Sunday 26 July: Working from home severs vital lines of communication between staff

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/25/letters-working-home-severs-vital-lines-communication-staff/

927 thoughts on “Sunday 26 July: Working from home severs vital lines of communication between staff”

  3. SIR – In passing judgment on the case of the teenage “jihadi bride” Shamima Begum, who has won the right to return to the UK from Syria to argue her case, the Court of Appeal has, yet again, shown the growing appetite of British judges for politics and self-aggrandisement (Comment, July 19).

    Tony Blair’s disastrous 1998 Human Rights Act has, over 20 years, led to judicial encroachment into territory where judges don’t belong, and to a stream of increasingly political and perverse judicial comments, judgments and sentencing. Now judges are second-guessing the Home Secretary on an issue of national security.

    Laymen are perfectly capable of spotting the difference between desirable judicial independence and unacceptable judicial activism. Many of us now feel there is urgent need for serious reform of judicial review and a return to the supremacy of Parliament.

    Gregory Shenkman
    London W8

    The 1998 Human Rights Act also affords special protection for those three ‘Travellers’ awaiting sentence. Thanks Blair.

      1. “And another one for darling Euan and that fat girl daughter of ours whose name we can never remember”

        1. But who I deliberately stuck at the front of our Christmas photo so everyone would clock her fat legs and make me look better.
          (I hid mine behind Euan Leo.)
          Quelle surprise – it’s the one card that has disappeared from the interwebby.

    1. Thanks for the the update reminder. I have the website but keep forgetting to look.
      All paid for by philanthropists if I recall.

      1. Yes. It really is an excellent production – Stella cast including Thomas Allen

  5. SIR – I assume that the decision by Watford council to rename four of the town’s street names has accounted for the fact that every resident and business on those streets will have to inform their own banks, credit card companies, the DVLA, building societies and insurance companies of the change. They will also, of course, have to update family and friends.

    Joyce Cooper
    Oldham, Lancashire

    Not the council’s problem, innit, so they couldn’t give a damn.

    1. Just ensure that the names of the idiot councillors who voted for this are highlighted just before the next local elections. Residents will then be able to show their ‘appreciation’.

      1. I’m sure those councillors represent enriched wards, so are a shoo-in next time round.

    2. And reprint any stationery, change their website, maybe even repaint vans.

      1. Ah, van re-painting! Love it. Well-spotted. Long ago and far away, I worked for a UK business that had fleets of vans in 13 branches around the UK. The company changed it’s name, and gave me the job of arranging for all the vans to be re-painted. It was a proper sign-writing job at the sign-writers in Edinburgh. All vans had to come to Edinburgh. No vans were to be hired. No interruption to deliveries was to happen. Dearie me, there was any amount of planning, arranging, and hand-holding of managers hands, and explaining how it would work… Eventually all went well. Job done, on budget, on time.

        1. Where were you, Horace, when Prime Minister May was trying to get us to leave remain in the EU in double quick time?

  7. Priti Patel vows to ‘dismantle’ people smuggling gangs as 11 arrested for illegally facilitating Channel crossings. 26 July 2020.

    Priti Patel has vowed to “put whatever resource is necessary” into dismantling people smuggling gangs after police arrested nearly a dozen people illegally facilitating Channel crossings.

    In a significant operation last week, 12 properties were raided, 11 people were arrested, £150,000 cash was seized and two vehicles were taken as the authorities clamped down on the gangs organising the dangerous crossings.

    Already this year, 3,285 people have taken to the water in France and reached the UK, with a record 180 crossing in 15 boats on July 12. This week alone, 288 people have made the journey.

    The Home Secretary said on Saturday evening: “I will not tolerate ruthless criminals looking to break the law by smuggling people into the UK illegally. I will put whatever resource is necessary to dismantle these gangs and stop these dangerous crossings, including going after the groups financing these criminal operations.

    “Ruthless Criminals” Those are harsh words for the Home Office. Lol! This is just another fantasy. Anyone with any sense knows that the whole operation is run from Westminster. How else to explain the Border Farce ferry service?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/26/priti-patel-vows-dismantle-people-smuggling-gangs-11-arrested/

    1. Mindless maunderings to attempt to fool the people one more time,to attempt to hide the complicity of our globalist leaders in our annihilation
      Aussie Rules
      Invade illegally and you will NEVER get leave to remain and you will be deported the same day
      Yes,it really is that simple all it requires is the political will cough80seatmajoritycough
      Tossers
      Edit
      Manners,Morning Minty

    2. Mindless maunderings to attempt to fool the people one more time,to attempt to hide the complicity of our globalist leaders in our annihilation
      Aussie Rules
      Invade illegally and you will NEVER get leave to remain and you will be deported the same day
      Yes,it really is that simple all it requires is the political will cough80seatmajoritycough
      Tossers
      Edit
      Manners,Morning Minty

    4. That pathetic gobby woman has been saying the same thing for over a year. Meaningless nonsense…

        1. “She wears a mask and her face grows to fit it.”

          (Richard Hoggart: The Uses Of Literacy.)

    5. Yeah … yeah.
      “I will do such things – what they are yet, I know not; but they shall be the very terror of the earth.”

      1. I think King Lear is my favourite Shakespearean tragedy.

        I actually found tears running down my cheeks once when I was teaching it to a class of “A” level students.

        1. Funnily enough, I always find the later scenes of Richard II very moving. A flawed man who grows up too slowly because he has been a monarch since the age of 10.
          Something we see with child film stars and teenage pop idols. Fame and money comes to them too early.

    6. “vowed“? Does anyone, anywhere think that any action will be taken? Are there raids and arrests being carried out in France? Are these illegal immigrants being ruthlessly interrogated for names, date, places and other information?

    7. “I will put whatever resource is neccessary to dimantle these gangs…” (sic)

      Bang goes another few millions, into the pockets of yer French…further reward for waving them through. The more we pay them the more illegals we get. Like our French ‘partners’ I can see a pattern here…

      Manners – ‘Morning, Minty.

    8. And what’s taken her so long? There’s been hundreds come across this summer, and Patel has done nothing,and probably would have done nothing if Farage hadn’t embarrassed the government into action.

  8. Unions tell civil servants DON’T go back to work: Leaders cite ‘health and safety’ concerns to sabotage Boris Johnson’s plan for them to lead the way in Britain’s return to the office to save economy
    *Boris Johnson to tear up the ‘work from home’ guidance in place since March
    *He wants civil servants back to start clearing the public services backlog
    *But many of Britain’s top firms are still encouraging employees to work remotely
    *PCS urging its members not to buckle under pressure from Downing Street
    *A spokesman said the demand ‘is not based on our members’ health and safety’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8559557/Union-barons-brakes-PMs-bid-government-staff-desks-end-week.html

    1. All Boris has to do is insist Civil Service payroll dept stops working for H&S reasons…..

      1. With an 80-seat majority it isn’t difficult, is it…it just requires a pair of testicles, a spine and some determination. Ah, silly me, I can see a flaw here…

    2. Morning Hugh, thanks for posting the link. I read the article and agreed with all of it except the very last sentence. I do not care if the BBC is on that greasy slope that will destroy it, in fact the sooner the better as far as I am concerned. If people wish to watch what evolves from the wreckage, programs derived from a subscription fee not a tv tax will be fine.

    3. ” Never mind the truth – that at the time of the Indian famine…London and the North were being blitzed nightly in firestorms of destruction.”

      Not by 1943.

    4. ” Never mind the truth – that at the time of the Indian famine…London and the North were being blitzed nightly in firestorms of destruction.”

      Not by 1943.

  11. ‘White as hell’: Portland protesters face off with Trump but are they eclipsing Black Lives Matter? 26 July 2020.

    The president of the Portland branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ED Mondainé, warned that the Black Lives Matter movement in the city is being coopted by “privileged white people” with other agendas. He said the confrontations with the federal officers sent by the president are little more than a “spectacle and a distraction that do nothing for the cause of black equality”.

    Mondainé accused groups of young white people at the forefront of confronting federal officers of rising to Trump’s bait and using the campaign against racial injustice to provoke a fight in pursuit of other causes, such as anti-capitalism.

    Well done you pal! It’s been pretty obvious from the beginning that this has nothing to do with Racism or Equality. Where did you think all the cash came from to set up BLM or control the MSM?

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/26/portland-federal-agents-teargas-protesters-black-lives-matter

        1. Put on the pointy hat with large ‘D’ on the front and stand in the corner, while the woke brigade removes yet another front door.

          Nice knowing you, Bill.

        2. Put on the pointy hat with large ‘D’ on the front and stand in the corner, while the woke brigade removes yet another front door.

          Nice knowing you, Bill.

    2. The founders of BLM are self-proclaimed trained Marxists. It’s never really been about back lives, but about destroying capitalism.
      Mondaine clearly hasn’t been paying attention.
      And “rising to Trump’s bait”? The riots have been going on in Portland for weeks, i.e. well over 50 days now, and has been turning into a communist hell-hole for years. If anything, Trump has been very restrained, and has acted now to protect Federal buildings which the woke mob have tried to destroy, when it’s become clear that the local mayor and police force have lost control..

      1. I’m not sure they lost control. Their tacit endorsement of the ideology of these idiots has shown complicity.

        What’s funny – in a not at all funny way – is that all this does is drive people to Trump. They see Democrats refusing to suppoort law and order, obeying the demands of the mob and they think ‘this is wrong. I’ll elect the other guy.’

  12. Morning all

    SIR – I have no doubt that a third of office workers would prefer to work from home. I had many years of long commutes, together with a lot of overseas travel, and it is all unpleasant. However, there are considerable downsides (from a businesses perspective) to abandoning the office.

    A large percentage of communication is non-verbal and all about body language. When chairing a meeting or discussion, it is important to tease out people’s real feelings on a subject. The verbal message might be positive but the body language message less comfortable. A manager might well go away from a Zoom video conference thinking that everybody is on board with a particular decision when the truth is somewhat different.

    Furthermore, one of the main roles of experienced managers and staff is to coach and develop rising talent. Informal discussions around the coffee machine about how well (or indeed badly) particular junior staff members are doing form important lines of communication. Without office space these lines will be lost.

    Peter Little

    Herne Bay, Kent

    SIR – Of course people want to work from home – but if their jobs can be done from home, then they can also be outsourced to India.

    Jonathan Camp

    Chard, Somerset

    Advertisement

    SIR – Nick Hazelton and Ted Shorter (Letters, July 19) imply that those of us currently under the Government’s furlough scheme are in some way refusing to return to work.

    In fact a great many of us are desperate to return to work and to our offices, but due to the pandemic have no work to do. Personally, I work for a tour operator unable to operate due to various countries’ border restrictions, including those placed on incoming US citizens by our own Government. My company has been extremely successful and I have worked there for 25 years, but my colleagues and I now find ourselves clinging to employment by our fingertips, through no fault of our own or indeed of our employer.

    Elizabeth Laird

    Feltham, Middlesex

    SIR – The Government exhorts us to go shopping to boost the economy.

    I live 25 miles from London city centre. My options are follows:

    a) Park at local railway station, don mask, sit on train. Keep mask on, take taxi to shops, keep mask on, enter shops. This is all fairly expensive and a miserable experience.

    b) Take car (mask free) and park in London. Pay £27.50 plus parking costs. Put on mask, enter shops. Again this is expensive, and a miserable way to shop.

    c) Stay at home, shop on Amazon. Mask-free, relatively cheap and very pleasant.

    Under the present circumstances London and other city centres are doomed.

    Anthony Summers

    Farnham Common, Buckinghamshire

    1. Well, all you home work loving chaps – just wait until the council demands business rates; and the Revenue takes CGT on a chunk of your house when you sell it.

      1. Quite.
        There are still idiots who think that because those taxes are not applied at the moment they never will be.

        Ditto the raft of Health and Safety rules that might not apply today won’t be applied tomorrow.
        And just wait until their insurance company and bank gets in on the raise money act.

        1. Gawd, we is cynical. Too many years of experiencing bureaucratic mazes.
          Morning, sos.

        2. As soon as this happens in France we close down our business and retire.

          1. They’ll commandeer all that lovely spare accommodation for illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.

        3. Insurance companies are already updating policies to exclude regular home working from any policy.

          It’s just theft.

          1. Facts of life.
            If an insurance company can screw you they will. I don’t think I’ve ever had a claim settled without a fight.

            I made a claim a few years ago and it was turned down. I appealed to the ombudsman and they ruled in my favour. The shock might have been fatal!

            As a result, insurance policy wording was changed to prevent similar claims.

            Bastards.

      2. And H&S tramp through your house on a regular basis, condemning dogs, extension cables, battered desks …. plus the annual expense of PAT tests on every blasted plug and socket.
        Oh, and your kitchen will be condemned because you run up a sandwich or a coffee during working hours.
        And then your insurance company will get onto the act.

      3. The revenue already takes vast amounts of our income. They can shove it.

        Until the state realises the economy is tanking because of big state intervention and taxation it will continue to do the wrong thing, the wrong way.

    2. Jonathan Camp is spot on. How long before NHS telephone consultations are carried out in India?

  13. Rubbish….

    Taking out the rubbish

    SIR – I applaud our good fishermen as they try to remove plastic from the seas (Letters, July 19) – but we could prevent the majority of such littering on our part by stopping the process of “recycling” which sees plastic shipped mostly to the Far East and often simply dumped into the sea.

    Instead, we should incinerate all our rubbish and sewage sludge, creating refuse-derived fuel. This would generate about two gigawatts of home-produced electricity and enable rare metals to be mined from the fly ash. This ash can then be used for tarmac and breeze blocks.

    Rev Philip Foster

    Hemingford Abbots, Huntingdonshire

    2. Why don’t we have the industrial capacity or the ingenuity to process our own recycled waste without shipping it abroad?

      1. The Danes do just that.
        And, according to D-in-L, Danish life has returned to normal.
        Let’s hear it for the Jarlsvikings.

      2. 321732+ up ticks,
        Morning JM,
        We do, but the lab/lib/con coalition quite wrongly
        draw the line on one protected species & that is the human sh!te element that should be shipped OUT same day as getting a guilty verdict .

      5. Ha, good point. I’ve noticed for many years, items with ‘recyclable’ etc on them. Don’t see too many items with ‘made from recycled plastic’ or whatever, which leads me to think not much actual recycling is going on. Now that other countries refuse our crap, we have three options – landfill, sea dumping, or incinerating which is the one gets my vote.

          1. Yes, I know there are some recycled goods for sale (benches, playground surfaces etc) I have a pair of shoes which I like very much but waited until end of line sale (Lands End) before I could afford them. All recycled goods seem to be a lot more expensive than ‘new’ plastic, and I believe that will go against them especially in the present (and future) economy. Think I read somewhere in the last couple of days that Germany have cut their green economy expenditure by around 50%, could be mistaken tho as I don’t recall the details (age!)

    3. 321732+ up ticks,
      Morning Epi,
      Guaranteed the rev Philip will never be in a position of power thinking along those lines.

      1. Think of a number, multiply by the angle of the moon and divide by the square root of sweet FA then raise the result to the power of the estimated number of full wheelie-bins.., of course.

        Jeez, thought you were an engineer…

        1. Tut. You forgot ‘multiply it by your telephone number and subtract your granny’s birthdate’.
          How sloppy is that?

          1. That’s the calculation for the number of breeze blocks.

            The formula for the cubic yards of tarmac requires a bit of calculus.

  14. SIR – Andrew Roberts (Sunday Comment, July 19) was forthright in his opposition to the renaming of streets and pubs with a colonial connection.

    In Uganda under British rule and for a while after independence, the main hotel in Kampala was the Imperial Hotel, where my wife and I held our wedding reception in 1963. By the time we left the capital in 1969, however, the name had been changed. It had become the Grand Hotel (rather unimaginative and still very British).

    On our return in 1998, there had been another renaming: it was now (and still is) the Grand Imperial Hotel. Such an approach is more mature than the juvenile tantrums of the “woke”, and the spineless acquiescence from those who should know better.

    K C Doherty

    Wallingford, Oxfordshire

  15. SIR – It’s all very well altering roads to promote cycling to work in July (report, July 19) – but that won’t be much fun in a freezing January when it’s dark by half-four in the afternoon.

    Philip Corp

    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    1. Nor will standing for half an hour in the pouring rain to get into a bank or supermarket……

      1. I’ve thought that. The good weather has saved the government’s sorry a@se.

  16. SIR – Chris Harvey suggests that “many of the greatest dramas ever made have endings that leave the viewer distraught or uncertain”.

    My husband won’t watch a film if it doesn’t have a happy ending. He’ll have a look at the end of a film and then decide if he wants to see it.

    Carla Stainke

    Alness, Ross-shire

      1. I wonder what he would make of Manon des Sources, the only film I can think of that completely knocked me sideways in the last minute.

          1. Loved both films 🙂
            I’d like to watch them again. I wonder if they’re on Netflix or somewhere.

          2. I have them both on DVD and we’ll probably watch them again over the winter, even knowing the eventual denouement doesn’t lessen the impact.

          4. Every time I watch The Day of the Jackal I hope that Edward Fox will be successful this time.

  17. Good morning all.
    A BTL Comment:-

    Robert Spowart
    26 Jul 2020 7:51AM
    Do others consider that, were it not for the long history of the Police treating so-called “Travellers” as a special “protected species,” largely immune from the consequences from Law, PC Andrew Harper might still be alive?

    Sadly, when one considers the way “Travellers” have been treated with kid gloves by the authorities, not just the Police, for so long, this tragedy was all too predictable.

    Allow a group of people to ignore the law and they will not only become more and more lawless with every crime, but their crimes themselves will become more extreme.

    Time to say “ENOUGH!”

    1. 321732+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      Rotherham told us it was 16+ many years past time, with
      establishment employees in collusion with the PIE fraternity, that is just one instance.
      Was there mass sackings ? to my knowledge one
      (collusioner ) was moved to a better paying position.
      To some extent a great many are to blame owing to “the
      good of the party” via the polling booth.

      1. Morning. I don’t think anyone lost their job OR their massive pension. And I believe it was WAY over 16 years they ignored it.

        1. 321732+ up ticks,
          Morning W,
          Correct, “16+ many years” I am pretty sure one
          council member was shifted to a more lucrative
          position.

    2. Morning, BoB.
      Something odd is going on with the Tellygraff’s scoring system (nothing new there, but this is different). While i don’t claim to write wittier or more profound comments than anyone else BTL, for the last few days my comments have scored zero. I replied to your posting; does it actually show and, if you click on ‘like’ does ‘unlike’ appear to show that a score has been registered?
      Maybe I’ve been unpersoned; nullified; vaporised.

      2. The DT now does not allow any comments on any topic which is even remotely controversial. It has become so terrified of its readers’ opinions as to be worthless as a litmus paper to test public opinion.

        Perhaps there should be a George Orwell Day each year to highlight and dishonour every single measure to curb free speech and every other measure passed in reverence to the nightmare state he created in Nineteen Eighty Four.?

    3. You know, that Robert Spowart writes a lot of sense. We should invite him to join NTT… Oh!
      Morning, Bob!

    4. Good morning Bob.
      I read your excellent btl comment and wisely refrained from replying.

    5. That applies to every group though. The black looters lark continued their campaign because they were not stopped at the outset.

    1. The woman in this clip uses most unladylike language. Where was she brung up?

      1. Sh’americahn and know her rites!

        I despair though, truly, she’s uncouth, arrogant, violent and spoiled, fervent in her self righteousness as if volume and obscenity are all that matters. Why was she not told no as a child? I say as I, as she is very clearly *still* a child.

        In contrast – and I’m feeling smug about this – junior and his chum came to me and said ‘If we clean the car can we have an ice cream?’ To which I said yes, but you can have the ice cream first because you asked so nicely.

  19. 321732+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    May one ask, does the vote still have any power and could it be used to benefit This Country if the electorate Chose to use it in say a common sense manner ?
    ie selecting councillors, governance parties etc.
    May one also ask has one / would one continue to visit a dentist that
    guarantees pain on every occasion ?

      1. Good morning, dear heart. It has – calloo callay….

        I think it was a combination of delayed side effects of the”killer” antibiotic plus being out in the sun (though with a hat) in extreme humidity.

        I feel almost normal….

        1. Hi Eeyore,
          Glad you are feeling normal……almost!

          I’m still feeling the effects of the”killer” antibiotic.
          Sick and a bit wobbly sometimes…..it’s worse than the tendonitis!

        2. Hi Eeyore,
          Glad you are feeling normal……almost!

          I’m still feeling the effects of the”killer” antibiotic.
          Sick and a bit wobbly sometimes…..it’s worse than the tendonitis!

          2. The ECT effect. You are so busy worrying about memory loss that you forget you’re depressed.

          3. When MB reacted so badly, we lived out in the boondocks; I thought he was going to die. I had never felt so alone. As I was contemplating calling an ambulance, he picked up.
            He got through the night, but the pharmacist sent him off pdq to his GP.
            That was in the days when you could still see a GP before you died.

          4. Hope MB has fully recovered…it’s pretty scary
            So far I’ve seen 2 Drs. and a nurse at the surgery and in desperation went to the hospital and saw another Dr. He put me in touch with
            the Pain Clinic. This was back in April…
            Having found a physio at last which helps…just wish the nausea would pass soon….

        3. I think MB was given the ‘killer’ (or some version of it) a few years back. He was so ill, the pharmacist told him to stop taking it immediately.
          One of the less exciting anti-bs did the trick.
          The problem, when his leg and foot finally ‘deflated’. was a minute thorn which must have been carrying the lurgy. After seeing that this sliver of wood had caused such trouble, MB stopped gardening in sandals.

          1. Morning,
            My ankle became infected with a thorn or possibly an insect bite after
            gardening in sandals!
            Good idea to wear gloves when pruning roses and long sleeves.
            I’ve learnt a very painful lesson…..

          3. We were absolutely amazed at this minuscule piece of thorn. But it certainly carried something pretty deadly.

          4. If it was a blackthorn that could account for it. They are extremely nasty thorns. We always had to check the horses’ legs thoroughly before stabling them after hunting because if we missed any wounds their legs would be like balloons in no time.

  21. Hi, Nottlers.

    Here is another scribbling to give you a flavour of my wife, Lizzie. Yesterday was pretty miserable and wet so gardening/building was off the menu, the bungalow is clean and tidy and so I thought I’d put my thoughts and memories into words and pictures. In fact I wrote two missives, the other one describes the start of her life, not a happy beginning but it got better, much better. I spent so much time writing that I forgot to cook myself a dinner and ended up having one of my homemade sun dried tomato, olive and parmesan cheese rolls stuffed with cheese and washed down with a glass of Hobgoblin Gold English ale – baking bread rolls is something Nottle has encouraged me to do. Thank you, fellow bakers.

    Not a dry eye in my home but dragging out the memories helps to focus the mind and hopefully starts the healing process.

    I thought the place to start should be the ‘end’ i.e. my darling wife’s funeral. I gave a short description on the day and so I will not revisit that but instead post in pictures the Order of Service that our son, Sebastian and I put together for his Mum.

    After the funeral I realised that I had made a mistake with the music selection: I originally wanted Phil Collins, then with Genesis, singing ‘Since I Lost You’ for the ‘Exit’ but chose Collins’s ‘If Leaving Me Is Easy’. On reflection the former would have been better.

    My original choice for the ‘Committal’ was Flight by Richard Blair-Oliphant composed for the series ‘How the Universe Works’ but it is not available on payment of copyright fees and therefore cannot be used in public. Such a shame as it is a hauntingly beautiful piece of music.

    The short poem Afterglow by Helen Lowrie Marshall fitted Lizzie perfectly.

    The ‘end’ relates to our real-time life together, not to the memories that will never be erased from me or from those people; family, friends, even those children and their parents with whom she spent hours at the Plume Avenue Nursery for over 30 years. I can’t begin to recall the number of people who recognised Lizzie from her years there. Parents who are now grandparents as their children whom Lizzie worked with are now themselves parents and the later children she helped who are now young adults.

    My wife had a great affinity with young children, a natural gift that I do not believe can be taught. That’s not to say she was easy on them; manners e.g. saying please and thank you along with sharing toys etc were very much to the fore in her methods. Her Boss once told me that she could give Lizzie 20 children, a room and a sock puppet and she would keep them entertained for hours. Lizzie would relate the adventures of Sid the Squirrel, unscripted and unrehearsed, but she was caught out early on when after a couple of weeks she repeated parts of an earlier adventure and some smart kid piped up, “You told us that before.” She had to up her game from then on. As you can imagine she was a brilliant Mum to our son, Seb, and an equally brilliant Nanny to our two grandchildren.

    For the OOS the funeral directors supplied a link to a website on which these documents can be designed. The idea being that the design would be forwarded to the funeral directors who in turn sent the design and order to the printers.

    I could not get the website to do what I wanted, I wasn’t thinking straight and was getting very angry, no surprise there considering my state at that time. Our son who is very much into technical goings on, as was I a few years ago but time takes its toll, took over and sorted it all out and we ended up with an eight page document with the theme of a timeline of Lizzie’s life in photographs.

    One or two people were surprised that I included a picture of Lizzie and our hours old son. I stumbled on this picture as I trawled through literally hundreds of photographs and I had no recollection of seeing it before, it must have been taken by someone at the Maternity Home. She looks as though she’s just been put through the wringer, she had, believe me. I knew what she had been through as I was there all through her labour. I wasn’t going to miss that event. I recall one of the midwives telling me to stand against the wall and when I asked why she told me that if I fainted during the birth I would naturally slide down the wall and not get in their way. However, I remained at the business end all the way through, did what little I could by encouraging Lizzie and mopping her brow and finally watched our son emerge into the World: a beautiful moment for any father to witness. The trouble she had pushing out a 4lb 12 oz baby was proof enough that her specialist, Dr Robin Durrance, was correct in telling her that this was the only pregnancy her body could endure. Dr Durrance turned up a couple of hours after the birth to see our son and congratulate Lizzie on a job well done. He was an excellent doctor and a wonderful man.

    I included that photograph as it was, along with our wedding day and her positive pregnancy test, one of the three happiest moments in her life. The picture shows a new Mum completely shattered after a difficult childbirth but I know that inside she was ecstatic with presenting us with the tiny bundle she was holding. She had the child she craved, and the only one she could ever have, and one she had worked so hard for – weeks of boring bed rest, being weaned off of drugs that could have disastrous results on the foetus, temperature checks and plots every day – I had the easy bit! It certainly wasn’t an immaculate nor even a romantic conception – that’s another story – but ‘do it by numbers’ to get the desired result.

    The picture of Lizzie with our son on his first birthday shows the effect high doses of steroids have on the body. Her ‘moon-face’ appearance was one obvious result and she hated that along with the extra weight she put on elsewhere.

    The two pictures on the last but one page are: top – Lizzie at her 60th birthday party, bottom – Lizzie at 61 yo sitting at ‘our’ table at our favourite hotel in Italy.

    I’ve included a picture of my floral tribute to Lizzie. It is made of silk flowers and is a re-creation, as far as I could tell from wedding photographs and the newspaper report of our wedding, of Lizzie’s wedding bouquet. I had it made from silk flowers so that it can be broken up and then re-made into a number of keepsakes for our son and his family.

    The final picture is Lizzie, me and our son on his wedding day in 2012. Lizzie wore the outfit she is pictured wearing, minus the fascinator, on her final journey: her wedding dress was in the coffin with her too. I looked for the fascinator but I could not lay my hands on it. A couple of days after her funeral I stumbled across a small box at the back of one of our wardrobes…
    Korky

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86f46d431f99f8a2a35c10ee346a15ac3a8f8fe74a9daefa36d130e1d3ac831c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc01f5504d33f79b7b4b6708730e04cfcab7c9400d627f4c9833c8de4d71228c.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a201bc4cd555d15024f858c9c30ee30afb315e9a9e7e6bcb454794e276befff1.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eefa95260455d5f2079191204c88df890e5e15c70f9a7285d742c5fc5774be8b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1229272c9f35c6807977d26e2005b60cf2e78718c5c62d89b5d0dc7d1feb8db2.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73eeeefee5144aeafc6a0424d9c9ce3c5efbccd1ef28026ff1036c90d732ce20.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8cd50c7b5a04c4f76a0d99ab7e5c3e711855f87a783e054075c0f086271f3c38.jpg

    2. I hope sharing your thoughts is helping you come to terms with your sad loss Korky, be strong my friend all our thoughts are with you and thank you for sharing this with us

    4. Wonderful words and pictures creating lasting memories. A joy to read and look at. You must be very proud and I hope you can share more with us. Bless you and KBO.

    6. What a wonderful and moving tribute to a dearly-loved lady, Korky. Your prose is very fitting and I hope you are keeping a copy of all your excellently-worded NoTTL posts (Including this one) in a scrapbook dedicated to Lizzie’s memory.

    7. What a lovely tribute.

      My four children spent their share of time in nurseries when they were small, and we were lucky enough to come across a very few carers who had that instinctive connection with children that can’t be learned. It’s something very special.

    8. Thank you, Korky.
      I think writing about her is a very good idea. As you say, it’s part of the healing process, and I believe you’ll be glad you did.

  23. Britain will respond to space threat from Russia and China – minister. 26 July 2020.

    Britain will boost its ability to handle threats posed by Russia and China in space as part of a foreign, security and defence policy review, the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, has said.

    “This week we have been reminded of the threat Russia poses to our national security with the provocative test of a weapon-like projectile from a satellite threatening the peaceful use of space,” Wallace wrote in the Sunday Telegraph, adding that China also posed a threat.

    “China, too, is developing offensive space weapons and both nations are upgrading their capabilities. Such behaviour only underlines the importance of the review the [UK] government is currently conducting.”

    Morning everyone. It will? Someone remind me when we joined the Space Race. There’s no dignity in any of this, we simply look ridiculous! What we see here is the UK trying desperately to maintain the pretence that it is somehow an equal to China or Russia. A player on the world stage! It’s not of course. One imagines that this triumvirate, where real power lies, are probably united only in their embarrassment at the yapping of this American poodle that has long lost its bite.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/26/britain-will-respond-to-space-threat-from-russia-and-china-minister

      1. Shaking hands with extraterestrials? We can’t even do that with family and friends.

        ‘Morning, C1

      2. Sigh…even on an imaginary planet, the imaginary ‘male’ is given the lead role.

          1. They look pretty advanced to me, so are unlikely to have a choice of at least 37 genders…

            ‘Moaning, Annie.

        3. Sorry, but the evidence proves the theory true, that it’s almost always women who are standing at the station with the Refugees Welcome signs….

      3. Excuses, excuses. They were trying to get across Colchester while the High Street was blocked off.

    2. Britain is still the only country on Earth to have developed it’s own launch capability and then thrown it away.

      Like most government successes (EU membership and mass 3rd world immigration for example) it seems to have taken both main parties working together to get the desired result.

  24. PETER HITCHENS: Boris Johnson’s decision to force us to wear face nappies will kill the British high street

    The Government’s dedicated efforts to destroy our economy and an entire way of life have moved up a step.

    High streets had just begun to stir feebly back into life after months of enforced shutdown. Then the futile decree went out from Downing Street that customers must wear muzzles.

    And what will happen? Why, more people will choose not to bother to go near shops at all. They will buy from the internet giants instead.
    *
    *
    *
    ******************************************************

    One of the most beautiful things in England, in fact in the world, is the music of cathedral choirs, now under severe threat from the Government’s suppression of almost all normal human activity.

    That music is about as diverse and inclusive as it can get, as it comes from the ancient monastic cycle of prayer and song that once united the whole of Europe but survives, almost uniquely, here.

    Some of it is so lovely that I cannot believe anybody, from any culture in the world, will not be profoundly moved by it.

    Yet here we see Sheffield Cathedral, perhaps grabbing its chance amid the state-induced coma which grips the country, declaring that it will ‘stand down’ its choir. It’s not diverse enough, you see.

    Such choirs are forged by centuries of tradition and long hours of hard and dedicated work. They cannot be made overnight, and once dispersed are as hard to recreate as a dream that faded on waking.

    We are truly living in revolutionary times, and only beginning to discover what a terrible thing that is.

    Does the Dame have no shame?
    Dame Cressida Dick, head of the Metropolitan Police, perhaps knows a little about shame.

    She might feel a bit of it, most recently, over her force’s terrible and so far unpunished mistreatment of the late Field Marshal Edwin Bramall and others, after they were falsely accused of filthy crimes by an obvious fantasist.

    So what are we to make of her telling a London radio station that she hopes people who do not comply with the face mask decree ‘will be shamed into complying or shamed to leave the store by the store keepers or by other members of the public’?

    Is this, as it appears to be, the condoning by a senior police officer of bullying vigilante action?

    Such bullying may well be directed against people with legitimate exemptions invisible to their persecutors. If so, then shame on her. I have never understood how even the politically correct elite could have promoted Dame Cressida to such an important job.

    The Russia report’s just one big joke
    I am afraid I chortled several times as I read the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee’s oh-so-serious report on Russia.

    As well as being almost entirely free of new facts, it hilariously accused the Russians of being paranoid about us. Well, perhaps they are. Russia has been invaded so many times (even we have had a go) that it is entitled to be a bit over-defensive.

    But if so, the British attitude towards Moscow is just as psychiatric, especially given our elite’s greed for Russian money and their readiness to consort with (and take donations from) Russian billionaires who are no better than they ought to be.

    We have no border with Russia, nor any other territorial, naval or economic conflict, and long ago lost the Indian empire that lay at their back door. We hardly trade with them.

    I am pretty sure that they spend very little time thinking about us, except as a minor hanger-on of the USA. Do they really seek to intervene in our politics? For what end? They are a poor, under-populated country nearly 2,000 miles away, in serious danger of being bought up by China. And if they mount cyber-attacks on us, as I am sure they do, are we not doing the same to them?

    I learned from the report that we now have something called a National Offensive Cyber Programme, whose title suggests that its staff might possibly engage in a little bit of electronic aggression from time to time. And quite right too.

    Countries that don’t prepare for battle lose wars. But it is a bit ridiculous to have an offensive cyber programme and then moan self-righteously when your target returns the favour.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8560019/PETER-HITCHENS-Boris-Johnsons-decision-force-wear-face-nappies-kill-high-street.html

    1. There is more sense in the few paragraphs above than in the entire reported outpourings of Ministerial decisions over the past 6 months.

    2. Beam the One Show to Moscow.
      Vlad will keel over immediately; in fits of hysterical laughter.
      Morning, C1.

    3. “Why, more people will choose not to bother to go near shops at all. They will buy from the internet giants instead.”
      Yes, indeedy! And you read it here first.
      Because local businesses don’t put money in the pockets of Cabinet Ministers and their friends.

      1. I doubt this will make a difference to the stupidity of various attitudes, but it might be interesting to watch the over keen kneelers from now on. And the blatant hypocrisy of people like Lewis dick head Hamilton with his chain and padlock slave necklace, black power salute. Obviously not remembering that allegedly his father walked out when he was 2 years old leaving his white mother to cope with him and his disabled brother.

        1. What could possibly have caused his father to return a decade or so later?

        2. What could possibly have caused his father to return a decade or so later?

          4. I find it ironic that those who rant & scream about slavery are themselves in servitude to the social media. “Man is born free but is everywhere in chains” (made of facebook, twitter, tik tok et al).

          6. I’d never heard of Tik Tok until this year, but as it’s Chinese, I don’t think I’ll bother – and I’m still suspended from Twitter.

          7. I totally agree.
            Even if they were desperately trying to melt the multiple chips on their shoulders, they would still be hampered by the pool of effluent latterly surrounding their own feet.

      1. Yep and …..Not a dickie bird from the all seeing all knowing media especially the BBC and channel 4 !
        perhaps this happened outside their distant boundaries, remit and their current agenda.
        Or they just really DGAF for black lives.

        1. I think they DGAF about anything which doesn’t fit their ‘Progressive’ narrative…..A pox on all of them.

  27. Funny Old World
    For many firms the “proof of concept” of remote working from home is well established via the ‘Rona
    Many workers are delighted with the convenience and no commuting costs…………..
    How fortunate they all are to work for such generous and benign global corporations who having seen just how many jobs can be done remotely would never EVER consider sacking them all and relocating the work somewhere with a fraction of the labour cost…
    Oh Wait………………….

    1. Morning Rik. We are seeing the beginnings to the Apocalypse! Even if there is no war (an increasingly likely event) the world as we have known it during our lifetimes will be destroyed by the response to this minor ailment! The irony!

  28. Yesterday, I was pumping up the ‘Made in China’ tyre on my wheelbarrow when it exploded and I had to get a new one. The hole in the tyre was about the size of a tennis ball, so beyond my Puncture Repair Kit this time.

    What to do with the old one? I threw it in a memory hole where I have been digging for some 35th century archaeologist, evolved from the jellyfish to figure out, but I toyed with the idea of putting it up for sale on Ebay: “Second hand used wheelbarrow tyre, might need patching, or could be used as an exquisite piece of modern art”. Maybe I’d get bids of a few million for it, but really I’d be better off then taking it to Sotherby’s.

    1. You feeling alright JM?
      Bit of a surreal splurge of words. Lay off the funny smelling ciggies 🙂

    2. Fill the centre of the tyre with soil. Put potatoes in. Wait. Then eat the crop. © Bob Flowerdew!!

      1. I tried that with some asparagus roots I picked up in Wilko or Lidl, or somewhere cheap anyway. It died.

        1. We have had mixed success with asparagus roots. Two lots failed almost completely. The ones we put in last back end are brilliant. 100% success.

  29. Good Morning Folks,

    Sunny bright start here after rain last night, one sunflower down

  30. Morning all,

    “Vogue Slammed for Hiring Annie Leibovitz for Simone Biles Cover Instead of Black Photographer”

    They need to be careful here. If they’re saying white photographers can’t take photos of black subjects, then that can spin both ways. It will severely restrict the career of any black photographers if they can’t work with white subjects, I’m sure.

    1. Good day, Stormie. It doesn’t work that way. It is always to favour bames. Always.

    2. Easy way to turn the white subjects a colour that matters, without resorting to illegal face paint – just put a bucket over the lens – you can get a black PVC one for a couple of quid if you remember to put on your mask.

    3. It doesn’t work that way.

      There are African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans,

      Arab Americans, etc.
      And then there are just Americans..

      You pass me on the street and sneer in my direction.

      You call me ‘White boy,’ ‘Cracker,’ ‘Honkey,’ ‘Whitey,’ ‘Caveman’…

      And that’s OK…

      You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you….
      So why are the ghettos the most dangerous places to live?

      You have the United Negro College Fund.

      You have Martin Luther King Day.
      You have Black History Month.
      You have Cesar Chavez Day.
      You have Yom Hashoah.
      You have Ma’uled Al-Nabi.
      You have the NAACP.
      You have BET (Black Entertainment Television)…

      If we had WET (White Entertainment Television),

      we’d be racists.

      If we had a White Pride Day, you would call us racists.

      If we had White History Month, we’d be racists.

      If we had any organization for only whites to ‘advance’ OUR lives, we’d be racists.

      We have a Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, a Black Chamber of Commerce,

      and then we just have the plain Chamber of Commerce.
      Wonder who pays for that??

      A white woman could not be in the Miss Black American pageant, but any color can be in the Miss America pageant.
      If we had a college fund that only gave white students scholarships…

      You know we’d be racists.

      There are over 60 openly proclaimed Black Colleges in the US ..
      Yet if there were ‘White colleges’, that would be a racist college.

      In the Million Man March, you believed that you were marching for your race and rights.
      If we marched for our race and rights, you would call us racists.

      You are proud to be black, brown, yellow and orange, and you’re not afraid to announce it.
      But when we announce our white pride, you call us racists.

      You rob us, car jack us, and shoot at us.
      But, when a white police officer shoots a black gang member or beats up a black drug dealer running from the law and posing a threat to society, you call him a racist.

      I am proud……

      But you call me a racist.

    5. Not to mention that Annie Leibovitz would be in any Top Ten of people photographers. It is lunacy to rule out the very best because they are white. Even the BBC wouldn’t do… oh, wait! Forget that last sentence.

  32. Good Morning, Each and Everyone.
    Madeline Grant in the Tellygraff:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/25/love-freedom-missing-ingredient-tory-government/

    Love of freedom is the missing ingredient in this Tory government

    25 July 2020 • 6:00pm

    Why do I feel so queasy about the idea of mandatory masks? Yes, they’re uncomfortable and impersonal, whether you’re sporting a fancy patterned silk number or a disposable face-napkin. There’s the questionable timing, the impact on shopping habits, the risk of mission creep and the sheer normalisation of something deeply abnormal.

    Still, I’m prepared to wear them, albeit temporarily – in a choice between full lockdown and a mask, the latter wins hands down. Easily the biggest cause of my unease is the Government trying to enforce them. Had a freedom-lover like Mrs Thatcher mandated masks, we’d have known beyond doubt it would be a proportionate, strictly time-limited measure. Not this administration.

    Little by little, Boris Johnson’s Government has sidelined free markets and personal responsibility, a phenomenon most evident in the current obesity crusade, with measures likely to includemore prominent labelling of food and tight advertising restrictions. The latter, though billed as targeting “junk food”, are in fact incredibly far-reaching; applying to anything high in fat or salt (including – unforgivably – cheese, a food no sane person could describe as “junk”). How depressing that we voted for Cavaliers and ended up with a bunch of Puritans.

    The definition of madness is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. Why, then, is the Government treating the NHS (sorry, “Our NHS”) with the same misplaced reverence as any Labour administration? Why are teachers, many of whom dismally abandoned their pupils during the pandemic, receiving an above-inflation pay rise when the economy has shrunk by a fifth and private sector workers are being furloughed and laid off in their millions? No government can bar people from their livelihoods and refuse to support them, but where is the free market plan for ending lockdown?

    True, there are glimmers of hope in the sensible deregulation measures introduced by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which should stay in place for as long as “temporary” taxes normally do (take income tax – supposedly a short-term levy to fund the Napoleonic Wars, which we appear to have won some centuries ago). But the lack of co-ordination between departments is palpable and at times, faintly ridiculous. While Robert Jenrick is allowing restaurants to operate as takeaways without a licence and Rishi Sunak is subsidising the nation’s Nando’s outings, the same Government is compelling eateries to enforce complex rules on masks and restricting their ability to advertise.

    When the PM appointed his Cabinet, it was hailed as the most capitalist ever. Guardian op-eds prophesied a terrifying vision of deregulated Britain, noting, with horror, that several Cabinet members had contributed to the free-market pamphlet, Britannia Unchained. What happened to that Government of disrupters, with its 80-seat majority, and a Cabinet supposedly stuffed to the rafters with swashbuckling free marketeers? Sadly, I fear the mask has slipped.

    1. If your mask has slipped, just make sure you don’t cough if you value your neighbour’s life.

    2. I suspect any deregulating by the Min of Housing will be to enable green fields to be more easily concreted over to house unwanted incomers.

  33. 49% of voters believe Kremlin interfered in Brexit referendum. 26 July 2020.

    Almost half the British public believes the Russian government interfered in the EU referendum and last year’s general election, according to a poll. The latest Opinium poll for the Observer found that 49% of voters think there was Russian interference in the Brexit referendum, with 23% disagreeing. Some 47% believed Russia interfered in the December general election.

    That would be 100% of the remainers then? Lol!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/26/49-of-voters-believe-kremlin-interfered-in-brexit-referendum-russia-report

    1. My Rooshian friends tell me that the actual figure is 120%….

      Morning, Minty.

    2. The propaganda has worked well, then.
      I expect they’re all wearing face nappies whenever they go outside as well….

    3. The Left won’t accept that their ideology was rejected and the Right think the Russians supported the remainers.

      Either way, the only real manipulation of the vote was the postal ones which were likely rigged.

    4. Ah, a poll of Observer readers – I’m surprised only 49% thought them dastardly Roosians had been meddling!

  34. Good morning, everyone. Another marker passed on the road of life. 84 today and very fit and well. I will have most of the family around me today and we will have a BBQ. Had lunch yesterday at the White Buck in the New Forest with younger daughter and SiL. It was belting with rain and the place was packed!

    1. Good morning DB

      Many happy returns of the day, and if other Nottlers had met you like I did at Compton Abbas a couple of years ago , they would have viewed a lovely fit
      and tall elegant handsome man and his delightful wife.

      Sorry to gush , but age is just a number, and you are doing very well.

      1. Thank you, Maggie. I will never forget my 80th as I flew the Harvard for half an hour. A memorable experience.

      2. tbey would have viewed a lovely fit and tall elegant handsome man and his delightful wife.

        (You definitely wouldn’t get that impression if you met me and MOH…. 😞)

    2. Happy Birthday Del, have a great day. If only we could have organised a flypast of Shacks for you

    5. Penblwydd hapus i ti, Del.
      Have a lovely day, and make sure the chicken is cooked.

    7. Happy Birthday Del! Hope you have a wonderful day and that the sun shines on your barbie! 🎉🎂

      1. The wiser bit is a bit dodgy, sos. I have never made any concession to age. I took up rollerblading when I was 68. I did ‘Go Ape’, the tree top obstacle course when I was 73.

    11. “84 today and very fit and well.”

      Good on you, Del. You enjoy a lovely day and hope that there are many, many more to come for you to continue enjoying your good health. I raise a glass to you, sir.

      Happy Birthday! 🥃

      2. As he’s in the New Forest more appropriate advice might have been “Avoid Adders”…..

    18. Hippo Birdy Two Shrews,
      Hippo Birdy Two Shrews,
      Hippo Birdy Dear Delboy,
      Hippo Birdy Two Shrews!

    19. A very joyous birthday and very many many Happy Returns.

      Are you the father of our house or is there another regular Nottler to challenge the amount of your years and wisdom?

    1. Some people seem to be under the impression that the vote is being given to 14-year-olds. This is wrong. Registration for voting is possible from 14, but it is not until 16 that the vote can be exercised, and only for elections to the Welsh Parliament.

      1. She was fifteen. She would not have got past airport security in most EU countries.

  36. My latest missive that is not to be published in a newspaper near you.

    SIR — The other day a friend asked me — a retired police officer — if I would consider applying to be the next commissioner of police for the metropolis.

    I informed him that, unfortunately, I am disqualified from holding that post for a number of reasons:

    1. I am too old.
    2. I don’t have the right connections.
    3. I now live abroad.
    4. I employ “Common Sense” and would demand its use from my charges.
    5. I would rid the service of Common Purpose-indoctrinated graduates.
    6. I would dismiss all those with flimsy degrees (e.g. Social Studies, Media Studies, etc) as being unsuitable.
    7. I would train recruits in the art of working a beat, connecting with the public, detecting crimes, getting to know local criminals, and being an omnipresent and visible presence on the streets.
    8. I would have all those of higher rank working a beat for at least a year in order to understand proper police work.
    9. I would drum home the age-old fact that a police constable is a public servant — not a governmental pawn — who operates through public consent.
    10. I would remind officers that they derive their authority under the Crown, and not from the whim of a politician.

    In short I would be everything the new establishment does not want in a high-ranking police officer, since I would never be prepared to be their puppet.

    A Grizzly B …

    1. I am interested in the etymology of the word ‘police’, which is related to ‘politics’ and ‘polite’. It is a quite different concept to the similar profession ‘militia’, even though both’s primary remit is to keep order.

      May I suggest that a police constable’s primary role is as a social worker, and for him or her or it or other to do his or her or its (my goodness, these inclusive pronouns are tiresome!) job, they (cop out!) must be intimate with society, and that means going out on the beat.

      Complying with performance targets is simply not doing the job.

      1. I would add that, when I was young, one did not fear the local bobby, but rather regarded this person as a reliable and friendly pillar of the community, and someone to turn to at all times, rather than run away from. Yes, they had the power to arrest you or shout at you or make you feel uncomfortable sometimes, but only if you deserved it, never if you didn’t.

        How different it is now. Since the police started taking courses from American cop shows in running around screaming, banging down doors, and putting fear into people because it’s fun, I now see the police when they are not shadowy ghosts somewhere in Orwellian cyberspace, as trouble, and best kept well away from.

        1. I have to admit that I view them as something to be strenuously ignored.
          And my father was in both the Wiltshire police and then Met before the war.

        2. Completely agree. Must be 30 years since I saw a bobby on the beat (rural/village area). Mostly sit in cars trying to catch speeders, but cameras do that of course.

      1. Good morning, Maggie, and thanks.

        DT, but they don’t seem interested. (I no longer subscribe to The Times).

          1. Once you hit 70 you are past it as far as the DT printing your letters is concerned. I used to have several letters in the DT published each year: indeed the DT even used to send me a Christmas card and I have a Parker Rollerball pen with the Telegraph logo on it which they sent me as a gift!

            They flee from me that sometime did me seek

            [Sir Thomas Wyatt]

    3. No wonder they didn’t print it. Too much truth in that letter, it might get a few people thinking.
      Good morning, btw.

      1. Good to hear from you again, Girly. Are you still making your meaty contributions to Arsebook (or whichever bit of yer soshal meeja it is)?

      2. Hey! Good morning, Girly, thank you and welcome back. You (and your wonderfully incisive and interesting posts) have been much-missed.

        Hope you stick around. 😊

          1. Indeed I am, thanks, Girly. I try to send a bit of time on here each day in between my other chores in the studio and workshop. It all helps to keep the grey matter ticking over.

    4. Someone commented on the DT letters a few weeks ago as follows:

      “My son 10 years ago wished to join the police, the application form was a questionnaire of political correctness, in effect it was for a social worker with experience of minorities being the main driving criteria.”

      “if you have been recruiting left wing social workers for 10yrs, and change your name to a service it’s no surprise to me that the police, get on bended knee, run away, watch extinction rebellion, BLM, do what they want. “

      1. I put the case below for regarding police officers as social workers, contradicting what you say here.

        I do take issue however with what social workers have to be indoctrinated in, in order to get their qualifications.

      2. It is quite remarkable how things have changed in the 47 years since I applied to join. After filling in a bog-standard application form I was instructed to take it to my local police staton where they would weigh me and measure my height before endorsing that information on the form and then returning it to me. After I had posted it off I waited for around a week for further instructions.

        I was instructed to attend another local police station where I was put through an “intelligence” test by a local police inspector. After completing a few sheets of a standard IQ test I was asked to take down some dictation to assess my comprehension and report-writing ability. After answering a few questions on my general health and fitness, I was told to attend force HQ for a formal interview with the Deputy Chief Constable.

        The DCC’s interview was not very long or involved. All he wanted to do was get a face-to-face assessment of me and evaluate my responses to a few, very undemanding, questions. That was all. I was then recruited and commenced a two-year probationary period with spells at a regional training school (Pannal Ash), personal on-the-job tutoring with an experienced constable, and numerous courses at force HQ.

        All this was very much standard procedure at the time; a formal higher education was not necessary since good levels of health, fitness, intelligence and common sense were all that was required.

          1. It is interesting to note that the male officer (far left) is the only one wearing his helmet correctly, with the tip of the peak an inch from his nose. All the other scruffy clowns have their helmets idiotically tipped back in the manner of cartoon characters.

          2. Yes, they are unusually on the slim side. As yet unable to navigate their way to the nearest Greggs?

      3. And it’s no wonder that the general public are well on the way to despising them,and regard them with contempt.
        Unfortunately for the police, the people they’re trying to suck up to despise them as well.

      4. …paint their nails, wear high heels (vomit!) deface police vehicles, join in marches they are supposed to supervise (more vomit)…

    5. Good morning, Grizzly

      I must take issue with your first point.

      The current president of the USA and his Democrat challenger in the coming presidential election are both older than you. If they both think they are young enough to lead the free western world then you should be a shoe-in for the police job..

    6. I’d definitely vote for you. Just on No 4 alone – but I thought that it had been banned.
      I assume your friend didn’t even know you lived abroad, Maybe he is trying to get you to come back

      1. My friend is actually Rastus, who suggested only yesterday that I might make a good replacement for Mizz Dick.

        1. That’s a pretty low bar, Grizz. My dog would make a good replacement Mizz Dick!

        2. That’s a pretty low bar, Grizz. My dog would make a good replacement Mizz Dick!

    7. Absolutely no chance, Grizz. You have provided ten excellent reasons why wouldn’t survive even a day.

  37. 321732+ up ticks,
    There are those of a certain mindset that would find it beneficial to back the return of begum to the UK, think of the potential vote with another 150 plus given the same right of return.
    Good of the party, the polling booth has no conscience.

      1. 321732+ up ticks,
        Morning AOE,
        As we know there is truth in jest but sad to say there is, thanks to the voting pattern a multitude of begum replicas at ALL points of the compass
        within the UK.

      1. 321732+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        To have a sympathetic leaning for the likes of begum does show how much mental health treatment has been neglected.
        I do believe that these governance parties find it
        far cheaper via lies,deceit etc, to use a straight jacket on the collective mind & not physically on the individual torso.

  38. Rev Foster is right when he says ” … littering on our part by stopping the process of “recycling” which sees
    plastic shipped mostly to the Far East and often simply dumped into the
    sea….”

    However he forgets this is all related to the EU WEEE directive. Under that we, as a nation are forbidden from generating above a certain amount of waste. Of course, as an overpopulated first world country we inevitably exceed this. This causes us to shove a massive amount of waste into a container which goes to an ‘approved’ recycler.

    Now, what these recyclers have to do to become approved is beyond me, but the simple truth is our waste goes to India, Africa and China who dump it. The waste in the sea is ours. It’s there because of remainers chaining us to the dysfunctional EU and its absurd to the point of destruction. You cannot claim to support green and want to stay in the EU unless you are willfully ignorant and malignant.

  39. I’ve just concluded a little experiment , SWMBO and I decided not to watch any BBC Iplayer / BBC TV or any other live broadcast for a month. The result – didn’t miss it one jot, I’ve cancelled the licence and DD and now wait with eager anticipation the tsunami of increasingly official and threatening letters and visits from the BBC’s enforcers/ storm troopers of Crapita. I’m fortunate that I have a technical background and the experience to not be intimidated by their threats

          1. We have a library of old favourites in one form or another and a BritBox sub but we also have Scrabble,Yahtze,Rummicubs etc and a pack of cards so we’re never at a loss for entertainment . SWMBO has an extensive vocabulary and 30 years as a medical secretary has added some exotic terms and ailments to that, I rarely do well against her in Scrabble . I’m fortunate that even after 47 years we still enjoy each other’s company.

    3. I cancelled my DD 2 years ago, having realised I’d given up on ‘live’ TV a few months earlier. After a small flurry of correspondence, in which I always attached a copy of previous missives to keep it simple for them, I received a ‘Confirmation of No Licence Necessary’ letter…closely followed by a letter informing me that my licence had been ‘extended’ for 6 months, i.e. my DD payments already taken would cover this ‘extension’. Shortly thereafter I received yet another letter informing me that my license would run out shortly.
      I noticed that the ‘Confirmation of No Licence Necessary’ and ‘warning notice’ were both signed off by the same person, so I addressed my next letter ‘Dear Jackie’ with yet another copy of all correspondence attached (in case they had misplaced theirs) asking her to sort her companies left and right hands out and to furnish me with a refund from the time of DD cancellation to the end of the ‘extension’ and that she should inform the local division of commissioned salesmen that they would be wasting their time attempting to sell me something for which I have no need.
      An updated ‘Confirmation of No Licence Necessary’ and a cheque arrived in the post.
      Apparently they will check if I’m still happy living without ‘livestream TV or bBC catch-up services’ in two years time.

          1. I would love to ditch it, but I pay it so MOH can watch TV. Greater love hath no man … as they say 🙂

        2. In a sense I’m glad I did. The cancellation caused an immediate reaction from the bBC TV tax goons and helped push the process along…if not in the direction they were hoping for.

    4. I’ve cancelled my ‘free’ one, I will ignore all letters and they are unlikely to send anyone to visit as that would cost more than the licence fee.

  40. – I have been advised by the mods not to make jokes about monuments, they said it will only statue all off on one.

    1. Anyone here who has not read Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules For Life should do so.

  42. Someone put up a picture of a very skinny fellow with little on yesterday. I looked at myself in the mirror this morning and came to the conclusion that being a little bit overweight is far nicer than looking like a bag of bones…

    1. Yes I concluded that after spending an afternoon on a nudist beach many years ago. There was one woman, who could have just exited a concentration camp – I assume she was anorexic; she looked dreadful whatever the reason. The overweight were a preferable sight.

  43. John Saxon dead at 83: versatile actor best known for roles in Enter The Dragon and Nightmare On Elm Street passes away from pneumonia. 26 July 2020

    John Saxon, the versatile actor whose career dated back to the early 1950s, died of complications from pneumonia at the age of 83.

    The Brooklyn, New York native played a wide array of characters and ethnicities in more than 200 movie and television appearances over a span of about 60 years.

    Enter the Dragon. You know there was hope back then and boundless optimism!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8560861/John-Saxon-dead-83-actor-best-known-roles-Enter-Dragon-Nightmare-Elm-Street.html

  46. Radio 3 certainly knows how to ruin ones morning. Instead of the dreary Sarah (Isn’t life a real stroogle) Walker – we have Mrs Murrell’s younger sister blathering away in glaswegian…..

    1. Lovely – they have a very heady perfume – but make sure Dolly doesn’t lick the pollen.

      1. The perfume is so strong i don’t keep any indoors.

        Dolly can’t get to them. Thanks.

          3. Not just cats. I find the scent of lilies unbearably potent, emetic and sickly, and they give me a headache.

            I never get that reaction from the lovely, divine scents of honeysuckle, jasmine, philadelphus or lily-of-the-valley.

          5. Have to admit, I cannot stand the smell of lilies so I do not have any in the garden. Even if I did, the deer would soon deal with them!

          1. Neither would I, but he emphasised his POV on Gardner’s World last year.

          3. Too true. I had some pure white lilies a few years ago (can’t remember the name). I wanted to photograph them & waited for the sun. Instead we had a shower & their pollen stained the flowers irretrievably.

    2. Au contraire, Maggie.

      A number of my former colleagues have been discussing this promotion and practically all are in favour of her. Regardless of her appearance she is fiercely protective of her staff and they all speak highly of her. Time alone will tell how much she impresses outside the job. I shall certainly give her a chance since she must be an improvement on her predecessor.

      3. Good to keep an open mind and listen to those that have experience before (not) jumping to a conclusion.
        Let’s see how it goes.

      4. The problem is that people will see that she is in a minority group and assume that her promotion is due to ‘diversity’ considerations, because of the current ‘Woke’ atmosphere. The fact that she may have been the best person for the job anyway will get lost, which does her and people like her no favours. This shows that the ‘Only BAME, LGBT etc. need apply’, ‘Diversity’ adverts do more harm than good.

      5. Excuse my scepticism, but I’m not sure taxpayers regard being fiercely protective of the police as the top quality in a Chief Constable. Catching criminals and raising policing standards would perhaps come higher on their list of priorities.

        1. You will feel at home here on this forum then. It is full of sceptics, i.e. people who judge a book by its cover, instead of waiting to see if that ‘book’ delivers.

          Since she has not yet been substantiated in the post or made any initial address about how she intends to do the job then maybe, just maybe, it might be worth waiting a while before any damning verdicts are delivered on her or her abilities.

          Eh?

          1. The point of my post was, that you presented her loyalty to her staff as the main reason why she might be good.
            But people are getting fed up with self-serving taxpayer-funded bodies that exist to promote themselves (“Save the NHS”; teachers and the DoE; civil servants – the list is endless). The public now wants good service for their money.
            So if you had used the argument “Don’t judge her, she has a track record of cutting through BS and excellent police work” I’d have been more willing to be persuaded.

            And by the way, the hair does count. It is not intelligent to maintain a hairstyle like that after graduating, especially when you do a job where public image is very important. Yes, perhaps she loves to “prove” people’s “prejudices” wrong – but that’s a bit immature, isn’t it.
            For goodness’ sake, we have had enough of the psychologically still teenagers in charge. I want to see the adults in charge for a change.

          2. ” I want to see the adults in charge for a change.”

            Don’t we all, BB2, don’t we all?

    4. Yo T_B

      Real Diversity will come when the PTB decide appoint a

      A heterosexual,
      Male

      Monagamist who is

      Married with

      Children all from his

      Heterosexual wife. Who both

      Uphold Christian values and are
      Omnivores, who believe
      All Lives Matter
      etc

      as Chief Constable

      1. Afternoon OLT,

        Just wondering whether the Derbyshire Police males lack the hairy balls of leadership.

        This odd looking woman probably ticked all the boxes of diversity and tenacity?

        1. Yo Belles

          Again I must moresterer carefullierest

          This odd looking woman probably tlicked all the boxes of diversity and tenacity?

        2. She is not “odd-looking” at all. Her hairstyle is not conventional (she’s removed the highlights), but she is not an ugly or weird-looking woman. She has been highly praised by officers who work under her for her support and guidance. We may see yet a change in attitudes towards her as she proves her leadership qualities.

          There are far more weird-looking people in charge of other areas of public life. For goodness’ sake, give her a chance.

        3. She is not “odd-looking” at all. Her hairstyle is not conventional (she’s removed the highlights), but she is not an ugly or weird-looking woman. She has been highly praised by officers who work under her for her support and guidance. We may see yet a change in attitudes towards her as she proves her leadership qualities.

          There are far more weird-looking people in charge of other areas of public life. For goodness’ sake, give her a chance.

          1. As an idealistic young thing, I might have agreed with you. Years of life experience have taught me that if it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck.

          2. As long as she is prepared to tackle Paki rape/grooming she’s a goodun’. Is she? Will she?

          3. Hey Grizz
            Don’t take on so.. I guess I was just thinking of the Jedward Twins , that’s all’

            I suspect she IS BRAVE and clever , and she did coordinate that DAM scare last year, didn’t she

            I gave her the benefit of my doubt .

            Your loyalty is admirable.

          4. No, Maggie, it isn’t loyalty: I don’t know the woman. I simply trust the opinions of my ex-colleagues (who served the same time as I did) who only speak highly of her.

            I worked under, and for, a number of former Chief Constables, some of whom were highly intelligent and highly decorated; and a few who were not fit for purpose. Whatever this woman becomes, she cannot possibly be a worse chief that the clown she is replacing or, indeed, a few others I had the misfortune to know.

    5. The photos disappear when you open it in Twitter and are replaced with a message about potentially sensitive content!

      2. I wish I could be surprised; or shocked; or even appalled.
        But I’m just resigned to national stupidity and decay.
        My poor grandchildren.

  49. I definitely need to get a life. This thought occurred to me.
    For hundreds, possibly thousands of years, eyes set close together have been thought to indicate untrustworthiness.
    Is this:
    1. An old wives tale based on people seeing what they expect to see i.e. if you don’t trust someone, you notice their eye spacing
    2. The result of human beings accurately observing each other over the millennia

    Therefore:
    Could this noticeable formation be the result of distortion of the skull leading to damage to the front lobe of the cerebral cortex (where thought and personality are located) or could it be other way round? That is, the brain is distorted and the skull formation is a visible sign of the problem? In either case, does this compression/distortion result in psychopathy?

    I have learnt over the years not to dismiss ancient beliefs that these are frequently correct, even of the reason was not understood at the time.

    Over to NOTTLers with too much time on their hands.

    2. just a thought. Wide set eyes might be linked to better stereo vision, which is a desirable factor for hunting and in warfare.

    3. Good morning, Anne

      Please give aome examples of people whose eyes, in your opinion, are too closely set together and whom you do not trust..

        1. Advice from Chinese Face Reading on Closed Eye Relationships
          Do not waste your time trying to openly please everyone, rather it is best to simply let them others their way and keep your inner workings with them to a minimum if there is conflict. Their nature can make them very good accountants or other kinds of careers where they have to use their auditing or checking skills, for which they are very good.
          Perhaps they just can’t see the bigger picture.

    4. The old saying: don’t judge people by their appearance is nonsense. How else would you do it? It is a very accurate way of judging peoples personality.

      1. Only rarely are one’s first impressions of a person wrong.

        We talked about this last week. King Duncan originally judged the Thane of Cawdor by his appearance and built on him an absolute trust only to be betrayed. This led him to doubt the wisdom of judging people at first sight: There’s no art,> he said to judge the mind’s construction by the face.

        He then made his next error of judgement when he trusted the next Thane of Cawdor – Macbeth!

        Even so I do tend to trust my first impressions!

        1. I worked very hard when interviewing to prevent my first impression colouring my judgement – but at the end of the interview, my mind was not changed. (That’s a long-winded way of agreeing with you, Rastus!)
          EDIT: After all, often people aren’t at ease in an interview, and the “real them” might not be coming through.

          1. Apparently, I read somewhere, that job interview decisions are made in the first 3 minutes. The rest of the interview is seeking confirmation.

          4. Certainly for an interview or any important meeting.

            Punctuality is the courtesy of Kings.

          6. That would be about right.
            I always do my best to give the interviewee a chance – I remember the sheer stress when I was interviewed as a youngster.
            Had one once, about 10 years ago. Irish lass just oozing sex, couldn’t remember her MSc thesis at all… She’d been out on the piss the night before. Didn’t get invited back for 2 reasons – surely a just completed MSc would be the main event of your life and so burned into the mind? and she’d been out on the piss, thereby showing appalling judgement.

          7. I seem to recall there has been research into this which shows most people can accurately judge a person within the first 30 seconds of meeting.

        2. I’d argue these are somewhat snap judgements. After all, people should be judged solely by their actions.

          On first meeting me I must appear as a complete brute. I can make the most expensive clothes look dishevelled and slovenly. I gather 5 o’clock shadow after 5 minutes and I find eye contact difficult. It always seems intimidating. Sometimes this is useful such as when dealing with difficult people but mostly when we started making friends as a couple it was evident even to someone as oblivious as me that people were intimidated. I’m not proud of this: it makes men either aggressive or avoidant. It’s onoly once you get to know me that you realise I am a soft lump.

        3. My way of summing people up fairly quickly is, especially when the eye contact is missing during the initial hand shake.
          My thoughts are regarding their probable alternative agenda.

          1. Apparently yer real top-notch con-men (persons?) know that and pointedly make eye contact.
            Which brings us back to split second timing.

      2. 321732+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        True, take pin stripe for instance when mobile,
        warns of approaching treachery,also ermine, dead giveaways.

      3. When you reach the age of fifty, you have the face you deserve.
        Personally, I would halve the age.

        1. I once worked for a company where the boss had a classic Neanderthal brow.
          Quite a few other employees use to ape him.

    6. What is too close together? The sales person at an opticians measures the inter-pupil distance, though it’s usually not on the prescription, but what is ‘normal’?.

      1. I think it was based on human perception on a deviation from the physical norm.
        Could it be a cultural thing?
        Like Hottentots finding obese women attractive?

      2. 321732+ up ticks,
        Morning J,
        You are a caution “what is normal” that,courtesy
        of the lab/lib/con coalition & the continuing input
        of a seriously maladjusted electorate is well lost in the smog of time.

    7. It’s a well known fact that people born without ears have very good eyesight – well if they had to wear glasses they’d be f****d

    8. I notice peoples smiles, grimaces , twitch of lips etc..

      My mother used to control us when we were children with a set look , and we knew by her slight look of disapproval that we were being chastised silently !

      1. Ah. What’s known in our family as ‘Mother going quiet’. Reduces grown men to a jelly.

    9. 321732+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      A lot of truth in your post, but by the same token ALL
      lab/lib/con politico’s should be cyclops.
      Thinking on it we could have stumbled on something here one of the yocks could be a dummy, maybe poke your nearest politico in the eye for conformation.

  50. Request for advice from gardeners…

    I’m just harvesting my mid-season potatoes, and now have a bed about 8′ by 4′ …what could I plant in it at the end of July that might give me something to eat by the end of the season?

    The bed is overrun with voracious slugs, so any form of salad is out. We won’t get a frost until about the end of September (probably), possibly even the end of October if lucky.

    I was thinking about more potatoes for a late crop. The slugs eat the potato leaves – is there any variety known to man that they don’t like? Is there any vegetable that slugs don’t eat?

    I have never had a garden with slugs like these – you can come out in the morning and quite a large plant will have been demolished and reduced to a bare twig. They even eat though soft stems, killing the plant. You can kill tens of them, and come out the following morning to find the place covered with them again.

    1. We have slugs the size of baby seals…thank goodness for salt. If only you could breed hedgehogs – the type that are happy to remain in your own garden, that is.

      Late spuds should work.

      1. Ducks like salad, and pretty well any young green plant. I kept ducks, and they created a desert pretty quickly. (they also needed taught how to swim…)

        1. Unclear on my part.

          I was thinking more of the lean period to get the problem under control, rather than as ongoing protection.

          They do an excellent job of slugs and snails. Chickens are good for weed seeds too.

          1. No, that had not occurred to me. Interesting. I reckon I could rent them out round here to other gardeners too. Everyone has the slug problem.
            I like the idea, but it would be quite a commitment, and I’d have to dig a splash-hole for the ducks. We don’t have any animals at the moment (apart from the wasps in the roof, the blackbirds who are the real owners of the garden, the neighbours’ cats, the slugs of course, and various creepy crawlies.

    4. Get a packet of nematodes and water them in. They work by killing the slugs in the soil.

      1. That sounds interesting! What happens to the nematodes after they have done their work? Are they a native species?

        2. They lurk in the soil & wait for the next ungloved fingers to come weeding.

    5. Whereabouts are you?

      I suggest an immediate sowing of haricot beans – variety “Contender”. Should give you a crop in Sept.

      Winter greens? Either from seed NOW (a bit late) or from a good nursery. Leeks; curly kale – even broccoli.

      Slugs – pellets – the only solution. If you object to them on principle – then sand, eggshell, coffee grounds can deter but not kill them.

        1. But then you end up with broad beans. Which no one in their right mind would cook and eat. I thought they were just for teaching infants how to count. I used to grow the round french beans, but they like warm summers and rich soil and it got rather boring, especially after a poor year when they never really take off. And now Tesco do them, frozen.

          2. I used to sow broad beans in Laure at the end of October – hoping that there wouldn’t be a frost. One can do it in England but the weather can be a pain.

        3. When do you get a crop?
          If next year, they definitely won’t survive the winter.

          1. Love broad beans but few of mine ever make it through the winter. Early spring sowing seems to work though.

        4. But then you end up with broad beans. Which no one in their right mind would cook and eat. I thought they were just for teaching infants how to count. I used to grow the round french beans, but they like warm summers and rich soil and it got rather boring, especially after a poor year when they never really take off. And now Tesco do them, frozen.

          1. lol I quite like broad beans. You can buy them in jars at my local supermarket, but you can’t beat fresh.

          2. }:-))

            Have you ever tried the immature beans, topped, tailed, steamed and eaten whole with a white sauce? Cut them at about the length of your middle finger when they should just be thickening up.
            Delicious.

      2. Great suggestions, thank you.
        I very much like the Contender idea.
        Nothing will survive through the winter. Leeks, up til Christmas might be OK – that’s another good one. Would have to buy seed on Monday.
        Broccoli – intriguing. The only kind I know is purple sprouting, that goes through the winter and crops in spring.

        1. Where are you? All our winter greens and leeks go through – even down to minus 5

          2. Interesting!
            Another scattered location for a Nottler.
            Lovely part of the world, BB2. Always enjoyed my visits there – the people, food, and drink, weather, countryside, architecture…
            Grüss aus Norwegen!

          3. Interesting!
            Another scattered location for a Nottler.
            Lovely part of the world, BB2. Always enjoyed my visits there – the people, food, and drink, weather, countryside, architecture…
            Grüss aus Norwegen!

          4. I did several locums in Bayern: Augsburg, Naddertal, Gangkofen & Simbach-am-Inn. The last 2 were particularly enjoyable.

          6. Yes, leeks stand round until early spring (late variety, of course) and we are nearly 800′ asl here.

        2. Yes, anything later will be consumed by cabbage white butterfly larvea, and unfortunately I have yet to erect a netted enclosure for them. It’s akways on the to-do list though…

    6. We have slugs the size of baby seals…thank goodness for salt. If only you could breed hedgehogs – the type that are happy to remain in your own garden, that is.

      Late spuds should work.

      1. Slugs are bad for hedgehogs as they carry lungworm, which make them very poorly.

        They also make dogs poorly if they are in the habit of picking up slugs or snails.

    7. We managed to drive slugs away by liberal use of fertiliser pellets scattered on the surface of the soil. Too strong/caustic or whatever to slither over, I guess.
      You can actually get sticky-backed copper tape to run all around the bed. Slugs apparently won’t cross it.
      Alternatively, get Ndovu to send you some trained hedgehog commandos. :-))
      Blessed slugs nested in the roots of my tiny privet bushes, killing them. Bastards.

      1. Our hedgehog moved out in disgust when it rained and his hide turned out not to be as rain-proof as he thought. I must install a box in that spot.

        1. Used coffee grounds are apparently effective – but unkind to slugs (SLM).
          Well, duh…

          2. It’s cruel to slugs, apparently. But cutting them in half with a spade isn’t.
            Go figure…

    1. Ada ” My friend Vera bought me a mask today, wasn’t that kind Bert?”
      Bert “Kind to me, Ada.”

    2. Bert: ” My mate Phizzee lent me one of his masks today, wasn’t that kind ?”

      Ada: ” Good grief, if you think I’m wearing that in bed you can think again!”

    3. Ada: Have you seen or heard from Max the Dog recently?
      Bert: No – but he came here recently sniffing around for *rsoles but couldn’t find any.

  52. Apparently Spain’s draconian lock-down and mask wearing commands are so successful that …. um …. holiday makers are having to be quarantined.
    Who is lying to whom?

    2. It’s all the fault of yer Brits, boozed up and jumping on cars, apparently.

  55. Curious that the Nantes Cathedral arsonist has”admitted” starting the fires.

    Without wishing to, er, diss the French prosecutions system (cough, cough) – they have been known to charge completely innocent people with major crimes. They do rather leap to conclusions and if this chap, once they stopped hitting him with a chair, “admitted” the offences – then it is done and dusted.

    There are dozens of cases where they have picked up a vagrant or a passer by – and banged him up on remand – and made public statements that “We have the perpetrator”…only, months later, for the poor sods to be let out and sent home…

    Just saying.

  56. I rather found this letter comical: “SIR – Of course people want to work from home – but if their jobs can be
    done from home, then they can also be outsourced to India.”

    The assumption seems to be that unless you’re colocated you are expendable. Yes, you could move all our workforce and replace them with Indian fellows. Of course, it would take a decade before they were useful to hte business, let alone the language barriers, working practices, product familiarity. One company I worked for tried this exact thing. They found it to be false as, apparently hundreds of years of combined experience was actually valuable. The company folded soon after.

    If the assumption is to suggest that only ‘manufacturing’ jobs which absolutely require physical presence could be outsourced then mucker, you’re too late. Thanks to EU regulation, taxes and an obese public sector that’s already happened.

    Ironically perhaps office jobs can work remotely and that saves the company more money that having expensive offices. Conversely expensive factories have closed and moved to cheaper countries. Mr Camp’s perspective is entirely back to front.

    1. A lot of companies have insourced the functions sent to India and such places, in the mistaken belief that because the hourly rate is so much lower, he services will be cheaper… Nope.
      Productivity is so much lower as well, as is quality and ability to communicate in “English”.
      The value returned does not match the (cost+price).
      In 1996 I was in Roermond, Netherlands, marvelling at a single operator managing a sub-arc welding machine with three tripe-wire feeds, narrow-gap preaparation, he was laying weld metal at a rate of about 1 metre / second. Even at Dutch labour rates, this was really cost-effective, unless there was a screw-up that would mean he lays weld defect at a rate of 1 m/s….

      1. Some telecoms companies tried outsourcing to India – but customers weren’t too happy with “customer service” that didn’t speak English as she is spoken here.

        1. I rang a company yesterday. Spoke to a real English man, who spoke in formed sentences, knew exactly what needed to be done and, on screen, before my very eyes, did the needful. Such a change.

  57. For Stephenroi…

    From the Citizens Advice Bureau

    Gypsies and Travellers – race discrimination

    This advice applies to England

    The Equality Act 2010 says you mustn’t be discriminated against because of your race. If you’re a Gypsy or Traveller, you may be protected against race discrimination.

    Discrimination which is against the Equality Act is unlawful. If you’ve experienced unlawful discrimination, you may be able to do something about it.
    *
    *
    *
    Who are Gypsies and Travellers?
    The travelling community is a term used to describe people with a nomadic lifestyle, known usually as Gypsies and Travellers.

    The travelling community includes:

    Romany Gypsies
    Irish Travellers
    Scottish Gypsies and Travellers
    Welsh Gypsies and Travellers
    New Travellers or New Age Travellers
    bargees and other people living in boats
    fairground and circus families, known as travelling showmen.

    https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/discrimination/protected-characteristics/gypsies-and-travellers-race-discrimination/

    1. Does it say anywhere about them being obliged to obey the law of the land?

    2. I read somewhere that the recent casees were living in Social Housing i.e. Not travelling…..

    3. Forgive my ignorance but aren’t most of those people mainly white? If I don’t like them it is purely due to the mess they leave behind when on a pause from their “travelling” and also their freeloading on the rest of us who pay our taxes to support their lifestyle. How is it “race discrimination”? Nomadic lifestyle is not race.

      1. Coz there was a bunch of do-gooder lobbyists who got Gypsies/Travellers included as minorities in all manner of Blair era Human Rights/Equality Act legislation. I was looking up stuff to ascertain how Pikeys come to be treated with kid gloves and the police are so scared of doing anything about them. It was purely by accident that I stumbled on our Stephenroi qualifying as a protected species.

        There’s more guff here.
        https://minorityrights.org/minorities/romagypsiestravellers/

        I think the legislation ought to be ripped up and re-thought excluding ‘travellers’ after the latest atrocity.

        1. I have two full-time pikies, one on each hand… Oh! PiNkies.
          Sorry :-((

          1. For added privacy, I’ve had a couple of signs made for the porthole windows either side of the bathroom they say:

            “Interested in Time Travel?

            Meet here last Thursday at Noon.”

      1. We have no rights. These are a myth. We only have responsibilities to others.

        Rights are a nonsense forced on us by a government. True rights are not codified. Doing so inherently limits them.

    2. I tried them too, they are very tasty.

      So far my crop’s not huge, early flowers did not set, but more are appearing, so fingers crossed.

        1. Been there, tried that.

          Most years here we have so many cherry tomatoes that we can’t even give them away.

          This year, even using the usual tried and tested methods, no joy.
          On the plus side I’ve recently had an influx of bees pollinating flowers like crazy. Judging by the setting buds we should get an outstanding melon crop and the tomatoes have perked up too.

          1. I have four trombetti plants growing vertically – all over six foot high and beginning to go across the roof of the frame; and one horizontal – as an experiment. It is now taking up an area of 10 ft by 6 ft – and has a lot of fruit.

          2. That’s essentially what I did last year.

            The ground crop was amazing.

            In theory, for melons and other similar, the experts say one should keep to between 2 and 4 per plant. If I get fewer than 8 I’m disappointed.

            We’ve decided to throw out the last three of last year’s Butternuts, even though they are still edible.

          3. My only slight disappointment is that the fruit are small – courgette sized – instead of the 2ft long ones I got in Laure.

            Must be the lack of sustained heat – as one gets in the Mediterranean.

          1. It seemed a daft idea at the time – and the MR said she felt a bit foolish. But – it worked!

          3. The oddest thing was the way that bees were attracted by the sound of the toothbrush…

        1. Thanks, so far so good. We’ve so many different plants that we’ve always got a few.

          I even resorted to “Moneymaker” and they are far tastier here than I recall from the UK.

          1. I am picking my crop of moneymaker this year, another change from the norm. Lockdown resulted in change but it seems to be OK so far.

      2. A farm up the hill from Firstborn has the most beatiful cattle – long gingery-brown hair, and “handlebars” that wouldn’t disgrace a Chopper motorbike – as sketched here!

          1. We have some lovely Highland cattle on the common here, complete with horns and long hair. Also some shorthaired roan cattle with long horns, who seem to like the patch near us. Every year a few people drive too fast and some cattle get knocked down, but they are essential for maintaining the common.

          2. Why are people so stupid? Mess with cattle, take your dog there to worry the calves? Get all you deserve. Same if you get between a bear and her cubs, or a moose and her calves – you are very quickly in the deep shut. Even cute bambi, equipped with head-swords, will have you impaled given a small chance.
            Not sure what an Impala will do. Give you a parking fine, maybe… ;-))

          3. Because they are.
            There used to be some Galloway cattle living on the hills near where I lived. Simple advice I was given: completely safe, docile animals UNLESS you make the mistake of walking between a calf and its mother.

          5. That’s why they issue a parking fine… I’d bet you can get a nasty butting.
            ;-))

  64. My responses to those who have wished me well have disappeared so to all I say ‘thank you very much’.

    3. Maybe you need to refresh, DB. They are still there when I click on your profile.

  65. That’s better.
    Just helped Second Son with a job application (online) – he’s 19, and doesn’t know the bullshit to spout.
    Now, relaxing with a pint of Aspall’s Suffolk cider – organic, and 7,2%. Apart from it’s now autumn outside, cold, wet, raining, I’m wearing a jumper and we have the lights on, it’s a Good Day (c) Winnie-the-Pooh.

  66. I am off for the day. Have a jolly evening. Lots of bame shows to watch (or read about).

    A demain.

  67. Australia’s war on woke university degrees is an inspiration

    Why should governments fund courses which are of little economic value?

    ROSS CLARK – 26 July 2020 • 9:00am

    If ever there was a place to sign up for a degree in surfing studies you might think it was Australia – but maybe not quite so much in future. The country is reforming funding of higher education so as to nudge students into subject areas where there is a shortage of graduates. Fees in those subjects will be lowered, and the change funded through increased fees for students following courses where there is a less obvious need for qualified people.

    You want to read gender studies? From next year the government’s contribution towards your fees will fall from Aus$ 11,015 to Aus$1100 (£6050 to £605). If you want to study maths, on the other hand, the government’s contribution will rise from Aus$11,015 to Aus$13,500 (£6850 to £7420). Generally, student contributions for STEM subjects, teaching and nursing will fall, while contributions for humanities course will rise.

    Why doesn’t our own government look into similar reforms? At the moment, most students in England pay a flat tuition fee of £9250 a year, regardless of the true cost of providing their course, or the value that they might be expected to add to the economy as a result of their qualification. Charging tuition fees was supposed to create more of a market in higher education, but it is not a very effective one from the government’s point of view because many students on Mickey Mouse courses will never earn enough to repay the loans they take out to pay their fees.

    There is no market mechanism which links the courses on offer at universities with the job opportunities available at the end of them. Universities attract students by offering fashionable courses; only too late do those students realise that, however much fun they had in their studies, the qualification they have gained will give them little help in finding a job.

    If university applicants are minded to do a bit of research they would discover, for example, that five years after graduating, medicine and dentistry students are earning a median income of £48,000 while students in creative arts and design are earning a median of £20,000. But it is asking a lot of a 17-year-old scrolling through hundreds of enticing-sounding courses to sort out which are useful qualifications and which are less so.

    Why not, then, make this clear by varying tuition fees? If employers are suffering a shortage of particular skills, students should be attracted through generous grants. If they don’t want to fall for the bait and still want to take up a course in media studies, then fine, but let them pay the full cost of the course.

    Humanities departments would inevitably squeal, moaning that “universities are not jobs factories” but so what? Why should the Government in any way fund courses which are of little economic value? If it meant fewer students being indoctrinated in the woke and grievance causes which seem to have taken over parts of contemporary academia, then it might well give the economy, and society, a sizeable boost.
    ********************************************************************

    polidori redux
    26 Jul 2020 9:28AM

    Good idea but there is a problem. A high proportion of the applicants for courses in the humanities are not academically qualified to study stem subjects. Perhaps half the universities in the UK need to be shut down or be forced to revert to their former status as polytechnics and further education colleges.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/26/australias-war-woke-university-degrees-inspiration/

    1. He made a comment last week, Stephen,
      I cannot remember what it referred to……
      or it may have been an upvote given.

        1. Or Geoff. It’s OK – I’m used to the confusion caused by interchangeable first and last names.

          Worked on a new hospital in Melrose. The Borders Health Board finance dept had an Angus Allan, and a Drummond Gordon. Or it might have been a Gordon Drummond and an Allan Angus. Perm any two from four..,.

          1. Stephenroi was a public schoolboy, clearly, where everyone is addressed by their surname!

          3. Major, if you please.

            Minor and minimus were my brothers. };-))

            Notwithstanding earlier posts on taking ranks!

          5. Now that’s senior.

            Not as senior as my distant relative, vice-admiral of the white, when we really had a proper navy, but then my relative would fit the CV of a modern politician, with relatively little action!

            But, given the scale of the British armed forces do we really need:

            How many lieutenant generals are there in the British army?

            11 Lieutenant Generals
            Therefore, at 1 July 2015, there were 7 Vice Admirals, 3 Lieutenant Generals in the Royal Marines, 11 Lieutenant Generals in the Army and 10 Air Marshals in the UK Regular Forces.

            PS, that was the same rank as Nelson.

            My man was political, Nelson was a hero.

    4. He tends to arrive very late in the day – or early in the morning, depending on how you look at it. Even later than I do!

    5. Sadly my liege most here would say, I’m still around, albeit rather subdued.

    1. Ahem, I think you may have inadvertently include a surplus digit in the above which makes it a tad bit harder. So plum pull your digit out!

        2. Not enough letters.
          If 12 = “i”, then 16 does not = 6 does not both = N

          3. I think the number 11 shouldn’t be there but the last 6 should be 16 then IGNITING is correct.

  71. I read in the gutter press* that thousands of British people on holiday in yer Spain are “rushing” to get on planes to return in a panic – even though they have many days holiday still to come.

    Why? The planes will still be flying them home as planned in a week or ten days time. The only difference is that they will have to be in quarantine for 14 days when they get home. Where is the problem? Lemmings.

    * I only look to see what important people such as the Beckhams are up to…..

    2. The likelihood of continued uncertainty with holidays abroad this year is why we have chosen to stay close to home. (And the fact that the Beckhams never invited us!)

      1. They are far too busy upsetting their neighbours in yer Cotswolds by planning an artificial “lake”.

        2. That part of the Cotswolds lost all pretensions to be exclusive when the road signs for “Soho Farmhouse” appeared.
          We visited the Rollright Stones last year (one of the few monuments in the British isles that haven’t been taken over by (delete non pc epithet) the National Trust or English (whatever) Heritage).
          It was a marvellous day, cloudy and atmospheric, but totally ruined by some new age fools banging drums.

          2. There was a kissing pair of young men. They asked me to take their photo. I am sorry to say that my patience was exhausted by that point so I pretended not to be able to speak English.
            Public displays of affection in the middle of a muddy field grrrr.

          3. That wasn’t quite the response I was expecting but these days I suppose I must recalibrate my expectations…… 🙁

          4. That would have been the Babbling Poltroon – or his ditsy missus…{:¬))

      2. David seems a decent bloke, but his missus could do with some padding. Lass needs to eat some good, wholesome food, including Firstborn’s steak pies. I’d suggest a tour to Grizz’ place, there’s good excellent food and peace round there!

      3. I had already foregone my trip to Aix en Provence this year, but now I have just cancelled my trip to the Great Wen. I no longer need to go as the reason for it has been annulled.

    3. What fun.
      2 weeks shut in at home after a vacation in the sun to get over being shut in at home.
      We holidayed in Norway this year. Got a shedload of work done at Firstborn’s farm, didn’t pay for flights, car hire, hotel, and cat hotel (which is the same price as the sum of the foregoing). Deduct 50 litres of expensive paint, some sandpaper and a cherrypicker hire, and we’re quids in – as well as having had a good break and getting stuff we’ve talked about for nearly 5 years actually done! (I’m also very familiar with his roof now… secondary employment as taktekker beckons.)
      What’s not to like?

        1. On top of the house? Ground-level isn’t my thing, it’s far too easy, not enough danger of falling off…

    1. Not even for you Bob, would I dip a toe in the cess-pit that is Twitter. Coming across such idiots as the above is bad for my health. I can only admire you doing battle with them.

    3. If 16 year olds can vote, they can be named and shamed when charged with criminal offences and expect the same sentence that an adult would get.

    4. Ask him if he believes that parents should be allowed to expel their 16 year old chidren,so that they have to live in the real, independent world of adults, without state support.

  74. Those horrible smirking youths, implying that they knew that the jury had been got at, reminded me of a little story.

    A man was on trial for murder and if convicted, would get life imprisonment. His brother found out that there was a blonde on the jury and decided that she would be the one to bribe. He told the blonde that she would be paid ₤10,000 if she could convince the rest of the jury to reduce the charge to manslaughter.

    The jury was out an entire week and returned with a verdict of manslaughter.

    After the trial, the brother went to the blonde’s home, told her what a great job she had done and paid her the ₤10,000.

    The blonde replied that it wasn’t easy to convince the rest of the jury to change the charge to manslaughter. They all wanted to find him not guilty.

  75. 321732+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    UK: Suspected People Smuggling Gang Busted in Illegal Boat Migrants Probe.

    I have a very strong feeling it is the french navy.

      1. 321732+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Yes,the establishment has sacrificed the few to benefit the many, potential baby making, voting, troop units, still coming ashore.
        It is priti obvious the replacement campaign rolls on unabated.

  76. Just been reading about the travails of Welwyn which sound pretty similar to the nonsense inflicted on Colchester.
    It is easier for my blood pressure, I have decided, to accept that all politicians (whether national or local) and their pampered minions are completely mad and incapable of applying logic or forethought to any of their actions.
    Now back to the next stage of my tapestry; outline now in and I’ve discovered I need more terracotta coloured wool. The overall cost of the work will still be less than that of a meal out – with the bonus of not being treated like a plague bacillus.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/25/grant-shapps-intervenes-green-traffic-policy-creates-ghost-town/

    Grant Shapps intervenes after his green traffic policy creates ‘ghost town’ in his own constituency

    Shopkeepers in Welwyn, Hertfordshire, say visitor numbers have plunged since roads were transformed and one-way system introduced

    By Steve Bird 25 July 2020 • 6:00pm

    Grant Shapps contacted the council to complain that the one-way system and barriers were ‘not suited to the old layout of Welwyn’ Credit: Geoff Pugh

    Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, has been forced to lobby against his anti-car policy in his own constituency after barriers meant to aid social distancing turned a village high street into a “ghost town”.

    Shopkeepers in Welwyn say businesses already struggling after the lockdown could be forced to close because visitor numbers plummeted when roads were transformed and a one-way system was introduced.

    More than 1,300 people have signed a petition calling on Hertfordshire County Council to use “common sense” after the measures deterred shoppers and created “another dead high street in the country”.

    The restrictions were introduced in May as part of the Transport Secretary’s “new era for cycling and walking”, announced at a Downing Street coronavirus briefing at height of the lockdown (see video below).

    Mr Shapps invited local authorities to bid for £250 million of emergency funding to introduce greener traffic measures to relieve pressure on public transport during the pandemic.

    But an email from his parliamentary office, seen by The Telegraph, reveals how, just weeks later, he contacted the council to complain that the one-way system and barriers were “not suited to the old layout of Welwyn”, a village already suffering low visitor numbers.

    It adds the barriers, meant to allow pedestrians to stay two metres apart, seemed an over-reaction because they were “outside, so have reduced transmission risks” and the two-metre rule was being reviewed by the Government.

    Mr Shapps’ scheme, intended to create a “cycling revolution”, has met widespread opposition as councils introduce road closures, new cycle lanes and wider pavements, often without public consultation.

    The extent of grassroots Conservative opposition to the scheme within his Welwyn Hatfield constituency will prove embarrassing for the minister.

    Shopkeepers believe the new one-way system has meant local residents who used to drive to shop in the village are now diverted onto a bypass, making a short trip to supermarkets or bigger towns more attractive and convenient.

    The local primary school chair of governors fears barriers being placed so close to a zebra crossing could conceal children from motorists and end in tragedy.

    Local residents have reported seeing some drivers “chancing it” by driving the wrong way through the high street.

    Vigilantes had dismantled barriers, prompting some opponents of the scheme to claim they “do not see the harm in a little civil disobedience” to prevent the village economy being destroyed.

    The move prompted the council to conduct twice-daily inspections to ensure the barriers remain in place.

    Meanwhile, the council had said the controversial one-way system could stay until 2023 to ease congestion while the nearby A1(M) was “upgraded” to a smart motorway.

    Jane Carr, who has lived in Welwyn for 30 years, said such a move would “kill” the village, adding that Mr Shapps had left the community “floundering”.

    ‘We used to get 40 to 45 customers a day. Now, we are getting two or three’

    In the dead of night, in the heart of a quintessentially English village, a group of vigilantes took to the streets to launch a very middle-class act of wanton vandalism.

    On Welwyn’s narrow high street, the activists set about carefully dismantling rows of red and white barriers.

    Under the gaze of a Hertfordshire church dating back to Saxon times, the barricades on either side of the road were unclipped and laid neatly down on the pavement.

    The barriers were unclipped and laid down in the dead of night

    That genteel act of defiance last week was the culmination of two months of campaigning against the way the council had implemented Mr Shapps’ emergency scheme to promote walking and cycling during the pandemic.

    Soon after Hertfordshire County Council had fitted barriers to give pedestrians space to social distance, closed most high street parking spaces and created a one-way system around Welwyn village, shopkeepers complained of a startling drop in visitors.

    Traders claim the arrival of the “ugly” barriers and one-way system so soon after lockdown has created the perfect storm for Welwyn businesses.

    Wendy Rowley, who has owned a florist on the high street for 30 years, fears she will have to shut up shop.

    “This is a very pretty village with a lot of history,” she said. “People used to come here for a nice lunch and then browse around the shops.

    “Who wants to come to a historic village with these red and white barricades littering the streets?”

    She had hoped to hand her business to her daughter Abbie, 23, but those hopes are diminishing each day.

    “We used to get 40 to 45 customers a day. Now, we are getting two or three visitors through the door. It’s so sad,” she said. “We can’t survive like this for long before we have to move out, perhaps close the shop to reduce overheads, work from home and take orders over the phone or online.”

    Wendy and Mark Rowley outside their shop, Welwyn Florist Credit: Geoff Pugh

    Chris Dinsdale, 51, who took over his mother’s bakery business, is worried that Mr Shapps’ policy is threatening attempts to kick start both the local and national economy.

    “Local shops are the lifeblood of this village,” he said, looking out of Katie’s Bakery as council workers in high-viz jackets resurrected the toppled barriers.

    “When the Government said people could return to the high street, the council then put these blockades up stopping people parking. The new one-way means there is one road in but three out of the village.

    “They want to restart the economy, but that won’t happen if the council is then encouraged to shut down the village. It is strangling the life out of Welwyn.”

    The baker, who stayed open during lockdown to deliver bread to elderly villagers who were self-isolating, said he lost 40 per cent of his trade over the lockdown months.

    The traffic restrictions cost him a further 25 per cent as passing trade has vanished, he said, explaining how his shop is now closed on Thursdays and Tuesdays to cut costs.

    Jane Carr stands behind the barriers on Welwyn High Street Credit: Geoff Pugh

    Jane Carr launched the revolt with a petition calling for “common sense” to be restored to prevent “empty shops and yet another dead high street”. It has more than 1,300 signatures.

    “The barriers make our country village look like a crime scene,” she said, explaining how they served little purpose because Government scientists had found that passing someone outside was a low risk for infection.

    “Grant Shapps has left us floundering on this issue. I guess he’s between the devil and the deep blue sea, given his constituency and Government roles.”

    Reverend Dr David Munchin, the local vicar and chair of governors at Welwyn St Mary’s Primary School, warned that the barriers were tall enough to obscure a child from a motorist’s view and said: “The one-way system has meant traffic has sped up, too. Overall, it’s not terribly safe.”

    A county council spokesman said it had secured a total of £1.25 million from Mr Shapps’ Emergency Active Travel Fund.

    Countywide traffic restrictions were introduced after “detailed discussions” with public health teams and remained under constant review, which has led to some parking spaces in Welwyn being reinstated, he added.

    The barrier vigilantes remain at large. Hertfordshire Constabulary received reports of “a male pulling down social distancing barriers”. The council has stepped up patrols to ensure such vandalism is nipped in the bud.

    Mr Shapps’ constituency and parliamentary office failed to respond to requests for comment.

    2. It’s common bloody madness. Over here the same is going on in many towns and cities. Kingston, our nearest city has been visited by this barrier spewing nonsense and now has many roads cut back to a single lane, one way traffic jam. Instead of being a nice place for a day trip,, people really cannot be bothered with the hassle even though there is plenty of room for road side patios..

      1. Problem is, people will get out of the habit of going into town to have a look round, and stop. Drop-off for shops, cafes, pubs and bars. The money saved will stay in the wallets, and town centres will die.

        1. That’s already happened to me. I used to wander into town and browse the shops then meet up with friends. The cafes have either closed or are unwelcoming and there is no inclination to browse because I now have to wear a mask to go into a shop. If I do go to town now, it will be with a shopping list to get essentials – straight in and out and no messing.

          1. And when the credit card bills are half what they used to be… permanent change. Poor economy, better-off you.

          2. I rarely use a credit card (another unintended consequence of the bank’s attitude to being able to pay the bills due to their covid regulations), but I am spending a lot less overall – no impulse buys, using less petrol because I’m not travelling, not eating out with friends, now no contributions to church funds either. As they sow, so shall they reap.

          3. We bought a new car and a ride on mower this month and the bank analysis is still showing that we are spending less than normal (?).
            We must have been drinking a lot of coffee in days gone by.

          5. The bank classifies that expense as food, so it is allowed. Also the government has given us $300 each to help with the increased cost of living which helps the cause.

          7. Same here. Don’t drive so much, don’t go wandering in shopping centre, money stays in bank account.

          8. Now I know what it must feel to be trapped as a Muslim women with face concealed .. lonely , isolated amongst a crowd of similar . No muffled greetings of recognition, almost a suffocating experience especially when one’s spectacles mist up .

            What on earth is this hidden virus all about and where does it lurk ..

          10. No not really Garlands , but how appalling to be totally covered , floating around the shops as a black blob .. concealed with no distinctiveness!

          11. Yes, I know what you mean, when I worked in Cardiff
            our Site was very close to where the majority of such
            coverings were, their eyes were also covered with thin
            strands between the slit.

          12. Exactly what I did a couple of weeks back; and that was pre-masking up.
            There really was no incentive to hang around.

          13. I had been tending towards that approach even before the nappy rash, but it’s finally made it the “new normal”. They really have no idea.

    4. That particular POS of a ‘person’ when housing minister was probably involved in the destruction of the green belt and agricultural (Hatfield Ag College) land along Hatfield Road from St Albans to Hatfield. It’s probably many years since he actually visited WGC or Old Welwyn, the long established one way system works very well, he’s obviously making all of this up for some financial reason. As i said earlier Anne, politicians are like wood pigeons they sit at the top the trees and look down on everything looking for an opportunity to then shit all over it. He actually lives a few miles away in Brookman’s Park. Closer to recently effed up Potters Bar where the once famous golf (Tony Jacklin) course existed. Now i think under housing construction.
      From the top of his perch he’s probably involved in this as well.
      Look at these websites………
      http://www.save-symondshyde.co.uk/
      http://www.gascoynececil.com/symondshyde/
      https://www.whtimes.co.uk/news/save-symondshyde-removed-from-local-plan-1-6502558
      Many millions of pounds to be made by destroying the Hertfordshire green belt.
      As Uncle Bill says Shapps is a wanker.

    5. When the reaction of the general public to common purpose lunacy starts, it might not be in quite the way that the young lefties expect.

    6. I hope he gets badly sunburnt while he is on holiday in Spain . I think Shapps is a horrible little man , far too glib and full of himself.

      Politicians and councillors have ruined town centres by stopping traffic, allowing bike lanes and hindering the flow that retail businesses require .

    7. Some years ago a one-way system was introduced in St Albans. It was clear from day 1 that it wasn’t going to improve the traffic flow, in fact it did the opposite and the City and District council eventually agreed to revert to how it had always been. At least they had the decency to admit their mistake.

  77. Yo All

    Went to a carboot this morning and caused to sellers to be arrested and thrown off the site, by the Boot Pelice.

    They were selling Vynyl LPs and did not have at least one Val Doonican record

    https://youtu.be/-1Ofhh30lwQ

    1. I bought a CD of Val Doonican for my boys were little – they loved it.

      1. I bought an LP of 50 all time children’s favourites by Wally Whyton for the girls!

        1. Yes, I have the same LP bought for my two, back in the 70’s. I still have it, buried somewhere in the basement.

          2. Yes we do. Every now and then I play some of my old favourites from a far gone time, ie Ella & Louis, Errol Garner, George Shearing, I could go on!!

          3. My old man put every album we have on to the PC but I miss the crackly bits and the jumping stylus! I was at the City Hall in Newcastle when Emerson,Lake and Palmer recorded Pictures at an Exhibition and I’m sure I can hear me shouting!

          5. Fanx Grizz! They are/were my favourite band and I saw Carl Palmer (obviously solo) on the Renfrew Ferry which is moored on the Clyde! He was amazing and I always thought he was in underrated drummer! I must have seen ELP 7 or 8 times!

  79. Evening, all. We were told in church this morning that the [woke] female Bishop of London is in charge of health pronouncements for the CofE and has passed down a diktat that we are to wear masks in church. The new Bishop has endorsed that. It was clear the rector wasn’t happy, but, being a “man under authority”, he has no choice but to comply. That’s me finished with going to church until they come to their senses, then. I shall henceforth enjoy a lie-in on a Sunday morning and they will not get the money from my offertory. I have no choice but to buy food stuffs and so will dash in and out of the necessary shops masked, but worship in church is optional.

    1. We are having our first Service next Sunday, it will be held outside,
      we HAVE to wear masks! I have refused to do so and intend to stand
      on the footpath. I enquired who had organised this and was told the
      Method Statement and Risk Assessment had been written by B. who is
      the QM director at the Company she works for……[she is a lovely person,
      I would never have guessed!]
      I have been going into Church at least twice a week to water the garden,
      change the flowers, check the fridges/freezer, check the lavvies etc.
      No-one and nothing has yet caught the virus!!
      I am not sure how much longer I can cope with this.

      1. I really looked forward to going back to church, even though it wasn’t worship as I knew it (no bell-ringing, no choir, no singing – although Stuart did play the organ and the last couple of weeks we’ve had a chorister sing during the Eucharist as well as recordings of psalms), no wine and a shortened service (and no coffee and bikkies afterwards, either, or opportunity to gossip). I was prepared to put up with that, but the mask diktat is a step too far, although the rector did say he wasn’t going to enforce it and there were exemptions for people with medical conditions. I don’t want people looking at me accusingly and thinking I’m being selfish and putting their lives at risk – even though the masks are pointless anyway.

      2. Perhaps, if real stalwarts like you left for the time being and told your “superiors” (ha bloody ha) exactly what you felt about it all and why they might react?

        And then I came back from sleep

        Woke up is counterproductive

        1. I wouldn’t say I am a stalwart but I do enjoy Church;
          we also have a very good Community spirit so the
          after service interaction is always interesting……..
          footy/rugger results/cricket matches and leaving
          the EU!!

    2. Masks are “strongly advised” in church but not mandatory. I just say no. The Midwife can go play with herself.

      1. “The Midwife can go play with herself.”

        SUSAN!!!! [You can’t imagine the colour of my blushing!] 🤭

    3. We have to be mindful that we do not play into their hands. Yes, they have us by the short and curlies, but in one hand they may well be shorter and curlier than the other hand. We must be careful not to give them what they really want…. empty churches (Frankfurt School prob No7).

      1. The buildings are not the church; a congregation of the faithful is what makes up the church. As long as we continue to pray and to worship, the church won’t die.

      1. I see absolutely no reason to have to wear the equivalent of a yellow star, I’m afraid. I am beginning to sound like Johnny Norfolk!

        1. Though it would be nice to see the tinpot Hilters struggling between their natural nastiness and a desire to seem ‘caring’.
          The effort might make their heads explode.

          1. It would make me feel a fraud to display an exemption card – for one thing, my objection is on principle rather than because of anxiety attacks or other mental problems. The only “illness” I suffer from is DPMTF* Syndrome.
            *Don’t Push Me Too Far

    5. Once you get out of the habit (which happens easily), returning becomes difficult.
      Why has the C of E decided to self-destruct, I wonder?

        1. So, what’s motivating him? I recall a few years ago, they were agonising over how to get more punters through the door, now it’s a closing-down sale.

          1. I think he’s making a political statement. He appears to have absolutely no spiritual belief at all and no Christian faith. He has found himself at the top of the tree and is using it as a platform for his political posturing. I believe he is a fraud.

          2. But politics is how you get to the top of the tree – and religion is another way to control people.
            That’s why I’m skeptical of religion, but secure in faith.

          3. Faith is such a personal thing though, and being chastised for it by some Marxist ex-oil man with no observable Christian feelings, is an upsetting experience.

          4. He’s another politician. Don’t bend the knee to him, he’s shown himself to be unworthy of it. Be sure of your faith: there are quotes from the Bible that help – whilst it’s restful to worship in an old building – and many of them have soul – the leading quote is “Where two or three are gathered together…”
            Less musical, but more personal.

          5. Thanks Oberst! I am sure in my faith and I would no more bend my knee to him than I would heed the call to prayer!

          6. I eventually couldn’t accept the almost grovelling wording of many of the hymns and prayers. Does God actually welcome all that grovelling and sycophancy? I’m drawn more to the Quaker approach (forget the abstinence, that’s more control & I’m happy to argue the point with God if it comes to it), but the best is to bask in the beauty of nature, and recharge yourself from it.

          7. My godfather was a Quaker. He certainly wasn’t tee-total but he did read the Gurudian! Sleep well!

          8. I must admit to a liking of the Quaker approach to religion, so much less formal.

          10. Like the church in Ireland, struggling to keep control of the people, and slowly but surely becoming irrelevant. C of E will follow the same route and eventually become a weird small sect, and be disestablished. Well done Welby, you plank.

          5. For these people, power is it’s own reward, with attention, fancy robes, bowing & scraping.
            Not much washing of feet there, is there? Man’s a charlatan.

          6. That is partly why I left the COE;
            many Vicars having to increase the size of their
            incumbrance because too many vicars were not
            doing what they were ordained to do i.e. teach
            the word of God and minister to their flock.

      3. I gave up on the church years ago with all their leftie sermons and their atitude to self made working people. I still go to a sung evensong in any church that is holding one but thats it.

    6. Conners I think you have just reminded me of the reason i left my C of E school all those years ago.

  80. Thought for the day.

    We were told that the purpose of the initial lockdown, cancelling routine and elective treatments, and the pushing of old and vulnerable people into care homes (eventually to die) was to save the NHS and to allow it to gear up for a full blown epidemic.

    These things were done; the Nightingale wards opened and PPE bought by the planeload.

    What possible excuse is there to continue with all the measures in place, when the NHS can cope?

    When all other explantions have been considered and eliminated whatever is left, however improbable is the truth.

    This is all about creating the opportunity to break the old British way of life and societal hierarchies and to rebuild it differently.

    1. These precautions are being taken everywhere. What has become clear is that once tight restrictions are lifted the virus spreads again. Texas, that well known home of right wing freedoms, has had to establish “ethics panels” to decide who to treat and who to let die, because their hospitals are totally overwhelmed. Funny, when the Dems first proposed Obamacare, the GOP screamed about Obama setting up “death panels” to select those to be treated or otherwise. Talk about the chickens coming home to roost…

      There are only two ways out of this – vaccinate everyone, or apply restrictions to control the spread that would probably be unacceptable in any Western country. The only place that dug out that way is Vietnam, where all sufferers and all contacts were forcibly quarantined. The result is they have beaten it and are now open for business – with zero deaths.

      1. If you really believe that there have been zero deaths from Covid in Vietnam, you’re even more gullible than I could possibly have imagined.

        And just how do you think the entire planet could be closed down to suit your/Vietnam’s approach? Particulary when after every reopening the cases have risen again.

        We need to let it run its course, caring for the vulnerable, and allowing the vast, vast majority, who will almost certainly not need ICU, and who will suffer no more than a bad cold, if that.

        As to vaccines, how do you propose to produce 7.5 billion vaccines a year, every year; because the virus mutates?

        A significant proportion of the problems in Texas are in Democrat controlled areas. Please explain how you think Obamacare would have made the slightest difference to the current situation.

        The world’s economy is being shattered by this. Just the outcome that the BLM loving Democrats would rejoice in, reducing everyone to equal poverty.

    3. He’s being flown back for his appeal only. He claimed UK citizenship because his wife is from the EU.

      I see Peter Bone is having a grumble about it. It’s unfortunate that he isn’t indignant about mask-wearing – he dismissed my recent e-mails to him on the subject.

      1. Why can’t they do the appeal by Zoom? It was good enough for most things while everywhere was closed down. That would apply to all the other wasters too.

      2. I have tinnitus which has been known to stop me sleeping. I find that listening to the sound of waves is really helpful – I just put it on very softly before going to bed, and play it all night, so if I wake up in the night I have something to focus on. I find I actually listen to music or voices, which keeps me awake – waves are very soothing, somehow.

        1. That is a good idea – I know when I am feeling low I seek out the sound of the sea (in my head) at Branscombe in Devon in early autumn, the gentle swish, swish of the waves on the gently sloping gravelly beach are very soothing.

          1. A lovely beach. I used to stay in The Mason’s Arms in Branscombe and walk on the beach before breakfast. Early evenings I would walk the length of Branscombe to the ‘other pub’, the name of which escapes me. Happy days.

      3. I thought it was just me; I find it hard to get to sleep, then I wake up early and can’t go back to sleep. It’s leaving me feeling like a piece of chewed string 🙁

        1. Bilges need pumped about 01:30, and sleep afterwards difficult. I have sympathy to the both of yous.

          1. I keep a stack of books within reach; if i have to lie awake I might as well do something useful. ATM I’m reading a romantic saga in German, a very amusing sort of “When Harry met Sally”.

          2. Even reading (I have plenty of books to hand, too) doesn’t help me drop off, unfortunately, although it does help fill the time until it’s time to get up and start the round of chores.

          4. I really need something that will help solve the problem of cumulative sleep deprivation 🙁

          6. We just leave the radio on with volume very low.
            About 3AM they start playing those woke programs from the BBC world service, accompanied by DW and other international services.
            As long as the volume is not high enough to hear the words, the monotonous droning helps the return to morpheus.

          7. Radio Suisse Classique works for me and when I return to bed after a pee I do a sudoku and that gets me to sleep again

          8. Try reducing your wine bill. I have a G&T at about 6 pm, after that only soft drinks/mineral water.

        2. I think it us a problem for many of us of a certain age, Mr C, and ditto. I know as soon as my head hits the pillow that this is going to be one of those nights and I am not going to be able to sleep in the first place, or I can wake between 2 – 4.00 am and not be able to get back to sleep.

          1. The same here , perhaps it is anxiety .

            When you’re lying awake with a dismal headache
            And repose is taboo’d by anxiety,
            I conceive you may use any language you choose
            To indulge in, without impropriety;
            For your brain is on fire, the bed-clothes conspire
            Of usual slumber to plunder you:
            First your counter-pane goes, and uncovers your toes,
            And your sheet slips demurely from under you;
            Then the blanketing tickles, you feel like mixed pickles,
            So terribly sharp is the pricking,
            And you’re hot and you’re cross, and you tumble and toss,
            ‘Til there’s nothing twixt you and the ticking.
            Then the bedclothes all creep to the ground in a heap,
            And you pick ’em all up in a tangle;
            Next your pillow resigns, and politely declines
            To remain at its usual angle!
            When you get some repose in the form of a doze,
            With hot eyeballs and head ever aching,
            Your slumbering teems with such horrible dreams
            That you’d very much better be waking;
            For you dream you are crossing the channel, and tossing
            About in a steamer from Harwich,
            Which is something between a large bathing machine
            And a very small second class carriage,
            And you’re giving a treat (penny ice and cold meat)
            To a party of friends and relations,
            They’re a ravenous horde, and they all come aboard
            At Sloane Square and South Kensington stations.
            And bound on that journey, you find your attorney
            (who started this morning from Devon);
            He’s a bit undersized and you don’t feel surprised
            When he tells you he’s only eleven.
            Well, you’re driving like mad with this singular lad
            (By the by, the ship’s now a four-wheeler),
            And you’re playing round games, and he calls you bad names
            When you tell him that ties pay the dealer;
            But this you can’t stand, so you throw up your hand,
            And you find you’re as cold as an icicle,
            In your shirt and your socks (the black silk with gold clocks)
            Crossing Salisbury Plain on a bicycle.
            And he and the crew are on bicycles too,
            Which they’ve somehow or other invested in,
            And he’s telling the tars all the particulars
            Of a company he’s interested in;
            It’s a scheme of devices, to get at low prices
            All goods from cough mixtures to cables
            (Which tickled the sailors) by treating retailers
            As though they were all vegetables:
            You get a good spadesman to plant a small tradesman
            (first take off his boots with a boot tree),
            And his legs will take root, and his fingers will shoot,
            And they’ll blossom and bud like a fruit tree;
            From the greengrocer tree you get grapes and green peas,
            Cauliflower, pineapple and cranberries,
            While the pastry-cook plant cherry brandy will grant,
            Apple puffs, and three corners, and banburys;
            The shares are a penny and ever so many
            Are taken by Rothschild and Bering,
            And just as a few are allotted to you, you awake
            With a shudder, despairing…
            You’re a regular wreck
            With a crick in your neck,
            And no wonder you snore
            for your head’s on the floor
            And you’ve needles and pins
            From your soles to your shins,
            And your flesh is acreep
            For your left leg’s asleep,
            And you’ve cramp in your toes
            And a fly on your nose,
            And some fluff in your lung
            And a feverish tongue,
            And a thirst that’s intense
            And a general sense
            That you haven’t been sleeping in clover;
            But the darkness has passed, and it’s daylight at last!
            The night has been long, ditto, ditto my song,
            And thank goodness they’re both of them over

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qxm0FXYBMmM

      4. The smell of lavender in the form of one of those special little roll on sleep aids , can help a little, PM. A dab on your wrists . I tried a dose of Night Nurse liquid , and that helped. Remembering your times tables and nonsense like that , something repetitive.. no clocks/ lights from TV/ or phone or any gadgetry either.

        We were woken up by brats one night riding trial bikes in a field near us , then sirens and a general cacophony of sounds .. and sadly Moh gets up every few hours to pee!

        1. I have a roll-on lavender somewhere, I must dig it out, many thanks. I put a woolly sock over the phone and across the (really bright) lit screen of my bedside light combined digital clock, it is one of those that slowly awaken you with increasing light, and is supposed to send you off to the land of nod with an equally slowly diminishing light. The latter doesn’t work and serves to make me feel slightly depressed. The 4.7.8 technique helps sometimes – breathe in to a count of 4, hold it to a count if 7 and expel breath over a count of 8. I do this ten times…. sometimes it works, sometimes not. Sometimes I try to remember the names of all 48 of us in my last year at primary school. I will add the times tables to my list…. and get some Night Nurse in for sleep emergencies. Don’t worry, I am careful with paracetamol products.

          1. Set your alarm clock to wake you one hour earlier than you would sleep on a normal night. No matter how bad your night was get up when the alarm goes off, do not nap during the day. Keep this going and you should start to have better sleep as you will be tired.Lying in because you have had a bad night is not the answer. (not saying thats what you do)

        2. We have three huge lavender bushes in our small front garden it’s covered with bees all day long.
          Bloody bikers are becoming a pain in the back side all over the country.

        1. Or coerced into setting fire to the cathedral by 3rd parties … those who could be responsible for setting fire to many other French churches?

          2. Especially if it was known that he was in charge of locking the Cathedral up. But he would know that he’d be the prime suspect. If he was being threatened you’d think he might have told someone before it was too late.

    3. It was in the BBC online News this morning or the Telegraph online. Can’t find it in either now.

    3. Did any taking of the knee occur in front of the spectators, or did they wisely abandon that?

    4. They are allowing 5,000 racegoers into Goodwood on Saturday (the last day of a five day festival!). The good thing about Goodwood (apart from the high class racing) is that there’s plenty of space.

  86. That’s me for tonight. Work work tomorrow, so schlaf muss sein.
    Goodnight, all. Have a peaceful night.

  88. David Cameron’s famous speech, made I think in 2013, which disappeared from YouTube, has reappeared…. and he sets out his view of the UK’s future.

    David Cameron’s government gave George Soros’ Open Society $774,000 in 2012, and he became a director of One Foundation which is part funded by George Soros’ Open Society in 2017.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJO4CsT77os&feature=youtu.be&t=20

  89. Just picked a large bowl of Contender haricots verts. Wonderful crop this year – after a shaky start, where I sowed too early.

    They await the return of the MR – who has gone to the first service in the village church since the middle of March. No signing, (or singing) of course – everyone would die; no organ – music somehow encourages the virus….. No sermon, either, with bit of luck! So she’ll soon be home and I can start drinking.

    1. At least all the deaf people in the congregation get to see the hymns being signed. 🙂

    2. Don’t go there. Organ music is allowed, but not at the funeral next Tuesday. So the music is all recorded.

      Had a friend / another organist round on Wednesday. Broke every law in the book, and took him into church to see the organ. After four months of inactivity, it now has problems. Our first service is a funeral on Tuesday, but all music has to be recorded.

      I now regard myself as a ‘former church organist’.

      1. That’s sad. I went to a Eucharist this morning, with an organist, baritone cantor and a congregation as large as one metre distancing will permit. Masks were offered but there were very few takers. The rector has an orange one – meant to be fun and not worn during the service. (Finally had the “I don’t do woke church” conversation at AS Fulham, so this is St Barts Smithfield.)

          1. Very civilised, given that I was quite clear about my objections. More conciliatory than I’d feared it might be but no offer of significant change. My departure is accepted.

          3. I hope so. The lady sitting next to me this morning described it as “so high it’s pre-Vatican II”. She was joking of course – it’s Anglican, but traditional and that’s what I’m comfortable with.

          4. My preference is for Oxford Movement Anglicanism, but there aren’t any such churches near me.

          5. Hmm. I had that discussion a few years ago. It ended badly. I could almost see the word “Nazi” forming in thought bubbles above their heads.

          6. The vicarette in my local church (as opposed to the one where I worship regularly) knows I am a xenophobic, nationalist racist 🙂

        3. Thanks, Sue.

          Our Rector is somewhat sceptical, but, like all clergy, has sworn an oath of obedience to his (left wing, Evangelical, happy-clappy), Bishop.

        4. Watch out or you might end up having to wear masks anyway, thanks to Dame Bishop Whatzername of London, i/c health matters for the CofE.

      2. The MR was surprised – and delighted – that the organ was actually – in real life – played by our neighbour who knows these things.

        No singing (or signing) of course…

        I weep for you, Geoff.

          2. I thought when I read that back that it gave the wrong impression 🙂 We do have to sign in (but one of the Wardens usually does it for me to minimise pen use). What I should have written was “we have to use Sign Language for the Peace”.

    3. We went to a social distanced, outdoor communion recently.

      We still got a sermon.

      To be fair it was a very good sermon and particularly so when the priest knew there would be fewer than 10 attending, he made a great effort.

        1. That’s what I said to the organiser when when it was possble there might only be two couples.

    4. ‘No signing’ – vision of the hymns normally being performed by sign language.

  91. Oh dear……

    Now it turns out the UK is in trouble with Hinkley Point as predicted, and the project might even have to be abandoned…….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/25/china-takes-bigger-role-hinkley-nuclear-reactor-pressure-rises/

    The obvious question is… was anyone paid off to sign up to this deal ?

    David Cameron not only closed the UK’s power stations… but he had them demolished too to make sure they could never be used again.

    It all looks too much of a coincidence.

    Doesn’t it ?

        1. I knew Cameron was a bad ‘un from the moment he challenged David Davis for the party leadership in 2005. I suspected then – and aired my suspicions openly – that beneath that faux public school veneer there was two-ply chipboard of the lowest possible quality.

    2. 2015? And the power station is nowhere near finished. How do we get into these terrible situations? (Demolishing Cockenzie and Longannet?)

      2. “How do we get into these terrible situations? (Demolishing Cockenzie and Longannet?)”

        PM David Cameron looking after his Father-in-Law’s investment in Wind Farms ?

    3. Sir Reginald Adrian Berkeley Sheffield, 8th Baronet DL (born 9 May 1946) is a British Baronet and father of Samantha Cameron, who is the wife of former British Prime Minister David Cameron.

      He is the owner of Sutton Park, Yorkshire and a director of Normanby Estate Company Ltd.

      He is a member of White’s, Pratt’s, and the Beefsteak Club.

      In 2011 Sir Reginald said that he earned as much as £350,000 a year from eight wind turbines located on his estate at Bagmoor near Normanby Hall in Lincolnshire.

      1. His family Name and personna is also embodied in the spelling of the nearby large town: Scunthorpe

  92. Oh dear……

    Now it turns out the UK is in trouble with Hinkley Point as predicted, and the project might even have to be abandoned…….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/25/china-takes-bigger-role-hinkley-nuclear-reactor-pressure-rises/

    The obvious question is… was anyone paid off to sign up to this deal ?

    David Cameron not only closed the UK’s power stations… but he had them demolished too to make sure they could never be used again.

    It all looks too much of a coincidence.

    Doesn’t it ?

  93. A Sunday prayer at the end of the day.

    Mozart’s Laudate Dominum, written for soprano and choir has a purity and innocence that is matched by few other pieces. The Latin text is from Psalm 117.

    https://youtu.be/ljvTwbxrylc

    Laudate Dominum omnes gentes
    Laudate eum, omnes populi

    Quoniam confirmata est
    Super nos misericordia eius
    Et veritas, veritas Domini manet, manet in aeternum

    Gloria Patri et Filio
    Et Spiritui Sancto
    Sicut erat in principio
    Et nunc, et semper
    Et in saecula saeculorum
    Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen

  94. BBC4 7pm.
    I was looking forward to a repeat of the Proms Classics.

    It’s Hollywood songs from the shows………….. DOH!

    1. A veritable scandal. That sort of stuff is NOT what the Proms were for…..

    2. A veritable scandal. That sort of stuff is NOT what the Proms were for…..

  95. An interesting diversion on the golf course today.
    I was wandering near some trees (as unfortunately is my style) when I was disturbed by a young red tailed hawk thrashing around chasing a squirrel. Hawk focused on lunch, squirrel focused on survival and both completely oblivious to me standing just ten to fifteen feet away.
    The squirrel somehow escaped but about thirty minutes later we saw the hawk trying to get airborne whilst clutching the carcass of a large gull.

    Nature at it’s best.

    1. Nature carries on regardless. She is not concerned with our petty politics, wokeness etc. When we are gone, she will still be here in one form or another. In historical terms we are the blink of an eye, if that. I find that comforting.

        1. The squirrel is just a very small part of nature’s survival. Even if the squirrel doesn’t survive.

          1. But the survival of the squirrel is a very big issue to the squirrel. I’m guessing, at that point, he didn’t give a flying one for nature.

          2. So us our survival. Nature doesn’t care muchly about that. We are here with her permission, for the time being. Ultimately she will decide when it is all over for us.,

          7. 🤣 yoo gotta larff eh Obs.
            We had Pawn linguine for dinner it waz delishious i had too much white wine and I’m off to sleep now. Night all.
            Look at my attachments to Anne’s comment about Shapps. He’s an absolute Arés holé.

  96. David Cameron’s famous speech, made I think in 2013, which disappeared from YouTube, has reappeared…. and he sets out his view of the UK’s future.

    David Cameron’s government gave George Soros’ Open Society $774,000 in 2012, and he became a director of One Foundation which is part funded by George Soros’ Open Society in 2017.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJO4CsT77os&feature=youtu.be&t=20

    1. Jeeeeze don’t get me started ‘
      i’m off ……………….🤬😡🥵

        2. Cameron was flying in Syrians to British air bases and bussing them around the country at the latter end of his PM ship.

  97. I have just received this:

    Dear (my email address)

    We are contacting you regarding your last fiscal activity.
    We have determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of £352.00
    In order to claim your tax refund online, please complete the required form
    .
    Claim now

    (highlighted centre box, which should lead me to a place where I divulge my bank details

    After yous* submit the refund form, please allow us up to 3 business days to process it.

    My * not theirs…. should I reply, I ponder: can you help

    Signed

    A Pillock

    Twiceas Greenasgrass
    Nottler since 30 Feb 2025

    1. Claim a tax refund

      You can now get the tax refund (rebate) we say we owe you just by sending us your bank details and ticking the box in the following form:

      I think I’ve got COVID-19 and I don’t feel like working anyway ☑.

      No positive COVID-19 test required.

      Use this service to see how to claim the money we say we owe you:

      Start now >

    2. If it were a genuine refund, you’d have to go through all the hoops to get into your Government Gateway account.

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