Sunday 30 July: How the Government embraced net zero without considering the basic practicalities

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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535 thoughts on “Sunday 30 July: How the Government embraced net zero without considering the basic practicalities”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    How To Be A Virgin

    A young woman says to her doctor, “Doc, I’m getting married this weekend and my fiancé thinks I’m a virgin. Is there anything you can do to help me?”

    “Medically, not really,” the doctor replies. “But try this: On your wedding night, when you’re getting ready for bed slide a thick rubber band around your upper thigh. When your husband enters you, snap the rubber band and tell your husband it’s your cherry popping.”

    On the wedding night, the new bride undresses in the bathroom and slips the rubber band around her thigh. She and her husband begin to make love. As her husband enters her she snaps the rubber band right on cue.

    “What the hell was that?” the husband asks.

    “That was my cherry snapping,” the bride says.

    “Well, snap it again,” her husband yells. “It’s got my balls.”

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps. Sitting here in a sunny garden and making the most of it – with more rain forecast from lunchtime onwards.

    Several letters today about ‘net zero’, with these two standing out for me:

    SIR – We read of electric cars and charging points, heat pumps, housebuilding targets, new generating capacity, and sending surplus power from north to south.

    But all of these things are destined to fail – if they are not already failing – because Britain’s electricity grid distribution capacity is, and will continue to be, grossly inadequate.

    Technologically ignorant politicians – of whom Boris Johnson was an exemplar – have made grandstanding pronouncements on net zero without considering the practicalities.

    Philip Corp
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – It still needs to be better understood that, even if Britain were to cease all emissions tomorrow, this would make not the slightest difference to the global condition.

    Peter Humphrey
    Tideswell, Derbyshire

    Fortunately the approach of a GE appears to be having the desired effect in response to this lunacy, but there in no guarantee that our new government, whenever it comes, will not once again set off with the utterly pointless idea of being ‘a world leader’ in this ludicrous and completely unaffordable aim. Peter Humphrey is merely articulating what so many of us believe.

    1. I read somewhere yesterday that China has produced more CO2 I;the last 8 years than Britain since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

  7. How the Government embraced net zero without considering the basic practicalities

    That is because they are no longer a sovereign government working for the benefit of the electorate and country.

    1. 374950+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,

      Never have been since Mrs Thatcher passed over,(RIP) but they suit the party before Country majority voters needs.

    2. The “no longer” was a position they chose, not one they were forced into at the point of a gun.

  9. Good morning all. A pleasant 10°C outside with a blue sky and light breeze and I’m glad to say that the threatened rain for yesterday failed to materialise which meant we had a dry village carnival!

    At the moment, I’m still trying to thin out a very dense bit of hillside above the part that calls its self “my garden” to get rid of several dead elms and dying ash. Unfortunately I’ve got one elm hung up on the trees it fell on to and I’m trying to work out how to get it down safely!

    1. 374950+ up ticks,

      Morning Bob,

      Seek advice from the jocks they have vast experience in that department.

    4. Use a pole saw/pole pruner bit by bit, starting with some snedding. Use a Silky type, or battery or petrol. Apologies for being a bossy twit, but you are doing a project that would cost thousands of pounds if undertaken by a landscaping company. Treat yourself to top quality safety wear, and some semi-professional branded items of equipment. Stihl, Husqvarna, Dewalt, Makita, Einhell etc all have ranges of petrol or li-ion battery equipment, as you know. There is a useful website called arbtalk.

      1. I’m a big fan of Stihl – lightweight, well made and strong. Easy to start for the more elderly gentleman or lady. We have a mower, brush-cutter, strimmer and chainsaw from them.
        Jolly orange and white, too.

  10. Good morning, all Bluish skies but very windy. NOT a day for ladder work.

    Any news?

      2. Have you considered smoking cigarettes instead of big toes, Phizzee? Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

          5. You mean the bomb hits an iceberg and there aren’t enough lifeboats? Lol.

          8. My lad, 18, saw it on Friday. His verdict was along the lines of, “it was good but I was wondering if it was (sic) true, it would be really good if it was (sic) true”.

            In his defence, he was at a state school.

            Needless to say, he got a history lesson the next day from us on the subject!

          10. Did you include the Tizard Commission? Without which there would have been no Manhattan Project?

  12. Morning all. Dog walked (after a fashion) and snoozing; waiting for the washing to finish before going on bike ride along the Paddington branch of the Grand Union Canal (a long-held ambition and surprisingly further than it ought to be due to its course). I digress. This caught my eye, from those kind and cuddly non-Lib non-Dems, living up to their name:

    “A LIBERAL Democrat councillor suggested anti-Ulez campaigners should be gassed with carbon monoxide in a social media post denounced as offensive.

    Michael Tarling, a member of Christchurch council in Dorset, responded to a photograph on Twitter showing a hall where a meeting against an ultra-low emission zone was to be held by saying he would “happily fill the room with carbon monoxide”.

    The Lib Dem leadership has decided not to suspend him.

    A party spokesman said: “Michael has apologised for his comments and has agreed to take on the appropriate awareness training.” The councillor’s account was suspended by Twitter for violating its rules.

    Alan Miller, the founder of the #Together group, which organised the Edinburgh anti-Ulez meeting, tweeted: “Rather than smears, open debate what’s needed. Neither Liberal nor Democratic it seems.” Another user wrote: “Tarling has let his party down. Tarling was apparently happy to fill a room of #Together supporters with carbon monoxide.”

    #Together opposes the introduction of Ulez charges anywhere in the country, claiming a ban on older diesel cars has no “measurable health benefits” and limits people’s freedoms and ability to earn a living.

    In his council biography, Mr Tarling is described as having “a keen interest in the environment and sciences”. This year, he was instrumental in pushing through plans for 20mph speed limits across Christchurch. He did not respond to requests for comment.’”

    Jumped up little Hitler, as we used to be able to say.

    1. In the LibDem future, with no ICE vans left, how would they produce the necessary CO? And how would they line the floors of said gasvans, what with the increased cost of slaked lime?

    2. Early Nazi experiments on mass-murder used closed trucks with the exhaust pipe fed into the section where the victims were incarcerated. The idea was abandoned when it was found that Carbon Monoxide poisoning wasn’t efficient enough.

    3. I wonder how he would cope if he was denied all food and drink where carbon dioxide, that deadly greenhouse gas, was involved in its production.

    4. My immediate reaction was … “WOW! Just “WOW”.”
      Godwin’s Law on legs.
      I assume history was not one of Master Tarling’s stronger subjects.

    5. He may have an interest in sciences, but it seems he’s learned nothing from them.

  13. Left-wing Misogyny.

    SIR – Zoe Strimpel (Features, July 23) asks why the Left cannot get over its historic misogyny. To understand the reason, we have to appreciate that socialism is a religion – and one of a particularly joyless, puritanical sort.

    Socialists have an implacable conviction in their own virtue, so feel entitled to pass judgment on “lesser beings”. We’ve all laughed at the Judean People’s Front/People’s Front of Judea scenes in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, but the real phenomenon of Left-wing groups rancorously splitting over the most trivial disagreement is reminiscent of how Protestant sects would break apart over inscrutable minutiae of dogma. Just as the Puritans of old divided the world into the saved and the damned, socialists divide us into the victims and the oppressors. The saved were guaranteed paradise, and similarly the victims are morally infallible.

    Independent women with their own minds who do not kowtow to Left-wing pieties are treated so badly by socialists because they find them incomprehensible. A woman who does not see herself as a victim is an outright ideological contradiction to socialists, resulting in bewilderment at best and hatred at worst. The Left cannot fail, only be failed, and when reality doesn’t match the theory it has to be twisted into shape until it fits.

    Robert Frazer
    Salford, Lancashire

    Thank you, Robert, for that extremely vivid description of what I have always believed. That is the clearest overview of socialism I have yet read.

      1. To me, the paradox of socialism is this: why are there so many women enamoured with the cult (and it is more of a cult than a concept) when they know it is misogynous to the core?

        1. Could it be that it’s only misogynous to other women, thus making the unmysogenised (is taht a word?) woman feel even more special? Sort of, the best of the best?

        2. We had a Muslim girl on a French course with us recently. She wore a hijab which was not necessarily a sensible form of dress in rural France right now but she enjoyed the course, was hard-working and made very good progress. She also got on very well with the other students on the course.

          Her mother was a white catholic English woman who had converted to Islam while she was training to become a doctor before marrying a Muslim doctor.

  14. Britain’s hapless police have given up fighting crime – making victims of us all. 30 July 2023.

    A few months ago we heard, with great fanfare, about how the police had made a major change in their approach to fighting crime. Instead of effectively ignoring burglary – in nearly half of England and Wales, not a single break-in was solved in the three years to March 2023 – they would now be attending every home that rang them up to report a break-in.

    I had my doubts as to whether this would translate into a meaningful rise in conviction rates, or just be a waste of victims’ time, and paper, and so my utter disdain for our policing system was only slightly diminished by these promises.

    That disdain has now returned with a vengeance. Last week, we learnt the full extent of what’s been going on at the Co-op’s stores in parts of the country – and how the police have failed to respond adequately to this, and to other retail crime.

    I don’t know about anyone else but I never entertained any idea whatsoever that it would result in anything meaningful happening. The UK’ institutions, all of them, have suffered a moral collapse that makes them incapable of carrying out their functions. None of them actually work. Defence. The NHS. The Home and Foreign Offices are simply manned by place men being paid for doing nothing. Their only successes are where they are members of the vast Criminal Cartel that is asset stripping the country. It’s difficult to quantify this because most of it is concealed from public view by their accomplices in the MSM but the UK is essentially a Failed State, its corruption on an almost African scale.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/29/britains-hapless-police-have-given-up-fighting-crime/

  15. A good BTL post in response to another DT article on the matter of net zero:
    (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/07/29/climate-adviser-2030-could-be-too-soon-petrol-car-ban/)

    Jeremy Roff
    9 HRS AGO
    I can’t think of a single real advantage an EV has.
    1. You can’t tow most of them. They need to be put on a trailer. Hard to do if they are stuck in a field.
    2. They don’t have the power to tow anything significant.
    3. They cost a fortune. The main reason that any are bought at all is the ridiculously generous benefit in kind tax break on company cars.
    4. One small bump to the battery and they are written off.
    5. The batteries can explode, and if they do, the fire is almost impossible to extinguish. Would you want to be on a RORO ferry with EVs?
    6. Their quietness is a danger to pedestrians and other road users.
    7. Their extra weight causes more tyre and brake particulates to be shed, increasing pollution and potholes. Some car parks won’t bear their weight.
    8. The initial high emissions will mean that you have to drive the EV for at least 12,000 miles before the reduction in emissions from the tailpipe balances that out. But this is itself misleading, because while we still produce a lot of our electricity from gas (and that will still be the case long after 2030), every new EV plugged in must get its electricity from burning gas in power stations. Better than diesel, but probably not for quite a lot of miles. I would bet that no EV bought today will ever be charged by electricity generated by renewable energy.
    9. Their range is poor, particularly in bad weather, and as they age. The infrastructure to charge them is hopelessly inadequate and expensive.
    10. The battery is very hard to replace, so the life span of EVs is likely to be much lower than ICE cars.
    The only advantages I can see are that they cost less to maintain (but are almost impossible to repair if damaged), and don’t emit poisonous gases from a tailpipe.

    * * *

    Here’s something to ponder…as a driver for a community bus service I was one of half a dozen who, a couple of weeks ago, visited a supplier of both diesel (for now) and electric vehicles. Not unexpectedly the impracticalities soon became obvious, including range limitations, the need for an expensive upgrade to the power supply to our garage, the heavier vehicles (very nearly 6 tonnes) and other negative aspects. The silliest of the lot was the admission that the standard 12v battery under the bonnet, there to run the electronic circuitry, will go flat in 2-3 days if the bus isn’t used. Since we use our two diesel buses on alternate weeks, the one that is ‘resting’ will be completely immovable in well under a week, and the only way to get it going is with jump leads! And no, the charging supply doesn’t feed the 12v battery.

    And finally there’s the cost. An electric bus would cost an additional £120,000 (via various grants) over and above a fully converted and kitted-out diesel-powered Mercedes at £130,000. So who in their right mind is buying the EV buses? Several local authorities are the main buyers, drawing on a plentiful supply of taxpayers’ subsidy, as we would have to. In the words of the supplier, “the government is throwing money at them”. Yes, yours and mine.

    I leave you to guess which type we will be ordering.

    1. Didn’t a cargo ship on it’s way to the UK carrying electric cars, recently burst into flames causing the deaths of some of the crew ?

        1. The fire brigades over here have got themselves a container each that they fill with water & submerge the car into it. Cooling, which is all you can do, as burning lithium batteries generate their own oxygen and are thus very difficult to extinguish.

          1. What do they do with the masses of lithium hydroxide toxic gas given off when submerged in water?

            Lithium should be made inert by submerging in mineral oil.

          2. No idea. I assume it blows away.
            I’d be wary of submerging burning Li in anything that might itself burn – such as mineral oil. That could get far too exciting!

          3. Yes. My mistake. It can be stored in mineral oil but i don’t think adding a burning battery to it would be a good idea.

          4. That’ll please just stop oil idiots having their favourite cars submersed in oil.

          7. I doubt it. Probably only when the fire engine has arrived and assessed the need.

          8. In theory that sounds useful, but a burning EV in a confined space – like a multi-storey CP for instance – would surely preclude such a procedure?

          9. Indeed. You’d have to drag it out first, unless you have a lot of headroom.

        2. It seems like there could be huge problems with insurance for these vehicles. To the average family they are hardly likely to be cost effective.

          1. It was in the Daily Mail. But i doubt the BBC enjoyed reporting it.

            ‘BBC breaking News. EV cars inherently unsafe and sinks ship!’

            As if…

          3. I was talking to Bruce in Oz earlier he told me about a TV programme he saw some time ago when an aircraft burst into flames mid flight loaded with lithium batteries.
            https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=b93fe49c27fd842aJmltdHM9MTY5MDY3NTIwMCZpZ3VpZD0wYWJhNGFmOS05MWEyLTY1ODgtMmYzNy01OWFhOTA5NTY0ZjAmaW5zaWQ9NTE0Mw&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=0aba4af9-91a2-6588-2f37-59aa909564f0&u=a1L2ltYWdlcy9zZWFyY2g_cT1haXJjcmFmdCtidXJzdCtpbnRvK2ZsYW1lcytjYXJyeWluZytsaXRoaXVtK2JhdHRlcmllcyZxcHZ0PUFpcmNyYWZ0K2J1cnN0K2ludG8rZmxhbWVzK2NhcnJ5aW5nK0xpdGhpdW0rYmF0dGVyaWVzJkZPUk09SUdSRQ&ntb=1

          4. Yes, a cargo flight which cost the lives of the two crewmen when it came down in the Middle East..
            There are several videos about it on Youtube.

    2. Ref no. 10. Firstborn regularly replaces EV batteries, and whilst they are heavy and need good non-conductive gloves, they are not “very hard” to replace, in fact easier than a fossil engine.
      I know folk hate new stuff, but making unwarranted claims doesn’t help the case. Or, maybe it’s only EVs supplied to the UK that are a problem, like the “useless” air-to-air heat pumps that work fine in Norway, a noticeably colder and snowier place.

      1. I’m sure that Norway’s housing stock is much better insulated than ours.

    3. Good, clear and conclusive.

      We shall be soon be buying a new ICE* car.

      (*Infernal Combustion Engine)

          1. I love the stuff. Before we moved we had nine or ten crowns. This autumn the grand plan is to revamp the bottom of the garden here and get back to some fruit and veg, now that all of the major jobs in the house are finished.

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    It looks like it might rain. And number one is coming to cut the grass for us.
    Today’s Headline has a familiar reference.
    ‘Every single thing they come into contact with they eff it up and big time’.
    And so it goes on and on and on.
    Long time passing…….When will they ever learn.

  17. Morning, all. Blue sky when I got up an hour ago but now cloud is building.

    Just picked these blackberries, first of what looks to be a bumper crop if the weather remains typical and we don’t enter a boiling phase. An apple and blackberry crumble with double cream is on the menu for dessert after a boiled gammon, new potatoes and carrots from the garden with the addition of frozen peas – I no longer have room for growing peas – first course.

    The berries are from an Oregon Thorn-less, not as flavoursome as the English bramble but their flavour improves with cooking. The obvious advantage over the bramble is in the name…. no scratches.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c360b85c0eceb6df04792a373722735b5aab3b931e3b758be2f5d8e6bd4fc852.jpg

    1. Still weeks away from any blackberries ripening up here. As for apples I’m afraid we have none on any of our three trees and there’s none on the old Des’s Enigma next door.

      1. Our next door neighbours apple tree is loaded. I expect I’ll be making cider again soon.

          1. Yes.
            Pick apples. Try not to bruise.
            Cut up and squish for juice. (we have an apple grinder and a press – this year, we’ll try Firstborn’s new honey press, for better extraction of juice)
            Put juice in container with bubble airlock, add cider yeast.
            Allow to ferment until bubbling stops. Slowly is better, produces fewer fusel oils (= headache). Leave until cider is clear.
            Rack the cider off the yeasty yukk at the bottom.
            Bottle, or put in other airtight container. We use a 40 litre fermenting bucket with airtight lid, bubbler and a tap.
            Allow to stand until Christmas.
            Drink.
            Lovely!

            We use bought cider yeast, to have some quality control over the fermentation, but cider fermented with naturally occurring years can be good (scrumpy). To that end, we wash the apples in a mild sterilising solution (with Star San) to remove the wild yeast before cutting up, grinding and pressing. We also have a cider hygrometer so can measure the orginal gravity and estimate the alcohol %age – normally between 6-8%.

          3. Simple process, but a bit time-consuming. Produces excellent dry cider, and you can get some spectacular strengths… to sweeten, kill the yeast with campden tablets or whatever, and add shop-bought apple juice from the 1 litre (other sizes are available) tetra-paks.

          5. I have been making it for a few years on and off.
            You need a press, which I made and to be able to reduce the apples to pulp which I do with a converted garden shredder.
            And to make it worth the effort you will need a lot of apples. Usually have around 4-6 buckets full.

    2. It all Sounds rather tasty Korky.
      We are surrounded by black berries. I’m just hoping that I can walk far enough to get out out to pick some, very soon.

    3. Firstborn has Bedford Giants – big, flavoursome fruit, guarded by more pricks than you’d find in the House of Commons – freakin’ enormous, so they are, and vicious. Lovely berries, though!

      1. Apple seems to bring out the flavour; blackberries by themselves are rathe nonny.

    5. Do they grow as easily as ordinary brambles? Do they have to be kept under control?

      1. They just GROW! Easier to control than a bramble – no spikes to prick and slash you. This one does not readily spread by its roots.
        Here’s some of this year’s growth that will bear fruit next year. In March these were no more than 9 – 12 inches long. I haven’t the room to lay them down as I do with my Loganberry so I let them have free rein. I’ll tie them in later this year after the fruit has finished. Other thorn-less types are available. sos’s favourite, Boysenberry is similar, I believe.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b9eb50860d507ac72fc3b8d931d01004ce163d88fc62e3a7c7336fd68b0ce329.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/975a629d2561b4b26e95c9711119731e9571bd6578deeef78a65ba7e7af5ccda.jpg

  19. Bullshite, Mr. Lichfield, pure bullshite.

    SIR – Even the most reactionary among us can see that the climate of the planet is changing as a result of fossil fuel usage, and that we ought to play our part in reducing carbon emissions as quickly as reasonably possible.

    It would be simplistic for the Conservatives to turn their backs entirely on net zero, but it might be time to relax slightly the medium-term goals on the banning of new gas boilers and internal combustion engines.

    In the meantime, promoting and accelerating investment in nuclear generation and the charging infrastructure required to support electric vehicles and heat pumps might go some way towards restoring a semblance of sense to government policy.

    Mark Lichfield
    London SW10

    1. Mark Lichfield do you really believe we can change the weather?
      I bet you don’t think we can stop illegal immigration either.
      You live in an upside world.

    2. Mark Lichfield, you do realise don’t you, that Saudi Arabia is still producing just as much oil as ever, and have no plans to scale down production? The only difference is that they will be selling it to China and India, two countries that are rapidly industrialising and will dominate the next long economic cycle.
      Do you still believe in the climate emergency? If so, then I have a bridge to sell you….

    4. You do realise that CO2 is plant food, Mark, and therefore necessary for anything to grow?

    1. Poor lass popped up t’other day but she is having a VERY hard time at the moment.

      1. I can’t recall any posts since the early part of last week, but I have not been a regular visitor.

      2. I think at last she has at last managed to see a specialist to get advice on further treatment.

        2. I certainly hope she will be getting some pain relief that doesn’t affect her so adversely.

  21. Just a thought, with all this wind we have recently experienced across our land, how can there possibly be any green house gases in our atmosphere. It must have parked its self else where.
    Nature its self rather makes a joke of the so called ‘human mind’ as in ULEZ.

  22. Here’s a few that are likely in Tom’s joke book, but new to me:
    A new teacher was trying to make use of her psychology courses. She started her class by saying, ‘Everyone who thinks they’re stupid, stand up!’ After a few seconds, Little Larry stood up. The teacher said, ‘Do you think you’re stupid, Larry?’ ‘No, ma’am, but I hate to see you standing there all by yourself!’

    Larry watched, fascinated, as his mother smoothed cold cream on her face. ‘Why do you do that, mommy?’ he asked. ‘To make myself beautiful,’ said his mother, who then began removing the cream with a tissue. ‘What’s the matter, asked Larry…… ‘Giving up?’

    The math teacher saw that Larry wasn’t paying attention in class. She called on him and said, ‘Larry! What are 2 and 4 and 28 and 44?’ Larry quickly replied, ‘NBC, FOX, ESPN and the Cartoon Network!’

    Larry’s kindergarten class was on a field trip to their local police station where they saw pictures tacked to a bulletin board of the 10 most wanted criminals. One of the youngsters pointed to a picture and asked if it really was the photo of a wanted person. ‘Yes,’ said the policeman. ‘The detectives want very badly to capture him. Larry asked,”Why didn’t you keep him when you took his picture ? “

  23. Oh well I suppose I should be getting out of bed, and taking my meds and even moving around. And I might have a bacon and egg sandwich……yes I think I will. 🤗

    2. Toast and honey for me earlier, i’m still finding honey on my hands and down my front

      1. Who’s a lucky chap – to have honey all over you. Have you known her long?

  24. Good day all,

    Sunny at the moment at McPhee Towers but rain by 11 o’clock. Wind in the Sou’-West, 15℃ and going up to 18℃. Don’t you just love this climate crisis?

    Had a very enjoyable day out yesterday with a group of new friends.

    Some while ago the bells at our village Church virtually fell silent as the bell-ringers either died, moved away to be close to grandchildren or simply became too feeble and slid off their perches. There were just two or three people left to ring, including the organist and her husband, a choir member. Fortunately they are experienced, accomplished bell-ringing teachers. Just before last Christmas a call went up in the village for anyone who might remotely be interested in learning to ring church bells. I thought, well, why not me?

    A group of eight of us started in January with the aim of being able to ‘Ring for the King’ on May 6th. Simultaneously another group got going under the same husband-and-wife teachers in an adjacent village where the church had recently had its defunct bells replaced. A couple of the beginners have fallen by the wayside but a few others have joined so we have maintained numbers.

    I can tell you there is a lot more to ringing church tower bells than meets the eye. First of all, it is potentially dangerous because some of these bells are serious lumps of metal with the tenor bell in a ‘ring’ of eight ( as we have in our village church) weighing-in at around 12 hundredweight. If the ‘stay’ breaks a bell is uncontrollable. The stay is a tailored length of ash wood which is used to hold a bell on its balance once it has been ‘rung up’. If the stay breaks with the bell swinging up to and through the balance point the bell rotates on its headstock to which the rope-wheel is attached and if you don’t immediately let go of the rope you’ll be hoisted toute-de-suite up to and possibly through the bell tower ceiling! The risk of injury, possibly severe injury, is real. I’ve had one break and the rope whipped across the back of my left hand skinning it quite badly. The ropes have to be held in a certain way and you never want fingers to be trapped in a tight loop. They could be ripped off.

    Once you have learned to ring safely you then have to learn control so that YOU ring the bell and not the other way round. You have to be able to ‘stand’ the bell at any time. ‘Standing’ the bell means putting the bell inverted at the balance point where it will be held by the stay. Once you can ‘stand’ the bell at will you can pull on the rope to ring when you want it to ring. You’re then ready to ring ‘rounds’ with the others. Ringing a round is simple ringing sequence starting with the treble all the way round to the tenor and so on. The next step is called ‘changes’ – ringing the changes – when bells swap positions. After that comes ‘method’ ringing when the bells are rung in set patterns of sequences which must be learned. That’s advanced and we’re nowhere near that. There’s a lot of terminology to learn and it will take a lot of practice. No full peals just yet.

    We did manage a simple ‘Ring for the King’ on Coronation Day and we’ve been ‘ringing the rounds’ again for church services. Our teaching couple think we might soon be ready to do ‘ change ringing’ for weddings.

    Anyway, yesterday the two groups of new ringers got together on an organised outing. We visited six churches in Wiltshire and rung their bells with a coffee stop, a pub lunch, a tea stop and a pub dinner to finish the day. It was a lovely day out. It’s one small way in which I, a Scot, am doing a little to help keep alive a bit of English culture through these dark times. The only thing is none of we beginners is young. Nobody under about 55. The two villages churches really need to get some youngsters into bell-ringing.

    2. The sound of church bells was probably the one thing, among many, I really missed when living abroad and made me realise I was back when I heard them again. (That and chalk stream fly fishing!)

    3. Superb.
      I love the sound of tuned bells – not common over here, more of a discordant clanging.

    4. Congratulations on keeping the tradition going. I admire your commitment and love the sound of church bells.

    5. Takes me back to when I used to ring in my youth. I did a little when I went off to uni in London but OT and flying training put a stop to it. I think the after practise pub visit was one of the main attractions.

    6. I like the church bells ringing but it obviously takes its toll on the campanologists.

    9. My former church was closed to host visiting bell-ringers recently. I have a couple of friends who are campanologists so I know there’s a lot more to it than there seems at first sight.

  25. Telegraph headline:

    “I am on motorists’ side, says Sunak as he orders review of anti-car schemes”
    says the PM who travels by helicopter.

    1. Labour and Conservative now having a wobble over net zero as they have woken up to the fact that people aren’t going to vote for it.

      1. Though that doesn’t matter because whichever shower forms the next government will blithely carry on with the stupid plans.

  26. Any NoTTLers immersed in the Ladies Wendyball? Thought not. Do they spit? Do they do that weird knee-diving in the corner when they score a goal? Do they argue with the ref? Do they pull the other teams ponytails?

    Looking forward to detailed reply from Stormie…!!

    1. The quality of ladees football skills at international level has risen to an amazing level. I will certainly watch England in the game against China on Tuesday. They are much more polite than the men and don’t argue with the ref. We’ll see what happens when more money gets poured into the system though.

      1. In the same was as Women’s Tennis, a game more of skill than brute power. Makes it more interesting to watch, IMO.

        1. Tennis – the grunting/shrieking puts me right off – men or women players. Or trans, of course.

  27. Good morning, chums. A busy day for me – washing and ironing, etc. Have fun. See you all later this evening.

  28. Interesting.
    NRK have an article on peace initiatives for Ukraine, featuring Saudi Arabia offering a conference centre, and China offering an initiative. Several African countries also want to join – they buy a lot of Ukrainian grain, and so see problems coming if the war continues.
    Markedly absent is the USA – so, are China taking over some world-leading role in geopolitics where once the USA would have been? Where’s the new Henry KIssinger? – and Ukraine are rejecting any talk of talks, likely because the USA tells them to. Not good PR, it makes them look like they want to keep fighting.
    Sorry, in yer Weegie. Google may well offer a translation… https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/krigen-i-ukraina-1.11480927

    1. We do not want another Henry Kissinger. That evil sod is at the root of the Rockefeller population/climate scam and he orchestrated the 1973-74 oil crisis. He cannot slide off his perch soon enough.

      1. OMG, SORRY, I went completely off-Notll yday as I had day 1 of looking after day2 of wife’s return from Poland, daughter’s cat (family off for a week at Instow, Devon) a meal at Nando’s, shopping at monster Sainsbury’s (all in Selly Oak). Plus watching England not-quite totally mash those cheating Aussies. Quite a day.

        3. My first teaching job was in Bideford in the early 1970s and I rented a house in Appledore with a view across the water of Instow. In those days there was a little bar in Instow called The Lobster Pot where, of a Friday evening, you could take along your musical musical instruments and play. I took along my guitar and sang some of my songs there from time to time.

    4. I hope you had an enjoyable birthday, and that there will be many more to come.

  31. Just one from the letters:

    SIR – What would be the point of holding a referendum on net zero (Leading Article, July 23)?

    I suspect the result would show that most people support attaining such a goal within a reasonable time frame. But the vote would be ignored by the monied, illiberal elite who run the country. These people disregarded the result of the Brexit vote – and, not being satisfied with the choice of Conservative Party members, got rid of Liz Truss in double quick time.

    Democracy does not work in this country.

    B Marlow
    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    The trouble with a referendum on this, Mr M, is that it could go the wrong way. Besides, I rather suspect not once people are properly acquainted with the costs, the necessary changes to our way of life and the sheer futility of it. And that it is all based on a Great Lie about CO2 anyway. The ‘net’ the so-called ‘elites’ wish to ‘zero’ is YOU.

    However, you are right about the vote probably being disregarded if it were to be ‘wrong’ and democracy has probably never worked in this land, certainly not since the main political parties seized control at Westminster.

    I must pop outside to cut the grass and do a few other things in the garden before the rain arrives.

    1. Climate change is specifically excluded from media neutrality laws. Blair forced that one. It’d be a start to change that, if nothing else.

  32. Here is Ed Dowd explaining the impact on illness/disability being reported in the UK’s PIP (Personal Independent Pension System) data. As Ed states, “There’s something going on,” and he believes it’s the “vaccines”: the timeline is a very strong correlation that can no longer be dismissed.

    Now, back in May I received a reply from my MP, Will Quince, who is Minister of State for Health and Secondary Care, re an e-mail I sent to him. Quince’s reply consisted of a letter from another minister extolling the efficacy and safety of the “vaccines”, the testing regimen etc.
    How can ministers et al. not be aware of what Ed Dowd has uncovered from published UK data? If not the “vaccines” what is their interpretation of the data? The silence from the government is deafening while the Standard Deviations across a range of illnesses/disabilities are off the scale.

    Vigilant Fox – Ed Dowd Analyses UK PIP Data

    1. Why were the government so desperate to get Mark Steyn off air?

      Ofcom is a woke puppet which leaves the BBC alone and viciously attacks people like Steyn and GB News when they dare to go off message.

      I am very disappointed that GB News has so little testicular strength – they seem to have forgotten Mark Steyn completely and no longer have any interest in pursuing the topics of vaccine damage and the Muslim rape gangs.

      1. Two topics the state wants you to never hear about. If people are reminded that pakistani paedophile rapists are not only completely ignored by the state, but protected by it, that absolutely nothing has changed whatsoever and more of the vermin continue to be brought in by the truck load by the state machine itself then there would be problems. By driving the messenger off air it can control the message.

        Standard Left wing playbook.

        1. I am depressed by the fact that when you get to the nitty gritty GB News will give in.

  33. Reposted from late last night

    Sunday 30th July, 2023

    Alf the Great

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/869d5d9de36a32380239e2561fb0804b6b14625439f607361c1e6a3828023203.jpg

    Very many Happy Returns and congratulations on becoming a Sunset Stripper!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and RastusSunday 30th July, 2023

    Alf the Great

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/869d5d9de36a32380239e2561fb0804b6b14625439f607361c1e6a3828023203.jpg

    Very many Happy Returns and congratulations on becoming a Sunset Stripper!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

      1. Thank you Richard and Caroline. Your second attempt last night was successful.

        1. Happy Birthday, Alf.
          Hope it’s the best yet, and there’s many more to come!

        2. In my case it would probably be more humane of me to strip in total darkness rather than in the light of sunset!

          “What you can’t see won’t hurt you!”

          4. Thank you Ann.
            We hope you are getting proper treatment at last.
            Always thinking of you.

        5. 🎼🎶Happy Birthday to you, Alf!🎵 Have a lovely day! 🥂🍾🎉🎂🍰🥳

          1. Thanks pm.
            Son, daughter and two of the grandchildren just left having spent a couples of hours with us after vw took me to an Italian restaurant for lunch.
            All in all a wonderful 77th.

  34. Good Moaning.
    Bright yellow object in the sky.
    Have I enough time left to me to read NOTTL?

  35. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://twitter.com/Bobbybollocks2/status/1685254027540381696?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd6d8b026d77d779df0c619ce1d0a88b499df5de18d15f4a706f8967fb325b84.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c702d1bd26bd732430c20d17711e07bbe91e72dfac60f5d9634ac948cf8696fc.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8f0ca9e5d0fedca18a18db1f84a161491f5e3d6a17c075cf8f8562465f77873.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be44a433babb6b73d4f3de6d3c380c82878bcde9d459d5eaf6fcf2fd3f095e99.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcfdd9057de82d91c11e21f6fc87bdbcfe19bef7a1032cc359481b37483607c0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0537494c56f46b0de7788adcb25ffc2a3cde064059dfc2c28e5bfb5b419dbdd3.jpg

    2. This needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

      ULEX – Special exemptions for Muslims

      Will the BBC say anything about it?

      Will Sunak?
      Will Starmer?
      Will Davey?
      Will a spokesperson for the Civil Service?

    4. ‘Mudslime’ – good one. From the same stable as my moSlum word.
      I really don’t understand why that idiot got elected – are there really more MoSlum voters than others? Or was vote rigging that bad?
      Any non slammer who voted for him has no right to complain if they are adversely affected by the policies of this odious man.

  37. Good morning everyone.
    The eu must be salivating over these incoming visa and other requirements. Why on earth would they need to know our health conditions? I don’t have a problem with needing a basic visa style etias. But with our biometric passports, why do they need scans of our faces and fingerprints?
    I suspect I won’t be the only one who will simply not bother with any more holidays to the eu. Plenty of other destinations which will not put such obstacles in the way.
    If the eu is so concerned about who is entering their territory, why don’t they demand the same of the thousands of illegal parasites who arrive each year? Or is it that they know the target destination of so many is the UK, so they can simply turn a blind eye?
    We have the eTA when we travel to Canada, and at the airport are asked the purpose of our visit, where we are staying and for how many nights. All perfectly ok. No fingerprints or face scans to submit.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12352523/EXCLUSIVE-Holiday-chaos-fear-EU-big-brother-visas-massive-queues-stubborn-Brussels-bureaucracy-thats-holding-things-up.html#comments

    1. Don’t depend on easy access to Canada. During covidays, they blew $54 million on a little phone app to control entry into canada. The original cost estimate was $65,000 but things went the way of a government budget.

      Their excuse for the high cost was that it can be used for much more than simple border control.

      1. Tell me about it. I had to fork out for a new phone last summer as my old one was too decrepit to take the ArriveCan app.
        Then the ridiculous farce on arrival at Pearson. Desperately trying to connect to the airport wifi so we could access the info, all while creeping through the snaking queue to get to the wonderful new (and inefficient, hardly working) machines at the border,
        and find out if we were being ‘randomly selected’ to take the oh-so-reliable test once we were through the system. If I didn’t have high blood pressure on landing, I reckon it must have been sky high by the time we got to the train platform.
        On all our previous trips to visit our son, we have had a very short queue to get to the passport officer, the usual questions about the trip then straight through to baggage. From exiting the plane to getting the bags, it was always under an hour.
        I take it from your comment, that these new machines are here to stay.

  38. HS2 is officially ‘unachievable’ after being given red rating. 30 July 2023.

    The rating, contained in the IPA’s annual report on big projects, says: “Successful delivery of the project appears to be unachievable. There are major issues with project definition, schedule, budget, quality and/or benefits delivery, which at this stage do not appear to be manageable or resolvable. The project may need re-scoping and/or its overall viability reassessed.”

    This month, HS2’s chief executive, Mark Thurston announced his resignation after delays and cost pressures for the railway project. He is to leave his role in September after six and a half years leading the government-owned company.

    Leading it where? Why has he not been arrested and tried for fraud?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/30/hs2-officially-unachievable-red-rating-problems-london-birmingham

    2. What did Blair say that was worth agreeing with? I’d be very, very suspicious!

      1. I guess he said:
        “Just think of the number of wars you could start for the cost of net zero|”

      2. I guess he said:
        “Just think of the number of wars you could start for the cost of net zero|”

  41. Beat the rain. Grass cut, some Mo-bacter moss killer applied to control the pesky stuff and the patio swept just in time.

    something else I’ve had to do recently is recover my favourite bench.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a2537d0e054d5f3357172361fc372e31787a058fb1809b8c2dc29ee70920d0eb.jpg

    It’s a sunny spot in the afternoon and early evening and I used to go there with a book or my iPad to listen to a podcast during the lockdowns. It was a great place for a bit of post-prandial narcolepsy too. However, overhead is a branch of an ash tree where the resident wood pigeons chose to perch, roost and conduct their marital affairs. Result – the roof of my shed and my bench and its surrounds became their toilet.

    What to do? I could have had the local tree-surgeon come to remove the branch but that seemed a bit expensive for a one-off job and it would spoil the shape of the tree. My preferred option was to acquire a .22 air rifle with ‘scope which would have had the added benefit of letting me re-awaken a youthful pursuit and start making inroads into the local North American tree-rat population as well.

    SWMBO wouldn’t have it. Besides, wood pigeons being reasonably fecund and nature abhorring a vacuum and all that, the branch would soon be re-tenanted.

    I had to remove my bench and scrape off the pigeon guano which is seriously corrosive stuff. It discolours and lifts paint as anyone who has left it on their car for too long will know. Repainted it now sits in my garage because I don’t have another spot for it without completely rearranging another area of the garden. It’s probably going to my daughter’s new house to grace her garden.

    The things is, since I took the bench away, the pigeons have stopped shitting there. Are they ‘avin’ a larf?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c71f4dae4c745bddd139f3891b22e722cef53e81092e52da9fb39b19d4c5c049.jpg

      1. Yes. I like pigeon. And rabbit. I haven’t tried any of Roger Scruton’s squirrel or fox recipes yet though.

    3. The .22 route is the way to go, provided your neighbours are not greenies and therefore anti. It only requires one of the little sods to drop into another garden before death has taken place and all hell will break loose “Is that the RSPCA?” “Yes, on our way.” Nee nah, nee nah…

      Fortunately, our previous garden had only one neighbour and he was happy to blaze away even ever tree rats appeared. I now use traps and peanut butter, and then administer the coup de grace with said .22.

  43. Private Frederick George Dancox VC (1878 – 30th November 1917), 4th Battalion, The Worcestershire Regiment.

    For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in attack. After the first objective had been captured and consolidation had been started, work was considerably hampered, and numerous casualties were caused, by an enemy machine gun firing from a concrete emplacement situated on the edge of our protective barrage. Pte. Dancox was one of a party of about ten men detailed as moppers-up. Owing to the position of the machine gun emplacement, it was extremely difficult to work round a flank. However, this man with great gallantry worked his way round through the barrage and entered the “Pillbox” from the rear, threatening the garrison with a Mills bomb. Shortly afterwards he reappeared with a machine gun under his arm, followed by about 40 enemy. The machine gun was brought back to our position by Pte. Dancox, and he kept it in action all day. By his resolution, absolute disregard of danger and cheerful disposition, the morale of his comrades was maintained at a very high standard under extremely trying circumstances.

    The London Gazette, 23rd November 1917.

    Dancox was killed in action near Masnieres, France, on 30th November 1917 and is commemorated on the Cambrai Memorial to the Missing.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/56/Frederick_George_Dancox_VC.jpg

  44. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit. Who’d a thunk it – now even in Wikipedia!
    The United Kingdom started to change from Fahrenheit to Celsius in 1962, and many people remain aware of Fahrenheit temperatures; degrees Fahrenheit are sometimes used in newspaper headlines to sensationalize heatwaves.[8]

    1. And also…when did someone in this country decide that distances would be in kilometres instead of miles – apart from the BBC of course?

      1. Dunno, but it annoys me when the racing commentators announce the races as 1000 metres – no! They’re FIVE FURLONGS.

  45. Anybody interested in a ride in a helicopter?
    We need one person to accompany us.

    We leave early this Saturday morning from Newquay airport and will then
    fly over Exmoor and Dartmoor before circling over Exe Estuary landing at
    Exeter for lunch.

    After lunch we’ll do a flight along the whole of the South Devon and
    Cornish coast before turning north over Bodmin Moor and back to Newquay.

    If interested, please message.
    Preferably someone with a helicopter
    otherwise we can’t go.

  46. Anybody interested in a ride in a helicopter?
    We need one person to accompany us.

    We leave early this Saturday morning from Newquay airport and will then
    fly over Exmoor and Dartmoor before circling over Exe Estuary landing at
    Exeter for lunch.

    After lunch we’ll do a flight along the whole of the South Devon and
    Cornish coast before turning north over Bodmin Moor and back to Newquay.

    If interested, please message.
    Preferably someone with a helicopter
    otherwise we can’t go.

    2. Is there a link for this? I’ve googled it and can’t find any reference to such an exemption.

      1. I don’t know saw it on faceache and thought it was a wind up, but you never can tell these days

    4. Googling the headline doesn’t return any matches, which is unusual.

      However, one of the exemption is for “Specialist agricultural vehicles”, or tractors. As Khan is full of it, perhaps having some sprayed at him – and the joilers ‘by accident’ – would improve his attitude.

    1. 350,000 debanked in the last 12 months. I wonder if any of them were remainers.

          1. Debanking of persons whose political views are different to the government and civil service is designed not only to cause harm and inconvenience but in many cases to deny access to capital markets.

            You need a banking facility to take out a loan or in the case of a business, to raise money on the capital markets.

            As with so much else generated by corrupt politicians, bankers and the common purpose elites, their every decision is designed to damage the people.

    5. By simple biological fact, a woman does not have a penis. It’s damned simple. She’s lying to pander to an irrelevant, spoiled, bitter, evil minority.

        1. Is a transwoman a woman who thinks she’s a man, or. a man who thinks he’s a woman?

          In either case, no. They’re living a fantasy. A trans whatever is mentally ill, living a fantasy to escape pain in their own lives. Now, I don’t care what they want to make up. It’s up to them, but it remains an invention.

          2. I’m not unsympathetic to their right to choose to live however they want. That’s a basic fundamental of liberty.

            However, if a man decides he is now a woman that’s for him – not for me. I could be polite and indulge his fantasy but that’s just reinforcing a psychosis. As for other pressure groups demanding I accept someone else’s views? No. Their rights stop where mine begin.

            I’m told that some people think how they identify themselves is the most important thing. It may be – but it only applies to them. It has no jurisdiction over me. I can respect it, but they’ve no right to force me to accept it.

          4. When we were young they’d have been in the local loony bin. Still the best place.

          5. “Care in the Community” nowadays – they are out and about being offended.

          6. Growing up in York, that was Nayburn Hospital, which had replaced Bootham Park Hospital, formerly York Lunatic Asylum. I was very familiar with the words Nayburn and Bootham as signifying lunacy and the appropriate location thereof.

          8. Here, in North Herts, it was Fairfield Hospital near Arlesey in neighbouring South Beds. It closed in 1999 and his since been sub-divided and converted into desirable homes at the centre of a housing estate built in the grounds of the hospital.

          10. Same has happened to Severalls Hospital in Colchester.
            Many of the blocks of ‘social housing’ look amazingly similar to the old villas that stood in the grounds. I suspect many of the same types are housed in them.

          11. Same has happened to Severalls Hospital in Colchester.
            Many of the blocks of ‘social housing’ look amazingly similar to the old villas that stood in the grounds. I suspect many of the same types are housed in them.

          12. In the West Country, I was informed that the traditional phrase to describe someone who has stepped off the path of normality as having ‘gone Bodmin’.

          13. In the West Country, I was informed that the traditional phrase to describe someone who has stepped off the path of normality as having ‘gone Bodmin’.

          14. And even if a man thinks, or is convinced, that he is a woman, that should never give him the right to share changing rooms, toilets or any space designated for women or children.

    8. A brave politician would abandon the clamour for ‘women only” spaces and have spaces only for men and women with penises and spaces for men and women without penises.

      Discrimination based on gender or sex should not be used – the test on the sports field, in the changing room and other sensitive areas should be entirely penis orientated.

      So Usain Bolt has the 100 metres sprint record for those with penises and Florence Griffith-Joyner has the record for those without penises. If Mr Bolt wanted to get Ms Griffiths-Joyner’s he would first have to have a willieoscopy*. I wonder how many penis possessors would be prepared to do this?

      *Our expert on these matters Paul (aka Oberstleutnant) has quite rightly corrected my vocabulary and my spelling.

        1. You’re right – you doubtless know far more about these things than I do.

          1. An -oscopy is to do with looking, an -ectomy to do with cutting.
            I’ll see myself out.

          2. Yes I had an — ectomy to check for any nasties still lurking inside me after having my Gaul gall-bladder removed. I have looked it up – the operation was a cholecystectomy. Not much fun but mercifully no nasties found.

            My younger son and my wife have both had cholecystectomies too. I though it must have been something to do with our living in France but that was a spelling mistake.

    1. It appears that Bancel anticipated a pandemic early in 2020, after Covid-19 had first appeared and had already begun spreading rapidly.

      Stephane Bancel Predicted COVID-19 Would Become Pandemic

      At the State of the Pandemic panel, the host Sasha Vakulina asked Bancel about vaccine development, to which he responded:

      So the great news versus 2020, where we are today is that we have manufacturing capacity. As Seth knows, when the pandemic happened, Moderna had made 100,000 dose in 2019 for the whole year.

      And I remember walking into the office of my head of manufacturing and I say, ‘How about we make a billion dose next year?’ And he looked at me a bit funny and say, ‘What?’

      And I say, ‘Yeah, we need to make a billion dose next year, there’s going to be a pandemic.’”

      Bancel did not mention when this incident happened, but it appears to have happened in 2020, based on an August 2021 interview with Pictet Asset Management, where he said:

      In 2019, we made fewer than 100,000 doses of vaccine. In the first quarter of 2021 alone, we shipped over 100 million doses and are now on a trajectory to produce 1 billion doses for this year.

      It appears that Stephane Bancel predicted sometime in early 2020 that COVID-19 will end up becoming a pandemic, and wanted Moderna to ramp up its production capacity to deal with it.

      As for the 100 thousand doses produced in 2019, that was its entire output of all vaccines that year, Covid-19 not amongst them.,

      Moderna Did Not Make COVID-19 Vaccine In 2019

      The claim that Moderna made 100,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in 2019 – before the pandemic happened, was an (intentional?) misunderstanding of what its CEO Stephane Bancel said at Davos 2023.

      At that time, Bancel said that Moderna made 100,000 vaccine doses for the whole of 2019. However, it was the entire year’s production of vaccines for cancer, the Zika virus, a flu vaccine, and vaccines against other respiratory viruses.

      Moderna spokesperson, Chris Ridley, later confirmed that Bancel was referring to the Moderna’s entire output in 2019, and not COVID-19 vaccines.

      The 100,000 Bancel mentioned during the “State of the Pandemic” session referred to “total doses across our portfolio: Vaccines, rare diseases, cancer – the entire companies 2019 pipeline.

      https://www.techarp.com/facts/moderna-ceo-pandemic-coming/

  56. Strap bloody back! I’m knackered!
    That hung up elm is no longer hung up! With assistance from the ex-Student Son it’s now like a chav in a filing cabinet! Sorted!

    Found a new use for HGV ratchet straps. With the hook of the ratchet linked onto the hook of the strap, wrapped round a tree and wound up tight, they make a serviceable foothold for getting a short distance up the tree!

    1. I released one a bit like that about 25 years ago. Only had an axe, so had to stand on the slope and chop the trunk by swinging the axe up & over my head. I can still vividly recall the muscle pain even now…

      1. To stabilize the elm, I strapped it to the adjacent ash with an HGV ratchet strap and then realised I could use the straps so placed as footholds to reach further up the tree, so strapped another two above the 1st and using a pruning saw fixed to a broom handle, cut most of the way through the branch causing the problem.
        That then allowed me a pull upper part of the elm forward until I reckoned it would be safe to unstrap it from the ash which allowed it to drop down and then use the chainsaw to take out lengths of the trunk, eventually allowing it to be pulled right off the trees it was hung up on.
        Sadly, all the ash trees up there have die-back so will, at some time, need to be felled and cleared. Getting them safely down will be another pain in the arse as they will need to be pulled uphill as I drop them!
        However, I have left the lighter brash in a heap adjacent to where I’ve been working so it will provide nesting or hibernation shelter for birds and other beasties!

        1. Bloody hell.
          I thought I’d done well by releasing a couple of boxes from the attic.

  60. Does this guy realise it’s a one way trip?

    An 80-year-old Olympian is aiming to show Parkinson’s is no
    barrier to enjoying life as he prepares to blast off on Virgin
    Galactic’s first space tourism flight next week.

    Jon Goodwin will board VSS Unity before it launches from New Mexico, in the US, on Aug 10 – 18 years after buying his $250,000 (£194,600) ticket.

    A former canoeist who represented Great Britain at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Mr Goodwin will be the first ever Olympian to become an astronaut when he sets off for a 90-minute trip into space.

    Mr Goodwin, from Newcastle, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2014 and hopes his latest adventure will inspire others to do “abnormal things”.

    1. $250,000 for 90 minutes, where you can’t even step outside onto the terrace.

    2. Well, it does not inspire me !! I prefer my feet firmly on the ground these days!!

    3. Look skywards and you’ll see which craft he’s in – it’ll be wobbling all over the sky

    3. The eruption (Jan 2022) caused tsunamis in Tonga, Fiji, American Samoa, Vanuatu and along the Pacific rim, including damaging tsunamis in New Zealand, Japan, the United States, the Russian Far East, Chile and Peru. At least four people were killed, some were injured, and some remain possibly missing in Tonga from tsunami waves up to 20 m (66 ft) high. Only 4 killed? Strange how little it was reported at the time – and quickly forgotten too.

    4. The warmists were very keen on volcanoes as an explanation for the so-called Little Ice Age…

    5. From Wiki

      The total number of submarine volcanoes is estimated to be over one million (most are now extinct) of which some 75,000 rise more than 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) above the seabed. Only 119 submarine volcanoes in Earth’s oceans and seas are known to have erupted during the last 11,700 years

      Given how rare an event this must have been one might have expected a lot more coverage.

      1. “…one might have expected a lot more coverage”

        I do like a good larf of a Sunday afternoon!!

    7. Thank you, that is very interesting. I had a look at the NASA website and then started hunting around for other “official” sources, plenty to read!

  63. A Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 771 3/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟨🟩🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Better than myeffort
      Wordle 771 4/6

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

      1. And here

        Wordle 771 4/6

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

      2. Your second shot was negative; perhaps you were enjoying a cocktail, Richard :)!

    2. Par here.

      Wordle 771 4/6

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

    3. Par four. Right letters, wrong order.

      Wordle 771 4/6

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

  65. Cost of Grenfell Tower disaster soars to nearly £1.2bn. 30 July 2023.

    The financial cost of the Grenfell Tower disaster has reached nearly £1.2bn – 4,000 times the amount that was saved by replacing fire-retardant cladding with a cheaper combustible alternative during the disastrous refurbishment.

    The bulk of the cost is being met from the public purse, dwarfing the compensation to bereaved and survivors paid by companies involved in wrapping the west London council’s block in combustible materials before the fire in June 2017 that killed 72 people.

    This is another scam. Bob the Builder could probably fix it for a reasonable fee.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/jul/30/grenfell-tower-disaster-cost-soars

  67. That’s me gone for this sultry – very wind-blown – day. Ladder work to clean gutters and replace broken tiles. Then shifted four more barrow loads for levelling up. Four a day for the next week and all should be ready for grass seed in Sept. Rain expected in half an hour – and then for several hours. It may just miss us, of course.

    Have a jolly evening drinking “cheap” wine – remember the duty goes up on 1 August. You know it makes sense. Something has to be done to pay for the illegals….

    A demain

    1. If yours is the same weather front that arrived here a few hours ago, get set for a prolonged spell of rain.

      1. It is about two miles south of us, Stig. I have been waiting since 5 pm!! Not a drop! Yet.

  68. Last post. That burning cargo ship story – seems to have gone VERY quiet. Did it sink?

    1. It was full of world saving EVs as I understand it.
      The fact that they burn so well whilst emitting smoke you really, really don’t want to breath in is inconvenient for the agenda to say the very least.

      1. Just 25 EVs according to the DM, amongst nearly 3,000 ICE. Which goes to show that you don’t need many of them to be dangerous.

        1. Apparently is was actually a couple of hundred! The manifest had not been made out correctly.

    5. Salvagers are towing it to a new location off the Dutch coast. Associated Press gave us an update earlier this evening.

      Salvage crews begin towing a burning cargo ship to a new location off the Dutch coast as smoke eases

      Updated 7:02 PM GMT+1, July 30, 2023

      THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Salvage crews started towing a burning cargo ship loaded with thousands of cars to a temporary anchorage location off the northern Dutch coast on Sunday after smoke pouring from the stricken vessel eased, authorities said.

      On Saturday night, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management had said the Fremantle Highway was unlikely to be moved because of a southeasterly wind blowing smoke from the days-old fire over tugboats.

      But that changed Sunday.

      “The smoke from the cargo ship subsided considerably this afternoon and the salvage combination Multraship/Smit Salvage immediately made use of this,” the ministry said in a statement referring to two salvage companies involved in the operation.

      The ship was being slowly towed by two tugs to a temporary anchor point about 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of the Dutch islands of Schiermonnikoog and Ameland.

      Experts are continuously monitoring the ship’s stability and a specialized boat used to clean up oil is nearby in case there is a spill, the ministry added.

      The salvage teams ultimately want to tow the stricken ship to a port but it is not yet clear where or when that will happen.

      The crews on Saturday attached a second towing cable to the ship, which was transporting 3,783 new vehicles, including 498 electric vehicles, from the German port of Bremerhaven to Singapore.

      The ship has been burning since Tuesday. Firefighters decided not to douse the flames with water for fear of making the nearly 200-meter (219-yard) ship unstable as it floats close to North Sea shipping lanes and a world-renowned migratory bird habitat.

      One crew member died and others were injured after the fire broke out. The crew was evacuated in the early hours of Wednesday.

      The cause of the fire has not been determined.

      https://apnews.com/article/ship-fire-cars-dutch-singapore-bird-wind-cc22e1ae9d2f78920986ef297d4beb8d

  69. Here’s a bizarre couple of pressings of the TV control.
    Ranting by the ITV News about vehicle pollution. Another programme on BBC 2 about electric cars.
    And formula One on channel 4.
    Also a mention of another motor show, apparently known as The Ford gand prix.
    Wadda a loada bolero.
    Make your minds up please.

      1. Will motorsports be outlawed? After all, they consume fossil fuels for no purpose other than mere entertainment. What’s more, they glorify the internal combustion engine, making it an object of desire, whereas our very existence on this planet depends upon its total demonisation and vilification.

      1. Hi Conners, so far so good, but I have to keep taking strong medication, 200 mg each tab of Amiodarone for about 4 weeks. 3 a day for a week to start, two a day then one a day until the 56 have gone. I’m supposed to have a review after that. But at the moment apart from minor issues like back ache and ecchymosis which is a huge bruise in the upper right groin area, pretty good so far. Except very tired, but I think that’s part of the adgenda..
        Thanks for asking.
        How’s things with you ?

        1. Apart from being wet (the damp does my arthritis no good at all), I’m fairly okay at the moment. I have a raft of physio exercises to do for my sacroiliac joint, but I was naughty over the holiday and didn’t do them (there isn’t a lot of room in the motorhome). I’ve left off the pee pills and feel a lot better! The oedema I was taking them for is much reduced anyway so I don’t think I’ll be restarting any time soon. My ribs (broken when I got bucked off) seem to be completely mended now (I can lie on my back without pain in the damaged area), so I shall seriously start looking to restart riding, an activity of which my physio approves, thankfully. KBO

          1. It’s a tough life over the age of 55 I suspect many of us have found and experienced the same or very similar annoying aspects.
            But what can we do but get on with it as best as we can.
            Best wishes to all of us I’d say Conners. I hope Maggie comes back and Ann gets through her current health problems.
            As you say KBO. Cheers.

          2. As I constantly say when people moan about getting old, “it beats the alternative” 🙂

  70. I have a question of a personal nature i would like to ask Nottlers who identify as male…………..Now i have heard of ladies/women sometimes having lopsided breasts. My question is do men have the same condition without the extra tissue?
    I ask because i was recently sent to have a mammogram (bloody painful) for abnormal tissue growth and now though they said it was gynecomastia i am now lopsided.
    I would ask a Doctor but you know how nocturnal they are……………

    1. What size bra do you normally wear?

      (Joke – I have every sympathy with you in real life – it isn’t funny)

      1. Though i was investigated my left chest is noticeably larger than when i had the tests. I am going to ask my neighbour who does have real breasts for her opinion.

        1. Could be that you have lopsided development of muscle – for example, a smith may easily have a larger chest on his hammer-wielding side.

          1. Unless Phil has taken up a new occupation or hobby, I think it unlikely that an abnormal chest development due to unequal exertion would have emerged only recently.

    2. It has a Wikipedia entry so it must be real.

      Now if someone infers that you are a right t*t, you will, have to ask if they are talking about your splendid physique or one of your jokes,

    3. I competed in a lot of contact sports, and displaced the bits under a nipple. It looked horribly swollen and fairly nasty.
      Eventually a surgeon decided to remove all the wrecked parts but left me with a nipple sunk into a crater.
      Every doctor who looks at it now goes slightly panicky, until I explain the background.
      It looks bad and the usual assumption is that it must be cancerous.
      It isn’t.
      Keep watching yours closely, but do not panic over it.
      Even if it really is serious, your doctors will know the best way forward.
      Live life normally…
      .

      1. Blimey ! You are changing ! Nottle does that you know.
        Yours was caused by a sport injury many years ago. Mine was by a piercing many years ago.
        I am not panicking. It has been looked at through the three departments in Oncology and is considered to be benign,
        I still have a noticeable difference. Not just in the level of the nipples but also the fact that the left tit is becoming a boob.
        Unlike Ann i have had lots of tests and again like Ann got nowhere.

        I will add to that that Consultants have prescribed drugs that that my GP didn’t pick up on. When the Consult wrote a letter to the practice i assumed they would action it. When 6 months later i complained to the pharmacist he said i should take responsibility. When i asked him for a printout of all the drugs he had dispensed he refused.

        1. I recognise your description of the size difference, my right one still looks as if I lift weights and am very fit, the left just looks flabby, with a bruised hole around the nipply bit. so the difference is fairly noticeable.
          I hope yours sorts itself out or if you can’t then learn to ignore it.
          A word to the wise:
          The damned thing can itch like Hell and shed. it goes away in due course, for me.

        2. I ‘ve had both my breasts hacked about for breast cancer removal so they are lop-sided – but I’m still alive and kicking.

  71. I know that Disqus relies on revenues from its sponsors, whose clickbait tops and tails our threads, but do I really have to put up with the frequently repeated appearance of the hideous Donatella Versace?

    2. It’s really annoying, but I guess better than having to pay for it.
      Having said that these greedy days they want people pay to stop it. They can make more money from surrender than from the advertising.

      1. I expect there’s a setting somewhere which I’ve not switched on. Nor have you on your phone by the look of it but you have done so on your old laptop.

        1. I’ve got Adblock on here and I thought I’d set it on my phone but it doesn’t get rid of them all there.

    2. This would be the government, of which he is nominally leader, which continues to levy VAT and fuel tax on petrol, along with insurance premium tax on mandatory car insurance, so it’s not in favour of the motorist.

      1. I do not get the impression that Sunak always understands the soundbites that he reads out…

    1. Unfortunately, the diagram is rather fuzzy, but it looks like instructions for making a sandwich.

      2. I thought they were making cushions – but with their padding they hardly need them.

  76. How the Government embraced net zero without considering the basic practicalities

    In this age of extraordinary technological challenge, opportunity and mishap; perhaps we should insist that our MPs and Civil Servants qualify for a minimum level of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics knowhow – ‘STEM’.

    Our present lot are – with few exceptions – unfit for purpose and courting potential disaster.

    2. None of them even knows what a millivolt might look like. All those Greats and PPE degrees, all utterly ueless when it comes to running a country.

        1. No, Communist Merkel was a chemist.

          She built some 16 Coal plants.

          Then she shut down all Nuclear plants – and invited ‘everyone’ into the EU.

          She is entirely responsible for decades of uncontrolled immigrants.

          1. One thousand upvotes, lacoste. And don’t forget that, after inviting everyone in she suddenly panicked and said that the EU members should each take “their fair share”.

          2. I looked up the hagiography on Wikipedia, and discovered that she studied physics but ended up working as a research chemist! Also, she got 1.0 in the Abitur, which is the equivalent of getting an A* in probably 8 subjects at A level standard in those days – no mean feat.

            “Merkel continued her education at Karl Marx University, Leipzig, where she studied physics from 1973 to 1978.[36] …
            Near the end of her studies, Merkel sought an assistant professorship at an engineering school. …
            Merkel worked and studied at the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin-Adlershof from 1978 to 1990. ..
            After being awarded a doctorate (Dr. rer. nat.) for her thesis on quantum chemistry in 1986,[49] she worked as a researcher and published several papers.”

            That is a considerable amount of moving around.

      2. I’d prefer it if they knew what milliamps looked like! (It’s the volts that jolts, but it’s the mills – milliamps – that thrills kills as was drummed into me).

  77. Hola, amigos! (Excuse the lack of upside-down ! at the beginning, I’m on the laptop). I have been incommunicado for a week as I went on holiday to a sodden Yorkshire (it didn’t stop raining until the morning I left!) and I hadn’t realised the campsite didn’t have Internet. I’m sure there has been lots happening during my not-so-temporary absence. Hope that health issues have been resolved.

    The dogs enjoyed themselves (it was a very dog-friendly site) and Oscar even managed to be persuaded to do the weaving exercise in the dog agility section. Kadi jumped the lowest of the bars, which was a tremendous achievement for a dog with little legs. They, like me, however, didn’t enjoy being wet all the time.

    I did manage to do everything I’d planned, with the exception of Ryedale Show. One look at the black clouds and I decided staying in the motorhome and listening to the rain lash down was preferable to standing in the middle of the showground trying to hide in a marquee with lots of other people all trying to shelter.

    While I was away, a tree came down in my garden, so I’ve had to start tackling that since I came home and the bills awaiting me all had to be paid as well.

    That’s enough of me and my woes; the government, of whatever shade, does not appear to have considered the consequences of its actions for many decades, of which net zero is only one imbecility.

    1. Glad to see you back, sorry rain interrupted your enjoyment, but I’m sure the change of scenery made it worth while.

      2. You can’t have a green and pleasant land without some form of punishment JTL 😏🌧☔️

    2. One did wonder, Conners, but being in God’s own county would make up for an awful lot of rain and missing internet.
      You are right about the imbeciles.

  78. Well – it’s been a wet old day today – raining and windy all day.

    Still we’ve had our dinner – roast shoulder of lamb ( done how we like it, no matter what they say in the DT) ratatouille I think I’ve made enough to last all week. New potatoes, green beans and sugar snaps, preceded by our usual Sunday starter – smoked salmon and prawns with salady bits. All while listening to a favourite cd – the incomparable Anna Netrebko wowing the audience at the Met. Are they still punishing hemselves because she’s Russian?

    1. Hardly a cloud all day and very warm – cornflakes for my dinner as the Tescos delivery was late

      1. That wasn’t on the cd we had with our dinner………but Callas’ voice is so distinctive, and yes – always with feeling.

      3. This was my Mother’s favourite aria, always reminds me of her singing along with it…

      4. That’s what Ashes serenaded me with as i walked her to her hotel after a nice dinner.
        I didn’t get invited in for a night cap though. :@(

  81. I’d like a pound for every mile I hitch-hiked between Maidstone and Wooler in the early ’70s when serving with 36 Engineer Regiment and between Perham Down, Tidworth and Newbiggin by the Sea in the late ’70s when with 22 Engr.

    Hitch-free hitchhiking
    SIR – Where have all the hitchhikers gone?

    During the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s I hitched all over the country without a single mishap. My journey time would almost always compare with that of the train. I remember queue-jumping at Staples Corner, saving a fortune, rolling cigarettes for lorry drivers and meeting all sorts of weird and wonderful people.

    The youth of today don’t know what they’re missing.

    Rob Cantellow
    Ashbourne, Derbyshire

    1. Hitchhiker asks “How do you know I’m not a serial killer”
      Reply “What are the odds of two serial killers in one car”

      1. Ah I saw that – can’t remember the name now. Was it one of Roald Dahl’s Tales of the Unexpected…?

    2. This is really someone else’s story, doing the same course as myself. Anyway, let’s call him Bruce. Bruce was hitch-hiking to Switzerland to take part in a field-course, rather than taking the student coach. We were an independent lot in those days. Anyway, there he was on the bend in the road at Madingley just outside Cambridge en route to St Neots and the A1, with his thumb stuck out. A sports car drew up to a halt. “Where are you going to, mate?” “Switzerland, Zurich!” was the reply from Brucie. “Well, hop in then, matey, because so am I, but we’ll have to go via Oxford first!” So that is exactly what Bruce did and arrived for the field course three days earlier than he had planned. Just what are the chances of that?

      1. Got picked up at Wooler, heading back to Maidstone and the driver was also heading there!

      2. Once upon a time, just before Christmas I going to Mill Hill to pick up my parents. Passing a layby on the A1 driving
        south past the M25 junction I saw a chap with a guitar case so I stopped to pick him up. He was going to London. I took him to Mill Hill East Station so he could get a Northern line train.
        He was very grateful.

    3. Care in the community (and massive immigration) happened. I used to hitch hike when I was a student. I wouldn’t do it now, you never know who might pick you up.

      1. I used to hitch hike a lot when I joined up, didn’t have enough money for rail or bus travel. Being in uniform was the best way to secure a lift but I don’t think you’re allowed to wear your uniform in public now unless on duty (since IRA attacks)

      2. My nephew hitch hiked to Greece and back again during his summer school holiday when he was 15. He went on to go to Dartmouth and became a submarine officer in the Royal Navy!

    4. I used to catch the tube to Hendon in the early 70s, when I was living in Richmond, then hitch on the A1 to Swinderby and later to Coningsby, in uniform. I swear that every other car would stop, although I do remember an old swine in a Humber Sceptre that tried to get a little too friendly.

        2. Keep up with the good natured enthusiasm Ann, you’ll get to where you want to be in the end.
          Dispite the long wait and some terrible treatment, I think I made it.
          Good luck and all the very best of good wishes to you. KBO does usually pay off.
          xxx😊

    5. I know Staples Corner, it’s that not far from where I use to live. Named after the Staples mattress factory.

  83. That’s me off to bed.
    Off to Altrincham tomorrow to pick up a rather alcoholic auction purchase!!
    HIC!!!

    1. Enjoy your trip to Altrincham, BoB. That’s where my paternal grandparents lived, so I have many happy memories of them. My mother’s brothers ran the local undertakers.

  85. Good night, chums, I’m off to bed now. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

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