Sunday 23 February: Donald Trump has brutally exposed modern Europe’s innate weakness

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

708 thoughts on “Sunday 23 February: Donald Trump has brutally exposed modern Europe’s innate weakness”

  1. Good morning, chums. And thanks to you, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Yesterday I watched Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources and thoroughly enjoyed the films. I knew that the music was based on Verdi's La Traviata, which one of the characters played on his harmonica; what I did not realise is that the actual harmonica was played by the famous Toots Thielemans. Grizzly please note. And today, I shall start to read the two original books in French, with help where necessary from a French dictionary.

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
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  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks to you, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Yesterday I watched Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources and thoroughly enjoyed the films. I knew that the music was based on Verdi's La Traviata, which one of the characters played on his harmonica; what I did not realise is that the actual harmonica was played by the famous Toots Thielemans. Grizzly please note. And today, I shall start to read the two original books in French, with help where necessary from a French dictionary.

    Wordle 1,345 5/6

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  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks to you, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Yesterday I watched Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources and thoroughly enjoyed the films. I knew that the music was based on Verdi's La Traviata, which one of the characters played on his harmonica; what I did not realise is that the actual harmonica was played by the famous Toots Thielemans. Grizzly please note. And today, I shall start to read the two original books in French, with help where necessary from a French dictionary.

    Wordle 1,345 5/6

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  7. SIR – What the American administration is doing to Europe is shocking and dangerous. After a decade in India, we are now determined to come home to Britain to play a part in defending our country from tyrants.

    The British public should be under no illusions about the risks we face. But we have a proud tradition of facing things together.

    Jasper Reid
    New Delhi, India

    Good on you, Jasper. I suggest you move to the City of Culture.

      1. I studied Matthew Arnold's poetry when I was a schoolboy and I particularly enjoyed his narrative poem Sohrab and Rustum. This poem, Dover Beach, is another of my favourites.

        Dover Beach – Matthew Arnold

        The sea is calm tonight.
        The tide is full, the moon lies fair
        Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
        Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
        Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
        Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
        Only, from the long line of spray
        Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
        Listen! you hear the grating roar
        Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
        At their return, up the high strand,
        Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
        With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
        The eternal note of sadness in.

        Sophocles long ago
        Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought
        Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
        Of human misery; we
        Find also in the sound a thought,
        Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

        The Sea of Faith
        Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore
        Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
        But now I only hear
        Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
        Retreating, to the breath
        Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
        And naked shingles of the world.

        Ah, love, let us be true
        To one another! for the world, which seems
        To lie before us like a land of dreams,
        So various, so beautiful, so new,
        Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
        Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
        And we are here as on a darkling plain
        Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
        Where ignorant armies clash by night.

    4. Who is Jasper Reid and why does he labour under the illusion that Britain's problems will be solved if "we" return from India?

  8. Ukraine could be Starmer’s Falklands moment. 23 February 2025.

    Starmer’s case is very different but there are clear signs that he, too, has the opportunity to improve his reputation as a statesman in spite of the apparent shortcomings in his perhaps over hasty pledges – like not enough troops to send to Ukraine as peacekeepers and not much diplomatic clout to act as a transatlantic go-between.

    But his latest moves have been made in the correct direction and have surprised many. Not only that but he has also been denounced by the Kremlin – “unacceptable” they’ve called his interventions – which is worth any number of “Brownie points” in the international insults league table.

    Statesman? God help us. This is just one of three (so far) propaganda articles in the Telegraph about Ukraine. They are linked by their implied support for Starmer’s recent actions over the war.

    It is difficult to know where to begin with this dog’s breakfast of a policy. For a start no agreement about ending the war has yet been reached so no one knows what it will look like. Whatever it is, we, even in concert with the EU, cannot possibly maintain our support in opposition to a US sponsored deal. We simply do not have the resources, Financial. Military etc. to do it. Are we going to sanction Russia on our own? Are we going to send the Army to fight with the Ukies? Of course not. The whole thing is Pie in the Sky. The US will dictate the terms and everyone else will fall into line.

    I think that what is going to happen here is Starmer is going to paddle this EU canoe up the creek and they are going to leave him sitting there looking like a fool. I'm almost tempted to believe that they have done it deliberately.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/23/ukraine-could-be-starmer-falklands-moment/#comment

    2. As I have said here before Starmer will be prepared to pay an enormous sum to rejoin the EU and this sum will disappear into a laundered black hole. Shortly after the EU will disband the the UK will have to bear all of the costs of its disbanding.

      Starmer has form – he is also paying an enormous sum to give away the Chagos Islands to Mauritius.

    3. I fear it will be more of a Galtieri moment, with many flights home in planes with no windows.

      1. Morning, Maggie. Nice morning to come but rain at 1300 and through the afternoon. I do the afternoon walk with the Springer.🙁

  10. Good morning all.
    A bit blustery with a tad under 8°C outside. Currently dry but rain forecast.

    1. 402028+ up ticks,

      Morning TB,
      All can say with ALL honesty is that the English peoples have a great deal to answer for.

    2. The article on the crimes in the Westmoreland Gazette states the following:-

      Shaha Amran Miah, 48, Shaha Alman Miah, 47, and Shaha Joman Miah, 38, are currently being sentenced at Preston Crown Court after they were convicted of child sex offences committed between 1996 and 2010 in Barrow and Leeds.

      And

      Amran Miah, who also was known as ‘Jai’, raped one of the girls when she was 15 years old and threatened her with violence after she reported the incident to the police in 2009.

      Nearly 30 years it's taken to get this to court.

    3. The pile of this dung increases by the second.
      I believe kahnt at some stage also represented the 7/7 hyde park bombers.

  12. The BBC are runninga story on Trump. What he promised = what he has actually done.
    Pity they have not done the same for Starmer. 2 tear reporting again.

  13. 402028+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I live in hope President Trumps memory is longer than the majority voter in England and acts accordingly, and
    with mercy in England's favour.

    Starmer considers faster defence build-up ahead of Trump talks
    As our continent takes on more of the burden of its own defence, engaging with the US president remains vital for our national interest

    1. That's just Sos being Sos. He can't help himself.

      In the case of good nutrition being a zealot is not necessarily a bad thing.

      I have a mild form of Diverticular. The advice is to eat more fruit and fiber.

      What to do? What to do?

      1. My advice is to eat less fruit and fibre (your best interests are not their best interests). However, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

      3. When I was a child in Cornwall we bought a Border Terrier which I named Tim after My Uncle Tim who had one called Pepper.

        My parents bought the puppy from kennels in Zelah a village between Truro and Newquay and my father wanted to register it under the kennel name of 'Zealot of Zelah'

      1. As I have said before since the British left the Sudan the country has become a hell hole.

        Indeed are there any other countries which are happier or more prosperouns since the white man left?

        1. There are a lot more people in our ex-colonies than there were when we left. So that's all right, then.

        2. And now our own beautiful Britain is being turned into a hellhole by those who created their own hell holes on other continents.

          Our Country is being destroyed , and now the Trotskyist / Marxist man who is in charge of spending our hard earned tax money on fripperies , is trying to destroy the people who do not have tattoos , purple hair , rings through noses , stripey scarves , weird eyebrows and sloppy speech plus alternative living , off the state ..

          Yes his aim is to destroy the hardworking middle classes as well those who work for themselves , fixing your cars/electrics/plumbing . roofs / etc/

          I reckon the ones who are on Starmers side are local government , doctors and lawyers , apols to those on here who are ..

  17. Good Morning!

    Today Youtuber David Bizley’s A Letter to King Charles sets out exactly why he no longer regards himself as a subject of the King. Please read and let us know if you agree with his sentiments.

    In ‘ Has Liberalism's Flame Burned Too Bright? ’ Graham Cunningham argued that classic Enlightenment contained the seeds of its very opposite, and that modern ‘progressive liberalism is just that, with devastating consequences. Please do read and leave a comment.

    Energy watch 07.45: UK net demand: 25.25 GW. Total UK Production: 29.09 GW from: Hydrocarbons 13.7%; Wind 56.5%; Imports 7.5%; Biomass 4.1 and Nuclear 114.7. Solar: 0. Solar is producing 0.02 GW, too small to show on the percentages – and this includes domestically produced solar power.

    We are exporting 4.42 GW, but of course also importing 2.35 GW, including our seemingly compulsory quota from France. There seems to be a deal that anytime France has excess capacity, we buy it.

    Don't forget, we are always looking for articles from out brilliant readers and posters.

        1. Charlie missed his opportunity when he had the sword on his shoulder.
          As he has done many other times.

    2. As I said here the other day, I support the idea of a non-political head of state in order to save us from the sort of president a man like Blair would be.

      However King Charles is rather diminishing my support for the monarchy.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Breezy a lighter shade of grey 8c and rain later.
    The usual outlook.
    Good for DT Exposing all the things that we already know about, but our own minced headed hierarchy and media are trying hide.

  19. Just glancing at the front page of the Telegaffe – you might think things can't get worse, but it seems they can! The government are apparently developing an AI tool to trawl social media – what could possibly go wrong? In other news the UK Fire Service is, according to a new study, far too white and male and also "institutionally racist, homophobic and misogynistic" – FFS what is wrong with these people? If I was caught in a burning building I would want the best trained, most capable person rescuing me, not some DEI recruit!

    2. Our country is slowly but surely being wrecked by the Dopey Wokies and too many others of their type.

    3. Perhaps the answer is to lock these idiots in a burning building and let the diversity hires rescue them. Reality might just sink in – if they survive.

    2. We are not many miles north-westish of you (south Cambs) but it is cold, grey and windy here this morning. Porridge skies. Doggo has refused to venture forth; well, he did have a session at the grooming parlour yesterday and he emerged with a short, snappy haircut (too many tangles in his poodle-ish coat) so I expect he is feeling the cold, bless him. Neither does he like wearing a dog jacket.

      Tin foil headgear is very deffo du jour.

  21. Gentle reminder to BBC & all Lefties banging on about Trump's extortion of resources off Ukraine.. most of the aid from the EU comes in the form of a loan. And yes, they will want it back one way or another in utilities & infrastructure.

    1. What President Trump is offering Ukraine is similar to the development of the oilfields in Saudi. He is offering them a good deal.

      No surprise his enemies are calling it extortion.

  22. 'Morning All
    Oof…..
    "The past week, then, has served as a test of our leaders’ ability to distinguish between high-sounding but content-free sentiment, and objective reality: it is a test that most of Westminster has failed. As the military historian Robert Lyman, long a critic of Britain’s self-disarmament, observes, this week’s discourse has been “embarrassing rubbish, political sound bites by empty people allowing them to sound tough and virtuous”. The week’s events centre around the gravest matter imaginable, concerning questions of the nation’s security and ultimately survival. To see a political homunculus like Ed Davey, leader of the country’s fourth most popular party and best known for dancing on TikTok, condemning any expressions of caution as Putinist bootlicking extinguishes whatever credibility he may have possessed as a serious figure."
    Rest here worth a read
    https://unherd.com/2025/02/the-fantasy-of-british-defence/

  26. EU warns against using the word ‘man’ in language guide.

    The Sunday Telegraph. 23 Feb 2025. By Tim Sigsworth.

    THE European Union has advised against using a series of common words and phrases that include “man” in the latest version of its English Style Guide. Politicians, officials and translators are warned not to use words such as “tradesman” and “man-made” because they are not “inclusive”, in official guidance from The European Commission, the EU’s executive body. The new version of the guide also takes aim at the phrase “man in the street”, saying “the average person” should be used instead. “Wherever possible, use alternatives for terms containing ‘man’ to mean people of all genders,” it explains.

    Lord Young, the founder of the Free Speech Union, told The Telegraph: “This sort of woke nonsense now feels completely outdated. The European Commission clearly hasn’t got the memo.” Alka Sehgal-Cuthbert, director of campaign group Don’t Divide Us, said: “Ordinary people need the freedom to speak freely in the language which they, and previous generations, have grown up with,” she said. She added that language policing is “more than ‘PC gone mad’ and needs active, reasoned rejection, not just eye-rolling disapproval”.

    Other discouraged words with “man” in the guide include “man hours”, “manpower” and “mankind”, which it is suggested are replaced by “labour hours”, “human resources” and “humanity”. Other banned words include “husband” and “wife”, which make way for “spouse” or “partner”, and “Christian name”, which has been replaced by “first name”, “forename” or “given name”. The phrase “in layman’s terms” is also criticised and three alternatives are suggested in its place: “simply put”, “in simple terms” and “in everyday language”. The guide also argues in favour of the words “chair”, “spokesperson” and “fisher”, instead of “chairman”, “spokesman” and “fisherman”.

    The European Commission declined to comment.

    Neither the EU, nor anyone else, has the ability to stop or prevent me using any word I choose. Just let them try. I was born as a member of mankind and I shall die as one.

    Don't these twats realise that the word "woman" contains the word "man". Will that be banned too? What do the "wopeople" on this thread think?

    1. Wadda loada bolero!
      Where will it end ?
      Locally some of us have jumped the gun (😳oh not a real fire arm please don't panic😢) and changed from chairman to chair person to stool because in one certain case it seemed more appropriate.

    2. As a 'woperson' or actual female woman I think this replacement of language is all nonsense. Mankind includes womankind as the female of the species.
      Cats and dogs and horses as terms include both males and females though there are also terms like mares and stallions which can indicate more specifically which is being referred to.

    3. I agree entirely.

      The word man not only describes adults of the male sex it also describes mankind – it does not exclude women. Likewise the term dog does not exclude bitches.

      If a teacher says to a class: "I would like everybody to collect his books" that teacher is accused of being sexist and excluding the girls in the class. The teacher has either to resort to 'collect his or her books – which is clumsy – or pick up their books which is ungrammatical.

      1. Good morning, Rastus.

        Indeed, I would tell them where to get off, and no doubt face the sack.

        Your downvote of my post is, I presume, a 'fat finger' anomaly.

  29. How can you replace "manpower" with "human resources"? That phrase has already been taken by "personnel".

    1. When the late, great cricketer, Rachael Heyhoe-Flint, was asked if the rumours were true that it had been she who coined the name for a female abdominal protector (the equivalent of the male 'box') as a "manhole cover"; she replied that it wasn't her who said it, but she wished that it had been.😊

  30. Fire service is too white and too male, report claims.

    The Sunday Telegraph. 23 Feb 2025. By Tim Sigsworth.

    BRITAIN’S fire service is too male and too white, a report has claimed. The report, commissioned by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), found that the service was “institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic”. It said firemen in Britain were not “diverse” enough because the service’s proportion of women and ethnic minorities is less than in wider society.

    Having been produced by an advisory group focused on improving diversity, equality and inclusion in the service, the report found that 9.3 per cent of firemen were women and 5.4 per cent belonged to ethnic minorities as of March 2024. By contrast, 51 per cent of the total population in England and Wales is female and 18.3 per cent are from ethnic minorities, according to the 2021 census.

    The review said: “The common ‘image’ of a firefighter is, for the most part, of a white heterosexual male turning out in a fire engine to fight fires… The diversity of the service needs to be much more reflective of the communities it serves and the wide range of services it delivers. Whilst progress has been made, the pace has been slow and progressive action has been applied inconsistently. Too many people are still being let down.”

    Paul Embery, a former executive council member of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said that fire chiefs should focus on putting out fires rather than “manipulating the workforce demographic”. He said: “Public services should of course ensure that individuals from all backgrounds are able to join their ranks and prejudice must be tackled where it exists. But when they set arbitrary targets for recruitment, it crosses over into social engineering.”

    The report was praised by the NFCC, which said it would help to create “safe and inclusive places to work”. In the study, its authors claim that fire chiefs’ commitment to “inclusion” is as important as their “competence”. “Leadership programmes need to focus as much on inclusion as they do on operational and strategic competence,” it reads. “There is a gap between leaders who live their values in line with inclusion and those who operate in line with exclusionary values.”

    Yeah! Sack all the white bloke firemen and replace them with multi-coloured females (and a few trannies for good measure). Then see how those firewomen cope with doing a "firewoman lift" and countless other tasks involving physical bodily power.

    It is well beyond time that we sorted out all the Leftist cretins making these 'reports' and gave them a sound thrashing.

    2. The left have been after the fire service for decades, and they consider it far too white still. They never give up!

    3. Someone should point out that we live in Europe where whites are the norm and therefore should be expected to be the majority. We have evolved that way because of the latitude. Would they say that an African organisation didn't have enough whites in it? Personally, I have no problem with women in the fire service as long as they can pass the same physical tests as a man in terms of carrying weight over distance. I do object to dropping the standards in favour of diversity goals.

  32. The Daily T: How Hamas’ hostage horror could spark a new war
    The terror group handed over the remains of four Israelis captured on October 7th – but Shiri Bibas’ remains were missing.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/21/the-daily-t-hamas-hostages-israel-ceasefire-war/

    BTL

    Why does no other country in the Middle East want to take in Palestinians?

    It would appear that outside of Gaza the least outraged by Hamas's atrocities are those in the UK.

      1. I was out with twins yesterday at the Kelpies, and walking along the canal towpath we were passed by a youngish male cyclist with rucksack flying a Palestinian ‘flag’! I nearly pushed him in!

        1. Next time, just step out in front of him and when he wobbles into the cut, say, "Oh, I didn't see you. I was distracted by that thing fluttering from your rucksack".

  33. Keir Starmer lays down Ukraine peace demand ahead of Trump talks. 23 February 2025.

    Keir Starmer has raised the stakes before a crucial meeting in Washington with the US president, Donald Trump this week, by insisting that Ukraine must be “at the heart of any negotiations” on a peace deal with Russia.

    The prime minister made the remarks – which run directly contrary to comments by the US president last week – in a phone call on Saturday with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in which he also said that “safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty was essential to deter future aggression from Russia”.

    Downing Street made clear that the prime minister would carry the same tough messages into his meeting with Trump in the White House on Thursday.

    In your dreams. It did occur to me, as I was reading the propaganda pieces in the Telegraph this morning, to wonder if Starmer is going to do something beyond the imagination. Like ordering British troops directly into Ukraine in the fond hope that this will defer the rapprochement between the US and Russia. He isn’t really that mad is he?

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/22/keir-starmer-lays-down-ukraine-peace-demand-ahead-of-trump-talks

    1. Delusional to the point of insanity! The man has already done immense damage to Britain and seems capable of doing still more serious harm.

    2. Hasn't Putin declared that Russia would regard that as an act of war and would respond directly?
      Cursed Harmer thinks he's Churchill, but instead of saving us he'll destroy us.

    3. He isn't mad but he is very stupid. I think in his interview with Vance in Washington, he will have some sense slapped into him.

      1. Vance is direct and precise. Unlike Demented Biden and Word salad Harris.

        Starmer's requests will be ignored. He doesn't have clout.

        1. Apparently the German Chancellor left a meeting early with Starmer out of annoyance at Starmers proposal. So it’s starting of well for the idiot PM.

  35. Phew! A quick bit of an early job jobbed.
    I've just parbuckled that large and somewhat heavy bit of lime trunk up the slope from where I left it to the pavement ready for taking across the road.
    I've found the density of seasoned lime, but this chunk is unseasoned and probably more than a bit waterlogged!
    As Graduate son is still in bed, I'm not going to roll it across the road until tomorrow when the road block towards Cromford goes on to allow the tree fellers to clear the last 400 yards or so before coming into the village.

    Might have a walk down and take a few "before" piccies later and then do some "after" ones later in the week.

  37. Letter about the NT says "we still have some of the best traditional craftsmen and women in the world"
    Kind of him to say and I'm sure you all agree albeit I suspect he meant craftsmen and craftswomen.

  38. There was a lot to choose from.
    A lucky pick.
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  39. Sun is warm today, even at over 1 000 metres height. Must be spring!
    Hol over, on the way home now. Not much skiing done as it hissed down with rain most of yesterday, only stopping after we made ourselves comfortable in the bar.

  40. We didn’t actually live in the West we have since visited Perth and surrounding areas a lot since.
    I wished we actually lived there.
    But it seems that the pub in the song was the Lees Hotel in Ingham QLD.
    Didn’t go there. But I have patted the statue of the dog on the Tucker box

    1. My favourite uncle would invariably sing that song to me when I was a toddler. He thought the concept of a pub with no beer was hilarious.

    1. Didn't the newly appointed head of the FBI tell fed workers to ignore that?

      I wonder how long she will remain in the job…

        2. Not a woman. A man, Kash Patel. It's all over the papers he told workers to ignore the Musk directive.

        3. Did Trump appoint Patel to the post because he would rather have him inside the tent, pissing out, than outside the tent, pissing in?

          1. No Patel has been a friend of Trump for many years. He is a strict Constitutionalist who plays no favorites. That is what Trump prefers because he understands that when you have partisanship you have danger. He understand that because that is what was done to him. You will note that Tom Homan is the same, the border Tsar. The law is the law and there will be no deviation.

  43. This day in 1943 was the start of two of the great convoy battles ON-166 and UC-1 that saw the defeat of the U-Boat in the North Atlantic.
    17 ships were sunk or damaged, with some of the damaged vessels sunk later, for a total of 110,709 tons of shipping with many merchant sailors killed or seriously injured. As serious as the carnage was, it led to the ultimate defeat of the U-Boat menace and the opening of the North Atlantic trade roots, enabling the Allies to start the build up of men and materiel for the invasion and liberation of mainland Europe.

    Here is one of them:

    S.S. Expositor.

    Complement:
    60 (7 dead and 53 survivors).
    Water and slag ballast.

    At 22.20 hours on 22nd February 1943, U-606 (Döhler) attacked convoy ON-166 and torpedoed three ships, the Empire Redshank, Chattanooga City and Expositor. The U-boat was lost after the attack.

    The Expositor was struck by one torpedo on the port side at the #3 hatch, causing the boiler to explode. The ship took an immediate list to starboard and then righted herself after settling by the stern. Most of the eight officers, 31 men and 21 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, one 3in, two .50cal, two .30cal and four 20mm guns) abandoned ship in the single undamaged lifeboat and three rafts. Seven officers, 27 men and all armed guards were picked up by HMCS Trillium (K 172) (Lt P.C. Evans, RCNR). One officer died on the corvette and an engineer later in a hospital in St. Johns. Three hours after the attack, the corvette blew off the stern of the freighter with depth charges, but the ship remained afloat.

    At 03.31 hours on 23rd February, U-303 (Karl-Franz Heine) sank the drifting wreck of the Expositor by a coup de grâce.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-606 was sunk on 22nd February 1943 in the North Atlantic east of Newfoundland by depth charges from the US Coast Guard cutter USCGC Campbell and the Polish destroyer Burza. 36 dead and 11 survivors.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-303 was sunk on 21st May 1943 in the Mediterranean Sea south of Toulon by a torpedo from the British submarine HMS Sickle. 20 dead and 28 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/am/expositor.jpg

    1. Captain Frederic John Walker, CB, DSO & Three Bars (3 June 1896 – 9 July 1944) (his first name is given as Frederick in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyn and some London Gazette entries) was a British Royal Navy officer noted for his exploits during the Second World War.
      Walker was the most successful anti-submarine warfare commander during the Battle of the Atlantic, and was known popularly as Johnnie Walker (after the Johnnie Walker brand of whisky).

      There is a statue oh him on the waterside in Liverpool

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/882f7fd6f0d83d3a26beb6300e923c8948f118ed8bde68049ccaab7c8f03651d.jpg

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

        1. As a Sea Cadet, when Nelson was the Captain of HMS Victory, I spent a week on HMS Starling, which by then was a navigation Training Ship

          We sailed daily out of Pompey, came alongside at night (parking was another task for the Officers under Training) and then

          and then “slung our hammocks”

          I also spent a week on HMS Vanguard. On the plan of pompey Harbour she was marked as VD!

  44. British troops on the ground in Ukraine starting off well for Der Starmerfuhrer.

    SAS soldiers threaten strike action if deployed to Ukraine – unless guaranteed they will not face future prosecution for lethal force

    SAS soldiers are threatening to go ‘on strike’ if they are deployed to Ukraine unless they receive assurances they will not face future prosecution for using lethal force.

    The rebellion follows a coroner’s court ruling that the Special Forces were not justified in using lethal force against four IRA members in a 1992 ambush, and on the back of an ongoing public inquiry into allied extrajudicial killings in Afghanistan.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14425819/SAS-soldiers-threaten-strike-action-deployed-Ukraine-unless-lethal-force.html

    3. Government should be prosecuted for equipping them with weapons, training them to use them and then sending them out into the field/war zone to get on with it on behalf of said government.

    1. Ironically, though the station succumbed years ago, the railway still runs through the site of the station.

    2. Yes, I remember Adlestrop.

      So do I, Richard. An angel was looking over ET's shoulder when he wrote that poem.

        2. It's a shame we won't repair below the waterline using modern materials and restore above it all the way across and open to the public.

          But then, some oik would litter, graffiti and otherwise spoil it.

    6. Not forgetting, of course, that Richard Beeching was the tool, not the mastermind of those cuts. They were the brainchild of the egregious and oleaginous Ernest Marples, who was not only Minister of Transport, but also had a vested interest in road haulage trhrough his own extensive business.

    7. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18c5e1fa468a1789d4de9a34797b1f88e9d7f9f826e0aa26ecccbd850c9e704e.png Between 1951 (my birth) and 1955, when I left that address, I would stand up in my cot each morning and watch the passage of the Master Cutler express hurtle by past my bedroom window through Staveley Central Station on its way from Sheffiled Victoria to Marylebone.

      At 12:30 p.m. another express, the South Yorkshireman would make the same passage.

      After the closure of the line, the Master Cutler service transferred to the Midland (LMS) Line from Sheffield Midland through Chesterfield on to St Pancras.

    8. Hmm. Bet they haven#t included the line from London (?) to Nottingham, because bloody HS2 is cutting it up at the moment in Bucks for a very loud rail motorway!

      1. 1. The Great Central main line
        2. Moray Coast
        3. King’s Lynn to Wisbech
        4. York to Beverley
        5. Carmarthen to Aberystwyth
        6. North Devon and Cornwall Junction Light Railway
        7. Wealden Line (Uckfield-Lewes)
        8. The Waverley route
        9. Durham-Bishop Auckland
        10. Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway

        1. It’s the Great Central main line. Currently a horrible building site bringing destruction and loss of farmland in Bucks.

          1. The entire HS2 project is utterly pointless. The contractors seem to need a lot more land to work in than those of the past.

          2. I was told recently about a dairy farm that used to have cows outside in summer. HS2 compulsorily purchased their land, so they don#t have enough for grazing so the cows are now indoors all year round. They have a milk contract with one of the big supermarkets apparently.

    9. Hmm. Bet they haven#t included the line from London (?) to Nottingham, because bloody HS2 is cutting it up at the moment in Bucks for a very loud rail motorway!

    1. If you read the ECHR there is no stipulation for their right to stay. The act gives us the right to remove them.

      What I imagine is happening is this:

      Government lawyer: we want to remove Mr Abdul Abingbing from the UK.
      Legal aid fat cat: Well, his mother in law doesn't like him under article 7.
      Government lawyer: works for me. Lunch?
      LAFC: works for me. You paying?
      GL: Of course not! The tax payer is.
      Both laugh. Judge joins in.

  47. Nothing about the slammer terrorist attack in France in The Sunday Grimes. No longer news, I suppose. "Get used to it," © The Caliph of Londonistan.

    I see the killer was on a "watch list". I recall hearing last year that the UK "watch list" has 30,000 names on it. Unless you have a 24/7 squad of watchers (= 240,000 people) you might as well do without the list because no one knows which person "watched" will suddenly be activated.

    1. I liked one of the BTL comments, about Labour MPs – "about as useful as a cat flap on the international space station"

      1. Thing is, the Tories did absolutely nothing – nothing whatsoever – to undo any of this damage. In fact, they made it far worse. Clearly there's an agenda set by a third party – why else are so many appalling decisions being made to the detriment of nations?

          1. Honestly, I think you could say 'all'. I'm not seeing a battle plan from Farage. If I hear Tice say 'The British people', as if we're a homogenous group; once more I'll bellow. Tax payers would be suitable. Net tax payers would be more accurate.

    2. No, but they do raise a lot of money.

      It's also NOT a tax cut. It's a tax relief. It is being able to claim tax back after paying it, which is an onerous and expensive task requiring a dedicated cost in itself.

      At every sodding step, this bloated, useless state adds cost rather than simply not taxing it in the first place.

    3. That's better than turning up at the factory gate and finding that because your pass suddenly doesn't work then you've been fired.

      Musk says that the staff have to be reduced in line with the reduction in profits.

      1. Or being unable to log into your computer because you were fired while you were on holiday. Happened to someone in a company where I worked once. Not good.

    4. That's better than turning up at the factory gate and finding that because your pass suddenly doesn't work then you've been fired.

      Musk says that the staff have to be reduced in line with the reduction in profits.

    5. It is a monumental waste of time. Case in point, a customer continually asks 'when with 'their ticket' be resolved. I tell him I'm working on it. So rather than accept that they ring back every 4 hours to badger me to ask when I'll be done.

      Which leads to no time being spent on the ticket. A fact lost on them.

      I get it. He's trying to justify job existence, but firstly, how can he read X hundred thousand messages? How can he verify the outcomes have not come from chat gpt or are just gibberish?

      He'd do far better finding the failing projects that are cost overrunning and looking at those to see where the failures are. The problem most often with government is that because it doesn't have to collect statistics on cost or timelines it doesn't bother, so has no metrics to say if a project is over cost or time.

      This all stems from the promotion and appointment (and thus the promotion and appointment by those people) of yes men and incompetents. People who've reached their job by saying the rights things, achieving absolutely nothing, taking no risks, making no changes, never, ever thinking and abjectly refusing to deviate from a thick, useless rulebook written decades ago by other equally failed incompetents.

  50. Good morning, all. Gardening weather at the moment. Back later.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c24ecef371c779349b5da01aac5b4cf7c0135516dc8ff312c8f462101876e897.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74697eae39f2ed8354b1bdaa12b2f3632043974ce3ad68750351246d77275163.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7c90fe83f5347bee158eaf6e3ab2d69b99c51be56833f8211e41ebf165e6fc38.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e013df7add47dfff3193074fff69723f049c3a0233e6651c5f930153e4f6c0d.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8812be7594f7b31e4143280426dec3e9039d93c25c44843f3e75b2cb29f613e8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53d9c82691393e8e5856a0dc61571f2641efa9fd903772df699680be1771c0ac.png

  51. Philip Spoerri
    Head of the ICRC Regional Delegation for the UK and Ireland
    London EC2

    We have also called for, and been denied, access to Palestinian detainees.

    The above is a bit ambiguous.

    Are they Jewish people 'imprisoned' by the Hamas/Palestinians,

    or

    Palestinians detained by the State of Israel

    1. I read it as Palestinians detained by the State of Israel.

      The Palestinian terrorists are handing back dead hostages.

      If it were the other way round you can be sure we would have heard the screaming, wailing, gnashing of teeth, threats of bloody vengeance and BBC news headlines.

    1. Good day, Bill.

      Yours is clearly the superior alternative. My effort was a deliberate attempt to contrive an ugly and awkward one.

      How are you doing, Bill? I haven't contributed much of late but I have read several of your postings and noted how you're remaining physically active in the garden. I take that as a good indicator of your general health at an age when many can no longer do so. Long may it continue.

      1. Thank you, David. I have made a policy decision. My heart was checked out because of fibrillations. The specialist recommended tablets which are widely used successfully. They made me ill. I decided to stop them and to have as little to do with doctors as possible from now on. The GP outfit keep demanding that I go for an “annual review” – where they will urge statins upon me. I take tablets for prostate and for tring to keep the heart going.

        I am 84. Outlived my parents and most of my relations. So long as I can do some fairly simply gardening and ladder work – and walk (though less than before) and KBO – that’s what I’ll do. I am fortunate in having a tremendously supportive and caring wife.

  53. 402028+ up ticks,

    Starmer considers faster defence build-up ahead of Trump talks

    The political S(TOOL), to give this intention any credibility he must stop consenting to the foreign, in the main, islamic invasion, TODAY.

      1. I suppose you might argue that when the economy of the UK is totally destroyed (as is the intention of Starmer and Reeves) the GDP of the UK will be Zero and 5% of Zero is Zero!

        1. Good point except that prostitution revenue, if counted towards GDP when we were in the EU, could lead to a significant defence budget requirement.

      2. 402028+ up ticks,

        Afternoon AOE,

        Whatever was budgeted these past 40 years never had the indigenous peoples safety in mind
        defence-wise, currently any increase will be to fund the kit needs of the NWO / WEF internal
        (5* hotels ) politico protection / herd control army.
        .

  54. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/net-zero/how-humble-heat-pump-pushed-germany-far-right/

    Heat pumps can be used in conjunction with solar panels, which generate the electricity needed to power the units – a zero-carbon win-win.

    Ha! Ha ha! Utter and complete bolloix! Heat pumps operate best using warmer outside ambient air, so they are great during the not freezing months such as December.

    Then solar, during Winter? Our array has generated barely 10% of what it would during June, so solar generates nothing and heat pumps draw from the grid – which burns gas – during winter. Nothing – not a thing – zero carbon there. It'd be more efficient, more sensible, more practical, more comfortable to just burn gas locally in the home.

    1. AFAIK solar panels need mains electricity to operate the invertor which converts the generated DC current to AC

      1. A photovoltaic panel inverter can be run from a battery, but it typically requires a charge controller to regulate the power flow from the battery to the inverter, ensuring the battery isn't damaged by excessive draw or by overcharging; this arrangement is used in off-grid solar systems where the battery stores the energy generated by the solar panels before it's converted to AC power by the inverter.
        (otherwise PV panels wouldn't be much use in wilderness areas)

    2. "Ha! Ha ha! Utter and complete bolloix! Heat pumps operate best using warmer outside ambient air, so they are great during the not freezing months such as December."

      That comment is complete and utter bollocks, Try telling that to Swedes, who live in a colder climate and use heat pumps all the time.
      I have four such units though I only tend to use two of them most of the time. They are highly efficient at heating our open-plan homes.

      Having said that, my house is well-insulated and has 15" thick walls and triple-glazing. By comparison, most Noddy houses in the UK are made of straw and the big bad wolf would have no problem huffing and puffing and blowing them down.

      1. Are the Swedish ones ground source heat pumps, since wibbling is clearly talking about air source heat pumps?
        Big difference.

        "What are the main types of heat pumps?
        Heat-pump types are divided by their thermal-energy source. If they absorb heat from the ambient air, they’re called ​“air-source heat pumps.” If they suck thermal energy from a pond or stream, they’re ​“water-source” heat pumps. If they draw heat from the ground or groundwater, you guessed it, they’re ​“ground-source” or ​“geothermal heat pumps.”"

        1. I am very much aware there is a 'big difference'. I know and understand precisely what he was ranting about.

          The Swedish ones are luft/luft varmepumpe, or air source heat pumps.

          They are ubiquitous here, although a few people have adopted the ground source pumps as an alternative.

          2. I don#t know anyone personally who’s happy with the air source ones, but am ready to believe that they can be made to work. The houses I’ve been to where they seem to work well were all on the ground one.

    3. Serious question, not meant to be critical: was there a reason why you did not choose to install a Calor gas tank and gas central heating?

  57. G-day all,

    Grey and windy at Fiscal's Folly while we wait for this afternoon's forecast heavy rain.

    I've been kept off t'internet by other tasks. Spent a couple of hours yesterday assisting with some spring cleaning in the belfry of our parish church. It involved going up and climbing among the bells to the edge of the spire, doing a Quasimodo impression. The accumulated filth was unbelievable – birds nests, dead rats, dense spider webs and general crud ankle deep on the floor directly underneath the bells. The ledge at the base of the spire has been swept with everything descending to the belfry floor. Bells and mounting frames have been swept too with a lot of crud descending through the access trap door and through the rope holes into the ringing chamber. We just need a vaccuum cleaner the size and power of a jet engine now. There was too much to do in one session so we'll be at it again next weekend. Someone needs to go into the two foot deep gap between the belfry floor and the ringing room ceiling to clean that out. Volunteers, one pace forward, MARCH.

    It was very tempting to think this hasn't been done since the church was built and the bells installed in 1871 but apparently it's just 40 years since the last proper clean was done. We've got some new bellropes to fit once the cleaning is complete. The sallies are a rich-looking purple, burgundy and gold twist.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/214eb5de6a9bc2d3e985bc35d008f6ecf452143dcf3c087c8a58ac8a7a9ad419.png
    That should be fun too. More Quasimodo antics coming up.

    2. They look beautiful – stupid Q, when you catch the sallies? (I hope that's the right bit) do they not burn your hand or (and this is obvious now i think about it) do you wear gloves during the campenology?

      As a suggestion on the thick mess – don't vaccuum it directly. Loosen with a stiff brush with the hoover going. 2 person job, but you make more progress as the smaller chunks hoover easily and the bigger ones are broken up only to be hoovered up. Some hoovers have this attachment already making it easier but still. Do wear a breather mask as well.

      You know all this though – just some of what we learned from digging about in crawl spaces (which I am not good at) running cabling.

      1. Oh to see Miliband shaking away as he flew up and down the tower, rope tight around his neck, deafened by the bells but gradually turning red, then purple, then finally the nightmare of his spiteful arrogance, deceit and treachery ended.

        Ahem.

  58. Number beginning 07514 just messaged me. It said.. Hi Phil, are you on Whatsapp? I can't find you.

    If it was someone that knows me why didn't they email or voicemail? Or even speak seeing as they have the number.

    Royal Mail delivery scam..deleted.

    Be vigilant, people.

    1. Why would a deliery company ask if you're on whatsapp? Their point is to send you information on updates. Most don't even include a salutation.

      1. They were trying to make it look as if i knew them. A phishing exercise. On the website 'who called me' it says it is a Royal Mail scam where they need you to pay a fee.

        The phishers are pretending to be Royal Mail. But they need you to call them back to begin the scam.

      1. The message is comically bad. First, the far too personal greeting then the url shortener.

        What I don't get is why the scammers don't correct the spelling and grammar to match the real sites. It takes no time at all and adds authenticity.

    3. I'm always amazed when I pick up the landline phone when a local number(Caller ID) comes through and it's a scam from an Indian call centre.

        1. I'm very well thank you, how're you?

          My record for innane banter was 21 minutes before he got fed up and hung up.

          1. If they ask me how i am, I tell them in greta detail about my suppturting piles: they hang up

            Suppuration infection is the classic sequel to infection anywhere in the body whereby pus forms as a result of the breakdown and exudation of inflammatory cells, tissue products, and microorganisms.

          2. If they ask me how i am, I tell them in greta detail about my suppturting piles: they hang up

            Suppuration infection is the classic sequel to infection anywhere in the body whereby pus forms as a result of the breakdown and exudation of inflammatory cells, tissue products, and microorganisms.

        2. That's him (or her)! I go along with them after pressing button B to speak to someone about an enormous sum I'm apparently about to pay to Amazon, acting worried and being consoled about them stopping the payment if I give them bank details etc.
          Then I just say, "I hope when your parents die I they come back as cockroaches and I'm sure they'd be ashamed of what you do. Bye."

          1. The Warqueen. There's 5 blokes in her Sunday Yoga class now. Went years with only women.

            I think I'll demand she does the instructing in her bunny suit onsie.

      2. Mikaela Pauline Shiffrin (born March 13, 1995) is an American World Cup alpine skier who has the most World Cup wins of any alpine skier in history (men or women). She is considered one of the greatest alpine skiers of all time. She is a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, a five-time Overall World Cup champion, a four-time world champion in slalom, and an eight-time winner of the World Cup discipline title in that event. Shiffrin, at 18 years and 345 days, is the youngest slalom gold medalist in Olympic history

      3. I think the "her" gives it away – arguably the greatest alpine skier of all time – certainly the most World Cup wins! And very good looking too – some people have all the luck!!

      4. I think the "her" gives it away – arguably the greatest alpine skier of all time – certainly the most World Cup wins! And very good looking too – some people have all the luck!!

    2. I remember when skiing was a popular TV sport. The only name that my mind can recall, without looking things up, is Jean-Claude Kili (?).

        1. Jean Claude Killy, Bode Miller, Alberto Tomba, Didier Cuche, Hermann Maier, Marcel Hirscher and of course, Ingemar Stenmark – many others – many of those from the days when the BBC had a serious programme about alpine skiing!

      2. Until recently, UK TV coverage of winter sports has been dominated by Eurosport. This coming Friday, it goes off air permanently. The parent company is switching coverage to its other broadcaster, TNT Sports.

        Ingemar Stenmark, Franz Klammer and Alberto Tomba, spring immediately to my mind. I don't know any of the present day skiers.

        1. Sadly Eurosport used to do a very reasonable package which let me see winter sport without paying too much – when Discovery+ absorbed them it went up a little but without adverts; as from the end of this month it changes from £7.99 or so to either a no sport basic package [with adverts] or the full lot which is around £31 a month – quite an increase, especially as I don't want most of it!! Might have to subscribe for the winter and cancel every spring?

          2. Of course. Me too, I've stood at the top of the Olympic jump at Garmisch and I know I could never let go of the handrail although I did go on the kiddies jump there which didn't end well – I turned through 90 deg, the cheek closest to the slope stopped dead but the other cheek was still travelling at about 20mph…………….

    1. I doubt anyone knows. I imagine if they did, it'd come from the source country these vermin are coming from.

      Round them up, cram into shipping containers and dump them.

  63. Have any of you been following the uproar started by Konstantine Kissin and Frazer Nelson's conversation about what it means to be English? I find it ironic that they and others who are not English see fit to define what we are.

  64. Have any of you been following the uproar started by Konstantine Kissin and Frazer Nelson's conversation about what it means to be English? I find it ironic that they and others who are not English see fit to define what we are.

    1. I was reading in bed when i had a text from Nationwide at midnight. It said my account had been compromised and to call the number in the text. Of course i didn't. I called there main number and was put through to the fraud department. The number turned out to be genuine but as a matter of course you don't reply to a number in a text or email.

      They said that a withdrawal of £1 had been made followed a few minutes later one for £500. While i was speaking to the fraud department a further attempt to withdraw £250 took place.

      Glad they were on the ball and blocked all these.

      And today i get this. Obviously my stolen details are circling.

      I keep most of my money in an account that does not have a debit or credit card attached. Just load up my debit card when i want to make a purchase.

      1. When Santander automated their fraud department I moved away from them. If they can't be bothered to have a human answer the phone to something as serious as that then up theirs.

        That's a good approach Phizzee. One I think we should test to make sure it's safe. If you could go to Lego.com and buy….

        1. Clearly he was an evil Righty, as he was against massive uncontrolled gimmigration?

          Also anti Eu by stopping foreigners stealing our fish.

          2. Given he's both an evil Lefty and a far Right anti EU Nazi he's positively a turbine.

            If he's not careful Milioaf would use that turncoating as a power source!

          3. He is simply an employee. As for his private life, his wife is Swedish and they have a property in Sweden, so one would expect him to be careful about slagging off criticising foreigners.

          5. I don't think he was anti-EU. He never gave me that impression when he was writing in the run up to the referendum. He is, after all, married to a foreigner.

  67. Maybe not to define it so much as identify the attributes that make one 'British'. Who better to identify those than from the outside looking in, having lived here and attempted to emulate them?

    1. I make a distinction between British and English. All the English are white because we are descendance of a white population that was here prior to the Anglo Saxons or are derived from the Anglo-Saxons, Jutes etc and we have our own distinctive culture and DNA which has evolved over a couple of thousand years with and for us. Our culture expresses who we are and the whole world recognizes that culture as distinctive in the same way that we recognize, for example, Indian culture. although I would admit that we are rapidly losing our culture thanks to uncontrolled immigration. Anyone, on the other hand, can be British regardless of original ethnicity by living, being born, and growing up here and by adopting our culture but that never makes them English.

      1. Also our climate affected our lifestyle which affected our culture. Underlying everything is the Christian values that created and bound towns together. From that grew engineering to build structures which led to industrialisation and mechanisation. When it's warm you don't build houses with thick walls, nor need to build near forests and rivers, for example.

        With our values defined, our engineering made a bedrock we advanced in a way Africa never has.

        You are right, of course on immigration however I think it's a bit simpler: welfare. With universal welfare you attract and encourage the dross to flourish.

        When the country grew more secular due to industry, medicine and scientific advancement the state set about replacing the Church. Unlike the Church, state has no values whatsoever, so rewards utter failure in a way the Church wouldn't. When someone else is paying there is no end ot your largesse.

        The Church created a community around likeminded ideals: work, effort, merit, reward. Statism does the oppopsite and thrives on failure.

        Our culture and society is being undermined by the encouragement of failure and the erosion of values and principles. Effort, merit and reward are demonised. Stupidity, fecklessness, arrogance and criminality rewarded because the state values the latter and is actively damaged and worse for it, diminished by independent, well off, free citizens.

        1. The church is founded on Judgment; the state these days mandates that we be not judgmental. That attitude rots the very foundations of society.

        2. English is a culture but it is also a race. Having done a DNA test the latter becomes obvious.

    2. I make a distinction between British and English. All the English are white because we are descendance of a white population that was here prior to the Anglo Saxons or are derived from the Anglo-Saxons, Jutes etc and we have our own distinctive culture and DNA which has evolved over a couple of thousand years with and for us. Our culture expresses who we are and the whole world recognizes that culture as distinctive in the same way that we recognize, for example, Indian culture. although I would admit that we are rapidly losing our culture thanks to uncontrolled immigration. Anyone, on the other hand, can be British regardless of original ethnicity by living, being born, and growing up here and by adopting our culture but that never makes them English.

  68. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/22/labour-to-avoid-annihilation-needs-to-cut-spending-now/

    Oh Mr Hannan. Labour doens't care about 'annihilation' because it doesn't think that far ahead. Socialists never do. They think only of themselves and their greed and ideology. Labour do not care if the economy is destroyed. They'll think that's a good thing and hike taxes.

    You're writing from a perspective of rationality where there is a common good end result. Labour are not. Labour are operating for their own egotistical, demented psychopathy. Lefties always do. They are evil not because they don't understand the damage they do but because they don't care.

    1. Mister Hannan? Baron Hannan of Kingsclere, LORD Hannan to you and me.
      Although I admire and respect the historical and cultural traditions linked to hereditary titles (eg the McGillycuddy of the Reeks), political appointees to the upper house do not need or deserve a title.

    1. I often wonder if the term 'slave' is a misnomer. After all, are we not all slaves? We just move owners occassionally. Our slavery is to commitments and the essential need for property.

      Where we are most enslaved though is not in our choices, but in those costs over which we have no control, thus the greatest enslaver is the state and government through taxation.

      1. The great feminist lie is that we were liberated. We were moved in to the workplace to become tax slaves.

        1. There might not be oars any more, but that just means it's changed to a keyboard.

          Significant and radical tax cuts, abundant energy provision, real terms reductions in state spending and thus debt would do more to help people than anything else.

          1. which is of course why we will never get those things, and we will always be told that they are an impossible pipe-dream…

    3. Yawn.
      Every single civilisation used slaves for heavy lifting & doing stuff.. until the Brits invented the steam engine.

      doesn't matter.. steam engines were an extension of the white male patriarch, and therefore problematic..

      1. Steam engines with couple of solar panels mounted on the boiler to generate the electricity to boil the water to make the steam to power the pistons?

  70. I went to the Ladies loo in church this morning and was greeted by a very apologetic man. Not a trannie. He was changing his baby daughter’s nappy and it’s true that there isn’t anywhere more suitable to do that. Whether he’s a gay dad or the child’s mother was indisposed, I have no idea.

    1. I don't think a bloke needs to be gay to change his baby girl, and the gents usually doesn't have any kind of a table there that might be suitable. The sink unit doesn't cut it.

      1. When I was very little my mother took me to the Ladies' loo – I expect that most mothers did that with their little boys.

          1. It was almost a rite of passage when I could go into the Gents on my own and unaccompanied! Wearing a grey worsted suit with long trousers at prep school at the age 11 was another one.

          3. When I started at my Grammar School in 1963 at the age of 11, most of us were still in short trousers. It wasn't until the start of the second year when most switched to long trousers.

        2. When I were nobutalad, our house only had the outside loo

          At night, The Potty was put on the landing at the top of the stairs: taught you to aim straight

      2. No, that’s true. The Ladies loos in church have a low, broad ledge intended for handbags, changing bags etc so he was using that. He was embarrassed but no one minded since it was obvious why he was there.

      1. No. The utilities block is to be rebuilt though so the new plans may include one. The twelfth century building is solid but the 1980s extension is falling down.

  71. Sunday Worship Radio 4:

    A service of commemoration from the Central Church of the RAF marking the 25th anniversary of the lifting of the ban on LGBTQ+ personnel serving in His Majesty's Armed Forces.

    Henceforth the Royal Air Force abbreviation will be LGBTQ+RAF Motto: We cum in Peace.

  73. Gosh – an hour in the garden and now back in – as it is cold again. The brief spell of mildness is over, dagnabbit. Doesn't deter the moles from leaving the south part of the garden resembling a model of the Battle of the Somme.

    Am retiring to sit by the fire. I'll look at the French match after half-time.

    1. After shifting the big log, I did a bit up the "garden" until it started raining and I was forced to come in and get the dinner on. Cod on rice with some extra bits.

  74. I thought that "the box kick" so-called was ended when the lamentable Ben Youngs was dropped. Apparently not. Someone ought to explain to the wooden headed English XV that possession is nine-tenths of the game and giving it to the other side is not likely to end to your advantage. (Sighs…)

    1. Borthwick need to watch some film footage of proper scrum halves — such as Gareth Edwards, Joost van der Westhuizen or Sid Going —playing the game, that might give him a clue.

        1. I dunno, the brutal, foaming at the mouth battle ready, scarred hunter killer that is Mongo could disagree.

          That he's currently fast asleep with his head on Junior's shoulder as he builds a lego model is evidence of this.

          3. Sure is. The greeting I got when I came home had to be seen (it could be heard a long way away!) to be believed.

    2. Potential footballers. All they need now is a couple of months in a sun tan parlour, and a weird hairstyle with some sort of tail.

    3. Potential footballers. All they need now is a couple of months in a sun tan parlour, and a weird hairstyle with some sort of tail.

    1. The Warqueen has an 'I'm with stupid' T shirt.

      Which explains why she always moves to make the arrow point to….

      Ah.

    2. The Warqueen has an 'I'm with stupid' T shirt.

      Which explains why she always moves to make the arrow point to….

      Ah.

      1. I'd not seen anything on that, so asked ChatGPT:
        "Based on available data, February 2025 in Norway did not set a record for the hottest February. Historical weather data for Oslo indicates that the average temperature in February 2025 was approximately -4.2°C, with a maximum of -1.2°C and a minimum of -7.1°C.
        These temperatures are consistent with typical February conditions in Norway. While there have been reports of unusually warm temperatures in the Arctic region, such as the North Pole experiencing temperatures over 20°C above average in early February 2025, these anomalies do not directly affect the temperature records for mainland Norway."

        1. I chided GPT for only using English-language / UK-based sites for the info, and it apologised. It answered:
          "You're right to notice that! When I search for news or information, I typically access a mix of sources, including English-language outlets like BBC, Reuters, or The Guardian, because they often cover global events in ways that are accessible to a wider audience. However, I can absolutely access non-English sources like Aftenposten or others if needed, especially when looking for more region-specific details.

          In cases like the one about Norway’s warmest February, I may have pulled from more widely available sources that report in English, unless I explicitly search for Norwegian sources or if they come up more prominently in my search results.

          I appreciate you pointing that out! If you'd prefer information from a specific source, like Aftenposten, I can focus on that in future searches.

          After reviewing Norwegian sources, including Aftenposten, I couldn't find specific reports confirming that February 2025 was the warmest on record in Norway. However, historical weather data for Oslo in February 2025 indicates temperatures below freezing, with daily highs ranging from -3.7°C to 5.8°C.

          These temperatures suggest that February 2025 was not exceptionally warm in Oslo. For a more comprehensive assessment of national temperature records, consulting official reports from the Norwegian Meteorological Institute or similar authoritative sources would be advisable."

          2. "February 2025 was the warmest on record in Norway…"

            With five days still to go, how can they know?

          3. "Was" is premature, but "will be" might be a reasonable deduction based on the average thus far, the forecast for the days ahead and the margin of discrepancy between this February and the previous recordholder. It may well be that the remaining days would have to be extremely cold in order for the month as a whole to dip beneath the previous mildest February temperature.

        2. 20'c above average is still probably -80.

          Remember, all these machines are programmed to algorithms. Thus someone, somewhere said 'promote climate change' and thus everything is couched in that manner.

    2. I'd prefer to start with just the country.

      And, bluntly, some muslim are fine. It's the diversity we need rid of. Everyone from the scum Khan.

      1. It's the ideology rather than the people that's the problem. The people who subscribe to the ideology are dodgy.

  80. 402028+ up ticks,

    One of labours successes, they will build on this success as the remaining years / winters go by.

    Dt,

    Elderly struck down with flu at record rate after winter fuel raid
    Opposition criticises Labour’s cut to pensioners’ heating support as hospital admissions set a new record every other week

    1. Had a Facebook video from Mother's care home (In Wales) of the inmates watching the Wales-Ireland game yesterday! Amazing the energy when something went well for Wales! Even Mother was watching.

    1. You're in autumn now, aren't you?
      Looks lovely! Beautiful sunset…
      I suggest you reply to his "Good morning" post, asking him.

      2. Summer’s coming to an end, but we’re not in autumn yet. The magnificent clouds heralded rain.

        I haven’t been able to find a.post from Geoff to which I can.reply

      3. Oops, reply posted too.soon by accident; I meant to thank you for the suggestion. Could be me being a tad slow.

    2. Hallo Ashes – check out Martina Baroni – beautiful Mezzo – we went to her concert this afternoon.

  86. I didn’t know that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite. So the Peace Prize was a joke right from the start? Hence it being given to Yasser Arafat and Barak Obama. At least Lê Đức Thọ turned it down and Henry Kissinger tried to return it but it’s come to a pretty pass when a Vietnamese revolutionary shows better taste than a POTUS. I bet it’s not even offered to Trump when he ends the Ukraine war and sorts out the Middle East.

    1. I think the Peace Prize was an attack of conscience – and, like anything else of worth, has become political and bent to the Left. I'd bet old Alfred would be spinning in his grave.

      1. Blaster Bates had a story of how Nobel dropped a quantity of nitro-glycerin and, when he realised he hadn't been blown to pieces, found it had dropped into some powdered chalk and formed what Bates described as "something looking like a dog turd".

        1. He used to live not far from here on the far side of Falkirk, in a place called Laurieston, when he set up the Nobel Works.

      2. Also Jeremy vine seems to have Disappeared from public view and not been on bbc radio 2 for some time.

          1. There doesn’t seem to be any available information regarding why he’s gone missing.
            I’m not really bothered but it all seems a bit strange.

    1. It's available here.

      £29 a month for all Sky, UK TV, and lots of films and shows from Amazon, Netflix, Paramount, Disney+ and lots more. Best bargain I've ever found.

  89. He doesn’t give up, does he – Zelensky says he is willing to give up the presidency in return for NATO membership for Ukraine! I think this translates as "I've made loadsa money and want to leg it before things really hot up".

    2. Zelensky is a dead man walking.

      Trump will prevent him from joining the Hollywood set in Los Angeles or in Florida. His end will likely be brutal.

      Nobody but a fool would have ever given this green goblin the time of day. He has already sold his country down the river, displaced millions of Russian speakers and presided over the death of millions of his own countrymen.

    3. I thought it had been agreed in the 1990s that the West would not expand Eastwards and Ukraine would remain a buffer state. If Ukraine is allowed into NATO and the EU then Russia may well start throwing nuclear bombs about.

        1. I don't think they'd want any further eastward expansion of the EU; after all, Cameron said he looked forward to an EU that stretched "from the Atlantic to the Urals". I think, for once, he was letting slip the truth rather than showing that he'd fallen asleep in geography lessons. The Urals are in Western Russia.

  90. Wordle No. 1,345 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 23 Feb 2025

    A mustelidaean Birdie Three?

    1. Good one, back to par for me.
      Wordle 1,345 4/6

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

    3. Well done. Chose the right one from two – Birdie!!

      Wordle 1,345 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Par today.

      Wordle 1,345 4/6

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

    5. Bringing up the rear with most divots (that is the objective isn't it?)

      Wordle 1,345 4/6

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

  91. Well, credit to Italy. They never gave up – they would have done 20 years ago.

    What a treat to see running rugby reminded me of the France who played when I was young.

    Ref was a bossy sod.

    3. Many aspects of Rugby Union football remain a mystery to me. Some infringements, despite being replayed in slow motion, I simply cannot see. The commentary team will explain in great detail what's happening and, regardless of both visual and commentary help, the infringement escapes me. Similarly, some touchdowns are such a jumble of bodies and limbs, I cannot fathom how the referee can possibly determine who applied the crucial downforce and, in some cases, whether it had crossed the try line or not crossed the touchline. Association Football is much easier to follow and, as a consequence, a rather more relaxing pleasure instead of moments throughout a rugby match of contorting my face, screwing up my eyes and feeling a complete puzzlement as to what the hell is going on.

      1. You are not alone, David. I have followed the game for 75 years – and a still frequently bewildered! A lot of what happens is pure luck (and some blindness by officials).

        Soccer is even worse to my tired old eyes. The bizarre off-side rule, the "wall", deliberate cheating – holding shirts, hair and other moving parts!

          1. I can't get my head around that Antoine Dupont. How the hell did he manage to win that match without constantly box-kicking the ball to the opposition?

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d5105ecb36a4a8cf8769ee68fb7eaab6faa94c781e37bd83b0413b74fb0e92a.jpg I was introduced late to the joys of rugby union, back in 1978 when I was 27. It was the wonderful Welsh team of the 1970s that got me interested but, like you, I found the rules laws a little more than arcane. A brother (who had played rugby at school, and knew more than I did) bought me this book on the rules laws.

        Despite attempting to read and assimilate it dozens of times, it still bamboozles me!🤔

        1. My first game was in 1965 as a first year at school, and to be honest I hadn't seen much on the TV and so I learned, like a lot of us, from scratch. Loved it, but being an August 3rd birthday I was always the youngest and often the smallest playing. Being nippy and stupid enough to tackle below the knees, I was always in the school year team, even got to play for the school 1st team against the sports teachers and a bunch of 'old boys in 1969 when I just started the 5th year. They must have been very shorthanded. Left school just after that before Christmas so didn't get to the sixth forms. Didn't play again until the RAF.
          The rules seemed pretty simple back then, or maybe the refs weren't sticklers by the book.

          1. My school’s rugby master (who was also history master) left while I was in the first year and was never replaced. No more rugby tuition and no rugby teams in the local schools’ league.
            The gym master only played cricket, football and tennis so no tuition from him.

          2. Shame, it was a real eye-opener at that age. Cricket was great in the summer with a bit of tennis, but the football, even though I played for the year I was in, was never enjoyable.

        2. You'll remember this from just recently, Grizz:
          "Gareth Edwards was interviewed after the game in Rome yesterday. The interviewer asked if the Welsh team of the 70’s would beat the current team. He replied only just. The interviewer was astonished. Yes added Gareth. You have to remember that six of our team are no longer alive and the rest of us are well into our 70’s."

          1. My OH was the smallest boy in the school and gave up Rugby at 12. But he's just sat down to watch it now.

  92. We've just arrived home from a lovely concert! What a way to spend a wet afternoon.
    Simply gorgeous singer – in looks and voice – Martina Baroni – an Italian Mezzo with James Cheung, piano, and he is also her tutor for her masters which she's doing in Munich.
    Definitely the best concert this season.
    Great programme too – from Purcell, Brahms, Gurney and Schumann. All familiar but wonderful.

    1. Perhaps he fear being done for "War Crimes"….. We all know how impartial the Hague Court is……{:¬))

  101. Laws, not rules.

    And they change so frequently that you would need a new book every year, and even then they are open to the referee's personal interpretation.

  102. Evening, all. It's been a day to remember, not least because there was a power cut in the middle of the meeting and it had to be cut short because there was no heating and the meal was getting cold!

    It's about time Europe's (and particularly the EU's) weakness was exposed and something done about it; lack of democracy and accountability being to the forefront.

    1. Morning Conway – those issues are at the heart of the hated EU. They are fundamental to it's creation and survivability. No one would suggest creating the pointless thing. It exists solely by the massive movement of others people's money into a furnace of Left wing stupidity.

      1. I always said when I was campaigning against it that if it didn't exist, nobody in their right mind would invent it now.

    1. Paywall broke!
      To those who reject Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine, I ask: what is your plan? More fighting? More death? Perhaps another summit – cocktails with Klaus – at which Western leaders can pledge their support for a cause they were never quite prepared to pay for.

      Since Trump came to office there’s been much anguish about the death of the so-called “rules based order”. This system did not stop Hamas taking hostages or Netanyahu killing Gazans (and I’d wager Bibi has even less risk of seeing the inside of The Hague than Putin does).

      Crucially, it did not stop Russia invading Ukraine three years ago – a crime that never occurred under Trump and which, he claims, he deterred by threatening to “hit” Moscow. In short, everything Trump is trying to fix, from Chinese aggression to drug trafficking, began under the very rules-based order we are being invited to mourn.

      As for Ukraine, the war is going badly, and the longer it continues, the more land Ukraine is likely to lose. Last year, Stephen Kotkin, an eminent historian of Russia, gave an interview in which he observed that to achieve stated Ukrainian war goals – the total recovery of lost territory, Putin on trial – “you have to take Moscow”.

      While Joe Biden bound Zelensky’s hands on the battlefield, Putin transformed Russia into a siege economy and saw off the only serious attempt at a coup. Hence Ukraine’s best bet now is to try to win the peace by integrating into Europe and attracting defence guarantees. “To get to that road, you need an armistice”.

      Recognising this, Zelensky has offered to resign for peace or Nato membership. Trump would presumably be happy for Europe to defend a free Ukraine – so long as we are willing to cover the tab. This kind of bluff-calling has also prodded the Arabs to discuss rebuilding Gaza, terrified that Trump will transform it into a golf course instead.

      His approach might be brutal, but is it irrational? Trump’s claims that Ukraine started the war or Zelensky is a dictator are certainly bizarre and offensive; insisting Kyiv sell its mineral resources suggests a return to amoral imperialism.

      But look at it from Washington’s point-of-view. This isn’t the Cold War: Russia doesn’t want to conquer the world, and bullying its neighbours poses no direct threat to the US. Trump fears China more; a domestic fiscal collapse even greater. He’s just ordered the Pentagon to cut 8 per cent from its budget, probably to spook military staff into shifting cash from their priorities (promoting trans rights in Upper Volta) to his (guarding the border).

      His strategy is “ask for everything and take what you can get”, and he’ll get away with it because the US is the free world’s dominant nation. Why does it enjoy a monopoly on hard power? Because Europe can’t be bothered to do the job itself. For too long, it has defined the rules while expecting America to uphold the order, an arrangement that is neither ethical nor sustainable.

      Take our increasingly ridiculous country. On the same day he mused about committing British troops to Ukraine, Keir Starmer was also reported to be reluctant to spend over 2.5 per cent of GDP on defence. We are a decadent welfare state trying to act hard in the face of Russia.

      Nothing looked more absurd than those photos of porky Keir in his extra-large fatigues – normally used to camouflage a tank – playing at being a soldier at a Nato base in Estonia. We all know that, as a human rights lawyer, his first instinct isn’t to deploy the Army but to sue it.

      The curse of Zelensky, a genuinely brave man, has been to encourage emulation among weaker politicians, leaders who imagine they can fight a proxy war for Western values abroad as, all the while, said values dissipate back home.

      Last week, a 74-year-old woman was arrested in Scotland for standing near an abortion clinic holding a sign that read “coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want.” What kind of democracy is this?

      A small island, drifting into irrelevance

      I’ve returned from a holiday in Estonia, which is a living museum. Old Tallinn is lovingly preserved by Unesco. The antique shops sell Soviet-era tat, perused with the shameful air of men in a porn store (yes, I added a Lenin badge to my collection). And at the Olde Hansa restaurant you can enjoy an immersive Medieval feast served by wenches, accompanied by troubadours. Even the lavatory is authentic.

      Helsinki is worth a day trip by ferry if you like fish. On the way back, I went onto the upper deck – crowded with smokers ignoring the numerous “no smoking signs” – and took in deep yogic breaths of Baltic air. It’s invigorating: like glugging liquid oxygen.

      I liked the Estonians, who are polite but unfriendly – just as the Brits used to be – and I hope to see more of eastern Europe before Putin steals it. Sitting on my bedside table was volume 2 of Kotkin’s massive biography of Stalin, which I recommend highly. He reports that in 1935, Anthony Eden visited the Kremlin, describing it as “Aladdin’s cave, glittering with history.”

      Eden glanced at a map of Europe and said: “England is such a small island.” Stalin replied: “Yes, a small island, but a lot depends on it.” Those were the days!

    2. I often post on this forum comments I have already posted BTL on the DT site.

      This time I did it the other way round and posted a comment I made here as a BTL under this article : it received several up votes but quite a few down votes too.

      (Already posted below)

      "I thought it had been agreed in the 1990s that the West would not expand Eastwards and Ukraine would remain a buffer state. If Ukraine is allowed into NATO and the EU then Russia may well start throwing nuclear bombs about."

    3. I often post on this forum comments I have already posted BTL on the DT site.

      This time I did it the other way round and posted a comment I made here as a BTL under this article : it received several up votes but quite a few down votes too.

      (Already posted below)

      "I thought it had been agreed in the 1990s that the West would not expand Eastwards and Ukraine would remain a buffer state. If Ukraine is allowed into NATO and the EU then Russia may well start throwing nuclear bombs about."

  105. "Trump’s claims that Ukraine started the war or Zelensky is a dictator are certainly bizarre and offensive…"

    But it did – in 2014, aided and abetted by the Clinton Gang.

  106. "Trump’s claims that Ukraine started the war or Zelensky is a dictator are certainly bizarre and offensive…"

    But it did – in 2014, aided and abetted by the Clinton Gang.

  107. That 's me for today. Did an hour in the garden but it wasn't pleasant – a cold wind and rain in the air. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny……but not that warm. Still it IS nice that a 5.45 pm it is still light. Just!

    Just showed the MR the Italy-France highlights (she was slaving all afternoon – until 6 pm and was unable to watch the match). They are just as good third time round!!

    England need to be very fearful – the won't be able to box kick their way to victory against either Wales or Italy.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

  109. Well, after it turning wet and me deciding to get the dinner on, I did cod and rice and very nice it was too.
    The rain absolutely chucked it down for a while and I fell asleep listening to Jazz Record Requests.
    Woke up, had a mug of tea, then went for a bath where I promptly fell asleep again!
    I think I could do with an early night tonight.

    Better weather forecast for tomorrow and there is a block due to go on at 08:00 for traffic towards Cromford so that big log should get shifted across the road in the morning.
    Does anyone on here know of a wood carver who might be interested in a fair sized bit of lime wood?

    1. Peter
      @woodcarver_t       look at his work on X(Twitter ) he may be quite close to you , Bob .

      His work is superb , and frequently posts stuff on X(Twitter)

    2. Firstborn just received a slice of half a poplar tree, to b turned into a dining table. Now wondering what to do with it – plane, sand 'n ploish as is, or something more adventurous? Cut in half lengthwise and rejoin back-to-back, or with brass spacers…

  110. Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office brass sign is filthy , tarnished , grubby.

    Saw it on the news when they were reporting the kidnapping of the elderly White Brit couple in Afghanistan.

      2. One of the BTL comments says that the couple were married in Kabul in 1970, and implies that they are (were ?) religious.

  111. My heart is breaking for the family of Jenny Hall , the farmers daughter who went on a long distance run .

    A body has been found in a forest search for a runner who went missing five days ago, police said.

    Jenny Hall, 23, was last seen leaving her home at Barracks Farm, Tow Law, County Durham, on Tuesday, just after 15:00 GMT.

    Her red Ford Focus was found parked on the B6278 between Eggleston and Stanhope on Wednesday.

    Durham Police said Ms Hall's body had been found in a "very remote area of Teesdale" shortly after 09:30 GMT on Sunday.

    Formal identification has yet to take place but Ms Hall's family have been informed.

    The force said it was not treating her death as suspicious and a file was being prepared for the coroner.

      1. And if so, then she was doing what she loved.

        Pal of mine – aged 82 – played a game of tennis; came home, got out of his car and dropped dead. Couldn't be a better end for the departed.

        1. Absolutely .

          The dear girl was a long distance runner like my son . He runs miles across the countryside , along the coastal path, everywhere .. He has a special watch, but sometimes satellite signals do not work especially in dense forests .

          I expect she died of exposure to the cruel cold elements ..
          A stumble can create so much pain . I actually prayed deeply for her safe return

          Poor lass .

          I know that part of Durham very well .

        3. Yes, what a great way to go!
          However (it happened to my father-in-law on a golf course) it leaves a whole load of emotional and practical shite behind for the relatives to sort out….

          2. Of course. I have seen that professionally many times.

            My sister in law’s father in law died in his sleep. His unfortunate widow (as she then was) woke up beside his cold body.

            A very close chum’s husband went for a swim (last July) and died on entering the water – from heart failure. His widow (as she then became) discovered him on the beach. Nightmare.

  113. I started in 1954.

    Not putting the ball in straight was an instant offence; likewise forward passes.

    1. They were about the most straightforward of the game, accidental offside used to confuse me a bit.

      1. Don't remember that Sos. I seem to recollect when intercepting a pass you could just knock the ball with with one hand and even if it went forward, as long as you caught it without anyone else touching it (and it didn't touch the ground of course), it was a fair catch and play went on.

        1. Over the years that was one of those areas that changed significantly, and much for the better, in my view.

          That particular type of interception was slightly risky, because if you didn’t catch the ball it was deemed a deliberate knock-on and resulted in a penalty.

          1. I know that’s the case now, and I always think to myself the difference is very subtle. Way back, you weren’t trying to spoil the opposition’s advance, you just wanted to intercept. Well, that was my view as a standoff, anyway.

  114. Captain Sensible
    2h
    I started a dating agency for domestic fowl, but now I’m finding it difficult to make hens meet.

  117. This is the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Ringwood, five or so miles down the road from me.
    I had seen the East Window in the chancel on the internet but I wasn't prepared for the single panel windows down the sides. It fair blew me away.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/982c6ae584a9038a0eb2da0e6141f084b40efcc4e79fd3ce031981164cce310e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/777afc5cc3656da3ce2e3c733456cddf95a4020ddb84e4bdb4a8b9912b82fff0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/669791e85b463a079f4be1ab5c07c7718dee945bff02f4dee1b046fd02b6948c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/402bab5385c500a762a7e2093c814ce73f7bd6ec031b76dca9e1ba5a47fee8eb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/055543f58439f6b1f66a7e1563ef621b609e05b0a05b5daefba72ae0c3f79ec9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/844ff3b69fc8881d044402c49dfdcec7d8abeb44dfc9af1ed8ce5667c3cf8688.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/320f71a228ecab635903dbd572f70dfdaad38fa4a1abc5923de9e403326c6663.jpg

      2. I do like Holman Hunt but I could never get why they called themselves Pre-Raphaelites when their output was very Raphaelite – particularly his! Perhaps somebody on this august site might enlighten me?

  120. The lady clearing up after the service assures me it was dull compared to when the Spring sunshine comes through the glass and lights the Chancel.

  122. We haven't seen each other for a few years prior to our 50th wedding anniversary, last August. But because his wife had invited a number of friends to lunch at home. My old buddy since childhood neighbours, sent me a message asking if he could pop in for a coffee late morning. We were still sharing experiences after lunch and afternoon tea. Sitting in our lounge I had put on a TV program that features 60s and 70s music with original clips of the bands. Just for background. But it revived so many memories of our youth and places that we have visited.
    And something that we had never noticed before was Elton John and Ringo Starr playing as guests in the band T Rex.
    My old mate has been a singer guitarist for decades, still sings baritone in a Rock choir.
    Was quite impressed with some of my guitar playing. Not that I was looking for appreciation.
    What a lovely afternoon.

    1. Arguably, East-German, Communist Chemist, Angela Merkel has destroyed Germany – and the European Union – single handed!

  127. 402028+ up ricks,

    Everyone should have a best friend as in a dog their sense of companionship is wonderful, their sense of smell has saved lives dugout covert criminal material,
    as home help deaf, blind peoples, invaluable.

    In the muslim society you have the paedophiles, the rapist, the knifers,the multi abusers of decency in vast numbers.

    DOGS VEE MUSLIMS in England win paws down every time.

    https://x.com/Lord_Talbot64/status/1893562790557679766

    3. I'd actually point out that a friend of mine is a muslim and absolutely loves all three of mine, and they him. I think there's folk who are muslim and 'the diversity', who are scum.

    1. The Stanhope to Nenthead road is like being back in the 19th century. No civilisation for miles. My Aunty Anne sent me a book called “A Ha’penny ower the High Level” about a very poor family from Gateshead who moved to a cottage out there. It was barren and bleak then and still is.

  134. I guess it could have been worse if he'd been used in advertising.
    He'd have been in our face every day.
    Back in the 60s 70s the was an apt two letter saying for Diversity Hire. Usually in films.
    But it wouldn't be appropriate any more.

      2. I guess it wouldn't be Guinness, and I certainly hope no one suggests, OMO, Coco Pops or Black Magic.

    1. I think the idea of plod using their power to investigate what people say is simply disgusting. It is pure, complete fascism. A literal police state – thoughtcrime.

      The Left are thoroughly, utterly evil.

      1. Is it just Fascism, or is it also Communism?
        Or, perhaps, the inevitable consequences of having a Socialist System?

  136. So pleased , I hope you manage to have contact with them .
    I love carved wood , well carved anything , including stone and marble , and a nice slice of freshly carved home cooked ham !

      1. Warrior Square and Hastings.

        The punishment for falling asleep on the way home on my commuter route.

        Very expensive taxi back, if it was on the last train.
        Fortunately I never did, but my son got caught out.

    1. Good for the roses. Sir Henry Cecil grew the best roses in Newmarket; his rose manure came from Grade 1 and Classic winners 🙂

      1. HG was a physio in Newmarket in the early part of her career.
        Wonderful training for soft tissue injuries and breakages.
        She treated some very famous riders and their families.

        By the time she retired she was the "go to physio" for several of our local consultant surgeons, often being asked by them for a second opinion in complex cases and then their patients would often be sent to her post op.

        1. Now they have the Peter O'Sullivan Centre (like Oaksey House in Lambourn and Jack Berry House in Malton) for physio and treatment post injury.

          1. In her day it was just the Newmarket General hospital, more of a cottage hospital than a major centre, but the racing injuries meant the physio department was always busy.

  142. I have a set of these books , easy reading uncomplicated and well written ..

    Good obit for what seems to have been a very nice gentleman . RIP

    DG Hessayon, author of the bestselling ‘Expert’ guides to horticulture
    He wrote ‘for the housewife who isn’t really interested in gardening but feels she must keep the garden nice or the neighbours will talk’

    David Hessayon, who has died aged 96, was, as Dr DG Hessayon, the author of the “Expert” series of paperback gardening books and the world’s best-selling gardening writer; yet to most of his readers he remained an enigma.

    When “the Doc” brought out a book, it sold not in the tens of thousands but in the millions. The series started in 1959 with Be Your Own Gardening Expert and altogether his more than 20 Expert titles sold more than 50 million worldwide. In Britain alone Hessayon accounted for 40 per cent of the market in gardening books, with The Vegetable & Herb Expert (1997) topping the list.

    Brash and bossy, copiously and colourfully illustrated but never patronising, the Expert books were crammed full of brisk no-nonsense advice on everything from spacing the potatoes to mildew, leatherjackets and bindweed. Yet they broke every rule of good design and remained obstinately unfashionable, their covers a riot of clashing pinks and oranges, with day-glo green lawns set off by neat crazy paving and kidney-shaped ponds.

    Hessayon designed the books and edited them himself, and their cheap and cheerful appearance was deliberate – as was their wanton disregard for the finer points of grammar: “I break all the rules”, Hessayon boasted breezily: “I split infinitives. I end with prepositions. You name it. I do it.”

    These were books for people who have the typical suburban plot of lawn, path, patio and flowerbed, or as Hessayon explained, “for the housewife who isn’t really interested in gardening but feels she must keep the garden nice or the neighbours will talk”. They were meant to be propped up in front of potting shed tools or smeared with mud in the vegetable patch: “I’d like to feel they eventually get their backs broken by hard-working people with dirty hands” said Hessayon.

    Yet he remained the most invisible of authors. There were no photographs or biographical details on his covers – and no Christian names – only his initials, D G. He refused to appear on radio or television, never opened public buildings or did book signings (except once – at his local garden centre: he hated it). Moreover his books never gave any hint of what his own tastes in plants or garden design might be: “People want quick answers”, he would explain. “They want to know what’s wrong and what’s available. They don’t want to be bored to death with my opinions.”

    Yet his elusive character as a writer did not mean that Hessayon was shy; quite the opposite. In person, he was loud, hearty, brash, impatient, and opinionated. “Get him on the subject of herbaceous borders”, wrote one shellshocked interviewer, “and you’ll think that you’ve been hit by a runaway lawnmower.”

    Herbaceous borders were only one of Hessayon’s many pet hates. Others included gardening programmes (“people just tune in to see whether the presenter is wearing a bra or not”), the Chelsea Flower Show (“all tweeds and beads”), Capability Brown (“a vandal”) and, most of all, the authors of the Vita Sackville West school who rave about “hidden vistas” and the fleeting beauty of an antique rose (Hessayon preferred modern hybrid teas).

    He saw himself as the David battling the Goliaths of the gardening establishment

    Hessayon was an odd mixture – scornful of fame on the surface, yet basking in its glow. His Who’s Who entry ran to more than 30 lines and he loved telling interviewers about the millions of books he had sold and the number of radio and television interviews he had turned down. Small and plump, he saw himself as the David battling the intellectual Goliaths of the gardening establishment, the hero of trellis and patio against terrace and parterre.

    He loved telling stories of how he had walked out of the Chelsea Flower Show in 1987 after the organisers reprimanded him for attracting so many people to his stall they blocked the aisles, and how he had declined an invitation to visit Highgrove because his wife was not invited too. “I’ve always got to be the little boy that pees in the custard”, he told more than one interviewer.

    Yet perhaps the most extraordinary thing about Hessayon was that writing books was not his main occupation, but merely a side-line, carried out in the spare time from his job as chairman of the agrochemical company Pan Britannica Industries (PBI), manufacturers of Baby Bio and garden fertilisers such as Toprose.

    Hessayon in his greenhouse with the pelargonium Dave Hessayon, named after him

    The youngest of seven children, David Gerald Hessayon was born in Manchester on February 13 1928. His father Jack, a watchmaker, was a Cypriot landowner of Armenian descent, who had come to Britain in the late 19th century.

    David was four when his mother died and, to help his father, he started sowing seeds and pulling out the weeds in the family’s small plot. Initially gardening was an obligation rather than a pleasure, but over time he learnt to enjoy it. After leaving Salford Grammar School, he went up to Leeds University to read Botany.

    It was while he was still an undergraduate that he met his wife, Joan Gray, an American-born romantic novelist. They met in Paris where she had gone to write a novel and he was studying at a field station. Joan’s father owned a chain of newspapers in St Louis, Missouri and, after graduating in 1950, Hessayon went to work for him. He and Joan were married the following year.

    Hessayon returned to England to lecture in horticulture at Manchester University, where he took a doctorate in soil ecology. But he soon got bored with teaching and, in 1955, joined PBI, based at Waltham Cross, as chief chemist.

    Four years later, aged 31, he persuaded his bosses that the firm should go into the publishing business and produce a simple do-it-yourself guide to gardening as a sideline. Unconvinced, PBI made him risk some of his own money before they let him go ahead.

    Hessayon based the design for his first book (as for all his subsequent books), on the cigarette cards which he had collected as a child, with colourful pictures accompanied by brief explanatory text. “I design the page first”, he explained. “I drop in the pictures then I fill the holes. And I always write to measure. I write it once, read it through and that’s it.”

    Be Your Own Gardening Expert sold over a million copies in two years. By the time his sixth book, Be Your Own Rose Expert, came out in 1964, the firm needed no persuading. Besides, by that time, Hessayon was its managing director. He was chairman of PBI from 1972 until his retirement in 1993.

    He looked at the environmental effects of gardening and the emergence of organic products to replace chemical fertilisers and pesticides
    He looked at the environmental effects of gardening and the emergence of organic products to replace chemical fertilisers and pesticides
    He served as chairman of the British Agrochemicals Association in 1980-81, though he adapted to growing concerns about the effects of chemicals on the environment. His The Green Garden Expert (2009), looked at the environmental effects of gardening and the emergence of organic products to replace chemical fertilisers and pesticides.

    Among other awards he won the Veitch Memorial Medal of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1992 and was appointed OBE in 2007. His last book, The New Fruit Expert, was published in 2015.

    Hessayon regarded gardening as his “biz” rather than his passion, though he had few hobbies outside his work, other than American country music and crosswords. Despite his wealth, he lived modestly with his wife, Joan, in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire and later in Halstead, Essex.

    When asked what last piece of advice he would give to his readers, it came down to one word: “Mulch”.

    Hessayon’s wife Joan died in 2001. He is survived by their two daughters.

    DG Hessayon, born February 13 1928, died January 16 2025

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/02/23/hessayon-garden-expert-guides-obituary/

    Moh has the Lawn book .. it is his bible!

    2. I've got five of his excellent books, had them for decades.
      The Flower Expert
      The Garden Expert
      The Lawn Expert
      The Rock and Water Garden Expert, and (my favourite),
      The Tree and Shrub Expert.

      1. So have I Grizzly .

        I have had mine for decades as well , and The Tree and Shrub expert is my favourite, and I am sure he wrote the Rose expert which I cannot find , lost somewhere amongst spare room clutter.

    3. He sounds like the George MacDonald Fraser of historical novel writers. There's probably a few of his books in the current wife's gardening library.

    1. A bit like, "I have the body of an athlete and he'll be furious when he see what I've done to it!"

  146. 22 Feb 2025
    Coffee House
    Jack Rankin
    The Tobacco Bill shows how we Tories lost our way
    23 February 2025, 7:00am

    He’s having a tough time of it at the moment, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Andrew Gwynne. You see, I went to sixth form in his then patch when I was already an active, and surely irritating, young Conservative. When my more left-wing classmates were doing work experience with him (and I don’t know if Andrew remembers this) he made it clear he’d take me on too, despite my politics. I didn’t take him up on the offer, but I thought it spoke well of the man, and it stuck with me.

    That’s why I gave him the benefit of the doubt when he referred to me as ‘the hon. Member for the Institute of Economic Affairs’ in the recent Tobacco and Vapes Bill Committee. Seeing a smile creep to my face he hastened to add, ‘He probably sees that as a compliment, but believe me, it really is not’. Regardless, I took it as such. Conservatives should be sticking up for informed adult choice and, where restricting it, should do so in a proportionate evidence-based way. Unfortunately, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill doesn’t do that and while Labour have undoubtedly made it worse – shamefully it was our legislation in the first place.

    We got a pasting last July. The task that belongs to us few survivors is renewal – rediscovering those conservative principles that have historically made us so successful. A good starting point would be remembering that the Conservative party has traditionally stood for individual liberty, personal responsibility and the free market.

    The Tobacco and Vapes Bill flies in the face of all of these principles. Most significantly, it introduces a so-called ‘generational ban’ on tobacco products, depriving anyone born after 1 January 2009 from the joys of a Montecristo No. 2. Shame. Being an MP exposes you to people with some pretty wacky views, but I’ve yet to find an adult who doesn’t know smoking ain’t great for them. In my book, as long as the external healthcare cost socialised onto all of us is covered by duty, the state should mind its own damn business. But that fight, for now, is over. In 2053, an 18-year-old Saturday lad in a corner shop will be able to sell cigarettes to a 43-year-old but not a 42-year-old, creating two tiers of adults. Good luck policing that one.

    But the bill is a nonsense in its own terms. A ‘smoke-free generation’ is its clarion call, but isn’t that process already well underway? Millions of British smokers have abandoned cigarettes in the past decade – we have all observed that. With this bill, the government is risking snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The massive reduction in smoking we have already seen has been driven, in part, by innovations like vaping and other smoke-free alternatives. There are now almost as many vapers as there are smokers and the majority of them were already smoking when they began. Even now, ex-minister Gwynne admits that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and should be encouraged among smokers, but this bill hampers the effectiveness of vaping as a legitimate cessation tool. It risks throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

    The public kicked us out because of bills like this one

    Candyfloss-rainbow-unicorn flavours clearly aimed at children have no place on newsagent shelves: they should be banned. But a blanket ban on all marketing will prevent vapes from being advertised to the adult smokers who would benefit from them. Even the NHS encourages vaping as a smoking alternative through the ‘Swap to Stop’ scheme. Banning the advertising or promotion of vapes could well be counterproductive to the very thing the bill sets out to achieve. We need to apply common sense. That’s why I’m tabling an amendment that would require the secretary of state to consult on this proposal so we can at least give retailers, consumers and the industry the chance to have their voices heard. The consumer voice in particular has been largely absent from the process to date.

    Other measures just don’t make sense. Banning the use or sale of vapes in pubs and nightclubs, where everyone is already 18, will just inconvenience people who have already switched away from cigarettes. The same goes for banning vaping in your own car or the bizarre suggestion of ‘vape-free places’ which will force vapers next to smokers, goading them with the very vice we want them to avoid.

    This bill is bad, but it can be improved. I hope that at report stage my proposed amendments get more of a constructive hearing than in committee. I’ve got little hope the Labour party will listen to me, but in my own party I have more faith. If the Conservative party wants to get back on the pitch, we must recognise that the broad conservative majority in this country didn’t abandon their traditional good sense, the Conservative party did.

    We can hardly moan about getting a pasting last summer; the public kicked us out and bills like this one or the Football Governance Bill (wrapping an unrivalled sporting, financial and soft power success in its very own quango) tell us why. Both were borne of a Conservative government, but neither is animated by conservative principle. Still, I say there is hope for my party. Kemi Badenoch voted against both bills at second reading: rediscovery of our principles is on; renewal beckons.

    from Coffee House the Spectator

    1. "bills like this one… tell us why."
      Another deluded LibDem who joined the Conservative & (former) Unionist party by mistake.

  150. And some news just being reported on local social media- in a daring overnight raid, thieves have stolen the lavatory at Pontefract police station.

    When asked for an update, a police spokesman said they had nothing to go on.

    1. Just down the road from the discovery of a very large hole.
      The Fire Brigade are looking into it.

    2. This evening two ships collided in the English Channel due to strong winds. One ship was carrying blue paint and by coincidence, the other had a cargo of red paint.

      Both crews were said to be marooned.

      1. Two lorries collided on the M5; one was a sugar tanker, the other had a load of fruit. They caused a massive jam.

      2. Two lorries collided on the M5; one was a sugar tanker, the other had a load of fruit. They caused a massive jam.

  151. Well chums, it's nowhere near my bedtime, but I think I shall have an early night. Good Night all, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

  154. 402028+up ticks,

    Pillow Ponder,

    The muslims of great britain are playing on the fact that the majority of brits are not united in SAYING "we do not want halal foodstuff within the foodchain" because they, the brits, are under threat of incarceration for using truthful rhetoric,really, they believe you will be imprisoned even if you think it.

    Someone one day will say BOYCOTT ALL HALAL FOOD OUTLETS, and it will work, maybe mr farage could bring it up in the house and ORDER ALL REFORM MEMBERS TO LEAD A BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN,
    …………………..FOR STARTERS.
    https://x.com/GBPolitcs/status/1893320280786849960

      1. 402028+ up ticks,

        Evening C,

        Precisely, I truly can see in the future ,when the dust settles, there will STILL be no opposition.

        1. It's true that the Mayor of Rochdale is Muslim, but it was achieved through the support of fellow Rochdale councillors. It's an appointed position chosen annually, not through local elections.

    2. REFORM MEMBERS TO LEAD A BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN, …………………..FOR STARTERS.

      So ogga,it is OK to have Halal food for the main course

      sorry

  156. Friedrich Merzhe, the leader of the Conservative CDU-CSU party which has won the German election, and will need to make a coalition pact with another party, but…

    '"Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now on course to win 20.5% of the vote, according to latest projections – but there is no way Friedrich Merz will work with it because of a long-standing political taboo against working with the far right, known as a Brandmauer – a firewall.

    Merz said tonight that Alice Weidel's AfD didn't actually want to solve Germany's problems – "they're happy if the problems get worse and worse".'

    It sounds all too familiar, a left wing fake Conservative party.

    1. One likely consequence of any alliance with AfD is civil disorder. Despite its growing voter base, a large number of Germans are hostile to the idea of any AfD presence in government, violently so, I suggest.

    1. What a biased Channel 4 news report. The clip of Zelensky "making a noble sacrifice", followed by one of Trump "doing a silly little victory dance" after his election.

    2. What a biased Channel 4 news report. The clip of Zelensky "making a noble sacrifice", followed by one of Trump "doing a silly little victory dance" after his election.

    1. Giant anteaters are amazing, I've never seen one in the flesh. That one appears to be in Chinese hands, let's hope it's not on the menu.

    1. But who will do the ousting?

      – Musk and Vance because Trump is holding them back?
      – Biden because he finally remembered what he was supposed to do?
      – Canada just to get even for all of those 51st state insults (insipult Trudeau all you want but leavethe rest of us alone)?

      where's polly when we need a rumour or two.

    2. But who will do the ousting?

      – Musk and Vance because Trump is holding them back?
      – Biden because he finally remembered what he was supposed to do?
      – Canada just to get even for all of those 51st state insults (insipult Trudeau all you want but leavethe rest of us alone)?

      where's polly when we need a rumour or two.

    3. But who will do the ousting?

      – Musk and Vance because Trump is holding them back?
      – Biden because he finally remembered what he was supposed to do?
      – Canada just to get even for all of those 51st state insults (insipult Trudeau all you want but leavethe rest of us alone)?

      where's polly when we need a rumour or two.

    5. Nothing is impossible, Maggie, but I doubt that the "rumour" is anything more than that.

  162. May be an image of text that says "TODAY KEIR STARMER IS IS TO DENOUNCE NIGEL FARAGE AND REFORM AS DANGEROUS. HERE'S STARMER'S AGENDA so FAR: DESTROYING OUR ENERGY SECURITY BY STOPPING NORTH SEA SEA EXPLORATION. DESTROYING OUR FOOD SECURITY BY PLACING IHT ON FAMILY FARMS DOING A DEAL WITH TE EU TO INCREASE MIGRATION GIVING UK TERRITORY TO A CHINESE ALLY FORCING APPLE TO GIVE UK GOV ACCESS TO YOUR DATA. JAILING OPPONENTS FOR SPEECH STARMER IS A FAR GREATER DANGER TO THE UK THAN FARAGE COULD EVER BE!"

    1. Good night, Conners – and Kadi and Winston. (Just woke up and decided to do Monday's Wordle (did it in five)

  166. After Hitler suggested to Molotov that Germany and Russia should split Poland between them, Molotov wondered why Hitler was being bombed after having made a peace deal with Britain.

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