Saturday 17 February: The Conservatives are being punished for treating their core voters with contempt

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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524 thoughts on “Saturday 17 February: The Conservatives are being punished for treating their core voters with contempt”

    1. And I solved today’s (Saturday’s) Wordle in five and posted it on last night’s site.

      1. Morning Elsie.
        It’s a three for me 😃
        Wordle 973 3/6

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

        2. Well done!
          Five here. Wordle 973 5/6

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

        3. 4 here.
          Wordle 973 4/6

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

        4. Early birdie for me as well

          Wordle 973 3/6

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

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    OUTSMART A WOMAN, ARE YOU KIDDING?

    A man calls home to his wife and says, “Honey, I’ve been invited to fly to Canada with my boss and several of his friends to go fishing, for the long weekend. This is a good opportunity for me to get that promotion I’ve been wanting, so could you please pack enough clothes for a three-day weekend. And also, would you get out my rod and tackle box from the attic? We’re leaving at 4:30 pm from the office and I’ll swing by the house to pick-up my things. Oh! And please pack my new navy-blue silk pyjamas.”

    The wife thinks this sounds a bit odd, but, being the good wife, she does exactly what her husband asked.

    Following the long weekend he returns home a little tired, but, otherwise, looking good. The wife welcomes him home and asks if he caught many fish?

    He says, “Yes! Lots of walleyes, some bass, and a few pike.” “But”, he said, “why didn’t you pack my new blue silk pyjamas, like I asked you to do?”

    The wife replies, “I did, they’re in your tackle box”.

    1. A very good one, Sir Jasper. (Good morning, btw.) And now I’m to see if I can complete my jigsaw puzzle. See you all later.

    2. A very good one, Sir Jasper. (Good morning, btw.) And now I’m to see if I can complete my jigsaw puzzle. See you all later.

    3. A very good one, Sir Jasper. (Good morning, btw.) And now I’m to see if I can complete my jigsaw puzzle. See you all later.

    4. “The wife thinks this sounds a bit odd, but, being the good wife, she does exactly what her husband asked.”

      When was this joke written? In the 1950s?

  4. Joe Biden’s catastrophic presidency represents the final surrender of the West. Douglas Murray. 17 February 2024.

    The death of Alexei Navalny in Siberia should be a reminder to the democracies of the world. Not all countries play nice. Some – like Putin’s Russia – play very nasty indeed. And while we in democracies should of course keep to our own standards we should not be capable of being outflanked or outsmarted by the world’s despotisms and tyrannies.

    Yet that is precisely what is happening at the moment.

    It is not just that Putin is entrenching his power inside Russia and attempting to push his forces ever-forward in Ukraine. It is that wherever you look around the world the unfree states seem to be advancing and the free ones are in peril.

    In fairness to Joe Biden (not something you hear often I imagine) he is an expression of the West’s decline not the author of it. Neither is Valdimir Putin or even Xi. It is completely Home Grown. The result of the advance of Cultural Marxism and its tenets. You have only to look around you . The very fabric of the state has been destroyed. Of course hostile actors are playing on this as might be expected in an unfair world. In this situation the State resorts to distractions. Ukraine. Taiwan.. Just propaganda rabbits. Our enemies. The real enemies of the British People are here within.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/16/joe-bidens-catastrophic-presidency-final-surrender-west/

    1. Most countries are blaming Putin for Navalny’s death although cause of. death has not yet been released. They didn’t make such a fuss over Dr Kelly. Funny that.

      1. Nor Epstein, who died on home turf under a set of curious circumstances. Yet the western meeja has Navalny’s death pinned down within minutes.

    1. Why not just let British people be dentists without qualification checks then?

      I’ve always fancied being a dentist.

      1. I did just that. All my teeth needed major restoration and it cost me about £12,000. Money better spent in Poland than padding out bonuses in the bank. They did a good job, and only one tooth failed after I bit into some crackling that had spent too long in the microwave, and was easily repaired.

        This was after having my teeth ruined by an NHS dentist with an Indian name and five sets of professional initials after it, who did not know when to do a bite test (waving a mirror to check my smile was deemed sufficient), thought he could repair a failed 25-year-old bridge by sawing off one of the teeth and then using more glue on the one remaining pin, which was loose, not having heard of temporary cement to fix a temporary crown while the permanent one was being made, and then proposing to adjust an ill-fitting cheap plastic denture plate by grinding down the lower teeth getting in the way. This plate broke off the two upper teeth either side. I have no idea how he got all his qualifications.

        1. I have said this here before:

          19 years ago I went to Denys – a dentist in Marmaris – who had been recommended to me by sailing friends in the marina.

          He did the following work:

          6 crowns
          3 bridges
          An extraction
          A deep filling
          A good clean

          This gave me a full head of teeth which looks entirely natural and in excellent condition. It is all still in place 19 years later and has needed no special maintenance

          TOAL COST 1,200 Euros (at the then exchange rate well under £1,000)

    3. So, we plan to recruit foreigners into the armed forces with “reduced” background vetting, now we want dentists who may or may not be qualified and we apparently already have nurses who got someone else to pass their exams. What could possibly go wrong??

      1. We already have scores of unintelligible ‘doctors’ working in hospitals and as GPs.
        In 2022, I changed GP practices after a series of ‘incidents’. The final straw was being assigned over just a few months to a series of dubious new GPs who had ‘qualified’ in assorted 3rd world sh*tholes, and who (according to other patients) barely spoke English. Looking recently at this health centre’s website, it seems their use of dubious doctors has since increased. Of 15 GPs, 5 ‘qualified’ in the likes of Islamabad, Ibadan, Punjab, Obafemi Awolowo (wherever that is, somewhere African Edit: Nigeria), and Fatima Jinnah Medical College for Women,.
        There are a further 10 Registrars/GPs in training – nothing about where they initially ‘qualified’ (probably similar locations to the above list), just the hospital they are currently based at.

        1. The colorectal doctor that saw to me recently was called Manesh Patel. He spoke better English than i do.

          A previous Indian woman doctor at the Spire had such a thick Indian accent i couldn’t understand a word she said. I believe the cow did it on purpose.
          I complained at reception and said if i’m paying for this i expect a better command of the English language from my doctor. They looked quite shocked.
          I can get very antsy when i’m paying for something and they take the piss.

          1. Quite right too.
            Their ‘roots’ make no difference to me, as long as they are properly qualified and sound with up-to-date knowledge and skills, as well as being able to speak and understand English to an expected standard.
            My superb gastrointestinal consult is of Indian roots, but was clearly born here. I couldn’t ask for better.
            I’m dreading what his replacement might be when he retires in 2-3 years.

  8. Just a coincidence I’m sure……..

    DE
    “Labour to reinstate petrol and diesel ban ahead of schedule in dramatic turn toward EVs.
    The
    Shadow Minister for Roads has confirmed that Labour will reinstate the
    2030 target ban on gas-powered vehicle sales in the UK to encourage
    electric driving among consumers and instill confidence in the
    industry’s investors.”

    DM
    “Sir Keir Starmer on course for a
    £35MILLION war chest for the election as former Just Stop Oil backer
    Dale Vince donates £5million to Labour.
    Dale Vince, founder of green
    energy firm Ecotricity and a former backer of Just Stop Oil, has given
    £1.5million to Labour in the past decade and is expected to donate up to
    £5million this year.
    He said the general election is ‘the most
    important of our lifetimes’ and wants to bring in ‘the greenest
    government we have ever had”.

    1. That we can be sold so cheaply (and to a man who has made all his money from the taxpayer) is frightening.

    3. “wants to bring in ‘the greenest government we have ever had“. Hardly surprising as the green scam is entirely responsible for his success – disgusting little grifter!

    4. Crook troughing off tax payer subsidy demands more tax payer subsidy so he can get richer.

      Bastard. (rude word).

    5. Like Blair receiving a substantial donation from an animal rights organisation before coming up with the useless Hunting Act.

  9. Being the cynical type when I saw this headline I did a little digging…….

    Rochdale police incident: Homes evacuated after ‘rifles and grenades’ found

    https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/live-rochdale-police-incident-evacuated-28641211

    Ashfield Rd you say,that wouldn’t be a moslem enclave would it??

    Why yes,yes it is 6% white

    https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/postcode/ol111px
    I wonder how many other arms caches there are ready to supply the “guests” lurking in our hotels………

    1. I’ve often wondered where the 70,000 ISIS fighters went after being bussed to safety following their defeat by the Kurds.

      The two obvious places of sanctuary for ISIS are Turkey and Israel, both of which have some sort of alliance with the Islamists. Turkey is eager to re-establish the Ottoman Caliphate, and Israel wishes to secure its borders by destabilising its hostile neighbours, so they self-destruct. This could mean they could be redeployed South-West into Gaza and then into cells in Africa, using the latter route. Erdogan however has long threatened to install them into the asylum seeker network throughout Europe, dumping them in Greece and then letting the ECHR do the distributing. They then go into sleeper cells to await orders. There must be a few in Rochdale, which is what makes this by-election all the more intriguing, especially after the silencing of the Green Party candidate.

      Of course I have no evidence at all to support this. If I had, I should have signed the Official Secrets Act and certainly would not be spilling the beans online.

      I live in a remote village in Worcestershire. On my morning walk, I once saw two busloads full of Muslims of fighting age going down a narrow lane near me leading nowhere but a field where a temporary camp was set up. I did report this to MI5 but heard nothing back. I’ve not seen them since though.

      1. On two recent occasions, I have seen a rather dubious looking, very dark young male wandering along our village’s main street. We have a couple of long-standing (though lighter), normal effnic families in the village, but I somehow doubt this young male is anything to do with them. If my late neighbour (WI stalwart type) was still around, I’m sure she would have the full tale by now.

    3. Why are they here? Why can’t we get rid of them? What use are they? Unemployment is close to 70% amongst muslims. They don’t work, they cost a fortune in welfare, they’re unpleasant, anti social – pouring them in this country was an act of malice.

      1. And the fact that we feel intimidated by their presence and glowering looks just makes us waycist. As for ‘don’t work’, they have no intention of working (other than below the radar, cash-in-hand), and by not learning English they can maintain that status indefinitely.

  11. Why not just let British people be dentists without qualification checks then?

    I’ve always fancied being a dentist.

  12. Medley

    “out of order he was”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/453304fa81739799bf80a5fbe666a068ceb3ff520cda3b62b798da63a5a1b1e7.jpg

    https://twitter.com/cold957/status/1758484677264908663?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e00864d39489f5d4150720545e494373d722ac15a9d9c5e6e65af9462580d00.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be6dff03592ae0da017a44af81ccb0f6e4492af7abcf7b0a4a6177040e246468.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ad5e8068fb7b793948c785f6f8e2f627237de15373be9a28fcc814526561465.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a4a7bcad9c9366eb680574f79fcb75ac4c06eb6fb410c01786cd112a13a2ed31.gif?w=320&h=294

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9dd167840c33055dbb18573d5730c8d7e79d6703a83cedcfc9022b21480efd2a.gif

      3. I remember the Warqueen galloping an absurdly young stallion about the place – it’s incredibly psychological having that mass, sound and size barrelling toward you.

      1. I remember Eric Morcambe saying to Ernie “Drop your trousers and give us your impression of a teapot”

  14. 383538+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Finding It difficult to get my head around this

    The tories (ino) and their core voters were in dire need of punishment for their continuing continuance of their input to the point of destruction.

    Saturday 17 February: The Conservatives are being punished for treating their core voters with contempt

    Their current “core voters” have made damn sure the innocents suffer whichever way the General Election swings, ALL the political top rankers are treacherously, criminally insane, ALL are WEF / NWO assets.

    The oncoming fire is, for sure, going to be far worse than the current frying pan.

    “compulsory” is a word that will find a regular home in daily life in the near future that is a certainty`

    Incarceration of indigenous guilty of naughty
    words will become the norm, instance, “where’s Fred” ans. doing time, he called a spade a spade.
    These last three years are, in point of fact, just a warm up to the main odious features yet to come.

    Lest we forget, to achieve a seamless handover to another circle of hell party, your vote is still necessary.

  15. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Misty at the McPhee corner in the North-West Hampshire borderlands, wind in the Sou’-Sou’-West, 9-11℃ today, rain tonight.

    This is one for us, I feel, as we struggle with cost-of-living increases:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6695d81ad491d582afadf01114ad1c1a85c0a342abecdf245ab83029cf949ab5.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/tories-turned-pensioners-cash-cows/

    Thieving bastards. However the worst aspect of it is the victimisation of married or partnered couples by the income tax system. Britain stands alone in the civilised world in not recognising the fundamental importance of marriage or long-term partnership in the tax system. Hence couples who have a large income imbalance between them are raped by HMRC, brought about by its insisitance on treating everyone as an individual instead of as equal partners in a domestic economic unit – as other countries do.

    1. Women weren’t released from the kitchen into the office in order to liberate us. It was to make us tax slaves.

      1. It would be interesting if all women decided at the same time not to get out of bed in the morning. How long do you think it would be before the entire country collapsed? I give it 3 days.

        2. In this house? 4 or five years. What would change after the fourth year? The mother in law would notice and move in.

      2. An awful lot of young to middle-aged women are realising that now, how feminists sold them a lie. Good.

      3. An awful lot of young to middle-aged women are realising that now, how feminists sold them a lie. Good.

      4. I don’t know. I see no problem with women working and having careers.

        It is the tax system that was engineered by Brown to destroy the nuclear family.

        1. Not Brown. It actually started in the Thatcher years under Chancellor Lawson when women were treated as individuals for tax purposes instead of having their incomes added to their husbands on his tax return. At the same time married couples allowance was withdrawn and child allowance abolished to become Child Benefit paid direct to the mother.

    2. They used to say that the USA was the only country in history to go from barbarism to decadence without the intervening stage of culture.

      The UK has now gone to the same destination in a different way. It has gone from civilisation to barbarism at breakneck speed and has been determined to forget its culture and demonise its history!

    3. It used to, but Brown hated that as it favoured Conservative voters, so he started giving away houses and cash to single mothers – who boomed as they could leave school at 16, get pregnant and instantly were set for life.

      The brats of those feckless dossers are now everywhere, 3 generations of welfare addict breeders pouring graffiti, litter, scrawl all over the country, illiterate and economically useless.

    4. When MOH died and I was reduced to one pension, they took more tax off me! More tax on less money!

  16. Good morning all.
    A dull and damp start today with mist clinging to the woodland up the sides of the valley. Still 5°C outside though.

    2. A Response:-

      Bearded Old Codger
      @BeardedBob7282
      ·
      Now
      When Guv’ment bodies plan to carry out controversial actions against the will of The People, is it surprising that The People begin to revolt against those actions?

      1. Agreed 100% Katie and the time is now rife for us to declare the councils illegal. Not just that but force those councillors, their apparatchiks et al, to accept those illegals (that they lurve) as lodgers in their own council homes.until such time as we build them their own mud huts in which to live.

        1. Can you imagine if that happened? If those bastards did that. Even if you had the full value it could cost 80-90 thousand pounds to pay for a care home.
          And we all know who are the owners of these wonderful places.

          I wonder if what Katie is speaking about is what has happened in Hospital Close Evington Leicestershire.
          It sounds very much like it.
          As I mentioned earlier.
          I expect it depends on the diversity of those in the council.

      3. As I mention earlier take a look at Hospital Close Evington Leicestershire. Google earth or just Google all the residents have been moved out and all of the properties boarded up.

        1. 383537+ up ticks,

          Morning RE,

          the ‘ghost town’ NHS housing estate which locals claim has …

          Daily Mail Online
          https://www.dailymail.co.uk › news › article-12503879
          11 Sept 2023 — Hospital Close in Evington, Leicester was once a bustling community of NHS hospital workers but nearby locals say drug addicts and vandals …
          as in, keeping pace with the rest of the nation.

          The question is WHO will, when the dust settles, be the housing tenants ?

          1. Strange that when looked at on Google Earth, some of the footage was older and it showed it as a tidy reasonably well looked after and ordered community. There was no evidence of any fires. I believe that the fly tipping, vandalism and drug dealing might have happened before the council move the people out and shut it down.

      1. 383537+ up ticks,

        Morning P,
        My belief is they value property higher than the welfare of children.

    5. I wonder how long it took the Pole ice to arrive at Aldi Luton when that female lunatic was clearing the wine and spirits from the supermarket shelves ? She smashed and ruined more 10 thousand pounds worth of goods. While the staff just stood and watched.
      Where was security?

        1. 😁
          Well it wasn’t a male, although she was wearing trousers an anorak, hood up and a mask. With a napsack on her back. 🤗

          1. My point was that if it had been a man, I doubt you would have written ‘male lunatic’.

    6. How about safe and secure housing in France? Why do we have to provide it?

      It’s clearly statist spite. The entire edifice of government needs to be defunded.

    2. We are lucky here, protected by the local inland drainage board, with the dyke along the village street cleared out several times a year.

  19. Oh, the hypocrisy of Western ‘leaders’, especially Biden, in insisting that Putin should be made to pay for Navalny’s death. Try being a political dissident in Saudi Arabia or Qatar or in any other Gulf State. But they’re our ‘friends’. And we know the US deep state murdered the Kennedy brothers in the 1960s. And it would murder Donald Trump if it thought it could get away with it.

    1. Funny how the “sensational” release of Epstein’s client list has gone very quiet?

      And who turned off the cameras in his cell and who killed him?

      2. Funny how the media were present as ‘his body’ was removed from the cell. And the face covering momentarily flipped off, but it didn’t really resemble him at all. Close but no Havana.
        He was far too rich and far too self important to have topped himself. Face lift private island. Feet up that’s his way of life now, after he got away with it all.

  20. For the life of me, I cannot understand what Navalny expected to achieve by returning to Russia after the regime had tried to kill him.

      1. That seems to be the only possible explanation.
        The immediate cause could be the horrendous conditions he was enduring or an over-enthusiastic guard.

      2. I believe that to be plausible in this instance – that he slipped over the threshold and became overly enthusiastic about his public perception as a ‘figurehead’ rather than living as a normal human being to the benefit his wife and children.

    3. Good morning Mr T, and everyone.
      Thank you for taking the thought out of my head. An autocratic regime allows its people to live in return for compliance/collaboration/submission/loyalty etc; it’s a simple bargain although distasteful.

    4. As I pointed out yesterday. There is no rational reason for Putin to have him killed. In terms of opposition to Putin he was a minor player bolstered by the West for propaganda purposes. Navalny commanded the allegiance of thousands, not millions. The likelihood of him ever being serious opposition was zero. Putin’s popularity rating is over 80%. In fact it has risen because of Ukraine. So, in context, the mans death is an embarrassment to Putin. Putin, as we all know, is not so stupid that he would hand a major propaganda card to the West so they could make hay with it. Navalny was nicely tucked away in prison, harmless to Putin. How in any way does Putin benefit in Navalny’s death. If someone can give me a plausible answer to that, then I will entertain the idea that Putin had a hand in it. Until then I find the allegation highly dubious. On the other hand, it is a death highly convenient to the West, isn’t it?

      1. I agree with that. But nonetheless WHY did he go back to certain imprisonment for (in effect) life?

    5. Same here.
      Did he think he would achieve more by being inside Russia?
      Did he feel that as leader he should share the pain of his supporters? Lead from the front?

    6. Possibly he was stupid enough and arrogant enough to believe that he would arrive to cheering crowds who would rise up and overthrow Putin?

      1. That is my conclusion. Bit like Fishi believing that Conservatives really love him and his policies….

  21. Morning, all Y’all. Bright & sunny! Yesterdays miserable rain has gone away, leaving everything sheathed in ice…

    1. Oi Obs you nicking our weather now ?
      🤔😉
      Apparently we have a new TV programme in the wings a Scottish actor Martin Compston and friend travelling in and around Norway.
      We’re looking forward to seeing it.

    2. Oi Obs your not nicking our weather now are you ?
      We have a new TV series coming very soon with a Scottish actor Martin Compston and his mate sailing and touring Norwegian places of interest.
      Based on the usual Fjord areas.
      Keep an eye out. Bbc I think.

    1. More a case that the most productive go out hunting and the wasters then vomit and poo all over the cave making a mess for everyone else after they come home from the hunt. The next day the wasters are told to clean up while the useful go out hunting. Again, the wasters ruin the cave. Rinse, repeat.

      Of course, in a sensible world the wasters die off. Now we’ve reached a hilarious situation where the wasters pay other wasters to keep them in the cave from the earnings of the workers.

  23. Morning all 🙂😊
    Shame the weather and outlook is no more inspiring than the political scene.
    Still coughing and spluttering. Last tablet of 15 this morning, we’ll see.
    Google this, Hospital Close Evington Leicestershire.
    Another example of how our powers that be need drowning, or at least locking up.
    More than 136 plus decent looking semi-detached homes in good order plenty of parking, now all boarded up. Probably in the region of 500-600 people made homeless at some stage.
    Not a bad place to live a Hospital and local school. But why ? Have the local authorities been stuffing their bank accounts with builders bungs ? Again ? And again?

    1. I’m sad to hear that the political scene is still coughing and spluttering; I was hoping for something more incurable!

        1. If we start colonising Mars I expect we’ll see planetism from people born there against those born on Earth.

    2. It’s simple enough. Say no. Better yet, direct the route on to a carrier boat, send them back to foreign at gunpoint. If they won’t leave, shoot them.

    3. I assume the “offences” will be committed by white Christians quietly watching and praying.

      1. 383537+ up ticks,

        Morning Anne,

        But who else is there ? in the eyes of the political overseers minions.

  25. Good morning all

    Incredibly moist dull day, still 12 c, the sort of weather that brought 2 hedgehogs out of hibernation last night .. and as the spaniel wanted a last minute wee before bedtime , he sniffed them out , and started barking .

    It isn’t exactly raining , heavy moisture , dripping drooping daffodils , wet dog weather.

    No1 son 55th birthday today, yes we were nearly 22 yrs and 23yrs , young parents .

    Son hasn’t been competing in races for nearly 4 weeks , he hurt his knee when he took part in the Axminster 12 k challenge .. very rough terrain and hilly .. He did pretty well , but the consequences were challenging .

    Have any of you a resident “child” living with you?

    2. Caroline and I were 31 and 47 respectively when our first son, Christo, was born. I wonder if I am the oldest first time father on the Nottlers’ Forum?

      We waited for five years after our marriage before starting our family as we moved to France and set up our business. We wanted to be sure that this was successful and we were self-sufficient before bringing new children into the world: we did not want the state to be responsible or involved with our own children.

      1. We were self sufficient Richard, and very capable , young but no financial help was required .

        Moh was in the RN, and nearly a year later embarked on his flying training in the Fleet Air Arm .

    3. Mongo decided he wanted a pee at 3am. As they’re locked and Junior can’t open them, I took him downstairs and…. stood at the door… stood at the door as he sat beside me, occassionally looking up as if to say ‘now what?’ and eventually… went back upstairs.

    5. No. Both moved out. I miss them a lot.
      Also, they are both excellent cooks, taught by SWMBO, and with them gone, the restaurant quality here is definitely reduced.

    1. Hello Mm,

      I believe there are more bachelor sons living under their parents roofs than ever before .

      We never ever thought we would be in that position .

      1. They need to be careful or they will end up as carers. Nothing wrong with that, and a good deal for the elderly, but maybe a duty that what was considered.

  27. No, Maggie, my child is 12,000 miles away in Tasmania and is 58 years old. I was also a young parent (1944 – to date) and she was born 31st January 1966.

      1. It’s a thought. Most of Oz is uninhabitable of course but the UK soon will be as well, just for different reasons.

      3. Remember Peter Sellers’s Balham Gateway to the South?

        They had a young protogé who played the violin. The people of Balham got together to raise money to send him to Venice, Italy, or anywhere!

      4. In my case, proud isn’t the word I would choose. Just relieved I made the “correct” choice, against all official guidance.

    2. On our doctor’s advice neither Caroline nor I had the Covid jabs.

      We were tested for Covid. We both had it according to the test. Caroline went on as normal; I spent one day in bed sleeping and that was that – Covid over.

      Several fully jabbed friends and family members had Covid at the same time as we did and were quite ill some having to spend a week in bed.

      Of course, this is statistically irrelevant according to the jab zealots.

      2. I feel guilty that, because MB’s has various health problems, that I agreed to the clot shot to keep him “safer”.
        I feel doubly guilty because I was fine and MB had a CVA a fortnight after the jab.
        OK, he agreed to have it, but should I have dissuaded him against the decision?

        1. You both made your decisions, as adults, on the basis of the information available at the time, and under a tsunami of propanganda. No point beating yourself up about it, my friend.

        2. “Should I have dissuaded him against the decision?”
          With the info available then, probably not.
          SWMBO was fine, a friend got myelitis from it, SWMBOs brother died. I, being the sceptical bugger I am, was unvaccinated. SWMBO never had a booster or other top-up, though.

  31. Good Moaning.
    There is an upside to being too poor or mean to shop at John Lewis.

    “Who would care about a few little job losses if they could look forward to the company marking “International Non-binary People’s Day”? If that didn’t appeal, worried staff might be cheered by the prospect of more than a dozen other special occasions the company will mark this year, including “Asexual Awareness Week”, “Trans Day of Remembrance” and “Pansexual and Panromantic Visibility Day”.”

    I do assume the word “pan” does not apply to Le Creuset.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/nations-favourite-retailer-has-lost-the-plot/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/nations-favourite-retailer-has-lost-the-plot/

    1. Very strange when you consider that most Waitrose/John Lewis customers are elderly, traditional and conservative with a small c.

    2. Pan visibility day? So those new pans I bought in JL have to come out of the cupboard. Not very romantic, really.

    3. Talking about Le Creuset.

      I bought a set of Le Creuset casserole dishes when things like that were on par with Coffee percolators and Tupperware parties! ..

      I purchased 3 in varying sizes , and a long dish, superb for fish or cauliflower cheese etc .
      The casseroles were large and very heavy . They cost me £60 over 50 years ago .

      Things seem so heavy these days , washing them and lifting them out of the oven was a real strain , so I gave them to a charity shop , after advertising them on line , no takers .

      The price of them now in John Lewis is eye watering .

      1. I bought one years ago, when sharing a house – that was around 1981 and it’s still doing great service!

      2. We got 3 Le Creuset pans and a very large baking dish, plus 2 oval dishes, for wedding presents! 41 years and as good as new! Blooming heavy, mind! Oh, and a frying pan/skillet!

      3. I saw a dark green one I fancied in Cole Brothers (John Lewis) in Sheffield about 30 years ago. It was on offer at a reasonable price but I didn’t buy it since it was heavy (I already had a load of shopping) and I was working in Nottingham so I knew I could pick one up from Jessops (also John Lewis).

        The next day I visited Jessops in Nottingham and saw the identical item on display but for £20 more. I told the assistant to wrap it up for me but I would only be paying the Cole Brothers’ price. She rang Coles, confirmed the offer, and charged me the reduced price. I still use it frequently and wouldn’t be without it.

        Mine is the wide (30cm), shallow, lidded cast-iron casserole with enamelled inside.

      4. We have a few, mainly ancient but still very good. The largest and heaviest is 11″ ID and 7″ deep. When full of casserole or stew I have to be very careful lifting it from the oven not to put my back out.

    4. I have dumped Waitrose. I also told them why. They didn’t reply for some reason.
      And now that ASDA has gone halal they can get stuffed too.

    5. For what it’s worth when Waitrose went full blow job Woke a while back I’ve barely set foot in the place…..

    2. I put my penny worth on that thread. It’s often said that Allah just means ‘the god’ and yes it does but the Moon God of Mecca is The God as in Zeus or Jupiter, not The Holy Trinity. A different concept.

        1. Exactly. Allah was the principal god of Mecca in the same way that Zeus was king of the gods of Mount Olympus. Personally I think on a cultural level, the Olympians have the edge. Dante finds the ancient Greeks in Limbo.

    1. I fear he has blown his cover as an “investigative” journalist and “combative” interviewer. Even his new best pal Vlad mocked him as useless.

      1. Actually, Tucker Carlson had no intention of asking tough questions,. He wanted to let Putin talk for himself, because, as Tucker pointed out, he never gets the opportunity to explain himself to the West. Further, Tucker Carlson made it clear that was his intention in the first place. And no, Putin did not “mock him as useless”, he expressed surprise that Carlson did not ask him difficult questions. But the reason for that I have already explained.

        You are preferring to listen to a false narrative designed to dismiss the whole interview because it fails to depict Putin in the light that the West wants you to believe. Those of us who have been tracking Putin for years know it is a false narrative, a cartoon villain created by people who cannot cope within the fact that Russia is no longer the USSR and is no longer the Wests enemy. But that truth destroys the narrative of the warmongers in the Pentagon and elsewhere who believe that America must have an evil enemy in order to justify its military machine and aggression in the world in general.

        1. He didn’t go the full Robin Day on him, but few nations allow their leaders to be subjected to public hostile interrogation.

        2. There’s another theory going round which is that TC is part of the gateway network (def true imo) and that the interview was designed to make people like Putin more because the next war is planned to be agin the Chinese, so there will be a last minute switcheroo and Xi will be the big bad enemy

          2. They did a similar last minute flip round in the run up to the Great War, I believe. Russia was the enemy, until it suddenly wasn’t.

  34. From Twitt…Scotty nails it as usual
    🆂🅲🅾🆃🆃🆈 🎸🎶
    @ScottyGoesAgain
    I know next to nothing about Alexei Navalny, but when I see the likes of Sunak, Johnson, Biden and Hillary Clinton mourning his death, that confirms to me that he must have been a right fucking scumbag.

    1. I’m seeing posts on XTwitter claiming that Navalny was an Azov style Nazi and that his wife was already “shacked up” with her boyfriend. I thought he was just some failed politician but all sorts of nasty pronouncements are being credited to him.

    3. Precisely. Navalny was a traitor and prepared to sell out to western interests. There is video of Navalny suggesting to a western journalist that he could cause insurrection if given a few million dollars to fund this.

      Navalny had no party Organization and had very little support, less than 1% compared with Putin’s at 80% plus.

      Navalny had a history of ill health and likely died from a blood clot.

    4. Precisely. Navalny was a traitor and prepared to sell out to western interests. There is video of Navalny suggesting to a western journalist that he could cause insurrection if given a few million dollars to fund this.

      Navalny had no party Organization and had very little support, less than 1% compared with Putin’s at 80% plus.

      Navalny had a history of ill health and likely died from a blood clot.

  35. I trust your former GP is now in prison for “dissent” against government medical policy.

  36. Just back from buying three laburnum plants. Went cross country to South Creake (aptly named!!). Water everywhere. Fields flooded. Lanes flooded. So was thrilled to see the Council has put up (at a cost of £500) a sign in one of the flooded fields “High Fire Risk”.

    Also bought a dozen eggs. Don’t do things by halves!!

      2. No! He bought three lesbian plants… and he crossed over – look out for the subtle transy signals he is sending out to us all.

      3. Our 3 Indian Runners have stopped laying for 12 months now, they’re getting on a bit. I’ve been buy Dabbling Duck eggs from Morrisons. Some weigh as much as 100g. I usually open 2 or 3 boxes as if checking for breakages while surreptitiously moving the largest eggs into the box I’m going to buy.

          1. Nah, they are pretty scrawny birds and the missus adores them. They keep down slugs and snails too. Yesterday they were joined by 2 cock pheasants who they didn’t seem to mind.

  37. Ukraine withdraws troops from frontline city Avdiivka. 17 February 2024.

    Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the frontline city of Avdiivka to avoid being encircled, new military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Saturday, handing Russia its biggest symbolic victory following Kyiv’s failed summer counter-offensive.

    Russia has been trying to capture Avdiivka for months. It is the most significant territorial gain for Russian forces since they seized the eastern city of Bakhmut last May and comes ahead of the second anniversary of the start of the invasion.

    “I decided to withdraw our units from the city and switch to defence on more favourable lines,” Syrsky said on Facebook.

    I think that Percival made a similar remark about Singapore in WWII.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/17/ukraine-russia-war-troops-withdraw-avdiivka/

  38. Holy sh*t!
    Wordle 973 5/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
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  39. Remember when the Berlin Wall fell?

    This filled the politicians in the West with the desire proudly to announce that this had brought us

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23bcefe7bb9e3f9725357a4f73b7757884640be7a81d225b22bf78fd6c61b0f0.png

    this being that we need no longer spend money of defence but on other things so we all cut our military forces and resources and frittered away the money on other things which became progressively woker and woker.

    We are now virtually bankrupt and have no defences when we need them!

    2. And in the ‘peace’ that followed the end of the Cold War, the West set about spiting the former enemy…

    1. Back from ours around 8. Mongo is decidedly frizzy. Oscar less so, but then his coat isn’t as fluffy.

    2. There’s nothing inherently wrong with battery electric cars. The real problem is that government is pushing their adoption, not the market.

    3. All of that actually happened in 1908 – when Henry Ford promoted ICEs thereby destroying the existing market for electric cars.

      The Model-T sold like hot cakes!

        1. My understanding of the Model-T Ford choice was: “You may have any colour – so long as it’s black”.

    4. EVs are not the problem, roads are the problem! So said Canadas Environment Minister when the lunatic announced that there would be no more funding for new roads.

    6. Interestingly, the car dealerships are all emailing their customers to ask if they want to sell their fossil car back to the dealer, at a good price and hassle-free. One suspects that they want popular stock to sell for when the EV market crashes and there aren’t any to sell ‘cos they can’t make the damn things, and nobody wants to buy one.

  43. We inherited some with this house in 1984. The very agreeable sellers knew that we’d need them on the AGA. They must be at least 50 years old. Still going strong!

  47. 383537+ up ticks,

    Would I be wrong in assuming these “world leaders” are AKA, top rankers in the
    WEF / NWO criminal cartel ?

    The current United Kingdom political cartel with their alleged culling campaign still operational, would have to use very compressed lips and muted blame of Putin.

    Putin must pay for ‘murder’ of Navalny, say world leaders
    Joe Biden among figures to speak out against Russian regime they hold responsible for death of opposition leader in prison

  48. An extract from an RT article. I think we know that this deliberate?

    The global financial system would be disrupted if Brussels and Washington go through with threats to use Russian sovereign assets to help Ukraine, the head of the Bank of Russia, Elvira Nabiullina, warned on Friday.

    Nabiullina noted that the principle of protecting the reserves of national central banks is a fixture in international law.

    “This immunity ensures the stability of the international financial system. Deviation from this principle, in our opinion, would lead to upending, albeit gradually, the system of international finance and the position of reserve currencies in the world,” she said at a press briefing, referring to the dollar and the euro.

    The official also noted that countries with which Russia maintains financial and trade relations “are showing growing interest in diversifying assets,” which, according to Nabiullina, is “an absolutely natural reaction to risks such as confiscation of reserve assets.”

    6. Is that the same sun that comprises 98% of all matter in the entire solar system?

      In a straight fight between the sun and Billy Goats … hmmm … I think I’ll put my money on the sun.

  50. HMS Bluebell (K 80)
    Corvette (Flower)

    Complement:
    91 officers and men (90 dead and 1 survivor).

    On 13th February 1945, HMS Bluebell (K 80) towed HMS Denbigh Castle (K 696) into Kola Inlet, after she was torpedoed by U-992 (Falke) while escorting the convoy JW-64.

    On 17th February 1945, HMS Bluebell (K 80) (Lt G.H. Walker, DSC, RNVR) was searching for U-boats off Kola Inlet ahead of convoy RA-64, which set out on this day. At 17.30 hours, she was struck in the stern by a Gnat from U-711 (Hans-Günther Lange) just after increasing speed after she apparently detected the U-boat about 30 miles east-northeast of Kildin Island. The corvette blew up as the hit detonated her depth charges and sank in less than 30 seconds. HMS Zest (R 02) (LtCdr R.B.N. Hicks, DSO, RN) arrived at the sinking position in about 10 minutes and her lookouts heard cries from about a dozen men swimming in the ice cold water, but could not stop due to the danger of being herself torpedoed. The destroyer commenced a search for the attacker until being relieved by HMS Opportune (G 80) (Cdr R.E.D. Ryder, VC, RN) and lowered a whaler at 17.53 hours. However, only one of three unconscious survivors recovered could be revived.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-711 was sunk on 4th May 1945 at Kilbotn, near Harstad, Norway by bombs from Avenger and Wildcat aircraft (846, 853 and 882 Sqn FAA) of the British escort carriers HMS Searcher, HMS Trumpeter and HMS Queen. 40 dead and 12 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/pe_hms_bluebell_K80.jpg

      1. I have sails in those waters at this time of year and even getting hit by sea spray is like being shot blasted. Horrible.

    2. Thank you for posting these short stories about the engagements in the war.
      In a straightforward way, they show how gruesome it all was – not only your ship blowing up around you (likely resulting in awful burns), but you get catapulted into the arctic ocean and abandoned by your accompanying ship as there’s a U-boat around and they can’t stop – so you freeze until you drown.
      Much the same for the poor bastards in the U-boat: except your last breath of fresh air on this earth was taken a long time ago.
      And war is supposed to be glorious, eh?

    1. Very good, as usual. However, this elicits a question about dishcloths.

      I was brought up to call the wet cloth, used in the sink to wash dishes, a ‘dishcloth’; and the dry cloth used afterwards to dry dishes as a ‘teatowel’.

      It seems, though, that in other countries, what I call a teatowel is known as a ‘dishcloth’.

      1. #metoo, Grizz.
        We rarely use a teatowel, instead laving plates and pans upturned on the draining-board to air dry. Teatowels are most often used as oven gloves.

      3. Glass cloth:

        ‘The Microfiber Polishing Cloth is the perfect lint-free tool for drying and polishing your glassware products. It can be applied dry or lightly damp, cleans thoroughly and scratch-free, removes grease and dries at the same time, polishes without leaving behind fluff or lint.’

        Makes sense!

        1. I have a couple of those cloths. I use one for drying/polishing the glasses and dishes and the other soaked in hot water as a warm eye compress.

      5. My late mother-in-law used the expression “dish clout”.
        I was impressed as I’d only heard the word before as an Old Noll comment on the decaying Spanish Empire “A Colossus stuffed with clouts”.

    1. I have that problem with Rico (when I am wearing my furry slipper boots) in the evening. I keep telling him that this is not consensual….

  53. Let Joy be unconfined…..

    “The European Parliament’s LIBE committee passed the act on Wednesday, which formalises the distribution of migrants to member states and punishes those that refuse to take them.
    Because cultural enrichment and diversity is “our greatest strength,” countries that try to maintain their national identity without being subsumed by migrants will be hit with severe financial penalties.

    Marine Le Pen, the leader of National Rally’s parliamentary wing, previously said the pact would lead to “the suicide of Europe,” adding that it was a deal with the devil and represents an “organised plan of submersion of Europe and the nations which compose it.”

    Member states will be forced to accept migrants or pay a massive financial penalty of €25,000 per migrant.
    This makes little sense given that we’re constantly reminded of how mass migration is such an economic boon and is both inevitable and vital to maintaining GDP levels.

    However, it makes total sense when you understand that such claims are completely fraudulent.
    “The next question is how many they will force on us. Now they are deciding that. So they are creating rules that give Brussels the right to say how many migrants they will distribute,” said Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán last year.

    “So, several countries have indicated that they do not agree. We do not want to implement it. In the end, we are facing a very unpleasant turn of events here.”
    Orbán questioned why, if accepting migrants was so financially profitable, are western European nations trying to offload them onto Hungary.
    Róbert Gönczi, an analyst at Hungary’s Migration Research Institute, pointed out that migrants distributed to Hungary normally end up leaving for Sweden or Germany, where they receive far bigger welfare payments.

    “The redistribution system could also create intra-EU flows from the countries where these migrants have been relocated to the countries where they actually want to leave, as typically the destination countries have not changed,” said Gönczi.
    “However, it would now be necessary for other EU countries to welcome these migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, he added. The real problem is that the reinforcement of the EU’s external borders would be less or not at all, which is what is really needed.”

    As we previously highlighted, there is no appetite whatsoever for the EU simply to impose proper border controls.
    The new leader of Frontex, the European Union agency tasked with securing borders, recently called for open borders and vowed to appease left-wing pro-mass migration activists.
    “Nothing can stop people from crossing a border, no wall, no fence, no sea, no river,” said Hans Leijtens, which was a bizarre statement given that’s his one job.

    1. As I have said before the Remainers had better hurry up and not delay much longer because if they do they will not be able to rejoin the EU because there will not be an EU to rejoin.

    2. On the subject of rivers, has Hungary considered housing them on the beautiful blue Danube. Give them some oars and point them towards Germany.

      1. My mother took great delight in embarrassing me and she patronised my favourite uncle, her brother.

        1. My mother’s first words to MB when she met him were:
          “So you’re an only child. I bet you were spoilt.”

    1. Not only is your summary worth reading Jonathan, the link at the beginning for the video of Dr Martin (a former Bio-weapons Inspector for the US Government) is well worth viewing.

      1. A friend of mine used to save his plates until he had a bath then he did them at the same time. Thankfully I never ate at his place

    1. Condone it? I would wholeheartedly support and encourage it.

      A bloke smashed his daughter’s head to a pulp while murdering her. She died an agonising death with no opportunity of remaining alive.

      He, meantime, gets sentenced to 27 years of shelter, warmth, entertainment and three meals a day. I have no truck, whatsoever, with the bleeding heart brigade who oppose capital (and corporal) punishment.

        1. It’s extremely likely that he murdered his daughter, Geraldine. Christie had nothing to lose, but would not take the blame for the child.

          1. 383537+ up ticks,

            Evening SM,
            Could well be that he christie in some distorted way, did not wish to blacken his title to much in murdering a child.

          6. Distorted mindset? Knowing right from wrong is all that matters. He knew he was a murderer.

          7. 383537++ up ticks,

            SM,
            Did he ? I wouldn’t know, but I do know the jury believed him and that cost an innocent his life.

          8. Yes he did. I’ve read a lot on the case, and it wasn’t until much later they found the other bodies – including that of his wife.

        2. You believe that one possible miscarriage of justice warrants hundreds of murderers being given a sheltered life?

          I don’t!

          1. 383537+ up ticks,
            Evening G,
            “You believe that one possible miscarriage of justice”
            NO,
            I believe that one miscarriage of justice makes the system unfit for purpose.

          2. 383537+ up ticks,
            Evening G,
            “You believe that one possible miscarriage of justice”
            NO,
            I believe that one miscarriage of justice makes the system unfit for purpose.

      2. I do not agree with the death penalty. I think it would be far better if murderers were condemned to live in an empty cell with no human contact, no entertainment, no books, no nothing but four empty walls to look at for the rest of their days. Can you imagine living like that for years before you died? Far worse than a death penalty.

        2. I agree as some people are beyond reform and need punishment.

          Murderers have forfeited their own human rights by committing murder and robbing their victims of theirs. I agree with most of your suggestion of ‘an empty cell with no human contact, no entertainment, no books, no nothing but four empty walls to look at for the rest of their days’. However I would allow them books but these books would be serious moral tomes which sheer boredom would compel them to read.

        4. Even in a scenario such as you prefer, it still means costing the exchequer hundreds of thousands of pounds to look after said convict, let alone feed him/her. He/she is still guaranteed a life when his daughter’s was snuffed out in a second.

          The prisoner in my report arbitrarily used the death penalty on his daughter: why should he not expect to receive the same?

          1. 393537+ up ticks,

            G,
            Have we got our values somewhat muddled,
            Chance hanging an innocent
            to keep the economy on an even keel ?

          3. 383537+ up ticks,

            G,
            I do not agree, as with certain drugs being unaffordable on the NHS
            there should be no cap.

            so it should be with prison
            term expenditure,

          4. In Nigeria, it was up to the family to feed the prisoner. Tough on them if the family didn’t.

          5. Murderers should not be executed because, to my mind, it is an escape from what they have done, therefor not a real punishment.

  59. Many people are disappointed by the fact that the Conservative Party did so badly in the recent by-elections; I am very disappointed that it did so well.

    The Conservative Party is dying and the sooner it has stopped twitching and is properly dead the better.

    Now the Reform Party needs a more charismatic leader and better policies on Brexit, immigration, Covid jab damage and the disastrous drive towards Net Zero so that it can become the right of centre party of the future which the country so desperately needs.

    1. The Conservative Party has become like a nationalised public service
      They no longer want to serve their customers, but wants to tell them what they can have and that their voters are always wrong.

      1. Nobody there seems to stand out as leading anything more than a playground rabble – seen from over here.

        1. They don’t have a clue. They are all just trying to out do each other. Nothing to focus on, on the future horizon just flat land and a cliff fall.

    3. 383537+ up ticks,

      Evening R,
      If you allow a crossover from the current tory (ino) party then you have a very good chance of introducing a form
      of political nippon knotweed.

      If it walks like & talks like the tory (ino) party, it is the tory (ino)
      party MK 2.

  60. Sir Chris Hoy reveals cancer diagnosis

    Former cyclist said that he was diagnosed last year despite having no symptoms and is receiving chemotherapy

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/2024/02/16/sir-chris-hoy-reveals-cancer-diagnosis/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

    One of my wife’s closest friends who is in her mid 50s is a nurse and she did not want to have the Covid jabs but she had to have them or she would lose her job. She now has cancer and is on severe chemo-therapy which has made her bald.

    When Caroline saw this article about Chris Hoy who is very fit and 48 she immediately said ‘I wonder what his vaccination status is?’ In the last couple of years she has had to play the organ at the funerals of several formerly healthy, fully Covid-jabbed people aged in the 40 – 65 age group.

    1. I know I’m splitting hairs but “no symptoms” is nonsense. No outward signs perhaps but if the cancer is there, that is a symptom. Even hypochondria has symptoms.

      1. Signs and symptoms. A ‘sign’ is the obvious thing that the doctor, nurse or first-aider sees on or about the patient by observation. A ‘symptom’ is what the patient tells the doctor, nurse or first-aider what he/she is feeling.

        Grizzly: former St John’s Ambulance Brigade cadet.

      2. Signs and symptoms. A ‘sign’ is the obvious thing that the doctor, nurse or first-aider sees on or about the patient by observation. A ‘symptom’ is what the patient tells the doctor, nurse or first-aider what he/she is feeling.

        Grizzly: former St John’s Ambulance Brigade cadet.

    2. A weakened immune system makes one susceptible to cancers.

      Though i wish Chris the best of luck and all good wishes he should say what the cancer is. I know he said it was private but it doesn’t help others who may have the same cancer and be symptom free. His choice of course.

      A dear friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and she was dead six months later. Never drank or smoked. She had Lymphoma.

    3. Here in Blighty, we’re having fewer church funerals than pre-“pandemic”. Which is somewhat irritating as an impoverished organist. Many go straight to the Crem, which is fair enough. But folk are dying. A fortnight ago, my next-door neighbour shuffled off. As did one of Dianne’s Uni friends. 85 and sixty-odd, respectively.

      Sue next door is always keen to report on their latest boosters.Inevitably followed by a bout of Covid. “Imagine how much worse they would have been without the boosters”. Her husband Edgar has been on multiple antibiotics for years. In the end, they failed him.

      I would very much like to know Dianne’s friend’s vaccination status. She died of a brain haemorrhage. I won’t ask, obviously…

  63. Heaven’s sake, a Bogey Five!

    Wordle 973 5/6
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    2. On a wing and a prayer. Four today.

      Wordle 973 4/6

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    3. Posted earlier but a 4.

      Wordle 973 4/6

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    4. Posted earlier but a 4.

      Wordle 973 4/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
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  64. Perhaps the answer to illegal migration is to have a fixed budget to fund ‘essential benefits’ that is divided equally amongst them so that as more illegals arrive the amount of money distributed to all reduces to the point where existing illegal migrants will be demanding the government puts a stop to all migration – From the Thames to the coast….

    1. Until they can prove who they are and that they have no criminal history, (no sob story lies to be believed) keep them in basically equipped, secure compounds, with absolutely no right to ‘leave’. Only staff on site are to be heavily armed security with fierce dogs. Only basic food (apart from bacon ….) provided. No mobile phones or internet. Only access to medical staff to be from their own numbers.
      As the compounds become ever more crowded, they can each write a letter to whoever back home telling them of the dire conditions. Should help the situation.

  69. That’s me gone. Good day. Bought and planted out the three new laburnums. Good sized plants. Bit more tree felling debris cleared. Used the new hand chainsaw. Very impressed (despite Spikey’s view yesterday!)

    Rain expected shortly for most of the night.

    Have a spiffing evening

    A demain.

        3. It plays well in the FB app. I’ve just shared it with friends there – a lot of them Proms buddies.

  74. It’s a cop out to post other people’s opinions, but this is a BTL from a Telegraph article about higher income tax in Sturgeonia. “John S Smith

    My daughter is in the police, she is in her 6th year and part of her salary is taxed at 42%,

    42% will soon be the new normal in Scotland under the Socialist/Marxist SNP/Green disaster.

    The SNP talk about people with the ‘broadest shoulders’
    that is now the working class who are now the highest taxed working
    class in the whole UK.

    Scotland is increasingly becoming an example of an
    ineptocracy: This is a system of government where the least capable to
    lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
    members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
    rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
    diminishing number of producers.

    (with thanks to Jonathan Lloyd)” A neat expression, ineptocracy.

    1. That’s essentially how Ayn Rand described socialism. A self appointed elite bleed the productive working class dry to enrich themselves and buy their client underclass, which expands as the productive class diminishes, until all but the elite starve.

    2. That’s essentially how Ayn Rand described socialism. A self appointed elite bleed the productive working class dry to enrich themselves and buy their client underclass, which expands as the productive class diminishes, until all but the elite starve.

    3. Well it certainly won’t be the 58 demob happy souls who are quitting politics but not their pensions……

    4. That’s probably the Guardian left columnists looking for a way to derail any hope for the conservatives.

      After all, it would hardly be in labour’s interest if the tory party machine got behind a reform yptype message.

  76. Does anyone genuinely believe that a 200,000+ protest march by British people chanting “send the illegal immigrants back” would be tolerated?

        1. I am led to believe it depends on whether you are on a VPN or outside the UK.
          My links might go via France.

      1. Naturally.
        I would tell my police to stand by and watch, just like they do when it’s Muslims protesting.
        If I ruled the Met, I would let them all beat 99 flavours out of each other and then hose the streets clean.

  77. Evening, all. Pouring down again here. In my view, the Cons are being punished for not being even remotely conservative, even before we contemplate their scorn for their core supporters.

    1. I just want to be able to vote for someone who actually cares about our country and its indigenous population. Someone proud of its history and doesn’t want that history changed by someone else’s spiteful agenda.
      Right, there’s a band on at The Rising Sun, a good one, and I’m off there to forget, for a while, the parlous state the country’s in. Hope the dogs are doing okay, Conners.

      1. I am tempted to stand myself; at least I care about the country, its indigenous, its history and its culture. Sadly, Oscar is deteriorating. I fear that I shall have to take him on the last journey on Monday morning unless he rallies. At the moment, I’ve got him on max painkillers and he’s asleep.

          2. We always hope for that miracle. It was that thought that got me through the last journey… it wasn’t to be. But it got me through the door of the vet’s surgery.

          1. He had seemed to be improving slightly, but during the late afternoon today he started to struggle to get up. All I can do is make him comfortable until the vets open again on Monday. If I ring the emergency number I could be driving for miles to find a place that is open. Last time it happened I had to drive to Warrington and Oscar wasn’t as poorly as he is now.

          4. I believe you’re in Shropshire? Dianne the Ex’s daughter Hannah is a vet in Birmingham. Seems to me that she’s considerably closer than Warrington? I can send her a WhatsApp if it will help…

          5. No, I believe Warrington is nearer than Birmingham. It’s just up the A49. No motorways involved. Oscar has had a reasonably good day (inasmuch as he’s been outside for toileting, had a drink and eaten his meals and pills, then slept). He’s asleep under my chair at the moment.

        7. Sometimes it is best to do whatever you can to avoid your pet suffering even though it is painful for you.

          Many years ago I put off taking my cat to the vets for just another day, then just another day. She was in pain when she died and just to make her point, during her last few minutes she was grasping my arm in her paws.

          1. I would have done the deed on Saturday if it had happened before noon (when the vets closed). He’s got lots of pain relief so I don’t think he’s suffering. It’s just when he tries to walk, his legs don’t seem to belong to him. I’ll ring up first thing in the morning.

      2. The person you describe, Mola, could be me BUT…

        I’m 79 with heart disease, COPD and I’m far too frail to lead the country, as I think, are many my age.

        We were brought up in a different age with vastly different values being inculcated into us.

  78. I wonder how long the Ukrainian war would continue if Zelensky was assassinated and his full memoires and financial accounts were published?
    Less than a week would be my best guess.

    1. Zelensky is already toast and so are his western backers.

      The Russians have the files from the deep basements in Mariupol which incriminate the US and other western powers in conducting bio-weapons research and in experimenting on Slavic people. The net is closing and sooner or later we shall have Nuremberg 2.0.

      Research is understood to have including the creation of the super soldier much as Hitler did but using DNA altering drugs to enable soldier killers to feel nothing for their victims.

      Has the penny dropped yet?

      1. Nuremberg 2.0.cannot come soon enough. About time these rogues were paraded, tried and sentenced, hopefully sparking a load more for the Covid, Net Zero and Climate scammers to be exposed

    2. Zelensky is already toast and so are his western backers.

      The Russians have the files from the deep basements in Mariupol which incriminate the US and other western powers in conducting bio-weapons research and in experimenting on Slavic people. The net is closing and sooner or later we shall have Nuremberg 2.0.

      Research is understood to have including the creation of the super soldier much as Hitler did but using DNA altering drugs to enable soldier killers to feel nothing for their victims.

      Has the penny dropped yet?

  80. A very big hero of mine:

    Temporary Chaplain to the Forces, 4th Class Theodore Bayley Hardy, VC, DSO, MC (20th October 1863 – 18th October 1918), attached to 8th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment.

    First he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 18th October 1917, the full citation was published on 7th March 1918:

    Rev. Theodore Bayley Hardy, A. Chaplns. Dept. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in volunteering to go with a rescue party for some men who had been left stuck in the mud the previous night between the enemy’s outpost line and our own. All the men except one were brought in. He then organised a party for the rescue of this man, and remained with it all night, though under rifle-fire at close range, which killed one of the party. With his left arm in splints, owing to a broken wrist, and under the worst weather conditions, he crawled out with patrols to within seventy yards of the enemy and remained with wounded men under heavy fire.
    London Gazette.

    This was followed by the Military Cross (MC) on 17th December 1917, the citation following on 23rd April 1918:

    Rev, Theodore Bayley Hardy, D.S.O., A., Chapln.’s Dept. For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty in tending the wounded. The ground on which he worked was constantly shelled and the casualties were heavy. He continually assisted in finding and carrying wounded and in guiding stretcher bearers to the aid post.
     London Gazette

    Finally came the VC on 7th July 1918:

    Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy, D.S.O., M.C., T./C.F., 4th Class, A. Chapl. Dept., attd. Lincs. R.

    For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty on many occasions. Although over fifty years of age, he has, by his fearlessness, devotion to men of his battalion, and quiet, unobtrusive manner, won the respect and admiration of the whole division. His marvellous energy and endurance would be remarkable even in a very much younger man, and his valour and devotion are exemplified in the following incidents:

    An infantry patrol had gone out to attack a previously located enemy post in the ruins of a village, the Reverend Theodore Bayley Hardy (C.F.) being then at company headquarters. Hearing firing, he followed the patrol, and about four hundred yards beyond our front line of posts found an officer of the patrol dangerously wounded. He remained with the officer until he was able to get assistance to bring him in. During this time there was a great deal of firing, and an enemy patrol actually penetrated between the spot at which the officer was lying and our front line and captured three of our men.
    On a second occasion, when an enemy shell exploded in the middle of one of our posts, the Reverend T. B. Hardy at once made his way to the spot, despite the shell and trench mortar fire which was going on at the time, and set to work to extricate the buried men. He succeeded in getting out one man who had been completely buried. He then set to work to extricate a second man, who was found to be dead.
    During the whole of the time that he was digging out the men this chaplain was in great danger, not only from shell fire, but also because of the dangerous condition of the wall of the building which had been hit by the shell which buried the men.
    On a third occasion he displayed the greatest devotion to duty when our infantry, after a successful attack, were gradually forced back to their starting trench.
    After it was believed that all our men had withdrawn from the wood, Chaplain Hardy came out of it, and on reaching an advanced post asked the men to help him to get in a wounded man. Accompanied by a serjeant, he made his way to the spot where the man lay, within ten yards of a pill-box which had been captured in the morning, but was subsequently recaptured and occupied by the enemy. The wounded man was too weak to stand, but between them the chaplain and the serjeant eventually succeeded in getting him to our lines.
    Throughout the day the enemy’s artillery, machine-gun, and trench mortar fire was continuous, and caused many casualties.
    Notwithstanding, this very gallant chaplain was seen moving quietly amongst the men and tending the wounded, absolutely regardless of his personal safety.
    London Gazette.

    He was wounded in action when again trying to tend to the wounded and died a week later in Rouen, France, on 18th October 1918, two days before his 55th birthday.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4b/Theodore_Hardy_VC.jpg/220px-Theodore_Hardy_VC.jpg

      1. You need to be a brave man or woman to speak out too loudly against Trudeau and his climate worshipers nowadays.

        They are still persecuting leaders of the truckers convoy, two years after the event.

  82. Visiting my lovely old friend in Cardiff tonight. Long story for another day. Better go.

  83. 383537+ up ticks,

    pillow ponder,

    Gettaway, you don’t say,It cannot be so.

    Sunak is ‘squandering Brexit freedoms’ by approving more EU rules
    Move could lead to companies being sued for unlimited damages, Tory MPs have warned

  86. South African cricketer Mike Procter has died, aged 77. Just as some batsmen prosper with unorthodox stances, so Procter bowled at a fearsome pace with a chest-on, ‘wrong-foot’ action. Like Barry Richards, Graeme Pollock and Clive Rice, he was denied a long Test career by the international ban on South Africa.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/68292770

    Here he is bowling for Gloucestershire in 1977, ripping the head off the Hampshire batting at Southampton in a B&H semi-final. Two of his victims are Richards and the great Gordon Greenidge.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25EcIdBAikM

    1. Had that South African team been permitted to play test cricket at the time they would have provided a worthy and fascinating challenge to the West Indies and Australian teams of that era.

      I venture to add that they would have probably been the best (i.e. the most talented and the most entertaining) test side of the latter part of the 20th century.

      1. Procter took 41 wickets in his seven Tests. Richards scored 508 runs at 72 in his four, all against Australia in a 4-0 series win in 69-70. Pollock had a longer Test career, scoring 2,256 at more than 60 in 23 matches. Rice was called up but never played as South Africa’s 1971–72 tour of Australia was cancelled.

  88. Well, chums, may I wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well and I hope to see you all again tomorrow morning.

  90. A good night at the local. An American singer who really loves to entertain. I drank more than I should have done and chatted to a couple of guys who are on the left. They still don’t see the ghastly route the country is headed towards. I didn’t punch anybody, though.

  91. Labour VAT raid on private schools ‘will displace vulnerable pupils’
    Independent school leader fears many children will be unsupported in state sector and calls for levy to exempt more special needs pupils
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/17/labour-wont-engage-with-private-schools-warning-on-vat-raid/

    Each British child educated privately saves the state the cost of educating that child.

    Removing VAT exemption from private schools will not make money for the government – it will lose them money as many people will have to have their children educated at the state’s expense when they can no longer afford private school fees.

    This is Old Labour’s politics of envy at its rawest. Stop people educating their children privately not for financial benefit but out of sheer, nasty, envious spite.

    And why is the impotent Conservative Party not prepared to fight this? Private schools are just the sort of businesses a proper Conservative government should support and encourage.

    1. ….and what about those of the Labour Hierarchy that already put their offspring into private education?

    2. Don’t forget Bliar removed the old assisted places out of the reach of the poorest. In the name of equality, or something.

    3. Your last sentence. The Conservative Party is no longer Conservative and haven’t been for some years.

  92. I think it’s time for me to say, ‘Good morning.’
    Barely slept a wink, even worse than the last several bad nights.

    1. Depending on how noisy next door’s flaming hens are when dawn arrives, I will likely drift off just before today’s page is open.

      1. I hope you know how to pluck, gut and draw a chicken. I have just learned how to cook a chook on my air fryer. Catch the noisiest bastard and try air-frying it.

        1. Ar5e-book has a group called Air-Fry Recipes for beginners – contributors seem reticent to give recipes.

    2. Sorry to hear of your lack of sleep and I whole-heartedly empathise, Mum2, having suffered with countless sleepless nights due to itchy acne in the middle of my back (unreachable). I now fire up the hot-water-bottle and place it in the bed after the District Nurse has seen to the dressing on my leg, then I try and catch up with zeds during the day.

      1. Good morning (again),
        I finally crashed out …… only to be woken 10 minutes ago by the church bells and a crashing headache. Normally, the bells are delightful.
        Maybe we will both shortly be catching up on some missing zeds.
        Sleep deprivation is, indeed, a form of torture.

  94. Ah, well, maybe today’s funny has to go up here:

    Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    PRAYER MATS

    A British Engineer just started his own business in Birmingham.

    He’s making land mines that look like prayer mats.

    It’s doing well…

    …He says prophets are going through the roof.

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