Sunday 2 October: The Prime Minister and Chancellor must hold firm and see their reforms through

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

525 thoughts on “Sunday 2 October: The Prime Minister and Chancellor must hold firm and see their reforms through”

    1. 365731+ up ticks

      Morning Rik,
      Sod the energy top up declare a day of celebration
      and a pork joint to every household.

    3. 365731+ up ticks,

      Rik,
      As a sure sign of patriotism
      then the government MUST shut the staff canteen.

    1. Morning Rik

      Twirly:

      for a moment I thought the headline ‘SEX AND CAVIAR – My affair with John Le Carre’ referred to Liz Truss and our newly minted King.

    2. Well done Truss. He needs controling. Could he not see how political this is. as it is not settled at all.

    3. It is deeply worrying that he felt unable to refuse such a visit without having to consult others. If it has been reported accurately then well done Liz for having spoken up.

      1. That’ll be the “King” that thinks homeopathy is brilliant; that Laurens van der Post is the World’s greatest thinker….. And is a paid up WEF member…

        God help us all.

  4. Morning, all. Overcast and calm here in N Essex.

    I wasn’t around much yesterday so I do not know if this information was put up. Expected (yawn) so no surprise from the scaremongers. I suppose they need to use up all the new whizzy, bi-valent, and safe and (in)effective serum before its best before date appears on the calendar.
    The comment alongside the other article caught my eye.

    Daily Sceptic – Brace for Panic Autumn Covid Wave

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcb60983d7637fda6fddb519b8db44da9af2b9666a85276822d771437a213152.png

  5. Buongiorno tutti.

    Eagle, birdie, fail
    Wordle 470 2/6

    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Daily Quordle 251
    4️⃣5️⃣
    8️⃣3️⃣
    quordle.com
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩 ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
    ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨 🟨🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛

    #Yeardle #194
    🟫🟫🟫🟫🟫🟨🟨🟧
    🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔽🔽🔽
    https://histordle.com/yeardle/

  6. 465731+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 2 October: The Prime Minister and Chancellor must hold firm and see their reforms through.

    Not being a pessimist but a realist I have that
    sinister, creepy feeling they are going to do just that, a follow on from major and a long line of their contemporaries have done.

    It cannot be denied that we could never, as a
    nation got into our current condition without their continuing input and the peoples continuing support.

    Surely we must, as a brand new first, establish whos corner they are fighting.

  9. Liz Truss says ‘sabotage’ responsible for Nord Stream leaks during meeting with Danish PM. 2 October 2022.

    Liz Truss has agreed the cause of the leaks in the Nord Stream pipelines was “sabotage”, her spokesperson has said.
    The British prime minister was discussing the ruptures in the Russia-Germany gas supply lines with the Danish PM during the latter’s visit to Downing Street on Saturday.

    It is believed to be the first time Ms Truss has described what happened in the Baltic Sea on Monday as a deliberate act.
    While Western governments are yet to do so, many commentators have said that Russia is most likely to be responsible for damage to the pipelines. Moscow, meanwhile, has sought to blame the West.

    Our “leaders” know very well that it was the Americans that blew these pipelines but dare not say so because the public would not “understand” and it would inevitably collapse support for the war. They are therefore going to remain shtum and allow the MSM to perpetuate the myth that it was the Russians. It is significant that there is not one single politician among the whole of the European Political Establishment that is prepared to tell the truth! I suppose this is not in itself surprising since the whole edifice is built on a foundation of deceit unrivalled in history. When the War begins in earnest, as now appears inevitable, we shall see even more lies in an attempt to shore up support.

    https://news.sky.com/story/liz-truss-says-sabotage-responsible-for-nord-stream-leaks-during-meeting-with-danish-pm-12708964

    1. That article, which doesn’t allow comments, is a typical piece of propaganda – it mentions that Russia has accused the US “without proof” but doesn’t then provide any proof that it was the Russians! They even manage to get in a “climate damaging methane” mention!

    3. It surprises me how many people are now wondering why Russia would blow up pipelines when they can just stop putting the gas in at their end. None of these are in the media, though.

  11. News from Holland. The MR arrived on time, It “only” took an hour from leaving the plane for her to get to the station (used to be 15 mins).

    Coming back today will be a nightmare. Her plane is at 17.00. She plans to get to Schiphol at 12 NOON to join the queue – it takes three to four HOURS to go through security…..

    Thank GOD I stayed at home. That sort of malarkey would be the death of me.

    2. We missed a flight home one time going through security at Schitpol. We were rebooked on the next flight but our luggage didn’t arrive with us….
      My OH won’t fly any more.

        1. My own thought, Paul. It was the model of what a busy international airport should be…

          5. I read that the Dutch government are a major shareholder and wish to shrink Schipol to help them meet their green targets. The CEO resigned.

          6. That is true. They are reducing flights by at least 10%. With further cuts planned.

            Punish the natives. Make them stay at home and walk.

        2. That was in 2018. The woman on the desk who rebooked our flight was very helpful. But our luggage took another day to reach home.

  14. Just a thought on wet days when no work could be done outside we used to say that it is a day for the Queen.

    I suppose now we will have to get used to saying, a day for the king.

    Seems more apt, somehow.

  15. The Prime Minister and Chancellor must hold firm and see their reforms through

    Is all this media spin just a way to try and herd us all back into our former pre-great reset traditional political party allegiances and divert attention away from the fact they have all wrecked the country bigly between them.

  16. If the Tories want to win the next Election, this is what they have to do. Peter Hitchens 2 October 2022.

    But there it is. The Tory Party is what we have. But it can only fight the Blairites if it stops trying to be like them. Here’s what the Tories have to do, to survive and win.

    Rebuild criminal justice. Replace the failed ‘police’ with proper new local forces which patrol the streets on foot and deter crime.
    Enforce the laws against drug possession. Recapture the prisons from control by inmates, and make them places of immediate punishment for second offenders instead of useless warehouses for habitual criminals.

    Repeal the Equality Act of 2010 and all its oppressive panoply of political correctness.

    Revolutionise the education system, making real plans to build at least 1,500 new selective state grammar schools evenly across the country, offering superb education to those who can benefit from it.

    Re-engineer the divorce laws, the welfare system and the tax system so as to stop punishing parents who want to stay together and bring up their own children.

    Stop meddling in foreign countries and concentrate on defending our people against foreign threats abroad and crime at home.

    Renationalise the railways, the water and energy industries, and embark on a major infrastructure programme in which British contractors are favoured.

    Conclude a treaty with France, at whatever cost, to stop people-smugglers using the Channel.

    Inform the BBC it has two years to rediscover impartiality or lose its Royal Charter and licence money.

    In two years Mr Hitchens? It’s easier to wait for the collapse and then build on the ruins.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11270477/PETER-HITCHENS-Tories-want-win-Election-do.html

    1. All very worthy aims but that’s some to-do list with little more than two years to go!

    2. Renationalise the railways? BR being a beacon in our time of fantastic service, clean trains, modern stock, and attentive customer service? That seems like a good model to follow.
      And, there’s already an agreement with France on illegal immigrants. That works well, too.
      Why does BBC need another two years? Subscription now, and they can swing whatever way they like.
      Hitchens is an arse.

  17. ‘Morning, Peeps. More rain this morning, although when gardening yesterday the soil is still dry just a few inches down…

    This is from today’s DT…she’s a brave lady:

    Nurse sues NHS for ‘forcing racist ideology’ on students

    ‘First test of woke ideology in the courts’ as health service accused of ‘forcing Critical Race Theory onto people’

    By Ewan Somerville and Steven Edginton1 October 2022 • 8:00pm

    A Christian nurse has claimed the NHS is “forcing racist ideology” on students, in the first case of its kind.

    Amy Gallagher, 33, is suing the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust alleging discrimination on the basis of race, religion and philosophical belief, as well as victimisation and harassment.

    The mental health nurse, who is in the final stages of a two-year course in forensic psychology at the trust, objected to a lecture titled “whiteness – a problem of our time” in Oct 2020, where attendees were forced to confront “the reality of white privilege”.

    In another race lecture the following month, Ms Gallagher claimed she was told that “Christianity is racist because it is European” by a talk leader.

    The case escalated in March this year when an external speaker at the trust complained to the Nursing and Midwifery Council, alleging that Ms Gallagher could not work with “diverse populations” and had “inflicted race-based harm”.

    Paul Jenkins, chief executive of the trust, told her that it “has committed itself to an explicit ambition of becoming an anti-racist organisation”.

    Ms Gallagher claims it is the first legal case for “lack of belief”, arguing that as a white Christian woman she cannot believe Critical Race Theory – an ideology that says racism remains institutional and rejects a colour-blind approach.

    “They are forcing Critical Race Theory onto people – you’re not allowed to disagree with it, or they will bully you for two years,” Ms Gallagher told The Telegraph.

    “I’m bringing this legal case to protect my career but it’s also the first test of woke ideology in the courts. The NHS is forcing someone to adopt a racist ideology and it needs to be stopped.”

    Ms Gallagher, who had already completed the Tavistock’s foundation psychotherapy course before embarking on the forensic course, filed court documents in the Central London County Court in March. She is represented by Andrew Storch Solicitors.

    The trust, represented by Shakespeare Martineau, intends to file its defence this week.

    Ms Gallagher has raised £21,000 so far via crowdfunding on GoFundMe for her legal action. She is being supported by the Bad Law Project, the anti-woke group established by the actor Laurence Fox and the campaigner Harry Miller.

    Dr Anna Loutfi, a barrister and head of legal at the Bad Law Project, said: “The ‘lack of belief’ draws attention to something that people are not talking about in the free speech world in the West, which I think is covered by the Equality Act under lack of belief, which is you have the right not to be forced to sign up a set of values or ideology with which you do not agree.

    “It’s quite one thing to censor somebody for wanting to say things that people find objectionable or offensive, but it’s really another thing substantively to force somebody to articulate a view that they do not hold, as if they hold it. That is what has happened to Amy.”

    A spokesman for the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust said: “We cannot comment on an ongoing legal case. As a trust, we have made a public commitment to work to become an anti-racist organisation.”

    The BTL posters are pretty supportive:

    Piggy Malone10 HRS AGO

    Paul Jenkins, and everyone else who pushes this contentious ideology on their staff, needs to be purged. Elsewhere we learn that nurses are leaving the NHS in record numbers. I’m not surprised. Nobody goes to work expecting to be told they are part of an oppressive class that needs to be ‘re-educated’. Jenkins and his dim-witted ilk can believe what they like but forcing their anti-white racism on the workforce is the very opposite of his stated aim to be an ‘anti-racist’ organisation and he will be justifiably humiliated when an employment judge finds against him.

    Free Thinker11 HRS AGO

    (One of) the problem(s) is that organisations like this Trust simply cannot understand or acknowledge their wrongheadedness. They trumpet racist (anti-white) rhetoric with abandon seemingly blind to the fact that the very essence of their appalling ideology is fundamentally racist but because it’s OK ‘cos it’s aimed at 85% of the population.

    John Dabney I11 HRS AGO

    Fine woman for standing up to these Critical Race Theory bullies. May they be hounded out of all education institutions.

    M EH1 HR AGO

    They need hounding out of all UK institutions full stop. It’s a racist ideology that should not be tolerated and should be illegal, just the same as the idea that all muslim or black people are the “problem of our time”.

    1. She should be referred to the Free Speech Union who I’m sure will be more than happy to take up her legal case.

      https://freespeechunion.org/

    2. The interesting thing is that these cases are so often David versus Goliath. The NHS, like government bodies, Councils, quangos and NGOs have unlimited access to public funds to spend on legal fees. The other side very seldom has parity in respect of being able to hire teams of lawyers at £500 a head for unlimited periods of time.
      The legal expenditure of publicly funded organisations should be limited to the same amount as is available to the other side. If a case has any merit it could be argued that it should be publicly funded in the public interest. In this instance Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust is spending public money on activities with a very questionable relationship to delivering health services to their area.
      This one-sided effect is often also seen in legal cases where one of the litigants is a commercial enterprise. The ‘McLegal”case is an example.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McLibel_case

    1. Sorry to hear that, Tom. Could you perhaps enjoy an extended catnap later today?

      1. I try to avoid it, as I then have another sleepless night, thank you for the thought, Elsie

      1. Yes, I’m currently waking up in the small wee hours with a mind churning over ‘to do’ lists and a desire to administer Chinese burns to a mindless, box ticking solicitorette.

  19. Good morning, everyone. Lots of sunshine forecast for today. Should I “creosote” four fence panels today or leave it for a later date and risk constant rain? Decisions, decisions.

    1. Morning, Olaf’s Relict.
      Thinking back a couple of late Septembers ago, I was glad I got the creosoting done before the autumn damp really took a hold.
      Go for it.

          1. Ditto for me, but I keep a fence-painting set of clothes for the job and they only come out in the autumn.

      2. Thanks, Annie. I did, but only did three fences – it was enough for this year. (Since the proofing is guaranteed for five years I have split my workload into five sections.)

      1. Thanks, Herr Oberst, your recommendation (and that of Annie) have spurred me on to spend six hours on the job today. I’m exhausted but the fence panels now look good and I am feeling virtuous.

    3. Morning Elsie, the new ‘EU approved’ creosote isn’t a patch on the old stuff which we should be able to buy now we’re out of the EU. I use a sprayer to do mine – done in a tenth of the time. Rain shouldn’t affect it after 20 – 30 minutes

      2. Now that you have retired from your breakdown recovery job, any chance of you driving down to my place and doing the fences for me? Lol.

  20. Good Moaning.
    Ommmmmmmm …… I’m thinking positive; all this hauling boxes and running up and down 2 flights of stairs is cheaper than going to the gym. One niggling thought – I haven’t stepped into a gym since I left school.
    Editorial comment from the MoS; at least the editor can see a bigger picture, unlike his hysterical reporters.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11271219/MAIL-SUNDAY-COMMENT-admirable-restraint-face-Labours-bigotry.html

    1. His answer is commendably restrained, unlike Ms Huq’s words. He says simply that some on the Left seem to think that there is such a thing as ‘the right sort of black person’.

      Just like Biden’s view that if a black person doesn’t vote for him, they aren’t really black.

      1. Coconuts, Uncle Tom, all other kinds of insult thrown if you aren’t a part of the black victimhood.

    2. I think it’s rather strange that one person might have all the right answers…….so how did we end up in the dodoo in the first place. There must be something terribly wrong with the ‘system’ for this to have happened.

  21. SIR – At a time when so many people are having trouble affording the basics of life such as food and energy, how can it be morally, logically or tactically sensible to give the richest of our nation a tax gift?

    Anthony Chapman
    Morton, Lincolnshire

    Dear Mr Chapman,

    Firstly may I say, that what tax cut someone else gets does not in any way affect your ability to afford the basics of life like food and energy.

    Secondly, may I make a few points.

    1) The IFS and OBR in a joint working party concluded that the raising of the top rate of tax from 40% to 50% in 2009 was considered to be over the peak of the Laffer curve, and while it was predicted to bring in about 1bn at the time, they estimated that due to behaviour changes it would at best estimate bring in less than 100M.

    2) The top rate of tax threshold has been 150,000 since 2009, and its still 150,000 in 2022, that’s 13 years of fiscal drag on the threshold dragging in ever more people into that bracket.

    3) In addition, under Osborne these people have effectively been paying an additional tax, as are many on more that 80K a year at 55%

    Osborne introduced a £50K contribution to pensions limit and a pension pot limit of 1.75M, if you exceeded either, you paid 55% tax on the excess.

    Now, you might think that’s rather generous until you apply it to the defined benefits schemes many in this bracket had, where the annual uplift in your pension had to be multiplied by a factor of 16, so if your pension uplift was more than 3,125 a year you paid 55% on any excess, and if your pension pot exceeded the limit you paid 55% tax on all contributions thereafter.

    4) That was bad enough, but they then reduced the limit on contributions to 40K a year and the total pot limit from 1.75M to 1.5M to 1.25M to 1M so that an increasing number of people earning more than about 60K were staring to pay these charges.

    Not convinced yet Mr Chapman?

    5) Most GP’s and NHS consultants, the people you need to see to get treatment earn between 100K to 150K, so not even in the 150K bracket, and they are deciding to retire early because the vast majority over 50 have exceeded the 1M cap on their pension and their annual uplift in their pension every year exceeds the 40K limit, so are paying increasingly a 55% tax charge.

    They are cutting their hours to avoid those charges and refusing to do overtime, preferring to work part time to save paying these charges.

    So if you want an NHS appointment with any of these people, think on.

    Pensions taxation pushing GPs to consider early retirement

    Exclusive Pensions taxation has prompted nearly 40% of GPs to consider early retirement, a Pulse survey has shown ahead of today’s Budget. The Government has made a commitment to resolve the issues around NHS staff pensions via the Budget due to be announced today. And a Pulse survey of 746 GPs, found that 38.5% said that they had considered early retirement and pensions taxation was a factor.

    Out of these, 8.5% said pensions taxation was the sole factor which has pushed them to consider early retirement. The survey also revealed that nearly a quarter of GPs (23.5%) had cut shifts as a result of pensions taxation.

    Under the current NHS pension scheme, the highest earning GPs pay at least 14.5% in contributions, but an annual allowance worth £40,000 limits the amount of money that can go into the pension pot each year without facing significant tax penalties.

    The allowance is also reduced where individuals earn a yearly net income exceeding £110,000 – or an adjusted income exceeding £150,000 – with the taper stopping at a minimum annual allowance of £10,000.

    Dr May Cahill, who was a locum GP in Hackney, told Pulse she retired early partly because of pension considerations.

    She said: ‘The pension thing was a large driver to taking early retirement. I came to the conclusion that I was working for 40p in the pound by the time you took everything into consideration, and I thought this is a bit silly really.

    ‘Obviously, I’ve taken a lower pension as a result, but it is still worthwhile to do that rather than carry on in the scheme and have ever-burgeoning costs. There was nothing to entice me to stay in the pension scheme. I think the NHS have lost an awful lot of very good people and I think a lot of that had to do with the pension situation.’

    Dr Iain Ashworth, a GP in Lancashire, took 24-hour retirement because of the punitive tax he would have been paying when going above his lifetime allowance.

    He said: ‘Paying such levels of taxation, even on the margins, and having a cap, is morally indefensible, as far as I’m concerned.’

    ‘As a higher tax level contributor over many years, this is just another kick in the teeth for those who pay. Taxation is at its highest level for many decades. I think the over-regulation and voracious demand has recently taken some of the gloss off the vocation,’ he added.

    https://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/uncategorised/pensions-taxation-pushing-gps-to-consider-early-retirement/

    Think on Mr Chapman about punitive upper end tax charges.

    1. Putin has made the mistake of striking back. Had he decided not to retaliate in respect of US/EU imposed sanctions, the whole mess could not have been ramped up so easily. Had he left the gas flowing the opposition would have little to complain about. A police action in the Ukraine that would have been little different to the punch-ups in Chechnya or Nagorno Karabakh.
      Except of course, that Zelensky is an appointee and protege of the US. More than that, Zelensky is a confederate of the Bidens. We may die in a nuclear war because of the bribery and corruption of the US President’s son. Keeping in mind that all of that is now subordinate to the wish of the US to remove the Soviet Union from the Great Game, failing to understand that Russia no longer resembles the Soviet Union any more than it resembles Chicago.

    2. Putin has made the mistake of striking back. Had he decided not to retaliate in respect of US/EU imposed sanctions, the whole mess could not have been ramped up so easily. Had he left the gas flowing the opposition would have little to complain about. A police action in the Ukraine that would have been little different to the punch-ups in Chechnya or Nagorno Karabakh.
      Except of course, that Zelensky is an appointee and protege of the US. More than that, Zelensky is a confederate of the Bidens. We may die in a nuclear war because of the bribery and corruption of the US President’s son. Keeping in mind that all of that is now subordinate to the wish of the US to remove the Soviet Union from the Great Game, failing to understand that Russia no longer resembles the Soviet Union any more than it resembles Chicago.

    3. Putin has made the mistake of striking back. Had he decided not to retaliate in respect of US/EU imposed sanctions, the whole mess could not have been ramped up so easily. Had he left the gas flowing the opposition would have little to complain about. A police action in the Ukraine that would have been little different to the punch-ups in Chechnya or Nagorno Karabakh.
      Except of course, that Zelensky is an appointee and protege of the US. More than that, Zelensky is a confederate of the Bidens. We may die in a nuclear war because of the bribery and corruption of the US President’s son. Keeping in mind that all of that is now subordinate to the wish of the US to remove the Soviet Union from the Great Game, failing to understand that Russia no longer resembles the Soviet Union any more than it resembles Chicago.

    4. It’s a very good way to demonstrate national tech levels. As so much is reliant on computers one could argue that the number of outgoing links is a good sign of our economic progress and international standing. Look at us compared to Africa, for example.

  23. Rod Liddle in The Sunday Grimes:

    “Apparently 21 per cent of the population are still prepared to vote Conservative. I haven’t met any of them. Perhaps the pollsters did their polling in the Broadmoor area, or exclusively in the nation’s funny farms.

    You know you are in trouble when people look back, misty-eyed, to the Boris Johnson era for its stability, steadiness, common sense and dependability. We are now on a Narrenschiff crewed by the palpably deranged — libertarian, free-market ideologues who, much like their far-left counterparts, are happily detached from reality, assuring on another as the waves lap higher and higher that there is no crisis: everything is going just fine.

    We are led by a prime minister who cannot speak and a chancellor who cannot count. I knew Truss would be bad but I didn’t imagine she’d be this bad. You listen to her stumbling through interview after interview and each time conclude, a little worriedly, that there is nothing there: no fiendishly clever plan, no real understanding of economics, or of public perception, or of politics — no grasp of the realities. Why couldn’t she have stayed in the Lib Dems? There’s loads of people like her there.

    There is nothing whatsoever wrong in the morality or economics of cutting the top rate of tax if a) you have a vague idea of how you might pay for it and b) you also cut the tax for the vast number of middle-income earners who actually might spend a bit more to “turbocharge” the economy. Trickle-down only ever works if the proportion of people to provide the trickle is sufficiently broad. It never works when there is a cost of living crisis and everybody is preparing to put on a hair shirt for the next nine months (at least) just to have the heating up a bit on Christmas Day.

    Both the chancellor and the prime minister invoke Margaret Thatcher any time they are allowed near a microphone, but Thatcher took nine years to gradually reduce taxation and would never have sanctioned tax cuts paid for by borrowing. Thatcher — and Sir Keith Joseph — may have had their heads turned by that arid and damaging Chicago school of economics but they were sufficiently pragmatic to ditch the ideology when needs must.

    I still do not understand why, given her convictions, the tax rates were not cut for those middle-income earners — the vast bulk of Tory voters — unless she and Kwarteng just hate them. It can’t be that they couldn’t afford to do it, because they couldn’t afford to slash 5 percentage points off the top rate either, and still less pay for everybody’s heating.

    Labour would have railed (hypocritically, it has to be said) about the rich getting a break, but the public would have been far more amenable if it had had a bit more money in its own pocket. The public does not buy the politics-of-envy stuff, nor should it, but it does have a view about fairness.

    Nothing was run past the Office for Budget Responsibility, presumably because it would have advised a quick dose of ECT, or a chemical cosh, for Kwarteng, whose expensive education is beginning to look very much like a dodgy investment.

    There is a good case for saying the Conservative Party has bestowed upon us the three worst prime ministers since the Second World War — one after another, bang, bang, bang. You think Johnson was dodgy? Just see what we’ve got lined up for you next — you won’t believe it, mate. The Tories have almost certainly lost the next election to a Labour Party that has been quietly, boringly, but rather brilliantly led for two years by a politician many people continue to underestimate because of his lack of chutzpah. Well, the latest budget shows you where chutzpah alone gets you.

    If there is any consolation for the Conservatives, it is that Truss is quite clearly not one of them. She is a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party libertarian who is seemingly incapable of distinguishing between the asinine shibboleths of her creed and real life, where things happen differently. There is no appetite in this country for gung-ho libertarianism and never has been.

    Truss’s true political colours have been evidenced not merely by the budget but also by her insistence that what this country really needs is a bit more immigration. Yep, Liz — walk around those red wall seats, explain that to the voters and see how they react.

    In fact, see if they agree with you on anything. I have the distinct suspicion that they do not and that your party may be out of power for a decade or more.”

    2. IMHO
      The problem with our political structure/system is, we always endup with a type of dictatorship. As if you add up the votes against the government because of the three or more parties system, more have voted against the incoming government than for it.
      Then we have the HoL why?
      Political Reform is sorely needed. But how it might happen is another matter.
      Look at the mess we have at this very moment in time. With a right of centre government and the opposition as in left wing ripping the country to pieces with their fascist leaders calling strikes. Let alone all the left wing councils, and mayors stirring up as many problems as they can.

    3. Mixed bag of an article.
      But a more visible tax reduction for the middle earners would have been a good move.

      1. Have you SEEN Untrussworthy try to “speak”? Or that cretin Chancellor “explain” his madcap fiscal policy?

        2. I don’t want them to speak. I don’t want endless justifications for the positive benefits of cutting tax and over time, state spending. The BBC already set about skewing the facts so what’s the point? I want to see government, not politics.

          Good government is bad politics.

          Good politics is bad government (Blair, Cameron, Boris)

          If the unions come out on strike, change the law. If the commies start getting uppity, cut off their benefits. If a socialist worker (the greatest oxymoron going) pops up, smack the carrier in the face.

    4. Yet living on other people’s money doesn’t work – ducking Thayaric’s no doubt angry reposte, bluntly it has mad eus poorer, crushed growth, lead to welfare dependency and high unemployment (once you ignore the statistics and look at the facts).

      Big state, high tax policies do not work. If folk continue to demand that Peter pays the bills eventually Peter will stop working – as I did.

      Let’s try a fractionally lower tax regime. Let’s see what a Swiss and Singaporean economic approach does for the country. Let’s stop pretending Left wingery works because it doens’t.

  24. Today’s leading lettet:

    SIR – It takes great strength of character and conviction to stand up and face a baying mob, especially a political one. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have my admiration.

    I always wondered why Boris Johnson did not attempt to enact some of his early policies after Brexit, for which he had great public support. Perhaps he understood how the pro-EU and socialist contingents in Parliament and the wider political world would react, and was fully aware of the force that would be against him.

    I wish Ms Truss and Mr Kwarteng good luck. They have shown enough courage in their beliefs to see this challenge through.

    Bea Martin
    Ferring, West Sussex

    I think it was more a case of Johnson was not a detail man, and was not one for hard graft. Not a good combination.

      1. One good thing about the demise of the Buffoon. One hears nothing from or about Carrion any more.

    3. Strange that you fall for all the lefty tropes.

      Do you think you can run government by reading every piece of paper and proposal from every department of government?

      The PM is a policy and man manager and media role, that’s why they have ministers and junior ministers to do the detail.

      If you remember back to Theresa DisMay, she was all across the detail of Brexit, but sadly not across the concept, the requirements and most importantly the politics.

      He won an 80 seat majority, DisMay managed to lose a 50%+ poll rating and 23pt lead in just 5 weeks, and a majority as well.

    4. I expect Bea will be watching girder eating Laura Kunesberg. (spl) Grilling the new PM on bbc TV this morning.
      The new version of Marr.

    5. Tribal identity politics from Ms Martin. Call the outraged public a “baying mob” or “pro-EU socialists” and it makes anything right, regardless of truth or logic.

      How precisely do I (who incidentally am no socialist, voted Leave and think radically away from the groupthink of society) get the message across that they are wrong?

      1. Yet there is clearly a pro EU socialist mob out there. We’ve seen them over these tax reforms. Every forum was flooded with Left wing, big state, me me me me high tax politics of envy spite. It became exhausting telling them that actually, my money was my own, confiscated without my permission by the state. it was NOT theh state’s to waste as it saw fit.

        1. It was David Owen, when he was leading the SDP, who decried the “what’s in it for me” brigade on both the Left, and it must be said those whose voted were bought by Mrs Thatcher. There are far too many eager to tell the Government to spend heavily on this or that, but completely unwilling to tell the Government how it was all going to be paid for.

          I think very many taxpayers would be more reassured paying tax if they felt they were getting value for money. No different really to buying a tin of beans. If the beans are tasty and nourishing, then it’s money well spent.

  25. Morning all 🙂
    A reasonable autumnal day. I hadn’t been into the local woods for a few days, until yesterday and its quite wonderful how the newly cast carpet of yellow leaves britghten up the scenery.

  26. Good Morning. Nice and sunny. Vapour trails all over the sky. It’s Sunday morning.

  27. SIR – The Government seems to be taking a lot of criticism for what is the Bank of England’s fault.

    The Bank has persistently failed to forecast and control inflation, advising that it was transitory and would be modest. It fell behind the curve of action and has remained there, while inflation has galloped ahead. Consistent with this has been the failure to raise interest rates to more credible levels.

    For years it has been happy printing money to the tune of £900 billion, which any O-level student could tell you leads to currency debasement, inflation and economic ruin.

    The Bank has also failed to regulate the pension sector, which has become highly exposed to £1.5 trillion of liability driven instruments that are tied to bonds and low interest rates.

    The Bank is failing the nation and the Government. More competent people should be in charge.

    Stuart Moore
    Bramham, West Yorkshire

    You are not wrong, Mr Moore! When the B of E is charged with the task of controlling inflation it has surely failed, and spectacularly. How Bailey and the MPC can remain as they are is quite beyond me.

    1. That is true, and I have been ignored for years when I argued consistently that interest rates should be set at inflation + growth unless there are special circumstances such as a national emergency.

      The priming of inflation by printing money and using it to buy over-valued Government bonds was about to cease, but Kwarteng’s “Fiscal Event” for which he had no mandate, reversed that in order to stop the pension funds going under.

      Therefore, inflationary pressure today is very much the making of the Truss Government. I notice they are considering dropping pensions in order to grow the bonus payout to hardworking corporate executives and directors – something I presume they calculate to be popular with the Conservative core vote.

      1. “…popular with the Conservative core vote.”

        That’s us oldies but I doubt I’ll vote for any of the Lib/Lab/Con coalition but will mark as NOTA, if there is no Independent standing.

        1. Yes, at the individual’s highest marginal rate. Share options and the like are slightly more complex, but eventually tax will be paid.

        2. Yes. I remember banker chum writing cheques for the taxman that made your eyes water.

      3. Seems like we have had a pretty much permanent “national emergency” for the last decade or two.

      4. Yet for over 2 decades the BoE has been told by wasteful chancellors to keep interest rates down to allow the state to borrow vast sums of money.

        Mervyn King resigned over this issue in conflict with Brown.

  28. SIR – In common with many people, I am now looking to reduce my energy consumption by installing solar panels.

    The power will obviously be generated during the day, whereas I need it mostly in the evening. The logical solution is to take advantage of the ability to feed electricity into the grid during the day, which will offset the evening consumption. In 1, power companies typically take a 10 per cent cut for effectively storing the energy, but the meter runs backwards when feeding electricity into the system. So if I produce 10kWh during the day, then use 9kWh in the evening, my net cost is zero.

    If this Government is serious about encouraging people to invest in solar energy and reduce the overall load on the grid this winter, I suggest we adopt the American model. If this necessitates investment in the grid then I suggest repurposing the HS2 budget.

    Nick Hopkins
    Hursley, Hampshire

    It’s not quite that simple, Mr Hopkins. It is sunlight that produces good performance. A dull winter’s day won’t produce very much, as I know from experience. My meter would stop if generation exceeded load, but older ones did indeed run backwards, and in time your supplier will catch on. I think I’m right in saying that new solar pv installations require a smart meter, which will measure output etc.

    If you want to use any daytime surplus in the evening than a battery is what you need. Not cheap, and from my experience any payback would be a long time coming.

    1. Heat the hot water tank – get a bigger one if necessar, so showers, washing & washing-up can happen on solar-heated water.
      Get storage heaters and warm them during the day, on solar power. Both existing, proven technology.

      1. The problem is Obs, as you use the heated water the tank is topped up by mains water and it cools what’s already in the tank.
        We have a combi boiler and knowing what I know now I should have insulated all the hot water pipes to the taps. As it seems to take ages for the hot water to reach the bathroom tap.
        I noticed that a lot of people have their boiler flues in the gable walls and the hot water is already up at bathroom level.
        Too much work to change it now.
        The next owners can do all that.

        1. Amazingly it’s only quite recently we see a lot of solar panels when we visit our friends in different parts of Oz.
          You might have thought they would have been ahead of the game.

      3. We did – a smart box diverted all spare power to our (enlarged) HW cylinder before anything was exported. It provided plenty of hot water from about end Feb/early March until late October. As for storage heaters you would need a large array to recharge them all every day in the cooler months, just when output is down with shorter days and reduced sunlight.

    2. To take most advantage of solar panels you need to be home when they are producing electricity. You can then use the generated electricity for the washing machine, cooker etc WHILST it’s being generated – you still get paid for this . Also get a device (quite legal) which diverts any excess electricity to the immersion heater before it can be exported to the grid – this also saves oil in my case. Batteries are a good idea but will never recoup the cost of installing them. The Feed in Tarriff is now poor compared with 8 – 10 years ago

      1. What is the difference between winter and summer output for your solar panels? Are they still useful in winter?

        1. Yes they still produce around 50 units a month even in Dec/Jan, summer months around 400 per month

    3. I would like to know whether input from solar panels and similar devices that cannot be switched off easily during a sunny day is more than demand for electricity from the Grid at that time. If it is not, then it’s simply a matter of turning off generators powered by gas and such like and need not incur further expense onto the National Grid. There can be little difference in cost between gas-powered electricity at night or that during the day.

      1. The grid has to be in balance at all times, that is the nature of electricity. If solar is going well then other generation has to be reduced. It is the unpredictability of solar – and to some extent wind – that the NG struggles to control within tight limits. If the mains frquency of 50 hertz +/- 1% is not maintained then all sorts of problems arise.

        1. This is gas-powered electricity generation’s greatest strengths – it can be turned on and off and up and down practically instantaneously. The heavy lifting can be done by other means though.

      2. The grid has to be in balance at all times, that is the nature of electricity. If solar is going well then other generation has to be reduced. It is the unpredictability of solar – and to some extent wind – that the NG struggles to control within tight limits. If the mains frquency of 50 hertz +/-1% is not maintained then all sorts of problems arise.

    4. We used to have two solar panels and a wind generator on Mianda.

      In the Mediterranean sun during the summer these were excellent and provided for most of our power needs but in the winter when it was cloudy, they were practically useless and we had to use a petrol powered generator.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95dc82d7ed72234d804dff0466468f48237248897ffd09e21e5fce4b6d7cbd96.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40351e8c1cf585d37f95fd285ab8d7b9fd0e1a77242a33e1337da542a939f521.jpg.

      Greta Thurnberg and EdDavey should shack up together and spend a cold winter aboard a boat with only a small wind generator and solar panels supplying the power they need to run their heating, cooking, fridge, electric blanket and other things which depend on electricity.

      1. That’s interesting; so far south, I’d have expected them to be useful in winter too. How does that compare to Fallick_Alec’s solar panels that are a lot further north?

          1. Oh yes indeed!! But the sun is usually much more powerful than in Blighty, even on the coldest days (hence skiing sun tans)

    5. In common with many people, I am now looking to reduce my energy consumption by installing solar panels.

      If you want to reduce your energy consumption switch things off or don’t switch them on.

      I think he is saying he wants to decrease his costs.

    7. If government were serious about reducing energy use then they’d make solar tax deductible over 5 years.

    2. No change there then! – finally we have sunshine….. we’ve had a miserable weather week in the south-west… we got soaked in Sidmouth, absolutely drenched. Friday it rained non-stop all day. We have returned to the eastern counties after a long and tiring journey yesterday and all is dry, the sky is blue and the sun is shining.

  30. 365731+ up ticks

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    23h
    If you haven’t had the vaccine &
    any of the umpteen boosters then you can award yourself this distinction. Congratulations!

    Apart from staying healthy, & not having to worry about future unknown health risks, you have achieved something else – not succumbing to the greatest mass propaganda scam in human history.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1srbo7ff05

    1. Does that mean Gerard has finally caught up with what many of us here have been saying for nearly 3 years?

      1. 365731+ up ticks,

        Morning Atg,

        As a founder member of the genuine UKIP and years of being so far right maybe he is
        slightly remiss in handing out these sanity diplomas,

  31. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have driven our economy off a cliff
    PM and Chancellor are wedded to a disastrous ideology, with the damage likely to be felt by working people for years to come

    Keir Starmer: DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/01/keir-starmer-liz-truss-kwasi-kwarteng-have-driven-economy-cliff/

    BTL

    Does The Guardian ever publish articles by anti-Labour Conservative leaders?

    Say what you like about The Guardian but you certainly cannot accuse it of being balanced and impartial and keen to present both sides of an argument!

    1. I read a book recently where an 8 year old is killing people due to trauma. The boy is stuck outside in February, with plod closing in. The writer adds in journalists asking if he’s been caught and what not, how the victim is and adds ‘Tom Jones, the Guardian – have you thought how frightened and cold the lad might be?’

      I chortled as it was very clear that’s the route they’d take in real life. Put it this way – if the guardian is unhappy, it’s the right action.

  32. Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have driven our economy off a cliff
    PM and Chancellor are wedded to a disastrous ideology, with the damage likely to be felt by working people for years to come

    Keir Starmer: DT – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/01/keir-starmer-liz-truss-kwasi-kwarteng-have-driven-economy-cliff/

    BTL

    Does The Guardian ever publish articles by anti-Labour Conservative leaders?

    Say what you like about The Guardian but you certainly cannot accuse it of being balanced and impartial and keen to present both sides of an argument!

  33. SIR – Letters regarding hints to guests who overstay their welcome have reminded me of the definition of hospitality: it is the ability to make people feel at home when you wish they were.

    Derek Wellman
    Lincoln

    Very good!

    1. Sign in a B&B near me…
      It is the hosts duty to make the guest feel at home
      It is the guests duty to remember they are not

      2. There is one person I can tolerate for more than a few hours. I married her.

        She still drives me insane and I find ways to get away from her (shopping is a wonderful excuse – the number of things i’ve forgotten recently is amazing).

    2. She should be chained to it and forced to clean it all off. Perhaps the family can sue her for damages and clean out her bank account.

    3. How on earth does she think that this type of action will persuade anyone to support her cause?

      1. Woman! Without her, man is a savage.

        Woman, without her man, is a savage.

        The way you punctuate this shows who you think the savage is!

    5. Rub her face in it. She makes the average incontinent puppy seem a genius with a planet sized brain.

      1. A puppy has no concept of what it’s doing, doesn’t know it’s wrong and if ill, can’t help it. You say ‘well done’ and encourage them to go in the kitchen or somesuch and keep rewarding good behaviour.

        This cretin should be chained to posts and flogged. Repeatedly. When she’s screaming and demanding it stop for her rights, start with the bats. When her mind breaks from the pain after a couple of weeks and she’s a drooling zombie flinching at string, kick her down a manhole into a sewer and forget about her.

    6. What’s going through her head – everything…..there’s nothing in the way
      A bullet might be the preferred option

  35. Who is Tucker Carlson really ‘rooting for’ in Ukraine? 2 October 2022.

    If Americans think things are bad, there is always Tucker Carlson to make them seem worse. Never more so than when the Fox News host is talking about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    “We’ve entered a new phase, one in which the United States is directly at war with the largest nuclear power in the world,” Carlson grimly warned his viewers on Tuesday.

    This alarming development, which apparently escaped the rest of the US media, was supposedly brought about by the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines from Russia to western Europe. Sweden and Denmark say the pipelines were blown up with several hundred kilos of explosives, pouring vast amounts of natural gas into the sea and atmosphere.

    While European politicians hinted that Russia was responsible as part of a new phase of hybrid war over Ukraine, Carlson said the evidence pointed in another direction.

    Well if we can’t refute the message let’s shoot the messenger!

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/oct/02/tucker-carlson-ukraine-vladimir-putin-propaganda

    1. To my mind Tucker Carlson speaks far more good sense than most people in the anglosphere.

  36. “The use of nuclear weapons may be used in Ukraine.”

    The accelerating stupidity of the human species has been gaining pace this millennium and it is now out of control. The inevitable outcome of this plague of crassness is the self-obliteration of the species, which is well overdue. Stupidity cannot be allowed to survive: nature will not permit it.

    1. Not sure it’s stupidity, more desperation. This is the time when a calm, rational Western leader should telephone Putin and demand he talk. When Putin goes to put the phone down he finds a slight cough – from 20 developed, militarised nations behind it so he *has* to listen.

      We ask what he wants and whyand create a middle ground.

      1. I’m talking about the enhanced levels of rising stupidity … in the entire human species.

        Frank Zappa was bang on the money when he declared: “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.” I cannot refute that logic.

        Mankind has become moribund in its stupidity and it shows it, incessantly, by electing more and more stupid politicians, who make more and more stupid laws, and who govern them with more and more stupid decisions. Stupidity is the prime tool they use when formulating, and in order to effect, their policies.

  37. The public is fed up with wacky gender ideology. So why is it still being forced on us?

    Virtue-signalling businesses have failed to grasp that the public has no interest in overzealous wokery.

    Get the message theatreland: most people just want a gents and a ladies, not urinals and cubicles. [Zoë Strimpel]

    It is happening because normal people have permitted the lunatics to take over the asylum. It is now time to remove those lunatics, by force if needed, and restore normality.

      1. “Give them an inch and they’ll take an mile ell”

        An ell being the distance from the tip of the nose to the end of the shortest finger. An old way of measuring cloth – about 45″.

        2. The Viking ell was the measure from the elbow to the tip of the middle finger, about 18 inches (460 mm). The Viking or primitive ell was used in Iceland up to the 13th century. By the 13th century, a law set the “stika” as equal to 2 ells which was the English ell of the time.

          The English ell is a double ell.

          1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b7deffd1a34e56d72bfc03fa494be4eca892bb0acf54ee388fb6c1c7c754149.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1561cb31eee0b1e0679317fd9fc24b83176bd1630459aa3c13f0b03d6ec0b771.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b71b4f6b3b3cc625151bfad21b47801122eea0fa986d0379f3bd22e44271b2e1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/357441423d123a827dbc247b78e94e73d7722e40475dbc99e154c2c87b47ca2c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d06bbb5223f3f6dac8d3e63f5c58f91ec5383d9f134aed306c67cc4b3e4654f1.jpg A few old Scandi measurements and weights printed on a decorative column in my kitchen.

          2. According to your ruler, ‘En Aln’ is only 594mm or about 24″.
            Somehow I always imagined Anne to be a tad taller.

          6. I am English and I have just measured mine (the difference between the elbow and the tip of the middle finger) – it is 480 mm; the measurement for Caroline is 425 mm but she is Dutch.

          8. More definitions of an ell:

            An ell (from Proto-Germanic * alinō, cognate with Latin ulna) is a unit of measurement, originally a cubit, i.e., approximating the length of a man’s arm from the elbow (elbow literally meant the bend (bow) of the arm (ell)) to the tip of the middle finger, or about 18 inches (457 mm); in later usage, any of several longer units.

            It is a political measurement. It depends on who is using it and what they intend by it – and no-one knows exactly what the real value is.

    2. As a matter of interest, how do you think people would have been able to stop it?
      Given that most of them have mortgages to pay and children at school?

      1. Prevention is always better than cure. If the Right had not sat in a stupor with its thumb up its arse for so long, the Left would never have been able to effectively muster its forces to such devastating effect.

        We (the Right) are now paying for that inertia.

        1. Good morning, Ursa Major

          Political weakness is at the root of many societal problems.

      2. By government discussing it as a private matter that is solely for the individual, and coming down very hard on any push for ‘rights’ (they’re mentally ill, nothing else), any threts against someone questioning it and any mention of it in schools and not trying to ‘normalise’ it.

        Don’t demonise it, don’t ignore it, just make it clear it is no one else’s business apart from the individuals while ensuring any criticism of it is permitted – same with homosexuality – it’s up to you, just don’t demand I accept your choices. We could call this ‘freedom of speech’.

    4. It is, I fear, all part of the WEF plan to soften us up and make us prepared to accept any nonsense however nonsensical it may be.

  38. I am delighted (sarc) to report that there are far, far more black faces than white in the Sunday Grimes “Style” magazine this week. (“Style” is a sort of fashion porn thing)

    And – sadly – not one Ukrainian….

  39. Another one today, joining the woman from yesterday.

    “ SIR – At a time when so many people are having trouble affording the basics of life such as food and energy, how can it be morally, logically or tactically sensible to give the richest of our nation a tax gift?
    Anthony Chapman
    Morton, Lincolnshire”

    1. Who creates wealth, Mr Chapman? Clue: it’s not the government.
      People have been brainwashed by years of socialism!

    2. How can it be at all morally, logically or tactically sensible to give £bns to Ukraine for a war THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE U.K.

        1. The morality is far less straightforward then our politicians would have us believe.

          They think they can con us and in fact in many cases they can – BUT not in all cases.

    3. Because not taking their money through the theft of taxation means more real money is in the economy creating real wealth.

      The magic idea that it is right to rob Peter to pay Paul’s bills is simply insulting. Perhaps you’d be better off asking why government has rigged the price of energy. That’s the root cause of the energy cost.

    4. It must be remembered that a person who mugs and then robs you of $1,000 and then, generously and humanely, gives you back $300 has not given you anything – he has merely robbed you of $700 and left you with a sore head. Socialists are incapable of understanding this.

  41. Lies, damn lies and statistics.

    Love final sentence. I should have tried that for ‘O’ level maths.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/01/war-motorists-based-false-government-data-calls-scrap-ltns-grow/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    “War on motorists based on ‘false’ government data as calls to scrap LTNs grow

    Figures used to justify the creation of contentious low-traffic neighbourhoods were incorrect, admits Department for Transport

    By Olivia Rudgard, Environment Correspondent1 October 2022 • 9:00pm

    Low-traffic neighbourhoods

    A review of a government report used to justify the use of low-traffic neighbourhoods revealed that the Department for Transport over-counted the rise in residential traffic Credit: Paul Cooper for The Telegraph

    Traffic figures used to justify controversial low-traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs) were incorrect, the Department for Transport (DfT) has admitted.

    A flurry of new LTNs, which limit driving in residential streets, were introduced in 2020 with £225 million in emergency funding allocated by the Government for councils to encourage walking and cycling.

    These have proved controversial, with residents and businesses in some areas successfully pushing for the schemes to be removed because of concerns about their impact on emergency service response times and traffic levels on surrounding main roads.

    This week, a review of the Government’s Minor Road Traffic Estimates’ report, whose findings were frequently used to justify the schemes, found that the DfT had significantly over-counted the rise in traffic on residential streets between 2009 and 2019.

    In London, where figures suggesting an almost 60 per cent rise in minor road traffic and a 72 per cent rise on the smallest roads had been widely cited, there had in fact been no increase at all over the decade, the new data show.

    A previously published increase from 6.6 billion vehicle miles in 2009 to 10.4 billion in 2019 has been revised to eight billion in both years.

    Across Britain, miles driven on minor roads rose by just less than 10 per cent, rather than the 26 per cent originally suggested.

    The original data suggested a rise from 108 billion vehicle miles in 2009 to almost 136 billion in 2019. This has been revised to 107 billion in 2009 and less than 118 billion in 2019.

    Craig Mackinlay, the Conservative MP for South Thanet who has previously objected to the schemes, said they were based on “false data”.

    “They need to be unwound as quickly as possible because if our towns aren’t moving, they’re not working,” he said.

    Paul Osborn, the Conservative leader of Harrow Council, where LTNs were removed last summer, said: “This is one of the many reasons that people reacted badly to it in Harrow.

    “Not only did it create problems on the main roads, but people didn’t really see [traffic on side streets] as a particular problem. It’s not a big surprise.”

    The previous figures, published in 2020, were “the best estimate at the time of publication”, the Government said, but had been revised in a review of methodology.

    The figures were used in a DfT paper published last year reporting on the first year of a new wave of travel schemes, including LTNs.

    In a foreword to the report, Boris Johnson wrote: “In the decade to 2020, road traffic in urban areas grew by a quarter, and on side streets by a third. It is forecast to rise even more in the next decade.

    “There are only a few ways to deal with this. The best way is to make better use of the roads we’ve already got, by encouraging vehicles such as cycles and buses that take up less space per passenger.”

    The rise in London traffic on side streets had been used by campaigners supporting the schemes, to argue that urgent measures were needed to tackle the problem.

    Many blamed the increase on satellite navigation systems which direct drivers down residential cut-throughs, as well as on the rise of taxi apps such as Uber and food and shopping delivery services.

    A study published last year in the Journal of Transport Geography said that the DfT data for London’s smallest unclassified or “C” roads show “an increase of 72 per cent in motor traffic over the past decade, while traffic on its major roads fell by three per cent”.

    It added: “This has provided an additional argument for LTNs, introduced at pace during the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak in the UK capital through emergency provisions allowing expedited implementation with concurrent consultation.”

    Another paper published last year by the climate charity Possible cited the figures as evidence for “unsustainable traffic growth” supporting the need for LTNs, adding: “Much of this increase is likely to be due to sat-nav systems turning residential streets into cut-throughs that allow drivers to avoid main roads.”

    London Fire Brigade LTNs

    Among the concerns about LTNs was that they would delay emergency services rushing to calls, such as this fire engine that struggled to squeeze through one London neighbourhood

    Supporters point to data suggesting some schemes have been successful in prompting reduced air pollution and a rise in walking and cycling, arguing that they take time to bed in and rises in traffic are often only perceived or temporary.

    However, new schemes face new opposition. Residents in Haringey, north London, where new LTNs were introduced in August, said they are causing bus delays on main roads and problems for disabled people living in and around the scheme.

    Transport for London (TfL) said it was reviewing the data update. A spokesman said: “All schemes are judged on their individual merits and decisions about their implementation are based on a range of data, including local traffic counts carried out by TfL and the boroughs and collision statistics.”

    A Local Government Association spokesman said: “Traffic levels in local communities, not national averages and estimates, are one of a number of reasons why councils chose to introduce low traffic neighbourhoods as well as other policy interventions to facilitate active travel and cut harmful carbon emissions in their areas.”

    A DfT spokesman said: “The figures used at the time were based on the most accurate data available.” “

    1. Another example of the utter failure of modelling. Will they never learn or to state it more accurately they will never learn.

      1. Garbage in, garbage out even for the very best models.

        Inaccurate/faulty models take anything in and produce garbage, except in the fluky instances where the garbage going in is inaccurately modelled but produces accurate figures. Of course in those instances the accurate figures will always be discounted because they won’t agree with the modelers expected results.

    2. The real problem with these government cick ups is that no one is held responsible. If they were, officials might be a bit more carful when pushing their political agendas in future.

      1. Our business has been built up over the years entirely by the reputation we have built up. If we lost that reputation we would be finished and we would have to pay the price as Cassio does.

        Reputation, reputation, reputation, O I have lost my reputation
        I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial.

        as Othello’s lieutenant observes after he has disgraced himself by unwisely drinking the drink Iago urged him to have.

        Of course Iago hypocritically pooh poohs this.

        But when doing his best to smear Cassio and plant in Othello’s mind the lie that Desdemona has had a carnal relationship with him (Cassio) then he, Iago, reveals his hypocrisy.

        Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
        Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
        Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
        ‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
        But he that filches from me my good name
        Robs me of that which not enriches him
        And makes me poor indeed        .

      2. Our business has been built up over the years entirely by the reputation we have built up. If we lost that reputation we would be finished and we would have to pay the price as Cassio does.

        Reputation, reputation, reputation, O I have lost my reputation
        I have lost the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial.

        as Othello’s lieutenant observes after he has disgraced himself by unwisely drinking the drink Iago urged him to have.

        Of course Iago hypocritically pooh poohs this.

        But when doing his best to smear Cassio and plant in Othello’s mind the lie that Desdemona has had a carnal relationship with him (Cassio) then he, Iago, reveals his hypocrisy.

        Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
        Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
        Who steals my purse steals trash; ’tis something, nothing;
        ‘Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands:
        But he that filches from me my good name
        Robs me of that which not enriches him
        And makes me poor indeed        .

  42. We are entering a terrifying new phase of the Russo-Ukraine war. Bob Seely. MP. 2 October 2022.

    Last week’s explosions on the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 Baltic Sea pipelines offer a clue. There is little doubt that the Russians blew up their own pipelines. Those explosions signal – and the Russians message very clearly – a direct threat to sabotage Western undersea internet and energy links. These are the vulnerable, umbilical cords critical to modern economies and modern life. The Russian navy has them in its sights.

    There’s really not much point reading beyond this point but critics are obliged to expose themselves to demonstrate their bona fides. This judgement is based one assumes on the age old credo of Mugger to Victim. “I’m going to shoot myself in the foot just to show you how much it hurts!” Seely, the author of this twaddle, sits on the UK Foreign Affairs Committee which explains much!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/02/entering-terrifying-new-phase-russo-ukraine-war/

    1. It is fairly clear that the second world war was engineered, but TPTB had the advantage that the country was relatively united going into it. The Oxford Union debating society did pass a vote that they would not fight for King and country in the 1930s, which was said to have influenced Hitler as to British attitudes, but they all lined up obediently behind same when we were actually at war.
      I saw this (military) attitude during the gulf war, when people who had been against it suddenly decided that we had to support invading Iraq because our soldiers were there.
      I thought then, and still think now, that this is morally indefensible. Strident opposition in teh country will bring the soldiers back quicker than a docile population agreeing with whatever the government does simply because evil politicians push it through.

      I wonder whether they are relying on the same effect to come into play as soon as British troops are deployed against Russia.
      Not from me.

  43. Yalemzerf Yehualaw – This 23-year-old Ethiopian has won the 2022 (Womens) London marathon. She runs as if she has a rocket up her rear – apparently, she practices by going into Addis Ababa without anything on her head.

  44. We are entering a terrifying new phase of the Russo-Ukraine war. Bob Seely. MP. 2 October 2022.

    Last week’s explosions on the Russian Nord Stream 1 and 2 Baltic Sea pipelines offer a clue. There is little doubt that the Russians blew up their own pipelines. Those explosions signal – and the Russians message very clearly – a direct threat to sabotage Western undersea internet and energy links. These are the vulnerable, umbilical cords critical to modern economies and modern life. The Russian navy has them in its sights.

    There’s really not much point reading beyond this point but critics are obliged to expose themselves to demonstrate their bona fides. This judgement is based one assumes on the age old credo of Mugger to Victim. “I’m going to shoot myself in the foot just to show you how much it hurts!” Seely, the author of this twaddle, sits on the UK Foreign Affairs Committee which explains much!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/02/entering-terrifying-new-phase-russo-ukraine-war/

  45. Yorkshire County Cricket Club relegated. D Torridgraff

    Compare Yorkshire’s line-up for their defeat by Gloucestershire on Wednesday which triggered their relegation from Division One of the County Championship to their list of registered professionals and the gulf in experience and volume of runs is stark.

    Missing from action were Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, David Willey and Adil Rashid, all on England duty in Pakistan, Jonny Bairstow, who would have been with them but for his broken leg, Gary Ballance, who has been ill, and the man who is both Wisden’s leading cricketer in the world for 2022 and at No 1 in the ICC Test batting rankings, Joe Root, who was at St Andrews preparing for his participation alongside Piers Morgan, Michael Vaughan, Kevin Pietersen and Linkin Park’s bass player in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.

    It ain’t just the BBC who has got it in for Yorkshire CCC.

    PS: Joe Root was not to blame for missing the match – Since the introduction of central contracts at the end of 1999, it has been the England and Wales Cricket Board’s prerogative to regulate the number of times England players can turn out for their counties. Ottis Gibson, said: “Last week, the ECB said that Joe is finished for the year. That’s still the situation.”

    1. Time, methinks, for the ECB to be disbanded and the responsibility for running the domestic sport to be handed back (where it has always belonged) to the MCC.

        1. I don’t suppose any bastion of the establishment is any longer, Billy. No reason, though, not to replace those running it with a better class of human.

  46. Suella Braverman pledges to ‘hold police to greater account’ with target to cut crime. 2 October 2022.

    Home Secretary signalls she will ‘set direction’ and ‘priorities’ for police forces as she draws up plans for a new league table.

    Suella Braverman has pledged to “hold the police to greater account”, as sources said the new Home Secretary believes that the concept of operational independence has been taken too far.

    Mrs Braverman has signalled that she will “set direction” and “priorities” for forces as she draws up plans for a league table showing whether forces are meeting a new target to cut homicide, serious violence and neighbourhood crime by 20 per cent.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/01/suella-braverman-pledges-hold-police-greater-account-target/

    1. I don’t want the home office to hold plod to account. I want them to bugger off and leave them alone.

      1. Suella Braverman is a Very Clever Lawyer. My guess is that she saw how the Channel migrants did for Priti Patel, who was not allowed to lift a finger against the sainted invaders, and so she’s attacking the Blob from the sides rather than head on.
        I do believe that both Patel and Braverman are genuine Conservatives who are as sick as we are about the current situation. But Patel is more politician, and Braverman is more back-room girl.

        1. I am very sceptical about “clever” lawyers.

          As to Priti Awful – you are, of course, entitled to your view – terribly wrong though it is…!

          1. Despite everything, I still can’t help liking Patel. I realise that this might mean I am more gullible than I thought.
            What would you do if you were Home Secretary, bearing in mind that the entire Home Office and a phalanx of Yooman Rites lawyers are ranged against you?

          2. Have a plan and stick to it. Snivel serpents have to do what their minister wants, however much they kick and bite.

            Above all DON’T make stupid “promises” on taking office which you cannot keep.

            Awful shouted on Day One that she would, “Halt the traffic overnight”. 120,000 illegals later – that went well….

          3. I think the problem is that the law really does support the invasion, and I bet Truss isn’t interested in any law changes.
            Patel was tripped up by being too much of a politiician – but I do think Braverman is more cautious and cleverer. Let’s wait and see how she does.

          4. Patel had to cope with Sir Poutalot.
            I would imagine he was pretty (ha!) typical of the creatures inhabiting the Home Office.

          5. The fact that there were so many briefs against Patel to the press suggested to me she was trying to do her job.

          7. Don’t sit on the fence, Bill! Tell us what you really think! Is the MR not home yet?

          8. Nah – still sipping champagne white wine at Schiphol. Due 17.00. I will be leaving here at 4 pm.

          9. Nah – still sipping champagne white wine at Schiphol. Due 17.00. I will be leaving here at 4 pm.

          12. I interviewed Priti Patel when she was trying to become the MP for Mid Norfolk. She remains true to herself and was a very good candidate. The left must have moved heavan and earth to try and scupper her as we can all see. She was very straitforward and robust in her interview so perhaps she needs to be far more crafty to acheive what she wants. Have you noticed the MSM never interview her unedited.

        2. Suella Braverman is my constituency MP. She has certainly been effective at a local level. I like her.

    1. Poker “livestreams” are always played with a 30 minute delay to avoid exactly this problem so any accomplice couldn’t have been a member of the public but a corrupt official in the broadcast box is possible……….

  48. 365731+ up ticks,

    Mores the pity they didn’t have that problem in 14 /18 39/45.

    breitbart,
    German Govt Warns Gas May Run Out over the Winter Months

  49. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/art/2022/09/29/TELEMMGLPICT000310323334_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    Community spirit: Girls playing in the street, Wallsend, Tyneside (1976) CREDIT: Chris Killip

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/art/2022/09/29/TELEMMGLPICT000310323298_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    He was on their side: Whippet fancier (1973) CREDIT: Chris Killip

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/photographs-lost-england/

  52. Common Sense

    Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense, who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape.

    He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, life isn’t always fair, and maybe it was my fault.

    Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn) and reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge).

    His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a six-year- old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

    Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job they themselves failed to do in disciplining their unruly children.

    It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer a paracetamol, sun lotion or an Elastoplast to a pupil – but could not inform the parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

    Common Sense lost the will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, and criminals received better treatment than their victims.

    Common Sense took a beating when you couldn’t defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar can sue you for assault.

    Common Sense finally gave up the will to live after a woman failed to realise that a steaming cup of tea was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

    Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility; and his son, Reason.

    He is survived by three stepbrothers: I Know My Rights, Someone Else is to Blame, and I’m A Victim.

    Not many attended his funeral because so few realised he was gone.

    1. It is a bit long. Thank Heaven he is not Enver Hoxha. He’s not wrong, mostly. Although his broad brush tars the UK bit too much.

      1. If our politicians reflected the decency of the British people I would agree, but they don’t, and the facts rather than the narrative do us all no credit – if our politicians are allowed to speak for us that is not likely to change unless we change them.

    2. What a speech. Can’t imagine any politician from the U.K. coming out with that. And he is right. Why Untrustworthy is so keen to promote World War III completely escapes me.

    4. Yes, but those claws could take your throat out without really trying.

      We forget in their cuddliness that they’re fully armed, very strong animals. I say this having had Mongo yet again decide he didn’t want to go for a walk and stopping on the railway bridge. Trying to move him elicited one hell of a bark and a growl (for which he seemed very confused over).

      1. Perhaps he has some internal pain/discomfort that is making him act unusually.

        All the cats I have had quite forgot they were – essentially – domesticated lap cats when they were injured and became scratching,biting wild animals.

        1. Yes – as I thought about it, it’s bloody obvious. He’s spent all morning out and about doing his therapy thing at the hospice and is likely fed up to the back teeth of humans and needs time on his own to recover. He is ‘tired’ and I imagine a bit stressed and I’m bloomin’ stupid.

          Maybe he’s not sure where he stands any more now that Ozzie is integrating (and guarding his food bowl).

          All this would explain why Junior can’t find him and I imagine he’s gone off to a corner of ‘the field’ to sit on his own and think.

          1. Yes, he’s off somewhere. His toy rabbit – a ghastly thing that used to be fury and squeak – is missing, sure fire the two are together.

  55. Good afternoon all

    Sunshine here and 17c. Lovely day thank goodness , and ust had a gorgeous walk with the dogs.

    We watched the start of the London Marathon .. 40,000 running , incredible amount of enthusiastic participants .

    The camera pics of the huge numbers of runners was awesome.. and then Moh and I discussed the fact that just under 40,000 illegal boat people have already entered Britain this year so far , and are being accommodated in hotels courtesy of the British tax payer.

    Viewing the photos of the Marathon runners , and the thousands who are running for charity, makes me wonder whether the Government understands what is going on with illegals arriving .. and will they discuss the male invasion at the Conservative party conference .

    1. When you add on the rels who will no doubt be along soon, that’s about 200,000 every year. And that’s if they just have one wife and 3 kids.

    2. I watched the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Only 20 runners (maximum field). Fantastic win for Alpinista.

      1. #metoo. I thought it was a really good race in ‘challenging conditions’ with lots of contenders over the last couple of furlongs. Fortunately I had a modest wager on Alpinista which helped reduce my net loss.

        1. I’m pleased for Sir Mark. He’s a character and there aren’t many of those around these days.

    1. I said to my old man at the time that that would happen! Polieas Alba at their very best! 🙄

  57. Two men, 34, are charged with assault after heckler, 22, who ‘verbally abused Prince Andrew’ was ‘thrown to the ground’ during Queen’s coffin procession. DM

    Is this the start of a police action against wanton, violent thugs, baclava clad thieves and tanned rapists? I do hope so (sarc).

  58. We watched Laura K interviewing Truss.

    Why was she wearing a brooch symbolising the Ukranian Flag and our Union flag on her left hand side of her dress?

    2. Pure virtue-signalling, Maggie,

      “Look at me; I stand against Russia and support the wonderfully corrupt Ukraine, ‘cos that’s what I’ve been ordered to do, by both the BBC and the WEF.”

        1. The only thing she’s won is a new contract with M&S! Poor old Phil has been dropped by We jump any queue.com!

  60. 365731+ up ticks,

    How dastardly of him after the “west” have been having several pops a day, at him.

    Dt,
    We are entering a terrifying new phase of the Russo-Ukraine war
    The West will be Putin’s target in the coming months

  61. What an unexpectedly beautiful weekend; the weather here has been the very best of autumn.

    On a totally different topic, an article from the Spekkie.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/red-kites-should-never-have-been-reintroduced-to-britain

    “Red kites should never have been reintroduced to Britain

    Paul Sargeantson

    I own a grass farm in the Chilterns which provides grazing for horses and haymaking. It also provides habitat for hares, skylarks, lapwings and field voles (the staple diet of my resident pair of barn owls) – which is why I am so set against the red kites.

    Between 1989 and 1994, red kites from Spain were imported and released into the Chilterns by the RSPB and Natural England. The population here had dwindled and the RSPB describes the reintroduction programme as ‘one of the UK’s biggest conservation success stories’. But it’s only a success story if you ignore the devastating effect red kites have had on other wildlife.

    The RSPB assures us that red kites feed mainly on carrion and earthworms and, as opportunists, the occasional small mammal. While it is true they eat roadkill, earthworms and livestock afterbirth, they also destroy a great deal more than just the ‘occasional’ mammal.

    Red kites predate all livestock of a weight they can carry away. This includes field voles and dormice, but also the chicks of ground nesting birds such as skylarks, lapwings, grey partridges and curlews, all of which are on the RSPB’s Red List of great conservation concern. I have witnessed kites taking songbird fledglings from my garden.

    When I’m haymaking, the red kites target the leverets. Haymaking is precarious and timing is important. Within five minutes of starting to mow there will be 20-plus red kites circling overhead, intending to hoover up any birds or mammals disturbed by my work. Long-term, the owl’s safety will be jeopardised if there is a shortage of prey.

    The red kites threaten my chickens and geese too, which causes great distress. Chickens are wonderfully secretive and will disappear to sit on a clutch of eggs safely concealed in a barn, only to reappear three weeks later with a large brood. Twenty years ago, my hens could rear their chicks to adulthood, which gave my late wife and me immense enjoyment. Now, red kites will snatch the chicks on the day they emerge.

    Five years ago my goose’s 11 newly hatched goslings were attacked and carried off by six kites, despite my best efforts. It was heartbreaking. Mallard ducks used to nest and rear their young on our pond. They have realised that their efforts are futile and given up.

    The sight of majestic red kites soaring above the Chiltern Hills is captivating. No wonder that photographers visit the area for shots of this beautiful bird. And the RSPB is right to say that they’re part of Britain’s history. In Victorian London, when the skies were crowded with kites, they acquired the sobriquet of ‘Hat Birds’ for their propensity for snatching fur hats from pedestrians. But as a result of their reintroduction, other bird species have been more than decimated. In my youth I would see 200 lapwings trailing behind a plough in the autumn. They have all but disappeared from lowland areas of England and instead we now see as many as 90 red kites hoovering up invertebrates behind a plough or cultivator.

    Some 40 million birds have disappeared from the UK over the past 50 years. It’s a catastrophe. Farming methods are usually blamed: the use of agrochemicals, fertilisers and drainage, the abandonment of crop rotation and the increase of pastureland leading to lower food and habitat availability for birds to rear chicks. But if our birds are facing so much pressure, why reintroduce another predator and more competition for dwindling resources?

    The same competition for food caused the demise of the red squirrel. Since the introduction of grey squirrels from America in the 1870s, the population of red squirrels is estimated to have dropped from 3.5 million to 140,000. Like grey squirrels, the red kite takes the food needed by other birds before they can get to it. The introduction of new species – and the reintroduction of formerly extinct species – to the UK should have been thoroughly researched before being approved. The grey squirrel is a good example of the potentially catastrophic consequences of getting this very wrong.

    Figures on the RSPB’s website suggest that the kite population has been growing by 14 per cent a year. If that trend continues, the present Chilterns population of 2,000 will become 5,000 by the end of the decade and pass 10,000 by 2035.

    A severe cull of red kites was needed ten years ago, but of course it’s impossible to do this. Red kites are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and it is an offence to harm or kill them. Nonetheless, there simply isn’t sufficient carrion to feed so many birds, as well as other carrion-eaters such as crows. The red kites and other carrion feeders will have to turn increasingly to wildlife that is already on the brink of extinction.”

      1. I remember seeing them when a friend and I went on a riding holiday in mid-Wales sometime during the 1980s.

    2. Not sure about this subject. They are fabulous birds, and were definitely in need of protection. There is a breeding area near here, by Doune and another I’ve visited near Inverness. The wardens feed the birds twice a day (they are huge birds) and the sight is spectacular! The warden at Contin said that seagulls came to eat the food and that they are probably more in danger than the kites, particularly after a good breeding year.

      1. They’ll be the ones I’m referring to Sue – Tollie Red Kites, the RSPB place. Probably nearer Conon Bridge than Contin. Must go there sometime

        1. It’s well worth a visit, Spikey! The warden was brilliant and the information place and education centre were excellent! Easy to see the kites and they’re stunning!
          We were staying at Contin!

    3. We have a couple of dozen Red Kites living around us and I’ve never seen them take live birds, let alone small mammals. They are even scared off by the crows that pester them.

    4. Red Kites have become a pest around here over the past dozen years. They have moved in from the ‘red kite feeding station’ at Rhayader, Wales. They are displacing buzzards as well as laying waste to all ground nesting birds and small mammals.

      All ‘protected species’ legislation is ham-fistedly formulated without due regard to the knock-on effect for other species.

      1. Kites are “weak footed” and are unable to take larger prey than a small rabbit. However I do agree that en masse they can cause a problem.

    5. Organic chicken farmers use cocks to protect the chicks. The male birds keep a sharp eye out for predators and attack them if they swoop on the babies.

  62. MP Tobias Ellwood says Liz Truss is wrong to ‘ban King Charles’ from Cop27.

    This is the same wet, w***er who was attacked by a gang of youths after confronting them for playing football in the street. The gang threw stones at him and Ellwood was punched in the head. A 17-year-old male was arrested over the attack. The arrestee was later given a two-year community order. Ellwood expressed relief that the youth was not sent to jail. Could have spoiled a future ‘friendship’?

  63. I’m a dairy farmer and in the winter I fit my cows with tubular bells. So I can hear them in my cold field.

    No ! You get your coat !

    1. OK, but there are 30,000 already here. Get rid of them. 1000 a day throughout October would be a start.

      1. They’ve all got to go back. France should have processed and returned them. They’re not our problem.

        1. We have made it our problem by not turning them back mid-channel. That’s the only way to stop them.

  66. Any one else see the irony of people who live just outside London
    complaining they couldn’t get a train to London so they could run 26
    miles when they got there?

    Askin’ for a friend.

    1. That will be their daily commute if they are lucky enough to have a job when the currency collapses…the government is already trade-marking the reasons why this will be All Putin’s Fault.

  67. Leaving you all now – to go to Narridge International Airport to collect the MR.

    She says she is about to board and there are no problems. She obviously doesn’t know that the departure has been delayed by 8 minutes…

    1. Drive safely Bill.

      I expect your dearly beloved will be delighted to be back with you and pusscats .
      Did you manage to tackle the list tasked to you?

  68. Email from my son in NC- all is well. Lots of heavy rain, strong winds and their power went off for 2 hours. Not too bad. My daughter in law’s university was closed Friday so they hunkered down at home with the kitkats.
    Am so relieved; can go out for our feast with a lighter heart.
    The town where I used to live fared worse.

    1. Glad to hear that, the devastation in Florida is only now becoming clear, along with NC. We are experiencing the tail end of Ian, with days of rain, some very heavy showers until about Wednesday. Cold, wet and miserable start for October!!

    2. Watched videos from Florida. People lauching their boats and searching the floods for folk in distress, visitng neighbours to check on them, working hard with chainsaws to clear up – all pulling together to help those who need help. Good on them!

      1. Americans are good at that. I mentioned Andrew yesterday which wiped out Homestead, Florida. In CT, all the fire stations began collections of toiletries, nappies, clothing etc etc which was then shipped down to FL.

        1. There were many out of State private trucks (and presumably OoS people) there as well, working hard.
          I guess it’s the result of relying on yourself rather than Gummint to deal with things.

      3. If only he’d confined himself to saying that we all have to look for ways to cut down our bills…I bet he’d notice alright if all the Ocado drivers went and got higher paid jobs.

    4. The free market, red in tooth and claw. If more people were striving for higher paid jobs, employers would have to pay more for traditionally low paid ones. It’s the fault of toilet cleaners that their wages are low because too few of them have aspired to be Chief Executive Officers.

    5. If the Tories had any sense they would force him to apologise and resign, they don’t and won’t.

  71. Yesterday was a very happy day.. I met up with a group of girl friends that I have known since 1965..

    We were 18yrs old at the time and we were just starting our nursing training at RNH Haslar.

    We agreed to have lunch in Sherborne, rain held off , and then we visited Sherborne Abbey, and just felt the tranquility and marvelled at the architecture . There is a flat moveable mirror so easy to examine the beautiful high ceiling with out hurting your neck .

    https://www.sherborneabbey.com/

    1. My sisters both went to Sherborne Girls’ School and their husbands, coincidentally, went to Sherborne Boys’ School. Last week Ndovu went out for a reunion lunch with some of her old schoolfriends. Such reunions remind me of Hilaire Belloc’s reference to ‘the men that were boys when I was a boy‘

      Most of the pretty girls in P.G. Wodehouse’s stories are keen on keeping in touch with their old school friends. I still communicate regularly with my old school studymate to whom I email some of the Nottlers’ more disgraceful jokes and Caroline and one of her sisters keep in touch with their old school friends at Runneymede College in Madrid who have spread all around the world.

      1. The only person I keep in touch with from school, and that’s only vicariously, is BT.
        We were ten years apart and never met.

        Given what you know about him and me is it surprising one might not wish to keep in touch with OMTs?

        That was a joke Bill, a joke!

  72. Five east London taxi drivers ‘involved in people smuggling operation which ferried migrants in and out of UK using lorries’ appear in court
    The charges follow the National Crime Agency probe Operation Symbolry
    The probe was into a London-based gang involved in smuggling migrants
    The five men are aged between 40 and 52 and all living in east London
    They appeared at Barkingside Magistrates Court and were bailed
    By TARA COBHAM FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 15:13, 2 October 2022 | UPDATED: 15:18, 2 October 2022

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11272127/Five-east-London-taxi-drivers-involved-people-smuggling-operation-appear-court.html?ito=push-notification&ci=tgTv_AiAk7&cri=4cfT6SAfmo&si=xYJ0MlrMyMmf&ai=11272127

    Their surnames .. well , go on , guess!

    1. I bet they weren’t Black Cab drivers. To call them London taxi drivers is a slur. London Black Cab drivers ferry veterans free of charge. Uber and unlicensed cabs attack, mug, rape and kill their passengers. Pretend to misunderstand and take them on 100 mile journeys and now as we have see….trafficking. Seize their bank accounts and stop their benefits !

      1. The black cabbies mounted a splendid tribute to the Queen when she died also…all down the Mall.
        They are good guys. One of my mates at school’s dad was a black cab driver and he was a super bloke.

        1. I always use them when in town. Obviously much more expensive than the bus but they have the same traffic jams to deal with and can decide on a better route…unlike buses.

          You are safe with the black cabbies unlike Uber drivers.

          I know their was a case recently with a black cabbie being convicted of multiple assaults but it is rare.
          Also, they help me with my luggage and drop it off to the concierge. Uber doesn’t.

          1. Salt of the earth. So many people know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

          2. To be a black cab driver, they have to work very hard; I would back a “cabbie” against any uber sat-nav driver 99/100.

            Like so many things in life, technology has cheapened it.

      3. The Black Cab drivers hated me when I’d tell them I wanted to go to Richmond when I got in the vehicle at Heathrow. The Black Cab queues could be half a mile long. They wanted longer journeys.

      1. ‘Twould be far, far better, the death sentence. Since they are obviously Muslim, behead them.

    2. The prison term should have been much shorter – just as long as it took to get them executed.

  74. A pleasant Birdie Three today …

    Wordle 470 3/6
    🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Just a par four here

      Wordle 470 4/6

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

      1. Me too.
        Wordle 470 4/6

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

  75. Hi Sue, he started in third, ended up ninth, so if it isn’t the car, does that mean he’s a lousy driver?

    Of course it doesn’t, but it does show that the car and the support team is ultimately more important than the driver.

      1. Prior to your edit, I was going to reply that in the best car LH would always win.

        Please excuse my removal of the original up vote.

  76. Just back from Narridge. Plane arrived on time. Carpark FREE again – for some odd (but agreeable) reason.

    It took the MR 2½ hours to enter the airport and pass through security. Only a quarter of the high-speed, hi-tech booths were open. Anyone needing to drop off baggage and check in would expect another 1½ hours…..

    Happy flying….

    I am off now to hear all about he day at her old teaching establishmet.

    A demain.

    1. Much as I agree with what they are saying and recommending, I am becoming more and more sceptical of any organisation that calls itself the world organisation of anything.

        1. Agreed.
          I’ve watched, listened to, and read a lot of his stuff.
          I trust his diagnosis (ho ho) more than most that I have followed; See above re JWE’s link and links off the OP.

          1. The pharmaceutical industry is corrupt and can’t be trusted. It’s all about money

  78. Went to a lovely concert this afternoon – a Baryton Trio, playing mainly Haydn, who wrote lots of music for this instrument.

    Next door neighbour and her chap went too – giving us a lift…….. I despair though – she’s just had her 5th covid jab. We told them we’re not having any more.

      2. Certainly not!. Even the couple who wore them all last season were maskless today. Just one man there in a white posing pouch.

    1. I’m sorry, but the hyperbole of this article and the links from it, are such that I can’t believe it.
      I’m sure the vaccine has problems but this link is so OTT that is loses all credibility as far as I’m concerned.

      1. I have not read the article so I should not really comment, but I am fed up with all the hyperbole that comes with anything to do with the virus and vaccines et al. I do understand and sympathise with anyone who has experienced bad reactions from the vaccines but there is always a risk.

        1. A point where we must disagree.

          My issue with them is that there are very clearly great problems.

          but there is always a risk

          When the vaccine doesn’t work as described, when people can still catch and transmit the disease, where the more one is vaccinated the more ones immunity to other diseases falls is where I start to have very, very serious doubts as to the efficacy and the safety of the things.

          1. Disagree we may, however, I prefer to trust my doctor who has treated me for the past 14 or so years than I do from sources on the internet!!!

          2. Too true.

            However, I can only comment from the perspective of a friend, who had an initial bad reaction to the jab and the doctor refused to issue an exemption so he could travel.

            Yes, he could have decided not to travel again, but he wanted to, and took the jab.

            He will never travel again.

          4. PS on my earlier reply.
            I invariably take my doctor’s advice, and I’m still alive to tell the tale!

          6. If I live to be as old as I look, I’ll have done well.

            If I live to be as old as most of the Nottlers who post selfies look, I should be good for 120!

          7. In the 1950s, when I had most of my jabs, smallpox, polio, TABT, we’ve never had to go back for boosters. the only one I know that didn’t last a lifetime, was yellow fever – required for trips to Singapore in the 1980s.

          8. Tetanus also requires a booster after about 10 years, and I’m sure there must be a few others, but as far as I’m aware there is no vaccination as useless as the one(s) for Covid

          9. The only tetanus jab I had was ‘Horse Serum’ and it turned out that I am allergic to it. High fever and a rash everywhere.

        1. I am reasonably realistic, but when someone goes so utterly over the top I smell stinking fish.

    2. I have a feeling that when the learned friends sniff the scent of compo, we will have more freebies than the PPI payouts. Pity, I will not be eligible.

  81. Evening, all. Trying to get back into routine again after the mini-break. It was good to catch up at church again (and to find that I was not alone in my assessment of the last PCC meeting and the rectorette).

      1. She is definitely a “she”. There was talk of having “a quiet word” because “we have high standards and we don’t want to lower them”. We did, however, at last have communion in both kinds. Hurrah!

  82. Late home as I lingered in church to speak to Martha, who was on sidesman duty. She’s from Florida and all her family are still there. Her parents are well away from the storm and alright but there’s a brother who was ordered to evacuate and refused. He’s on an island which is now cut off because the bridge was swept away and the power lines are down, so no communication. She can only pray and hope. A worrying time for her. I had to ask but having received the answer, can only make sympathetic noises and add a prayer. Difficult.

    2. After seeing the devastation in Florida. I’m sure our group of online acquaintances would jointly send all our best wishes and more to those effected by the horrendous weather and damage they have suffered.
      It’s very distressing to see people who have lost their homes and probably everything thing they own.

        1. It’s terrible you can’t imagine the desperate situation they are in.
          But the Same here now, if you live at the same level as a river or lake.
          Our insurance company tried it on once. Although we live near a river we are at least 200 ft above it.
          That shut down their ideas.

  84. Goodnight, folks. I’m away to immerse myself in the paperwork I didn’t get done last night (because the laptop kept falling over – it’s still a bit dizzy tonight). Oscar turned 13 today. His temper hasn’t improved!

      1. He didn’t really deserve one – he was a right bully when he had a strop on! He did get cuddles (T touch) to try to civilise him.

  86. Been sampling some of my zyder (well.some one had to) its got a bit of poke, a bit sharp cooking apples. I’ll feed it some more sugar and sir back. Its all bubbling away like mad.
    It’ll be at least another month before it clears.
    But scrumpy isn’t bad.
    Nearly bed time again I don’t know where the time goes.
    I’ve been making an outside wall mounting for a rather splendid lead and coloured glass outside light for a friend. I found an old 2ftlong 4×2 off cut of oak in my shed. Cut it into 2×1 lengths and glued it together. It’s been made to stand off the wall because there’s not enough room for the electric connections. F difficult to explain. But I can never find a way to photograph and post anything. It’s so bloody annoying.

    1. You sound so capable and unflustered , nothing seems to be any trouble .

      Well done RE.

      We have a peculiar staircase system .. on three levels .. three of the top steps have no rail.. nothing on either side .. I nearly came a cropper the other day, at night , so I went and bought some fittings and fixings for a safety rail , big hint.. I am still waiting .

      Other things take precedence it seems .

      1. Get a home maintenance man in whilst yours is playing golf, he’ll have it done in a jiffy. Our staircase has no hand rails, we keep intending to do something about it….. the staircase goes up between two walls, it has a door at the foot.

          1. We’ve been meaning to put in a handrail for years – there is also a vicious twist to the last three stairs at the foot of the staircase as it turns. There is a horizontal shelf which runs from the top stair the length of the staircase, so I use that when descending with my right hand and as it becomes useless as the steps descend further, I use my left hand to hold the top of the door frame. Neither are much use as a support, it’s just something to do with my hands as I pass by!

          2. We tend to live mostly on the lower floors – I don’t often go right to the top floor.

          4. The oldest part of our house is on three floors but the extension has two floors- one lower than the rest of the ground floor (by six stairs) and our bedroom (up six stairs). I don’t often need to go up to the top room except to clean up if visitors are coming.

      2. We’ve got 11 steps up to our front door. Four, and then seven. Never bothered us but we had a doddery neighbour who delivered the local newsletter. I had visions of him falling, so a few years ago we had a handrail fitted. He passed on some time ago. I’m quite glad of the handrail now.

  87. Cats. Honestly. Our younger son’s cat, who has been missing for 12 weeks or so, has just returned home.

      1. Fairly good shape, a bit scruffy apparently, he is a very handsome black cat under normal circumstances. Our son said he (the cat) was trying to eat and miaowing at the same time, he wouldn’t stop. He has gone walkabout before but only for a week. He knows winter is approaching.

          1. He is so pleased! He was so upset when he disappeared. He finished his text this evening with smiley emojis, which he normally never uses! He usually finishes his texts with a ‘x’ so I know it has come to an end, that that is that for that text and not more to follow!!

          4. Nor did Vinnie. He was about fifty yards away, at the end of a rake of farm buildings. He turned his head and looked at me. He turned away and was never seen again. Unlike Brandon, who was accidentally locked in a farm building. The children went looking, heard him complaining, and got him unlocked.

  90. Good night, everyone. Six hours painting fences today has made me feel very virtuous – and also very tired.

Comments are closed.