Saturday 17 September: The world will honour Queen Elizabeth, who kept her vow to serve a family of nations

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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613 thoughts on “Saturday 17 September: The world will honour Queen Elizabeth, who kept her vow to serve a family of nations”

    1. Good morning, BoB. Are we living in the same country? Here in Colchester it’s sunny and the temperature is 12 degrees Centigrade!?!?!

  3. Good Morning. Very cold here, but dry. Last night there was the most wonderful sunset, gold and red and blue spread across the sky, with the black tower of Smailholm silhouetted starkly black against the horizon.

  4. Good Morning. Very cold here, but dry. Last night there was the most wonderful sunset, gold and red and blue spread across the sky, with the black tower of Smailholm silhouetted starkly black against the horizon.

  5. I’ve just remembered something, prompted by the picture of the story of the Vulcan last night. The people quietly shuffling past the catafalque are from the greatest risk-taking nation on the planet.

    Typo retyped. Sigh.

  6. Good Moaning.
    Not John Smith.
    Don’t Care In The Community?

    “Two women were sexually assaulted in the queue to attend the Queen’s lying in state, a court heard.

    Adio Adeshine, 19, allegedly exposed himself and pushed into the mourners from behind as they waited in line at Victoria Tower Gardens on Wednesday after Westminster Hall opened its doors to the public.

    He is said to have gone into the River Thames in an attempt to evade police before coming out and being arrested.

    Adeshine was remanded in custody on Friday after appearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court charged with two counts of sexual assault and two counts of breaching a sexual harm prevention order.”

        1. Morning, Bob.
          MB up early to travel with younger son to Ipswich to collect his dog who has had an ear operation.
          MB will be the nurse on the home journey.

          5. Like my setter; he used to have ear problems and needed an op (but that was done locally). It’s due, apparently, to the droopy ears – not enough air circulating.

      2. And today.
        Cut his dick off.

        I’ve not seen any slammers at all in the queues, not a single one.
        Might they be under orders not to attend. If they were around the bbc would have been all overthem.
        The hierarchy must be terribly disappointed and having sleepless nights.

    1. Bone dry here and a totally clear sky.
      When I turned in last night the outside temperature was already down to 5° so I was half expecting a frosty start, but we avoided it by just over ½°!

  10. I owe sosraboc a drink for knowing that GBX is the abbreviation for pence sterling. Next question: what about GBY?

  11. Morning all 🙂.
    A frightening aspect more clothes on, or central heating?
    Well get into the wardrobe first I think.

      1. We were contemplating having our gas fire with artificial coal changed to a log burner but the fire place company estimated a cost of 3 grand. Plus all the logs of course. Yeah right.
        Bob that auction house in Snorbens you went to has closed down. Its mentioned in the Herts advertiser. Along with another pub The Hare and Hounds. Our sons band were regulars there. Shame.

        1. Not long ago we went into London for the day and used the buses to get around. We stood at a bus stop first in line when the bus came everyone else just pushed past us. Times and attitudes have changed.

          1. Took my eldest over to Argentina last month. Their queuing was a breath of fresh air, at both airports, for buses, for the little trains that takes you to the Iguazú Falls. Total respect. It was a total joy to queue because you were never worried about some dipstick trying to jump it.

        2. No, Hugh, the new strapline for any such insane behaviour is “Because that’s what she (HM) would have wanted”.

        3. No, Hugh, the new strapline for any such insane behaviour is “Because that’s what she (HM) would have wanted”.

      2. That very American Elvis Presley’s girlfriend in Are You Lonesome Tonight read her lines so cleverly and never missed her queue!

  14. 356129+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Face facts, the day the Queens reign started
    was a RED white & blue letter day for this nation.

    A nation of then, in the main, united spirits,integrity,decency and a protective umbrella for many outside of our borders.

    Tis a sad Black letter day the reign ended and the Queen was called away, RIP,to our great loss.

    Many of those in the latter years of the Queens reign, whilst taking a mourning stance have openly undermined the good character and standing in the world of the United Kingdom aided and abetted by many a mourner and reversed it.

    Currently we as a Country rate surely as a bottom feeder on global ratings, repress, replace, RESET is ,with the electorates majority help is taking a firm grip.

    Different issues are clearly showing numbers that are totally unacceptable,BOTH mounting daily ALL appertaining to the construct of RESET.

    The jab, death, serious injury after effects is one issue the second being the daily invasion
    also the fore runner of death & serious injury
    in many a case.

    I do believe,avoiding mass ongoing civil unrest, the only way to repent for many is via the polling booth supporting a party of true opposition NOT the lab/lib/con / current ukip
    The Queen is most surely owed that much.

      1. I had never heard of him until a couple of years ago when the Mail became obsessed with him for what felt like months, and published reams and reams of nauseating twaddle about his courage.
        Apparently he was the only gay man to tell everyone he was gay in 2021, although the Mail assured us that everyone knew he was gay before he told them anyway….

        1. He’d been deviously misleading his previous wife and family for years. Why would anyone ever have been interested in ang thing he said. If he hadn’t been a self confessed gay on TV no one would have taken the slightest bit of notice of him.

        2. His female wife was not at all pleased when the silly bugger (or buggee?) came out to so much adulation from the fawning poofatariat.

      1. It’s a sign (fortunately now a rarer sight) of someone still scared by Project Fear or, as Margaret Thatcher called them, the Frits.

  17. Didn’t take long did it??

    Martha’s Vineyard ships 50 illegal migrants to Cape Cod military

    base by ferry, as National Guard are called in over ‘humanitarian

    emergency’, after Gov. DeSantis’ sent them to billionaire haven

    The 50 migrants who were flown into the affluent island by Gov. Ron

    DeSantis are now being moved to a military base 32 miles away

    It sparked a widespread cry of outrage from the liberal leaders of the

    small island in Massachusetts who branded the move ‘inhumane’

    Gov. Charlie Baker announced the decision to transfer the illegal immigrants less than 48 hours after they touched down

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11219897/Marthas-Vineyard-migrants-moved-billionaire-enclave-Cape-Cod-military-base.html

      1. Mass. Gov. Charlie Baker is a Republican.

        I wonder if the Martha’s Vineyard crowd would shout ‘inhumane’ if the illegals were shipped back to Florida?

          1. When I was 12, I saw what a young rescue badger could do to a kitchen. In short; Shredders R Us.
            Since then, I’ve been very wary of them. They appear to have no natural predator in this country.

          7. Some years ago, a badger tore our wooden waste bin apart in the street, then ambled off like an animated sandbag.
            Had a badger sett in Firstborns farm, within 100 metres of the house, undermining the bank. Since he was getting a kitten, I put a boulder in the tunnel opening – the badgers dug their way out through the roof and buggered off somewhere else, since they had ruined their sett.

          9. Are badgers the animal equivalent of illegal immigrants?

            The PTB and other fanatics say they must be succoured and protected but people who have to live with them would rather they were not.

    3. Don’t tell Jules, but I discovered a huge hedgepig in my rattrap yesterday morning. It barely fitted in there it was so large. It had eaten the cheese and peanut butter bait while it was in there all the same. She (for some reason I thought it was a lady) wouldn’t uncurl when I eased her out, so I left a bowl of water and some dry dog food next to her. She took 30 minutes to decide it was safe and had a quick drink and ambled off.

  19. ‘Morning again.  A good article in today’s DT, listing some of the grubby little incompetents who got us into this mess.  They should be behind bars for what they have done to this country:

    We just paid Belgium 50 times the going rate to keep London’s lights on – how did it come to this?

    We need a public enquiry to get to the bottom of Britain’s energy humiliation

    TONY LODGE 17 September 2022 • 6:00am

    Britain’s energy crisis is a national political humiliation. It is a direct result of a generation of cross-party policy failures and contradictions which have conspired to deliver a perfect storm.

    Grave errors by a range of past energy ministers range from: Patricia Hewitt’s opposition to  nuclear power in 2001; Ed Miliband’s refusal to back new clean coal plants in 2009; Chris Huhne renewing opposition to new nuclear in 2012; Ed Davey supporting wood pellet plants over new gas in 2013; Amber Rudd overseeing the end of carbon capture funding in 2015; Greg Clark allowing the closure of the Rough gas storage site in 2017 and Andrea Leadsom banning fracking in 2019, to name just a few.

    This brief summary of just some of the failures and short-term policy-making mistakes of recent years ran in parallel with the conscious and consistent run-down of reliable UK electricity generation. Between 2000 and 2017 over a third of the UK’s firm baseload electricity generating capacity was closed to meet EU rules without any comparable net replacements.

    Instead, ministers approved weather-dependent renewables and more interconnectors to import power from the Continent, thus offshoring British energy jobs, resilience and security. New nuclear is already twenty years late.

    In order to provide a proper understanding and long-overdue analysis of this systemic policy failure, a judge-led public inquiry is needed in the national interest both to prevent recurrence and to identify the key mistakes on the part of politicians, regulators and senior civil servants.

    Alongside a long list of former energy secretaries (17 since 1997), ex-premiers Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson should also be called as they led governments which oversaw the running down of British energy security, diversity and resilience.

    Exposing and scrutinising how we got here and the decisions taken – or not – over this period is vital as it represents one of the biggest national policy failings in the post-war era.

    It has huge implications for the economy, households, industry and future competitiveness – as this winter will show.

    News in July that the National Grid had to panic-buy staggeringly expensive Belgian electricity to avoid power cuts fundamentally illustrates Britain’s perilous energy supply. As power demand surged during the heatwaves, the National Grid paid £9,724 per megawatt hour, more than 5,000pc the typical price, to prevent London suffering blackouts.

    Whilst backbenchers are told to keep citing Russia and Ukraine as the reason for this very avoidable energy crunch, the real story is much more damning, concerning and home-grown. Years of ministerial dithering alongside bad and conflicted planning by Whitehall and network managers have helped deliver the perfect storm of high electricity prices, tight supplies and insufficient power.

    The writing was on the wall years ago following the Blair, Brown and Cameron government’s decision to slavishly follow EU diktat and start closing coal and oil-fired power stations without clear policies to build cleaner equivalent replacements; weather-dependent windmills and solar panels could never fill the gap. The EU’s various power station directives, first supported by the Blair government in 2001, forced the UK to start shutting key plants from 2012.

    Consequently, ministers are now desperately trying to keep remaining 50-year-old coal power plants running, at huge cost, alongside the hope that they will be able to import more and more electricity from Europe, again at high cost. So how did it come to this? Only a full and proper public inquiry can help us find out, prevent recurrence and deliver better policies for the future.

    The emergency bid to Belgium has importantly exposed Britain’s growing overdependence on imported power. This growth has huge implications for energy security, resilience, future bills and climate change. We must stop building interconnectors and instead prioritise reliable home grown generation.

    A public inquiry into Britain’s energy crisis will serve to expose the dangerous and failed doctrine of draconian out-of-date targets and poor policy-making over a generation. The public deserves to know who is responsible for soaring bills and the mistakes which have led to a real risk of power rationing this winter and beyond.

    A failed energy policy inflicts huge pain on households, industry and the wider economy. It diverts investment and stops job creation. We need to learn and understand how and why political leaders failed in this most critical area of policy in the national interest.

    Some rather predictable BTL posts:

    James Benton1 HR AGO

    There is one group of cretins who are equally responsible for this situation not even mentioned in the list of those responsible in this article. That is the msm and the vast majority of journalists who clapped and applauded from the sidelines while our base load generation was being decimated in the name of what has become the folly of net zero.

    Terry o’dowd9 MIN AGO

    Wow, an article that is spot on for a change.

    Energy security has been destroyed by these ministers. Even today we hear net zero and renewables over fracking gas and nuclear. When will they learn that grid stability needs base load and renewables just don’t provide it.

    A Snashall11 MIN AGO

    The stupidity of closing all the power stations in Yorkshire’s Aire valley, that sit on a sea of coal-possibly around 400 years supply-show the idiocy of Government in their insistence to close these before replacement base load from nuclear was put in place.

    Criminal folly leading to the ruination of business and families.

    Criminal proceedings should follow.

    House Cat10 MIN AGO

    Too damned right. A public inquiry needs to put the blame squarely where it belongs – on bone-headed ideologues like Ed Davey – whose childish environmental obsessions have now ruined us. Let the blame – the official, recorded-for-history blame – sit with them for evermore. Maybe charges for incompetence could even follow.

    1. Good morning Hugh J

      When I read the comments to the article , I had that familiar sick in the stomach feeling knowing we never have been in a safe pair of hands .

      Major crippling financial decisions have been ordained by political cretins .

      I feel equally angry knowing that my new 3 times a week morning shower will be tepid , that our heating will be very limited in the evening when we need it , that my use of the oven for baking or a casserole will be a lock down memory and drying washed clothes and towels will become a nightmare , cold radiators and an unused condenser dryer will be the norm .

      Britain has been betrayed and ruined forever .

      1. Just a thought, Belle, do you have ‘Economy 7’? We’ve been utilising the washing machine and dishwasher in the early hours.
        I’ve even thought of staying up for vacuuming. Make sure you stay warm though.

        1. ‘Morning, Mo. We gave up on Economy 7 some years ago, when it seemed to become the norm for the day rate to be increased for those using it. Thus the savings were minimal.

        2. ‘Morning, Mo. We gave up on Economy 7 some years ago, when it seemed to become the norm for the day rate to be increased for those using it. Thus the savings were minimal.

          1. My machine beeps when the cycle is finished, but I still run it overnight on economy 7. Eventually it stops.

      2. Well said, Belle. Like you, and many on here, I cannot express politely my contempt for the clowns who got us into this mess. If their first priority is the defence of the country, a close second should surely have been be a secure and affordable supply of energy.

      3. Well said, Belle. Like you, and many on here, I cannot express politely my contempt for the clowns who got us into this mess. If their first priority is the defence of the country, a close second should surely have been be a secure and affordable supply of energy.

      4. Same here, Belle. There’s a lot more space in the kitchen since I packed away several electric gadgets.
        Have you got a woodstove? It’s a saviour for us. I’ve just bought a new second hand one that has an oven in it.

    2. Hah! We don’t need a public enquiry. The evidence is all there in black and white! It’s easy to find. Why such people insist on wasting time with this nonsense is beyond me.

      We’re in the mess we are because of slavish adherence to the EU, the obsession with green, the erosion of markets and the institution of a lie.

      It doesn’t need an enquiry. It needs those responsible to be sacked, their pensions revoked and charged with malfeasance in public office. Start with Miliband and the cliamte change act. Then arrest every MP who voted for it. Jail the climate change committee. Go for the IPCC like an attack dog. Find those civil servants who designed contracts for difference and send them the country’s bill – personally. Have the BBC admit it has invested in green and then promoted the lie.

      However, more than anything else – find those thousands of churnalists who haven’t done their reearch, who perpetuated the tosh and charge them – such as the oaf demanding this enquiry. Ignorance is no excuse.

      1. Also, Wibbles, set about finding all the illegals and dumping them back in France. Mosques burning would make a great November 5th Kristalnacht.

      2. The reason they want an enquiry is so they can greenwash it and exonerate everybody (at huge expense).

        1. Sadly, I suspect you’re right. All the right decsions were made, but the problem is we didn’t go far enough in unreliables.

    3. The BTL comment saying there is no need for any enquiry, it is all down to net zero green idiocy has it spot on

    4. Why don’t we have public protests demanding “ENERGY INDEPENDENCE NOW!”? Just make sure you don’t vote for any party, or individual, that doesn’t swear to push for this. Along with cutting the head from the illegal immigration beast.

    5. Why don’t we have public protests demanding “ENERGY INDEPENDENCE NOW!”? Just make sure you don’t vote for any party, or individual, that doesn’t swear to push for this. Along with cutting the head from the illegal immigration beast.

  20. Killer jailed for Wellingborough rape and attempted murder of stranger. 17 september 2022.

    A Moldovan man has received a life sentence for the “evil and depraved” rape and attempted murder of a stranger whom he left to die in an alleyway.

    Sergiu Boianjiu, who came to Britain after serving 10 years for killing his girlfriend, was caught on CCTV in February as he raped and repeatedly stamped on the head of a woman in Northamptonshire.

    Footage recovered by police also showed Boianjiu, who believed he had killed the victim, leaving the scene to fetch a wheelie bin in an effort to try to hide her body.

    Surprise. Surprise!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/16/moldovan-killer-handed-life-for-evil-and-attempted-of-stranger

    1. Does the guardian demand that more immigrants be brought in to demonstrate the culture? More money for immigrants (as no doubt it was our fault for not giving him enough money)? Higher taxes to provide for the gimmigrants?

      Or is it all just ‘da Torwees’ fault?

      Maybe they’ve demanded that more money be spent on protecting women – and only women – ignoring that such was barely needed before the tsunami of savages were poured in by Labour.

      3. It’s agin their yooman rites to check their offending history. No checks are made for criminality, I kid you not.

        1. That’s why that young girl Alice was killed a couple of years ago. Bit late leaving it till they kill again.

    3. I commented a while back on the number of European migrants in Wellingborough. The Poles and the Baltics were easily recognisable (mostly young women with children) but I was puzzled by a party of thick-set, stocky and swarthy males, who seemed to spend most of their time sitting outside the Costa Coffee shop. I couldn’t place them then. I can now.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3bf79d7e2b2a07eaf17552b6b62794297a55dec0546b4dbb21d90bec98884a0.jpg

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-62926899

    4. I commented a while back on the number of European migrants in Wellingborough. The Poles and the Baltics were easily recognisable (mostly young women with children) but I was puzzled by a party of thick-set, stocky and swarthy males, who seemed to spend most of their time sitting outside the Costa Coffee shop. I couldn’t place them then. I can now.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3bf79d7e2b2a07eaf17552b6b62794297a55dec0546b4dbb21d90bec98884a0.jpg

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-62926899

    5. I commented a while back on the number of European migrants in Wellingborough. The Poles and the Baltics were easily recognisable (mostly young women with children) but I was puzzled by a party of thick-set, stocky and swarthy males, who seemed to spend most of their time sitting outside the Costa Coffee shop. I couldn’t place them then. I can now.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3bf79d7e2b2a07eaf17552b6b62794297a55dec0546b4dbb21d90bec98884a0.jpg

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-62926899

  21. On Toady this morning they interviewed some clever chap who had done a survey of people in that queue. More remainers than leavers, he said, slightly small-c conservative. No mention of the almost total absence of BAMES.

    1. I watched the “live feed” on BBC Parliament this morning. They intercut a shot of a group of Bames saluting the catafalque!

      1. The media must be pulling their hair out at how hideously white the queues are. And let’s be exactly honest, it speaks absolute volumes regarding attitudes.

    3. She was not their queen and they were not truly her people.

      For all his attempts at conciliation the King will not succeed in altering this and he too will not become their king and nor will they will become his people.

      How many people of the left and how many of the PTB would be boldly prepared to state this obvious truth?

  22. SIR – Matthew Taylor (Letters, September 16), the chief executive of the NHS Confederation, says Covid boosters will continue to be given on the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. He may be interested to know that my husband’s booster appointment has been cancelled.

    Perhaps the right hand should know what the left hand is doing.

    Marguerite Beard-Gould
    Walmer, Kent

    Well, Mrs M Double-Barrelled, I reckon Her Maj may have done your old man a favour! If he insists he is welcome to my offer of a booster as I won’t be needing it.

    1. I have received an invitation to a fourth vaccination, but I have decided not to accept it, as I have had covid as well as the previous jabs. Any vaccination which has constantly to be ‘boosted’ can’t be up to much. Enough is enough.

          3. I do feel sorry for you.

            As you know Caroline and I have not been Covid jabbed but we do take zinc tablets and Vitamin D drops. When we got Covid in February I took one day in bed and that was that; Caroline did not need to take any time in bed.

          4. I do feel sorry for you.

            As you know Caroline and I have not been Covid jabbed but we do take zinc tablets and Vitamin D drops. When we got Covid in February I took one day in bed and that was that; Caroline did not need to take any time in bed.

      4. I tell everyone that I am not going to have the third or the fourth jab. What I sometimes omit to tell them is that I haven’t had the first or the second!

    3. I have an acquaintance who was thrilled by his and his wife’s invitations for their fifth jab: he confirmed a date immediately. I kept my counsel on hearing his ‘good’ news.

  25. I’m no apologists for bankers but I must comment on this letter:

    “ SIR – I worked hard all my working life and never received a bonus. I was only too pleased to work for 25 years before redundancy.
    Bankers were responsible for the collapse of the financial system in 2008. We have seen the closure of bank branches and general poor service. Increases in interest rates are not passed on to savers. Now bankers who are already well paid will be allowed to receive uncapped bonuses. During a cost-of-living crisis, this is obscene?…”

    1. The origins of the financial crisis in the UK was Brown’s policy, predicated on Clinton’s repeal of the Glass-Steagal Act and his policy of loans for people who could not afford to repay the . Brown set all the lights to green and then we all wonder why there was a terrific road smash. He lapped up the upside – everyone thought he was wonderful because house prices were going up up up and equity release was a huge thing. But I have to hand it to him – when it went wrong, he did a fantastic job on turning the blame away from himself and politicians’ complicity in policy, and onto the “bankers”.

    2. The banks that actually caused the crisis in the UK were not the investment banks (which everyone thinks of when they think of “bankers’ bonuses). They were Northern Rock and the Bank of Scotland. It was obvious that there lending policies were going to be problematic, to coin a fashionable word. And this goes back to Brown’s policies and Regulation.

    Like I say, I’m no apologist for “bankers”. But it is NOT “all the fault of the bankers”, not by a long, long, long, long chalk. It was a huge political failure and it suits everyone (except the bankers) to gloss over the policy behind it.

  26. I have been instructed that we are shortly going to Wivno – so I’ll love you and leave you. Play nicely.

    A demain.

  27. Schools urge parents to help plug funding gaps as costs soar. 17 September. 2022.

    Days into the new academic year, headteachers have raised the alarm about a looming funding crisis in schools, with some parents urged to make donations and parent-teacher associations on standby to plug funding gaps for classroom essentials.

    As energy bills and wage costs rise, school leaders say money from PTA fundraising efforts will be needed to cover core costs rather than “nice to have” extras. In affluent areas where PTAs are able to raise huge sums, it could even be used to save jobs and help pay bills.

    Elsewhere, schools say PTAs will struggle to raise funds this winter as the cost of living crisis hits households. Simon Kidwell, the principal of Hartford Manor primary school in Cheshire, said his school would not be asking parents for additional donations. “The PTA are very, very aware that parents don’t have the same money available.

    Despite having eye-watering levels of taxation that would make the Sherriff of Nottingham look like the Good Samaritan we are unable to fund one of the most basic requirements of an advanced state. Education is not alone of course. You only have to look around. There is literally nothing that works. This is almost solely due to a political and managerial class of staggering and unequalled incompetence. No rush for growth by the incoming Prime Minister is going to overcome this absence of even the most basic Common Sense. Rather it will be like the gamblers Last Throw to try and recoup the losses of the last twenty years. It will fail and finish us off!

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/sep/17/schools-urge-parents-to-help-plug-funding-gaps-as-costs-soar

    1. No. 1. Stop incarcerating all pupils in school until they are 18. The majority have got what they will ever get out of school by the age of 14 or 15.

        1. Strange that we nursed subnormal patients who had only attended the village primary school c. 1900; they weren’t highly literate, but they could write their own names and read basic script.

    2. And “This is almost solely due to a political and managerial class of staggering and unequalled size”.

        1. Prior to the graduate-entry scheme, police recruitment relied on attracting intelligent and able-bodied people. Standards have plummeted woefully ever since.

      2. How times change. 100 years ago, Captain Sir Percy Sillitoe KBE formulated a theory, which he put into practice with good effect, to deal with shit like this.

        “I called my senior officers together and asked them to select very carefully for me some of the strongest, hardest-hitting men under their commands. I had 700 policemen, each with a minimum chest measurement of thirty-six inches and height of five feet ten inches, all fit and healthy men, and none of them was disinclined to play the gangsters at their own game and meet violence with the strong arm of the law.

        “It was not difficult to pick a dozen of the best of these, to form a ‘flying squad’ specially to deal with the gangster problem. These men were taught ju-jitsu and various other methods of attack and defence, and it was surprising how little teaching they needed. They had just been waiting for the chance to learn!

        “They soon divided themselves into little teams—usually pairs—for patrol work in the notorious gangster districts. One of the most famous of these teams was that of ‘Loxley and Lunn’. Loxley was six feet three inches tall and weighed eighteen stone. There was not an ounce of soft flesh on him. He was granite hard and to hit him, even with boxing gloves, was like striking a brick wall. Jerry Lunn was not quite so tall, but was a beautifully balanced man who could hit like the kick of a mule. As they walked down the streets together they looked like a battleship with its attendant destroyer. And they were staunch friends. Both had a contempt for the ‘cowardly little gangster rats’, as they always called the Garvin and Mooney mobsters.

        “Sergt. Robinson and a giant Irishman named Geraghty made another celebrated ‘flying squad’ team. Geraghty was the only man I have ever known who could not merely hold seven tennis balls in one fist, but could actually pick up five loose tennis balls in one hand.

        “I called a meeting of the publicans who were being most frequently victimized by the gangsters. I told them about my plans. I said: ‘I have picked some of my officers, and am going to put them in plain clothes. Their job will be to patrol the pubs and streets of your districts. If they come to your public houses, they will make themselves known to you and will then sit quietly and wait. If these gangs of thugs arrive and there is any disorderliness or attempts at intimidation, all you have to do is say to my men that you want these people removed from your premises, as they are causing a disturbance. If my men are not there, you can telephone for them to be sent down and they will be with you in less than ten minutes.’

        “I told my men—not merely those of the flying squad, but also the entire force—that in any of their dealings with known gangsters and bullies I would stand by them whatever happened.

        “I sent for Sam Garvin and George Mooney, and gave them both a stern warning. I said: ‘From now on you must understand that you and your kind are an offence to decent citizens. If you see a police officer you had better get out of his sight. If any of my police officers are put in the dock for hammering you, I shall be in the dock with them!

        “Then, having delivered fair warning, I sent the ‘flying squad’ into action and the cases began to flow into court. The charge was usually ‘disorderly conduct AND assaulting the police’.

        “When the gangsters were brought into the court, I always made it my business to attend the trials, and after the hooligans had been convicted, the prosecuting solicitor would ask permission for me to enter the witness-box. There, upon oath, I would give evidence as Chief Constable of the City, about the menace of these gangs and the frequency of such offences, and ask for exemplary punishment. By doing this I took the weight of responsibility from the magistrates and let it fall upon my own shoulders. The results were good.”

    2. My police widow’s husband was stabbed to death while attending a sub-post office robbery. What can wise Nottlers say about the perp?

    3. Smith & Wesson •38s required urgently to replace tasers. Mayor Khan can be used for target practice.

    1. Has he not got a prior personal responsibility to the indigenous population of his kingdom which has an established Church of which he is head?

      Somebody ought to drive into his thick head* the old adage:

      Charity begins at home.

      * I told myself I would abstain from insulting the nincompoop until after the coronation but I have been provoked sorely!

      1. I suspect the new replacement for the throne is a Guardian reader .

        I am closing my ears and eyes to his prouncements ..

        He is desperately trying to stop the Commonwealth going down the drain ..

        Frankly, I don’t give a damn .

        1. Sucking up to people who don’t want to integrate won’t change their attitude, but it will alienate the sort of people who were loyal to the Crown.

          4. The Head of the Church of England should have the Supreme Governor into his office for a rap over the knuckles!

          8. I think the Head of the Church of England needs to read the epistles of St Paul a little more thoroughly.

            1 Corinthians 8:6 (KJV)

            But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

    2. This is the kind of thing that demonstrates why I don’t think I will ever accept Charles as King in my heart. Woke Willie’s no better.

      1. As I said before the death of Queen Elizabeth II Charles and William between them are making me into a republican.

        However I have grave reservations about this. We do not need a repulsive ex-politician like Blair, Major or Cameron; the role should be a non-executive one and with a finite term. The last thing we need is the US system or the French system where the president wields far too much executive and political power.

        When the unspeakably ambitious Blair was in the early part of his being prime minister I wrote a song about him (I’m a Populist Prime Minister from a Minor Public School) which I would like to have gone and sung at the Conservative Party Conference but I was not invited to do so. I was convinced at the time that ridicule was the best way of dealing with the egotistical maniac:

        Here is one of the song’s verses which, I think is still relevant:

        I talk about stake holders and I say you ought to save
        To supplement your incomes when you’re getting near the grave,
        But I’ll let Brown raid the pension funds – cos he’s the one you’ll blame
        Of course I’m for The Family – but I love Gays just the same.
        Now I take my hols in Tuscany – megalomania is my scene,
        So I find the term: “prime minister” tends rather to demean,
        The stature of my excellence. If it’s all the same with you,
        I’d rather be called President – but Il Duce would do!

        1. I don’t fancy a republic either. It’s not suited to our national character. We don’t need another sinecure for failed politicians. The US had some first rate leaders when they founded their republic, which we, er, haven’t.
          The most logical solution would be the King over the water, as he actually has a valid claim to the throne (more valid than the Windsors).

          All this arresting people for making republican protests is making me very uncomfortable, especially in the light of the WEF man who is being defended. The state is showing its iron fist at anyone who opposes the agenda (Charles, climate change, mass migration…and what next?).

          1. It is indeed very worrying that both King Charles III and Ms Truss seem to be disciples of Klaus Barbie Schwab.

          2. There are uncounted numbers of ALEOS.

            “Arm’s-length external organisation (ALEO) is a term used to describe an organisation that is formally separate from the council but is subject to its control or influence. The level of control or influence can vary. ALEOs can take many forms including companies, community enterprises, charitable organisations and trusts.”
            Jobs for the boys and girls. Theft of public property. No public oversight, no public input.

          3. Please help to fill an obvious gap in my knowledge of history, but who exactly is the “King over the Water”?

          4. http://jacobite.ca/kings/
            Descendants of James II, who was thrown out of Britain in 1682 (?) by the aristocracy who had had enough of his Stuart arrogance. They eventually brought in a German cousin, George I, the ancestor of the current RF.

            The current king over the water is the Duke of Bavaria.

          7. Does that mean he’s RC? In which case, we’d need a change to the constitution. That’s why he’s the King over the Water rather than on the throne.

          8. Yes he is. That would certainly be an obstacle, but not such a great one as having a King who is pledged to a group of foreign billionaires that openly say they want one world government where the masses own nothing.

          9. The Hanovarians only got the nod (over people who were better qualified) because they were staunchly Protestant.

          10. Yes, and that issue has not gone away, despite Rees-Mogg’s rather disingenuous attempt to pretend that it has.

          13. 1688 – the Glorious Revolution. I think it was more his Roman Catholicism than his Stuart arrogance (although that didn’t help). There was sympathy for him until he turned RC, married a Catholic and produced an heir. It was the time of the Test Act and the Clarendon Code – Protestantism was seen as under threat (rather the way that Christianity is now, but without the concern from the PTB),

        2. I think they both should just shut up about climate change and just get on with their ceremonial roles

          1. That’s what a constitutional monarch should do – you’d think that after a 70 year apprenticeship, Charlie would have got his head round that concept.

    5. He has a duty to the nation (over which he reigns with OUR consent) to protect it and the Christian faith. It does not bode well.

    7. He’s going to be really busy then – If I re all correctly the NHS recognises 52 different faiths / religions…

  31. It is such a shame that Queen Elizabeth, while rightly receiving global plaudits, had to reign over a succession of such incompetent Governments of self serving politicians.

  32. 356129+ up ticks,

    Russia Complains Lack of Invite to Queen’s Funeral Is ‘Blasphemous’ and ‘Immoral’

    In view of indigenous politico’s whilst laying wreaths are dealing in anti United Kingdom treachery in a back stabbers R us mode.

    1. The lack of an invitation to Russia is a rude, silly, spiteful, unreasonable insult.
      Why are we persisting in making an enemy of Russia? Here in Scotland that was never the case. Scotsmen served in the Tsar’s guard. Mikhail Lermontov was a descendant of Thomas the Rhymer (Thomas Learmonth). Leon Bakst supposedly took his surname from a distant relative (Baxter).
      Now let me quote Churchill, “Russia’s danger is our danger and the danger of the United States, just as the cause of any Russian fighting for his hearth and home is the cause of free men in every corner of the globe.”
      Then there are the Murmansk convoys, British seamen undergoing hardship – many died -to supply war materiel and food to Russia.
      There is the Leningrad album, actually two, one in Russia, one in the Mitchell Library in Glasgow. If that story does not make you weep with pride, you are probably dead.
      There have been student exchanges between Edinburgh and Moscow Universities. Then there were the “klondykers” popping into the shops in Ullapool to buy cigarettes and chocolate, until Westminster found out and stopped it.
      Russia has never been an enemy to Scotland. The politicos in Westminster may grovel to the US, and act as their catspaw in the American quest for global hegemony, but that has no resonance in Scotland.

      https://www.scotiana.com/the-leningrad-album-a-token-of-scottish-russian-friendship-in-war/
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-32844684
      http://www.ullapool.co.uk/fishermen.html

      1. I studied Russian in Moscow in 1968. If GCHQ is reading this they’ll either recruit me or bang me up!

      2. Catherine the Great’s doctor was a Scot.
        His main job was to inspect her latest fancy for symptoms of VD.

  33. Morning all. Heating came on! We have it set at 18degs and it actually came on.

    OT, one of our bowls members is President of the London/Scottish bowls association this year and his name, Gillies, reminded us of a very old song by Max Bygtaves: Gilly Gilly Ossenfeffer Kattzenellenbogen by the sea. Anyone remember it?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWjTmXT58nk
    Made us both smile.

    1. Children’s Choice; Saturday morning breakfast when a whole school free weekend stretched before you.

    4. It was recorded in 1954 – the year my cruel parents sent me off, at the age of 8, to boarding prep school in Bath! We sang it during my last term at Mr McGregor’s small private school in the hamlet called Gerrans a few miles away from St Mawes where we lived. I seem to remember that Mrs McGregor accompanied us on the piano.

    5. My Uncle Arthur ( a jolly chap if ever there were one) used to sing it to me when I were nobbut a toddler.

    1. I saw the report of a man (guess what, he had an African name) sexually harrassing women in the queue to pay their respects to HM. We is SO enriched. However did we manage when women were respected and could queue unmolested?

  36. Morning all. Don’t faint – I’m here early (I haven’t been up all night, although it feels like it), I’m having the insulation installed and so I need to be on hand for the workman (cups of tea, switching off the electricity, etc). Hence I’ve fired up the laptop and am about to plague you instead of twiddling my thumbs.

          1. Autumn (season of mists and fruitfulness – my apple trees are groaning under the weight of fruit) and winter are on their way, but spring will follow (I planted nearly a hundred bulbs the other day).

      1. Kadi can’t reach (I sleep in a four-poster and it’s high) and Oscar learned early on in our relationship that sleeping together wasn’t on 🙂 It was that damned alarm clock wot did it.

  40. Comma Sense – A Pedant writes:

    SIR – Three cheers for Thérèse Coffey, the Health Secretary, who “cannot bear” the Oxford comma, and her wish that it is not used in departmental communications (report, September 16). It is not grammatically correct, but grammatically optional. I delight in deleting it at every opportunity in articles sent to me for proofreading.

    I read this morning’s Final Letter, from New Zealand’s Mike Elllis, about the Oxford Comma, with amusement, as he said ‘It is not grammatically correct, but grammatically optional.’

    I then turned to next the item: More from Opinion. The heading photograph was captioned:

    ‘People queuing in Southwark Park to eventually pay their respects to Queen Elizabeth lying in state at Westminster Hall. – a flagrant Split Infinitive.

    Both Modern English Usage and The King’s English were written by the brothers Fowler. They say (in paraphrase) “When avoiding a Split Infinitive results in clumsy construction one should resolve to resolutely split”. Says it all, really.

    Then I looked at Comment by Charles Moore and immediately spotted his American English use of ‘practiced’ instead of the verb ‘practised’ in paragraph 8:

    ‘Margaret and her fellow teenagers had practiced Scottish reels before the Young People’s Ball for the princesses in Salisbury; …’

    Having lived in the States, I knew of their inconsistent use of the ‘c’ and the ‘d’: they write: ‘to practice Law you need a License.’

    At school, probably 70 years ago, I was taught: ‘If in doubt, think advice / advise for the noun and verb, and you won’t get it wrong’ (at least in British English).

    1. The purpose of punctuation is to make clear the intention of the writer. If an Oxford Comma does that in specific circumstances, I have no argument with ‘breaking the rules’. Rigid compliance with grammatical rules can make a sentence almost unreadable.

        1. Usually, in the UK, it is worn under the shirt. I have noticed, however, that even way back in the late 1960s, when being measured for a 3-piece suit by a British tailor, I would invariably be asked for the style of ‘vest’ I required [when they were actually speaking about the waistcoat (‘weskit’).]

          Personally speaking, when talking about the suit’s jacket I invariably call it that: a jacket; never a ‘coat’. Having said that, when it refers to the jacket of a uniform, it always a tunic. To me, a ‘coat’ is simply shorthand for an overcoat.

          3. As a Trooper in the part time Northumberland Hussars Yeomanry in the mid-30s, my Dad, as well as the rest of his Troop, used to hunt during weekend camps up near Wooler as a means on improving their riding skills.

    3. All very true, roughcommon. I have repeated that sage advice from Henry and Frank Fowler on a number of occasions, but the anally-retentive attitudes, towards the use of the split-infinitive, of a few of who I call “pedants for the sake of pedantry” still proliferate.

      Mizz Coffey and the New Zealander may well do all in their power to abolish the use of the Oxford comma, but in doing so they will introduce many an ambiguity, not to mention absurdity, in the prose they so maniacally wish to ‘improve’.

      1. I respectfully agree. Had I written “I agree respectfully” people might have thought that you had changed your name from “Grizzly” to “agree”. Lol.

        Well, I got that wrong, didn’t I? I meant to write “you had changed your name from “Grizzly” to “respectfully”.

      2. I respectfully agree. Had I written “I agree respectfully” people might have thought that you had changed your name from “Grizzly” to “agree”. Lol.

  41. Can this be true ??
    DT letter today
    Sir – From October, the Government will subsidise domestic energy for two years with debt that all taxpayers must repay in the years ahead, plus interest.

    Electric vehicle owners, having already benefited from subsidised purchase, zero vehicle excise duty, no fuel duty, and VAT at 5 pc on domestic energy used to propel them, will now further burden the taxpayer with their EVs thirst for energy to drive 500 horsepower motors.

    Given that an EV battery can take the equivalent of the daily energy consumption of 10 average houses, the inequity between the patently rich people buying these cars and the burden on the rest of the population is stark in the extreme.
    Martin Whapshott,
    Frimley, Surrey.

    More political cock ups.

      1. After the old horse drawn milk float, they went all eclectic now it’s all diesel.
        A severely retrograde step.

        1. We should go back to four-legged horse power; at least the by-products produce good roses (and rhubarb).

          1. I use to help our Milkie in our cul-de-sac. When Doug parked the cart on the corner at the bottom of the slope us kids used to place sticks on the kerb betting where the horse Snowy’s gush of wee would stop in the gutter. And then there was the race for poo for dads’ roses.

          2. We had coal and milk delivered by horse-drawn vehicles (plus there was the rag and bone man with his horse and cart). There was nearly a fight over who could get to the poo first with their bucket!

          3. Our old horse liked carrots and apples.
            I read on Facebook that our Milkie retired to Devon and lived well into his 90s he must have walked half a million miles or more in his life.

      1. We’re coming into Autumn; just the right time to head for Moscow.
        Summer weight uniforms and a few salads in the catering van. And Great Uncle Ivan has flogged off all the winter tyres.
        What could possibly go wrong.

    2. WTF is that supposed to mean??
      May I remind Herr Scholz, that “Europe” is not at war with Russia…

    1. Spot on, Nursey. We British never ‘form a line’. We stand in an orderly (and very civilised) queue.

      1. Well, there was one American who used to talk about a queue – the back of one as I recall.

  47. I was hasty when I was critical of David Beckham .

    He was a good man taking his place in the long queue for hours on end , and I feel so much disgust with a dastardly MP who offered to fast track him .

    Who on earth sanctioned the idea that MPs could take in up to four guests by the fast track method .

    I really hate politicians , and isn’t it disgusting to read about all the favours they are allowed , including their food and heating and travel allowances ?

    1. MPs have a special relationship with Buckingham Palace…their daughters have the right to go to garden parties, iirc.

      I agree, Beckham captured the spirit of the moment, which is a memorial to a woman who stood for hours representing our country, probably bored to tears but never showed it.

    2. I simply get sick to death of seeing this clown’s smirking physog grinning at me in every newspaper I pick up. What the hell is the obsession of the British press with this overrated individual?

      As a footballer he was a one-trick pony and choosing him to be captain of the English football team was idiotic, especially when there were better choices of captain material present in the squad. His presence was a major reason why the England football team never got close to winning anything during his time as both player and captain.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        Cruel – but fair!

        And his milking the coming World Cup for every penny he can get is not too wholesome.

    4. I think Becks’ heart is in the right place (even if his MBE wasn’t!). He just isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer.

      1. As I said yesterday, I think he’s a really lovely man. Clearly brought up to do ‘the right thing’ and he does it in the face of some pretty unpleasant and negative comment! Bravo David! As witness some here!

  48. Much as I abominate and despise the couple I do not think it was fair to ban Prince Harry from wearing military uniform as he served in the army for a decade.

    However, giving in to people like Migraine and Harry is not ever a good idea because whatever you give them they will never be grateful and they will always demand more.

    Having initially said that she did not wish her children to get the proposed Dumbarton title (because the place name started with ‘dum’) Migraine is keen to grasp the titles bestowed upon her children of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. But that is not enough – she demands (she always demands she never asks) that they should be called HRH which is a title reserved for working royals which they are not.

    And if they give in to that what is the next thing this repulsive harridan and her uxorious little puppet will demand?

    1. Do retired military people still wear uniform? After all, Harry holds no military rank any more (unlike Air Miles Andy who is still an Admiral).

    2. I understood that Andrew would wear uniform at the funeral but I gather that now he and Harry will wear uniform only when they stand vigil at the catafaque.

    3. Most of the comments about wearing or not of uniform are missing the point. The Uniforms Act of 1894 is the authority. Only serving members of the Armed Forces are permitted, by law, to wear military uniform. The only exception is with the express permission of the Sovereign. Comments about how brave anyone was, whether or not they served in the past etc are irrelevant. Past service does not entitle anyone to wear uniform.

      https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/Vict/57-58/45/enacted

      Afternote: Before anyone makes a comment, there are provisions for such things as stage plays and films.

  49. That’s just under 3 hours up the garden this morning doing a mix of mortar and getting a bit of wall built
    using up the last of the sand I had up there
    I now plan to do a small mix of concrete before starting on shifting the ton of sand that arrived yesterday up the hill.

    2. I need a sit down after doing the washing up. Mind you, MH cooked dinner last night and I swear he used every plate and piece of cutlery in the kitchen. Dinner was delicious.

      1. I made a large pot of chicken chasseur with tarragon. I also found an ingenious way to make sure i get my 5 a day. Caribbean passionfruit rum punch mixed with pulped mango loosened with apple juice.

          1. Tastes lovely. After sauteeing everything i deglazed the pan with a third of a bottle of dry sherry and a half bottle of white wine. Food for the freezer for when i don’t want to cook.

          2. I’ve made a pan of chilli. I’ll cook it again, every day for the next three days to develop its flavour and texture, then I’ll freeze it in small portions for having on chilli hot dogs.

      2. Just done lamb leg steaks for the DT and S@H with baked potato and garlic & cheese mushrooms.
        I had planned partaking myself in the lamb, but it cooked almost to nothing, so I had an alternative.

    2. No mention of the pressure on the NHS from boatloads of freeloaders and the massive increase in population, I suppose. Nor the fact there are more chiefs (on massive salaries) than indians?

      1. 356125+up ticks,

        Afternoon C,
        Root cause and you DO NOT need a doctor or the NHS to confirm it, is the electorate majority ” what increase” what “”morally illegal invasion ?

    3. NHS can’t cope during winter/water:wet.

      Perhaps, just this once rather than us not using the NHS the NHS should, you know, improve?

    1. There are tower blocks only marginally more attractive than that being built at White City and the prices start at around half a million for about 400 sq ft.

      1. Chums of hers (I can’t stand either of them) are buying a place over there. Apparently ‘London is the place to live’. He does something in media and she does… not really sure. Something to do with marketing. I’m fairly sure she’s a coke head and we know he’s having an affair. The ladies went to ‘school’ together and sort of stayed in touch. On occasion the Warqueen stays overnight when trains are cancelled or it’s too late.

    3. What happened in China is, the government kicked thousands of self-supporting familes who worked the land and had survived for many decades.
      Their options were to live in these terrible concrete constructions. I suspect they now have work on production lines supplying overseas buyers.

  52. A biento^t, mes amis. I’m signing off to watch the racing. Hope to be back later. The insulation installation seems to be going well (I hope that isn’t a case of famous last words!).

      2. Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small town in west/central Germany – a long way from the sea. It translates as ‘cat’s elbow’ but the true name is probably the ancient Germanic tribal name of the Chatti and Melibokus, a generic Roman name for “mountains.

        In the history of wine, Katzenelnbogen is famous for the first documentation of Riesling grapes in the world: this was in 1435, when the storage inventory of Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a member of the Holy Roman high nobility, lists the purchase of vines of “Rieslingen”.

      3. Katzenelnbogen is the name of a castle and small town in west/central Germany – a long way from the sea. It translates as ‘cat’s elbow’ but the true name is probably the ancient Germanic tribal name of the Chatti and Melibokus, a generic Roman name for “mountains.

        In the history of wine, Katzenelnbogen is famous for the first documentation of Riesling grapes in the world: this was in 1435, when the storage inventory of Count John IV of Katzenelnbogen, a member of the Holy Roman high nobility, lists the purchase of vines of “Rieslingen”.

  54. Finally have some Dubonnet.
    I plan to toast Her late Majesty in what was apparently her favourite cocktail:
    1 ounce gin
    2 ounces Dubonnet
    Half lemon wheel
    Ice cubes

    Directions:Pour one part gin and two parts Dubonnet into a small wine glass. Add the lemon, and top with two ice cubes, sinking the lemon.

    She was a Lady with good judgement, so I expect it will be good!

    2. I’ll raise a glass of water. Is Voss really just the water that comes out of your taps in Norway? At £2.40 for 750 mil, I pass in favour of Aqua Panna from Italy or M&S Scottish spring water, at £1.20 for the same 750 mil.

          3. Not so fast, Ann. Last Wednesday I went on an outing and included was a booked meal at a restaurant. The latter was very grim and when asked what I would like to drink I asked what beer they served: “Fosters and John Smith’s Bitter,” replied the waitress. For goodness sake we were in Adnam’s and Woodforde’s territory. I told the waitress that I would stick with the chilled water. The food managed to come a poor second to the “beer”.

      2. Voss water comes from a spring in Voss and is pretty good. The bottle won prizes, so I guess you are paying a lot for that.

    3. I’ll raise a glass of water. Is Voss really just the water that comes out of your taps in Norway? At £2.40 for 750 mil, I pass in favour of Aqua Panna from Italy or M&S Scottish spring water, at £1.20 for the same 750 mil.

    5. Just toasted Her Majesty, as described above, including Second Son (can’t be drinking alone just yet)
      Excellent! Warm and flavoursome – needs the ice, though.

  55. Had a bit of a shock yesterday at work. Discovered (after the event, natch) that there was a pensions presentation from the company pension scheme for the over-58s. I wanted to go to that… so looked up my pension value- It seems that I can take (not necessarily afford…) retirement at 62, that is, in 9 months time! Am I really that fcuking old, that I’m nearly a pensioner? Jesus!

          1. An important part of your family life – I hope she will have new life with the new owner who will treat her well.

    2. The feel old point is when your son tells you that he has been to pension presentations and that he can retire in a few years.

        1. Retirement is a touchy subject with me.
          I retired 4y ago at 66.
          The DT SHOULD have retired at 60, 2y ago, except the the Guv’ment breaking its promises.
          She now has another 4y before she draws her state pension and can afford to retire.

  61. That’s a bit more done up the so-called “garden.”
    A small amount of shuttering and other preparation for doing a mix of concrete, possibly tomorrow and some digging out for resetting some steps I put in to an upper level of the hillside.

    Starting off with used kerbstones salvaged from road works, I realised that though they made excellent steps for going up the hillside, unfortunately I placed them too close to each other resulting in the actual steps being too narrow as well as a bit unstable.
    So, I am now digging out to give an extra 4″ width, which does means digging out rather a lot of soil, but, with the wall building, at least I’ve somewhere to put it.

    The steps at their old spacing;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fbdf8f8b3ad088f5c32638afa4b1932e780715c734282af91da8ec8a7c4dac6a.jpg

    And at their new spacing with an extra 4″; Stop giggling at the back, Anne & Maggie!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b3111474590df085f6c33d8e2dcf1631de5a8ffbf510f0a1e56464fd6184004.jpg

    This gives a good idea of how much soil I’m digging out:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d642e4d5c59e28d6435462f90e7ba3d91d933a12688dce26f0c2d4314823d93.jpg

    Another 10 steps to dig out and yes, as I go the amount of soil being removed per step is going to get rather ridiculous but it needs doing!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3b25a166e0c4c8b25af90092106d4bde7a9854c1dcb65ede57e9ce3effad3ed1.jpg

    Looking down on what I’ve done today with the sheet of shuttering for sliding the concrete mix down put in place;
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74b630ce752ea14bc9c6f875be0831e1b3365808ba09c394bc3fcfcb485cede4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c4a0e547deafd6b035f032bf977ab82cf0474e93b7fd6f830a50f7da0d1e892.jpg

    1. It’ll all be worth it when you’ve got a beautiful terraced garden!
      Not your primary goal I expect, but it will surely add a lot of value to your property?

      1. Might have been LotL who mentioned it, but the Hanging Gardens of Bonsall has a nice ring to it!

      1. The hardest bit on the steps was done between 10 to 20y ago when I got the kerbstones up the garden.
        Manoeuvring them about is more technique than strength and the digging out is a bucketful at a time.

          1. I’m working on 2 or 3 steps per week.
            But as I have to start digging more and more hillside away with each step, that is negotiable!

            Comparing the completed top wall to the lower wall, I’ve got about 10 or so feet of footings to get dug out and concreted in, then the wall to build on top to match.

  64. This is a little weird, but quite believable
    https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/mega-rich-plan-outsmart-doomsday-podcast/35998/

    “First, he’s now saying he’s gonna give back 99% of his money, to which I always say, “What if you had just made Facebook 99% less abusive?” Imagine that! But the other problem with Zuckerberg is that his role model is Augustus Caesar. He’s even got his hair cut like Caesar. So if you see yourself as the emperor of humanity, then it’s really not gonna work.”

  65. Dear god… the cat can’t be bothered to even go outside before being sick on the mat. Nice. Warm vomit to collect… Æsj!

    1. The classic one is when they do it outside your bedroom door in the middle of a dark winter’s night, and then you go to the loo barefoot…

        1. Ours used to bring worms in through the Velux at night, chew them in half and leave them on the mat on my side of the bed!

          1. The other night when I was about about to give Lily her supper, i found a large, slimy slug about to climb into her bowl…….. it was evicted sharpish through the cat flap.

    2. Well, that’s because you got annoyed with them when they upset your meal! They don’t forget, you know! 🙀

  66. Here’s some bad news: See https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/283452
    Narrative:
    Avro Vulcan B.2 XM655 suffered a runway excursion at Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield (EGBW), Warwickshire in preperation for a high speed taxi during a public display scheduled for a few days later. The Avro Vulcan bomber came to rest in mud alongside the B4086 Wellesbourne to Stratford road. There were no reported injuries related to the incident.

    Location: Wellesbourne Mountford Airfield (EGBW), Warwickshire
    Aircraft damage: Minor

    In a statement, the XM655 Maintenance and Preservation Society reported:
    “After satisfactorily completing low speed steering and braking tests on runway 05/23, the aircraft was taken onto runway 18/36 for a trial high speed run. Due to a malfunction of a piece of equipment in the cockpit, the aircraft remained at full power for approximately two seconds longer than intended. This resulted in excessive speed and less distance in which to stop, and the aircraft passed beyond the end of the runway on to the agricultural area, stopping just before the airfield perimeter. The failed equipment was an air speed indicator which had been tested and found satisfactory six days ago, and which started working normally before the end of the run. The aircraft brakes worked properly but were unable to bring things to a halt within the reduced space available.”

    https://youtu.be/1WfqKPPstv4

  67. We had a few hours in Swanage this afternoon. Moh wanted fish and chips!

    We had walked the dogs earlier , they were in the dog crate in the car .

    Moh had haddock and chips £12.30 and my own portion , I asked for child size , which was very generous, £ 5.50.. fresh and delicious ..

    We sat and ate in the car , and watched the little boats scudding around , the sea changing colour , and the clouds whizzing across the sky.. The town was very busy with walkers , hikers, cycles and real out doorsy characters .. People seem to have taken to carrying walking poles .. look like ski sticks .

    The air smelt of Autumn , fresh , salty and probably Arctic , well almost .. it has been 18C today, good drying breeze .

    It was very chilly this morning , 7c by 8am ..

      1. I bought some before we went to trek to the gorillas in Uganda – but one was all I needed there. I don’t think I’ve used them since for ordinary walks here, but I suppose if I become infirm they’d be useful. It’s quite hilly here.

        1. A few years ago, none of the middle class stay at home mums could go for a walk after their children had gone to school in the morning without carrying one of those poles in each hand.

          1. My friend with whom I ramble, uses them! I put her in the same category as Mumsnet, NCT and Centre Parcs customers!

    2. From my Journal:

      “.After passing through a couple of locks with hardly a soul around I spotted a woman on the towpath with a couple of hiking sticks running and approaching rapidly from astern. As she drew alongside, I asked her if her sticks were: “Norwegian Walking Poles?” “Yes” she said. I responded:” Well why are you cheating by running?” Laughter ensued. It turns out she was a Senior Physiotherapist on her daily two-mile jog to her clinic in Rugeley.”

  71. On Monday, pro rata, there will be far, far more Bames in Westminster Abbey paying their respects to HM Queen Elizabeth than ever there have been passing the lying in state, or lining the roads. The TV cameras won’t even have to go hunting to find them to show.

    Where abouts were all those permanent immigrants showing their loyalty to the UK?

      1. Not quite, these will be senior diplomats, Presidents and royalty equivalents, seriously important people.
        The UK may no longer be an economic superpower, but the “soft power” is still substantial.
        Perhaps the UK and the world missed a trick by not inviting Putin. There might well have been some worthwhile behind the scenes diplomacy

  72. Well, I’ve just walked about 4 miles across, around fields through woods and back home blinded by sunshine. Poor old doggo is clapped out as much as I am.My longest walk for nearly two years. Sitting with a Brew Dog Hazy Jane…..it’s a 5 % new England IPA. Very nice too. Moussaka in the oven.

    1. Saw them at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield in the late 1980s. Dennis Locorriere, the lead singer, ordered ‘every pervert in the audience to raise a hand’.

      A large number of the audience, male and female, did so. I raised both of mine!

  74. Hello.

    Just caught a few moments of the change of the Vigilantes(?) around the Late Queen’s coffin. Can’t say I’m impressed with the 3′:0″ lady Beefeater….

  75. Back from Wivno – lovely weather in yer Essex.

    G & P were sulking in the porch – declined their supper – even had to be FORCED to eat a couple of treats. Gus’s face was a sight – rage and fury and “I am leaving to go to the RSPCA” look…!!

    Any news?

      1. They KNEW – somehow. We had no luggage (which is often a giveaway). But they were miffed before we left…!

        1. Not good enough, Bill! They also need to know when you’re expected home…so they won’t be around!

          3. Thank you, Sue! She is very sweet natured. She got a lot of attention in France. The photo was taken yesterday, she is 13 now.

          5. I give my pair a biscuit each when I’m going out and tell them to look after the house and each other (and not to leave me any floods or piles!). When I get back, they get another biscuit.

    4. Separation anxiety – they probably thought you had abandoned them for another six months (cat years)

  76. While watching the stream of people passing through Westminster Hall, I had a thought.
    In the five days that the Queen has been lying in state, practically the equivalent of the population of England in AD 1099 will have passed through its doors.

    2. Brilliant observation…I am quite sure that you and your B are substantially descended from same (as am I and many other NoTTLers), how dusky do you look?

        1. I go old-pub-nicotine yellow / old tube-train ceiling yellow, and am highly resistant to the sun.
          Not pretty, though.

        2. I go old-pub-nicotine yellow / old tube-train ceiling yellow, and am highly resistant to the sun.
          Not pretty, though.

          2. I cannot cope with sunshine either , not even when I was younger , very fair skin .

            I met Moh in the Spring , he is blue eyed like me , but I had NO idea he would go quite so deeply nut brown in the summer .

            Sadly he now reaping the conseqences with various skin complaints , head, ears and his torso

          1. I have always walked on the shady side of the street. (OMG I hope that is not a euphemism, it sounds like one…)

        1. My Thorshammer, Mjølnir, lives in my left front pocket. It found me, by hiding in the roots of our lemon tree and popping out when I reportted it…

        2. Me too. My maiden name originated just six miles from where I was brought up. Poppiesdad has a norman surname. My mother’s maiden surname is after a village in Cumberland (Blenkarn).

          2. I can trace my origins back to Egil, King in Sweden, Uppsala, in 530 A.D. and I’m proud of that Connors. I am 50th generation and recognise my heritage.

          3. Yes, we are a bastard, heritage nation, But, we’ve taken the best, worked on it and produced a nation that is among the best in this poor world.

          4. My father’s family came from Gloucestershire but he was born in Surrey. He moved to Gloucester just before the war and probably didn’t know about his ancestral home. I’ve traced them back to prior to the parish records so pre- 1538 and probably much before.

  77. OK. I’ve cracked; despite my avowed intentions, I’ve ordered an embroidery kit.
    Nothing that requires deep thought, but something to keep hands and mind going during the hiatuses (hiati?) between paperwork and box packing.

    1. Thank you for digging that out. I had heard that Aldous Huxley’s brother was involved in the one world fascist government plans, and that informed his work.

  80. Nicked post worth popping back in to share

    Government was created to replace the process by which might was right and justice
    was sought by victims and their kin by retaliation and retribution.

    Laws were passed and imposed by the state to codify the moral and social
    expectations of the people expressly to protect them from the
    depredations of those who would otherwise act without censure.

    Somehow this has metastasised into an oppressive bureaucracy that creates laws
    without consent expressly to oppress, impoverish and demoralise those it
    claims to serve while claiming to be morally superior to those who
    suffer.

    “Let them eat cake” will be eclipsed by the hypocrisy of
    those who willingly create misery and hunger while living comfortably
    off the suffering of others.

    What is your fair share of the wealth I and my forebears have created and conserved that you demand to fund your life of ease?

    1. The problem with government protecting civil rights is that then that same government starts to choose what rights are.

      It continues to gather power to itself – given freely by a public intentionally kept ignorant of the goal of that state machine.

      Let them eat cake – if memory serves – was really ‘reduce the price of brioche’ so the poor could afford it when bread became too expensive?

  81. Me voici de retour, mes amis. My horse had the distinction of only beating one home 🙁 Still, it was so close he was only beaten 8 lengths (in a 14 runner field).

      1. That’s why I was sad they abandoned the racing after the announcement. It was good to see the main presenters (Richard Hoiles, Mick Fitzgerald and Jason Weaver) looking so smart in somber suits and black ties to present the Opening Show. Good tributes to HM from Mick Fitz and Richard Hughes, both Irishmen.

  82. A reply to Ndovu – yes, Sooty came home and we had him with us for another 8 years when he went missing again for a week or so. We put up notices around the village and a neighbour next door but one immediately adjacent to the church said there was a bad smell coming from beneath her hedge, and yes, sadly it was him…. We think he had been caught by a car going through the village and he had managed to get to the hedge to hide in shock and that was it. He didn’t recover

    The strange thing was, he went missing on exactly the same day the Soham girls went missing, and he was found the same day their bodies were found, presumably for the same reason.

    1. So sad, Mum, to lose a loved pet. I like others on here have suffered the same. We love ’em, you love ’em and then they’re gone. Love and huggy condolences.

      1. I cried for two weeks on and off after we found his little body. I sobbed on my way to work in the car, as I was walking up the spiral staircase to my office; when my door was closed I would start again. I had to keep a tissue in my hand all the time. He was a a brute, a thug of a cat, but we loved him.

        2. I still suffer waves of grief and loss after Charlie’s death and that is now 17 months ago. I keep telling myself I have Oscar (and now Kadi as well), but he left a big hole in my life. Oddly enough, Kadi is starting to do a lot of the things that Charlie used to do.

    2. Oh – that’s very sad. Nobody could forget that photo of the Soham girls – Holly and Jessica. My late cousin’s children went to the same school.

      Poor Sooty – I’m glad he came back to you the first time. We never did find Suzie – but our neighbour lost her cat the same week, and she found Dulcie’s fluffy tail and buried it. We knew something had taken them.

    1. We were in a restaurant this evening and the French TV was on, on the “big screen”; non stop coverage of the Queen’s life and the queues.

    2. TTFN? Bill, you are really Jimmy Young and I claim my five bob postal order. Lol. PS – Good night and sleep well.

  84. Had a horrible couple of nights so heading to bed. Sleep well, you ‘orrible lot.
    I don’t like the Queen being gone….

      1. Do not stand at my grave and weep (1932)

        Do not stand at my grave and weep
        I am not there; I do not sleep.
        I am a thousand winds that blow,
        I am the diamond glints on snow,
        I am the sun on ripened grain,
        I am the gentle autumn rain.
        When you awaken in the morning’s hush
        I am the swift uplifting rush
        Of quiet birds in circled flight.
        I am the soft stars that shine at night.
        Do not stand at my grave and cry,
        I am not there; I did not die.

        Mary Elizabeth Frye

        2. I can share that, Maggie:

          All Is Well

          Death is nothing at all
          I have only slipped away into the next room.
          I am I and you are you.
          Whatever we were to each other, that we still are.

          Call me by my old familiar name,
          Speak to me in the easy way, which you always used.
          Put no difference into your tone and
          Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.

          Laugh, as we always laughed, at the little jokes we enjoyed together,
          Play, smile, think of me, pray for me –
          Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
          Let it be spoken without effect, without the trace of shadow on it.

          Life means all that it ever meant,
          It is the same as it ever was.
          There is absolutely unbroken continuity
          Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?

          I am but waiting for you
          For an interval
          Somewhere very near;
          Just around the corner
          All is well.

          I think it was Christina Rossetti

    2. #NorMe, Ann, an era has ended and I don’t care much for the future. I too will soon run for my bed.

    3. I feel unsettled as well.

      The RF are trying too hard .. and when they retreat back to their castles and such like and take off their jewels and ring for the butler or cook , the public just may start to get restless if the lights go out and gas is rationed .

    1. Absolutely hits the tipping point. My message is, Charles, wake up, recognise that the people, who hold the ultimate power, do not agree with your woke ideas. We want the Britain we remember, we demand a return to law, order, justice and fairness, as epitomised by you Mother, and we will fight for it.

    2. I said to my wife this evening that the Royal Family could have done a lot worse than for all of them to have stood their vigil, by the coffin, in the uniform of the lowest rank in each of the services.

      They represent their people; when the funeral takes place that would be the time to stand in all their splendour having acknowledged that they are of the people but above them only by the consent of the people.

      2. I’m not sure by what right Harry wore a ‘uniform’ at the vigil. He’s not in the forces, he’s not a working royal. I can’t wear uniform if I could go to the lying in state.

        No, what Harry was wearing was a costume, not a uniform.

          1. Giving in to Harry and Migraine is a gross mistake – but Harry should not have been banned from wearing his army togs in the first place.

            x

          6. Didn’t want to be the odd one out. Also Charles probably thought it wasn’t worth picking a fight over.

  86. Right, I’m off to bed!
    Might do a run into Derby to see stepson, or I mat do more on up the “Garden”.

    Decisions, decisions!

    Looking outside it’s 6°C, 1° warmer than yesterday evening, so we might avoid a frost in the morning.

    Goodnight all.

  87. Goodnight and God bless all our fellow NoTTLer gentlefolk. Just remember, we ALL want a return to what it was under our gentle Queen.

  88. Wordle 455 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Daily Quordle 236
    5️⃣8️⃣
    3️⃣4️⃣
    quordle.com
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩 🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Wordle 455 3/6

      ⬛⬛⬛🟨🟨
      🟩🟩⬛⬛🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩. and

      Daily Quordle 236
      5️⃣7️⃣
      8️⃣9️⃣

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩🟨🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩 ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  89. Buenos tardes todos.
    I got back at 2.00 this morning after flight from Valencia delayed eight hours. Bl**dy French.
    Pleasant hols, mostly good company, I can take or leave Spanish food.
    Pussy cats haven’t left my side since I got back.

  90. Goodnight, all. I shall couvre-feu (I gave in and lit the fire because it was so chilly – plus it will help dry out the plaster) and go to bed.

      1. As usual, Elsie 🙂 The new insulation in the sitting room has plaster applied to it. The next thing I shall have to do is redecorate.

    1. No, we won’t, sadly. We urgently need this violence publicised, just to point out how barbaric they are.

      Any involved should be deported. It’s only going to be a problem later on as a welfare dependent class of layabouts who have no business being in this country cause ever more problems.

  94. Yet again, I seem to have stayed up beyond my preferred bedtime. So I will now wish you all a good night – sleep well.

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