Sunday 4 September: Time for the Tories to come together and get on with the business of governing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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384 thoughts on “Sunday 4 September: Time for the Tories to come together and get on with the business of governing”

  3. ‘Morning All

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e530006457c11ac56f97c0c5fbe45d366670e2170053d0e9dcd43d41553dff4a.jpg

    Funny Old World……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1865639723e89f93bf61539d528377c0ae7d90b9e6f52e483fa8953260db8566.jpg

    A Neil Oliver

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QnmuAmOgRA

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b32e99f5b383d6d8d3568467d31634093597844f75bca9ecc3ee6eac683d8b3f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0b0f43d0c4072ae4c63c50293dea28e66d59c820c08e2dbcd58df7c1c5610986.jpg

    3. Only last week at a check up, another qualified medical practitioner agreed with my theory about my covid jabs and resulting Atrial fibrillation. And she also said that many other people have suffered almost identical problems.

  5. I will remove the obstacles holding our country back. Liz Truss. 4 September 2022.

    My approach will be two-fold. The first will be taking immediate action to tackle the cost of living for families and businesses. The second is delivering a broader plan to get our economy growing, make it more resilient and make it more competitive. Getting Britain growing again is essential.

    If elected, I plan within the first week of my new administration to set out our immediate action on energy bills and energy supply. A fiscal event would follow later this month from my Chancellor, with a broader package of action on the economy.

    This is just pabulum. There is no indication here that Truss has any real idea of the fix we are in. There is no mention of a disintegrating Civil Bureaucracy, Net-Zero or Mass Immigration! It is in fact head in the sand stuff.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/03/will-remove-obstacles-holding-country-back/

    1. Then she woke up!
      Mind you, if she does continue with Johnson’s nightmare scenario she will be the Tory leader who will oversee the destruction of the current Tory party. Nary a tear should be shed if that happens. A Phoenix moment to rejuvenate the swamp of corruption and uselessness that has overcome the Tories, or will it be too late for them?

    2. The person in the UN-IPCC meme looks like Sylvester Sneakly aka “The Hooded Claw”! Edit – this is in the wrong place – it should be under R-R’s memes; what is Disqus doing?

    3. Good day, Minty. We are indeed in a real fix, with innumerable problems/crises to tackle. But if she becomes our new Prime Minister she will have to focus on three or four of those areas at the most. If she chooses the cost of living and the economy as her first priorities it will not be helpful to say that she should instead have chosen the three that you yourself mention. This will be the MSM approach which will attempt to castigate her for any of the other crises which she has not chosen instead of encouraging her to continue dealing with what she sees as most important. I say, let her work on her priorities and judge her on the success or failure she makes of those.

  6. Hitchens

    “A persecution we’d condemn in Russia

    When the Government was considering its spiteful, despotic plan to persecute
    video blogger Graham Phillips, officials plainly advised Ministers that
    the action would interfere with his human rights – rights which the
    Government ceaselessly claims to defend.

    Yet they went ahead. Mr Phillips publishes blogs which defy the largely
    accepted view about Ukraine. As a result, he has been subjected to
    severe and damaging sanctions, without any hearing.

    In an internal memo seen by me, a civil servant points out ‘the proposed
    imposition of an asset freeze would have a considerable impact on his
    ability to withdraw funds and access essential personal services in the
    UK’. They say this will interfere with his Human Rights, ‘including his
    rights under Article 8 (family life/private life) and Article 1 of
    Protocol 1 (property rights)’.

    It then states ‘there may also be interference with his Article 10 rights to freedom of expression’. I’ll say.

    It fails to mention that the sanctions rip up his most basic freedoms
    under Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights, which forbid punishment
    without a fair trial before an impartial jury.

    I have now seen some of the Government’s ‘case’ against Mr Phillips, much
    of which consists of cuttings from The Guardian and The Times. It
    contains allegations which Mr Phillips would have strongly denied if he
    had been able to do so in court.

    He has been punished without trial for expressing views which the state does
    not like. Isn’t this the sort of thing we condemn in Russia?

    God bless the free speech campaigner Toby Young who has spoken out against this unBritish abuse. But where are the other voices?”
    The state hates us and any dissent from the propaganda line must be crushed,be it Convid,Green lunacy or Ukeland I really don’t know how we come back from this……

    1. We are not meant to come back from this. We are meant to learn about it, in the manner that we do, and realise that it could be us. We are also well aware that we are unknown nobodies and that there is no one to speak up for us, and they know it.

  7. Talking of being crushed if you dare divert from the agenda…….

    “You are a danger to children, Church of England tells school

    chaplain who said pupils could disagree with woke dogma: A sinister

    twist in Rev Bernard Randall’s fight for his career after he was

    reported to an anti-terror unit by his bosses

    Dr Bernard Randall, 49, won widespread public support last year

    He defended pupils’ rights to question the introduction of new LGBT policies

    However an investigation found that he posed a ‘moderate’ risk, and might cause

    children ‘anxiety’ if they came to him with ‘a sexuality or

    relationship’ issue”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11177351/You-danger-children-CoE-tells-chaplain-said-pupils-disagree-woke-dogma.html
    The CofE has become an instrument of woke propaganda…….

    1. The CofE should return to preaching its religious dogma and drop the move to following the political dogma proposed by the globalist cabal. Becoming an arm of the state machine is not a good look.

  8. ‘Morning, Peeps. A pleasant fresh and sunny start to the day here…

    SIR – The leadership contest has taken two months, during which time the Government has been a rudderless ship on a particularly stormy sea. This suggests that Tory MPs are more interested in their party’s internal affairs than running the country. They may well regret this irresponsible behaviour at the next election.

    It is also worth noting that the process we have gone through was the same one that produced David Cameron, Theresa May – and Boris Johnson. Not a brilliant track record.

    We can only hope the party has done better this time.

    Michael Foster
    Culworth, Northamptonshire

    Well Mr Foster, those three were Conservatives in name only. Let us hope and pray that this one is.

    2. A good BTL comment:

      Finian Manson
      17 MIN AGO
      Michael Foster should remember the last three prime ministers, who as he actually states, were chosen by the same method, were those left standing after the parliamentary party had done its backroom deals. Indeed, in the case of Andrea Leadsom they wield the axe after she got through to the finals.
      So, not to prejudge the announcement at lunchtime tomorrow, but if the parliamentary party had had its way it would have been the same old same old with Rash Sunak pursuing a Treasury orthodox policy of tax-and-spend and jam in 10 years time.
      What is inexcusable is allowing this whole public bloodletting to staet let alone continue for two months when only 160,000 paid-up members have a say in the matter and quite some time ago the 1922 committee et cetera would have known if Liz Truss had received more than half the votes eligible to be counted.
      Thereafter, the whole process should have been stopped immediately and steps taken to remedy the current economic situation and try and avert a recession.

      * * *
      I agree! It is the lack of a sense of urgency that, in my view, has done great damage to the party, and it should never be allowed to take so long again.

      1. Whith all due respect, sod the party what about the country and the indigenous population.

      2. Whith all due respect, sod the party what about the country and the indigenous population.

    3. …two months, during which time the Government has been a rudderless ship…

      Only two months? Michael Foster, where have you been?

      1. Correct, the ship of state has been cast adrift on Blairite Seas since the warmonger-in-chief stepped down to let Snotty McDoom grab the wheel. The Climate Change Act 2008 has sown the seeds of much of our current power supply problems and the only growth area is in the number of illegal immigration flotilla escorted across the Channel by the RN and RNLI.

  9. SIR – With regard to health tourism (Letters, August 28), when I go to a private doctor for treatment I have to pay up front.

    When I go to a local private hospital I am required to leave a print of my credit card, so I can be charged. If I seek treatment anywhere else in the world, I have to pay up front.

    When going for NHS treatment, an NHS number should be required. Those without one need to pay up front or leave their card details.

    Duncan Rayner
    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    I would support such a system in principle, provided of course that there is some means for the provision of basic treatment in place in an emergency.

    1. “provided of course that there is some means for the provision of basic treatment in place in an emergency.” And therein lies the problem Hugh, How does one deter abuse? Take for example the young American, who is seriously ill and without US health insurance, buys a transatlantic flight to a London Airport and a taxi to the local A&E where emergency treatment is given, including a necessary lengthy hospital stay and walks away without paying. The embassy isn’t interested…

      1. ‘Morning Stephen. Fair point, but it arises in other countries where there is no system like ours, so how do they deal with it? I’m sure we could learn a thing or two from them!

        1. Foreigners could be dumped in public parks, or deported on the next plane. Callous? Yes, but if we don’t save ourselves, who will save us?

    2. If you have to apply for a Schengen visa, one requirement is to provide evidence of medial insurance. Make it so here.

  10. 355689+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 4 September: Time for the Tories to come together and get on with the business of governing

    Surely more than just a few must realise we have been, as a nation politically rogered and undermined / overwhelmed by a treacherous ringer tory (ino) party.

    The odious beauty of it is it has been done post Thatcher
    , via the polling booth and with the electoral majority consent.

    Regarding the past It could also be said, with more than enough evidence it is well past time the toxic trio was dissolved via the polling booth, what has been over these last three decades constructed can be,
    via the polling booth, demolished,

    Keep in mind 48% / 52% the wanna be eu serfs came close to winning the day, they are still out there as in supporting / voting lab/lib/con coalition party.

  11. Putin’s propaganda machine has a new focus: brainwashing Russia’s schoolchildren. 4 September 2022.

    As its war in Ukraine stalls, the Kremlin has re-focused its powerful propaganda machine on school children. Patriotism and an unflinching devotion to the great Russian state are the platform that the Kremlin wants children’s education to be built on.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Stuart Everyman.

    “brainwashing Russia’s schoolchildren.” As opposed to teaching Black History Month, Pride Month, Critical Race Theory, Decolonising the Curriculum? Those evil Russians.

    Compared to the UK Russia is a fount of Traditional Liberties and Values!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/03/putins-propaganda-machine-has-new-focus-brainwashing-russias/

  12. Putin’s propaganda machine has a new focus: brainwashing Russia’s schoolchildren. 4 September 2022.

    As its war in Ukraine stalls, the Kremlin has re-focused its powerful propaganda machine on school children. Patriotism and an unflinching devotion to the great Russian state are the platform that the Kremlin wants children’s education to be built on.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Stuart Everyman.

    “brainwashing Russia’s schoolchildren.” As opposed to teaching Black History Month, Pride Month, Critical Race Theory, Decolonising the Curriculum? Those evil Russians.

    Compared to the UK Russia is a fount of Traditional Liberties and Values!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/03/putins-propaganda-machine-has-new-focus-brainwashing-russias/

  13. SIR – Jacob Rees-Mogg’s notion of selling off half-empty government buildings in London as a response to the working-from-home brigade has some merits, but there are other options.

    For example, why not sack the staff who fail to follow the instruction to come into the office?

    Mick Ferrie
    Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

    I think they will be back soon, Mr Ferrie, when they are fed up with shirking, and shivering, from home. Who knows, they might even come to appreciate the contact with other employees. But if they persist in their refusal to attend their place of work then this factor should count against them when it comes to promotion.

    1. I think it’s genius. For ages, Govt has been trying to get the civil servants to move out of London to say Wolverhampton; and the civil servants have resisted – they “need” to be in London. But their actions over the past two years have shown that they don’t in fact need or want to be in London like they claimed, they just wanted the cachet of saying they worked in London and not say Wolverhampton (for the record I am very fond of Wolverhampton).

      So now they can “work from home” and there can be regional centres to which they can travel when they need to have meetings. And bingo – you have achieved your objective of removing them from London and even better they did i it to themselves.

      What would be even better (but will never happen) is for their salaries to be reduced and for the expenses we were told they get for wfh to be removed. Those working in the private sector didn’t get any extra money for wfh so I don’t understand why the taxpayer should give public servant allowances either. They can claim the tax allowance like everyone else, if they are eligible for it (£6 a week).

      1. Snivel serpents receive a London weighting sum added to their salary. If thy are WFH this element should be removed.

    2. Instead of selling off government buildings, they could be converted into hotels to house all the ‘refugees’ flooding across the channel…

      2. Our local Welsh Government offices have been vacated and now just recently had a new sign put up – Vaccination Centre.

  15. SIR – Energy prices are soaring while 1,300 trillion cubic feet of shale gas sits idle under our feet. Just 10 per cent of this, deemed to be the most easily accessible, would give the UK self-sufficiency for 50 years.

    By not using British shale gas resources, we’re missing out on tens of thousands of well-paid jobs, losing billions from the UK economy while enriching foreign exchequers, depriving councils and residents of millions of pounds of tax revenue, and putting our country at the mercy of a Russia-dominated European gas market as we all scrabble for the same limited resource.

    The Climate Change Committee says we will still be using gas by 2050. It is absurd that we import the majority of it from abroad.

    The Levelling Up Secretary says the Government will fast-track nuclear projects. If the new Government wants us to start fracking, we must similarly fast-track shale gas sites through the planning system by treating them as nationally significant infrastructure projects.

    * * *

    This is a multi-sig letter from 20 MPs and Peers, all Conservative. I’m certain there is much support for their view.

    1. “Levelling Up Secretary”, what does that mean in reality? A bureaucratic bullshit misnomer comes to mind.
      Another misnomer, “government will fast-track,” unless of course the statement relates to pay and expense increases.

    2. Morning all.

      Multi-sig letter from 20MPs and peers, all Conservatives, you say. Only . Why only 20? Are the rest completely blind?

      1. I suspect that for the last decade, under the reigns of Carrie Antoinette, Maybot and Windmill Dave, they’ve been voices crying in the Westminster wilderness.
        If the PM and Cabinet lap dogs won’t listen, in the face of such wilful deafness, you can only KBO and then pick a moment like this to really push at an open door.

    3. It’s Wake a Dopey Wokey time for the UK and get on with it.
      But as ever the idiots in charge will sit about on committee’s discussing reasons for not doing anything as usual.

    4. Spot on! Fracking under the North Sea would access the gas and allay fears of contamination and earthquakes, but we are in a state of emergency.
      “Marine is quite fine, but inland is grand!”*

      *with apologies to Ogden Nash.

  16. So is Zelensky telling Europe that if we destroy all our economies and make ourselves penniless that we will defeat Putin?

    2. He says its all for the good “to prevent war”. Well, I’m sure I saw something about a conflict in Europe, perhaps it was just a special military operation as Vlad told us.

    4. Talking about penniless, whatever happened to the twelve billion of gold previously held by Ukraine?

      Is it still there?

      If not, who has got it?

      Anybody know?

  17. Imagine the left wing uproar if this ever got implemented:

    “ SIR – With regard to health tourism (Letters, August 28), when I go to a private doctor for treatment I have to pay up front.

    When I go to a local private hospital I am required to leave a print of my credit card, so I can be charged. If I seek treatment anywhere else in the world, I have to pay up front.

    When going for NHS treatment, an NHS number should be required. Those without one need to pay up front or leave their card details.”

    Edit. Just noticed someone even keener than me has already posted this earlier. Just goes to show it’s a great letter!

    1. ‘Morning, Mir. Of course the left wing will rant and rave, but what is their solutuon to a system that is broken, and probably beyond repair? They should also be reminded that it was Bliar who indulged in privatising some aspects of NHS treatment.

    2. ‘Morning, Mir. Of course the left wing will rant and rave, but what is their solutuon to a system that is broken, and probably beyond repair? They should also be reminded that it was Bliar who indulged in privatising some aspects of NHS treatment.

    3. One of my nieces use work in a London hospita as a physio. She told the story of a chap who after his flight to Heathrow from Lago’s and taxi journey arrived at the hospital A&E and started to roll around on the floor. He was examined and admitted his problem was put right. And after around 3 weeks of treatment etc. He got out of bed dressed and walked out.
      Over many years this has been happening and I suspect it still does.
      There are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who use the NHS in the same way. That’s precisely why it’s going down the drain so rapidly.

    4. The NHS isn’t a health service. It pretends to be, but really it’s a government department. A giant, floating, impregnable state department.

      It employs millions of people, is heavily unionised, immensely expensive, utterly uninterested in reform, improvement or change, long ago lost interest in doing the job it was created to do and exists only because great cliffs of cash is poured into it’s furnaces every day.

      If it had to provide a service in exchange for payment, and not providing the service saw them not getting paid then the entire relationship changes.

  19. Good morning all. 11°C, overcast and a VERY light drizzle this morning.
    Eldest daughter is staying for the weekend so sat up in bed alongside the DT.

    ED & I met up with Stepson, her ½ brother, and had an enjoyable time st Turnditch & Windley show yesterday. The weather was perfect, dry but sufficient cloud to stop it getting too hot.

  20. 355689+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    9h
    From a man who has banned opposition parties & who presides over a world money laundering centre.

    previewImg
    Zelensky exclusive: Threat from ‘Putin the Nazi’ outweighs pain of rising energy bills — The Ti

    Volodymyr Zelensky refuses to talk about Boris Johnson in the past tense. Breaking into a broad grin as he recounts one of the last conversations he had with the British prime minister during his third and final visit to Kyiv last month, the Ukrainia…

    apple.news

    https://gettr.com/post/p1pl5v44c1d

    2. No matey, inflation is worth a war. However our inflationary problems are not caused by your EU instigated conflict. They’re a result of government waste, debt and currency debasement.

      1. 355689+up ticks,

        Morning W,
        Seeing as the “government ” to all intents & purposes still very much pro eu then tis all part & parcel of the same issue.

  23. Headline in today’s DT:

    “Water watchdog’s independence in question as revolving door with polluting private firms revealed

    Calls to clamp down on cosy relationship that sees nearly all major water companies in England employing former Ofwat regulators”

    Gosh, whoda thunkit? Is the Pope…?
    Do bears…?

    1. A leading BTL:

      Carpe Jugulum
      9 HRS AGO
      ‘Cosy relationship’? Really? I would say there is the very clear stench of institutionalised corruption.
      Is it really credible that senior Ofwat mandarins are going to throw away a future £100k+ sinecure by actually doing the jobs they are paid to do?
      The absolute proof of that corruption is the slightly lesser stink of the untreated sewage flowing into our rivers and seas.
      There should be a twenty year quarantine period for all Ofwat employees precluding them from direct or indirect employment by water companies.
      Cosy relationship = entirely corrupt relationship.

          1. Do they? I hadn’t noticed. I usually buy the Andrex 16 roll packs, but they don’t always get opened very soon. It’s not as if they go off, so I buy them when they are on a special offer. Last time I looked, they seem to be offering bigger rolls, or nine rolls, but not the 16 roll packs. We’re not running out yet.

          2. We use Andrex too as it seems to be better value. HM must agree as it’s Royal Appointment. One must use the right loo rolls;-))

          3. The bog rolls we buy over here are much better than Andrex.
            Lambi             are softer and they don’t rip!

        2. I visited my dentist, t’other day, and availed myself of the cleanest bog I’ve ever been in. I smiled when I noticed that end of the pristine bog-roll had been folded to a point.

          1. I hope the person who folded it into a point was wearing gloves. It’s the same with fussily folded napkins.

    3. Yes, it is rather ‘why is this news?’ It’s been known for some time that the regulators work for the companies they are supposed to regulate and are chock full of those people from the same industry: not the engineers or ground troops, the management.

      If folk didn’t know this – what’s wrong with you!

  24. Morning all😃
    My good lady took me to the Odyssey cinema in St Albans last evening. Despite the fact we arrived about 40 minutes earlier and had to watch all the dribble of advertising and future viewing, I thoroughly enjoyed the film. It is called Where the Crawdads sing. Based on a recent book by Delia Ownens. Superb acting,
    I really enjoyed it. And recommend it.

    2. The book was excellent – good to know it transferred well to the screen. Might even hunt it out – haven’t been to the cinema in ages.

      1. Mrs Eddy had also read the book, and was also impressed by the production. But obviously had more info on some of the local folks.

    1. Irritating.

      My suspicious mind wonders whether they want to bully conservatives away from discussing things by suggesting they are watching us.

    2. Currently uBlock has 10 blocks on this page. PiHole is doing somewhat better with 5 source domains blocking. There is no reason whatsoever to see adverts.

  26. Good morning All, from a pleasant Banham.
    The title annoys me, though. Until the Tories become conservative they will continue ruling the country into the ground.
    But hey… the woodpigeons are making their racket and my brother’s cat loves looking for shrews, so the world hasn’t yet gone to pot.

  27. Good morning All, from a pleasant Banham.
    The title annoys me, though. Until the Tories become conservative they will continue ruling the country into the ground.
    But hey… the woodpigeons are making their racket and my brother’s cat loves looking for shrews, so the world hasn’t yet gone to pot.

  28. An article in yesterday’s DT:

    New BBC News chief walks into fresh rows over impartiality

    Deborah Turness joins as the broadcaster comes under renewed political scrutiny

    By Ben Woods 3 September 2022 • 12:00pm

    As the first woman and first non-American to run one of the US’s biggest news channels, Deborah Turness is clearly not afraid of a challenge. But her latest role at the BBC may be her toughest assignment yet.

    The former head of ITN will join Auntie on Monday as the new chief executive of BBC News. Her arrival at New Broadcasting House comes at a time when reinforcements are needed to tackle yet another brewing row over impartiality at the broadcaster.

    Scrutiny of the broadcaster ramped up after the former Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis levelled a very public shot at BBC board member Sir Robbie Gibb last month.

    During her MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh international TV festival, Maitlis, who left the BBC for its commercial broadcasting rival Global in February, branded Sir Robbie an “active agent of the Conservative Party” who was influencing its news output “as the arbiter of BBC impartiality”.

    Those comments have reignited the debate over the BBC’s neutrality, sending the organisation into a navel-gazing tailspin.

    Neil Henderson, a senior BBC journalist, made a public apology to Gary Lineker on Tuesday after questioning whether the Match of the Day presenter had breached impartiality rules by criticising the Government’s sewage disposal policies.

    That same day, Radio 2 presenter Jeremy Vine was found to have broken impartiality rules when the keen cyclist expressed his repeated support for low-traffic neighbourhoods in a series of tweets.

    All of this is set against the backdrop of the BBC’s strained relationship with the Conservative Party, which is set to continue under a likely Liz Truss government. She mocked the BBC’s journalistic standards in August before pulling out of an interview with the veteran journalist Nick Robinson last week.

    Tense relations with governments are not new but, as the heated scrutiny of the corporation grows, there is a danger that the corporation’s ability to make bold editorial decisions could be jeopardised by a fear of getting it wrong.

    Gill Hind, of Enders Analysis, says Turness will provide welcome reinforcements as the BBC navigates huge amounts of political pressure.

    “Deborah Turness coming will be helpful. She is hugely respected within the industry and was head and shoulders above everyone else for that role,” Hind says.

    Turness, 55, made her name as the editor of ITN News for almost a decade before becoming the first non-American to run NBC News in 2013. In that role she oversaw the channel’s coverage of the rise of Donald Trump, battling with how to handle what she has called the “circus” of the former president’s constant tweets.

    Hind says: “There is a lot riding on how she handles it over the next six months to a year because there is infighting at the BBC. They have pulled in a heavy hitter and it will be interesting if she can turn things around.”

    At the BBC, Turness will have to strike a balance between giving her reporters the confidence to report courageously, while reinforcing the director general’s attempts to shore up the BBC’s impartiality standards.

    Tim Davie unveiled a 10-point plan last year aimed at lancing criticisms of left-wing bias levelled at the broadcaster by ministers, including the culture secretary Nadine Dorries.

    The ex-reality TV contestant inflamed the impartiality row when she criticised Laura Kuenssberg’s reporting as ridiculous, after the former political editor quoted an anonymous Tory MP saying Boris Johnson’s authority was “evaporating”.

    Among the measures outlined by Davie were “thematic reviews” to ensure there are a breadth of voices and viewpoints; increased content reviews by the BBC’s editorial policy team and extending impartiality training to freelancers.

    The BBC’s biggest presenters must also now declare not only how much they are paid by the corporation, but also how much they earn for work done with outside businesses.

    Will it be enough to muzzle critics in the long run?

    Bill Emmott, the former Economist editor and ex-chair of the Ofcom content board, says the BBC will always be a subject of criticism because of how much public money it relies on.

    “The fundamental fact is that the BBC is the dominant big beast and for it to be stabilised, it would require efforts both from the Government and from the BBC,” he says.

    “There is no doubt that the efforts to intervene and influence its coverage comes from both directions. The issue with Robbie Gibb, as Emily Maitlis raised, is not to enforce impartiality, but to induce partiality. That is a case of interference.

    “The BBC needs to police itself carefully and is trying to do so in a way that is demonstrable, and highly clear. In the Jeremy Vine case, it is not possible to do it in a fine tuned way because you get inconsistencies and absurdities.

    “The fact that a prominent cyclist can’t have a view about his local neighbourhood seems a little bit odd. This is the BBC trying to bend over backwards.”

    Emmott adds that while it is clear that the world wants the BBC to be fearless and independent in its reporting, there has been paralysis.

    He believes there is nervousness among reporters about making judgements in the wake of Brexit, which was such a polarising issue. The ongoing hostility from parts of the media and Government only adds to the pressure.

    Ms Hind says the failure of British broadcasters to anticipate the Brexit vote was a key moment for BBC when it came to impartiality.

    “While the [British broadcasters] handled the impartiality when it came to getting the right number of speakers from all sides, they didn’t do enough to question some of the things that were being said by the politicians leading up to the EU referendum. I think all broadcasters have taken lessons from that.”

    The Maitlis lecture is understood to have landed hard at New Broadcasting House.

    One BBC insider said it felt like a PR stunt for her new podcast on Global, adding that some of the comments were “pretty poor show” considering the “extraordinary career” she enjoyed at the BBC.

    A direct response from Turness seems unlikely. She will want to avoid such high-profile skirmishes as she finds her feet. But as is often the case with the BBC, controversy is only ever one step away.

    * * *

    Not unexpectedly the BTL comments are almost exclusively hostile:

    Paul Micklethwaite19 HRS AGO

    After watching the first 10 minutes last night of Have I Got News for You’s Boris Special how can the BBC seriously pretend to be impartial? The show is a complete disgrace. I was shocked to hear Jack Dee using the C word during a prime time show on BBC1. Ian Hislop is unbearable. The show ceased to be funny 20 years ago. The BBC has reached a new nadir.

    Stuart Reed19 HRS AGO

    They are just muddying the water to confuse people, the BBC is the organ of Marxism and anti-nationalistic sentiment, the sooner it is demolished the better, unfortunately the Tories have missed their chance and Labour will use the BBC to bolster its case at the next election, well frankly the Tories deserve all they get after such a lamentable performance under Cameron, May and Johnson. A lot rests on Truss.

    Marcus Vaigncourt-Strallen20 HRS AGO

    The lunchtime and early evening news bulletins are just appalling. They are preachy and patronising and treat all viewers as if we are primary school children.

    They concentrate on reporting on victims and reporting the findings of think tanks as if the conclusions their of research was always balanced and unbiased.

    And yet the BBC does not seem to recognise any of these shortcomings. In fact they double down on all of them.

    John McKinney14 HRS AGO

    “ there is a danger that the corporation’s ability to make bold editorial decisions could be jeopardised by a fear”

    The boldest editorial decision would be to quit acting as some form of left wing social activists and just report the news, all of it and not just the articles that support a liberal left agenda.

    Stop replacing white actors and pretending the white population is a minority as opposed to 95% of the population. It’s offensive and not a little bit racist.

    Report all the news. It is just as important to public safety to report the facts behind the largest paedophile scandal in the history of this country. Primarily, as it is still ongoing across the Britain. The fact that it occurs in very specific areas where a certain ethnic group, who feature almost exclusively in the very limited arrests for the offences, is relevant. If it was a group of Tory MPs we would never, ever, hear the end of it.

    The fact that it has happened in almost exclusively Labour Local Authority areas with little intervention is relevant and needs to be challenged. The fact that these local authority areas with the specific responsibility for child safety and appear to have done little other than cover it up is relevant. If it were conservatives covering it up it would be covered wall to wall, 24 hours a day. Perhaps even as much as the supposed partygate incident which dominated the news for nearly a year.

    Just basic stuff. I use the huge national scandal as case study of the left wing manipulation of the news, even when it goes against the public safety of young vulnerable children. Which is relevant.

    What the BBC choose not to report or in a very limit way, is just as important as the often, politically embarrassing that they promote ad nauseam.

    1. Hislop is a total disgrace – an incompetent disgrace. A satirist is supposed to attack all sides without fear or favour: he is incapable of doing so and should be sacked. (But f course he won’t be)

    2. As regards the paedophile scandal, the number of children murdered has never been counted, the number of participants and accessories has never been sought out. No policeman or council official or employee has ever been arrested, charged and imprisoned.

  29. Good Moaning.
    Quickly popping in before going off to raid Lidl for more boxes and bags.
    I cannot believe how many books we have. And as for photo albums … just DON’T!

    1. Was in the same position regarding photo albums. Decided to buy a film scanner (expensive) for 35mm negatives and flat-bed scanner (fairly cheap) for where only prints existed. Collection now fits on one memory stick, albeit with plenty of backups. It is vastly more accessible and copies of pictures can easily be sent to interested parties.

    2. Do you need any boxes pre filled with books? We have about a dozen book boxes that we have just paid to have moved but now realise there is nowhere for the books to go!

      1. I read so much it is hard to keep track. He’s on sub-stack, I believe, I’ll have a look. Thanks for the heads-up.

        1. It came via email this morning – I can post it here if you like. He always sounds very careful and examines the data rather than jumping to conclusions.

  32. Mourners gather in ‘silent protest against Kremlin’ but no sign of Putin. 4 September 2022.

    Mikhail Gorbachev was buried in Moscow on Saturday, with thousands of people using his funeral as a silent protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Mourners waited for up to an hour to file past Gorbachev’s open casket in the grand Hall of Columns near the Kremlin, with so many people turning up that the visiting hours were extended by two hours.

    Inside, people placed red roses in front of his wooden coffin, which was covered in a tricolour Russian flag, while a soft recording of melancholic music from the film “Schindler’s List” played in the background.

    The high attendance was in defiance of Mr Putin who shunned the funeral by claiming that he was too busy to attend and denying it the status of a state ceremony.

    Apart from Viktor Orban no one else turned up either, not even ambassadors (which they should have done. He was after all a former President.) to show their respects. There is no evidence whatsoever that those attending were using it as a Silent Protest against Vladimir Putin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/09/03/gorbachev-funeral-mourners-line-pay-respects-last-soviet-leader/

    1. If they were silent, where is the evidence that they were protesting? More likely they were just paying their respects.

  33. The history of referenda on EU Constitutional changes being given to the UK population is all negative. No referendum on the Maastrich Treaty. The Lisbon Treaty was denied to the people by Blair who I remember told us it was not a Treaty. Of the 10 European countries 4 allowed a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty with 2 agreeing and 2 disagreeing with the Treaty. 6, including the UK , cancelled the referendum. We could have been out of the EU 15 years ago,or even earlier, but our politicians did not give us the promised referenda. The politicians are still trying to get back into the EU but we must resist strongly.

    1. Don’t forget the Irish and the French who disagreed with the Lisbon Treaty were made to vote again.

    2. 355689+ up ticks,

      Morning CS,

      Designed abd triggered by UKIP allegedly a collection of far right fruitcakes & according to “nige” ex leader we were vile and the new BNP before he donned the DUKE mantle and went marching up the hill with a new troop of pro johnson suckers, £ 25 quid a pop to support johnson & the tory (ino) party.

      Without the fringe party UKIP we would still have been very much in.

      The herd , post a victorious count for OUT went back to supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition,we the decent peoples have never looked back on our current trip to the bottom.

  35. Anybody here use Facebook? I run a table tennis club page, and this morning I had an odd notification from somewhere, saying my page had violated their community standards, with a couple of posts from 2020 and 2019. They were perfectly non-violating of any standards, so I ignored the warning which seemed to be trying to get me to log in and give my password. As I haven’t a clue what my password is, I decided it was a scam.

  36. Anybody here use Facebook? I run a table tennis club page, and this morning I had an odd notification from somewhere, saying my page had violated their community standards, with a couple of posts from 2020 and 2019. They were perfectly non-violating of any standards, so I ignored the warning which seemed to be trying to get me to log in and give my password. As I haven’t a clue what my password is, I decided it was a scam.

    1. The sweetest music it is possible to hear is when a set of bagpipes are chucked into a skip and they hit a rapper who had already been chucked in there.

  38. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/172aa72b4dfb4427ba5a39b906b50d9b0b1c58fc138464e136c20442fb40bb1d.png Hmmm! I wonder if any Lefties, Guardianistas or similar detritus are reading this?

    When the Republicans, under Donald Trump, were in power, all resident nationals of Mexico had a pathological desire to escape to the US of A. Now that the Demonrats (Demotwats) under a geriatric imbecile are in power, All resident nationals of the US of A have a desire to escape to Mexico!

    I wonder if any lessons can be learnt from this?

  39. With only one of the six nuclear reactors in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia plant left working the country must be getting quite short of electricity. However France has 32 reactors not working – more than half of their total nuclear power plants:

    https://youtu.be/d7BlzKHfxPk

    It looks as though the EU has bought into relying on Russian gas in a big way as a major driver of energy production for industrial prosperity.

    Thank goodness there aren’t that many to shut down in the UK! 🤔

    1. ‘The wholesale price of electricity per MegaWatt Hour was 85 Euros in 2022. The wholesale price in 2023 is over 1000 Euros!!!”

      I wonder when the first incident will be reported in the recommissioning of a nuclear power station currently off-line?

          1. Afternoon NTN,
            I don’t like seeing solar panels on agficultural land but there is case on top of a house when electricity prices hit the roof and it’s difficult to get cows to graze up there.

          2. They make sense on large commercial buildings, but our house is a listed cottage so we haven’t got them. I certainly don’t think they should be taking up good farmland.

          3. Also, Angie, there are plenty of industrial flat rooves and could be fitted over car-parking spaces at supermarkets a la Spain.

      1. As useless as they are, the photos chosen are deliberately pretty awful. The problem is their policies, ideology and attitudes are bonkers as well.

      2. 355689+ up ticks,

        Afternoon N,

        Did hear the ugly bug ball
        inmates are suing that lab mob for plagiarism.

  41. We’ve been neglecting our nuclear needs for too long — and the nuclear family too
    Rod Liddle
    Saturday September 03 2022, 6.00pm, The Sunday Times

    When the lights go off this winter, it will finally dawn on everybody that neglecting our energy requirements for the best part of three decades was probably a tad unwise, all things considered. You can put it down to the short-termism of our political system, or just to immense and consuming stupidity on the part of successive governments. Either way, because the need for a few dozen nuke plants did not seem imminently pressing in 2001, say, nobody was minded to order them to be built.

    It is only now, as the pensioners prepare to quietly shuffle off this mortal coil with hypothermia, that we realise a grave mistake has been made, a mistake of negligence. It’s the frog in the saucepan thing, I think, much as it is with climate change. There are too few politicians around ready to shoot the frog in the head with a bolt gun, or stamp on it. I think I’ve got the analogy right here.

    The next question is: what are we now neglecting that will cause us immense misery a few decades from now? There’s the aforementioned climate change, of course. But there is also last week’s report by the children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, to the effect that the traditional two-parent family, in which the mum and dad are the genetic parents of their kids, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Nearly a quarter of children born since 2000 are in single-parent households, and nearly half have been at some time in their lives.

    I dare say there are some, on the liberal left, who are delighted by this breakdown of bourgeois morality and insistent — despite every bit of evidence to the contrary — that all forms of parenthood are equally terrific. If you quiz them about this weird assertion, they will tell you that it is wrong to “victim-shame” single mums and that their own uncle Norman was actually raised in a forest by wolves and went on to run a FTSE 100 company, so there you are.

    The problem is that all forms of parenthood are not equally terrific — not for the kids. Countless longitudinal studies of actual outcomes for children (as opposed to well-meaning researchers asking kids how they feel about stuff) show that, incontestably, children have the best outcomes when they are raised by their genetic parents, who — crucially — are married. This is perhaps the one area in which science and the teachings of the church are in agreement. It is true, incidentally, even when the figures are weighted for income differentials, and it cuts across all races.

    Why does the marriage thing matter? Because cohabitees are five times more likely to split up during the first three years than are people who feel their relationship is enduring enough that they subject each other to the harrowing procedure of getting wasted on a stag or hen night and then the marriage ceremony. People remarry, of course. But various studies suggest that stepdads and stepmums do not have quite the same investment in their recently acquired children, and abuse is often prevalent, no matter how often they tell you that they love little Jayden just as much as if he were their own hellspawn brat.

    But it is with single parents that the real problems lie, the problems we are storing up for the future. We know that, in general, kids raised by single parents do less well at school and are more likely to be impoverished, more likely to use drugs and alcohol, more likely to develop mental problems and less likely to get a well-paid job. That has a cost not just for the child, but for the state. Even ignoring that cost — which is difficult to quantify — there is the cost to the state of the single parent. On average, single mums and dads receive 66 per cent of their income from the state, and almost half are reckoned to be in so-called relative poverty. Last year the amount of money we paid out in benefits rose to £212 billion: it rises ineluctably, year after year, and will rise even more sharply in future because the offspring of single parents are far more likely to go on to be single parents themselves. It is a calamitous cost to our society, eating up a greater and greater proportion of our total welfare bill.

    A decade ago I stood outside the jobcentre in Middlesbrough and asked everybody who emerged about their family circumstances. Of those who answered, rather than saying, “Piss off back to London, you busy ponce”, 100 per cent came from a broken family and 60 per cent had gone on to leave their own partners and, as a consequence, their children. They did not express happiness about this: it had wrecked them, emotionally and financially.

    It will wreck us too, unless we re-examine the progressive ideology and legislation that has led us to a point where nearly half our children have an upbringing that shepherds them towards underachievement and misery.

    ● Mind you, I am always on the lookout for chunks of modern terminology to sprinkle in my copy in the hope that it will make you think I am hip and with it, daddy-o.

    So I asked my 16-year-old daughter, a proud Gen Z-er, for examples of a few of the words used by people of her age.

    She thought about this for approximately six seconds and replied: “The?”

    Get back to basics, police warned

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Ff24da4c4-2b96-11ed-b39f-ae396665d39a.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=1022

    Carnival was great: just the one killing
    The Voice newspaper described the 2022 Notting Hill Stabfest (or “carnival”, as it is sometimes known) as a “success”. Reading this, you might perhaps assume that it all went off a little like Glyndebourne, except with more jerk chicken and a little less Poulenc.

    That one person was murdered, 209 people arrested, 74 police officers injured, two coppers sexually assaulted, “dozens” of knives seized, seven people stabbed and a bill to the taxpayer run up of the usual £8 million suggests to me that the word “success” is not being used in the sense by which most people understand it.

    If you can think of a more accurate description, do please forward it to both The Voice and the carnival organisers.

    Thinking outside the ‘minority’ box
    Here’s another word for the lexicon of modern idiocy.

    A marvellously annoying woman was on BBC Radio 4 on Friday talking about the relationship between the police and gay people. She described the latter as being a “minoritised community”.

    This suggests to me that they were once in the majority but some external agency had hugely reduced their number.

    Or perhaps she simply meant that people like her had put them into a box marked “minority”, a box from which they could not escape.

    Either way, the more pretentious the vocabulary, the more urgently you should count your spoons.

    1. It will wreck us too, unless we re-examine the progressive ideology and legislation that has led us to a point where nearly half our children have an upbringing that shepherds them towards underachievement and misery.

      It’s already done for us Rod. Rest in Peace Mary Whitehouse!

  43. 355689+ up ticks,

    DT,

    Liz Truss: No more sticking plasters to fix the energy crisis
    Tory leadership frontrunner pledges ‘two-fold’ approach to support household finances and revive the economy as she finalises Cabinet plans

    Which then brings on the question if there is no more sticking plasters what in hell’s name will they use ?

    Then what about the audience in calais waiting to cross and get a comfortable seat & four square a day to watch the indigenous suffer
    under this new hydra head,

    Surely the german yards can knock out very large amphibian
    people carriers to speed up the take over, replace. reset on trusty’s orders.

    Watch out there are pledges about.

  44. According to the internet Adultera Truss’s affair with Mark Field was from 2004 – 2005. Her elder daughter was born in 2006.

    Given the questions surrounding Prince Harry’s progenitor and the progeny of Boris Johnson’s unknown number of children, is a question of paternity going to be another question for the Media to address?

        1. It merely shows that she and her husband had some marital difficulty which they overcame, as I believe they are still together. Unhappy people have affairs.

          1. I think that as they managed to resolve their issues, it does show some strength of character. I don’t like all this speculation about the paternity of various people. I don’t care.

          2. Except Prince Harry and his supposed offspring.

            If that dreadful Markle woman knew that her husband and/or children have no claim to the throne she would drop Harry like a hot coal. Hopefully.

      2. I increasingly resent the amount our own lives are messed up by these odious people in politics. At least we can point out their willingness to betray those closest to them as this shows why we cannot expect them not to betray us.

        Everyone attacked and ridiculed Boris Johnson for his marital infidelities and called him an aduterer. This is why I refer to Ms Truss as Adultera – it is surely only fair to give women in politics the same opprobrium as men?

        One could name numerous male adulterers in politics whose adulteries have come to light. How many female ‘adulteras’ in politics (other than Edwina Currie, Sally Bercow and Liz Truss) spring to mind. Indeed a biographer looking for a new subject might think about writing a book about faithless female spouses in politics!

        1. I think their marital infidelities should be private. It’s nobody else’s business. As for politicians betraying the public that they are supposed to serve – there’s nothing new there.

          5. They are paid from the public purse and someones so called private life can indicate just what type of person they are. We should know everything about them, if they dont like it they should not stand for public office.

          6. Well hers wasn’t kept private, was it? We know about it, but presumably as she’s still married to her husband they resolved their issues.

    2. If it came up in Parliament would a statement to the House of:
      “I did not have sex with that member”
      have any weight as far Lord Pannic is cocerned?

      1. The chandelier in the bedroom is a big globe of daisies. Looks quite nice.

        The Maltese don’t have many sandy beaches so they cut into the rock to make tidal pools. Because of the salt content of the water you just float without effort,

        I’m just one hundred yards away from my beachside favourite cocktail bar and restaurant. https://thecompasslounge.com/

        The only reason i will go home is because of Dolly. :@)

      1. I dropped Dolly off with Rachel who is the breeder. When Dolly saw all her brothers, sisters uncles and aunts she was ecstatic. She forgot about me immediately. :@(

      2. Are you kidding? He’s probably already had one for me and all. Mind you, I am toasting something or other.
        Sun is out here although we had about 6 drops of rain this morning.

        1. He’s probably had one for all of us and is currently dancing on the bar!

          All the rain is here.

  47. Good morrow, GentleNoTTLers, V late on parade as I had a lie-in, it was snug under the Duvet and then I’ve been to Tesco in Lockerbie – about 30 miles each way but it continues cold, wet and windy.

    The road I use (avoiding the A74(M)) is often infested with cyclists who don’t use the cycle-lane and ride two abreast, causing chaos for Road Fund and Insurance paying motorists. Drives you mad!

      1. Yes, in the awful Dumfries, which I try to avoid except for 2ndhand furniture and Toyota servicing. Even that is 20 miles each way.

          1. Can be difficult, given that my flat requires using a lift to the first floor, through long corridors, and then 13 steps up the staircase to my door. Not easy for the poor old driver with a sack-truck of containers. I also have to go all the way down to let him in. Entrance via the hall,is by key only.

          2. That’s awkward. Why don’t you call their customer services and explain the situation. I’m sure they would be more than amenable.

          3. Lower a rope from a window and get the driver to attach the basket to it, haul it up, then throw his basket back?

          1. In Dumfries, yes. In Moffat only the awful Co-op. I might try Selkirk, that’s about 20 miles due east, on a narrow windy road, though.

            This is wild Border country, J, home of the Border Reivers.

        3. Ere you be nice about Dumfries, my wife was born there.
          You think it is awful now, wait until mid winter.

          1. Dumfries seems to be dieing fast. Many factories derelict, shops and offices boarded up and very poor signposting. Hence my shopping in Lockerbie, which is quite straightforward and Tesco seems to have all the supplies I need to lay in for that dread mid-winter.

        1. My nearest supermarket is now a mere hundred yards away. Quite a change from our country living.

          2. Still waiting on internet hookup.
            Small issues that seemed big at the time but no major issues.
            Using the expensive phone internet so just dropping in.

  48. The censor has been busy BTL at ‘The Spectator’. Clearly someone cannot bear public scrutiny. Here is my offending comment in response to https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/will-liz-truss-s-tory-party-practice-what-it-preaches-

    jeremy Morfey 4 hours ago Detected as spam

    There are so many faults with this article, laden as it is with false presumptions and handwaving assertions, which seems to parrot conventional thinking worthy of a politics undergraduate where radical thinking is taboo. I really don’t know where to start.

    Maybe the spelling used in the headline gives away its transatlantic bent – that really such people are happy with the American view than with anything homespun.

    Let us start with his critique of Jeremy Corbyn, which seems to have been lifted from a press release rather than thought through. True, he has been a street rabble-rouser all his life, and feels more comfortable there than with the polite hypocrisies of Parliament. However, he has not been credited with the considerable adjustments and even compromises forced on him as soon as he was pushed unwittingly onto the front bench. Eurofederalism, which has caused the Conservative Party such grief, was not spared on Corbyn, whose own Momentum faction was hopelessly divided between the Leaver Bennite cloth caps and the Remainer youth who regard a Britain independent of the continent as ancient history. On top of that, he was fighting a constant battle of disloyalty against the Blair “New Labour” contingent, happy to side with the Tories if necessary to bring him down and to restore the old, correct order.

    Boris Johnson owed his 2019 majority primarily to the feeling many had about the anarchy that governed Parliament throughout that year, much at the hands of Bercow and Hale, who really should not have taken sides, and scores of defecting Tories that made Johnson’s job impossible for as long as the official Opposition were holding up an election, citing the Fixed Term Parliament Act. Unpopularity in the North and Midlands, whilst being reported as exclusively down to Corbyn’s alleged antisemitism, was just as much down to constant Blairite smears against his character, in connivance with a foreign power (which itself is a form of treason that is intolerable in a free democracy). In truth, the old boy who did so well in 2017 to deny May her majority starting from way behind, was knackered with it all.

    It is quite disingenuous to blame lack of housing on the 1947 Planning reforms that maintained Britain as a pleasant place to live compared to, say, unregulated corners of the globe such as the USA and Indonesia. However, that did not stop the council estates of the 1950s and 1960s being built on a vast scale. More likely, what has been pushing house prices through the roof is a combination of immigration, a breakdown of the nuclear family where post-divorce, two family homes are needed where previously one was adequate, and Osborne’s “Help to Buy” subsidy scheme, whereby developers could push up their prices knowing they were being underwritten by the taxpayer. Thatcher’s own sell-off of council housing, forcing local authorities to dispose of their assets at a loss for the benefit of those already in good jobs and with good homes, dried up the supply of social housing for no good reason other than to buy votes from the working class.

    As for austerity – the Coalition Government, that was elected in 2010 to restore order to the financial markets and to bring some fairly serious fraudsters to justice, bottle out completely of their remit. How can it be austerity, when the Range Rover took over from the Morris Minor as the typical family car for the masses?

    We have received your request for review”

    [I didn’t make that request]

  49. Lord Kinnock: ‘Passing the 11-plus was the path to liberation’
    In the first of a new series, the former Labour leader reflects on how his education shaped him

    And yet he was keen for grammar schools to be abolished.

      1. If you and a companion are being pursued by a bear (as Antigonus was in The Winter’s Tale) the best advice would be to trip up your companion so the bear got him first!

        1. Why have you stopped to put on running shoes? You can’t outrun the creature.
          No, but it will help me outrun you!

        2. It’s the old story about a woman in a hiking group on the Appalachian Trail – she is carrying a tiny .25 pistol in case of bear attack. A grizzled [no pun] old hiker says “you ain’t gonna stop a bear with that peashooter” – she replies, “I’m going to shoot one of the other hikers”.

        3. It’s the old story about a woman in a hiking group on the Appalachian Trail – she is carrying a tiny .25 pistol in case of bear attack. A grizzled [no pun] old hiker says “you ain’t gonna stop a bear with that peashooter” – she replies, “I’m going to shoot one of the other hikers”.

    2. I think Neil Kinnock had second thoughts about the value of a grammar school education after he fell over a pebble on the beach!

      1. Falling over on a beach……The one and only recognisable achievements in his political history.

    4. Can’t have ordinary people being properly educated they may suss out the politicians on just how bad they are.

    6. Lord Kinnock also wanted the HOL Abolished. The Hypocritical very wealthy useless old tosser.
      I’ll give that a swerve. He’s also a very boring arrogant old git.

      1. Allegedly he was so confident of winning the election that he bought a property with a very large mortgage. When he lost the election Major felt sorry for him and appointed him to a very well paid sinecure at the EU.

        2. Sounds about right Sos, then he shoved his wife and son into a un-
          deserved similar position. The political classes circle the drains. Eventually they are sucked in.
          As what I consider myself to be. A normal sort of get on with it person, it’s quite nauseating to hear of such repulsive and vile creatures.

  50. Animal Rebellion activists stop milk supply in parts of England. 4 September 2022.

    It is calling for the government to support farmers and fishing communities to move away from animal farming and fishing as part of an immediate transition to a plant-based food system.

    It also wants the government to commit to rewild the freed-up land and ocean as part of a broader programme of wildlife restoration and carbon drawdown.

    John Appleton, who worked at Arla for six years and it taking part in the protest, said: “I’ve seen this industry first-hand, I know the struggle that farmers and workers go through every single day. We need a food system that works for them, everyone else, and nonhuman animals.

    Animal Rebellion. Lol! The moment cows, or for that matter any farm animal, becomes economically redundant will be the end of them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/04/animal-rebellion-activists-stop-milk-supply-parts-england

      1. Tofu isn’t that bad if it is fried in sesame oil and drenched in soy sauce ginger and garlic.

    2. Many livestock farmers don’t know any other way of life – farming is in there blood.
      In fact when when they go for a blood test the nurse draws up slurry!
      “Wow?” the nurse says “Your remooneration level is almost up to 50p per litre!”

    3. Vegans should be made aware that want they want is the destruction and death of all farm animals.

      I am sure an advertising copywriter could combine the words Vegan and Genocide to form a word like

      VEGANOCIDE

      1. The belligerent (which are by no means all) vegans should lead the way – take their own horrible human bodies off the planet.

    4. “nonhuman animals”
      This is the Davos crowd speaking. We’re just animals to them.
      Rebellion indeed, these spiteful idiots are articulating what the elites intend to do to us. People got larger and healthier when they had access to milk – the peasants must become smaller!

      1. Delays caused by UK passport control. Eh? Cars with mums and dads and kids held up for 5 hours? Are Border control, vicious or stupid, or being ordered to do this nonsense, or all three?

          1. Well, families of holidaymakers in cars do not need to be checked, just waved through.

    3. When the powers that be are worried that there will not be enough violent crime to keep people indoors when the dystopia arrives.

      1. 355689+ up ticks,

        Evening S,
        A patriotic peoples Government formed from
        referendum OUT members
        recognising we are on a war footing then, the mines.

        Make Brexitexit Mk 2 convoys to Rwanda an active issue.

  52. How’s sat?!

    ‘Today in “Western sanctions on Russia at work” news…

    OneWeb, a British startup company that is partly owned by the British government, was forced to take a $229 million writedown this week after Russia prevented its plans for a launch earlier this year and held 36 of its satellites hostage.

    The company reported that its net loss for the year ending March 31 was $390 million and that it had taken in revenue of only $9.6 million. However, it has orders for “more than $300 million”, it disclosed.

    The company had planned on a launch in March 2022 that was supposed to take place from a Kremlin-controlled launchpad in Kazakhstan, Bloomberg wrote last week in a wrap up. But the launch was cancelled after the Kremlin demanded that Britain sell its stake in the company, which never occurred.

    Planned launches after the one in March were also cancelled.

    Other owners of the company, in addition to the British government, include Bharti, Softbank Group Corp and French satellite operator Eutelsat SA. In July, Eutelsat agreed to merger with OneWeb in a $3.4 billion business combination. ‘

    Together the newly formed company is focusing on low-earth orbit or “LEO” broadband, competing with Starlink and Blue Origin, who are attempting similar projects.

    1. More fool them for getting in with other countries. Do that and you re dependent upon what the other country might do. One of several lessons that Thatcher never learned.

  53. RAF drones blast nearly 1,500 Islamic State fighters in the past eight years in hundreds of missions over Iraq and Syria
    RAF drones hit almost 1,500 Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria since 2014
    Unmanned MQ-9 Reaper aircraft have flown 4,857 sorties over the region
    There are around 10,000 IS fighters operating between Iraq and Syria, UN says

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2022/09/04/11/62041519-11178369-image-a-12_1662287901898.jpg

    They should be returned to the UK and flown over Bradford, Burnley, Blackburn, Bury and dozens of other Islamic terrorist centres.

    Three lads from the Cardiff tribe enjoying a short holiday in the Syrian sunshine. No return tickets.

  54. I might be getting better at this, though I shouldn’t speak too soon. (Predictive text just changed getting to farting. Excuse me?)
    Wordle 442 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    ⬜🟨🟨🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. However, I am getting worser !

      Wordle 442 5/6
      ⬜🟨⬜🟨🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Four for me

      Wordle 442 4/6

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

  55. Yesterday Amazon delivered a hardback book to us – despite knowing where our “safe place” for deliveries is [as they have dumped parcels for other people there!] they left it on our neighbour’s drive, in the open with rain forecast. I sent them a strongly worded complaint and reminded them where the safe place was. Within hours they had apologised, refunded my money as a goodwill gesture and sent a replacement too, just in case. That replacement arrived today – no prizes for guessing where the driver left it!! Yep, same as yesterday, out in the open within more rain forecast. Personally I blame Amazon as much, if not more, as the drivers – I’ve seen how many deliveries they are expected to make in a day and it’s almost impossible.

    1. The drivers do vary – some are more sensible than others – but I do agree their schedules must be impossible to keep to.

  56. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e6c7a22487988bf5bbbbe52c05b02b45fa8189d2d06ef57f32123915af195199.png

    Hi Possums. I’ve bought this camping lantern this weekend off Amazon for possible Power Cuts during the Winter. It’s about 5 inches high and incredibly bright. You cannot look at it! Cost £15 and candles are about a £5. Supposed to last 8 or 10 hours. I might buy another!

    The blurb says:
    Camping Lantern Rechargeable, Blukar Camping Lights Lamp – 7 Light Modes 60 LED Ultra Bright LED Tent Light 10+ Hrs Battery Life for Camping, Emergency, Fishing, Hiking etc.

    1. Hi Minty,

      I’ve bought five camping lamps for under a tenner.
      These only have three modes so there’s a much higher chance of landing on the right one to see properly.
      Bearing in mind that lights will be off everywhere if there’s a local power outage then one’s ocular dark adaptation will make them appear much brighter than they actually are. That means they will last even twice as long in low power.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15176e73de6fb9a027ab9bf965fd84aa9103a8da4bd1cd3c6a64118832909173.jpg

      1. Power will not go off in vital buildings such as hospitals, prisons etc. Will care homes be spared power cuts? They had better be.

        1. Bet the power won’t go off in 10 Downing Street either.
          But Prince Charles will be careful to say how he too suffered from the power cut and had to fill his car with champagne by candle light.

  57. John Ward writes:

    “Every news “event” since 9/11 has produced more complicated anarchy, more confused citizens and a wider canyon of perception between the naifs and the stubborn empiricists.
    People long ago stopped being able figure it out, and that has added to the muddled obedience syndrome.
    Citizens no longer analyse the false virtue and civics being proposed; as the Americans say, “there’s no due diligence any more”.
    Most people in the West went into celeb-watching decades ago.

    The media had been there to inform, explain and entertain. But it was all getting too complicated and boring to explain: circulations were falling along with advertising revenues. Entertaining content took over – fame, celebrity, sport, cuisine, sensationalism – and so politics, civics, culture and society got dumbed down to the level of soaps, love-rats, fashion, sexuality obsession, charisma, lachrymose acting and half-baked politically correct standup.

    We’ve all been given our beads – Sky Sports, staged ‘talent’ shows, reality TV and now, of course, the smartphone that most everyone under fifty stares at 24/7…unfazed by the reality that this infernal spy is staring back and listening in.

    Now that the electorate is dozey and screen-fixated, it can be more easily distracted or taken in….mass opinion is more easily moulded, developing rapidly into Groupthink and coordinated narrative: “We know you’re busy, so we’ll do the thinking for you”. Big Issues are reduced to soundbites until “debate” deteriorates into ignorant consensus among the Believe Everything Group versus the Trust Nobody Group.”|

    1. I gave up on slebs many years ago, narcisstic egotists to a man and /or woman. I have always been interested in politics and history and the one belies the history which we write today.

  58. Good Afternoon all, when you next have a moment of introspection when you wonder about the meaning of life , the utter pointlessness of politics and the abject enbuggerment of life’s slings and arrows of assorted beastliness then turn your eyes heavenward to contemplate the infinite reaches of the void , stop for a moment and look at what’s happening directly above you.

    https://platform.leolabs.space/visualization

    3. The UK should consider doing the same;
      With careful analysis I am sure the correct mix for them all killing each other could be calculated

    4. But surely the Mayor of Chicago should be welcoming these migrants with open arms, rather than criticising the Governor of Texas.

      1. Indeed.
        They should be dropped off outside the Mayor’s real home, not their official residence, and the busload should be told,
        “go and live there you will be welcome”

    9. Why don’t we load the illegal immigrants arriving on the South Coast into buses and send them Scotland and let Nicola Sturgeon deal with them?

  60. Here’s a wee video that I didn’t expect to see – rather nice, about rescue buoys moored in the channel & North Sea in the last war. The last one is in Irvine, so not too far from some Nottlers…
    https://youtu.be/9fDnSQoneiE

  61. Diversity, so many benefits.
    We need More MOre MORE:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11178439/Boy-17-stabbed-death-18-year-old-man-left-fighting-life-machete-brawl.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11178701/Moment-mob-armed-makeshift-weapons-brawl-street-protest-held-near-Eritrean-Embassy.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11178503/Woman-19-speaks-beaten-mob-youths-South-Norwood-Croydon-London.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11178705/Man-20s-shot-dead-High-Street-Kensington-29-year-old-male-arrested.html

  62. Oh dear, it wasn’t the car this time, it was the tyres.
    Silly me, thinking it was all about the car and not the driver.

    1. It is a combination of the car, the driver and the race strategy where the choice of tyre compound become critical.

      The shenanigans today where the Alpha Tauri pitted with some false ‘fault’ and then having emerged with some other undiagnosed ‘fault’ stopped on track, enabling Verstappen to pit for a ‘free’ set of tyres under the VSC, was so suspicious that the Stewards called in the Alpha Tauri team who are linked with Red Bull.

      I might dislike the Black Lives Matter posturing of Hamilton but he is unquestionably one of the best F1 drivers of his generation alongside Alonso and now possibly Verstappen and Leclerc of the newer drivers.

      1. I think Hamilton is certainly one of the best drivers ever, he wouldn’t be driving for the best teams if he wasn’t. However, I am firmly of the belief that the principal driver (ho ho) of success is the car.

    2. It is a combination of the car, the driver and the race strategy where the choice of tyre compound become critical.

      The shenanigans today where the Alpha Tauri pitted with some false ‘fault’ and then having emerged with some other undiagnosed ‘fault’ stopped on track, enabling Verstappen to pit for a ‘free’ set of tyres under the VSC, was so suspicious that the Stewards called in the Alpha Tauri team who are linked with Red Bull.

      I might dislike the Black Lives Matter posturing of Hamilton but he is unquestionably one of the best F1 drivers of his generation alongside Alonso and now possibly Verstappen and Leclerc of the newer drivers.

  64. Finishing listening to Handel’s Dixit Dominus I began the other evening- wonderful. Now going to check out the Vivaldi version.
    Grr-knew them both but hadn’t listened for yonks.
    All wonderful.

  65. All packed up and ready to leave for Baconsthorpe by 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, it looks like we’re away for 2 weeks with the amount packed, instead of 5 days. Hoping for sunshine but prepared for showers, walking boots cleaned and maps packed.

  66. Of Mice & Men?

    “The data for Pfizer’s booster was based on just 8 mice, Pfizer scientists told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory panel in June. The data for Moderna’s booster was based on 16 to 20 mice, some of which received the original booster, according to a presentation slated to be delivered to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory panel on Sept. 1.

    The mice data show “substantial increases against all Omicron sublineages including BA.4/5 as well as the reference strain with the BA.4/5- modified vaccines,” Kena Swanson, Pfizer’s vice president for vaccine research and development, told the FDA panel.

    BA.4 and BA.5 are both subvariants of the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.

    Both Moderna and Pfizer developed boosters containing parts of the original COVID-19 virus and the BA.1 subvariant, but the FDA after the June meeting asked the vaccine makers to switch out the BA.1 component for a component targeting BA.4 and BA.5, the latter of which is the dominant strain in the United States.

    The FDA declined to require human trial data for authorization, and granted authorization for both updated boosters on Aug. 31.

    The mice data “demonstrate that these vaccines successfully evoke an immune response in the same way previous versions of the vaccine have,” Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, told reporters on a call.

    CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky also signaled support for the path

    1. I have a little Vax Booster
      Too lazy to test today
      I have a little Vax Booster
      Too lazy to test today
      Keep everything in the Pharmyard
      Upset in every way
      Oh, the dogs begin to bark and the
      Hound begin to howl
      Oh, the dogs begin to bark
      Hound begin to howl
      Oh, watch out, strange-kin people ’cause the
      Little Vax Booster’s on the prowl
      If you see my little Vax Booster
      Please stay at home
      If you see my little Vax Booster
      Please stay at home
      There’s been no peace in the Pharmyard
      Until the little Vax Booster’s been done

    2. All the mice caught covid after they were jabbed – and then they were all killed so that there were no other after-effects. What a con these trials are!

  67. Of Mice & Men?

    “The data for Pfizer’s booster was based on just 8 mice, Pfizer scientists told the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) vaccine advisory panel in June. The data for Moderna’s booster was based on 16 to 20 mice, some of which received the original booster, according to a presentation slated to be delivered to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory panel on Sept. 1.

    The mice data show “substantial increases against all Omicron sublineages including BA.4/5 as well as the reference strain with the BA.4/5- modified vaccines,” Kena Swanson, Pfizer’s vice president for vaccine research and development, told the FDA panel.

    BA.4 and BA.5 are both subvariants of the Omicron variant of the virus that causes COVID-19.

    Both Moderna and Pfizer developed boosters containing parts of the original COVID-19 virus and the BA.1 subvariant, but the FDA after the June meeting asked the vaccine makers to switch out the BA.1 component for a component targeting BA.4 and BA.5, the latter of which is the dominant strain in the United States.

    The FDA declined to require human trial data for authorization, and granted authorization for both updated boosters on Aug. 31.

    The mice data “demonstrate that these vaccines successfully evoke an immune response in the same way previous versions of the vaccine have,” Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA vaccine official, told reporters on a call.

    CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky also signaled support for the path

  69. Goodnig and God bless wee NoTTLer Gentlefolk. Time for my bed and to read until I fall asleep.

  70. I’ve not been on much today, to be honest I’ve been too knackered to bother.
    Hopefully I might have a better night’s sleep tonight.

    Goodnight all.

  71. Just before I ‘pop off’ (Bill T hates that 😉)
    I’ve been chopping up apples all afternoon and using my adapted garden waste shredder to pulp them. And my home made press, old car jack and sturdy timber frame, to squeeze out the juice. A gallon of zyder is on the go so far At least wo more tomorrow. Maybe even more, there’s an abundance of apples around this year.
    It’s been 3 years since my last efforts that produced pint bottles of around 12% proof. You had to share a bottle.
    So it’s good night from zyder Jack. 😴

  72. Apparently The Dukes from California will be surrounded by a ring of steel at some charity event.
    Here is a good btl from Debra Clarke:

    They won’t need a ‘ring of steel’ as there is already a wall of indifference.

  73. Refreshing thunderstorm here this evening … rain .. real rain .

    In a way I feel rather flat and saddened by the departure of Boris .

    Boris is his own Greek tragedy story .

    He studied Classics , but did he learn from the examples of old Greek mythology , of course not. Boris is reputed to have a very high IQ, did he feel he might have been talking down to us by virtue off his quite superior education , compared to the other PPE candidates in Westminster?

    I grabbed below and copied and pasted it , because I couldn’t find the right flow to describe how I genuinely feel about the error of Boris’s downfall.

    It has been said that simply by studying or even just reading some of these myths, people can learn how to control their actions or at least think better of what they do. After all, a lot of these stories tell tales of how human follies, stupidity, and even hubris get people in trouble. In a sense, these myths serve as a warning for people on how they should and should not be. The irony of the situation is that most people still tend to go with their follies, choose to make stupid decisions, and have hubris. It is almost comical how these myths capture human behavior in the ancient times that are still alive and kicking today.

    1. Johnson eventually turned out to be a great disappointment yet in some ways he did the country a great service. In his proroguing of parliament, he exposed the hypocrisy of the Benn/Grieve faction and the danger of activist judges. With his ‘new deal’ (which, yes, wasn’t much of new deal), he broke the deadlock in the Dead Parliament that had attempted to stage a coup against the people.

      Who knows where we might now be had it not been for the Chinese conspiracy against the world. I think Johnson’s instincts were to resist SAGE. That he capitulated to them was his biggest failure. His great ability to win people over with his heartiness (even if it was a bit hammy) needed to be backed by a cold-eyed second-in-command of ruthless nature. Instead, he had a cabinet of invertebrates and the eco-trollop, an empty-headed woman whose tastes in domestic décor made Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen appear a minimalist.

      2. I always thought of Dominic Cummings as his “cold-eyed second-in-command” but Carrion got rid of him.

    2. He has a very high IQ on the Idiot Quotient, Belle. He has learned nothing during his tenure as PM, not even that getting caught in flagrante delicto is not a good thing.

  74. Evening, all. I went to a Celtic evensong tonight; quite a calming experience at Old St Chad’s alone in the field. One of the points made in the “reflection” (otherwise known as the sermon) was how often the Bible tells us not to be afraid. A striking difference from the government and main stream media.

  75. We had a drop of rain earlier on and I think I can hear a faint rumble of thunder far off. Anyway – time to turn the light off. Nighty night 🌙 😴

      1. We got the thunder a few minutes after I turned the light off – it didn’t last long. Some rain as well.

  78. Good stupid o’clock in the morning insomniacs.
    Woken up by a thunder storm and torrential rain.
    Just about to make mugs of tea for self & the DT.

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