Sunday 11 May: The Government needs to get tough on unaffordable public-sector pensions

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

483 thoughts on “Sunday 11 May: The Government needs to get tough on unaffordable public-sector pensions”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,422 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,422 4/6

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    3. We truly seem to live in a society that aids and abets paedophilia. How else do we explain this, and the Islamic rape gangs?

      1. 405350+ up ticks,

        Morning LIR,

        With great difficulty, but nevertheless it won’t stop the political overseers and supporters from trying.

      2. If rumours are to be believed, the fish rots from the head downwards and paedophilia is an integral part of the parasite class's religion. It is said that they are brought up with it, and that it is also used to bind loyalty in ambitious lackeys.

  7. Retired police officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet. 11 May 2025.

    A retired special constable was arrested and detained over a social media post warning about the threat of anti-Semitism in Britain, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Julian Foulkes, from Gillingham in Kent, was handcuffed at his home by six officers from Kent Police – the force he had served for a decade – after challenging a supporter of pro-Palestinian marches on X.

    This is just an intimidation operation by the UK Stasi. They obviously can’t bang us all up so they have to resort to fear. I suspect than most of the arrests for Thought Crimes follow a similar pattern. The Telegraph has obliged them here by publicising it. I always used to wonder in the old Cold War days what it was actually like to live in those European Marxist States. The present UK is not an absolute copy, due to other political factors, but the principles are the same.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/retired-police-officer-arrested-over-thought-crime-tweet/

    1. I am on record here of arguing that the Israeli assaults on Gaza and the West Bank go way beyond what is necessary and proportionate in the way of national security, denies the national security of others, brings in a whole people making them all answerable for the crimes of the Knesset, and the global definition of "antisemitism" is wrong, and perverts democracy in my own country, not least by interfering with the electoral process in the UK by bringing down a Leader of the Opposition and a former London mayor. I also consider it not antisemitic to criticise the Knesset for allowing such a lapse of border security that a number of armed paramilitaries can raid their country, attack innocent civilians as well as local militias, and carry off hostages back over the border.

      I also think the using bleach on women's hair is a disfigurement of something I find beautiful.

      That said, the police raid on Julian Foulkes was a miscarriage of justice so serious, there needs to be a Public Inquiry into the working of the Kent Police, and heads should roll if basic freedoms are to be upheld in the UK. He has every right to disagree with me.

      1. Don’t see how one measures proportionality in the Gaza case. In any case during war.

      2. I hear what you say Jeremy on humanitarian grounds but Hamas use their population as a shield for their activities and their stated aim of destroying Isreal. If we thought that a ceasefire followed by the rebuilding of Gaza would produce a community that would live alongside its neighbour, I think we would be mistaken. Unfortunately, I believe Hamas need to be eliminated before some sort of solution can be considered. Here is Douglas Murray who says it much better than I in 3 mins. https://x.com/vividprowess/status/1921364632716927011?s=48&t=_tFXj5oB_kajCgFSDLpW4Q

      1. How were they allowed to search through his cupboards bookshelves and his private belongings ?

      2. Terriblegraph says he accepted a caution at the time as he was worried the whole thing might impact his ability to visit his remaining daughter in Australia (another one was killed 15 years earlier in a hit-and-run accident abroad). “At the time, I believed a caution wouldn’t affect travel, but a conviction definitely would”. I think he’s just got the caution overturned.

        It’s easy with hindsight but for law-abiding people, when something like this comes out of thin air, how do you respond? I don’t have a solicitor on speed dial, or acres of experience knowing how to dodge the law.

    4. And it actually happened in 2023, so we can’t even blame Labour for this.

      But it underscores why the CONservatives cannot be allowed back.

    5. I would have sued the Kent police for false arrest and imprisonment. Eight hours in a police cell when no offence had been committed is an atrocity.

      1. I hope he gets some support from the FSU or other people with some experience of fighting this nonsense.

    1. The latest Winston Marshall show podcast/You Tube is interviewing a Coptic Egyptian on this subject (Islam’s history).

      Makes the point early on that many people (stupid ones, I may ad) “think” the Middle East has always been Islamic. Because they are too ignorant to know the truth and not interested in knowing the truth.

      1. The whole of north Africa was Christian before the Arabs invaded and forced them over to islam.

    2. When I was a schoolboy (I know, donkey's yonks ago) my chums and I used the shortened version of 'Homo' — 'Mo' — to describe a homosexual.

      1. 405350 + up ticks,

        Morning G,
        Yes everything was shortened I believe kahn, starmer, & Alan Ladd blamed their parents

    3. Putting aside the par for the course behaviour of the followers of the RoP. Notice at the end the bloke holding the camera says to the arrested bloke "that wasn't such a good idea" as though the arrested bloke who is exercising his free speech is the problem. A perfect practical example of Liberal-Leftist logic in real time. It is also an example of the bigotry of low expectations.

    1. Good morning. This recent good weather has worked wonders on all my tomatoes and chillis. The chillis even have little flowers on them and i haven't put them in their large pots yet.

      1. Good morning, sorry but I loath chilli's and uncooked tomatoes bring me out in blotches, I am okay with cooked tomatoes. I don't like the taste of them anyway, they're only present to add colour to a Greek salad or moisture to a ham sandwich, otherwise they have the pointlessness of cucumbers .

        1. I have to disagree with regards to tomatoes, Audrey, but am in total agreement with you about cucumbers.

          2. Cucumbers are one of my favourite things! Pimms, cucumber sandwiches and pickled/fermented cucumbers.

        2. Good morning. I find them easy to grow and the bright colours look good on the bush.

          I also trade with the neighbours. One of my neighbours has a fig tree so she gets preference.

      2. Morning, Phil. It seems like overnight the clematis and roses have bloomed.

        1. My clematis has opened a couple of flowers. More buds than i have seen before too.

    1. Which he promptly left when he realised it was getting taken over by extreme racists.

      1. 405350+ up ticks,

        morning Bob,

        Correct, in many cases that fact falls on deaf ears.

        1. They also point out that he was a member of the BNP, yet fail to mention that he only attended one meeting during which he realised that his black mates would not be allowed to join and his membership lapsed after one year.

          3. Sadly, the truth has been out for a LONG time, but as the MEEJAH ignore it, most people are unaware.

  11. 405350+ up ticks,

    Sheer weight of numbers even though 48% are treacherous nutters I would say we will eat meat as long as we have the taste for it.

    How long will we be allowed to eat it, answer ,20 minutes at most if you still take heed via the treacherous political, scamming overseers.

    The taste for meat is back but how long will we be allowed to eat it?
    The winds of taste, health and trend are blowing away from Miliband’s horrible, carbon-neutral vision of the future

  12. 'Morning All
    Weekend Medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/41657b17fe7e8b1e9f6e80c47f238b84eff7d3ef579a2313ec038d05a04e3cc3.jpg
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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/10bddf51ee3f7f4685032aaf5b28262b07c9e2217517032c7c6162729e854848.jpg
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  13. Morning, all Y'all.
    Overcast. Please can the rain hold off until I have mown the grass (calling it a lawn suggests far too high a quality of grassy area that looks more like somewhere boggy that cattle graze…)

      1. Now I’ve cut the grass, could use a lot of rain here as well. Overnight would be fine.

  14. Hello, good morning, another beautiful Spring morning.

  16. 405350+ up ticks,

    Correct, if only, but also what the herd has neglected to do in the past that has cost us nigh on a nation, is guard against internal treachery.

    Many have been bitten by the treachery snake before causing them I believe, to want an alternative to reform, to run parallel to reform on ALL issues appertaining especially the daily invasion
    being of major concern.

    IMHO a safety net party, as in the Farmers, Food & freedom party
    is currently the only commos sense road to take.

    https://x.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1921450537955815648

    1. 405350+ up ticks,

      405350 + upticks,

      O2O,

      One things for sure deficient in vit K2 D3 and the political overseers planned blackouts for winter will certainly boost their already active culling campaign

      1. Oggie's post for Oggie? Talking to yourself are you? (Good morning to you nevertheless, btw.)

      1. 405350+ up ticks,

        Morning DB,

        The only thing I fear is that nature will show an assertive hand in its awesome power to those dangerous idiots thinking they can overrule nature itself .

    3. And drink plenty of water…..but not too much there's a shortage you know.

      1. It amazing how surprised people when I say to them that matter can neither be created nor destroyed, physics lesson from the Late 50s. Therefore all the water in the world is much the same as when earth was created/began and has passed through the bodies of all the humans and animals who have ever lived.
        Therefore is no water shortage there’s a shortage of fresh water storage ie reservoirs.

        1. Yes agreed there is no more or less water on our planet than ‘at conception’ moisture cannot escape our atmosphere.
          But of course with such a huge population the water is now dispensed in so many different ways.
          There is a new reservoir currently being built in Hampshire due to open in 3 or so years.

        1. My mother always worried about that on my behalf; I had to keep very well hydrated as a singer. Damned useful when in Rome in a heatwave, and I had an encyclopaedic knowledge of public loo networks in various cities, mind.

    4. A glance at yesterday's Daily Mail online showed the extent of the brainwashing. People who are quite happy to wipe their butts with paper and sit at wooden furniture were calling for the deaths of two men convicted of cutting down an entirely replaceable and not particularly old or rare tree, purely because the media had whipped them into a frenzy about it.

      1. The tree was planted deliberately over a hundred years ago as an incident in the landscape just as monuments and follies were in the C18. As such it had a particular significance and had become a landscape feature and by association loved by many.

        Two stupid philistines chose to destroy the tree in an act of malicious folly and deserve to be punished for their actions. The tree was not theirs to take down as a source of timber as you seem to be suggesting but public property in a protected landscape.

        1. Of course it wasn#t theirs, but their crime was no worse than the felling of any tree that didn’t belong to them. The crime was committed against the owners of the tree. But there has been a deliberate attempt to turn it into a crime “against nature.”

          Maybe you are unaware, but there is a push to try and criminalise anything that “damages the environment” which is a very dangerous tyranny.
          Mail readers are being nudged and brainwashed into supporting this anti-human idea that will be used as part of reducing future generations to the level of serfs.

          The tree itself was nothing special.

    5. Project Fear being resurrected to push the 'Climate Emergency' lie.
      Edit: I see Delboy36 had already made the same point.

  22. Morning All 🙂😊
    Another lovely sunny start very little breeze today, it must be a wind day of rest.
    The government needs to get tough….they already hate any people who have ancestry deep in the British archives. Who live on or close to green belt land and have solar panels on their homes. And of course are tax paying home owners working to keep their small affordable families in good fettle.

  23. First time used in combat.. how did it do?
    Just one cheap as chips China made PL-15 missile fired from just outside Lahore.. has just blown up Macron's multi-billion big buck deals with;

    India 36 + 26 Marine Rafale jets..
    Indonesia 42
    Qatar 46
    Cairo 30
    Uzbekistan 24

    Pakistan now has received a batch of one hundred PL-15 Mach5 missiles and with a range of 300km puts the entire Indian Air Force in danger.

    1. There's a long list of countries that have just had their 1906 Russo-Japanese moment.

      Dominic Cummings has been banging on about.. the very deep long-term problems in military organisations, thinking and procurement — and an inability of the political parties nominally in charge of these bureaucracies to change direction — in America, UK and the EU.

      In Argentina’s fighter competition, Washington and Beijing fight for regional influence
      Chinese investment in the region means Beijing is “on the 20-yard line of our homeland.

    2. There's a long list of countries that have just had their 1906 Russo-Japanese moment.

      Dominic Cummings has been banging on about.. the very deep long-term problems in military organisations, thinking and procurement — and an inability of the political parties nominally in charge of these bureaucracies to change direction — in America, UK and the EU.

      In Argentina’s fighter competition, Washington and Beijing fight for regional influence
      Chinese investment in the region means Beijing is “on the 20-yard line of our homeland.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly. Is today's avatar of you drinking you morning, cuppa? And don't forget to put your cap on if you go outside today; it seems that it will be a scorcher.

        2. That was yesterday’s, Auntie Elsie. No scorcher here in Sweden. Bright but still cool.

      1. I like this very much, Citroen 1…waiting to be painted..I especially like how they carry a stone to break open mussels/oysters, and also how they carry their babies, floating on their backs. I especially don't like the training in circuses, water shows etc.

  25. Good morning all.
    Another bright sunny day with no sign of rain and an almost warm tad over 9° on the yard thermometer.

  26. I don’t know what planet Daniel Hannan is on in today’s Terriblegraph. I can’t post text as i am on the way to Soton and it’s too complicated, but essentially Hannan’s argument is that Trumpism has affected the You-K, and it is negative, polarising with a desire to “drink the other side’s tears” and upset people you don’t like.

    Is it me or did this start with the Left?

    Or is Hannan right and the world has suddenly changed for the worse in the last 4 months?

    1. The left started it back in the early 90s. Or perhaps even earlier, as they were persecuting teachers in the 80s. We have now reached the logical conclusion of all those insults and exclusion from polite society – everyone has just lost patience.

    2. I would be amazed if Hannan were right. He seems to have been on the wrong side of the argument at least since before the referendum.

  27. Good morning, all. Sunny. Very late on parade. Exhausted after yesterday's labours.

  28. 405350+ up ticks,

    Morning LIR,
    Must have confused them somewhat to see all those blokes with bleeding great red crosses on their teeshirts acting up.

  29. Bonjour 'SsieusDames,
    To the Telegraph title… yes. What the government really wants as we edge towards the social cliff-edge is to pissoff the police.
    Didn't work well for May when she was Home Secretary. I seem to remember plod sitting on their hands while the capital rioted after she dropped their numbers. Probably coincidence.
    But maybe Starmer and Co are indeed that thick.

    2. Sadly although the seem thick they are just being very nasty towards the general British public and taxpayers.
      Apart from the obvious hate. The influence this current 'government' has on the indigenous population is net zero. All they seem to be settling for is looking after people who have arrived on our shores to take what they can for absolutely no obligation or very little respect towards the general public.
      In fact the respect they show for everything they get is appalling and absolutely minimal.
      I can't believe how my once safe and reasonably sophisticated country has diversified in the past 25 years.
      I fear for the future of our lovely grandchildren.

  30. House of Commons speaker has kept almost 300 gifts over past four years

    Lindsay Hoyle’s freebies include champagne, whisky, food hampers, skincare sets and presents for his pets

    Hampers, cufflinks … and a lot of alcohol: some of the gifts Lindsay Hoyle has kept
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/678a21046953ca5764fb30f42336ae5d21d2599f/225_25_1317_1054/master/1317.jpg?width=700&dpr=2&s=none&crop=none
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/may/10/lindsay-hoyle-house-of-commons-speaker-gifts-kept

    1. He’s a disgrace, as was Bercow before him a Michael Martin before him.

      Ine has to winder who is offering the Speaker bribes? Sorry, gifts?

      1. ‘Morning LIR! That would be the highly mysterious and probably dodgy, ‘lobbyists’!

        1. "The speaker received a large volume of presents from foreign dignitaries such as ambassadors, MPs and sometimes companies and chose to keep hundreds of them rather than donating them to Speaker’s House – his residence and office – or parliament."

      2. ‘Morning LIR! That would be the highly mysterious and probably dodgy, ‘lobbyists’!

      3. Betty Boothroyd was the best Speaker in living memory.

        She always reminded me of the much-loved but tyrannically authoritarian Matron at my prep school.

    2. Bungs is the word.
      Charles Dickens wrote a nice little story in Sketches by Boz about Mr Bung the Beadle

        1. I am not going to dig down on ever piece of internet flotsam that comes my way, a quick reply be someone who has more interest in a given topic is nice.

          2. Morning all. To save my sanity and blood pressure I do the same. I suppose we all read what really interests us.

  31. Retired police officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet
    Pensioner held after Palestinian march post on social media, with ‘Brexity’ books in his home scrutinised
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/retired-police-officer-arrested-over-thought-crime-tweet/

    This is an appalling story is made even worse by the fact that this man's outrageous treatment was effected while Sunak was prime minister. I fear it is already too late – Britian is lost forever

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57d650979034b277902096f791a5a8887339ada802a65b1a9b2eafb6dd000771.png

    2. Returning to the DT comments I see that Richard Tracey's has been removed.

      I wonder why?

      The Daily Telegraph       is so in thrall to Islam that is afraid of it own shadow.

  32. Good Morning!

    Today Christianity is under attack and the Established Churches seem to be unconcerned, so in his WHEN THE CHURCH WAS VERY YOUNG Graham Wood reminds us of the faith and energy of the early Christian Church that shaped western civilisation.

    The Globalist enemy wants you dead. Much of their destructive dogma is based on the theories of Thomas Malthus. Read The Malthusian Malarkey and find out why it’s all dangerous nonsense.

    Energy watch 08.00: Demand: 23.83 GW. Total UK Production: 17.98 GB from: Hydrocarbons 10.4%; Wind 24.7%; Imports 28%; Biomass 4.9%; Nuclear 16.4. Solar: 12.9%.

    By Far the biggest component of our electric power supply today is, once again, imports. Utter lunacy.

  33. Coffee in hand, sitting in the sun, having spoiled the peace and quiet with the battery lawnmower. Great little machine, so it is, hardly weighs anything so that even SWMBO can use it (she contracts that duty to me) and cuts well. This time, caught the grass and it's now in plastic bags waiting to be taken to the tip.
    Hope all Y'all are having a restful sunday.

  34. We have to accept that there is no free speech any more. When the Growler's reforms come in, you will not be able to say what you want in a pub either, this being the case in Scotland already although the law is phrased differently there.

    2. Nice! Mine is beautifuly decorated with sacks of demolished bathroom, so not quite so picture skew.

  37. Here's the latest from Naomi Wolf on Substack:
    https://naomiwolf.substack.com/p/the-imaginary-casey-means?publication_id=676930&post_id=163303295&isFreemail=true&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
    There is currently a row over a public health appointment in the Trump administration – it has been offered to one Casey Means, who appears to be one of those artificially manufactured "health experts" like Michael Mosley and that woman doctor who was all over UK TV during the pandemic telling people to trust the government or words to that effect. Naomi Wolf's analysis goes further than an American domestic spat however, as she points out the value of people's personal data, and what Musk was actually doing while we were being told that he and his team were reducing government waste.

    NHS data has already been handed over of course, unless you specifically opt out.

  38. Morning all. I am typing from bed. I gave church a miss so I can try to get rid of this hacking cough.
    There’s a lot this lot needs to get tough on, but all they will do is stuff the elderly and the productive sectors.

    1. Get well soon, Conway x hope you haven't got whooping cough, doing the rounds some places.

        1. Well that’s good news 🙂 Do babies/older children still have that vaccine? I’m interested in RfKJr’s take on vaccines, think he may be onto something. Seems like dog may have a UTI, peeing less blood today and drinking more water, sleeping a lot and ate some sliced meat with scrambled egg. Can’t ask vet until tomorrow, if he’s better again I may not call her. Sorry to say I don’t have the faith in her I had in previous (male) vet, now retired. Again, thanks for your kindness, Conway x

          1. When Oscar had a UTI he took to peeing anywhere and everywhere. Thankfully it was soon under control. Some vets are very good. The woman who treated Oscar before I changed practice not so much.

          2. Previous vet was very good (a man). Current vet talks a lot, very quickly, waves her hands around same time. If I can avoid contacting her, I will. All four nurses are all female, one with headphones who always ignores customers. One dispenses prescriptions. Don’t know what the others do. They operate out of a huge barn of a place. Previous place, with male vet, was smaller and always packed. It’s very expensive now too, current episode £££££££s….

      1. Thanks. So do I. It keeps me awake. My breathing isn’t of the best, either. Rasping at times. I have managed to walk the dogs now.

        1. Perhaps a salt water gargle will help with the cough. Hope you feel better soon.

          I normally gargle with a cap full of whisky.

          3. How are your ears? Sometimes the problem can be with the eustachian tube to the ears. Gargling helps to combat that junction between ear and throat.

          4. Apart from being hard of hearing (25 years in a noisy environment) my ears are fine.

        2. Well that's progress, Conners. Kadi and Winston will be very grateful.

    3. I don't want to depress you Conway but I had a bad cough about ten weeks ago and it was purgatory. It kept me awake for the first three nights and then persisted for another eight weeks. I simply couldn't shake it off. Three hours sleep a night if I was lucky. It aggravated my diabetes and destroyed my health program.

      1. Sorry to hear that. My cough is getting better, it’s just a slow business.

  41. That's very annoying. Just made two tuna and chilli sandwiches for lunch, and the jar of chillies (use by May 2026) had to be emptied into the sink to find enough chillies for 2 sarnies, where pretty well all the chillies had turned to slime and mush. Yukk. Now we've no pickled chillies.

    1. Unless it was clearly "off", you should have kept the slime and muck for a curry sauce.

  43. One of my favourite sarnies – tuna, mayo and lime pickle…….almost lunch time…..

    1. Patak's hot lime pickle in a mature cheddar sandwich is one of my favourites. Great combination.

      2. Excellent. I buy the Vintage cheddar, tangy. What bread do you like for your sarnie, Harry?

          1. Oh yes, that will do nicely, thanks. Sometimes sourdough a little heavy…toast, butter, honey….😋

  45. I have a gardening-related question but am having difficulty uploading photos. We are at my daughter’s, who has a parch of grass backing on to the railway line, north facing but the land is gets sun all day. The vegetation is ivy and vine, with some bindweed. At the top end where the land borders the railway (which is down a cutting), winged insects fly around and it is noticeable that they are in this vicinity not elsewhere in the garden. Do these things have “nests”? How does one control them? Any ideas?

    1. Would like to help but really need a picture. Find the winged insect on google then post a link.

    1. Foreign Aid is an abomination and should be stopped in all cases for all countries.

      1. 405350+ up ticks,

        Afternoon G,

        To stop it would also stop the Chinese laundry blues playing in the background.

      1. 405350+ up ticks,

        Afternoon C1,

        Against our 92 Dukes in the house of lords,toss up who we should fear most.

          1. 405350+ up ticks,

            Afternoon C1,

            I looked it up earlier on wiki, and came up with 92
            so I must stand corrected on looking again.

  47. Picnics at risk from EU rules that will hit sausage rolls

    THE Great British picnic is under threat from EU rules that risk shortages of mini sausage rolls and “picky bits”.
    Logistics experts have warned that complex global supply chains could be disrupted by the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
    European businesses exporting to Britain could be forced to shun some of their suppliers out of fear of potentially huge fines and even prison sentences for breaking the new law. That could mean that UK supermarket shelves devoted to “British tapas” could be left temporarily bare by the time the Glyndebourne festival rolls around next summer.

    “Favourite picnic items like meat, dairy, and certain snacks will be impacted by the new EU laws, especially those made from commodities like soy, palm oil, and beef,” Alex Walters, from supply chain experts Authenticate, told The Telegraph. “Soy, a major contributor to deforestation, is also a common component of animal feed affecting the availability of tasty treats from charcuterie to the humble sausage roll,” he added. “Additionally, the packaging and materials used for the picnic itself can also contribute to deforestation, especially if they are made from wood or paper.”

    The EUDR is meant to ensure that certain products are not sourced from deforested land outside of the EU, Britain’s largest trading partner.
    It demands strict reporting requirements to ensure supply chains are free of deforestation and is expected to come into full force on Dec 30.
    The biggest companies, including British firms active in the EU, can face fines of up to 4 per cent of EU turnover and criminal penalties such as two-year jail sentences for failing to carry out due diligence.

    The European Commission was approached for a comment.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/285bf3be69f5057a248f73e0a99a5887f3f1a540f1feea4c866cf2d37347e523.jpg
    There will never be a shortage of sausage rolls in my house, even though they are unknown in Sweden. Whenever I bake a batch (with my home-made sausage meat and puff pastry) the locals soon knock on my door to sample some of my delicious smördegskorv.

    1. I found some sausage meat in the freezer. I made short crust instead of puff as i like the crumbly texture.

      I will mix the sausage meat with fried onions. Fresh home grown sage. Lots of black pepper and some apple sauce which was also in the bottom of the freezer.

      Will bake tomorrow.

      Yours look nice. Mine will be better.

      1. Now you secretly know that you are being silly. You just know.

        Anyone who uses shortcrust pastry for a sausage roll needs retraining.

        1. I was rummaging in the freezer and didn't have a pastry so i made a short crust with butter and lard. Mainly because i could just chuck all the ingredients in the Kenwood.

      2. I prefer short pastry for sausage rolls.
        Puff pastry is too much fat rolled around more fat.

        1. Agreed.
          And as for those ceramic tubs of stew that pass themselves off as "pies" simply because some sod has plonked a puff pastry lid on top…..

    2. Morning, Katy.

      Being criticised by Philip is roughly the equivalent of being savaged by a dead sheep!🤣🤣

        1. I know you weren’t criticising me, but I’m telling you that you’re deluded if you think you can outcook me.

    1. On the cards for some time, and especially since the handshake with Tusk…all in plain sight. Dereliction of (Brexit) duty. When we vote for Reform, will that be cancelled too…..

    1. Number 13 needs modification – trans women should have a pussy but many of them don't.

    1. And everyone obeys the rules because otherwise a neighbour will "report" you.

    2. Are there communal toilets in case you are caught short on the wrong floor and need a CCP?

  55. Not as good as yesterday but got there in the end!
    Wordle 1,422 5/6

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

  56. Sun shining earlier. Washed the bedding and hung it out to dry. Two minutes later it hissed it down. Brought it in, rain stopped. It is racked up in front of the log fire now. Bl**dy weather!

  57. So far this month we have had 1mm of rain and the square root of bugger all since Mid February…
    My 10 day weather forecast suggests a 50% chance of showers overnight and then SFA for the next 9 days….

    "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote,
    The droghte of March hath perced to the roote,
    And bathed every veyne in swich licóur
    Of which vertú engendred is the flour;
    Whan Zephirus eek with his swete breeth
    Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
    The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
    Hath in the Ram his halfe cours y-ronne,
    And smale foweles maken melodye,
    That slepen al the nyght with open ye,
    So priketh hem Natúre in hir corages,
    Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages,
    And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes,
    To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
    And specially, from every shires ende
    Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
    The hooly blisful martir for to seke,
    That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke…..

      3. A bit of a bog blocker was it? I presume you're building up for the next one?

  59. Skilled migrants will need degrees to come to UK
    Government’s long-awaited White Paper to return the threshold for skilled foreign workers to graduate level after being scrapped by Tories
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/11/skilled-migrants-will-need-degrees-to-come-to-uk/

    What is a degree? Could we accept those with a degree in pot-hole filling as people with this degree are very much in demand.

    BTL

    Great!

    So this will mean that the only way that an unskilled migrant will be able to come to Britain will be illegally on the back of a lorry or in a rubber dinghy.

    2. Care homes may struggle to find staff, Rastus. My experience, they're mostly female, dealing with male dementia sufferers not an easy task.

    3. Graduate level is meaningless, no? As someone said recently, stupidity has always existed but these days you can get a degree in it.

      1. Stupidity may have existed for a long time but nowadays it is ubiquitous and running out of control.

    4. We alreay have a vast oversupply of people with useless Mickey-Mouse degrees…and that's being rude to Walt Disney.

      1. I'm trying to sort out some steps I foolishly put in some years ago.

          1. Quite!
            Over the years I’m acquired a number of kerbstones and I’m using them, but this is the 3rd attempt at putting them in!
            1st time I had them lying flat, butted up against each other, but the DT did not feel safe on them.
            Then again, she feels unsafe standing on the edge of a thick carpet.
            The 2nd time I tried spacing them 4″ apart and realised the slope was too shallow and I was going to end up tunnelling into the hillside if I continued.

      2. I am tired after finally putting air in the tyres of the motorhome. Mind you, I did have to repair the compressor first. Then it repaid me by burning my thumb.

    2. The government has given a specific warning not to go outside in the sunshine today. You vill obey ze orderz uncle Bill.

        1. 😅🤣😂 I was very seriously distracted during that little episode 😁😉🤗

        2. I had two golfing mates called Bob when I was younger. It was good to have a Bob around. 🤗😉

    3. Take care, Robert! Do a risk assessment, make sure you have a water bottle with you at all times, keep to the shade! Above all be terrified that summer is at last on its way!

  64. In the wee small hours of this morning in Cleveland, OH (it being Mothering Sunday in USA) the eighth grandchild (and fifth granddaughter) announced her arrival on this earth with a loud yell. Big sister Leona wants to take her out to play and show all her friends.

    1. Congratulations Sir!
      No grandchildren from my brood yet.
      Or at least, none that I'm aware of.

      1. For you Squire, I could arrange a sale/leaseback on advantageous terms. How many would you and the DT have use for? On your part, you have to coach them in chopping all the firewood I will ever need.

    4. I know, I know, I know, that no NoTTLer nor any member of my family will ever allow me to deny my monster Rooster-Up, and quite right too.

      New arrival Harriet is the ninth grandchild and sixth granddaughter. What an overexcited goofball I am. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.

      3. Hmm, that's nine and six, so not quite the full ten shillings. But congratulations anyway!

  65. The Telegraph gets the coconut. Their headline now is that Putin ignores the cease-fire call. Yesterday Putin offered direct discussions at the re-run of the Ankara meetings, two years and a million deaths ago, without preconditions.

    I think warmongering like this by the Telegraph or any other self-styled reporter of fact should be a capital offence. Harm to others clearly forseeable, morally arid and deliberately ignored.

  66. Wonderful live horse trials and multiple jumping from Badminton on bbc2. Lots of spare seats it must be lunchtime. Or very expensive.

  67. Watch out for this little trick.. the 50 bundle scam.. especially in Labour & Mostly Peaceful areas.
    .
    Tales of statistically very unlikely to the power 10 voting patterns, where ballots above the 50 mark are creamed off by the actvists.
    Also, the mysterious GPO gone missing leaflets.
    Also, the convenient "postal vote not counted because computer says the signatures don't match"..
    .
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28A8-HCW160

      1. Not scorching here either. 24c inside and out, which I call pleasantly warm, not hot.

          1. It is supposed to be a thunderstorm here, but it is just that headachey heat and pressure so far, beastly little flies and the milk has gone sour.

          2. Forecast here to continue next week or so, only one group of walkers, were at least wearing hats…..maybe fruit flies?

          3. We call them thunderflies by yer, KJ. I don;'t know whether or not they are official fruit flies but they are tiny, black and do appear in very pesky swarms as the tension builds up towards a storm, then are no longer a problem once the air is pleasantly ionised.

          4. hang on will look…..nah, completely different and much much worse…can you slap em with a swat….

  70. I met Marcus Walker’s mum in church today. She’s an old hippie. Rebellion clearly works both ways.
    RAF 600 (City of London) Squadron always have a service at Bart’s on the nearest Sunday to 10th May, so it was combined with VE 80 this year. For those possessed of patriotic feeling, lots of tear jerker hymns. O valiant hearts, I vow to thee my country, etc.

  72. For the first time this year an ice cream van arrived and i bloody well missed it. !

    No cocaine for me tonight :@(

      1. If NOTTL awarded prize goody bags, yours would on its way right now.

        Good spot.

    2. Thanks William, they're quite common around Moors Valley where I walk.

        1. Yes, what gives your skin a burn….use gloves if pulling them out…..I didn’t know bluebell sap had similar effect!

    4. Pulmonaria officinalis
      RHS Plants for Pollinators plants
      This plant will provide nectar and pollen for bees and the many other types of pollinating insects.
      common lungwort?

      1. Yes. The fish looks nonplussed. And very tubby! (Just the angle of the photo, I'm sure) *Also looks false, like the Farage Fish t'other day, as if it's about to burst into song. But so much of nature seems utterly impossible (marvellous) doesn't it?

  76. Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘would win back old seat if he defected to Reform’
    Former Tory MP who lost his Somerset seat last year is reportedly ‘agonising’ over possible switch
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/05/11/jacob-rees-mogg-win-back-old-seat-if-defected-reform/

    JRM was urged by many to join the Reform Party before the general election.

    Had he done so then not only would he have retained his seat but he also could have prevented Farage and Yousof making the calamitous error of judgement over Rupert Lowe.

    1. 405350+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,

      I see, rebuild the old tory (INO) party mk 2 through the reform back door, could all this be some sort of " Old tory boys from Brazil" sort of copycat ?

      1. He;s too decent and always ascribes decency to others – which is a mistake. Plus, he is wrong surprisingly often about other things. Nevertheless, not a bounder, unusual in parliament.

    3. Jacob will never do anything that goes against the interests of his banking buddies.

    2. The woman is speaking Portuguese, Korky. As for the parrot, I have no idea.

  81. I wonder how long it will be before people start dying in large numbers as a result of taking "wonder weight-loss" jabs?

    Just asking….

    1. I remember reading the H.G. Wells story, The Truth About Pyecraft, when I was a schoolboy about a fat man who lost rather too much weight!

      I also read The History of Mr Polly which I enjoyed but I was never an enthusiast of his SF books.

    2. No deaths will ever be attributed to the wonder-jabs though.

      No such thing as a free lunch…

    3. You can bet your bottom rouble that no one will advise them to stop eating carbs and sugar and start eating lots more fatty meat, fish and eggs.

      I can provide (admittedly, anecdotal) evidence that it worked exceptionally well for me.

      1. My dog has liver problems. A lot of dog (and probably cat) food is 'kibble'…different brands have different amounts of carbs, but dogs and cats are carnivores.

        1. As are all apex predators, including humans. Those who rejoice in telling you that we are 'omnivores' who require a 'balanced diet' have been brainwashed by the lies of the global corporations. They are the ones who become diseased and wonder why. They never learn.

      2. A serious question Grizz.. I just can not give up carbs without feeling hungry. I do maintain a constant weight of 78kg so dont have a big prob but would like to lose a bit. I just have to run 50 miles a month! How long does it take to lose that deep need for bread and tatties on the carnivor diet. I have a personal issue in that Im married to a rice eater but that can be sorted!

        1. Good morning, KP, and sorry about the delay in responding to your question.

          As you probably know I have been researching diet ever since my unexplained weight gain over the past decade. The more I look into it the more I have learnt. Most of the experts (a few are appended below) will tell you that a full adoption can take between a few days to several weeks, depending on what you eat and how often you eat. In my case it happened in the space of around a fortnight. I soon discovered that eating (mainly) fatty meat, eggs, cheese and fish quickly sated me and that I wasn’t perpetually hungry. For some time I have been on a one-meal-a-day and occasionally on a one-meal-every-two-days diet that, I admit, is a little extreme, but when you remove most — if not all — carbohydrates (which the body immediately converts to sugar) from your diet, your hunger disappears at the same rate as your health improves and you weight reduces.

          As for eating rice? I still love fried rice (Chinese-style) and once in a while I will permit myself a small portion with some Chinese food. I haven’t cut out all carbs, just most of them. I would describe my régime as being: High-(animal)-fat; medium-protein; low-carbohydrate; no sugar. Try and watch some of the videos, below, from people whose health has improved vastly from eating a carnivorous diet. The first video is by Lee Copus, who started the Kent Carnivore forum after having had his colon destroyed by unnecessary fibre. In that video he interviews a number of medical proponents of the lifestyle that has improved their health in leaps and bounds.

          I also still enjoy the odd bread cob (roll) filled with bacon!

          Best wishes.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLRqcafiAH8
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GpcV7de6T4&list=WL&index=21&t=3s
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ScwfkYa9Kw&list=WL&index=17&t=1s
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW8Cu4vcReY&list=WL&index=20&t=133s
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnmsYgmJC_o&list=WL&index=24
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVYXc12UMV4&list=WL&index=28
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc9IbFJm5Ns&list=WL&index=32&t=492s
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5QwHN9zvHA&t=282s
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWB_0NHSRbw

      3. A serious question Grizz.. I just can not give up carbs without feeling hungry. I do maintain a constant weight of 78kg so dont have a big prob but would like to lose a bit. I just have to run 50 miles a month! How long does it take to lose that deep need for bread and tatties on the carnivor diet. I have a personal issue in that Im married to a rice eater but that can be sorted!

    4. I think it has already started. The meeja claims that they shoodna tookem in the first place as they weren't morbidly obese, just over influenced by online thinnifery. But I don't know. I foresee a slew of disabilities and deaths from this drug.

      1. The Daily Mail seems to be running endless articles about young people getting cancer out of the blue these days. Downright depressing it is. But never any suggestion that it might be due to any injected medical treatments of course.

        1. I have lost so many old friends in such a short time through what can only be described as "turbo cancer", BB2. It is like an epidemic.

          2. Two of my elderly friends gone within months of diagnosis of cancer so far this year. I'm convinced it's the jabs.

    6. One lass who I've known for years is using it.
      Yes, she was always "bonny", but now she looks unrecognisable; and not in a good way.

  82. Wordle No. 1,422 4/6

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

    Wordle 11 May 2025

    A peg for Par Four?

    1. Looks like you were a little unlucky there – I was fortunate to get away with a par! (when in trouble you go for a W )

      Wordle 1,422 4/6

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

    2. Surprise three here.

      Wordle 1,422 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. But two real birdies in todays round

      Wordle 1,422 5/6

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

    4. Par here. Probably made the same error on line three.

      Wordle 1,422 4/6

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

    5. Just back from Exeter, think I got a par this morning.

      Wordle 1,422 4/6

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

      Yes, it was.

  83. Flying Officer Taylor was of course fully aware that if launched he would need to bail out over the convoy when his Hurricane ran out of fuel, yet even though he was a none swimmer he went anyway.

    On 1st November 1942 the Empire Heath in convoy HG-91 launched her Sea Hurricane Mk.I V7070 (MSFU, pilot F/O Norman Taylor, DFM, RAF) to chase the German Focke-Wulf Fw200C F8+DS (7./KG 40, pilot Oblt Arno Gross) which was shot down, leaving no survivors. Return fire had damaged the fighter and the pilot had to bail out over the convoy, being a non-swimmer and he almost drowned before picked up by one of the escorts. It was victory number 6.5 for F/O Taylor and he was awarded the DFC for this action.

    S.S. Empire Heath

    Complement 58:
    (57 dead and 1 survivor).
    Iron ore

    At 14.45 hours on 11th May 1944, U-129 fired a spread of three torpedoes at the unescorted Empire Heath (Master William Thompson Brown, DSC) east-northeast of Rio de Janeiro, but missed. The U-boat surfaced and overtook the vessel despite the aircraft operating in the area, firing one FAT torpedo at 23.00 hours. The ship was hit after 6 minutes 20 seconds and sank within a few seconds. The Germans rescued one of the survivors, the chief steward Frederick Wakeham, for questioning and took him prisoner. He was landed in Lorient on 19th July and taken to the POW camp Marlag und Milag Nord. The master, 46 crew members, one passenger (DBS) and nine gunners were lost.

    Type IXC U-Boat U-129 was decommissioned in August 1944 at Lorient and scuttled south-west of U-boat pen Keroman I on 18th August 1944. Wreck captured by US forces in May 1945 and handed over to France. Raised and broken up in 1946. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44edd26c447eb6950fe32235e348b31ae2159831e21ea0c4ddb63ef80e2b06a4.jpg

    1. The catapult aircraft pilots were really brave lads. They knew it was one way, hopefully being picked up after parachuting into the Arctic ocean – yet they still went.
      Respect.

    2. I can guarantee there are hundreds of Mexicans called Jesus and none of them love him!

    1. I'd go for alcoholism every time Rik!

      An alcoholic finds a lamp and rubs it and a genie appears – the genie says 'You have two wishes, what is your first wish?'

      The alcoholic says – 'I'd like a martini cocktail that never ends!' KAPOW , he finds a martini cocktail in his hand, and every time he drinks from it, it replenishes.

      After a few hours he is totally smashed and rolling round on the floor laughing and hiccuping.

      The genie says – 'You have a second wish, remember!'

      The alcoholic says 'I'll have another one of these……'

  86. "He Had A Douglas Murray Book".. Julian Foulkes, 71, from Gillingham, Retired Special Constable Arrested
    ..and a copy of The Spectator.

    Fair cop.. jail the b*stard.

      1. I think so too, opopanax, for the most heinous of crimes. Don't usually get any agreement, thanks 🙂

    3. Douglas happens to be gay, so it sounds like those coppers hoisted themselves on their own prejudices.

      1. Douglas also happens to speak much more common sense than anyone else in the UK.

        1. I am astonished that yer plod have not (yet) smashed his front door in – and that he has suffered the Robinson treatment.

      2. But, but —- perlice farces are ALWAYS painting their cars rainbow, wearing rainbow shoulder thingies, BEING gay….

      3. Douglas happens to be homo sexual.

        Gay used to have a completely different meaning.

    4. Toby Young 12 min ago

      If you'd like to help Julian get compensation from Kent Police, you can donate to his crowdfunder here. The money raised will be used to reimburse him for the legal expenses he's incurred already, and to pay for his lawsuit against Kent Police. Anything left over will be used by the Free Speech Union to fight other, similar cases.

      https://freespeechunion.org/julian-foulkes-fundraiser/

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/11/police-face-lawsuit-ex-officer-arrested-thought-crime-tweet/

    5. I have a collection of The Salisbury Review going back to 1992. I'm going to turn myself in.

  87. Cooking butter chicken for supper. Is there a clever way of making the chicken not slimy (even after I washed it) so it's easy to hold and doesn't resemble snot held together with sinews? It was utterly disgusting, slicing that. Ukk. No wonder I'm not keen on chicken.

      1. It's my turn. She did it last night, and she's also fed up with my usual repertoir of dullness.

        2. I take it from that, that she prefers your cooking to your usual repertoir of dullness.
          };-O

    2. Buy only free range, slow grown organic from suppliers who only do this. It is a different meat. I use Field and Flower and the Wild meat Company (UK based), but there must be similar movements throughout Scandiwegia. Much more expensive, but, as aye….

      2. We use Field and Flower – what is Wild Meat Company like (presumably more hare, venison etc.)?

        1. Yes. Good stuff. Lots of wild game in season and eg sqiurrel etc for the more adventurous. Goat, guinea fowl et al, grass fed beef and free range chook, Pigeon,

    4. Wait until you can buy the best US chlorine infused US chicken. Oh sorry, I forgot you are not in the UK. Just wait a few weeks until the rest of Europe folds to Trumps demands.

      Just cook it and tell no one what you think that it is like.

      1. Im not sure why there is such opposition to chlorine washed chicken. We swim in pools that are filled with chlorine in the water without ill effects. Perhaps I have missed something.

        1. It isn't so much the chlorine it is the need for it, because the chickens are raised in poor conditions.

    5. I never wash chicken and I've never found it to be slimy. What's the point of washing it if it's going to be roasted at a high temperature?

    7. I drizzle a bit of olive oil, add a little salt and thyme and gently rub them in with paper kitchen towel. Crisp at the end of uncovered roasting.

    8. Use kitchen roll to pat it dry, put in oven but don't cover until you see it browning, then slap some butter and seasoning and continue to cook. Only put foil on if you see it burning (usually on leg ends). Worth a try?

      1. I wasn't sure if he was cooking a whole chicken or chicken breasts (sans skin) only. Breast pieces can be quite slimy, but a whole chicken with skin on is ok if it comes out crispy.

        1. Can never make my mind up if fan oven worse or better. Use air fryer quite a lot, most days.

    9. You are not supposed to wash chicken.

      Slimy suggests it is very fatty. Fatty chicken is cheap chicken.

      I would leave such a chicken unwrapped and left in the fridge for at least 24 hours. Then liberally salt it and then roast.

      If the butter chicken is the curry variety you could make the sauce separately and pour over the roasted chicken.

      1. Chicken is the dullest meat on earth, only fit for carrying tasty sauce to the front of your face. SWMBO insists on buying the blasted stuff, so occasionally I have to cook with it. What I should have done was roast it, dice it and cook it in sauce, but a) it’s after the event, b) I can’t be arsed, and C) even more freaking washing up to do (a man’s job, apparently).
        The result wasn’t even that good. House smells like a tandoori restaurant, as well.

  88. Well, folks, I've been racing a long time and I've seen my fair share of excuses for failing to trouble the judge, but this afternoon at Newcastle was a first; "hampered by a goose" …

    1. Trick, Conway, is to grab goose by neck just below its beak, and at the same time use other arm to lift and put under same arm………….

  90. I must have dozed off for a while – I didn't notice we 'd had a shower of rain till I went out to water the plants – the ground was wet for the first time for weeks – not enough to put anything in the water butts though.

  93. No need to wash them but I do always scald out the inside with boiling water. Never found them to be slimy though.

  94. That's me for this "tropical" day. It was SOOOOOOOOO hot I had to wear a sun hat and, as I mentioned earlier, roll up my shirtsleeves. To JN's disgust, I have been wearing shorts all day….

    G & P pleasantly surprised by the warmth. They only spent an hour in front of the AGA. Gus brought in a live mouse, dropped it i the kitchen and lost interest……took me 15 minutes o catch the damned thing.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  95. Fat slammer bastard:

    "The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has been accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting a female lawyer in multiple cities around the world.

    Karim Khan KC, a British barrister, is said to have touched the woman, in her thirties, in a sexual manner over a number of months, leaving her feeling “trapped” and fearful of retaliation, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

    Less than three weeks after he heard about the allegations of “coerced sexual intercourse”, Khan announced his intention to apply for arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, as well as Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defence minister at the time, and the leaders of Hamas, the report added.

    Israel is expected to try to overturn the arrest warrants issued against its leaders by “arguing an abuse of process” given the timings of the allegations, according to a source close to the case."

  97. A bit of a laugh. Of course, it's not real, but funny nonetheless:-

    A friend went to Beijing recently and was given this brochure by the hotel. It is precious.
    She is keeping it and reading it whenever she feels depressed.
    Obviously, it has been translated directly, word for word from Mandarin to English.
    Getting There:
    Our representative will make you wait at the airport. The bus to the hotel runs along the lake shore. Soon you will feel pleasure in passing water. You will know that you are getting near the hotel, because you will go round the bend. The manager will await you in the entrance hall. He always tries to have intercourse with all new guests.
    The Hotel:
    This is a family hotel, so children are very welcome. We of course are always pleased to accept adultery. Highly skilled nurses are available in the evenings to put down your children. Guests are invited to conjugate in the bar and expose themselves to others. But please note that ladies are not allowed to have babies in the bar. We organize social games, so no guest is ever left alone to play with them self.
    The Restaurant:
    Our menus have been carefully chosen to be ordinary and unexciting. At dinner, our quartet will circulate from table to table, and fiddle with you.
    Your Room:
    Every room has excellent facilities for your private parts. In winter, every room is on heat. Each room has a balcony offering views of outstanding obscenity! .. You will not be disturbed by traffic noise, since the road between the hotel and the lake is used only by pederasts.
    Bed:
    Your bed has been made in accordance with local tradition. If you have any other ideas please ring for the chambermaid. Please take advantage of her. She will be very pleased to squash your shirts, blouses and underwear. If asked, she will also squeeze your trousers.
    Above All:
    When you leave us at the end of your holiday, you will have no hope. You will struggle to forget it.

  99. Bridget Phillipson isn't a victim of 'sexism', she's just useless

    The Education Secretary's cheerleaders are cynically weaponising gender politics to shield her from legitimate criticism

    Annabel Denham • 10th May 2025, 3:04pm BST

    All governments mess up. But why is Labour so chronically incapable of accepting responsibility for the choices it makes? Everything is always someone else's fault: nearly a year into the Starmer administration our economic torpor is still the Tories' doing. So are the record boat crossings, legal migration, defence spending – as though Labour ever had any of the answers to these problems.

    If this is true collectively, it's even more so at the individual level. Bridget Phillipson's cheerleaders – yes, there are some – are now crying "sexism" following rumours the Education Secretary may lose her portfolio in a reshuffle. Boo hoo. It is deeply cynical when politicians and their supporters retreat into gender politics to defend their own incompetence and duff policies. On Newsnight this week Louise Haigh accused Downing Street of "misogynistic" briefings against "female northern MPs". Haigh, as you have probably forgotten, is the former Transport Secretary who was forced to resign after it emerged she pleaded guilty to a fraud offence a decade ago, and who caved into rail union demands without demanding any productivity improvements for taxpayers in return. She is also a female northern MP.

    Isn't it more likely these two ministers just aren't very good, than that they are victims of misogynistic smears by the "boys" of Number 10?

    In political and policy terms, Phillipson's record is dismal. She pressed ahead with her tax raid on private schools despite warnings it would lead 100 of them to close. The Education Secretary couldn't even stick to her flimsy rationale that the money raised would drive up standards in the state sector. Amid accusations it was simply another episode of antediluvian class warfare, she haughtily posted on X: "Our state schools need teachers more than private schools need embossed stationery… Our students need careers advice more than private schools need Astroturf pitches."

    Universities are on the brink of a funding crisis to which she has no solutions (let them fail, I say, but it's hardly good news for the party which gave us the 50 per cent target). The dreadful Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill will strip schools of the freedoms that have been pivotal to their success. Pay, staffing – all would be dragged back under Whitehall's unaccountable control. When the Tories left office, English children were among the best at maths and English in the OECD PISA league tables. Phillipson isn't fixing what is broken, she is taking a wrecking ball to a system that has done more to help kids from lower-income backgrounds than almost any other because it doesn't fit into her deranged worldview.

    As for Labour's planned curriculum review, led by "professor of Education and Social Justice" Becky Francis, it's less focused on excellence than it is conformity to the dumbed-down sensibilities of the Blob. Working-class children are being denied the opportunity to study classics, after Bridget Philistine decided to cut Latin funding halfway through the academic year. Free breakfast clubs are nanny statism in its purest form – expensive, unnecessary, feeding the idea the state would do a better job of parenting than mothers and fathers. Then there was the time Phillipson advocated "working from home" teachers and tried to dump free speech protections for universities.

    The Education Secretary may consider herself heir to Anthony Crosland, the politician most associated with the demise of grammars. Though united in their hostility towards any school that may give some children a better start in life, the similarities end there. Many of us think Crosland was a disaster for education, but at least he wasn't in the pocket of the unions as Phillipson is; on the contrary, he opposed their addiction to strikes and refusal to reform. He was a considerable figure who had his own following and a consistent political position. And he moved on to bigger things. Phillipson is more likely to vanish without trace.

    Unfortunately, by then the damage will already have been done.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/phillipson-isnt-a-victim-of-sexism-shes-just-useless

    The whole Cabinet is useless. It's embarrassing to listen to her, the Reiver and the Stockport Slapper. Thick and uncouth, the lot of 'em.

  100. Good evening. Busy day …. doing ….. well, I don't know really.
    All I do know is that I can't find a grub screw that fell out of the oven.
    Maybe it's joined the backdoor keys in some gizmo black hole.

    1. How many times have you been handling small item, a screw in a plug or a pill in a bubble pack, dropped it, eyeballed it all the way down to the floor and, when you bend down to pick it up, can't find it?
      Or, on the odd occasions when you DO find it, it's in a totally different place to where you saw it fall?

  101. I have some small pills like that. Hit the floor… gone. I get all anxious, as they won't do the cats any good if they find them and eat them.

    1. If I remember correctly:

      ALL you cat owners claim that it's impossible to get cats to eat pills and tablets, so you should be OK.

      Fingers crossed

      1. Only if you actually want them to take the pill/tablet. If it will kill them, they'll be hunting it down and snacking on it.

          1. Now sos, by that logic, the way to avoid a heart attack is to have it removed. If that kills you, you’ll never get sick ever again.

          2. There are no good reasons not to have a cat. Or preferably two. They are life-enhancing.

  102. After my heart attack I was advised to do a certain number of steps a day.

    I've just worked out that walking from the sitting room to the kitchen and back to refill my wine glass accounts for over 10% of my daily total.

    Clearly I should drink more wine.

  103. When I was pumping the tyres up this afternoon, I took the cap off and thought, "I won't put this on the ground, I'll lose it." so I put it in my pocket. When I came to put it back, could I find it? I had everything out of my pockets and it wasn't there! I did the other tyre (and put that cap in a different pocket then replaced it) and lo! when I put my hand in my pocket, there was the original cap! I think there was a gremlin about.

    1. I always do that with tyre caps – it got so bad I bought a pack of spares and keep them in the glove box….

  107. That's me for today; I'm whacked. Not that I've done very much, but these days, not very much is enough to flatten me. I'm going to have a soak in the tub (while I've got hot water) and put my feet up.

  108. Had dinner – roast chicken. Dishwasher's loaded . Music accompaniment was Daniel Barenboim and Berlin Phil with Mozart concerti 24 & 25.
    Feeling exhausted now.

    1. Must be the weather, N…reading all the posts actually made me feel relieved..thought I was the only one dropping/losing/forgetting things/tired out…..losing my mind……

      1. There is another part that needs to be agreed, apparently.

        I doubt we will get another 'pandemic' until the next sunspot minimum anyway.

          1. They won’t risk lockdowns at a solar maximum when everyone is more aggressive and has more energy. Too many people would rebel. The maximum is some time this year or next, I think – the last minimum was 2020.

  110. Is it really only 9.22? I think I'll be going to bed soon. When I've sobered up I'll read for a while.

    1. “Not qualified, not educated, not knowledgeable to do the role”

      What qualifications do you need to be a mayor?

      What education do you need?

      What knowledge do you need?

      I give you:
      Claudia Webb
      Mike Amesbury
      Mairead Black
      Jared O’Mara

      And that’s without thinking

      1. “At the age of 19, Terence Smith has become the UK’s youngest mayor. He was elected last year as a councillor for Goole’s north-east ward for a four-year term” (Labour)

        Or how about this:

        “In this short film 14-year-old Abdirahman meets Magid Magid, a Somali-British activist and politician who served as the youngest ever Lord Mayor of Sheffield from May 2018 – May 2019.
        Abdirahman is also from Somaliland, East Africa, and questions Magid about what life was like coming to England as a refugee in the middle of the Somalia civil war.”

        Or this, from 2013: “Congleton in Cheshire has appointed Britain’s youngest Mayor. 21 year old Councillor George Hayes took up the chain of office tonight(May 9th 2013) at a packed Town Hall. George is 16 days younger than the UK’s previous youngest Mayor, Cllr Andrew Lawson from Workington in West Cumbria.”

  112. Right – time to stagger off to bed and read for a while………. Goodnight!

  113. Ex-Royal Marine completes world’s longest triathlon by scaling Everest
    Mitch Hutchcraft swam across Channel, cycled 7,500 miles through 19 countries and ran 560 miles, before climbing highest mountain on Earth!

    Wow! But not all in one day!

    1. "Mitch Hutchcraft swam across Channel, cycled 7,500 miles through 19 countries and ran 560 miles, before climbing highest mountain on Earth!"
      If he was coming the other way he would be an Ethiopian.

  116. From The Telegraph

    Britain’s politicians are terrified of a revolt. Free speech crackdowns won’t save them
    Frantic police raids over social media posts hardly speak of a country at ease with itself and its politics
    Sam Ashworth-Hayes11 May 2025 5:30pm BST
    A Soviet and an American meet in a bar. After a while, the conversation turns to the Cold War, and the American loudly insists that democracy is the superior system: “If I were to stand outside the White House and yell ‘Nixon is an idiot’, nothing would happen to me,” he says. The Russian shrugs. “So what? If I stand outside the Kremlin and yell ‘Nixon is an idiot’, nothing happens to me either.”

    Trying to discuss free speech in Britain is like having this conversation over and over again. When J D Vance, the US vice-president, criticised the UK’s repeated “infringements on free speech”, Keir Starmer felt compelled to contradict him, insisting “we’ve had free speech for a very long time”. This is simply untrue.

    This week, The Telegraph unearthed another reminder that the British state considers monitoring social media to be one of its most important functions. Julian Foulkes, a retired special constable, dared to criticise the pro-Palestine marches in London. His post was viewed 26 times in total. Unfortunately, one of those views came from a Metropolitan Police unit specialising in extremism.

    Two days after sending the post, six officers with batons and pepper spray arrested Mr Foulkes at his home, handcuffed him, searched his property for Right-wing material – rifling through his wife’s underwear while criticising his “Brexity” bookshelves – threw him in a jail cell for eight hours, then released him to accept a caution.

    This is not appropriate behaviour in a democracy where the political system is supposed to allow for dissenting views and criticism of the Government. It is, however, very in keeping with Britain’s unique understanding of how free speech works, and the state’s approach to managing its population.

    Take the CPS decision earlier this year to charge Hamit Coskun with harassing the “religious institution of Islam” after he burned a copy of the Koran outside the Turkish consulate. When Robert Jenrick attacked the Crown Prosecution Service on social media, the charges were rapidly revised to charge him with disorderly behaviour instead.

    But changing the name given to an action doesn’t change its substance. The CPS was caught out in what was effectively an attempt to enforce Islamic blasphemy laws, and as a result has attempted to settle on an alternative charge which will have the same effect without the same incendiary wording.

    Complaints about “two-tier” policing of actions and speech sting our politicians because they are plainly true. When West Yorkshire Police sit in on a meeting in a mosque as a headteacher, mother and imam beg the “community” not to carry out the death threats sent to a child who scuffed a Koran, then record the scuffing as a “hate incident”, when the Batley grammar school teacher is in hiding for his own protection while those who threaten him walk free, when police officers and councillors in Rotherham and beyond insist that rape gangs preying on children need to be covered up to protect “community cohesion”, the state is showing you how it carries out its function of keeping the peace.

    As Britain has become more diverse, the state has reordered itself around this new reality. Nation states, homogeneous and governed as such, slot neatly into cultural and institutional frameworks that allow for luxuries such as policing by consent of a singular community. The incentives given by this model are perverse.

    If you set out with the goal of minimising the risk of conflict between groups, then you will tend to police those who are easily policed, rather than those who infringe on the rights of others. Peaceful pro-Israel protesters are arrested for holding signs stating the official position of the British state – that Hamas is a terrorist organisation – for their own “safety”. The same police force will tie itself in knots attempting to explain why calls for “jihad” at a Hizb ut-Tahrir protest are fine.

    Your rights, in other words, are directly related to the perceived threat your group poses. If you are largely peaceful, you will face the full force of the law as it attempts to avoid clashes between groups. If police officers are worried that a riot will result from confrontation, an offender will likely walk free. And the wider war on free speech results from the same dynamic.

    There is a complacent idea that restricting speech for political ends is the sort of thing that happens in dictatorships, the act of rulers who fear that common knowledge of dissent might lead to revolt. Now think, briefly, about how Britain restricts speech around migration, around diversity, around “community relations”.

    Britain’s ruling classes did not make Britain diverse with the consent of the governed. They did it despite repeated demonstrations that the population wanted nothing to do with half-baked dreams of an American-style melting pot. They suppressed discussion of issues of integration, covered up crimes and scandals, buried data, and insisted over and over again that the project was working, terrified of what might happen if they were proven wrong.

    This was very rarely explicitly stated. Politicians have generally managed to elide cracking down on harsh words with fighting violence by talking in vague terms about instigators or tensions; they have pretended that granting a state-enforced veto on speech to the sensibilities of one group or another is simply the act of a decent, kind society rather than a state running scared of the tensions it has allowed to grow.

    Prof David Betz at King’s College London has warned us how this might end. Our country is already splintered, factionalised, polarised and economically moribund, the perfect conditions for civil conflict. And politicians who raged at Elon Musk for suggesting this was a possibility now behave as if the slightest spark will light the tinder.

    That is not the behaviour of an elite confident in the stability of the country they have built. Read between the lines of the speeches on diversity as strength, and migration as lifeblood, and the message is clear: they are terrified of what might happen, and have no idea how to fix things. Clamping down on free speech is their last roll of the dice. If that fails, what next?

  118. Well, chums, I overslept by mistake. So I'll now head for bed. Good Night all, sleep well, and I'll see you all tomorrow.

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