Sunday 1 May: By sucking up to Putin, France and Germany paved the way for his invasion of Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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831 thoughts on “Sunday 1 May: By sucking up to Putin, France and Germany paved the way for his invasion of Ukraine”

  3. Good morning all.
    Arrived back from from Wild Welsh Wales yesterday afternoon and it seems we’ve had a bit of rain through the night.
    Overcast with an almost mild 5°C at the moment.

    1. Good morning, BoB. Looks like the April showers arrived a month late.

  4. Migrant integration has failed and created parallel societies and gang violence, Swedish PM admits. I May 2022.

    Sweden’s migrant integration policy has failed, leading to parallel societies and gang violence, the country’s prime minister said today.

    The Nordic country took in more people per capita than any other EU nation during the migrant crisis in 2015.

    But PM Magdalena Andersson blasted the after-effects of the open-doors policy today, saying: ‘We live in the same country but in completely different realities.’

    Wow! Who could ever have imagined that something like that might happen?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10763755/Migrant-integration-failed-created-parallel-societies-gang-violence-Swedish-PM-admits.html

      1. The comments by the insane are depressing. People with similar views control European policy.

    2. Is it now time to refer to the country formerly known as Sweden as Swedoomed?

      Morning Minty and all.

      1. They’re already there, what with the doom goblin herself…
        ‘Morning King Stephen!

      1. Start repatriating them – it’s the only way – and forcibly if necessary, as we must also do.

    5. Well, at least a politician has admitted it in public. Which is more than our lot will ever do.

      Good morning all BTW.

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – Iain Green (Letters, April 24), Director of Animal Aid, states that animal farming is responsible for a seventh of greenhouse gas emissions globally, but he fails to mention that rice production is responsible for nearly as much.

    In fact, grass-fed animal farming produces fewer emissions than rice, palm oil and soya production. These commodities require an enormous amount of fossil-fuel input in their production, processing and distribution.

    Mr Green should realise that veganism actually contributes to emissions. It is not going to save us from climate change.

    David Watson
    Beccles, Suffolk

    Come along now, David Watson; nothing is going to ‘save us from climate change’. It’s what the climate has done since time began and nothing we say or do will turn back the clock. Sorry to disappoint!

    1. Still, at least he’s heading in the right direction (towards meat and away from veganism).

  7. ‘Morning All

    Nicked comment

    “Police forces in the UK have been urged to ‘decolonise’ their training material in a bid to attract new recruits.

    The College of Policing, which sets guidance for the training of police
    officers, issued the call in a jargon-filled equality manifesto sent to
    forces nationwide.

    It wants trainers to ‘review curriculums
    to ensure “decolonisation” of learning content’ and check that teaching
    methods ‘implement culturally sustaining pedagogy’.

    The guidance is the latest move in a controversial drive by educational
    institutions to make lessons more diverse, with race campaigners urging
    them to be more conscious of ethnic minority experiences.”

    In the countries the “ethnic minorities” come from, rampant corruption,
    bribery and violence is the core ethos of their police forces. Is that
    what new recruits are going to be taught? Nearly every week there is a
    criminal charge against a cop, many of them from ethnic backgrounds. No
    need to teach them, they bring their culture with them.

    1. There are not many Latin speakers around (most of them died circa 200 AD) so the few remaining ones are a minority. And they take great offence when they see The College of Policing writing “curriculums” instead of “curricula”. So perhaps it’s time to disband those racist Nazis who write police manuals.

      1. ‘Morning Elsie. I have no training or education of any kind in Latin, but even I noted the ghastly ‘curriculums!

      2. Too right! They should be rounded up and detained in stadiums.

        1. I think it should be Flora, Annie. Oh, hang on, I think that is a kind of butter substitute. Lol.

    3. We mustn’t be so judgemental. It is most important that these diverse/enriching recruits feel at home.
      Start introducing principles or honesty and they might not feel comfortable in such an alien atmosphere.

        1. It certainly seems to have increased their cellular development, while shrivelling their brains!

        2. Really? There are better versions who actually (dare I say it?) look attractive!
          Those tattooed things don’t!

        3. Really? There are better versions who actually (dare I say it?) look attractive!
          Those tattooed things don’t!

    6. Note the interesting design with the two large tyres at the rear….

    10. Oh my. Now that’s a sight for sore eyes. The paintwork needs some work though, shame to see such a beauty rust away in a shed.

    11. Ee, but that gal wearing a hat on her head (as opposed to other places) is a big lass!

  9. ‘Troll factory’ spreading Russian pro-war lies online, says UK. 1 May 2022.

    Russian internet trolls based in an old arms factory in St Petersburg are targeting word leaders online and spreading support for Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the British government has said, citing research.

    Online operatives were found to be ordering followers to target western media outlets and politicians, according to research funded by the UK government, which plans to share it with major online platforms and other governments.

    When you consider that the West has an absolute monopoly, in every medium, of reporting this war, the content and the raising of this old chestnut would suggest that the MSM Propaganda Campaign is not going well!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/01/troll-factory-spreading-russian-pro-war-lies-online-says-uk

    1. What “lies” are these?
      Putin is crazy? Millions of Russian troops dead? Russia running out of ammunition and armoured vehicles? Looks like a weird form of support to Russia to me, to depict them as incompetents and losers… but hey, what do I know?

    2. How do you target anyone on social media? How do you get anyone to read what you put on Facebook and Twitter? I do not know.

  10. SIR – It is true that heat pumps are not the one-size-fits-all solution to replacing fossil-fuel boilers that the Government would have us believe, in its ill-thought-through race towards net zero.

    Properties need to be well insulated, and have somewhere to put the heat pump in the first place, which could be a problem in many cases. They also need space for a hot water storage tank, which is not always available. They are definitely not cheap to install.

    However, seven years ago I retrofitted a heat pump to the original central heating system in my 1970s house, without even changing the radiators. It has provided us with heating and hot water throughout every winter since then, including during the Beast from the East in 2018, without any problems at all.

    Yes, it has to work harder in cold spells, but so does any other form of heating system. It categorically does not just stop working in these conditions, as some people have suggested. I am extremely pleased with how economical it is to run, and the models available now are even more efficient, and quieter than mine.

    Chris White
    Kingsbridge, Devon

    Out in the car yesterday afternoon my ears pricked up upon hearing someone discussing the benefits (alleged) of heat pumps. The programme was on R4 and was obviously pro. No surprise there, of course. Apparently it is possible to obtain the air-source type for “around £5000” after the taxpayer has chucked in £5000. Running costs were said to be roughly the same as a gas boiler (really?) after the huge rise in gas prices. No reference though to the rise in the cost of electricity to run the thing most of the time. Oh, and on top of the purchase price you will need an insulation survey by a specialist and the cost of beefing it up. And then you will need to replace all your radiators with bigger ones. Oh yes, and the pump is a bit noisy. No mention of servicing or repair costs. And so it went on…

    All I can say is, Mr white appears to have been very lucky:

    SIR – Jim Sokol (Letters, April 24) suggests the reason the British public won’t buy heat pumps is that they are “useless in the British climate”.

    Having been brainwashed into installing one four years ago, I can concur.

    I am frequently asked about the benefits. There are none. A long soak in a hot bath after a day facing the elements is simply no longer possible. Four inches of tepid water is the best you can hope for without recourse to boiling pans and kettles of water. When it cannot cope with the demand for hot water (a regular occurrence), it simply stalls and idles away, consuming electricity for no output.

    Our neighbours, unable to face their advancing years with a heating system unfit for purpose and that gobbles electricity, cut their losses, had their heat pump removed and invested in an efficient new oil-fired system while they still could.

    Sally Hargreaves
    Benllech, Anglesey

    1. So what you are saying Hugh is: it’s a Government run ‘Boiler-house scheme’ – a massive pump and dump exercise…?

    2. So what you are saying Hugh is: it’s a Government run ‘Boiler-house scheme’ – a massive pump and dump exercise…?

    3. Mr White states ” I am extremely pleased how economical it is to run”

      Not in our experience. Certainly much more expensive than gas or oil. Don’t believe the figures pedalled by salesmen.

      In our area extreme difficulty in finding competent engineers to maintain it. Extreme difficulty in obtaining spares.

      Our neighbours had one, and it came to the end of it’s life after eight and an half years. They’ve replaced it with an oil fired boiler.

      Think very carefully before installing an heat pump !!

    4. We rented a house 18 months ago, in November, whilst ours was unserviceable due to collapsed sewer.
      “Grandma’s Cottage” we called it, because it looked, inside & out, like a refugee from a children’s fairy tale.
      Heating was by air-to-air heat pump, and worked really rather well. It also had electric wall heaters for the coldest moments, and an electric immersion heater for hot water.
      So, if a heat pump works OK in Norwegian winter, how come it doesn’t work OK in the UK? Or are you all resisting any form of change (do you remember the fuss about yellow telephone boxes instead of red? At least when they were BT yellow the damn things worked).

      1. There must be a logical reason.
        I don’t think the accounts like Sally Hargreaves’ can be discounted; there are too many of them for one thing.
        Of course, if the authorities rather than the free market, had anything to do with the type of heat pumps installed in Britain, that would probably explain it.

        1. The output of an air-to-air pump isn’t very hot – because who wants a furnace-like breeze in the lounge? I admit is is likely to be questionably effective in supplying hot water, so the HW tank could be topped up with an immersion heater.
          But Grandma’s Cottage was really toasty – not bad, for a wooden house of ablut 200 years age.

          1. Houses in Norway are built to withstand the cold and to conserve any heat inside. Houes in the UK (especially older ones) were not. Neither are many houses here so compact in their use of living space: corridors etc.

            So what may work well in Scandinavia simply doesn’t work well here, without substantial modification to our dwellings and living space generally.

        2. Heat pumps might be the wrong answer to the question, but my point is that they do actually work – even here in the Frozen North.

      2. Interesting, but our heating engineer [who services our oil fired boiler] has had nothing but bad experience with heat pumps [fitted by others, as it happens]; our neighbour has one and it seems to need frequent [and expensive] maintenance. Maybe they were just unlucky?

      3. Nothing works OK in the UK. I really don’t know where to start discussing heat pumps, but the standard of living in Norway is considerably higher than that of Britain.
        Norway has hydroelectric power, the UK has a mishmash (see Gridwatch)
        In winter in coastal areas it can be windy, and there must be a wind chill factor for residential property. Old or listed buildings cannot be as well insulated as modern huts in Scandinavia. Norway also has space for energy efficient buildings, with a population density of 15 per km2, as opposed to England’s 426 per km2.
        Inland in a Norwegian winter, you are probably very sheltered under a blanket of snow. Whereas we have rain and gales.
        Apart from the typical £10,000+ heatpump installation cost, the 5 kw consumption would now be prohibitively expensive for many households in the UK. And a gas combi boiler requires an annual check by a Gas Safe plumber who charges perhaps £100, whereas if the heat pump stops, there is no local cut price technician.
        Also, when you have a heat pump, it is supposed to heat the water without the assistance of an immersion heater element. So there.

        1. Why is an immersion assistance not allowed – your last sentence? Heat pump might be good for preheat, but what’s the issue with an immersion heater, as many houses have even now?
          There’s usually snow in the winter, but low temperatures in the minus 20’s C are quite normal. Not so much shelter. Plenty wind, too – we’re just clearing up fallen trees from last winter (and my God do I creak after shifting a beautiful fallen maple yesterday). Many trees in the forest are reclining, awaiting the attention of the Tree Fellers.
          Air-to-air pumps here start at about £3 000. Ground-source are more expensive due to the drilling and piping. Air-to-water pump about 3x air-to-air (so, same price as UK).

    5. We rented a house 18 months ago, in November, whilst ours was unserviceable due to collapsed sewer.
      “Grandma’s Cottage” we called it, because it looked, inside & out, like a refugee from a children’s fairy tale.
      Heating was by air-to-air heat pump, and worked really rather well. It also had electric wall heaters for the coldest moments, and an electric immersion heater for hot water.
      So, if a heat pump works OK in Norwegian winter, how come it doesn’t work OK in the UK? Or are you all resisting any form of change (do you remember the fuss about yellow telephone boxes instead of red? At least when they were BT yellow the damn things worked).

    6. I listened to the programme on BBC Radio 4 and it was 25 minutes of free advertising for heat pumps, energy surveyors, green salesmen/wimmin/its etc. Just one of 50 or more ‘green energy’ programmes broadcast recently. Theft of licence payers money.

    7. Mr White almost certainly didn’t have microbore pipes to his radiators! I am so grateful for my Rayburn; it heats the house, runs the central heating, produces lashings of hot water and I can cook on it for no extra cost. I also buy the fuel in advance at summer prices, so there are no sudden nasty bills.

  11. 352335+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Stark truth so early,

    https://twitter.com/LeilaniDowding/status/1520636712053276672

    Any enterprising up & coming wanna be dictator knows you control the media
    ie telly / newsprint control of the herd is guaranteed.
    Encrypted phones will be issued to the chosen few ( coxswains of the political overseers) steering the herd & the herd WILL comply as usual “you gotta vote tory
    (ino) to keep out lab (ino)” supporting a coalition.

    Turn off the power and tribal anarchy roaming the streets is assured.

    Make dependence upon the political overseers overwhelming & the road to “freedom” is erased.

    Do away with necessity as the coalition is doing and they are on a winner.

    Necessity is the mother of invention.

    1. One who is dependent upon technology hasn’t evolved into a new species, it’s just a very useless homo sapiens!

    2. I think it’s worse that that. Our technology has outstripped our education. Most people don’t understand how things work (I certainly don’t). That lack of understandinng makes us reliant on specialists who do. Those people are a minority of highly educated, highly trained and well equipped folk – such as CPU engineers.

      Our nations are led by morons, in the main as politicians and administrators are given lots of advice, but never from the people who actually understand. Understanding is difficult and long term. Politicians think to the end of the week, not the end of the decade and most are dumb as an ox – and that insults oxen.

      We’re simply too far behind our technology because the truly capable have made it available to everyone.

      1. 352335+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        The electorate are hard pressed to recall the last 2/3 hours.

        Promises, pledges, vows are still rhetorical assets, best party script writer wins the day, the herd suffering
        major memory lapse can be seen gripping the nasal canal when giving their kiss of consent X.

    1. Brilliant.

      I have always argued that in taking doctors, nurses and engineers from the countries of their birth we are being totally selfish rather than virtuous.

      Many of the despised British people who went to Africa – such as my father and his brothers – took skills and knowledge with them which built up the economic, social and educational strength of the colonised countries. The trouble with a points system of immigration is that we set out to rob the third world of the very people who could have continued to build on the foundations laid by the colonists. Since the white man left Africa what has happened throughout the continent? Look at Rhodesia Zimbabwe; look at South Africa.

      1. What about Australia, New Zealand and the USA, who take many of our own home-grown and trained doctors, nurses and engineers?

        1. Yes, it’s a circle.

          We take the doctors, nurses and engineers from the third world and then export our home grown doctors, nurses and engineers to the richer parts of the Commonwealth.

          As you say: what about it – why do we do it?

          1. We can’t stop ours going after they have done their stint in the NHS (or disappeared abroad where they can’t be brought back anyway). There has got to be an answer…

          2. UKIP suggested no fees for training provided they worked ten years (I think it was) in the NHS. Incentives are better than punishment.

    2. Yes. We need a gunboat out there that as soon aas they squeal for free welfare hops out, finds the gimmigrants and tows them back to France. If they get upppity, shoot them.

  13. Letters: By sucking up to Putin, France and Germany paved the way for his invasion of Ukraine. 1 may 2022.

    SIR – Am I missing something? Why doesn’t Ukraine blow up the gas pipeline running through its territory between Russia and EU countries?
    It would take the decision on whether or not to buy Russian gas out of the hands of Germany and devastate the Russian economy at the same time.

    Ranald Omand. Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

    It wouldn’t do much for the German economy either Mr Omand!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/05/01/letters-sucking-putin-france-germany-paved-way-invasion-ukraine/

    1. Nor the Ukraine economy. They would miss the ‘transit fee’.

  14. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – It comes as no surprise to learn that both France and Germany (who regard themselves as the cement that holds the European Union together) have been flouting the EU’s own embargo on arms sales to Russia, imposed by Brussels following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 (report, April 24).

    Both France and Germany are quick to come down hard on EU member states that fail to toe the Brussels line, yet are happy to ignore it when it serves their own national interests.

    Indeed, it could be argued that the sucking up to Moscow by France and Germany in recent years is what convinced Vladimir Putin that he could safely go ahead with the expansion of his empire and invade Ukraine.

    It calls to mind Churchill’s observation: “An appeaser is one who feeds the crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.”

    Robert Readman
    Bournemouth, Dorset

    All I can say is…that’s the EU for you, Mr Readman. I am relieved that we voted to leave, and will be even happier when (If?) the full divorce comes through!

    1. Good morning, Big Bum

      “……. I am relieved that we voted to leave, and will be even happier when (If?) the full divorce comes through!”

      But as Boris Johnson only pretended to be a Brexiter to win the election and since JRM is impotent and therefore lacks stiffness it is unlikely that we shall be getting a proper Brexit any time soon!

  15. SIR – Am I missing something? Why doesn’t Ukraine blow up the gas pipeline running through its territory between Russia and EU countries?

    It would take the decision on whether or not to buy Russian gas out of the hands of Germany and devastate the Russian economy at the same time.

    Ranald Omand
    Harrogate, North Yorkshire

    A very good question! Is it that simple?

    1. It would also destroy the economy of central Europe, and I mean DESTROY. Starvation, riots, hyperinflation, murder.
      If that’s what Ranald Omand wants to unleash, I’m quite happy to start with him.

        1. If one wanted to share his delusions, they are a land whale with mental issues and therefore unsuitable for public office.

      2. So fat he has to be addressed in the plural? Does taht mean he buys two tickets for the bus?

        2. So dense that light bends around him.

          So dense that small objects orbit around him.

          Any thicker and he’ll set.

      4. Using “they” as a singular pronoun for a defined person is just silly.

        1. Agreed – I was intrigued by the “bio” the Limp Dums wrote – mind you it’s big enough to be plural!?

          1. She/he/it – abbreviated to shít perhaps? Shit is a youth worker, shít has a split personality.!

      6. Dear life. A tick box candidate. One without competence, value or use.

    2. Spot on.
      So Charley Hasted apparently doesn’t want any diversity of opinion in “my HOME?”

  17. Headline in today’s DT:

    “Lord Frost urged to stand for Neil Parish’s seat in by-election

    Allies have described the former Brexit minister as a ‘proper Conservative’ with ‘star quality’ who could be a successor to Boris Johnson”

    Good idea. The only problem is that he will find life somewhat lonely amongst all those dripping-wet leftie liberals in the party…

    1. A leading BTL post:

      R Gregory
      11 HRS AGO
      This is the first credible suggestion related to this Government I have heard in ages.
      Johnson has badly lost his way – Covid, tax rises, ‘woke genuflection, ‘Net Zero, the sense that they have completely forgotten what they were elected on – it’s a long list and I don’t see anyone who is even trying to change the course.
      Frost might not have all the answers but he at least seems to recognise the problems.
      Oh – Yes ! And he doesn’t have the drawback of having Carrie Symonds yapping in his ear, night and day.

      1. …the sense that they have completely forgotten what they were elected on…

        It’s clear that, “what they were elected on,” was never intended and therefore could never be forgotten by those setting that particular agenda: there only existed the current agenda, the globalist agenda that is causing so much distress, economically, financially, medically and any other …lly one can think of. Basically, they lied and were elected on the false premise that the government they would lead would have conservatism at its core.

        Good morning, HJ.

      1. He could keep his Lordshipness and be Minister without portfolio.
        Good morning. No need to thank me. :@)

        1. Stupid boy. A Peer cannot sit in the Commons.

          Now go back to sleep.

          4. We are not talking about ministerial appointment. The discussion was about Frost standing in the porno by-election.

            Do try to keep up…{:¬()

        1. If he becomes PM he is automatically entitled to a peerage, isn’t he?

          1. So it appears, ‘Sir’ Johnnie Major, ‘Sir’ Warmonger Blair but, as the song goes, Saggy May is nothing like a dame.

  18. Coming soon… the day I stop watching the BBC (which is more narrow-minded than a 1950s prude). Peter Hitchens. 1 May 2022.

    Recently I was able to see a bootleg version of a superb BBC TV series from 1970, a dramatisation of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Roads To Freedom. It made me sad to recall how good they used to be at this sort of thing. Yet the series is unavailable on any BBC platform.

    I’m pretty sure this is because of the way it deals with such topics as abortion, drugs and homosexuality. Back in 1970 it would have been seen as enlightened. But 50 years of Cultural Revolution have made the BBC far more narrow-minded than the most bigoted prude of the 1950s. That’s why the day will soon come when I shall stop listening to it or watching it, at all.

    I’m already there apart from the News Headlines once a day to keep abreast of the latest fiction. This said the highlight of my viewing week is Maigret, the BBC television series from the sixties; though I watch it on TPTV.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10770971/PETER-HITCHENS-Coming-soon-day-stop-watching-BBC.html

    1. I remember watching the series starring Michael Bryant and Daniel Massey and then buying and reading the the Trilogy of books.

      Funny how the mind makes strange connections: Massey – Tractors – Websites – porn – Conservative MP’s resignation – The Age of Reason? – Iron in the Soul? – The Reprieve? – Monty Python and the Existentialists.

    2. I gave up livestream television and radio approximately five years ago. I use here, GP and my twitter feed for ‘newz’. Unlike the tv newz most blog contributors append links to back up their talking points. I suggest it has been many years since any ‘professional’ newz outlet did so.

  19. Normal for Norfolk??

    A guide listing 37 different gender terms and sexual identities has been issued to police officers and staff to help them when dealing with members of the public.

    Norfolk Constabulary’s document, ‘The + in LGBT’, explains current terminology alongside a picture of a ‘gender bread person’ – a play on gingerbread man.

    Critics called it a ‘complete waste of taxpayers’ money’ last night.

    The guide, on the force’s internal computer system, was obtained by The Mail on Sunday using a freedom of information request.

    Some of the terms relating to sexuality, such as ‘questioning’ or ‘asexual’,

    are self evident, but others will be new to most, such as gynosexual

    (someone who is attracted to feminine gender presentation) and grey

    asexual (a person who ‘experiences attraction rarely’).

    Another lesser-known term is ‘varioriented’, which is described as ‘when your

    sexual and romantic orientations do not target the same set of genders’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10771349/Norfolk-Constabulary-issues-inclusive-language-list-37-sexual-identities-genders.html
    The whole world’s going Dagenham (two stops past Barking)

    1. Why does any of this affect the police? Will they be asking everybody what part of this list they identify with, and why would they do that anyway? Surely, if this is to be part of anything at all, it would be for a psychiatrist’s evaluation?

    3. People are people … men , women , children and babies .

      Who on earth are the idiots who are being paid to write all that rubbish … Are they nose ringed spikey haired weirdos , identified as a new species of pen pusher .

      I really think people like that are a species short of a brain cell .

      1. It’s a manifestation of self-loathing. “If I were a woman, everything horrible in my life would be over”.
        When SWMBO was at school, she knew a kid that actually had both sets of genitalia. The kid’s life was made so miserable, they commuted suicide.

        1. I must add a rider: were they using “they” as the pronoun for “she” when Hilda Rumpole was at school?

      3. Yes. My advice is to get a phone in a colour that matches the outfit.

  20. Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship is obviously absurd – but that’s what makes it dangerous. 1 May 2022.

    In the modern era, democracy, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law are assumed to constitute normal political expectations. At least in developed countries, this assumption makes dictatorship a rather comic anomaly: a phenomenon that is out of touch with reality. At once, both wicked and unfathomable, the tyrant is, as every cartoonist knows, easy to lampoon because he appears, by our standards, not just cruel or unjust as many ancient rulers were recognised to be, but crazy.

    To describe Putin as a dictator and tyrant is becoming increasingly common and conveniently forgets that he was elected and still enjoys a level of support that western leaders can only dream of. This does not of course in itself legitimise the war he’s embarked on. The West invaded Iraq, destroyed Libya and destabilised Syria all under governments legally elected by their constituents.

    Is Vlad crazy? Well not by any obvious measure, though one might point out his opposition includes one who is so far gone in senility that he scarcely knows what day it is and another to whom the truth and integrity are total strangers. The rest are only different in degree not in their nature.

    The Democratic freedom loving West Janet presents here in comparison to a tyrannical Russia is a fiction. The UK is itself a crypto-Police State while it is also complicit in the seizure of the Russian Federations Foreign Holdings and the theft of the Private Property of Individuals which is the guide to its legal and moral degeneracy .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/30/vladimir-putins-dictatorship-obviously-absurd-makes-dangerous/

    3. After Covid can anyone seriously believe the line taken by either the politicians or the MSM on anything?

      1. No.
        I wouldn’t believe them even if they said they were lying…

        1. I wouldn’t trust the tv newz to tell me that my tv was working.

  22. Good morning, all. It didn’t rain in the night, dagnabbit.

    MAYDAY, MAYDAY – who will save the country?

    Happy month – pinch and a punch.

  23. Good morning all , rain due shortly.

    Look at this … Swallows and martins head back to the UK but a changing climate threatens their future
    Migrating birds were delayed by poor weather on their 6,000-mile journey from southern Africa, shortening their breeding season

    At Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset, where many of our swallows make their first landfall in the UK, Martin Cade, a warden, confirms that this has been a very slow year for spring migrants. “The first half of April was rubbish,” he tells me. “There were virtually no birds – and a lot of very grumpy birders.” Some may have been passing overhead thanks to fine weather, but nevertheless numbers of birds were far lower than usual.

    The good news is that, from last weekend onwards, the tide appears to have turned. The observatory logged roughly 10,000 swallows, and other long-distance migrants such as sand martins and willow warblers also passed through in good numbers. However, other familiar species, such as the house martin, have been very few and far between, continuing the declining trend of the past few decades. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/30/swallows-martins-birds-head-back-to-uk-changing-climate-threatens-future?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

    There are two reasons for the lateness of the swallows and martins. Unlike many other migrants, which fatten themselves up before they depart, these species feed as they travel, replenishing lost energy by catching flying insects. For that reason, they are especially vulnerable to bad weather en route. And the weather in southern Europe this spring – notably in southern Spain, which these birds cross after leaving Africa – has been very unsettled, with heavy rainfall, strong winds and even falls of snow across parts of Andalucía.

    The second reason is that, here in Britain, although the weather has been mainly dry, there have been persistent easterly and north-easterly winds, which also slow down the birds’ progress as they head north.

    How might this affect these global travellers in the longer term? Songbird migrants usually live for only one or two years, so they need to get down to raising a family as soon as they return. This means that delays of even a week or two can lower their chances of breeding successfully. Swallows, which usually start nesting in early April, may only be able to raise a single brood this year, rather than two (or even three), as they do in most years.

    2. The past fortnight has consisted of cool, dry easterlies over the Costa Clyde. Finally got a more western flow yesterday with the inevitable, but welcome, drizzle.

    1. I’m fed up with all these campaigns that have the sheep running in a different direction every month. I don’t even care whether it’s a good idea or not, I just wish TPTB would leave me in peace to make my own decisions.

      1. Socialism: Telling you how to run your life, in the tiniest detail. Just happens to be how I think you should run your life.
        Barstewards.

          1. Pretty well every place these days.
            Fcuking Hitlers in all governments.

    1. Back to par.
      Wordle 316 4/6

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

    1. In the 1950’s, space explorers were shown living on nutritional pills. As I got older, I realised that regime would have played havoc with their internal plumbing.

      1. Apparently, bully beef caused severe constipation – another thing to cope with in the trenches!

        2. Boobies are interesting, too.
          https://www.google.com/search?q=booby+bird&rlz=1C1CHBF_enNO983NO983&sxsrf=ALiCzsao8XgbvyTqz4OsBuQEwCJSco9ORw:1651395057057&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&vet=1&fir=tO88wMGerQjluM%252C2dguaiilDrbQoM%252C%252Fm%252F01gjs6%253BliGueBfWjvKgfM%252CrCFn3MGbhzOMVM%252C_%253BAgPgsU_WvZYR8M%252Cax2W93rc-vJ8xM%252C_%253BnH4ccl2D8OwsYM%252C0IzKHlLX6FyhGM%252C_%253BkF16A9ixd-RECM%252CMF7znGNGxe5kaM%252C_%253BXkt5u6whRUHPkM%252C5IpOAtW-SAQ2MM%252C_%253BnrUUQgSI565o0M%252Cax2W93rc-vJ8xM%252C_%253BEln4eZ6ZPZ1IJM%252CD4AEo270sOPUNM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRz6bL-ceINyYT0dn3K0Bpg9PTusg&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwiJxYn-9b33AhXPjJUCHVtvB84Q_B16BAhrEAE#imgrc=tO88wMGerQjluM

          1. Thank goodness you’re not sharing a HoC bench with a self righteous Conservative woman.

          2. I’d not want to share space or anythig else with an MP, in case I set them on fire. Arsclochen, the whole lot of them

        4. Good morning Spikey

          But not on your mobile phone?

          I don’t have a mobile phone and don’t know how to use one.

          1. Morning Richard, I have one but surprise surprise I use it as a phone
            PS latest recording posted above

        1. Just a little note to wish you well today, LotL! I’m sure all will be well, and remember that ‘present fears are less than horrible imaginings’! The pain will be alleviated by the Pinot and the good wishes of the Nottlers! 💐

          1. Thanks Sue. Cab booked for noon and MH coming with me. Yes. a large Pinot will be poured when I am home.

          8. Thanks- husband is rallying my spirits by playing songs “Like a Surgeon” by Weird Al.
            I will be fine.

          11. Enjoy – as best you can. It’ll be over soon & you should be mending.

          12. Good luck. Will be thinking of you.
            p.s. does this mean no coffee or brekkie this morning?

          14. Bring on the cakes and ale!

            I am with Sir Toby Belch and I have never worn yellow stockings with crossed garters like the virtuous but ridiculous Malvolio!

            [I greatly enjoyed all of William Somerset Maugham’s novels when I was a young man.]

          17. All the very best for today. Have some nice chocolate with the wine when you’re home .

          1. Thank you. As Anne said, it’s the staff you should be thinking about ;-))

        3. Best wishes for your hospital visit, I’m sure the ‘only natural’ fears will be unfounded.

        4. Best wishes to you today – hope it all goes as well as possible for you.

  31. The suicidal Conservative Party came across a very severe impediment in their determination to self-destruct when it was discovered that the Labour Party with its Durham beer party with both Starmer and Rayner present were just as mendacious and hypocritical as they were.

    So, they have had to come up with another strategy to ensure that they are wiped out at the next elections.

    Half our MPs will be women, pledge Tories after Neil Parish porn scandal
    Conservatives seek to reassure voters they can contain sleaze as MP quits,
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/30/half-mps-will-women-pledge-tories-neil-parish-porn-scandal/

    This anti-man approach will probably finally do the job. It is not the stupidity of a silly tractor enthusiast who tumbled on a porn site that has won them their Armageddon but their mindless and pathetic response to it.

    If right of centre politics is to survive there must be mass resignation of back bench MPs to join Richard Tice’s Reform Party. The Carrie On Conservative Party is dead : the sooner they get rid of the stinking corpse the better.

    2. I thought they were supposed to be representative, and if a man cannot represent women, then…

    3. Yo Rastus
      The other half of them will be men………………..all in the same bodies
      Before long, it will be illegal for an MP to be of the Sex/Genderor whatever that they were born with
      Additionally they will have to have a disability’ and ideally be of mixed racial heritage.
      Plain white heterosexuals will not be tolerated

    4. Ridiculous. Nobody asked them to make half their MPs women. The last thing anyone needs is a new bunch of silly girls who think that a university degree is proof they’re clever in the House of Commons, to go with the Labour and SNP ones.

      1. During the 2015 election, the UKIP prospective candidates for Shropshire were interviewed by BBC Radio Shropshire. The (woman) interviewer asked, “why does UKIP have a problem with women?” There was a pause, then one of the women candidates pointed out that there were five candidates there, of which THREE were women. What “woman problem”? BBC with its own agenda again.

    5. I remember the dire make-weights we had to interview when Call Me Dave decreed that 50% of the final four in the constituency candidate line-up had to be female.

    6. Richard Tice and the other alternative contenders really need to get together. I don’t know whose egos are preventing this, but they are making sure that we are stuck with the dreadful main parties for ever.

      Perhaps the new contenders are also making the mistake of assuming that the majority, (still – for the time being – English, Scottish, Welsh or N.Irish), are all fully functional thinking people. Sadly, the majority aren’t really cogniscent of what is going on, and by the time they realise, it will too late.

        1. Very true. Nigel Farage was a ” one man band ‘ almost Presidential. He wanted to be the leader of the party that was anti EU and take out of the EU. It wasn’t about everyday politics for him, he wasn’t interested in other areas of government and was a one issue man .

          1. Well at least he was instrumental in getting us out (in name only, if nothing else) of the EU. I give him credit for that, but despise him for his subsequent stance.

      2. I’ve been an adherent to that policy for ages, Lass – get together, stop vote-splitting and give the electorate a party worth voting for, that will stick to its manifesto.

    7. Moh says that if the level of female MP’s is risen to over 50%, he said the HOC will stink of sweaty smelly women , women breast feeding , lesbians , tattooed cleavages, hairy armpits , weirdy hairdos, strange voices and feminist clamour .. He thinks there will be loads more black bints with issues of their own .

      Women MPs will be as much as a pain in the neck as the new gay chaps are ..

    8. A comment I read elsewhere, paraphrased; Parish’s wife will stand by him thereby saving him the anguish of a John Deere letter.

    9. Oh dear. Quotas. The most abusive, racist, sexist and unpleasant nonsense the Left come up with.

  32. A sob story on the wireless about the financial crisis hitting muslims harder than the rest of us. Apparently, many are too poor to knock up the iftar meal and its not fair during Ramadan. No mention of course that they would have saved on eating for the rest of the day. Doh..

    1. Perhaps if they made an effort to integrate and get off of welfare they could afford to spend money on their festivals.

      1. Why should we contribute to their festivals? They don’t contribute to ours.

        1. Why should people be on welfare that refuse to integrate, for that matter, why aren’t they deported?

          1. When we came to Norway, if you hadn’t paid in tax for 2 years, you got nowt out if you had no work.
            Gimmegrants get a different deal, because they are “refugees”.

          2. It’s all part of the Coudenhove-Kalergi and Frankfurt plans. It’s all there for everyone to see what is being done to us, with the very willing help from our globalist and/or foreign politicians.

      2. I thought that there was a plentiful supply of, ehem, rustled lambs, home-slaughtered in back gardens?

    2. Sounds like typical BBC logic.
      During the spate of islamic terror attacks in Europe a few years ago, they had a muslim woman on the TV having a pity party about how nobody could be sure that their teenager wasn’t secretly getting into violence and getting involved with extremists and plans to murder people. The families did their best, but you could never be sure yadda yadda.

      At the time, I had two teenage sons, and I was never remotely concerned that either of them would get involved with extremists or terrorism. I wonder why???

      1. Hmmm… I’m pretty sure Mrs Breivik said the same about her boy (in yer Weegie, of course). And Mrs H!tler.

        1. One son was obsessed with history, and used to search out every detail about na zis. The other one was obsessed with chemistry and searched how to make bombs.
          It was just normal teenage curiosity.

          They learned about the dangers of extremism from their father – he was very annoying, but that is one thing that he taught them.

      2. I don’t know. The other day Junior managed to get us flagged for buying all the ingredients for a missile.

      1. I was told that point of fasting during Ramadan was to feel the pain of the world’s poor and hungry. So feeling hungry at night as well shows extra devotion, what’s not to like.

        1. Not that they do anything to help the world’s poor and hungry – or especially the poor in this country whose taxes/ homes/ school places/doctors’ appointments they have the advantage of.

    5. The MSM roll this out at every Slammer festival. At the moment on Youtube, before you get to what you went on there for, there is a Slammer charity wanting donations. Sorry, no will do.

      1. I suppose getting a job is out of the question…
        Good morning, my dear.

      2. I forget but from my primitive understanding there’s two groups if muslims – one who integrate peacefully and generally like living here and the others who want to turn this country into the toilet they left in the name of A loo and a snack bar.

    6. Isn’t that is what zakat is for? Muslim charity donations are only supposed to go to other Muslims, or to Muslims first, any remaining (which there won’t be) may then be distributed to non-Muslims.

      1. Yet it’s rather disconcerting when as a demographic the group are over 70% welfare dependent. Is there a solely Muslim authority soaking up all the welfare payments and providing folk with property and income?

        The dependency is already bothersome as immigrants shoudl be expected and required ot provide for themselves but if welfare is not going to the individuals but a religious group that’s dreadful.

    7. How come there are so many Muslim home buyers featured in Homes under the Hammer on BBC 1.

      How can they get mortgages , and how come they have so much money to renovate so many properties .

      1. All the aged rels are kept in the attic claiming a multitude of available benefits. I dont spose they get to spend much themselves.

      3. I always notice the many mistakes in the finishing of the bodge ups. Doors on the wrong way round, hinges all over the place Hinges should be 6 inches down 9 up and center. Kitchen units out of alignment, light and power sockets in strange places. Too close to the sinks and hand basins. One of the BBC Escape to the Country in Pembrokeshire last week all the doors in the 4 bed house were on upside down !! The door bottom rails are usually much wider then the top rails and some daft plonker had hung all the doors the wrong way up.

    10. What’s not fair is us being subject to these heathen practices. Long past time to be rid of them.

  34. Good morning, dear NoTTLers,

    While this was in yesterday’s DT (so apologies for being behind, as it were), I was just thinking about Priti Patel and the Passport Office : I went there in person to get a passport, some 25 years ago. Even then, the majority of the staff looked like they came from places foreign:

    SIR – After I had applied successfully for a renewal in February, my new passport was delivered to the wrong address. TNT admitted this was its error, but has unilaterally declared the matter closed having notified the Passport Office.

    To date, the Passport Office has not replied to emails or answered phone calls in any meaningful respect. (I was put through to the “Progress” department, which never answered.)

    The Passport Office is, of course, under the auspices of Priti Patel’s Home Office. From my experience, I fear for the asylum seekers resettled in Rwanda in progressing their applications.

    James Reeves
    Dorking, Surrey

    I’m not surprised they don’t reply or answer calls “in any meaningful respect”. Of course, Priti will be welcoming many more of her compatriots following Johnson’s “deal” with India. As for any prospective immigrants in Rwanda (if that actually goes ahead), they will be waved through by people with largely the same-sounding surnames at the Passport Office…

    1. Report the passport stolen, since it has gone astray. It’s a valuable document, and you may have identity theft to deal with, as well.

    2. Good morning HL

      You have echoed my thoughts which I have held for many years.. in fact you must have mindmelded with me .

      Staff at airport security , passport control , customs etc are also blessed with similar sounding surnames , and infact so are many top managerial bods and doctors in the NHS , County Councils , Mayors , University professors, the BBC , Lawyers and many more of that ilk .

      We are done for ..

      1. Good morning, Belle!

        I (rather belatedly) answered one of your questions yesterday. Have you seen it?

    3. Please would somebody explain this to me:

      If part of Johnson’s deal is that Britain will welcome more people from India to settle in Britain then won’t India send those they want to leave India to us and keep the ones who are useful to them in India? i.e. we’ll get the skimmed milk; India will keep the cream.

      1. Of course. Plus, anyone from India who learns anything worthwhile over here will just go straight back and become wealthy in India.

        1. Too true. Some of the worst slum landlords are from other parts. Plus, of course, owners of companies that employ what is effectively slave labour.

        2. Too true. Some of the worst slum landlords are from other parts. Plus, of course, owners of companies that employ what is effectively slave labour.

        3. Our mate, Ashish, in the corner shop is from Gujarat in India. He is one of the hardest workers we have known and such a nice, friendly man. He has offered many times to deliver if we need anything.
          He went above and beyond in the first lock down tracking down veg and eggs etc. I was going to nominate him and his assistant for an OBE but I missed the deadline.

          1. We have a connection with an Indian family (all born in the UK) they run a post office and shop, they are extremely nice civilised hard working seemingly very honest people, I would trust whole heartedly. One of the nicest people i have every met when i was an apprentice joiner was a little Indian Guy from Harrow named Narinjin (sp) Jog Raj. I have tried to find him several times but had no luck. He might not even still be alive.

          2. Albinoni 12 Concertos, Op.9 | Christopher Hogwood The Academy of Ancient Music
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODhNU0hi8CU

            Adagio – Johann Sebastian Bach
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ywL_zokELE

            J.S. Bach: French Suites
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmEa7KX6D00

            Corelli: Violin Sonatas Op.5
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAl1Inc5Y7E

            The Drifters – All-Time Greatest Hits & More 1959-1965
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJ2xJ6JW3Xc
            And last but not least, if you feel like it. A visual poem to watch
            Baraka
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9-jvvZwnhY
            Feel better soon.

      3. Johnson is completely off his stupid head, he’s trying to keep the Tories in charge he knows that the most educated and realistic down to earth races of people would probably vote Tory. That’s why he has some of them in his cabinet.
        But It’s about time our governments took notice of the majority of public opinions. As usual what we have is they are making it up as they go along that’s not what the electorate vote for. But as is the norm all we ever get after a GE is an ‘elected’ dictatorship.

        1. Why must we have yet more people come in to this country? I tendered for a job the other day and of the 100 CVs I received, over 80 were foreigners. I’m sure they’re great fellows all, but that’s applications that crowd out local skills.

          These days I prefer to train an apprentice – paying them properly and training them along the way.

  35. Peter Hitchens. Todays column in the Daily Mail.

    During more than 40 years of active journalism, including a stint as a defence reporter, I have never once been prevented from writing anything by a so-called ‘D’ Notice (nowadays they are officially DSMA Notices, if you care), until now. I used to scoff when people told me that such things were common, or that I was constrained in reporting by them. Now I cannot.

    It is time to ask some very simple questions about the Ukraine crisis, which each day threatens to spread, very dangerously indeed. I never really believed there was a nuclear danger in the Cold War, which I lived through. Now I think there is one. Though this country is not actually at war with Russia, and has no defence treaty with Ukraine, politicians and other supporters of this conflict often refer to ‘we’ when discussing it.

    Who is this ‘we’? What British national interest is served by deeper involvement in what is at root a Russo-American war? Must we yet again be the fifth wheel in America’s cart?

    How much are you prepared to pay in taxes for the munitions we send? If, as is horribly possible, British soldiers are drawn in, what British interest will they be dying or being injured for?

    Why is our Defence Ministry mounting a running commentary on the conflict? It is as if the Italian defence ministry had been holding press conferences on the Falklands War back in 1982.

    Is it because they wish to draw attention away from our very small Army and our shrunken, malfunctioning Navy? Yet our military ‘experts’ speak from a position of assumed superiority.

    1. I went out to buy milk and bits and pieces , and there was a bit of a queue.

      The young woman in front of me spoke to me and said “I don’t know what frightened me more , the thought of catching a bad Covid 19 ( and she lost her grandma in 2020) or the idea of Putin nuking us ”

      I do not want daily scenes and stories of horror and misery thrown at us all by the media ..

      We see enough here , homeless bods hunkered down under cardboard shelters , areas in woodland that have brushwood makeshift shelters , and stories of local people topping themselves because of financial difficulties .

      1. And on TV this morning the was a whole feature set around people in London and food banks not being able to supply their needs.
        I’m not sure how i react to this sort of information there are always several options of discussion. It was inferred that people weren’t giving as much away but i had the slight suspicion people might have bee taking more then the need because of supposed shortages. One of which is sunflower seed oil because quite a lot of it comes from the Ukraine. Or does it ? …..But it’s not even growing season yet, how can there possibly be a shortage.

        1. Ships unable to leave Odessa, I think.
          Yesterday the entire section of vegetable oils was limited to one bottle per customer in the supermarket – I bought lard, goose fat and butter while I still can.

          1. We’ve managed with rapeseed oil but had to make a spag bol with it,…….. it didn’t taste the same as olive oil is used.

          2. I bought an extra bottle of olive oil a couple of weeks ago. Never use sunflower.

        2. Welfare in this country is not ungenerous. With careful planning a family can be fed quite easily.

          What are they spending my money on to need food banks?

          I suspect if we met these people they’d be covered in tattoos, would smoke, drink and ‘do their nails’.

          1. If they are anything like the ‘customers’ I used to have to deal with every day at the JobCentre, they spend most of their money on tattoos, Sky, phones, etc etc instead of food.
            Then they report ‘lost wallets’ usually the day their money arrives and af course they’ve drawn it all out in cash…….. their freezers (full of the food they didn’t buy) have broken and all is ruined…… and they apply for emergency loans. All that was in the years before food banks became to the go-to thing.

          2. I met someone who worked for “deprived” people once. I said (this is about 20 years ago) how come they so often have large dogs to feed and large TVs ? He said “they say they have been given them”. I despaired, and didn’t want to meet that person again.

      2. There is quite a high bridge over the Tweed just outside Galashiels. It had the usual chest high railings. There were a number of suicides of people jumping off the bridge. The water in the Tweed is often quite shallow, sometimes very high. A couple of years ago the height of the railings was increased to about seven feet with chain link mesh.
        Last week a young man managed to scale the fence and jump. One has to wonder why someone barely out of their teens would commit suicide. The newspapers do not report this except as “an incident”. One later sees the flowers and photos at the spot.

        1. It’s very sad that such young people reach the conclusion that life is not worth living.

          1. Yes, at some times more than others. The government made things very difficult for families that were split up across the UK. That was especially so for those who were not at work.

        3. There have been a lot of drownings (or near drownings) in the Severn at Shrewsbury of late. Seems to be reaching epidemic proportions.

    2. I used to scoff when people told me that such things were common, or that I was constrained in reporting by them. Now I cannot.

      Does this mean that Hitchens has been issued a “D” notice to prevent him talking about the Ukraine War?

      1. That’s how I read it. I suppose, much like mention of Frau Sturgeon’s super-injunctions, it can’t be spelled out as such.

      2. He seems to be hinting that there is informtion that he is not allowed to report. I guess it is the stuff that anyone can find if they go out searching on the internet for witness accounts from Ukraine, or analyses by unbiased and knowledgeable commenters.

        1. Yes. It would be an intimidation measure designed to make sure that he was reticent about reporting anything in case they used it for a prosecution!

        2. Yes, and why was Professor Robert Malone cancelled?

          And for how long will Mark Steyn be allowed to interpret the official Covid statistics on GB News?

          1. Do you get Dr Malone’s substack emails? Interesting one today about the cancellation of his wife’s book on Amazon, after it had received a lot of good reviews and sales early in 2020. Then suddenly it was censored as it did not meet “community standards”.

        1. Afternoon Johnathan. Yes as BB2 points out below he had to approach it elliptically because even admitting to having one must be illegal! It’s just a way of shutting him up, though it does show among other things that the PTB are getting a little nervous.

        2. Afternoon Johnathan. Yes as BB2 points out below he had to approach it elliptically because even admitting to having one must be illegal! It’s just a way of shutting him up, though it does show among other things that the PTB are getting a little nercvous.

    3. I understood that B Liar had been busy during his time as pm with a certain amount of ‘D’ notices.

    4. Any parent knows how important it is to be strictly neutral in disputes between siblings. This is particularly difficult when one is attacked and vilified by one sibling for not taking his side when one has earnestly tried not to take either side.

  36. Hello from a Mercian Queen .
    The husband and I’ve just had some lovely kippers ( with lots of butter ) and freshly baked warm farmhouse bread ( with more butter ) and homemade marmalade for brunch, accompanied with a cup of very nice coffee. Very civilised and quintessentially English on this fine Spring morning . The sun has just popped out from behind the clouds and its mild today.

    1. Good morning LoTM,

      We could do with a bit more solar.
      Our gas turbines are currently running to provide 57% of UK current electricity demand.
      I can’t imagine how the green electricity providers manage to filter out the fossil derived power.

    1. So what are the French doing about it, anything? Are there riots in the streets, ports blocked, Channel tunnel blocked, farmers driving their tractors to Paris? The French seem quite good at doing all that when they feel like it. But I’d the truth is hidden … Gallic shrug of the shoulders.

      1. They thrive on Insouciance. Except when we’ve given them a damn good thrashing 12-24 yesterday in Paris well done girls.

        1. Good afternoon, Paul Edmund

          I think we ought to be a bit quiet about the French current prowess on the rugby pitch. Can you ffill in the missing numbers for me in the men’s Six Nations this year:

          France ……..vs Italy ………
          France ……..vs Wales ……..
          France ……..vs Scotland ……..
          France ……..vs Ireland ……..
          France ……..vs England …….

          2. One of my best male friends said he could understand and empathise with lesbians because he also fancied women sexually; however he could neither empathise nor understand male homosexuals as he did not fancy other men at all!

            It would be interesting to see how the England women’s rugby team would perform against the Blundell’s 1st XV.

            Of course women’s standards in sport have increased incredibly over the last 60 years. When I was at school in the early 1960s our school athletics records were about the same as the world’s women’s records. For example the school record for 100 metres was 10.9 seconds and only a few women can do better than that even today.

            This is why allowing trans people to compete in women’s events is so very unfair on female born women.

            Another example: I am a very mediocre squash player yet I used to be able to beat my niece who was considered to be quite a good woman player and she was exceptionally fit having been a double blue (rowing and gymnastics) at Oxford.

          3. Most of the women players are not overweight bruisers – I’m not a lover of televised sport but OH has been watching the whole series and the women play very fast and skillfully. I look up now and then when I can hear someone has scored! Yesterday’s match was quite exciting, I gather!

          4. You left out their anti English refereeing records Richard, they hate us so much it’s been going on for many years. Remember when we beat the ozzies in Sydney to win the world cup, the french ref almost handed the home team victory on a plate. He awarded them so many spurious penalties, more penalties then you you poke the proverbial sick at. 2003 England won the Rugby World Cup with a breathtaking Jonny Wilkinson drop goal just 26 seconds from the end.
            We were waiting to board a ferry home from Calais around 15 years ago and we had just beaten the Froglés at hockey and rugby and maybe even football. A large french articulated truck drove in and blocked the access to the boarding area where us brits were waiting and he gave it several longish honks with his audible warning system and several and various obscene gestures. Most of the Brits laughed at him as we were ushered past
            I’ve got a great guitar version solo of Fly Me to the Moon i’ll email it. I can never work out how to post pictures or anything else i receive on WhatsApp to here. I may have found it……….. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Guitar+solo+of+Fly+me+to+the+moon&docid=608051491215340229&mid=A52800403558E38B6FBBA52800403558E38B6FBB&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

        2. I’m afraid ‘rugby’ played by women leaves me cold. I have been watching proper rugby all my life. The game these women play bears no relation to rugby.

          1. It just has to be done Sue it’s all about equality etc. I suspect some one will get the blame when the long term injuries become apparent.

          2. I played hockey, netball, and swam for Northumberland. My grandmother was an County hockey goalkeeper. My daughters both swam and played basketball in local leagues! All female and no need to pretend to be anything else. Woman’s rugby is just that – a game that women play. Not rugby as we know it. It’s not equality – it’s stupid.

          3. I agree, but in the ‘modern world’ it just has to be done. We have a friend who because of her parents being Italian, her daughter played rugby for Italy, but she’s not butch and is married with children. We have had years of people banging on about the damage boxing can inflict on the people taking part and what do we get on TV now women boxers. What are they trying to prove ?

          4. Their lack of a brain? Their SJW credentials? Their complete failure as proper people? Gawd help us!🫣

  39. More than ever, we must remember our historic bond with Poland and Ukraine. 1 May 2022.

    Britain, Poland, Ukraine. Then, as now, an incommunicable bond was sparked by conflict. After the war, five of the six men settled here as refugees. Franciszek Socha married a Scottish woman and returned to teaching. The film star Karol Dorwski died in London in 1980. Another settled in Bath.

    Now, more than ever, it is vital we remember their sacrifice, and the shared connection, renewed once again, between our three peoples.

    This is ludicrous schmaltz. So ludicrous that all the author can reference is the Polish Resistance. The truth is that we gave Poland assurances at the beginning of WWII that we were quite incapable of carrying out and when it was over relinquished them to Stalin and the USSR. The Poles could claim with perfect sincerity and truthfulness that they were more help to the UK than vice versa. No mention is made of Ukraine in the text because then as until three months ago not five people in the UK out of a hundred even knew where Ukraine was and they considered it a part of Russia!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/01/ever-must-remember-historic-bond-poland-ukraine/

    2. Didn’t many Ukrainians welcome the Germans as liberators from Soviet rule in WWII?

      1. Yes they did and a considerable number of them were happy to become Nazi’s. A habit that continues and the West choses to overlook.

      2. Yes of course. They joined the Third Reich enthusiastically and still retain many of their Nazi affiliations. They also provided most of the guards in the POW camps. The Russians quite rightly hated them,

        1. I do wonder how many of the so-called journalists and their pathetic shouters know anything about the history and politics of the place. I suppose that not many of them recognise what they are vociferously supporting! I mean you….DT, Gurudian,Times,BBC, et al! Do some blooming research!

  40. OT – GOSH! Yesterday, I spread lawn sand over the, er, lawn, in the expectation of the promised rain. It did NOT rain – so I have just spent an hour with the hose watering the whole area. And, blow me – before my very eyes, the moss started to turn black. A-Mazing… Even the MR was impressed.

        2. Alf’s mum apparently used to say

          Patience is a virtue
          Possess it if you can
          Often found in woman
          Never in a man!

          There were 3 sons and 2 daughters when they were all young. Alf is the only one left now.

          1. Patience is a virtue
            Virtue is a grace;
            Grace is a naughty girl
            Who would not wash her face.

          2. Patients are a godsend.
            Doctors need them, right?
            But when COVID hits us all
            There’s not one in sight!

    2. Isn’t it already? Frankly I think MPs and the green fanatics should only have sewage water in their drinking fountains. If they want to destroy our energy producing capacity so much, they’ve got to learn the consequences of their actions.

      1. Ooh! Great thought, wibbling! A few days spewing their guts up would be a sight to behold! Then they might get better…

      1. Agreed. I presume there is a similar amount of water in the world as when it was created it, therefore, seems reasonable to presume that we have been consuming treated effluent since time began.

    4. Well, the urinals in pubs are connected directly to the Foster’s lager taps, so the principle isn’t new.

      1. Along time ago there was a real ale pub not far from Camera HQ in St Albans. The Barley Mow. Tittenhanger Green.
        In the gents there was a white board and felt tip pens on a shelf supplied for graffiti. One of the most memorable quotes was ….”Why is Watney’s Red barrel similar to making love in a punt” ? ……‘cos it’s fuckin’ close to water.

        1. Please do not look at this if you are easily shocked or prudish.

          When I saw what young Carrie was doing
          I said: “Why squirm so when you’re screwing?
          She said with a giggle:
          “A screw without wiggle,
          Is only for screwing canoeing.”

          The excuse that you were trying to find tractors or other agricultural equipment will not wash if you took even a short peep!

        1. The motto of bars in the US selling Bud Light.

          Oh sorry, you were talking about beer.

    5. Where we live our mains tap water is from underground aquifers but it’s very hard water. But after we have used it and like all of our used water it goes to a treatment works and after treatment is discharged into a river which then flows to London reservoirs and supplies water there. I once read that is was not possible to remove oestrogen from waste water, it might just be a reason for so many stranger than fiction people walking around or country with equally strange affinities to newly invented sexes.

      1. Exactly.

        Even tadpoles and fish , prawns and lobsters , everthing that swims drinks and survives on water .

        Do you know , a really mad crackers idea ran throgh my head a couple of years ago , the clouds had been seeded with the Covid virus. Similar to nuclear fall out .

        1. I have an internet acquaintance who is seriously in touch with all these ‘conspiracy theories’, most of the time i except Sam and her friends in many cases are probably right. There is definitely something very unusual going on, on this planet.

    6. I don’t suppose the water companies want to spend any of their hard earned revenue on building new reservoirs that are need to supply water to the towns and cities that have much-expanded populations thanks to government policy to allow in millions of non contributory foreigners.
      Of course, many of our MPs will own shares in the water companies so won’t want dividends reduced. The same MPs want to look to be socially concerned about refugees arriving in their tens of thousands and don’t want to stop the tide.

    7. I thought that Londoners had been recycling their own piss for centuries. It’s often said that every pint of water taken from the Thames has already passed through dozens of Cockneys already.

      1. Thats why there are so many weirdos , strange allergies , deformed babies , bi sexual transgender double sexed oddities and we are all being poisoned by filthy water .. hell and damnation to the so called green lobbyists who should have concentrated their energy towards foreign owned water companies , and all political parties who have ignored the problem.

  42. Shortly off for Sunday Lunch at the Duke of Marlborough in Somersham. Back later, maybe.

    1. Looks great! What is it with these awful split screen websites! Stuff whizzing up the side of the screen, nothing stays in the same place and it makes me log off! Ooh! Am I very old now?

    3. My oldest cousin is a shareholder or whatever they call them nowadays.

    4. Best Beloved had the Pork Roast and I had a Crab Salad – well I had the crab – I’m not a salad person other than my own potato salad (based on Deutsche kartoffelsalat).

        1. Very tasty, because she is the driver, Best Beloved was on OJ and Soda but I managed to neck a Scotch and Water (they didn’t understand ‘dry’) but I settled for water and a nice dry white with lunch.

          George, at 13:30 – you cannot call that dinner – it just displays a lack of education.

          1. I think calling the midday meal ‘lunch’ or ‘dinner’ is more of a regional variation than a lack of education.

            We have ‘lunch’ at lunchtime and ‘dinner’ in the evening.

  43. 352335+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Elon Musk Twitter Takeover: ‘EU Does Not Want Free Speech’ Warns Euro MP

    Gettaway, could it mean that the eu is the covert flagship of the NWO with the United Kingdoms lab/lib/con coalition, supporter / voters via the party name adding their support to the reset, replace,resettle campaign.

    Regarding the electorate it does seem that
    incarceration is acceptable if inclusive of velvet manacles.

  44. 25 years on, we are still living in Blair’s Britain. Spiked. 1 May 2022.

    Second, and more importantly, the Blair-bashing distorts the present. It misses the fact that, no matter how far Blair’s personal star might have fallen, ‘Blairism’ never went away. What the New Labour governments led by Blair and Gordon Brown did to reshape UK politics, with the support of many who are now bitterly critical, has continued to dominate public life. In a real sense, a quarter century on, we are still living in Blair’s Britain – with dire consequences for our freedom and democracy.

    Yes both have vanished and the UK itself will shortly join them in the Oubliette of History. This man is without a shadow of a doubt the Antichrist. Everything he touches turns to ash!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/01/25-years-on-we-are-still-living-in-blairs-britain/

    2. This is a truth that isn’t spoken often enough. People talk about “twelve years of Tory rule” – it’s BS – we’re still waiting for a Conservative government.

  45. Oh yes?

    BRITAIN’S security services were on high alert last night amid fears Vladimir Putin will send saboteurs to the UK.

    Senior officers at MI5 have briefed Home Secretary Priti Patel and her team about the high-level threat, with Special Branch tasked to increase the monitoring of travellers to the country, sources revealed.

    The threats range from “deniable” attacks on key infrastructure to operations intended to humiliate the British government and reduce popular support for actions which are helping the Ukrainian fight.

    A security source said: “There is a serious concern that officers or agents attached to Russia’s security services may attempt to enter the UK and target strategic locations.

    Evidence has also emerged of a new and extensive disinformation campaign, said by the Foreign Office to be linked to troll farms in St Petersburg.

    Ed Johnson, head of global intelligence at the Sibylline strategic risk group, said there are a range of possible targets for a would-be saboteur. He said: “They’ll aim to sow chaos, panic or distrust in the Government.

    Hmm, distrust in the Government doesn’t need a concerted effort by Putin…

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1603708/Putin-Russia-army-saboteurs-Britain?utm_source=express_newsletter&utm_campaign=politics_breaking_newsletter2&utm_medium=email&pure360.trackingid=39f484b0-5975-4e8f-b3ea-5e31f554ea55

    1. BRITAIN’S security services were on high alert last night amid fears Vladimir Putin will send saboteurs to the UK.

      Lol. I’ll keep an eye open for people with snow on their boots!

      1. Priti Patel will be so busy looking for Reds, that she won’t bother with the English Channel or Rwanda…

      2. We have plenty of saboteurs here already, otherwise known as the LibLabCon

    2. Entirely agree – the government is doing a great job of sowing chaos and panic already and they are experts in humiliating themselves, with no help from Russia needed!!

      1. Here’s a thought – if any of the “Russian saboteurs” happened to be a little tinted they could get into the country across the Channel with ease and then get the taxpayer to fund them while they go about their dastardly acts!?

    3. Hmmm Indeed!!
      Propaganda 101
      “always accuse the enemy of which you are actually guilty”
      Now about those attacks on Russia from Ukeland,no SAS deployed no sireee

    4. The Conservative government has already suffered a devastasting blow after one its MPs accidentally accessed a tractor server that had been maliciously installed in Westminster. 🤔

    5. Give it a couple of days and they will expel someone from the Russian Embassy.
      In their minds this will justify the scare stories.

    6. Why duplicate the effort?
      I thought the Russians were more organised than that.

    8. ““They’ll aim to sow chaos, panic or distrust in the Government.” Not possible to sow anything in UK Government – it is barren ground.

    9. My thoughts exactly. Why would Putin send saboteurs when we’ve got

      XR
      The Green Party
      The Liberal Democrats
      Labour
      The Tories
      The police
      The civil service
      Common Purpose
      Open Borders
      etc.

        1. 1000 upvotes!! (present company excepted)

          My eldest child started school in 2001, and the youngest is leaving this summer (assuming all goes well with her exams). Twenty one years of my life, during which I have dealt with a handful of wonderful teachers, more than a handful of utter duds, and one absolute psychopath who left two of my children permanently traumatised.

  46. More from wokeland. Trudeau set up a inquiry to look into racism and sexism in the forces. The panel concluded “Some chaplains represent or are affiliated with organized religions whose beliefs are not synonymous with those of a diverse and inclusive workplace”.

    The recommendation is that Muslim, Jewish , catholic and other Christian chaplains be thrown out.

    I assume that only certified nutters that worship St Justin need apply.

    1. Sorry Richard , but that quote doesn’t make any sense. Do you have a link? ⛓

    4. They surely wouldn’t throw out the imams – that would be racist (even though they are the ones whose beliefs are not “synonymous” – compatible would be better – with those of a diverse and inclusive workplace).

      1. I think all Muslims, everywhere, should be repatriated to their own Muslim countries – forcibly – on pain of death.

        Yes, this is another ‘Final Solution’. At least they have a choice more than Hitler’s Jews had.

      2. I think all Muslims, everywhere, should be repatriated to their own Muslim countries – forcibly – on pain of death.

        Yes, this is another ‘Final Solution’. At least they have a choice more than Hitler’s Jews had.

  47. A few “Oi Laffed”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf37544e904a3af600bff05651d68a578b01727c3faab04f874507779a044f29.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16921b1f8d119e2f7284765a006a1ee4b09b9fd992d00e3606bafb53bf750e5b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08072064fda51ef511c30f667e40478b65012ff6e80a747dc62961c6ddb5f61c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce426e0f7818d360a3fdeb4b67672ba8959ebbb59e13ae16f90c52a5cced54f6.png

    Finally as Growlergate grinds on….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10ee992717d2e692b1798b7699dafb1dc08170683ed0b0da053ce9e18fb2ccd5.jpg

    1. GGG – how to make money while being stupid, but being stupid for Labour.

  52. Recent American backed regime change in Pakistan…..

    Hmm Cui Bono??

    “The influential chief of the Pakistani Army, General Qamar Javed
    Bajwa, has held a phone conversation with billionaire philanthropist
    Bill Gates, reassuring him that Islamabad is committed to working with
    the Microsoft co-founder’s foundation on eradicating polio and other
    global health initiatives.

    In an exchange that took place on Friday, Gates praised the Pakistan Army for “supporting the country’s polio drive and ensuring proper reach and coverage,” while Bajwa said, “credit goes to all involved in the process,” according to a Saturday statement by the Inter-Services Public Relations.

    Gates also commended Pakistan’s efforts in battling the Covid-19 pandemic; Bajwa again attributed it to a “true national response” by multiple agencies. The army chief applauded Gates’ global health efforts, and reportedly assured the philanthropist of “continued cooperation.”
    Sold my soul for Gates’s gold was there ever such a parcel of rogues in a nation

    1. It’s getting so blatant. Why would a newly elected government need to speak to Bill Gates? Why can’t people see that this just isn’t right?

    2. That Gates bloke may have quite a bit of dosh but appears to be a complete Cressida!

    3. Philanthropist? Billy Goats’ track record with compulsory injected euthanasia makes him the world’s biggest misanthropist!

    4. Anyone would think that the ‘pandemic’ is Gates’s personal baby…..

  54. Doing some shopping this afternoon it struck me how easy it would be to peddle a little fake news. The food hall in my local M&S at Westfield is replacing all its food display cabinets.

    The process of course means that the old units are being emptied and the new ones brought in, initially empty. So taking a pic of empty shelves would be the easiest thing, even though their full range of stock is still there. An area that used to house greeting cards and some homewares is being utilised as an extension of the food hall. (BTW there is plenty of fresh produce to satisfy food snobs 😀.)

    The new cabinets look nice. Old fashioned in appearance but doubtless up to date tech wise.

  56. Hello again friends. ( And any Romans and countrymen- so as not to offend.)
    Got there, was seen almost immediately. A very large black nurse, and I mean large- she would make mincemeat out of Phizzee- took care of me. She held my hands throughout the procedure to calm me; MH said that was rubbish, she was holding me down.
    Triple curettage and cauterization and it should not come back. Have an enormous dressing on right side of face – all I need is an eye patch and I could be a pirate instead of a penguin!
    They pumped in a lot of local but I am taking the precaution of getting some Pinot down my neck before it starts to wear off.
    The relief I feel that today is over is total. Yes, as things begin to heal there will be discomfort and I have to see GP in 5 days for dressing to be removed and changed.
    Added bonus was that our favourite cabbie, Tracey, picked us up. We were greeted with hugs, she turned the metre off halfway home and gave us both a kiss when she dropped us off.
    My lovely husband wasn’t allowed into the small theatre but just knowing he was not far away was a huge help.
    Thank you all again for your support and kindness while I have been bellyaching about this. You are all so kind.

    1. Good news. Careful with the alcohol and the anaesthetic.

      Nurses love me. I always make them laugh.

    4. Great news. When I’ve had big dental stuff the advice has been to take co-codamol before the anaesthetic wears off. Would that work here?

        2. The Radiotherapists told me to take 2 Nurofen and 1 Paracetamol if I was really in pain. The two combined work very well. But I was also cautioned not to do that more than once a day. So keep it for bedtime.
          But, all the same, so pleased that you feel better already. Half the battle is psychological, I think you would agree. Triumph over that and you triumph over the physical discomfort.
          If it is of any use. I always think in terms of, everything passes. And bearing that in mind constantly mitigates discomfort considerably, so I find.

      2. Not if she’s going to drink – it says “avoid alcohol” (I take co-codamol on a regular basis so it’s either drink or drugs for me).

        1. Tramadol + diclofenac does it for my back but, taken sparingly, as Tramadol is morphine-based and could become addictive.

          1. I have to be careful because co-codamol contains codeine and that can be addictive.

    5. Great news. When I’ve had big dental stuff the advice has been to take co-codamol before the anaesthetic wears off. Would that work here?

    6. Good to know that all is (relatively) well and it’s just the healing now. Enjoy your anaesthetic!

    7. Glad you are here laughing the pain away, Lotl .

      Unpleasant experience for you , but wow, you were listened to and sorted out quite quickly .

      Relax and rest now … and don’t drink x

      1. Sometimes it pays to be a persistent blighter….squeaky wheels and all that.

        1. Now you can get oiled… watching out for adverse reactions with… etc. etc.

    8. Well done. Just watch out that the “medicine” doesn’t react adversely with the anaesthetic.… (Speaks from experience…{:¬((…)

    9. Great stuff, LotL! There are some wonderful people in this world! Enjoy the pampering..and the Pinot…and relax! Paracetamol and ibuprofen (if you can!) are a very good combination!

    11. A darting fear—a pomp—a tear—
      A waking on a morn
      To find that what one waked for,
      Inhales the different dawn.

      Emily Dickinson

    12. Glad to hear that’s been done – hope you are on the mend now, and can swiftly put the whole thing behind you.

    13. Just popped in here and see that you are back home with your MOH, such a relief to you both….now take it easy and put up your feet and let MOH take care of you!!!

      1. Jack (Your Other Half)* is going to take care of her? That’s generous 🙂

        *MOH = My Other Half.

    14. Glad to hear that you are back in this world and all is OK.

      The surgeon held my hand when I had surgery. It was for carpel tunnel syndrome so he was maneuvering the wrist towards the right position. Tell me when you start – his response was I’ve finished
      That is the time they gave me oxycontin, the effect was so strong that the boss only allowed me one pill – I don’t care about the pain, you are not getting that glazed look again!

      Er mm countrymenpersons / romans? What about us colonials then!

      2. Sorry, Richard, Shakespeare had no room for colonials that hadn’t even been thought of then.

      1. Thank you little Bro’. Am weary but in the line from the poem Invictus;
        Under the bludgeonings of chance,
        My head is bloody but unbowed.

        Slight exaggeration but it’s been a long road.

      1. Thanks Conners, the relief that it is over is wonderful. It will take time to heal but, hopefully, it’s gone for good.

    1. I like that a lot. Mind you, I do like fish. And I am not a penguin today 😉 Used to only eat fish when on Cape Cod as it was so fresh and delicious.

      2. Were you lucky enough to eat Abalone? Absolutely delicious. Was common in California but never cheap. Over the last couple of decades it has been banned. Greed and thus over collecting did it.

          2. Sainsbury’s used to have a fresh fish counter…no longer. I also really like swordfish which I got either in Sainsbury’s or Asda. No fresh counters in either now.
            Once we are both back to better health, we must find out if there’s a local Waitrose or Morrisons.

          3. Our Morrisons store is small but they do have a fresh fish counter and also a prepacked one.

          5. Also a meat counter, staffed by educated butchers. Ox-cheek all over and many other good meats that they are very knowledgeable about. Rates highly with me.

          6. Also a meat counter, staffed by educated butchers. Ox-cheek all over and many other good meats that they are very knowledgeable about. Rates highly with me.

          8. We have a fishmonger who sets up his stall every Monday outside the village hall. Unfortunately I can’t make it down there. But his fish is far preferable to anything you would buy in the supermarket. He will get fish on special request. God knows how much red snapper would cost.

          10. Yes, that is good too. We ate all sorts of fish in Libya. My mother would go down to the harbour and buy them as they came right off the boat. One was particularly delicious, it was a bright orange fish. But I don’t remember the name of it. Perhaps Pip would have an idea? I much prefer fish and poultry to anything else, although I do like lamb. Does that count as a “red” meat in the dietary cannon?

          12. Looking at pictures, that could be it. But if I recall correctly the fish was more the shape of a sunfish.

          14. Isn’t Tilapia more of a freshwater lake fish (eg from Lake Victoria) than a sea fish?

          15. From wiki. They can tolerate salt water…Other than their temperature sensitivity, tilapia exist in or can adapt to a very wide range of conditions. An extreme example is the Salton Sea, where tilapia introduced when the water was merely brackish now live in salt concentrations so high that other marine fish cannot survive.

          16. I’ve found that quite bland in the experience I’ve had in Australia.

          17. Yuk Yuk Yuk! The most ghastly fish ever, anywhere! Tastes like Germolene and is farmed in disgusting conditions! Don’t ever buy it!

          18. I think lamb is counted as red meat. We love lamb; not this past Xmas but the one before we had a roast leg of lamb for Xmas dinner. Oh boy, it was so good. Also, the duck we had at Easter was excellent and not expensive.

          19. Lamb is certainly a red meat – so is pork, though it’s not red when it’s cooked.

          20. OK. One gets confused now a days about what is red and what is white on the diet front. Pork may well be red meat but doesn’t it count as white for dieting purposes? I don’t keep track of this stuff. Hence my confusion.

          21. I don’t know! I thought white meat was just poultry? We just eat what we like here.

        2. Tried it in Sausalitau, Johnathan, ’twas very good – never found it since.

          1. Sausalito, nice place. When I first moved to California I lived for a little while in Mill Valley, next town over. Beautiful old Victorian wooden house, painted white, up in the hills, overlooking the Bay. It was there I discovered that California has flea plagues! Good awful they are too.

    1. If it wasn’t for reports of the police confronting unruly protesters, it would not be getting any media coverage. Plenty of news about Putin censoring the news over there though.

      Many of the bikers are ex military, they have been blocked from access to the war memorial.

    2. They have bloody big trucks – just start inching forward and, there are more civilians than police – instruct them to tackle any copper who stands in the way, for his/her own safety.

      Don’t be cowed by the police presence – there are more of YOU.

    1. All this rubbish about cake and porn is to distract us from digital covid passes, vaxx side effects, inflation and the effects of their sanctions against Russia.

      1. What’s absurd is that they end up being sanctions against our selves.

          1. Considering that the whole of Europe is dependent on Russian Gas and they must have known what the consequences would be. It seriously calls into question the calibre of our politicians. Unfortunately we have the MSM backing them up instead of pointing out that they are causing us to go to hell in a handbasket with their absurd grandstanding. It makes one miss the likes of Henry Kissinger, realists that would not indulge in this sort of nonsense, dreadful though they were.

          2. The politicians are stupid enough, but the globalists steering this stuff must have known what would be the likely consequences of cancelling the dollar as a reserve currency and applying the ridiculous sanctions. I think this is the crisis deliberately stoked up by them with three aims

            – exhaust Russia
            – blame the death of the fiat currencies on Russia, and launch the CBDCs
            – put as much of the world as they can under digital slavery

            I think Russia fighting back and pegging the rouble to gold took them by surprise, and also the debt/hyperinflation thing may be hard to control. What is pathetically easy to predict, manipulate and control is the reaction of the masses.

          3. I agree with your list except for number 1. I think that the aim is to pillage Russia. Have it’s natural resources under the control of the Americans with the EU as its errand boy.

          4. Some in the US would love that, I’m sure, but the physical geography will surely render such a thing as impossible for today’s technocrats as it was for Napoleon or Hitler?

    2. This is the best Neil Oliver speech yet, I think. Spot on, and I for one am grateful that he is talking about it.

    2. #MeToo Five today …
      Wordle 316 5/6

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

    3. I was lucky to get a 5.
      Wordle 316 5/6

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

    1. This the famous doctor? The one who cheated on his wife? The one who was pally with Epstein? That Gates?

      Time we had a “Gatesgate”.

    2. …and if it doesn’t appear, you and WEF/WHO will make it such.

      Next it’ll be smallpox or bubonic plague you’ll spread, with a faux vaccine to enrich Big Pharma.

    3. “Director General of the WHO this week warned people to be weary of the virus”.

      We’re all ‘weary’ of the virus – i.e. we’re fed up with it. Does he mean ‘wary’?

    4. Director general (It should be Capital “G”) of the WHO this week warned people to be wEary of the virus.
      He got that right!

      I am very WEARY of the whole Convid debacle/con/Great Reset tool

    5. “Above 5%” is meaningless – 6% is above 5%. Even so, that’s a 74% chance that it won’t be either more transmissive or more fatal (than less than 1%). Seems like good odds to me.

    6. I suppose that is a clear enough warning that they are planning to release another “variant” to which they will miraculously manage to develop a “vaccine” in record time!

  63. The MR told me that she did not care that Porno MP (now ex-MP) was looking at porn. What shocked and angered her was that this MP should consider it appropriate to look at ANYTHING on his phone while in the COMMONS Chamber.

    Sh was a teacher for 40 years. Her simple remedy for MPs and phones is the one she applied to school-children. Confiscate the phone until the end of the week.

    1. Exactly what I said yesterday. It was the fact that he was looking at anything that I found offensive; porn, recipes for that night’s dinner, restaurants, football…whatever, his phone should be for emergency life and death texts only whilst at work and kept in his pocket. But they all seem to be looking at their phones…. however did we get to into this state?

    3. What on earth did MPs do in the HoC chamber before mobile phones were invented?

      2. The DT or Times crossword , constituency papers, briefing notes ..

        I really think that MPs are bored out of their little brains .

        1. I heard someone had died as a result of a lorry running over their mobile phone
          The had it to their ear at the time

    4. 1. Watching porn at work is normally a disciplinary
      2. Play with your phone in my meetings, and I’ll call you out. Concentrate on the work at hand, or piss off.
      Why is this different for they useless bastards?

      1. Why does it matter what they do? They are just voters that do as their party leaders tell them when and how to vote.

        At least your backbenchers have some influence, the Canadian system has corrupted the parliamentary system to the extent that MPs rarely speak or vote against the party line. Trudeau just withdraws the whip from any MP that does not worship his every mistake.

      2. I had that trouble when teaching sales techies. They might have been allowed to take the course but pressure to look after clients did not go away.

        You couldn’t blame them for using their phones, their management was at fault.

        1. Indeed – many of my lads were on call. But then, go out of the meeting for the call, not sit there & read the internet.
          Grr!

        2. Indeed – many of my lads were on call. But then, go out of the meeting for the call, not sit there & read the internet.
          Grr!

        1. Not so much of the “Learned”… I’m an Ingen Ingin anj Engineer

          2. Reminds me of an old joke….years ago I wanted to be an engineer- now I are one.

    5. 1. Watching porn at work is normally a disciplinary
      2. Play with your phone in my meetings, and I’ll call you out. Concentrate on the work at hand, or piss off.
      Why is this different for they useless bastards?

  64. Rising feed prices mean chicken could soon cost as much as beef, says Co-op. 1 May 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3d9d91b916e64f974fedcf35c0be2c2da1b3e052e7d9a3352d5dabf1c4c6c50a.png

    Chicken’s relative affordability has helped make it the country’s meat of choice but one of the UK’s biggest food retailers has warned it could soon be as pricey as beef as production costs soar.

    Steve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-op, said feed costs had become a huge challenge for the poultry industry. “Chicken could become as expensive as beef. Chicken, which was incredibly cheap and great value for money, is rising quicker than any other protein.”

    There’s a Perfect Storm coming in the Cost of Living. You Nottl bakers should lay in some flour and you can post me a loaf once a week. I like Granary by the way!

    https://www.theguardian.com/food/2022/may/01/rising-feed-prices-mean-chicken-could-soon-cost-as-much-as-beef

    1. We’ve got a chicken for tonight’s dinner. Still incredibly cheap at the moment.

      1. I’ve just had it myself Ndovu but only because the fish was too expensive yesterday! One trout was £8!!!!

        1. We had salmon fillets yesterday – the lightly smoked ones are slightly more expensive than plain but still reasonable.

          1. Wild alaskan salmon is an occasional indulgence due to cost,I won’t eat farmed salmon the documentary I watched on salmon farming put me off for life!!

          3. YukIndeed and not just salmon………

            Farmed fish

            Dyed,

            de-sexed, and a threat to the planet: the fish on your plate is more

            likely than ever to be farmed. Still think cod, sea bass and tuna are

            wild?

            Andrew Purvis

            Sun 11 May 2003 16.33 BST

            I can understand why angling is a hit-and-miss affair, but the wild fish

            in the chiller cabinet at Sainsbury’s are proving equally elusive. As I

            cast my eye along the shelves of the Holborn branch in central London,

            all the salmon is marked with a blue sticker saying ‘Farmed in Scotland

            or Norway’ – no surprise there – while the ready meals carry a similar

            message obfuscated by romantic language. ‘Fresh trout from the Silver

            Trout river farms,’ reads the label on the Trout and Pesto Plait, while

            the King Prawns in Chilli and Coriander are ‘Cultivated in Indonesia,

            Ecuador or Honduras’. The sea bass, which should surely be the wildest

            of fish, is ‘Farmed in Greece’ while the Quality Checked salmon steaks

            are ‘Fully traceable to farms that comply with comprehensive welfare,

            environmental and safety requirements’. It’s a

            bit of a mouthful – and one designed to reassure consumers about the

            ethics, safety, environmental impact and wisdom of rearing fish

            intensively like broiler chickens, pigs or cattle. Research carried out

            by Taylor Nelson Sofres for the Seafish Industry Authority reveals that

            consumers have ‘overall negative attitudes’ towards fish farming, due to

            a decade of bad publicity in the salmon industry. First, it was the

            damage done to the King of Fish by incarceration in overcrowded sea

            cages, then a series of revelations about dyed pink flesh, toxic

            chemicals, antibiotics and marine pollutants.

            https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2003/may/11/foodanddrink.features1

          4. To put it more briefly and perhaps a little more unpleasantly, all they do is swim around in their own poop. No thank you.
            Where I lived in CT there was a state run trout hatchery. Trout were grown there for releasing into the rivers and lakes in the state. Each large pond had a mesh covering it to keep hungry herons and other large birds away. Also black bears because they like fish.

          5. Hampshire chalk stream trout farms are okay. They divert the stream to the pens and it flows back into the stream. Taking the waste with it.

          6. I was taken to visit a trout farm as a child, and it looked OK. But I do avoid farmed salmon because of what I have read about them.

      2. I’ve just had it myself Ndovu but only because the fish was too expensive yesterday! One trout was £8!!!!

    3. Feed prices you say,nothing to do with fertilizer prices tripling or the outbreaks of bird flu leading to the slaughter of hundreds of millions of birds
      Food processing plants burning down or planes crashing into them and suddenly Billy Boy is the largest owner of farmland in the US
      I’ve seen this plot before in a Bond film,was it OHMSS??
      Eat the bugs and vat meat Bigot!!

    4. Chicken – the dullest meat on earth. Only good for carrying tasty sauce to your mouth in polite company – not eating the sauce with a spoon…

      1. Nice happy bland boneless chicken thighs, chopped up and browned off in a little drop of oil with alot of baby mushrooms in a wok( I can’t eat onion) fresh parsley … and then add a tin of condensed mushroom soup and a squizzle off black pepper , add some water if the ingredients need more liquid .. then after about 15 mts add a tin of drained sweet corn … boil up a pan of hot water for your fresh tagliatelle.. cook the pasta for about 6mts .. serve pasta with chicken and creamy juice on top .. perhaps some cooked asparagus or broccoli spears as veg …

        One of our favourites ..

        1. Had chicken salad recently at a local cafe to Firstborn, now run by a young couple, him with French chef’s training. The salad was out of this world – juicy, tasty chicken, excellent vinaigrette, amazing greenery…! I always maintain that the skill in a Chef shows when they can make otherwise dull food tasty and exciting, and this lad has The Touch!
          10 years ago, I had work in Denmark, and the staff canteen was Cheffed by a lady who had a Michelin star but found that running a Michelin restaurant was too much work… the food was sublime, especially her salads. Truly to die for, she too could fix dull food to be nectar of the Gods.

          3. So you say…so you say!!

            It happens to us all. I have an anagram website which is called”Nissing letters”.

          4. Dunno, but she was aa magician with food.
            Good looking lass, too. Undoubtedly not short of male admirers!

        2. If you buy chicken thighs deboned and skinned you are paying roughly twice the price. I debone with kitchen scissors and make stock. Plus you can make crispy skin for garnish.

          3. Especially supermarket chicken. Open the pack, and it’s slimy, too. Ugh.

          5. I think we need to invest in a few chooks but the run must be fox-proof and I’ll need an incubator for breeding chicks.

          9. YES, YES YES.

            All the things I could do with food years ago , including pluck pheasants , skin rabbits , fillet fish etc , I just don’t have the stomach for anymore .

          10. I feel exactly the same! I struggle to debone the Christmas turkey nowadays! I generally remove the legs and thighs then debone them and stuff with sausage and chestnut stuffing. They get cooked separately, and the wings and giblets make stock. I really have to psych myself up to do it!

          14. By boning the thighs makes them easier to cook soft. Make a stock from the bones and skin and add that back in to the dish.

      2. Wasn’t always the case. Factory farmed chicken is flabby and full of water which washes the flavour away.

      3. Respectfully, I must disagree. We had free range chicken wings fried in goose fat with just a little salt added today – utterly delicious.

          2. I just cook the pasta. Toss in butter and herbs. Then throw in the crab at the end. Simples.

          4. Yes, I have done that also. MH isn’t that keen on pasta although he’ll eat it; I love it.

          6. Some people just can’t help being wrong… like not liking cheese, not liking pasta, and more.
            Sigh!

          7. I can’t say I like pasta, spaghetti, lasagne and tagliatelli, OK, but the rest – very rubbery and I’m not Japanese.

    7. I felt decidely under the weather until I tried laying in some flour – I was all white afterwards! 😉

      1. What did our forbears do before there was chemicals – used horse and cow shit?

        Still available plus all the shit spewed in the Houses of Commons and Lords on a daily basis.

        Monsanto et al, just depart and multiply.

      2. What did our forbears do before there was chemicals – used horse and cow shit?

        Still available plus all the shit spewed in the Houses of Commons and Lords on a daily basis.

        Monsanto et al, just depart and multiply.

    3. He would be pleased that Russians and the media were being distracted by banality while he gets on with the war

  66. Somewhat OT, but was it Izzy’s funeral a couple of days ago? Or have I remembered wrongly?

    1. I thought so too and meant to mention it….28th was it? I think HertsLass said she was going.

          2. The pedants on here will leap onto any typo faster than a seaside shitehawk on a tray of chips.

            Dr. Daughter went swimming on Harlech beach t’other day and left her bag open with her towel on top. When she got back her towel had been pulled off her bag along with a couple of other items with the pasty she’d bough to have after her swim half eaten by one of the aforesaid avians!
            She was not very pleased!

          3. On the contrary, BoB, I’m so happy to see that you, and now Bill, recognise the difference between ‘show’ the noun and ‘shew’ the verb and you both use them correctly.

          4. As for the shitehawk gulls, we had to put up with them in Banff (Banffshire) a real pain during the mating and broody season.

        1. I’m in good company then, Geoff!
          ;-))
          Requiem, and the last of the malt later tonight.
          Slainte!

          2. 😉
            The last of The Glenlivet left over from Christmas. £50 a bottle…

          4. Whoosh!
            Don’t know that one – hope it’s as good as the price!

          5. Coming back from Wild Welsh Wales yesterday, we stopped off for a couple of hours in Oswestry, as well as having refreshments at the Niche Patisserie, somewhere I’d well recommend, their seeded baguettes are superb, we looked round the market and, in the rather brutalist style indoor market I noted a stall with bottles of not only Herforder Pils but Asbach brandy!
            I’m quietly sipping on a glass of the Asbach as I type!

          6. Aah, Asbach – very popular in Germany when I served there. Thankfully, I was the Drum Major in the Laarbruch Pipe band and every where we went we where plied with oodles of Scotch.

            I’m now addicted – love it!

    4. Copied from Herts Lass comment to me

      No, not my birthday – we went to Issy’s funeral on 28th. It was a long and quite tiring day – driving to Cardiff and back, with hold-ups on the motorways it ended up being a 7+ hr round journey.

      It was a sweet little 45 minute service in the chapel, and lots of people including many neighbours turned up and had nice things to say about Warren (that was his name). Katrina (his devoted carer for over two decades) and her family, and D and I met at his house and accompanied the hearse to the chapel. I can email an e-version of the Order of Service to anyone who would like one. I had written a piece about Warren and the pleasure he got from NoTTL, and the great fondness and respect of NoTTLers that he himself engendered – which was read out as part of the service.

      My birthday is in May. It’s going to be chaos – we are have new secondary windows fitted in some rooms, and new cielings nee to be boarded, plastered and painted. We have lived in mess for the last 6 weeks – which is when we were first told that the work would begin, and we cleared everything out of the relevant rooms. But it didn’t, it will start on Tuesday, so D and I will hopefully escape this mess to the pub for lunch on my b/day!

      2. Thanks for the update, Belle.
        I had hoped to have several beers with Issy this summer, since we’ll be in Wales to clear Mother’s house, but I was too late. That’s a right bugger, that is.
        Must play Mozart’s Requiem for him – my favourite rendition https://youtu.be/YaH3zI0bYkM

  67. That’s me for this better day. Much milder. Watered the grass. Result!! Took the MR to an old-fashioned plant nursery (the complete opposite of a “garden centre”). She was delighted. Even managed a slight smile. Some progress, I hope and pray.

    Have a jolly May Day evening.

    A demain.

    1. We have had rain all day, and the temp is quite chilly.

      We needed rain , April was a very dry frosty month . Perennials in the garden are happy now and our lovely yellow azalea looks as if it will burst into flower soon.

      Old fashioned plant nurseries are hidden pleasures.

      Stay warm .

        1. Drizzle we need – very dry, flowers are delayed, bees are getting frantic, grass is beige, fires igniting all over the place. Rain! Must have rain!

        2. Sun cracking the flags all day here, lambs seeking shelter under trees

    2. Were the inmates of the Plant Nursery invariably old-fashioned, polite and well-mannered, Bill?

  68. 352335+ up ticks,

    Heard eddy currie early on voicing her views on capers cut in parliament, one would think it would have been better if she had crossed her legs.

          6. The most popular dessert I ever made for a dinner party was Peaches in Brandy. Blanch the peaches, get the skin off and simmer the peach halves in a simple syrup and some brandy. Oh boy, so delicious. Can serve with cream or ice cream but neither are necessary.

    1. That would be a good move.

      However – to be taken seriously – Lord Frost should ditch his ermine in advance …

  70. Evening, all. Been a miserable day weather wise (rained overnight, which was needed, but then dull, damp, chilly and dreich all day). The 1,000 Gns was a thriller, though, and a brilliant result for lesser-known trainers, beating Coolemore’s big guns. So pleased for the Doyler (James Doyle, the jockey) to do the double.

    1. Got a bit drizzly here this afternoon, but I spent the day sorting out my collection of old OS 25thou maps. I picked up a dozen or so in different junk & 2nd hand bookshops Wales last week.

      I will never understand why Ordnance Survey ditched their 10×20 25thou maps in favour of the oversized sheets they produce now.

      1. I’ve got a good collection of OS maps, too. Some of them are linen backed (purchased due to school requirements for geography).

        1. I also collect 6th and early 7th series OS maps.
          The number of times I’ve surprised people by quoting the number of inches in a mile is down to my cartographic interests.

          2. I have dozens – and old ones- you once said you’d be interested.

      2. While my branch of surveying (Quantity Surveying) was more involved with the monetary side of Construction, I’m still a (retired) surveyor, and have always enjoyed maps. I thinned out my collection of OS maps when I moved here. Actually, they’ve all gone. I now subscribe to OSMaps online. It works on the laptop and the phone. And – whisper this – I’ve shared my logon with a friend who is better able to use it for walking than I am. Actually, I’ve just renewed my subscription. I’ve tried other apps. ViewRanger was promising, but buggy. But let’s hear it for the OS – possibly the last branch of the Civil Service which still works.

        Although they’re not infallible. There’s a new(ish) red phone box in Seale, Farnham, where I lived until late 2020. Except it has no phone. It’s clearly marked with “Defibrillator”. I’ve advised OS, and their response was to thank me, but they wouldn’t be updating their maps anytime soon…

        1. As a youngster I was taught that the OS produced the best maps in the world. 1st Duke of Wellington was keen on surveys and maps.

    4. ?You are fleeing? Masks? Western clothing? Modern tech phones? Mass produced boats. Mass produced lifebelts? This is invasion and race replacement.

      1. It’s all bollocks.
        The Rwanda scheme was/is a red herring. Also, we have no idea how many are coming in on container trucks etc.
        This government is complete crap.

    7. Here comes the Caliphate army. Be afraid, Britain, be very afraid. You are doomed.

    1. Green cards not legal between UK & EU, either.
      Why the surprise?

    2. Chaps on the article are making it very clear that this was telegraphed many years ago and that it’s not difficult – you go along to an interview pay about £6 and that’s it. Been widely discussed in both directions.

    3. Load of nonsense. The Brits in Spain have had several years to exchange their UK licence for one issued in Spain. The time limit has expired. The Spanish driving test is tough if you neither read nor speak Spanish.

      Government bureaucracy in Spain is much more modern and efficient than that of the UK. For instance, passport renewal can be done locally after having made an appointment online.
      The cost is/was about 25 euro and after asking a few questions and checking the relevant documents the new passport is printed immediately and away you go.
      And both parents must be present when a child’s passport is processed, which makes it harder for a foreign father to snatch a child and take her or him back abroad.

    4. Load of nonsense. The Brits in Spain have had several years to exchange their UK licence for one issued in Spain. The time limit has expired. The Spanish driving test is tough if you neither read nor speak Spanish.

      Government bureaucracy in Spain is much more modern and efficient than that of the UK. For instance, passport renewal can be done locally after having made an appointment online.
      The cost is/was about 25 euro and after asking a few questions and checking the relevant documents the new passport is printed immediately and away you go.
      And both parents must be present when a child’s passport is processed, which makes it harder for a foreign father to snatch a child and take her or him back abroad.

    5. When I lived in Spain, I had a Spanish driver’s licence – no sweat.

    1. I’ve got a bad back, but it doesn’t stop me cleaning up after Oscar.

      1. On my last Topsham visit, I walked Maddie the Schnauzer at least twice a day. On one occasion, she did more poos than I had bags. So I marked the spot, and returned with bag #3. It’s not difficult. But I wouldn’t want a full-time dog, even if my tenancy agreement allowed it…

        1. I always make sure I have at least four bags with me when I walk Oscar. He really is a poo factory!

          1. #1 reason to not own a dog: Early morning walk to empty said dog, and then pick up the warm, soft mass in a plastic bag… before breakfast. Argh!

          3. Ah, that’s where you’re going wrong; feed the Rayburn, feed myself, feed Oscar, then walk 🙂

    2. I have never once NOT made every effort to pick up Mongo’s poos. He tries to go on the nappy blanket, misses 8/10 and then I grab the stuff myself.

    4. Best Beloved always does, after Dotty’s efforts. And she brings ’em home and into the rubbish bin.

      1. Thank God for that. 😀
        Wee black bags hung on hedgerows… better leave the blasted mess on the ground to rot.

    5. Aliens land on earth and see a human following an animal around and picking up its shit – I bet they wonder who the master is and who the slave is

      2. “Outside a lunatic asylum one day, a man was picking up sticks…..
        Come inside you silly bugger, come inside….”
        I bet as an ex serviceman you know that quite well;–)

  74. 666 and here I am :-))
    Gawd, don’t give your old man vitamin D- mine is on a regime of assorted pills and this evening he had his first D. He’s been burbling away like the singing bush since. Helpppp!!!!!

    1. I’ve been taking Vitamin D3 since the outset of the “pandemic”, yet here I am. Covid free, and unaware of any adverse effects. Which is more than I can say for my Astra Zeneca jabs….

      1. No, I understand. My AZ jabs have caused issues but this regime of pills is to do with his other condition. He has no side effects from the jabs.
        It is a bit odd as we eat healthily and but he’s not used to pills. Maybe it’s just the stress of listening to me wittering on all the time;-)

      2. I’ve been taking Vit D3 all the time, too, but yesterday I had a slightly sore throat and a wheezy cough. Have stepped up the Vit D and Vit C + zinc intake and it’s a lot better today (but I gave church a miss).

        1. Good plan, Conners. One day last week, I had the sniffles, and a slight cough. I pondered whether I should do a LFT test, but didn’t bother. Next day – fine. I have a feeling that Omicron is milder than the common cold. But I could be wrong…

        2. There is lots of blossomy stuff emerging in the last week or so, when you are taking a dog for a walk you come into contact with quite a lot of it, therein may lie the answer…

          1. It started after I cut the lawns (very dry, so dusty, and seedy), which I think hasn’t helped. The may is starting to come out as well – and my garden has lots of flowers in it. I don’t normally suffer from hay fever, but there’s always a first time!

      4. Vitamin D, Vitamin C and Zinc.

        We’ve both had Covid very mildly but no jabs. Our neighbours have both had FOUR jabs and both were very nastily ill.

        Mark Steyn is right – both the anecdotal evidence as well as the government statistics tell us that being jabbed is far worse for your health than not being jabbed.

        Bill Gates is worried that he is not getting enough loot from Covid and is issuing dire warnings that another variant of Covid just as infectious as Omicron but ten times as dangerous is just around the corner. The Wuhan Lab is already working on producing it!

        1. In the last couple of months, folk here in the Parish have been going down with the sniffles Omicron with monotonous regularity. All were boostered; all were excessive mask-wearers.

          3. “All were boostered; all were excessive mask-wearers.”

            Very catching, Geoff …!

          5. ‘Omicron’ stands for Zero Micron protection against viruses by wearing face masks….

      1. Comment number when I returned…. the devil is at your elbow, my child ;-))

    3. Ideally you should take Vit D in the morning.
      It’s a sunshine vitamin and will trigger a daybreak reaction.

      1. Does that mean when vit-D is taken orally in the morning you’ll get a sunset PR by the evening?

  78. Couple of points from today…. when I was in the hospital, the staff were wearing masks but most of them had slipped under the noses. Nobody questioned why MH and I were not masked- well, in my case it was obvious. I had filled in two forms about medical conditions and a covid one. But it was not suggested that I should have to go for a covid swab which MH has had to do thrice. Same hospital system.
    More and more I believe that we have been fed lies and false information so this government and whomever else can promote their sinister plans.
    My cynicism is at an all time high.

    1. I hope you have a better night’s sleep.
      Don’t be proud; take lots of drugs.

      1. Thanks Anne, I am so much more relaxed knowing it is over; I suspect I will sleep well tonight and probably snore like a warthog. Warning issued to all those on the south coast;-)

    1. Why is he taking all day to arrest that bitch? I’d have had it done in 20 seconds maximum.

      2. Indeed. Useless. Wet PC – allows her to obstruct him and then assault him in performance etc etc, should have been cuffs on – put her down first if necessary.

  80. What are Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and other Swamp Rats doing in Kiev having meetings with the actor and globalist puppet Zelensky?

    This is a sure sign that Obama (no sign of Biden) is pulling the strings in Washington and angling for a furtherance of the war in Ukraine. This is a conflict and war we in the UK should have nothing whatever to do with. Have our politicians, of all shades, lost what little sense they have?

    Before President Trump brought a large measure of common sense and diplomacy to the White House I thought of America as the Evil Empire. Now President Trump has been fraudulently removed from his deserved second term, and America placed under the control of the senile Biden and senile/inebriated Pelosi, I have returned to my previous assessment
    of the USA.

    1. Just seen a meme on Twit that has the answer to that question – thanking him for doing their laundry…

      The US appears to be run by evil clowns at the moment.

  81. Goodnight Y’all. Thanks again for your kind messages, greatly appreciated. If you’re in the south east a snoring warning is hereby issued.

    1. That man sounds as if he is in agony. Will some kind person not put him out of his misery?

    2. Run the fuckers over with the busses.

      Oh, yes, Sad Dick Cunt won’t allow that.

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