the other candidates were fully clothed and she was pictured in a swimsuit. “I always wear swimwear in the newspapers,” she quipped gamely. But the sexism was simply dreadful.

    On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the columnist Matthew Parris snorted about the “conjurer’s assistant”. He sounded like Henry Higgins peering down his eminent nose at that creature of the gutter, Eliza Doolittle.

    If you are born into the professional classes and privately educated, as Parris was, then a job with a magician must sound hideously naff. If you are a teenager at the local comp who has to fit it in school around taking care of your seriously ill parent and younger brother, then well-paid work in the evening and at weekends is a godsend. A bit of glamour and fun must also have been balm to the spirits of a young Penny dealing with the recent death of her adored mother.

    For any Briton unburdened by snobbery, having a prime minister who was once a conjurer’s assistant would be pretty cool, actually. Besides, what better preparation for a Conservative leadership contest than having to maintain a fixed grin while a chap saws you in half?

    There are certainly concerns about Mordaunt. But, first, let us consider the endorsement of Liz Truss by Lord Frost. I am a huge admirer of him as a principled man and Conservative thinker. But when it comes to knowing who is the right person to lead the country, let alone win the next election, I’m afraid he could not be more wrong.

    Has Truss ever made a memorable speech? I honestly wouldn’t know. Her manner is so off-putting that I look down at my hands immediately when she opens her mouth. Truss is irritating and lacks warmth. She posts numerous selfies of herself in statesman-like poses, which seem a bit potty, quite frankly. Yes, she has senior experience in government, but what does that count for if she has all the charisma of a courgette?

    I’m sorry if these things sound shallow, but they matter. They really matter. We live in an age of gnat-short attention spans; first impressions are the only impression most voters are going to get. Is the candidate likeable? Can I relate to what she or he is saying? You only have a few seconds to grab the attention.

    There is talk among Truss supporters of training her up to become a better performer. Seriously? This is not some application to become the branch manager of a regional building society. This is the prime minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland we are talking about! If she hasn’t got it now, she’s never going to get it.

    Even Sir Keir “Woodentop” Starmer is a superior communicator. Truss would struggle against the Labour leader at the despatch box. Mordaunt, who needs no training in performance, would blow him out of the water.

    The constant complaints that Mordaunt is some woke warrior who is suspect on trans issues and a globalist friend of Bill Gates are a very convenient way of distracting from the far more glaring weaknesses of Truss and Rishi Sunak, the frontrunner.

    Lord Frost implies that, as his deputy, Mordaunt was Awol during Brexit negotiations and lacks commitment to the cause.

    Lord Blencathra begs to differ: “As someone who has been in the Tory party for 55 years, in Parliament for 38, a minister and chief whip, I think I am a better judge of the leadership qualities and character of Penny Mordaunt than Lord Frost, whose press pronouncements have numerically exceeded the 16 months he has been a Conservative peer.”

    I do find the allegations strange. Of the three leading candidates, Mordaunt was the only impassioned, hands-on Leaver (I never saw Sunak at a Brexit event) and she continues to talk bullishly about this country’s future as an independent nation while recently striking new trade deals with several American states.

    Truss was a Remainer (as was Lord Frost). In fact, her only halfway decent speech was basically a denunciation of Brexit. Not only that, prior to joining the Conservatives in 1996, the 46-year-old was an ardent supporter of the Liberal Democrats. She was anti-nuclear and vehemently anti-Thatcher.

    Addressing the Lib Dem party conference in 1994, she agreed with Paddy Ashdown, the leader at the time, that the monarchy should be abolished. “Everybody in Britain should have the chance to be a somebody. But only one family can provide the head of state,” complained Liz.

    So how come Truss, who showed such public disrespect to the Queen, is given the benefit of the doubt as to whether or not she is a fake Tory while Mordaunt, who has years of devoted service to the Royal Navy, is painted as the imposter?

    Ideology, that’s why. There are elements on the Right of the Conservative Party who are so obsessed with the purity of a candidate’s beliefs that it even over-rides considerations of that person’s electability. Better to lose with a hard-nut Truss than win with a soft-centre Mordaunt.

    This is self-harming madness. And Conservative Party members are wise enough to know it. MPs can live in their own little world, picking a leader who flatters their own prejudices rather than one who can defeat the enemy. Party members don’t have that luxury. They want a fresh, hugely attractive candidate, a Mordaunt or a Kemi Badenoch, untainted by membership of Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, who they can sell to hostile folks on the doorstep.

    “Please, let it not be Rishi,” one councillor emailed me. “I dread having to defend his billionaire wife and the non-dom business to people who are getting these horrible energy bills.”

    Well, quite. On holiday this past week, I was surprised that the twentysomethings around the pool were suddenly enthused by a Conservative of all things. “I like Penny, she’s normal.” That was the general opinion. Tories have been haemorrhaging support, particularly among younger women. Mordaunt, a champion of equality for women and girls her whole adult life, could change that. At the very least, she could staunch the angry defections to the Lib Dems.

    Since I declared my support for Mordaunt a week ago, I have been called “a WEF globalist shill”. I have no idea what that is. If I am part of some international conspiracy, it would be nice if someone could have told me.

    Other allegations bemuse Mordaunt’s supporters. “The idea that Penny is some kind of woke warrior who thinks people with penises are women is just absurd,” laughed a senior female colleague.

    “She has done Naval training, so she’s well aware of the physical advantages men enjoy and why they can’t possibly compete in female sport. I’m a mum of daughters and I wouldn’t be backing her if she was some loony.

    “Penny is as staunch and true blue a Conservative as you could ever meet. It’s all about jobs and growth for her. And she’s a genuinely lovely person.”

    I think most people can intuit that. The young would like Mordaunt to be prime minister. Conservative party members want Mordaunt to be prime minister. On Friday, according to the latest YouGov poll, in response to the question, “Who is the most likely to win a general election?”, the result was as follows: Penny Mordaunt 28 per cent, Rishi Sunak 17 per cent and Liz Truss 15 per cent.

    Is that clear enough for Tory MPs who might like to keep their jobs after the general election 2024? It’s high time they stopped calling Mordaunt a “dark horse” and saw her for the thoroughbred winner that she is.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/07/15/dear-tories-drop-snobbery-true-blue-penny-mordaunt-get-behind/

    1. Except… she has no concept of integrity and is a turncoat. She’ll flip whichever way offers the least resistance and most power.

      When in office she’ll change nothing, continuing the same tiresome, destructive, backward ideology currently being pursued. There is no true interest in change. She is marketing for a product she knows is defective but intends to sell anyway.

      Sod them all. Not one gives a stuff about the country. It’s just something they get annoyed by on their stepping stone to the real trough.

      1. “When in office she’ll change nothing, continuing the same tiresome, destructive, backward ideology currently being pursued. There is no true interest in change. She is marketing for a product she knows is defective but intends to sell anyway.”

        She may just be savvy enough to know that, should she follow that path it will mean the end, not only for the party but most certainly for her.

        1. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before but the only chance the Conservatives had of surviving wipe-out was with Lord Frost as prime minister. But all the metaphors have been mixed, they are up a gum tree, high and dry and in deep water and their ship has sailed into the desert of oblivion without any legs to stand on.

          2. When I’m feeling more sophisticated I call it excrement estuary without explosive, laxative means of propulsion.

          3. When I’m feeling more sophisticated I call it excrement estuary without explosive, laxative means of propulsion.

          4. The Lord Frost who wrote the terrible Brexit agreement Boris signed?

            Good god no!

        2. And she’ll swan off into another six figure job at the eurocracy or WEF, or WHo or A N other pointless globalist non-job and care nothing for whatever is left behind.

    2. I don’t care who gets the top job, whether they are male or female, black or white, gay or whatever as long as they get Brexit done properly, stop illegal immigration. stop net zero, stop HS2, lower taxes and start looking after the people of this country instead of themselves.

      4. For that to happen, you would need to defenestrate the whole civil service cabal into the Thames and quickly close the window.

      5. The state has no interest in those, and in fact; actively seeks the direct opposite.

        Unless whoever gets the job actively seeks to oppose the state machine to reverse the damage it is doing to this countr then they may as well not bother. However, of course with an election not tw years away they’ll set about campaigning, not governing. Government will be left to the machine and nothing – not a thing – will change. Big state doesn’t want it to.

    3. BTL:
      Sir Steve Carrot
      According to Mordaunt’s book, Greater, which is highly praiseworthy of China and has a foreword written by friend of the people, Bill Gates:

      – It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum was colonialist, racist, homophobic, transphobic and promoted white privilege.
      – Kenneth Clark’s brilliant 1969 documentary series Civilisation is only noteworthy because according to her, it explained how Oxford-educated British middle-aged white men were superior to everyone else. Nothing more.
      – The Black Lives Matter movement should be celebrated because it has drawn attention to inequality and injustice.
      – It’s terrible that our leaders have traditionally been male, patient, predictable, factual, planned, heterosexual, white, western and Christian.
      – Testosterone (in other words, men) disrupts the workplace.

      Put all this alongside her trans ideology and support of net zero, and one can only conclude that far from being a future Conservative Prime Minister, she’s more like an even weirder Caroline Lucas.

      Top Flat
      Those are all views that she is likely to have taken from her Tory-hating twin brother James Mordaunt:
      https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/02/20/penny-james-mordaunt-conservative-party-lgbt-rights/

      1. These: male, patient, predictable, factual, planned, heterosexual, white, western and Christian.

        Are positive traits.

    4. She is a bloody good looking lass, but her views on cocks in frocks and her closeness to Gates are VERY big turn-offs for many.

    5. Oh dear Allison – normally I find your articles a refreshing change from the lunacy that surrounds us, but here we will have to differ [although I think she’s spot on as regards Truss]. Dormant is a real concern as William Stanier outlines so well below. The idea that she has “years of devoted service to the Royal Navy” doesn’t seem to hold water – quite why she was made an “honorary Captain” is beyond me. The quotes from her book, which has a forward by Gates, are worrying although they could, of course, be taken out of context – I haven’t read it!

    1. When presented with a vaccine syringe needle they can’t see the point. 😉

  73. Back from Narridge. Gosh – what a depressing dump it is. Grotesque fat tattooed people everywhere – many of them eating as they ambled. Dozens of eating places which were heaving with more Grotesque fat tattooed people. Road works – dust and squalor. Heaps of uncollected bin bags.

    Went into two department stores. No guide telling you upon which floor anything could be found. Very few staff. Queues at the tills. M&S no longer sell sensible basic things such as underwear and socks (an they have altered the sizing for socks – just to make life even more bloody.

    It was just brilliant to return to normality – via the excellent Martins Farm shop where £24 worth of meat products will last us a month.

    And Gus and Pickles were EXACTLY where they were when we left at noon!!

      1. Funny you should ask, Our Susan. Gus was on an armchair – Pickles in a basket IN THE SUN!

    2. You don’t need to go no fodder than a farm shop! 🐾🐾🐎🐄🐖🐏🐘🦏🦆

      2. And I forgot the fuckwit demo by Extortion Racket type woke tossers….with their “amusing” costumes and drums and chanting and ghastliness.

        1. We have a group here on that bandwagon. Most on benefits and social security, and what pisses me off is they boast about it…”it’s moi roit…”

      3. Three years ago I was walking along the pavement in Cardiff when an idiot – glued to his phone – came quickly round the corner and walked straight into me. His phone fell to the ground – and broke into several dozen pieces. “Bad luck,” I said….chortling!!

    4. A shame, as Norwich used to be ‘where you went shopping’ from my little home town.

      1. When I came here nearly 40 years ago, it was an agreeable place. Generations of Liebour local authority have done their worst.

        1. I lived near there in the mid 60s it was always a pleasure to shop there – well SWMBO went shopping and I took the kids to Backs bar where I met up with other dads with kids for a pleasant couple of hours

    1. I’ve never been able to get that image of a lonely man sitting at a table surrounded by ill-wishing bugginses.
      Nobody beside him – even to give him a little human support.

      1. 354296+up ticks,

        Evening Anne
        All the time they get idiotic support from the herd they will continue,

        Height of loneliness caught on camera,
        the Queen.

  76. If 200,000 grassroots Tory members have the final say on whom of the remaining 2 bods is elected PM, I think we should have a general election asap.

    1. And how concerned about the weather they will be, when pensioners are freezing to death this winter?

      2. If they were serious about the burn up, all beaches should be closed because people with sunstroke / sunburn / heart attacks erc will put an even larger strain on our NHS and our coastguards .

        1. That will be the excuse for a ‘climate lockdown’ – protecting the nhs. I am sick of it all – the lies, the dissembling, the disingenuousness: all to make people believe a political narrative to achieve a political agenda. I almost wish I were one of the flock with my head in the sand.

      3. Not at all, we’ll be told to pu more layers on but under no circumstances will the lie of climate change be allowed to interfere with the endless hectoring that we must all pay three times as much for our energy bills as that will ‘save the planet’ (from an invented nonsense that the BBC has sunk it’s pension scheme into and is thus in favour of promoting).

    2. I’m surprised the animal welfare lobby hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon – millions of birds/hedgehogs/slugs/smails/bees/wasps/cats/dogs likely to die, we the rip off charity for disadvantaged animals need your donation, accompanied by weepy looking dog/cat/horse or whatever, please give £xxx on your mobile…..

        1. Quite a lot of swifts have tried to leave their nests too soon (so they can’t fly) but ours are ok.

      2. Of the three animals living here – Mongo, Beast and a borrowed Jack Russell, Beast is sat beside a fan, Mongo’s in a paddling pool under multiple layers of cooling (there’s a fan powered by a cheapy solar panel) by far the hottest animal – aside from the Warqueen, who is ‘hot’ (I got told to say that) is me.

        1. Honestly Wibbs- right now I am not finding it that hot. Mind you, I am not a Newfie;-)

      3. We were at our local show, fundraising for the Hedgehog Hospital – but we don’t take the hedgehogs with us!

        There were two heavy horses at the show and they looked fine.

        1. The horses that raced this afternoon (even the ones over the jumps at Market Rasen) were fine. They got cooled off with mist fans and buckets of water as soon as they finished.

    3. I’m surprised the animal welfare lobby hasn’t jumped on the bandwagon – millions of birds/hedgehogs/slugs/smails/bees/wasps/cats/dogs likely to die, we the rip off charity for disadvantaged animals need your donation, accompanied by weepy looking dog/cat/horse or whatever, please give £xxx on your mobile…..

    4. Aren’t you glad you have made the choice to live elsewhere Obs.
      This country has been takenover by all of its lunatics.

    1. Party Four for me …

      Wordle 392 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Me too.
      Wordle 392 5/6

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

    3. Tricky par 4 here

      Wordle 392 4/6

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

    4. A lucky 3 for me.
      Wordle 392 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. #metoo Wordle 392 5/6

      🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛
      🟩🟩⬛⬛⬛
      🟩🟩⬛🟨⬛
      🟩🟩🟩⬛⬛
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    6. Birdie 🙂

      Wordle 392 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  80. We’re back from our very warm and busy day at the local show – just waiting for my cup of tea to cool a bit.

      1. We weren’t in it to win it……but we did raise over £350 to keep the hospitsl running. Last month’s vet bill was £500.

  81. Beer time,’night all

    https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1548147913200648192

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/90520820dce1be9d39d1929c000d248809c303822060c475210b7b83a2602754.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b3043646cf67639c7c893aced1fae050954ba6fa92c020f8527245933eb86bc.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/acabb96136ce542377a92dfdb743445bbd582fcae8d2e91ed08f4cf20670a490.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30867accee94e4d3f85b837fd5e9700294dac21bfe9e0936e8ae7ede7aa880b4.jpg

    1. You mock, but folks have called me out – despite all hte troubleshooting – to turn it on at the wall.

      However, as with the bloke charging £10,000 for a chalk cross, sometimes it’s knowing what to press.

      I will add that with regard to the ‘I’ll ignore him…’ one that the Warqueen has tried this. It doesn’t work because I don’t pick up on the cues. She would have gone days being angry and I wouldn’t have flickered.

    2. I came out to water my tomatoes in the greenhouse today to find next door’s cat sitting on the chair I keep in there! It saw me coming, sneered and strolled off (Oscar, being neither use nor ornament in these situations ignored it completely). The cat squeezed through the gate then sat just the other side waiting for me to go before it came back in! I made an angry cat sound and it decided discretion was the better part of valour. I like cats, just not in my garden – and especially not sitting on my chair in my greenhouse!

  83. That’s me for this nice summer’s day. Hope it warms up a bit, soon…

    Have a jolly evening – imagining a Dormant PM.

    A demain.

    1. PMs for the last goodness knows how many years have been pretty well dormant…..

      2. Perhaps you/ we mean doormat.
        No.10 Cat has noted several shifties in six years

    2. PMs for the last goodness knows how many years have been pretty well dormant…..

    3. As we are in a proxy war with Putin – which could escalate into a nuclear confrontation – some military nous and commitment would be no bad thing for the future PM.

      IMHO, Truss is dangerously ignorant in the area of military confrontation.
      Rishy is ‘damaged goods’ and disloyal.

      My choice is Penny for PM and Kemi for her Chancellor – and possible successor.

      2. Nice thought, Lacoste but I doubt it’ll happen and, if it does, it’ll still be the best of a bad job.

    1. No probs, when she gets past ten she loses concentration and has to start again.

    1. Yes, I know of Sunak’s Father-in-Law’s company Infosys. I worked with some of its ‘Consultants’ at Technip in La Defense, Paris. All indians who purported to read and write English but their output was absolute crap. They were cheap though and, being in France, what do they care for precise, concise English in their procedures? Barbarians all – but at €650 per day, who am I to cavil?

      It seems that Sunak will be the worst possible choice, given his affiliation to WEF, CCP and his inept spend and tax regime.

      1. Great info Tom but I challenge you to get it past the media red line.
        We’re just doomed.

      2. Some old hands in my former job (Corrosion engineering) had an expression: “As genuine as an Indian engineering diploma”.

  87. Our ‘neighbours’, some 200 metres away are playing music so loudly it’s clear as day over here.

    I’d really, really like them to stop, but they’ve already been asked. Their response was ‘F off’. I don’t understand how people can be so rude, so thoughtless and ignorant of other people.

    2. I’ve had that problem in the past, fortunately I had bigger speakers and a more powerful amplifier.
      🙂

    3. Here, people call the police, who will have a word about breach of the peace.

      1. I’m tempted to raise a noise complaint.

        It’s going to carry on throughout the summer. It’s bad enough when the football is on and all they do is scream and shout at one another.

    4. Buy a more powerful PA, put it in the garden and play music in the middle of the night.
      They wouldn’t do it to me , I have 3000W of PA gear
      Failing that call the police, particularly if it’s late at night or get an injunction
      There again you could keep ringing them in the middle of the night whilst withholding your number – or let me have their number and I’ll ring them around 3am continually

    5. We’re very lucky with our neighbours here. Mostly pretty quiet on the whole, and when they are out in the garden, or playing music with the windows open, it’s not uncomfortably loud. This evening our next doors were sitting outside with their grown-up family but were all quiet and gone by seven or half past.

  89. My candidate for next Tory leader – it’s an absolute no-brainer

    With his popularity, honesty and economic good sense, Canada’s Pierre Poilievre is exactly what Britain needs

    DANIEL HANNAN • 16 July 2022 • 5:00pm

    People keep asking me who I am backing as the next Tory leader. Easy. My candidate is the brightest MP in the House of Commons, a well-instructed conservative, a free-marketeer to the backbone and a matchless campaigner. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Pierre Poilievre.

    OK, it’s a different Tory party and a different House of Commons. Poilievre is standing to be leader of the Conservative Party of Canada in a contest that concludes five days after ours. But his story is worth telling, because our own leadership candidates could learn a thing or two from it.

    Simply by declaring his candidacy Poilievre has transformed the demographics of his party. At the start of the contest, the Canadian Conservatives had around 150,000 members – slightly more, in per capita terms, than their British sister-party. Now, that figure stands at a staggering 675,000, most of them having joined so as to back Poilievre.

    Even more impressive than the numbers is the age profile. Until this year, a Conservative event in Canada felt similar to one in the UK. Now, Poilievre’s rallies are filled with twenty-somethings.

    “I’m getting more boots and fewer suits”, Poilievre told me in Vancouver on Thursday between two fund-raising meetings. “A lot of the folks at my rallies have been brought along by their teenage kids”.

    What is the secret of the 43-year-old Franco-Albertan’s appeal? Part of it lies in his mastery of social media. In one recent video, he runs his hands over a scarred beam in his house, musing that each notch was a blow from a logger’s axe in the early days of Canada’s settlement. This leads into a brilliant adumbration of Scrutonian conservatism, the thrust of which is that we should recover our ancient liberties, just as those loggers unlocked the beam from within the tree-trunk.

    In another, he walks around an old grist-mill dating from the time of Canada’s confederation, and turns it into a metaphor about how each generation has a repairing lease on the country, an obligation to replace the cracked stones while maintaining the integrity of the structure.

    I struggle to think of a British equivalent. Perhaps an MP who combined Michael Gove’s backstory, eloquence and administrative record with Steve Baker’s flinty fiscal conservatism [Pardon?!]. Poilievre was adopted by a French-speaking schoolteacher in true-blue Alberta, but won his seat in woke Ottawa. He has held it for 18 years, the only blue speck in that ultra-liberal city. There is a hint of geek chic about him. “Here”, you say to yourself, “is a clever young man in glasses who understands economics”. Not a bad look at present.

    He appeals to younger voters by offering them relief from their grievances. Young Canadians, like young Britons, have been monstrously treated. No generation was less at risk from Covid, and no generation suffered more from the lockdown. Schools and colleges were closed, and teenagers confined grumpily with their parents, cut off from job opportunities, parties and sex lives. Now they have emerged to be presented with the bill for the whole mess, while ministers and central bankers collude to keep house prices artificially inflated.

    Poilievre believes that central banks the world over have served as ATMs for spendthrift governments. “The debt, the taxes, the money-printing – they’re all symptoms,” he tells me. “The illness is government overspending”. He proposes a pay-as-you-go law like the one adopted by the US Congress after 1994, whereby every dollar of spending had to be matched by an equivalent cut or tax rise. “While that law was in place, the budget was balanced. The moment it was lifted, the deficit took off”.

    Poilievre is an unapologetic tax-cutter and an opponent of Canada’s carbon tax (“Trudeau is killing our energy industry at home, but is happy to send turbines to Russia”). He wants to remove what he calls the “gatekeepers” from the economy: the regulators and licensers stand between companies and wealth-creation. In a country where there are still residual masking and vaccine laws – a green light to every public-sector malingerer, trade union radical and hypochondriac – he is unequivocally anti-lockdown.

    How much of this transfers to a British context? Canada’s political system is very like ours, first-past-the-post creating a two-and-a-half party system, plus one region divided over separatism. Its media, especially its broadcasters, are further Left than ours, which creates a public discourse dominated by identity politics. The brilliant Vancouverite political scientist, Eric Kaufmann, has argued convincingly in this newspaper that Canada may be the first properly woke country, in the sense that its politicians are rewarded for being on the progressive side in the culture wars. Tories are perfunctorily dismissed as racists, homophobes and (worst of all) allies of the US Republicans.

    Poilievre does not hide from the culture wars. Ludicrously smeared because he was photographed with someone who turned out to have said bigoted things, he cheerfully responded that he had also been photographed with Justin Trudeau, but that didn’t mean he endorsed the PM’s juvenile blackface antics.

    Wisely, though, he does not let the culture war define him. Young Canadians may be the most politically correct voters on the planet, but they also suffer from expensive housing, rising taxes and prohibitively expensive travel. As the economic crisis worsens, Poilievre reckons, those things will sway more and more votes.

    Our own leadership candidates are naturally keen to let us know that they oppose identity politics. While this instinct may be laudable, it is going to look trivial when the full impact of the energy crisis hits this winter and Western economies are tipped into stagflation.

    Similarly, posturing about Brexit, although understandable, is beside the point. The question is not whether Britain will rejoin the EU – it plainly won’t – but how it takes advantage of its new regulatory and commercial freedoms.

    All that really matters at present is reducing government spending. I can see why the candidates don’t want to set out, at this stage, what cuts they would make, but we need to know that they at least have a plan.

    One test is whether they are making popular but unaffordable promises to increase spending. For example, leadership candidates understandably like to pledge to raise the defence budget – a commitment that is popular with all wings of the Conservative Party, MPs as well as activists. But I worry that anyone promising to spend more at the moment has failed to grasp the gravity of our predicament.

    Similarly, are the candidates prepared to pull every lever to lower the cost of living? Boris Johnson has reportedly just agreed to extend the steel tariffs that we inherited from the EU, although his advisers could find no economic case for them. Steel tariffs make our construction, car-making, electrical appliance and rail sectors less competitive, push up prices and shrink our economy. All, apparently, because Johnson was chasing the votes of three Red Wall MPs. How many of the current candidates will forfeit those three votes and do the right thing?

    Canada’s Tories have drawn ahead in the polls since it became clear that Poilievre would win, which suggests that voters are not as babyish as politicians think. They understand that paying people to stay at home for the better part of two years is expensive, and that debts need to be repaid. They know – at least, enough of them know – that money can’t be magicked up indefinitely. They are looking for a grown-up leader prepared to take tough decisions rather than just talking about them.

    So far, in Britain, voters have not had that option. Johnson, with all his warm expansiveness, is a politician made for easy times. His breezy optimism and his readiness to spend first and ask questions later were ill suited to the pandemic. Labour and the SNP were worse, both in the sense of wanting longer and stricter lockdowns and in the sense of demanding even higher spending. This consensus has created a bizarre atmosphere in British politics where no one wants to talk about the coming reckoning.

    Except the electorate – or, at any rate, a goodly chunk of it. Yes, there will always be some voters who want to shut their eyes and vote for handouts. But, as the worst of the crisis hits, and as people’s income is further squeezed, there will be a growing demand for a politician prepared to face reality and cut spending – thereby also cutting taxes and prices.

    Conservative activists, in common with the electorate as a whole, will vote for the candidate prepared to tell the truth and begin the painful work of recovery.

    Our revels now are ended.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/16/found-perfect-new-prime-minister-what-shame-already-got-job/

    Almost unknown BTL but has made a few appearances here in the last year or two.

    1. Johnson has extended the steel tariffs because the state told him to. The EU told the state. The records are there!

      The EU wants this country to be expensive. It wants us to fail. Thus the state machine does as well. If spending cuts were announced the first thing big fat state would do is shred services. It would intentionally, delightfully, with malice and forethought do as much damage as possible, to the most vulnerable. I imagine they’ve already planned what to hit and how hard.

      The more a PM pushes to diverge from the EU the more the state will force the bend until it snaps. It’s already at work trying to undermine Brexit through calamitous economics decisions that could easily have been avoided.

      SAdly, people in this country don’t want a Conservative – or conservative government. They want one that gives them a lot of other people’s money. They don’t want to work, they want to take. Food banks are a classic example. Utterly unnecessary, but provide something for free and it’ll be abused. Wasters sat on welfare breeding away love them – more money for fags and tattoos. There’s an entire media entity utterly dedicated to spouting waffle without substance because as soon as the substance comes out, they have to acknowledge that it’s views like theirs that are the root of the problem.

      None of them have any interest whatsoever in such change. They’re all same old, same old.

    1. Never work with people afraid of their responsibilities – and that includes the need to show leadership.

        1. But, don’t worry, Inspector Clouseau is on the job….checking that the necessary leesences are in place.

    2. If they’d been dealt with according to international law then they wouldn’t be there. Identify, deport. It should have stopped at one. The thousands milling around should be locked up in shipping containers and sent back where they came.

    3. All males. A very chivalrous ethnic group isn’t it, leaving its womenfolk to fend for themselves in the desperate circumstances they say thay are trying to escape.

  92. Evening, all. It’s been quite pleasant here, despite the dire warnings. I finished off clearing up after I’d cut back the overgrown shrubs yesterday and sat out later in the day when there was a slight breeze and some shade.

    1. It hasn’t been hot here at all- warm yes, sunny yes but totally bearable.

  93. Latest Breaking News – Due to the latest heatwave the governments nudge unit has gone into meltdown, engineers say it could take 48 hours to fix.
    The public have been asked not to panic if they do not hear any climate project fear announcements for the next few days.
    Any person that is traumatised by the lack of foreboding anxiety inducing warnings will be advised to stay in bed and listen out for strange noises and look out for spiders until the repairs have been completed.

  94. Sitting outside with Firstborn & a bottle of Finnish lemon vodka. Going to get puffer jacket as freezing me nuts off…

    1. 17°c here @ 21:15. in the East Riding and for me that’s on the chilly side of comfortable.
      I’ll take my bottle of Shiraz indoors and transfer my music from headphones to speakers.

  95. Penny Mordaunt’s claims about her Royal Navy credentials have been questioned by senior officers.

    During the Tory leadership contest she has said her experience in the Royal Naval Reserve and values of military service make her ideally suited to become Prime Minister.

    The Portsmouth MP’s candidacy announcement included a reference to the Royal Navy, when she said leadership should be ‘less about the leader and more about the ship’.

    Miss Mordaunt, 49, went on to claim that she, ‘perhaps better than any other candidate’, understood the Government’s responsibility to support the Armed Forces. But the final straw for some came when one of her supporters, Tory MP George Freeman, claimed in a TV interview that she had ‘fought in the Navy’.

    Last night, a highly-decorated former senior Royal Navy officer said: ‘She isn’t [currently] a trained or paid reservist, she’s never qualified or been commissioned. She’s been banging the naval drum for days and enough is enough. How she has presented herself – and how she has allowed herself to be presented – have been deeply misleading.’

    Miss Mordaunt signed up as a Royal Naval Reservist in 2010. She was made an honorary commander in 2019 and an honorary captain last year. But she has not served on an operational deployment. She does not currently fulfil the Royal Naval Reserve’s training commitments or receive a salary, as her entries to the MPs’ interests register confirm.

    She was Defence Secretary for just 85 days before being booted out by Boris Johnson in July 2019. Before that she was Armed Forces minister from May 2015 to July 2016.

    Miss Mordaunt’s team did not respond to a request for comment. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/senior-officers-have-questioned-penny-mordaunts-navy-claims/ar-AAZACVP?ocid=st

    2. I admit to doing 28 years in RN

      Is my Wedneday Afternoon/Thursday Morning job as PM still safe?

    1. Sadly it’s not a spoof, Belle. It was also on the Georgia Guidestones, blown up a couple of weeks ago, and contained within the UN Agenda 21 for 2030, using more acceptable language like ‘sustainable’ as in ‘sustainable population’ but nevertheless one gets the meaning. Now you know what we are up against. Prince Charles is also an active member of the WEF. The virus and vaccine haven’t worked awfully well for them so now they are trying to starve us, hence the Dutch and Spanish farmers tractor protests and others around the world. It is so important that the word gets around about what is happening – we are at war but it is being waged in a different way from formerly; we are at war with our own ‘elites’ and those further up the chain of command, Gates, Soros and presumably above them the old banking families (Rothschildes, Rockefellers, etc and possibly, sadly the Windsors).

      1. Also look up Coudenhove-Kalergi plan, this is part of it. They are all completely nuts. Coudenhove was an instigator of the eu.

          1. I think Coudenhove-Kalergi is dead now, but check out Adrenochrome, the ‘elites’ drug of choice – as to why so many of these ‘lizards’ – Kissinger, Soros etc are still alive. I couldn’t believe it when I read it. Much of it is ‘gathered’ in Ukraine, which is what Putin has been trying, amongst others, to demolish. He knows only too well what has been going on there and it is too profitable to our leaders in the West to let go, they are up to their necks in it and don’t want us to know under any circumstances, hence all the bad press against Putin.

          2. Thankfully, whatever the western propagandists claim, the Russian special operation is going to plan.

          3. Thank you, Sue, I thought it was. Putin is nobody’s fool despite the tirades against him in the DM and Express.

      2. Windsors: You mean the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas.
        A name change doesn’t change their allegiance to European money and political influence.

      3. Check out Boris Johnson’s article online on overpopulation in the DT October 2007. Also his speech to the WEF – sorry I can’t remember when. Johnson’s father Stanley, Gates and his father are heavily involved in overpopulation. Gates’s father and Stanley Johnson worked together at Planned Parenthood (named something else at that time) in the 1980s.

    2. Anyone know of a(un) friendly SAS Team, who could be persuaded to do ‘the business’?

    2. Hope you’ve had a decent day Conners.
      I’m waiting to see the golf highlights.

  100. More scaremongering on the weather forecast! “Extraordinary heat” – shut all your windows to keep it out! Open them at night to let in the cool air then shut them!

    Sick of all this nannying.

    2. I wish to goodness they would just leave us alone. It seems that the population is being trained to act only when government says it can. At some point in the future one will be fined for acting independently against government advice.

    3. They probably won’t tell you to turn on the air conditioning because of climate change (and a power system totally unable to support millions of AC units).

      1. We haven’y got air conditioning – just windows and doors that we can open or shut.

  103. Good night, everyone. I finished my day this evening by watching the 1939 film version of WUTHERING HEIGHTS. I had not seen the film before nor read the famous Emily Bronte book. I really did not like the film, because I simply could not find anything sympathetic in the Cathy character, played by Merle Oberon. Reviews which I read afterwards suggested that Cathy was “mercurial” and “wilful”. To me she just seemed like a stupid little stuck-up cow, who deserved what she got out of life. As a result, when the character dies at the end of the film, all I could think was “good riddance”. Heathcliff (Laurence Olivier) struck me as a nasty and – understandably – vindictive character. Is it me, or can any NoTTLer on here explain to me why this story is so highly thought of?

      1. It certainly baffled me, Herr Oberst, but comments from three other posters have helped me a little.

    2. In the whole story not a single trait of character is elicited which can command our admiration, not one of the fine feelings of our nature seems to have formed a part in the composition of its principal actors. In spite of the disgusting coarsness of much of the dialogue, and the improbabilities of much of the plot, we are spellbound.

      Review. Literary World. April 1848.

      1. Again, an interesting quotation from the Literary World review, Minty. I think I shall now order a copy from the local library and see how far I get with reading it.

    3. The book is better than the film! I couldn’t stand Cathy either, but at the end of the book, when Heathcliffe has tried his best to destroy the younger generation he still cannot achieve his revenge, because the girl (young Cathy?) is putting primroses on the young man’s porridge and they are going to get married and be happy. So it does have a powerful message about the futility of revenge.

      1. Thanks, blackbox2. That helps me to seriously consider reading a library copy of the book.

    4. It is always presented as a love story and it isn’t- it’s about revenge. Rivers of ink have been used in speculation of who Heathcliff really was and why did Mr. Earnshaw bring him to the Heights.
      I don’t like that movie either; same with Jane Eyre, there is too much detail to squash into a fairy short film or mini series.
      Living as isolated as they did for much of their lives, the Bronte sisters had vivid imaginations and used them. Anne and Charlotte were more prolific but Emily only wrote the one book and poetry.
      It’s a wonderful book but not a soppy love story at all.
      PS- I don’t think we are supposed to like Cathy. When Jane Austen wrote Emma, she wanted to create a character that only she would like- and I think she did; I am not keen on Emma.

      1. Thanks for that explanation, Ann. It being a story about revenge – and how that led effectively to self-destruction – makes more sense of the film. When you say “It’s a wonderful book but not a soppy love story at all” are you saying that you recommend my reading the complete book (which I understand carries on the story after the death of the two main characters)? I ask, because I really can’t see how a book about characters that one can’t feel the slightest sympathy for can be described as “wonderful”, unless you are talking about how that author describes, for example, the barren heath in Yorkshire. Could you please explain the book’s merits to me to help me decide whether or not to go to the local library to take out a copy. Thanks.

        PS – I have now read the comments by Minty and blackbox2, Ann, and I thInk I shall now have a go at reading a copy from the local library.

        1. Forget that dreadful film. Read the book; I did the Brontes as my special subject last year at uni.
          You need to read the detail, the cruelty, which is not limited to Heathcliff. Cathy opts for a soft life with Edgar Linton and regrets it.
          She dies in childbirth ….
          There is a real pathos and haunting element to the book and it is well related to Mr. Lockwood, who rents the Heights, by Nellie Dean, who has witnessed it all.
          Heathcliff marries Edgar’s sister and fathers a son with her- again more cruelty. Heathcliff lives on, long after Cathy but remains obsessed by her. Mr. Lockwood has a paranormal experience while renting the Heights and Heathcliff goes bananas.
          It may not be to your liking but it is a superb novel.

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