Saturday 7 May:  The Government must stop pursuing votes and start pursuing policies it believes in

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

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574 thoughts on “Saturday 7 May:  The Government must stop pursuing votes and start pursuing policies it believes in”

  2. Good morning all. Bright & sunny after last night’s rain with 4½°C outside.
    I’m planning a quick run to the greengrocers in Belper this morning. We’re out of fruit & veg.

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps. Contrary to the forecast it’s a bright sunny start – and no rain again.

    SIR – Allister Heath’s excellent article, “Work-shy Britain is sleepwalking into a doom-spiral of class war and decline” (Comment, May 5), is a bleak wake-up call to all Westminster parties.

    He shines light on three key issues: a dysfunctional NHS that no party dares challenge, the housing-supply crisis that is leaving the under-35s in despair, and the astonishing post-Brexit economic malaise of low-growth, low aspiration and low ambition.

    An 80-seat majority is the perfect platform on which to tackle these huge agenda items, yet this Government (Conservative in name only) is distracted by distracted by sleaze, fines for parties, and its self-made net zero agenda.

    Indeed, it is likely that for this particular government leadership group, the three big issues highlighted fall into the “too difficult” category and are therefore cans to be kicked further down the road.

    The absence of a robust, self-controlled UK energy generation policy is an example of a can that successive Labour and Conservative governments kicked down the road, and just look where that got us.

    Bill Simpson
    Canterbury, Kent

    Well said, Sir.  Problem is, this anything but Conservative government is cowardly, tired and clapped out, and until it can find a leader of substance and conviction it will be well and truly done for at the next general election.  May 2024 really isn’t far off, and the ticking clock is getting louder.

    1. SIR – It is imperative that the Conservative Party finds a safe seat for Lord Frost in the House of Commons. He stands head and shoulders above any pretender to the leadership of the party and we need him as a matter of urgency.

      Michael Willis
      Cirencester, Gloucestershire

        1. I think he gave up the peerage and settled for just Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

          2. And set the precedent for the Viscount Lambton I believe.
            Or did the Viscount Lambton set the precedent for Viscount Stansgate?

          5. He then dropped the “Wedgwood” bit to become a man of the proletariat as “Tony Benn”.

  4. Ex-Sky star Colin Brazier attacks diversity dogma. May 7 2022.

    Are you old enough to remember a time when work involved a fairly simple transaction? You gave up your time and labour in exchange for a company’s cash. Provided you did your job reasonably well, hit targets, met standards, pleased customers, then all was well. There were clear lines of demarcation. The firm was in the business of making money. You were in the business of making a living. But then something happened. Companies started to think it was okay to tell employees not just what they could earn, but what they should think. You may have experienced this shift yourself. Unless you work for yourself, or for a small family business, you will have noticed how modern corporations now insist on a role in the moral formation of their employees, a role once reserved for spiritual or political leaders. One manifestation of this urge to shape the character of staff is the unconscious bias course. Perhaps you’ve attended one. I did, a couple of years ago, and it was pretty much the final nail in the coffin of my 24-year-long association with Sky TV. My employer got off on the wrong foot straight away. You see, language matters, doesn’t it? And when, along with everyone else, I was ‘invited’ to participate in a course that was described as compulsory, my hackles went vertical. An invitation, by definition, can be declined. But how do you refuse a compulsory course, where attendance is mandatory? To my shame, I agreed to that invitation without a bat-squeak of dissent. And worse still, at the end of the online session on Microsoft Teams, when the moderator asked if anyone had any questions I sat on my hands. Which was cowardly and supine. Because I did have a question. I’d found the presenter’s thesis – that as a white man I was guilty of seeing the world oblivious to my own prejudices – utterly unconvincing. It was snake-oil and pseudo-science dressed up as Holy Writ. Any questions? Of course I had. ‘How much are you charging for this twaddle?’ is what I wanted to say. The words formed in my throat, but that’s where they stayed. Perhaps you’ve had a similar experience. Maybe you were tempted to critique an unconscious bias course, but thought better of it, having a mortgage to pay or a promotion in mind. Maybe you just kept your gob shut, and shared your true feelings with an intimate later on. That’s what Simon Isherwood thought he was doing in March last year. The 60-year-old also had just finished an unconscious bias course on Microsoft Teams. He, like me, thought it was meretricious guff and told his wife so. Unfortunately, he did so without turning his computer microphone off. His colleagues seemingly heard everything. As the Daily Telegraph reported today, there were complaints and, after a disciplinary, Simon was out on his ear, even though his 11 years at the company had hitherto been successful. What did he say that was so offensive? Apparently he wasn’t complimentary about the course and dared to wonder whether there was such a thing as black, as well as white privilege. Specifically, and because he has a friend from West Africa, he wondered whether there was such a thing as black privilege . . . in Ghana. If that’s all that was said, it sounds incredibly innocuous. But in the Looking Glass world of unconscious bias, the mere act of questioning its legitimacy is a kind of shop-floor heresy and career suicide. Now, there may be another side to the story. Mr Isherwood has taken his dismissal to an employment tribunal, scheduled to wrap up tomorrow, and his employers aren’t saying anything on the record until the process is completed. But it raises important questions about the nature of the modern workplace. About the willingness of companies – and the HR executives within them – to play a role once reserved for the priesthood. To tell us how we should relate to the world around us; what our original sins look like. These companies have no democratic mandate for the ideologies they foist on employees who feel – rightly – chilled into silence. They have no right to interfere in areas that are a matter for individual conscience. This corporate over-reach has to stop. And the people who should stop it are those we’ve chosen – through elections – to codify our behaviour. It’s time MPs told big businesses they have no right to be our moral guardians.

    What with this guy, Mr Oliver, Farage and Mark Steyn, GBTV is beginning to look like a winner!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/ex-sky-star-colin-brazier-attacks-diversity-dogma/

  6. SIR – Many people present in A&E departments with common cancers that are not being diagnosed and treated early enough. These tend to be at an advanced stage with poorer outcomes. The UK compares unfavourably in cancer survival with many advanced nations, yet spends increasing sums on health care. There is something wrong here.

    This is only in respect of cancer care. Many people are still unable to be seen by a GP. It is hardly surprising that the workload for the ambulance service and A&E departments is increasing.

    Dr Nigel Legg
    Bracon Ash, Norfolk

    “There is something wrong here.” Yes, Dr Legg, there certainly is. It is a case of chronic waste and mismanagement and no one seems capable of tackling it. Overpaid health chiefs write silly letters from their ivory towers because they can’t or won’t sort it out.

    1. Didn’t that good doctor used to be in Eastenders?
      Morning all!

  7. SIR – I am tired of large organisations and government departments saying they are extremely busy and apologising for any delay caused by staff working from home. If by working from home staff cannot perform their work properly, they should be ordered to return to their workplace or have their pay reduced.

    Edward Pryce
    Plymouth, Devon

    Self-evident, you would think?

    2. When our elder son was having chemotherapy, he frequently had to work from home.
      He found it extremely frustrating, as often the information he needed was in a filing cabinet at work or in the heads of the people on the business premises.
      But he noticed such aggravations because he was running a business, not leeching off the taxpayer.

  9. SIR – During the Falklands War (Letters, May 6), I served in the Ministry of Defence branch responsible for taking up and tasking shipping, which included the Atlantic
    Conveyor and Sir Galahad, the landing ship logistics vessel.

    I recall wondering at the time why the Atlantic Conveyor, with Chinook helicopters on board, did not appear to warrant protection from an Exocet attack. Surely such an important cargo deserved this protection.

    Forty years on, the question appears to be as significant as ever.

    Chris Chambers
    York

    It does seem a strange omission, but perhaps the expectation was that it would be seen as a non-combatant ship and therefore of lesser importance? There was also a debate as to whether it was legal to arm a Merchant Navy vessel, and it seems that this was why it wasn’t properly protected. In any event, would the Argies have known what her cargo was? Incidentally, as I recall the Cunard-owned Atlantic Conveyor was initially carrying 6 Wessex choppers, 5 Chinooks and 14 Harriers, the latter having been picked up at Ascension. Fortunately they had been flown off on arrival at the Falklands, otherwise the loss of all of these when Conveyor was hit would probably have scuppered any chance of a successful liberation. PS.Only 1 Chinook was saved from the ensing fire. Let’s not forget, too, that 12 crew were lost in the attack.

    1. It was all done in hurry, but all the Chinook eggs were put in that one basket. If a “civilian vessel” carries armaments into a theatre of war, it is no longer a civilian vessel. It is perfectly correct and proper for the opposing side to sink it. At one time UK merchant vessels had strengthened decks at bow and stern to allow guns to be mounted.

      The UK never complained that the sinking was incorrect because it was perfectly lawful and sensible. The example of the Lusitania was perfectly clear. If you carry weapons to a combatant, you are liable to be attacked. Any UK planes, boats, lorries carrying military aid to the Ukraine may be legally prevented by any means.
      PS, I bet they do not spend three weeks stuck in Customs, like lamb and beef, eh Liz Truss?

        1. No. I’m bad at taking orders, and quite cowardly. However that does not stop me from thinking. What’s your point?

        2. Morning Phizzpops. As Hi his higgernerrant please will you explain your comment. It seems reasonable to me what Horace has posted. (As in logical).

          2. Well, you can read and decide if it is logical. You impute “heartless” on no evidence surely?

      2. Yes its all ok for them to sink the Atlantic Conveyor but not us the Belgrano.

        1. I did not say that. The criticism of the Belgrano sinking did not come from me. It was legal and sensible. Had we pursued and sunk their aircraft carrier, even in harbour, that would have been legal and sensible also. One could make a case not only for bombing mainland bases but also government buildings in Buenos Aires. Our restraint may have caused casualties on our side. Such restraint was almost certainly imposed, or heavily encouraged, by the Americans.

          1. I Was not meaning you, just the overall attitude by many people.

          2. Oh, no worries. Sorry. I’m a little bit sensitive following a remark -see below – by Phizee.

  12. A heartfelt letters BTL post:

    Michael Geddes
    1 HR AGO

    Philip Duly:
    “Right now I wouldn’t bet against Boris Johnson winning again in the autumn of 2024 if Tory MPs have the prescience to give him time and space.”
    Yes, that could happen. He has time and space, but is there really the possibility of a 180 degree change of course? Zero emissions/HS2/wokery/ illegal immigration/rising taxation/incessant scandals/NHS/DVLA/HMRC/passport office/BBC/energy/cost of living and many other issues still await attention after almost 2.5 years. Have you seen signs that dramatic action is about to begin? My instinct tells me that it will be business, or the lack of it, as usual. Crisis! What crisis? That stonking 80 seat majority is steadily dissipating.

    * * *

    He forgot to include the completion of Brexit!

    1. He has forgotten that we do not WANT to be multicultural or tied down to the badly thought out green issues .

      He will also be responsible for the disasterous council take over by bicycle lane maniacs.

      2. We have bicycle lanes here. I nearly got run over on the pavement by a young girl who said to me, “excuse me”. I pointed to the cycle lane and reminded her what it was for. Clearly, I am a bad person.

    2. As I have argued before the Conservatives’ only chance of survival is that they resort to Conservative policies and to keeping their manifesto promises.

      This depends on the back benchers – but have they got the testicular resolve to do anything?

      Two options are possible: 50 or more Conservative backbenchers form a schism and relinquish the Conservative Party whip and vote down the government when it strays from being conservative; or they resign their parliamentary seats and present themselves as Reform Party candidates in the resulting by elections.

  13. Good morning all .

    Murky start to the day, 12c , breeze , will it rain?

    Son and Moh all dressed up in their running kit for their Weymouth 5k Park Run this morning .

      1. Good morning Bob ,

        I have just wished the superfit athletes good luck as they drive off to take part in the Weymouth Park run , and I feel really terrible , still coughing , head and ears are echoing as if I have a waterfall inside .

        I must be terribly unfit and worn down to feel like this .

        Hey ho , thank you for asking .. You appear to have masses of energy as well, and I am glad you had a lovely Welsh holiday.

        1. I have started taking a tincture before bed. Escolzia. Stops me waking in the early hours and i get a good night of rest. Might be worth trying.

          2. Morning Rik.
            This just contains California Poppy without the hallucinogen/high effect.

          3. Wish you could still get Victory Vees with chloroform instead of the emasculated twentyfirst century version.

          5. It amazes me how the Victorians managed to run a global empire and make vast scientific and social advances while permanently stoned and drunk.
            Puts my occasional night-time G&T into perspective.

          6. We have been watching our box set of “the Darling Buds of May”. Ma and Pop knocked the stuff back in large quantities and strange combinations. In Kent.
            Now imagine that you are some colonial clerk (oppressor of slaves etc etc) setting up a register of Births, Deaths and Marriages, or putting together a railway timetable for trains from Simla to Pondicherry, or working out the wages for the tea plantation, and the latest cargo of McEwan’s Pale Ale has been delayed at sea by bad weather. I’d be chucking down my neck anything that might take me away for couple of hours a day…

          7. If that stuff is on the label, what else is there in “other ingredients”? Possibly made by the same people selling opium to the Chinese?

          8. Other ingredients: Brillo pads; Jizer, Tizer, Vim, Daphnia, Bread Pudding, Jeyes Fluid and Lyons Maid ice-cream.

  15. 352496+up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    7 May: The Government must stop pursuing votes and start pursuing policies it believes in

    But they are doing just that, they have been
    pursuing a mass uncontrolled immigration
    policy ongoing since anthony charlie lynton
    opened the flood gates, currently it is open house via DOVER with a majority of the electorate , via the polling booth, consenting to it.

    Freeze all welfare / pension payments that are operating today No new payments until
    rectifying actions are seen operating keep the core shop floor serpents in place ( for now) sack ALL the hierarchy.

    Same day sacking of politico’s via people power is NOW a must either that or very serious civil unrest is surely on the cards.

    There has to be a rallying point, a fringe party built up to combat what passes for political party’s within these Isles.

    Short term gain / long term pain is guaranteed continuing the same close shop lab/lib/con voting pattern that is witnessed daily, if that is what you want you have certainly achieved your aim.

  16. Morning, all. The threat of overnight rain doesn’t appear to have amounted to much in N Essex.

    Here is more proof, from the USA’s Walgreen Pharmacy chain, that those who have taken the jab are suffering greater infection rates. The link to The Highwire’s second interview with Dr Geert Vanden Bossche goes some way to explaining why those infection rates are happening, and why the level of serious sickness is at the same time, low.

    This interview is not a congratulatory vehicle for the purveyors of the “vaccine”, on the contrary, it is a dire warning that what is currently being observed could very well be the precursor of a health tsunami on its way.

    The interview includes much science and is an uncomfortable watch but the message is clear, we are in unprecedented times and that Churchill’s prophetic words, “…a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.” were accurate, albeit 80 years too early. It’s very clear that those advocating inoculating the World, especially when they are not by any standard, experts in inoculation, have been proven disastrously wrong and should be ignored and treated as a threat to humanity.

    Note, Dr Vanden Bossche has been very accurate in his predictions of how the ‘virus’ can and will mutate when put under pressure by mass inoculation of a non-sterilising prophylactic serum in a pandemic. All of us must, as did Del Bigtree at the end of the interview, hope that this time Dr Vanden Bossche is wrong.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4a63b9a96d2dbb75a01ea39c09076a654ad1a1d9a856f977b35adf679ac9364.png

    The Highwire – Vanden Bossche Warning

        1. We have had a good few dogs in our time. Somehow, we always manage to pick the bolshie ones: throw a ball and, instead of obediently scorching off to return it to me, they sit down with a look that says “You threw it; you bring it back”.

          1. Oscar has started playing with his ball now (when he first arrived, he was manic and ran off with the ball to savage it). He will bring it and drop it, run after it and play football with it.

    1. It may be just a freakish coincidence that this year Caroline has had to play at twice the number of funerals as usual and there is a very high proportion of people who have been triple jabbed amongst the dead who were healthy and fit and died suddenly and unexpectedly.

      There have also been suggested links between the vaccine and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease:
      https://cms.galenos.com.tr/Uploads/Article_50671/TYBD-0-0.pdf

      The full truth will probably be supressed for many years.

    1. I have a feeling there’s a problem web wide. Trying to buy toys (for me, because i’m fed up) was achingly slow.

      1. I use Safari. Admittedly I get messages on some websites telling me it is out of date and “not supported”. I’m frightened of upgrading.

    2. Resolving this situation is simple, of course. Turn up, gun them down.

      Problem solved. They don’t know how to behave, so need to be taught – by being shot.

      2. 352496+ up ticks,

        Morning W

        “Let’s kill all the lawyers” is a line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2, Act IV,
        When the very serious civil unrest’s kicks off that I’m sure will be amended to include politico’s.
        The civil uprising will be judged to be lawful much of the evidence of the last three plus decades has been catalogued so many an overseer will be fair game.

    3. TBF – several of them turned up expecting a game of rounders.
      Good, healthy exercise.

    4. TBF – several of them turned up expecting a game of rounders.
      Good, healthy exercise.

  21. ‘Morning All

    Ukeland…………..

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl23kWqsk7kTwVU801Hl2JLCrc2-Ob__k8IZPbcxwb8Doedurh1vaH2ZfeAF7FzWc_3El5CCnM1dc1QPN5ag1rwOOBW9G_f3x8z2en8TR3EdyEHwIniqO5a8H35h7PDL1RIAbZVqGlEhrjwwAtaJQrgrh8X4On8c5wd5nkZm1HpVcrM2Si2768KF-G/s600/FRhQYqZaQAACJux.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78a6290c141043ea08425e583caa59a8d6d2d2b882a3b63d82c7ae8cb0af2a22.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/333da4ec70669d58f3786b0376e6b9a30288ab98aa751d893bdf562e31cb0c75.jpg

    3. True story: I was once given the ask of preparing name-badges for staff at a shop where I temporarily worked. On my own badge I placed the words “Don’t Mess!”.

      The manager was less than impressed.

    4. Beth stayed at an Apex Hotel.
      We have a ‘couple of ducks’ from them.

    1. I honestly don’t know why they bother pretending to the opposition.

      What would Starmer do? Exactly the same, only more! He keeps trying to score points, but really it’s Statler and Waldorf, with the worker getting heckled.

    1. This alleged scenario has had several different versions. One famous one had that Yank naval fleet passing through the English Channel and ordering a mid-Channel lighthouse to “veer 15º to the east”.

      Each version has the same positive result: to show up the Yanks for being more gung-ho than intelligent.

      2. When my eldest brother was serving in Korea, his unit was placed next to a Yank one. The Yanks had a large board saying “Second to None”.
        My brother’s CO placed a small sign next to it which read “We are None”…..

        1. It looks like those Yanks had nicked the motto of the Coldstream Guards, the oldest regiment of foot guards who refuse to defer to the ‘seniority’ of the Grenadiers.

        2. There was another story about British soldiers working next to an American establishment, over the gates of which was a sign “Through these portals pass the finest fighting men in the world” – as the Brits left they amended the sign, changing the a of pass to an i.

          As an aside a friend of mine served on exchange with the Australians in HMAS Snipe – the letters of the ships name were welded to the hull as when they were just screwed in place naughty sailors would rearrange them!
          [and thanks to “Joy” for the upvote!]

  26. “The government must stop pursuing votes and start pursuing policies it believes in”

    But this government is scientifically illiterate and believes in ‘green’ and the ability to change one’s sex. I assume the writer can’t be a Conservative.

  27. Microplastics rife in British soil ‘because of sewage reuse’

    BRITAIN has the highest level of microplastics in agricultural soils in Europe because farmers are encouraged to use recycled sewage to fertilise fields, academics have warned.

    A Europe-wide study by Cardiff and Manchester universities found each year, on average, 500 to 1,000 microplastic particles are spread on to each square metre of UK farmland.

    In contrast, Spain, France and Germany have about 100 to 499 particles in the same size areas of their fields.

    British agricultural policies encourage the use of sewage sludge for fertilising farmers’ fields. Between 61 and 75 per cent of UK waste is recycled in this way to avoid landfill or incineration.

    Researchers estimated 1 per cent of the weight of sludge is microplastics, meaning up to 42,000 tons – or 710 trillion microplastic particles – is applied across agricultural soils in Europe each year. This concentration is similar to that found floating in ocean water.

    Experts warned microplastics pose a significant threat to wildlife as they are easily ingested and can carry contaminants, toxic chemicals and hazardous pathogens. They can also be absorbed by plants, potentially impacting the food chain.

    In the study, the team took samples from the Nash Wastewater Treatment Plant in Newport, South Wales.

    James Lofty, a doctoral student at Cardiff’s School of Engineering and lead author of the study, said: “At present, there is currently no European legislation that limits or controls microplastic input into recycled sewage sludge based on the loads and toxicity of microplastic exposure.

    “Efforts should be made to increase standardised monitoring of microplastic concentrations in sewage sludge and agricultural soils, which would provide a more accurate picture of contamination levels in soils across Europe.”

    The research was published in the journal.

    Is any invention, in human history, more symptomatic of the rapidly increasing idiocy of the species than the manufacture and routine use of microplastics? Not even the existence of nuclear weapons comes close.

    1. H’mmmm ….. reminds me of the town gas smell that lingered over East Anglia a few years ago.
      Apparently the Cloggies were spraying pig slurry onto their fields.
      Still, at least pigs don’t drink water from plastic bottles or cleanse their skin with exfoliating washes.

    2. Don’t want to be a pendent but, to be accurate, microplastics are not manufactured, they are the product of plastic items discarded and then broken down by the environment. There is no excuse for this because plastics can be recycled and used again, many times. But we can’t do without plastics in our modern environment. One of the things that struck me in hospital was the shear number of items used that were made of plastics. A good thing because it makes them disposable and thus prevents cross infection, etc, from patient to patient. Problems in just that one area of human effort, would be magnified and hospitals would be far more dangerous environment for people without the use of plastics.

      The problem is a lack of joined up thinking. When a plastic item is disposed of, why is there no consistent plan about what to do with those plastics? There should be a method used where plastics are used, carefully disposed of, as human affluent is, then recycled and then reused to make new items. There is a bit of good news with this and that is the invention of a bacteria that eats plastics.
      https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/24024/20191010/bacteria.htm

      1. Don’t be a pendant then. I wouldn’t want you hoist by your own petard necklace! What about those microplastics that are specifically manufactured for putting into cosmetic products (shampoos, body scrubs, etc) to act as a defoliant? Surely those are manufactured for purpose.

        1. They are not exempt from what I was saying because they too break down and cause problems for the environment. But, in the mean and in the context of pollution problems that is not what is meant by microplastics. It usually refers to the breakdown of larger objects to such an extend they become extremely small. It goes without saying that the sort of microplastics found in cosmetics should be banned out of hand.
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microplastics
          “The term microplastics is used to differentiate microplastics from larger plastic waste, such as plastic bottles. Two classifications of microplastics are currently recognized. Primary microplastics include any plastic fragments or particles that are already 5.0 mm in size or less before entering the environment. These include microfibers from clothing, microbeads, and plastic pellets (also known as nurdles).[5][6][7] Secondary microplastics arise from the degradation (breakdown) of larger plastic products through natural weathering processes after entering the environment. Such sources of secondary microplastics include water and soda bottles, fishing nets, plastic bags, microwave containers, tea bags and tire wear.[8][7][9][10] Both types are recognized to persist in the environment at high levels, particularly in aquatic and marine ecosystems, where they cause water pollution.[11] 35% of all ocean microplastics come from textiles/clothing, primarily due to the erosion of polyester, acrylic, or nylon-based clothing, often during the washing process.[12] However, microplastics also accumulate in the air and terrestrial ecosystems.”

    3. The article doesn’t distinguish between particles from the breakdown of plastic objects and microplastics (microbeads) that are an ingredient in many cosmetics and toiletries. There is growing campaign to ban the latter.

  31. Morning all. Just woken up 🙁
    Never mind, the rest of the day is left.

        1. So far, relatively dull. 3 birthday cards, 2 presents. Dinner later cooked by t’Lads.

  32. Victory for Sinn Fein stokes fears of a united Ireland
    Nationalists on course to be biggest party in Stormont for the first time following Northern Irish elections

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/06/victory-sinn-fein-stokes-fears-united-ireland/

    BTL

    If this leads to the re-unification of Ireland Boris Johnson will be delighted as he will no longer have to worry about the NI Protocol because people will stop pestering him to invoke Article 16 to get rid of it.

    1. I’m afraid my sympathy is rather muted.
      Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU.
      Looks as if it will get its wish.

      1. In the first days of GB News an American commentator and author called Lionel Shriver, who now lives in Britain, said that in her view if people in Northern Ireland wanted to join the Republic of Ireland they should be allowed to do so when this wish has been democratically confirmed; and if the Scots want to be independent of the rest of the UK then they should be allowed to do so. By the same token, the people in the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar should remain British if that is what they want.

        Of course the trouble is that far too few of our politicians give a toss about what the electorate wants.

    2. Bonjour Mr T and everyone.
      The headache of re-unification is strategic; it is unlikely that the USA would want to see an entirely non-NATO country situated right next to the UK. China or its shills would be there in a flash, and a similar risk exists with Scottish independence.

      Much of the money which corrupted, or helped to develop, the republic of Ireland since the 1980s came from Brussels but originated in EEC budget contributions made by the UK.
      That process can be described as ’embourgeoisement’, although economists have worked hard to disprove the theory.

      1. Eire cannot afford the subsidies to keep NI afloat on the scale provided by the UK.
        In addition Eire is now a contributor to the EU and they have now found themselves having to invest in an Army, Airforce & Navy – no more free-loading on the back of others. Their low corporate tax regime is on a limited life span.

    3. Reunification of Ireland need not change the allegiance or citizenship of its inhabitants. Paper documentation and the management of it has become outdated. While we retain paper passports we update them and renew them electronically. There is no reason why the Unionists cannot remain in the Union, and the Republicans join the Republic, both electronically. No bombs or guns required. Thereafter matters such as tax are exercises in administration, big ones admittedly, but workable.

  33. I think Sir Keir has a real opportunity to bring down the Prime Minister, if he receives a penalty notice from the Police he should resign immediately by way of the example he demanded of others.

    1. He won’t be fined. Durham Constabulary have a policy of not applying penalties retrospectively. Unfortunately.

      1. Wasn’t it Durham police who did such a good job of checking on Dominic Cummings’ activities?

  34. Err, the government is pursuing policies it believes in. Green, high taxes, poverty, social genocide through gimmigration, mountainous debt, a huge state, EU federalism, globalism, profit for MPs, di-worse-ity.

    If folk think that the government wants something else, I’ve a bridge to sell them.

    1. My beef with LGBTQW is how does such a small minority of the population command such adoration from the msm and the woke lefties who select these creatures as hosts for many shows I wouldn’t watch anyway? Limp wrists and whiney voices abound.

    1. 40 years ago, when I got married.
      For clarity, that’s 39 years 10 months and 5 days ago.

      1. When I got married 53 years ago, I had a feeling of foreboding that I was making a very bad mistake. I was right.

        Second time around was much better.

        1. Second time lucky, I guess.
          They say to always go with your gut feeling – I do, but check through other sources as well – and so far, only been wrong once because I never met the individual before hiring him, an engineer, to work in Angola, and never saw him (telephone interview) before he came into the office as an employee. Big mistake…

        2. Funny that.

          My first time, before the wedding, I was lying in the bath and a terrible sense of dread came over me – and a loud voice in my head said, “DON’T DO IT!” I was 24; the whole event, service, reception, honeymoon was all arranged – and my fiancée was pregnant. So the marriage took place. It lasted 12 years – we simply grew far apart. There was nothing wrong with her – a very good wife and mother – but each wanted different things. The simple fact was that we were both far too immature and inexperienced.

          She has been happily married for 43 years! With a blip – I have now been for 27 years!

          1. My first husband was a good man – but we brought out the worst in each other and were just incompatible. We parted after 21 years.

          2. I was much too young the first time, at 22. She was happy whilst I worked in an engineering factory but didn’t like the life of being a policeman’s wife. We separated amicably.

            The second time was a huge mistake. She was a domineering character who had to make all the decisions. I tolerated her for an unbelievable 18 years before escaping.

            I now live with my old school penfriend, as sambos, in Sweden. We have never had any intention of getting married and are both very relaxed about that.

        3. Both my sisters, Belinda and Mary, married at the age of 20.

          Belinda, the elder of the two, is still happily married 65 years on and all of her four children are happily married.

          Mary, the younger of the two, very sadly died of cancer 12 years ago. She ran off with a man 12 years her junior, She had 6 children (4 by No 1 and 2 by No2). Three of her first four children made unhappy first marriages which broke up.

          Caroline and I both think our wedding day in April 1988 was the happiest day of our lives.

          1. You were lucky to meet the right person when you did.
            I was lucky the second time around.
            Both my sons are single and childless.

          2. I got lucky second time round too – first one was a insert suitable word

    3. When I went to boarding school and found I had many opportunities to enjoy learning how to do many different things ..with out being in competition with my sister .. or under the thumb of a very critical negative mother .

      1. My mother would never sign the forms to allow me to go on school trips. Even the free one’s. So i forged her signature.

          1. Controlling. I left home at 16 to get away from them. Slept rough for a while until i could get a job.

          2. Good for you , and you made your own way successfully .

            “Every Adversity, Every Failure, Every Heartbreak, Carries With It The Seed Of An Equal Or Greater Benefit”

            Did you have siblings , older or younger ?

            My mother died in a car crash alone when she was 61 in SA.. I was 39 and of course my life was here in the UK . My siblings and father had no idea where she was .. . She had driven to collect mail from their PO box .

            We had forgotten to pay our phone bill here in the UK, BT cut us off.. so no one could contact us , I think telegrams were finished in the ’80s.

            One of my relatives wrote to me .. it was all a bit of a shock.. The sad thing is I had more feeling for my father than my mother .. Dad was a lost soul, but he did remarry again eventually

          3. Being away at boarding school from age not-quite-eight until University, I never really grew up with my parents. So, we never really knew each other… I dread the moment at Mother’s funeral (whenever that might be) when I’m supposed to give an eulogy – I barely know the lady.

          5. Yes, know it quite well.
            It’s a warning I never heeded, because I didn’t know it applied until too late.

          6. Listen here, many of us don’t know untill it is too late .. I was referring to my relationship with mother , however my father and I ticked along beautifully no matter where we were .. my mother may have been aware of that I suppose .

    4. I had recently moved from Whetstone back in to my parents house in Mill Hill and woke up on our wedding day 31st September 1974.
      Did all the necessary, put my new suit on, later jumped into my Bronze Yellow MGBGT YYT 6H and drove north along the A1 to London Colney Herts, parked the car out side the church and walked across the road to meet my mates in the Green Dragon and had a final single person beer with them. Never regretted a thing about it.
      I’ve Just had a mate pop in for a coffee, haven’t seen him for about 8 months, known him since we were young boys, good old laugh a chat and a catch up as we call it ‘the tomato’. And yesterday at the Hatfield fair made it a god day chatting with the two young mums and their (same age as our grandchildren) children and later the elderly South African couple who sat on a shaded bench with me for about an hour. We had a lot in common. 😎

      1. There is a pub immediately opposite the Roman Catholic church in Lyme Regis and – as you can see in the photo – the Daimler Consort belonging to a friend of mine was just about to deposit Caroline and her father at the church’s entrance so I had to make a run for it to get to the church on time. A quick-thinking usher managed to tell the bride to make a circuit and return a couple of minutes later!

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d8afe910234db702d138a778378c715e045f7c4e1c433c8d6785e45419d54c3.jpg

        1. My husband Richard and I will be staying near Lyme Regis for a period of time in a few weeks time , looking forward to it .

          Churches are always near pubs in England is a quintessential part of this Isle .

          Btw a lovely smile from the charming gentleman in the photo on his wedding day.

          1. If you go to the Catholic Church opposite it, if it is still there, you will find the little pub where I had my last pint of beer as a bachelor!

          2. Indeed I’ll find it, if it’s still there , delightful.

      2. I had a 1969 Bronze MGB GT with sunroof and overdrive, can only remember part of the reg HCL***H. Fab car!

    5. I try to think that way when I wake up each morning. Seldom have my best days been those I anticipated being so.

    1. Who is Steve Kirsch?

      He is clearly somebody that the MSM and the PTB want to dismiss as a dangerous charlatan.

      But of course this does not necessarily man that his findings are not true!

      1. SK is an entrepreneur and inventor who made his fortune in Silicon Valley. One of his inventions is the optical mouse. He has two degrees from MIT. He’s a very smart man.

        1. Whether his opinions are right or wrong does not seem to matter to the MSM and the PTB.

          His analysis is dangerous and it must be rubbished and cancelled – and even more so if it is true.

          How long will Mark Steyn be able to attack ‘vaccine orthodoxy’ on GB News.

      2. I’m not really sure – I get his emails and most of them are very interesting. He is a millionaire – I don’t know how he made his money – but he has offered huge sums to anyone who can disprove his findings but has had no takers.

    2. Steve Kirsch mentions that if the data isn’t ‘sanity’ checked then the “vaccine” can be seen as a, …”marvellous lifesaver,” for the over 25s. Some months ago a professor from St Mary’s London, Norman Fenton, I believe, analysed covid/”vaccine” data and IIRC one analysis emerged as showing the “vaccine” endowed immortality, or a near as makes little difference (The Highwire interview). Complete rubbish as learned professor explained. Appears Steve Kirsch has come across similar data.

  38. Caroline and I will be going to our boat, Mianda in Turkey soon.

    We are not sure if we will have a good internet connection so we hope that Nottlers will continue to wish each other a happy birthday until we return. Looking at the list below it seems that we may miss two birthdays – Hertslass on 18th May and NoToNanny on 24th May.

    So https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    Hertslass and NoToNanny

    Please check this list and let us know if there are any errors or omissions so that we can make the necessary amendments.

    02 January – 1947 : Poppiesmum
    07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
    08 January – 1941 : Rough Common
    09 January – **** : thayaric
    10 January – 1960 : hopon
    16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
    18 January – **** : Stormy
    21 January – **** : Nagsman
    23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
    23 January – 1960 : Kifaru
    27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
    10 February -1949 : Korky the Kat (Dandy Front Pager)
    11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
    22 February- 1965 : AW Kamau
    22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
    24 February- 1941 : Sguest
    28 February- 1956 :Jeremy Morfey
    29 February- **** : Ped
    02 March- **** : Garlands
    05 March—– 1957 : Sue MacFarlane
    08 March—– 1957 : Geoff Graham
    26 March—– 1962 : Caroline Tracey
    27 March—– 1947 : Maggiebelle
    27 March—– 1941 : Fallick Alec
    19 April——- 1954 : Devonian in Kent
    22 April——–1950 :Jay Sands
    26 April——- **** : Harry Kobeans
    18 May———****: Hertslass
    24 May——– 1944 : NoToNanny
    02 June——–1939: Clydesider
    08 June——– **** : Still Bleau
    09 June——- 1947 : Johnny Norfolk
    09 June——– 1947 : Horace Pendleton
    23 June——– 1961 : Oberstleutnant
    25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
    01 July——— 1946 : Rastus C Tastey
    12 July——— 1956 : David Wainwright/Stigenace
    18 July——— 1941: lacoste
    19 July——— 1948: Ndovu
    21 July———-1960: Tier5Inmate
    26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
    29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
    30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
    01 August—— 1950 : Datz
    03 August—— 1954 : molamola
    10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
    14 August ——-1944 jillthelass
    18 August—— **** : ashesthandust
    19 August——- 1951 : Hugh Janus
    04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
    07 September- 1946 : Araminta Smade
    11 September- 1947 : peddytheviking
    12 September- 1946 : Ready Eddy
    13 September- **** : Anne Allan
    15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
    26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
    30 September 1944 : One Last Try
    07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
    11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
    24 October——-1948: Jonathan Rackham
    25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
    12 November- ***** : Cochrane
    01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
    06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
    10 December– **** : Aethelfled
    16 December– **** : Plum
    21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe
    (E&OE)

    2. You do a wonderful job, Mr Tastey! Wish you and Caroline a very happy trip!

  40. Good morning. Every morning it seems the Telegraph manages some sententious and hypocritical copy for Nottlers headlines! This is the latest figures on the jabs taken from new UK data that includes non-COVID patient date for the first time and that shows conclusively that the injectates are killing way more jabbed people than non-jabbed people. Up to the age of 50 you are between 4.8 and 1600 times more likely to die! And there is no positive benefit shown at any age. The Expose has the full review of the data.

    https://tarableu.substack.com/p/release-of-new-data-by-uk-shows-jabs

    2. Good afternoon, Jonathan

      Our friend Ndovu gave us this link earlier today:
      https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/uk-government-data-shows-nobody-should?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo1ODkwNDQ5NSwiXyI6IjIvMFIzIiwiaWF0IjoxNjUxOTE4Mzg4LCJleHAiOjE2NTE5MjE5ODgsImlzcyI6InB1Yi01NDgzNTQiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.933TU1drKIkjUaPjol0r4c4HWKoiIkQ1_TznLYqZfXQ&s=r

      Steve Kirsch is clearly somebody that the MSM and the PTB want to dismiss as a dangerous charlatan.

      But of course this does not necessarily mean that his findings are not true!

      Will the truth ever be fully presented?

      1. Hi Rastus, I would say that Steve and the Expose give a very good presentation of the truth. Your question might I suggest better be – will the legacy media ever return to the path of integrity and public service that made journalism so very different to the Goebbelsesque circus that it now is?

    3. I had my two AZ jabs more than year ago and I’m glad to be still alive! I think I dodged a bullet there (purely because I had a trip booked) and I certainly won’t be having any more of these dangerous jabs.

      1. We’re on the same page, Jools. I had the AZ jabs against my better judgement; it now seems they’re more efficacious than the mRNA jabs. But adverse reactions are common. A couple of days after Jab #1, I developed bursitis of the left elbow. It eventually went away. I gave it no more thought. Within a few days of Jab #2, I awoke with a numb right hand, as one sometimes does if one has slept on it. Except it didn’t wear off. The little finger was completely numb, the adjacent “ring” finger was partly numb. Nerve conduction studies and an ultrasound scan confirmed that there is damage to the Ulnar Nerve. I’ve regained most, but not all, of the feeling in those fingers, but for a while, I thought my days as an organist were numbered. The surgeon I saw, plus two of his Registrars, all appear to accept that my Ulnar Nerve Palsy is likely due to the AZ jab, and have written three times to my GP to this effect.

        It was only a couple of weeks ago when, in conversation with our – usually taciturn – Rector, that he revealed that his wife had exactly the same reaction to her 2nd AZ jab. We’re a small statistical sample, but something stinks here. Rector also had bad reactions to the jab. So there you have three “anti-vaxxers” who won’t touch the boosters with a bargepole.

        Lately, quite a few parishioners have been dropping like flies with Omicron. Presumably they won’t when they run out of Lateral Flow Tests. But all those afflicted have a number of things in common. They were the maskiest (including FFP2), most diligent users of hand sanitiser, and at the earliest stage of lockdown, were exchanging notes re. the difficulty of receiving online groceries, and disinfecting them and leaving them outside for God knows how long.

        All I’ve done in response to the ‘pandemic’ is to add Vitamin D3 to my meds. I’ve happily used public transport, and claimed mask exemption (they don’t work) throughout. Yet I’m still alive…

        I have a theory that – by just going about my business – I’ve been exposed to small doses of the lurgy, and my immune system has done what immune systems have done since time immemorial.

        1. I think I’ve been extremely lucky, the more I hear about the side effects from these things – also Lotl’s red spots, which are only now being checked over. Eric Clapton had the problem with his hands – not good for a musician, either for you as an organist. I had a stiff left shoulder for the best part of a year, but I can’t say definitely that it was caused by the jab.

          I’ve had numerous other jabs, mainly the childhood ones and later for travel – I’ve never really had adverse reactions apart from temporary soreness; the last typhoid one made me feel odd that evening but that was ok next day.

          We’ve both been taking 4000 iu Vitamin D3 for the last two winters, and have had no illness. We also take 1,000mg Vitamin C. I think we had covid in January 2020 but of course we’ll never know – but the dry cough lasted three or four weeks. Last month we had a very mild cold which may have been omicron of one form or another – mine lasted two days and his for a day or so longer, but neither of us was really stricken. I think the vitamins have definitely kept us well and supported our immune systems.

          1. Friend Dianne stayed here for Xmas 2019, then went off to HF Holidays’ place near Alnmouth. Where she went down with “the worst ‘flu ever”. Fast forward to early January, when I spent a week at her new place in Topsham, building a truckload of IKEA furniture. “You’ll catch this”, she said. Her main concern was a long awaited trip to NZ a couple of weeks later. Early Feb, I woke up early one morning feeling tight around the chest and slightly short of breath. Cured by a cup of tea. Later that week, woke to find my sense of taste had abandoned me. It was back by lunchtime. I gave this no more thought, till I had an illegal assignation in a neighbour’s garden. She had had the exact same symptoms, which by now were being flagged up as Covid-related. I guess I’ll never know, but I believe I had sufficient exposure to the plague to prime my T-cells.

            I’ve had two or three days since with a couple of hours of mild sniffles, but hardly worth mentioning.

          2. All this obsessive testing has kept people scared – when did we ever do that for something like a cold, or even flu? I did one LFT, when asked to by a friend who had recently had surgery. Also had a very cursory PCR test before the flight to Kenya. It was stressful just thinking about that……..

      2. Have you looked at howbadismybatch.com? If you look at your jab certificate it should have the batch reference on it. Craig Paardekooper has done amazing work on the VAERS US stats. It seems that 80% of the jabs have been anodyne in the short term at least, with 20% varying in toxicity up to 100% fatal. The long-term has not been considered at all yet, though there is increasing evidence from US stats that people’s natural immunity has been generally compromised. The boosters appear to be particularly bad.

  41. Another coat of paint on the walls and a coat on the doors.

    Spot of lunch and then more paint. If I can get 2 on today while the Warqueen is seeing on her school chums and Junior’s at a birthday party hopefully there’s less disruption to everyone.

  42. Sorry for abrupt departure yesterday but was so tired I couldn’t keep going. Out soonish to return useless phone and see if I can one that suits me better.
    Quiet day tomorrow, thank god, and then the fun recommences on Monday.
    Weather is gorgeous.

        1. I once sang Rachmaninov with one of those behind me in the choir. Had to ask for him to move, as my knees kept going weak! 🤣

  44. COVID-19, blood clots and the role of neutrophils.

    Yesterday I commented on the possibility of seeing some neutrophils through a microscope in a blood sample that I took after cutting my finger. What I didn’t know then is what they looked like and the conclusions I could draw from either seeing lots of them of very few of them.

    This article throws some light on answers to these questions and my search for an explanation as to why my local NHS hospital was using the anti-clotting agent heparin specifically for treating people with COVID-19 and why treatment appeared to be so successful in allaying the relentless, self-amplifying cycle of inflammation and clotting in the body.

    https://www.drugtargetreview.com/news/75246/autoantibodies-and-over-active-neutrophils-may-be-cause-of-covid-19-blood-clots/

      1. Looking specifically at Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in COVID-19 infections, scientific papers are still attempting to explain the mechanisms of autoimmune dysregulation when a SARS-2 infection goes out of control.

        NETosis seems to be a principal causative irregularity as explained in this recent article:

        NETosis and Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in COVID-19: Immunothrombosis and Beyond

        https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.838011/full

        1. Death of a Neutrophil

          NETosis (also known as ETosis) arises as Neutrophils die during fighting an infection.
          This may be known as microbicide and is likely to cause an immune dysfunction particularly in the case of COVID-19.

          This paper which predates my previous references by over a decade nevertheless spells out how microbicide may lead to fatal results in those of us unfortunate enough to acquire a COVID-19 infection:

          ETosis: A Microbicidal Mechanism beyond Cell Death

          Anderson B. Guimaraes-Costa, ˜ 1 Michelle T. C. Nascimento,1
          Amanda B. Wardini,2 Lucia H. Pinto-da-Silva,3 and Elvira M. Saraiva1
          1 Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Goes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 21941-901 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil ´ 2 Instituto de Biof´ısica Carlos Chagas Filho, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), 21941-901 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil 3 Instituto de Veterinaria, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ)

          Netosis is a recently described type of neutrophil death occurring with the release to the extracellular milieu of a lattice composed of DNA associated with histones and granular and cytoplasmic proteins. These webs, initially named neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs), ensnare and kill microorganisms.

    1. Councillor O’Shea will very soon be ousted by Mohammed Slammer. As will the rest of his woke, anti-British fellow councillors.

        1. “This is a call to action”. Well, good luck with that because unless people are willing to pick up the sword no action is going to make the slightest bit of difference.

          2. Unfortunately, those of us who are willing have been undermined and continue to be undermined by a political class that has no thought for the future and is indifferent that we or Europe survive. Since we are the intellectual powerhouse of the world. The passing of white people signals an inevitable decline in civilization, of that I am convinced. People look, often, to China but the truth is that China comes up short not only politically but scientifically, it largely steals the inventions of the West in order to further its aims. With the source dried up, as it were, China will decline. It is inevitable because a society that has contempt for the individual and the necessity of free speech and free thought, cannot contribute very much for the furtherance of mankind. As for Islam itself, all that will do is contribute degradation to society as it always has done. I have pointed out before, that when ever Islam has penetrated an advanced civilization, the high point of that civilization has always been pre-Islamic, never after the triumph of Islam.. There are no exceptions to that rule.

          6. I just thank God that I’m unlikely to survive to see it but I fear, greatly, for my children, grandchildren and great-grand chilfren.

          1. Time for the fourth crusade but, where are the Knights Templar and their ilk, who will risk all to stamp out this deadly disease.

            Brought about by the likes of Blair and Merkel. I doubt Putin will have any truck them, causing them to flee from Russia to the imploding EU.

    3. NOTTL did the Whitley Bay story yesterday. Perhaps Active Patriot is a viewer.

  46. Made a loaf this morning. Very good it is too. However, while measuring 1 teaspoonful of salt, to tip into the flour, I managed to pull a muscle at the top of my chest. Such a tedious “discomfort” (aka PAIN)….

    1. Voltorol gel for aches and pains. You should keep some in your medicine cabinet.

        1. We heard this afternoon that one of our hedgehog team (Ken, who is 80) had a fall a few weeks ago and broke his shoulder – he had to wait a week in great pain to have an x-ray to find that it was broken.

          4. Actually – he’s a lot older than that – nearer 90 but still very strong. I was forgetting that.

          6. Given the NHS is regularly paying out £2.4 billion a year in lawsuits he should call Citizens Advice.

          7. Hmm….. i don’t think he will but he was not happy about waiting so long for the x-ray.

  47. 352497+ up ticks,
    Old maggie becket is awriggling fit to bust
    fighting kiers corner & his drinking problem.

    On question time along with matthew parish
    all singing the praises of one anthony charlie lynton MP / toilet attendant
    ( cottaging dept.)

    It really is abuse on the ears but I had to suffer on medical grounds, consequences, I am no longer bound up.

  49. England international star is ‘revealed to be in £30,000 BLACKMAIL plot after having sex with £150 transsexual escort during lockdown’ D Fail

    Wendyball has more than one meaning apparently.

  50. Activists disrupt Priti Patel speech in protest against Rwanda refugee plan. 7 May 2022.

    A speech by the home secretary, Priti Patel, was disrupted on Friday evening after pro-refugee activists infiltrated a Conservative party “spring dinner”.

    Eight young social justice and climate campaigners from Green New Deal Rising disrupted the Bassetlaw Conservative Association Spring Dinner and demanded she drop controversial plans to offshore asylum seekers to Rwanda.

    As Patel started to address the party faithful, activists stood up, one by one, to condemn the offshoring plans and called on Patel to abandon them.

    I cannot imagine why they are trying to derail this deeply stupid project since there is zero chance of it actually working. If they succeeded the Government may decide that they just have to push them back across the Channel instead! The only really viable idea!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/may/07/social-justice-activists-disrupt-priti-patel-speech-to-protest-rwanda-refugee-plan

    1. What were these “activists” doing at the Conservative Spring Dinner? Didn’t the organisers know who was a genuine member?

      1. Afternoon Ndovu. They appear to have been sitting down at the table! One assumes that they booked their places!

  51. Afternoon all!

    We’ve just come back from the first meeting of the Hedgehog hosptal trustees since 2019 – it was a treat to get together and discuss things as normal again.

    2. We have little ghost hedgehog notices around the village .. and our narrow lanes have had a few accidents.

      Good news here is , we have had a very large visitor in the garden at night , he/ she snuffles along.

      I wouldn’t know how to identify male from female .. they are curled up and so prickly.

      1. It’s not easy to sex them as they have to be uncurled – but the male has a penis in the middle of its tummy and the female’s bits are just under her tail.

  52. Desperate mum offers strangers $1,000 to make 23-hour flight from London to help her manage three toddlers
    An Aussie mum has made a desperate bid for help on a long haul flight to Sydney
    The mother posted a $1,000 job offer to expats and travellers for a tricky role
    She has since received responses for the gig, which works out at $42 per hour

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10791527/Kids-plane-help-desperate-mum-three-toddlers-long-flight-London.html

    Drat damn and drat again, my passport is out of date .

    2. You’d have to pay me a lot more than that to be cooped up with three toddlers in an aircraft for nearly a day!

    1. In California, I suspect that virtually every family that owns a fully electric vehicle also owns or has 24/7 access to a petrol or diesel one as well.

  54. Wot? No Wordle today?
    Got me a nice birdie three an’ all!
    Wordle 322 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par Four for me, sweetie … x
      Wordle 322 4/6

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

    2. Wordle 322 4/6

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

    5. A pleasant 3 for me.
      Wordle 322 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟩⬜🟨🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Which rather confirms that I was right. See my earlier reply to you. Of course, they couldn’t admit that D3 was efficacious against the plague. That would have ruled out the Emergency Use Authorisation for the so-called vaccines…

  58. A very useful afternoon – cleaning the roofs of two 20ft x 8ft garden sheds. Very satisfying, too. I ignored the pain in my ribs (being a man, that comes naturally) and made god use of ladders, scrapers and brushes. Cleaned out the gutters, too.

    Then the weather changed in a few minutes as a cold mist blew in from the North Sea – a string, cold north wind. So indoors to cheer myself up by reading the paper……

    2. I visited Norfolk years ago and all I can remember were fields of flowering broad beans , and the scent of the flowers was heavenly.. and the weather as you describe .. bringing a deep chill to ones bones .

      The pain in your ribs … well just be careful please.

        1. I’m anointing mine with the amber liquid – Affligem, a fine Belgian Beer.

          6. Your summer is my winter.

            It keeps off the leaves, pine needles and willow branches.
            The worst problem is the pollen.

        2. Several of those were not in anyway funny and at least one might have been a fatality.

    4. Sounds like a good old fashioned sea-fret.
      Was at Saltburn Folk Festival over a decade ago when the entire country was basking in gorgeous sunshine, except the Yorkshire coast which was covered in a sea-fret the whole weekend!

        1. When we left for home, I realised it stretched inland for less than 5 miles!

      2. The one time I visited Bamburgh the sea fret was so thick we couldn’t see the castle…….

      3. Years back…same in Aberdeen, Bob.
        The airport, being inland, was in blasting sunsine… the city was in deep gloom from the harr, except for the top of the tower blocks, that you could see shining brightly whilst one stood on the pavement below, engulfed in wet gloom…

      4. I had that when I stayed with a friend in Amble. I never actually saw the place because I was only there for a week and the sea fret never lifted.

  59. OT – last night, we watched a Botney documentary (BBC4) about a young musician of whom, naturally, I had never heard. Jacob Collier.

    To my surprise, a very personable chap, spoke in formed sentences (most of the time); very talented musician. Apparently he makes a living by copying – using lots of IT stuff — other people’s music. While I admired his skill, for the life of me, I couldn’t see the point of it. However, it clearly appeals to other musicians who were falling over themselves to compliment him; and he has won lotsa music industry prizes.

    I have to say that Botney (whom I generally loathe) did a very sympathetic interview with the lad.

    Anyone else see it?

        1. Mercifully, as a good diabetic, I don’t do cake. Nor beer, at home. But I’m in charge of ordering 40 pints of Hog’s Back TEA for Dianne’s birthday party next weekend. Red medicine, on the other hand…

          1. Order more booze…Prepare for the unexpected. I have just sent out a mailshot to everyone on my email list…. :@)

  60. I was just thinking that if Stumbler gets a fine for breaking lockdown rules then the local elections should be re-run.

    1. As I said earlier – he won’t. The Durham Constabulary don’t apply fines retrospectively.

      So he is in the clear.

      He wouldn’t resign, anyway. In keeping with virtually all politicians today, he has no concept of “honourable behaviour”.

      1. Surely all crime is penalised retrospectively? Except thought crime perhaps…

    2. Yes, Bob3; by prosecuting Boris – but not Keir – before the election; the police have knowingly instigated party political bias into the electoral process.

        1. Well, the Conservatives have lost some 500 seats throughout the UK; however, if Sur Keir had been prosecuted for ‘Cakes and Ale’, the seat numbers may have been quite different …

    3. I have a few roses in the back garden. I fed and sprayed them a few weeks ago, and they seem somewhat happier this year. No sign of flowering yet.

      I’ve three hydrangeas, all of which appear to be frost damaged.

      The good news is that I planted a Jasmine against the East-facing front of the house, last year. This year, it’s flowering. Profusely…

      When I moved to the last place, there was an established Jasmine growing up one corner of the house. To eaves level. Then the Parish (i.e. a Churchwarden, future High Sheriff, wife of an earlier HS), arranged for external decoration. Her favoured painter came along and did all the woodwork with water-based paint (it lasted for about a month), and hacked the Jasmine down to ground level so e could paint a vent pipe.

      Jasmine – gone. Me (for different reasons) – gone.

  62. This is a recorded message! Sod it, sod it, sod it!
    Went up to return the useless phone- had packed it all up, had the receipt etc. Yes, said the young woman who had a badge of with “Manager” on. She looked about twelve.
    I had forgotten to put the sodding charger in the box. I am so mad at myself. So another trip is needed. Grrrr.
    Anyway, there will be no problem in returning the useless item.
    Went to 3 and, with husband’s advice, have got a phone with better sized icons and it’s now charging. Pause for another GRRRR.
    Not sure how much I’ll be around as I am so tired.
    It is 4G so should be OK for any future changes- new phone that is.

      1. I don’t take any pills if I can help it.
        We have just had so much to deal with that it’s all somewhat exhausting. We’ll survive.

          2. I eat quite a lot of fruit – very little bread, quite a lot of meat, oily fish, dairy etc. And Vitamin D3 & C. I’ve not had any appreciable illness for many years, and very few aches & pains for my age.

        3. It’s a tincture. A few drops in a glass of water before bed. Works for me.

          1. The only tincture I require before bed-time is one or two large Scotches with the same amount of water.

            If out of Scotch, then two flutes with a LBV port also does the trick.

    2. I find Three are OK, apart from the fact that they are blocking access to The Conservative Woman website. They had the strongest signal at the old place, until they didn’t. They had a mobile cell mounted on the Hog’s Back Hotel – which started life as a semaphore tower. The cell tower disappeared when the hotel changed hands. Along with my mobile signal. But Vodafone’s signal was strong, and their 4G internet was faster than my broadband.

      Fast forward to Normandy, and Three seem to have the strongest mobile signal. EE, O2 and Vodafone are all useless here. Broadband is even worse. There is cable here, though, and I’ll be exploring Virgin Media when my two year broadband contract expires in October…

      1. I really only use my phone for calls and texts. Or the occasional photo. Can’t be bothered with the rest.

          1. You say that, but yesterday needing a recipe for an epecially good green curry I pinged a chum on his telephone and no time later he had sent me the file.

            Tools are what we use them for. Give a white Briton a boat and he’ll explore the world and set up a trading empire making everyone richer. Give the same to a Frenchman and he’ll give it to a Somalian.

            The Somalian will use it to steal from other sailors.

        3. Just flogged my old Galaxy S9 to one of our churchwardens. Truth be told, it’s in better nick than my current S21 Ultra – only because i took off a peeling screen protector, and was a bit tardy about replacing it.

      2. You can ask them to remove you from the adult block list, and lodge a complaint as to why a website such as CW is on their black list in the first place.

  63. That’s me for today. Definitely a day of two halves – very nice sun and then cold and dank. A loaf made. The MR in full form. The shed roofs cleaned. AND more seeds germinating in the greenhouse. I am about to finish my glass of beetroot juice (I kid you not – it is good for the health, according to the MR) and will open a bottle of something else medicinal.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    2. So glad the MR has perked up. You need each other……………….otherwise you would starve and freeze to death !

    1. Thanks Phil – I think for most of us the menopause struck many years ago……..

    2. That gave me a good laugh!! At least I can still remember those days!!

  65. Techy NoTTlers ….HELP.

    Why does it take so long to log on to NoTTlers….plus numerous CATCHTA attempts???

    1. Clear cache and cookies. Update or restart. Don’t take this advice if you have logins you don’t wish to lose. Off site logins will probably be safe. Like your online supermarket.

      1. Thanks, it’s recently developed a beeping sound every second!!

        I shut down laptop when finished and clear history…

      2. “Clear cache and cookies. Update or restart”
        Remind me please Phiz; I have forgotten how …

    2. I hardly ever get those because I never log out. I just close the lid of the laptop. Occasionally I have to reboot the computer but seldom does that enforce a log in. A couple of times I made the mistake of clearing cookies and that did make me have to start again.

      2. Not logging out may be dangerous, it leaves that programme open to hackers and others to access your account and login password.

        But it’s that lack of security-mindedness that leaves you open to abuse and that’s what the hackers, people who take control of your laptop and others, just love.

        2. I clear cookies in a probably fruitless attempt to prevent google and facebook from knowing every detail of my life.

          2. I quite enjoy the little puzzles to prove I’m not a robot…yes that is a bit sad, now I come to think of it…

    3. No idea. A lot can depend on if your browser still has cookies hanging around from a previous session.

      https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/32050

      You can clear you cookies – NOTE! It will remove ALL your logins – amazon and what not – if you just get rid of them all. Try to find ones associated with disqus.

      An easy test is to open a private window (Chrome calls them incognito) and try to log in there. As such have no cookies loaded, that might expose the problem.

        1. I’ve switched to the Brave browser. Looks a lot like Chrome, but is more stable.

        1. Equally dreadful – although I liked most of Petula Clark’s songs …

        1. …and hopefully decapitated by the next train. What a bluddy good idea.

    3. Was that the promotional message for HS2? The 4pm from Londistan to Brumhole?

  68. Have to love you and leave you now, folks – dinner next door this evening……

      1. I believe that’s called an ambush- if it smells good- get round there;-))

  69. VERY LAST POST

    Thanks to “12 ft ladder” I can see the print version of the DT but NOT any BTL comments. Maddening!

    If any wealthy NoTTLer still subscribes to the DT – can you help?

    In the “Review” is a review of a book by Peter Oborne about how we treat the poor old slammers so badly…(I know, I know). I would like to know whether any comments were permitted ( I suspect not) and, if they were, whether many people took issue with the (slammer) reviewer?

    Answers on a postcard, please.

    1. Open the page of the DT and just as it is loading click the esc key. If it doesn’t work do it again with more finesse !

          1. At first I thought it was a long pipe she was smoking, then I realised that it was a combined trumpet, guitar and set of drums. Lol.

  71. Good evening, all.

    D and I went to Issy’s funeral on 28th April. It was a lovely little service, and if anyone would like an emailed Order of Service, please let me know.

    3. Thanks for posting. I would have gone, but I had a funeral over here, followed by an outpatients appointment. RIP, Warren. You’ll be much missed.

    4. Someone I wish I’d got round to visiting.
      Thank you for representing us.

    1. The solution is simple. Shoot the feckers. It’s long past time. They’re economically useless, here illegally and have no value, function or use.

      They are the human equivalent of dog poo – you can’t do anything with it so you just put it in the bin. Do the same with this lot.

    2. I’m sure I’ve seen travelogues about the Mediterranean that lorded the diverse/multicultural/inclusive (choose your own virtue signalling cliche) port of Marseilles.

    3. And the French Police do…

      …fuck all. All so-called police forces are corrupt and useless.

  73. The question of a holiday came up. I lie going to the Lake District and fell walking, or else Fjord climbing or to the ice hotel, but that’s getting a bit too commercialised. The warqueen would rather we went to the middle of the Sahara, but as that might be a touch chilly, an open volcano or just the centre of the earth – with the car seat heaters on where she can pretend that she went snorkelling or some other pursuit, where really she just sat on a beach drinking Mojitos.

    Some years we’ve done this very well – the boys go one way and the girls (her and chums) go another.

    This year the ‘girls’ are not going anywhere, we have a genuine mountain of work to do on the house (and living in chaos is exhausting in itself) that it has raised something of a quandry. My idea of a holiday is no one needing me and my being able to read in a quiet, cold room. Her idea is not being at home and preferrably within 2mm of the surface of the sun.

    Hopefully she’ll bug off to Ladies day (although apparently ‘her hat was wrong’ last year and come back having had her fill of being away.

    1. The Sahara is good. Open-ness, space, it’s quite spiiritual.
      Ice is much the same, but colder…
      Both are equally attractive.

    2. Visit the Rub’ al Khali or “Empty Quarter” as this desert covers about 650,000 km2 (250,000 sq mi) and not much chance of meeting anyone.
      The night sky is so full of stars and along with the silence is something very special.

          1. My husband is a Guinness fan- he had 3 pints last evening. And it was evident….

          2. I always had Guinness in my Landrover cool box when out and about in Oman.
            A pint or can was cheaper than in Uk!

          3. I quite like Guinness but it’s a little too heavy; I prefer me Pinot;-)

      1. I’d better buy mine…

        Not for the first time. In the first few years in Seale, I had more power cuts than in the preceding 48 years. So I bought a cheap and cheerful genny from Focus (remember them), which got me out of a few holes. Eventually, it rusted beyond repair, but it was useful while it lasted.

        1. We used to get a lot of power cuts here but not so often now. The one the other day was for planned work.

        2. We used to get a lot of power cuts here but not so often now. The one the other day was for planned work.

    2. I thought they already had blackouts? I’m sure a chap said that they were ‘used to them’ and he’d installed his own generators.

        1. Rightly so. Term means an inability to do work. Looks at the welfare figures…

          No, sorry. Not a black out. A brown out.

  75. OT
    Dealing with ‘Cookies’ has become a 24-hour nightmare; what can we do to ameliorate this?

    3. I’m working on a close-down and cleaning procedure to give a step-by-step guide through the process, that will ensure that you PC will shut down smelling of roses.

      Because it will be a WORD document, I cannot display it here but I will upload it to Mediafire and give you a download link.

      Please be patient, I have to make so many screen-shots, run them through PowerPoint and then convert to .JPG for it all to make sense and easily followed.

      I’m aiming for a day during next week.

    1. Of course, all comments moderated. If the border farce – who’s responsibility this is – kept these vermin out, this virus would not be here now.

      Find the person infected, burn them.

        1. And yet my husband has to go for a 4th covid swab on Monday before his surgery. He’s only tested negative 3 times before. But, of course, we are white and elderly so our rights don’t sodding count.

          1. Don’t let the bastards grind you down – they only win if you do.

          2. Andrew, I am a feisty so and so as anyone here will tell you. Last time my husband was dealing with this, I was in total health myself; however, as you have seen from my moanings, I have had some issues also. So we are juggling all sorts of things – appointments at different hospitals etc.
            You are right- they only win if you let them and we won’t.

          3. Good for you and keep looking at that light at the end of the tunnel, it’s not as far away as you might think at the moment.

    2. I remember an Italian shore leave on the Adriatic coast when one of the crew returned proudly with a video camera which was then discovered to have been carved from wood.

    3. In the mid-fifties, Maggie; I used to build and fly model aeroplanes, built of balsa wood and doped tissue paper – powered by twisted rubber bands … !

      Could this be the new technology?

      I am unconvinced by all the EV nonsense …

      1. Good evening Lacoste ,

        Lovely hobby for you but more restrictions these days.

        No 1 son and moh used to do the same as you , and the smell of doped tissue paper used to linger for ever . They used to go slope soaring with their gliders,, they also had home made planes with engines ,, power lined then remote control, the evolution of model aircraft in this household ,and crashed aircraft that needed repairing , still have a shed full… and then of course drones of all shapes and sizes .

        Son belongs to a Model club , and they meet up in the summer .

    5. Most car manufacturers create full-size clay models to fine-tune their designs. Just saying.

  79. Am amazed I am still awake and able to type. Goodnight Y’all- am so tired can barely keep my eyes open.
    Right now- life isn’t much fun. Sod it all.

  80. We’re back from dinner next door – a good evening and now an early night. This is what I use my phone for!

      1. The company was better than the meal! My lovely friend next door is no great shakes as a cook – we had cottage pie and cheesecake.

  82. Evening, all. The trouble is, the government is pursuing policies it believes in. It’s just pretending to offer policies the country would vote for!

    1. Lovely, Belle, could do without the music though. Once saw a shoal (?) of manta rays leaping like silver bedsheets being thrown into the air.

        1. Those swarming in from Africa and Asia are having no beneficial advantages for us. Quite the opposite.
          Good morning Belle.

  87. Isn’t it about time that someone, anyone, assassinated Bill Gates. They assassinated Kennedy who was relatively harmless, after all.

    Bill Gates, by contrast, appears to be the anti-Christ by comparison with Kennedy.

    The man is truly evil and treating humanity as a sort of computer programming model. We are dosed with seeded Chinese viruses, aided, abetted and created by folk like him, and then required to pay for the anti virus protection viz. vaccines. It is all so bloody obvious that Gates is a dolt that I remain in awe of the stupidly of anyone believing in the remedies proposed by this Gates cretin.

  88. Isn’t it about time that someone, anyone, assassinated Bill Gates. They assassinated Kennedy who was relatively harmless, after all.

    Bill Gates, by contrast, appears to be the anti-Christ by comparison with Kennedy.

    The man is truly evil and treating humanity as a sort of computer programming model. We are dosed with seeded Chinese viruses, aided, abetted and created by folk like him, and then required to pay for the anti virus protection viz. vaccines. It is all so bloody obvious that Gates is a dolt that I remain in awe of the stupidly of anyone believing in the remedies proposed by this Gates cretin.

  90. Moving next thursday. Got to spend 2 weeks in a hotel before we can take possession of our new house. We’re moving to Peterborough of all places. Going to be a month or so without my PC and proper internet.

    2. Good to hear from you, Russell. Hope it goes well. You two getting on better?

          1. Sorry to hear that, hope you are taking care of yourself, I miss your comments at this time of night….

      2. Not really sadly. We’ve kind of degenerated into housemates but im hopeful a break and the stress relief from this extended nightmare being over will help.

    4. Good luck with the move, and I hope things look up a bit once it’s over.

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