Sunday 17 April: Muddled thinking behind the plans to send Channel migrants to Rwanda

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

631 thoughts on “Sunday 17 April: Muddled thinking behind the plans to send Channel migrants to Rwanda”

  3. Morning, Peeps, and a happy Easter to one and all.

    SIR – The plan to fly Channel migrants 5,000 miles to Rwanda sounds utterly insane.

    Doesn’t anyone remember Labour’s disastrous plan in 1947 to grow peanuts in Tanganyika? Undermined by poor planning and chaotic accounts, it ruined the reputation of the colonial secretary and minister of food, racked up debts of £36 million and was abandoned four years later.

    Forget Partygate. This half-baked Rwandan scheme could well be the real graveyard of Boris Johnson’s Government.

    Stephen Webbe
    East Molesey, Surrey

    I must say it’s a bit desperate to be comparing a possible solution to our tidal wave of illegals breaking into our country with a failed peanut-growing scheme 75 years ago!  And once again, this critic of the Rwanda plan has no suggestions of his own about dealing with such a serious problem that is costing us all £5m per day.   This BTLer also sounds rather irritated by Mr Webbe’s letter:

    David Newman1 HR AGO

    “Stephen Webbe

    Freelance journalist at United Kingdom”

    I’ve lost count the number of letters this person has had published, quite a few in the lasf few months. Reading this LinkedIn his only experience is a journalist, he’s no experience in any field of work to do with immigration, policy, criminal people smuggling etc. His home town also has pretty much zero immigrants living in it, a bit rich to be telling people like me who have three large hotels stuffed full of them.

    1. I don’t understand why we’re sending them to Rwanda when France is next door. France the one breaking international law. France shirking it’s responsibilities.

  4. Why are elite Russian musicians backing Putin?17 April 2022.

    He’s far from alone in his trepidation. Another vocal supporter of Gergiev, though much less well-known, is Dasha, a woman I worked with at the BBC in Moscow. She was a locally-hired producer, and fun to hang out with, but Dasha eventually left to help set up Russia Today in London, back when nobody took such things seriously. Now she’s a fully paid-up member of the Russian elite, working in Rome for a Kremlin-backed cultural agency. (Her dad sits in the upper house of Russia’s parliament, and is sanctioned.)

    Bad Dasha for failing to offer a personal mea culpa for the sins of both Putin and her Country! I think that I would prefer her company and that of Gergiev to that of the author who has exploited a personal acquaintance to write cheap propaganda.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-are-russian-musicians-backing-putin-

  5. Well said, Martin Selves!

    Martin Selves7 MIN AGO

    The Holistic and Altruistic view the first two letters make, will make the illegal immigrants take heart, knowing the growing WOKE Movement will support them, whatever the cost is to the Country, whatever the Islamic threat some will bring, however much the Criminal gangs make (millions of pounds) in people smuggling, when our 4 Star Hotels are full up, when our Life Boats cannot carry out the task they are asked to do, when human slavery and human rights plunge as tens of unidentifiable thousands arrive every year, as the promise of controlling our Borders collapses to the sound of Macron laughter, when the Country finds out we cannot do anything because the EU will not permit it, when human right Lawyers get rich as out Hotels choke because they are full, when we lose faith and hope in our Government, when common sense fails ….. this Holistic and Altruistic view will be shown as the worst cut of all.

    * * *

    And here is the second of the first two letters, the first being that of Stephen Webbe in my earlier post:

    SIR – I am horrified by the plan to export migrants to Rwanda.

    If single males are to be targeted, all the people traffickers have to do is persuade a family to lend one of its children to a single man – for a discount, perhaps – and this terrible trade continues.

    Relocating the problem to central Africa is not the answer, and I would have hoped that this Government could devise a better solution.

    Teresa Ward
    Caterham, Surrey

    And, once again, your solution is…?

    2. I see the idiot Welby is saying, apparently in his Easter sermon, that the plan is “ungodly” – given that I suspect Welby doesn’t have a great interest in God, I wonder how he knows? If Welby is against this plan then there must be something good about it.

      1. Rule of thumb: if Welby/Sir Kneeler/Major/Blair (insert your own treasonous deluded twerp here ….……………) are against it, it is an excellent idea.

    3. Tow them back to France, destroy the boat. If we’d done that with the first one, there wouldn’t have been any more.

  6. Well said, Martin Selves!

    Martin Selves7 MIN AGO

    The Holistic and Altruistic view the first two letters make, will make the illegal immigrants take heart, knowing the growing WOKE Movement will support them, whatever the cost is to the Country, whatever the Islamic threat some will bring, however much the Criminal gangs make (millions of pounds) in people smuggling, when our 4 Star Hotels are full up, when our Life Boats cannot carry out the task they are asked to do, when human slavery and human rights plunge as tens of unidentifiable thousands arrive every year, as the promise of controlling our Borders collapses to the sound of Macron laughter, when the Country finds out we cannot do anything because the EU will not permit it, when human right Lawyers get rich as out Hotels choke because they are full, when we lose faith and hope in our Government, when common sense fails ….. this Holistic and Altruistic view will be shown as the worst cut of all.

    * * *

    And here is the second of the first two letters, the first being that of Stephen Webbe in my earlier post:

    SIR – I am horrified by the plan to export migrants to Rwanda.

    If single males are to be targeted, all the people traffickers have to do is persuade a family to lend one of its children to a single man – for a discount, perhaps – and this terrible trade continues.

    Relocating the problem to central Africa is not the answer, and I would have hoped that this Government could devise a better solution.

    Teresa Ward
    Caterham, Surrey

    And, once again, your solution is…?

  8. Diversity is the new national religion. Woe betide any agnostics. Douglas Murray. 17 April 2022.

    All ages and cultures have their religions. Today Christians around the world celebrate the story of the risen Christ. But whether you are a believing Christian, a cultural Christian or a believer in something or nothing else entirely, one thing should be obvious by now: the Christian tradition no longer dominates British public life. You may celebrate that fact or deplore it, but as all the census and church attendance data shows, it is the case.

    It does not follow, however, that ours is an irreligious age. On the contrary our society is deeply religious. It is simply religious about concepts that are different – though often descended from – our earlier belief system. For instance the modern British state’s prioritisation of “tolerance” and “difference” is an inheritance from a Christian ideal. Not least the ideal of equality in the eyes of God.

    But as our society has come apart from Christianity, we seem to have become ever more dogmatic about our new beliefs. In part, perhaps, because we sense how hard it is to hold the new faith and keep our reason.

    For instance, our society is forced by diktat at every level of public service to bow to the gods of diversity, inclusion and equity. Apply for any public appointment in this country and you will have to demonstrate a commitment to these principles. You will have to explain what you have done to further these religious precepts.

    Even the Church of England and other Christian denominations in this country have effectively subjugated themselves to this new religion. A religion which believes that the highest good is “social justice”, something which is both specific and amorphous enough to take the place once occupied by the Holy Ghost.

    Say anything that appears to go against these precepts of the new faith and you know what will happen. Idiotic obsessions over the rights of small minorities are now fought over as our forebears fought over interpretations of the Eucharist. To watch Labour MPs contorting themselves as they are asked to answer questions like “What is a woman” is to get a glimpse of what it must have been like in previous eras when people were burned at the stake, or avoided being burnt, depending on whether they could use the precise, correct formulation expected of them that year regarding the status of the communion wafer. It is painful to see them struggle. Even more painful that our society seems to demand it. But that is the way with religions. They have their dogmas, and to speak against them is to suffer potentially serious punishment.

    It is only six months since Sir David Amess was slaughtered at a surgery meeting in his constituency. It is less than a week since his killer, Ali Harbi Ali, was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder. And what has been the response of MPs to this murder of one of their colleagues? Almost nothing.

    Immediately after Sir David’s murder the House of Commons met and MPs mourned his passing as though their colleague had died of natural causes. The most any of them could do was to stress the significance of the “Online harms bill” – an obsession among MPs, who apparently believe that tackling internet anonymity is one of the great causes of our day.

    Of course nothing that Ali Harbi Ali did was anonymous. It turns out that he had staked out a number of MPs, hoping to kill one in the name of his fanatical Islamist ideology. After slaughtering Sir David Amess, Ali sat around waiting for the police to arrive. It would be hard to imagine anything less anonymous.

    So where was the MP outrage? “Ah well”, the few of us who asked this question were told, “we must wait for the trial and not risk prejudicing it”. Yet there was no such resistance to finding motives after the equally dreadful killing of Jo Cox in 2016. The trial of Sir David’s killer has now come and gone and still there has been no discussion about it. No lessons learned. Indeed Sir David appears to have been “memory-holed”. It was the same after Khairi Saadallah killed three gay men in a park in Reading in 2020. Almost nobody – even in the gay press – wanted to speculate about the motives of the killer who said he committed his crimes in the name of Islamic fundamentalism.

    The reason is not just that our society fears to discuss the connection between Islam and violence (though it certainly fears that). It is that our society is terrified of anything which might throw any doubt onto our great belief in “diversity”. For this is perhaps the greatest, holiest precept of our time.

    In fact diversity has upsides and downsides. Allowing a certain number of religious fanatics into the country is one of the downsides, and Sir David was among those to suffer for it. But we don’t like to talk about that, because we don’t really know what to do about it. Any more than a Labour MP knows what to do these days when faced with a basic question of biology.

    There are many other similar cases where issues which don’t fit neatly with the new religion of diversity are simply brushed under the carpet. I have covered them in a number of recent books. With each passing year, we seem increasingly intent on pushing away the fact that the world is complex: that most things do not fall along completely clear lines, much though we might wish them to. Few things are unalloyedly good, and a reasonable, not to mention rational society would be capable of accepting that. Only a faith-based society cannot. And our society is now deeply, dogmatically faith-based. Albeit about a faith that has not yet properly worked itself out.

    On balance I preferred the old faith. It was the product of generations of thought and wisdom, built upon reason as well as tradition. How one might long for it now, surrounded as we are by dogmatists and bullies (always dressed up in the garb of victims) demanding we submit to their faith, whether we believe in it or not.

    It’s actually the Religion of the Elites or more accurately a Marxist Cult.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/16/diversity-new-national-religion-woe-betide-agnostics/

    2. 352022+ up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      That Murray is in mint condition when it comes to
      expressing an issue that is plain for all to see.

    3. “Allowing a certain number of religious fanatics into the country is one of the downsides,…”
      The number is around 6,000,000.

    4. Sweden is being reminded of the violence inherent in Islam this weekend. Unfortunately.

      2. But of course, it’s ‘far right’ terrorism that’s the problem.

        The Left will say anything to pretend.

  9. Good morning all. another bright start with 3°C on the outside thermometer again.

  10. SIR – Wg Cdr Martin Mayer’s letter (April 10) reminded me of my own experience in 1959 as an 11-year-old, when my father was based at Ty Croes Army camp in Anglesey.

    I used to spend many a happy hour clambering around the rocks and cliffs along the shoreline. On one occasion, unknown to me at the time, the red flag had gone up on the firing range, which was behind me.

    The soldiers (doing their National Service) opened up with Sten and Bren guns. I could see the spouts out at sea where the bullets were landing. Every now and again a bullet would be deflected through the targets and hit the rocks around me.

    I stayed very still until the shooting stopped and then went home for my dinner. I didn’t tell my mum.

    Mike Mullan
    Hove, East Sussex

    This letter reminds me of the MOD firing ranges at Tregantle Fort, Cornwall, where they all face out to sea.  Firing was frequently interrupted by people ignoring the red flags and warning signs (and the very obvious sound of firing of course) when walking into the Range Danger Area.  Some fishing boats also ignored the well publicised regulations and firing times, presumably assuming that they were sufficiently distant to be safe.  At the end of practices it was always interesting to see plenty of footprints in the sandy beach below, where the locals walked close to the cliffs and were therefore reasonably safe.  Only the really troublesome ones chose to openly flout the closures by walking further out and therefore within sight of the firers.  Little did they realise that the Range Orders at the Fort vested in the range staff the power to arrest those who ignored the closures which, on one occasion, we came very close to using.  It was never explained to us how this might be exercised when it came to fishing boats, however.

    I was last there in the late1990s, since when the situation may have changed.

    1. A friend and I went riding on the Army land. We forgot to check the flags.
      As bangs and bullets reverberated through the trees, we were riding like Injuns under fire. The horses, who lived in the area and were used to it, quietly trotted along and politely ignored our strange behaviour.

      2. I’ve been riding on the firing ranges, too. Fortunately, the red flag wasn’t up.

  12. Hello damask_rose, I just realised I gave you the wrong name for the search engine that my daughter recommended – it’s Qwant, not Quant.
    I expect you found it anyway!

    1. And Nigel Farage said unto her, Can there any good thing come out of EU? Von der Layen saith unto him, Come and see but first cough up cash. Then we will discuss Qwantative Easing. Seek and ye shall find.

      Well, it is Easter Sunday, so I thought it would be good to go Biblical!

  13. 352022+ up ticls,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 17 April: Muddled thinking behind the plans to send Channel migrants to Rwanda

    There is nothing “muddled thinking” about the tory ( ino) scheming, more like “treacherously stinking”

    The reset, replace, resettle ratchet has NO reverse the Dover government controlled
    invasion has surely near run it’s course the hard core party members are seemingly beginning to feel uncomfortable with it.

    We have a NAVY to protect our shores and that should be patrolling the English
    Channel doing just that.

    The only net zero urgently needed to benefit
    the United Kingdom at this moment in time
    is the amount of votes for the lab/lib/con candidates in the coming by elections.

    1. It’s not muddled thinking, rather it is ‘we don’t like this idea and want to complain about it’.

      The simplest solution is to tow the vermin back to france, destroy their boat, have them swim to shore.

  14. Good Morning Folks,

    Lovely start to the day again here.
    Hope you all enjoy your Easter, not too many eggs though.

      1. Given MB his Easter egg; dark chokky and mint from ALDI. It can join his 2021 uneaten egg on the dining room sideboard. I’m sure they’ll enjoy each other’s company.

      2. I have two large choccy eggs to get into. Looking forward to that but first I have to go out. stuff myself later. Happy Easter Pip!

  16. ‘Morning again.

    WARNING – This DT article is posted to assist only those with rock-bottom blood pressure.  The rest should look away now as I cannot be responsible for the consequences:

    Ban new boiler sales to switch people over to heat pumps, says infrastructure tsar

    Sir John Armitt says prohibiting future sales will force people to make greener choices and help the Government meet net zero goals

    ByEmma Gatten, ENVIRONMENT EDITOR16 April 2022 • 7:00pm

    A ban on the sale of new boilers will be needed to persuade people to switch to greener heat pumps, the Government’s infrastructure chief has said.

    An annual target of 600,000 installations of heat pumps by 2028 has been set by Downing Street.

    Heat pumps, which draw energy from the air or ground using electricity, can cut carbon emissions by roughly 75 per cent, but currently cost about £10,000 to install.

    The National Infrastructure Commission is investigating ways to fund the transition and encourage the take-up of heat pumps and will make recommendations to the Government next year.

    However, Sir John Armitt, its chairman, suggested that a ban on the sale of new gas boilers would have to be part of the answer.

    He told The Telegraph: “Why would you move to a heat pump at somewhere between £5-£15,000 as long as you can buy or exchange for a new gas boiler for £1,500? The only way that you can make such a significant shift is by saying, well, ‘from a particular date, you will not be able to buy a new gas boiler’.”

    The Government has set an ambition for the sale of new gas boilers to be phased out by the mid-2030s, but has declined to set a date for a ban.

    Instead, it is hoping to boost the market with grants for a few households as well as funds to help boost manufacturing in the UK.

    A new £450 million government grant scheme will cover up to £5,000 of the costs, but is expected to cover about 90,000 installations over three years.

    Companies such as Octopus Energy have promised near-price parity between their heat pumps and gas boilers within a few years.

    Greg Jackson, the company’s founder, said: “Heat pump technology has been around since 1948, but the cost is still high because manufacturing for the UK market is subscale, and installation is a cottage industry.

    “The goal is to get the total cost of buying, installing and running a heat pump to be cheaper than for a gas boiler, so heat pumps won’t need subsidies at all.”

    Sir John also warned that a lack of engineers could lead to households being left with poor set-ups.

    There are currently only about 1,800 trained heat pump installers, which means there is a shortage of about 58,000 to hit the Government’s goal of 600,000 installations a year by 2028.

    “While there are some great installers out there, at present the size of the prize is not sufficient to be able to rely on finding one everywhere,” he said.

    “Poor quality installation makes a hard sell even harder. Inevitably, the quality of fitting will become more consistent as demand grows. But to get to 600,000 heat pumps going into homes every year, we have to reduce any disincentives for homeowners as soon as possible.”

    Sir John dismissed hopes that hydrogen could play a significant role in replacing gas in boilers and said there was little alternative to heat pumps for the UK to decarbonise its home heating, which accounts for about 14 per cent of emissions.

    However, he said that using them to replace gas boilers in 23 million homes would require a change of attitude to heating, and might require back-up by space heaters because heat pumps work best at lower temperatures, which are maintained throughout the day.

    “What we like at the moment is just flicking the thermostat and, bang, we can raise the temperature by three degrees fairly quickly. You can’t do that with an air-source heat pump,” he said.

    “If you want instant heat, then you will have to plug something else in to give you that extra boost.”

    The infrastructure tsar, who has previously called for the Government to be more honest about the cost of net zero, said there was a “tension” between the goal and short-term energy security of supply.

    He said: “As long as we hold 2050 net zero targets, close to our hearts, there is going to be a tension. Because to get to that point, it’s going to require very big long-term decisions which will cost money.

    “And then at the same time, no politician wants voters on its back because the price of energy is going up. So yes, there is a tension, which requires a very honest debate and discussion.”

    * * *

    No BTLs included this time.  A brief scan of the 850-ish (so far) reveals a viciousness and a unanimity that is rare, and in fact I’m surprised that some have not been removed.  Some posters have even suggested to Sir Armpit where he should shove his ludicrous ideas.

    1. Would somebody please do a Freedom Of Information inquiry to see whether Sir Armpit has Heat Pumps in his propert(ies)? I dunno how to do one.

    2. Everything this previously unknown aristo says demonstrates why the notion of pumps should be abandoned completely.

      1. Civil Engineer, now civil servant and not there to question the very existence of the current ‘net zero’ political commitment. He does
        say ‘If we are to meet net zero’…

    3. I don’t know much about heat pumps but I’d certainly shove a bicycle pump up Sir Armpit’s rear. In the spirit of Easter redemption, of course.

    4. Lets say we follow his advice.
      Where does the extra electricity come from? Not enough generation as it is.
      How does it get to the house? The grid, local net and the wire to the house, as well as the main fuse, are not dimentioned for that extra draw. Especially with recarging you car (nobody here is allowed a car charger – the local net can’t cope)
      Who is going to make all these heat pumps? The Chinese, of course. They make everything. Can they make and ship enough?
      Who pays?
      How about building better insulated homes, for a start? Reduce the demand rather than frigging the supply.

    5. I don’t think we have to worry about that much. If that proposal was taken seriously the prospects of another “Conservative” government would be zero.

      1. We aren’t a democracy. The power doesn’t lie with the elected government – it lies with various globalists who shower money and status upon the elected representatives, and the Common Purpose parasites who suck on the taxpayer teat.

    7. Ban things in order to force people to buy other things…

      I’m even past raised blood pressure. Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad….

  17. Hitchens on fine form
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10724697/PETER-HITCHENS-ruined-Britain-people-furious-cake-Tupperware-box.html

    We ruined Britain but what do people get furious about? A cake in a Tupperware box

    Comment of many issues, partygate, Russia, American involvement, Nazi doublethink.

    I also note that that homicidal maniac Zelensky is hoping that Russia will undertake a nuclear attack.

    Zelensky warns ‘we must prepare’ for Russian nuclear attack and urges the world to stock up on anti-radiation medicine and build air raid shelters – as Kremlin exacts flagship revenge by bombarding EIGHT Ukrainian towns

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10725045/President-Zelensky-warns-prepare-Russian-nuclear-attack.html

    And may you all have a peaceful Easter

    1. “……… Zelensky warns ‘we must prepare’ for Russian nuclear attack and urges the world to stock up on anti-radiation medicine.”

      I think that Zelensky has invested heavily in Big Pharma and wants to make as big a killing on the market as those who invested in Covid jabs have done!

      2. Actually I think of the two, Zelenskyy and Putin, it is Zelenskyy who is mad. Liker so many actors he can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy and that makes him very dangerous indeed. Warning about nuclear attacks just so he can drag the rest of us into his stupid war is indicative of someone who really has no idea of real consequences. If that really were to happen, his country and much of the world would be laid waste. But somehow there he is waving his little flag on the ruins pretending it can all be solved by trying to destroy Russia. How could any serious person be that stupid and how malicious are our leaders to egg him on in this delusional fantasy.

    1. Perhaps, Archprick, you might say that the endless, illegal invasion by economic migrants is “unGodly”.

    2. And Waycist. The Archbishop is suggesting that bleks can’t run a caring and efficient society.

      1. Well they had every opportunity to do that in South Africa and look at the dump now!

          1. Yes indeed, Zimbabwe, pretty much trashed the place and set it back to pre-colonial times.

    4. As far as I am concerned, the cretin, Welby is a Vidkun Quisling or a William Joyce type of figure and should be hanged for High Treason. Anyone guilty of assisting the enemy (and do not lose the point that those engaged in insurrection are the enemy) is guilty of treachery.

      1. He has made himself and his position irrelevant. Why listen to the man at all?
        Morning, Grizz! God Påsk!

          3. Probably cannot be long enough at my time of life and experience of Swedish wives.

      2. He could be confined to the belfry of Canterbury cathedral along with all the other bats. Belfry Welby the Batty Bishop.

    5. Ooops – “non readunder” fault by me, for saying much the same thing only a couple minutes ago! Well said BoB.

    6. I don’t care. Massive uncontrolled gimmigration is an economic, not moral matter.

      There’s also the gangs of middle easterners waiting on train platforms, bus stations and following women and children.

    1. Three for me today and Heardle in one second.
      I expect the rest of the day will be downhill.

    2. Same.
      Wordle 302 4/6

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

  22. One would think that a journalist, or at the very least, his editor, would be able to construct a grammatically correct sentence.

    Drugs, always drugs’: how the rock ‘n’ roll dream almost killed me
    As a rock journalist, the music industry gave my drugs habit the perfect cover – and things got terrifying

    1. A good article.

      Good morning btw and Happy Easter to all. Nice and sunny which is great for our first intra-club bowls match this afternoon. Had our Opening Day yesterday, where we invite people to come in and have a go, and around 30 people came, between 10.00 and 11.30. At least that’s what was advertised. They actually arrive from 09.20 onwards and we were still bringing them in at around midday. An excellent turnout.

      Peter Hitchens is really good IMO. And he also has a nice piece about family and divorce. Marriage is being steadily destroyed.

  24. Right, those two bags of cement in the van will not get up the “garden” by themselves, and neither will that concrete mix its self.
    See you later.

    3. Get a wand, Bob. Just swish & flick!
      Adopted the same approach to finishing my fence… after another coffee…

    2. Then, when there’s reduced shipping / air travel, everybody looks to the non-existent farms to provide something to eat… Good decision!
      At least, they are waking up to this threat in Norway. Food and animal feed prices rocketing on the expectation of much reduced / nil delivery from Ukrainse, farmers saying “We told you so”, government beginning to cack itself.

    3. That is very sinister. We’re looking at rising food prices, and the government is trying to get people to leave farming, and is paying people to plant trees and put down solar panels, while bringing in thousands of new people. You could be forgiven for suspecting that they’re orchestrating food shortages…

      I wonder who will buy the farm land left vacant by the recipients of these lump sums? International property companies owned by globalists, by any chance?

    1. “Ukraine calling, Ukraine calling”… We, well our parents, have heard it all before. My mother’s favourite lullaby for me as an infant was Lili Marlene..

    2. “Ukraine calling, Ukraine calling”… We, well our parents, have heard it all before. My mother’s favourite lullaby for me as an infant was Lili Marlene..

  27. Bit sexist Harry. What about your daughter?

    “The couple [spit] shared an intimate on-stage kiss at the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games on Saturday night – before the emotional prince delivered a heartfelt speech to more than 500 injured veteran competitors, telling them he would be proud if his son grew up to have their ‘character’.”

        1. But VERY Hollywood. Netflix prolly pay them an extra $100,000 for the “kiss”.

  28. Bit sexist Harry. What about your daughter?

    “The couple [spit] shared an intimate on-stage kiss at the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games on Saturday night – before the emotional prince delivered a heartfelt speech to more than 500 injured veteran competitors, telling them he would be proud if his son grew up to have their ‘character’.”

  30. Replying to Conway on a locked comment from a couple of days ago…

    Sudoku is really nothing to do with numbers, they are just symbols. You could use pictures of nine different flowers or nine different aircraft or replace the numbers with pictures of nine different family members.

    The useful thing about numbers is you can easily see what is missing e.g. 1,2,4,5,6,7,9. Letters would work too. You could try replacing all the numbers 1-9 with letters (1=A, 2=B, 3=C etc) and try to solve one.

    1. And the bigger ones, such as the 12 x 12, use letters a well as numbers – so, you need 1-9 and A, B, C in every row, column and box.

    2. That’s as may be, but, just as some people have problems with letters (dyslexia), I have problems with numbers; sometimes I write down or say the wrong numbers, or in a sequence, I get the numbers in the wrong order. For me, it’s a bit of a nightmare in daily life.

  31. This part of Peter Hitchens column today needs to be put here just to remind people just what this war supposedly between Ukraine and Russia is about. Here it is openly admitted that this is a war by proxy between the USA and Russia. The Ukrainians headed by their psychopath of a President, the actor fantasist Zelenskyy are, as I have said before, useful idiots. The lesson here is that we all should stop playing Americas games. Tell them where to get off because if it continues this way sooner or later they will destroy us all. If not in this war but in another.

    PETER HITCHENS
    If this guy says I’m right, then I must be!
    Many in Britain laughed when a senior American diplomat, Victoria Nuland, was caught out by Russian spies a few years ago. They taped and leaked a conversation in which she said: ‘**** the EU!’

    As so many British people feel the same way, they read no further. They did not realise that Ms Nuland, a fierce neo-conservative hawk, was mainly discussing (with the US ambassador to Kiev) the composition of the next Ukrainian government, as if it was for the USA to decide. Which, as it turned out, it was.

    Her choice for prime minister duly got the job after the coup d’etat which removed the non-aligned, legitimate President Viktor Yanukovych. This fishy incident is the best evidence that Washington was up to its elbows in that violent mob putsch – the incident which began the Ukrainian war, way back in February 2014.

    Well, Ms Nuland is back in the US government as a very senior figure at the State Department. And she has an influential husband, Robert Kagan, who is if anything, even more of an anti-Russian hawk than she is. And here’s a treat for all those who have been calling me a ‘Putin apologist’ for the past month or so.

    Mr Kagan agrees with me that, while Putin’s invasion is unforgivable and wrong, the USA shares some responsibility for provoking it.

    Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine, he said: ‘Although it is obscene to blame the US for Putin’s inhumane attack on Ukraine, to insist that the invasion was entirely unprovoked is misleading.’

    He added: ‘Russian decisions have been a response to the expanding post-Cold War hegemony of the US and its allies in Europe. Putin alone is to blame for his actions but the invasion of Ukraine is taking place in a historical and geopolitical context in which the US has played and still plays the principal role.’

    I think Mr Kagan uses longer words than he needs to here, because he probably doesn’t want what he says to be picked up widely by people like me.

    But he is far too intelligent to pretend that America’s relentless expansion of Nato since 1998 has not infuriated many Russians, even moderate ones.

    Of course it has. In my view, it more or less created Vladimir Putin. I honestly wouldn’t recommend calling Mr Kagan, let alone his wife Victoria, a Putin apologist. But in that case, you can’t call me one either.

    1. I would have been a lot happier with the situation that existed on 23rd February. Putin had amassed a large and well-equipped army at the frontier with a warning to Ukraine: apply for NATO membership at your peril.

      Rather than press on regardless, starting a war, he should then have summoned Stoltenberg to the nearest Russian Embassy with the message that it would be extremely bad for the stability, both military and economic, of Europe if NATO processes Ukraine’s application any time soon. The application would then be kicked into the long grass and postponed indefinitely on the grounds that Ukraine is not yet ready for it.

      That should have satisfied Putin, who could then send his troops home with the warning that if they go any further with processing this application, then back his troops will come, and this time trained, rested and ready for the fray. Make my day!

      I said sometime in mid-February that Russia can lay claim to Crimea and even the Azov coastline on the grounds that most residents there identify more with Russia than with Ukraine. However, if Putin lets loose the dogs of war, then they should come back and bite him hard.

      I trust he has been vaccinated for rabies.

          2. aka Coeur de Marie
            Lamprocapnos spectabilis, bleeding heart, fallopian buds or Asian bleeding-heart, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the fumitory subfamily of the poppy family Papaveraceae, and is native to Siberia, northern China, Korea and Japan. Wikipedia

          8. Possibly, but I’m certain damask_rose, Plum or johnathanrackham would be the people to ask, they are far more knowledgeable than I.
            I only knew of it because it appeared in a bed here during the first year we were here and I looked it up.
            Sadly, it has expired, clobbered by a very hard late frost.

        4. That reminds me – I need to replace the dicentra I lost when they did the drains. I thought I dug it up and saved it, but it didn’t like being moved.

          1. No, they’re delicate things. I’ve lost several.
            The white one seemed even more fragile.

    2. Happy Easter, Rose! Lovely photographs, and an evocative reminder of the season.

    3. Just thought, I’ve not been over the road for a while. I wonder if the primroses & cowslips are making an appearance yet?

  33. Two bags of Blue Circle’s best hoiked up the garden, two mixes of concrete poured and leveled off and the mixer cleaned.

    Time for a mug of tea before I start on the next task!

  37. BORIS Johnson will be pushing a UK India trade deal worth £28 billion a year this week when he visits the country for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.

    The trip is aimed at building trade, security and diplomatic links with one of the world’s fastest emerging powers and growing economies.

    Brexit news: India top diplomat says trade deal chances ‘much higher’
    It also is understood to be aimed at creating a counter balance with China with India being the main rival in Asia as a manufacturing base.

    Downing Street has been clear that the new relationship with India has only been made possible because of the freedoms the UK enjoys as a result of Brexit.

    “India, as a major economic power and the world’s largest democracy, is a highly valued strategic partner for the UK in these uncertain times.

    “My visit to India will deliver on the things that really matter to the people of both our nations – from job creation and economic growth, to energy security and defence.”

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1597013/India-trade-deal-brexit-latest-boris-johnson

    No partying Boris…….please

      1. Outsourcing what’s left of our manufacturing to India of course,where things can be built with cheap coal based power
        The Green Dream……….
        Cretins,cretins everywhere signal their virtue
        ‘Morning Paul

    1. Before looking at your link I was fairly sure that that was what it would be about.

    4. Gladstone described slavery as the Foulest Crime and they want to rename the park.
      Brent Council obviously disagree with that statement.
      Perhaps call it Diane Abbott Park would be more foul.
      I am more and more convinced there should be some sort of suitability test before people are allowed to vote and stand for election.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Alf, it’s Common Purpose that’s being allowed to brainwash children. Why else would the competition be only for children? Gullible and susceptible.

        1. It seems the children are told what to think then that’s ‘translated’ into what they want.
          Charlatans the lot of them, Brent councillors that is.

      2. Back in the late 50s one of my fathers brothers was Mayor of Wembley H’e would be somersaulting in his grave over all this garbage that is going on with Brent council now.

        1. I’m off to a wedding in July. In the afternoon they are having Ska and in the evening Country and Western. The evening music is being performed by a looky likey Blues Brother’s band. Should be a laugh. The Ska will definitely have people up and dancing.

    1. He has been instructed by Priti Awful (via Carrion) to let the terrists (© Truss) do their buggerment.

  41. Well, that was a first. I haven’t been to a communion service for years. I only go to church on Remembrance Sunday and, at Christmas, stand in the churchyard singing carols.

    Today we arrived in good time for the 11 am service – only to find that it had started at 10.30. The MR being PCC Secretary……hadn’t spotted that!!

    They do a funny sort of service – a “leaflet” based on the Prayer Book but with the liturgy in a different order – for some bizarre reason. And some “added bits” (for inclusivity, I suppose). Everyone is supposed to say the words which the Prayer Book so clearly and unequivocally assigns to the Priest. Modern, you see.

    The service was led by a very sensible retired woman priest (if that is not an oxymoron). No wine. No visit to the altar rail. Priest comes to each pew. But she did spray herself with “sanitiser” before handling the wafers.

    No masks – except when said priest was doling out the crisps wafers. Apart, of course, from the halfwit woke Limp Dumb churchwarden who virtue signalled throughout…

    And a choc Easter egg each on leaving…

    Almost Godly…..

    1. I confined my religious attendance this year to listening to Bach’s St John Passion on Friday evening.

    2. Just came back from here, Guilford Cathedral. It is an ugly hostile act against religion with an Angel on top, which reminded me of the Angel Moroni that you see on Mormon temples. Ukrainian flag flying outside but no Cross of Saint George. Didn’t go in to the building. It is as ugly inside as it is out. Was there for the lateral flow test nonsense in the car park. Did see a Bishop on a Bike with a flock of Bikettes in tow. Who are the people that allow these travesties both in terms of buildings and in terms of fooling around with the service? It’s actually a mockery of Christianity in which there seems to be a competition in turning what should be beautiful and profound, into shallowness and mediocrity.
      https://i2-prod.getsurrey.co.uk/incoming/article5314392.ece/ALTERNATES/s1200/guildford-cathedral.jpg

      1. I believe architecture like that is intended to dampen spirits not raise them. Some architects must have blood like venom and a hatred of other people for the atrocities they build.

        A beautiful built enviroment is good for mental health.

        I have experienced sick building syndrome before and i have had to leave.

      2. Inspired by Bankside power station. At least it’s the shape of a church and is correctly aligned; Paddy’s wigwam fails on both counts.

      3. Inspired by Bankside power station. At least it’s the shape of a church and is correctly aligned; Paddy’s wigwam fails on both counts.

      4. Muically, it’s utetrly dead inside – except for one note, when the acoustics light up. SWMBO and her choir sung there once. It looks cathedral-like inside, but isn’t. There’s no spirit in the building, it might as well be a warehouse.

    3. Sounds like ours, except we had the unctuous Canon from Chester (a bloke) who was very, very exercised about the bombs falling on the Ukrainians.

  42. Let’s count our blessings: a nuclear attack is still incredibly unlikely. 17 April 2022.

    Yet the threat of nuclear obliteration has not gone away. The number of nuclear states has grown from five to nine, with Iran hammering at the door. Now the nation with the second-largest arsenal is led by a man who might have nothing to lose.

    An inadvertent truth! The world’s second largest arsenal (though still probably the most effective) is that of the United States and its leader is a man who has “lost” it already!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/16/count-blessings-nuclear-attack-still-incredibly-unlikely/

  43. I’m half way through my book ‘Driving over lemons’ which is a rather good story. A Brit couple who settled in Andalusia. He is often funny. He said he travels to Sweden twice a year to do sheep shearing. No idea why but he said the money is very good. He describes Sweden as having a dreary landscape. Dismal towns and interminable pine forests.

    The author is Chris Stewart who was in the original line up of Genesis. He was also in a band with Peter Gabriel.

    It’s an amusing read. There is also a sequel. A parrot in the pepper tree. Very cheap on Abe books and free shipping.

    https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/SearchResults?kn=driving%20over%20lemons%20by%20chris%20stewart&sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-TopNavISS-_-Results&ds=20

    1. Bought both on Kindle Driving over Lemons @ £3.32 and A Parrot in a Pepper Tree @ £1.69.

      Thanks for the heads-up, Philip, having lived in both Sweden (Stockholm & Norrköping) and Andalucia (Estepona) I’m sure they’ll have interest.

      1. Glad to help. I noticed there are two other books in the series ‘The Almond blossom appreciation society’ and ‘The last days of the bus club’. Also all on Abe books at good second hand prices.

        I wonder what the connection between Sweden and Andalusia is.

    2. Radio 4 serialised this more than 20 years ago at a time when getting away to Europe was fashionable amongst a particular section of middle-class British society. It may have been in part inspired by Peter Mayle’s ‘A Year in Provence’, which has a lot to answer for…

      1. I missed it first time round. And the story did make me think of A year in Provence too.

        1. But far, far better written; more interesting and the author actually DID stuff while Mayle just watched and whinged

    3. I had that recommendation from a friend many years ago and never did get round to reading the book………

      1. It’s an easy read and quite amusing. It was announced in January 2021 they were going to make it into a comic TV series.

    4. “He describes Sweden as having a dreary landscape. Dismal towns and interminable pine forests.”

      It is what made Canada singularly unattractive to me. It is indeed dreary to see a growth of millions of the same species of pine tree for hundreds of miles in every direction and plonked amongst them, towns with no character whatever. It is the only country I have lived in that I was glad to leave. I would not go back even if you paid me.

        2. It may do somewhere but not in BC. Kamloops to be precise and all the way from there to Vancouver. It’s pine trees all the way. Thoroughly depressing, not even a nice green either, dark and thus oppressive and gloomy on overcast days, which is often in Canada.

          1. Afternoon Johnathan. I can remember first seeing the Australian; well Tasmanian “bush” for the first time through the window of a taxi that was taking me from Burnie to Queenstown on the West Coast. As I sank slowly in my seat until only my eyes were above the glass it removed from my mind all previous notions of Benevolent Nature. Our ancestors occupied a world we can scarcely imagine. It was unremittingly hostile and only the very fittest survived it!

          2. Would love to go to Australia. I don’t actually mind “hostile” nature. After all I spent my childhood looking at the Libyan Desert. There was between the houses and the desert proper, a Wadi, like this https://www.wildlensbyabrar.com/images/easyblog_articles/79/a1sx2_custom_DSC03235.jpg and, on the other side this. https://www.airpano.com/photogallery/images_1550/3_788355.jpg This is the desert you see in movies. Most deserts aren’t like this at all, they tend to be rocky places.
            I love this environment, would disappear and hang out by myself. It wonderful looking into the nearest thing on earth to infinity in physical form. It turned me into a mystic, an attitude I have never left.

            Australia, the plants that have adapted to the environment are some of the most beautiful in the world and I would love to be able to see them in their natural habitat. It is indeed a different world. It is the world before civilizations, Gondwanaland still real. I’m sure that if I went, I would not want to come back. Like the desert of Libya it must be a place of exaltation. A proper place to meet your maker. Not ending in some miserable bed in a hospital room.
            I would be happy in a place like this. #3
            http://www.davestravelcorner.com/wp-blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/australian-outback-4.jpg

          4. We see that, in the winter, at Firstborn’s place. No extraneous lighting, and a clear sky reveals itself to be silver, because of all the stars. A few you recognise, the rest just a silvery background. Very humbling, it is, to see that.

          6. It is indeed. In Libya the Milky Way is, as they say, in your face. It is astonishing how many stars are out there. You never do get a sense of them in the UK. Perhaps something to do with latitude or the clarity of the atmosphere? I don’t know. But in Libya there are so many it’s like dazzling diamonds densely covering a black velvet cloth.

          8. It is true. I have always wanted to go back. If not to Libya then it was my intent to retire to one of the little desert settlements in the Mojave. It is easy to understand, if you have lived in it, why Christianity, Judaism and that pseudo religion Islam, originated in such areas. There really is something there that is closer to God than any other environment on earth.

          10. Where was all that sand? Been in the Libyan desert a few times, just flat sand and small pebbles… with fossils of dhellfish. Found that I love a desert – clean and open. Interestingly, the flat isn’t flat, but undulates gently. If you go driving off without being very careful, you find that you can’t see your destination – or your starting point, ‘cos your in an unnoticed depression… then you get lost.

          11. Outside of Al Khums, that is why “Legend of the Lost” was filmed there. If you remember me talking about Sophia Lorain being a dinner guest at my parents house?

          13. A tight pine forest is like something out of the Brothers Grimm… dark, scary, with branches just itching to stab you in the eye… you can see what there are rumours about Forest Trolls (Skogstroll), who can be unfriendly.

    5. I’m wondering where he finds the sheep to shear. Swedes have an aversion to eating lamb and mutton. The fields are full of cows and horses, but I’ve seldom seen any sheep.

        1. Lotsa trees in Norway, Sweden & Finland. The land isn’t suitable for arable farming.
          Denmark is more like the UK.

        2. It’s not dreary at all. He is probably referring to one bit he has visited. Here in the south it is rolling farming and looks a lot like Norfolk. The centre of this 2,000 mile long country is heavily wooded with lots of lakes. Up in the far north it is mountainous and dramatically pretty. I would say he is talking bollocks.

      2. From Wiki.

        Dairy farming
        is the largest sector in economical terms, and is responsible for 20
        per cent of the value of the Swedish agricultural production. Pork and
        poultry production is also relatively large, while sheep and lamb
        production is quite small.[1] Sheep and lamb production and the production of wool cannot compete with Australian and New Zealand production as these countries have green pastures year-round.

      3. I saw an Aussie with a sheep, I asked him if he was going to shear it and he said “No – go and find your own!”

    7. Good afternoon, Dear One.

      Chris Stewart wrote three books , the third one’s title was something
      about Almond Blossom/trees; all three were very enjoyable reads.

    1. You missed out the killing of one of the negotiators who wanted peace with Russia. Zelenskyy had him shot.

    4. I was a fervent supporter of Boris for many years, from the time he was a correspondent in Brussels. I am now convinced that he is an enemy of Britain, he hates us and wants us destroyed. If that is not the case, why all his policies that are designed to do just that, push us to the brink of disintegration?

      1. I doubt I will either. I am hoping my daughter in law, who’s a prof of Medieval Lit resumes the trips over here for her students. If that happens then my son will come as well and I might get to see them. But fly again to the US? Don’t think so.

    2. Rather than relax the rules, change them so they only apply to the risky groups. Profile like a daemon, search every single Muslim or middle easterner feverishly and stop subjecting the rest of us to daft regulation that makes none of us safer.

      Profiling, profiling, profiling.

        3. That’s because those who commit the crime tend to be of one demographic. That’s not racism, it’s common sense.

          1. Wibbs, I had my hand luggage searched at LHR before flying back to USA. A person in full black veiling, head to toe swanned past unmolested. Oi, I said to the man rummaging in my bag (which was full of books) , what about “her”? She could have a refrigerator under there. “It’s random, madam, ” was his response.
            Really?
            This was in the 90s- it’s been going on for years.

        4. I must remember that as I plummet from seat H5 into the briny;
          “At least I didn’t die a racist.”

    4. 352022+ up ticks,

      Afternoon Rik,
      I visualise the electorate as an open asylum proof of it being so is to keep doing the same thing
      again,again & again expecting a different outcome

    5. How ridiculous.

      By far the simplest solution would be to bring ALL the Calais illegals over in lotsa P&O ferries – give them security officer/Border Farce uniforms – and bingo! Two problems solved at a stroke. They’d become taxpayers….

      Lateral thinking – doncha know?

    1. I vaguely remember something we were taught at primary school about the early English. Some white Angle boys had been captured and sent to Italy where Pope Gregory inspected them. Who are these, he asked. They’re Angles the captors replied. No, said the Pope, these are angels. Blond and blue eyed one guesses.
      Now, I could well have that arse backwards but I remember it from somewhere. Went to a C of E primary.
      Looked it up and there is a story of Gregory the Great and the Anglii children who were apparently from Deira which was a kingdom in northern England circa 6th C.
      They were being sold as slaves in a Roman market and Gregory was stunned by their fair hair, complexions and blue eyes.
      Of course, it could all be ballcocks.

      3. Off the top of my head “Non Angli, sed Angeli”
        St. Patrick was also sold into slavery in his youth.

    2. The people seeking to profit from the fiction of black slavery don’t care about history, they just want a free ride on someone else’s cash. It’s not about recognition, it’s about getting power for themselves.

    3. I had this conversation over coffee in church this morning with a lady from Trinidad. It seems that the woke narrative is far from universally accepted in the West Indies, not least because many people there are not from slave stock at all. She told me that her family moved to Trinidad a hundred years ago from India, where they were persecuted for being Scottish Presbyterians.

    1. You just do NOT want to know what lives and breeds around those “blades” surrounded by lamb…

  50. Kremlin spreads fake BBC news report blaming Ukraine for missile attack on refugees at railway station. 17 April 2022.

    A fake BBC News report making out Ukraine was behind a deadly missile attack on its own people has been spread online by pro-Russian sources.

    Yesterday the broadcaster urged people to ignore the video, which uses the corporation’s logo and same red and white coloured graphics.

    The clip gives the false impression that Ukrainian armed forces were responsible for a missile attack on refugees at a railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Friday.

    I wrote a couple of posts myself about this “attack” and was interested to note that a couple of articles appeared later denying that it was a False Flag. Since then it has dropped down the “Horror Ratings” like a stone; the MSM much preferring the more vague Bucha story. There are even some comments here in the Mail pointing out the anomalies in the narrative.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10717067/Kremlin-spreads-fake-BBC-report-blaming-Ukraine-missile-attack-refugees-railway-station.html

    1. It was interesting that this morning one of the church wardens told me that she’d been doing research after I gave her my views on the “Ukraine situation” last week. She said I was right and they were lying to us, so that’s one convert at least.

  51. Kremlin spreads fake BBC news report blaming Ukraine for missile attack on refugees at railway station. 17 April 2022.

    A fake BBC News report making out Ukraine was behind a deadly missile attack on its own people has been spread online by pro-Russian sources.

    Yesterday the broadcaster urged people to ignore the video, which uses the corporation’s logo and same red and white coloured graphics.

    The clip gives the false impression that Ukrainian armed forces were responsible for a missile attack on refugees at a railway station in Kramatorsk, eastern Ukraine, on Friday.

    I wrote a couple of posts myself about this “attack” and was interested to note that a couple of articles appeared later denying that it was a False Flag. Since then it has dropped down the “Horror Ratings” like a stone; the MSM much preferring the more vague Bucha story. There are even some comments here in the Mail pointing out the anomalies in the narrative.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10717067/Kremlin-spreads-fake-BBC-report-blaming-Ukraine-missile-attack-refugees-railway-station.html

  52. My wife hates it when i swap her chocolate bars into other chocolate bar wrappers. It really gets snickers in a twix.

    Okay okay. Coat already on…..

  53. Despite the poor chap being French, music is international. So this one combines Ravel and the arrangement of the Ballet Russe. The picture is the painting of the set by Bakst.

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

    Sad that so much creativity was destroyed by WW1. The ballet was first produced in 1912.

  54. A mummy has been discovered in Egypt covered in chocolate and nuts. Archaeologists believe it may be the Pharoah Rocher.

    I didn’t even take me coat off for that one.

      1. Or (to the tune of the Eton Boating Song):

        The sexual life of the camel
        Is greater than anyone thinks,
        In the height of the mating season
        He tried to hump the Sphinx.

        But the Spink’s posterier passage
        Is blocked by the sands of the Nile.
        Which explains the hump on the camel
        And the Sphinx’s inscrutable smile.

          2. When I was at Leeming we had a visit by a couple of Vulcans who stayed a couple of days with their ground crews. I was in the NAAFI one evening when a bunch of the Bomber Command groundcrew came in and one shouted “All those who can’t tap dance are queers” They all leapt up on the tables and tap danced. As the evening progressed and more beer sunk one of them did the Dance of the Flaming Arsehole…..shocking!

          3. Wonderfully silly nights in/on many Stations across the world.

            Unfortunately – like our electorate – there where some who exhibited NAAFI syndrome

            No Ambition And Fuck-all Interest

    1. A proper sentence would be flogged followed by hanging. He should never have been in this country in the first place.

      The Home office officials should face the same sentence he does.

      1. We had duck legs last night – roast shoulder of lamb coming this evening. I don’t cook at lunchtime.

        Just planted some sunflower seedlings donated from next door, and some sprouty bits of spud from the cupboard. I did that last year and some nice new ones came up.

        1. Even better- MH is in charge of Quackers and I am sous chef in charge of veggies. He’s also doing the sauce for the duck which he plans on putting a noggin of port into.

          1. Sounds good – my OH has been trying to repair the pergola which mostly came down during Storm Eunice. His first thought was to cut down the wysteria and the jasmine which rely on the pergola for support, but I wouldn’t allow that……. they are both shortly to come into flower. Pics from last year.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/beadf99a6d3464eae449625d00609de04a412fa64010c50472ef1674f21ba8c7.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1d273ce13e5f10ebce13c71f2aaee6f2652e47fc16cd026952200642db47ebbd.jpg

          4. That looks heavenly. To sit under that, bathing in dappled sunlight and warm scent…

          14. Jack and Jill went up the hill
            To fetch a pail of water,
            Jack fell down and broke his crown
            And Jill came tumbling after.

            Up Jack got and home did trot
            As fast as he could caper,
            He went to bed
            To dress his head with vinegar and brown paper.

          15. It wasn’t B Potter. Just pay attention:

            Jack and Jill went up the hill
            to fetch a pail of water
            Jack fell down and broke his crown
            and Jill came tumbling after.

            Up Jack got and home did trot as far as he could caper
            and went to bed
            to mend his head
            with vinegar and brown paper.

            Then Jill came in
            and she did grin
            to see Jack’s paper plaster.
            Her mother whipped her across her knee for laughing at Jack’s disaster.

            Now Jack did laugh and Jill did cry
            but her tears did soon abate
            then Jill did say
            that they should play
            at see-saw across the gate.

        1. May I be one of the first to congratulate you on your lifetime ban from BBC comments. Well done.

          2. Richard will be making you one out of a cardboard cereal packet which you will receive, if my experience of North American post is anything like, in about 3 months!

      1. Personally, Horace, I think it’s a wonderful piss-take on the current history re-writers.

  61. Easter blessings from a Anglo Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow ( decided upon formal title etc…
    The husband and I’ve just finished our roast lamb Easter Sunday roast. It was all going so well, the lamb cooked, gravy and mint sauce made , including maris piper potatoes roasted in duck fat. But… when I decided to take them out of the oven I unfortunately caught the oven door and the roast potatoes went flying across the kitchen floor. After the shock of it, I managed to keep the leg of lamb hot whilst I roasted some new potatoes with rosemary in duck fat. They took 40 mins – as potatoes roasted in duck fat cooks quickly and doesn’t burn at high temperatures as oil does. I hope you’re alp having a delightful Easter Sunday and without cooking issues . God’s blessings.

      1. No, they landed on the wooded kitchen floor and smashed up . I’d not have wanted to have done that anyway. The roast new potatoes were very nice – even if not proper roast potatoes .

        2. King Edwards are generally the best roasties, especially done in Goose Fat – we keep plenty from Christmases past.

          1. When i was a lad the King Edwards had a red blush on them. They look more like maris piper now.

          5. I also remember Savoy cabbage having dark green outer leaves which would be chiffonaded into the lighter parts. Haven’t seen that in a long time. All very pale.

          6. I’ve never been able to get into savoy cabbage. My favourite is a dark-ish green summer cabbage, either eaten young as ‘spring greens’ or when fully filled out as a ball, cut into wedges and steamed before serving with lots of butter.

          7. You need the darker green for your folates. It also complements roast pork. I eat all the other greens but i miss a dark savoy.

    2. Roast lamb and mint sauce. Heavenly. A good cook can always recover from a disaster. Well done you. Lucky you didn’t burn yourself !

      Blessings to you and your family.

    3. New avatar and name? Good to see you anyway! Glad you were able to resolve the potato disaster – I would probably have just dusted them off and put them back in the oven!

    4. Love the new avatar, especially the bare shoulders, though if she stands up and catches her heel in the hem, she’ll have a spectacular wardrobe malfunction.

    5. If it had been me, I think I would have just gathered up the potatoes, dusted off any grit, put them back in the oven to reheat/kill off any germs and carried on!

  62. Resurrexit! Merry Nottlers and also to those more miserable.

    To the title:
    While I have no doubt that sending people to Rwanda would discourage many from embarking on the journey here and this will be sold as the general idea, it is so odd that my suspicious mind begins to itch.
    What is in it for the Rwandans? Who is being payed for this and by whom?

    Unlike much of Africa, this is a small over-populated country, which has exhibited some radical sectarian behaviour in the recent past. Is it wise to put people who are either fleeing war or economic misery inside such a tinder-box? To those who shrug and say, “Not our problem.” I would caution that war, especially mass killing is always our problem most obviously because it leads to more migrants.

    Then I wonder, what is happening here? Have SERCO milked the camp building cow so dry that they need to take it to a more unregulated part of the world?

    Then I wonder about the Rwandan role in the Congolese genocide, and the American/EU/French role in the Rwandan genocide. These were not just incidents of mass brutality. These were events of destabilisation pursuing the exploitation of mineral resources – coltan and others.
    Are these migrants necessary to be put to work in mines, or are they going to be kept as remote guests of her Majesty’s Government?
    All very sus, methinks.

    1. I doubt it’ll happen. Someone pointed out, there are local elections coming up. I think the scheme will just disappear after the elections.

      1. It seems pretty hair-brained, but there are these pictures of Priti signing an agreement. It might be more than just electioneering. Everything at the moment seems to be about redistributing our wealth to others.

          1. Without a doubt.

            But I would like to understand the details of this particular (probable) betrayal… or is it just a mad idea?

            Sometimes sheer stupidity appears as conspiracy.

          3. 352022+ up ticks,

            Afternoon Lim,
            I do not believe for one minute that “stupid” is in the tory (ino)
            tool kit
            treachery
            much more likely.

      2. Like the “relaxed covid rules” in yer France – They’ll be back in force after Toy Boy is elected next Sunday.

        1. The Germans played the same scam last year just before the elections. Nowhere on Olaf Scholz’s manifesto did it say “I pledge to try and bring in mandatory vaccination by any dirty trick available to me”.

      3. 352022+ up ticks,

        Afternoon BB2 ,

        I did mention “fodder for fools” in regards to this issue & the May by elections.

    2. It’s a scam LIM! There’s more chance of my going to Rwanda than these people.

    3. It’s a scam LIM! There’s more chance of my going to Rwanda than these people.

          1. Black centres – I think he is referring to Oldham, Birmingham, Bolton, Brent, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Harrow, Ealing, Redbridge, Lewisham, Barking & Dagenham, Croydon, Hounslow, Waltham Forest and too many more to .mention.

          3. Didn’t know that – never been. They tell me they have an exceptional talent in window dressing.

          5. As at the 2011 Census, the most ethnically diverse region in England and Wales was London, where 40.2% of residents identified with either the Asian, Black, Mixed or Other ethnic group.
            Out of all regions, London had the smallest percentage of White British people, at 44.9%, and the North East had the highest percentage, at 93.6%.
            8 out of the 10 most ethnically diverse local authorities were in London.

          8. As is normal they are hiding the truth. Census in future will not be published. Watch this space.

          1. It’s grandly known as the Land Yeo and feeds into the Bristol Channel, truth is it’s more of a big drainage ditch cut back in the 16th/17th century, I do however have the right to extract water from it and have a nice irrigation pump on the bank. The Yeo takes the run off from miles of farmland upstream and has a rich biodiversity of fish and fowl consequently the liquid is a rich soup of nitrates, rotting vegetation , fish poo, duck poo , Heron Poo, Seagull poo and swan poo etc etc so when sprayed on the garden on a hot day it STINKS.

          6. I studied Bacteriology and Virology at Bristol University in 1960-62. We tested the sea water at Weston-super-Mare and were astonished at the number of faecal organisms. Although beaches generally have been cleaned up much more since then, we concluded that you don’t swim in the sea at Weston, you just go through the motions!

          8. My uncle and aunt lived in Weston and I often used to go and stay with them.

            I played on the beach – and if the tide was out (as usual) there were the outfalls which came from the wall and at the time I didn’t realise they were probably raw sewage…..

          10. My uncle and aunt lived in Weston and I often used to go and stay with them.

            I played on the beach – and if the tide was out (as usual) there were the outfalls which came from the wall and at the time I didn’t realise they were probably raw sewage…..

        2. Those orange ones are gorgeous….there are some that colour outside my back window.

  64. And the self inflicted agony goes on. We just heard from friends who have been isolating after testing positive for covid –

    Despite my somewhat lengthy education it seems that I am unable to read rapid test results. Who knew that the “C” meant clear and not Covid. So thanks to you all for the good wishes and food parcels (mostly eaten now). Both of us have negative results and can rejoin our lives.

    If only they had done the old fashioned common sense thing and just stayed home for a day when they felt like they had a cold!

    1. We had the Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei in Latin at church today (a real treat for me); our Director of Music nearly took off conducting the choir 🙂

  67. Zelensky says he thinks Biden WILL visit Ukraine and claims Kyiv has ‘substantial evidence’ that Russian troops committed ‘genocide’ in Bucha and other occupied towns

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10726381/Zelensky-says-thinks-Biden-visit-Ukraine-substantial-evidence-genocide-Russia.html

    A conspiracy theorist writes:
    Biden actually does go. He gets assassinated by the Azov nasties and the Russians are blamed. Harris goes to war on the back of it.

    Of course it will have been the CIA who set up the hit.

      1. If only…
        I think he is probably the most dangerous maniac on the international scene at the moment.

          1. He is just the excrement – his bedroom boss is the arsehole that turns it out in vast quantities. His job is to spread it all over the UK.

  69. Well chaps, I see it is medicine bottle opening time. So I will leave you after a very agreeable Easter Day. Two hours in the sauna greenhouse, potting on. Spraying everything with Neem Oil (an old favourite!!).

    Have a jolly evening – hope there is lotsa girls’ foopball for those who like watching blonde ponytails in action.

    A demain.

          2. You may not have noticed but people of the lady persuasion tend to have longer hair than the blokes. Also terrible home bleaching !

          3. You wouldn’t have said that if you were trying to catch me in the sprint! I am hopeless at most sports but I can(could) swim well and run fast.

          4. At school in 1968, HG ran 10.7 for 100 yards, on grass and in plimsoles.
            The time keepers were so surprised that she was made to run it again straight away, because it smashed the previous school record.

            She ran 10.8. Admittedly it was hand timed, but it was still very quick for the era.

            The total idiocy was that nobody thought to get her to a real athletic club to train properly, it was an academic school and sport was a by-product.

          5. That was my era! Don’t know speeds but I was fast. Couldn’t do the long runs though.

          7. She played hockey on the wing for Northern counties and was considered to be seriously quick.
            A good friend was an England schools 200 runner and HG was quicker than her over the 100.
            Then her career took over so she never met her potential.

          9. She was more than somewhat surprised to discover that I could run 100 metres in a similar time to her yards.
            When we were “courting” she used to cycle with me when I was running and she found it hard to keep up on the hilly sections.
            She beat me at tennis, easily. I could beat her at squash, but only because my reactions are a lot faster, she was much more skilful and subtle.
            Relatively, I suspect she was a better sprinter, certainly a much much better hockey player.
            Brute force sports I was always the winner.
            When at university we attended sports together and her great claim to fame was beating at epee the man ranked fifth in the world at sabre. It was Pentathlon, so the first hit ended the competition!

    2. Phew! SIX for me; worst eva …
      Wordle 302 6/6

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

      2. So infuriating. After the second go I could think of eight words that had the first and fifth letters. It took me three more goes to find the right one!
        Wordle 302 5/6

        ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
        🟩⬜⬜⬜🟩
        🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
        🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Assuming the one I’ve just done is the same. And it’s my first ever attempt, so it may just be an example to try, done in three:
      oasts, realm, ample?
      Almost certainly a fluke, because my first guess had the same letter twice.

      1. You shouldn’t post words on the day, sos – even if redacted.

        This is a world-wide competition. Anyone reading your post could claim a 1/6 or a 2/6 …

        1. Apologies.
          I was merely curious to try it, but your reply suggests it actually was the real thing.
          Are there prizes for getting it quickly?

          8. True, but your second go was fortunate, perhaps inspired, see what tomorrow brings.

          9. It doesn’t appeal as a game, there’s an awful lot of chance involved.
            To blow my own trumpet though, I used very common alternative letters given by eliminating the first attempt. Had I understood how it worked properly, I would have put Oaths as the first try and probably done similarly.
            I’m into solitaire instead, even though there is still a lot chance..

          10. More chance at the start, after a few attempts it’s just down to elimination I find. But I enjoy the mental exercise. 43 consecutive wins so far, but I probably shouldn’t tempt fate.

          3. No, I don’t bother with these puzzles- I have enough to cope with right now.

  71. “Sear the duckling fillet using a hot dry frying pan” … The fire alarm went off and had to be ignored while I completed the process…. Same performance tomorrow and the same thing will happen.. But how else to you get Crispy skin?

    1. We have a whole duck and MH poured boiling water over it and left it to drain and dry out. It’s in the oven now and smells delish.

      1. Roast lamb with rosemary is cooking – I’d better go and see to the potatoes and other bits.

      1. The nice pub we used to go to in Cornwall, the King’s Arms at Ruan Lanihorne used to do whole half ducklings in the basket, deep fried and absolutely delicious. This experiment has not achieved the same result. Still, I’ve tried….

          4. Good evening, Phil

            Certainly did not mean to cause offence.

            Caroline and I went to mass this morning and then were taken out to lunch by a dear old Irish friend and, as always when I am with Jim, I erred and strayed from the path like a lost sheep (Possibly the one we ate for lunch?) and I indulged in his generous offerings of liquid refreshment which meant that when we got home I went to bed to sleep it off. This is why I have not been on Nottlers much today and have not been following all the threads.

          5. Happy that you have had a good day. Irish friends are worth their weight in gold when a drink is required !

            My post was a bit peeved because i mentioned a book to you before but i must assume that Disqus lost it.
            As someone who has sailed the Oceans and Seas i thought you might be interested in ‘Nutmeg’. the spice trade.

            I did see a joke today that i thought inappropriate given it is Easter Sunday but now we have had an attack of the Irish craic……. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f38614f12fd7fb92ed116fbea2ec6b8b00c6c02f39fd006080151bddabb72c01.jpg

          6. A beautiful part of the world, my family used to stay at Pen Hallow farm Ruan High Lanes in the mid 60’s and HG and I spent our honeymoon there.

      2. The nice pub we used to go to in Cornwall, the King’s Arms at Ruan Lanihorne used to do whole half ducklings in the basket, deep fried and absolutely delicious. This experiment has not achieved the same result. Still, I’ve tried….

      1. Pour boiling water over duckling. Hang and air dry for 24 hours. Rub liberally with salt. Kill duckling. I think i have that in the right order.

          1. No need. All the feathers fall out after the boiling oil stage. Oh…i forgot to mention that. *slaps wrist…

          2. Re your friend on Masterchef.
            Presumably he already knows the result.
            When my son did something similar, he foolishly mentioned that things were going OK and was then horrified when the friend of ours who we were having a drink with suggested he would put a bet on the eventual result.
            They filmed two alternative finishes because one contestant in the past had tried to blackmail the show, threatening to give away the result before it was broadcast.

          3. I lost contact with Thomas years ago. Moving around the country after jobs. I do still remember him with fondness because he is a nice man. I re-opened facebook to contact and give him my best wishes. Hope he wins but it is nerve wracking for the contestants. I have no idea if he has won or not.

            He has the most amazing talent in design. Give him a bucket of sand and a few pebbles and he will create a mandala.
            A recent series of Masterchef was edited and took one person out. Not found an explanation yet but it does sound similar to what you say.

          4. As BT says, “nothing you see on TV is true.”
            I hope he wins and that you can get in contact again.

          5. You been drinking?
            Strangely enough, what i see of Thomas on Masterchef is exactly as i remember. Talented, hard working and funny. He is also sincere and humble at the same time. Makes me feel one dimensional.

      1. Come now. That’s hardly in keeping with green energy policies. Unless you claim to have covid when it becomes a requirement. I might cut the bottom off all the doors as an alternative.

    1. That reminds me of this morning when MOH was driving us to Kit Hill for me to walk the dog. At the top of the road we stopped at the junction and I saw and pointed to a peregrine smashing into a flying wood pigeon. The pigeon was barely stunned let alone killed and there was an aerial wrestling match before the pigeon, flying with a limp (?), was pursued by the falcon, which now didn’t appear to know what to do. Very surreal.

  73. Time for tablets and to say, Goodnight and God bless my fellow NoTTLers. Had a crap night last night, let’s see if Malbec and Whyte and MacKays can produce a better result.

  74. Two mixes of concrete,
    A few mushroom trays filled with sticks from the chopsaw,
    6 bags filled with concrete ballast & on top of the hollybush woordstack,
    Plus a range of household duties including doing the DT an omelette when she got back home from work.

    And yes, I’m bloody knackered again and am just about to take a glass of something up to bed with me!

    Good night all.

      1. The plastic trays that you can get from greengrocers that the mushrooms come in.
        I’ve got my chopsaw set up to cut sticks of up to 2½” to the exact size to fit into them. Usually get 150 filled, stacked & covered with plastic bags ready for the winter.

        1. What are they for. What is the purpose? Are you making kindling or growing mushrooms? Asking for an airhead friend !

        1. Given what has happened in the golfing and football world recently she has quite possibly buried wannafight in concrete just to get some peace and quiet.

  76. Well well, possibly true, but a bit rich when one considers Macron is supported by Sarkozy, one of France’s more corrupt politicians.
    And isn’t it strange that this gets published at precisely the time the PTB hope it will do the most damage.

    In the very unlikely event that Le Pen wins it will be overturned in the courts by hook or by crook.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10726743/Marine-Le-Pen-father-accused-embezzling-500-000-EU-days-vote.html

    1. Just remember that ALL French press and TV is controlled by the politicians.

      As for the latest anti-Le Pen rubbish – just remember François Fillon. He (and his Welsh missus) went to gaol. The “corruption” story broke just before Toy Boy came into play as a potential prez.

      1. Hell’s teeth, the resurrected Christ could stand here and he’d be denounced for throwing out money lenders, just to keep Macron in power.

    2. The corrupt Sarkozy backing the queer Macron is so similar to Obarmy being the President backing the kiddy fiddler Biden.

          1. You and Obama or you and Macron?
            Sarkozy is reserved for BT.
            Biden is the prize for the loser

  77. Our Easter dinner was wonderful. MH cooked the quacker to perfection and the spuds, spring greens, carrots and sauce were good too. Am full up and still licking my lips. No pud- no room.

    1. Just finished clearing up and loading the dishwasher – lamb with rosemary, spuds roasted in last night’s duck fat, roasted peppers & courgette, the remains of a pack of purple sprouting, leek, and gravy…… definitely the way to a man’s heart; with the last of a bottle of chardonnay with the smoked salmon, and then Grenache (for me, anyway) with the lamb. Certainly no room for pudding.
      All accompanied by a cd of Josef Callegha.

      He’s about to watch the snooker, so I’m back here.

      1. Mine has the snooker on already on one of his computers. I began a Neil Oliver on Iplayer about the Ice Age so may go back to that. Clearing up still to be done but too full. It can wait anyway.

        1. At least we didn’t have a roast spud disaster – I told him about that & said I’d have picked them up and carried on……

      3. Push the boat out why don’t you ! I did have a pork roast yesterday to annoy all the other religions but today in the last of the sunshine was for drinking !

      4. It was South Downs Lamb for us, as good as it gets. 2018 Medoc with a lemon desert.Driving home so just one small glass of the medoc.

    2. Leg of lamb, spuds, swede, cabbage, peas, carrots and long stem broc all smothered in an absolutely gorgeous gravy. Mmmmmm

    3. Sorry, Plum but the moment I see these ‘Wordle’ nonsenses, I will automatiucally ‘Collapse’ because the following ‘Look at me’ means nothing to the majority of wordle furdlers.

  80. OK, I know it’s complex, but why the Hell shouldn’t Putin attack the points where weapons being used against him are being supplied?

    ‘Increasingly desperate’ Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO base to stop the western weapons that are stalling his invasion from getting to Ukrainian forces, ex-national security chief warns

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10726663/Increasingly-desperate-Vladimir-Putin-attack-NATO-base-stop-weapons-getting-Ukraine.html

    When the IRA was being supplied from Libya, did the UK ignore it?

      1. And/or prevent damage to his people.

        Putin may well be a maniac, but the West is doing its damndest to prolong this.

        1. As others have concluded this is Obama’s Third Term. Obama retreads infest the Biden government. Biden is being publicly ditched, Harris bought off and Obama ready to step in. It is a manufactured emergency, the war in Ukraine!

    3. I advise you not to try to apply logic to the situation, sos. The MSM are such idiots, you’ll find your head will explode with their stupidity. The woke Canon took the service today and was going on and on about the Ukrainians. It seemed to have escaped his notice that the Russians are also Orthodox Christians.

  81. Evening, all. Happy Easter! It seems the DT letter writers are still under the illusion that the Rwanda scheme is a goer. There is no thinking beyond, ‘the elections are coming up, people are getting concerned about our plans to flood the country with aliens who hate us and consequently might not vote for us, so we’ll have to pretend we’re going to do something about it.’

    1. As i said with Frontex years ago, the trickle becomes a flood. We can expect 60,000 this year.

  82. Can anyone tell me why fireworks and rockets were ever a part of Easter? I now have to console my little dog.

        1. Not yet I think.

          According to my diary it started on 2nd April and finishes on 2nd May with Eid al Fitr.

          3. I would too, except one of my staff is observing Ramadan and so I have to be a fait with the basics to know what the HR policies allow. I’ve had to let her take two hours leave a day for a month because she gets tired when she is fasting.
            She’s been working reduced hours because she says she has got long covid. I did say to her that I didn’t think the sick were expected to fast – it’s a choice, apparently

      3. Fireworks used to be for November the 5th and perhaps the nearest Saturday to that date when municipal displays were organised. It all went wrong at the end of 1999 when fireworks were used to celebrate the first day of the year 2000 (I know, Grizzly, the new Millennium started 12 months later). But the “yobs” thought it was a great “fun” thing to do, and ever since then the poor animals have had to endure hell. (We humans too.)

  83. Can anyone tell me why fireworks and rockets were ever a part of Easter? I now have to console my little dog.

  85. Started watching ‘Dune’, anyone watched it. So far it seems to be running pretty much like the book.

      1. The book is an epic tale. It’s why they have found it so difficult to squeeze into a film.

    3. I have watched it. Quite good. Finishes half way through the book. Sequel to follow.

  86. I want all these sodding ” snowflakes” or whatever they call them to read Wilfred Owen’s WW I poems and his letters home. I can heartily recommend the Penguin Book of WW I Prose.
    All this BS right now drives me nuts when you take time to consider what people have been through in the past. ECO Nuts- go and do some bloody reading- assuming of course that you can read.

    1. Hard times produce strong men.
      Strong mean produce good times.
      Good times produce weak men.
      Weak men produce hard times.

  89. I’ve just finished watching BBC2’s Maggie & Ronnie show. What giants they were compared to today’s morally and intellectually retarded pygmies. Of course, memories of the 80s are always going to be warmer: my knees didn’t pop, I didn’t need reading glasses, I had more money to spend on indulgences and the pubs were buzzing!

    Apart from the politics, what was the most notable feature of the programmes? Fashion: a little overdressed perhaps but at least a sign of self-respect, unlike today’s slovenly creatures, and BIG HAIR! News presenters Julia Somerville and Jan Leeming feature, both also with impossibly clipped pronunciation that trumps Pamela Stephenson’s ‘NTNON’ send-up of Angela Rippon, but who is this?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b099bbd8a4b7636b496ba7ec13511688fa77aabd18715625d848a51e05f7ed17.jpg

    We shall not see their like again…

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