Saturday 29 June: The choice facing America should make British voters feel fortunate

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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655 thoughts on “Saturday 29 June: The choice facing America should make British voters feel fortunate”

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

    Dough-boy Does Death

    Linda Daufenbach, 23, was visiting her in-laws, and while there went to a nearby supermarket to pick up some groceries. Several people noticed her sitting in her car with the windows rolled up and with her eyes closed, with both hands behind the back of her head. One customer who had been at the store for a while became concerned and walked over to the car. He noticed that Linda's eyes were now open, and she looked very strange.

    He asked her if she was okay, and Linda replied that she'd been shot in the back of the head, and had been holding her brains in for over an hour.

    The man called the paramedics, who broke into the car because the doors were locked and Linda refused to remove her hands from her head. When they finally got in, they found that Linda had a wad of bread dough on the back of her head.

    A Pillsbury biscuit canister had exploded from the heat, making a loud noise that sounded like a gunshot, and the wad of dough hit her in the back of her head. When she reached back to find out what it was, she felt the dough and thought it was her brains.

    She initially passed out, but quickly recovered and tried to hold her brains in for over an hour until someone noticed and came to her aid.

    And, yes, Linda is a blonde.

    1. I laughed a lot, Sir Jasper, but I am trying to wean myself off blonde jokes because deep down I believe that every person is a special human being whatever the colour of their hair. Long live blondes, I say.

    2. That's a good idea, Johnny. I shall do likewise this morning. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. I do that every Thursday, JBF. I've a running spreadsheet for Electric usage.

    2. I've had to move it to Sunday, in the hope that HSBC will have put up June's Statement.

    1. This was the work of the "independent" production company, giving C4 deniability.

    2. Interesting that even though they have been found out the mainstream media are still running with the story as factual

      1. A lot of people on twitter are running with it too, mainly because it confirms their prejudices, I think.
        I saw the actor referred to as someone who "had done a bit of acting". Nobody just happens to "do a bit of acting" especially when they are paid up Equity members.

    3. So Channel 4 just happened to film the one "activist" with extreme views? What a coincidence.

  10. The choice facing America should make British voters feel fortunate

    At least we have Reform, I suppose.

  11. It has been said that the BBC Question Time audience is paid to attend, so doesn't that make them actors?

    1. Morning Bob. I don't think that they are paid. They are certainly chosen to reflect the views of the BBC.

    2. I heard mention on GBN of “disruption fees” which are commonly paid to interviewees but as far as I know, not to studio audiences.

      1. Daily Fail 28 June:
        The BBC paid audience members £150 each and £30 disturbance money to attend this week's leaders' debate after they were screened over the phone by a marketing company, it has emerged.

        More than £30,000 of licence fee payers' money was used to recruit the 150-strong group who were specifically asked not to heckle, according to reports.

        The entire audience at Wednesday's debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer was recruited by external contractors.

      2. Daily Fail 28 June:
        The BBC paid audience members £150 each and £30 disturbance money to attend this week's leaders' debate after they were screened over the phone by a marketing company, it has emerged.

        More than £30,000 of licence fee payers' money was used to recruit the 150-strong group who were specifically asked not to heckle, according to reports.

        The entire audience at Wednesday's debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer was recruited by external contractors.

  12. America’s leaders shame their nation. Britain’s have failed to prove why they should lead. 29 June 2024.

    Here were able and reasonable politicians each trying to make his party’s case. As one questioner bluntly pointed out, neither is an inspiring leader. Both, however, are respectable.

    In these trying times, that may be something to cling to. It is increasingly clear that Nigel Farage is not respectable. I have on my screen a recent email from him inviting me to “Be a part of history with me” at the NEC in Birmingham on Sunday, where he will hold “the largest rally of my political career”. It shows a photograph of the great leader, right-arm raised to an admiring throng.

    This is back to front. What sort of political leader tries to rope in voters as extras for the biopic of his imagined walk with destiny? Why should we be part of the rabble Mr Farage wishes to rouse?

    Charles Moore revealing his Globalist credentials here with this not so veiled hint at Nigel being a wannabe Fuhrer.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/28/americas-leaders-shame-nation-britains-fail-to-lead/

    1. Nigel is indeed an inspirational leader, but what does he inspire people to do? Anything evil?

    2. ‘Respectable’ – how very Jane Austen of Lord Moore, a man who undoubtedly has what Lady Catherine de Bourgh would have called ‘connections’.

      1. Pulling the posh card, isn't he? To make his utterings more credible to followers of Downton Abbey. And calling those two, 'respectable' is as out of context as calling a voting card an a la carte menu.

    3. If Farage can capture the popular spirit, more power to his right arm.

      "…Respectable". I suppose Moore thinks that both the American 'Democrats' and 'Republicans' are respectable, while they fight like cats/rats in a sack.

    4. If Farage can capture the popular spirit, more power to his right arm.

      "…Respectable". I suppose Moore thinks that both the American 'Democrats' and 'Republicans' are respectable, while they fight like cats/rats in a sack.

    5. It sounds like the establishment is running scared of Nigel Farage and Reform (especially Farage), which bodes well for the upcoming Independence Day. As I said yesterday, and I don't like to tempt fate, Mr Farage is the out and out frontrunner for Clacton.
      They'll have to catch him red-handed breaking into the collection box with a stabbed dead vicar at his feet to stop him.

    6. 'What sort of political leader tries to rope in voters'

      Well, that is kind of his job, isn't it? Unlike the uni-party who hate their voters and are in hock to their fellow zealots and global paymasters.

      And note how all the attacks on Reform are ad hominem – they never attack the policies because they know they are sound common sense and what the electorate want.

    7. 'What sort of political leader tries to rope in voters'

      Well, that is kind of his job, isn't it? Unlike the uni-party who hate their voters and are in hock to their fellow zealots and global paymasters.

      And note how all the attacks on Reform are ad hominem – they never attack the policies because they know they are sound common sense and what the electorate want.

  13. I do that every Thursday, JBF. I've a running spreadsheet for Electric usage.

  14. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for Saturday's NoTTLe page. I hope you all slept well.

    Wordle 1,106 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,106 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  15. Neil Kinnock warns Labour to heed nationalist threat posed by Nigel Farage. 29 June 2024.

    Kinnock compared Farage’s response to the controversy in Clacton – inserting ambiguity and going on the attack – to that of Donald Trump.

    “It’s straight out of Trump Towers. It’s Farage the thespian. He’s doubling down on his claims that Channel 4 had hired an actor,” he said. “It’s what the nationalist populists do time and time again. They mislead people and you can add Boris Johnson to that as well.”

    Morning Joseph. The real reason they hate him.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/28/neil-kinnock-warns-labour-nationalist-threat-nigel-farage-reform-uk

    1. My feelings towards Farage are generally positive. He is who he is, and that is a man-down-the-pub who will shake things up. I am not sure he is a prime minister in waiting, but then he has never claimed to be. He has openly said his ambition is to be a leader of the Opposition, and he is good at scrutiny and enjoys it.

      As for Reform, I think in every constituency one must consider the quality of the candidate on offer, and what they propose to do about the obvious shortcomings of both Conservative and Starmer's ChangeUK parties. Slogans and slagging off is not good enough; it's answers we need.

      As for that joker who turned up to "help" in the campaign team, with TV investigative reporters in hot pursuit, well he is a bit of a Central Casting White Van Man. He even looks like that fellow who skewered Labour's Lady Nugee just across the Estuary. A serious racist would never call the Hindu Rishi Sunak a "Paki". Saddiq Khan is a "Paki"; Rishi is no more a "Paki" than I am; he is Indian, and Indian Hindus have history with Muslim Pakistan that is not pretty.

      1. That's the reason why Sunak was so upset, he hates 'Pakis' as much as the next Hindu.

      2. Rishi Sunak was born1980 in Southampton General Hospital to East African-born Hindu parents of Indian Punjabi descent. He was probably deliberately called 'Paki' as it would really, really annoy him to be included with the hated enemy.

      1. Nothing. And populism is the definition of democracy. As for misleading people, internationalist communists are out and out liars most of the time. But you know that.

      1. Also famous for selling out to the EU. And having a son who openly flouted the lockdown rules (but got away with it).

  16. The 50 best TV dramas of all time – ranked. 29 June 2024.

    This is not a history of television drama. The attempt here has been to judge purely on quality, not contemporary impact or abiding influence. That means it’s subjective, and so if it makes you really, really angry that your number one all time life-changing must-see isn’t here… that’s all for the good. Any TV show that people care about is better than one that they don’t.

    I would agree with The Wire being in the top spot though this does not mean that I liked it. It is great drama but quite harrowing to watch. It has that quality of being more real than the real thing. My own personal favourite would probably be Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I have the DVD of this and watch it occasionally when the mood takes me. It is a reminder of the Glory Days of the BBC when it could produce World Class drama.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/best-tv-dramas-all-time/

    1. Yo Minty

      Without a doubt, the best TV Dramas of all time are the daily MSM News Broadcasts, with the BBC* heading the list

      * Please use your own interpretation of the Initials

    2. It was indeed a tribute to Sir Alec Guinness, late in an already very distinguished career, for him to inspire John le Carre [cannot find the accent with this new-improved text editor I have to use on W7] to write 'Smiley's People', stating that Guinness was his definitive George Smiley. Here was a man who could convey his solving of a difficult case in a long scene without words, just by taking off his glasses.

      ITV came up with the definitive Poirot in David Suchet, after someone in the Christie family saw him play Blott. Who can forget too Brian Blessed's olympic standard death scene as Emperor Augustus, where he held his breath for three minutes in close up during his wife's monologue, and without moving a muscle had to convey the point of death.

      2. "I cannot find the accent with this new-improved text editor I have to use on W7."

        Try ALT 0233.

    3. I do a review of a Russian series on freespeechbacklash.com AS, the Black Sea. It's really good (the series I mean).

      1. I visited your website and readyour excellent article about ship DALI. Is an 'alision' an accidental anagram of 'liason'? My tuppence would be on fuel contamination, possibly from a previous port of call. Do the generators use the same supply as the main engines?

        1. An allision is contact between a moving ship and a static, fixed object, like a bridge or lighthouse etc, as opposed to a collision, which is contact between moving vessels.
          I think fuel contamination is unlikely, though cannot be ruled out yet. It is routine to send samples of fuel to a lab for analysis on bunkering, and good practice not to use it until you get the results, though it is by no means fool-proof. The best bet in my view is a serious electrical fault. As to fuel supply, it depends on the system, but in this case I believe that both the main engine and the diesel generators were both running on diesel oil from the same tank, but note that the main engine stopped because of the blackout, which stopped its supply of lube oil and cooling water, tripping out to stop damage.

          1. Hmm, but the caption still reads ‘alision’! I did check on Gurgle, but it simply offered me ‘alison’ and ‘liason’.

            Surely the concept of redundancy should allow the emergency generators (EG) to be independent of the main systems, or there should be diagnostic/ warning lights on the bridge?

          2. Thanks for pointing out the typo!
            The emergency generator is independent, but it has very limited capacity and can carry a limited load, basically emergency lighting, some emergency equipment and the steering.
            The bridge will have some control panels with warning lights, and the engine room is full of them, but electrical faults can come very quickly, without warning.

    4. Completely agree, like both. BBC been feminised is the problem (and that's speaking as a woman).

    5. Tinker, Tailor was superb. We have the DVD too.
      Edit: Happy memories, watching the broadcast version, at home with parents.

    7. It is very heavily skewed to the C21st.
      A better heading for the article would be Some of the 50 best dramas of all time

  17. 388980+ up ticks,

    Saturday 29 June: The choice facing America should make British voters feel fortunate

    Should not tax the single brain cell shared by the british majority voters to much, stick to the same voting pattern and the best political shite will come to the top.

    American politics offers on this occasion, a good chance for change.

    We on the other hand accepted change via the polling stations on the 24 /6/ 2016, won the day, then promptly returned to the bosom of political treachery in the shape of the lab/lib/con
    mass uncontrolled immigration, paedophile umbrella coalition party.

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Will Michelle Obama run? The runners and riders to replace Joe Biden
      Comments Share 28 June 2024, 5:31pm
      After a lamentable performance in Thursday’s debate, much of the Democrat press corps is demanding that Joe Biden step aside. Last night, the New York Times ‘Editorial Board’ said that, ‘to serve his country’, the President must go. If the octogenarian President were to throw in the towel, who could possibly replace him? Below are the bookies’ favourites, with Mr S running an eye over their odds and likely chances come November against ‘The Donald’…

      Gavin Newsom – 10/3

      (Getty Images)
      ‘You don’t turn back because of one performance’, said Gavin Newsom after last night’s debate. ‘What kind of party does that?’ He knows the answer: the kind of party that wants to win and thinks it’s more likely to do so with him at the help. Elected Governor or California five years ago, he’s a tried and tested politician who has been hard at work on the campaign trail – having been lieutenant governor before and Mayor of San Francisco before that. He’s been tipped for so long that he jokes about the theory that he is running a ‘shadow campaign’ ready to step into Biden’s shoes at precisely moments like this. His friends say that his more likely aim was the 2028 presidential election, when he’d be 60 years old (a relative whippersnapper compared to Trump and Biden). But Republicans have always said his real agenda is a summer coup.

      Newsom has certainly been behaving like a trainee president, travelling to visit Netanyahu in Israel and Xi in China. As co-chair of Biden’s re-election campaign he has been very much on the campaign trail. Might the coordinator become the candidate, as Margaret Thatcher for for Keith Joseph? ‘He’s been one hell of a governor,’ says Biden. ‘Matter of fact, he could be anything he wants. He could have the job I’m looking for.’ A great many Democrats now agree.

      Michelle Obama – 14/1

      (Getty Images)
      Well, the Americans like their dynasties. For a time, Michelle Obama was the bookies’ favourite to take over from Biden; in February, her odds were 8/1, versus Gavin Newsom’s 12/1 and Kamala Harris’s 15/1. In the last few months, though, Mrs Obama has tried to put to rest rumours that she wants the top job. ‘As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,’ Crystal Carson, director of communications for Michelle’s office, said back in March. But if her party begged her, might she?

      The former first lady has been notably missing from the Biden campaign trail. While Barack has hosted glitzy fundraisers alongside political heavyweights like George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Barbra Streisand, there hasn’t been a peep from Michelle. Supposedly, she’s frustrated with the Biden family over how they treated her close friend Kathleen Buhle during her divorce from ex-husband and now-convict Hunter Biden (son of Joe). Might it be Obama-Buhle 2024?

      Gretchen Whitmer – 19/1

      (Getty Images)
      What about Big Gretch? That’s apparently the nickname given to Gretchen Whitmer, the Michigan Governor, by her constituents. Whitmer was elected to lead the Great Lakes State in 2018, when she turned Michigan blue for the first time since 2006, and was last year tipped to challenge Joe Biden in the Democratic primary. She had built a national profile by delivering the Democratic response to the State of the Union address by then President Trump in 2020.

      In June 2023, a couple weeks after Biden tripped and fell at a graduation ceremony at an air force academy in Colorado, Gretchen denied that she wanted to run against Biden. Did seeing Biden fall not tempt her to try and take the reins? ‘No!’ she said. Perhaps the Governor has changed her mind after watching last night’s debate… She has a memoir coming out (called TRUE GRETCH) in July. A presidential run would shift some copies.

      Hillary Clinton – 24/1

      (Getty Images)
      Believe it or not, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump’s opponent in 2016, is now in fourth place in the running to take over from Joe Biden. Could there be a rerun of that famous, terrible race? Earlier this month, the Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker suggested that Clinton should replace Harris as Biden’s veep. Hillary had just given her endorsement to George Latimer, a centrist Democrat standing against the left-wing Jamaal Bowman. The former first lady clearly still has a keen interest in the internal politics of the party she used to lead…

      ‘This election is existential’, Hillary said back in May. ‘I mean, if we don’t make the right decision in this election in our country, we may never have another actual election’, Hillary said back in March. Was she talking about stopping Trump, or Biden? (Latimer won his race earlier this week.)

      Kamala Harris – 25/1

      (Getty Images)
      How could the vice-president be overlooked? The White House hails her as ‘the first black American and the first South Asian American’ to be elected to the position – and at a time when the Democrats are bleeding black voters, the Democrats may be reluctant to ditch her. But her polling is awful, worse than Biden’s, and she’s seen as to his left – so not likely to do much to stop middle America going for Trump.

  18. Yo All

    Back from 2 great weeks in the sun in Benidoom, but it was just too hot!

    Back to reality

    "I wonder how many houses would be required to truly ease the situation.

    The Symptom: The lack of housing.

    The Fault: Too many people:

    The Defect: Allowing unlimited and uncontrolled immigration"

      1. We flew.

        We had to abandon out Tin tent in Spain when we were given Three Days to get out of the country when the Covid Scare started.

        As it had only travelled about 20 miles a year (in and out or storage) for the previous 6 or so years, we could not trust that the running gear would survive the 1500 mile journey to home

        1. That’s a shame. I hope you enjoyed your holiday anyway. I’d forgotten the abandonment in 2020. I wonder if it’s still there.

    2. Last time I was in Benidorm was for my 21st birthday. No high-rise at all and a zoo to the right side of the stone jetty.

  19. Good morning all.
    A cooler start of 9°C after yesterday's largely overcast and blustery day.
    Somehow, despite some VERY heavy clouds darkening the skies, we avoided any precipitation beyond a couple of almost imperceptable bits of drizzel.

        1. I've been watching some of the ladies' golf near Dublin on tv. It's been raining there all day thus far.

  20. Good morning all (77th too),

    Clear blue skies overhead McPhee Towers, wind North-West backing West, 12 ℃ rising to 21℃ later.

    Pity the poor children having this for a parent.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2d866030ae6b51a3a32bd72ad40b85da71a7260e490dac620d1623fa80bcbd2.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/glastonbury-2024-or-family-holiday-ibiza-for-11k/

    Why does the DT even print this rubbish? I'm not surprised the author wants to remain anonymous. How many readers can even afford to blow £11k, just like that, on something so frivolous, shallow and temporary? Torn to shreds in the comments.

    1. I'm hoping that the 77th will visit me at freespeechbacklash.com Mac, I like a good argument, though they often disappoint don't they?

        1. Just been there. It's worth a read – some disturbing articles, though, especially about growing up in Mao's China. Recommended – Disqus for comments, too.

        2. It is Mr Mac, all written by me up to now, with the site created by my son.

          1. Site bookmarked. I'll have a read later. I can send you some stuff for it if you'd like, all written under my own name some of which has been published by TCW and some from my substack. They might stand revision and depending on how big a piece you want, some snipping. No charge – just to be a part of the dissident rebellion.

          2. I will be very grateful if you do. I find 2-3,000 words is about right, but some subjects are just too big, and up to 10,000 is manageable, but that is up to contributors.

          3. Righty-ho. I'll get on it. I'm away this weekend but I'll sort some out and send them in via your Write an Article page. Are you happy with links to podcasts/videos?

      1. That's by no means the most expensive Glastonbury package available. The Tarquins and Octavias have no trouble stumping up such sums

      1. "Just the thought of being near so many twats puts me off it completely."

        I don't like crowds either.

        2. My phobia started at white Hart Lane when I was around 12 years old.
          As we left the ground after a match to get back to my friends father’s car. I found My feet were not in contact with the ground. I was completely squeezed and squashed by the crowd and carried out of Paxton Road boys entrance.

          2. I’ve never been so scared in all my life.
            Our eldest grandson and his little sister were with us yesterday. He told us his dad is taking him to the new White Hart Lane for his 9th birthday treat. A viewing tour of the massive complex.

      2. I would go to Glasto if attendance were limited to a thousand….across the same size event area.

    5. What a miserable cnut the author is – no wonder the anonymity! We always enjoyed vacations with our two lads – for me, it was often an opportunity to be childish again but without embarrassment. And we could show them things and teach them things (such as how to behave in a restaurant… speak food in several languages… and eat something other than burgers and fries) so they became useful, intelligent adults.
      Now they are older and both work, we don't get so much opportunity to holiday together. Was hoping to repeat wih grandchildren, but none in sight yet.

      1. Should have published that one when the clearly dementia-ridden Biden was first elected!

  22. 388980+ up ticks,

    Portrait of King in Field Marshal uniform released to mark Armed Forces Day
    Society photographer Hugo Burnand took picture last November – before cancer diagnosis

    May one be so bold as to ask

    With all parties politico's discussing defence, is that defence of the realm as in England, N Ireland<, Scotland & Wales, or of
    their personal realms via foreign armies within the borders.

    WEF / NWO are running a successful construct campaign currently, keep that in mind.

  23. Morning folks, my new online mag, Free Speech Backlash (freespeechbacklash.com) is now live, but feeling a bit lonely at the moment. Why not check it out? There's summat for everyone and we also have a gossip page. I'm just off out to water my tomatoes, which are coming on fine but with a hint of blossom end rot. When I get back I'll be on the Daily Gossip page. Just click today's date for a copy of most of today's newspapers and scroll to the bottom to leave a comment. It's all free.

    1. Just visited your site, Tom. Interesting… left a comment.
      Do you generate all the material yourself, or is some of it fed from others? How do you finance it – advertising? In any case, I'm looking forward to reading more! (Bookmarked…)
      BTW, has anyone made a comparison between the modern politic of restricting food (by taxation or banning) with " Mao’s disastrous Great Leap Forward that killed up to 45 million, mainly by starvation." ( https://www.freespeechbackl… – is that the answer? Depopulation of the underclasses by starvation?
      The rest of the article has an awful lot of parallels with modern Western life that it's scary.

      1. Good comment Oberst.
        Up to now, all the comment is from little old me, with the exception of the Little Red Guard piece, written by Miss Zhang (aka Mrs Armstrong). It’s funded entirely out of my own pocket, though we received a donation yesterday. Anyone can donate from £2 up, but I want to keep it free, and free of advertising.
        And I think there is too much truth for comfort in the starvation angle.

        1. Hi Tom. Trying to subscribe, but site says “Please provide a valid email address”. Mine is valid. Is there an issue with the site?

          1. Thanks Geoff, really good to see you.
            I’ll have to revert on that. No.2 son’s department. You are in the site, but trying to subscribe, tight?

          2. Geoff, my son responds as follows:

            The problem might be that the email isn’t actually valid, if they are cutting and pasting and there is whitespace on the end.

            He has made two changes to the form:

            1) It now accepts email addresses given with whitespace on the end
            2) If an invalid email is given, the site will alert him of the email given so he can see it

            If you try this and it still doesn’t work, and don’t want to leave your email address here, please do send it to me on freespeechbacklash@gmail.com or airmstrang@gmail.com and I’ll make sure it gets sorted out.

    2. I only see it greyed out, no dialogue box to explain why?
      Brave browser, connected via VPN

      2. "It sounds like the cookie consent manager is loading, which is normal and expected, but his browser is blocking the full loading of the cookie consent assets, so all he sees is the grey overlay and nothing else."
        Hope this helps.

        1. Yes, it’s the cookie consent dialog – if I press shift/F5 I see it briefly at the bottom of the page. But it never stays around so I can’t click it away. Brave Shield is enabled.
          Let me know if you want me to collect any data.

          1. Another chap dropped shields on Brave to get in. There is a rogue cookie permission popup that was arguing his ad-blocker. It worked for him.

    3. Tried to get in just now, and it has this annoying habit of loading up, and then the screen goes grey and unresponsive. Maybe it's a cookie verification bot, or some malware snuck in by the developers that my browser guard or virus checker is blocking? I am having to go through a labyrinth – Brave browser on Windows 7 through an old version of Parallels set up on my Macbook pro that does not support the latest version of MacOS (which I do not want anyway with its over-reliance on the Cloud).

      in the old days, there was no need for all these javascripts and autoloaders and analyticals or targeting or AI or exciting designer features, such as interactive wizards and having to scroll stickily as information is dripfed.

      I would very much like to explore your site, and wish you were better served for what you are setting out to do.

      1. Mine loaded OK, jeremy, possibly still a few teething probs, looks interesting just no time to read at present.

      2. Nobody else has complained Jeremy, but thanks for the feedback. By the way, I passed on your comments about javascript and they are being addressed. It’s nothing sinister, mainly disqus and the site we use for donations, but my son is dealing with it, and he knows what he’s doing.

      3. Jeremy, my son commented as follows:
        "It sounds like the cookie consent manager is loading, which is normal and expected, but his browser is blocking the full loading of the cookie consent assets, so all he sees is the grey overlay and nothing else."
        Hope this helps.

    4. 'Morning, Tom. Your post prompted me to check in, looks interesting but have made a note to look later bit pushed for time. Are you sending out alerts to registered emails? if so, what time – I've not received anything yet at 9.13 am? Once I have an alert in my mail I may not check it straight away but it sits there until I do 🙂

    5. Very interesting Article on growing up under Mao’s Cultural Revolution. If you can keep that sort of quality going then it is going to be a very worthy site. Thank you.

    6. I've received your e-mail (one Tom to another) and being an unmitigated insomniac, I shall check out your site this evening between checking NTTL and prepping my accounts. Although I'm housebound I keep my brain busy.

  26. 388980+ up ticks,

    One good thing is with a gold fish bowl over the canister it will eliminate the wearing of masks.

    Air marshals will take on a new meaning,
    for instance, controlling the regulating valves " ID number 9999999 is still insisting there are only two genders, cut his supply to gasping level"

    https://x.com/newstart_2024/status/1806737517246402745

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Still sunny, the forecast was avengful rain.
    Those 'experts' seem to have got that one wrong…..again.
    Perhaps we could also have an arrangement where we have only two political parties. The choice of, the outright liars and the promises parties. 5 years in office and only 6 months to provide proof of keeping promises or out. And Jailed for lying.
    No way out. It would save us billions every year.
    No Lords or ladies. No 'human riaghts' lieyers either.
    Country run as a business, to succeed. Everyone pays their way. Take it or leave it.

    1. What you are proposing was tried with British Leyland.

      I think I'll leave it.

      1. Ah, but are you forgetting how the far left trade unions brought so many of our successful companies to the ground. One example was an all out strike because someone opened a factory window to let some fresh air in.
        Union leaders don't like fresh air.
        They would all be in jail under a common sense regime.

        1. I wouldn’t have said that the consolidation of all Britain’s little car companies under one central umbrella “run as a business” worked that well, with or without the unions.

          When Lord Stokes came on to assure us all that the Marina was a better car than the Minor, and the Allegro more attractive than the 1100, I felt that the main problem lay with British management, and that the unions were a symptom more than the sole cause of the industry’s demise.

          2. I understand exactly what you are saying.
            I speak from experience, an old neighbour worked at Luton Vauxhall. He was middle management. And often told me of the often invented ‘problems’ caused by the unions. Because of it, he resigned after 25 years and found a new job at Aston Martin. Production supervision.
            He absolutely loved it spent 15 years in bliss. Retired and sadly passed away 5 years later.

  28. For anyone who read last nights comments about the male osprey at Loch Arkaig going missing since Wednesday, he returned with a fish at 8.26 this morning! 🎉👏🏻💕

    1. Possibly fish at a lower level in river due to daytime heat, returning to surface to feed cooler evening. Well done that bird for being so patient.

      1. He fishes in Loch Arkaig which is 12 miles long, but has been known to go to the sea and return with what they call ‘silver tourists’!

        1. I would so love to see him, my general rule is that people and nature don't mix. He sounds an absolute belter :-))

    1. Yes, or they thought he might be ill. I’m so happy! Why does something as insignificant make you feel so sad/happy?

          1. My golf club in Leicestershire is planted with Robinia Pseudoacacia (False Acacia) which, when flowering on a sunny late spring day, the scent is quite intoxicating

          2. Thanks, Gypsy. Will have to prop up apple tree branches today or soon, big crop this year. Roe deer eat the fallen ones, especially the half-rotted/over-ripe, perhaps they get a lift from them!

          4. Fab…female Roe? rumours of large reds here but I’ve never seen/come across any. Couple of young roe stags sparring most evenings. I have a number of antlers collected on walks. The Roe like to shelter under large Yew when heavy rain.

          5. She had a heart shaped white bottom! She slept quite happily behind the shed, and it’s very dry under all the holly and cypress!

          6. The blackbirds have ours – but we only have one apple tree now as the other blew down in a storm some years ago. That one had good apples – good for eating or cooking. The one that is left has pretty, red apples that ripen early, but they are soft and horrible, so the birds are welcome to them. The blossom is lovely in the spring, though.

          7. Sounds similar to ours, apart from the yellow ones which deer eat which I think is some sort of Pippin we have a large Cox apple tree, neighbour takes all the fallen ones to make juice (delicious), smaller tree is ScotchBridget a very good all-rounder.

          8. I have a Lord Derby (cooker), a Braeburn, a Cox's Orange Pippin, a Spartan and three Unbekannte (one was supposed to be an Egremont Russet, but is either a Jonagold or a Gala and one came from one of my neighbours who was having his garden re-vamped and the trees – there were pear trees as well – were surplus to requirement).

          9. Braeburn my favourite eater, Russet a close second. On limestone here, bit rocky, hence the local Pippin. I kept hens a number of years ago, discovered an old pear bush in their pen, apparently one for bottling rather than eating – small and hard. Your orchard sounds fab. Bit sorry to read of neighbour garden re-vamp, knowing what some do with that.

          10. Neither he nor his partner is a gardener, so it was laid out as low maintenance. I’m not complaining; I got two pear trees, an apple and a rose out of it. None of the trees was lost. I have three pears of my own (Doyenne de Comice, Beurre Hardy and a Concorde) along with a Victoria plum, a President and a Golden Gage. I’d like an Egremont Russet, but I don’t know where I’d put it.

          11. Doyenne de Comice…it is…had one many years ago…have moved many times, which has meant others have inherited my gardens, not good to dwell on that. Low maintenance always good idea, unless owner someone wants to spend hours working there instead of enjoying there. Hope you find room for the Russet 🙂

      2. I guess, Sue, it's because, like me, you're a country person at heart and nature is the cause of an instant heart lift.

    1. She was a wonderfully entertaining woman.

      She could handle humour and pathos with equal sensitivity. Her account of the woman who writes to her French lover every year on the birthday of her daughter with news of her life – but never posts it; the woman who cannot leave her ill father to marry the man who loves her. These bring tears to one's eyes.

      "George, don't do that!"

      We never learn what George is doing.

    3. Ah; that made me laugh (wryly, as the situation hasn't disappeared). Thank you!

  34. The Channel Four excuse for passing off an actor as a Reform activist reminds me of that time a BBC indie production tried to pass off the head of a Pfizer research unit as an independent scientist on the basis that he’s paid by the university where the unit is located and not directly by Pfizer. Ironic given that indie producers are themselves given a budget by the BBC from which to pay their production staff. All Channel Four productions are indie commissions. They’re a commissioner/publisher not a production house.

    1. ‘They’ are devious b*stards, aren’t they? And still reporting as though it’s real!

    2. Does OFCOM have powers to fine anyone over this or better still have them shut down?

    2. Ostentatious – demeans the purpose of medals. Reminds me of the Yanks who get a medal for just crossing the Atlantic or making it down to breakfast.

    5. Especially when he's never earned any of them as most war and service veteran's did.

    6. As far as I’m know, he’s never been anywhere ear a war in his life; let alone leading from the front.

      1. The further from the front line the more medals are awarded. God knows where Charlie was.

  38. He has earned none of them. Half of them are anniversary medals celebrating his mother's reign. Most of the rest go with the job, Order of the Garter, etc. He even wears parachute wings but he never qualified. I think he did one or two jumps into water with a group of frogmen/rescuers positioned below in case he got into trouble – which he did, he had to be untangled form the parachute rigging. He did not do the pre-para and parachute courses to qualify as a military parachutist.

    1. To be fair he did something I could never do – jump out of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane.
      Reminds me of the guy who was going to make his first jump. He hesitated in the doorway. A big buck ni**er behind him said "If you don't jump you'll get this 9" dick up your jacksie"
      Did he jump? Just a bit

  39. Looks like a white version of Idi Amin.
    All that gold is crass, he only was awarded it 'cos he's important, not because he did anything much.

  40. Thanks Ken. We will certainly try. By the way, it was written by Mrs Armstrong.

    1. The last thing they want is a free-for-all at the national convention and the NWO power brokers can place their puppet as POTUS.

  43. No worries, Tom. Backlash site excellent, lots to read. Like the idea I can read from previous days as I often don’t have sufficient time to read all at one time.

    1. The bbc must be publicly forced to answer all the allegations against them.
      They are an absolute disgrace.

  46. She should be careful not to cross an Airedale. As anyone who has read Thurber’s dogs will know.

  47. Could have been me writing these letters!

    SIR – Rona Knight’s observation (Letters, June 27) about the “almost total absence of bees and other insects” is exactly what Rachel Carson predicted 60 years ago in her book Silent Spring.

    At that time, we had curlews and cuckoos, snipe and plover, red squirrels and barn owls. We also had insects all over our windscreens, and larger numbers of swallows, and enjoyed glorious night skies and much more open countryside.

    We are making strenuous efforts to improve the environment and enhance habitats now, but I fear they are too little, too late.

    Jeremy Chamberlayne
    Gloucester

    SIR – I have two buddleias in full bloom and would have expected them to be covered in butterflies.

    Absolutely none. Is anyone else experiencing this?

    Ann Woodings
    Ipswich, Suffolk

    2. It is a curious quirk of the butterfly calendar that UK gardens are bare of butterflies at this time of year.

      Every June we get calls from concerned BC members and journalists wondering what has happened to all the butterflies. The precise timing varies, depending on whether it is an early or late season, but the general pattern is so familiar that the butterfly recording community have christened it the 'June Gap'.

      https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/mind-the-gap-where-are-the-butterflies

      1. Thank you, William. I have been trying to make this point for some time. There is enough doom and gloom without seeing normal cycles as further evidence of imminent apocalyse.

        1. I always thought of butterflies as a late summer phenomenon, right back to my childhood days. Tortoiseshells, red admirals and peacocks were common then. They're not now, probably because not many householders have flowers in their gardens – if they have a garden, that is.

    3. Making strenuous efforts to improve the environment and enhance habitats? They are covering fields in houses and solar panels, sticking wind turbines in the hills, grubbing up hedgerows and cutting down mature trees!

  48. Found Elsewhere things that make you go hmmm
    Año Nuevo
    A Bit of an Update:

    Channel 4 bought the undercover film of Andrew Parker from Sorrell Media who have worked on numerous occasions for Channel 4.

    Andrew Parker was paid by Sorrell Media but the undercover film was commissioned by Channel 4

    Channel 4 are right when they say they did not pay Andrew Parker but what they fail to mention is their part in organising the sting.

    From below – but by now buried by newer comments. Thanks Año Nuevo

    My comment is this.

    Hook line and sinker. C4 should be done for lack of due diligence if relying on outside contractors. Newspapers would be done for exactly this – it is their responsibility to ensure the reporting is accurate.

    Election interference – company ending 'mistake'

    1. As I’ve commented below, Rik, Channel Four are commissioner/publishers, not a production house. They commission or purchase everything they broadcast. ITN used to produce Channel Four News. I don’t know if that’s still the case.

    2. Reform were done up like a kipper. Trouble is, I think C4 have acted like rank amateurs and I really do think Tice and Co ought to dig their teeth into this. They'll get a return, guaranteed.

    3. Nahh. Ch4 will walk away without a scratch. They'll get away with it because the entire state machine will close ranks. There will be no investigation, no outcome, no punishment. It'll all be hidden behind closed doors, hushed up and silenced. The footage, though, that'll remain out and publicised by the usual Lefty agitators who viscerally hate what Reform represent.

  49. Look forward to alert, Tom. If I have any other suggestions I’ll use the ‘Contact Us’ button, is that OK with you?

  50. More puritanical than "a bit snobbish". Worldwide, monarchs and heads of state are the mainstay of the medal & honours industry. Charles has to represent his country, so the baubles are there in order to impress foreigners.

  51. I saw one butterfly yesterday afternoon – a gatekeeper on the Valerian. Nothing on the Buddlieia.

      2. But it wasn't one person, it was several which happened to include Mr. Johnson.

  53. A quick run into Matlock and I now have a Leisure Battery for use in the van when I go camping and an inverter on order so I can use a small fridge without flattening the main battery.
    I now have to rig up a means of charging the thing when the engine is running.

    1. Funny you should mention that. At the moment I'm looking at Polar and Givenergy batteries!

    2. Back in Oz we had a duel battery system in our LWB land rover. When towing our Caravan we could pull over anywhere and the van lights and fridge would still function.
      We also had a 65 litre water tank and opposite side rear compartment
      the same size fuel tank plus the normal ten gallon. We needed it at around 20 mpg. 🤠😎

    1. At the other extreme
      Wordle 1,106 5/6

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

      1. Me too.
        Wordle 1,106 5/6

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

    2. Ah, another narrowboater! I've never owned one, but lots of hire boat holidays over the years. 🙂

      1. After my brother's divorce he bought himself a narrowboat. He lives on it 24/7. The boat is called WayAway. He has never been happier.

      2. Yes, the bug stays with you once it bites. I had mine from 1993 to 2018, never regretted it. The only thing that got me off the water in the end was living out here made it a long journey just to go out or maintain it. No real rivers in Suffolk and no canals at all.

  56. Writing as one who served for 19 years but has no gongs because no wars were attended, it reminds me of Ruritania.

    2. I served for nigh on 10 years with the RAF and served during the Cuba crisis. 72 hours confined to squadron. Afraid of a nuclear strike on us at RAF West Raynham in N Norfolk.

      No gongs either, Fiscal.

    3. Two tours of ni, one general service medal. Nine years service with the colours, mainly cold war time.

  57. Oh well done! I got a par four today.

    Wordle 1,106 4/6

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

    1. There is no 'Far Right'. There's the state, and it's desperation to destroy everything good and decent and normal people who want their country's back.

  60. That's one thing sorted out!
    Heading to Matlock t'other day, got the main LH wing mirror knocked out by sticky-out foliage just after some temporary traffic lights at Ball Eye entrance.
    Went down & tried finding the aforesaid foliage after I got home but failed to do so.
    Got the mirror housing knocked again this morning so I've just been down with the saw and cleared it, a bit of sycamore sticking out from the hedge.

  61. It's all become the absolute epitome of the 2015 Bond film Spectre.
    Shame we don't have real life Bond's who might tidy things up a little.

    1. When that Bond film was released Ian Hislop on HIGNFY said he didn't realise it was going to be a documentary.

    1. As with the Trump Trial, this attitude reflects how terrified they are of Farage. It's boring.

      What's worse is because the entire establishment is captured not a thing will be done about Channel 4's politically motivated sting operation.

  63. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/a-labour-landslide-would-leave-the-uk-unrecognisable/

    Errr…. Mr Jenrick… walk through St Mary's and take a tour through Lordshill. There's a flippin' 'Turkish barber' drugs front in Netley. Customers per day? 1, at most. Profit? In the tens of thousands a month.

    You've already poisoned this country. You've done nothing to stop and have encouraged the complete corruption and perversion of everything the UK used to be.

  64. Lots of confectionery/souvenir shops along Oxford Street W1 now. Almost certainly money laundering outfits or so I’m told but how does it work?

    2. Cash in hand. Chap turns up on a deliveroo scooter – they're all brownies – carrying a bag full of drug money, the drug front puts it through the shop til.

      Cheap consumables are thrown away and the farce continues.

  65. Yesterday morning, I joined five others members of a fly-fishing association of which I am a member for weed-removal exertions in the River Lambourn. We had a couple of professional river-keeper types wielding the scythes while a half-a-dozen of us stood in the river to intercept the rafts of cut weed and haul them out onto the bank.

    Here is a little local snapshot of Britain in 2024. Our little fly-fishing club of 60 members used to have two beats on the Lambourn adjacent to each other giving a mile and a bit of fishing altogether. The lower beat was owned by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) who used it for scientific research and from whom we leased the fishing rights. Part of the deal was that our association would look after the public footpath which ran alongside for a few hundred yards, keep the grass cut, shore up the bank when needed, maintain two footbridges, prune the trees and arrange for the removal of any trees fallen across the path and river. We'd had this deal for about 20 years.

    The CEH ended its scientific work in 2022 and last year it put the beat up for sale as a prime stretch of English Trout and Grayling chalk-stream fishing. Sadly, we didn't have £450k in the association accounts to buy it. Some local villagers were trying to raise the money between them to establish a nature reserve in which the fishing rights would still be leased out but it was bought by someone who wanted no communication with the fisheries upstream (us) and downstream of his new acquisition. Contact was attempted through lawyers but replies came there none. We had hoped for a co-operative, mutually beneficial, relationship with the new owner on all matters related to the fishery, perhaps even reciprocal rights, but it was not to be.

    I learned this morning that the new owner is a local farmer who has no interest in maintaining a fishery; he intends to let the stretch 're-wild', which it is already doing quite nicely and the public footpath is now virtually impassable. Apparently it's his bit of 'set-aside' or something like that. He wanted to produce something on another peice of his land so in order to do that and maintain the required balance of cultivated land and re-wilded land, he bought this bit of the River Lambourn. He is letting it go wild to collect the government subsidy – which we, of course, are paying for through our taxes. He won't even cut the prolific weed growth which means water is backed up in his stretch and it could threaten a couple of riverside properties with a gentle inundation as well as keep the water-level on our beat higher than it would normally be at this time of year.

    So, a group of fly-fishers have lost a valuable bit of fishing. We can't cut the weed in our stretch and float it downstream through his. We have to take it out of the river and, believe me, it is hard work. Co-ordinating weed-cuts with the fishery owners down stream of him so that we all do it on the same day is now impossible, a thing of the past. The locals have lost an amenity (a public footpath) and the local Parish Council is mightily annoyed, all thanks to politicians and their bloody stupid re-wilding policy dictated by UN Agenda 21 and the associated government subsidies. Which we are paying for.

    1. All part of the national food security strategy – to tell farmers to stop growing food.

      1. And to stop looking after rivers and blaming the consequences on Anthropomorphic Climate Ctastrophe

    2. Doesn't he have a responsibility to maintain public rights of way and keep them open for public rights?

    3. It's an offence to obstruct a public right of way. Get on to your county council rights of way officer if they have one. Of course, they may not bother, but they should chase it up.

  66. Did she also have a small tail hanging down from the heart, that would def be a doe. Recently found a yearling sadly point of death, no visible injury, thinking is possibly liver fluke. Buck is very similar but without the small tail. They will be rutting soon, listen out for the loud barks, often followed by the thudding of hooves. Does generally OK with humans but if you come across a buck, back away…slowly…:-D Thanks for post Sue, love anything nature related.

  67. Oh dear. Poor Dolly. I noticed she was looking a bit red around her rear end. Trip to the Vet. Blocked an infected anal glands. A shot of antibiotics and a shot of pain killers and acourse of pills. Back to the Vet in a week.

    It's my fault and i feel really guilty. Clearing her glands is one job i just can't do.
    She was only at the Vet last week for her annual check up so she hasn't been in discomfort long.

    Damn.

    2. When Wiggy was very old he would get a bit incontinent. He tried, we set down trays around the place but he couldn't help it, especially if he was dozing.

      Cleaning his bottom was something we both got used to. I know what you mean though.

    3. Poor Dolly.

      Pip has anal gland probs , and the vet told me to add more vegetables to his food , so I buy those microwaveable packs of fresh veges , bung the packet in the microwave for about 4 minutes , remove vegs , cool off, chop up add to food , my love broccoli, carrots, cauli and beans , and cross fingers Pip's botty has been fine for a while . He loves the mixture .

      So sorry that Dolly has been feeling uncomfortable .. Was she doing a Michael Jackson moon walk on the carpet?

      1. No she didn't moonwalk.
        I inspect her bottom after she has had a pooh because sometimes she gets klingons on her tail. As soon as i saw it was going red i took her to the Vet.
        Thanks for the tip.

    5. Oh what a joy it is, clearing a doggie's anal glands, Been there, done it, and have inhaled all the smelly shite to prove it!

  70. 388980+up ticks,

    Was it not you that asked the UKIP members for £100000 when taking over as leader,only to receive £300000 ?
    ·
    3h

    And what IF it turns out that the man who made the comments was an actor hired by Channel 4? What will the next Govnt do about it?

    Channel 4 is half owned by the tax payer. SELL IT OFF!

    That was in my Manifesto when I was UKIP Leader, & like everything else in it it is long overdue for implementation!

    1. Channel 4 did not hire the "actor". It hired the production company that hired the "actor".

      1. Pontius Pilate hand washing.

        It's not Channel 4's cross to bear – If someone is going to be crucified Channel 4 must make sure that it is not seen to be directly responsible for hiring the crucifier.

        1. I recall that old military adage: "You can delegate authority, but not responsibility".

    1. She's asleep under the coffee table. Not in any distress thank goodness. I noticed something was wrong last night. She wouldn't stop licking her bed.

  72. It wasn't just one person.

    "Passengers have accused Stanley Johnson of causing a diverted British Airways flight to be cancelled.

    The writer, who is Boris Johnson’s father, was aboard BA2641 from Malaga to London Gatwick.

    When a separate British Airways flight rejected take off at Gatwick, the runway was closed for 50 minutes and 16 flights were diverted – including the Malaga flight.

    The plan was to refuel the Airbus A321 at Heathrow and, with the runway open again, make the short flight to Gatwick. But some passengers were keen to disembark – including Mr Johnson, according to passengers.

    One of them, Richard Davenport, told The Independent: “The plan was to refuel and the aircraft was given a slot to fly to Gatwick. However as Stanley Johnson decided he wanted to get off – along with another passenger – we subsequently missed the slot.

    “It took a few hours to sort and ultimately BA cancelled the flight. All passengers then had to deplane and proceed through immigration and then take a bus to Gatwick.

    “With a car parked at Gatwick we didn’t have to option to just leave at Heathrow. It left 99.5 per cent of passengers with a bitter taste.”

    At one stage airport police were summoned to deal with the issue, passengers say.

    Another passenger, Annemarie, told The Independent: “Apparently Stanley Johnson refused to stay on the plane, along with a terrified flyer. They were getting quite irate, hence the police.

    “This caused carnage because the airline cannot make you stay on the plane against your will. And because so many passengers wanted to get off, it would have caused hell at Heathrow with passengers having to claim their luggage and then those who wanted to go to Gatwick to perhaps claim their luggage then recheck in again and it would have meant the crew were out of flying hours.

    “The airline made the decision to cancel the flight.”

    A spokesperson for British Airways said: “Due to earlier disruption at Gatwick, the flight diverted to Heathrow where it terminated.”

    Stanley Johnson was approached for comment."

    https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/stanley-johnson-flight-cancelled-british-airways-b2570789.html

    1. Why couldn't they have told the two passengers that they were free to get off but that their luggage was going to Gatwick? Surely it wouldn't have altered any risk of bombs being set off remotely?

      1. Because you can't fly the luggage without the passenger it belongs to on board. I've been delayed on flights because somebody didn't turn up after the luggage had been loaded and we had to wait until it had been located and removed.

        1. Yurss; I know them’s the rules, but I fail to see how the luggage in this case (unexpected re-routing) could *possibly* be a security risk. Grrr!

          PS Totally off topic – reciting “Я вас любил” is my Russian party piece too!! (Well, apart from the time I got snaffled for an interview on Russian TV when on a protest march during the covid madness and ended up singing Tchaikovsky… 🤣🤣)

          1. That was the one. I couldn’t think of anything else to do – I didn’t have the music to play any pieces on the piano and I didn’t remember enough of what I knew to make a performance. We all know that when them’s the rules, it’s “more than my job’s worth” to go against them, even though they don’t actually fit the occasion.

      2. Because you can't fly the luggage without the passenger it belongs to on board. I've been delayed on flights because somebody didn't turn up after the luggage had been loaded and we had to wait until it had been located and removed.

  73. It has happened here in the UK too.

    German woman given harsher sentence than rapist for calling him ‘pig’ D Torygaff
    ‘Maja R’ jailed for ‘defaming’ gang-rapist by messaging him with her views after he avoided prison.

    1. A woman in Germany has been given a harsher sentence than a convicted rapist after she was found guilty of defaming him.

      Maja R, a 20-year-old from Hamburg, called him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak”, defamatory under German law.

      He was one of nine attackers who gang-raped a 15-year-old girl in a Hamburg park in 2020, in a case that shocked the city.

      Maja R was sentenced to a weekend in jail for her verbal attacks. The rapist was given a suspended sentence and served no prison time due to his age.

      The sentence has sparked anger over what critics see as the flaws in Germany’s judicial system, with disproportionate punishment for defamation.

      Maja R expressed her disgust in a direct message to one of the gang-rapists via WhatsApp, after his name and number were leaked on Snapchat. She told the court she sent her message to him “without thinking twice”.

      “Aren’t you ashamed when you look in the mirror?” she asked, calling him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak”.

      She also told the criminal that he “couldn’t go anywhere without getting kicked in the face” and said, “let’s hope you are just locked away”.

      The man was one of nine men and boys convicted of raping a 15-year-old in the bushes of a Hamburg park over a number of hours in Sept 2020.

      All were under 20 at the time, allowing them to be subject to juvenile law. Only one of them spent any time in jail, an Iranian national, who was 19 years old at the time, though it’s not clear why. Speaking about the rape in court, he asked: “What man doesn’t want that?”

      The rest of the attackers, including the one defamed by Maja R, were given suspended sentences. Anne Meier-Goering, the presiding judge, lamented during the trial that “none of the defendants said a word of regret”.

      Maja R was sentenced to a weekend in jail after her comments because she had a previous conviction for theft and had not attending the court hearing for the case.

      She apologised to the young man she had contacted, telling the court “it didn’t help anyone”. She added that she wanted to go back to school and study to become a paediatric nurse.

      The case has laid bare Germany’s harsh defamation laws, which criminalise causing offence with even mild slurs like “idiot”. Breaking the law can lead to punishment of up to two years in prison.

      The district court said it had received strong reactions over the rulings in both the defamation case and the rape trial which prompted it.

      Hamburg authorities are now investigating around 140 more suspects for insulting or threatening the gang rapists, with 100 of the suspects based outside Hamburg.

      A court spokesman told the Hamburger Abendblatt local newspaper last week: “We are observing the hostility in connection with the proceedings and the verdict with great concern.”

      He said the anger over the case had “reached a new, worrying level of intensity” and described the criticism as “a targeted attack on the rule of law”.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/28/german-woman-given-harsher-sentence-than-rapist-for-calling/

      1. this happened some time ago and was picked up by YT bloggers via Indian newspaper.. not through MSN.
        Only now do DT & MSN report it, after the fuss on social media.

      3. Good God!
        Where's the raped lass' dad? He should castrate the rapist, then shoot him dead.
        I'll contribute to his trial costs.

  75. What a world! What a place!
    Aren't you glad you're a member of the human race?

    [Lyrics from a Bernny Hill song]!

  76. 🇬🇧 RogueGunner12 ✍️🇬🇧
    @Rogue_Gunner12
    ·
    2h
    This lady is giving birth by way of a C section and one of the anesthesiologists decides to stick his penis in her mouth. I bet this isn't the first time he's done this.

    3. I know you're told to feel a little prick before you go under but this sucks.

    4. "Anesthesiologists"? Must be a Yank!

      Anæsthetists are what they are called in the UK.

      1. Nice to see you back, Grizzly, and I do not believe, either, that this in theatre oral rape scenario could occur here in the UK. But, hey, times have changed

  77. Impartial Leftie Fiona Bruce butts in on Nigel Farage, then nods to camera man to zoom in on leftie audience plant (Mark Cordon a BBC technician no less).. to discuss C4 faking street scenes to support the Leftie cause.

    He was the first to be asked the question to Nigel on racism. His face and his tone was hostile from the start. It all makes perfect sense now doesn't it! Fiona knew exactly where he was sitting and it was obviously a prearranged question.

    1. It's been pretty obvious that the bbc are trying to rig the election and attempting to alter voters opinions.
      Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see what they are upto.
      Hopefully it as should lead to more support for those they are trying to belittle even destroy.

      1. I'm not interested in any of it. I'm entirely unaffected by broadcaster bias.

    2. And Farage handled it very well. A great opportunity to tell what was going on, how it had all been a put up job and at prime time on national TV.
      If the intention had been to embarrass him or his party it certainly back fired.
      His intervention was impressive especially after that Green Party guy.

  78. Right, that’s me off to drive up to Rutland for a dinner tonight with some old RAF mates from my days flying the Harrier. I may be some time.

      1. Moh ran the Park run regularly, then in 2013 when he was 67 years old he ran it in 24 mts 40 seconds .. Son and he are both racing snakes .

        Moh had to give up because of friction on his empty bladder , blood in the loo etc, he still lightly jogs , not bad for 78 years.

        Me, I am the tortoise , cannot keep up with the hares!

      2. I walk fairly quickly, or I used to. It would take me 45/50 minutes walking in the old days.

  80. Channel 4 were clearly seeking an outcome.

    The gangsters did not hire the hitman they hired the gangsters who hired the hitman?
    In terms of morality, what's the difference?

    1. it depends on whether it's a case of complicity or lack of due diligence. Channel 4 might have had no input into the production but I'd not be at all surprised if the outcome was to its satisfaction and not much bothered whether it was honestly achieved.

      1. What do you think?
        I know what I think, and it's that C4 wanted something that would make Reform look bad and having been given what they wanted they just said "Thank you very much" and published.

        It would be poetic justice if the actor in question was prosecuted for hate speech.

        1. Reform should refer the 'actor' to the Hate Police and demand that he be prosecuted. If it was a genuine 'Right wing' fascist they would have done it already. Perhaps the know it was a set up and don't want to arrest a fellow traveller.

  81. I've cleaned the outside metal and wood bits.

    Had to stop as the step is too hot for bare feet.

  82. Bring one back with you, we’re a bit short! (Yes, I know, we gave them to the Merkins!).

  83. The BBC doesn't lie. It just doesn't tell the truth and sets up to ensure it gets the answers it wants.

    If you can ever get to see unedited footage you see a whole swathe that provides completely different context.

      1. I was on 3 at Geilenkirchen ’62 – ’64 (Canberra B(I)8s. Hope you enjoyed your reunion

  86. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/06/29/tamayo-perry-surfer-pirates-of-caribbean-died-obituary/

    An interesting obit , a horrible ending RIP

    He was philosophical about the risks and culture of the sport, saying in 2016: “The thing about surfing is that it’s a very Darwinian culture in the sense that it’s eat or be eaten; only the strong survive. If you surf pipe a lot you know death is right around the corner at any moment.”

    Known for his cheeky and infectious smile, Perry also had a strong Christian faith, and when he was asked by a surfing magazine to name the last two books he read, he cited The Bible and The End: 50 Reasons Why Jesus Christ Could Return Before the Year 2000.

    Tamayo Perry was killed in a shark attack off Goat Island, also known as Moku’auia, off the north-east shore of O’ahu. He is survived by his wife, Emilia, also a surfer and stunt performer, with whom he ran the O’ahu Surfing Experience.

    Tamayo Perry, born April 15 1975, died June 23 2024

    RM

    Rebecca McKnight
    1 HR AGO
    Nice piece. I never saw him on screen but he sounds like a true adventurer. Riding those waves is no mean feat. An impressive man who appeared to live life to the max with a respect for our oceans. RIP and condolences to his family.

    Comment by John Fogarty.

    JF

    John Fogarty
    1 HR AGO
    One must admire the strong Christian faith of the Polynesians. He reminds me of Israel Folau who got exiled from Australia and ended up playing Rugby League in France after tweeting out an excerpt from Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans.

    Comment by N Hamilton.

    NH

    N Hamilton
    1 HR AGO
    Great guy who truly lived life.
    Not sure why he warrants a top line obituary in the DT?

    Comment by Alexander Powell.

    AP

    Alexander Powell
    3 HRS AGO
    Quite a life! And a nice reminder that other ways of being than the standard path along which so many compete – good schools, good uni, impressive job, nice house, blah blah – are still possible.

    Reply by Michelle Wedd.

    MW

    Michelle Wedd
    1 HR AGO
    Exactly that. What a life. As the majority of this globe is covered with water, surfers really commune with the spirit of this planet

    Comment by Whaaats Yer name.

    WY

    Whaaats Yer name
    4 HRS AGO
    “Only the strong survive”: 49 is not a great age but in surfing maybe it is. RIP

    1. “When not acting, I’m still quite a character,” he once said.

      “On a scale of one to 10 it was huge. The waves demanded 110 per cent focus, commitment and respect.”

      “I remember being blind and having to read the inside of the barrel (wave) and use my Jedi mind-trick to get out of that thing. It was mind-blowing.”

      Very timid and self-effacing too?

  87. The News Quiz Now being broadcast

    Geoff Norcott, Stuart Mitchell, Daliso Chaponda and Katy Balls join Andy Zaltzman to quiz the news.

    With just one week to go before the UK heads to the polls, Andy and the Panel analyse the final head to head debate, discuss the pitfalls of workplace betting, and finally bring a voice to the political elephants in the room.

    Another bucketful of Left-wing political vomit and diarrhetic excrescence to justify their vast salaries and appearance fees. Worth every penny?

    1. I haven't watched any of their drivel. OH has been glued to the tennis this week.

      1. Don't listen to, or watch any political programme from the bbc. Biased is the kindest word I would use to the leftist bilge that is transmitted. The same applies to any of its so called comedy output. Just too ignore all bbc programmes simplifies life enormously.

  88. At least this time no one has been murdered. Herr Schwab is on video saying that the Jo Cox murder would swing the referendum in favour of Remain. She was one of ours he said, but no matter if it achieves the desired result. He and his ilk really are that callous. She was a despicable creature but none of us in the Leave camp wished her dead?

    1. Sue, the late Jo Cox MP was not in any way a "despicable creature". She was a lovely person and a beloved Mum. No, I did not agree with her politics. Declaration of interest: for many years I have known one of her friends, who travelled from abroad to Ms Cox's funeral.

        1. It used to be, but it's now 53 years since decimalisation and many younger people might be unfamiliar with the 'bob' and how peculiar a note worth less than ten of them would have been.

          4. Saw the first £20 note with Charles' head on it yesterday. Seems weird after so long of having Her Majesty on our notes and stamps.

        2. What happened to the tanner, threpenny bit. A bob. Florin, half a crown. Real money with our own names.

    1. It used to be convention for the Monarch to ask the leader of the party with most seats in Parliament after a general election if he/she/it/they would form a Government.

      Time for a change?

        1. How about a Reformation?

          Last time that happened a lot of places of worship not aligned with the Defence of the Faith were subjected to demolition orders.

          I can understand though there might be protestations about that sort of plannning Reform.

  92. Some idiot guest on Radio 4 Question Time has just said doctors are leaving the NHS and taking jobs in supermarkets because the pay is better and the job less stressful.

    Doctors in the UK earn a salary based on their level of training. The basic annual pay ranges from £32,398 for Foundation 1 doctors to £126,281 for the most experienced doctors. In addition to the basic salary, doctors may receive additional pay for working nights, weekends, being on-call, and other factors.

    I didn't realise that did you? I must get moving and apply for a job at Lidl or Morrison or Tesco's.

    1. it’s time we started comparing apples with apples (as far as possible). Jobs compared on total remuneration I.e. salary and benefits including pension contributions. Hard, when you cannot compare db with dc pensions easily. But urgís would instantly flush out why the doctors do in fact earn more than the man or woman on the Tesco checkout.

  93. Telegraph has an article about some village called Bramley, presumably not far from NTTL headquarters.
    Top comment from a Paul Lawrence shames the PTB, " The fibre glass repair must have been old and would have been quite adequate with ordinary petrol. In fact some vehicle petrol tanks were made from glass fibre. Unfortunately the introduction of E5 and E10 which has 5 or 10% ethanol content to make it a bit greener has had side effects. The ethanol will attack glass fibre resin, paint and many rubber components on older cars that are unaffected by petrol. Ethanol also absorbs water which isn't very good for fuel systems. But when the government decided we needed ethanol in petrol to make it greener they forgot to mention the negatives.
    Government half truths will never cease. " https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/06/29/petrol-poisoned-water-surrey-village-ground-zero-decay/#comment

    1. Bramley – near Guildford, as I remember. Crazed Teacher friend used to live there.

    1. Licence is the noun, Nigel. License is the verb form. Too much time in the USA has made him forget the British spelling distinction.

      1. I always enjoyed these lines by a poet in the 17th century whose day job was being the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral. (Interesting how the word licence is spelt)

        Licence my roving hands, and let them go,
        Before, behind, between, above, below.
        O my America! my new-found-land,
        My kingdom, safeliest when with one man mann’d,
        My Mine of precious stones, My Empirie,
        How blest am I in this discovering thee!
        To enter in these bonds, is to be free;
        Then where my hand is set, my seal shall be.

    2. Who owns Channel 4? The Channel Four Television Corporation. It's a statutory body and its chairman is appointed by Ofcom. Ofcom is run by a former senior civil servant, Melanie Dawes, who was presumably appointed by the Conservative government.

  95. I don't watch British TV. I have the radio on nearly all day and night to hide the squealing tinnitus in my ears.

    1. Perhaps staying home and donating the price of a Glastonbury ticket to Shelter or other charities for the homeless would have been of greater help to those who sleep under railway arches.

      1. We went with our son, Christo, to see Ralph McTell's 70th Birthday concert at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. Our son's 21st birthday was on the same day. The theatre was sold out.

        Of course Ralph's best known song is The Streets of London and on this occasion he was accompanied by John Williams, the renowned classical guitarist.

        This song is about the homeless and down and outs and all the proceeds from the concert were given to charity organisations supporting such people.

        https://www.google.com/search?q=john+williams+streets+of+london+videos&oq=Streets+of+London+John+Williams&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgBEAAYFhgeMgYIABBFGDkyCAgBEAAYFhgeMg0IAhAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IAxAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBBAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMg0IBRAAGIYDGIAEGIoFMgoIBhAAGIAEGKIE0gEJMTU3NzRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:8582a5a3,vid:urtnT72dVnw,st:0

        1. I have just listened to McTell's original for the first time ever. I have heard the chorus before but never the whole song. He is a good guitarist and singer and a great song.

          2. Yes it was also one of my party pieces in my early teens and also learnt the fingerpicking technique from listening. I strongly suspect that we are of a vintage!

          3. I can only gape with admiration – I have no idea how all this works, how it's done…

          5. #metoo.
            I have n musical talent whatever, to my eternal regret. Can’t sing, can’t play, no idea about instruments… I can only listen and admire the talent.
            Just wish I could participate.

          6. You could, I promise you, if you just abandoned the idea that you can't. I bet you could drum along, for example.

        2. I have just listened to McTell's original for the first time ever. I have heard the chorus before but never the whole song. He is a good guitarist and singer and a great song.

  97. As I'm not as mobile as I'd like at present [don't ask] I have been watching more daytime TV – really fed up with adverts about funeral plans, mobility scooters and walk in showers! What really is annoying me though is the poor standard of some subtitles – most notably in "The Battle of the River Plate" which I am watching at present – really poor! "4, 20" for "Port 20" being just one example.

    1. Sub-titles are often good for a laugh. Shame I can't remember a good example at the moment.

      1. Here's one I found online – "During a BBC Breakfast segment on the decline of fishing in England's coastal towns, a reporter was talking about the Norfolk town of Cromer, which is famous for its crabs, only for the subtitles to basically insult an entire town.

        'Cromer, famous for its crap,' read the subtitles ..."

    2. When looking for a road capable mobility scooter for FIL I discovered that he could legally drive a Class 3 vehicle, whilst flashing, on a 50 mph dual carriageway.

      When I see an advert for a mobility scooter on TV saying this will likely be the last scooter you will buy, I now know why!

    3. Whatever it is I'm not supposed to ask about, I hope it's not too painful and you will recover!

    4. We really want to know…. all of us….! but hope that this is something that will improve with time and rest. Deffo not asking…. !

  98. Glastonbury really is Art mimicking Life.

    You've got the wealthy leftie virtue-signallers like public school-educated Banksy, Charlotte Church, Damon Alburn perform to the middle class white perma -students behind the safety of 8km of high fencing like a privileged gated community.. shouting Leftie obscenities about Farage, The King and anything else faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar right.

    An inflatable boat with dummy migrants which was launched onto the crowd at Glastonbury during a gig was let loose by Banksy.

    Then, they all decamp back to Richmond, Bristol & leafy Oxford.. leave behind a mountain of crap.. for the plebs & migrants to clean up.

      2. Whilst leaving 230kg each of rubbish littered all around the place, whilt shouting to save the environment…

  99. Glastonbury really is Art mimicking Life.

    You've got the wealthy leftie virtue-signallers like public school-educated Banksy, Charlotte Church, Damon Alburn perform to the middle class white perma -students behind the safety of 8km of high fencing like a privileged gated community.. shouting Leftie obscenities about Farage, The King and anything else faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar right.

    An inflatable boat with dummy migrants which was launched onto the crowd at Glastonbury during a gig was let loose by Banksy.

    Then, they all decamp back to Richmond, Bristol & leafy Oxford.. leave behind a mountain of crap.. for the plebs & migrants to clean up.

  100. That is quite fast. In dry weather I walk to Lister Hospital in Stevenage for appointments. I can do it in just under an hour and Google Maps says the walking distance – pretty close to the route I take – is 5.1 km. That said, I prefer a slightly more leisurely pace and allow about 65 minutes.

  101. back to the top 50 TV Dramas:

    So where is “When the Boat Comes In”. Watched it again recently and it was brilliant.

    The stories of Channel Crossing and then the arrival of 'much needed young, religious male workers and their friends' at Dover?

  102. ‘I am not made for war’: the men fleeing Ukraine to evade conscription. 29 June 2024.

    Since the start of the war, hundreds of thousands of ordinary Ukrainians have volunteered to serve at the front, helping to maintain the country’s independence and repel the initial attack.

    Many of those initial soldiers are dead, wounded or simply exhausted, leaving the military to recruit among a more reluctant pool of men.
    To fill the ranks, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, last April signed a controversial law that lowered the mobilisation age from 27 to 25.

    Under the new guidelines, draft evaders can lose their driving licence, have their bank accounts frozen and property seized.

    Even before the latest mobilisation drive, more than 20,000 men are believed to have fled the country to avoid service, some of them swimming and drowning in attempting to cross Ukraine’s border into Romania.

    There is this situation and yet the Ukies refuse to negotiate. It is a recipe for disaster.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/29/i-am-not-made-for-war-the-men-fleeing-ukraine-to-evade-conscription

    1. "Under the new guidelines, draft evaders can lose their driving licence, have their bank accounts frozen and property seized."

      Didn't one of our government ministers suggest these proceedings against any youngster here who tried to evade the proposed national service plan?

      2. Sunak and Starmer I'm afraid are very much in favour of using any excuse to remove everyday personal freedoms. The professed lefty doesn't believe an "Englishman's home" is rightfully "his castle", so I suppose that's consistent. But the other one, had he been a Conservative one would think ought to know better.

        They're like a couple of parents saying, "you're grounded!" to the kids whenever they're being naughty.

      3. Sunak and Starmer I'm afraid are very much in favour of using any excuse to remove everyday personal freedoms. The professed lefty doesn't believe an "Englishman's home" is rightfully "his castle", so I suppose that's consistent. But the other one, had he been a Conservative one would think ought to know better.

        They're like a couple of parents saying, "you're grounded!" to the kids whenever they're being naughty.

      4. Sunak and Starmer I'm afraid are very much in favour of using any excuse to remove everyday personal freedoms. The professed lefty doesn't believe an "Englishman's home" is rightfully "his castle", so I suppose that's consistent. But the other one, had he been a Conservative one would think ought to know better.

        They're like a couple of parents saying, "you're grounded!" to the kids whenever they're being naughty.

  103. Loads of Palestinian flags flying in the crowd at Glastonbury. What a surprise!

    Must be nice to enjoy a music festival without the risk of getting butchered by a load of goat shaggers…

    1. There is a security fence surrounding the site, so if a violent individual or group were to enter, the festival goers would find it difficult to escape. The Hamas flags are a way of saying, 'don't shoot me, I support anti-semitism'.

      1. Didn't stop them slaughtering the pro-pally music festival peaceniks in Israel, did it?

      1. Perhaps that is why so many of them rape infidel teenage girls, Bacha Bazi little boys and Bacha Posh little girls and goats and dogs because they secretly hate themselves and know they are going to burn in hell.

        No truly sentient human would do any of those things.

  106. Q&A with Emily Eavis.
    Do the organisers of Glastonbury let people in without tickets?
    No, we do not. We need to control numbers and it wouldn't be fair on the people that followed the rules.

    Shut it sheeple. Didn't Emma T tell you the other day.. "do as I say, not as I do"..

    1. Ah, resource scarcity, supply and demand and market capitalism writ large – attended by Lefties, hippies, greeniacs.

      It's ironic, really. Their hypocrisy could stop the planet spinning.

    2. Nice to hear that Emily is in favour of controlling numbers. Perhaps we could get her down onto the beaches at Dover.

      2. Did anyone study Matthew Arnold's poetry for "A" level English? I loved Sohrab and Rustum and I loved reading it to my boys when they were little and to my English classes.

        Dover Beach is a poem I also return to from time to time.

        Dover Beach: Matthew Arnold

        The sea is calm tonight.
        The tide is full, the moon lies fair
        Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
        Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
        Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
        Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
        Only, from the long line of spray
        Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
        Listen! you hear the grating roar
        Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
        At their return, up the high strand,
        Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
        With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
        The eternal note of sadness in.

        Sophocles long ago
        Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
        Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
        Of human misery; we
        Find also in the sound a thought,
        Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

        The Sea of Faith
        Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
        Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
        But now I only hear
        Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
        Retreating, to the breath
        Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
        And naked shingles of the world.

        Ah, love, let us be true
        To one another! for the world, which seems
        To lie before us like a land of dreams,
        So various, so beautiful, so new,
        Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
        Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
        And we are here as on a darkling plain
        Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
        Where ignorant armies clash by night.

        1. Didn't do it for A level but that is one of my favourite poems ever. There are many others (eg "Palladium" and "To Marguerite")

        2. Very nice, Rastus. I’ve not read that before. Great allusion to Faith.

          3. It's also very spiritual, I have tried (and failed) to post a couple more of MA's magnificent poems here. I think "The Scholar Gypsy" is also worth more than a mention

        3. Finally have managed to copy "To Marguerite continued":

          Yes! in the sea of life enisled,
          With echoing straits between us thrown,
          Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
          We mortal millions live alone.
          The islands feel the enclasping flow,
          And then their endless bounds they know.

          But when the moon their hollows lights,
          And they are swept by balms of spring,
          And in their glens, on starry nights,
          The nightingales divinely sing;
          And lovely notes, from shore to shore,
          Across the sounds and channels pour—

          Oh! then a longing like despair
          Is to their farthest caverns sent;
          For surely once, they feel, we were
          Parts of a single continent!
          Now round us spreads the watery plain—
          Oh might our marges meet again!

          Who order'd, that their longing's fire
          Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd?
          Who renders vain their deep desire?—
          A God, a God their severance ruled!
          And bade betwixt their shores to be
          The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

        4. I remember reading Sohrab & Rustum when we were about 13…….. but he didn't figure in my A level English syllabus.

    1. Doesn't matter though, does it? The muck sticks and those responsible will get away with it. This is just the start of what the Left wing media will do all day, every day to every reform MP. Then they'll go for the support staff, aides and when they can, those who voted for them.

      The Left hate, unrelentingly. They don't stop. They can't. They're irrational, consumed with the self righteousness of their cause.

  108. Reading all the machinations about getting rid of Biden, it occurs to me that if the Democrats managed to change their candidate they could do a lot worse than running a campaign on the basis of:

    "Look at how Joe was and imagine if Trump became the same, they're nearly the same age. Just think of the damage he could cause"

  109. It cannot get any better when the whole world knows that they are being told a lie, while the mainstream media goes on as if nobody is any the wiser.

  110. Afternoon folks – As Richard T will confirm far worse things happen at sea…

    My leisurely cruise along the K&A was going well until a couple of weeks ago. I had reached the top of the Wootton Rivers Flight
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c051ce00f3c191d28b19df5019493eed2c299c0a00805a4cffb9db30879d376a.jpg
    when news came through that a Spanish HGV diver had taken his truck for a drink in the canal just a mile upstream:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62701e5440ea0e05c7bea1091ddc2b986eea5f5d91d0972cd9ec08849ce58117.jpg
    His load of 2 ton bags of washed carrots had to be hauled out of the back of the trailer using a Hi-ab lorry.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d35bca8b823dc3b1f79006114724986e09d2940e8346372b1cb86e5b05d3528.jpg
    Eventually the HGV was removed from the water and after a dredger had arrived to clear the debris from the canal we were allowed passage through the site (after having to spend a week at the adjacent wharf), the lorry having made a deep impression:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6da99c6ced97e389ec515cbd8d42f99135a788aed8d4aa9f8cbefb976d4941c8.jpg
    The wharf owner David kindly supplied water as required and even drove us to the local garage to fill 20 litre jerry cans with diesel for our boats's fuel tanks. David is a good egg. Not only does he own the wharf but also 70 hire boats. His pride and joy is a 2 berth 50' widebeam with a luxurious fit out ( Think massive bath / jacuzzie). It will only cost £3,800 for a one week hire in the high season…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08309388f04d330b085b9f14df72e445afe4e583355d8c73282abe483802004c.jpg
    Good egg Citroen contacted me and drove us both to the Royal Oak at Wootton Rivers for lunch one day and even offered to return later in the week if I needed provisions. Fortunately that wasn't necessary as the bus to Marlborough sometimes stopped outside the Wharf i(if the driver could be arsed to!)

    Back on dry land now!

          1. A good tune yes but also sentimental mush which could be partly responsible for anti farming and mental vegans.

          2. When I was doing my P.G.Cert.Ed. at Southampton University in the early 1970s we had to read a different children's book each week and then discuss the book the following week I can still remember most of the books we read: Watership Down, Smith, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Silver Sword, Over Sea Under Stone, A Kestrel for a Knave; The Iron Man.

            Both Christo and Henry work in modern industries (Aerospace Engineering and Computers) but I am delighted that they still read voraciously. Henry did a B.A. degree in Politics and Philosophy and then a M.Sc in Computer Science and Data Analytics – this, and his love of books and poetry, gives him the tremendous advantage of being able to communicate with techy nerds as well as ordinary people!

    2. Makes you weep, the standard of lorry driving these days. Mind you, it got me to thinking, why are we importing Spanish carrots. That's what Chatteris is for, surely?

      1. The A Road goes from 3 lanes down to a very narrow bridge on a tight bend. I was told an illuminated sign warning of the road narrowing was taken out a few weeks back and not replaced. It was late and he hadn't driven the road before. The poor sod spent the night in his cab in the canal….

        1. Was in a similar bind once on my motorcycle. Approached a little bridge on a tight bend too fast. Hard over down to the left and then hard right over. Flashed through. Taught me a big lesson about reading the road better. Doesn't help where signs are either missing or overgrown and faded white lines. Defensive riding/driving is even more important today what with under investment and the war on motorists.

          Your attitude to the poor driver is commendable even though your journey was disrupted.

        2. Seems he hasn't discovered Google Maps, then. At least the canal's clay stayed intact. I remember one night listening to the Llangollen Canal gurgling away and finding it empty by the morning. That was badgers and cost more than a couple of weeks before we were able to travel anywhere.

    3. Citroen is a good egg. He intends to come to my party. Would love to see you there too. Also, I'm a little short on carrots if you could see yourself to help out. :@)

  111. Joined the 'in the wars' club yesterday…..

    Yesterday had a nice walk up in London completing section 4 of the London Loop near Croydon. Lots of lovely woodland, around 5 miles of walking and excellent weather, dry and warm enough to leave the coat at home, what June should be.

    But it didn't quite work out as planned. Towards the end there was a very steep downward slope in the woods, the guide leaflet warned me of it. I could see what was going to happen and in spite of taking great care lost my footing and down I went. Sat there five minutes trying to access the damage, bones and muscles fine but a huge gash on my upper lip that turned my hankie scarlet pretty quickly. In the middle of nowhere, so I got myself up and continued trying to convince myself that nothing had happened. After a short while another couple doing the Loop who I had met earlier when they were having their lunch break passed, and having accessed the damage walked with me to the end of the section at Hamsey Green.

    I had planned to divert from there to one of the two nearby stations, Whyteleafe or Upper Warlingham, but they insisted we caught the bus to the station. Well maybe I trusted them too much as the bus we caught went nowhere near those stations, heading for Warlingham itself, where we decided to stay on for its trip back to West Croydon passing Sanderstead station on the way. Well it didn't do that either as the bus was on a diverted route so in the end we got off near South Croydon station. Said my farewells, another change of plan and instead of heading to Victoria I headed back to Clapham Junction and lunched in the Wetherspoons there. Cleaned myself up in the gents, had a soft drink with my fish and chips, then back home on the train.

    Because of the look of the gash in my lip I popped down to our local urgent care centre (five minute walk and was seen in around half an hour). The nurse refused to do anything and instead says I need to go to A&E and see the plastic surgeon, gosh it is only a little scratch. So maybe the whole of Saturday sitting in A&E in Royal Berks, and who knows what they will say.

    Well I have survived the team at Royal Berks. At first disappointed to be sent to their minor injuries department on arrival, surely that is where I was last night…. Hour wait or so, going early was worthwhile as the queue at reception desk was outside the door by 10am. Seen by no fewer than four different people all giving their opinion on my treatment. Suggestion that I should have headed directly there last night as the wound was now 'not fresh'. One chap disappeared to do an online consultation with his man at Oxford, he seemed a bit concerned about anybody who has had a head injury. But eventually they decided they could just stitch it and it would be fine. 'Just one stitch' though ended up being four or five, she was stitching for some time – 'just one more to be sure'..

    Chap sitting opposite looked as if he had joined the fall club as well though his injuries were more around the eyes than lips. A few masks around, as you might expect, and an ominous sign on the door – social distancing is followed here, follow the markings on the floor. But only a few faded remnants of those were left.

    Anyway best part of morning spent over there, followed by a rather late lunch. Better get out and get some fresh air on this lovely day.

    1. Strewth… was the health runaraound a penalty for being damaged? Hope all's OK now.

    2. I hope it heals well with no visible scars.
      In the meantime, avoid the temptation to kiss the girls and make them cry.
      Good luck.

    3. Oh no , thank goodness you weren't attacked by an escaped pet snake or something.

      A gash is a gash and needs treatment , I hope your gash heals quickly, nasty shock for you.

      1. Still stings a bit and I look a bit of a mess but it looks as if it will heal well. My initial thoughts were not to bother going to A&E and thought I would be just sent away as being too minor an injury but they certainly took it seriously and for that I must be thankful.

      1. If you know the area it was south of Seldon near Seldon wood by a little hollow called Mossy Hill Shaw. Well away from the 'residents' of Croydon – but I did encounter those while passing through East Croydon which seems to be the centre of the universe.

    5. I was supposed to have had the gash over my eye glued when I was admitted to Leighton A&E, but it never was. Hence I now have a scar there.

      1. I have a scar under my lower lip after going through the windscreen of a car 62 years ago. My upper teeth went through my lower lip, it was stitched both sides. It was hard being a teenage girl looking as though she had been glassed. Every time I look in the mirror it is the first thing I see, sometimes the only thing I see. Poppiesdad tells me he never notices it. I was supposed to get it re-stitched but it never happened, at 15 back in the sixties I did not know how to organise it for myself, and my parents were, I suppose, never told it needed re-doing. It is about 2 inches long.

        1. I have a very similar scar from a very similar accident at a very similar age, pm. Also a "broken nose" event from the same horrific accident. I still went through a swan stage a little bit later, as I'm sure you did, and I'm still, though a battleaxe, not regarded as particularly repellent (unless I have deluded myself even more than usual)

          1. I am sorry you have suffered this event also, opopanax – and the broken nose as well. Although I am not sure about the swan event, I don’t think I am regarded as repellent either – at least our two sons don’t mind being seen with me; they no longer walk 6 yards ahead or behind, but that was simply because I was their mum and not because of a facial disfigurement! They are in their forties now. I think I have come to terms with it but sometimes, just sometimes….

      2. I have a scar under my lower lip after going through the windscreen of a car 62 years ago. My upper teeth went through my lower lip, it was stitched both sides. It was hard being a teenage girl looking as though she had been glassed. Every time I look in the mirror it is the first thing I see, sometimes the only thing I see. Poppiesdad tells me he never notices it. I was supposed to get it re-stitched but it never happened, at 15 back in the sixties I did not know how to organise it for myself, and my parents were, I suppose, never told it needed re-doing. It is about 2 inches long.

      3. I had a large number of stitches (about 20-24) over the years from my Rugby days and you're right – if they are properly done you are left with only a very thin line as a scar – not addressed and you can end up with a very unsightly scar!
        My wife became very adept at taking them out – saving me a return trip to A&E!

  112. Derangement and disaffection are sweeping away the old democratic era. 29 June 2024.

    Most recently we seemed to have reached a compromise in which socialism had accepted the need for free markets to produce the wealth it was so eager to redistribute. But the New Model Left did not realise that, in order to flourish, capitalism requires risk and the freedom to fail. Then along came the New Right with its volatile, rabble-rousing power grab. Now we are faced with a choice between two incoherent, almost meaningless political positions and we have lost the conceptual vocabulary for attacking them. Maybe this really is the end of an era.

    It is the end of the West Janet. What will take its place is unspeakable. All this can be laid at the door of the Political Elites.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/29/derangement-disaffection-sweeping-away-old-democratic-era/

    1. They will of course not suffer the consequences. They will be well fed and protected and the only people to have freedom of movement.

    2. Meanwhile in my local rag, "the Home Office is debating whether a cannabis farmer (sic) should be deported". No question – out and never come back! Along with all the other foreign criminals. Since the Home Office seems to be mainly staffed with foreigners, it would be pretty certain they'll let him stay.

  113. A 'stripy' Par Four!

    Wordle 1,106 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. It was.

      Wordle 1,106 5/6

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

      1. Me too.
        Wordle 1,106 5/6

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

    2. Me too.

      Wordle 1,106 4/6

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

    3. Bad bad bogey here -could have been worse!

      Wordle 1,106 5/6

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

  114. Had a couple of hours outside scrub bashing in the garden……. it's getting a bit overgrown. Now cooking dinner.

  115. 388980+ up ticks,

    The shite slinging is picking up speed some politico with a couple of daughters has been offended by some rhetorical racist crap, a set up ? who knows, but the coalitions wagons circled in defence of the offended party.

    Two young girls rhetorically offended yet NOT one mention of the 1400/1600 hundred raped / abused and I would strongly assume highly offended young girls as revealed by the Jay report,at the hands of, in the main pakistani paedophiles, then covered up via, one would assume party members for 16 plus years.

    ALL party leaders are guilty since the day "miranda" lifted the entry latch,triggering the biggest act of treachery ever recorded or likely to be recorded.

    Carry that to the polling station on the 4th July, in case you forgot "lest we forget"

    1. I have just found out how absolutely ignorant your average voter is of the effect of their vote. It seems that the labour party is generally believed to be the solution to mass immigration, high taxes and too much bureaucracy. Hey ho.

    4. Here's what we have in NN8:
      Jeremy Brittin – SDP
      David Goss – Conservative
      Ben Habib – Reform UK
      Gen Kitchen – Labour
      Paul Mannion – Green
      Christopher Townsend – Liberal Democrats

      At least 'Gen' hasn't painted her lips red as usual…

  118. Seems that BBC News is featuring two Reform candiates who said something unspeakable.
    No sign of article on those who were paid to slag off Farage.
    Wasn't it Heinrich Himmler who invented this stuff? Just asking…
    Edit: smelling correction…

  119. We went out , prepared to visit a stately home and a garden event not far from here .

    We arrived, parked the car went to the way in bit .. £14 please , okay, what, each? https://www.athelhampton.com/

    We have visited there so many times in the past , and it is rather lovely , but this time I wasn't going to fork out a whack of money .. besides it is the end of the month

    Turned around and drove back along familiar country roads , Moh wanted a cream tea , 6 miles up the road from us is a lovely special garden at Moreton , next door to the burial ground where TE Lawrence is buried

    Thomas Edward Lawrence CB DSO was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Wikipedia
    Born: 16 August 1888, Tremadog
    Died: 19 May 1935 (age 46 years), Bovington
    Movies: Lawrence of Arabia
    Place of burial: St Nicholas' Church, Moreton
    Siblings: A. W. Lawrence, Frank Helier Lawrence · More
    Height: 1.66 m

    So we admired the lovely gardens , enjoyed a pot of tea in the sunshine and a delicious slice of cake each, and now I am suffering because my IBS has flared up! My fault .

    https://walledgardenmoreton.co.uk/

    So , I hope you enjoy the links , off now to finish watering the garden .

    1. Sorry about the IBS, Belle. No fun.
      It amazes me how much entry fees have increased – we don't tend to plan anything like that any more – plenty to take care of at Firstborn's place, where relaxing in nature is not only free, but absolutely required (after pulling balckberry thorns out of the arms & legs, of course!)

    2. Probably you already know about the BBC Gardener's World mag 2 for 1 annual offer, Belle? We've used it since around 1994. Every house and garden listed in it ½ price. Just about the only thing the Beeb is good for anymore

    3. Alf and I visited Lawrence’s grave some years ago, probably about 5, and then called in to the Walled Garden cafe. Very nice little place. The windows in Moreton Church were beautiful.

    4. We had a static caravan in Porthmadog between me being 5-18. Every single holiday, know the place like the back of my hand. Loved Tremadoc and the TE Lawrence story. (And Bedgellert, naturally).

  120. Evening, all, on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul. Went to a celebration of 40 years of ministry this morning for a retired priest who helped us out during the interregnum and still helps out when the rectorette takes yet another holiday. Lovely service, good singing (no choir but the congregation was in fine voice) and a buffet lunch in a marquee afterwards.

    1. Two little dickie birds sitting on a wall,
      One named Peter, one named Paul.
      Fly away, Peter! Fly away, Paul!
      Come back, Peter! Come back, Paul!

  121. This afternoon I went to the Finsbury Park Theatre to see a play called The Marilyn Conspiracy, which imagines Monroe was murdered by Bobby Kennedy using a poison enema. Given the preposterous nature of the story, it was very well played. The friend of a friend playing the housekeeper (the reason we went to see it) has convinced herself it’s plausible.

      3. I don't think her cause of death would have been by poison enema – it would have been a bum job.

          1. …poisoning is a problem in the end where proctologists would be searching in the dark for a solution?

      4. I tried a suppository once – for all the use it did me I might as well have stuck it up my arse! I'll get me coat….

        1. One of the most shocking things I remember from my brief time as a child in France was the glee with which every single medication was shoved up the arris.

          1. Well they do have disgusting personal habits – it’s a Gallic thing, apparently…

          2. My mother had a headache on a family holiday in France. I can still remember her look of horror when my father returned from the chemists saying that the only painkillers they had were suppositories…🤣🤣 (he was kidding, mind.)

        2. One of the most shocking things I remember from my brief time as a child in France was the glee with which every single medication was shoved up the arris.

    2. Interesting.
      But we are never going to know the truth. There have been so many early deaths in the US. Unfortunately our records don't match.

      1. My friend and I on our walk today have convinced ourselves that the US is thoroughly and irredeemably corrupt.

    3. I thought it was a poison suppository…. I heard that theory some time ago ago and in view of the evidence it does seem plausible. But why? I suppose she knew too much.

      2. The play claims that her psychiatrist encouraged her to keep a diary and that the Kennedy brothers thought it would be incriminating and wanted to wrest it from her. A diary was never found.

    4. I thought it was a poison suppository…. I heard that theory some time ago ago and in view of the evidence it does seem plausible. But why? I suppose she knew too much.

    5. Word’s been out for some years now that she was murdered with a combination of alcohol and barbiturates. Same as Dorothy Kilgallen.
      All mixed up with the mob, the Kennedy conspiracy and the CIA, FBI.

  122. Superb steaks, roughly 12 oz at a guess, perhaps more; tender, perfectly cooked for my taste, with excellent chips, HG's similar for her order.
    Bread and cheese, apple tart, coffee.
    Two bottles of very pleasant wine.
    £40.
    Village functions, I love them.

      1. They always open the bottle, replace the cork gently and then it's up to the buyer.
        We took the majority of ours home.
        We have a splendid drive share agreement, I drive there, HG drives back.
        Simples.

    4. About twice what I would pay for a burger meal at some of the fast food joints around here.

      We ate at a posh local restaurant recently, that was around £140 for two. The cheapest bottle of plonk would have ben mope than your meal.

    6. Very nice. Though how you can eat that much steak is beyond me. 3.5 oz is about my limit. Though that does mean when i buy a center cut fillet i get lots of steaks.

      1. It was certainly a much bigger portion than we were expecting and bigger than one generally gets in a restaurant.
        It was melt in the mouth and one has as much time as one needs, there is nobody rushing you on.
        Several of the locals were busy squirreling their excess away ready for their dogs.

    1. I am quite right in my assumption that artie farties are of the left wing persuasion .. Cult like followings

      Tories had more of a drum beat , sadly no longer . The Glasto gathering is a spawning ground for lefties .

      1. Belle – I am irredeemably arty-farty but am, apparently, far-right. In fact I am literally Hitler in my views, according to some

        1. Jawohl, mein Fuhrer! (snaps into raised arm salute and goose-steps off stage).

        2. Jawohl, mein Fuhrer! (snaps into raised arm salute and goose-steps off stage).

    2. So he supports Starmer? I'm not surprised. Elton John likes men who go down on their knees.

    3. WTF does the UK government have to do with non-taxpaying expats like "Sir" Elton and his bumchum?

      3. Why are you remotely fussed about what John and Furnish have to say? Their influence should be negligible. It's just their enormous egos prompting them to think that their video clip will change the outcome.

    4. WTF does the UK government have to do with non-taxpaying expats like "Sir" Elton and his bumchum?

    5. Elton John has very poor political judgement. It would have been better for him if he kept his opinions to himself. Now we know he is an idiot.

      I confess I think Billy Joel the superior instrumentalist and songwriter. In fact I dislike Elton John’s music.

      2. His music is, on the whole, a delight. I couldn't give a flying one for his electoral views. They should have absolutely no influence whatsoever, although I suppose there will be a handful of idiots whose voting intentions are altered by anything he or Furnish have to say. There will always be those so enchanted by others in the public eye that their choices – not just electoral – will be influenced by their idols. I dont yet know what the Kardashians have to say about it but they might sway a few dozen votes here and there should they post something on YouTube or FaceBook.

        1. There was talk in he media recently about the Taylor Swift effect and which Presidential candidate she would endorse. Plenty of unthinking dimbo bimbos out there.

      3. Elton John is one of the few people to which I have an immediate, instinctive negative reaction without having met him.

      1. There's a Weatherspoon's in Tavistock 5 miles away but the atmosphere is a bit like the moon's. Give me my local (even with higher prices) any day of the week.

        3. Fair enough. But the Queen Hotel in Aldersot is a 'Spoons. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday there's a (very) local bus to Aldershot around 1.30 pm. It terminates a short walk from Morrison's. Not my favourite supermarket, but it'll do. There's a bus home around 4.30 pm. So how is one to pass the time between shopping and bus? Wetherspoons is the answer. Weekdays, it's reasonably quiet. I've been known to have a sneaky late lunch or early evening meal.

          Beer starts with Ruddles' Best at around £2.00 a pint. What's not to like? My favourite Surrey pub is merely in the next village. But – no longer driving – that's either (a) an offroad walk via part of the Fox Way. Previous attempts have tripped me up / loosened my prostheses, or deposited so much muck on the soles of my boots that I was several inches taller. (b) walk via the road, which has several bends, no footway, and is frankly dangerous to pedestrians. Or (c) take a train to Farnham, walk to The Borough (the central bus stop), take the 65 Alton to Guildford service, then walk to the Good Intent. On the way home, climb the South face of the Hog's Back (walking is marginally faster than the queue on the B3000, due to crap road design). Get the bus to Guildford Station, then a train home…

          I prefer 'Spoons…

          1. I’m lucky in respect to my local’s proximity, but it was taken into account when we moved here 20 years ago. Now that my legs are starting to fail me I regret not moving even closer. The current wife doesn’t know the price of Guinness is £6 a pint.

        1. Here you are, opopanax:

          "In Truro, there has been an enormous influx of Ugandans. Most come for a job at Treliske, cleaning & care, once they're given a house or flat, they go on long term sick claiming mental health & PTSD.

          "People I know at Trelsike said it's a nightmare & nobody wants to deal with it. And people I know at the housing department for Cornwall Council tell me they have to prioritise housing Ugandans.

          "Thousands of Cornish are homeless. Mums with children are living in holiday caravans."

          1. Thanks, pm. That is just awful. Why are we allowing this self harm? It is helping no-one.

  128. Watching the footy at the moment (Germany v Denmark) – they've come off for an electric storm (it did sound impressive!) – I've never seen that before in football!
    Serves you right for having a tournament in Germany in June!?!?!

      1. Well there were a few junior doctors complaining about pay levels but they were largely ignored…..

    3. Denmark goal disallowed, Germany given dubious penalty.
      Fixed? Who knows.

      I'm off to bed, I hope Denmark recover and win it.

      1. Fixed? well, possibly…

        The wretched VAR, which is sucking the life out of the game, can at least point to extreme transparency – still hate it though and it should go!

          1. Blimey, you’re not one of the Subway Army are you? Altogether now – ‘And it’s hi-ho Wolverhampton!’….

          2. We’re from Wulv-er-ampton…lovely Wulv-er-ampton

            It’s a shit hole, but it’s my shit hole (plus, I hail from the posh side near the Staffs and Shropshire border).

          4. There’s always a posh side Mir, I’m from the posh side of Blackburn…… Oh, hang on, there isnt one….

          1. I did post a little on my birthday. I had a good day as for once the weather was fine. We visited Nowton Park and Abbey Gardens and enjoyed a steak supper in the evening. As ever thank you for your good wishes.

  129. Watching the footy at the moment (Germany v Denmark) – they've come off for an electric storm (it did sound impressive!) – I've never seen that before in football!
    Serves you right for having a tournament in Germany in June!?!?!

  130. Well there were a few junior doctors complaining about pay levels but they were largely ignored…..

  132. lovely people
    I have just completed the “hardest” section of the Offa’s Dyke trail (Knighton – Buttington) and it was hard.. “We” is me and my best friend, who I met on my first day at work and whom I most admire in the world as he is clever and smart. We were chalk and cheese (I have become progressively grumpy and we are now cheese and cheese); it works. I was best “man” at his wedding; he met his wife at my hen night, where he was an “honorary” hen (and she was a very good friend of my husband-to-be, she coxed his rowing 4 and, on the days before “inclusivity” became a thing, we just did it anyway). He is Godfather to my son; I am Godmother to his son.

    Well. Shock revelation. Friend’s wife is standing as Reform candidate for the Gower. Tell all your friends. Highly recommended (her husband, my friend, is most sound, and she is great fun. The dream team).

    https://www.reformparty.uk/…

    2. Mir – do you know anything about the reform candidate for Monmouthshire? He is telling us nothing, so I will probably vote for Top Cat, as I do know him to be an honourable man despite being a Conservative.

      1. I will revert tomorrow on this. Will try and get lowdown. Obvs. Refrom candidates are having it hard – they were caught on the hop, no one was prepared, timelines have been short to take up the call for action, they are all just doing the best they can with little support (not a criticism; just a fact).

        Edit. Cat was a member of the FSU and approached for running for the next Welsh Sennedd election (v. Lucrative btw – friend estimates a net benefit of c. £400k in post-tax pay and pension payable for a 5 year term, well worth it. But Cat not doing it for this, she is genuinely motivated to try and ring back some sanity to politics and make the future etter for all our kids).

        1. Ok sorry no intel, apparently we know Caroline and Toby and…but it’s about building for 2029.

          1. I should add: it is expensive and the candidates are having to bankroll themselves…so if they don’t have the money or the support, it’s hard.

      2. I will revert tomorrow on this. Will try and get lowdown. Obvs. Refrom candidates are having it hard – they were caught on the hop, no one was prepared, timelines have been short to take up the call for action, they are all just doing the best they can with little support (not a criticism; just a fact).

        Edit. Cat was a member of the FSU and approached for running for the next Welsh Sennedd election (v. Lucrative btw – friend estimates a net benefit of c. £400k in post-tax pay and pension payable for a 5 year term, well worth it. But Cat not doing it for this, she is genuinely motivated to try and ring back some sanity to politics and make the future etter for all our kids).

  134. I stayed up to watch the supposed Presidential debate between Trump and Biden on CNN. I have never laughed so much.

    I subsequently pondered why CNN allowed Trump an equal amount of time to Biden without interruptions as would normally be the case. I concluded the debate was a Democrat device to see the displacement of Biden. This is moreorless proven by the media around the world who have suddenly switched in lockstep (as was the case with Covid) from the narrative that Biden is the sharpest pencil in the box to the alternative that Biden is not the brightest button in the box.

    We should expect Biden’s replacement to be put in place soon. It will not be that cackling Hyena Kamala Harris. She might even be Epsteined if Hillary Clinton has ambitions in that department.

    1. I found that debate hard to take during regular waking hours, I didn't laugh but cried at how pathetic the whole setup was.

      Others noted that Biden was given more opportunity to respond than Trump was. With Biden making a hash of every comment, that would fit your thought that Biden will be gone soon. If CNN had wanted to garner votes for Biden, they would have manipulated Trump into one of his rants against Biden – it would have been sympathy votes but a vote is a vote after all.

      Pity democrats, they have absolutely no one to to vote for.

      1. I agree, it's embarrassing and pathetic. I would feel sorry for Biden if he wasn't such a nasty piece of work. I am a bit surprised that Jill Biden went along with it – she's clearly being set up as "the power behind the throne" – can't she see that she will be blamed for everything? Or maybe she is being so well paid off that she doesn't care.

    2. GB News website seems to be constantly 'Buffering', no matter how many times I refresh. What a shower of incompetents they appear to be.

      1. Oh dear that’s not good. You could try picking it up on YouTube. They usually post all their stuff there too.

  138. Good night, chums. Sleep well; I hope to see you all again, well rested, tomorrow morning.

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

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