Sunday 18 June: Parliament should really be debating the terrible legacy of pandemic lockdowns

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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507 thoughts on “Sunday 18 June: Parliament should really be debating the terrible legacy of pandemic lockdowns”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story and, since it’s the Anniversary of The Battle of Waterloo the story has NOTHING to do with it!

    Schwarzenegger

    A movie producer is planning his next blockbuster – an action drama about famous composers.

    So he sets up a meeting with Sylvester Stallone, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

    During the meeting, he asks them to select which famous composers they’d like to portray.

    “I’ve always admired Mozart,” Stallone says. “I’d love to play him.”

    “Chopin has always been my favourite,” says Van Damme. “That’s the part for me.”

    The producer turns to Schwarzenegger. “And you, Arnold? Who do you want to be? ”

    There is a long silence, after which Arnold replies, “I’ll be Bach.”

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy damp start here,
    Was woken early by rumbles of thunder
    And a curry belly

    2. We got the full works. Distant rumbles to distant rumbles in well under an hour!

  3. Parliament should really be debating the terrible legacy of pandemic lockdowns

    No they would rather create pandemic closure over Boris and cake, then move on and hope nobody notices.

    1. Will a government in the UK dare to enforce a climate lockdown? The latter is being touted by the climate change cult and could be used as a precursor to 15 minute cities. Fear porn worked for the “virus”, what have they in store for climate Armageddon?

  6. ‘Morning All

    Early Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd80a5e937412149faba54577e4badc68c70d337d127140235d9b96a838b6720.png

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  8. Good morning. The Kings Birthday Parade went well.. I can not have been easy for a man of his age.

    Heavy rain forecast for later. Current.- 20C. overcast and very humid.

    1. An old one but when I first heard it the lady’s reply was: “If you hadn’t been in such a hurry I would have taken my tights off”

  11. Prepare for Ukraine’s counter-offensive to falter. 18 June 2023.

    Nato needs to brace itself for the prospect of Ukraine’s counteroffensive failing to achieve major success. Indeed, so far, Kyiv has attained only limited gains. But those who expected a lightning breakthrough were always going to be disappointed. This is not German panzers against Polish horse cavalry, nor is it American shock and awe against demoralised Iraqi forces in antiquated tanks with no air cover.

    Reality is coming home to roost!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/17/prepare-for-kyivs-counter-offensive-to-falter/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Ho hum: only another few £billions of British taxpayers’ money going up in smoke.

  12. 2 minutes ago
    373557+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    In my book and I would assume many more peoples the paramount issue HAS to be the ongoing fallout of the political overseers covid campaign without a final finding via interim reports done in an honest express mode we can hardly progress onwards surely.

    If this odious issue is to be treated in any sort of forgiving manner as party before country voters tend to do, then we will
    ALL be condoning ALL the political overseers actions.

    The electoral majority has, these past decades post Mrs Thatcher accepted deceit, treachery, loss of self respect all in the ersatz party names if this covid issue is to be covered up in any way then we will have to accept being the WEFs guinea pigs
    serving the NWO.

    We could, through the current voting pattern make death via natural causes obsolete.

    Sunday 18 June: Parliament should really be debating the terrible legacy of pandemic lockdowns

  13. Good morning all.
    Bright and a bit cloudy with 10½°C outside.

    Woke to pump bilges at just after 3 an shortly after getting back into bed caught the muted rumble of distant thunder.
    Within 50 minutes we’d had thunder & lightning coming quite close accompanied by with a very heavy downpour and then muting down again to a distant rumble.

  14. Good morning, all. Sunny and warm. Weather similar.

    What an embarrassing outfit the JWK’s missus wore at the Trooping. CaN they stoop any lower? And Woke William wants to “end homelessness”. Gosh. Perhaps he could make a start by housing all his father’s homeless former servicemen…. Wazzock.

    1. I saw a quote that he will introduce the son to homelessness. Thought that was a bit harsh, throwing the lad out on the street.

    2. I thought Camilla’s outfit was odd. At first, I thought she was wearing a uniform, but when I saw her on the balcony, it turned out to be a dress. HRH the Princess Royal didn’t look amused.

    1. Do your panels generate a lot of leccy while you are in the tunnel?

      Just asking…!!

      2. You’ll be pleased to know I’m way ahead of the curve! In the tunnels they generate Net Zero!!!!

  16. Good Moaning.
    Tra la la …… start the day on a positive note ……. Hello, Trees; Hello, Sky.
    Hello, Newly Watered Lawn. Hello, Soggy Dog Blankets – at least you’ve had a good airing …..
    Hello, Damp Summerhouse Components that were not collected yesterday.
    Hello, Second Mug of Coffee that will fire me up to buzz over a factual, politely-worded-through-gritted-teeth snottogram to suppliers and distribution company.
    “Stiffen the typing fingers …. summon up the bile …… display middle class reasonableness with icy words ……..”

  17. Putin’s shock troops are CASTRATING Ukrainian prisoners of war with pocket knives. 18 June 2023.

    Vladimir Putin’s twisted troops are castrating Ukrainian prisoners of war with pocket knives in Russian torture camps.

    Two survivors, aged 25 and 28, who had been Russian prisoners for one and three months, revealed their horrifying experience to be worse than hell.

    The two Ukrainian soldiers were returned to Ukraine in a prisoner swap and were then referred to psychologist Anzhelika Yatsenko, 41, who helps young men who have faced serious hardship.

    Really?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12206713/Putins-troops-CASTRATING-Ukrainian-prisoners-war-knives-two-survivors-reveal-experience.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

    2. I wonder what they do with all the balls – perhaps the UK government could use them as they certainly are short of them

    3. Commit an atrocity and then announce it to an already anti-Putin/anti-Russian Western World via a corrupt MSM? Makes sense.

    5. Those Russians will fit in well in the West, they can get jobs legally mutilating children and work with pride.

    3. We did a bit of that yesterday evening with our ozzies friends, dinner alfresco, lasagne and Australian Merlot.

    1. As I said here yesterday: The little rat should have been detesticulated!

  21. Female novelists don’t need their own prizes. Let’s abolish them. 18 June 2023.

    There is a point at which all special treatment becomes patronising. And we have reached that point, I think, when it comes to giving women a leg-up in the business of writing fiction.

    Genghis Khan sacked and plundered his way through central Asia in just 20 years; women have conquered the literary world with similar thoroughness and in the same time frame. They dominate – the empire is theirs. Do we really still need a Women’s prize for fiction? These days you might as well ask if we need a men’s prize for chess.

    It wasn’t always so. When the prize was founded, in 1996, female writers still suffered a good deal of discrimination. In 1991, the Booker prize had an all-male shortlist, and when in 1983 Granta published its first Best of Young British Novelists list there were only six women among 20.

    It is almost impossible to believe that anyone living in a country that produced Jane Austen, George Eliot and the Bronte sisters could have thought that any discrimination ever existed to be alleviated.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/18/female-novelists-dont-need-their-own-prizes-lets-abolish-them

    1. Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Georgette Heyer, Harper Lee, Daphne du Maurier etc. And let’s not get started on non-fiction.
      But where are the tranny authorettes?

  23. Boris saw what was coming after reading fhe Priveleges Committee Report and preempted further damage by resigning as an MP.
    This enables him to enjoy ensuing misdemeanors that will now come to light through MSM revelations of others who will be on record as having seen to be having a party during COVID rather being in a party.

    1. A nice thought, but I tend to think it’s water off a duck’s back to these people.

  25. Talking of cultism (see below) we watched on catch-up a docu about the Mormons. Talk about exploiting the vulnerable. A shocking revelation.

  26. Has a lovely day yesterday with our swift friends in Bristol.
    Afterwards food and chat – and I found they are as sceptical as I am about all that has been done to us over the last few years.

    1. Scepticism should be nurtured and encouraged so it may turn first into frustration and indignation then into anger and rebellion.

  27. Good morning all,

    Light cloud at McPhee Towers, wind South-East, 19℃ going to 22℃. Looking forward to the thunderstorms this afternoon.

    Had a lovely afternoon yesterday on the River Avon (Wiltshire). The trout were not as co-operative as I would have expected given the weather condtions and the fly-life hatching all over the river. Nevertheless this fellow took a mayfly imitation ( in his jaw). He measured 42cm (16-17″) and is in good condition so he is a shade under 2lbs. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5599fd46b38ce48cb569955c68839cc8501e142800135724c45de94dcbdcab4a.jpg

    Here’s the spot he came from, hard up against the far bank in the gap between the two clumps of white-flowered marginal vegetation.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d8ec239b7efc708bb7623d6f7a815276887c483987cfed9b4fc78a3a2f114b8.jpg

  28. Morning all ☔️🙂😉
    I put the kettle on an hour ago for our morning cuppa, opened the back door to let fresh air in and it chucked it down briefly. It’s Father’s day and that’s why my family call me Rain Man.
    Bbq around 3 pm whats the betting it will rain then ?
    Slayders 🤠😎

  29. SIR – Jen Webb (Letters, May 28) reports a dearth of bumblebees in Hampshire. Yet we have hundreds, thanks mainly to pyracanthas.

    For some reason, very many fly into our conservatory and I spend a lot of time enticing them out on a rolled piece of Telegraph.

    Lyn Leventon
    Wolverton, Hampshire

    …which just goes to prove the rule: mention the paper and the the Letters Editor will print almost anything, however irrelevant it may be!

    1. When it comes to the badger v hedgehog question, I’m afraid I’m on the side of the humble hog.

      Having said that, my dad has a cousin called Martin Hancox who is (was?) a bigwig in the “save the badgers” camp. We were talking about him today as dad is trying to trace him and his brother. I’ve done some googling and he seems to have gone quiet since about 2019. If there are any badger-fanciers out there who have heard of him/have any info, please let me know! I always thought he was in Gloucester but dad reckons he was in Exmoor. I reckon he must be in his mid-70s.

  30. SIR – The reduction in the numbers of bumblebees, which are ground-nesting (and, incidentally, the lack of hedgehogs), is principally down to the enormous surge in the badger population – another unintended consequence of ill-thought-out, knee-jerk, populist legislation.

    David Reynolds
    Pytchley, Northamptonshire

    Excellent letter. That should have Packham and his fellow eco-nutjobs frothing at the mouth.

  31. I see from the Telegaffe that the RNLI, not content with being a taxi service for illegals, is now not providing the bigger updates to lifeboats that have, in some cases, been funded by legacies but are trying to substitute a smaller, much cheaper option! They really are trying for a Ratner moment.

    1. Here is the item; which is proving elusive after a mere 24 hours.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/how-a-small-fishing-town-became-the-battleground-for-the-so/

      How a small fishing town became the battleground for the soul of the RNLI

      Aldeburgh is shocked at the RNLI’s apparent change of heart over plans to replace the local lifeboat

      By Boudicca Fox-Leonard 17 June 2023 • 9:00am

      During a fearsome gale in December 1899, seven crewmen of the Aldeburgh lifeboat lost their lives. One of the survivors believed his miraculous escape was down to the three acorns he carried in his pocket for good luck. Those acorns have been kept on the lifeboat stationed at Aldeburgh ever since.

      A hundred years later, this story so moved Joyce Powell, a chartered accountant from London, who spent many summers enjoying concerts and music festivals in Aldeburgh, that in 1999 she hosted a dinner for all 50 of the station’s volunteers, giving each of them a silver acorn.

      When she died, she left a generous gift in her will. Her intention was not only to fund the launch and recovery system for their new £2.5 million Shannon lifeboat, but also to help with shoreworks to prepare the station for its new craft.

      “Following Joyce’s wishes, the state-of-the-art rig will be named Ralph,” states the RNLI’s 2021 annual report and accounts.

      Today though, the residents of Aldeburgh are demanding to know what has become of Joyce’s intended legacy and others like hers – sums totalling around £4 million. Back in 2016, they received the confirmation that Aldeburgh would be given an all-weather Shannon-class lifeboat capable of rescues in rough conditions far out at sea. Then, in February this year, they were told that this was under review. Instead, they might be given a smaller inflatable inshore Atlantic 85 that will need to stay closer to the coast.

      The news has fractured the relationship between the local RNLI and chief executive Mark Dowie – the former feeling that a promise and trust has been broken.

      “We haven’t had an explanation of how the evidence has changed between 2016 and 2022,” says Derek Wyatt, the former Labour MP who, until recently, was chair of the Aldeburgh Lifeboat Guild, which fundraises for the RNLI. “For the past six years we were told that we were going to get the Shannon, and we were told the Shannon was paid for.”

      On Aldeburgh’s promenade, a hot breeze beats down on the mostly elderly tourists walking quietly along. The blue expanse of the North Sea is unnervingly calm. Scratch the surface though, and the residents are angry. News of what is disparagingly called “the rubber duck” has ruffled feathers.

      “Our shop is in the top 10 per cent in the UK. We have a lot of income via the station fundraising, but where the money goes after that, we don’t know,” says one unhappy resident, adding: “They promised us the Shannon, but they’ve suddenly taken away what was effectively a £2 million boat and given us a £50,000 one and said it’s the same thing.”

      For a small town of just 3,000, Aldeburgh is surprisingly among the largest donors to the RNLI. There’s a feeling that their generosity and fundraising work has been taken for granted.

      “Yes, Aldeburgh is quite rich, but we do actively go out into the community and do a lot of events,” says one long-term resident and volunteer, who preferred not to be named. “We work at it.”

      The fear is that the RNLI is doing the bare minimum to keep one of its fundraising jewels afloat.

      “The fact that there’s a nice shiny boat in the shed for people to come and have a look at, they’re hoping to get the same amount of money in for less output.”

      One volunteer, who was too frightened to be identified, says that volunteers will resign if the Atlantic 85 goes ahead.

      “We’ve estimated we’ll go from 20 to eight people. Even if we do get the Shannon, a lot of us don’t want to stick around and be associated with people who’ve lied and threatened us,” they said.

      The lifeboat station is undoubtedly an emotional issue in the Suffolk seaside town. Stop any local and they will have a ather or grandfather who volunteered. Does such nostalgia obscure the fact that Aldeburgh no longer needs such a large boat?

      Dover sole, skate, dressed crab and lobster: today’s catch outside fisherman Dean Fryer’s hut. Dean, who has been fishing for 42 years, is concerned about whether the new boat will even be able to respond to rescues. The proposed dinghy, which has propellers, is more suitable to harbours such as those at nearby Southwold, rather than launching off an exposed stony beach like Aldeburgh’s. It also won’t be powerful enough to tow a boat like his back to shore.

      “We’re not very happy about having a boat this small here, in case there’s a disaster. It’s not going to be big enough or robust enough to be launched in bad weather.

      “It would be OK on a calm day like today,” says the 59-year-old, pointing out to the sea. “But not in rough seas. We get caught out from time to time, probably once every other year. But if there’s no lifeboat to come and rescue you, what do you do?”

      A larger boat coming from Lowestoft or Harwich would add another hour, “when time is of the essence,” says Fryer. The thriving tourist trade in Aldeburgh now fills the whole year, and there is an appetite for freshly caught fish. “With the lifeboat on the beach, there’s always that in the back of your mind for reassurance.”

      However, the RNLI has seen a greater demand for its resources elsewhere on the coastline, particularly in the South East Channel. This week, the RNLI released new figures revealing rescues of migrants in the Channel were launched 290 times, meaning small boat crossings now make up 3 per cent of the RNLI’s work.

      The RNLI disclosed that it had saved 108 lives in the Channel in 2022, of a total of 506 lives saved. It also announced a new device called “sea stairs”, a floating platform that allows crews to rescue people from the water more quickly.

      In July 2021, the former UKIP leader Nigel Farage criticised the RNLI as a “taxi service for illegal immigration”. At the time, such public criticism led to an increase in donations in protest at the comments.

      Speaking on the Today programme Simon Ling, the RNLI’s head of lifeboats, said: “The RNLI is a charity that saves lives at sea. We’ve been doing that for 199 years. We are very clear that what we are doing is life-saving around 238 stations around the UK and Ireland, not just the south-east.”

      The residents of Aldeburgh are aligned with the RNLI that a rescue is a rescue – however, there is a feeling that finite resources are being called upon elsewhere. “I’m sure the migrant crisis plays a role. If you’re spending your money going that way, you’ve got nothing left for anything else,” said one person, matter-of-factly.

      The situation is echoed 30 miles down the coast in Essex, where there is a campaign to overturn the decision to replace the Walton and Frinton station’s 16m (52ft) Tamar class lifeboat, with a 4m (13ft) D-class rigid inflatable boat.

      In Angus in Scotland, Arbroath’s lifeboat will similarly be replaced with a smaller Atlantic 85. The news, which has been met with fierce opposition, coincides with the 70th anniversary of the Arbroath lifeboat disaster.

      The three disputes are the result of what the RNLI calls a Lifesaving Effect Review, where it looks at the overall effectiveness of its 238 stations and 400-strong fleet. In a statement to the Telegraph, the RNLI said: “We have access to much-improved data, and it is prudent to take the opportunity to review the past and current situation as well as predictions of future risk and life-saving need once a lifeboat comes to end of its operational service.

      “The RNLI runs a thorough coastal review process over a six-year period, which identifies any need for potential changes to life-saving effect in conjunction with the charity’s senior regional team.

      “And, like any charity, we are committed to regularly reviewing operations and processes to ensure we are spending donors’ money wisely and following best practice.”

      They added: “Two legacies have previously been allocated by the RNLI to fund a future lifeboat and associated equipment at Aldeburgh. However, neither legacy was left specifically to Aldeburgh lifeboat station, and neither is legally restricted to any particular place or piece of equipment.

      “Where possible, we will always follow the wishes expressed by a legator, but decisions about life-saving equipment must be made based on operational need. This ensures that all funds donated and left to our charity are wisely spent, to provide the most effective life-saving service right around the coast of the UK and Ireland.”

      In Aldeburgh, where the lifeboat is woven into history, tensions run so high that they risk alienating their core supporters.

      “My understanding is that the RNLI is dependent on legacies for 60 per cent of its funding, and that if the money stopped coming in, they could run for 10 months,” says one disgruntled resident.

      Fryer explains that there has been a long tradition of people leaving legacies and expecting to have a boat named in their honour. “These little old ladies wouldn’t be happy that their money is going elsewhere in the country for different things,” adds Fryer. “They aren’t going to get their wish, and that’s wrong.” For some residents, the soul of the RNLI is at stake: “Anyone who is my age – in their seventies – thinks ‘It isn’t the same as it was,’ but that’s what I believe too,” said one.

      It is how the situation has been handled that upsets people the most. A group of volunteers have submitted a report in which they state their case for Aldeburgh getting the Shannon lifeboat.

      Wyatt is now calling for an independent inquiry. “All I want is the new chair of the trustees, Janet Legrand KC, to appoint an independent assessor to look at both our evidence and the RNLI’s evidence and make a judgment,” he says.

      “We have supplied the evidence and they don’t believe ours and we don’t believe theirs. The only way to be fair is to appoint a referee. There’s a lot of money at stake here.”

      It’s not just the money. It’s the very sense of what the RNLI means to the town. “We are 3,000 people,” says Wyatt. “The RNLI is at the heart of what Aldeburgh is – apart from Benjamin Britten, that is – and we raise some of the most in the whole fundraising system.”

      1. Interesting. Not surprised, I’m afraid, just saddened. Seems that the wokeists latch on to any free money & divert it to their cause. I gave up support to the RNLI when I saw pictures of them transshipping ‘refugees’ from a perfectly good French customs cutter in the channel. Removed them from the will, too.

      2. For some residents, the soul of the RNLI is at stake: “Anyone who is my age – in their seventies – thinks ‘It isn’t the same as it was,’ but that’s what I believe too,” said one.

        The Elites have corrupted and perverted everything that was once decent in the UK!

        1. Same old story Minty, everything they come into contact with they eff it up and big time.

      3. For some residents, the soul of the RNLI is at stake: “Anyone who is my age – in their seventies – thinks ‘It isn’t the same as it was,’ but that’s what I believe too,” said one.

        The Elites have corrupted and perverted everything that was once decent in the UK!

      4. For the first time, during my recent break in South Devon, I walked past a lifeboat station without putting any money in the bucket. I don’t like not giving to the RNLI but that is what I do now. And we won’t be sending a cheque at Christmas.

        The organisation has clearly been marched through by the Marxists.

        1. The hoohah created by some HQ bint over a joke birthday mug in life boat station heralded that things were not going well.

    2. I imagine that the contributions to the charity have slumped massively since they have been assisting the invasion.

      3. It seems like it because the TV is full of RNLI adverts (only rescuing whitey, of course) with a begging bowl.

  32. Apropos of not very much, the Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June, 1815. Waterloo Day anyone?

    2. Morning Sue. Yes. This day ushered in a century of British Hegemony that saw civilisation advance across the globe though not unfortunately in Europe.

    3. Good idea. It’ll annoy Micron. Anything that annoys Micron is a good idea.

    1. Naughty Nottlers ought to accept that our politicians are only interested in our welfare! This video merely shows some deplorable doctors spreading their misinformation and disinformation! I find it hard to believe that the PTB and the MSM want their views suppressed – why should they want that when Big Parma companies’ main motivation is so clearly humanitarian?

        1. The trouble with irony and sarcasm is that some people take what you say literally. I remember Peter Cook as the Devil telling Dudley Moore, who had sold his soul to him: “Everything I have ever told you is a lie, including this.”

    1. Whenever I left a light on in an unoccupied room, Dad would tell me that I could do that when I started paying my own electricity bill. I now leave on as many lights as I please. Till Net Zero removes the leccy of course.

  35. Another one for Bill…

    I was talking to my mate from Norfolk.

    I asked him how his sex life was

    He said he could count on one hand how many women he had slept with this year.

    It was nine.

  37. Putin’s regime condemned for using ‘horrific’ animal circus to entertain Ukrainian war orphans in Mariupol. 18 June 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/029b9475edcd60b596a9e8f73edb6481717e4f7a381c0f5342502c95a9c4582c.png

    Dr Colin Alexander, an expert in political communications at Nottingham Trent University, said the propaganda deliberately included orphaned children as part of a strategy to ‘placate’ Ukrainians.

    Tory MP Alicia Kearns, of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, said: ‘The Kremlin murders children by night and forces them to watch clowns in the day.’

    The horror!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12206825/Putins-regime-condemned-using-horrific-animal-circus-entertain-Ukrainian-war-orphans.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop

    1. Years ago, we watched the Moscow State Circus – in Moscow.
      Even MB and I were appalled at some of the antics the bears were made to perform – often with chains to be yanked if they didn’t come up to scratch.

    3. Whereas, Alicia Kearns, we’re forced to watch them in action every hour of every day in both Westminster Houses.

  39. The Covid inquiry’s verdict already seems to be in: we should’ve locked down even harder

    Judging by its first week of hearings, it is going to fail in its duty to weigh up whether shutting down Britain did more harm than good

    DANIEL HANNAN • 17 June 2023 • 5:00pm

    There is only one thing the nation wants to know about the pandemic, only one question the UK Covid Inquiry should be asking. Did the lockdowns work? Were the enormities we suffered – the ruined educations, the bankruptcies, the missed cancer screenings, the mental illnesses – justified by a significantly reduced death rate? Did the policy of confining people to their homes save more people than it killed? And if so, how many more?

    Before the first evidence session last week, the lawyers and officials running the inquiry had already worked their leisurely way through around £100 million. By way of contrast, during the 18 months since Baroness Hallett was first appointed as chair, Sweden opened and concluded its official investigations, digested the results and moved on.

    The inefficiency of the British process vis-à-vis the Swedish one is telling. The pandemic made two things pitilessly clear about this country. First, our standing bureaucracies are useless; second, however badly officials perform, politicians always get the blame. Recall, for example, how the repeated failures of NHS procurement and Public Health England were attributed, with a neat semantic sidestep, to “the government”.

    It already seems clear that the inquiry, which finally creaked and rattled into life on Tuesday, is taking a similar approach. That, though, is not the worst of it. The worst of it is that, by framing the investigation as, in effect, “did these useless politicians prepare properly?” Lady Hallett and her team are missing the far bigger issue of whether non-pharmaceutical interventions were the right policy tool.

    This matters because, sooner or later, there will be another pandemic, and the conclusions of this inquiry will shape our response to it. Just as, after the Iraq war, the Civil Service became obsessed with being Chilcott-compliant, now it will fret about being Hallett-compliant.

    There is an urgent need to cross-examine the idea of lockdown and its associated restrictions. How did the models on which the closures were based compare to real-world data? Did skewed incentives push officials into excessive authoritarianism? Did scientists’ predictions match the actual development of the disease? Did facemasks work? Did closing schools make a difference? Were we right to insist on vaccinating young people who had already acquired natural immunity?

    All these questions need to be properly tested. I have my hunches, as I’m sure you do. But one thing I learned writing columns about Covid is that, on many of the above questions, it is possible to find respectable, good-faith academic studies coming to diametrically opposed conclusions.

    That is why we need proper hearings, where the SAGE advisors and leading epidemiologists are closely questioned. Otherwise, we risk going into the next panic with a policy whose efficacy has been assumed rather than demonstrated.
    Sadly, the opportunity looks like it will be lost. That much became apparent when the first batch of questions – several of them polemical rather than interrogative – was sent to ministers.

    Why were facemasks not mandated from the start? Were social distancing rules strict enough? Why did Boris Johnson meet Evgeny Lebedev? (I’m going to take a wild guess here and go with “because there was an pandemic on, and he was a newspaper proprietor.”) Did the PM really use the phrase “let the bodies pile high”?

    These are questions one expects from Piers Morgan or Beth Rigby, not from a former Court of Appeal judge. It appears that the inquiry is going to turn into a prolonged version of one of those imbecilic Downing Street briefings when, instead of asking about the nature of the disease or the efficacy of the responses, broadcasters lined up with babyish gotchas along the lines of “Aha! But haven’t you just contradicted your Minister for Widgets?”

    We learned last week that witnesses to the inquiry, as well as staff, will be required to take lateral flow tests. At first, I thought the report was a spoof. Covid-19 is an endemic disease, for heaven’s sake. Testing for it makes no more sense than testing for measles. Yet the inquiry solemnly tells us: “Though the UK government no longer requires people to self-isolate if they test positive for Covid-19, we are asking those who test positive to stay away from the hearings.”

    There is a reason the UK Government, along with every other government in the world, dropped the self-isolation rule. The coronavirus has spread through the population, becoming milder in the process. It will come back every winter, along with the Spanish Flu virus, the Asian Flu virus, and hundreds of other rhinoviruses, adenoviruses and, indeed, coronaviruses that we now call “colds”.

    Yet the people running the inquiry believe – or at least affect to believe – that it must be treated differently from other diseases. Such people, I put it to you, are unlikely to spend much time exploring the possibility that the restrictions were excessive.

    Sure enough, proceedings on the first day were farcical. The counsel representing the bereaved families wondered whether NHS underfunding had contributed to the crisis (never mind that spending on the NHS had been rising). The inquiry’s chief lawyer, Hugo Keith KC, seemed to suggest that ministers’ focus on Brexit had distracted them from working out a pandemic strategy.

    Never mind the evidence that things would have been worse without no-deal contingency planning. The fact is that we had a pandemic strategy. That strategy had been worked out in detail in cooler-headed times, and was based on a controlled spread of such a virus until enough of us had acquired natural immunity. The real question is why we were panicked out of following it.

    Sweden, which borrowed Britain’s pandemic plan and then stuck to it, ended up with one of the lowest excess-mortality rates – according to an extrapolation from OECD data, the lowest rate – in the developed world in 2020 and 2021.

    Naturally, the inquiry has thus far displayed not the slightest interest in Sweden. Instead, it asks Johnson whether he had considered “taking more stringent measures in response to Covid-19 such as those seen in, for example, Taiwan, Singapore, New Zealand etc?” I think we can all see where this is headed.

    Regular readers will know that I always thought the closures unjustified. I loathed the way the burden of proof was reversed, so that those of us who opposed the unprecedented policy of house arrest were expected to show that our approach wasn’t dangerous. Nothing I have learned since has changed my mind. [Ditto climate change: “Show the proof it’s not happening,” they say.]

    Then again, maybe I am missing something. Maybe the alternatives would have been worse. Maybe letting exams go ahead, or letting people sit on park benches, or taking the padlocks off playgrounds, would have had some monstrous impact. If so, then let’s hear why – because we sure as hell never heard any serious argument for these policies at the time.

    The experts need to prove their case. Brandishing their credentials doesn’t work any more. We heard them contradict themselves over herd immunity, then over facemasks. We watched Neil Ferguson, whose work was so influential in encouraging ministers to impose lockdown on the rest of us, break the rules to pursue an affair. We read the letter by 1,288 epidemiologists and public health officials saying that, although everyone must stay home, it was different if they felt like going out to join a Black Lives Matter protest.

    Boris Johnson called the Privileges Committee a kangaroo court. I won’t say the same of the UK Covid Inquiry, not least because it lacks the two very real advantages of that type of tribunal, namely speed and economy. But it does look horribly as if it has reached its verdict before the cross-examinations begin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/17/the-covid-inquirys-verdict-already-seems-to-be-in-we-should/

      1. BTL:
        David Richards
        Scenario 1:- Pre-Covid
        88 year old grandmother, heart problems, osteoporosis etc. Frail and on loads of medications and sometimes needs oxygen. Gets flu in winter ( as many do). In bed for a week. Doctor advises hospital as it is bad. Gets pneumonia, dies. Family reaction:-
        “Oh well, it’s very sad but she was old and frail and she had a good innings. At least we know she is at peace and not suffering anymore.”

        Scenario 2:- Covid Year
        Same 88 year old grandmother with same conditions. Gets Covid, hospitalised, dies. Family reacts thus:-
        “We feel cheated. Grandma was old and had some health issues but she was a strong woman and would have probably gone on for a few more years. It’s not fair. The government should have done more.”

        Scenario 2 is the direction the enquiry will go because no one wants to accept that pneumonic pandemics happen and people, especially the elderly and vulnerable, will die.

        1. 373557+ up ticks,

          Afternoon WS,

          Big brown envelopes, ego expansion, lies,deceit & treachery are ALL practised and are rife within the political fraternity.

          To believe it to be NOT SO really is gross stupidity.

          Grandma / granddad were far from being the only premature
          casualties, and will NOT be in regards to the future for a long,long time.

      3. 373557+ up ticks,

        Morning FM,

        There will be many looking at it that way.

        Have a half day of mourning for the
        VICTIMS of what could be corporate manslaughter or worse, keep the party name at the forefront in all things.

        If the enquiry go’s on any length of time
        our incoming immigrants, and support for them & the Ukraine funding will suffer.

        WE WANT ANSWERS BEFORE ANYMORE “government” business / treachery.

    2. Ferguson has been so completely wrong in the past I have no idea why anyone approached him this time around.

      Yes, you get a worst case, best case and averaged most likely but what would happen after lockdown was lifted was so obvious anyone would get it. As soon as the political class said ‘Christmas is exempt’ it was obviously not serious – and nor were they.

  40. I have a halo shaped bruise with a red dot in the middle. Anyone know what it is?

          1. Be aware of how you feel. A tick bite, if it is that, causes Lyme Disease and also Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever- unlikely in the UK, I would hope. However, my ex got the latter in NC and felt very ill, nauseous, dizzy and generally weird. He ended up in the ER being pumped full of antibiotics and was on them for 6 weeks afterwards.

          2. I have notified the surgery and asked for a blood test and monitoring.

            Thanks for the info.

    2. Had to remove 2 ticks from MoH yesterday. Tiny ones but even so. You been out in the woods or fields recently?

        1. If it is a tick, do not try to remove it with tweezers or scratch it out.
          Ideally get a special tick remover from the chemist and follow the instructions; It should come out easily

          4. I suppose the first question is ‘does it sting when you press on it’. Is there a bump in your skin where the spot is? Is it weeping at all? Does it itch? How do you feel? Utterly unaffected? Woozy?

      2. Be careful it isn’t a symptom of Lyme’s disease, if it is a tick. Don’t wish to alarm you but it may be worth getting it checked out sooner rather than later.

        Edit: have scrolled down and seen other responses (when will i ever learn??) and am glad to learn you are on the case.

        1. Get to a doctor. Unless you are treated promptly Lyme’s disease sets in chronically, can last for years

          with unpleasant effects.

    1. The arrogance of Shantanu Rajawat’s response to this outrageous waste of money is breathtaking: “Important day-to-day services are not impacted by new community initiatives like this. Due to our prudent financial management over many years, Hounslow is in a relatively strong position among local authorities …. “.

      Presumably their ‘relatively strong’ position would have been that much stronger had £50,000 not been wasted on this virtue-signalling nonsense.

    2. Wouldn’t the money have been better spent on buying condoms to stop homosexuals getting and passing on infectious STDs?

    3. And of course, council tax will soar next year.

      What we could really do with is some painters wandering across it and ‘accidentally’ spilling a load of paint in a particular pattern.

  42. Good morning ,

    Tweet
    See new Tweets
    Conversation
    Active Patriot
    @ActivePatriotUK
    I’m in Dover reporting on the ILLEGAL INVASION of our country

    1,032 migrants in 20 BOATS have been brought in to Dover in the last 3 days

    15th June (172-3 boats)
    16th June (486-10 boats)
    17th June (374-7 boats)

    100s more are crossing TODAY

    This is by far the BIGGEST threat to our country

    THIS GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO WAKE THE FUCK UP FAST

    #StopTheInvasion
    #StopTheBoats https://twitter.com/ActivePatriotUK/status/1670383718941245441

    2. Government needs to wake up? Wake up? Good grief! How dim is that person! The state *wants* this!

    1. Look up Goma. It’s been back and forth against the ‘Democratic Republic of the Congo’ – a communist dictatorship – for nearly a decade now. We don’t get a single whiff of that in the press. You really have to look for it.

        1. It was the M23 who trashed the classroom. Though they probably subscribe to boko haram as well.

    2. When your bedroom door is shut with a Do not disturb notice “I’m doing my homework” can now be interpreted as a euphemism.🤔

    3. Young children will find all this out for themselves at their own pace – they do not need to be taught this stuff. Teachers should be educating children, not subverting them.

    4. All created and pushed thanks to tax payers cash. This isn’t from private funds. These ‘charities’ are solely funded by tax payers cash.

      When the state says there is nowhere to cut, there is. Here. And countless thousand other places.

  46. No civilised country should have hosepipe bans. 15 June 2023.

    But rationing also meets the new spirit of the age – where we are encouraged to believe that it is somehow good and moral to limit our usage of energy and water, rather than seeing a plentiful supply of each as essential to a modern, civilised society.

    Indeed, this mantra has become a handy excuse for companies and governments. Why invest in new reservoirs and other infrastructure when you can control demand by bleating about water shortages and climate change, imposing restrictions in the knowledge that your customers will just have to lump it? No significant new reservoirs have been built in England in the past 30 years.

    This just exemplifies the UK’s transition to a Third World sh*thole. The remarkable thing about it is that it has taken only twenty years!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/18/no-civilised-country-should-have-hosepipe-bans/

      1. About 200 ferried over yesterday. It is an invasion, pushed by the enemy within out of revenge.

    2. Our water management is controlled by DEFRA, who refuse to diverge from EU regulation. Water companies have asked to build reservoirs. DEFRA refuse. DEFRA – through various quangos – are also responsible for sewage in rivers (again, the fault of refusing to diverge from Eu rules) . Same for dredging to improve flow rate.

      Sadly, it comes down to the state refusing to take advantage of brexit and believing our rechaining is only a matter of time.

      1. It all sums up as DEFRA – not fit for purpose. Wake up UK Govt and disband this bunch of useless clots. Pensions and all.

    4. Permission for new reservoirs has been refused. It’s part of the plan, to keep water short – as though it’s a scarce resource in Britain!

      1. All to adhere to EU rules. The state has to be asked ‘why?’ Why are we still adhereing to damaging and backward EU policy when we don’t have to?

        1. I believe it was originally introduced because of events in Spain but then became EU wide. Thick shits.

    5. What, finally, will stir the people to take action against our enemy, the government and its agents?

      Shortages of food are being planned, all in the names of Climate Change or nitrogen overuse. The elites openly discuss that meat and dairy products will have to be rationed for the populace or done away with entirely – the Irish government demand that 200,000 cows be culled and here the government is promoting early retirement for farmers and re-wilding of good agricultural land: and that’s without covering good land with solar panels as I saw on my way to Salisbury last week.
      After food it has to be water that is rationed with some excuse or other; perhaps a shortage of chemicals for the purification process? Destroying numerous treatment plants would be rather obvious, don’t you think?

        1. …and planned to completely surround our little Mid-Suffolk village, currently in the middle of food-producing arable land.

          So many people allied to CARE Suffolk have signed objections – including me, the council may just be aware of the strength of feeling.

  48. With all the waffle over Ukraine, folk forget this little country and it’s nigh ten year civil war: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/11/15/hundreds-flee-as-congos-m23-rebels-near-key-city-of-goma

    Now, again, why does the state not arm one side here? Is it because it’s a TPLAC? Or is it because Ukraine is horribly corrupt, with masses of US cash invested in it? Is it because the EU is desperate to expand, like cancer and Ukraine is the next victim?

    The political arrogance around Ukraine is awful. The state lies to us by pushing a goodies and baddies narrative that simply isn’t true.

    3. “ Thousands of people have been displaced in the volatile eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as fighting between the army and M23 rebels moved close to the key city of Goma, an army spokesman has said”.

      I’m sure some leftie somewhere will son begging to point out our duty to welcome and house all those displaced and now homeless.

  49. Bugger!
    S@H has just tripped the main circuit breaker!

    Not had a bad morning’s work! With more rain forecast I’ve been putting the water tank I use for storing the rain off the larger shed roof back in place.
    It had compressed the soil under the weight of the water, so I’ve added more soil to level it off and put some concrete slabs I’ve acquired down to spread the weight a bit more.
    Because the position of the tank has been changed slightly, I’ve also put a bracket in to support the rain pipe.

      1. Three actually.
        The yard shed, now taken over by S@H
        The slightly older small shed, bought as a place to store my tools
        Then the larger shed, over twice the size of the smaller shed, but still too bloody small, that I spent a couple of years building myself!

          4. It’s a guinea pig/hedgehog hutch. There isn’t room in our garden for a people hutch.

  51. First rain for over a month, wonderful, extra red wine at lunchtime to celebrate.

    2. Please send some our way, forecast thunder and downpours this afternoon but not a drop and decidedly stuffy 29C inside.

  52. First rain for over a month, wonderful, extra red wine at lunchtime to celebrate.

  53. Yay! Zippedy Doo Dah!!!!
    Ten minutes after I sent my snottogram, I had a phone call from the van driver on his way to collect the summerhouse. As he was only 15 minutes away and had come from Norwich, I don’t think it was the eloquence of my email that triggered action.
    Apparently yesterday was his day off, but nobody had realised.

  54. OT – the 18 June commemoration was very moving. About 60 people – no one under 65 (apart from 2 children). The Maire – who is a brilliant chap – spoke very well; but he always does. He said that he remembered, as a child, sitting on his father’s shoulders to see de Gaulle drive past.
    A councillor read the famous “appel” very well – clearly, with the right pauses. The Marseillaise; dipping of flags, laying of wreath….then some very nice nibbles and a glass or two of fizz. Maire spoke to every individual personally, appreciated our presence (as the only non French), talked of Churchill (who made deputy Maire of Cap d’Ail).

    There was a tear in either eye. Say what you will about yer French, they do do these things very well, even down to the blue-blanc-rouge paper napkins!.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7df797ee41c98b6a3e181a70ff30a4b1ef1d4ba61cd39631606cd3e54260615f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/466448078446b70ead01e87f94ad1bc1dcadb00c5988404c22ea5668f137531f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07c1f94277829d904a0210bf277afd924fe028606a135ab7313c617c8b11739a.jpg

      2. I’ve had hardly any appetite of late but I am going to make my husband a steak with salad and little spuds- for Fathers’ Day. I shall try and manage some steak and salad but no spuds.

    6. How many floors up are you? I love the style of the balcony, like an inset room.

      1. Three. I have many photos…….!!!

        We lived in this block from 2009 to 2011. Know lots of other permanent residents.

  56. I would sooner they debated which of their number was to be decimated Roman cohort style.

      1. Probably the Westmonsters but I’d decimate the lot – both pestilent houses.

  57. Four years ago almost to the day, the new owner of this barge found that having had the boat surveyed in a dry dock, workmen had repaired a lock reducing its width so the boat could no longer travel through the lock and back to Bristol. I met the new owner yesterday and asked him who had to pay for the crane? “Me he replied” What did it cost to hire? “£3,500” And the cost of the low-loader transport?: “Over £1,000.”

    BOAT stands for Bung Out Another Thousand!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19f9ca7fba4b500a4c47a8f03f911a044c17573a976b358c891a1f9a3c72268f.jpg

  58. I have a John Lewis Washer/Condenser Dryer. Out of warranty obvs. I have been getting error messages on the Condenser cycle. The error messages are coded and the code says the water pressure supplied to Phizzee’s Palace is not high enough for it to function.

    Who do i sue?

    1. Not Sue. Your water company? Thames Water experiment with water pressure to see just how low they can get away with it. My building has to have pumps, otherwise there are times when the water supply only reaches the fist two floors and we have ten.

      1. I’m going to bin the washing machine to save water and electricity to save the planet. From now on i am going to buy disposable clothes which as it happens contributes to global warming but it will be someone elses problem !

        1. You should wear your clothes under the shower. The correct procedure for someone who wishes to save the planet!

          4. Then take them off and do what the French do. Take a shit. That is what the big toe is for after all. Saves a flush !

        2. I bet you are too young to remember the era of paper panties! I bought some once when going youth hosteling in the Highlands. Bloody useless.

  59. Humble apologies…the Simon Heffer article I put up this morning had a large chunk missing. I know not how or why this happened. However, here is the unexpurgated version:

    We should be used by now to one crackpot environmentalist idea after another being imposed upon us, but they retain the power to create outrage. We learned last week that a tenth of smart meters in British homes, or around three million of them, are faulty. Technology is not, it seems, as wonderful as those who inflict it on us – in this case, politicians virtue-signalling to cranks oblivious to the economic realities that keep families, businesses and the country solvent – like to pretend.

    And as with many green fantasies, there is incompetence. The Government is way behind its target of getting these malfunctioning meters into 80 per cent of homes by 2025, not least because of a shortage of installers. And those who do install are accused of prioritising quantity over quality, hence so many going haywire.

    My objection to such things is not based on born-again luddism, but on repeated evidence of supposedly planet-saving ideas being profoundly economically destructive: and smart meters are only a small foretaste of the horror to come. On Friday, we reported that because of the Government’s unthinking obsession with banning all new oil boilers, people in rural households – those of us living nowhere near the gas grid – would, if forced instead to use heat pumps, suffer a 70 per cent rise in their energy bills.

    At a time when many people are struggling to feed their families thanks to the huge rise in inflation, caused partly by the insane pumping of money into the economy during the pandemic and a too-slow rise in interest rates after it, the idea of the cost of keeping warm rocketing by more than two-thirds should, if you will forgive the expression, chill the blood.

    But grinding poverty is, so far as ministers are concerned, a price worth paying for the cult of net zero. Few independent experts pretend that either solar power or wind power are remotely adequate for the needs of heating and powering a country of approaching 70 million people. We are facing this serious crisis because of the demented opposition to nuclear power that has taken root in the last 20 years – a bacillus that entered the Conservative Party’s bloodstream with the leadership of Dave Cameron – and a chronic determination to make promises about improving our environmental record that would undermine the economy of any advanced country that relies on the generation of electricity, the heating of buildings and water and, of course, on moving people and goods around from A to B.

    Perhaps some time in the 2030s ministers will be deputed not only to tell us to brush our teeth in the dark – as the late Patrick Jenkin famously did in the 1973-74 energy crisis – but to put on an extra jumper or two, and to snuggle up with other humans or, failing that, domestic pets as hot water bottles. We could collect brushwood for camp fires to do our cooking and around which to huddle to keep warm, at least until the carbon-emissions fascists catch up with us.

    The fetish of net zero, and the growing deference to environmental activist groups (who have now moved on from gluing themselves to roads and climbing up motorway gantries to protesting in the luxury of Glyndebourne, where they unleashed a presumably biodegradable confetti bomb during a Poulenc opera on Thursday), seems to have paralysed our rulers into inaction.

    This has to stop, because otherwise there will be mounting public outrage and economic collapse as we give up even attempting to compete with, among others, the rampantly-polluting Chinese.

    The Government plans to introduce 600,000 heat pumps a year – for the moment by consent – but has no plans of what to do in households where this is entirely impractical. As Sir Bill Wiggin, the MP for North Herefordshire, has pointed out, it’s not just detachment from the gas grid that requires many rural households to be heated by oil, but the fact that numerous properties in such areas are listed buildings. Without destroying part of their protected fabric, these often cannot accommodate these pumps.

    And above all there is the expense: the average oil boiler costs £2,500, the average heat pump £13,000, according to the Energy and Utilities Alliance. In a depressing continuation of the Government’s desire to intervene and spend money recklessly, it offers grants of between £5,000 and £6,000 to those wishing to install such pumps – though the public are so uninterested in this pointless scheme that millions set aside for subsidies are being handed back to the Treasury. Will ministers offer, in perpetuity, grants to cushion the running costs too? What would that do to Britain’s already suffocating tax burden?

    Rishi Sunak has in other respects shown himself willing to depart from the ill-considered policies of his predecessors, and as a matter of urgency he should think again about his environmental policy. The boiler ban after 2026 must go: it is an outrageous interference in domestic life, and when thousands of voters in the Tory heartland find they are forced to buy ruinously expensive heat pumps, they will revolt accordingly.

    And, for similar reasons, Mr Sunak should delay indefinitely the ban from 2030 on selling new non-electric cars, whose economic and practical damage he cannot go on ignoring – whether because of the lack of enough electricity to run them, the slowness of charging them, the destruction caused by lithium mining or even the potential collapse of multi-storey car parks under the vast weight of electric cars. God knows, his party needs a re-launch and to cheer up people who think it inhabits a parallel universe. What better place to start than by ditching all this absurdity, and announcing a new nuclear programme?

  60. Shock!!!

    Our local Sainsbury’s Petrol station is selling Diesel at the exact same price as Petrol i.e 143.9 pence per litre!

    1. Our local garage has the diesel 1p cheaper than petrol now. It always used to be cheaper until a few years ago and then the price difference was 20p fairly recently.

      1. Didn’t the Government increase the tax on diesel, citing the higher MPG as justification?

    1. Mine was “you can cry as long as you like, we will simply ignore you”. It worked – after a while.

    2. Me – 2, and boy did I get it.

      Quite often for any incorrect behaviour – 6 of the best across the bare backside with a riding switch.

      It hasn’t turned me into any sort of Sado-Masochist.

    4. We were in Tripoli at the time and as a child I was driving my parents mad on a car journey with my whinging and they told me that if I didn’t stop they would give me something to cry for.

      I didn’t so they did.

      Thereafter every time we were driving on the same bit of road I always made a point of pointing out the landmark where I was given something to cry for when my kind-hearted father was compelled by my mother to stop the car so that she could appropriately give me the mother of all smacked bottoms.

      Which raises the question for Nottlers. Who was the more strict of your parents? In my case and in Caroline’s it was the mother. The second question for Nottlers with their own children – was the mother or father more strict?

      And finally any guesses as to whether it was Caroline or I who was stricter with Christo and Henry?

      1. As teachers you should accept that it is wrong to hit children, except possibly in self-defence.

        1. Ridiculous notion, Tim.

          Have you never heard, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.”?

          1. I totally disagree. If I had to resort to hitting a child I would think I wasn’t doing my job properly. Corporal punishment should be a last resort.

          3. Yes – a last resort but boundaries have to be set as soon as they are breached

        2. Maybe but they’ve presided over the ruin of education in this country – now they’re teaching children masturbation techniques.

        3. Maybe but they’ve presided over the ruin of education in this country – now they’re teaching children masturbation techniques.

      2. My mother was widowed when I was four so she was the strict one. I guess you were less strict than Caroline – I don’t think she’d stand for any nonsense!

    5. My mum used to say the second one…….. “I’ll give you something to cry for.”…….

    6. 3: Why are you crying?
      What is wrong?

      Yes, I can fix that but first please accept this chocolate/boiled sweet/bag of crisps. (munching, silence, now to stop the bleeding, find a dock leaf, call an ambulance etc)

      1. Tooth-rotters! I don’t recall my mother ever buying me sweets, and certainly not crisps. If I wanted sweets i had to use my own pocket money.

    1. The Americans have no wish to see this war end! They will fight to the last Ukie!

      2. Too much US cash (the Bidens?) invested in Ukraine?

        They will fight to the last Ukie and then they will start on other nations’ indigenous sons and daughters.

    1. They were just waiting to cross when Rishi wasn’t looking, so those figures don’t count

        1. Do you know, I was thinking that. A Boat Safety Examiner told me I could accommodate 12 persons on Board. (12 X £4000 =£48,000) Not bad for two days work and a lot safer than a rubber dinghy!

    2. He meant ‘stop people finding out about it.’ He didn’t lie, but his speeches just remove the words he doesn’t think will be popular.

    3. We should cut out the traffickers. Charge those on the beaches £4000 and put them on a nice safe ferry (2,375 x £4000 (the going rate I believe) is almost £1 million into the Treasury’s coffers. The RNLI & HM Coast Guard could stand down and we’d save those costs too!!

      Win -Win (lose anyway)

    4. Those sort of numbers require an extra 2 GPs (who’ll only take 7 years to train……)

  65. 373557+ up ticks,

    These long term killer seeds have been well and truly sown the sane peoples must have answers, and fast, as to why the covid campaign was backed up by lies and deceit plus a large fear element, isolating many & leaving them to die a lonely death.

    May one ask why is it that the repercussions of covid will be suffered for, in some cases, decades, yet the enquiry could very well have a “not a lot to see here ” short lifespan ?

    https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1670232115571507200?s=20

  66. Conspiracy theories are festering in Britain – and our politicians are making it worse. 18 june 2023.

    Last week, there was a splurge of headlines about an opinion poll jointly commissioned by the BBC and King’s College London. Its respondents were asked about a range of common conspiracy theories, from the idea that the pandemic was a hoax to the “great replacement” theory, whose advocates claim that white Europeans and Americans are deliberately being superseded by non-white migrants. The results were nothing if not consistent: for each of the stories, around 10% of people agreed that it was “definitely true”, with another 20% or so ticking the box labelled “probably true”.

    Of course all those people landing in boats and the sudden increase in the number of black faces in my local Supermarket are all in my imagination.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/18/conspiracy-theories-britain-politicians

    1. At this rate there wont be enough machetes to go round.
      They will have to make do with broom handles.

      1. Unless we get rid of Dopey Joe ASAP, his minions are on course for a nuclear WW3 . . .

        Where are assassins when you need them?

  70. A dreadful Double Bogey Six today.

    Wordle 729 6/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Another birdie here.
      Wordle 729 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Weird one, wasn’t it?

      Wordle 729 4/6

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

      1. That would only happen if ‘Teacher’ refuses to call the self-identified cat ‘Tibbles.’

      2. He/she/it obviously falls into the trap that ‘Gender’ can be applied to your sexuality. Gender is purely a grammatical construct used in many European Languages and there are generally 3 types, Male, Female and Neuter.

        In English this normally only applies to ships and vehicles, However, in English, everything else relies upon you sex at birth, you are either mail or femail – nothing else.

          2. However, in English, everything else relies upon you sex at birth, you are either mail or femail

            Clearer?

    4. Imagine if this were repeated up and down the land. Just imagine. Good for them.

    6. I sent this to the school:-

      You will, no doubt, already have received numerous communications about the disgusting behaviour and attitude of one of your members of staff recently posted in a recording on Twitter.
      Her blustering and bullying attitude is bad enough, but for her to try to bully the pupils into remaining silent over their disagreement with her insane political ideas should be totally unacceptable in ANY education system or establishment that wishes to promote true independent thought.
      Well done to the pupils for standing up to her.

    1. Thank you for that Neil. I don’t like the message but it’s refreshing to hear it out there!

    2. “Philanthopath” is a good word.
      So is “cackistocracy” – government by the worst in society.

      I have been wondering about the same thing. It’s not just who’s going to look after the elites’ basic needs and keep them in the luxury to which they have become accustomed either. If they enslave the world, they will stifle innovation and invention.
      Should they manage their transhuman slavery (which I don’t think they will), I don’t believe they would last more than a generation before it would all fall apart, because some problem would crop up that would require the wit of free men to solve.

      Perhaps the slavery is only designed to de-industrialise the West and allow the East to have its day. But most (not all, but most) of innovation in the last millennium has come from men of European origin. Our combination of a hierarchical society that allows relative freedom, Christian free will and a reasonably high IQ isn’t replicated anywhere else. So where is the innovation going to come from when the white minority (currently only 8%) disappears? Are the lizard elite really stupid enough to believe that that doesn’t matter?

        1. Poison, stab, shoot, you dare not go to sleep – you won’t wake up. Be afraid, be VERY afraid!.

        2. You won’t be getting a job as personal bodyguard to the lizards any time soon…!

  73. London Mayor Sadiq Khan orders civil servants not to say ‘illegal migrants’

    Thanks to Sadiq Khan, London has become infested with crime. A few years ago, Somali parents in London were sending their kids back to Africa because they said it was safer than London. Although Somalia has suffered a spate of jihad terror attacks and is the home of the jihad terror group al-Shabaab, these parents still think it is safer for their children than London.

    Sadiq Khan’s London has long been a hotbed of crime. Jihad preachers speak and recruit freely. An Islamic State jihadist “tried to create jihadist child army in east London.”

    The importation of Muslim migrants from countries plagued with jihad warfare is turning Western cities into mirror images of countries that are jihadi hotspots. And it isn’t just London: Sweden had also become so violent that migrants started considering moving back to their own war-torn homelands. Yet earlier in June, Khan declared that “London needs more migrants.” And now, rather than call illegal migrants what they are, Khan is ordering civil servants, fascist style, to lie. They are not to use the term “illegal migrants,” but instead call them “undocumented” migrants or people “with insecure immigration status.” Illegal migration, threats to national security, the “Islamophobia” subterfuge and wokeism are working together to subvert Western countries.

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2023/06/london-mayor-sadiq-khan-orders-civil-servants-not-to-say-illegal-migrants

        1. She feels like she’s in her own country – yes only cleaner (for the moment)

          1. I think you’ll find she comes from a very wealthy family background in Pakistan and probably doesn’t get to see much of the seedier side of her own country.

  74. Fathers’ Day luncheon at the Lost Arc in Rhayader courtesy of wife and daughter. As we finished, a huge rainstorm started, thunder and lightening, the lot. I was expecting the Arc to be afloat at any moment.
    I let my daughter drive us home. It was as dry as a bone there, 10 miles down the road.
    Over lunch I happened to mention my attempts at solving Wordle had been rather tricky and on mentioning the answer the bloke at the next table turned round and said in a loud voice please! I haven’t done it yet.

    1. Honestly, people have no shame these days. Time was when he would have been embarrassed to admit to earwigging on the conversation at the next table!

  75. A report published in 2019 and re-emphasised in 2023 recommends that by 2030 we will not be permitted to eat meat or dairy products, we will be limited to three items of new clothing per year and one aeroplane flight every three years. It will start in countries that “consume the most.”

    Published in 2019, ‘The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World’ report sets out targets for cities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as consistent with the 2015 Paris Agreement ambitions. What this report aims to do is quantify and then suggest ways for city “leaders” to reduce consumption-based emissions. In other words, reduce what you and I consume be it food, clothes or travel etc.

    The place to start, a press release stated, is with those who consume the most and “consumption-based emissions must be cut by at least 50% by 2030.”

    The report outlines six sectors where the world’s cities can take “rapid action to address consumption-based emissions”: food, construction, clothing, vehicles, aviation, and electronics. https://expose-news.com/2023/06/18/by-2030-you-will-be-allowed-only-three/

        1. I probably have enough to see me through to the end of my days of most items.

      4. I think the wartime clothes ration, although not generous, was better than that!

    2. While I still have breath I’ll continue to eat what i want and travel where I want.

  76. Thundering out there now – Got a bit more of the hedge cut and and it was very muggy while I was clearing up. Waiting to see if we get some rain and I can skip the watering.

  77. Nicola Sturgeon: ‘I have done nothing wrong’. 18 June 2023.

    “I know I am a public figure – I accept what comes with that. But I’m also a human being that is entitled to a bit of privacy.”

    Asked if she had considered stepping back from the SNP, Ms Sturgeon added: “I have done nothing wrong and that is the only thing I am going to assert today.”

    Nothing right either!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/18/nicola-sturgeon-speaks-home-snp-arrest/

  78. ISIS jihadis killed at least 39 children and two adults in a massacre at a school in Uganda.

    Most of the students were burnt alive in their beds or hacked to death with machetes during the horrifying raid on Friday night.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22728284/uganda-school-pupils-burned-alive-hacked-machetes-isis-jihadis/

    Moh says not everyone is nice , people fib . Britain is being blackmailed by do gooders into accepting people WHO MIGHT NOT LIKE US.

    I also think the same way . Britain is being destabilised .

    The sight of the Trooping the Colour yesterday .. has proved now that all we have left is pomp and circumstance .. and no backbone , no thrust left .. we are a country run by the blob .. who bow to diversity .

    I am blooming delighted that the youngest princeling , the King’s grandson , used a Naval salute ..I hope that young lad grows up with humour , muscle and commonsense , and no playboy leanings . I won’t be around to view his adulthood , but young Louis is a bright spark.

    1. A point that I often make is that the few successful islamic attacks in the UK is evidenced by our politicians that muslim maniacs are rather sparse and that we shouldn’t worry too much. The truth is that there would be a lot more if we stop spending £millions on security and this can be seen by the slaughter across the globe carried out in the name of the Prophet. 601 have been killed in these attacks in the last 30 days, many against other muslims. Another case of our leaders ignoring reality. https://thereligionofpeace.com/

        2. It is true that once you could go from Calcutta to London by bus…because then the world’s longest road was from Calcutta to London.
          And this route used to walk as well.
          Not Indian or English but Sydney Albert Tour and Travels Company started this service.
          Lasted almost 25 years from early 1950s.
          Had to shut it down later for some reason.
          The rent was just from 85 pounds to 145 pounds.
          Starting from Kolkata to Banaras, Allahabad, Agra, Delhi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Kabul Kandhar, Tehran, Istanbul to Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Vienna to West Germany and Belgium, this bus used to reach London.
          During this time, it used to run about 20300 km and crossed 11 countries.”

          Pravesh Chhetri

          There is a book on Amazon “The Magic Bus On The Hippie Trail 2009 by Rory Mclean….also anyone interested in travels….an amazing chap Rory Stewart who took a 2yr walk across Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India and Nepal and in 2010 became an MP briefly Interesting fellow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rory_Stewart An interesting side note he tutored Princes Harry & William in the summers and after one meeting of the Bullingdon Club resigned after seeing how the members behaved !

          Copied and pasted off F/B

          3. I met a guy recently (same age as me), currently living on a Canal Boat, who said that in the early seventies he and a friend sold their LP collections and raised £300 and purchased an old Thomas Cook tour bus that they painted (Psychedelic colours) and drove to India via Afghanistan, where he stayed and lived in a beach hut for the next 20 or so years….

    2. Probably down to his mother’s genes, the first of a non-royal, non-aristocratic origin and therefore untainted by marriage too close to the blood line.

    3. What do you mean, might not like us? They HATE us; we’re kuffars and thus lower than cattle. I see Woke Wills has claimed he will end homelessness. Is he going to put the rough sleepers up in his many castles and palaces? While the plight of the homeless, many of whom are ex-servicemen, is a worthy cause, it’s a political one and therefore the royal family should keep stum. If they want to do something they can warn and advise.

  79. Well, it’s gone rather dark, we’ve had a rather desultory spattering of raindrops and, before I came in from up the “garden”, I may have heard some distant rumbling.
    But so far not a lot happening locally!

    Ah!, Glanced out the window before hitting SEND and it has started chucking it down!

      2. Haven’t planned that far yet.
        Though I do have some seed grown quince plants and wild strawberries along a small part of the bottom of the upper wall and some legacy sweet peas that somehow survived the building of the lower wall.

    2. The dogs kept me awake half the night, barking. The thunder didn’t help me sleep, either 🙂 Torrential rain again, leaving lots of debris blocking the gutters.

      1. We had some rumbles of thunder and enough rain to avoid doing the watering, but not really very much.

  80. A lady in her mid seventies, robust but not in particularly good health, is admitted to a large hospital for tests.

    Her inflammatory ‘markers’ are high, so antibiotics are administered. Lady remains in hospital in excess of two weeks, but her marker score does not fall.

    Her son happens to mention this in social conversation with a foreign Doctor. The Doc explains that ‘markers’ can detect infection AND inflammation; that includes auto-immune conditions and now the diagnosis has changed 180º and surgery will be necessary. Weeks lost, NHS funds wasted, clue to diagnosis provided by someone who does not work for the hospital and who was just trying to explain a linguistic detail. Let’s all clap together.

  81. Just back from another swim. Sea = very agreeable. AND (a huge hurrah) I climbed the 154 steps UP the cliff without stopping…!!! That makes 1,848 so far. And tomorrow is another day….

    Signing off now. A very happy and memorable day for all sorts of reasons.

    A demain

    1. What HAVE you been reading? Prevening:

      New Word Suggestion. The ambiguous period between afternoon and evening. Too early to be evening, too late to be afternoon. Originally used by Sheldon Cooper in an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

      1. MOH used to be a big fan of The Big Bang Theory, me not so much. I ended up watching a lot of it, though.

  83. Overcast here , murky , no rain , no sign of rain and feeling quite chilly. Brrr 19c , drop of 10c.

    No sign of a storm , was a very warm sticky night though.

    No 2 son said there were thunderstorms in Worthing .

    Son no 1 ran in a 10k race this morning , it was an off road hilly race through some lovely countryside , he did very well 46 minutes 9 seconds , position 18th .

    Yesterday he ran the Weymouth 5k and his timing was 19.58 minutes .. a flat race , position 10th I think..

    Why I am saying this is because in a year he has become very fit , lost 4 stone , and has not drunk a drop of booze for a year. … aged 54!

        1. Mu mum had my brother at 22 and me at 24. She will be 80 in December. I was an old mum – 36 and 37. I’m so lucky to have had a young mum (of course, I didn’t realise it at the time and, of course, she was still really a child herself). She wanted me to have the career she wasn’t able to have and has gone out of her way to help me, especially when my kids were small and needed Grandma’s Boot Camp cor weeks at a time. I wonder if it isn’t better for my daughter to have children young and enjoy them. It’s a funny old world. But at least i can help my kids financially, i suppose.

          1. Well, our sons had active young parents , we travelled , my Moh flew helicopters in the RN and then as a civilian, on oil rigs and also SAR pilot .. and we had a good young life .

            If I had waited until I was much older , I would have stuck to a career and not had the variety of exciting jobs I have enjoyed .

            We have no grandchildren .. we are what is left of our generation , me now 76 and Moh 77.. time flies .. We have been lucky so far considering the scares and the drama we have had .

            Cross fingers.

          2. Lol i need to be careful; my father in law is your age and flew helicopters in the navy…..

    3. Heavy rain a couple of hours ago which then eased off substantially.
      Still raining now, but appears to be tapering off.

  84. Just wondering why our censored mainstream media is now allowing videos of apparent lockdown breaking parties?

    It could all backfire as people realise it was all a con from the outset and they have all been taken for mugs.

    1. 373559+ up ticks,

      Evening B3,

      Will not affect the majority voter though they have been mug happy for decades.

    2. “It could all backfire as people realise it was all a con…”

      Sadly, I don’t think many will. Every time there’s another ‘party’ reported, the media wheel out a member of the public who lost someone to Covid (allegedly) to say they are appalled by the selfishness of the offenders. The idea is to keep in the minds of the public that half a million lives were saved by lockdown. Those who do not emote correctly are to be publicly humiliated, their lives ruined for ever for daring to challenge the ‘settled science’.

      And how did Max Headroom get away with it?

      1. Every NoTTLer knows they’ve been taken for mugs.

        Please, young NoTTLers, > 60 start the bloody revolution and make it very bloody,

          1. I think you, Phizee, MiR are the youngest- I could be wrong. I’m 69 but have too much already without starting a revolt.

          4. I can’t agree with you, sorry. You are never to old or to ill to revolt. I am now 73 with one fatal illness that debilitates me every day, and one that I am still fighting the side effects of because, that one, I managed to defeat, so far. But, we live for others, it is due to the kindness and ordinary people going out of their way for us that we survive and that is why when something is wrong and you have the opportunity to fight against it, you should. I hope that even when I am dying I will still be able to fight if the opportunity arises.

          5. If we get over this, then yes, we can fight but now we must put ourselves first.

          6. At 79, with one third of my heart dead, suffering from COPD, recent right lung pneumonia, recurring PID (Prolapsed Invertebratel Disc). I may have oration skills, but I doubt I could lead a revolution, much as I’d want to.

          7. Well that true but I think you would agree that you can use your voice and use it loudly if the occasion to do so arises. But I think we do far to much waiting around for some other person to do something. What echoes through my mind in such situations is: “If not me then who?” With that in mind I have stepped up to the plate on several occasions in fear but nevertheless in the understanding that someone has to speak up and if not me, then who?

        2. Be careful what you wish for! Not many old folk survived the siege of Leningrad.

  86. Just listening to the Zuby/Elon Musk podcast.
    At about 10 minutes, Musk admits (inadvertently?) that he thinks there should be one platform where you can say what you like, and that allows free speech as long as it’s legal. He’s talking about his “X” app which is going to be merged with Twitt, and which, surprise, surprise, will be a total banking/social media app.

    Wrong! Public interest is best served NOT by having a monopoly, but by having several free speech platforms. Twitter’s censoring was driving a diverse ecosystem to develop – that’s now been severely damaged by Musk’s promotion of free speech on Twitter. Competition like Truth Social and Gab has been pushed back years.
    Cynical me can’t help thinking that Musk knows this perfectly well and is developing the WeChat of the West.

  88. “A black bear mauled and killed a man while he was drinking his morning cup of coffee in a “highly uncommon” attack in Arizona.
    ‌The animal pounced on Steven Jackson, 66, while he was enjoying the beverage as he sat at a table next to a cabin he was building, according to US media reports.”
    Grizzly will be frothing over his mug of hot Swedish beverage!

    OK, it is a sad story, but I could not avoid being impressed by the male bear who enjoyed a cup of coffee and was also in the process of building his own cabin (or den).

      1. Mr Black the Bear was building that cabin for his dearly bearlóved, who had just told him not to hang around all morning drinking coffee with old men.

        So it was the old story of ‘For Whom the Bear Toils’.

  89. “Soon, we will be your only source of truth.”

    Well, that appears to be the BBC line as it accuses the Greek authorities of lying about the immigrant ship that capsized last week. On the 6pm news on Radio 4, one of its European correspondents told us that “…with BBC Verify, we authenticated available videos and photographs…”.

    Greece boat disaster: Ship tracking casts doubt on Greek Coastguard’s account
    The BBC has obtained evidence casting doubt on the Greek coastguard’s account of the migrant shipwreck in which hundreds are feared to have died.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65942426

    If only they had pursued the virus with the same rigour…

    2. I had a look, it’s all American jokes too, didn’t even understand a few of them. I’ve finally got the kids to stop doing or sending anything for Fathers’ Day. Now I’ve got nothing to get grumpy about, damn.

  91. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/06/18/public-servants-arent-to-blame-for-britains-woeful-producti/

    The closing paragraph by this MP betrays their lack of understanding:

    If we want world-class public services, we need world-class economic growth. This means expanding R&D tax-relief schemes, fostering a culture of risk-taking venture capitalism, and creating viable industrial strategies for the productive industries in which Britain can excel.

    We should resist the temptation either to demonise or canonise public servants. Every system is designed to produce certain results, and it is the system that is responsible for woeful productivity. Our interdependent public and private sectors both need urgent reform.

    The private sector does not need reform. it needs to be left alone. Markets determine our success or failure, not statism.

    The public sector needs starving. Only when it is forced to face the same efficiency forcing dilemma that the private does will it improve.

    No, we don’t need more fiddling tax reforms. Just cut taxes. It isn’t research costs that need fiddling with, it’s corporation tax, business rates , employer NI, the endless regulation lumbered on business – how about scrapping insurance taxes? Why not abandon net zero so we don’t have to concern ourselves with running older hardware for longer? If I do well and my business succeeds, why not let me keep all the proceeds of it’s sale? Why not let me discount the cost of fuel by… scrapping fuel duty?

    But they don’t. They don’t understand the costs of running a business at any level. They fiddle and faff at the edges thinking they are ‘unlock Britain’s potential!’ while doing everything to rob us blind.

    I hate their pretentious ignorance and self promoting idiocy.

    1. Part of the great Reset: “You will own nothing and be happy (you are still alive!)

    3. I loved San Francisco when I was there – in 1976.

      I doubt I’d recognise it today.

    1. Some day, when we’re through all this shit, the criminals will be held to account.

      1. I’m not optimistic. The deep state looks after its own, even if they are found out.

        1. I think they will sacrifice a few in order to appease the angry mob. Gates, Schwab, Harari, Ardern, Trudeau etc. The idiots who have been foolish enough to be the public face of it.

      1. First thing Goldens did in the south US was find the most convenient AC vent and stretch out in front of it.

    3. My Patterdale/border cross was a real sun-worshipper; as the sun moved round, he’d get up and move out of the shadow into full sun again! The cairn/border used to lie with his head in the shade and his bum in the sun.

  97. I’m off to bed.
    Wonder if there will be more rain overnight?

    G’night all.

  98. …and I’m off to do the (free) laundry as I doubt any other residents are awake (compos mentis or otherwise).

    I’ve slept much of the day away and am a night owl anyway,

    So I’ll just say, Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I hope to bring you a fresh story come the morn’s morn.

      1. I take the chairlift back down. Much safer than the concentration needed otherwise.

    3. I’m up early and, as the S@H’s alarm has gone off, just put a load of washing on.
      The DT is still fast asleep.

    1. I NEED my car, I’m disabled, have a blue badge and cannot walk more than 70 metres. What’s to do?

      Keep driving.

    2. Ignore the idiots. They are running short of time as the rest of us awaken to their evil intent.

      Imagine the enormous waste of having billions of petrol and diesel vehicles sent for scrap. Scrapyards would never cope with the volume.

      Even assuming that we could all afford to replace our vehicles with battery driven cars then every multi storey car park would be unable to take the additional weight of the electric vehicles and require demolition and replacement.

      Meanwhile we are supposed to accept the WEF inspired 15 minute cities, hobble around on crutches or crawl on the kerbside whilst looking skywards at thousands of private jets ferrying globalist monsters around the Earth.

      We must remove Sunak and Starmer from the levers of power asap. These people are pure evil and wish us harm as do all those who support them in Parliament.

      1. I think the plan is that we won’t have cars at all. It is actually frighteningly easy to achieve if people don’t wake up.
        It’s part of transferring wealth from west to east. If more people in India and Indonesia have cars, the lizard elites have decided that fewer in the west can have them.

  103. Goodnight all of you sleepyheads.

    Moh was watching the golf , now he is asleep .. so I must put the dogs in the garden for last minute wees.

    Just reading the DT , sadly banned from commenting ( idiots) and I enjoyed this obit

    ,Roger Squires, record-breaking crossword compiler known to Telegraph readers for decades – obituary
    If you tackled all the crossword clues he has set and solved one a minute it would take more than three years and nine months to solve them

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    13 June 2023 • 5:58pm https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/06/13/roger-squires-obituary-record-crossword-telegraph/

    1. What a pleasant picture of domestic bliss you conjure up, Maggie.

      Thank you. You sleep well, as well.

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