Sunday 10 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget will do little to save the Conservative Party from electoral disaster

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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772 thoughts on “Sunday 10 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget will do little to save the Conservative Party from electoral disaster”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    LETTER TO THE CANADIAN ARMY

    A Canadian female libertarian wrote a lot of letters to the Canadian government, complaining about the treatment of captive insurgents (terrorists) being held in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities. She demanded a response to her letters.

    She received back the following reply:

    National Defense Headquarters
    Major Gen George R. Pearkes Bldg., 15 NT,
    101 Colonel Bay Drive
    Ottawa, ON K1A 0K2
    Canada

    Dear Concerned Citizen,

    Thank you for your recent letter expressing your profound concern of treatment of the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorists captured by Canadian Forces who were subsequently transferred to the Afghanistan Government and are currently being held by Afghan officials in Afghanistan National Correctional System facilities.

    Our administration takes these matters seriously and your opinions were heard loud and clear here in Ottawa. You will be pleased to learn, thanks to the concerns of citizens like yourself, we are creating a new department here at the Department of National Defense, to be called ‘Liberals Accept Responsibility for Killers’ program, or L.A.R.K. for short.

    In accordance with the guidelines of this new program, we have decided to divert one terrorist and place him in your personal care.

    Your personal detainee has been selected and is scheduled for transportation under heavily armed guard to your residence in Toronto next Monday.

    Ali Mohammed Ahmed bin Mahmud (you can just call him Ahmed) is to be cared for pursuant to the standards you personally demanded in your letter of complaint!

    It will likely be necessary for you to hire some assistant caretakers. We will conduct weekly inspections to ensure that your standards of care for Ahmed are commensurate with those you so strongly recommended in your letter.

    Although Ahmed is a sociopath and extremely violent, we hope that your sensitivity to what you described as his ‘attitudinal problem’ will help him overcome these character flaws.

    Perhaps you are correct in describing these problems as mere cultural differences.

    We understand that you plan to offer counselling and home schooling. Your adopted terrorist is extremely proficient in hand-to-hand combat and can extinguish human life with such simple items as a pencil or nail clippers. We advise that you do not ask him to demonstrate these skills at your next yoga group. Please advise any Jewish friends, neighbours or relatives about your house guest, as he might get agitated or even violent, but we are sure you can reason with him. He is also expert at making a wide variety of explosive devices from common household products, so you may wish to keep those items locked up, unless (in your opinion) this might offend him.

    Ahmed will not wish to interact with you or your daughters (except sexually) since he views females as a subhuman form of property thereby having no rights, including refusal of his sexual demands. This is a particularly sensitive subject for him and he has been known to show violent tendencies around women who fail to comply with the new dress code that he will “recommend” as more appropriate attire.

    I’m sure you will come to enjoy the anonymity offered by the burka over time. Just remember that it is all part of ‘respecting his culture and religious beliefs’ as described in your letter.

    Thanks again for your concern.

    We truly appreciate it when folks like you keep us informed of the proper way to do our job and care for our fellow man.

    You take good care of Ahmed and remember we’ll be watching.

    Good luck and God bless you.

    Cordially,

    Gordon O’Connor
    Minister of National Defense

    3. When was this written? I can’t imagine Prime Minister Blackface taking to kindly to these words.

  2. Good morning, chums. As usual, Sir Jasper has beaten me to it. I have already completed today’s Wordle, so will now copy it here:

    Wordle 995 5/6

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

    2. Easy today
      Wordle 995 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Morning all. There are some advantages of being in Italy, only a few comments to read when I look in. Now off into the Dolomites for some action! I’ll get me insurance..

  4. Of now to enjoy the day – although it’s raining all day here, so it’s all indoor work.

  8. Good morning all!
    A damp 3½° with a light drizzle after overnight rain with a heavy overcast and little wind.

    Hmm. I see BBC R3 is having a “Sound of Cinema Sunday”.

  11. Good morning.

    HMS Queen Elizabeth went to Scotland for repairs. It’s now on fire.

    Saves scrapping it i suppose.

  12. Good day all and the 77th warriors,

    A dull morning at McPhee Towers, wind in the East going round through North to be in the West tonight, 7-8℃ all day.

    A former policeman, Gary Waterman, has found and provided to the authorities evidence of gigantic fraud which lies at the heart of finance, Companies House, taxation, the police and local and national government itself. This is an absolute humdinger.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJkB02V4jGY

    I’ve searched for Gary’s YouTube channel but nothing comes up. Have ‘they’ taken it down?

  13. Don’t march alongside extremists, Michael Gove tells pro-Palestinian protesters. 10 March 2024.

    The Communities Secretary insisted that fears that individuals such as gender-critical feminists and devout Christians, Jews and Muslims could fall foul of the new definition were misplaced.

    He stated: “It’s only extremism if you translate that into a political ideology that is anti-democratic. Private belief should be cherished. Free speech has to be protected. But there are people who are operating deliberately to undermine our democracy and … this space and the exploitation of that space by extremists has only grown.”

    The enemies of Free Speech and Democracy are in Westminster with measures like the Online Harms Bill.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/michael-gove-pro-palestinian-protests-marches-extremism/

    1. Dear BoB,

      I think it was you (or perhaps another ‘Classy’ Nottler) who mentioned (several years ago now?) the Swiss Classic Channel: https://www.radioswissclassic.ch/en for music without the increasingly idiotic and intrusive adverts prevalent on Classic FM. I had forgotten that link, neglected to save it, and now you have rediscovered it for me. Many thanks from a music lover.

      It’s a great channel. Bye bye Classic FM – for ever.

    2. Dear BoB,

      I think it was you (or perhaps another ‘Classy’ Nottler) who mentioned (several years ago now?) the Swiss Classic Channel: https://www.radioswissclassic.ch/en for music without the increasingly idiotic and intrusive adverts prevalent on Classic FM. I had forgotten that link, neglected to save it, and now you have rediscovered it for me. Many thanks from a music lover.

      It’s a great channel. Bye bye Classic FM – for ever.

  16. Lockdowns and money printing have destroyed Western economies. 10 March 2024.

    Just one word of apologia for the Budget, then normal service will resume. No elected government and no political party that hoped to be elected could provide painless solutions to the economic problems of our time. They could not even begin to give a truthful account of the crisis itself, the ramifications of which are beyond the conventional conceptual framework for describing these things.

    What is worse from the politicians’ point of view, is that this is almost entirely the result of grievous mistakes by governments (not just ours), which cannot be admitted now that their catastrophic consequences are so obvious. If Jeremy Hunt’s proposals seemed inadequate, wrong-headed, or even absurd, that is because he could not begin to deal with the full dimensions of the dilemma that he was pretending to address.

    It is not just the economy though is it? They have destroyed the Social System with Mass Immigration. We are simply sitting here waiting for it all to collapse into utter ruin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/lockdowns-money-printing-destroyed-western-economies/

    1. Lockdowns and printing money, grievous mistakes? Pleeeeease, they were planned and very deliberate actions of a degenerate political class. The Tories drew up the legislation and the remainder of the shower at Westminster supported it with some demanding even harsher conditions.

      Mistakes, you take us for fools.

    2. 384519+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      Many are not just sitting they are actively aiding & abetting.

  17. Good morning, all. Wet.

    Yesterday our new Nottler, Angelina Komnena used the heathen proverb, “Those whom the God’s wish to destroy they first make mad.” In the case of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Plan being proposed, it is a very apt statement. The Climate Change Committee haven’t been seen in the best of lights recently viz.

    In the last few weeks a number of serious errors have come to light in the Climate Change Committee’s (CCC) plan for Net Zero. The CCC plan was published mid-2019 in a document titled ‘Net Zero Technical Report’.

    And now this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9786984f83ff83a228113c8304ed57044955de1c589b03b56782db8067bfe669.png

    To decarbonise the grid, it is assumed that electricity will be generated using nuclear and renewables. During periods when nuclear, wind and solar cannot meet demand, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) will be deployed to remove CO2 emissions as the electricity must be generated using gas.

    Carbon Capture and Storage is a new and untested technology that has never been deployed at scale anywhere on earth. However, it is clear from the CCC’s report that CCS plays a major roll in achieving Net Zero. As I reported in a previous article, regardless of this being an untested technology, the U.K. only plans to build a quarter of the required capacity to hit Net Zero by 2050 (the plan requires the U.K. to capture and store 176Mt of CO2 annually).

    I presume these storage facilities will be vast tanks buried in the ground and dotted around the country. I know, from my early 1960s chemistry lessons, that at atmospheric pressure solid carbon dioxide sublimates i.e. turns from solid to gas without going through the liquid state but I had to refer to Google for information on liquid carbon dioxide. It has to be at > 5.2 atmospheres to be, and remain, liquified.

    As an aside, I have been thinking about the amount of carbon dioxide that will be generated in both building the storage capacity sites – an ongoing requirement, it would seem – and the energy required to liquify the gas.

    And people are concerned with fracking?

    Article at Daily Sceptics

    1. I presume these storage facilities will be vast tanks buried in the ground and dotted around the country.

      Morning Korky. No I don’t think so. Though I am open to correction I believe that the Carbon will be pumped into geologically acceptable formations. Possibly under sea.

      2. That was my first thought but the article threw up a doubt in my mind as it mentions ‘around the UK’ and ‘under the UK’. Whatever the circumstances of storage, does it appear as a good idea bearing in mind this is a novel idea with potential for creating a disaster and the CCC doesn’t have a perfect record?

        1. Carbon dioxide gas can be pumped into a reservoir that once held gas perfectly safely, as long as you don’t go far above the original pressure of the hydrocarbon gas that was there before. It’s normal practice to inject gas back into reservoirs to keep the pressure up on the oil until the oil is depleted, then you blow down the hydrocarbon gas and then the whole thing is sealed. On occasion, where there’s little gas to produce, treated water is injected to keep the oil flowing.

          1. OB, do you think that the carbon dioxide will be stored in a gaseous state or compressed into its liquid form? Further, is there sufficient capacity in the former oil/gas rocks to accommodate a continuous stream of carbon dioxide? This means of capture and storage of carbon dioxide appears to be a forever process although there appears to be the idea that the pressurised gas will be released at times to generate electricity.

            Clearly there will be losses in reusing what has been stored and there’s nothing in the article mentioning that. Could be another money pit with the taxpayer being fleeced again.

          2. The CO2 will be a lower volume than the hydrocarbon gas extracted, plus all the liquids, so there should be space enough. I guess it will be pumped in in liquid form, then will flash off initially to gas, becoming liquid again as the pressure increases (CO2 is liquid between 5.2 and 74 bar.g, significantly lower pressures than the orginal hydrocarbons.)

    2. I presume these storage facilities will be vast tanks buried in the ground and dotted around the country.

      Morning Korky. No I don’t think so. Though I am open to correction I believe that the Carbon will be pumped into geologically acceptable formations. Possibly under sea.

  19. The Chinese-Russian war machine could soon overwhelm the West. 10 March 2024.

    Putin is squeezing every rouble he can out of the Russian state in pursuit of victory in Ukraine. Increasingly, his war-driven economy is propped up by support from China, with Russia fast becoming a proxy in Xi Jinping’s zero-sum contest with the West. Unless this reality is effectively addressed by the Western coalition, the free world risks first losing Ukraine, then Taiwan, and ultimately any hope of maintaining the current rules-based international order.

    The Vlad is set on attacking NATO the EU, Whoever, is losing both credibility and steam so China is being dragged into the Scene. It’s just more scaremongering.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/10/russia-ukraine-china-sanctions-economy/

    1. The Vlad is set on attacking NATO and the EU.

      I wish he would get on with it. Brussels first.

    1. I can think of far more commonly occurring reasons not to buy an EV including cost, near vertical depreciation, risk of short battery life, difficulty of recharging, risk of spontaneous combustion, insurance costing 3-4x the ICE equivalent model, heavier wear on tyres etc.
      The thing that killed that poor lady would probably equally affect many modern ICE cars with electric windows etc.

      1. With luck they’ll be banning them from ferries and multi-storey car parks soon as a fire hazard.

      1. Not sure it would work on a Tesla.

        Elon musk had someone fire a bullet at his EV truck. Didn’t even scratch the glass.

    4. “A billionaire sister-in-law” reversed into a pond?

      Conclusive proof — if it were ever needed — that no amount of money can overcome intrinsic and ingrained stupidity.

  22. Pope Francis urges all parties in Ukraine to negotiate for peace. 10 March 2024.

    Pope Francis has urged parties in the Ukraine war to “negotiate before things get worse”, in an interview published Saturday by Swiss television.

    The 87-year-old pontiff was asked by the public broadcaster RTS about a debate within Ukraine on whether to surrender to Russia’s invasion, or if that would only legitimise the power of force.

    No comments allowed which speaks volumes in itself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/09/pope-francis-urges-all-parties-in-ukraine-negotiate-peace/

    1. I have noticed the no comments on many a comment worthy article. I am also noticing comment section closure very quickly, on the same day. For example that brave geezar getting arrested for pointing out Hamas are terrorists then getting de-arrested (?) in the now weekly London Cultural Enrichment march.

      2. Morning A A. I’ve learned to look on the Telegraph as a Tory (Former) Nudge Unit. It makes its action understandable.

  24. 384519+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 10 March: Jeremy Hunt’s Budget will do little to save the Conservative Party from electoral disaster.

    No worries there the political disaster AKA the conservative party, a segment of the lab/lib/con coalition can depend on the tribal support of the majority voter, a bigger disaster, who has never let us down in keeping us down, these past four decades.

    The magnet pull of “you gotta vote tory (ino) party to keep out lab (ino) party” still rules the political roost.

    The good ship “Majority voter” is once again busy
    plotting a WEF/NWO course down the voting lanes leading to ( for the decent indigenous)
    RESET DISASTER

    Advice,
    Steer clear of reform parties bearing gifts, and don’t blame the sheep for human stupidity.

    For me, if no independent looks favourable and NOTA being an empty gesture, it will be
    “Daisy the Cow” and her patriotic dairy, farmer supporting herd , party.

  25. ‘Morning All

    The law of unintended consequences strikes…….

    https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1766513733184926092?s=20

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ae241d0d46fcb10a89f4b5e2f74f6171f4d394079f92561ecab897a28bf6767.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27f9ab714d303e7ea14ce8f91cb1996a87840ca521efc340601c6637004b6f53.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09d84bc49923102ed6fe4935824f0068ee679212089e60f1097bc1ff97869955.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31fb4e2702a080c8aba6b7289688bcc1e7ba912bb6f130df8944e944cf9eb409.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ce200c87d8fbd1ca59d51f6bc77acf6dbae0c39ec57a207498eed8dd500859b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/651f83e3903d8af2829265f83953c3bd1041b94bd91848999d73ae6279a5f6e2.png

    1. Knows what Trump will do, for a fact, eh? How goes the lottery winnings, eh?

    2. Agenda 47 is quite a wish list.

      Pity we can’t have it here. It would get my vote.

    3. I had expected a little child to be speaking due to the impression given by the appearance.
      20 seconds of that was enough.
      I don’t like Trump, but I sincerely hope that he does what seemed to be suggested.
      Someone has to ‘pull the rabbit’ out of the hat.

  27. Carol Vorderman seems to have undergone a career change, is she trying to by Starmers, Martin Bell

    1. I though she had already changed career some time ago – from Thinking Women to Titty Tarts.

  28. Named in a letter

    SIR – Combining both the First World War and retro names (Letters, March 3), in 1918 my grandmother sent a telegram to my grandfather at the front.

    It read: “We have a son. I am calling him Gervaise Aleric Alvis.”

    He sent a reply: “You are not. We are calling him John Clive Malcolm.”

    These were the names of his platoon commanders. My father was always grateful to the efficient postal service.

    Anthony Stoker
    Shilbottle, Northumberland

    The local signposts often have the word ‘Shilbottle’ changed, with one stroke of a Marker Pen

  29. Morning all 🙂😊
    My family call me rainman, and once again I live upto it. Spent a good 40 minutes mixing and spraying lawn weed killer yesterday. And hey presto, it chucked it down last night.
    I have a one hundred percent record of rain anywhere we go on holiday. Even short showers.
    And Jeremy Hunt, well he’s probably topped up his finances through connections and masses of expenses. As also will have his colleagues.
    They will continue to do so while doing absolutely nothing on the opposition benches.
    Like most in Parliament for decades they have achieved absolutely nothing whatsoever. Except of course in every way possible, further wrecking our entire country.

      1. Late 1979 My wife small son and I were travelling from Gladstone QLD to friends in Upper Fern Tree Gully Victoria. Inland roadways, we arrived in a town named Coonabarrabran NSW.
        We stay over night in our caravan, towed by our LWB Land rover.
        It had not rained there for over three years. They had water tankers on the streets. It rained, poured. I’m still waiting for the cheque. 🤗

  30. High-tech health

    SIR – Regarding the NHS forcing patients to use its app and the latest technology (Letters, March 3),
    I have a scheduled hospital appointment for which I have received four
    text-message reminders and a call to my mobile phone. I have also had
    two emails, the latest of which told me I had to have a QR code on my
    phone to gain access to the unit in the hospital.

    Fortunately, my
    husband sorted this out by forwarding the email to his tablet, taking a
    screenshot of the code, then transferring that to my phone by Bluetooth.
    But he also gave me a printed version of the QR code.

    Helen Bacon
    Bordon, Hampshire

    My dosage of Ramipril has been doubled and i need to do a week of blood pressure tests.

    The last time i did these tests i went to the GP Practice online. Went to the BP section and downloaded the pages for entering in the daily results. At the end of the week i put these results on their BP page and pressed send.
    Now when i go to the GP practice it directs me to Anima. The new all singing all dancing tech revolution in Primary Care.

    I filled in all my details. Got an email to confirm my email and then logged in to Anima.
    A page came up and said it couldn’t accept the account and the GP Practice would do it manually and they would then phone/text/email me.

    I believe the way they are dealing with the crisis in GP’s retiring early is to bypass them altogether. You won’t know who is looking at your health conditions. It will end up being an AI.

    1. Hi Pip! Do what I do. Ignore all Electronic admonitions, demands, and requests from the NHS and simply use the landline phone. It helps to have a phone you can put down and that you can hear counting you down: “You are 10001 in line. Please be patient and we will get to you as soon as possible.” I find it quite satisfactory. It also helps if you pretend to be an addled old fart who they assume is beyond electronic gadget salvation.

      1. Hi JR
        My Practice had that system but they have changed it. Now they give you an estimated time. It was counting down from 45 minutes. When it got to under 10 minutes it went back up to 30.

        I have printed out the form to fill in the readings. Then i will wrap it around a house brick and lob it through their window with a note attached saying ‘See…I told you i had high blood pressure !’

    2. I’ve had similar problems trying to submit BP readings. And when I have there’s been no response. So I don’t bother anymore.
      I had a letter for an appointment for a MRI scan on a Sunday afternoon in two weeks. They asked me a list of questions and if I answer Yes to any single question I have to contact them. One mentioned eye opps. Which I’m have this Tuesday. Fortunately I was able to email them and inform them. I’ll have to see what they come back with.

      1. Half an hour ago I had a phone call from the radiology department regarding my email yesterday.
        The lady is going to ask the radiologist for advice and a reply to my query. Less than 24 hours from me sending my email.

  31. Apparently people with cats will be fined 500 pounds a head if the cats aren’t micro chipped by June.
    More sneaky profits to be made by certain people.

    2. Good morning Eddy

      Sunny morning in these Dorsetty parts , 9c

      What on earth are they talking about cats for , they should start microchipping the youngsters who are creating mayhem shop lifting and pinching cars , stabbing, and talking in a Sarth Lonnen patois !

  32. Merry Christmas!!!

    The University of Virginia (UVA) has at least 235 employees under its “diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)” banner — including 82 students — whose total cost of employment is estimated at $20 million. That’s $15 million in cash compensation plus an additional 30-percent for the annual cost of their benefits.

    1. And all that cash making pollution Kahnt has his repulsive hands on, just blew away in the wind.

    2. I’m sorry Belle. I hate these movies. They remind me of what has been destroyed.

      2. You’re right, I managed 8 seconds. I started thinking of that bloke with the “Hamas is a terrorist organisation, yes or no?” placard the other side of a park fence getting dragged off by a couple of rotund coppers the other week. That’s what park fences are for these days, to keep angry religious and political mobs away.

    3. I can remember seeing those men with helmets but it’s such a long time since I’ve seen one I can’t remember what they’re called.
      Can you remind me please.

      2. Morning Alf. They were called Police (not to be confused with those of the same name nowadays) They caught evil doers and enforced the Law.

        1. That’s the one. When they were smart and respected and not dressed like the thugs they’re supposed to protect us from.

  34. Good morning
    Thank you to all those who sent good wishes for our 56th anniversary yesterday.
    Out daughter’s 55th today.

    1. Alf. I’m sorry, I missed that, was not here yesterday. So may I wish a hearty congratulations on your anniversary and wish your daughter a happy 55 today.

    3. It does bring one up a bit short when ones children are talking about pension plans!! My elder son is 58 in June!

      1. Lol you should speak to my parents about this!

        Having said that, my 85-year old dad is currently off in Oz visiting my brother. My mum declined to go and I don’t blame her. But he appears to be having a lovely time, swimming in the sea etc.

      2. Tell us about it.
        When our boys (!!!) talk, they are all sensible and grown-up and MB and I feel like stroppy teenagers.
        “Now, Father, have you thought about ISAs?”
        “Wha-evah ….”

      3. Many happy returns. It’s a popular time for birthdays. I shared mine with a former neighbour on Friday, and discovered – talking to our Rector’s wife – that it’s his birthday today.

      4. Happy birthday – hope you enjoyed your day! If Rastus sees this he can put you on his Birthday list.

          1. It is rather special, and quite unusual. Which is not to say that all posters are, or need to be “family”-oriented, so to speak. Comments on a myriad of subjects are always to be welcomed. We have simply evolved to be as we are.

            There is a lot of information, and many useful links to information to be found in amongst the jokes and pleasantries (and disagreements)!

  37. The Conservatives have embraced Britain’s decline. 10 March 2024.

    A Conservative Party serious about winning the next election would be seizing Brexit freedoms and deregulating, reforming the welfare state to get people into work, increasing housebuilding, sorting out business rates and offering serious tax incentives for entrepreneurs.

    Yes they would Mr Forte but they are not a Conservative Party!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/budget-taxes-tourist-tax-growth-decline-conservatives/

    1. The Conservative Party is the Consorosative Party and has been since 2005 when World Economic Forum Young Global Leader David Cameron opened his wallet to the Soros dollar. Subsequent Consorosative PMs also found Soros’ dollars, and Gates’ dollars, very appealing. Except for Liz Truss which is why she was soon out.

      1. Liz Truss has gone up in my estimation since she appeared on US TV correctly identifying the Governor of the Bank of England as being more powerful than the Prime Minister!

        1. Bailey was appointed by Soros devotee Javid to succeed Soros devotee Carney.

          So Liz is 100% right.

          2. Did you read “Green Bribes and Green Laws – Soros and Blair – Huge Payoffs All Round”?

            It’s all laid out in there too!

          3. I believe you. But when you know the whole background of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England, not just does it all fit into place, but you see how inevitable it all is, given the existing power structure.

    2. The Conservative Party is the Consorosative Party and has been since 2005 when World Economic Forum Young Global Leader David Cameron opened his wallet to the Soros dollar. Subsequent Consorosative PMs also found Soros’ dollars, and Gates’ dollars, very appealing. Except for Liz Truss which is why she was soon out.

  38. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b35d959e7838f5ce28d5b88c00c20fc22e70f17948968a331d008ab7295c8e8.png [S.T. sub-headline on 18-year-old British Ferrari driver, Oliver Bearman’s, seventh place in yesterday’s Formula One Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.]

    The Daily (and Sunday) Telegraph used to be the standard-bearer for high-quality journalism in the UK.

    Now, while I realise those once-vaunted publications have plummeted, in recent years, to depths previously unknown; surely some of its reporters, proof-readers, sub editors and typesetters are sharp enough to spot some of the countless howlers that routinely make it into print … every bloody day.

    Or am I, simply, completely out-of-touch with the present-day media zeitgeist?

    1. Nevousness is a terrible blight. I’m finkin of starting a new mentle elf charity to work wiv it’s sufferers.

      1. If you need a Chief DEI Executive – I’m your man. I understand the going rate is circa $200,000 p.a. plus perks!

        1. It’s a snip, you’re hired. You sound like just the sort of sharp suited political opportunist this country needs more of!

          I’ll get my PA to fill in the government grant application for your new role straight away. As a new NGO I believe we have a strong case here for empire building on the NHS.

          1. Why thank you! You’ll be delighted to know that I have all the relevant qualifications including a couple of sharp suits!

          2. Oi! You can’t just go around hiring the best person for the job, you know! I demand compensayshun for being overlooked ‘cos I is a girlie! I also have a sharp suit!

          3. Sorry – I identify as black – so my claim beats yours. Never seen such appalling discrimination.

          4. Ahem
            When I buy a blonde wig and little black dress for the interview i think you’ll find I have the top trump
            You lose
            (For the avoidance of doubt many NoTTLer’s know that at as chunky 6’1” bloke I won’t make a convincing tranny but hey does that matter any more)

          5. I identify as the moon like that kid that complained about her* teacher.

            Apologies, I don’t know what pronouns lunar satellites prefer.

          8. Ah but, are you committed to the destruction of the white imperialist systemic violence holding back those suffering from advanced nevousness?

      2. Make it a mental illness charity. I’m fed up with people saying they are suffering from mental health. One doesn’t suffer from a healthy heart or an unbroken leg.

    2. Hey Beatnik, the bozos at the Typograph have no conception of “journalism”, Dude. What we see is the noble art of cutting ‘n’ pastin’, Hombre, with no concessions to readable and informative copy which would be emblematic of White Privilege, Good Buddy.

      1. Way to go, Dean. It’s even worse when you hear them open their gobs to make utterances, Man. I was always taught (when I was an apprentice Bum) to touch my two top front incisors with the tip of my tongue when pronouncing the letter ‘L’, otherwise it would come out as a strangulated ‘W’. I can’t work out if these Dudes were never taught that skill or if they are just too bone idle to let that tongue do its work, Compadre. Either way, they sound like retards, Hombre.

        1. Hey Beatnik, they don’t know shit from shinola and those that do, are a dyin’ breed, Dude.

          1. They’re a big Zero from Nilsville, Dean. They might not know shit, Man, but they know their Shinola comes from Payola, Brother.

          2. Grzz and James – you have both missed out about forty seven ‘likes’ from each of your argots.

        1. Yes, you’re right. So long ago that I had forgotten that and somehow associated him with the chef.

          1. Link Hogthrob was my favourite. I could not have come up with a better name for a pig.

      1. She is lying her head off but both sets of neighbours have grassed her up. She obviously didn’t make a good impression on them.

  40. Find it curious that there is nothing much, if anything, about the Irish Referendum on their Constitution, in the MSM. I wonder if that’s because it was a crushing defeat for the Woke and the rest of the leftist rabble.

    1. It’s not worth reporting on, because the outcome is preordained, just like their EU membership referendums. They’ll be made to repeat the vote until they come up with the correct answer. Small beer to the MSM.

      In other news I believe little Leo lost and didn’t get what he wanted. Probably had to stamp his petulant foot over it before ordering a rerun.

      3. Morning James. Good to see you. My dinghy has finally washed against these shores.

        1. Aha, there you are. If you hadn’t I was about to give you directions anyway. The locals are remarkably tolerant and friendly, it turns out.

          1. Hello! Here am I, but can’t get on to the site – Bing and Google keep timing out. Is there another way?

      4. Hello! I think I have figured it out now. Good to see you all. Is there anyone else we are missing?

    2. Only a 44% turnout apparently. However a resounding “keep your hands off the Constitution in these matters” vote. Good for them.

  41. Find it curious that there is nothing much, if anything, about the Irish Referendum on their Constitution, in the MSM. I wonder if that’s because it was a crushing defeat for the Woke and the rest of the leftist rabble.

    2. Morning Johnathan. I believe that he is coming up for trial again shortly on another manufactured case. It might be related to that.

      1. I have to say that I think he is undoubtedly being unjustly persecuted. And I think it is because he is working class and the powers that be are afraid of waking up the working class. Douglas Murray says much the same things as Robinson and gets away with it, I think, simply because of his accent and the fact that he is middle class and ‘educated’.

        2. It is a regular reminder from the state machine that dissent will not be tolerated. You will think how they want you to. You will obey, you will conform.

      1. Possibly riding a bicycle without lights; it would have been more serious if it had been dark!

      2. Possibly riding a bicycle without lights; it would have been more serious if it had been dark!

    4. He is still subject to a “banning” order from certain areas which include where his daughters house is this was after his last arrest for eating a Far Right breakfast that made some march organiser “Feel Unsafe”
      He must be under constant surveillance and plod gleefully took the opportunity to bang him up again………

  43. Syrian refugee in ‘fawning’ BBC documentary raped child seven times. 10 March 2024.

    A Syrian refugee who was the subject of “fawning” coverage on the BBC’s Newsnight has been convicted of the rape of a 13-year-old girl.

    Omar Badreddin and his brother Mohamed, along with two others, were handed a combined 38.5-year sentence for the rape of a 13-year-old girl abused between August 2018 and April 2019.

    The victim said that her attackers “tortured” her and made her life a “living nightmare”. Omar Badreddin raped her on at least seven occasions, and threatened to kill her or take her to another country if she failed to comply.

    The Badreddin family were the subject of 2016 documentary “To hell and back: the story of a Syrian family given refuge in the UK”. The show documented the family’s 11-month journey from Syria to Newcastle as part of the Syrian refugee resettlement program.

    It’s beyond words. The BBC is really an agent of evil. It makes the old Soviet Pravda and Izvestia look quite moral and benign in comparison.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/syrian-refugee-in-fawning-bbc-documentary-raped-child/

    3. There is more to the story which was covered in the Spectator a few days ago. The piece of filth was apparently on trial for rape of a 13 year old while the BBC was making the documentary but he was acquitted and then claimed that the allegations were concocted by the girl because of racism. The BBC was then keen to portray him as having undergone a worse Hell in the UK because of malicious, racist accusation than he had in Syria. But then, a few years later, by sheer coincidence, he has been convicted of other cases.
      The BBC cannot be blamed for accepting the court’s verdict in the first case, but it sounds as if they were only too keen to take up the line of British racism being the root of a child’s allegations against this man.
      ‘`Shirley not!” I hear you cry.

  44. Yes it’s quite frightening as they seem to be catching us up. Our son will be 52 In June.
    We don’t seem old enough when we look in the mirror but then we look at our birth certificate. :-))

      1. We all do it. I have just got distance glasses specifically for driving, not needed distance glasses before, made me feel old, a step on the way….

      3. :-).
        “FFS, Perce, the sodding lights have been green for all of 3 nanosecosds!!!!”

    2. But you don’t look a day over…er…er…erm…

      Maggie still looks wonderful though. @)

      1. Rape ?

        Those men should be castrated , then they will have to sing for their supper .

        Filthy monsters should be used as an example to others , we need to resort to our own historical medieval methods of restraint.

    1. That seems very sensible. Poor Ukraine has been ruined by Democrat Washington using them for a hideous proxy war against Putin.

          3. Well, because my step father was a White Russian and one of my wives was also Russian, I know rather a lot about the place and its history, I’m also a Russian Orthodox Christian so that informs my thinking too. I understand what the Russians and Ukrainians really think of each other and how they understand themselves with regard to the present crisis, what caused it, when it started, who started it, and why it is a war that neither Ukrainians or Russians would have began without provocation from hostile forces, hostile to both the well being of Ukraine and Russia. Thus I do not fall for Western propaganda about what is really going on.

      3. Poor Ukraine has been ruined by Barak Obama’s Washington using them for a hideous proxy war against Putin.

  47. In the light of my new appointment as Chief DEI Executive of a new NGO, dedicated to supporting Nervous folk, currently being incorporated, I thought I would brush up my Equality credentials by changing the bed and getting a load of washing on whilst MoH is out. (Must have something to talk about when the media start taking an interest). …..

  48. All I know is that he was celebrating his daughters birthday and the fuzz came along and arrested him in front of his child. Disgusting behaviour clearly designed to intimidate and denigrate him in front of his child.

    2. Muslipolitan Perlice following the Caliph’s orders. Bit like the “religious police” in Iran.

    1. They’ve been ripping down hundreds of Christian churches ever since Xi came to power.
      I’m not sure there’s anything to admire in the CCP unless you approve of the genocides of the Tibetans and Uighurs?

        1. To elaborate on my reply. I agree with the metal illness part. There is something very sick about Islam, in my opinion and I would fully support what the Chinese were doing if it were not for that fact that it is, in the context of China, a greater evil crushing a lesser evil. But, I would be perfectly happy if such a campaign was started in the West because here Islam fully intends to destroy our civilization and usher us into a dark ages. Like WWII, it sometimes becomes necessary to fight in such a way that you give no quarter to your enemy. But must roundly defeat him so that he never thinks of rising again and threatening you. As I said on Friday. I would start by deporting all clerics, destroying all mosques and banning all Islamic clothing.

          1. There’s something wrong with anyone who believes in a mythical sky person repsonsible for life on Earth.

            The problem is, Christianity went through the Reformation 400 odd years ago and thanks to technology, medicine, education has largely become a nice group of people who hold bake sales for charities.

            Muslim, having not progressed for over a thousand years, having had no technology to advance itself is still a stone age, barbaric religion that cannot exist in civil society.

          2. Ah, the old ‘anyone who disagrees with me is mentally ill’ argument.
            The USSR and CCP would agree with you.

          3. There is no USSR and to your remark earlier concerning Putin, he is no Mussolini, the comparison is false, a product of propaganda. But I thoroughly agree with you about the “mythical sky person”, it is a fiction that no sensible Christian has ever believed in anywhere and at any time.

          4. My analogy with the USSR is true because it used to lock up dissidents in mental hospitals for years, as is the Mussolini analogy who was a fascist with a corrupt and incompetent regime (but not an anti semite or rabid racist) which had to be bailed out by his mate Adolf when his invasions of Egypt and Greece went tits up. Putin hasn’t started locking up dissidents in mental hospitals to my knowledge but is equally proficient as the USSR in shipping them off to gulags in the Arctic Circle where they die of cold and ill treatment by degrees.

          5. First of all I was under the impression that you were doing the American thing of pretending that modern Russia is simply the USSR risen again. I’ll post a video at the end of these remarks which illustrates that nonsense.
            So I take it you are not equating Russia with the Fascist regime of Italy? Putin doe4s ship people off to the prisons in Siberia, but so what, are you aware that in modern Russia there are some pretty sizable towns there. Novosibirsk, Omsk and Chelyabinsk each have a million and a half inhabitants. And at least 9 others have populations over five hundred thousand and up. So being sent to Siberia is not quite the same as it was during the Soviet regime. Have a look on You Tube., type in “Cities in Siberia” or some such phrase. As for Gulags, they no longer exist. There is a lengthy history of the institution on Wikipedia.
            Putin does not send people off to the Gulags but to prison. With regard to political prisoners there are about 600 almost all of them are Ukrainians and in prison due to the war. Prior to that event there were about 40. Which, if you consider the treatment of American political prisoners and our treatment of such people as Julian Assange, is not bad considering the vast size of Russia and the various political difficulties that there are in running a country of that size. The emotionally loaded term “gulags in the Artic Circle” is a propaganda term used by the enemies of Russia for obvious reasons. I refer you to the Siberian cities above which are not exactly warm and cozy places outside of the Artic Circle.

            Here is Cumo speaking complete rubbish about Russia. In fact Putin’s account of Russian history was 100% accurate and nothing to do with the KGB.
            Candace Owens & Chris Cuomo Have Heated Debate Over Putin
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAAjuKPRUpA

    2. They’ve been ripping down hundreds of Christian churches ever since Xi came to power.
      I’m not sure there’s anything to admire in the CCP unless you approve of the genocides of the Tibetans and Uighurs?

    3. Oddly, Poppie, I find this problematic because this is in ‘Chinese Turkistan’ not China proper. It is yet another attempt on the part of the Han to crush a minorities resistance against the Communist regime. It is just the same as their attempts to crush Buddhism in Tibet because to crush that is to crush Tibet. And it is no different to the thousands of Chinese Christians being persecuted, killed and imprisoned while their churches are also being destroyed.

      1. I wonder if we’ll see a modern day OBL take the fight to China and fly aeroplanes into Beijing skyscrapers.

        Course not. Only white Western countries are allowed to be criticised.

      2. The CCP is a new Nazi state – totalitarian state fascism, socialism with added racial supremacism and willingness to commit genocide.. Adolf would endorse it.
        The parallels between Putin and Mussolini are very striking too, just as is the relationship between the Axis powers and the alliance between the CCP and Russia today. Who says that history is not cyclcal in many ways.

  50. The opposite of eulogy is dyslogy – dys meaning “bad, ill; hard, difficult; abnormal, imperfect, Does that fit the bill?

  51. Me too. Just before it all started I watched the Oliver Stone documentary ‘Ukraine on fire’. My only question then of Putin was ‘what kept you?’ Later I found the answer to that too. (Apparently Russo-Ukrainians were asking that at the roadside as the troops rolled by.)

    2. I haven’t seen that documentary. I’ll have look on You Tube. But if you have a suggestion?

      1. I think it can be found only on Youtube now. I also found another documentary (French) on the troubles in Ukraine; they both brought to life Laurie Lee’s words regarding the Spanish civil war in ‘A moment of war’ on the utter banality amidst the despair. The ‘Ukraine on Fire’ documentary was recorded in 2016. Apologies for my late reply, I have been out all day.

        1. Hi Poppie. I found it on You Tube and have bookmarked it, Will probably watch it later on today. Thanks for making me aware of it.

    1. You have been reported to the police – the only black things on there are the London taxis. You will be lucky if you get less than ten years for that!!!!

      2. For decades I have wondered that very same thing about those dog-owners who routinely permit their mutts to lick their faces!

        2. Especially because the evolutionary reason why those mutts lick the sides of the owners’ faces is in the hope that the lickee will vomit up some food for them.

          edit for spelling

        3. Especially because the evolutionary reason why those mutts lick the sides of the owners’ faces is in the hope that the lickee will vomit up some food for them.

          edit for spelling

        4. None of mine has ever been permitted to do that. It’s in the same category as not sitting on the furniture.

    2. Not as far as we were concerned Grizz.
      Our lovely lady was jet black. And could swim like a fish.

    3. I’m a natural blond. Not sure about Dolly. I think she bleaches it when i’m not looking.

  59. No one deserves to be raped.

    By the same token, no man deserves to be a victim of a false and malicious accusation of rape.

    The penalties for both should be equally severe.

    1. But the penalty for convicted rapists should be castration – violently – and then flogging to the point the offender’s mind breaks. For these savages that won’t be long.

    2. Agreed.
      But were the accusations false and malicious?
      Given the subsequent case, I think it merits looking into.

  61. Especially meeting and greeting.
    As much as we loved our dog that never happened. Nor did she go up stairs.

  62. 384519+ up ticks,

    Under plus under plus under the understatement of the year so far,

    ny Coburn 🗣 reposted
    Klaus Arminius
    @Klaus_Arminius
    ·
    Mar 7
    UK: Black officer hired as part of drive to increase diversity is found guilty of multiple rapes, including three against a child, and kidnap

    Officers name is Cliff Mitchell.

    London Met Police admitted to lowering vetting process for black, brown and muslim applicants for DE&I

    https://x.com/Klaus_Arminius/status/1765783887022821413?s=20

    1. Words fail me .

      Another empowered black, whose habits are those of any primitive .. and what sort of filth has he spread to the innocent ?

      1. 384519+ up ticks,

        Afternoon OLT,
        Many more cases and it will be taken as “the norm” as currently, many more odious issue are.

    4. I like to think that if I were black, brown or Muslim, I’d be somewhat affronted at being treated this way. It’s infantilising and demeaning. Even if you were recruited on merit, the suspicion would linger that your appointment was tokenistic.

      1. 384519+ up ticks,

        Afternoon DW,
        Agreed it could and maybe would very well be taken as such.

        The real danger is. with these foreign types if of the same caste would one
        “innocent” point the finger at one suspect guilty party ?

      2. Same applies, I would have thought, to women appointed to fill quotas. They would think they didn’t get the job on merit.

      3. There are some who don’t really care how they get an advantage, as long as they get an advantage.

  64. Just taken my loaf out of the oven. Disappointing – resembles a brick. For some reason, my loaves don’t rise properly. Use good yeast; very good flour…it’s beyond me.

    Any tips? (And please don’t suggest a bread-maker)…

    3. I love fullkorn bread. something like pumpernickel. Gives some substance to what you’re eating.
      Seems like you have the knack, Bill!

    4. Heat (any excessive heat) kills yeast. I mix my flour, yeast and salt with cold water the day before I bake it. I then let it rise, slowly, overnight in the fridge. This prolonged slow autolyse between the flour and water is the major factor in giving the bread more flavour. Sugar is completely unnecessary since the yeast feeds off the natural sugars present in the flour.

      The next day I move the overnight dough to a warmer environment (a warm kitchen or even an oven heated to 30ºC) to finish its initial rise. After that I knock it back, permit it to prove until double in size (in its tin if a standard loaf is what is desired), then bake as normal.

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1597b59448ba0972d140c8ced402467a6d6604cfe80850c72f710372f9f8b75.jpg Here is a large cob that I baked, using the overnight method, from the high-quality flour bought from Mike Thurlow at Leatheringsett Mill, just outside Holt. Its flavour is unbeatable.

        Sadly Mike and his wife, Marion, have now passed away but their daughter, Michelle, still runs the mill. Their spelt flour, in particular, has an exceptionally delicious flavour.

        1. I tried making a loaf with a fresh flower – then I realised it wasn’t spelt that way. 🤔😉

          P.S. I really have been through the mill!🙂

          1. Never use cornflower when the recipe calls for cornflour. When you fart, the air will be blue.

          2. One of my fellow students bent over backwards to light his farts in the group flamethrower contest but there was no match for him.

        3. I made scones with spelt flour. Lovely flavour, but I think next time I will use white strong flour with it for the gluten as they tended to crumble.
          What say you, Master Baker?

          1. I’ve made teacakes with spelt and that works a treat.

            I think both spelt and bread flour are far too strong and glutenous for scones, which are more of a cake and, therefore, need a softer flour.

        4. Ooooh I wonder if I will be able to upload a photo of my loaf? I am not hopeful as I couldn’t upload my book weights🙁 and so there is no proof for the judges.

        1. Tepid would be better.
          You know supermarkets that bake their own will give you fresh yeast for free if you ask nicely.

        2. No you don’t! Hot water kills yeast. And therein lies your problem. Also you do not “dissolve” dried yeast, you reconstitute it. Fresh yeast also gives you a better flavoured loaf.

          Follow my technique (used by countless professional cooks and bakers) and let me know your result.

          1. As she is working 15 hours a day – she has no time for fripperies.

            My loaf has a gorgeous flavour and texture. Just won’t rise.

          3. Then don’t try to make sandwiches or toast with it. Eat with a lump of cheese. Or with soup.

    7. Have you tried using “Bread Improver”?

      What is bread improver made of?

      The main ingredient in bread improver is yeast. It usually also contains emulsifiers, which help to make the loaf soft
      and fluffy. It may also contain an enzyme which can improve the texture of the bread as well as help it to last longer, or asorbic acid (vitamin C), which can help the dough to rise

    9. Try a new pack of yeast. Do you add any sugar to the brew, that normally helps the dough rise.

      Failing that ask Phizzee or is there a bakers shop near you!

    10. If using one sachet of dried yeast try adding about a fifth of the contents of another sachet. QED….

  65. HMS Asphodel (K 56).
    Corvette (Flower).
    .
    Complement:
    97 officers and men (92 dead and 5 survivors).

    At 01.54 hours on 10th March 1944, U-575 (Wolfgang Boehmer) attacked convoy SL-150, which was combined with convoy MKS-41 and sank HMS Asphodel (K 56) (Lt M.A. Halliday, RNZNR) with a Gnat west-northwest of Cape Finisterre. The commander, four officers and 87 ratings were lost. Only five survivors were picked up by HMS Clover (K 134) (Lt T.E. Fanshawe, RNR). After the attack the U-boat was hunted by escorts for 18 hours but managed to escape.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-575 was sunk on 13th March 1944, three days after the above attack in the North Atlantic north of the Azores by depth charges and gunfire from the Canadian frigate HMCS Prince Rupert, the US destroyer USS Hobson, the US destroyer escort USS Haverfield, and by depth charges and rockets from a British Wellington (172 Sqn RAF/B), two British Fortress (206 Sqn RAF/R & 220 Sqn RAF/J) and an Avenger aircraft (VC-95 USN/T-3) of the US escort carrier USS Bogue. 18 dead and 37 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/warships/br/corv_hms_asphodel_k56.jpg

    1. Good to see you Mandevillej. I was hoping to bump into you at the Spectator to give you directions to this place.

  68. 384519+ up ticks,

    The Tories must strike a pact with Reform – or be obliterated
    The upstart party is flying the Thatcherite banner, attracting voters who feel betrayed by years of Tory incompetence

    The brexit party = the reform party = the tory (ino )
    [party Mk 2

    The name change, after the 2019 treachery protecting the guilty. after sending good peoples to the wall.

  69. The Church of England is replacing its Christian nature in a fit of woke frenzy. 10 March 2024.

    The Church of England’s own committee urging it to set aside a billion pounds to atone for slavery is an almost perfect summary of what is wrong with modern Britain. It’s all here, in this one report: historical illiteracy, bureaucratic carelessness with other people’s money, national self-loathing, importation of American culture wars, lack of interest in outcomes.

    Not forgetting of course its leadership. I thought at the time that Cameron promoted Welby to Archbishop of Canterbury for the express purpose of destroying the CofE and have seen no reason to doubt it since.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/09/church-of-england-billion-reparations-slavery/

    1. Well, he has a bit of a fight on his hands, at grass roots level anyway, and for the moment at least.

    2. I think you were spot on. I hate what the CofE has become, but at grass roots level, it remains the Church which baptised, confirmed me, (wisely) declined to ordain me* and has employed me as an organist for all nut one of the last 53 years.

      Our current Rector shares my disdain for Welby. Last year we had a licensing service for two lay pastoral visitors. One was the Rector’s wife. The other, an American lady who was previously active at Holy Trinity Brompton. Among her supporters was one Tim Welby, who is related by marriage. I chatted to him after the service, without knowing who he was, and he seemed fairly normal.

      In my corner of leafy Surrey, woke has yet to take hold. But I guarantee that things will change when the current Rector retires, which will be no later than three years from today. By which time, my employment contract will have ended.

      *Oination probably wasn’t for me, but I’d have had a more positive response from the Diocesan Director of Ordinands had I turned up in a skirt…

      1. Shrewsbury has a woman bishop. ‘Nuff said. Salop also now has an acting woman archdeacon.

  70. After this morning’s Cabinet meeting the Prime minister had issued a statement recognising the fact that the Conservative Government has failed to implement its promises and has let down the electorate and its faithful supporters. He has promised a complete reshuffle and has ordered four new ministries to be instituted with immediate effect: The Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty which will have full control of every aspect of life including work, leisure, gender, relationships and travel. No one will be exempt and any transgression of new laws will be severely dealt with. We have the future of Britain and its people to safeguard.

    A spokesperson/thing for the Labour Party protested vigorously – they are stealing our manifesto What is Lord Starmer going to do now?

    George Orwell named Room 101 after a conference room at Broadcasting House – how prescient of him!

  71. Did I tell you our very ambitious Vicar has just resigned amid recrimination and with great spite because he lost the battle with our PCCs? The fightback continues!

      1. It’s being announced this afternoon at the Mothers’ Day service such is his narcissism and desire for revenge. A great advert for the faith. 🙂

        1. What is he announcing? We had our Mothering Sunday service this morning. All went off perfectly harmoniously with our “new” locum who is here for the third time so clearly likes us, and the “posey” specialist in my flower rota team excelled herself!

          5. It’s the thought that counts 🙂 We’ve always had a tradition that the flower ladies make the posies then the children dish them out after they have been blessed. Our congregation is a bit top-heavy in older people and we don’t have enough children to arrange for them to make the posies during Sunday Club which would be too short. However, today one of the children read the lesson while three of them did the Intercessions, and very well too!

          6. Once a month we have a “family service” where the children read the lesson and do the intercessions. Considering how young they are, they do very well. They have their own crucifix and walk in procession behind the choir.

    2. Are the individual churches actually owned by the CoE or can parishes declare UDI and run things their way?

      1. Legally a very grey area which we have been looking into. The answer so far is that for the vast majority of Medieval churches like ours no one knows because most parishes originate in the Dark Ages. Canon Lawyer advice says they are essentially legal trusts with the PCC acting as Trustees and the CoE cannot get its grubby mitts on them unless they persuade the PCC to dissolve. What happens if the PCC attempt to take the church out of the CoE is unknown because it might be argued that the Trustees are in breach of their founding purpose. It would be very expensive legal conflict. The best way at present is essentially to sustain the PCC’s independence at all costs, not pay the Common Fund (it’s not legally enforceable) and ignore the increasingly deranged dictates of the hierarchy which are again not legally enforceable.
        I would urge anyone concerned about their parish church to become a member, even if not a regular churchgoers, vote at the AGM (called an APCM), bung them a few £ for repairs regularly, and if necessary join the PCC to avoid it becoming Inquorate. so it cannot be wound up. There’s not a lot of work involved other than attending a few meetings, doing the Safeguarding online course, unless you’re a churchwarden or Treasurer.
        And JOIN the Save the Parish campaign. The COE it has been discovered has a secret plan to close and flog off 1000 churches to developers. They will also help themselves to the churches’ bank accounts, money contributed by parishoners. They are utterly disgusting – our PCC loathes them with a passion.

        1. I am VERY interested in the possibility of churches going independent rather than being closed down – please do share any information!
          As for the secret plans for closing churches – they are just theft.

          1. On your latter point you are correct but back in the 1970s they stole all the parish Rectories, cottages, land, church halls etc which are now owned by the Church Commissioners.
            The critical thing is to have a strong PCC that is prepared to tough it out. I’d say first cut off the money – they hate that – and don’t feel obliged to do all the paperwork they ask – just the basic safeguarding. Try to find lay speaker and retired clergy who are sound too who can provide ministry who are unhappy with the hierarchy. WE have a retired Bishop who told us not to believe a word the Diocese says!

          2. Not all the cottages. They tried, but in my parish, we have managed to retain a former Verger’s Cottage (my former home, which is now being rented out on the open market, and contributing to the Parish Share), and School House, connected to the village Primary School. It’s supposed to be for the Head to live in, but again it’s being rented out. Proceeds are split between the Parish and the School.

            But the Diocese is constantly trying to bring both properties under their control.

          5. We allowed a few locals to use our Glebeland as an unofficial allotment. Till the Diocese served a ‘cease and desist’ notice. So it just lies there, overgrown. They’d like to build on it, but vehicular access is pretty much impossible, and we’re in an AONB. So it just sits there, letting the village down. I used to trim the hedges, gratis, until some pikey scrote releived me of my hedge trimmer. Shortly after, I had a letter from Surrey Highways, saying my vegetation was overhanging the footway, and if I didn’t trim it back, they would take me to the Masgistrate’s Court, and if necessasry, carry out the work and charge me.

            My response was that 1) there is no footway in School Hill, as described in your letter, 2) there is a hedge overhanging the footway in Elstead Road, and while I have on occasion trimmed it in the spirit of David Cameron’s “Big Society”, it is on land belonging to the Diocese of Guildford, and not my responsibility.

            Answer came there none…

        3. Our APCM must take place by May. The wrecktorette is refusing to call a PCC meeting to sign off the accounts (presumably because the finances are in such dire straits), but she can’t put it off for ever.

          2. I’ll go to the meeting and the APCM (assuming the PCC meeting isn’t called on the same night as my parish council – the wrecktorette has a habit of changing the regular day for PCC meetings).

  73. This comment contains a hidden pun.
    For further punishment you could obviously read it again!

      1. Your rhetorical question has not an ounce of grammar and that weighs heavily on my mind. I’ll pass on that one turday.

      1. My comment was an attempt at irony,
        You really have to steel yourself to appreciate it.
        I would really have to grit my teeth to suffer detention.

  74. In theory Ramadamned should start very soon.
    I wonder when and where the first atrocity will be celebrated this year.

    1. For this coming month I must check the religious beliefs of surgeons and bus and train drivers.

      1. And I will have to kick my heels at home for an hour or so, in order to go jogging when the dog walkers are already out (roaming young men mooching around at dawn)

  75. Good Afternoon.
    And a Happy Mothering Sunday to me.
    It’s a wonder I’m not a widow. Or, to put it another way, MB is lucky to still be alive.
    Today I decided to make a chocolate Swiss roll as demonstrated by cheffy son.
    1. New method.
    2. New thermostat in the oven.
    Which means I had to pore over St. Mary of Berry’s recipe and judge how many adaptations I had to make; as it happened I discovered that I had to unadapt the recipe that I had created to cope with a thermostat whose temperatures varied from the surface of Venus to the further reaches of Pluto.
    Concentration was needed.
    As I reached the critical stage where timing was a priority, MB decided he wanted to hang a picture. He couldn’t find the hooks etc…. I crisply told him where they were. He couldn’t see them. I stomped off and showed him. There then could have been a prolonged argument as to whether I said “cupboard” or “chest”.
    You’ll be glad to know I rose above the temptation.
    There is now a chocolate Swiss roll residing in the fridge ready to be transported to elder son’s house tonight for a meal.

    On a more positive note: MB is still alive and the chocolate ganache worked like a dream and did not split.

    Plus younger son had a flash of insight when he chose this card.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6875de5b0ca6140539852db7ca4a9ec146cc382622ae94a3c957a0c161797cdb.png

    1. I wish I had not given up sweet things for Lent as otherwise I could have accepted your invitation to help you eat it.

    3. Well done on the Swiss Roll. Glad hubby is still alive. They always do it don’t they when you are in the middle of something!

      I’m surprised you didn’t turn the roll into Colin the Caterpillar!

      If you happen to like chestnut puree (filling of choice) this recipe is much simpler than trying to roll a sponge without cracking it…https://norecipes.com/mont-blanc-chestnut-cream-cake/

  76. Any that are not 100% perfect but say just 99.5% I will help you dispose of – I’ll send you my address for delivery.

    1. Less than perfect Swiss rolls can be covered in Italian Meringue to disguise the fault lines. You dipped out matey. :@)

    1. What he needs is a new constitutional convention with appointed ‘experts’ to think it through, and then propose a new treaty at EU level to address the ‘injustice’ perpetuated by his ignorant voters.
      After all, it worked before.

    3. Usually the story goes “we did not explain fully enough for the public to understand “ or something like it.

  78. Or after a couple of years more propaganda force through another corrective referendum. See the Lisbon Treaty for an example.

    1. It helps if you replace a chunk of the electorate in that time as well, perhaps with votes for 10 year olds….

    2. Exactly. When the furore dies down the Irish will be told to vote again.
      It worked in 2009.

      1. The Irish could always set fire to the tea shop. They’ve been getting a bit of practise in.

  80. As the Oscars menu is unlikely to be written in British English, chips will be either potato chips (crisps) or french fries (chips).

    1. Campbell crashed the boat on Coniston Water in 1967. It was recovered in 2001, 34 years later.

  82. Good day everyone!

    Update for the curious: mission accomplished. Perfectly credible singing despite having a cold, a heartwarmingly attentive audience, and I even managed to make ’em laugh a few times when talking between numbers in the local versiion of Spanish. (I do like it when that works!).

    The slinky dress didn’t hurt, but my feet definitely did after literally dancing until dawn.

    Some very beautiful messages in my inbox this morning; I am happy to have been part of this.

    2. The only time I dance at dawn is a cross legged polka if the boss gets to the bathroom first and I have to wait..

      I agree with uncle Bill that pictures would be nice.

          1. Someone I know used to open the drawer of a chest of drawers and use that – particularly if he’d had a lot to drink!

          2. Goats are much more than Presidents. Milk..cheese..curry..coats and shoes.. Much more than a socialist can provide. Perhaps Caesar was right about that horse.

  85. The church where I was not baptised (because my mother told me they couldn’t decide on a date) but was the one we attended, and where I was married (first time) and my elder son was baptised and my grandmother buried and also my mother’s ashes………is now closed as redundant.

    1. That’s sad, Jules. The church where my sister and I were baptised was where my parents married, my aunt and uncle also, my sister and BiL and both of their sons were baptised there. We married in the same town, different church where I was confirmed, and our daughters were baptised.

      1. Mine was within walk distance of our home. Not many people had cars late 40s.
        St Paul’s Mill Hill NW7. Opposite Mill Hill school.
        Parents married at the same church where my elder sister was married. St Mary’s Hendon. NW4.

        1. It seems so secure. The thought of either church becoming redundant is heartbreaking.

          1. I’m jealous – I can’t come with anything like that, as I don’t really come from anywhere.

          2. The saddest thing is when Anne died last month, she was the last of our Dads side of the family. Now there is no one to whom we can ask those questions, that we should have asked years ago.

          3. #my problem too. Mother is away with the fairies, so can’t ask her, either.

        1. Very interesting. Shocking that the CofE, with its vast wealth, can’t keep these wonderful buildings in a decent state.

      4. I was baptised in Brockmoor, but confirmed in Holy Trinity Kingswinford. That was supposed to have fallen down (the area is riddled with mine workings) so a new Holy Trinity was built. That was struck by lightning and the old one was still going!

          2. I better not mention the squirty cream and maraschino cherries then for pudding. Damn !

    3. I imagine the lady has brought a ginormous claim for damages for having her life Bruined.

    1. It is said that he is English. I spent 40+ years trying to explain to French chums that refs from Ireland/Scotland/Wales are – in a England match – just as “foreign (and neutral) as a French ref would be in an Wales-Ireland match!

      They were never convinced – mainly, I think, because the home country refs all spoke English…and were, automatically, biased in favour of a home country!!

        1. You know that; I know that. But try making a Frenchman understand! Especially when he is your co-potagiste and best mate!

  91. Cross words here about some obstuxtion on a French bod by the Wales #3 prior to Wales’s try just now. Any thoughts?

  92. Targeting Islamism higher priority than redefining extremism. 10 March 2024.

    Targeting Islamism should be more of a priority for Michael Gove than redefining extremism, Michael Portillo has said.

    The former defence secretary said Mr Gove’s plans for a new definition of extremism would be “counterproductive” as it was likely to be misused by government agencies to crackdown on the wrong people.

    Speaking on GB News, he cited how the previous definition of extremism in the counter-terrorism Prevent programme had led to government bodies focusing in a “perverse” way on Right-wing ideology rather than tackling the major threat posed by Islamist extremism.

    It is pretty certain that any new definition of Extremism will target the mythical far-Right. Since they are non-existent they cannot protest. Islam on the other hand are all too present and the Government is terrified of them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/10/michael-portillo-islamism-extremism-priority-michael-gove/v

    2. Islamism has an absolutist belief in its own cultural supremacy, in family and community hierarchy with male dominance and female subservience. It tolerates no opposing view. That sounds as if it should qualify as ‘far right’.

      1. What’s the definition of “Left” and “Right”?
        Surely, left is collective, right is therefore individual. So, your description, including coercion, is more Far Left than Right.

  93. You could try reducing the amount of salt as according to Paul Hollywood… salt kills the rise!

    1. Well done!
      Wordle 995 6/6

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  96. ‘Michael Gove will outlaw individuals and groups who ‘undermine the UK’s system of liberal democracy’ this week, as part of a new expanded definition of extremism.’

    From The Spectator.

    I assume that means he’s going to ban Muslims? I won’t hold my breath!

      2. Gove will need bodyguards now. Not that he realises it but he falls into the privileged white coke snorting category.

    1. It’s meant to be wholemeal but I threw a bit of 8-seed flour in as well.

  98. Oh dear – Wales beaten – and well beaten. How sad. Yer French reminded me of French XVs from way back – Serge Blanco scoring two tries in injury times, for example!

    A thumb for the English ref being able to speak Forrin.

    1. He should speak English. Everyone knows the French only pretend they can’t understand it; they understand it well enough if they are trying to sell you something.

  99. We did some gardening earlier , wow , there is still some life left in the shrubs and plants despite the deluges of late and a soggy garden .

    Bumble bee busy with the nectar in the Mahonia blossom .

    Replenished the bird feeders .. and the sky larks were chorusing high above us as were 3 buzzards calling as they soared in the thermals .. temperature reached 17c for a couple of hours .

    Moh and I visited a garden centre near us and we really felt very warm and overdressed . , we now have some planting to do .

    It was good to cut ourselves off from politics although Moh listened to some football on the car radio as we motored along some very muddy roads , avoiding potholes and lots of stuff from tractor wheels .

    Early lambs are growing , and the fields here support many flocks , it is sheep territory .

    Damnation to the Ramadan worshippers , our Dorset lambs will be victims to a certain cruel death , and / or farmers will find that many young sheep will be stolen , happens every year .

    So be it.

  101. Moscow student jailed for naming WiFi network with pro-Ukraine slogan. 10 March 2024.

    The court found 22-year-old Oleg Tarasov, a student at the prestigious Moscow State University, guilty of “public demonstration of Nazi symbols … or symbols of extremist organisations” and sentenced him to 10 days in jail.

    Wimps! The UK sent a guy to gaol for two years for putting up posters!

    PS. No comments allowed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/10/moscow-student-jailed-naming-wifi-pro-ukraine-slogan/

  102. A gripping Birdie Three!

    Wordle 995 3/6
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    1. Bit dodgy here.
      Wordle 995 5/6

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    2. Well done. I got there.

      Wordle 995 5/6

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  103. By the by – it was good to see the Welsh take a tap penalty. FAR too few of those these days.

    1. Hello, Bill. I supported your prediction yesterday concerning the England/Ireland game and boy oh boy, did we get it wrong. It was a good game to watch and England were a changed side.

    1. So – thanks to the Caliph – miles of dedicated tracks where you can ride your stolen bike.

    2. We had a few main roads that escaped the new 20 mph – Kingston Hill, the South a circular. But that has all changed this weekend as new 20 mph signs have replaced the 30 mph ones. Barstewards.

  105. The daffs are doing really well this year even though they have taken a kicking from the rain. The last of the crocuses are just about to start going over, and Lord alone knows where that hyacinth came from:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/501a949bf6ddb7c7d6c17b2cc18c29cb8d5ef38f9a992176e9dc49d4344613c8.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7bc53ff735c4087618dc219a59e9eb8afd726e74143f4e5cb01e27a1bb6369e6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ed164a4d2bd52b9b717c0b942a36938399ca6c1a6c69bd63c5373785e88fd81.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc6212afe00ac0d56aca9279533d2064fa8bcf218426ac217f171593e3bdd041.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63fb58c370ba49d56a5917737601753fc3232ccfd1ea3d6aa6be31d867559474.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb17cd603c36d070f67a20b3e2a115cb45f2f578331cb194f23f16c74d9e67b2.jpg

    1. When of all thy mortal goods though art bereft,
      And to thee alone two loaves are left,
      Sell one and with the dole.
      Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

      Anon.

    2. Out of the couple of dozen plants I have I’ve only 3 out in full blossom. The rest are still in bud.

    5. My snowdrops are still at their peak, as are my winter aconites. The crocuses are just starting to emerge but it will be some weeks before we see the first daffs.

      Still very chilly here in southern Sweden.

      1. Chilly in south Norway too, Grizz.
        Still too much snow on the ground to have spring flowers.

    6. If your hyacinth is anything like mine, it will have come from a bulb 🙂 My Jetfire (daffs) have just come out.

    2. Far more interesting than anything you’d find on the BBC.
      Hopes he comes to our church which is older, has an excellent organ and has more interesting architectural features.
      Just needs a curse. 🙂

    3. Hi Bob. Just watched that, having subscribed to his channel for a couple of months. An unassuming instrument: unusually, it’s never been surveyed for the National Pipe Organ Register. It looks much worse than it sounds…

    1. Oh that’s hilarious. I feel so sorry for the ones who finally make it but fall at the last hurdle because there’s no room on the table. Brillliant!

  109. That’s me for this gloomy day – brightened only by France disposing of Wales very satisfactorily (sorry, Stormie!!) Did an hour in the garden filling in the deep holes left after the trees were felled in February. Amazing just how MUCH soil you need to fill what looks like a small hole!

    Have a spiffing evening. As it is Sunday,the MR is “Lent free” – so we’ll be having a glass very shortly. Then back to the abstinence until next Sunday.

    I may risk a bonfire tomorrow if the wind doesn’t go round to the south.

    A demain.

    1. How do you manage your estate so well at your age and then go for a bike ride or walk? Come on..Don’t keep secrets !
      You’ve had help haven’t you…..Probably something to do with Norfolk satanic sacrifice of a virgin i expect…..Shame their aren’t two of them.

      1. A much younger wife – that’s the secret (though – hush! – she’ll be 70 next month. Hence Malta)

        1. Please take photos while you are there. I adore Malta. You remember those apartments around qui si sana? I have access to all the vidcams. When you buy an ice cream i will post it on Nottle. Ha ! The CCP have nothing on me !!!

    2. How do you manage your estate so well at your age and then go for a bike ride or walk? Come on..Don’t keep secrets !
      You’ve had help haven’t you…..Probably something to do with Norfolk satanic sacrifice of a virgin i expect…..Shame their aren’t two of them.

    3. Oh bum. I’m working this arvo til 10pm so have recorded the match. Just taking a break and thought I’s see what’s going on.

      My first post was going to be to ask if there were any references to the Wales game !

      🙁 Spoonus woodicus looming

      1. But at least there was one of the rarest of the rare (these days) a tap penalty which VERY NEARLY worked well.

  110. A 58 year-old lecturer at UCL, has been banned from teaching a “provocative” course involving China to protect its commercial interests. The Telegraph has more.

    Michelle Shipworth, an associate professor at University College London (UCL), told the Telegraph she had “no choice” but to blow the whistle in order to “expose” how British universities were “conceding to the censorship demands of some Chinese students”.

    Ms Shipworth, 58, was also accused of being anti-Chinese after she caught out two students from China who were cheating and they were subsequently expelled. One had used a body double in an attempt to hoodwink her during a supervision.

    Her head of department at UCL told her he was taking action because “in order to be commercially viable”, the university’s courses “need to retain a good reputation amongst future Chinese applicants”.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/09/ucl-penalises-lecturer-for-asking-students-why-there-are-so-many-slaves-in-china/#comments

    4. Close the universities that kowtow to China. We don’t need that kind of trade with China.

      1. There was a story in today’s Terriblegraph about Chinese organ harvesters being involved with UK universities.

        Birthright, mess of pottage etc

      2. Watch the research technical and engineering departments – there are a lot of spies, too…

  111. Climate Change Committee’s Net Zero Plan Involves Pumping Compressed CO2 With Energy of 500 Hiroshima Bombs into the Ground Every Year. Are They Mad?

    The CCC should be individually taken out and put in stocks, for a couple of months. They are not just incompetent – they are bordering on insanity:

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/03/09/climate-change-committees-net-zero-plan-involves-pumping-compressed-co2-with-energy-of-500-hiroshima-bombs-into-ground-every-year-are-they-mad/

    1. Green Bribes and Green Laws >> Soros and Blair >> Huge Payoffs All Round >>

      Unfortunately few people know the awful story behind the UK’s climate laws and the corruption between senior politicians and George Soros who was the motivating force for the legislation leading to today’s energy disaster.

      Tony Blair met with George Soros for private talks at the New York Plaza Hotel on April 10 1996 and later sold to Soros and his consortium extremely valuable British state assets in cut price sweetheart deals in 2000 and 2003 and provided the laws and policies Soros desired. Including the Climate Change Act 2008.

      New Labor Environment Minister 2006-2007 David Miliband was the architect of the Climate Change Act 2008 which Soros wanted and David Miliband was subsequently awarded the highly lucrative CEO position in a New York charity supported with “hefty donations” by Soros. Tony Blair received many years of consultancy work from Soros worth at least $25 million. David Cameron who supported the Climate Change Act and whose Conservative Party mainly voted for it, subsequently received a directorship of a Soros financed organization. The first chairman of the Climate Change Committee, Soros’ sidekick Lord Adair Turner, was later chairman of Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking and subsequently was appointed chairman of the Energy Transition Commission. Steven Fries, who is a current member of the Climate Change Committee, is a senior fellow of Soros’ Institute for New Economic Thinking. Piers Forster, current acting chair of the Climate Change Committee, is an ”agenda setter” at the World Economic Forum with George Soros. The CEO of the Climate Change Committee, Christopher Stark, benefits from a gravy train pay grade of $225,000 pa and previously worked for Soros’ close friend and accomplice Gordon Brown who was publicly congratulated by Soros at the G20 in 2009 for saving the world financial system with the words ”this was Gordon Brown’s finest hour”. (Despite the plan coming from Soros who was distracting attention from himself) Christopher Stark has been appointed CEO of Gordon Brown’s Carbon Trust from April 30 2024. Other members of the Climate Change Committee also have Soros connections.

      George Soros, through his foundation Open Society, went on to part finance the Conservative think tank Bright Blue which recommended Legal Net Zero 2019 to Theresa May who enthusiastically implemented the measure.

      Soon afterwards, Theresa May started a very long series of one hour free to attend $125,000 speeches booked through the same Washington speakers agency favored by Soros’ agent and proxy Tony Blair.

      Shortly after Lord Stern published his report ‘Economics of Climate Change’ in 2006 he travelled around with George Soros giving talks about Oil Wars and Climate Change and demanding $100billion, rising to $500billion, from Western governments to solve problems they’d just invented. Who was to control what happened to that money? None other than George Soros through the IPCC.

      Taking everything together, it’s very easy to see what has been going on here which is certain key individuals such as Tony Blair and David Miliband being on billion dollar green investor George Soros’ payroll.

      No wonder John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Theresa May avoided writing about George Soros in their memoirs despite being very closely connected to him. Obviously because they didn’t want to be found out!

    1. Fake news.
      The ice caps melted in 2014, thirty years after we ran out of oil.

        2. Why don’t polar bears eat penguins?

          Two possible answers – one silly, one sensible.

          1. 1. They prefer Glacier Mint foxes
            2. No Penguins where they live now, because their ancestors ate them all?

    2. The fear is that the Thwaites glacier may separate.
      Whilst sea ice extends more, the underlying concern remains.

        1. As it presently stands it is highly probable.

          Whether the projected result is as catastrophic as is suggested is a different issue.
          I hope the projections are wrong.

          Unless, of course, it wipes all those climate change maniacs beach front mansions into the sea and them with it.

          1. All their predictions have so far have never happened. I beleive in natural climate change over a very long time, but not this sort of thing so as to frighton the population.

    3. I suspect that the (approximate ?) tonnage of sea ice could be derived/ calculated from the visible acreage of Antarctic sea ice, Johnny?
      What say you?

    1. The water would turn to blood, followed by emerging frogs, lice, flies, and livestock pestilence.
      The parishioners would suffer from boils, hail would destroy crops, locusts would eat what was left, darkness would descend upon the earth and the firstborn children would die.

      I guess, on second thought, that an invitation should not be forthcoming…

    2. You just shut up RIGHT now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with polar bears wanting a sun tan.

  116. SIR – I have read the numerous letters bemoaning the fact that smartphones are now de rigueur. Let’s just face it – like nuclear weapons, these things cannot be uninvented, they are a fact of modern life and must be accepted as such.

    I will be 77 next year and now use my mobile or tablet for nearly everything, from payments, parking, prescriptions, banking and music, to appointments, shopping, booking flights and switching on electrical equipment. It is not hard – though it can be frustrating at times – and is certainly not impossible.

    Remote access is also ensured, so for offspring to cite the unfairness of this technology to the elderly is a bit rich as they could, if so motivated, perform the tasks for their elders. So stop moaning and catch up.

    Andrew McLeod
    Witney, Oxfordshire

    I hope that smug blighter loses his blinking phone .

  119. An interesting obit , and we still have a few old cricket bats in the garage somewhere .

    Duncan Fearnley, who has died aged 83, was a journeyman cricketer for Worcestershire in the 1960s who made his fortune as a maker of cricket bats that were marketed globally under his name.

    The Duncan Fearnley brand, with its familiar black logo of three stumps tapering to a point at the bottom, was pre-eminent in the 1970s and 1980s, when it could be seen in almost every cricketing setting from the humble village green and school sports locker to the grandest of Test arenas.

    The list of players with Fearnley bats read like a roll call of the greats of the era, and included Ian Botham, Viv Richards, Clive Lloyd, Sunil Gavaskar, Graham Gooch, Allan Border and Martin Crowe.

    Prior to the 1970s, most bat makers had been content to stamp their name in ink somewhere on the splice of a bat. Fearnley changed all that by making the most of the advertising space available to him, and by harnessing the selling power of the cricketers who used his equipment.

    His strength was not just in marketing, however. Players at all levels liked the fine, hand-finished quality of his bats, and the fact that Fearnley was innovative.

    His company introduced the first bat with a polyplastic coating, the Polyflex Plus, and found that by drying the wood a little more than usual it could produce bulkier weapons, including the Magnum, with a larger sweet spot – ushering in a new era of heavier “railway sleeper” bats. They also designed a bat with a thicker inside than outside edge, as well as batting gloves with double-finger protection.

    Charles Duncan Fearnley was born on April 12 1940 at Pudsey, Yorkshire, where he was such a promising cricketing talent that he was playing for Farsley in the Bradford League by the age of 15. A left-handed opening bat, he set his mind on becoming a professional with Yorkshire, but knew that even if he did so he must find a way of earning money outside the summer months.

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    Coming from a family of woodworkers, he took on an apprenticeship with a small bat-making firm, and in the winters began to manufacture some of his own bats, initially stamped with the name “Tudor Rose” and then “Fearnley of Farsley”.

    Although he played regularly for Yorkshire second XI, the dream of appearing for the first team failed to materialise, and in 1960, aged 20, he signed instead for Worcestershire, making his first-class debut as a professional two years later.

    When Worcestershire won their first ever county championship in 1964, Fearnley appeared in 22 games across the season. But the following year, as they successfully defended their title, he was picked only three times. Unable to properly establish himself in the side thereafter, he was released from his contract in 1968, having made 97 appearances over seven seasons.

    For the next three years Fearnley played minor counties cricket with Lincolnshire and as a professional for the West Bromwich Dartmouth club in the Birmingham and District League. Having a young family to provide for, he was now more than ever in need of a reliable alternative income, and it was during this period that he began to concentrate more fully on his bat-making.

    With a small team of loyal helpers, he opened a workshop in Worcester in 1968. Not long afterwards he met the England fast bowler John Snow at a party, where he showed him his new black stumps logo. Enthused, Snow offered to stick one on his bat.

    “The next time he walked out in a Test match he slung his bat over his shoulder so that everyone could see the design,” said Fearnley. “It was a brilliant feeling. After that my wife cut out the first 4,000 logos by hand and I stuck them on everything.”

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    Inspired by Snow’s endorsement, Fearnley began to enrol the support of other cricketers, including, in the early days, Basil D’Oliveira, Dennis Amiss, Gooch and Gavaskar. With great foresight he also signed up a young Botham, who agreed to use his bats for £150 a year.

    Not long afterwards, Botham began to play for England, and after his heroics in the 1981 Ashes series sales went through the roof.

    Fearnley had made his fortune by the mid-1980s; his high profile helped him to become chairman of Worcestershire in 1986 and a year later to attract Botham to play for the county.

    Fearnley testing a piece of wood in his workshop, circa 1971
    Fearnley testing a piece of wood in his workshop, circa 1971 CREDIT: Ken Kelly/Popperfoto via Getty Images/Getty Images
    Across his 12-year reign, Fearnley oversaw a golden period for the club in which it won two county championships, two Sunday league titles, one Benson & Hedges Cup and a NatWest trophy. Later he served as president from 2011 to 2013 before becoming an honorary vice-president.

    Although he became a millionaire on the back of his bat making, Fearnley found that his dominance did not last much beyond the early 1990s, when businesses from the Indian sub-continent began to move in on the market.

    His company had ratcheted up its manufacturing to sell 50,000 bats a year, but he was reluctant to go any further into mass production and chose instead to downsize.

    Market share fell accordingly, and the big-name cricketers were enticed to other brands. But the company survived and is alive in Worcester today, although it now produces only handmade bats on a relatively small scale.

    Fearnley continued to craft bats himself until quite late in life. “There’s still the same buzz when I make one and see it at the end,” he said. “The difference now is that I don’t need to do it anymore. I choose to do it for people who want an individual, top-class bat. That’s the fun for me … just like when it first started.”

    He is survived by his wife, Mary, and their son and daughter.

    Duncan Fearnley, born April 12 1940, died March 8 2024

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/03/10/duncan-fearnley-cricket-bats-worcestershire-woodwork/

    I think the England team must be using the wrong type of cricket bats now , hence the dismal results this week .

  120. Well I am considerably younger than Mr McLeod, and I see no reason to start using one of those horrible things. I manage perfectly well without it.

    1. For the first time ever, I showed a photo on my phone to prove I had renewed my membership. I couldn’t be bothered to print it out so I took a photo of the screen!

  121. Evening, all and happy Refreshment Sunday (aka Mothering Sunday). Kadi came to church with me this morning (he was so well behaved nobody realised he was there and they wondered for a while why I didn’t go up to receive communion although the priest told me afterwards I should have come and brought him up with me – I’ll know next time). It was, unfortunately, absolutely vile weather for Mothering Sunday – wet, cold, floods (llif because I had to drive through Wales – at 20mph which made me late for a meeting) then an induction and licensing of a new rector and curate (which Kadi didn’t attend although the curate’s dog did). It’s been a busy day.
    Re the headline; I am convinced the TINOs don’t want to save themselves. They want to slope off with their payments for losing their seats and leave Labour to carry the can.

      1. Everybody remarked on what a good boy he was. He has attended concerts in church before, but it was Oscar who went to Mothering Sunday a couple of years ago.

        1. Went for a long (2nd) walk with Oscar and our daughter with her dog and partner in the afternoon. Cotehele to Calstock and back. Had to keep Oscar on the lead as he would have been up in the woods missing for hours. His lead was attached to his harness not his collar. He pulled me for two and a half hours uphill and down dale. He gets far too excited when there’s a family group.

          3. I am lucky inasmuch as Kadi accepts me as his pack leader; he walks behind me (and stops if I’m too slow for him), makes sure I go through doors first and waits to be told to eat. If he’s barking, I now only have to look at him. He’s a good boy.

  122. Who knew this?

    Inside the revolution at ‘incompetent’ Heathrow
    How the UK’s biggest airport seeks to wave goodbye to turbulent times

    Ben Marlow,
    ASSOCIATE EDITOR and
    Luke Barr
    10 March 2024 • 6:00am

    Cash cow’
    Critics accuse successive governments of wrongly allowing this country’s biggest airport to become a cash cow to be milked by overseas shareholders at the expense of much-needed investment. They helped themselves to £4bn of dividends before the pandemic, and even a £106m payment during the downturn.

    Starved of capital and laden with billions of pounds of debt that has helped to finance generous payouts to its owners, for some passengers and airlines Heathrow has become a tired, overcrowded airport more synonymous with delays and queues than world-class travel. Plans for a third runway at Heathrow that would dramatically boost capacity have become a withered symbol of the malaise.

    Staff revolt
    In the coming weeks, hundreds of workers at Heathrow are due to walk out, causing serious disruption to getaways and business trips.

    More than 600 Border Force officers are threatening to hit the picket line over the school holidays, potentially scuppering the Easter holiday plans of tens of thousands of families. Officers have been balloted in a dispute over shift patterns and working conditions.

    Meanwhile, a separate dispute over a proposal to outsource the airport’s security to third-party contractors could lead to yet further damaging strikes that hit the summer schedule. The cost-cutting plans form part of Woldbye’s bid to identify £400m of savings.

    Union chiefs at Unite, who are spearheading the revolt, have criticised the airport for “choosing to attack workers out of sheer greed”.

    “The only ones to benefit will be Heathrow’s already immensely wealthy owners”, Unite told The Telegraph last month.

    Woldbye insists that there is a pressing need to plug a funding gap caused by a reduction in the charges it can impose on the airlines that fly in and out of Heathrow multiple times a day. Management can ill afford yet another bout of bad publicity if they are to restore Heathrow’s reputation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/10/heathrow-airport-uk-decline-economy/

  124. Things can only get bitter!

    “Labour has hired the former Bank of England governor Mark Carney and the boss of Barclays to help unlock billions of pounds in private investment after it was forced to abandon its £28bn green spending pledge.

    Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has appointed some of Britain’s most senior business leaders for advice on raising private investment through its proposed National Wealth Fund.

    Ms Reeves has been forced to find new ways of paying for Labour’s spending promises after Jeremy Hunt used his Budget last week to scrap the non-dom tax regime – a key Labour pledge – and put the money towards cutting national insurance……..”

  125. Targeting Islamism should be more of a priority for Michael Gove than redefining extremism, Michael Portillo has said.

    The former defence secretary said Mr Gove’s plans for a new definition of extremism would be “counterproductive” as it was likely to be misused by government agencies to crackdown on the wrong people.

    Speaking on GB News, he cited how the previous definition of extremism in the counter-terrorism Prevent programme had led to government bodies focusing in a “perverse” way on Right-wing ideology rather than tackling the major threat posed by Islamist extremism.

    Instead, he said the Communities Secretary should be seeking to define simpler ideologies such as Islamism to focus government agencies on tackling the extremist threat from the ideology.

    “I have a feeling that if he defines that word it is going to lead to more counterproductive activity. What he needs to get hold are the organs of state that are behaving in a perverse way,” he said.

    1. “The former defence secretary said Mr Gove’s plans for a new definition of extremism would be “counterproductive” as it was likely to be misused by government agencies to crackdown on the wrong people.”

      Why the hell does Portillo think they want the new definition?

    3. Let me see – what ideology from its inception has publicly stated that its aim is world domination, by violence if necessary. Can someone help me out?

    1. I am reminded of David Deutch pointing out the success of a culture and society is based on its ability to honestly criticise itself.

  130. Good evening tout le monde! I have just returned from a most enjoyable day at the rugby in Cardiff. Splendifferous, even if the frogs did win (they deserved to win) and so good natured throughout. The game itself was very exciting during the first half – and I joined in with both the Marseillaise (except that weird bit) and the Mae Hen Gwlad Welsh National job. i do wish that Wales had won, but they just, as usual, could not defend and there were various butterfingers moments that really should not have happened.

    The two Welsh tries scored in the first half were magnificent, and amongst the most exciting sporting events I have ever seen – up there with unexpected horse racing finishes.

    1. Speaking of Mae Hen Gwlad, I think we English should sing it, out of sympathy.

      My hen laid a haddock, one hand oiled a flea.
      Glad farts and centurions threw dogs in the sea.
      I could stew a hare here, and brandish Dan’s flan,
      Don’s ruddy bog’s blocked up with sand.
      Dad! Dad! Why don’t you oil Aunty Glad?
      Do whores appear in beer bottle pies?
      O butter the hens as they fly!

      If only this translation had been available to John Redwood, when Welsh Secretary…

      1. Wales…Wales!
        Bloody great fishes are W(h)ales
        They swim in the sea
        You can eat them for tea
        Oh bloody great fishes are W(h)ales

    2. The Principality Stadium has a fantastic atmosphere, doesn’t it? I haven’t been there for 7 or 8 years. Was the roof open or closed?

    3. Great game O – a very good, young, highly promising Welsh side was ground down by a massive French side who appeared to have a point to prove.
      This Welsh side with so many good young players will be a real force in a couple of years.

  134. Lengthy article , ok https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-visit-venezuela-president-nicolas-maduro-ukraine-russia-war-mt23g5pzk

    Boris Johnson secretly flew to Venezuela last month for unofficial talks with its autocratic leader, Nicolás Maduro, it can be revealed.

    The former prime minister took a private jet from a family holiday in the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean country, to a location outside of Caracas, where he spent less than 24 hours.

    Johnson spoke to Maduro about the war in Ukraine amid concern in western diplomatic and intelligence circles that the oil-rich socialist republic could supply weapons or other military support to Russia, a close ally. Since leaving Downing Street he has championed President Zelensky on the world stage.

    He also discussed the conditions for normalising relations with the UK, which does not accept the legitimacy of Maduro’s administration.

    Sources say these included the holding of free and fair presidential elections this year and the de-escalation of tensions with Guyana, a former British colony whose oil and mineral-rich Essequibo region, covering two thirds of its territory, is claimed by Venezuela. Last month the Royal Navy dispatched a patrol ship to the region, prompting Maduro to lash out at the “act of hostile provocation”.

    The talks are highly unusual given the state of bilateral relations and wider uncertainty about western relations with Venezuela, which has the world’s largest oil reserves and has been a steadfast supporter of President Putin.

    As recently as October, the Biden administration agreed to ease crippling Trump-era oil and gas sanctions in return for democratic reform and the release of political prisoners. The deal has since unravelled, with Maduro banning an opposition leader and arresting several dozen democratic activists.

    President Maduro in 2019 with his wife, Cilia Flores

    Johnson’s office said Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton, the foreign secretary, was aware of the visit. His spokesman added that Johnson spoke to Colin Dick, who is the chargé d’affaires in Caracas — the most senior British diplomat in the country — seeking his reflections on what would be useful to say.

    A Foreign Office source said Johnson notified Cameron of the summit en route, saying: “It was a private visit but Boris texted the foreign secretary on the way.” As it was not an official discussion, permission was neither required nor sought.

    The fact Cameron knew about the trip just before it happened will fuel questions about who proposed and paid for the visit. It will also lead to scrutiny of whether the foreign secretary should have been granted more information in advance.

    Johnson, 59, did not respond to queries about who instigated the talks, or why. Sources said he was acting as a “back channel” for the UK and the West more generally given the dire state of relations with a strategically significant country. They speculated that the genesis of the meeting was probably Johnson’s role championing Zelensky’s government and raising money for Ukraine. His spokesman said his air travel was privately funded and that neither the British nor Venezuelan governments contributed to the cost.

    Those close to the former-PM say he still regards Maduro as a human rights-abusing dictator and that the conversation was “one-way traffic” as he delivered a robust set of messages.

    Useful backchannel?
    The disclosures provide a glimpse into Johnson’s post-premiership career drumming up support for Ukraine, which increasingly appears to have the support of Rishi Sunak — and brings the prime minister the advantage of limiting his predecessor’s engagement in domestic politics.

    Days after returning to the Dominican Republic, Johnson travelled to Kyiv, meeting President Zelensky on the second anniversary of Russia’s full invasion. He recently urged Trump not to abandon Ukraine if he is re-elected, and has been lobbying heads of state in “swing vote” countries in Africa and South America to adopt a similar stance.

    Boris Johnson with President Zelensky on his latest trip to Kyiv, last month

    Johnson’s spokesman said: “Boris Johnson met Venezuelan government officials with active support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the knowledge of the foreign secretary, in order to emphasise the need for Venezuela to embrace a proper democratic process.

    “He repeatedly made clear there can be no hope of normalisation in relations until Venezuela fully embraces democracy and respects the territorial integrity of its neighbours. He also set out the case for the cause of Ukrainian victory to the government of Venezuela.”

    Before the trip, Johnson stayed with his family at the villa of Sam Blyth, a multimillionaire Canadian businessman and distant cousin through his father, Stanley. Blyth became the subject of controversy last year when The Sunday Times revealed that he had guaranteed a loan of up to £800,000 to fund Johnson’s lifestyle in office while he was in contention for a public role at the British Council. The deal led to the resignation of their mutual friend Richard Sharp, who did not declare his role in brokering the arrangement when he applied for the job of BBC chairman.

    Johnson, who faced controversy as foreign secretary for meeting a Russian oligarch without informing officials, rejected any suggestion he was freelancing diplomatically by travelling to Caracas. The local charge d’affairs is said to have communicated to him that the meeting was useful.

    What did Cameron know?
    The suggestion that the foreign secretary was aware of the visit will raise eyebrows in Westminster. Cameron and Johnson have known each other since their schooling at Eton and have had a testy, often competitive relationship, culminating in the 2016 Brexit referendum in which they campaigned for opposing sides. The result — in effect forcing Cameron from office — led to their estrangement.

    The visit also underscores the potential value to Cameron of having a semi-official representative to relay messages to Maduro, 61. Although the UK has an embassy in Caracas, ties have been downgraded, with no permanent ambassador.

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    In May 2018, following elections which were boycotted by the opposition and dismissed as a sham, Johnson warned as foreign secretary: “We may have to tighten the economic screw on Venezuela.”

    In January last year the Foreign Office said: “The UK continues not to accept the legitimacy of the administration put in place by Nicolás Maduro.” It has since thrown its weight behind the international effort for open elections to be held this summer but stopped short of issuing definitive statements on the legitimacy or not of Maduro’s administration.

    The latest flare in relations came in December, when Maduro held a referendum on Essequibo. He had threatened to annex the territory using his army — which numbers 351,000 compared with Guyana’s 4,070 active personnel — and granted licences to Venezuelan companies to explore oil in the area. The move prompted Britain to send HMS Trent to the coast of Guyana, a former colony which is South America’s only English-speaking country and is a member of the Commonwealth.

    Kaiteur Falls in the Essequibo region in Guyana, which is claimed by Venezuela

    At the time, Cameron said Britain would “continue to work with partners in the region to ensure the territorial integrity of Guyana is upheld and prevent escalation”. Yván Gil, Venezuela’s foreign minister, said in response: “The former invading and enslaving empire, which illegally occupied the territory of [Essequibo] and acted in an skilful and sneaky manner against the interests of Venezuela, insists on intervening in a territorial controversy that they themselves generated.”

    Extrajudicial killings and backing for Putin
    Maduro has repeatedly expressed support for Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, blaming the war on Nato. Last month Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign minister, visited Venezuela, where he vowed to expand “co-operation in oil production, gas field development, agriculture, medicine and pharmaceuticals”. He visited the previous year, urging Caracas to “join forces” against the “blackmail” of western sanctions.

    A former bus driver and trade union leader, Maduro succeeded Hugo Chávez in 2013 and has survived waves of protest to tighten his grip on power. He is thought to have presided over the extrajudicial killing of more than 20,000 people and humanitarian and political crises which have prompted more than seven million people to flee.

    Johnson has been an outspoken critic of the regime. In his first prime minister’s questions in office in 2019, he said it was “Caracas” — a wordplay on “crackers” — that the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, regarded Venezuela as an ally. He made a similar jibe as foreign secretary in 2017, telling the Conservative Party conference: “He says he still admires Bolivarian revolutionary socialism. I say he’s Caracas.”

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    In one of his first moves as London mayor, in 2008, Johnson scrapped a controversial deal negotiated by his predecessor, Ken Livingstone, in which Chávez’s Venezuela provided cut-price diesel for the London bus network. He described the accord as “completely Caracas”.

    As president Hugo Chávez was Ken Livingstone’s guest at a 2006 rally in Camden

    MICHAEL CRABTREE
    However, a source close to Johnson said he was one of the few foreign secretaries to have toured Latin America extensively and that he had a surprising number of positive relationships with leaders on the continent. They added that Foreign Office diplomats had said they regarded his meeting with Maduro as helpful.

    Johnson is not the only former prime minister to have direct ties with foreign leaders. Tony Blair advises Saudi Arabia and Indonesia via his eponymous institute. Shortly prior to his appointment as foreign secretary, Cameron met the Sri Lankan prime minister and lobbied for a sensitive infrastructure project. Liz Truss recently met Trump ally Steve Bannon in Washington DC.

    However, it is unusual to have direct contact with a foreign government whose legitimacy is disputed by the UK and with which relations are highly sensitive.

    Who paid for the trip?

    2. The British taxpayer paid for the trip. Boris Johnson will have been tasked with visiting Venezuela as an envoy by no other than David Cameron.

      Boris Johnson is a whore to the British government and Foreign Secretary. He possibly sees it as a path to re-entry into politics.

      Long established British ethical values and geopolitical interests no longer apply as far as Boris Johnson is concerned.

  136. Very interesting article. You ask who paid for the trip. Maybe he paid for it off his own back. It’s hardly something particularly onerous for a man of his wealth. Otherwise it may have come from the Ukraine or some organization connected with it.
    Thanks for this.

      1. Is there some secret? I think a trip to Venezuela can be managed by even quite modest economies.
        He’s quite rich but it’s hardly surprising.

    2. Johnson’s visit was as an envoy to the British government. Venezuela have consistently sided with Russia in the Ukraine conflict. Venezuela has vast oil resources, the continuing envy of the west.

      This visit by Cameron merely emphasises the complete failure of British and western political policies which have resulted in isolating potentially wealthy countries and uniting them to support Russia.

  137. Well, chums, I will now wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

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