Sunday 10 September: How the bloated bureaucracy of the Church is pushing parishes to extinction

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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397 thoughts on “Sunday 10 September: How the bloated bureaucracy of the Church is pushing parishes to extinction”

  2. Morning, all Y’all.
    Foggy again. Can’t see the cows for fog.
    Busy day planned – trim trees by the farm entrance, dump ancient contents of freezer (2016 mince, anyone?) and move scaffolding.

    1. Good morning Ob, and everyone.

      Are there any lakes in your vicinity? Fish like mince, and so do tiny water creatures that exist at the front links of the food chain.

      1. I was wondering whether Paul has a local charity willing to take donations of old though still edible food.

    2. Good morning Ob, and everyone.

      Are there any lakes in your vicinity? Fish like mince, and so do tiny water creatures that exist at the front links of the food chain.

  5. Morning all – off to Frampton today for the Country Fair. Sun came up over the hill and it’s a bit cooler and cloudy, with some rain before dawn.

    2. Today’s weather chart for Frampton on Severn is more unsettled than that of today for Stroud, which I looked at yesterday. Rather more in the way of thundery activity is being shown. On the other hand, yesterday’s prediction of isolated thundery outbreaks today for Stevenage has been changed to overcast but dry. That said, it’s been mostly sunny this morning.

      1. They were right, David – we had heavy rain in Frampton for a while before it moved over and we had a fine and warm afternoon. A lot less rain was had here at home.

  6. 376036+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Back in 2016 the electorate couldn’t wait to wrong the right they had achieved on the 24/6/2016, they returned to supporting the far left united party, AKA the lab/lib/con coalition pro eu party

    The treacherous rot riddled united pro eu coalition party made sure we,from a sure-fired winning position as a country could never again look with certainty to a safe secure future.

    Then the killing / maiming / fear mongering started…………

    Dt,,
    Remainers’ EU delusions are collapsing
    While the Brussels elites do their best to pretend nothing has changed, European politics has steadily shifted to the Right

  8. Rishi Sunak joins forces with Giorgia Meloni to tackle illegal migration. 10 September 2023.

    Speaking at the G20 Summit in Delhi, the Prime Minister suggested that the two leaders would use Italy’s turn to host the G7 next year, and his chairmanship of a summit of European leaders, to “bring people together to talk about this issue”.

    Last week, Austria became the latest EU country to break ranks to demand that Brussels follow Britain’s policy of sending illegal migrants to Rwanda for their asylum claims to be processed. Mr Sunak said similar moves in Europe were showing that “where we lead others will follow”.

    Amid significant pressure from Red Wall MPs and voters to fulfil his pledge to stop the passage of small boats carrying migrants across the Channel, Mr Sunak also revealed that he was pushing Narendra Modi for a strengthened returns agreement with India amid Government concern about a significant increase in illegal arrivals from the country.

    I don’t suppose there has ever been an age where lies are so much a part of political discourse. This is of course meaningless pointless waffle. None of them have any intention of preventing it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/09/rishi-sunak-giorgia-meloni-italy-migrants-channel-crossings/

    1. And £ 1.5 billion for a climate change fund to help developing countries, while we continue to regress

    3. My perception was that Ms Meloni was keen for a photo with PM Sunak to show that she isn’t a snob.

  9. Morning all,

    I could hardly believe what I heard this morning on Radio 4 that the Government was even considering cutting off the UK national gas grid to achieve legislated net zero targets.It is estimated that it would cost householders £2,000 each just to decommission the grid let alone having to find more expensive alternative means for cooking and heating like electricity and heat pumps

      1. Net Absolute Zero Implementation party, I think, which will be the temperature in our houses when they have finished.

      2. The intent is the same: control, power, limitations on others.

        The globalists have never really got over losing WW2.

    2. Not content with squandering and abusing a healthy majority, our government has now set itself up as an enemy of the people.

    3. And May is very much to the fore in being the one to blame for this lunacy as she apparently enshrined the whole nut zero debacle in law?

    2. Not where we are in mid Hertfordshire.
      Warming up nicely again.
      Rain Tuesday, it’s my birthday.
      The family call me Rainman..🌧☔️

  11. ‘Morning, Peeps. After yet another stonking hot day, followed by overnight humidity that would put a sauna to shame, today will be only a slight improvement at 26°, although my Forest duty will be a stubborn 27°. Roll on Tuesday, when a modest 22° should be with us.

    Article in today’s DT:

    “Households face £2,300 bills under net zero plans

    The cost of shutting down Britain’s gas grid could reach £65bn”

    The lunacy is gathering pace, as this country embraces financial suicide.

    1. Well done. Par four here.

      Wordle 813 4/6

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

    2. No thrills here – par 4
      Wordle 813 4/6

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

    3. Did mine in the very small hours this morning.

      Wordle 813 4/6

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

      1. Better than I expected Hugh. No cups or medals. But a 1st & 2nd for photo entries – Reflections & Animal respectively and a 3rd for my 3 decorative Dahlias. So Total entry fees £2.40. Prize money £3.50 (far exceeded by the cost of having 4 photos printed!!!)

  15. SIR – Our Government and Opposition talk about growth. But where is the plan?

    Liz Truss was the only one who had the ideas and imagination required to kick-start the economy. Unfortunately, this was deemed too risky by bankers, markets, Ms Truss’s own party and the media, and conflicted with vested interests.

    It was an opportunity missed. We now continue the depressing journey of managed decline, whereby the majority will become poorer while our leaders continue to navel gaze over net zero, fail to manage illegal migration and obsess about pronouns.

    Christopher Hunt
    Swanley, Kent

    SIR – Matthew Sinclair tells us: “We are doing better than Germany” (“Brexiteers have been vindicated after years of flawed economic propaganda”, telegraph.co.uk, September 3).

    Really? Germany would surely have to suffer an epic economic collapse for the living standards of most of its citizens to be reduced to the condition of the UK.

    This country has fallen behind and the Tories have presided over the failure.

    Jonathan Barker
    Altrincham, Cheshire

    Well said.. And all of this under ‘the party of sound finances’.

    1. The BTL posters are distinctly unimpressed; here’s just a couple:

      Anastasias Revenge
      7 HRS AGO
      Elsewhere – “Households face an estimated bill of £2,300 each to shut down Britain’s gas grid as part of the Government’s drive towards net zero…It is the first time a public body has examined the future of the 176,000-mile network of buried pipes, which serves eight in ten homes but risks becoming obsolete under plans to reach net zero carbon emissions. Unused pipes must be removed or they risk decay and experts fear the potential collapse of roads.”
      In the light of this, would it not be wise to reconsider our drive to Net Zero? After all, this basic question (and its £65bn answer) were left out of all calculations to date.
      Did nobody there have the wit to ask the simple question “How much will it cost to shut the old system down safely?”

      Reply by Peter Macdonald.

      Peter Macdonald
      6 HRS AGO
      “Did nobody there have the wit to ask the simple question “How much will it cost to shut the old system down safely?”
      A rhetorical question of course. Eco-zealots and dumb virtue-signalling politicians have no regard for practicalities – it’s all about feel-good ideological unicorn chasing and greasing the squeaky wheel of shrill activists.

      * * *

      Like HS2 the cost of removing the gas grid will be more than double this figure, and may never be completed. Here in a town on the south coast we have undergone at least two years of considerable disruption to our (albeit crumbling) road system as the cast iron pipes are being replaced by nice, new, shiny yellow gas pipes, a job which seems to have no completion date. The irony will not be lost on exasperated residents.

      1. Will the upgrade of the electric grid – including an increase in base load provision to offset the lack of wind or sunshine that will bedevil the nonsensical rush to renewables – run in tandem with the removal of the gas grid? Asking for a concerned fiend.

        I noticed the missing ‘r’ in friend but as this net zero nonsense is maddening; fiendish describes the feelings I have towards the morons who support these dangerous anti-people measures

        1. Nah, the intent is to force down the provision of energy to force the cost up, and then make demand meet supply.

          Only then can big fat state meet it’s gormless goals. Of course, it forgets that when there’s no power it can’t call for help, so MPs will swiftly find themselves without the need for any form of power at all, ever again.

      2. I’m not sure what the problem is. When i want electricity i just plug my plug into the wall. What else is there to it?

        🙂

      3. The state doesn’t plan for anything. It doesn’t think of anything. It is a stupid, childish toddler waving it’s arms about and screaming thinking that it’s being clever.

        We will only be free of it’s gormless malice when it cannot touch our money. When we can individually or collectively refuse to fund it’s stupid, malignant ideology. That way at least when the Lefties scream for green because they’re all on welfare there’s no money to spend.

        The right thing to do is to hang said toddler into a bouncer swing and let it leap about, unable to touch anything or get out of the swing, thinking it is achieving something.

    2. Politicians talk about growth and then in the next breath they announce their ‘plan’ to close down a reliable and necessary source of energy. If anyone needs examples of either blatant lying, moronic behaviour or probably both, look no further.

    3. Truss’ policies would have undermined the Left wing globalist agenda to force climate change. It would have proved htat cheap energy creates growth. That tax cuts create growth.

      The state couldn’t permit that.

      Inflation also helps the banks as people in debt and poor necessarily need more money which means lovely overdraft fees and borrowing. The pensions scam that was building up was nothing to do with Truss. Bailey just unleashed it at the ideal moment to ensure his chums got what they wanted.

      When I heard her budget my Lefty chum screamed out loud and said it was unworkable and must be stopped. Then as I listend to it I had hope, real hope – which disappeared as soon as it came as I knew the statists would never, ever permit it.

  16. We’re not interested in white, abled-bodied stories, woke literary agents tell aspiring authors. 10 September 2023.

    “The problem is, the book-buying public knows when they pick up a book by an unknown author from an ‘under-represented group’ that, nine times out 10, it’s been published because of the identity boxes the author ticks and not because it’s any good. Consequently, they’re unlikely to buy it. I worry that if the woke capture of the UK publishing industry continues unabated, the UK won’t have a publishing industry left in about 10 years.”

    Alex Byrne, a philosophy professor who recently had his book on sex and gender dropped by Oxford University Press, said it was notable that gender-critical writers like Kathleen Stock, Helen Joyce and US author Abigail Shrier could only find one publisher willing to publish their work. “You’d have thought if you just had a bit of common sense and were able to take the temperature of the room, and you were concerned for your bottom line, then you would have realised that these books are likely to sell very well,” he said.

    What must be a shining example of someone failing to learn from his own experience.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/09/literary-agents-authors-lgbtq-disabled-people-colour/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. On a similar theme of idiocy…. from the US:

      A six-year-old Alabama boy was suspended from school and had his “permanent record” threatened for making ‘finger guns’ during a game of cops and robbers.

      “They labeled my six-year-old as a potentially violent and dangerous student because he was being a little boy and playing cops and robbers with another student (who was also suspended) and using his fingers like a gun,” said the boy’s father, Jarrod Belcher, in a statement released on Friday, Sept. 8.

      According to the Epoch Times, a Jefferson County Board of Education “Due Process Referral for Class III Infractions” form released by Gun Owners of America (GOA) reads that Belcher’s son was “using gun fingers to shoot at another student.”

      The boy was subsequently suspended from school pending a hearing with his parents.

      According to the letter, on Sept. 1, 2023, two boys were playing “cops and robbers” during recess at Bagley Elementary School.

      “During the course of their play, the children reportedly extended their index fingers and thumbs and said ‘bang-bang’ at each other,” the letter reads.

      The child, identified as J.B., was suspended and accused of committing a Class III infraction. This is the district’s most serious infraction. According to the Jefferson County School District’s Student Parent Handbook, Class III infractions include possession of guns or explosives, sexual battery, battery of a school district employee, and robbery, among others.
      The boy would only be allowed back in school after a hearing with his parents and the district. -Epoch Times

      Foolish Finger Shooting!?

      1. In my yoof we played Kick Post. Often, the post was a person. We would also play tanks.

        Later on, I was to command a tank. The entire state machine is bonkers.

      2. Stupid bloody yanks, I point my fingers at you and shout, “Bang, Bang” What are you going to do about it – dorks?

    2. Try on Kindle for a ‘white, able-bodied story’ called Not A Bad Life being my autobiography. to 2014. It’ll only cost you 5 USD.

  17. Good morning, chums. Another scorcher predicted for today so I shall stay indoors and slave over a hot computer. Then possibly an hour in the garden lopping off branches which overhang from my neighbour’s garden. If energy permits I may then do another lot of washing – so much for Saturday and Sunday being my days of rest!

  18. Inside the implosion of Olaf Scholz’s Germany. 10 September 2023.

    Olaf Scholtz took to the pulpit of Germany’s parliament this week to paint a picture of a country stuck in “gridlock” that is falling behind its peers.

    Himself the worse for wear after a running accident, the 64-year-old chancellor said his country was afflicted by a “blight” of timidity and risk aversion that only an “act of national strength” can heal.

    “While we discuss extending a single metro line or building a skyscraper, other countries have long since finished entire projects,” he said. “The people of our country are sick of the gridlock and so am I.”

    It was a far cry from the braggadocio of only six months ago when Mr Scholz predicted investments in green energies would soon kick off boom years to rival those seen in the Wirtschaftswunder of the 1950s and 1960s.

    Instead, the country has been brought down to earth by a gloomy economic reality. Its economic institutes have repeatedly adjusted their growth forecasts downwards over the past few months, with the latest figures published by the influential Ifo Institute predicting the economy will shrink by 0.4 per cent this year.

    The reality; which no one dare mention, is that German economic success was built on Cheap Russian Gas. The destruction of the Baltic Pipeline by the Americans has sunk it without trace.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/10/inside-implosion-of-chancellor-olaf-scholz-germany/

    2. So the key to economic success is cheap and readily accessible energy.

      That explains why the drivers behind Net Zero are doing their best to destroy the use of gas and oil in the UK and to make sure that Britain goes further than any other comparable powers with this.

      The massive increase in energy costs relative to some of our competitors has already destroyed several UK industries and this, coupled with the unrestricted arrival of illegal immigrants, will soon bring about both economic and social collapse. This is what is planned by the WEF in order to speed up the arrival of the New World Order and, as we know, Rishi Sunak is a devoted vassal of Klaus Schwab so he will make no serious effort to liberate our energy industry and no serious effort to stop the boats.

      1. So much of state policy is clearly contradictory.

        They want to encourage saving so they hike taxes.
        They pretend green matters yet build wind mills
        They say unreliables are cheap yet massive subsidise them
        They force millions of criminal freeloaders on us at massive expense
        They say we must pay more tax then complain when the economy tanks.

        It’s as if they’ve a book of ‘the wrong thing to do’ and follow it slavishly, desperately pretending it’s the right approach.

        1. They also go on about carbon footprints and global boiling yet concrete over green fields. Grass removes carbon but houses create urban hotspots. It’s a scam.

  19. Today, Aftenposten reveal how many standing for election mistreat their animals – one was banned from keeping animals when an inspection revealed his cattle were standing ankle-deep in shit, on a concrete surface – and nowhere for the calves to rest that wasn’t submerged in cowshit.
    And these people want us to vote for them – mistreating their livestock or kiddyfiddling.
    Bastards all!

  20. Sunak confronts Chinese premier over ‘interference’ in UK after spying claims. 10 September 2023.

    Rishi Sunak has confronted the Chinese premier over “interference” in UK democracy, amid claims that a parliamentary researcher was spying for China.

    The Prime Minister met Li Qiang shortly before his departure from the G20 summit in India on Sunday morning.

    A Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister met Premier Li Qiang and conveyed his significant concerns about Chinese interference [in] the UK’s parliamentary democracy.”

    The confrontation came after a British parliamentary researcher was arrested on suspicion of spying for China in a major security breach at Westminster.

    Cue arrest of British person in Beixing! Li Qiang will probably play hardball over what was obviously an orchestrated attempt to embarrass China and him personally!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/09/parliamentary-researcher-arrested-suspicion-spying-china/

  21. Good morning all,

    A little bit murky at McPhee Towers, 21℃ already and going up to 24℃ so it’s a little bit cooler. Wind wafting all around the compass before settling in the Sou’-West this afternoon.

    Too busy to get into anything at the moment. If that’s not a contradiction!

  22. Good morning all,

    A little bit murky at McPhee Towers, 21℃ already and going up to 24℃ so it’s a little bit cooler. Wind wafting all around the compass before settling in the Sou’-West this afternoon.

    Too busy to get into anything at the moment. If that’s not a contradiction!

    1. Polyester? You’ll get electric shocks, especially on those ‘bits’ of you where they will be particularly unwelcome. 😘

  24. SIR – What sort of a society are we living in where people can steal hundreds of pounds’ worth of goods on a daily basis, knowing that they will not be prosecuted or punished?

    What message does that send to the next generation?

    What is the point of teaching moral standards and social responsibility to the young if they know that they will never be held to account for their behaviour?

    Nik Perfitt
    Bristol

    That would be a society, Nik, where the rules and standards are set by the World Economic Forum and its henchmen: the global corporations and big pharma. That new society is administered by their hired stool-pigeons, the politicians.

    On a planet over-bloated with humans, whose numbers are rising exponentially, a civilised society would simply shoot the scum; no questions asked and no expensive trials.

      1. While she was loading the boot I would have walked to the front and let both her front tyres down then called the police…..

      3. She didn’t even put the trolley back.

        Instead of filming her, why are they not taking the trolley away? Why did no one stop her when she was in the shop?

  25. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny day.
    I see in parts of Suffolk people are being advised to boil their drinking water because of damaged pipe work and ongoing repairs.
    I hope they let it cool down before drinking it. 😏🤭
    Some years on and after attending a C of E school as a teenager, I gave up my religious beliefs.
    I made my mind up most of it had been invented and the stories told were no different to, then and now everyday life. As in, there’s always some who will force an issue, like to be incharge, stand out in a crowd, are domineering but their efforts are later dismissed as, let’s say inappropriate behaviour.
    The latest efforts to apply enforcement to this is the Dopey Wokies. It’ll pass in time. Not in our lifetime, but I do believe common sense will prevail. 🤞

    1. When the bickering and politicking of Churchgoers came out it was clearly a nonsense. It all started out as the oldest man in the village knowing how to keep the tribe alive.

      Then some canny git realised he could get out of the hunt by ‘protecting’ the old man.

      That man became the go between for the tribe and the old man.

      Over time they started wearing special robes to mark themselves out.
      Then they had places built to revere their knowledge.

      Eventually the old man became a spirit – because then you can’t go around the man to speak to the old human.

      It’s a con. The problem is, ever since then mankind has sought meaning and refuses to look to himself, preferring to look to something else. The state is trying to take on that role.

  26. Morning, all. Sunny with a forecast high of 30 degrees by mid-afternoon.

    Thoughts for the day.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd14b78079b5c275f57d127a98316ddf4672a661f2fc69873857466027ac9f4f.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c2e4cdb1469c0ffde867deda2566f035dd18d2db2b36c3ef527c0ca940a5305f.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d7f38e92d170173574647b3f6f623a6a528401f25bfc2715021ebcab80ad880.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be841effdf42bfe812a18051897be1593f49cf8f4ae8188d12abc70635608ed8.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02bbbf56351174cb8a254e34989c635e7ba405f3370178b3145b84501b1961c9.png

    1. Lefties will say they didn’t pick their gender, that it was their real one and that as they are a woman and always have been that they can obviously give birth.

      The lengths the go to to avoid reality is staggering.

      On the dog one – I passed Junior’s room and his head is resting on Junior’s shoulder with his left paw on the other one. Junior is explaining how the bricks go together to make the model. It works until you see the drool towel, but that’s just par for the course.

      Oscar is probably sat beside the Warqueen being studiously ignored while quietly fed biscuits every so often.

  28. Militants who turned out town halls in concrete corridors of mediocrity. Peter Hitchens. 10 September 2023.

    I expect dozens of councils will soon go bankrupt like Birmingham. Councils in general spend so much on propaganda, pensions, redundancy payments to people they then rehire, rainbow flags and on pursuing an agenda of cultural, moral and social revolution that it is amazing any of them are still solvent.

    In their concrete corridors of mediocrity, thousands of fanatics and zealots turned out by our alleged universities thrive and rule.

    Apart from state schools, there is probably no more dense concentration of all the daft ideas that have taken over our country in the last half-century. Though the organisation formerly known as ‘The Police’ must come a close third.

    How did it all happen? Well, partly it was the smashing of the state grammar schools (and their Scottish equivalents) in the 1960s, and the end of proper education. Very soon afterwards, a growing number of people literally did not know what seven fives were, or where Africa was, or anything else much.

    But it was also thanks to a revolution in local government which few now remember. It wasn’t just that, in an act of revolutionary spite, all the familiar old counties were messed around with and moved about. I recall, almost 50 years ago, on my first local newspaper, watching the old borough council wound up and replaced by some new body with an invented name.

    Instead of a frowning and hard-to-please town clerk in a spartan Edwardian office with brown lino on the floor, it had a smiling ‘chief executive’ with efficient, glinting spectacles and a flashy modern desk in a carpeted suite.

    Nobody knew any more who was responsible for what. If you asked the District Council to fix a pothole or exterminate some rats, they referred you to the County Council, and vice versa. Local councillors and aldermen, once long-serving if pompous persons well-known in their neighbourhoods, faded away. They were replaced by the usual party placemen and placewomen.

    I know some of them do their best, but these days hardly anyone knows who local councillors are, and that is why MPs are now besieged with the small-scale nagging drainpipe and neighbour problems which councillors used to deal with, and which really aren’t Parliament’s job. How can councils be accountable if voters don’t know who they are and what they do?

    Robbed of any real democratic link with the people, walled-in by growing bureaucracy, increasingly reliant on central Government handouts, town and county halls became a playground for militants, show-offs, ambitious baby politicians and spendthrifts.

    So here we are. I am sure a lot of people knew it was foolish when we messed it up, just as many knew it was stupid to rip up the railways, destroy the grammar schools, take the police off the streets, make it easier to divorce than to get out of a car lease, legalise pornography, build almost everything with concrete, join the Common Market and put the BBC in the hands of Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, a sort of Chairman Mao of the airwaves. But it seemed unstoppable at the time, as if someone had put something in the water. Why are bad ideas so successful? Why is it so hard, if not actually impossible, to undo them?

    I remember many years ago that the only local councillor I knew was a back street hairdresser who went in one day a week after hours to tend to council business. Most of the technical and administrative decisions were taken by the Clerk of the Council. The offices themselves were upstairs with a clinic on the ground floor. If it employed four office staff I would be greatly surprised

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12499743/PETER-HITCHENS-Militants-turned-town-halls-concrete-corridors-mediocrity.html

  29. Good Moaning.
    September light – nothing can beat it.
    As I glanced through the landing window, I could see a corner of our neighbour’s kitchen.
    On the work top was a couple of pale earthenware jugs and a bowl containing apples and oranges.
    The angle and colour of the sunlight created a Vermeer.
    One of those spontaneous moments that can never be reproduced. It was absolutely magical.

  30. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story A trifle late.

    That’s Smart
    There’s this Polish guy who had a Jewish neighbour. He goes to visit him because he wants to know why the Jews are all so smart.

    “We eat a lot of fish,” says the Jewish neighbour.

    “Can I have some?” asks the Polish man.

    “It’s gonna cost you $100 a piece,” replies the Jewish man.

    “If it’ll make me smarter, I’m willing to try,” says the Polish man.

    He ate the fish, but something is troubling him. “You know, a hundred bucks is a lot of money for a fish. I think you screwed me on that deal.”

    “You see!” replies the neighbour, “it’s already working!”

    1. Someone kick that useless bag of wind in the face. Climate change is a lie. It’s a tax scam. He knows it, we know it. That money is for bribes and backhanders because India is corrupt.

  33. ‘Morning All

    Epic,epic rant by Neil Oliver

    (do scroll down for part 2)

    https://twitter.com/wolsned/status/1698044495739138297?s=20

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcc7ce17529cbcc37e4d52c3b207f27b13fb11a993620293737a79b0c27ebfa4.png

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a7f9211dfeba13769f290cfc4a06f7c22a543410bb0d955c37888796d6ac70e2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc6cd0e21309371dc2ad9b69a18cd5505908ee944d093fce15c4e28ff6e42055.png

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5oKNEhWUAAYNkE.jpg

    2. I advocate that the Lefties desperate to destroy our way of life live it first. All too often what they want is for other people to live in their utopia while they carry on getting all the benefits of ours.

  35. I love this DTL comment .

    Michael Geddes
    34 MIN AGO
    Comments we will never hear.
    “We have now resolved the immigration issue.
    “We are 100% committed to everything in the manifesto.”
    “HS2 and net zero have now officially been abandoned.”

      1. It looks really cool – stupid Q though, how does it work? Do you scrape the solid honey into the press and then have that squeezed out as a liquid to fill jars?

        1. The press has a tapering screw that pushes honey out through slots in the housing, and wax at the end. So, you just cut the honeycomb out of the frame and drop it into the hopper. Honey runs into a bucket, wax falls into another.

  37. When Waitrose workers opened an email from retail director Tina Mitchell last week, few were surprised to find it was about cost cutting.

    “The challenges we’re facing as a business are not relenting,” Mitchell wrote. “Waitrose is one of the least productive grocers in the UK.”

    Supermarket staff would need to become more flexible on the hours they work, she said, after years of the grocer having either too many or too few workers on duty at any given time. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/10/john-lewis-waitrose-turnaround-jobs-flexible-hours/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    We are quite impressed with the quality and prices in Lidl, and not too often, treat ourselves to something different in M and S.

    We have had some delicious greengages from Lidl and Victoria plums , apricots etc and good quality vegetables , and other fruit , and fresh bread rolls etc pass the test .

    I must admit I have shopped around this summer , I buy all my dhobi stuff from Lidl, much cheaper own brands than Sainsbury or Tesco .. bleach, washing up liquid , dishwasher stuff and laundry liquid is so much cheaper in Lidl .

    1. More security on the checkouts would save customers a fortune. And make the wages more sustainable.

      1. All the larger supermarkets seem to have double doored foyers. As the shoplifter gets between the two close both sets of doors and fill with cyanide gas.

        1. My good lady had to avoid a large black man stuffing bottles of alcohol down his joggers, this was at Sainsburys WGC. There was no one to bring the crime to their attention.
          She couldn’t get involved for personal safety. This must happening all over England. I avoided the word Britain. Because most of the robbers live in England.

    2. We are loyal to Sainsbury’s, Morrisons, Lidl, Aldi and very rarely Tesco and Asda. Have always shopped around.

      1. I try not to shop at Sainsbury’s as it is overtly political and not in a way I approve of. Of course, the nearest 3 supermarkets to me are all Sainsbury’s.

        1. I don’t have much choice – there’s a Tesco in Ullapool 49 miles away, Tesco and a Lidl in Dingwall 68 miles away, a Tesco, Lidl, Morrisons, Aldi and Asda in Inverness 80 miles away. Thankfully I get a weekly Tesco delivery which I pick up 3 miles away. I will occasionally go to Dingwall Lidl, like every 3 months, to stock up on meat, biscuits, tea, marmalade and tinned stuff although I have enough in my food cupboard and freezer to last a year

    3. We can tell Ms Mitchell why Waitrose is the least productive grocer.

      …….It’s because they don’t keep their shelves stocked.

      It is very rare that when we do our weekly shop at Waitrose we get everything on our list.

      One newspaper called the boss of Waitrose “Dame Empty Shelves”

  38. DOMINIC Cummings is plotting the creation of a new political party to challenge the Tories.

    Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser says he has been sounding out donors to try to launch his venture by Christmas.

    The mastermind of the Leave campaign says he believes Rishi Sunak will lose the next election.

    And he said future Labour failures will offer his so-called Startup Party a huge opportunity to take power in 2028.

    Mr Cummings — who was accused of breaking Covid lockdown with a trip to Barnard Castle — said the new party would be tougher on crime and immigration. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/23887960/dominic-cummings-political-party-tories-election/

    1. “the new party would be tougher on crime and immigration” – that’s not exactly hard, is it?

  39. Here they go,…… butter wouldn’t melt.
    The whole of Westminster and Whitehall is corrupt.
    This BS from a no reply email…
    There were a few picture involved but we already know what they look like.


    Conservatives
    Labour have done it again Paul. They’ve left us with no money.

    This time, it’s Labour-run Birmingham City Council.

    Starmer praised his hand-picked Labour Council Leader for getting ‘on top of the situation’.

    But just a few months later they’ve bankrupted it. Costing Birmingham taxpayers millions.

    It’s yet another reminder that when the same old Labour politicians run things, they run them badly.

    And we can’t let them bankrupt Britain like they have just bankrupted Birmingham.

    So will you join us to keep Labour out at the next General Election?

    Keep Labour Out
    It’s not just bankrupting Europe’s largest council that is on their agenda.

    Labour are still committed to unfunded spending and reckless eco-borrowing.

    That’s more borrowing. Higher taxes. And putting the future of public services we all rely on at risk.

    What’s happened in Birmingham would happen to Britain if Labour get into power again.

    So Paul it’s vital that we keep them away from our public finances.

    So will you join us to help spread our message and stop Labour bankrupting Britain?

    Don’t let Labour Bankrupt Britain
    Yours sincerely,

    Greg Hands
    Chairman of the Conservative party

    1. You could point out to him that the tories are also dedicated to unfunded waste and reckless ‘eco spending’ on windmills, the last moronic auction being typical of the deliberately broken market rigged by the state.

      Labour policies are moronic. It’s just a shame they’re all we’ve had for 25 miserable years.

    3. Bet he didn’t mention Woking with debts of £1.2 billion and projected to go to £2.4 billion. Now has LimpDumbs and now has government overseers costing between £1,000 and £5,000 a day. That’s not going to bring the debt down and appointed by a spendthrift, wastrel government.

      1. Err no,…. I don’t think he did post the rest of that and I’ll try and send to the party.
        Grant it Shnaaps has posted on FB that his constituency are working hard to fix the local problems……But mean while sanctioning 15 thousand new homes the built in the Hertfordshire area and all on green belt land. That could mean more than 60 thousand people moving in.

      2. I wonder if these areas have more gimirants than the more self sufficient areas of the country. It’s a bit of a worry when these morons in our Parliament have allowed thousands of scrounging invaders to land here. The future looks very bleak.
        And our own local council has gone out of its way to have made it almost impossible to find out what they have been upto in the planning department. Our old village will be ruined by the recent proposals. Around two thousand new homes planned in the area of mid Hertfordshire. It stinks. This will not be the same place as we’ve known it for over 40 years.

    1. I’ve a vinter who owns a big old farm up there and he has the thickest boots going. He’s also entirely practical that they’re part of the ecosystem – you just stay out of their way because they’re bally fast.

    2. There’s nothing worse than bumping into a 6ft snake whilst out walking in the bush.
      I chopped a brown snake in half with my front wheel whilst stuck in a tyre rut.
      One thing slightly worse is being engulfed by a huge Orb spiders web as you ride a dirt bike through the bush.
      Even tripping over a massive Cain Toad Bufo Marinus at night when you need the loo on a caravan site.

    3. Yes a few years ago by me,…. but it’s still funny.
      The other punch line was he shouts up the stars at his bothers as he says “your as thick as the wood on this table” and bangs it with his knuckles………”oh hang on is that the front door or the back door”?

  42. This is beyond embarrassing. Had he taken his medication before venturing out and making an arse of himself?
    Surely, there is not a snowball’s hope in hell that he will contest Trump for the presidency in 2024. He hid in his ‘bunker’ in 2020, what chance of a head-to-head debate in 2024?

    Contrast these two current appearances:

    https://twitter.com/nbreavington/status/1700795417766629659

    https://twitter.com/FFT1776/status/1700601136330289486

    The only thing Biden can throw is a tantrum when he doesn’t get his choc-chip ice cream on cue.

    1. Hearing Biden now and hearing him 10 years ago it is clear he is ill. He should be allowed to retire with dignity due his service.

      Now, I think every single thing he has done is a pointless, destructive farce. He is an ineffectual lefty buffoon but if he’s just ousted the Left get a martyr. He – Biden – needs to say ‘I am stepping aside to be with my family’. At the moment he’s a liability and an embarrassment.

      1. Maybe he is aware enough to realise what a disaster Harris would make of things if he stepped down now.

        The whole shebang needs a clean out. Anyone over 70 should be retired and a new generation of politicians elected.

        If only either party had some strong contenders waiting in the background.

  43. Yo All.

    Woke life in UK, 2023.

    Just been shopping : A Pack of 6 jelly cubes £0.95.

    Put the Disco in for a service earlier this week and looked around showroom at new LR
    A new Evoque is around £90,000.00 which is 6000 x the price of my first car, a 1947 Austin 8, which I bought in 1963 for then 15 Quid
    I did not buy the Evoque

    and Bread Flour, now £1.19, per 1500grams, up from £0.57

    1. Our Volvo was about £60,000. I didn’t want a new car happy to get an older one but as usual the Warqueen did the maths and got me on road tax. The new one has none because it’s one of these eco engine thingies.

      I’ll admit I don’t like driving it as it’s too big. I like our little Fiesta.

  44. Unlike Morocco, which had a lot of mud buildings near the earthquake centre, the UK has mainly concrete ones (admittedly some with RAAC) that are more likely to sink into the ground than collapse.

    I found this useful site which allows you to show the likelihood of a local population’s concrete housing sinking into the ground due to liquefaction during an earthquake:

    https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us7000kufc/map

    Here is one I configured earlier for buildings in Morocco that were built in concrete rather than mud:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f13b54a48d6b6235ba2087444c148d103f7b32e7209d831d407c7c5d4ab073e.jpg

  45. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7230fb37224c82bbdcd059965947e15bae8417ba8bd9a8fda3e37fd405c80088.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae85bbc6f712a3bc0de18043402a5877974057d2691dfc62bf63b27d8520c663.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/10/tory-rory-stewart-i-was-a-creep-in-parliament/
    BTL

    This weird looking man is even stranger than he looks. And when you hear him speak and listen to what he says you realise just how very peculiar he is.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YTgwY1Ld5s

  46. Ukraine’s counteroffensive is stalling. The West must prepare for humiliation. 10 September 2023.

    Time is running out for Ukraine. After 18 months of war, it is no longer a question of if the Western alliance will falter, but when. Since the start, despite making many of the right noises and supplying some military hardware, France and Germany, in particular, have been reluctant partners. Their leaders have often seemed more concerned with finding an “off-ramp” for Putin than ejecting his forces from Ukraine. As well as dependency on Russian energy, a pacifist instinct among Western European political classes has led to neglect of their armed forces and a corresponding fear of escalation.

    We can only hope that the end is near. The Ukies are rounding up the handicapped and mental defectives to send to the front so it seems likely that they are near collapse. A Russian victory would be good for everyone except the Globalists. It would stop the slaughter in Ukraine and frustrate the plans of the EU and US. Russia, counter to Government propaganda presents no threat to the UK.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/10/ukraines-counteroffensive-is-stalling-the-west-must-prepare/

    1. Is this when european conscription starts, though? Will the West ever let the Ukraine fiasco end?

      1. Well we are not Home and Dry yet Poppiesmum. There is still room for the Warmongers in Washington and Brussels to bring on the Final Moves.

      2. Yo pm

        May I fiddle:
        Is this when european
        con = persuade (someone) to do or believe something by lying to them. (verb)
        =can instance of deceiving or tricking someone.(noun)
        scription=A handwriting, especially when presenting any peculiarity by which the writer or the epoch of the writing may be fixed: as, a scription of the fourteenth century or Paddington Bear’s war with Russia

        starts continues, upgrades

    2. According to the Telegaffe today the “New IRA” have been caught with a stash of Russian grenades – seemingly supplied from the “front line” in Ukraine. As I suspect the Russians would have preferred to hang on to them, I wonder who else might have sold them on???

      1. That did cross my mind Bleau. There are rumours of Ukie ordnance turning up in terrorist hands all over the world!

    3. We always choose the wrong side to support in the Middle East.

      Have we got it wrong in the Ukraine as well?

      1. Ukraine is a squabble between an unwelcome neighbour. It’s their Northern Ireland. The Crimea is demographically, culturally and ethnically Russian. Russia hasn’t, you note, expanded further into Ukraine. It’s a stupid conflict where really Ukraine is fighting for something that doesn’t want to be part of it.

        We’re arming the side that won’t listen.

        As an aside, I find it interesting that our government is desperate to pour war materiel into Ukraine and yet happily runs down our own military at home.

        1. I detect the hands of Schwab, Soros and Gates behind this constant drive to weaken Britain’s own military defences.

    2. Be nice for a lot more breeze and much less heat. About, oh, I dunno… 15 ‘c less? It’s the humidity that’s buggering me up. Over 81% according to the meters.

    3. Be nice for a lot more breeze and much less heat. About, oh, I dunno… 15 ‘c less? It’s the humidity that’s buggering me up. Over 81% according to the meters.

    5. A 20-minute squall blew through NN8 just after 2pm, giving us a third of an inch of rain – the first soaking we’ve had here for a month – and a 20-degree drop in temperature (F, not C).

  48. And so to the Last Night of the Proms. I spent the evening dodging between the online radio and tv coverage in order to avoid the worst of the commentary. The radio was preferable – just. TV gave us Katy Derham playing a caricature of herself (I wasn’t sure which form of her I disliked most). She was accompanied by Sandy Toksvig (again) and soprano Danielle Denise, whose accent travelled across the Atlantic and Pacific and back in less time than it takes to say “Brilliant!”. Too many gushing women in one place for my liking, which made the radio coverage slightly more bearable – but only slightly. Here, the sexes were balanced with Petroc Trelawny (militantly anti-English Cornubian), Georgia Mann and Grayson Perry, quite literally a man with a foot in both camps (if you see what I mean). At this point, there was a little more professionalism in their presentation than that of the TV crew – but only just (see below †).

    Sadly, during the interval, both teams found it necessary to play down the closing party pieces by stressing how international the Proms concerts are (“Oh look, there’s a South Efrican flag”), with music and artists from all around the world (“Oh look, there’s a Danish soloist”). I think dear old Henry W would have understood that his festival featured lots of European music but was still thoroughly British. Sadly, Perry went a little sniffy and used the word ‘jingoistic’. Twat. Even if he doesn’t have one. But might like to.

    The best moment of the interval was a recording of interviews with Prommers before the concert. There was a nice young couple who said all the right things about the Last Night but who were let down by their 12-year-old son who said he was looking forward to the bit at the end with ‘Rule, Britannia’. Oops! Well done that lad.

    Marin Alsop’s speech was, as usual, a miserably humourless affair from someone who doesn’t know how to tell jokes because she doesn’t understand humour. The use of “Yay!” (twice) was particularly embarrassing. She celebrated her anniversary of 10 years since becoming the first ‘woman’ to conduct the Last Night, standing back vainly to take the applause, and then, quite inexcusably, lurched into political territory with a rant about the oppression of women, including the words ‘inclusive’, ‘progress’ and ‘equitable’. Bad form, missus.

    As for the music…the programme was a bit of a letdown. Even the first half, meant to be the sensible bit, didn’t stir the emotions. Perhaps it was the heat that suppressed the party spirit. A particular disappointment was Bruch’s ‘Kol Nidrei’, which should be heartfelt; serious without being too sombre or solemn. In the hands of Shaky Mason, it was soporific and stultifying. I dread to think what he would have done to ‘Tom Bowling’.

    † Ms Mann had given the impression of being a decent sort but, at the end, she told us that “Marin Alsop was such a perfect last night conductor with a great sense of humour”. No, Georgia, she wasn’t.

    Available here:
    Part 1: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qgj3/bbc-proms-2023-last-night-of-the-proms-part-1
    Part 2: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001qgg8/bbc-proms-2023-last-night-of-the-proms-part-2

    The speech starts at about 1:06:30, the politics at 1:12:30. Go on. Watch and listen. Spoil your day.
    _________________________________________________________________________________________________

    This column is sponsored by McEwan’s Champion Ale.

    1. Bachianas Brasileiras 5 was disappointing too. Shekel whatshisface was lacklustre and so was Lise (apparently pronounced Lisa) Davidsen. I have a recording of it on vinyl conducted by the composer, with Victoria de los Ángeles which is the best performance but even Joan Baez made a better job it.

    2. Have virtually given up on the beeb with its Leftie Luvviedom…..
      I do occasionally prod a stick in the cage. For example:

      ‘Good morning,

      When you announced Frederic Hymen Cowen, I couldn’t but help wondering if his parents had given him his middle name to record a virginal conception!!!’

      The reply: ‘!!!!’

    3. I just caught a few minutes of the last bit – so many EU flags being waved – obviously somebody had been busy handing them out gratis at the entrance (BBC maybe?).

    4. We watched and listened to the endless dribble .. conversations that is .

      Sandy Toksvig, is the conductorwhat ever her name is , her partner ?..

      We were well and truly fed up with all that toxic feminism talk .

      The flags .. the EU flags .. were a disgrace .. If LABOUR achieve their purpose , will we be back in the EU this time next year?

    5. We watched and listened to the endless dribble .. conversations that is .

      Sandy Toksvig, is the conductorwhat ever her name is , her partner ?..

      We were well and truly fed up with all that toxic feminism talk .

      The flags .. the EU flags .. were a disgrace .. If LABOUR achieve their purpose , will we be back in the EU this time next year?

    6. We just switched on in time to hear the solo euphonium played by Duncan Wilson in the sea shanties. His dad, Dave was a member of our Church orchestra and conductor of the handbells group which he persuaded me to join. After his death I am now holding the baton. Duncan was playing his dad’s instrument in his memory.

    7. I could never – NEVER – stand the self-obsessed Derham woman. Makers the Johnson sister seem restrained and clever.

      The Mann creature – a simpering totty – is absolutely useless – a primary school class assistant.. Yet another (of 160) reasons why Beeboid Radio 3 is a no no in Chateau Thomas.

      1. I confess that at 0530 most days, I let Alexa assault me with R4 “News Briefing”. Purely on the basis that it’s good to know what the enemy is up to. I might stay in bed through ‘on this day’, the ‘woke prayer for the day’, Farming Today*, and ‘Tweet of the day’. I’m out of bed shortly after 0600. *I give Caz Graham the benefit of the doubt, since she may be a member of my (sheep-shagging rustling Border Reiver clan)…

    8. One of the benefits of having no TV licence is that I don’t have to watch the c21 version of the Last Night. I gather that “Jerusalem” was expurgated from the proceedings? To borrow an expression from our esteemed Education Secretary, fuck the BBC…

      1. A new Pope has been called to reign (a regner). Araignee? (Spider?) What a funny name ! Why not dragonfly or butterfly?
        A regner and araignee have similar pronunciation.

  50. There were complaints in the household over ‘stuttering’ when playing back videos. Apparently the Terrahawks videos were dropping frames.

    So I ran a cable to the offending machine. Now there are complaints about the cable. Some people really are never happy with anything.

  51. Still 31c here. Awful. A full church this morning with a posh baptism party. The poor little mite in the lovely christening robe was named after the King. Charles Philip Arthur (they left off George because his brother is already called George – presumably after Prince George of Wales).
    Communion was like herding cats. I assume most of them were confirmed at boarding school but haven’t attended a Eucharist since. I can forgive the man in the mobility chair and the blind man and his carer but the child’s godmother watched everyone else commune and go back to their seats then when it was all over said, “What about me”? Well, you should have gone up when you were bidden, along with everyone else dear.

    3. 31 Is toasty. I find it very, very difficult. The Warqueen loves heat.

      Junior’s Christening was odd (carried out at the beshest of my mother) as both his god parents were there – Demi and his wife, the fearsome Suli who are proper orthodox Christians but sort of lapsed, in that they’re very quiet about it but severe in themselves and Colin and Wilma, who were dressed as Flintstones characters and are Jewish, but Catholics.

      They were chosen because they are good examples of how to live. They share my values more than the Warqueen’s but she hasn’t really met people you’d want to be Godparents and sort of has those two who are our age as surrogates – as her parents are duffers (explaining why she went into the industry she did).

      His grandparents were bickering at one another the whole time as Her mother was drunk and my mother complained throughout. It took Suli to snap at them oh so quietly to bring them to heel and put them in the car. The funny bit was seeing her husband also respond to the whiplash only to be followed by ‘Where do you think you are going, you lummox! Stay where you are, silly man!’

      1. I was licensed as a chalice assistant in the Kensington Deanery but here I’m just a server so only trying to guide them up to the altar rail. Making sure they line up in order but don’t leave any gaps.

        1. Sounds as if this particular lady expected personal attention. I find that attitude strange in a Church. Unless one is a bishop of course. :@)

      2. I was anointed with chrism by Archbishop John Carmel Heenan, then Archbishop of Liverpool, later created Cardinal by Pope Paul VI. Some sort of ceremony in ‘Paddy’s Wigwam’, about Easter time I think.

    7. Full church, Sue? We had our Harvest Thanksgiving this morning. We possibly reached double figures. They all sat out of sight of the organ console. At the end of the service, I struggled up the tower staircase to regulate the clock, which was fast. I’d already taken all the weights (washers) off the pendulum, so I removed the “S hook”, which prolly equals another washer. I’ll pay more attention later this month when the clocks revert to GMT. Meanwhile, we had bells this morning, for the first time since the fauxdemic. New ringers: not perfect. but almost there.

      But we have bloody nice bells. See https://www.youtube.com/user/SealeBellTower. Unlike the other medium-sized church in our united parish, which – to me, at least – has a discordant thing going on in the harmonics.

      There’s a single bell at Wanborough, but it’s fractionally out of tune with concert pitch. So I tend to abandon any voluntary on the ancient Technics digital piano, while it is being rung…

      1. Sounds to me you need a small child to scamper up that tower. The Victorians were right about most things after all.

        I don’t know if i told you this but i tried to join the Cubs and the Choir in my village. Wrong side of the tracks. When i let us call it an audition… i was expected to read and sing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’ in front of the Choir, which i had never come across before. If he gave me ‘All things bright and beautiful’ i would have been a winner. I hate snobs.

        Is it wrong to steal a Bible? Asking for a friend…………

        1. I was accepted into the Cubs and the Choir – and never looked back. We don’t tend to sing “OCS” very often these days…

          As for ‘stealing’ a Bible, I couldn’t possibly comment. Look inside the front cover of my collection of hymn books…

  52. Drivers of the heaviest cars such as SUVs should face stiffer penalties when involved in serious accidents, a group of pro-cycling MPs have suggested.

    I completely agree with the APPG, as long as it is madelegal motor vehicles and their drivers to operate under the same rules as cyclists do.

    No test of competency required by the driver of the vehicle

    No tests of safety of the vehicle to operate on UK roads : ie MOT

    No tax required on vehicles

    No insurance required for vehicle

    Can use mobile phones when driving

    Does not need to keep hands on the steering wheel

    Can drive 2/3/4 etc abreast, when it suits them

    Need not obey any set Speed Limits

    Drink Driving offences scrapped

    Can drive on the pavements to undertake queues

    That is my list of starters

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/10/pro-cycling-mps-want-stiffer-penalties-for-suv-drivers/

    4. I walked Mongo around the old stomping ground the other day and saw a cyclist didn’t bother to look right at a mini roundabout. A car knocked into them. The woman got out, absolutely distraught. The cyclist was ok as the lass was barely moving but he had come off his bike and immediately started screaming at the driver. Another bloke who had stopped pointed out the traffic laws – that you stop at a roundabout and check you can exit.

      The cyclist started getting less and less angry as he was reminded he was in the wrong. I stayed with the woman until her son came to pick her up. Mongo’s handy for things like calming people down.

      But yes, cyclists riding two abreast on a busy Saturday on the way into town are asking for trouble as people will get frustrated.

      1. I was riding my pushbike home along the road next to the river in Hammersmith last week. A guy (not English) was riding down the road on my side. I was expecting him to move to his side of the road but as we got closer it was clear he wasn’t going to. So I stopped. Then I rang my bell. Then just before he rode straight into me, I shouted to get his attention.

        He shouted at me and asked me what I was doing (not politely).

        What can you do? Luckily no damage to my bike- a bit to my left leg – but wtf?!!

        1. More info required ! Was it a cycle lane with arrows for direction of travel? Were you cycling as a woman?

  53. Wow! We have rain! It’s tipping it down so that saves me having to water the plants in pots today! I can hardly remember when it last rained with any effect!

    1. Bringing facts to a discussion about ‘climate change’ is as pointless as a water pistol to a gunfight.

      The Left DO NOT CARE. It’s about power: taking away your choices controls you. The fewer choices you have the more power they have.

    2. Bringing facts to a discussion about ‘climate change’ is as pointless as a water pistol to a gunfight.

      The Left DO NOT CARE. It’s about power: taking away your choices controls you. The fewer choices you have the more power they have.

  55. Hotted up here now , really warm and close . Moh off for a few holes of golf .. he likes the heat and is now nut brown .

    I persuaded Moh to come swimming with me yesterday, first time for decades .. I have to cajole him by all sorts of ways and means , why because Southampton were not playing , only an England match later in the afternoon .

    I hadn’t worn my old 30 year old M+S cossie for ages , I wore it anyway , but thought I should really buy a new one .

    At about 11.30 when the drizzle ceased , we wandered into Weymouth, sole purpose of me going into the small branch of Marks and Sparks in order to see if they had any cossies left in their summer sale … NOTHING , change of season cold weather stuff.. how do people get by if they are off on a last minute hol or a cruise?

    Big mistake, traffic and parking horrendous … Weymouth was hosting a seafood festival in the huge car near the pier , so all the locals and visitors were denied carparking , and some little Adolph was harshly booking anyone who tried to squeeze in .

    Moh dropped me off at the little tiny taxi bay near the M+S entrance … and circuited the pier area whilst I rushed in to have a look at what was on offer in the small store , not a lot , and no summer stuff apart from a rail full of horrible dresses for very tall women .

    My phone rang about ten minutes later , a very annoyed Moh said no parking available , hurry up the car is outside , and don’t be long , I am parked in a taxi spot.

    It is good to see so many visitors enjoying the sea air and the lovely sand , but oh my word , people’s bodies are burnt to smithereens , they must be in agony . One week of very high sunny temperatures will have caused havoc on dogs cats sheep cattle horses children and adults , of that I am certain .

    Phew , and wasn’t it hot last night , I nearly slept in the garden except it was drizzling .

  56. Keegan faces Tory anger after refusal to publish sex education review findings
    Telegraph learns that Education Secretary has no plans to reveal outcome of review by Government-appointed independent panel
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/10/sex-education-gilian-keegan-report-not-published-dfe/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ce9ed01e2d8f11a38fb57851e5ddcfb92c69c93d297cb4a1b4b060fbe8250026.png

    Good to see how keen the education minister is to keep in tune with what parents want!

    1. They can’t give our money away fast enough.

      I wonder how many Mercedes, and private jets and yachts for corrupt politicians around the world that this will fund.

  58. Good evening, all. Just passing through. Back at 12 noon. Pickles on hand . No sign of Gus (who had not been seen by his “feeder” since Wednesday evening). He sauntered in at 3 pm, mewing piteously. Clearly he has other feeding stations!

    Excellent journey home. Delightful beer at the Bar Mincq in Calais; then first class dinner at the Du Vignoble au Verre. Gorgeous, comfortable bed at the Hotel Meurice. This morning, left hotel at 8 am – cleared both border controls in ten minutes – train left at 8.35.

    Very warm all day but now sultry and thundery, though I don’t think it’ll rain.

    Now off to water garden. Kind neighbours undertake that chore – but seem to think that one watering can between ten tomato plants twice a week is “a good soak…”.

    I see England won a rugby match. Controversial,no doubt.

    A demain.

          3. In part I think it is because on holiday last week I walked about 14 miles – twelve more than in the preceding four weeks.

    1. Mr Bridgen, you don’t really want a response. You want to be agreed with. Likelihood is that you’re right. The problem is Sunak was installed to enforce the globalist line. Nothing will have him stray from that agenda. You are on a course ot nothing. Sunak cannot tell the truth.

      1. 376036+ up ticks,
        Evening W,

        No matter what sunak tells the herd as long as it sounds a bit like a tory policy, it’s party first, that’s the winner.

    1. The bit I find odd is that folk are against ULEZ but don’t seem to apply the same logic to the other climate nonsense.

    1. This is why folk should say this:

      Good boy Mongo! (this is the best one as it rewards what you want. Negative commands unless given at exactly the moment of problem just upset the dog as it has no concept of why it’s being told off.

      However:

      Mongo, No.

      Mongo Sit (this doesn’t. Ever. Why? Because he’s a complete dufus who will sit if he wants to and ONLY if he wants to.

      Mongo! Wag tail/Tummy rub/Circle/Fluffy (causes him to shake)/Dinner all work. They aren’t guaranteed to get the result you want though.

      Weirdly, Junior talks to him normally and while I doubt he understands the words he gets the gist.

        1. Both are going through that disobedient phase so it’s a coin toss!

          When Junior asked why his Daddy couldn’t fix his Playstation the Warqueen said ‘You’re Daaddy is lovely, but he’s very impractical.’ I think after that Junior just considers me a bit hopeless.

  62. One for Paul:

    A few hours ago I was waiting in the queue at the supermarket checkout when I noticed the bloke behind has 7 x 1Kg bags of sugar. So I asked him if it was Shrove Tuesday already? He replied: No it was for his Bee Hives. Apparently he has 12 dotted around the city and is about to start the winter feeding programme.

    I said in Norway it had been a poor summer for Honey production. In reply he said he had just finished obtaining a total of 60Kg from 2 of his established hives…..

      1. I dunno. I’m only repeating what the bloke told me . He seemed genuine and I think the 60kg was gathered throughout the summer…..

    2. Yup, the feeders are on the hives now. We don’t use straight sugar, but (a more expensive) sugar feed, with some additional minerals.
      Problem is, once you are feeding with sugar, it goes over to the honey, so you have to take the honey first.
      But everyone we know has had a dismal year. The German Bee-Herd who lives locally will, in a normal year, grow over 300 queens – for hive renewal, and selling. This year, fifteen. He can’t even renew his own queens.
      🙁

    3. I remember bringing a full trolley of cat food to the checkout in Tescos (it was on special offer). A woman behind me in the queue said “You got a cat then?” I said “No, I run a B&B and this is for tonights meal – we’re having stew” You should have seen the look on her face

  63. Taste test
    SIR – I completely agree with Lt Col Lyndon Robinson’s letter (September 3) on Army food. I still remember the comforting roar of the Army Catering Corps’ (then) No 1 burner oven, as they lit up at first light in many a freezing German forest while on exercises during the Cold War.
    The food they produced using these crude devices was amazing, but was not to everyone’s liking. As a newly commissioned second lieutenant, I carried out my first duty orderly officer’s role in the mess hall, asking the men if they had any complaints.
    “Yes, sir, the food’s horrible,” said one young conscript. “A cat wouldn’t eat it.” Being a highly trained Sandhurst graduate, I called for the mess cat and placed the plate before it. The mog got stuck in. “There”, I said, “she loves it.”
    There was a pause and then the young squaddie replied: “Maybe so, sir, but look where she’s licking herself to take away the taste.”
    I beat a hurried retreat.
    Malcolm Allen
    Berkhamstead, Hertfordshire

    1. The way to control the state is to prevent it levying taxes. If the state cannot take our money then it has no power.

      We stop the state from being so damned damaging by cutting off the cash flow.

      1. Except we can’t. The system is set up to take the money off you before you get it (PAYE). And if you get a fine and don’t pay, before you know it the bailiffs have arrived.

  65. Last post (really – waiting for supper then bed)

    Was it completely BY CHANCE that an armed plain clothes police killer happened to encounter the murderous slammer escapee on the canal tow?

    Just asking.

    Ponders.

      2. First, stop the gabbling in foreign. That needs to stop. It is because they can keep speaking their own foreign that they think nothing else applies either.

        Second, when people behave like this, flog them. Just don’t bother with a trial or such, they’re revolting. Treat her as she has treated this country.

        Send her a bill for the benefits she has claimed and then deport her.

      3. Perfectly normal behaviour. I don’t know what all the fuss is about. She could have been more considerate and done it it the bog roll aisle though,

          1. I remember watching a video of an African woman allowing her child to shit on the pavement outside Notre Dame capturing a gendarme purposely looking in the other direction.

      4. They are talking Spanish. The fat defecator is ordering the door to be opened (unlocked?) at the end.

    2. It wasn’t by chance. They flooded the area they thought he might be with operatives.
      The PR from police or the secret squirrels has to show them in a good light.

      Remember how many lies they told over the De Menezes sanctioned state murder. Hilsborough. Kelly. Sturgess and Skripal. Just to name a few .

      1. I maintain that Hillsborough was the fault of hte fans. They refused to behave and killed one another. They had a choice of how to behave.

        1. Yes. I agree with you. However those in charge made wrong decisions then tried to cover it up and at the same time demonise the fans and put all the blame on them.

          1. Wibbs is perfectly correct about the fault being of the drunken Scouse lout fans.

            You are correct about the lamentable police management. The idiot in charge was a prime example of the Peter Principle insofar as he had been promoted to the level of his incompetence. The chump had no experience of big match management and was too full of himself to ask for advice from those who were more experienced in that arena of operation.

        2. The FA, South Yorkshire Police and Sheffield City Council were all responsible for the deaths. There had been warnings about that end at Hillsborough before – the 1981 semi-final between Spurs and Wolves was interrupted by fans climbing over the fence to escape the crush. The ground was simply unsafe.

          The 2012 report didn’t blame those fans who arrived late. Perhaps it didn’t dare. Sadly, it was the decent fans who died. They were the ones with tickets who arrived early to take their place at the front of the pens.

  67. There is a comet visible in the northern sky which only appears once every 400 years.

    https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/376478669_794536489340738_235478034278513772_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p843x403&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5614bc&_nc_ohc=YVFeLY2RoYEAX9FT0xN&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=00_AfCNeiJ5-2qQDGE6Tg93v4mSr00ZGNRyUBPvX7f_Tf92mw&oe=6502D2D1

    Look! A shooting star, make a wish. (I wish) That you stop buying parts for your car. Oh dear! It’s only a satellite.

  68. There is a comet visible in the northern sky which only appears once every 400 years.

    https://scontent-lcy1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/376478669_794536489340738_235478034278513772_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p843x403&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5614bc&_nc_ohc=YVFeLY2RoYEAX9FT0xN&_nc_ht=scontent-lcy1-1.xx&oh=00_AfCNeiJ5-2qQDGE6Tg93v4mSr00ZGNRyUBPvX7f_Tf92mw&oe=6502D2D1

    Look! A shooting star, make a wish. (I wish) That you stop buying parts for your car. Oh dear! It’s only a satellite.

  70. I went into a public ‘ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
    The publican ‘e up an’ sez, ” We serve no red-coats here.”
    The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
    I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
    O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, go away ” ;
    But it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play
    The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
    O it’s ” Thank you, Mister Atkins,” when the band begins to play.

    I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
    They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
    They sent me to the gallery or round the music-‘alls,
    But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
    For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ” Tommy, wait outside “;
    But it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide
    The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
    O it’s ” Special train for Atkins ” when the trooper’s on the tide.

    Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
    Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap.
    An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
    Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
    Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul? ”
    But it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes ” when the drums begin to roll
    The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
    O it’s ” Thin red line of ‘eroes, ” when the drums begin to roll.

    We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
    But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
    An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
    Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
    While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Tommy, fall be’ind,”
    But it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind
    There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
    O it’s ” Please to walk in front, sir,” when there’s trouble in the wind.

    You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
    We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
    Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
    The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
    For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an` Chuck him out, the brute! ”
    But it’s ” Saviour of ‘is country ” when the guns begin to shoot;
    An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
    An ‘Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool – you bet that Tommy sees!

          1. Barrack Room Ballads included? I love them! Dad used to read them to me when I was very young!

    2. Fifty five thousand, five hundred and seventy three Bomber Command crew lost their lives in the Second World War.
      No campaign medal was awarded, just a clasp for the 1939-45 Star, in the form of a rosette, instituted in 2013.
      Lest we forget.

  72. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/news/peinliche-pressekonferenz-joe-biden-verspricht-sich-oft-und-versteht-die-fragen-nicht-li.387605
    Embarrassing press conference: Biden keeps making promises and doesn’t understand the questions
    US President Joe Biden arrived 90 minutes late for his appointment in Hanoi, Vietnam. His short appearance was more than unfortunate and ended with: “I’m going to go to bed now”.
    More than an hour and a half late at a press conference – that’s unusual even for US President Joe Biden . Biden met Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in Vietnam on Sunday – and the appointment took just a little longer than planned. When the 80-year-old Biden later appeared in front of the press, he often misunderstood himself, spoke slowly and often did not understand the questions. He blamed this on a fan.

        2. He needs to go on a parade in an open topped car in Dallas so the CIA can get him while the FBI aren’t looking.

      2. Reminds me of when Brian Clough the football manager – who was reputedly a very nasty chap – was attacked by one of the supporters of the opposing team after the match. The newspaper report said:

        “Fan hits the shit!”

    2. I was certain that Biden would stand down at just over the halfway point so that Harris could take over and serve two and a half terms.

      Unfortunately for the Democrats Harris turned out to be even worse than Biden so the puppeteers are keeping him in place and pulling the strings.

      My bet is now that if he stands again he won’t have her as his running mate.

      1. He dare not stand again (or should I say, the Democrats dare not let him stand again). Like you, I thought the game plan was for Biden to stand down half-way through his term on the grounds of ‘ill-health’ and let Harris take over. It looks as though the Democrats have realised that this would be even more of a disaster than nursing Biden through the rest of his term. Hence the puppet will stay until next year, with a new candidate in 2024.

  73. Latest Breaking Rugby News,
    Wales will be low on support for today’s match against Fiji in France, owing to their 20MPH speed limit, apparently they left a week ago but still haven’t reached the M4 yet.
    Supporters say they hope to get there for the final, if Wales get that far

  74. Terrifying moment ‘XL Bully’ dog mauls 11-year-old girl in the street before crazed animal chases and attacks two men who tried to wrestle the youngster free from its jaws
    The nightmare unfolded in Bordesley Green, Birmingham, yesterday afternoon

    Don’t shoot the dog shoot the owners.

    Then shoot the dog

    2. What can i say….have you ever been to Bordesley Green?.. There are many places like that in the burbs of Brum.

  75. Due to great excitement watching the ruggers I’ll have have a top up and wish you all goodnight.
    This is a very good fast moving game.
    Good night all. 🏉
    Good job they’re not playing in England they have a water break every 20 minutes.
    There’s a drought here.

  77. Evening, all. Busy day again; church in the morning (where they sang Happy Birthday to me!), a meeting in North Wales in the afternoon, which went very smoothly, so much so that I managed to get home in time to attend sung Evensong by the members of the choir who used to attend my church and who are now itinerant. It was wonderful, as usual, and good to catch up with old friends.

    The problem with my former church is continuing. We have the PCC meeting tomorrow night, which I’m not looking forward to. I’m getting a lift with the former director of music for mutual support!

    The problems of the church are that they do not stop toxic situations developing and once they have, they don’t act to lance the boil. They don’t preach the Good News because they are too busy being “inclusive” and jumping on any bandwagon that is going.

    1. The church has lost sight of what it is all about.

      🎶Happy Birthday! 🎉🪅🎁🍷 It sounds as if you have had a good day. Many happy returns thereof!

    2. Happy Birthday! We got a lecture on climate change at evensong but that’s from an associate priest. The rector isn’t into that stuff.

      2. Thank you. We had a lecture on saving the planet by getting out of our gas guzzlers last Harvest Festival, by the Bishopette of Birkenhead who then went out and got into a Porsche!

        1. I’ve only just logged in 2352h. Bin a busy day, but just in time to say
          Penblwydd hapis i ti 🎂🍾🥂

  82. Monday 11th September 2023

    Peddy the Viking (aka Peter Anderson)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e281877e66f9640965428cfaf7612b736a56b10f037dc7830d6ff3f7e0f8aba9.png

    and many joyful returns of the day!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16a19cf1440cee4e7d138bde60c8c2180d4df3880a28b2dd5b58a64a4646003d.jpg

    Welcome to the Trombone Club which all Nottlers join when they turn 76!

    With very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus.

    We do hope you’ll look in more often in the future!

  83. What a match!

    If the game had gone on for a couple of minutes longer the result would have been different!

  84. Good night, chums. I got a fair amount done today, but the washing – and a fair bit of sorting through my emails will have to wait until tomorrow.

      1. You’re welcome. I find it useful that I need to meet my 7.00 am deadline each morning. I can cheat if necessary – there’s a rudimentary laptop in the bedside cabinet, but more often than not, I put the prostheses back on, drag my weary carcase to the kitchen, make the first – all important – mug of tea, whereupon I post the new page. Truth be told, I’ve streamlined the process to the extent that I can do it in less than 60 seconds…

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