Sunday 31 March: It is time Britain recognised that Russia poses a real threat to peace in Europe

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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713 thoughts on “Sunday 31 March: It is time Britain recognised that Russia poses a real threat to peace in Europe”

  1. CREATION

    On the first day, God created the dog and said, “Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years.”

    The dog said, “That’s a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I’ll give you back the other ten?” So God saw it was good.

    On the second day, God created the monkey and said, “Entertain people, do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I’ll give you a twenty-year life span.”

    The monkey said, “Monkey tricks for twenty years? That’s a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?” And God, again saw it was good.

    On the third day, God created the cow and said, “You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves and give milk to support the farmer’s family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years.”

    The cow said, “That’s kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I’ll give back the other forty?” And God agreed it was good.

    On the fourth day, God created humans and said, “Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I’ll give you twenty years.”

    But the human said, “Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?” “Okay,” said God. “You asked for it.”

    So that is why for our first twenty years, we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years, we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit in front of the Computer and bark at everyone.

    Life has now been explained to you.

    There is no need to thank me for this valuable information. I’m doing it as a public service. If you are looking for me, I will be sitting in front of the Computer.

  2. Happy Easter, everyone.

    Giving the dog a lie-in as he has no concept of time changes. And this year he gets an extra day’s transition time (Easter Monday).

  4. It is time Britain recognised that Russia poses a real threat to peace in Europe. 31 March 2024.

    SIR – Our government has a duty to inform the nation of the potential risks posed by Russia. We are all aware of the war in Ukraine (Letters, March 24), but many do not or cannot believe that it could directly affect us.

    There may indeed be war in Europe but it will not be Vlad’s doing. Armed Forces that cannot overcome Ukraine are not going to attack NATO. The opposite on the other hand is all too likely . A Europe under the control of the Globalists must always see a Free and Independent Russia as a threat.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/03/31/letters-britain-must-recognise-that-russia-is-a-real-threat/

    1. I’m not convinced that, outside Ukraine, peace would be breached by Russia in Europe for now. However, Putin is an opportunistic liar and must be constantly prodding and probing the West for any sign of weakness that can be exploited. Germany’s energy deficit is one example. So too is a consensus in the Establishment with its own agenda that has no bearing on public sensitivities and may even be indulging in perverting the course of justice, fraud, perjury and contempt of Parliament with impunity. Of course any attack ordered by the Kremlin can be blamed on Ukraine or any other convenient bogey. Russia only offers salvation for a price its clients cannot refuse.

      Far more likely to bring war into Europe will come from Israel, or rather a Muslim backlash against open American military support for a brutal genocide borne of vengeance and group liability for something done by zealots who may even be agents provocateurs. The Muslims are not strong enough to take on America directly, but I am sure they have sleeper cells installed through the criminal population resettlement campaign on a beach near you, and ready to erupt with mass riots when given the order to do so. Targeted will be Christian and secular blasphemers. Once the West becomes ungovernable, then the zealots can take command, and America will retreat into isolationism under the MAGA banner.

    1. Do you think Starmer will become the most hated PM ever when that does happen here?

    2. Any benefits going from Starmer will be towards hardworking foreign oligarchs and pressure group empire builders and their lawyers. The pensioners and the poor will find their Council Tax put up to pay for it all.

  6. Good Morning, chums. Today is the final day of the month, and I did today’s Wordle in four. Did you remember to put your clocks forward by 1 hour?

    Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

    1. Our alarm clock is synchronised with the Web, so self-adjusts. Problem is, you don’t know that for definite until you check, so I put my watch next to it so I could check. It had adjusted itself. Still don’t like being out of bed on a wet Sunday at 06:30 07:30.

    2. I was absolutely zonked out when Spartie leapt on the bed (better than any alarm clock) followed by MB with cups of tea.
      At first I thought I was ill; in a way I was because both appeared an hour too early.

  8. Britain is in decline. Only tough love can save us. 31 March 2024.

    Decline can be absolute as well as comparative. Britain’s is certainly in the latter compared with America, a country creating wealth more quickly than we are and whose ability to project its power far exceeds ours. However, we are in danger of regressing to a state of absolute decline, our wealth not increasing at all but depleting, our standard of living falling, and our clout in the world shrinking. We are not so far from that condition as we like to pretend.

    I’m not pretending at all! The decline is absolute. Very soon it will be Collapse. Only tough love revolution can save us.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/30/britain-is-in-decline-only-tough-love-can-save-us/

    1. Whilst I agree with you, Minty, about the need for revolution, who is there around today, who could possibly inspire others and lead it?

      2. Yesterday’s soldier would be a good candidate. Bloke like that can do anything.
        Morning, Tom!

        1. We had an old sweat from the Falklands stand at the 2019 General Election, who is also a Green Party councillor in a rural ward near Upton-on-Severn. Sadly, he didn’t get anywhere. The reason I didn’t vote for him was because he didn’t seem to be trying. I had no visit, no leaflet, and no public statement in a media more interested in TV debates between the party leaders. His Tory opponent however has just got a damehood from Rishi.

          2. Perhaps he had no money. It costs to have leaflets printed and a small army of helpers to distribute them. The media might have airbrushed him out (I’ve seen that happen) because it didn’t agree with him.

    2. I spent a month in Poland on a cultural exchange in 1979. I returned there in 2022. What I most noticed was that even when Johnny Rotten was suggesting, along with Charles Saatchi, that Britain wasn’t working, the standard of living was greater in Britain than it was in Communist Poland. Two years ago though, Poland seems to have overtaken us, and they do live better than we do. It is not an even prosperity – modern shopping malls there are horrid, like airport lounges here, and crossing a modern dual carriageway is an art fraught with all sorts of legal sanction.

      What says it all must be the reason I was in Poland two years ago. I was visiting the dentist, mindful that following Alan Milburn’s reform in the image of Blairism/Thatcherism (the “electable”), the only decent NHS dentists were from Poland, and that following Brexit, many of them had gone home. To cover the cost of providing a service at a loss, any decent British dentists had to charge through the nose to break even.

      1. They’re better than us because they’re Christian (the real type, not the fake Welby type), however even that is beginning to fade

    3. Revolution is very unBritish, not read Burke?

      The only thing that will save us is a return to tradition and widespread, orthodox Christianity

    4. Good morning all and a happy and peaceful Easter, as we look forward to a genuine renewal?

    5. Ah, The March of The Zimmer Frames……(that’ll teach em!)

      Morning Minty & All….

  11. Good morning
    Montessori kids…my children’s school was a bit like this.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8a0d7a5d2dbe2b5ef94c32398bbe726b64b97145a5886376817568923db92031.jpg

    “I had been on assignment at a Detroit Montessori school for two days, and shot hundreds of photos. Some were very good, but I knew I hadn’t gotten THE shot. That afternoon, as we all sat on the floor in a circle listening to a story, I bowed my head. When I raised my head, this little girl leaned over to lay her head on the little boy’s lap. He very gently lifted his arm to receive her. I call this photo ‘The Age of Innocence.” 🤍
    Credit: Marco Mancinelli.

    1. If the girl were brown and the boy ginger, would they be banning that image for being “patronising” and “child abuse”? Have a banana!

  12. Morning, all Y’all. Overcast, hissing down with rain. About to go & retrieve the cats from the Cat Hotel… hope their bar bill isn’t too bad!

    2. Cats now home and delighted! Rushing around, sniffing everything in a suspicious manner.
      For once, no poop in the cat carrier… thank God. Hate dealing with that.

  13. Happy Easter! The Lord haith risen!

    Latest poll released last night had Fishi facing a catastrophic collapse in the vote for the fake Tories, with Liebour set for a 280+ majority!!

    There’s going to be a serious amount of ‘Portillo moments’ in the upcoming GE, I one can’t wait!

        1. Starmer is even worse. Doesn’t mean I will vote Con, I despise them too.

          The Mail is currently running a series of gruesome and horrific stories of historic abuse at boarding schools. I can’t help wondering if they are laying the ground for Labour to try to abolish the private sector in education.

          3. Same here. You know they’re rattled when they start looking for anything against the usurper.

      2. He’ll be out by the Monday after polling day a la MacIntosh and Livingstone (GLC election 1981).

      1. I nearly wrote ‘as they say in China’ as it was one of my Dads ‘funnies’ – or not!

  15. We will never surrender powers to the World Health Organization. Esther McVey. 31 March 2024.

    I know people might be concerned that international organisations, like the World Health Organization, could acquire powers to force countries to adopt measures and restrictions.

    However, my ministerial colleagues and I would never give over any such powers to any organisation, including the World Health Organization.

    May God forgive her on this Easter Day!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/30/we-will-never-surrender-powers-to-the-who/

    1. In the foggy political mindset where lies, obfuscation and double-speak are de rigueur is there much of a difference between literally signing away powers and on the other hand being prepared to take on without question, recommendations from an unelected NGO that is heavily financed by totalitarian China and extremely wealthy private citizens?

  17. Good morning Nottlers, and a Happy Easter one and all. It’s a fine morning on the Costa Clyde, and I’m off to roll some golf balls down some hills.

    1. May all your drives find the fairways and your approach shots avoid the bunkers.

  18. Weasel words! Labour will probably be in power when the WHO issues the diktat for the climate lockdowns, as she very well knows.

  19. 385228+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I think this can now be considered to be daily bog standard.keep you on your toes fear propaganda.

    Sunday 31 March: It is time Britain recognised that Russia poses a real threat to peace in Europe

    Sunday 31 March: It is time Britain recognised that British current politico’s are posing a real threat to peace within these Isles.

    If we had the same written rhetoric about a daily
    report on the pursuit of a cancer cure, or the daily account of research into what is being done regarding other crippling diseases with the same zest we have for feeding the WAR machine and the creatures that profit from it, we would be on an ALL round winner.

  20. Good Morning and Happy Easter to all

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fdf4a3024-998a-43a3-b2c3-b9340bc4da80.jpg?crop=1350%2C900%2C125%2C0&resize=1027.5

    Tories to hold fewer than 100 seats to Labour’s 468, says poll

    Survey of 15,000 people suggests even Sunak’s seat is at risk

    Rishi Sunak’s Easter message hailed the start of spring: the season of hope, rebirth and renewal. Delivered after a damaging few weeks, he welcomed the “chance to pause and reflect”. But as he hurtles towards a general election, a new mega poll offers little hope he can resurrect his party’s…

      1. He’ll either lose or resign in the aftermath of his election drubbing. Then he’s off to the USA or India. He was a Green Card holder after all until people found out about it.

      2. He probably would welcome that, so that they could move on to some billionaire existence in California or somewhere else!

    2. Then the Labour supporters will find out just what they are like and learn the hard way.

        1. After Lockdowns, the torrent of lies told during Covid, Net Zero, flooding the country with third-world riff-raff and Muslims etc etc, target practice is the only thing they’re good for.

  22. Good Morning All from Sussex. 9C overcast little wind. lamb fillet for lunch with a Pinot Noir

  23. I wonder how many visitors to Badminton House will find this portrait deeply offensive?

    Oxford University in ‘woke’ row as portrait of duke with black boy is taken down

    Oriel College ‘banishes’ painting over fears students will be offended in the wake of Rhodes statue outcry

    Joe Pinkstone,
    SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
    30 March 2024 • 6:30pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/03/30/TELEMMGLPICT000372202886_17118173947450_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqg433TtTPXskD3WGV9f8HhEOSaHkHr5GM0OVgA4Mmo7o.jpeg?imwidth=680

    A portrait of an 18th-century duke that was on show at Oxford’s Oriel College has been removed amid claims it was feared students would be offended by the depiction of a black servant in the background.

    The painting of Henry Somerset, the 5th Duke of Beaufort, normally hangs in the Senior Library of the College, which counts Sir Walter Raleigh and Alexander Todd as alumni.

    The duke was a direct descendant of King Henry IV of England and graduated from Oriel in 1763. He died in 1803.

    In the portrait he wears ermine robes, a powdered wig and stockings and breeches, while in the background a small black boy holds his coronet.

    The portrait has been moved out of the college to Badminton House, the ancestral home where the 12th Duke currently resides, the Daily Mail reports.

    A college source told the newspaper: “It’s of a black page boy or servant. That’s why it had to be banished – in case it offended a student.

    “It’s a fine way to treat one of Oriel’s great benefactors, the first to endow scholarships for poor scholars since the Middle Ages.”

    The college says the portrait has been loaned to Badminton House as a temporary measure while there is work ongoing at the college. The portrait will be returned to the Senior Library once those refurbishments are completed, according to reports.

    The Beaufort Estate was not available for comment. Oriel College is closed for Easter break and did not comment on the story.

    Oxford University has been embroiled in a series of rows surrounding its attempts to decolonise its history and distance itself from its past.

    A statue of alumnus Cecil Rhodes which looked down on Oxford High Street has been the subject of much debate and protest in the past decade.

    Rhodes was a mining magnate and an imperialist who founded Rhodesia and served as prime minister of the Cape Colony in the 1890s. Rhodes donated about £100,000 to the college in his will following his death in 1902, which is around £12 million in today’s money, and which has funded many scholarships.

    A plaque calling him a “committed colonialist” was erected to contextualise his legacy following a vicious debate that erupted after groups tried to have the statue removed.

    **************************

    Jacob Smith
    13 HRS AGO
    Best way for Oxford to decolonise is to remove all students of African ancestry and no longer accept applicants.
    Inflicting an Oxford education on these people is just an intolerable act of cruelty. Let them seek education back in Africa free of the “white gaze”

    Carpe Jugulum
    13 HRS AGO
    Call me cynical but far too many of the people attacking our history have no connection with it whatsoever. How many citizens of London now have relatives who lived through the blitz?
    British tolerance has been exploited to undermine OUR society, OUR culture and OUR history.
    It is time tolerance of these attacks came to an end.

    Clive Richardson
    11 HRS AGO
    The irony here of course, that black kids are being given University places and individually mentored in Oxford and Cambridge, over and above poor white kids from the same neighbourhoods.
    Blatant discrimination.

    1. “The portrait has been moved out of the college to Badminton House, the ancestral home where the 12th Duke currently resides, the Daily Mail reports.”

      The upside to wokery. The legal owners of works of art get back their own property.

    2. The real reason it has been removed is because the thieving rascal has been caught stealing the Dukes coronet and the face hasn’t been blurred out – as is usual with certain ethnicities.

    3. But I thought the 18th century was supposed to be populated with blacks. This is merely proof 🙂

  24. Looks like “they” are getting worried, time for some hatchet jobs
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13255781/Reform-UK-surged-polls-party-harbours-unsavoury-rogues-candidate-Tommy-Robinson-Covid-conspiracy-theorist-likened-animal-abuser.html

    Reform UK has surged in the polls but the party harbours some unsavoury rogues – from a candidate who supports Tommy Robinson to a Covid conspiracy theorist who likened Boris Johnson to Hitler and even another who’s a convicted animal abuser

    1. All parties have their loonies. This gives Tice time to get rid of them before an election.

    2. I knew exactly such an article would appear (the first of many) and have been waiting for it. It shows the powers that be are seriously rattled.

      1. All part of the psyop to build the fear and tension so that the sheep can feel very, very rebellious when they place their cross next to Reform (controlled opposition)…

    4. But but, Hitler was a socialist vegetarian, animal rights activist who didn’t care for people very much. That should make him spot on.

  25. I agree completely. Even between lockdowns our two churches were the only ones in the whole area to reopen and restart services. We were in interregnum and the churchwardens ignored demands from the Diocese to shut down.
    Sadly local parishes’ only power is to cut off the money to the Diocese.

    2. What happens if parishes refuse to give money to the diocese?
      As most ‘share’ a priest anyway, what else could be done other than completely withdraw him or her from providing any service to that church?

      1. All they can do is threaten not to give you a Vicar but as there are even fewer Vicars, and even less good ones, it’s not much of a threat.

  26. I first because aware of Matt Ridley commenting on matters of covid. He impressed me with his articulation of The Scientific Method when unpicking the data and various hypothesis. It was consistent with my understanding of the process. He continues in such a way here. In addition pointing out the failures of others in an honest commitment to that process including an excellent practical example for the necessity of free speech. The interview travels into the dubious paranoia of Climate-woo, Net-Zero economic suicide and energy production, applying the same methodological principles. Thank you for all your efforts Mr Ridley.
    https://youtu.be/AolXUDL9SVA?si=YsaEdyYs33Bm4THN

  27. Happy Easter everyone. Christ is risen! And the ignorant c*nts still walk among us. Russian threat my arris. Did the letters editor write it himself, to order?

    1. What would be the point?
      Russians schlepping across 1,500 miles of Europe to invade an island that is intent on bankrupting itself, financially, morally and socially.
      Though it might be good to see how much the gimmegrants enjoy the Russians’ notion of social conscience.

    1. I believe one reason Reform is structured differently to other parties is to make it easier to act decisively against embarrassing candidates.

      1. Anyone can be an embarrassing candidate if the mainstream media decides to make them one.

  29. Goo’ day all,

    Light cloud, wind in the East, 5 ℃ rising to 12℃, staying dry at Castle McPhee.

    The Sunday Telegraph is doing is Gates-ordained bit to persuade young women to contribute to Britain disappearing up its own rectal orifice by not having enough children.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a887bd2ea7ed5aa4a5a1583b8afb0819e98cfd8e4eb259d5a79fbfe6657f1d1c.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/tooth-fairy-toy-crazes-cost-kids-soaring/

    Any civilisation that looks on its children as a cost and not a blessing is truly lost.

    With that, I’m off to ring the church bells- I’ve got two churches to ring at this morning.

    1. Well spotted.

      If we had waited until we could afford them, I might have had one child in my forties – or none at all, as I doubt that any cold, hard calculation would EVER have concluded that we could afford children! As it is, we started off very poor and they ended up at private school.

      1. Our daughter was born a year and a day after we married. It was a struggle as, almost, every month we had a letter from the bank asking us to revert to the old system of us banking with them. I remember one letter that said we were £2 5s and 3d overdrawn. A Mr Micawber moment every month.

        1. When we were newly married, we were on first terms with the bank. I called them “Sir”, they called me all kinds of names. A good week ended with enough “spare” money for a treat – like a single beer – and that was all.
          Things are easier now.

          1. A friend of mine at university once received a letter at his college from his bank manager. It read ‘Dear Mr O’Neill, what are you doing? Stop it!

    4. There is one group that has been badly overlooked in recent years – grandparents.

      There are all sorts of ills that have crept into society in recent decades that could be solved by recognising the importance of grandparents. I will go down a few:

      1. Millennials are constantly griping about pensioners robbing them of their livelihoods. These pensioners may be comparatively asset-rich having got on the housing ladder before it became sily, but look forward to their fortunes being swallowed up by taxes or conned away by professional scammers, and with nobody to pass on to, everything goes in the skip. It is an open door then for pensioners to led a hand financially to their children’s families in return for a reasonably assured future, both before and after death.

      2. The State has now foisted on councils (who have no say in the matter despite being elected) the costs of professional childcare in a seller’s market in order to enable working mothers to claim their rights and resume their careers. Yet grandparents have long been the traditional repository for children while the parents are out to work. They have more time on their hands, and rather welcome the opportunity of a second chance of making a better fist of raising children, especially when unburdened of direct responsibility.

      3. The children themselves have access to a rich seam of stories and anecdotes from “The Olden Days”, firing their imaginations about their cultural and national heritage far better than A-list Netflix sanitized (sic) productions with loud music and “actors” of favoured race and gender dashing about frenetically to appease limited attention spans.

      I have started this list. Maybe others have ideas about the merits of grandparents that are being overlooked by our betters?

  30. Good morning all, and Happy Easter!

    It might amuse you to know that this time I’m sending you all greetings before shutting everything off and trying to get some sleep… It’s ten to five in the morning and I’ve just got in. 🤣🤣

    I went out to dance and listen to a tango band. Private house, fabulous architecture of the falling-to-bits-but-who-gives-a-damn variety, open air terrace to enjoy what may well be one of the last beautiful summer nights for this year.

    The band were scheduled to play at midnight. Their violinist got delayed, so the rest enjoyed beers on the terrace and absolutely nobody got flustered. They finally kicked off at about two. I was lucky enough to have been on the dancefloor when everything finally coalesced (I had some spectacular dances 😎), so had the best seat in the house.

    I say seat, but I was happily sitting on the floor. Right underneath the bandoneon and violin – absolutely perfect acoustics, the crunchy dissonances vibrating right through me.

    The musicians were paying each other the sort of exquisite attention I generally associate with top-class string quartets; an absolute pleasure to see. They were also, unlike many of the string quartets I’ve heard, obviously having a rollicking good time, and it was one of the most enjoyable gigs I’ve been to.

    I am going to shut my phone off again and attempt to sleep. With the musical energy that’s pulsing through my veins, I shall be surprised if I can, so if I pop up later being a reet miserable cow, please ignore me!

    Un abrazo tanguero (a tango embrace).to you all!

  31. Once Africa’s world-class city, Johannesburg is decaying before residents’ eyes. 30 March 2024.

    From the outside, Johannesburg does not look like it is doing well.

    Roads littered with potholes. Broken traffic lights not repaired for months. Rotting rubbish in the streets.

    But from the inside, the scale of the problems facing the biggest city in South Africa and the richest and most industrialised in the continent is even worse.

    From taps regularly running dry to daily four-hour power cuts – known locally as load shedding – life for many people in Jo’burg has declined dramatically.

    A sort of insight into the future of the UK. London first and then the rest.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/30/johannesburg-world-class-decay-anc/

    1. I lived there late 60s. Once a bustling Metropolis. Its a complete dump now.
      Many burnt-out buildings and as you say rubbish everywhere.
      And there’s only one reason for all that.
      There is a website called, The death of Johannesburg.

  32. Morning all 🙂😊
    Happy Easter to all, not too much chocolate.
    Not what was expected today, misty and murky.
    Our boys once had two goldfish they named misty and murky.
    I don’t see why our MSM keeps banging on about Vlad. The main problems are own western governments. Behind the headlines, they are causing most of the problems.

    1. There was a weather forecaster in the 80s who always said ‘misty and murky’. Also ‘spits and spots’ of rain……

  33. Good morning all.
    A cool and foggy start today with a light breeze and 1½°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    Forecast to remain foggy through the day.

  35. I don’t think they are making it easy – the press just makes things up. Remember the UKIP candidate who was giving a nazi salute? Except that he wasn’t, he was just reaching for his phone.
    Surely one advantage of having the internet must be that people don’t have to be the slaves of the legacy media any more. This tired old “right wing extremist” trope that is trotted out about every opposition to the agenda needs to die.

  36. Putin signs conscription decree; Russia ‘will certainly gain more land’, Musk warns. 31 March 2024.

    Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has said Russia “will certainly gain more land” and it was “a tragic waste of life for Ukraine to attack a larger army” in a statement on X.

    Elon putting his five pennyworth in! Most unwelcome in the White House I’m sure.

    https://news.sky.com/story/russia-ukraine-latest-putin-responds-to-drivel-idea-he-will-attack-poland-and-czech-republic-12541713

      1. Yes, I think he is.
        I know enough about the Ukraine/Russia situation to know there’s a lot I don’t know.
        But even in my ignorance, I understand there are areas of Ukraine that have more in common with their eastern neighbour than their current allotted state.

  39. Idiot on the wireless praising the Windrush generation. FFS, we still had rationing in 1948, the last thing we needed was more people. (True then, and true now.)

    1. I hope that in years to come what might be left or our indigenous population, receives as much respect as the aboriginals are getting in Australia.
      But hang a moment, our truly indigenous will be white. And although we have done so much for mankind around the world . That of course will never be recognised above all the well practiced continuous moaning.

    2. By the fifties, bread had been put on ration thanks to the Labour government. Even Herr H didn’t manage that!

        1. Okay, I got the dates slightly wrong, but that doesn’t make the fact of bread being rationed under a Labour government after the war incorrect.

  42. Oxford University to stop politicians becoming chancellor, leaked email shows
    Institution later ‘rows back’ on new rule and denies it hoped to ensure its next figurehead would be a woman
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/30/email-leak-oxford-university-chancellor-politicians-blocked/

    Apparently the hat of the seriously bizarre and weird Rory Stewart is in the ring.

    BTL

    They certainly scraped the barrel with Patten but if they go for Rory Stewart it will show that slimy nasty bits still adhere to its edges and need thorough cleansing and chiselling off the barrel’s sides.

    1. There’s a sliver of truth at play here. The swastika is used in Hindu culture. However I am extremely sceptical as to that context being relevant here.

      1. The Left cannot change. Their goal is still fascist dictatorship of all that is good and right in the world.

    2. There must be many attending that march that regard the Swastika and the Star of David both as symbols of hate and genocide. Every symbol depends on context. Both have alternative meanings that are quite benign.

      The cross, which is the symbol of Christianity was at one time a tool of extreme torture and at others held aloft by rampaging crusaders and the Spanish Inquisition. Today, it is as likely to be seen both as an emblem of love and self-sacrifice as it is a defiance of the Religion of Submission or the equal Religion of Progressivism

  47. Good morning all.

    Weather is not the same as yesterday..

    Today dull , low cloud , 9c .

    Easter Sunday.. yes . Fine childhood rare memories of great aunts and uncles , grandfather , parents and church ..then a delicious lunch .

    Me, being melancholic .

    There Will Come Soft Rains
    Sara Teasdale – 1884-1933
    (War Time)
    There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
    And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;
    And frogs in the pools singing at night,
    And wild plum trees in tremulous white,
    Robins will wear their feathery fire
    Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;
    And not one will know of the war, not one
    Will care at last when it is done.
    Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
    If mankind perished utterly;
    And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
    Would scarcely know that we were gone.

    1. I still miss my Great-Aunt Hilda. She died back in 1993. She was surrogate grandmother on Mother’s side, my paternal grandparents dying around when I was born, and Mother’s mother about the same time. She was tiny, bullied Leicester council unmercifully, and was lovely.

      1. I hade a great aunt Hilda! Married to Harold, who had spiky white hair, my grandfathers brother.

        1. Hilda means “Battle” in yer ancient Norse… Mine certainly was that way inclined, the sort of lovely tiny person made small by God so she wouldn’t take over the world!

          1. I had an Aunty Janie, an Aunty Ethel, Aunty Gladys, and an Aunty Marjorie! All tiny and all tough little women! I hope I’ve done justice to them through our two daughters!

  49. One for the cider country set. Last night we went to see The Wurzels (yes, really!). Utterly bonkers, much cider and singing. Best night out for ages. If you are in this part of the country and can find a gig near you, I’d encourage you to go.

  50. Windsor Castle hosted its first Iftar (a sunset dinner of Islamic delicacies that marks the end of daily fasting during the sacred month of Ramadan. ) last week, with permission from King Charles, the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Guests feasted on coconut milk and dates in the grounds before a private tour of the State apartments. Showing prospective occupants around?

    Part of today’s Easter service from Westminster Abbey, led by the Archprick of Cant, was conducted in Congolese. How lucky are we to have such a diverse and tolerant society in Britain today. I’ll bet the Chinese and Saudis are green with envy.

    1. During Ramadan Muslims starve themselves of food and drink during daylight hours, then when the sun goes down they stuff their faces. Hardly spiritual, is it?

      1. No, and the most distasteful thing about it is the constant public showing off and forcing their fast on others. They have no concept of shame about boasting of one’s faith in public.

    2. 385228+ up ticks,

      Morning Ped,
      You phrased that so nicely that even the WEF & supporting idiots
      would agree to it getting a right royal seal.

    5. I wonder how long it will be before four minarets are built at St. Pauls so it resembles the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

      1. It is written, before the 21st Crescent Moon. In his capacity as Mayor of Londonistan, Saddy will ensure that the planning application goes through without a hitch.

    6. I wonder how long it will be before four minarets are built at St. Pauls so it resembles the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.

  51. Good Moaning.
    Happy Easter to all.

    Judging by the weather, all those fans blighting our countryside and seascapes are working. It’s distinctly cold and grey.

    A snippet from the Taxpayers Alliance to warm the cockles of your hearts.

    “Digging through spreadsheets is something of a TPA speciality. Buried in all that data are often the things the bureaucrats don’t want you to know. Our latest audit of government grants has certainly turned up some weird and not-so wonderful projects getting state handouts.

    The grants issued in 2022/23 for various projects include £180,000 for ‘A Comparative Study of Iranian Queer Refugees Living in Turkey, the UK and Canada’, £50,000 for ‘Exploring the nature, creation, impact and regulation of gendered alcohol brand and nightlife marketing in the age of contemporary feminism’, £104,000 for ‘Designing Mixed Reality Heritage Performances to Support Decolonisation of Heritage Sites’, and over £200,000 for ‘Remediating Stevenson: Decolonising Robert Louis Stevenson’s Pacific Fiction through Graphic Adaptation, Arts Education and Community Engagement’.

    Yes, you read that right, even the author of Treasure Island isn’t safe from the madness. Taxpayers expect Dr Jekyll from the government. Too often they end up with Mr Hyde.”

  52. Good morning to all. Have had to take a hiatus due to the usual problems with health. But I really wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter. And I will try to participate a bit more starting tomorrow. In the mean time a Russian Orthodox chant that all of you will recognize within another musical context. It’s called ‘O Lord Save Thy People’ and is particularly associated with the Lent/Easter period.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpFXhzoz1V8

      1. Hi Araminta! I think I mentioned that I’m now on oxygen, it helps. I have been fighting yet another a lung infection but I’m on the mend and feel ready to enter the fray, yet again😊But that starts tomorrow. I would comment on todays letter to the Telegraph, the usual bunch of lies and pathetic nonsense, at length. But I will confine myself to saying that Putin has no designs on Europe. It’s just more warmongering on the part of the usual suspects spoiling for a war that would end up as catastrophic for all concerned. Russia won this war long ago, it is only justice that it has and Zelenskyy should come to the peace table and talk instead of murdering his own people with his intransigence. I hope that the Ukrainians put him on trial after this is all done. His contempt for his people makes him a mass murderer in my eyes.

  54. Just got a pint of my ginger beer that I’d forgotten about. Goodness, it’s strong! Easily 12+% – and dry as you can get without being powdered!
    Cheersh! Hic!

      1. Prolly.
        It’s so good, it’s like a religious experience of the better kind!
        Been untouched for 2-3 years, clear as a bell, and mildly ginger.
        Expect strange utterances for a while until I fall asleep. Surrounded by sandbag-sized (and weight…) cats.

  55. Just got a pint of my ginger beer that I’d forgotten about. Goodness, it’s strong! Easily 12+% – and dry as you can get without being powdered!
    Cheersh! Hic!

  56. A further new inroad for Ramadan occurred at the 5:30 start game between Aston Villa and Wolves. When the sun set early in the 2nd half, the game was halted so that Villa forward, Moussa Diaby, could take a drink and eat some banana. 😲😟👀

    2. Ffs. They shouldn’t have played him. It’s a disgrace. We are pandering to mediaeval barbaric practices. Celebrating it even.

      1. Next year the pause will be extended so Diaby can have 5 minutes on the Prayer Mat is the centre circle.

        PS: Do they have “multifaith” washing facilities at Villa Park?

    3. Utter nonsense from these clubs. There’s a difference between toleration of belief and servicing the belief of others. This philosophical distinction is lost on the ruling class of football. The same was true of the bending the knee to Race Marxists, they didn’t listen then.

    4. Utter nonsense from these clubs. There’s a difference between toleration of belief and servicing the belief of others. This philosophical distinction is lost on the ruling class of football. The same was true of the bending the knee to Race Marxists, they didn’t listen then.

    6. This is very wrong. They could have substituted him so that the game wasn’t stopped – they just wanted to draw attention to his religious practice.

  57. 385228+ up ticks,

    We have the basic ingredient’s, legal / illegal in place already and a functioning Shirai law courts
    system up & running.

    Viewing the past voting pattern and the way it has benefited us as a nation I believe that the first segment of the lab;lib/con coalition that gives consent to “stoning on a Sunday only” no need to upset the minorities, will be on a sure-fired winner.

    1. The same to you, Paul. I’ve paused the video. I was wondering how they could process within the three verses of ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’, only to find that they have a fourth. But that still wasn’t enough. So improvisation followed, then ‘The day of resurrection’, introduced on the solo Tuba. I’d give my right arm for an organ like that. Oh, wait…

      1. Having ‘un-paused’ I’m presented with the idiot Cottrell. I’ll keep watching, since the music is good.

        Despite the alarm going off.

    2. The same to you, Paul. I’ve paused the video. I was wondering how they could process within the three verses of ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’, only to find that they have a fourth. But that still wasn’t enough. So improvisation followed, then ‘The day of resurrection’, introduced on the solo Tuba. I’d give my right arm for an organ like that. Oh, wait…

  59. https://davidturver.substack.com/p/astronomical-cost-of-green-jobs

    A very good analysis of the cost of green jobs. The state really doesn’t understand the difference between activity and productivity.

    Speaking of ‘green’ the hot water tank’s fancy thermostat was tested today. It is indeed adjusting for daylight savings time. Finally. I set it to come on at 11:30, assuming it thought it was really 10:30 (as the clocks go forward). However, I was wrong, and it did indeed start to heat at 11:30 as the timer defined.

    We do still want gas.

      1. I do keep coming back to this solar question, but I think I’d just be paying for someone else to have it.

        1. Just gave Big Cat a huge hug (well, a 12kg cat requires a big hug) and he farted a trump of doom! Urgh…

  60. https://davidturver.substack.com/p/astronomical-cost-of-green-jobs

    A very good analysis of the cost of green jobs. The state really doesn’t understand the difference between activity and productivity.

    Speaking of ‘green’ the hot water tank’s fancy thermostat was tested today. It is indeed adjusting for daylight savings time. Finally. I set it to come on at 11:30, assuming it thought it was really 10:30 (as the clocks go forward). However, I was wrong, and it did indeed start to heat at 11:30 as the timer defined.

    We do still want gas.

    1. You would be surprised at how many don’t. But it adds a depth of meaning because, of course, all Russians are familiar with the words.

      O Lord, save thy people, and bless thine heritage;
      Govern them and lift them up forever.
      Day by day we magnify thee;
      And we worship thy Name ever, world without end.
      Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin;
      O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
      O Lord, let thy mercy be upon us;
      As our trust is in thee.
      O Lord, in thee have I trusted;
      Let me never be confounded.

        2. Ah!
          The Antal Doráti version with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra that went to huge lengths for authenticity.

  62. Don’t be silly, Bill. Elderly white men have paid taxes their entire lives. They’re also white, so are reviled – despite making, building, designing, paying for everything.

    I do wonder what all the whinging sociopaths, trans, striking doctors, gay police officers and corrupt coucils would do if one day white men just said ‘[expletive]. I’m going on strike indefinitely.

    1. There’s much to be thankful for. The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away. Be thankful unto God. And go in peace.

  64. My good lady and i have spent over 3 hours preparing the lunch for our family guests arriving around 1 pm. 8 adults and four grand children. Chocolate eggs hidden around the garden. Roast leg of lamb (with lots of garlic garden herbs and olive oil) in the oven and a chicken for those who aren’t too keen on Red meat. I feel i need a rest……….
    Slayders. 🤠😎

    1. If you are not well Eddy, why on earth are you exhausting yourself catering for family ?

      Surely the family could have chipped in to take you out for lunch?

      1. All went really well TB. This morning my BP suddenly went back to normal. It’s much nicer than going out. We have young grandchildren, one 7 months old. Two 4 and one 8.
        The three did a chocolate egg hunt in the garden. And played ball game’s. And our three sons took all the children to the park to play after lunch. The ladies sat and chatted.
        I did some of the clearing away. And filled the DW.
        And had a doze.
        It was lovely to see them all together as our youngest is going to live in Dubai he already has a job. And his fiancee will be joining his ASAP.
        Her sister and BiL are already living there.
        Not checked the BP since. There’s not a lot I can actually do. Hopefully get someone who actually knows what they are doing to sort it all out. And I must say that I much appreciate your concern for my situation.

    2. Good on you. You obviously enjoy having the family around you which is probably the best medicine you can have. I hope they do the washing and wiping up and putting away while you and your wife sit down and sup the cups of tea they bring you.
      Happy Easter to you all.

    1. When I saw the Three Tenors on’t telly back in 1990, you could easily tell who was singing. Pavarotti, the big lad, had a big voice, Carreras the smallest, had a small voice. And I’d never heard of any of them back then.
      And all three were excellent!

        1. Sort of middling. Still preferred Pavarotti, despite the affectations of the handkerchief-flapping.

          2. Agreed.
            Actually managed to see him live in Oslo in early 2000s. in the end, he went off ill, but what a voice!

    2. When I saw the Three Tenors on’t telly back in 1990, you could easily tell who was singing. Pavarotti, the big lad, had a big voice, Carreras the smallest, had a small voice. And I’d never heard of any of them back then.
      And all three were excellent!

  67. Breaking news. I hear that a rugby match in Ireland was halted so that one of the forwards – Fingal O’Flaherty – could take communion.

    1. Ha! Ha! Ha!
      That’ll be right…
      Communion afterwards, with about two gallons of Guinness…

      1. How can you be so crude?

        It was a gesture in sympathy with the slammer wendyballistas who were given food at sunset during ramadanadingdong.

  69. O/T. I have been buying vinegar and washing up liquid in gallon plastic containers for a while and have gathered quite a collection. Can anyone suggest a use for the empties other than building a raft.

    1. Fill them with water and send them to Africa – they always seem to be wanting the stuff

        1. Over here, if you pay for solar cells or a mini hydro plant, you still have to pay tax to the government on the power you generate…

  70. I like these comments on DT letters , today.

    CT

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    14 MIN AGO
    Never set much store by arbitrary definitions of peer groups but there must come a generation who have never existed without a smart phone, who regard absolute reliance on phones for all things as the natural order of occult net zero artificial meaningless life.
    This I feel explains the gathering collapse of British civilisation into barbarian unreality in which natural biology and rational science are so readily subverted by net zero occultist government induced mass hysteria.
    Its not so much they don’t know the difference so much as they just don’t care, they’ve given up all hope of a normal life, now its a case of make your own unreality and live in it as you may.
    Let net zero occult government get on with making sure there’s nothing left of British civilisation for anyone dispossessed of real life and still sane enough to long to return there have absolutely nowhere sane to turn
    There’s no going back when it isn’t there, and there’s nothing left but bbc Hamas Activists rounding up the jews before getting round to you.

    Reply by Helen de Troyes.

    HD

    Helen de Troyes
    12 MIN AGO
    Happy Easter Cuthbert. 🥃🥃. Keep going with your great posts.

    Reply by Cuthbert Thomasson.

    CT

    Cuthbert Thomasson
    2 MIN AGO
    Thanks awfully, and to you Helen, I do wish you all well who are concious of the depravity that underlies all net nero misrepresentations of eternal truths

  71. Son has just arrived home after running 27k. Yes 27 kms with a friend .

    We will be having lunch late afternoon /

    I took the dog in the car , intending to have a good walk on the heath.

    The countryside resembles a giant sponge , squelch squelch .

    The dog scented the scent of a dog being walked in the far distance , a small terrier .

    My dog cocked his leg , turned around , looked at me and was off like a bullet .. didn’t look back .

    I used my 10/5 whistle to no avail, stop signals , return signals , no darned dog .

    10mts later I caught up with other dog walker and his terrier , with mine sniffing and annoying the snapping dog .

    “Is your dog on heat, I am sorry mine is being a nuisance ” … No she b…..y well isn’t , and if you cannot control your dog , keep him on a lead .

    That was me being ticked off .. and I had no words to reply .

    Pip has had a personality change since Jack spaniel died last year .. he now does as he pleases , and although he wants to say hello to other dogs , he hasn’t got the knack .

    The pair of them were well behaved happy dogs , but now dog walking is becoming rather stressful , anyone any helpful tips, besides keeping him on a lead , because he is such an active dog ?

    2. Poor old Pip. A huge upheaval in his life, losing his companion like that. No wonder he’s discombobulated.
      Here, from tomorrow, it’s obligatory to have a dog on a lead when outside – for the protection of wildlife and sheep and the like.

        1. Can’t, clearly, but that’s a trained working dog, not a domestic pet owned by a klutz (usually).

    4. When Mongo was being bred all the female had to do was bark at him and he stopped. He clearly didn’t want to, but he did.

      It comes down to training and character.

    1. I find it staggering that so much tax is wasted yet folk still don’t understand it. Lefties still go for the TPA. Their hatred is tedious and visceral.

      It’s the classic case of the Lefty demanding more tax so more can be wasted and everyone earning it being sick of paying it. The only way this nonsense stops is by the state being prevented from raising or spending taxes without public permission.

  73. S.S. San Gerardo.

    Complement:
    57 (51 dead and 6 survivors).
    17,000 tons of fuel oil

    At 22.22 hours on 31st March 1942 the unescorted San Gerardo (Master Stanley Foley) was hit by two torpedoes from U-71 (Walter Flachsenberg) and sank by the stern southeast of New York. The master, 47 crew members, two gunners and one passenger (DBS) were lost. Three crew members and three gunners were picked up by the British motor tanker Regent Panther and landed at Halifax.

    Type VIIC U-Boat U-71 was decommissioned on 27th February 1945 at Wilhelmshaven.
    Scuttled on 2nd May 1945 at Wilhelmshaven, western entrance to Readerschleuse.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/br/san_gerardo.jpg

  74. Happy March Holiday from woke Canada.

    At least that is what the Veterans Affairs department call it.

    Comments are what one would expect from anyone opposing yet another attempt to cancel Christianity.

    https://twitter.com/VeteransENG_CA/status/1773772524263772616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1773772524263772616%7Ctwgr%5E2319985c7ced0b642c559e4fd4bce4719ec47848%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fnationalpost.com%2Fnews%2Fcanada%2Fveterans-affairs-canada-easter

  75. The Leftie’s, the Libtards, the Snowflakes, the Brain-dead, the Twats and the Woke call Christmas “Winterval”.

    How long before Easter gets renamed (by the same quarter-wits) as “Springval”?

    2. See the post below from Canada’s “Veteran’s Affairs” – apparently it’s “March Holiday Season”! Glad to see some robust replies!!

        1. It had inspired quite a bit of comment over here as well.

          On the right wing side of the media that is, our government spokesperson CBC doesn’t even acknowledge Easter

    3. See the post below from Canada’s “Veteran’s Affairs” – apparently it’s “March Holiday Season”! Glad to see some robust replies!!

    4. Easter? Across the pond, today, the holiest day for Christians, has been officially usurped by Biden.
      Happy International Transgender Day of Visibility… 🙄

      1. Give us strength.
        Though to give them their due this has been going on since 2009 and the next time it falls on Easter Sunday will be 2086.
        And if fire and brimstone hasn’t sorted the problem by then none of is will care too much.

      2. Apparently there are two dates that Easter Day is statistically more likely to fall upon. One of them is 31st March.
        What a coincidence!

  77. Off to son, dil and grandson for roast beef with all the trimmings. We’ve made an apple crumble for afters (that’s what we called it when kids) and will take a bottle of red.

    1. “Robin Simcox, Britain’s counter-extremism tsar warned pro-Palestine protesters are turning London into a ‘no-go zone for Jews’.”

      Not just the Jews, Mr Simcox.

    2. The swastika is also a Hindu symbol – when it’s 4-square.
      I assume the swastikas on display were not, or even if they were so shown, the reason for their display had nothing to do with Indian religion.

  80. Detachment Leader Thomas Hopper Alderson GC (15th September 1903 – 28th October 1965), Bridlington Fire and rescue Services.

    His citation, published in The London Gazette read:

    A pair of semi-detached houses at Bridlington was totally demolished in a recent air raid. One woman was trapped alive. Alderson tunnelled under unsafe wreckage and rescued the trapped person without further injury to her.
    Some days later, two five-storey buildings were totally demolished and debris penetrated into a cellar in which eleven persons were trapped. Six persons in one cellar, which had completely given way, were buried under debris. Alderson partly effected the entrance to this cellar by tunnelling 13 to 14 feet under the main heap of wreckage and for three and a half hours he worked unceasingly in an exceedingly cramped condition. Although considerably bruised he succeeded in releasing all the trapped persons without further injury to themselves. The wreckage was unsafe and further falls were anticipated; coal gas leaks were of a serious nature and there was danger of flooding from fractured water pipes. Despite these dangers and enemy aircraft overhead the rescue work was continued.
    On a third occasion, some four-storey buildings were totally demolished. Five persons were trapped in a cellar. Alderson led the rescue work in excavating a tunnel from the pavement through the foundations to the cellar; he also personally tunnelled under the wreckage many feet into the cellar and rescued alive two persons (one of whom subsequently died) from under a massive refrigerator, which was in danger of further collapse as debris was removed. A wall, three stories high, which swayed in the gusty wind, was directly over the position where the rescue party were working. This was likely to collapse at any moment. Alderson worked almost continuously under the wreckage for five hours, during which time further air raid warnings were received and enemy aircraft heard overhead.
    By his courage and devotion to duty without the slightest regard for his own safety, he set a fine example to the members of his Rescue Party, and their teamwork is worthy of the highest praise.

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f3/Thomas_Alderson_GC.jpg

    3. I’d have thought all that was worth a medal… another great “ordinary” person.
      Respect!

    1. Read the manual?

      Just for once, most of my clocks changed automatically. My biological clock excepted. I’ll deal with the oven eventually. But – perhaps most importantly – I negotiated a lift to Seale at 07:30, which gave me just enough time to adjust the tower clock at 08:00, before going on to the Easter services.

      2. The great thing about an AGA is that it is timeless – it’s on 24/7 because it provides the same sort of background heat as a heat pump, uses the cheapest form of energy and MOH doesn’t even have to think about turning it on before she forgets to make the bread!

        1. Same applies to the Rayburn. I had to stoke it this morning before I went to church, but when I came home it was ready to cook the lamb for lunch.

    2. I spent five minutes going through the settings on my cat to find out how the clock can be adjusted before realizing that it had automatically reset somehow.

      2. Damn that spelling devil on the keyboard.

        I wish that I could say that Cat is my nickname for the family Jag.

    3. This morning I opened the car app and the clock had adjusted itself.

      It’s not bally difficult. They have radios!

    1. I tried replacing my cat but after reading the manual that came with it I decided to take it back to the shop where I bought it.

  84. Russia poses a threat … ???
    Geoff, do you choose titles to provoke me ranting incoherently at the magpies outside???
    Russia? Yes DT, bears are bloody dangerous.

    But that’s why you wouldn’t listen to some demented, crooked old codger in the Whitehouse and his minions in Wokeminster and Strasbourg who told you to line up your children to smack aforementioned bears on the effin nose.

    Russia?
    For God’s sake.

    Talking of which dear NOTTLERS…

    RESUREXIT !

    1. LiM – I don’t choose the titles. I merely provide a link to the DT Letters page.

      Alleluia! Christ is risen.

      The appropriate response at this stage is

      He is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen..

  87. Yes, we do. This man is now a Colour Sergeant:

    Lance Corporal Joshua Mark Leakey VC (born 1988), 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment.

    A routine joint patrol composed of British paratroopers, US Marines and Afghan soldiers had targeted a village to search for illegal weapons. Having been flown into the area in Chinook helicopters, the patrol was attacked by machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades soon after dismounting. Leakey’s helicopter had landed on a hill near the village and he, with three other paratroopers and an Afghan soldier, were to provide fire support for the main segment of the patrol. From their vantage point, his section could see the attack and heard over their radio that someone had been injured. Leakey ran up the hill to assess the seriousness of the attack and came to the conclusion that urgent action was needed. Though he was only a lance corporal, he took control of the situation and led his section down to the group under attack.

    Having reached the group under attack, he gave first aid to the wounded US Marine Corps captain and began to evacuate him from the battlefield. While under fire, he returned to the machine guns that his section had left at the top of the hill. He moved one to a better position to fire at the attacking Taliban even though he was under constant, accurate fire (bullets were ricocheting off the weapon he was carrying). His actions inspired other soldiers to join in the fight back.

    While he was manning the machine gun, he was also shouting updates of the situation into his radio. Having realised that more than one machine gun would be needed to effectively fight back the insurgents, he allowed his gun to be taken over by another soldier. He then ran once more through heavy fire to retrieve a second machine gun, position it in a suitable site, and then manned it to fire at the Taliban. The skirmish lasted approximately 45 minutes during which 11 insurgents were killed and four wounded. It was only when air support arrived that fighting ceased. When it did, he handed the second machine gun over to another soldier. He then returned to the injured American officer and oversaw his medical evacuation.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/3-242.jpg?w=270&ssl=1

  89. Happy Easter! Alleluia!

    It’s time people (particularly the voters) recognised that the chief threat to the UK is posed by this woke government and their anti-white, anti-British agenda.

    1. Quite. Had I not been constrained by the clock, my first post today would have been “Alleluia. Christ is risen!”

      The response being “He is risen indeed. Alleluia”

      1. Another extract from today’s Grimes – to make you even more depressed, Geoff:

        “The finest moment in Pilgrimage: The Road Through North Wales (BBC2, Fri), came when Spencer Matthews, an Old Etonian who is the Princess of Wales’s brother-in-law, tried to grasp how history worked. Sitting in a peaceful Welsh church, overlooking the Conwy valley, he asked the comedian Eshaan Akhbar, who was brought up a Muslim, if Jesus Christ was in fact “made up”.

        “He’s a real person,” Akhbar said, slowly.

        “I kind of thought he was fictitious,” said Matthews, confused.

        “Muslims think he’s the vice captain,” Akhbar said. “Mohammed is the captain.”

        Oh God, Eshaan, I shouted at the television, don’t introduce a complex sporting metaphor! The eternal mystery of the Divine Trinity is enough!

        “Mohammed is Allah, is he?” Matthews asked.”

      2. When I got up this morning (bearing in mind I had lost an hour and I had to allow enough time to stoke the Rayburn, fill the hods, feed and walk Kadi before getting changed into something half-way respectable and driving ten miles, much of which is blighted by road works) Kadi, who usually accompanies me to the bathroom as I start my ablutions, got as far as the door then turned round and went back to bed!

  90. Quite.. With Aga in or kitchen and the woodburners in the living rooms we never use our central heating, electric kettles etc..

  93. Hammer-wielding robbers attack antiques store owner during smash-and-grab raid. 31 March 2024.

    A renowned antiques dealer who has regularly appeared on television has described the terrifying moment he was smashed over the head with a hammer during a raid on his west London boutique by robbers wearing balaclavas.

    Ian Towning, 76, who has appeared on shows such as ITV’s Dickinson’s Real Deal and Channel 4’s Posh Pawn, was attacked by two men who stole jewellery worth more than £100,000.

    White hands, Jewellery. Probably Romanians having a day off from barbering.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/31/hammer-wielding-robbers-attack-jeweller-smash-and-grab-raid/

  97. Mine doesn’t. The garage kindly adjusted it one year. Since then, it has been two hours wrong in the summer and one hour wrong in the winter.

    3. The only reason she is into hip hop is because it is only 14 year old black guys who will shag her.

    4. AHOY THAR CAP’N!!
      THAR SHE BLOWS!!
      LAND WHALE
      2 POINTS OFF THE LARB’D BOW!!

    1. That’s a shame. It really is like a quarter of a second now.

      Disgust in our political elites is turning us against democracy itself

      Crises were worse in the 1970s, but back then the social contract was still intact. Lockdowns and other failures have torn it up
      Janet Daley
      30 March 2024 • 12:57pm
      Janet Daley

      Britain’s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (C) and Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Kier Starmer
      Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Kier Starmer

      There can be no doubt now that the country has lost confidence in the Conservatives and that there is almost nothing that can change that before the general election, whenever it happens. But it is also clear that the electorate has little faith in the main opposition party to solve the problems that are pushing the population to despair.

      The Labour lead in opinion polls does not appear to be generated by a realistic hope for new measures which will transform the nation’s prospects. In fact, Sir Keir Starmer and his team are deliberately playing down the prospect of any such miraculous remedies.

      What appears to be driving much of the Labour support – at least, the element of it which is not simply public sector or trade union self-interest – is a form of desperation. The shambolic, aimless performance of the party in power and the decline of institutions which are the government’s responsibility (like the NHS) have produced utter exasperation. Voting the Tories out will be a form of revenge, not a statement of faith in the Labour alternative. (How could it be, since Labour has not given any credible indication of what its alternative would consist of?)

      So this is a much more serious crisis than the familiar one that arises when one party has been in power for too long. The general disillusionment and futility now encompasses all the major political parties. It is significant that only a minor one, Reform, is generating any enthusiasm but that is mainly because it is the embodiment of disgust with the existing establishment. It is not so much a prospective governing party as an anti-political party: one that gives voice to precisely that angry rejection of the formulae within which the historic parties operate. In effect, it is saying that politics as we know it no longer works. Of course, expressing inchoate rage can get you quite a long way in electoral contests. It has worked for Donald Trump and for many populist leaders in Europe.

      But what should concern us right now is this catastrophic loss of faith in government itself. That is to say, in the possibility of democratic government providing the path to fulfilment and prosperity which has been its trusted promise. There is a good reason why the traditional parties can give no guarantees of immediate improvements to anything – not even the public services that they administer. Because they have driven their economies into a blind alley from which there is no escape that is not painful.

      No responsible political leader with a realistic hope of being in power can hide the reality and extent of that necessary pain. This goes against the expectation that has always prevailed in free societies: that governments which are accountable to their populations will always strive to make their conditions of life better. People do not expect their elected governments to make deliberate decisions which make them poorer, or cause their children to have fewer life chances than they did. That is not how it is supposed to work. So when no legitimate party can promise anything other than this, belief in the system itself can collapse.

      But there is something rather odd here, isn’t there? Certainly the struggle over household finances and the prospects for the immediate future – especially of the young – seem pretty bleak. The immediate pressures of the cost of living, shortage of housing, and levels of taxation are all legitimate causes of discontent and disillusion, but for anyone who lived through what looked like the incurable paralysis of the 1970s, let alone the post-war period of rationing and hardship, daily life cannot actually appear so calamitously terrible that the whole edifice of party politics needs to be dismantled.

      Most ordinary people now live with domestic comforts and miraculous electronic devices that were undreamt of only a few decades ago. In the strike-bound Britain of the 1970s, we worried about staggering increases in inflation and interest rates but there were immediate practical concerns which are almost unknown now. Today’s sophisticated consumers rage when their broadband goes down. Back then, we struggled through the total blackout of regular power cuts.

      Something has changed in the public consciousness. The quality of politics itself and its practitioners can vary hugely over the generations but today’s crop are probably no more or less mistaken or inadequate than in most other eras. Yet they are presiding over a degree of resentment that is unlike anything most of us can recall. It cannot be a coincidence that this great alienation comes after the most bizarre, unprecedented social experiment in modern history. Not only was the economy put into an induced coma for the best part of two years – which is the chief cause of the disastrous debt which now makes the proper financing of any government service impossible – but the most fundamental expectations of communal life were undermined. Normal social bonds and interactions were not only outlawed for the duration of the emergency. More sinister was a systematic official programme which inculcated fear and chronic anxiety in the public space.

      For most (but not all) fully grown adults, this enforced neuroticism could be overcome when the rules of normal life were restored. But for many children and adolescents who missed two critical years of social initiation and adjustment, the damage may be irreparable. Teachers are reporting a startling rise in physical aggression and behavioural problems among young children in the post-pandemic era. An alarming number of pupils just disappeared from the education system, having become permanently detached from formal schooling.

      There is a key here to the wider theme of detachment from participation in national institutions and cynicism about politics. The idea of organised political life is part of a larger concept: the very possibility of social solutions, of a population working, through reasoned argument and experiment, to solve its problems. This is how we got through seemingly intractable difficulties in the past. Good politics has to be part of natural human experience. Somehow, through that very unnatural time, we lost the connection.

    3. 385228+ up ticks,

      TB,

      That means that 350 indigenous take a step back in ALL departments.

  104. OT – there is a new book about Paris. “Impossible City” by Simon Kuper. The review in the Sunday Grimes starts:

    “For more than three years I used to go most mornings to a boulangerie along the street from my flat near the Bastille in southeast Paris. As I listened enviously, the regulars were greeted one by one with a cheery “bonjour” coupled with an inquiry about their family or health. By contrast, the young man behind the counter would always behave as if he had just clapped eyes on me for the first time. Then one day something changed.

    “Am I right in thinking English is your mother tongue?” he asked. When I affirmed what was surely all too obvious from my accent, he proceeded to ask me the correct formulation for telling the American and ­­­British tourists who often shopped there that their bank card had been rejected.

    My answer clearly satisfied him: since that moment, I too have become considered a regular, and my morning coffee is now delivered with conversation.”

    This will, I think, ring a clanging bell for any NoTTLers who are settled in (or spend much time in) yer France!!

    1. I am fortunate in that I do not have an English accent. I do, however, puzzle the French because they can’t work out what region I’m from (I don’t have a French regional accent).

      1. In the Languedoc, they think I am Belgian. In the north – from the deep south!

        My first wife – a Londoner born and bred – was completely fluent and wholly without accent. French people assumed she was a Parisienne unfortunate enough to have married an Englishman.

    2. Forty plus years ago, a Friend of a Relation wandered past some wine promotion contest in a French city, probably Paris. The game was that if an expert could not identify the person’s regional accent, the prize was a case of wine. The FoR won, being a Brit raised in France etc. Expert was mortified.

      1. What’s a FoR? I wish people wouldn’t use obscure abbreviations without explanation.

          6. Sorry Tom, I am still in the World of Work, so I panic at the thought of losing what little I earn by being exposed as a bigot. Therefore I usually try to ‘anonymise’ even anecdotes that relate to people who are deceased.

    3. Forty plus years ago, a Friend of a Relation wandered past some wine promotion contest in a French city, probably Paris. The game was that if an expert could not identify the person’s regional accent, the prize was a case of wine. The FoR won, being a Brit raised in France etc. Expert was mortified.

    2. Enormous contribution? 50% of the men and 75% of the women are economically inactive (and drawing large amounts of child benefit).

      1. The ones that are working. Kebab shops=grooming/rape. Taxis=grooming/rape. Sweatshops=tax evasion.

        1. Passover, perhaps. “Lady” S (who probably has a different name – in the modern way) is Jewish.

    5. 385228+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,

      Yes,along with kneel they have certainly given the crime figures a boost,old kneel, with them behind him, when the time comes will not feel a thing as the blade enters the back of the neck.

    6. I’d like him to explain to the British public exactly what this contribution they make is. As far as I can tell it’s sweet bugger all.

  112. A lovely Easter service this morning with a surprisingly strong turnout given what’s been going on. Furthermore all the real regulars have rallied, even those who liked the ex Vicar are now angry with him over his petulant behaviour. He really has lost the congregation and I’m confident that if his return were put to a vote he’d lose it hands down. More interestingly, the atmosphere felt lighter, more joyful, as if a slightly malign presence had been removed – a number of people noticed it. The Holy Spirit was present for sure. Very uplifting.

    1. A lot of modern vicars need to be taught they are not bigger than their congregation or indeed, God.

      1. He explicitly stated in an email to the churchwardens that if they did ‘not trust in him they did not trust in God’.
        Narcissus was a tenth rater compared to our Vicar.

        2. But … but …. we know that Blair is God.
          Is your ex-vicar indulging in blasphemy?

        4. You can see where Martin Luther was coming from. I wonder if your ex-Vicar has even heard of him

  113. Just back from a very pleasant bimble around Moors Valley country park. The butterfly actually stayed still long enough for me to focus and press the shutter.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ecf699c2909d9121205ce41583b2603203d79675d1dade2eea2078e242ac55c6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2523036d4c2b757f4c27f41a19ddc0cc968766de2f805ebfc2b69fbb80f4b7ef.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4bde4699666e4ee3f13f36cc27f2e2c0f96dd7e01d632d941b9b8369d8a510f4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/834138f792cf4299cb09f82dcab74f1792eab514796138e0d64e561806ab5f9a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b5fd2b2cae8c48628b42d8fa9d3c54534b6ab12e8db0a3252673390ae7afde1.jpg

    1. Love the last picture.
      Is the tree actually standing in the water or leaning out from the bank?

      1. Leaning out from the bank. The ditch is dry in the Summer, but before then is a haven for frogs and the other amphibians.

    2. Know it well. I did the ‘Go Ape’ course through the trees when I was 73 because my 10 year old grandson insisted I do it with him. I live three miles away.

    3. There were several large yellow butterflies up the “garden” yesterday when I was working.
      Lots of bumblebees too.

  114. A prohibited Par Four!

    Wordle 1,016 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 1,016 5/6

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

    2. #metoo.

      Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

    3. And me.

      Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

    4. #metoo – albeit with an inspired guess! Has anybody got better than a par?

      Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

    5. Lots of pars today

      Wordle 1,016 4/6

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

  115. 385228+up ticks,

    Halve the aid budget and boost defence, says owing to the Robert Jenrick
    The Conservative ex-minister wants Britain to spend 3pc of GDP on its Armed Forces – and says aid for China is ‘ludicrous’

    Ditch the aid budget until such times as the daily invasion force crossing the ditch has dried up owing too internal patriotic forces acting in true genuine defence of what is left of the realm.

    On this Easter Sunday God save the realm and the indigenous Englishman / woman, / child.

    1. Little chance of that, as the Chancellor’s wife is Chinese and their children are Chinese-British. Doey as you is toldey, Mr H, or family might disappearing be.

    2. Little chance of that, as the Chancellor’s wife is Chinese and their children are Chinese-British. Doey as you is toldey, Mr H, or family might disappearing be.

          1. I have and I have deleted it and cancelled you permanently. I should have realised that you have been at the communion wine since the 8 am service…

          2. The communion wine is Ribena and Vodka but don’t tell anyone. I have a good resale market in Italy for the blessed stuff.

        1. I was trying to transfer a pic from one folder to another and then make it disqus compatible. Bit late in the day for me. :@(

  117. This is how far we’ve fallen…

    Anti-Semitism campaigners have reacted with anger after a Metropolitan Police officer was filmed telling a Jewish woman that swastikas displayed during a pro-Palestinian march in London needed to be “taken in context”.

    Footage uploaded to social media shows a Jewish woman complaining to an officer about placards bearing Nazi symbols being carried by anti-Israeli demonstrators. During the exchange, the woman challenged the officer about whether displaying a swastika was against the law.

    She said: “I was told when I asked that a swastika was not necessarily anti-Semitic, that doesn’t seem right to me.”

    The officer replies: “I think the symbol in and of itself….”

    The woman went on: “If someone is carrying a sign with a swastika, you said you wouldn’t arrest them on the spot, it would have to be investigated online? A swastika in and of itself is not anti-Semitic?”

      1. Yes, it is. I inherited from my grand-mother an almost full set of Moroccan leather-bound “travelling books” by Rudyard Kipling and to my astonishment each cover was imprinted with a gold swastika so I looked it up! It is an ancient, Indian/Eastern symbol of great spirituality.

      2. I have heard an account of the fledgling Nazï Party finding in a Hindustani cultural book and taking it. Seems a little bit odd in light of their beliefs.

    4. In about 1970 when I was at school in London several children imagining they were skinheads began to leave drawn swastikas as graffiti on walls in cloakrooms and toilet facilities around the school.
      The headmaster, in assembly, reprimanded the unknown artists, saying that although these symbols meant little to them they were very upsetting for many of the staff members who had fought against the symbols and the people and ideas they represented during the war.
      I don’t know how other pupils felt, but his little speech certainly impressed me. And the swastika craze seemed to fizzle out.

  118. That’s me gone for this cold, wet and unwelcoming Easter Day. The Good News was that more than 20 people went to our little church and the lady rector did her usual excellent work there. Though I no longer go, I know that the congregation is extremely lucky.

    Have a spiffing evening preparing your April Fool gags…

    A demain

  119. Just home. There were 380 people in church this morning.
    A restaurant in Smithfield called Origin opened specially for Easter Sunday for anyone coming from the church. Their unique selling point is that the owners of the restaurant also own the farms and the vineyard in Provence that supply all of the food and drink they serve. It’s their own produce. For those who are into such things, I had the Tamworth pork shoulder, pigs in blankets, onion squash and mustard mash then dark chocolate tart with milk ice cream.
    I sat with five friends, including an East Indian lady who lives in the West Indies and practices law in Trinidad. She had some funny stories, including one about a man she’d had to ask, “Where is your operation”. He replied, “Right here” and dropped his trousers to show her the problem. Of course she meant, “Which hospital”.

    1. A lovely day for you. Food sounds good and homely.

      Sorry to spoil the mood but the dropping of trousers thing is something i do on occasion. Lucky no one asked me that question at lunch ! Til next time !

    2. There were 76 in our little church today, usual congregation between 35-40 so quite pleased with that! Some “regulars” away, but quite a few visitors and also some “Chreasters” – translation provided on request🤭 Two new couples recently moved to the area wanting to join the congregation – yippee! Lunch afterwards for anyone who wanted to join in at the home of one of the churchwardens and his wife with contributions from some of us. I took my special English sherry trifle with a French twist and it all disappeared, proof of the pudding and all that – recipe provided on request😁
      The restaurant you went to sounds really yummy :)) The only one I know in Smithfield is St John which is also excellent and a great favourite of a gourmet friend. He had his 70th birthday dinner there and I had some of the best marrow bone I have ever eaten. Do you know it?

        1. I don’t live in UK and it is some years since I went there as my friend died three years ago so I looked it up – it still seems to be very good. It is in St John Street.
          Funny story. On the occasion of my friend’s 70th I went outside for a smoke-break. Not far from the entrance of the restaurant were a couple of large rubbish bins and while I was there the most enormous rat emerged from one of them and then disappeared….into the entrance to the restaurant 🤣I debated with myself whether or not to announce this event upon my return to the party but decided that given the occasion, on balance, perhaps not! I did tell my friend afterwards though and he laughed and said that in London one is never more than six feet from a rat so what did I expect?!!

          1. The DT now suggests that we should embrace rats. Bird feeders = rats. Dianne the Ex brought me a Goldfinch feeder last year. I’ve expanded that to a ‘feeding station’

            So i now have Great Tits, Jackdaws, Starlings, Dunnocks, and the occasional green parakeet. And rats. I htave bait boxes and traps outside. They seem to be working.

  120. People hardly ever lock out other people’s voice commands. Makes it easy to steal from tech idiots.

  121. Does anyone else feel we are approaching a point where many things in the country, the world even, are coming to a head? It’s hard to list (because there are so many) the ailments that we see socially, economically and politically.
    A festering pustule, a boil just waiting to burst. For burst it must, hopefully with a volcanic explosion of laudable pus, leaving us to recover slowly.

    2. Who will the protagonists be? How will they line up? On differing matters, you might be with and against the same people.

        1. It is reigning now, Mr. Sunfish. Coherent thought is taking a backseat to impetuous action! It is indeed a scary and different world in which we live.

      3. I think it will depend very much which area the fighting is happening, but I fear it will mainly be indigenous, racial and sectarian.

        In some countries black and white Christians will fight Muslims, others it will be B v W, others immigrants vs indigenous, liberals v conservatives, law-abiders vs criminals; with disparate groups saying “enough”.

        Add to that unholy mix, the major players; China, USA, India and Russia and worst of all the WEF technocratic elites seizing the opportunities presented.

        It won’t be pleasant, and that’s understatement of the year

        1. In Leicester, the ABWs will be bystanders as the two Asian tribes set about one another.

          3. Not a term I’ve come across before and you have to remember I’m sleep deprived due to BST . I shall be jet-lagged until October.

    3. I think that the problem may be that it is the old who remember and realise the value the past glories of this country but are not the ones who will take to the streets and get involved in radical protest. The younger generation do have the ability to fight their cause but unfortunately have been fed the koolaid since young and think our present political and social mess is quite normal. They have been taught that asking people to take responsibility for their own decisions, provide for themselves and repulsing waves of gimigants, is just ‘not being kind’ to others. As ever, the taxpayer is seen as as source of endless funding. The sad fact is that no government has the guts to tell the people that it spends more than it collects and so reenforces the belief.

    5. Yes.
      End of long (80-90 year) economic cycle.
      End of world fiat currency system and unwinding of derivatives contracts (bigger than any fiat currency implosion in history)
      Apparently it is also the end of the Buddhist/Hindu Kali Juga cycle. This is a very long cycle, we have been in the worst phase of it for hundreds of years?
      I don’t know much about it, but Parallel Mike has done a podcast that I intend to listen to.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylI4MpFkZXs

      Normally the dollar died years ago, but they keep printing more, kicking the can down the road etc.
      Your gut feeling is supported by a lot of data. Eg central banks loading up on gold like crazy (not ours, of course).
      I think the social ailments are being nurtured by the parasite class as distractions.

  122. We had lamb last Sunday so tonight we’ve got pork. With roast potatoes and veggies.

    We usually have a starter but tonight we’ve got pudding instead – we can’t manage three courses.

        1. Moment of black humour here, too. Worse than yours, actually. Stephenroi (Long Pig job). Particularly since Pork is the only safe (ie non-Halal) meat now available in the UK.

  123. For the musicians.
    Is there a “voice” that goes higher than soprano?
    I ask because we had a soloist today that I must admit I found to be positively unpleasant.
    It may have been the acoustics in the hall.

    2. Treble is potentially higher, but applies to pre-pubescent voices only. There is such a thing as a coloratura soprano, which can be higher than your average sop. I used to direct a humble village choir which had a retired world-acclaimed operatic soprono in its ranks. But I won’t mention the Ashington-born diva’s name. Anyhow, following an area rehearsal for a Diocesan Choirs Festival at Guildford, I mentioned in passing to Andrew Millington (then D of M at the cathedral) that we had a ‘secret weapon’ for a forthcoming Confirmation service, where the candidate’s choirs would sing.

      Out of 400 voices, he had noticed that there was an opera singer in their midst. That was Sheila Armstrong. Oops…

      1. I believe this one was/is a professional, but to my cloth-ears it was a screech.

        I listened to the Malone concert this evening and the sopranos were delightful to my ear.

        All my boys were choristers and had superb treble voices, two obtained choral scholarships but they all no longer sing except at boozy parties..

      2. Did you know Martin How?
        I presume you may have; my middle son sang under his tutelage when singing with the Southern Cathedral Singers, until his voice broke.

        1. Hi, Sos. I didn’t know him, but I was certainly aware of him. He composed several anthems that my now non-existent chouirs used to sing…

      3. Castrato is in the female range, basically male voices drop about an octave in puberty. There is a surviving recording of the last castrato, the period just overlapping with sound recording. I found it disturbing.

    4. Sopranino. But at that point things are getting squeaky in the human voice. I suspect it was a combination of personal timbre and tone, inappropriate performance, intonation issues and maybe the room. Whilst there are bad space for certain musics the acoustics of a room generally don’t knock a good singer.

  124. If you had suggested to me when on the Naiad following a Soviet ‘trawler’ down past the Shetlands, Orkneys, and Hebrides, then down the west coast of Ireland and into the south western approaches, taking three fucking weeks, that I would despise a ‘Conservative’ government, the reigning Monarch, and have absolute respect for the President of Russia, I would have:

    A) Suggested that you might like to fuck the fuckety off,

    and,

    B) Get your bumps felt you tosser.

        1. That’s a relief, I thought you were going to poke Westminster with your trident.

      1. Odd, isn’t it. My daughter doesn’t really read novels but can devour science and psychology books and retain it all.

    3. I have some kind of “face blindness”. I cannot recognise myself or the children on photos I know we are on, let alone photos of mu husband before I met him. I am able to learn, so if someone points out where I am in the photo I can remember for next time; and in a work context I can usually deduce who everyone is. But mot if i meet them unexpectedly outside of work. I’m not the worst; but bad enough to be embarrassed by it.

          1. To be honest, I”m not terribly good if I meet people IN context, but I have a slightly better chance of working out who they are.

          2. Yup. Same here. As a child I once didn’t recognise my own Father who had come through the immigration at Kano airport to collect me airside – out of context. 🙁

          3. I was a grown up when I failed to recognise my future mother-in-law because she was visiting relatives in Colwyn Bay and we went to see them!

      3. Do you know, I never realised that my inability to recognise anyone in photos is connected to my inability to recognise people generally!
        It is an absolute curse – I never know when I am ignoring people. Someone greeted my in my home village last summer by name, slightly huffily as I had not greeted her.
        I met her ONCE, ten years ago! How the hell does she still recognise me?

  128. Me too. Nearly everybody has a visual memory. Amazing how a smell can conjure up visual memories too.

    1. I’ve never forgotten the smell of the grass snake that invaded our tent almost 50 years ago.

        1. I didn’t notice any excretions but it certainly stank. My ex picked it up carefully with a stick and removed it without harming it.

    2. Imagine some poor sod with a fishing rod over the side of his small boat just dozing off and …

    3. Imagine some poor sod with a fishing rod over the side of his small boat just dozing off and …

  132. Disqus on the blink again. No notifications and today’s messages missing from personal profile.

    1. Yes, on Discuss Disqus…

      Avatar
      Kieran 🐺
      5 hours ago
      Hi Mizuki 憎
      Yes, it’s been like that for a few hours now, although they came back briefly at one point.
      I did report it as soon as I noticed it.
      They may be doing maintenance of some kind. I don’t know for sure.
      Hopefully, things will be back working soon.
      12
      Reply

    1. A fellow I was at school with was rejected as a potential Marine officer as it was assessed he would drive his men too hard.

      He ended up with special forces and won a Military Cross.

    2. I had thought that list of red lines would disqualify me from the Marines, since I feel singularly unsuitable for military life, except perhaps as a regimental mascot.

      Going down that list though, I was never a Communist, but would not have missed my experience of working in a communist country for a month and making my own mind up about it. At 68, I would hardly count as middle-aged, but I am surprised the good colonel did not rule out the elderly. Physical deformity, no more than is usual at my age. I stoop a bit and shuffle along and I take a while to pee, but that’s hardly a deformity. I am only half deaf; one ear is fine. Not blind. I am a miserable old git, and get pretty grumpy about the state of the world especially those who claim they know better than me such as lawyer politicians, but my doctor thinks that sort of thing is normal rather than a mental illness. Short, fat, infirm and uneducated? Well, I doubt I’d get on ‘Gogglebox’ so maybe I’m not that either too much. As for drug addiction, I have this cream egg I’ve been holding back on all through Lent, and can’t find the damned thing now. I feel deprived.

      It’s the second paragraph that is a tad offputting to a couch potato who likes his bed more than he likes killing people. Such a pity, my application had been going so well up until then. I have the boots though; I like my boots.

    3. The new Defence Secretary is a complete moron; Lt Col ES-T is spot on with the common sense facts!

    4. Bu**er.

      I wish that I has wrote that! (SWMBO says it should be ‘written that’)

      I did not do arduous bit, apart from on Dartmoor as an Apprentice, but later I was very good with Nuclear Depth Bombs

    5. About twenty years ago the RM ran an advertising campaign stressing that they were the elite and that 99% need not apply. It was very effective…in that 99% didn’t.

  135. Falling birth rates

    SIR – Commenting recently on the need to increase the French birth rate (Business, March 26), Hélène Périvier, of the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE), said: “As long as we have unemployed people, having more children is not necessarily a good solution. Rather than more people, it is better to have more people who are educated and are able to work.”

    The same point was made 100 years ago in respect of the British population by R A Fisher, then chief statistician at Rothamsted Experimental Station. He noted that the cost of education was tending to cause the wealthier classes to reduce their fertility below their replacement rate, and that this in turn had the genetic consequences of associating wealth with infertility in the population. After studying the flat-rate scheme of child allowances adopted in France, Fisher concluded that it would be better to adopt a system in which child allowances proportional to earnings would be paid by employers. For self-employed professions such as medicine, the same effect would be produced through their professional associations. In neither case would there be a call on public funds.

    Discussion of the two types of scheme was conducted largely among the members of the Eugenics Society. William Beveridge, in his 1943 Galton Lecture to the society, favoured a flat-rate scheme on public funds, which was later enacted.

    Today, Beveridge is revered as the founder of the welfare state. Fisher, however, has been cancelled for being a “eugenicist”, and his scheme for family allowances is wrongly stigmatized for benefiting the wealthy at the public’s expense.

    Professor AWF Edwards
    Gonville and Caius College
    Cambridge

    Some Fabians had a different view. They thought that uneducated young women living in the slums should be sterilised in order to reduce the levels of poverty.

  136. I suppose in France there’s also the choice of Horse flesh…. – Porky & Bess so to speak….

  137. I suppose in France there’s also the choice of Horse flesh…. – Porky & Bess so to speak….

    1. Exhausting day! And an hour less in which to relax….! You’ve got to feel for the furry little things!

    2. I don’t think it actually ends until 9th April when, no doubt, there will be a fireworks display.

  143. You know me, tactless.
    Even Phizzee would be embarrassed to be seen with me in public.

    The population would realise how handsome I am by comparison.

    And most people are very handsome compared with me

  146. I have feeders too, they hang in a tree in cat-proof positions about four metres from the kitchen door so that I can watch the birds :)) The usual tits, sparrows, robins, redstarts etc., plus the occasional woodpecker! Not seen any rats but as long as they stay outside I don’t mind them.
    A few years back in spite of four cats in the house including one particularly good mouser, we had a massive infestation of rats in the house, utility-room, garage and barn, absolutely no idea why. We had to put poison down everywhere which I hate doing, but we really had no choice. After about two weeks they all disappeared and thankfully it hasn’t happened again.

    1. Hi, Peta – belatedly. Since the first Goldfinch feeder, things have rather exploded. I bought a ‘feeding station’. So now I have two goldfinch feeders, a suet block holder, a “Peckish” nut and seed feeder, and a feeder now filled with ‘sunflower hearts’. Plus a mesh tray which basically catches the surplus stuff from the ‘Peckish’ feeder. There’s also a ‘squirrel baffle’, which works very well.

      The jackdaws tend to spread bits of suet block across the garden. This is much appreciated by the assorted smaller birds. And the occasional rat. For which I have a variety of defences. But, in fairness, they are also one of God’s creatures, I suppose. As it happens, they appear to take the rat bait, within a few days, they display some weird behaviour, then they’re gone.

      1. Hi Geoff :)) That all sounds very professional! I have suet balls in holders hanging in the tree, a tray for “wild bird” seeds etc. which I also sprinkle around for the ground feeders, and put out all my breadcrumbs, crushed stale bread and chopped up bacon rind, pork fat etc. My “outside” cats get fed in the same area and some of the birds, especially the blackbirds and robins, love cat-food! I once saw a robin hopping around impatiently while a cat was eating its food and as soon as the cat departed went straight to the bowl to finish up the scraps!
        Rat poison kills them by causing internal haemorrhaging which is a horrible way to die. I hate using it.

  150. Well, chums, that’s another month over. April the first tomorrow, so watch out for April Fools. Good Night, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

  151. Another day is done so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    1. I didn’t understand this until I re-read your caption, Maggie. Then, by squinting (i.e. closing my eyes by just 70%) I saw the magic. I think I had thought that by closing my eyes, the green strawberries would somehow magically turn red.

      1. Yes that was my thought too, which I tried and nothing happened. I must have closed my eyes slightly because then the image jumped out at me. Night-night Elsie. I am really going to close my eyes very shortly.

  155. After a lovely but very busy family day, I’m popping off to bed now.
    Goodnight all.

  157. Good to see the Middletons and their families were invited to Windsor today and sitting with Charles and Camilla making it a true family occasion at this sad time. Shame William and his children couldn’t make it to the Easter service. I wonder what they were doing instead?

          1. Surely in the sad circumstances, Charles and Camilla could have invited their in-laws to the Easter service? It also seems very odd that William and his children couldn’t find the time to slip away for a few hours to be there too.

    2. I am inclined to leave the Windsors alone. They are experiencing what millions of others have to endure year by year. I suspect though they will receive better and more timely care than the rest of us.

      1. I think there’s a secret. I hope I’m wrong but nothing today made me think otherwise.

        1. You lost me a little. I have no real interest in the Royals and see King Charles as a rather weak and ignorant man, susceptible to accepting the advices of idiots and flunkeys.

          He is of course a vain and stupid man which is often the product of high preference and being born with an 24 Carat gold spoon in his mouth.

          Regrettably such as King Charles wobble along through life without challenge. Without challenge these individuals never have to think for themselves nor do they have to think seriously about the lives of their subjects nor the utter misery their political representatives deploy onto the populace.

          2. They tried to hide it at first and when that failed, the firm engaged a damage limitation. In not disclosing the actual condition, it points to a serious condition where the outcome is not certain.

          3. Quite. Kate’s children haven’t been seen for months. They might not even be in the country which would explain why William didn’t join the others at Windsor. He could hardly go on his own on a family occasion.

          4. corim, your final paragraph is so very true. Life’s challenges moulds one’s character and I believe a majority, certainly from our generation, attempted to meet those challenges. Those who didn’t ‘man-up’, so to speak, became passengers on life’s journey, turning to drugs, crime etc. and some became politicians.

      2. I have never been able to understand how so many ordinary human beings and even royalty suffer from an unfortunate illness, but it never seems to affect all the vile scum we have in our political sectors.

  159. BBC Countryfile on form: “We’re in the Trent Valley looking at wildlife projects…the return of the beaver…and attempts to save rare trees from disappearing forever.”

    1. No word from Biden, the Governor or Mayor and no one does dick all about it so the mob get more aggressive with their actions.

      Earlier this week a Toronto city council meeting to celebrate ramadan (left wing council) was invaded by a similar mob with the same lack of response by authorities.

      New York has become a lost cause. Apparently fire crews were told to remove the 9/11 commemorative flags from their fire engines because (as we expect) they might upset some people.

    2. Not once has an irregular immigrant diminished my life in a discernable fashion.

      3. A friend of mine was accosted in a public park while out with her children and told not to wear shorts. Believe me, it’s only a matter of time.

      4. So you don’t think David, that the £Billions being spent on housing and feeding tens of thousands of illegals is having a negative impact on you and society at large?

  161. I’m having a whale of a time in Ramsgate. Were it not for the Muslims and niggers who preoccupy my every thought.

      1. They are presemt, but I blot them from my countenance. At this very moment i hear the Supremes, but I pretend it’s Alma Cogan.

  164. Wordle 1,017 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟨🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    An excellent result, though I say so myself. (This is for Monday, but posted on the tail end of Sunday’s page.)

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