Sunday 21 August: A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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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.

469 thoughts on “Sunday 21 August: A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives”

  4. Relax, Vlad — diversity targets will take down the RAF quicker than your MiGs

    Rod Liddle
    Sunday August 21 2022, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

    Are our noble attempts to make the armed services more progressive going too far, do you think? I suspected they were when I read the comments of Air Vice-Marshal Maria Byford of the RAF last week. Outrage had been occasioned when an unnamed group captain resigned because, she alleged, the RAF was “pausing” recruitment to meet unrealistic diversity targets.

    The RAF responded to this accusation at first by doing that very fashionable thing: lying. It said there had been no pause in recruitment. A little later, Byford confirmed that recruitment had been paused for precisely the reason stated and that she stood by the force’s striving towards the sunlit uplands of absolute equality in everything ever.

    That was when I had my doubts about the progressive thing. That was when I wondered whether, all things considered, it wouldn’t be better if all air vice-marshals were 65-year-old white men with handlebar moustaches, habituated to referring to aircraft as “cabbage crates” and in possession of a faithful dog with a name some might consider a little de trop. Just like in the old days. I wondered too if Maria had dropped Vladimir Putin a line. “Would you hold off on the aerial aggression while we get our diversity targets up to scratch, please?” I’m sure he’d understand.

    More and more often these days, general astonishment begets astonishment in me at the original astonishment. Interviewed on television, the former health secretary Sajid Javid appeared shocked and appalled by this pause in recruitment, saying it was “complete nonsense” that the RAF should be recruiting people according to their race rather than their abilities.

    Sajid, Sajid. You were a government minister for eight years. Are you seriously expecting us to believe you had no idea positive discrimination was taking place in every single government department, in the civil service, in the armed forces, in the police, in the health service? When you were health secretary, were you not aware of the extravagantly remunerated “diversity tsars” imposed on each health authority? What do you think they were doing — playing Scrabble? If you thought it a complete nonsense then, Sajid, you were empowered to do something about it, weren’t you? By dint of your office. If you couldn’t do anything about it, then who the hell can?

    But Javid’s response was all too typical of this administration: the feigned shock, the widened eyes, the “Knock me dahn wiv a fevver, guv, I had absolutely no idea”. No responsibility taken. Positive discrimination — an oxymoron if the word “discrimination” is used in its modern sense as something that is always horrid — invariably involves quotas. And if the quotas are not being filled, it involves pausing recruitment. It cannot be otherwise, if you are to do as this government seemingly wants.

    And, of course, it is racist, in a well-meaning-racist sort of way rather than a Ku-Klux-Klan sort of way. It is racist first to those white male candidates who are denied the job they want — and possibly deserve, given their experience or talents — solely because of the colour of their skin or their sex. But it is also racist to those who are chosen in their place.

    It must be odious for a talented black pilot to have lurking at the back of his or her mind the notion that the job was awarded on the basis of race. Equally odious for a job to be given to some poor sap who cannot do it terribly well but ticks all the other boxes, as they say. The pointless boxes — the ones that really should have no weight or import. I know it sounds as if I am stating the bleedin’ obvious, but positive discrimination always involves choosing or rejecting someone on the basis of things that should have no bearing whatsoever. It is always racist.

    But it is not only racist — it also breeds resentment and lowers standards. What begins as a decent, if deluded, wish for a workforce that perfectly replicates the country’s demographic make-up can end with Asian children being denied places at selective schools so that more black kids can get in — as has happened in New York.

    The RAF’s target for ethnic minority recruitment is 20 per cent, almost double the proportion for the country as a whole. A tall order. I only hope that when Ivan arrives in his MiG, he bears in mind the enormous lengths to which we are going to make the world a fairer place and, instead of shooting down our jets, smiles, waves a rainbow flag and returns to Russia full of hope and love.

    Energy bills could spark protests

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fc710f7ac-209c-11ed-8cc0-b6d3f6238a92.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=1022

    Cringey signs of the times

    You really must visit the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford — not so much for the artefacts on display (many of which have been removed) but to guffaw at the cringeing idiocy of the “decolonising” signage throughout.

    Shrunken heads have been locked away in case visitors form the entirely erroneous impression that the people who shrunk them were savages, one such note explains. Another suggests, hilariously, that Polynesia was a utopia for LGBTQI-etc persons before white people came along. And do stop to linger over the lengthy mea culpa in which the museum fesses up to being a handmaiden of wicked British imperialism.

    Why not just torch the place and have done with it?

    Our Milton in the midfield

    When the excellent Simon Armitage decides he is tired of being our poet laureate, I have a suggestion for who should be appointed next. Someone who, through his fame, can bring poetry to a wider audience and who weaves references to various indigenous cultures — such as “totem pole” — into his imaginative verse.

    Yes, the next poet laureate has to be Ryan Giggs.

    1. ‘Morning, C1. Thanks for posting. RL is always a good read, and as usual is bang on the money. This ‘diversity sickness’ sweeping through our society is like a rotting process, and just one more indication that this country is slowly but surely going off the rails.

    2. Another one who hasn’t joined the dots. Seems to be a theme this morning.

      Thanks for posting; I always appreciate being able to read individual articles, but have no wish to support the MSM.

  5. Gangs will meet police on ‘neutral turf’ in bid to tackle violent crime. 28 August 2022.

    They are offered support to access job training, youth activities, mental-health services, education and drug treatment in return for a “no-weapon, no-violence” pledge.

    It can be allied with a warning that if they continue, they face a “certain and swift” crackdown, targeting not just their violence but every aspect of their lives from “minor” drug and driving offences to eviction from rented housing and pursuit for unpaid fines.

    The £6 million trials in the UK will be run by specialist violence-reduction units in five police force areas covering Coventry, Nottingham, Leicester, Manchester and Wolverhampton.

    Neutral Turf? Where’s that Switzerland? Lol! By some non-coincidence this also appeared on the BBC News last night and was even less convincing. It’s all twaddle of course. It’s like Rwanda. A fairy tale to reassure the children that all is well. The forces of Law and Order have almost ceased to exist and Governance itself is on the cusp of dissolution.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/gangs-will-meet-police-neutral-turf-bid-tackle-violent-crime/

      1. Believe Sir Percy Sillitoe knew a thing about the subject. Grizz will correct me (and my spelling) later, I hope.

          1. There you go. Crackdown – on skulls, with big sticks. Or, just shoot the buggers.

    3. Why has there not been “a “certain and swift” crackdown“?
      Why are the police now negotiating with criminals?

  7. For impoverished NoTTLers…

    Ineptitude and institutional wokery is the tragic legacy of Tory rule

    The first task for the new PM must be to answer why – after 12 years in office – a Left-wing agenda continues unabated

    DOUGLAS MURRAY 21 August 2022 • 7:00am

    There are many thoughts that go through one’s head whenever the Conservative party engages in the aftermath of its latest round of regicide. As this season’s contenders go back and forth, the ghosts of leaders past float by. But so does a haunting question which lingers in the air. As the candidates discuss tax policy, the economy, the civil service, wokeness and much more, the terrible thought comes: “Have you not been in power for more than a decade now?”

    This week we learned our military – specifically the RAF – have essentially temporarily stopped recruiting white males. That is because men of fighting age are no longer what our military wants. They want “diversity”, like everything else in our time. So the recruiting of white males must stop until enough ethnic minorities are willing to throw themselves into the breach. Or enough women can be wooed away from jobs they might rather do and be persuaded to fight.

    Of course quota systems of this kind should be absolute anathema to any conservative. They reek of social engineering, are the exact opposite of personal freedom and choice, and betray a country with all of the wrong priorities. The only priority our military should have is to be as much of a deterrent as possible. Yet no foreign enemy or competitor will fear our army because it is so diverse.

    Naturally there was some grumbling from Conservative MPs and others after this recruitment news came out this week. But again we must ask: who has been in charge? The diversity quotas are being defended by the head of the armed forces, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and the RAF’s Air Chief Marshal, Sir Mike Wigston. You only get into these positions today if you are a highly political operator. You don’t have to be the best soldier or admiral, just willing to mouth that season’s political shibboleths. And what does it say about the Conservative party that such shibboleths were embedded on their watch?

    It is the same thought that occurs when ministers and others moan about the civil service – its entrenched attitudes and some of its immovable biases. Again the question comes, have you been in power for the last 12 years?

    Naturally at this point a defence may be put forward that for five years between 2010 and 2015 the Conservatives were in charge but had to go at slow-learner speed thanks to the presence in the coalition of the Liberal Democrats. Of course some sympathy can be extended towards anyone who has had Nick Clegg around their leg for five years. But this sympathy is not endless.

    We still had a Conservative Prime Minister in those days and a majority Conservative cabinet. So why is that apart from Michael Gove’s school reforms it is so hard to point to any policy – any – in those five years that could make a conservative heart sing?

    Of course we all know what followed. The solitary, hubristic year of David Cameron’s victory, the years of May, the disappointment of Boris. There are excuses that can be made at each and every stage for each and every one of these prime ministers. But one thing they all had in common was that they all were, without doubt, Conservative party prime ministers. For the last seven years they led Conservative majority governments. And some voters may have become increasingly disgruntled at the way in which the contenders for the party leadership still talk about their ideas for Conservative Britain as though it is not a project which has been in their party’s hands all this time.

    They were in power. But to what effect? Conservatives are very happy to talk about the outrage of illegal migration at the English Channel, but they are not willing to do anything about it. Such as withdrawing from the jurisdiction of the European Court that effectively forbids us from having our own border and being allowed to police it. Remember the occasional eruptions of talk about “A British bill of rights” to replace the European Convention? What happened to it? The same thing as so much else. All talk.

    While the Conservatives were in government almost everything underneath them went in a less conservative direction. Whether it was government borrowing, tax rises, woke-washing through everything or anything else, it is exceptionally hard to point to any area of public life which has not gone the way that the establishment expected. For instance anyone with an eye to the long game could probably see that the Conservatives were never really serious about abolishing “diversity” and replacing it with “excellence”, say, as a goal for Conservative Britain.

    All the civil service embarrassments of forced indoctrination days have happened under the Conservative party’s management. All the quota systems and days of lost productivity that come from this system cannot be complained about by the Conservative party. Because they oversaw it.

    So the question at some point must be answered. If a Conservative minister or even Prime Minister proposes something conservative now they must be asked who exactly has been in charge of the system for the past 12 years? What would they have done differently? And why wasn’t that done? Something will have to be turned around in the next two years. Because otherwise the Conservative party will have nowhere to hide at the next election. Their epitaph will be that, yes, they were in power for fifteen years. And through a huge diversity of ways they wasted it.

    2. Another good, if depressing, post C1. I’m convinced that the best kind of ‘diversity’ comes from the age-old, tried and tested practice of picking the best, irrespective of all the other claptrap now being foisted upon us. That way, the country benefits and formerly colour-blind people like me are not turned into racists!

      1. How can we be racists in our own country when we are trying to protect our cultural landscape , security of our nation and safety of our homes , businesses and ability to walk freely with out being confronted by those who try to harm us ?

    4. Douglas speaks sense, as always, but hasn’t asked himself *why* the so-called conservative party has acted like nothing of the sort. I do hope he realises soon.

    5. Yesterday I watched Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, giving a speech in Pennsylvania. He got to the subject of ‘Woke’ and his closing line was, “Florida, the state where ‘Woke’ comes to die.” Sadly, ‘Woke’ appears to be growing here in the UK and we have no-one with the gonads to do anything about it.

  8. Container port in Felixstowe on an eight day strike.

    all very convenient for an Autumn and Winter of great reset shortages.

    1. Morning Bob. Are you as suspicious as myself at this sudden outbreak of Union Strikes?

      1. Its all part of the plan to destroy our economy to then build a far left country and its all of the West.

      3. Is this opportunism by left wing unions as they perceive a weak government in total disarray or does the Davos shower have their messy fingers in the pie?

    2. Much muttering on the Beeb about the food supply being disrupted. Now I may be completely wrong, but I can not imagine that much of our food is imported in containers. NZ lamb?

  9. 355292+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    What a cracker, straight out of the tory (ino)_ party stable.

    Sunday 21 August: A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives.

    More like,

    Sunday 21 August: A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives ( ino) party to continue to lay the footings for repress, replace, reset.

    The voting majority of the herd will be up for it rest assured, the politico’s could not wish for a more misguided gullible crowd, a perfect offering for the altar of suffering.

    Must be nearing the final period of suffering with the herd heading for the
    abattoir & the final politico’s gift is, it will be a halal slaughterhouse.

  10. Daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugin killed in car bomb in Moscow – reports. 21 August 2022.

    The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue believed to have had a strong influence on Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow, according to multiple media reports.

    Darya Dugin, daughter of Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin – dubbed “Putin’s brain” – died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 20km west of the capital at around 9.30pm local time.

    No Novichok on the car door handle or in her knickers then! They must have really intended to kill her! Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/21/daughter-of-putin-ally-alexander-dugin-killed-in-car-bomb-in-moscow-reports

  12. It wasn’t Brexit or capitalism that got us into this mess – but try telling that to the new Puritans

    Britain needs proper, long-term solutions to its problems, not more punitive finger-wagging from the usual suspects

    ZOE STRIMPEL 20 August 2022 • 7:00pm

    On any given week, I do a number of things that, increasingly, put me on the naughty step. Just yesterday I had high carbon-emitting agricultural produce for dinner (steak), and on Monday I’m making a transatlantic flight back to Blighty, with another low-cost hop to France coming hot on its heels. Beyond generally chucking things in the right bin, I give as little thought to recycling as possible. I love to blast air conditioning, if available, when it’s truly boiling outside, and to blast the heating, equally, when it’s freezing. And, to make it all worse for the armies of cultural puritans finger-wagging everywhere from government to activism to the highest echelons of celebrity culture and the royal family, I don’t feel bad about any of it. In fact, I regard flying, and advanced forms of consumption, from Amazon’s next-day deliveries of completely random stuff to the ability, following Uber’s implosion, to summon a black cab in two minutes on an app, as nothing short of marvellous – and just as it should be.

    No, what I feel bad about is the fact that all that nice stuff – good meat, flights and holidays, not having to overthink heating one’s home or cooking or keeping lights on – has already become extremely difficult for millions, and is only going to get worse when the mercury plummets. I feel bad about the fact not, as some seem to censoriously suggest, that we consumed, polluted and, with Brexit, voted ourselves into a brutal cost of living crisis, but rather that a grisly storm of silly priorities by the government, unavoidably outlandish spending during Covid, a muddled, under-used work force, a broken energy sector and the egregious Russian invasion of Ukraine has landed us here.

    It’s clear that Britain is hitting the skids, and, thanks to the added seasoning of relentless mass transport strikes, has already slid back to a 1970s-style economic and infrastructural mess. What is needed are solutions, not the further embrace of punitive finger-wagging.

    We face several years, perhaps, of miserable drear and grind as costs and prices soar, and the inflation rate, currently at over 10 per cent, poisons economic stability. But those seizing on this perilous situation to blame capitalism, Brexit, and to lecture about climate change, are missing the point. The point is not that we got ourselves into this, that we spend too much, enjoy too much cheap travel and variety at the supermarket, got the energy market wrong, and had the audacity to want to break free of the EU. The point is that we need better thinking about markets, and better technology to reduce carbon emissions, fix the energy sector, water shortages, and the problems caused by long-distance food haulage. We need to creatively embrace the possibilities afforded by Brexit, not go down in the mire, ideological and practical, of a poorly-managed transition. The point, in short, is not just desserts, but making sure we can keep enjoying lots of delicious desserts, or, put in safer metaphorical terms, the fruits of modernity – thoroughly and securely.

    The working and middle classes are due a break. For years we have been berated about everything from plastic bag use to sugar consumption, slapped with eye-watering congestion charges, and disrupted by malodorous environmental and anti-capitalist protesters as we simply tried to commute to work. Covid’s universal cat’s cradle of nonsensical rules further entrenched the sense of being fatally and perpetually constrained.

    If a break is not forthcoming in the present mess, we are at the very least due a bit of encouragement, a bit of hope. And yet there is no let-up. Last week, responding to the most recent heat wave, the focus was back on how we need to do and eat less of what we fancy. Henry Dimbleby, adviser on the government’s food policy, and founder of Leon, the food chain, said that the only way for Britain to meet its biodiversity and climate targets was for the consumption of meat to be drastically curtailed, including through penalties. Meanwhile, despite the present government being one of the most aggressive pursuants of net zero on earth today, researchers are complaining that it’s not doing enough to heckle people into lifestyle changes. Yougov polling showed the July heatwave caused some panic and reflection about climate change among the public, but – understandably – not enough to make people want to change their lifestyles by forking out for an electric car, eating less red meat, and giving up flying.

    To green-heads in policy and research, this is a shame; in their view, the little people should bite the bullet while the government should be less focused on innovation. It should stay mum about the possibilities of electric planes, for instance, and instead focus on making it harder for people to heat their homes or go on holiday. And while few would publicly clap their hands with glee while arguing that Brexit is causing millions to struggle to feed their families there is, nonetheless, a whiff of cackling Remainiac told-you-so-ism about the present moment too. Much was made in the usual quarters of a study earlier this summer on the effects of Brexit on Britain’s economic outlook. Put out by the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank, in partnership with the LSE, it was – surprise surprise – a celebration of all the allegedly grim outcomes Remainers warned of. The cost of living crisis, an apparent plummeting in “both openness and competitiveness” and all the rest of it was explored in fairly one-sided detail.

    Brexit has certainly caused some economic constriction, but next to sensible embrace of the broader picture, there is no reason it should not be relatively short-term. It’s the same for the rest of the current horror show. Indeed, the main thing about the present mess is not that we deserve it, but that we deserve to get out of it as quickly as possible.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/wasnt-brexit-capitalism-got-us-mess-try-telling-new-puritans/

    1. She hasn’t joined the dots, has she? Not a perfect storm of coincidence, but deliberate. It is not enough to suggest practical solutions; they will be ignored. Until more people realise what we’re up against, we’re in a very dangerous situation.

      Thanks for posting.

      1. We face several years, perhaps, of miserable drear and grind as costs and prices soar…

        Hasn’t joined the dots? She’s blind to the fact that, as you correctly state, all that is happening is a plan to pauperise the masses and massively degrade their standard of living. Her estimation of several years is, in reality, destined to be forever for what remains of the masses.

    2. “The point is that we need better thinking about markets, and better technology to reduce carbon emissions, fix the energy sector, water shortages, and the problems caused by long-distance food haulage.”
      Yes to markets
      Forget carbon emissions. Use fuel wisely.
      Water and food: Stop importing every wastrel and useless mouth from Africa and ME. Send hose already in UK back, by lead balloon if necessary.
      Sorted

  13. It wasn’t Brexit or capitalism that got us into this mess – but try telling that to the new Puritans

    Britain needs proper, long-term solutions to its problems, not more punitive finger-wagging from the usual suspects

    ZOE STRIMPEL 20 August 2022 • 7:00pm

    On any given week, I do a number of things that, increasingly, put me on the naughty step. Just yesterday I had high carbon-emitting agricultural produce for dinner (steak), and on Monday I’m making a transatlantic flight back to Blighty, with another low-cost hop to France coming hot on its heels. Beyond generally chucking things in the right bin, I give as little thought to recycling as possible. I love to blast air conditioning, if available, when it’s truly boiling outside, and to blast the heating, equally, when it’s freezing. And, to make it all worse for the armies of cultural puritans finger-wagging everywhere from government to activism to the highest echelons of celebrity culture and the royal family, I don’t feel bad about any of it. In fact, I regard flying, and advanced forms of consumption, from Amazon’s next-day deliveries of completely random stuff to the ability, following Uber’s implosion, to summon a black cab in two minutes on an app, as nothing short of marvellous – and just as it should be.

    No, what I feel bad about is the fact that all that nice stuff – good meat, flights and holidays, not having to overthink heating one’s home or cooking or keeping lights on – has already become extremely difficult for millions, and is only going to get worse when the mercury plummets. I feel bad about the fact not, as some seem to censoriously suggest, that we consumed, polluted and, with Brexit, voted ourselves into a brutal cost of living crisis, but rather that a grisly storm of silly priorities by the government, unavoidably outlandish spending during Covid, a muddled, under-used work force, a broken energy sector and the egregious Russian invasion of Ukraine has landed us here.

    It’s clear that Britain is hitting the skids, and, thanks to the added seasoning of relentless mass transport strikes, has already slid back to a 1970s-style economic and infrastructural mess. What is needed are solutions, not the further embrace of punitive finger-wagging.

    We face several years, perhaps, of miserable drear and grind as costs and prices soar, and the inflation rate, currently at over 10 per cent, poisons economic stability. But those seizing on this perilous situation to blame capitalism, Brexit, and to lecture about climate change, are missing the point. The point is not that we got ourselves into this, that we spend too much, enjoy too much cheap travel and variety at the supermarket, got the energy market wrong, and had the audacity to want to break free of the EU. The point is that we need better thinking about markets, and better technology to reduce carbon emissions, fix the energy sector, water shortages, and the problems caused by long-distance food haulage. We need to creatively embrace the possibilities afforded by Brexit, not go down in the mire, ideological and practical, of a poorly-managed transition. The point, in short, is not just desserts, but making sure we can keep enjoying lots of delicious desserts, or, put in safer metaphorical terms, the fruits of modernity – thoroughly and securely.

    The working and middle classes are due a break. For years we have been berated about everything from plastic bag use to sugar consumption, slapped with eye-watering congestion charges, and disrupted by malodorous environmental and anti-capitalist protesters as we simply tried to commute to work. Covid’s universal cat’s cradle of nonsensical rules further entrenched the sense of being fatally and perpetually constrained.

    If a break is not forthcoming in the present mess, we are at the very least due a bit of encouragement, a bit of hope. And yet there is no let-up. Last week, responding to the most recent heat wave, the focus was back on how we need to do and eat less of what we fancy. Henry Dimbleby, adviser on the government’s food policy, and founder of Leon, the food chain, said that the only way for Britain to meet its biodiversity and climate targets was for the consumption of meat to be drastically curtailed, including through penalties. Meanwhile, despite the present government being one of the most aggressive pursuants of net zero on earth today, researchers are complaining that it’s not doing enough to heckle people into lifestyle changes. Yougov polling showed the July heatwave caused some panic and reflection about climate change among the public, but – understandably – not enough to make people want to change their lifestyles by forking out for an electric car, eating less red meat, and giving up flying.

    To green-heads in policy and research, this is a shame; in their view, the little people should bite the bullet while the government should be less focused on innovation. It should stay mum about the possibilities of electric planes, for instance, and instead focus on making it harder for people to heat their homes or go on holiday. And while few would publicly clap their hands with glee while arguing that Brexit is causing millions to struggle to feed their families there is, nonetheless, a whiff of cackling Remainiac told-you-so-ism about the present moment too. Much was made in the usual quarters of a study earlier this summer on the effects of Brexit on Britain’s economic outlook. Put out by the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank, in partnership with the LSE, it was – surprise surprise – a celebration of all the allegedly grim outcomes Remainers warned of. The cost of living crisis, an apparent plummeting in “both openness and competitiveness” and all the rest of it was explored in fairly one-sided detail.

    Brexit has certainly caused some economic constriction, but next to sensible embrace of the broader picture, there is no reason it should not be relatively short-term. It’s the same for the rest of the current horror show. Indeed, the main thing about the present mess is not that we deserve it, but that we deserve to get out of it as quickly as possible.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/08/20/wasnt-brexit-capitalism-got-us-mess-try-telling-new-puritans/

  14. Oleksandr Usyk beats Anthony Joshua by split decision to retain world titles. 21 August 2022.

    For Anthony Joshua it was ultimately all too much. Having been defeated by the outstanding Oleksandr Usyk for a second time and consequently failing in his bid to regain his status as a heavyweight champion, he threw two of the victors’ three belts out of the ring before storming out of it himself on what was a hot night in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s city by the Red Sea, in more ways than one. Joshua soon returned but, quite clearly, the 32-year-old’s emotions were still getting the better of him. Having appeared to exchange angry words with Usyk he then took to the microphone and, in front of a crowd of about 10,000 gathered at this venue, delivered a curious monologue.

    Oleksandr Usyk. Ukrainian! One is left with the not unlikely suspicion that it was, like Eurovision and nearly everything else, fixed!

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/21/oleksandr-usyk-beats-anthony-joshua-by-split-decision-to-retain-world-titles

  15. Good morning dear Nottlers.

    Liz Truss plans to scrap environmental rule blamed for slowing down new homes
    Exclusive: Tory leadership contender plans to axe ‘nutrient neutrality’ requirement, brought in after European court ruling in 2018

    Liz Truss wants to ditch an environmental rule blamed for slowing down the construction of more than 100,000 homes if she becomes prime minister, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The Foreign Secretary is planning to scrap the “nutrient neutrality” requirement, brought in after a European Court of Justice ruling in 2018.

    The rule requires developers to detail the impact in terms of pollution of their proposals on rivers and wetlands and to promise mitigation measures, such as the creation of new wetlands, to secure planning permission.

    But critics argue that tit has slowed construction, over-exaggerated environmental impacts and created uncertainty, exacerbating the housing crisis.

    In March, the Home Builders Federation conducted an analysis that found 120,000 homes were being delayed. Some 74 local planning authorities are bound by the rule, which is ordered by Natural England, part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

    A Truss campaign source told The Telegraph: “Our current system of planning is too bureaucratic, too slow, and too complex. We would reform the planning system and cut red tape that prevents local communities from building the houses they want.

    “We would remove Brussels red tape, such as nutrient neutrality, that has stalled housing projects without delivering on what it is designed to address.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/08/19/liz-truss-plans-scrap-environmental-rule-blamed-slowing-house/

    Englands green and pleasant land is being ruined .

    1. Which particular tit was responsible for slowing construction? No names. no pack drill?

      1. DEFRA is protecting greenfield sites from farm and rural ruination. The Home Office “Tit” is allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to gain entrance to the UK without any checks on health and any recorded digital information. Are 4 male illegals going to share a new 4 bedroom house? The “Tits” are in the Home Office from the politicians down. The UK is full up.

    2. Truss seems to be on the side of the developers, backhanders no doubt. Sunak is of course the same.

    3. And the inherent stupidity continues.
      Truss is quite obviously backing the illegal invasion that is destroyed our culture and social structure.
      How can she ever represent the British taxpayers ?

      1. “...red tape that prevents local communities from building the houses they want.”. Ah, now I understand.

  16. SIR – The Germans have decided to keep their old nuclear power stations open a little longer. Is it too late to contemplate that sort of common sense and reopen Hinkley Point B?

    It was only closed four weeks ago – in the middle of an energy crisis – despite still operating effectively.

    Mike Metcalfe
    Butleigh, Somerset

    https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/EDF-Energy-confirms-Hinkley-Point-B-shutdown-plan

    This article (June this year) provides the background to the closure, but what it doesn’t say is why EDF decided to close it now. What was revealed by the core inspections last year? If repairs or an upgrade are required, has EDF decided that they don’t want to spend the money? We can ill afford the loss of 1,300 MW generating capacity at a time like this.

    1. Being irradiated changes the properties of steels used in reacor and piping construction. It causes embrittlement of the alpha phase – meaning that the steel loses it’s ability to resist propagation of cracks. Hinkley B is likely full of small cracks, some of them wold likely be growing slowly due to fatigue, and may be approaching the maximum allowable crack size. The old 1st generation rectors were closed due to that – I was part of some heavy discussions over Trawsfynydd, where the reactor had to be started so very slowly so the steel components could warm up before being appreciably stressed, and so avoid any lind of a brittle failure. In the end, it’s too close to the knuckle, bearing in mind the consequences of a failure of primary containment in a nuclear reactor.

    2. What’s in a name?

      It is amazing that virtually nobody under the age of 30 seems to be aware that

      E D F

      is

      E (lectrickery) De France.

  17. According to USA economist Dr Peter Navarro, the Bank of England is forecasting a long recession for the UK. His economic prognosis for the USA is equally depressing: one sector in the USA he highlights as being at risk is in mortgage/home building. If he is right about the UK, what is to happen to all the homes now under construction if rising inflation reduces money in the economy, mortgage rates rise, job losses occur etc?
    Close to my home upwards of 300+ homes are being built and in northern Colchester either side of the A134 two massive sites have recently been started with only the A12 as the boundary protecting the villages of Gt Horkesley and Boxted from encroachment. However, the former is going to suffer from the rush to build with a large site earmarked within the village. If the building industry slows down, or worse, comes close to a halt, will we suffer the spectre of partially developed sites sitting and decaying?
    The government is rudderless, policies appear uncoordinated and make no sense to ordinary people e.g. the ideological drive to ‘Net Zero’ appears to be on auto-pilot and unstoppable with its demands for “green” energy and reductions in food production. All the while deliberately encouraging immigration from the Third World.
    I have grave suspicions about both candidates for PM. Who, in their right mind, would take on the mess that is the UK and attempt to massively change its direction towards total decay (No Churchill nor Thatcher in sight)? Easier, much easier, to continue the drive over the edge of the abyss.

    Navarro from 2:25 in:

    Peter Navarro on War Room

      1. Seeing the increasing number of ‘tanned’ faces around my area, in Lidl and in the doctor’s surgery I am sure that is already happening.

    1. Covid boosters for nothing more than a runny nose, are they all insane?
      I suppose if one hasn’t had any jabs yet then they won’t require the boosters as one’s immune system will not have been damaged.

      1. 355202+ up ticks,

        Morning B3,

        Adults were issued with a common sense ability
        if they choose not to use it then the consequence is theirs alone.

        Tampering with a child’s immune system is pure
        evilness, medical / political paedophiles.as in
        rape & abuse of a child’s protective system.

    2. What do the immunologists have to say? They were kept out of the political debate on how to deal with Covid-19. Mike Yeadon had advice which they ignored.

  22. Morning, all Y’all.
    Cloudy. Not apple day today, but blackberries. Millions of the spiky barstewards… worse than tiny kittens, so they are!

    1. The blackberries round here are miserable objects and not worth the bother.
      Quite handy from my point of view. If they were any good, I’d feel bound to use them and have even more stuff to move in the next few weeks. Ditto the cherry plums on our usual dog walking route.

  23. Good Morning. Sunny morning here. Nothing in the news, just the usual social media stuff… Well, the strike of Felixstowe might be bad news, but they are playing it down, won’t have any effect on anything.

        1. Why did Mother Nature make only one Yogi Bear? Because when she tried to make a second one she made a Boo-Boo.

          Why did the bear cross the road? It was the chicken’s day off!

          What do you get if you cross a grizzly bear and a harp? A bear faced lyre!

          Why do polar bears have fur coats? Because they would look weird in ski jackets.

          Ta bum tish.

  26. Morning all😃
    I’m feeling nervous already, this time tomorrow I’ll have had my cardioversion. Stop-Start.
    It’s over 90% successful I’m led to believe.
    Hopefully “I’ll be Bach”…….Tuesday.

    5. Fingers and all other bodily parts crossed for you, Eddy.
      Let us know how you got on – out of body experiences, and anything else exciting!

  27. Good morning, my friends

    None of the posts I put on this forum yesterday is in my Discuss ‘history’.

    Is anyone else having this same specific fault with Discuss?

    2. Hi Rastus,

      my suggestion is to always copy and paste and save one’s words of wisdom (or otherwise) in a word file or similar.

          1. It’s not just what I’ve said. It’s an archive of interesting points from elsewhere and on this forum. Sometimes it’s an easier source of reference than trawling through the internet.

    6. No, but I still have the same “unread” notifications that I have read several times. No new ones, though.

  28. ‘Morning All

    ” Find a shred of decency and take a walk”

    The end of a Neil Oliver

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6gmPrQQwuk
    Unusually for Oliver he is strangely reluctant to name the “Big Beasts” of the media most complicit and responsible for driving the hate and misery of the Convid Scam(one suspects lawyers may be involved) so I’ll do it for him.
    Step forward Penis Morgan and Andrew Neil and take your bow of shame!!

    1. That would have to be Arthur ‘Two Sheds’ Jackson, he’s your man.

      Edit: Good morning Rik and everybody. 10th Sunday after Trinity.

  29. Good morning all from a beautifully bright & sunny morning in Falstone.
    After the downpour we had yesterday for the show, someone “up there” is taking the p***.

    A quiet morning walk round.
    Hawkhope Farm, along with Yarrow on the other side of the river, one of the last valley bottom farms before the dam wall.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc761580463b0a8c28e673ad6ae93250f2cd097bcec49882351c634b0b4d1b70.jpg

    The swift flowing North Tyne:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c843b3418b039446b45bd78d654b123425fa2905c983d1aa869a2af846f38583.jpg

    The Stelle, an artistic installation that actually has some use as a windbreak with seats!
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5758c25815b7cf7ca7e55c72ff9616e888420e0442fe1fbb4f766da619ad891.jpg

    Looking up the valley over the top of a much calmer bit of water:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9eecabc658f21bc4c76a2fa8a88f66ac76cdb3fbebdafc855f79007ca5852545.jpg

        1. Hey Beatnik, that’s 1950s Fantasyland, Dude. That’s when the boys in blue had blue shirts, Hombre.

          1. That’s also the time, Man, when you and I hit Route 6 to Frisco, Dean. Remember getting high at Carlo’s crib with Remi and Lee Ann, Bro?

  30. “Modern Life” isn’t looking too rosy today………

    https://twitter.com/XRLlareggub/status/1561008939273256960?s=20&t=MAfxE8ksKF7TAoNdWEljMg

    https://twitter.com/Treasonfinder/status/1561100183387213824?t=1_vAYw7aTRwKECgSyXoDuw&s=19

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0e6e516862562e65893d8964fa85fcf583466a2fdbba39c9ebab71a482a2f00.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/02215eec49b810a7891012e845ad6382ad26bf2d6b31ddbf07ce6cbdb8e29c19.jpg

    https://twitter.com/IBN_Berlin/status/1560752848547323907?s=20&t=5ZeKKZxet83INZ7QL5PDwA

    Ellwood who used the 77th Brigade against the British people,another one for the tumbrils….

    https://twitter.com/B4Kent/status/1560951519079546880

    1. That Tobias Ellwood Tweet is extremely disturbing.

      ANY deliberate damage causing potential radiation leak to a Ukrainian nuclear reactor would be a breach of NATO’s Article 5.

      These idiots really are trying to stir up WW3

      1. At the GBNews questioning of L Truss and R Sunak in Manchester on Friday LT was asked what preparations have been made in the event of a Nuclear Strike. She couldn’t or wouldn’t answer the question.

      2. They are gagging for it and doing their utmost. I suspect they will ultimately organise a false flag event. They need this as a major distraction to mask all the vaccine deaths emerging, lockdown will bury them only for so long.

    2. Umm… we do sells arms to Russia. We sell arms to all sorts of people.

      Comically we sell arms to Russia, who sell them to Iran and Afghanistan. OK, they’re last generation, but they’re still weapons.

    3. Greta’s Green Day
      One crisp winter morning in Sweden, a cute little girl named Greta woke up to a perfect world, one where there were no petroleum products ruining the earth. She tossed aside her cotton sheet and wool blanket and stepped out onto a dirt floor covered with willow bark that had been pulverised with rocks.
      “What’s this?” she asked.
      “Pulverised willow bark,” replied her fairy godmother.
      “What happened to the carpet?” she asked.
      “The carpet was nylon, which is made from Butadiene and hydrogen cyanide, both made from petroleum,” came the response.

      Greta smiled, acknowledging that adjustments are necessary to save the planet, and moved to the sink to brush her teeth where instead of a toothbrush, she found a willow, mangled on one end to expose wood fibre bristles.
      “Your old toothbrush?” noted her godmother, “Also nylon.”
      “Where’s the water?” asked Greta.
      “Down the road in the canal,” replied her godmother, ‘Just make sure you avoid water with cholera in it”
      “Why’s there no running water?” Greta asked, becoming a little peevish.
      “Well,” said her godmother, who happened to teach engineering at MIT, “Where do we begin?”

      There followed a long monologue about how sink valves need elastomer seats and how copper pipes contain copper, which has to be mined and how it’s impossible to make all-electric earth-moving equipment with no gear lubrication or tyres and how ore has to be smelted to make metal, and that’s tough to do, with only electricity as a source of heat, and, even if you use only electricity, the wires need insulation, which is petroleum-based, and though most of Sweden’s energy is produced in an environmentally friendly way because of hydro and nuclear, if you do a mass and energy balance around the whole system, you still need lots of petroleum products like lubricants and nylon and rubber for tyres and asphalt for filling potholes and wax and iPhone plastic and elastic to hold your underwear up while operating a copper smelting furnace and . . .
      “What’s for breakfast?” interjected Greta, whose head was hurting.
      “Fresh, range-fed chicken eggs,” replied her godmother. “raw.”
      “How so, raw?” inquired Greta.
      “Well, …

      . . .” And once again, Greta was told about the need for petroleum products like transformer oil and scores of petroleum products essential for producing metals for frying pans and in the end was educated about how you can’t have a petroleum-free world and then cook eggs. Unless you rip your front fence up and start a fire and carefully cook your egg in an orange peel like you do in Boy Scouts. Not that you can find oranges in Sweden anymore.
      “But I want poached eggs like my Aunt Tilda makes,” lamented Greta.
      “Tilda died this morning,” the godmother explained. “Bacterial pneumonia.”
      “What?!” interjected Greta. “No one dies of bacterial pneumonia! We have penicillin.”
      “Not anymore,” explained godmother “The production of penicillin requires chemical extraction using isobutyl acetate, which, if you know your organic chemistry, is petroleum-based. Lots of people are dying, which is problematic because there’s not any easy way of disposing of the bodies since backhoes need hydraulic oil and crematoriums can’t really burn many bodies using as fuel Swedish fences and furniture, which are rapidly disappearing – being used on the black market for roasting eggs and staying warm.”

      This represents only a fraction of Greta’s day, a day without microphones to exclaim into and a day without much food, and a day without carbon-fibre boats to sail in, but a day that will save the planet.

      Tune in tomorrow when Greta needs a root canal and learns how Novocain is synthesised.

  31. Not sure who is being referred to as army chief, top soldier or top Major; but it’s yet another straw in the wind of Armageddon.

    British troops must be ready for war with Russia, top soldier warns: Army chief says UK is ‘prepared to counter Putin’s aggression’ and urges soldiers to ‘prepare our loved ones and families’ for potential deployment
    Top major said soldiers must prepare loved ones for a ‘potential deployment’
    Warrant Officer Carney added that Britain is ready to counter Putin’s aggression
    ‘My ask is that you have discussions about a potential deployment now’
    British soldiers are stationed at embassy in Kyiv, with Kyiv troops training here

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11130877/British-troops-ready-war-Russia-soldiers-prepare-families-army-chief.html

    1. He is a WO1. Quite why he should be regarded as an Army spokesman is beyond me. Perhaps we could have a Lance Corporal for balance….

      1. I think it has something to do with his writing a regular column in a Services magazine, which presumably gets vetted by senior people, or a senior officer is being quoted, it isn’t at all clear.

    2. Biggest question is why is the UK even contemplating countering Putin’s aggression?

      It’s just a little local trouble and is no concern of ours.

  32. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03d7d3a1527df21422c4b91d72b4fce31414a83cd403ed4c540b5344b9de8ed3.jpg Where’s Tom?
    T’other day, on the topic of itchy labels inside clothing, I posted a photo of the printed label inside a tee shirt from Dressmann (a Scandinavian clothing company). Tom mused that since Dressmann products are not available in the UK then it would be of no use to British customers. Well, Tom, I’ve just discovered that good ol’ Marks & Sparks have also stopped attaching labels inside their trunks, briefs and boxers.

      1. I’ve not noticed any deterioration in quality. I buy mine by mail order; they probably sell their ‘firsts’ abroad and keep their ‘seconds’ for the home market; in the same manner that manufacturers of crockery and porcelain do.

    3. I bought a couple of bra tops in Tesco last winter – also with printed labels inside (although they turn inside out when I take them off).

    4. Tom’s here, George, and yes, I am aware that Dressmann is a scandy company, having bought stuff from them in Stockholm – hence my point that they don’t appear to have outlets in the UK.

    5. I have M&S briefs with printed labels and, after time, the ‘labels’ wash off. So you end up not knowing whether they’re inside-out or back-to-front without scrutinising them.

        1. But there’s still plenty of life left in them at that point. For me, replacement time is when the elastic gives out!

  33. Peter Hitchins…

    Free speech isn’t a one-sided conversation

    I am pleased to say that Toby Young, founder of the Free Speech Union,
    has protested against the creepy sanctioning, without any sort of trial,
    of the unlovable video-blogger Graham Phillips.

    Mr Phillips’s reports from the Ukraine front, which don’t follow the
    widely accepted view, have annoyed the Government. Toby points to the
    danger here, saying that the same punishment without trial ‘could easily
    be applied to another video-blogger who is a thorn in the side of one
    of our allies – Saudi Arabia, for instance – making it a sinister
    precedent. Indeed, had Jeremy Corbyn won the last General Election and
    frozen the assets of a dubious journalist taking sides against a
    Communist country he had declared an ally, such as Cuba, we’d be
    justifiably outraged’.

    Toby has grasped that if you go around claiming to be in favour of free
    speech – as so many do these days – then you are in favour of it for
    people you don’t like, saying things you may even hate. A lot of
    prominent people produce a lot of wind on the subject, especially in the
    transgender and woke wars, but until they condemn the sanctioning of Mr
    Phillips, they aren’t in favour of free speech at all.

  34. That’s the daily blackberry harvest done… 5 gallons of them! (= two buckets)

      1. To be frozen. The restaurant Firstborn has an agreement with had a freezer disaster last week, and it blew up. Not only is the food ruined (they can claim on insurance), but all he time spent in preparation is lost, and cannot be reclaimed. What a bugger.
        Firstborns berries were due to go to them as they were picked, and then be blast-chilled and put in the freezer… a few to be used fresh on today’s tarts.
        Bugger all round. :-((

          6. That was a cracking album – nice blues rock and lovely version of ‘Who Do You Love?’. Much better than their second album which was more country (with the noted exception of a cover of Zappa’s ‘Willie, The Pimp’ (ex ‘Hot Rats’).

    1. Back at the Alhambra Palace in the 1200s the slammers had more than 2000 white children locked in caves to use as they thought apt. When they had finished with their victims, they fed them to the local captive pride of lions.

    1. I tried the Tesco bugs a couple of years ago, and was chitin constantly for an hour.

    2. CHITIN
      Never mind crickets, better stop eating any kinds of fungus, then. That includes mushrooms, anything with yeast in it (bye-bye bread) blue cheeses, and so on. Just to show off a bit, my first scientific publication in 1966 (Nature 209, 1258-1259) – was about fungal cell walls.

      According to ‘The Fungal Cell Wall’ in Frontiers in Microbiology (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/9680/the-fungal-cell-wall ):
      “The fungal cell wall is a complex and flexible structure composed basically of chitin, α- and β- linked glucans, glycoproteins and pigments”.

      The 2010 publication you mention (Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2010 Dec; 3(12): 1519–1522) was actually proposing that a novel pyrimidine nucleotide derivative SP-1015 (designed as a chitin synthase inhibitor) may act as an ANTI-CANCER agent, and by inhibiting the chitin or chitin-like glycan formation in mammalian cells, may be effective chemopreventive agents.

      I ain’t eating crickets any time soon, but I am going to continue to eat fungi.

      1. Thank you – the reason I posted this was to get a second (or more) opinion from the vast fund of knowledge on Nottle.

          1. I reread an old A-level mathematics paper I took in 1979… could barely get by the title, let alone even approach any of the questions! Also, as an Engineer of 40 years standing, I never used any of it.

          2. OK Herr Oberst, let’s have a go:

            Chitin, the body structure of all insects and many arthropods, is not normally produced in Mammalian cells.

            The scientific paper mentioned by ‘Jessie’ (underneath that movie clip of a classroom) says (paraphrasing) ‘there is evidence that some cancer-producing agents cause chitin and chitin-like substances to be produced in mammals, sometimes leading to cancers’.

            So if you can inhibit this chitin synthesis in humans [of course – no other animals matter to us that much] then this novel chemical (SP-1015) may prove to be a useful anti-cancer agent in humans whose organs may have started to synthesise ‘nasty’ chitin pathologically.

            Hope that’s clearer than my previous wordy post.

  39. “A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives “. I can’t read the rest of the letter but there is no Thatcherite tiller. We are drifting aimlessly along, up the creek without a paddle, as far as I can see. Any steering is being done by the banking fraternity/the WEF/the WHO and all our politicians are being paid handsomely to do their bidding one way or another. Oh, I forgot to mention big Pharma.

  40. Bon dimanche boyzNgoylz
    To the title:
    Only two things can save the Tories:
    1. That Labour continue being worse;
    The Tories have set the bar of bloody dangerous uselessness very high, but Labour are running at it with purpose.

    2. That the Tories become conservative – of which I have no expectation.

    Pretty grim, really.

    2. He seems to have been remarkably articulate after his “defeat”?

      It couldn’t have been fixed, could it? So that the plucky Uke “won”.

    1. Good idea. I have some business cards that are so old that the person has probably died. That should be fun. “Hello, is that Buckstone Associates?”, “May I speak to Mr Buckstone?”, “Oh, he died five years ago, you say?”

    2. When I lived in Chandos Avenue Whetstone we had a double entrance drive way, because of multiple occupancy at the house several cars. Some of us often found it almost impossible to get out of the driveway. This due to people parking out side and walking to Oakley Park railway station. We use to place polite notices on the windscreens. But persistent and annoying drivers had notices adhered to their screens with treacle.
      It did the trick.

      1. I was once blocked in at a station, where there were clearly marked spaces, and had to wait for ages until someone else arrived and drove off, allowing me to escape.

        Before I left I let two of the other car’s tyres down and left a note:
        “I hope my letting your tyres down causes you as much delay as your selfish parking has caused me.”

      2. I wrote on cargo labels and put them on the windscreen in the drivers line of sight. Very difficult to remove.

      3. When i had to park my motorbike on the road in the City, i was often blocked in by scooter-drivers shoving their scooters in the gap left by my bike on its side-stand. I needed to leave at 4 to get the kids from their childcare, so it wasn’t a question of being able to wait for the culprit to arrive. I used to have to co-opt passers by to help lift their scooters out the way while i got my bike out. I used to dream about being able to throw their wretched scooters on the ground and kick the damn things (i never did of course not least because there were always plenty of people around!)

        1. I once had my motor cycle knocked over by a park whilst I was parked outside a chemist. Lipstick is such a bugger to get off a car’s paintwork, doncha know.

  43. 355292+ up ticks,

    Didn’t Vote for This: Majority of Conservative Voters want Net Zero Plan Halted,

    As with many an issue these pass 40 years, they cannot admit to supporting / voting for an oh so bloody obvious dangerous ringer even as it is coming to light currently they still support / vote in the Oliver mode,
    ” more of the same please”

    They, truth be told, literally given a country away via the polling booth.

      1. 355292 + up ticks,

        Morning N,

        Many voted Brexitexit , my past comments was calling for a UKIP party build as a safeguard against treachery,
        the electorate returned, post referendum ,to supporting lab/lib/con
        ( brussels asset party’s) proven pro eu cartels.

        Our Country was in the hands of political gypsters, scammers, thieves.

        The major kicked off reset after the “party” saw off MRs Thatcher followed by political treachery artist on steroids,

        ALL with ” do come again ” via the polling booth.

        1. Pretty well, Paul; all boxes and bags emptied, furniture and white goods received and in place – I’ve got to check the cooker, as I’ve got a new friend coming over for dinner tomorrow (Monday) evening. She’s fed me many times and I must return the favour, stuffed chicken breast with pesto and stilton stuffing, wrapped in back bacon and roasted together with(sightly later) roasted Onion, leek, red pepper and spinach. If I want to do saute potatoes with rosemary, thyme salt & pepper, I shall have to go out for a heavy-base frying pan – and replenish the whisky, though there is chardonnay for the meal itself. Still picture hanging and the like to do but I think I’m on top of it.

    1. My dad couldn’t even put up a deck chair without some sort of injury;-) Lost track of the number of times I saw him throw it down in disgust.

  48. Can anyone help me out?

    Probably at least 6 months ago there was a photo (I’m pretty sure it was on on NOTTL) of a man riding a Ducati motorbike and leaning over at the perilous angle that motorbike-racers have to use to get round corners. One of his knees was just about touching the track (that’s why they wear Kevlar knee-protectors – I speak as an ex-biker myself).

    The critical part was the caption: “Go and buy something expensive and go down on one knee”. It might have been at Valentines Day time.

    I know a single guy who recently bought a Ducati Monster motorbike and it would be the perfect picture to send to him, as he’s courting.

    Does anyone recall posting that photo or pinching it? I though I had, but can’t find it among the hundreds of thousands of files on my Desktop PC.

    Grateful for any help. RC

        1. Wow! that’s fantastic. Exactly what I wanted.

          Nottlers help each other. We’re not just Grumpy [Old] People.

          Thank you both. RC

        2. Indeed, but unless one knows it’s a Ducati one can’t tell. The other one has the name on the side.

      2. Wow! that’s fantastic. Exactly what I wanted.

        Nottlers help each other. We’re not just Grumpy [Old] People.

        Thank you both. RC

        Just had my knuckles rapped by Disqus for posting the same comment twice!

  49. Latest Breaking News – Human Rights Lawyers are seeking compensation for all the trafficked migrants crossing the channel in dinghies, they are complaining of risk to health and trauma suffered for all the sewage they have had wade through when coming ashore along Kent beaches.

  50. How’s this for a fcukup?
    North Norway electricity price might reach Kr 0,014 a kWh tomorrow. In the south-west, it’s expected to hit Kr 6,08. 300% difference. There’s no north-south interconnector, so all our power goes to the EU and UK, and the North have all theirs to keep.

  51. To counter terrorism, we need to stop and listen to survivors like me. 21 August 2022.

    On the UN International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, we must recognise the agency of survivors and victims, as well as the families, friends, and communities of those affected, who live with the enduring legacy of terrorism.

    I survived the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack in March 2017. I understand first-hand the difficulties survivors can face. Throughout August and September, I will be visiting the US to meet with victims of terror attacks, providing peer-to-peer support and sharing my story with local communities to raise awareness amongst young people in particular, emphasising the need for connection, solidarity and continued vigilance against these ever-shifting threats.

    You will search for the words Muslim or Islam in this article in vain.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/terrorism-westminster-bridge-manchester-arena-b2149434.html

    3. Whoever wrote that is just a virtue-signalling twat. I shall ignore it, other than that comment.

    4. Thanks for saving me the bother – the Independent wanted me to register to read it. So I didn’t.

        1. But you can’t read BTL comments; and (at least for the Telegraph) it often reveals the previous day’s paer…

    5. “To counter terrorism, we need to stop and listen to survivors like me. 21 August 2022.”

      The fact that people such as Travis Frain (who wrote the article) are not prepared to use the words Muslim or Islam is the reason why terrorism is not going to be countered any time soon! (Try winning at Wimbledon with a ping-pong bat rather than a tennis racket.)

        1. Love them. I found a photo of my Fred and have it now where I can see it. He was a furball when he was a pup. Goldens are so much fun, so loving and total hams. I think they’re the bestest.

          1. We took one mature GR dog over in Nigeria. Suffered a bit from the heat, until Mother reversed her car over him & broke his back. He used to lie in the drive, and being frive-coloured, wasn’t easy to spot from a reversing car… Poor old Patch. Had the best veterinary care in Nigeria from the School of Veterinary Studies, but…

          5. She’s fine, thanks. Seems quite happy, doesn’t miss anything, 2 hairdresser appointments a week, good food, proper medication, company if she wants it or not, nice location.
            House sale should complte on Friday, so she’ll have plenty moolah. I hope we’re ahead of a recession / house price problem…

          6. I guess that’s something of a relief to you especially being so far away. Long may it continue.

          10. Poor old Patch. He wasn’t in pain, but was terribly anxious that his back end didn’t follow his front end.

          12. It happens; one of my French friends ran over her cat in the garage and the parents of one of my English friends ran over their JRT in the garage.

          13. Friend Dianne’s Seat Ateca has Front Assist, Rear Assist, and a cornucopia of other “assists”. Sadly, it doesn’t have Daschund Assist. Don’t ask…

        1. Aka the naked cat! He is a charming cat despite his looks! He’s very sociable and loving!
          ,

    1. Can’t read it without subscribing. They must lose a lot of readers this way.

      If it’s that good why don’t you, like DT subscribers, copy and paste here?

      4. Voila. By Simon Caldwell.

        ST JOAN of Arc, the ‘Maid of Orleans’, is one of history’s greatest heroines. A mystic who led an army into battle at the age of 17 after
        receiving heavenly messages from Saints Michael, Margaret and Catherine, her intervention in the Hundred Years’ War came at a moment which proved pivotal in the liberation of France from English domination. So
        they punished her with a show trial and by burning her as a witch in the market place in Rouen in 1431. She was just 19.
        Joan was canonised in 1920 and is a patron saint of the French – their St George. Pope Benedict XVI, preaching about her life in 2011, declared her to be not only one of the ‘strong women’ who ‘fearlessly bore the great light of the Gospel in the complex events of history’ but said that she was also a person like ‘the holy women who stayed on
        Calvary, close to the Crucified Jesus and to Mary his Mother, while the Apostles had fled and Peter himself had denied him three times’. From a Roman Pontiff, it is difficult to imagine higher praise for any woman than this.
        Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London will, however, from Thursday stage a production called I, Joan, which chooses to imagine the saint in a very different way. The team were evidently excited by St Joan’s attire in battle. Like men, she wore
        armour – though for protection rather than as a statement of sexual identity, a point I fear has been missed by the writers, who have chosen to portray a woman who was consecrated in virginity to God as a non-binary ‘queer’ who refers to herself using ‘they/them’ pronouns.
        The play is by Charlie Josephine, a self-professed ‘non-binary’ person who promises a ‘big sweaty, queer, revolution, rebellion, festival of, like, joy’. It comes amid a broader global drive to promote LGBTQ themes in the performing arts. It follows, for example, the recent announcement by Roundabout Theatre on Broadway of an international tour of the celebrated musical 1776 with the Founding Fathers of the American Revolution portrayed exclusively by ‘actors who identify as female, transgender, and non-binary’.
        The decision to recast St Joan as a gender ideologue has attracted criticism, notably from J K Rowling, the bête noire of
        transsexual revolutionaries. She described the depiction of the saint as ‘insulting and damaging’. Women from across the political spectrum share her opinions. They include, for instance, the former Conservative Minister Ann Widdecombe, a Catholic, who accused the Globe of ‘de-womanising’ St Joan in a ‘farce beyond measure’.
        The backlash has prompted Michelle Terry, the artistic director of the Globe, to defend the production by arguing that theatre is about story-telling rather than ‘historical reality’.
        ‘Theatres produce plays, and in plays, anything can be possible,’ she said. ‘Shakespeare did not write historically accurate plays. He took figures of the past to ask questions about the world around him. Our writers of today are doing no different, whether that’s looking at Anne Boleyn, Nell Gwyn, Emilia Bassano, Edward II or Joan of Arc.
        ‘The Globe is a place of imagination. A place where, for a brief amount of time, we can at least consider the possibility of worlds
        elsewhere. We have had entire storms take place on stage, the sinking of ships, twins who look nothing alike being believable, and even a queen of the fairies falling in love with a donkey.’
        She added: ‘Shakespeare was not afraid of discomfort, and neither is the Globe.’
        It was wise for the Globe to surrender any claim to historical accuracy because St Joan clearly was by no means a non-binary gender ideologue of the early 21st century.
        Listen to her words: ‘I entrust myself to God my Creator, I love him with my whole heart.’ They reveal that not only does she see herself as a deeply religious woman, but she sees God – embodied in the person of Jesus Christ – as a man. She was very ‘cis’ and ‘heteronormative’ indeed; a strange choice for a trans-heroine.
        This is of course the point of the exercise. It is all about hijacking heroic figures for the next cycle of the sexual revolution.
        What it is not about is dramatic licence or the right to cast historic figures in fanciful lights for the sake of a good story. Freedoms of speech and expression are no longer any use to those advancing the emerging new anthropologies, just things to be derided, scorned and crushed. So until the time comes when villains are also cast as non-binary figures, surely the only sensible course of action is to treat such productions as propaganda worthy only of totalitarian regimes.
        I would love the Globe or the Roundabout Theatre to prove me wrong. I’d even be happy to help them. So here’s a challenge: what about a production about the Roman Emperor Nero? He is acknowledged as one of the most evil men in history. He murdered his mother, raped and murdered his brother, decapitated his first wife and gave her head to his
        mistress as a trophy before marrying her and kicking her to death when she was heavily pregnant. Regretting his murder of wife number two, Nero then procured a boy who looked just like her but castrated him to retain his youthful looks before giving him his wife’s name and marrying him too. He offered riches to anyone able to give his catamite a full sex change, including the successful implantation of a uterus. And this was just his private life.
        Nero presents the example of a very contemporary man/woman/thing with new and exciting things to say about children’s rights, sexual liberation, no-fault divorce, abortion rights, trans rights, gay marriage and gay families – surely all vitally important causes. The theatres would have the additional defence that they lack in their depictions of St Joan of Arc and all the others who will follow her in the re-writing of history, because in the case of Nero all of these deeds were recorded as true. I can’t wait.

  55. Oh good grief! The ref hates Newcastle!
    What a surprise!
    Oops! VAR has actually done its job!

  56. That’s me for what has turned into a grey late afternoon. Watering still required. Then spent a nice half hour planning outings on our brief holiday in Brittany. Looks like a belter. Fantastic to go to a completely new area. Despite the rain……

    Pre-packing starts tomorrow… Cats to be pacified…. They will live at home and will have a great time being indulged by neighbours.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain

    1. Enjoy Brittany, Bill; every seaside village has lots of oysters and Muscadet at giveaway prices – or did so last time I was there – some 45 years ago!

      1. Thanks – we leave on Thursday. Sadly both the MR and I are allergic to oysters – each having had a VERY nasty experience twice – which we have no wish to repeat.

    3. We had a lovely week in St Caste Le Guildo in April 4 years ago. A 20 minute walk along a promenade and a jetty, part-way along we had a truly wonderful lunch in a restaurant facing alongside the bay. The restaurant hurriedly (it was within 15 minutes of closing, we didn’t realise, poppiesdad had been unwell since our arrival but improving felt like a walk) put together a lunch of prawns in various sizes, shrimps and French bread and a glass of dry white wine each. Followed by îsles flotantes. It was memorable for its fresh, delicious, absolute simplicity; the courtesy of the restaurant owners and the sight and sound of the sea.

      Have a wonderful time! (Oh, it still hasn’t rained here, yet – apart from a brief overnight shower.)

      1. I brought in the outside cushions so the predicted rain will fail to appear tomorrow.

    4. Bon voyage, Bill and the MR. Bon sejour aux chats (I’m on the laptop and sans accents).

  58. 355293+ uo ticks,

    Looks like it’e gunna be bug sarnies then,

    Gerard Battwn,
    @gjb2021
    ·
    11h
    Here is a Brexit Bonus even I, as UKIP’s Brexit Spokesman, did not foresee. The EU legislation making bug farming legal in the UK has ended.

    I don’t doubt a UK govnt will reinstate it as soon as the WEF tells them to. But Brexit at least gave Britain the oppprtunity to save itself from the Globalist curse, if we have a govnt prepared to do so.

    https://gettr.com/post/p1nk9n74793

  59. OT

    Tony Blair Institute backs Masks

    Perhaps Cherie has bought a run-down – or bankrupt – mask manufacturer?

    1. I have just commented on the DT! 5 upticks within about 5 seconds! Does he realise how loathed he is?
      Does he cere?
      Oops ‘ care’

      1. He’s so far up his own arse, that he doesn’t know and doesn’t care.
        One hopes for a stroke or heart attack for him – not that he has a heart, obvs.

  60. OT

    Tony Blair Institute backs Masks

    Perhaps Cherie has bought a run-down – or bankrupt – mask manufacturer?

  61. Oh my what have I done to myself!

    I am running a women’s golf tournament today and honestly it is like herding cats

    We really need rain in these parts, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a downpour in the next few hours.

    2. Many years ago, my father chauffeured my mother’s hockey team and felt pretty much the same way!

      Plenty of rain in Brittany, by the way. It’s been raining all day. Some of our “lawn”, such as it is, is actually turning green.

    1. If there’s anything there the gimmigrants will ruin it.

      I’ still rooting for a scuttled ferry. hulk.

    2. Bloody well done, Stavros. A lesson for the Border Farce and the Religious Little Nutters Institute.

      That’s the way to do it.

  63. Evening, all. What are the chances of the suggestion in the headline letter being implemented? Zilch, I’d say. The Cons are looking at a serious loss when next we go to the polls, I think.

    1. Thing is, Labour offer nothing. Ask them whattheir policies are over energy … handouts and taxes. What’s their policy on immigration? Bring more in, same as the Tory.

      On crime? More money for the police, no doubt. More ‘investment’ (waste) in facilities for young people (blacks). They have so much cash poured down the drain you could block a sewer permanently.

      On energy security? Windmills and taxes.

      On welfare? More of it, yes please.
      On high taxes? Higher please, ‘companies’ must pay their ‘fair share’.
      Inflation? More spending (same as Tory).
      Debt? What debt? Oh, we’ll spend more to ‘promote growth’.

        1. There should be a written examination to pass before you’re allowed to vote.
          Most Nottlers would pass.

      2. To be fair they don’t need policies now, there’s no option to choose them and every labour policy eventually finds its way to being enacted by the Tories.

    2. They deserve it, the bastards. Take the electorate for fools, bloody lucky it’s not piano wire and lamp-post time.

  64. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/08/21/forget-liz-truss-rishi-sunak-tory-supporters-would-much-rather/

    I’m no fan of Boris. He had a thumping majority and did the precise opposite of what he should have at every turn. He ignored lockdown – proving it was unnecessary. I think if people expect the political class to follow the rules they make us then they’re ignorant and immature.

    Yet I don’t see the point having a leadership election. Sunak’s a moron who did incredible economic damage – mainly, i suspect because he was more intent on the political machination than the economic circumstance and let hte Treasury do what it wanted.

    Truss will do nothing, immediately launching a re-election campaign because she is a politician. None of them are talking about doing what so urgently needs to be done becaue, let’s be honest, they won’t.

    We have one lying waster in office. A known quantity. Why bother having weeks of nonsense to replace that waster with another one?

    1. When the political classes are all conspiring to complete the great reset why would any of them even contemplate doing what is needed and have their careers ended for them.

    2. When the political classes are all conspiring to complete the great reset why would any of them even contemplate doing what is needed and have end their careers ended for them.

    3. At least we get rid of the green queen. A bit late on parade, just back from dropping Mrs Pea at Gatwick.

  65. Goodnight, Gentlefolk and God bless. I find I get quite tired in these Northern Climes.

    2. It gets a lot of dark in’t North. Magic in the summer, not so good otherwise.
      Night, Tom. Relaxing time.

  66. Also going to bed. Went up at 9.40 last night and didn’t really sleep until after 2. Grrr.
    See y’all tomorrow. Sleep well and watch out for dem bed bugs.

    1. Night night, hope you manage to get some restful sleep. Unexpected visit today from grandson, so I have had a lazy day!

  67. Evening all.
    After a run to Deadwater Fall & Kielder, I dropped down to Bellingham and then across to Druridge Bay for a swim.
    Still have the photos to sort out, but now at daughter’s and about to turn in.
    Goodnight all.

    1. The weird thing is – people still believe in this garbage! No matter that nearly everybody has had at least one version of covid – and the more boosted the more likely they are to get it…… but even the highly intelligent guy who writes a family history newsletter which I get each fortnight, has been cowering away at home since this all started; he and his wife have been so isolated, they hardly see anyone, so have escaped it so far. They don’t go shopping, except online; they disinfect their deliveries, and are still using lateral flow tests before they meet anyone. He thinks this new booster is going to be just what they’ve been waiting for!

      1. I know a number of people who appear unable to connect the dots re the “vaccinated” getting repeatably infected with “covid”, or whatever the latest infection designated as “covid” happens to be. Latest example is a friend whose young “vaccinated” grandson has tested positive. “Vaccinated” mother has had “covid” at least twice and they have a reserve of home testing kits. For as long as people keep testing, this situation will never end.

  70. There hasn’t been such a thing as a bobby for 50 years and there is no beat for them to go on. The police do not patrol preventatively, which is their job. They’ve stopped doing it. What we have now are paramilitary social workers, heavily armed with clubs and pepper sprays and sometimes with guns, reacting to crime and disorder after it has happened. They’ve been doing this uselessly and with increasing ineffectiveness for half a century.

    Peter Hitchens

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CWlZcjxcw

    From about 5:30. Frank Furedi plays the liberal stooge (well, just a little bit).

    PS to PH: You forgot tasers…

      1. Get past your pedantic indignation and you will hear the message that you’ve been relaying on here for years.

  71. There hasn’t been such a thing as a bobby for 50 years and there is no beat for them to go on. The police do not patrol preventatively, which is their job. They’ve stopped doing it. What we have now are paramilitary social workers, heavily armed with clubs and pepper sprays and sometimes with guns, reacting to crime and disorder after it has happened. They’ve been doing this uselessly and with increasing ineffectiveness for half a century.

    Peter Hitchens

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-CWlZcjxcw

    From about 5:30. Frank Furedi plays the liberal stooge (well, just a little bit).

    PS to PH: You forgot tasers…

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