Saturday 3 May: Voters no longer trust traditional political parties to deliver meaningful change

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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573 thoughts on “Saturday 3 May: Voters no longer trust traditional political parties to deliver meaningful change”

  1. Good morning all.
    Another beautiful bright start to the day with a slightly cooler 9Ā½Ā°C outside.
    I think we could do with a bit of rain.

      1. Sadly, all dead.
        Didn't survive until spring. More swarms on order.
        šŸ™

          1. Likely not enough attention. They had enough food, once the honey had been harvested, so maybe the queen wasn’t up to it.

    1. As a minimum they should be Photographed, Finger Printed and DNAed on arrival.
      Then interviewed to determine who they are and where they came from and be held in secure accommodation until their id is confirmed.

      1. 404933+up ticks,

        Morning Bob.
        Yesteryear we built Mulberry harbour in defence of these Isles repeat on that, well OFFSHORE do NOT LET THEM LAND

      2. They left a safe country – France. Send them back or shoot them as illegal invasion force.

    2. 404933+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Shades of yesteryear 2016
      "We won",now reform all the way.
      With lab/cons in well deserved death throes, where is the safety net fall back anti treachery party, for when things once again go tits up ?

    3. No. They should not be allowed to set foot on the UK.
      If they refuse to turn back, shoot them.

    1. Next; she'll blame glowball warming climate change for producing the weather.
      Then car drivers, cooks, people breathing etcā€¦.. But not China for producing and selling rubber dinghies.

      1. Why would the Chinese not? It's a race to see who becomes the global power, Islam or China.
        And if China can help the Islamists fight the wels, that will leave space for them to move in to.
        Always playing the long game, China. Got to admire them for that.

  8. Good morning, all. Misty at 06:00 and now clear blue sky.

    Starmer's response to his Labour Party's losses is "to double down" on the policies that have brought both him and his party to the sorry position they find themselves in after less than a year in power. Reinforcing defeat is not a great idea. However, Starmer clearly has a mission to achieve and perhaps he understands that his time is now short and that forcing the pace is his only option. Pushing for greater notoriety is a strange vision to have.

    And as for the Tories.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/118cb5cf50c1ffc2b6905a2e563170b7f4ff29906b0dfcd0ede56b378b7c3d80.png
    Some speculation as to what "it" is; the party, Badenoch's tenure or the Tory leadership's affiliation with the WEF/Globalist wet dream.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2be86b3ea2226e6803fa64dcec61e0a97e99cfe5ccc1f5a250b366ceda5f0e1a.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28884ba6e7886c458d3f6556c7630b3348c6fd3e2ec2bd4f010e5e60638fde12.png

    1. Nothing wrong with the Lib Dems and the Greens – where I live, the Lib Dem was elected, and next door, a Green was. Why should they vote Conservative though?

  9. I would love reconciliation with my family. 3 May 2025.

    Speaking after losing his appeal against the Government over his security, Prince Harry said that ā€œlife is preciousā€.

    ā€œI would love reconciliation with my family,ā€ he said. ā€œThereā€™s no point in continuing to fight any moreā€¦ I donā€™t know how much longer my father has. He wonā€™t speak to me because of this security stuff.ā€

    One of the most baffling things about this (to me anyway) is his belief that there are forces out there with malignant intent toward himself and his family. Now one doesnā€™t decry the possibility of some loan nutter; which would apply to almost anyone, but an organised conspiracy? Who would they be? Why would they specifically target him? Why is this threat greater in the UK than the US?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/02/duke-sussex-loses-security-appeal/

      1. I suppose there is a difference between losing your mother at 12 and losing her at 15.

        Old people might remember a group of musicians in the 1960s who commanded the sort of adulation that was once reserved for royalty. Two of them are still alive. There was a songwriting partnership whereby both of them lost their mothers at about the same age the princes did. They worked out their feelings with two songs: 'Julia' and 'Let it Be'.

      2. He is paranoid because he has used bad drugs , and has a wife who has controlled him with her equally coercive black mother , he has been brain dead , his role in the army wasn't successful.
        He has gobbed too much about killing Taliban .. He is immature and easily led .. His terrible creepy actressy wife is just as mentally screwed up and out of her depth .

        Absolute parasites .. and the weak idiot should have insisted that his wife reconciled with her father, but no, he has copied her cruel habits, so destructive.

        1. It comes across as so petulant. Not hard to see & hear the foot being stamped…

        2. Apparently, whenever a "random and unannounced" drug screening was headed for his unit, he was VERY rapidly got out of the way.

        3. He is a lost and very unhappy middle aged man.
          I'm afraid this will not end well.
          Madam hooked him when he was down – remember he was always the third person at royal events – and had lost two long term relationships.
          He may not be terribly bright, he is easily manipulated, and he has far too much of his hysterical and manipulative mother in his make-up; but he is still a sad and lonely man.

    4. We see a similar behaviour in the son of the Crown Prince over here – ultra entitlement, can have / get anything he wants, and when refused, comes over all petulant, violent and so on, the spoiled brat. So Harry can't have what he wants – I wonder if he even asked politely, or was the departure to the US the kind where bridges were burned in a petulant rage?

      1. He didn't depart to the US, but to Canada initially, because he hated Trump. But later on he changed his mind and moved to the USA.

        1. I don't have much time for the most of them, but IMO, Anne would have been a better replacement for Her late Majesty. CHarles and Harry seem like wasters.

          3. Careful with the word 'biz'.šŸ˜‰

            When I was a child at infant school (i.e. before we had picked up much bad language), we use 'biz' as a comical abbreviation of business as in "do your business" (a twee euphemism for defecating).

          7. More than one, ducky. Read my post on the article by Sophia Money-Coutts!šŸ˜‰

          8. Are you suggesting, Annie, that Tina Turner has congress with horses? Weird.

          9. Hello Grizzly

            Good heavens , yes what a memory came flooding back ..

            My mother used to say .. when I was a small child " Have you done your Bizzy yet " when I was in the bathroom .

            That was a popular word of that particular era , Bizzy and Tinkle ..

          10. Good morning, Maggie, and I hope you’re feeling better.

            Don’t you find it weird how certain little memories (including words) from your past, that have been stored away in some hidden corner of your brain, seem to pop out when you least expect them to?
            I often think of the weird and very arcane vocabulary that my mother had. She frequently used words that I’ve never heard since. I call them “mumisms”.

          12. But she chose her first husband badly. He was nicknamed "Fog" by the rest of the Royals for his being somewhat dim.

      2. Whilst there is nothing to suggest that Harry is a closet Nazi, or that he has malign intentions towards his brother or his home nation, the personality and choice of wife similarities between Harry and the old Duke of Windsor are remarkable. Both ended up in exile, shunned by the Firm.

        What worries me is the length of time the first four in the line of succession spend together. They are a close family, and such unity is an example to us all. I fear for their security though, more than I do for Harry's, and so should Harry. I really do not think he wants to be King.

      3. I've not forgotten the look on Kate's face when they all turned up for a church service in early 2020. Meghan was in a pea green outfit with a smirk on her face. Clearly there had been a gigantic row. They left shortly after that.
        Then later there was the dreadful interview with Whatzername.

    5. I love their (her?) original belief that security was cut to keep them in Blighty.
      MeGain is so bloody deluded that she thinks we want her here permanently? Or at all, come to that.

    6. I didn't know his father was ill, it's not been in the press. It's King Charles who's ill

  10. Good morning everyone ,

    Bright sunny start to the day , a few high cirrus clouds , no breeze.

    Re The Harry mongrel telling tales out of turn , saying his father won't speak to him because of
    "security stuff" ..

    Can you remember when we all assumed the pair of them were " wired up " .. and the next book of fibs was due to be written .. and of course life in America is expensive , his wife's business is hopeless, and they are not popular, and are the so called children DNA'd as being theirs , because so many people doubt the children actually exist .
    .

      1. Morning Anne ,

        Still waking up early , 04.30 ish .. pain and bloating unbearable , Buscopan , and prescribed antacids have no real positive effect..

        Could be stress induced ..

        1. Pain = stress = more pain = more str….
          Hope that sympathy and concern have a positive effect, Belle. Even at this distance.

        3. I have to say, that stress would hardly help matters.
          Constantly being on your guard in your own home, plus all the car hassles is hardly helping matters.

  11. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,414 5/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
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    2. A tough one for me.

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      1. I don't know how this happened…
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  12. No apologies needed, Minty. It provides a small lift of the humour in the morning!

  13. I think the way she died had a bearing on him as well. Her prior behaviour and the press coverage all compounded the effect on a young boy. He never really grew up. He would have done better if he’d stayed in the army.

  14. From ChatGPT:

    The Beatles song **"Let It Be"** deals with themes of **acceptance, comfort, and spiritual reassurance**, and was inspired by a specific personal event in **Paul McCartney's life**.

    The event behind the song:

    * Paul McCartney wrote "Let It Be" after having a **dream about his late mother, Mary McCartney**, who died of cancer when he was 14.
    * In the dream, she came to him and said, "**Let it be**," which comforted him during a stressful period when the Beatles were experiencing internal conflict and uncertainty.
    * The phrase stuck with him and became the foundation for the song, symbolizing **peace in the face of turmoil**.

    So, the song isnā€™t about a historical or public eventā€”itā€™s deeply **personal** and rooted in McCartneyā€™s emotional response to **grief and guidance from a loved one**.

    2. That I didn't know.
      I knew Lennon had an odd mother and was brought up by his aunt.
      At that same age, one of my school friends lost her mother to kidney failure.

    1. AML.. Obama started the ball rolling all those years ago.
      Now let's see them try this on the RoPers within the no-go zones.

      1. 404933+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE ,

        As with fish policemen / force rot from the head down.

        1. Fish policemen. Our resident spokesperson from the fish community will no doubt be able to fill us in on what these are and their function in the non-fish community. (I mean you, Molamola)

      2. 404933+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,
        I am led to believe the gestapo was not great in number but, the fear element was.

        These are using the gestapo as guild lines.

        1. Afternoon to youms šŸ˜Š
          There doesn't appear to be any sensible logic to anything that these political idiots are doing.
          They are out and out stirring up trouble. From recently invented situations.

          1. 404933+ up ticks,

            Evening RE,
            They cannot replicate The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie that triggered the first WW, but they are of the same ilk as those that did.

    3. I have to do AML training every year and I have never heard of this ā€œlawā€.

      I have a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman with the way AmEX are going about getting ā€œproof of my identity (after 35 years). I am aware why; and am aware I need to provide it; but not the way they demanded it. Plus, me uploading a copy of my passport is not going to stop all the actual money laundering.

      My niece, an estate agent in London, tells me the top end houses are all being bought by foreigners and I donā€™t think they jump through the AML hoops we have to.

      1. Money laundering! Meanwhile, more "Turkish Barbers" are opening an an alarming rate.

    1. Anything sold as 'food' that comes in a packet or a tin and has a label of 'ingredients' attached is NOT food.

      Buy it and eat it to increase your levels of stupidity and decrease your levels of good health.

  19. SIR ā€“ Labourā€™s plan to let councils sell off school playing fields (report, May 1) risks condemning more young people to chronic health problems, both physical and mental, and depriving them of chances to boost self-esteem and learn to work in a team. These early experiences serve to equip young people with vital skills for life.

    The evidence for the positive effects of being outdoors and engaging in physical activity is overwhelming, and to deny young people these opportunities is negligent and short-sighted.

    Emma Isworth
    Tenterden, Kent

    SIR ā€“ The Governmentā€™s plan for curbing obesity is to extend the sugar tax. Surely keeping school playing fields, rather than selling them off, and making exercise compulsory, would be a better solution to this burgeoning problem.

    Lyndi dā€™Ambrumenil
    Zeals, Wiltshire

    SIR ā€“ Should state schools be encouraged to sell off more playing fields, then people will continue to wonder why there is a majority of privately educated players in the England rugby and cricket teams.

    James Littler
    London W13

    The very fact that these Labour scum care not a jot for the physical wellbeing of the youngest generations is a clear indication of why it is urgent ā€” imperative ā€” that socialism/communism/detritus is completely excised from the planet!

    Socialism is the greatest ā€” and most malignant ā€” disease to have ever affected the human mind. And there is only ONE cure for it!

    1. I absolutely hated school sports – rugby, footie and especially cricket. Hockey was OK. The reason was, that I was shite at them – can't run, can't kick, can't catch, can't hit (poor vision), and so was, at best, made fun of when out on the field – at worst, physically assaulted. It kind of puts one off, even when you are doing your best.
      It wasn't that I didn't participate in sport, just not that kind of compulsory sport. So I took myself off and went and became a member of the theatre crew, rising to Lighting Technician (little-known fact: I lit Rowan Atkinson's comedy show, before he became hugely famous and rich…).
      The easiest way to keep in shape is to eat little, but nutritious, food. And exercise some.

      1. I hated sports at school but took to table tennis. No good at it but very enjoyable.
        Our sadistic sports mistress called me Twinkletoes because I was so rubbish at gym. She pushed me into the deep end of the swimming bath and put me off swimming for life.

        1. I spent my entire childhood summer days off at the local swimming baths. I took to water like … a fish!

          I was also very good at whiff-whaff! aka ping-pong or table tennis!

          2. I was told that I must learn to swim because I might fall in the river. I never learned to swim and amazingly never had to be fished out of the river either.

            That said, I wish I was happy in the water and could learn to swim. Iā€™m happy in a boat, even rowing a small boat myself – I did that when young. But actually getting in the water has always terrified me and itā€™s too late now.

        2. We used to go to the Garrison swimming pool. Very cold and very noisy. A bus trip to and from the site, plus time spent changing, meant most of that 'lesson' was not spent in the water. We were given no help and it put me off swimming for life.
          Altogether, a rushed and unpleasant experience.

          1. We had to go to the baths in town. On the bus.
            My mum got fed up writing excuse notes for me so I had to sometimes.

          3. Morning Kate, hope you had a peaceful night (can't reply to your last post as it had time ex'd) Me too – in fact I can't and an experience when I was 4 when my uncle threw me in the pool to 'teach me to swim' means I will not go near anything deeper than a puddle x

          4. ‘Morning Alec x I did thanks as much as dog allows (vet visit post bank hol) hope you did too šŸ™‚ My dad did similarly with me, a dark pond up on the fells. I learnt to swim as an adult, to help my children (who didn’t need me to, they swim like fish). I like being near water especially the sea…not too keen on being either in it or even on it. Did you stamp in puddles, wearing your wellies? šŸ˜†

          5. Yes I did Kate and I made sure there were others within splashing distance x

          7. I can swim but I can't be bothered. šŸ¤—šŸŠā€ā™‚ļø

          10. My school didn't have any playing fields or courts. In summer we would walk to the tennis courts through Cwmdonkin Park (where Dylan Thomas was born) which was very pleasant.
            In winter, the school caretaker, Brian, used to drive us to a place called Paradise Park, a place so misnamed I think the planners must have been sniffing glue. We were driven in the back of on old fashioned minibus with wooden benches along each side facing into the middle, not facing forward as is the law now. No seatbelts, so as Brian had clearly been briefed to get us to the hockey pitches at the top of the mount as quickly as possible, we spent most of the journey on the floor of the van on top of each other.
            We did have a gym and a swimming pool. The pool was forever out of bounds – I think I swam in it three times in seven years. Brian could never get the pH levels right.

        3. I was an athlete 100 yards 220, relay long jump javelin. I ran at the old White City stadium once.
          I took up squash and played for at least ten years. Then moved onto golf. Nothing now, bodies worn out. šŸ™ƒšŸ˜ŠšŸ˜†

          1. My brother used to not only run the stairs around the brewery, but many km a week on the roads. Now he can barely move, needs new knees.

          2. Same as, I used to run miles on local roads as well as cross country.
            Had one hip replacement the left side needs it as does the knee.
            Keeping fit firmly encouraged but not truly advisable. The
            Find Noarlunga beach on Google earth near Adelaide.
            With a mate we use to run from the Jetty to the Onkaparinga River mouth and back, in sand, once a week.

      2. I wasn't very good at school sports but I still loved them. Whenever I was ridiculed for not being good it just made me determined to be better.

        There is no better feeling than the exhilaration after physical exercise. NONE.

      3. I enjoyed hockey; not brilliant at it, but "it's the taking part that counts".
        We did have lovely fields and spinneys round our school.
        Once it fell into financial difficulties, it closed and the land was sold to developers.
        I walk or drive through the development harbouring murderous thoughts. (Spartie doesn't like that walk, so he's a dog of profound taste and sensibility.)
        On the plus side (?) the tree where I tripped, bashed my head and passed out, is still stand outside No.X, XXXXXX Court.

        1. Anne

          I liked hockey as well, and you are so right , it is the taking part that counts.

          I played tennis, but to me it was pointless šŸ™„gym was not my thing , hated the creaking echoes in a hall/ gymnasium .

          Running around the school field was just that , a run , but I have never been competitive as such .
          School fields should not be sold off , I suspect councils are snatching , grabbing anything green to build houses on .. and I did any of you know that acres of land everywhere are owned by public schools, universities etc.

          The homes that have been thrown up so quickly below , are appalling, more suitable to an old Communist state than a pretty area like Littlemoor .

          Yet the equally horrible development at Poundbury Dorchester continues to sadden and sicken local residents .. The King's dream , no gardens , parking, Teutonic .. looks like a a huge cemetery .

          "The land on Littlemoor Lane in Weymouth is indeed owned by Eton School. Specifically, it's the land that is being developed for the new Littlemoor housing and development project, which includes 500 homes, 2,100 jobs, and a new 420-pupil school. The Dorset

          Echo reported in 2022 that outline planning consent was granted in 2020 for the Littlemoor development, which is situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. "

          The homes that have been thrown up so quickly , are appalling, more suitable to an old Communist state than a pretty area like Littlemoor .

          Yet the equally horrible development at Poundbury Dorchester continues to sadden and sicken local residents .. The King's dream , no gardens , parking, Teutonic .. looks like a a huge cemetery .

          1. The Royal Hospital School at Holbrook has beautiful grounds.
            I do so hope that Stoma and Reeve's spiteful tax changes don't force it into selling off some land.

      4. Rugby and cricket were my sports. I coached Jnr. Rugby at my sons rugby club ( Nothhamton Casuaels) We gave them all the skills to stay safe as well as giving them the will to win and play fair.

      5. Football, cricket and baseball were my sports at school – mediocre at them all but they were compulsory. After joining the RAF as an apprentice Wednesday afternoons were compulsory sport so I chose Egyptian PT (other ex-apps will know what that is). The only sport which I've been fairly competent at is archery

      6. I quite liked hockey (girls), wing, could run in those days and score goals.

        1. I loved playing hockey, my position was left full back. I was selected to play for county but parents didn't allow me to join as it would have meant giving up too many Saturdays.
          I coulda been a contender.

          3. That’s a shame…young relative used to play similarly, into gaming more now…doh…we were all contenders once, SD..all contenders once šŸ˜†

        2. Our boys football team were handed sticks and played our girls hockey Team. But they gave us a good thrashing.

          1. I still like to watch it, and ice hockey too. Takes skill and a certain amount of killer instinct…šŸ˜†

        3. I played back. I'm not into all that running about, but I can be very stubborn and tricky.

          2. I was right back – could just stand and watch the others play. Got cold though.

        4. We did lacrosse. I got picked for the school team then found out that we had to play matches after school and on Saturdays. No way! – I spent the rest of my years at that game chatting to my opposite partner and we ignored the game, as far as possible.

          1. Have never played, but looks good. Some really need sport, get that energy to positive use. A great shame not always practised in today’s schools, sports fields used for mobile classrooms etc.

          2. It can be pretty violent, like hockey. In fact, because most of the action is in the air, you are more likely to lose your teeth…

          3. Already have all sorts of bridges, caps etc….hygienist best thing at dentist.

      7. I suddenly found my self in the position of the goal keeper of our school team. The keeper was injured I volunteered to take his place after the school house match, our games teach presented me with the school Jersey.
        If I'd been taller I might have become a professional. I was much better than a chap at a rival school who ended up playing at Birmingham.

    2. At one end of the demographic you have a working class who can't afford swimming clubs and walking at weekends, park visits and so on because either parent is working or the fuel is simply too expensive.

      At the other you have well off middle classers able to get up at 5am to take daughter to swim club and scouts and so on because they've have higher paying jobs.

      Thus the solution is not another tax, you stupid bintish woman, Reeves. The medical lobby want this but no one else does. The solution is to cut taxes and let people keep more of their own money so they can invest it in their children.

      However, the corrollary to this is you must cut welfare. It's not the working parent who's kids are fat and poorly behaved. It's the dross. The welfare addict, the housing benefit, the not doing more than 16 hours a week kid's autistic crowd.

      Eradicate that from society, make people work, let them keep what they earn and the problem just goes away.

  20. This is as bad as Jo Swinson proclaiming she'll be the next PM.. then promptly losing her own seat.

    Today Johnson writes in The Mail..
    ..the Tories under Kemi Badenoch have a good and growing chance of winning the next election.
    This Labour government is so bad, so misguided, so fundamentally out of tune with what the public want, that in 2029, or whenever we have the next election, I think there is a real chance of a tipping point.

    out of tune? eh Johnson. The guy who spent his entire premiership appeasing The Guardian readers.

    2. Unless either Reform or the Conservatives get their act together before the 2029 General Election, Labour will win again by default.

    3. Can this possibly mean he's planning a return soon? Not forgotten his post about the sub mariners.

    4. He's hardly going to proclaim doom and gloom for himself and party, is he?

  21. I see Party HQ have told all Us Labours to drop any mention of "black holes" and concentrate on "He's a racist, and wants to dismantle the NHS and have us paying for treatment by creditcard".

    1. Considering we already do pay for treatment, paying for it up front, cutting out the nhs trusts, quangos, department for health costs sounds a good idea.

      There is nothing wrong with adopting an insurance scheme. The tax goes into the insurance company. The customer pays a nominal amount, say Ā£100. For long term care or chronic conditions we do as the rest of Europe does, the public foot the bill. I've no issue with that as these are too expensive.

      The dept for health could become an insurance processor, getting the patient the best treatment at the earliest opportunity. The hospital does the work and then gets paid.

      Hospital is more efficient, dept for health has a purpose. Other insurance processors could pop up to get a share of the same tax paid insurance and compete, forcing ever more competition.

      Big fat state's hold on health care is broken. The patient sees no real difference exxcept vastly better outcomes.

      Do the same for education and school vouchers. Fairly soon folk will ask what all the pointless waste of big government was for and the throttling abuse and control big state has collapses and public services start actually serving the public.

      1. Some often quote the American system as a reason not to change the NHS funding system but the Germans and Dutch have insurance systems which appear to work well.

  22. 404933+ up ticks,

    A question of some urgency now, surely must be, which one of Reforms new asset councils will be first in stating we are no longer going to accept morally illegal immigrants, NOT in tented accommodation and most certainly NOT in new housing stock.

    My money would be on the "yellowbellies" they have rebellious form.

      2. 404933+ up ticks,

        Morning O,

        Why are people from Lincolnshire known as ‘yellowbellies?’

        Lincolnshire Live
        https://www.lincolnshirelive.co.uk ā€ŗ news ā€ŗ people-linc…
        1 Oct 2021 ā€” The most common theory is that the name stems from the uniforms of the old Lincolnshire Regiment, which is now part of the Royal Anglian Regiment.

      1. 404933+ up ticks,

        Morning W,

        While the iron is hot, STRIKE. the English surely realise there are more ways to skin a cat

        That is why I call for another party to run in
        conjunction with reform as in the FF&F party.

  23. I would have loved to be accepted into a team, however bad, but the verbal and physical abuse wasn't fun for me as a young lad. So, I absolutely hated it – that it was compulsory didn't help.

  24. Good grief!
    What should be a pleasantly cool 11Ā°C up the "garden" actually feels a lot colder because of the breeze that is blowing!
    Just come in to put a shirt on and warm up with a mug of tea!
    Perhaps someone should tell John Salisbury of Solihull what people were voting against?

    SIR ā€“ Do those people who voted for Reform UK know what they are voting for?

    I have yet to find out what the party stands for on the major issues of the day. There is a big difference between dissenting and actually governing. Letā€™s hear what Reform would do with regard to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and how it would deal with Donald Trump.

    John Salisbury
    Solihull

    1. Remove head from bum and engage brain, John Salisbury. Deal with Donald Trump? Admittedly the relationship with Nige has cooled somewhat since he kicked out Rupert and Ben but really, what a dumb question.

    2. Perhaps they are voting with the thought and aspect of the return of general common sense.

    3. He has a point. Rupert Lowe made the same one. Vote Reform by any means, but there needs to be substance behind the rhetoric and there isn't.

  25. Quote of the day.
    So you lost Runcorn by the number of Mike's punches.

    1. It's an invasion, one that must be stopped by any means necessary. All immigration must be halted and reversed.

  27. Morning All šŸ™‚šŸ˜Š
    A Lovely sunny start but noticeably cooler, which is nice.
    I think what the majority of brits desire is to get their country back to somewhere closer to what it once was. Before the labour party moved in to Downing St in 1997. Ten years of blairism was more than enough and he's still stirring it up in the background. The period set a precedent that has continued ever since. Which seems to be Damn what the taxpayers and overall hardworking British general public think. We, meaning parliament are doing what we like.
    Perhaps in the near future the Westminster set up could be changed to include the outcome and desires of the British taxpaying public.
    Not just the opinion of the self appointed self opinionated who reside their daily, The Wreckers. And for decades its been Every thing they have come into contact with…….

    1. Only when we have referism, recall and direct democracy – which necessitates the removal of universal franchise so only those contributing can vote – will the political nonsense end. They simply don't care.

  29. More bland statements, or rather bullshit, from Starmer. It's carnage in the comments for this PM. Making statements re security when weekly (weakly?) he's allowing hundreds of unknown young men from the third world to be settled in this Country is beyond asinine.

    Does doubling down on his priorities mean that the numbers of incoming will be in thousands per week in the future?
    https://x.com/MarkShi18585321/status/1918554126977274106

    2. "We hear you"ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦"further and faster"ā€¦ā€¦ā€¦.

      The man is deluded. The Reform vote was for less Starmerism not more. What a wanker.

    4. Makes the chap lurking in the corridors of Severalls Hospital who used to imitate whole pop bands seem positively sane. (He was actually good at it, which makes him even more superior to Stoma.)

  32. Usually paired with the trouser waist worn below the bum style, although I do sense that there is less of that today than a few years ago.

  33. Usually paired with the trouser waist worn below the bum style, although I do sense that there is less of that today than a few years ago.

    1. Didn't realise I was still on Friday when I posted Good Morning. Got onto today's page and tried to post the greeting but Disqus wouldn't let me so I deleted it.

  35. "You coulda been the next Billy Conn."

    "I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody!"

  37. When the Brexit Party cleaned up in the European Parliament elections, was that primarily because there was a proportional representation element? Iā€™m just trying to gauge the significance of the local election results.

    1. The Welsh Assemby election next year is based on PR. Shd be interesting to say the least.

  39. The Supreme Court has robbed me of a guilty pleasure ā€“ the odd cheeky visit to the Gents

    So what if you have to lower the seat? Youā€™re going to wash your hands afterwardsā€¦

    Sophia Money-Coutts, The Daily Telegraph – Saturday, 3 May, 2025

    As guilty pleasures go, itā€™s quite a tragic one. But every now and then, it gives me enormous satisfaction. Dare I? Should I? It feels slightly risquĆ©, potentially even dangerous given what you might find in there. And then I do dare, and Iā€™m always enormously relieved afterwards.

    Using the menā€™s lavatories, thatā€™s what I mean. Because come on, girls, who among us hasnā€™t darted into an empty cubicle clearly marked with a male sticker on the front of it before now? I donā€™t mean to imply youā€™ve hurried past a long row of urinals in a giant male bathroom at, say, Twickenham. That may be going too far and, also, put you off from ever venturing into a male bathroom again.

    But from time to time, perhaps you, like me, have been hovering outside two cubicles ā€“ a ladies and a gents ā€“ and the ladies was occupied, and someone in there was taking rather a long time, doing her hair or the cryptic crossword, maybe, so you just think ā€œOh go on then, I might as well dart into the chapsā€™ lavvy seeing as itā€™s empty.ā€ You nip in, do your business and out you come again in minutes, and there isnā€™t a man waiting outside. Meanwhile whoeverā€™s in the ladies is still grappling with 19 down, and you feel as if youā€™ve beaten the system. As touched on above, it is undeniably tragic to thrill at such an escapade. But it is also very satisfying.

    And yet, no more. Since last monthā€™s Supreme Courtā€™s ruling thereā€™s been much discussion about who can use which bathrooms. A week or so ago, the Equality and Human Rights Commission weighed in to try and clarify matters. In workplaces and spaces open to the public, said the watchdog, ā€œtrans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the womenā€™s facilities.ā€

    Last weekend, Cabinet minister Pat McFadden also discussed the matter on breakfast television. ā€œThere arenā€™t going to be toilet police,ā€ he said, which made me briefly quite sad, because if the government was going to introduce such a constabulary then Iā€™d like to talk to them about several things, including why so many public lavatories often have loo roll dispensers that seem to get jammed and refuse to give you more than one square of paper at a time. No toilet police, said Pat ā€“ but everyone using the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex was the ā€œlogical consequence of the court ruling.ā€

    Which means no more darting into the Gents. Itā€™s only fair. If trans women can no longer use the ladiesā€™ facilities, then we women must stop taking advantage of empty male cubicles, too. And as a woman, and therefore as someone who has spent, oooh, roughly 3,721 hours queuing for the loo over the course of the past few decades, this feels like a loss. Youā€™re lucky, frankly, if you can find any sort of functioning public loo, nowadays. Theyā€™re few and far between, or theyā€™re closed, or out of order.

    If you happen to find one thatā€™s open, has a plentiful supply of paper and is empty, well, thatā€™s the Holy Trinity. Iā€™d be in and out again in seconds, previously, being quite an efficient loo-goer. Who cares if it was, technically, the menā€™s? Not me. Youā€™ll often hear grumbles about the state of male lavatories, but I have to say not all women are totally immaculate, either. And so what if you have to lower the seat? Wash your hands afterwards.
    Like a germaphobe, I often use a paper towel or loo paper before touching the door handle again to let myself out, especially if Iā€™m using the facilities in a petrol station because the mere thought of the germs and matter that you may find on petrol pumps and lavatory handles in such places makes me feel slightly faint, but we donā€™t need to go into any further grubby detail. Still, lavatories are by their very nature not terribly sanitary spaces. No need to make a fuss. Get in and get out again.

    Another confession: I have, from time to time, sometimes nipped into an empty disabled cubicle, too. Own up, I bet some of you have done the same. We shouldnā€™t, of course, but so long as youā€™re not clambering over anybody disabled in order to do so, is this so very bad? Itā€™s efficient, in my book. Anything that speeds up the process, lessening the chances of a standing in a queue, desperately willing the people ahead to hurry up, is fine by me. Can we still get away with this every now and then? We probably shouldnā€™t, although it seems common sense to me that, if the coast is clear and youā€™re going to be quick, you can use it.

    Jokes on this subject are, of course, all very easy. But the day after the Supreme Court ruling, I listened to a trans woman talk very movingly about the subject on Radio 4. Jenny-Anne Bishop is a 78-year-old whoā€™s lived as a woman for ā€œas long as she can remember.ā€ She has three cycles of chemo coming up before an operation on a tumour, and was worrying about being on a manā€™s ward and having to
    Another confession: I have from time to time nipped into an empty disabled cubicle

    be catheterised because sheā€™s unable to use a bottle. ā€œAre you going to change anything about your life as a result of what happened yesterday?ā€™ asked the lunchtime presenter, Sarah Montague. ā€œNo,ā€ Jenny-Anne replied, in her shaky, elderly voice, ā€œIā€™m off to the gym shortly, I shall go as the woman I am. All the people in the gym are very friendly and supportive, and my trainer treats me like any of the other women there.ā€
    It was a reminder that, whether you believe sheā€™s a woman or not, there are human beings as the centre of this fight whoā€™ve been quietly trying to get on with their lives. But now, just as I should stop my occasional habit of using the menā€™s, Jenny-Anne should, technically, stop using the ladiesā€™. But should an ill 78-year-old really have to change her ways?

    According to the law, yes. But if I saw her coming out of a womenā€™s cubicle, just as if I saw a weary-looking mother with several children emerging from a disabled loo, or from a menā€™s lavatory, am I really going to kick up a fuss? Almost certainly not, and yet I know some will say this makes me a traitor to my sex.

    Come on, how many of you female NoTTLers have nipped into the men's bogs when you are desperate?

    Sophia Money-Coutts (a southerner) does her 'business' in the bog!

    1. This whole farrago is a classic case of a few gobby misfits making life hell for others.
      (Incidentally – at the Potsdam Schlƶssernacht some years ago, the lady in charge of the men's loos took pity on the snaking queue of females waiting to use the facilities and beckoned us all into her 'territory'; she even kept watch for us. A sign that the Germans have got over their knee-jerk obedience to orders?)

    3. I was once taken to a party in Paderborn hosted by the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment. At that time they only had menā€™s loos so one lot of toilets was labelled Ladies for the evening. There was a long row of urinals along one wall and a row of cubicles running parallel. Thatā€™s the only time Iā€™ve ever used Gents loos and no, I didnā€™t attempt the gymnastics that peeing in a urinal would involve.

      2. I was once paired up on patrol with a very pregnant policewoman. She desperately needed to pee and in the village we were patrolling the women's bogs had been closed for repairs. I checked the inside of the Gent's and then told her to use them while I stood guard on the pavement outside. Only one chap approached while she was in there and he didn't mind waiting until she emerged.

          1. I had my helmet taken off me once … by a farmer.

            I'd gone to visit him for a statement and he was emerging from the field with a huge bucketful of field mushrooms that he'd just picked. He filled my helmet with some. I shared them later with my father. They were scrumptious.

      4. Are you confirmed for June 3rd lunch? I expect the loos in the Lanesborough will be glorious.

        1. Iā€™m expecting 3rd June to be OK, yes. My appointment with the cardiac surgeon is on 14 May and it seems doubtful that heā€™ll propose performing the surgery three weeks later but itā€™s not impossible so I need to confirm once I know his schedule.

          3. In such luxurious surroundings the 3 course set menu is an absolute bargain at Ā£52.

          5. A wine flight is around Ā£40 to go with the meal per person but at least two attending don't drink. I will be buying Champagne for those that do…after i have had my dry martini's.

          7. Just looked at the price of Champers per glass. They can have sparkling water.

          9. We were originally going to go for afternoon tea @ Ā£95 per head. Canny Annie suggested the three course voucher lunch. For me it is a destination place. Once done. Box ticked.

          11. Says the man with solar panels……………..

            I want to experience things before it’s too late. These are destination one offs.

          13. šŸ˜‚ I could eat more but I’d like to keep my sylph like figure – that sum included the cats food :o))

          15. If i didn’t propose these things i wouldn’t get to meet such illustrious personages such as yourself. Not that we can winkle you out of your shell but those i have met have been a joy. Even the ones deaf as a post.

      5. I'm sure any Army Mess would have ladies' toilets, not least for the soldiers' wives.

    4. Couldn't be bothered to read all that…….and what's with the Americanese "bathrooms"? Nobody baths in the bogs!

        1. So then, where does your goat go when he needs a tinkle, Grizzly? LOl.

    5. I doubt men are offended by the occasional lady using the gents. But a trans and in particular one with their tackle intact is obviously going to upsetting for women and girls.

      The ruling is correct.

      1. Women popping into the Gents in an emergency doesn't affect the 'ruling'.

        I've done the same in the Ladies' lavs on occasions.

      2. I donā€™t think, pre-say 2018, any woman minded much if a genuine ā€œman who has been living as a womanā€ was in the loos – we probably didnā€™t notice. The change came with the activists, when suddenly every man who happened to put on a dress wanted in. It was their demands that were the problem. Demanding ā€œrespectā€, as well, when they have no right to. If they had just quietly and expertly gone about their business it would all have been ok. But that wasnā€™t the object of the exercise. Which is why we donā€™t want any of them in our toilets anymore. This 78-year old should have stood up for women and told these male activists to shove off. They have ruined it for the genuine minority.

      3. I donā€™t think, pre-say 2018, any woman minded much if a genuine ā€œman who has been living as a womanā€ was in the loos – we probably didnā€™t notice. The change came with the activists, when suddenly every man who happened to put on a dress wanted in. It was their demands that were the problem. Demanding ā€œrespectā€, as well, when they have no right to. If they had just quietly and expertly gone about their business it would all have been ok. But that wasnā€™t the object of the exercise. Which is why we donā€™t want any of them in our toilets anymore. This 78-year old should have stood up for women and told these male activists to shove off. They have ruined it for the genuine minority.

      4. Particularly as the trans who are offensive are the ones who parade themselves in a way that real women simply don't do. That Sophia Money-Counts is simply being rather a pr@. The stupid men give themselves away again and again by their loutish behaviour. I'm sure old little trans old lady will continue to have no problem.

      5. For any trans woman confused about his sex, I presribe a kick in the dusters.

      1. A remarkably (and ubiquitously) irritating woman.

        She certainly is. Daddy is Crispin Money-Coutts, 9th Baron Latymer. Coutts is the family bank, natch.

        1. She claims – so hard as to be unconvincing – that her family has nothing to do with the bank.

    7. TThere's A difference between using the gents' loo because premises and events don't provide enough female facilities…and just using the wrong loo because you want to.

      1. I agree that there are far too few women's toilets in public places so why don't noisy feminists campaign for more loos instead of worrying about whose face appears on new banknotes?

    2. Am I allowed to invoke the Pedant picture (either/or, neither/nor)? Plus we could fall out over the correct pronunciation of: pronunciation, either and/or neither.

      (By the way, I am right)

  42. Watch out for the "Independents".. they will have more seats than Labour if you know what I mean.
    Independent of common law.. Independent of UK.. Independent of kafirs.

  43. Yo and Good Moaning all from a sunny, but cool C d S.

    Was up early and out shopping, before the Caravan Dwellers Invasion force attacked us

  44. Irritating nasal whine alert. Actually quite sinister.

    "I get it"..
    "The message I take out with these results is.. We need to go further & faster with our change. People need to feel that change."

    More: EU. More migrants. More DEI ESG BLM CRT. More spaffing. More arrests. More solar panels. More new builds on farmland. And of course more freedom of speech one of the great traditions of Britain. LOL

    1. I thought you were being ironic and then I see that the quote is real.

  45. It seems to be race now, at !900, whether to watcth the evening TV soaps or read the Letters Page

    02 May 2025 7:00pm BST

  46. From Coffee House the Spectator

    03 May 2025
    Coffee House
    Martin Narey
    What the Auschwitz memorial gets wrong
    3 May 2025, 5:30am

    In 1982, to the shock of almost everyone who knew me, I began a two-year training programme designed to turn me into a competent prison governor. It was a largely unmemorable experience but with a singular exception. I read an article about the commandants of the Nazi death camps called ā€˜A curious absence of monsters.ā€™ It was and remains the most troubling thing about the Holocaust Iā€™ve read, and it encouraged me to read a great deal more about the individuals who industrialised barbarism.

    Auschwitz as it is currently presented fails in one important respect

    In all the 23 years I worked in and around prisons in England and Wales, including seven years leading the Prison Service, I never stopped fretting over the possibility that some of my staff might abuse prisoners. Not because they ā€“ largely ordinary decent men and women ā€“ were inclined to cruelty, but because the evidence from the Holocaust suggests, uncomfortably, that the most extreme cruelty, torture and murder could be, and was, carried out by people who appeared also to be ordinary, decent men and women.

    There wasnā€™t anything about seeing Auschwitz and its neighbour, Birkenau, which surprised me when I visited last week. It was of course profoundly moving to see the crematoria, to walk through one of the shower blocks and see the blackened chimneys through which the blue Zyklon B pellets were dropped. And seeing the mounds of childrenā€™s shoes and other family belongings, and in particular viewing one photograph of a Hungarian mother and her seven children, including a baby in her arms, as they trooped quietly into the gas chamber, will haunt me for some time.

    But Auschwitz as it is currently presented fails in one important respect. It offers comfort to those who want to believe that the evils of Nazism and their attempt to eradicate the Jewish race was a singular historical aberration. At the end of the visit, we were steered towards the commandantā€™s family home which remains intact and just a short distance from the gas chambers. We were shown the gallows erected after the war, within view of his home, and to which he was returned in 1946 to be hanged. Itā€™s as if bringing Rudolf Hoss to justice almost put everything right.

    Auschwitz is an immensely moving shrine to those who were slaughtered there. In a four-hour visit and in a carefully scripted commentary, the Nazis were referred to frequently. But I did not hear the phrase anti-Semitism. And the false comfort that the horrors of Auschwitz were uniquely the responsibility of Nazi monsters and of Rudolf Hoss in particular is grasped by so many.

    As a young man Rudolf Hoss developed a vocation for the priesthood. And although that vocation was never fulfilled, he considered himself to be a deeply devout Christian and with an earnest belief in the role of duty. That sense of duty drew him to the army and in the First World War he served his country with distinction. Promoted through the ranks, he became his countryā€™s youngest non-commissioned officer. Wounded three times, he was awarded his countryā€™s highest decorations for gallantry.

    In peacetime. he became attracted to the back to the land movement and pursued a farm-based lifestyle, in which family life was of primary importance. He married and had five children whom he was known to love very much. He became interested in photography and his biography is littered with photographs depicting a simple family, a life of picnics and ball games. A few days before he died, he dedicated his life story to his three daughters and two sons and, in a final message, capturing his love for his children, he told his eldest son:

    Keep your good heart. Become a person who lets himself be guided primarily by warmth and humanityā€¦ listen above all to the voice in your heart.

    I repeat Hossā€™s biography because, loving Father and church-going family man through he was, the Commandant of Auschwitz and was responsible ā€“ as he later admitted to a court at Nuremburg ā€“ for the degradation, humiliation, and slaughter of two and a half million Jewish men, women and children who were gassed by Zyklon B, which Hoss personally and enthusiastically developed.

    Iā€™m afraid that right now, particularly in the wake of the 7 October Hamas slaughter of Jewish mothers and babies, Auschwitz fails to address the disturbing reality that what happened in Poland between 1942 and 1945 was not simply a consequence of Nazism but was, more broadly, a consequence of the anti-Semitism which was widespread in Europe before and during the war.

    An example: just 300 miles or so from Auschwitz is the notorious Colditz Castle. From about 1942, prisoner of war escapees were held there by the Germans and housed in their separate nationalities. French prisoners demanded of the German authorities that they should not have to share their accommodation with Jews. They were successful and the French Jewish prisoners, who had fought for their country and had previously escaped to return to the war, faced dangerous isolation. To their credit, British prisoners of war, in particular Airey Neave (later to become an MP and to be murdered by the Irish National Liberation Army) prevented that isolation by pointedly associating with and dining with the French Jews.

    Inscribed at the memorial site at Auschwitz is a famous quotation attributed to George Santayana, the Spanish-American philosopher: ā€˜Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.ā€™ My worry is that we might be misremembering the origins of Auschwitz and the Final Solution. The truth is that the barbarous slaughter of six million European Jewish men, women, children and babies, simply because they were Jewish, did not necessarily need monsters in the way we generally understand that word. And thatā€™s why the indisputable anti-Semitism which has reared its head since the Israelis sought to avenge 7 October is so profoundly worrying.

    Written by
    Martin Narey
    Sir Martin Narey was chief executive officer of the charity Barnardo's from 2005 to 2011

      1. I suspect that creating the excuse that the persecuted are some kind of untermensch was theorised by the nazis, and put into practice. It works, as shown by history, in getting one group of people eradicated.
        I worry about me, too. I wrote about machine gunning the channel hoppers a bit earlier – is this part of the dehumanising and demonising of untermenschen?

        1. I've finally come to the conclusion that civilisation is only a thin veneer to cover man's base nature.

    2. "And thatā€™s why the indisputable anti-Semitism which has reared its head since the Israelis sought to avenge 7 October is so profoundly worrying." I find this line troubling, "avenge" is the keyword. The noises and actions I hear and see from Israel in its military response to 7th October is to get the hostages back and to put an end to Hamas' ability to commit such atrocities ever again.

  47. Well – 2Ā½ hours very useful garden work. With our new tools and a larger Henchman ladder (HOW we wish we had had these things years ago) we were ale to cut back laurel and holly, and remove dead trees – cut into logs for this evening. Then watered the potatoes and other veg, and sorted the greenhouse. I am going to treat myself to a Duchesse Anne beer with my lunch.

    And look forward to a restful afternoon – finishing racy biography…

    1. Brilliant.

      I watched the 4 am rehearsal for Sir Winston's funeral from my office overlooking the Aldwych.

    3. Thank you Korky, something about drums (especially with pipes)…always gets to me…

  51. After Prince Harry's and Meagain's whinings not only did the Markle's destroy Her Majesty's peace of mind in her final years they now are attacking King Charles.

    Not only should the King permanently exile Harry he should send Prince Andrew along with them.

    None of those people will be a benefit when William ascends the throne.

    1. Better in the tent pissing out, or…?
      Problem is, they seem to be pissing in the tent.

      1. LBJ explaining why he had appointed J Edgar Hoover as director-for-life of the FBI.

    2. Why are you (and others on here) utterly obsessed with those nonetities?

      If I see their vacuous faces in a newspaper and I quickly turn the page. Life is much too short to waste on such crap!

          2. I've rubbed a couple of strips of flatiron steak with my own recipe rub. I shall sear it later on a fiercely hot charcoal barbecue before slicing it (medium-rare) and serving it with some chilli/salt/garlic chips, and a home-made chimichurri sauce.

          3. I've rubbed a couple of strips of flatiron steak with my own recipe rub. I shall sear it later on a fiercely hot charcoal barbecue before slicing it (medium-rare) and serving it with some chilli/salt/garlic chips, and a home-made chimichurri sauce.

          5. Grizz is very forthcoming with ideas but i actually invite people. July 5th if you are interested.

          6. Sounds fab, but my mum’s birthday (no longer with us, but still celebrated). Hope everyone have a good time. Thanks so much for asking Phiz xx

          7. Welcome. I will get one of the Mods to put up a banner at the top of the thread nearer the time. Hopefully some pics to follow for those that can’t attend.

          10. Looks great. Is that a pepper topping or cafe de Paris butter?

            BTW. I have sent Nottlers invitations to my Summer extravaganza but not you. Because i didn’t think you would make the effort. :@(

          11. It is, as I said, a chimichurri sauce.

            The chips are dressed in a sautƩed mix of chopped garlic, chilli and spring onions.

          13. You know I was only kidding….mine will be served as soon as I can be bothered to make it…burger n chips, salad, water to drink..doh…yogurt, fruit…I’m a good girl I am……

          16. Stop it, Grizzly! I have put on 10 lbs in weight after my three days away, and I need to get back to a better weight by eating less instead of reading about your own yummy posts. Lol.

          17. I've rubbed a couple of strips of flatiron steak with my own recipe rub. I shall sear it later on a fiercely hot charcoal barbecue before slicing it (medium-rare) and serving it with some chilli/salt/garlic chips, and a home-made chimichurri sauce.

      2. Possibly because partly funded through public purse, Grizz. We all turn the page post QEII (apart from Kate..ahem…)

      1. She has these massive smiles all the time when cameras are placed. When the shit hits the fan i hope Harry has a lifejacket let alone security.

        1. It’s the nose, Phiz…the nose……..she’ll take him for all she can, children etc….wonder who’ll foot that bill…

  52. Trans paedophile: 'Male prison will distress me'.

    A convicted paedophile who has been jailed for possessing child sex images has complained of the ā€œdistressā€ of being sent to a male prison, having changed gender after being charged.

    Dominic Carter, 40, appeared in court dressed in pink and identifying as ā€œSophieā€. The trans woman avoided jail in 2023 after being caught with indecent images of children.

    But Carter, from Southsea, Hants, has now been jailed for six months for flouting orders imposed after the conviction. Eve Shelley, defending, told Southampton Crown Court that being in a male prison would cause ā€œsome distress and concern to [Carter]ā€.

    "Distress you"? I sincerely hope that it does more than that, you brain-dead weirdo nonce!

    2. It's too much to expect that selfish twit to appreciate that his presence amongst women (who don't need a prefix) might have caused them distress and concern.

    3. Exactly. Punishments are not supposed to be comfy whoever you are.

    4. When I was very young, Grizz (several decades ago)..we had a local 'hospital' where everyone knew nutters/drug haddocks went. Eventually closed down 'care in the community' etc. Those in power should re-open/re-build them.

      1. When I was growing up in York, Naburn Hospital was the local Funny Farm. It was closed in 1988. One of the more stupid things that Margaret Thatcher did.

          2. I visited grisly Risley prison, near Warrington, on a couple of occasions to deliver female prisoners.
            On one occasion I was stopped from entering by a female screw of about six foot two and built like a brick shithouse. “No blokes in here!” she growled!

      2. Hi, Kate. There used to be an institution in London called Bedlam. That worked very well for the same type of unfortunates (and a good few more).

        2. Was that the same time as a gibbet over the Thames, Grizz…cut ’em down, float away, job done.

  53. To those who expressed their concern about my grandson, he is now the proud owner of what they call a mic-key button so that he can be fed by a tube to his tum. His face lit up when he no longer felt so hungry. Hopefully he will be discharged Tuesday.

      1. No he has a list of items suitable when he wants to eat but it will be mostly by tube. Interesting times ahead. He can't swallow most things.

      2. No he has a list of items suitable when he wants to eat but it will be mostly by tube. Interesting times ahead. He can't swallow most things.

          1. We are fortunate that my son lives with his family not far from the hospital, so I was able to bunk up at his.

      3. No he has a list of items suitable when he wants to eat but it will be mostly by tube. Interesting times ahead. He can't swallow most things.

    2. What positive news for the little lad. Hope his affliction affects him less as he gets used to the new intervention. He sounds like a lovely little boy.

    3. At least, with hunger mostly gone, he should have the energy to be a happy little boy.
      Good news, Rusty.

      1. I'm always reminded of PetaJ saying 'some people are really stupid'. What made her think it was a good idea to carry a bomb….

    5. Reminds me of the IRA "bomber" who blew himself up in Coventry. A step forward for the gene pool in both cases.

  56. The Iberian peninsula electrical grid blackout raised serious questions about the substitution of fossil fuel power generation with unpredictable net zero energy sources. Yes, it is a compelling argument that seemingly free energy is avaiable from the wind and the sun but because this can only be delivered from these unpredictable sources in a sporadic and unsynchronised way a fossil free power generation system becomes increasingly more unmanageable using a legacy grid management system.

    The implications for the US (and indeed other countries)are discussed in detail here and the recent countrywide grid blackout during a period of high demand sourced primarily from solar energy has been attributed to a sudden loss of grid frequency of only one cycle per second. This was followed by an escalating grid shutdown due the absence of a stable inertial fossil based energy supply:

    https://youtu.be/SN0oj7xHijM?si=fXg2N5YioXyCgldT
    Serious questions arise as to how quickly electrical grid management systems should be evolved to deal with the intrinsic unreliability of power sourced from net zero compliant sources. One solution is regional microgeneration with battery storage backup which is already a feature of many domestic grid compliant solar installations.

    Exact synchonisation from feed-in sources with the alternating current of the grid is vital and this video addresses how even a small change in the grid frequency in Texas could have resulted in irrecoverable falure of the state's grid system:

    9 https://youtu.be/7G4ipM2qjfw?si=Jhxq5OBzn8uEzZX1

    1. They will never be able to connect the sun to the grid while ever Billy Goats and his WEF cohorts are trying to dim it!šŸŒ¤ļø

      1. It's just another part of showing the world how absolutely stupid they all are.

    2. No problems, Carney is talking about a sustainable power corridor across Canada that will allow power sharing. So a nice surge in one province will cascade across Canada and the northern US.

      You would have thought they learnt from the problems many years ago when one fault at a switching station brought down the entire north eastern network.

      1. These people are greedy liars who give not a toss for truth, or the dispossessed, or the planet. The money piles up in their pockets as a result of their lies and that is all that matters to them.

  57. The Iberian peninsula electrical grid blackout raised serious questions about the substitution of fossil fuel power generation with unpredictable net zero energy sources. Yes, it is a compelling argument that seemingly free energy is avaiable from the wind and the sun but because this can only be delivered from these unpredictable sources in a sporadic and unsynchronised way a fossil free power generation system becomes increasingly more unmanageable using a legacy grid management system.

    The implications for the US (and indeed other countries)are discussed in detail here and the recent countrywide grid blackout during a period of high demand sourced primarily from solar energy has been attributed to a sudden loss of grid frequency of only one cycle per second. This was followed by an escalating grid shutdown due the absence of a stable inertial fossil based energy supply:

    https://youtu.be/SN0oj7xHijM?si=fXg2N5YioXyCgldT
    Serious questions arise as to how quickly electrical grid management systems should be evolved to deal with the intrinsic unreliability of power sourced from net zero compliant sources. One solution is regional microgeneration with battery storage backup which is already a feature of many domestic grid compliant solar installations.

    Exact synchonisation from feed-in sources with the alternating current of the grid is vital and this video addresses how even a small change in the grid frequency in Texas could have resulted in irrecoverable falure of the state's grid system:

    9 https://youtu.be/7G4ipM2qjfw?si=Jhxq5OBzn8uEzZX1

  58. while Iā€™ve. Even sitting here reading your comments and the paper, I completely forgot about my loaf of bread in the oven. Oops. Over an hour and a halfā€¦

  59. On my afternoon walk with Pip yesterday evening , a took some photos when I was visiting https://www.google.com/search?q=stoborough+heath+national+nature+reserve&oq=stoborough+heath&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqDwgAECMYJxjjAhiABBiKBTIPCAAQIxgnGOMCGIAEGIoFMhIIARAuGCcYrwEYxwEYgAQYigUyDwgCEEUYORiRAhiABBiKBTIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDINCAUQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAYQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAcQABiGAxiABBiKBTINCAgQABiGAxiABBiKBTIKCAkQABiABBiiBNIBCTEwNDk1ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#lpg=cid:CgIgAQ%3D%3D

    I used my phone to tale a short video because a cuckoo was calling .. it was glorious , I was the only one there apart from the birds , a few horses , and rabbits, and maybe the odd lizard or 2 !

  60. I don't understand why we are so unpopular..

    "Don't push me, you can't touch me!" I'm reporting for my 1,2 million viewers.
    'Labour is recklessly wasting Ā£8.3billion of taxpayers' money on an energy company that won't even generate any energy.
    Ed M allocated Ā£8.3 Bn to spanky new quango GB Energy plus cut all funds to nuclear plants the ones that actually produce energy.. then spends Ā£200mill on solar panels from China plus experimenting with blocking out the sun.
    An entirely net-zero grid would cost 3trn and yet only met 26% of energy needs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HYj2E1EKOM

  62. From the Substack of John Leake:
    "This morning a friend sent me a New York Times report headlined Kennedy Issues Demands for Vaccine Approvals That Could Affect Fall Covid Boosters, which opens with the following paragraph:

    Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that extend his reach deep into vaccine development and raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall.

    Oh Lordy, how will we manage without Covid boosters this fall? According to Dr. Ofer Levyā€”a Harvard vaccine researcher and a member of the F.D.A.ā€™s vaccine advisory committeeā€” this would be ā€œunacceptable.ā€
    Tens of thousands of people can die without protection against Covid,ā€ said Dr. Levy, who co-founded a company working on an opioid vaccine.

    Curious about Dr. Levyā€™s opioid vaccine, I did a little research and found a report about his Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Childrenā€™s Hospital, which has received nearly $20 million from the National Institutes of Health since 2019. The flagship VAX of Precision Vaccines is one ā€œfor blocking fentanyl from entering the brain,ā€ thereby sparing hard partying adolescents from dying of opioid overdose."

    (end)

    1. RFK Jr is well know here as being, shall we say eccentric? Not just vaccines either. Even his family think he's maybe one beer short of a six pack.

      1. Well, he is criticising a powerful industry. Isn’t it more shocking that vaccines are put on the market without being tested against placebos?

        1. No, that's not an effective test. It's just a hurdle concocted by a well known anti-vaxxer – let them get sick, it'll be Ok is his approach.

          I remember the era before Polio vaccines. Once they were available, there was not a parent anywhere who did not want their child vaccinated.

          1. There is a school of thought that would blame polio on pesticide use -eg DDT. And there seemed to be a resurgence of polio after Bill Gates pushed the vaccines on children.

          2. I beg to disagree. A test against placebos is the best test to tell you how safe a treatment is.
            Also the history of the polio vaccine is far more controversial than you seem to believe. Unless you are well over a hundred years old, you are talking about the second generation of polio vaxxes – the first was withdrawn for being too deadly. Parents were and still are subjected to huge PR campaigns by vaccine manufacturers to convince them to get their children injected.

  63. From the Substack of John Leake:
    "This morning a friend sent me a New York Times report headlined Kennedy Issues Demands for Vaccine Approvals That Could Affect Fall Covid Boosters, which opens with the following paragraph:

    Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced plans to require all new vaccines to be tested against placebos and to develop new vaccines without using mRNA technology, moves that extend his reach deep into vaccine development and raise questions about whether Covid boosters will be available in the fall.

    Oh Lordy, how will we manage without Covid boosters this fall? According to Dr. Ofer Levyā€”a Harvard vaccine researcher and a member of the F.D.A.ā€™s vaccine advisory committeeā€” this would be ā€œunacceptable.ā€
    Tens of thousands of people can die without protection against Covid,ā€ said Dr. Levy, who co-founded a company working on an opioid vaccine.

    Curious about Dr. Levyā€™s opioid vaccine, I did a little research and found a report about his Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Childrenā€™s Hospital, which has received nearly $20 million from the National Institutes of Health since 2019. The flagship VAX of Precision Vaccines is one ā€œfor blocking fentanyl from entering the brain,ā€ thereby sparing hard partying adolescents from dying of opioid overdose."

    (end)

  64. From the Substack of Sasha Latypova:
    "Mutual Recognition Agreements" remove national food and drug regulators and replace them with a handful of corrupt globalist crooks.
    Sasha Latypova
    May 02, 2025

    A new way to inflict dangerous drugs and jabs on people

      1. I gather that now they will say “Oh, it’s been approved by the WHO (or GAVI or whatever) so it is automatically approved in Britain” or something like that.

  65. Wordle No. 1,414 3/6

    ā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œ
    ā¬œā¬œšŸŸØšŸŸ©šŸŸØ
    šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

    Wordle 3 May 2025

    Chump for Birdie Three?

    1. Snap! Me too.

      Wordle 1,414 3/6

      šŸŸØā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œ
      ā¬œā¬œšŸŸØšŸŸ©šŸŸØ
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

    2. Well done – same here – starter word made it relatively easy to secure my first birdie for quite a few days! Odd word though (American?)

      Wordle 1,414 3/6

      šŸŸØšŸŸ©šŸŸØā¬œā¬œ
      šŸŸØšŸŸ©ā¬œšŸŸØšŸŸ©
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

    3. Hmmm, well done. I'm in the dunce's corner today.

      Wordle 1,414 6/6

      šŸŸØā¬œā¬œšŸŸ©ā¬œ
      ā¬œā¬œšŸŸØšŸŸ©ā¬œ
      ā¬œšŸŸ©ā¬œšŸŸ©šŸŸ©
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©ā¬œšŸŸ©šŸŸ©
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©ā¬œšŸŸ©šŸŸ©
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

    4. No birdie here

      Wordle 1,414 5/6

      šŸŸØā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œ
      šŸŸ©ā¬œšŸŸØā¬œā¬œ
      šŸŸØā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œ
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸØšŸŸØā¬œ
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

      Now off to the golf course, maybe there!

    5. Little choice for Birdie.

      Wordle 1,414 3/6

      šŸŸØā¬œšŸŸØā¬œšŸŸØ
      šŸŸ©ā¬œā¬œā¬œā¬œ
      šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©šŸŸ©

    1. Makes no difference to me. My surgery has said they won't treat any conditions which have a smoking no no.

      Pretty much everything really.

      1. Seriously? Is that an NHS thing or just your GP practice? I donā€™t smoke and Iā€™ve given up caffeine and alcohol as advised because that makes sense. I wonā€™t give up cholesterol or take statins, because that doesnā€™t.

        1. Dead serious. NHS and Doctors won’t treat me for any conditions considered related to smoking.

          The Doctor who phoned me after my recent visit diagnosed as insufficient venous return said that ‘they’ had said a ‘HARD NO’.

          Of course if i were a heroin/fentanyl addict or even a new arrival i would be treated differently.

          1. Oh yes. One time when I was in resus at Charing Cross, they were reviving a guy whoā€™d overdosed on fentanyl. Do private clinics take the same line on smoking?

          2. Probably not seeing as you are paying top dollar or the insurance is.

            Never in my times at the Spire was my smoking mentioned.

            Comes down to who is paying at the end of the day.

            NHS go on and on about it. It wouldn't surprise me for every medical they made where they said the patient was giving up or undergoing a program to do so they got a payment or the management did.

          3. My friendā€™s nasty alcoholic husband has been in an ICU for 6 weeks since falling down the stairs and developing an infection. He needs to move to another ward but there arenā€™t any beds. He has had a bleed on the brain and a clot on the lung and has lost some brain function.

            my friend, a strict Catholic, had just come round to the idea of divorcing him over his behaviour but now when he comes out she will have to nurse him till he dies.

            He is 63 and his mother is still alive, so itā€™s possible he will go on for a long time. We cannot guess how delighted she is at the amount of time and effort going into keeping him alive, so he can ruin the rest of her life. It is very sad all round.

          4. My friendā€™s nasty alcoholic husband has been in an ICU for 6 weeks since falling down the stairs and developing an infection. He needs to move to another ward but there arenā€™t any beds. He has had a bleed on the brain and a clot on the lung and has lost some brain function.

            my friend, a strict Catholic, had just come round to the idea of divorcing him over his behaviour but now when he comes out she will have to nurse him till he dies.

            He is 63 and his mother is still alive, so itā€™s possible he will go on for a long time. We cannot guess how delighted she is at the amount of time and effort going into keeping him alive, so he can ruin the rest of her life. It is very sad all round.

      2. That's pretty bloody outrageous – are you telling me they wont treat you because you're a smoker???? I'd go to war on this one…

        Cigarette taxes used to keep the NHS afloat (possibly less so now as so many people, like me, have given up, or are on vapes)

        I was a 30-40 a day man for about 40 years but I managed to kick it (took me about 2 years to do it completely) – I dont regret it, it gave me a lot of pleasure over the years, even when I was a serious sportsman (a few of us used to sit in the changing room after the game puffing away, whilst all the 'girls' moaned like hell!).

        You're certainly better off giving up (health and money wise) but if you dont want to – f*** 'em – it's your life

        1. The Doctor told me 'they' were not even prepared to adjust my medication unless i stopped smoking.
          I understand the anti-smoking stance but i have another condition entirely unrelated (secondary polycythemia).

          Which is normally managed by blood letting.

          They also aren't prepared to do that.

          I am also a lifetime smoker. When they introduced Champix for the first time since i was 10 years old i was able to stop. The they withdrew it.

          1. Jesus, I dont even know where to start with this one!

            Will they stop treating fat people unless they stop eating cakes and biscuits??

            Will they stop treating cosanguineous issues unless people (?) stop inbreeding??

            If your health is that badly impacted they should be encouraging you to stop with all the new drugs that are available to help with that.

            Do NOT let the bastards grind you down……

          2. "I understand the anti-smoking stance but i have another condition entirely unrelated (secondary polycythemia).

            Which is normally managed by blood letting.

            They also aren't prepared to do that."

            I know where you can get some leeches.

    2. From that article:

      Dr ZoĆ« Harcombe, a Cambridge graduate with an MA in maths, a PhD in public health nutrition and author of the best-selling diet book Stop Counting Calories & Start Losing Weight, said: ā€˜I have examined the entire data provided by the World Health Organization and found that higher cholesterol is associated with lower deaths from heart disease and all-causes, in men and women, for all 192 countries in the world. My PhD was an examination of the diet (cholesterol) heart hypothesis. I have studied this topic at the highest level for several years and I feel obliged to share what I have found.ā€™

      Dr Harcombe is a very personable and highly intelligent authority on diet and nutrition. She explains about the cholesterol con very lucidly in many of her YouTube videos. Cholesterol is vital to life and using it as a weapon for people to take unnecessary drugs is an abomination. She also explains very well, what is known as the LDL Paradox: since higher LDL cholesterol is associated with greater longevity.

  67. MONA LOTT
    1 hr ago
    Elsewhere – Residents living in the so-called ā€˜Golden Triangleā€™ town, home to a number of footballers, soap stars and wealthy professionals, were left in the dark about the original decision to take over the popular Cresta Court Hotel, Altrincham. Apparently 300 migrants were moved in overnight.

    What a pity , although I daresay most of the millionaire football players were migrants , once ?

    1. Those 'golden triangle' residents tend to be very well paid. They probably didn't think the withdrawal of the winter fuel allowance had anything to do with them. Council tax rise? Let the accountants sort that out. Now they have unemployed blackies hanging around on their doorsteps.

      The trickle becomes a flood.

      1. Lots of towns and cities have a so-called "golden triangle". Norwich has one.

  68. Interesting piece of information re carbon dioxide levels. The people pushing "carbon reduction" policies appear to be well off target and their policies, if realised, could create an Extinction Life Event (ELE) sometime in the future. Of course, the šŸ¤”šŸ¤” who are currently attempting to "dim" the Sun could achieve that goal first. Meddling with a billions of years old evolved ecosystem isn't the most sensible thing to attempt.

    https://x.com/_ClimateCraze/status/1918457897484181776

  69. Assisted dying law 'would kill 4,500 people a year'.

    MORE than 4,500 people a year are expected to end their lives by assisted dying within a decade of the service being legalised.
    This would save the taxpayer up to Ā£90million in healthcare and benefits and pensions payments over 10 years, according to a Whitehall impact assessment released yesterday.

    The proposed legislation would allow terminally-ill adults in England and Wales, with fewer than six months to live, to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, a lawyer and psychiatrist.
    However, the granular nature of the Governmentā€™s predicted cost savings has led disability rights campaigners to fear that peopleā€™s ā€œlives will be seen as expendableā€.

    Liz Carr, a disabled actor who starred in the BBC crime drama Silent Witness, said the impact assessmentā€™s conclusion ā€œonly confirms the fears of many disabled people that our lives will be expendableā€. Calling the law ā€œdangerousā€, she added: ā€œThe treatment of disabled, ill and older people during the early days of Covid should serve as a warning to the very real consequences of acting on these all-too-common money-saving prejudices.ā€

    The analysis found up to Ā£59.6million could be saved by the NHS in 10 years ā€“ with a further reduction of Ā£18.3million in state pension payments.
    Paralympic racer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said the report ā€œhighlights how assisted dying would put disabled and other vulnerable people at grave risk by providing financial incentives to an already overburdened and under-resourced NHS to offer assisted dying as a ā€˜treatment optionā€™.
    ā€œIf Parliament were to legalise assisted dying in light of these findings, it would further give the impression that it views the most vulnerable as a drain on the public purse.ā€

    The 149-page assessment into the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was published exactly a fortnight ahead of the next Commons debate on the proposed new law. If enacted, the assisted dying service would be up and running in England and Wales from October 2029 ā€“ with between 164 and 787 assisted deaths in its first half-year of operation.

    This would rise to between 1,042 and 4,559 assisted deaths by year 10 ā€“ assuming 60 per cent of applicants go through with the procedure.
    Cost savings to the NHS could be significant though the report notes that less money would be saved if deaths occurred after five months because peopleā€™s natural lives would be reduced ā€˜Gives the impression that Parliament views the most vulnerable as a drain on the public purseā€™
    by one month. The impact assessment said in this scenario healthcare savings would be between Ā£5.84million and Ā£25.6million by year 10.
    The financial impact on the care sector is also estimated. Between 138 and 602 care home residents are expected to go through with assisted deaths by October 2039, along with between 187 and 818 people in receipt of home care. This would wipe between Ā£143,000 and Ā£4.61million from care home profits, and lead to the home care sector losing between Ā£52,000 and Ā£918,000.

    MPs will gather on May 16 in the House of Commons for the Billā€™s report stage and could vote on whether to approve it at third reading ā€“ its final stage in the Commons A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care said the Government remains neutral but also ā€œhas a responsibility to make sure any legislation that passes through Parliament is workable, effective and enforceableā€.

    4,500 deaths a year! That is precisely the number of people that are born on this already grossly overpopulated planet EVERY 40 MINUTES!

    1. I'm sure they'll be able to increase the numbers once it gets going. Think how much more money it would save.

    2. How soon before the right to assisted suicide becomes the expectation to assisted suicide?

    4. Not that i agree with anything like 'assisted dying' it will be massively abused. But if it was only about saving money, along side it to save many more billions we could shut down Wastemonster and obviously stop supporting the invasion of our country. If so the quality of life in the UK would be much more enjoyable.

    5. So who would decide 'less than six months to live'…some cancer patients live longer than forecast?

      1. Old people have value; they have experience and acumen which is so often missed by politicians who count everyone as an economic unit.

        Assisted dying is an abomination and a betrayal of life in favour of cowardice.

  70. While I am pleased that the 80th anniversary of VE-Day is being marked (I had half expected Cur Ikea Slammer to ban it as "elitist" or "looking backward"), I do wonder why it is being done on May Bank Holiday. We don't commemorate D-Day on the 2 June, do we?

    Hoping to see some of the assembly for the flypast. Flightradar24 is a very useful tool!

    2. Every thing has to be commercialised to the nearest Saturday these days Bilty.

  71. It's cold out there today! Perishing north east wind is back. Must be at least 10 degrees colder than the last few days.

    2. Hasn't moved from 8C all day and then there's the wind chill. Got the woodburner lit

  72. That's me for today – sort of sunny at times but jolly cold north wind. No global boiling round here. You can tell the weather has changed. G & P had their breakfast at 8 am then retired to their favourite armchairs until 4.30 – when they sauntered out for a wazz! Gosh, how I would like to sleep for 8 hours.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain

  73. Germany's domestic intelligence service on Friday designated the far-right AfD party as an extremist group, and a threat to democracy. Its activities will now be subject to even closer scrutiny. LOL

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the German intelligence agency designation of the far-right AfD party ā€œtyranny in disguise,ā€

    1. A tadge harsh.. why not just jail the leader like France?.. Or cancel elections like Rumania & UK.

    2. A very thin disguise. Also a repeat of what the Weimar Republic did. When will they ever learn?

    3. The far left are trying to take over the world. and I do not joke.

      2. 404933+ up ticks,

        Evening JN,
        And still aided & abetted via the very dangerous tribal voter.

      3. There may be a glimmer of hope that if they keep turning left they'll go all around the world and come back in from the right.

  74. Cobra seen off by pussy in a box – where else.šŸ˜Š

    Face to face cat versus snake. Cat's reaction time is extremely quick.

    The speed of the cats' attacks are amazing.

    This reminds me of my black cat, Cassius, many years ago. I was gardening at the front of my then home and Cassie was sitting close by when a young retriever came bounding up to investigate this black animal. In a flash Cassie had split the poor dog's nose from to to bottom and blood was pouring out. I can't recall the strike as it was so quick and Cassie didn't move from where he was sitting. Cassie was a very friendly cat and enjoyed being played with and never scratched me or my wife. This was the only time I saw him react aggressively and I can only think that he was startled by the inquisitive dog's actions. Tough lesson for the young retriever.

    https://x.com/i/status/1917829920883093718

    1. Cats (especially apparently "fixed" females) can be very territorial. We had one that would not put up with any other animal coming on to "her" territory. Neighbour had a lab, and they turned up at our door with said lab on a leash. Cat took one look, all fur stood on end as she turned into a hissing monster that literally ran straight at the dog. Dog took one look and took off, leash trailing behind him.

      Another occasion, people across the road had one of those silly small yappy dogs. One day it came on to our front lawn when the cat was sitting in the sun on the front porch. Dog saw cat, started to advance, barking continually. Cat just started toward said dog – cat was pretty much the same size, with a "you have to be joking" attitude and dog promptly turned tail.

  75. We feel at last a corner has been turned with the elections. It give us all hope.

    1. Indeed! Early days, but a step in the right direction. The new Reform-led councils will need to be wise to obstructive tactics from officers who wonā€™t want their feathers ruffled.

      Popcorn timeā€¦..

    2. The lad I was leafleting for got in with 200 votes more than the Labour candidate. His parents and grandma, all living nearby, are very chuffed.

  76. Night All
    An afternoon drinkies with the awkward squad enjoying the sunshine out of practise now a little pissed
    I note comments on statins I got so sick of being nagged by my surgery I now order the 10mg minimum every time I order my prescriptions
    Then throw them in the bin

    1. Why not just stop? My OH was on statins after his triple bypass op – he took them for more than a year. Then I noticed he was showing signs of memory loss. I suggested he stop taking them and he did. He dropped them from his list of meds to be ordered and nobody said anything.

      1. Lucky him
        My surgery is literally demented on the big pharma trail endless messages and phone calls pushing the poison my route at least stops the pressure

        1. They keep texting me to push boosters and jabs for this & that – I ignore them.

      2. Similar here OH…legs ached, loss of balance…stopped, been ok ever since. He follows carnivore diet, no meds at all now. Pharma big business, witness Pfizer – virus AND vaccine.

        1. Firstborn having the same result through carnivore diet. Good blood sugars, good energy level, fewer meds.

          1. It’s a surprise to all of us…seems quite a number are following it now, carbohydrate-free diet. And we were all told some years ago a low fat diet the healthiest. He occasionally eats greens. He only eats once daily, and every so often misses a day. He spoke to his GP before he switched, who told him it’s OK I more or less follow it myself……

          2. I haven't ditched carbs completely – but I definitely did cut down. Ii hardly eat any bread these days and cakes don't come my way at all. I did eat two biscuits earlier in the week. I eat fruit and veg.

            This evening we had sea bass done in the oven with olive oil and butter, and had half a new potato and a big lump of broccoli with it and a green salad.

            I don't take any meds, am not overweight and I don't have any problems with painful joints etc. In fact my joints are a lot better than they were 15 years ago.

          3. He eats more steak than anything, sometimes chicken or pork, eggs, dairy. I think the carb diet came out of America couple of decades or so ago – fat caused heart attacks, advice now the opposite. Medics. Following my own experience with vaccine, very interested in what RfKjr has to say. Your diet sounds quite similar to my own – have a Border Ginger biscuit as a treat occasionally…:-)

          4. I’m eating my daily bowl of carbs at the moment – whole grain muesli with extra fruit and extra nuts and grapes. Keeps me going most of the day – I don’t bother with lunch except more fruit. Then a meal in the evening. Tonight we’ve got pork. Plenty of crackling hopefully.

          5. Similar, porridge, cheese/cracker/fruit at lunch. Then meat & 2 evening (or pasta if time short – quite like Charlie Binghams). Enjoy your crackling, N – always my fave when I was young.

          11. It wasn’t so very controllable, then he changed diet to almost purely protein and fat, and is streets better. Feels so much better, the weight is coming off nicely.

          12. And KJ (Kate) said earlier today that her OH is diabetic, but now on no meds since he took to the carnivore diet. That seems to work for him. We had some nice fatty pork for dinner – should do us good! A lot of problems seem to be caused by too much sugar and carbs. I’d be very loath to give up wine though.

      3. I have been obliquely suggesting to MB that statins are no longer needed.
        Ultimately, it's his choice but the cocktail of pills he is taking appear to be ā€¦. er ā€¦. overkill.

  77. Starting a thorough deep cleanse of the house – we are talking toothbrushes, crevices and lots of heavy-duty degreaser and sugar soap. It will take many many weekends but i have high standards and the house needs to be ready to rent in two years. Getting the heavy work done now will hopefully make it easier when we come to leave.

      1. The boatā€¦.we have a 34ā€™ motor cruiser and the plan is to take it through France to the Med. and, if I have my way, back up to do the other canals and rivers of Europe; hubby fancies plying the Med. of course, I may have pushed him overboard by then (or vice versa, obvs).

        1. Wow! Sounds fantastic. I'm very envious. Very good luck to you!

        3. Interesting, have read a book called Narrow Dog to Carcassonne by Terry Darlington?

    1. No, but interestingly I went cycling round the Park last night with my niece (after the drama of my sonā€™s carā€™s warning light). I took my husbandā€™s bike. We were going past Sheen Gate at about 9 pm and the Park was relatively quiet. There were 4 ā€œyouthā€ not far from the bike racks (no bikes). Definitely what I would call yobs. In modern parlance, they were ā€œblack and brown peopleā€. I reckon, but of course cannot prove, that they were behind it.

        1. Aye, pal. It’s good to be home. Slept like a log after yesterdays travels. Woken up around 10am by a GSD licking my head to make sure I hadn’t carked it overnight.

          I do enjoy the odd jaunt to other places on other peoples dimes, but ultimately it reminds me of why I don’t still do it all the time. When you’ve found ‘home’, there’s no place like it.

          Hope the (relatively local) week ahead is kind to you. And may the bacon flow like, errr, bacon.

      1. I don't much care what Farage is about. The fact he has all the 'usuals' in a panic is good enough for me.

        They might even start doing some of what we the electorate want.

          1. Heya yourself. I think i need a holiday. One from people speaking in lying tongues.

          2. Come and visit! There may still be liars but you won't understand a word they're saying. šŸ¤£šŸ¤£

        2. I doubt it. Mainly because much of politics is controlling the media while living in a malestrom of soundbites, focus groups and press releases driven by egotistical idiots and wasters.

          There's very little energy put into anything beyond getting re-elected.

          2. It well may be. We are not going because we are hungry. We are going for the company. We are going for the venue. We are going for the ambience. We are going to be treated like Royalty.

            And I have bought a new frock !!! (a particularly colourful peacocky waistcoat, hankerchief and cravat in almost silk ! …

          3. Please send a photo of you in your glad rags! šŸ˜Ž

            (I used an emoji with sunglasses on as I know what you're like. šŸ˜‰)

        3. Lefties like to think of themselves as 'in the centre'. They genuinely believe that their demented ideology is what everyone thinks. Thus they squeal 'far right'! at practically every common sense proposal.

          1. Explains lot to me. Never understood some peoples behaviour towards me. I didn't speak about politics or ideology but i was judged because i was a landlord.

      4. Because the extreme left have been deemed 'center ground' by the cancer of woke.

    2. This would be the far-right Farage who has, sadly, rowed backwards on The Ropery.

    3. Hullo, Ogga. This is the way.

      Before I moved to a place where politics simply don't matter, my mantra was:

      "The left will take an inch every time they can. The right will spend years deciding who is pure enough to take the yard."

    4. Hullo, Ogga. This is the way.

      Before I moved to a place where politics simply don't matter, my mantra was:

      "The left will take an inch every time they can. The right will spend years deciding who is pure enough to take the yard."

    5. McDonnell being a member of the Bolshevik party, of course.

      If only we did have a Right wing government. Everything wrong would be undone and normality restored. Work would pay, savings would be encouraged, inflation would be 0, taxes would be low. If you worked, you kept your earnings. If you don't, tough.

      1. And the ponzi scheme where paying in pays those who take out, would collapse.

      1. Neither do I. He is a politician. Neither am I sure about Rupert Lowe. I wonder how much of it is theatre for our benefit, and their agenda.

      2. 404963+ up ricks,

        Morning BB2,
        Agreed,I slipped into being semi nice,must watch that in future.

      3. As pleased as I am about Reforms excellent performance on Thursday, I still hold strong reservations about Mr. Farage.

        I was one of the skinheads and "Far Right football thugs" he refers to here and I do not recognise ANY of his description from the day.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

    8. He is 'frightened' of a 'far right' government under Farage….? I am terrified of Starmer's next move under his communist government – just a little reminder that the communist mantra is 'ownership of private property is theft.'

    2. KeBobs could have been called KeDaves if only Bob hadn't 'gone there' first with that line about flat breads versus sourdough yeasts.

  82. Interesting article in the Daily Sceptic about Al Beebā€™s reporting priorities yesterday (hint: not the election results).

    I donā€™t watch Al-Beeb but the article has links to its coverage and Al-Beebā€™s complaints form (for some reasonā€¦.)

  83. As we have seen there are certain life shortening conditions which are acceptable for treatment. Smoking has always been the big no no.

    They will not grind me down. Whatever will be will be.

    I found it interesting that the 'bad' news had been shuffled from my hospital to another. I quite possibly unnerved the young Doctor by being incredibly polite and understanding when she was effectively telling me that as a Doctor she could not treat me.

    I do hope she considers another career.

    1. 'First, do no harm' – Hippocrates must be turning in his catacomb…..

    1. They are tough little birds, they always nest near here. Swallows now, wheeling around. And every night, the owls – she shrieking 'what time do you call this' and he wooing away 'my little love' etc. The young are grey and fluffy, eyes blinking slowly, head turning, turning….

    2. To be honest, I didn't think she minded too much until her old man suddenly showed up.

    3. Dare one say, that the intruder bird had arrived at Dover Rubber Boat…………

  89. Well that was fun!
    Pie & Quiz night at the village hall with the DT & Grad Son and guess who won!
    Only 3 of us too.
    Welder Son was on a team with his mate and came 2nd last!!

  91. Well, chums, my bedtime has arrived, so I am off up the stairs to Bedfordshire. Good Night all, sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

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