Saturday 20 July: The Covid Inquiry merely confirms what experts in emergency planning already knew

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

665 thoughts on “Saturday 20 July: The Covid Inquiry merely confirms what experts in emergency planning already knew”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s (recycled) story

    International Co-existence

    On a group of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following people are stranded:

    Two Italian men and one Italian woman
    Two French men and one French woman
    Two German men and one German woman
    Two Greek men and one Greek woman
    Two English men and one English woman
    Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman
    Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman
    Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman
    Two American men and one American woman
    Two Irish men and one Irish woman

    One month later on these stunning islands, the following things have occurred:

    One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

    The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a ménage-a-trois.

    The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

    The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

    The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

    The two Bulgarian men took one long look at the endless ocean and another long look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming.

    The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are awaiting instructions.

    The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy/liquor store/restaurant/ laundry, and have got the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their store.

    The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, because the American woman keeps on complaining about her body; the true nature of feminism; how she can do everything they can do; the necessity of fulfilment; the equal division of household chores; how sand and palm trees make her look fat; how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do; how her relationship with her mother is improving and how at least the taxes are low and it isn't raining.

    The two Irish men divided the island into North and South and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets sort of foggy after the first few litres of coconut whiskey. But they're satisfied because at least the English aren't having any fun.

    1. Not seen that one before, Tom! Good one!
      Good morning also. Hope all's as good as it can be with you.

    2. An old one on a similar theme.

      In heaven:
      • the cooks are French
      • the mechanics are German
      • the policemen are English
      • the lovers are Italian
      • the managers are Swiss

      In hell:
      • the cooks are English
      • the mechanics are French
      • the policemen are German
      • the lovers are Swiss
      • the managers are Italian

    3. An old one on a similar theme.

      In heaven:
      • the cooks are French
      • the mechanics are German
      • the policemen are English
      • the lovers are Italian
      • the managers are Swiss

      In hell:
      • the cooks are English
      • the mechanics are French
      • the policemen are German
      • the lovers are Swiss
      • the managers are Italian

  2. Good morning, chums. And thank you to Geoff for today's NoTTLe site. I only just made today's Wordle in 6 attempts.

    Wordle 1,127 6/6

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

    1. Four for me 😐

      Wordle 1,127 4/6

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

    2. Wordle 1,127 6/6

      Only just about…

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

    3. Wordle 1,127 5/6

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

  3. I know it’s early in the morning (well, 7 am already! And not a child washed, as my grandmother would have said), but whatever “Thom” (so cool!) is smoking, I’ll have some:

    “Sir – It’s refreshing to find this Prime Minister more interested in building strategic relationships and plans that work than gimmicks and excuses.
    That it has borne fruit so quickly, with migrants returned to France (report, July 19), is testament both to this Prime Minister’s good judgment and the appetite of our closest allies to work together on shared challenges. Let’s hope there is much more to come.
    Professor Thom Brooks Chair in Law and Government Durham Law School”

    1. 'Morning, Mir, this "Thom" is vaping rather than smoking – stopped in 2016.

      1. Smug, snotty nosed brat from Xavier High School (private boys-only Catholic school in Connecticut.

        Wiki: Brooks has been a citizen of the United States since birth. In 2009, he gained indefinite leave to remain in the United Kingdom. He became a citizen of the United Kingdom in 2011, and therefore holds dual citizenship.[18] His report is cited several times in Parliamentary debates.[19] Brooks has been called "the UK's leading expert on the citizenship test".[20] His recommendations for reforming the test have been widely influential.[21]

        Brooks is a member of the British Labour Party and the UNISON trade union. He has written about his view of the Labour Party's policy on immigration, including making a range of proposals on the topic.[22][23][24][25] He is the chair of the Sedgefield and Fishburn branch of the Sedgefield Constituency Labour Party. He has made past comments supporting New Labour and Sedgefield's Tony Blair,[26] and supported Liz Kendall in the 2015 Labour leadership contest.[27] He has championed party unity over factionalism.[28] Brooks is a vocal supporter of Labour Leader Keir Starmer,[29] whom he has supported since his election to Parliament in 2015.[30] In 2022, Brooks published a Fabian Society pamphlet New Arrivals: A Fair Immigration System for Labour that presented a new model for a Labour-led post-Brexit points-based system modelled on Starmer's vision.[31]

  4. Morning all,

    Thanks to advances in technology we can now take a vacation, sit back in our chairs and gaze into an endless blue screen.

      1. :-). I've just shovelled some more coal into my computer and it's working a tre …………

  5. also, this – the elephant in the room, which never fails to get me ranting whenever the public sector moan about how hard-done-to they are:

    “Gold- plated pensions promised to public sector workers now total nearly £5 trillion. This is almost twice the national debt. Critics call it a Ponzi scheme and this isn’t far off. Legally binding guarantees promised to those who join the schemes decades ago can only be fulfilled if new members ( and the taxpayer) keep the money coming in.
    The numbers are eye-wateringly high, with the cost of paying current retirees now at around £50bn a year. These are increasingly expensive promises, made and underwritten with someone else’s money. Yet to many doctors, nurses, teachers and civil servants, their pensions will not seem excessive. In most cases, their salaries are not extravagant and their pensions will pay just a fraction of that.
    The real – and often unappreciated – value lies in the inflation-proofing element. No matter how high inflation goes, their pension will keep up. A career in the public sector is rewarded with a retirement free of worry.
    This is quite a contrast to those who work outside of this bubble. For most, inflation-proofing a retirement income comes at a high price. A 65-year- old with £100,000 can buy a flat rate annuity paying out £7,405 a year until they die, according to Retirement Line. However, if they want their income to rise with inflation, they will start with just £4,636 a year.
    But Labour, which depends on trade union support, and the Civil Service are unlikely to be drivers of any kind of reform. Why would they move to cut their own retirement pay?
    Those in power are often clueless to how dire pension pay is in the private sector, where workers are guaranteed pension contributions from their employer of just 3pc. Sir Keir Starmer has a special pension from his time as director of public prosecutions that protects him from tax. Before going into politics, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, worked at the Bank of England, which has paid pensions contributions worth 50pc of salary. Yet, still, there is talk of Labour sizing up tax grabs on our pensions, with this week a think tank urging Ms Reeves to consider scrapping inheritance-tax breaks for retirement savings. The Government announced a new Pensions Scheme Bill in the King’s Speech but it will do little to address the retirement inequality facing our nation.
    The sheer cost of the public sector pensions is one thing, but it is the inequity that really matters.
    One sector of society has their retirement guaranteed, no matter the cost, while another has to dig deeper, gamble on the stock market and pay a premium to get a pension income anywhere close. The divide will only grow wider now that younger generations are saddled with never- ending student loan repayments, while having to save longer and harder to get on the property ladder. Most cannot afford to properly invest for retirement. Public sector pensions are unfair, unsustainable and an insult to ordinary taxpayers. The only right way to address this problem is to divert an equal amount of taxpayer cash towards pensions for private sector workers.
    This will, of course, never happen under Labour. The only thing the Government can do is to continue to pretend this is not a dreadful injustice.”

    1. The argument for the public sector employees always was "but we get paid less than the private sector" so a decent pension is only fair. No mention at all of the fact that they have considerably more holidays, which if the private sector took and were deducted wages for would even out the amounts much more. Nor for the fact that, unlike the private sector, they don't seem to need to turn up to work without too much repercussion, can swing the lead for months on end, and are virtually unsackable. Or, that the pension is worth a GREAT DEAL more than most private sector pensions. Nice, if you can get it.

      That's not to say that all or even most public sectors do not work, swing the lead etc. But those who do, can get away with it.

    2. The argument for the public sector employees always was "but we get paid less than the private sector" so a decent pension is only fair. No mention at all of the fact that they have considerably more holidays, which if the private sector took and were deducted wages for would even out the amounts much more. Nor for the fact that, unlike the private sector, they don't seem to need to turn up to work without too much repercussion, can swing the lead for months on end, and are virtually unsackable. Or, that the pension is worth a GREAT DEAL more than most private sector pensions. Nice, if you can get it.

      That's not to say that all or even most public sectors do not work, swing the lead etc. But those who do, can get away with it.

    1. Russia Brags Sanctions Helped It Avoid Microsoft Crash

      https://media.breitbart.com/media/2024/07/Vladimir-Putin-640×480.jpeg

      The Russian Digital Communications Ministry bragged on Friday that the worldwide information technology (IT) outage did not affect Russian airlines and banks, thanks to Russia’s countermeasures against Western sanctions.

      “At the moment, the ministry has not received reports of system failures at Russian airports,” the ministry claimed.

      “The situation with Microsoft once again shows the importance of import substitution of foreign software, primarily at critical information infrastructure facilities,” the ministry statement asserted.

      This was a reference to Russia’s practice of replacing foreign imports with Russian-made alternatives after President Vladimir Putin’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 prompted a wave of Western sanctions. More sanctions were imposed after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, so the “import substitution” program grew more wide-reaching and more expensive.

      Analysts outside the Russian government say import substitution has largely failed because Russia does not produce goods in the quantity and quality needed to make do without foreign products. Replacing food imports with heavily subsidized local agriculture, for example, wound up tripling food prices for Russian consumers.

      Bank of Finland Institute for Emerging Economies analyst Heli Simola calculated in June that production costs in several key industries have soared by up to 700 percent over the past two years as Russian manufacturers struggle to make do without foreign imports.

      “Russia is especially dependent on technologically sophisticated imports. This makes import substitution even more difficult for the country, given its weak performance in most high-tech sectors and technological innovation development,” Simola noted.

      If the claims of the Digital Communications Ministry are correct, Russia separating itself from the worldwide electronic ecosystem for Microsoft Windows might be the first real success for import substitution. On Friday, a faulty software update that cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike pushed out apparently caused thousands of computers worldwide to crash with the dreaded “blue screen of death.” Financial and transportation systems ground to a halt as a result and could take days to resume full operating capacity.

      Cybersecurity expert Troy Hunt captured the scope of the problem on Friday by calling it “the largest IT outage in history.”

      “This is basically what we were all worried about with Y2K, except it’s actually happened this time,” he said.

      Denis Kuskov, director-general of Russia’s TelecomDaily research agency, told the state-run Tass news service on Friday that Russian computers “will not be much affected by this outage because, in most cases, we no longer have a major connection to Microsoft.”

      Kuskov and other Russian IT specialists said Russian computers running Windows tend to lag far behind the rest of the world in updates due to sanctions.

      “Affected were airlines, railroads, logistics, warehouses, stores, stock exchanges. Everyone using Microsoft. Russia will not be affected because we have been making strenuous efforts to replace their cloud, their software for two years,” said Mobile Research Group analyst Eldar Murtazin.

      Murtazin said Chinese computers would probably be unaffected by the global IT outage for similar reasons.

      Anton Nemkin of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy said Russian companies should learn the “lesson” that “import substitution definitely benefits those who keep up with it.”

    1. Oooh that’s a bit dark. But the sentence must stand. He broke the law, and inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of people, including to the detriment of millions of ponds. This was not a victimless “peaceful” protest.

  9. Good Morning all, another wet day for us in Co Antrim. Two consecutive dry days would be lovely.

    1. Morning, Soggy Snake.
      I will not mention that Essex is the driest county in the UK – ooops.

  10. Donald Trump isn’t America’s saviour. His strategic carelessness threatens the free world. 20 July 2024.

    I come back to the God stuff with which I began. As a believer myself, I welcome the signs of renewed interest in Christianity among the Western young. It is an awakening against nihilism, and against Islamist fanaticism.

    But – more in the United States than in Britain – it contains a strand so disgusted with the degeneracy of Western liberalism that it falls for a charlatan like Putin when he says that he is doing the Lord’s work against our godless decadence.

    It was much to the credit of the Leave campaign in Britain that – except for a few Faragiste/Ukip outliers – it never fell into this pit that Putin had tried to dig for it. But the Trump team has. Its effects could disable the free world.

    In truth the Free World no longer exists. This is nothing to do with Mr Putin. He is in fact battling its successors. The Globalist Cartel that now rules the West. The choice now for us is between its representatives or Donald Trump, who for all his shortcomings speaks for the people..

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/19/donald-trump-isnt-saviour-carelessness-threatens-free-world/

    1. Am I alone in thinking that Charles Moore has recently lost his marbles entirely?

      2. He's come out as a full frontal Globalist in the last year or so Richard.

  11. Good Moaning.
    It's official. I'm a 'pooter' genius. That'll be £1 billion, thank you very much.

    "Microsoft suggests turning computers off and on again
    While IT engineers are bogged down trying to fix thousands of broken computers, Microsoft says one solution may simply be to turn them off and on again."

    2. A couple of days ago when a friend's electric driven garage door opened but wouldn't close, solution… I shut off the power, waited a few seconds before powering up, and hey presto!

      This solution does not work with blown lightbulbs.🤣

  12. 389942+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    breitbart,

    Labour Government Postpones Major Plans to Cut Mass Migration
    The new left-wing Labour Party government in Britain will reportedly postpone its central plans to cut the influx of foreign workers.

    london & birmingham are done deals, replacing the guiding forces in each in place, if indigenous, then WEF / NWO agents.

    leeds has shown its foreign muscle power that is enough for now
    the closet door is ajar, waiting.

    The Calais /dover supply route WILL be kept open and serviced
    the baton hand change was seamless.

    1. They will only stop it when they suffer direct consequences from it aka Carrie and the Warbuoys incident. She made sure that he did not get early release. He'd have got it if he hadn't attacked her.

  13. 'Morning All
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/875e7f958a477746cc754bcb0a69370de36e5512a9d331a439c3e824350b8844.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7cadb43d80e358c357f81ab8891035f2250118446bb0707be1112ddce4eac323.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf3b8934e2743263c0cac8d6a88272c6598253f97037afa7c19e2b1c14647965.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61ad0dcc157be81c84ffd0bad79f2600193bc92b714637ab3da5cd4a4f4c3a2c.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cec2b8fc24f3d98193308ef0f08c45c2dc365322cea524fb3d01d7e817de8116.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2626802cfbc25dfa8411598a3cbeafa16002b7b9f9db7f6d4cfedc6a621a674d.jpg

    2. I caught Ms. Cooper on the News last night speaking sternly in support of Law and Order.

          3. I had the misfortune to hear her on TV News last night.

            A good regional accent is laudable but what a completely horrible voice she has. Is she naturally common or is she doing her best to sound as if she is?

          4. She's a good choice as Home secretary as she is already the president of the Home Switchers Unanimous Society.

        2. Good morning Mr T and everyone.
          Generally I avoid upvoting any encouragement of violence by individuals and indeed I usually censor my ad hominem thoughts, but that lady has perfected an expression irresistibly attractive to any self-respecting custard pie.

        3. Good morning Mr T and everyone.
          Generally I avoid upvoting any encouragement of violence by individuals and indeed I usually censor my ad hominem thoughts, but that lady has perfected an expression irresistibly attractive to any self-respecting custard pie.

      2. She's obviously full of hate for the British way of life, the supportive taxpayers and anyone else she has in her sights.
        The victorians built special accommodation for people like her.
        And most of the present cabinet.

    3. I caught Ms. Cooper on the News last night speaking sternly in support of Law and Order.

    4. If that second one is real (and i don’t doubt it), that’s truly worrying.

      The second from bottom one equally true.

    5. If that second one is real (and i don’t doubt it), that’s truly worrying.

      The second from bottom one equally true.

    6. I would like to say the last one wasn't true, but when we lived in a multi-ethnic town around twenty years ago, it was common knowledge that if you wanted anything from the authorities, you went to someone of your own ethnicity.

    7. As usual the truth can be found in Shakespeare's King Lear.

      That nature that condemns its origin
      Cannot be bordered certain in itself.

      We are encouraged to feel guilt about our great achievements and our history which is not how sane, self-confident people should be made to look at the world.

    8. Good evening,
      "Do not walk your dog here.
      Muslims do not like dogs.
      This is an islamic area now."
      I might need to get a dog …..

  15. Perhaps she could take the rioters into her own home so that she can impart daily instruction to them.

  17. Good morning all.
    A pleasant 16°C outside with a bright overcast sky. No doubt it's going to get warmer.
    Other than intermittant twinges, my back feels a lot better. I wonder if my problem was exacerbated by the thin mattress I was using on my sleeping shelf?

      3. Unfortunately it is classified as 'threatened'. In Iran there are only a few hundred left and they are becoming increasingly rare elsewhere as their land is being developed for agriculture etc. Estimate is that only 9,000 are left in the wild.

        3. God makes no mistakes and we are created in the image and likeness of God in Gods creation.

          2. Actually, I think we are doing rather well. It is the idiots like the global warming fanatics and the just stop oil people that damage progress. In short modern ‘liberals’ who are anything but. They are really modern Luddites.

        4. God makes no mistakes and we are created in the image and likeness of God in Gods creation.

  21. 389942+ up ticks,

    Saturday 20 July: The Covid Inquiry merely confirms what experts in emergency planning already knew

    The experts being of course the thinking section of the indigenous patriotic peoples.

    The " inquiry " being a stealth cover in what many, many now see as an experimental vaccine exercise with a culling potential as an added bonus.

    The indigenous vie the polling booth are currently supporting
    DEI / DIE, and brothers & sisters we are going to receive both in great quantities…….. AMEN.

  22. SIR – The claim that water needs to be at 100C to make a proper cup of tea is false. The preference for boiling water is a hangover from the days when water needed to be boiled to ensure it was safe to drink. The UK Tea and Infusions Association recommends the water temperature for black tea should be between 90 and 98C.

    Chris Thomas
    Reading , Berkshire

    Utter bollocks and hogwash, Christine. I don't need any "Tea and Infusions Association" (WTF is that?) to tell me what generations of tea-drinkers have always known. Pouring water at 90ºC onto black tea leaves will not extract the full necessary flavours of the herb; i.e. the mash (or brew) will not happen. You will end up with a pot (or mug if you are modern couldn't-care-less type) of lukewarm piss.

    I had the misfortune to order a cup of tea made from 'boiled' water at a café near the summit of Cairngorm. Because of the altitude the water there boils at 95ºC, rendering that brew undrinkable. It was vile!

    I shall always use boiling water (at 100ºC) to mash my tea and I shall continue to do so — properly — in a ceramic teapot.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG-rMpQT-GQ

    1. As is all tea made in the ISA and on the continent, especially when they give you a cup of hot water with a teabag on the side. Yes. A cup of hot water with a teabag on the side. We’ve all been there. Ugh.

      1. For a long time the only tea you could get in California was Lipton. You literally had to boil a couple of teabag together to get any taste. I learnt, later on, that the good tea was always sent to England and its tea drinking colonies, Australia etc, and the USA got the leavings, i.e, the dregs left over in the manufacturing process. Now a days you can get plenty of good teas, well known brands as in the UK. But one thing I do miss is proper iced tea with lemon and sugar, it really is a wonderful drink. You can make it at home, of course, but it isn't the same as Lipton ice tea.

        1. When I was a kid I lived in the Upper Midwest. My mother, although English, disliked tea so it never formed part of my culture. When my grandfather came from England to visit, he brought his own tea. Inevitably my mum’s English friends invited us all to tea. Where did you buy your tea my mum asked. I cut the bags open and empty them into the pot was the answer.

    2. We’re not allowed boiling water in the kitchen hubs at work. Elf n safety. No kettles. The children might scold themselves. It’s true that the water from the filter tap is hot enough for coffee, though I still think it has an odd taste but it certainly doesn’t suit tea drinkers. A former colleague smuggled a kettle in, put it under her desk and used the desk socket intended for computers and phones but of course kettles are noisy and oh, the steam!

      1. Just trying to get my head around us being expected to believe stories made up researched by people who aren't trusted with an electric kettle…

      2. Good morning Sue

        The malevolent hot air at the BBC could benefit from being dampened with a bit of steam.

      3. One possible idea: using a suitable container, eg a mug or teapot, boil water in the microwave oven. To avoid being censured, use already-hot water from the filter tap device.

      4. Tea should be infused at 100ºC and mashed for 5–6 minutes to extract all the best flavour compounds.

        Coffee though (proper ground coffee, not that 'instant' abomination) should be at 92ªC to extract the necessary flavour compounds. Too hot and you will just get a strong bitterness (the motto "boil to spoil" for coffee is very apposite).

      5. I can’t have tea at work for the same reason. And I love tea. It puts a real downer on my day. Twelve hours is a long time to be without a cup of tea.

        1. Yes. The other alternative is the coffee/tea bar in the canteen. Buying drinks seems extravagant when the ingredients are provided free of charge in the kitchen hubs on each floor but a significant number opt for that. I’d rather buy spring water than use the filter taps. The water on tap tastes odd.

          1. Where do you live? I ask because I have to use bottled water too. From the tap it tastes of chemicals and so strong that you can actually taste it through the tea which becomes undrinkable it tastes so bad.

          2. I’m technically in Hammersmith but just a few yards from Shepherd’s Bush Green. Work is just down the road at White City. Where possible I buy water in glass bottles or cans but I do have a weakness for the flavoured (basically sweetened) water that M&S sell. I tend to mix them 2/3 clear to 1/3 flavoured. The artificial flavouring is quite different to the odd taste of the tap water.

          3. So not the same water district as West Sussex. What is happening here? Used to be that English water from the tap was fine but now it is ghastly. That is not a good sign. In fact I would say it is indicative of the deterioration of England due to over population and other problems.

    2. Nobody in Britain gives a XXXX about Ukraine! That piece of nonsense is aimed purely at his WEF masters!

    3. Big talk from Smarmer but what has he got to back up his rhetoric?

      Enlist a few more boats from the RNLI?

      Ukraine, Ukraine, always Ukraine from these political minnows. How about a bit of focus on the UK's problems… on second thoughts don't bother, we don't want a worsening of our problems.

      1. It is always Ukraine to avoid focusing on any British problems in order to make us so angry with our government in order that we, the people, will positively welcome, possibly demand, rule by the WEF NWO one world government. Hence the emphasis on Ukraine. It is to free the pathway for the WEF. Starmer is working to a script and in everything govt does we are being manipulated for the WEF agenda. Plans for solar panelling over prime agricultural land serves the same purpose – famine – angry people – overturn the govt. We are getting closer to their 2030 deadline and the noose is tightening. Harehills was not by accident.

    6. Does Starmer not know that Ukraine has always been rated as by far the most corrupt country in Europe?.

        1. Actually no, it is Ukraine. One of the reasons that there is hostility to Russia is that Putin refused to take bribes from the West so Western governments and businesses could go about there corrupt ways. Putin, once he took power, insisted that trade deals etc be conducted in the proper manner, government to government and not as the Mafia would. The West tried to bribe Putin but he refused. Under Yeltsin Russia was 'raped' by the West. And if you care to research that you will find that is the truth.
          Now a days Russia is counted as one of the most corrupt countries because it is has been excluded by the West so it cannot do business as usual. But the charge, under the circumstances, is disingenuous to say the least. Ukraine, on the other hand is so corrupt that its generals even steal from the ordinary soldiers. and it is said that every mayor in Ukraine is a millionaire thanks to the wide spread theft of the money and goods that the West sends to them.
          https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-corruption-scandals-and-high-level-rifts-could-become-an-existential-threat-as-kyiv-asks-for-more-military-aid-222432

          1. Ukraine along with NATO are the means by which the US secures weapons orders for its military industrial complex. Those same corporations then sponsor the politicians in Washington DC.

        2. Actually no, it is Ukraine. One of the reasons that there is hostility to Russia is that Putin refused to take bribes from the West so Western governments and businesses could go about there corrupt ways. Putin, once he took power, insisted that trade deals etc be conducted in the proper manner, government to government and not as the Mafia would. The West tried to bribe Putin but he refused. Under Yeltsin Russia was 'raped' by the West. And if you care to research that you will find that is the truth.
          Now a days Russia is counted as one of the most corrupt countries because it is has been excluded by the West so it cannot do business as usual. But the charge, under the circumstances, is disingenuous to say the least. Ukraine, on the other hand is so corrupt that its generals even steal from the ordinary soldiers. and it is said that every mayor in Ukraine is a millionaire thanks to the wide spread theft of the money and goods that the West sends to them.
          https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-corruption-scandals-and-high-level-rifts-could-become-an-existential-threat-as-kyiv-asks-for-more-military-aid-222432

  24. Morning all 🙂😊
    Ah there's a change weather wise, back to the usual cloud's and grey skies.
    It sort of sums up the state of our country.
    The Covid inquiry,….just more expensive BS in order to cover up all the lies and obvious 'mistakes' made by the usual mob, the so misnamed hierarchy.

  26. Damian Green and Steve Baker back Tom Tugendhat for Tory leadership
    One Nation Tory and Brexiteer urge MPs not to turn to the ‘hard Right’ in wake of election defeat
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/07/19/damian-green-steve-baker-back-tom-tugendhat-tory-leader/

    With friends like these who needs enemies? Damian Green got into trouble when he touched up Julia Hartley-Brewer and Steve Baker made a complete pig's ear of things in Northern Ireland.

    BTL

    Does it matter who is the next leader? The Conservative Party is dead and the sooner the decaying corpse is buried the better. Those to the right of centre should join Reform; those to the left of centre should join the Lib/Dems. Prepare for a mass defection to the Lib/Dems!

    1. None of the self-proposed "leaders" would persuade me to vote Tory. Not one.

      1. I must confess I was taken in but the scales have certainly fallen from my eyes.

      1. Or (according to modern wokesters) he was a ultra-far right Nazi, literally worse than H1t-Ler, and waysist, Islamophobic (sic) etc etc to boot.

        They don’t seem to think when they make these hysterical accusations that they just come across as, well, uneducated, juvenile, and moronic.

    2. Sounds sense. Bound to be cancelled.
      A great man once said "Jaw-jaw is better than war-war."

    3. It will end with a negotiated peace. Russia will keep the Russian speaking areas of Ukraine and will keep the Crimea, plus Ukraine will not join NATO which is a threat to Russia. That would be a just settlement. Despite what Western propaganda alleges.

    4. If the US and allies cannot support most of the world's regions in any kind of arms race against Russia, how can Russia prepare weapons to attack most of the world's regions?

    5. If Trump gets in with this man as VP, JDV will be well placed as a future President off the back of that role, particularly if he is permitted a fairly free rein..

      I think he makes both Biden and Trump look a worse choice than he would be.

      1. It's a great shame that we can't have him now, to be honest. Lefties wll hate anyone who doesn't appease their demented ideology and when they're appeased they just demand more and more and more.

  29. SIR – It’s refreshing to find this Prime Minister more interested in building strategic relationships and plans that work than gimmicks and excuses.

    That it has borne fruit so quickly, with migrants returned to France (report, July 19), is testament both to the Prime Minister’s good judgment and the appetite of our closest allies to work together on shared challenges. Let’s hope there is much more to come.

    Professor Thom Brooks
    Chair in Law and Government
    Durham Law School

    I will believe it when i see it. 13 economic migrants were returned. When they are returning boats of 90 to 100 every day this summer i might believe the good professor isn't a paid stooge.

    1. You could be on to something, young Phil:

      "Brooks is a member of the British Labour Party and the UNISON trade union. He has written about his view of the Labour Party's policy on immigration, including making a range of proposals on the topic.[22][23][24][25] He is the chair of the Sedgefield and Fishburn branch of the Sedgefield Constituency Labour Party. He has made past comments supporting New Labour and Sedgefield's Tony Blair,[26] and supported Liz Kendall in the 2015 Labour leadership contest.[27] He has championed party unity over factionalism.[28] Brooks is a vocal supporter of Labour Leader Keir Starmer,[29] whom he has supported since his election to Parliament in 2015.[30] In 2022, Brooks published a Fabian Society pamphlet New Arrivals: A Fair Immigration System for Labour that presented a new model for a Labour-led post-Brexit points-based system modelled on Starmer's vision.[31]

      Brooks writes columns for The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, LabourList, The Times and others often on immigration topics.[32][33][34][35][36]"

        2. As long as his biography is available and it is made clear he is a frenzied Lefty with the brain of a tortoise – publish away. It just exposes how far the Left have infiltrated.

    2. Ah. Another Lefty lawyer backslapping a fellow.

      There is no 'strategic relationship' being built. Nothing changes. While he's busy congratulating failure he should spare a thought for the people actually affected – the public. Nothing Starmer is doing will stop the invasion. Nothing he is doing will remove the criminal gimmigrant already here.

      He isn't creating jobs (because government can't)
      He isn't cutting taxes because he doesn't want to (the Left believe what you earn is theirs by default)
      He has no interesting cutting the cost of the state (because Labour never do)
      He is increasing the national debt and deficit (it's all Labour ever do)

      Nothing Starmer is doing, going to do or will do will be of any use to this country. It will all be damaging.

      When child benefit is stopped, completely, when polygamy welfare is ended (why is it even a thing? It's just theft!) when housing benefit is withdrawn for foreigners, when legal aid cannot be used in gimmigration cases and when there's a gunship firing upon boats laden with savages – then, and only then will there be evident and practical change.

  30. Morning NOTTLERS. This attempted assassination of President Trump is beginning to look very suspicious, I'm beginning to think that perhaps there is a conspiracy at work. What is not mentioned in this article and video is that it turns out that the shooter had three encrypted foreign bank accounts and had been tracking Trumps activities for months.
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/majority-trump-security-detail-were-not-secret-service-whistleblowers-tell-sen-hawley

      1. No, not at all. I don't go in for conspiracies. that is why I used the word "perhaps" but it certainly seems that something is seriously awry. It is certainly odd that the people protecting the President were not the proper protection agents used for such a job and that there were, apparently, so few of them and that, at least two of them were amateurish in their behaviour, certainly not top caliber. Plus it turns out that they were aware of the shooter for three quarters of an hour before he shot Trump. I tend toward thinking that he was deliberately under protected by the government in the hope that he would be shot, injured or killed. It turns out that the same lack of care was given to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. this year, even though he was a presidential candidate, he was refused protection by the government. We have a very corrupt regime in power in the USA. Don't forget that this is a bunch of people who have tried to take Trump down by several illegitimate means, as well as manufacturing a lie that dogged him for his entire presidency, that he was an agent of Russia. This by the highest government officials in the FBI and Homeland Security.

        1. I had been expecting an attempt on his life for some time. It was the next logical step.
          From now on it’s going to be more complicated especially since he has designated a successor who seems younger and trumpier

        2. The Democrats will now try to assassinate Biden to get him out of the way and if they succeed they will have assembled a lot of manufactured false evidence with which to blame the Republicans.

          In fact having Biden seemingly alive is far more important to the Republicans so the last thing they want is Biden dead.

    3. What is an encrypted bank account? Surely by default all our accounts are protected from other people, thus access ensures encryption.

      As regards following Trump's movements – that could be levied on any media company. If you are interested in politics at all keeping track of where someone is par.

      The agent in the crowd is, again, standard procedure. They're closer to a possible assailant who might move toward the target.

      More of a concern – as it's not just the secret service but all industry – is the forced DIE nonsense. Even universities are reducing grading equivalence for black students. When failure is rewarded society falls.

  31. Good morning all

    We had an unbearable humid night , very uncomfortable.

    Can you believe we are now experiencing a hard drizzle , 19c. Air smells fresher , no breeze.

    1. Grey and cloudy here but dry. Might be a good day for getting on with work in the garden. I slept pretty well last night.

    2. Finally cooled down around midnight here in West Sussex. Even with all windows and front and back door wide open it was a still insufferable in the house until then. Fortunately I can leave doors wide open where I live the only invader would be a creature from the woods. And, last night, a fox decided to park itself right outside my back garden fence and disturb the peace for a good quarter of an hour. Today it is cool but it's getting dark. Undoubtedly rain is on the way.

    4. The MK1 mosquito net seemed to work properly so both windows were open. Bit frustrating that it's either too hot or too cold.

    2. It is very silly and clearly they're having a lot of fun.

      We are heading toward this sort of demented dystopia but, thankfully, not yet.

  34. https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey/osprey-webcams/

    Babies eating breakfast.

    How is it that a fisherman with rod and line has to perhaps wait hours before a fish takes the bait, yet these amazing Osprey spot a swimming fish from how many feet in height, then dive into the sea to grab a sizeable wriggling fish with their talons ..

    Come on , that is truly amazing .. as is the sight of a kingfisher catching a tiddler or a cormorant or tern doing the same .

    1. AAs I was watching, one took off. The other wanted to follow – it is flapping and jumping a foot off the nest and holding its wings out to feel the wind. It'l go later today, I'm sure.

    2. Fisherman aren't so talonted.
      Anyway they are hooked on waiting to catch a fish, taking a picture of it and then throwing it back in the water.

      1. My late Uncle John, a GP in Exeter, used to love fly fishing on various rivers in Devon and could place an imitation fly – which he made himself – with the lightest of touches. To use any other way of catching a trout was considered very infra-dig.

        1. I once teased a guy at college who announced that he loved fly fishing by asking, “But what do you do with the flies once you’ve caught them”? The expression on his face was priceless.

    3. Nature is remarkable and horrific at the same time. It does upset me to see, or even think about predators feeding on their prey. Once the animal is dead I can watch but the thought that nature revolves around so many creatures being eaten alive Is one I try to put out of mind.
      I console the thought by the reassurance that many species have such small brains they probably don't process it as we would but that's not so the case with mammals.

    5. We've got herring gulls gobbling up mallard ducklings here on the Tamar, Belle, noisy brutes too. The ospreys are lovely.

      1. Possibly explains why no mallards here for a few years, last batch had fourteen ducklings, of which thirteen survived. None since, I miss them. Osprey videos are great 🙂

      2. I certain that herring gulls and all the gull and sea shore species are starving ..

        Gulls scavenge when the tide is out for crabs , molluscs of all types etc , but where are the rockpool crabs , cockles , winkles , blennies .. nothing .. Our seashores are naked apart from washed up plastics and the usual stuff.

        God help us all .

    1. The chap is rather lacking in personal magnetism but maybe he is right. I am always reluctant to credit what people with body graffiti have to say.

      1. I feel exactly the same about the Scottish bloke with the ridiculous hair and beard. Can't take him seriously.

        1. Do you mean the one who taught his girlfriends pug dog to do a Nazi salute?

      2. The waitress who served us last night was very pleasant, attractive, well spoken………. and covered in tattoos. It did rather detract from her overall look.

    2. the tinternet sleuths are all over this, comparing earrings & wedding ring of FBI's Janeen DiGuiseppi.

      For me the most damning evidence is.. the Leftie Fed seemed to know the names, addresses, 30 day whereabouts, inside leg measurement, favourite colour of every single one of the 120,000 J6 protesters thru mobile data info.. and yet mysteriously cant quite put a name to the invite-only front row seat VIP sitting behind a president about to be assassinated.. even brandishing her trackable iphone.

      Summary; the psychos are in charge, and they don't care what you say think or do.. and never forget that.

    3. Morning all. Late start today.

      On this one, I think if I met that guy in the street with his glary hyped eyes and manic speech I'd instinctively reach for my wallet! Anyhow, even drug dealers can be credible witnesses at times.

      More to the point was it just me, but I had trouble discerning anyone on the water tower let alone a rifleman. People "heard shots coming from the water tower". I doubt it. Wherever you think a high velocity shot is coming from it isn't coming from there. That's physics. Apparently the suspicious woman in the video turns out to be the dep director of the FBI. And? Apart from the fact that the person in question is a bit high ranking for the job, that's precisely where I'd have placed a plain clothes ground coordinator of an op, plus I hope one or two others were in the crowd too, just for good measure; their role would be to take out attackers on the terrace among other roles. She looks to the right in the "direction of the water tower" just before the shot. Sinister? Not really, it's also the general direction of the gym roof. She could just as well have been getting info at that moment that someone is armed up there in her earpiece. She's "cool" as a cucumber too, reacting entirely contrary to the public around her. Sinister? Not really. It's her job. For the record I pointed out to the missus two other people in the seating who reacted similarly when I first saw this. "Go figure", I think is the phrase that the yanks use.

      Please spare me. I'd love to get to the bottom of this, but people like that aren't helping. Really they aren't. For me, I'm reading about lots of points highlighting USSS incompetence. On the other hand, legions of observers pointing out that it can only have been an Establishment failed assassination attempt. But that they couldn't even get that right.

      I don't think I'm sure either way just yet, but one thing's for sure, everyone is agreed that the USSS is it appears incompetent.

  36. 'SIR – By their very nature pandemics appear suddenly and unexpectedly. This makes them difficult to prepare for. Consequently the government of the day prepared, if incompletely, for the most likely pandemic. That was assessed to be a flu pandemic. It is not clear how the government could have anticipated and been fully prepared for a pandemic arising from an unknown virus, originating in China. However, Lady Hallett seems convinced that the government had prepared for the “wrong pandemic”.

    Figures published by the Office for National Statistics reveal that of the people who died, where Covid was a contributory factor, 91 per cent were over the age of 65 and 88 per cent had serious pre-existing medical conditions.

    No matter how well the government had prepared, it seems unlikely that it could have prevented the deaths through Covid of many of these extremely vulnerable people.'

    Brian Seage
    Liskeard, Cornwall

    The Wrong Pandemic!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12fa532fd3c94ac8d5f5144123b926b4b8004118112265002522eaffc9f16e87.jpg

        1. Yes I think the Americans tried it on UK southern/eastern shores during WW2 and abandoned it because it wasn't controllable. That may be an urban myth? or maybe found a way to control it better? Doubt we'll have a vote on it, and if it we did likely ignored.

          1. I remember reading about "seeding the clouds" in the Meccano Magazine in 1952.

          4. Is that why we experienced bolts of lighting in 1952?
            That sounds a bit of a nutty idea to me!

    3. This would be the end of astronomy as we know it and the end of Miliband's ideas of powering the UK with solar panels on agricultural farmland which then could not be returned to growing crops to feed the nation through lack of sunlight.

      It's a lose lose situation as well as putting Brian Cox out of a job.

      1. We have a small Sainsbury store in Wareham , with an adequate car park .

        I had a few things to do yesterday whilst Moh was playing golf in the heat . He likes the heat and is as brown as an ….

        Anyway I had tidied a few drawers , and sorted out some stuff and visited the tip with 2 black bags of rubbish, it was a very warm day , so by the time I had climbed a few ladders to deposit the bags in the refuse containers , I was so warm .

        Afterwards, I parked in the Sainsbury carpark , which almost had a heat mirage bouncing off the cars , and dashed into the shop .. oh so cool , air conditioning , I thought that their cashpoint and self checkout tills would be compromised by the Microsoft outage , and I only had £15 cash on me !!!!

        I purchased a few salad things , fruit , chicken breasts and tins of sardines , and I had change to spare!

        Walking back to the car , my specs misted up from cold to the heat , and the heat was quite something .

        Cars in a carpark or just empty carparks are similar to solar farms , the heat bounces and I am dead certain that the local area temperature is similar to the Saharan sand or any beach where the heat is at it's most dangerous .

        Driving back home with out the air con on , the local temperature was lower .

        Has no one thought , more roads, more cars, more houses contribute to this myth, global warming .

        I am just wittering on as usual.. simple really, eh?

        1. That effect is known as 'the microclimate' and it is from where Govt gets all its readings to support their climate scam.

        2. Just like being back in Nigeria, eh, Belle… the heat-haze rising from the carpark tarmac, the too-hot-to-touch doorhandle, steering wheel, vinyl seat (Thank God for long trousers!), and, finally, my Father's last car there had aircon! Bliss!

          1. Goodness me yes , that revived a memory .. and one would leave the Kingsway store after shopping , and arrive home in the old Vdub avoiding the potholes and beggars and choking in a cloud of red dust .. my goodness , only in Nigeria .. not quite though ..

    4. Then will, after launch, be found to be carcinogenic – we all can't avoid breathing it, so pretty well everything on earth dies. Oh, good.

  39. Radio 3 are playing something by Steve Reich. It’s typical Reich. A single bar of music repeated ad nauseam. If there’s any variation, it’s too slight to register. I listen to the radio through my tv so have hit the mute button.

    1. Never seen the point of Reich's "music". There was a docu years ago in which he explained the theory and logic. I still didn't get it.

  41. Morning all.

    I note that Mr Putin is smugly boasting that Russia's airlines and banks were unaffected by Itageddon, thanks to its countermeasures against Western sanctions.

    One more thing: Iain Hunter's article on the Climate Change Cult is so good that I'm leaving it as the main article for at least another day. Please do read it. And leave a comment.

    freespeechbacklash.com.

    1. You have some really good journos there, Tom – even if that isn't their profession. Well-thought through, clear, nicely written.

  42. 389942+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Britain stands on the brink of a terrifying new era of violence, crime and disorder
    The rioting in Leeds, harassment of MPs, and mob rule all add up to an alarming picture for the country

    Since ŧhe political demise of Margaret Thatcher (RIP) the voting majority, either by voting ignorance, or criminal intent,have been voting for today's actions these last three plus decades, polling station input has came to fruition.

    I do find it hard to swallow that a race of peoples would put their children up as the spoils of war to the invading victors as in mass paedophilia, which the party that had wheeled in the entry Trojan horse then covered up the paedo's actions for 16 plus years, gets returned to power.

    I really do judge my fellow Englishmen / women in the main ( voting majority) to be very,very, anti English and to be supplying the political overseers with the needles ( jabs inclusive) and yarn
    for our suffering the many stitch ups.

    1. Not sure that those Englishmen/women are anti English, just thick and brainwashed.

      1. 389942+ up ticks,

        Afternoon HL,

        I do stand by anti, many as witnessed have put the party status before the children and Countries welfare.
        Mass paedophilia rampant, cover ups under the banner of DEI the order of the day.

        Really should be ” General selection” day as in
        DEI / DIE, they will I believe be eventually linked when the shite connects with the fan.

        1. Wotcher, ogs,

          I still maintain they are thick – those who put party status first don't realise what the parties actually mean in real life, and that none of the parties support the indigenous anyway.

          Apart from that, nowadays there is also a more understandable "wot country? – it's full of foreigners now, why should I care about the country" element.

  43. If Sadiq Khan wants us to feel ashamed of our history, I’ve got a little suggestion for him. 20 July 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e0765af2e8a52974744f8cbff058d1c7de5186468ff837c2361d6a28c1fb6aa.png

    A reader, Margaret Stewart of Somerset, emails with an excellent suggestion. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, is shortly to unveil a new public memorial to commemorate the victims of the slave trade, and highlight London’s role in their suffering. But wouldn’t it be more unifying, writes Mrs Stewart, if the memorial instead commemorated the role the Royal Navy played in ending slavery – thus focusing on the good our ancestors did, rather than the bad?

    Good God! Is that it? It looks like some Lego fantasy by an autistic five year old.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/20/sadiq-khan-ashamed-history-london-slave-trade-memorial/

    1. Thanks for explanation, wondered what the heck it was. Entrant for Turner Prize, I reckon.

      1. Looks like something the trans-pride idiots might put up.

        Edit it would be interesting to know who created this.

          1. Actually that’s an interesting thought. If you are allowed to throw statues into the sea because they offend you and trigger anxiety, couldn’t this one be done away with by the sane criteria?
            After all, there is precedence.

      2. Looks like something the trans-pride idiots might put up.

        Edit it would be interesting to know who created this.

      3. I don't like the thought – we got into debt to abolish slavery, we didn't create it.

    3. Sadiq Khan should learn his place and realise he is a servant. Then used as a football.

      I spoke to some chums who live just outside London but could vote in the mayoral elections. Their general attitude was it doens't matter who you vote for. The muslim vote is so entrenched and there's so many of them no one else has a chance.

  44. BBC 10pm news last night – headlines were the worldwide IT crash, Israel and the UN court ruling, Russia's jailing of a US journalist, and the funeral of Joss Naylor, the King of the Fells (look him up).

    Harehills was pushed down to 23 mins and featured brief interviews with a sad white Yorkshireman, a black woman (immigrant from her accent, muttering about 'da community'), a Romanian accusing the nation of prejudice against his kind (his English was even worse than the black woman's) and finally our old friend Mothan Ali. He was calm and considered and might have impressed the suggestible. I suspect his private view was "It'll be calm here when we impose sharia on this heathen filth."

    2. Today’s arrivals take the total number of small boat migrants to more than 2,000 in just over two weeks since the new Labour government came to power.

      These figures are unsustainable.. that's a new Harehills every fifteen days.
      five more years.

      1. A million a year, for 25 years is FOUR Southamptons every single year. Not 'oh, a few new houses', it's four entire cities.

        They don't add anything, vast numbers are simply idle welfarists. Then this useless, moronic government hasn't increased our water storage, sewerage, roads, and is actively reducing our energy generating and food growing capacity.

        I hate them. 30 years of socialism has done incredible damage. It's time to get rid of the entire farce. Sack all the Lefties in the civil service, abolish any 'green' or 'ethnic' or union idiots. Burn out the waste and get started on the non-contributing foreigners.

      2. The figures have been unsustainable for years. And nothing has been done – political leopards don't change their spots.

    3. Hole it so it sinks. Sail away. It would only take one single AP round. Get on with it.

      1. My BTL comment:

        "…and, of course, all the illegals will be returned to France and the yacht destroyed…"

        No chance with this Socialist Marxist Gov't.

    3. Well she and Maugham have the right idea. The whole point of the "EU law" is to bypass our own version.

    5. O/T The new film Twisters (not the old one with Bill Paxton) audience scoring of 92%. That's a must see for me. Even if it is only about tornados.

      1. We were knocked flat by a tornado while at anchor on Mianda in a bay in Turkey. She went flat on her side and rotated through 360°.

    1. It was so hot yesterday i got the breeder to scalp them both.. Number one cut all over.

      1. Sadly you can't do that to a Newfoundland, but yes, they're both significantly shorter. I sit mine in a paddling pool which I pour ice into, in the shade and make sure there's a way to keep air going over them.

        Our walks were shorter to, and we went down to the shoreline rather then along the paths.

        1. We had a bit of shade and a breeze. There is a stretch of concrete in front of my garden seat and i kept it wet from the watering can. Bowl of iced water. No walkies for them.

  52. My question is 'why?' Why does this woman (assuming it is a woman) wants to allow children to buy drugs without their parents knowledge that could completely halt their development.

    Does she think chemically damaging kids is a good thing? Is she simply a paedophile? What does she want? Why is she so obsessed with doing this? What on Earth is wrong with her mind to think this is acceptable?

    1. "Why does this woman (assuming it is a woman) wants to allow children to buy drugs without their parents knowledge that could completely halt their development."

      Because it's a great way to get rich, I'd guess. Same motivation as the vast majority of drug dealers.

    3. Her 16th Birthday present to her son was to have him castrated and his penis removed. Parents who have thus mutilated their children will never relent – otherwise what do they have to admit to? How can they possibly live with themselves?

      It is interesting how many of the more vociferous "celeb" and politico supporters have shovelled their own children onto this path (Neil Kinnock, David Tennant, etc.)

  53. Indeed, and such altruistic actions should be celebrated. Not that the right-on folk will pay attention, they'll only desecrate the memorial through ignorance and hatred, but I feel that so much money and life was spent stopping the activity, it should be marked.

    1. But isn't the memorial commemorating the victims (ie the blacks)? It's not commemorating those who abolished slavery.

      Edit it's a bit like that ridiculous Windrush statue, as if we should commemorate the beginning of our end.

    2. But isn't the memorial commemorating the victims (ie the blacks)? It's not commemorating those who abolished slavery.

      Edit it's a bit like that ridiculous Windrush statue, as if we should commemorate the beginning of our end.

        2. I was about to ask that, Phizz! Or he might be a Van cat. Both have swimming skills, so it will be hard to tell without guidance from his staff.

    1. I think I have Gremlins and if not I can always download it. Now that you have reminded me, it would be fun to watch again.

        1. There is Pip but like so many sequels it isn’t as good as the original.

    1. A fantasy world where white men harass brown women and are reprimanded by black men. Yeah, right.

    2. Why are all those young white chaps and the women all black? As shocking as this sounds, white chaps, in the main don't behave like this. Oh, they notice, but there's no interest beyond that. It is also the least likely partnership (but ironically the most likely to last).

      Just more propaganda to do down the natives and promote the dindu.

    1. She has no chance of being President, surely – she only got the VP job because she's a worse Presidential option than the man with dementia, so nobody would be tempted to blow the gaffe early.

  58. Royal Mail have just delivered a letter from the managing agents for my home building informing me of the work done in the boiler room yesterday. Fortunately a copy was also sent via email last Tuesday.

      2. My uncle Joe was a talented billiards and snooker player when a young man. He played alongside Joe Davis (a fellow Cestrefeldian) at Davis's club in Chesterfield, and at a billiards hall in nearby Staveley that was managed by his father (my grandfather).

        Uncle Joe showed me a beautifully handwritten letter, from Joe Davis to Uncle Joe's mother (my grandfmother) inviting my uncle to accompany him on a snooker-playing tour of South America. This was in the 1930s when Uncle Joe was in his 20s. Uncle Joe's trip was to be funded wholly by Davis who promised to chaperone him for the whole trip.

        Unfortunately my tartar of a grandmother would not permit Uncle Joe to go since she 'needed' his income from the coal mine to supplement her family expenses! Uncle Joe was heartbroken about missing this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and he never got over his mother's greedy heartlessness.

    2. Nice!
      No piccies, but Firstborn is working with a 1966 Austin Mini van. Currently, all the bodywork is restored and ready for paint.

    3. A 1990 job should be doable, as there probably wasn't much, if any, computer chips in the system.

      1. Mind you he works a lot with computers in his job and his brother writes programs for Artificial Intelligence.

    1. An innocent person pushed on to the tracks by an illegal immigrant with mental issues. Always stand as far from the edge as possible.

  63. Reform has demanded that all non-British rioters be deported from the country following two nights of unrest in a multicultural area of Leeds, something I myself have suggested.

    Would you sign a petition supporting this?

    Either reply here or pop over to the gossip page on Free Speech (freespeechbacklash.com) and let me know.

    1. Looking at the front page, I can't find anything about petitions, but at least three articles with the same title but different picture (There is still a climate crisis). Confusing!
      The Disqus comments under "Gossip" were a bit more revealing, but I was expecting some kind of petition link…

      1. There three different articles – it’s a series – on the Climate Crisis Cult by Iain Hunter.

        The petion idea has just come to me and I’m floating it to see the response. I went to create a petition. Please nip back over to Free Speech Gossip to find out………

          2. Are you talking about the I left the lights on Belle? If so, they are still there.

  64. I hope the family can sue the ES for this, if it is an incorrect statement:

    An 18-year-old has been sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering a 17-year-old weapons dealer in broad daylight before pushing him into a canal in west London.

    Detective Chief Inspector Brian Howie, who led the investigation, said: "Victor was a 17-year-old young man who was not directly involved with gangs or criminality. He had his life ahead of him and his family have been torn apart by what happened to him, in the most shocking, brutal and disturbing circumstances.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/murder-victor-lee-canal-west-london-life-imprisonment-old-bailey-b1171855.html

    EDIT
    He would appear to have brought some of it upon himself. see molamola's response below.

    2. "A teenage robber has been locked up for life after a 17-year-old weapons dealer was fatally stabbed on a towpath and pushed into a canal.

      Elijah Gokool-Mely, 18, attacked Victor Lee near the Grand Union Canal in Willesden Junction, west London, on the afternoon of June 23 last year.

      The defendant wanted to rob Victor of his bicycle and a rucksack said to contain a stash of knives the victim had bought online to trade.

      Earlier that day, the defendant had bought a crossbow from Victor and had arranged to meet him to buy knives, even though he had no money to pay for them."

      A strange world we live in.

      https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/national/24464323.teenager-locked-life-towpath-murder-young-weapons-dealer/

      1. Thank you.
        One would think from the policeman's comment he was just an unlucky rider

  66. Tried to load two more – message saying too large of suffin'

    Anyway, you'll get the drift!

      1. The advantage of having trained, live-in staff!

        The white one is Madame Mouligné. The blooms are as large as a football.

    2. There is a village in the New Forest near Fordinbridge called Hyde where the local football team calls itself the Hyde Rangers.

    6. Very pretty. Wet summers have their advantages.
      Hydrangeas, with their long-lasting flower heads, are one of my favourite shrubs. Some years ago, I bought a trio of unusual varieties (Magical Amethyst was one), and planted them in pots of acidic compost to keep the blue-tinged colours. Unfortunately, after a few years, vine weevil grubs killed them all. They then moved onto pastures new, and killed my blueberry bushes.

  69. MP expenses cheats and sex offenders keep taxpayer-funded pensions
    Keir Starmer faces call from within own party to overhaul entitlement rules
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/mp-expenses-cheats-sex-offenders-taxpayer-funded-pensions/

    My BTL comment was immediately removed –

    Why bother to work?
    Why bother to get a decent education?
    Why try to make a good living?
    Why pay taxes?
    Why should we support these horrible nest-feathering parasites. Shall we     ever get an honest government?

    I wonder why this comment was removed – it is not racist – all it does is criticise politicians who feather their own nests at the taxpayers' expense. Does this exceed the limits of acceptable free speech? If so we are truly lost.

    3. IIRC in the Armed Forces, if you were caught fiddling your expenses or guilty of fraud, you were dismissed, received a custodial sentence and lost your pension!!

    5. I agree with AS; it is the word parasite. Diacritics and space between letters are your friend.

  70. Sergeant John Carmichael VC MM (1st April 1893 – 20th December 1977), 9th Battalion, The North Staffordshire Regiment (The Prince of Wales's).

    On 8th September 1917 near Hill 60, Zwarteleen, Belgium, when excavating a trench, Sergeant Carmichael saw that a grenade had been unearthed and had started to burn. He immediately rushed to the spot shouting to his men to get clear, put his steel helmet over the grenade and then stood on the helmet. The grenade exploded and blew him out of the trench. He could have thrown the bomb out of the trench but realised that by doing so he would have endangered the lives of the men working on top. He was seriously injured.
    He was evacuated to No 53 Casualty Clearing Station at Bailleul and was visited by his Divisional Commander, Major General Hugh Bruce Williams, and Carmichael told him “I didn’t think I was doing anything extraordinary.” When he wrote to his mother, who had heard he was wounded, he told her he was recovering well, but mentioned nothing of his VC award. The VC was presented by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 22nd June 1918. His injuries were so severe that he never returned to the front and spent most of the next two years in a Liverpool hospital.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59b9a30c064b2fc53adbcb666b1714d86708bb593f779606cbf1a269a23c149b.png

    1. One salutes his presence of mind in not just throwing the grenade out of the trench. Respect!

    3. Wonderful. Does MR get her name engraved on the bowl?
      But what about her apricot curd (aka food of the gods)?

      1. Yes – but see below!

        Curd = That's later – next month! (Ackshally lemon…)

  73. Thank you. She does put in the hours in the garden. Needless to say,m it has just rained…..

    4. Oh …. WOW.
      Does the quilter have one of those mega sewing machines with controls like a Lancaster bomber equipped with a computer?

        2. Whatever happened to the delightful New England tradition of women working together on making quilts by hand. I can remember learning how to do this as a child – the tiny, careful stitches, the lack of pressure to move on, the quiet satisfaction and the joy of working with others to make something wonderful without the ego/time thing hijacking the fun of it. Tranquil creativity.

          3. The ladies at our bowls club have a Knit and Natter club.
            The men call it Stitch and Bitch. :-))

        3. That was the sort of machine I saw at the Knitting and Stitching Show.
          You'd need a separate house (hanger) to keep it.

      1. Yes a lot of hours went into putting the pieces together and then the quilting. The material was given to her as a ‘Jelly roll’ quilt in other words all the individual squares were pre cut but had to be sown together…

  77. Younger posters may be surprised to learn that here in Britain we had engineering companies that made stuff without the aid of the EU or the Windrush Generation. Lord alone knows how but there you are.

    15" turrets for HMS Vanguard being modified at the Harland & Wolff erection shop at Scotstoun in 1945. 'X' turret is closest to the camera followed by 'A', 'Y', and 'B'.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0362868d1aeafa4b8219ed35412d183ffb9e36349f7ec126d34b2edfb73de706.jpg

    1. And a fine BTL Comment:

      'It’s like two old people in the nursing home fighting over the last bowl of rice pudding.'

        1. There was the usual nonsense about how remarking on Brandon's cognitive deficit is sexist because no woman of that age would be allowed to stay in a position of power. Pelosi is the same but even worse.

          1. That is nonsense, and you know it. Until 2022, the British Head of State was well into her nineties, and even spared time off to have tea with Paddington Bear.

          4. Ha…when my dad was diagnosed dementia and into care home, I went to solicitor to take out an Order of Protection/LPA so I could handle his finances/property etc. Fortunately, he'd already done this some years earlier so a short visit, the solicitor told me about other LPAs he'd worked out and why they'd come into being (crook lawyers), one lady wanted to leave everything to Peter he assumed her son, but was the teddy bear sitting on her lap……

          5. Struggling with that now for Mother. The PRU insist that, because I live in Norway, the document must be stamped "verified true copy" at the British Embassy, something they don't and won't do.
            Sigh.
            So, I need to call PRU next week and see if they will accept a true copy from Mother's solicitor in Wales.
            Hell, if it wasn't difficult enough…

          6. It is indeed a difficult time, and I can see how much worse it is for you being so far away. With my dad, his GP and Social Worker both said their hands were tied, just insufficient places in care homes but whatever I did to not let him be placed in a local authority place. One night he caused a ruckus in his sheltered accommodation, and was admitted to hospital, the kidney ward where he wandered around pulling tubes out of other patients, resulting in consultant calling a Bupa care home around 1/4 mile away begging for him to be admitted, which they duly did, dividing one room into two. Experience there probably for another post, he did settle and lived ar

          7. I was very lucky with Mother.
            Middle of Covid lockdown, she needed to go into care, and we (amazingly) secured a place in the acknowledged best care home locally, where she still is, and won’t be leaving, sadly.
            But, sorting out her business is difficult when A-holes like the PRU make it difficult. My phone bill is horrendous!
            But – Nil Illegitimi Carborundum. Stå på, mann!

          8. Crikey….can you use WhatsApp to phone them on your mble, would that be less cost? Completely agree with not letting them grind you down – get in first…:-)

          10. Now, that’s something to possibly investigate…sorry I forgot to mention it already. When he was in hospital, social worker came in to see me, telling me how much his care was going to cost and asking what were his assets. He had so few it would have meant me paying for the bulk of the cost, potentially thousands depending on how much longer he lived. Solicitor said ‘no way, if he needs 24/7 care the state pays it’. This ruling may have changed, but urge you to check it out. (This was England.) Btw, not all care homes are equal, I remember Peta J telling me about her husband’s first wife who had died in a French care home and she received what sounded like wonderful care.

          11. In Wales, the rule seems to be that the County takes over once your assets are down to about £50k, if I recall. Having sold her house, Mother has more than that still.

          12. Likely to be similar rest of UK, doesn’t surprise me at all – I think LA’s found they were paying out large sums quite regularly. It would be a good idea to know the reason/s causing dementia (not saying your mum has it) some say..old age..processed diet..some of my older family had it from 70s to 90s no matter the age or diet/lifestyle. Possibly genetic. Seemingly more companies working on treating it (chemically) than finding the cause. However…. sun shining here, hope everyone has a good day including yourself 🙂

          13. Unfortunately, she has dementia. Barely knows who I am, tells me she’s waiting for her Father to take her home to visit her Aunt… all long dead.
            I’m sorry about your family, KJ. It’s no fun. Even remotely.

          14. It truly is an awful disease. I had grandparents lived into their 90s – no dementia, no processed foods, grandfather grew all their own veg (he took orders grew so much, fetched him down off greenhouse roof over 90 years old, repairing a broken pane, should have heard the language). As you say, no fun – my dad got quite aggressive, hence sedation. My bet’s on our diet – take care of yourself. Kate x

          15. The same to you, Kate!
            At least it’s not as bad a Crazed Teacher Friend’s dad – he’s in a closed ward, and often has to be restrained due to screaming and biting… now that’s bad!

          16. Thanks, Oberstleutnant :-)) They were similar in my dad’s home, especially one of the women, always picking fights with the men. (It was notable most of the residents were male, btw.) They all had to be sedated to one degree or another. Grim to think that could be the future. Good luck with mum:-)

          17. Thanks!
            Yes, losing my mind is what I fear most. Fortunately, if I detect it, I have several (messy) means of checking out very quickly.

          18. Me2. I’ve had a rough time with vaccines, from the first one, recovery been slow but somewhat better lately. I felt as though I was losing myself at times, other times no idea but could see looks exchanged between family. I think online here and elsewhere has helped me, taken my focus off how I feel/worry about early onset dementia. I too have a list of several choices:-)

          19. Never had a covid shot, if thats what you referred to.
            At the beginning, they said it was like flu, and I’ve never been sicker than after a flu shot, so I decided to avoid it & started with Vit D3.
            Then there were questions about the covid vax, so reinforcing my decision.
            So, at least and daftness in me is home-grown…

          20. You absolutely did the right thing, viruses have a tendency to weaken, I thought not as scary as promotedf.. I didn’t want the vax, caused family arguments, so…. -given the first AZ jab alongside flu jab (nurse ‘it’s absolutely fine’, 2nd one, blood ran back into jab, third one said ‘I’m a trainee vet we just jab it in anywhere’. Nevertheless, considering the reactions of other poor souls, I consider myself very fortunate. There’ll be another scare sometime, we’ll see how many come forward for vaxx then, and how serious it is – could really be a so next time, and people not listen.

          21. I started to reply, something got lost in translation, can’t see it now…essentially he was admitted to hospital from his sheltered accommodation, the kidney ward as they had no other places, locked him in a 4 bed side ward with a nurse to watch him because he was pulling patients tubes out. Consultant phoned Bupa home around 1/4 mile away where he duly went, and lived just short of another 2 and half years. All inmates seemed to have dementia one stage or another, all doors and windows were locked, each had their own room. Meals were good and pastimes set up, dancing a favourite. TV on most of the time. His passing was quick, the undertakers came in night-time otherwise other inmates don’t like them. Quite often residents were sedated (to the minimum) for their own safety as much as others.Staff were all superb and very dedicated. Hope this isn’t too much detail for you, best of luck..

    1. Blimey, well done.
      Par here.
      Wordle 1,127 4/6

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

    2. Wow, well done. I gave it five.

      Wordle 1,127 5/6

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

      1. OMG, Sue…don't know if I did the same one as you 'SHAFT', for once I wasn't and did it in three!! Made by bloomin' day:-DD

          3. Now I’m torn between bragging and keeping schtum….:-D Knowing me, likely a one-off so won’t be a problem 😀

        2. I got there via SHALT which I knew isn’t a Wordle sort of word but it gave me the clue I was looking for. Hope there aren’t any nottlers who leave it till evening to do.

          2. Jeepers hadn’t thought of that, sorry…will wait until following day another time (if there is one)…will that be OK?

          3. I do! I just got to your post, scrolled to do mine, and …. Please please please people don’t put the solution or even a clue as others tackle it later.
            Wordle 1,127 4/6

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

      1. No I’ve heard the name several times before but can’t place where! Back to the drawing board….!

  81. You'd be amazed how difficult it is these days to find someone to engrave the "winner" label.

      1. Norwich – 26 miles away. What I meant was "locally". Ten years go there were two places in Fakenham which would do it. Then one. Now none.

      2. I’ve just been up to town because there’s a Timpson’s in the basement of Selfridges. (Just 4 miles for me.) I only wanted shoe polish and heel grips but these days none of the local shops cater for people who actually clean and look after their shoes.

    2. Allow me to offer the services of my specialist colleagues, if you would be so good as to lend me your bride's trophy for the week-end, Mr Nervous O'Toole is particularly skilled and experienced at handling silverware….

      https://youtu.be/Ac76e3PAUt4

        1. Where is it? if I were but 20 years younger I would bite your hand off…but now (not so sure)

    1. One just wishes the owner had returned, reversed over the tosser and driven off, oblivious.

    2. Is this really a thing? I have heard of it before but assumed it to be satire. My God, even your car will now be violated.

    3. I remember the good old days when pavements and underpasses weren't safe.
      At least the perverts have made it to their knees….

    2. two questions Alex..
      did you vote for Khan?
      did you vote Nigel?

      ah, it's her.. she's ok.

    3. I've heard, Sue (good evening btw:-) that some Civil Servants from the Benefits Office are so disgusted they're releasing details online of claims (but not identifying claimants) of truly eye watering proportions. Good luck to them say I, hope they're not identified.

  87. That's me for this day of several halves. Chilly start; then warm; then muggy and unpleasant; rain; now quite nice – nice enough to risk a glass of medicine outdoors. Successful Veg show. MR very pleased.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain. One trusts.

  88. And we've just had a downpour!
    Was up the "garden" with t'Lad and decided to get the washing in and within minutes of coming in, it was teeming down!!

    The DT's just got back from work so t'Lad & self will be off for a walk.

      1. My pleasure Geoff, hope you like it and my singing doesn’t annoy the neighbours

  90. 389942+ up ticks.

    Now there's a thing,

    The peoples smugglers and the overseeing politico's can make a ( yet another) killing by running a return load campaign to Calais.

    Displaced airport passengers descend on Dover after global IT meltdown
    Hundreds of people headed to the port to try bypass the travel chaos caused by Friday’s crash of millions of computers

    1. Take a look at the Heathrow live departures online. If that’s chaos, I’ll eat my hat.

  91. I see the latest 'sport' to be included in the Olympics is breakdancing. FFS – a sport? it's just ni**ers acting like flies who've been sprayed with flykiller

    2. Memories when I was a nipper of athletic and stylish use of the flit gun. Some could hit a fly at 20 paces, and points could be given for the quality of dance from the target.

      I think morris dancing should be an olympic sport.

      1. My mother has a flit gun,
        It's not devoid of charm.
        A bit of flit shot out of it,
        The rest shot up her arm!

        Pam Ayres

  92. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/787dd6f09047a64fe21fb33b0aae6569f6051f3b22244a4e44bae56775815547.png

    EU ‘wants access to UK fishing waters’ as Starmer seeks relationship reset
    Officials believe demand will be one of the key trade-offs in negotiations
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/20/eu-wants-access-to-uk-fishing-waters-as-starmer-seeks-reset/

    The TWO big surrenders of the abysmal Brexit deal with which Johnson, Gove and Frost betrayed us so shamefully and cravenly were:

    i) UKs fishing waters;
    ii) Northern Ireland

    Come on Starmer, give the EU fishing rights not only in salt water but right up our freshwater rivers as well. Why should UK anglers believe they should have any right to our brown and rainbow trout?

    And having done that – give what is left of Northern Ireland away to the EU .

  93. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/787dd6f09047a64fe21fb33b0aae6569f6051f3b22244a4e44bae56775815547.png

    EU ‘wants access to UK fishing waters’ as Starmer seeks relationship reset
    Officials believe demand will be one of the key trade-offs in negotiations
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/07/20/eu-wants-access-to-uk-fishing-waters-as-starmer-seeks-reset/

    The TWO big surrenders of the abysmal Brexit deal with which Johnson, Gove and Frost betrayed us so shamefully and cravenly were:

    i) UKs fishing waters;
    ii) Northern Ireland

    Come on Starmer, give the EU fishing rights not only in salt water but right up our freshwater rivers as well. Why should UK anglers believe they should have any right to our brown and rainbow trout?

    And having done that – give what is left of Northern Ireland away to the EU .

    1. 389942+ up ticks,

      Evening R,

      This current lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition party politico's, and many of their supporters
      would gladly build accommodation for the morally illegal invaders on the trawlermens cemetery, with added mosque.

      1. I don't know why these jumped up little gits think they have been gifted a country and all its resources to line their filthy pockets with as they please, rather than elected to serve the people of this country, in trust for us all, both present and future. It's been going on for years, this greedy arrogance, and it really must be put a stop to.

        1. Hear you, opopanax. It matters not – Labour/Conservative/Lib Demmery, my own opinion (not always popular, or even correct) is that the Civil Service really run things, and furthermore behind the scenes we have Blair and now Cameron pulling strings. We're up the creek, and I don't know where we go from here, perhaps we're stuck in the mud.

    3. Any info what Yemen has done to offend? Or, aren't there enough consumers of military supplies already, so (if needed) we cannot fight the Russians in Ukraine)? God, what a mess it's becoming.

      2. Yemen seems to be in a state of almost perpetual famine, Russia sends aid as do various Western countries. Whatever the situation today in Yemen, looks slated to get much worse.

  96. Evening, all. Been a nice day – not too warm, not too sunny and the rain held off until the evening.

      1. My hen laid a haddock, one hand oiled a flea, Glad farts and centurions threw dogs in the sea, I could stew a hare here, and brandish Dan's flan, Don's ruddy bog's blocked up with sand. Dad! Dad! Why don't you oil Auntie Glad? Can't whores appear in beer bottle pies? Oh butter the hens as they fly!

      3. “Time passes. Listen. Time passes.
        Come closer now.
        Only you can hear the houses sleeping in the streets in the slow deep salt and silent black, bandaged night.”

          1. Oh yes , and I lent my Richard Burton "Under Milk wood " LP record to a so called friend decades ago and she never returned it ..

            I can still hear his beautiful voice resonating the cadences as the story progressed

          3. Wow,
            Thank you so much Conway.

            I will do that.

            My old record was an original . Why don't people return property they borrowed.

            I reminded her to return it, I'll bet she ruined it with a scratchy needle, excuses , I think.

  98. As Lefties & in particular Bella Hadid and Margolyes prepare celebrations for a repeat of the 72 Munich Olympic attack by the PLO..
    Israel sends in 12 Israeli warplanes, including advanced F35 jets, to strike and cripple the port of Hudaydah in Yemen.

    Warning: they won't mess around this time..

      1. It was a nice little book that fitted in very well with the then fashion for offbeat titles (a Brief History of Tractors in the Ukraine, for example).

  99. As Lefties & in particular Bella Hadid and Margolyes prepare celebrations for a repeat of the 72 Munich Olympic attack by the PLO..
    Israel sends in 12 Israeli warplanes, including advanced F35 jets, to strike and cripple the port of Hudaydah in Yemen.

    Warning: they won't mess around this time..

    1. When there's sixteen thousand or so voices singing it, it's quite powerful!

      1. It's really realy powerful at the Rugby where hardly anyone knows the words, but can still belt it out

        1. Fortunately on the few occasions I am required to sing the Welsh Anthem, the words are helpfully printed out. It's also handy that I can read Welsh as well as music 🙂

        1. Very neat, Grizz. Most impressed – and jealous. I need to put in some effort to achieve anything like that.

        1. Was just about to write the same, Belle!
          My garden looks like a tip in comparison 🙁

          1. I bet mine's worse, Paul. Moved here at the end of 2020. Horrendously clay-based soil. The back lawn was interspersed with projecting lumps of brick-like clay. No surprise – I'm 1/3 mile from a former brickworks. The chimney remains.

            So I killed off the 'lawn', rotovated it within an inch of it's life, and added 1.5 cubic metres of 'soil improver'. Laid the turf, which was prolly too cheap. But I'm getting there.

            One third of the back garden comprises a former greenhouse base, a badly-laid uneven "patio", and a vaguely wild part. I know from bitter experience that I'm no slab layer. And that was when I had legs. So, my aim is to install decking. I've bought adjustable joist bearers. The end result should therefore be level. Maybe this year. Maybe not…

          2. Me, tall shaggy grass, some pleasant but shaggy plants & veg, and a mostly overgrown garden railway. All needs tidies & trimmed.

      3. In the third photo, Grizz's front door is painted green and his back door is painted white; furthermore the back (white) door is 4" wider than the back one. As Michael Caine might have said "Not a lot of people know that!" ;-))

  102. Adding death and destruction to famine.
    3 Horsemen of the Apocalype.
    Poor bastards.

  103. Quite, KJ. I really do not know how we are to flush the unflushable turds that ar Blair and Cameron

    1. No…
      I was born on Ilkley Moor… Not sure there's a song about it! There's a song about hats, though, that's not in quite the same league.

  106. There was a request a few days ago for SWMBOs Lemon Curd recipe, and finally, here it is.

    Quote:
    Here is a link to the recipe I use.
    https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/lemons-limes-and-oranges/lemon-curd

    I don't use a waterbath method (double boiler) as I can't get the set right ( have tried a few times). I use a rubber spatula for the cooking phase. – not a balloon whisk
    Tips:
    – DO NOT try to double the recipe – I don't know why, but it doesn't work!.
    – DO NOT try to "hurry" the process by adding more heat – this will only result in sweet lemon flavoured scrambled eggs (or strings of white). Whilst the latter can be sieved out, adds a step..
    – After the initial heating – I use a spatula (rubber) to mix the curd in the saucepan – as I get "set / burnt" bits in the corner of the pan otherwise.
    – Try to get good large lemons – you need the rind as well as the juice.
    – use good quality butter and eggs. (best I think with unsalted butter – but works fine with "normal" salted butter) – DO NOT USE spreads / oil for this recipe.
    – you can cut out the cornflour (maisena in Norwegian) – however you will need to be even more careful with the slow heating to get the set.
    – try to use a fine grater and avoid the pith (white part of the skin) – the rind is part of the final result, so take time to ensure this is fine (you can use this recipe for Lime curd – but here you will need to sieve out the rind, or the finished result is dirty brownish for some reason, and you will also need some salt, and more fruit..)
    – the final amount of product (jars) will vary from batch to batch – depending on the amount of juice from the lemons, and the size of the eggs. An excess is rarely a problem…

    The jars should be refrigerated – alternatively you can store in plastic containers in the freezer (thaw slowly – may need a mix before use).

    Use: Many of our friends just eat straight from the jar.. however can be used in the same way as many jams – on bread, in cakes (add to lemon drizzle cake mix before baking) and icings/frosting and pastries, on merengues, ice cream, yoghurts etc. it is sweet (although tart) – so probably not suitable for savoury dishes

    Enjoy

          2. You are all very finnicky as regards food. I like lemon anything – partly because I do really not enjoy "sweets", and the citrus cuts through. Savouries, on the other hand…

      2. Give it a try, molamola. Anne Allan's and Bill Thomas's MR's are to die for!!!

    2. Thanks, Paul.

      Mum used to make it in a double boiler (her "porringer") and she'd use it in small tarts.

    3. Starmer is doomed by his mad support of corrupt Ukraine and his obeisance to the Clown Show which is the World Economic Forum.

      Starmer is an ignorant puppet and lacking any personal charm with it. He could so easily be replaced by an inflatable.

    1. But her delivery was appalling. Clunky; wrong emphases. She MUST learn to read properly.

      1. I thought it was low key and rather good. It was as though she was chatting across a dinner table rather than delivering an oration.

        1. good speech, hiwever, if the Cons knew ‘what all the problems were’ why did they not go about solving them while in office. They simply followed a socialist line – which is why they were voted out.

      2. I didn't think so, Bilty. I thought it refreshing to hear a speech delivered calmly instead of the usual shouting invectives.

  112. By all means put the picture up but no clues, let alone the solution. Completely spoils it for late comers.

    1. Thanks vw…however I’d likely press the wrong key or something…so going to leave it until the following day, would that be OK do you think?

    1. Well, I increasingly only buy pork and, as regards other meat, only from outlets that are guaranteed to NOT be halal. I do not condone brutality towards animals.

    1. Both crooks. Both in positions of supreme power without being elected. Thank God we are out of this totalitarian kleptocracy.

        1. Yes, He is a c*nt of the first order. Yet another traitor, this time one who believes himself to have a democratic mandate. God help us.

          4. No, it really isn't, Polly. It is someone sitting next to and being not impolite to someone else they may or may not dislike at some sort of undisclosed political occasion.

      4. Starmer is taking us back in. He wants a seat in the brand new fortified edifice being built in Geneva to house the New World Order courtesy of the World Economic Forum.

        1. I doubt that the 'useful idiots' will get a place alongside the elites in that edifice. They'll be shocked to their core when they realise they've been used/duped and will have to face the wrath of the people.

    5. Isn’t the world a better place since we dispensed of men and their toxic masculinity, and promoted kind, compassionate, caring women instead?

  117. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless all you Gentlefolk. If we are spared! Bis morgen früh.

  119. Good night all!
    T'Lad arrived and dragged me out to the pub(s) and we did the Barley Mow, King's Heads and, after a walk round Balleye Quarry, THREE pints in the Boat in Cromford listening to a more than half decent pub band.
    I now feel seaty andf 'orrible so am off for a cold bath and bed!
    G'night all!!!

        1. Get you monarchs in order, Opopanax. I have 8 kings and 1 Queen in my family tree.

    5. Many happy returns Richard. I wish you a nice day, and everything good for the coming year.

    2. 'Morning, Geoff and thank you for all the work and effort you have put in to keep us all going. Well done!

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