Sunday 10 November: The shift away from human interaction is exacerbating Britain’s productivity problem

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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576 thoughts on “Sunday 10 November: The shift away from human interaction is exacerbating Britain’s productivity problem”

  1. Good Morning Geoff and Nottlers

    Today being Remembrance Sunday, and Monday being Armistice Day (11th day, 11th month), and myself being born during WW2, I will refrain from humour (and smut?) until Tuesday.

    My father was in the RAF and my father-in-law toiled on the Burma Railway. I still have his medals.

    Our once proud country is being run down and over-run, and nobody in power seems to be doing anything about it.

    I hope all of you, and especially those who did not return, will understand. RC.

    1. Did you know my uncle David Thomas, who was the first navigator to be a Squadron Leader? Also his father, my grandfather Hugh Thomas, who was Chaplain to the Forces in Burma during WW2?

    2. 396229+ up ticks,

      Morning RC,
      May I beg to differ on this most solemn / joyous of days , they, all governing political cartel leaders know precisely what they are doing

      They took the path signposted TREASON PLUS
      three plus decades ago highlighted by one "miranda" the most treasonable of our long list of odious PMs, and continued to this day, ongoing.

      The difference, openly seen currently, is when hitting the beach in 39 / 45 looking death in the eye, when currently hitting the beach in an morally illegal fashion means an abundance
      plenty, life inclusive.

    3. My father was in the RAF in WW2.
      His eyesight led him into admin.
      Stationed in Algeria and Egypt later Sardinia, he never really talked about his experiences. But often told me, "Never trust an arab, son".
      I can only imagine his experiences.
      .

      1. My father and mother were in the RN during the war .

        Dad was in the Fleet Air Arm based in Southern India, Ceylon and 2 aircraft carriers in the Indian ocean , mum was a Wren based at air stations in the UK .. WW2

        Moh and I were in the RN, he was a pilot and me a nurse . 1960's /70's for Moh until he flew commercially.

        Grandfather was a despatch rider in WW1, Ypres etc.

        When there is the next crisis, who will put their hands up to create an intervention?

  3. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,240 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,240 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
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  6. Pick of the litter (DT Letters this morning)
    SIR – I have found a way of making children aware of the antisocial habit of littering. Equip them with litter pickers and see how much fun they get from litter picking while walking down the street or in a park. My three grandchildren, aged 11, nine and six, enjoyed doing this at half term, especially when they had words of encouragement from other pedestrians.
    It became quite competitive, but I did draw the line at collecting abandoned dog poo bags.
    Janet McTurk
Margaretting, Essex

    I have such a litter-picker that lives in the hall. When my two little granddaughters visit, it is one of the first things they grab, buzzing around the house and vying to see who can pick up the smallest things. I might get them one each as a fun Christmas present.

    Their other favourite is a pair of walkie-talkies that I bought when my late wife was bed-bound and not too demented to use one to call me from the garden. But I wouldn't inflict one on their parents.

    1. Our grand children have often been playing with our 'litter picker' but it was given to me after i had a hip replacement 16 years ago and still comes in very handy.
      I called it the long arm of the law.
      I could and still can't understand why dog owners walkers don't take the poo bags home or put them in waste bins.
      When we had our lovely black Lab I never once left a bag anywhere except in a bin.

      2. I take Kadi's poo bags to the nearest dog bin. If there isn't one on my walk, I take the bag home and drop it in my bin.

        1. We use to have several dog poo bins in our village and some plonker in the council (as usual) decided to remove them all.

          1. When I went to lay a wreath this morning, I checked up on the poo bins (met some dog owners cleaning up after their dogs and asked). They seemed to think they were adequate.

    1. All of these people should be released regardless of the circumstances. These were political convictions.

    2. All of these people should be released regardless of the circumstances. These were political convictions.

    3. Well that is some good news, on an otherwise gloomy day.

      “Manifestly excessive”, indeed.

      RIP Peter Lynch.

      Hold on the rest of you, and TR. maybe it’s not all over just yet.

  10. Good morning all.
    A tad cooler this morning, 3°C on the Yard Thermometer, but still the same dull and grey November weather.

    1. What with the mad Milliband de-industrialising our economy, and Reeves wrecking our farming, we're

      very surprised that the Government has sufficient income to run the country efficiently.

      1. Terriblegraph reporting a school in Banbury closing, saying it cannot absorb the VAT AND NI increases; and also some cable-making company packing up and moving abroad because of the NI.

        But don’t worry, we get loads of DEI consultants instead, wanting to decolonise everything that moves. Nice work for thems that can get it.

        1. I have to admit that this year, for the first time since I became an adult, I did not buy poppies this year.
          If the RBL can afford to hire diversity directors, then it doesn't need our £20.
          The money will go to a local charity.

          2. The Scottish poppies are impressive.
            I bought one years ago when I was in Edinburgh.
            It still sits in my playroom (held by a toy witch; very MacBethian, now I think about it).

          5. I spoke to a lady living in our local small town and she said that there were no poppies

            on sale there.

            It would appear that the RBL's generous gift to Stonewall has not gone down well.

    2. 396229+up ticks,

      O2O,

      Lest we want to forget on this Sunday as being bloody unbelievable, we are once again at war,
      this time internally with the overseeing governing politico's.

      Inferiority heat / energy producing elements will be linked to an unnecessary rise in deaths among, in the main, the elderly whos options are HEAT or EAT,both options are now as I see politically orchestrated and put beyond their reach.

    3. Morning Ogga.
      It just can't be said and emphasised enough, all of our government's EFF-UP everything single they come into contact with and big time.
      Everything !

      1. 396229+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        By the same token, It just can’t be said and emphasised enough it is orchestrated, tailor made one might say, to suit foreign paymasters

    1. #metoo.

      Nothing but the best for the exalted New Citizens of this late-lamented country.

    2. #metoo.

      Nothing but the best for the exalted New Citizens of this late-lamented country.

    3. A car containing a Pakistani gentleman and his wife turned up outside my cottage (which is down a track serving only me and my neighbour). He spoke nine-to-the-dozen on his mobile, but did not actually deliver a parcel.

      Any idea what he was up to?

    4. We know that the Dutch government wanted to buy out their farmers in order to implement a dystopian mega-city that is supposed to stretch from Lille to Dusseldorf. Wouldn't it be so much better to keep the people penned up in a mega-city on an island….

      Yes, I know this stuff is fantastical. But I didn't dream it up – THEY did.
      https://www.tristatecity.nl/

      The government says that it wants to plant 180 000 hectares (that's 444,789 acres) of new forest in Britain by 2042.
      https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/25-year-environment-plan/25-year-environment-plan-our-targets-at-a-glance

      Between homes for migrants and 444789 acres of new woodland, that's a considerable reduction in the food being produced.

      They have the answer to that too…lab meat and salad towers
      https://interestingengineering.com/science/11-innovations-that-could-build-the-food-of-the-future
      Food controlled in a small number of
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_hubs

      What history teaches us is that central planning of the food supply ALWAYS leads to famine. The time to fight this crap is now, not after they've already driven farmers off the land.

  13. Morning all 🙂😊
    It's a bit early for me, one word weather Grey.
    That should save the MSM ,a bit of money not having to pay the arm waving weather advising actors.
    Cuppa tea time.

  14. SIR – The National Trust membership is quite right to insist that half of the food sold in its outlets is entirely plant-based (report, November 3). Feeding plants to animals to provide food for people is much less efficient than eating plants ourselves. It uses more land, energy and water; it causes more water pollution and it emits more greenhouse gases.

    A major reduction in animal agriculture is a vital part of what needs to be done to tackle climate change, and this decision by the National Trust sets an excellent example to other major caterers, including schools and central and local government.

    Iain Green
    Director, Animal Aid Tonbridge, Kent

    You're a vegan, Green, which means you are mentally confused. This is made vividly clear by your puny suppositions which have no basis in reality. In fact, I could drive an ocean liner through every one of your arguments.

    You continue chomping on weeds and see how your health progressively deteriorates. Your vast prairies of monoculture (and their concomitant necessary chemical pest-and-weed-killing programmes) are what is really polluting the planet. Leave the eating of nutritious and health-giving dead animals to those of us who instinctively know about — and who have conducted extensive scientific research in a quest to understand the reality of — how to achieve proper robust health and necessary nutrition.

    I know my opinions on this topic have many detractors, but those naysayers rely on superstition and apocryphal hearsay for their 'facts'. That is their choice. It is also their choice to have ever-deteriorating poor physical and mental health and then blame it on a myriad of other ridiculous 'causes'.

    I am utterly persuaded that this obsession with eating vegetation is the prime reason why the human species are becoming exponentially more stupid and imbecilic by the second.

    3. Oh heavens above Grizz apologies I also focused on this letter (and another one by the much more sensible Mike) and have just posted above. Still, great minds and all that!

    4. Two of my fellow servers in church had this conversation in the room we use as a vestry one Sunday morning. Dr Jane explained to vegan Patrick why and how his teeth and digestive tract are designed to make him a meat eater. She laid out the hard facts. He’s still vegan. Though no longer a server. He passed out at the alter rail and I do have some sympathy over that. I have IBS, hot flushes and drops in blood pressure that have brought me close to that too. Malnutrition combined with alcohol abuse (his problem) isn’t the only cause.

      1. Sue,

        Have you tried low-carb or keto? I first experimented with Arkins to lose weight, and incidentally realised, after only a few weeks, that the IBS which had plagued me had disappeared.

        K x

    5. In line with the rest of humanity, I don't have the teeth nor digestion to eat a purely plant-based diet, despite the awful gas it gives me when I try. Also, the point you make about monoculture is a good one, Grizz – there's little space for that here in Norway, so eating animals that can eat the meagre vegitation on the hillsides looks like a smart idea to me.
      Plus – animals taste good, padded out a little with sprouts, potatoes, carrots and the like, for added flavour. NOt forgetting a good gravy, of course.

      1. Morning, Paul. I wish the Swedes were more like the Norwegians when it comes to meat. Trying to source lamb here is difficult, Swedes don’t like it! Even more difficult is to find meat that still has lots of fat still on it; most is cut off and thrown away since most people are still brainwashed about its nutritional value.

        1. I was surprised at a local restaurant where they trimmed the fat off the sirloin before cooking it.
          I don't think they even used the fat to cook the meat in the pan.
          The owner justified this by saying i was getting more meat for what i was paying.
          That statement didn't make a lot of sense to me. I no longer order steak there.

        2. 396229+ up ticks,

          Morning G,

          Ogga1 daily menu

          Breakfast,
          four boiled eggs 8 small cubes of butter.
          Lunch,
          Braised steak + small amount
          of tinned spaghetti
          Dinner,
          traditional Sunday dinner with Lamb.

          Monday,
          ( B) Four boiled eggs
          (L) smoked Haddock, egg.
          (D) Chicken curry
          .
          Tues,
          ( B) 4 boiled eggs,
          (L) Cold lamb, Bransto /
          (D) Cottage pie.

          Wen.
          (B) 4 Boiled eggs
          (L) Braised beef
          ( D) Lamb fillet, small portion potato / chips.

          T,hurs,
          (B) 4 boiled eggs
          ( L) lamb rib soup
          (D) open to fancy.

          Fri,
          (B) 4 boiled eggs,
          (L) fish,
          (D) fish.

          And so it goes, in the main plenty plenty of eggs, braining steak and yellow / white haddock plus peeled prawns.

          1. Afternoon, Oggy.

            You eat 21 meals a week? I eat five meals a week.

            Mon: No food today (I fast to permit the natural process of autophagy to eat my internal fat).
            Tues: Dinner at 1300hrs (meat, fish, eggs, and/or cheese).
            Wed: No food today.
            Thu: Same as Tue.
            Fri: No food today.
            Sat: Light dinner at 1200hrs; light supper at 1800hrs.
            Sun: Light dinner at 1300hrs.

            As a result of this régime I have lost well over 4 stones, am never hungry; have no desire to 'snack'; I feel much stronger physically; I am certainly sharper mentally (no more 'brain fog') and I sleep like a log waking fully refreshed.

            I heartily recommend this natural lifestyle; but few have the sufficient willpower, resolve or discipline necessary to follow it.

          2. 396229+up ticks,

            G,
            I do start my day by the grace of God at 6 am by feeding the birds
            from bird food prepared in the garage, night before, then do 50 wall presses base feet 4′ away from wall, followed by 50 squats repeated at 5 pm, day / energy spent chopping fodder for two log burners and creating picket fencing /doors / gates out of stripped down pallet wood.
            Until I saw the light I had the build of a racing snake up until 18 months ago , have built beneficially on that stance since and feeling much improved.

    6. Vegetarianism I can live with, but veganism is a route to mass starvation.
      Who decided that gathering honey is to exploit bees? Or that eggs and dairy products are 'unhealthy'?

  15. Good morning folks
    Yet another dull damp start here.
    I think they must have overdone the cloud seeding contrails a few weeks back.

    1. I find this sort of polling analysis very sinister
      After all the polls were completely wrong for the election, so why should we take notice of these.

      1. Polls have nothing to do with the truth and everything to do with producing the 'right' (as in left) result.

    2. Good morning JN, and everyone.
      That's the joy of a secret ballot, you can tell pollsters whatever they wish to hear. The acronym is MYOB.
      When did African-Americans get re-labelled as 'Black' and why?
      It is wrong that US voters are categorised by pollsters according to skin tone and ethnic origin when other 'metrics' are available; how about income and employment status (control sector or independent), or even their form of transport?

    3. Good morning JN, and everyone.
      That's the joy of a secret ballot, you can tell pollsters whatever they wish to hear. The acronym is MYOB.
      When did African-Americans get re-labelled as 'Black' and why?
      It is wrong that US voters are categorised by pollsters according to skin tone and ethnic origin when other 'metrics' are available; how about income and employment status (control sector or independent), or even their form of transport?

    4. That graphic is a bit itchy beard.
      It shows Harris as having the higher percentage in all but three demographics. If that's the case, why didn't she win?

      2. Probably because the numbers in each category are different – many more whites than black for example.

  17. I’m with Mike over Ian on this one:

    “Sir The National Trust membership is quite right to insist that half of the food sold in its outlets is entirely plant-based (report, November 3). Feeding plants to animals to provide food for people is much less efficient than eating plants ourselves. It uses more land, energy and water; it causes more water pollution and it emits more greenhouse gases.
    A major reduction in animal agriculture is a vital part of what needs to be done to tackle climate change, and this decision by the National Trust sets an excellent example to other major caterers, including schools and central and local government.
    Iain Green
    Director, Animal Aid Tonbridge, Kent
    SIR – Customers are what make shops successful, not votes from members. The decision to make 50 per cent of the produce vegan in certain National Trust outlets sums up the difference between the private and public sector.
    The private sector will do it if there is a need and customers require it; the public sector does it because of an ideological desire.
    By all means trial it, but the new strategy will likely be inefficient, resulting in vegan waste where products are overstocked and poor sales where real meat products are understocked.
    Mike Metcalfe
    Butleigh, Somerset”

    1. I don’t believe the NT membership did “insist” – the voting system they use would make the Democrats blush!

    2. Iain Green regurgitates the tired old propaganda that has been debunked so often, yet mysteriously still gets trotted out regularly in the mainstream media.

    3. Iain Green regurgitates the tired old propaganda that has been debunked so often, yet mysteriously still gets trotted out regularly in the mainstream media.

    4. Not sure how Iain gets on digesting grass and leaves, but it doesn't suit my gut – I don't have the grindy teeth nor the several stomachs, nor the ability to regurgitate my food for another go at chewing and digestion. I also don't have the time in the day to eat all the time, because I have work to do.
      If I were a cow, rabbit or goat, I might agree with him, but I'm not. I wish him well on his entirely vegetable diet (mostly imported beans and avocado) but I'll stick to subcontracting the hard work of turning rough old greenery into food to farm animals, and then I'll eat them.

  19. Eat more plants

    SIR – The National Trust membership is quite right to insist that half of the food sold in its outlets is entirely plant-based (report, November 3). Feeding plants to animals to provide food for people is much less efficient than eating plants ourselves. It uses more land, energy and water; it causes more water pollution and it emits more greenhouse gases.

    A major reduction in animal agriculture is a vital part of what needs to be done to tackle climate change, and this decision by the National Trust sets an excellent example to other major caterers, including schools and central and local government.

    Iain Green
    Director, Animal Aid
    Tonbridge, Kent

    How much plant based food would you need to eat to get the same protein/nutrients as from a 4oz steak?

      2. Well I won’t be grazing on plant based food in their shops unless of course it is meat!

        Good morning Maggie and all

    3. Just wait until Iain Green (by name and nature) is in a cold mid-winter with no power, no food, veg or otherwise, and he hasn't eaten anything but tree bark for two weeks. He'll be eyeing up his short plump and tender wife with more than sex in mind.

    4. It bothers me when some so-called Greens take a blinkered view of the environment, which covers a great many more issues than global warming.

      The health and fertility of the soil and its organic infrastructure depends a great deal on animal manure, and a number of animals keep pernicious weeds down. They also make it viable to maintain hedgerows, which are better for wildlife than mechanised arable prairie.

      Water pollution from run-off is an issue, and perhaps this is mitigating by planting trees alongside riverbanks, so that these can take up the excess nutrients before entering the water supply.

      The American practice of keeping livestock in huge barns all year round, and then depositing the slurry in one gob on the land may well be destructive, but I hope that the experts and pundits can see beyond what Americans do to their land.

      1. Morning Jeremy,

        Livestock is already being kept in mega barns in areas around here .. cattle that don't eat a blade of fresh grass.

        Mega dairies are becoming very popular , and the sight of them is quite upsetting and not nice.

      2. I remember the smell the floated over the North Sea from Holland and meant East Anglians were constantly checking for gas leaks.

      1. Until "experts" thought it was a good idea to feed cattle with processed bits of their own species.

    6. You'd have to live off mushrooms. They have more protein (Oz for oz) than steak, or so I was told by my biology teacher.

      1. Mushrooms versus Steak
        Sorry Stormy, I believe your biology teacher was wrong.
        Reading your post: You'd have to live off mushrooms. They have more protein (Oz for oz) than steak, or so I was told by my biology teacher.

        I harked back to the early 1960s when I was publishing some of the first research papers on the detailed interior structure of fungi, e.g. in Nature: Vol 209, pp 1258-1259. March 19, 1966.

        I just checked Documenta Geigy, a treasure trove book of all things relating to Medicine, and under Composition of Foods it says:

        Mushrooms (Psalliota campestris) Water 90.8%; Protein 2.8%; Energy 22kcal/100gms

        Beef (rump, total edible). Water 56.5%; Protein 17.4%; Energy 303kcal/100gms

        Beef (sirloin, lean). Water 71.8%; Protein 21.5%; Energy 143kcal/100gms

        The only benefits of mushrooms (apart from the flavour, which I love) are that they are good for weight loss. They're also a good source of vitamin B3, or niacin, which can promote healthy skin and digestion.

        EDIT: In case you smarties start saying "the percentages don't add up to 100%", there are another 15-20 columns of percentages of the other food components, e.g. Vitamins, essential metals etc.

        EDIT 2: In cse any of you have access to an Academic (e.g. University) library, I copied that Nature reference: Nature: Vol 209, pp 1258-1259. March 19, 1966. and pasted it into Google to check. The actual publication (for those who think I'm pulling the longbow) is depicted below. It's faded 'cos it's coming up to 60 years old.

        Hey, just noticed that Disqus edit menu doesn't let you ADD photos later to a finalised post. I'll post it separately as a new post.

          1. Fascinating – thank you!

            Our of interest, have you read Merlin Sheldrske's "Entsngled Life"?

    7. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e224e158d2bb16fbd3ad31538c52c4ea87c1399067cb2a72a70c765f631af4c.jpg
      Indeed, Philip.

      This was my Saturday night meal with no vegetables in sight. A 350g beef rib-eye steak, fried medium-rare in beef tallow; two eggs, fried in pork lard; and mushrooms fried in butter.

      [For those who may think mushrooms are a vegetable, they are not. Fungi is a eukaryotic organism of a completely different kingdom from both plants and animals. In fact its cellular structure is believed to be more akin to an animal than a plant. Mushrooms also contain just 1g of carbohydrate per 100g of the product.]

      1. Today lunch will be sweet and sour pork. Nice fatty belly pork. Home grown green peppers and some pineapple for contrast. I use lots of onions and peppers and don't bother with rice.

        I don't believe it is people eating veg, fruit and salad that is making them dumb. It's the not eating the meat that addles their brains.

        1. Well, the archeological record of stable-isotope testing on the bones of people born before 10,000 years ago shows them to be nearly 100% meat-eaters with no signs of disease apparent in all the samples tested. The bodies examined were of robust health, had large brain capacity and strong jaws and teeth.
          Compare that with similar tests done on ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians since that 10,000 years ago mark (when the eating of grains and vegetables commenced) and their bodies were riddled with disease and showed marked signs of obesity.

          Today I ate a small boned leg of lamb portion that I slow-roasted in a Dutch oven (4 hours at 150ºC) and I made a gravy from its juices.

          1. Hi Grizzly,
            You appear to have a diet almost exclusively of foods that have no additives at all. That's rare. Here, for the benefit of readers who have an additive-rich diet, is an item I wrote some time ago for a different forum. Sorry it's a bit long.

            ‘E Numbers’ that you probably eat every day
            Back in the 1970s the then EEC (European Economic Community) resolved to examine the many food colourings, stabilisers, antioxidants, flavour enhancers and other food-related products to determine their safety-in-use for the public. The UK government agreed to partake in the research and stumped up half the money; the food industry provided the other half. Hundreds of chemicals were assigned E-Numbers, which you will see printed on the packaging.

            From 1966 to 1978 I was working in the principal UK Industrial Research Laboratory which carried out a lot of the testing in animals. Attached below are a few of the research papers that I either wrote or co-authored as histopathologist (one who examines microscope slides of animal tissues after post-mortem). Our task was to set No-Effect levels in animals (then applying a huge safety margin, often 2,000x, for humans). We used Rats, mice and pigs.

            Here are some examples which you are probably eating today (if you're not Grizzly):

            E200: Sorbic acid:– a white powder which can be obtained from the berries of the Mountain Ash tree (Sorbus aucuparia, hence Sorbic acid). It inhibits the growth of bacteria, moulds and yeast and has been in use since the 1950s. In much earlier years jam makers and fruit preservers used to put a few mountain ash berries in with the fruit to stop it going mouldy, though these days it is made synthetically. It can be found in some salads, chocolate syrup, cheese, cheesecake, prunes, flour, confectionery, soft drinks, fruit yoghurts, cakes and beer.
            Long-term toxicity studies of sorbic acid in mice Food and Cosmetics Toxicology 14, 381-386 (1976)

            E155: Chocolate Brown HT: This is a dark brown coal tar dye, designated as HT because it can stand high temperatures as in baking. It can be found in some chocolate and especially imitation chocolate products but it can also be found in some dessert mixes, ice cream, yoghurts, preserves, pickles, and soft drinks.
            Short-term toxicity study of Chocolate brown HT in pigs Toxicology, 11, 189-192 (1978)

            E142: Green S: When peas are processed or cooked they often turn grey and look unpalatable. Green S is a green synthetic coal tar dye used to colour processed peas – which is not recommended for consumption by children, so surprisingly (or perhaps not) is also found in ice-cream, sweets, dairy products and gravy granules.

            It is used in at least 592 different products in the UK and can also be found for example in soups, sweets, biscuits, fruit pie fillings, jams, ice cream and both lime and lemon flavoured drinks as well as cider wines and spirits. It is banned in Norway, Sweden and USA.
            Short-term toxicity study of Green S in rats Food and Chemical Toxicology 25, 969-975 (1987)

            Vitamin E
            In a pure research mode I was also involved in studies on the efficacy of Vitamin E. It is actually very difficult to provide a Vitamin E-deficient diet for laboratory rats.
            The role of dietary silver in the production of liver necrosis in vitamin E-deficient rats Experimental and Molecular Pathology, 11, 186-199 (1969)

            You get the picture. For many years I was engaged in making the World safer for rats and mice to live in. I also worked in the USA on the morning-after-pill, but that’s another story.

          3. I have to say, that I don't eat most of the things that contain the things you were researching, except cheese, occasionally processed peas and the odd pickle. I do eat yoghurts regularly, though.

      2. Hi Grizz,
        As I posted in a reply to Stormy above your Steak & Eggs picture, Documenta Geigy's Composition of Foods says, for Mushrooms (Psalliota campestris) Water 90.8%; Protein 2.8%; Energy 22kcal/100gms

        Also: Total Carbohydrates: 3.7gm/100gms; Fibre 0.9 gm/100gms; high in Potassium and Phoshorus…and another 20+ minor components.

        The carbohydrate moiety is almost all made up of Chitin (same as insect exoskeletons). Interestingly, unlike most dietary fibres, chitin is the only fibre that can be digested by mammals. So bugs WILL be on the menu, but thankfully I'll be long gone.

        1. Hi, RC. That is an interesting finding. Some time ago I looked at countless sources to in order determine the carbohydrate levels of a massive number of food products. I rarely found any two agreeing with each other! Some foodstuffs had wildly varying levels.

      3. Hi Grizz,
        As I posted in a reply to Stormy above your Steak & Eggs picture, Documenta Geigy's Composition of Foods says, for Mushrooms (Psalliota campestris) Water 90.8%; Protein 2.8%; Energy 22kcal/100gms

        Also: Total Carbohydrates: 3.7gm/100gms; Fibre 0.9 gm/100gms; high in Potassium and Phoshorus…and another 20+ minor components.

        The carbohydrate moiety is almost all made up of Chitin (same as insect exoskeletons). Interestingly, unlike most dietary fibres, chitin is the only fibre that can be digested by mammals. So bugs WILL be on the menu, but thankfully I'll be long gone.

    8. Animal Aid director wants to reduce animal agriculture (and thus the number of animals). Not so much an MRD award as a No Joined Up Thinking Award. Anybody who cites "climate change" as a reason to do something stupid merits only derision in my book.

  20. You can tell goons at The Guardian are worried.. they are pushing the narrative that Wet Tories are better off staying Wet Tory.

    Former Tory minister says it would be a mistake to shift towards the populist politics Trump has embraced. "He is spectacularly unpopular over here.”

    Former Tory cabinet minister warns Badenoch.. "Don’t fall into ‘populist trap’ of backing Trump."

    “Every time Farage jets across the Atlantic and has a one-to-one meeting with Donald for an hour, he makes both the prime minister and leader of the opposition look particularly weak.”

    1. What is the difference between 'populist' and 'popular'?

      Is 'populist' anything popular that the soshies don't like?

      3. The will of the populus. People power. In Ancient Greek that’s Demos Kratos. Can’t have that.

  22. Morning, all Y'all.
    Dull, damp, cold. The kind of weather to make you stay in bed, except for the waft of fresh coffee and bacon buttie drifting up the stairs from SWMBOs work in the kitchen.

    1. We have old friends coming for Lunch, i'd better get a move on they are arriving within the next hour.

    2. You're a lucky man! Mind you, I am lucky enough to get morning coffee and home-made berry smoothie prepared by D; and then after he has gone for his run (masochist!), he makes toast (with marmite and avocado – it's yummy).

      After that I am more than happy to make the rest of our meals for the day…

  23. G'day all,

    Groundhog day 6, or is it 7, at McPhee Towers. A tad warmer than yesterday at 7 -12 ℃.

    The farmers are getting uppity, ignoring the NFU and rightly so.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b94b364f3181c9599c0a64d9fe233b8d9d23c410f42fb902357f9f0db0a5cd4c.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/09/inside-farming-revolt-threatening-blockades/

    Gwyneth Rees needs to to a bit more background research before she writes these pieces. If she consulted the WEF website she would find the conspiracy facts are hiding in plain sight.

    But Melville, who grew up on a farm in Fife, is also a controversial figure. He sits on the board of Together, which campaigns to “take back democracy”. It has run campaigns against Covid lockdowns and Net Zero.

    In February, the Guardian reported that its manifesto calls for an end to an “obsession” with net zero and that Melville had shared a conspiracy theory that climate policies are a route for the World Economic Forum to make farmers give up their land. He called the report “lazy”.

    Some farmers have accused followers of his movement of dabbling in an anti-science agenda and conspiracy theories.

    One tells The Telegraph: “I was on an initial WhatsApp group with farmers who supported him but there were loads of posts about all kinds of stuff that had nothing to do with farming. They were just conspiracy theorists, so I left.”

    Or perhaps she's only writing what she's told to write. After all, this is the Gatesograph.

    1. The trouble is that once governments give into blackmail or use bribes – as they have done to the public sector – then everyone will see that disruption is the only way to achieve one's ends.

      The farmers have an excellent case and can illustrate that the whole fabric of the British countryside will be destroyed if the government goes ahead with ripping the heart out of England with its vandalising taxes on them. But however well-reasoned and well presented their case is the farmers know that the government will not listen to them.

      So what is the option? To present a reasonable case which will be ignored or to exert as much pressure as they can upon the government or do something more dramatic? Yes, the farmers must block London, they must block the ports, they must block access to the supermarkets – they must make life impossible for Starmer's Stasi until it buckles and collapses?

      1. I'm afraid so. It's stand and be counted time. This time we need to finish the Marxists once and for all.

    1. Par four
      Wordle 1,240 4/6

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

    1. Yo anne

      Our Solar panels are awake….. Just

      No wind though (I have stopped eating the Fartleberries)

    1. Share… I make breakfast every workday, and (usually) every other weekend/holi-day, so today was SWMBOs turn.
      It's easier only one person in the kitchen when busy, or you get in each other's way.

      1. Every so often, I treat him to a bacon roll for brekker.
        He prefers well frizzled bacon in a cheese topped roll with lots of Tiptree tomato ketchup.

      1. Vitamins
        Grizzly, with my breakfast I pop Vitamins B12, C and D plus Coenzyme Q. In the case of Vitamin D, recent research seems to say that although the long-accepted daily intake level in northern latitudes is 5 micrograms, people (especially older folks who go outside less) should be taking around 4 times that level, so that's what I do.

        1. RC, I take 2 Ω3 fish-oil capsules every day; 1 Vitamin D3 capsule every few days; 1 tablet containing trace amounts of Mg, Zn, Cu and B6 every day. In addition I take an early morning drink of ¼ pint of lukewarm water into which I put ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda, ¼ tsp cream of tartar, and 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar. [The cream of tartar provides me with my potassium (K) requirement].

          I get all the necessary vitamin B12 (and most other nutrition — including Vitamin C ) I require from my carnivorous diet.

          There is a danger of taking much more than the daily recommended levels of Vitamin D in tablet form. Too much can be detrimental to your health (Vitamin D toxicity). There is a lot of argument/discussion on the topic of how much is too much but most health authorities recommend a daily dose of no more than 10–15μg (400–600IU) per day.

          1. Most commercial pills are below the daily recommended dose to ensure that people don't over-do it.
            I take Cod Liver Oil from October to April. The sun is strong enough for the rest of the year.

        2. In my nursing days, Vitamin B complex was always given to confused old dears; they had often not eaten properly for months and were particularly short of B and iron.
          The other sure ways to perk them up was rehydration – they often didn't drink enough because they forgot or were afraid of having an 'accident'; from that followed constipation and toxic confusion, often with aggressive behaviour.
          Two or three days after clearing them out and giving them more fluids and vitamin pills, you felt like a miracle worker.

      2. Marmite! = D makes marmite and avocado toast for breakfast – sourdough bread spread with marmite and topped with avocado. It's glorious…

        1. Hej, Dukke! This is because yeast (from which Marmite is derived) is an eukaryotic organism, part of the fungi kingdom, which is separate from both plants and animals. Most authorities consider the cellular structure of eukaryotes to be more closely related to animals than to plants.

  31. Labour’s total ignorance of the reality of a farmer’s life will undoubtedly lead to mass protest

    Farmers could soon take direct action against Labour’s punitive inheritance taxes. Is No 10 ready for when the manure hits the fan?

    William Sitwell 09 November 2024 5:30pm GMT

    The view through my window is misleading. As the morning mist lifts, it’s a normal vision of lush grassland, rolling hills, grazing sheep and cattle.

    But away from the fields, in the sheds and kitchens of farmers, it’s not such a scene of tranquil peace. Farmers, moaners most by design – after all, it’s a life of unpredictable weather, faulty machinery, unruly beasts and failing crops – are moving with an almost gravitational pull, from grump to rage.

    The Labour Government’s Budget reforms – in particular a new 20 per cent levy on farmers passing on assets worth more than £1 million from April 2026 – is stirring them to take their tractors beyond their own estates or contracted farms; to steer their combines and heavy machinery onto our motorways and to London.

    One Welsh farmer has told The Telegraph they consider theirself a “foot soldier”. They are keeping things “close to their chest”, but if the Government ploughs on with its seemingly anti-farming policy – and there is scant sign that it won’t – then there may be protests. And chances are they’ll be farm-like ones: noisy and stinky.

    The rumblings of resentment from farming have been growing for some time. Post-Brexit, the Environmental Land Management scheme, which is gradually replacing the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy – and is also intended to replace the EU’s Basic Payment Scheme (being phased out in 2028) – is yet to be regarded as a triumph. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee has reported that many farmers found the scheme too complex, it wasn’t clear how it would work and, it reported: “more clarity and certainty is required in relation to what farmers need to do, the amount of funding available, and how [the scheme] will support the Government’s goals for food security and environmental protection”.

    In other words, farmers are scratching their heads as they try to fathom acres of paperwork, to manoeuvre their way through a complex dive of government websites.

    And, as usual, they found little sympathy with the British public, most of whom seem to think that farming is a lifestyle choice; a romantic alternative to a city existence, with plenty of fresh air, lashings of ruddy jolliness, not to mention a fashion choice of big boots and gilets rather than trackies and trainers.

    The only public touch points were Tractor Ted, for the kids, and Countryfile, for the grown-ups – the latter offering a worthy but dull look at farming, with an unnatural obsession with the weather.

    And if you weren’t the archetypal Farmer Jones blocking country roads with your sheep or swanning up and down fields in nice straight lines on a beautiful harvest evening in summer, you were a landed toff. Or worse: a hedge-fund banker careering across your property on a quad bike and avoiding inheritance tax.

    The sympathy was slight and the attacks frequent; vegans condemning farmers for cruelty to animals and polluting the land and everyone else blaming their greed for the rise in food prices.

    The only tonic came from Jeremy Clarkson, whose entertaining Amazon series Clarkson’s Farm revealed the realities of farming, albeit with a heavy dose of jokes and manufactured storylines.

    But the little bit of light that Clarkson shone on the subject – such as the astonishing revelation that the profit he made after year one was just £144 – would not, of course, placate the public.

    And now the Labour Budget is being felt as a direct attack on the sector, with the inheritance levy giving the impression that the Government has a pejorative view of farmers. In the same way that those who send their kids to independent schools are rich snobs whose kids should be schooled away from the oiks (when they’re not away skiing at Christmas or in the Bahamas in the summer), so this tax is seen as a justified attack on the old ruling classes, those toffs and bankers.

    “The £1 million cap to APR [Agricultural Property Relief] shows how little this Government understands the sector,” said Tom Bradshaw, the president of the National Farmers’ Union. “Just because a farm is an asset, it doesn’t mean those who work it are wealthy.”

    He added that “farmers have been left reeling” and demanded the changes be “overturned and fast”. He didn’t add, “or else”, but that’s the feeling among many farmers.

    Bradshaw has specifically warned them against taking matters into their own hands, and suggested NFU members raise the issue with their local MP. But this new Government is well-schooled in the art of blocking; avoiding questions, chuntering out the chorus about a £22 billion black hole, of fixing the foundations, of saying tough decisions are what is needed to clean up the mess of the Tory government.

    Local Labour MPs are unlikely to offer any succour to the fury. The Tories have no power – similarly the Liberal Democrats, who have said the tax is a “hammer blow for farmers”.

    Will our farmers now look across the Channel to the French citizens who, in 2018, took to the streets to protest at planned rises to petrol and diesel? Flooding the streets of Paris, the crowds around the Arc de Triomphe were like speckled bees as they donned yellow vests. The gilets jaunes, as they become known, dissipated as Covid struck, and President Macron offered a concession in €5 billion of tax cuts.

    Just as Just Stop Oil glued themselves to the Tarmac, will our motorways become jammed with hundreds of John Deere tractors? The permanent anti-Brexit “Rejoin now!” demo in Westminster might, at long last, be forced off the streets by a very strong pong. If Labour refuse to understand or appreciate the countryside, with piles of manure stacked against the Downing Street gates they might soon be getting more familiar with the ways of the farmyard than they ever imagined.

    2. I still have my doubts about the mythical "£22Bn black hole". What is certain is that if it wasn't there when Labour took power, it certainly is now! Money for Milioaf's power quango, money to Africa for "climate crisis" measures, above inflation pay rises [but only for the chosen groups] and massive spending on supporting illegal migrants!

      1. Isn't the budget for carbon capture and storage £22bn, that's where the gigantic black hole will be.

  32. As regulars of old will probably, know. my house has been treated for any signs of Beeb infestation and is kept free of it. A friend sent me this from the website and I suppose the good news is that it has penetrated their defence systems and been published! Shocking news that this was done- but Fema was smart enough to send in teams to devastated areas with no power with electric chainsaws- so anything is possible!
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g31ln2wgo

  33. As regulars of old will probably, know. my house has been treated for any signs of Beeb infestation and is kept free of it. A friend sent me this from the website and I suppose the good news is that it has penetrated their defence systems and been published! Shocking news that this was done- but Fema was smart enough to send in teams to devastated areas with no power with electric chainsaws- so anything is possible!
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20g31ln2wgo

    1. I find the Labour party saying: "We will remember them." quite offensive. Sorry, but with their contempt for truth and free speech, they are trampling over the very things that people like my father and step father fought for in WWII.

    2. Not forgetting the obscene £117 million of our money they gave to 'protect the centres for the promotion of murder, hate, savagery and pedos mosques.'

    3. There seem to be a lot of deleted and withheld comments – what was all that about (I can guess but it's odd to see quite so much; on the other hand I don't go onto X very much…).

  36. At one point yesterday wind was producing just 3.6% of Britain's energy and solar about 4.7%. I think it was all down to a very small break in the cloud on the west coast of Scotland, otherwise it'd have been 0%.

    1. I think those figures are a percentage of electricity generated, not total energy. Overall, electricity is less than a quarter of our overall energy use.

  37. Come off it that was your breakfast. Our eggs are not so good anymore so do not eat them. nil taste.

    1. Can you not find a local independent supplier for your eggs? They tend to be better than supermarket fodder.

    2. Vegetables also need to eat – as Margaret Thatcher remarked in the Spitting Image restaurant. When asked about vegetables she said that her cabinet would eat the same as she did.

      But even if mushrooms, as Grizzly informs us, are not vegetables they are kept in the dark and fed on manure.

    3. I get my eggs from my friend — just down the road — who owns a farm. His hens are out in the fields all day and the eggs taste wonderful.

  38. That's where much of the flavour is!
    We're in to pinnekjøtt season (lamb ribs), and the supermarkets are full of huge packs of them. Not a lot of meat, but very tasty when roasted.

  39. Of course it was Volkswagen who produced The People's Car and it was Blair who determined to cash in on this idea to popularise populism in politics.

    Labour, he declared, was The People's Party, and he applied the word People's to everything he could.

    As I wrote in one of my satirical songs at the time:

    "I'm a populist prime minister from a minor public school,
    I love your adulation so 'll make Britannia cool ………

    The People's Party, Peoples Dome, The People's lottery
    I am the People's laxative so the People swallow me,
    Pragmatic opportunism has given me success
    A sad girl died and so I dubbed her The People's Princess."

    1. The People's Car: designed by Ferdinand Porsche on the instructions of the socialist, Adolf Hitler.

      1. The history of the Volkswagen brand began with the “Käfer”; development work on this Nazi prestige project began in 1934. On May 28, 1937, the “Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens mbH“ (Company for the Preparation of the German Volkswagen Ltd.) was formally established. The name was changed to “Volkswagenwerk GmbH” in 1938, and the company built its main plant in what has become Wolfsburg. However, the outbreak of war and integration in the arms industry prevented mass production of the Volkswagen (“people’s car”) – instead, military vehicles and other armaments were produced using forced labor.

        After the war, the British instructed Volkswagen to build the Volkswagen saloon at the end of 1945. With the Type 1 (Käfer) model, and the Type 2 (Transporter) model added in 1950, Volkswagen became a symbol of Germany’s economic miracle, above all as a result of the strong export orientation on the part of the company converted into a joint stock corporation in 1960.

        A remarkable tale!

  40. I think he's confused. They will not be paying anything to most veterans and support for the homeless will be paid to charities.

  41. Today is Remembrance Sunday and Free Speech commemorates it with an article on a forgotten battle, the One Hundred Day Offensive , led by the British Army, that ended the war to end all wars.

    We are still collecting for ex-servicemen and women as part of our Remembrance Day appeal, with the charity Help For Homeless Veterans well in the lead in our poll. All donations to FSB up to 12th November will be given to the winning charity.

    https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/

    2. When I asked my maternal grandfather who had served in France during WWII “What was it like?” He replied simply:”It was bloody murder”….

  42. Shortly off to the local Remembrance Day parade. I normally march and lay a wreath but cried off this year as I am not fully confident with my post sciatic leg.From being unable to walk I am 95% normal.

  43. 396226+ up ticks,

    Without the brave input of the 39 / 45 brigade of heros a great many of youth today would NOT exist.

    They the youth in turn, should ask granddad for comparisons in seeking the truth.

    Why our young people are scared to wear the poppy
    Far from being proud to wear it, many of the younger generation seem confused about what our symbol of remembrance represents

  44. A trade deal with America is within our grasp – but will Labour squander the opportunity?
    An oven ready agreement negotiated by the last Tory government could be dusted down. But Starmer may be too obsessed with pleasing the EU

    Kemi Badenoch 09 November 2024 5:32pm GMT

    On Wednesday, at my first Prime Minister’s Questions just hours after Donald Trump’s election victory, I challenged Keir Starmer to get moving on a UK-US Free Trade Deal. If President Trump does pursue a new protectionist tariff regime it would be terrible news for the UK. Only a Free Trade Agreement will protect us.

    It shouldn’t be too much of a challenge for Labour. In 2020, towards the end of President Trump’s first term in office, the Conservative government worked with his administration to draw-up a landmark deal. Joe Biden scrapped it, deciding his White House wouldn’t sign trade agreements with any nation. So our deal got left on a shelf, ready to be dusted off if the opportunity arose.

    The return of President Trump is that golden opportunity. The onus is now on the Labour Government to put aside their embarrassing student politics diplomacy, which has already shot Britain in the foot on Israel and the Chagos Islands, and go full steam ahead to secure a deal that will enrich the people and businesses of the UK.

    A lot has changed since we began trade negotiations with America in 2019. A new axis of evil is slowly but surely drawing closer together. Instability in the Middle East and war with Russia in Europe has left us exposed to energy shocks and heightened fears of terrorism. Global inflationary pressures mean we can no longer rely on low borrowing costs.

    Around the world, trade hostility is heating up and an era of protectionism is looming over the horizon. As Business and Trade Secretary I was able to buck this trend by securing Britain’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership – our biggest post-Brexit trade deal, aligning us with the fastest growing economies in the World. But a US trade deal is the real prize.

    The fundamentals of why we need a trade deal, have not changed in the past five years. America is our largest trading partner and closest ally. Ever since Winston Churchill coined the “special relationship”, and despite repeated changes of government and party in the White House and Downing Street, America has remained the UK’s most important partner on the world stage.

    As President Biden was opposed to trade deals, I made building closer economic links with the US states a priority and signed state-level agreements with Texas, Florida, Indiana, North and South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah and Washington. These deals deepened cooperation between the US and UK, offering new opportunities and bigger markets for British companies. And, particularly in the case of the landmark Florida and Texas agreements, with economies bigger than most European countries! The foundations to build on are there, but I worry Labour is not interested in anything except the EU.

    A US-UK FTA is one of the biggest Brexit prizes. The opportunities for collaboration in artificial intelligence, global supply chains, energy security, and financial services, among other issues, are bottomless and boundless. Every single part of the UK could benefit from the Government prioritising this deal, delivering improved access for businesses, more investment, better jobs and higher wages. It could be Starmer’s silver bullet to deliver the economic growth he claims to want, even if the recent Budget suggests otherwise.

    Although President Trump talks often about “America First”, in 2019 his historic and familial links to the UK, the obvious economic benefits and compelling strategic advantages were enough to convince him that a deal was in both countries’ interests. This time around, I hope the President would see that an FTA with Britain would send strong signals to France and Germany that positive engagement with his administration could yield benefits, and that it could further his agenda with respect to European powers.

    Fundamentally though, it goes deeper than the direct benefits of this particular deal. We are each other’s largest foreign direct investor, supporting almost four million jobs across the Atlantic. We have the world’s strongest bilateral defence and security partnership. And our diplomatic interests are in lock step. We must not be held back by Labour’s barely concealed contempt for, and juvenile depictions of, President Trump.

    If trade barriers go up without any mitigations in place, Britain will be economically, politically and diplomatically kneecapped. The negative impact on growth, investment and productivity would be profound.

    Starmer must press ahead with a trade deal while we have the impetus. If he dithers and delays, as is usually his style, the opportunity will pass us by. Picking up our ready-made deal and making a concerted effort to get it signed would finally prove that Starmer is willing to do as he’s said, and put country before party. Anything less would be yet another betrayal of the British people’s trust.

  45. Right, that's me off up to the village!
    People will not recognise me looking so smart and sans chainsaw!

          1. I did toy with wearing my beret with ROC cap badge, but in the end, I stayed completely civilian.

  46. Morning all, another gloomy day in West Sussex but, at least, it's warmer than yesterday. I trust that all are well. And it is glorious that Trump has taken the last remaining state, Arizona, that we were waiting for the final count from.

    There is also a widespread belief in the USA that Mrs. Biden voted for Trump to spite Harris. Amusing if true.

    1. For the first time since he was (or was not?) elected president in 2020 Biden spoke graciously and well about his opponent's victory and wished him well. For once the signs of his senility were not present.

      2. Whatever he's on Rastus…I'd like to try it. He made little to no sense in his debate with Trump, and yet here he is, virtually a different man. My experience of family with senility/Alzheimer's – it's progressive.

  47. Tracy-Ann Oberman: Starmer has got to start taking this anti-Semitism seriously
    The actress on how she became a spokesperson for Britain’s Jewish community and why Shakespeare’s Shylock is still relevant today
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/10/tracy-ann-oberman-interview-anti-semitism/

    I find that the tolerance afforded to the violent anti-Semitism of Muslims in Britain is very disturbing. Why should the obscene utterances and manifestations of Muslims be afforded a level of tolerance which is not afforded to other groups?

    I was surprised to see that the DT allowed BTL comments under this article. Here is an extract from the BTLs – I think that the last writer in this thread was being ironic but the DT's irony detector did not pick it up.

    Ben London

    Labour hate Jews. And yes there is two tier policing. It’s not even covered up anymore. Muslims have way more influence in this government than you would ever know. It would shock you.

    Gee Wee (Reply to Ben London)

    Be careful or the comment will be removed.

    Richard Tracey (Reply to Ben London)

    How can this be true when the prime minister himself is married to a Jew and has Jewish children because – as most people know – Jewishness passes through the distaff line? By the same reasoning how can people say that Mr Lammy is anti-white people – he is married to a white woman.

      1. They are, one is 'David' and the other is 'Ed' (known as chalk and cheese, or perhaps cheese and chalk).

    3. Because there are 'Jews' Rastus, and then there are 'Jews'. Substitute 'Muslims' for 'Jews' and you'll see the picture.

      2. That would be insufficient, Paul except in times of high rainfall and then only for a short time. Hydrogen the way to go, a plant opening in Worcestershire I think, friend of mine works in that business – tells me it's the future…hmm..still to be persuaded, I always favoured RR's SMNRs but that seems to be a non-starter.

  52. My word a lot of people have been very, very busy making the immaculate wreaths made from poppies for Whitehall today. Chiming.

  53. For the first time in nearly two weeks – the sky's clearing, clouds lifting and the sun's come out!!

    2. The clouds are higher and lighter here, a suggestion that there may well be a sun up there behind them.

      1. The sunshine didn’t last long but at least it’s still brighter than it has been for the last couple of weeks.

  54. Well. Just as I was watching Starmer laying his wreath, the tv went dead. No signal. Did this happen to anyone else? It is the only tv I have watched for years, although poppiesdad does watch a ball being kicked about from time to time.

    1. Sorry, 'mum…to watch it I had to slope off to another room and watch it on my mble, tv here seems ok tho, it's still on. Possibly your connection, did mble/s go down, is tv OK now?

      1. Dunno, I only use my mobile for texts and whatapp calls (usually no signal but sometimes get a one bar flickering on and off, but wifi for whatsapp is ok) . We switched off and poppiesdad is snoozing now. I asked on Twitter (X) and there were reports it happened on GB news too. I wanted to see if there was any protest by the veterans otherwise I couldn’t have stomached watching Starmer (and the rest of them by varying degrees) laying their wreaths. I understand the veterans wanting to take that action, but I feel they should ignore the provocation and not make the day about PMs. There is a danger that once our respect is breached, other protests would follow within the ranks in successive years.

        1. Unfortunately, I missed the first minutes, but when I did join I watched GBN on my mble. Our wifi is more robust than it was, used to be awful. Perhaps your provider? Ours is B4RN (I think). Sounds though as though a glitch elsewhere and not at your end. You can probably catch what you missed on YouTube repeat. I like to watch to the ending, where it gradually peters out, calmly. I always find it a good time to think about my dad, sentimental when the Red Berets go by, and remember him. All my uncles were in WW2, all came home uninjured, service army/airforce – no-one in the navy, apparently merchant seamen payment stopped if they were sunk (happened to a relative). I was very glad to miss Starmer too.

          1. Sometimes I feel something of an imposter, an onlooker, on Remembrance Sunday as we lost no-one in our family in either WWl or WWll, my father was a diabetic type 1 and therefore not allowed to join the services, he had to content himself with the Homeguard and looking after p.o.w.; a great uncle returned from WW1 with malaria. There must be very few of us with no-one lost. However, it does not prevent us from being as one with our tribe, quietly sharing their loss and giving thanks to those who fought for our freedom and for those who returned safely.

            I will check out Youtube – thank you.

          2. You don’t sound like an imposter, or an onlooker, to me ‘mum, but I think I know what you mean….you and I (and most others) didn’t serve, have never served, will never serve in the way our earlier relatives did and we can only hope there is no recurrence. If I were young today? I’d be signing up, my dad initially joined the army because ‘there were no jobs, and t’army wa bluddy real until t’war came along’. And yes, we all choose our side, even (especially?) in these times. Hope you find the YouTube vid and like it, all the best, Kate x

          5. I belong to a Thankful Family, too. Neither of the wars killed any of my family (although Granny was frightened by a Zeppelin flying over). The men were in reserved occupations (farming, mining, steel making) apart from my father's younger brother who came back safe and my brother was young and being looked after by my mother, so she was exempt from war work.

          6. B4RN??
            Not up the North Tyne Valley are you?
            They had a stall at Falstone Show t'other month.

          7. 🤣🤣🤣 I’m not, thank the Lahord, although it’s a very nice coast (in parts, like the curate’s egg). Initially, the service was 1* if that, now it’s stable and 5*. Think they’re pretty widespread over rural areas, Doone territory etc….

  55. BBC News headline: Dozens of people have been killed and wounded in an Israeli strike on a house in northern Gaza, The official Palestinian news agency Wafa and Gaza's Hamas-run civil defence agency said at least 30 people had been killed. The civil defence said the dead included 13 children, 9 women and many medics and rescuers.

    "We were just sitting peacefully. These are innocent citizens who don’t belong to any military organization or faction," eyewitness and relative to the victims told Reuters.

    The Israel Defense Forces gave its usual string of lies and said it struck a site in Jabalia where "terrorists were operating"

    Is there no end to this wanton killing, this genocide against innocent Palestinian women and children? The British Army should be sent to liberate the oppressed people who just wish to worship Hamas, the Mujahedeen and the Muslim Brotherhood in peace and security.(Sarc, in case you didn't know)

    1. The SNP chap didn't sing anything at all.
      I suppose he was making some point that mattered to him.

      2. I didn’t notice that non-entity, but at least he wasn’t being a hypocrite. I’m not surprised, though.

  58. Former Sunderland player James McClean compares British soldiers to 'terrorists' after Irish Wrexham star's latest refusal to wear poppy.

    Ok.. I understand a Derry man making this stance though I feel the continuance of the Irish neverending grudge isn't helping anybody.

    The other ting.. the sweet teddybears IRA which he so much admires are nowhere to be found in the latest invasion sweeping the country. In fact Sinn Féin seem to be facilitating it. Why not take a poke at that? It would be more relevant.

    2. Isn’t he just pathetic. I bet he thinks he’s making a brave stance. But all he’s done is make himself look stupid.

  61. Watched the Remembrance gathering at the Cenotaph from 10.30 this morning. Tried GB News but if Michael Portillo discussions with an almost static picture the kept breaking up. Switched to BBC1, wash my mouth out, and listened to the most wonderful traditional mournful music. A view from India where Allied troops from India, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada defended a position from a Japanese attack who far outnumbered the Allies. The Japanese were beaten. An aerial view of the war graves, looked after by the Commonwealth War Grave Commission, with the epitaph

    THEY GAVE THEIR TODAY FOR OUR TOMORROW. What would they think now.

    Brought tears to my eyes and welled my emotions to breaking point when I saw the pile slime who were going lay wreaths ‘on our behalf’ but don’t honour those brave young men and women who gave their lives for a better world. And those slimeballs are destroying our once great nation.

    1. The sight of monster expenses-fiddler Yvette Cooper, had me steaming. Good though to see BoJo and Theresa forced to stand so close to each other.

    1. Obama reminds me. Does Miliband mince? It really struck me as he was walking back into the building after the wreaths were laid that he minces when he walks.

    2. One of the Toronto universities decreed that admission to the medical school would be based on DEI principles instead of being merit based.
      if you are seen by a blind lesbian transvestite who graduated from that school, it might be more than your moral condition that is terminated.

      Our premier did tell them where to stick their criteria but it still casts a shadow over anyone receiving their qualifications there.

      1. University qualifications themselves need to pass the Identity politics smell test. Like the NHS it’s no longer good enough to scatter the alphabet after your name or call yourself professor!

  64. I was very moved by the words spoken by the WW2 veterans and the 2 men who were seriously injured in more recent conflicts.

    1. I switched off after the Royals had laid their wreaths I couldn’t watch any more for the anger raging through my body.
      As usual The Pricess Royal, Princess Anne, the best queen we never had.

      2. The Princess Royal is a no-nonsense, strong member of the Royal family, unlike the King who is weak, woke and a WEF idiot.

        1. David Dimbleby listed the military organisations of which she is head.
          Could we please go back to the days when the RF really were in charge? Imagine Annie running the forces. We'd have the best military establishment on the planet.

          LET'S HEAR IT FOR THE ANNES OF THIS WORLD!

          5. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but when you type on Disqus, these days, it suggests incongruous words for you even when you’ve half-typed a word. Sometimes it adds, of its own whim, extra words that you didn’t need! This winds me up no end!

        3. How about giving him a break? Recovering from prostate cancer is not exactly a walk in the park. For me, over a year later, I could not stand like that for as long as he did. I would literally collapse.

          1. I don’t think he has prostate cancer. The consensus among doctors I know is that he probably had bladder cancer (at a very early stage) picked up fortuitously when he had a cystoscopy as a routine part of his treatment for benign prostate disease.

          3. I don’t think he has prostate cancer. The consensus among doctors I know is that he probably had bladder cancer (at a very early stage) picked up fortuitously when he had a cystoscopy as a routine part of his treatment for benign prostate disease.

          4. He was all of those things long before his cancer diagnosis. On that side, I wish him well, nobody deserves any form of cancer.

      4. I did not think the King looked well. Or was that just a subjective perception on my part?

    2. I switched off after the Royals had laid their wreaths I couldn’t watch any more for the anger raging through my body.
      As usual The Pricess Royal, Princess Anne, the best queen we never had.

  66. Trump’s plan to make America safe again. 10 November 2024.

    Donald Trump’s critics like to paint his supporters as hardcore right-wingers. The truth is rather plainer: many of those who voted for Trump are refugees from the conservative establishment desperate for a leader unafraid to speak their truth.

    Shamed by the elites, mocked for their beliefs – sidelined by rising ‘wokeness’ and DEI-culture for being white or straight or male – they saw in Trump a man-of-action sympathetic to their back-to-basics worldview. Tired of being told what to say and how to feel, Trump’s supporters were ready to reclaim their voices in the safest space possible: the ballot box.

    Lol. Talk about eating crow, I’ve noticed a sudden return to orthodoxy elsewhere mostly on the Telegraph threads where the Nudge Unit Regulars are now notably absent. Having abandoned Zelensky (a lost cause with Trump in the White House) they clearly think that there will be a settlement in Ukraine sometime next year.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/trumps-plan-to-make-america-safe-again/

    1. All those lives lost, on both sides, for the same outcome which would have been achieved much earlier on.

    2. And Zelenskyy will run away with his stolen billions to live the life of Riley in the USA.

      1. When did universities transmogrify from being seats of learning to becoming cesspits of brainwashing and indoctrination?

        1. As the Blair (spit) said; eddikation, edoocashun, eddycatshit.
          50% of youngsters do not benefit from university; and neither do the universities benefit from thousands of no-hopers becoming demoralised and in permanent debt.
          Polytechnics did a good job, but the EU insisted that they all became universities.
          And DO NOT get me onto the subject of nursing degrees.

        2. It seems to have started in the 80's when existentialism, phenomenology, and modern French philosophy became the dominant force in various departments of American universities and progressed from there. Specifically, it started with Sartre. At Berkeley it was Sartre this, and Merleau-Ponty that. Then it metastasized from there until all the Anglo-Saxon philosophers fell by the wayside and became persona non grata and we were indulging in Marcuse and Marxist nihilism.

        3. It seems to have started in the 80's when existentialism, phenomenology, and modern French philosophy became the dominant force in various departments of American universities and progressed from there. Specifically, it started with Sartre. At Berkeley it was Sartre this, and Merleau-Ponty that. Then it metastasized from there until all the Anglo-Saxon philosophers fell by the wayside and became persona non grata and we were indulging in Marcuse and Marxist nihilism.

  68. Germans have had enough of their useless leaders. 10 November 2024.

    Coalition partners had been arguing for months over how best to tackle the gaping hole in Germany’s budget next year. The SPD and the Greens were prepared to take on more debt and increase public spending, while the liberal FDP wanted to stick to the state’s self-imposed fiscal rules (the so-called debt brake). The FDP proposed tax and spending cuts instead. Seeing no way forward, Scholz decided to axe Lindner. And now, without the FDP, the chancellor lacks a majority in parliament.

    Scholz deserves some slight sympathy. He knows that the greatest single factor in bringing down the German economy was the sabotage, by the US, of the Baltic Pipelines and the loss of the rest of cheap Russian gas to sanctions. He cannot say this of course since he cannot prove it and even if he were to say it, it would provoke a political firestorm that would probably incinerate him, his Party, NATO and the EU.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/11/09/germans-have-had-enough-of-their-useless-leaders/

  69. You could be forgiven for thinking this was written for the Guardian.

    Why our young people are scared to wear the poppy

    Far from being proud to wear it, many of the younger generation seem confused about what our symbol of remembrance represents

    George Chesterton, 10 November 2024 9:00am GMT

    "This is the first time I haven't bought a poppy as an adult, because I just feel like it is sending a message I don't really want to send," says Sophie*, 33, a writer from London. "It feels like it encompasses a lot of other things. We should commemorate the sacrifice of people who fought in wars and respect them. But it feels symbols have become really potent in the past few years."

    The wearing of red poppies sometimes seems as much an annual tussle over their meaning as it is an annual remembrance of the fallen. There is regular talk of "poppy etiquette" when public figures don't wear one – while appearing on television, for example – and accusations of failing to show respect for the sacrifices of the Armed Forces. Conversely, non-observers often respond with complaints about "poppy fascism" – although the Royal British Legion (RBL) insists it would never criticise anyone for not displaying the symbol.

    "We are remembering the service and sacrifice of those who fought for the freedom we have today," says Philippa Rawlinson, director of Remembrance at RBL. "[But] we will always come out in defence of individuals who don't want to wear a poppy in public life."

    The RBL says it has distributed 30 million paper poppies and six million poppy pins consistently every year for the past decade. But the mood seems to be different this year and there has been a noticeable fall in the number of people, particularly young people, wearing a poppy.

    Many struggle to explain exactly why they have opted out, but say the symbol now has broader associations they would rather avoid, whether that be war in general or some negative aspect of Britain's historical legacy, or just a patriotism that is seen as unfashionable.

    "I also think it's linked to Brexit for a lot of young people, who feel that somehow making a show of patriotism is tied into that, which so many young people are still unhappy about," says Anna*, 24, a commodities trader from London. "A bit like with St George's flags, that makes some people feel uncomfortable."

    Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that specialises in immigration, integration, race and identity, adds, "The far-Right have always wanted to own Remembrance. When the English Defence League [EDL] was at its height about 15 years ago, Remembrance was used heavily as an anti-minority weapon and [the EDL] even entered into a symbiotic relationship with Islamic extremists as the defenders and attackers of poppies respectively."

    In 2014, Britain First, a far-Right organisation, was castigated for using the poppy to sell its merchandise (and breaching the RBL's copyright). The far-Right also use the phrase "Lest we forget" on social media as a means of reinforcing their duty, as they see it, to "protect" Remembrance, knowing full well that this boosts the number of times their posts are liked and shared because they look like straightforward commemorations.

    And just this week, Britain First shared a photograph of two houses awash with poppies – in their windows, on their front walls and drainpipes, and planted in their front garden alongside memorial crosses. The message accompanying the photograph read: "This patriot's neighbour complained about this poppy display… so they put up 20 more!"

    "I can't think of any of my friends who would buy a poppy now," says Sophie. "It feels too close to nationalism somehow. I have a lot of pride for my relatives who fought in the Second World War, but I'm not sure wearing a poppy just says we are commemorating that anymore. I feel like it sends out a wider message. It's hard to articulate, but it's somehow linked to how you feel about the country. It feels a bit adjacent to hanging a St George's cross in the window of your sitting room."

    If the red poppy is as tainted for some as the St George's cross, it's worth noting how that flag's image has metamorphosed over the years. In the 1970s and 1980s it was associated with English football hooligans, but this changed in 1996 when the country hosted the Euro Championships and the team reached the semi-finals after years of falling short in major tournaments. [Wrong. It was the Union flag that was sported by England football fans for a long time until the St George's cross began to take over, notably in 1996.]

    Suddenly the flag was everywhere – on cars and in windows – amid a display of positive patriotism. It lasted for a few more football tournaments. But, more recently, the flag has come to be associated with the extreme Right again, or simply as a designator of white working-class culture, something sections of the middle-class might look down upon in the style of the MP Emily Thornberry, who famously shared a picture on social media of a house in Kent bedecked with England flags in 2014, with the comment: "Image from Rochester".

    It is not just the far-Right who have appropriated the poppy, of course; the far-Left must share the blame. According to the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), sales of its white poppies, which it distributes in the run-up to Remembrance Day as part of a campaign against the "glorification" of war, are up 27 per cent in schools and universities this year, with most people wearing them as a gesture of solidarity with Gaza.

    A giant poppy decorating a park bandstand in Eastleigh, Hampshire, was also vandalised last weekend, forcing the local council to remove it and seven others.

    But Katwala says there are some trends that augur well for the future of the red poppy, and counteract the actions of extremists.

    "The story has been widened [in recent years] to include more women and minorities," he says. "There has been much more focus on the multi-ethnic and Commonwealth contribution to the world wars that has brought a more inclusive sense of what Remembrance is about. The armies that fought the world wars had the demographic mix of a classroom in 2024 Britain. That history disrupts the Left's pacifism and the far-Right's racism."

    The RBL also continues to work with schools to make its cause relevant to today's pupils. "We want to keep the stories of our veterans alive, as we are sadly losing them," says Rawlinson. "We create resources especially in Years 8 and 9 that are designed to engage children in schools with the work we do. We have 50,000 signed up for a special Remembrance Day assembly across the country."

    And, despite a row in 2017, when the England team was told by FIFA to remove the poppy from England shirts prior to a match against Spain on Armistice Day, poppies in public are probably more common now than they have ever been – on Premier League football shirts, projected onto buildings and in squares and on monuments across the country.

    While the far-Right have attempted to suggest not wearing a poppy is a traitorous act, the obvious riposte has been to point out that it is precisely the freedom preserved by the Armed Forces that means we all have the choice to wear what we please.

    "There have always been clashes between generations over poppies and Remembrance," says Katwala. "The 1960s was an obvious one, with satirical shows and films such as Oh! What A Lovely War. It's a recurring challenge as to whether this tradition will be carried on by successive generations. It's politicised when people on one side of a debate say to the other side, 'The poppy belongs to us and we wear it because people like you don't wear it'. That's where you will get a political and generational divide. So rather than say the poppy is neutral, I'd argue you should say the poppy can represent both sides of a debate and everyone can share the tradition."

    Rawlinson puts it slightly differently. "We are really clear that the poppy is non-partisan and non-sectarian," she says. "We don't focus on the politics of conflicts but on the experiences of the servicemen and women affected."

    But she says the RBL will not hesitate to take action against any misappropriation of their famous symbol. "The poppy is very precious to us," she says. "We are hoping it helps us raise over £50m because we want to continue to do our important work."

    * Names have been changed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/10/why-young-people-are-scared-to-wear-the-poppy

      3. Precisely why this year I didn't buy a poppy (well, 2 poppies because I always buy 1 for MB).
        An organisation that employs diversity officers doesn't need or get my money.

      1. You mean like our future world leaders who are studying at Georgetown University where they announced that they will be hosting a post-election day "elf-Care Suite" for students to deal with "stressful times" which includes playtime with Legos, milk and cookies. and coloring

        10:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Tea, Cocoa, and Self-Care
        11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.: Legos Station
        12:00 p.m.-1:00 p.m.: Healthy Treats and Heaithy Habits
        1:00 p.m.-2:00 p.m.: Coloring and Mindfulness Exercises
        2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m.: Milk and Cookies
        4:00 p.m.-5:o0 p.m.: Legos and Coloring
        5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m.: Snacks and Self-Guided Meditation

        Just wait until Trump declares that climate emergencies are fake.

    3. This sort of nonsense, I actually become weary reading it. The simple fact of commemoration deliberately complicated until it becomes impossible to morn. It is a sort of contamination that the left is so good at for the destruction of what is essentially an act of caring for all those who have gone, robbed of life and who, by that act, made our own happiness and peace possible. But the left cannot allow one simple act, wearing a poppy without shitting on it. And excuse me for putting it so bluntly but that is exactly how I see the behaviour of the left in desecrating a symbol of self sacrifice so that even they can live in their misanthropy.

      1. Desecration appears as yellow and blue poppies fashioned as a symbol of supporting the Ukies.

        Desecration is the Canadian practice of having Ondigenous Remembrance Day and Chinese Remembrance Day in addition to the real Remembrance Day, shouldn't it be just one ceremony honouring all?

        But the worst example of desecration is where that scum Trudeau takes a break from destroying our military so that he can get another photo op laying a wreath.

    4. What a load of old tosh. As usual it’s the left, far left that covers them all, that denigrate Remembrance Day because they hate everything that makes a country great. If only they could embrace the poppy’s true meaning and stop trying to change its meaning. THEY GAVE THEIR TODAY SO THAT WE COULD HAVE OUR TOMORROW.

      1. Or as the person reading the Kohima epitaph at our war memorial said, "for your today, we gave our tomorrow"!

    5. It's probably my own fault. I leave stuff to the last minute. But yesterday, remembering that I needed a poppy for today's events, I took a Rail Replacement Bus to Guildford, in search of a poppy seller. Tried the 'malls' – The Friary, Tunsgate, the full length of the High Street… Zilch. Tesco Metro, Waitrose, W H Smith, Nada.

      Amazon were prepared to sell me a "2023" poppy brooch, to be delivered next week. I could have had a Chinese knock-off delivered yesterday, which rather misses the point.

      It was the same last year. In fucking Aldershot, of all places.

      I know – buy earlier.

      So, I have. Went to the local RBL club with the Rector / wife / Churchwarden. Enjoyed some splendid sandwiches, sank a couple of pints of bitter, and Bought. A. Poppy.

      I'm sorted for next year…

    6. "Sunder Katwala, director of British Future, a think tank that specialises in immigration, integration, race and identity …" therein lies part of the problem! I didn't buy a new poppy this year (but I did put some money in the collection) was because the RBL had gone all woke.

  70. Yet again, the Germans have a word for it.
    Step aside, Schadenfreude; make way for Dunkelflaute.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14065207/Why-doom-monger-Kier-Starmer-blame-dreary-weather-draining-life-Britain-QUENTIN-LETTS.html

    "Why I believe doom-monger Kier Starmer must be to blame for this damned dreary weather that's draining the life out of Britain: QUENTIN LETTS

    Published: 11:54, 10 November 2024 |

    Most of us are currently languishing under skies the colour of mushroom soup. Standards slump at flagpoles. Lake-waters lap lifelessly and more days of the same are forecast.

    Across the country there spreads a mood of ennui, plus a certain unease among eco-campaigners who hope we won’t notice that wind turbines have stopped rotating. With the sun almost unseen, solar panels are not much cop, either.

    November should be a month of autumn gusts and mornings so crisp that your nose pinkens. Usually you can pretend those tear-filled eyes on Remembrance Sunday are caused by the biting chill. Not this year.

    Everything is just dull and flat. This autumn of 2024, the kingdom of Keir is as becalmed as the sea in Coleridge’s The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner:

    Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down

    ’Twas sad as sad could be;

    And we did speak only to break

    The silence of the sea!

    Anglophone meteorologists say we are experiencing anticyclonic gloom when high pressure blocks incoming weather fronts and nothing much happens.

    As ever, when it comes to pessimism, the Germans have a better term. They talk of Dunkelflaute.

    This may sound like something you’d expect to find floating at the top of your bowl of Schnüsch. If not vegetable soup, could it be a brand of new Bavarian lager? Ein Stein von Dunkelflaute please, landlord.

    Dunkelflaute is actually a mash-up of the German words Dunkelheit (darkness) and Windflaute (weak winds) – exactly what assails us right now and possibly for several glum days to come.

    Dunkelflaute is not only a satisfying word; it may also be a metaphor. As well as evoking our current climatic quiescence it arguably applies to a broader spiritual and emotional torpor that afflicts our country.

    While the British Isles crouch under this blanket of dull clouds can the same not also be said of our politics, economy and culture?

    In its weather sense Dunkelflaute is worrying enough. Ed Miliband, energy secretary, is determined we will lead the world in ditching fossil fuels. Labour sneered at the Tories’ talk of ‘global Britain’ but now we are apparently going to be ‘global leaders’ on climate change, even if it plunges us into blackouts.

    No matter that coal-fired power stations in China and India are pumping fumes into the atmosphere. No matter that Donald Trump’s America is about to ‘drill, baby, drill’ and that Vladimir Putin’s war is blasting as big a hole in the ozone layer as it is in Ukraine’s eastern flank. Mr Miliband is going to spend billions on measures to ensure that we show the world how noble we are by becoming Net Zero by 2030. Yippee.

    Red Ed is doing this partly for political reasons, hoping Labour can see off any electoral threat from the Greens and the Lib Dems, and partly because he wishes to reinvent himself after leading Labour to defeat in the 2015 General Election.

    It is not impossible that he also genuinely believes this stuff. Much of the British elite claims to do so. In a country now largely secular, Net Zero has become an alternative to religion.

    Politicians and officials and prominent corporatists make a point of being seen to genuflect at its altar, just as Establishment figures in Victorian Britain made sure they were seen attending Anglican church services. It makes them feel virtuous and it is good for their career prospects, even if it leaves the rest of us (literally) cold.

    Swathes of agricultural land are being lost to solar farms. Wind turbines are to be imposed on the shires. Domestic gas boilers will be banned. Petrol and diesel cars scrapped. Our entire energy system, which already has the highest industrial prices in the world, is to be weaned off oil and gas.

    At which point a small child in the crowd might ask the naked emperor ‘what happens during future Dunkelflauten?’

    Mr Miliband and friends will not quite say but they did tell us last week that we could need to start rationing our use of electricity. We would all have to make ‘Herculean efforts’ to achieve 2030 Net Zero.

    By way of context, there was a day last week when wind and solar generated just 3.6 per cent of our energy needs. Facing such data, even the mighty Hercules might have put Net Zero in the too-hard basket.

    At least Mr Miliband is lively. He flashes those cow-catcher teeth and waves his arms like conductor Sir Simon Rattle in full flow.

    Sir Keir Starmer, by contrast, is a prosaic, inert, lacklustre proposition. Platitudinous, droning, a serial life-sapper, Sir Keir is Dunkelflaute made flesh.

    If that sounds mean, let us broaden it to his policies.

    Starmerism, if such a thing exists, is a reversion to 1970s trade unionism, a throwback to collectivism shrouded in expectations (much whipped up by Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves) of impoverishment and decline.

    We can all feel it. It is there in the higher taxes being applied to private businesses and pensions, though not to those in the state sector. It is there in the surrender of the Chagos Islands to hardly-mighty Mauritius.

    You can feel it in Sir Keir’s craven, knee-bowing acceptance of identity politics and in his traipsing back to the EU in the feeble hope that Brussels will let him all but rejoin the single market.

    Verve has vanished. Flair and national self-confidence have been blocked like those weather fronts.

    And as with weather fronts, people seem to be having a better time overseas. We look west across the Atlantic and see an America suddenly re-energised by the re-election of Donald Trump. He is talking of lowering taxes, slashing the bureaucracy and reasserting national self-interest.

    We look south east to Germany, where the government has just collapsed, and we see the likely abandonment of high-tax, mass-immigration policies and eco-activism.

    In South America, there is an astonishing story of political reinvigoration in Argentina under the flamboyantly right-wing President Milei. The economies of India, Gambia, Ethiopia and Cambodia are all forecast to grow by six per cent this year.

    But here, in the Starmer Isles, we are muffled by Dunkelflaute.

    Politics is only part of it. A wider sense of stasis is found in our arts and manners. Our music is in a rut. Publishers seem stuck on stale formats of dystopian fiction and celebrity memoirs.

    Theatre has become the captive of wokeish agitprop. Films are invariably journeys of discovery or supernatural franchise sequels. Television has ceased to be watchable, so bound is it by cliches and bromides and a patronising terror of seriousness.

    Where is the novelty, the invention, the intellectual bombast, the sunshine?

    Instead, the positive is displaced by hand-wringing from an elite ashamed of our history, an elite that claims to be egalitarian but will not trust the people.

    Think – dream! – how different things could be.

    Rather than mushroom soup, we could have horizons of dazzling blue. Flags could snap in an invigorating breeze. Windermere could be a mass of white horses. And we could have a country that encouraged aspiration and talent and new ideas.

    Donner und Blitzen, it would be better than this 1970s socialist Dunkelflaute."

      1. When QL mentions theatre, that brought a pang.
        One of life's little treats was visiting the Mercury, our local theatre.
        They used to put on some wonderful play and musicals; not bog standard rep. stuff, but productions that were well worth seeing.
        Nowadays, I check their programmes for the following months and my heart sinks. No, I don't wish to be 'challenged' by endless LBQTXYZ guff.
        I just want an evening out with friends and/or family to be entertained and maybe have to think a bit.

        1. People obsessed with their nethers have always been iffy. Now all the arts are stained by this repugnant stuff. The UK – a pervert's paradise.

        2. Same here. Not interested in what people think they are, get on with it, but just do tram it down my throat.

        3. Sorry to hear that. I used to go to the Mercury on a regular basis; one of the people sharing my digs worked there and for first nights they used to paper the house. Hence lots of free tickets.

    4. Talking about moving in mysterious ways – I think God has sent us windless sunless days in order to tell Ed Miliband that he is completely insane with his plans for Britain's energy supply!

    5. The weather reflects the misery politicians are heaping on us. This is also reflected in the miserable drab colours of new cars, fawn, dark dismal greens and miserable greys.

    6. Yet again, the mainstream media tries to pretend that it's all just a coincidence, that Starmer dreamed up these policies himself, and that white people are over.
      How can you have a whole article about this government's disastrous policies and not mention that they are merely implementing the United Nations' Agenda 2030?
      Or that the innovation is there, but it is discouraged at every turn by the entrenched powers?

  71. OT, any computer experts out there who can tell me how to put a folder in a memory stick behind a password. I've tried right clicking the folder then selected properties>advanced but the 'encrypt contents to secure data' box is greyed out

  72. Princess of Wales pays tribute in military-style dress coat at Remembrance service

    The princess wearing a velvet neck bow. Her hair styled in a low bun beneath a floral hat with short netted veil.
    Kate’s diamond and pearl drop earrings belonged to the late Queen and she wore her silver Queen’s Dragoon Guards brooch – in a nod to her role as the regiment’s Colonel-in-Chief – beneath three red poppies.
    https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/AA1tPswq.img?w=768&h=1022&m=6&x=576&y=705&s=377&d=377

    Well done Katie.

  75. I have been watching Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph.

    One of the "High Ranking Dignitary" wreathe layers was a skinheaded Bastard wearing a 'mini' length overcoat.

    He did not
    Bow his head,after laying the wreath
    or
    Join in the Prayers ,Hymns or Anthem

    The bastard behaved even worse last year.

    Did anyone else notice him , or know who he is.

    I would like to know who he represents

    3. Even Sinn Fein leaders were showing respect at remembrance day ceremonies – unlike that Wrexham character.

    5. Lots of Scots played significant parts in all the wars. Many of them died, too. Do they not need remembered with respect, together with the other fallen, Commonwealth and allies?

      1. Many of the Scots regiments were Titans of bravery (now no longer part of the army due to cuts and amalgamations )

        Stephen Flynn should be dismissed pronto and punished for his disgraceful behaviour .

        Given a Glasgow kiss would be a suitable starter for ten !

      2. They started quite a few too.

        The Italian dwarf, 'Bonnie Prince' Proper Charlie, marched his men-in-skirts on London. They only got as far as Derbyshire before some locals saw them, approached them, and said: "Ayup, lasses. I think tha'd better be getting theesens back up to Jessieland before tha' catches thee deaths o' cold in them woolly frocks tha' wearing'. There's nowt for thee down t'Smoke, tha' knows. It's all ponces and weak beer down theer. In any case, we don't normally slap lasses, but we'd make an exception for you cross-dressin' weirdos. So get thee gone, pronto, back to where tha' comes from or we might get a bit cross with thee."

        Charlie's Jock rabble soon turned back. They had no appetite for parlezing with Derbyshire lads.

    7. Stephen Flynn, SNP. Maybe he knows where the missing £600k is, no-one seems interested in finding out. Make a good donation to veterans.

      2. I've got a Jehovas Witness advent calendar – behind every door there's a notice which says 'fuck off'

    3. Or September and October.
      Although, apparently, star gazing whizz kids reckon Christ's birthday was 15th. September.
      The Saviour was an organising Virgo!

        1. You want some hot cross buns? They are on sale here this week. There again, you wouldn't be impressed by the lack of quality.

        2. I buy my daily Hot Cross Buns to have with my 11 am coffee at Aldi. But the cheaper packs of 6 have now been replaced by the dearer “luxury” packs which only contain 4. Drat and double drat.

    4. Christmas is not celebrated by the global corporations.

      They all worship at the altar of mammon (not gammon) and that season of festivities, for them, starts on January 1 every year and goes on until December 31.

      1. If not celebrating gammon then why do the supermarkets have all of those large hama on sale at christmas?

        it must be time for the boxing day sales.

    5. Whatever Trump-hating American women will be doing this month and in future months will not be this if their menfolk voted for the new president!

      This news has been welcomed by Republicans who hope the birth rate in Democrat families will fall.

  77. Man killed after horror triple stabbing at East Street Market in south London.

    A house fire that left two people dead in Coventry on Friday was caused by a converted e-bike, according to the fire service.

    Knives or batteries – Which will be the cause of most deaths in the future? They can't both be top killers . . .FIGHT! . . . FIGHT!

    3. Although not given to health and safety, I never leave laptops or phones charging overnight or when we go out.

  78. 396229 +up ticks,

    The lord treacherously meddlesome, poofs like gum, can things really get worse?

    Dt,

    The frontrunner to become the next US ambassador has said the UK should move beyond the “special relationship…

  79. Today is Remembrance Sunday and Free Speech is commemorating it with an article of personal remembrance by former RAF fighter pilot Iain Hunter, and by the story a forgotten battle, the One Hundred Day Offensive , led by the British Army, that ended the war to end all wars.

    And we are still collecting for ex-servicemen and women as part of our Remembrance Day appeal, with the charity Help For Homeless Veterans well in the lead in our poll. All donations to FSB up to 12th November will be given to the winning charity.

    https://www.freespeechbacklash.com/

  80. "A man has died after three people were stabbed at a street market in London on Sunday morning.

    The individuals were attacked at East Street Market off Walworth Road in south London, according to the Metropolitan Police.

    Officers were first called to the scene at around 10.40am. A man, believed to be in his 60s, was arrested and taken into custody.

    One man died at the scene and two people – a man and a woman – were taken to hospital for treatment. Their condition remains unknown.

    Police have said the incident is not being treated as terrorism."

    Thinking aloud here. Do I comment, upset the TBTB and get 2 years of 3 meals a day and no heating costs; or do I finish designing our 2024 Christmas card?
    Choices, choices.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2d8fe2cf0f2d5219f237701eb8c03ddf9d94465afd91f7bdfe59a41595630d7.png It's a little different here, in yer Sverige. Not only are sheath knives on open display in all hardware stores, workmen routinely wear them on their belts or workwear when out and about in public … and no one bats an eyelid.

      For example, the photograph, which I took while on a train in September, shows a young 17-ish-year old boy, sitting on the train with his electric scooter, and seemingly displaying no fewer than four sheath knives on his work trousers.

      The main difference between Sverige and Albion is that Swedes do not go around stabbing each other.

      [Of course, the incomers in the city suburbs much prefer to use guns and grenades when killing each other.]

        1. Snake belt? You are Ranji Ram from It A’int Half Hot, Mum and I claim my 100 Rupee note!

          “Don’t smirk, Patton, I shan’t kiss you!”

        1. No such place. There is, however, a Malmö.
          I’ve been there many times on shopping expeditions, or just passing through, and have yet to be shot or bombed.

    4. Canada has the knife problem solved, Trudeau introduced a gun program several years ago that would effectively ban rifles and force owners to sell them to the government. $67 million spent so far and not a single gun returned.

      Well no it doesn't stop knife or handgun crime but it is a great talking point for the emporer and much easier for him than tackling the smuggling of illegal handgun from the US.

    5. If I were not a Christian and if I were not ethnically white English and I stabbed someone to death in the name of my religion might I not feel rather dispirited that my zealous crime was not classified as terrorism when that was what I intended it to be?

  81. Remembrance Sunday at the Cenotaph .

    Moh and I recognised several people who made a supreme effort to attend and march with their units .

    I cried my heart out .. all the way through the service and march past .. because I felt so relieved and happy to view such a huge turn out of people , similar in thought and deed to you and me , and the poignancy of the sacrifice a normal life denied to many thousands who did their bit for Queen and country .

    I don't want to gush on dramatically , but what a wonderful memorial to the fallen .. over 10,000 attended ..

    The marching bands played ,the bugles plaintively tootled and the solitary last post was set in our minds forever.

    Dare I suggest , more than 10,000 illegals have crossed the English Channel in small boats since the B###### Starmer and company cheated their way into power in July .

    The volume of wonderful men and women who attended the parade today must have shown to politicians what the illegal numbers look like .. (4months worth of illegals would stretch for miles ).

  82. New York university apparently gave students time off to get over the horror of Trump's re-election.
    The poor dears.
    Hope the piss was extracted royally from the snowflakes.

  84. A visceral Par Four!

    Wordle 1,240 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Me too.

      Wordle 1,240 4/6

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

    5. Big bad Bogey here… grrrr…..

      Wordle 1,240 5/6

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

      I notice our divots are almost identical again – but I used another 'catch-all' word on guess 3… doh!

      2. Reform got substantially more votes than the Liberal Democrats and won only 5 seats to the Lib Dems 72. They also won far more votes than the SNP with 9 seats, Sinn Fein with 7 seats and the same number of seats as the DUP with 5.

        The PTB are going to pay dearly for this spiteful snub and let us hope that a great number of erstwhile Conservative voters will now move to Reform.

        They didn't like it when Trump won the popular vote – Farage will probably do so next time – after all on PR systems he has already won two elections : one for UKIP and the other for the Brexit Party and the Conservative Party, in spite of having a new woman leader, is beginning to lose ground to Reform.

      5. Exactly this. I've been 'drunk on leftie tears' since Wednesday. This has brought me back down to earth.

        But our 'Powers That Be' are increasingly becoming outliers in the West. Here in the UK, we're behind the curve. But – should we even be permitted to vote in 2029 – I predict a sea change in UK politics.

        I'm glad that Kemi won the leadership, purely because she will run rings round our autistic PM. But she is outnumbered by 'One Nation' so-called Tories but actual Lib Dems. She may be among their number. Should I be spared, come 2029, I'll still be voting Reform.

    2. Farage said that Reform UK was told that it could not lay a wreath as the party only has five MPs in the House of Commons, below the threshold of six MPs needed to qualify for wreath laying.

      However, Farage pointed out that Gavin Robinson, deputy leader of the DUP, laid a wreath. The DUP has five MPs in Westminster, exactly the same number as Reform UK.

      Ouch. That's a big FO to Reform if the pro-Republican UK establishment puts it below the DUP.

      1. I thought that Jim Allister of the TUP had put himself under the Reform UK whip and so would have made 6 MPs.

        1. He stood at the GE in partnership (whatever that means) but appears not to have taken the whip.

          BTW, it's TUV – Traditional Unionist Voice.

  86. Two murders today in London. "Get used to it." © The Caliph of Londonistan.

    At least there is no other news….

    A demain

    1. You've been quiet recently, I trust all is well, and that you haven't developed anything serious.

      Like becoming allergic to cats.

      1. Thanks for asking. I was due to go to Devon on Friday to celebrate my 90 year old cousin’s death. On Tuesday I started feeing dizzy and had a racing pulse – which has only late today reverted to something passing for normal. So I missed the event – at which 150 family and friends were present. Fortunately my elder son was there to represent our part of the family.

        I am now the next in line……

        2. Similar for me, next up on the family tree.
          Until the scare this year, I would have said I was fittest of all but the very youngest, now….

    1. Same here PM.

      The sun started peeping through whilst we were watching the Cenotaph ceremony on the box .. small clearance , bits of blue sky then sunshine …

      We went out for a nice walk later on in the afternoon, the leaves were dry crisp and crackly, lovely colours and a beautiful Autumnal canopy of trees.

  88. It may have been slightly fixed, as a Mark (ho ho) of respect, but I was pleased that Cavendish went out on a high.

      1. Lots of technical problems to solve, plus expensive fuel that costs more to produce than it delivers…

  91. Trump ‘will hurt America’ if he allows Putin to win in Ukraine
    Nato’s top military officer criticises president-elect’s peace plans and warns North Korea’s involvement is a ‘problem’ for the US
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/10/donald-trump-will-hurt-america-if-he-allows-putins-victory/

    Has the top military officer of NATO got a vested interest in the war continuing ad infinitum?

    BTL

    Peace in the Ukraine would be a WIN WIN WIN all round: a WIN for Trump; a WIN for Putin but above all a WIN for the people of the Ukraine.

    1. Has the top military officer of NATO got a vested interest in the war continuing ad infinitum?

      I'm reminded here of ursine sylvan defecation habits, and the catholicity of the Supreme Pontiff.

  93. Lovely to see our old friends again today for lunch at home.
    It's so nice to sit and laugh and chat with old friends.
    And we all loved the food especially the home made apple crumble and custard

  95. From Coffee House,the Spectator

    The interest in reading books and the appreciation of English literature is at a nadir. This week it was revealed that only 35 per cent of eight to 18-year-olds enjoy reading in their spare time. The finding, by the National Literacy Trust, represents more than an 8 per cent per cent drop on last year, and the lowest level ever recorded by the charity since it began surveying children about their reading habits, 19 years ago. The drop has been especially pronounced among boys.

    It also emerged that Canterbury Christ Church University is to scrap degrees in English literature because of a lack of demand in applicants. The establishment, in the Kent city which was the birthplace of Christopher Marlowe and a place forever associated with Geoffrey Chaucer, says the course is ‘no longer viable in the current climate’.

    If we wish to instil a love of reading among young minds, we are going about it the wrong way

    By ‘current climate’, the university is no doubt alluding to the financial crisis among universities, many of which expanded too ambitiously and recklessly after polytechnics were abolished in 1992. Tuition fees, and their rise this week, have since exacerbated the problem.

    Yet there is a wider problem, and this stems from the literature children and teenagers are encouraged to read, and the manner in which this literature is taught. Reading is no longer valued for its intrinsic worth, but as a medium to instil political doctrine.

    Books for children aren’t much fun these days, with so much of the fare on offer displaying a conspicuous capture by woke ideology. Parents perusing their local library or bookshop are met with grim evidence of this development. Popular titles include The Pronoun Book: The brand new illustrated picture book for 2022, There’s a Boy in the Girls’ Bathroom and My Skin, Your Skin: Let’s talk about race, racism and empowerment. What infant wouldn’t prefer to read instead a Mr. Men book? What older child wouldn’t rather escape with a Tintin or Harry Potter adventure?

    Books placed in front of youngsters continue to be politicised until their late teens, when they enter university. These institutions have been traducing English literature in their courses for some time now, a trend merely exacerbated by the arrival of woke dogma in the mid-part of in the last decade and its subsequent entrenchment. This is epitomised by trigger warnings concerning ‘upsetting’ or ‘inappropriate’ content at the front of books and before lectures. Who would want to study English in this climate?

    Already by the 1990s, it had become standard practice in higher education to explain Robinson Crusoe as a metaphor for imperialism of the white man, in which a coloniser recreates a version of European civilisation, replete with his own black man as a subservient. In that decade, a relative of mine took a mature degree in English literature at Birkbeck, University of London, where she was taught that Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens was a metaphor for patriarchy and colonialism, Mrs Bennet’s behaviour in Pride and Prejudice owed to her going through the menopause, and that D.H.Lawrence’s entire oeuvre was suffused with phallocentrism. She duly changed her course to French.

    A contemporary of mine also went to study English literature in the 1990s – at Birmingham University – where her youthful passion for reading was almost extinguished by the surgical and ideological dissection of the classics.

    If we wish to instil a love of reading among young minds, we are going about it the wrong way. One far more preferable method for engendering an interest in English is to encourage the young to read engaging and inspiring literature, and to appreciate art for its own sake. Before woke monomania took hold, JK Rowling achieved this feat in the first two decades of this century with her Harry Potters stories. Sure, they were old-fashioned, harking back to a world of boarding schools and stark discipline. And they were derivative, reliant on the monomyth as outlined by the Jungian anthropologist Joseph Campbell: that of the orphaned boy charged with a mission, who finds a companion or companions, is guided by a wizened sage before confronting the evil lord in his lair. That story is also Lord of the Rings and Star Wars, to name two examples. But the Harry Potter books were finely-crafted and endearing.

    The old stories are often the best. Tales of adventure, daring, and the battle between good and evil always excite girls and boys – especially boys. The best way to arouse a passion for English is to teach from an early age stories that generate wonder and curiosity: from Robert Louis Stevenson and Jules Verne to George Orwell and Ray Bradbury. A passion for English will ideally be implanted and maintained thereafter. Contrarily, the worst way to get people reading, and keep them reading into early adulthood, is to view this activity as a blunt means of social engineering.

    Written by
    Patrick West
    Patrick West is a columnist for Spiked and author of Get Over Yourself: Nietzsche For Our Times (Societas, 2017)
    Comments

    1. Smug mode – Junior was reading the Faraway Tree when he was 5. The Hobbit by 6. He has the same love for books as his Dad and asks for a pile every so often. The Warqueen ruins hers, bending the front covers back and breaking the spines. None of that in the library. She's barred.

      So are the dogs (sort of, they haven't got library cards).

    2. How many of those children who don't read or don't like reading have been brought up in households with no books?

      1. A lot of course depends on the parents and the home they provide. Not only interest in literature, but also music, art, movies even the enjoyment of good food. If your parents are interested in needlework or carpentry. Do their own decorating. Perhaps you come from a family of mechanics. The list is endless.

  96. WOW, just look at these hunter gatherer groups who eat and live the Grizzly diet.

    Aren't they advanced and sophisticated, with huge cranial capacity?

    Inventing all manner of things that agrarian cultures haven't and couldn't.

    Such a shame that people decided to use farming to progress, we could all have been this lucky.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter-gatherer
    Head down to Modern hunter-gatherer groups to see all the tribes and people who are so advanced.

    1. Yep, we’re always being told they had a healthy nature respecting lifestyle but hunter-gatherer societies had an average life expectancy of 35.

    2. Hunter gatherer gave way to agrarian farming as larger groups began to band together for security and settle in one area, thus protect crops.

      The rest, as they say. is history. It is this which greeniacs don't seem to understand. They can set about destroying our society and technology, but they only exist with their luxury beliefs because of capitalism and markets. The thing they want rid of is the thing that enables their stupid conceit.

      1. I agree with your comment, but the point I was making was that without that agrarian input mankind would have made no progress if it had stuck to the diet of the hunter gatherers.

        Suggesting that a non-vegetable diet is a good thing is utterly wrong.

    1. Proper food!

      Made a tiramssu but used Ainsley's recipe. Only 2 eggs rather than many. Much firmer mixture.

  99. We ate roast pork for supper , lots of vegetables and my current favourite Cavolo nero or 'Italian kale' which is a dark green cabbage packed with nutrients and flavour. I love it .. flavoursome and different .

    Moh and son no1 enjoyed their roast pork .. shoulder…but to be quite honest I would have preferred fish .

    We have had a run of fish meals .. not a bit of batter in sight .. just poached or lightly fried haddock or cod / salmon/etc last week .

    This week will be a meat week because that is what they want..

    1. Cabbage is like sprouts. People think they like it, but they don't. They're pretending because they think they should, but in truth, it's a tasteless, nasty thing like chewing indestructible cardboard.

      Yet, folk buy it, suffering and in dreadful pain as a form of Stockholm syndrome captures them.

      Don't worry Belle. We're here for you. Just throw the cabbage away.

      1. Never eat sprouts, nor permit them in my house.
        Luckily they are not popular in Spain and only available in shops in small trays containing maybe half a dozen covered in cellophane.
        We occasionally buy cabbage to make cole slaw, which I rather like.
        My mother used to boil cabbage and bacon ribs together and serve it as a family delicacy. She would invite my siblings to lunch whenever she did this, and I used to thank God I lived abroad.
        Another disgusting vegetable, is of course broccoli but nothing beats sprouts for pure culinary depravity.

        1. I see you are a sensible fellow. Yes, broccoli is also thoroughly revolting.

          Fear not! It's perfectly normal to despise these awful 'vegetables'.

      2. I enjoy almost all green vegetables, in moderation.
        Leeks, cabbage, sprouts, kale, chard, spinach etc etc; cook it badly, it's awful, cook it well and it's delicious.

        I'm fortunate that HG is a very good cook, and feeds me well.

        1. Steaming over the tatties or turnips (aka as "swedes" by southerners) and the resulting water saved and used for the gravy.

      4. Take two paracetamol and go to bed. You clearly have a temperature and have become confused. :@)

    2. We had fish pie last night and finished it off for lunch today.
      This evening we had roast chicken, roastie spuds, cauli and baby carrots – first gravy since last winter.

      1. Morning Phizzee,

        I love that recipe , I will use it next time . Thank you .

        My poaching method consisted of sliced onions baby tomatoes and a bag of fresh spinach .
        Steamed the fish on top .. was okayish but bit of a soggy mess, seasoned with Italian seasoning , not too sure I got that right , but everyone enjoyed it , I wasn’t so sure though.

    1. The key is to simply ignore the diversity, the poofter, the muslim nonsense and just chuck it away as the unimportant nonsense from foaming idiots it is.

  101. Looking at the US popular vote:
    Trump has virtually the same number as 2020.
    I wonder where all the 2020 Democrats went, if they really existed at all.

    He's within shouting distance of having a Republican House to add to the Senate and Scotus.
    Let's hope he gets it and uses the next 4 years to completely rebuild America.

  102. I'm sorry to say we were manhandling a core switch into place when 11 struck. We were reminded through by one of the installers coming through and asking if we were observing. It took a moment to realise and then we joined the lot outside – a funny group of motley gathered together to remember the sacrifices others have made.

    We all agreed that Starmer's frenzied attempts to restore those awful times is sickening.

    1. Don't worry. While no longer the Verger, I still look after the tower clock at St Laurence, Seale. But – no longer living just across the road – much is left to be desired. A fortnight ago, I belatedly put the clock back. But that's a more difficult process than putting it forward. Turret clocks don't go backwards, or so I'm told. Ours did, a couple of years ago. Both the Rector and myself witnessed this. We were only drinking coffee at the time.

      I'm assured by Cumbria Clock Company that what we observed was impossible. But I've posted here before that my nocturnal visits to change the clock, have twice caused the clock to stop, before I touched it.

      Fast forward to last Tuesday. The organ tuner was due to visit, before going on to Puttenham (the next village). So I recieved a ext message to say that he found the door locked at 14:30. Today, I'm assured that – not only was the church open at 14:30, but several folk – including the Rector – were actually in the building.

      Somehing's afoot. But despite the fact that the clock is one minute slow, it struck in absolute sync with the Reveille.

      It's now keeping perfect time. I just need to grab an opportunity to ascend the tower stair and fast-forward it by a minute. Unfortunately, my prosthetic legs have other ideas. Last ascent was hands and knees.

      1. Is it a Joyce clock? One of the listed churches in North Shropshire has a Joyce clock that's going to be refurbished by Cumbria Clock Co. Apparently one or maybe two of the employees formerly worked for Joyce.

        1. No – it’s by Gillet, Bland & Co. of Croydon. Now Gillet & Johnson, they maintained our clock until around three years age, finally dispensing with their reliably unreliable services in favour of Cumbria Clock.

  103. Well, got back from the service, via a pint in the King's Head, made myself a meal followed by a mug of tea
    Then started having a bit of a muzzy headache so went back to bed for an hour which turned into 2.

    I've a bit of a chesty cough developing but don't feel as if I've a temperature. I've given clearing the hillside a break today and will probably do the same tomorrow as I need a fruit and veg run to the greengrocer's in Belper.

    The DT has been working this weekend on evening specials as the last operating days of the season up at Crich and is due home soon.

      1. Ain’t it just.

        And what’s more, we don’t believe them.

        They know we don’t believe them.

        We know they know we don’t believe them.

        They know we know they know we don’t believe them.

  105. Evening, all. Church was packed this morning for the Remembrance Day service. Sadly one of the guide leaders was wearing a white poppy next to the red one and another had a metal purple poppy next to the red one. What they are teaching their charges about the meaning of the commemoration I dread to think.

    When I got home I thought I'd cook the lamb steak I'd put in the fridge to defrost, but unfortunately, it turned out to be diced beef. Cue me having to try to make boeuf bourguignon with only half the ingredients. It was only half as successful as it might have been 🙁 Still, only putting half a bottle of wine in it did mean there was half left for me to drink.

    1. Ditto. Though the RBL contingent is on a downward trajectory.

      St Bartholomew, Wanborough is a very special place. It's in the Domesday Book. Was used as a cowshed for a while. But Special Operations Executive commandeered the adjacent Manor House.

      Our 9 am Communion was necessarily at the wrong time, but the preceding Act of Remembrance was poignant as ever. Here are the names. I doubt whether any other humble village has such a list of heroes…

      1914 – 1919

      Frank BICKNELL  Bertie CHENNELL  Ernest CHENNELL Henry J HARDING  Owen W HATCH  John E HAWKES William J HEDGER  Frederick E NORMAN  David REVELL Arthur SAUNDERS  William SAUNDERS  Lionel WEST

      1939 – 1945

      William B CHENNELL  A C PERKINS

      European Resistance Group

      Jack AGAZARIAN  Phillip AMPHLETT  James AMPS Joseph ANTELME  Denis BARETT  Yolande BEEKMAN Gustave BIELER  André BLOCH  Marcus BLOOM Jean BOUGUENNEC  Eric CAUCHI  Marcel CLECH George CLEMENT  Ted COPPIN  Marcel DEFENCE Hugh DORMER  Roland DOWLEN  Emile DUBOUDIN Philip DUCLOS  Marcel FOX  Henri GAILLOT
      Harry GRAHAM  William GROVER-WILLIAMS  John HAMILTON Victor HAYES  Noor-un-Nisa INAYAT-KHAN  Sidney JONES Clément JUMEAU  Lionel LEE  Cicely LEFORT  Vera LEIGH Eugene LEVENE  John MACALISTER  André MAUGENET
      James MAYER  James MENZIES / MENNESSON  François MICHEL  Isidore NEWMAN  Gilbert NORMAN  Maurice PERTSCHUK Frank PICKERSGILL  Elaine PLEWMAN  Adolphe RABINOVITCH Brian RAFFERTY  Diana ROWDEN  Charles SKEPPER Victor SOSKICE  Arthur STEELE  Francis SUTTILL Paul TESSIER  Michael TROTOBAS  François VALLEE Edward WILKINSON  Jean WORMS  John YOUNG

      We will remember them

      1. The Chennels took a pasting. The list of our war dead took some time to read – and that was only WW1. About half as many in WW2. Our vicar's father was a rear gunner in Lancasters. As she observed, she was lucky to be here. Her mother was in the Y Service.

      2. I recognised the name Noor Inayat-Khan, so I checked on Wikipedia, and I think I remember reading about the unveiling of the memorial to her in 2012. She was a wireless operator in occupied France for SOE when the life expectancy of that role was six weeks. She was awarded the George Cross posthumously – so there can't be many humble villages (if any other at all) that have a holder of that award in their Roll of Remembrance.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan

        2. Several more had the same fate Yolande Beekman, Gustave Bieler and more.

          All young, all brave.

      3. I recognised the name Noor Inayat-Khan, so I checked on Wikipedia, and I think I remember reading about the unveiling of the memorial to her in 2012. She was a wireless operator in occupied France for SOE when the life expectancy of that role was six weeks. She was awarded the George Cross posthumously – so there can't be many humble villages (if any other at all) that have a holder of that award in their Roll of Remembrance.
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noor_Inayat_Khan

      1. War memorial first in our case. March from the Town Hall, short service at the war memorial (outside the church), last post and silence at 11.00 then inside for the service proper. Our vicar is a Queen's (now, I suppose, King's) Chaplain so was wearing a red cassock.

          1. Yes. Over a year now. The Rectorette continues to wreck, but I don't attend to witness it (although I do get reports from people in the village). I can't see myself going back; I'm involved in the life of this church; on the list of readers and elected to the Diocesan Synod (and thus the Deanery Synod – and the PCC if it didn't clash with my chairing another meeting on the same day at the same time).

          4. I have, in some ways gone back to my childhood roots; I worshipped in an Oxford Movement church, then at university I used to sing in the choir in an Oxford Movement church. I am not keen on the Eucharist being celebrated by someone who looks like a lab assistant and "modernises" the words. Talking of modernising, we sang the tune of "O Valiant Hearts" but to words about "humankind" and "future generations". I may have just strayed back to the original words from time to time!

          6. We sang the original words. Likewise Jerusalem and I Vow To Thee My Country.

            Interestingly there was a recognisable GB News contingent in the congregation this morning.

          7. Our diocese is full on "woke" and I expect orders trickle down from Lichfield that we need to be more modern (we certainly are told we have to be more "diverse" and "inclusive").

    3. We walked up to the USAAF Heavy Bomber Squadron(s) Memorial on the former WWII Ridgewell airfield perimeter road leading to Ovington from our village of Ashen.

      There were two beautiful poppy wreaths and several small wooden crosses in the grass verge.

      The memorial is principally for the 581st Squadron and lists the Americans and which State they came from and one British civilian who died. I believe several were killed loading a bomb which exploded onto a B17B Flying Fortress. Others were lost on raids in the Ruhr industrial area of Germany.

      The Cenotaph in London stands opposite Richmond House for which I was the Project Architect in the eighties and during its construction I became aware of the many ceremonies which occur throughout the year. The most poignant I witnessed over five or so years was ANZAC Day where the line of attendees would shorten each year.

    2. A MUCH under-rated English composer, due in no small part to him not being one of Benjamin Britten's adoring sycophants.

Comments are closed.