Saturday 8 June: The Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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653 thoughts on “Saturday 8 June: The Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further”

  1. GOOD MORROW, GENTLEFOLK. TODAY’S (RECYCLED) STORY
    TRUMP, IN OFFICE, CAN BE FUNNY!

    Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in our country lately:

    Illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida.
    Not me — I concentrate on solutions for the problems — it's a win-win situation.

    * Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
    * Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levees.
    * Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.

    Any other problems you would like for me to solve today?
    Think about this:

    1. Cows
    2. The Constitution
    3. The Ten Commandments

    Cows
    Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

    The Constitution
    They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq …
    why don't we just give them ours?
    It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years,
    and we're not using it anymore.

    The 10 Commandments
    The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this – you cannot post

    'Thou Shalt Not Steal'
    'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery', and
    'Thou Shall Not Lie'

    in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians, it creates a hostile work environment.

  2. GOOD MORROW, GENTLEFOLK. TODAY’S (RECYCLED) STORY
    TRUMP, IN OFFICE, CAN BE FUNNY!

    Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in our country lately:

    Illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida.
    Not me — I concentrate on solutions for the problems — it's a win-win situation.

    * Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.
    * Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levees.
    * Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.

    Any other problems you would like for me to solve today?
    Think about this:

    1. Cows
    2. The Constitution
    3. The Ten Commandments

    Cows
    Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

    The Constitution
    They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq …
    why don't we just give them ours?
    It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years,
    and we're not using it anymore.

    The 10 Commandments
    The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this – you cannot post

    'Thou Shalt Not Steal'
    'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery', and
    'Thou Shall Not Lie'

    in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians, it creates a hostile work environment.

    1. It's worse than I thought – are those really the sort of gormless morons that advise Hiriskanus?

  9. The Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further

    All going to plan then.

  11. Good morning, chums, another lovely sunny day. And thanks to Geoff for today's NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,085 4/6

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    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  12. The BBC audience could hardly bring itself to cheer on Nigel Farage

    Farage, of course, was not disturbed. He knows full well that it’s the watching TV audience that really counts

    ROBERT TAYLOR
    7 June 2024 • 9:12pm

    Nigel Farage’s Reform party currently polls as the third largest, well ahead of the Lib Dems and Greens, and just a smidgen behind the governing Tories. So why has the BBC placed him on the far left edge of tonight’s debate line up, like he doesn’t matter? Did the leaders draw lots for positioning? If not, and given that Penny Mordaunt for the Government is also marginalised out on the far right, the BBC’s positioning looks bizarre.

    And that brings us to the audience, which at times appeared not to include a single Reform supporter, willing to applaud Farage. Given that some polls say that nearly one in five voters are planning to back Reform, this relative absence of support seemed odd too.

    Meanwhile, despite the debate taking place in England, the leaders of the nationalist SNP and Plaid Cymru, from Scotland and Wales, were getting plenty of audience encouragement. Where on earth did tonight’s audience come from? We can forgive such sentiment with Have I got News For You, but this is slightly more serious.

    Farage, of course, was not disturbed by these oddities, which isn’t surprising as he’s faced similar treatment throughout his career. He knows full well that it’s the watching TV audience that really counts, not the handful of people willing to give up their Friday evening to sit in a TV studio.

    But given that the BBC has had to apologise in the last few days after one of its newsreaders inexcusably broke its code of impartiality and described Farage as using “customary inflammatory language”, we should keep our eyes and ears open for how our national broadcaster chooses to present politicians.

    *******************************

    Paul Smith
    9 HRS AGO
    Shocking coverage. Nigel allowed to be spoken over repeatedly, cameraman fixated on the front row tut-tutting plant. Shamefully partisan – the “representative” audience all seemed to be pro-immigration, pro-taxation left wing cosmopolitans.
    Thankfully no one is fooled

    Barry Shuttleworth
    9 HRS AGO
    Reply to Paul Smith
    100% agree, that bloke in the white shirt was defo a plant

    James Capel
    2 HRS AGO
    Reply to Paul Smith
    Wonder if OFCOM will investigate this like they have been GBN

    Peter Shepherd
    9 HRS AGO
    Forage speaking. Camera cuts to man shaking his head. Says it all.

    Exit Strategy
    9 HRS AGO
    Reply to Peter Shepherd
    Exactly. Joke coverage.

    Lady WooHoo
    9 HRS AGO
    Reply to Charles Marx
    tinternet sleuths will unmask him any minute

    1. "Wonder if OFCOM will investigate this like they have been GBN"

      Oooh …. that's a difficult question.

  13. Something fishy this way comes: rare 7ft sunfish washes ashore in Oregon

    The hoodwinker sunfish, or Mola tecta, is a different species from the more common ocean sunfish, Mola mola

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/dfd3c39e8077b5cb76826ec8a5d7325d19bada2f/0_0_4032_2688/master/4032.jpg?width=700&dpr=2&s=none

    An enormous rare fish thought to live only in temperate waters in the southern hemisphere has washed up on Oregon’s northern coast, drawing crowds of curious onlookers intrigued by the unusual sight.

    The 7.3-ft (2.2-metre) hoodwinker sunfish first appeared on the beach in Gearhart on Monday, the Seaside Aquarium said in a media release. It was still on the beach on Friday and may remain there for weeks, the aquarium said, as it is difficult for scavengers to puncture its tough skin.

    Photos provided by the aquarium show a flat, round, grey fish lying on its side in the sand. Photos of a person kneeling next to it, and another of a pickup truck parked next to it, gave a sense of its large size.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b3dd53476027a86cd7705f7b8ecd1463efd03a70/0_0_3512_2341/master/3512.jpg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/07/sunfish-oregon-beach

      2. No such luck, SJ.

        Not exactly our species, but we get along with them swimmingly. That one was well known as Bob.

        1. "Bonny"
          "Large bones"
          "Trouble with her glands"
          Excuses from those dim, distant days when being fat was unusual and shameful.

          2. That's what they used to say about the mother and daughter who were the only large people I ever saw in my childhood.

          2. Drug addict who had a child by a guitarist who occasionally played for the group. Was married but never consummated it. Second marriage last a few weeks. Died of a food overdose in London age 32. Four years later, Keith Moon of The Who died in the same bedroom, also aged 32.

        4. Of course we never saw the other Alabama would-be winners. This person may have been the thinnest….

        5. I don't find fat lasses unattractive, but fat faces as this lass has, I do find unattractive. Makes her look like Robert Maxwell.

  15. The BBC audience could hardly bring itself to cheer on Nigel Farage. 8 June 2024.

    And that brings us to the audience, which at times appeared not to include a single Reform supporter, willing to applaud Farage. Given that some polls say that nearly one in five voters are planning to back Reform, this relative absence of support seemed odd too.
    Meanwhile, despite the debate taking place in England, the leaders of the nationalist SNP and Plaid Cymru, from Scotland and Wales, were getting plenty of audience encouragement. Where on earth did tonight’s audience come from? We can forgive such sentiment with Have I got News For You, but this is slightly more serious.

    The BBC’s inclinations are widely known. The gerrymandering of audience’s. The manipulation of news and studio coverage. These are no secret. It tells you a great deal that no one in the political biosphere is calling for it to be corrected.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    1. Who, on earth, watches (or believes) the BBC?

      Small wonder I gave my TV away!

    2. "We can forgive such sentiment with Have I got News For You…."

      The twerp Hislop needs extermination rather than forgiveness – as a satirist he has become so pro-woke establishment that he is completely useless.

    3. "We can forgive such sentiment with Have I got News For You…."

      The twerp Hislop needs extermination rather than forgiveness – as a satirist he has become so pro-woke establishment that he is completely useless.

  18. Good Moaning.
    Phew! MB was stressing out about the smallest osprey chick not being fed. It has now had its fill, and kipping down with its siblings. Watch this space.
    Madeline Grant nails the "debate".
    "Mordaunt and Rayner went at each other like it was chucking-out time at a dockside Wetherspoons; “
    From what I could hear – and see if I was actually in the room – it was slappers on tour. Reminded me of an impressive girlie brawl that we witnessed in the Lothian Road some years back; except that Rayner and Mordant still had their hair.

  21. Morning all!
    Hoping for a fine day today for Charfield fete. Feels a bit chilly at the moment but clearly that's the global warming.

    1. Apropos 'Global Warning,' this may open your eyes, Jules:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves

      Check https://notalotofpeopleknow… Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate

      1. My eyes have been open for many years Tom. You don't need to tell me that. Perhaps you missed my attempt at irony.

          2. My parents gave my siblings and me (five children, seven names) "good old-fashioned English names".

            Trouble was that two of those names were Scots Gaelic, two were Greek and three were French.

          3. Yours seems fairly normal English? My parents named me after a Belgian girl they met, but they dropped the final two letters of her name to make it sound more English – so my Mum told me. A bit of a faux pas, really.

          4. They might seem it — through popular usage — but Alan and Keith are Scots Gaelic; George and Philip are Greek; and Julie, Roger and Paul are French.

          5. My parents gave my siblings and me (five children, seven names) "good old-fashioned English names".

            Trouble was that two of those names were Scots Gaelic, two were Greek and three were French.

          1. It's the tone of voice that's the giveaway. Doesn't come across in print.
            Morning, Tom!

      2. The government is not remotely interested in science. 'The Science' is not science. It's an enforced dogma that cannot be challenged. It is the equivalent of government saying 'grass is orange. Get it? It's orange. Now repeat that.' and people do.

        Bringing science to a discussion about climate change is attacking from the wrong way. What is the lie trying to achieve? What is the long term plan? Why are they not bothered about the environment damage of shoving 500 tons of concrete, 100 tons of steel into the sea bed? What about wind disruption due to the blades? The slaughter of sea and avian life?

        It's not about science. It cannot stand up to science. Until people stop trying to fight 'The Science' with science we're doomed.

        1. I don’t know how to take it further. Let’s hope the GE makes a difference and Reform will pick up the ball and run with it.

    2. Apropos 'Global Warning,' this may open your eyes, Jules:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves

      Check https://notalotofpeopleknow… Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate

    3. Apropos 'Global Warning,' this may open your eyes, Jules:

      Climate Change and You

      The climate ‘science’ is wrong. CO2 being 0.04% of the atmosphere is a cause for good, as it is essential for plant life.

      The atmosphere is 78% Nitrogen and 21% Oxygen. The remaining 1% are various trace elements of which CO2 is but a small part.

      The greatest cause of any change in the Earth’s climate, is due to the cyclical nature of the Sun’s phases, which may lead to vast differences between ice ages and continual heatwaves

      Check https://notalotofpeopleknow… Please feel free to copy and paste this anywhere appropriate

    5. Enjoy Ellie, I like our local village fête's. It's good to see people enjoying all the hard work that has been put in.

      1. We had a glorious day for it last year… hoping for a dry one today. It was well supported by the locals last time. Lots of new housing round there and young families. It'll be our first one without lovely Pam. Sadly she died a few months ago.

      1. It's just brightened up outside. That means one of two things, either the rain is going to stop, or it's about to get heavier!
        The forecast is for it to dry out and become sunny this afternoon.

  22. The West’s choice in 2024: will it be more like 1944 or Nineteen Eighty-Four. 8 June 2024.

    As someone who had read Nineteen Eighty-Four long before the year it describes, I felt more relief in 1984 that Orwell’s warnings had been heeded than fear that his predictions were being fulfilled.

    That Moore can write such stuff in a Telegraph that is little more than a Globalist mouthpiece tells us much about him. It is a travesty of the paper it once was. It not only produces propaganda, described as articles, but actively censors the comments in case they should prove too disturbing for the readers. I had four deleted yesterday because they, and others, had reduced the Nudge Unit trolls to silence. 1984 has come and stayed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/07/rishi-sunak-dday-normandy-royal-navy-military-orwell/

    1. The Left saw 1984 as a guidebook. This country is governed by an authoritarian yet incompetent government and administration which pushes policies that are detrimental to the public good and utterly unwanted.

      It operates with the veneer of democracy but really the complete absense of it. Heck, it wrote into terrorism law – <i>terrorism</i> that the subversion of the existing parliamentary system was illegal. That's the extent it wants control.

      It lies to and cheats the public openly and folk just accept it because they know no better. People are ignorant because the education system tells them what to think. They're brainwashed with 'critical race theory' rather than critical thinking.

      Yet it seems to have worked. People are stupid and demand government solve their problems – the problems government has caused.

    2. Are you sure that you have understood the sense in which Moore wrote that? He says that in 1984, Orwell's predictions of Nineteen Eighty-Four hadn't materialised. His following paragraphs say "They have now."

    3. Are you sure that you have understood the sense in which Moore wrote that? He says that in 1984, Orwell's predictions of Nineteen Eighty-Four hadn't materialised. His following paragraphs say "They have now."

  23. 388307+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    🎵,
    California dreaming on a winters day,

    WEF / NWO covert contract complete, damage done time to move on.

    WEF / NWO after my input, well satisfied, four governing parties of the same ilk, leaving the voting options as shite,shite,shite or shite.

    As a parting gift and by way of thanks I leave the majority voter a

    little ditty they can sing on the way to the polling stations, as in

    🎵,
    Roll me over in the clover, roll me over, lay me down, and do it again.

    Saturday 8 June: The Prime Minister’s D-Day blunder has damaged his election prospects even further

    1. It must be quite deliberate.

      The last thing he wants is to win any votes.

      (Unless he is trying to appeal to the Anarchist vote which wants to have total incompetence and ineptitude in government)

      2. In the rather damp Peak District – not far from Bob of Bonsall! Many thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes!

    8. Grattis på födelsedagen, Bleausard. Hope it's a splendid day.👍🏻😊🥂🎂

  25. DT's Peterborough

    On Omaha Beach in Normandy at the D-Day 80th anniversary commemorations this week, my spy overheard a couple of male dignitaries in the VIP area. “And what do you do?” said one of the men to his companion, who was dressed in full military uniform. “I’m the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe,” he replied. “You?”

  26. The D-Day Dodger (to the tune of Lili Marlene)

    I’m the D-Day Dodger back from Normandy
    I’ve better things to do here, like going on TV
    About your British history I coudn’t care less
    I’m needed here, to create more mess.
    I am the D-Day Dodger, back from Normandy.

  27. Good morning all and the 77th,

    Cloudy overhead Castle McPhee, wind in the West, 12℃ but we should see 17℃ in the late afternoon. At least it's not raining for the church fete at which I'll be ringing some bells.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e6d5ad8fc10d32225be6b989b669b587696554f305f3b986e651dd229d6dacf.png https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    This story of a couple of days ago has not passed the attention of Neil Oliver. Enjoy, as the saying goes.

    https://www.youtube.com/wat…

    1. R. Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      A more accurate headline:-
      "Covid vaccines may have DRIVEN the rise in excess deaths"

    2. Only just had time to watch this. He's right – but when will retribution come to those responsible for the nightmare of those years, and the deaths which can now be attributed to those who pushed the jabs?

    1. I don't understand why people say they are a 'British muslim'. You don't get Christian Britons. You get Britons who are Christians.

      1. It's taqiyya. They mean they are muslims (that's where their allegiance lies) and they have a British passport (so they can be paid jizya by the kuffars in the UK).

    2. Back when foot and mouth hit (the first time) one quiet vet did suggest vaccinating cattle in future.

      This was ignored because it was too difficult to push through EU regulation – because all cattle are solely subject to EU regulation. Thus cattle are destroyed because that suits some backward country that didn't want the expense of vaccines but where cattle farming is cheap – because the farms are godawful hell holes.

      Clarkson bangs on about DEFRA, but the blunt reality is nigh all it's laws and regulation comes from the EU. As a frantic europhile he really should know that.

  31. Naturaally, I didn't watch the so-called "debate". Could someone tell me:

    1 Was Mr Farage allowed to speak?
    2 Did the runaway prime minister come up for discussion?
    3 Did anyone ask Petty Officer Moron to define a woman?

    1. I didn't either but I suspect that the answers are: No – Yes – No

    2. Yes, but when he did, the camera kept flicking to a disapproving audience member to try to show how horrible Farage was.

      It was petty, desperate and entirely predictable.

      1. I reckon the Mail is a more suitable home for her style of self-absorbed chit-chat. It's a repository for those who love to share confessionals about journeys to the bottom, self-realisation and subsequent recovery.

    4. OK, she is a bit of an airhead and overweight.
      However she has the courage to be upfront with her, admittedly self inflicted, problems and how she has, by & large overcome them.
      As to her size, she's not quite landwhale proportions and, in the past, I've had periods of great enjoyment from ladies of similar proportions.

      1. I appreciate all you wrote, BoB, but she was a terrible writer, self absorbed and frightened of having comments posted on her witterings.

  33. Good morning good people!
    A dull and wet start with 7½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    1. Grey & cold here but I saw a glimmer of sun just now….. we're off to Charfield fete today!

        1. They are all out and about now and babies are coming in for care as people get busy in their gardens disturbing the nests.

          2. Our swifty friend in Bristol – read "Bristol Swifts" blog – says today that we're the wrong side of the jet stream again and the long-range forecast is dire.

      1. Crackin' the flags, eh? It was your part of the world that gave the Met office the idea that May was the "hottest evah"….

        1. Now that I've seen the Met Office charts for May, I now understand why so few of us have perceived this hottest May ever.

          You're correct in pointing to Scotland, which had temperatures rather more than its average, whereas England, especially southern England, was only a little above its average, the average being defined by the thirty Mays of 1991-2020.

          Two other factors also explain this lack of perception. It was overnight minimums which were more above their average than daytime maximums, meaning most of us were asleep at the time when temperatures anomalies were at their greatest.

          The third consideration is that May was both duller and wetter than usual. With less direct sunshine and so much rainfall, there were rather fewer opportunities to be outdoors in the warmth of direct sunlight as we remained in the shade for much of the month.

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13489149/Met-Office-confirms-UK-experienced-hottest-spring-RECORD.html

          1. They draw their conclusions by taking the average of those unaverage temperatures and then trumpet “hottest evah” – nothing like massaging the figures to confirm their bias.

        2. Not now Jules, it's clouded over and a quite chilly wind
          You never know what you're going to get up here minute by minute

  34. Morning all 🙂😊
    Bright but patchy sparse sunlight.
    Still no news on Michael Moseley.
    Richie might be cleverer than we think.
    Perhaps he's some sort of secret agent that's been planted to bring our country to its knees and beg for mercy.
    Don't mention the England Iceland game.

    1. I've never heard or heard of this bloke, Mosely before. Is there a reason his going missing is an MSM headline?

        1. I had never heard of him. He apparently gives medical advice on telly – and on the adio. To my surprise (as neither of us watch day time telly) the MR listens to him on t'wireless.

          Regrettable though his disappearance will be to his family, quite why it is all over the papers is beyond me.

          1. He's a daytime 'celebrity' and, as we know all too well, celebrities are far more newsworthy than 'ordinary' people.

            I caught a bit of news this morning about Taylor Swift and the opening concert of the UK leg of a multinational tour she's undertaking. There were tens of thousands of fans at the venue with many more milling around outside, unable to buy tickets but yearning to be in the vicinity.

            I'm very aware of her popularity but remain puzzled at just how big it is. I've heard some of her recordings and, although they're not unpleasant, I find it impossible to recall any of the tunes or lyrics within minutes of them having finished. Even irritating pop tunes can be memorable but hers seem to have no substance.

          3. A lot of things, tangible and intangible, in this current world that could be summed up by your "seem to have no substance.".

      2. Soz.
        It’s Dr Richard Mosley, at the moment I’m having a problem with my eyes. I have a cataract op coming up on the 18th june, third time lucky, don’t cancel last minute, again.
        I also have floaters in the left eye.
        And the size and definition of the lettering on my phone screen are set up for typos.

  36. BTL Comment:-

    Julyan Coe
    2 HRS AGO
    Looking forward to a nice weekend.
    Unfortunately the joint Devon and Cornwall 60’s and 70’s music festival has been cancelled.
    They couldn’t decide whether Cream or The Jam should go on first.

  38. SIR – Rishi Sunak is the smartest Prime Minister we have had for several decades. Yes, he left the D-Day event early and missed a photo opportunity – but he is a busy man with a country to govern.

    Graham Mitchell
    Haslemere, Surrey

    But he wasn't governing the country was he? He was doing puff pieces to camera. If as you say he is a busy man he should have had ITV come to him not the other way round.
    Seeing as we now have a huge amount of people in this country who are not patriotic i think it was a subtle cynical appeal to them.

        1. We are off to Southampton tomorrow to meet up with the boys before they catch the ferry to the IOW for their new life in Cowes !

          We will probably have some lunch at the pub in Netley , Moh's mother and father used to live near there , and we always enjoyed a visit to Victoria park and Weston shore . The shore in particular , because I used to take her there to watch the ships sailing out and have an ice cream etc .

          The ferry terminal will be awkward for us and parking is usually a pain .

          Of course father in law used to work in the RJ Mitchell factory during the war , in Woolston down by the Itchen , Spitfire production line .

          1. They could make a bit of extra money by renting out their home during Cowes Week. They could use that time to visit you.
            Have fun.

          2. In the early nineties I was given the task of measuring the original stable block at Osborne House.

            The building was subsumed beneath a makeshift factory which I was told was utilised by the aircraft company. There was a Robin Hood hangar part to the complex.

            Woolston was once famed for shipbuilding. Several of the Leyland Brothers iron hulled fast sailing ships were built at Woolston by Oswald, Mordaunt & Company. It is thought that Hercules Linton, the designer of the Cutty Sark may have been yard manager and responsible for the distinctive lines of the Leyland ships.

    3. Smart? His outfits probably cost a lot but make him look like a schoolboy in shorts.

  39. Good morning all,

    Dull day today , 13c , no rain , will have to keep watering the young plants again .

    I liked this DTL comment

    AH

    A Haines
    45 MIN AGO
    It's not just Sunak who lives in a bubble. We have a political class in every corner of this country who are not interested in the everyday lives of the people they are supposed to serve. The only politicians who actually are are in the Reform party but they are labelled racists and bigots. That is why I cannot bear to watch these so called debates which are an echo chamber for the views of people like Raynor who is clearly not deputy leader material but comes out with all the politically correct cant. Ordinary people don't sit in BBC audiences. They sit at home or with their friends in the pub talking in low voices terrified that someone might overhear their views! That's what modern Britain is like. If you say what you think you could end up being assaulted like Nigel Farage. So we end up with this battle of the silent majority being largely unrepresented. I hope Reform changes that because it's a really unhealthy state of affairs at present.

    1. Guess we're all part of that silent majority here – good job we have this little forum to vent on!

      1. You are so right, Jules. There are times when one feels completely isolated. It is a GREAT relief t be part of NoTTL and realise that there are many others with similar views.

          2. But they all lead to the Kingdom of Fife! The real real weirdies live there! I know that as I used to work in Dunfermalino! Thanks to B. Connelly esq.

      2. Why should we be silent? Any one of us has a better grasp of the malaise this country labours under and could do a better job than any of the current excrement infesting Westminster.

    2. "They sit at home or with their friends in the pub talking in low voices terrified that someone might overhear their views!"

      I vent my feelings at the pub, Maggie, and it's surprising how many people agree. Yes, there are some socialists there but they're finding it very difficult to put any cases forward that can't be knocked down. They talk about 'compassion'.

      1. I love arguing with Lefties. They come out with such stupid ideas which you simply demolish with logic and reason. Then, when they fold up into pieces they usually get angry and violent (in which case you can nobble them with 'here we go, the Lefty mind resorts to the final solution!) or collapse.

        Some fo the really stubborn ones need multiple doses of reality but that's just fun.

      2. My late well connected aunt had a theory that the very rich are not bothered by politics , and the very rich have schemes of their own to avoid the impact of crass political judgements .

        Leadership is part of good breeding , the defence of these Islands matters.

        The Labour party will be in for a shock when the clamouring Muslims and others create a political shift.

        Farage has his eye on the ball , and COULD be the saviour of all recent times , since Churchill and Thatcher .

    1. Worse is the BBC basically self governing. It has a perverse relationship with the audience. It neither has to pay any attention to them as customers nor is there a third party to slap it's wrist should it misbehave so it does whatever it wants.

      Doesn't help that the regulator is stuffed chock full. of ex BBC wonks.

    1. I’d love to believe that it is finally unravelling big time but what is it they say, the bigger the crime the lesser the pinishment, or some such. There are far too many Covid criminals to prosecute for it to happen. And what happened over the course of the plandemic has given TPTB enormous power over us all which will be impossible for the public to counter. Those who defied, declined and ignored all the instructions are not a cohesive group and there’s no instantly recognisable ‘leader’ we can get behind.

      Plus the fact, as I understand it, the IHR regulations have been agreed and will be set in stone (as far as U.K. is concerned). Although I do wonder how U.K. was able to sign up to it if Parliament has been dissolved. Maybe grounds for future court cases?

      ETA: spoke to a lady yesterday who said she’d had covid the week before. Left it a few seconds then asked her what made her think it was covid. Said she’d taken a test! Then went on to say it was really just like flu!

  43. Eventually:
    Wordle 1,085 4/6

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

    1. Wordle 1,085 5/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      Miserable 5 here.

  44. Eventually:
    Wordle 1,085 4/6

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

    1. The media are making a big thing of this, but I think the simple reality is any one of them, except Farage; would have done the same.

      Why not Farage, is he your hero? No. He's just more aware of the optics than the others. The rest stayed because they had nothing else to do.

      1. "Why not Farage, is he your hero?"

        Is that question directed at me? If it is it's a bit of a vacuous question since I thought everyone on this forum was more than aware that I detest ALL politicians of ALL political parties, ergo, I have no "heroes" (nor "heroines").

        1. No, not to you Grizz. It was my reference to the expectd attack from the 'other' desperate to do down Farage.

          I'm with you on disliking them all. They're utterly insincere. I'd prefer Farage to not make political capital out of it and just thank the veterans and re-enactors. Be bigger and say 'I don't want to comment on that…'

        2. What do you think of Swedish politicians?

          Do you think they have served you well or have they betrayed you?

          1. They are largely invisible, Rastus, and I have no real opinion of them. Apart from Fredrik Reinfeldt, the cretin who — without the backing of the Swedish people — opened the country's doors to all manner of refuse and flotsam back in 2025, I find them all terminally bland.

            Now that I am enfranchised to vote in both the UK and the EU (power, indeed) I shall use that vote judiciously.

      2. "Why not Farage, is he your hero?"

        Is that question directed at me? If it is it's a bit of a vacuous question since I thought everyone on this forum was more than aware that I detest ALL politicians of ALL political parties, ergo, I have no "heroes" (nor "heroines").

      3. Farage would have stayed anyway. He frequently visits war sites. By hobby he is a WWII buff.

  47. Very pleased to see Mike Lynch was acquitted by the US jury in the Autonomy/HP fraud trial. I have to say, I thought he stood no chance (and also that as far as I could tell, there was no case to answer).

    1. Perhaps he'll stop calling out on strike all his fellow union members – so that the trains can run properly… {:¬))

  48. 9am -12am: Three hours of George Orwell and Franz Kafka with a BBC News summary in the middle. How are we supposed to know when one finishes and the next one starts?

      1. Or transmogrification – Just ask Jacob Rees Mogg after he attended a 'Trannies for Tories' conference.

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Why was George Orwell a socialist?
      Comments Share 8 June 2024, 12:00am
      When George Orwell’s publisher, Fredric Warburg, read the manuscript of Nineteen Eighty-Four in December 1948 he wrote a rapturous report to his colleagues, saying that the book was ‘worth a cool million votes to the Conservative party’. He described it as ‘a deliberate and sadistic attack on Socialism and socialist parties generally. It seems to indicate a final breach between Orwell and Socialism’.

      Warburg had known Orwell for more than a decade. If he believed that Orwell had swung to the right, it is hardly surprising that other readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four got the same impression. Orwell was too sick with tuberculosis in 1949 to write more than a few book reviews. He told Warburg that he had ‘a stunning idea for a very short novel which has been in my head for years’, but he was never able to write more than a few pages of this book – titled A Smoking-room Story – before he died in January 1950. The notes he left behind show that the novel was to be set in Burma in the 1920s and was in the style of his non-political pre-war novels, but since it was never completed his two anti-communist masterpieces Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four became his swan song. Within a few years the CIA had secretly funded cinematic versions of them both.

      Most popular
      Iain Macwhirter
      Nigel Farage will be disappointed by his BBC debate performance

      As Orwell’s reputation grew after his death, conservatives, socialists and libertarians were all keen to claim him as one of their own. His fans on the right got a boost in 1996 when it was revealed that he had given a list of ‘cryto-Communists and fellow travellers’ to the Foreign Office while in a sanatorium in April 1949. This was the final straw for some on the far-left, but Orwell had made never made any secret of his contempt for Stalinists and his friend Richard Rees said that the list was complied as ‘a sort of game we played’ rather than a serious effort to uncover reds under the bed. Nevertheless, Orwell’s notorious list included at least two people who turned out to be Russian agents.

      Throughout his career, Orwell spent more time squabbling with his comrades on the left than attacking capitalists. His first political book, The Road to Wigan Pier, is most memorable for the extended rant about the state of the socialist movement which, he wrote with dismay, attracted ‘every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, “Nature Cure” quack, pacifist, and feminist in England’. But this was friendly fire. There is no evidence that Orwell was warming to capitalism towards the end of his life, nor did he ever abandon what he called Democratic Socialism (always capitalised).

      He could not have been clearer about this. In June 1949, he put out a statement – the last thing he ever wrote for publication – to set the record straight, saying: ‘My novel is not intended as an attack on socialism or on the British Labour party (of which I am a supporter)’. As Christopher Hitchens put it, ‘Orwell was a conservative about many things, but not politics.’ He was, wrote Hitchens, ‘a libertarian before the idea had gained currency’. True enough, but he was unquestionably a left-libertarian.

      It is, of course, tempting to speculate about whether Orwell’s politics would have changed had he lived a few more decades, and such speculation has the added benefit of being impossible to gainsay. Orwell was certainly capable of changing his mind. In ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’, written in 1940, he predicted that once the economy was nationalised ‘the common people will feel, as they cannot feel now, that the State is themselves.’ He could dismiss the tyranny of the Soviet Union as a revolution betrayed – as being not ‘real’ socialism – but by the time he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four he was having grave doubts about whether tyranny could ever be avoided when so much power was put in the hands of so few people.

      You can see him grappling with this in ‘The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism’, Nineteen Eighty-Four’s book-within-a-book that seeks to explain how the Party came to power. Through the voice of book’s supposed author, Emmanuel Goldstein, Orwell explains that:

      It had long been realised that the only secure basis for oligarchy is collectivism. Wealth and privilege are most easily defended when they are possessed jointly. The so-called “abolition of private property” which took place in the middle years of the century meant, in effect, the concentration of property in far fewer hands than before: but with the difference, that the new owners were a group instead of a mass of individuals.

      Orwell could clearly see the dangers of socialism, but since he believed that capitalism was doomed and socialism was the only game in town, he had to believe that these dangers could be avoided and that his own brand of libertarian collectivism could prevail. And so he reached for the same comforting explanation for Big Brother’s tyranny as he had for the Bolsheviks’ – that they were bad actors from the outset and had never really believed in socialism.

      Up to a point, this was fair enough. In 1948, communism was still an n=1 experiment. It was still possible to believe that economic liberty could be divorced from civil liberty. The question is whether Orwell would have changed his mind if he had lived to see what took place beneath the hammer and sickle in China, North Korea, East Germany, Albania, Romania, Venezuela, Cuba and many other countries in the twentieth century. The answer, of course, is that we don’t know. My belief is that he would.

      Christopher Snowdon is the author of You Do Not Exist: An Introduction to Nineteen Eighty-Four, published today by the Institute of Economic Affairs to mark the novel’s 75th anniversary.

      1. 388307+ up ticks,

        DW,
        That, so casually commented is how it left many peoples.

    2. "Analysis claiming to find COVID-19 vaccines killed 17 million people is highly flawed, doesn’t account for COVID-19 mortality surges"

      https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/analysis-claiming-covid-19-vaccines-killed-17-million-people-flawed/

      "Report falsely claims Covid vaccines killed 17 million worldwide"

      https://factcheck.afp.com/doc.afp.com.33XF3CN

      "Fact Check: Covid-19 Vaccines Did Not Kill 17 Million People. Claims Being Made Are False"

      https://news.abplive.com/fact-check/fact-check-no-data-to-support-claim-that-covid-19-vaccines-killed-17-million-people-1656064

      1. Probably little different from dying within 28 days after a positive test, from whatever cause, was counted as a Covid death.

        2. That metric was abandoned nearly one year ago. The 28 day metric was known as dying "with" Covid and gave the government a rather more rapid idea of the pandemic's progression than waiting for death certificates which documented those who died "from" Covid. To begin with, the correlation between the two was sufficiently good to use the 28 day metric to help guide the government's response but, as the two began to diverge, it was decided that the 28 day metric was no longer sufficiently reliable, so death certificate data became the government's preferred indicator.

          "Changes to the way we report on COVID-19 deaths

          Blog Editor, 27 January 2023 – Coronavirus (COVID-19)

          [Update: 15/06/2023] Following the publication of the blog below on 27 January 2023, further analysis has been carried out examining the effectiveness of measuring COVID-19 deaths using the “within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test” metric.

          This review found that there remains a divergence between the 28 day measure and the number of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate as explained below.

          COVID-19 death registrations should continue to be used as the primary figure for measuring COVID-19 deaths. The number of deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test is no longer recommended.

          From the 6 July, we will therefore no longer update the 28 day measure. All previously published data will remain available for download from the GOV.UK COVID-19 Dashboard API.

          We are changing the way we present COVID-19 death statistics on the GOV.UK COVID-19 Dashboard. “Deaths with COVID-19 on the death registration” will replace “deaths within 28 days of a positive test” as the primary reported COVID-19 death statistic.

          This blog explains why we are making changes to how we present data on COVID-19 deaths.

          How do we count COVID-19 deaths?

          We have counted deaths following COVID-19 infection since the start of the pandemic. Monitoring how many people die following infection with a recently emerged virus tells us how severe it is. It can also help us understand where the disease is spreading and who is worst affected by it.

          We explained previously how COVID-19 deaths are recorded in the United Kingdom. There are two main reports:

          Deaths within 28 days of a reported COVID-19 infection (deaths with COVID)

          Death where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death registration (deaths from COVID)

          We started counting deaths with COVID-19 for rapid pandemic monitoring when there was a need to publish figures on a daily basis to inform decisions about our pandemic response. This information can be collected much more quickly than death registrations, so it can be used as an early warning signal of changes in trends to support public health actions. By using this measure, we were able to cut the reporting lag associated with death registrations from 11 days to 2-3 days. The deaths with COVID-19 metric has been used as the leading death indicator on the Gov.uk dashboard until 26 January 2023.

          Death registrations are collated by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and represent people who die from COVID-19, as decided by the clinician registering the death. This measure provides a less rapid but more accurate measure of the burden of the disease over time and has been published on the gov.uk dashboard since 2020.

          What has changed?

          We have been monitoring how closely these two measurements align to make sure that the number of people who die with COVID-19 is a close approximation of the number of people who die from COVID-19. Throughout 2020 and 2021, between 80% and 90% of deaths reported within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test also had COVID-19 mentioned on the death registration.

          Starting in early 2022 however, there has been a marked divergence in the two measures, and this percentage dropped below 50% concordance in the summer of 2022 and has stayed below 50% this winter. This change corresponded with the emergence of the Omicron variant and increasing levels of immunity from vaccination and previous infection, resulting in protection from severe illness.

          With high levels of immunity in the population and COVID-19 continuing to circulate in the community, it is not uncommon for people who die of other causes to have a COVID-19 infection recorded at or around the time of death. These deaths may have been reported in the 28-day measure, but not counted in the death registrations because their death was not judged to be related to their COVID-19 infection.

          The divergence between the two measures has been observed over a sufficient time period for us to be confident that it is not a temporary effect, for example due to changes in testing practices. As a result, we recommend that deaths within 28 days of a positive test should no longer be interpreted as the leading indicator of deaths due to COVID-19 and that death registrations should be used instead."

          https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2…

          1. To précis:
            We made it up as we went along and when the metrics didn't give the results we wanted we changed them, and continue so to do.

          2. I can understand why the government used the 28-day metric in what was a fast changing and not well understood situation they were facing. Death certificate data wasn't to hand quickly enough.

          3. Indeed.
            Imagine the outcry from the pro multiple-vaccination lobby if all deaths within 28 days of injection were counted as vax deaths, or if all deaths from Covid after vaccination were counted as vax deaths rather than Covid deaths.

            I do not trust any of the figures nowadays, there has been far too much jiggery-pokery to allow any honest and accurate data to be established.

          4. The ONS were reporting actual figures until they were nobbled and brought into line with policy.

          5. Depending upon how one looks at it the destruction of trust in our institutions may be one of the worst or best outcomes from the whole debacle.

          6. Both were available but the death certificate data took longer to assemble so the 28-day data captured headlines. An 80-90% accuracy was probably good enough when rapid responses were needed but not when they diverged to 50%.

          7. I quite understand your mistrust and I share it to some degree, yet too many here seem happy to circulate wild claims such as the 17 million figure based on nothing more than a deep-seated desire to demonstrate that officialdom is evil.

        3. That metric was abandoned nearly one year ago. The 28 day metric was known as dying "with" Covid and gave the government a rather more rapid idea of the pandemic's progression than waiting for death certificates which documented those who died "from" Covid. To begin with, the correlation between the two was sufficiently good to use the 28 day metric to help guide the government's response but, as the two began to diverge, it was decided that the 28 day metric was no longer sufficiently reliable, so death certificate data became the government's preferred indicator.

          "Changes to the way we report on COVID-19 deaths

          Blog Editor, 27 January 2023 – Coronavirus (COVID-19)

          [Update: 15/06/2023] Following the publication of the blog below on 27 January 2023, further analysis has been carried out examining the effectiveness of measuring COVID-19 deaths using the “within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test” metric.

          This review found that there remains a divergence between the 28 day measure and the number of deaths where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death certificate as explained below.

          COVID-19 death registrations should continue to be used as the primary figure for measuring COVID-19 deaths. The number of deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test is no longer recommended.

          From the 6 July, we will therefore no longer update the 28 day measure. All previously published data will remain available for download from the GOV.UK COVID-19 Dashboard API.

          We are changing the way we present COVID-19 death statistics on the GOV.UK COVID-19 Dashboard. “Deaths with COVID-19 on the death registration” will replace “deaths within 28 days of a positive test” as the primary reported COVID-19 death statistic.

          This blog explains why we are making changes to how we present data on COVID-19 deaths.

          How do we count COVID-19 deaths?

          We have counted deaths following COVID-19 infection since the start of the pandemic. Monitoring how many people die following infection with a recently emerged virus tells us how severe it is. It can also help us understand where the disease is spreading and who is worst affected by it.

          We explained previously how COVID-19 deaths are recorded in the United Kingdom. There are two main reports:

          Deaths within 28 days of a reported COVID-19 infection (deaths with COVID)

          Death where COVID-19 is mentioned on the death registration (deaths from COVID)

          We started counting deaths with COVID-19 for rapid pandemic monitoring when there was a need to publish figures on a daily basis to inform decisions about our pandemic response. This information can be collected much more quickly than death registrations, so it can be used as an early warning signal of changes in trends to support public health actions. By using this measure, we were able to cut the reporting lag associated with death registrations from 11 days to 2-3 days. The deaths with COVID-19 metric has been used as the leading death indicator on the Gov.uk dashboard until 26 January 2023.

          Death registrations are collated by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and represent people who die from COVID-19, as decided by the clinician registering the death. This measure provides a less rapid but more accurate measure of the burden of the disease over time and has been published on the gov.uk dashboard since 2020.

          What has changed?

          We have been monitoring how closely these two measurements align to make sure that the number of people who die with COVID-19 is a close approximation of the number of people who die from COVID-19. Throughout 2020 and 2021, between 80% and 90% of deaths reported within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test also had COVID-19 mentioned on the death registration.

          Starting in early 2022 however, there has been a marked divergence in the two measures, and this percentage dropped below 50% concordance in the summer of 2022 and has stayed below 50% this winter. This change corresponded with the emergence of the Omicron variant and increasing levels of immunity from vaccination and previous infection, resulting in protection from severe illness.

          With high levels of immunity in the population and COVID-19 continuing to circulate in the community, it is not uncommon for people who die of other causes to have a COVID-19 infection recorded at or around the time of death. These deaths may have been reported in the 28-day measure, but not counted in the death registrations because their death was not judged to be related to their COVID-19 infection.

          The divergence between the two measures has been observed over a sufficient time period for us to be confident that it is not a temporary effect, for example due to changes in testing practices. As a result, we recommend that deaths within 28 days of a positive test should no longer be interpreted as the leading indicator of deaths due to COVID-19 and that death registrations should be used instead."

          https://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2…

        1. Yes, it's their job. Why would they pretend to agree with it? They found serious flaws in the claim and would be failing in their professional duty not to point it out.

          1. 388307+ up ticks,

            DW,
            Could it also be to cover up a few million deadly misdemeanours ?
            on instructions from higher authorities, political / pharmaceutical for future arse covering.

          2. I cannot discount the possibility entirely but think it highly unlikely. It would require all those in on the plot to abide by it. As far as I'm concerned the 17 million claim is ludicrous. I'd have more faith in the predictions of Professor Neil Ferguson.

          3. 388307+ up ticks,

            DW,
            In the nicest possible way, I do believe you would say that wouldn’t you, then that is your prerogative.

          4. Pity they didn't put the same amount of effort into examining whether the jabs were dangerous in the first place.

  51. Picked up from Faceache:-

    Powerful.. Joshua Dyer (aged 14) was tasked at school to write a poem for Remembrance Day. An hour later (without any help) he produced this..

    ONE THOUSAND MEN ARE WALKING

    One thousand men are walking
    Walking side by side
    Singing songs from home
    The spirit as their guide
    They walk toward the light milord,
    they walk towards the sun
    they smoke and laugh and smile together
    no foes to outrun.
    These men live on forever
    in the hearts of those they saved
    a nation truly grateful
    for the path of peace they paved.
    They march as friends and comrades
    but they do not march for war
    step closer to salvation
    a tranquil steady corps
    the meadows lit with golden beams
    a beacon for the brave
    the emerald grass untrampled
    a reward for what they gave.
    They dream of those they left behind
    and know they dream of them
    forever in those poppy fields
    there walks one thousand men

    Joshua Dyer 2019 (aged 14)
    Lest we forget
    This has to be shared. An incredible poem from 14 year old Joshua Dyer.

      1. If 2019 as the date of composition is correct, I doubt very much that it could have been AI, as it wasn't available then (AFAIK).

    2. Wonderful.
      Shame DH French authorities still hasn't realised how lucky they were 80 years ago to be rescued from the nazi regime.
      Did any else see that the British paratroopers landing on French soil during the D-Day reminitions were asked for their passports.
      With what has been going on out of Calais for years you couldn't make it up.

      2. The whole rigmarole must have been expected as all the paratroopers had their passports to hand and seemed not to be taken by surprise. Belgian paratroopers, being fellow EU members, were not subject to these checks, nor were the US contingent, who already had their passports checked when they arrived in France beforehand. The took off from France for the drop, rather than from southern England.

    3. Moving and especially since it is from a boy of 14. One of the young we are so quick to criticize all to often.

    5. Any more information about Joshua?

      He is clearly a prodigious talent – where is he at school? Does he have teachers who recognize his gift?

  52. An exhausted Royal Marine Commando with his SLR rifle and 140lb pack rests at Port Stanley after completing a remarkable 40 mile march across the Island. The route from the west coast to the east took the Royal Marines through marshes and mountains, included night time marching and was at that time the longest march in full kit in the history of the Commando force. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aae23b61a2a474aa03460cf1707dc54fa63e504bfe40c28eaf6ad779fa52f23d.jpg

  53. A cricket commentator just mentioned 'the most amount of wind'. No doubt, when it's hot, for her it will be 'the most amount of temperature'.

  54. A cricket commentator just mentioned 'the most amount of wind'. No doubt, when it's hot, for her it will be 'the most amount of temperature'.

  55. Nobody noticed May was the warmest on record … because it happened while we were asleep. 8 May 2024

    If you were surprised to learn Britain had its warmest May on record, then it is because you probably slept through it.

    Earlier this week, the Met Office provoked much head-scratching after announcing that, even though last month felt chilly to most, it was record-breakingly mild.

    The reason, according to the forecaster, was that overnight temperatures were warmer than usual because of cloud cover.

    Perhaps we should have done our sunbathing at midnight? Quite frankly I was perished most of the time through May. I had the central heating on at home and I didn’t go out without wearing a coat for the whole month.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/08/record-temperature-may-night-clouds-prevented-heat-escape/

    2. Oh, is THAT why we came out of the garden in the evening.
      Fear of heat stroke.

  56. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/407034fe85e9b9ffd753e47741d8964fa5a2ce1f9a326e55168c5b6b4e541d85.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8a6b9d63e899d025a005fe04bb58385e747fb5f5d555f05e8bad84b8969c0e5.png What is the strangest unit of measure you have ever come across?

    Mine is half a giraffe. I spent months thinking about what constitutes half a giraffe. Of all the animals to pick a giraffe is the silliest, it is such a dimensionally uneven animal. Why not just pick a whole animal that was the correct size?

    I am quite used to standard measurements, i.e: a double-decker bus; an Olympic swimming pool; a football field; a Luxembourg; or a Wales. How many half-giraffes can you get on a bus?

          3. Kodiaks are just very big Grizzlies because they have an almost unending supply of salmon in the summer.

          4. Ilfords are smaller with a strong London accent whereas Fujifilms are miniaturised. {:^))

          5. Both grizzlies and Kodiaks are subspecies of the American brown bear Ursus arctos. The grizzly U. a. horribilis is so-named for its silver-tipped hairs giving it a ‘grizzled’ appearance.

          6. Kodiaks are just very big Grizzlies because they have an almost unending supply of salmon in the summer.

    5. Half an elephant is easy to visualise.
      Which half of the giraffe? Was the asteroid long and thin?

      1. I don't understand the use of a giraffe as a measurement. Polar bears would have been better as they do turn up in Iceland on occasion.

    6. Having spotted this half-giraffe asteroid, were they quickly able to calculate its likely impact point? I wonder if an evacuation could be quickly organised if it's expected to strike a populated area.

  57. On 8th June 1982, HMS PLYMOUTH was alone in Falkland Sound, returning from a naval gunfire mission, when she was attacked by five Dagger fighter-bombers of Grupo 6 of the Argentine Air Force. Despite Plymouth firing her 20 mm guns and a Seacat missile, the aircraft dropped eight Mk 82 500 lb bombs, five of which struck home. One Dagger was unable to release its payload due to a mechanical failure and another suffered light damage from shrapnel. According to other sources Plymouth was hit by four 1,000 lb bombs. All of the bombs failed to explode, but caused extensive damage: one hit the flight deck, detonating a depth charge and starting a fire, one went straight through her funnel and two more destroyed her Limbo anti-submarine mortar. Internal flooding caused the ship to take a six degree list. Five men were injured in the attack. The fire took 90 minutes to extinguish with assistance from Avenger, and repairs were carried out through the night and the next day, restoring some of her capabilities. Plymouth then withdrew to a repair area, where naval personnel on board the oil rig support vessel MV Stena Seaspread assisted in returning her to fighting order. She returned to shore bombardment duties on 14th June, when Argentine forces in the Falklands finally surrendered.

    HMS PLYMOUTH on fire after being attacked by five Argentine Mirage aircraft on 8th June 1982. The ship was badly damaged but survived.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8856e4ea2a1ab629c16830a83bf144c8c4c3527c9ed202f96d0b0a3a6eeb764.jpg

    1. Worth noting that the news outside UK reported grossly distorted Argentinian kill claims against British ships.. for example; the sinking of Hermes & Canberra.. twice each!
      Unfortunately, this meant their pilots weren't getting a good idea of the effectiveness of their munitions.. so they relied on the BBC for intell. Worked a treat. cheers BBC.

  58. The Sri Lanka national anthem was played just ahead of their match with Bangladesh in the T20 cricket world cup. It's a jolly tune sounding like a strange hybrid of a German bierkeller linked-arm singalong and a child's nursery tune such as 'if you're happy and you know it clap your hands'.

  59. Grey, cold and miserable – and the weather is very similar. Will discuss with the MR whether to light to stove ( at 11 am – I ask you).

    Only bright thing – have made a decent loaf this morning.

  60. Good morning everyone,
    The earlier sun has given way to clouds and a few spots of rain. Just for a change.
    Why are so many people so stupid that they are STILL testing for covid?
    A friend of my husband phoned to cancel a get together planned for next week; the friend just tested 'positive' for covid. When I asked why he had tested in the first place, it was because another friend was going to have lunch with him today, but that friend is going to see a new-born grandchild next week. Fair enough, he didn't want the relative to pass on whatever he has. Why not just tell the relative that he's feeling unwell, cold or similar, so best stay away in case he passes on the 'cold' to the new baby?
    Do people still enjoy the 'I've got the plague' drama? I'd be willing to bet the 'tester' has had every booster offered as well, maybe even still wears a mask in some places. Brainwashed muppet.

    1. A couple in this village test themselves when they have a sniffle. And mask up. Barking.

      1. Smug, self-satisfied, holier-than-thou people who believe whatever the msm comes up with, and who are incapable of thinking for themselves.

  61. Raining now – to add to the misery. Stove lit. So glad the Wet Office keeps telling me that it has never been hotter…

    1. Does anyone think it possible to measure the average temperature of a country that stretches 1000km from south to north. Even more unlikely, calculate an average temp for a globe, from the freezing poles to the tropical equatorial regions. I don't, unless you are very selective with your data.

      1. More to the point, averages don't tell you about the weather. In summer you could have four weeks of drought followed by three days of thunderstorms and have 'average' rainfall for the month.

        Sometimes I despair when listening to news stories about the weather.

        1. They are carefully designed to provide the narrative rather than the truth. Government learned long ago that people far and away prefer the lie and for big government to take away all the annoying responsibility and duty effort.

      2. This has puzzled me, too. What, for example, does it do about population concentrations? While changes in the climates of the polar regions, deserts and oceans are worthy of study, should the sparsity of their populations accord them less weight as far fewer people experience the changes recorded there.

        On the other hand, should the weather stations have a fairly even geographical spread, even though collecting data from remote and perilous locations is problematic, especially the climate over vast expanses of ocean, although satellites can gather some information from these places.

      3. If they can invent an average temperature for Canada or the USA, dreaming up a UK measurement must be easy peasy.

        Still a bit early over here in the frozen north, our air-conditioning will probably not come on until late this afternoon.

    2. Its risen to the giddy heights of 14⁰C over here. Only rain though was encountered on our morning trip out to the 100th American Bomb Group airfield nearby, where we encountered a light shower for a few minutes.

      So, hottest, driest June on record!

    1. That would have raised a few eyebrows skirting over the rooftops. Aeroplanes normally descend to land on a 3 degree flight path from 10 miles or so.

      1. Given what we know/suspect now how would anyone know what the volunteers were exposed to?
        Also there are stories of young servicemen being volunteered and just told to go and do it.

          2. “Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die”.

            Alf Tennyson – The Charge of the Light Brigade 1854

          5. The phrase ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do and die is a slightly altered version of lines written by Lord Alfred Tennyson in his 1854 poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, about a failed British military action: “Theirs not to make reply / Theirs not to reason why / Theirs but to do and die.”

          6. The Charge of the Light Brigade " Theirs not to reason why . . ."

            “Forward, the Light Brigade!”
            Was there a man dismayed?
            Not though the soldier knew
            Someone had blundered.
            Theirs not to make reply,
            Theirs not to reason why,
            Theirs but to do and die.
            Into the valley of Death
            Rode the six hundred.

          7. Or, as Molesworth has it …
            " Har fleag har fleag har fleag onward
            Into the er rode the 600            "

      2. I knew somebody who was alleged to have volunteered for them. In reality he had gone to Thailand for surgical affirmation of his preferred pronouns.

      3. I used to dog sit for a couple who went off to the cold research lab so they could write their essays and revise for exams.

  64. Brrrrace for an icy weekend, warns SA Weather Service

    It’s going to be a cold and wet weekend in parts of the country, this as a cold front is expected to blow in over the south-western coast of South Africa.

    The South African Weather Service (Saws) said over the next three days temperatures are expected to decrease further over the central, eastern and southern parts of the country.

    Saws issued a Yellow Level 5 warning of a storm surge over parts of the east coast, as well as a warning of damaging winds and waves and even disruptive snow in the Eastern Cape.

    “Damaging wind and waves resulting in localised damage to settlements and temporary structures, difficulty navigation, small vessels at risk of taking on water and capsizing in a locality, localised disruption to beachfront activities as well as small harbours and/or a port for a very short period of time are expected along the KZN coastline,” warned Saws.

    The latest weather warning comes on the back of a tornado that hit the northern town of Tongaat in KwaZulu-Natal on Monday.

    Other parts of the province were also hit by heavy downpours and gale-force winds, leading to the deaths of 12 people.

    In Cape Town, at least nine people have died and more than 2,000 people have been displaced following torrential downpours.

    IOL News

  65. This is rubbish.. there is no migrant crisis.. there is no invasion.
    This was made very clear in last night's debate by all the panel (bar one guy at the end) and the Leftie presenter, and the Leftie audience.. that every single problem in the UK will be solved by.. "more funding & more migrants'.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wijzM3JicY

      1. Yes, and if Labour get their way there will be many more of those people. How to pay for it – oh increase tax. On the rest of us.

    2. This Greek woman is terminally stupid and extraordinarily off-pissing!

  66. This is rubbish.. there is no migrant crisis.. there is no invasion.
    This was made very clear in last night's debate by all the panel (bar one guy at the end) and the Leftie presenter, and the Leftie audience.. that every single problem in the UK will be solved by.. "more funding & more migrants'.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wijzM3JicY

      1. Pity yours isn't the rather spiffy looking one, second from left, Rastus. Rather like that one.

        1. That's a Gulet – a Turkish skippered boat which runs cruises for holidaymakers: a sort of Mediterranean Butlins afloat with blaring pop music.

          1. Now your description of it has ruined my fantasy. A floating Butlins with pop music, for Gods sake!

      2. Maybe he went for a swim and got into difficulties. Hope they find him for the family's sake.

      1. I think airhead Karen wanted the younger version. Shows how shallow she is.

  70. The real reason Rishi Sunak left Normandy early – His passport was out of date and written in Brahmic script, which the Frogs couldn't interpret.

    1. There used to be a firm of estate agents in Dartmouth called Letcher and Score.

      I wonder what sort of clients they catered for!

      1. An estate agents called Vanderpump and Wellbeloved. I think they were trying too hard to be liked.

      2. Unfortunately the solicitors' firm of Rookham Crookham and Scoot turned out to be fictional.

        1. The solicitor who dealt with the conveyancing for my first house was called Nick Crook.

          1. An old mate of mine from Ponteland swore blind there really was a firm of Newcastle solicitors called Hadaway & Hadaway!

    2. I seem to recall seeing a builders' van in the vicinity of Caterham, owned by the (no doubt utterly utterly reliable) firm of Bodgit and Scarper..

      1. My favourite is the entirely genuine supplier of ready-mix concrete based in Battle, East Sussex: William the Concreter.

        1. I simply cannot stand that dim, self-indulgent tossette. To call her thick would be unfair to planks…

          1. But she can't half carry a sword. You must admit, in the unlikely event that she keeps her seat in Portsmouth North (BTW, has anyone ever been to Portsmouth North? I have. It's scary. This is where a Paediatrician's surgery was burned down by the locals as a suspected kiddy fiddler) I think she would be an ideal Leader of the One Nation Tory Party. Not a (small 'c') conservative bone in her body…

          2. You still on those drugs,Geoff? She doesn’t know what a woman is; thinks net zero is wonderful; totally committed to climate change. She’s no more a Tory than Starmer. A greeniac limp dumb trans fan.

          4. The Food Standards Agency has given every takeaway in Portsmouth North a Michelin star. I think i got that right.

    2. Farage 25%, Anyone-but-Farage 67%, Don't Know 8%. I'd be one of the Don't Knows as I refused to watch it. I have nothing but contempt for charades such as this.

      1. Sorry, Stig. This is rather like arguing that 63% voted to Remain in the EU referendum, whilst including everyone who didn't vote 'Leave' as a Remain vote.

        1. Not voting means that you are OK with whatever the answer is – "Woddevah".

          1. None of the above wasn't not voting. It's saying that an (or any) absent party was better than all those who were there.

        2. i don't consider none of the above to be not voting. It's either voting for one or more who were not there because their absence and saying nothing was thought superior to all those who were there and contributed. Or, having heard all those who contributed, some thought silence would have been better.

  74. That oddly named Welshman in the "debate" yesterday: Rhun ap Iorwerth

    Parents' names: Edward Morus Jones, Gwyneth Morus Jones

    Just saying – possibly a bit of a nationalistic exhibitionist, perhaps?

  75. Some Jock politician declared that he is fervently in favour of more immigrants coming to the UK and the BBC audience went into raptures of ecstasy, whooping, hollering and clapping as loud and as hard as they could without breaking the sound system. How patriotic(sic) of the people of Oakham – or could it possibly be a hand picked posse of hard left socialists shipped in by a self-declared totally non-partisan body in Broadcasting House? Hard to tell nowadays.

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Nigel Farage’s Tory manifesto
      Fraser Nelson8 June 2024, 11:22am
      I’d say that Nigel Farage gave the best performance in last night’s debate. You might expect that: he’s a full-time television host, so he talks politics to cameras for a living. But of the seven that were on stage, he’s also the most experienced street fighter. He knew how to use humour and had a sense of insurgency to set himself against the rest. But what struck me wasn’t so much his style, as his message. On every single issue, his message was one of classic Conservatism.

      I’ve written already about his distasteful suggestion that Rishi Sunak is not patriotic. In my Daily Telegraph column I also point out how a Reform surge in the Westminster voting system will win Farage three MPs at most, so fewer seats than Sinn Fein. But a Reform surge would hand Labour unprecedented political power (with the Tories potentially reduced to the third-largest party) that they will be sure to use to make it harder for Conservatives to get back in the conversation. I regard Farage, in the context of this election, as the Labour party’s most potent asset.

      But as he ends the first week as leader of Reform UK, it’s worth noting his message: Toryism without the Tories.

      The NHS model isn’t working, he said. Extra money doesn’t work: we’re now spending more than 11 per cent of our ‘national cake’ on the NHS. He cited the French insurance scheme: and said their returns on stroke, heart and cancer are better than ours. This is a point that my colleague Kate Andrews makes a lot: the model is broken and America isn’t the only alternative. You can go almost anywhere else in Europe and find a better system.

      Taxes are so high that people are opting not to work, he said. Energy bills are so expensive because we load tax energy bills to subsidise wind energy companies. During Tony Blair’s time in office, the top rate of tax was 40p and it was paid by 1.5 million people; by the end of 2027, 8 million people will be paying 40p tax – Sunak is dragging more and more people doing middle-income jobs into higher taxation. He added that hearing Penny Mordaunt – whose party has taken the tax burden to the highest level since 1948 – pretend they are a tax-cutting party is ‘dishonesty on a breathtaking scale’. The Spectator has been saying precisely this for a long time.

      On climate, Farage didn’t trash net zero like he might have done but sought to advocate a Sunak-style third way. We’re pursuing completely unrealistic climate policies, he said: Labour have pledged to decarbonise the grid by 2030, and the Tories ban buying diesel cars by 2035. If we get new technologies to give us cheaper energy, that’s great – but we’re sacrificing economic growth and destroying British manufacturing. He was wrong to say that we haven’t reduced carbon emissions more than any western countries, and that we’ve exported them to India and China. I wish Mordaunt could have picked him up on this: even if you look at consumption (rather than territorial) the UK does better than any G20 country other than Italy (as The Spectator data hub tells you). But his overall line is, again, very similar to that we have advanced in The Spectator’s leader columns over the years.

      Even Farage’s points on migration were fairly mainstream. He resisted the anti-Muslim language that he sometimes serves up and stuck to more basic points. Most who coming in are not directly productive members of the economy, he says. Most of those that come in are actually dependants. A fair point, consistent with recent visa figures on The Spectator data hub.

      Nothing to do with race, he said, it’s to do with getting net migration down to an even figure for the next few years, and maybe then we can catch up with housing and health. This is not a populist message; similar points are being currently made by the leaders of Canada and New Zealand.

      Not only did Penny Mordaunt fail to defend Sunak when Farage accused him of not being patriotic, she twisted the knife over D-Day saying he was ‘completely wrong’ and had in fact let down the whole country. She’s expected to lose her seat and perhaps feels no loyalty to the man who defeated her in a leadership race where she was, briefly, the favourite. Let’s remember that Sunak foisted this election upon his stunned cabinet and told them after he had told the King, not even attempting to seek their endorsement of the decision.

      Even Farage’s points on migration were fairly mainstream
      The ministers now campaigning, many expecting to lose, are still furious. I know of at least one who is now telling voters on doorsteps not to worry because Sunak will soon be gone – but please vote for the local Tory candidate to stem Starmer’s majority. I suspect one of them will soon be recorded by one of these doorbell videos making the point. Anyway, the resentment Sunak’s ministers feel over this election and the accident-prone campaign is translating into Tories making a halfhearted defence of their leader. Or, in Mordaunt’s case last night, joining the attack against him.

      But Mordaunt should have jumped in when Farage suggested that stop-and-search was no longer happening. She was at least able to say that crime levels have fallen but should have added that, fraud excepted, it’s at an all-time low. It’s an amazing achievement: like the school results, also not mentioned. And being the first G20 country to half carbon emissions: also not mentioned. If the Tory on the panel won’t list Tory achievements, then who will?

      Nigel Farage said nothing that you would not expect to hear in a Conservative party leaders’ debate. Might we, one day, hear him doing just that? After last night, I would not rule it out.

      1. "During Tony Blair’s time in office, the top rate of tax was 40p and it was paid by 1.5 million people; by the end of 2027, 8 million people will be paying 40p tax…"

        Blair laid the foundations and Labour continued with them after he stepped down.

        We must hope Nelson's Left-wing 500 Right-wing 100 prediction is wrong. I think he sees it too simplistically and that tactical voting will make this the most unpredictable election for decades.

      2. This is markedly different from Fraser's DT article of Thursday evening. I was one of the first to comment to the contrary. As have 4000+ others, and counting. And – thus far – I have 377 'likes'. Just saying.

      3. 'He was wrong to say that we haven’t reduced carbon emissions more than any western countries,'

        Fraser Nelson always lies by omission. Farage is right, our climate aims are unsustainable. No point cutting emissions if we outsource manufacturing (emissions) elsewhere – telling lies to ourselves whilst bankrupting ourselves at the same time. And the only reason crime is low is because many have given up reporting it. And because the police do not arrest those with protected characteristics as much as they should. Look at the blatant lawlessness on the streets of our capital.

        'Even Farage’s points on migration were fairly mainstream.' Yeah right, when has Fraser Nelson ever said immigration is too high. On the contrary. It is the majority of the electorate who say it is too high and have done for years, not Fraser and his chattering chums who have called us all racist loonies.

        This article is trying to disparage Farage by ludicrously saying that he is aiming to carry out what the Conservatives were going to do anyway. Course they were, Fraser, course they were.

      4. I saw it too…got the impression he'd read subscriber comments and getting onboard. He's largely a fairly absent, light touch kind of editor, as you'll likely know.

      5. Crime figures might well be down – lots of people don't bother reporting it since plod doesn't turn up.

    2. They will have been hand chosen. If that politician had said that in most places in the UK he would have been roundly booed. And it has been proven that mass immigration has been a net loss.

  76. White men have least chance of getting on BBC trainee scheme. 8 June 2024.

    Non-white applicants to the BBC’s flagship journalism training scheme were almost two and a half times more likely to get in than their white counterparts.

    Since 2022, an average of 22.5 per cent of applicants were classed as coming from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds (BAME).

    Wow! I would never have guessed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/08/white-men-least-chance-of-getting-on-bbc-trainee-scheme/

    1. The twisted rationale is that white people already dominate therefore there’s a need to redress the balance. I’ve tried pointing out that one wouldn’t expect Northern Europe not to be dominated by white people anymore than you’d expect to find African elephants in India or vice versa. The only response was, “Have you looked around you in White City”? Well yes, I have. The White City estate has been deliberately filled with dark skinned migrants. No point in quoting the Duke of Wellington on being born in a stable but not being a horse. Their ideology cannot be challenged with mere logic.

    2. It seems to me that the BBC have groomed certain sections of the British public for years .

      Grange Hill and East Enders and many other disgusting programmes have destabilised society .. The filthy Saville character and many others , including many scriptwriters, newsreaders , and those who have contributed to the demise of British culture and society for decades .

      Even safe areas like the Archers and Desert Island discs and some of the quizzes have become mucky distractions that are distorted and unsatisfactory .

      Me prudish, never , but the damage is evident , isn't it .

      1. No, Mag. She is deeply into the Lower Sixth – and is doing mock A-Levels…

    2. Difficult to do, but it might have had a huge impact if they turned the light off at each grave every second, to symbolise the death, until it was completely dark and silent.

  78. Andrew Morrison🇬🇧
    @AndrewAgent1806
    ·
    Jun 7
    Labour has about 3.5 million Muslim voters so of course they are going to kiss their arses.

    1. Let me see – 3.5 million muslim voters, so that means about 7+ million muslim votes.

      2. Rockets on the Piccadilly Line. Explaining to Hamas that tunnels are for trains?

      2. No and in fact there never has been. Syria Palaestina has been a province but never a state.

        1. What are those things on the Gaza strip and the West bank of the Jordan?

          1. Israel. The West Bank is Judea and Samaria. Gaza was once Philistia and has at various times belonged to Egypt, Babylon, Rome, Byzantium, the Ottoman Turks and the British Mandate but it’s never been a sovereign state.

          2. The populations currently living there have a sense of nationhood. Even if it's a new one, it's not necessarily any less real for that. Every state that has ever existed has a point in its history when it had never existed. How old must a sense of nationhood be before it acquires any legitimacy? South Sudan and East Timor are fairly recent additions to the catalogue of nation states. Come to that Czechia and Slovakia are not very old, either.

    3. He is thinking of all the slammer votes, not the long term implications of his cowardice. Mind you, as he's a committed markist, he might have done. Either way he is still a wooden nonce.

  80. Sunak's early D-Day departure will have no bearing on my voting intentions. I wonder how many will change theirs.

    1. Having listened to a lot of radio (various stations) I would say quite a considerable number!

      1. Are they not people who wouldn't have voted for the Conservatives anyway? Are others those who will now vote for the party most likely to defeat a Conservative candidate instead of their preferred one?

    2. 'Twas mainly a big stick for his opponents (Labour, Farage, BBC) to beat him with….they'll find more.

          2. Do you remember watching him on the telly? His oft repeated line was "As usual, I was right."

  83. Just back from a bimble around Moors Valley Country Park and I see Mr. and Mrs. Swan have been busy again:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8607e9b43a80196b5f0637cdff0b94930916a55b5dee19c23f34a7fd07be1599.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d4b7dc2681ea4aad5ae2e7c45d8d3cccfa1113dffec6ac470dd0fd7f30ebcb8.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/941d7f6f91e2c5f25b7d84a9dab2ee4ab966f80ce64e037738ad285010c2e18e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3f7b2bdf9ff431713806a142fa8487d1dcef5afa2b4701581d5700f1c9952f56.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/752c9d5c7e5495c72b3a5606a8d7db214352646da0193552fd5143b3bb3eb3c5.jpg

      1. They're all jockeying for the best feeding position. A blatant case of swanupmanship if ever there were one.

  84. Don't get lost in a NCP car park this time. It took us ages to find you when you went missing before.

  85. Latest news from Sodom-on-Tyne. Newcastle United has banned a 34 year old 'gender-critical' lesbian supporter from all matches until 2026. Allegedly the Club, the North East's second favourite football team, ran a “secretive” four-month probe into the fan for her 'gender critical views' and claims that she had been “openly transphobic”. Hilariously, Newcastle United is owned, in effect, by the government of Saudi Arabia.

    The 'gender critical lesbian' fan has also launched a High Court bid to stop the police force, who questioned her over claims of transphobia. from supporting trans ideology. Northumbria Police interviewed the gender critical lesbian football fan under caution, but did not pursue legal charges.

    A bad lot, them up the road.

      1. I just wanted to see what the response would be. The lack of upvotes speaks volumes. I know that you are not supposed to say anything like that but this Society that we inhabit is disintegrating Racially and Culturally around us. If anyone has a solution that will save us I would be interested to hear it.

        1. I’m still reeling with shock from Tom’s post! ‘Sodom-on-Tyne’? ‘Second favourite football club’? I had absolutely no idea he was a mackem and takem!! How on earth did he get past the Mods? Why is he still here and posting?

          4. The Grahams are the pre-eminent Border Reivers. Mostly because they have outbred all the others.

          5. What can I say? Dad was James Armstrong Graham. I've had more success exploring Mum's family tree on Ancestry. but my Paternal great, great, great Grandfather was a publican in Corporation Road, Carlisle. Which may explain a lot.

            There were two proper Graham clans, North of the Border – the Montrose and the Monteith. Then there were the others. Mostly sheep shaggers er, stealers around the border. These are my people…

          6. Afternoon Geoff. I believe that the old Carlisle Phone Book had the distinction of being the only one where Smith was not the most popular name. Graham, and its variations, predominated.

          7. I can certainly vouch for that, Minty.

            Early Noughties, I was working for Birse Construction in East Anglia, on several RAF bases. There was a Ford dealer just outside the base at Cottesmore, so I used to arrange servicing the company Orion (a veritable death trap) there. Picked up the car one Friday afternoon, headed to Carlisle and geriatric mother for the weekend. Car ran really badly, so I made my excuses to Birse, and took it to County Garage* on the Monday morning.

            Guy (by the name of Mr Graham) at the Reception desk: "Your name, sir?"

            Me: "Graham".

            Guy at the Reception desk: "Not another one?"

            Guy behind me in the queue: "Me too."

            There were certainly visual similarities.

            Coud have been a family reunion…

          8. I bought my first car, a blue Mini clubman, from County Garage, Carlisle, for £430! Still have the receipt!

          10. Bill Joel's song – The Border Reiver:

            https://www.google.com/search?q=Border+Reiver+Billy+Joel&sca_esv=ca6b902a93853820&ei=RqRkZu_7KND5kdUPn_uK6AU&ved=0ahUKEwjvtp3d0syGAxXQfKQEHZ-9Al0Q4dUDCBA&oq=Border+Reiver+Billy+Joel&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiGEJvcmRlciBSZWl2ZXIgQmlsbHkgSm9lbDIIECEYoAEYwwRIxz5Q1ghYhyhwAXgBkAEAmAH6AaAB3AyqAQUwLjYuM7gBDMgBAPgBAZgCCaAC_wvCAgoQABiwAxjWBBhHwgIIEAAYgAQYogTCAggQABiiBBiJBZgDAIgGAZAGCJIHBTEuNS4zoAfaFw&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:4b27d6e2,vid:2cpEPCZwyaM,st:0

          11. All "old" cars rust, Michael. My 1988 VW Golf (261,000 miles) (sold 1999) had new cills, new rear door and floor panels replaced and bonnet. All because of rust, desite being kept in a garage.

          13. Smother yourself in oil – or, better still, get a lady NoTTLer to do it for you!

          15. Fiats used to rust more than any other make of car and if you bought a new Fiat in the 1960s it was a rust bucket in under three years.

            A friend of mine told me that Audi discovered a new galvanising technique at the end of the 1990s and virtually all car manufacturers used it on their new cars.

            We bought a brand new Fiat Scudo Minibus in 2001. We still have it and 23 years later it doesn't have a single bit of rust on its bodywork.

          18. I’m afraid that one of my forebears was the last person to be hanged in the Gallowgate for sheep stealing! Note to Geoff ‘stealing’, not wot you writ!

          21. You must have some Sunderland in you Sue, saying Haway as opposed the hideous Howay?

          23. As A and O are at the opposite ends of the keyboard it must be more than fat fingers. Nice try though.

          26. Close! Played a lot of tennis there, fed the rabbits and the golden pheasants, love the maze and the boating lake!

    3. I think she's being defended by one or more of FSU's lawyers, sounds fairly optimistic.

          1. I've checked, and all my mates in the North East agree that she'd be welcome to come to sunny Sunderland, the bastion of free speech and personal liberty – even though she is from Newcastle.

          2. Good men (and women?) all, Tom..thanks again 🙂 I know Sunderland fairly well, love your coastline!

          5. Dad was a Monkey-hanger. Even the Nigerian Army wouldn't mess with him.

          7. Nope.
            He stood up to the local General who wanted to bring the Army onto the university camput and put down the rioting students – at bayonet point. This was during the Nigerian civil war.
            Dad then went and told the students to calm down, or there would be a massacre.
            Nobody got massacred.
            That's how they were made in West Hartlepool.

    1. I understand Fauci has been interested (involved?) in this for some time. No-one seems to know what's happening, if anything, behind the Iron Curtain.

    2. I think the 'THEY' have also found a way of interferring with the weather as well.

  87. A forward Par Four?

    Wordle 1,085 4/6
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    1. I had a few problems.

      Wordle 1,085 5/6

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      1. Wordle 1,085 5/6

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    2. Me too.

      Wordle 1,085 4/6

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      1. Five here

        Wordle 1,085 5/6

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    3. Likewise….

      Wordle 1,085 4/6

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

      1. Did you watch the Premiership final today? I didn't really mind who won but it would have been a bit of a fairy-tale ending if Bath had! Great match though 🙂

        1. Yes I did – what a cracker! I had no skin in the game but obviously felt a little sorry for Bath with yet another debatable red card, after only 20 minutes!

          I like the way both teams play, and I probably just wanted Bath to win as Finn Russell is my favourite player currently playing….

    4. 4 here too.
      Wordle 1,085 4/6

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

  89. Feeling rather pleased. We have decided to leave the disastrous tomatoes out and see what – if anything – they do. The dozen spares will be planted out next week. I realised that I needed twelve 2.4 metre bamboos to make frames. Because the local garden centre is extremely expensive for most things – such bamboos are £2 EACH – in the past I have bought from Amazon. Last time – 50 for £70. Now, I see £76. And delivery will take a week.

    Brainwave. B&Q. Quick search – yes, available in Fakenham now at £7 for ten. Been in and snapped up the last two bunches. Frames to be erected (sorry ladies) tomorrow. And the bamboos are, if anything, BETTER than the ones I bought in 2021.

    1. Fakenham Garden centre was always a rip-off. I used to go to Del's Nursery, on a side road just off the Creake Road outside Fakenham. His plants were better quality, much cheaper and the accessories were too.

  90. Stunt driver
    –
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68050ddab3f0d0f3c0a3ae09a15f645b01f09b1cdb95ae81dc6ae94e3336d7ce.jpg
    A bakery van was left sandwiched between a lamppost and two cars after a crash in north London.

    Pictures showed the crumpled van, from Millers Bespoke Bakery, and two other damaged vehicles after the crash in Camden Town on Thursday.

    The crash on Chalk Farm Road in the early morning left the bakery van tilted at an angle, with its back wheels off the ground and resting on the front of a car behind. The front bumper of the van was destroyed by a lamppost.

    One woman was taken to hospital for treatment with non-life threatening injuries, the Hampstead & Highgate Express reported. A man was also treated at the scene.

    The Metropolitan Police said inquiries were continuing into the incident.

    Chalk Farm Road was shut for more than seven hours between Hawley Crescent to Camden Lock Place from 1.55am.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  91. Stunt driver
    –
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/68050ddab3f0d0f3c0a3ae09a15f645b01f09b1cdb95ae81dc6ae94e3336d7ce.jpg
    A bakery van was left sandwiched between a lamppost and two cars after a crash in north London.

    Pictures showed the crumpled van, from Millers Bespoke Bakery, and two other damaged vehicles after the crash in Camden Town on Thursday.

    The crash on Chalk Farm Road in the early morning left the bakery van tilted at an angle, with its back wheels off the ground and resting on the front of a car behind. The front bumper of the van was destroyed by a lamppost.

    One woman was taken to hospital for treatment with non-life threatening injuries, the Hampstead & Highgate Express reported. A man was also treated at the scene.

    The Metropolitan Police said inquiries were continuing into the incident.

    Chalk Farm Road was shut for more than seven hours between Hawley Crescent to Camden Lock Place from 1.55am.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  95. That's me for this day of three halves. Cold – stove lit; rain – misery; afternoon bright but chilly sunshine. Was able to do a bit of work in t'garden. More tomorrow, I hope – though – guess what – rain promised…. Cats sauntered round and supervised us. Gus patted a mole hill but knew there was no mole beneath.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  96. Supper finished , salmon fillets, Jersey Royals , asparagus tips, broccoli and carrots, and hollandaise ( made from a packet ) strawberries and yoghurt.

    Fish smell just lingers . doors and windows open and dishwasher set to hot .

    Lovely blue sky now, despite being cold earlier , evening sun is warm , breeze and do I water the garden ?

    1. Couldn't be arsed to have supper, so a cheese 'n pickle sandwich to keep body and soul together until tomorrow.

    1. I know a couple at church who have a home in Trinidad. They gave me a calendar at Christmas produced by their church there, with illustrations of notable buildings in Trinidad. I get the impression it’s a very nice place.

      1. I've been there because I had friends there – it is a very nice place. They have a Mardi Gras in Port of Spain every year and I went for that. They party for two days, and do they party! It culminates in a parade of all the "bands" (people all dressed up in groups that can be as many as 500!) and steel bands around the very nice, and very smart, horse-racing track. There was one arrest in all of that time – a drunk who got aggressive so was put in prison to sober up 😂
        Mind you, it was a while ago – 1980!

          1. I don't think so, Mardi Gras traditionally marks the beginning of Lent. Interestingly, everything came to a very abrupt halt at exactly midnight on Shrove Tuesday.

          3. Sorry, thought you meant the Saint’s day :D! No, I think the course was called the Queen’s Park? In fact I was staying with a very well-known horse vet who was actually head of the veterinary services for horse-racing throughout the Caribbean. Needless to say we had prime viewing seats at the race-track!

      2. I've been there because I had friends there – it is a very nice place. They have a Mardi Gras in Port of Spain every year and I went for that. They party for two days, and do they party! It culminates in a parade of all the "bands" (people all dressed up in groups that can be as many as 500!) and steel bands around the very nice, and very smart, horse-racing track. There was one arrest in all of that time – a drunk who got aggressive so was put in prison to sober up 😂
        Mind you, it was a while ago – 1980!

      3. Trinidad isn't bad. Some decent beaches but a bit nondescript. It's near neighbor Tobago is much more attractive.

    2. I know a couple at church who have a home in Trinidad. They gave me a calendar at Christmas produced by their church there, with illustrations of notable buildings in Trinidad. I get the impression it’s a very nice place.

  98. From the Spectator magazine

    Tourists are the new pariahs
    Sean Thomas
    Think of Majorca and what do you picture? Maybe it is elegant tapas bars in the Gothic quarter of Palma, full of yachties and foodies from across the world. Maybe it is literary pilgrims trekking to the house of Robert Graves or noisy parties of Brits and Germans, squabbling over sunbeds in Magaluf.

    In one Japanese town, residents have erected a screen to block a much-prized view of Mount Fuji
    Any which way, what you picture is tourists. Lots of tourists. So many tourists that the reality of Majorca as an authentic place is quite obscured, invisible under the weight of visitors. And if you think that sounds bad, so do the Majorcans, which is why they are finally – perhaps belatedly – rebelling. Recent weeks have seen unprecedented protests against the tourist industry, with thousands of locals marching against the crowds, along with dire promises to ‘storm the beaches’, unless someone does something.

    What might that something be? Some years ago, after witnessing the impact of Chinese tourism on the global travel market, I wrote about the inevitability of some kind of future ‘rationing’. These pressures were evident in beautiful Taormina, Sicily (featured in season two of The White Lotus), where the crush of tourists was so intense that people were queueing simply to get into the town, then queuing to have their photos taken in the exact same spots. In the Maldives, hotel managers quietly told me that they had so many Chinese tourists and also, increasingly, Russians, Arabs and Brazilians, on top of the traditional Brits, Germans, Americans, that they operated tacit racial quotas. To prevent their hotels becoming overly dominated by one particular ethnicity, they capped each country at a certain percentage of rooms. The hotels were, nonetheless, all near 100 per cent occupancy.

    Most popular
    Fraser Nelson
    Nigel Farage’s Tory manifesto

    Since I wrote that article, and after the significant interruption of Covid, the situation has worsened. In the past two years tourist numbers have vigorously rebounded, and – as in Majorca – so have the protests against them.

    Take Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun is increasingly attractive to tourists, partly because it is also the Land of the Sinking Yen – these days once-pricey Tokyo is about as expensive as Lisbon. The result is a lot more tourists – so many that in one town residents have erected a screen to block a much-prized view of Mount Fuji looming over a convenience store. Why? Because the crowds got so bad that a woman was hit by a car. The view has gone, and likewise the madding crowds. For now.

    The same phenomenon can be seen across the world. In Barcelona, city-centre residents have long complained that their favourite bus is always crammed with tourists visiting Antoni Gaudi’s celebrated Park Guell, making daily life near impossible. Now they have the bus to themselves after the city council secured the removal of the route from Google and Apple maps. ‘We laughed at the idea at first,’ says Cesar Sanchez, a local activist. ‘But we’re amazed that the measure has been so effective.’

    In Sardinia, home to the Costa Smeralda (a pretty chunk of Med littoral beloved by billionaires), you have to book a spot on the best beaches beforehand. In Seville, authorities are similarly mulling a ticket for non-locals to enter Plaza de España – that’s like ticketing to get into Trafalgar Square. Meanwhile in Portofino, on the Italian Riviera, there is a fine for anyone who lingers to take a selfie, i.e. tourists. In Amsterdam and Prague, anti-cheap-tourist adverts are planned. As for the dainty island of Bréhat in Brittany, summertime trippers are brusquely capped: 4,700 are allowed in, per day, and after that the island is shut.

    In Portofino, on the Italian Riviera, there is a fine for anyone who lingers to take a selfie
    Will these deterrents work? Can you stop the mighty juggernaut of the global tourist industry with awkward selfie-bans, crude limits on numbers and some earnest, go-away advertising? I have doubts, mainly because tourism is so enormously lucrative. Last year, global tourism generated about $6 trillion. Worldwide it is perhaps the fourth biggest ‘industry’. At least 150 nations on the planet cite tourism as one of their top five earners. For quite a few countries it is number one.

    What’s more, as global tourism numbers finally exceed the pre-pandemic peaks of 2019, there is no sign of this surge decelerating. Why? Because vast swathes of humanity are only now entering the middle classes, acquiring a passport and gaining the leisure time that enables them to travel. And, of course: good luck to them. The Chinese worked hard for that privilege, as the Indians are working hard now. China became the world’s biggest source of tourists in about 2010 and where it leads India will follow.

    And the Indians, like the Chinese before them (and the Brits, Germans, Japanese and Americans before them) all want to go to the same places. No one is buying a bus tour of Dundee. Hardly anyone wants to visit Dakar, Detroit or Düsseldorf. Instead they all want to see London and Paris, Tuscany and Switzerland, the Louvre, the Prado and the Vatican. These places can take only so many tourists before they collapse under the weight of numbers (perhaps literally, in a place like Venice, where cruise boats further erode the Pearl of the Adriatic).

    What then, will be done? What already happens in the exquisite Asian nation of Bhutan will happen everywhere. In Bhutan, tourist numbers are severely limited by a hefty daily fee (as I write, that’s $100). In other words, you have to pay a large sum simply to be in Bhutan, and you pay it every day you are there. This impost is highly effective – if you can afford it, and if you are Bhutanese. It means Bhutan is devoid of those onerous crowds that otherwise send the locals insane.

    Already the Bhutanese policy is being tried in Venice. As anyone who has been to Venice in July or August will know, the city at that time is often insufferable. Arriving here in high summer is like accidentally getting on the Central line at rush hour: it’s painful, sometimes horrifying and all you want to do is get out at Queensway.

    ‘No party has said a word about how they’re going to tackle the slug invasion.’
    The inevitable has happened. The Venetians have started charging day trippers a fee simply to visit the city. The daily price is at present set at €5, but I am sure this will rise, because so far it has not subdued the crowds. Personally, I reckon it will end up nearer to €50: people are so desperate to see Venice it will take a serious case of sticker-shock to make them think twice.

    It would be nice if the world was so altruistically organised that this tourist rationing was done by lottery (‘Hooray, I’ve got tickets to go to Siena!’), but human nature being what it is, this rationing will be done with money (‘My god, it’s £200 just to get into Siena’). Money makes more sense, above and beyond mere greed, because it means you can recompense local businesses that lose passing trade.

    This means that in future travel to more enticing locales will become the province of the wealthy, as it was in the past. Visiting Florence in August will be like getting tickets for match day at the Emirates. A day trip to the Dolomites will be like front-row seats for Don Giovanni at the Scala. We might even see the rise of travel touts (‘Psst, wanna buy tickets for Rome? – you get within three metres of the Trevi fountain’).

    In which case, as a travel writer, the best advice I can offer Spectator readers is this: make the most of free travel while you can. And after that, there’s always Düsseldorf.

    2. I think these protests are all part of the drive to stop people from travelling. Net zero is a multi-pronged approach.

    3. Sorry to sound silly but the demise of some of our most wonderful South coast towns and Cornish resorts should have been stopped re the growth of 2nd homes , student's and universities and the grand escape from our big cities .

      There is a decent enough chap who has lived in the neighbourhood for several years , own place , very Brixton, and goes back there every so often .

      I was just getting the shopping out of the car, and he waved to me and came over to talk and catch up with some chatter

      He told me that one of his old mates in London had warned him that he could get his head bashed in if he isn't careful .

      His mate told him that the old gang he belonged to were jealous of him moving away .. betrayed the cause / Sarth Lonnen lifestyle!

      I was quite shocked to hear that , and he sounded deadly serious .

  99. @Rik, do you have any good memes? I'm about to send out a regular reminder email and I usually accompany it with a meme or photo. The target audience is churchgoers and they are probably mostly vaxxed, so it has to be funny and harmless. I wanted to send "What bird flu looks like through a microscope" (bundles of bank notes) but my daughter thinks it's too edgy and will corza fence.

    1. Here's my current crop hope something suits
      https://scontent.flhr10-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/442409564_419443800900770_6626371286916939490_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296&_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=nzhRke-aczAQ7kNvgFmmAgV&_nc_ht=scontent.flhr10-2.fna&oh=00_AYDCldF5u69JrUMtMGtkXGtLZjyb-M2ef2tACFxUOFcyWw&oe=6643958B
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93753631d8e4869ae467e83db5f72f49e4264ebae3654d86a8bc9d9b1f282d66.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/835ff41e968102ce648c602b0c75167e33a7df198efd71731cad66f29f7318b6.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/afa48afdc685a780863f668de4e20fa78f692c693551d03ce4038d4ed29a3818.jpg
      http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe09ff26c2e66b93cdc9fd12d9a879820e06979c81d508fa71302c5bc50c5646.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd50cc41b635ac703197fd0d7c13dd78e9f920ab02b5ffa2264dd7f07f02e78a.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06caf2a1e8da462b4b2bbdafe85eebcb2b521e896998e5d056226dc96e08ae24.jpg

      2. Funny! These are mostly lefties though, you have to be gentle with them.

        This one's Christian themed, they couldn't get mad about that, surely?
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6ffad5727c77980c6ed960b66e767eff178af323fe4e1b44c1706abd6821131.jpg
        Was considering this one.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37b7396f30801c06d4f596c909cd4f82f548b143c6ad77b03ec309d5bb802a4c.jpg Some of them have probably never had a thought that was critical of the state in their lives….

      1. We have air raid sirens in all built-up areas, and a six-monthly test wail. Most discombobulating, so it is, when they start to howl. The sort of sound that makes you want to cack yourself.

        1. We used to have air raid sirens on the factories to signal going home time for some years after the war. I remember as a child being quite uneasy about the sound.

        1. Indeed, Ready Eddy. Perhaps their new MP on July the 5th will use it to signal another arrival of immigrants without passports.

          1. I’ve always wondered how they smuggle all the boats back to Calais.
            Just shoved into a truck and waved (scuz the pun) through.

  101. Despite not being grown in the UK, rice is big business here, with UK rice industry worth around £1 billion annually.

    Our appetite for rice seems insatiable. Rice eaten per person per week has grown 530% since the 1970s, with a staggering 88% of UK households buying rice. The industry is a vibrant and continuously developing. Microwavable rice was developed in the UK and is perfectly suited to today's smaller households and people with less time to spend in the kitchen. Rice pouches now make up over half retail sales by value.

    Rice is also placed in our culture in other ways – the food scene. There are more Indian restaurants in the UK than any other cuisine except British. Rice-based cuisine, including Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Indonesian etc accounts for more than 20% of restaurant styles. So it’s not surprising that rice consumption is still growing today at a steady pace as our tastes continue to diversify. https://www.riceassociation.org.uk/rice-in-the-uk

      1. It is impossible to pin-point exactly when mankind first realised that the rice plant was a food source and began its cultivation. Many historians believe that rice was grown as far back as 5000 years BC.

        ​

        Archaeologists excavating in India discovered rice which could be dated to 4530BC. However, the first recorded mention originates from China in 2800 BC. The Chinese emperor, Shen Nung, realised the importance of rice to his people and to honour the grain he established annual rice ceremonies to be held at sowing time, with the emperor scattering the first seeds.

        ​

        Most likely, similar ceremonies took place throughout China with local dignitaries deputising for the emperor. Nowadays, the Chinese celebrate rice by specifically dedicating one of the days in the New Year festivities to it.

        Although we cannot identify China, India or Thailand as being the home of the rice plant (indeed it may have been native to all), it certainly originated in Asia.

        We are more certain of how rice was introduced to Europe and the Americas, however. For that we have to thank the traveller, whether explorer, soldier, merchant or pilgrim, who took with them the seeds of the crops that grew in their home or foreign lands.

        ​

        Not all seeds could be transplanted successfully, however. Great Britain has never been able to cultivate rice due to its unsuitable climatic conditions. The rice plant requires immense quantities of water in its early days, followed by a long and uninterrupted season of hot dry weather. For this reason, farmers must find ways both to flood the fields and drain the water from them at crucial periods. For this reason rice fields must be flat, whereas other cereal crops can grow on undulating ground.

        ​

        In the West, parts of America and certain regions of Europe, such as Italy and Spain, have the correct climate and access to water, thereby enabling rice cultivation to thrive. Some historians believe that rice travelled to America in 1694 in a British ship bound for Madagascar.

        ​

        Blown off course into the safe harbour of Charleston, South Carolina, friendly colonists helped the crew repair their ships. To show his gratitude, the ships captain, James Thurber, presented Henry Woodward with a quantity of rice seed. Some years later, the British unfortunately blotted their copybook in relation to the rice industry they may have initiated. During the American Revolution, they occupied the Charleston area and sent home the entire quantity of harvested rice, failing to leave any seed for the following year's crop!!

        ​

        The American rice industry survived this set-back and cultivation continued, thanks to President Thomas Jefferson, who broke an Italian law by smuggling rice seed out of Italy during a diplomatic mission in the late 18th Century. The rice industry then transplanted itself from the Carolinas to the southern states surrounding the Mississippi basin.

        ​

        Rice is fundamentally important to various cultures. It is often directly associated with prosperity and much folklore and legend surrounds the grain. In many cultures and societies, rice is integrated directly into religious belief. In Japan rice enjoys the patronage of its own god, Inari, and in Indonesia its own goddess, the Dewie Srie.

        ​

        Rice is also linked to fertility and for this reason the custom of throwing rice at newly wedded couples exists. In India, rice is always the first food offered by a new bride to her husband, to ensure fertility in the marriage, and children are given rice as their first solid food. And, according to Louisiana folklore, the test of a true Cajun is whether they can calculate the precise quantity of gravy needed to accompany a crop of rice growing in a field. How easy to see that from its early beginnings to the present day, rice continues to play an integral role in sustaining both the world's appetites and cultural traditions.

        1. Well, Maggie, you would say that, wouldn't you? (Copyright Mandy Rice-Davies.)

        1. I crushed a couple of cloves of garlic and some dried onions and a sprinkle of sea salt, water of course all done in about ten minutes.
          It went well with the chicken Tikka.

      3. The best and a fairly quick way to cook rice is to empty half a mug of rice into a saucepan and add some salt and a dash of olive oil. Heat on a gas hob and stir, all the while boiling a kettle. Fill the mug to the brim with the boiled water and add this to the saucepan. It will hiss alarmingly but then bubble for around five minutes until almost all of the water has evaporated. Remove the saucepan from the hob and put a plate on top of the saucepan; this will allow any remaining steam to hit the plate and drip back down into the rice. After a short while, remove the plate and the rice in the saucepan is hot, fluffy and succulent without being dry.

    4. We seem to have stopped rice and pasta cooking. It's odd because I have oodles of both stocked up. No one is asking for it and I don't seem to fancy it either. I still cook Chinese, Indian and Italian meals but just not the carbs that usually that go with them.

      1. Same here Mm, we are munching lots of veg, salady stuff , perhaps baked potatoes / new spuds.

        Beans on toast and sardines on toast , just for a change .

    5. When I was a lad rice was cooked every Sunday – as a desert, eating with milk and sugar.

      3. I would beg to scrape the skin from the enamel bowl in which my mum cooked the rice pudding.

        By contrast I could not stomach ‘Frogspawn’ even with a blob of jam on it.

        2. In our house me and my brothers would fight to get the skin off the top.
          Semolina frogspawn? Yes. I understand.

  102. “Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.”
    Terry Pratchett.

  103. As much as I enjoy the fantasy of James Bond, Sky Fall is on ITV1 now, I wish he was real.
    But I'm feeling rather tired now. I might have to "take the bloody shot" my self and pop off.
    We were sent sent a video clip of our four year old grandson out on his little bicycle for the first time with no stabilisers. With his daddy to look after, he rode off like lightening across a football pitch.
    We are So happy to see the lovely little lad hopefully on the right track and escaping from his 3 years of leukemia.

    1. What a lovely description, Eddy! Must confess, brought a tear to the eye… Hope the lad is facing full health from now on.

      1. He's got at least another six months of treatment, it's been tough going all round.
        To all,I wouldn't wish it on anyone and i can't emphasis what a lovely little lad he is and very perceptive with his grandads sense of humour. A bit off the wall.
        As some of you know.

    4. Just lovely , and so glad for your family Eddy.

      I am watching Tom Jones and Jules Holland , some nice music . Tom's birthday . BBC2

      1. He looks more than two years older than me. But that's not unusual.
        He's had a hard life.

    6. As an overly indulgent Grandpa myself that brought a tear to my eye.

      I do so hope your grandson continues his recovery. Very best wishes….

    7. That really must lift your heart. I hope he continues prosper and be rid of this ghastly disease.

    8. My son is now 19; when he was born, a girl i got to know who was pregnant at the same time as me had a son who had leukaemia and it was awful for the first 4 years of his life. But he was cured and he is living his life, doing everything a 19-year old abould (by all accounts). So hopefully a ling and happy life awaits your grandson.

      1. Yes thank you for that. It’s been such a tough period for them. Sometimes they find his temperature has shot up and one of them has drop everything and take him to hospital. Often to Addenbrooks from the St Albans area. But we have seen programmes on tv where they show youngsters who have recovered and are living a new life without all the medications.
        The leukemia teams have been wonderful. 😊

    9. My son is now 19; when he was born, a girl i got to know who was pregnant at the same time as me had a son who had leukaemia and it was awful for the first 4 years of his life. But he was cured and he is living his life, doing everything a 19-year old abould (by all accounts). So hopefully a ling and happy life awaits your grandson.

    2. I imagine the lion thought "Blow this for a lark, I'm not going to chase after a jeep as it accelerates away. I'll stay and have the photographer for my lunch instead." Lol.

  107. Evening, all. Been sunny, but cold today. Spent the day at the races (my horse finished fourth). Met up with some friends who were somewhat surprised that on Ladies Day, the second prize in the Best Dressed competition went to a black bloke. It must have been a novelty prize because as far as I could see he was the only black racegoer there. All the others were working in security or catering jobs.

    1. The scramble to over-compensate when a black person (global majority) appears in white middle England (global small minority) is embarrassing these days.

      1. Was saying that to my neighbour the other day. Looking at the TV you’d think you were in Africa.

  108. Dr Michael Mosley missing on Symi; some thoughts.

    In 43 degrees, heatstroke is a likely possibility. Given heatstroke, one's overriding instinct (I know/ been there) is to seek SHADE.

    There is virtually no vegetation on Symi (I know/ been there); shade would be achieved only by means of caves or rock-slabs – instantly making one invisible from above, thereby diminishing the search effectiveness/ search capability of helicopters and drones.

    Perhaps searching on foot, with dogs, is/ would be more effective.

    Sadly, I fear too much time has elapsed for his survival.

    1. Being a Doctor he must have understood the dangers. A thought occurs that his actions were intentional.

    3. You may remember that Sunak received Barack Obama at Number Ten a few weeks past. There was speculation at the time as to the purpose of this visit. My own personal view is that Sunak was booking a plot in one of the exclusive enclaves such as Martha’s Vineyard. I suspect he would just love to live in the same neighbourhood as Obama.

      I will predict the ferret faced rat bodied little shit will shortly exit the clown stage of Westminster for the USA.

    4. Apparently his children are enrolled in Californian schools from September. This from my media source.

    1. Yes, Courtney has been a fantastic player for England and deserves making a few bob in France before he retires. I've always been a great fan of his – they picked him at second row for ages when he was an out and out number 6!

      1. Please don’t get so technical, but yes, he’s been a giant of the game in both senses for a long time and deserves a comfortable retirement!

        1. Sorry PJ, I always assume you are an expert on the game! No 6 is a very technical back row position, often called blindside flanker (which I dont like as it isnt always!) – it 'gels' the forward effort at the breakdown, supports jumpers at the lineout, or, as in Courtney's case, offers another lineout option. It's a largely unheralded role but absolutely critical and all the great teams have great No 6 – when England won the World Cup it was Richard Hill – probably the best 6 of all time!

          1. Thanks GG :)) Hubby and companion were both backs (Nos 10 & 14) and both claimed that the dark arts of scrum were a mystery to them! I remember Richard Hill of course.

          2. Ah, that makes sense! I did a bit of 6 in my early days (and 7 and 8) but my bulk and aggression inevitably led me to tight-head prop! I loved it there – the combat – Philippe Dintrans (the famous French hooker who I’m sure you’ll know)summed it up perfectly, but I cant remember his quote!

          3. I am assuming you have huge cauliflower ears 🤣
            I don’t remember Dintrans at all but looking him up I see he retired around 1990 when I wasn’t as aware of who the individual French players were as I am now and certainly didn’t follow French club rugby.

          4. Not at all – my ears remain beautiful!! (-ish) – certainly pretty good given the traumas I have subjected them to! Now my nose…..

            PS Dintrans was a French superhero through the 80s – following on from probably the best French front row of all time in Paparemborde, Paco and Cholley, truly scary individuals!

          5. Yes, my companion had a very strange nose which he said had been re-arranged during the course of his rugby-playing days 🙂
            In the 80s I took much more interest in cricket than in rugby having been put off the latter by witnessing the thuggery during my three and a half years in SA. It took me a while to come back into the ‘rugby fold’, probably not until the Carling era.

          6. My younger sister went out with Carling when they were at Durham Uni together – I never could stand him!

          7. Why not? I thought he was a good captain who commanded the loyalty of (most of) the team and looked after them.

          9. Since you met him and I didn’t I shall have to bow to your superior knowledge :D!

  114. It's cold out there this evening! 9c as we were driving home from the concert. It was very enjoyable and the choir nominated Help a Hedgehog Hospital as one of their beneficiaries from the funds raised by the concert.
    Earlier on, all day at the fete – lots of people and lots of other stalls so we didn't make a huge amount but it was enjoyable. Nice while the sun was out but a cold wind
    The heating came on this evening.
    In bed now so Good night all 😴

      1. And me.

        But I'll soon become an old shellac record when I turn 78 in three weeks!

    1. Will my generation still remember D Day
      Readers’ comments Spectator thread

      T
      TSG
      an hour ago
      I was born in 1961. When I was 16 it was 1977. 80 years before that it was before the boer war. Hardly any grandparents now were alive in ww2. To have been a the youngest soldier on D Day you will be at least 97.
      Give the kids a break. I’m interested. They think 80 years is a long time ago. So do I actually.
      −
      K
      KlendathuTouristBoard
      2 hours ago
      They’re learning the lessons of patriotism and sacrifice again in Ukraine…
      −
      V
      Vieux Schnock
      2 hours ago
      Thank you for a thoughtful and eloquent article. One of the most thrilling and impressive scenes in films about the Second World War is the moment in Band of Brothers when the C-47s of the 101st Airborne take off for Normandy. It has a genuinely epic quality, conveying the sense of a great enterprise beginning whose outcome would decide the fate of nations. Google Band of Brothers C-47 takeoff for a youtube clip.

      I don’t know if it was the 101st Airborne who were stationed there, but I once met a lady who had lived south of Greenham Common during the war, and remembered the evening when streams of aircraft came over the house, and her father explaining what it meant.

      My own personal connection with the event is that my father was an Acting CPO on a cruiser in the invasion fleet, one of a number seconded from the Observer Corps for their aircraft recognition skills, and tasked with ensuring that anti-aircraft gunners only fired on the enemy.
      −
      P
      plainsdrifter
      4 hours ago
      I don’t know. But if they do, I hope it is for the right reasons.
      −
      J
      John Andrews
      4 hours ago
      My Dad took us camping near Dover and loved telling us how he had seen the valley behind the white cliffs stuffed with tanks, tents etc in the weeks before D-Day. What delighted him was that they were all made of wood, canvas and ticky-tacky. This tricked Hitler into thinking that was where the invasion would be. He had been in the army since 1940 with no home leave. So his children will remember. But I think he would have thought we have been remembering the terrible slaughter for long enough. He was a doctor and suffered PTSD from seeing the soldiers injuries. He helped a man off a train and tried to push his eyeball back into its socket. RIP to them all.
      −
      P
      Peter-ggg
      5 hours ago
      I’m in a male voice choir, and we did a number of events to commemorate various WW1 100 year events. The November 2018, Drumhead Service of Remembrance 100 years after the end, with the drums stacked to create an altar, the last post and the Kohima Epitaph is a poignant and moving occasion.
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      W
      Woolf
      5 hours ago
      What a heartwarming article.
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      M
      Mark
      6 hours ago
      As a general, but not universally applicable, comment I would say the young are not disposed toward the past.
      That is reinforced by the despicable methods used in our schools to teach history.
      There are many who become interested as they age. Many now tour the battlefields of the First World War. WW2 was a little more mobile so there are few equivalents to the Somme, Paschendale, Ypres. People do become interested in both their own family past, and the greater past.
      There are now somewhat reliable films….The Longest Day, Saving Private Ryan, that do to a very limited extent recreate that horrifying moment on June 6th, 1944, as the landing craft doors opened and sweet innocence became red, salty sea.
      The young should have their hopes untainted by the past. It is the old who witness the spread of the stain of history.
      −
      A
      Anthony Baker
      8 hours ago
      ‘Whom he senses have lost pride.’ Spectator grammar again.
      −
      N
      Naztikov Girocek
      9 hours ago
      I think it’s slightly odd all this fussing over D Day 80 years on. Waterloo and the Napoleonic wares did not have endless celebrations . Sooner we move on the better.
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      A
      Alun Crockford Naztikov Girocek
      2 hours ago
      and there, in a nutshell is the reason why British history should be taught in schools and why people migrating to the UK need to spend some time doing the same.
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      L
      Lord Arbuthnot of Southend Naztikov Girocek
      6 hours ago
      Perhaps you could “move on” instead.
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      G
      GrimPol Naztikov Girocek
      6 hours ago
      Whilst your right IMO whilst participants are alive, why not?
      But yes once they die, the Remembrance Day should be kept because soldiers dying for us is still not a thing of the past yet, I’m afraid. “Freedom is measured in Headstones”
      −
      M
      Mark Smith Naztikov Girocek
      8 hours ago
      Did your family live in the UK during the Napoleonic wares (sic)?
      −
      R
      Robert Bidochon Naztikov Girocek
      8 hours ago
      Agincourt Day is always a blast though
      −
      G
      GrimPol Robert Bidochon
      6 hours ago
      Norman Invasion day?
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      M
      Mark Smith Robert Bidochon
      8 hours ago
      Says the man who couldn’t join the forces if he lost 5 stones and could do 10 push ups.
      −
      P
      Phil B Naztikov Girocek
      8 hours ago edited
      Actually there are many past British wars which were indeed followed by solemn commemorations, services of thanksgiving and the like, for about a century or so after the events in question. Such memorials were organised after many of the English Civil war battles, and the even earlier Wars of the Roses, and yes – certainly after Waterloo and the Napoleonic wars. In fact Waterloo Day was widely observed, as far as I am aware, until some time into the early 20th century – and it still is by some of the army regiments involved, by their modern living decsendants. The Royal Navy takes a similar approach to the recognition of Trafalgar Day.

      The natural limit of such commemorations in a more general sense, not surprisingly, tends to be about 100 years – in other words, until just after they’ve faded from the last surviving memories of the living. We’ve now past that point for WW1, and are clearly closely approaching it with respect to WW2.
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      V
      Vieux Schnock Phil B
      3 hours ago
      When we were in Corunna in 1995 we visited the tomb of Sir John Moore, who was killed in the battle of Corunna in 1809. It was still maintained by the Corunna Historical Society, who placed a wreath there every year on the anniversary of the battle.
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      K
      KlendathuTouristBoard Vieux Schnock
      2 hours ago
      Yes, and the Norwegians send that xmas tree each year as a mark of gratitude for our help in WW2.
      −
      M
      Mark Knight Naztikov Girocek
      8 hours ago edited
      I think its slightly odd you want to forget what happened over D Day 80 years on. Waterloo and Trafalgar did have commemorations Sooner you move on the better.

      Oh and it was a commemoration not a celebration.
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      A
      Anthony Baker Mark Knight
      8 hours ago
      A witty Frenchman, seeing Waterloo Station and Trafalgar Square, said ‘I can’t understand why they name places after defeats over here’.
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      D
      Derek M
      9 hours ago
      “D-Day will pass out of living memory” of course, so does everything.

  119. Unusually for me, i am up late; normally i am up in four hours’ time, so let’s see. I will be meeting with my (slightly older) brother; i do not get on particularly well with him. He lives in Oz and is on his way home (i think). On the other hand, my daughter, who has just graduated but is not yet 21 (!) is off a week on Monday to Oz for 6 weeks and basing herself in Perth with my brother and her cousins. I have never been to Oz and have no great desire to go there.

    i am getting fed up with continually having to log in to Disgust. Every sodding day now.

    1. ' Morning, Geoff and thank you for all the efforts you have lavished on us, on our behalf.

Comments are closed.