Saturday 9 March: It will take more than technology to solve the NHS’s productivity puzzle

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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1,097 thoughts on “Saturday 9 March: It will take more than technology to solve the NHS’s productivity puzzle”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    DISCO DANCING

    Husband took the wife to a disco at the weekend.

    There was a guy on the dance floor giving it large – breakdancing, moonwalking, back flips, the works.

    The wife turned to husband and said: “See that guy? 25 years ago, he proposed to me and I turned him down.”

    Husband says: “Looks like he’s still celebrating!!!”

  3. Morning, all Y’all.
    Bright n sunny. Cloud-free night meant chilly & heavy frost.

  4. Good morning, chums, and welcome to the weekend. I hope you enjoy it. Now to read Sir Jasper’s joke and then disappear for a while to work on today’s Wordle.

  5. Moscow ignores arrest warrants for Putin commanders. 9 March 2024.

    Russia has said it does not recognise arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for two top Russian commanders over alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

    The court named Sergei Kobylash and Viktor Sokolov on Tuesday.

    “We are not parties to the [Rome] statute – we do not recognise this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

    The US is not a party to the ICC either. In fact when they tried to investigate alleged US War Crimes their response was so hostile that the ICC had to back down.

    On March 15, 2019, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced that the US would impose visa bans on ICC officials involved in the court’s potential investigation of US citizens for alleged crimes in Afghanistan. He indicated the same policy may be used to deter ICC efforts to investigate nationals of allied countries, including Israelis, and stated that the US would be prepared to take further actions, including economic sanctions, “if the ICC does not change its course.” The Trump administration confirmed in early April 2019 that it had revoked ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda’s visa.

    Pompeo publicly threatened two staff members of the ICC on March 17, 2020, naming them and stating that he was “considering what the United States’ next steps ought to be with respect to these individuals and all those who are putting Americans at risk.” Pompeo said he wanted to identify people responsible for the investigation – and their family members – and implied he could seek actions against them.

    https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/09/02/qa-international-criminal-court-and-united-states#7

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68489266

  6. Morning all – up at ‘sparrow’ today – meeting special friend for lunch140 miles away

          1. Are you casting aspersions on well-known crumble makers, Ms. Macfarlane? Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

          3. Is this a hobby of yours, Sue Mac, going around spreading marmalade all over strange women? What a strange thing to do! Lol.

          4. It comes from spending most of her life in Scotland. They are weird up there!

    3. Good morning, Alec. Is it Sir Jasper you plan to meet? If so, be careful for he may be having extra Zeds and not hear you ring the door bell. (Lol.) Or might it be your friendly vicar?

  7. I had a bad night folks, so back to bed with a recharged hot-water-bottle for more zeds.

      1. My commiserations, BoB. I slept from around 9 pm to midnight, midnight to 3 am, and 3 am to 6 am. What a palaver!

  8. Good morning, all. Clear blue sky and a light breeze here this morning.

    From The Dictionary of Insults, a response to a tactless request:

    While Woodrow Wilson was State Governor of New Jersey he answered a phone call informing him of the death of one of his greatest friends, who represented the state in Congress. He was still trying to take in the sudden news when the phone rang a few minutes later and another New Jersey politician asked him if he could take the deceased Senator’s place.

    ‘Well, you may quote me as saying that’s perfectly agreeable to me if it’s agreeable to the undertaker,’ Wilson told him.

  9. Pro-Palestine protestor tries to derail ‘Social Fabric’ summit. 9 March 2024.

    A rich irony today at the ‘Restitch’ conference. A pro-Palestine protestor was forcibly removed from the stage as she attempted to derail Security Minister Tom Tugendhat’s speech with questions about Israel — at Restitch, ‘The Social Fabric Summit’. What better example of how ragged the community cloth of Britain has become, eh?

    The conference saw think tanks across the political spectrum unite, as Onward, Labour Together and Create Streets invited delegates to Coventry to enjoy a series of talks on social cohesion. As Tom Tugendhat walked to the podium, he was joined by an unexpected guest — in the form of a face-masked woman grasping a Palestinian flag.

    “Onward, Labour Together and Create Streets.” Lol. Obviously a popular Conservative assembly!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/pro-palestine-protestor-tries-to-derail-social-fabric-summit/

  10. A good morning to all.
    A still chilly tad below 2°C this morning. A heavy overcast with the mist clinging to the top of the valley sides. But at least it’s not raining or frosty.
    A cloudy dry day forecast with possible rain this evening.

  12. Increase military spending before Putin makes you pay the price, Sunak warned. 9 March 2024.

    Rishi Sunak is facing calls from three former Tory defence secretaries to promise to increase defence spending to 3 per cent of GDP in his party’s election manifesto.

    The demands, voiced via The Telegraph, came after no new money was allocated to the Ministry of Defence in Wednesday’s Budget, despite rising geopolitical tensions.

    I certainly believe the military should be expanded but would additional funds actually work? The Ministry of Defence is just another dysfunctional woke institution incapable of carrying out its tasks. Its record is one of abysmal failure. As to the headline; Putin and Russia pose no threat to the UK or its indigenous people Our enemies are here. In Westminster and the MSM.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/08/russia-rishi-sunak-budget-putin-ukraine/

    1. Looking at it logically, what on earth does Blighty offer Putin?
      He has enough Muzzie problems already without taking on a small, over population and bankrupt country harbouring its own religious death watch beetle.
      A country that even refuses to use its remaining natural resources (of which Russian has more than enough).

    2. The MOD procurement “process” has been abysmal for years. Like the NHS, it fritters away money as if there was a bottomless pit – even after it has become obvious that there is only a very shrinking little pot.

      Additional funds would not doubt effectively be diverted elsewhere (eg Ukraine).

  13. A selection of letters on the subject of Mrs. May’s resignation.

    Exit Theresa May
    SIR – Theresa May has announced that she will not be standing as an MP at the general election (telegraph.co.uk, March 8).
    I wish other Tories in Name Only would follow her example (I have Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt in mind). Then they could be replaced by true Conservatives capable of taking the fight to Labour.
    John Kennedy
    Hornchurch, Essex

    SIR – Theresa May has an impeccable record as a constituency MP, and I’m sure that the people of Maidenhead will be sad to see her go.
    Her record as prime minister, however, is another matter. Having won the Conservative Party leadership by default, she made her first catastrophic mistake early on, when she called an unnecessary election. Throwing away David Cameron’s hard-won majority and coming within an inch of losing to – of all people – Jeremy Corbyn set the tone for everything that would follow.
    Her time in office was defined chiefly by her abysmal handling of the Brexit negotiations. Never apparently believing in the benefits of British sovereignty, she allowed Brussels to dictate the terms of the Withdrawal Agreement in a way that would have left Britain an impotent province within an emboldened EU empire.
    But the most damaging aspect of her tenure was surely net zero, introduced after she’d announced her departure, and without proper debate. This commitment has cost Britain billions of pounds – the single most expensive act of virtue-signalling in history.
    Jeremy Crick
    Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

    SIR – It would be deliciously ironic if Boris Johnson were to step up and stand in Theresa May’s seat.
    Andy Lyons
    Sherborne, Dorset

    1. But the really bad thing about Theresa May’s many disasters when PM is that NO Conservative MP has

      ever tried to cancel them………….so we can assume that her measures were warmly welcomed by Tory MPs

  14. Well – the War Dead lecture WAS dire. The lady had masses of very interesting material which she presented in a mumble (despite being miked up) and read terribly badly. My reading of a poem went down very well. I wanted to demonstrate to PCC members that one did NOT need a expensive “sound system” – just stand on the chancel steps and project. First time I have read in a church for over 20 years! Then home to a toasted cheese sandwich and the first half of the first episode of the life and death (or similar) of Boris Johnson. What a vile man he was from the start…

    1. I have read in a church for over 20 years!

      Yo, Bill

      You know all the hymns by heart then. Good for you

      1. I had a hiatus after the wrecktorette arrived. Then I joined the diaspora and now read at my new church.

  15. TurkeysJews For ChristmasHamas has a letter printed I see:-

    Jews in London
    SIR – As Jewish people living in the UK, we strongly disagree with the sentiment of your front-page report (“ ‘London is now a no-go zone for Jews’ ”, March 8), and believe that this kind of story only further entrenches distress and fear.
    Anti-Semitism is a very real problem, faced by us for centuries and increasingly in recent months. That being said, it is not the case that London is a “no-go zone”, nor that the tone of the pro-Palestinian marches is a major problem that we face.
    Many of us join those marches and feel safe on them; indeed, we are much more worried by the Government’s branding of them as “hate mobs”, and the constant stream of Islamophobia coming from the media and Westminster.
    We urge care when it comes to reporting anti-Semitism – because doing so in the way you have undermines our ability to combat real threats to British Jews, increases our anxieties and risks dividing our communities.
    David Feldman
    Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism
    And 8 others.

    1. I remember one of the 8 others.
      Her lectures were so boring and incomprehensible that the college introduced signing in for her sessions to ensure a less embarrassingly sparse attendance.
      I found out that one morning, I had been so keen to polish my halo, I had signed in four times.

    3. Blimey! I stopped donating to Birkbeck when I realised that my money was helping to provide bursaries for foreign students.

  17. The Elizabeth Emblem: Fallen officers to receive State recognition
    PC Nicola Hughes: Medal campaign for officers killed on duty

    Whenever we read of another idiot police officer arresting people for singing a song, reading aloud a verse from the bible or wearing a miniscule Union Flag or St. George’s Cross emblem somewhere on their clothing, we should remember the likes of Nicola Hughes, Fiona Bone, Sharon Beshenivsky, and Keith Blakelock. Thanks in part to campaigning by the father of Nicola Hughes, the Elizabeth Emblem has been introduced as formal State recognition for officers who have died in service.

    Bryn Hughes was on this morning’s Today programme on R4, in a remarkably positive mood for a man who lost his daughter to a criminal savage.

    We should all hope that if we ever need to call the police that we get one of the many decent ones who are still out there

  18. Wordle 994 3/6

    I’m amazed how well I did today.

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  19. ‘Morning All

    Medley

    https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1766042055820603619?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8aece63053267f25cd42f9aa699a4437f7d92b4464f55e53b74bcacb9f0b8b6d.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dabdd5046d411967f7d9961d0d805287e0e7695da5d7c74fe37de196abd249b0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25ec551f6e817e5d72afebb39cad50a57b2a182b36a231c815e48a9cdb74340f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/36242fb791c2f48fe34b5f1c659ab8fffb4e9d21fd1d00d39155c2c296d81bc6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6cd2e7310944f23a422eb992f3001890bbed439d8b99587479bbad2a0335b4b.jpg

    That’s all folks

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e9b79db27177d74a3a519054f8a8b0b87b234984ed76c0788cb4d011fe3ecb9.gif

  20. Nicked Comment

    Oi Laffed

    “The only reason I can think of to vote for this Conservative Party is that it’s so desperate to lose, voting for it would almost be an act of spite.”

  21. https://thecritic.co.uk/are-we-suffering-from-generational-sink/
    Perhaps one of the most profound and interesting articles I have read in years, by Connor Tomlinson published in the Critic on 20 January, called ‘Generational Sink’.
    I’d add he does neglect the decline of Christianity’s role in the issues he highlights, which after all culminates in a decline of a sense of teleological purpose and meaning from life and is part of the same complex problem.
    Having three sons just entering manhood and knowing their friends and also the teenage children of my own friends and family, I’d concur with the writer’s observations.

  22. I was reading the Nottl blog this morning at 08:25 when there were 41 comments, and noticed that there was not a single posting from the Speccie refugees. What’s the matter – can’t they get themselves up, or are they composing their highly prolix offerings and rants? I think I will christen them the Ex-specto-rants.

    1. It might help if a comment linking to an article in The Critic didn’t go into moderation for who knows how long.

      1. AFAIK nothing ‘goes into moderation’ on here. The mods are normal people with ordinary things to do, like drinking vast quantities of tea, walking their dogs and spending endless hours looking for their mislaid house keys. Occasionally they scan the forum and if they see something they don’t like, they might consider deleting it.

        And it’s a long time since anyone was banned from here…

          1. My favourite joke, from the back of a Swan Vesta matchbox c. 1986.

            Three old ladies on a bus. One said “Isn’t it windy?” The second said “No it’s Thursday”. The third said “So am I, let’s have a cup of tea”.

            I have trained the other occupants of my house (spouse and children, sadly the dog appears to be untrainable in this regard) to respond by putting the kettle on whenever I utter the words “Isn’t it windy?” .

        1. Thanks. Geoff knows me, that I commented here for a couple of years at the very start under a different name.

          1. Apologies JD – I thought I’d added you in the initial influx of new posters but apparently not. You are now on the Trusted list and can post links whenever you like.

      3. Hello JD, does using the code brackets work like they did with the Speccie Disqus?

    2. Perhaps we are just exhibiting good manners and not flooding the thread with our comments since there were so many complaints when we first arrived…..

      1. Morning Peta or am I allowed to say that? 🙂
        Can I suggest you look at Connor Tomlinson’s ‘Generational Sink” in The Critic? I’d be interested in your view.

        1. Morning JD 🙂 I will, but not until later – I have to go out shortly as it’s market day at my favourite local market!

        2. Had a look at it now JD. I think the giveaway was that Connor Tomlinson still has both sets of grand-parents living! Equally, he trotted out that old chestnut about low inflation and low interest rates which is nonsense. I remember interest rates going up to 15% and they were certainly around 7% – 8% when I took out my first mortgage, and kept on going up. I also remember a period of negative equity.
          I agree that the house-price/earnings ratio is against the young, but prices were not pushed up by the boomers. It was a combination of foreign buyers, then buy-to-let starting in the late 90s and most landlords were not boomers, and, of course, a chronic housing shortage now exacerbated by immigration for which the boomers are not to blame. This was followed by QE after the financial crisis – or free money if you like – which created an asset bubble.
          Where the boomers are to blame is that they brought up the generation whose children are now doing all the whining! Even among my own generation of family and friends (boomers) I can see so much “entitlement” in their offspring and, of course, in the next generation too.
          Nearly three generations of peace and ever-increasing prosperity has taken its toll and there will have to be a “reset” at some point. It might even be the one the WEF is planning which will certainly concentrate a few minds – but only in the generation being born today – at the earliest.

          1. I thought the discussion about collapsing birth rates was fascinating and the read across from the rats experiment equally so. I see all around me that what he writes is true.
            I know Baby Boomers don’t like the reminders that they were the golden generation – no war, final salary pensions for many, massive growth in living standards, on the housing ladder – but these things are true and not true for the young. You cannot blame them individually and many are entirely innocent, but as a group in so many ways they did not pass on or abide by the eternal truths passed to them by previous generations in the pursuit of self, especially family breakdown and growth of materialistic atheism. I do believe the generational contact was abrogated at that point. Billy Joel called his generation ‘the spoilt bratdom of America’.

          2. Having children means taking on responsibility and making sacrifices. Saving for a house means you might not get to have four holidays abroad every year or sport the latest fashions as they come out. The post boomer generations are not good at all that. I agree that we see all around us what he writes, but I do not accept that just one generation must shoulder all the blame. I think that is too easy a cop out.
            That said, I also agree that family break-down and the growth of unbridled materialism, untempered by moral guidance be it religious or other, is a huge factor. I still think it more to do with life being too “easy” than it is to do with just one generation not passing on “eternal truths”, though I do acknowledge that far too many boomers did not.

          3. I’m not disagreeing with you on that. I would say the Boomers children are in aggregate worse than they were but then too many were not shown any better by their parents. The Boomers’ parents on the otherhand did teach their children better.

        3. Why shouldn’t you say that? It’s customary here for people to greet each other. This is a polite and civilised forum!

        1. There were some gripes. People aren’t keen on change but it will soon settle down. Once we have institutionalised them. :@)

      3. It wasn’t complaints more the sudden flood of comments, mostly welcoming each other. We have not been used to this.
        It’s very stimulating to have fresh participants and I’m sure you will blend in well.

        1. Pleased to hear it and we will all do our best I am sure :)) I do understand that it must have come as a bit of a shock!

        2. All a bit weird for those of us who also used to lurk on the Speccy as I can’t remember who was only Speccy and is now here etc etc. so for me you are all old friends anyway!

    3. I haven’t left the Specs (yet) but I’m spending less time there and using another handle. I suspect I’m not the only one.

  23. Good morning all and warriors of the 77th,

    Ths sky’s clearing at Castle McPhee after overnight rain. Wind in the East, 7℃ with the climate cultists at the Met Office forecasting 10℃.

    The British Association for Shooting and Conservation is taking the fight back to Chris Packham. The BASC reckons it saves the NHS millions because shooting is good for cadio-vascular fitness and mental ‘elf. It’s an interesting idea and it’s probably true. I haven’t been shooting for years but I can attest to covering miles of rough countryside on foot when I did. Perhaps anglers should get in on this too. The physical and spiritual well-being generated by a few hours of walking up and down a river-bank, rod in one hand wading staff in the other, and slipping-in and out of the river in the pursuit of trout and grayling simply cannot be discounted.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6900b1b85bb5fdde876063b3df05a6097c6f24670fcaf11896de7ecf906afce4.png

    The analysis found that NHS and local authority budgets would be saved £64.3 million a year in public health costs, £37.6 million of which would come from the health benefits of removed air pollutants by woodland managed by shooting, and £20 million in physical care costs plus £6.7 million in mental health costs, on the basis that “the fitness and mental well-being of the average person shooting is higher than the average citizen”.

    The NHS is increasingly embracing the concept of “social prescribing”, whereby activities – often ones outdoors – are prescribed to boost health via wellbeing.

    Being a pensioner I’m entitled to free prescriptions. The shooting season is over but I’ll have a day on the River Test at Kimbridge in May instead if that’s alright.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/08/shooting-saves-nhs-millions-year-report/

    However, if you’re going to use photogenic models on a Schöffel country-wear catalogue shoot to illustrate your story it’s a good idea to make sure they’ve been instructed on the basics first – like break your shot-gun before you go walking around with it tucked under your arm.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3aec2e227a2b0daff22de6327424737e184a31fe7b95dab5c4b9df38d50fc900.png

    1. I have owned spaniels for over fifty years , and for about 20 years until my fifties , I used to participate in country sports , using my dogs for picking up game and ‘ beating ‘..on big shoots. When I was a very young youngster , occasionally accompanying the ponies up to the moors in Durham and North Yorkshire , which used to carry the picnic and shoot supplies ! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af6f8c784ac47a3ea08351452f3d8297169fd3b30294876c24a11ffa679437ec.jpg

      1. That’s a sweet photo.

        I so wish I still had some photos of when I was younger. Family albums were disposed of by my father’s last horrible wife, and my own collection went in a fire. I don’t exist before age 33…

        1. Morning HL,

          I have very few photos of me as a youngster , because my parents were overseas, and the twins received more attention than my younger sister and I. The twins are 11 years younger than me .

        2. That is the sadness that many of us have to bear , but your father’s other wife had no sensitivity nor had she the right to dispose of family photographs . So sorry your childhood was totally messed up .

          1. She was a gold-digging fiend from Hell who bamboozled a stupid old codger, and made my poor brother miserable. At least I escaped.

          2. We hear so many stories like that . Old men are fools ..

            A couple of the old service veterans I know got into serious trouble .. one went on a cruise on a Cunard ship , and met a woman thirty years younger , they then went on a world cruise the next year , he spent a fortune doing it , but she met someone else on the paid for cruise , and he was £thousands out of pocket , and broken hearted and depressed .

            Another one visited Thailand , he was in his eighties , fell in love , brought a Thai girl back to the UK , decades younger than him , and then she cleared off with a lot of his money , and he caught a nasty disease !!!!

            Talk about old fools and their money !

    2. Now look – it was NOTHING to do with his in-laws being held hostage in Gaza. Nothing. Just a philanthropic gesture.

    4. X-Tw@ter Comment Made:-
      https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1766395128673894833

      And for the non-X-Tw@terati:-

      Can I categorically state that this £250k to Gaza had absolutely NOTHING to do with his In-laws being trapped in Gaza?
      The fact that they were on a flight to Scotland the day after the payment was made is little more than a pure coincidence.
      Now, Has anyone got a bridge for sale?

    5. If I may
      Humza Yousaf gave £250k to Gaza, which found its way to Hamas, after overruling his officials.

    6. He’s getting upset:-
      https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1766421695726825764
      And, for the non-X-Tw@terati:-

      Over-rules official advice to donate £¼million of Scottish taxpayer’s money to Gaza at a time when his In-laws were unable to get out of Gaza and then, when aforesaid In-laws are on a flight to UK very shortly afterwards, gets upset when people put 2+2 together.

      2. But, but that kind of thing is perfectly OK where he comes from. It’s up to us to accommodate the enrichment, remember. Like letting off young rapists where what they did is part of “their culture” – remember?

    5. Brilliant well done both.
      We have our 50th end of August.
      I mustn’t forget 🥳

    8. Congratulations Alf .

      Good morning to you , Will you be doing nice things today?

      Our 56th is in July . I cannot believe how time as rushed by . We were 21 and 22 when we tied the knot ..

      What an adventure !

      1. Well done for staying the course.
        I’ve been a lot happier second time around.
        I was 20 the first time and it was not a good decision.

        1. I think that giving each other space is the answer, even though some years feel like a rollercoaster .. but being ‘tuned in ‘ helps .

      2. We’re going out to lunch to a nice looking pub between Godalming and Petworth.

    13. Many congratulations to you both – you are far too young to be celebrating such an august anniversary!

  26. England’s cricketers have just suffered another miserable defeat in India but during the match Jimmy Anderson took his 700th Test wicket, a remarkable achievement for a seam bowler. Who knows how many more he might have taken had he not been sidelined with back problems for more than a year in 04-05 after misguided coaches tried to straighten out his successful, wicket-taking but peculiar looking-down-at-his-toes bowling action.

    I doubt anyone would have dared to attempt to straighten out Mike Proctor or Sylvester Clark…

    Ahead of him in the list, two spinners: Shane Warne (RIP) 708, and Muralitharan (The Chucker) 800, whose record many think should be struck off.

  27. Charles Moore has written a good piece about why Treason May was never suitable Prime Minister material.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/08/theresa-may-good-mp-should-never-have-been-prime-minister/

    Tucked away in it is this:

    After David Cameron (in 2016) and Boris Johnson (in 2022) resigned as prime minister, each also subsequently resigned his seat in Parliament, causing a by-election. This created a bad impression. It looked as if both men were MPs only for what they could get out of it.

    They were, Charles, they were. Both now have their mouths firmly clenched on the teets of the globalist oligarchs, serving their aims and not those of the people.

    1. “Lord” (no laughing at the back please) David Cameron is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and one of George Soros’ many operatives in the Westminster puppet theater. Sunak is a WEF, Gates and Schwab operative parachuted in to follow their instructions. The billionaires obviously wanted their trusted former PM puppet back in office. The beauty of it is that Cameron will still be there after the Conservatives lose the election.

      When he was Prime Minister, David Cameron worked with George Soros just like Tony Blair and appointed a number of Soros’ friends to senior positions. Including WEF Board Trustee Mark Carney to the Bank of England, Lord Andrew Adonis to the National Infrastructure Commission and Lord Kim Darroch as British Ambassador to Washington who was subsequently appointed Chairman of George Soros’ Best for Britain. David Cameron’s policies were virtually identical to Soros’ policies and, with George Osborne, David Cameron promoted Soros’ views about Brexit on his personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. After stepping down, David Cameron became a director of an organisation financially supported by George Soros’ Open Society and Bill Gates.

      George Osborne, surprisingly, recently praised David Lammy who visited Soros for private talks in New York. Lammy is a Soros operative and similarly George Osborne who of course worked with David Cameron.

      So the appointment of Lord David Cameron is yet more proof that the WEF have their puppets in positions of power and that the WEF controls Britain.

      1. Arguably the WEF is the child of Britain as its genesis lies with the Rockefellers who became members of the Anglo-American network established by none other than Cecil Rhodes, who in turn took his inspiration from John Ruskin. It’s a very complex story.

        1. The WEF probably started off with good intentions but Klaus Schwab’s consortium of billionaires seem to have bought every politician who could be useful to them.

          2. Wall Street and the Rise of Hi^ler gives a pretty good account of where that money originated, as well.

          4. I think the WEF was founded just after the dollar went full on fiat precisely in order to manage the situation in which we find ourselves today, namely the collapse of the fiat currencies.

      3. Cameron may have had the best education possible but he is thick and always has been and alway will be.

        1. A lot of them are quite thick. It’s amazing how greed and arrogance can successfully stifle the small amount of intelligence that someone may possess.

      4. Polly. Serious question. Have you read The Creature from Jekyll Island and The Great Taking? These two books might change your view a bit.

    2. I posted this last night and no one picked up on the delicious line:
      “Gnomically declaring that ‘Brexit means Brexit’, she went on to prove that she, as well as the rest of us, did not know what she meant.”

        1. Pity he didn’t use that wise head to campaign against lockdown, the most catastrophic thing ever to happen to this country. Or to come to the actual reality of the situation in Ukraine. Or to not support Nicky Haley

          1. I didn’t say I always agreed with him, I don’t, but he does have a wealth of knowledge and experience.

        2. Pity he didn’t use that wise head to campaign against lockdown, the most catastrophic thing ever to happen to this country. Or to come to the actual reality of the situation in Ukraine. Or to not support Nicky Haley

    4. I personaly have had the impression for many years that the majority of politicians are only in it for their own gain. You only have to see what they take home in expenses to understand what some of them are all upto. And of course it probably aligns its self with the more expenses sought, with less debate attendances. There’ll be a formula.
      I think the electorate have seen through the fake smiles and the running on bull shiite for a long time.

    5. Someone pasted a more extensive version on yesterday’s blog. I pointed out that his Lordship seems to have forgotten that Boris’s resignation of Premiership and parliamentary seat was hardly comparable to Cameron. Boris – admittedly a fool to himself – was forced out by the machinations of parliament and the media. He was facing a recall petition because of the retrospective rule changing of a Standards committee chaired by a former deputy leader of the opposition party . Cameron is a different kettle of fish. He threw his toys out of the pram as soon as he didn’t get what he wanted.

  28. Charles Moore has written a good piece about why Treason May was never suitable Prime Minister material.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/08/theresa-may-good-mp-should-never-have-been-prime-minister/

    Tucked away in it is this:

    After David Cameron (in 2016) and Boris Johnson (in 2022) resigned as prime minister, each also subsequently resigned his seat in Parliament, causing a by-election. This created a bad impression. It looked as if both men were MPs only for what they could get out of it.

    They were, Charles, they were. Both now have their mouths firmly clenched on the teets of the globalist oligarchs, serving their aims and not those of the people.

  30. Good morning all

    I’ve been thinking of all the wicked things the alleged ‘Conservative’ politician Theresa May forced on to this country, in no particular order:
    Nut zero. Probably the most catastrophically damaging piece of legislation ever passed. For this alone she should be condemned for eternity.
    Brexit surrender deal.
    Modern slavery act. A boon for fake refugees to claim they’re victims of ‘slavery’ and therefore avoid deportation.
    Law to allow men to self ID as women and use women’s spaces. Thankfully this law was scrapped…for now
    Gender pay gap reporting. Another awful law that has added further burdens to businesses and added more fuel to the fire for our modern grievance industry to moan about.

    Any others that people may like to add?

    1. Isn’t that enough of a legacy? I’d add disgracing the UK by her appalling dress sense which made her look like a raddled old hooker.

      1. I’m glad someone has mentioned her appalling dress sense and it is a man! I didn’t dare in case I was accused of being spiteful or something :))

        1. Lest we forget.

          https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/25/fashion/24BORISSTYLE-2/merlin_158299497_84552a3b-f9a2-4c56-983b-5afc2837045c-articleLarge.jpg?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale

          https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/luxury/2022/01/10/71762c599c8dc58fe8416823e98e1d73_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg

          https://images.theconversation.com/files/424337/original/file-20211003-25-1b8j7p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C26%2C2197%2C1499&q=45&auto=format&w=926&fit=clip

          https://wwd.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/shutterstock_editorial_5679208g.jpg

          6. Yes, but I suspect that Boris did it deliberately and knew perfectly well what he looked like!

          7. I never knew why Johnson did that running lark. My theory (full of them this sunny morning) is that he ran 100 yards for the paparazzi – then hopped in his chauffeur driven car and went home.

          8. Blobby didn’t run, he “Flumbled”. When defending the West against the Russian hordes in the 60s we had a mess game called “flumbling”. It consisted of a contraceptive filled with water which you had to navigate a slalom course of upturned drawing pins spread across the bar floor. You had to do this on your knees by pushing said filled contraceptive with your nose. As you did so, the object “flumbled”. The movement of the filled contraceptive is exactly what Johnson looked like when he exercised – it was also reminiscent of how his brain worked.

          16. I don’t pretend to understand it but look at the list of his wives and alleged mistresses.

          1. It was that bright red evening dress she wore to some big, formal, international “do” that really got me – revealing wobbly shoulders and arms, split up to her knickers displaying her unattractive legs.

          2. My theory about Treason was that she was vain enough to employ a “personal dress adviser”. This person loathed Treason with a deep, long-lasting hatred. So she found the most hideous outfits she could – presented them to Treason and told her that, if she wore it, she would be the belle of the ball. Treason, being vain, fell for it – and thus the great unwashed was given much pleasure

          3. That is the most plausible explanation of how that raddled old scarecrow managed to make herself look so ridiculous.

          4. That’s some theory 😆! The other things were the leopard print kitten heels and plunging necklines in the HofC, not to mention skirts that were invariably just a little too short. Her legs below the knee aren’t too bad, but above the knee not so much, for a start she has fat knees :D!

          7. Hello, Peta…hope you’re good and enjoying nttl. I had a message from Angelina K saying you miss me (I miss you too) and inviting me to join nttl. I had already joined, and I look at the site most days, and will probably catch you there time to time. I’m still subscribed to the Spectator, I like the writers still there, and also BTL contributors. Disqus is still doing odd things. Bit disturbing say the least what’s happening on the Spectator and also FN’s continued silence – I suspect he’s gone. All the best, Kate.

          15. I wouldn’t even rate her as a 10 to 12 pinter at the Brompton Stomp “Grab-A-Grannie” Night.

          18. My mum would have said she looked like a sack of potatoes tied up around the middle.

          20. Your respective mothers obviously understood the subtle art of understatement (in Treason’s case).

          26. She looks like something that has escaped from a rather dreadful “art” exhibition.

          27. She looks like something that has escaped from a rather dreadful “art” exhibition.

      2. Hooker? She would be a very, very cheap one
        To paraphrase Lozza: who’d want to s*** that?

    3. Blair and the wrecking crew laid the groundwork for all these disasters and more.

    5. We can’t understand what she expected to make out of it.

      Surely not a Swiss bank account?

  31. Morning all 🙂😊
    8° and lovely sunshine, double figures later but could be more rain.
    I’m not sure what the NHS productuctivity puzzle is or actually means. Probably something to do with admin. Front line still seems solid, although I’d say many of them are overworked.

  34. Speak for yourself ! I’m young and full of vim and er…er…what was i saying?

  36. Shall we get our rant about the Georgian ref and the Welsh TMO out of the way before the match starts?

    1. Your old chum, Ben Youngs, has been given a column in the Sports section of the Saturday Daily Telegraph.

      His headline gives tribute to the man who should have been selected at scrum half on all the occasions he was. He states that Danny Care should exceed his own caps tally for England, despite Care being three years older than him. I can’t see it happening, though, since Care’s best years are behind him, and were all wasted on Youngs!

      1. Time for Care in the Community.

        (You realise, of course, that BY didn’t write a word of that. He can’t write! He care barely peak coherently.)

      2. I could never understand Youngs’ long international career. He really wasn’t good enough.

        1. Join the club. We debated here a few months back just HOW MANY points he gave away by giving possession to the opposition.

  37. Ah, good old ’cause and effect’ coming into play and displaying how it’s beyond the wit of the originators of the plans to see the impact of their ‘Green/Net Zero’ ideas on the real world.

    ‘Green/Net Zero’ originators will have to change the real world i.e. forcibly ban cars etc. from the roads before their preferred interim modes of transport i.e. public transport, bicycles, Shanks’s pony etc. will have even the merest chance of being viable for the range of journeys people wish, or more importantly need, to make.

    Banning cars, buses etc. is of course, their end-game. Why would anyone require a vehicle of any description when you are incarcerated in your 15 minute zone?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9fe049f2accdd2548f5e5be5ec0d74ce7f15e449c44dfa51fc2544ac2ee65642.png

    Daily Sceptics

    2. Good morning all. When I looked out of the bedroom window at 7.30 there was a lovely blue sky with the hint of sunshine. Now it’s cloudy and grey again. Ah well.

      “An 8% increase in traffic on boundary roads”, eh? Where did they expect the traffic to go then? And never mind all that additional pollution with everyone crawling along belching out fumes (I thought that’s what they were against).

          2. Thanks Jasper. Any chance of your moving back down south? Hope you’re looking after yourself.

          3. Desperately trying to move home, vw. Home to me is primarily Norfolk but East Anglia would be a great move. Thank you for caring.

        1. Thank you sos. May sound trite but it’s gone so quickly! We’re so lucky to have been happy (a few hiccups along the way, inevitably but never between us). And have a lovely family.

          1. HG and I have “been an item” for 55 years but married for 50.
            Another saint.

        1. Thank you HL. Going somewhere new to us for lunch. Hope it’s as good as our usual local!

  38. Humza Yousaf gave £250k to Gaza, which found its way to Hamas, after overruling his officials.

    1. Might that be actionable?
      Damages from a wealthy lawyer would help his retirement.

  39. Off to the hospital today for appointment with Ophthalmologists so will not be participating much today. But wanted to reproduce this article in full for the benefit of those who can’t access the Telegraph.

    A fascist, totalitarian future awaits us – my testimony to Congress
    The dystopia that Justin Trudeau’s Canada and Xi Jinping’s China are building will one day enslave humanity

    JORDAN PETERSON

    here are now 700 million CCTV cameras in Communist China. Those electronic eyes are attached to the most complete state apparatus of surveillance yet imagined. It has the ability not only to recognise faces at a distance, but gait itself when facial features are hidden or obscured.

    Such capability can, and soon will, be augmented to the point where the movements of eyes themselves, monitored by intelligent cameras, will be sufficient to identify any active party.

    The demented, naïve engineers who so enthusiastically helped build this system call it “SkyNet”, after the rogue and all-seeing technology that take such a dreadful wrong turn in the science fiction Terminator series, where artificially-intelligent robot minds hell-bent on protecting themselves end up destroying humanity as a consequence. The name also references a well-known Chinese phrase describing the reach of the divine itself – “the net of heaven is vast, yet it misses nothing” – which aptly describes the capabilities of the new state apparatus.

    This system is integrated with the so-called Chinese Social Credit System which awards its involuntary participants with a score indicating their compliance with the dictates of the Party, allowing for full control over access to everything they possess electronically – most ominously their savings and access to travel, including, as more electronic gates appear, walking.

    If you are Chinese, or even just a visitor, if your Social Credit Score falls beyond an arbitrary minimum your access to the world can be reduced to zero. This allows you to be shut out of all activities that can be virtualised: driving, shopping, working, eating, finding shelter; even fraternising with friends and family (as merely being in the presence of someone with a low Social Credit Score means that your own score can be lowered).

    This has opened up the opportunity for the government to extract slave-like labour from its citizens. The donation of free work to the state constitutes one means whereby erring men and women citizens can increase their score and remain part of society. This is precisely the payment system most desired by the most tyrannical: not the “work for me and benefit thereby” that constitutes the contractual arrangement undertaken by free citizens, but the “work for me and I will lift the deprivation I imposed” that has always been the leit-motif of the slaver.

    Why is any of this relevant to people in the West?

    Because the technology that the Chinese Communist Party employs is an extension of Western technology.

    Because we already recently fell prey to the terrible temptation of lockdowns employed by that state in the face of a hypothetical crisis.

    Because we are walking, step by step, in the same direction – partly because of the hypothetical ‘convenience’ of universal and automatic recognition of identity, partly because any problem whatsoever that now confronts us can easily be used to justify the increasing reach of the security and nanny state.

    It is said that stone-age people, first confronted with cameras and their resultant photographs by modern anthropologists, objected to having their images captured, as they feared the captivity of their souls. It turns out that such fear was prescient: the images that we leave behind while navigating virtual space are such close duplicates of our actual selves that the capture of our essence is, at this point, all but guaranteed.

    We all now have our doppelgangers. We all live so much in the virtual world, thanks to our purchasing habits and modes of electronically-mediated communication, that our very selves have become reducible to a frightening degree as mere ‘data’, the modern equivalent of our footprint, with that same data making up an image of our identity. This identity can be – and is increasingly – bought and sold by invisible corporate brokers that use it to sell us what we so desperately and carelessly and conveniently want, but that can also be used to track, monitor and punish everything we do and say.

    Behavioral scientists facilitate this process with their reprehensible nudging: the practice of pushing people in a given ideologically-determined direction by manipulating invisible incentives behind the scenes. Corporations track purchasing decisions, developing algorithms that with increasing accuracy track our patterns of attention and action, allowing for the prediction of what might next be most enticing, doing so not only to offer us what we want, but to determine and shape what we need.

    Governments can, and are, colluding with these corporate agents to develop a picture not only of our actions but of our thought and words so that deviation from the desired end can be mapped, rewarded, and punished. The development of such a digital identity and currency is nothing more than the likely end consequence of such inclinations – and the combination of both will facilitate the development of a surveillance state the scope of which optimistic pessimists of totalitarianism such as George Orwell could scarcely imagine.

    The ultimate fascist collusion

    The rapidly emerging new AI systems do nothing but increase this danger, providing for the possibility of a super-surveillance whose scope exceeds anything that mere unaugmented humans could imagine. They could ensure that our attitudes, conduct and personalities can be manipulated to the degree that we will not even be able to see a reality outside that which has been constructed by the superstate: the ultimate fascist collusion between gigantic self-interested corporations and paranoid security-obsessed anti-human governments.

    We are already selling our souls to the superstate for the purposes of immediate gratification and convenience, while being enticed to do so by fear-mongering ideologues, guaranteeing to us the security which we so desperately and increasingly crave.

    This is by no means a partisan matter. In my country, Canada, the most egregious over-reach of the superstate occurred in the aftermath of a working-class protest against – ironically – state over-reach during the Covid lockdowns, when our increasingly delusional and totalitarian federal government determined that it was appropriate to suspend the access of protestors and their supporters, however minor, to their own assets, in collusion with Canada’s big banks.

    Such an event did, and should, send a chill down the spines of anyone concerned with the maintenance of personal security, privacy and autonomy, signalling the increasingly ability and willingness of state and corporate agents to act in sync with regard to the data they now possess and means of control at their fingertips, and to punish their customers and citizens for their political views, however widespread those views might be. What views are deemed unacceptable will be precisely determined as those that oppose the interests of whomever is currently wielding the baton of power, left or right, corporate or governmental.

    It was recently determined in Canada that such a move was literally unconstitutional. But that has not stopped the over-reach of the state. New legislation proposed by the same government mandates the generation of a soon-to-be giant bureaucracy to monitor and punish in an extra-judicial manner so-called “crimes of hate”, soon defined as any speech or act that the bureaucrats and corporations in charge of the definition themselves object to.

    The same legislation now even defines what might be well regarded as pre-crime: if a court agent now judges that a Canadian citizen might perpetrate a so-called hate crime in the future, that person can be fitted with an electronic surveillance device, restricted in his or her ability to move or communicate, all to monitor their compliance with the dictates of the state.

    With increasing ability to monitor not only the actual attention patterns and behaviors of its citizens, but to predict those that are most likely, the persecution of such potential crime becomes ever more likely. “If you have nothing to hide, you will have nothing to fear,” will be the slogan commandeered by those most likely to turn to surveillance to protect and to control.

    What was the famous Soviet totalitarian joke, attributed to Lavrentiy Beria, head of the secret police? “Show me the man, and I’ll show you the crime.” Those words were true enough in the time of Joseph Stalin’s terror – and the police were secret enough then, as well. But that’s nothing compared to what we can and likely will produce now: a police so secret that we will not even be able to detect their comprehensive and subtle activity, monitoring crime so pervasive that everyone under the dictates of the system will have something to hide and much to fear.

  40. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/08/pro-palestine-protest-trinity-college-lord-balfour-portrait/Commenting is switched off on the DT about the slashing of Balfour’s portrait in Cambridge. Many have commented on the woke universities but no one has commented on the time to call the police. It seems there were no security guards as this event took time and even then the police were advised by an online report. Presumably the unis own CCTV wasn’t working either or had been disabled.
    The whole event is beyond comprehension. Do these people really want the Israelis to leave their homeland? Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel so I assume this is what they want.

  43. Perhaps it’s time for England’s cricketers to consider giving up test 5 day matches.

  44. SIR – Donald Trump versus Joe Biden (report, March 7). How can it have come to this?

    Camilla Coats-Carr
    Teddington, Middlesex.

    It isn’t ‘Trump v Biden’; Biden is just a puppet. Barack Obama is attempting to emulate FDR by achieving four terms as president.

      1. The poster you replied to has blocked me and his/her post is unavailable for me to read; yet, inexplicably, it appears h/she can read (and comment upon) my posts!

        How can that be, and what did he/she say?

        1. The whiff comment was a reply to your Coats-Carr letter, are you referring to a different earlier reply?

          1. Yes. I see that now.

            However, someone, who has blocked me [Content unavailable], replied to my comment (Jules has since been chatting with him) but I can’t understand how someone who has blocked me can see, or reply, to my comments! Something just doesn’t add up.

          2. I suspect it’s an aberration.
            They may well not know they’ve blocked you.
            I get blocked frequently, can’t think why.
            The blockers tend to unblock after a while.
            I guess the swine want their pearls after all!

    2. It’s much worse than that. Biden and Obama’s election runs were financed by Soros who also financed the election steal 2020.

      So as Biden and Obama are merely Soros’ puppets, this will be Soros’ fourth election run for President of the United States.

      The very generous Soros is likely the world’s most successful politician having also been UK PM continuously since 1990 thanks to puppets too numerous to mention. President of France thanks to his puppet, Emmanuel Macron, Canada’s PM thanks to his puppet, Justin Trudeau, as well as likely Archbishop of Canterbury thanks to his probable puppet, Justin Welby.

      That’s before we look at Australia and New Zealand where Soros has undoubtedly been hugely politically successful, especially with Jacinda Ardern!

        2. Jules, the commenter you have replied to here has blocked me and all I see is “Content unavailable”; yet they have replied to my comment! How is that possible?

          1. I don’t know but the commenter was Polly so perhaps you have blocked her. She has several identical accounts.

    2. I think he lives mainly in the country now doesn’t he? He was very sporty when young and got an Oxford blue playing rugby so understands the importance of fitness. Also, when he was mayor of London he used to cycle a lot round London. I don’t think it was just for show because his brush with Covid did give him quite a shock.

      1. His riding around London. On Boris Bikes you mean.
        I also don’t believe he had Covid. He might have had a bad case of Flu though. We could ask the ICU nurse who treated him except for the fact she is nowhere to be found.

  47. The BBC has just announced that the French government has been give half a billion pounds over the past three years to help improve the patrolling of the coast and to deter the illegal immigrants. The BBC spokesperson also added that this was causing great anxiety and additional deaths as the refugees are having to take more risks when launching the dinghies.

    I suggest that the British government demand repayment and additional costs for the stress and misery caused to the unfortunate people most affected by this irresponsible and expensive political posturing – the British taxpayers – and the money used to mine the Channel and install flame throwers on the ‘White Cliffs’ of Albion

    I know I am a softy but the lives of the poor refugees are of paramount importance. If they can’t cross the Channel they can’t perish at sea in flimsy boats. You know it makes sense.

      1. Of course they are refugees, fleeing the evil Macronic regime in France – the BBC says so. Don’t you believe the BBC?

  48. The BBC has just announced that the French government has been give half a billion pounds over the past three years to help improve the patrolling of the coast and to deter the illegal immigrants. The BBC spokesperson also added that this was causing great anxiety and additional deaths as the refugees are having to take more risks when launching the dinghies.

    I suggest that the British government demand repayment and additional costs for the stress and misery caused to the unfortunate people most affected by this irresponsible and expensive political posturing – the British taxpayers – and the money used to mine the Channel and install flame throwers on the ‘White Cliffs’ of Albion

    I know I am a softy but the lives of the poor refugees are of paramount importance. If they can’t cross the Channel they can’t perish at sea in flimsy boats. You know it makes sense.

  50. Worse, his pass from the scrum or breakdown was so slow it was glacial and often very inaccurate.

      1. Wit and humour are – in my estimation- far more important in a man than his physical appearance. I’ve not met him but Boris has charisma and an inner spark that make him attractive to those women who aren’t clutching their pearls because he is apparently the only high -profile politician to have ever been economical with the truth. Oh and because he campaigned for Brexit obvs.

        1. As a young man keen to get his fair share of girls, all I could offer was wit and humour and I can tell you that they didn’t work at all. The tall, good-looking young men of athletic appearance were the ones whose hormonal urges were fully satisfied.

    1. Must be that. His previous wife Marina Warner was a seriously impressive lady. It all went wrong for Johnson when he dumped her for Carrie Antoinette. It is said that it was Warner who persuaded him to go for Brexit.

      1. Look into how and when Marina Warner got together with Boris. Not a particularly edifying story.

  54. Just taken the cups etc back to the church. Though it is very nice and sunny – there is a BITTER easterly wind. Shame – I had hopes of some gardening. Too bloody cold.

    1. Yes, bloody cold here too, though the Yard Thermometer has risen to 4°C!

    1. Flogging is a bit harsh for that. An hour in the stocks with rotting fruit would suffice surely?

  56. I thought he was AC/DC on Brexit and had written a paper in support of both positions. Maybe that was her idea.

    1. It may have been a cynical ploy but being able to argue both sides is a good thing, IMO.

        1. I read one of Boris’s books, written before he became an MP for the first time. He was frank in that about his divided views on the EU and, importantly, he knew a great deal about the EU because he had seen it at close quarters. To suggest that someone who can do a balanced appraisal of a policy has no conviction is silly. Rather he has come to a conclusion on a sound basis. I am much more worried by the (many) people I know whose understanding of the EU’s machinery, finance and reach is minimal but who have acted with ‘conviction’ by berating and sneering at anybody who voted to leave and conspiring to overturn the vote.

          1. I voted to leave. I joined Leave EU. I don’t believe that Boris Johnson was at all persuaded to Leave, only that he wanted to be on the winning side, whatever happened.

      1. I believe a VPN solves that.
        It’s too long to copy and paste in full, but here’s a taster.

        PETER HITCHENS: Twenty-five years ago I wrote a bestseller which warned the pillars of our institutions were crumbling under New Labour. Of course the Left sneered, but now I fear my book has become an obituary of Britain

        A general dislike for every aspect of the Christian religion was increasingly obvious. And there were privileges for the elite which most people knew nothing about.

        The 1997 funeral of Diana Spencer, sentimental and populist, contrasted so sharply with the 1965 funeral of Winston Churchill, restrained and patrician, that they might almost have taken place in different countries. There were, as in Moscow, schools where powerful Leftists could get their children a good education, which most children could not hope to enter.

        Media, as in Moscow, served the government and inserted propaganda into what was supposed to be impartial news.

        And in the midst of all this there was an unstoppable cultural revolution, sneering at those things and actions we used to admire, falsifying history to suit itself. I wrote about this sort of thing every week.

        Until the Blair government took office, these ideas were shared by most of the elite, in education, media, the law and the schools — but not the state. Now they took over the whole state.

        New Labour blurted in its manifesto that it was ‘the political arm of none other than the British people as a whole’. This was a rather sinister claim to be the only legitimate government and a warning more of us should have heeded. The Blairites did not respect Parliament or the constitution. And they were as unscrupulous as Russia’s Lenin.

        In a TV broadcast, they lied flatly that the Tories would abolish the state pension. When they won the election, they crammed Downing Street (closed to the public for years) with fake spontaneous demonstrators waving Union Jacks.

        These days it would be rainbow flags, but then they pretended to be patriots. The TV bulletins showed this North Korean charade as if it were a genuine event.

        The future Sir Anthony Blair himself avoided any kind of ­questioning on the very telling gulf between the schooling he ordained for everyone else and his own children’s education.

          1. Monday morning 9am news. First full day of my holiday on the Norfolk Broads. I played records after that.

          3. That kind of outpouring of grief for someone most people never met was completely unlike the British who were alive in the war years.

          4. I was born just after the war, 1947, and I was completely bemused by it, even though my upper lip is not all that stiff.

          5. I was born in 1948. We lived through some hard times when people just got on with life. One neighbour I remember as a child – a kindly old man who helped people with their gardening, had been horribly burnt during WW1. He never complained at all.

          1. Here’s more:

            And I came home at last in 1995, after five years of exile [in Russian and Washington DC], in a great Cunarder, the QE2.

            I thought such a journey was too important to be ­compressed into a few hours of featureless flight, ending with the wet whump of wheels on some dawn runway at Heathrow. I was right.

            I remember being blinded by tears as we steamed in the September sunshine along England’s uniquely lovely south coast, to dock at last in Southampton.

            England, home and beauty.

            And yet how quickly the delight of homecoming withered. Again and again I felt that something did not sound or look right. I would experience some piece of stupid bureaucracy or unhelpfulness. I would read of law-abiding people betrayed by police or courts who were more interested in the supposed ‘rights’ of those who had attacked them.

            The very language seemed to have been rewritten by sociologists.

            I would despair at the obsession with pushing women away from the honourable task of raising the next ­generation and crammed instead into call centres and factories on wretched wages, while their children yearned for them in nurseries.

            It was this pro-abortion, anti-marriage, anti-childbirth, ultimately anti-parent frenzy which especially troubled me. The state was ­supplanting the family.

            This chilly tendency had been prophesied in 1980 by the contraceptive fanatic Lady Helen Brook in an unintentionally revealing letter to The Times: ‘From birth till death it is now the privilege of the parental State to take major decisions — objective, unemotional, the State weighs up what is best for the child.’

            That phrase, ‘the parental State’ made me think of the single most horrible monument in Communist Moscow, set in a sad, weedy park in the district known as Red Presnya. This was a statue of the little horror Pavlik Morozov. Soviet children were actually brought up to admire this treacherous creep for betraying his own parents to the secret police. Were we heading that way? It still seems to me that we were and are.

            Or I would listen to some politician and I would ask myself: ‘Why is this bland dishonesty both unpleasant and familiar? Where have I experienced it before?’

            It nagged at me a lot.

            And then it came to me that what I was seeing, feeling and hearing was the quiet, weed-like growth, in Britain, of the ideas that had ruined Russia.

          5. Present day England and Wales (can’t speak for Scotland) reminds me more and more of my time in the pre-Glaznost’ Soviet Union.

    1. How do you find the time to read these things?

      Anyway, I assumed it was an advert (in the modern style) for men’s perfume….

  59. I made some folk larf in church last evening. I was pouring the tea/coffee (almost indistinguishable!!) and a lady asked for, “Black tea.”
    “Tea of colour?” I shot back. My how their sides split…..

      1. Nah – they really did laugh out loud. Norfolk country folk don’t do woke!!

          7. No mention of the diversity of the attacker, so obviously a muslim or a black. Dear life.

            Every time this happens Home office staff should be flogged.

          9. Someone was murdered in West Park in Wolverhampton last week. I need to find the details.

          1. Both County and District. But one tries to have as little to do with them as possible.

    3. If someone had asked for white coffee would they have been sent off for deconstruction?

      1. They are all crumblies after all.
        But i think you meant re-education.

        And as we know…old dogs and new tricks…nah.

        1. No, I meant deconstruction. The CofE are currently advertising for a “Whiteness Deconstruction Officer” at a salary of £36,000pa.

  60. I tend to read the internet when I sometimes can’t sleep e.g. 2-4 a.m.

    If you haven’t read the piece JW is pondering by whom/what/ why M.M may be ‘persuaded’ to advocate WWIII…..

    1. Wot Taki doesn’t say is that Blair and Obama are the same because both of them got a mountain of dosh from You Know Who.

    2. I read Audacity of Hope and was taken in. The biggest lie was his claim to be a Christian convert.

  66. I just signed the petition ” Stand with J.K. Rowling against the tyranny of Gender Ideology” on CitizenGO.

    It’s important. Will you sign it too? Here’s the link:
    https://citizengo.org/en-gb/ot/212286-stand-jk-rowling-against-tyranny-gender-ideology?dr=23669919::0841ecc379e9ec6446017b210175a55f&utm_source=em&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_content=em_link4&utm_campaign=EN_GB-2023-11-07-Local-NA-CFA-212286-I_stand_with_JK_Rowling.08_B_AA_Relaunch_4&mkt_tok=OTA3LU9EWS0wNTEAAAGRwQHNaLutgt8mDXFaY3JSXbUdZtYSHLJ4q4jE26DvBeHOkyJvAD9A39mFKwtF3oPj38vOc14Z93sIn09Wm-fqiWx7yFxF9FLEayDfpMOtuyel3ukDfQ

    Thanks,

          1. We’re doing some consultancy work on improving the performance of a mobile app. We found the problem immediately – there’s 5MB of cookie tracking, side loading and third party nonsense in it – stuff like instaface and google tracking, tiktok and all that junk.

            We told the customer – remove the tracking. No, they said.

            Thus we’re edge fiddling with images, reducing usability and features all so they can keep the tracking. I want out of the contract so after every fix I write “The fundamental problem of pushing 5MB of tracking remains.”

          2. Perhaps the app is the trap and all they are interested in is data acquisition. Which they get paid for.

        3. I have mine set to delete cookies when I close it down. Given a choice, I will always choose “reject all”.

          1. So do I. Recently they’ve started sneaking in “legitimate interest” so I reject those as well.

    2. Whilst I respect and admire JK Rowling, anyone that wealthy who resides in SNP-land is borderline loco. Now it has been reported that Sheikh Humza has sent £250,000 of taxpayers’ money to an enclave of rapists and babyburners, she should show solidarity with Jewish people and egress Scotland. IMHO.

      2. ‘Borderline loco’ that’s me, I live in the borders and have nowhere else to go, despite hating it an my loneliness and feeling of exile.

        2. It’s odd, as I imagine there are many people who would change places. My chum is desperately trying to find a small, quiet village out of London because it’s just an open sewer.

    4. What difference will it make? Will the useless and stupid gender recognition act be repealed? Will the trans be labelled mentally ill, as they are? Will someone getting uppity be told to shut up and stop wearing a dress?

      Will workers be able to say ‘you’re a man, and I am not going to call you Sheila, Desmond.’?

  67. 384514+ up ticks,

    ‘Lead the way’ and increase defence spending, two ministers urge Sunak
    The Prime Minister urged by ministers to increase spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP ‘and beyond’

    I do believe when the two ministers suggested to sunat that at least three rolls of razor wire strung out across the Dover invasion bridgehead would help they were forcibly dragged from the parliamentary tall story club chamber and soundly thrashed.

    sunat with royal approval I believe said, that the WEF / NWO would have none of it.

    1. Until there’s clear evidenc of what the state would spend the money on it’s just pouring waste into the MoD.

  68. US shoots down dozens of drones in ‘large-scale’ Houthi attack. 9 March 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/471700d828855548d2019042a6d7caa3b796786e9fa4aa30f2f313fc6902e63a.png

    More than a dozen Houthi drones were shot down on Saturday after the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels tried to launch a “large-scale” attack on an American commercial ship and US war destroyers.

    The US Central Command, or CENTCOM, said the “large-scale” Houthi attack occurred before dawn in the Red Sea and adjacent Gulf of Aden.

    Weren’t we going to sort these people out with a few bombing raids?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/09/us-shoots-drones-large-scale-houthi-attack-red-sea/

    1. US war destroyers?
      Are they at war with the Houthis?
      I thought it was a police action or some other such misnomer.
      If they really wanted it dealt with they would go to the source. Same with the dinghy people.

        1. The state can never be at peace. It likes war. Mostly because it has no intention of ever winning.

          1. Defence companies like war too. How else are they going to find out how good or otherwise their nice new toys are? Even better if the wars are in other people’s countries so their own don’t get the body bags.

          6. Defence companies like war too. How else are they going to find out how good or otherwise their nice new toys are? Even better if the wars are in other people’s countries so their own don’t get the body bags.

    3. Bombs are pointless when your enemy is the size of a gnat in a dingy. As usual, big fat state is fighting the last war but one where the enemy was a nation, met on a nice big plain, with tanks and ships and troops.

      Modern enemies are small, mobile and irregular. Our military just isn’t capable. Far better – to really end this war – would to find where they’re sailing from in Iran and utterly flatten it. If Iran gets uppity, keep going. The way t stop war is to destroy your enemy’s will to fight back.

      That same prinicple applies locally as well as nationally.

      1. The enemy’s will typically lies in the command structure. Start there. A haedless chicken may run around, but not for very long.

    1. Labour put leadership contests straight to their members, don’t they? I wonder what the membership demographic is now? Wouldn’t have thought the peas people would pay for influence.

    2. Khan is wangling for the new muslim party and a top job in that. He’s read the entrails and enforced massive unwanted muslim immigration and there’s so many of them allowed to run riot that they’re poised to infiltrate and undermine the country.

      It’s ironic. The white working majority have been forced to pay the welfare of the outbreeding, welfare dependent muslim and it’s the muslim now forming a political party while the one that should support that working group – the Conservatives – has done everything it can to ensure it’s own destruction – and that of it’s voter base.

        1. How very dare you ! Khan doesn’t do that sort of thing !

          Like his ancestors and countrymen he has children to do that for him.

  70. Saw a pair of goosanders cruising along the river this morning when walking Oscar. Very pretty.

  71. Guessing “for that reason” but I’m not good with modern shorthand either.

  72. Gosh, my father used to say that London was an open sewer redeemed only by the Royal Parks. He died in 1987. Today he might think twice about the parks.

      1. More recently they have been used to harvest bicycles. Not sure if their is a subsidy for that.

  74. I do believe he had Covid. He had two nurses, one from NZ and a male one from Portugal. Both were very nice about him. The NZ one left the UK for Australia some time back saying that working for the NHS wasn’t her scene. There is lots to criticise him for without making things up. In any case, in 2020 the Covid virus all but replaced the seasonal flu one.

  76. Biden hasn’t just opened the Border. He’s secretly flying migrants in en masse. 9 March 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6097dd67de3452ed4f0e7fc08b7c7c3dbc8eedca5170d8637afab04a40ab81e8.png

    Joe Biden boasted in his inaugural address that his election was a win for the “cause of democracy”. “This is democracy’s day” he said. But when it comes to immigration, Mr. Biden has flagrantly abused executive power, governing contrary to the will of the people, and has sought to hide the details of his lawless, open-borders agenda from the public. The latest evidence of his administration’s secretive migration schemes reveals that they allowed 320,000 otherwise inadmissible migrants to fly into the country last year but won’t reveal where they landed.

    It isn’t actually much different here. I suspect that if we could interview the three quarters of a million people who came into the UK last year we would find that the Home Office was behind most of them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/comment/2024/03/09/biden-immigration-border-secret-flights-cbp-one-asylum/

    1. The evidence is overwhelming White Western Christian civilisation MUST be destroyed by any and all means possible
      Well on its way but I’m still struggling with Cui Bono??

        1. A musician dies and goes to heaven. He meets Elvis, John Lennon and Jimi
          Hendrix. Suddenly Bono flies by. “Hey, I didn’t know Bono was dead,”
          the musician says. “He’s not,” Elvis replies. “That’s God. He likes to
          pretend he’s Bono.”

      3. Read the article in the Critic I recommended earlier. While it ignores the religious/cultural dimension it does put an interesting slant on the societal evolutionary factors behind some of what is going on. I’d add that the rise of materialism at the expense of Christianity has swapped absolute and universal morality/ethics heavenly utopia and this life’s actions having later consequences with relativistic and solipsistic utopias personal to ever smaller groups and that ever more people regards themselves as ‘their own god’ with no ultimate eternal authority to which to answer.
        No one benefits of course other than Islam and those seek to profit from it. In a way it’s a kind of hubris which will lead to nemesis for a whole civilisation.

      4. ‘They’ have decided peak technology has been reached to keep them and their offspring comfortable for eternity. They no longer require innovators. They can more easily control people with an average IQ of 70.

      5. “… White Western Christian civilisation MUST be destroyed…” It is a/the reason for supporting Putin.

    2. When Donald made reference to this in his Super Tuesday victory speech MSNBC cut the feed and declared it ‘Lies’….

    4. Migrants are probably being flown en masse into the UK as well. That is why we are being distracted by the ones coming across the channel, all with their government regulation red life saving jackets.

  78. I did understand what Lacoste meant. It reminded me to clear the cookies on my own browser.

      1. That’s because I’m on my laptop and my normal account. But I lost access to TCW comments on my phone.

  80. It won’t make any difference apart from showing the ptb that people are aware of what they are doing.

    2. Rear wheel drive BMWs are appalling on ice and snow as I found out the hard way once. 🙂 Oddly though my last E30 M3, the most powerful of the lot was brilliant in both conditions and never skipped a beat. I haven’t dared test the latest though!

      1. My last car was a C-Class Mercedes estate. Same problem. Living out in the sticks, far from any gritters, I bought a set of winter wheels ant tyres from eBay. Made a huge difference. Did the same with an earlier elderly Disco.

  82. We would perhaps liven up a wet weekend by posting pictures of Teresa May and Angela Rayner at their sartorially most magnificent and seeing if we can break the internet.

  84. I’d rather not say if you don’t mind. I have a very unusual name and a couple of weirdos at the Speccie tracked me down in real life so I changed it several times..

    1. Ok. I have looked at your posting history and you were active on Nottl four years ago.

          1. Would explain it and I may have used another account for NoTTL in those days as I had two for a while after being banned by Guido for mentioning his drink driving conviction.

  85. This one hasn’t run for over 20 years, and needs restored. Brakes work, though. Inherited from Grand-Uncle who dies a few months ago, it was given to Firstborn, and finally got it delivered to his smallholding Thursday this week. Now installed in the barn, where it can be worked on under shelter.

  89. How on earth does No1 son get in a mini? Is it a convertible? Or does he drive from the back seat?

    1. He’s the same height as me, about 5’8″. But muscular like hell – so much wider.
      Plenty space in the Issigonis mini, even for wide or long people.

      1. Well i can see why he has two minis then. ‘What colour shall i wear today hmmm’.

  92. Hi, just parked my dinghy, sailed from the Spectator, any room for a small one, I can fit in a corner.

    4. Depends how small. I have a drawer available to rent though if you would prefer the deluxe accommodation my gas meter is feeling lonely.

      Welcome aboard.

      1. Depends how large your drawers are . About 6 foot straightened out, but much smaller coiled, so I’m quite adaptable.

    1. “Let’s make sure Ukraine wins this war.”

      I’ve sent Vlad your name you little toad!

      1. Every word out of his mouth about the nature of Ukrainian politics is the very opposite of the truth.

    2. “Let’s make sure Ukraine wins this war.”

      I’ve sent Vlad your name you little toad!

      2. The Muslipolitan Perlice Farce have devoted the whole of the manpower to looking out for two far-right people – last seen shopping in Waitrose.

      4. Resistance is justified when your land is occupied

        If a similar number of white British people marched with banners bearing that slogan and chanting” immigrants out” they would all be arrested and probably prosecuted.

  94. There is freedom to protest and freedom to protest ..

    Funny how selective the law is .
    Yet the on line media are cancelling arm chair protesting by banning comments that are perceived by a bot to be audacious and non conforming .

    We are losing our freedom to exhale and declare our indigenous anger at the Woke idiocy that is infesting everywhere .

    1. All the ‘Free Palestein marchers don’t WANT to realise that Gaza brought it down on its own head. The sooner they’re eradicated the better.

  95. Just done 1½ hours in the gar den. Cleared the remaining debris from the tree felling six weeks ago. There is the chance of a north wind on Monday. I’d like to have a bonfire.

    33ºC in the greenhouse. The auto-vents on the west side are working OK; those on the east ……. not so much. The damned bent pins upon which the whole system depends “sprang out” and are lurking somewhere in the greenhouse. Luckily I have spares. Not been technically minded, and lacking all DIY skills (as well as being short-sighted and ham-fisted – I do wonder why complicated mechanical things depend on tiny items costing a few pence….

    1. The time for the bonfire is when the chickens come to roost at the end of your garden. Though you would probably be arrested for air purification.

          1. No, you fool. England in the sense used is “the England team” = a singular noun.

            Do try to concentrate on the thing (the only thing) you know and understand.

      2. Wait for later….and remember that Italy drew with France two weeks ago and but for a ball falling off the tee would have won.

  98. Italy 31 Scotland 29

    Gregor Townsend’s side led at half-time but were undone as Italy roared back to claim a historic win …

    1. Just seen an article in The Grimes headed: “How Scotland can batter Italy.”

      I hope John Barclay will be eating lots of humble pasta….

      1. John Barclay doesn’t do humble anything! ‘Orrible man! Him and John Jeffries! Oh and not forgetting the ghastly Stuart Hogg!

      3. I can not understand how Duhan van der Merwe can be even consider to qualify as Scottish. He was born and bred in SA but he plays for Edinburgh and that’s it.
        And It’s cheating.

        1. I have long since given up trying to work out the !qualification” rules that allow all sorts of furriners to pretend to be citizens of the six nations.

    2. Isn’t it great? I love Italy and I love the Six nations – it always throws up surprises, often nice ones like this 😆Scotland have only got about three-and-a-half Scotsmen in the side anyway 🤣

  100. No idea what you are talking about…Does it have anything to do with arts and embroidery?

    1. You may have missed my attempt at a rugby pun. Fancy a match?…or whatever they call it where you are. Pickleball? :@)

  102. I know nothing about Pickleball….have heard about it but like Manuel (I know nothing)…

  105. Sorry Daddy. I won’t do it again. Promise. Please don’t …no …stop…arghhhhh!

    1. More likely the Met consider anyone responding in any way to complain about these people will cause a riot. You can forget social cohesion Mark Rowley. You have no control you stupid cunt.

    2. Just don’t chuck potatoes at them. They find it annoying unless they are baked apotaoclock.

      1. Come on – you thought so too, deep down!! I have never cared for Smith – but I don’t care for him slightly less, now!!

  110. They would select ringleaders for prosecution, I don’t think even they could get away with thousands of prosecutions

  112. This is great. Thank you, Geoff. Knew I’d miss the btl commenters but just can’t abide the Spectator anymore.

    1. The police are tacitly admitting that they are protecting counter-demonstrators for their own safety. It is not their fault that hundreds of thousands of Muslim terrorist sympathisers are on the streets. That is a political failure 35 years in the making. However, if a banning order were to be issued, the Muslims would defy it and that would leave the police with a problem – one of simple numbers, even if they were to attempt to use force. The moment a demonstrator dies because of police action, the mob will run amok.

      That moment cannot be far away.

  115. An urging Double Bogey!
    (And two mistakes)

    Wordle 994 5/6
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    1. Me too.

      Wordle 994 5/6

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    2. Got lucky today.

      Wordle 994 3/6

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    3. Normal par

      Wordle 994 4/6

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    1. There’s a guy coming to look at my front door. To make sure it meets fire regulations. A replacement would have to meet listed building requirements.

      1. Just done…136 over 75 after having an argument. Better than the increased dose of Ramipril that has caused me all sorts of symptoms.

          1. The reading is better but i’m not sure i can maintain it. I really don’t believe what medics think is the best level for all people.

          2. Mine has always been higher than that even when I was hyper fit and running 5 miles in 30 minutes cross country with a resting heart rate of under 50.

          3. Clearly averages are not a good way to evaluate a condition before more and more drugs are prescribed.

          6. None of these figures are set in stone. Take sodium levels. I’m told 133 is usual (I won’t say normal). My doctor,no less, phoned me in a panic one Monday to say that I needed to go straight away to A&E, same day emergency care as my levels were very low. I asked, what could be done at the hospital, could I monitor BP (probs there too). She spoke to consultant who agreed I could go 4 days later, and have an infusion if necessary. GP said surgery happy with 130, mine was 127 last year, this year it was 124. 4 days later it was 127. Consultant said they were happy with 128 but 127 was close enough. Make of that what you will.

          7. Think of a number, add 6, take away 4, double it, add 2, halve it, take away one, add 5, take away the number you first thought of
            the answer’s 7

          1. A belated Happy Birthday for yesterday, Geoff. You weren’t around for me to say it in person on the right day.

    4. According to the NHS…

      As a general guide:

      ideal blood pressure is considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg
      high blood pressure is considered to be 140/90mmHg or higher
      low blood pressure is considered to be below 90/60mmHg

      1. When i went for my colonoscopy it was 197 over 118. The nurse said it looked a bit high. The second reading a few minutes later was 157 over 90.

        Fancy that. I had only climbed three staircases.

        I think if you say to me on my Chaise how wonderful i look i would probably have a reading that exploded the machine !

        Looking forward to seeing you again.

        *for any newbies i am talking lunch. :@)

    2. I had a cat with the most beautiful, soft, silkiest coat you ever felt. One day the vet was stroking him appreciatively then he said wistfully “He’d make a lovely pair of gloves”!

      1. I used to have a red setter who spent most of his life stretched out in front of the fire. I threatened to have him made in to a hearthrug after he died, but I was over-ruled.

        1. I should think so too! Though on reflection, he might not have minded so much😄

  120. They lend it a certain piquancy.
    And it fools vegans who think it’s just made from apples. 🙂

          2. And who cares if it is ugly! We won. Well done England.

            It sounded as if there were as many Oirish as English supporters at Twickers!

      1. They’ve moved from the constant wham bam kick, wham bam kick to throwing it about a bit more and it’s paid off.

  124. Phew. Talk about leaving it to the last minute….

    Two upsets today, then.

    I was quite pleased at the end after ITV had been showing what they assumed was the Table…and Oirland “clear winners” of the championship.

  125. Not a rugby fan particularly (loved the comment earlier today about getting the referee-bitching out the way early…) but my other half was watching it. We went into our tea with Ireland in front and came out 5 minutes later (yes we are quick eaters) to find England had won. And Italy earlier too! It’s like Brexit all over again…

    1. I watched it and tried to be relaxed because Oscar, the dog, always starts whimpering when I watch England play.

    2. Makes a change for the English to beat the Irish; I’m resigned to a greenwash at Cheltenham from Tuesday, especially in view of Constitution Hill being on the sidelines.

    1. Give it a rest! I’m guessing you feel better, now you’ve got over the sweetness and light?

      1. Be careful.

        There are some on here who think Lewis Hamilton is the GOAT, others who think he’s A goat…

        1. I’m in the latter category….
          And he’s not, and never has been the best driver on the grid by quite a long way. Of his generation, Alonso is, by quite a long way.

  128. Bearman will be the driver who loses out if, as is rumoured, Hamilton moves to Ferrari.
    I would like the youngster to show his true potential, but he needs the opportunity.
    Being bumped by a has-been would be very unfortunate.

    1. C’est la vie. He has his whole career ahead, and he did brilliantly today. The ‘has-been’ hasn’t finished yet!

    3. What a lovely scene with the kids that was, we loved it. One point. That’s the way to do it.

    5. I have just looked at the menu , and imagined the smell and delicate flavours of the Lebanese yums ..

      What a lovely selection of food , so glad you both had an enjoyable experience , especially so as a celebration .

      I think I would have favoured the scallops .

      What was your choice ?

      1. Afternoon Belle. We have a very good local pub but thought we’d try somewhere different. I chose chicken shawarma on pitta bread with Arabic spices, mayo and tomato salsa. Delish. This was one of the specials, thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m not one for Indian food but told myself I must try something I’d never had before and so glad I did. Alf had the Lebanese chicken taouk from the main menu, he said that was delish too.

        1. Wow, what a treat vw, and so glad you both enjoyed your yummy selection , I am not too keen on Indian food , but will try something slightly spicey if given the chance .

          We ate diet busting mashed potato, delicious sausages , kale , gravy , and topped off with ready made Yorkshire puds from Sainsbury’s, finished off with freshly cooked rhubarb and custard .

          Moh is fast asleep , and I am watching Crufts on the box.

      2. We skipped the starter.
        vw had Chicken Schwarma (special)and I had Chicken Taouk, both had ice cream for pud.
        The main was very filling. We’ll definitely be going back again.
        It’s probably the only menu I’ve seen that I could eat every dish.

      1. Thank you Geoff and belated birthday wishes to you. Are you still OK for Thursday? Would you like us to pick you up from the station?

        1. Thanks, John. Yes please. I’ll WhatsApp you with train details. After last Monday, one can’t be too careful. Though I suppose derailments are still relatively rare…

  134. Well, that’s me gone. Bit of a turn up for the old book, eh? All we need is for France to beat Wales and the weekend will have been a “shocking” one!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

    1. All we need is for France to beat Wales tomorrow and my cup of joy will be full to overflowing :))

  135. Right. I am watching the replay and England are all wearing different coloured socks. Now, I play 7th. team hockey and we can manage to wear the same colour socks so i would have thought the England team could have. Wot next? No numbers on their shirts? Duplicate shirt numbers? Now that we CAN do!

    2. Ever noticed how other nations’ teams (including Home Nations) all have nice kits which reflect their national colours, but England’s is some hideous multi-colour nonsense and a redisigned badge that doesn’t represent our history? They wouldn’t dare mess with the kit of Italy. And it’s across multiple sports. Even the olympics team gets a horrid offence against the eyes.

  137. A bit slow catching on today
    Wordle 994 6/6

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  140. Thank you Jill.
    Our daughter, Jill, 55th birthday tomorrow.
    Causes some raised eyebrows now and again. 😂

  143. It was lovely, there were 5 or so kids running around at the end. What a night for them!

    1. Alf here.
      It’s on the outskirts of Chiidingfold not far from Petworth on the A283.

  145. We need to talk. I was sent to hospital by a locum saying my potassium level was so low i could have a heart attack. She then tried to call an ambulance from the practice…Me sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes…fucking ridiculous.

      1. My day was a delight, thank you. All my chicks around me, lovely food and drink. Could not wish for more 🙂 🙂 🙂

          1. Children and Grandchildren :). I do love Buff Orpingtons, though. I have given up keeping poultry, just too harrowing. Here, it is not a matter of if but of when on the fox/badger front.

          2. Oh, surely that nice Mr Foxy-woxy wouldn’t do anything nasty? He’s so cuddly! [Relax, I used to hunt and went on the CA marches].

          3. Dianne the Ex had ex-battery hens in her garden in Woking. We put an electric (mesh) fence around them, which successfully kept the foxes at bay. Before I moved in 2020, my neighbours had chickens, who had taken over a tree house. That seemed to.. er.. fox the foxes…

  148. Fresh £450m funding round opens for council refugee housing scheme with focus on new-build

    DLUHC wants half of properties delivered through the Local Authority Housing Fund round three to be new homes

    Details of how councils can access a £450m funding pot to provide homes for refugees have been published by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).

    Guidance published yesterday states councils have until 28 March to tell the government how they intend to use their indicative funding allocation under the scheme, while those not receiving an allocation can express their interest in using unclaimed funds.

    DLUHC wants councils to ensure half of the homes they provide through the scheme are new build, as opposed to existing properties bought, in order to provide 2,400 new homes.

    The government wants 50% of LAHF round three funding to be spent on building new homes

    Local authorities that commit to using the funding to deliver new homes, as opposed to acquiring existing homes, will receive an additional 10% uplift in the grant provided.

    Homes England will also provide targeted support to councils with limited housing development experience and networks.

    >> See also: Crawley council declares housing emergency after vote

    >> See also: Number of people in temporary accommodation up 14%

    The government is encouraging councils to work in partnership with housing associations to deliver the new homes.

    To qualify for the uplift, the homes must be direct new developments, ‘off-the-shelf’ new build homes purchased from developers or conversions of non-residential properties.

    DLUHC has so far allocated funding to 203 local authorities facing the highest housing pressures.

    As of the end of March last year, 8,799 Afghan refugees were living in temporary accommodation. In February last year, Local Government Association data indicated that councils have helped 163,500 Ukrainians settle in the UK, including 47,800 arrivals via the Ukraine Family Scheme and 115,800 arrivals via the Ukraine Sponsorship (Homes for Ukraine) Scheme.

    Round three of the LAHF is a two-year programme which will provide 45% of overall funds in 2024/25 and 55% in the second year, 2025/26.

    DLUHC has said that given the urgent need for homes for those on the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme, local authorities should deliver at least two-thirds of these properties within year one.

    Rounds one and two of the LAHF provided £500m and £250m respectively. Round one of the fund aimed to deliver 3,000 homes.

    https://www.housingtoday.co.uk/news/fresh-450m-funding-round-opens-for-council-refugee-housing-scheme-with-focus-on-new-build/5128255.article

    1. Refugee housing scheme – does that mean that the brits are all have somewhere to live now?

      1. Yeah, too right they are .

        Seems like the overseas visitors get priority ..

        I seem to remember White Zimbabweans with passports got short shrift from the UK government when Mugabe got nasty .

          5. I doubt there is anywhere in Russia that is as productive as Ukraine.

            I believe one reason the Americans are so keen on continuing the war there is so that their people can buy up Ukrainian land and assets very cheaply or in exchange for the aid already given.

          6. Farmers moving to Russia is a trend that predates the Ukraine conflict though. Blackrock’s just been awarded a contract for the re-building of Ukraine apparently, imagine my surprise!

    3. When are they going to house the ex-service people on the streets and treat their PTSD?

    4. Sick SOBs receiving developer’s bungs and wrecking our countryside and green belt.

    1. Hope so, but they seem to have gone back to their bad old habits when you never knew which France would turn up :(( Events of the RWC really knocked the stuffing out of them and Dupont’s temporary defection to 7s hasn’t helped.

      1. Greek to me! I am going – being taken as a treat! (make of that what you will) – to the game tomorrow but have near zero understanding of it. I do know, though when a team is playing as a machine and when it is a group of people not doing that and will endeavour to enjoy the atmosphere and gain some greater understanding of how the hell the scores and penalties work. 🙂 NB I can also sing the Welsh “national anthem” even though I can’t speak Welsh, so will enjoy that, too.

        2. Keep your head down O – the only time I’ve ever been involved in bother at a Rugby game was when we were touring in Wales at Easter and went to watch Cardiff v the Barbarians at the old Arms Park – we were supporting the Baa-Baas obviously and it kicked off when we were spat at!!
          Wear something waterproof and washable……

          1. Well you know what the Welsh language is like. The locals were probably being a tad vocal hence the spittle! Ask Stormy she’ll confirm….

          2. Do you know Stephen, I never considered that!! That must be why they looked aghast when we piled in!

      2. Forgot to say – I also know and can sing the Marseillaise (except for that really bizarre little passage in the middle), but I don’t think I will do so from where we will be stationed

          1. She’s quite like Piaf. Maximum vibrato and rolls her Rs. The French are so French, aren’t they?

          1. I know a (Rugby) Franglais version that always seriously annoys the Frogs… it involves a Frenchman going to a lavatory and finding it has no paper….

            The chorus goes:

            Ou est le papier
            Ou est le papier
            Monsieur, Monsieur,
            J’ai fait Manure
            Ou est le papier

            Note to all the Francophiles out there, I love the French really!!

  150. Hi KJ, I’m fine thank you, and all the better for the rugby results this afternoon :)) I’m still on the Speccie too, but not quite so often as I can’t respond to responses unless I remember where they are! Yes, the Speccie is a bit disturbing – lots of new posters and, as you say, silence from FN. Will catch up with you soon I hope?

  151. Like the famous Veuve quotation, which goes something like:

    “Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it when I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise I never touch it – unless I’m thirsty.”

  152. If, I say if, we (England) beat France in Paris next week and the Scots beat Ireland, Ireland will still win the 6 Nations. It would mean England 4 wins out of 5 and Ireland 3 wins out of 5. Plus, if Scotland won by a big enough margin and got a bonus point we could come 3rd even though winning more games than Ireland and Scotland. Would that make a mockery of the bonus points system?
    I’ve had a few wines so my points and reasoning might be a little skew whiff.

    1. I don’t understand either, mola. According to the cognoscenti with whom I am surrounded, Ireland will now win come what may.

      1. I think points difference, for and against, is important in deciding the winner when there isn’t a grand slam. So even if a team loses more than one match, if they do so narrowly, like Ireland did today, they can still win the tournament. But I think it too early to say that Ireland will definitely win.
        We actually need GGGaspar here to tell us – he lives and breaths rugby and played to a high standard himself (Oxford Blue too), still involved in coaching etc. and he’s my guru! However, I know that he had a bet on England today at good odds, so I expect he is too busy turning his winnings into beer to be coherent right now 🤣

        1. What a cracking game! It also helps that I’ve trousered £50 on the result – I’m kicking myself now that I didnt go more than a tenner – 17/4 was just barmy odds!….
          Ireland will win it anyway barring a truly bizarre combination of results but it’s great news for an England team that has been treading water for some time – they truly deserved it as well!
          I’ll be celebrating long into the night (any excuse…..)

          1. Good to see you here 🙂 Yes, a cracker and a real nail-biter 😱 Your instinct was spot on! I hope George Ford buys all Marcus Smith’s beers for the rest of the season :D! He must have been sitting there agonising over his misses until the very last moment poor guy!
            Enjoy your celebrations and I expect it will be the spare room for you tonight? 🤣🤣🤣

          2. I’ll be posting from the spare room later – Mrs G says I snore when I’m pissed……..

  153. Frightfully early yet but…

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

          1. Close ish?
            I’m in Dordogneshire, but to the North of the river, where there are fewer Brits.

          2. Haut Pyrenées, but borderline Pyrénées Atlantique and the Gers, which is inundated with Brits!

          3. For a few years (10) we were in les Pyrénées Orientales, Languedoc. Beautiful area. We sadly departed in 2018. The best years of my life.

          5. Rugby country, I understand (not that I’ve ever visited; Normandie, Loire and Provence are/were my stamping grounds).

          6. Very much so as my husband and I discovered when we moved here in 1997. He was a real rugby man who had played for Wasps in his day. Once we had been around for a while and got to know the locals we were asked which team we supported now that we lived in France – England or France? Quick as a flash my husband replied “France of course, except when they are playing England!” and honour was satisfied all round :)) It was true too! After he died I gave our rugby mad neighbour who adored him his old Wasps tie to remember him by – he cried 🥹

          2. You must have been typing yours as I posted mine. That’s what comes of living on yer continong – the post has farther to travel 🙂

          3. Thank you! I still class myself as a Brit even though I now have dual nationality. Moved here in 2007.
            On the faint chance that Trudeau gets back in then we’ll be heading back across the Atlantic to Somerset.

          4. When we first got here my late, departed Mother suggested that we pop over to Toronto to see a relative that I’d never heard of.
            I had to break it to her that London is closer to Moscow than we are to Toronto.

          6. The distances are huge.
            I have a very soft spot for Canada, I lived there as a child for my most formative years.
            I loved it, but I was told it made me a wild child and a rebel. We lived near Toronto and then outside Halifax in the early to mid 1950’s.
            When in Nova Scotia I was able to get out into the forest armed only with a Samoyed and at that time one could probably have walked 100’s of miles without crossing a tarmacked road.

          7. Have to disappear and prepare dinner for guest, but will be back again. Good to chat.

          9. Thank you! I still class myself as a Brit even though I now have dual nationality. Moved here in 2007.
            On the faint chance that Trudeau gets back in then we’ll be heading back across the Atlantic to the west country

          10. Our regular (one of the site’s moderators) is as pro Trudeau as you appear to be, you’ll get on well.

          11. I’d wait until after the. General Election if I was you. We get reports from our resident Canadian contributor that Trudeau is dire. I promise you the entire opposition if they come to power will out Trudeau Trudeau!

          12. It’s the wife. She retires in four years time, about the same time as our daughter graduates (I’m an older Dad) and she’s had enough of the snow and -35. To be honest I could care one way or the other. Love it here but really do miss a pint at the local.
            Must start to prepare dinner for guests now, but will be back again to chat. So pleased I was directed to this blog.

          14. We found a pub that can be called a local pub, in Sandvika. publican even gets London Pride for the Brits… Great atmosphere, too.

          15. We have a bar called “Le Pub” in the village and it serves fish and chips and the French version of mushy peas, but the beer….

          16. “…I really do miss a pint at the local.”

            Lots of people are missing a pint at the local given the number of pub closures during the last 20 years, especially since The Madness.

          1. Northwest Calgary, over 4,000ft up so we have great views of the mountains.
            Banff is an hour’s drive. Nakiska for the skiing even less, but I’m bit of an old fart for that now 🙂
            Dashing in and out trying to cook dinner for guests, but have to say it’s a delight having been directed to here and seeing so many regulars, including you.

          2. I’ve been to Banff – and Calgary airport which we found almost impossible to find!! Stunning country!

          3. We went on a family holiday to Canada in 1960 when i was five. Stayed in Calgary and Banff. The sights and sounds have stayed with me all my life. My sister must have been three years old but feels the same. Both of us have it as one of the greatest holidays ever.
            Canada a is a beautiful place.

          4. It is indeed. We drove from Vancouver to Calgary – quite long way but just a tiny corner of Canada really! – and loved it. Discovered the beauty and the wines of the Okanagan valley which came as a quite a surprise , and a very pleasant one!

    3. This was featured on BBC radio during the week. You can guess how it was presented.

    1. I wonder what the context was. In 1911 “the Powers” in Europe were still the Habsburgs, Hohenzollerns and the waning Ottoman Empire. Saudi Arabia et al didn’t yet exist and America was a thriving economy and burgeoning superpower before WWI but does “the Powers” here refer to that?

      1. In 1911, there were fears of a socialist revolution in the UK and a Europe-wide war with Germany or Russia as the aggressor. Perhaps the Sheffield Telegraph was offering an opinion on the greater threat to peace in the UK and Europe being religious. Sheffield had a small population of Muslims at the time (the Lascars).

        From Wiki:
        In 1911, the British Empire had a Muslim population of 94 million, larger than the empire’s 58 million Christian population. By the 1920s, the British Empire included roughly half of the world’s Muslim population.

        1. The Muslims are probably at parity with UK Christian church goers right now, if not greater.

  158. Evening, all. Been a bitterly cold wind today, not conducive to getting out in the garden, although it was dry.

    The main problem with the NHS (apart from it being considered as a Sacred Cow) is that it was designed in 1948 for a relatively small, homogeneous population who had paid into the system. That is no longer the case, but the model has not changed.

    1. Hello opopanax. Nice to see you. A good post, I enjoyed this greatly. I wonder what they would of made of our stunning and brave new world? It’s OK to be washing powder.

      1. Lovely to see you too, AA!

        Isn’t this a pleasant site?

        I know, weren’t they wonderful. What marvels have been thrown away so lightly by the venal and the eejits that have taken charge behind the scenes in today’s dystopian nightmare.

  160. Beautiful part of the world, and I doubt you have areas 70% Brit, as we do south of the river

    1. No we don’t. Where I lived before, in la Chalosse in les Landes, there were even fewer 🙂

  162. Thank goodness I have found this site, courtesy of ‘Angela K’s Musings.KBJ’ Hat tip to her.
    Speccie was getting a tad censorious.

    4. M. Bidochon is in his element over there. He keeps telling other posters that he is going to report them and that he will block them. Can you imagine what he was like at school?

        1. Good evening Opo.
          I am in a fine mood after the rugby. Will you be watching tomorrow?

        1. Whew! I was hoping you would say that, but I think even he would anticipate it and not dare :D!

        2. If he does, he will probably use another alias but it won’t be long before he is outed by his self-regard and sneering attempts to put down everybody else as stupid, and racist.

        3. Can you do it very very slowly with utmost malevolence, Geoff, while we throw 🍆🥕🥔🥚 at him? 🙂

  163. Wot Ho! Mr Graham, I see you’re out and about.
    I hope you had a marvellous birthday.
    Your decision to exspeculate/expectorate/specsalivate, err.. you know what I mean…
    has invigorated the blog, many thanks.

    2. I don’t think Geoff Graham received our good wishes yesterday.

      My greeting came from one of the largest playing organs in the world , and I do hope he managed to listen to it ..

      1. Geoff will have been notified in his own inbox, so I’m sure he will have seen any comments addressed to him.

          2. That was ages ago. Plusnet wouldn’t let me take my domain elsewhere. Or didn’t understand the question. Current email address is in my Disqus profile.

          3. Hi Geoff, like your site!

            I had George around last week and he has finally managed to rehouse and re-set up his family after the earthquake in no small part to the donations to his Justgiving site!

            PS Just to embarrass Geoff I will elaborate.

            At the time of the Turkish earthquake last year, my Turkish plumber ‘George’ (yes, I know…) set up a Justgiving site as his family there were homeless and pretty much destitute – the ‘formal’ charities – with their CEOs on six figure salaries – were totally useless.
            I promoted his Justgiving page on the Speccie website and Geoff (and a number of other individuals) contributed an astonishingly generous amount (more than I did, embarrassingly!).

      2. Hi Maggie. Thank you and all for the birthday greetings. As I just posted to Sos, I’ve had vision issues, which have now largely resolved themselves. I need to address the notifications page, but prolly not tonight…

        1. From one Piscean to another, belated happy birthday and may you have many returns.

        2. Hells bells Geoff,

          You are in a bit of a mess at the moment , don’t overburden yourself, let everything you do be gradual and easy .

          We assume you are close by , but really and truly you have your own struggles to cope with .

          Wow, you will have a surprise when you realise that the comments wave swelled beyond belief by Speccie escapees .

      3. We have a friend who also twiddles the organ. He is going to be putting on a concert using a Casavant organ, Opus 2317 with apparently 47 Ranks – 2,995 Pipes. Who knows what the Playlist will be, he has a habit of intertwining Bach classics with black sabbath variations.

    3. Cheers. Sos. I’ve been keeping a low profile since 3 am Wednesday, having awoken to ‘pumb bilges’, as Bob of Bonsall would have it, only to find that the world was in soft focus. As it happens, I had a routine ophthalmology appointment on Wednesday afternoon, so I mentioned the change in vision in the good eye to the doctor. “You’ve had a small bleed”, he announced. I’m lined up for laser treatment on 4th April, but – in the meantime – the annoying patterns have just about dissipated. But for the last few days, viewing a ‘pooter screen has been unpleasant.

      Birthday was mostly spent on buses betwixt Guildford and Aldershot for shopping. I managed a sneaky pint at ‘Spoons. Then it was the village quiz in Seale Village Hall. We didn’t win (we never do), but at least we were in the upper half of the rankings. Quaffed much Hog’s Back TEA. I’ve had worse birthdays.

      As for the new influx, we were recommended, by several Nottlers. All I said was ‘be my guest’. It’s certainly livened up the place.

      1. What a shock for you, I expect it feels as if you have spiders web floaty vision , so sorry for you , consider yourself hugged virtually from Dorset .

      2. Hi boss,

        I had similar problems with an eye many moons ago. It took several trips for laser treatment (like being hit with a nailgun) to seal the leak and then injections of avastin and lucentis to finish the job.
        Supposedly the eye is now good enough to meet the standards for driving but I’m not comfortable with that idea.

        Maybe we should poach a few Guardian posters and really stir things up – or not!

  164. Hello, all! I am feeling rather slow of brain and runny of nose, but gearing up to sing at the new Salon I mentioned. Complete bugger that I have a cold, bur I have ways and means to get around this. (Yes, yes, careful and professional warming-up of the voice, using my support muscles properly, ginger & honey etc etc, but mostly donning my Jessica-Rabbit/borderline-illegal dress. You would be astonished what mistakes you can get away with given sufficient cleavage…).

    Due to start at ten p.m., and as most guests are Argentine, I can’t see myself singing before 10.30 or even 11. As I’m three hours behind most of you, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow to let you know how it goes. I suspect I may mangle a few words! 🤣🤣

    2. Have a wonderful night, Katy! I wish I could see, and hear you in full voice! Enjoy! 🌹⭐️

    3. Have a wonderful night, Katy! I wish I could see, and hear you in full voice! Enjoy! 🌹⭐️

    4. It’s just as well Bill T has signed off for the night – borderline illegal dress – sufficient cleavage would almost certainly give him dangerous palpitations. So sock it to ’em Katy!

      1. 🤣🤣 Obviously I waited until after Eeyore’s bedtime. I do have a (vestigial).conscience, you know!!

        Socking it will ensue. Whether the voice keeps up, I suspect no-one will notice. 😉🤣 Thanks x

      1. “Me me me me me” – that’s sopranos, Grizz. Mezzos are far less solipsistic.. 😉

  165. March 9th 1904

    My mother left us when she was 97. She would have been 120 years old today!

    2. Harold Wilson would have been 108 on Monday. It’s hard to credit that we’d be almost grateful to have him back compared to the options we have today.

    1. The very same. Taken in. 😉 There is no concept of mutton dressed as lamb in tango…

    1. A wish I am.delighted to accept in its intended, *figurative* form (given that after all the Culcheral Stuff, we intend to tango until dawn…).

  168. So YOU’re the one to blame for my sore throat and wheezing! Thanks a lot! 🙂

      2. My whole family have been infected with the same side effects. Coughs and sneezes spread diseases..
        🥴😵‍💫🥺
        Get well soon ATD. 🤗

  169. My mother departed this mortal coil when she was 66, and she would have been 111 (Nelson?) on the 4th of this month.

    1. Mum was killed in a car accident , she was on her own , going to pick up the mail from the PO Box mail office nr Sandton .. she was 60yrs old . she would have been 99 yrs this year .

      1. Sandton SA? I had a boyfriend whose mother was mayor of Sandton. She didn’t like me. I knew it well though, 30 years ago.

  172. Argentine tango is fun like that. So long as you can step on the beat of the music, you can dance – it’s all about the close embrace.

    And ladies do not invite gentlemen, but should you happen to catch my eye I am sure I would nod to accept your proposal of a dance. 🙂

  174. Wasps are now trying to get restarted. They apparently have finance and a ground in Kent but need help (not financial – just expressions of support from individuals) to get the Rugby authorities to allow them into the competitions framework.

    1. I know. So sad what happened to them but thankful my husband never lived to see it. He would have been heart-broken.

  176. Was that some time ago as the airport has been transformed. Now boasts a dedicated international terminal and a 14,000ft runway to cater for direct flights from Asia. The city has exploded with skyscrapers and we now have our own version of the M25.
    If memory serves me you had some connection with Rhodesia.

    1. It was in October 2013 and there were a lot of roadworks going on. We allowed loads of time to get there from Banff as it happens, as we had a hire car to hand in and a plane to Toronto to catch, and thank goodness we did. We stopped more than once to ask people how to get there and I remember being sent back the way we had come at least once! Anyway, we made it – just!
      Yes, I wasn’t born there but grew up in Rhodesia – well remembered!

      1. The perpetual road works here are a bane for all, but at least they got the ring road completed through the reservation so it’s much easier to get to the airport.
        It’s coming back to me now and we have spoken before on this. My darling wife (twenty years younger than me) went to school in Chiredze, although she was born in Surrey, and her dad once arrested Joshua Nkomo.
        Not sure if it was you, but I had a conversation with someone about a Spike Powell who was one of the Selous Scouts who I met in the Oman in 1970 during the little dust up there. Sadly Spike was on the Viscount that was bought down by ZIPRA near the Kariba Lake in 1978.

        1. I’m glad to hear that the airport is now easier to find :))
          Was your wife’s father in the BSAP or the Army? No, it wasn’t me with whom you had the conversation about Spike Powell as the name is not familiar, though I did know a couple of Selous Scouts.

  177. Thanks, Sue! Despite snot and brain fog, you should still be able to hear the high notes at least from over there… 😉🤣

  182. Six Nations: Scotland were supposed to beat Italy; Ireland weren’t meant to lose to England. Next weekend, if Scotland beat Ireland against all expectations and England beat France (not impossible) they could end up the as unlikeliest of winners of the 2024 tournament. That’s why it’s my favourite form of bread and circuses.

      1. I’ll check but I reckoned if Scotland beat Ireland and England beat France they could.

        1. Something I posted earlier about the 6 nations.

          ‘If, I say if, we (England) beat France in Paris next week and the Scots beat Ireland, Ireland will still win the 6 Nations. It would mean England 4 wins out of 5 and Ireland 3 wins out of 5. Plus, if Scotland won by a big enough margin and got a bonus point we could come 3rd even though winning more games than Ireland and Scotland. Would that make a mockery of the bonus points system?
          I’ve had a few wines so my points and reasoning might be a little skew whiff.          ‘

    1. And the lavender list of course.
      At least the Gannex would have been manufactured in the UK – those were the days…

    2. He made that statement about the same time as the new 50 pence coin entered circulation. I remember making my first ever political joke “The pound in your pocket now has seven sides!”
      Well, I was only 12…

  188. Evening all. This in the DT about the Net Zero rubbish, where HMG has kindly increased everyone’s energy bills. This snivel serpent is paid £170,000. Yet another one who jumps ship just before the whole thing collapses under its own weight of lies, lies and more lies

    The CCC had privately admitted that it made a “mistake” when it only “looked at a single year” of data showing the number of windy days in a year when it made pronouncements on the extent to which the UK could rely on wind and solar farms to meet net zero targets

    Chris Stark steps down as chief executive of the CCC next month. Before he goes, he has some serious questions to answer.

  189. Well, chums, it’s now time to head for bed. I wish you all a Good Night, a restful sleep, and I hope to see you all hale and hearty tomorrow.

      1. We have found a nice hotel in Benidoom, gives us what we need and and We can spend our hard earned savings.

        In 43 years, of employable time, I had THREE days, when I was ‘jobless ‘, that was a ckoc-up of holidays

          1. Yo Nd

            A fortnight in April, and another in June.
            The second is a bit of a celebtrtion, for our Ruby wedding and my 30th Bithday.
            (remember, for BDs, the first 50 years are practice and do not count)

        3. Apologies but that reminds me of that old joke, “If God had wanted to give the world an enema he’d have stuck the tube ……”

  195. Lord Cameron urged to stop ‘sniping’ at Israel
    Pro-Israel Tory MPs are due to raise concerns with the Foreign Secretary

    Will Hazell,
    POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    9 March 2024 • 8:22pm

    Conservative MPs have accused David Cameron of “sniping” at Israel over its handling of the situation in Gaza and have claimed the Foreign Office shows “anti-Israel sentiment”.

    A group of pro-Israel Tory MPs is due to raise its concerns with the Foreign Secretary at a meeting on Tuesday.

    Last week, Lord Cameron met Benny Gantz, the Israeli cabinet minister, to discuss the flow of aid into Gaza. After the meeting, he posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, saying that he had “made clear the steps Israel must take to increase aid” and that “we are still not seeing improvements on the ground”.

    He also said he was “deeply concerned about the prospect of a military offensive in Rafah” and that Israel’s performance in making aid available would have “consequences” for the UK’s assessment about “whether Israel is compliant” with international law.

    One MP told The Telegraph that when the statement was posted into a Tory WhatsApp group, there was “irritation in relation to what he said”.

    Lord Cameron is shown the damage caused to Kibbutz Be’eri by Hamas’s Oct 7 attack

    Theresa Villiers, a former cabinet minister, said: “The UK Government must [support] Israel’s right to defend itself from the genocidal death cult that attacked them on Oct 7.

    “Lord Cameron should acknowledge the huge efforts being made by the IDF to minimise civilian casualties and also to facilitate aid to Gaza.”

    She added that Israel is a “valued ally of the UK and ministers should take care not to undermine our diplomatic partnership with the only democracy in the Middle East”.

    “We should be backing Israel in its hour of need, not sniping at them,” she said.

    Andrew Percy, the MP for Brigg and Goole, said: “Repeatedly the [Foreign Office] places all of the emphasis on Israel and holds them to account for the consequences of a war they did not start and for civilian suffering which is [a] result of the actions of Hamas.”

    Bob Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, said: “We’ve got to be more stringent in our support for Israel generally.”

    A Foreign Office source said: “The Foreign Secretary is a huge friend of Israel. He went to Kibbutz Be’eri and has seen the horror of what took place there so he gets it. But sometimes being a friend means having to deliver a tough message, like over humanitarian aid.”

    Other Tory MPs are more supportive of the Government’s position.

    Alicia Kearns, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said that on a recent visit to an aid staging location in Egypt the committee had seen “tons” of goods that had been refused entry into Gaza, including medical supplies.

    Ms Kearns has written to Lord Cameron urging him to follow up an offer made by Eylon Levy, an Israeli government spokesman, who invited the international community to “send another 100 trucks a day”, insisting there were “no limits” on essential aid.

    Comments
    Will Mac
    1 MIN AGO
    Cameron was a failure as PM. He threw his toys out the pram and walked away when the Brexit referendum went against him.
    It was was perplexing when Sunak appointed him Foreign Secretary.
    He was not one of the most notable PM s of the last couple of decades by a long shot.

    Comment by Henry Stevens.

    HS

    Henry Stevens
    1 MIN AGO
    Who the hell does Cameron think he is? Overprivileged, entitled chancer with no discernible learning – injected back into public life by an unelected prime minister and a moribund and despised party.

    Comment by Nigel Hector.

    NH

    Nigel Hector
    1 MIN AGO
    David Cameron speaks on behalf of millions of British citizens aghast at the unfolding famine in Gaza. Just because you disagree, doesnt mean that voice shouldnt be represented by the British government.

    Comment by Angry Bill.

    AB

    Angry Bill
    2 MIN AGO
    Dave is a waste of education.

    Comment by Robert Ireland.

    RI

    Robert Ireland
    2 MIN AGO
    He’s a self interested, bien pensant idiot. He wouldn’t last 2 minutes in Gaza. Israel is a civilised, democratic island in a thoroughly unpleasant region.
    I’m really looking forward to seeing his party annihilated at the polls.

    Comment by Terry Smith Fundsmith.

    TS

    Terry Smith Fundsmith
    2 MIN AGO
    Let the man do his job.

    Comment by John Smith.

    JS

    John Smith
    7 MIN AGO
    How has the supposed-leader, who ran away from the country after losing the referendum, wangled his way to such an influential position? He should be in his hut where nobody has to listen to his nonsense.

    Comment by David Turner.

    DT

    David Turner
    7 MIN AGO
    Absolutely right, I haven’t seen or heard Cameron make one comment or initiate anything l agree with …he’s a complete waste of time and way past his sell by date…all he does is ponce round the world no doubt lining up opportunities for next year after he’s redundant….but regarding Israel, his bias against them is sickening

    1. He always seems to be in the company of Mr. Plebgate, the odious Andrew Mitchell.
      Thick as thieves springs to mind.

    2. “Last week, Lord Cameron met Benny Gantz, the Israeli cabinet minister, to discuss the flow of aid into Gaza. After the meeting, he posted a statement on X, formerly Twitter, saying that he had “made clear the steps Israel must take to increase aid” and that “we are still not seeing improvements on the ground”.”

      Who the hell is the unelected Cameron to tell Israel what it “must do”?

          1. Though I’ve belted you and flayed you, by the livin’ Gawd that made you……

            Doesnt really work these days does it??!!??

          1. Not too bad PJ, surprisingly so as I finished off with a couple of Scotches…. I love Scotch but it does not love me!

            I hope France win but they’re never great travellers (l’esprit de clocher etc) and there are a number of exciting new talents in this developing Welsh team.

            So, Wales narrowly, unfortunately…….

          2. Oh dear, I was hoping for a France win to round off a perfect rugby week-end for me :)) About to start so see you later!

          3. Well, this French vintage seems to have travelled pretty well and I would hazard a guess that for once you are not unhappy to have been proved spectacularly wrong 🤣 My rugby week-end has been just perfect 🤗

          4. It was a strange game – I was flicking between that and the Liverpool v City match and I switched over at 24-20 to Wales, got a bit engrossed in the footy, and when I flicked back it was 37-24 to the French!

            I’m secretly delighted – I’ve already sent a mail of condolence to my brother-in-law and an included an old (made up by me) Welsh proverb – May all your days be fruitful and all your spoons be wooden…… I’m sure he will find it amusing!

            PS The French were really good though, I really like that little scrum half!!

          5. le Garrec is good isn’t he? He got the MoM too 🙂 It was a great match to watch, swinging all over the place until the second half when France took control after a Welsh try. France played much more like we have come to expect from them and enjoy. I’m sure your Welsh brother-in-law is splitting his sides with laughter… I would bet though, on your life expectancy 🤣

          6. Yes, he’s so good they might not even miss AD! BTW he was PoM (Player of the Match – get up to speed!).

            My brother-in-law is 6’7″ and has been most of his life – he amusingly refers to the fact that he was once known as ‘the tallest boy in Wales’ (imagine it in a thick Welsh accent) – but he’s a streak of piss and I’d hammer him if it came to it.

            You are right though – I cant recall a more fabulous 6N weekend than this one!! Awesome….

          7. Sorry, can’t imagine what I was thinking – especially as I don’t follow footie :D!
            Today was the first time I’ve seen France play close to their old flair since AD defected. Good to know they have some depth :)) I see le Garrec actually got his first cap for France in 2022 but I don’t remember him.
            I shall pass no further comment on your brother-in-law 😆

  197. I’m off, too. It’s great to see the influx of Spexiles fits in so nicely. I believe the last time we excceded 1000 comments was on Referendum Night, though I could be mistaken. ‘Night, all.

      1. I’m one of the new kids on the block from the speccie, arrived today.
        It used to be that if anyone replied to a comment of mine I would get an email.
        Since the Speccie meddled with their comments this has ceased, even here.
        Been on the profile and clicked all the right buttons but still no joy.
        Any ideas?

        1. Is it to do with notification settings. I get an email, via disqus, if anyone replies.
          Worth a try.

          1. Tried everything but still nothing.
            Will come out of Disqus and try again later.
            Thanks anyway.

      2. Ndovu, I have exposed you as being Count Dracula and I claim my 5 Bob postal order! Lol.

    2. Pleased we were all made so welcome. thank you.
      One of the new kids on the block from the Spec.

  198. Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer says he was sexually abused at boarding school

    “In his new book A Very Private School, he alleges that a female staff member, whom he described as a “voracious paedophile”, groomed and abused him and other young boys in their dormitory beds at night.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68522408

    Wet dreams, everybody.

    2. Is he suing her for millions, as females in the USA do many years after allegedly being abused by predatory males?

  199. Morning all. Just off to walk the dog. May be some time🙂. He is getting even slower (but is still (controversially) the Best Dog Ever).

  201. When I retired at age 65, Poon, Butterfield, Byers and a couple more were prostituti ng themselves to a young lady supposedly recruiting for a consulting company. Each claimed that their services were worth around £5000 a day. My state pension for fifty years of contributions was £5000 per year. My thoughts now, as then, are unprintable. Other sources indeed!!

    I’m forgetting my manners, Good Morning Everybody.

  202. It’s has doubtless already been mentioned, but the NHS seems to exist for it’s own benefit. A new IT system isn’t going to change the attitude that they have.
    Hello everyone, btw; some familiar names here!

  203. Errr… I was commenting on the woke lunacy that you dont have ‘Man’ of the Match anymore – it’s ‘Player’ or maybe I’m misunderstanding you?

    Nonetheless I’ve had a great weekend – hope you have too! – and I reckon I might just get an early night tonight… (Jeez, I cant believe I’ve just posted that!!)

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