Sunday 21 January: Labour’s plan for solar farms illuminates the depths of the net-zero delusion

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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543 thoughts on “Sunday 21 January: Labour’s plan for solar farms illuminates the depths of the net-zero delusion”

    1. Excellent plan! Enjoy!
      We have Second Son coming round for dinner – beef stew and dumplings!

  7. Pictured: Post Office victims who died without justice

    Many suffered in silence, some wrongly died in shame. These are their stories

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F967addb7-7758-4063-b26a-d7564c8f188e.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=960

    These are the faces of the victims of the Post Office scandal who have died without justice. No official list has been compiled of the sub-postmasters who have not lived to see their names cleared or received compensation. But by interviewing families, reviewing coverage and combing through witness statements given to the public inquiry…

    1. The Sunday Grimes

      The unlikely villain of the Horizon scandal? Tony Benn
      Robert Colvile

      The Post Office scandal goes back to procurement blunders perpetrated in the 1960s. We’re still making the same mistakes…

      1. How convenient, he’s dead.
        I’m getting fed up with the establishment’s habit of directing the public’s fury towards dead people, whilst pretending that the living are not guilty.

    2. Hideously white.

      Edit. For the avoidance of doubt, I mean, this is probably why nobody in authority cared about them.

      1. Our (not white) Sri Lankan local shopkeeper handed back the post office franchise some years back and just carried on with the shop.
        He told me that they messed him around so much and didn’t pay enough to make it worthwhile. So we just have a post van twice weekly or you go to the next village.

      2. I was just goung to post something along those lines: What do they all have in common, folks?

      1. To be fair I believe there were some duskier-hued sub-post office masters. Did they receive different treatment?

        1. No. One dusky hued gentleman interviewed on TV was treated appallingly badly, and imprisoned for a lengthy spell.

    4. Truly shocking. Trouble all the guilty parties manage to slope shoulders and nothing happens in the end.

    1. No comments allowed

      Nicola Sturgeon branded a ‘convincing fraud’ after Covid WhatsApp messages were deleted

      Scotland’s former first minister retained ‘no messages whatsoever’ from pandemic and deputy used auto-delete function, Inquiry heard

      Neil Johnston, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
      20 January 2024 • 6:14pm

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/20/TELEMMGLPICT000363302063_17057736199350_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqSFXWNnhoSSUDZbpG8a9LxIWFLrgdvNKFbn8RhVJqF6c.jpeg?imwidth=680
      On Friday it was finally revealed that Ms Sturgeon had retained ‘no messages whatsoever’

      Nicola Sturgeon has been branded a “fraud” by one of her own former MSPs for deleting all her pandemic WhatsApps, as the former First Minister sought to address the growing scandal over the messages.

      Joan McAlpine, who served for ten years as an SNP MSP, said that Ms Sturgeon was “such a convincing” fraud for deleting her messages despite promises to hand over everything.

      After weeks of obfuscation from Ms Sturgeon, it was finally confirmed at the Covid Inquiry on Friday that she had retained “no messages whatsoever” and her deputy John Swinney had used an “auto-delete” function to clear his own WhatsApps.

      Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the Inquiry, told the hearing: “Under the box ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, it says that messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones, unable to retrieve messages,” he said. “What that tends to suggest is at the time that request was made, Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister of Scotland, had retained no messages whatsoever in connection with her management of the pandemic.”

      Ms Sturgeon had pledged to be transparent with any Inquiry and in August 2021 when challenged during a press conference to guarantee that all such digital material would be provided and nothing would be “off limits”, Ms Sturgeon said that “for the avoidance of doubt” she would give that assurance.

      ‘Convincing fraud’
      Sharing a clip of the press conference, Ms McAlipine, who served as a regional list MSP for South Scotland, tweeted: “What a fraud this woman was – but such a convincing one …”

      Ms Sturgeon had repeatedly failed to confirm she had deleted WhatsApps or answer questions on why they were deleted.

      However amid growing pressure on Ms Sturgeon, she yesterday insisted the Inquiry would see some of her messages and that although she would not give a running commentary she wanted to “there are certain points I feel it important to make clear”.

      She said that although messages had not been retained on her own device she was “able to obtain copies” which she submitted last year.

      “To be clear, I conducted the Covid response through formal processes from my office in St Andrews House, not through WhatsApp or any other informal messaging platform. I was not a member of any WhatsApp groups. The number of people I communicated with through informal messaging at all was limited.”

      The Inquiry was shown a document which said that Ms Sturgeon “did not use at any point during the period physical or electronic notebooks or diaries” and had “nothing to return”.

      However she claimed that handwritten notes were kept.

      “Also, any handwritten notes made by me were passed to my private office to be dealt with and recorded as appropriate.”

      ‘Betrayal of Scottish people’
      Opposition parties have continued to demand answers. Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour deputy leader said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s betrayal of the people of Scotland is disgraceful and shows just how far she has fallen.

      “Millions of Scots deserve answers over what happened during the pandemic, particularly those who lost loved ones – potentially criminal deletion of vital messages threatens to prevent this happening.

      “Nicola Sturgeon and all others who engaged in this deceitful and secretive practice should have the book thrown at them.”

      Craig Hoy MSP, the Scottish Conservative party chairman, said: “Nicola Sturgeon must think the Scottish public are fools if they believe there is nothing untoward here.

      “The former First Minister appears to have deliberately and repeatedly deleted her WhatsApp messages and she must have done so for a reason.

      “Rather than apologising to the country, she is cynically seeking to deflect attention from the mass deletion of key messages by top ministers and officials.

      “If there are no minutes of key Covid meetings, no notes and no messages, how were any decisions made? How are any inquiries supposed to understand the motives, disagreement and discussion behind them?

      “Saying there’s no decisions sent by WhatsApp does not inform the public at all.

      “This statement is just another instalment in the unravelling of the SNP. The addiction to spin and secrecy must come to an end now.”

    2. No comments allowed

      Nicola Sturgeon branded a ‘convincing fraud’ after Covid WhatsApp messages were deleted

      Scotland’s former first minister retained ‘no messages whatsoever’ from pandemic and deputy used auto-delete function, Inquiry heard

      Neil Johnston, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
      20 January 2024 • 6:14pm

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/20/TELEMMGLPICT000363302063_17057736199350_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqSFXWNnhoSSUDZbpG8a9LxIWFLrgdvNKFbn8RhVJqF6c.jpeg?imwidth=680
      On Friday it was finally revealed that Ms Sturgeon had retained ‘no messages whatsoever’

      Nicola Sturgeon has been branded a “fraud” by one of her own former MSPs for deleting all her pandemic WhatsApps, as the former First Minister sought to address the growing scandal over the messages.

      Joan McAlpine, who served for ten years as an SNP MSP, said that Ms Sturgeon was “such a convincing” fraud for deleting her messages despite promises to hand over everything.

      After weeks of obfuscation from Ms Sturgeon, it was finally confirmed at the Covid Inquiry on Friday that she had retained “no messages whatsoever” and her deputy John Swinney had used an “auto-delete” function to clear his own WhatsApps.

      Jamie Dawson KC, counsel to the Inquiry, told the hearing: “Under the box ‘Nicola Sturgeon’, it says that messages were not retained, they were deleted in routine tidying up of inboxes or changes of phones, unable to retrieve messages,” he said. “What that tends to suggest is at the time that request was made, Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister of Scotland, had retained no messages whatsoever in connection with her management of the pandemic.”

      Ms Sturgeon had pledged to be transparent with any Inquiry and in August 2021 when challenged during a press conference to guarantee that all such digital material would be provided and nothing would be “off limits”, Ms Sturgeon said that “for the avoidance of doubt” she would give that assurance.

      ‘Convincing fraud’
      Sharing a clip of the press conference, Ms McAlipine, who served as a regional list MSP for South Scotland, tweeted: “What a fraud this woman was – but such a convincing one …”

      Ms Sturgeon had repeatedly failed to confirm she had deleted WhatsApps or answer questions on why they were deleted.

      However amid growing pressure on Ms Sturgeon, she yesterday insisted the Inquiry would see some of her messages and that although she would not give a running commentary she wanted to “there are certain points I feel it important to make clear”.

      She said that although messages had not been retained on her own device she was “able to obtain copies” which she submitted last year.

      “To be clear, I conducted the Covid response through formal processes from my office in St Andrews House, not through WhatsApp or any other informal messaging platform. I was not a member of any WhatsApp groups. The number of people I communicated with through informal messaging at all was limited.”

      The Inquiry was shown a document which said that Ms Sturgeon “did not use at any point during the period physical or electronic notebooks or diaries” and had “nothing to return”.

      However she claimed that handwritten notes were kept.

      “Also, any handwritten notes made by me were passed to my private office to be dealt with and recorded as appropriate.”

      ‘Betrayal of Scottish people’
      Opposition parties have continued to demand answers. Jackie Baillie, the Scottish Labour deputy leader said: “Nicola Sturgeon’s betrayal of the people of Scotland is disgraceful and shows just how far she has fallen.

      “Millions of Scots deserve answers over what happened during the pandemic, particularly those who lost loved ones – potentially criminal deletion of vital messages threatens to prevent this happening.

      “Nicola Sturgeon and all others who engaged in this deceitful and secretive practice should have the book thrown at them.”

      Craig Hoy MSP, the Scottish Conservative party chairman, said: “Nicola Sturgeon must think the Scottish public are fools if they believe there is nothing untoward here.

      “The former First Minister appears to have deliberately and repeatedly deleted her WhatsApp messages and she must have done so for a reason.

      “Rather than apologising to the country, she is cynically seeking to deflect attention from the mass deletion of key messages by top ministers and officials.

      “If there are no minutes of key Covid meetings, no notes and no messages, how were any decisions made? How are any inquiries supposed to understand the motives, disagreement and discussion behind them?

      “Saying there’s no decisions sent by WhatsApp does not inform the public at all.

      “This statement is just another instalment in the unravelling of the SNP. The addiction to spin and secrecy must come to an end now.”

    1. If the next head of the Church of England is not interested, then it’s best for the Church and for William for Disestablishment.

    2. The Norwegian constitution spends most of it’s time on the King – and he must be a member of the Norwegian Lutheran church.

    3. It needs to be made clear to him whether being Head of the Church is optional or obligatory.

      If it is obligatory then he and his heirs should stand down. In which case :

      Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George! ‘

      (Not sure that this would go down too well!)

  11. No comment allowed

    Climate chiefs admitted net zero plan based on insufficient data, leading physicist says

    Key committee only looked at ‘a single year of data’ when making controversial green energy claims

    Edward Malnick, SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR
    20 January 2024 • 6:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/01/20/TELEMMGLPICT000363303580_17057703812250_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq0Bb_eFvp3jtGVCWs27hurWQnZJIETfWB_fUbKb77n0w.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith says the Climate Change Committee admits that a mistake was made

    Britain’s climate watchdog has privately admitted that a number of its key net zero recommendations may have relied on insufficient data, it has been claimed.

    Sir Chris Llewellyn Smith, who led a recent Royal Society study on future energy supply, said that the Climate Change Committee only “looked at a single year” of data showing the number of windy days in a year when it made pronouncements on the extent to which the UK could rely on wind and solar farms to meet net zero.

    “They have conceded privately that that was a mistake,” Sir Chris said in a presentation seen by this newspaper. In contrast, the Royal Society review examined 37 years worth of weather data.

    Last week Sir Chris, an emeritus professor and former director of energy research at Oxford University, said that the remarks to which he was referring were made by Chris Stark, the Climate Change Committee’s chief executive. He said: “Might be best to say that Chris Stark conceded that my comment that the CCC relied on modelling that only uses a single year of weather data … is ‘an entirely valid criticism’.”

    The CCC said that Sir Chris’s comments, in a presentation given in a personal capacity in October, following the publication of his review, related solely to a particular report it published last year on how to deliver “a reliable decarbonised power system”.

    Enshrined in law
    But, in response to further questions from this newspaper, the body admitted that its original recommendations in 2019 about the feasibility of meeting the 2050 net zero target, were also based on just one year’s worth of weather data. The recommendations were heavily relied on by ministers when Theresa May enshrined the 2050 target into law. A CCC spokesman said: “We stand by the analysis.”

    In October 2021 The Sunday Telegraph revealed that assumptions underpinning the committee’s 2019 advice to ministers included a projection that in 2050 there would be just seven days on which wind turbines would produce less than 10 per cent of their potential electricity output. That compared to 30 such days in 2020, 33 in 2019 and 56 in 2018, according to analysis by Net Zero Watch, a campaign group.

    Sir Chris’s report for the Royal Society, published in September, concluded that a vast network of hydrogen-filled caves was needed to guard against the risk of blackouts under the shift to wind and solar generation, which the Royal Society described as “volatile” because it depends on wind and sun to produce energy.

    The report was one of the starkest warnings to date of the risks faced when relying on intermittent weather-dependent energy sources without sufficient backup.

    Overestimate
    It stated: “The UK’s need for long-term energy storage has been seriously underestimated… Studies that do not consider long sequences of years underestimate the need for long-term storage. Studies of single years cannot cast light directly on the need for storage lasting over 12 months and overestimate the need for other supplies.”

    In a presentation delivered on Oct 31 2023, Sir Chris said: “By looking at one year you underestimate storage and you grossly overestimate the need for everything else. That’s exactly what the Committee on Climate Change have done.”

    He added: “The Committee on Climate Change, as I already said, looked at a single year and they have conceded privately that that was a mistake. But they are still saying they don’t differ that much from us. Well that’s not quite true.”

    The Royal Society report found that up to 100 Terawatt-hours (TWh) of storage will be needed by 2050, to mitigate variations in wind and sunshine. This was based on 37 years of weather data rather than the single year relied on by the CCC.

    Real weather data
    The report noted that the CCC model required “a much greater level of supply … from other sources, and/or wind and solar than would have been required if storage had been allowed to transfer energy between years.”

    A CCC spokesman said: “Our recent report modelled the 12-month operation of Britain’s power system in 2035 using hourly energy demand and real weather data from a low-wind year, stress-tested to simulate a 30-day wind drought.

    “We welcome Sir Chris’ work, which considers other aspects of the energy challenge in 2050, under different assumptions about the future energy mix.” Asked if the CCC disputed Sir Chris’s account, the spokesman said: “We’ve got nothing further to add.”

      1. Yup…and the crooked CCC claim to be Holier than the Curia, next to God, and unchallengeable.

        1. It’s the CCC that sets all the targets for net zero and also the dates by which we are supposed to achieve them. Honestly could we have a worse government!

  12. Good morning all,

    A cloudy morning at Castle McPhee, wind in the South-West and warmer at 9℃→11℃. Rain later.

    More noises from a flailing government which is not waving but drowning.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59382bdedec2526a8c3914876358482d4e61dc257174febd91f9184383a608d9.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/01/20/crackdown-on-activists-in-the-civil-service/

    John Glen, the Cabinet Office minister, has ordered a review of Whitehall diversity networks and a “refresh” of civil service impartiality guidance to stop officials “using their jobs as a vehicle for political activism”.

    Under plans discussed with Kemi Badenoch, the Equalities Minister, and Esther McVey, the “minister for common sense”, diversity meetings would have to be held before work, during lunch breaks or in the evenings.

    I’m sorry but these people must have been aware for years, decades even, of the existence and activities of Common Purpose. They have let it happen. This is something that should have been done on DAY ONE of any genuine conservative government. Apart from that, it’s all a bit weak. It doesn’t go far enough. Political activism has no place whatsoever inside any government department. Civil servants who wish to be activists should be invited to look for other opportunities or spend more time with their families.

    A taste of a few of the more than 1,200 comments:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc1919e33d65b57bb9a0a3f06efe92a8faa311abc24d4582925b3877561b5946.png

    It’s all for show. Nothing will happen.

    1. Two government ministers resigned this week when it was found that their Masters theses were riddled with plagiarisms, sometimes direct copying of co-students work!
      Typical Labour politicians – cheating & lying bastards, the lot of them.

    2. BTL Comment:-

      R. Spowart
      JUST NOW
      Message Actions
      “Crackdown on ‘activists’ in the Civil Service”
      And not a single mention of “Common Purpose”!
      Why??
      It is well past time it’s coterie of acolytes was rooted out of public service at all levels.

  14. Morning, all Y’all. Snowing, warmer, going over to rain later, apparently.
    Will have to go out & shift a lot of the stuff before it gets wet & frozen.

      1. Dark and foggy with snow.
        If I don’t sort the cats first of all, I can’t do anything else for all the furry bodies round my ankles… easier to service them first.

          1. Nice cozy picture!
            Our two are long-haired and aren’t allowed in the bedroom so there is at least one room in the house not entirely covered in the finest hairs imaginable, much less than an atom thick, yet with the capacity to coat absolutely everything.

          2. Ziggy has short and dense fur, Jessie is sleek and glossy. So far they haven’t shed much but they probably will in the spring.

  15. 382172+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Dt,
    David Cameron hints at future China trip as part of engagement effort
    The Foreign Secretary’s plans have drawn criticism from Tory backbenchers over Beijing’s human rights abuses

    THe wretch will lecture them on the finer art of abusing,the tory (ino) party way, as well as trying to obtain the grey, button to the neck, tunic franchise, for ALL United Kingdom coalition party members.

    1. “Lord” Cameron is a Bourbon.
      He forgets nothing and learns nothing.
      Of all the bloody stupid things this “Conservative” government has done, resurrecting that shyster takes the biscuit.

  16. ‘I was so naïve to think the UN would help us uncover Hamas’ rape atrocities’. 21 January 2024.

    This article contains some details that readers may find disturbing.

    Frustrated by global reluctance to investigate Hamas’s rampage of October 7, Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy is campaigning to expose the truth

    Yes we don’t want to read anything that is disturbing! What did the writer of this warning expect? That those of a nervous disposition would log out? That they would read the article through their fingers? This begs the question of how could you do so without actually knowing what you were missing? Sit there forever wondering what it was in supine docility? It speaks of a person devoid of personal agency. A cabbage. Anyone having knowledge of human nature would know that it is much more likely that it would attract the lascivious and prurient. Perhaps that is it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/21/dr-cochav-elkayam-levy-hamas-war-crimes-women-israel/

    1. I’m tired of being told or shown the minutest details of what evil people do to others – my imagination is more than capable of filling in the gaps, I don’t need cameraphone pictures to help.

      1. Morning Oberst. I censor myself what I watch and read but it is not at the instigation of others.

    2. They put up the trigger warnings in case the snowflakes sue them for injury to their feelings.

    3. Hence my post of yesterday where I referred to an X-Tw@ter post referring to the murders of the two Scandinavian in Morocco.
      People should not be forced to look at such material, but that material should be available for those who can cope.

    4. And our higly delusionals in Westminster and seemingly everywhere else
      still show trust in Islamic’s.

  18. Morning all. Dog all walked and lying on the bed while I read the papers. My daughter came back yesterday for a few days. She is in her final year at Uni and had a waitressing job in a local restaurant but she quit last week when the owner threw money at her and told her to “get her t*ts out”. Such twentieth century behaviour. So as she was at a loose end she has come home and I plan to nag her about her dissertation.

    I only have defined contribution pensions (6 different schemes from various employments) and 18 months ago I accessed one of them to take out the tax-free lump sum to pay off the mortgage and buy the boat. That was c. 20% of the amount you are allowed to take tax-free. My plan is to crystallise the remaining tax-free lump sums in the other pensions for two reasons: one, it’s an obvious area for an incoming Labour Govt to attack (and I think the Telegraph tax boffin said as much a couple of Saturdays ago) and two, we want to help our daughter perhaps buy a house and it would be a deposit.

    I was curious, them, to read this in today’s paper:

    “… Some may be tempted to crystallise their pension early in case a tax charge is reintroduced. But it’s worth being cautious about drawing a pension unless it’s essential, as taking a lump sum out of a pension brings the money into the scope of inheritance tax, levied at 40 per cent of a person’s estate above £325,000 when they die.”

    I don’t think this is correct. Ahh. Just worked it out. How poorly written. The pension pot stays outside IHT. The money withdrawn comes into play for IHT. Well, if an accountant found that hard to work out, heaven help everyone else.

      1. Only the gift for the deposit might be liable for IHT at 40% and after 3 years the rate decreases at 8% per year. The tax charge over the life time limit which might be reinstated was 55%.

    4. I recently converted a pension pot into an index-linked pension. My financial adviser thought this was unwise, as inflation was on its way down. Since which…

    5. I would be very careful of financial advice from the mainstream media. It is definitely an outlet for directing the plebs in what the financial establishment wants them to believe.
      When gold was very cheap in the 90s, the papers were full of articles about how gold was such a common element that it would stay cheap forever, it was a pet rock and there was no reason for its price ever to rise because nobody needs gold for much in the modern world. Being young and gullible I believed what was written in the broadsheet newspapers.
      Since I figured out that this was a lie in every aspect, I don’t believe anything I read in the corporate media about money any more.

      At the moment, I think they’re desperate for people to keep their money in the financial system, so of course they’re going to tell us not to pull our pension money out.

      1. Seconded. Just take a look at the number of articles in the DT/ST which push ‘lifetime mortgages’ formerly known as equity release schemes. These are nothing short of a scam to pick the pockets of vulnerable retirees and leave their heirs with less, a lot less. Only those with no-one to whom they might leave their homes should even consider them.

        I’ve already used my tax-free lump sum but if I were to do it in today’s climate I’d buy gold Brittanias with it. They are a). a perfect hedge against monetary collapse. b). A source of tax-free gifts to offspring as you could give them one or two coins a year to build up their own wealth. c) lovely to look at and touch – REAL money.

      2. I learnt that so many years ago when they were trying to push me to take out an endowment mortage as so many were. At the end of their breif I just asked is it guaranteed that it will pay the loan off. The answer, no but that will never happen. Ismelt the rat and walked away. and of course I was proved right.

    7. Be in no hurry, unless you are 75+ which I doubt. The house deposit idea sounds good, but proceed with caution. Remember, the PTB can print money but they cannot print houses or food.

  19. Well, I’d better show a leg. That snow won’t shift itself – unfortunately.
    Slayders.

  20. Labour’s plan for solar farms illuminates the depths of the net-zero delusion

    How is it possible that the British electorate are about to elect a far more totalitarian, sinister and insane branch of the idiocy we have lived under these last 13 years?
    While they think that they have done something to punish those that went before while the losers toddle off to make their fortunes from their globalist master institutions that they served so well in office.

    1. 13 years? I’d suggest that it’s over 25 years with the 2008 Climate Change Act being the final nail in the coffin. All policies since then have supported this Blair/Brown/Millibean madness. With Soros funding the Climate Change Committee and Carbon Trust to keep the momentum of Net Zero on track…back to the Stone Age.

  21. Good morning all.
    Overnight rain has stopped, skies have cleared, it’s an almost tropical 3°C on the Yard Thermometer and R3 are playing the delightful 4th movement of Schubert’s Trout Quintet!

    1. BoB, some of your posts are totally confusing to me, i.e. the one which talk about your offspring. Could you please spell out you mean by “the DT” and so on (Darling Teacher – male or female? – and so on) so that I understand exactly who is who? (No offence, I really should have asked this question much earlier.)

      1. I’m with you. Elsie, too many commentators rely upon unexplained abbreviations and Acronyms to pepper their comments and render them unreadable.

      2. Dearly Tolerant if I remember rightly.
        aka a wife who doesn’t mind whole trees being brought into the house. (I think I’ve got that right.)

  23. Slipped up with an average four today

    Wordle 946 4/6

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

  24. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    MANAGEMENT LESSON

    Johnny wanted to have sex with a girl in his office. But she belonged to someone else…

    One day, Johnny got so frustrated that he went up to her and said, ‘I’ll give you a £100 if you let me have sex with you. But the girl said NO.

    Johnny said, ‘I’ll be fast. I’ll throw the money on the floor, you bend down, and I’ll be finished by the time you pick it up. ‘

    She thought for a moment and said that she would have to consult her boyfriend… So she called her boyfriend and told him the story.

    Her boyfriend says, ‘Ask him for £200, pick up the money very fast, he won’t even be able to get his pants down.’

    So she agrees and accepts the proposal. Half an hour goes by, and the boyfriend is waiting for his girlfriend to call.

    Finally, after 45 minutes, the boyfriend calls and asks what happened.
    She responded, ‘The cheating bugger used coins!’
    The moral – Management lesson: Always consider a business proposal in its entirety before agreeing to it and getting screwed…!!!

    1. Wonderful, Sir Jasper, I am so pleased that you have returned to your daily posts using previous posted jokes. They do say that, recycling is good for the planet, don’t they. S*d the planet (which one?) it’s good for we NoTTLers.

      1. Thank you. Elsie.

        I struggled with that decision but decided for the greater good, I shall not struggle to be No 1 lead story but rather to snuggle under the duvet in this dire weather. The story can always come later and to a wider audience.

    3. You should have heard SWMBO howl with laughter, Tom!
      Superb! We both see this happen often in our respective organisations – notthinkthroughery.

  25. Morning all🙂😊
    8 degs c out side, its been chucking it down and a storm on the way. Oh dear.
    Solar solutions are not the answer. On a cloudy like today they don’t work. Perhaps as usual labour will only realise that in hindsight. Next …
    Oh there is no next with labour, as if we haven’t had enough stupidly from the lot of morons we have in Parliament at the moment.

  26. Hallo All! This morning, lots of rain but very little wind so far. But to kick of Sunday. Was going to post an Orthodox military hymn but thought better of it.

    “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.”
    Matthew 7:25

    Mikhail Glinka
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otjwp8sunpQ.
    Cherubic Hymn

      1. You Tubes advertising is crass. Will butt in during a song and in the middle of sentences. You can pay a rip of fee for a no advert You Tube but I will not do that. They were doing fine financially before advertising, it’s pure greed now.

        https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/youtube-generated-288-billion-in-ad-revenue-in-2021-fueling-the-creator/618208/

        Oh, and the hymn. I have been deliberately posting hymns by classical composers, Glinka isn’t that well known in the West so here’s a piece by him
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW3IwWFkpfc

        1. Likewise, Amazon Prime will be inserting adverts into programmes/films from next month, with an offer to remain advert-free by paying another £2.99 per month. I suspect pressure from the ESG/DEI adherents, as at the moment I’m currently avoiding their brainwashing nonsense.

          On the brightside, I have a mountain of books to read. Time I caught up on those I’ve been meaning to get around to.

          1. Youtube is now a nightmare of constant adverts (or none if you cough up £12 a month). What they don’t tell the advertisers is that the viewers attention is focussed on the countdown of 5 seconds to skip the advert and we don’t look at the advert. But I guess as long as the advertisers are contributing to their income they’re not bothered.

          3. I used to read a lot, I’m really not exaggerating when I say 5 books, or rather volumes per week. I can’t do it anymore, glaucoma, I miss it terribly.
            Advert free You Tube is £15.00 per month. After 3 months at £11.99 a month. It’s theft.

          4. I normally have a few books on the go. Just finished ‘The Simarillion’ last week and finally completed ‘The Whisperers’ by Orlando Figes.
            I feel your loss, as you say, it’s terrible.
            Are you able to access audio books? It may be an alternative, but I’m not sure I could listen to some of the personalities who read.

          5. I don’t really care for audio books. Hearing someones voice kills your imagination in my opinion. Deprives you of the world you would otherwise build up in your own mind. Instead I watch long documentaries and talking heads on You Tube. Lots of really good speeches, historical and otherwise. Then there are debates and long interview formats that are well worth watching.

          6. I’m glad that you’re still enjoying some interesting debates and documentaries. I entirely agree about your comment on audio books. Every other week amazon seem to have an offer on about audio books, but I also prefer my own ‘mental commentary’ whilst reading.

          7. The other thing about it is that I prefer voices to be male in my head or otherwise. That includes on video documentaries, science discussions etc. Perhaps it is misogynistic in some way but I feel that women talking about serious things lack gravitas. The other thing about that is many of them are clearly third rate and commentating because of quotas and that ruins the subject. Who would you prefer talking history, Richard Starkey or that awful Lucy Worsley?

    2. Superb. Brought tears to the eyes, so it did.
      The intro was clearly Orthodox, then when the Basso Profundo came in, clearly Russian.

    2. “THE FAMILY IS THE ENEMY OF THE STATE : THE STATE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE TOTAL CONTROL UNTIL THE FAMILY IS DESTROYED COMPLETELY.”

      (Friedrich Engels : Karl Marx’s collaborator)

      I think we can guess what they’re up to!

    3. BB2, you are not AFAIK ‘vulnerable’, but there are plenty of young teenagers who are not white middle class etc who happen to live in the Bagshot,Lightwater & Woking area. Lightwater Surgery is tactfully saying that such girls and boys can talk with a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner without fear of family interference, criticism or reprisals. You know, including such topics as contraception, period pains, UTIs, bullying, narcotics etc.
      Edit for Elsie: As Far As I Know =AFAIK.

      1. That is one interpretation to put on it. Another is that the NHS wants to fast track gender transitions without boring parental objections.
        The vast majority of children are more at risk from creepy strangers who want to speak to them without their parents being involved than they are from their families.

    4. BB2, you are not AFAIK ‘vulnerable’, but there are plenty of young teenagers who are not white middle class etc who happen to live in the Bagshot,Lightwater & Woking area. Lightwater Surgery is tactfully saying that such girls and boys can talk with a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner without fear of family interference, criticism or reprisals. You know, including such topics as contraception, period pains, UTIs, bullying, narcotics etc.
      Edit for Elsie: As Far As I Know =AFAIK.

      1. Cherie Blair’s Matrix Chambers no less, all on legal aid. Tony Blair, the gift that keeps on giving…to his legal chums.

        1. I did remind you the other day but we must not forget that when the draft human rights legislation first appeared Mr Blair assured us that it had:

          No more significance than a copy of The Beano!

    3. As ever, some people really shouldn’t raise their head above the parapet. Surely, in a sane world, the court would deem that the pupil may just be raising her complaint as a form of ‘revenge’ for her punishment last year? At the very least, it’s an(other) abuse of legal aid.

  30. Good morning, chums. I switched off the alarm at 6 am as usual today, then nodded off again and only woke up when a friend phoned me at 9.15 am. Obviously, I needed the extra Zeds. Now, cuppa in hand, I will catch up with some of your posts and then try today’s Wordle. Enjoy your day.

    1. Good morning.
      Unless I have plans, I’m finding I’m taking longer to unstick myself from the bedsheets in the mornings!

    3. Pretty much the same, Elsie, hence the reason for the late appearance of the (recycled) story.

        1. Believe it or not I have to go all the way to Hampshire for my nearest branch of Santander, otherwise it is online banking and ATMs. 1hr and 20 min. by car.

  32. Morning all – woken up at 1am by another phone call from SSE telling me of an impending storm – both times telling me 2 days in advance – why can’t they ring in the day? Bastards – I’ve blocked their number now

    1. Ghastly, smug race baiter. Only fit to be on Loose Women with the rest of the navel-gazing dimbos.

    2. If she expected to renounce Islam and live a carefree life she obviously didn’t know much about her religion’s tenets.

    4. HA! HA! HA!
      I pissed myself! Did you see her face, slagging off Tommy R, all twisted in hate and bitterness? Biter bit.
      HA! HA! HA! English-born people of her own colour, too!
      HA! HA! Fcucking HA!

    5. HA! HA! HA!
      I pissed myself! Did you see her face, slagging off Tommy R, all twisted in hate and bitterness? Biter bit.
      HA! HA! HA! English-born people of her own colour, too!
      HA! HA! Fcucking HA!

    6. I got worked up this morning with Zoe Strimpel’s article, where she as doing OK until she wrote a stupid paragraph basically saying Enoch Powell was racist. Unfortunately the article isn’t available to cut and paste and I haven’t had time to type the offensive paragraph out. But she undermined her whole article with what she wrote.

      I must dash. I am due out now and not ready.

  34. Good morning, all. Wet here earlier but forecast is for rain clearing before gusty winds and more rain later.

    Last evening and this morning I’ve spent over two hours watching a video posted by the La Quinta Columna group. This group is the proponent of Graphene/Graphene Oxide nanoparticles being the deadly component in the “vaccine” from the main producers despite the different delivery systems. In addition, no biological element i.e. mRNA has been found. The lack of biologicals matches the finding of other scientists around the World, including Dr Poornima Wagh.

    What is going on?

    LQC’s conclusion is that the Graphene etc. as well as being toxic to human biology is capable of being ‘triggered’ by very high frequency radiation to create symptoms within the body. To cut a long scientific story short: with billions of people jabbed, a new disease, e.g. Disease X the WEF’s latest threat, can be triggered by particular frequencies from G5 masts, ergo, the next Plandemic at the throw of a switch. G5 infrastructure has been erected extensively during the ‘Plandemic’ years. Coincidence?

    LQC have found that over time the body is capable of degrading the effect of Graphene etc. especially children: hence the children’s dose contains more active ingredients and adults are encouraged to have boosters. It’s a fact that children/young people were not seriously affected by the original “infection”, another coincidence.

    So much other scientific information in the >2 hours long video that make sense of what has happened and what is happening. A number of people associated with LQC have died recently, perhaps they are getting too close?

    Here’s a BOG2F while we’re on the subject. By the way, Will is my MP. For now.

    https://twitter.com/juicemaster/status/1748685644904222926

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a2c0d81162e80d38bf64d2992e5c0e100069ff0f859554c3b30c916d018336c.png

    1. Not sure whether I buy that theory or not. It does sound very conspiratorial, but it’s possible. It’s proven that the jabs contain the graphene nano particles, that was in the documentation and the supplier for one of the companies was traced (it was a Chinese company). I don’t really understand where the suspicions about 5G masts originally came from though – they surfaced before much was known about the jabs.

      1. I think the link to 5G masts is that graphene is activated by signal. Graphene in the body can cause blood clots and thickening of lung tissue. 5G also uses graphene in its technology.

        1. Graphene is just a form of carbon though. In what way could it be “activated?” Made to vibrate at its natural frequency?
          The 5G signal is just an electromagnetic wave, at approximately microwave frequencies iirc.

          2. That paper talks about the toxicity of the nanoparticles. I don#t think that is controversial – the controversial part is the suggestion that the 5G signal can be manipulated (powered up?) to affect the GNP (graphene nano particles) in a way that makes them more toxic.

            The paper lists several factors that could increase toxicity:

            Concentration of GNPs
            GNP size
            GNP surface structure
            GNP surface charge
            GNP functionalisation (mixing them with other chemicals like PEG)
            Aggregations of GNPs
            Impurities
            ‘coronas’ formed with protein molecules

            The only two things that could be affected by external sources after the GNPs have been injected as far as I can see would be GNP surface charge, and whether the GNPs could aggregate together or not.
            There’s no suggestion in the paper that anyone has tried to induce either of these effects via RF signals though. Or even if they did, it would have to be a strong effect.

            I still don’t see a smoking gun.

      2. Good morning BB2, and others.
        Correlation is not causation. However, if some people do not understand, or even believe in, the laws of physics and particularly electromagnetic radiation, there is a likelihood that there will be an overlap between 5G fear and vaccine sceptics.

        1. That is what I thought too. However, if someone comes up with a convincing theory, I’m open to listening to it.

      3. What I don’t like are the undefined terms, such as “triggered” – in what way, to do what?

      4. A 5g wireless signal can barely penetrate paper, let alone skin. They are as dangerous as whacking someone with a single stalk of straw.

        Unlike the vaccine there’s plenty of evidenc eover such signals that’s published – because the state has no interest in the outcome.

        1. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that there will be a problem due to the normal, specified power of the signal.
          I think it’s important to get to the bottom of outlandish theories to prove or disprove them, which is why I want to see what theory exactly has been proposed.
          From conversations I’ve had with other people, the theory seems to be that the 5G signal can be switched up to be much more powerful and set the nano-particles vibrating (?)

          With respect to the first part, I don’t think most people appreciate that base stations are made to a specification which includes defining the signal power, and no network operator will waste money on higher power signals than they have to anyway. I wouldn’t have thought that the base stations would even have the capacity (power supply limitations?) to broadcast at a higher power.

          I wondered about this Spanish group a couple of years ago, because they were the same ones who were talking about Bluetooth addresses being visible in the vicinity of vaxxed people. Now they’re coming out with a second theory that seems on the face of it to be unlikely.

    2. Hope you’re well Naggers not seen you for a few months.
      Have a lovely day today 🤩🥂🍾 cheers to you and yours. 🙂

    11. If only you were here, Nagsman, I could wish you a happy, happy day followed by 365 happy unbirthdays.

  36. Wordle 946 4/6

    A splendid result today:

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

    And now, I’m off to do a little shopping. Back later.
    PS – Don’t forget to let me know about your shorthand for your sons, daughters, etc. BoB.

  38. Good (?) Moaning.
    I’d heard something about this case, but this Spekkie article is interesting.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/was-the-post-offices-horizon-software-used-to-wrongly-convict-a-man-of-murder/#comments-container

    “Was the Post Office’s Horizon software used to wrongly convict a man of murder?

    20 January 2024, 6:30am

    Robin Garbutt, the postmaster who lived above the village shop with his wife, Diana, was a popular figure in Melsonby, North Yorkshire. The last time I saw him, I was six years old, bouncing on the trampoline in my grandparents’ garden. Robin had travelled to visit the village where he’d grown up to see his mother, and had stopped by to ask my grandfather for tips on growing vegetables. A few weeks later, his face was plastered across the newspapers: Garbutt had been arrested for killing his wife.

    A year later, in 2011, Garbutt was convicted of murder: sentenced to life in prison, the 58-year-old remains behind bars. But is he guilty? Garbutt has always maintained his innocence and says that the Post Office’s faulty Horizon computer system was used to frame him. The family of his wife aren’t convinced: Diana’s mother says it was ‘obvious to anyone that Robin is taking advantage of the Horizon scandal to gain publicity’.

    What is not in doubt is that, on the morning of 23 March 2010, Mrs Garbutt was bludgeoned three times over the head with a metal bar as she slept in the couple’s bedroom. Garbutt says an armed robber demanded he hand over cash, claiming they had his wife captive. He told police that, when the burglar fled, he rushed upstairs to find his wife lying face down on the bed. She was dead. After Robin called 999, he was initially considered a significant witness by the police. The Post Office had been robbed the previous year and the perpetrators had left with £10,000 but had never been caught. But within weeks of Garbutt’s murder, police had discounted the theory of a robbery. Instead, Robin became the prime suspect.

    When the case came to trial at Teesside Crown Court, the jury delivered a majority verdict of 10-2 to find him guilty. The prosecution relied on the testimony of the Post Office, then considered a highly-respected institution, to suggest that Robin had been stealing from the Melsonby branch for months and may have used the robbery to cover up for his crime. The Post Office’s internal investigator who spoke at the trial described a pattern of suspicious cash declarations. ‘I have seen (this) replicated across many Post Office Limited fraud cases in the past,’ he said. With hindsight, and following the emergence of the Horizon Post Office scandal, might there have been a different explanation for this pattern of irregularities?

    There are other unsettling elements in the case. Conflicting accounts emerged about when Mrs Garbutt had died. It was also suggested that there were no sightings of the burglars in the village, but a car was witnessed driving erratically around Melsonby on the day of the murder. A clump of hair, not appearing to match either Robin’s or Diana’s, was photographed at the crime scene. The murder weapon, a rusty metal bar, found on a wall nearby, had Diana’s DNA and the DNA of an unknown person, later matched to a police investigator, but not Robin’s.

    There are other unsettling elements in the case

    Robin’s lawyers want a retrial; yet for now, he remains locked up after. Whether or not the evidence presented by the Horizon system secured the guilty verdict, only the jury will know. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) has previously said there was ‘no possibility’ judges would overturn his conviction as ‘figures from the Horizon system were not essential to his conviction for murder.’

    But the allegations that Robin had been on the fiddle would hardly have helped convince a jury of his innocence. As the University of Bristol academic Dr Michael Naughton of CCRC Watch said: ‘I don’t know if Robin Garbutt did or did not kill his wife, but I do know that the evidence that led to his conviction is no longer reliable and every aspect has been discredited.’

    Was Robin given a fair and just trial? What is certainly clear is that clouds of doubt linger over the case and, in the light of the Horizon scandal, there are unanswered questions about what unfolded on that fateful night. Only Robin, and perhaps the alleged burglar, knows the truth.”

  39. Two thousand years ago European civilisation was building stone aqueducts to bring clean water to their cities.
    Now they want Europeans to hand over huge sums to third world savages who haven’t got the wherewithal to dig a fucking well.

    1. It’s not as simple as that. Lefties keep arguing that we have to intervene because the thirdworld has never had the need or impetus to do it itself – mainly because we keep taking that away from them through aid – something Lefties also ignore.

      The next time there’s a famine fundraiser on TV ask yourself – what if we didn’t get involved. If we let them die. Would it be the catalyst for their own improvement or simply more money pushed into corrupt pockets? It’s always the latter.

      The third world doesn’t build because we step in and remove the need for engineers, scientists and architects.

      The aid money evaporates in corruption.

      People die. Frankly, we’ve got to let an awful lot of people die to expose the corruption and resolve the skilled workers to create the infrastructure needed. No politician is prepared to do that. The Left wing media certainly isn’t. The UN isn’t bothered unless the country dying has something we want – it ignored Rwanda, after all.

      It’s long past time we stopped pretending. The third world is savage because they are not at the same educational and moral level we are. Until they put tribalism behind them they have to keep dying, same as we did 600 years ago. Giving them 21st century technology with Bronze age mentality is idiotic.

      1. I have read that black Africans are short of intelligence because they have no Neanderthal genes.

        1. I don’t think they’re any less stupid than Europeans, the difference is they’re behind academically because there is no impetus to progress beyond a subsitence economy. If all you know is Dark Age technology then you’re not inventing the next rocket engine.

          We don’t help them resolve that by giving them oodles of cash.

    2. David Lammy, who is of Guyanese descent, said in 2019 about Comic Relief raising money for projects in Africa: “The world does not need any more white saviours.” So that’s your answer – don’t give to charities which send money to help Africans.

      2. After Lammy’s comments, donations dropped over the following years as people reacted to his advice.

        Which reminds me that a definition of the process of bonding several short planks together is Lammynation.

      3. Haven’t do so for years.
        As I’ve said many times before the big international charities are the problem not the solution.

      5. Arguably not helping them – as hard and cruel as it is – would be the very best thing for the third world.

      6. Exactly what I think when I see all these appeals for blacks. You’ve had all those billions over the years, what have you done with them? Anyway, you don’t want my honky money.

      2. Hi Sue, in your most recent comments I detect a note of supreme frustration with the actions or perhaps more accurately the inactions of those supposedly paid to represent us. In this respect I do so hope I haven’t unduly influenced you with my own ‘contributions’ on this forum …..

    1. These people are no better than Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler – insert any Lefty dictator. They all believe they know better than the individual how others should live. They will all lead to war and mass slaughter. Communism always does. In fact, if you leap to a truly bizarre conclusion the erosion of our military capabililty, weapons making efficiency and warfighting capacity EU wide, along with basically buying every MP, the massive expansion of welfare and you’re almost at the point of a population so sopofric there’s little change or ability to resist the oppression.

      Whenever one maniac puts himself above others you end up with conflict. What is ironic is Schwab never expects to live in the world he wants to inflict on others.

    2. Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the geodesic dome amongst numerous other things referred to the establishment in the 1980’s as: “The Great Pirates.” He was on to them long before most other people. He is a hero of mine, a great wise man.

      1. I am not sure that Bucky invented the geodesic dome. The geometry of spherical surface area is a mathematical formula.

        The surfaces of the white sails of Sydney Opera House were so calculated by Arup Engineers. This upset Jorn Utzon because his sails could not be realised or calculated until made spherical surfaces.

        I would add that Barnes Wallis used the principles of geodesic structure in fuselage design for heavy bombers.

        2. Well, I checked it and you are right. Here is a quote from Wikipedia about his involvement in geodesic domes.

          “… Buckminster Fuller coined the term “geodesic” from field experiments with artist Kenneth Snelson at Black Mountain College in 1948 and 1949. Although Fuller was not the original inventor, he is credited with the U.S. popularization of the idea for which he received U.S. patent 2682235A on 29 June 1954.[3] The oldest surviving dome built by Fuller himself is located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and was built by students under his tutelage over three weeks in 1953.[4]”

  41. It would be almost funny listening to Left Wing friends telling me that though Starmer is not great, there will at least be a greater regard for social justice and inequality under Labour.

    – Anyone can view pictures of the ecological and human disaster that is lithium mining without which the energy from meagre sunlight of our cloudy climate cannot be stored;
    – Anyone can see the absolute madness of covering arable land with these things while leaving our concentrated and populous urban rooftops free of them.

    But we’ll have gender neutral toilets to share with those fleeing mined-to-death nations as we all starve.
    It is almost funny.

    Happy Sunday, les amis!

  42. Good afternoon Nottlers, I was heading out to the walking football, playing some other local groups, but it’s been called off due to it being to wet and windy. I expect tomorrow morning’s stalwarts will play on in similar conditions.

    1. Not sure why I should be shocked at formal dance, but hey. Can’t hold a beat or a rhythm, me, so would be unlikely to be invited.

    3. It’s ball season in Europe! My daughter is attending one – she’s making her frock at the moment!

      1. It is lovely to see them performing these formal, traditional dances. I hope your daughter has a wonderful time!

        1. So elegant, and cool. Not twitching as if someone put an electric fencer in their underwear!

      2. “Would you like some tickets for the policemans ball?”
        “No thanks, I don’t dance”
        “It’s not a dance, it’s a raffle”

    5. In the UK that simply cannot happen any more outside of some very private schools. There are too many foreigners here. Why does the state force them on us yet other nations refuse them?

    1. Ukraine has lost a half-million soldiers? My God, utter disaster. All those young men… what a waste.
      Interestingly, I googled to try to confirm this appalling statistic, and the search options were very coy on giving the answer, yet eager to divert attention to Russian losses, despite my search using “ukraine army war losses”.
      Weird, that.

      2. I posted that a couple days ago. Yes, half a million. Terrible to kill your young that way. Zelensky is a war criminal.

          1. They probably think it’s good depopulation. The last photos of the Ukrainian soldiers were heart-breaking – old men and young boys. And all the gangsters are living it up in Europe as ‘refugees’

        2. Didn’t Madeleine Albright dismiss the deaths of half a million Iraqi children as “collateral damage”?

      3. Typical of USA/EU/UK. Create a war, you cannot win, that has nothing to do with us. Half a million dead and US walks away. Typical of Iraq, Libya, Syria etc.
        Nobody accountable, move on to create another human tragedy in a couple of years.

    2. He can state how awful Israel is, but what are they supposed to do?
      Hamas and the like won’t stop until Israel and the Jews cease to exist.
      If Islam wins it will continue to spread, by immigration and outbreeding, until it dominates the world and a by-product of that domination will be elimination of white nations.
      I think we may already be too late.

      1. Agree. I don’t go along with Macgregor at all in his estimation of Israel. On that both you and I are in accord.

  45. That’s the snow shifted: Bedroom balcony, living-room terrace, path, spare car (which started as if it’s a warm summer day, despite not being used for 2 months) and the parking spaces. Two hours hard labour, beginning to stiffen up with a massive gin & tonic as reward.
    Beef stew / bourgingon with dumplings for supper, too! And Nottl to read until slumber takes me in the sofa… ;-))

      1. No boozer within easy walking distance… gin & tonic doesn’t seem to have the required effect.

    2. Well done!
      I’ve just been up the Lime Kiln and gathered in a load of fallen timber. There are a couple of dead elms to drop up there too, one of them quite a decent size.

    2. 382172+ up ticks,

      Afternoon AS,

      I do believe the wind is getting up in the westminster area,could it be justice is on its way.

  47. Dog walkers and their pet killed by BMW. 21 January 2024.
    .
    “At around 1.40pm on Saturday January 20 2024, the driver of a black BMW X5 was involved in a collision with two pedestrians who were walking a dog in Thurnham Lane,” a police statement said.

    “Officers attended the scene along with South East Coast Ambulance Service where both pedestrians, a man and a woman in their 60s, along with the dog, were pronounced deceased at the scene.”

    BMW? Black? Country Lane? Says it all really!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/21/couple-60s-dog-walkers-killed-bmw-crash-kent/

    2. Thurnham is not too far from me (The Black Horse is a nice country pub). I wouldn’t think there’s much ‘diversity’ in that area.

        1. ‘Black Man’s Wheels’. This was an X5 – an SUV which wouldn’t be out of place in the Bearstead and Thurnham areas. The report says that the driver remained at the scene (i.e. didn’t do a runner), so my guess is that the owner is a local.
          Correction:- Bearsted, not Bearstead.

  48. Dog walkers and their pet killed by BMW. 21 January 2024.
    .
    “At around 1.40pm on Saturday January 20 2024, the driver of a black BMW X5 was involved in a collision with two pedestrians who were walking a dog in Thurnham Lane,” a police statement said.

    “Officers attended the scene along with South East Coast Ambulance Service where both pedestrians, a man and a woman in their 60s, along with the dog, were pronounced deceased at the scene.”

    BMW? Black? Country Lane? Says it all really!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/21/couple-60s-dog-walkers-killed-bmw-crash-kent/

    1. That was a line in one of the Doctor films based on the Richard Gordon novels and starring Dirk Bogarde.

    2. The Warqueen was a 32F (she’s a 34H now) at 15. As can be imagined she drew an awful lot of male attention and it taught her a lot about men, led her to modelling and a lot of money very early in life. She studied her A levels during the day, modelled in the evenings.

  50. ‘Afternoon All

    Life’s a bit chaotic at the moment……

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

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/23b510947a685f88d3aec5c336142b681b1de5e0e6284af061841c5d544557df.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8f2255d6609eefa20d27543007cc3e2e7d3320498720568b3eb4407d2aa832a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53d71774b5f85f7e28525ecc065ea5b8e2cea5d104a539ca170d6efbb5a3e0c9.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb732edd09034f37d3a1586e840ac13b62074466c4ddda91ae88dc1b37d142e8.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adf1118b2199d0082a8ec31911d8bec76ed5302ae6b0dd6dc84e8d5739a91798.jpg

    See Handcock for more details……..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ae473adecdc9e62dc3468a81055bd9cb9f137fbb903a649070c3ef6a331ce9e.jpg

    2. Lunatic is very apt. Islam began as the cult of the Moon God of Mecca. And the pattern of worship hasn’t changed. There’s still a crescent moon atop every mosque and they follow the luna calendar.

      1. The date of Easter is based on the moon, so Christianity is also to a large extent lunar calendar based.

      2. There was an interesting book review podcast yesterday on the Spectator book club with Rebecca Boyle who has just published a book, Our Moon: a Human History. I can’t find the link right now and am rushing out but it was an interesting listen. Worth googling.

      3. The chap showing his fingers needs some latex rubber gloves if he is is planning to go anywhere near The Idiot King!

    1. Peter Sweden is a liar. I cannot find any record of Klaus Schwab appointing himself earth’s “trustee of the future”.

      1. 382212+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,
        I think “liar” is a tad strong
        I do think in private speak
        he told his mum.

  53. I had a hip x-ray in early December. I hadn’t heard anything for five weeks so looked up my record online. The X-Ray report was sent to my GP two days after the X-Ray. The following week another GP signed the report off with No Further action. However the report said I had “severe osteoarthritis changes with total loss of joint space.” I asked for a face to face consultation with the GP who signed me off with No Further action to explain his decision. Later that day I got a phone call from another GP with a rather half hearted apology, an explanation that the GP who signed me off wasn’t available and must have been busy and pressed the wrong button on his computer, and a question what did I want to do? I replied saying I want your advice as to the options. Finally I got a referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, but the waiting list is at least a year. Dear Mr Sunak, instead of sending £billions to Ukraine, will you effing well sort out the NHS?

  57. World Indoor Bowls Championship coming to a close with the Men’s (Open) Championship Final about to start on BBC2. Should be a cracker if the semifinals are anything to go by.

      1. If you get the chance to watch yesterday’s semifinal between Alex Marshall and Paul Foster there were some unbelievable shots. Never seen anything like it.

      2. If you get the chance to watch yesterday’s semifinal between Alex Marshall and Paul Foster there were some unbelievable shots. Never seen anything like it.

    1. Was Thomas Wright Waller related to Antoine Dominique Domino Jr, or to Rudolf Walter Wanderone?

      1. Wanderone was played by Jackie Gleason who outhustled Paul Newman. Did he avoid being caught misbehavin’ on Blueberry Hill?

        1. Indeed. but Fast Eddie Felson won out in the end. As for Antoine: “Ain’t that a shame” … he’s “Goin’ home”.

    2. He’s a very clever fellow, say all the right things, I mean the left things and a nice £ million job with the BBC beckons, just like with Lineker.

    5. Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves!
      Britons never, never, never will be slaves.

      Celebrating a navy strong enough to stop the Barbary slavers??

      See US Marines for further details

      From the Halls of Montezuma

      To the shores of Tripoli;

      We fight our country’s battles

      In the air, on land, and sea;

      First to fight for right and freedom

      And to keep our honor clean;

      We are proud to claim the title

      Of United States Marine.
      These historically illiterate cretins with no knowledge of the blood and treasure spent to END slavery make me sick
      Race grifting turd!!

        1. I agree. Nothing by comparison with Pablo Casals, Paul Tortellier, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yo-Yo Ma, Pierre Fournier, Steven Isserlis, Jacqueline du Pre, Mischa Maisky and many more.

    6. We can’t have people feeling ‘uncomfortable’, can we? Rather like that BBC chap who bemoand having to work with exclusively white colleagues. Yet – in conversation with the Rector today – he tells me that his daughter (some sort of Civil Servant) is the sole Caucasian in her department. It’s not hard to imagine the outcome, should she express ‘feelings of discomfort’ out loud. Jail time, probably.

      1. Yes, I am told that the FCA is stuffed with Pakistanis. Let’s face it, it’s very risky for the indigenous private sector to employ Bames and/or young women. When AI really gets going, many many employees within the public sector will be redundant, if not immediately made redundant.

    10. Tough. You have two choices (and preferably take the one where you don’t bother to go to the Proms or stay in England).

  61. Met Office warns not to sleep near windows as Storm Isha approaches. 21 January 2024.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/129843f769609f5b70027a4aff4e5fa42a531758a444aeb90bfdbcc9b65e5d75.png

    The Met Office has warned the public not to sleep near windows on Sunday as Storm Isha is set to bring dangerous winds to the UK.

    Coastal areas are expected to be particularly badly affected by strong winds overnight and into Monday morning.

    That big arrow is going to give someone a nasty turn tonight!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/21/storm-isha-batter-uk-winds-floods-met-office-warning/

    1. The way they’re carrying on, they’ll make the disasters and plagues of the Bible seem trivial!

      1. Yep, in my little studio flat, the only way to get away from the windows is to hide in the wardrobe.

    3. Not sure if it was today, or tomorrow but I hope Bill Thomas and the MR arrive back home safely.

      2. My brother-in-law used to play for Esher RFU club Ist XV when left Sherborne because he was very fast (well under 10 seconds for 100 yards) and he was very strong; he played on the wing was tipped for great things.

        However, after National Service he went to Oxford and went down a side each year and ended up as the Captain of the Extra-B team – the sort of team described by Michael Green in The Art of Coarse Rugby. When I was living in London from time to time I would get a telephone call on Saturday morning because he was short of players for the afternoon’s match. It was very clear that footling about in the mud was of secondary importance to drinking beer and singing in the bar after the game.

      3. Yes, I thought that when they reported it during the racing from Lingfield. Later I saw the spelling was nowhere near.

    5. Isha us the what the Muslems call Jesus.
      If he does return now he is going to be really pissed off with what’s happening at the moment.
      This is gonna be a doozy.

    6. Just looking at the ITV News – the tone of the report seems to suggest we should all be panicking. Well, they’re making a pretty good job of it!

    8. What happens if your bed happens to be under the window and there’s nowhere else to move it?

      They are keeping up project fear; the headline in one of the papers on the news stand this afternoon read, “one third of under sixteens could be at risk from measles.” So two thirds aren’t and it’s only ‘could be’ anyway.

    2. Lol that’s the next book on my list. After, “A hero for all seasons – a biography of Billy Wright” (2003)

      My dad remembers him catching the bus to the Molineux, in his way to captain Wolves.

  66. Afternoon A. My TV is blinking when the gusts hit the aerial and I’ve got a couple of candles out ready for power cuts.

  67. A Bonnie Birdie Three!

    Wordle 946 3/6
    🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Four here

      Wordle 946 4/6

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

    2. Par once more

      Wordle 946 4/6

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

    3. Me too, surprisingly.

      Wordle 946 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  68. Hmmm, a foul 5 here.
    Wordle 946 5/6

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

    1. Metoo!

      Wordle 946 5/6

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

  69. I am ashamed to say I bellowed at Oscar and Mongo a bit ago. Oscar came in and went for Mongo and the two dogs fought. Oscar doing most of the growling and barking, but Mongo not backing down. I booted Oscar flat footed in the side and dragged him away by his collar. As Junior came close I shouted at him to keep away and close the door and then shouted at Mongo who whined and crawled on his belly up the stairs.

    Oscar settled once I had his collar in hand and he sat subdued and miserable after a few minutes, whining and occasionally licking me and looking thoroughly ashamed. Mongo cowered when I went to see him and I sort of made up with him and he’s in with Junior now.

    I think it’s just stress passing on to even the dogs. I pretend everything’s ok but the hallway is colder than the fridge. I’m royally fed up. Junior’s fed up. The wife’s moved in with Junior’s godfather (it’s not a leaving me, mainly as fellow is gay, she’s just tired of being cold). Hell, even the sodding ipad is difficult to hold because it’s so damned cold.

    1. Are you wearing skiing underwear, and can you get at least one room in the house warm?
      The house I grew up in is very cold. You can’t function in winter without skiing underwear. Mostly, just one room was heated with electric heaters. If home office, then two rooms.
      Even now, our house is much warmer, but I still work in my office with a woollen blanket over my knees sometimes as well as four layers of clothing. A cold house re-writes all the rules that society tells you are valid for twenty first century living.

      1. I grew up in a house that was an igloo. Single-glazed windows and pebble-dashed outer walls. There was one open coal fire in the living room and you were warm within 10 feet of it but freezing elsewhere. Internal doors had to be kept shut and big thick sausage-shaped draught-excluders placed on the floor under the doors.

        Here in Sweden all houses are open-plan, fully-insulated with 15″-thick walls and triple-glazing. I could only dream of such a house when I was growing up.

          1. Nah! I’m much too horrible to bother getting wet! It is troglodysm all the way for this ursine.

      2. I grew up in a 1930s Jerry -built maisonette. No heating, except a coal fire, and later that was replaced with a gas fire. When Grandma moved in I had to give up my bedroom and Mum had an electric wall fire installed for her. The other bedroom I had to share with Mum was very cold, with streaming, rusty -framed windows.

        Later, after Grandma died I got my room back but the fire was only used if I was ill in bed, which was fairly often. I had measles, ear aches, tonsilitis and tummy upsets as a child, also whooping cough and appendicitis. I was much more sickly than my children were and our living conditions probably contributed to that.

        There was ice on the inside of the window and I warmed up my school clothes under the bedcovers. Mum used the gas oven to heat the kitchen (with the oven door open and her shoes warming inside). We had burst pipes in the winters. I nearly set the place on fire once when I held a sheet of newspaper over the fire to get it going as my Mum did – but I wasn’t very good at it……….

        We spent a few months living with my Mum when my ex left the army – we had one two year old – I was ill then too – I spent Christmas 1972 in bed with flu.

        We wouldn’t live like that now, would we?

        1. No, we would not! I grew up in a Victorian terrace house with coal fires and very iced up windows in winter, which later in the day had pools of water on the window sills, to be constantly mopped up.

        2. Your upbringing sounds very much like mine. No central heating, a range for heating the water and cooking, ice on the inside of the windows, the fire in my bedroom not lit unless I was ill in bed – and yes, I put my school uniform under the bedclothes as well to warm up before I put them on. I think I’ve gone soft since then 🙂

          1. Standard procedure in the fifties and sixties I guess. We just did what we had to to keep as warm as we could. We didn’t have a range – but an Ascot gas boiler heated the water for the bathroom, and we had a paraffin heater that sucked all the oxygen out if you weren’t careful. A Sadia over the kitchen sink for the hot water there.

          2. I think it’s marked me for life, though. I can’t bear a hot bedroom. Thankfully, there is no longer frost on the windows, but I just can’t stand a lot of heat when I’m trying to sleep.

          3. So long as the bed’s warm, that’s all that matters – though I don’t like it too cold. Last night we had cats to keep us warm, though quite often they stay in the sitting room as it’s warmer. They do pin the bedclothes down a bit.

          4. Cats do have their uses, don’t they? Except when we were reduced to just one, he insisted on lying full length between us !!

          5. Enter my secret weapon. I have a Dreamland heated mattress protector. It warms the bed in minutes, and can be safely left on all night. Unlikemost electric underblankets, it warms the whole bed. The hard part is leaving the bed to post the new Nottl page…

          6. We’re all very grateful that you do!
            Our electric blanket is dual controlled and for some reason OH never uses it on his side. I do but don’t keep it on long after I get in.

          7. Since my bout of Covid before Christmas, I must admit that getting out of bed has become more of a chore. I have been known to sleep through the alarm. But posting the daily new page gives me a reason to get out of bed, so it’s welcome. I could be extremely lazy otherwise…

          8. I do think it about time you started cultivating a second in command. Some Nottlers have panic attacks if the page doesn’t appear when they think it should !
            That chap you were sitting opposite at lunch at the Red Lion seemed a worthy candidate.

          11. My phone and smart watch are at my bedside, charging every night. It’s possible to post a new page on the phone, but the facility to open a Word document and copy, then paste the stuff at the top of the page is lost. Frankly, it’s easier to get the legs on, go to the kitchen, boil the kettle and post the new page. I’m supposed to take my Lercanidipine at least half an hour before eating, so I have my various pills with the first cup of tea of the day, then do the Microsoft Solitaire and Mahjong Daily Challenges. Then breakfast…

          12. It’s rather tricky doing stuff like that on the phone but reading and posting on here are easy. Well done for sticking with your routine and it makes the day for all of us here.

          15. Yes, the bed’s warm. I have a goose down duvet and sleep on a feather bed. If it’s exceptionally cold I can close the curtains (it’s a 4 poster). On really cold nights, I take hot water bottles to bed with me.

          17. That’s one reason why I’m not keen on getting up in the morning (the other being that I’m a night owl, not a lark).

          18. It seems that quite a few of us had a similar upbringing, Jools. I phoned the next door neighbour to say I was delaying taking the bins out until first thing tomorrow, since otherwise Storm Wotsit would scatter them and their contents across the road. She had a whinge about her double glazing. Mine is identical. But three years ago I had Crittall single-glazed metal windows, and I struggle to see her point…

        3. That is how ‘they’ want us to live under net zero and worse, Ndovu. To save ‘The Planet’. Weill, I am a child of said planet, I did not ask to be born, like the rest of us; I expect ‘the planet’ to look after me, all of us. Your childhood sounds very much like mine – cold, illnesses and separation, loss. The one constant in my life was my father, I was devastated when he died very suddenly when I was 22.

          1. Mine died when I was four – and then Grandma came to live with us for a couple of years. But she developed vascular dementia and had hallucinations – one night she got up and smashed the window with a poker because three men were getting in. I think it must have been soon after that she was taken into the mental hospital, where she died.

            Our house here is a draughty old cottage – but I wouldn’t have it any different. It’s cosy when the woodburner’s lit and the oil fired ch works ok. This house would never fit the net zero requirements, nor would most of our neighbours’.

        4. When our sons were small, the younger one developed a chest infection after every cold.
          Then we had central heating installed, and the problem went away.

          1. Wow, I had assumed central heating had not been invented so long ago.

            Open goal, you know the rest.

            };-O

          2. Now the problem is respiratory problems and mould because they don’t ventilate their homes. Something to be said for leaky single pane windows after all.

          3. True. Next door has mould problems, which started when the loft insulation was ‘improved’. Mould quickly takes hold in my wet room, if I ever let it.

          4. It’s all very well being insulated but ventilation is still required.
            Have you considered leaving a window ajar in the wet room after you have used it?

          5. The trickle vent is open, and the fan is on for ages after I switch the light off. I think you’re right about insulation, and next door’s loft insulation is likely blocking the vents in the soffits. The Housing Society has recently ‘migrated’ to a much larger one. It was run by retired volunteers, and the legislation for landlords became too difficult. The new landlord just sent an asbestos surveyor round. “While you’re in the loft”, I said, “can you see any uninsulated pipework?” This because the bathroom has sometimes been without water, when it’s below freezing outside.

            She sent me a photo. I have a Combi boiler, but the original system was a floor-standing gas boiler, and a hot water cylinder in an adjacent cupboard. The original cold water tank has gone, as has the cylinder, but there are several metres of un-insulated copper pipe by-passing the former tank. Frankly, I’m surprised that the feed to the bathroom hasn’t frozen more often.

            I’ll be chasing the landlord for remedial work…

          6. I don’t think I got chest infections – and I don’t remember having one as an adult either – just head colds and coughs. But the two occasions I had real flu the worst part was the body aches and then the sweating it out.

        5. Sounds familiar. I grew up in a 1930’s 3-bed semi. One fireplace, with a back boiler for hot water. We had a paraffin stove in the hall, mostly to stop the pipes from freezing. That didn’t always work. Ice on the windows – check. We had hot water bottles, and that was it.

          I had measles at Christmas 1962 and was off my food. Someone recommended to my Dad that he should give me beer (I was 5). Thus I had my first (and last) taste of Carlisle (State Management) Brewery Nut Brown Ale. My appetite returned in short order. This scene of domestic bliss was brought to a shuddering halt in January 1963, when Dad was wiped out in a car accident in Shap. This was a life-changing moment in many ways. Not quite six, I was told by several well-meaning folk that I was ‘the man of the house now’, and to look after my Mum. I couldn’t do much about the frozen pipes, but we had helpful neighbours. Mum’s meagre funds stretched to a gas convector in the hall, and a gas poker by the fire. Eventually that became a gas fire, with a Maxol back boiler. The paraffin stove went to the bathroom, eventually to be replaced by a wall-mounted infra-red heater, which was pretty useless.

          The house was rented. Over the years, I did several ‘tenant’s improvements’. Otherwise it would still have had a tiny kitchen, with a pot sink, wooden draining boards, white glazed brick walls and a hot water cylinder in the corner. Latterly, I was half way through installing gas central heating (bear in mind I was by now living 300 miles away) when Mum finally shuffled off.

          Since then, the place has been sold, and utterly transformed.

          1. I started reading that with the usual, “when we were young” smile, and you brought me up short.
            That must have been appalling.

            Well done.

          2. Not really. It was just life. I knew no different. It’s filed in the “Shit Happens” tray, along with much other stuff. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or so I’m told…

          3. We had good neighbours as well and I can remember most of them. It was a little close of maisonettes and most people lived similar lives to ours, but they did have televisions quite early on. Mum would never have one. I used to go next door in the winter after school for a cup of tea and the telly and a chat.

          4. Not really. It was just life. I knew no different. It’s filed in the “Shit Happens” tray, along with much other stuff. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Or so I’m told…

          5. Were you an only child, Geoff? I was, but my brother died before I was born – he lived only five days. Odd to think he’d be an old man now if he’d lived.

          7. Mine was 39 when I was born – she died in 1989, aged 80. I still miss her – she was a strong woman of great character.

          8. Mine made it to 89. Her marriage was tragically short. Life was then a steep learning curve. She learned to drive (ahead of most of her contemporaries), got a job in school meals, and latterly as the tea lady at Laing’s Carlisle office, where I later worked. She was confirmed on the same day that I was. I regret to say that, when walking difficulies prevented her from getting to church, she never heard from them again. In Suffolk, where I was living at the time, we used to waive funeral fees for regular attendees. Not so in Carlisle. I even had to pay the usual organist (my successor) not to play, so I could do it.

            She was fiercely independent. With failing sight and limited mobility, I helped her out remotely by doing weekly Tesco shops online, from afar. She would have hated beingin care. I’m of the same mind.

            Twenty-odd years later, I still feel an occasional urge to phone her with the latest news, before reality sinks in.

          9. It’s when you hear news of someone she knew, or family matters, or someone dies, and you think “Must tell Mum!” and you can’t.

          11. Some years after she died, I was inspired to start researching family history, so her hoards of ‘stuff’ came in handy, but i found out very much more about all sides of the family than she would have known.

          12. My mother was 36 and considered geriatric! I do have an older brother, though. My mother had two ways of doing things; her way and the wrong way. I inevitably chose the wrong way! She made it to 90.

          13. Yes, Jools. They broke the mould when they made me. Rather uncharitably, I sometimes wonder whether my parents ‘tried it once and didn’t like it’. An uncle lived in Rhosneigr, Anglesey. In July 1956, Mum and Dad holidayed there. Eight months later (I was a month premature) I arrived on the scene…

          14. Yes, Jools. They broke the mould when they made me. Rather uncharitably, I sometimes wonder whether my parents ‘tried it once and didn’t like it’. An uncle lived in Rhosneigr, Anglesey. In July 1956, Mum and Dad holidayed there. Eight months later (I was a month premature) I arrived on the scene…

    2. Sorry, man. All the dark and weather doesn’t help, either. All Y’all need a holiday.
      I feel for you: I’ve got stress again, and the cats pi$$ me off royally just now, by wanting cuddles on my lap now I’m using the laptop.
      My being pi$$ed adds to my stress… I have no good advice, just sympathy.

      1. My having had a tipple or two doesn’t help either. I love both the dogs and Oscar’s really come out of his shell but he’s latched on to the Warqueen and she’s not here. That causes Junior stress even though he also knows – he’s a step away from asking to go with her – he’s using his gloves to work his ipad, it’s that cold for goodness sake.

      2. My having had a tipple or two doesn’t help either. I love both the dogs and Oscar’s really come out of his shell but he’s latched on to the Warqueen and she’s not here. That causes Junior stress even though he also knows – he’s a step away from asking to go with he – he’s using his gloves to work his ipad, it’s that cold for goodness sake.

    3. Hi Wibbling,
      It was 5.4 celsius in my bedroom the other night, but I treated myself to two yes TWO! hot water bottles. I haven’t been closely following your tale of icy woe, but as I understand it your new house is extraordinarily cold until you do some type of structural remedial work in the spring.. Could you try to electrically heat one room, eg the largest bedroom, and just live in there for most of the time? With a TV, computers and small table & chairs?

      1. Hullo Tim, we practically do. Junior plays in my bedroom while his room warms up for the night. I set his heating to come on early then we whisk off to the gym for the wash where I meet the Warqueen and we both take him to school then go our separate ways to work. Me usually at home, she off in her offices.

        We get home and about 5 I put our radiator on (such as now) and we’re warm until about 9 – it’s a 2kw rad so those 4 hours cost £3.

        Then the Warqueen makes a difficult farewell and heads off to the godparent’s and junior and I go to bed. He has Mongo and they sleep together – he used to sleep on the floor but Junior hauls him up now. At 12 it’s almost ambient again.

    4. Dogs are very susceptible to atmosphere. At least all three of you seem to have made up now. Remember, you have to be pack leader and if there’s any growling and fighting to do, you are the one to be doing it!

    5. It does make you wonder how we used to cope, though, doesn’t it? I remember by grandparents’ house, single glazed and only fireplaces for heating, and the penetrating cold.

      To this day I have a fondness for hot water bottles. I have one at work now to warm my feet when I cycle in in cold days (like last week). The youngsters were bemused at first but now ask to borrow it, and a few have bought their own. I find them comforting, and nostalgic.

      But. I remember the cold. The actual proper austerity of the life that my grandparents led. Of eating a home-grown beetroot, as the meal. The fish paste sandwiches as a treat on a Sunday afternoon. The tiny Christmas tree, fake, and the attempts to make Christmas festive.

      I knew as a small child I didn’t want to be poor in old age like my grandparents and that fear has driven me all my life. And it’s worked. I’ve worked hard and long all my life. And i resent people resenting me, because anyone could have done what I have done. It’s all about sacrifice, jam tomorrow and hard work.

      But – back on the topic of cold – I really feel for you. It’s no fun, no fun at all.

    6. I have one of these under my desk for my feet. LILOVE Pet Heating Pad, Upgraded Dog Electric Heating Pad, 45x45cm Large Waterproof Adjustable Warming Mat for Cats, Pet Heat Blanket with Chew Resistant Steel Cord.

      And…

      Wikay
      USB Heated Gloves for Men & Women, Unisex Anti Slip Touch Screen
      Gloves Winter Hands Warm Mitten, Windproof Thermal Gloves Cold Weather
      Cycling Gloves Washable Design Hand Warmers

      Neither cost much to run. If you can’t heat your house heat your body.

    7. I think you are right. Mongo and Oscar have picked up on the tensions.
      Will you get any progress from your builder during this coming week?

    8. You’ve got a few problems!
      I hope the slightly less cold weather is improving things tonight.

  70. The idea that people should be cold in the 21st century is idiotic. I don’t expect to float about in my pants in winter but I don’t want to be this cold.

    The other issue is that when we do put the heating on, it’s gone within 3-4 hours. Not ‘a little loss from 17-15’, but back to 10 or so. I’m sick of it.

    1. I completely agree that one shouldn’t be cold. I only offer my experience of how to deal with it without going crazy.
      When I’ve paid off my mortgage, I’ll improve the insulation on our cottage. We just did the insulation in the loft ourselves this year at minimal cost and it has made a huge difference though not yet finished.

      The worst thing is being so tense all the time. The skiing underwear really does fix that!

    2. Reminds me of student flat in Newport Pagnell. Couldn’t afford heating, so it was coats all day at home. Still have the lovely jumpers SWMBO knitted. Being mid 20’s helped, too: now, nearly 63, I sympathise with my Father when he came to visit (rately in winter) and marvel over how a well-insulated house like this one can take a sack of wood to get up to a comfortable 35C… bliss!

      1. When I worked on the new Borders General Hospital in Melrose, several of us site staff rented a large Victorian house at the foot of the Eildon Hills. The place had no less than seven storage heaters. Since we were never there when they were giving out heat, we never used them. It was far cheaper to go to one of the local pubs. I had an argument with the electrical subcontractor’s manager, when he joined us. I told him the house had a three phase supply. Impossible, he said. This was before the house reverberated to “the clunk” – i.e. the contactor switching on the heaters (albeit turned off individually). And again in the early morning.

  71. Bulletin for NoTTLers Re: NAGSMAN [Pat Bryant]

    The Birthday Girl has asked me to thank you all very much for your kind felicitations. First and foremost, it must be pointed out that you are all late. H.M.’s First Lord of The Treasury, Rishi Sunak, delivered his Birthday Greetings to Pat yesterday, so Yah-Boo-Sucks to the lot of you.

    Although she has been unwell for some time she has kept soldiering on as one would expect; however she doesn’t feel she has sufficient Oomph to be able to reply to NoTTLers today. She is being well cared for. Her son, Richard, has been living with her for the past year or more and keeps an eye on things. Her marvellous daughter, Lizzie, lives near by and is i/c horses. Pat’s beloved Border Terrier, Muppet, died a few months ago. She has shown me lovely puppy porn photographs of two Staffies she has been offered and is very excited at the prospect of getting one of them. We speak by telephone at least a couple of times a week (daily at present). I’m about 45 minutes away and she was over for proper Sunday Lunch @The Swan last week with me and our mutual friend, Katharine. We cancelled today’s scheduled Birthday Lunch because she wasn’t feeling up to it.

    She has an excellent and responsive G.P. who used to be head of the local practice, retired, got bored, and has now returned as one of the working G.P.s. She is plugged into Swindon Hospital who take X-rays/Scans/Photographs of unmentionable parts of her anatomy from unmentionable and very private angles. Lizzie will be driving Pat to her next Swindon appointment on Tuesday.

    As and when Pat feels robust enough to return to post on this forum please mind your own bloody business and don’t ask questions. She loathes and despises the Nosy Parker prying by several NoTTLers every bit as much as I do. You are distasteful and downright oikish, despite having gone to ‘posh’ schools. Pat and I (and some other NoTTLers) share a view that British sense of measured decency went over a precipice with the arrival of the ghastly spoilt brat Lady Diana Spencer and her subsequent demise when everything had to be done in public view. The big difference between Lady Di and Pat is that John Travolta could never be accused of dining out on the story that he danced with Pat at The White House.

    One can tell that Pat is on the mend because she treated herself to a 10:00am Birthday Breakfast of bacon & eggs & fried bread. Fortitude personified.

    1. Thanks for the bulletin. Looking forward to Nags being fully recovered and able to kick unwelcome bollox herself! Until then, we’ll keep a welcome… and KBO, lass!

    2. Thanks for the bulletin. Looking forward to Nags being fully recovered and able to kick unwelcome bollox herself! Until then, we’ll keep a welcome… and KBO, lass!

    3. Thanks for the update. Please pass on belated birthday wishes and condolences on the loss of Muppet from me. I hope she’s feeling better soon.

    4. Well done Citroen1 for contacting her and thank you for posting that.
      If I’m one of the nosey parkers (sic) I stand reprimanded, but I hope I’m not.
      I agree with those sentiments entirely!
      May she continue to improve, rapidly

    7. Please pass my regards on to her and my best wishes for her recovery.
      Also, my Happy Birthday wishes, no matter how delayed!!

      1. Thank you corim. My father was called Geoff but, to avoid confusion, he and my mother (Monica referred to as M’knickers by my brother and me) chose to christen me Michael.

    10. Thanks Citroen. When you next speak to her will you please convey my good wishes for a speedy return to better health?

  73. Apart from everything else that has been happening today, we met two very good old friends for lunch and had a lovely meal, a lot of fun conversation and laughter. Now sitting trying to get relief from feeling full. We don’t usually eat lunch. Now we are both being reminded why.

    2. We had lunch in Exeter with the daughter. I skipped my normal sourdough breakfast toast, and as I chose Welsh Rarebit (accompanied by a small salad) .at the pub it didn’t weigh too heavily on me.
      Can recommend the pub/restaurant, very dog friendly (not for all, I know) and friendly staff. The Prospect Inn on the Quay.

      https://www.heavitreebrewery.co.uk/pubs/the-prospect-inn/

      1. Thanks for that. Friend Dianne is currently enjoying rather better weather in the Far East, but next time i visit her in Topsham, I’ll suggest a visit.

    4. We’ve just finished our dinner – roast chicken, roast spuds and mixed veggies. We had the usual Sunday starter of prawns and smoked salmon with salad. No pud – no room!

        1. Not really – we started about 7.45pm and finished about an hour later. We usually eat around half seven to eight.

  74. Some songs miss the ‘great’ tag for varying reasons: perhaps a little too long or repetitive, maybe let down by poor production. This fails to earn the accolade but the sentiment is certainly a good one, even if the band was briefly tainted with the ‘God rock’ label. Three months after its release in the summer of 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. It was still a time of optimism, although Mrs T’s troubles had begun at home.

    When will our day begin? It had better be soon else it’ll be the closing of our age.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8wZxlBuEm8

    Lyrics: https://genius.com/The-call-let-the-day-begin-lyrics

    Here’s to the soldiers of the bitter war
    Here’s to the wall that bears their names

  75. Wet and windy outside this evening – I guess it’s Storm Isha. Nothing out of the ordinary yet but we’re probably just on the edge of it.

  76. Evening, all. Very wet and windy here. That fouled up my plans for carrying on the tidying up in the garden.

    Climate change got a mention in the homily (we worry about climate change – well, actually I don’t) and there was an implication that it would be a disaster if Trump got elected (there are elections in the USA and, well, we don’t know what will happen). I wish politics could be kept out of church. I go there to get away from day-to-day hassles.

      1. I would have to walk out. Being lectured on this sort of stuff by intellectual inferiors is why I no longer attend church services. I prefer to visit church by myself, not in the ‘fellowship’ of others. So endeth the first lesson.

        1. I could hardly call it a lecture, it was just en passant and not the main thrust of the sermon (which was about the wedding at Cana). What really did light my fire was when the bishopette of Birkenhead lectured us (and that really was a lecture) about getting out of our “gas guzzlers” at harvest festival. Then she had the cheek to walk out and get in a Porsche! (she was parked in front of my little runabout).

          1. Should have told her that harvesting will soon be a thing of the past if our current PTB have their way.

          2. Harvesting energy from the wretched solar farms gradually putting Grade 1 Arable out of use?

            It was explained to me earlier today that Bill Gates’ acquisition of millions of hectares of farmland in the US is nothing whatever to do with an interest in agriculture or farming. It is the acquisition of land which contain deep aquifers.

            The fucker wants control of the water supply.

          7. Err…
            Why aren’t you a billionaire?

            Open goal, you make it so easy, many thanks from your local neighbourhood sociopath.

          8. Well i am reasonably wealthy but i stopped murdering people who were rude to me before i got billionaire status. Might have to rethink that one.

          10. Harvesting energy from the wretched solar farms gradually putting Grade 1 Arable out of use?

            It was explained to me earlier today that Bill Gates’ acquisition of millions of hectares of farmland in the US is nothing whatever to do with an interest in agriculture or farming. It is the acquisition of land which contain deep aquifers.

            The fucker wants control of the water supply.

          12. I don’t think she knew what a tractor was – we didn’t have any harvest festival hymns. Maybe she thought cereals came in packets from Tesco and meat grew on polystyrene trays.

      2. I thought the more. I was quite surprised because usually there’s nothing like that. It was the assistant vicar, not the main one who doesn’t normally make political remarks.

    2. It being “Christian Unity Week”, one of our associate priests was invited to talk about her own background. She’s the child of an Egyptian Coptic Orthodox father and an Irish Protestant mother and was educated by German Catholic nuns at a convent school in Cairo.

        1. Yes, a nice lady and she’s had an interesting life. Apparently the nuns were fun and laughed a lot.

      3. Many years ago we visited Egypt, based in Cairo, travelling entirely independently.
        We were lucky enough to meet a Coptic Christian guide.
        She showed us so many sites, and protected us from crooks, that I doubt we would have seen a tiny fraction of what we did.

        The highlight was when we asked to arrange a camel ride. HG was really keen to do so.

        Our guide took us into what seemed like the back of beyond. HG was given her camel and I walked behind, taking photographs.
        To be honest we assumed we had been scammed.
        How utterly wrong can one be?

        We turned a corner, and before us was the Sphinx and the pyramids. It was every tourist’s dream come true; quite extraordinary.

        At the end of the day I offered a very generous tip, which was refused!

        Sometimes one lands on ones feet.

        I have dozens of tales of trips to Cairo and Egypt, some good some dreadful.

        1. Her Majesty arrived like a Queen on a camel surveying her domain and you were walking behind the camel. Sounds about right.

          1. Had I known that eventually I would stumble across you, I’d have collected the dung to throw…

          2. I like hearing from Nottlers about their experiences (nosy parker me). The good, the bad and in your case…

          4. Guilty as charged. I have red hair and freckles.
            My one saving grace is i don’t look any where near as dumbugly as Prince Harry. Who does?

        2. A guy was telling his friends about a recent holiday in Egypt and said he’d had a ride on a camel. One of his pals asked whether it was a male or female camel – he replied it must have been female because the crowd were saying “Look at that c**t on that camel”

        3. Did you ever come across the Spitfire Bar? I can’t even remember why I was there, probably waiting for a flight.

          1. No, we stayed clear of bars.
            HG was assaulted by some bastard as they crowded out of a mosque, even though she was fully covered and wearing a headscarf.
            Normally in crowds I go through first, bad mistake if there are Muslims around. Once we changed places we had no similar trouble.

      4. So does she get to tick 4 out of the 159 boxes for religion that the NHS uses to ‘meet the patient’s spiritual needs’?

  77. Trump is encouraging votes from workers in the fossil fuelled automotive industry in the US by challenging Biden’s EV push for vehicular electrification to extend to army tanks. The argument for EV tanks is that they are far quieter and more efficient.

    Trump does have a point yet fails to mention the scarcity of charging points in the enemy battlefield’s clean air zone. 🤔

    https://youtube.com/shorts/7rD9pggJO_s?si=8ooSOXH4rxWy2eLK

    1. I wonder if the Welsh steel workers would vote anything other than Labour at the next election.

        2. Wasn’t it Plaid Cymru that began the destruction of Welsh industry and left it for Labour to finish?

        1. I think the tractor production figures for Wales will be nonexistent soon. Unless they make them out of wood.

    2. The time taken to recharge… The unreliability… The need for diesel or battery recharging points… The heat signature… The uselessness when cold… There’s no end to the problems.

      2. I regularly travel by EV. It’s a mature technology. No need for batteries, or charging for that matter. Just a third rail, rather like my old Hornby Dublo train set…

        Admittedly, it helps that I’m 180m as the crow flies from a rail station…

    3. Not quite a tank but there is a report from Alberta of the owner of one of the massive Ford electric trucks setting out on a short trip last week but found that his honking great truck went from full to fifty percent charge in about twelve miles.

      Business abandoned until it warm-up.

    4. Not a fan of the man nor his methods but he was certainly correct when he said:

      General George Smith Patton, “My men can eat their belts, but my tanks have gotta have gas.”

  78. There is a steady roaring of the wind through the trees up the sides of the valley, but as usual, other than an occasional gust, the wind at the bottom here is much lighter.
    It was 5°C a couple of hours ago, with occasional showers.
    And I’m off to bed!
    G’night all.

    2. Keep hoping; you might get a few more days of tree-felling and chopping to keep you out of mischief.

      1. Until I empty the stack I’m currently burning and do a couple of repair jobs on its frame, I’ve not got a lot of space for more wood.

  79. 29 mph is the strongest gust of wind recorded so far today, no where near the 60 mph forecast.

        1. It was windier early this afternoon. It’s still quite blowy. But the wheelie bins for Nos 5, 7 and 9 are safely enscoced in the shared space between 7 and 9. I know from past experience that, if I left them at the roadside, they’d be empty and several hundred metres away by morning. So I’ll put them out when I hear the bin lorry, around 0725…

  80. A vacationing penguin is driving his car through Arizona when he notices that the oil pressure light is on. He gets out to look and sees oil dripping out of the motor. He drives to the nearest town and stops at the first gas station.

    After dropping the car off, the penguin goes for a walk around town. He sees an ice-cream shop and, being a penguin in Arizona, decides that something cold would really hit the spot. He gets a big dish of ice cream and sits down to eat. Having no hands he makes a real mess trying to eat with his flippers. After finishing his ice cream, he goes back to the gas station and asks the mechanic if he’s found the problem. The mechanic looks up and says “It looks like you blew a seal.”

    “No no,” the penguin replies, “it’s just ice cream.”

    1. An Eskimo on a motoring tour of New Zealand found his car breaking down. The breakdown mechanic tinkered about under the bonnet for a bit before declaring: “It looks like you’ve blown a seal!”

      Quick as a flash the Eskimo shot back, angrily: “So what? You shag sheep!”

  81. Thanks everyone for your memory jogging and reminiscences – and thanks as ever to Geoff, our host for keeping us all happily posting and chatting here.

    G’night all…….

  84. And to end the day….. pearls of wisdom from June. Goodnight, everyone, it’s a tad breezy out there, it’s a-huffing and a-puffing trying to blow the front door in so I guess it is directly blowing from the south-west, straight up the green. Oh, the DM warns us not to sleep near windows for fear of flying debris (and fear of little men, you never know these days). My worry is that one of the chimney pots will get knocked blown off its roost and through the old tiles. Night-night.
    https://x.com/juneslater17/status/1743395682227023983?s=20

    1. “Cocks in frocks pretending to have minge pain” is factual, utterly ridiculous, and comedy gold!🤣🤣🤣

      June, you’re a star.

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