Sunday 2 February: A dogmatic approach to fossil fuels is bad for the economy – and the environment

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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617 thoughts on “Sunday 2 February: A dogmatic approach to fossil fuels is bad for the economy – and the environment”

    2. What he is doing is probably a treasonable offence aimed with hate specifically at the tax payer's of the British Isles.

    3. We must remember how evil British colonial empire was!

      Since the British left the Sudan there has been endless civil war, economic collapse, genocide, plague, famine, decaying infrastructure and partition.

  5. Morning, all Y'all. Chilly night, open sky, beginning to look like its clouding over.

  7. Police in Wales appeal for calm after three officers hurt in ‘violent struggle’. 2 February 2025.

    Ch Supt Stephen Jones said: “I appreciate that this will have caused understandable shock and concern in the local community. However, I would like to make it clear that there is nothing to suggest that there is any wider threat to the public.”

    Police said the motive for the incident was still unclear but that there was no wider threat to the public.

    Alex Davies-Jones, the Welsh Labour MP for Pontypridd, called for people to be mindful of speculation or misinformation while police carried out investigations.

    Why would they call for that? The vast majority would know nothing about it. Unless of course there is much more to it than a local fracas?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/01/police-in-wales-appeal-for-calm-after-three-officers-hurt-in-violent-struggle-rhondda-cynon-taf

    2. If only there was a clue..
      Move to welcome up to 50 Syrian refugees to Rhondda Cynon Taf..

    3. Just to say, that's my local cop shop. I hasten to add, I am not writing from a cell. No further info.

  9. Good morning all!
    A dry start to the day, if somewhat overcast. No discernible breeze and 4°C outside.
    Yesterday's max was 7°C and a min of 3½°C

      1. Not sure. After the first shock, it's all gone quiet – I assume Labour are trying to get together a replacement partner. Meanwhile, they lie about their wonderful fixed price deal… they talk about 40 øre a kWh, but that's without the MVA – so, really. 50 øre/kWh. When challenged, they said "but everyone talks about electricity prices without the 25% MVA" – no, they effing don't!

        1. What surprised me was the fact that a country which had, prima facie, the best model in the world for running a very successful and rich country (ostensibly the richest on the planet, per capita), had its citizens voting for a socialist coalition government to continue running it! That seemed tantamount to shooting itself in the foot to me.

          I was hoping that Norway — and the similarly recently-misguided Denmark — might teach Sweden a thing-or-two about how to run a country successfully. Seems I had the rug pulled from under my feet.

          1. I hoped Norway wouldn't be beset by all the woke problems, and to be fair, we seem to have dodged the worst of them to date. But there's a very strong attitude that it isn't fair that some people have lots of money and some don't, so the rich must be poorer to match the poorer. Accident of birth, ability to work hard and take some personal risk aren't factors, of course. Now, as part of that, we have gimmegrants to the extent that stabby-stabby is kicking off. Oh, good. Strangely, Norwegians have welcomed Ukrainian refugees, who are no problem at all, it's the Arabs and Africans who are the problem.
            It's the kind of folk who vote liebour that cause the problem.

  11. SIR – I cannot understand why an intelligent person such as Ed Miliband, the Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary, doesn’t realise that we are exporting most of our carbon emissions (“The global shift forcing Britain to change course on net zero”, Business, January 26).

    Would it not be more sensible to extract and use our own fossil fuels, which could be exploited relatively cleanly, and show the rest of the world how to do it, rather than destroying our economy?

    Tim Southern
    Hartley Wintney, Hampshire

    Not only are you a dozy southerner, Timid, you advertise that fact with your surname.😉

    Your — otherwise reasonable — letter failed on the first clause of its initial sentence.

    2. the ability to learn, understand, and make judgments or have opinions that are based on reason:

      Miliband's educational record indicates that he can learn 'stuff' but putting it to good use is another skill entirely.

      I met a number of people who could memorise facts and circuit diagrams etc. that enabled them to pass examinations but put them in a telephone exchange and ask them to clear a fault and they were clueless.

      1. Morning, Korky.

        Indeed. If more evidence were ever needed, that politicians (especially of the Left) are mere chancers who understand nothing about how the world really works, then this provides it.

      2. Our grandson does not enjoy reading or writing.
        He does it under duress.
        However, give him a practical job – with or without instruction manual – and the job is done quickly and neatly.
        The Danish side of the family are ship builders, so it's probably hereditary. He's also a damn good cook, so there is some English family input via his uncle.

      3. Hm, yes. I am one such; I got a distinction in both parts of my radio amateurs exam, but when it comes to building things or fault finding I am, to put it bluntly, inept#1

      1. I don't think he's stupid, and of course he knows what the results of "Net Zero" will be for the UK. He's not stupid, he's evil. His aim is the destruction of our country and our way of life.

        1. I have posted this before but I know a lady who taught Ed at kindergarten level. She is a very kind, Christian woman, not given to mean or derogatory comments so her comment on Ed should be interpreted as extreme understatement . After saying how amazed she was to find him becoming Labour leader back in 2010 (or whenever) she said “ He was a very ordinary little boy.”
          Clearly a late developer.

          1. I expect he was ordinary then. Now look at him…..deranged. Hell-bent on destroying our country.

        2. I think in this case you are right.
          His obsession – his monomania – has pushed him over the edge. He has become mad and doesn't care about the effects of his delusion on others as long as he gets his way.
          Rather like sitting in a bunker and deploying non-existent troops against the enemy.
          His brother is a grifter but appears to be fairly sane; I wonder what relations were like between the two when they were boys?

          1. Ed, as the younger boy, would always have been in the elder one’s shadow. He has a fixation, sadly for the rest of us, and it has rendered him quite deranged.

  13. Good morning, all. Light frost with a sunny day forecast. Must get the washing on, blueberry bushes and Muller-Thurgau grape to prune later.

    Thoughts? Comments are very supportive.

    With Reform looking good in the current polls and Labour allegedly taking steps to make an attack on Reform a priority, is now the moment in time for Farage to show a bit more political acumen and cease his criticism of Robinson? The Country needs all peaceful populist groups to come together and fight this disgusting globalist Labour government. The situation is such that egos should be irrelevant.

    https://x.com/TkeMedia/status/1885786356653113371

    1. I don't know if you're looking to buy any tree or shrubs, but MB and I have been very impressed with what we have bought from a company called Ornamental Trees.
      Excellent condition, good size (not the the usual trick of bottom of the size range) and very well packed.
      So far, we have bought a witch hazel – which is showing the best blooms we have ever seen – a camellia to give to the nursing home in memory of Elderly Chum, a couple of red acers and a morello cherry tree.
      All in tip top condition.

      https://www.ornamental-trees.co.uk/

        1. Very lovely! My forsythia is just starting to appear after the attentions of tree man!

    1. Tom hasn't posted since last Wednesday when he announced he was back from hospital. I think he might be ill again and possibly back there.

        1. Sue Mac might know…… I don't think Richard has come back to us since he closed his account.

          1. I’m afraid I don’t but I’ll give him a ring! I passed Moffat twice on the way to Mrs Bees funeral but didn’t have time to pop in and see him!

    2. Tom hasn't posted since last Wednesday when he announced he was back from hospital. I think he might be ill again and possibly back there.

  15. Call me old-fashioned (and out of date) but I think the rugby TMO system, where a bloke in a blazer can overturn a perfectly good try just as the conversion is to be attempted – is NUTS.

    Chilly start to the day but there IS sunshine around.

      1. The television match official (TMO) has been in place in rugby union for more than two decades.
        The official is a crucial member of the matchday refereeing team, helping the on-field referee and assistants make decisions.
        The TMO has access to all game footage on television screens in front of them, and is usually situated in a truck outside of the ground.

        1. Yet still they manage to notice something that is minimal to highly debatable yet to miss something that is barn-door obvious.

    2. They also seem to have invented some new rules that don't seem to meet the requirements of a very physical tough and humanly testing game. Surely now the scrummaging is out of context. I think I'll prefer the league version before much longer.

    4. Doesn’t that depend on which side scored the try? 😉
      The overwhelming need is for consistency and equal treatment of both sides. For example , when a referee says that the next time a player pushes another one after the whistle goes, that player will be carded, he needs to be prepared to wield the card. Otherwise it leaves the impression that he would have done so, had the player not worn a green jersey.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunrise but very frosty. At least the skies are clear. It must be the lack of international flights on Sunday's. Or just a sun day.
    Perhaps our government should send the millipede to the middle east and China to advise them on 'saving' the planet.

  17. I remember a very nice chap who with his lady was one of the people I and others, shared a large house with.
    He was very intelligent with a very high ranking job in the early Internet technologies world.
    But anything practical seemed beyond his capabilities.
    Socially a decent person but never really had a recognisable sense of humour.
    Perhaps that's the problem with millibund.

  18. Good morning all, 7°C breezy with rain inbound on the Costa Clyde. I'm enjoying watching Trump take a chainsaw to 'Black History Month' et al. Of course, he's not actually banning any of the 'celebrations', he's merely cut off taxpayer funding. It's on a par with, why do government cuts in taxpayer funding affect NGOs?

    1. A complaint about BHM (Black History Month) in UK will guarantee that you have a 'holiday' in a Prison

  19. Artificial Intelligence?
    A couple of weeks ago TTK was trumpeting that Britain would become the AI capital of the World. This morning I hear that possessing AI software tools that can be and have been used to generate images of child abuse may result in prosecution.

    In the 1980s I headed a team of 15 Analyst-Programmers, some of whom wrote specialist code including early Expert Systems for diagnosing the contamination of oil storage tanks. An early example of Artificial Intelligence, similar to the systems used to triage callers who phone 111 for help.

    As usual, we have a knee-jerk response from a government that thinks the plod can just bone up on AI and they’ll be able to tell straight away if you’re carrying AI tools, even if you’ve never used them to produce such horrid images.

    The Toolmaker strikes again. Words fail me.

      1. Going Equipped
        I understand that there is a crime called "Going Equipped". It is defined thus: 'You have an item in your possession that you intend to use for burglary, theft, or other dishonest activity'. Even common-or-garden Microsoft Word or Notepad can be used to write AI-generating code or other programs. So does that mean that anybody possessing these software application programs can be hauled up for it? That's an awful lotta people!

        1. Of course it's a catch-all. It could be used expeditiously to entrap troublesome political dissidents in much the same spirit they redefined mental disorder to justify sending anyone they did not like the the gulag, or at the very least making their life wretched.

          Simple thinking about a "hate crime" is sufficient to condemn you, and I don't need to preach to the converted here to suggest what might happen if Muslims start to apply the law.

          A campaign against paedophilia has for quite a while been used as a pretext for a witch hunt.

          1. Tame psychiatrists treating "mentally ill" dissidents with Haloperidol and no anti-parkinsonism drugs.

      2. I would be delighted if the front bench displayed any form of intelligence rather than human stupidity.

          1. I’m halfway reading Douglas Murray’s book “The War on the West” and he paints a good picture why we are in such a mess. For years, academia, established religion, education and judges have done all they can to promote woke thinking ie, stupidity.

      3. Living in a farming area, it, to me means they were all produced by artificial insemination. Looking at them, it is no real surprise.

  20. Artificial Intelligence?
    A couple of weeks ago TTK was trumpeting that Britain would become the AI capital of the World. This morning I hear that possessing AI software tools that can be and have been used to generate images of child abuse may result in prosecution.

    In the 1980s I headed a team of 15 Analyst-Programmers, some of whom wrote specialist code including early Expert Systems for diagnosing the contamination of oil storage tanks. An early example of Artificial Intelligence, similar to the systems used to triage callers who phone 111 for help.

    As usual, we have a knee-jerk response from a government that thinks the plod can just bone up on AI and they’ll be able to tell straight away if you’re carrying AI tools, even if you’ve never used them to produce such horrid images.

    The Toolmaker strikes again. Words fail me.

  21. Britain is inexorably lurching towards total bankruptcy. I know who is really to blame
    The ever-increasing weight of officialdom is dragging our country into a pit that even the boldest growth plan can’t escape
    Daniel Hannan : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/01/britain-inexorably-lurching-towards-total-bankruptcy/

    BTL

    And don't forget the extremely evil Mrs May's part in the destruction of the UK economy by making her commitment to net zero.

    She not only hates the nasty Conservative Party (which she has destroyed) she also hates the British people. Yes she is deeply evil.

    1. Not forgetting call me Dave.
      All those words about bonfire of the Quangos another of his empty promises.

      1. He's not the only one where Quangos are concerned. When their mouths are moving, Alf. I'm firmly of the opinion the CS runs things, not much point voting/listening to policies if so. As for Brexit – 'you'll never leave'. Pox on all their houses,

    2. Mrs May might have been incompetent and foolish but calling her evil is to degrade the meaning of the word. Equating her to Hitler, Stalin, Pop Pot or Mugabe simply undermines whatever is left of British common sense.

    3. Indeed. She signed the UN Migration pact and tried to keep it a secret. She is in it up to her neck.

  23. Good morning all

    Life hurts at the moment .

    This country is going to end up like Greece , remember how bankrupt they were /are .

    Councils are going bankrupt , the lib dem spread in addition is causing lots of problems .

    Water bills and council tax , insurances , the whole lot are causing great financial pain .

    This government are a rogue cruel brainless set of individuals ..

    The Hippocratic Oath contains these principles and many others, such as gratitude, compassion, justice, honesty, humbleness, sanctity, integrity, confidentiality, fidelity to the bond, and respect for human life and dignity.

    “First, do no harm”

    This government is harming us all , don't they have any integrity and respect for us?

        1. Starmer needs to be shot. He really doens't seem to understand: the criminal vermin must go, not be permitted to stay in any fashion whatsoever.

    3. What annoys most about council tax is that when councils decide to hike taxes they can just appeal to government to nullify the referendum. Obviously that's the point, the sham of democracy but why then are the management not sacked? Councils have no product, no risk, no marketing, no stock. Their income is force backed, of a fixed income. If you don't like the product or don't use all of it, tough. You pay anyway. Worse, those not contributing are given ever more money.

      It's for the old people – hogwash. There are 7 people on Hampshire CC who are paid – they don't earn – over 150K a year. Sack them. They've bounced from one council to the next, always leaving within 2 years, never being held accountable. They clearly are not worth what they expect to be paid.

      If there isn't enough money for elderly care then that is a failure to plan ahead and both big government and local councils are, therefore, incompetent and those respnsible sacked.

      But no one ever is, are they? No one ever suffers because of government incompetence except the tax payer, who is sent the bill.

  24. Good morning all

    Life hurts at the moment .

    This country is going to end up like Greece , remember how bankrupt they were /are .

    Councils are going bankrupt , the lib dem spread in addition is causing lots of problems .

    Water bills and council tax , insurances , the whole lot are causing great financial pain .

    This government are a rogue cruel brainless set of individuals ..

    The Hippocratic Oath contains these principles and many others, such as gratitude, compassion, justice, honesty, humbleness, sanctity, integrity, confidentiality, fidelity to the bond, and respect for human life and dignity.

    “First, do no harm”

    This government is harming us all , don't they have any integrity and respect for us?

  25. Ed Davey is an idiot ..
    Ed Davey is an idiot
    Ed Davey is an idiot .

    Keir/Keith Starmer is a traitor .

    No one is holding this government to account .

  26. Excellent! There were more than 80 choices of words after the first attempt:
    Wordle 1,324 2/6

    ⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Clever clogs !

      These are too easy for you.

      Give us the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything.

  27. It's a few years since a Labour MP said the Home Office was not fit for purpose. Now we learn there is a 700 member Muslim Network in the Home Office. Sack the lot!

    1. Completely agree, Delboy. Finally dawned on me, thicko that I am…where the huge vote for Labour has come from. I know people who don’t vote because they’re so sick of everything…they’re going to have to put up with me nagging at them until next GE…..

        1. I have family members who’ve never voted before until Brexit – they now think it was never going to happen and will likely never vote again, sceptical about all politicians and parties. Remember Lord Sutch/Raving Loony Party, that was a protest vote I think?

  28. Reform UK can win scores of Labour seats in England and Wales, says study. 2 February 2025.

    Labour faces losing scores of seats to Reform UK across England and Wales as a widening section of ¬voters lose faith in the mainstream parties, according to a new analysis seen by the Observer.

    With senior figures in the Labour party now privately talking about a “change of era” in which more ¬moderate voters are turning to Nigel Farage’s party, new research on Reform’s influence suggests it will take far more seats from Labour than from the Conservatives on -current trends.

    The question is of course would an elected Reform Government be capable of reversing the last twenty years? This seems unlikely. It would require a Donald Trump. Nigel Farage is a much more emollient figure and the UK’s Political System militates against change of any kind. Perhaps the total collapse of the present order would be desirable from a Reform Point of view?

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/02/reform-uk-can-win-scores-of-labour-seats-in-england-and-wales-says-study

    1. Sadly; given the present situation, I just cannot see how – short of mass insurrection – the damage of the past thirty years can be reversed.

    2. For all his populist rhetoric, Farage showed himself up as an appeaser, simply to be deemed "electable" by the PTB. It started with the expulsion of Godfrey Bloom and David Silvester, the freezing-out of Tommy Robinson and the sucking up to the Davos set. Such a pity, given his redbloodedness when taking on the EU Commission.

      The other issue with Farage is best expressed in terms of a horrible bit of manager-speak: he is not a team player and falls out with far too much promising talent that ought to be brought on, not only to ensure the succession but also to provide sufficient lieutenants to run a party, and one which can excel rather than do others' bidding.

      I must add too that creating a party as a Thatcher tribute is not good enough. Even the real Iron Lady only managed the same popular vote as Theresa May in 2017, and largely owed her power to a divided Opposition. Today, the Opposition is even more divided than ever, leading to a landslide in Parliament on a 35% popular vote, which is a disgrace.

      There are very many more Labour MPs to unseat than Tories or Liberal Democrats, and is to the Left that any reforming party needs to appeal, regardless of the heavily Conservative roots of Reform UK. No more harping about "lefties" therefore. Better surely to rework the fundamental principles of socialist idealism in terms of the benefits a free market and a free people can deliver and provide. We are all in it together, and we are all better off working together for the good of all. Leave the theorising about "dialectic materialism" to the loonies with nothing better to do, and as for woke – recognise that as what it truly is – a cynical manipulation by the Right to discredit the Left, sure in the knowledge that the stupid fell for this ruse.

      The other ally are the Greens – they are not the enemy, but an essential force to appeal to disgruntled Labour voters who do not wish to be associated in any way with Farage, Trump or Musk. Furthermore, their concern for the wellbeing of all, for the environment that is our home, and to make the world a better place is something to be admired, not derided. What is at fault is the way they are going about it – there are surely more effective ways to achieve what they desire with all their hearts. There must surely be a place in Reform for national heritage, for business niches beyond Premier League football and unsustainable battery SUVs, and yes even for newts, bats and hedgehogs (Starmer, please take note of the last one!).

        1. The first political party I subscribed to was the Ecology Party, but I’ve never been a socialist, inside or out. Best way to describe me is a putty off-white outside and vomit-coloured inside.

      2. The Greens though, are not remotely interested in the environment or ecology. To them, 'green' is simply a weapon for social control. That's what the Left want: power, at any cost. It isn't about acheving any grand vaunted goal. It's about getting power over other people.

        1. You presume that the Green Party is unique in having a unified conforming philosophy, and there are no branches within the party that disagree with its political approach. I’ve never seen a party like that since the National Socialists, and even they argued ferociously behind closed doors.

          I do remember Natalie Bennett, who resembled Julia Gillard in so many ways, going through an election campaign, leader of the Green Party, without mentioning the environment. Plenty about cardboard housing estates for pushy migrants though!

          All is not as you suggest though. Where I live, the Greens did rather well at district level, on a platform of support for small local businesses, as well as an endearing streak of romantic neopaganism that is harmless and rather charming. So much so, they have united the Conservative and Labour parties on a common platform to abolish district councils and to cancel elections, lest the “serious” parties lose control. The supremely bovine Ellie Chowns MP, next door, is there mostly because she likes being paid to natter with local people about their troubles, and I doubt that part of Herefordshire would put up with any politician more zealous than the offspring of their prime bull.

    3. Wishful thinking.
      Four and a half years until the next election. A lot can happen in that time.

    1. The Roman church's custom of blessing candles by the clergy found its way to Germany. The German conclusion that if the sun appeared on Candlemas, a hedgehog would cast a shadow, making a "second winter" – Groundhog Day! Many of Pennsylvania's early settlers were German.

      1. Thank you. That is exactly the sort of factoid that will stick in my brain. All I need now is a pub quiz.

    1. Everything Starmer does is wrong. He doesn't know why it's wrong, he doesn't really care. He makes the wrong decision reflexively.

      But then, so did the Tories. For 14 miserable years, every single decision they could have made was the wrong one forcing us in the wrong direction.

      1. I recall a spoof TV car ad. in the 1980s that went something like "Engineered by Germans, designed by French, driven by Italians…"

        At this point the car was indeed upside-down.

      2. My top two are 'less' instead of 'fewer' and using plurals with collective nouns 'The Government are…The NHS are… etc.

        There wouldn't be space on t'internet to write my full list.

  33. 400935+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 2 February: A dogmatic approach to fossil fuels is bad for the economy – and the environment

    reality,

    Sunday 2 February: A dogmatic approach to fossil fuels is bad for the economy – and the environment
    and silly us, abusing "Lest we forget "again by forgetting to include the elderly front & centre.

    Then heat or eat enters the equation at £12.50 / 20 kg min 2 bags, or from the yard the two bags min is waived, finance for this product has been withdrawn by the sitting political treacherous, odious, dictatorship, with culling indigenous elderly high on their agenda.
    This way of life we have inherited has its roots as far back as four decades ago, brought into fruition by the
    dedicated tribal voter, continuing to put party name (ino) before Country needs.

  34. French railways go to war with boars after population explosion causes chaos
    SNCF take on the sangliers as the wild animals collide with trains creating delays and posing serious security threat
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/02/02/french-railways-war-boars-population-rise-chaos/

    BTL

    Hunters are not allowed to shoot boars near the tracks for obvious security reasons. Indeed, there were 90 accidental shootings of people during the 2021-22 season, and eight deaths.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af3a6648bad62230b9c74858332e9708b369155d3d116e8a2ffe06359684c4f9.png
    Reminds me of Tom Lehrer's song:

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

    2. Boar population: as an incentive to la Chasse, the carcasses should be bought by the State and then the meat could be used to feed people in hospitals and prisons.

    3. I think there was talk of introducing boars to English woods, some years ago. Didn't happen. We got bores instead, they appear weekly HoC.

        2. I remember a couple of years ago the leftie journo on BBc Country File was blaming a pack of domestic dogs because some sheep had been attacked killed and partly eaten. Perhaps he hadn't realise that domestic dogs don't hunt in packs.
          He don't seem to be present anymore.

          1. Domestic dogs are still pack animals. Get a group together and you'll soon see them revert to wolf mentality.

          2. The chance of domestic dogs getting together and attacking sheep in the UK Conners is, you have to admit would be millions to one.
            I spent a few weeks with mates with our rifles on sheep stations next to Narran lakes NE NSW helping farmers get rid of wild boar. Not indigenous but lethal during the lambing season. Attracted by the smell of new birth the boar move in and kill the new borns and eat them.
            The boar were originally introduced from the northern islands. Australia has made many mistakes with their current wildlife.

      2. Boars need wolves. Nature, you see, likes equilibrium. Too many boars, wolves proflierate. Too few, they die away leading to more boars.

        It's almost as if nature is self healing. The only species that can disrupt this is humans, because we're able to overcome the limitations of our environment.

        However, just because we can, doesn't mean we should.

        1. Agree especially last sentence – in so many other issues. Wolves would mean sheep farmers protests. I follow a group in Wyoming, trying to save wolves – farmers/hunters regularly kill them by shooting, although I think the wolves are protected by law to some degree – how that would be policed, no idea.

        2. I remember that, think they must all have been shot/captured before they came this far North – Richmond seemed to be the nearest.

    1. I have to take ALDI's word for it.
      However, Spartie is smitten. So much so, he's already chewed through one arm.

      1. I bought Dolly a squeaky squid but when i left her with the breeder one of the other chihuahuas commandeered it.

  37. Good Moaning from a Sunny C d S.

    Solar panels are charging, SWMBO is using the leccy to wash the clothes that we took on holiday.

    I like, many gentlemen on here did not realise that you could get Mount Everest's little brother into Two Suitcases

  38. There is something quite bizarre, unsettling even, about her.
    I think she is what is described as "on the spectrum".

      1. If stupidity and cupidity are evil, then you have a point.
        I am beginning to think Britain is doomed because we have appear to have lost the ability to produce people with any vision or principles. Why that has happened? Nature, nurture or that politics has become so down-market that no-one with any probity will touch it?

        1. I’m sure there are good people, but most of them don’t go in for politics. Rupert Lowe is an exception, and there were some good people in the last parliament. The current lot are out for themselves, mainly.

  39. 400935+ up ticks,

    Baseing citizenship on criminal actions would be par for the course for these political overseeing kapos, their endgame rhetoric being " What invading illegals"

    Labour eases checks on illegal migrants
    Repeal of Tory rules branded ‘total capitulation’ as legislation on citizenship and age testing is softened

  40. The Fairey Swordfish.

    When I was doing my apprenticeship in the RN, (back when it had ships and aircraft), I worked on the Swordfish that is now in the FAA Museum at RNAS Yeovilton (is that still active?).

    I helped sew the wing fabric onto the the aircraft structure. This included making long needles out of welding rods.

  41. Phew!
    Just took the chainsaw for a drive down the road and picked up a load of fallen timber for t'Lad. Will be heading over to unload after he's finished his Sunday Shift.

      1. Plenty!
        The logs I collected this morning were all from trees that had fallen over due to die back or dutch elm.

  44. Probably already been covered, but the lady pilot has been identified.
    The Mail online article has four thousand eight hundred BTL comments.
    The 28 year old's social media profile is non existent.
    Anyway, the BTL comments reiterate that there were
    1) insufficient air traffic controllers on duty
    2) for a pilot recently promoted to Captain she had only 500 hours flying time, when the norm would be at least 2000 hours
    3) there should have been four crew members, not three
    4) the helicopter was half a mile off course
    5) possibly the crew were wearing night vision goggles which may restrict the angle of vision.
    SNAFU.
    6) helicopters are difficult to fly and prone to mechanical failure.
    As for flying from Kansas (Wichita?) to Washington, the distance is similar to that from Calais to Seville. A long coach trip, or a wearisome drive, but feasible. Edited.

    1. 6/ Severe Air Traffic Controller shortage… thanks to FAA turning away 1,000 high quality applicants who scored 100 per cent in training exam.. but failed miserably in the Skin Colour Test.

    2. 6/ Severe Air Traffic Controller shortage… thanks to FAA turning away 1,000 high quality applicants who scored 100 per cent in training exam.. but failed miserably in the Skin Colour Test.

    3. 6/ Severe Air Traffic Controller shortage… thanks to FAA turning away 1,000 high quality applicants who scored 100 per cent in training exam.. but failed miserably in the Skin Colour Test.

  45. 'Morning All
    Late on parade because…..
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3b755ac0168bddebccba6ad8804f791bb36acc4ea6b491ea0e8dc12248b70b9.jpg
    Rest
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    1. He probably hasn't yet realised that the vast majority of these invaders are crossing the channel.

    1. Why do you think numb nuts Trudeau is bringing so many Islamic terrorists into Canad a- give them citizenship and vote for his jew hating party.

    2. They tried to increase capital gains tax here (which is how they clobber you on your inheritence) but parliament is frozen and the required law change has not been passed.

      Never mind said the tax leaches, we will go ahead and collecting anyway as well as applying penalties to anyone ot complying with the unauthorized increases.

    3. This is where Badenoch has no where to go to attack Labour with. Everything wrong is either started by then or not stopped by them.

      1. And possibly, she largely agrees with them – especially on immigration. Opposition? There's a word. Maybe the DEIs could come up with another word for them. People of Complicity? Fellow Traitors?

  50. Wrong to call fat people obese, NHS workers told.

    NHS staff have been told not to call fat people “obese” in guidance issued by the medicines watchdog.

    The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has banned a series of seemingly inoffensive words in the latest version of its inclusive language guide. In a version published last month, the taxpayer-funded quango, which provides national guidance across the NHS, warns medics to avoid using the word “obese”. It says they should instead describe the overweight as “people with obesity”.

    The guide also advises against using the words “diabetic”, “alcoholic” and “smoker”, with “people with diabetes”, “people who are dependent on alcohol” and “people who smoke” recommended in their place. The guide claims that it is “good manners” to use these “person-centred” alternatives because they do not indicate that a condition is “what a person is”. Other banned words include “homeless”, which is replaced by “people experiencing homelessness”, and “disadvantaged people”, which should be avoided in favour of “people who are underserved”.

    Lord Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union, said the advice would do a “fat lot of help”. “The obsessive language policing by woke mandarins is symptomatic of the intellectual vacuity of the progressive Left, who now think that the way to help disadvantaged people – sorry, the ‘underserved’ – is to relabel them in a more politically correct way,” he said. “A fat lot of help that will be, if I’m allowed to use that word. What a ‘person with obesity’ needs is not a nice new label, but a GP appointment so they can get a prescription for Ozempic.”

    Dr Alka Sehgal-Corbett, director of campaign group Don’t Divide Us, said: “The NHS leadership seem more interested in policing language than improving either health care or the quality of management and leadership. “Beyond silliness, these initiatives ultimately have a demoralising effect as many switch off internally lest they find themselves on the wrong side of the moral entrepreneurs.”

    The guide claims that not using words like “obese” and “alcoholic” reflects “good manners and sensitivity, not political correctness”.
    “Conditions describe what a person has, not what a person is,” it reads. “Diseases are treated, not people. Diseases, not people, respond to treatment. Con- ditions, not people, are monitored.”

    A previous iteration of the guide, published in February 2023, urged staff to say “pregnant people” in a drive to use gender-neutral language. This has been removed from the updated guide after the Clinical Advisory Group on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG) said it should “retract its new guidance or provide research and evidence”.

    A spokesman for Nice said: “Our style guide helps us write for a variety of audiences and we describe the conditions people have rather than use those conditions to define them. The guide is developed using feedback from people who use or are directly affected by our products including medical professionals, patients, and carers.”

    If you can't call fat people 'obese', by continuance it follows that it is OK to call obese people 'fat' (since you've already labelled them as 'fat' in your initial statement).

    More conclusive proof that 'woke' socialists are sub-human and not fit for purpose, let alone government.

    1. NHS – perfect target for DEI consultants, Grizz. Perhaps the NHS would do better to try providing good, balanced meals for NHS hospital patients…bit too sensible that, perhaps…

      1. Judging by the land whales waddling down the corridors of NHS hospitals, it seems to be a case of "physician, heal thyself".

        1. I know. I used to drive husband to Diabetic Clinic years ago, and the Diabetic Nurses sure were. Someone once said ‘if all the chuggers are so poorly paid why are they all driving new cars’…perhaps because the seats were buckling in the old ones…

    3. 400935+ up ticks,

      Morning G,

      What are their feelings on when one is in the process of being knifed by a foreign chappie with sea spray still in its hair, fresh off the landing barge, a
      NASTY BASTARD ?

    4. Oh dear, they 🎵put their left arm in, their left arm out and shake it all about do the dopey wokie and turn around, that's what it's all about. 🎵

    5. It's nothing new – over 30 years ago JobCentre staff were instructed to say "people with disabilities", not "disabled people".
      However you look at them – fat people are fat, even fatter people are obese.

    6. I am fat. I am probably obese too. I am about 30 kg overweight. The other day in a class I really, really felt that.

      Thus this year I'm going to try to cut down on what and how much I eat. OK, it's not especially pleasant to be told you're a big lumpy tub of lard but I am. I know I am.

      3. On 27/12/2019 I weighed 117 kg. Today I weigh 90 kg. A weight loss of 27 kg that I achieved steadily over a five-year period, by cutting out: seed oils, sugars, carbs, most vegetation, fruits and ultra-processed crap sold as 'food'.

        I can't begin to tell you just how much that has vastly improved my general health and wellbeing.

      4. If people skirt around the issue it will never be addressed. I know I'm overweight. My problem is, with my dodgy undercarriage, I can't do the hard yards I used to do to keep in shape. Lockdown was the start of it, then falling off a ladder and no treatment just about finished it off. I used to regularly walk at least a mile a day, interspersing that with running up hills. These days I can barely walk up hills. Running is just a memory. I am lucky if I manage to do half a mile a day. Then, after I broke my ribs and my lower vertebrae disintegrated, I've even had to give up riding.

        1. Having to stop riding must have been hard for you.
          I look at many of my compatriots of a similar age and consider myself VERY lucky I'm still in reasonable health.

          1. Yes, I missed it more than I realised. I am enjoying being a dressage coach, though. Although I'm not on board, I am still dealing hands on with horses.

    7. What about kn*bs? Can we say that people who work for NICE are kn*bs or do we have to say 'people with kn*bness?

    8. When I had yearly medicals my doc always ended saying to me " fat & fit" then added I am "fat and unfit" He was a great bloke in the real world.

    9. Well, Mrs Blobby. You are definitely unwell. However, I am not allowed to tell what is the matter with you, so just waddle off and die."

  51. Indeed, Katy.

    'Guests' of HM Prisons get better food, accommodation and treatment than hospital patients do.

    1. Thanks, Grizz. Just wondering who I should clobber first to get myself locked up…only if I can take my dog with me, tho….

      1. Afters ogga, latch lifter it is, and still at it. Might need a drink of your choice if you check out his TBI website. He’s aiming not just for present influencers, but also future ones.

        1. 400953+ up ticks,

          Afternoon RE
          Most certainly not you, could be if
          you also wish to visit park public toilets on cottaging missions, as in willy watching plus.

          1. Here's another good one. It might have 2011 after Blair had resigned, we went to Tuscany near Sienna for a holiday. The receptionist at the holiday property told us that the Blair's had arrived the day before and demanded that they were allowed to stay there over night. But were told that as it was a private venue for members only, they couldn't stay. Apparently they didn't like being turned away. But we also found out they had gone to the restaurant in the same village that night, we also went there a day later. I hope we didn't sit in the same seats. The theory was that had been staying with Burlesque (Berlusconi) Coney further south and had probably had some sort of disagreement and had to leave for their flight home from Pisa.

    2. Well,…….. he'll be trying to cover up his terrible mistakes in the mean time. It's all part of the act.
      I wish the film The Ghost Writer was a true story.

      1. Very likely, Eddy. Brown was the other half, but he’s not often mentioned. To say nothing of foot soldiers (now Sickear’s).

  53. I have seen a couple more videos of the Washington crash and the helicopter appears to deliberately head for the plane. I cant' link them or copy them but one of them is on X.

    1. A matter of perspective, the civvy aircraft was travelling towards the camera whereas the heli was traversing at right angles to the camera and would have the civvy aircraft to the left, it may have been out of sight because they were wearing night vision goggles

      1. Yet – and forgive me here – those night vis are pretty good. You could see a plane without much effort. That's ignoring the radar and lidar on the helicopter itself blaring alarms at collision warnings that're designed for missiles travelling far faster, not a ruddy great aircraft.

        I don't believe it was deliberate but something went horribly wrong up there. In this instance I think Trump's being a berk. He should have said 'We will wait for the accident investigators report' and kept quiet.

        1. I believed, before I read any reports, that the heli, which has accepted the responsibility of visual ident, was seeing the other aircraft AAL2030 ahead of it having been advised to turn behind it. Meanwhile the civvy a/c had changed course to land on the shorter runway. In my eyes there was a failure of the heli crew and the ATC

          1. The helo was at 300ft if the data is to be believed and also closer to the runway rather than following the East bank of the river. There was very little separation if it had stuck to the route and altitude but the small errors in both areas eroded any margins. The question of, why, is what the inquiry will address.

  54. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    01 Feb 2025
    Coffee House
    Annabel Denham
    Immigration won’t fix Britain’s baby crisis
    2 February 2025, 5:30am

    (

    The fertility rate of foreign-born women is almost a third higher than that of UK-born women, according to new analysis. And yet, even the foreign-born rate of 2.03 children per woman (compared with 1.54 for UK-born) remains below the replacement rate of 2.1. It has steadily declined from its peak of 2.46 two decades ago. In other words, we cannot rely on immigration to make our population self-sustaining.

    For years British policymakers seem to have assumed that high levels of net migration would alleviate our demographic woes. Open our borders, and in would flow young people willing to abandon their own ageing parents in order to care for, and fund, ours. And there would be the added benefit that some would arrive from countries with higher fertility rates. Nigeria for instance, which is among the most common countries of origin for migrants to Britain, has a fertility rate of 5.

    This ‘plan’ – if such it was – always had flaws. For a start, we would need very high levels of net migration in order to offset declining birth rates, inevitably placing great pressure on already-stretched public services and housing supply. The economics didn’t add up either: as OBR modelling recently showed, a ‘low-wage migrant’ arriving here aged 25 will cost the taxpayer over £400,000 by the time they reach 81. And when people migrate, their fertility patterns tend to align with the birth rate of the native population fairly quickly. There are cultural consequences to high levels of migration too.

    In any case, nearly every country is now witnessing a shrinking population. Asia is the conked-out canary in the coalmine: in Taiwan, the fertility rate is 0.87, in Hong Kong 0.75. Even assuming this doesn’t drop further, the number of children born will more than halve with each passing generation. By 2100, almost 50 per cent of people living in South Korea will be older than 65. Thousands of schools have already been closed, with too few children to fill them. A third of daycare centres and kindergartens are projected to close by 2028.

    Population growth, once dreaded by a previous generation of catastrophists, is now really only limited to sub-Saharan Africa. In Niger, the country with the highest fertility rate, the average woman is still having a mind-boggling six children; women in Angola are having five. But even these nations’ birth-rates are on an inexorable downwards trend.

    A resurgent pro-natalist movement is now pushing for changes to the way we live, considering it incompatible with sustaining our population. As has been well documented, at the heart of the demographic crisis is female independence: since the 1970s women have done more work and more homemaking. And as more have worked, the status of the domestic sphere has diminished.

    At root of this thinking is the fallacy that governments can do anything for which we wish hard enough

    But pro-natalists are convinced British women want more children (they would choose to have 2.35 on average, we’re told) but cannot afford to. Childcare is too expensive, couples are worried about the economy. Paid family leave is insufficient, while stratospheric rents and house prices make large families an impossible dream. There is truth in some of this and good reasons to address it: our failure to build enough homes underpins virtually every other problem ailing modern Britain. Our childcare sector is a confused mess, with both high costs and poor quality. But having (more) children is a deeply personal decision, unlikely to be substantively swayed by financial considerations. Modern women are not just frustrated broody hens, needing only a cash injection to get started. And those often-forgotten roosters, husbands and partners, may not be too keen either.

    Or that’s what the evidence surely suggests. Hungary’s birth rate is just 1.5, despite Viktor Orban spending nearly 6 per cent of GDP on pro-family measures. Since the 1990s Japan has been churning out policies designed to encourage women to have more babies, but its population is still projected to fall from 128 million in 2010 to 87 million by 2060.

    In his recent book, The Care Dilemma, David Goodhart suggests we introduce a £10,000 ‘Home Care Allowance’ for all parents, mimicking a similar subsidy in Finland. So the argument goes, women have been turned from baby-making to GDP-making machines, and ought to be given the freedom or encouragement to go back. But such measures would likely be a catch-22: to be enough to compensate for the loss of salary, status and liberty, they would be unaffordable to the Exchequer. The tide of social change has already gone out.

    At root of this thinking is the fallacy that governments can do anything for which we wish hard enough. In reality, their impact on intimate family relations is minimal. Politicians should focus on what they can do: reforming our planning system, slashing childcare red tape, finding ways to reduce our mushrooming benefits bill and getting those young and not-so-young who can work back into jobs. They could reduce regulation and the power of vested interests such as trade unions and professional groups, encouraging automation and a step change in productivity. They could reform the pensions system. They could finally tackle the social care issue, making it a better-paid career which would attract more to this increasingly pressing need.

    A changing demography need not be a disaster: we should put our faith in human adaptability. It’s got a better chance at solving this problem than Orbanesque plans to turn women back from ‘production to reproduction’.

    Written by
    Annabel Denham
    Annabel Denham is a column and acting comment editor at the Daily Telegraph

    1. We had Junior in our 30's. The Warqueen struggled a bit afterward and went back to work very quickly afterward. I did a lot of the baby caring side (and it's bloomin' difficult. Children should come with a manual).

      As no one was paying us to loaf about doing nothing, as no one was paying our mortgage/rent for us and we didn't get free cash to doss about we couldn't spend all day bonking using a kid as a way to get a bigger house.

      We made the mistake of working for our income. Then the Warqueen's career went rocket boosters and we held off years to let that work. I built up my business (and made a mess of it).

      If I hadn't been working for myself and having a 5 figure salary crashing into the account every month we couldn't have provided for Wiggy, let alone the halfling.

      In contrast if you turn up with nothing but brown skin – or tattoos and smoking like a chimney; you're given the world on a plate to spaff as you want, from the taxes of those who have worked. It's utterly wrong. The wrong people are breeding and shouldn't be.

    2. That's because the indigenous are too busy working to be able to afford to breed. The feckless on benefits, on the other hand …

    1. To achieve what? Did someone's mummy want her daughter to make the ice skating team and the obvious way forward was to get rid of the established team? A Tanya Harding on steroids?

      Whatever, why were helicopter training flights so close to Reagan airport? Unless their job wax to fly along the river, I can ot see why the flight would not have gone in another direction.

  56. PHEW! Another 45 minutes grafting!
    Just split a load of logs for Grad.son to get stacked.
    Now going to put a tin of soup on for a bite to eat before heading to t'Lad's with his vanload of wood.

  58. OT – I woke this morning with double pneumonia. Other members of the family tell me I have a slight cold. The cats are cross because they do not care for my sneezing.

    Can't win, really…{:¬))

    Bright sunshine. hooray.

    1. Oh dear. Get well soon, Bill. No going outside, get plenty of rest and keep warm. Drink plenty of wine.

        1. Absolutely correct.
          Although alternatively with all those hundreds of ‘ill’ people in there you’d probably catch a couple of other ailments.

  59. Well the pissin matchmaking begun. Trump put a 25% tariffs on Canadian imports yesterday,Trudeau responded with 25% on a limited range of goods last night.

    Only a 10% tax on oil exports so far, maybe that's because 70% of US oil imports are from Alberta and although the price is discounted, it is still a large part of the so called trade deficit.

    Beyond hurting consumers, perhaps someone could ask these two morons what putting a 25% tax on lettuce will achieve.

    1. I'm assuming the Q is rhetorical but the intent is to make goods more expensive and thus reduce sales, hurting foreign businesses.

      Whether this is sensible or not compared to simply talking to the Canadian government is beyond me. Tariffs are a stupid idea for global trade generally as all they do is hurt customers and businesses. They don't hurt governments in the short term. It takes years for such to affect the state (the EU is suffering from the tariff walls it threw up 30 years ago).

      A world of zero tariffs, where no taxes are applied to goods coming in or out is a good one. That forces nations to complete on product. If China produces a better EV than Germany, then we buy the Chinese one. Germany then has to understand why it is uncompetitive (and it'll be down to taxes and regulation).

      Government's love protectionism because they get to blither on about helping British companies when really all they're doing is hurting trade.

      1. But it's not just product quality that goods are sold on, but product price and many a cheaply made product has wiped the better quality example off the market.
        A prime example is the 1" ratchet tiedown strap where, to get a decent quality one you have to look VERY hard at what is on offer.

          2. Russia? Why pay? Just invade. Lightning strike as in their very successful invasion of the Ukraine….{:¬))

          4. Canada would probably want to play too. I’m sure China would think it a great opportunity to offload its $ reserves!!!

    2. The Warqueen has taught her yoghurt this morning and one of the ladies is well over 70. She's more flexible and stronger than a lot of the kiddies.

      I didn notice there were a lot more men in it this morning….

  61. I have been using some eye medication – this is part of the user information:

    If you're using 1% chloramphenicol eye ointment, apply it to the affected eye every 3 hours (during waking hours)

    Just sooooooooooo glad they added the words in brackets!!

    1. Bill, back in the early 80s when I worked in the nursery department in Selfridges, a woman brought back a pair of kiddie’s shoes because her child kept tripping up. The shoes had been tied together with string on the display stand. She hadn’t untied them. Another brought back a cot pillow because it crackled and kept her baby awake. She hadn’t taken it out of its cellophane wrapping. People are stoopid!

      1. I remember reports some women taking shoes, obviously wearing for a night out, then returning for full refund. Similarly M&S outfits. Bit like the people at self-service tills, stealing prime steaks etc. We all pay for the thefts, in higher food prices (not the thieves, obvs, they don't pay at all….)

      2. Sad, but very true. Do not underestimate human stupidity. I worked for an agency once that received new monitors. It had a plastic notice on the monitor explaining what the 2 wires running across it were for.

        The well paid network manager came to us to say it was faulty. I stripped the notice off and read it to him. I didn't last long there.

  62. Just had an emergency call out from the lad that now owns the old lime kilns up the road. He'd been dropping a tree that had died off from die-back and jammed his bloody chainsaw, so went up and gave him a hand.
    The wood is due to be cleared a week tomorrow as part of the Council catching up with 40odd years of neglected roadside maintenance and he's given me carte blanche to go in & help myself before the council employed contractors move in and chip the bloody lot!
    Anyway, just enjoyed a tin of Cream of Chicken Soup and am just about to head to t'Lad's to drop all this wood off!

  63. And, just to add, the weather has turned beautiful with warm, bright sinshine!
    Still bloody cold out of the sun though.

          1. Doesn’t it depend on how large the team is? If a largish team you could have more people splitting the hours.

      2. I swore that I would NEVER work more than 168 hours in a week, even if we went through time zones

    2. We have the tax payers alliance. They continually push out research into state waste. It's really not as difficult as working all the hours – it's plain as day in your face.

      The results of the work are what matters. Who is sacked, which departments are shut down.

    2. Easy, if they travel for free, they 'sit outside', like what they do in the 'old country'.

    3. It's a pity they can't just stop the train in the middle of nowhere and throw the bastards off, minus their 'phones as an on the spot fine.

      1. 400953+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Without a shadow of doubt, can be confirmed via 1400 / 1600 victims in one town alone when revealed as the great cover up,
        instigated by gov. / council employees.against their own folkand children.

  67. I e been suggesting for years fhat it's time to get rid of bank holidays and just give everyone eight extra days leave each year to take when they like. Likewise, as so many people have to work weekends, why not make all industries and workplaces operate seven days. People would still work a five day week but each would work a different five days.
    These two moves would save the public sector £millions (£billions?) as the need to pay enhanced rates would cease.

    Recently it has dawned on me that our weekends and most of our BHs are based on the Christian calendar. How soon before the exponentially rising non-Christian sector of the population demands itit's own bank holidays for Divali, Eid, Kumh Mela etc etc?

    I think it might be wise to take action before we are faced with this challenge

    2. As banks no longer exist – why have the "holidays" at all?

      An uncle of mine went to work for a bank in the 1920s – because he was attracted by the sign about opening hours: "Open 10 am to 3 pm". He assumed that that applied to working hours, too!

    3. I’ve been saying this about the NHS for ages. Had to take Alf to A&E yesterday and walking through everything else was closed. All that expensive equipment doing nothing for the whole weekend. It’s a crime.

    4. It was the way my days-off worked in the airline industry. I rather liked it as I didn't have to join the queues to the beach on the summer bank holidays

    5. The answer is not to ditch the Christian holy days (the origin of holidays), but to ensure heathen festivals don't gain traction.

  68. 'Cooper said that the government had removed the 20 per cent wage discount for non-EU foreign workers that the Conservatives introduced in 2019'

    From an interview with Cooper as detailed in the Spectator. Call me naive but I didn't know about this 20% discount, did anyone else? Don't recall the Cons or the opposition or the press mentioning it. What a bunch of traitors.

    1. From ChatGPT:
      "The 20 percent wage discount for non-EU foreign workers in the UK refers to a policy that was in place under the UK’s immigration system, specifically regarding the salary threshold for skilled workers. This policy, which was introduced in the past, allowed employers to pay non-EU foreign workers a lower salary than the standard minimum wage requirement for the same occupation, but only if the worker was not from the EU.

      The idea behind this policy was to incentivize employers to hire foreign workers from outside the European Union by offering them more flexibility with salary thresholds. However, this practice has been controversial and has since been abolished in favor of a more standardized wage requirement for all skilled workers, regardless of nationality or region.

      In the context of the UK’s immigration policies, a certain salary threshold (known as the "minimum salary threshold") is required for skilled workers to qualify for a work visa. This wage threshold varies depending on the occupation. Non-EU workers, however, were previously allowed to be paid up to 20% less than the standard threshold under this discount scheme, which applied to jobs in certain industries where there was a perceived shortage of labor.

      In 2021, after the UK left the European Union, the country revamped its immigration system to treat EU and non-EU nationals the same in terms of work visa rules, including salary requirements. This change aimed at creating a level playing field for all workers."

      2. That's why salaries were so low in engineering jobs because they just imported people and paid them less. Probably the main cause of the brain drain in engineering and software, and the reason why every company in Germany, Australia, the US, Canada has British engineers working there.

      3. So who to believe? Is Cooper ‘untruthing’ when she claims Labour abolished the discount? My head’s in a whirl with all this rubbish.

    2. Ask the CEO, Senior Managers and all councillors to get the ball rolling with their promissory notes.

  71. If …

    February brings the rain,
    Thaws the frozen lake again.

    [The Months. Sara Coleridge]

    … why the f•ck is it snowing like hell?

          2. Doesn't seem to stop the paki and arabs stabbing, raping, trafficking, drug dealing and bombing though. I suppose that is what the Swedish voted for. Silly persons !

        1. 😊 thanks, Bill, It is pretty cold today – and that’s without the cold North wind…snow possible nearer weekend. February…yuk….

  72. Phew! Just spent a couple of hours outside clearing up dead vegetation & debris.
    Nice and sunny, and not too cold if you keep moving.
    Somehow I managed to avoid treading in the pile of neighbour's doggy do…….nicely dead leaf coloured to match the stuff I was raking up…..
    Four bagfuls stashed in the shed now ready for a trip to the tip.

    OH was busy too this morning, emptying his dead car. Hopefully a man will be coming tomorrow to get it started, and then it will be up for grabs by someone who might want it. It's a Toyota Hybrid Yaris. One careful owner.

  73. Wordle No. 1,324 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 2 Feb 2025

    A tedious Birdie Three?

    1. Well done, par here. Schoolboy error on 2nd go.

      Wordle 1,324 4/6

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

    3. Good stuff Rene, just a par here today….

      Wordle 1,324 4/6

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

    4. Three for me too.

      Wordle 1,324 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜🟨🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  74. Yer gotta hand it to yer Yanks when medals are in the offing. The 28 year old young woman (if she was a woman) who piloted the helico so neatly in Washington:

    She had been awarded the Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Army Service Ribbon.

    Imagine if she had been in the US Army for 30 years. She'd need two chests….

    2. Seems like all her social meeja accounts were scrubbed before the release of the name, if reports are to be believed. Nothing to see here…

  75. I think I can relax with my mug of tea now!
    Just back from t'Lad's after dropping a van load of logs for him. Getting them sawn and split will keep him occupied for a day or so!

    Chainsaw was cutting well earlier so I think I'll leave off sharpening it until tomorrow after I've done a couple of little jobs up by the Lime Kilns.

          1. A pair of lime kilns. The wall at the front is a much later addition, but above the arches are a pair of massive holes that are filled with fuel, either coal or wood, and limestone, which is then burnt to drive off the CO2 from the limestone, (aka Calcium Carbonate) to leave quicklime (aka Calcium Oxide) that has a variety of uses.

    2. Ah ha! While you have been working and productive I have… read my book. Yes, I am sooo productive.

  76. I am Under strict orders from the specialists.
    No food for more than 24 hours drink water water water. And later a mixture, one litre of lemon tasting muck.
    So guess what is in store for me tomorrow afternoon. No prizes.
    Not U Tube.

        1. I had mine without gas or sedation. I'm butch me.

          In truth i knew there would be discomfort but i also knew i would be able to leave the damned place straight after.

    7. Like back and think of England – as it once was…..

      KBO. If they say; "Do you have any questions?" Reply: "Have you done this before?"

      1. Yes and they may say “I hope you don’t enjoy this”.
        I’ll reply “I hope you don’t”.

    9. I had both ends done last November. I insisted they do the top endoscopy first as I believe they only have one scope camera.

    10. When I had ulcerous colitis they put a robot tube up err,. there to get samples of the cysts. I was off on significant painkillers at the time.

      You don't really feel it. It's just uncomfortable.

      1. Ugh, wibbling. I still bear a grudge against the "Natural Childbirth" practitioners who pushed the idea that it (childbirth) could become a little uncomfortable for some with the wrong attitude and that the excruciating pain of the process had been exaggerated. They lied.

      2. I had one of these ‘inspections’ about 5-6 years ago. I don’t really know how I got involved again. I remember saying that the specialist, after he’d said we will see you again, that I’d be washing my hair that day.
        Too late now.

    11. Way back in the 'Seventies, I had severe oesophagitis – two days – and couldn't eat.

      However, frequent, tepid, Gins & Tonics went down very well !!!

    2. My late cat Bob used to watch the telly. One day, there was a cookery programme (no, Phil, not Jamie) and the woman did that egg cracking thing where the egg is held, in one hand, a foot above the bowl…lady cracks egg and contents drop into bowl. Bob immediate dived under the TV to fetch the egg………….

        1. More exciting if it was a 33/1 outsider coming through from the back just to edge out the favourite 🙂

    6. Mongo is fascinated by formula 1. We know this as he has knocked 2 monitors over leaping at them.

    1. I'm shocked! 10% probably doesn't even get to people it's intended for with our own home grown charities, let alone Africa. Just check out the UK's charity hierarchy salaries.
      Edited grown from drown.

    2. If only we could scrap foreign aid as well. That's mostly used as posturing. Note the way government has split 'climate aid' from foreign aid and pushes climate aid up and pretends 'foreigner' aid has reduced.

      They lie habitually.

        1. We have the potential to be a rich country; unfortunately lefty politicians keep getting in the way.

          1. But not available to our country, AA. Money that has been siphoned into the usual conduits for the personal use of the usual suspects.

  81. That's me for this sunny but bitterly cold day. Fortunately, there was no wind. Tomorrow is grey and bitterly cold. Winter weather in winter SHOCK.

    Taking the advice to have lots of liquids, for my 'flu/pneumonia/plague – I am on my second glass of medicinal medicine.

    Have a bright, enthusiastic evening.

    A demain – if the germans allow it….

    1. Yesterday was a bit chilly, warmed up to -11C at Firstborn's place. Today, up at -5C.

  82. Evening, all. Busy day; served at church then dashed off to take my 93-yr old ex-RAF chum to A&E. It's hopeless trying to get any joy out of the surgery at the weekend and I took him to A&E rather than wait for ages to get an appointment. He was seen fairly quickly (we arrived about 13.00 and were on our way to the pharmacy for a prescription by about 16.10.

    Dogmatic approaches to anything are usually a bad thing. Flexibility and taking note of cause and effect/efficacy of the measures is what's required.

  83. A very nice day here in Verwood today: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2e9d1fd55a3ed8252c579d8a9a4f31a3e4535197bb6eff84b0f5d7c0594c53a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4eaa6184a46111c0ddb12377ad4ad92cecda1462f43b3983865e63e68367729.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63877c0fd8e2b6a70413575948eb9f701b18d3bae17eac714443fd6cc7b316d6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7c031481e6cbc8e3f4b91efdd085cc2318a5c335e8b0cb9c4168956cfd906792.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1676fb3bb1cdb6394e223e20b0531a393b6c6b3ac92e608a133f12ae987a06c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01b9e760321d95e7601a4a429a469ecfb055085423d54494d9867486ae3bf63e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/30ce5fa78c76df4bbcb996e21a06ef76ecd2d45fc01240f21855010e3dd98159.jpg

    1. Was reminded this morning that snowdrops are also called "Candlemas bells". Today is Candlemas and it didn't bode well – my candle went out! To be fair there is a strong draught from the south door.

          2. My previous church had a very efficient heating system. I boiled the first time I attended because I was so used to cold buildings and dressed accordingly. Now the new rector has mismanaged everything so they can't afford to put the heating on. The one I attend now has a cold building (the vicar joked we could offer cool spaces in a heat wave), but a very warm welcome.

          3. I remember our church when I was pre-school, it always seemed light and sunny, lovely colourful (stained-glass) windows. I liked the building very much. The singing was a durge, the sermons dull and long. I haven’t attended since leaving school. I know someone attends what another friend calls ‘one of those happy clappy places’. I prefer a long walk instead, miss that but my dog is now old and failing – can’t take him, won’t leave him behind. Another day will dawn.

          4. I can't abide happy clappy "worship". More like stream of consciousness outpourings. I like structure and ritual, me.

          5. I’m somewhere in the middle, Conway. A friend’s father, a Quaker, used to say I should try that but I never did.

          7. Daily, Stephen, or muesli – usually while playing Mahjong which I’m off to do now (with my Ovaltine)…see you tmrw, Kate x

      2. Mine did too (very short wick on the candle). Fortunately a young lady in the opposite pew was able to relight my fire before the priest came round sprinkling water trying to put it out again!

        1. Ah, our priest just sprinkled a representative sample of the candles we're going to use through the year. Nobody in the congregation got asperged. It was doubly unfortunate as, as an acolyte, I was trying to light everybody else's candle. Oops!

    2. Very nice – I hope you don't mind but I've saved those pictures so I can (attempt to) paint them at my art class every Monday. I will upload them if they're any good but I've only just started

          4. Watercolour (as opposed to gouache) is a transparent medium. The paper is supposed to shine through. Work from light to dark and back to front. Try a mixture of strokes; wet in wet, wash and dry brush. That helps to give the painting variety and vibrancy.

          7. Ta Sue 😘 I started the art classes because it gets me out of the house and I can catch up on the local gossip too

          11. we paint what's put on the table by the teacher – a bowl, a card and it's envelope, some of the others thought "bollox I'll just paint the flowers" which is what I should have done

          1. Always wished I could watercolour – the best pictures are in watercolour. Sadly, and after a course, I am utterly shite at painting watercolour, but at least I can enjoy looking at them, if not creating them.

          3. The secret to watercolour painting is to use much more water than you think necessary and to manipulate it whilst wet. See what it does, don't try to control it too much and go with the flow. Almost like the magic painting books you had as a child, it is a right-brain medium.

          4. And remember it will be lighter when it's dry. Also remember, it can dry very quickly on a warm day (but if you're in a hurry, you can dry it with a hair dryer).

          6. I haven’t been to classes but have been told it’s often first lesson. It’s a tough medium, I think – couldn’t get to grips with it for quite a while. Had a lot of fun with oil/painting with palette knife. Some acrylics are water-soluble now, I think. Be very interested to hear your views, Alec (I’ve never been to a class, except in school – where I was left to my own devices). Good luck x

          9. They are, I tried some. All have a number of different mediums, granulating etc I started out using w/c on smooth paper. Now I use gouache (the old style) and rough paper, but I leave it many days/weeks without doing anything. Thinking recently I might go back to silverpoint, but then I take dog out instead, just not meant to be right now. (What I do know, btw, is how expensive all materials are now.)

          10. I've never tried oils Kate, I'd like to be fairly decent with watercolours first – I'll try to get out into our surrounding mountains this summer for the landscape. I managed GCE in art and architecture when I was at school so I've given myself a challenge. x

          11. You could start with acrylics (you can put oils over acrylics, but not the other way round) and use a palette knife for impasto. Nice for mountains and streams.

          12. I’ve been doing pencil drawings and crayons up to now. The crayons were given to me 75 years ago and are still in prime nick but I’m trying water colours now and hope to get to a reasonable standard before going on to some other medium

          13. Brill…you have a head-start there! One of my favourite artists is Andrew Wyeth – he said ‘I paint my life’..surrounding countryside and people..hope you get out more ! :-)) x

    1. Swap that for 'France sends a ton of freeloading muslim terrorists' and it all makes sense that we need to be harsher as well.

      1. Question: when is a muslim not a terrorist?
        Only half joking, as the expression that cracks me up is 'Islamist extremist'. (As opposed to a moderate Islamist.)

          1. With due respect to all those who keep quiet within that faith, there are observant muslims and non-observant muslims.

          2. Then could the quiet ones (and I know they exist and are decent, rational folk) have a word with the gobby terrorist murdering rapists and tell them to stop being murdering rapists?

          3. Silence implies assent. They all read the same set of instructions. It just needs the call to jihad (which is a duty on ALL muslims) to make them observant when all is said and done. My enemy's enemy is my friend (and they are enjoined never to befriend the kuffar).

    1. Cultural lack of respect, inability to cope with refusal and because they're 'ucking savages who must be treated like rabid dogs – put down.

      Only I'd feel sad about losing a dog.

        1. I do like dogs.

          Not mine, of course. They're engines of chaos who wreck carpets, walls, stairs…. All three sat in front of the oven whne i put some sausage rolls in today.

          1. Newfies demonstrate the inverse relationship between a dog's degree of soppiness and the practicalities of ownership. Like adopting a Shire horse when a child wants a pony.

          2. That's very, very apt. They are beautiful though, with incredible personalities and character. They are big, daft fluffy wombles.

          3. Newfies demonstrate the inverse relationship between a dog's degree of soppiness and the practicalities of ownership. Like adopting a Shire horse when a child wants a pony.

    2. Why select young girls?
      Because many indigenous Dutch adults are more than six feet tall and would be able to grab the Mohammedan's knife and use it to take an appropriate DNA sample on behalf of the local constabulary.

    3. I think that many of them don't think females have any value except as slaves, for cooking, for sex and producing sons.

        1. Do you not think that those are the bits they look for (as some bullies who call themselves Christians, but aren't, look to the brutalities of the Old Testament or the bigotry of St Paul)? These are just horrible people who crave power over others and will find justification for their vile desires in any text that they can.

          1. Unlike the Bible, where the nasty bits in the OT are tempered by the NT, the koran is immutable. It can't be interpreted or softened.

          2. Well, not according to those it suits to say so. But if the pleasant earlier bits can be abrogated over the centuries, why can’t the unpleasant bits subsequently also be abrogated? And why have the UK encouraged the most murderous and bigoted hardliners from this politico-religious system?

    5. Even though grown into men they have been brought up in a cult where they remain demonic children. Intent on following the teachings of their paedophile messiah. They are all mentally ill and should be shot on sight.

      'How many more'

      2. I dont think there has been a good 'HR' manager since they changed their name from 'Personnel'…..

  87. My sister had a B&B. Thatched Cottage. When she buggered off to the Bahamas i was dragooned in to run the place.

  88. I think I'll bid farewell for today. I might not be around tomorrow afternoon because of my medical commitments. I can't wait 😵‍💫.
    Good night all 😴

        1. I did say sorry beforehand Belle.
          Clearly I need to work on my sincerity which I will confess was entirely absent.

    2. Only young cats kill things, the older ones are past that phase. Jessie is still quick enough, when she's in the mood, but in the 15 months since she came here, has only caught a couple of small voles, which she let run….. I've not seen Ziggy catch anything, and certainly not birds, either of them.

  90. Above all, have fun. Experiment. Push the paint around. You have chosen one of the more difficult media in watercolour, even if it's easily transportable.

      1. Dry pastels are easier; they're like chalk. They do need to be fixed, though, or they smudge. What weight of watercolour paper are you using? Bockingford 300gr?

        1. Yes so I've heard – no idea what the paper is as it's a book that was supplied – I've now bought my own from Amazon which is 250gr mixed media, medium grain A3 size and some 300gr A5. I've also bought some black smooth card which I'm hoping will be better for the oil pastels

  91. As tensions at the top of the party reached crisis point, Ms Rayner settled with a new string of job titles. At that point, she is said to have claimed that Sir Keir was incapable of running a bath, let alone the Opposition.
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/02/02/angela-rayner-branded-prince-andrew-nonce/

    Starmer: ‘I have no ideology’
    Sir Keir is said to have admitted he did not have “any ideology at all” just months after he took charge of Labour in 2020, telling an MP: “There’s no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be.”

    Even Sir Tony Blair, the former prime minister, reportedly said he was in “two minds about Keir” in 2021, branding him “a London human rights lawyer who’s not in touch with the people”.

    The Prime Minister is also said to have hired an acting coach to address his “wooden” public speaking style in 2017 as he secretly prepared to topple Jeremy Corbyn.

    2. If he has 'no ideology' why is he so focused on wrecking our country and its culture and social structure ?

    1. #metoo, Connors. I salivate over some of the new boxes of colour in different media available and order them. Most are disappointing, but some are wonderful. I agree with you on pastels – there are some fantastic ranges. Online, it's almost taken over from my addiction to what MH refers to as "horse porn".

  97. No…I do! Take your point about my grammar. Convinced myself I can’t sleep without Ovaltine..:-D

  99. I have to say that having read earlier threads I do feel blessed that I have not to date experienced the NHS Dyno Rod protocol….

  100. Thank your lucky stars; not only is the procedure unpleasant, the preparation is awful, too.

    2. I had an endoscopy procedure to check the inside of my uterus, which causes bleeding but it was done under general anaesthetic. The verdict, fortunately, was “no abnormalities found”.

    2. A lot of the problem with Climate Change is the way the weather flatly refuses to cooperate with the agenda.
      The obvious conclusion is that the weather is Far Right.

  109. 400953+ up ticks,

    Pillow Ponder,

    President Trump BRING IT ON SOONEST if the United Kingdom is harmed in any way put that down as
    beneficial worthwhile damage, joyfully accepted compared to the odious daily suffering we are dealt out currently.

    Global trade war will be worth the pain to make America great again, says Trump
    Results of sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China will be ‘spectacular’, says US President

    1. 400853+ up ticks,

      Evening TB,

      I strongly assume the United Kingdom indigenous peoples WILL
      accept this then as the way to go ?

      1. I doubt it , Ogga .

        How dare they .

        I assumed we required engineers, doctors, dentists, specialists in IT etc , not low IQ Africans or Pakis etc

        1. 400953+ up ticks

          TB,
          The indigenous peoples have stood by even though their children had been used as pakistarni sex toys , mass murder, mass serious life changing injuries, nass foreign troops massing etc,etc,etc,etc, i really do not think that stance is going to change.

    3. This isn't about importing Labour voters, it's about destroying Britain and re-building it in some Coudenhav-Kalergi image with fights between muslims and non muslims.

    1. Sorry to read that, Conners. But if you are able to read this, I hope that you – and Kadi – have a good night's sleep.

    2. Tomorrow might be different Conway, so sleep on it and relax .

      What a nuisance Talk Talk are difficult ..

      Do you have a friend who could get onto them on your behalf and give them hell?

  112. Well, chums, it's almost 11 pm, so I shall now wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow morning.

  113. Afternoon all or evening in the UK. Still on my Australian trip and have travelled from Sydney across to Adelaide.
    They have issued a heat alert for a few days past and a couple days to go. At least it will not get much above 40 today but we are still careful of too much heat and sun.

    1. We used to live in Morphett Vale South of Adelaide then Christie's Beach. It was very hot late 70s, 43 c but we stayed in with the air con on.
      Only went out after dark when it was 35 c the Beach was packed.
      If you're down that way, Hunter Road.
      Have fun vvof. 🙃🤠🦘

      1. Took a wander into the South Australia Art Gallery and then into the Botanical Gardens followed by a visit to the nearest watering hole to sink a couple of cold ones.
        Tomorrow the plan is to see the Dolphin sanctuary on a port river cruise and down to Gleneig which was recommended by the tourist information guy.
        I take what he told me with some confidence as it turns out he played cricket with Colin Cowdrey for Kent and even played at Bath, my place of birth. He has a couple of redeeming qualities about him 😂😂
        If I can sort out some decent swift I may even try to upload a couple of photos.

        1. G’day I’m jealous. I used to go fishing out of Glenelg harbour with a couple of mates. We never came back empty handed. I caught a gummy shark on one occasion. Not dangerous. Enjoy. 🙃🤠

    2. Coupla cold stubbies and she'll be right, mite!
      Lucky bugger. It snowed overnight, now the stuff needs shifted. And it's dark still, too.

    3. Hello VVOF

      How did you cope with the long flight out there .

      Years ago my late stepmother flew out there to visit her brother .. A heavy drinker in the row behind her kicked off and disrupted the other passengers , poor Liz was very distressed and shocked when the drunk idiot threw punches at the cabin staff and a couple of passengers , blood everywhere , and eventually the chap was restrained , tightly.

      Liz and other passengers were given compensation and free flight return tickets for their next visit to Oz.

      I couldn't cope with a long flight these days .

      PS Stay cool, goodness me , I hate the heat , these days as we approach our Springtime , I love our British cool sunny days .

      1. I cope by sitting in my seat and say to myself that others would give their eye teeth to be in my position going to Australia to visit family.
        Because it is such a long flight we treat ourselves by going Premium Economy, trouble is Mrs VVOF is starting to eye up business class for next time!! ☹️

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