Sunday 21 May: Keir Starmer’s plan to broaden the electorate is a first step towards reversing Brexit

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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458 thoughts on “Sunday 21 May: Keir Starmer’s plan to broaden the electorate is a first step towards reversing Brexit”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Rumour Spreads Fast

    A gorilla is walking through the jungle. He parts the bushes by the watering hole and sees a lion taking a drink of water with his butt sticking up in the air.

    So the gorilla thinks to himself, “Wouldn’t it be funny if I snuck up behind the “King of the jungle” and slipped him the old sausage?”

    So the gorilla sneaks up behind the lion, grabs him by the hips, and starts pumping him in the butt as hard as he can. Then he pulls out and runs away, laughing his ass off.

    The lion, however, doesn’t think it’s so funny. He lets out a mighty roar and takes off after the gorilla.

    Now, the gorilla can’t run very fast and the lion is catching up with him, so he ducks into a campsite, pulls some safari duds off the clothesline, puts them on, picks up a newspaper and sits down by the fire, holding the paper up to hide his face.

    Just then, the lion comes busting through the jungle.

    “HEY, YOU!” he says, “DID YOU JUST SEE A BIG GORILLA COME RUNNING THROUGH HERE?”

    The gorilla starts shaking behind the paper. “Um… d-do you mean the one that just s-screwed you in the a-a-ass?”

    The lion sits up with a start and says, “Jeez! It’s in the fucking newspapers already?”

    1. Although I’ve just said Good morrow, let me extend a Good morning to you, Minty.

        1. Nan?!?!? I thought Sir Jasper was Tom. No wonder this site gets me confused from time to time.

          2. So you were, Sir Jasper. It’s all coming back to me now. Now where did I put my specs? I must check in the fridge. Lol.

          3. So you were, Sir Jasper. It’s all coming back to me now. Now where did I put my specs? I must check in the fridge. Lol.

  3. Good morning all.
    A bright sunny start again with 3½°C outside and I do not think I’ll be up to doing much today.
    The Still @ Home had a cold at the start of the week that he passed on to the Dearly Tolerant who, in the general course of such things, passed it on to me. So not a lot of sleep last night!

    1. When are you topping out the pyramid Bob? I should be able to see it from here!

  4. Still no notifications! Last time they corrected overnight. Is this GCHQ? Are they miffed with us. Lol!

    1. I had notifications all day yesterday, Minty, I don’t understand why this is so sporadic.

      Maybe disqus needs to get its act together a bit more and check its coding.

        1. Talking of (Carry On) Shakespeare; What light through yonder raincloud breaks? Is this a putter I see before me? Time to stroll down to the golf course for a comedy of errors, though hopefully no tragedies.

  5. Good morning, chums. Another sunny day here in my neck of the woods. My weekly garden tidying hour, when I survey the results of my daily hour-long session of working in the garden and – starting at my front door – I work in a clockwise direction around the house with some gentle pruning and tidying to keep on top of the week’s work. Included in today’s tidying hour will be some watering of my front, side and back lawns. My, but I do live an exciting life! Lol.

    1. So long as the excitement isn’t intense, Elsie, but then, I never had you as a camper.

  6. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny but chilly. Not a cloud to be seen. Could do with rain.

    2. Why are the ICC involved; neither Russia or the USA (amongst others) signed up to this legal glee club?

  8. Good Morning Folks,

    Bright sunny start here, spring arrives at last.

    I see disqus is still broke

  9. Keir Starmer’s plan to broaden the electorate is a first step towards reversing Brexit

    Instead of a double whammy of awful policies

    It feels like Starmer has a double wedgie of awful policies for the electorate.

    1. The young Liberals of today will vote to reduce any hindrance to their winter skiing holidays.

      If that is the promise of rejoin, then that is what they’ll vote for.

      1. I remember in the run up to the referendum, the youngsters were most worried about their roaming charges. Never mind your freedoms or the right to vote out those who make your laws.

        1. One young man (18 to 20 years old at a guess) I came across in the run up to the referendum was concerned that if we left the EU we would not be allowed to play in the European football games!

  10. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d55d3e64053517f333321405299d97218daec5fb28eb1ce2929f4e2703592a9.jpg

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    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4883ed56c6039e95ddae09af9ae09d81de9f1f7b0317e67343ec21260359bb79.jpg

        1. The camera doesn’t lie (unless you photoshop it but I don’t know how to do that)

        4. He obviously doesn’t have any mirrors in his house – perhaps he removed them all. Wouldn’t blame him.

    1. Lovely morning here. Haven’t tested the wind yet. Bushes look fairly still.

        2. “Five, ten and twenty one [degrees Centigrade], Winter, Spring and Summer sun”, which shows we are still in Spring. (Summer is broadly June, July and August.)

  12. Good morning, all. Elsie has beaten me re the weather, in our neighbourhood.
    Good gardening project weather and this morning I will be rearranging a border by removing some of my ‘meadow’, it doesn’t qualify as a lawn, and edging it with powder finish steel strips. Over the coming weeks decorative gravel will complete the bulk of the work.

    Pictures show the effect of last summer(?) and the two very cold spells during the winter(?) on plants in my garden. The Montana clematises have never failed to be a mass of blooms but this year are in a sorry state: however, the Red Robins have shrugged off any effects and are looking really well. Also, I lost new plants I put in last spring and a two year old passion flower.
    On the fruit side, the apples, blackberry, raspberries, gooseberries, redcurrants and loganberry are looking good but the blueberries haven’t put on much blossom this year. Rhubarb is the worst I can remember with plenty of stalks but many are thin and useless. Gardening can be a frustrating past-time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dd0cd0b5d12564473733feb0a3551a367b53dac43cb81fb1a3333da537232ebd.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f6a3923aae61b9799af222f38946f16666b717d402127bb3475264e3286e201.jpg
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    1. My red robin has been covered in flower for a couple of weeks, alas the hypericum bush has given up the ghost

    2. I lost my lovely Montana and the white Alpina last winter. The Montana would have been a mass of flowers now but is a mass of tangled dead stalks now till I can get it cut down.

      1. Me too, Ndovu! I keep looking at it desperately hoping for a green shoot! We brought it here from our flat when we moved, 37 years ago!

      2. We’ve had a few problems with small shrubs as well. I had two mimosas I brought the seeds back from Spain, growing in a tub quite nicely for three years. Our olive has had it, our potted acia looks a bit worse for wear and our lovely Ozzie bottle brush has had it as well.
        But the Wiegelia has won the prize two years running with its magnificent pink and white flowers.
        Roses are plumping up for their displays.

    3. Morning, Mr. Kat.
      We have no luck with passion flowers. We’ve tried several times but have failed every time.
      The chiropractice I attend has a huge plant that has rambled over the wall for years. By the look of the garden, I don’t think there is a gardener doing more than tidying up.
      ‘Snot fair.

      1. I planted one last year and it disappeared into the undergrowth! This year it is going mad and about to flower! Healthy neglect is what at you need, Anne!

      2. I planted one last year and it disappeared into the undergrowth! This year it is going mad and about to flower! Healthy neglect is what at you need, Anne!

      3. My elder sister has a passion flower that she rarely touches and it’s reliable every year. Mine was on a trellis in what I thought was a sheltered spot. I have to find something a bit more hardy to take its place.

  13. 372493+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Sunday 21 May: Keir Starmer’s plan to broaden the electorate is a first step towards reversing Brexit

    The starmer, QC, aka a dangerous queer .unt has the footings for doing just that in the shape of 48% of the voting peoples are confirmed Chic Brits, the killers of democracy.

    You cannot have a best out of 3/6/9 voting referendums with the alternative being dictatorship, either one or tother, the third option being civil war, the only real argument against that is over the triggering date.

    All those opting for a clean air nation a civil war will give them just that as in being beneficial all round.

      2. I cant recall anything significant that plonker has ever done to have been worth a knighthood. ‘Honours’ are so cheap skate these days.

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps. Warm and sunny start, and our weather pretenders are wetting themselves in excitement at the prospect of further days of summer-like weather. Presumably ‘cos it’s summer, I suppose…

    “Classic FM listeners deserting in droves after bosses ‘turn their backs’ on traditional fans

    Station bosses are being accused of pursuing younger audiences with a new trendy schedule”

    Too much film score and video games music. Go woke, go broke, just like the BBC! We barely listen to CFM now, since it decided to go after the trendy/yoof agenda:

    Quotes from article:

    In January, Classic FM rolled out a five-part “positivity series” with the former Love Island star Dr Alex George, featuring “practical advice and tips on living everyday life in a positive way”.

    “Another show in November, called Pet Classics, saw the host Charlotte Hawkins “help keep anxious pets – and their owners – calm and relaxed this fireworks season” with “relaxing music”.

    Idiots!

    1. I couldn’t stand all the ads every few minutes so I deserted CFM after a few months.

    2. The BTL comments are many and predictable:

      Alan Totten
      14 MIN AGO
      So it’s not just me then. I have switched off Classic fm for the last time. The music has become more suitable for lifts – ‘smooth’ (boring) classics abound. Not that you hear that much music these days, the adverts seem to have taken over only to be interrupted by the occasional piece of music. Fortunately, I have found a number of excellent internet classical music radio stations based in the US. These stations have great presenters who put the music first.

      Cee Emjay
      13 HRS AGO
      Andrew Marr on a Sunday morning is how I would imagine that the music played in a Soviet tractor factory in the 1970s would have sounded. Their hourly news bulletin is always very pro Labour and incredibly biased and finally whoever thought that Jonathan Ross was an addition needs a serious talking to.

      Bob Wright
      12 HRS AGO
      The other day I listened and the programme was run by Johnathan Ross. Bad speech, appalling accent, poor music. I switched off. That was not fit to be classic FM.

      Anthony Dow
      12 HRS AGO
      I really object to being told several times (20+) per hour that I am listening to “Classic FM” – I ruddy well know that! And that every piece of music played is “fantastic” or “beautiful”. Can I be the judge of that?

        2. Unfortunately all those mentioned are way beyond their ‘sell by date’ perhaps the alternatives are even worse.
          I read that rhymes with….
          Campbell was being his vile repulsive self on TV last week.
          If anyone needs a good hiding he does.

      2. The hyperbole of Radios 1 & Luxembourg where I was forever being told that some piece of inane dross was “FANTASTIC MUSIC” is what turned me off pop music in the early ’70s.

  15. ‘Morning, Peeps. Warm and sunny start, and our weather pretenders are wetting themselves in excitement at the prospect of further days of summer-like weather. Presumably ‘cos it’s summer, I suppose…

    “Classic FM listeners deserting in droves after bosses ‘turn their backs’ on traditional fans

    Station bosses are being accused of pursuing younger audiences with a new trendy schedule”

    Too much film score and video games music. Go woke, go broke, just like the BBC! We barely listen to CFM now, since it decided to go after the trendy/yoof agenda:

    Quotes from article:

    In January, Classic FM rolled out a five-part “positivity series” with the former Love Island star Dr Alex George, featuring “practical advice and tips on living everyday life in a positive way”.

    “Another show in November, called Pet Classics, saw the host Charlotte Hawkins “help keep anxious pets – and their owners – calm and relaxed this fireworks season” with “relaxing music”.

    Idiots!

  16. Zelenskiy’s G7 visit sends ‘incredibly powerful message’ to Russia, says Sunak. 21 May 2023.

    Sunak’s official spokesperson said: “It is an opportunity for President Zelenskiy to address a lot of world leaders in one place at a time when western leaders are aligned.”

    In his first face-to-face meeting with Narendra Modi, who has called for a ceasefire but not condemned Russia, Zelenskiy briefed the Indian prime minister on Ukraine’s peace plan, which calls for the withdrawal of Russian troops from the country before negotiations can start.

    That should work! There’s nothing like setting out an insuperable hurdle at the beginning to help things along. In truth of course they don’t wish to negotiate. One is inclined to believe that this is more the US position than Zelensky’s. They don’t want to see peace of any kind break out. They want a return on the cash they have expended so far and that is the destruction of Russia!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/20/zelenskiys-g7-visit-sends-incredibly-powerful-message-to-russia-says-sunak

      1. Considering that the world is going to the toilet at Warp Factor 10 Nan, there is surprisingly little to comment on lately!

    2. Zelensky is such a sly crook. He knows, as do we all, that Putin will not pull out of the regions he is trying liberate from the Ukraine and its genocidal anti-Russian legions. If the Russians decamped and went away the carnage that would be wrought in the disputed areas would be awful. Of course, the MSM in the west would never publicise such actions by the Ukrainians.

      1. Indeed.
        And to demand he gets what he wants before any negotiation starts… what idiot would agree to that?

  18. Re today’s letters headline – fine. If Lab gets in and SKS gives votes to children and foreigners and has another ‘final say’ referendum on EU membership, the next Con PM can take them away again and have another final say vote.

    If the soshies want too be childish about it, we’ll just drop to their level.

      1. Guess what, Jules, given the state of the future, I’m looking forward to it and will welcome it.

          1. I’ve already been a long time alive and 79 years become a burden.

            I also believe (and hope for) re-incarnation where I might make a difference.

          2. Imagine yer Buddhists are right and we reincarnate. I think we should all come back as amoebae and start again.

          7. If we can specify a particular person to come back as, perhaps I’d come back as princess Diana and stop after one child.

          8. Too intelligent to be reincarnated as Diana.
            I’d hate all the Royalty BS, papparazzi, you name it. As a seagull, you can crap on them and fly away.

          11. Yum…

            Sea Gulls, to Cook.

            Take a sharp knife and put in under the skin at the back part
            of the neck, and carry down to the tail feathers; after which pull off the skin
            down to the middle of the legs, and next take out the intestines. Leave the
            birds in salt and water for eight hours, when their fishy taste will be found
            to be quite gone, and you can either cook them as you would pigeon pie or in
            any other way.

            The country house, a collection of
            useful information and recipes, ed. by I.E.B.C. (1866)

          13. A guy was discussing reincarnation with his wife She said she’d like to come back as a pig. He said “You haven’t really grasped the concept have you?”

    2. Problem is, Stormy, that they ALL want to rejoin. That’s why the UK hasn’t really left yet.

  19. “White theatregoers urged not to attend play aimed at black audiences
    A theatre in east London says that one-off performance of race satire Tambo & Bones will be ‘free from the white gaze’ ”

    This article has really plumbed the depths of ‘only whites can be racist’. The subject matter is so bad that the cowardly DT isn’t permitting any comments at all, so readers are venting their extreme displeasure under other articles, and the Classic FM item seems to be attracting some very angry responses. It remains to be seen how long they will last…

    Oops, I wasn’t quick enough, the comments under the Classic FM story have vanished, the whole flippin’ lot!

    1. Well which ever way, I’m going to boycott that.
      But I do really hope plenty of whiats turn up, even if they are only seen to be demonstrating. Perhaps they can raid rob and ransack some local shops while they are at it.
      But please leave the kitchen knives and machetes at home.

      1. Other theatres should just put ‘for Whites only’ on their ticket sites. Oh wait. That would be waycist.

        1. I have a pig made from plastic string I bought in Aldl. This was to help delivery drivers find the way to my home. “Left at the pig” uses fewer characters. However, these pigs are brown, and didn’t really show up clearly. I painted it red, which is all I had at the time, which made the creature decidedly sunburnt, which is cruel. Besides, the analyticals kept sending me trending news about Tamworth, when I actually live near Worcester. At last I found a tin of spray lacquer in piggy pink, which is perfect.

          Does that make me a racist?

    2. Promoting hostile apartheid, even in satire, is a dangerous game. Whilst the whole point of freedom of speech is to allow, in the name of art, such explorations to go uncensored, they should be regarded with some suspicion on the grounds of breach of the peace, which is a criminal offence. So too is insurrection, which is a form of treason.

      I was never a racist until Black Lives Matter came along, making it clear to influencers everywhere that my life clearly doesn’t matter, and American thugs must be worshipped on one knee. Laurence Fox was dead right over this, and he should never have been denied his Equity card out of a spirit of censorship that I thought was not allowed within his own profession.

      Beyond all this, there is the real issue of an influx of hostile aliens of fighting age turning up on our beaches and outnumbering our armed forces within a matter of weeks.

      1. “I was never a racist until Black Lives Matter came along…”

        I know just how you feel, JM! I have ‘transitioned’ from being completely colour-blind, having spent the early years of my career working in yer sarf London and meeting all and sundry without a second thought, to a grumpy old git who avoids ridiculously over-represented TV drama, adverts etc. We are infested with wokery, and I now despise and avoid the lot of them.

        I now await the crashing, splintering noise of my front door being destroyed…

  20. White theatregoers urged not to attend play aimed at black audiences
    A theatre in east London says that one-off performance of race satire Tambo & Bones will be ‘free from the white gaze’

    This article has really plumbed the depths of ‘only whites can be racist’. The subject matter is so bad the cowardly DT isn’t permitting any comments at all, so readers are venting their extreme displeasure under other articles, and the Classic FM item seems to be attracting some very angry responses. It remains to be seen how long they will last…

    Oops, I wasn’t quick enough, the comments under the Classic FM story have vanished, the whole lot!

    1. The article is about Love, and as usual the professionals talk in simplistic, conformist clichés and miss the point entirely in their lack of imagination. It is, after all, what we pay experts to do.

      As a radical amateur, my thoughts count for nothing with important people, but I will spout them anyway.

      Love is an abstract, is universal and is unconditional when it comes from God. Therefore, the moment we place love as the defining relationship between two humans, we place limitations and boundaries on something that should be limitless and boundless. Human love is another matter, and is a practical arrangement between two or more humans, but that should not be confused with God’s love.

      I have often said (and ritually ignored by Those That Know Better because they are paid more) that the only purpose of religion is to enhance the capacity to love and to be loved. It does not requires us to make judgements as to what or whom we love, only that we can love. Applied to human relationships and constraints emerge, but that should not limit our capacity to love those beyond these boundaries should the opportunity arise. Those that raise children in a working monogamous marriage may well find this arrangement most practical to further the welfare of the next generation, but that does not stop a married couple loving their dog, their village or King and Country.

      1. Organised religion is another form of politics. It’s there to get people to do their master’s will: Look at the hierarchy, that has nothing to do with believing in God, but climbing the greasy pole to positions of authority and riches and personal status. Just look at the C of E, Catholics, Islam, you name it.
        The Friends seem to haave a better version. Less BS, much less hierarchy.

        1. Politics and Religion: the two most powerful mind-control drugs ever invented by mankind.

          Good morning, Paul.

  23. Morning all 🙂😉
    What a lovely sunny day. 🌞
    Headline……Isn’t terrible how a small handful of nasty but determined political idiots can wreck a country, destroy its established culture and hack the majorities social structure to pieces. While bringing the whole counties finances to its knees.
    This has been happening for 30 years since Major became PM. Why do we put up
    with it all ?
    Oh by the way that hotel the political idiots have now comendered in Wymondley Herts, is about 100 yards away from a medium size fuel storage depot. Part of a nationwide chain of depots.
    So a warming outcome ?

  24. Cognitive dissonance?

    Rishi Sunak says the UK is ‘de-risking’ but not ‘de-coupling’ from communist China despite using the G7 to label Beijing as ‘biggest challenge of our age’ to global security

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12107551/Rishi-Sunak-tells-G7-China-biggest-challenge-age-global-security.html

    White House raises serious concerns over plans by Britain to hand over ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ island in the Indian Ocean to Chinese ally Mauritius despite it already hosting US-UK military base

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12106789/White-House-raises-concerns-plans-Britain-hand-aircraft-carrier-island.html

    The ocean paradise that could become the battlefield of a New Cold War: MARK ALMOND reveals how holiday and honeymoon destination Mauritius has become the unlikely centre of a chilling power struggle between the US and China

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12106825/MARK-ALMOND-reveals-Mauritius-centre-power-struggle-China.html

    1. If Ukraine and others are anything to go by, Mauritius had better stand-by for a govt coup organised by the US and an authoritarian new Govt.

      1. But in the 1960s and 1970s, Britain removed the local population from the Chagos Archipelago to make way for the US base on Diego Garcia. Whitehall’s reason was to house Washington’s strategic airbase and listening post there so it could keep an eye on the Soviet Union from the south.

        Ahhh! Democratic Britain! Let’s defend Ukraine from those evil Russkies!.

  25. Good morning all,

    Sunny again, wind still Nor’ Nor’ East, 9℃ rising to 18℃ later. The ‘coof’ still lingers in both SWMBO and me long after we feel it should have buggered orf.

    Now what’s going on in ClownWorld today? Starmer wants to give votes to 16 and 17 year-olds and non-UK citizens who are temporarily resident here? Where have we heard that before? Oh yes, the 2014 Scottish referendum. They don’t give up, the idiot left. You have to admire them for that.

  26. It’s America but it could equally apply to the UK and other European countries:

    There seems to be a fundamental misunderstanding at the heart our current immigration debate. We keep hearing about needing an “orderly process” to get the migrants into our country, “building lawful pathways,” and helping the migrants bypass coyotes.
    The two missing points are:
    1) They have no right to come to our country; and
    2) We don’t want them here.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/biden-to-illegals-stop-or-well-give-you-more-money/

    That’s how it ends, when we “even the scales” by wrecking our own country so that we’re as miserable as they are. Then, finally, there will be no reason for anyone to ever move from one country to another, because we’ll all be living in hellholes.

  27. Archbishops place the Church at odds with God
    The Conservative Woman Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/what-a-great-fall/

    BTL

    With the head of the Church, The Idiot King Charles lll, believing in the validity of all faiths rather than the true Christian faith and his chief executive, the Archpillock of Canterbury, believing in Britain being invaded by those with beliefs hostile to Christianity then what chance has the CofE got?

    One might add that with the majority if those in the Houses of Commons and Lords, the MSM and the civil service devoutly against Brexit then has Brexit any more chance of prevailing than the fatally wounded Cof E with two such incompetents at its head?

    2. What is the point of the C of E in current form? It gave no leadership or comfort during Covid times, it doesn’t evangelize, it seems to actively seek it’s own eradication, even. It doesn’t like the wonderful buildings it was given in the past… It has money, hierarchy, politics aplenty, but to what purpose?

    3. I fail to see why believing in the validity of all the higher religions is in an “idiotic” position, perhaps you can explain? You happen to have been born in the milieu of Western Christianity, that makes your Christianity no more valid than anything else. Although I am a Christian, I have delved deeply into other religions for almost the whole of my life, I’m in my 70s now and still studying them. The reality is that they all have invaluable ideas and insights unique to them. Each has profound insights and to pretend that one is superior to all the others is plain myopia. As an Orthodox Christian, as far as I’m concerned , there is no valid Christian tradition in the West, that is why it is going the way of the Dodo, it reflects no truth other than that of man. There is no “true Christian faith” there are merely different interpretations of it. Some are more valid than others.
      I exempt Islam from the above because it is a political movement with a religion attached to bolster its position as “truth”.

      As for Welby, I detest him but that isn’t the issue. He is simply a fool like most of the Woke.

    1. Spitfires had a narrow undercarriage which folded out into the wings; Hurricanes had a wide undercart which folded inwards. Hence, Hurries were much more stable when taxying.

  29. Speaking of the idiot left, did anyone else see that foam-flecked, arm-waving climate zealot on Neil Oliver’s GB News slot last night? Apparently he used to ‘advise’ ministers. I don’t know how Neil stayed polite as he dismissed every scientist who didn’t support the climate narrative, including a Nobel Laureate. Neil didn’t challenge HIS credentials either. He should have.

    1. There’s a chap who uses this sort of thing when sorting out my back.

      1. Here was me thinking you has a small, perfectly-formed, Thai masseuse deal with your back.
        🙁
        Ah, well, another fantasy bites the dust!

  31. I watched a film last night that must have 600 people named on the credits at the end.
    Why? If you were interested, or really needed to know who the driver was, or who did the catering you could ask the production company.

    Books don’t list everyone in their production at the back of the book. Come to that, neither does any profession. If I catch a train, it doesn’t say inside the door who pressed the steel, or painted the panels or stitched the seats. I don’t know who my hairdresser’s accountant is or the name of the cleaner at my GP’s surgery.

    1. Could it be, Stormy, that ALL those employed in the film industry are all narcissistic?

    2. Yes! I imagine that is part of the reward Stormy. To see your name up there on the credits forever. They probably knock 10% off their wages for it!

    3. “Grips” is the one I always look for!!

      While I agree about books – there is an increasing tendency (another effing American thing) for authors to have half a page of glowing “thank yous”…..

    4. Stormsy, most people who work in the film industry do not enjoy secure or permanent employment; an appearance in the list of credits is a way of showing that their CV is genuine.

      Spanish tv stations often cut off most of the credits at the end of movies and switch to the adverts. As an aside, in the early days of silent screen ‘Hollywood’ (i.e. other locations) even the actors were not credited.

    1. I think it’s code for “the money we will take by raising taxes on the middle classes e.g. pension raid, wealth tax, ULEZ charges etc will be thrown at the NHS in the form of more salary”.

      1. More money isn’t the answer; the NHS needs root and branch reform. I have that on good authority from a former chief of a CQC.

  33. My word I’ve just made the mistake of briefly watching Kuenssberg. Politicians always seem to have all the answers but are never able to answer a single question. Martin Lewis ripping a tory politician apart.
    And some lady in between them obviously having a bad hair day.
    Had to switch it off, not a nice start to a lovely Sunday morning.

      1. Alan Titchmarsh has a decent Sunday morning show.
        And we tend to record a lot of programmes now.it cuts all the advertising out. And saves hours.
        But alas I’d say I’m about to be told I have an hour to get ready before we have to leave to go to our friends for lunch.
        I just might be back this evening.

  34. “The Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador of the Royal Horticultural Society, says gardens designed by people with “double-barrelled” names don’t connect with people from African backgrounds, says the Telegraph.”

    Come sweet asteroid of doom?

      2. Could it be that it’s too much like hard work and, anyway, they’re thick.

        1. Intelligence isn’t at issue. My chum is half Nigerian, coal black and was my best man. He and his diminutive and terrifying wife are due for lunch at 1. His mother was a cleaner and worked endlessly to send him to medical school and he’s made it financially – after he married and his wife took over the money side (he earns six figures and is given £3 a day pocket money to spend).

          His big extravagant buy was a 2 bed house for his Mother. I think the reality is that one generation of immigrants is vulnerable to the next and the next and the next going all the way back. We’ve had huge stability recently prior to the Blair terror and it showed how destructive massive uncontrolled immigration is – and how unfair it is on the working immigrant.

          1. Good for him, Wibbles but terrifying wife seems to rule the roost. Good luck to him.

      3. Considering the demographic for the majority of blacks – welfare – they live in tower blocks and council accommodation without a lot of greenspace. There’s also the compounding issue of massive uncontrolled immigration putting such crippling pressure on housing that they cannot afford to buy a home and thus pass that wealth on through later generations.

      4. They would have to dig holes for water and get their children to pull it out with ropes in old buckets. It’s all they have.
        But if we pay two pounds a month it will stop this. (sarc)

    2. I thought many bames had double-barrelled names… Just look at black wendyball players…

        2. Console yourself that their annual costs for you probably exceed the subscription you paid.
          I bought HG a life membership to the NT for £50 and ignoring inflation we certainly get a lot more than £50 value back each year now.

    4. I suppose someone with a name like Ngoza Fulani has wider appeal to the gardening community, of which a distinct minority will be Black.

      1. As the Fulanis were a well known slave trading tribe in West Africa, a singularly appropriate name.

        1. Migratory tribe, I know them from Northern Nigeria, but that was the northernmost they came AFAIK.

  35. The franchise should be excluded from everyone who is not both citizen and is, or was a net tax payer. Thes people are paying for the country, ergo, they get to call the tune. Anything else is travesty.

    Some welfarist waster cannot be permitted a say in how the nation is run because they’re a drain and will only vote for themselves to have more of other people’s money. Far too many people are simply thick and have no right to choose the government. Good grief, some people think companies pay tax, for goodness sake.

    1. To my mind, Wibbles, I think citizenship should ONLY be bestowed upon those who can shew that their four grandparents where also British citizens with good old English names.

      Perhaps I’m just waycist!

      1. It should be earned, either in cash returned to the country or in good deeds, evidenced by another citizen. Being british is a birthright, but also a reward. It is a set of values. A mindset. An awareness of who we are, where we cam from. A duty and responsibility.

        Those who don’t earn it – the black druggie stabbers, the pakistani muslim paedophile rapists, the lazy welfarist breeding for cash – they should never, ever be offered the franchise

    1. Just back from the golf course. A gentle breeze, low cloud and didn’t need a jacket.

  37. I let a friendship lapse, and now it’s too late
    The Conservative Woman https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/i-let-a-friendship-lapse-and-now-its-too-late/

    We all lose touch with those with whom we used to be close. Last year I visited one of my very closest friends in Durham whom I had not seen since our wedding at which he had read the lesson. Our closeness had not diminished in any way and I am so glad to have made that visit. We still exchange Christmas and Birthday cards and have the occasional telephone conversation but he has Parkinson’s, I had a stroke 12 years ago and neither of us will last forever.

    This was one of my father’s favourite poems and I read it at his funeral in 1984

    They told me, Heraclitus, they told me you were dead,
    They brought me bitter news to hear and bitter tears to shed.
    I wept, as I remembered, how often you and I
    Had tired the sun with talking and sent him down the sky.
    And now that thou art lying, my dear old Carian guest,
    A handful of grey ashes, long long ago at rest,
    Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
    For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take.

    W.S. Cory

    2. Good morning Mr T, and everyone.
      Sir, sir!
      Yes, Blott minor?
      The translator of the Greek poem was a schoolmaster named William Johnson, later William Johnson Cory.
      He wrote the lyrics to the Eton Boating Song.

    3. After moving to Norway, I made a lot of effort to keep up the few friendships I had in the UK, but after a while, it became apparent that I was the one putting in the effort – I’d phone them, they’d never phone me. I’d send email jokes and texts asking “how’s things?” or just “How?” – there would be no emails & texts in response. So, when I realised, finally and painfully, that it seemed to be only me making the effort, I stopped.
      That even went to Mother – she’d never phone me, even when she had the mental faculties, house and phone, but would moan like a butch if I missed the weekly call to her. Once, I even asked her if her phone was broken. “No”, she rreplied puzzled, “why do you ask?”. “Because it doesn’t seem to make outgoing calls” was my reply. Still call her weekly in her care home, though – after all, she is my Mother.

      1. Distance does not make the heart grow fonder. The reality is we diverge without constant communication and common experience so people fall by the wayside. I have lost almost all my American friends, there are only two I keep contact with.

      2. I think it’s generally up to the person who’s moved to make more effort.

  38. Is something going on with Disqus again? I have for the last few days only had a notification for 3 new messages when I have actually plenty or replies.

    4. Similar here. I am notified of the same 8 unread replies from a few days ago, but nothing more recent.

    1. I know I am in a minority of one – but I don’t trust Bridgen an inch.

        1. …..in your judgment of Bridgen, that is! I thought It best I made that clear. I am feeling there is something odd about the whole enchilada now, that we must just watch and allow to play out.

      2. Do you see him as another establishment false flag diversion designed to attract the populist supporter only to let them down like so many others that have gone before?

          1. Well I couldn’t see him destroying his political career unless he has been put up to it financially either way.

            Nothing that he has said about the vaccination or the effects of it is all that different to what the consensus appears to be on here.

            If there were more like him i n Parliament from the outset scrutinising the pandemic and the counter measures then it could never have happened.

          2. Ah, but you seem to think he has a sense of judgement and an ability to weigh the consequences.
            From my reading of politicians, they have neither, it’s just me, me, me. Which is why they don’t see the dangers of unfettered immigration, for example, or any of their other idiot ideas.
            He may have been put up to it, but I’d be surprised if there was £millions behind the offer – my feeling is, without knowing the man personally, he’s just a thick shit of a politician.

          3. The way I look at it, if the establishment are cancelling and he is getting pilloried in the mainstream media then he must have done something right, whether mistakenly or not.

          4. Indeed.
            A pity there aren’t fewer in the Commons beholden to Party and career. More challenges on everything need made.

          5. They are all one big establishment Uniparty nowadays, maybe they always have been, just working as intermediaries between globalist directives and us.

      3. #metoo.
        Doesn’t change the thrust of the letter, though. Curtalment of free speech, whether you like it or not, is not good.
        And it’s a good thing it’s free, too: Who’d pay for my warblings?

        1. Wouldn’t it be a good thing if weaponised accusations of antisemitism were curtailed when they are used to destroy someones reputation in order to silence them?

      4. I was thrilled that he called out the damage done by the vaccines. Less thrilled with the man. He had talks with the Party and seemed quite excited about joining UKIP. But of course UKIP was not the recipient of £5m.

    2. Very, very long.
      A good point about free speech, though. I agree with the authors: curtailing one side of free speech means both sides are curtailed. Goose, gander, and sauce comes to mind.

    3. What Bridgen initially tweeted clearly wasn’t anti Semitic and if he can prove that his political career has been harmed by what Hancock said then he should be able to sue.

      But knowing our judiciary I expect he will get as about a fair hearing as Trump did in New York recently

      1. Likely Zelensky. He can’t help opening his bombastic mouth in order to elicit sympathy while he sends his own people to the slaughter. Must insure he is extremely rich before he is forced into exile. If there is any justice his own countrymen will kill him before that.

      2. Likely Zelensky. He can’t help opening his bombastic mouth in order to elicit sympathy while he sends his own people to the slaughter. Must insure he is extremely rich before he is forced into exile. If there is any justice his own countrymen will kill him before that.

  41. Slavery reparations
    SIR – Nigel Biggar (Comment, May 14) makes a valid point when he says there is no moral case for Britain paying slavery reparations.

    But assuming an equitable way were to be found for this country to pay reparations to certain West Indian islands, how would it be extended to South Africa?

    When it was formally acquired from the Dutch in 1806, the British did not take any slaves to Cape Colony. Yet our government compensated Boers who had to relinquish their slaves in 1834.

    Moreover, who would receive reparations for the West Indian islands still administered by the British: the Caymans; Turks and Caicos; the Virgin Islands; Montserrat; Anguilla and (not strictly West Indian) Bermuda?

    The Oluwo of Iwo, present ruler of the ancient Yoruba Kingdom in Nigeria, has apologised to victims of the slave trade for the part traditional African rulers played in selling their subjects to foreigners. The king said he regretted his ancestors’ involvement, and that it was time children were told of the role of Nigerian monarchs in the slave trade. He went on to say: “We sold our children for a wall clock, tobacco, alcohol, guns, glass cups, wine, necklaces, food plates, sweets and other unmerited peanuts. Many black Americans are yet to recover from the wound of slavery.

    “I’m apologising to blacks in Cuba, Brazil, America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. I want the victims to acknowledge our regret for the past and so we can move forward.”

    Most tellingly, he said: “White men never forced us to sell our children as slaves. Humans were offered in exchange for glittering material gifts.”

    In light of this noble confession, why is it only the British who are expected to pay “reparations”?

    Nicholas Young
    London W13

    1. Of course we’ll pay – after the Nigerians do, and the Arabs and all the others including the Greeks and Romans.

    2. Of course we’ll pay – after the Nigerians do, and the Arabs and all the others including the Greeks and Romans.

    3. Well , the way I see it is , the victims of the slave trade might well have had better lives than their own antecedents in Africa .

      Tribal wars , massacres of whole villages , too numerous to mention , severed limbs , appalling , terrible servitude and dreadful illnesses that still linger today, food shortages etc still exist in Africa . Elspeth Huxley wrote extensively about West Africa.

      Africans have never EVER lived in harmony. Previous centuries were hell on earth for all the different regions out there , millions have died .

      The slave trade brought them hard work, and a possible escape from the viscous black continent .

      Not our fault the have all bred them selves stupid . Black America could have been such an success, so could have Black Britain .

      The poor UK has apologised too much.

      It is us who should be thanked for releasing people from servitude .. but now sadly not many of them know the meaning of a hard days work .

      1. In other words, Maggie, it’s all whitey’s fault and he has to pay, despite Africans being masters of their own demise but let’s be racist about this and castigate the pale whiteys

        1. We should speak out abit more , and not fear repercussions from savages .

          Show them WE ARE not a charity, and individually we can be just as savage and nasty as them .

          We shouldn’t burst into tears everytime we see rows of starving little black children .. What good has that ever done , self defeating and no gratitude , and now they have a toe hold in our culture .

          I have had enough .

          I admire strong nations , and we should support the few who have more common-sense than us .

          BlacK Africa kicked us all out over 65 years ago .. Except my idiotic parents stayed with my 2 sisters and brother .. and went down to SA..

          My second sister in SA has adult daughters , both highly qualified girls in their thirties , one of them has 2 young children .

          South African whites prefer to employ bods from Zimbabwe, they are clever and money hungry because Zim economy has collapsed . My niece employs a gardener and a nanny.. The nanny had family probs in Zim , asked for a sub , went off to her family, but also took a lot more than a sub . That was the end of that!!!

      2. ”
        The slave trade brought them hard work, and a possible escape from the viscous black continent ”
        Also abuse of enslaved minors, extra judicial violence and torture etc, etc.

        1. This interesting letter was in today’s Sunday Telegraph.

          “SIR – Nigel Biggar (Comment, May 14) makes a valid point when he says there is no moral case for Britain paying slavery reparations.

          But assuming an equitable way were to be found for this country to pay reparations to certain West Indian islands, how would it be extended to South Africa?

          When it was formally acquired from the Dutch in 1806, the British did not take any slaves to Cape Colony. Yet our government compensated Boers who had to relinquish their slaves in 1834.

          Moreover, who would receive reparations for the West Indian islands still administered by the British: the Caymans; Turks and Caicos; the Virgin Islands; Montserrat; Anguilla and (not strictly West Indian) Bermuda?

          The Oluwo of Iwo, present ruler of the ancient Yoruba Kingdom in Nigeria, has apologised to victims of the slave trade for the part traditional African rulers played in selling their subjects to foreigners. The king said he regretted his ancestors’ involvement, and that it was time children were told of the role of Nigerian monarchs in the slave trade. He went on to say: “We sold our children for a wall clock, tobacco, alcohol, guns, glass cups, wine, necklaces, food plates, sweets and other unmerited peanuts. Many black Americans are yet to recover from the wound of slavery.

          “I’m apologising to blacks in Cuba, Brazil, America, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. I want the victims to acknowledge our regret for the past and so we can move forward.”

          Most tellingly, he said: “White men never forced us to sell our children as slaves. Humans were offered in exchange for glittering material gifts.”

          In light of this noble confession, why is it only the British who are expected to pay “reparations”?

          Nicholas Young

          London W13”

      3. I’m waiting for the stampede of US and Caribbean blacks back to their ancestral lands.
        After all, obviously living in European based cultures is hell on earth.

      1. Who is the largest member of the Biggar family?
        Master Biggar – because he is a little bigger (boy, did I watch my smell choker like a hawk)..

  42. Stupid letter of the week (if I may be so bold):

    “SIR – As an omnivore, I was heartened to read Jemima Dimbleby’s article on the human need to eat meat. She suggests that having it only five days out of seven would solve many of the negative effects of meat production. I have no problem with that, but I do have a problem with pets.

    Every time I walk in a park I note the proliferation of dogs. Dogs eat meat. How much does the dog’s – or cat’s – dinner harm the planet? And what resources are used in the collection and disposal of dogs’ waste?

    Pamela Wheeler”

    What a miserable kill joy. And for the record, Pammy, my dog eats dry dog food.

    4. Our cats get as many biscuits as they want, and a small serving daily of meaty food.

  44. Would you believe it? HMG accused of obfuscating.

    You recently signed the petition “Hold a parliamentary vote on whether to reject amendments to the IHR 2005”:
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/635904

    The Petitions Committee (the group of MPs who oversee the petitions system) have considered the Government’s response to this petition. They felt that the response did not directly address the request of petition and have therefore written back to the Government to ask them to provide a revised response.

  45. I’ve had an hour back in bed and felt a little bit, but not much, better and have done an hours pottering about with light tasks, including getting a couple of mushroom trays filled with sticks for kindling.
    Coughing a bit and contemplating going back to bed again.

    1. #MeToo, BoB, now that booze is delivered.

      But I dare not spend too long sleeping otherwise I may be up again all night.

  46. Zelenskiy secures fresh US military aid at G7 as Russia hails ‘liberation’ of Bakhmut. 21 May 2023.

    Volodymyr Zelenskiy has secured fresh military aid from the US during a day of frantic diplomatic activity at the G7 summit in Washington, as Russia claimed a battlefield victory in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

    Joe Biden announced military assistance worth up up to $375m to Kyiv, telling Zelenskiy the US was doing everything possible to strengthen Ukraine’s defences in its war with Russia.

    And a big wodge of cash for the retirement fund!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/21/g7-summit-zelenskiy-meets-world-leaders-in-japan-as-ukraine-war-dominates-talks

  49. 372493+ up ticks,

    Now that’s a frog I would buy and enjoy a pint with,

    breitbart,

    Radical Islam, Not ‘White Supremacism’, Is the Biggest Terrorism Threat in Europe, French Minister Declares

    1. 372493_ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Heard tell Og the sheep are leaving England in flocks trying to distance themselves from humans, especially the voting majority.

    2. But the Home office only looks for Whitey. That’s why it completely ignores all other forms. Oddly, it never finds white supremacist terrorism either – hate not hope, joilers, you name it, the Left are verminous.

    3. Of course it is, it’s obvious but the PC brigade refuses to accept reality. It would mean they would actually have to do something about it.

  52. Question. Does anyone know what the wire “box” is called that is put on the indoor side of your letter box to catch mail rather than the post ending up all over the floor.

      1. Thanks William. But wont buy anything from Amazon. They are PC and refuse to carry books they don’t like. So I’ll find it elsewhere.

        1. For me it’s a matter of not having to bend over to pick up the mail. Being Ill has put the kybosh on a lot of simple activities. I leave it for days because I actually dread bending over or knelling. It is a drag major.

          1. Johnathan

            I do sympathise with your predicament .

            We have a fixed mail box on our wall near the front door , similar to this https://www.amazon.co.uk/ZENO-Mounted-Mailbox-Classic-Nameplate/dp/B0BXT2HB2P/ref=sr_1_27?adgrpid=153463888264&gclid=CjwKCAjwgqejBhBAEiwAuWHioM6J9S4jUN0tMK64mYobKUyC7_aqRQkbgdJ0beUIrB0t_RnukoSTQBoC3BsQAvD_BwE&hvadid=650226170396&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=1006680&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=b&hvrand=8265874808091432920&hvtargid=kwd-918432555012&hydadcr=26218_2698311&keywords=wall-mounted%2Bletter%2Bbox&qid=1684677078&sr=8-27&th=1

          2. I’ve just exercised the limit of my DIY skills. I changed the lightbulb in my hallway. It blew at 3am when I got up to go to the bathroom. Got back to sleep OK but dreamed about lightbulbs, none of which worked! Very relieved that the one I’ve put in does work. My little hallway is too dark not to have a light on all the time, so the bulbs only last about 2-3 years.

          5. Get an LED bulb. They last for roughly 12 years. thinking of buying some because you can grow plants under them and my hallway is windowless. Use up to 90% energy than ordinary bulbs. Have two strip light LED’s in my hobby room. Lights up the room like daylight. Quite amazing
            https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115423610119?hash=item1adfc88507:g:BGsAAOSw29BipLWf&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwBzM5U7InsSgJVC1QxX%2Brydz4%2FwpN28pYenjU7Z0MsH1hWY7J1CnIrdJjyd3PzY9egsq%2Fhwf8%2Bhn3Br47Bjr1U8yB72SHcJa2367Xqf0ocYFZ6oTZg1jGYgSjSMnvXoOl%2BHfDG0sjJpL7gXMuhYPgsiUonAltPSrR3hSTb72A6h2GOsYMrARIYtWCW4o1ranmQfWsxpm9i8o4tOXNKMzDsLYYlHLPSQYiXLs46qjxBoq91Jk0vGtzBqZGlSRqs64rw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABlBMUKjRw_CHYg

          6. “Get an LED bulb. They last for roughly 12 years.”

            I’ve had a couple last barely 12 months…

          7. If your house is anything like mine, every single light take a different bulb.
            🥴

          8. You can buy little illuminated plugs that fit into a socket and light up sufficiently for you to see where you are going. I had a few of those in the UK and they last forever and are cheap to run.

          10. Have several of those, very useful but hopeless at picking up anything completely flat. I have thought of a bamboo cane with gaffer tape on the bottom. If anyone has any ideas on the same line but reusable they would make a mint. As soon as I replied to Ped and William I went over to eBay and brought one of the mail catchers. Large one only £15.00

          3. Mine’s at the end of the drive the other side of the cattle grid and there’s a big box for parcels, none locked as crime is non-existent

          4. The locals on Skye told me that no one locked their doors and that crime was non-existent … until, that is, they built the Skye bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh.

            They told me that gangs of criminals, mainly from Glasgow, would drive over the bridge, ransack dozens of homes and businesses, then disappear back over the bridge before the crimes were discovered.

          5. Unfortunately that’s true although most still don’t lock their doors. Incomers usually do because they’re not used to leaving them open but since the NC500 became a tourist route most lock up now. I occasionally forget in fact I’ve left my garage door open some nights but although we haven’t got an official neighbourhood watch you can’t fart without it being round the village in 10 mins (I mean the fact not the smell)

  53. BBC News: The Ukrainians have denied that the Russians have full control of Bakhmut and Biden has said that the Ruskies have lost 100,000 casualties. The western press continue to report that the Russians are being driven back daily. At this rate the retreating Russians will be in Kiev before the end of the month. Retreating? The Ukranies must have their maps upside down – or being advised by a ‘Rupert’ fresh out of Sandhurst. They are renown for not knowing which way is North – or any other direction for that matter.

    1. These reports make William Joyce seem a paragon of truth telling but of course our propagandists wont meet the same fate.

  54. The west’s tightening of Russian sanctions is a sign of failure. 21 may 2023.

    Despite talk of quick victory there has been no knockout blow in the economic war, let alone signs that freezing assets, targeting oligarchs, seeking alternative energy sources and depriving Russia of vital components has brought about a change of heart in the Kremlin.

    The lack of instant success should not come as too much of a surprise. The earliest example of the use of sanctions dates back to ancient Greece and their record has been mixed since then. For the most part, turning the economic screw has had only a modest impact. Furthermore, it takes time – decades often – for the measures to work.

    No doubt, Russia is feeling the impact of sanctions, but so is the west. Indeed, one reason for the over-egging of claims that the Russian economy is close to collapse is that western policymakers know their own voters are suffering from the collateral damage: dearer energy, rising food prices and falling living standards.

    Frankly it looks as though these sanctions are having more of an effect on the West than Russia, particularly Europe. The US is having something of a boom since by destroying the Baltic Pipeline it’s cut out its main competitor for Gas!!

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/21/the-west-tightening-russian-sanctions-a-sign-of-failure

      1. The time is well overdue for vigilantism. Shit, such as that turd, should be shot in the head where they stand. The same should go for anyone wearing a ‘hoodie’ or a face mask. If we don’t start to fight back against this scum then all is lost. Churchill (and Drake) will be gyrating in his grave.

    4. If that had been my library you’d all be baking cakes with files inside. Little bastard.

        1. I was often tempted but an elementary school library didn’t have stuff like that- well, not when I was in charge.
          Mind you, I didn’t put up with any nonsense either in my classroom or library!
          I’d last about 5 minutes in either job now…not pc enough and more short tempered.

    6. That looked staged – a random book selection and being filmed – still shoot the bastard

        1. Chicken, for sure. Everything that’s not game tastes of chicken.
          Crocodile tastes of chicken, but has an unpleasant marshmallow-like consistency that I really dislike. Like fried sheep’s brain… ugh!

          1. My only taste of moose was of a similar texture, which spoiled the experience a tad. I suppose, though, that since the location was at the top of a mountain, in deep midwinter (accessible only by ski-lift), right up in Norrland, then it must have been deep-frozen for some considerable time before being cooked.

    1. This ‘trannie’ business isn’t new. The one on the right appears to have a stubbly beard.

    1. We are being primed to accept, and to expect, a false flag event(s) in order that TPTB can achieve their political, global objectives.

      1. I would not be at all surprised, particularly as the US isn’t happy about Britain, Mauritius and Diego Garcia.

    2. BELOW THE LINE.

      Lawbringer1, London, United Kingdom, moments ago

      Now is the time to rally our nations and get behind our brave troops. If you know anything about history you’ll know that Russia (in what ever form it exists in) has always been one of our greatest enemies. That’s why russians have such a deep seeded hatred of Anglos. Don’t back down a single inch from these alcoholic peasant Ruskies. Appeasement has NEVER worked with these types of violent bullies, the only thing they know and respect is strength. As a proud patriot I say, if a war is what Russia wants, then let’s give it to them. And If china wants some they can come and get it as well.

      Russia is usually our ally against European Tyrannies such as Napoleon, Wilhelmine Germany and the Third Reich. I wish we were now sided with them against the EU!

      1. War with Russia and China at the same time? That’ll go well, as the UK has sent most munitions to Ukraine, many tanks and other materiel. And has an army the size of my left sandal.
        That’ll end well.

      2. That individual should be put in a uniform and sent straight to the front line in Ukraine.
        In my view, if Hitler had left Russia alone and concentrated on the UK and invaded, the war would have been lost. He could then have turned his attention to Russia.
        I strongly suspect that given that approach the Germans would have beaten the Americans to the atomic bomb.
        One can never tell.
        I also suspect that the Americans, following their desire to hate rather than co-operate with Russia will ensure that China becomes the world’s superpower.
        It isn’t going to end well.

      1. Someone votes FOR them… Using one of the corrupt voting machines would be far too complicated.

      2. I like to hope that the one who replied “Care” as Obama’s last name was taking the mickey of the interviewer, sometimes I think that these “oh so clever” interviewers need to be taken down similarly.

  62. A wee Birdie Three!

    Wordle 701 3/6
    🟨🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. “I’ve wined and dined on mulligan stew……..that’s why the lady is a tramp.”

      4. Wow, boring par 4 here.

        Wordle 701 4/6

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

    4. Been fishing. should have had an eagle but will make do with a par.

      Wordle 701 4/6

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

  63. A wonderful day by the coast in glorious sunshine. I treated some family members and friends to a Swedish buffet lunch at Löderups Strandbad on the south coast to celebrate my “official” birthday (passed over from my real one in dark, dank, wet, cold, snowy, frosty and foggy February). The food on offer was of an even higher standard than usual with countless items, hot and cold, on offer. Numerous visits to the food bar to fill up the small plates is always a necessity.

    There was fish of a dozen varieties, both fresh and pickled; dozens of cold meat cuts, hard-boiled eggs, cheeses, crackers, breads, pickles and relishes. And that is just the first course. Then, on the side tables, there were mushrooms, cauliflower florets, Brussels sprouts (no doubt frozen ones but still delicious) roasted potatoes, roast pork loin slices with loads of perfectly-cooked crackling!, red cabbage, Janssons Frestelse, prinzkorv (cocktail sausages), körtbollar (meat balls) and several other things I cannot remember. It was a delight (for me) to find slices of medium-rare roast lamb among the cold cuts; lamb is rare in Sweden, they don’t ‘get’ it.

    The dessert display area also had lots to offer but, since I am off sugar, I didn’t venture there. In fact there was so much protein on offer on the savoury side, I didn’t miss eating any of the numerous carbs on offer. For seven hungry adults eating copious amounts of food (including drinks) the bill came to the equivalent of £210·00, which I consider to be a steal.

    Then my friend Bertil handed me my ‘birthday’ present of a massive tray of fresh fruit and vegetables. In the tray were: 2 limes; 1 lemon; 1 cantaloupe melon; 1 pineapple; 2 apples; 1 pear; green, yellow and pointy red peppers; 3 red chilli peppers; 1 turnip; 1 courgette, 1 cucumber; 1 avocado; 3 large scallions; 1 ginger root; a small oregano plant, a small rosemary plant, and a huge bag of almonds. No worries about meal-planning this week.

    I shall roast the turnip along with the peppers, courgette, scallions, then add some mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, season it with fresh oregano, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, to make a Mediterranean-style roasted vegetable dish.

    The avocado, lime juice and one red chilli will be augmented with some fresh tomato, chopped shallot, fresh coriander, ground cumin, salt and pepper to make a guacamole.

    The rest of the fruit will be savoured at leisure. I love living in Sweden, me. 👍🏻😊

    1. Happy Official Birthday, Grizz.
      Hope it was the best ever, and continues to improve with the years!
      What a spread! and so cheap!

      1. Thanks, Paul. It’s a lovely place. If you ever venture down these parts I’ll take you there.

    1. Epstein pioneered the development of charitable funds which, as with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or the Clinton Foundation, were anything but. The funds posed as philanthropic whilst in reality making vast profits for the owners.

      The people in Epstein’s address and contact book comprise the most evil gangsters in history.

      1. Which is why Epstein committed suicide in prison when the surveillance cameras were strangely out of action!

        1. Probably at the behest of Obama and the Clintons. I believe such terminations of a person’s life are routinely labelled Arkanside. Just another facet of American political life.

          Assassinate those who might otherwise expose your deep corruption in public office.

          Edit: Epstein was placed in a cell with a convicted murderer.

  65. Jeremy Clarke, Spectator magazine’s much-loved, funny and unsparing Low Life columnist – obituary

    The heart of Clarke’s writing was his empathy with those whose lives, like his own, failed to follow untroubled paths

    By Telegraph Obituaries
    21 May 2023 • 3:47pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2023/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000003237403_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq8fz5OpVhBrE7nkm7PkQSx_oMTU0rqb5cFved7TuDVr0.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Jeremy Clarke in 1997 at home in Strete near Dartmouth

    Jeremy Clarke, who has died at home in France aged 66, was The Spectator’s long-serving Low Life columnist, chronicling with extraordinary frankness and good humour the depths and failings to which human nature is prone – and concluding with a no-holds-barred account of his own terminal cancer.

    Having been recruited to The Spectator in 1999 shortly after the accession of Boris Johnson as the magazine’s editor, Clarke at first wrote intermittently under the heading of “No Life”. Unduly modest, he was reluctant to take on the Low Life mantle of the legendary Soho flaneur Jeffrey Bernard, who had written in that space from 1976 until his death in 1997 and was celebrated on the West End stage in Keith Waterhouse’s Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2023/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000336530619_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Clarke with Boris Johnson: The Spectator hired him shortly after Johnson became editor

    But in 2001 Clarke became Low Life – and embarked on a literary odyssey that was in every way a match both for the legacy of Bernard and for the High Life contributions of the inexhaustible Greek playboy Taki (Theodoracopulos) with whom he was paired on the page. Week by week, Clarke’s columns dealt unsparingly with issues ranging from drug and alcohol abuse, broken relationships and domestic violence to petty crime and football hooliganism – all of which featured large in Clarke’s own curriculum vitae.

    Many of Clarke’s funniest episodes, set in the hardscrabble Devon towns where he spent his middle years, involved a gallery of reprobates led by the femme fatale Sharon, whose “tans always seemed to last longer than her boyfriends” – Clarke was one – and her on-off lover, the explosive “local hard man” Trevor.

    One such, from 2002, finds Trevor shoving his love-rival Darren’s head through a pub windowpane, “orange sparks from the cigarette lodged between the fingers of Trevor’s right hand adding a momentarily festive effect”. As the ruckus continues, Sharon’s hair and mascara are ruined by a drenching of Stella Artois – but “she’s circulating with all her usual social adroitness and firing back pints of lager as if nothing has happened”.

    It was as though Rabelais and Damon Runyon were co-writing an X-rated version of The Archers. But the heart of Clarke’s writing was his empathy with all those whose lives, like his own, failed to follow untroubled paths. That included his father, a heavy drinker who ended up as the uniformed carpark attendant of a nudist beach, his plain little hut “the only place of his own he’d ever had” – until the night it was reduced by arson to “a perfect rectangle of ashes, a pair of door hinges and a padlock”.

    The naturalness of Clarke’s writing belied the sweat he put into it, often spending two whole days on an 800-word column and still worrying that he had failed to find a resonant last phrase. But the ending he achieved in a broader sense – recording until he could write no more the agony of advancing tumours, the kindness of nurses and neighbours, the solace of books, birdsong and morphine, and the loving care of Catriona, the partner he married at the last – was high art indeed, followed with admiration and rising dread by a legion of readers.

    Jeremy John Clarke was born on February 9 1957 at Rochford, near Southend in Essex, the eldest of three children of John Lewis Clarke – then a bank clerk, later a salesman – and his wife Audrey, née Brice, a nurse. Brought up at Leigh-on-Sea, Jeremy was educated at Buckhurst Hill County High School and at sixth-form college in Southend.

    He passed only two O-levels, however, and his next phase of development was neatly summarised on the flyleaf of a Low Life anthology published in 2011:

    “Three convictions for smash and grab. Two for drunk driving. One for possession of amphetamine sulphate. General labouring and factory work. Attended charismatic Baptist church. Made girlfriend pregnant. Resigned from job as refuse collector, returned library books, sold house, went to the Democratic Republic of Congo, then known as Zaire. Came back altered. Conscious decision to join bourgeoisie.”

    If he never quite achieved that ambition, he was certainly an intellectual manqué, whose secret vice during his roughhouse youth was an unquenchable thirst for reading.

    It was Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest that inspired Clarke’s short career as a nursing assistant in a mental hospital – until he was sacked for drinking. And it was Evelyn Waugh who inspired his quixotic application to read English Literature at Waugh’s Oxford college, Hertford, after taking A-levels at night school. When that failed, he gained entrance to SOAS in London to read African studies.

    He also attended literature lectures at UCL, and it was his 1993 review for its student magazine of Brian Plummer’s book Ferrets – one of Clarke’s recherché enthusiasms was ferret husbandry – that brought him to the attention of the literary grandee and UCL professor Karl Miller. Taken up by Miller as what Clarke called “his latest great white hope”, a book deal followed via a top agent, Alexandra Pringle, with a £50,000 advance.

    A slice of the advance was received and blown, but no book was delivered. Nevertheless, Clarke was launched as a writer, becoming a columnist for Prospect magazine from 1995 to 2000 and The Independent on Sunday from 1996 to 1998.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2023/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000336530623_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    With Catriona Olding, the Scottish artist whom he married earlier this year

    Early subjects included the eccentric residents of the seaside care home run by his mother, but he also emerged as a polished travel writer, avid in pre-trip research and with a love of Spain and the Mediterranean as well as Africa.

    Clarke’s talent was noticed by Stuart Reid, the Spectator’s deputy editor (and former Sunday Telegraph comment editor), who recruited him to write for the magazine; Liz Anderson, the arts editor who also looked after the “Life” columns, nurtured him through bouts of self-doubt; when he went up to London for Spectator parties, it was usually Taki who led him astray.

    In his later years Clarke developed a fascination with the literature and battlefield geography of the First World War, in which four of his great uncles had died. There was also a religious side to him, of varying intensity over the years, alongside a more constant faith in West Ham United.

    For such a lovable man, Jeremy Clarke was unlucky in love (booze and drugs did not help) until 2011, when he met Catriona Olding, a Scottish artist and former nurse. The occasion was the launch party for his Low Life book subtitled “One Middle-Aged Man in Search of The Point”; Catriona had won free tickets by submitting a tasteless joke. Long-distance friends at first, when her first marriage ended they became a couple, “stupidly, madly in love,” as she put it. “Couldn’t eat when we went out, just stared into each other’s eyes.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2023/05/21/TELEMMGLPICT000336531528_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Baroness Trumpington and Jeremy Clarke at The Spectator Cigar Awards Dinner 2014

    But, meanwhile, he was diagnosed in 2013 with prostate cancer and introduced to “the Elizabethan drama of the oncologist’s consulting room – always a door opening and someone coming in bearing grave news”. The habitual joie de vivre of Low Life was thereafter tempered by frequent medical bulletins, sometimes signalling remission, more often something worse ahead.

    In those years Clarke lived between Devon and the Provençal village of Cotignac where Catriona had decamped, to a house built into a cliff, following her separation. But after his mother’s death in 2019 Clarke moved permanently to France, offering British readers a revealing account of the opulence of French state health provision.

    In mid-March this year, he found strength for a short journey to the local mairie, where he and Catriona were married. The following morning he returned to hospital in Marseilles, where nurses decorated his bed with wildflowers. “Catriona’s dear face appeared around the door,” he ended that week’s column. “She’s here now, beside me… I am enveloped in kindness. I feel tons better.”

    Jeremy Clarke’s last Spectator column, on “the pros and cons of kissing”, appeared in the magazine’s issue of May 6.

    He is survived by Catriona, his son Mark, grandsons Oscar and Klynton, to whom he was especially devoted, and three stepdaughters from Catriona’s first marriage.

    Jeremy Clarke, born February 9 1957, died May 21 2023

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/05/21/jeremy-clarke-obituary-low-life-spectator-magazine/

    1. A great writer and a man with superhuman courage as his end approached.

      2. I’ll have to find another column to turn to first as each edition of the Speccie is publised. RIP, Jeremy, you were great to read to the very last.

    2. A tribute to Jeremy Clarke, The Spectator’s Low Life columnist
      21 May 2023, 4:35pm

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Screenshot-2023-05-21-at-16.32.12-1.png
      By Carmen Fyfe 2021

      Jeremy Clarke, one of the most loved columnists in the history of The Spectator, died this morning at his home in Provence. Catriona, whom he married a few weeks ago, was by his side. Everyone who read his column knew this day was coming, but that doesn’t make the news any easier to bear. Our readers have lost not just a columnist but a friend – and he will be mourned as such. He was one of the greatest writers ever to appear in our pages. But he was also so much more.

      For 23 years his Low Life column proved that any life, no matter how humble, can be riveting if the writing is good enough. He poured his heart and soul into what he wrote; it read effortlessly but was written with incredible thought and effort. He was able to magnify his own life in a way that makes you reflect upon your own. To say that I was his editor for 14 years would be to vastly exaggerate my role. I didn’t edit a single word of his: he filed word perfect every week. When I became editor, I actually wondered if he exaggerated his stories. He’d begin by saying: ‘I woke up on a Leicester Square pavement at 4 a.m.’ and you’d think, ‘No, he couldn’t possibly have done that; he’s using artistic licence’. Then you’d meet him and realise: yes, it’s all for real. Hence the unmatched power of his writing.

      There will be a memorial service for him, the details of which will be arranged in due course. The Spectator will be paying tribute to him in next week’s magazine. For now, we have his columns to treasure: a legacy that has enriched, and will continue to enrich, the lives of everyone who comes across them. His column was not a study in ‘low life’ drink and debauchery, although there was plenty of that. The theme that jumped out to me, especially in his writing about Catriona, was about the role and power of love. Its ability to transform the smallest, most seemingly insignificant parts of life.

      As one of our readers put it at a recent Spectator event, the end of life is a phase that awaits us all, but Jeremy had a handle on it. And that we can all live better, savour life better, because Jeremy lived. That’s how I’ll always remember him.
      *********************************************************

      pj
      an hour ago
      I kept a copy of this (see below). Writing of the very highest order. RIP, Jeremy

      ‘In the final of the 1985 UK snooker championship, Willie Thorne missed a blue, on which the match and arguably his whole career pivoted. As I lie here, day after sunny autumn day, in a state of inanition, I try to calculate at which point in the past few weeks I missed that metaphorical blue and this ineluctable decline into powerlessness became headlong. On which day, without knowing it, for example, did I first stay in bed all day, excused duty? Or, going still farther back, how strange to have felt no premonition, as the plane took off from Gatwick last summer, and her green fields tilted and receded, that I would never see England again? And on what trivial, unthinking errand had I walked down the hill to the village shop for the last time? How on earth have I come, in such a short space, to abdicate all hope and strength, power and responsibility, independence and ambition, socialising, shirts, socks and shoes, and to be lying here like this, a garland ox in its sun-filled stall, passively awaiting the unknown?’

      1. An example of the power of his prose:

        “‘In the final of the 1985 UK snooker championship, Willie Thorne missed a blue, on which the match and arguably his whole career pivoted. As I lie here, day after sunny autumn day, in a state of inanition, I try to calculate at which point in the past few weeks I missed that metaphorical blue and this ineluctable decline into powerlessness became headlong. On which day, without knowing it, for example, did I first stay in bed all day, excused duty? Or, going still farther back, how strange to have felt no premonition, as the plane took off from Gatwick last summer, and her green fields tilted and receded, that I would never see England again? And on what trivial, unthinking errand had I walked down the hill to the village shop for the last time? How on earth have I come, in such a short space, to abdicate all hope and strength, power and responsibility, independence and ambition, socialising, shirts, socks and shoes, and to be lying here like this, a garland ox in its sun-filled stall, passively awaiting the unknown?'”

    3. Thanks for posting. He seemed to be a fine chap.

      There were two references in the obit – the first Rochford where I worked for a while and where my eldest was born. (An Essex girl – who subsequently went on to secure a MMath degree and membership of the institute of Chartered Mathematicians)
      The second Baroness Trumpington who presented me with the £1500 first prize in a national suggestion scheme!).

      Back home today for a couple of days before I resume my travels to Bath via Devizes later in the week…

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01e9ea03efa6f80daface4c4d6441ec767714bc907c3e49c27992203e55e4aaa.png

  66. That’s me for today. An exhausting afternoon in the garden – doing the edges, watering – generally slaving. Knackered. Sunny though it was, there was STILL a strong, cold wind – which will go on (and get worse) until Wednesday. Maddening, because it dries out the already dry ground. We haven’t had any “proper” rain for weeks. The coldness is, obviously, because of global warming…

    Anyway, have a spiffing evening. Should you wish to be depressed, there is an excellent 4-parter on PBS about Afghanistan….no sub-titles, infuriatingly – but the progs show how ignorant interference from Russia, the US and “the West” – completely buggered the place up and led to the free-spirited and open-hearted Taliban taking over….

    A demain.

  67. Just made tonight’s dinner – goat curry. Takes me back to being on Ex with the Ghurkas.

      1. Hell no, from a goat farm near Avebury – or should that be farm goat Grizz?

      2. Hell no, from a goat farm near Avebury – or should that be farm goat Grizz?

    2. Hey, Womaan! Dat am curry goat. You’ll have de brothers after you, womaan!👍🏻😊

      1. Leave her alone, she was reminiscing about being on her Ex, unless I misinterpreted her post.

  68. Evening, all. Have had an eventful day. EAPCM after church (with the unsatisfactory rector) turned into a slanging match. There were more people at the meeting than had attended church at 11am! After the rector had stomped off refusing to answer questions because “it wasn’t about finances” (although it was a question about why the finances had become so dire after February) and “it isn’t on the agenda” (not that we had an agenda because she didn’t issue one), we repaired to the pub to investigate what our options are for resolving this unsatisfactory situation. I had to leave early because I was going out for a meal with a friend (very tasty and enjoyable that was, too). No doubt I’ll be kept informed.

    1. EAPCM??

      Defeats Google!

      Early Afternoon Parish Council Meeting?

      Why don’t you sack the unsatisfactory rector (ess), Conners ???

      1. Extraordinary Annual Parochial Church Meeting. We had an ordinary APCM today and there were lots of not very sensible questions which the rector answered very satisfactorily. Much better.

      2. It’s not as easy as you might think, lacoste (and Sue answered the question about the Parochial Church Council meeting – it was extraordinary because the last one, on Palm Sunday, didn’t pass the accounts). Simony might be a reason to get rid of her or, failing that, we’d have to prove “open and notorious evil living”. We passed a vote of no confidence at a PCC meeting by a generous margin, but the Archdeacon told her to ignore it! Since things really kicked off in February, the amount of money coming in has nosedived to the extent we have, at the Archdeacon’s suggestion, severely reduced the parish share we pay (even during the interregnum we didn’t have to do that).

    2. EAPCM??

      Defeats Google!

      Early Afternoon Parish Council Meeting?

      Why don’t you sack the unsatisfactory rector (ess), Conners ???

  69. Well, I still feel absolutely crap so am off for an early bath and bed.
    G’night all.

      2. When I went racing at Bath I camped on a CL site out in the country. It was just how England used to be; there was a cricket match taking place and as I walked down the road to the footpath across the fields to the church, a steam train chuffed over the bridge. Idyllic!

  71. As if I hadn’t already had my weekly supply of outrage, I dipped into ‘Countryfile’. I had a sense of deja vu when I watched last week’s edition on ‘Mental Health Awareness’. It featured “seasoned marathon runner Haroon Mota who’s also a champion for diversity and inclusion in the countryside.” Think of England cricketer Moeen Ali with a back-pack and you get the picture. He was on his way up Yr Wyddfa, otherwise known as Snowdon. I don’t know if it translates into Urdu.

    What did it remind me of? Last year’s edition about Hadrian’s Wall in which we were introduced to Mohammed Dalic, “a die-hard rambler who’s hiked the full 73 miles of the wall and who is also an award-winning equality, diversity and inclusion manager with the fire and rescue service in Cumbria.” What a land of tax-payer funded opportunity the United Kingdom is for the resourceful immigrant!

    Anyway, back to Haroon. He didn’t have these experiences of the outdoors as a kid and now that he does, he wants to inspire more ethnic minority communities to visit the countryside. Very worthy of you Mr Mota, but I’ll get on my own hobby horse here. Millions of white ancestral British are just as unfamiliar with the countryside as you once were. They’re the people who live in scummy urban Britain and would probably feel just as out of place in the outdoors as you once did (especially if they went to Wales, the land where the street names have no vowels).

    We were then treated to a little lecture about mental health in the Asian community. It didn’t specify which community (rather presumptuous, I thought) but the name Dakashana Balamurali is a bit of a giveaway. She spoke earnestly while her mute male companion, unnamed, nodded sagely in agreement.

    10 points to the DIE-hards!

    1. I had to endure the (more knowledgeable) presenters deferring to and doting on the black “paddock expert” on the Opening Show on Saturday. He kept getting asked his opinion and the female ex-jockey (Leona Mayer rather than Adele Mulrennen, I think) got sidelined.

  72. I reckon the next Cabinet victim will be ‘Suellagate’, courtesy of Yvette Cooper, very soon . . .

    1. Me too – and I don’t approve. Civil service is arguing that she shouldn’t have asked them for advice on how to get a course on her own, like other famous people so, as it’s crossing the boundary between work and personal. I bet whoever leaked this crosses that boundary every single day.

      1. Interesting how the Civil Service always goes public on anything said or done by a Conservative.

        1. Blair, et al, destroyed the ‘neutral integrity’ of the Civil Service …

      2. She asked and they said no. So she took the points and the fine. That should be the end of the story. They’re determined to get her out by whatever means they can.

    2. Extraordinary that the Poisonous Pixie who with her husband Ed Balls was found to have flipped multiple properties, in order to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, should feel entitled to go after Braverman over a 3 points driving penalty.

      If I was a government minister I would not wish to go on Zoom with a bunch of others for the three or four hours a Driving Safety Awareness Course takes. Imagine when some miscreant Taxi driver spills the beans to the Press about her lack of knowledge of the latest changes in the Highway Code.

  73. Just finished booking a week’s trip to Iceland.
    Cor, but that’s money!
    A day trip to Geysir, a day in the Blue Lagoon, a day or 2 bimbling about. All in a month’s time.

    1. It was a nice place before its present WEF driven govt got into power.

      I spent a year in Victoria and then several years later I spent 6 or 7 months in Tasmania.

      It’s all in the books, Not A Bad Life and Passing Threescore Years And Ten

  79. Let’s hope bloody discus sorts out these comments- annoying to say the least.
    Am off to bed. Husband feeling better but we are both tired.
    Going to be a somewhat worrying week here at the Lake but will KBO.
    Goodnight Y’all.

  80. Before I nod off , anyone here listed on the Sunday Times Rich list .

    Do tell, and what was your most treasured moment , either of purchase or appreciation?

    3. Our education system is Rooted !
      As in wrecked, just like everything else in our country.

  83. Still waiting for TWO sleeping cures to take effect – this is probably just another sleepless night so I shall say, Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk, until I may regale you with tomorrow’s story.

  85. I’m afraid a call of nature has to take precedence over today’s story.

    Fill yer boots, Elsie.

    1. Just like you, I’m waiting for the new page, Sir Jasper. Get cracking, Geoff!

    3. Thank you, Geoff; by Jove, I needed that and I suppose, better late than never.

Comments are closed.