Sunday 22 January: The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the Conservatives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

657 thoughts on “Sunday 22 January: The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the Conservatives”

  2. Good Morrow, Gentlefolk. Here is today’s story:

    Blonde Flier

    A plane is on its way to Toronto, when a blonde in economy class gets up and moves to the first-class section and sits down.

    The flight attendant watches her do this and asks to see her ticket.

    She then tells the blonde that she paid for economy class and that she will have to sit in the back.

    The blonde replies, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Toronto and I’m staying right here.”

    The flight attendant goes into the cockpit and tells the pilot and the co-pilot that there is a blonde bimbo sitting in first class, that belongs in economy and won’t move back to her seat.

    The co-pilot goes back to the blonde and tries to explain that because she only paid for economy she will have to leave and return to her seat.

    The blonde replies, “I’m blonde, I’m beautiful, I’m going to Toronto and I’m staying right here.”

    The co-pilot tells the pilot that he probably should have the police waiting when they land to arrest this blonde woman who won’t listen to reason.

    The pilot says, “You say she is a blonde? I’ll handle this, I’m married to a blonde. I speak blonde.”

    He goes back to the blonde and whispers in her ear, and she says, “Oh, I’m sorry.” and gets up and goes back to her seat in economy.

    The flight attendant and co-pilot are amazed and asked him what he said to make her move without any fuss.

    “I told her, “First class isn’t going to Toronto.”

    1. Morning NTN,

      I was always anxious when boarding a train at Bromley South worrying that I had got in the wrong half of a train that was going to split..

      1. I’m a nervous wreck when I know trains are going to be split.
        I practically end up in the driver’s cab or the guard’s van.

        1. I was on a split train on an overnighter in Germany. Front end going to Berlin and the back end going to Switzerland. Not much chance of being in the wrong section though. The Swiss train was luxurious.

          1. We have always enjoyed the panicked reaction when the Amsterdam train snakes down to Rotterdam and then back again.

          6. When I travelled on a Swiss train, I was struck by the wooden slatted seats! Even British Rail was more luxurious!

      2. It happens at Shrewsbury; one part goes to Cardiff – I keep checking I’m in the right section!

    3. Good morning NtN.
      Another good one to start day!
      Your tale today reminded me of a trip I made many years ago to stay in Germany with my brother’s exchange family, I went by train one day to visit Munich. At one station along the route back, the train would be divided, with some carriages going on a separate line into the DDR. With my limited German, I was not 100% sure I was in the correct carriage.

    2. Now that the midterm elections have happened, Biden can be safely side-lined as it won’t affect Kamala Harris’ chance to run for two full terms.

      Instead of a senile paedo, we’ll have to suffer a cackling halfwit. Though, much like our collection of clowns, they are merely paid puppets.

  5. Sending Ukraine our tanks could turn Europe into one big radioactive graveyard. Peter Hitchens 22 January 2023.

    When the Defence Secretary announced that British tanks were going to Ukraine, not one MP raised any doubts or opposed the move. Not one. To read the record of the non-debate is like reading the proceedings of some Communist fake parliament, supine and brain-dead.

    The country where political freedom was born has decided not to bother being free any more.

    So it is left to me to tell you that it is an act of grave stupidity for the West to supply Ukraine with modern tanks. Unlike everyone else in the media and politics, I am not a military expert. But I know what tanks are for, and it is not defence.

    The cowardice and treachery of the UK’s Political Elites is pretty well a given nowadays and the MSM are not merely a rubber stamp but active participants in their lies. This is almost certainly the only article you will read that opposes the coming war. Good luck to Hitchens and the rest of us who oppose this madness. We will need it!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11661589/PETER-HITCHENS-Sending-Ukraine-tanks-turn-Europe-one-big-radioactive-graveyard.html

  6. Sending Ukraine our tanks could turn Europe into one big radioactive graveyard. Peter Hitchens 22 January 2023.

    When the Defence Secretary announced that British tanks were going to Ukraine, not one MP raised any doubts or opposed the move. Not one. To read the record of the non-debate is like reading the proceedings of some Communist fake parliament, supine and brain-dead.

    The country where political freedom was born has decided not to bother being free any more.

    So it is left to me to tell you that it is an act of grave stupidity for the West to supply Ukraine with modern tanks. Unlike everyone else in the media and politics, I am not a military expert. But I know what tanks are for, and it is not defence.

    The cowardice and treachery of the UK’s Political Elites is pretty well a given nowadays and the MSM are not merely a rubber stamp but active participants in their lies. This is almost certainly the only article you will read that opposes the coming war. Good luck to Hitchens and the rest of us who oppose this madness. We will need it!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11661589/PETER-HITCHENS-Sending-Ukraine-tanks-turn-Europe-one-big-radioactive-graveyard.html

  8. The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the Conservatives

    Why not send our military housing to Ukraine instead of the tanks

  11. Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – You report (January 15) on the scandal of poor accommodation standards for our Armed Forces personnel.

    That they are deteriorating under a Conservative Government no longer surprises me. The Prime Minister and Cabinet members queue up for photo opportunities, but what we get in reality are apathy and broken promises.

    The Armed Forces Covenant might as well not exist for all the good that it is doing. Recruitment is falling and retention will follow; veterans continue to be plagued by vexatious prosecutions; our service personnel are used to plug gaps in essential services caused by strikers who earn considerably higher wages, and procurement in all services is shambolic.

    Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary, has the reputation of being an extremely able minister. How, then, is all this happening on his watch?

    Alec Richardson
    St Martin’s, Shropshire

    They should hang their heads in shame – but they don’t do ‘shame’ do they?

    1. This BTL poster seems to speak for many of us:

      Roland Butter
      8 MIN AGO
      The scandalous state of military housing is the greatest evidence of what the progressives in Westminster(all established parties) and Whitehall really think of the indigenous citizens they laughably claim to serve – this is the reality of their beliefs, not the relentless gaslighting we get in their faked up speeches, declarations and promises – we live in a nation run by anti- British Marxists and have done for 25 years. Unless we vote for someone untainted by their woke progressivism, they will continue to hollow us out at the behest of their supranational masters from the WEF, UN, WHO and of course the bad smell of the EU (which still wafts through the corridors of Whitehall and blankets everything they do).

    2. An old school friend of mine married an army chap and was in the Kingston barracks near Richmond Park about 20 years ago. I was appalled at the accommodation then. Heaven knows what it is like now. We treat our armed service personnel abysmally. I don’t know why they bother when they would be treated better on welfare.

      1. Our village has a defibrillator mounted on the front of the village hall. I doubt anyone but a few will know how to use it.

        I expect every sports ground will soon have defibrillators as fit young sportsmen seem to be dropping like flies.

        The roll out to schools is more than suspicious given the government’s determination to jab every child in the country.

        1. You have to call 999 and they give you a code to access the equipment in the cabinet. Then they will talk you through how to use it. We have provided several in our parishes.

    1. All the splinter parties except Tice’s crowd are in talks to unite.
      I draw my own conclusions from that.

      1. The biggest hardship of the ‘splinter’ parties is overcoming their leaders’ massive egos.

        ‘Morning, BB2.

        1. Be fair, that’s what all politicians should have…brains don’t come into it.

          ‘Morning, Nanners.

  14. Good morning all. Another freezing start today, a tad below -6½°C again. I think the log burner is going to be lit early this morning.
    A rather long letter from the letters page makes one wonder who is providing their funding and a few responses;-

    Greener fossil fuels
    SIR – If Tony Hayward, former chief executive of BP, would like us to learn to love the fossil fuel industry, there is only one thing the industry needs to do: stop the products it sells from causing further global warming (“The UK will pay the price for demonising fossil fuels”, Comment, January 16).

    Who cares if the industry also invests in renewables? Renewables are profitable anyway. What it needs to invest in is permanent disposal of the carbon dioxide generated by the products it sells, and stop just hoping someone else will sort it out.

    Applying the principle of extended producer responsibility to fossil fuel imports and extraction in Britain would balance demand for fossil fuels with commensurate investment in geological carbon dioxide storage – the only way to guarantee that our continued fossil fuel use is compatible with our Paris Agreement obligations.

    How would it work? The Government regulates fossil fuel producers to recapture and permanently store a rising fraction of the carbon dioxide generated by their activities and products. A 10 per cent storage target by 2030, for example, would add less than 0.2p per kWh to the cost of delivering natural gas in Britain. To frighten politicians, the industry will claim all this cost would be passed on to the consumer, but with profits and taxes almost 50 times higher, would it and the Treasury really not be able to absorb any of this cost for the sake of a more secure future for themselves, never mind the planet? The fossil fuel industry has the resources and expertise to reach 100 per cent storage by 2050. What it lacks is the incentive, without policy to level the playing field.

    Mr Hayward is right that we should be prepared for the transition away from fossil fuels to be slower than anticipated. He is wrong to imply we must forego our environmental responsibilities. Chris Skidmore’s net zero review highlighted the need for a geological storage target in British policy. With it, Britain would stop its use of fossil fuels causing further global warming by 2050. Without it, it won’t. It’s as simple as that.

    Stuart Jenkins
    Myles Allen
    University of Oxford

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    1 HR AGO
    ‘Chris Skidmore’s net zero review highlighted the need for a geological storage target in British policy. With it, Britain would stop its use of fossil fuels causing further global warming by 2050. Without it, it won’t.’
    Stuart Jenkins, Myles Allen Folklore Centre of Superstition and Witchcraft, University of Oxford
    ‘… It’s as simple as that.”
    What a splendid example of imperious applied cod science psychosis.
    Note the comprehensive absense of anything remotely resembling scientific evidence.
    And hear the bbc faithfull acclaim the way their cod science quack hysteria transcends mere theoretical disquisition and empirical analysis, bringing prevalent strains of occult theological paranoia to bear down on reason & sanity : the ultimate triumph of bbc ‘settled’ cod science
    ‘its as simple as that’ ! the cry of the quack down the ages
    its an occult religion and so, supernaturally it is, just ‘as as simple as that’;
    Net Zero Psychotics
    Paranoid Cod Science Quacks
    They have an hysterical hatred of Carbon Dioxide !,
    A trace gas in the earth’s ancient, ever changing atmosphere certainly but one absolutely, fundamentally essential to the functioning of that unique miracle of our world.
    Photosynthetic plant life.
    The foundation and basis of all higher life forms on this planet.
    Also the source of the atmospheric oxygen we and all living things breathe and the oxygen dissolved in the oceans.
    That’s what, according to the Occultist High Priesthood of ‘Carbon bomb’ hysteria is our nemesis ; An evil which must be removed from the atmosphere at all costs.
    A psychotic hullucination which if once brought into reality really would end all life in this world, that is the measure of the occult that rages against rational civilisation,
    iIs that simple, and wrong and utterly mistaken

    Jane Goldsmith
    4 HRS AGO
    Stuart Jenkins and Myles Allen, another windup right? Having a bit of a giggle, ‘I know, let’s send a funny letter and have a laugh at the apoplectic old Telegraph readers’ expense’.

    WS

    Warren Sheehy
    3 HRS AGO
    Indeed Jane, I assume they studied History at Oxford as they clearly don’t understand science and ‘global warming’.

    MG Michael Geddes
    48 MIN AGO
    I gave up halfway through. It’s all way above my level of understanding.

    MP Mike Pitman
    39 MIN AGO
    Given the absence of any titles appended to their names, and having carefully read the letter, I’m afraid I presumed they were maybe gardeners or cleaners at the campus.

    MW Malcolm White
    34 MIN AGO
    I’m afraid you could not be more wrong, Mike, as I guess you expected.

    HW Hereward Woke
    19 MIN AGO
    Well done if you read the whole letter. My eyes glazed after the first paragraph and I gave up.

    1. Not surprised so many people just gave up reading. It’s the kind of longwinded text written by second rate minds who want to impress people.
      Usually seen in the Guardian.

    2. #HateFacts

      ROSS CLARK: We all want to save the planet but the Government’s

      barely debated and uncosted fantasy of achieving net zero by 2050 will

      leave us all poorer, colder and hungrier

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11661749/ROSS-CLARK-says-Governments-fantasy-net-zero-leave-Poorer-colder-hungrier.html

      Meanwhile Labour seek to destroy our future as Starmer gets his orders at Davos

      https://twitter.com/OilPaul/status/1616835477679505414?s=20&t=KUwTej4Pk1UG8tLcrRP0hQ

    3. I take issue with Mike Pitman’s comment. I suggest the gardeners and cleaners are the most sensible of the staff working at the college, as they have to live in the real world.

  16. Read this letter at your peril!

    SIR – If Tony Hayward, former chief executive of BP, would like us to learn to love the fossil fuel industry, there is only one thing the industry needs to do: stop the products it sells from causing further global warming (“The UK will pay the price for demonising fossil fuels”, Comment, January 16).

    Who cares if the industry also invests in renewables? Renewables are profitable anyway. What it needs to invest in is permanent disposal of the carbon dioxide generated by the products it sells, and stop just hoping someone else will sort it out.

    Applying the principle of extended producer responsibility to fossil fuel imports and extraction in Britain would balance demand for fossil fuels with commensurate investment in geological carbon dioxide storage – the only way to guarantee that our continued fossil fuel use is compatible with our Paris Agreement obligations.

    How would it work? The Government regulates fossil fuel producers to recapture and permanently store a rising fraction of the carbon dioxide generated by their activities and products. A 10 per cent storage target by 2030, for example, would add less than 0.2p per kWh to the cost of delivering natural gas in Britain. To frighten politicians, the industry will claim all this cost would be passed on to the consumer, but with profits and taxes almost 50 times higher, would it and the Treasury really not be able to absorb any of this cost for the sake of a more secure future for themselves, never mind the planet? The fossil fuel industry has the resources and expertise to reach 100 per cent storage by 2050. What it lacks is the incentive, without policy to level the playing field.

    Mr Hayward is right that we should be prepared for the transition away from fossil fuels to be slower than anticipated. He is wrong to imply we must forego our environmental responsibilities. Chris Skidmore’s net zero review highlighted the need for a geological storage target in British policy. With it, Britain would stop its use of fossil fuels causing further global warming by 2050. Without it, it won’t. It’s as simple as that.

    Stuart Jenkins
    Myles Allen
    University of Oxford

    “Renewables are profitable anyway.” They are for those who own them, thanks to the massive subsidies taken from the rest of us, whether or not the sun shines or the wind blows. I can’t be bothered to point out any more of the obvious, but I’m happy to make just one exception – these two are pure eco-loons!

    1. Oxford. Is there any chance that lunatics of that ilk will be secluded in their 15 minutes zones so the rest of us can get on with our lives?

  17. Morning all. Dog walked and all local sports matches off due to frost. Looks like a cleaning, cooking, washing and ironing day.

    A veritable cornucopia of things to rant about today – I am spoilt for choice – and lots of other news too. Will finish the paper and check back in later.

      1. Drag Europe in rather than NATO so that the USA can sit on the side-lines?

        AND attempt to justify the supply of more missiles?

    3. A small point,I understand the Yanks are supplying all their kit on a “Lend-lease” basis and expect to be paid eventually while we are giving it away for free
      Twas ever thus

      1. And when the dust settles it won’t be Ukraine that pays the butcher’s bill, they’ll just supply the meat for the grinder.

        1. This war is all about protecting American investment in Uke Farmland

          Despite the moratorium on land sales to foreigners, by 2016, ten

          multinational agricultural corporations had already come to control 2.8

          million hectares of land. Today, some estimates speak of 3.4 million

          hectares in the hands of foreign companies and Ukrainian companies with

          foreign funds as shareholders. Other estimates are as high as 6 million

          hectares. The moratorium on sales, which the US State Department, IMF

          and World Bank had repeatedly called to be removed, was finally repealed

          by the Zelensky government in 2020, ahead of a final referendum on the

          issue scheduled for 2024. Furthermore, in January, a report by Usaid,

          the U.S. Agency for Assistance and Cooperation, lamented the absence of a

          reliable land market in the country that was limiting economic growth.

          https://global.ilmanifesto.it/the-truth-about-corporations-taking-over-ukrainian-agricultural-lands/

      2. H’mmmm ….. I wonder who will be paying that bill?
        Was it 2006 or 2016 when we finally settled our WWII debt to the Merkins?
        Unlike the Germans and Japanese who started it but were rebuilt FOC.

    4. We’re sending 14 Challenger 2’s. Russia has about 12,500 tanks. It doesn’t matter what the quality of those Russian tanks is. Or how rusty some may be. Numbers count, they always have and always will.

      1. Agreed re numbers.

        I worry greatly about who will be driving ours and those supplied from elsewhere, because I doubt it will be Ukrainians.
        The more involuntary mercenaries who are killed or captured the more the war-mongers will wish to take it further and the greater Russian determination will be.

        A refugee crisis is also on the horizon.

          1. So I believe, but they aren’t advertising it.
            No doubt some loud-mouth politician will brag about those “military advisors”

  19. 370281+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 22 January: The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the Conservatives

    Should read,

    Sunday 22 January: The scandalous state of military housing reflects poorly on the electoral majority who returned power in 2019 to the same political skunks that had ruled over the deteriorating / dilapidated housing stock for a decade plus.

    Prior to the tory (ino) political skunks we suffered under the
    lab, ( ino) political polecats no better no worse just as politically odious & treacherous.

    The electorate ARE the main purveyors of DOOM with their party before Country repeated voting pattern, we would never have reached such depths of odiouscity ( I like it ) without their continuing input.

  20. Hello all,



    Until about a year ago I used to enjoy posting comments on reader’s letters and other articles on the Telegraph website and indulging in banter and repartee with others as we ganged up on the leftie trolls and members of the 77th. Then it shadow-banned me for posting a comment with links to the Planet Lockdown interviews with Drs Mike Yeadon and Wolfgang Wodarg. I’m fairly certain that was the reason because I hadn’t committed any -ism or -phobia sin or insulted anyone. O me miserum. Anyway, I’m pleased to have found this site and I’ll enjoy reading the general comments and joining in as we all do our best to escape from the clown-world in our own particular ways.

    Opening gambit: I don’t think I’ll be able to bear the forthcoming coronation if it’s going to be anything like what’s being reported, a woke-fest.

      1. “I see from my diary that I am due to be watching television that day.” (Peter Cook?) Anyway, that entry has been swiftly deleted!

    2. Good morning, FM. The report I heard just now made reference to an LBGTQWERTY choir…Heaven help us.

      The first of April isn’t far off, I suppose.

      1. That’s me shut out of “inclusion” then.

        Such a pity – I am one of the staunchest supporters of the King here as well as having sung in choirs since 1968, and regularly perform in four today.

        1. I wonder too if the music establishment will shut out once more the 18-year-old Alma Deutscher, born in Basingstoke with a home in Dorking, who actually composed a coronation anthem eight years ago for one of her operas, and last conducted it in California just before Christmas.

        2. Good morning, Jeremy. Slightly (but not totally) off topic, if you regularly perform in choirs may I recommend a book called A TERRIBLE KINDNESS, available from your local bookseller in paperback at £8.99. It’s a terrific and moving read.

        3. I was a monarchist serving her late Majesty and I have sung in several choirs. I won’t be participating in this wokefest.

    3. Good morning, FM. The report I heard just now made reference to an LBGTQWERTY choir…Heaven help us.

      The first of April isn’t far off, I suppose.

    8. We will see; remember it is the Wail, which specialises in speculation.
      (But it does sound credible.)

    9. Good morning and welcome.
      I was just saw the headline about the plans. Undoubtedly, the planned “refugees and diversity” element will be significantly over-represented by a large magnitude. I just hope the “refugees” are genuine one.
      Charles is King of Britain/UK, and the coronation should represent that, and that alone. I wonder how many drag queens will be present.
      The man is a dim, virtue signalling fool.

      1. Someone needs to remind his wokeness that he is also Supreme Governor of the Church of England, a Christian organisation (despite the best efforts of Welby and co) and that he will hold the title of Fidei Defensor – defender of THE faith in the singular.

    10. Re the coronation – I see the Telegaffe leads with the news that Chuck the mad wants it to feature refugees and the NHS – that’s me out.

    11. When there is a royal junket going on scan the crowds and the pics in the papers. Hardly a black or asian face to be seen.

    12. Hello, good evening and welcome. I think you’ll find a lot of us are of the same opinion (and many of us have served in the various branches of the armed forces).

      1. Thank you. It’s nice to be among like-minded folk. I too served in HM Forces, 19 years in the RAF.

  21. SIR – With regard to Mag Humphreys’s traumatic experience contacting the relevant authorities after her husband’s death (Letters, January 15), it is worth noting that the Government’s Tell Us Once online service works really well. It will inform most government departments once the death has been registered.

    Sadly, I have had to use it a few times recently and have found it hugely helpful in avoiding exactly the situation that she described.

    Peter Rosie
    Ringwood, Hampshire

    I learn something new every day…and here is the website:

    https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

    1. Morning H, I used it when Mum passed on and thought it was the only government thing that worked as promised. I was pleasantly surprised then and even more surprised to hear it still works as it should today.

    2. I’ve used that service twice recently and it’s great, takes a lot of the work from people at a time of low ebb

    3. I’ve used that service twice recently and it’s great, takes a lot of the work from people at a time of low ebb

  23. Hmm. Wrongdoing by the head of the BBC being alleged by the BBC??

    Probe urged over claims BBC chair helped Johnson secure loan
    Labour is calling for a parliamentary investigation into claims the chairman of the BBC helped Boris Johnson secure a loan – weeks before the then-prime minister recommended him for the role.

    The Sunday Times says Richard Sharp was involved in arranging a guarantor on a loan of up to £800,000 for Mr Johnson.

    Mr Sharp said he had “simply connected” people and there was no conflict of interest.

    Mr Johnson’s spokesman said he did not receive financial advice from Mr Sharp.

    He also dismissed Labour’s suggestion Mr Johnson could have breached the code of conduct for MPs “through failing to appropriately declare the arrangement” on his Parliamentary register of interests.

    Labour’s chairwoman Anneliese Dodds has written to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, asking for “an urgent investigation into the facts of this case”.

    Who is the BBC’s new chairman, Richard Sharp?
    Mr Johnson was reported to be in financial difficulty in late 2020.

    The Sunday Times says multimillionaire Canadian businessman Sam Blyth raised with Mr Sharp the idea of acting as Mr Johnson’s guarantor for a loan.

    Mr Sharp – a Conservative Party donor who at the time, was applying to be the chairman of the BBC – contacted Simon Case, the then-cabinet secretary and head of the civil service.

    According to the paper, Mr Sharp, Mr Blyth and Mr Johnson had dinner together at Chequers before the loan was finalised, although they deny the PM’s finances were discussed then.

    Former Goldman Sachs banker Mr Sharp was announced as the government’s choice for the new BBC chairman in January 2021. The role is recommended by the culture secretary and the prime minister.

    The BBC chairman heads the board that sets the corporation’s strategic direction and upholds its independence.

    The Sunday Times says candidates for such publicly-appointed roles are required to declare any conflicts of interest.

    In a statement, Mr Sharp said: “There is not a conflict when I simply connected, at his request, Mr Blyth with the cabinet secretary and had no further involvement whatsoever.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64362640

    1. ‘Morning, BoB. I only heard about this late last night, and I remain amazed at the naivety of such an arrangement. It seems that Johnson’s thirst for sex is matched by his thirst for money. Even if the arrangement was as innocent as has been suggested, it should at least comprehensively scupper the ludicrous suggestion that he should make a comeback. So not all bad news then.

      1. ‘Morning Hugh
        That is precisely why this is being leaked now,I hold no brief for BoJo but there can be no challenge to the weffer Sunak
        All must bow down and obey

  24. SIR – I must point out that there are many people, of whom I am one, who are mildly allergic to animal hair and who find the admission of dogs to places where food is served (Letters, January 15) to be distasteful at best and at worst unhygienic.

    I have no particular problem with dog ownership as long as it is confined to the owners’ homes or outdoor areas. Not everybody agrees with the current obsession with little pooches being taken wherever the owner goes.

    Richard Freer
    Ribaute-les-Tavernes, Gard, France

    I think I would be allergic to Mr Freer should I have the misfortune to be in the same restaurant. Just another minority whiner who wants to spoil it for the majority? And for the record ours doesn’t make it as far as restaurants, and neither do we, come to that. Pubs and caffs is her limit.

    1. ‘Morning Hugh! And that ghastly word ‘pooch’ tells me all I need to know about Mr. Freer! I wonder if he has a sticky-out ear?

      1. At Christmas he probably wears sparkly antlers on the journey to work to show what an absolute scream he is. Probably bops around the office in them and plays silly practical jokes.
        “I’m dead funny, me ….”

    2. We loathe pubs and cafes that encourage children – especially out of control rug rats tripping up waiting staff who are carrying drinks and hot food.
      If one of those ghastly brown plastic gnarled trees stands outside, we give the place a swerve. Each to their own. We prefer a reasonable level of noise that allows us to chat and enjoy the company of friends and family.

      2. The problem is once you have taken your seat until you have finished eating or drinking your stuck with it.
        I was a member of a share club.
        Featured in the telegraph a few years ago.
        Our annual casual dinner was at a reasonable restaurant close by. It was a long fairly narrow area with mirrors on opposite walls.
        We were all (12) sitting eating drinking chatting away.
        When a ladies group arrived for the evening. But there were around 20 and the noise was unbelievable it got louder as the evening wore on. We had to pay up and leave, then go to a local pub for peace and share conversion.

        1. Ladies group? Or were they the local primary school staff room out for the night?

          Occasionally, when my shifts allowed, I’d do a turn in a particular pub in Bromley and was usually very well received except on one particular night where a group of women parked themselves on the table closest to the microphone and began talking very loudly and non-stop.
          Later, at the bar, I asked one of them where they worked and yes, they were all teachers.
          I then made a comment about them getting upset when the children won’t shut up and listen before turning my back and going to sit down.

      3. Next Sunday is a “family” service so I shall be giving it a miss and finding a church where I can find stillness and peace to worship the Lord. For the same reason I shall be giving the celebrations of the coronation a miss as they appear to be geared to rampant rug-rats running out of control.

    3. Yo Hugh,

      We used to use a Michelin * cafe, in France, where a well dressed, mature lady used regularly eat.

      She was served at her table, with all the splendour expected of such a place
      Her Pooch dog was served with its’ meal on a tray by her feet.

    4. There are far more dog friendly restaurants in France than in UK. So why does he live in France?

    5. I think M. Freer (what a misnomer) would bring me out in a rash. He’s only mildly allergic to it, so he needs exposure to desensitise him.

        2. Yes that does rather belie the notion that obesity is a “disease”, doesn’t it???

      2. It is a disease. A disease of the mind. The solution is to chop their heads off. That’ll sort it.

        1. During the 1950s – in the market town that Colchester used to be – there was precisely one family of obese females.
          It was a matriarchy of large ladies with children, but no attendant males.
          They were memorable because of their then unusual size.

        2. When I was at school there would be only one or possibly two fatso’s in each year group but if at school today, by present day standards, they would be in the middle group

      4. It wanted membership at an all women gym. They offered it membership at another facility which is mixed.

  26. Public trust in the police is at breaking point. There can be no more excuses. 22 January 2023.

    All police forces across the country have agreed to urgently check their officers and staff against the police intelligence database. This will help to root out anyone unfit to serve who might have slipped through the net.

    And if an officer is identified as having fallen far short of the high standards that are expected of them, they should be able to be sacked more easily.

    That’s why I’m reviewing the current police dismissals process, to ensure bureaucracy and unnecessary procedure does not prevail over ethics and common sense.

    I’m also making sure that the police vetting guidance is strengthened, so that staff are crystal clear on the steps they need to take when conducting checks on new recruits – and that they understand that it is their legal duty to follow them by the book.

    I have no authority to speak for the public and I’m not sure what they believe anyway. My own trust vanished long ago. Braverman’s witch hunt is no solution. Having created this catastrophe by their own policies the Political Elites now offer increasingly deranged solutions to fix it. Does anyone really believe that a quick look at the personnel records will bring about some fundamental change? We can be sure that they do not include the rainbow police or their diverse adherents, though it is patently obvious that such people are not suited to Law Enforcement. Like the rest of the UK we can only look on as an entire society dissolves around us!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/21/public-trust-police-breaking-point-can-no-excuses/

    1. Well said, but unfortunately it’s far worse than that. The stupid government has not only effed up the police farce it’s had exactly the same effect on the UK border farce.
      Now our once reasonably well ordered and safe country for some unknown reason has been deliberately ruined. Including its Social structure and long term established culture.
      Everything they come into contact with……
      And they insist that we all should vote for them. They are a disgusting shameful collective disaster.

      1. All the eff-ups are motivated by obedience to the WEF and its ‘Great Reset’ where, “You will own nothing and be happy.”

        1. When does the shooting against the wall start ?
          Oh how silly of me, it’s already started with needles.

          1. The needles I studiously avoid but, I’m having second thoughts about the offered shingles jab, since I had chickenpox as a child.

          3. Thank you, Anne, for the vote of confidence.

            I have an INR on 27th January at Moffat Hospital

            The shingle jab is scheduled for 31st January at Moffat Hospital.

            I asked if both could be done on one date.

            “Oh, no, they’re two separate practices.”

            What a parlous state the fragmented NHS has become – a bunch of little Empire Builders.

          4. The worst jab reaction I ever had was the smallpox vaccination after the Bradford scare.
            My arm blew up and I felt really ropey. It eased when the inflammation actually burst.
            I assume that reaction meant that smallpox would have killed me.

          5. Since it was the flu jab that left me with AF November 2021. I can’t take any more chances.
            Like most of us during our lives, have had several vaccine jabs but none before have created such havoc.
            As one of the cartoon jokes says today. If it was the unjabbed who were dropping like flies it would be all over the media.

      2. We do seem to be living through C21 version of the Wars of the Roses.
        Weak, but authoritarian government with a generous side order of corruption (and not just financial).

    2. I suppose Braverman believes that a few token dismissals will pour much oil on troubled waters. Gestures, always gestures and no root and branch changes forthcoming.

      I’m also making sure that the police vetting guidance is strengthened…

      Perhaps Braverman should investigate how/why the vetting process became weakened: may I suggest ‘wokeism’ as the cause. As ‘woke’ appears to be government policy across the board do not expect much in the way of action.

      1. I’d feel better with a government run by Braverman and Badenoch.
        Not perfect, but at the moment they are having to battle against a non-supportive cabinet of poltroons.

      2. As ‘woke’ appears to be government policy across the board do not expect much in the way of action.

        Morning Korky. I don’t expect any. These people can no more fix this than all the King’s men could put Humpty Dumpty back together! Once it’s broke that’s it!

  27. Public trust in the police is at breaking point. There can be no more excuses. 22 January 2023.

    All police forces across the country have agreed to urgently check their officers and staff against the police intelligence database. This will help to root out anyone unfit to serve who might have slipped through the net.

    And if an officer is identified as having fallen far short of the high standards that are expected of them, they should be able to be sacked more easily.

    That’s why I’m reviewing the current police dismissals process, to ensure bureaucracy and unnecessary procedure does not prevail over ethics and common sense.

    I’m also making sure that the police vetting guidance is strengthened, so that staff are crystal clear on the steps they need to take when conducting checks on new recruits – and that they understand that it is their legal duty to follow them by the book.

    I have no authority to speak for the public and I’m not sure what they believe anyway. My own trust vanished long ago. Braverman’s witch hunt is no solution. Having created this catastrophe by their own policies the Political Elites now offer increasingly deranged solutions to fix it. Does anyone really believe that a quick look at the personnel records will bring about some fundamental change? We can be sure that they do not include the rainbow police or their diverse adherents, though it is patently obvious that such people are not suited to Law Enforcement. Like the rest of the UK we can only look on as an entire society dissolves around us!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/21/public-trust-police-breaking-point-can-no-excuses/

  28. Public trust in the police is at breaking point. There can be no more excuses. 22 January 2023.

    All police forces across the country have agreed to urgently check their officers and staff against the police intelligence database. This will help to root out anyone unfit to serve who might have slipped through the net.

    And if an officer is identified as having fallen far short of the high standards that are expected of them, they should be able to be sacked more easily.

    That’s why I’m reviewing the current police dismissals process, to ensure bureaucracy and unnecessary procedure does not prevail over ethics and common sense.

    I’m also making sure that the police vetting guidance is strengthened, so that staff are crystal clear on the steps they need to take when conducting checks on new recruits – and that they understand that it is their legal duty to follow them by the book.

    I have no authority to speak for the public and I’m not sure what they believe anyway. My own trust vanished long ago. Braverman’s witch hunt is no solution. Having created this catastrophe by their own policies the Political Elites now offer increasingly deranged solutions to fix it. Does anyone really believe that a quick look at the personnel records will bring about some fundamental change? We can be sure that they do not include the rainbow police or their diverse adherents, though it is patently obvious that such people are not suited to Law Enforcement. Like the rest of the UK we can only look on as an entire society dissolves around us!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/21/public-trust-police-breaking-point-can-no-excuses/

  29. Article in the DT:

    “King Charles puts refugees and NHS at heart of diverse Coronation

    Monarch will celebrate ‘faces and voices’ of modern Britain in three days of spectacle

    ByVictoria Ward, ROYAL EDITOR21 January 2023 • 10:30pm”

    Dear God, I can’t bear to read any further!  Fortunately the BTL posters have already done so, and the almost 1,500 so far (and they are still pouring in) are mightily unimpressed:

    Ben ArnulfssenJUST NOW

    So, a “people’s King” but WHAT people? “Citizen of the World alone; friend of every country but his own”

    Pray for a short reign for this delusional dupe…

    Nicholas Armon – Jones2 HRS AGO

    The splender of this, once, great country lowered to the lowest denominator.

    The possibility of the Coronation grandeur blitzed by a Netflix crew recording the Sussexes return.

    And a build-up dominated by Union strikes determined to destroy democracy.

    Poor Queen Elizabeth: your life of service does not deserve this!

    Terrence Rattigan9 HRS AGO

    Sounds revolting. Don’t think I’ll be watching. I knew when I stood by the catafalque and bowed my head to the late Queen that I was really saying goodbye to Britain.

    WA Clark9 HRS AGO

    I was once a committed Royalist, the late Queen was an outstanding monarch. Charlie is making a mockery of the monarchy, he is a woke fool, a net zero hypocrite and I bet he has never used the useless NHS.

    Steven GoodbanJUST NOW

    “One of the highlights will be the performance of the Coronation Choir, a diverse group drawing together singers from the nation’s community choirs, including refugee choirs, NHS choirs, LGBTQ+ singing groups and deaf signing choirs”..

    I think I’ll give that one a miss…

    2. Well he’s got that wrong for a kick off.
      They are not refugees. All of these scroungers have arrived from the safe haven of France.

      2. Something I keep muttering through clenched teeth whenever people are sounding off about “refugees” – and that includes you, Tax Payers’ Alliance! Why put that the journey is dangerous “particularly for women and children” when there are virtually none of those in the boats?

    3. Can’t post on Tw@ter at the moment, but I’m changing rapidly from being a staunch Royalist and supporter of Her Late Majesty, The Queen to not being bothered if the Monarchy was to be abolished.
      The only thing stopping me from becoming a full on Republican is the question of who would then be the UK’s Head of State.

  31. Morning all 😉 😊
    Not just cold out side, very cold.
    On the day my two lovely sisters and their hubbies are coming to lunch.
    Yes of course one of our old family traditions. Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. With all the trimmings.
    Sticky toffee pudding for desert.

      1. I’ll be laying the table pouring drinks and filling the dishwasher.
        We haven’t all been together for around 4 years.

          1. I have just spoken to my Son and could hear the little chap in the background. His lively but they still don’t know what has caused the infection. But Addenbrookes is a specialist unit and there is more chance of them tracking it down to treat it.
            Thanks for asking Alf ……how are the cakes today ?

          2. Let’s hope, Eddy, that the cause is found and quickly cured.

            Lot’s of luck and best wishes for the wee man.

    5. Good to hear that the hospital is using expensive equipment at the weekend.
      Not so good to hear that you Best Beloved is the focus of their attention.

      1. He had been worried about breathlessness so the gp sent him for xray. He seems a bit better this week.

  35. Morning medley and back to bed it’s bloody freezing!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5df4f73a97243313360c440d56a7d3a0555c0439b362a4d44f8617817c14dd6.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76ea33f4b1a168f7f88ac072285b58a954dbf39e10217311dc8f1cb3e3f6e393.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/85a5aecafedda83f8626d32fb1bf61d0483486e71ac8408e704b39055193f477.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7421e0d0d110258e7c2fb2136f7674234ff632f3471be00ef83d65eb3dbc11e6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/27bc16b6f107cd36f30f4e75a358210ef98182c4754609d05b29c9b56865ff9b.jpg

    Ooo-Err Missus

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d655100d62915468b44ce7a99f89c3c075ed3e4116322592336220a75034fbba.jpg

    2. Any news that differs from Ardern’s version of it is fake news and a lie.

      “On the afternoon of July 25, 2022, the conservative blog The Daily Wire reshared a video on Twitter that showed New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking to members of the press about the COVID-19 pandemic. The two highlighted moments were that Ardern said,:

      “We will continue to be your single source of truth,” and, “Unless you hear it from us it is not the truth.”

      1. “We are your source of all lies, Unless you hear from us, we cannot feed you lies.”

        Fixed it – I think…

    4. Like all vicious ideologies, they persuade the people that they are good and kind and working in their interests. Anyone objecting must be locked up, murdered or sent to the salt mines. Plenty of examples from the last century, although islam manages to demonise the female population as well.

  37. Good morning all

    Another white out here this morning -4c

    Hang on to your thermals: UK faces a February Freeze worse than the Troll from Trondheim as arctic air could drop temperatures below -10C
    The Met Office said high-altitude polar vortex winds could fall significantly
    This will open the door to allowing Arctic air plunge towards Britain

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11662453/UK-faces-February-Freeze-worse-Troll-Trondheim-arctic-air-drop-10C.html

    1. Good morning Belle.
      Nothing to worry about. We have all that ‘green’ energy available from the tax turbines and frost & snow covered solar panels….

    3. This is the start of the modern Grand Solar Minimum which will last until at least the 2050s. Invest in mukluks, animal traps and axes for firewood. That should take care of Nut Zero.

        1. Well I won’t see the 2050s but I’m hoping for two more decades. Long enough to laugh at the climate cultists when the whole farrago comes crashing down. And demand reparations from them on behalf of my grandchildren.

          2. Interestingly, I am reading a book on IHT planning and am a bit cross about the rules of domicile. You usually take the domicile of your father as your domicile of origin, so although there are many, many complications, if you are non-indigenous you have a better chance of escaping IHT than us indigenous types, who are here apparently just to pay for everybody else.

        2. Well I won’t see the 2050s but I’m hoping for two more decades. Long enough to laugh at the climate cultists when the whole farrago comes crashing down. And demand reparations from them on behalf of my grandchildren.

      1. But, but, but… I thought you were criticising the legal Johnnies and Estate Agents’ minions who are trying their best to delay your move until late Spring or early Summer, Annie! Lol.

    5. Somebody in the queue in front of me was reading a smartphone entry about a snow “bomb” that would deliver 2″ of snow in an hour.

  38. Well, interesting start to Sunday.
    Got up for a wee & started making breakfast. Took pills, started the coffee… Woke up being lifted off the kitchen floor by SWMBO & Second Son. Don’t know what happened there, don’t feel bad or anything.
    Now fine, except for a lump on the head.
    Weird…

      1. Mine appears to be sudden blood pressure bottoming out but then only 2/3rds of the heart are functional.

    5. It happens to me too, Paul, -several times, hence my move to this flat with grab handles all over the place.

      I’m on a particular ‘care watch’ whether it’s Council or NHS led, I’ve yet to find out.

    10. When that happened to vw a couple of years ago the paramedic said the bump was good. If there wasn’t a bump it could indicate internal bleeding.
      Take it easy for the rest of the day. Obviously making tea and coffee is dangerous.

    11. Oh dear. My “episode” turned out to be a urine infection, hope you’re ok. I hadn’t been feeling too good for a couple of days, didn’t want to eat much, went downstairs for a cup of coffee, changed my mind and just slithered into the floor.

  39. Bit tricky today

    Wordle 582 4/6

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

    1. Par Four for me too.

      Wordle 582 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  40. Yo All

    –4.1 deg C outside, only white cars in the street, but Solar Panels merrily charging the Batteries

    1. I doubt solar panels here are charging anything. All covered with a very thick layer of solid frost.

    1. Yes, nothing I like more on state occasions than several gospel choirs dressed in rainbow outfits…

    3. He probably watched the crowds paying their respects to his mother and was appalled by the lack of diversity and rainbow flags.

      1. Tut, tut, and more tut. Go and stand in the corner.
        I expect someone of my generation to know the difference between ‘uninterested’ and ‘disinterested’.
        (Looks skywards for Mrs. Lock’s nod of approval.)

    5. If one word is guaranteed to give me a spinal shudder, it is “People’s”.

      It is even more stomach-churning than “Social”, “Democratic” and “Progressive”. Joining these diabolical words together, as in the name of Left-wing political parties, is even worse.

      1. It was Blair who coined the idea that the Labour Party was the People’s Party and he applied this to everything.
        Within 24 hours of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales of Wales he cynically linked her to his own party.

        I used to write satirical songs. Here is an extract from of my song about Tony Blair which I wrote during Blair’s first year as prime minister:

        The People’s Party, People’s Dome, the People’s lottery
        I am the People’s laxative so the People swallow me
        Pragmatic opportunism has given me success
        A sad girl died and so I dubbed her The People’s Princess

      2. That’s why I don’t understand GB News continually banging on about being the ‘Peoples’ Channel.

        Sounds very Communistic to me.

      3. Agree. You know you are living in a dictatorship when these words are used. Also, having a “Supreme Court” is a dead giveaway.

    6. There must be something about the name Charles but what are the odds on three god awful sovereigns?

        1. Here lies our Sovereign Lord the King
          Whose word no man relies on,
          He never says a foolish thing
          Nor ever does a wise one.

          Earl of Rochester

          Charles II response was that his words were his own and his actions were his ministers.

        2. He was, however, prepared to sell England and the CofE to Louis for gold. Secret Treaty of Dover, anyone?

    8. Nope, don’t suppose there will be any wealth creators, entrepreneurs and clever people who support his socialist ideals.

    10. I think there will be little interest in watching the coronation. Probably more black than white interest.

    12. Charlie, I want you to be the King, a figurehead monarch. I want to sell lots of pictures of youwaving and smiling. I want lots of tourists to visit based on your iconography.

      I don’t want, or need you to do anything else.

      1. Doing anything else is probably dangerous, or political meddling, which your constitutional monarchy doesn’t allow.

    13. When I read that, I thought, “I won’t be watching.” I am rapidly becoming a sans culotte. Charlie Windsor needs a dose of reality like Louis Capet.

  42. An interesting book review i. The Terriblegraph magazine. Headlined
    “Was Sigmund Freud really a scientist, or just a cult leader surrounded by pseuds?”, it’s a review of “The guru, the ragman and the sceptic” by Seamus O’Mahony, and the reviewer does a cracking job of making me want to read it.

    Towards the end of the review, the reviewer writes: “in O’Mahony’s merciless final analysis, psychoanalysis appealed primarily to “rich directionless strays”, a comfy project for failures and layabouts.”

    It seems they have always been with us, albeit nowadays they are bossing us around about climate change, BLM and that men can “become” women.

    1. Good morning to you

      Your cynical statement stacks up with the gobblygook out pourings coming out of the drug addicted Sussexe’s mouths .

      2. And I’m trying to find a meaning
        And I’m trying to write a song
        But my words come out as clichés
        And they don’t seem to belong
        And the tune is just an echo of some other tune I’ve heard
        And my mind’s become a vacuum with no music and no words.

        And I’m trying to say something
        But I don’t know what to say
        And I wish I had some idols
        Who had not got feet of clay
        And I wish I was original and gained and earned respect
        And I wish my mind was real and not a pseudo-intellect.

    3. Morming MIR. Anyone who has read Freud’s “discovery ” of the Oedipus Complex and hasn’t collapsed laughing has no sense of humour!

      1. He was on the right lines of parents affecting the child into adulthood but even he said ‘sometimes a cigar is just a cigar’.

    4. Fraud Freud came to prominence in rich, pampered turn-of-the-century Vienna. There were plenty of spoiled, bored women to fall for his guff – and pay for it.

    2. Ah, that’d be ‘antifa’, the fascist Left. A bunch of children who dress up in ski mass and think they’re ‘ard’ but when actually challenged run away like chihuahua.

  44. I think, despite huge competition, this has to be my “rant of the day” because it exercised me last week too. plus, it’s too easy to rant about politicians at the moment. This is a rich “do-gooder” ex-model born in Malaysia but apparently it’s ok for her to “rewild” her Hampshire estate. I have no beef with beavers per se. I just think that you shouldn’t be allowed to go around reintroducing animals without some kind of study/approval. We can’t know the long-term repercussions, surely?

    “ SIR – I fully understand how wonderful it must be to have an estate and be able to release beavers into an “enclosure” (“Meet the Dior model bringing beavers to Hampshire”, Lifestyle, January 15).

    However, I don’t understand why we think that by digging down and burying fencing we can keep beavers enclosed, as they will chew through it. And what happens in 10 years’ time when they have bred and have run out of food?

    The harm to the countryside and farmland across Britain will surely be huge. Think of the damage done by invaders such as muntjac deer and grey squirrels. You only have to visit Canada to see the problems beavers are capable of causing.“

    1. ….not just Canada, the entire World apparently ….8+ Billion people and counting.

      Good Morning folks.

        1. Thing is, it becomes exponential. Today 8 billion, very soon 16 billion. The population is utterly unsustainable. This is why we must accept absolutely no one and start deporting those who are here with alacrity.

        2. Thing is, it becomes exponential. Today 8 billion, very soon 16 billion. The population is utterly unsustainable. This is why we must accept absolutely no one and start deporting those who are here with alacrity.

        3. If every one of those people were given a spot 1 metre by 1 metre to stand in the whole population of the Earth could be fitted into a square 90 km x 90 km. That’s 56 miles x 56 miles. Smaller than several English counties. Makes you think, doesn’t it.

      1. i thought that was the otters, that they have recently reintroduced down in the chalk stream country (Wiltshire? Devon?)

          3. I believe they have moved out of the extinct classification and into a protected species.
            Ironically, the UK has allowed the River Otter beavers to remain wild.

          6. Things that start out as experiments (check Covid vaccinations) eventually go wrong and become just as dangerous, as introducing non-indigenous species.

          7. There are too many examples of escapes that turn sour, eg plants, Japanese Knotweed, Himalayan balsam etc, animals muntjac, mink, NA crayfish, insects, Asian hornets the list is long and dishonourable.

          11. It is the case far too often, yes.
            But some bits of rewilding actually improve our ability to produce better food and more of it.

        2. Otters aren’t problem. They’re welcome. They don’t build dams and prefer eels, pike and perch to young trout and grayling.

    5. Never mind other ‘introduced species’ – notably Grey Squirrels, Muntjak deer and Mink.

      …and stupid legislation like Banning Fox Hunting – leading to a proliferation of urban foxes.

      Protecting badgers – leading to many country roads, often single-track, being undermined and closed until August or later.

      God protect us from stupidity!

      1. The mink (and coypu) were released by animal rights nutters from fur farms. Without natural predators they did what anybody with half a brain knew they would do and proliferated to the detriment of the otter population.

    6. It is more serious than it looks, because Mandy Lieu’s former lover and the father of her children, Alvin Chau, has been convicted of gambling offences and has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
      A proportion of Ms Lieu’s wealth is believed to have come from said Mr Chau.
      A money laundering investigation may be on the cards.

    7. I understand plants have to have a “passport” to be imported into the U.K. why not animals too?

    8. Shropshire is also reintroducing beavers to the river Severn. I think it’s madness, because it will unbalance the ecostructure and put flora and fauna out of kilter, but what do I know?

        1. They don’t need to know anything, Nanners. It’s a “good thing” and “green” and will “combat climate change”.

      2. Interesting- my nearest river when i was growing up and fond memories of swimming
        in it growing up

        1. I’m surprised you survived! Or perhaps you swam in it further downstream. The undercurrents around Shrewsbury are notoriously treacherous.

  45. After 13 years of Conservative governments, the Left still runs Britain
    Only a Tory party that has lost its principles would allow agents of the state to tell British voters not to eat cake

    Simon Heffer : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2023/01/21/13-years-conservative-governments-left-still-runs-britain/

    BTL

    And now that Richard Tice has come out strongly against Andrew Bridgen and in favour of the orthodoxy of the government and the MSM on Covid 19 ‘vaccinations’ there seems to be little alternative to the Conservative Party which is even remotely right of centre.

    1. I refuse to understand why govenrment just say ‘We have vaccines for everyone. If you want it, do this. We hope everyone takes it up but there will b eno coercion.’

  46. Ukraine is fighting for all of us. Now Europe must fight Putin too. Simon Tisdall. 22 January 2023.

    Europe must fight. The realisation has been slow in coming. Yet almost one year after Russia invaded Ukraine, most western governments finally understand Kyiv’s war for survival is their war, too. It’s a fight to the death for Ukraine, but also for European democracy, rights and values. It’s a fight against the historical evils of fascism and imperialism embodied by Vladimir Putin, a dictator for our age.

    Europe must fight. It really has no choice. As Russia doubles down, threatening a huge new offensive, a turning point approaches when tragedy turns to ruin – or triumph. This moment, when the war has become familiar and wearying, is the moment of maximum danger. From Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, France, Poland and the Baltic republics, the flow of arms is turning into an urgent torrent.

    Well if I’m not there Tisdall start without me!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jan/22/ukraine-is-fighting-for-all-of-us-now-europe-must-fight-putin-too

    1. Another Guardian moron – where do they find them? Does Tisdall not read his own paper – in late 2021 the Graiuniad described Ukraine as seriously corrupt and little seems to have changed.

    2. Are they having a laugh? European democracy? Russia is more democratic than Europe is. Putin is not a fascist, he’s a capitalist. How they can ignore the genuine dictatorship of the EU and the utter failure of our own useless, imposed government is staggering.

      But then, if everything is seen through a distorted lens, all you see are distortions.

    3. How do I get this published on the Graudian:

      Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt I

      Too many people obviously have no idea as to why Putin invaded Ukraine.

      Here is the first reason:
      It was Zelensky’s Azov Brigade, ruthlessly slaughtering over 14,000 Russian speakers in Donbass and other Eastern Ukrainian provinces, that made him feel that someone should endeavour to put a stop to this slaughter of his near neighbours by a despotic tyrant.
      The sad thing is that the US, the EU and NATO all joined in on Zelensky’s side.
      I take it they all agreed that the slaughter was a good thing!

      Why Putin Invaded Ukraine Pt II

      Russia invaded Ukraine (a part of its country) in order to expose and eliminate U.S. funded bio labs. We are referring to US funded ‘gain of function’ research into bio-weapons research.
      This exposure was the objective of the Russian ‘special operations’.
      The US ‘gain of function’ research laboratories were placed in Ukraine for the reason that Ukraine, neither a country nor an independent state, is not subject to international weapons conventions and control of weapons.
      The ‘vaccines’ are proven to be gene therapies produced by companies specialising in the introduction of specific known pathogens into the world populations. These ‘vaccines’ aim to infect every recipient with synthetic mRNA nano technology. This renders human recipients as trans human in much the same way that mice, rats and ferrets are rendered transgenic in our research laboratories.
      My own research evidenced that Malaysia has already convicted George W Bush and our own Tony Blair as war criminals. Regrettably Malaysia has no international clout and these two criminals are above our decrepit international law, a law, if properly instituted, would condemn these war criminals to a life of servitude in gaol.
      The Truth will always out. Just give it a few more months and these fuckers will be exposed.

      1. You have to go further back, all the way to Yeltsin believing Clinton in the 1990s that there would be no NATO eastwards expansion, that Russia would have a part to play in European security and that Russia could eventually join both the EU and NATO. Clinton lied to him. Even Putin was pro-joining NATO in his early years in power only to be rebuffed by the Americans.
        Then there is the tempting Westwards of Ukraine in the ‘noughties’ by the EU eventually stopped by President Yanukovych who preferred co-operation with Russia . He was removed during the Maidan revolution of 2014 which was organised by the USA. That’s when it turned nasty.

          1. Fair do’s. We’re on the same sheet. Our guvmint and the American guvmint are lying bar stewards,

    4. … “but also for European democracy, rights and values.”
      Very good point. Thank goodness the past three years have been wiped from my memory.

    5. It’s deja vu again.
      McDermott’s War Song , written by G W Hunt, 1877.

      “The ‘Dogs of war’ are loose and the rugged Russian Bear

      Full bent on blood and robbery, has crawled out of his lair

      It seems a thrashing now and then, will never help to tame

      That brute, and so he’s bent upon the ‘same old game’

      The Lion did his best to find him some excuse

      To crawl back to his den again, all efforts were no use

      He hungered for his victim; he’s pleased when blood is shed

      But let us hope his crimes may all recoil on his own head.

      Chorus: We don’t want to fight but by Jingo if we do

      We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men’ we’ve got the money too

      We’ve fought the bear before, and while we’re Britons true

      The Russians shall not have Constantinople, “

        1. Having no money hasn’t stopped the idiot sending money and expensive equipment to a country that slaughtered thousands of its own people though.

        2. Not just Sunak. Brown is the one who destroyed the economy. The faux Tories since just kept it there.

      3. Roughly the same time our boys were getting the first concentration camps going in the Transvaal, and the completion of the eradication of the Tasmanian aboriginals was in train.

        I wish someone would explain the collective amnesia over the Maidan and its resulting threats to the Russian speaking eastern Ukraine which amounted (on UN figures) to 15,000 dead by the time we arrived at the Russain military intervention. We all lived through that period so why all this stuff about Russian aggression?

        It would now appear that the Russians have over half a million men and very large amounts of material prepared. It will be interesting to see how the media obfuscate the appearance of the first real war since 1945 and, in my view, the likely disappearance of Ukraine from the political map. Will they join Biden in supporting a first nuclear strike? Putin is only a ruthless autocrat. Our so-called leaders are a striking combination of evil and stupidity and they have destroyed democracy as we knew it.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9df4e462e173902c7d0b9b1af4714c7f409c576ca48689b8150add480e050781.jpg

      4. Into the valley of death rode the six hundred…theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die.
        And Constantinople was lost in 1453.

        1. Constantinople was found in 330BC.

          It lasted for 1,783 years between being known as Byzantium and Istanbul.

  48. Mass shooting last night in Monterey Park, Los Angeles. So far, 9 dead. Chinese New Year celebrations, apparently.
    This cannot be so – LA is Democrat, and doesn’t allow carry of handguns.

  49. Use seized Russian money to rebuild Ukraine, says Boris Johnson. 22 January 2023.

    Boris Johnson has signalled his backing for new laws to seize and sell sanctioned Russian assets to fund the rebuilding of Ukraine, insisting: “they need to pay”.

    The former Prime Minister told the Telegraph that he supported the idea that Russia should hand reparations to Kyiv for the destruction caused by Vladimir Putin’s war.

    Boris advocates thieving! Who would ever have guessed?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/19/use-seized-russian-money-rebuild-ukraine-says-boris-johnson/

        1. What is so disgustiNg is that no one of any note is actually against this kind of action. Are they all lying thieving bastards? And no MSM comment pointing ouT the possible repercussions.

          Fings ain’t wot they used to be.

  50. Buzz Aldrin marries fourth wife on his 93rd birthday
    The astronaut said he and his wife Anca Faur, who is 30 years his junior, were ‘as excited as eloping teenagers’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/01/21/buzz-aldrin-marries-fourth-wife-93rd-birthday/

    Good luck to him. Reminds me of the joke about Jim, a 70-year-old extremely wealthy widower who shows up at the Golf Club with a breathtakingly beautiful and very sexy 25 year-old blonde who knocks everyone’s socks off with her youthful appeal and outright charm while hanging over Jim’s arm and listening intently to his every word.
    His friends at the club are all aghast. They corner him and ask, “Jim, how did you get the trophy girlfriend?”
    Jim replies, “Girlfriend? She’s my wife!”
    They’re knocked over, but continue to ask. “So, how did you persuade her to marry you?”
    Jim says, “I lied about my age.”
    His friends respond, “What do you mean? Did you tell her you were only 50?”
    Jim smiles and says, “No, I told her I was 95.”

    1. Tried to sign up to ‘Slaynews’ but there are so many hoops to jump through.

      They wanted me to have a username starting with @. I refused at that point.

    2. Interesting read, one thing that struck me after reading the side effects of Musk having his booster is that he is obviously not part of the WEF gang, if he was he would have had the saline solution like the rest of them.

  52. Tory party chairman Nadhim Zahawi has claimed that errors with his taxes
    were ‘careless, not deliberate’.

    Yeah, I can sympathise.

    Like that time last year when I accidentally set up a shell company in
    the Cayman Islands, lent it my entire year’s income in the form of
    shares, failed to repay it and wrote the lot off as a tax loss before
    selling the shares back to myself for a quid. Could happen to anyone.

      2. Apologies, but no. It’s not cheating. It’s simply tax avoidance. If the Treasury were not frenziedly trying to scam every penny from companies to waste on diversity hires then this would not be necessary.

        This is why hiking corporation tax won’t raise a penny and will, in fact cost more as companies who cannot avoid the 15% hike – as taxes are cumulative, remember) will go out of business. We’re already seeing people not buying new kit as costs of parts have risen 20%.

        That’s a job we can’t create or worse, have to destroy. There’s only 7 of us, for goodness sake.

        But the state doesn’t care. It has been told ‘take a quarter of what companies make’ and it will – send them to the wall.

    3. Worse still, MPs have exclusive access to an HMRC team whose role is to deal with their tax queries.

      1. I suggest making all MPs immediately subject to IR35. They pushed the law, they should live under it.

        See how they like it. Suddenly those farcical expenses claims will get rejected outright. No more flipping houses. No more receipts for taxi fares. As for pensions, those would evaporate and they’d have to pay for their own.

        The theiving scum might learn something.

          1. More’s the pity, we can’t. That’s 90% of the reason why the economy is in the mess it is.

        2. Most of the few wealthy people whom I know have quietly departed from the UK.
          As for IR35, I know a contractor who left last year; all he needs is a computer and an internet connection. Gone from being a higher rate taxpayer to net zero.

    4. Who the hell buys that? You don’t get ‘careless’ with amounts of money in the millions. Did he not have an accountant to make sure all was in order? He has to go and never been seen or heard from again.

      1. Ken Dodd beat the system and was found not guilty when he was just as bad as (if not worse than) Lester Piggott.

        1. Gather ‘Doddy’ was tried in a Liverpool court, so was never likely to be found guilty!

          1. I think he was turning the court into a laughing stock, so the Prosecution felt it was simpler just to wander down to Knotty Ash and help themselves to whatever was owing from old kettles on the mantlepiece and stuffed under the mattress.

            Whilst famously generous to his audiences giving them more gags per show than many comedians crack in their careers, when it came to money, he was a notorious miser. I went to one of his shows a year or two before he died, and I swear he was still using the same sound system that sounded it was knackered when he picked it up secondhand from a defunct skiffle group in the 1960s, and his support act was a trumpeter he found on a pier somewhere in one of the more run-down seaside resorts of Lancashire. As for shelling out for a new comb…

          2. One of his jokes was “When income tax was first introduced it was 2 pence in the pound. Trouble is I keep thinking it’s still at that level!”

  53. Seeing that I have possibly been blocked, I am reposting my comment about the Malaysian beaver enthusiast:
    It is more serious than it looks, because Mandy Lieu’s former lover and
    the father of her children, Alvin Chau, has been convicted of gambling
    offences and has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in China/Macau.
    A proportion of Ms Lieu’s wealth is believed to have come from said Mr Chau.
    A money laundering or proceeds of crime investigation may be on the cards.

    1. Well I do hope so. We have very clear laws on this. Though very hard to get a conviction.

  54. Seeing that I have possibly been blocked, I am reposting my comment about the Malaysian beaver enthusiast:
    It is more serious than it looks, because Mandy Lieu’s former lover and
    the father of her children, Alvin Chau, has been convicted of gambling
    offences and has been sentenced to 18 years in prison in China/Macau.
    A proportion of Ms Lieu’s wealth is believed to have come from said Mr Chau.
    A money laundering or proceeds of crime investigation may be on the cards.

  55. Nicked

    Not long now till Burns Night – some friends of mine are organising a joint
    celebration with Chinese New Year. They’re calling it Chinese Burns
    Night.

    I don’t want to go but they’re twisting my arm.
    I’ll get me coat

    2. Chinese New Year?

      Pah!

      The 12-year Chinese New Year cycle comprises 11 very cool animals … and a f•cking rabbit! And guess what? I was born under the only disgusting specimen of vermin within that cycle!

      Pah!

        3. I am a rat. I tried to despatch the vermin that emerged from my woodpile this afternoon, but it was too quick. As I said to the dogs when they ignored it, “Just what sort of terriers are you?”

  56. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/22/rishi-sunak-should-shun-davos-groupthink-trust-low-tax-instincts/

    There’s a lot in here that seems stats based rather than reality based.

    Inflation continues to soar. Our wealth is buying approximately 40% what it did 10 years ago as the government has pursued inflation as policy.

    In addition, our government has been interventionist in the economy for over 30 years. The banks Brown tried to buy rather than let fail – because it would have exposed his stupidity. PFI contracts. Offbook pensions, the fiddling from RPI to CPI, government rigging of the energy markets. Mr Halligan can argue that the BRICS have ‘odd’ capitalism but it’s vastly better than our own socialist attitudes. Look at government trying to push battery factories when it’s simply uneconomic to make *anything* in the UK.

    Levelling up is a myth, not only in the term but the logical fallacy. It’s simply government spending under a different title. if the feature were needed then the private sector would already have pushed for it, except it can’t because it is being strangled by regulation, red tape and waste.

    As for the Davos twonks in the WEF – of course they’ll prattle on about green. None of them make or sell anything. They’re using green as a method of moving private wealth into their pockets.

    Sunak is NOT a low tax Tory. He’s a globalist stooge, imposed to do whatever his masters tell him to and that, at the moment is to force the continue decline of this nation into poverty, mass welfare and all the miseries of socialism to appease his masters’ real goal: to force us back into the EU without democratic mandate getting in the way to continue the stream of cash into their pockets.

    1. Mr Sunak is ‘public sector’, not a traditional Tory in any way whatsoever.
      His father worked as a GP and his mother a retail pharmacist; both respectable careers, but which are financed through the largesse of the NHS, ie the taxpayer.

  57. Boris Johnson vows to publish Sue Gray ‘partygate’ report in full
    By Dominic Penna,
    Political Reporter and Mason Boycott-Owen
    27 January 2022 • 4:09pm

    Today’s date is 22 February oops January 2023

    No “More Stories” worthy a mention, for ’11 months and three weeks ‘ then DT.

    Is the DT a newspaper, or an archive

    Please get your staff to stop working from home

    2. Yo, Mr Effort.

      Are you saying that my 72nd birthday has come a whole month earlier than I expected? When will I get that month of 71-hood back?☹️

        1. What was so special, less than a year ago, on 27th January 2022?

          Maybe my memory is failing.

          The only thing on my calendar for that date was ‘Put out Rubbish Bin.’

          2. Reminds me of a Goon episode.
            “Min, Min, put the cat out.”
            “But Henry, it’s not on fire.”

  58. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/01/22/push-diversity-dumbing-standards-city-london/

    An interesting article. The Warqueen has found that the more foreigners she works with – especially those who have English as a second language – simply cannot do the job. On the occasion where she raised this with management the response was almost we can’t sack them, they’re a [insert diversity hire]. The more dead weight she has to carry, the more pointless her job becomes.

    I know she put a recruitment freeze on her team of 20 odd tax operatives and only hired contractors a time. Getting some kid wanting a visa with no experience, competence or value pushed to the head of the queue over a head hunted local from another investment bank was in her words ‘treasury fodder’ (that’s about the highest insult she has, considering most law from the treasury and HMRC to be laughable, appallingly written and so badly implemented for a pathetic tax grab that it is doomed to failure. We’re talking about missing currency units, units such as (millions) and other trivial, school boy errors).

    1. But a friend who works in finance has employed a few real gems from abroad, such as a young woman from the Philippines and a Bulgarian lady; of course, they soon found better salaries elsewhere.
      Perhaps the Warqueen is paying peanuts and getting the proverbial.

  59. That’s two large builder’s buckets worth of logs sawn, split and stacked and a couple of trays of sticks cut with the chop saw.
    Need another large bucket load of logs to finish the stack off, but that can wait a week or two until I start refilling the third stack.

    I think I’ve done enough for the day now!

    1. Yo B o B,

      SIT DOWN AND REST

      You make me feel guilty, as all that I have done today is scrub the surface, of the entire length of the AI, from London to Edinburgh, .with a toothbrush!

      1. looks like a mild February coming our way, article in the Mail on Sunday is predicting severe cold weather

  61. The frost departed the garden at midday, temp went up to 7c, now it is 0c, and feeling chilly again .

    We went into Weymouth to do a bit of shopping , warm supermarket etc .. then took the dogs for a quick run on the heath , the were in their dog basket, asleep , in the back of the car whilst we shopped .

    Alot of people enjoying a beach walk and run , sun was out though the sky was hazy. Sea was calm , and we saw a few ships in the bay.

    Shopping bill has escalated even further , laundry stuff in particular and loo paper !

    1. It never got near 0°C today, the sun stubbornly remained behind a layer of cloud all day. 3½°C at the moment and likely to get a bit colder overnight.

      1. Tou should visit the frozen north. Plenty of wood to chop and it is plus two here at the moment.

    2. I feel a lot of money is being made under cover of post covid/Uke crisis. My cheapo tonic water has gone up from 35 to 55p. I wasn’t aware that water was much affected by world affairs apart from transport and labour costs. Thankfully, gin has not changed price.

    3. After your comment I thought I’d check the cost of the loo rolls we get – they’ve gone up £1 since last week to £8 !! I was shocked.

      1. Just having a couple of Baileys jn order to make room in the drinks cabinet of open bottles that were left over from Christmas

      2. that, that, that, that,
        that, that, that, that,
        that, that, that, that,

        How’s the patient?
        Well I trust.

        1. OK- eating well but moving slowly. But he is moving more. Very fed up with the pain. Also sleeping OK.
          We’ll get there and we are a good team. We’ve been through other stuff and made it and we will do so with this.

    1. Yo Bob

      Heard last night that the sappers are to mount the guard at Buckingham Palace this week for the first time. Detachment commanded by one Major Bobinson. His immensely proud Dad is a friend of a friend of Nags and mine. He too was a sapper and his idea of bliss is meandering around the foothills of the Himalayas photographing ‘temporary’ Bailey bridges that are still in use today. Sounds a bit like you!

      1. Heyup Sir!
        No, not the 1st time. 60 Field Squadron, (I think) did Public Duties at Buck House in the early ’70s. They were part of 36 Engineer Regiment at Maidstone at the time.

        And yes, I certainly like to see Bailey Bridges in place! In fact in the ’80s, after they’d widened the cutting under the old Spitfire Bridge and built the replacement bridge that still stands, I was chatting to one of the site engineers and asked what they planned doing with the temporary Triple Single Extra Widened Bailey that was put in as a temporary replacement.
        He told me to make them an offer for it! If I’d had somewhere to store it I’d have been VERY VERY tempted!

  64. About that Mark Zuckerberg video that’s just come to light where he cautions his employees against taking the vaxx?
    Ed Dowd makes the valid point that vaxx companies can’t be sued unless fraud is proven, so who is in the firing line to be sued instead?
    Doctors and nurses who gave injections perhaps, and EMPLOYERS who mandated the vaxx for their staff.
    Cynical me wonders if Zuckerberg is just heading off any potential trouble that way….

    3. That is a bit rich coming from a nerd who had daily conversations with Fauci about fixing the narrative by shutting down anti-Covid-vaccine voices.

  66. Jacinda Arden resigned because there wasn’t ‘enough in the tank’.

    A strange metaphor she uses! She didn’t say there weren’t enough volts in the battery she said there was not enough fuel (diesel or petrol?) left in the tank.

    But she is quite happy to impose premature net zero so that her fellow New Zealanders will run out of fuel before reliable electricity is available.

    1. Jacinda Arden shares her economic/energy ignorance and vitriol – with Nicola Sturgeon – who is also running out of gas, integrity and credibility.

      They are yesterday’s women.

    1. Maybe Tice is trying not to get entrapped and his holding fire until the appropriate time.
      Lets wait and see.
      One thing we have learn’t from what happened to UKIP, the powers that be will use every devious method possible to destroy the smaller parties with the mainstream media on their side

      1. The PTB would have a more difficult task, always provided that the vote-splitting parties have the guts to get together and face up to the PTB by coming up with a manifesto that anyone, even the Lib/Lab/Con/Green coalition, could vote for.

      2. 370301+ up ticks,

        Evening B3,

        “The powers that be will use every devious method possible to destroy the smaller parties” that goes for the party before Country brigade also.

        In my book reform was its main aim applying it to a tory (ino) party reshuffle.

      3. We said that too often about Farage. Andrew Bridgen said that he had spoken to both Tice and Farage recently, and neither of them wanted anything to do with vaxx damage.
        Big, big mistake, because vaxx damage is mainstream now.

    2. “…That which we’re not allowed to talk about...”

      What a cop-out. man up and talk about the covid and vaxx scam.

      Have the courage of your convictions, especially if you want to influence others.

    3. I agree entirely with this chap. Richard Tice seems to have sold out before he has even begun!

      1. 370301+ up ticks,

        Evening R,

        A 2019 replay, if a party looks remotely
        like being a success and a threat then the trip is triggered.

        They done the same with Batten/ Braine
        UKIP was a runaway success, that had to be stopped,and was.

        Using the brexit party and the same players, devilishly, treacherously, clever a.

      2. I think it was deliberate – to scatter the support to the smaller parties, reducing the chances of the ‘serious opposition’ from getting elected. Reform was just another party to split the vote, but it caught the imagination of the electorate. Only the day before Tice’s Bridgen comment there was a paragraph regarding Sunak, saying he was becoming concerned about the amount of support Reform was attracting. So it only took a quick phone call (presumably) and the support was then scattered like dandelion seeds. I never did trust Tice. A snake in the grass.

  68. Evening, all. Just toasting my toes by the fire as I type this. I took the car out for the first time since last Wednesday this morning. The main roads aren’t too bad, but the untreated side roads have barely thawed out at all. Where they have, they’ve exposed horrendously deep potholes. I don’t like living in a third world country but paying first world taxes.

      1. An indication that we will be returning to proper coinage and a gold standard when banks fail again. WEF was poorly attended and the maddest such as Tony Blair are all that is left of their demonic Gates-funded mouthpieces.

        Federal Reserve in US is likely to be abolished. Eagle coins are being minted in very large numbers. Expect Grand Canyon mining permits in due course.

        Ron Paul has been predicting and advocating this for decades.

        Time to buy gold and silver.

        1. I think it’s just the normal Royal Mint series. Two pounds is one ounce of silver, if I remember rightly.
          Royal Mint coins are so well designed, they’re very popular with collectors all over the world. One of our better exports.

          Tom Luongo called the WEF a “Rothschild, Eurotrash group” on the Delingpod, which describes them to a T. I hope it will very soon be seen as fatal to the image of a politician to attend their meetings.

          1. I am alerted to the face value of the coinage proposed.

            Gold Sovereign coins have a face value of £1, this means the legal tender value of a Sovereign is technically £1. The true value of a Sovereign however is calculated by multiplying its gold content – 7.3224 grams – by the gold spot price.

            The proposed coins proposed have face values of £1000, £500, £200, £100 and so on.

            I am still pondering whether the Privy Council note is a spoof but it looks a good copy of so.

          2. Yes, I agree that’s a bit odd. Are they planning a huge coin for a publicity stunt perhaps?
            I think you are right though, there is going to be a sharp revaluation at some point.

          3. You can also buy ETFs, but make sure that they contain physical gold, and not promissory notes.

  70. No one Wordling today?
    A bogie for me.
    Wordle 582 5/6

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

    1. Yes, there were two; 10 hours ago!

      Wordle 582 4/6
      ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  71. Good grief. Watching Andrew Doyle on GB News and they are discussing the Scotland gender recognition bill fiasco. There is a man pretending to be a woman, sounding just like a man, arguing for it (surprise).

    Edit. The woman debating with him has just had to say “ see Robin [the man pretending to be a woman] is shaking Robin’s head”, presumably to avoid a row about not using “Robin’s” “preferred pronouns”.

    What an utter, utter mess.

    pS listening earlier whilst doing tea to an interesting podcast, Peter Whittle’s “So what you are saying is” with John O’Sullivan who has a book “The Woke vs the West”. Worth seeking out.

  72. A breath of fresh air – an MP talking sense. A bit long but worth posting in full.

    Lee Anderson: ‘Food bank users are often wasting money on fags, booze and Sky TV’

    The Conservative MP for Ashfield believes a culture of entitlement, rather than poverty, is holding people – and the country – back

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/01/22/tory-mp-lee-anderson-food-banks-have-become-industry-now-scandal/

    Lee Anderson was holed up in his favourite Nottinghamshire pub late on Friday, boasting on Twitter how he had been able to buy a round of drinks and a packet of pork scratchings for £6.90. “Only in Ashfield,” he told his 48,000 followers.

    Anderson is not your usual Conservative MP. A former miner and Labour councillor, he only jumped ship to the Tories a year before winning his Ashfield seat at the 2019 general election.

    The pub – the New Cross – like Ashfield itself has only recently come around to welcoming Tories. “It is one of those pubs where they used to sweep the teeth up on a Sunday afternoon. It has still got the same clientele coming in,” he says. “I walked in the other week and they all stood up and clapped me. I would have got chased out of this pub 10 years ago if I had dared walk in as a Tory.”

    Anderson needed the drink at the end of a week when he was criticised for using the salary details of a staff member to try to demonstrate how it is possible to survive on a low income as the debate about food banks raged. He now appears to regret his post on Twitter as he refuses to discuss it because of the online abuse that has been directed his aide’s way, and asks The Sunday Telegraph not to name her.

    Anderson was trying to make the point that often people who are driven to use food banks need help with budgeting their finances, drawing on his experience working at his local Citizens Advice Bureau before he became a MP. “We would sit down with a service user and decide why they have the use of a food bank. In a lot of cases, it was people who had relationship breakdowns, or a sudden illness or disability or whatever, a sudden change in circumstances. There is nothing wrong with that.”

    But when he filled out an income and expense sheet for others, he often found people were spending money on luxuries they simply did not need. “In a lot of cases these people were just wasting money on fags and booze and non essentials, non priority debts, Sky TV or Virgin Media.

    “There was a lot of money they could save. There were takeaways, holidays. In this world, you don’t have the automatic right to have all the nice things in life. You have to work for them and you have to pay for them.”

    Anderson blames what he describes as an “industry” behind food banks, which leaves people relying on them and unable to navigate their own way out of poverty. “Yes, there is a need for food banks for some people who fall on hard times all of a sudden. But there’s a whole industry now. In my opinion this is a scandal,” he says. “We should be teaching a man to fish. If we get back to the basics, get people to help themselves, give them a hand up rather than a hand out, this country would be even better.”

    The point here is that ANYONE (not just nurses) earning *MORE* than 30k, & are using foodbanks must have a budgeting problem. I have constituents i.e armed forces, bin men, bar staff, care workers, bus drivers, pensioners etc who can all live on less. Am I missing something ?

    Trying to make these points in the nuance-free zone of Twitter often lands Anderson in hot water. He is nicknamed “30p Lee” after a local chef showed him how to produce 172 meals – costing about 30p each – to feed a family of five from an outlay of just £50 a week at a local Aldi.

    Anderson blames a dependency culture which he can trace back to the tax credits system pioneered by former Labour prime minister Tony Blair and his chancellor Gordon Brown – and continued with some enthusiasm by their Conservative successors – for leaving people trapped on low incomes.

    “Overnight, they made it more attractive for people not to go to work full time. You could earn the same money for 16 hours a week,” he says. “Three generations later, the unintended consequence of that is people are stuck in entry level jobs and the employers have not been able to upskill their own staff because they are refusing to work longer hours.

    “We’ve got to break that cycle. We’ve got to tell people that the way to get that new car or have that holiday abroad is not by having your income topped up on Universal Credit, it’s by promotion.”

    Anderson, 56, has lived and worked his entire life in and around Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. With his two sisters, Lisa and Paula, he grew up in Huthwaite, a mining village. His mother Jennifer was a factory worker and his father Paul was a miner.

    “We had vegetables in the garden. At the bottom of the garden we had chickens and rabbits and ducks. “When it was dinner time we had one of them,” he says. “I’ll take no lectures from anybody about being hard up … That was our food bank, our back garden.” He says that “we didn’t have a pot to p— in when we were kids. We really didn’t. We were brought up with plenty of love in the house. But we had absolutely nothing.”

    He left Ashfield School with several O-levels taking local jobs – including a year as a labourer in a concrete factory – until he finally got a job as a miner, working alongside his father, in the mid-1980s. Over 10 years Anderson worked at four collieries in the area – Sutton, Welbeck, Creswell, where he had coalface training, Manton, before returning to Welbeck. He says: “I had it really tough in the early 90s. I was working seven days a week down a coal mine, working 12 hours and 14 hours on a night shift, seven nights on the trot and hardly any money at the end of the week. And that’s what I did.

    “When my first missus got pregnant with our second child, I had to go to my boss at the pit and say, ‘I’m working six days, I need a Sunday shift’.

    “There was no social media for them to complain to. I didn’t blame the government. I thought, ‘I’d got her pregnant, it was my job to feed my kid’.”

    Anderson and his partner separated, and he went on to raise his two sons Charlie and Harry, now 31 and 29, on his own. At one point he sold his car to make ends meet. “I walked everywhere. I was not one of those people who were whinging and moaning, I thought, ‘That’s an expense. I could walk and catch the bus. I can walk kids to school’.”

    Anderson says his work ethic was instilled by his father. “My dad always told me that if I wanted nice things, I had to go to work and if I wanted even nicer things, I had to do more work,” he says.

    Anderson left the pits in 1997 to devote his time to his sons, before volunteering for and then eventually starting work at the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. He also started to dip his toe in Labour politics, eventually being elected as a local councillor for the party in 2015.

    However, his political conversion to the Tories happened in February 2018 when he was suspended by his local Labour Party for receiving a community protection warning from Ashfield District Council “after placing boulders to deter travellers from setting up camp at a site in the area”, according to the Mansfield Chad newspaper.

    He quit Labour to join the Tories the following month, telling the BBC at the time “the Labour Party has been taken over by the hard-left and Momentum in particular and I will play no part in that. It’s been a very difficult decision to come to”.

    Anderson won Ashfield for the Conservatives at the December 2019 general election, with a majority of 5,733 over an independent candidate who pushed Labour into third place, turning the seat blue for the first time in 22 years. Since entering Parliament, Anderson has formed close bonds with millionaire Tory MPs like Richard Drax and Jacob Rees-Mogg.

    “I can honestly say that some of the people who made me feel the most welcome, being a working-class bloke, are people like Richard Drax and Jacob Rees-Mogg,” he says. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he has signed up to the Common Sense Group of around 40 Tory MPs which campaigns against woke issues.

    Anderson notes how the childhood friends he grew up with in “one of the roughest parts of Ashfield” have done well. “They’ve seen where they’ve come from and thought ‘F— that, I want a decent life’. They’ve got strong Conservative values – aspiration. And they want their children to do a little bit better than what they’ve done.” Rishi Sunak, the millionaire Prime Minister, and other privileged Conservatives, can “sympathise” but not “empathise” with the poor. “It’s not their fault how they were brought up,” he says.

    The Tory grassroots seem to have taken Anderson to their hearts. He is often booked to speak at southern Tory associations, desperate to hear from their new cousins in the party’s Red Wall. In the weeks leading up to Christmas he was asked to address local Conservatives in Chipping Barnet, Ipswich and leafy Kensington, among others, to hear him deliver “straight talking with a healthy slice of common sense”, according to one association.

    Anderson is convinced he can hold his seat at the next general election and even – despite the polls – is cautiously optimistic about the Tories’ chances to hold on to power – as long as Sunak adopts what he describes as “Conservative policies”. A lot of my voters – especially the first time Tory voters – voted for a Conservative government: can we please have some Conservative policies?

    “I know that we’ve been interrupted by Covid, the war in Ukraine and now the strikes, but Rishi has got nearly two years to turn it around. Hopefully in the run-up to the next general election, people in this country can start to see what a Conservative government is all about. And that means cutting taxes, cutting business rates, making sure that work pays, securing our borders, that there’s more police on the street, and sorting these strikes out.”

    One of his ideas is for the Government to do more to stop people “abusing the system”. He takes aim at “those people that quite frankly don’t want to go to work. People who are feigning illness. I used to see them on a daily basis in my time at Citizens Advice Bureau.

    “I’d see people coming in on two sticks, or could hardly walk, and then Friday I’d see them downtown on the dance floor at the disco. We know that happens.

    “It’s not fair on the decent hard-working taxpayer in this country who puts a shift in, works seven days a week, and never sees the kids because they are working all the hours God sends.”

    He adds: “We as a government, as a Conservative Party, need to come down heavily on the side of the hard-working British taxpayers, showing that we really care about them.”

    He wants to see more government ministers promoting “personal responsibility” among the population and stopping a tendency among people to look for help from the state. Anderson describes this “can do” spirit as “the mentality of the Red Wall”. He says: “The Government has got to start promoting personal responsibility as well as aspiration.

    “It is your family, you provide for them. Make sure that you live in a safe, decent country with good education, a good health-care system and a good police force.”

    Anderson worries that the voice of an older generation who had to make do with what they had got when funds ran low is being replaced by one which expects the state to step in. “It’s not the state or the Government’s job to pay people more money. It’s your own job to support your family,” he says.

    “The generation of people that support me on this sadly are getting older and dying. And the new generation has probably not got those sorts of ideas and I think that’s a dangerous thing.”

    Although he uses his Twitter feed to take his message of self-reliance to voters, he blames social media for leaving younger generations feeling entitled. Asked why he is urging people to live within their means, he says: “There is a big sense of entitlement in this country.

    “People automatically think they should have things. You see five-year-old kids with tablets and iPhones. “Back in the day if I got a hole in my socks, my mum sewed them up for me. Nowadays, you just chuck them in the bin and you get three new pairs for two quid from Asda.” Anderson is bemused that people cannot find work: “In this country now, we’ve got over a vast number of vacancies. So there is no excuse at all for people being out of work.”

    For his fans, Anderson is a rare blast of common sense in Westminster, which can often get overwhelmed by issues which mean little outside SW1. Take this week’s row over the Government’s plans to ban trans conversion therapy. “There is a tiny amount of the population who are genuinely affected by it. And we must respect that and we must support and help,” he says. “But the campaign side of it are normally middle-class white blokes, in skinny jeans with silly beards and who’ve probably got hemp slippers on.

    “These are ones that are campaigning and have been a right nuisance about it. These sorts of people look for a minority group and then keep telling them that they’re victims. They keep telling them the world’s against them and the world’s not against them.”

    He adds: “Over the years, I’ve knocked on thousands of doors, spoken to literally tens of thousands of people, and nobody’s ever brought this nonsense up.”

    As a miner, Anderson went on strike a couple of times when John Major’s Tory government was closing mines in the early 1990s but now considers it “a pointless gesture”. His advice for today’s public sector workers who are striking over pay is to “put the family first, not the union”.

    He says: “You can carry that through your life sometimes being bitter and having that ‘poor me syndrome’ and blaming everybody else.

    “Other people are getting on with their life, working, grafting, getting another qualification, doing overtime and providing for their families.”

    As his followers will know, Anderson appears to enjoy winding up his critics on social media. His regular altercations with Steve Bray, an anti-Brexit campaigner who spends his time heckling Tories in Westminster through an outsized megaphone, often spread virally.

    On Friday, Anderson took it to the next level by challenging Bray to a boxing match to settle their differences. He told me on Chopper’s Politics podcast: “He is a nuisance. And I’ve got a challenge for him: meet me in the boxing ring. Let’s do three rounds. And if I win, he never protests out there again. And if he wins, I’ll go and protest with him.”

    Anderson, who is married to his second wife Sinead, 45, a Conservative councillor on Mansfield District Council, who suffers from cystic fibrosis and had a double lung transplant in 2020, wants to raise money from any boxing match for a male suicide charity after the 30-year-old son of his friend Graham Lynk took his own life a month ago.

    Graham’s son Sean “was a big handsome man,” he says. “He had a smile that would light any room up, nobody saw it coming, he said goodbye to his Dad one night. He said ‘I will see you at work’ and then he went home and took his own life.”

    Ahead of any bout, Anderson has just started a diet to cut his weight from 17st 2lb to 15st 8lb. A weekly weigh-in recorded on Twitter is promised. And he is getting inspiration from his Twitter feed. “This week I’ve been called a lard a— potbelly MP. I’ve been called a fat b—— all over Twitter. Most of them are hidden profiles, keyboard cowards,” he says.

    “I used to watch Popeye as a kid. Every time he had his tin of spinach, he got stronger and that’s what it is like for me every time I got one of these horrible comments. My haters are my motivators.”

  73. Now waiting to be admitted to horsepiddle for CT scan (try to find the brain cell…) and overnight observation.
    Bugger.
    After fall this morning, became concerned this afternoon at forgetfulness – couldn’t remember where my office is – now getting the works in case it’s a new stroke, or blood on the brain from the fall.
    The nurses are nice!

    1. Good luck Paul. Will be thinking of you! Concentrate on getting well and leave the nurses alone;-)))

    2. All the best, Paul, from across the wintry North Sea. Hope all goes well. We’ll be thinking about you.

    3. Hang on in there.

      And a word to the wise, next time get looked at straight away.

      Good luck and may God be with you.

    4. Sending love and best wishes to you Paul! You’re definitely in the best place! 💕

    5. Good luck with all that, Paul.

      We can only hope that Weegie health service are on the ball and find that Brain Cell that might be giving problems.

      KBO old troop.

    9. When I lost consciousness and collapsed I foolishly left it a fortnight before visiting the GP. A useless paramedic attending me after the collapse gave a misdiagnosis. What I thought was sciatica turned out to be DVT.

      You are doing the right thing in getting the scan. Fingers crossed it is nothing serious and readily treatable. You have my best wishes.

          4. Pickled herring for brekker would be a luxury in an NHS hospital 🙁
            Hope he continues recovering well at home.

          4. Last week when my husband was in hospital, he was woken at 2.30 and some oik asked if he was sleeping. I can’t relay the response the oik received.

    14. Oh dear Obs terrible news.
      From my own experience it sounds like a TIA.
      Take it easy matey, the docs know what they are doing.

      2. One moment making breakfast coffee, the next being picked up by Second Son & SWMBO. No warning.
        Banged my head on the floor enough to bleed a bit.

    1. I was thinking just the other day that if I had an electric car I would be a bit worried about keeping it in the garage, I wonder if it affects house insurance cover.

      1. Probably – massive premium increase – another advantage of owning an EV.

        I wouldn’t give it garage room.

    2. I was thinking just the other day that if I had an electric car I would be a bit worried about keeping it in the garage, I wonder if it affects house insurance cover.

    3. Makes sense to me. Airlines won’t allow Li-Ion Batteries because of their predilection to self-combust.

      Could be fatal at sea.

    4. That’s a real problem, cos often there’s no alternative route. The tanker trucks were briefly banned years ago until someone woke up as to the implications.

    2. A ‘reintroduction’ of alcohol is bringing rampant crime to Alice Springs. Did they have ‘Prohibition’ before, or what?

        1. Now I see where it’s going. It’s just they were obviously avoiding the ethnicity of the offenders. I’ve been to NT and have seen how alcohol affects the indigenous people.

          3. Americans are hypocrites when it comes to booze. A friend of ours had friends round and the man only had one beer- I don’t drink- stuff.
            He was observed later swigging a bottle in a brown paper bag, next door.
            I don’t care what people think and if I want a glass of wine, I will have one!

          5. My wife and I were admonished in a seafood restaurant in New England.
            When we asked for the second glass of wine to wash our delicious food down.
            The waitress said in no uncertain terms “YOO WAANT MOORE WYNE”?
            Yes please 🙏 😍

          6. Late 70s I remember driving from Broken Hill to Wilcannia late afternoon, sun going down behind. And being blinded by the thousands of empty and broken bottles at the sides of the road.
            I asked the hotelier how it came to be. Bloody drunken abbos’ chucking them out as they drive along.
            I suspect that a few local people were also guilty. Drink driving was the name of the game in Oz those days..

    3. A ‘reintroduction’ of alcohol is bringing rampant crime to Alice Springs. Did they have ‘Prohibition’ before, or what?

    5. On a separate note, the film was excellent and the book too. Neville Shute is making a comeback in MIR Towers.

      1. You can’t go wrong with Neville Shute books. On the Beach should be required reading for all politicians. Requiem for a Wren is very moving.

  76. Currently got good stuff out of the fridge freezer for cooking to-morrow when defrosted and malleable:

    2 x Chix Tits
    1 x leek
    1 x Onion
    1 x pepper (yellow)
    3 x little spuds
    1 x bowl of spinach
    1 x Can of Cream of chicken
    1 x Marmite (exhausted) well diluted with hot water
    Very Lazy Garlic
    Rosemary, Thyme
    A few capers.

    I can’t wait to get to it.

  77. While waiting to cook, I’ll say Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk until the sun comes round again.

  78. I’m back after an afternoon with no internet, then a visitor, then getting the dinner and eating it, and now back.

      1. I’ve a good friend who was sent over here at the age of 9 to escape the Revolution. The rest of his family didn’t manage to escape. My friend converted to Christianity and lives in Wales. He is adamant that there is a take-over plan by Muslims. He is also very outspoken about (in his view – I have no way of knowing) lazy Somalis, of which there are apparently many in Cardiff.

        1. He isn’t the only one to think Somalis lazy. It’s borne out by their unemployment statistics.

  80. A street in north London is to be officially renamed, due to concerns about the racial connotations of its current name.

    Black Boy Lane in Tottenham is to be called La Rose Lane from Monday, after the black publisher John La Rose.

    It is among several roads and buildings across London to be renamed following Black Lives Matter protests.

    One campaign group has criticised the decision, calling it a “performative display of virtuousness”.

    Black Boy Lane is thought to have been named after a pub in the late 17th Century.

    Haringey Council began a consultation into the planned name change following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020, and subsequent anti-racism protests. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64354190

    1. One more nail in the coffin. Am counting the days till my escape from this hell hole.(just over 1,500, if anyone is interested).

    2. Ottawa are renaming the John A McDonald Parkway and giving it some as yet determined aboriginal name. You white man, you have no say in this.
      They just can’t just leave things alone or even do a bit of research into who the bad people were.

      Just to add insult, they are giving 2.3 billion dollars to some Indian bands as reparations for them losing their indigenous languages when they were sent to school (not the residental school cash g4ab, that’s another 0ot of money).

    3. The last time I looked we still have a Black Boy pub in Sudbury Market Square.

      I am getting severely annoyed by this constructed pandering to Woke nonsense. Should Charles III continue to push this nonsense the monarchy is dead to me and I suspect many millions of my fellow countrymen.

      We are reaching a point where there will be a reaction to all of this minority interest shite. I predict the end of the Monarchy unless they change course radically and reaffirm our innate Englishness. Fuck the Scots and the Welsh, wasters for the most part unless they too reform.

      Sturgeon will have the Scots re-wedded to a failing and corrupt EU, the Welsh fucker or poof, whose name I forget, likewise.

      1. The royal family have encouraged this nonsense right from the start. Then they will come out with something against wokeness, and everyone who still votes Conservative will think they are on our side – they aren’t.
        The only consolation is that they were hoist with their own politically correct petard, by an American hustler, who would never have been allowed to infiltrate their ranks had she been white.
        For that, I do not blame Meghan – the target was wide open, and she just shot at it!

    1. Good night Elsie.

      We have a frost again , -5c.. The grass is scrunchy underfoot .. just been outside with the dogs .. their final piddle for the evening . The stars are twinkling brightly .

  83. 370301+ up ticks,

    Funny old game politics, the ex leader of UKIP farage had a hand along with the party nec in bringing down Gerard Batten / Richard Braine and a very successful building UKIP in 2019, in a very pro johnson / tory (ino) party action.

    Now we have richard tice leader of reform running along similar lines, as with UKIP the party was building into a threat, sleepers had to be awakened.

    breitbart,

    Farage-Founded Party Doubles Support in Conservative Strongholds Since Sunak Became PM

    1. Richard Tice has shot himself in the foot with his comments on Andrew Bridgen’s attempt to bring the consequences of the Covid jabs to light. Many of his would be supporters have been turned off.

      1. That includes me: £50.00 donation plus Membership Annual Fee of £25.00.

        I am not impressed so far. Tice is obviously no leader.

        Where next to go?

Comments are closed.