Sunday 19 March: Why do migrants risk their lives to get to Britain instead of staying in Europe?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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583 thoughts on “Sunday 19 March: Why do migrants risk their lives to get to Britain instead of staying in Europe?”

    2. They will be the stars of this year’s Royal Tournament.

      ooop was it was scapped

      1. It certainly was, Tryers, and I was fortunate to be at the very last performance. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

        1. I am Jealous.

          When I was at HMS Daedalus. ‘home port’ fot the FAA Field Gun Crew, we used to but on a RN bus and go to the Court, when the FAA had a Double Run Day.

        2. I worked with a guy (Big John) years ago, who’d been a wheel-man.
          That’s my claim to fame.

      1. The ream of paper to fill in on the diversity nonsense along would put paid to it forever. All to sit in a government filing cabinet, never to be read or used. Such endless waste, all to appease morons.

    5. I only watched a small part but it was wonderful. There aren’t many countries in the world that still take a pride in the education and training of their children.

  5. Joe Biden hails decision to issue ICC arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin. 19 March 2023.

    The US president, Joe Biden, has backed the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over his role in the abduction of Ukrainian children, saying it was “justified”.

    Paedophile opposes saving children. Who would ever have guessed?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/18/biden-hails-decision-icc-arrest-warrant-against-putin

    1. The Serbian President criticised this decision strongly, as being a step towards the greatest conflict the world has ever seen.
      It is as stupid as weaponising the dollar against Russia – unless of course, the aim is to switch the reserve currency to China and provoke a war.

  6. Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8ee0fdb4a3bc7e5e165bbec64a710963e721b4cb6f8dcbc75fc83928cc9317f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/405114efe308aa3ace46f455ff03d173932ca9cd5ea521d25d6f9da24b3f0141.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f895d8a3235b88e84972f12446406f63a4c4a0a397bcdbbb96aa0009aad93855.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3dce3381da335bc54afc4d061aa9b919a04726198de5c5c285772f9a0a10152b.jpg

  8. No Shite Sherlock………..

    Today’s MoS
    “Criminal gangs could be using barber shops as bases for human trafficking, slave labour and drugs, security expert warns.
    A lot of these shops have thousands of pounds of equipment but no customers.
    While in some cases the shops will be involved in legitimate business, from
    my own experience, there is strong reason to believe a large number,
    particularly those owned by Albanians, Turks and Kurds, have links to
    organised crime.”

    3. The concept of money laundering appears to date back to the 1920s era of Prohibition.
      However, the anecdote I read was that in the late 1950s or early 1960s the FBI were observing a laundromat (laundrette, washeteria) during a heavy snowstorm and there were no customers; however, the books showed an amount entered for that day.

    5. Turkish Barbers have long been recognised as money laundering enterprises.
      I did hear a tale that HMR&C did an observation on one such establishment, counting numbers of customers, and found that according, to the places tax returns, supposed customers vastly outweighed actual, but still low enough to avoid them having to pay VAT!!!

    6. Well knock me down with a feather. They will be warning us about nail bars next.

  10. Why do migrants risk their lives to get to Britain instead of staying in Europe?

    Why indeed?

    1. ‘Morning, B3. A number of DT readers (and they are not alone) are very unhappy about this ongoing, expensive shambles:

      Trevor Anderson
      2 HRS AGO
      “Urgent steps are needed to address the backlog and get vulnerable people out of hotels and into safe accommodation where they can live in dignity” : Christina Marriott
      Another bleeding heart with completely warped views of the total chaotic disaster that is the unwanted and uneccessary illegal immigration into this country. The first letter today proffers the question of why these people risk their lives to come to here. It seems obvious when we have people like Ms Marriott who make statements and opinionates such as she does.
      This is a small country with a vast population of almost 70 million, packed to rafters – whom many of which we cannot take care of with any reasonable effect due to successive inept and inefficient government.
      Ms Marriott let me simplify this for you: WE CANNOT AFFORD IT IN TERMS OF COST, LIVING SPACE AND RESOURCES.
      These people should not be here – full stop.

      WA Clark
      2 HRS AGO
      I would like to thank Christina Marriott of the Red Cross for her eloquent letter about refugees fleeing their homes and the awful British Government forcing them to live in hotels. She has reminded me not to donate to the Red Cross or any other large charity that spouts nonsense while its extremely well paid ‘leaders’ live of the donations given by the British public.

      Quay Bored Worrier
      1 HR AGO
      Here’s the salaries of those running this charity – 8 people drawing a total of £1m per year from this bleeding g heart charity.
      https://www.redcross.org.uk/-/media/documents/about-us/trustees-report-and-accounts-2019.pdf?la=en&hash=584FF2C3FED18624362F27B9E2439E558074DF97
      Thanks from me too Christina – not one more penny will come to you from my pocket.

      1. When the Red Cross puts out its begging advert using the Red Cross parcels of WW2. my immediate reaction is, “that was then, today is completely different”.

  11. 372177+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Answer to the question posed is that currently treacherous appeasing idiocy is the order of the day.

    Way back, as soon as a social housing house was given to an immigrant in front of the indigenous waiting list the stage was set

    The cast of lab/lib/con coalition party members was in place, let the condoning of the era of appeasement commence.

    Opposition to coalition was NOT to be TOLERATED.

    Sunday 19 March: Why do migrants risk their lives to get to Britain instead of staying in Europe?

    As in, why do peoples enter gold mines,

  12. – Is it April Ist today,

    I thought I heard on the News something about all our mobile phones will be switched off next month unless we accept some message they send us?

    What else would we be accepting?

    1. I think it is to do with 2g and 3g being switched off. Some older phones will no longer be updated.

      1. Broadcast at different frequencies. Completely different protocol stack. They won’t do any updates.
        I hope they aren’t planning to switch those networks off – you’d be surprised at how much data is still sent on GSM networks. Radio meter readings, things like that. Not from houses, from things like underground meters at nodes in the network.

    2. Government to send alerts to all UK mobiles to warn public of disasters and terrorist attacks. 19 March 2023.

      Every mobile phone in the country will receive emergency siren alerts from the Government to warn the public of disasters such as floods, fires and terrorist attacks under a new system being launched today.

      The alerts will be sent if there is judged to be a “risk to life”, with a UK-wide test of the system to take place next month.

      Under the Emergency Alerts system, the Government and emergency services will be able to send urgent messages to nearly 90 per cent of phones in a defined area.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/19/government-send-alerts-uk-mobiles-warn-public-disasters-terrorist/

      1. disasters such as floods, fires and terrorist attacks…… and incoming nuclear missiles?

        1. Floods are caused by government failing to diverge from EU rules.

          Fires happen all the time, usuall started by smokers. Solution? Shoot smokers.

          Terrorism is a result of massive uncontrolled immigration.

          Nuclear war would be again, the fault of government malice and meddling.

          What government should really be warning us of is… government!

      2. In V For Vendetta the public emergency broadcast system is hijacked by the protagonist – V – to broadcast his message in counter to state propaganda.

        The fascists never realise what they demand.

      6. I was alarmed last year on a business trip to Saudi to get a Govt text. My work colleagues told me they had all got one too. It was a flood warning.

    3. There is to be an across the board mobile phone “alert” from HMG. Tested on St. George’s Day. Something to look forward to!

  13. Russian teachers and parents resisting Kremlin’s attempts to brainwash children. 19 March 2023.

    Schools are being used to indoctrinate Russian children and dispel any doubts about the goals and wisdom of the war in Ukraine.

    When Maria, an English teacher at a prestigious private school outside Moscow, first heard that the Education Ministry was introducing a new weekly class to promote the Kremlin’s world view, she was “appalled”.

    The “Talking about What’s Important” sessions were initially intended to extol the virtues of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine among other things when they were launched last year. However, they have since been watered down to revolve around more innocuous subjects such as Russia’s greatest scientists or national holidays, according to lesson plans seen by The Telegraph.

    She should come here! We are teaching ours sexual perversion!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/03/19/russian-teachers-parents-resisting-kremlins-attempts-brainwash/

    1. Yes it’s quite funny how Putin appears to be getting accused for doing what the powers that be are doing to us here in the West

    2. Given the marxism and perversion that are taught in British schools, the Telegraph have a colossal cheek printing the above.

    1. As long as his lodger was Home Office staff, I don’t care. They bring them here by force, they can suffer the consequences.

      1. Sadly, I am coming around to that point of view.

        Some people with dark skin and black hearts were convicted of a gang rape recently, as linked on these pages, but the victim has no memory of the event. Possibly because she was completely intoxicated and was walking home at 0600 on Sunday.

  16. 372177+ up ticks,

    That’s the way to do it,

    Witness the way forward gained traction via tractors, with the Dutch ploughing a successful furrow on the political scene, we MUST follow the cloggies winning example.

    Dutch Cabinet Minister Calls for Green Agenda to Be Reconsidered After Shock Pro-Farmer Party Victory

    1. Unlike other criminals, they’ll get away with it. Fraud, embezzelment, theft, corruption, stabbing – Sunak.

      They stink, and you deal with rubbish by burning it.

    2. The American journalist Janet Daley claims that immigration is beneficial. At least four of those faces belong to people whose grandparents were not 100% British.

  19. Russia and China’s new alliance is beginning to echo December 1941. 19 March 2023.

    Now as then, time is of the essence. To ensure peace, the West must prepare for war

    In East Asia, Beijing is engaging in more and more bellicose rhetoric about Taiwan and the South China Sea. Xi Jinping has announced a massive increase in the military budget, partly as a response to the Aukus submarine agreement.

    It is also widely rumoured that he is preparing to supply Russia with weapons, acting as the arsenal of tyranny. Both countries speak bitterly of their exclusion by the “Anglo-Americans” in remarkably similar terms to those used by the German-Japanese Axis during the Second World War. Putin blamed the “Anglo-Saxons” for blowing up the Nordstream pipeline, while the Chinese ambassador to Australia called AUKUS an “Anglo-Saxon bloc”.

    You have to laugh. Aukus is an Anglo-Saxon bloc. That’s why Macron was so enraged by it. And who else would or could blow up the Nordstream pipeline but the US? Make no mistake with propaganda articles like this the Americans are preparing the peasants for a wider war.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/18/russia-chinas-new-alliance-beginning-echo-december-1941/

  21. Morning, all Y’all.
    Grey, and melting. Thank God, fed up with piles of grey and cold wet everywhere.

  22. Good morning all

    Lovely sunny morning here , slight breeze , skylarks are soaring and singing .

    No2 son and partner are here this weekend from Worthing . Son’s leg and mended ankle looks well heeled and neatly fixed, he doesn’t need crutches anymore , but he still has swelling in his ankle when he has been standing for too long .

    No 1 son ran in the Weymouth Saturday 5k Park Run in 20mts and 23 seconds , and this morning has just run 10k .. such activity so early in the morning !

    Moh cut the back lawn yesterday afternoon , smell of cut grass is delicious.

    1. Glad to hear the leg/ankle are on the mend. It must have been very painful for him and a worry for you.

  23. Putin can’t use Iraq to justify Ukraine invasion. Tony Blair. 19 March 2021.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cannot be equated with the US-led invasion of Iraq, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the conflict that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

    Blair said Moscow’s forces had invaded “a country that has a democratically elected president who, to my knowledge, has never started a regional conflict or committed any aggression against its neighbors.”

    The former British leader said Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, had brutalized his own people, engaged in two wars in violation of international law and used chemical weapons to kill 12,000 people in a single day.

    “At least you could say we were removing a despot and trying to introduce democracy,” Blair told European news agencies AFP, dpa, ANSA and EFE.

    Modern Ukraine has only existed since 1991. Blair’s War cost the lives of half a million Iraqi’s. The country itself is devastated. There were no weapons of Mass Destruction! It is this man, and his accomplices who should be on trial for War Crimes at the Hague!

    https://www.dw.com/en/tony-blair-putin-cant-use-iraq-to-justify-ukraine-invasion/a-65037323

    1. “never … committed any aggression against its neighbors [sic].” I would have thought shelling other Ukrainians just because they spoke Russian counted as serious aggression but as Blair is a proven liar and changer of word meanings I suppose we shouldn’t expect truth. As for the “democratically elected”, that’s surely the man who the US and EU destabilised??

      1. As Always, Balir’s recollection of events – and reality generally – is at variance to other people’s.

        1. He’s still the toddler who thinks that if he closes his eyes he becomes invisible.

    2. “never … committed any aggression against its neighbors [sic].” I would have thought shelling other Ukrainians just because they spoke Russian counted as serious aggression but as Blair is a proven liar and changer of word meanings I suppose we shouldn’t expect truth. As for the “democratically elected”, that’s surely the man who the US and EU destabilised??

    3. I will not put what I posted on Tw@ter. but will just make my usual comment.
      Tony Blair, the stinking turd in the shitpan that will just NOT flush away.

    4. The histories of Russia and Ukraine have been intertwined for a thousand years.
      It is hubris of the highest order for the modern world to think it understands the history and social tensions of that area.
      “According to the national histories of both countries, Prince Volodymyr I of Kyiv accepted Christianity in 988 and established a devout kingdom that became the predecessor to the modern states of Ukraine and Russia.”

  24. Putin can’t use Iraq to justify Ukraine invasion. Tony Blair. 19 March 2021.

    Russia’s invasion of Ukraine cannot be equated with the US-led invasion of Iraq, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said Saturday, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the conflict that toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

    Blair said Moscow’s forces had invaded “a country that has a democratically elected president who, to my knowledge, has never started a regional conflict or committed any aggression against its neighbors.”

    The former British leader said Saddam Hussein, on the other hand, had brutalized his own people, engaged in two wars in violation of international law and used chemical weapons to kill 12,000 people in a single day.

    “At least you could say we were removing a despot and trying to introduce democracy,” Blair told European news agencies AFP, dpa, ANSA and EFE.

    Modern Ukraine has only existed since 1991. Blair’s War cost the lives of half a million Iraqi’s. The country itself is devastated. There were no weapons of Mass Destruction! It is this man, and his accomplices who should be on trial for War Crimes at the Hague!

    https://www.dw.com/en/tony-blair-putin-cant-use-iraq-to-justify-ukraine-invasion/a-65037323

      1. The Rwandan genocide was based in tribalism and savagery, but the abject failure was from the UN’s refusal to do what needed to be done. America postured, the UK did nothing, the French wanted to cash in, the Belgians, whose colony it is origianally did nothing.

        But the UN – an organisation designed, solely to enforce bureaucracy. Not to achieve anything. Not to act, just to talk about it. it is a political wet dream of lazy, incompetent, malicious – by intentional inaction apathetic bunch of unnecessary wasters you can ever imagine.

        1. I remember attending a lecture by Roméo Dallaire, the Canadian General who was tasked to lead the UN forces in Rwanda – an absolute horror story, his experience of UN incompetence made very painful listening – poor man!

    3. Of course they wouldn’t. Politicians don’t seek to create anything, to make anything, to advance humanity. Their sole goal is power and the after office job.

      1. One year – because we’re all some distance from mother – I bought her some flowers off interflora.

        She complained there was too many of them and that she’d be happier with a simpler bouquet from Tesco.

        Now, I live outsde Southampton, she’s in Norfolk. It’s not exactly a short hike to the shop.

        Anyway, my sister *did* get her some Tesco flowers on a visit and…. mother complained they were the wrong sort. Her argument was ‘we should know what she likes.’

        We don’t. Everything is complained about and I am past bothering.

        1. It doesn’t encourage a repeat, does it?
          We call directly to Mother’s local flower shop and spend what we’d normally spend on Interflora, the differerence being that the shop gets the lot, not a medium %age of the fee, and so provides much nicer flowers than the interflora bunch.

          1. Oh? I always assumed they were a retailer in and of themselves, there being interflora shops.

            Either way, she’s not getting anything.

        2. It doesn’t encourage a repeat, does it?
          We call directly to Mother’s local flower shop and spend what we’d normally spend on Interflora, the differerence being that the shop gets the lot, not a medium %age of the fee, and so provides much nicer flowers than the interflora bunch.

          1. Yes… but there is no relationship there. She doesn’t bother to speak to me. Last time she was here she hit Junior. He was two, and she was slapping him.

            Biologically, yes. In any other way – she’s just a stranger.

        4. That is my biggest gripe about Mothering Sunday. It makes mother worship compulsory.
          There is no acknowledgement that there are women who are not maternal – let alone those should really have not have bred at all.

        5. My mother has always told me not to waste my money and i agree with her. I’ve told my children not to bother buying presents for me for birthday, Christmas etc. i’d rather spend time with them (now they have grown up to be delightful young adults).

  28. Good morning all.
    A rather late start after a disturbed night, but a bright sunny spring morning with a tad under 4°C outside.

  29. Beat Paul to it……….

    Peruvian owls always hunt in pairs .
    That’s because they’re inca hoots

  30. SIR – Almost inevitably there will be a Labour government within 18 months or so. Does Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, expect highly paid people to take a short-term view and come out of retirement, or defer retirement for such a short period knowing that Labour will cancel his pension changes immediately (report, March 16)?

    Short-term thinking is for politicians; normal people take a longer-term view of lifestyle decisions.

    J R Ball
    Hale, Cheshire

    JR Ball is on the ball!

    1. If pensions eep getting fiddled with, and the state continually sees them as simply another pot to rob, eventually, as with countless other things, people will just stop bothering with them.

      That will create a huge crisis later on, especially as people are renting into old age. My chums are looking at their pensions and realising they’ll still be paying £400 a month in rent to the council. He’s a bin man, and can’t keep working into his late 60’s. She’s a book keeper, and hasn’t really got one at all as is self employed.

      So someone in the government needs to get their finger out of their backside and grow the sod up and really change how this country is governed, stop treating people as tax slaves and quite literally start burning the red tape. We do not need a government departments dedicated solely to puttinghow much masking tape was used by Clancy Docwra to fill in a pot hole into a database.

      1. If they are lucky they might get to live in a trailer park, where they will be unable to register to vote and may find it difficult to maintain a bank account and find a GP. I have lost touch with the retired local binman and his wife who were in this situation about 15 years ago.

      2. The Conservative Party should insist that the majority of their parliamentary candidates should have been self-employed and have run their own successful businesses and been totally dependent on them for their incomes for some years. The party has lost all contact with reality as far as the private sector is concerned.

        I spent most of the first half of my working life working as a schoolmaster employee and then moved to France with my wife in my early 40s since when we have been running our own business offering residential French revision courses for Sixth Formers studying French. Our business is independent, it receives no state help and we rely on offering a service for which people are prepared to pay – indeed it could and should be seen as the epitome or embodiment of the conservative philosophy.

        I know that some people object to independent schools (and there arguments on both sides of this debate) but surely their existence should be applauded by the Conservative Party?

        You could argue that the Fettes-educated Blair as a Labour prime minister might not have wished to be seen as sending his children to independent schools but why did Eton-educated Cameron feel he should be embarrassed if he sent his children to state schools? State-educated Margaret Thatcher and state-educated John Major sent their children to private schools. Cameron, of course revealed his hypocrisy by transferring his children to private schools as soon as he left office but he marked the beginning of the Conservative Party’s public display of antipathy towards private enterprise which has become a cancer which has totally destroyed the Conservative Party.

        1. Although Bliar chose to send his children to a state school, it was not his nearest dumbed-down comp but a more selective and high performing institution where they would mix with ‘the right sort’ of children. Hypocrisy at its finest.

  31. Good morning, all. Light overcast after some early rain.

    I’ve just sent the following to my MP. The cowardly action of MPs on Friday last when Andrew Bridgen was called to speak was uncalled for and is another indication that MPs do not have the best interests of the people at heart.

    Mr Quince,

    On the 17th March 2023 a most execrable performance took place in the House of Commons. May I ask if you were present to witness this event?

    When Andrew Bridgen MP was called to speak, the members, and the number present at the outset was sparse to say the least, either got up and left or were goaded by another member to leave the chamber. I found the sight of MPs scuttling out of the chamber rather disturbing.

    To my mind this childish display of ‘shooting the messenger’ demeans both politics and robust debate. What now for the many people affected by adverse effects post inoculation when they discover that rather than debate the issue their elected representatives either do not attend or run for cover when the debate commences? What are these MPs afraid of?

    If MPs believe that there is not a case to answer re Covid-19 inoculation injuries then they should have had the strength of character to attend the sitting and attempt to defeat Mr Bridgen in open debate, using all the science and data available to them. The House of Commons has a long history of debate and the actions of MPs on the 17th does nothing to enhance the reputation of the House in that respect.

    Blatantly ignoring this very real problem will not make it go away however hard the members may wish it to disappear.

    PS A number of videos are being widely shared across social media and the portrayal of the members’ behaviour is not a good advert for what is supposed to be democracy in action.

    PPS I’ve attached a photograph from Mr Bridgen’s Twitter feed for your information.

    Regards,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0cebcb45a0a7508bf51c5b11a6612309c98c34041d1a245bcb4d923306681b16.png

    3. When people can’t give a response to something they disagree with they scuttle away like rats.
      Maybe there was a 3 line whip in which case the whips should be nine strokes of the cat.

  32. SIR – Having received my AA subscription renewal letter for £295, I decided to cancel. I found that the only way to contact it is by telephone (“Contempt for callers”, Letters, March 5), but as the lines are always “extremely busy” I simply stopped my direct debit with the bank.

    I was not surprised that the AA was not too busy to call me back in an attempt to persuade me to stay with it. The revised offer was down to £118. I declined.

    Richard Taylor
    West Mersea, Essex

    Quite right, Mr Taylor. And any business that includes “We are experiencing a high volume of calls” (or similar) guarantees that I will be looking elsewhere. Cancellation of the monthly DD certainly does seem to concentrate their minds and also helps them to find the time in their busy day to respond to a customer.

    1. You can get full cover, recovery to anywhere in the country for £72 with Britannia Rescue – anyone who thinks the AA and RAC are any good needs help (they’re run by accountants). When I was driving the recovery truck I dealt with all the agencies and without doubt BR was the best

      1. When I started driving my AA sub was £2 pa. They did not try to sell me books, insurance and other things for which I had not joined the AA but gave a very good breakdown service. This was excellent because the sort of cars I had at the age of 18 or 19 were not very reliable I often had to call out the service.

        1. When we were ‘oop North’ last week, we passed an old AA box and both of us said ‘I’ve still got the key for that’! And the book with the registration letters, and maps! Ah! Those were the days!

          1. On long journeys, my brother and I used to quiz my father about car registration plates.
            Because he’s been in the police, he knew in which counties the cars had first been registered. We sat with the AA book testing him.
            Very rarely was he stumped for an answer.

    3. We are also going to cancel our long standing AA cover.
      Although they did look after us when our Passat broke down in Tuscany a few years ago. After the Italian garage refused to tell anyone why our car wouldn’t start.
      After the car was brought back to the UK on a trailer. We discovered a letter from VW and a recall to replace the Pezzo injectors. Fixed locally in half a day.
      But it cost the AA three thousand pounds to bring it back. Plus the hotel in Pizza and the flight home.
      Those sneaky fibbing Italians knew what was wrong. But the AA should have carried out more research.

      1. Slightly different but we hired a car in Malta some years ago. I asked if they wanted an impression of my credit card. Oh no Mr Alf your English, you will bring the car back. We always take the from the Italians though.
        As an aside we were also warned that the Maltese like to drive in the shade.

  33. SIR – As an officer cadet in the 1960s, the chief instructor was so appalled at cadets’ table manners that all attended the unit theatre, where an instructor, seated at a table on stage, was served dinner by a steward, while another instructor pointed out the finer points of table etiquette.

    One never forgot that the napkin (not serviette) was placed in the lap (not tucked anywhere), the soup spoon was pushed forwards and the dessert spoon pulled towards. One never charged a fork until the previous mouthful had been consumed, and heaven forbid that anybody would either touch the table silver or drink the port before the loyal toast.

    Colin Cummings
    Yelvertoft, Northamptonshire

    Yes, the initial officers’ course is still referred to in some quarters as the ‘knife and fork’ course.

    1. SIR – I find it quite entertaining while in restaurants to look around in between courses to see how cutlery is being manoeuvred. Forks as harpoons, knives as weapons, spoons as shovels. Long may the entertainment continue.

      Dr Paul Veale
      Bath, Somerset

      ….and leaving the table and its surrounds in a stinking mess and looking as if a massive food fight has taken place – although that certainly isn’t entertaining for the staff to clear up.

      1. Using a knife and fork properly is a dying art here, I blame the Yanks whose slovenly eating habits have been introduced over here in films and included in TV adverts, who can blame the impressionable viewers for copying them.

          1. There’s a growing number of children who are allowed to use just their fingers to eat food, the ‘progressive’ parents should be shot

          2. Perhaps the parents were born overseas.
            There’s a lot of it about these days Alec 🤔

          3. The ones I used to try to educate when I was on dinner duty were definitely indigenous!

        2. Good morning all,
          MH used to have decent table manners, and was a stickler at insisting on correct use of cutlery by our sons as they grew up. Unfortunately, since travelling to the US on numerous occasions in the years prior to retirement, he now invariably holds his knife as though eating fish and, after cutting a piece of food, puts down his knife then transfers the fork to his right hand to pick up the food. If his dad were still alive, he would not have dared to do so. 🙂

      2. Using a knife and fork properly is a dying art here, I blame the Yanks whose slovenly eating habits have been introduced over here in films and included in TV adverts, who can blame the impressionable viewers for copying them.

      3. When we go out, we go to eat and enjoy the food and company Dr Veal. Not to scrutinise other people and make snobby judgements.

    2. SIR – I find it quite entertaining while in restaurants to look around in between courses to see how cutlery is being manoeuvred. Forks as harpoons, knives as weapons, spoons as shovels. Long may the entertainment continue.

      Dr Paul Veale
      Bath, Somerset

      ….and leaving the table and its surrounds in a stinking mess and looking as if a massive food fight has taken place – although that certainly isn’t entertaining for the staff to clear up.

    3. SIR – I find it quite entertaining while in restaurants to look around in between courses to see how cutlery is being manoeuvred. Forks as harpoons, knives as weapons, spoons as shovels. Long may the entertainment continue.

      Dr Paul Veale
      Bath, Somerset

      ….and leaving the table and its surrounds in a stinking mess and looking as if a massive food fight has taken place – although that certainly isn’t entertaining for the staff to clear up.

    4. Aren’t those just normal ‘table manners’? I know nobody bothers with those these days.

    5. One never charged a fork until the previous mouthful had been consumed that also gave to the chance to speak instead of speaking with ones mouth full

    6. At a joint services dinner an Army officer and an RAF officer were in the toilets, After he’d finished having a pee the RAF officer went to walk out. The Army officer said “At Sandhurst they taught us to wash our hands afterwards” to which the RAF officer replied “At Cranwell they taught us not to pee on our hands”

  34. Morning all 😉 😊
    A bit brighter today.
    Why is anyone wondering why all these people are arriving on our shores.
    If you want everything you normally would have to work for. For doing absolutely nothing, the UK is the place to be. Unless of course you’re a native of these islands. Then you are forced to pay for the all the premeditated scrounging that has been happening for too many decades.
    There was a programme on TV about our coast last evening. It featured the RNLI in a pre-rehearsed section trying to justify the way they help thousands ashore. Talk about pre-scripted for the sake of an obvious urgent necessity.
    I had to turn it off.
    We have grandchildren who are going to have to live with the damage our idiot political classes have inflicted on this country.

  35. Maybe I am wrong, but I have a horrid fear that things are supposed to unfold as follows
    Trump is arrested
    There is a lot of publicity about “Trump supporters” pulling their money out of banks.
    Banks collapse in the US, Europe etc.
    Trump is quietly released
    We discover that this was passed at the WHO while we were all distracted by collapsing banks
    https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1637055465954725888
    The traitors in parliaments all over the west ratify the powers that the WHO has granted itself.

    EDIT: ha ha great minds think alike!
    https://twitter.com/elonmusk

    1. The fact that Parliament emptied when Andrew Bridgen gave his speech about vaccine damage becomes very sinister – it suggests that the vast majority of MPs, including ministers, are terrified of the truth coming out and terrified of defying either the WEF or the WHO.

      It also seems more than a coincidence that both Trump and Johnson are facing criminal legal proceedings at about the same time.

      1. Photos of Mitchell together with Bill Gates are doing the rounds on the internet this morning.

      1. He apparently paid some woman to keep quiet about an affair that they had had.
        Bill Clinton did exactly the same (Stormy Daniels? can’t remember) on at least one occasion, and there were rumours circulating that Hillary had bribed or threatened other women into keeping quiet.

    3. And let’s not forget that the WHO is headed by a man who is apparently wanted on charges of genocide in his own country.

      2. On the upside yer Perlice will be inundated with motoring offences which will “overwhelm” them and will not be able to cope with! (Until they link in with automatic fines,
        of course!).

      1. It was a modern paradise developed after the war to replace the street layout that Francis Drake would have known, the buildings of which were all flattened in the bombing.

      2. I’ve commented above re the buildings. Probably flattened during WWII and hastily rebuilt with little idea of taste.

        1. The first Mrs B studied architecture there – one lecturer suggested that the rebuilt Plymouth was so awful that they should invite the Luftwaffe to come back!!

    3. Vandalism on an epic scale. There should be something somewhere that the authorisers of this carnage can be criminally charged with.

    4. That is an absolute disgrace.
      Who ever organised that should be arrested for damage to the environment.
      I bet if someone snapped a branch off a tree outside Westminster they would be arrested.

    5. Words fail me.
      What ‘improvement’ is planned for that area? Apart from from some fatter bank balances?

      1. My son studied at the University there. That area was not the most appealing, looked very 1950ish and was probably rebuilt after the Germans tried to flatten the town. The wrecked church standing as a memorial of the attacks isn’t far from this new devastation.
        Conspiracy theorists are speculating that the trees would have impeded the coming surveillance cameras for the 15 minute city project. 😲

    6. Well the Councillors seem to have made sure they can’t be strung up from the nearest tree (a course of action that many might think was well deserved for this)….

  39. That was never a red card incident yesterday. Shows that the TMO distorts events by looking at film in slow-motion. Terribly deceptive. England would not have won – but the match would have been more evenly balanced.

    1. I totally agree Bill. Neither was it a later yellow card.
      The SA ref was probably bunged just to makes sure of the grandslam.
      Spurs were robbed by a very dubious last minute penalty against them.
      The cheating is getting a bit like Qatar.
      And it’s called sport.

      1. He’s always been a terrible ref, and as a Saffer he hates the English! Peyper and Jonker, who was TMO should be nowhere near a rugby pitch!

        1. Yarr I’m telling you rriaght now eh. 🤠

          Remember 2003 in Sydney when England were playing Australia in the rugby World Cup final. The bent French referee kept awarding Australia penalties. For no particular reasons. Until good old Johnny Wilkinson scored the drop goal just before the final whistle. And we won. 17 20.
          It was said the locals were making a lot of noise outside the England hotel the night before.

          1. I remember it well, Eddy! Very early on a Sunday? morning I watched it and was utterly horrified at the bias! I’ve been watching rugby since I was a very little girl and I’d never seen such terrible officiating! The drop goal was a real joy!
            How is your lovely dog today?

          2. She’s been in the garden, eaten some chicken and rice. Now laying on her bed, we’ve had a few small drops of blood on the floor.
            Our three sons are coming to see her possibly for the last time this week.
            It’s all very sad indeed.
            But at 13 in July 91 isn’t a bad life.
            Given the affection she’s given back over her life.
            Before we had realised she was ill, I had a terrible coughing fit one evening in January. She got off her big comfey cushion in the lounge and came and put her head on my knee and looked up at me.
            Thanks for asking Sue.

          3. Oh, Lord. I am so sorry.
            How ever many times in the course of our lives do we put ourselves through that experience?

          4. As much as we have loved her through thick and thin we wont be having another dog.
            I was only a young lad when our lovely Spaniel Retriever cross Skipper, died of a heart attack.

          5. That was what MOH said when we lost one of ours. It took 4 months (and the threat of a divorce) to being about a change of mind!

          6. Not at all Eddy. 13 is a good age and Labs are prone to tumours and arthritis. Hector will be 13 in May but I don’t expect he’ll see it. His back legs are going rapidly and his digestive tract is a bit squishy! He’s losing weight and is permanently hungry, but he’s happy and not in pain. His whippet-thin and fit sister Lyra who was our vet daughters dog, had to be put to sleep last month. We couldn’t believe she went first. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll know when the time is right, but oh, it’s so hard to let them go. My old man also says he won’t have another…

          8. The fat lumps are dreadful, aren’t they? Not only unsightly, but they worry you! Poor old dogs! The arthritis comes from the length of their spines, and the cancer seems to have been bred in somewhere!

          9. They are lovely animals, well behaved and very honest.
            Ours use to pick up the post and bring it to me and go to get my slippers when I asked her.

          10. Charlie was quite deformed by his fatty lump, but it was kidney failure that did for him in the end, just short of 17 and a half.

          11. Oscar is 13. Hopefully he’ll make it to 14 in October (if my wallet will stand it).

          12. Not at all Eddy. 13 is a good age and Labs are prone to tumours and arthritis. Hector will be 13 in May but I don’t expect he’ll see it. His back legs are going rapidly and his digestive tract is a bit squishy! He’s losing weight and is permanently hungry, but he’s happy and not in pain. His whippet-thin and fit sister Lyra who was our vet daughters dog, had to be put to sleep last month. We couldn’t believe she went first. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll know when the time is right, but oh, it’s so hard to let them go. My old man also says he won’t have another…

    3. Interesting comment from the thug:

      England captain Owen Farrell said the red card for Steward “seemed harsh”, but added: “It’s not for me to have an opinion on. They made the rules for a reason, that’s all I can say on it.”

      Here’s one reason why they are tightening up:

      World Rugby, England’s Rugby Football Union and the Welsh Rugby Union are facing legal action from more than 200 ex-professional players who say they were not sufficiently protected from brain injuries in the sport.

      https://www.bbc.com/sport/rugby-union/65002154

      1. Bit like former boxers claiming they didn’t know that they were going to be bashed on the head…

        I hate this litigation mania.

  40. OH and his health problems have gone from bad to even worse. He went for a blood test the other day and now it seems he’s ‘pre-diabetic’ so should cut back on all the sweet treats he enjoys. Biscuits, puddings, jam, etc – he loves. He eats far more of those than I do.

    To make matters even worse – the trainee nurse who stabbed his arm missed the spot and now he has severe bruising and a very painful arm.

    I told him to ring the surgery and get someone to look at it tomorrow morning. He didn’t let on about it till last night.

    3. Blimey, he is in the wars isn’t he.
      As far as the down vote goes I can’t understand why people do it. They’re probably extremely insecure and probably cringe at hurty words. Best ignored.

      2. I occasionally hit the thumbs-down then I’m trying to upthumb – and, just occasionally it won’t go away without a great deal of clicking.

    4. Sorry to hear that, Jules. My Aunty Ann, who is 87, about 5ft and 8st, has just been told she’s pre-diabetic! Are they trying to take away all life’s little pleasures?

      1. A French woman who is a friend of Caroline’s has a very lively mother who is 96 and lives alone in a large detached house. Her family mentioned to her doctor that she ate too many sweet things. The doctor replied: “For God’s sake just let her eat what she likes.”

      2. I think they are. In the last year or so, he’s gone from fit and sporty to having prostate cancer, a heart by-pass, and now ‘pre-diabetes’ – I think it’s all part of the medical profession trying to kill off the ‘useless eaters’.

          2. On the way, thanks! Bruising now mostly restricted to left shoulder rather than 1/2 the chest, and light exercise is improving things further. Be glad to have the control next week, and be quit the giant plastic plaster – and have a whole-body shower!

        2. I’m afraid I’m more than a bit cynical, as well. What a terrible state when you trust nobody to do what’s best.

        1. Exactly what I said! She’s very fit, has done scuba diving, hockey, cross country skiing, hill walking, and plays the Northumbrian pipes! Never sits still and also does silversmithing!

    5. Same for poppiesdad too a year or so ago. It seems that pharma have moved the goalposts to, as far as I can see, make it more profitable for them. We both cut out the wine, sugar, cakes, biscuits, puddings (of which I seldom eat onsume any of the last four) also the hidden sugars in starch – white bread, porridge, all the cereals. His breakfast became a poached egg on wholemeal toast. It is so tedious. He has reverted somewhat after bringing his blood sugar level down after all this by only two points! – and it was raised only on the three month profile that they do, not as they found at that moment – everything else – the remainder of the diabetes tests – was within normal limits. And it is only ‘pre-diabetes’ after all and he was just on the cusp. I suppose there will be a pre-pre-diabetes some time in the future. I think they want to make us concerned about our ‘health’ for their own purposes.

      2. Same as fiddling blood pressure standards.
        By expecting a 75 year old old have the same readings as a 25 year old, normal ageing is conveniently medicalised.

        1. My doctor said she was worried about my BP. When I asked why, she said, “it’s the sort of reading I’d expect from a 17-year-old”. I said, “and that’s BAD?” Mind you, that was pre-lockdown. I doubt it would be as good now.

        1. Yes, I can understand that – I am worried about where we are all, all of us, going to end up, no sign of a leader emerging; about our sons who have had the jab, their health… and we are not allowed to talk about this it is a taboo, and wondering for how much longer we will have our little dog who is such a comfort to me…. at the moment it all seems too much to bear.

          1. Yes. he’s putting a brave face on things and doing things as normal – but the sore arm stops him from playing the piano. He hasn’t gone back to any sporting activity yet. The heart rate is still high.

            Our little cat Lily – we don’t know her age, but she will probably not be with us too much longer – very thin but still quite active. Her kidneys are on the way out I think as she is very thirsty. She can jump right up onto the sink and worktops, which she never used to do, but is clearly capable. Yesterday evening I caught her on the worktop, stealing a bit of chicken! It’s hard to be too cross with her.

            My elder son kept jab-free, the younger one had his – not a subject we discussed at Christmas.

    6. SWMBO and I both are diabetic. We barely notice. SWMBO takes a blood test every day that shows the same results – under control – and I can’t be bothered (the stab in the finger hurts, too)
      It’s not so bad – a methformin pill a day, and restrict added sugar intake – that doesn’t mean none, so the occasional eclair or berliner is fine, and in fact becomes a treat… the other benefit is the slow but sure reduction in weight & wobblyness of body, due to the reduced sugar intake.

      1. He’s on the lowest level of ‘pre-diabetes’ – so I told him on the scale of things it’s the least of his worries. He does eat a lot of sugary stuff so cutting down should make a difference. He likes all things sweet – biscuits, jam, puddings, etc. Far more than I do. I’ve no intention of having mine tested.

        1. I like sweet stuff without sugar, so no sugar on fruit, lowest-possible sugar marmalade (to die for) and jam, and absolutely NO artificial sweeteners. Buy sourdough bread (low sugar), choose breakfast cereal carefully (Special K has more sugar than cornflakes, and is more expensive, too), porridge is good (add a few raisins for sweetness), and cakes need to be a special treat, not everyday.
          Watch the weight slide off – new trousers will be needed soon!

          1. My crash diet is working well. Porridge and sliced banana. Soup and a lettuce leaf. No booze (grrr). No sugar. One slice of bread. Lots vegetables. And a slice of salami (or 2).

            I shall carry on until I am back to 68 kg….. It is a help that the MR gives up booze for Lent. Easier to decide against a glass at 6 pm if no one else is doing so.

          2. He’s very small and slight – not overweight. I’ve told him to cut down on the biscuits and sweet stuff – and stop worrying. He’s eating weetabix these days but it’s so bland it needs something to give it some flavour. He doesn’t like the idea of having porridge instead. He likes shreddies – but he puts sugar on them. I’ve said he needs to stop adding sugar to anything, and reduce the amount of biscuits etc.

          3. Porridge is a good base for other flavours – try salt, raisins, apple, purple fruits, red fruits (I’d need convincing on gooseberries or rhubarb).
            If he can stop adding sugar for a while, he’ll find that even milk is sweet enough without additions. I did.
            Our diabetes Dr Gro was a smart lady, who said that you need to get energy from somewhere when you cut out sugar, so fat is fine, tasty meat, whatever, otherwise life becomes too dull. Yes, and some sugar, too, just heavily restricted, and in slow-to-digest form such as fruit.

          5. Lots of sugar (fructose) per sultana, not so much in a bowl of porridge and sultanas.

          6. I got a shock at my last diabetic clinic, my Hb1ac level had risen from 52 to 69 so I cut out the Cadburys snack bar which I was having daily and I have another blood test next week which I hope will show it’s back down. I have porridge with cinnamon and a few sultanas plus GF toast and marmalade for breakfast, lunch is usually a few crackers and cheese, dinner is normally a meat, potatoes and carrots followed by an apple. Snack in bed is usually rice cakes with a sprinkling of salt (they are polystyrene if I don’t put on the salt). Never eat sweets and my only non-meal intake is roasted peanuts. Although type 2 I was on insulin years ago but through diet was able to go onto a low dose of Gliclazide twice a day, my weight hasn’t changed for the last 20 years and my blood/sugar has been fairly constant between 7 and 9 which the doc says is fine – over 10 then start worrying. I’m quite disciplined in my diet except although can be coerced into eating the occasional treat

        2. I haven’t had sugar in the house for years, and Moh and son and I steer clear of all sweet things , except for th occassional treat . I am NOT diabetic neither is son no 1 or 2 , but I try to set an example when I shop.

          Moh will have cheese and biscuits instead of a pud … and I hard boil eggs , so they are in the fridge as an easy snack, he will have a toasted sandwich etc .

          Grapes are full of sugar as are beer and wine ..

          Moh has to test himself every morning , prick on the finger .

          1. So he is diabetic then?
            I eat quite a lot of fruit, including grapes. We both like our glass of wine as well. I don’t eat much other sweet stuff, apart from fruit. He does like his sweet stuff. He’s been a bit upset by this diagnosis – feels like all the things he enjoys in life are now forbidden. At 80, he should be able to enjoy what’s left in life but in moderation.

      2. I have just purchased some diabetic socks. I don’t have diabetes but i do have poor circulation and my feet are always cold.

    7. Appleogies for the DV, my elderly fingers can be a bit of a problem on the keyboard of my phone.

    2. Apparently the illegals, if picked up by the French Navy, will start jumping off the Navy ship. They should be warned that there is no guarantee that they can be pulled back up into the French Navy ship. If the RNLI pick them up in neutral waters they should be given the same warning and taken back to France. The French have the legal duty, as I understand it, to stop unsafe craft leaving their shores. Why does Sunak ignore these matters to reduce the number of boats getting here.

  42. Good morning all,

    Bright start to the day at McPhee Towers but since clouded over, 6℃ with a high of 10℃ forecast. It’s supposed to stay dry. Off for a nice walk in a few minutes.

    Congratulations, Ireland. Worthy winners of all the spoils. At least England didn’t capitulate this time. Freddie Steward’s red card was a bit harsh. All he did was flinch in a split-second before a crunch he could see was coming. What else was he supposed to do? There was clearly no malicious intent. Rugby needs to sort this out. It ruined the game.

  43. Good morning all,

    Bright start to the day at McPhee Towers but since clouded over, 6℃ with a high of 10℃ forecast. It’s supposed to stay dry. Off for a nice walk in a few minutes.

    Congratulations, Ireland. Worthy winners of all the spoils. At least England didn’t capitulate this time. Freddie Steward’s red card was a bit harsh. All he did was flinch in a split-second before a crunch he could see was coming. What else was he supposed to do? There was clearly no malicious intent. Rugby needs to sort this out. It ruined the game.

  44. High School Band

    I enjoyed the Kyoto Tachibana High School Band (posted first thing this morning by Rik). It reminded me of when I lived in America, where they take it seriously and equipment and costumes are often sponsored by local firms. These girls (and 4 boys) had tens of thousands of dollars worth of instruments. As someone else here has noted, not a blek face in sight. No headscarves or burkas either – Japan doesn’t have a migration problem. Alas, we encouraged the World to come here by teaching them English.

    I have booked to fly with my younger son, his Japanese wife and their two little girls to Tokyo on April 2nd, touring Japan for two weeks. At least, that was the plan and still is the hope. Dear old UNITE ground staff are going to be striking, especially at Heathrow Terminal 5 (BA Hub) for 5 days from March 31st. Deep Joy!

    We have spent a small fortune on this holiday, to let our Daughter-in-law visit her family for the first time in 4 years. Not only that, but because Airlines cannot over-fly Russia any more, the journey now goes West over the Atlantic, Canada, and the Pacific – adding two hours to the journey and making it 13 hours 35 minutes.

    All we need now is a 5 or 6 hour hold-up at Terminal 5 and our joy will be complete. Not only that, but it is a completely full plane, off to visit the home country at blossom time, at least in the northern parts, as Sakura (Cherry Blossom Time) is already over anywhere south of Tokyo.

    I’m keeping all digits crossed that Airline staff can minimise the anticipated delays at Check-in and Security. Wish us luck.

    2. I just hope that all your UK passports are valid…….as those bastards are coming out, too.

      1. Yep, first thing we checked. And despite my vow never to have another Vax Jab, I had to have a booster in order to enter Japan (or risk failing a test a few days before departing).

        2. It’s very stressful waiting for the test results before you fly – had to go through that rigmarole last year. Had to have jabs and test for Kenya last year – this time I just used the same jab certificate (original two only) and no need for a test. If no jabs, then a test on arrival at own expense.

      2. Rather makes you scream: “Sack them!” If these people don’t want the job, they’ve proved themselves incompetent, just get rid fo them! Save the tax payer the money, improve the service and force discipline and service on them.

        1. Nobody seems to keen on taking charge. As we have seen in westmonster recently. The place is empty. What are we actually paying for.

      3. Isn’t it amazing how long it takes to get through the airport arrival areas when you are returning to the country you live in.

        1. Just take a rubber boat – formalities over in a trice – AND they give you money.

    5. Hope all goes well for you. Can’t you book in on line then just go to Baggage Drop? Not sure about LHR but at LGW you can DIY and it’s quite quick and easy.
      Anyway good luck. On the upside if the baggage handlers are on strike at least you luggage won’t be stolen.

      1. Yes, we’ve done that before under ‘normal’ (i.e. slow) conditions, but it might be a bit risky if you say at check-in that you’ve already booked in and there’s no record on the system.

      2. It’s easy to check in on line and just go to the bag drop but you still have to go through security and they will be on strike.

      1. When I booked months ago to accompany them there was only ONE seat left in ‘cattle class’ (Economy) going out and NONE coming back, so I had to book Premium Economy – twice the price but more comfortable seats nearer the front.

    7. I don’t think it was teaching them English which caused the influx (we translate everything into multiple languages anyway). It was the freebies that did it.

  45. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Ah, Jazus, Paddy, Not You Again?

    A little later than Paddy’s day but…

    Bloke at a horse race whispers to Paddy next to him “Do you want the winner of the next race?”
    Paddy replies “No tanks, I’ve only got a small garden.”

    A coach load of Paddys on a mystery tour decided to run a sweepstake to guess where they were going. The driver won £52!

    Paddy’s racing snail is not winning races anymore. So he decided to take its shell off to reduce its weight and make him more aerodynamic. It didn’t work, if anything it made him more sluggish.

    Paddy finds a sandwich with two wires sticking out of it.
    He phones the police and says ” I’ve just found a sandwich dat looks like a bomb.”
    The operator asks, “Is it tickin?”
    Paddy says “No I tink it’s beef”

    The Irish have solved their own fuel problems.
    They imported 50 million tons of sand from the Arabs and they’re going to drill for their own oil.

    Paddy says to Mick “Christmas is on a Friday this year”
    Mick says “Let’s just hope it’s not the 13th.”

    Paddy’s in the bathroom and Murphy shouts to him. “Did you find the shampoo?”
    Paddy says “Yes but it’s for dry hair and I’ve just wet mine.”

    Paddy and Mick found three hand grenades and decided to take them to the police station.
    Mick says “What if one explodes before we get there?”
    Paddy replies “We’ll lie and say we only found two!”

    Paddy goes to the vet with his goldfish. “I think it’s got epilepsy” he tells the vet.
    Vet takes a look and says “It seems calm enough to me.”
    Paddy says “I haven’t taken it out of the bowl yet.”

    Paddy spies a letter lying on the doormat.
    It says on the envelope ‘DO NOT BEND ‘.
    Paddy spends the next two hours trying to figure out how to pick the letter up.

    Paddy’s dog goes missing and he’s inconsolable.
    His wife says “Why don’t you put an advert in the paper”.
    He does but two weeks later the dog is still missing.
    “What did you put in the paper” his wife asks.
    “Here Boy” he replies.

    Paddy’s in jail. The Guard looks in and sees him hanging by his feet.
    “What the hell are you doing” he asks.
    “Hanging myself” Paddy replies.
    “It should be round your neck” says the Guard.
    “I know” says Paddy “But I couldn’t breathe”.

    An American tourist asks Paddy “Why do scuba divers always fall backwards off their boat?”.
    Paddy replies ‘If they fell forward, they’d still be in the feckin’ boat”.

    2. True story.
      I worked with many Iorish guys I asked one were he was going for his holiday. He said Tuorkey, oh I said where are you flying from ? He replied iym drivin’.
      Blimey that’s a long way to drive.
      Well it’s only in Devon.

    3. Irish miner who wouldn’t come up to the surface because he couldn’t stand heights

    4. Tom, I fell about when I read about the sweepstake on the Mystery Tour. Hilarious!

  46. Good Moaning.
    Well, the sun was nice while it lasted.
    Mrs. Blackbird is working herself into the ground building a nest. I wonder if she’d like to sort out a couple of boxes for a change?

    2. I stood in my green house with the door open one evening last week listening to the black birds singing, it was wonderful.

  47. Would you credit it! Bankers eh?

    ” As negotiations drag on late on Saturday night local time, Bloomberg reports that liabilities at the Credit Suisse investment bank are proving to be a key sticking point in the takeover talks (“UBS is worried about the balance sheet risk associated with the investment bank, which has suffered a string of losses and scandals in recent years”), with Reuters adding that UBS is asking the Swiss government to cover about $6 billion in costs if it were to buy Credit Suisse. The $6 billion in guarantees “would cover the cost of winding down parts of Credit Suisse and potential litigation charges.”

    There are other snags: one sources cautioned that the talks to resolve the crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse are encountering significant obstacles, and 10,000 jobs may have to be cut if the two banks combine.

    Meanwhile, with UBS facing pressure from the Swiss authorities to carry out a takeover of its local rival as soon as possible to get the crisis under control, the FT reported that Switzerland is preparing to use emergency measures to fast-track the deal, the Financial Times reported, citing two people familiar with the situation.”

    1. Bankers at the London branch of Silicon Valley Bank reportedly received tens of millions of dollars in bonuses just days after the Bank of England orchestrated a rescue package that led to Europe’s largest lender, HSBC, buying the failed bank’s subsidary for just £1, Sky News reports.

      Sources described the bonus pool as “modest”, and said it totalled between £15m and £20m.
      It was unclear on Saturday how much had been awarded to Erin Platts, the UK bank’s chief executive or her senior colleagues.
      One insider said the bonus payments were a signal of HSBC’s confidence in the talent base at its new subsidiary and that the buyer had been keen to honour previously agreed payments in order to help retain key staff. -Sky

      3. It was ever thus.
        It’s been a bad year, give the traders a good bonus to keep them from going to competitors; it’s been a good year give the traders big bonuses to stop them going to competitors.

  48. Making women wage slaves suits everyone well – except women and children, of course

    As American conservative thinker Helen Andrews has said of the post-60s feminist generation: ‘Boomers promised that employment was the only way for women to be fulfilled and independent [but] any socialist could have told them that there is no one more dependent than a wage worker… The net effect has been to restrict the choices of typical women, taking the choice that was making most of them happy and removing it from the set of options.’

    In the new British Democratic Republic, where most of what normal people used to think has now been ruled unacceptable and evil, Ms Andrews can say this (but only just) as she is a woman and lives in the US, where speech is still in many ways more free than it is here. [Is it?]

    I, of course, have no opinions on this, being male. Soon, now all the political parties are in agreement, nobody will be able to dissent.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11876457/PETER-HITCHENS-Making-women-wage-slaves-suits-except-women-children-course.html

    1. I’m glad I stayed at home and looked after my own children till after they started school, and then only worked part time, mostly evenings and weekends. My mother was forced to work full-time when she was widowed, when I was four and had to start school.
      I didn’t mind being a latch-key kid as it did give me a lot of freedom after school hours before she came home at six pm but I don’t think that would be a safe option these days.

      1. My mother was never in professional employment and my elder sister got married at the age of 20 after doing a secretarial course and working in an office in Truro for a couple of years. Since then she has brought up four children and has never had a paying job – she is now 87 and is still far too busy to work for anybody else.

        Let’s face it: when Eve gave into the temptation to eat the apple which the Serpent offered and uxorious Adam, thinking he was acting in solidarity and being sensitively feminist, took a bite of the apple too, God punished all three of them: The Serpent had to
        walk on his belly and eat dust, Eve had to bring forth children in pain but the worst punishment of all was given to Adam – he had to work

        Of course politicians thought they could profit from this and get more tax revenue if women also had to work and many of them were taken in and thought that work was a good thing rather than the punishment which God intended it to be!

        Caroline and I got round the problem by setting up our own business at home. This enabled us to make enough money to live comfortably while both of us were with our children, buy a boat and spend our children’s younger years home-schooling them as we sailed around the Mediterranean returning to France from time to time to replenish the coffers.

        True we had to earn a living and we did it on our own terms. Amazing how many people were so easily conned! And sad that so many women waste away their lives doing boring, soul-dumbingly dull jobs.

      2. My mother did as you did. She was at home until I started school then worked family friendly hours (it isn’t a new thing) in a private company until I went to grammar school.

    2. The state has tried for decades to destroy the nuclear family. With every creeping tax hike it hammers another nail in.

      Because big fat government is a good parent. Litter, truancy, appalling academic outcomes, mass welfare….yeah, going sooo well.

  49. Making women wage slaves suits everyone well – except women and children, of course

    As American conservative thinker Helen Andrews has said of the post-60s feminist generation: ‘Boomers promised that employment was the only way for women to be fulfilled and independent [but] any socialist could have told them that there is no one more dependent than a wage worker… The net effect has been to restrict the choices of typical women, taking the choice that was making most of them happy and removing it from the set of options.’

    In the new British Democratic Republic, where most of what normal people used to think has now been ruled unacceptable and evil, Ms Andrews can say this (but only just) as she is a woman and lives in the US, where speech is still in many ways more free than it is here. [Is it?]

    I, of course, have no opinions on this, being male. Soon, now all the political parties are in agreement, nobody will be able to dissent.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11876457/PETER-HITCHENS-Making-women-wage-slaves-suits-except-women-children-course.html

  50. Making women wage slaves suits everyone well – except women and children, of course

    As American conservative thinker Helen Andrews has said of the post-60s feminist generation: ‘Boomers promised that employment was the only way for women to be fulfilled and independent [but] any socialist could have told them that there is no one more dependent than a wage worker… The net effect has been to restrict the choices of typical women, taking the choice that was making most of them happy and removing it from the set of options.’

    In the new British Democratic Republic, where most of what normal people used to think has now been ruled unacceptable and evil, Ms Andrews can say this (but only just) as she is a woman and lives in the US, where speech is still in many ways more free than it is here. [Is it?]

    I, of course, have no opinions on this, being male. Soon, now all the political parties are in agreement, nobody will be able to dissent.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11876457/PETER-HITCHENS-Making-women-wage-slaves-suits-except-women-children-course.html

    1. 372177+up ticks,

      O2O,

      The letter will stir up many of the political WEF serpents tis I believe a sample of the PEOPLES RESET in action.

      1. The shocking thing about the smug git was that his “BBC Clebs” who joined his protest in “solidarity” are sodding EMPLOYEES of his many companies.

          1. But I’ll bet none of the great unwashed who applauded their “stand” knew the connection.

    2. Immigrants and especially illegal ones – get priority over the indigenous UK population for medical and dental care, luxurious accommodation and food and living allowances. This shows how liberal and caring our politicians are and how they have adapted the biblical instruction to ‘Treat your neighbour as you would treat yourself to ‘Treat your illegally arrived neighbour much better than you treat yourself.’

    3. During my own attempts to have my problems repaired i have discover there are quite a few doctors now working in the UK I’m not sure how much time the have to dedicate to the NHS as part of the deal. But to me they seem be spending more time working in the private sector probably earning vast fortunes. All I get is promises and phone calls. It’s a brick wall.

      1. Afternoon Eddy. The NHS like every other UK institution is essentially dead. Only transfusions of vast sums of taxpayers cash them them going!

    5. It’s not just the currency difference that makes overseas operations cheaper, either. It’s efficiency.

      1. And the cost of having to return when problems arise….

        Think of all those people who went to Turkey (etc etc) to have substantial dental work done – only to find horrible and irrevocable mistakes made which no one in the UK will treat.

    6. Labels a bit awry: Spain/Portugal, and Coatia? Is this factual at all? Free in France, Germany, Austria?

        2. Oh yes it is. The Gambia; The Netherlands; The Bahamas; The United States; THE Ukraine.

          Don’t display your ignorance ALL the time!

  56. Afternoon all. Just back from Community Hospital, CXR for Alf, followed by a walk around our local small lake, really lovely. The usual group of blokes with their radio controlled yachts out.

    Thank you to all who told me about scumbag in chief Andrew Mitchell. I’ve emailed him and my local MP about all the scumbag MPs who either walked out when Andrew Bridgen stood up or weren’t there in the first place.

    Funny the debate was held on a Friday, isn’t that when most of them are “at their constituency offices” listening to their constituents’ grievances?

    Anyway, don’t suppose I’ll get a proper reply from either of them, especially as AM is not my MP.
    Hope you’re all having a really nice day.

  57. One for Oberst…

    I had loads to drink last night, so before I went to work I made sure I
    had plenty of mints just in case anyone could smell alcohol on my
    breath.

    Despite this, within minutes, the Boss came up and told me to leave the
    premises until I’d sobered up.

    “How did you know I was drunk?” I asked

    “You’ve still got a traffic cone on your head.”

    2. In my salad days when at college, several of us went to a pub one evening. Nice pub garden, lovely weather and a few pints of cider. Feeling very festive we headed back to the Res. En route we spotted some roadworks with flashing signs. Just what we needed. So we borrowed one, still flashing and took it with us where it was agreed that the best place for it was outside the housemother’s door. Still flashing orange lights.
      She was not a happy bunny next day.

    1. Clinton did the same with her ‘deplorables’ comment. It’d be more productive to ask Democrat voters why they consistently vote for such appalling policies.

        1. Then maybe asking them, confronting them with the evidence of the failure of socialist policies will shake them out of the cycle.

    1. People are easily manipulated. The more frightened they are, the more obedient they’ll be.

      What I don’t understand is having seen that government lies to them, that those running govt are incompetent, malignant, lazy and egotistic folk are not fighting tooth and nail to stop government entirely, especially the green scam, the appalling wealth destroying budget.

      They have been told what the problem is. Why do they allow it to cause problems?

    2. It’s still going; I saw a couple in a car today fully masked up. I’m only surprised their dachshund wasn’t wearing one, too.

    2. A CV crossed my desk some years ago. High school grades, IT hardware degree, had taken professional training as part of the degree. Spent her gap year working for a telco.

      Called him up for an interview. I spent an hour talking to ‘Charlie’. I offered a job at the end of that conversation. That she is a woman is irrelevant to me. Even less relevant that she is black.

      Could. Not. Care. Less. She’s one of the best people I’ve ever hired, ever worked with, ever. After a while with us she was snapped up by Cisco on a salary we couldn’t hope to match. She hadn’t applied, she’d been headhunted.

      In this day and age you can all too easily lumber yourself with a lazy idiot and never get rid of them. Anyone using bally pronouns in a CV is an idiot.

      2. What is important is that they know their stuff and can work as part of a team. Having pronouns the majority don’t use is likely to cause problems.

        Don’t know why i’m telling you this…

        1. Yep, it all comes down to ‘is this person going to give a stuff about the work.’

          And sometimes we all need to be told!

  62. Since the beginning of the year forecasts of the sales of second hand cars have predicted a fall in prices fuelled by Tesla”s drop in new electric car prices, state subsidies for promoting them and a looming fianancial meltdown. Nowhere has this become so apparent than in China where in Hubei province overstocked second hand car dealers have been smashing up their inventory because it is virtually worthless:

    https://youtu.be/Ovy0FyP97Zs

  65. You will all share my delight that the (fatuous) leaflet for Morning Service today was headed:

    “Mother’s Day”

    3. I didn’t go to church today. I’ll be back (but not at my usual venue) next week.

  66. Suisse Bail’s coming Gnome!

    So much for Credit Suisse thinking it has leverage by balking at the proposed CHF0.25 offer from UBS. Just hours after it was floated that UBS could buy Credit Suisse for $1BN, a proposal which the bank’s shareholders balked at, Bloomberg reported that authorities are now considering a full or partial nationalization of Credit Suisse – an outcome which would wipe out the equity and bail-in bondholders – as the only other viable option outside a UBS Group AG takeover. And yes, 0.25 is still more than 0.0.

    According to BBG, “the country is considering either taking over the bank in full or holding a significant equity stake if a takeover by UBS Group AG falls apart because of the complexities in arranging the deal and the short time frame involved.”

    Needless to say, the situation remains “very fluid” and is changing by the hour as authorities seek to finalize a solution for the bank by the time Asian markets open, which is late evening in Europe, the people said.

    1. Dread Nought
      29 MIN AGO
      And who is the chairman of Credit Suisse’s risk committee? Step forward, Richard Meddings. He is also the chair of ….drum roll…. The NHS!!!!! We are all in safe hands.

      CS’s interest rate derivatives book supposedly on the verge of going thermo nuclear. Some wag thinks that it may be managed by the SNP.

      1. In gaol? Brothel?

        EDIT: Oh, you mean OUR Stormie… Certainly in neither of those venue.

        Didn’t she say somethng about a holiday

          2. Sensible lady.

            Last time i saw Stormy she surprised me with a bottle of Champagne. And no…she didn’t hit me over the head with it.

          4. I just lob empty bottles over the fence into the neighbours garden. I’m sure they are okay with it. They’ve never complained.

  69. The events of the last three years have made me look differently at 1930s Germany. I always thought the Germans were spineless, anti-semitic bastards – the whole lot of them.

    Now I have seen – to my horror, a large proportion of the UK population follow UNQUESTIONINGLY the diktats of a small clique of real, murdering bastards – most of whom we had elected.

    There is really no difference between us… I am overcome with shame.

    1. The Germans i have met have been both friendly and professional. I had lunch with some German friends at the Olympic stadium. The pool and the restaurant are still open. We didn’t mention the war.

      1. Of course. Individuals mainly ARE nice and decent. As one would have said of all the nice and decent people you knew who fell for Project Fear, banged saucepans, wore masks, refused to leave the house – expect to have monthly vaccinations, left deliveries unopened for 48 hours “just in case…”.. the list is endless.

        1. Yes. I had the first two jabs because we just didn’t know. I complied at the beginning with mask wearing but soon stopped. The idiocy of wearing a mask to the dentist then taking it off in the chair. Plus i could see it was more propaganda than following the science.

          The Nazi’s were different in some ways. They didn’t just use propaganda they used violence as well.

          Though quite a few of our police behaved in a similar fashion but not as widespread.

          I know Belle had problems with the plod where she lives but here there was no enforcement.

          1. I had the jabs because – at the time – one was told that one would never be able to leave the country again – EVER – if one didn’t. I gave up masks very early on.

          2. SWMBO & Second Son had the 2 jabs but no more. Firstborn and I, being too rebellious, had no jabs.
            The mask stuff was given away when government said you could have a mask made of anything, even old underpants. So how was a mesh like that supposed to protect?

          3. How are you doing now? Getting used to your device and not overdoing things, I hope.

          4. Thanks for asking – Awful. We’ve run out of gin! And just received a case of tonic yesterday afternoon, as well!
            🙂
            Seriously, though, feeling fine, but a bit tired. Looking forward to being allowed to stand under the shower…
            back at work tomorrow – might leave early if it’s a bit hefty.

          5. Thanks for asking – Awful. We’ve run out of gin! And just received a case of tonic yesterday afternoon, as well!
            🙂
            Seriously, though, feeling fine, but a bit tired. Looking forward to being allowed to stand under the shower…
            back at work tomorrow – might leave early if it’s a bit hefty.

          6. I thank God that our brilliant doctor, Françoise advised Caroline and me not to take the gene therapy and we were wise enough to follow her advice and not the advice of the evil charlatans.

          7. I didn’t get jabbed at all. I thought that if I couldn’t travel, tant pis. Better to stay at home than have some untried concoction injected into my body.

      2. As we were sailing around the Med we met a delightful German couple, Gert and Angelica. Gert was a couple of years older than I being born in 1944.

        The first thing that Gert said to us when we met was that his family had moved to Portugal the year that Hitler came to power in Germany so he was born and brought up in Portugal and ran a successful engineering business in Lisbon. One of their sons studied engineering at Cambridge and the other studied science at Imperial College in London.

        They were a very civilised and cultured couple and they became good friends of ours

        1. My erstwhile German “friend” and fellow radio amateur became very abusive when she found out I had joined UKIP and campaigned for freedom Brexit. Needless to say, we no longer communicate. I dread to think what she would have been like over covid.

    2. One did not succumb ones-self, so not so bad, Bill.
      But it’s certainly an eye-opener.

      1. But we were treated like the relatively few Germans who didn’t care forHilter, the Gestapo, camps etc etc. Pariahs.

        1. Indeed.
          Shrieked at by crazed teacher friend down the phone for even daring to question and suggesting that th vax might not be entirely beneficial remains a low point.

          1. Mother’s friend abandoned her and wouldn’t even call, or shop, or stand outside Mother’s house, because she was “safeguarding” – hastening Mother’s dementia. I was fortunate to find local shopkeepers and tradesmen who were not so in thrall to fear, and I am eternally grateful to the Welsh small trader for that.

          3. Their price was dependent on having a full load to come over here, and that’ll take a while to get together. So, not yet, but we exchange emails occasionally regarding delivery dates, now likely after Easter.

          5. I must repay you for the recommendation, Bill.
            How about I hold off with the insults for a couple of days?
            😉

          7. I was distressed that my son and his otherwise delightful wife turned overnight into FULL Covidians……

            And are now a bit sheepish…but unapologetic.

          8. My oppo at work went full lockdown nazi, saying people should be imprisoned, etc. Asshole.

        2. Remember that Hitler never had majority support. I think most people didn’t like him, but as soon as the Nasties gained power, it rapidly became very risky to oppose them. At the height of the hysteria, it was risky not to be seen to support him!

          1. Quite – my point is that the population (ANY population) is easily turned into zombies.

    3. One did not succumb ones-self, so not so bad, Bill.
      But it’s certainly an eye-opener.

    4. We Nottlers have no need to berate ourselves Bill. We have come through with flying colours. This blog was a stand out from the beginning. It never succumbed to the Elites fearmongering or its lies. Perhaps it is because we are old. We are the last of our kind!

    5. I have lived and worked in Germany on several occasions and found that, apart from the language, of all Europeans they are the closest to us, in temperament but with one big difference (I thought). They blindly obey orders from above.

      It seems we have many with that fault here in the UK.

      1. I was having this conversation with my daughter this morning. She was in Austria for most of the pandemic, and the attitude there in the country was very much to ignore the diktats that came down from on high. They were threatened with mandatory vaxxing, and the government sent every household a letter warning them to get vaxxed or face a fine by a certain date (it was eventually abandoned at the last moment).
        Daughter says most of the people she knew chucked it on the fire!

    6. I’ve always thought we have much in common with the Germans. I used to wonder how such normal people were able to behave in the way they did during the war – though most people just kept their heads down and survived. Now we know how easily governments can get away with murder.

      1. There was a guy in the office one day who was very loudly telling someone on the phone how the Goebbels propaganda programme worked. In every detail it described what we’ve been subjected to in the past three years but he clearly had no self awareness whatsoever. A fellow refusenik colleague and I looked at one another, shook our heads and laughed.

    7. Yes and it appeared to be people that had successful careers and the better educated that fell for it all.
      I can remember people saying that those that hadn’t been jabbed should be banned from working and should have to isolate.

      What prize plonkers they must be feeling now

      1. The really sad thing, Bob, is that they are NOT feeling plonkers. They honestly believe that they were right “at the time” – and that those who objected were (and are) still wrong.

      2. I see no sign of any of these protagonists rethinking their opinions, none at all, and certainly no remorse. Things will just be ignored, because they refuse to admit they wrong and refuse to admit they were fooled all along.

        1. My approach, as always, is not to pay attention to what others say, but to find the data and decide for myself.
          When government official data showed that corvid was less deadly than the flu we suffered a year or two before, using government statistics tracked in spreadsheet (yes, I am that dull), it showed no need to get in such a fluff.
          Norwegian data appended.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b02656470c975d6da665386712be40e4b94d12a075a126c6fe6f1cd8e584d94e.jpg

          And, for the ‘flu, we were told to cough or sneeze into our elbows. That was pretty well all.

          3. I’ve got one of those! One of my Swedish friends gave it to me as a birthday present 🙂

          4. Alf and I decided right away that no proper “vaccine” for an alleged novel virus could possibly be produced within 8/9 months, having been tested rigorously first. There were so many “coincidental” changes, from definition of pandemic, changes to entry of death certificates, the appalling relentless psychological warfare, most western governments reacting with exactly the same restrictions.

            What I still find unbelievable is the fact that, following all the adverse events recorded against the Covid19 experimental gene therapies, the jabs have not even been suspended. The boosters have quietly been dropped for the under 50s but are still available for those considered more vulnerable.

        2. My approach, as always, is not to pay attention to what others say, but to find the data and decide for myself.
          When government official data showed that corvid was less deadly than the flu we suffered a year or two before, using government statistics tracked in spreadsheet (yes, I am that dull), it showed no need to get in such a fluff.
          Norwegian data appended.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b02656470c975d6da665386712be40e4b94d12a075a126c6fe6f1cd8e584d94e.jpg

          And, for the ‘flu, we were told to cough or sneeze into our elbows. That was pretty well all.

      3. Ahem! I had a successful career and I’m highly educated. I didn’t fall for it all. I resisted wearing a mask and was highly sceptical of the whole shebang.

    8. Without wishing to sound a smart A …. i’ve been saying that for the past three years.

    9. I blame Ant and Dec, Strictly, The Soaps, The Archers and the BBC plus the Welfare system, Pizza, Doritos, Walkers Crisps, Coca Cola and Popcorn.

      Edit: On a more serious note it is evident that Big Pharma are running the show. In the past 10 years Fauci had spent over 300 billion dollars of US taxpayer dollars on commissioning drugs from Big Pharma and the Research Institutes and Universities, drugs which are then brought to
      Market and sold back to the taxpayers via government.

      The taxpayer is not only funding the development and production of the drugs but is then paying again when they are launched and become legitimised by government.

      Needless to say the whole system is one gigantic rip-off. It is made more egregious in the case of the Covid vaccines in that Big Pharma have been deliberately granted immunity from prosecution for harms and side effects of their product by the corrupt suppression of readily available cheap therapies and granting of Emergency Use Authorisation for new and untested therapies.

    10. Nowadays you can better understand the average German’s thought processes in the 1930s.

    2. At the cafe I visited, the loo was labelled “inclusive toilet”. It had three pictograms on it! What?

  71. Killer Spuds . . .

    An improbable disaster took place on Thursday March 16 in the Indian city of Sambhal, in the north of the country: at least fourteen people were killed after being buried under a huge quantity of potatoes.
    It was 11:30 a.m. when the roof of a storage warehouse collapsed, dragging down many sacks full of potatoes. They fell on workers who were below. In total, at least twenty-four people were trapped, ten of whom were saved.

    2. Last year, one of our construction sites had a load of pipe fall from a delivery truck onto the driver, as the forklift was unloading it. He died. Terrible business.

        1. Indeed, but bad when it’s stupid. The driver should not have been there, where he could be hit by the falling load.

  72. 372177+ up ticks,

    Coming soon

    breitbart,

    Keep up the same voting pattern in the United Kingdom and we will soonly be wearing mandatory earlobe tags.

    Great Reset: EU Vote to Implement Digital ID Latest Step in the ‘Chinaficaiton of Europe’ – MEP

  73. 372177+ up ticks,

    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    3h
    The truth is coming out now – what we knew anyway. Fauci helped fund the covid gain of function research & the whole system is corrupt. You know, all the ‘conspiracy theory’ stuff refuted by the MSM.

    We in England we should have patriotic leaders who confirmed this all to us at the beginning of the scamdemic & pursued their own policies.
    They didn’t because they are all either controlled, intimidated or corrupt. The whole world is the same, & it is made possible by the Globalist scum MSM.

    https://gettr.com/post/p2bxiik41c7

    1. But what can be done about it? We still feel unable to discuss it with our children and their children, all of whom have had the experimental gene therapies. Writing to one’s MP is useless, especially when you think of Fridays disgraceful behaviour in the HoC. Any suggestions anyone?

      1. You have to lead them to it gently. Show them something you have ‘just’ discovered and let them wander towards the rabbit holes themselves. Or whenever something is in the MSM which confirms yet another ‘conspiracy’ truth comment that we knew about that 2 or 3 years ago and wait for the questions.

        The MPs are a different problem but they will crumble if more and more of us keep bringing things to their attention.

        1. 372177+ up ticks,

          Evening FM,

          Them receiving a picture of Boycott might hit the spot especially when a multitude receive the same snap.

        2. The MPs are a different problem but they will crumble if more and more of us keep bringing them to the attention of the public…

        3. Powerful words. Unfortunately, not many MPs around at the time will remain after the next election. The opposition will just shout, not us gov. Did I hear the last estimate for the covid enquiry to be 7 years, absolutely shocking.

  77. I found my first grey pubic hair today.
    Normally these things don’t bother me, but it was on my pizza.

  78. I saw a one-legged man at the cash machine today.
    He was checking his balance 😉

  79. I saw a one-legged man at the cash machine today.
    He was checking his balance 😉

  80. Here’s one for you: Every “c” in the word “Pacific” is pronounced differently…

  81. Signing off, now. I’ll watch the MR treat herself to a glass of wine (she allows Sunday as a non-Lent fasting day). Chicken for supper.

    First seedling (sown on Thursday) appeared in the greenhouse. I HOPE I have dealt with the auto-vents. They wee designed by a man with four hands or, more likely, a man who had another man to fit the sodding things for him! A hot day will reveal all.

    Have a jolly evening imagining giving red cards to Saffer referees.

    A demain.

    1. Of course Sundays aren’t fast days, they are Holy Days (holidays). I’ve been downing a few drinks and having mocha coffees (both of which I’ve given up for Lent).

  82. Watching the BBC nature programme I’ve concluded that the answer to the gimmegrants in dinghies is trained Orcas.

  83. Par Four today.

    Wordle 638 4/6
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Bogey for me.
      Wordle 638 5/6

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

    2. I got a three but this isn’t the English spelling of the word. Will it set a precedent, I wonder?

      Wordle 638 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟨🟩🟨🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  84. The BBC is presenting Dog hotels to get people into the office.

    I take Mongo to work with me. Even when he’s asleep under my desk – most of the time – He’s the biggest distraction going! Every bugger wants to make a fuss of the great beast!

      1. Yes, but if you forget you’ll lose feeling in them due to his weight. He’s lovely, and has a tendency to lean on people he likes. Prob is, not everyone is me, so most folk just fall over.

          1. #Me too- I love big dogs. My Fred was a very large Golden and a total goof. Lovely boy.

          2. One day maybe we’ll all get together and I shall bring his largeness along. I tried to upload a photos but got a ‘you have to be logged in’ – and I was! He’s a lovely fellow, but when excited his tail and clear a table of pints.

          5. We had 3 lovely Freds (pure lab/lab retriever cross/pure retriever) when i was growing up. Fred I was bonkers apparently – I don’t remember him, he had to “go” he was so bad/mad – and that was the 60s.

    3. “Every bugger wants to make a fuss of the great beast!”

      Please reassure me that you are simply talking about a canine companion.

    4. I called in at a dog friendly cafe this afternoon. As I went back to my car there was a chap going back to where his huge St Bernard occupied most of the space in his automobile. I couldn’t help thinking, “that’s a Mongo type dog!” It wasn’t a Newfie, though.

      1. “UBS will pay more than 0.50 francs ($0.5401) a share in its own stock, far below Credit Suisse’s closing price of 1.86 francs on Friday, FT reported, citing sources.”

        According to the report, UBS has agreed to a softening of a material adverse change clause that would void the deal if its credit default spreads jump.

      2. Your gold will maintain its value but rise slightly in price.

        My suspicion is that several British financial institutions are suffering from liquidity challenges.

        Interest rates will remain unchanged this week.
        Bank auditors will remain under house arrest.

        1. A moment ago I was suffering a liquidity crisis solved by another shot of Whisky & H2O

    2. UBS has upped their offer to 2 billion and the CS board have accepted coz the SNB told CS that the alternative was nationalisation for zero payout.

      It will still be chaotic on Monday morning in derivatives and bank stocks

      1. Aye the Warqueen’s share are tanking now. The entire stockmarket is in chaos. Even my daft Vanguard ISA is in the negative.

          2. To me that was a ‘fruit machine’ company, operating out of Cardiff, for whom I worked (Jones Parker, Monks)

          4. To me that was a ‘fruit machine’ company, operating out of Cardiff, for whom I worked (Jones Parker, Monks)

    3. In a real market economy, Credit Suisse would fail, or seek options of private credit.

      Of course, in a real market economy banks wouldn’t buy legislation and regullation from the EU to ensure smaller competitors were kept out.

      In a real market economy, the regulator would be all over them before they became problematic.

          1. Quite. Aeons ago, I avidly read Custom Car magazine every month. F1 was inevitably dismissed as “boring roundy-round” – I find it hard to disagree.

    2. At least we can safely answer the question, what is black with wheels. An F1 race car being the answer for the age.

      1. Mrs Thatcher said, at her first election, that sorting out the economy would be painful and take a long time.

  90. That’s me for tonight. Zed time. Back to the office tomorrow, won’t that be fun? Several meetings to endure, so not much work really.
    Bis später!

    4. Meeting, meetings.
      Where one person takes the minutes and the rest waste hours.

  91. Good night, chums. Tomorrow starts a new week. (Which ends in British Summer Time.)

    1. Can’t wait for Summer – especially here in the cold, cold North.

      Judy, think again.

  92. Good night, chums. Tomorrow starts a new week. (Which ends in British Summer Time.)

      1. Not mine I’m afraid. Would cost around £220,000 new but all mod cons for that money…

      3. I’ve waited years to be able to use that response (sans been).

        Rather like the chap who spends his life in pubs, waiting for another customer to opine “Like rain, isn’t it?” Whereupon our chap looks carefully at his pint glass, and responds “Yes, it is, with just a faint taste of hops.”

    2. A great Writer and Poet.

      So under- subscribed today.

      He understood what Britain was – then

    3. I’ve just come into possession of a pukka kukri from our (sort of) adopted second daughter, after her 7 month secondment in Nepal. Kipling’s ‘The Man Who Would Be King’ has been on my mind. The weapon is an amazing thing. I almost cried when she produced it. No idea how she got it to the UK without being arrested.

  96. Evening, all. Why would they not come here? We’re a soft touch. Once they’re here (aided and abetted by the RNLI) they have struck gold. Despite being illegal, they won’t be deported, but instead they’ll be put up in 5* accommodation and showered with benefits paid for by people who are taxed so much they can barely make ends meet (see https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/spring_budget_2023_five_things_you_need_to_know for an analysis of the state we’re in regarding taxation).

    1. It also appears to help your case to stay if you commit a heinous crime and claim you will be treated badly if sent home. You really couldn’t make this stuff up.

  97. A South African accountant who was investigating high-level corruption cases has been shot dead along with his son.
    Cloete Murray, 50, was the liquidator for Bosasa, a company implicated in numerous government contract scandals.
    He also worked as a liquidator for firms linked to the wealthy Gupta brothers, who deny bribery accusations.
    Police will see if there is a link between Mr Murray’s murder and these corruption investigations.
    Mr Murray was shot by unknown gunmen while driving in Johannesburg with his 28-year-old son Thomas, a legal adviser, on Saturday.
    His son died at the scene while Mr Murray was taken to hospital and later died of his injuries, local media reported, citing a police spokesperson.
    The pair were driving their white Toyota Prado towards their home in Pretoria, South African media reported.
    Mr Murray’s job as a court-appointed company liquidator was to look into the accounts of firms that had folded, recover assets, and report any criminality.
    One of those companies was Bosasa, a government contractor specialising in prison services.

        1. She gave away a large smelting plant and a slice of prime Highland estate to Sanjeev Gupta. For £1 I believe. He never reopened the smelter!

  98. Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolks.

    I just hope to get my car back in Morgan fruh, and be able to do the comestibles shopping that needs must.

    1. Goodnight, Tom. Should the car not return, you might consider buying comestibles online. At short notice, down here in these Surrey parts, we have Amazon Fresh. I doubt whether they have reached Moffat. But most of the supermarkets will have you covered. And, at the height of lockdown, when every bastard muscled in on my usual grocer’s time slots, I discovered that Iceland deliver. Which was a lifesaver at times…

      1. Thank you, Geoff for that heads up. Being a fiercely independent sort of chap, I prefer to fend for myself but will, willingly take advice from those who’ve been there, done that sort of thing.

        I shall wait and see what the local back-street abortionist may do for my vehicle.

      2. You may well find the small local grocer will take orders and deliver. Valley View were the only food shop in Wales who would deliver to Mother at the start of lockdown – none of the others (Tesco, Sainsburys, etc) had slots, or accepted non-UK Visa cards.

  100. Tory councillor suspended over ‘I don’t want Pride sex flags’ post
    Angela Kilmartin has been suspended from the local Conservative group for 21 days, pending further investigation
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/19/dont-want-pride-sex-flags-post-leads-suspension-tory-councillor/

    Is there a competition being run to see who can destroy the Conservative Party the most effectively or is this the sound of the rattle of the party in its death throes?

    BTL

    Are the members of the Conservative Party who have banned this woman the same ones as those who find it quite acceptable for homosexual drag artists to read stories to children and put on sexualised displays in schools?

    1. I understand yours and Angela Kilmartin’s frustration over this issues, where blind eyes are turned to heinous crimes, daily.

  101. Brexit deal will go ahead with or without support of DUP, promises Downing Street
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/03/19/brexit-deal-will-go-ahead-without-support-dup-promises-downing/

    Is this a promise or a threat? Either way it is nothing short of betrayal.

    I hope and pray that Sunak is deposed and imprisoned for high treason and that the Windsor Surrender to the EU Agreement is destroyed and never brought back in any form.

    BTL

    Nobody should agree to a deal which gives the ECJ superior authority over British Law in UK sovereign territory.
    In my opinion Sunak is guilty of high treason and should be put on trial.

    1. Remember Rhodesia and UDI?

      Maybe Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should each make their own separate Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

      Barbados seems to have done that recently and deposed the British monarchy.

        2. Well, bought the Premier. Not sure the rest of the population was involved in the decision

    2. As with that other diminutive WEF puppet Macron in France, where his pension reforms have caused mass protests nationwide, tyrants simply bypass government debate and assume executive powers.

      Macron and Sunak are cut from the same stinking cloth. They are both foreign agents bought by Rothschild and the globalist cabal.

      Blair regrettably abolished the crime of Treason. That is not to say that a subsequent government could not reinstate it by legislation/statute.

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