Sunday 10 April: The PM’s energy plan does nothing to fix the woeful inefficiency of Britain’s housing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

768 thoughts on “Sunday 10 April: The PM’s energy plan does nothing to fix the woeful inefficiency of Britain’s housing”

  2. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – The Government’s energy strategy review gives me a strong feeling of déjà vu.

    Over 30 years ago I was a Cabinet special adviser for energy for the government of Margaret Thatcher. We put up a pilot scheme to allow government departments to keep savings they made through energy efficiency. The Treasury sat on it. It did the same to a suggestion for lower taxes on unleaded petrol.

    This week we had a strategy that addresses some aspects of supply, but not the important aspects of demand. There is no scheme to encourage homes to insulate and become more energy efficient. Much of the £9.2 billion supposedly earmarked some years ago for this area has not been applied. Yet we have the most energy-inefficient housing stock in Europe.

    That is one major deficiency in the plans. There are two others. The second issue relates to diversity. Baseload power is not just nuclear. Tidal energy is a natural fit for our island. And onshore wind, sensitively placed, remains an excellent option – not one to be largely dismissed.

    Third, but most important: the Government must stop the absurd annual habit of putting all the clocks back one hour for winter time. Over 30 years ago the Department of Energy calculated that this cost the country several billion pounds. The simplest of all measures – why is it still unaddressed 30 years later?

    Nick Martin
    London W6

    1. Because the snivel service & government are utterly useless and should all be burned, Mr Martin.

    2. “What about the CHEELdren?” Mr Martin. Too many would die whilst walking or cycling to school in the dark. (Even though these days most of them are ferried to school in their parents’ cars.)

    3. The clocks are not turned back for winter. They are put to the correct time for our longitude. That is Greenwich Mean Time.

      1. Agreed, I’d be happier to remain on GMT all year round, as it was worked out naturally by science not meddling officialdom.. Perhaps Mr Martin doesn’t remember the experiment in the early 70s when BST was maintained throughout the Winter, giving exceedingly late dawn north of the Watford Gap; some more northerly places didn’t see dawn until well after 9am. The school run in the dark was bad enough then; now, with the advent of convoys of Chelsea tractors descending on rush hour, it would be bedlam in the dark.

  3. SIR – I agree with Dr Robert Walker (Letters, April 3) – it is no surprise how discontented the nation is with GP services.

    Two weeks ago I had a face-to-face appointment with a nurse for my annual diabetes check. When it was complete she asked if I had any other problems. I told her I was having some bad back pain and she recommended a doctor’s appointment.

    She went to the computer and asked if a certain date and time was OK. I agreed and the following Thursday I arrived at the surgery for my appointment. I checked in with the receptionist, who asked me to sit in the deserted waiting room.

    A few minutes later she came over to tell me the appointment was by telephone and the doctor would ring me in five minutes. I left the surgery and a few minutes later I spoke to the doctor while I sat in my car, less than 20 yards away. If that is not ridiculous, then I don’t know what is.

    Lee Brown
    Hyde, Cheshire

    Another ‘patient shy’ GP. When is someone going to get a grip on this farcical situation?

    1. My last Nurse appointment. The car park was full. One receptionist and one patient waiting.

    2. I’ve got yet another telephone appointment about the pain in my hip. I expect it will be “can you stand on one leg?” type questions again. Except that I actually want something done about the persistent pain, I’m minded to tell them where to stick it.

  4. SIR – Michael Deacon (Features, April 7) says that there are not many household tasks he would trust to his eight-year-old son.

    In 1949, aged eight, I lived with my parents and six-month-old sister in a caravan on a dispersal airfield at RAF Benson, home to Lancasters, Mosquitos and Spitfires. My mother would give me a shilling to push my sister’s pram while riding my bicycle around the perimeter track. If confronted by a taxiing aircraft, I would steer on to the grass and wait till it passed. I waved to the pilots and they always waved back.

    In the evening my parents would go to the officers’ mess, leaving me in charge. If my sister awoke I would rock her, heat her milk on the gas stove and change her nappy. Should all this fail, I could go out to a battery-powered Mosquito landing light mounted on the tow bar and change its filter from green to red. The air-traffic controller on the other side of the airfield could phone the mess and my parents would return. It was never necessary.

    We learnt independence at an early age in those days. When I became a father myself, aged 27, I could show my wife how to change nappies.

    Wg Cdr Martin Mayer RAF (rtd)
    Chorley, Lancashire

    These days it would be “Oi sonny, where’s yer risk assessment?”

  5. Russian general taking over Ukraine campaign is the man who flattened Syria’s cities. 10 April 2022.

    A general who bombed Syrian cities into the ground has been appointed Russia’s top commander in Ukraine and is already suspected of ordering a missile strike that killed 50 civilians at a railway station.

    This is an opening paragraph that sets the tone for the rest. What really happened is that the Russian forces saved Syria from being overrun by the western backed Jihadists. By most informed opinion it was; in contrast to Ukraine, a brilliantly run campaign. Dvornikov was not only able to use his air power effectively but revitalise the Syrian Army so that it could fight ISIS on equal terms. That his first move in Ukraine would be to personally order a pointless, even counter-productive strike, on a civilian target seems not just unlikely, but ridiculous. Nevertheless that this article was even written shows us how insidious and overwhelming the lies have become in this business. There is nothing that will not be twisted or distorted to fill an agenda. You need to take everything in the MSM with a large shovelful of salt!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/04/09/russian-general-taking-ukraine-campaign-man-flattened-syrias/

    1. … and I heard on the Duran that the missile which hit the train station is no longer used by the Russians. That is not conclusive, but does offer a clue as to who ordered the strike.

          2. A healthy scepticism is a good thing; especially when it comes to dealing with the meeja/politicians.

      2. It would appear from reports yesterday that there may not have been a strike at all.

      3. I mentioned that yesterday. It was a Tochka-U a missile used by the Ukrainians but not the Russians. Even Alex Belfield had difficulty in believing that this missile was shot by the Russians and just happened to survive so that the supposed message to the children of Ukraine remained intact. It is as ridiculous as the other piece of propaganda I posted yesterday about Putin’s supposed version of Mein Kampf.

      4. I mentioned that yesterday. It was a Tochka-U a missile used by the Ukrainians but not the Russians. Even Alex Belfield had difficulty in believing that this missile was shot by the Russians and just happened to survive so that the supposed message to the children of Ukraine remained intact. It is as ridiculous as the other piece of propaganda I posted yesterday about Putin’s supposed version of Mein Kampf.

    2. … and I heard on the Duran that the missile which hit the train station is no longer used by the Russians. That is not conclusive, but does offer a clue as to who ordered the strike.

  6. SIR – There are two large question marks against the reasons Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, gave for raising taxes. These are quite apart from the fact that he promised not to at the last election.

    First, there is no recognition that the consequences of bad decisions by ministers should not be dumped on innocent taxpayers. Examples include £37 billion on a failed Covid testing programme, and failed socialist energy policies which require consumers to fund what are shareholder risks. Is there a mechanism to claw back from the operators of wind farms the £11 billion per annum taxpayers are currently paying them?

    Secondly, it has taken barely any time at all for Mr Sunak to fall victim to the dead hand of the Treasury. Like him or loathe him, one of the most compelling reasons for voting Conservative in 2019 was that Dominic Cummings had a clear plan to overhaul state institutions.

    The Home Office should be broken up. The NHS is a sprawling, out-of-control Soviet mess, despite the skills of its medical staff. We love culture, media and sport, but government should stay away. Why has the Cabinet Office not ordered all public servants to get back to the office, full time?

    We need a government with a fundamentally higher level of competence, vision and sense of duty to the country. If not, this current weak administration will continue to allow an entrenched public sector to tax us all ragged. There is no better example than the 55 per cent wealth tax on private pensions, while there is none on public-sector ones.

    Robin Hallam
    Andover, Hampshire

    Dream on, Mr Hallam!

    1. There is nobody except taxpayers to pay for government mistakes. We’re supposed to be able to vote them out. That’s the system that’s broken!

      1. 351922+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2,

        You have put a multitude of truth in your one comment.
        The majority electorate mantra is
        ” you gotta vote
        tory (ino) to keep out lab ( ino)”or
        V V.
        It’s a COALITION.
        The politico’s delight, a carte blanche ticket to
        treachery, .

        Dover a prime example.

  8. Boris Johnson pledges to send more arms during surprise visit to Kyiv. 10 April 2022.

    “It is because of president Zelenskiy’s resolute leadership and the invincible heroism and courage of the Ukrainian people that Putin’s monstrous aims are being thwarted. I made clear today that the United Kingdom stands unwaveringly with them in this ongoing fight, and we are in it for the long run.

    “We are stepping up our own military and economic support and convening a global alliance to bring this tragedy to an end, and ensure Ukraine survives and thrives as a free and sovereign nation.”

    Last night No 10 said Britain would send 120 armoured vehicles and new anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine. The missiles can do serious damage to Russian warships and could be used to tackle the Russian navy siege of Black Sea ports. The UK pledged £100m in military assistance last week, including another 800 anti-tank missiles, more anti-aircraft weapons, “suicide drones”, which hover over the battlefield before attacking a target, and helmets, body armour and night-vision goggles.

    More grandstanding from this Churchill wannabe! Let’s just keep stoking up this war! What could possibly go wrong?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/boris-johnson-pledges-to-send-more-arms-during-surprise-visit-to-kyiv

    1. It is simply wicked to sit in safety in Westminster while fuelling a foreign war which the Ukrainians have zero chance of winning, however many missiles or armoured vehicles the UK sends them.

    2. Boris is a complete feckin idiot – we don’t have £100 million to spare [especially after wasting £37 Bn plus] and interfering in someone else’s war is insane – what the long term effects of this will be I dread to think.

    3. Following the video, shown here, of Ukranian militia torturing and killing Russian POWs there has been no further word about it. Why, I wonder?

      1. I take it you are referring to the one where they are kneecapping Russian soldiers then shooting out their genitals? Or is there yet another?

      1. I wonder if government officials take their passports with them when they travel. Probably not.

        Good morning.

  10. Wage-starved Britain risks a nasty return to the 1970s. 10 April 2022.

    Here in the UK, agricultural input costs are soaring – for everything from dairy to egg, meat and crop production. The closely watched Andersons’ “Agflation” index – which builds on official price data for agricultural inputs, then weights them by usage – suggest farming costs in March were a staggering 28.8pc higher than the same month in 2021.

    Are we in for a 1970s-style wage-price spiral – with price rises bidding up company wage bills, in turn pushing up prices even more? Well, while around 80pc of workers, whether in unions or not, were covered by collective bargaining agreements in the late 1970s, that’s now fallen to around 35pc – including barely one in six across the private sector. So perhaps not.

    But be in no doubt, this cost of living squeeze is extremely serious – to an extent our political and media class has yet fully to grasp. Spiralling fuel and food costs mean that, in the coming weeks, however justified the UK’s sanctions on Russia, such sanctions will start to be questioned.

    Wage-starved Britain risks a nasty return to the 1970s 1930s.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/10/wage-starved-britain-risks-nasty-return-1970s/

    1. Destruction of agriculture in the U.K is the name of the game. One would think Geoffrey Woollard would be angry about this.

    2. Good morning, all. Bright, calm and the frost has disappeared.

      …to an extent our political and media class has yet fully to grasp.

      I think that certain members of the political class know all about what is going on, they don’t need to grasp it, they’re in on it. Now, getting a grip on the issues is an altogether different skill that so many in authority lack..

    3. “sanctions will start to be questioned”

      Don’t worry, there will be another Russian atrocity all over the media to harden people’s support for sanctions.
      When that fails, there will be a different catastrophe of some kind. Would you prefer a new deadly plague or a “Russian cyber-attack?”

  11. Wage-starved Britain risks a nasty return to the 1970s. 10 April 2022.

    Here in the UK, agricultural input costs are soaring – for everything from dairy to egg, meat and crop production. The closely watched Andersons’ “Agflation” index – which builds on official price data for agricultural inputs, then weights them by usage – suggest farming costs in March were a staggering 28.8pc higher than the same month in 2021.

    Are we in for a 1970s-style wage-price spiral – with price rises bidding up company wage bills, in turn pushing up prices even more? Well, while around 80pc of workers, whether in unions or not, were covered by collective bargaining agreements in the late 1970s, that’s now fallen to around 35pc – including barely one in six across the private sector. So perhaps not.

    But be in no doubt, this cost of living squeeze is extremely serious – to an extent our political and media class has yet fully to grasp. Spiralling fuel and food costs mean that, in the coming weeks, however justified the UK’s sanctions on Russia, such sanctions will start to be questioned.

    Wage-starved Britain risks a nasty return to the 1970s 1930s.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/10/wage-starved-britain-risks-nasty-return-1970s/

  12. SIR – I have had solar panels on my home for years. Not only do I save energy by using them during the day whenever possible, but I also feed a great deal to the national grid.

    Is it not time that the Government introduced a law that insists solar panels be installed on all new buildings, including commercial ones and dwellings, as well as on all existing council buildings across the UK?

    The cost of installing a solar system on a new house would be a fraction of the overall building cost, and would benefit both the owner of the property and the nation as a whole.

    Philip Spicksley
    Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire

    Must we disregard all aesthetic considerations in pursuit of this chimera?

  15. Bleurrr!
    Good morning, I think. Another light frost with -2°C outside with a bright start.

    I’m not expecting to get much done today. I’ve picked up whatever lurgy’s been bothering the Dearly Tolerant for the past few days and had a rubbish night’s sleep.

    To cheer people up, here’s a tw@ter post from @flozthetoz:-
    https://twitter.com/flozthetoz/status/1513044360346152961

    1. XR have highly developed anti-social tendencies, protected and encouraged by the police.

      I am thinking of starting a new organisaction to be called FKC – Fk the Climate

    1. There is a passing resemblance but the shark’s eye seems more generally aware of its surroundings.

    2. Rare 400yo shark. Do they mean 400yo rare shark?
      I should think all 400yo sharks are rare

    1. Parkystarny, Indian subcontinent goes without saying. See Asda owners etc., etc..

      1. It is why multiculture can never work. The Arabs, Pakis and muslims in general all have different standards of behaviour to ours. They tell lies as easy as breathing.

        1. That is because they are a “shame” culture, not a “guilt” culture. In other words they are not kept in check by the idea that something is inherently wrong but by the fear that they might get caught and thus lose face. The two concepts in term of morality and conduct have enormous ramifications. The Muslim is able to lie with impunity, as long as he is not caught out and shames himself withing the Islamic community. In other words there is no shame in being caught out by non-Muslims because one cannot lose face when dealing with non-Muslims.

  19. Today is Palm Sunday, but this is the fourth year I have not attended Mass, nor celebrated the Easter Triduum.

    Readers will know it is because of the imposition of “Safeguarding” throughout the voluntary sector, including the churches, that engage with children, young or vulnerable people. I cannot worship in any establishment that blankets its congregation with suspicion. The atmosphere generated by a Safeguarding policy is contradictory to the very faith and peace and trust that any church must operate. There has to be a leap of faith, rather than the tangible and legal guarantee of honour, backed up by evidence of innocence, and defeated by a suspicion of guilt, however tenuous and based on nothing than gossip, malice, hearsay and misinterpretation,

    A friend at a rehearsal of ‘Olivet to Calvary’ in my village Anglican church suggested that I join his church – an Anglican establishment where nobody there is under 60. He misses the point though – “Safeguarding” is not really tested there. I want to feel I belong to a family, and feel the assurance that there is a generation after me that can carry on after I have left off. How is that possible when there are no children, and even the middle-aged feel there is no longer any point to the church, as I do since the imposition of “Safeguarding”?

    Like nuclear weaponry, the genie is out of the bottle. How does one go about restoring this atmosphere of confidence in one another that I signed up for when I was baptised and confirmed in 2002?

      1. I think it’s to ensure children and elderly are kept ‘safe’ whatever that means.

        1. If they can’t be kept safe in a Church environment, what is the point of a Church?

          1. Perhaps it reflects the minds of the people who make these laws.
            They’re not safe to be with.

      3. It is a blacklisting system initiated by the British Government, whereby anybody working with children or vulnerable adults in any capacity must get an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Certificate, which checks the applicant suspect against police records, that can include unsubstantiated malicious complaints, particularly those hinting at any suggestion of paedophilia. These are held on file for life, and can only be challenged at the High Court at the applicant’s expense.

        Furthermore, there are a series of rules applied that may arouse suspicion of such interest. I myself fell foul of one of these by taking a photograph of children at the altar about to receive their first communion and submitting it for inclusion in an album to be presented on my parish priest’s retirement. I was told by an anonymous parish representative that it was to prevent fathers, who had been excluded from their families by divorce, from acquiring any image of their child which could be used to make contact. I am also such a father, and have been estranged from my own children for over twenty years, and actually find that explanation deeply offensive.

        It is compulsory for any institution engaging with children or vulnerable adults to undergo extensive training in the application of these methods, and to be instructed to report any suspicious activity, however innocent it appears, to the authorities through an appointed Safeguarding Officer.

        When I wrote to Bernard Longley, Archbishop of Birmingham, to discuss the liturgical implications of this, he instead referred me to the Archdiocesan Child Protection Officer for clarification of the rules.

        This is why I no longer attend mass, and feel I have been effectively excommunicated because of Government legislation.

        1. Doesn’t surprise me. Western Christianity doesn’t seem to me to be much interested in the preservation of Christianity but in furthering its perversion. Churches should resist, but they wont because they are riddled with Common Purpose graduates, atheists and the Woke. Who could be more decedent than the Archbishop of Canterbury in his failure to uphold the Christian ethos?

        3. When Mother was still mentally and physically active, she volunteered to drive old people to their hospital and doctor appointments. She was told that she would have to have one of these certificates, applied for and obtained at her own expense. The upshot was that she gave up, a loss for her as well as the community.

    2. I’m sorry you have been excluded by a blanket of suspicion, Jeremy. It’s everywhere these days, and has worsened since society has become more diverse and as a result, less trusting.
      Don’t forget, though, the words “Where two or three are gathered together…” – maybe a forwarning of the future, where the practice of faith in small, intimate groups is the only way forward? Personally, I have no time for organised religion, with it’s riches, rules, political ambitions, hierarchy and occasional fascism. I’ll keep my faith on my own, without the flimflammery.

      1. My mother, who is the daughter of a clergyman feels the same way as you, and was a committed Socialist in her younger days. She even stood for the council as a Labour candidate once. I remember being taken along to Fabian Society meetings, but I was in the creche in the next room. I heard there was a party going on, so I wandered over but was not impressed. No jelly, ice cream or games, just someone at the front talking. What sort of a party is that?

        I have said before here that the only purpose of religion, be it organised or personal, is to enhance one’s capacity to love and to be loved. Nothing else matters. If it fails in that respect, it is not a religion worth having. There is this thing from St Paul they bring out at weddings that says it succinctly enough.

        I get sick of my own company sometimes, so it’s nice to have a community to be with. The rituals are really just a framework; if everyone does their own thing, one may as well do that at home. I quite like the changing liturgical seasons; they bring a sense of occasion to life.

        As for the riches, then I take issue with the iconoclasts, be they Islamic State or 16th century English reformers. Most common folk lived pretty grim lives in their hovels. To have the churches open to them in their splendour made them feel like kings for a short while, but it is important that ultimately these grand edifices are the property of God, and through God any of us can claim possession. The moment they are privatised to the bishops is the moment they throw God out from His own house.

        1. I’m a bit torn, to be honest.
          If it wasn’t for Christianity as an organised religion, we would never have had such sublime music as Mozart’s Requiem, and a belied system that (now) preaches gentleness – or a while ago burnt people at the stake for heresies (sounds like modern-day Pakistan) and tortured them most horribly.
          Music and alcohol apart, I think I could be a Friend (as was my Father by upbringing). Seems to cut out much of the bullshit and singing that, tbh, is butt-kissing.
          But, then I’m weird.

          1. I went to an open day at my local Friends Meeting House.

            Their services are called “meetings” and there is no set liturgy. If nobody has anything to say that is worth the others hearing, then they will sit there in silence until someone is minded to suggest they all go home, which can take some time. I saw this portrait of a family – the adults looked completely contented and happy, but how bored the teenagers looked!

  20. Matthew Syed in The Sunday Grimes goes for Fishi’s jugular:

    “In his book Uncontrolled, the great statistician Jim Manzi writes of the dangers of naively interpreting the results of a clinical trial. He posits a drug that instantly cures headaches but simultaneously exerts more subtle, at first unobservable, damage on the kidneys. People might happily take the pill for years before realising it had fatally weakened the renal system. As Manzi puts it: “To determine the efficacy of a drug you cannot look merely at the immediate effects; you have to look at how it influences the whole body over the lifespan.”

    I think we should adopt the same perspective when it comes to the present incarnation of the Tory party, which has done many good things (lethal weaponry to Ukraine; the vaccine rollout) but is simultaneously destroying the vitals of our political system. Deviousness, a sense of one rule for them and another for us, a string of excuses for wrongdoing that wouldn’t pass muster in primary school: all have become endemic over the past decade.

    I had hoped Rishi Sunak would prove to be a new kind of Tory, but we have learnt over recent days that he shares much of the deviousness of his boss. We can argue until we are red in the face about whether is it morally legitimate to minimise one’s tax bill. My own view is that aggressive tax avoidance, even within the law, is ethically dubious, particularly for a chancellor who reportedly didn’t declare his wife’s vast financial interests when discussing tax policy with his officials.

    But Sunak has demonstrated a certain slipperiness, a promiscuity with the truth, that is indicative of the wider malaise within the Conservative Party. This isn’t just about tax avoidance, the use of tax havens (Sunak has been listed as a beneficiary of his wife’s, according to The Independent) or a green card; it is about a default to dishonesty. Did you notice, for example, the original defence of his wife’s non-dom status, leaked with a nudge and a wink and approved by Sunak himself? That’s right: it was claimed that she could not pay full UK taxes because of her Indian citizenship. A tax expert described this as “a disgrace”. Let me put it more simply: it was a bare-faced lie.

    What emerged later, though, was far darker. Sunak implied that stories about his wife were evidence of racism: speaking to The Sun, he expressed his “hope” that “fair-minded people” did not mind “an Indian woman living in Downing Street”. How dare a serving politician conflate legitimate public unease over tax avoidance with bigotry? How dare he devalue the concept of racism in such self-serving fashion? It has been said that Sunak lacks political antennae. I disagree. This was a ruthless attempt to muddy the waters — not unlike his aides desperately briefing that the leaks were coming from No 10.

    On the latter point, by the way, they were probably right. A large proportion of this generation of Tories have little loyalty to the nation or one another; only to their own ambitions. That is why they are willing to trash institutional norms to reach positions of power and to rig the rules in their favour. In this sense the real story here is bigger than Sunak; bigger even than Johnson. It is about a group of public-school boys moving via Oxford into high office while wrecking the institutions they are supposed to be serving, a point made by the author Simon Kuper in his book Chums, published later this month.

    Many point to the Bullingdon Club as the formative experience of many of this group (including Johnson, David Cameron and George Osborne), a club whose members would urinate on the streets, humiliate prostitutes and, in one case, throw a pot plant through a restaurant window. The important aspect here, though, isn’t the low-grade delinquency but the moral psychology. The rules are not for our class but the plebs (Toby Young, a contemporary of Johnson at Oxford, said working-class students were called “stains”). We don’t follow the rules; we make the rules!

    I couldn’t help thinking of this while watching Cameron give evidence on the Greensill scandal to a select committee, smoothly explaining that it was legitimate to parlay his political connections into an equity stake worth millions in direct violation of the public interest. He claimed, again with a straight face, that he had not broken any laws — without pausing to mention that he had introduced the loophole for in-house lobbyists through which he had enriched himself. I am guessing his Bullingdon chums will have roared with approval.

    The point is that while most people shudder at the thought of a system rigged in favour of a small clique, for many leading Tories it is the only way of life they have known. I joined Balliol College from a comp a couple of years after Johnson and assumed that the only advantage enjoyed by public-school boys at the interview stage was their expensive education. Today I blush at my own naivety. “One or two telephone calls are still necessary to find places for the borderlines,” John Rae, headmaster of Westminster in the 1970s, noted. “Some lavish dinners for dons may have gone into preparing for those calls.”

    In this sense Partygate is not a bug in modern Tory ideology; it is a feature. To introduce rules that elites do not obey is a direct expression of the Tory world-view. In much the same way, misleading parliament isn’t a breach of convention but a clever ruse of the kind much admired at the Oxford Union, where Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg cut their teeth. It was a place in which, as Anthony Gardner, later US ambassador to the EU, put it, “a premium was placed on rapier wit rather than any fidelity to the facts. It was a perfect training ground for those planning to be professional amateurs.”

    Some will say the Tory party has always sneered at the lower orders, but that is a distortion of history. For decades the party was led by people willing to make sacrifices for the nation, another point made by Kuper. Harold Macmillan was wounded three times in the First World War (on one occasion he was hit in the pelvis and lay in a shell hole for 12 hours); Winston Churchill was nearly killed after volunteering for the western front, where Anthony Eden won the Military Cross. I have no doubt that Margaret Thatcher, too, would have bled for her nation. These leaders had skin in the game.

    Today a critical mass of Tories symbolises the moral inverse: men who put the skin of the public on the line while creaming off the rewards. The tragedy of modern British history is that the political alternatives have been so dire. Either way, it is a category error to judge this government on policy alone when its more enduring legacy will be measured in the erosion of public trust and a pervading sense of one rule for them and another for us. Sunak, in this sense, is a modern Tory to his core.”

    1. Morning, Bill! The problem with his initial analogy is that his first paragraph perfectly describes what’s wrong with the “vaccine rollout” that he praises in his second paragraph. Yes, our ruling establishment are entirely self-serving. We know that.

      2. I noticed that too. Perhaps they are mandated to praise the jibby-jab, and that was the only way he could sneak some criticism in.

    2. I hardly think sending massive amounts of weaponry to one of the more corrupt nations in the world is “a good thing”!

      1. We are sleepwalking into war. A point will come where Vlad will target the suppliers of these weapons and dam the consequences.

    3. Reinforces my attitude that I wouldn’t piss on those barstewards if they (hopefully) were on fire.

    5. “men who put the skin of the public on the line while creaming off the rewards”

      But they are all like this, including the Labour party and those who didn’t come through the public school / Oxford system.
      The rot doesn’t originate at school and university, it originates with the large amount of foreign money sloshing around in the system, and the common purpose/WEF training to regard themselves as an elite race.
      Perhaps in the case of Johnson and Rees-Mogg it fell on particularly fertile ground, but the infection is rife across the elites from all backgrounds, including professional race-baiters like Abbott and Lammy.

      By the way, I don’t think the Bullingdon did those things in the late 80s. They may have happened in the early 80s, before Cameron’s and Osborne’s time.

    6. “… the Tory party, which has done many good things (lethal weaponry to Ukraine; the vaccine rollout) …” I stopped reading after that; if the writer thinks that escalating a war in Ukraine and rolling out a potentially lethal vaccine are good things, his judgment is completely up the chute.

      1. A person who is quite wrong about one thing can still be 100% right about another.

          1. No – it was the author – Syed – to whom you referred. And to him that my comment related.

          2. Fair enough, but I intended to highlight that the “achievements” that were “right” were not, in fact, that.

          3. Couldn’t agree more – but he was on the button with Fishi Rishi (of whom I hope we have the last)

  21. Spamhead Slammer also has a dig at Fishi: “I was a non-dom but now pay my taxes in full” Creeps – the lot of them.

  22. 351922+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 10 April: The PM’s energy plan does nothing to fix the woeful inefficiency of Britain’s housing

    Then the inefficiency campaign being run by the lab/lib/con mass ( govn.) controlled, illegal immigration /paedophile umbrella coalition is being recognised after nigh on 40 years as a success then ?

    ALL these very efficiently orchestrated
    inefficiencies are a prelude to the reset, replace path chosen by the political “elites”

    Lest we forget it has been continually the majority vote that has brought us to a one knee kneeling position, to achieve the full submissive double knee position YOUR support / vote is still needed in the usual fashion.

    Take note, the RESET ratchet has NO reverse, as in forever forward.

      1. The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.

        Until courts force you to deny it , plod arrest you for stating it and the political class rally round someone lying.

    2. A very typical Li-Ion battery fire. The spaced bursts are the result of thermal runaway and each burst signifies another cell exploding.

      …and that’s just a scooter – imagine that happening under your EV’s car seat.

      1. Helped along by throwing a jug of water on an electrical fire, then opening the sliding doors to provide more oxygen for the fire to feed on.

        1. To be fair, the house isn’t air tight, so it’s got an awful lot of oxygen to get through first, and he’ll likely die from smoke inhalation way before the fire goes out.

          With you entirely on the water though. Silly twit needs sand or powder.

    6. That’s some smoke… bet it’s posonous. Why not drag it outside rather than run around like a headless chicken? Arse.

  26. OT – funny old censorship in The Grimes BTL. On Friday there as the story of the boring Ginger German being convicted for substantial fraud. He is on bail awaiting sentence.

    My (tongue in cheek) comment was: “And the net result is…”

    This comment violated our policy.

    You can’t even larf any more

          1. Do TRY to keep up. See my original post:

            “My (tongue in cheek) comment was: “And the net result is…”…”

            No mention of name, race, colour of hair…..

  28. Good morning, everyone. A bit late on parade after walking the Springer. Today Mrs D and I celebrate 40 years of marriage. We are both in a second marriage. She was previously married for 13 years and I was married for 22 years. She is unquestionably the best thing that has happened to me in my life. We will celebrate by having lunch at the White Buck at Burley.

    2. That’s near me ! Thanks for the tip. I was looking for nice places to stay and dine in the New Forest. Know of any others?

      1. Good morning Delboy and many congratulations to you and the Delgirl on your Ruby Wedding.

        “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above Ruby’s”

        [KJV Bible with ammended punctuation]

    6. Many congratulations on your Ruby Wedding anniversary. Are you celebrating with a ‘Ruby Murray’?

    9. Wonderful! Second marriage can certainly be an improvement on the first – congratulations on reaching your Ruby Wedding! Wishing you both many more years together.

    11. Enjoy your day with your wife Delboy. And, needless to say, many congratulations.

    12. So many congratulations to Mrs D and you, Delboy.
      Take a cab and drink champagne, with a toast to Mrs D!

    14. Many congratulations to you both.
      I hope you have a very happy da
      and many more years of happiness.

  29. ‘Morning All

    War!! Red War!!

    It’s been brewing for a long time……..Farage nails it

    https://twitter.com/Wordofbeak/status/1512836046475735041?s=20&t=wE5ipRHxtQFeOdIBXKJS4A

    Truss fans the flames…….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83830ec7113c614e17cee8d8815a6b86c218bcdcdfe9a4ff9685232d2255c755.png

    Aided by the MSM………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb628ad9e49f7c7bf855f18bf364da02b465c22d370bb96ae0713909954bdab8.jpg

    Sadly……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e22d486eaf218be5032f521cab5f889b6db12edf40fa455cb1cee046e65762a5.jpg

        1. Exactly what I thought. At all costs, she must NOT become Prime Minister – listening to that dreary whine would drive us all over the edge!

          1. I think there is no chance of that. The “Tories” will be bundled out into oblivion at the next election.

          2. We will have the red variant of Labour, you think?
            Please not Starmer as PM, the hypocrite makes me want to vomit.

      4. India. Kashmir is Indian territory. Truss is spineless. It is thanks to her and politicians like her, that terrorism from Pakistan thrives. Economically, morally, and strategically, we should support India every time. In fact when the Americans were sucking up to China, we should have done our damnedest to help India to become a democratic and economic rival to the Chinese despots. If we had, our future would be a lot brighter than it looks now.

        2. Which school are new government ministers obliged to attend in order to learn the skills of talking bollocks and evading the question?

          1. There’s probably a Westminster ‘Joining Pack’ as politicians of all creeds have adopted the same meaningless phrases and evasion skills when asked something on which they really don’t want to be quoted on. See Labour’s ducking and diving around when asked to comment on what comprises a woman.

          2. Any, almost all of them are specialists in leftist double talk, she was a Liberal Democrat at University and, as you know, they are masters of evasion. Always there sitting on the fence.

        4. As you are probably aware; Kashmir is a three-way struggle between India, Pakistan and China. For some reason the meeja seem content to report it as a struggle between India and Pakistan but overlook the third participant.

          One might have thought that having annexed Pakistan from India in 1947 that the mohamadens would have been happy enough with their land grab, but as ever they keep grasping for more.

          1. Hi Feargal. Yes, I’m very aware of the Chinese component in Kashmir. Since the Chinese claim to Tibet is illegitimate and without historical basis, it goes without saying that their claims to the Tibetan speaking areas of Kashmir and other regions of India, are illegitimate too.

  30. Peter Hitchins…

    Some cold, hard facts they don’t tell you about Ukraine

    Here
    are some facts about the Ukraine crisis you may not be aware of. I have
    listed them to try to cool down the hot temper of so much of the debate
    about this issue, which threatens to widen and deepen an appalling war.

    Q. How long have Western countries been giving military aid to Ukraine?

    A.
    The US has been giving Ukraine generous foreign and military aid since
    1991, when Ukraine became a country. In the decade after 1991, Ukraine
    received almost $2.6 billion. In the years leading up to Russia’s
    annexation of Crimea in 2014, it was getting roughly $105 million per
    year, including military financing, most given long before any threat of
    Russian invasion. The US began supplying weapons in 2018. Britain began
    giving military aid to Ukraine in 2014, in the form of advisers and
    training.

    Q. Did anyone
    ever try to solve the problem that some of Ukraine’s Russian-speaking
    citizens did not want to be in Ukraine – a main reason for hostility
    between Moscow and Kiev after 1991?

    A.
    Yes, right from the start. On August 26, 1991, two days after Kiev
    declared independence from Moscow, the then Russian president Boris
    Yeltsin said that the old Soviet borders between Russia and Ukraine
    would have to be redrawn to deal with this problem. He retracted this
    within a day, almost certainly thanks to pressure from the United
    States. By May 1992, 250,000 of Crimea’s roughly two million mostly
    Russian people had signed a petition asking for a referendum on
    independence – enough to trigger a vote under Ukrainian law. On May 5
    that year, Crimea’s parliament voted 118 to 28 to secede from Ukraine.
    But the Kiev government prevented a referendum from taking place.

    RELATED ARTICLES

    Previous

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    PETER HITCHENS: The USA wants this war… so it can drive… PETER HITCHENS: Don’t whinge now – you should have stopped…

    Share this article

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    Q. Would it have been possible to change the borders of Ukraine peacefully to avoid this obvious problem?

    A.
    Yes, as European borders are not sacrosanct. The US and the UK, along
    with dozens of other countries (though not Ukraine), have recognised
    Kosovo’s breakaway from Serbia in 2008. The whole of the former
    Yugoslavia has been scissored into many new states, mostly recognised by
    the majority of nations. Ukraine, for instance, was among the earliest
    countries to recognise Croatia’s 1991 breakaway from Yugoslavia, then a
    highly controversial step.

    Q. What is the biggest political snub in modern history?

    A.
    In March 2007, Vladimir Putin warned very specifically against further
    expansion of Nato. Just a year later, President George W. Bush announced
    that he wanted Ukraine to join Nato, wholly aware that his action would
    infuriate Moscow. It did.

    Q. Is Russia alone in committing alleged atrocities in Ukraine?

    A.
    No. More than one allegation has been made, supported by apparent video
    evidence, of Ukrainian soldiers killing or maiming captured and
    helpless Russian prisoners of war. It must be stressed that these claims
    have not been proven.

    However, it is
    incontestable that both Russian and Ukrainian forces were guilty of
    military actions leading to the deaths of civilians, including children,
    during the war which has raged since 2014 in the Donetsk and Lugansk
    regions.

    Q. Could the current war have been avoided?

    A.
    Very much so. President Volodymyr Zelensky was elected largely on a
    promise to seek peace, which he courageously did in 2019. But political
    rivals and hard-Right militias both opposed him.

    On
    a visit to soldiers on the front line, he told one Rightist who
    lectured him: ‘You can’t issue me ultimatums. I’m the president of this
    country. I am 42 years old. I’m no sucker. I came here to tell you to
    move your weapons away from the front line.’

    But in the end, Mr Zelensky gave in to the pressure, and the peace deal withered away.

    Q. Whatever happened to the United Nations, which is supposed to prevent or end wars such as this?

    A. I have no idea. It seems to have evaporated.

    1. Good Morning Phizzee, and the rest.

      Thank you for posting that Hitchens extract. Before the China virus drama, I might have given Bojo the benefit of the doubt re the Ukraine. However, if you look at historical events, when a country obtains independence (or native majority rule) it often leads to upsets and forced emigration. Think Ireland post 1916, India post 1947, Algeria, Zimbabwe, the Philippines, in fact anywhere which has had a colonial population imposed either via trade or hegemony.

  31. Yet again the b*stard headline writers at the DT ruin plans to watch a sporting event I recorded.
    Spoiler alert – don’t open if you don’t want to know the F1 race result.
    Charles Leclerc storms to Australian GP victory as Max Verstappen’s reliability nightmare continues

    Why can’t they keep headlines neutral instead of giving the result in the headline. It means you have to avoid the entire sports pages in case you see a headline by mistake. Sometimes the headline is even on the front page, if particularly sensational. The only way to be sure you don’t see the result is to not look at the paper at all. Shurely not what the DT wants.
    Yours,
    RodneyBewesInADCup

      2. On the plus side, I have just found I won £62 on the Grand National 🙂
        Trebles all round.

          1. Send me all your money which I will hold for safekeeping in my Ladbrokes account. Then I will show you how to place a bet.

          2. It’s easy peasy, unfortunately.
            My gambling habit means I place a bet on the GN every year. I believe some people suffer worse addiction that I do – online betting can’t possibly help them.

          3. I did open a Ladbrokes gaming account. Depoed £200. Won £400. Then closed it. The only way to gamble.

          6. Last thing I won was a fluorescent yellow tennis ball at Barry Island funfair.
            That was 1979.

          7. I have won something on the GN almost every year, for about twenty years whether with the bookies or in a sweep.
            I have never tested my luck on anything else (except one line in the national lottery every week which has been a complete waste of money….. so far)

          9. I rarely bet, but I did win a bit at Bangor last but one time I went (I didn’t bet on Saturday). I had a voucher for a £5 bet and the horse I backed beat the odds on favourite.

          10. It’s easy peasy, unfortunately.
            My gambling habit means I place a bet on the GN every year. I believe some people suffer worse addiction that I do – online betting can’t possibly help them.

        4. Well done!
          Did you read my post about how, after having the van rammed t’other week, I’m quids in?
          I’ve been paid the insurance value of the van, less the salvage buy-back cost and still have a usable and roadworthy vehicle worth £1k to £1½k!

          3. Yep!
            All I had to do was get it MOTed and then advise them for full cover to be restored.

        5. Well done.
          Dingo Dollar was doing well and suddenly between fences the jockey seemed to disappear and was never seen again !!!

      3. I don’t follow racing at all. But everything I see or hear about that man makes me dislike him intensely. He seems to be little more that a massive ego, a solipsist, with little to contribute other than the ability to drive a racing car.

      4. If the road gluers were serious they could and should be gluing them selves to the F1 tracks, god only knows how much pollution just one of those many events is capable of causing………….just sayin’.

  32. Remember the old lie about the EUSSR, “Keeping the peace in Europe since the War”?

    Haven’t they done well in The Ukraine?

    1. I have one too. Is there a black market for them and if so, how much are they worth? 😁 Yours in anticipation etc.

        1. I bet their worth something on the Black market, Ann. There again, they may be worthless considering all one has to do now is go to the Southern border of the USA and stroll right in.

      1. That is certainly the advice from Canadian advisors, US property might look like a good investment until you look into taxes.

  34. Woo hoo – in three.
    Lucky guess in line two.

    Wordle 295 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Very good, 4 for me.
      Wordle 295 4/6

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

        1. How did you copy the stats, Grizz?

          I have a friend believing I have got it in two or three every day – once I have got the answer using my tablet, I do it again on my phone, knowing the answer 😆. I’d like to send her those stats if I can.

          1. Just a simple screenshot by dragging the cursor from top left to bottom right, then posting it (dragging it) to a reply.

    3. The first attempt is, invariably, 100% chance and 0% skill.
      Each subsequent attempt reduces the chance level but increases the skill level.

      1. Speed would be a better indicator of skill. Sometimes I get it in minutes, as today, other times I ponder for ages thinking about which word to get next to narrow down possible letters or eliminate others.

    4. Woo hoo too, SID !

      Wordle 295 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      I struggled to find line three …

  35. Poll on Twitter
    Who do you trust more at the moment:
    Putin
    74.9%
    Johnson
    14.5%
    Biden
    2.6%
    Zelenskyy
    8%
    It seems, thank God, that there are quite a few people not fooled by the propaganda churned out by the MSM and our corrupt government.

        1. I have no faith in ANY poll – anywhere. Too easy to fix.

          eg: “YouGov” – the poll that gives you the answer YOU want….

          1. On Twitter anyone can do their own poll. It does not have to be run by the usual suspects. This one was just a person posting and asking a question.

  36. Young adults have dramatic loss of faith in UK democracy, survey reveals. 10 April 2022.

    Disturbing evidence that millions of voters feel their voices and views go largely unheard while big money interests hold most sway is uncovered in the latest report by the IPPR thinktank, in collaboration with the Observer, on the future of democracy.

    The study, entitled Road to Renewal, draws on YouGov polling of 3,442 adults, which found that just 6% of voters in elections in Great Britain believe their views are the main influences behind eventual decisions on policy taken by government ministers.

    Well if true I can only applaud their perspicacity. One of the most irritating aspects of my interest in politics is that I have absolutely no idea what the rest of the population (apart from Nottlers of course) think. The MSM is simply a Purveyor of Lies while online discussion is distorted by the activities of 77 Brigade and their ilk. It is worthy of note that there have been no opinion polls on our involvement in the Russo/Ukraine war and one doubts that it would be of any value anyway!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/apr/10/young-adults-loss-of-faith-in-uk-democracy-survey

    4. The problem is the guardian doesn’t really like democracy. It has a decidedly Left wing view that democracy is fine when they get what they want.

      True democracy the guardian wouldn’t like, as it would necessarily exclude most of their readership and practically all of those people their readership pander to.

    3. Was anyone hurt? It’d be really sad if they were. But, on the upside, they could drive to hospital.

      Stuff the scum blocking the road. They should be dealt with by rifle volley.

      1. Pity tere’s no reading of the riot act, followed by state sanctioned violence. Er…

    1. Surely Russia has no right to dictate to another country which international bodies it does or does not join?

    2. I am elderly (75), I am overweight; I have several comorbidities; I had very mild Covid ten weeks ago; I have not been jabbed with gene therapy.

      Why am I still alive and moderately cheerful?

      The answer: Vitamin D, Vitamin C and zinc.

      2. Will you be able to travel for your son’s wedding? And be allowed back in France?
        Travel was the only reason I took the AZ jabs.

        1. SWMBO the same.
          I didn’t get the shots, and now we don’t need them to travel…

          1. Arrivals who are not recognised as fully vaccinated will only need to take a pre-departure test and a PCR test on or before day 2 after they arrive in the UK.

            (UK Govt webby thing)

          2. Not what it says here: just to check the destination requirements.
            https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-abroad-from-england-during-coronavirus-covid-19
            EDIT: Text from website Travel to England rules
            When you travel to England, you do not need to:

            complete a UK passenger locator form before you travel
            take any COVID-19 tests before you travel or after you arrive
            quarantine when you arrive
            This applies whether you are vaccinated or not.
            at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-to-england-from-another-country-during-coronavirus-covid-19

  40. How Black Lives Matter became big business. Spiked.10 april 2022.

    All of this begs the question: who benefits from BLM? It is, in terms of international reach at least, the biggest anti-racist campaign in modern history. But there is no signal policy or political goal one could readily assign to it. Its primary mission seems to be the perpetuation of its own bleak, apocalyptic narrative – grandly pledging on its website to ‘eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes’. Its primary achievement has been mainstreaming this notion that America is rotten to its core, that racist police are terrorising black communities – identitarian fever dreams which are not borne out by the evidence.

    I suppose one of its greatest achievements was to make George Floyd’s family multi-millionaires. Probably the only useful thing he did in his entire life! Lol!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/09/how-black-lives-matter-became-big-business/

      2. At least they can now afford to pay their drug bills instead of mugging some law-abiding sap.
        (Though I suspect it’s difficult to shake off the habits of a lifetime.)

    2. Thing is, it wasn’t anti racist. It was racist. The very name is racist. The ideology is racist. Really, it was simply an excuse for spoiled, welfare dependent blacks to steal from shops, burn things and destroy property.

      Or, act as savages. Perhaps SLM? Savage looting mob? Or maybe spoiled looting mob?

    3. ‘…build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on black communities by the state and vigilantes’.

      No mention of ‘black on black’ violence, which is statistically by far the largest problem.

  41. The bloody arseholes:-

    Women can be strip-searched by trans officers who were born male, say police
    Guidelines issued to forces urge chief officers ‘to recognise status of transgender colleagues from the moment they transition’
    The policy says it may be ‘advisable’ to replace officer carrying out search if detainee objects
    But if ‘the refusal is based on discriminatory views’ it could be ‘recorded as a non-hate crime incident’
    The guidance, quietly issued in December, was brought to light by retired Superintendent Cathy Larkman

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10703327/Women-strip-searched-trans-officers-born-male-say-police.html

    2. 351922+ up ticks,

      Afternoon Bob,

      Has justifiable rape & murder via police hands
      become a law yet ?

    4. Just what sort of mentality thought that that was the right way to go, and just who went along and rubber stamped it? It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world and getting more mad.

    6. I suppose that a punch in the mouth would be considered askance? “Strip search”? Not while I’m still breathing, matey.

  42. Interesting – possibly. Result of French Presidential Election First Round in Guadeloupe (a far away island of which we know nothing)

    Toy Boy = 13.5%
    Le Pen = 18.2%
    Mélenchon (so far to the left he is almost meeting himself coming back) = 57.3%

  43. 351922+ up ticks,

    May one ask a real, genuine woman, or real genuine bloke are our real genuine titles being erased as in Mr,MRs, Ms as
    seemingly in place is just Christian / sir names which will if so IMO be in turn replaced by a number stapled to an ear tag. more suited to an submissive herd member.

    ALL part & parcel of the great reset campaign finding favour with the majority of the electorate via the close shop vote.

    I do believe that same/same button to just under the mask tunics are in the pipeline, (made in china) colour coded highlighting
    levels of submissiveness & obedience, extra
    ration points to be earned.

    To sum up there are endless delights after taking the reset route, just leave it to the torys (ino) as was done with the referendum
    result & live forever in a state of regret.

    1. I prefer to be addressed as Mrs in a formal letter or situation. It does grate somewhat when advertisers address me by my Christian name when they don’t know me.

    2. It won’t be an earring, they’ll go for soemthing permanent and indelible. Like a tattoo. Something that can be scanned, perhaps.

    1. I look at that and then at the award to the NHS and I am reminded how so much of what we do now has been devalued.

          6. Could be interesting, if she hasn’t driven there for a while the traffic and driving “manners” will be an eye-opener

          7. “Øst, vest, hjemme best”
            Weegie proverb that means if you eat your greens, it’ll make your hair curly. Or summat.

          9. “Nice to be away. Even nicer to come home”
            The weegie actually means “East, west, home is best”.
            Failed attempt at humour. I’ll get me coat.
            :-((

      2. Malta was key. It stopped the Axis powers from getting the oilfields in the middle east. Winston Churchill said “Before El Alamein we knew no victories. After El Alamein we knew no defeats”.

        To give the same award to the NHS was a disgraceful act and belittled the efforts and suffering of Malta.

        1. Malta was the thorn in the side of the Axis supply lines to Africa. When Rommel couldn’t get the fuel and munitions it was the beginning of the end.

          1. The reason why Germany tried to bomb them into oblivion. The Maltes still now have good feelings to Brits. Not such to Americans.

  45. To all NoTTLers who sent congrats on our Ruby celebration: Thank you all so much. I am very moved by your response. I wish you all well during the rest of the year and beyond.

    2. Best wishes to you both, Delboy, and congratulations on a very special day! Hope you have a wonderful celebration! 🍾🎂🌹

    4. Congratulations to you and the love of your life .

      It is a beautiful day for a Ruby wedding celebration .

      When I met you both a few years ago at Compton Abbas airfield , I thought you were both a gorgeously well matched couple .. Elegant and young at heart .

    1. If the gossip is to be believed, only three – as he quits the government…

      On verra.

      1. Sunak’s a petulant little boy, isn’t he. His wife;s tax affairs are not the issue. That he lumbers us with punishing taxes, says there’s nothing he can do about it because the government needs the money (to waste) while his wife demonstrates the stupidity of his policies.

        It isn’t hypocrisy, it’s just stupidity.

        1. To say nothing of his single-handed destruction of the economy through his ridiculous over-reaction to the plague.

  48. Reply to Devonian in Kent.

    Good afternoon, John. I’m sorry but I didn’t see your reply to me until just now; it seems that the forum has removed the facility to reply to posts that are two days old.

    Regardless of that I hope that you are soon feeling better and able, once again, to contribute in your own inimitable and most welcome way to this forum.
    Best wishes to you,
    George.

    1. That change was done last year in response to repeated spam attacks.

      I’ll send him an email and hope he’s on the mend.

    1. Depressing! Everything he says is true, but I still hope for unforeseen developments from Russia and India.

  50. I have had enough of this…I saw in the Mail today, yes I know, that Edward Lear’s poem The Owl and the Pussycat has been reworked. When I tried to find it again, it had disappeared. I found it by searching independently.
    The poem has been renamed The Owl and the Kittycat as the word “pussy” now has linguistic connotations apparently.
    It forms the basis of a children’s story called Peter’s Story and is issued by the Gender Identity Research and Education Society.
    It’s the story of a little boy Peter telling his teacher that one of his parents has transitioned to be a woman called Rosie. This in itself suggests that the parents began life as both males. This piece of tripe is aimed at 7-11 year olds.
    This version has been soundly criticised by literary critics- quite rightly so.
    As well as the removal of the word “pussy”, “kitty” has also come under attack for sexual connotations, such as the term “sex kitten.”

    FFS- enough of this shit! Why do these minority groups assume they have the right to change and ruin beloved books and literature. And do they not realise that The Owl and the Pussycat is a nonsense poem? Ye gods!!!

    1. You’ve surely read 1984. remind me, what was Winston’s job? Oh yes. To re-write history.

      Winston Smith works in the Records Department of the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to rewrite historical documents so they match the constantly changing current party line. This involves revising newspaper articles and doctoring
      photographs—mostly to remove “unpersons”, people who have fallen afoul of the party.

      1. Yes, I did it for A level Lit.
        Groups everywhere are trying to rewrite everything nowadays and it should be stopped immediately. It won’t be, of course, there would be howls of protest; racism, colonialism, genderism etc.

        1. University students need to be reminded they are recieving the best British education in the world .

          If they start protesting , boot them out of our very noble seats of learning .

          This the UK , colonialism is what made us great , and this is our history.. We don’t need Labour luvvie types filling empty brains with woke nonsense .

          Sack all the woke tutors ..

      2. Other pharmacies are available

        (I would hope there is not much puss after a visit to Boots)

      1. Most normal people simply ignore it in the (deluded) belief that it will soon go away. So the fanatics gain and gain and gain.

      2. Some teachers, librarians, heads and even pupils are trying to push back in the US anyway. At least one Head has been fired. I read of a group of students, in Pennsylvania I think, who were meeting secretly and reading the books being removed from the shelves in their libraries. Good on them but it’s not enough.
        Especially in the south, many people are scared of the religious extremists and therefor afraid to speak up. I dealt with one of these in my library; I won’t retell the tale as I’ve mentioned it before, but they’re out there, they think they’re right and very reluctant to take no for an answer.
        Now you know why I say I wouldn’t last 5 minutes in a school these days;-)

  51. Imran Khan ousted as Pakistan’s PM after vote. 10 April 2022.

    Mr Khan has previously said he would not recognise an opposition government, claiming – without evidence – that there was a US-led conspiracy to remove him because of his refusal to stand with Washington on issues against Russia and China.

    He has repeatedly said that Pakistan’s opposition parties are working with foreign powers. Members of his party (PTI) left the building just ahead of the vote, also insisting he was the victim of an international conspiracy.

    The US has said there is “no truth” in these allegations, and Mr Khan has never provided any evidence.

    I don’t pretend to know a great deal about the internal politics of Pakistan except that the Army is a State within the State. Nevertheless the timing is suspicious. On balance I would think that the US has done the dirty deed on him!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-61055210

      4. I’m stumped for an answer.

        Oops, sorry Bill, didn’t see earlier that you had come up with the same thing.

  52. Decolonise’ maths by subtracting white male viewpoint, urges Durham University

    Instead of teaching in apples and oranges, I suppose they could use units of blankets, bowls and sticks.

    1. I have nothing to add. These ridiculous situations multiply – in order to divide us.

    2. Not taking up a place she was offered at Durham Kindergarten was probably one of my daughter’s best decisions.

  54. Russian forces destroy Ukrainian military convoy, Interfax reports. 10 april 2022.

    April 10 (Reuters) – Russian attack helicopters have destroyed a convoy of Ukraine’s armoured vehicles and anti-aircraft warfare, the news agency Interfax reported on Sunday, citing Russia’s defence ministry.

    “Attack helicopters KA-52 … destroyed weapons and military equipment of the armed forces of Ukraine,” the agency cited the ministry as saying in a statement.

    This is reported elsewhere so it is probably true. The Russians are getting their sh*t together!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russian-forces-destroy-ukrainian-military-convoy-interfax-2022-04-10/

  55. Off to have an eye test. (Good timing ‘cos I broke my glasses earlier this week)
    Laters.I hate that saying.

      1. Unlike yer continong – many places are now open on Sundays. Oxford Street is as bad (or worse) on a Sunday as in the week.

        1. Yes, but that’s a foreign country. They do things differently in what now passes as Oxford Street.

      3. There are so many jobs that require their staff to work weekends, I think its high time everyone did.

        1. Flexitime time for those who worship. The slammers get that dispensation automatically.

  56. Off to have an eye test. (Good timing ‘cos I broke my glasses earlier this week)
    Laters.I hate that saying.

  57. Liz Truss, our Foreign Minister, is dashing about uttering utterances that are an invitation to war while at the same time British food products are rotting because our Customs and transport systems are in a kind of slow-motion chaos.
    Well Ms Truss, what you see in these pictures is proof that you are incompetent and incapable and have no control over your own office. (Your associates and Cabinet colleagues are no better.)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-61053402

    2. We need the Russians to invade and clear all that shit out for us as they are doing with the Nazi battalions in Ukraine.

    4. Last night as I fell asleep I was actually praying that a white male
      traditionalist Russian leader could by some miracle invade our shores
      and brutally put an end to the PC-SJW regime.

      I wished upon a Tsar.

    5. We are going through the equivalent of the ‘Great Cultural Revolution’ implemented by Mao Zedong.
      Has a little red book been published yet?

  62. Danes revel in ‘dancing cow day’ for first time since Covid outbreak

    National event to mark organic dairy cattle’s release from winter barns has been online only since 2020

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/90fae1ef91a084cce60c546a51e58b162a586e41/1195_679_3657_2194/master/3657.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=7c22063186450f1c83c7d3ae6c4cf11e

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/09/danes-revel-in-dancing-cow-day-for-first-time-since-covid-outbreak

  63. Sinead O’Connor famously ripped up a photo of the Pope on live TV in
    protest of sexual abuse against children by the Catholic church.
    She then went on to convert to Islam.

    Doh.

  64. On hearing the Queen won’t be attending next week’s traditional coin
    giving ceremony due to health reasons, Bob Geldolf has written a special
    tribute song.
    Next week sees the release of..
    I Don’t Like Maundys

    Coat going on..

    1. What abject eco-bolleux,just like the energy companies that “only supply renewable electrickery”
      what’s the carbon footprint of the gizmo and how many decades is the payback time??
      I was thinking of moving to one of these miracle energy companies,of course I would expect to pay last years prices as renewables haven’t gone up have they?/
      Pah,all lies,smoke and mirrors and “carbon credits”
      As for the new travel ads all saying “Our jet fuel is accounted for and is carbon neutral”
      Words Fail Me

      1. Would you like to donate some money to plant a tree or three to offset the harm your air trip is doing?

        No! Next question!

    4. How on earth would that work? Are green electrons a different colour?

      Unless of course the socket checks how stable the supply is because after all, if the supply is reliable it is not green.

  67. Rude !

    “I don’t know about you, but for me, a Sunday just wouldn’t be a Sunday
    without a leisurely wank to a lesbian threesome on Pornhub.”

    In hindsight, writing the sermon whilst drunk probably wasn’t the best
    idea.

        1. Yes. Sam the donkey waited patiently in the Georgian courtyard at Bart’s Hospital and processed with us round to the Priory Church. I think his handler was slipping him treats along the way.

      4. Your donkey arrived directly from Aintree, having made a killing from the bet I had on it in the Grand National! ☹️

  68. Lewis Hamilton defies F1 jewellery ban: ‘You’ll have to chop my ear off’

    It can be arranged

  70. Here’s one for you:
    Dwarfism: Woman’s battle against ignorance starts in schools https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-61037196
    My question is: why do people find it necessary not only to comment about a person’s dwarfism, but to be actively unpleasant about it? To people they meet in the street? What fails them?

      1. Why is it necesary to be mean, when mean-ness isn’t required?
        Be mean by all means to Boris, ‘cos he’s a cnut, but a passing lass in the street? What’s all that about?

          1. I kind of see why people are mean towards gays, because they feel threatened, but dwarves? Would the same mean folk be horrible to someone who looks different in other ways, has no legs, terrible facial burns, whatever? How can that be a threat? Or, are they in their tiny minds, just being “funny”?

          2. Remember when Simon Weston, the terribly burned Falklands veteran was on the telly? I’m sure he upset a few people who would rather not have known.

          3. That was what made me think of that bit. I remember the interview with him, asking his mates to shoot him, it hurt so much.
            Tough man, that Simon. Respect.

          4. That was what made me think of that bit. I remember the interview with him, asking his mates to shoot him, it hurt so much.
            Tough man, that Simon. Respect.

        2. I mean, what do you mean, “mean”?

          “Mean” means “average” or “tight-fisted”. Which “mean” do you mean? 😉

    2. I read a story about the life and times of a female dwarf and the travails she had to cope with. Maybe the moon by Armistead Maupin. Quite funny but also very sad. Made me cry.

      I remember seeing Warwick Davies and his wife on TV with their two children sitting between them. They were so beautiful.
      He did a good job of acting in Willow. Not to mention the glorious Peter Dinklage in Game of Thrones.

      The PC nonsense has put many Dwarfs on welfare as they can’t get work because the wokes scream about them being exploited.

      If a Dwarf is happy to be tossed at a rugby piss up then that is up to them. I’m sure the money was good.

  71. SWMBO baked Hot Cross buns. Now they are cool, ready for eating. Best ever! wonderful even texture, great flavour… mmm!

    4. Wordle 295 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
      And three for me also …

    5. 3 for me too. Sorry, can’t put the chart on. Someone told me the other day how to “share” the picture but I can’t find the clipboard on my iPad. Any suggestions? (Brut remember, it is Sunday!). 😂😂😂

      1. Don’t bother, vw. I simply fail to understand these charts of grey, green and yellow. As for Winnie the Pooh’s bathmat, words fail me.

        PS – I now understand the three colours, but still baffled by the upside-down bathmat. Can anyone explain?

          1. I passed your comment on to The Master (Mr Harry Lime), Bill. He says that he knows that “bathmat” is upside down, but that it is a 7-letter word and he thought that Wordle was about finding a 5-letter word.

      2. You don’t need to find clipboard!
        Just press ‘Share’ on your results chart – it sends stuff to your clipboard.
        Then open a new post; press and hold ‘Microsoft’ key and press ‘v’.
        Your colour chart will appear – click on it.
        Your chart will appear on your post!

      3. Wordle 295 4/6

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

  73. Thousands of Russian demonstrators takes to streets across Germany after claiming they have been “victims of daily aggression” in wake of Ukraine invasion. 10 April 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8df8ec1ceb9f20bfc9f553869fc78df947f6d917ab35178c6956ddb7920856d4.png

    Some 2,000 pro-Russian supporters marched through Frankfurt this afternoon amid demonstrations in several German cities backing President Vladimir Putin.

    A 350-car motorcade set off from Hannover to be greeted by 700 counter-demonstrators pledging their support for Ukraine.

    The motorcade, flying Russian and also a few German flags, is protesting against discrimination in Germany towards Russians following the Ukraine invasion.

    Hmmm? I don’t think that’s in the MSM narrative!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10704921/WAR-UKRAINE-Pro-Putin-protesters-demonstrate-Germany.html

    2. I saw some idiot struggling to put up a “We stand with Ukraine” flag on his hedge when I came back from church (Palm Sunday) this morning. What a virtue-signalling prat, I thought.

    2. Selfish people, burning diesel just to keep warm. Don’t they know there’s a climate emergency?

    4. Not really a new thing. Pensioners used to haunt the local library before they closed them all. Now they just get themselves arrested on a Friday morning so they get their chips for free.

  76. …..and I thought we were helping the Ukrainians!

    ‘Woefully incompetent’ Fury as loophole lets Russian trawlers access UK waters DESPITE ban
    BRITONS have expressed their anger at reports that Russian trawlers are still able to access an estimated £16million worth of fish in UK-controlled waters thanks to a fishing loophole, despite a ban on Russian vessels over the invasion of Ukraine
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1593902/Russia-news-trawlers-access-uk-waters-whitefish-stock-ban-Vladimir-putin

    2. I know it’s only Sunday but I have to say this again and it was only last Friday I mentioned it.
      Everything our politicians come into contact with they Eff it up. Everything !

        1. 40% of white fish landed are by Russian trawlers for the UK market. Our sanctions mean all our chippies will close. Which i believe is the real reason behind the sanctions.

      3. Yes, they’re utterly destructive.

        Of course they’re desperate to tax everything that moves. It’s literally going to kill people. The state does not care.

        When folk realise that the intent is demented, enforced socialism and that they’re not going to stop until they’ve got there, nothing will change. It is a nightmarish insanity of Atlas Shrugged, 1984, and Mad Max.

        1. I read that back in the early 70s Ayne Rand, it didn’t really register to a young fella like I was then. I’m not sure i could read it again.

    1. The state thinks nothing will change and that the magic will continue. These people are not engineers, remember. They’re mostly idiots.

      The civil service, of course, will ensure that nothing changes and when it is working a 3 day week it won’t really care – but of course, more money will be needed to fund their doing half the work.

      The rest of us will be stuffed – especially those in technical industries as there simply won’t be the money to provide the services we provide.

      People with gardens will find they are turning them in small farms for meagre amounts of vegetables – which will be stolen.

      The upside of this si that the police will have no fuel to stop those of us who travel to London to kill the political class. There will be nothing – nothing to stop us ending the socialist terrorism of the Left.

  78. Where has everyone gone?

    That’s me gone for the day.

    Unexpectedly nice weather – won’t last, of course. Potted on 40 tomatoes.

    I really DO commend the Ken Burns docu on Benjamin Franklin. PBSAmerica.

    A demain.

    3. I felt so bloody awful that I’ve spent half the day in bed trying to catch up with lost sleep.

      1. Hope you feel better soon Bob. Give yourself rest and don’t go charging back outside heaving great sacks and stacks about. This is advice from a teacher but I bet the nurses on this site will agree!

        1. The DT has just got over a cold that had her coughing at times through the night for the past few days. Though she went back to sleep very quickly, I ended up tossing & turning before falling asleep, just before her coughing started again, so I’m more than a bit sleep deprived!
          I’m now off for a bath so will be logging off now.
          TTFN

  79. Anyone familiar with ‘notarizing’ a passport? I thought it would mean I didn’t have to send the passport to a foreign country as they accepted the Notary Public’s say so that it was kosher. However, they have asked for the passport and notarizarisation. Its a long story but involves financial affairs abroad, not Ukraine, honest…

      1. I have one located and used her before. Its just that I wasnt expecting to have to send my passport away..

          2. That sounds wrong. I have notarised my passport in the past, but the whole point was that I didn’t have to send it!

          3. That’s what I was expecting. Its a broker that I have dealt with for more than 30 years, not Prince Bongo-Smythe of Lagos. I shall speak to the notary.

          4. Call the broker & ask WTF?
            It may well be a scam to get a nice, legal British passport…

          5. Phizzee tells me that if f you want a Nigerian princess that’s par for the course.
            He sent his away a few years ago, along with his bank details.
            He’s still awaiting her arrival.

  80. Oh for God’s sake:-

    ‘Grossly offensive’ Scottish minister compares women’s rights activists to racists and anti-Semites
    Scottish Greens’ Lorna Slater also claimed feminists who fear the self-ID laws are secretly funded by ‘certain right-wing American groups’

    By
    Daniel Sanderson,
    SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    10 April 2022 • 3:56pm

    Feminists who fear a radical overhaul of transgender laws in Scotland will threaten their rights and safety have been compared to racists and anti-Semites by a minister in Nicola Sturgeon’s government.

    Lorna Slater, who was handed a ministerial post last year under the SNP’s coalition pact with the Greens, was accused of making “grossly offensive” remarks as she appeared to demand that media organisations censor critics of the Scottish Government plans.

    In remarks about the trans rights debate published on Sunday, she said the BBC had “only recently stopped putting on climate deniers because they required balance”.

    She added: “We wouldn’t put balance on the question of racism or anti-Semitism, but we allow this fictional notion of balance when it comes to anti-trans [views]. The whole thing is disgusting.”

    In a further claim which enraged grassroots groups which have mobilised to fight plans to allow Scots to change their legal sex simply by making a declaration, Ms Slater claimed her opponents were secretly funded by “certain right-wing American groups”.

    Asked to provide evidence or specify which groups Ms Slater was referring to, the Scottish Government is yet to do so.

    ‘Political wrecking ball’
    Susan Smith, a director of the For Women Scotland campaign group, said the “deliberately inflammatory” comments amounted to an open call for the “censorship and suppression of political opponents” from a government minister.

    “It is ironic she likens women’s rights activists to anti-Semites, racists and climate change deniers, when some might think her intemperate, incendiary, fact-free rant bears all the hallmarks of extremist bigotry as well as a denial of the fundamentals of biological science,” she said.

    “Such bullying hectoring should concern any parliamentarian who wants an open, thorough examination of legislation. If Ms Slater wishes to continue to act as a political wrecking ball, she should resign her position.”

    The SNP/Green Government at Holyrood recently published legislation that would allow anyone aged 16 or over born or resident in Scotland to change their legal sex by self-identification, removing the need for a medical diagnosis or doctor’s approval.

    Some feminists believe the changes are open to abuse by male sexual predators who could make a declaration to demand access to women-only spaces such as changing rooms, prisons or hospital wards.

    Critics also fear they will erode women’s sex-based rights in fields such as sport and the workplace.

    The claims are denied by supporters of the legislation who say they will merely simplify an existing process to obtain a gender recognition certificate and will not hand trans people any new rights.

    ‘Deeply inflammatory’
    Ms Slater’s comments, to The Herald on Sunday, came after Shona Robison, the SNP minister steering the legislation through Holyrood, called for a “respectful” debate without “offensive or abusive” comments on either side.

    However, Ms Slater, who is entitled to a salary of £98,000 in her role as biodiversity minister, said a perceived backlash against the trans community was “hideous” and that she feared for the safety of trans women standing as Green candidates in the council elections.

    “These gentle, hardworking women are being portrayed as if they’re inherently dangerous,” she said. “It couldn’t be further from the truth.”

    Only the Scottish Tories officially oppose the reforms at Holyrood, though individual SNP and Labour politicians, including Ms Sturgeon’s finance minister, have concerns.

    Meghan Gallacher, the Scottish Tory spokeswoman on gender reform, said Ms Slater’s remarks were “deeply inflammatory” and would only “heighten tensions on a difficult and sensitive issue”.

    “It’s outrageous and grossly offensive for Lorna Slater to compare women with legitimate concerns over their safety and rights with racists,” she said.

    “The same goes for her absurd suggestion that those with misgivings should not be given a platform to voice their concerns.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/10/grossly-offensive-scottish-minister-compares-womens-rights-activists/

    1. The layers of BS are now so deep and stacked on top of one another that they are speaking a completely different language.
      Opposing identity politics from the standpoint of other identity politics is just a cul-de-sac.

    2. I’ve spread enough doom and gloom lately so I won’t continue.
      On the upside we’re having steaks and baked spuds tonight…..public service announcement- Brussels Sprouts too 😉

      3. We’re having roast chicken, roasties, cauliflower and tenderstem broccoli. Smoked salmon for starter.

        No pud.

        I’m feeling more or less back to normal but OH is still feeling rough. Our neighbours were away for two nights (back now) – and they’ve both had colds only a few weeks after the last ones. Just what they’re saying about the triple jabbed being more susceptible to infections.

        1. I was hoping to use up some tenderstem with dinner but it had ” gorn orf” as my former headmistress used to say;-) Still the sprouts were yummy.

          1. They do begin to go yellow quite quickly, but at least they last a bit longer in the fridge, unlike cauliflower, which doesn’t fit in! Though cauli lasts quite well anyway.

      4. I had pork sausages made by our local butcher. Baby potatoes in a mayonnaise, Dijon mustard and balsamic dressing, and a roast pepper. A rather dull dinner because I really didn’t feel like cooking. Now I’m going to have a Neapolitan Ice cream sandwich for dessert.

        2. I had mint pea soup, chicken with lots of veg and a nice gravy, followed by chocolate fudge cake and cheese and biscuits. Oh, and wine – did I mention the wine? 🙂

      1. Thanks Angie! I’d just got that Star Trek song out my plugholes and now it’s back:-) Aneas (?) posted it the other day and one day I’ll get him;-)

    6. I’m pathetically happy that I have six jars of lemon curd cooling on the work top.

    8. My late much missed African Grey was called Happy… he lived up to his name .. I miss his welcoming whistles and musical repertoire . I haven’t whistled a note since he died . 36 years is a long time to nurture and care for a small feathered creature ..

      Every time I cut up carrots or chop apples , I have to stop myself thinking save one for Happy. He could whistle Largo from the New World Symphony, I taught him , and also the beginning bit of the Pastoral / Symph No 6, and many others … sorr to be a misery .. Happy is just one of those words that sets me off. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2ca14c1c29164c95e1469f1c1923e7428ec52fa3c53207870b630bd89557f1c9.jpg

  82. There are rumours that Sunak’s wife profited from the Covid scam. Sunak gifted her company £1.3 million from the Covid Recovery Fund and allowed it to fail owing HMRC £623,000.00.

    Something stinks when Sunak’s wife is desperate to pay £4,000,000 in order to keep her husband in a £150,000 job.

    Listen up Johnson, you and your motley crew of corrupt chancers and incompetents had better remove yourselves sharpish. As each day passes it is yet more evident that you lot are globalist WEF stooges and shills.

    1. The non dom status was understandable
      IF the above is true, I’m really angry. But tbh, I can’t believe they’d bother with small change like a couple of million.

          2. This looks like a sting. Perhaps it means that Sunak has a shred of integrity, and must therefore be got rid of.
            I very much hope that corri’s rumours are not true.
            I reserve judgment until we know the truth, i.e. never, I suppose.

  83. Sajid Javid has admitted that he paid no UK tax on his overseas earnings for six years while he was a banker earning up to £3 million a year.

    The Health Secretary said that between 2000 and 2006 he claimed non-dom status, which he was entitled to as his father was born in Pakistan.

    In a statement on Saturday night, he also said that he made money from an offshore trust while working at Deutsche Bank 20 years ago, which he has since collapsed when he became a minister.

    Last week Mr Javid said that there was a “moral” duty for people to pay more tax in the form of the rise in National Insurance to pay for the NHS and social care.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/04/10/sajid-javid-admits-held-non-dom-status-says-had-moral-duty-give/

    3. No. Tax is not a moral duty. The only duty is for the state to provide absolutely essential services and the NHS to provide an efficient, cost effective service.

      It does neither. Therefore government is the problem. It’s a gloated wasteful nonsense of debt and waste. Burn them out.

    4. Time for these people to make up their minds as to where their loyalty lies – to the country of their or their parents’ birth – or to the country in which they are living.

      1. Trouble is, with the media scrutiny nowadays, no-one with any brains wants to be politician, hence the poor showing here and in the UK.

  84. Obviously, we are all aware of BJ’s visit to Kyiv on Saturday 9 April.

    Until my daughter mentioned it this (Sunday) afternoon; I was completely unaware of President von der Ley den’s visit to Kyiv on Friday 8 April.

    I don’t recall her visit being mentioned on GB News or SKY News …

    1. She was surrendering on behalf of France.
      Macron needed to hide that before the elections.

      1. Is this a case of: “Get your retaliation in first”, sos ?

        [Willie John McBride]

    2. The only reason Johnson visited Kyiv was because Von der Leyen visited.

      Johnson is keen to keep a foothold in Europe and to be seen as an influencer ‘on the world stage’. It is truly pathetic.

      Edit: You would think that Johnson might at least dress appropriately. Instead he waddles around in a crumpled ill-fitting suit about to pop its buttons with a mop of unruly hair which would put a scarecrow to shame.

  85. Watching a bit of the Masters in Augusta. T Woods, 20 shots behind the leader, farts on the 16th hole and the coverage moves to him and the crowd inhaling with deep breaths. I don’t understand his god-like status, but then I’m not a golfer.

  86. 69 years ago to this very day a young 16 year old woman screamed in pain. I probably did too but I was far far too young to remember.

        2. Sorry to be late to the party, King Stephen but wishing yo a very happy birthday! Love the cake! 🎂🌹

        1. Nearly 7 years ago for me.
          Reaching 70 was the most significant decade. All the others I was at work.

          1. …..well….if you could call it work ! Try working in a restaurant on Valentines where the young one wants to impress his squeeze. :@)

    12. Happy Birthday Mr Roi! Gosh, your mum was young! Mine was 38 when I was born, I am the one and only.

  87. What struck me when watching a video of a heat pump installation was the guy commenting that a home with 100 amp company fuse was acceptable when fitting a heat pump in a two bedroomed bungalow.

    I have not found any references to the sort of amperage that a heat pump would require until I found this one where a 40 amp compressor contactor was fitted:

    https://youtu.be/iMDMwVic7jI

    This makes sense insofar as a typical 17 kW heat pump would consume typically at least 4 kW by the compressor

    I’ve just checked the company fuse on our five bedroomed home and it’s only 63 amps!

    I had an electrician install a 32 amp circuit breaker in my domestic unit in case I needed to power a 7 kW EV charger.

    Now 32 amps plus 40 amps is 72 amps so I guess I am in danger of blowing the 63 amp company fuse if I should put the electric kettle on whilst charging an EV and running the central heating with a heat pump.

    The Government’s push for EV’s and heat pumps may be necessary to meet its over optimistic Net Zero targets but the drive to provide enough nuclear baseload power to run all our electrical appliances is far too late!

    I’ve calculated that

    1. If we all drive electric cars and the gas is shut off in favour of forced heatpumps (how will that work for flats?) we’re some 32gw short of supply. No amount of windmills will provide that. Solar is out of the question. That means nuclear or gas.

      Gas is there and available now, and we should be fracking. Nuclear will take the state over 10 years to get installed (it shouldn’t, but they will). That means for the next 9 years, we’re going to be woefully short of energy.

      I suggest we start demonstrating this by providing the cabinet with sewage to drink. They should lead the way into their net zero clean water future.

      And then we should be allowed to beat them with cricket bats.

    2. Don’t forget cookers, washing machines and so on, the main fuse is going to go poof even before you go poof at the leccy bill.

      Assuming that the government will allow you to use that much power that is!

  88. Looks like Le Pen is not going to win. Looks like the gang is going to hang in with Macron.

    2. When she starts enacting decidedly Left wing economic policies will the press still refer to her as ‘Right wing’?

  90. I ventured out to the local pub tonight. I am now expecting a visit from the police, It wasn’t my fault!

        1. I was sitting on a stool in a local pub. I ordered a large G&T with no ice or lemon. Then when i lit a cigarette all hell broke loose. Half a dozen people converged on me. I was quite intimidated. So i threw my drink at them. As i left the car park a dozen or more wanted selfies for some reason.

          2. No…this is righteous reality. Clearly they felt i had given them all cancer.
            I am waiting for the knock.

          3. But did you commit a hate crime? Did you insult an ethnic? If not, you’re probably safe.
            Just double lock the doors and hide.

          7. I did none of those things. In fact i am quite looking forward to the arrival of the Plods. I will wave my crutches at them.

          8. When we go to the pub, and it’s been a while now, we sit outside on the back deck, weather permitting. I don’t smoke but MH does and so do most out there. If it’s nasty weather, we sit inside and he goes out for a smoke when he wants to. It’s a covered deck.

  93. Evening, all. Late on parade again (busy day). Congratulations to Delboy and Mrs Db. Nothing the PM plans fixes anything. He has the reverse Midas touch.

  95. OK, I have the greatest admiration and respect for HM. I have just looked at the report on the BBC page when she was doing a Zoom with a couple- one was recovering from covid but guess what, Hussein and Shamnina or summat.
    This government is manipulating HM as well as the rest of us. Yes, as Head of the Commonwealth she has had experience and has much knowledge of other races. But, the question begs, were there no white indigenous families that could have been interviewed?
    Yes, this is racist but everything is really beginning to stink.

    1. It is not racist Ann. It’s the brainwashing that makes you think so. Your reaction is normal in a white Christian country.

      Good luck with all your appointments and tests this week.

  96. Am going to bed- MH has to go for another swab tomorrow despite coming up negative twice; this is such nonsense.
    Going to be a fun week- haha. We are planning on going out for dinner on Tuesday after my ECG appointment- sod the results. I am at a point where I don’t give a damn any more.

    1. Good night. Going out to dine is essential. Having a good old punch fest can also improve ones mood. As i have just found out. Give them hell Lottie.

      1. I wonder if your dramatic event was caused by your medication coming into contact with tonic water.

  97. Don’t do Wordle at 0030 after 7 hours of wine.
    Wordle 296 6/6

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

  101. Today I haven’t spent much time on NoTTL. So a very belated “Good afternoon, everyone” and a very early “Good night, everyone”. See you all tomorrow.

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