Saturday 27 April: The Scottish people have been badly let down by their inept, dysfunctional leaders

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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813 thoughts on “Saturday 27 April: The Scottish people have been badly let down by their inept, dysfunctional leaders”

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

    TOOLS FOR DIY EXPLAINED

    For those of you who are considering DIY work here is a list of tools and their uses. For those of you who are experienced DIYers you will no doubt recognise them…….

    DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.
    WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ‘Oh shit’
    DROP SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.
    PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.
    BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.
    HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle… It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.
    VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
    OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting on fire various flammable objects in your shop. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race.
    TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.
    HYDRAULIC FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.
    BAND SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminium sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.
    TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.
    PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.
    STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.
    PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 pence part.
    HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.
    HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit.
    UTILITY KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.
    BASTARD TOOL: Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘Bastard’ at the top of your lungs. It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

    1. A bit too technical for me, Sir Jasper, but funny nevertheless. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. Pity about the face and Axminster masticator hairstyle. The rest of her looks pleasantly cuddly.

  4. Blinken says China helping fuel Russian threat to Ukraine. 27 April 2024.

    US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Washington will act if China does not stop supplying Russia with items used in its assault on Ukraine.

    Speaking to the BBC in Beijing, the US’s top diplomat said he had made clear to his counterparts they were “helping fuel the biggest threat” to European security since the Cold War.

    There’s a quality of desperation to all this. That China has been supplying the Russian Market (there are no direct weapon sales) can be no surprise. Suddenly there are dire threats of action. This can only be because the US is convinced that Russia is going to win and realised the geopolitical costs. The danger here of course is that it might very well drive China into full on support.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-68905475

    1. ….. “I will do such things—

      What they are, yet I know not, but they shall be

      The terrors of the earth!”

  6. 386509+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Then tis a nationwide plague that has beset us, introduced by political traitors to the realm, currently coming to a head after three plus decades of continuous treason.

    ALL this RESET construct has been given succour via support and votes, by the, party before country, whatever the consequence, eyes tight shut brigade,

    The only claim to fame Britain has at this moment in time is we have the finest set of political lying,cheating, murderous gangsters, ever to disgrace parliament.

    The real frightener is, they STILL FIND SUPPORT.

    Saturday 27 April: The Scottish people have been badly let down by their inept, dysfunctional leaders

    Conclusion,
    Welcome to the descent into the hellfire club.

  7. Armed Forces face crisis as only 12pc of applicants to join reserves are recruited. 27 April 2024.

    The military’s reserves recruitment crisis has been laid bare as new figures reveal more servicemen and women left the services than joined up last year.

    In the 12 months to September 2023, 5,580 reservists left the Armed Forces, while only 3,780 were taken on.

    The data come amid a recruitment crisis that is threatening to engulf the Armed Forces.

    The 3780 were suitably diverse though!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/25/armed-forces-crisis-recruitment-reserves-too-small/

      1. Same happened in the 1970’s when Labour were in power, the offshore oil industry companies were grabbing service trained pilots . Like Moh for example .

        Moh retired from flying in civilian life at 58 years.. Fleet Air Arm trained , but flew more types in the oil industry .

        1. In the late sixties and seventies Labour was openly hostile to the Services.

          Mainly because at times there were comments in the Press about a revolution to get the nation back in order.

          So good that now our present Heads of Services are so leftie that there is no danger of that any more.

        1. I lasted half way through his supersonic ramblings although I agree with his early opinions on the diversity problem – glad I’m out of it

  8. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Dreich. Wind in the East-North-East, 5℃ rising to 10℃. Should stop raining soon but it’ll be back this evening.

    It’s a pity this sort of thing wasn’t done four years ago with the army on back up to support the police.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28cec5df5affa84a43172381a12f16a75e9131329b79e6999dbc78037b651b78.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/26/french-police-puncture-migrant-boat-with-knife/

    On the other hand, the photographs do have a ‘staged’ look about them. A good pay day for the crisis actors? Like the ridiculous Rwanda plan which will not even scratch the surface, it’s easy to see this sort of thing being staged to create the impression that action is being taken in order to fool the gullible.

    2. If they had taken that approach years ago it would have probably stemmed the tide of ‘refugees’ swamping Calais….

    3. The trouble is that the French do not want these illegal immigrants in France any more than we want them in England.

      They say that illegal immigrants are now escaping UK to get to Ireland. Should we do all we can to stop them going or should we, as the French do, let them go and help them on their way?

  10. Good morning, chums, I hope you all slept well. Rain here for most of the day so washing will have to wait for a while.

    Wordle 1,043 5/6

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  11. Good morning, all. Wet.

    Three minutes of power expert Dave Walsh on the demise of the UK’s power industry; the subsequent demise of the economy and the UK as a whole. Spinning the power situation will become ever more difficult until it becomes literally impossible when the moment arrives and the lights regularly go out, people die from the cold and the economy can no longer support the public services, the infrastructure and the people.

    Irrespective of what the politicians of the main parties claim re Net Zero and mass immigration, whether “legal or illegal”, their aim is the destruction of the UK as a nation. Nothing else makes sense.

    What then?

    The following discussion on the USA’s economy with E. J. Antoni reveals the economic shenanigans that the Biden administration are employing to cover the car-crash that is approaching. Again, similarities with what’s happening here.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2595878fe9cbe78d489c866c61bf342f582931d48ce761f7398ac44e092655a5.png

    Dave Walsh on War Room Discussing UK’s Power Situation

      1. An even bigger pity that it only shows electricity, ignoring all the energy that is used directly by the consumer rather than being converted to electricity.

  13. Good morning.
    A slightly duller start after last night’s rain, overcast but currently dry and calm with a tad under 3½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

      1. I always think of Petula Clark being young in the 1960s, and of the same generation as the Beatles. What catches me out is seeing her turn up in antique black-and-white films from just after WW2. That would surely have made her middle-aged in the 1960s?

        Furthermore, all the cast of Dad’s Army, made in the late ’60s and early ’70s are dead now, even Pike, yet Petula Clark is still alive, I believe!

      2. Excellent !

        Just read her entry in Wikipedia – 91 years old – She is an incredible woman with a beautiful voice and a fascinating life.

  18. An astonishing comment in this letter on the ‘Scottish Problem’ from Paul McPhail in Glasgow.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/304c836b9d21f3d33e1f56a5a05e1a9dfa2124959f6b7a110ac5dd970f1bda11.png

    Why on Earth should anyone expect any poltician to ‘add value to people’s lives’. Paul should know by now that they only care about adding value to their own lives.

    If people want value to be added to their lives they must do it for themselves. It’s really quite easy. Let me count the ways……….

    1. That sounds excellent Fiscal.

      The top quality, cultured Scots will emigrate to England, whilst leaving the duffers, moaners and loafers behind.

      I really can’t identify a problem.

      1. Nine years ago, I was seriously considering voting SNP if they had put up a candidate in West Worcestershire, such was my despondency at the level of political competence in England. Considering what has happened to the SNP since, I am glad I didn’t, even though I still have the same opinion of English governance.

        Whatever became of Kate Forbes?

          1. In order to confound the political analysts and categorizers (sic), my Green and Liberal sympathies are life-long and well-known here. I even voted Labour when it was led by Miliband and Corbyn.

            Some wag here therefore suggested I vote English Democrat at the forthcoming police commissioner election here.

            I was going to spoil my ballot paper, since I really do not approve of party political interference with the police, any more than I do with the monarchy, the military, the judiciary, the Civil Service, the BBC, the Church and the House of Lords. However, I have just had a leaflet from the English Democrat candidate, as Essex as Norman Tebbit [just looked him up and it turns out Tebbit is a migrant settler, having been born in Middlesex same as me!], and according to the experts a rabid rightwinger. However, his anti-woke, pro-commonsense message was excellent. Have there really been no burglars caught in three years by some police authorities, as they spend money instead dressing in frilly pink and being nice to favourites?

            I am therefore sorely tempted.

      4. Have already left Scotland – mainly because the high taxation rates introduced by Wee Krankie.

    2. That sounds excellent Fiscal.

      The top quality, cultured Scots will emigrate to England, whilst leaving the duffers, moaners and loafers behind.

      I really can’t identify a problem.

    3. I struggle with the concept of accepting with a sort of tired resignation that anyone paid to do a job, but fails to do it, is just human nature, and part of the new normal.

      No, I am sorry Fiscal, I think if someone does not do the job they are paid to do, they should be sacked without pay, and replaced by someone who can do the job. If there is nobody in the gene pool capable, then it is down to us to train up a new generation if we are to have a nation, not leave it to some magic fairy with faith in authority.

      1. As an example, as a landlord of a small let flat to eke out my pension in the barren period between 60 and 66 when I am deemed unemployable, but not eligible for the State pension. After paying the Service Charge, I do not make much from it these days, but I am loth to evict my current tenants and sell up. They are a frail, elderly couple who keep the flat spotless, get on with their neighbours and pay the rent. What more could I ask of them?

        Each year, I must get a Gas Safety Check by law. I don’t mind that – I don’t particularly want to blow up the house or gas my tenants. Two years ago, they got at the inspector who rang me up with “you want a new boiler, mate”. They don’t make their money doing safety inspections; they do it by selling boilers.

        Last year, I used a firm in Birmingham who only do inspections, and at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, they upset the tenants, who said that if they came again, they would not let them in. The Indian they sent over spent ten minutes not doing much, asked a few personal questions about when they are out, and only just stopping at asking their bank details and password, and then left after completing the form. At least I had my certificate, and the tenants did not come up with more evidence that he was negligent.

        This year, because I was performing in an opera and also had a quite demanding concert of Eastern European music, I left booking up the inspection a bit late. The firm I used before could not do it in time, most of the other gas engineers were either retired, were not available for weeks, or did not answer my calls, leaving just two locals that could do it quickly.

        The one that did turn up rang me up to say that the working gas pressure was below regs and that I needed to upgrade my pipework from the meter, which would cost thousands. He also said that the filling loop for the water was inoperative and I want a new boiler, mate. They then sent in a bill for £216, when the going rate for a gas check is about £80. I smelt a rat. The 22mm pipework had been fine for 25 years, how come it was suddenly undersized?

        I emailed them immediately challenging the bill. They responded by a flurry of nuisance calls, and then a visit to my home to explain their readings and demand payment within the week. I told them I wanted no further communication until I had a second opinion, and could take it from there.

        While I was digging in my piles of papers that should be properly arranged, and would be if I were not a fat old useless codger living alone and not coping with the housework, I found the gas certificate from 2021, and rang up the engineer who did this, whose number I thought I had lost. It was a father and son business from Worcester. The son did it last time, but this time I got the father.

        When he turned up, he asked me about the ‘At Risk’ notice the other fellow had slapped on the boiler. I explained that he said the pipework was undersized, and could he verify that. He did a fresh Gas Safety check, using an old-fashioned manometer rather than a fancy digital device, and told me it was all perfectly safe, even though he couldn’t work out why the water filling loop was not working. That didn’t stop him issuing the certificate, and he wondered what planet that other fellow was on.

        Now, I appreciate to long-suffering nottlers that my anecdote was a bit wordy, but could this be the sort of due diligence that should be applied throughout Government?

      1. He managed (paid?) to get a very adoring article written about him in the Sunday Times.

        .
        Which strangely enough didn’t even mention Common Purpose. I wonder why?

          1. I really don’t want to guess that, if you don’t mind, Ready. He’s repulsive. We really need an improved selection system for UK politicians. The most despicable people are able to get in. The examples of astounding stupidity accumulate every day. There should be exams, training and they must be made to sign contracts to primarily uphold their commitment to the UK. They, too often, see themselves as some kind of global ambassadors – and yet it is us who pay their wages and elected them to further Britain.

      1. I think it’s she but impossible to tell really. Always the first home and three days earlier than last year.

        2. It seems early for a swift, we normally don’t see them until later in May screaming in their gangs around the oldest house down the green, we don’t normally see them up at this end for some reason.

    2. They’ve all had a tough time flying against the northerly winds this year.
      Still lots of them here at Rocha Brava.

      1. Thousands were seen coming up through France earlier in the week. It’s a marvel of nature. Enjoy your stay in Portugal- It’s cold and wet here.

    3. Mr Sapola swears he saw a swallow on a telegraph wire in Cambridgeshire this afternoon. I have my doubts but..

  21. 386509+ up ticks,

    2018 / 2019 A period of treachery and the boot being applied to the body democracy,

    What a missed opportunity put paid to by political treachery artist & supporting fools,

    This being, when Gerard Batten wanted Tommy as a personal adviser, that triggered immediate action from both the party nec & farage, UKIP under Batten leadership was a success in the making, and as a major threat to the political close shop, clearly seen.

    To think a winning duo Batten / Robinson uniting, as was happening, ALL “so far right peoples” under one democratic umbrella what could have been now, instead the knife of treachery went into Batten / UKIP party’s back courtesy of the party nec and farage who then marched the brexit party under his leadership into history as a tory ( ino) asset.

    https://youtu.be/gKsxNqImF3s?si=RpjucywLok9JimJd

    1. By silencing Tommy Robinson (NHRN), the Powers That Be are denying his supporters a voice and that, I suspect, is why Gerard Batten was stabbed in the back.
      However, I will say that when Carl Benjamin aka “Sargon of Akkad” was asked at a UKIP press event about referring to Jess Phillips as “a bitch” he responded by saying, “But she is a bitch!” Gerard Batten’s face made it obvious that SofA gone too far.

      1. The case of Benjamin and Phillips is the same as Laurence Fox and Ava Evans. It’s OK for women to spray bile around but when it is returned in kind the victim card is played.

    2. I really enjoyed listening to this. I nearly didn’t but thought I’d give two demonised men a chance.

      2. 386509+ up ticks,

        Morning MIR, ( scanner),
        Nice to hear and thanks, many do NOT want to hear as the truth in so many cases can be very hurtful.

  23. ‘Morning All

    Quick Medley

    https://twitter.com/SlenderSherbet/status/1782507733385691454

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1735e5376bc32be19120becb2c566db350f998803ca629ec53674ccc0e02a9a1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a330488197d4669ce1a4ddfd2ba6175b50de6cd666e85946aeb54aad869ae6c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d518a5f4511712142e9080db35b8f8dc00f4e64e33fee3a60370a9a1be43853.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d77b7e5b10909b01234d6c6fd741ae48a4fb6628a886602c48a254f5950b48a8.jpg

    Cats and Dogs

    https://media.gab.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=568,quality=100,fit=scale-down/system/media_attachments/files/160/980/554/original/5f6c9dbf76d39dde.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f5db5b45b92aba181a122a7452d9283e0fad8d51b29bf176ea9f40ea48328585.jpg

    1. Love the black cat on the chair! Our naked cat lies on a cushion almost under the wood burner! Makes it difficult to put logs on!

  24. https://scontent.flhr10-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/438222044_751814753745852_1396308736105425831_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_s720x720&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=E9olGbu-C7QQ7kNvgHn5mxV&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr10-2.fna&oh=00_AfC_SLa3Bs7zh16MXI8KIvSgJHRiZWlrYu2qZOv5_iTL8Q&oe=66326A79

    Starmer – Well really, the working class love beer, would that be mainly the white working class?

    Bar Owner – Well yes, mostly.

    Starmer to sidekick – Make a note of that will you, I’ll suggest a big tax rise at the next shadow cabinet meeting, or even propose a ban, that’ll teach em, we’ll blame it on the high CO2 produced in production, save the planet, that sort of thing, they always fall for that.
    Oh and don’t forget the health benefits, especially for their children, plus it will be a winner with the non-alcohol community in our heartlands.

    1. And going to church seems to be losing its attraction, let’s take all the precious metals and shut them down for conversion. That should bag us a few hundred thousand more votes.
      What’s next on the menu ?

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start here in Rocha Brava, but it rained yesterday afternoon. So despite our youngest arriving in Dubai just before the massive down pours, my own 100% record of every where we go on holiday it rains, is still intact. ‘Contracts’ can be arranged 😉🌨☂️
    It seems to me that the Scottish people have been plotted against. Perhaps now they will take revenge on their political classes. As we also must now do. And get rid of them for the good of our both of our countries.

  27. The Scottish people have been badly let down by their inept, dysfunctional leaders

    That pretty much covers every Western democracy, I suppose.

    1. Good morning Ogga and everyone. Much of the administration that the little people do can be carried out using a computer and modem, at their own residential unit. Meanwhile, the corridors of power can be quietly filled with their replacements.

    2. Certainly they’re paid for their time and to make themselves available between specified hours and not to fit their workload around their personal schedule. There’ll be a document somewhere with terms of employment. They should be sacked but the hierarchy behave as badly as the staff so it isn’t going to happen.

      1. I heard that a lot of them are now working from home…….just a tad north of India.

    3. We get paid a pittance, in anticipation of an annual bonus (pad according to results) which gets us up to a decent income. (Though a portion of this is retained for 5 years to assure “good behaviour” and discourage us from leaving). If we decided we couldn’t be bothered to do what our CEO wanted, we just wouldn’t get our bonus. I often wonder if the Govt. is missing a trick here with Snivil Serpents’ remuneration (and I use that word advisedly as their package is much, much bigger than the Anjou t they take home each month).

      1. I’ve never heard ‘ Anjou ‘ (pear & region of France) in that context, Mir, but I get your meaning.

        1. Lol i have no idea what auto correct did there and can’t recollect the precise word i used. But, as you guessed, basically their monthly salary is but a mere portion of their overall remuneration package and, crucially, they always forget to factor in a nice risk-free guaranteed pension – not to bd sniffed at!

          1. Amount, I would guess. J is just above M and the space bar just below N. Assuming you’re using a QWERTY keyboard, of course.

  29. Good morning from cloudy East Anglia .
    When logging on just now I’ve been told
    ‘ this page cannot be found ‘ ( my account).
    Clearly I’m either a shadow of my former self
    Or ghost writing 🤔

    1. Be careful there was a 2010 film made called the Ghost Writer for a former British PM.

    2. Unplug your router (including telephone jack, wait 20 seconds before reconnecting, wait until it’s ready and try again.

      1. Good morning, Maggiebelle

        In Turkey they take blood tests and other measures to try and stop cousins marrying because the level of deformed babies is so very high.

        An English couple, both in their 60s, we met while sailing around the Med decided to get married in Marmaris. They were told that they had all sorts of forms to complete had to do all sorts of blood tests. When the authorities saw that they were not going to have children they let them go ahead without the paperwork or the tests

        1. A moslum country doing something sensible?
          Before our older son and wife had their children, they both (at the insistence of the wife) had assorted tests to check for any genetic issues. No known genetic ‘issues’ in either family, so I found it to be rather strange.

          1. There can be stuff lurking in the background.
            A couple of generations ago, anyone a ‘bit funny’ was a family secret or, if not blatantly dangerous or odd, was unlikely to marry and breed.

      2. Each of those babies then costs a small fortune in pointless medical treatments and care for the duration of their miserable lives. But the degenerate parents, many of whom were also born to parents who were close cousins, continue to produce further seriously damaged babies. More babies = more benefits (and, as we all know but aren’t supposed to say, the men can’t control their ‘urges’ anyway.)

    2. 386509+up ticks,

      O2O

      Such family unity, makes one wonder does this unity run through the whole breed?

    3. Deport Foreign Criminals @peterstopcrime forgot to mention that they were sentenced in 2016 and convicted in 2015 for crimes carried out against the teenage schoolgirl in 2011 and 2012. Of the 12, one was convicted of sexual activity, not rape, and is 29 years older than the next oldest offender, so unlikely to be a (first) cousin.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-35524340

  31. Good morning all ,

    Purbeck weather dull, 7c.
    Pair of bullfinches enjoying the food on the bird table , sparrows , great tits and robins are busy collecting for their babies .

    The DT letters, hmmm

    The comments are better.

    David Proctor
    1 HR AGO
    Allowing UK forces to man the beach at the US built unloading platform is nothing short of aiding and abetting terrorism.

    Reply by Julyan Coe.

    JC

    Julyan Coe
    1 HR AGO
    Surely our history in the Middle East screams, “Keep away and shut up.”

    Reply by Connie Ball.

    CB

    Connie Ball
    1 HR AGO
    No it’s feeding starving people.

    Reply by R. Spowart.

    RS

    R. Spowart
    40 MIN AGO
    And whose fault is that?
    If Hamas did not use the Gazan people as human shields and propaganda fodder as part of their terrorist campaign and if they did not take control of whatever aid arrived, would there be anyone starving?
    And let’s face it, starving children in Gaza perfectly suits Hamas’s propaganda aims.

  32. A very good letter on the Proms inclusion of the mentally deficient Sam Smith:-

    Pop at the Proms

    SIR – Given how few classical music festivals there are, why is the BBC determined to waste Proms time on pop music (“BBC insists Sam Smith Prom ‘appropriate’”, report, April 25)? I don’t notice Glastonbury having a Beethoven and Mozart day.

    Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
    Northwood, Middlesex

    1. The BBC is determined to take a leading role in the destruction of British life, British values and British culture.

      1. I don’t wish to be too pedantic, but just how British is Mozart and Beethoven?

        Around Worcester at the start of June, they have an Elgar festival. This year the Elgar Chorale are putting a concert of part songs by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who is a high romantic classical composer, ticks a number of the BBC diversity boxes (he had a Creole father) and had Elgar as his mentor, who loved his music.

        As for Ralph Vaughan Williams, who lived near to where I grew up in Dorking (also the childhood home of Alma Deutscher, another English classical composer but of another era), my mother said “someone should shoot that bloody bird”.

        1. :-). “Lark Ascending” is one helluva bum number – as in anaesthetic.
          As your bewtox flatten and you rediscover your pelvic bones, a gun is desirable piece of equipment.

          1. They’ll have ‘The Laughing Policeman’ as a congregational hymn at mine.

    2. Sam Smith is a talentless degenerate who belongs in the gutter, not, as Patrick Christys put it, “parading his hairy arse at the Proms”.

  33. Oh well we must get on…..Where’s the all day factor 20 …..oh yes on the shelf in the bathroom.
    Slayders.

  34. If even GB News viewers plan to vote Labour, the Tories only have themselves to blame
    The Left may be looking forward to the Government’s annihilation. But no one will enjoy it more than conservatives
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/27/gb-news-viewers-vote-labour-blame-tories/

    “……. what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?” (Matthew vii.ix)
    “The hungry sheep look up and are not fed” (John Milton: Lycidas)

    The Conservative Party has deliberately failed to give its voters what they want or what they need. But those who are philosophically conservative should not dream of voting Labour out of spite. Starmer’s position as leader of the Labour Party is far from secure. The larger his lead in the election the more likely he will be replaced by somebody of the extreme left.

    BTL

    The Conservative Party needs to be completely obliterated. This should not be done by voting Labour but by voting Reform.

    Perhaps Reform is not yet viable and does not have a satisfactory leader but at least it claims to espouse the values the Conservative Party had before it disintegrated at the hands of the Lib/Dem left-leaning Cameron .

    1. Anybody who votes for the Uniparty of Lib/Lab/Con next election clearly demonstrates that they are happy with

      the present system of Government.

      …………and yes, there are people who are content with the present situation. Ask around.

      1. What is the sensible answer in the current-day UK? Has anyone got an answer that will work?

        Anybody who votes for the Reform Party will ensure a minimum of five years for Labour and I shudder to think of the consequent havoc they will wreak.

        [Mark my words (27/04/24).]

        1. The Conservative Party must die. The longer it lingers on the longer Labour will stay in power.

          If the Reform Party overtakes the Conservative Party in the polls I believe the flood gates would open because the situation would change and it would be more true to say a vote for the Conservatives does more to help the Labour Party than a vote for Reform.

          1. All true, except Labour is already dead. All that’s waiting to pass is the new tenants to take over; possibly they will even put up a new sign over the door too.

        2. Grizzly, as I wrote before, any votes for Lib/Lab/Con will demonstrate to the PTB that voters are happy with the present situation.

          It’s been quite a clever plan–

          40% of the voters vote Labour to keep the Conservatives out, and 40% of the voters vote Conservative to keep Labour out.

          Apart from a ministerial car the majority of MPs don’t care which gets in as they have a common theme of big

          government, high taxes, unlimited immigration of illiterate Third Worlders, many of whom can’t even speak English.

          Slowly flooding the country with those dependent on bennies who will vote for big government,

          high taxes for the workers and further unlimited immigration of their illiterate and unskilled brethren.

          The only thing that you can do is to be honest with yourself and vote accordingly.

          None of Lib/Lab/Con have attempted to cure the situation in the last thirty years. What makes you think that it will be different next time?

          1. Illiterate third worlders flooding the Northern hemisphere is agreed internationally by the majority. It will continue unabated. All Lib/Lab/Con do is act as talking heads to manage expectations. It’s not quite “here are some kittens to watch” while they get on with it, but it might as well be.

            The problem they hadn’t reckoned on of course, because they are Humanists is that the unforeseen oncost is the rapid dispersal of Islamic fundamentalism by legitimate channels. They really do not get it

        3. Regretably the younger generations will only learn about a Labour government by living with one for a term.
          What is the alternative to voting Reform? Do nothing.?.

          1. It’s the biggest cleft-stick situation of all cleft-sticks.

            I’m a firm believer in “better the devil you know”.

      2. We are powerless when it comes to who governs us. All we actually have in our gift is NOTA, which sends an uncomfortable and unwelcome signal to TPTB.

        Yes I will vote Reform out of good faith. I’ll give them an opportunity not to be the Lib/Lab/Con uniparty, but….

        The fundamental problem is not the parties as such; it is that no one is addressing the biggest need, which is the systematic removal of democracy from Britain. Lib/Lab/Con are all agreed that that must be done. They won’t get Net Zero, the “Climate Catastrophe” and the rest controlled until the ability to object is removed from the people. The objective is the removal of democracy and while people vote for any one of Lib/Lab/Con, then in their view the grand parlour game that is the General Election continues unhindered.

      3. The problem is that there is no political party with policies that will appeal to the majority and is without policies that a significant proportion of the population dislike. A party that wants strong immigration controls will appeal to the majority but if it is also strongly pro-Brexit it will be rejected by around half of the electorate. I recognise that there are many strongly pro-Brexit commenters in this forum but the fact is that less than half of the electorate voted for Brexit at the referendum and, given the increase since then in the number of young people who are probably mostly either pro-EU or apathetic, I can’t see that a pro-Brexit policy will be a majority-winning one. A party advocating a strong defence, immigration controls, low taxation, less fervour for Net-Zero, stronger unbiassed policing and less pandering to minority interests might do well but add in hard Brexit, anti-Covid vaccine and anti-NHS and I doubt that it will get anywhere electorally. Most political parties (the Uni-Party) have a range of policies that represent the lowest common denominator so that they can appeal to the most and offend the least – and so we end up with weak and ineffectual leadership. Please do not read into my comments my political preferences – just that I would be prepared to sacrifice some of them to ensure the progress of others.

    2. 386509+ up ticks,

      Morning R,

      There are some that will never learn, then some who have no wish to learn,

      They, these political overseers are of one coalition party, reform are the coalitions auxiliary, fall back,top up, make up party.

      1. Reform may not be the answer – but for whom would you vote?

        We agree that the Labour Party, the Lib/Dems and the Conservative Party need to be wiped out – but how can this be done?

        Not voting for them will only have any effect if you can convince nobody to vote for them? What is your plan?

        1. 386509+ up ticks,
          i would truly like to see as I will be choosing
          R,
          If the political top rankers suppress independent candidates,
          i would truly like to see, as I will be choosing, a mass vote for,
          “Daisy the COW” trustworthy, patriotic, loyal & true to the peoples, plus farmer friendly.

          By the by, we have had cows in power before but NOT of Daisies
          patriotic pro British nature, in fact the very opposite.

        2. By massive acts of rebellious atrocities carried out by the minority who want those parties wiped out such that the majority are terrorised into accepting their eradication out of fear of being next in line for more bloodthirsty deeds of indiscriminate slaughter. Only when the majority are cowering in fear will the minority get its way.

    3. Since we are quoting scripture may I chuck in,

      “Where there is no vision, the people cast off restraint; but happy is he that keepeth the law.”

      About time our politicians started keeping the law. And by that I don’t mean the little gerrymandering rules handed down by Parliament and judges that pass for Law, designed to make themselves comfortable while holding in check the plebs.

      1. 386509+ up ticks,

        Morning SC,
        Nothing will interfere with the Dover intake, only IMO a civil war.

        As I say, why not go direct
        Calais,Rwanda, declare yourself a poof retard with murderous tendencies and get sent to London
        legal, without getting your feet wet.

        2. If they are furriners why would it be a civil war? We would just be repelling boarders. Unless the left weigh in on their sid.

    2. Vulnerable – it’s US that are the vulnerable ones. Vulnerable to their parasitic, criminal, money-grabbing ways and vulnerable to the dangers posed by most of these savages. NOT refugees, just uncivilised, useless migrants who know just how to lie with their sob stories. And I bet none of them will be on months/years long waiting lists for whatever medical treatments they need.

      1. Out of date, old boy. There is now a black “leading” Wales (to destruction).

        They get everywhere these days.

  37. Tony Blair’s great devolution experiment has been an unmitigated disaster

    Camilla Tominey, DT, 27/04.24

    The implosion of the Scottish National Party (SNP) is fast becoming more of a popcorn fest than binge-watching Last April, we stared open-mouthed as the police seized a £110,000 Niesmann + Bischoff motorhome from a house in Fife following the arrest of Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, who was last week charged in connection with the embezzlement of party funds (he denies the allegations).

    Next week, we’ll be breaking open the Butterkist once more to see Humza Yousaf, Sturgeon’s successor as Scotland’s First Minister, face a vote of no confidence at Holyrood. The potentially career-ending ballot comes after Yousaf suddenly axed the SNP’s power-sharing arrangement with the Greens in a spectacular own goal that has left him teetering on the brink after just a year in office.

    Even more hilariously, the deciding vote is set to be held by Ash Regan, whose defection to Alex Salmond’s Alba Party last October was labelled by Yousaf as “no great loss” to the SNP. If there has been a more hapless politician in Holyrood’s kilt-clad history, then I’m struggling to think of one.

    Yet Yousaf – dubbed “Humza Useless” by his critics – is hardly the only inadequate politician to have won power under devolution. Sturgeon, Mark Drakeford, Sadiq Khan, Vaughan Gething – is this really the best our political system can do?

    Devolution was meant to bring power closer to the people, resulting in more effective decision-making. Instead, all it seems to have achieved is the propelling to power of complete non-entities who think their role is to beg for money from Westminster – only to spend it on insane policies and their own incompetent governance.

    It is not just in Scotland, although the SNP’s record has been particularly shocking. The Saltire-draped party has done so much so badly, it’s hard to think of anything it has done well.

    It mishandled the pandemic, enduring a similar Covid fatality rate to England despite harsher restrictions. Thanks to its so-called “progressive” tax rate system, people earning more than £28,000 in Scotland are taxed more than they would be in England. Yet still, there is an enormous black hole in the public finances, while Scotland’s deficit as a percentage of GDP remains substantially bigger than the UK’s as a whole.

    Other SNP failures include its dangerous and unwanted gender reforms, the ferry fiasco, a finding by Scotland’s children’s commissioner that Sturgeon had “absolutely failed” to deliver for young people, with Scotland having slipped down the education rankings, and a “staggeringly bleak” Audit Scotland report painting “a picture of a health service in crisis” according to the British Medical Association. The SNP is so useless it hasn’t even been able to deliver independence, for pity’s sake.

    Wales is no better, with new First Minister Gething now having to partially row back on his predecessor Drakeford’s nanny state 20mph zones after a call for the limit to be scrapped broke Senedd records for the mostsigned petition on its website. Other bonkers ideas dreamt up by Welsh Labour include a four-day week and a universal basic income pilot that pays you a salary regardless of whether you’re working or not.

    During his remarkably unimpressive tenure, virtue signalling Drakeford spent much of his time piggybacking on every “progressive” cause he could find, splashing nearly £9million of Welsh taxpayers’ cash a year on woke jobs. Having aped even Sturgeon’s draconian approach to lockdown, Drakeford also adopted her minimum alcohol pricing policy, only for alcohol-related deaths in Wales to reach record levels. At one point, his government even considered banning energy drinks, ludicrously suggesting they were a “gateway” to smoking and drinking.

    In December, we learnt that Welsh pupils were performing the worst out of the UK in maths, reading and science, according to the latest results from the Programme for International Student Assessment, which is based on tests taken by 15-year-olds from around the world. Yet Drakeford’s record on health was perhaps even worse, with hospital waiting lists recently reaching the highest ever recorded.

    London has become a similar sort of basket case under Khan, a mayor accused this week by Foreign Secretary James Cleverly of saying more about Gaza than “black kids getting murdered in south-east London”. Such is the arrogance of the former Labour MP for Tooting that his spokesman dismissed the “vile” comment as not deserving “the dignity of a response” rather than addressing the fact that there were 14,626 knife offences in London in the 12 months to the end of December last year – thousands more than the total for 2022.

    Seemingly a mayor in denial, last December he was rebuked by the official statistics regulator for claiming knife crime had fallen under his watch when, according to the Office for Statistics Regulation, it had “significantly increased”.

    The mayor’s record on housing has been described as “uniquely poor”. Research revealed that, as of November last year, none of the 23,900 to 27,200 affordable homes that the mayor had promised between 2021 and 2026, under the second phase of the capital’s Government-funded housing programme, have been started.

    First Minister Humza Yousaf at Bute House after ending the power-sharing agreement with the Green Party on Thursday

    Yet earlier last year, he announced that he had hit a target of “starting” 116,000 homes between 2016-23 – studiously ignoring the fact that this figure included 7,189 started when Boris Johnson was still mayor.

    This week Khan – along with his Tory rival Susan Hall – apparently shunned a housing hustings hosted by Shelter. Presumably, he would rather spend his time talking about how much he dislikes Donald Trump than his failures on crime, housing, the rail strikes and London’s flagging nighttime economy. I suppose it’s also easier than addressing the outrage over his Ulez scheme, one of many green vanity projects designed to make Khan look down with the Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion kids, who have been busily wreaking havoc on London’s roads and inside its galleries and sporting events.

    The truth is that Tony Blair’s devolution experiment has not worked. In the US, bad state governments are punished by people choosing to move elsewhere, with thousands fleeing the likes of California for Florida to enjoy lower taxes. Here, we’re just left with this over-promoted collection of inadequates.

    A no confidence vote in Yousaf would only appear to tell half the story of how disastrous devolution has actually been for Britain.

    Look forward to an overwhelming tranche of similar (and worse) imbecilities being sprung on the country when the next Labour government is installed; courtesy of their election win brought about by a massed mob of lunatics-with-a-vote.

    1. There are in the end no serious or let’s say credible politicians left anymore; just middle management apologists for bigger powers who actually run things around here.

      Useless stands out from the rest for a single reason: he is incapable of managing expectations well enough to keep him as chief talking head.

    2. Is there something missing from this article? To me it reads oddly from the paragraph starting ‘A no confidence vote in Yousaf’.

      2. No. I’ve just checked. I copied the transcription from the “virtual paper” version of the online DT and that is how it reads. Very odd.

      4. I’ve just gone back to the original paper and it added a lot of superfluous stuff from an adjacent (unrelated) report. I have now deleted that and it makes more sense now.

    3. Regretably the younger generations will only learn about a Labour government by living with one.

    4. Even when presented with this kind of evidence, folk will still vote the way they always did.
      We voted with our feet, and just left – lock, stock & barrel. Apart from an infrequent return to get a gutload of good beer and cider, we’re not going back. Life abroad is better in every way. Lust look at the high hiedyins listed above… Mensch!

  38. Let’s see who I can insult with this lot:

    Police in Peckham found a bomb outside a mosque…
    They’ve told the public not to panic as they’ve managed to push it back inside.
    =============================
    During last night’s high winds, an African family were seriously injured by a falling tree. A spokesman for the Birmingham City council said “We didn’t even know they were living up there”.
    =============================
    Jamaican minorities in the UK have complained that there are not enough television shows with minorities in mind, so Crime watch is being shown 5 times a week now.
    =============================
    I was reading in the Liverpool Echo about this dwarf that got pick-pocketed.
    How could anyone stoop so low?
    =============================
    I was walking down the road when I saw an Afghan standing on a fifth-floor balcony shaking a carpet. I shouted up to him, “What’s up Abdul? He said, “It won’t start?”

    1. Ah but, AA, the Met known as the very model of impartial policing without “fear or favour” according to a high up senior panjandrum called Twist, has it all in perspective.

      From the news: Mr Twist added that pro-Palestinian protests had “never” reached the threshold where it was a “risk of serious public disorder”.

      But a single bloke walking in London not actually in a demo which was threatening absolutely no one, apparently was because he was “openly Jewish”. The Left I’m afraid to say lacks any perspective, grounded as it is in hatred

          1. Good Morning James. The sun has just peeked out of the clouds in Constable County and there are rather cold looking lambs in nearby fields .

          2. Yes, good morning to you too. And just a few miles further north it is much the same. Monday will be good though, or at least it might pick up.

            I was at the Munnings museum last week and it wasn’t much different in Constable country then, either.

          3. Constable country you say? Inevitably nurturing “dark Nationalist feelings” no doubt (see the Fitzwilliam Museum).

          4. Certainly provokes dark Nationalist feelings in me, what with that and Munnings’ solid British Impressionism capturing a lot of that .. erm… darkness, AA.

    2. The Left has no idea what it is dealing with, and doesn’t want to know, either. The truth would be rather uncomfortable.

  41. “Leftists would be advised to listen to this interview. But they won’t.”

    What do you expect? Leftists are brought up on Common Purpose. They don’t understand Common Sense.

    1. “Leftists are brought up on Common Purpose.” I find this unsatisfactory. I agree it is historically accurate and still is a large motivating factor. However there has been a sea change over the past 20 years or so. It’s now about “my emotions”, which Hamas in this case are playing like a banjo.

    2. “Leftists are brought up on Common Purpose.” I find this unsatisfactory. I agree it is historically accurate and still is a large motivating factor. However there has been a sea change over the past 20 years or so. It’s now about “my emotions”, which Hamas are playing like a banjo.

  43. We watched the first (recorded) instalment of “Michael Palin in Nigeria” last evening. A shocking programme. First, Palin is now really past it. His old trick of making puzzled comments to camera – which worked quite well 40 years ago – just made him look an anxious, uncomfortable OAP. A lot of the time he looked completely bewildered – because he was.

    Secondly, he played the “Frightful, embarrassing, shocking British slavers” line – IN bloody Nigeria – to a fat Nigerian woman activist but FAILED to ask the obvious question about who was providing the slaves (sorry, enslaved people) in the first place.

    I’d have turned it off – but the MR wanted to see it to the bitter end.

    1. My son was at university with a Nigerian.
      My son learned never, ever to bring up slavery with that man.
      He would rant and rave about the fact that the real fault was with the Nigerians and other Africans themselves, selling their and other blacks into the slave trade. He claimed there was no way whites could have even started to capture blacks themselves, they would not have survived the conditions.
      The blacks also made sure that all the crooks, and violent criminals were sold, just to get rid of them. If criminality were an inherited trait it might explain the situation in the USA and countries with black ghettoes.
      His view was also that those who were enslaved got a better deal by not being killed on the spot as useless enemies.
      He also took the view that Britain’s actions did more to end the trade than all other nations combined.
      He was more right-wing than most white right-wingers.

      1. It’s true about the conditions. The white man’s grave yard they called it and, as the old sailors chanted:
        Beware and take care in the Bight of Benin, there’s two comes out from ten goes in.

        1. I read ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Joseph Conrad. It details the diseases and pestilence white men had to deal with if they went into the interior.

          1. Funny how we only ever hear about the Europeans “killing” indigenous people by bringing diseases to them, never the other way round!

          2. Like Ebola. Spread by the scarcely believable practice of embracing and dancing with the fresh corpse.

        1. The Nigerian went into teaching.
          I wonder how long he lasted if he told his truth, this was in the late 90’s early 2000’s.
          If he spoke out in the same way today, I suspect he’d be silenced very quickly.
          He was an erudite individual and good company.

      3. So the Nigerians were getting rid of their criminals to slave traders at the same time the British were shipping theirs off to Australia. ..if only such a solution existed today!

    2. To be fair Bill, having been to Nigeria many times, most foreigners look anxious and uncomfortable. The reason is, it’s a dangerous, uncomfortable shitehole, bewilderingly horrible. Intelligent Nigerians invariably tell me that they reckon that they would be better off under British rule – which is why so many of them are here.

      Oh, and there are still slaves in Nigeria, often Christian female captives of the Muslims in the North.

      1. I don’t disagree for a minute. Just that Palin looked and sounded an old geezer quite out of his depth. Reminded me of Biden, at times.

        1. His wife died a few months ago; I gather her health hadn’t been good for some years.
          That would take its toll on him.

          1. Indeed – my very thought. But he didn’t orta do telly when he looks half out of it.

      2. I grew up in Nigeria, in the 60s & 70s. Loved it. Probably best not to go back, though, might be disappointed.

  44. Yes, the Scottish people have been let down, but let’s not forget who voted that inept, dysfunctional bunch of poisonous mental pygmies into power.

    1. Perhaps it was rigged, seeing who is the First Minister. Oh, hush my mouth, there will be a knock on the door…

      1. Given that the Labour leader is probably a member of the same mosque, it will definitely be a continuity FM!

    2. It is mainly the ludicrous voting system. Which Cur Ikea Slammer intends to bring in for parliamentary elections.

    1. Not having a Twitter account I can’t see the community advice note, what does it say?

        1. As I understand users can flag inaccuracies in the claims of tweets, something like that. It can throw up some amusing takes.

      2. “Readers added context
        The Scottish govt cut the affordable homes budget by 26% or £200m in December 2023. Announcing £80m now means the overall spending on affordable housing in Scotland is £120m less than last year. insidehousing.co.uk/news/scotland-…”

      1. My wife when a teenager had her house compulsorily purchased by the Labour Council. Naturally they paid not very handsomely “on behalf of the people” who would benefit by kicking a family out of its privately owned residence.

        The Labour leader of the council responsible for the policy and his son were on several occasions in succeeding years arrested and variously prosecuted for criminal offences. Socialism attracts all the right sorts, I find.

        1. There were a couple of brothers on Falkirk council who did much the same! When they were caught their property ‘portfolios’ were very impressive!

    3. The taking of empty properties is in vogue now? That’s good. Perhaps someone could take over Useless’ empty head and put it to good use, then.

  46. On this day in 1296 the Scots lost a war for Independence – the battle of Dunbar – beaten by the English – the battle commanded by the 6th Earl of Surrey – a very much English gentleman. Hamza’s ancestors wouldn’t have given a toss about the Scots – they’d been Saracens in some godforsaken place .

    1. Wasn’t it a Surrey who defeated a Scots invasion and killed their king James IV at Flodden?
      Dunbar was of course the site of the incredible victory by the New Model Army led by Cromwell over the vastly superior Scottish Presbyterian army.

      1. I don’t know who killed James IV . But after a glittering Renaissance as the Scots saw the reign of James IV, but in 1513 his reign came to an end – the war against his brother in law Henry VIII – James IV even used rather good Swiss military techniques and still lost – at Flodden .
        Yes, also Dunbar in 1650 during the civil wars- English troops commanded by Cromwell with his superior infantry and calvary using decisive action beat the Scots under Leslie at Dunbar. Not terribly good against the English are the Scots but at least they were true Scots . Unlike Muzzie Hamza who shares no history, blood or culture with Scotland.

        1. The Scots managed to defeat themselves by taking up position at the bottom of the Flaxton? hill! They became a very easy target!

  48. Good Morning Friends

    Did you all get the news last night that as of Tuesday Government/DEFRA will be inspecting all EU imports of animal based products to the UK – apparently to ensure that they meet our food safety standards.
    As we have not dismantled any of the EU Regs or standards this is a given – EU/UK standards are the same,
    This is a choice that Government is making which they say will cost importers £330,000- however industry experts expect the figure to be 3 times that sum – so food prices will rise and you will pay more for your food -for no other reason than Government has decided you should.

    You might think that this will provide British Agriculture with the opportunity to produce mor food here but your wonderful Government has withdrawn all support for food production and sunk all subsidies into green projects.

    This is sheer madness – and it is not just an issue for Farmers & the supply chain because you will be picking up the bill.

    We all need to protest – NOW.

    Post Brexit they do not need to do this – they are trying to break BREXIT

    1. DEFRA is advised by the billionaire funded ”charity” Rewilding Britain and does everything Rewilding Britain want.

      The reason likely being because the billionaires behind RW also pull all the strings in Downing Street and the puppet theater.

      1. You are likely correct but I think this is a massive own goal.
        It is yet another universal tax which will hit the poorest who spend a larger portion of their budget on food.
        History shows that empty bellies fuels revolutions.
        Now – if we could get 5million on the streets protesting – we could all get beaten up by the Stazi 🙂

        1. The Kalergi Plan which many people believe the Sunak – WEF administration is broadly following involves reducing the population so if that’s true reducing the food supply looks logical.

          So does a mass vaccination campaign with dangerous ”vaccines”. Just in my own social circle, I know of three people who very tragically have died long before their time of pancreatic cancer and two others of cardiac arrest and one other aged 28 developed myocarditis which started soon after having the jab.

        2. You also need warm weather for a revolution (July 4th, July 14th). I expect we’ll have a lousy summer 🙁

    3. They have been trying to break Brexit ever since we uppity peasants voted the wrong way. I see Ed Davey is calling for more “government investment” for agriculture. Fewer regulations and less greenery would be far better than pouring taxpayers’ cash into the situation.

  49. 386509+ up ticks,

    currently it is hard to separate left from right I tend to view it as right and wrong.
    I also see it as their side is supported by 48 % of the nations voters.

  50. 386509+ up ticks,

    Afternoon FM,
    Regardless of illegals the civil war is to sort out the internal / treacherously infernal political top rankers.

    I see now no other option.

  51. Now we’re in Month Five of the disappearance of Kate Middleton. There’s been no sighting of her since Christmas Day when she looked in perfect health. The pics and bench video were faked.

    At a school a few days ago, William said of Kate ”She would have loved to be here”.

    ”Would have loved”.

    Shouldn’t that be ”would love to be here”?

    1. Slip of the tongue, one assumes. You don’t tend to think of tense when dealing with folk.

      1. Sounds like he knows she isn’t coming back, imho, and made a mistake.

        ” She would have loved to do something” is what you say about someone who isn’t with us anymore.

      2. I do. Adjectives must agree with nouns, so every word spoken needs thought about.

          2. Ww used that quote when working on geriatric wards when doing a ‘toilet round’.
            “To pee or not to pee…”

    2. Is she incarcerated? Or worse, dead in a way that cannot be explained, such as covid vaccine?

      1. It’s looking that way, imho. Let’s see what happens. I think William has accidentally given the game away with “would have” instead of “would”. Maybe it’s the vax, maybe worse, but if something untoward has happened they want to cover up, we’ll probably never know for sure.

        I do hope I’m wrong about this.

          1. I remember Mo Mowlam keeping her cancer diagnosis secret when she was Northern Ireland Secretary negotiating an end to the Troubles. There were all sorts of comments made in the press about her weight gain, so eventually she was outed as a cancer sufferer. During particularly trying negotiations, in exasperation, she tore off her wig and threw it at Gerry Adams. It was a fearsome sight as she glowered, completely bald, and it shut everyone up.

            My guess is that the Princess has lost her beautiful hair during chemo, and is very depressed about it, and really quite nervous about going out in public. It may be Michael and Carole Middleton holding the family together right now. If so, then they deserve some sort of honours recognition for service to the Monarchy. An earldom is long overdue, I think.

            We’ll know the truth come Wimbledon, where the Princess of Wales is Patron of the All England Tennis Club.

  53. BBC could get more funding to project ‘UK’s values across the world’. 27 April 2024.

    An inquiry has been launched to decide whether the BBC should receive more government funding to help project “UK’s values across the world”.

    The broadcaster’s World Service receives more than £100 million in funding from the Foreign Office, but Tim Davie, the director-general, has warned that the service “needs help”.

    An inquiry has been called to establish whether the BBC needs more financial help from the Government to project UK values and soft power.

    The BBC knows nothing of British Values!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/26/bbc-could-get-more-funding-to-project-uk-values-world/

    1. The BBC has a very full understanding of “British Values”.
      They use that understanding to undermine them wherever and whenever they can.

    2. “BBC could get more funding to project ‘UK’s values government propaganda across the world’”

      You just cannot get decent copy editors these days. Must I do everything myself?

    3. Take a look at the grants awarded spreadsheet on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation website. It’s quite an eye opener.

    4. What values? Open borders, give every useless fucker who rocks up uninvited the kind of bennies that those that work hard and pay tax could only dream of? Those values?

  54. Next up from the commie-woo-woo psychopaths in control of everything from the Civil Service to the Boy Scouts..
    “banning chanting from the terraces in unison in a stadium environment..”.. oh dear..
    to combat the abhorrent behaviour by football-supporting men who perpetuate misogynistic, abusive and disgusting behaviour on the terraces of football clubs today.

    Apparently, minorities, such as the multi-millionaire wives of ball-botherers©(JB) demand protection from “apex predators & alpha males”.

    1. Not the fans they should be watching but the footballers. So many of them seem to be rapists.

      1. Perks of the job, Phizzee! The tattooed tramps fling themselves at them! Then cry ‘rape’ afterwards!

  55. US intelligence believes Putin probably didn’t order Navalny to be killed. 27 April 2024.

    LONDON, April 27 (Reuters) – U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably didn’t order opposition politician Alexei Navalny killed at an Arctic prison camp in February, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

    Navalny, 47 when he died, was Putin’s fiercest domestic critic. His allies, branded extremists by the authorities, accused Putin of having him murdered and have said they will provide proof to back their allegation.

    I have never thought that he did. I don’t believe any of the other stories either.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-intelligence-believes-putin-probably-didnt-order-navalny-be-killed-wsj-2024-04-27/

    1. Just the West using any excuse possible to goad the gullible into supporting a demand for WWlll.

    2. Oh come on. It is very well known that Navalny shot himself in the back of the head.

  56. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f8e501f63ae9c6fdd32b11eba53110e1425d477dc992e3f477fb369e16990ca.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ee9db230656f15a09e7cd3284c09e2f9227d89e0d9552a8cc52fee085e39bc6.jpg Precisely 60 years ago today, 27 April 1964, my maths/RE teacher, Colin ‘Plug’ Davis, individually handed out the names and addresses of a few Swedish schoolgirls, to a number of boys at my school who had requested one, in order for us to commence a penfriendship with our respective allotted schoolgirl.

    I had just turned 13 and I was given the address of this young girl, who was a few months short of being 13. I wrote the first letter in class, enclosing a photograph, and it was posted off that evening. A few weeks later I received my first reply, including photograph, from the girl I had written to, consequently Ingegerd and I commenced a correspondence that lasted for over three years, right up until we both left school and started work. I don’t know exactly why but our correspondence stopped at that time.

    35 years after that, in January 2002, I was sitting in a closed Norwich Airport one night accompanied by a young Swedish chap. Ola was an aircraft engineer who was awaiting a spare aircraft component that he wished to fit into an aircraft, which was parked out on the apron, so that it could return to service the following day. As we sat, drinking coffee and chatting, I told him about my old penfriend from the 1960s and said that I’d love to find out how her life had spanned out. He asked me if I could still remember the address where I used to write to her. I told him it was a farm so probably still in the same family and I could remember the address clearly. He took it and when I next saw Ola, around a month later, he handed me a piece of paper he had obtained from the internet. On it was the name of the chap who ran the farm: he had the same surname.

    The next day I wrote an introductory letter to the man at that address and asked if he knew Ingegerd and, if so, would he be kind enough to pass on another — enclosed — letter that I’d written to her. In that enclosed letter I told her about my life and asked if she would like to tell me about hers. I mentioned that I did not expect a reply but just stated that I had always enjoyed our previous correspondence during our teenage years.

    When I received a reply a few weeks later I was overwhelmed. It turned out that Ingegerd and I had enjoyed almost parallel lives in most areas. Both of us had been in a couple of longish relationships and neither of us had become parents. We also liked and enjoyed similar interests. We continued to write for a whole year — no telephone calls, no emails, no texts — before we decided to meet in person for the first time. I travelled to Sweden and we met up in Stockholm and simply chatted and chatted for two whole days. We then saw each other as often as we could for a number of years until, in 2011, I moved permanently to Sweden.

    On 27 April 2004, 40 years since we first corresponded, Inge and I enjoyed a lovely supper at Morston Hall in North Norfolk, where we met, and had a sumptuous meal cooked by the chef-patron, Galton Blackiston.

    Tomorrow night (a day late) we will celebrate our 60 years since getting in touch by having a supper at a local restaurant, Hickory, in nearby Simrishamn, a place we are familiar with and which provides excellent cuisine.

    [BTW: The chap I wrote to at the farm is Bertil, Inge’s younger brother, who took over the running of the farm after their father retired. He is now a very good friend in his own right. His hobby is importing classic American 1950s–1960s Ford cars from the USA, restoring them in his large garage at the farm (he also operates a car repair service), before selling them.]

    60 years! I can’t believe where the time has gone.

        1. Thank you both. My Swedish was never that good, despite my marriage to Birgitta for 13 years.

        1. I’m a woman Grizzly, and yes I’m from the north. City of Salford born and bred!

          1. Welcome to the forum, NL. I’m from Chesterfield.
            I have a nephew who works at BBC Media City at Salford as a production assistant.

    3. 🎵 Where do I begin

      To tell the story of how great a love can be

      The sweet love story that is older than the sea

      The simple truth about the love she brings to me

      Where do I start

      With her first hello

      She gave new meaning to this empty world of mine

      There’d never be another love, another time

      She came into my life and made the living fine

      She fills my heart

      She fills my heart with very special things

      With angels’ songs, with wild imaginings

      She fills my soul with so much love

      That anywhere I go I’m never lonely

      With her around, who could be lonely

      I reach for her hand, it’s always there

      How long does it last

      Can love be measured by the hours in a day

      I have no answers now but this much I can say

      I know I’ll need her ’til the stars all burn away

      And she’ll be there

      How long does it last

      Can love be measured by the hours in a day

      I have no answers now but this much I can say

      I know I’ll need her ’til the stars all burn away

      And she’ll be there 🎵

    4. Well done to you both.
      A real tale of what goes around comes around, long may it last.

    5. What a lovely story. I had a French pen-friend, Jöelle, in Metz. I wrote her in French, she to me in English and we corrected each others language. We met just once but sadly it did not survive school years.

    7. A lovely story, Grizz…. I hope that you and she have many more years together.

        3. In the photo of you without a beard and wearing a blue tie you are the spitting image of my French teacher at school. He was called Buzz Gettins – Buzz because he used to play rugby for the Wasps.

          1. Oh, if I’d only had the opportunity of attending a school that taught languages and played rugby. I’d be a lot less of a misery guts 🤣.

            Thanks, Richard. 😊

          3. I can grunt a few phrases in Swedish, sometimes enough to make me understood, but I shall never be able to decipher the local Skånsk dialect; it is even less understandable than my old Uncle Dave who hailed from Fife. I never understood a word he said.

        4. Thanks, Grizz. It was a pleasure to read your heart warming story and to see the images of you both. Am I correct in thinking that the one of you in a suit, shirt and tie would be unusual in more recent years? I recollect you saying that you rarely dress formally nowadays. Regardless, you scrub up well, as those who describe smartness often put it these days.

          1. I put that suit on for my Swedish passport photo. I’ve owned it for 25 years and I’ve only recently been able to get into it again. 99·9% of the time I wear a suit I wear a crew-necked or polo-necked shirt with it. I utterly hate stiff collars.

            Thanks, Stig.😊

        5. Probably wrong but you looked healthier when you had a bit more fat on you.

          *pinches grizz’s chubby cheeks…

          1. I bet some don’t agree. I was chubbier through eating foods containing weeds, sugar and seed oils without realising it. Since I kicked that crap into touch I am physically stronger, mentally sharper, and sleep better.

            It’s also now over 40 years that I kicked smoking into touch.

          2. Just thought you could do with a bit of collagen, that’s all !!!

            I have been smoking since 11 years old. Now 30 a day. £20 ! The only thing that ever worked was Champix. for the first time in my life i was six weeks free. Then they withdrew it.

        7. Wonderful photos, Grizzly. And an amazing story about how you met up again with Inge.

    9. What a wonderful and inspiring story, Mr. Grizz! Best wishes and congratulations to you both, and may you have a fabulous evening!🥂🌹

    10. Wonderful. I had a Swedish penfriend – his name was Tommy. Wonder what happened to him, and the others – some I remember and some I don’t.

    12. Thanks for sharing Grizz. I hope you both go on and on. Very best regards to both of you.

    14. That is really very touching. What a wonderful outcome.
      I had a Chinese penfriend in Singapore.
      The letters used to take 6 weeks to reach our homes.

    15. Hi, Grizz, a lovely story.

      Your post took me back almost four years and I went and found the e-mail that you sent me. I will be forever grateful for your kind words and thoughts back then.

      Best wishes to you and Ingegerd.

    16. Amazing story! Brought back memories from my own pen-friend from Stockholm, we exchanged letters for about three years in the early 60’s. I still have some of the presents he sent me for birthdays and Christmas, but have found no trace of him through Internet searches. Congratulations to you both and enjoy many more years together!!

    17. Love it Grizz, always wondered about the other element in your life but would never ask! I think relationships when older can be easier as, with luck, much financial stress is left behind and any children have hopefully left. I remarried in 2009 and its just too much trouble to start arguments these days!

  57. When it comes to Useless Yousaf, the SNP and Scottish politicians in general I like to employ one of Sp¡ked’s favourite adjectives: midwits.

  58. This is nothing more than political virtue signalling by British politicians, there is absolutely no need whatsoever for British soldiers to be used in this way. It is nothing more than political ego massaging.

    “British troops could be sent to Gaza to help US deliver aid. Pentagon has confirmed that construction of a temporary pier has begun, designed to speed up humanitarian aid into Gaza as famine looms.

    The Government is reportedly considering sending British troops to Gaza to help deliver aid once the US finishes building a new sea route into the besieged territory. The Pentagon on Friday confirmed that construction of the temporary pier, designed to speed up humanitarian aid into Gaza as famine looms, had begun and operations will begin in early May. In a briefing with journalists, a senior US military official emphasised that no American troops would be ashore and that nationals from an unnamed “third country” would drive the trucks along the 500-metre floating causeway to a secure area on the beach. “We have a third party who will be driving the trucks down the pier,” the official said. “Just a point of emphasis, there will be no US military boots on the ground. So, a third party is driving those trucks.” While refusing to name which country would supply the drivers, he made clear it would be carried out by a “significant partner.” The UK is considering sending British troops to fulfil the task, the BBC reported, but no decision has been made.”

    My emphasis.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/27/british-troops-gaza-deliver-aid-starving-palestinians/

    1. Most up-ticked BTL so far – Just
      to make this point very clear to everyone. If you are tickling your
      partner with a feather that is indeed kinky. If you are using the whole
      chicken you really need to go and see someone

      1. Harold Pinter made fun of the expression going the whole hog sexually or being happy only going part of the hog in his play “The Homecoming.”

    2. This has been stolen from John Betjeman’s verse autobiography Summoned By Bells

      “Do you tickle your arse with a feather, Mr Purdick?”
      “What?”
      “Particularly nasty weather, Mr Purdick!”
      “Oh.”

      This part of the work is from the section describing Betjeman’s schooldays at Marlborough which the poet hated because he was not very good at games himself even though he pruriently rather admired athletic people. Remember his poem about Mis Joan Hunter Dunne. He seems to have preferred to be in a subordinate role as far as sexual relationships were concerned.

      1. He was obviously besotted with her.

        A Subaltern’s Love Song
        by John Betjeman

        Miss J.Hunter Dunn, Miss J.Hunter Dunn,
        Furnish’d and burnish’d by Aldershot sun,
        What strenuous singles we played after tea,
        We in the tournament; you against me!

        Love-thirty, love-forty, oh! weakness of joy,
        The speed of a swallow, the grace of a boy,
        With carefullest carelessness, gaily you won,
        I am weak from your loveliness, Joan Hunter Dunn

        Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
        How mad I am, sad I am, glad that you won,
        The warm-handled racket is back in its press,
        But my shock-headed victor, she loves me no less.

        Her father’s euonymus shines as we walk,
        And swing past the summer-house, buried in talk,
        And cool the verandah that welcomes us in
        To the six-o’clock news and a lime-juice and gin.

        The scent of the conifers, sound of the bath,
        The view from my bedroom of moss-dappled path,
        As I struggle with double-end evening tie,
        For we dance at the Golf Club, my victor and I.

        On the floor of her bedroom lie blazer and shorts,
        And the cream-coloured walls are be-trophied with sports,
        And westering, questioning settles the sun,
        On your low-leaded window, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

        The Hillman is waiting, the light’s in the hall,
        The pictures of Egypt are bright on the wall,
        My sweet, I am standing beside the oak stair
        And there on the landing’s the light on your hair.

        By roads “not adopted”, by woodlanded ways,
        She drove to the club in the late summer haze,
        Into nine-o’clock Camberley, heavy with bells
        And mushroomy, pine-woody, evergreen smells.

        Miss Joan Hunter Dunn, Miss Joan Hunter Dunn,
        I can hear from the car park the dance has begun,
        Oh! Surry twilight! importunate band!
        Oh! strongly adorable tennis-girl’s hand!

        Around us are Rovers and Austins afar,
        Above us the intimate roof of the car,
        And here on my right is the girl of my choice,
        With the tilt of her nose and the chime of her voice.

        And the scent of her wrap, and the words never said,
        And the ominous, ominous dancing ahead.
        We sat in the car park till twenty to one
        And now I’m engaged to Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

        He was never engaged to her and she married someone else.

  60. Definite sign of spring: the seaplanes have just returned to the seaplane harbour. The geese were back a week ago. Looking good!

    1. Forecast to warm up a little from Wednesday, which is good because my central heating will go off on 1st May whatever the weather. I have all the windows open now. All bar the bathroom will be shut next week. (No extractor fan in the bathroom, just a useless grid set into the wall when it was built in 1935.)

  61. Inlaws phoned SWMBO whilst we were out shopping. Announced they took ANOTHER covid vaccine – seems about one a month! Crikey!

    2. Strange position for a slide and that bent panel was held in place by screws from the look of it. It’s all wrong

    2. He says I may call him Al so here is another one of his songs.

      https://www.google.com/search?q=Paul+Simon+You+Can+Call+Me+Al&sca_esv=b5f6560b0f349675&sca_upv=1&biw=1280&bih=635&ei=yPssZry4KPSmkdUPg_2q0Ak&ved=0ahUKEwi8vKqnvuKFAxV0U6QEHYO-CpoQ4dUDCBA&oq=Paul+Simon+You+Can+Call+Me+Al&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHVBhdWwgU2ltb24gWW91IENhbiBDYWxsIE1lIEFsSABQAFgAcAB4AZABAJgBAKABAKoBALgBDMgBAJgCAKACAJgDAJIHAKAHAA&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b0b712b3,vid:TjGWcQY5YqU,st:0

    1. Reform are stuffed. If they get 1 under half the tory vote in every constituency they won’t get a single MP.

      This is fanatically unfair of course, but it’s how the system works. Too many people are entrenched and will vote Tory because it’s not Labour. Some few will vote for ‘that nice little foreign boy’. Others will vote Labour because they are mindless fools who haven’t worked since the 80’s. Others for that Kevn bloke with the hair because he’s been a lawyer and isn’t like that posh rich boy.

      The ignorant and stupid get the same vote as the informed and educated and there are a lot more of them than us.

      One thing that I will guarantee: the economy will continue to decline, people will get poorer, the state will waste more money, taxes will rise, the pound will buy less, crime will increase, laws will proliferate until the printing press explodes and absolutely nothing – nothing – will improve. Everything will be worse this time next year.

      1. Unless something dramatic happens democracy is dead.

        The SDP with Woy Jenkins, Shirley Williams, David Owen and Bill Rodgers said they were going to break the mould and they completely failed to do so even though all four were prominent members of the Labour Party.

        Richard Tice needs to get a good team around him (e.g.s Rees-Mogg, Frost, Braverman, and Redwood) or he will fail and won’t make any headway.

        Somebody lucid and clear-headed needs to explain to the gullible and deceived Conservative Party voters that their party is dead.

        1. A vote cast for the Conservative Party is now certainly a vote wasted

          When I ran as a candidate for the Apathetic Party in the Students’ Union presidential elections at UEA in 1968 my slogan was:

          Remember – a Vote Cast is a Vote Wasted

          Most people did not bother to vote so I claimed the moral victory.

        2. Yep, democracy is the prize. That’s what’s being undermined and quite cynically.

      2. Now here’s a thing. My constituency, in its various forms, has returned a Tory MP in every GE since 1906. The Tories have, at least in my experience, and probably always, secured an absolute majority of votes cast. So why does anybody bother voting for any other party? Come to that, why do even Tories bother to vote, knowing that their man is a certain to win? (Full disclosure: I came second in 2015.)

        1. Leading logically to the obvious question… why then did you make the effort to stand in the first place…?

          Still, we all do it; bang on closed doors that is. In the end revolution has to begin somewhere.

        2. My constituency had returned a Con MP with only one blip (when it went Lib at the beginning of the 20th century) since it was created. We now have a Lib Dem MP.

    3. I rather enjoy the game.
      I reread the removed comment and pick on the word(s) that I think have given the censors conniptions.
      Or reassemble the word order; spaces and look-alike symbols/letters/numbers are also evil aids to beating the bots.
      I win!

      1. I had an absolute cracker this morning! I think it was removed because of the word ‘nuts’! Nuts!

      2. Sigh ,

        You are the brightest spark in the universe Anne , and I especially love your word of the week … CONNIPTIONS.. it sounds perfect .

    4. There is hardly a Canadian news site that allows comments any more and when comments are allowed, they get closed down after maybe a dozen or so.

      We went through a phase where censors were blocking comments based on content – you couldn’t use Trudeau and idiot in the same comment for example (which is what most sensible people would say), then we had a spell where trigger words had to be mangled making idi yot true dough.acceptable.

      Now though, comments are basically turned off.

    5. I am black listed by the DT, have been for the past 4 years, and the Times also blacklisted me as well..

      Newspapers show their allegiance to their political pals and the Royal family .

      My beef was a scathing remark about the Sussexes .. wondering whether the pregnancies were real ..

      I was also pretty mean commenting about the ignorant wassocks who were paying France huge amounts of money to keep the boat people on their beaches , yet allowing the RNLI to swoop and scoop in the Channel with the aid of the RN.

      Over 7,000 illegals who chuck their papers overboard , have landed on the beaches so far this year.

      Newspapers cannot cope with criticism from little people like me giving them a poke

  65. “The Scottish people have been badly let down by their inept, dysfunctional leaders.”

    That they keep voting for.

    1. We are effectively disenfranchised up here, thanks to Satan Bliar, and one-eyed Broon.

      1. Indeed Sue.
        I personally believe the whole purpose was to actually encourage disunity between the constituent parts of the United Kingdom, leading to its breakup and absorption into the Greater Germanic Economic Support Zone.

        1. Those were the orders, eh? Well Bliar certainly received them loud and clear! Remember blinky Broon shovelling Navy contracts in Scotlands direction?

          1. I remember them well, and the dismay of most senior officers who would have much preferred another half dozen frigates/destroyers bought with the money.

          2. Well, the comeuppance has come up! We passed the Ferguson Marine yard on Monday, and there was the long awaited Glen Rosa, launched the week before, 2+ years late and gazillions over budget, back in dock awaiting sea trials!! She’ll miss the summer tourism season! Unbelievable..nay criminal!

          1. He was as ever correct.
            You can also apply that strategy to Prescott’s Regional Assemblies, designed to break up England.

    2. Why are so many people in politics such horrible, even vile arrogant bastards?
      They seem to have so much hate running through their veins.
      And absolute greed filling their arteries. Most of them are habitual and pathological liars as well.
      Why ?

      1. Politics is the natural home for failed double glazing salesmen, Timeshare touts and traffic wardens.

    4. Why pick on Scotland, does any country have anything but inept dysfunctional leaders?

        1. A much better country than UK. Run by a benevolent dictatorship. I’ve worked there.

          1. The local who put me up after I had my appendix out in Changi said that Singapore is a fine city. There’s little you cannot get fined for.

          2. Sorry, typical left-wing comment. At least Singapore sorted out your health problem.

          3. It came from a local. It’s not just the British that make jokes about their government.

            Changi General Hospital was superb. The only thing I marked them down on was not their fault. The medication they gave me made everything taste of battery acid! Such a pity, since I was looking forward to that plate of fruit salad after three days on very watery chicken soup. They are very touchy about fever though, since Dengue Fever and Bird Flu was rife then. I had to explain to them that where I had just come from, it was 15ºC inside and 5º outside. In Singapore, it was 25º inside and 35º outside. I was just hot. They turned up the aircon, bringing the ward temperature to 20º, which was fine for me, but the others grumbled that it was too cold.

            Changi Airport is the best in the world. When I filled in their Customer Survey, I wrote that the worst thing about their airport was the thought that in sixteen hours I would be in Heathrow.

            Children in Singapore have no concept that snow is cold. At Christmas, they have artificial snow blowing in the squares for children to play in, dressed in swimming costumes.

        2. Nice golf course on sentosa as well but Singapore is a bit crowded and regimented for me.

  66. HMS Redmill (K 554).
    Frigate (Captain).

    Complement:
    186 men (32 dead and 154 survivors).

    On 27th April 1945, U-1105 (Hans-Joachim Schwarz) detected three British frigates about 25 miles west of Mayo, which were part of the 2nd Division of the 21st Escort Group.

    The U-boat fired two Gnats and dived to 100 meters to escape the counterattack but sank to the bottom at 570ft, and afterwards remained motionless. The first torpedo hit HMS Redmill (K 554) (Lt J.R.A. Denne, RN) after 50 seconds, followed by the second moments later. The ship was badly damaged but remained afloat, assisted by HMS Rupert (K 561) (Lt P.C.S. Black, RN). Ships and aircraft of the 21st Escort Group searched for the U-boat over the next 31 hours without success. On 4th May the Germans surrendered – to the same group which had failed to find her the week before.
    HMS Redmill (K 554) lost about 60 feet from her stern, was towed to Lisahally and declared a total loss. On 20th January 1947, the hulk was returned to the US Navy and on 4th February sold for scrap to Athens Piraeus Electricity Co Ltd, Athens.

    Type VIIC/41 U-Boat U-1105 surrendered at Loch Eriboll, Scotland on 10th May 1945.

    Post war information:
    Used for trials by the Royal Navy as N-16 between July 1945 and November 1945. Transferred to the US Navy in December 1945, arriving at Portsmouth Navy Yard, NH on 2nd January 1946. Sunk on 29th September 1948 in Chesapeake Bay in the first of two depth charge tests. Raised on 18th August 1949 and towed to the Potomac River. Sunk in a second depth charge test on 19th September 1949 off Piney Point in the Potomac River, MD.
    Re-discovered on 29th June 1985. The boat lies in 91 feet deep water. The U-1105 site is one mile west of Piney Point, Maryland. This is now a Maryland historic shipwreck preserve dive site.

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

  67. Rageh Omaar receiving medical care after becoming unwell live on air
    The ITV News at Ten presenter appeared to struggle while reading the autocue and stumbled over his words during the programme’s final report

    Rageh Omaar is “receiving medical care” after becoming “unwell” live on air while presenting last night’s ITV News at Ten, the television channel has said.

    Omaar, the ITV News international affairs editor who is also one of the programme’s anchors, appeared to be struggling to read the news bulletins while reading the autocue and stumbling over his words.

    Clips of the broadcast posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, show Omaar, 56, struggling at the start of the show and while introducing the final news segment. Omaar stayed on air for the full broadcast.

    After the final report Omaar again stumbled on his words while he said “thank you and have a great weekend” at the end of the programme.

    He appears to be a decent bloke .. I hope he is being looked after .

    The incident prompted widespread concern on social media and some people have criticised ITV for not getting him off air more quickly.

    1. He looked as if he might have been suffering from a stroke, his left eyelid appeared to be very droopy.

  68. We had a wonderful walk along the cliff top paths at Rocha Brava earlier. More than 90 steps down to the beach for our coffee. But slighly in land, a long slope back up which was easier.
    Had to have a much needed and recuperative afternoon nap. We met a very friendly couple from Sweden on the walk. We were attracted by their beautiful black labrador. They live on the Silver Coast of Portugal.
    All this walking is good training for visiting our many local pubs this summer……if it ever happens. To end the day nice meal out this evening.

    1. Lovely looking family. Carrie gets about a bit…does Boris know?
      Sorry! Being flippant about a well-written piece.

  71. Given the revolution has turned everyone but the elites into wage slaves i see the return of the Sun King as a force for good.

  72. What this process is intended to achieve is to erase the past so that a “new man” may emerge.

    This has always been the Marxist dream. It has cost millions of lives and is no nearer now!

  74. Government exists on the principle of pain today because “our policies will produce jam tomorrow”. They conveniently forget the mess we are in today has been created by previous versions of this policy, the jam never arrives. Look at every policy espoused by Government, irrespective of colour.

    Net Zero – green taxes ad nauseum “to save the future of the planet”
    Austerity – tax to the hilt today to pay down government debt “for a better future”

    Ad infinitum.

    So irrespective of who you vote for, the result for ordinary taxpayers will be the same.

  75. Government exists on the principle of pain today because “our policies will produce jam tomorrow”. They conveniently forget the mess we are in today has been created by previous versions of this policy, the jam never arrives. Look at every policy espoused by Government, irrespective of colour.

    Net Zero – green taxes ad nauseum “to save the future of the planet”
    Austerity – tax to the hilt today to pay down government debt “for a better future”

    Ad infinitum.

    So irrespective of who you vote for, the result for ordinary taxpayers will be the same.

    1. She has a very interesting colour fur, looks like she has a dark fringe haircut.

      1. She’s a boy! Mind you, not a very brave one …. in fact, the complete scaredy-cat …. but a great bee and mouse catcher …. loves sleeping in the day and going out at dusk. Fascinated by rain …. Will often come in soaked …

    2. She doesn’t like her name being posted….I expect she is very busy in the garden – as many of us are!

    3. She is ok, she is involved with other projects at the moment. She commented earlier this week.

  79. Kaboom!!! A massive thunderstorm is directly overhead and the rain/hail is falling in sheets..

    TV Reception has gone down, so no England France to watch..

      1. Line speeds here are far too slow to get anything live worth watching.

        It’s reappeared and it’s a very good game.
        It’s interesting that the French women play in such a similar way to their men.

        1. The French girl who ran down their right wing should have been tackled into touch. I see that the modern standard putting the ball into the second row is alive and well!

          1. True, but her slight step in “stood up” the England forward, which created the hand-off opportunity. She was a very good runner.

  80. Has it been reported on this forum yet that Mike Pinder, keyboard player and one of the founder members of The Moody Blues, died yesterday?

    RIP Mike Pinder.

    2. 26 April 2024
      Mike Pinder, one of the founders of The Moody Blues, has died at the age of 82.

      The rock band, famous for hits such as Nights In White Satin and Tuesday Afternoon, formed in Birmingham in 1964, with a line-up of keyboardist Pinder along with Ray Thomas, Denny Laine, Graeme Edge and Clint Warwick.

      Speaking on Facebook on behalf of the late musician’s family, former band member John Lodge said Pinder died on Wednesday at his home in California.

      American musician and Beach Boy Al Jardine stated on Instagram he would always remember the keyboardist as a “great cosmic philosopher”.

      Birmingham-born Pinder contributed to The Moody Blues’ music during the 1960s and 1970s, including their first album The Magnificent Moodies.

      Pinder left during the 1970s and released solo albums The Promise in 1976 and 1994’s Among The Stars.

      The band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crgyjednyxno

  81. Tickets for Labour conference ‘business day’ sold out in hours
    Glastonbury-style rush sees attendees pay £3,000 a shot with capacity more than double last year’s event

  82. Just in from two miserable hours pretending to “enjoy” gardening. Cold, north wind grey skies threatening rain. More of the same tomorrow. Have you noticed – it is always “jam” (= decent warm weather) tomorrow…?

        1. Send her out to do the gardening, Bill, and tell her you are making a great sacrifice by staying indoors and looking after Gus and Pickle. Lol.

    2. Went out shopping. Need new trousers, but have lost a bit of weight. SWMBO insisted I try on new trousers, so that ended the trouser shopping. I hate trying on clothes – shoes off, old trousers off, pick up all the pocket contents from the floor, try on new trousers, find some wazzock has left a pin in the leg… take off new trousers, put on own trousers, pick up pocket contents from the floor, zip up, belt up, shoes on, back out into shop. What a faff! SWMBO with a face like thunder, since girls love all that dressing-up stuff that I hate.
      Resul – no new trousers & grumpy wife.
      :-((

      2. Measure a pair of trousers that fits you. Measure trousers in shop. Buy pair whose measurements match.

    3. Don’t know what you are complaining about, you’ve got a greenhouse to potter in! It’ll improve soon – Europe is basking in warm sunshine.

  83. We’re off to our local theatre shortly.

    English touring Opera are performing Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. In the review of an earlier performance I saw – it seems the singing was ggreat but they didn’t care for the production. So we’ll see. We’re having an early dinner at the theatre to start with.
    This was my Christmas present to us both.

    2. Should be lots of Puccini this year. He died in 1924. The Proms programme seems to be ignoring that.

    3. I had to study Manon Lescaut (Abbe Prevost) for A Level. I hope the opera is more interesting than the book!

      1. The plot is dire, the production “a surreal nightmare” according to the director’s notes in the programme; but the singing was excellent and the music great.

  84. OT. Does any NoTTLer with access to teenage males know what the new style of haircut – with the front part of the hair projected horizontally over the forehead – is called?

    1. Don’t know but one of the young gt nephews last weekend had a strange do. Very full in front.

    2. I always knew it as a combover, but a Donald might be more up-to-date.

      When I was a teenager, I never regarded septagenerians as role models, but times change!

    3. I think it’s called an undercut! Our SiL’s son from previous marriage has one!

      1. It is quite different from a fringe. It is as though the front hair has been flattened so as to stick out parallel with the ground. Bizarre – but increasingly common. One of the poor lads who was slain by the “confused” slammer had such a haircut. I was at a funeral a couple of months ago where the dead man’s grandsons all had such an hairdo. Weird.

  85. My rubbish Bogey Five

    Wordle 1,043 5/6
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Dull par.

      Wordle 1,043 4/6

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

      1. Par boring but acceptable

        Wordle 1,043 4/6

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

        1. Same here.
          Wordle 1,043 4/6

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

    2. Lots of choices.

      Wordle 1,043 5/6

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

      1. A 6 – phew! Too many choices.
        ETA:
        Wordle 1,043 6/6

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

      2. A 6 – phew! Too many choices.
        ETA:
        Wordle 1,043 6/6

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

    2. Ha ha we are sitting in the sunshine having a glass of before going out to dinner.
      Just about to sod off.
      I’d get me jacket but I don’t need one 🤗

  87. Moh upset , Southampton big football fail and have had three defeats recently .

    To me it’s only a silly game , but Moh has been following them since he was a young lad when he used to go to the match with his father ..

    During the football season , life is very up and down in this household.

    Moh bought an Amazon Alexa gadget this morning , has anyone else any experience with the thing , is it a spy in the sky ?

    1. We have a Google thing! It listens to you! Wait ‘til you see what adverts come up on your PC!

      2. Stop Alexa Spying on you

        True Belle, Kaypea, Bob3, Rob232, Phizzee, Sue Edison, SirJasper, listen up:

        From 1982 to 1994 I was managing a team of 15 Software Analysts/Programmers who were developing highly specialised programs and databases for an agrochemical research lab. Users would phone up regularly to ask how to do things and I would occasionally hear the expression: “RTFM!“. This stands for Read The F***ing Manual.

        There is not much of a Manual supplied with Amazon Alexa devices, but If you don’t want your Alexa device to listen to you, you can

        1. Use the MUTE button to disable the microphone on your device. A red light will indicate that Alexa is not listening. You have to press Mute again afterwards, but that’ll be obvious because Alexa will have stopped responding to any of your calls.

        2. If your device has one, disable the camera when not needed, especially on devices with screens

        3. Delete your Alexa voice history and review your privacy settings to manage how your voice data is handled

        4. Switch off the Drop-In feature, which allows other Alexa users to contact you without your permission

        5. Unplug your device when not in use, to ensure Alexa and Amazon are not snooping on you

        The above list was generated in response to my Googling: “Alexa turn off spying on me” (or asking “how to stop Alexa from spying on you”). If you want more information on any of these solutions, there’s always Google.

        Self Help. Simples.

        EDIT: Sorry, I was being far too smug and flippant there. Option 3 above (which I use) is best. If you also have the Alexa app, go to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data and take it from there. Lots of Options.

        2. So are you able to confirm that it doesn’t listen to you if turned “off”. Spose you could always ask Alexa!

        3. What Kaypea said. What’s the guarantee that Alexa isn’t listening and passing on data when it’s supposedly switched off?

      3. Stop Alexa Spying on you

        True Belle, Kaypea, Bob3, Rob232, Phizzee, Sue Edison, SirJasper, listen up:

        From 1982 to 1994 I was managing a team of 15 Software Analysts/Programmers who were developing highly specialised programs and databases for an agrochemical research lab. Users would phone up regularly to ask how to do things and I would occasionally hear the expression: “RTFM!“. This stands for Read The F***ing Manual.

        There is not much of a Manual supplied with Amazon Alexa devices, but If you don’t want your Alexa device to listen to you, you can

        1. Use the MUTE button to disable the microphone on your device. A red light will indicate that Alexa is not listening. You have to press Mute again afterwards, but that’ll be obvious because Alexa will have stopped responding to any of your calls.

        2. If your device has one, disable the camera when not needed, especially on devices with screens

        3. Delete your Alexa voice history and review your privacy settings to manage how your voice data is handled

        4. Switch off the Drop-In feature, which allows other Alexa users to contact you without your permission

        5. Unplug your device when not in use, to ensure Alexa and Amazon are not snooping on you

        The above list was generated in response to my Googling: “Alexa turn off spying on me” (or asking “how to stop Alexa from spying on you”). If you want more information on any of these solutions, there’s always Google.

        Self Help. Simples.

        EDIT: Sorry, I was being far too smug and flippant there. Option 3 above (which I use) is best. If you also have the Alexa app, go to Settings > Alexa Privacy > Manage Your Alexa Data and take it from there. Lots of Options.

    3. My niece and her husband have one. Their two little boys (age 5 and 8, I think) delight in giving Alexa commands and being generally disruptive.

    4. Oh dear oh dear oh dear….And there is my friend and neighbour next door on cloud nine lifelong PFC member because for the first time in years Pompey has been promoted. If you want a quiet evening don’t tell your husband what i just posted !!!

    5. It was a Christmas present a few years ago. My daughter has one which controls the lights, the TV, the blinds on the windows. Plays music, tells the children stories.
      We’ve never used it very much. Ask about the weather principally. Any information available on the Internet, you can ask Alexa. The grandchildren inadvertently subscribed us to a music channel once.
      Is it a spy in your living room? We sometimes think so. Mention her name accidentally and she’ll suddenly start speaking.

    7. I dont like the idea of a system listening to me in the home, who knows who may be able to listen in given what people can do with the internet. The system itself certainly spies on you as ads will appear on you devices that you have mentioned in conversation.

      1. People who used to live in the old East Germany under constant threat of Stasi surveillance were horrified at the thought of having a device in your home that heard everything you said. They won’t have an Alexa or anything similar.

    8. Sony boy had his whole house plumbed into one of these toys, he could switch lights on and off, control the heating and even unlock the front door from his phone.

      All went well until he tried cooking and had a smoky accident. The Alexa enabled smoke detector detected the smoke and warned us that the alarm would be sounding. Commands to cancel the alarm were met by, we just couldn’t stop it setting off every alarm in the house.

    9. “Standards for technological innovation in my own work. They are as follows:-

      1. The new tool should be cheaper than the one it replaces.
      2. It should be at least as small in scale as the one it replaces.
      3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than the one it replaces.
      4. It should use less energy than the one it replaces.
      5. If possible, it should use some form of solar energy, such as that of the body.
      6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
      7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
      8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that will take it back for maintenance and repair.
      9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.

      Wendell Berry 1987.”

      We could do a lot better than we do at present if even one or two of Wendell Berry’s standards were adopted.

    10. Alexa is programmable by voice command. It can be programmed to lock out other voices. (yours).

    11. It listens and you don’t know what it’s uploading to Amazon. No way would I ever have one of those things in my house. Also, I don’t know what Alexa visitor etiquette is, but it would be polite to warn people if it’s on when they visit you I should think.

    12. It’s a lot of fun, dont worry – I think of amusing things to ask.

      If you say ‘Alexa, open the pod bay doors’ (2001: A Space Odyssey) she says ‘I’m sorry Dave, I cant do that, I’m not Hal’ – excellent!

  88. Tory MP in surprise defection as he joins LABOUR – ‘Can no longer look people in the eye’. 27 ASpril 2024.

    A Conservative MP and former minister has crossed the floor and joined Labour.

    Dr Dan Poulter said he could “no longer look people in the eye” and has called for an immediate general election.

    I’m not surprised. He’s probably where he belonged from the beginning!

    https://www.gbnews.com/politics/dan-poulter-tory-mp-in-surprise-defection-as-he-joins-labour

      2. Packham was “Guest Editor” of last week’s Radio Times – page after page after page of him. I wonder if Radio Times will invite someone of the opposite view to Packham to be a “Guest Editor”.

  90. https://news.sky.com/story/milan-poised-to-ban-ice-cream-pizza-and-more-after-midnight-after-new-proposed-law-13121064#:~:text=Covering%2012%20districts%2C%20the%20proposal,city%2C%20keeping%20local%20residents%20up. Milan Is poised to ban Icecream and Pizza after midnight . To clamp down on noisy groups crowding in the streets keeping local residents up . The mayor Marco Granelli says the goal is to seek balance between socialising and peace and tranquility . I thing Georgia Maloni should have a word with Marco – just because grumpy Italian Mamas want to spoil the fun of midnight Icecream and pizza eaters .

    1. I will have a word with Signora Meloni for you, second only in attractiveness to Audrey Hepburn. 🙂

      1. You have a quiet word with Meloni,hmmm, Is this a good idea 🙂

          1. Good for you, I hope it makes you happy but you lose more 🙂

          2. But you lose the cherry on the cake whilst paffling around like a tart over nothing 🙂 x

          5. Your loss and besides, Audrey is spoken for 🙂 good luck with the fantasy Italian 🙂 good night JD 😉

          7. You should have some sleep to clear your head of what will never be in both cases . 🙂 . Sweet dreams.

      2. You on about the delightful Meloni again, you old goat! I’ll ask her for a signature for you when I see her next week.

          3. I’m actually called Bappa! (I think I’m the only Bappa I’ve ever come across)

          8. More like an old boiler these days PJ – it’s getting to the stage where it hurts when I blink!

          11. Audrey would never be yours. You’d sleep with Angela Rayner for cheap thrills 🙂 Maloni wouldn’t either 🙂

          14. 4G would never go so far as to joke I would sleep with Ange. 🤢
            Some jokes just go too far… ☹️

          15. Don’t be so prissy, JD. Especially in view of your lascivious comments re certain pretty politicians. Sauce for the goose, and all that 🙂

          19. Er ? What does GGG think, it was a joke like you’re having with him unless a nerve was caught 🙂 can’t you joke the same with ladies 🙂
            Oh do lighten up its Saturday evening good night.

          21. Yes, that’s okay. I’d imagine Penny Maudent is more your type anyway, she’s more then an air of a Spartan woman 🙂 Good morning btw .

  91. Spent from 11am to 2pm at the first meeting of Reform UK. We’ve got pamphlets to deliver next Saturday. I knew 6 of the 12 attendees. The SE Cornwall candidate seemed ok. Us volunteers were all basically Nottler minded and you could see the anger about what’s become of our country.

    1. The chap in the black T-shirt seems unable to remember the words, then right at the end gives up even trying. Lol.

          1. Aha! A Danish Viking – a Swedish one will turn up soon 😉 Eric Bloodaxe sounds like a fine Norseman .

          2. Too early. The Vikings rode into York in 866. Wiki says he was Norwegian and born around 895. I recall reading that the York lot were Danes.

          3. Cue:
            “There is nothin’ like a Dane,
            Nothin’ in the world,
            There is nothin’ you can name
            That is anythin’ like a Dane!”

          4. Swedish viking – my ancestor was Egil, king in Sweden, Uppsala in 530 50 generations back.

      1. Hmm, Im sure lots of Nottl vikings will turn up 🙂 Is phizzee a viking too ?

          1. Yes, as far as the Jews are concerned I am Jewish, though was brought up Christian and didn’t even know of my Jewish heritage until I was 25! BTW, do you know why being Jewish passes through the female line? If you do forgive me, but if not, it is because there can always be doubt as to who a baby’s father is but never any doubt as to who its mother is!

      1. I see 🙂 yes you did that . And you built lots of castles, we Anglo Saxons helped build them too, but not the Saxon Queen but im sure she’d have chipped in if she was still alive 🙂

  95. I know it’s early but…another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

  96. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aVFtgkKQ5k

    Medieval clergy strenuously warned flocks against the dangers of drinking — in a sermon from the middle ages we read ‘First drink deranges a man’s sense, secondly it alienates the mind and thirdly it excites to shameful and improper things . Yet these virtues were enthusiastically celebrated . This is Folan and Avid Tavern Song .

  97. But at the Wedding at Cana in Galilee Our Lord turned gallons of water into wine. Not a good way to encourage sobriety?

    I know a Muslim couple who enjoy a glass of wine with their dinner. They tell me Mahomet didn’t ban wine, only drunkenness. Mere coincidence that Saint Paul said the same I guess.

    1. “A little wine for thy stomach’s sake” comes to mind, or did I simply make it up?

      1. It’s a genuine biblical quotation from the Apostle Paul’s first letter to Timothy, ch.5 v.23: “(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)” (ESV)

    2. I honestly don’t believe our Lord to have been such a miserable killjoy as some of those who claim to follow his teachings are.

    3. As I understand it in Biblical days no-one drank water – it was always “cut” with wine to kill the bugs. So in fact running out of wine was a bit of a disaster as the guests may have been poisoned so Our Lord was doing his hosts and guests a really good turn 🙂

    3. Yes, it’s good but I really struggle to get animated about Womens Rugby, I think its great for women and young girls to play but I find it difficult to support what appears to be an almost equal level of significance to the Mens game afforded by the BBC (viz the coverage today).
      Sorry, dont want to sound like a dinosaur (I played semi-pro Rugby myself) but this level of exposure risks alienating a broader potential audience.

      1. I’ve tried, I really have, but I just can’t watch it. It goes into the same category as women’s boxing, just downright unfeminine. I guess that makes me a dinosaur :))

          1. Most of them have such unattractive bodies too – especially the forwards. They are neither female nor male, just gross.

          4. Actually, You’re probably OK en France. Just don’t think of entering the UK, particularly not the Soviet Republic of Scotlandistan, where Nazism rules the roost.

          5. Yes, I think I am better off here – I don’t seem to offend nearly so many people, except for the expats of course 😁

          6. Yes – the expats do err on the woke/censorious/ rejoin side, don’t they? (Present company excluded)

          8. Women’s rugby can be entertaining but those tattooed forwards are mostly unattractive.

            The wings were fast and generally attractive young women. It takes all sorts I know.

          9. There are some pretty unattractive men in the men’s game too, but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter so much!

        3. I sort of agree PJ – but my argument is based more on the fact that women’s Rugby will never be as visually compelling as mens Rugby and to pretend otherwise (BBC) can only be ultimately counterproductive.

          If I had a daughter (I dont) I would be very happy for her to play Rugby or Football. I just dont expect there to be any sort of equivalence with the mens game.

          Some sports lend themselves better to womens participation – tennis and golf are obvious candidates.

          Boxing is a different beast – having boxed myself and given it up for health reasons – I would actually ban it for both men and women. That will cause howls of outrage from certain quarters but, when you’ve suffered double vision and bad headaches from a relatively safe amateur version of the sport, it really isnt acceptable in today’s environment.

          1. I suspect that part of the reason it is not as visually compelling as the men’s game is that the women aren’t! I don’t follow football as you know, but don’t mind women playing it at all. The rules are similar to hockey, which I played, and of course men do too. I would definitely not encourage a daughter to play rugby though!
            I happen to agree with you about boxing. There have to be better, and safer ways, both physically and mentally, for boys to work off aggression, especially as there also always has to be a winner and it won’t necessarily be the one who you would want to win.

      3. Perhaps 4G, but women’s rugby seems to be a better flowing game with less kicking end to end

        1. That’s true Alec, the men’s game seems to have lost its way just at the moment. I intend to keep fighting my prejudice and will try to maintain an open mind!!

  99. Once France had to score four times with 10 minutes left one thought that that was that.

    They do run about, the girlies. Bit clumsy with their hands sometimes. The French girl with the long hair who looked like a female Itoje was very impressive.

    Anyway, that’s me for today. Can’t take any more excitement!

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain – in the rain..

    1. I have a cunning plan. As the illegals disembark from BF and RNLI vessels in SE England they should be issued camouflage uniforms, bused to Gatwick and embarked on flights to Kyiv. Grist to the mill.

      1. Cheersh!
        Doing nothing much today – so much stress yesterday at things not working – new SIM card and account for mobile phone wouldn’t do data, bank ID app wouldn’t do ID, really pushed for time for report delivery, everyhing going wrong, so when I got home, chugged a bottle of red & went to bed somewhat relaxed. Trying to relax for the weekend, a stress like tha again & I’ll burst, so gotta cool off. So far, pint IPA, zeds, now a glass or 2 in the sun & early bed. Action tomorrow in garden, is the plan.

        1. Sorry to hear about your day, seems like it was a day that makes us appreciate the days when all goes well!!

          1. Indeed.
            ;-))
            After the stroke, much less brain left to cope with stress. Can’t work as hard as I used to, either. When younger, I used to be able to really shift some work, now I can barely find my pencil.
            Buggerit.

        2. I had a day similar to that yesterday. I needed to put some cash on my PAYG phone. Last time I bought a voucher and it was fine. This time – no way. It kept going round and round telling me to press 1 or 2 or 3 and not accepting the key presses. I got a refund from the voucher and tried my credit card. After about 5 minutes and lots of key pressing I finally got the money put on the phone. Then I went to the surgery to ask why my repeat prescription request had been refused. I need to have a telephone appointment with the medico who will “discuss the way forward” – all I need is effective pain relief; they can’t do anything for the cause of the pain. I could use the NHS app – I don’t have an app. Oh. You could try e-consult on your computer. Last time I tried that it didn’t cover what I wanted and I gave up (it would be the same this time as I know exactly what’s wrong and it’s been diagnosed by the surgery). I used to use emis at my last surgery that closed down. Oh, you can fill in the forms, but you’ll need photo ID. Fine; I took the forms, filled them in and turned up with my driving licence. You need proof of residence – have you got anything with your address on it? I’ve got a blood test form; that’s got my address on it. We can’t accept that. In the end we settled for my bus pass as photo ID and my driving licence as proof of residence – we have to do this, the receptionist told me, even though I know who you are and have known you for years! And they wonder what’s wrong with the system!

          1. Painkillers are an acute medicine and need to be signed off by the GP each time. The receptionist should have dragooned a doctor. Takes 5 seconds.

      2. It’s a lovely still evening. Leaves on our silver birch have gone from bright green buds first thing this morning to 3/4 developed. You can almost hear it rustle… I love days like this. Makes one wonder, again, at nature and just how beautiful it is.
        Before gardening tomorrow (it’s supposed to rain), I’ll give the old birch a hug. Love that tree!

  102. I see in The Telegraph a Tory mp, doctor Daniel Poulter has defected to Labour. The photograph is interesting as his wristwatch appears to me to be a Patek Philippe, though I can’t get enough definition to be sure. That would make him a champagne socialist as such a watch cannot be obtained for less than £25k.

    2. I think the HoC is chock a block with “champagne socialists” with time (and money) on their hands.

    4. The best thing about the news is that he’s taking the Labour whip until the election but no further. He is my MP, but due to boundary changes we are to be in a new constituency next time around.

      Having Poulter as your MP is about the same as no MP at all. An ardent Remainer who claims he now accepts the majority will, laughably states in his resignation that the Conservatives have drifted too far to the right politically. You couldn’t make it up.

    5. My watch is a Casio MQ24. It tells the time, is comfortable to wear and looks good. Just the same as a Patek Philippe really, except it costs about £11. What sort of socialist does that make me?

      2. I have a timepiece, and a stylish dress watch. The latter needs a new battery every 2 years or so, and is maybe looked at once in the meantime.
        Otherwise, self-adjusting mobile phone helps tell the time.

          2. Thanks, Paul. There is a good reason why Longines timekeeping is used for 90% of the world’s sporting events.
            None of its ridiculously overpriced competitors come close to its accuracy.

      3. A brown ale socialist?

        I have a Wittnauer, a Swiss watch not available in the UK – I got it in the US – makes me a transatlantic socialist?

      5. I have a thirty five year old Baume and Mercier Riviera. Cost me less than a grand in 1989. Still keeps good time but battery replacement and service every five years costs as much as the watch is worth probably.

        If I should ever have the means I would buy a Patel Philippe but not wear it ostentatiously.

    6. Must be a part time GP. If he was a surgeon or a specialist consultant he wouldn’t have the time to be a defecting MP!
      Watched your life in their hands this week and the surgeons who were operating deserve the mega bucks footballers get.
      Whiny GP’s deserve a good slapping.

      1. Whatever happened to the idea of a vocation, taking a pride in doing your job well and going the extra mile? There seems to now be an ethos of doing the least whilst grabbing more than one’s fair share in every imaginable field. It’s wrong on so may levels, most particularly it is spiritually stunting.

    9. Labour? Not SDP at least? But Labour? I try not to call people names on the internet, but I can describe this action as idiotic.

    10. If the watch is a Patek Philippe the idiot would be tempting fate to wear it in London. The criminal gangs would be quick to sever his arm in order to steal the watch.

      I have not seen this particular “doctor” in the debating chamber on the Covid vaccine harms debates. Why not?

  103. Well, chums, it’s far from my bedtime but I am totally exhausted. So Good Night, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  106. A trip to Exbury Gardens, last September. I thought it might brighten up a fairly bleak cold and rainy evening:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac7f00cc3e1c52a47a4ec9307a7482f9ea67649369b664da1fa0bb163803215b.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eddc6ca6e57f3ec1927d15b3b0a4840e3b3eb7c84d385d0639390425bcc4f5be.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dfdcac201258dcddd9c20d9121bd31cd94b6399e2c8676009bd82aa35c8c91dd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9cb9fd3ff87095f6f7f6f029780f1780374bad7b77168621c8027ad8f467db9.jpg
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        1. Unfortunately, it is. I’m in South Norway. But the address would be good as reference for the future.
          :-))

          3. May is the recommended month as the rhododendrons are in bloom.
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            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1145d2494983e60f5dd051b2a6210158e2e8f276f59b0427070cf5d4c3892671.jpg
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    2. Butterflies are few and far between here so far. Putting it down to constant rain and low temperatures. Some will appear when the sun shines, but that is so rare at the moment that I’m almost surprised when I see a red admiral or an orange tip.

      1. It’s early for butterflies Mola. I can’t wait to see the Holly Blues. I love them so much. Orange Tips soon, as well. Red Admirals late summer here.

        1. Indeed it’s much too early for butterflies, there might be the odd one but they prefer summer.

          1. We’ve some Tortoiseshells, Peacocks and Painted Ladies who have hibernated (in the curtains) emerging and swiftly dying here. I know they’re not supposed to do that (hibernate), but they do.

          2. They are just so fragile and so beautiful, the metamorphosis is one of nature’s miracles. I never realised they hibernate.

          3. As said, it is not the received wisdom. They do here though. On the rare occasions that central hating is allowed in Chateau O during the long harsh winter, they suddenly appear to brighten the day, but it’s awful, as they have no possible future.

        2. We have had a few Brimstones drifting around several weeks ago. There must have been a hatching.

          2. Awful here in East Anglia. I recall spring 2023 being cold but not so wet as this has been.

      3. I found a red admiral in the garage a few days ago struggling to escape from a spider’s web.
        After carefully prising off the ensnaring web it looked free enough to be let loose outside.
        It exercised its wings for a short time on the teak table in the garden and I left it there for nature to take its course.
        It was nowhere to seen later on so I reckoned it may have enjoyed some freedom rather than being a spider’s prey.

  107. Someone wrote an article somewhere saying they wished we were back in 1990 – for very superficial reasons really responses were most wished we were back in the 1980s – Thatcher and Reagan were in charge- Doctors acts were easier to get -‘no wokism and muzzies . Some liked the 60s ( they say if you remember you werent there- but sex drugs, the pill and promiscuity was where it started to go wrong ) I personally don’t think much of the 21st century and feel sad for small babies just being born, sadly the best of times were in the past and times before I were even born but worse will come for the poor souls just being born.

    1. Oh I know. You can’t think of how many times I just wish we were back in the 20th century

      1. One always hopes for a better life for the next generation, it’s very bad to think the best of days are In the past . I was not yet born when it was the 50s but I’d like to have been .

        1. We had our problems but it seems to me that we had fewer then, and I’d far rather have those than the ones the young have today.

        2. My eldest brother said to me, about 30+ years ago, that when we were young we were deprived but we didn’t know it as everyone else was in the same boat.
          Late ‘40s early 50s we didn’t have social workers, we didn’t have much money, we weren’t paid from taxpayers money not to work, in fact we had a work ethic passed down from parents to children. We played on bomb ruins before the social worker and health and safety industry mushroomed.
          Yes they were very good times.

          1. We could leave our back door unlocked and not get burgled, we shared a culture with our neighbours, we had the odd queer in the village but everybody knew who they were and kept away (and they kept themselves to themselves rather than being in your face). Sweets had come off the ration as well!

          2. I remember as a child in St Mawes we never locked our house.

            When a visitor asked why we didn’t my mother replied: “We leave the house unlocked because somebody might want to come in.”

            It never occurred to her that someone might want to come in for bad reasons.

          3. I was the youngest of 5 children. We lived in a 3 bedroom flat in London EC1. We had a scullery where 7 of us washed each day, mum did all the washing and cooking for us and we had a lavatory at the back. No bathroom and a trip to the ‘slipper’ baths at Ironmonger Row swimming baths once a week when we were older. It was just normal. Went to school with many cousins. Lived just off Goswell Road. You May know it.

          4. I don’t know London at all well. I rarely went as a child – in fact, I knew Paris better than I knew London until I was in my 20s!

          5. I was born and raised about 1 mile north of St Paul’s Cathedral and close to the Angel Islington if you know your Monopoly board.

          6. I’ve been to St Paul’s (I climbed up to the very top and I’ve whispered in the gallery). Angel Islington is light blue 🙂

          9. I’d imagine there was much more of a community and everyone was likeminded in many ways, all had the same set of morals, culture and history. There really isn’t much of that anymore whatsoever. I think very much rather have been born a few decades earlier at least .
            Yes I understand life was poorer, war left its mark but as you say and people I know say, all had carefree and happy childhoods, no wokiest nonsence and especially, most importantly, no Muslims, you’d have to travel to the middle east to see those savages but now they’re everywhere.

          10. In the flats I was born in there were 4 generations of my family living in them. My grandmother, my mum, her 4 sisters, my 4 siblings, my eldest sister married and had a flat and my eldest niece was born there.
            I lived in the same flat I was born in until I was almost 20.
            We were not the only family with many relatives there. Almost forgot my dad’s youngest brother also lived in them with my aunt and 2 cousins. It was almost like a village slap bang in the centre of London.

          11. I believe that was usual, it was for my mother’s, or atleast grandparents generation, the closest now I’d imagine would be Italian and Greek families. Its all fractured now, it sounds lovely, to have relatives all around even though it may have seemed claustrophobic – better then the disjointed nature and absent relatives of modern life .

    2. We have seen the best of our time. Machinations, hollowness, treachery, and all ruinous disorders, follow us disquietly to our graves.

      [Duke of Gloucester: King Lear]

    3. Babies being born now will face their challenges as we faced ours. There is always hope. The wheel turns.

  108. Well, I am amazed and a bit depressed.
    My second youngest nephew has informed me that when he graduates this summer, he is going to live in Manchester, not London.
    Apparently London is an expensive rip off and closes at 10.30pm.
    Manchester seems to be the new destination for the young.
    We need a new capital city as this one seems to be toast.

  109. It seems our new friends (ex-Spectators) have settled in well and have got used to our, as AA Milne so eloquently put it, “little ways”…

        1. Bill might be ex-Speccie but he is a dyed-in-the-wool Nottler first and foremost.

        2. Not at all! I am one of the first 50 NoTTLers. Geoff sought us out when the DT BTL stopped and he created this forum. I had been a DT commenter since 2011. True I make the odd (very odd) comment on The Spectator but was never one of those who posted every day on 40 or so threads’

    2. Well I for one feel at home here 🙂 I do still frequent the Spectator though, just not nearly as frequently!

      1. Peta, they have bombarded me with offers since I have not renewed, but I just feel sick about their direction of travel. I would still like to read a few of the writers (you know who I mean) so I am theoretically in two minds as to whether to re-subscribe. But I find the direction of travel so unutterably depressing that I think not. What F Nelson has done to the BTL community is nothing short of vandalism (or whatever the correct word for censorious authoritarian destruction is theses days)

        1. I know how you feel, and Nelson is a pompous little prat who blows with the wind, but I’ll stay there for the moment as I do like some of the writers and they also occasionally have some interesting “guest” contributors.

          1. The Spectator are desperate not to lose subscriptions as they need the contributions for their app, magazine and the digital parts, they practically beg Opp to still subscribe and offer GGG subscription for peanuts. The commenting part of the Spectator isn’t their priority – they could’ve kept Disqus but found a way to stop those who don’t subscribe from posting. They have given those who subscribe a wholly insignificant basic comment section as a sweetener to stay and subscribe and they think people are sheep. Fortunately they still have good writers .

          2. They said they changed the commenting system because the old disqus format couldn’t be used on the App which would indicate that the commenting part actually is important to them, but I don’t know if that is true since I don’t use any Apps. They also said that they would be “adding features” to it according to demand so let’s see what happens!

        2. Douglas Murray, Rod Liddle, Charles Moore, Rory Sutherland. I also like Gareth Thompson, Toby Young, Aiden Hartley, Lionel Shriver and even Lloyd Evans (though i don’t go to the theatre anymore since it all went Woke). I actually like Melissa Kite but I know a lot of people don’t.

        3. Speccie still needs subscriptions for the app, digital and magazine, they’ll probably phase out the comment section which isn’t their priority, they don’t give a toss about those who’ve commented over the years, even those who’ve subscribed who now have a very inferior commenting box. Their focus is on what I’ve said above but they still desperately need the subscriptions. People are supposed to pay and post in the featureless boxes without complaining. I have also noticed that amongst the article writers that are well known there are new ones who resemble the stasi and Muslim ones too.

      2. Peta, they have bombarded me with offers since I have not renewed, but I just feel sick about their direction of travel. I would still like to read a few of the writers (you know who I mean) so I am theoretically in two minds as to whether to re-subscribe. But I find the direction of travel so unutterably depressing that I think not. What F Nelson has done to the BTL community is nothing short of vandalism (or whatever the correct word for censorious authoritarian destruction is theses days)

        1. OK 🙂 I can tell you one thing, Robert Bidochon has got even more obnoxious and I would never have thought that possible :D!

          2. Please do – he has accumulated a few allies among posters I’ve never seen before and some who did take him on have disappeared.

      1. Well the comment tallies have settled down and I figure those who are going to fit in are the folk who are still here? Over the years there have been people who seemed to belong but haven’t stayed so in the long term one can never tell. There’ve also been some who’ve died, sadly.

      3. Hmm i reckon i was accepted within 6 months…

        Edit. But i used to be a Terriblegraph subscriber until June 2020 and was a prolific commentator under my old name; but didn’t know about Nottl. After the Terriblegraph I subscribed to the Spectator for 15 months before I threw the towel in, whereupon I chanced on this site, possibly via Geoff (Praise to Geoff). I retook up with the Speccy about 9 months ago after some poor telesales lad caught me on a good day; but i am perpetually on the brink of jacking it in. I now get the Terriblegraph for free on PressReader courtesy of my local library – wonderful.

      6. It is all down to how many comment upticks you get. When they reach zero, you know you’ve arrived.

  110. Basket time for me. Tuck in and big schmacker for all you lovely people. Night night and sleep tight.

    1. And for me too, my bed and my book are calling – the bed rather louder than the book! Night all!

  111. Evening, all. Just managed to get a couple (literally) of maintenance jobs done outside when it started raining again. This afternoon went to a memorial service for our late organist at church. Absolutely magnificent; the Rhos Male Voice Choir, the church choir and a choir from the college where he used to teach. Tricky for some of the (English) congregation as we sang Calon Lan in Welsh 🙂

    The Scottish people may have been let down by their leaders, but they must have voted for them in the first place.

    1. Believe it or not I had a Welsh Rugby mate who used to sing Calon Lan as his party piece – I have to admit it was extraordinarily moving – we all pretended we werent crying (including him)!
      Katherine Jenkins does a great version, she has a fabulous voice……

      1. They also sang Anfonaf Angel, but we were, thankfully, spared from joining in. The last time I heard that was in St Asaph cathedral.

  112. Just back from the End of Season Dinner Dance. What happened to the weather???????

  113. Dinner and opera evening was good. I agreed with the critic at the beginning of the season that the singers and orchestra were great; the production somewhat weird.

        1. His constituents form a very small minority of the electorate and the party members preferred Liz. He’s a placeman.

  116. I am confused. In the UK and much of the EU we are providing hospitality to illegal arrivals on the pretext that these are refugees fleeing war zones.

    At the same time Estonia and Poland are proposing to round up Ukrainians sheltering in their countries in order to return these unfortunate people to Ukraine, a war zone.

    In the words of Enoch Powell we must be mad.

    1. All the Ukies around here (with one lone exception) work hard, send their children to school, are law abiding and DON’T WHINE.

      Lets have more Ukies, and less Third World loafers and scroungers.

  118. Good morning insomniacs.
    Woke at 3 to pump bilges, ditto the DT and still awake at 4, so we’re sat up in bed with mugs of tea.

    1. ‘ Morning, Geoff, A Happy Sunday, and thank you for all your efforts on our behalf.

  120. ‘ Morning, Geoff, Happy Sunday, and thank you for all your efforts on our behalf.

  121. 386362+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 28 April: Britain requires a fresh defence review to ensure that extra funds are well spent

    Sunday 28 April: Britain requires a fresh defence of the realm
    review to ensure that extra funds are well spent is our greatest need at this moment in time.

    Now is the time for ALL good men to come to the aid of the futures children, instead we are heading down the RESET road at full tilt and that is inclusive of supporting a full
    culling / replacement campaign.

    In short supporting these very dangerous politico’s to the letter could see us leaving an everlasting legacy as a waiting queue
    of people silhouettes in the pavement.

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