Saturday 18 May: It’s time for a radical overhaul of the health service’s management class

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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764 thoughts on “Saturday 18 May: It’s time for a radical overhaul of the health service’s management class”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) Story
    MORAL TEST

    Moral Test….Read to the end before making a judgement…Cheers
    This test only has one question, but it’s a very important one.

    By giving an honest answer, you will discover where you stand morally.

    The test features an unlikely, completely fictional, situation in which you will have to make a decision. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous.
    Please scroll down slowly and give due consideration to each line.

    The Situation:

    You are in London.
    There is chaos all around you caused by a hurricane with severe flooding.
    This is a flood of biblical proportions.

    You are a photo-journalist working for a major newspaper, and you’re caught in
    the middle of this epic disaster. The situation is nearly hopeless.

    You’re trying to shoot career-making photos. There are houses crumbling and people swirling around you, some disappearing into the water.

    Nature is unleashing all of its destructive fury.

    The Test:

    Suddenly, you see a man in the water.

    He is fighting for his life, trying not to be taken down with the debris.
    You move closer… Somehow, the man looks familiar…

    You suddenly realize who it is…. It’s the Muslim Cleric, Abu Hamza, the one-eyed, hook
    handed bastard who hates non-Muslims and wants the UK to become an Islamic state!!

    You notice that the raging waters are about to take him under forever.

    You have two options:

    You can save the life of Abu or you can shoot a dramatic Pulitzer Prize winning photo, documenting the death of one of the country’s most despised, evil and horrible men!

    Now The Question And Please Give An Honest Answer

    Would you select high contrast colour film or, would you go with the classic simplicity of black and white?

  2. Good morning everyone

    Off walking the North Downs Way now. Back later.

  4. Good morning, chums. And a big Thank You to Geoff for today’s site.

    Wordle 1,064 4/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Yes, I’m good thanks.
        I’ve had my morning cuppa and just thinking about going out for a walk. Looks like a nice day for it.

    6. Nice to see you again, Girly. Been too long, one was concerned. All good, I hope?

  7. The West has yet to grasp we have moved fast into a world crisis that leads to war. 18 May 2024.

    The only remedies against this are the severe deterrents of overwhelming force and unbearable economic cost. The hard economic facts – hard, it must be emphasised, for both sides – are that 50 per cent of global maritime trade crosses the 100-mile strait between mainland China and Taiwan, so the world economy crashes if China attacks. The key US/Japanese military aim is to make it so difficult for Chinese forces to reach Taiwan’s beaches at all that they won’t dare try.

    Like a Good Globalist Charles Moore argues for War with Russia and China. What, I ask myself, is in in it for me, and lots of other White Indigenous Brits?

    That country that my Father fought for in India and Burma is no more. He wouldn’t even recognise it. I don’t recognise it. I don’t need the MSM to tell me that it no longer exists; which is fortunate since they won’t. I shall see the truth of it for myself in an hour when I go downtown to do some shopping. It seems pretty obvious that the numbers that have arrived in the last two years are far in excess of the one million admitted by Westminster and of course there are more on the way with no impediment to their arrival.

    This said I shall not be supporting any War against Russia or China. I’m helped in this because I don’t actually regard them as a danger to the UK. China is too far away and Vladimir Putin; even if he wished us harm, is incapable of implementing it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/17/xi-jinping-vladimir-putin-ukraine-taiwan-invasion-america/

    1. Good morning Minty, and everyone.

      He writes well, but Charles Moore took the government shilling and is now one of the Elite; ensconced as a member of the House of Lords where he can be rewarded for nodding. He also switched to Catholicism, that bastion of resentment of the Eastern Church, together with an undercurrent of anti-semitism.
      PS Charles is not necessarily a ‘Globalist’; that expression can now refer to the Global Majority, i.e. those of the world’s population who are of non-caucasian appearance. Bames will now be ‘Globals’, or Globs.

    2. We can’t go to war with China because it makes most of the stuff we need to sustain our lifestyle.

      We can’t go to war with Russia because our energy is dependent on the gas it sells to China which we buy.

      We could, of course, be energy secure locally. We could produce our own materials. Our own industry could produce masses of what we need and sell it equally to China, but we can’t have that because business is bad m’kay and, bluntly, big fat state wants to destroy us out of spite and revenge for Brexit.

      But hey. The Left want to force us back to the stone ages. I just wish they’d live in the first. It’d shut them up on twitter, their placards would stop getting made and when they start dying from a lack of medication do the country a favour.

    3. Russia AND China? At the same time? Just the one of them alone will cause catastrophe, but simultaneously?
      Agree with your last 1 1/2 line paragraph. Islam is the world problem.

    4. The only world ‘crisis’ that is leading to war is the need for all the dollar debt to be unwound before we move over to the new system!

  9. Good morning, all. Overcast with light drizzle at 06:15.

    This week’s The Highwire goes after Astra Zeneca in its first two segments. The first segment is a report on a lady who joined the AZ trials, had a bad reaction and is now suing AZ for damages. Her lawyer is Aaron Siri who does a great deal of work for ICAN, The Highwire’s non-profit organisation.

    The second segment, 33 minutes in, is introduced in the Jaxen Report in which investigative reporter Jefferey Jaxen exposes the situation that AZ found itself in and surprisingly, or in today’s situation, should that be unsurprisingly, the British government continued to push the “vaccine” supported by many within the MSM.

    The charts show that Adverse Reactions were happening and being reported on the Yellow Card reporting system and so, both the medical fraternity and the government should have known what was happening. Nevertheless, the “vaccine” still remained ‘Safe and Effective’ and its use continued.

    The Highwire

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d6ff6b2add0b640d9b93608db0cf78c8ba40fbb01ad7d52f9c5b4eafcd65f6ba.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1fbf1d7cdd130ded97a452c2772f4d6b307f9ff21f359568c572b005549d8b47.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c89f56ec830711a0b6d3d834295aa45ac26b15766364b5e77a59ec068dfa19ec.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2b5278181c2f3d73be6a04d65fe54d5589efec2198916f125ecd09bd267a864.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/012fc1c264f72d017781aa8c73ce882d3a75926dc73984b1a1410dc3df8bab33.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/082503981513b2471afad2552798717dc9f1b7f897388816121b91548a1329d5.png

    1. I have a good friend, aged 76, who lives in South Wales. She is currently at her summer home in Norfolk with her friend. They drove there last week and intend to remain until July.

      A couple of days ago she was notified that her latest Covid jab is ready for her back in South Wales. She now intends to return for a couple of days, by train, have the jab, then ride back to Norfolk again.

      I have repeatedly tried to warn her about the dangers (and complete unnecessity) of those untested vaccines, but whenever I do she tells me that she trusts the vaccine and stubbornly refuses to believe all the ‘hype’ about it being unsafe.

      What I can’t understand is why does she have to drive back to South Wales for the damn jab. Surely she could present herself to a local surgery in Norfolk. Or am I being completely naïve?

  10. @squireweston:disqus Good morning I was trying to bring you sunshine through the gloom of the Snowdonia mist at dawnm, Helios failed this immortal muse, but I shall always bring music 🙂

    1. Still misty, but there are signs that Helios may be on his way.☀️

      1. I shall have another word with old Helios, but Eos did ride his chariot across the rosy dawn of creation. I’ll dance for Helios and play my flute .
        I hope those signs prove true .🙂. It’s similar here too .

        1. It has worked……the mist has gone (hopefully to Scotland where they deserve it) and the sun is shining. 😁😁😁

          1. Sad to say, Squire, your wish didn’t work. It’s sunny here in The Borders, it’ll soon be pi55ing down in Wales – again!

  11. 387197+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Saturday 18 May: It’s time for a radical overhaul of the health service’s management class

    Saturday 18 May: It’s time for a radical overhaul of the political governmental criminally insane mismanagement class, no point in fixing one segment of the infrastructure only to have it, before you can say “idontwannajab”it is back in a state of disrepair.

    We won the referendum & freedom from the eu via a small fringe party UKIP then the UNITED voters put an image of a target on EACH FOOT and pulled the bloody trigger,not once but twice, mass idiocy.

    They actually returned to supporting once again the very parties
    that had accepted the EUs shilling many years ago, in a “that’s shown them our anger” ( foot stamping) attitude.

    The road to RESET via WEF / NWO post 2016 got decidedly steeper and full of, as we have witnessed, life taking, serious life long injury, potholes.

    In short and maybe not to late, as we should have shaped up or
    submissively shipped out in 2016, NOT supported the continuation of more of the same.

    1. Increasingly I think the state is just doing everything possible to destroy this country. It is devoted to causing chaos and destroying markets and opportunity, freedom and choice. This massively accelerated after Brexit as if the state wanted revenge, determined to do so much damage to ensure we could never succeed against the hated EU as we naturally would have if endless statist roadblocks, tank traps, caltrops, ditches and missile batteries hadn’t been rammed into the path of business.

  12. Good morning everyone from Olympus, Mercia, Audrey and me.

    Today I shall be attending a talk by a renowned professor on the subject of Celtic Paganism in Britain – those wonderful Iron Age Britons and the such I’ll imagine.
    I’m fascinated by the spirituality of the early Christians and Celtic Christianity – but this is Celtic Paganism – raw history before faith.
    This professor has written a book on historical Authur and Gawain poet – celtic Christian King who avoided Paganism during the Saxon invasions .
    I am looking forward to this talk – very fond of mystical things .

    1. Good morning.
      There’s a lot of New Age ahistorical nonsense spouted about Celtic paganism (which was pretty unpleasant like all paganisms) and Celtic Christianity. The main deviations of the latter from the mainstream church at the time were the greater role of Abbeys in the structure of the faith (largely because cities where Bishops were based had collapsed), the calculation of the date of Easter and bizarrely the shape of the monastic tonsure.
      Whether the Celtic church retained reverence for Pelagianism, or the primacy of free will over predestination (Pelagius was a fifth century British monk), is a moot point. Personally I regret the outcome of the Synod of Whitby – the victory there of a more decentralised Celtic Christian church would have perhaps avoided many later evils as the church became more centralised and authoritarian.
      In a way the Synod of Whitby was a kind of Theological Brexit debate in which the pro Continental Remainers prevailed.

      1. I’ve long said that the submission of the Celtic Church to the diktat of Rome was a huge error.

        1. Bit difficult to carry it on when the Roman’s chopped up anyone who disagreed with them.

      2. Abbess Hilda had the casting vote and doesn’t Bede say that she used it?

      4. It was rather good actually. A few points, he spoke more of the ancient Britons / Celts beliefs as In the Gods / the rivers of which still retain Celtic names. He said Druids look stupid wandering around wearing bedsheets .But far more interesting was he briefly touched on the Britons going West when the Saxons came – building hidden communities . He also very much believes that Arthur did exist and wrote a book to prove that fact..
        a rather eccentric old Professor who wasn’t woke and thinks most modern academic are mad. He didn’t wear a watch which I thought odd .

    2. As with almost all mythology, it’s rooted in tribal survival. When it rained and a crop failed we looked at the sky and said ‘damn you!’ before dying. Equally Christ turning water into wine is a reminder that alcohol kills poisons. Same for not pooing where you drink/eat.

      Christianity so desperately wanted to expand that it took our existing, harmless pagan beliefs and converted them to suit itself – relegating the mother (from being the source of life) and demonising the father (the green man) and replacing both with an unknown, unseen, untouchable all powerful overlord – the Church itself.

      I bloody hate religion.

      Worse, as religion erases itself, the state machine is trying to become the Church.

  14. Good morning everyone. Angel of Gloom here. It will be more than a honey shortage, much more. https://x.com/Artemisfornow/status/1791364158576861531

    Oh, the link has disappeared. It was about the ‘Biosecurity’ Act in NZ and the destruction of the hives of millions of bees in OZ and NZ – ‘euthanising’ the bees by pouring petrol on to the hives and setting them alight. Why are we allowing this to happen, why are we so supine? The link showed distraught farmer with commentary and substantial blaze in the background.

      1. Thank you – it doesn’t appear on my screen, it disappeared before my eyes and I could not retrieve it, so I thought perhaps the information with the link had been deleted. Another random disqus glitch perhaps.

    2. Until the state is simply shut down this sort of madness will continue. Government is moronic. There are people there who make decisions without any concept of what they’re doing. Nature survives because it is better at doing so than we are. This veryhuman effort to control the environment is caatastrophically stupid. It is so dumb it could only come from the mind of officialdom.

    3. I saw the photos of that on Twitter. Utterly heartbreaking. Apparently some test just showed a minimum result, but the poor bees were torched anyway.

          1. Not piled up like a plane crash, as I saw in the newspaper. The bees would have buggered off smartish by then, after stinging everbody soundly.

    4. Honey producer Springbank Honey of North Canterbury was ordered to burn more than 10,000 of its beehives and beekeeping equipment after American Foulbrood (AFB) was identified through spore testing. AFB is a bacterial disease spread by spores that could be viable for up to 40 years.
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/516930/beekeeper-steven-brown-furious-over-destruction-of-2m-honey-crop

      Burning the hives was more painful when other countries used tools like vaccines, antibiotics and sterilisation – measures prohibited in New Zealand and in some export markets.
      “Most farmers vaccinate their cows for diseases every single year, but it’s illegal to vaccinate the hive,” Brown said.
      “I don’t understand why we have our heads in the sand and live like it’s 200 years ago without these amazing abilities of giving a vaccine and stopping disease; instead we burn things.”

  15. Good morning all. A fine bright start to the day with light cloud and 9°C outside. Forecast to get warm.

  16. Good morning all and the 77th,

    A bit cloudy and some early morning chem-trail activity over Castle McPhee following on from yesterday evening’s. Wind in the North-East, 13℃ rising to 19℃ today.

    When I got home from fishing yesterday evening I took a few snaps of the abnormal sky around 7 pm. It was the trails in the first one which drew my attention. I noticed these trails while I was driving and from the way the angle of view changed as I neared the castle, that is, my line of sight was increasingly vertical. I deduced that they were not in the troposphere or close to it which is where normal jet aircraft contrails occur.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e18887e8051a46ebe7a7f0b522cd6d40b34b64654976fe94ce45c813f836a478.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cea652139b1f7a6cc07caf869191827c9cb6370feb21b1177740f38f80aa7732.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e69b72e305accea3588661bff807ae250e6a5f336433f4af24d0a2c2bda4cd8.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc172fee9b4194be084a935ccff78e902a97c60ab47d1430f0b1f8ebcb6212dc.png

    They were at it again this morning. The sky just before 6.30am:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/058b30dbbcd40fbbff421227c3bd59c58dcf999b5f1c5c07b7c04256562c5770.png

    Now let me introduce you to this chap, a current airline captian based in Manchester. He has been doing a lot of detective work and he has come up with some startling facts.

    https://rumble.com/v3z6wcg-commercial-pilot-reveals-the-truth-behind-chemtrails-dr-david-cartland-2023.html

    Chem-trails are real, folks. The base materials are barium, strontium and aluminium oxide, all highly toxic.

    I hope he has good security.

    1. And arsine as well, I have read: “Arsine causes massive hemolysis and results in anemia, jaundice, and hemoglobinuric renal failure. The intensity and length of arsine exposure, and the premorbid condition of the person exposed, will contribute to the time of onset and the severity of illness.”

    2. So you had a fish call did you? 😉

      A friend of mine has been talking about chem trails for years I’ve always found it hard to believe.
      But I’ll forward the link. She’ll be extactic or something else very similar.

    3. Or they could be exhaust trails dispersing as wind moves the different temperature elements apart?

      1. The wind doesn’t move different temperature elements apart. Jet engine exhasust gases tend to be at the same temperature. What disperses them are the vortices coming form the wing-tips of the aircraft which can endure for some considerable time after the aircraft has moved on.

        What I didn’t add was that I also observed an aircraft contrailing which was clearly well above that altitude of these smudges in the sky. Well above. Chem-trailing is carried out between 10,000 and 12,000 feet amsl.

    4. His info on tracking is a bit off. Its done by ADS B and not transponder codes, so I would have thought that 2excel aircraft could be tracked. I’m not convinced that covering small areas in chemicals at considerable cost will affect the climate in any way but its sometimes surprising what does go on in this whacky world.

      1. Climate is the public excuse they would trot out if openly challenged. The real reason would seem to be much, much darker than that.

  18. Good morning !
    Anne Robinson is in a relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles.

    I certainly don’t want to be a fly on that wall !

        2. That must have been taken a long time ago Grizz.
          Oh I’m such a biatch 😜

        3. Anne Robinson reveals she’s dating Queen Camilla’s ex-husband. Robinson and Parker Bowles are understood to have met at a dinner in 2022
          They’ve remained tight-lipped about their romance after rumours began to fly at the end of last year.
          Anne Robinson has now confirmed she is dating Queen Camilla’s ex-husband Andrew Parker Bowles – and some details of their meeting are rather unlikely.
          Unconfirmed reports at the end of last year suggested the former Weakest Link host, 79, and the retired cavalry officer, 84, were in a relationship.
          Robinson has now told Saga magazine that this is the case, saying: ‘Yes. Full stop. Mind your own business.’

          1. Anne always did have an ascerbic tongue. But she is right to tell them to mind their business.

    2. Fair enough.
      Not sure how old he is, but she’s not in bad shape for her age.
      But what the Hell is it to do with anyone else?

        1. But does he have steel in his piston and does she have Duckham’s in her cylinder?😉

          3. Oddly yes. Both are bright and witty with long careers.

            Equally sometimes with the right person you can have an entire conversation with a squeeze of the hand.

          6. No. Duckham’s, like Castrol, is refined.

            They both produce a 20/50 but I’m not sure if they do a 79/84.

    4. This has been known about for a long time, it’s just the first time she has given a straightforward affirmative answer to the question – in typical Anne Robinson style :))

    5. There is a forum where the Warqueen’s ‘retirement’ from modelling and marrying was lamented.

  19. Parasites in the water

    SIR – As a resident of Brixham, I alone know scores of people who have been affected by the cryptosporidium bug (“Devon water ‘contaminated by animal waste’”, report, May 17) – yet official figures suggest that relatively few people have been infected.

    We are being told to contact our GP online only if the symptoms are very severe, so how is the true extent of this very unpleasant outbreak ever going to be known?

    Kate Graeme-Cook

    That’s it. Blame it on the farmers when the reality is the water companies pumping millions of litres of raw sewage into the rivers. Polluting the aquifers.

    1. Elementary water regs would insist on a check valve to prevent backflow of mains water destined for animal troughs. A simple device costing a couple of pounds.

      Law-abiding folk have to jump through all sorts of regulatory hoops in order to satisfy the profit margins of the consultants, and yet where are the inspectors when public health is an issue?

    2. The fundamental problem is foul water run off which goes into the sewerage treatment system which cannot cope and then overflows into rivers and environment. Buffer tanks have to be processed within seven days or become toxic. SWW have just spent £100,000s on a treatment plant within our land to install a buffer tank – the first burst of heavy rain filled it in two hours and then the overflowing sewage started flowing onto the river system.
      A water treatment engineer I know said we need to separate the sewage treatment and foul water disposal systems nationally but that would cost £trillions and take a century.

        1. What this country needs is the borders defended and 20 million welfare dependent incomers removed.

    3. The fundamental problem is foul water run off which goes into the sewerage treatment system which cannot cope and then overflows into rivers and environment. Buffer tanks have to be processed within seven days or become toxic. SWW have just spent £100,000s on a treatment plant within our land to install a buffer tank – the first burst of heavy rain filled it in two hours and then the overflowing sewage started flowing onto the river system.
      A water treatment engineer I know said we need to separate the sewage treatment and foul water disposal systems nationally but that would cost £trillions and take a century.

    4. What water companies don’t mention is the costs of cleaning water vs the fines of dumping waste.

      Two things need to change – the population be radically reduced from 80 million + to a rational level, say 30 million and energy to be made so cheap you could leave a radiator on 24 7 all day long while an immersion heater runs full blast as the water pours out just for fun.

    1. The nub of the article suggests that pathetically low interest rates, originally intended as an emergency measure when Gordon Brown set about saving the world in 2008, dragged on for far too long. They should have gone back up to sensible levels in 2012. This inertia drag was repeated with the second Lockdown of 2021, after Covid ceased to be the killer it was in 2020, and was just another nuisance to be got over.

      The result of near-zero interest rates was to put any available investment money into property, which was doing well out of supply-and-demand and Help to Buy, rather than industry, sewn up by rip-off professionals, deregulated and out to make megabucks out of the honest trader. Sharp practice became de rigeur, and honesty and fairness only for wimps.

      Now interest rates are at sensible levels again, the thrifty might at last move their wealth into something productive, but I fear it needs an ethical overhaul of our institutions before this is realistic. Most people have more faith in borrowing from the Magic Fairy than saving up for a rainy day.

      As for taxes, nobody likes these. Left or Right, our governors have a duty and an obligation to give optimum value for money and clamp down hard on corruption, bling and ideological empire building. I am waiting for any political party with the will to do this.

      1. Completely agree and I said so as early as 2010.
        QE is financial crack cocaine for politicians.
        Brown didn’t save the world, he damned it for short term respite.

        1. Brown said in Parliament that he was saving the world, and who are we not to believe politicians?

        2. He wanted to borrow and waste and he did. When he left office off book debt was over £12 trillion. Now, thanks to the Tories it’s closer to 18 trillion – mostly through interest compounding.

          The state needs to be put through a blender, strained, sieved and shredded and the remains radically altered: no pay unless it does the work. Pay ceilings – a council boss is NOT worth £609,000. They’re not worth a tenth of that.

          What do all those departments do? Collect information. For what? Stop bothering people. Sack 7%% of the workforce. If there’s a ‘diversity’ meeting, then it’s taken from pay. Unionist activity? Comes straight out of pay directly as soon as you join. Stop funding fake charities completely. Stop giving public money to foreigners. Stop feeding foreigners. Hell, stop feeding wasters!

      2. The state simultaneously demands you invest but then destroys the rewards of doing so. This ‘British ISA’ nonsense is just another example: lock your cash up in UK industry – but only certain industry – the ones the state wants to stop using tax to subsidise.

        ESG was forced on investment arms and that’s buggered all returns as it’s loss making without subsidy which is just recycling cash.

        The state hates, absolutely hates private industry doing what it wants to and burndes us with endless red tape and pointless drivel (case in point, we’re not now allowed to support a dentist’s surgery because our 7 man band does not actively promote ‘diversity’. That’s how stupid this world is.

        Interest rates were suppressed to allow Brown to borrow recklessly. When the banks broke to hide his incompetence he tried to nationalise them, rather than let them fail. Osborne realised he couldn’t keep them suppressed forever and so went the other way, by destroying the value of the currency through QE. 15 years later our money is worth the same as it was in 1980 but thanks to devaluation, crushing taxation and state debt and moronic ‘green’ policy we’re paying 2040 prices for everything.

        Big government doesn’t care. It keeps it’s clients in clover: public sector employees, especially the high ups are troughing away. Welfarists are getting bumper pay rises.

        The people paying the taxes (inflation, devaluation and plain, boring taxes) are hammered at every step.

        Our little company has gone from six figure profit making (which you’re taxed if you leave in the bank) to 4 figure. Salaries can’t go up and we risk losing people – good people – because we can’t pay them what they’re worth.

        Government just doens’t care. If a business goes bust it simply taxes the rest more. It’s a oxytorch on effort, merit and achievement becaause it does nothing to earn anything. It scoops up 60-70% of every penny we earn and says ‘what, don’t like it? We’ll take some more then.’

        One afternoon our finance lady mistakenly put a payment into the wrong account. It was a support fee from a customer. We were fined, and taxed. Of the £1280 we got… drumroll…. £24. This is why we have a stupid complicated loss making farce to move our money overseas into shell companies. [bleep] the state.

    1. I’m hoping it’ll hold off for another hour to get some air around very wet washing.

      I think I’ll be disappointed.

    1. I don’t really know what to make of it. At a human eye level there’s no depth so I can’t tell if the fruit is on the plate. On the other, the colours are glorious, the grapes especially are beautifully painted.

    6. Thanks for comments. Personally i’m not sure what the artist is trying to convey. I think it is rubbish.

      1. Thank goodness! I thought I was the only one! It’s as flat as a flat thing!

    9. I’m not a great fan of Mary Fedden – the lack of perspective is too annoying and is only excusable in the work of Alfred Wallace, whose genuine knowledge of and passionate feeling about his subjects carries his paintings. There’s a whole school of mainly female painters who paint like Fedden. Some of their work hits the mark, other paintings less so.
      She knows perfectly well what she is doing, the grapes, egg and the lemon are painted with great skill to get that effect. If you cover up the mug and the tomatoes with your hand, the painting instantly become more appealing, to my eyes anyway.

        1. I don’t think mozzarella had been invented by the British middle classes yet….I assume it’s a hard-boiled egg!

          1. Lemon doesn’t go with egg. Mozzarella, tomatoes and grapes go with lemons.

      1. There are the brain dead who have more money than brain cells who buy this shite without feeling embarrassed at being fleeced. There are countless examples of idiots buying absolute crap just because it’s by someone who has made a name for themselves painting rubbish

    1. He’s a man. Worse, he thinks he’s a woman. That makes him mentally ill. We used to treat such people, not put them on the stage.

      2. Nonsense. The pantomime dame was the staple that fed resting actors after Christmas.

    3. You should take up golf Eddie you’d fit in quite well with the divots.

    4. Izzard keeps trying to be elected as a Labour MP. For some reason even the halfwits who normally vote Labour seem unwilling to give him their imprimatur. Conservative Central Office ought to send him a Thank You note. Or would a Get Well Soon card be more appropriate?

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Grey day and rain later, not mentioned in the forecast for our area yesterday. Typical.
    The government placed around 7 NHS regional directors in various areas around the country.
    Paying them healthy salaries.
    I had the impression they put into place to slowly bring the whole service to its knees.
    Basically because there were no signs of improvement.
    And then back to 1940s before it actually started after patients paid for their treatment.
    I think it was sixpence to see a GP. I was too young to know.
    The NHS is just another classic example of everything that our political classes comes into contact with they eff it up and big time.

    1. It’s the old story of two ants crawling up an elephants leg, one turned the other and said ” it’s true what they say, the bigger the organisation, the bigger the balls. “

      1. Yet in contrast the mollusc has – relative to it’s size – the larger penis.

  25. The NHS does not work. It is not fit for purpose. This is because as with all public sector institutions it is split in two. One half believes it is there to help people get better. The other, dominant half, the side that controls the healthcare side knows it’s an unaccountable, untouchable government department devoted to protecting itself from scrunity and doing any work.

    THis will change only when it stops being a government department.

    1. The public sector is obsessed with regulation and prevention; the private sector is concerned with production. One orders ‘Stop!’ while the other says ‘Start’.

      The public sector should be renamed the Control Sector.

      1. Yep. Big government is like a man in a spanner factory. He doesn’t know what he’s doing and has absolutely nothng to do so when he sees something working, he throws a spanner in the machine. When the spanner is crushed the moron thinks ‘right, I need more spanners’ and proceeds to throw every decent spanner back in the machine until it grinds to a halt.

        Then he blames the factory for making the wrong type of spanner, makes them fill in millions of reams of pointless paperwork to prove that throwing spanners into the machine making them was necessary.

  26. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny, in yer Devon.
    Still not drinking the water. Shades of living in Nigeria…

      1. And the natives don’t wash in the streams of Devon as they do in Nigeria.

        1. I believe the Nigerians defecate in the streams as well, and think it unlikely Devonians would do the same. London is a different matter, of course!

          1. Most certainly not, they are civilised as every other indigenous English person, but maybe a Nigerian took himself on holiday to Devon and did his daily ablutions in a stream- unless a drunk visiting pikey .

        2. Get any more diversity in the area and they soon will.

          Heck, the diversity need a guide on how to use the toilet and to be told not to defecate in the street. Many ignore that.

          We’ve a group who don’t use toilet paper after a number 2.

          During lockdown people had to be told how to wash their hands…. because they don’t.

          That’s how far this country has fallen. That’s what the diversity have brought us. Not nurses, doctors and teachers – savages.

    2. Lots or trees in Devon just like Norway and probably warmer,
      I remember saying only a few days ago that I never drink tap water I don’t like the taste . I much prefer natural spring or mineral water of which I buy.
      It does seem that we’re returning to the medieval age where the water was deadly .

      1. The water was a lot cleaner back then. Although we did drink an awful lot of beer.

        We’re going backward due to a disgusting feudalist society where the state is the robber baron, the public have no rights or freedoms and big fat state does whatever it chooses without our property. Where food is scarce, energy rationed and used inefficiently, where we’re cold, hungry and miserable.

        All because a medieval bunch of mentalists want to force their demented ideology on everyone else while never expecting to live it for themselves.

      2. 25C forecast high today at home, but 18C forcast today in Devon.
        Firstborn’s well delivers the most gorgeous water, completely untrested.

    3. Morning Devonian Obs.
      Where are you?
      We still get ads on tv pleading for money to save the lives of children in Africa over water. Their lazy parents need to get their fingers out and get digging.

      2. Every time we do it for them we exacerbate the problem. To help them we need to leave them alone. All we’re doing is keeping them dependent.

    4. Morning, Paul. Tell them Devonians to stop putting cream and jam on their scones.

      Scones should have raisins in them and be spread with just butter!👍🏻😊

  27. 387197+ up ticks,

    Flying poofs Batman
    ·

    Meet the new mayor of Brighton- Britain’s LGBTQI+ capital.

    Mohammed Asaduzzaman who is Muslim and originally from Bangladesh, has been elected as mayor of Brighton & Hove.

    Brighton has the UK’s largest LGBTQI+ population over the age of 16.

    1. As for that last sentence, I’d say it’s London, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage. Although the following extract from the Guardian is more then 10 years old, I very much doubt that the position has radically changed since then.

      Gay capital?
      The percentage of Britons saying they’re gay, lesbian or bisexual is far higher in London than anywhere else in the UK – 2.5% compared to just 1.1% in Northern Ireland and 1% in the East of England.

      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/reality-check/2013/oct/03/gay-britain-what-do-statistics-say

      1. Luckily here in Wales there is apparently only one gay in the village.

    1. In other news, I am astonished at my own ingenuity in thinking of so many wrong words….
      Wordle 1,064 5/6

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

      1. I had the same trouble finding the last letter

        Wordle 1,064 6/6

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

  29. I must be leaving now for the much benighted talk on Celtic Britons Paganism,
    the Romans thought them Iron age savages but they buried their gold and were trading with the Byzantine Empire long before the Romans. These same Celtic Pagans did eventually embrace Christianity . Professor Breeze whose doing the talk has written a wonderful book on the King Arthur legends too .

    See you later . Xx

    1. The Byzantines were the Romans, Kitty. Constantine the Great established the City of Constantinople aka Byzantium as capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in 330AD.

  30. ‘Morning All

    I wonder which cretin thought this was a good idea………

    https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1791107228801405200

    More greeniac lunacy eating their own

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9bdb4938d853d3f058d81c4956be434fe386d22c310a8e8d810427c35c1d1d78.png

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6786d8d1cdf88f917bdb5a4b66bc148fe7e000b7c0160710ba12cb2453ac9e78.png

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4fef041b1c0adf9539b927c5887fb305c46b7218e6dd0cf67117b62ae91edf1c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/58cfd9e21675b9808492302746c44a7d49473867dccd93be18d211e0b400b7a5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d2cbbd284f6e16afa39bb8f1625ea5a3c59f8319437902767e1cb55cac8180e9.jpg

    Sigh,if bloody only………….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21d83d8e577618e5e7c55c478a6de978221857f5ef509278581b50a40aa310d6.png

    1. Those Dutch Coalition plans are not “Right-wing”, they are Common Sense.

      1. The Left have forced rationality so far against the wall that common sense is no longer so common. Heck, we live in a time when people think a man in a dress is something to laud, not a clear sign of psychosis.

      2. And if the EU treats Holland with the same contempt as it treated the pathetic Cameron when he asked for minor concessions before the UK’s EU Referendum then let us hope that this will lead to a referendum in the Netherlands and the disintegration of the EU.

        Remember that when three countries, The Netherlands (60% against), France (55% against) and Ireland voted against the European Constitution Treaty Ireland was told to vote again and they simply ignored Holland and France and renamed the stitch up The Lisbon Treaty without allowing anyone to have a referendum.

        So if Ursula Fonda Lying thinks the Dutch would want to stay in the EU she might have a nasty awakening in store..

        1. And all these political failures who head these unaccountable supranationals like the EU, the WHO and the UN. These failures haven’t often even made a positive impact in their own countries never mind leading wider and/or worldwide organisations. And once they get a sniff of power…

    2. Why is being expected to speak the language such a bad thing? I remember a woman sat in an NHS hospital unable to speak or understand a word of English. She needed a friend to translate for he when *her* English was poor.

      Frankly, she should have been told to leave and come back when she can speak English.

      1. There are far too many English people living in France who don’t make any effort to learn and speak French.

        1. On the rare occasion that we have ventured abroad for a holiday, we have always made sure to learn at least a few phrases, including words for please, thank you …… and two bears please.

          1. Exactly what I have always done. Common courtesy.

            Out of interest, how is your ursine collection coming on?

          5. NOW I see it! What am I like? No, it’s a rhetorical question, please don’t answer 🙂

        2. Before going on holiday to Corfu I learned a few phrases in Greek. I was declared “The Englishman who speaks Greek” and given priority service.

          1. On the only foreign holiday we ever took our boys on, they (then aged about 10 and 14) also learned some phrases and the younger one was keen to use them at every opportunity, endearing himself to the landlady at our accommodation, the owner of the local Taverna and others.

        3. Before going on holiday to Corfu I learned a few phrases in Greek. I was declared “The Englishman who speaks Greek” and given priority service.

    1. Meanwhile, in the more advanced parts of the world, people are making ever fewer babies. But fear not, the good folks of sub-Saharan Africa are doing their best to make up for this dearth.

    2. If the climate scam isn’t a scam, then he’s absolutely correct.

      I believe that the climate is changing, but it has little if anything to do with mankind and is virtually entirely down to that big orange ball in the sky and is a perfectly natural process in the life of the planet, having happened thousands of times in the billions of years Earth has existed.

      If man is to blame for anything it is pollution and deforestation and other building and economic activity destroying the environment, but not changing the climate.

      1. Our deforestation is a big cause of changing oxygenation. After all, if one plant can soak up 25kg of co2 then several million probably do a bit more. But cutting them down to burn in Drax or for lithium mining for electric cars is, apparently, a good thing by Lefty standards.

        The great thing about being hoomahn and the worst is our ability to make the environment suit us. We have heating and cooling technology. We have medication to stop natural bacteria and virai killing us. We have defensive systems to protect us from the elements in clothing – which increasingly gets more sophisticated (apparently there’s winter clothes on sale now so the Warqueen did a fashion show of her new coat which has about a dozen layers of super insulating material but is only 2cm thick. In my defence she wasn’t wearing anything else. ).

        We’re not good at reaching equilibrium as we always want ‘more’. Junior and my’s hobby are made in factories from plastics. Her suits are made by some tailor bloke in London who buys cashmere and silks from foreign. The hygro…hydro… humidity thing is made using plastics and metals in China. Our storage boxes from carboard printed and glued over there.

        You see? We’re consumers. We return nothing to our environment whatsoever. Mongo and Oscar do more for it than we do.

        1. I just spent a few seconds wondering what elements in clothing I needed to defend against. 🤣🤣 Not fully awake yet!

    3. ‘Too little land and too many people was his consider judgement’.
      I understand that he was talking about Ethiopia. But it could be the UK as well. Especially when we start to run out of water. Because the effing EU Mafia banned us from building new reservoirs.

    4. You first Bill Mcguire. You look like a fucking pervert anyway. Do us all a favour.

    5. I do believe there are too many people on the planet. The amount of pollution worldwide is ghastly. Economically there’s going to be a point where our pension sources won’t be able keep paying us.

      1. They have them, they’re just reminded they’re third class citizens. Unlike here, they don’t think they can walk about as if they own the place.

        1. Good for Vlad.
          I looked at Google earth a few weeks ago and was surprised that much of Moscow is now included. It looks wonderful in fact. Language difficulties might cause a few problems at our age.

      2. 387197+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,

        Precisely, lots of lovely legs of female Russian on show though,
        down boy.

    2. Hmm… There’s plenty of very fat, very grubby Russian blokes about if you look for them.

  35. Shirley in Woke UK 2024 the headline should be:

    It’s time for a radical overhaul of the health service’s Miss Management class

  36. Re Earlier conversation switch TV on to bbc one Saturday kitchen. Live. Eddie Lizard. OMG in kitchen terms what a toss pot.
    Usual presenter of the programme not there today. I wonder why. Lizard never stops talking and name dropping.

    1. Is it wearing red lipstick? I think i will give it a miss. Matt Tebutt makes me laugh.

      1. Yes he looks stupid and a stuffed bra as well.
        I think Matt Tebutt rang in sick.

  37. Anne Robinson confirms she is in relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles
    Romance between daughter of a market trader and Queen’s ex-husband ‘beats any storyline The Crown could come up with’, says mutual friend
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/18/anne-robinson-in-relationship-with-andrew-parker-bowles/

    A line from the play about the Moor of Venice when the eponymous hero imagines that his wife is having a carnal relationship with Cassio.

    Goats and Monkeys!

    [Othello]

    1. 20 – 50 : Tri-weekly

      46 – 65 : Try weekly

      66 + : Try weakly

      (Of course Nottlers can defy this rule of thumb!)

  38. Anne Robinson confirms she is in relationship with Andrew Parker Bowles
    Romance between daughter of a market trader and Queen’s ex-husband ‘beats any storyline The Crown could come up with’, says mutual friend
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/18/anne-robinson-in-relationship-with-andrew-parker-bowles/

    A line from the play about the Moor of Venice when the eponymous hero imagines that his wife is having a carnal relationship with Cassio.

    Goats and Monkeys!

    [Othello]

  39. Just switched off Radio 3. It was the mention of Edward Said wot did it. That man was a liar. The famous “Palestinian” writer was Egyptian. His family home and business were in Cairo, though his father had dual nationality. He held an American passport. This meant that when Nasser initiated a purge of foreign owned businesses in Egypt, the Said family were forced to relocate. Edward Said’s story that his family were driven out of their ancestral home in Jerusalem by the evil Jews is fiction.
    https://www.commentary.org/articles/justus-weiner/my-beautiful-old-house-and-other-fabrications-by-edward-said/

  40. Hallo to all. A question. A question for the ornithologists amongst us. I was in the kitchen a few minutes ago and happened to look out of the window and saw two birds balanced on grass stalks. They were small, smaller than a sparrow, but finch like and slim, actually quite delicate looking.They had grey/brown bodies and the wings were brown, black and white and at the base canary yellow feathers. I have not seen these before, hope they return. So does anyone have any idea what they would be?

      1. Looking at some pictures of Warblers the answer is no.
        Tomorrow I have an M&S delivery made specifically for the Sicilian pies. Will let you know what I think. Looking forward to trying them.

        1. Tarts not pies !

          Trying a Sicilian lemon in Corsica was a revelation. Nothing like the things we get here.

          2. Ahhhh – I used to get gorgeous Sicilian lemons, and other fruit and veg, from the back of a lorry (literally; driven up a couple of times a month) when i lived in Germany.

            The seller had the most amazing colouring – very dark skin and turquoise eyes – and appeared to charge on the principle of the deeper the cleavage, the lower the price… 🤣🤣 I miss those delicious, cheap lemons! 😉

    3. Goldfinch be my guess. One time visitors to UK, now all year round, often in small groups. They’re very good at balancing on grass stalks, after the seeds. They also love sunflower seed hearts, as do many others.

      1. Goldfinches are demonstrably smaller than a house sparrow but greenfinches are of equal size. A greenfinch’s wings are not brown, black and white. They are green (like the rest of the body) but with a yellow wing-bar.

        1. I’ve done a bit more checking, and found that a juvenile goldfinch does not have the coloration on the face, and has a grey/brown body, so it could have been one. See https://www.birdspot.co.uk/bird-identification/goldfinch

          [Edit to add] And this would be the time of year to see juveniles. I saw a fledgling robin in my garden last week – it could only just get off the ground to fly into the apple tree.

          4. Loud and noisy brutes too, always squabbling and squawking at the bird feeder. A group of youngsters is far from charming.

      2. Thank you Grizz! I’m pretty sure that’s it. Do hope I see them again.

        1. I’ve only had the odd one in the garden in the past few years but this spring we were overwhelmed with a massive gang of them. (See photo, below).

  41. Good morning.
    I can’t find how to get this video except on Twitter, sorry. It is an interesting talk by Naomi Wolf on what she has observed of occult symbolism coming from the parasite class recently.
    She doesn’t go into all the stories about Bohemian Grove etc, she just talks about what she herself has observed from the US and Britain, and a little bit of history of occult thinking.
    Among the incidents around the royal family, she doesn’t mention the various oddnesses surrounding the disappearance from public life of the Princess of Wales, but I would add that too. We’ve all been brought up on stories like Buckingham Palace bombed in the Blitz, The King’s Speech and Princess Elizabeth in the army – now, just as we’re being told we’re in a “pre-war era” the most popular member of the RF disappears (thus removing that figurehead leadership that would provide a focus for patriotism) and various obviously phony photos and videos are dangled in front of our eyes instead (if you doubt that the cancer video is phony, do an image search and compare the bench on Kate’s left with the bench on Kate’s right)
    Anyway, I digress, here is Naomi Wolf’s talk
    https://x.com/naomirwolf/status/1791476068979003864

  42. Just back from town. Mist persists. Bitter north wind. About to light the stove. This global boiling has a lot to answer for…

  43. Here’s another great video from Parallel Mike about the importance of not living in fear when we are surrounded by seemingly endless bad news.
    PM’s wife is Polish and they live in rural Poland. That whole part of central Europe has a very healthy Fk-the-Government attitude – it’s what enabled the Austrians to resist their government’s disgraceful attempt to make covid vaxxes mandatory a couple of years ago. Shortly before the new law was due to come into effect, it was clear that over a million people were actively not going to comply with it, and they didn’t have that many jail places in Austria. Something we need more of!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5E1-w95hh4

    1. The article made it clear that this the dispute was with the RFA. (Blue ensign.)

        1. If you refer to the RFA without first mentioning the Royal Navy, people will think it’s a misprint for RAF.

          1. I have done Vertreps, re-fuels, line transfers etc with everything from Tidespring to Engadine

    3. I’m guessing that scrapping mutiny (and piracy) must have slipped Tony Blair’s mind when the twat abolished treason and sedition.

    3. She is so arrogant and full of her own delusional importance. (That’s being polite) Harry looks most uncomfortable.
      Maybe she decided only black people were good enough to be on the front row.

    4. Forest Gump was rather more successful than Harry – and certainly more intelligent.

    5. Who does she think she is? The only reason she’s there is because of the idiot who married her and who has been shouldered into a subservient position in the back row. Unbelievable.

  47. Admitting Gazan refugees would be proof that Britain has a death wish

    We have no idea how many Palestinians support their murdering, raping masters

    CAMILLA TOMINEY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 18 May 2024 • 9:00am

    It was only a matter of time before the call came. Now Labour MPs, including Sam Tarry and Jess Phillips, are agitating for Britain to take in Palestinians fleeing Gaza.

    Tarry, the MP for Ilford South, suggested that the Gazan people are “a highly skilled … and well-educated workforce” who could benefit the UK, while Phillips said “all of the Gazans that we resettled into Birmingham Yardley were actually doctors, and are bringing huge amounts of resources”. If that is the case, then surely Palestinians who can get out of Gaza can apply for skilled worker visas like any other immigrant trying to get into the UK?

    Although the visa application centre in Gaza has been closed down due to the war, biometric applications can still be processed in Egypt, Turkey and Jordan. Another Labour MP, Andrew Slaughter, claims that it is “cynical and callous” to make Palestinians apply this way – but what’s the alternative? Deferring biometric applications and letting people in without the proper checks?

    These MPs are advocating a scheme for Palestinians similar to the Homes for Ukraine Sponsorship programme introduced in 2022. But it’s not a fair comparison. We took in Ukrainians in part because we have a security agreement with Ukraine and can be fairly certain that none of those fleeing the Russian invasion are terrorists.

    Sadly, the same cannot be said for occupants of a country run by Hamas. Regardless of their medical – or other – qualifications, we have no idea how many Gazans support their murdering, raping masters, or how many have been further radicalised by war.

    It would surely be better if these Labour MPs focused on our own problems, without burdening Britain yet further with someone else’s. They could also be lobbying other countries in the Middle East to give Palestinians the help they need. The likes of Egypt have been reticent to open their borders.

    It is also worth noting that a Palestinian student has already had her visa revoked after saying she was “full of joy” after the October 7 attacks. Dana Abuqamar, 19, a law student at the University of Manchester, said that she was “proud that Palestinian resistance has come to this point” after the atrocities. It would be naive to believe that the average Palestinian wishing to come to the UK thinks much differently.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/18/palestine-refugee-uk-israel-gaza-hamas/

    It’s 15 minutes since I cut and pasted this piece and I can’t think of anything to say that hasn’t been said before…

    1. We have some really, really, really stupid MPs . . . and Tarry and Phillips are even more stupid and dangerous than those.

      1. The only forthcoming joy, will to see the looks of incomprehension on their stupid faces when the blades come out for them first.

      2. I can’t worry about Vlad and Xi.
        We have a well established enemy within our borders. It’s called Westminster.

    2. I have no doubt that virtually all of them would mean us harm, and any children allowed in would soon be brought up indoctrinated with their violent, intolerant ‘culture’ and intentions.
      As for Jess Phillips who said “all of the Gazans that we resettled into Birmingham Yardley were actually doctors, and are bringing huge amounts of resources” Of course they are. How stupid is she to tell such a blatant lie?

    3. I have no doubt that virtually all of them would mean us harm, and any children allowed in would soon be brought up indoctrinated with their violent, intolerant ‘culture’ and intentions.
      As for Jess Phillips who said “all of the Gazans that we resettled into Birmingham Yardley were actually doctors, and are bringing huge amounts of resources” Of course they are. How stupid is she to tell such a blatant lie?

    4. Don’t worry about the scum, Trudeau is talking about inviting in 50,000 Gaza “refuges” to help with his massive home building ambitions. We will get the dross.

    5. There is a reason Egypt has closed its border with Gaza, and Jordan and Lebanon learnt the hard way what happens when Palestinian ‘refugees’ are allowed into another country. Now the Labour idiots, not content with endorsing the entry of unknown illegal migrants via dinghies from Calais, want to admit people who we can be pretty certain are terrorist supporters, if not actual terrorists themselves.

  49. My first reaction when it first became clear that the right side had won in 2016 was surprise; after all, we had the entire weight of the establishment against people like me. My second was elation. But my third was apprehension – the aforementioned establishment was unlikely to say “Fair enough, you win, now let’s all make the best of Brexit”.

    1. The establishment thought they had it in the bag. Klaus Schwab was interviewed just before the election and he said that though the murder of Jo Cox was unfortunate because “she was one of ours” he felt certain it would swing the result for Remain because, he said, the common people are driven by emotion not intellect.

      2. Another of the wicked “Far Right”; aka a victim of Don’t Care In The Community.

  50. Just about to cook lunch. Fillet steak, two fried eggs and chips cooked in beef dripping.

    Also just made a miso hollandaise to go with the crab mousse for tomorrow. I think i will top that with a couple of scallops.

  52. 387197+ up ticks,

    “Some of the vaccines that will come on down the line will be multiple, there’ll be multiple shots”.

    Why multiple shots have not been discharged in the direction of parliament before now is beyond me, especially with this
    atrocious specimen still enjoying treedom and still, in with a shout.

    https://x.com/wideawake_media/status/1791768486332502456

    “

    1. BLiar is a slimy, evil, lying, untrustworthy, treacherous, deceitful, war monger.
      “You can’t ever trust that child. Her eyes are too close together.” This was stated by an ‘old school’ headmistress I knew. She wasn’t far wrong. Maybe BLiar’s mother tried to crush his vile head when he was a baby, and that pushed his eyes to almost touching. 🙂

      1. 387197+ up ticks,

        Afternoon PM,
        I do agree “the eyes have it” the glare of evilness that is.

        1. And, you’d think, with his multi millions, he would fork out for some dental work. Maybe he has short arms when it comes to spending his own money.

      2. Spawn of the devil. Looks more and more like a sleazy gangster as it ages.

  53. An old Pilot sat down in Starbucks and ordered a cup of coffee.
    As he sat sipping his coffee, a young woman sat down next to him.
    She turned to the pilot and asked, ‘Are you a real pilot?’
    He replied, ‘Well, I’ve spent my whole life flying biplanes, Cubs, Aeronca’s, Neiuports, flew in WWII in a B-29, and later in the Korean conflict, taught 50 people to fly and gave rides to hundreds, so I guess I am a pilot – what about you?’
    She said, ‘I’m a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about naked women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about naked women. When I shower, I think about naked women When I watch TV, I think about naked women. It seems everything makes me think of naked women.’
    The two sat sipping in silence.
    A little while later, a young man sat down on the other side of the old pilot and asked, ‘Are you a real pilot?’
    He replied, ‘I always thought I was, but I just found out I’m a lesbian.’

  54. The mainstream media is back on water project fear again.
    I wonder what they are trying to groom us to accept now.

    I don’t really know why the Left gets so uptight about it.
    After all they have always wanted to do away with white privilege and supremacy, haven’t they.
    So bringing our tap water and rivers into line with the global majority really is a progressive policy and anti colonialist.
    After all, we have been doing this sort of thing with all our other institutions for years now.

  55. Just finishing off my tea before heading back out to work on the van.
    I’ve got the inside ply panel cut out but it needs a little bit of adjustment to fit.
    Then it’s try and work out how to put the folding bunk in.

    At least it’s a lovely day.

    2. I mentioned that earlier Phizz and what they have never been able to come to terms with, even the way we helped to rescued them for Nazi occupation.

  59. Killing us with neglect….Nearly 30,000 older Britons died waiting for social care in just one year as damning report says lack of funding and insufficient staffing levels are part of ‘chronic systemic problems’

    Age UK, which conducted the study, blamed lack of funding to assess people

    Charity says there are insufficient resources for growing older population

    Local authorities and providers are living ‘hand to mouth’ with current funding

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13432151/Nearly-30-000-older-Britons-died-waiting-social-care-just-one-year-damning-report-says-lack-funding-insufficient-staffing-levels-chronic-systemic-problems.html

    1. Plus the 29,000 who died of ‘hospital acquired infection’! Just heard that on the radio!

      2. Having seen used male urine bottles left on over-bed tables, I’m not surprised.
        “No, that’s not the golden syrup for your pudding, Mr. Smiff.”

    2. There’s plenty of money.
      It’s spaffed away on pen pushers, nitpickers and gold plated pensions.

    2. And then he shakes himself vigorously all over the chap with the camera!

      1. I dislike German Shepherds. When I was little one of them knocked me over and stole my ice cream.😡

        Moreover I always see them as council house dogs.

    5. Would he like two Newfoundlands? Despite the myth, watching Mongo ‘dive’ is more akin to a sloth falling out of a tree. As for running alongside… forget it. He’ll float about like a sunbathing grandma.

      Oscar’s a bit more active. That said, if you want to be pulled to shore, you want the fluffy one. He won’t give up until you’re safe and have patted him on the head – all part of the water training we did.

  61. Politicians and nappies must be changed often . . .

    , , , and for the same reason!

  62. 387197+ up ticks,

    I believe they are seeding the clouds with an anti sanity solution all I’m hearing is
    lab will win and the economy, the economy, the economy, lest we forget is truly out the window, back in is party before
    children/ Country.
    Was it not that political rodent “miranda”the lab PM who first unleashed the foreign pakistani paedophile tsunami
    that survived under a lab paedophile umbrella for sixteen plus years, then the baton was passed to the tory in name only party.

    May one ask how can peoples currently cast a supporting vote for these political wretches knowing their history ?

    1. For whom will you be voting in the coming election?

      I shall probably spoil my ballot if there is not a candidate whom I would like to support.

      1. I am voting Reform and hope Lord Farage can be prevailed upon to lead them. But I shall vote for them regardless.

  63. The damage lockdown did to our democracy is finally becoming clear. 18 May 2024.

    So let me suggest a theme that Rishi Sunak might explore as he tries to come to terms with this extraordinary historical moment. How about a speech that tells the truth.

    “We have just been through an unprecedented period in our history. You, as a people, accepted restrictions and prohibitions on the most personal aspects of your lives that would once have been unthinkable and we in government were grateful for your courage and self-sacrifice. Some of our decisions, taken in good faith, were mistaken and we accept responsibility for the damage that was done. Now I ask you to join us in renewing our commitment to a hopeful future.”

    What about that? Even if his party lost, it would go down with honesty and humility.

    Yes Janet but that itself would be untrue. They are not sorry at all. The lockdown is an excuse; not a reason, for the collapse in faith in Democracy. That is due to their mendacity. Never have lies been so much a part of political discourse. They have pursued an agenda that was contrary to the people’s wishes and the traditions of the West and the UK in particular. They are traitors all!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/18/damage-lockdown-did-to-our-democracy-becoming-clear/

    1. Yes, I agree. ‘I’m sorry I chopped your head off, but in the light of subsequent data it is now clear I acted in haste’ (which is what this amounts to) is not acceptable. Certain rights are sacred and were defiled for no reason other than political cowardice in the face of a media campaign based on unevidenced guesswork.

      1. So many puppet masters pulling government strings. What a bunch of fag puppets they are. And they never say no in case someone somewhere has a tantrum. As fast as govt get money in they shove it at some shrieking toddler type minority just to prove how ‘nice’ they are. Easy to be nice to someone on someone else’s (ours) money.

  64. The damage lockdown did to our democracy is finally becoming clear. 18 May 2024.

    So let me suggest a theme that Rishi Sunak might explore as he tries to come to terms with this extraordinary historical moment. How about a speech that tells the truth.

    “We have just been through an unprecedented period in our history. You, as a people, accepted restrictions and prohibitions on the most personal aspects of your lives that would once have been unthinkable and we in government were grateful for your courage and self-sacrifice. Some of our decisions, taken in good faith, were mistaken and we accept responsibility for the damage that was done. Now I ask you to join us in renewing our commitment to a hopeful future.”

    What about that? Even if his party lost, it would go down with honesty and humility.

    Yes Janet but that itself would be untrue. They are not sorry at all. The lockdown is an excuse; not a reason, for the collapse in faith in Democracy. That is due to their mendacity. Never have lies been so much a part of political discourse. They have pursued an agenda that was contrary to the people’s wishes and the traditions of the West and the UK in particular. They are traitors all!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/05/18/damage-lockdown-did-to-our-democracy-becoming-clear/

  65. Fury as French officials ‘remove’ Britain’s Union Jack from display of hundreds of flags to mark D-Day in Normandy town
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13432823/french-officials-remove-britains-union-jack-dday-normandy.html

    When we first came to live in France we were sitting in our kitchen having breakfast on a Sunday morning when we looked out of the French window and saw a rabbit, scurrying immediately across the entrance of our house followed by a dog, followed by a man with a gun.

    We went out and spoke to the man very politely and told him that he and his dog were in our garden and we would be grateful if he did not come chasing rabbits in our garden. He replied most rudely that he could do what he liked and if we did not like it we could go back to our own country.

    We all know of times when we think of the ideal reply but only think of it later! But I knew my chance would come again.

    A couple of weeks later and on another Sunday morning a group of adolescent chasseurs came into our garden. Again I said, very politely, that they were in my garden and I would be grateful if they left.

    To which the reply:

    “If you don’t like it you can go back to your own country.”

    To which I replied:

    “If it was not for my own country you wouldn’t have your own country – you would be part of Germany.”

    Caroline watched nervously as they fidgeted with their guns and slunk off. We reported the incidents to the local Hunting Club and we have had very little trouble from the yobs with guns again!

      1. Funnily enough it did with the non-voyou (non yobs) who dislike the chasseurs even more than we did.

    2. Most of the chasseurs in Laure were very odd people indeed…. One tried to avoid them.

  66. Fury as French officials ‘remove’ Britain’s Union Jack from display of hundreds of flags to mark D-Day in Normandy town
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13432823/french-officials-remove-britains-union-jack-dday-normandy.html

    When we first came to live in France we were sitting in our kitchen having breakfast on a Sunday morning when we looked out of the French window and saw a rabbit, scurrying immediately across the entrance of our house followed by a dog, followed by a man with a gun.

    We went out and spoke to the man very politely and told him that he and his dog were in our garden and we would be grateful if he did not come chasing rabbits in our garden. He replied most rudely that he could do what he liked and if we did not like it we could go back to our own country.

    We all know of times when we think of the ideal reply but only think of it later! But I knew my chance would come again.

    A couple of weeks later and on another Sunday morning a group of adolescent chasseurs came into our garden. Again I said, very politely, that they were in my garden and I would be grateful if they left.

    To which the reply:

    “If you don’t like it you can go back to your own country.”

    To which I replied:

    “If it was not for my own country you wouldn’t have your own country – you would be part of Germany.”

    Caroline watched nervously as they fidgeted with their guns and slunk off. We reported the incidents to the local Hunting Club and we have had very little trouble from the yobs with guns again!

  67. I don’t know why everyone is getting so upset about the removal of the hated Union Flag in Normandy.

    Everyone across the Channel knows that it was the EU that won the Second World War – and it is the EU that has “kept the peace” in Europe since 1945. Nothing whatever to do with NATO.

    Macron loathes the British (despite having an English great-grandfather. So does his side-kick Darmanin (their Interior Minister). Many others, too.

    2. Recall the speech/letter that he put out on the 75th anniversary of Armistice Day.

      We attended the outside commemoration and had French people coming across to apologise for it.
      He embarrassed them.

      Foul man

      1. Among the many things about Toy Boy that I find disagreeable is his ability to smarm around the late Queen and the present JWK – but at the same time smear the British for having helped to liberate France.

    5. About 9 years ago our local U3A had a day out at Wastemonster. We started at the Lords and as we walked through the Royal Gallary towards the commons the guide told us what happened when late 50s early 60s, on a visit De Gaulle refused to walk through the adjoining chamber. Because of the huge paintings depicting English victories over France. They actually hung drapes across and the hooks were still in the walls. But he still refused. So they took him in through a side entrance. Which was more suited for such a miserable pompous old turd.
      A back entrance would have been perfect.

        1. Oh absolutely. Just another presidential turd. Horrible people in charge.
          But when our three boys were much younger we went to France many times for our two weeks summer holidays and had wonderful experiences. And met so many charming helpful people.

    3. It’s photos like the one at the bottom which sometimes make me wonder why I’m so opposed to the Taliban!😂

      Degenerates. Tbh, if that lot were strung up on cranes I’d be delighted.

    4. I don’t even bother trying to ‘keep up’.

      In just 19 months’ time, the first quarter of the 21st century will have elapsed (just seven months if you are one of those gormless innumerate knobs who thought the new century — and millennium — started on January 1, 2000).

      I cannot think of anything new in this century that has improved my life in any way, whatsoever, over what it was like in the 20th century.

        1. My new life in Sweden is the best thing right now.

          However, if life had carried on the way it was in the 1960s–1980s (in particular) I would never, under any circumstances, have left England.

    5. Satanic crap in the bottom photo. That’s why the Naomi Wolf talk is so interesting because she’s bringing to light and trying to analyse all the satanic, baal, moloch stuff that’s being pushed at us nowadays. Nobody just sat in their bedroom and dreamed up that act by chance, and it certainly doesn’t represent the majority. Somone’s pushing it for a reason. While the brainwashed majority may think religion is old-fashioned fairy tales, there is every indication that there are powerful people who do believe in it and are trying to impose a very evil religion on us.

      1. Yesterday’s new James Delingpole podcast with Mike Williams on the subject of whether or not the person we think is Paul McCartney really is Paul McCartney and not Billy Shears should not be missed when it comes out from behind James’s paywall on Substack. Aleister Crowley’s name, Satanism and the Tavistock Institute crops up a lot.

        1. I’m perfectly prepared to believe that Paul McCartney is not real, but at this point, the whole top echelon of the light music industry is so fake that who cares any more. We’ve had the most ghastly stuff, performers appearing to lose their heads on stage and wander around calling to their ‘master’, open promotion of satanism, entrainment, #metoo scandal etc. It’s all so disgusting that none of it can be taken seriously.

      2. Yesterday’s new James Delingpole podcast with Mike Williams on the subject of whether or not the person we think is Paul McCartney really is Paul McCartney and not Billy Shears should not be missed when it comes out from behind James’s paywall on Substack. Aleister Crowley’s name, Satanism and the Tavistock Institute crops up a lot.

  71. Nana thingy interviewing a comic called John Martin on GBN. “We used to say we drive on the left. Now we drive on what’s left”.

  73. Yvette Fielding: I was assaulted by Rolf Harris and left alone with Jimmy Savile.
    Presenter said Harris groped her during her time as a host of Blue Peter when she was 18 or 19. Daily Terrorgraf

    It was very confusing and shocking – just bizarre to think Rolf Harris was squeezing and patting my bottom and I am standing there, thinking ‘I don’t know what to do’.

    I hope she wrote a letter of thanks to the head of the BBC. He didn’t just do it for her, he did it for hundreds of youngsters and his successors ars still keeping up the proud tradition to this day (sarc – in case you didn’t get it).

    2. The timing of such revelations puzzles me. Why wait until now to make a claim like this? I can understand reticence at the time as it would probably be met with disbelief, but why after all these years?

  74. Tthe National Trust has decided to amend the term ‘ethnic minority’ to ‘global majority’ in its publications.

    Let us hope, that this Global Minority cancel all:

    Membership

    Donations

    Will bequests

    etc

    to the Self-Centred Woke organisation

    It is NOT National:

    National means relating to the whole of a country or nation rather than to part of it or to other nations.

    Trust:

    Afirm belief in the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something.

    b. : a person or thing in which confidence is placed.

    It fulfills neither parts of its’ Title.

    1. Well of course in Global terms White folk are pretty much the Ethnic Minority!

    3. “Global Majority” is yet more Neo-Marxist hijacking of the language. As it goes it’s racist towards everyone.

    4. I stopped supporting the National Trust after they banned hunting on land they were bequeathed in Exmoor with the explicit instruction that hunting on the land should be permitted forever.

    5. We’ve been told since th e 1960s that being a minority makes people special and deserving of extra help, and now in one fell swoop, suddenly it’s “you’re the minority, you don’t count”

      When are they going to label heterosexual, normal people as “the global majority”, I wonder?

    6. So if we’re a global minority, I want my minority rights – protected status in my own homeland.

    1. “Chemtrails have a large proportion of aluminium oxide’; 80 percent, perhaps, JYE?

      You sound like ‘The Science’ bullshit, JWE!

      1. If you put them in boiling water, the Science is Kettled.

        I’ll get me Bunsen burner…

  78. A not-so-sweet Par Four!

    Wordle 1,064 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I was starting to worry.

      Wordle 1,064 5/6

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

      1. Four, five…

        Wordle 1,064 6/6

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

    2. After yesterday it’s back to the real world…..

      Wordle 1,064 4/6

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

  79. Another bus fire.
    “The vehicle is the fourth London bus to catch fire this year with similar incidents in Putney on January 25, in North Woolwich on January 12 and in Wimbledon on January 11. ”
    You wait for years – all my life – and then four come along in five months.

    1. Pure coincidence. I expect a passer by threw his lighted cigarette end under the bus.

      I do you you are not suggesting that there is anything inherently dangerous in electric vehicles…..

        1. How you coming along with those bejewelled antimaccassers. Clock is ticking ! :@)

          2. Just email Meg Markle. She has contacts for blood diamonds and was recently greeted in the official Nigerian delegation for someone wanted in the USA for $20million fraud. Harry is such a twonk.

      2. I threw a lit cigarette into a Spanish taxi when he tried to get me to pay for his children’s private education.

        1. Camulodunum? I thought Boudicca had destroyed it? I do understand though. Every year I try to rid the gardens of buddleia, brambles, gorse, nettles and bracken. So far my efforts have met with less success than Sunak stopping the damned rubber dinghy invaders!😂

          I think Muslims have a lot in common with buddleia.

          1. There are many things one can say about Mrs Allan … but a destroyer is not one of them!

          12. Ironically, they’re more like Giant Hogweed.
            And I can tell you, it jolly well hurts and scars.

          13. Giant Hogweed is mercifully unknown here as far as I know. A horrid plant and just like a Muslim.

        2. Yes, one wonders what she must have done in a previous incarnation to have deserved such a punishment…

          2. During the second world war my mother was evacced from Weymouth to Sydenham ! Explains my accent at least.

          4. My maternal Gt Grandparents were born in Bethnal Green and Stepney. My mother’s parents were born in Old Kent Road and Walthamstow. My mother in Southend.

          5. The only slightly southern component in my blood comes from my paternal grandfather’s mother, Sybil Witney, who hailed from Bedford.

            The rest of me is a mix of Yorkshire (mainly) with a smidgeon of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, and a soupçon of Lancashire, Staffordshire and Galway.

          6. One lot of my great great grandparents went the other way: from Essex to Hackney (and then to Kent).

      1. Doesn’t say.
        Which, like the withholding of names, immediately rouses suspicion.

      1. The Alphabet soup people will receive their just desserts in the not too distant future. I understand that Sadiq Khan has placed an order for a large number of tall cranes!😂

    2. “What Israel has been up against is not just a people of death, but a cult of death. A cult that wishes to annihilate an entire race. And after which dealing with that race has made it very clear what it wants to do with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America and everyone else next. They don’t hide it at all, and we are merely stupid in not believing them.”

      Douglas Murray closing statement at Manhattan Institute last week.

    3. “What Israel has been up against is not just a people of death, but a cult of death. A cult that wishes to annihilate an entire race. And after which dealing with that race has made it very clear what it wants to do with Christians, everyone in Britain, everyone in America and everyone else next. They don’t hide it at all, and we are merely stupid in not believing them.”

      Douglas Murray closing statement at Manhattan Institute last week.

    4. Perhaps he’ll convert the Pavilion to a mosque and have weekly LGBTQ tossings off the roof after Friday prayers

    5. Elected by fellow councillors, not the electorate of Brighton & Hove. These mayoralties are typically ceremonial and occupants serve just one year at a time, unlike mayors voted for by the general public, who have executive powers and who serve four-year terms.

      1. Thank Allah for that. Does Brighton still have a nudist beach, anyone know?

        2. Yes.
          I visited last year. A beautiful day, but sadly the sea was too rough after the previous day’s bad weather for a swim. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e898b4e31f61147bbe6b9826bd2f15efb721a76306f4b9a4419bae28283fe9f6.jpg
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72a375c0ad7c3838eeeda17ac8bdb9411aa3a727e2aef7aa0f621caa00a955d4.jpg
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c20aae5e8b9c8c11f0d81129d37a1f98d68789cb520c77ed1cf6322f150e6c90.jpg
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5da26e7ed2499c443e5b212bb0be05fd226604741eed252f37022d20120acccd.jpg
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/921b7f8d6d146af785d1ed0e65e264930dde7ecf47e03326169837f7838027d6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5493e420e138b8149bbf1c5ce2c51e87a739e23a6314d644993144d433ccfc61.jpg

  81. Just got back from the day lecture ( a couple of hours in reality)
    It really wasn’t about Celtic paganism, The Professor kept it light and was rather eccentric. He spoke a lot of Welsh and spoke of the rivers named after Celtic God’s and Goddesses – he says modern academics get most things wrong, he thinks Druids look ludicrous wearing bed sheers and are probably environmentalist. All Britons went West when the Saxons arrived. He believes that Arthur really existed ( and wrote a book about it ) but he believes Arthur was a warrior instead of a king, he did play the audience quite a lot, a natural speaker somewhere in his 70s – didn’t wear a watch – lectures in a Spanish University about the Celts . I think understanding the Welsh language would’ve been useful, the information about the rivers were interesting most of our rivers ( especially up North ) have their Celtic origins and I’d like to know more about the Britons going West to avoid the Saxons and I’m pleased someone academic believes Arthur existed. The Professor didn’t wear a watch – I thought that interesting – most people wear watches when out

    1. I only ever wear a watch when i go out and dress for dinner. Either a Rolex or a Russian Aviator. I never look at it.

      1. Most are obsessed with time, I’d thought giving talks he’d need to know the time, maybe he had a pocket watch hidden away in the pocket of his tweed jacket but not on the wrist, he asked someone what the time was so he’d knew how far he was into the talk . Your watches, Pip sound very smart .

      2. I have sold my Rolex, regretfully, because I like being able to pay for things with my Apple Watch. I have kept the impossible to obtain at sensible prices Patek Philippe Nautilus, however. I don’t wear it anymore….it is now an investment piece.

    2. There’s a huge amount of evidence that most Britons stayed put although much of the elite fled to Brittany or further afield.
      There’s a fair bit of circumstantial evidence that Arthur existed – the main argument against is that Gildas never mentions him but there are explanations for that, eg Gildas was writing a polemic, not a history.

      1. He wrote a huge chunky book about Arthur and he said he’d take on any fellow academic who says otherwise, he wrote about Gildas too .
        But he did say Arthur was a warrior and not a King. Maybe legends built around him ‘ bigging him up with heroic tales ‘ maybe as you say, Gildas was writing a polemic not a history. At some point in history a brave patriotic warrior named Arthur turned into the ‘King Arthur ‘ of the legends. I wonder if the knights of the round table existed .

        1. Most of the stuff like the Round Table dates from Medieval romances like that of Chretien de Troyes.

          1. Yes, but there are references to an ‘Artorius’ in Historia Brittonum are there not? Plus archaeological evidence to suggest that the Saxon advance westwards was curtailed for a period of some 50-75 years in the late 5th century?

          2. Not in Gildas to my knowledge but you’re right about the checking of the Saxon advacne until the 550s.

          3. You are right about Gildas. I checked and the first reference to Artorius is considerably later than I had originally thought. My post was subsequently amended, but I don’t wish to invalidate your point.

          4. Yes, but there are references to an ‘Artorius’ in Historia Brittonum are there not? Plus archaeological evidence to suggest that the Saxon advance westwards was curtailed for a period of some 50-75 years in the late 5th century?

          5. That’s part of the problem – those old folklore tales of King Arthur ‘ romantic legend ‘ and the reality of Arthur the warrior who wasn’t a king but nevertheless existed.

      2. Geoffrey of Monmouth was convinced that he was writing history having done thorough research comparing and contrasting reliable sources. It’s the done thing now to trash Geoffrey but in truth there isn’t sufficient evidence to be sure one way or the other and if nothing else, he provided Shakespeare with some good stories upon which to elaborate. Lear and Cymbeline both come from Geoffrey.

        1. You will forgive me if I treat the account of a chronicler who routinely reports impossible miracles as everyday occurrences with more than a little scepticism!

      3. I suspect, due to the DNA profiles of bones, that the Anglo Saxons actually committed a genuine genocide. An overused term, but DNA profiles suggest a complete population replacement in what is now England during the 5-7th centuries.

          1. The Cornish Celts ( as with the Welsh ) are the true Britons I believe that remains.

          2. That appears to be the case. Welsh is believed to be the closest to the original Brythonic, I understand. The genetic record does note a distinct divergence between the English and the Celtic areas in the 5-7th centuries AD.

          3. I believe that to be true . Did the Spanish Celts get to Wales / Britons even earlier ?

          4. I’m not sure. The Celts were unlettered at the time so we rely on archaeological data. There is, I believe, an academic dispute between those who think the Celts displaced the earlier inhabitants of these islands and those who believe the change to have been cultural in nature. The key difference was the adoption of a new technology. Iron replaced bronze.

          5. Very interesting, It’s all very fascinating, I’m going to look into it and find out more, maybe the way to find out is to explore Spanish celtic history.

        2. And then the Normans arrived and made slaves of the Anglo Saxons – making them build castles and changing our language.- pig becoming pork – ‘ eating cow ‘ changed to Beef.

    3. I’ve read articles arguing that all British school children be required to study Welsh, that being the original British language.

    5. MOH never wore a watch, but always seemed to know the right time. Me, I wear a watch and haven’t got a clue what time it is most of the time.

      1. It may be given the tasks one does gives one an appreciation of what the hell is going on…..said my wife. :@)

  82. Georgia on my mind
    I see the Georgian pro Russia government’s proposals have been vetoed by the pro EU NATO.
    Civil war next?

      1. Unless convincing evidence tells me otherwise, as far as I’m concerned, the man who shot Fico either acted alone or with the encouragement of an angry groupuscule within Slovakia.

        1. It’s just pure coincidence that Fico is one of the most pro Russian leaders in Europe and our establishment keeps hinting that we’re going to war with Russia.
          How many coincidences are you going to believe in?

  83. Well – the sun did eventually come out to play. About 3.30 – so I had a little outing on my own – to buy Tomorite, slug pellets (fat lot of good they are these days now the poison has been removed) and, thrill of thrills, to fill up with petrol.

    In addition to my remark about the utter hideousness of the Union Flag and the understandable dislike of it by the ungrateful French, it is ALSO a very well known fact these days that WW2 was started when the British – under the duplicitous Chamberlain – declared war on an unsuspecting and totally defenceless Germany. All of which was made worse when the warmonger Churchill took over. Fortunately, in 1945, the Germans managed to liberate France – and they have been the greatest of friends ever since.

    Have a spiffing evening – I am signing off early as Soldier Neighbour will be here shortly to help empty some bottles.

    A demain.

    1. Ha! It has been really hot and sunny all day here in North Wales. I assume summer will be over for us in a week or so!😂

  84. You really wouldn’t recognise those places now. Southend maybe but not the rest.

    1. Well I haven’t really been to those places in London. The Grandparents moved out from Southend to Hornchurch. Last time I was in London was 2019. We used to visit friends in Southend and Thorpe Bay when I was young.

  85. How did this happen in Iceland and why do people accept it?

    Leon Hill
    @iamLeonHill
    Australia 🇦🇺 just passed its Digital Identity Bill into law.

    I’m Australian, but live in Iceland 🇮🇸: a country that already has an all-encompassing digital ID system. If you’re wondering how Australia’s new system will play out, I’ll tell you here.
    And also, how Australians who don’t want a digital ID can attempt to protect themselves… at least for a short while.
    In Iceland, the digital ID system is linked to each person’s kennitala, or social security number.
    I sign into everything with my electronic ID (rafræn skilríki) via my phone. Any time I access my bank account, phone services, accounting, tax, insurance, credit score, manage my assets (car/house), power bill, medical record, when I vote, or even want to pull up a store receipt of something I’ve bought, it’s all linked to my digital ID.
    Everything in one place. Everything.
    You cannot NOT have a digital ID to live in Iceland. It’s impossible.
    You can’t get power turned on, get a phone number, buy or register a car, rent or buy a house, or even buy certain items without having a kennitala or digital ID. You need one.
    This has its benefits (it makes life more streamlined when you’re trying to do something in daily life), but it also means there is no privacy at all in Iceland.
    Anyone can look up where I live. The license plate of my car. How much tax I paid last year. My phone number. You name it. It’s public and available—and all you need is my kennitala to find it all out.
    But the government has access to more.
    The Icelandic government and tax office has access to my bank accounts and knows every transaction I make, what I spend, and what I earn. They don’t need a warrant, or anything else to access it—it’s theirs. They just need probable cause to look at it.
    Australians, this is what’s coming for you.
    Over the coming years, the government will make it impossible to opt out of the digital ID system. You’ll need one for everything.
    And most importantly, they’ll coerce Australians into adopting it by creating laws that link it to the most important thing you need to survive in today’s modern world: your bank account.
    They’ll do it on the grounds of anti-money-laundering and financial safety. The gov’t will enforce laws onto banks (among the many ID and verification laws already mandated on banks) that if you don’t have the digital ID, you won’t be able to open, keep, or use a bank account.
    If your refuse, you’ll effectively be locked out of society. Because in today’s modern world, you need access to banking services to survive.
    Banking will be first. Then everything else in society will be linked to your digital ID.
    Nothing will ever again be private. Just like in Iceland today, the government will know everything. Always. Forever.

    So, are there ways to opt-out or protect yourself?
    Yes, and also no.
    It all comes down to having other options.
    If you’re solely a citizen or resident of Australia and nowhere else, you will have no other options. You will be forced to stay in the ecosystem of Australia.
    If you have a second passport however, you will have a second nation to fall back on to use its banking, economic, and social system if you don’t want to be forced into adopting Australia’s. You can still live in Australia, but potentially hold bank accounts in your other nation.
    If you don’t have a second passport, but know you’re eligible for one via a parent, grandparent, or other means, I would seriously suggest taking action to claim it as soon as possible.
    But what if you are stuck? Sure, you could leave Australia. But that’s not for everyone.
    One backup plan that may help you for a while, is becoming an eResident of another country.
    eResidency (or digital residency) allows you to access the services of another nation (like banking, etc) without living there. The two major eResidency programs offered today exist in the Baltic EU nation of Estonia, and the island nation of Palau.
    You never have to go to either country to claim eResidency. It’s a background check, and a small payment, and you can be then sent a nationally-recognised ID card from that nation, that will allow you to among many other things, set up a bank account.
    Simply search for “Palau digital residency” or “Estonia eResidency” online if you’re interested in either.
    It’s not a perfect solution. It won’t completely protect you if your decision will be to stay in Australia long-term. On a long enough timeline—like in Iceland—you will eventually have to get Australia’s digital ID.
    The government will make it impossible for you to live otherwise.
    But having a backup plan—like a bank account, or money/assets in a location that is harder for the Australian government to access or block you from—might be something you are interested in.
    And I’m all for having backup plans.
    But again, the best backup plan will always be a citizenship/passport of at least one more nation, or at the very least, you having a permanent residency permit elsewhere. Somewhere that believed in citizens having freedom and privacy.
    I hope this helps.
    3:59 PM · May 16, 2024

    I had never heard of eResidency before, but it sounds interesting.

      2. I don’t know, but they also have the digital id in Turkey – my Turkish colleague told me that you need it for everything. I must ask them what elderly people do.

        2. I’m happy using online banking on my laptop, and various other things like What’s App etc on my phone….. but I never using parking apps, and I don’t use my phone for making payments either. In fact I use very few apps. I certainly don’t like the idea that the government has control of my bank account. In the scamdemic I resisted signing in at restaurants or cafes and I certainly never used the ‘pingdemic’ tracker app. My OH mainly uses his phone (which I bought him so I could communicate with him while I was away) just for watching YouTube things.

    2. Knew about Estonia but I have never heard of Palau – digitally or otherwise!

    3. Knew about Estonia but I have never heard of Palau – digitally or otherwise!

  86. Georgia Meloni is upsetting the Italian car industry – Alfa Romeo as she upset Fiat .
    Go Georgia go !!

    1. I want Alfa to make a two seater convertible. I would definitely buy one.

  87. If you have accounts in other countries you will be obliged to declare those accounts so I don’t see what you gain here

    1. Presumably the government can’t see all your transactions, and they will only know about the accounts if you tell them.

      1. There are now international agreements in place and banks are often obliged to divulge information about their customers. If you don’t declare what accounts you have abroad you may be fined heavily.

        1. If they’re required to divulge information then they’ll be asking for your digital id anyway.

          1. Yes. Usually you have a fiscal identification number for the country of residence where you pay taxes.
            The foreign bank where you may have accounts ask you for this information because they are legally obliged to. They then forward the information to your country of residence.
            I suppose you can try and conceal information but even places like Switzerland end up giving their clients away as we have seen many times.

          2. Switzerland works closely with other countries’ tax authorities.
            You say “conceal information” as though that’s a criminal thing. It’s none of the government’s business what I buy, or even where I have an account as long as I’m not cheating on the taxes. If you assume that the government is entitled to know everything, you’ve already given up any pretence at holding onto any more freedom than a serf.

          3. Ha ha. I say conceal in the sense of ‘conceal’. Whether I consider it is or is not the government’s business makes little difference. The government considers it to be their business. ‘Hold on to freedom’ you say. By holding foreign bank accounts? I’ve just explained it’s pretty pointless.
            You can get as rebellious and resentful as you like but it’s a lost battle.

          4. I think that is a very poor attitude to take. Will you be queuing up for the digital id? “ha ha! it’s pretty pointless. You can get as rebellious and resentful as you like, but it’s a lost battle”

            I haven’t looked into the digital residency yet but if people are using it to avoid having to use their icelandic digital id, that suggests that there is more privacy than for their icelandic accounts.

  89. Questa sarebbe perfetta…….minus the dodgy reliability! The recent Fiat 124 Spider was originally intended to be an Alfa but in a massive miscalculation they gave it to Fiat.

    1. A huge mistake, in my opinion. Anyway you know my favourite little car 😉

        1. MG Roadster, Austen Healey 3000 ( both Racing Green ) and your old Morgan in it’s shade of Burgundy / Continental Red .😁

          1. The cars of my youth were: 1948 Triumph, Roadster, 1958 MGA and a Volvo P1800 S.

            And then, sadly, I grew up.

    1. From Wikipedia:

      ‘Welsh evolved from Common Brittonic, the Celtic language spoken by the ancient Celtic Britons. Classified as Insular Celtic, the British language probably arrived in Britain during the Bronze Age or Iron Age and was probably spoken throughout the island south of the Firth of Forth.’
      ‘Kids can barely speak English’ is patronising and a jibe with which we have all been familiar since we ourselves were kids.
      I wouldn’t myself seriously suggest schoolchildren should be taught minority languages; there are many more useful languages to learn and indeed which should be taught.

  92. From Coffee House

    There’s nothing racist about Anglo-Saxons
    Comments Share 18 May 2024, 11:13am
    One of the aims of progressives in higher education ought to be to use their privileged position to spread knowledge to their fellow citizens. In the all but forgotten world of the original socialist movement, radicals aimed in the words of the Workers Educational Association (founded 1903) to bring ‘education within reach of everyone who needs it’.

    How does this noble aim fit with the constant and needless urge to police and rewrite the language 99 per cent of the population use? To create elite discourses, to exclude and obfuscate, to launch linguistic heresy hunts, to preen yourself on knowing the latest jargon, and to punish the untutored for no valid intellectual reason whatsoever?

    The latest example comes from the Cambridge University Press. It has decided that ‘Anglo-Saxon’ is no longer a description of the Germanic tribes who invaded southern Britain after the departure of the Romans, fought the Vikings, became the subjects of Norman colonial overlords, and gave us much of our language, but is in some unspecified manner racist.

    It announced a few days ago that it is renaming its ‘Anglo-Saxon England’ academic journal ‘Early Medieval England and its Neighbours’.

    I am going to draw on the work of scholars in a moment. But before I do, let me make one broad point: the argument is drivel.

    The best you can say about the publishers is that they are bowing to American cultural imperialism: the one imperialism we are not meant to resist.

    As the historian Dominic Sandbrook told the Cambridge University Press on X (Twitter) ‘Be honest. You changed the title because you are total drips and didn’t have the courage to say no to a handful of mad Americans’. And that is about the size of it.

    In a series of articles in the Critic, Samuel Rubinstein filled in the details. In 2017 a Canadian academic Dr Mary Rambaran-Olm was elected vice president of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists (ISAS). In her victory speech, she called herself a ‘woman of colour and Anglo-Saxonist,’ which was fair enough.

    She then, like so many others caught up in the great awakening, fell into the delusion that you can change the world by policing language. She then denounced ‘Anglo-Saxon’ as a racist term and resigned because she could no longer possibly be associated with Anglo-Saxon studies in any form.

    Sensing the danger to their careers, the members of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists hastily voted to change its name to the ‘International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England’ in recognition of ‘the problematic connotations that are widely associated with the terms ‘Anglo-Saxon’ and ‘Anglo-Saxonist’ in public discourse.’

    Such as what?

    Well, they continued, Anglo-Saxon ‘has sometimes been used outside the field to describe those holding repugnant and racist views, and has contributed to a lack of diversity among those working on early-medieval England and its intellectual and literary culture.’

    Seriously, when has this happened?

    Answer came there none. As Rubinstein says, no evidence was put forward to support the view that the accurate use of the term Anglo-Saxon deterred anyone from studying pre-Norman England. The suspicion must be that none exists.

    No matter. In our neurotic times, the most dangerous move a careful academic can make is to demand evidence.

    Her destructive aims achieved, Dr Rambaran-Olm retired like a tricoteuse to concentrate on her knitting. ‘I’m a literary historian who specialises in the Middle Ages.’ She now tells anyone who wants to listen. ‘It just so happens that I really love crocheting and knitting too, and I decided to marry two of my passions.’

    From a British point of view the hectoring was yet another example of American cultural imperialism. There is no good defence of the argument that Anglo-Saxon is a racist term. The best you can say is that ‘WASP’ – ‘white Anglo-Saxon protestant’ – was used in 20th century America to describe the dominant caste in the US. But as ‘whiteness’ now includes Catholics and Jews it has become archaic.

    Even if you accept that, what have old American race politics to do with the study of English history?

    In December 2019, several dozen scholars wrote a letter defending the use of Anglo-Saxon, and deplored the turning of a cogent historical term into a boo-word for half-educated fanatics.

    ‘The transformation of “Anglo-Saxon” into a shibboleth whose use or shunning will distinguish the bad from the good will only create further destructive divisions,’ they wrote.

    ‘The term “Anglo-Saxon” is historically authentic in the sense that from the 8th century it was used externally to refer to a dominant population in southern Britain. Its earliest uses, therefore, embody exactly the significant issues we can expect any general ethnic or national label to represent.’

    For British people, including the UK based staff of the Cambridge University Press, accommodating Dr Rambaran-Olm requires rewriting our world.

    Essex comes from the kingdom of the East Saxons, while Wessex was the kingdom of the West Saxons. Must they be renamed?

    Cambridge is in East Anglia, the kingdom of the Angles, established in the sixth century. Must Cambridge publishers renounce it as potentially racist?

    There is a tradition in English writing that echoes folk memories of the ‘Norman Yoke’. We are meant to use Anglo-Saxon English words because they are simpler and truer than the Frenchified alternatives the Norman conquerors brought.

    ‘Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent,’ advised George Orwell.

    ‘Bad writers, and especially scientific, political and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones, and unnecessary words like expedite, ameliorate, predict, extraneous, deracinated, clandestine, sub-aqueous and hundreds of others constantly gain ground from their Anglo-Saxon opposite number.’

    Is his advice now to be considered racist?

    I suspect not because the worst condemnation of the Cambridge University Press one can make is that it is not staffed with serious people. They are not engaged in a scholarly reconsideration but are merely currying favour with dogmatists and hoping for a quiet life.

    Years ago, Hopi Sen, an activist working for the Labour government at the turn of the millennium explained how progressive institutions can be manipulated in what he described as ‘the step to the left‘ manoeuvre.

    You are in a meeting filled with the progressively minded: in this case Anglo-Saxon historians. Everyone agrees to a policy until someone ‘takes one step to the left’ and in an accusatory voice denounces the organisation for its betrayal of the true values of the left.

    In this case, the very use of the term Anglo-Saxon is a betrayal because it is racist and adds to the barriers in the way of ethnic minority participation. No one can explain why. But everyone caught out by the step to the left manoeuvre can fear with justice that they too will be accused of racism if they ask for evidence.

    Fear leads to compliance. People, who are happy to take on reactionaries, are frightened of being called reactionary themselves. The scholars who warned of the creation of ‘a shibboleth whose use or shunning will distinguish the bad from the good’ had a point. People in progressive institutions are genuinely frightened of being shunned or denounced.

    But that is not all of it. Others think it rude to discount the complaints of the people with the loudest voices, even when the loudest voices are bellowing nonsense. Encouraged to be kind, they lack the self-confidence to argue back.

    As so often with progressive attempts to play with language the result is elitist. In the UK there are millions interested in our history. Anglo-Saxon England is wound into our language, county boundaries and place names. Now because of a false allegation they will no longer understand the labels historians attach to the period. The complaint against university educated progressives manipulating language is that they alienate the very people they wish to help.

    At the time of writing there is a trend among NGOs to move from using ‘ethnic minority’ to ‘global majority’ by which they mean non-white people. Leaving aside the term’s incoherence – what have Nigerians and Filipinos got in common? – the overwhelming majority of working-class people, including members of the ethnic minority working class, would not recognise the term.

    If an NGO says in an advert, that it welcomes applications from the ‘global majority’ the very people it wishes to attract will not understand its message.

    Like ‘early medieval England,’ ‘global majority’ is the product of elite concerns.

    English swear words are overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon in origin. You will still hear BBC types say X or Y’s conversation was ‘laced with Anglo-Saxon profanities’.

    Does the Cambridge University Press want us to say ‘early medieval English profanities’ instead? If it does, the only sensible Anglo-Saxon response is to tell the Cambridge University Press, the International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England, and all those who agree with them to fuck off.

    1. The terms ‘racist’ and ‘racism’ have become as pointless, meaningless, cretinous and downright erroneous as have ‘far-Right’, ‘extreme-Right’, and ‘hard-Right’.

      Strange how all those terms are only bandied about by vacuum-headed morons.

      1. The MSM and PTB have to use the r-word because people fall within a variety of different breeds, but the term ‘breedist’ sounds worse than anything beginning with ‘rac…’

  95. Yes, they are the Britons / the Celts – before the Anglo Saxons .
    Welsh is our native tongue- as is that spoken by the Cornish

  96. Cameron risks ceding British sovereignty with Gibraltar deal, warn Tories
    Conservative MPs raise concerns over proposed EU border guards’ access to British Overseas Territory’s airport
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/05/18/tory-mps-warn-sovereignty-risk-in-gibraltar-deal/

    BTL

    History shows us very clearly that Cameron is completely incompetent but also that he must not be trusted one inch.

    In a nutshell: Cameron is determined to take revenge on the British people for voting for Brexit by giving Gibraltar away. If he manages to do this I can see the mean-spirited wretch gloating with glee!

    1. Then it’s time to start shipping all those boat people swarming in to the UK straight to Gibraltar.

      Fill up a few car ferries with them and sail them across the bay of Biscay and onwards around Portugal and Spain, seeking the roughest waters, making sure all stabilisers are off.

      By the time they get there they won’t want a second trip so won’t try to return to the UK for fear of the same.

      edit for missing apo stroff

      1. The ferries should anchor (where it’s shallow enough) in the Bay of Biscay, and engines disabled.

          5. I do remember that: Sundays afternoons on The Light Programme (after Two-Way Family Favourites and The Billy Cotton Band Show).

      2. The first time I sailed across the Bay of Biscay it took almost a week to get from St Mawes to Corunna as there was no wind.

        I got the sitting in the middle of the Bay of Biscay Blues,
        There’s not a wind cloud in the sky
        There’s only lots of cargo vessels steaming by
        From Ushant down to Finisterre
        But we ain’t going nowhere,
        I dropped an empty pack of cigarettes an hour ago
        It’s a hundred yards ahead of us we’re going so slow
        And I don’t know how we’re going to fare
        In all this balmy breezeless air
        And we’ve only got a hundred more cans of beer
        There’s water water everywhere
        Thank God we don’t have to drink it
        Water water everywhere we’ve enough bonded stores to sink it it
        etc etc.

    2. Wouldn’t we like to be surprised.
      However, as Gib voted overwhelmingly to stay in the EU, it’s a case of be careful what you wish for.

      2. Take your pick, he’s in good company.

        David Cameron – Eton College
        Guy Burgess – Eton College
        Donald Maclean – Gresham’s School
        Anthony Blunt – Marlborough College
        Kim Philby – Westminster School

        1. We sent Christo to Gresham’s because we like Bye Bye Miss American Pie and because, at the time Bill’s MR was teaching there!

          (Incidentally over the years we have had several students from each of these schools on our courses!)

    4. I thought that was what he was aiming for.

      I think we are being psychologically prepared to lose the next war that they are going to start.

  98. Grifter is as grifter does?

    Revealed: Meghan and Prince Harry were flown around Nigeria for free with ‘top-tier treatment’ by airline whose chairman is a fugitive wanted in the US over $20M money laundering operation
    Dr. Allen Onyema, founder of Nigerian airline Air Peace, provided the free flights
    He is facing multiple charges linked to millions of dollars’ worth of alleged fraud

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13433479/Meghan-Prince-Harry-Nigeria-airline-chairman-fugitive-wanted.html

    1. You don’t get to the top in Nigeria without the ability to push others’ heads beneath the bubbling cesspool surface.

    2. A shame on me i know but i am looking forward to Harry’s fall from grace. He doesn’t even realise she has gaslighted his family and friends. The bitch even gaslighted her Majesty.

      1. I’m not looking forward to Harry’s fall from grace. He’s none too bright; apparently can be quite unpleasant; but he is also weak. He is too much like his batty mother.
        However, I would like something very Ancient Greek to happen to the baitch.

        1. We can all see it coming. Why won’t he listen to sensible people? To be perfectly crude i can only say it is the call of the groin. Now she has hers he will get his.

          2. I know he suffered as a young boy. I lost my mother in a similar incident. I was in my 30’s but it still had a terrible toll on me. I lost the ability to speak. Nothing would come out. I was saved by my GP at the time and was prescribed anti depressants. Not for long though and it did lift me out of that darkness.
            Harry seems to have deeper problems which he should face but his real friends have been turned away.

          3. I’ve always suspected that his earlier girlfriends were not prepared to do the porn star activities that I equally suspect she does/did to get him.

          6. And what about Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, and what she was up to with the headless man!

        1. That depends on whether there is anything left by the end. One assumes that any money Charles leaves H and the sprogs will be in a trust of some sort so M can’t get her mitts on it and any property will be on a Crown lease.

          1. One hopes so.
            But Harricunt was taken in, hook line and sinker, and when the split comes he’ll be cleaned out.
            I’m a vindictive bastard, I hope he is forced to live a “pleb’s life”

    1. A woman walks into a bar and asks for a ‘Double Entendre’ – so the Barman gave her one……

        1. Speaking of which. I stayed at a hotel in Malta that had a rooftop bar and pool. After two Long island iced tea i was swinging my speedos around my head. Not been back to that hotel since.

          5. I don’t generally drink cocktails, but Long Island Iced tea takes a Hell of a lot of beating.
            My only other choices are a plain G&T or a bloody Mary.

          6. Wish you could come to mine. Our choice of drinks match. Have you tried ‘Big Tom’?
            And no…i am not talking about some porn star.

          8. Big Tom is a mix for Bloody Mary. I found it to be very good. Just add Vodka and a stick of celery. Saves searching out the odd ingredients.

  100. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ee813b2f68f4d83b7a226b5641aaa1505058d5728080acac40fcda01a30a371.jpg Where’s Philip?

    Tonight I poached some baby back pork ribs in a sauce made from seville orange pulp and soy sauce. I then smoked it over cherry logs. It was served up with some stir-fried noodles with onions, mushrooms and peas.

    This evening I shall quaff a cocktail of tequila (from the freezer) with some frozen lime simple-syrup ice-cubes, a slice of lime, ginger beer, and a garnish of fresh red chilli pepper.

    Tomorrow I shall just drink water.

      1. Thank you, Pet. The noodles were the star of the show. I’d never been successful in cooking noodles but a Chinese chef showed me how to do it properly. They were yummy and tasted just like they do in a Chinky restaurant.

        1. Oooh (sucks teef)! I don’t fink you’re allowed to say that, hinny!

          4. Tell me of another social media or blog where people have true affection for each other? I think Elon is missing a trick here.

          8. Marco Polo nicked some noodles from Chinkyland, took them home to Wopland, and pasta was born.

        2. Most Chinky chop shops make their stuff tasty with large dozes ajinomoto (monosodium glutamate).

          1. There are better ways of seasoning. A little Miso. But that’s Nip not Chink.

          3. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. is a Japanese multinational food and biotechnology corporation which produces seasonings, interlayer insulating materials for semiconductor packages for use in personal computers, cooking oils, frozen foods, beverages, sweeteners, amino acids, and pharmaceuticals.

            I’ll just have a carrot, thanks. Hold the salt.

          5. I moved into my first house while in Catterick and did all my own cooking. I bought some MSG from the Wing Yip Chinese supermarket in Birmingham hoping to recreate the authentic Chinese take-away taste at home. I added half a teaspoon of MSG to a stir-fry.

            My head nearly blew off. Never again.

        1. Your pics of birdies are much better than your pics of your food. Just sayin’.

          1. Bird photos taken with a Nikon D500 with Nikkor 200–500mm telephoto zoom.
            Food snaps taken with a mobile phone.

          2. Yes. The birdies always look colorful and your foodie pics always look as if they have come from a 1970’s faded cook book. :@)

    3. You have been reading my mind. A recent one from i think Marcus Wareing was roasted oranges with roasted onions turned into a vinaigrette with the addition of Fennel. Naped over pork.
      For tomorrow i have crab mousse with a hollandaise sauce made with miso. Couple of pan roasted scallops to sit on top. An apple and cucumber salad. You can forget the noodles.

      1. We’ve been to his (allegedly) favourite pub, the Neville, a few times recently.
        The food, beer, service etc is excellent, BUT I really don’t like battered fish, where one bites a chunk of fish and batter and enjoys a mouthful of grease.
        We ended up stripping off all the batter to eat the fish. It spoiled the meal entirely.

        1. I think sometimes chefs/cooks overthink it. At lunch recently with (name drop) Geoff, John and others my battered fish was like glass. Not pleasant.

          2. A recent iplayer of Marcus Wareing in Provence was at one of those long lunches. Garlic season featuring aioli. No way i could eat that much food even over several hours. I would be pissed before the fifth course.

          3. I no longer have a huge appetite, but I am surprised by how much I can eat at the village functions.
            The food just keeps on arriving and it’s so good I can’t resist.
            Less than 25 euros is typical, all bits, bobs, courses and booze included.
            Even HG eats for England.
            Wonderful evenings, with genuine conviviality, as we all trough like Trojans.

  101. ‘Newly released testimony from former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins confirms that Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx did not base the pandemic-era six-foot social distancing rule on science, and instead were making things up as they went along.”

    I can think of a couple of folk who should be at a distance of 6 feet under!

    1. Did we really need telling that ? Same with masks and, of course, the gene therapy injections.

    2. 2 metres is 6 feet 6 inches of course but it’s difficult to find the other 6! There was a theory at the time that people 6 feet apart are easier to identify with surveillance equipment but with hindsight that doesn’t make sense. There’s also satanic ritual of course. Most likely just another humiliating control technique?

    4. Though i am appalled at the massive rise in shoplifting another side of me likes the anarchy.

      1. It won’t be the anarchy side of you that pays through increased costs to cover the losses.

        1. I can afford it. I lived through mortgage rates in the 80’s that left me with almost nothing to eat for months on end. The way i improved my situation was to take in lodgers. English students as it happens. From Aston Uni. Even though i was struggling at the time i also knew it wasn’t easy for them. My solution was to include in their rent…Marmite. Toast. Tea. Coffee. Milk. Sugar. They also got to call home free of charge.

          A Christian attitude is what is needed not this socialist mumbo jumbo.

          1. 10/10.

            My sons lodged in university digs, sharing with boys/young men who really struggled financially.
            On the eldest son’s first year we heard of lads staying in their lodgings over Christmas and eating beans on toast for Christmas dinner, alone.
            From then on we always put up the “waifs and strays” and had a family Christmas for them. Some years we had 3 or 4 guests. All three of our boys brought at least one in each year.
            That started roughly 25 years ago, and we still keep in touch with most of them and now their families.
            It has been a real delight to see them prosper and several are far better off than we are.
            It’s a particularly great pleasure when they book the gite and bring their children to meet the strange people who took them in when they were young.

    1. Everyone applauded when he said that the basis of the family is the union of a man and a woman!

      1. Some people on here haven’t yet realised that. Nottlers, however, are free rangers.

  103. I recently read that we may have witnessed a Carrington event that happens when a massive solar flare results in geomagnetic disturbances in the Earth”s atmosphere creating coloured auroras in the upper atmosphere.

    Such an event can have disastrous consequences for the operational integrity of our increasingly electricallly dependent society.
    The fact that we had a fantastic light show without experiencing the end of the world emphasises how little we understand the way in which humankind survives with its dependency on.our life giving source of energy.

    Indeed, it casts severe doubt that humankind could be the primary cause of our planet’s climate changes through trying to intepret statistical trends in weather patterns.

    This video discusses the issues behind why we were unable to foresee the unlikely escape from doom that we might well have befallen us after such a recent Carrington event:

    https://youtu.be/GCC19IS0_Zc?si=9WBtXGnMxPUXheAK

    1. Indeed, it casts severe doubt that humankind could be the primary cause of our planet’s climate changes through trying to intepret statistical trends in weather patterns.

      Man made climate change is the biggest lie ever told. It is a nonsense, based on cod science and computer modelling that start from the desired end and work backwards. Net Zero is being used to impoverish us and end any semblance of democracy.

    2. A Carrington event wouldn’t affect us anyway. The server running our program is in an alternate universe.

    3. About 20 tears ago, I was doing an annual corrosion inspection at a gas terminal (BP) in East Yorkshire. One day, I recorded some very strange and excessive electrical potentials from the buried pipework. I spent much of the day trying to track down a spurious source of stray current from adjacent sites (other gas companies – British Gas, Transco etc). Nothing.
      I called other techs from our firm all around the UK – they were all getting odd results. Eventually, one of the BP electricians who was a stargazer, mentioned solar flares, as there was such an event that day.

      It’s obviously a matter of degree, but it certainly had a marked effect on my work.

  104. I’m watching the Fury fight tonight, it’s not on till about 11.00pm but it should be a cracker!

    I boxed at heavy myself for a few years, and he’s the most awkward big man I’ve ever seen – and he’s got a granite jaw (remember that Wilder punch he got up from?).

    Usyk is no mug but he’s really a pumped-up cruiserweight. Tyson to win on points……

    1. I’ve never boxed, too painful.
      I look at modern monsters and I wonder how Ali would have handled them.

        2. Indeed, but he was only around the 14.5 to 15 stone range and Foreman wasn’t all that much bigger.
          Fury is pushing 20 stone, or nearly 30% heavier.

          5. There you’re correct.
            Sometimes one gets boxers who punch way above their weight, but they are the exceptions.

    2. You boxed at heavy? Bloody hell. Got any pics? I’m sure the ………ahem …….female variety Nottlers would like to see them. Asking for a friend…. :@)

        1. As i told the boss at a lunch recently…almost everything i post is made up. If my post makes you laugh it isn’t real. :@)

      3. Amateur Heavy in those days was over 12.5 stone.
        On the traditional weights I was heavy and I’m only a little ‘un.
        Traditional Eight Divisions
        These are commonly known today as the “traditional divisions,” which were basically the only weight classes throughout the early 20th Century, before the numerous “super,” “junior” and “light” classes were added.

        Flyweight: 8 st (112 lbs / 50,802 Kg)
        Bantamweight: 8 st 6 lbs (118 lbs / 53,525 kg)
        Featherweight: 9 st (126 lbs / 57,153 kg)
        Lightweight: 9 st 9 lbs (135 lbs / 61,235 kg)
        Welterweight: 10½ st (147 lbs / 66,678 kg)
        Middleweight: 11 st 6 lbs (160 lbs / 72,574 kg)
        Light Heavyweight: 12½ st (175 lbs / 79,378 kg)
        Heavyweight: (unlimited)

    3. Bollocks – split decision to Usyk, cracking fight though – I had it Fury by one round (114-113).

      Automatic rematch in October, cant wait!

  105. Pub charges customers 50p a pint more to pay at the bar

    Publican defends two-tier pricing for being better for business and staff mental health

    Pieter Snepvangers • 17 May 2024 • 4:37pm

    For many pub-goers, there is something sacred about ordering at the bar. The unspoken etiquette of queuing unorderly while desperately trying to get the bartender’s attention may be slow and tedious but it is a tradition Britons are quick to defend.

    However, one pub landlord is attempting to break the tradition by charging punters up to 50p extra on pints ordered at the bar.

    Ben Cheshire, who runs The Coronation pub in Southville, Bristol, is so keen for customers to order via their smartphone that he has created a two-tier pricing system whereby some drinks are almost 20pc more expensive for customers who order in-person.

    It means a pint of the house lager costs customers £3.50 at the bar – but is only £3 if they order through the QR code. For a pint of Guinness, it’s £4.80 when placing the order with a barman and £4.50 when using a smartphone. A pint of Cornish lager Korev is £3.70 with a smartphone and £4 for those who want to queue at the bar.

    Mr Cheshire dismissed suggestions the practice was discriminatory against older customers and those who find the technology difficult to use. The pub owner said his clientele had become much younger since the Covid pandemic and that the digital service reduced the burden on his staff.

    He said: “I lost all my older crowd completely overnight when everything had to go to ‘table service only’ during Covid. I haven’t seen them since. For years I had an older crowd in here, looked after them, had private events for them and things like that, so that’s not the angle I’m trying to go for here.

    “This is more helpful for our staff, that’s why I’m offering it. I’ve found that not having to be constantly serving people is way better for my mental health. Bar work can be really mentally tiring. This takes the stress away rather than having to constantly interact with different people for eight hours straight.”

    Mr Cheshire’s decision also reflects the economic climate independent pubs are facing. Energy bills and staff costs remain high but the increased cost of drinks passed on to consumers is damaging footfall. Up to 600 pubs are expected to close this year, according to the British Beer and Pub Association, on top of the 530 that closed in 2023.

    Mr Cheshire said customers order more when using the online system as they explore the full drinks menu.

    Alongside a weekly quiz, the publican has introduced more obscure events to keep younger customers coming in, including a Saturday pottery session and a Dungeons and Dragons night every fortnight where customers come dressed in mediaeval garb to play the fantasy role-playing game in the pub.

    “For those events, this is perfect. They can carry on making their clay pots or playing their game without being interrupted and simply order from their smartphone and have their drinks brought to them.”

    But despite his best attempts, Mr Cheshire said 90pc of his customers still choose to order at the bar and pay higher prices even though staff often tell customers it’s cheaper to pay from their table.

    “I’m a big advocate for European-style service. I think we had a chance to change the culture during the pandemic. I’m sure some places thought it was a good idea, keeping everyone sat down, not standing up but sat at your table where it’s all about the conversation, but in most places it’s gone back to how it was. I think it’s a real shame.”

    Despite making “special allowances for the older guys” after Covid when prices were kept the same between bar service and the website, Mr Cheshire is insistent his pricing structure is not discriminatory.

    “The people who are more worried about the discounts are the 19-year-old fine art students, they are the ones who really appreciate it. Or the young professionals who are pushing it a bit having a night out in the midweek,” he said.

    The British Beer and Pub Association, which represents around 20,000 pubs, said the decision to encourage customers to order via their smartphone represented the difficult climate the hospitality industry is facing as pubs seek alternative methods to cut costs and keep Gen Z customers coming to the pub.

    Chief executive Emma McClarkin said: “In pubs, the greater use of all different types of tech has accelerated since the pandemic and is being embraced by all consumers, especially younger consumers.

    “This is not just confined to how to order a beer, refreshments or a meal, but in the many ways that pubs are adapting to bring communities together, including host events or a diverse range of activities. The cost efficiencies they bring are most welcome and much needed.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/pub-charges-customers-10pc-more-to-pay-at-bar/

    Nottlanders should go there and ask for table service – with cash payments.

    1. Mmmm….giving away data about how many drinks you buy…what could possibly go wrong?

    2. My idea of European service, is sitting at a table and ordering from a waiter, who brings your drinks sometimes with free snacks maybe crisps or nuts. After a time they return to see if you want to order again. In some places like Madrid your drinks are often accompanied by free tapas.
      And if the service is poor, no problem, you cross the road or go next door to premises where they treat you better.

      1. I won’t eat in Wetherspoons, because they seriously expect you to download their app to place you order instead of their staff either taking the order at the bar or actually walking across the room to your table.

  106. Giant heat pumps could turn retirement haven into one of Britain’s greenest towns

    Gas-reliant seaside town to adopt renewable energy under £500m plan

    Jonathan Leake • 10 May 2024 • 6:37pm

    Giant heat pumps powering a district heating network could turn the retirement resort of Worthing, West Sussex into one of the UK’s greenest towns under government plans.

    The £500m plan will see heat extracted from the atmosphere and then pumped first to public buildings and eventually to households in the area.

    Worthing is one of the UK’s most gas-reliant towns with boilers installed in 77pc of its homes, and has an ageing housing stock that generally has below-average levels of insulation, according to constituency data.

    The work will be led by Hemiko, a company specialising in district heating, which will invest £40m in the scheme along with £7m from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

    Lord Callanan, minister for energy efficiency and green finance, said: “We hope this will benefit the whole town by delivering cheaper energy bills and lower carbon emissions.”

    The Worthing heat network will initially use three large air source heat pumps in an energy centre by a car park in the town centre.

    At first they will heat large public buildings, including the town hall and local hospital. Homes will be connected later, with plans for the entire town to be hooked up by 2050.

    Worthing has one of Britain’s oldest populations, with around 35pc of its 113,000-strong population over the age of 60, compared with 25pc nationally.

    Sophie Cox, Worthing’s cabinet member for climate emergency, said the town planned to be a carbon neutral council by 2030 and a net zero borough by 2045.

    Heat networks use a centralised heat source, potentially including heat pumps or waste heat from a data centre – and pipe it to nearby buildings.

    Connected properties no longer need boilers or hot water tanks but instead use a heat exchanger similar in size to a small gas boiler.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/05/10/town-warmed-giant-shared-heat-pumps-first-uk-project/

    Like this morning’s post about Gazan refugees, I’m struggling to to provide a response that is new or isn’t expletive-ridden.

    1. Giant heat pumps eh….
      I have a better idea, why not just a giant windmill that reaches to the clouds? We could call it the windmill of Babel.

    2. I wonder if they’ve factored in heat loss, individual demand and who, at the end of the day, is paying the bill (except of course the tax payer, as government has no money).

      Put my mother’s house next to mine and hers would need heating to 25’c and ours to 19 during winter. What about the 50th… 200th house? If this is water based, … nahh. While I appreciate Soviet era homes have socialised heating those are in flats and the flats are built to survive Russian Winters (and Summers) and are transverse laid bricks, doubly insulated and so on.

    3. Pure socialism, making everyone reliant on government provision. It should be fought tooth and nail.

    4. Only 7 million of your money? There cannot be a worthwhile kickback in that.

    5. Another dissaster waiting to happen. It will not give the heat you want for lesss.

  107. The entire energy market is socialised. That’s why energy is so expensive, why switching is pointless. The state is meddling to such an extent the entire market for energy is broken.

    For example, energy suppliers are required to force sell unreliables – even if the customer just wants coal, gas and nuclear they cannot have it.

  108. From the Spectator

    Fawlty Towers at the Apollo may be the best museum piece you’ll ever see. A full-length play has been carved out of three episodes: ‘The Hotel Inspectors’, ‘The Germans’, and ‘Communication Problems’ in which the deaf guest, Mrs Richards, made a nuisance of herself by refusing to switch on her hearing aid in case the batteries ran out. For anyone who saw the sitcom in the 1970s, this is a pleasantly weird show. It’s like returning to a seaside funfair after half a century and finding all the rides unchanged and the staff more or less as you remember them.

    If Beckett had written family comedies he might have created something as amusing as this
    Paul Nicholas makes an even better Major than the Major. And his rich, fruity voice is an unexpected treat. Manuel is played by Hemi Yeroham, who hadn’t seen the show before he landed the role. He adds a few personal touches that work very well and he’s at least as likeable as Andrew Sachs – plus, he’s better looking. Anna-Jane Casey (Sybil) gets a round of applause just for walking on stage with her famous bee-hive hairdo. Her domineering spikiness comes across brilliantly. And Adam Jackson-Smith delivers the most precise and carefully studied facsimile of Basil. Actors hate being told this but by adding nothing new he gets it exactly right. His only failure is the goose-stepping Hitler routine, which is beyond him physically because he lacks the height for it and can’t flex his limbs with Basil’s crazed athleticism. But who could? Cleese’s record as the best Hitler impersonator in history remains unchallenged.

    The show’s ending doesn’t quite work, as Cleese is doubtless aware. The problem is that an episodic TV show is a different beast from a one-off drama. A sitcom usually ends with an enjoyable flourish that leaves the basic set-up unaltered. But a full-length play needs a larger and more explosive climax that changes the characters and the story permanently. It’s impossible to fashion such a transformation from a few sitcom endings. Cleese once predicted that his classic comedy would grow stale and fade into oblivion. Time is proving him wrong.

    1. Fawlty Towers was one of my all time favourites.
      Paul Nicholas use to sing in his band Paul Dean and The Dreamers. They often played at the Youth club known as Canada Villa in Mill Hill NW7 where I was a member in the early 60s. Then he was in Hair. And other TV shows.

    2. Why indeed, it’s a huge major racist crime.
      Same thing happened in Rhodesia when that stinking pile of dung mugabe took over.

    3. What was happening at the end of the video? I couldn’t work it out.

  111. It’s that time of day again folks, Fish pie dinner and one very large glass of Merlot and i’m sagging.
    My lady and i had a lovely long chat with Brucie and Mrs Brucie this morning. Mrs Bruce is my wife’s cousin, they’ll be getting up in an hour or so. 5c over there and the log burner was going full strength.
    We are debating how and where to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary later this year. It’s not an easy decision to make. We’ll get there.
    Night all.

      1. It’s in the pipe line.
        We have friends in WA as well.
        We will probably have a lunch at Mid Herts golf club. We’ve been to a few lunches over the years. Very good and it solves an awful lot of other problems.

      2. We can’t resist really, we’d stay over in Dubai with our youngest and his lady.
        The way this country is being wrecked by our political idiots. Some times I honestly wish we’d never come back to England. But I did find it a tad too hot there some times.

  114. I was around 15 stone at the time (aged 19-22) and 6’2″ so not unduly big. I gave it up as I wanted to concentrate on my Rugby and I was developing some disturbing side effects – headaches and blurred vision.

    1. I was smaller, just under 6 ft, and slightly over 13.5 stone maximum, but even time over a 100 yards, so a problem for the opposition on the rugby pitch.

      It was a shame I couldn’t catch !

      1. Actually Phiz, I always used to say I jacked in boxing because I got fed up getting punched in the head, so I concentrated on Rugby, where I just got kicked in the head!
        Still, didnt do me any long term harm!
        Still, didnt do me any long term harm!
        Still, (Yes, we get the picture. Ed.)

  115. Clearly the event itself enhances the appetite. Such a shame we have nothing similar here.

  117. Don’t give me lists and stats…………..boring ! I want to see pics of the weigh-ins where you all face off against each other in an aggressive manner in your underpants. Lol.

      1. Yes, that isn’t a mixed race baby. Pretty sure it’s a parody account but I love the dog’s expression.

        2. Cruel to take a genuine photo of a family and add that slur to it though. One reason why I never post photos to the internet.

    2. I never thought she looked particularly well groomed when she was in office, but now…

        1. A fair few bottles of Moretti, a glass or two of Malbec – now on Johnnie Walker Black label to watch the fight (appropriate really as I always get punchy on the Scotch!)

  120. A BTL Comment on tomorrow’s letters page:-

    Robert Spowart just now

    If Mr. Starmer’s prognostications on defending our country are to mean anything at all, he must first agree that the invasion of our country by undocumented migrants landing here illegally MUST end and those already hear must be deported.

    Otherwise everything he says is just so much hot air.

    1. Here not hear.
      Starmer likes the type of incomer that will destabilise the country. Jess Philips herself said that most of the Gazans that settled in Yardley, Birmingham were Doctors. Out and out fucking lies. It is what the Left do.

    2. I have always thought that when enough young men were in the UK in order to ensure its destruction, a politician would be elected who would magically stop the boats…

  121. Good Night to all my Nottle chums. Sleep well and I’ll see you all tomorrow.

    1. He looks like the drugs aren’t working any more and there is no one who can help him.

      1. He should stop this high falutin nonsense and get an honest, practical job suited to his abilities. His tragedy is that he never will.

      2. How did you watch it? A one off fee or what? Netflix have Part 1 still going.

      3. Is it as good as Part 1? Which I am watching now to get me in the mood and up to date.

        1. It has always been the case to make this epic into film was near impossible.

          The first part is okay and the second part is okay.
          Watchable but not as memorable as Children of Dune series or even the original.

          I’m not dumbing it down. A two part film which i would happily watch again.

          I can’t say much more without giving spoilers or for that matter being arrested.
          I would say watch it back to back if you have the time.

          2. Children of Dune is a three part mini series which i highly recommend. It begins with the all encompassing jihad across the known universe after Paul becomes Emperor.

            Some very good acting from the likes of Alice Krieg who incidently played the Borg queen in Star Trek.
            worth a watch IMO. I have watched that series lots of times. The background music is good too. If you have deaf neighbours that helps.

          3. I’ve just looked up Children of Dune. I might have read it way back when, but ‘Dune’ was the the only novel worthy of a film or re-reading.

          4. Can’t be any spoilers for me as I read the book (a while ago now) several times.

  124. Evening, all. There is so much in the current UK which needs a radical overhaul!

  125. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

  126. A recent discussion about books re films. The book is of the mind and we dress the characters. Films often don’t live up to our own imaginations.

      1. Have you seen the cartoony one? I think that one was made for mongs and Americans. Don’t bother with that one.

    1. Cracking fight – I had it Fury by one round (114-113) – would have been more but for the 9th where he had to show his remarkable resilience once again to avoid getting KO’ed. Rematch in October!!

  131. “A London bus is reduced to a burnt-out shell after catching fire yesterday. The single-deck 490 burst into flames in Twickenham, south-west London. No one was hurt.“

    1. ‘ Morning, Geoff and thank you for all your efforts on our behalf. Much appreciated!

    2. ‘ Morning, Geoff and thank you for all your efforts on our behalf. Much appreciated!

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