Saturday 30 March: A party that picks the pockets of its supporters is doomed to fail in an election

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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589 thoughts on “Saturday 30 March: A party that picks the pockets of its supporters is doomed to fail in an election”

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

    BLACK TESTICLES

    A male patient is lying in bed in the hospital, wearing an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, still heavily sedated from a difficult 4-hour surgical procedure.

    A young student nurse appears to give him a partial sponge bath.

    Nurse,’ he mumbles, from behind the mask ‘Are my testicles black?’

    Embarrassed, the young nurse replies ‘I don’t know, Sir. I’m only here to wash your upper body.’

    He struggles to ask again, ‘Nurse…’

    Concerned that he may elevate his vitals from worry about his testicles, she overcomes her embarrassment and sheepishly pulls back the covers. She raises his gown, holds his penis in one hand and his testicles in the other, lifting and moving them around and around gently.

    Then, she takes a close look and says, ‘No sir, they aren’t and I assure you, there’s nothing wrong with them, Sir!!’

    The man pulls off his oxygen mask, smiles at her and says very slowly,

    ‘Thank you very much. That was wonderful, but listen very, very closely…

    A r e – m y – t e s t – r e s u l t s – back?

  4. Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers
    Exclusive: Members say flag may alienate ethnic minority voters as some associate it with far right

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9b03af0c2b3b01d224a0c0a4860dba80df5301a1/0_118_5730_3437/master/5730.jpg?width=700&dpr=2&s=none
    Keir Starmer is seeking to emphasise Labour’s patriotic credentials to indicate the party has changed since the Jeremy Corbyn era.

    Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers
    Exclusive: Members say flag may alienate ethnic minority voters as some associate it with far right

    Ben Quinn Political correspondent
    Sat 30 Mar 2024 06.00 GMT

    Keir Starmer is facing discontent from Labour MPs over the dominant use of the union flag in election campaign material amid concern it may alienate ethnic minority voters and others.

    Concerns were raised at recent meetings of the party’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) group at Westminster and also by London members of the parliamentary Labour party. There is also unhappiness among some activists who are reluctant to handle the material.
    *
    *
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/starmer-faces-discontent-as-labour-mps-criticise-election-flyers-union-jacks

          1. I’ve never heard those called “Bennies” before, Sir Jasper. It sounds rather painful. Lol.

    3. Well, Starmer stated that he prefers Davos to Westminster and here he is in his second favourite place, meeting his people.

    4. Whatever someone or indeed anyone (even a Nottler) does or thinks there is bound to be at least one or more likely many who take offence. The best solution therefore, is to do and say what you think best and ignore those who claim to be offended. So for me it’s conviction politicians who will win my vote at the next election – whenever that may be held – and not those who spend all their time trying not to give offence. (Good morning, btw, Citroen1.)

      1. A good point. As a societies across the West we must learn to calmly say no to the grievance machinations of the mad-Left. It is strategic on their behalf, they have learned to weaponize the peaceful tolerance of Christian Classical Liberalism.

  5. Tory MPs plan for migrant crime league tables. 30 March 2024.

    The plan, set out in an amendment to the Government’s Criminal Justice Bill, would enable the Home Office to toughen visa and deportation policies for nationalities linked to higher rates of crime.

    It is understood that the Government’s main concern is regarding the practicality of implementing the plan, as ministers have no ideological objections to it. A government source said: “We will certainly look properly at this amendment and engage with colleagues in the usual way.”

    Desperation rises! No incomer gives a fig for visa’s and no one is ever deported.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/29/migrant-crime-ministers-immigration-league-table-ranking/

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      Window dressing, there must be an election on the horizon.

      Same goes for Starmer’s union jack on Labour’s election flyers, as Citroen 1 shows below. These people are just so shallow, but what does it say about the people who fall for this nonsense and vote for them?

      1. Morning Korky. Just a vote catcher. Even if they won they wouldn’t implement it!

      1. Water is a natural resource; owning the means of distributing it and the right to charge customers for doing so is monopolistic.

        Recent commentary has focused on the dividend streams paid to foreign owners of UK ‘infrastructure’ companies. But it’s worse than that.

        Some ingenious ‘Financial Engineers’ in the City noticed that HMRC does not levy Withholding Tax on interest paid on bonds held in certain offshore tax havens. Such a financing avenue is not available to UK bidders when these national assets are privatised. Foreigners can outbid UK entities by loading up the acquired entity with high coupon debt housed in a tax haven. The interest on that debt is tax deductible from the utility’s profits in the UK and gets ‘channelled’ to the foreign equity owners via the tax haven. Additionally, they take dividends from the post tax profits.

  7. 385196+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tory MPs plan for migrant crime league tables
    Ranking system backed by Tory MPs would allow Home Office to tighten restrictions on certain countries

    A layer of non essential number crunchers being set up, plenty of raw odious material for starters
    swelling the penal system with a steady daily supply up and running smoothly via Dover.

    Crime league tables = hold on paedophiles ,too many at this moment in time, even the majority voter is starting to complain, pickpockets & street muggers needs topping up as do black on white
    English speaking rhetorical abusers, ( no pidgin).

    In decent reality the home office itself really does need a deserved tightening,that being of a hemp noose slipped over their treble chinned heads.

  8. ‘Morning All

    Lighter Medley

    One for Willum

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

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b92337fb23a18e92e3333edf344070cedc3ba946f2a59bb378a3a9fab401e831.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/919a92d4a225355a2dc07c9ae71071e943002072ef150d1e12c2532ad93727af.jpg

    Pro Bonio??

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b584257b80587a52e7078b35552d2a61d033c493ee62ee5ad9fde4d35566d68.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c33c2070277a8bfe815e16240e1678c7a10747e09fb2fca010157312634bc6ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d120acdca1ee799bfccd187fae7f2f82bfbca6e6c017bab4425a4212fff0c30c.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16e587f87ebf6708aff695d58393136f4b790e41c838c891fc18e623654b406e.gif

    3. Is that last one a Basset Hound of colour, Rik? Lol. (It could be; if you listen to the voice over on the Basset Hound photo it sounds like a very famous Black Actor.)

    4. I shared the Pino More one on FB and it went down well with all my girlfriends of a certain age. Everyone gets the reference.

    1. The “Use it or lose it” plea.

      I am not a cradle Christian, and was not baptised until well into middle age. Most of my life therefore, I did not ascribe to the Christian mythology, looked on religion radically rather than dogmatically, and to this day insist that there is far more to Salvation than holding my arms to the sky and saying “Jesus” enough times.

      My beef with the Church, however, is not because it pushes a particular story and venerates a legend, but because in attempting to be in with society, it forgets why it is there. Being on trend in order to ingratiate oneself with those of precious little goodwill is little good compared to creating goodwill out of malice. There is far too much malice in the world of the smartphone, of justifying genocide against one’s neighbour, and “Pride” by pushing others out of society on ideological grounds or because of what they say, think or believe or hold dear.

      I see the mythology as a useful tool in making things better, and it matters little to me whether thee stories are verifiable fact, fable, or the building up of an ancient bit of news into a lasting legend upon which one can hang the endeavour. When I celebrate Easter (which was an adaptation of the ancient Pagan welcoming of the Spring), the story is that the crucified Christ rose from the dead, and that this miracle is proof that his mission was right. A far more powerful message for me is not so much whether a 30-something man had a few more years to preach before his natural demise, but that in becoming the embodiment of Christ ourselves, we can perpetuate his mission indefinitely with each generation passing on to the next. We are the risen Christ.

      And I am a heretic, but do I care?

      As for getting bums on seats, I am less sure of my ground. Other People (my childhood bogey) also have their own priorities in life, which are not necessarily mine. I can promise a wonderful concert, but will they buy a ticket when Strictly’s on?

      I have precious little love for my fellow human, who condemns me for what I am, and somehow I am commanded to love them as if love can be manufactured like a spoon. Maybe it can be? It is the job of the Church after all.

    2. Another super article from The Critic, if only they had a small comments section where such subjects could be debated. They have very good writers, I don’t know who Ben Sixsmith happens to be but he’s spot of. ‘ Passive Cultural Christianity ‘ ? An utter deceit, delivered by those faux wokiest Christians without a ounce of genuine faith, as Ben said without Christians thus country wouldn’t be Christian and there are those who are encouraging that to happen.

  10. Good morning, all. Bright overcast, calm and, would you believe it, dry.

    Must see photos Here

    Fred Dibnah would be proud!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0a368906afc634936c4fbb6038142a196067d7c5a029d13eb9de0998401a87d2.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fe3a075f87b72899992f775463030e3de43a3643ebcd4de40fc98a4b320f0e8.png

    Das Boot. Hastings, of all the places for a would be conqueror to turn up.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1fd75e2e6fb7f926bac284388a9347f2b47a02d9c1c2c38057d5fb71ac4e949.png

    The rope stood the test of time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4e13be9697dc5d0788ac3b0a76375818438fba6f6fc37b4691623628dfd5370.png

    One for Bob of Bonsall. Not a chainsaw in sight.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ddd879d326378d4fb35420742945e050c191083524ab8ffa724bbe19e654222c.png

    1. Good morning, Korky. The first photo looks as if the workman has decided to try a little fishing; is there a lake below? Lol.

      2. Central Park has a lake but it would be one hell of a cast from where this guy is.😉

    1. If someone came up with you and offered you to take a cold shower because it was good for you, would you take him up on it, or would you think he was barking mad?

      ‘MeToo’ feminism has much more in common with Mary Whitehouse and strict Islamic doctrine (not necessarily adopted when tempted by kuffah flesh) that is has with the libertarians of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Must self-denial always require the killing of all joy?

    2. Good morning, the article looks superb, i shall read it fully when returning from a long walk in the woods, I need to think about the film from Good Friday, I am disturbed by it . Btw have you come across a Christian poster by the name of Angus J ? He reads the the critic too but wishes they allowed comments on the articles, there is a lack of Christian blogs that discuss the scriptures and faith . Thank you for putting up this article, I’ll read it when I’ve finished walking .

      1. Good morning and thank you. Yes, Angus posts here now and is a really nice man, and I too wish The Critic allowed comments.

  12. Good morning good people!
    A slightly less chilly start this morning, 3½° on the Yard Thermometer with broken cloud and no rain.

  13. It’s disgraceful to allow soldiers to grow beards. 30 March 2024.

    I’m a dinosaur, of course, because I vehemently disagree with the British Army’s new policy of allowing beards. After years of harrumphing from a deep leather armchair in my club, I’ve just been getting used to the armed forces’ wokeist advances such as bandying about preferred pronouns and even the RAF doing away with gendered ranks like “airman” and “airwoman”, now replaced by “aviator”, something the Chief of the General Staff seems keen to replicate in the Army.

    So with all these exciting steps forward, why is the Army now leaping backwards to the 19th century when military beards were commonplace, a habit inspired by the French of all people. Surely this retrograde move will only serve to heighten the distinction between male and female servicepersons which the Army has been so eager to suppress. Or will women be allowed to grow beards too?

    Is he really so stupid? Beards are to be allowed for the purpose of increasing the ethnicity of the army. Oddly the Top Comment has been removed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/29/our-troops-will-become-a-laughing-stock-when-grow-beards/

    1. More oddly, does he not understand that a ‘woman’ can grow a beard now just as you don’t have to have a cervix to be female? Honestly, some people are so behind the times.

    2. Good morning Minty ,

      Did you see these comments re the article ?

      JW

      John Woods
      10 MIN AGO
      May be Grant Shapps hopes that the Mohammedans will be queing up to join now. That that will solve the recruitment crisis. Dream on. EDITED

      Gully Foyle
      11 MIN AGO
      It’s pretty simple really. Muslims do not shave, so the Army is accommodating them, just as they are being accommodated by every other large (craven) organisation.

      Comment by William Warren.

      WW

      William Warren
      11 MIN AGO
      Its the same with the police. Just look at how many overweight and bearded officers are now in the force and a consequence of this is reduced discipline. It’ll be the same in the army once they are stuffed with woke recruits.
      ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

      My husband, son and faraway son complain about the price of razor blades , disposable razors cost a fortune and the blades for other razors are so expensive ..

      Yes I know there are electric razors , the guys in the family say that a wet shave is cleaner , closer and better feeling . We have so many discarded electric razors hidden in drawers because they just do not do the job .

      WHY are disposable razor blades so expensive?

      1. Double edged blades aren’t expensive at all. They have risen a bit lately, but a packet of 10 Sharks still only costs £1.80 from https://www.connaughtshaving.com/index.html (and the unit price goes down with larger orders). Even using each blade only twice would only cost about £33 a year, shaving every day, and they’ll generally be good for double that at least.

        If you’re talking about cartridges rather than double edges, then welcome to the gigantic modern shaving company con in which you achieve a far worse shave for far more money. The companies essentially give you the razor for free, beause they make their money on the cartridges, hence the expense of the latter. The “worse shave” part of the equation is twofold: 1/ cartridge blades drag the skin in order to cut, which is why razor burn is such a feature of using them; and 2/ Because the cartridges ARE so expensive, the natural temptation is to use them for as long as possible – long after they’ve started to blunt, in fact – in order to get one’s moneys worth out of them.

    3. The whole (and only) point is to encourage slammers to join the armed forces – where they will take pleasure in turning their weapons on their non–slammer colleagues.

    4. It’s odd, though, that the term “aviator” is itself gender specific, the female equivalent being “aviatrix”. But you can’t keep a good woke down!

  14. Wordle 1,015 4/6

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

    Good morning, chums, I hope you all slept well. I managed today’s Wordle in 4 today. Still no advice on how to “stop overloading my iMac’s memory” (short of deleting the entire post) as some NoTTLer advised me a couple of days ago. Can anyone help?

    2. Is your iMac full of photos and things? Do you store stuff on the cloud, or is everything on the device? Is there a clean function under the properties?

  15. Kelvin MacKenzie picks up on a very important point, and draws completely the wrong conclusions from it….
    If the government has a big group of people to whom it owes more money than it can pay, there are only three solutions to the problem – (a) default (b) increase the money supply and (c) decrease the number of people owed

    Kelvin MacKenzie
    @kelvmackenzie
    New stats just out show the liabilities from the absurdly generous gold-plated public sector pensions topped £2.6 trillion last year, bigger than our entire economy.
    The NHS alone topped £1trillion. Despite receiving a retirement deal better than 97% of the private sector, I note a load of state workers, doctors, railway workers, teachers etc are either on strike or threatening to.
    We should tell them; keep your pension and take a pay cut or take a pay rise and cut your pension. You can no longer have both.
    And no more defined pensions for new staff in the public arena. It’s been that way in the private sector for many decades now.
    The public sector has been feather-bedded for far too long now. As a nation we are skint which means our liabilities are going to grow.
    It’s a nightmare nobody wants to talk about.

    1. There will end up being a defacto but disguised default. The pension liabilities are economy killers.

      1. What we’ve seen over the last four years is an increased reduction in the number of recipients, plus more restrictions. Laying the ground for disguising the default.

    2. Civil servants are looking to strike for a four day week with no loss of money

      1. Out of touch, but their antics are completely irrelevant to the fundamental problems facing a country with a dying fiat currency and a shrinking population

        1. Shrinking population?

          Shrinking working population as a percentage of the total population,.
          Shrinking private sector population as a percentage of the working population
          Vastly growing immigrant population as a percentage of the population growth

          1. Migration is the only thing propping the population up, and the people they are bringing in now will never pay their way, therefore, the working population is going to shrink for the forseeable future.

          3. They’ll have to if our children and grandchildren aren’t keeping them in idleness…

          4. Nah, they’ll just go “home”. We have nowhere “home” outside this country to go to – and they will have helped wreck ours.

      2. We (I should say I) work a 4 days week. 1 day I take Mongo on his therapy dog sessions. However if I don’t work, I don’t get paid so often the other days are longer to achieve project goals.

        The Warqueen sacrified salary for a 3.5 day week and more holiday, some 60 days.

        The problem isn’t the hours the public sector works. It’s that most of what it does needn’t be done. That’s why they can demand a 4 day week – a fifth of them are superfluous, the rest underworked by trivia. At least 50% could go to no loss of outcome.

    3. IR – The minimum private-sector employers’ pension contribution is 3 per cent of salary, yet contributions to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) can be up to 10 times more – and often exceed that.
      Many local councils are struggling financially, if not actually broke. How can the country afford the LGPS?
      Then there’s the not-so-small matter of unfunded public-sector schemes with current liabilities of nearly £3 trillion – a debt of more than £40,000 for every person in the country. How sustainable is that?

      Bill Parish
      Bromley, Kent

      1. Bill Parish needs to go a bit further and join the dots about how the government is preparing for when SHTF.

      2. When councils were properly staffed and managed, the civil service a tenth what it currently is all these were affordable and – I’d say – acceptable as pay *was* lower and was kept lower.

        Now, state pay rises twice a year without fail, with an index linked defined benefit salary and there are not the small number of officials diligently doing boring work but more administrators in the MoD than here are soldiers under arms costing a colossal amount of money for very little value.

    4. I’ve long said that NHS staff – and I am one of them – who strike for mor pay – I am not one of them – should agree to our giving up some leave allowance to help afford a pay increase. 27 days a year on starting rising to 33 days. It’s too much and not affordable.

      1. Being completely honest I don’t mind (or care) how many days holiday or pay (within a rational structure) the public sector receives. Hard work should be rewarded.

        The problem is much of what goes on in the state is simply unnecessary. There are never failure standards. If there’s a problem, the tax payer pays, never the management team. Because monies are handed out verbatim there is no impetus for spending control to focus on necessary outcomes. The fight against change and efficiency improvements is tiresome and exhausting.

        Then they strike, mostly for political force than genuine working standards. The demand for more pay was also egregious just after the pandemic, compounded with Hunt’s completely stupid, spiteful hike of corporation tax by 30% was just a finger in the eye.

        Junior’s teachers are planning strike action – supposedly over pay but it’s really because they hate the government and want a Labour one now.

    5. McKenzie is right. It’s way past time that the demise of the defined benefit pension reached the state sector. Everyone should have individual tax-exempt retirement accounts to which they, their employer and, yes, even the state can start contributing on the day they take their first job or start their first business. The eventual size of the pension pot will be determined by the individual scale of the contibutions and the investment returns over a working life. It’s the only honest way.

      1. Problem comes when your pension provider goes bust, and the money vanishes. That happened to me at the end of last year – fortunately (or as a means to minimise that risk) I have several providers for my private pension, but it’s still £150k gone…

        1. A lot of us were burnt by Equitable Life.
          The solution exists already – SIPPs in which the pension fund sits in the beneficiary’s name, not the pension provider’s. It’s one of the reasons that I merged all my existing pensions into my SIPP a few years ago along with the IHT benefits and the fact that because you control your investments yourself the government cannot instruct you as to what to invest in as they are doing increasingly with other private pensions.

          4. When government rigs NEST into investing in windmills for a very poor return compared to far more sensible, higher return stock it was clear the pensions industry had been screwed over to pay for government stupidity.

        2. Shouldn’t happen in a personal pension. All in trust in your name. The modern way.

      3. This is ‘**irrelevant** in a world where private pension companies aren’t solvent. Even if they had individual pension posts determined by contributions, there still probably isn’t going to be much to go round!

      4. It’s comical that private pension funds are robbed blind to fund public sector pensions which are just paid from taxation rather than any particular managed and invested fund.

        It’s utterly criminal that government steals from one side to profit the other, while doing nothing to properly discipline public sector pensions.

    7. Just posted on this above. Brown increased public sector salaries and didn’t reform the pensions. All pensions should move to personal DC contracts. It’s the only way.

    9. When Labour hugely increased GPs’ salaries and cut down their workload in the early ’90s there was a deal that the doctors would not make any further claims for their pensions.

      As a result, GPs were paid so much that many are now working part-time (so much for the amount it costs the taxpayer to train each GP). Others left the profession – ostensibly because their pension was due to be taxed more highly because they were breaching maximum Lifetime Allowance limits “my accountant says it’s more economical for me to stop working” bleated one of the older GPs in my local practice. Then they went on strike a few years ago. For more pension.

      All the time they are paid by the taxpayer for the numbers of people on their lists, whether they see them or not, and have publicly-paid for pension provision. While there are actually private (not state) owned practices. Something badly needs addressing.

    10. When Labour hugely increased GPs’ salaries and cut down their workload in the early ’90s there was a deal that the doctors would not make any further claims for their pensions.

      As a result, GPs were paid so much that many are now working part-time (so much for the amount it costs the taxpayer to train each GP). Others left the profession – ostensibly because their pension was due to be taxed more highly because they were breaching maximum Lifetime Allowance limits “my accountant says it’s more economical for me to stop working” bleated one of the older GPs in my local practice. Then they went on strike a few years ago. For more pension.

      All the time they are paid by the taxpayer for the numbers of people on their lists, whether they see them or not, and have publicly-paid for pension provision. While there are actually private (not state) owned practices. Something badly needs addressing.

      1. Bilty, I like that, rhymes with guilty too. Got to be a Limerick lurking there somewhere.

  18. G’day all and 77th troopers,

    A sunny morning at McPhee Towers, wind in the South, 7℃ with the climate cultists promising 12 or 13 ℃ later today. It’s going to be a nice Easter before normal precipitation service is resumed next week.

    One thing that’s not resuming is my trout fishing. The season is supposed to open on Monday but the rivers are way too high. It would be folly to go anywhere near them at the moment. One association of which I am a member has formally delayed the start of the season until May 1st in the hope that river levels will be normal by then. The aquifers are certainly loaded and the water table is high. I’m seeing quite a few new spring-fed streams in the fields around my parts where previously there were none in recent memory. I blame climate change.

    Some clowns in the press won’t let it go, will they.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6db68d7d4348dd1f33c0495aefad861068646e5986ea323b19e6e721e0feea11.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/ways-climate-change-will-alter-holidays-by-2050/

    Someone should take Sophie Dickinson gently to one side and explain to her that we are at the start of the Modern Grand Solar Minimum and by 2035 or so it’s more likely that the Med will a be a few degrees cooler in summer and people will be staying at home for their winter ski-ing holidays.

    2. I always snigger to myself when I see her surname, especially in these transexual days.

  19. Morning all quite a bright start, wind dropped, which is nice. Fingers crossed they the have the forecast wrong. Rain Sunday evening.
    On the headline, how does, or how can anyone ever trust a politician. They are wreckers of every single thing they come into contact with.
    Shame we can’t sue them all for damages.
    But it’s only our money anyway. And they’d claim it on expenses.

  20. Lovely blue sky here in Co Antrim, nearly forgotten what it looked like. So much rain in March.

    1. Good morning OLT

      There is a lot of chat on DT letters about chocolate drink.

      I asked Moh about KYE.. hot chocolate drink .. when he was on board R N warships .
      He said that it just arrived steaming hot , and hadn’t a clue how to make it .

      When I was a QARNN student nurse , we used to make bedtime drinks for the sailors in the ward kitchen , huge tin of chocolate powder , tins condensed milk , and hot water .. so large spoonful of chocolate powder into a mug, hot water and a large spoonful of condensed milk, stirred vigorously.

      The same procedure with coffee.. bottles of Camp coffee .. rather sweet .. but so sweet!

  22. Good morning. Which party does the headline refer to? Don’t both halves of the uniparty steal from the people? Socialism has only ever been financed through theft.

    1. Considering the current Tories are socialists, Labour even more socialist and the lib dems fascist authoritarian communists it just doens’t matter. They’re all the same.

  23. Robert Humm fails to mention (or perhaps he doesn’t care, as it’s all about him) that Gordon increased public sector salaries from 1997 whilst failing to reform salaries, thereby breaking the “jam tomorrow” aspect of the public sector and with devastating consequences for the unfunded pensions of these people.

    “ Neil Record takes a swipe at “gold-plated” public-sector pensions (Business, March 28).
    In the early 1980s I was a middleranking civil servant responsible for administering a £7million annual grant scheme, which frequently involved complex negotiations with senior businessmen. My salary was a whisker over £12,000, with no provision of overtime payment for long days spent away from home.
    I eventually discovered that my opposite numbers in industry were earning three or four times my salary, and enjoyed the perks of annual bonuses, company cars, medical insurance and private dining rooms.
    Civil servants accepted that a modest salary was offset by full job security and – by the standards of the day – a generous pension that paid 50 per cent of final salary after 40 years’ service. In other words, the pension was partly deferred pay. Blame for the Treasury’s failure to make provision for this commitment should not be laid at the feet of pensioners.
    Robert Humm Stamford, Lincolnshire”

    1. During his working life my father was paid considerably less than his contemporaries who worked in the private sector.

      However he had such a good pension after being a senior government administrator in Africa that when my dear father died my mother survived him for 17 years and his reduced pension continued for her and she lived very comfortably on this. When she eventually had to go into a private nursing home the fees could be fully met from her pension and she did not have to touch her savings.

      This was 25 years ago and I wonder if this would still be possible.

      1. That always used to be the deal – but for the government, it’s just kicking the can of responsibility down the road, and the bloated public sector has now become too expensive to maintain.

    2. BTL comment which sums the situation up nicely:
      To quote his letter, “I was a middle-ranking civil servant responsible for administering a £7 million annual grant scheme, which frequently involved complex negotiations with senior businessmen.”
      Translation: “I had the awful job of handing out wodges of other people’s money”.

      1. In other words handing out Covid loans like confetti, half of which will never be recovered…

  25. One big problem with that.
    Once everyone has their “individual tax-exempt retirement account”, how long would the “tax-exempt” bit last for?

  26. When I post a BTL comment under a DT article and it immediately attracts upvotes I keep an eye on its progress to see if the DT censors have decided to suppress the upvotes.

    I shall keep an eye on this one just posted under : How a Labour-style attack on private schools ended in disaster
    As Sir Keir Starmer plots a 20pc tax hike, recent history offers a valuable lesson     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/greece-labour-style-attack-private-schools-backfired/

    Richard Tracey
    1 MIN AGO
    Upvotes 8
    OLD LABOUR : Envy, spite, vindictiveness, economic la-la-land.
    Every child educated privately saves the state the cost of educating that child.
    Yes, we are currently governed by incompetent economic illiterates but when Labour forms the government we shall be governed by extremely nasty incompetent economic illiterates.

    Incidentally, Mitterrand tried to close down all private schools but the teachers in them said they would rather leave teaching altogether rather than work in the state sector. Mitterrand had to climb down.

  27. My lovely wife has been researching private
    medical facilities nearby. As my BP seems to have taken over my/our lives and we can’t plan anything. As I can’t seem to get anywhere with much sort after advice, or have not had any practical answers from the NHS regarding my condition, we have no choice, but are going to make an appointment with a private consultant hopefully an expert on the dangerous condition of well above stage 2 Hypertension. I have no other choice.
    It seems that the medication is not working as it should. It’s akin to pouring oil into a leaking gearbox.
    And also hopefully, a referral from the GP practice will help.
    Fingers crossed 🤞
    For Tuesday.

    2. I don’t think you need a GPs referral to see a Consultant anymore. I presume it’s either a cardiologist or vascular surgeon.

      1. I’ll see what he says Alf, it might help him take a leap of faith. And do something useful 🤗.

      1. Morning TB.
        Thanks for that. It might explain why my BP is so high first thing.
        The medication doesn’t seem to help at all. I must admit it’s very worrying.
        If I rang 111 they would send me to A&E again, we’ve already done that three times and no results achieved.
        One thing in the item that was mentioned, was possible Anaphylactic episodes. Which is what happened to me two weeks ago. But again I was sent home after it had settled down. And no follow-up or further information was passed on to the patient.

        “And follow your doctor’s recommendations”. Was mentioned at the end, I’ve got a phone call from him on the 4th. It seems it will be upto me to give him a nudge.
        Thanks again.

        1. Good , and please give your doctor a good kick .

          You matter , and you are not just an NHS number of a certain age .

          Remember a few weeks ago I was prescribed strong antibiotics for a non existent kidney infection by GP on telephone call . No urine test, nothing , so when I ended up in A+E a week later , not kidney but perhaps more related to IBS and other gut problems . A+E doctor was furious with GP phone diagnosis.

          1. Our Doc is a decent sort of chap, but he doesn’t seem to have much of a clue. He is Norwegian and has a strong accent, it’s also difficult to understand.
            him. After taking double my prescribed Meds for BP at 9 30 am. I have just checked it again and it’s 194/102. I’m not going to A&E. It’s an absolute nightmare. I’m going to sit in the garden in the sunshine.

      2. After my high of 216 yesterday.
        128 – 130 today. Strange how these huge differences occur.

  28. There are some letters on the sweetness of hot chocolate and how to avoid it.

    I have always found it too sweet. I love cocoa on its own with no sugar added – delicious. But possibly an acquired taste.

    If i add a tot of brandy or rum (to dissolve the cocoa powder before adding the milk and stop the cocoa being lumpy) them a teaspoon or so of sugar is necessary.

    If not using brandy or rum to dissolve the cocoa powder, i use a small amount of boiling water.

    3. On a bad day I dissolve the chocolate powder in some milk and stir to a paste. Then add some hot milk and a dollop of cream and stir.

      You have to add a bit at a time and stir to blend properly rather than all at once.

    4. I use cocoa powder, a teaspoonful of honey, boiling water and, depending on what is available, tinned milk of double cream.
      Adopted that recipe when stopping in hotels and boiling milk was not an option and it proved quite popular during a night shift on the test trains.

    1. Not really bad news Herr Oberst.

      The pharmaceutical industry have been absolved from all blame by the Government, so no

      prosecutions and no loss of profits. Ker-ching !!

    2. I yield to no one in my adoration of cats – BUT he really is a bit not good looking!

  32. War a real threat and Europe not ready, warns Poland’s Tusk. 30 March 2024.

    Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned Europe is in a “pre-war era” and Ukraine must not be defeated by Russia for the good of the whole continent.

    He said war was “no longer a concept from the past”, adding: “It’s real and it started over two years ago.”

    I am no fan of Mr Tusk but I think that he is probably right on this. I of course would like Vlad to win because he is the only one fighting the Globalists!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68692195

  33. One might have thought that with all the dire predictions of war in Europe spreading and the narrative of Vlad’s intentions to march across the continent, there might be a get together of Western leaders to try and head off such an awful outcome. But no, it would seem that we are to continue this yankee war until Europe is in flames.

    1. I think the grand plan is not for military victory in the Monty-on-Luneberg-Heath sense. I think their intention is that there should always be a pretty serious conflict, with the potential to escalate, bubbling away in the background and insidiously-present, Baudrillard-style, on the plebs’ permanently-switched-on 60- inch telly screens; and that this state of affairs become normalised. They want us always to be at war with whoever they currently define as Eastasia. Or, if you’re getting a little tired of the constant invocation of George Orwell, try St. Matthew the Taxman- wars, and rumours of wars. Strategy of Tension.

  34. Ukraine is more Russian than the EU. It should have been left as a buffer state. Shows how bad the EU is.

  35. Hostages taken in EDE, near Arnhem, about 15-30 minutes ago.
    Wonder who would do that, at Easter-time?

    2. I have just read that police have arrested a small white man wearing only underpants and a blindfold. They a not sure whether or not he had a weapon. I’m not making this up, btw

          4. I told the Nottlers at lunch i had been taken into custody twice in my mispent youth. They were polite enough not to ask what for !
            And before you ask it was for drink driving. On both occasions they had to let me go because the machine at the police station proved i was under the limit.

          5. I wouldn’t have let you go. I would have made you clean out all the cell bogs with a toothbrush.

          6. You should have seen the look on the custody sergeants face. I’m sure that’s what he would have liked to do to me if he could.
            I had only had one drink earlier in the evening when visiting mates. Enough to show up on a breathalyser though.

          7. Show me where to read this “No Selfies” rule? I’ve never seen one.

            Does it also apply to avatars, or to group photos of parties at your house?

    1. The Rev.is closing Wings and who knows if he’ll be able to post again. It’s a shambolic disgrace and there is is an ex-pat Nat nutter living in Malta who posts anti-English/Tory hatred in the Herald, who I intend to complain about, to Macplod! See how he likes it!

      1. They won’t bother investigating. This was only ever – just like the ‘race relations’ bill – intended to go one way. The state will never, ever permit it to be used equally.

        1. I know, wibbles but I get really furious! lived here 40+ years and still get stupid comments! My old man says I won’t do it, anyway!

          3. On a lamppost about 40 yards away – along with about 30 others! This is what the SNP think of me!

    3. The idea anything that can be read in Scotland is de facto produced in Scotland is screaming for a test case. This utterly demented, poisonous, intolerant legislation should have been stopped by Sunak before it even got this far.

      It is open season for nutters, cranks, psychos, bitter, twisted, vengeful wasters everywhere – Lefties, basically.

      If the Barnet formula monies were ever needed to be withdrawn and the SNP properly kicked in the face it is now but who am I kidding. The faux Tories are the same sort of authoritarian socialists.

  39. More from The Book Of Insults:

    * They say that he was only brought along as a contact – all con and no tact.

    He’s the sort of man who’d send flowers to a funeral with a card saying ‘Get well soon’.

    He never strays from the the straight and narrow-minded path.

    On the French revolutionary leader, Bertrand Barère:
    ‘The vices of honest men are the virtues of Barère.’ – Lord MacCaulay.

    When a fellow politician told Horace Greely that he was a self-made man, Greely answered:
    ‘I’m glad to hear it. That, sir, relieves the Almighty of a great responsibility.’

    1. ‘The vices of honest men are the virtues of Barère.’, welcome to the modern Left.

    1. In the case of child pornography it isn’t a bad idea. But we all know it will creep to other groups like political dissenters.

      1. Considering how good youtube is at blocking at sort of thing I’d imagine the sole intent is political enemies.

        Remember the UK has passed law that allows the arrest and charge for ‘thoughtcrime’. The entire point of that was to destroy any opposition to dogma.

    2. While this is from Fox I’m surprised they find this so interesting. The state hates people thinking for themselves. If it can’t control the message it goes for the reader. Always has. It cannot abide free thought.

  41. It is warm and sunny, on Costa cel Skeg.

    Panels charging, dish washer and washing machine both on, at no cost to us

    1. I’m considering them. We can get 3 years interest free on a 3kw array and a battery.

      That’d provide almost all our power over a 24 hour period. Adding more cells to the battery would increase this even further.

      However, being conservative about it and assuming 70% recharge would still leave us with ‘an energy bill’. In addition, it’d be £250 a month more going out.

      It’s affordable, but, if we were honest we don’t want to be here (I say ‘we’ because while I’ve tolerated it I’ve been damned cold and this winter was mild) and it’s a 3 year payment commitment. Days like today are nice enough, but still ‘have to be dressed’ whereas in our stone heatsink the Warqueen would be in her jean shorts and the white top on a day like today.

      Simply put, solar would be a long term commitment – the ultimate goal is to save money. Would it be more pragmatic to put the solar monies into overpayments (on top of the 20% – taking it to nearly 40% overpayment) and just get out into somewhere cheaper to heat?

      1. Personally, I’d pay off the mortgage faster. By the time you’re able to move, solar arrays might have become cheaper.

    2. What really annoys is the relentless assault that ‘this is normal’ and not a last 30 years infestation. The portrayal of Anne Boelyn, Cleopatra and all sorts of others as black is offensive.

      1. We are not allowed to be offended – that is the prerogative of the Perpetually Offended, who have to be appeased in every way.

  43. Polluted water-related hospital admissions up 60pc in decade
    Increase in people contracting water-borne diseases blamed on sewage scandal branded ‘ticking time bomb for public health’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/29/polluted-water-surge-hospital-admissions-sewage-health/

    They should cancel the boat race !!!

    Comments are good .

    Carole Waters
    1 HR AGO
    All public services are stretched to breaking point due to over population of a small island and it will only get worse, illegals by boats only this year are already at a record high, 4644 have arrived and its only March, anyone with half a brain cell knows that we cannot possibly sustain the numbers that keep arriving, only our stupid dumb politicians can’t see the very obvious writing on the wall. The future is grim!

    Comment by Stewart Richards.

    SR

    Stewart Richards
    1 HR AGO
    The problem with nationalising is the unions. They then operate for their own benefit, not the national interest. Strong regulation and enforcement of them on the water companies is key.

    Comment by Brian McCune.

    BM

    Brian McCune
    1 HR AGO
    Not huge increases when you consider the increase in the population over the 10 year period that these figures cover. DT wanting us to be outraged about something else.

    Comment by Stephanie Hammond.

    SH

    Stephanie Hammond
    1 HR AGO
    3500 admission in a country of 55 million isn’t exactly massive.

    Comment by Dean James.

    DJ

    Dean James
    1 HR AGO
    Mmmm Weil’s disease caught from rats pee, yet only a couple of days ago the DT was telling us we must learn to live with and love rats?

    Comment by David Robson.

    DR

    David Robson
    1 HR AGO
    De regulation isn’t a universally wonderful thing. I think we’re learning all over again the value of some regulation to society. Generally speaking the Victorians were not fools.

    1. By now you might think some of our morons might have realised, when you allow the population to rise so dramatically it might cause more than a few problems.

      1. Whoever that Hammond woman is, she is decades behind the times if she thinks we have a population of 55 million. I can’t see the comments, but hopefully someone online puts her right.

  44. Morning all – out of commission for today and tomorrow. Old RAF chum coming to stay for a couple of days
    Try to behave in my absence

    1. Have fun, Spikey! Reminiscing far into the night but remember you lose an hour tonight!😘

      1. My phone often doesn’t re-set its clock until well into the next day, but I want to attend the 5:30 am service. We don’t have a wind-up clock or one that you can set manually in the house at the moment, only phones and computers.

      1. Apparently one of them was incredibly insecure about his height.

        I’ll tell you this – when you’re tall and especially broad people see you as a target to threaten. The Warqueen described me as a walking wall the other day yet folk still deliberately bash in to me. One chap made an absolute bee line for me, determined not to move and collided.

        Then was surprised he came off worse.

        It isn’t the size, it’s the appalling behaviour of other people.

        1. I find regardless of height putting on a furious face encourages people to step out the way. I’m 5 feet 5.
          You must look like a pushover. Literally. :@)

        2. Yes, I have a tall ex-work-colleague and he told me he was often targeted in pubs by males spoiling for a fight. He found a solution which worked: he grew a beard (BTW, he was also often targeted by females, but spoiling for something other than a fight).

        3. Number one son (6ft 3 by the time he was 13 ) found that he was always assumed to be the aggressor when he was a ‘small’ kid.

  45. A few months ago M&S ditched their entire household product range and relaunched with ever so green and very poor quality merchandise. I used to rely on their good size and strong bin liners for my kitchen and bathroom bins. They boast that the replacement trash is cheap but it’s a false economy because the nasty thin plastic will split very easily therefore each bag will hold far less rubbish and I’ll go through twice as many bags. I can’t find a brand that’s any better either. Seems to be a general trend.

    2. We gave up on M&S yrars ago. They have given their business away by giving poor quality. Phizze is correct try Amazon.

      1. I gave up on Marks & Sparks when they gave up the arks and the parks [and the arks and the pencer]

        As with Kentucky Fried Chicken I refuse to kowtow to the use of just initials.

  46. Has she been got at? She asks the correct question in the last paragraph (about method of transmission) but in doing so implicitly makes the point that it’s impossible to prepare a response for the unknown. If it is another airborne viral RTI, we most certainly must NOT do what we did before.

    Another pandemic is coming. This time we have to be ready

    Last time, lockdown sceptics were cast out and the WHO advice treated as gospel. But the WHO got it wrong

    SUELLA BRAVERMAN • 29 March 2024 • 6:00pm

    As we look back over the span of this Parliament, it’s easy to forget that we’re now four years on from its defining moment – the first Covid lockdown. Almost everything that has followed has been dictated by that event.

    The terrible death toll across the globe is the abiding legacy, with families ripped apart by tragedy. We’ve also seen jobs and businesses not just disrupted, but in many cases lost forever. Children’s education was effectively put on hold, while students lounged in their bedrooms – missing out on the opportunity to mix with their peers at college or university. States had to step in to offer unprecedented support, with levels of borrowing not seen since the Second World War, placing a huge strain on public finances.

    The rapid vaccine rollouts, and the fortitude of people across the world means that, in many ways, it is a story of exceptional human resilience. And having served in Cabinet as attorney general when those impossible choices were made in 2020 and 2021, I’m of the view that Boris Johnson took the only decision available to him at the time, especially with regards to the first lockdown in spring 2020.

    However, it is highly probable that we will see another pandemic in the years to come. Countries the world over were unprepared for Covid and grappled in real time with the toughest of decisions, using what data and science was available to them at the time. In the future, can we strike a better balance in a similar scenario?

    Firstly, it was clear from the start that closing schools would damage children’s education. Millions suffered because of this disruption to their studies. We must better support our children to attend school safely in any future similar event, while protecting the more vulnerable.

    Secondly, the furlough scheme rightly supported many of those who were unable to work. But with the advent of home working for many office jobs, could the support not be targeted more precisely at those unable to carry out their jobs at all? Decisions taken in 2020 and 2021 were unprecedented in their scale and nature – ministers did the best they could, in good faith. But with a clear eye, in the future we must better discern which companies and individuals warrant support and those who can carry on unassisted.

    Thirdly, how can we better protect the vulnerable, namely the elderly and those more at risk from disease in a set of circumstances similar to Covid? The state was ill-prepared for such a mass health crisis and we cannot allow our elderly, those in care homes and the vulnerable to be placed at such risk in a future pandemic. But patients were also dying alone with their relatives prevented from being by their side. Was such a harsh approach absolutely essential? Could we not ensure that relatives have an enforceable right to challenge such decisions in the future?

    Fundamentally, there is still a lack of understanding of whether what we did actually contained the spread of the virus or not. It will be years before the Covid Inquiry reports, but what we need now is a clearer epidemiological assessment of the value of lockdown. At the time, sceptics were cast out and the World Health Organisation’s (WHO)advice was accepted as gospel. We now know that the WHO got it wrong during the pandemic, so we must maintain a healthy scepticism of its proposed “Pandemic Treaty” to ensure that our Government has the freedom to depart from its advice in the future. We must improve modelling and protect legitimate scientific challenge next time around.

    And for governments, there is a need to consider the balance between ensuring we save as many lives as possible, while protecting civil liberties and freedoms. Will the next pandemic be like Covid, in which the elderly and vulnerable are disproportionately impacted? Most viruses are airborne, but not all, so what would our potential responses look like to a different sort of public health crisis? We must be much better prepared and able to take better decisions to protect us all, and that includes protecting our freedoms.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/29/another-pandemic-is-coming-this-time-we-have-to-be-ready/

    1. She’s trying to warn us about the Pandemic treaty, but she’s not allowed to say that in May there is an important vote (I think)

    2. I’d qualify ‘lives’ very heavily. The correct measure is not live vs dead. It is quality adjusted life years. I felt very angry during covid that the life of my nonagenarian neighbour was put at equal or arguably greater worth than those of young people. I bore my neighbour no ill-will but she had enjoyed a fairly happy and prosperous 90 years and, statistically, was highly unlikely to last more than another couple of years. This was borne out by her dying a year down the line of nothing whatsoever to do with covid because she had run out of road. To give her her due, she was a social animal and might have preferred to take her chances and not be penned up in her house but at least she had lots of space, a good income and a garden plus neighbours doing her shopping.
      We had policy advice dominated by Vallance and Whitty: two people who may be medically qualified but whose careers have involved little direct contact with ordinary people in the UK so they will not have appreciated the massive wider ramifications of shutting down society. At least, I am assuming they didn’t because the alternative option would mean that they should be locked up.

      1. Do I remember you as one of the more articulate and interesting BTL commenters on the Speccie back in the day? Or is there a Lola Sapola on every street-corner (metaphorically-speaking, one hastens to add!)?

        1. I did frequent the Speccie BTL. I still do with a different identity but the forum is a shadow of its former self and I’m debating with myself whether or not to cancel my direct debit. Mr S likes to read Rod Liddle and Douglas Murray and some of the book/TV/film reviews in our hard copy of the magazine so it might be cruel to deprive him but it is £180 per year.

          Edit: I should, of course, have said thank you for the compliment

    3. “It will be years before the Covid Inquiry reports……..”

      Yes, which will give sufficient time for the people who deliberately or accidentally made mistakes to get clear of the HoC.

      I wonder who will wisely decide not to stand for re-election at the next General Election?

      Any thoughts?

      1. Johnson and Hancock were ushered off toute vitesse stage left for the most spurious and banal of reasons when it looked as though the noise regarding the events surrounding ‘covid’ and the ‘vaccine’ was gathering apace. Penny Mordaunt would do well to back off in view of her association with Gates and her vociferous anti vaccine-injury support in the HofC. A large proportion of the remainder of the rats are fast leaping over the edge onto terra firma, never to surface again in the public eye.

  47. With the reaction now known I think whenever there’s a problem the state will wheel out the pandemic lark.

    Being able to control more than half the population through their own irrational terror suits big government very well.

    1. The amount of money they will have to print in the next expansion wave (which is coming) far exceeds what they had to print in 2020. A ‘pandemic’ won’t be enough to hide it.

  48. Quick update on my dear wife. She is continuously in AF and this is causing one of the valves to leak. She has been diagnosed with COPD. Good news: cardiac unit phoned, they have a cancellation and will carry out the catheter ablation on 8th April.
    8th April is our wedding anniversary and the Springer’s 9th birthday so the vibes are good.

          2. That shows the pickle my mind is in. I didn’t note that your post was for ashes. Sorry, mate.

        2. I’m three hours behind, so in this case I was up at a reasonable time. Only danced under the stars until midnight last night. 🙂

          1. What a drab life you live. 😉😉

            I’m in the almost-as-glamorous town of Ramsgate for Easter. I didn’t dance but I did tap my toes to some music in a harbourside pub. Indoors, mind, not under the gusty overcast skies.

        1. In your place, Delboy, I’d be freaking terrified.
          Double helping of best wishes and positive thoughts on the way over… 😉

        2. The other half had this last year – very successful thus far. 🫰🏻(I hope that emoji means fingers crossed and not something obscene)

    8. DB, good morning

      I remember when Moh and I met you and your lovely wife at Compton Abbas airfield a few years ago , and Moh commented what an attractive go getting couple you were .

      I cannot believe how circumstances have altered for you both , and I am sending our good wishes for a successful outcome for your dearly beloved .

    9. Best wishes to you and and your wife, Delboy. I hope her procedure is a complete success. AF can be uncomfortable and disconcerting, but she’ll feel much better once it’s been brought under control.

      As for COPD, a friend of mine has been living with it for many years. His cannot be cured but it is managed and he lives a fairly normal life. He just has to take extra care with chest infections.

    10. Good news and best of luck.

      I wonder if someone in admin chooses dates like that for a laugh. My operation was on my Birthday last year.

    11. Very best wishes and thoughts for you and your wife, stay positive: onwards and upwards xx

    15. I hope all goes well Del – Eddy had that done last year and it seems to have been a success. And it’s an auspicious date. We moved into this house on 8th April 29 years ago and it was our then cats’ birthday.

    16. I hope all goes well Del – Eddy had that done last year and it seems to have been a success. And it’s an auspicious date. We moved into this house on 8th April 29 years ago and it was our then cats’ birthday.

    17. All the best to you both and your lovely pooch, Delboy. We will all be thinking of you on April 8 with our good wishes for a happy and uneventful result.

  50. To say nothing of Unbalanced and Witless being deeply involved in big pharma….

    Just saying!

    2. The ethnic minority mix of London stood at 46% in 2021. No doubt it has grown since then but two-thirds seems a bit of a stretch. Maybe the definition of ethnic minority explains it. How are the likes of Poles, Romanians and Irish, for example, accounted for in the contrasting figures?

      Ethnic minority: a group within a community which has different national or cultural traditions from the main population.

      To me, the Irish are sufficiently close to the British to not be regarded as an ethnic minority but Poles and Romanians – amongst other Europeans – might well be. Perhaps the higher figure includes them but not the lower.

      https://trustforlondon.org.uk/data/geography-population/

      1. The “ethnic minority mix of London” doesn’t really take into account the fact that some parts may be higher than 2/3 and some much lower. There are some parts I would happily go to, and some that I would avoid completely.

        The fact that there are whole (sometime large) areas or even boroughs of London that indigenous would be well-advised not to venture into is in itself an indictment of the “mix”. IMO, our politicians should be forced to live in those areas.

      2. The “ethnic minority mix of London” doesn’t really take into account the fact that some parts may be higher than 2/3 and some much lower. There are some parts I would happily go to, and some that I would avoid completely.

        The fact that there are whole (sometime large) areas or even boroughs of London that indigenous would be well-advised not to venture into is in itself an indictment of the “mix”. IMO, our politicians should be forced to live in those areas.

  53. BBC is blasted and accused of ‘turning its back on
    Christian Britain’ after it dropped its coverage of the traditional
    Easter service at King’s College

    The show has been a feature of the channel’s festive programming since 2010.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13253607/BBC-blasted-accused-turning-Christian-Britain-dropped-coverage-traditional-Easter-service-Kings-College.html

    Only to be expected from a muslim loving Christian hating left wing organisation.

    1. The BBC director of religious programmes is not a Christian. Maybe that has a bearing on the matter.

  54. Zelensky: ‘We are trying to find some way not to retreat’. 30 March 2024.

    To describe the military situation, Zelensky took a sheet of paper and drew a simple diagram of the combat zone. “If you need 8,000 rounds a day to defend the front line, but you only have, for example, 2,000 rounds, you have to do less,” he explained. “How? Of course, to go back. Make the front line shorter. If it breaks, the Russians could go to the big cities.”

    “We are trying to find some way not to retreat,” Zelensky continued. After the Russian capture of Avdiivka in February, he said, “we have stabilized the situation because of smart steps by our military.” If the front remains stable, he said, Ukraine can arm and train new brigades in the rear to conduct a new counteroffensive later this year.

    You have to contrast this with the wartime rhetoric of the last year. Why did he not negotiate when he had the opportunity? He has sacrificed tens of thousands of lives to no purpose.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/29/ignatius-zelensky-interview-ukraine-aid-russia/

    1. Why did Johnson rush in and interfere when Zelensky apparently was negotiating? For whose benefit was that?

        1. Afternoon Minty, Yes of course, but my insinuation is that perhaps the American tentacles stretch further into Zelensky’s motivations…

        1. I would say Blair has more consciously immersed his hands in blood than the others. With Boris there was also the element of a preening, lazy man who wants to look important (and afford to pay for his ex-wives), and with Cameron there was arrogance coupled with a degree of stupidity. Blair looked like he cold-bloodedly knew what he was doing – for his own financial (and he hoped, political) gain.

    2. Sheer evil – Johnson and Biden persuading Zelensky not to have peace discussions before war broke out.

      The war would never have started had Trump been president.

  55. I have little idea of what typically constitutes the BBC’s Easter service provision, but it has these.

    Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion

    Gareth Malone takes eight amateur singers and stages Bach’s St John Passion on the 300th anniversary of its first performance, alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the BBC Singers.

    All the hard work comes to fruition as performance day arrives, and it is time for Gareth and his eight new singers to put on the performance of a lifetime with a truly unique St John Passion at Cardiff’s Hoddinott Hall. Three of Britain’s finest soloists also perform – tenor Nicholas Mulroy as the evangelist, soprano and Bach specialist Julia Doyle, and baritone Roderick Williams, who sang at the King’s coronation, singing the role of Jesus

    Watch Gareth Malone’s Easter Passion on BBC iPlayer and on BBC One on Friday 29 March and Saturday 30 March with the final performance on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer from 7pm on Sunday 31 March

    Easter Sunday Service

    A joyful celebration for Easter Sunday, comes live from the magnificent and historic setting of Canterbury Cathedral, led by the dean, the Very Revd Dr David Monteith. The preacher is the archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Revd Justin Welby, who shares his Easter message.

    With choral music and favourite seasonal hymns, including Jesus Christ Is Risen Today and Thine Be the Glory, sung by the Cathedral Choir and congregation, directed by Dr David Newsholme.

    It’s followed by Urbi et Orbi, live from St Peter’s Square in Rome at 11am. On the eleventh Easter of his pontificate, Pope Francis gives his Easter message and blessing, Urbi et Orbi, to the city and to the world. Petroc Trelawny sets the scene.

    Watch on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday 31 March from 10am

    https://www.bbc.com/mediacentre/articles/2024/easter-bbc-tv-iplayer

    2. There is lots on, but can you imagine a supposedly Islamic country having the equivalent of these during Ramadan, even if the two didn’t coincide?

      BBC Two will also show a new series of Pilgrimage – where celebrities of different faiths and religions retrace ancient footsteps on a spiritual journey to broaden their minds.

      Three new faith films for BBC One and iPlayer will also explore different aspects of faith.

      One follows a group of Asian aunties from Bradford organising an intergenerational coach trip, another following four young Jewish people all celebrating their bar and bat mitzvahs in the same week and a third centres around a community boxing club in Walsall headed up by Sikh enthusiast.

      Big Zuu Goes To Mecca will also air on BBC Two in celebration of Eid while the BBC Asian Network will challenge their presenters from all different religious backgrounds to carry out Good Deeds throughout the month of Ramadan.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13253607/BBC-blasted-accused-turning-Christian-Britain-dropped-coverage-traditional-Easter-service-Kings-College.html

    4. It is Easter weekend in a Christian country. The services should be wall to wall coverage. Anyone who doesn’t want it can watch Netflix.

      1. I’d be a bit pissed off if Easter were devoted to Christian programming.

      1. I must admit that my take, when I heard about it, was it wouldn’t be a jihadist as he would have killed some people straight away and probably have blown himself up by now.
        He may of course be a convert who had second thoughts.

  57. Zelenskyy has dismissed a longtime aide and several advisers in a continuing reshuffle. 30 March 2024.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed on with the shuffle of officials close to him, dismissing a longtime aide and several advisers on Saturday.
    Zelenskyy dismissed top aide Serhiy Shefir from his post of first assistant, where he had served since 2019. The Ukrainian president also let go three advisers, and two presidential representatives overseeing volunteer activities and soldiers’ rights.

    In decrees published online, Zelensky’s First Aide Serhiy Shefir and Commissioner for Soldiers’ Rights Alyona Verbytska were dismissed from their roles. Four others were also dismissed: Natalia Pushkaryova from the duties of president’s commissioner for volunteers, and three non-staff advisors: lawmaker Mykhailo Radutsky, former deputy head of the Presidential Office Serhiy Trofimov, and economist Oleh Ustenko.

    One wonders here if these people are being “reshuffled” before they can quit. It seems a strange time to be changing the cabinet. Is it panic stations? There is also the point that this article thread is confused. The latest addition describes Russian movements. Is a collapse imminent I wonder?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/30/russia-ukraine-war-latest-us-aid/

    1. Perhaps he’s allowing them to take their gains and leave Ukraine before the fall.

      1. Afternoon Sos. Yes. If the army has revolted and refused to fight that would precipitate an exit. I have no idea if this is true of course but experience tells us that the peasants would be the last people to know.

    2. They prolly didn’t pay enough dosh into the Zelensky “retirement fund”….

  60. It’s true that an Islamic country wouldn’t provide Christian programming – or that of any other faith – during Ramadan or any other time of the year. However, I consider that to be a shortcoming of those countries and not of a kind I’d want to see emulated on behalf of Christianity in this country.

    1. It’s the timing I object to.
      By all means feature other viewpoints but please don’t allow those to impinge on what is possibly the most important point in the Christian calendar.

        1. If I thought that the BBC enjoys pissing off Christians, I might agree with you..

      2. I’d not be in the least upset if there were no Christian programming during Easter, although I accept that others think differently. For me, Easter is an extended weekend with chocolate eggs.

  61. Cheese and coleslaw sandwitch plus a Polish Mocne beer (7%) for lunch. Nice! The beer will help insulate from the cold rain when we set off for home, SWMBO at the helm.

  62. Cheese and coleslaw sandwitch plus a Polish Mocne beer (7%) for lunch. Nice! The beer will help insulate from the cold rain when we set off for home, SWMBO at the helm.

  63. HMS Laforey (G 99).
    Destroyer (L-class)

    Complement:
    258 officers and men (189 dead and 69 survivors).

    On 29th March 1944, U-223 (Peter Gerlach) was located by asdic from HMS Ulster (R 83), which was carrying out a routine Anti-Submarine sweep together with two other destroyers of the 14th Flotilla, HMS Laforey (G 99) and HMS Tumult (R 11). The U-boat was heavily depth-charged, but managed to carry out many evasive manoeuvres in an attempt to evade destruction. In the early morning on 30th March, the U-boat was forced to surface and was attacked by the destroyers with gunfire, which now included HMS Hambledon (L 37), HMS Blencathra (L 24) and HMS Wilton (L 128), which had replaced HMS Ulster (R 83). Shortly before being sunk, U-223 fired a Gnat and hit HMS Laforey (G 99), which sank about 60 miles northeast of Palermo, Sicily. Among the 189 who lost their lives was the commanding officer of the destroyer and the 14th Flotilla, Capt H.T. Armstrong, DSO, DSC, RN.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-223 was sunk on 30th March 1944 in the Mediterranean Sea north-east of Palermo by depth charges from the British destroyers HMS Laforey and HMS Tumult and the British escort destroyers HMS Hambledon and HMS Blencathra. 23 dead and 27 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/dd_hms_laforey_g99.jpg

    1. So the Destroyer HMS Laforey, in spite of such a huge loss of life, was able to strike back with the others and sink the
      U-boat.

    1. Notable that it’s always pensioners they go for, never the working age wilfully unemployed.

  65. At 40, Franz Kafka (1883-1924), who never married and had no children, walked through the park in Berlin when he met a girl who was crying because she had lost her favourite doll. She and Kafka searched for the doll unsuccessfully. Kafka told her to meet him there the next day and they would come back to look for her.

    The next day, when they had not yet found the doll, Kafka gave the girl a letter “written” by the doll saying “please don’t cry. I took a trip to see the world. I will write to you about my adventures.”

    Thus began a story which continued until the end of Kafka’s life.

    During their meetings, Kafka read the letters of the doll carefully written with adventures and conversations that the girl found adorable.

    Finally, Kafka brought back the doll (he bought one) that had returned. “It doesn’t look like my doll at all,“ said the girl.

    Kafka handed her another letter in which the doll wrote: “my travels have changed me.” the little girl hugged the new doll and brought her happy home.

    A year later Kafka died. Many years later, the now-adult girl found a letter inside the doll. In the tiny letter signed by Kafka it was written:

    “Everything you love will probably be lost, but in the end, love will return in another way.”

  67. 385196+ up ticks,

    May one ask, were this segment fighting for Mr Putin formally from the 48% brigade thrown up by the 2016 referendum ?

    The English traitors fighting for Putin
    How the son of a Morris dancer from Oldham and a former drug addict from Chippenham ended up willing to die for the Russian dictator

    1. Good point. Being a supporter of EU imperialism would be morally consistent with being a supporter of Russian imperialism in that both are clearly antipathetic to a free people defending their sovereignty from an aggressive supranational empire.

  69. I suppose the demented Scottish thoughtcrime bill proves one thing: the Left are fascists, have never changed since their latest incarnation – the German National Socialists – and never, ever will.

    It’s long past time to confront this vicious snake and cut off it’s head and burn out the remains.

    1. I know the Left are fascists and you know the Left are fascists. You may present clear, unambiguous proof of this unassailable fact to a Lefty, but they will still argue black is white all the while screaming that you are a fascist.

      1. Well of course they will. If they accepted that they’re the problem they wouldn’t *be* the problem.

        1. Have you ever tried engaging in discussion — on any topic — with a Lefty? It’s like treading treacle.

  70. Nato must be ready for Russia to ‘pivot quickly’ and invade our countries, Baltic ambassadors say. 30 March 2024.

    Nato must be ready for Russia launching an “existential” war against the Baltic states “masked by a blizzard of disinformation”, ambassadors from the three countries have warned.

    Writing exclusively for The Sunday Telegraph, the top diplomats to the UK from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said that Russia could “pivot quickly” from Ukraine to invade the Baltic.

    Is Ukraine on the edge of collapse? If not what is the purpose of this?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/30/nato-get-ready-for-russia-to-invade-baltic-ambassadors-warn/

    2. Revolting savages. They should be collared and chained then expelled – and the political class sent with them.

    3. A despicable bunch of demon termagants. Birching is the only way to control them – through humiliation.

  73. Don’t forget the clocks go forward one hour at 2:00am so we will have one hour less rain tomorrow

    1. Mucking about with clocks doesn’t affect me: I stick to my body’s circadian rhythms.

      In winter I go to bed at 2300 and rise at 0700. In “summer time” I go to bed at 2359 and rise at 0800. Both are precisely the same.

    2. We have already done that, our clocks jumped forward on 10th March, is it still raining where you are?

      1. Not today Jill, it is a beautiful English spring day here in south Cambridgeshire with not a hint of rain and real warmth in the sun!

      3. North Essex has had a beautiful Spring day.
        We even had a drink in the summer house.

  74. Apropos the discussion on how to make a mug of cocoa that is not too sweet.

    The best way is to buy a bar of decent chocolate that you like which is not too sweet: Lindt 70% fits the bill. Simply grate as much as you like into a mug of hot milk and stir until dissolved. It is delicious.

  75. Batshit Bonkers Britain cotinues to slide into the abyss……

    Disciplinary action for ONS female employees if they object to trans colleagues using their lavatories

    Leaked documents reveal the institution has been ‘captured’ by transgender activists, gender campaigners allege

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/30/ons-female-employees-disciplinary-object-trans-toilets/
    A woman’s a woman a man’s a man everything else is narcissism,delusion and mental health issues!!
    Come at me Hate Speech Scotland!!

    1. BTL comments seem to be very anti the ONS policy! Probably because it’s batshit crazy! Here’s a sample BTL …

      “Disgusting perversion in the name of inclusion.
      We’re now being victimised for telling the truth or objecting to
      virtual signalling lies      “

    2. BTL comments seem to be very anti the ONS policy! Probably because it’s batshit crazy! Here’s a sample BTL …

      “Disgusting perversion in the name of inclusion.
      We’re now being victimised for telling the truth or objecting to
      virtual signalling lies      “

    4. Comments now closed, for an article published 30 March 2024 • 1:44pm. Fancy that.

    5. We had one of them in our building way before covid. He used the ladies and they rightly complained as he left them in an awful state. Henceforth he was forbidden using the women’s toilets.Sadly those days of common sense are long gone.

      1. When you say “awful state” I assume you mean the aftermath of taking a massive man sh*t? “I’d give it a minute if I were you.”

  76. Good late- afternoon everyone . I’m about to have the first chunk of my Lindt chocolate bunny with my cup of tea – ears first I think 🙂

    6. I must have started mine the same time as you – yes ears first then head… surprisingly thick chocolate. I am saving the remainder for Monday (family coming for lunch tomorrow). Ideally I would love to polish it off right now!!

  79. Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers
    Exclusive: Members say flag may alienate ethnic minority voters as some associate it with far right

    Keir Starmer is facing discontent from Labour MPs over the dominant use of the union flag in election campaign material amid concern it may alienate ethnic minority voters and others.

    Concerns were raised at recent meetings of the party’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) group at Westminster and also by London members of the parliamentary Labour party. There is also unhappiness among some activists who are reluctant to handle the material.

    There was criticism from those at a meeting of MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds, including Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, and the chief whip, Alan Campbell, of freepost leaflets that were – as one MP put it – “plastered with union jacks”

    There is also increasing unhappiness about the lengthy delay to the investigation into Diane Abbott, who had the Labour whip removed almost a year ago, as well as discontent over the party’s progress on BAME representation.

    Composite of Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak
    UK general election opinion polls tracker: Labour leading as election looms
    Read more
    Unease about the party’s use of the flag also came up at a meeting of London MPs that was attended by Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s director of campaigns, and Ellie Reeves, its deputy national campaign coordinator.

    The union flag has taken on an increasingly prominent role under Starmer as he seeks to emphasise Labour’s “patriotic” credentials to assert that the party has changed from the Jeremy Corbyn era.

    However, some Labour MPs have suggested that the prominence of red, white and blue still has negative connotations among ethnic minority communities targeted by the far right. They asked why material provided could not be more tailored to specific constituencies.

    One MP said: “We are all really proud of our country but this can be a complex issue for some communities and we have to navigate that more carefully.”

    “For a lot of communities we are talking about colours that are associated with the National Front or another far-right group. Using the flag might be great for trying to reach those ‘hero voters’ but why can’t we have segmented branding,” they added, using a phrase Labour strategists coined for the slice of the electorate who swing directly from Tory to Labour and who tend to be more socially conservative and pro-Brexit.

    “I can see how it would work in some places but it’s definitely detrimental in university towns, and in heavily BAME seats,” said another MP who attended one of the meetings and who added that “multiple colleagues” had told him of activists refusing to give out the leaflets.

    “They just look like union jacks really, with a bit of red on the side. There’s not even a Labour rose. You don’t need to prove your patriotism by wrapping yourself in the union jack,” they added.

    A councillor on the south coast told the Guardian that the flag-branded material was also sometimes a problem and not only among BAME voters.

    “I’ve seen boxes of the leaflets being piled up because activists don’t want to give them out. We’re also finding that in some cases people on the doorsteps have mistaken them for leaflets put out by the Conservative,” they said.

    A video sent out by Labour to its activists and organisers outlines its general election branding. “The flag dominates, and of course Labour red,” states the video, which also recommends the use of a “poppins” font and says that MPs and organisers should use the template to ensure “brand consistency”.

    Other Labour guidance to members on branding states that a “primary palette” of colours including “Labour red”, “flag blue” as well as white and black should predominate colour when producing “content or positive messaging”.

    A “secondary palette” has been composed to match messaging relating to Labour’s “missions”. They are “growth pink”, “green energy green”, “NHS blue”, “policing yellow” and “opportunity purple”.

    Abdi Duale, a member of Labour’s NEC (National Executive Committee), said: “Britain’s strength is in its diversity and our communities are hugely proud of our nation and its flag. Labour is running a proudly progressive and patriotic campaign that celebrates all our communities and that includes using our flag.”

    A spokesperson for Momentum, the Labour-supporting group, said: “Members are the lifeblood of our party, the activists who put the hard graft in on the doors. They must be listened to and the message is clear: Labour’s campaign materials should reflect the concerns of the communities they serve. A one-size-fits all model is not just ineffective, but has the potential to repel parts of Labour’s core voter base.”

    The concerns about the union flag emerge as Starmer intervened in a row over England’s new football kit for the Euros, calling for it to be scrapped after the decision to replace the traditional red and white St George’s Cross for a multicoloured cross on the shirt.

    A leaked strategy document seen by the Guardian in 2021 advised Labour to make “use of the [union] flag, veterans [and] dressing smartly” as part of a rebranding.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/starmer-faces-discontent-as-labour-mps-criticise-election-flyers-union-jacks

    2. You can imagine Labour’s response: stick with it. We need whitey to believe we give a stuff about the country. Once we’re in we can go full red.

      1. I would suggest they take advantage of the common travel area to settle in Ireland. The Labour Party is always keen to celebrate St Patrick’s Day but St George (and in this case St Andrew as well) are apparently a symbol of ‘racism’.

  80. Keir Starmer faces discontent as Labour MPs reject union jack election flyers
    Exclusive: Members say flag may alienate ethnic minority voters as some associate it with far right

    Keir Starmer is facing discontent from Labour MPs over the dominant use of the union flag in election campaign material amid concern it may alienate ethnic minority voters and others.

    Concerns were raised at recent meetings of the party’s black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) group at Westminster and also by London members of the parliamentary Labour party. There is also unhappiness among some activists who are reluctant to handle the material.

    There was criticism from those at a meeting of MPs from ethnic minority backgrounds, including Starmer’s chief of staff, Sue Gray, and the chief whip, Alan Campbell, of freepost leaflets that were – as one MP put it – “plastered with union jacks”

    There is also increasing unhappiness about the lengthy delay to the investigation into Diane Abbott, who had the Labour whip removed almost a year ago, as well as discontent over the party’s progress on BAME representation.

    Composite of Keir Starmer and Rishi Sunak
    UK general election opinion polls tracker: Labour leading as election looms
    Read more
    Unease about the party’s use of the flag also came up at a meeting of London MPs that was attended by Morgan McSweeney, Labour’s director of campaigns, and Ellie Reeves, its deputy national campaign coordinator.

    The union flag has taken on an increasingly prominent role under Starmer as he seeks to emphasise Labour’s “patriotic” credentials to assert that the party has changed from the Jeremy Corbyn era.

    However, some Labour MPs have suggested that the prominence of red, white and blue still has negative connotations among ethnic minority communities targeted by the far right. They asked why material provided could not be more tailored to specific constituencies.

    One MP said: “We are all really proud of our country but this can be a complex issue for some communities and we have to navigate that more carefully.”

    “For a lot of communities we are talking about colours that are associated with the National Front or another far-right group. Using the flag might be great for trying to reach those ‘hero voters’ but why can’t we have segmented branding,” they added, using a phrase Labour strategists coined for the slice of the electorate who swing directly from Tory to Labour and who tend to be more socially conservative and pro-Brexit.

    “I can see how it would work in some places but it’s definitely detrimental in university towns, and in heavily BAME seats,” said another MP who attended one of the meetings and who added that “multiple colleagues” had told him of activists refusing to give out the leaflets.

    “They just look like union jacks really, with a bit of red on the side. There’s not even a Labour rose. You don’t need to prove your patriotism by wrapping yourself in the union jack,” they added.

    A councillor on the south coast told the Guardian that the flag-branded material was also sometimes a problem and not only among BAME voters.

    “I’ve seen boxes of the leaflets being piled up because activists don’t want to give them out. We’re also finding that in some cases people on the doorsteps have mistaken them for leaflets put out by the Conservative,” they said.

    A video sent out by Labour to its activists and organisers outlines its general election branding. “The flag dominates, and of course Labour red,” states the video, which also recommends the use of a “poppins” font and says that MPs and organisers should use the template to ensure “brand consistency”.

    Other Labour guidance to members on branding states that a “primary palette” of colours including “Labour red”, “flag blue” as well as white and black should predominate colour when producing “content or positive messaging”.

    A “secondary palette” has been composed to match messaging relating to Labour’s “missions”. They are “growth pink”, “green energy green”, “NHS blue”, “policing yellow” and “opportunity purple”.

    Abdi Duale, a member of Labour’s NEC (National Executive Committee), said: “Britain’s strength is in its diversity and our communities are hugely proud of our nation and its flag. Labour is running a proudly progressive and patriotic campaign that celebrates all our communities and that includes using our flag.”

    A spokesperson for Momentum, the Labour-supporting group, said: “Members are the lifeblood of our party, the activists who put the hard graft in on the doors. They must be listened to and the message is clear: Labour’s campaign materials should reflect the concerns of the communities they serve. A one-size-fits all model is not just ineffective, but has the potential to repel parts of Labour’s core voter base.”

    The concerns about the union flag emerge as Starmer intervened in a row over England’s new football kit for the Euros, calling for it to be scrapped after the decision to replace the traditional red and white St George’s Cross for a multicoloured cross on the shirt.

    A leaked strategy document seen by the Guardian in 2021 advised Labour to make “use of the [union] flag, veterans [and] dressing smartly” as part of a rebranding.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/30/starmer-faces-discontent-as-labour-mps-criticise-election-flyers-union-jacks

  81. Tulips are coming out but the daffs are starting to go over:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc369d8044596a57a022091f8f139dbdd08f036358216330b77b59516f8fcafd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d5b4aab181a664c12263c096ac2d2615615d2f44da2b06b1f4f464a9a5f82e8.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/545777a0ca935a05f9776a2315193888f24810530e1b86f10776d4b3c62d7ef5.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7beb8c819e23719fb5116c13e591e2febe1a6d078626c63f6ee7c2f855d1fc99.jpg

  83. One of Ukraine’s biggest power plants destroyed by Russia. 30 March 2024.

    One of the largest thermal power plants in Ukraine’s east has been completely destroyed following Russian shelling, according to Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo.

    The announcement came just a day after Moscow carried out a massive barrage of missile and drone strikes across central and western Ukraine, the latest in a series of escalating attacks targeting the already damaged energy infrastructure.

    Things are not looking good for the Ukies!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/30/russia-ukraine-war-latest-us-aid/

      2. The North Koreans have soon wonderful methods for dealing with scum like this .

        We need to send people like that to N Korea to be dealt with .

        We are far too soft .. and we need to punish people like him the way he would be punished in the country of his relatives .

      3. Simply too, too wonderful. Dec 2023 – six months in chokey for carrying knife on a train. Let out end near the end of March 2024 (one only has to do half the “sentence” (joke – spit). Arrested for attempted murder (with a knife) on a train a few days later.

        I expect he’ll get a real ticking off this time. A year (= 6 mos) inside, eh?

        PS Wonder how many children he has sired.

  85. Private Christopher Finney, GC (born 23rd May 1984), D Squadron, Household Cavalry.

    On 28th March 2003, at the Shatt-Al Arab Canal, near Basra, when his Scimitar light tank was engaged (in friendly fire) by a pair of Coalition Forces ground attack aircraft. Two vehicles were hit and caught fire, and ammunition began exploding inside the turrets. Finney managed to get clear of his driving position and was making his way towards cover when he noticed that his tank’s gunner, Lance Corporal Alan Tudball, was trapped in the turret. He then climbed on to the burning tank, placing himself at risk of enemy fire, as well as fire from Coalition aircraft should they return. Despite the smoke, flames and exploding ammunition, he managed to pull the wounded gunner out of the turret and get him off the vehicle, moving him to a safer position not far away, where he bandaged his wounds. The troop officer in the other tank had been wounded and there were no senior tanks to take control. Despite his relative inexperience, the shock of the attack and the all-too-obvious risk to himself, he recognised the need to inform his HQ of the situation. He therefore broke cover, returned to his vehicle, which was still burning, and calmly sent a concise report by radio. He then returned to the injured gunner and began helping him towards a Royal Engineers Spartan which had come forward to help. At this point Finney noticed that both Coalition aircraft were lining up another attack. Notwithstanding the imminent danger, he continued to help his wounded colleague towards the safety of the Spartan. Both aircraft fired their cannon and Finney was wounded in the lower back and legs and the gunner in the head. Despite his wounds, he managed to get Tudball into the Spartan. Then, seeing the driver of the second tank was still inside his burning vehicle, he was determined to rescue him too. Despite his injuries and exploding ammunition, he valiantly attempted to climb on to the tank but was beaten back by the intense heat and explosions. He collapsed exhausted a short distance away and was rescued by the crew of the Spartan.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2-109.jpg?resize=318%2C536&ssl=1

    2. Man… wordless. When does he stand as PM? Bloke like that, there’d be no stopping him.

    2. Apart from the fact that she parades on stage in her underwear, and invariably has a sneer on her face – never seen the point of this woman.

      2. To be absolutely honest although I have heard of her, today was the first time I’ve actually seen her in the flesh so to speak….

      3. She’s at the point where she’s even forgetting the underwear, see the above video.

      4. She also has a really nothing singing voice. If it weren’t for her beauty and autotune (and marketing) no-one would listen to her. Awful stuff.

    3. Aah, they pinched this from the “your kegs are on back-to-front, Antonio!” Boddingtons Beer advert.

  87. A potent Par Four!

    Wordle 1,015 4/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
    🟨🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I was very slow on the uptake this morning but I got there in four.

      Wordle 1,015 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 1,015 4/6

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

    2. Same here.

      Wordle 1,015 4/6

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

        2. Mola, re another topic, last night:

          “The Southern Irish gave assistance to the Germans in allowing U-Boats shelter in its ports.”

          Au contraire; During WWII Ireland was a ‘pro-allied’ Neutral Nation.

          All downed Allied Airmen were delivered to the north within twenty-four hours.

          All downed German airmen were interned in the Curragh POW Camp. None chose to escape(!)

          Irish military intelligence (G2) shared information with the British military and even held secret meetings to decide what to do if Germany invaded Ireland to attack Britain, which resulted in Plan W, a plan for joint Irish and British military action should the Germans invade.

          Following the outbreak of war, Irishmen joined the British Armed Forces in large numbers. Ultimately, around 200,000 – all of them volunteers – served in the conflict and and around 30,000 were killed.

          The only time U-boats docked on the Island of Ireland was at the end of the War when the German U-boat Fleet surrendered.

          Alas, the folklore re German U-boat officers in mufti rowing ashore to remote island pubs and sharing pints of Guinness with the locals is a romantic delusion …

          1. There were landings in Devon and Wales, but that was to get water and perhaps other supplies.

    3. Dodgy bogey for me!!

      Wordle 1,015 5/6

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  88. Disgust in our political elites is turning us against democracy itself. Janet Daley. 30 March 2024.

    Something has changed in the public consciousness. The quality of politics itself and its practitioners can vary hugely over the generations but today’s crop are probably no more or less mistaken or inadequate than in most other eras. Yet they are presiding over a degree of resentment that is unlike anything most of us can recall. It cannot be a coincidence that this great alienation comes after the most bizarre, unprecedented social experiment in modern history. Not only was the economy put into an induced coma for the best part of two years – which is the chief cause of the disastrous debt which now makes the proper financing of any government service impossible – but the most fundamental expectations of communal life were undermined. Normal social bonds and interactions were not only outlawed for the duration of the emergency. More sinister was a systematic official programme which inculcated fear and chronic anxiety in the public space.

    Janet can be a little variable but just recently she is on the ball.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/30/disgust-in-political-elites-turning-us-against-democracy/

    1. She’s wrong on pretty much everything except the last sentence!
      There has been a concerted attempt, mostly successful, to recruit only yes-men into the HoC, and the ‘leaders’ are working for someone else – they ARE of a worse quality than they were in the past.
      The pandemic isn’t the cause of our huge debt level – boot is on the other foot – the need to print more money triggered the scamdemic.
      Normal social bonds have been disastrously weakened by three generations of mass immigration, especially the last twenty years.

      1. I think she’s only partly right and just talks about economics, but it’s a far bigger subject because it’s more about the fact that the overmighty state has turned on the people it’s supposed to service, flooded the country with immigrants who are not assimilating, and which is utterly useless at doing even the basics like policing crime, defending the country or providing roads where you’re not picking your way through a lunar landscape.

    2. Neil Oliver on GB News was quoting Oliver Cromwell and more or less calling for revolution against the crony elite.

    3. It isn’t just covid. Politicians have been venal grubbing scum the entirety of existence. The problem in recent years has been the utter gulf between them and us, the continual pontificating for no value or utility. The corruption, greed and incompetence we now can so easily see – ad they keep trying to hide.

      They’ve passed endless laws to enforce their own way and these have destroyed society. The worker now is forced to pay for the shirker, the criminal is given more ‘rights’ than the victim. Absolutely nothing works: the police don’t, the roads are a mess, there’s traffic controls everywhere and forced, idiotic speed limits in other places. The NHS has more money than ever yet routine operations have a waiting list of a year and a half. Trans weirdos are getting lauded when they should be given mental help, The demented ‘social justice’ agenda has done nothing but forced intolerance – which was always the point.

      The state lies habitually. It’s hatred, loathing and resentment of democratic accountability is disgusting. The bitterness began with the Brexit vote when it was told how to behave and simply decided to ignore that instruction. MPs cheating the system, forming their own parties, goingto Brussels behind the negotiators back – all to sell the country down the river for their own benefit.

      They deserve nothing but disgust and dislike.

  89. I’m sure it’s just coincidence that Biden chose the Holiest day in the Christian calendar to be his trans awareness day.
    Absolutely positive.

    3. Funny how I have to read the British press to find out what is happening here in USA!! Living within just over an hours drive away from Washington DC, this is news to me, not that I am bothered !!

    2. I was walking for practically the entirety of Holy Saturday, so no .
      I believe the city of the dreaming spires lost and the other one won –
      It’d always be one or the other. Do they celebrate with pimms or is it a little early in the year .

        1. I’ve never tried it, but okay if it brings on summer .
          Don’t forget to put the clocks forward tonight.

          1. I wont, thanks! I remember standing outside our tent, on a campsite at Orinon in Northern Spain, in an absolute downpour shouting “Pimms” but it didn’t work! A lot of the other campers thought we were nuts! I was about 12!

      2. Judging by the report, they celebrated by throwing up and shitting themselves.

    2. I’m a Dark Blue myself, so a bad day!

      Did you ever row? I only did it once when we put a Rugby crew into the Summer Eights – we were rubbish and got bumped twice……

        1. They’re very easy to capsize – we were so bad we had to row in what was charmingly called a ‘clinker’ – which had additional wooden slats on the hull to provide a bit more weight and stability (at the expense of speed!). There’s no way we could ever have kept a ‘shell’ afloat!

    1. The SNP division of the BBC achieved a total eclipse of ‘The Boat Race’ by means of the Women’s Six Nations!
      [France v Scotland]

    3. Blimey! Fantastic. 3 for me.

      Wordle 1,015 3/6

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    1. The jihadis coming across in dinghies have to be supplied with weapons from somewhere.

  95. That’s me for today. A lovely afternoon – all spent in the garden. Sowing seeds (one of my favourite activities). Among them, some Italian parsley bought in Italy. Talk about ones money’s worth. A huge quantity of seed – probably ten times what one gets in England – for £2 a packet. One euro. I do miss yer continong for seeds.

    For a brief moment, it seems almost springlike. Won’t last, of course. But I shall profit from it while I can.

    I DO wonder how the slammer march in London went. Thousands arrested….NOT. But the compliant Muslipolitan perllice will have “earned” a tidy some in overtime.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  98. First cut of the year for the old churchyard right in the centre of the village. Took twice as long as it should because people kept coming over to talk about the appalling behaviour of our resigned vicar who is now refusing to actually go or leave the Rectory. Loads of volunteers coming to clean and polish the church and decorate it with flowers. Great team work.

          1. We had a five year interregnum so I’m used to it. A churchwarden has to be a jack of all trades and competent at them all. 🙂

          2. You should seriously think about becoming a Church of England Lay Minister, you’ll officially lead services etc. It’d be of great help to you’d church and you are more then capable. There needs to be leaders that guide the flock .

          3. Little known fact but churchwardens are effectively lay ministers in their own church. They just cannot administer the sacraments or conduct marriages etc.

          4. No i didn’t know that. Your church is fortunate to have capable Churchwardens as the vicar is somewhat inadequate.

          7. Thanks AAL.
            Our last letter to the BIshop registring a complaint against the Archdeacon she has referred back to the Archdeacon! Clearly inspired by the seasonal example of Pilate’s hand washing….

          10. I believe you also have the power of arrest? Perhaps you can also administer capital punishment; that would be worth looking into.

          11. I know we can prohibit a vicar from entering the church but not sure about arresting them?

    2. That vicar of yours has no shame, the rectory isn’t his home, it’s linked to the church . I guess a kind and helpful person will be doing the Easter Sunday service

    1. Talking of seat warmers when I was at Blundell’s the lavatories in School House were unheated. This meant that one of one’s duties as a fag was to go and sit on one’s fagmaster’s lavatory seat five minutes before he went to evacuate his bowels so that he did not have to sit on a cold seat.

  101. I wish you all a lovely evening, our lady vicar ( Christina ) 6 people and myself will be discussing the scriptures this evening ( with cheese and wine) it’s very kind of her considering she has tomorrow to prepare for. Love and blessings from me . x

        1. Hmmm.

          When does Lent end? In some faith’s traditions, Lent ends on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter. However, for other faiths such as Roman Catholicism, Lent ends at sundown on Thursday, March 28, 2024, which is the day known as Holy Thursday.

          1. Tut Tut , Mr Thomas . The Roman Catholic Church isn’t another faith, its another denomination of Christianity, not a faith within itself.
            Anyway I’m òrf out. Good night .

          2. Not my words. I am afraid I was quoting Mr Google – where I had searched in the hope of finding a definitive answer.

          3. The answer is of course 42 – which mathematically describes the perfect state of the universe at sixes and sevens!

          8. Logically, it must end before the last supper, which suggests Maundy Thursday to me.

          11. We were married on Saturday 2nd April 1988 which was Holy Saturday – we had to get special dispensation from the bishop to allow the wedding to go ahead but we were not allowed to have flowers decorating the church and the tabernacle was open and empty.

            .

          12. It is my parents’ 60th wedding anniversary tomorrow. Today she let slip they were married on a Tuesday – Easter Tuesday. Apparently you got a tax break in those days – £50 – and so lots of people got married in March (before 5th April anyway!).

          13. My parents got married on Easter Sunday! The vicar grumbled that he was missing his lunch, but he made an exception for my mother.

      2. I gave up cheese for Lent of which finished when the Gloria was sung.
        It’s Christina who suggested wine to soak up the scriptures and her boss ( God is okay with it ) a few French and Italian cheeses just will find themselves on the table. 😉

    2. PS.. I’ll send you my spare lindt dark chocolate bunny – in time for Easter Sunday .

  104. This is an odd one
    No hint at all over what the banned group might be.
    Does anyone else smell fart right?
    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/propalestine-march-protest-london-israel-gaza-hamas-war-arrest-metropolitan-police-b1148598.html

    A man was arrested suspicion of a terrorism-related offence at a ‘Stop the Genocide’ protest in London.

    The alleged offence was inviting support for a banned organisation, Westminster Police said.

    Officers made the arrest on the Strand on Saturday afternoon – the man remains in custody.

    1. There are a few people who are arrested simply because they turn up. These individuals are not allowed free speech and it is perfectly acceptable to subject them to cruel and unusual punishment. They are politically unacceptable in 2024.

    2. Officers made the arrest on the Strand on Saturday afternoon …

      The man remains – or – the man’s remains – remain in custody?

    3. Officers made the arrest on the Strand on Saturday afternoon …

      The man remains – or – the man’s remains – remain in custody?

  106. We should always be eager to expand our vocabulary.

    I came across a new word in a DT BTL comment today – this was : torofæcology?

    It only took me a second to work out that this meant bullshit!

    4. Oh, dear Lord, the sheer dumb banality of the dialogue! Do these blobs have brains?

  109. A newly promoted Labour MP repeatedly appeared with a radical Muslim preacher and conferred awards on him and his mosque despite a High Court judge labelling him an “extremist”, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
    Damien Egan, the MP for Kingswood in South Gloucestershire, praised Shakeel Begg’s mosque as a “source of guidance, community and friendship” when he was the Labour Mayor of Lewisham – a position he held until January.
    Mr Begg was found by a judge in 2016 to be an “extremist Islamic speaker” who had “encouraged religious violence”.
    Labour just doing what Labour do… submitting…

    1. Not just submitting, but kissing a**e, even rolling over to cop it in the a**e.
      I seem to recall a local character who gave his name to this activity: Qvisling.

    2. Egan is married to Israeli-born Yossi Felberbaum.[2][24] Though raised a Catholic, Egan converted to Judaism, his husband’s faith.[25]

      Just buying insurance…

  110. Good night all, and tomorrow….🎶Summer time and the living is easy🎶. Great lyrics, but if only. 😉

    1. But the International Health Regulations only require a simple majority to be passed. I think we’re stuffed.

      1. Is this a result of the last time they tried when a few nations refused? Then barring a miracle then yes, I think we’re stuffed too.

    1. Love the car radio one! Looking forward to tomorrow when I no longer have to guess at the time!

      2. Hi Sue. I had (bog standard Vauxhall) company cars that could update the time via RDS, around 30 years ago.
        I’ll be up with the lark tomorrow. It’s always unsettling when the domestic timepieces give different results.

        Alexa will prolly have updated. And the PC. The kitchen clock is supposed to update via the signal from Anthorn, which is a long way from Surrey.

        1. It’s pointless having more than one clock if they all tell the same time. 😂

  116. Good night everyone and God’s blessings, remember to put your clocks back tonight.
    Easter Sunday is officially spring time .

    1. I’ve just put them forward, but I’ll take your word and set them back 2 hours and have a lie in.

    3. Spring forward, fall back. I’ve negotiated a lift to one of our churches at 07:30, so I can do the necessary just before 8 am. When I lived just across the road, I’d do it in the hours of darkness. I’ve posted about this in the past, but twice, I’ve ascended the tower stairs to make the adjustment, only to witness the clock stopping before I did anything. The clock had issues during lockdown. They were finally fixed last year. Supposedly. But it stopped again.

      The Rector and I struggled up the tower stairs. I got the thing ticking again. We repaired to the Café just beyond the churchyard, sitting outside in the sun. As we were about to leave, we glacced up at the church. The tower clock had lost around two hours. Cue a return visit to the tower. There was no obvious explanation, so I set the hands to noon / midnight and stopped the clock.

      Phoned Keith at Cumbria Clock Company, thinking he would have an explanation. Unfortunately, what the Rector and I witnessed was impossible. I doubt whether my subsequent recommendation to the Rector was ever followed up, but I feel this is a job for the Diocesan Exorcist…

  117. Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    Already put my clock FORWARD so I’m going to bed and see if I get enough zeds.

  119. A beautiful day today, so I did quite a bit of sawing and chopping up the “garden” where it got quite warm in the sunshine.
    I even managed to get Grad.Son to stack the wood too.

    And now I’m off to bed!

    1. Guilt by association. Yay!!! National socialists were not entirely wrong. Let’s all punish people who bear a physical or cultural resemblance to wrongdoers.

      1. Zelensky has now banned the written works of Mikhail Bulgakov the greatest Russian writer of the C20. He was born in Russian Kiev but spent two years in Moscow. His works were not published until long after his death, having also been banned by the Soviet regime(s).

        I would urge you to read The Master and Margarita, one of the greatest works of Russian literature after Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

        I believe that immigrant minorities who seek to forcibly impose their ideologies and practices on their host nations should be deported to those countries where their ideological needs and practices can be better met without disturbances.

      2. Zelensky has now banned the written works of Mikhail Bulgakov the greatest Russian writer of the C20. He was born in Russian Kiev but spent two years in Moscow. His works were not published until long after his death, having also been banned by the Soviet regime(s).

        I would urge you to read The Master and Margarita, one of the greatest works of Russian literature after Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

        I believe that immigrant minorities who seek to forcibly impose their ideologies and practices on their host nations should be deported to those countries where their ideological needs and practices can be better met without disturbances.

      3. Zelensky has now banned the written works of Mikhail Bulgakov the greatest Russian writer of the C20. He was born in Russian Kiev but spent two years in Moscow. His works were not published until long after his death, having also been banned by the Soviet regime(s).

        I would urge you to read The Master and Margarita, one of the greatest works of Russian literature after Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

        I believe that immigrant minorities who seek to forcibly impose their ideologies and practices on their host nations should be deported to those countries where their ideological needs and practices can be better met without disturbances.

  122. Evening, all. Picking the pockets of its supporters never seemed to doom New Labour for the first few elections until people eventually got fed up.

  123. Well, chums, I’m off to bed (after first moving my wall clocks forward one hour). So now I wish you all a Good Night, a Restful Sleep and a Good Awakening tomorrow. And I wish the same to myself.

  124. I just watched a video which suggested Robert Kennedy Junior’s pick for his VP running mate, the wife of the owner of Google and a WEF activist, has implications beyond expectations.

    It was suggested that Biden will be pensioned off to the Sanatorium (or Crematorium) leaving Kennedy as the one remaining Democrat candidate for the Presidency. At that point all Democrat resources will suddenly switch to supporting Kennedy.

    It was further suggested that the US political elites are all related, largely owing to inter breeding in the 1600’s. Who knew that Obama is a Third Cousin of a Bush or a Clinton. The nasty Satanic fuckers are in fact a bloody clan.

    1. I can just see it. The Bush family ancestors owned the Obama ancestors on the plantation. And we know what the master does with nubile young black slaves.

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