Saturday 28 January: Conservatives wonder what happened to the party of aspiration and entrepreneurship

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

545 thoughts on “Saturday 28 January: Conservatives wonder what happened to the party of aspiration and entrepreneurship”

  1. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    Where Do Red-Headed Babies Come From?

    I can honestly say I never thought of this answer…

    After their baby was born, the panicked father went to see the Obstetrician. ‘Doctor,’ the man said, ‘I don’t mind telling you, but I’m a little upset because my daughter has red hair. She can’t possibly be mine!!’

    ‘Nonsense,’ the doctor said…’Even though you and your wife both have black hair, one of your ancestors may have contributed red hair to the gene pool.’

    ‘It isn’t possible,’ the man insisted. ‘This can’t be, our families on both sides had jet-black hair for generations.’

    “Well,” said the doctor, “let me ask you this. How often do you have sex?”

    The man seemed a bit ashamed… ‘I’ve been working very hard for the past year. We only made love once or twice every few months.’

    ‘Well, there you have it!’ The doctor said confidently….

    “It’s Rust!”

  4. Good morning, all. Up betimes as Gus and Pickles were having a serious dispute in the porch.

    1. Whose side did you join in on, Bill? Or did you act as referee? (Good morning, btw.)

  5. The right to die

    SIR – While I value the palliative-care ethic, I strongly support the principle of assisted dying (Letters, January 26) – not only when one’s life expectancy is limited to six months, but also when one’s quality of life is so poor as to be intolerable for whatever reason.

    I have written my wishes down and hope fervently that they will be followed, although I am appalled by the thought that some kind and sympathetic person who helps me to die when that time comes could be prosecuted.

    Suicide is not an “offence”, but in some circumstances it may not be possible to take one’s own life. Of course, there must be safeguards to protect the vulnerable.

    Gillian Mackenzie
    Worsley, Lancashire

    SIR – Who is supporting my right to choose? I have been in charge of my life for more than 60 years. I would like to be in charge of my death.

    John Dore
    Hertford

    In the letter to the Telegraph on January 26th mentioned above, Teresa Lynch from London W6 wrote “Britain’s world-class system of palliative care must not be threatened by a regressive law change.” She claims that her “experience, from many years in oncology care, revealed that a change in the law was not what patients wanted.”

    Though not wishing to make an ad hominem (perhaps an ad feminem) attack, I hope she never has to experience the appalling but normal at-home palliative treatment given to my dear demented wife last December.

    After being classified as having reached “End of Life” by a sensitive Frailty team, all food and hydration were withdrawn for 8 days until she expired. Restlessness and pain signs were controlled at my request by visits from District Nurses who attended to give injections of Midazolam and Morphine from a ‘Just in Case’ kit [that’s really what it’s called] to keep her safely asleep, though highly dehydrated. It was explained that any food or hydration would merely prolong the agony. The ‘Just in Case’ kit then had to be handed back to the Pharmacy, and every vial of the Class A drug accounted for.

    And this savage method is described as “world-class”, rather than a more merciful option to end the suffering with a bigger dose of Morphine or Nembutal, still deemed illegal (though certainly practised by doctors such as those who gave them to King George Vth at Sandringham in 1936, according to the diary of his physician, Lord Bertrand Dawson.).

    It is definitely an option that I would want for myself in similar circumstances. Where can I get a 300ml bottle of Morphine syrup to keep in my bedside drawer? Glug glug, then endless sleep.

    1. My God! Starved to death! Words fail me… How barbaric. How horrible for you, too, to be witness to it. You have my utmost sympathy.

      1. Thank you, Herr Oberst. At least it was a ‘peaceful’ end, as the drugs kept her asleep, though the swift loss of weight brought pressure sores on her back that were rarely there before.

    3. Good morning RC. What an awful experience for you. The denial of food and fluids, along with palliative treatment, sounds exactly like the Liverpool Pathway that my m-i-l was subjected to some years ago, even though the term was not used in our presence when discussing the options. The LP was heavily criticised and was eventually withdrawn in, I think, 2013 or 2014, but what replaced it was just a rebranded version of the LP.

      1. It’s also how the ‘end of life’ was managed for the 99year old mother in law of a friend of mine.

      2. Covid jabs.
        My MiL was sent out on the LP.
        We were asked to go outside of the ward while they ‘made her more comfortable’ she died without 15 minutes.
        Probably some sort of jab.

        1. Almost certainly. In the case of my father (terminal bowel cancer) I had just arrived home from visiting him, when my sister called to say that his nurse from the local hospice (providing a service rather like a district nurse) was with him again for the second time that day and had injected him – as they indicated they would to keep him pain-free ‘when the time came’. He was out for the count when I arrived and died an hour or so later. He was in a home for the last six weeks of his life under the NHS ‘continuing care’ scheme so no pressure to free up his bed. His end was quiet and dignified, and the hospice nurses were instrumental in achieving this. We were so grateful for everything they did for him.

      3. During the last couple of weeks of my late wife’s life her Alzheimers resulted in her being unable to swallow, take food or drink or medication, it was heartbreaking to see her deteriorate daily, unable to communicate and the look of fear in her eyes will live with me forever. She passed away peacefully in her sleep. Had I been given the opportunity to decide whether her life should be ended early to stop the suffering I honestly don’t know what I’d have chosen

  7. Putin is fighting another secret war – one dangerously ignored by the West. 27 January 2023.

    Russia is engaged in propaganda battles around the world, but it is in the Balkans where his efforts are truly paying off.

    While the world is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s propaganda operations are still global in nature. From South America to Africa, Russian agitators are working to destabilise and undermine governments it sees as unhelpful to Moscow’s objectives. The influence of these operations surfaced briefly at the Australian Open, where Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s father was filmed posing with pro-Russian demonstrators, and reportedly saying “long live the Russians”.

    Yes it’s so secret that you can read about it in the Telegraph. Quite frankly I would like to read some Russian Propaganda. It would make a pleasant change. The only time you see it is when articles like this tell you about it and how wicked it is. It’s like reading about naughty sex and then being told that there’s none actually available! Here it cites Novak Djokovich’s dad and how he’s a symbol of the entire Serbian Nation who have somehow been corrupted by the sinister forces of the Russian State. In truth the Serbs are more anti-West than Pro-Putin. They remember the break-up of Yugoslavia and the part it played in it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/27/putins-secret-war-dangerously-ignored-west/

    1. The Balkans have always been seething cauldron of religious and national conflict.
      Why waste time and energy on something that happens naturally?

      1. We ought to have been taught the history of Eastern Europe & Russia…& the constant onslaught of would be , & actual, invaders.
        It’s crucial to our understanding …of the development of European & Christian culture.
        *
        Off topic, but related…is it generally known that Rudolf Nureyev was a Muslim, brought up in a Muslim family & considered himself more Tartar (or Tatar?) than Russian?
        I’ve been watching videos of him – what an exceptional & fine man.

    2. The rank hypocrisy of “The West” complaining about “destabilising and undermining” governments is almost beyond belief. Who was it, I wonder, who destabilised a legitimate government in Ukraine??

    3. Serbia and Russia are linked through the Orthodox Church – as is Ukraine, hence Zelensky’s Welbyesque tactics of closing churches. Serbia fought against the Nazis in WWII (unlike so many of their Balkan neighbours). This has never been forgotten.

  8. Putin is fighting another secret war – one dangerously ignored by the West. 27 January 2023.

    Russia is engaged in propaganda battles around the world, but it is in the Balkans where his efforts are truly paying off.

    While the world is focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s propaganda operations are still global in nature. From South America to Africa, Russian agitators are working to destabilise and undermine governments it sees as unhelpful to Moscow’s objectives. The influence of these operations surfaced briefly at the Australian Open, where Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic’s father was filmed posing with pro-Russian demonstrators, and reportedly saying “long live the Russians”.

    Yes it’s so secret that you can read about it in the Telegraph. Quite frankly I would like to read some Russian Propaganda. It would make a pleasant change. The only time you see it is when articles like this tell you about it and how wicked it is. It’s like reading about naughty sex and then being told that there’s none actually available! Here it cites Novak Djokovich’s dad and how he’s a symbol of the entire Serbian Nation who have somehow been corrupted by the sinister forces of the Russian State. In truth the Serbs are more anti-West than Pro-Putin. They remember the break-up of Yugoslavia and the part it played in it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/27/putins-secret-war-dangerously-ignored-west/

      1. Good morning Elsie, if my adding still works I was 7th.
        I was reading about a man with all his bits convicted of double rape and initially sent to a woman’s prison because he now identifies as a woman.
        Time flies by when you read about the stupidity of politicians, especially the stupidity of the Wee Krankie. I may have reached the dizzy heights of 6th otherwise. 😊

        1. I would like to think this signals the end for the Krankie.
          She has p!ssed off the Calvinists and the Papes.
          But until the other parties work together for the sake of Scotland, I’m afraid the Fishwife and her apparatchiks will still scrape through.

          1. The same thoughts could apply to those in Westminster, smaller parties need to put their egos aside the overcome the Uniparty, LibLabCon.

  10. British police are failing because they have forgotten why they exist. 28 January 2023.

    The rising tide of ‘staff networks’ in the Met is emblematic of the problem, pitting identitarian politics against general interest.

    Leadership has also been weakened at lower levels. The fearsome power of the police sergeant, for example, was the strongest model of street-level leadership. Nowadays, the sergeant is more like a trade union spokesman for those under him or her than a leader in action. And, as with so many public services, it is extremely hard to reward good performers and get rid of bad ones.

    The Met is not a complete mess. Its elements which are clear about their purpose – counter terrorism, for example, and homicide command – have excellent results and high esprit de corps. But it suffers badly from the sickness of so many current institutions. It fails to hold fast every day of its life to the simple, but not easy, purpose of its existence.

    Here Moore gives a pretty good account of want is wrong with the Police Force but finds himself unable to grasp the nettle and admit that; like the rest of the UK Government Institutions, it is finished.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/27/british-police-failing-have-forgotten-why-exist/

    1. 63 years ago today, I joined the Royal Air Force as a Boy Entrant, u/t Air Radar Mechanic.

  11. 370421+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Conservatives wonder what happened to the party of aspiration and entrepreneurship

    Acting conmenservitives have no need to wonder, they have known for three plus decades very well what the order of play was to be.

    What happened to the party of aspiration and entrepreneurship
    the Tories is there for ALL to witness, Mrs Thatcher OUT major in
    RESET primed, let the rape and abuse of a fair Nation commence and it did, in no uncertain manner.

    The infrastructure prior to Mrs Thatcher not perfect but workable
    is now currently being razed to the ground incurring deaths and serious injuries as ,to the politicos / pharmaceuticals, seeming seen as collateral damage,acceptable when viewing the WEF bigger picture.

    We are truly in the grabwhatyoucan era, for the herd that amounts to toilet rolls, to the politico’s, money / power.

      1. Quite a good drive out!
        Stopped off in Asfordby for a bacon and egg roll & mug of tea, then to the former RAF North Witham to pick up t’Lad’s bits, then up the A1 & A46 to just West of Lincoln to drop off the knackered Tirfors for repair, back down the A46 to pick up the A617 to the A38 and thence Derby with a detour via Sutton in Ashfield for an hours break and a bite to eat.

        Got home just before 5.

  14. Good Morning.
    A day of running around with boxes of ‘stuff’ beckons.
    Oh, and geeing up my pet computer nerd.

      1. Contracts exchanged, so we can now move boxes and smaller items to the Dower House.
        The big day is February 14th, when Good Move shift the heavy items.
        We sure know how to celebrate Valentine’s Day.
        Completion 16th. which gives us a full day to hoover and clean up for the buyers.

        2. Funnily enough, my lady wife and I moved into our current house on Valentine’s Day back in 1998.

  15. G’moaning all,

    Cloudy start at McPhee Towers again, 3℃ and calm. The ground has melted so I’ve run out of excuses for not starting to tidy up the garden for spring.

    Before I have to pop off to do that I thought you’d all like this video of Peter McIlvenna of Hearts of Oak talking with Patrick M Wood, author of Technocracy Rising and Technocracy, the Hard Road to a New World Order. Patrick draws it all together succinctly so people can hear the whole evil story from its origins with the Rockefellers, the UN, Henry Kissinger, Klaus Schwab and Davos and understand how it all links together. How climate change and the ‘plandemic’ were used to get the Great Reset under way. How the ‘Young Global Leaders’ of the WEF have been eased into governmental positions . Johnson and Sunak are such creatures. And let us all be wide awake about Keir Starmer who was at Davos last week and who is a member of the Trilateral Commission. And the involvement of King Charles III. Have fun.

    https://heartsofoak.org/patrick-wood-davos-the-wef-and-trilateral-commission-a-world-wide-web-of-control/

  17. Thought for the day: People often talk about where they could go in the World to escape all the insanity and Hungary is often suggested. If I were a youngster and awake and looking fior a place where I could avoid it maybe I’d start to learn Russian. What do others think?

    1. I thought about Hungary too. I have been to Budapest for holidays. The language is very difficult and if you want to live there you have to learn it.

      It was clean. Beggars had to have a permit. Minimal graffiti. A lot less intimidating than any British city. Even at night. Also i never heard a siren the whole time i was there (10 nights) unlike London.

        1. It was very relaxed and the public transport was free to oldies. Metro, Trains, Trams, Buses and river Taxis.
          Plenty of nice places to eat and drink. Quite cheap too. I went on a river cruise with dinner on the top deck. Watching the spot lit palaces drift by.

          4. I was in a cocktail bar by the river. There was a 3 piece band and a singer. They were absolutely terrible. So bad it was funny.
            The singer Elena couldn’t carry a tune for love nor money. After her set she came and stood at the bar next to me.
            I bought her a drink, as you do. She said she knew a nice girl if i would like some fun. I declined. She was quite insistent. So i told her i was gay.
            Quick as a flash she said ‘she has a brother’.

          5. Agreed. Generally speaking the women of central and Eastern European countries still ‘have it’. They are not fat, they are not corrupted by feminism, they are beautiful (check out Latvian women) and they are devoted to family and probably their religion too.

          6. Agreed. Generally speaking the women of central and Eastern European countries still ‘have it’. They are not fat, they are not corrupted by feminism, they are beautiful (check out Latvian women) and they are devoted to family and probably their religion too.

    2. South America somewhere. Maybe Colombia or Chile. Uruguay definitely worth a look.

    3. Home’s best. Portugal is one possibility. Ireland another.

      South America not so good: the UK has lots of open space which is publicly accessible, and that is lacking in some developing countries.

    4. Da. Mojhet byt 🙂 I don’t have a cyrillic keyboard, but it says “yes. Perhaps”. Not Google translate; I have a degree in Russian.

  18. ‘Morning, Peeps. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – I was brought up in a mining village in the North East with no heating, no hot water and an outdoor lavatory. The whole village voted Labour.

    From an early age I knew that I wanted to have a different life and start a business. As soon as I was able, I voted Conservative because I believed that this party supported aspiration and entrepreneurship.

    My business was successful and I retired at 55. Now 79, I find that my savings and pension funds are fast depleting as a result of Conservative ineptitude. Even allowing for the challenges of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, this Government has performed abysmally, with its lies, waste and lack of a coherent plan.

    I have no idea who I will vote for at the next election – but unless by some miracle the Conservatives change their attitudes, it will not be for them.

    D M Turnbull
    Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham

    Bravo D M Turnbull! For me you have summed up the situation exactly. There isn’t a true Conservative amongst this shower and I wish for nothing less than the destruction of this wretched party and a new replacement that espouses proper right of centre policies. It won’t be pretty if it happens but we will all be better for it in due course.

    PS The other letters about the conduct of this government are all critical. Presumably, therefore, the Letters Editor received none that is in favour of the present shambolic governance! Now there’s a surprise…

    1. Mr Selves’ contribution this morning:

      Martin Selves
      2 HRS AGO
      I never had much time or trust in Jeremy Hunt or Michael Gove, and here they are at the top of the Power tree. I am not sure how they got their. Gove stopped a Fracking site in Yorkshire last year because he thought the fence surrounding it was Ugly. Huge wind farms are OK. 9.15% of our energy right now is coming from Wind.
      Cutting Corporation Tax instead of increasing it would help. And getting cheap energy from Fracking would kick start the economy as well. Getting the “Establishment” back into their Offices would also ease the log jam and fatal inertia we see everywhere, Our Country is in a daze. Strikes and Boats full of Albanians are leaving us demoralised and angry. Sorting out the mess we see everywhere will raise our morale, and we might regain some respect for our Politicians. And he must not give into Brussels over Northern Ireland. We need a full settlement which brings NI back into the UK, and not leave it forever in the hands of the ECJ and the Mandarins in Brussels.
      If I can see these things are important, why cannot the Cabinet full of intelligent people backed by a huge information machine? I simply do not understand why we always take the wrong path, high taxes, high spend, vanity projects that are failing, and the rise of Woke everywhere you look.

      2. Well, Hugh J, in my opinion the Liz Truss / Kwasi Kwarteng budget – as well as the plan to start fracking – was exactly what we need. But then…

      3. He did make a correction:-

        Martin Selves 8 HRS AGO
        An hour ago I wrote “9.15% of our energy right now is coming from Wind”. This is misleading, indeed wrong. I should have said “9.15% of our Electricity right now is coming from Wind”.
        As a part of out total Energy requirement, Electricity is quite small. Most of our energy comes from Oil and Gas.

    2. I’d rather see ALL political parties dead. They are all open to corruption, careerism , entryism and take over by elite vested interests. We need to return to the true constitution with a real separation of powers whic is not what we have. Not what we have at all.

    1. 370421+up ticks,

      Morning Anne,
      First what must be cured before all else is the party before Country virus within the electorate
      THEN we can tackle such issues of outright madness.
      First we sanity check those carrying out these
      acts of madness then give the offender an option,you can go to a women’s nick rosy , but dick can’t.

    2. Gave up reading the article when it referred to the rapist as “she”. Though my hackles were up when the article referred to the “man/baby” as “they”.

      1. A Cock in a Frock rapist trying to get himself held in a Women’s Prison in the Land of the Flying Haggis.

        1. Could be a dangerous ploy though – I suspect some of the Jockettes are a fairly tough bunch who won’t take kindly to a male rapist!!

        2. I wonder if he would be so keen if he were taken into an operating theatre with surgeons standing by and given the opportunity to declare that he so wants to be recognised as a women that (after being properly informed of the consequences and risks) he consents to the surgical removal of his tackle….

  22. Good morning all

    I feel upset that the Royals are muddling the issue.. and are casting their Wokedom in the wrong direction .

    The King and the Queen Consort met with two survivors of genocide at Buckingham Palace this morning as they marked Holocaust Memorial Day, on the 78th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

    Charles, 74, and Camilla. 75, were solemn as they spoke with Dr Martin Stern and Amouna Adam, before lighting candles in lighting a candle in remembrance of victims of genocide.

    The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in November 2005 establishing the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and chose January 27 – the day that Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated by Soviet troops in 1945.

    It commemorates the lives of the six million Jewish people murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of others killed under Nazi persecution and during subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.

    https://twitter.com/True_Belle/status/1619259799992160257

    3. No mention of the number of Christian Russians, killed tortured and persecuted by Jewish Bolsheviks from 1917 onwards, including the Tsar and his family who were relatives of King Charles III’s ancestors? I wonder why.

      1. Hello Tom

        I feel it is absolutely wrong for the Woke King bringing in Muslim diversity and other nonsense

        When we KNOW deep inside us that Jews have contributed positively to the advances in science , arts, wealth creating , and genetic brilliance .

  23. That’s me gone for the day. Have to get ready to go to this wedding malarkey. An “Essex” wedding, too – though the ceremony is in Cambridgeshire.

    I’ll be back tomorrow for a while. Have a nice day, playing nicely.

    A demain

        1. Our wedding was nice. Simple but just what we wanted. The two of us, my sister in law and niece at the Town Hall; lovely lady registrar officiating and then a lovely meal at a restaurant, my sister in law’s treat.
          Then home and listened to our favourite music for a while as we recapped the day.
          No prancing, no washing up, no superfluous people.

          1. Lovely!
            Ours was filled with SWMBOs relatives, who all “had to be invited”. No idea who all of them were – I had 2xparents, Brother & family (3) and a few joint mates. So much that we didn’t have “bride & grooms side” in church, that would have been ridiculous – standing-room only one side of the aisle… still, we passed 40 years anniversary last July, so must be doing something right!

  24. Morning all 😉 😊
    After another bad night.
    Upper respiratory infection giving me hell.
    Might be back later.

  25. US sanctions Chinese firm accused of helping Russia’s Wagner Group. 28 January 2023.

    A Chinese firm has been sanctioned by the US for allegedly providing satellite imagery that aided Russia’s Wagner Group.

    Spacety is alleged to have provided the data to Terra Tech, a Russian firm that supports the Kremlin-backed mercenary group, which has sent thousands of its own fighters to Ukraine and is the main target of this latest round of sanctions.

    Wouldn’t it be easier to just sanction everybody and then issue waivers?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/27/us-china-sanction-accused-russia-wagner-group-satellite-firm/

  26. Action this day to get Britain moving. 28 January 2023.

    Jeremy Hunt became Chancellor at a moment of genuine peril and swiftly restored faith in the nation’s financial institutions. For that he deserves credit. But, as he articulates in an interview with this paper, voters deserve more than mere competence. Businesses and individuals need a credible plan to dispel the sense of gloom and stagnation that shrouds their prospects, a plan to replace lassitude, declinism and stultification with energy, optimism and entrepreneurialism.

    Lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/01/27/action-day-get-britain-moving/

    3. The Toadygraph cheerleading for Hunt, disgraceful. Next up, the non-elected but selected (by whom, one has to ask) Sunak?

    1. Why didn’t the unvaccinated do more to warn us?

      Because people were told they were scum if they didn’t take the injections and many would have lost their livelihoods had they spoken up.

      We have made no secret of the fact that Caroline and I are not Covid jabbed and that when we got Covid we were hardly ill at all and recovered completely in a couple of days while those who were fully jabbed who got it at the same time as we did were really quite ill.

      Our answer is: VItamin C Vitamin D and Zinc.

      1. Why didn’t the unvaccinated do more to warn us?

        We tried but rather than listen, you just villified us – idiots – dead idiots.

  28. ‘Morning All

    Mixed Medley

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1a65d9d063e5355c64c467690b04481c6999d559af83fe5e9c9817ef013a0d3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9496e6ced4bac6a5a0318b505af6701b55c8a8f5e5aad9756bca101ec84c0a79.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ae62eba419c999a9791f186bd78e09b10001111224d855501f40e32223b8e1b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4fbe69e9481fc3f4709abba35c44dd042148db0372d5a6f126a85047c475f30c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4af9a751096078a7d32c9c3d4dfdba5630f564c084db2729979306f8917fa992.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac2511950499334c4eef1f53887ea46e16c667777d146ffe78f719672d36aa88.png

    Guilty M’lud

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d244dff4f70bf142c65823526963cb3f8f8f726b8192f7b358c553211e597494.jpg

    1. My BTL comment is:

      Ellwood is a fool. It’s not Putin who wants to escalate the Ukraine war, it’s the USA who want to promote their arms industry.

      In the same way they wrecked Nordstream in order to sell their gas to Germany and the EU at much inflated prices.

      About time our useless MPs woke up to what the general public now know to be reality.

  31. Tax-free pensions limit could increase in back to work drive
    With 6.6 million people economically inactive, Jeremy Hunt promises a programme of reforms to fix Britain’s ‘productivity puzzle’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/27/tax-free-pensions-limit-could-increase-back-work-drive/

    I cannot grasp the fact that this idiot Hunt could have even a glimmer of common sense.

    Another BTL from Percival Wrattstrangler

    Why did my nephew, a very successful and well-respected GP, retire at the age of 58?

    The answer is that that ass Osborne messed about with pension arrangements in such a way that my nephew discovered he would be worse off if he continued working.

    And guess what? Several other doctors in their 50s took early retirement for the same reason and hoodagestit? we now have a chronic shortage of good, experienced doctors.

    Most of our politicians seem incapable of distinguishing their rectums from their elbows!

  32. there is still a plan for HS2 to finish at Euston.

    When the world is wiped out by a nuclear Holocaust, in the year 3023, the occupants of visiting spacecraft will wonder what
    the two ancient ruins in Britain were Stonehenge and a wide road the goes nowhere

    1. Like most corrupt politicians, as well as being a WEF shill, Sunak is irretrievably corrupt.

  34. To defeat Putin, we must support the brave Russian journalists telling the truth

    Battlefield tanks are really only half the battle. Beyond military might on the ground in Ukraine, there is another critical confrontation in which the Kremlin has a superiority that must be challenged. The information war.

    Russia’s media space has reverted to a grotesque parody of the Soviet-era model. (In fact, it’s far worse, as in the latter Soviet years at least, most people knew they were being fed lies). Television and the domestic press is utterly captured. Millions are fed a daily diet of Ukrainian “fascists”, western pederasts, and nuclear revenge on Anglo-Saxon civilisation.

    The only Sovietised news system is the MSM in the West! This recent concern about the non-existent Russian propaganda makes me wonder if the PTB sense that their message is not getting across as well as it should!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/28/russia-media-independent-journalism-russians

    1. “…most people knew they were being fed lies”

      We also know that the MSM versions are just propaganda lies – we’re not fooled.

    2. Putin should be told that all the Nato tanks are just part of a military operation within Ukrainian borders and there is no intention of the West traversing into Russian territory.

      p.s. there might just be a few border crossings in order to shoot down threatening aerial objects but these will be rogue acts completely outside the West’s control for which it will have responsibility.

    3. The funny thing is, guardian writers are not so thick as to think they’re telling the whole truth, and I wonder if the irony is lost on their readers as well – but then, they tend to be blinkereed fanatics.

  36. Grayson Perry’s Full English review — what is Englishness? Perry meanders but doesn’t find out

    How well do I know the English? Twenty-seven years since I left Scotland with my rucksack for university, never really to go back, by now I probably ought to be basically English myself. And yet sometimes, normally quite abruptly, I’ll realise that I’m not.

    It can happen when the flags come out for football or rugby. “Oh,” you think, “there’s a thing here that isn’t mine.” Not just the flags; the vibe. There’s a feel to an English sporting victory that’s notably different from that of a French, German or American one — or a Scottish one, presumably, not that we’d ever know.

    Also once, years ago, I found myself walking through Stratford-upon-Avon shortly after dawn on May Day and — I swear I’m not making this up — a quite fat morris dancer came jogging past me on the deserted road, jingling and huffing as he went. And it struck me that he was clearly on his way to some sort of stick-clacking, hanky-waving ritual as alien to me as a Japanese tea ceremony or the Mexican Day of the Dead. Although I dare say it’s quite alien to most English people too. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/grayson-perrys-full-english-review-what-is-englishness-perry-meanders-but-doesnt-find-out-hhqg8wcp8?utm_source=spotim&utm_medium=spotim_conversation&spot_im_redirect_source=notifications&spot_im_comment_id=sp_nNNHCgsN_d4a909e2-9d77-11ed-8201-2ed91f44d1e8_c_2KvpErsl6UDJZm76vkyV2rF4NtC&spot_im_highlight_immediate=true

    The rest might make you very cross.. as it did me .

    1. If anyone’s interested in this sort of thing, I found a book called “Watching the English” by Kate Fox quite fascinating.

    2. Old hat; read the cricket match scene in ‘England their England’ by A G Macdonell.
      Or watch the last scene of Blackadder.

      1. Par Four for me too!

        Wordle 588 4/6
        ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
        ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
        ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done. A 3 for me.

      Wordle 588 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Before long, if you do know the 3R’s in English, you will be sacked

      The locals will not understand you

    2. Before long, if you do know the 3R’s in English, you will be sacked

      The locals will not understand you

    5. The letter I sent to the DT, yesterday, on this very topic was not published:

      SIR — It seems the unstoppable march of the Common Purpose-addled Left, in taking over the entire country, knows no bounds. Their insane clamour for illiterate police recruits, of any racial background (report, January 27) will backfire in a number of ways.

      Not only will these hapless recruits be unable to compile a coherent and lucid report, or a comprehensible and factual statement, their inability to present unambiguous, intelligible and incontestable evidence in court will ensure they shall secure few convictions.

      It is now clearly well beyond time for a complete clear out of all of those in higher positions of influence in the country. Common Purpose
      needs to be replaced by Common Sense.

      A Grizzly B.

      Still, all was not lost. They did publish a letter from another former police officer ,who also got the message across:

      SIR – I was appalled to read your report, “Police ‘illiterate in English’ recruited in diversity drive” (January 27).

      I served as a police officer in Birmingham and fully support diversity of all kinds, but not at the expense of public safety. If an officer cannot read, write or express themselves effectively, how can they possibly be expected to make critical judgments in a dangerous situation?

      In certain circumstances this could be very damaging and even cost lives.

      Christopher Fry
      Banbury, Oxfordshire.

  39. Well after living in VVOF Towers for nearly fifty years, Mrs VVOF and I have decided that it is time to have a clear out of the loft.
    The first thing I came across is the factory workshop manual for my 1968 Triumph Vitesse. I purchased the manual direct from Triumph costing an arm and a leg.
    I’m going back up to the loft after my coffee break to delve further, as Captain Oates said “I may be some time”
    I think the skip is going to see a lot of us.

      2. I had 2 of them, took a long time after to remember not all cars had straight six engines and I had to change down much more frequently. I will try and find a photo or two.

    3. Take a look on Ebay and compare your stuff for what’s available on there. Some old junk can be worth quite a bit now.

  41. ‘Failing’ Hyundai 12 volt batteries in EVs

    I put Failing in quotes because there may be doubt as to whether these 12 volt auxiliary batteries are really failing or if it just a common feature of all EV vehicles in general with either AGM wet cell (flooded) 12 volt auxiliary batteries.

    First let’s have look at the difference:

    https://www.crownbattery.com/news/agm-vs-flooded-batteries-what-you-need-to-know#:~:text=Absorbed%20Glass%20Mat%20(AGM)%20and%20wet%20cell%20or%20%E2%80%9Cflooded,chemical%20reaction%20and%20produces%20electrons.

    Now you know the difference what would you put in an EV considering that all EV utilities run on 12 volts including the start up engagement of the main high voltage traction battery?

    As EVs rely on charging the 12 volt auxiliary battery from the main traction battery you may find this reference useful to annswer the above question:

    https://www.mkbattery.com/blog/can-i-use-my-battery-charger-agm-batteries

    1. My first hybrid did not have a sensibly sized 12volt battery for the extremely light use the car got. My current hybrid, with similar light use is fine.

        1. I used my diesel only for short trips so the DPF filter filled up too fast with soot and the cost of cleaning it properly was not justified under the recent and prevailing circumstances.
          I traded it in for the Hyundai Kona for doing short occasional trips but its no good for that either.
          However I’ll keep it for rhe warranty period hoping that Hyundai will sort the fit for purpose deficency by fitting an appropriate auxiliary battery it really needs.

          1. The Jazz is petrol

            By Hybrid I meant it has TWO drivers,

            well so does the Disco, but SWMBO sits in the LH sest to do her bit

          2. MOH drives her own petrol Subaru Forester which came with a service book with room for 20 annual service entries.
            I’ve suggested she keeps it as it’s the best car she’s ever had

          3. I only do short trips now (10 miles a week) in my Megane Coupe diesel but I clean the filter by doing a hard 160 mile run once a month if I can

        1. There is a logic behind hybrids insofar far aa a lithium traction battery charged by a petrol engine overcomes the range and charging issues presented by pure battery driven EVs (BEVs).

          The bad news is that hybrids suffer from the failure modes of both petrol and electric drivetrains.
          They additionally cannot be classed as a zero emission vehicle.

          1. Who gives a damn about ‘zero emission’! It’s dim as ‘net zero’. If it moves and uses energy, it emits.

          3. Given that EV’s are incredibly heavy there will be more particulates released from the tyres and brakes.

          4. I quite agree.
            My reaon for buying a new Hyundai Kona Electric was to be able go to locations I was increasingly being excluded from as a diesel owner with the facility to top it up in the garage like a mobility scooter.

            The problem is that it doesn’t do short distances like a mobility scooter.

          5. Yes, but in the same way that Drax is classed as ‘green’ because the ecological and environmental damage isn’t done here, so too do the useless fools in Westminster pretend that electric cars hav eno emissions because the source of energy is elsewhere.

        2. So can I.
          We were skiing in Austria for the last few days, and I saw a hybrid car with Hamburg numberplates (replete with virtue-signalling “E” for electric) filling up with petrol.
          How else was he going to get back to Hamburg inside a week?
          Also saw a Danish registered Tesla – wonder how long it will take him to get home.

      1. Many thanks VVOF,

        You have answered the question about whether or not an AGM/wet cell is suitable as an EV’s 12 volt auxiliary battery.

        The answer is no – that is if the vehicle is only for oocaisional use.

        That was not made apparent to me at time of purchase but then I don’t think it would have been made to others either by the look of the videos I’ve posted links to.

        Premature failure of the delivered 12v auxiliary battery could probably not be upheld if the manufacturer has inappropriately fitted it to the vehicle.

        Your input to this matter has been of great help in framing a missive to Hynndai about my EV whilst it is under warranty.

          1. Thanks for the link.
            I have been watching this guy’s videos and he introduced me to the battery monitor.
            I hadn’t seen this one where Kia exchanged his 12 volt battery for a new wet cell one which I think is still inappropriate.
            I have approached two major battery suppliers referencing the Hyundai original equipment part number and they say I need a top performance AGM replacement at least.

            In the meantime I am continuing my investigation as to thr way of overcoming the AGM/wet cell issue pending the arrival of a 12 volf lithium replacement with built-in battery management system.

        2. If you bought a vehicle as new that the manufacturer had inappropriately fitted a battery to then the car was not fit for purpose, as described in the Consumer Relations Act.

          Arguably you could try to claim under the warranty with the manufacturer, but I would try the seller.

    3. Hi Angie,

      Sorry, but I haven’t got time to look for details on the web. EU Battery Directive (2006/66/EC):
      A while back the EU interfered with the construction of lead acid batteries.
      To make them less toxic, or something. From lead to a sort of lead alloy IIRC. They don’t last nearly as long as the traditional design.
      A few years ago failed lead batteries were worthless, but now the scrap value is higher; ‘Sir, you need a new battery” is a nice little earner for some garagistes.
      Have to admit, I had no idea that EVs relied on sealed lead acid batteries; perhaps it’s a matter of cold cranking amps?

      1. The 12v accessory battery is to power the computers, solenoids and the like in the car, since the traction battery is too high voltage. In fact, it’s function is very close to that in a fossil car. To start the car, for example, it closes the breaker that allows current flow from the traction battery to the motor.

    4. Firstborn is a Hyundai Master Technician.
      Seems that Hyundai were fitting the cars with poor 12V batteries. His garage changed to a different type, and no problems thereafter.

      1. Hi Obers,

        My Hyundai Kona Electric Ultimate 64 kW user’s manual indicates the requirement for an AGM60L-DIN, 60Ah, CCA 640A, RC 100min 12 volt battery.

        I understand the Hyundai OE part no is 371101H403

        Would your son be able to advise a battery model that he finds to work as a replaement for the CMF 45L-DIN 45A(20hr) , CCA 410A, RC 80min delivered with my Hyundai Kona?

        Thanks very much
        AOE

          1. Thanks.
            It will be nice to know anyway if there does exiist a viable technical solution to the problem of sacrificing the replaceable auxiliary 12 volt EV battery in favour of preserving the charge in the traction battery.

  42. ‘Failing’ Hyundai 12 volt batteries in EVs

    I put Failing in quotes because there may be doubt as to whether these 12 volt auxiliary batteries are really failing or if it just a common feature of all EV vehicles in general with either AGM wet cell (flooded) 12 volt auxiliary batteries.

    First let’s have look at the difference:

    https://www.crownbattery.com/news/agm-vs-flooded-batteries-what-you-need-to-know#:~:text=Absorbed%20Glass%20Mat%20(AGM)%20and%20wet%20cell%20or%20%E2%80%9Cflooded,chemical%20reaction%20and%20produces%20electrons.

    Now you know the difference what would you put in an EV considering that all EV utilities run on 12 volts including the start up engagement of the main high voltage traction battery?

          1. I have met Ashes. Terry Pratchett could easily have modelled one of his witches on her. My guess would be Perdita X Dream known to Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax as…….Perditax.

  45. What IS it with Austrians and cellars? Is the symbolism of dark depths? No wonder Freud made a killing in Vienna.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/27/man-found-living-austrian-cellar-wife-six-children-born-britain/

    “Man found living in Austrian cellar with wife and six children born in Britain

    Police are investigating the illegal underground hideout discovery, which had sparked fears over a repeat of the Josef Fritzl case

    27 January 2023 • 9:33pm

    A man was discovered living in an abandoned wine cellar in Austria with his wife and six small children, who were born in Britain and are all under five years old.

    The 54-year-old is being investigated after attacking social services with pepper spray and resisting state authority outside the underground illegal hideout in the small village of Orbritz.

    After fleeing the unnamed man, who was linked by local media to conspiracy theorist groups, and those rejecting the Austrian state, the social workers called the police.

    The man, reported to be Austrian but working in Britain, barricaded himself in the cellars, which it was reported he had bought from an English company.

    After police broke in and arrested the man they found firearms in the cellar, where the family of eight was living.”

    2. The “a” got me.
      I’ll be more vigilant next time.
      Often, the clue is the appalling Norwegian that the text comes in.

    4. There are some videos posted on the web which shows how the scam works from start to finish. I just done a search with scam in the text box and they all popped up. Scambaiter was one user showing the process if memory serves.

      1. The way to avoid being caught is to hover the cursor over the link and look at your tool bar. It will give the address you are being directed to.

  47. Time for a drink.

    2 jiggers of Vodka
    2 jiggers of Passion fruit Rum
    2 jiggers of Midori
    Cocktail shaker topped up with Passion fruit puree.

    Shake like you are having a fit.

    Pour into Cocktail glass.

    Enough for 2 more. :@)

    Cheers !

        1. I was mixing cocktails for a publican once and he complimented ‘you know you’re getting a drink’.

          My idea of a shot is about 80ml!

        2. I didn’t mean to be offensive but Phizzee was the one who brought up the measurement of a jigger – I’m jiggered if I know what this means!

          6. A standard piece of kit to measure alcohol in Bars and Cocktail lounges. 3/4 to 1 1/2 ounce.

  48. “Ghislaine Maxwell’s family say new picture ‘proves’ he couldn’t have had bath sex with Virginia Giuffre because the tub was too small”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11686525/Ghislaine-Maxwells-family-say-Prince-Andrews-bath-sex-tub-small.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

    The miserly but libidinous cheapskate should have bought a longer and wider bath for his mews house.

    This reminds me of another limerick to put behind the spoiler:

    When I saw what Prince Andrew was doing,
    I sad: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?”
    He answered while giggling
    “A screw without wiggling
    Is only for screwing canoeing.”

  49. “Ghislaine Maxwell’s family say new picture ‘proves’ he couldn’t have had bath sex with Virginia Giuffre because the tub was too small”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11686525/Ghislaine-Maxwells-family-say-Prince-Andrews-bath-sex-tub-small.html#readerCommentsCommand-message-field

    The miserly but libidinous cheapskate should have bought a longer and wider bath for his mews house.

    This reminds me of another limerick to put behind the spoiler:

    When I saw what Prince Andrew was doing,
    I sad: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?”
    He answered while giggling
    “A screw without wiggling
    Is only for screwing canoeing.”

  51. Hello all! Wishing you a good weekend all the way from Argentina. 🙂

    I screwed my courage to the sticking place and went out dancing last night. On my own, with a very shaky grasp of Spanish and only five hours of tango lessons under my belt (sadly, I was never taught to dance at all).

    It was hilarious!! I joined a group of beginners – very different drom dancing with my lovely teacher…

    Left out for the first two dances (more women than men), I practised the figure they had taught. Then – why not? – I went and pounced on lost-looking men at the change of partners.

    Aiiiiiii! One who trod on my toes, hiccuped and disappeared, one who I had to push through all the steps (he couldn’t count, and felt like a wet fish), and one who bustled me through the crowd with his huge stomach, making me crash into pretty much every other couple on the floor.

    I am so glad I wasn’t expecting perfection! 🤣🤣🤣

      1. Ahhhh – that *is* what it’s like dancing with my teacher!! That clip was what I wanted, and one of the reasons I came out here. 🙂

    3. One of my “A” level pupils made an interesting sort of inversion – rather like a Spoonerism – when trying to quote Lady Macbeth.

      “Stick your courage to the screwing place and we’ll not fail.”

      1. One of the jobs provided for the patients at Severalls Hospital, was counting out screws and packing them into plastic bags for the DIY shops.
        A student nurse, newly arrived from Malaysia had good English, but a poor grasp of idiom.
        “The patients,” she wrote in an early essay, “enjoy screwing.”
        Actually, she was dead right – it was wise to avoid the shrubbery behind the hospital chapel (Connie performed for one ciggie per ‘client’) – but it wasn’t part of the official occupational therapy regime.

      1. My teacher is all of those things! Many men are. Just not the ones I was dancing with last night… 🤣🤣

        The food is great – the steaks are out of this world, and the Malbec complements them perfectly. It’s a good life – I’m very lucky to be here. 🙂

      2. The Argentine Tango is on a completely different level to The Tango, Maggie. Did you take your eye off the ball when watching Strictly Come Dancing?🤣

      1. I had the honour of watching the lady walk calmly into the cool sea and swim around the groin as i was paddling.

        I think i got that in the right order. Any hoo. We had had a nice lunch…………

          3. It was a hot day last summer. After lunch i suggested a short walk to the beach. A beautiful clear blue sky and a wonderful view. Then most of her clothes fell off. The hussy !

          1. How can i possibly answer such a question !!!!!!!!!

            The Lady did breast stroke as i doggy paddled…ahem…***blushes….

  52. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11536651/Police-force-ignored-decades-sex-abuse-Telford-sees-drop-sexual-offence-charges.html

    Comments closed, of course. Well, here’s one: stuff racial tensions. They live here, soaking up welfare. They provide no value, they cost the earth, then they set about mechanically raping and abusing children.

    They should be so inflammed, so angry, so cheesed off at the continual police intervention, beatings and arrests that they live in damned terror of British law.

    1. 370421+ up ticks,

      Afternoon W,

      Many of us are,and do, whilst thinking if only the same treatment could be metered put to the illegals.

      1. They were very quick to visit one of the raped girls after she went on TV to talk about what the pakistani muslim paedophile rapists had done to her.

  53. I’ve just collected and answered my post. It was difficult to ignore because it sounded like an avalanche had entered the letter box and knocked a hole in the hall floor! I picked it up and sorted it. There was one letter for me; my monthly Bank Statement. The rest was advertising bumf an inch and a half thick which I threw in the bin without reading it. Though I am not Net Zero oriented I do wonder why they allow trees to be cut down for this exercise in totally useless advertising!

    1. Yesterday my husband received a get well card from friends who had a meeting which we didn’t go to the previous evening. The card was posted first class on Thursday evening and received on Friday.

  54. 370421+ up ticks,

    Uncannily the very same as you,( Ogga1 to G Batten)

    Gerard Batten
    ·
    16h
    Here’s what I think.

    1) Covid 19 was created in Wuhan with the help of US funds.
    2) It was released deliberately by someone in Oct/Nov 2018. The Chinese may well have been set up.
    3) The vaccines weren’t created to fight the virus, the virus was created to sell the vaccines.
    4) Big pharma wants a tax-payer cash cow of permanent pandemics.
    5) The US political system (& its servile allies like the UK Govnt) are now so compromised & corrupt that any crime is now permissable in their cause of keeping power & making more money.

    What do you think?

    …more
    Project Veritas just released an undercover video of a Pfizer executive bragging about how his
    Project Veritas just released an undercover video of a Pfizer executive bragging about how his

    https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1619000631074635776

    twitter.com

    1. I’d go along with Batten’s theory.
      Tice is thoroughly discredited. I’ll have another look at UKIP.

      1. 370421+ up ticks,

        Afternoon LIM,

        Please rethink,

        Current ukip are now part / parcel on the
        lab/lib/con coalition,

        Check out Batten leadership record he asked the members for £ 100,000 & received £300,000 putting the party financially in the black, took on 13000 new members,with more joining daily
        He took on the leadership for one year
        saying he would stand again in a leadership election, the party nec said he could not stand as he was NOT of good standing within the party.

        Richard Braine won the election bands down, he wanted Batten as deputy the whole issue landed in court the nec lost the case, the party still owe Richard Braine monies stemming from the case.

        The party nec / farage treacherous actions brought about the downfall of UKIP / Batten / Braine.

        “nige” the knifer done 30,000 of us in the back, tis all on record.

      2. UKIP are a true right wing party with sound conservative policies. Unfortunately, they will always be labeled as extreme and given a kicking by the msm regardless of what they say. A great pity.

        1. They also have an inability to act in unison, develop a strategy, plan for implementation, and follow it. My experience was pretty well everyone doing their own thing, so I baled quite quickly. Better things to waste my time on than that – such as watching the grass grow…

          1. Me too. I was a member, but it seemed to fall apart. Such a pity because it could have achieved a lot.

          2. Nigel’s legacy. He was not a team player, didn’t put in place any lead-in, training or provision for a successor, dumped the Party and vilified its members, then shoehorned in a leader to complete the destruction.

        2. They are given a kicking to prevent them offering a real alternative to the three-in-one cartel currently in power. People need to break free.

    3. Time to expose them ALL, not only to the full glare of publicity but, more so, to justice. Another Nuremberg is needed.

  55. As it was the holocaust memorial yesterday a fellow Nottler posted a clip of Nicholas Winton sitting in an audience. The clip showed that he alone was responsible for rescuing 680 Jewish children from what was Czechoslovakia.

    He hadn’t told anyone what he had done for 50 years. All the audience other than himself was made up of those children now as adults. Which he was unaware of.

    What i find strange is the parallels. Nazi Germany annexed the Suedetenland and marched in to much applause and celebrations of the German speaking peoples there. Recently Russia marched into the Donbas and were cheered by the Russian speakers not that you would know it from the media. In both cases the Nazis were and are the aggressors.

    Here is a 15 minute video of how Mr Winton accomplished this act of compassion and courage.

    https://youtu.be/AKe0SMPzIVQ

      1. Children everywhere are innocent.

        I am angry that so many obstacles were put in his way by bureaucracy. That same bureaucracy that is allowing hundreds of thousands of fighting age Muslims to flood into this country.
        There will be a reckoning.

        2. That reckoning will very possibly be the extinction of British (especially English) history and culture, and the death of many of us.

          I am not sure that King Charles is completely supportive of this – but I am sure that the man is rather an idiot. Intelligence is not one of the Royal Family’s known attributes. Obviously a useful idiot to someone.

        3. Children are mostly innocent, although I have encountered two who could have become quite nasty and a couple of fruitcakes.
          You must know the song from South Pacific “You Have to be Carefully Taught.” Most children learn whatever from their parents. Little guys don’t see colour or religion, they just see their little friends.
          It is always the children, always.

          1. I taught a set of twins that were definitely psychopaths! Having either one in your class was like sitting on a barrel of gunpowder and smoking! After they left school, one got murdered and the other spent a lot of time in prison.

          2. Yep; I bet that one of the two nasties I encountered is in jail now. Good looking, charming but violent. I remember his name but won’t mention it.

    2. In the mid 70s I knew one of the ‘children’ he and his family lived in North London. My uncle did some work at his house, I helped him.
      The man in question was a diamond merchant. There was a short film on utube about his family and he sat talking about his life.
      I can’t find it now. I expect he and his lovely wife have passed on.
      Possibly the family name still exists at Hatton Garden. It could be one of his sons.

      1. I am not surprised. No disrespect to the man as he saved many children. I had heard he was with the Stock Exchange. Probably where he heard of their plight. He blackmailed and forged documents to get those children out. I think the reason he stayed quiet for so long was the diamonds the parents were prepared to pay. Just my cynical view. Whatever his motivations he deserves a place in heaven.

    3. No, Sir Nicholas didn’t do it all on his own, as he was happy to admit. As the last survivor, he took the glory but he never sought it.
      The others who helped in Prague in various ways included Martin Blake, Doreen Warriner, Trevor Chadwick, Robert Jemmett Stopford

      (1895-1978), Florence Nankivell and others who appear scattered all over the web.
      Interestingly, there was a Labour Party element to the rescuers; I wonder if any of them had been influenced by the fate of refugee children from Spain during the Civil War.

    4. What a way to go! What will they put on the death certificate? Death through being pissed out of his mind?

        1. Yes, I understood that. Just being a bit facetious as it’s such a bizarre way to go. These days, with the lunatics in charge of the asylum, you have to have a laugh to keep going, no matter how black (am I allowed to say that?) the humour.

    5. Unless, of course, you are a carter pissing on your cartwheel – the one with the iron-clad brake on it, that is 🙂

      1. The usual race baiter are already blaming whitey. After all, it’s whitey’s fault for spreading racist messages to these black officers.

        For goodness sake, these fools are desperate.

    3. Surely the police officers had white training officers when they first joined.

      Whitey’s fault!!!

    5. Sorry, wibbling, I watched all 11 minutes and 8 seconds of this video which the Daily Mail warns “some people may find distressing”, but – bad language apart – I see no real evidence of assault. The first half of the video is in total darkness and all I can hear is the police continually saying “Give me your hand”. This suggests to me that, after chasing the man who tried to escape, they wished to handcuff him but he was continually resisting arrest. I imagine this is what led the five police officers to react in such a vicious and inexcusable way. I did hear him shout “Mom” a couple of times, but from the map it is clear that she lived several streets away and was too far away to hear him.

  58. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d727b3785cc1993a02449060aaeb71e3aa931b97ff0cbbee1bd2adfb25a3a7da.jpg Where’s Philip?

    This afternoon I had a chunk of one of my recently-made pork pies. The cross-section of it shows how a prize-winning Yorkshire pie should look. Small (6mm) cubes of belly pork, not packed tightly into the hot-water crust casing, so that the pig’s trotter jelly can seep right in and blend it all together. It is sensationally delicious with a fabulous mouth feel.

    The far-inferior Melton Mowbray-type pies are made of minced pork which coagulates together as a lump; they have neither the superior flavour nor the good mouth feel of a decent Yorkshire pie.

    Another thing I had discovered with a properly made, better quality pie is that it doesn’t need any accompaniment: it stands on its own feet and does not require any mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, pickle, brown sauce, Branston pickle, piccalilli or any other condiment to enhance it.

      1. Good job you cannot see the Topless waitress serving it, or you would be back in Horse Piddle

    2. I must try harder. Looks very tasty.
      The MM pie recipe I followed used cubed shoulder pork and my butcher also recommended the same. Not enough fat to hold the meat together and packing the filling too tightly definitely stops the jelly from filling all of the space around the meat.
      Next time…

      1. Like a lot of things, making the ‘perfect’ pie is a work in progress and I tinker with recipes, methods and seasonings all the time. I doubt I shall ever make a pie that caters for all-comers but I certainly have fun when in “mad professor” mode and trying new things. The loosely-packed meat just came from a hunch and I wasn’t certain it would work; but I am more than delighted with the result … so far!

    3. It can’t possibly stand on its own feet ! You boiled the trotters to make the jelly !!!

      I still think the hot water crust should be a little better done.

      1. I was actually waiting for your standard “brown and beige” comment; but that is to be expected from a southerner who knows bugger all about pork pies. The pastry is perfectly cooked and is crisp on the outside and softer in the middle where it has melded perfectly with the meat juices and jelly. Of course I boil pig’s trotters to make the jelly: I do things properly.👍🏻 I expect you soft southerners would prefer to use gelatine sheets, softened in warm shandy. 🤣

        1. As a soft Southerner i always found that the part under cooked pastry next to the meat and jelly to be off putting. Still do.

          A hot water pastry should not only be crispy on the outside but cooked on the inside.

          Your pic on the other hand has more colour light and tone.

          Obviously someone else did it for you. :@)

          3. “Obviously someone else did it for you.”

            I think the next Swede I meet, who knows anything about pork pies, will be the first.

        1. I think they can be. They tend to be charismatic. Like Nick Clegg. You see them on TV and you feel like punching them but when you have a pint in the Pub with them they can be beguiling.

          2. As i said.

            If you were to meet him socially without knowing who he was ….a lot of people would fall for the stchick.

          3. I have met him socially, and my comment stands!!
            But you are right about many of them. Hancock looks like such a nice chap…until you know about Midazolam.

    3. Apparently during the “pandemic” they lived in separate houses to “keep her safe” because she was “vulnerable”. Didn’t Goebbels warn that if you repeat the propaganda often enough there’s a danger you come to believe it yourself. Poor woman.

  60. Afternoon all. I see that Hunt has claimed that he’s targeting inflation rather than tax cuts. Quite how he’ll manage that is beyond me. Has he learned nothing from the seventies?

    2. Sounds good, Paul. I had my second (and final) portion of Haggis, Neeps and Tatties with another wee dram.

      1. Beef stew here which I made yesterday- second day stew is always better. And it’s nice.

        1. Tomorrow night’s meal for me will be the second (of four) plateful of sausage casserole which was made yesterday in a slow cooker.

          1. Seconds of beef stew with the added touch of Yorkie puds. Yorkie puds are the world’s most perfect food. And I make my own- not all those frozen things- urk.

        2. Same here made with ox (beef?) cheek, it was delicious. Except today’s helping was the first day. We got 4 ox cheeks from Waitrose, £13.50 and with a can of cannelini beans added to the casserole we make one cheek do two days’ meals, so fairly reasonable. 3 hours in the oven, first hour at 140 C then the following two hours at 130 C. Beans added during the last hour.

        1. What a shame, Paul. Did you forget to join an expedition up the Highlands and Lowlands to track a Haggis down? Or did you forget your blunderbuss?

          1. Not sure what happened – suddenly it was Burns night (& Mother’s birthday), and no preparations. Been stressed a lot recently, so easily forgotten, and suspect that’s why I collapsed & banged head on Sunday.

          2. Well, I’ve heard of lots of people blaming, the Government, SAGE scientists, Brexit, Whitey, Global Warming, etc. etc., but NEVER have I heard things blamed on Haggis!!! Lol. (Good morning, Paul, I hope you are feeling a lot better now that you are safely ensconced in your own home.

  64. https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1619336626030923776

    Is Hale a really nice village… https://altrincham.todaynews.co.uk/2023/01/27/news/confirmed-over-80-of-ashley-hotel-asylum-seekers-will-be-families/amp/

    It’s understood that at least 80% of the asylum seekers who are set to arrive in Hale next week will be families.

    The Home Office had previously identified the Ashley Hotel in Hale village as a location for a group of up to 112 immigrants who have arrived by small boat from France.

    It had been feared that the group would be exclusively male, raising security concerns among the local community.

    Local MP Sir Graham Brady had described the proposed location as the “most obviously inappropriate location you could imagine” for such a group.

    But Brady has now confirmed to Altrincham Today that after lobbying Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick, the Minister of State for Immigration, he has received confirmation that “at least 80%” of the incoming residents will be families.

    Where single men have been housed alongside families in hotels in other locations, behaviour is “greatly improved”, Brady added.

    2. 20% will still be enough to cause lots of trouble. I was speaking to a neighbour this morning as I walked the dogs. She said her sister lives in Shrewsbury and told her that it has a dangerous feel walking the streets. The PTB really do hate us.

      1. The PTB really do hate us.

        Afternoon C. There’s a fair amount of resentment in it as well. They think that we are a bunch of Neanderthals who don’t appreciate how wonderful they are and all they are doing for us!

        1. You mean we don’t appreciate how wonderful the EU is and what a sinecure there can do for them.

        2. I’m pretty sure, Minty, that the population at large hate the PTB.

          This way lies civil war – and not before time.

          We need to remind them that there are more of us than there are of you.

      1. I trust you are being sarcastic, Minty. And do the 80% of families consist of one male, two brothers, three sons and five male “children” who have started to shave at a remarkably young age?

  67. I have just had a High Priority email from Mike Hunt’s brother Jeremy

    It says

    To reduce your electricity or gas bills Buy Take Aways

  68. I see Jeremy wants the over 50s to go back to work, but they are of an age that cannot handle all the red tape woke nonsense
    and that is the reason they said enough is enough in the first place.
    One cannot merely work these days they have to become complicit in all the gender and climate target malarkey.

    1. Why would they when not only is half your salary stolen in tax, but you can’t put any more into your pension or savings?

      Shunk have had the Laffer curve belt them in the face, and they don’t understand what to do. Government just thought people would keep paying ever higher amounts of tax and shove what people thought about it.

      The only way those entirely sensible people will go back to the office is by scrapping, or radically moving the offensive tax bands – Hunt wants to reduce them – and removing the lifetime cap on pensions and savings. They won’t though. There will be a pathetic bodge and because the retirees are not as stupid as government wants them to be they’ll not fall for it.

      It really is pathetic that this useless government refuses to acknowledge that by rewarding failure and punishing effort the people trying stop bothering. Socialism DOES NOT WORK.

      1. Well of course another way to persuade people to work is to drastically lower the benefits! No, I know, never gonna happen.

        1. They’ll lower the pensions (I know they aren’t benefits – I’ve paid for mine – but the government thinks otherwise) first.

        1. And that’s because I will not and won’t edit and modify Shakespeare, Chaucer or any other author or poet. * Politics doesn’t come into it- it is freedom of thought and speech. * Or English history either.
          Sod all this PC nonsense.

          1. ‘Oh that this too, too solid flesh would melt thaw and resolve itself into a they’….

            I see what you mean it doesn’t quite have the same ring…

          2. To be or not to be – that is the question –
            Whether it is nobler in the mind to be a he, a she or a ze …

          3. This is mostly being promoted from the Left of the spectrum of politics. You must see this.

          4. I don’t know or care- I think all political parties are complicit in this….they are all so scared of offending anyone. It’s going the same way in the US.
            Leave history alone, it happened! Leave Literature alone, most of it was/is written in the time as it is/was then.
            I don’t know what gives these numbskulls the right to think they have the right to revision any history- it’s called that for a reason- or the right to paraphrase great works of literature because it might upset some poor little sod who can barely read.
            It doesn’t matter which political party is behind it- it’s wrong, totally wrong.

          5. Lottie. I had been struggling with concepts like truth. Lived truths. Strangely enough it took an actress Meghan to open my eyes. There really are other realities lived at the same time as others are just….unaware.

          6. Re History- usually written by the victors. Don’t believe all you read from one source- read several accounts of the same event and make your own mind up.

          7. Gone with the Wind has been coming under attack. The movie premiered in 1939 but the book was published in 1936. Much of the story was related to Margaret Mitchell by her grandparents. Whether right or wrong, she wrote about the times that existed then. That’s what people knew.
            I have been to Monticello in Virginia which was owned by Jefferson. Some of the slave cabins are still there.
            You cannot change history- you can attempt to rewrite it or pull down statues but the truth will still be there.

    3. I left the day job around 2010. The company was looking to downsize, and I volunteered, having had my fill by then. It helped that I was living rent-free in a Verger’s Cottage for carrying out that role, and being paid a pittance for being Organist & Choirmaster. Diabetic foot issues led to – initially minor – surgery, and I realised, while recovering from same in Horse Pickle, that I could prolly retire from my main workplace pension. I still do the church stuff, albeit without the free accommodation, but, otherwise, indolence is the order of the day. JH can take a running jump…

      1. Walked round the corner from the Station Hotel, Carlisle on Tuesday night, aiming for ‘Spoons. Botchergate was a sea of Hi-Viz jackets – some police, some perhaps council employees (I didn’t ask). And bouncers at every pub. On a Tuesday. The street was always a but dodgy on a weekend night, but apparently it’s now known as the Gaza Strip, and is closed to traffic at weekends.

        Had a haircut Wednesday morning*, just across the road. Barber bemoaned that the city was dangerous: blue lights and sirens round the clock. His home country feels much safer. I did my Lady Susan Hussey act, and asked which country. Kazakhstan, he replied.

        So there you have it. The future is Kazakhstan…

        *I bought clippers when they made haircuts illegal. This was my first proper cut since November 2019…

        1. I always ask the cabbies where they are from- I preface by saying, do you mind if I ask where you’re originally from. Never had anyone take offence and, as I often say, our cab co. is great.

          1. I find Uber drivers vary. Some want to talk about themselves, their home country, whatever. Others barely talk. (Guildford) taxi drivers are somewhat better. London cabbies (two of which I’ve had the pleasure of travelling with in the last week), won’t stop talking. And they invariably seem to agree with me… 🙄

            Yesterday’s was a former bricklayer. We had much in common.

          2. Never used Uber. Our local company is great and they go anywhere in the south. And, now, they know us which is a big help.

  70. Right, that’s me for this evening. I now plan to watch THE WORLD OF APU, the third film in Satyajit Ray’s APU trilogy. After that, I am straight off to bed. Sleep well, all you NoTTLers. See you all tomorrow, DV.

      1. Satyajit Ray was the man who took Indian film-making in a totally fresh Neo-realist direction to traditional Bollywood films up to that time.

          2. Ray has someone with an umbrella (often on a bicycle) in all his films – it’s like a trademark of his.

    2. I have been reading reports saying that in the event of a limited nuclear strike that taking Iodine pills wouldn’t help. Quite clearly at least to me is that BigPharma has lots and lots of other shit they wish to sell us before we croak.

      Including crematoria

      1. If you were en route taking said pills to somewhere remote like Pitcairn Island you might just be ok….

      2. The recommendation of iodine tablets has been around a long time – long before the present pharmaceutical shenanigans.

          1. There was nothing about cucumbers when it came up on my screen! Just something about “Women’s Day” in small print diary format and then lots of adverts, including one for Hotmail.

    2. We don’t need Muslim Patrols.

      It’s an incitement to the indigenous population to take them on and beat the crap out of them.

      1. That’s easy for you to say in Moffat, Tom! You’re more threatened by the indigenous half-masked barmaids… 🙂

        The southbound train was fairly diverse, passenger-wise. But – thankfully – it wasn’t wrapped from end to end with rainbows…

        1. I’m not complaining, Geoff, about half-masked barmaids.

          It’s more about what is happening in the Islamic enclaves up and down and across the country.

          That’s where the incitement is occurring and need damping down.

          1. Apologies for the flippant comment, Tom. Even my part of leafy Surrey is becoming more diverse. Speaking of which, Avanti West Coast managed to provide a heterosexual train for the journey South – albeit 50 minutes late at London Euston…

        2. Occasionally, I used to take the train to the NEC in Birmingham. The nearer we came to our destination, the more diverse (and less English) it became. After Wolverhampton, it started to resemble the Calcutta Express.

          1. I worked for a short time for the Soho practice of Edward D Mills in the early seventies. The practice were architects for the five halls of the original NEC.

            At the time the Mills practice employed about five architects working on the NEC. The engineers, Arup, had a team of about twenty five working on the project.

            Okay, the halls were basically enormous sheds with space frame roofs and a lot of servicing.

            The services engineers were Matthew Hall. They were so hopelessly inefficient that the AHU’s to proceed and supply air to the halls were so late in delivery that they had to be dropped onto the roofs by helicopter. Matthew Hall used the fact in its promotional material, you could not make this up.

            The office in Soho was a poor lot. The drawing boards were Victorian, requiring effort in adjustment of the cast iron cogs and wheels needed.

            The fee for the NEC bypassed the office completely and was directed to a Pedigree Pig Farm in Lingfield run by the late Edward D Mills.

            I believe the Architect fees for the NEC exceeded £4million.
            Shades of Lord Hanningfield of my more local Essex County Council fame.

    4. That fucking Arab at the front of the patrol has evil intent. The rest have masks, bandits from another country and another religion let loose on the streets of our towns and cities.

      Our politicians truly hate us. We the indigenous Britains.

  73. We have been ‘gifted’ – BY WHOM? – with Rishi as PM and Jeremy as Chancellor; a pair of uninspiring, self interested ineffectuals.

    Whatever happened to Conservative democracy and choice?

      1. Towards the end affectionately known as Daggers (Short for Dagenham two stops on from Barking)

    3. Indeed. My local rag had an article about schools having mock elections to teach them about democracy. My cynical thought was, “did they ignore or overturn the result to show them how things really work?”

    5. I believe Sunak will be brought to book as an individual profiting from the Covid jabs. He was an original investor in the company behind Moderna, a company with no experience of producing any pharmaceutical products prior to claiming it had developed a 94.5% effective vaccine for Covid. A claim now seen to have been both false and corrupt.

      The lies about Moderna’s claims for the efficacy of its vaccine, the scale of the profits the company made and the fact that as Chancellor, Sunak was the direct beneficiary of the UK government’s decision to squander billions on the poisonous jab from Moderna would in normal circumstances have the skinny little shit hung.

      I expect the runt will be brought to book shortly. Everyone can now see that our UK government has been and remains complicit with the worst medical scandal of our Age. The Age of Covid.

  74. Just watched Bank of Dave on Netflix, a trueish story of the fight with the Banking Regulators to open a bank in Burnley.
    Thoroughly recommend you watch it as it was a kick in teeth of the bankers.

      1. It’s a true story and the Bank of Dave has loaned over £30m to local people and businesses since 2011 (I think).

  75. I have taken most of the day replacing the tap, at the kitchen sink and the filter for drinking water

    Why is it, that as you ‘age’ a little, what used to be small jobs become big’

    You know you have the required union in the shed, but it has gone into hiding.

    The pipe cutter is NOT in the knife drawer, but you do find it, in with your sox.

    In the end, experience triumphed, as it will for most Nottlers, but the generations behind will be clueless

    1. I keep a small screwdriver in my kitchen drawer- for tightening the handle on the large skillet.

    2. Couldn’t agree more, OLT. I’ve never shied away from DIY repairs. In the past, I’ve transplanted engines successfully. I’ve defeated odometers on leased Mondeos, with a reed switch and a magnet. And replicated the behaviour of an ABS warning light, using a chip and a few components, to get an elderly Scenic through the MOT.

      In the end, my C-class Merc had advisories relating to the suspension. When I had legs, I would have just done the work. But I admitted de-feet, and scrapped the old girl, with 280k on the clock.

      1. Yo Boss

        But I admitted de-feet, and scrapped the old girl, with 280k on the clock.

        A fantastic reply from a brave man.

        1. Thank you, Maggie, I will claim the free hug the next time I am in your neck of the woods – if I can find out where that is!

      3. My Mercedes HGV bodied motorhome got an MOT advisory for excessive play in its steering linkage joints.
        When I referred this back to Mercedes service they said the examiner should have known better – the Merc had shock absorbing springed joints in the linkages.

    3. I have the same problem with the gardening, by the time I’ve found my boots, gloves shed key its’ either raining or lunch time.

    4. Over the years having installed three central heating systems (but using professionals to install / commission the boilers) – four if you include the narrowboat, I’ve acquired a reasonable range of plumbing tools – Including Blow torch & Mat, tube cutters, 15mm spring, Immersion heater element spanner, tap spanners, mole, wrenches, flux, wire wool, horse hair & sealing compounds, PTFE tape, etc, etc. The last job I undertook a week ago was to fit an end stop on a disconnected pipe under the sink in the Village’s storage hut. However, I have come to the conclusion it will be the last plumbing task I will ever undertake….

      Photo is of the Central heating & H&C water plumbing on the boat.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/594fd8fbf2376ed158e496830e518468dd1e5ee22706f93515062093f2e6718a.jpg

      1. Plumbing has changed over here to the extent that is no longer worth doing it yourself. Gone is the solder, they are now using compression joints which are far quicker and safer, unfortunately you need the special tool that crimps the joints.

        I used to do my own wiring and plumbing but recent experience with an electrician made me realise that I should leave it to the experts .

        1. Me too. I am a good carpenter but during my career as an Architect I witnessed the best bench joiners and the best joinery shops equipped with CNC routers and moulding cutters capable of cutting the most complex mouldings with 24 or more separate cuts in one passage.

          The best joinery companies have the best machine cutters and retain the best bench joiners. The bench joiners know how to put everything together as a finished product.

          Edit: I have reluctantly decided to part with my own cherished tools. I have already sold my sharpening wheel and hand planes, most of which are so old as to be valuable. I have next to part with my box handled and cushioned Marples chisels from the seventies, prized on account of their steel quality and ability to retain an edge.

          I had better stop there as it grieves me to think that so much of which I used and retained is now surplus to requirement.

          On the plus side, I maintain my CAD system, can draw anything I might require, email the fabrication files to suppliers and obtain stuff direct from the suppliers.

      2. An awful lot of the above were part of my apprenticship.+ gas turbine engines and fixing to aircraft fly

        I have repaired ‘lesking ‘ water pipes’ by bending and soldering on old penny on the hole

      3. I found water leaking from a professionally installed back to wall bidet which looks very neat when installed and sealed with silicone against the bathroom wall but I knew getting it away from the wall to fix would cost extra hundreds.

        I had to use keyhole surgery through the wall from the room next to find how far I needed to go the fix the plug control rod back into the plug assembly which I could see was the source of the leak:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6dcf9a5fc30412c72a034886f4d6cf882480bb24a03bf82521a1bde2d34cd59d.jpg

  76. Goodnight, all. Have to be up early tomorrow morning to go to a different church; the rectorette is having an “all-age” (ie Janet and John dumbed down) service for Candlemas. I’m voting with my feet!

    1. I thought Candlemass was Feb 2nd. Groundhog Day which has the same folk lore attached.

      1. It is. Since we got the rectorette we don’t seem to observe the same liturgical calender we once did! She rocked up for a couple of weeks leading up to ephiphany wearing a GREEN (colour of Trinity) stole, instead of a white one. Someone must have told her, because she’s wearing a white one now. The verger, who is usually very switched on, said to me tonight, “all this [she indicated the crib] will be gone tomorrow and we’ll change the altar cloths”. I pointed out that Candlemas wasn’t until Thursday, 2nd Feb and we had a BCP service on Wednesday 1st Feb (although I shan’t be there; I’ll be meeting my parishioners with my parish council hat on).

  79. Good grief. The major subjects in which we should be engaged are Bunter’s complicity in WEF and Sunak’s history of profiting from his investments in Moderna.

    Okay, Raab is a bully but more than that. The entire political establishment are crooks, every one grifting on some interest or other. Time to close these bastards down and ‘BUILD BACK BETTER’ in the immortal words of Klaus Schwab.

    And we need firing squads, those and hangmen.

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