Sunday 5 October: Kemi Badenoch deserves praise for taking on the net zero zealots

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

617 thoughts on “Sunday 5 October: Kemi Badenoch deserves praise for taking on the net zero zealots”

  1. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. I did today's Wordle in 4 (a Par).

    Wordle 1,569 4/6

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    1. Hi, Elsie, managed a 3 here before other people got up.

      Wordle 1,569 3/6

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    1. It's supposed to be cool and dry, so got the washing out. Despite my best efforts to drink a lot (to try to help my kidney stone not feel like a knife in the back) early in the day, I was still woken frequently during the night. Which is annoying.

        1. 2 or 3 times a night for me to pump bilges.
          The problem then is, "Can I get back to sleep?"

          2. Not so much water leaking through the hull, but rather trickling down from the upper decks.

          4. Enlarged prostate? Get the TURP surgery. I now pee twice a day and never have to get up at night.
            (Trans-Urethra Resection of the Prostate.)

    1. We didn't welcome them. You sewage forced the pollution on us to create a voting block. Now the feral savages are killing deceent people.

      Where is your suppression of muslim voices? You stamped on decent people over the murder of children to silence them. Why now do you endorse and apologise for the disgusting, vile acts of muslim?

      Starmer is an utter, complete bag of merde. A hypocrite, two faced, pandering to rapists and murderers bilge spewer.

      1. Its not the same rules for everyone. Can Stamer not understand what he is doing wrong.?

    2. It's 'welcoming all people' that's brought us to where we are.

      He doesn't fear the Jews. Underneath the mask of the automaton, he's probably frightened shitless of The Ropery.

      PS Being up and about at 8am on a Sunday is a disorientating experience…

  5. Good morning all.
    A dry start, little if any, overnight rain, scattered cumulous clouds drifting along and the wind has eased off. A tad under 10½°C on the thermometer.

  6. Morning folk. On Badenoch – I just don't believe her. I'm sorry, but yet again this is a flung out 'please vote for us!' that as soon as in office will be 'oh, we can't'. Nor is she discussing repealing the online harm bill – Labour are pushing to remove encryption. Couple that their their fascist ID cards nonsense and the plan is to monitor and identify what everyone says and does, everywhere, all the time – including who they talk to, what they say.

    "A boot stamping on a human face, forever."

    1. Labour and the Tories are the same expression of the globalist/elite ideal. Top down control of every facet of the lives of the masses. They are the Uni-party and their political jousting is nothing but a charade.

    2. Judge the Tories on what they have done or not done, not what they say now after they couldhave done all she says now..

  7. The dogs were walked before light. It was a bit odd to be heading out in the dark, almost as if it were evening. Autumn definitely here. I put my fleece on!

  8. Morning, all Y'all.
    Still raining. Hasn't let up since Friday evening. Such a waste of a weekend, I planned so much to do in the garden & outside, but nothing much done due to weather. At least I put the terrace furniture by the she, under cover, so that can go away mostly dry.

  9. 'Morning All
    Just when you thought you couldn't despise pathetic politicians any harder……
    "We'll deport 150000 illegals a year and all the foreign criminals" froth the CONservatives
    14 years with mega majority and nada,nothing and now we're supposed to believe you??
    Nothing to do with Reform about to exterminate you then??

    1. What bothers me most is they argued and bickered on single issue topics rather than addressed vast swathes of legislation.

      During May's tenure nothing go to done – absolutely nothing – except bickering over Brexit. Inter departmental infighting, back stabbing, reachery and not a single iota of rational legislation. Then we had covid come along and a screaming opportunity to roll back the state and again, nothing.

      Big fat state employs nearly three quarters of a million people – most of whom are idle, serially going to meetings and achieving nothing except looking forward to the next meeting to discuss the previous one (I've been in those meetings myself). The inertia and failure is ensured by the state machine. It doesn't want to do anything. That would mean achievement rather than merely activity.

  10. Good Morning Folks,

    Bright start here, the storm has passed, leaving leaves all over the place.

    1. I admit to having given up getting them off the garden. The place goes from leafy and green to reds, golds, ochres and then to brown spikes in a few weeks – leaving what seems a foot of foliage on the green which never goes away.

  11. Kemi Badenoch deserves praise for taking on the net zero zealots

    I'm sure that the Bad Enoch name is a wind up

    1. Bob3, I agree with her taking on the net zero zealots. But what on earth is "the Bad Enoch name"? (Good morning, btw.)

          3. Having a black woman with Enoch in her name leading the Conservative party, what are the chances of that?
            It has to be contrived.

          4. "Badenoch is married to banker Hamish Badenoch; they have two daughters and a son"

    2. Yet what will she actually do? Is she publicising that the reason energy bills are high is precisely, solely down to the green con? Is she begining a marketing campaign to raise awareness of just how much of your bill constitutes taxes to pay for unreliables?

      No. She's spouting words to conference.

  12. Kemi Badenoch deserves praise for taking on the net zero zealots

    I'm sure that the Bad Enoch name is a wind up

  14. Good Morning!

    In the second part of her excellent treatise, Xandra H, in The Rise of Psychopathic Tendencies – Psychopaths and Narcissists tells the inside story of those afflicted and who often inflict the results on us. Mandelson, Lammy and Ginger Raynor get honourable mentions. We also have a second article, an artistic gem by Paul Sutton, Indigo Not Violet , covering true crime; Englishness: seaside decay; progressive tyranny; immigration; bogus degrees and academicism – particularly in Creative Writing and Criminology, subjects many pupils were unwisely planning to study at ‘Uni’.

    And from the NHS frontline, as Xandra H tells the first part of the AI, psychopaths and narcissists, in The Artificially Intelligent Global Health Service . Yes folk, it's as bad as you think – if not worse. The other article is a powerful piece by Paddy Taylor, Never Again? We Are Watching It Again , on the disgraceful rise of antisemitism in Britain.

    1. Also piss poor design work compounded by lack of proving flights.
      The thing was NOT fit for purpose but the Government at the time had wrapped it soooo much publicity that it had to fly.

      1. The R-100 was a private enterprise version, and if I recall, was a lot lighter and a success.

        1. Correct. With a certain Neville Shute-Norway being one of the design team.
          Whenever I went South of Bedford I usually thought of the R100 and R101.

          1. It was built by The Airship Guarantee Company, a subsidiary of Vickers Ltd., at Howden, Yorkshire.
            The design team was led by Barnes Wallis (later famous for the “bouncing bomb”) and Nevil Shute Norway (who later became a well-known novelist) worked as the project's chief calculator/assistant designer.

            Great question — the **R100** and **R101** are often mentioned together, since they were part of the same experimental program, but they were quite different in philosophy and outcome.

            ### The Imperial Airship Scheme (late 1920s)
            The British government wanted to develop giant airships to link the Empire (Canada, India, Australia) by fast passenger service. To test competing approaches, they commissioned **two prototypes**:

            * **R100** – designed and built by a **private company** (Airship Guarantee Company / Vickers).
            * **R101** – designed and built by the **government’s Royal Airship Works** at Cardington.

            ### Key Differences

            **1. Design & Philosophy**
            * **R100**

            * Designed under Barnes Wallis.
            * Conservative, practical engineering: relied on proven technology and simpler solutions.
            * Used petrol engines (Rolls-Royce Condor).

            * **R101**

            * Government-driven project, heavily experimental.
            * Tried out novel and untested ideas, including new structural methods and fabric covering.
            * Used diesel engines (which were underpowered and problematic).

            **2. Construction**

            * **R100**: Built at **Howden, Yorkshire**, with good attention to weight-saving and reliability.
            * **R101**: Built at **Cardington, Bedfordshire**, but suffered from delays, constant modifications, and overweight problems.

            **3. Performance & Flights**

            * **R100**:
            * Successful trial flights.
            * In 1930, it made a safe transatlantic flight to **Canada** (Montreal), proving itself capable.
            * Returned without serious issues.

            * **R101**:
            * Maiden voyage to India in October 1930.
            * Crashed in France (Beauvais) on its first overseas flight, killing **48 of 54 people on board**, including key airship officials.
            * This disaster effectively ended Britain’s airship program.
            ### In summary

            * **R100** = private, conservative, successful.
            * **R101** = government, experimental, tragic failure.

          2. One of the ironies is that the cancellation of The Imperial Airship Scheme led to Britain developing long distance aircraft which, when the time came, gave us the heavy bombers we needed for WW2.

          5. The info from ChatGPT.
            I like that the summary is suitably skeptical to government endeavours!

      2. IIRC, it was too heavy (diesel engines, FFS?), the gasbags chafed aginst the structure allowing gas to leak, and the fabric was proofed with a flammable dope mixture. Read that, maybe in Shute’s autobiography.
        As my other reply (from ChatGPT) mentioned, it was a typical Government screw-up, with the results to be expected. Sadly, lots of people had to be burned to death in a hydrogen fire to prove it.

      1. Both the Cardington hangars are still there. One of them has been tarted up, the other is looking a bit forlorn.

    3. I went for a flight over Norwich in a small, helium-filled airship, back in 2004. It was an interesting experience.

        1. I don’t know. It was one of those dirigible/blimps with Good Year emblazoned on its side.

          It was present at Norwich Airport for a few days, when I worked there, on some promotional exercise. A few of us staff were invited to go for a ride in it.

    4. I understand the survivors were drenched when the water filled ballast tanks ruptured. The airship had been lengthened and it was thought that this had weakened the structure. The R100 was not affected. Nevil Shute Norway worked on the 100.

      1. Now I recall that R101 had two extra bays inserted into the lift envelope as it didn’t have enough buoyancy due to being overweight.
        Nice, heavy diesel engines, anybody?

  17. Good morning, all. Overcast with breaks appearing towards the south.

    Addition to Johnny Norfolk's earlier comment quoting Allison Pearson's comment re Starmer's empty words and the consequential lack of leadership/action. It's as if the brutal murders and injuries never happened.

    "Weak men create hard times".

    If the terrorist attacks escalate, what then?

    https://x.com/DovForman/status/1974562313371046204

    2. Long past time to deal with them. First cut off welfare. Then ban all religious dress. Enforce the idiot equality laws on them so men and women cannot be segregated. Move on to repealing all the legislation Blair created to protect these revolting swine. That also deals with the pikey scum as well.

      Ban all translation. If they don't speak English, they pay. Take an economic, social and religious axe to them. Force extended DBS checks for any job for paki muslim so they're constantly checked and re-checked. Slightest deviation and we deport them. Punish their criminality harshly.

      Make their lives miserable, uncomfortable and hard. Make them leave. If they stubbornly refuse or get uppity, kick them out. Anyone at that protest (and their families, of every generation) for example should be deported.

  18. Funny Old World
    When I watch the scenes of the Pally Demos there appears to be remarkably few Moslems involved the bulk of the crowds seem to be the useful idiots of the Left both young and old

  19. We watched 'The Substance' last night. It was a good indie film. Some strange decisions made and not sure if the ending worked well as it seemed overblown but as a study in the desire for perfection, youth and beauty in the media (and maybe our society) it was quite interesting.

    1. Morning! Isn’t that pretty much what happened in Iran. The communists deposed the Shah and allowed the mullahs back then the mullahs seized power and dispensed with the communists?

    2. Dan Burmawi misses one important fact.. Radical Left & Islamists are both mental.
      Jihad is a process and proceeds in stages.

  22. For those that missed this gem from Sir Keir Starmer at conference..

    During his conference speech, Keir Starmer was met with an eruption of applause after he savaged racists who graffiti Chinese takeaways and call for our neighbours to be deported. And he criticised those who imply that "people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin".

    Chinese takeways? FFS
    Axel Rudakubana really is Welsh.. no really.

    The biggest threat to the Labour Party is.. reality.
    Daniel Boland

  23. For those that missed this gem from Sir Keir Starmer at conference..

    During his conference speech, Keir Starmer was met with an eruption of applause after he savaged racists who graffiti Chinese takeaways and call for our neighbours to be deported. And he criticised those who imply that "people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin".

    Chinese takeways? FFS
    Axel Rudakubana really is Welsh.. no really.

    The biggest threat to the Labour Party is.. reality.
    Daniel Boland

  24. For those that missed this gem from Sir Keir Starmer at conference..

    During his conference speech, Keir Starmer was met with an eruption of applause after he savaged racists who graffiti Chinese takeaways and call for our neighbours to be deported. And he criticised those who imply that "people cannot be English or British because of the colour of their skin".

    Chinese takeways? FFS
    Axel Rudakubana really is Welsh.. no really.

    The biggest threat to the Labour Party is.. reality.
    Daniel Boland

  25. Good morning all ,

    Wow, breezy sunny early morning , chill in the air .

    Son no1 off out of the house earlier at 7.30am on a projected 20k run.. what he calls the Lulworth loop .

  26. Letter from the Penarth Times, Mother's local paper. Looks like it was written by a NoTTLer:
    https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/25425298.this-six-barrelled-surname-suit-meghan-markle/

    Now that Princess Meghan of Montecito has decided that her married surname is not Sussex, but the more esteemed and double-barrelled Mountbatten-Windsor, may I suggest a further refinement?

    Her actual name could easily be altered back to the original nomenclatures of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg-Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

    A six-barrelled surname would surely give her added gravitas in her 'cooking' shows, even attracting some 'star' guests of which we have some knowledge.

    PS. I guess I can forget my peerage…

    1. I like the way that aristocratic Germans can be both von and zu somewhere. Typical Teutonic thoroughness, nicht wahr?

    3. Markle needs the headlines now the sparkle of monarchy has worn away. She's desperate to get back in for the affiliation (to profit), but not the duties.

  27. Ministers are flying in hundreds of foreign staff to work in the Civil Service, despite a pledge by Sir Keir Starmer to cut down on net migration.

    Whitehall departments have sponsored 400 visas for foreign staff and paid £626,000 in fees to allow them to work in the UK in the last year.

    The staff, who must earn more than £41,700 a year or the “going rate” for their role, have been employed in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Department for Transport (DfT), Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and the Cabinet Office.

    It comes despite the Prime Minister’s pledge to cut down on net migration, including through skilled worker visas that were supported by government departments.

    In May, Sir Keir said he would increase the education threshold for skilled workers coming to the UK, requiring migrants to hold a university degree unless they are required to fill a “temporary shortage” in the workforce.

    The Government is also planning to hike the cost of supporting visas for employers by 32 per cent in a bid to encourage companies to hire domestic workers.

    Under plans in Labour’s immigration white paper, medium and large companies will be required to pay £1,320 a year to sponsor a skilled worker, up from £1,000 under the current system.

    Sir Keir said the measures would bring legal migration “back into control” and create a “selective” and “fair” system, where “we decide who comes to this country”.

    “Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” he said, adding that some sectors of the economy “seem almost addicted to importing cheap labour”.

    However, Freedom of Information requests by the Sunday Telegraph have revealed that hundreds of skilled workers are actually employed by government departments.

    The highest number of foreign staff on visas were employed by the DWP, which sponsored 316 people in the last year.

    The visas in that department came at a cost of £458,000, which will be used to fund a national scheme to train domestic staff to fill spaces in the workforce.

    The Telegraph previously revealed that the DWP was using government credit cards to pay for visa extensions, which currently cost £500 every six months.

    Labour under threat from Reform
    Several government departments, including the Ministry of Justice and Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, declined to reveal how many staff were employed on skilled worker visas because it would take too long to search HR records.

    Sir Keir’s crackdown on legal migration has been interpreted as a response to the rise of Reform UK, which is polling 10 points ahead of Labour with the support of 30 per cent of the public.

    Reform has pledged to scrap indefinite leave to remain, the legal status given to migrants who have remained in the UK for five years and plan to stay longer.

    Allister Heath: Starmer's hysterical demonisation of Farage will only help propel Reform to power
    Read more
    A government spokesman said: “An extremely small proportion of civil servants are employed on visas, with roles across the organisation awarded on merit following competitive hiring processes.

    “More broadly, we set out our commitment to reducing overall migration levels under the Immigration White Paper, ensuring we end reliance on overseas labour and boost economic growth.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/04/civil-service-flies-hundreds-foreign-staff-migration/?recomm_id=d5860eb6-aee0-4233-8ad4-43af172349f7

    Paula Summers
    4 min ago
    There will be no stopping mass immigration by this government. Its own figures (ONS) state that the population of England alone will increase from 60M today to 68M by 2050. Not forgetting its population exploded – between Blair and today – from 48M to 60M.

    Between now and 2050 birth / death rates are roughly equal (18M will die / 18M will be born). At least 5M will emigrate. That means England will have to import another 13M people between now and 2050 to reach the governments 'target'.

    The Muslim population of this country is currently around 5M – by 2050 it is predicted to be between 13M and 17M. Not bad from a start of 230,000 in 1971.

    Chris White
    18 min ago
    It's all the Indians, Pakistani's and Nigerians who work for the Civil Service bringing their mates over. Simple as that.

    1. Most of these people, if they speak English at all, will have such an impenetrable accent as to be incomprehensible.

  28. SIR – In the 1890s, the Great Central Railway was able to build its London extension – from Annesley, 10 miles north of Nottingham, to London Marylebone – with astonishing speed. Work began in November 1894. The 92-mile line opened for coal trains on July 25 1898, and for passenger trains in March 1899. In less than six years, it had gone from an Act of Parliament to completion.

    An army of navvies with picks and shovels, steam shovels and cranes built the railway, which ran through Nottingham, Leicester, and Rugby. Nottingham Victoria Station was a quarter of a mile long, and was in a deep sandstone cutting, which the navvies had to excavate. The line through central Leicester ran almost entirely on bridges and viaducts. Bricklayers had to lay every brick of these by hand. The navvies demolished many houses in Nottingham and on the site of Marylebone station.

    Most of the route went through open country. Some of the line in outer London and Buckinghamshire ran on two existing railways, but the Great Central still had to do civil engineering work widening tracks.

    Why was it possible to build a main-line railway so quickly in 1894, and why does it take so long now?

    Andrew McCarthy
    London SE22

    It was possible because we had a political elite committed to progress by competition. Environmentalism was in its absolute infancy, promoted by philosophising poets.

    As it was, the GCR was a commercial failure. It was too late on the scene. The UK's railway map was effectively established by the 1870s. Much of what followed was what went first in the 1950s and 1960s.

    The two existing railways? The GC joined the Metropolitan Railway in a field in Buckinghamshire and used Met rails to reach its own terminus at Marylebone. Shortly after opening it linked up with the Great Western, which was planning its High Wycombe cut-off to Birmingham, to build a by-pass to avoid the congested Met route.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff1b9c32d9f67e89a5b9cf1b2439855e47f53b724d879d9832704346bd5eb723.jpg
    Navvies hard at work near Lutterworth.

    1. Much time and money would be saved if HS2 had been (largely) based on the GCR, the track bed of which still exists in many places. It was built as a high-speed railway (for its time) and, with the benefit of hindsight, should never have been closed. I well remember various places on the line having lived there over the years including Harrow, Quainton, Verney Junction, Rugby and Lutterworth. The platforms of Lutterworth Station are still distinguishable!

      1. A short section (8 miles) has been but the GCR was essentially an east midland railway, not west.

        1. Indeed, but as a north-south artery it would still provide some relief to the WCML and, unlike HS2, would serve towns and cities along the way.

          1. The GCR served no town of any note between Aylesbury and Leicester other than Rugby, which was already provided for by the LNWR, and even then some of its expresses bypassed Aylesbury. The most congested parts of today's WCML are south of Watford and from Rugby to Brum and Wolverhampton. Only the former might have gained a little relief.

            The course of the railway through Leicester and Nottingham has been completely lost. A revived GCR would have had to be joined to the Midland main line south of Leicester. That would have been of some help to the MML, especially south of Bedford, but much of the overcrowding on the two routes is of passenger trains that are full at peak hours, not a lack of paths for freight at any other time.

    2. Probably because the GCR was based on business requirements and needed to get into revenue as quickly as possible, funded by investment; and nonot based on political grounds, funded by the taxpayer.

  30. Telegraph Reporters
    03 October 2025 1:32pm BST
    A worker sued his boss for having a Dalek mug in the office that joked about “exterminating someone”.

    Joshua Aderemi claimed he was discriminated against by his boss, Alan Wordsworth, because he “deliberately” put his Doctor Who mug on the table during a meeting.

    Mr Wordsworth’s Dalek-themed mug said “you may think I am listening but in my head I am thinking of exterminating someone”, a tribunal heard.

    It had been bought for Mr Wordsworth a year earlier as a gift because he was a Doctor Who fan.

    Mr Aderemi, a support worker, lost his discrimination case at an employment tribunal in Sheffield last month.

    It was heard Mr Aderemi came to the UK from Nigeria on a student visa.

    He began working for Hesley Group, a firm which provides specialist autism care, in January 2023.

    That summer, he was called to a meeting to discuss issues with his performance at Hesley Group’s assisted living residence near Doncaster, as well as visa regulations issues.

    Mr Aderemi told the tribunal it was a “health and safety detriment” because it occurred while he raised health and safety concerns. He also made other claims of race discrimination and disability discrimination. All of them were dismissed.

    Kirsty Ayre, the employment judge, said the Dalek mug was not intended to offend Mr Aderemi.

    “We find that the mug was on the table during the meeting on June 28, but it had not been placed there deliberately, and the wording on the mug was not targeted at [Mr Aderemi],” the judge said.

    “The reason the mug was on the desk was because Mr Wordsworth uses it to drink tea and coffee out of whilst at work. It was nothing whatsoever to do with any health and safety concerns raised by [Mr Aderemi].”

    The judge added that Hesley Group went to “considerable lengths to support Mr Aderemi”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/03/worker-sued-boss-dalek-mug-joke-exterminating-someone/?recomm_id=7b8582e6-c102-4bdb-935a-08f36b616763

    1. Mr Aderemi, a support worker, lost his discrimination case at an employment tribunal in Sheffield last month.

      So there is some common good sense returning then.

      1. It was heard Mr Aderemi came to the UK from Nigeria on a student visa.

        So why is he still here?

      2. Indeed. That mug was a splendid example of the British sense of humour, implying that a boss's primary role was that of extermination, safe in the common understanding of the absurdity of such a suggestion. It would not be made if it were serious.

        It reminds me of the Chief Whip who once kept a tarantula on his desk. I believe it inspired a senior judge in the Supreme Court to wear a tarantula brooch when going about her affairs.

      3. Interesting that good sense is so rare these days that a silly little case like this gets reported in the national press.

  31. Green policies will lead to more wildfires

    Winter burns have been used for thousands of years to manage landscapes safely. Now Labour is planning to ban them
    The National Fire Chiefs Council has warned that our wildfires are threatening urban areas.

    Lord (Ian) Botham, The Sunday Telegraph, 5 October, 2025.

    Imagine if I built a kerbside petrol station in London outside the headquarters of the Department for the Environment, stacked with hundreds of two-litre bottles of petrol. You would expect me to be surrounded by blue flashing lights in no time. Yet this is just the type of thing that officials inside that building are doing around the countryside in a policy that is so idiotic our top scientists and fire chiefs have written to the Government pleading with it to stop.

    Let me first explain the fuel. Vegetation, be it grass, gorse or heather is growing fast. Why? Because there is more plant food in the shape of CO2 in the air, water from wetter winters and sunlight from hotter summers. And in recent years the plants have been drying out much faster as humidity drops. The result is huge volumes of tinder dry vegetation. No surprise, then, that the UK has just experienced its worst-ever year for wildfires.

    Humanity has a solution. About 120,000 years ago the Aborigines invented winter burns, a way of reducing the fuel load of vegetation to avoid summer wildfires. In 2025 the White House, the G7 and the EU Commission have all endorsed winter burns as a key solution to the risk posed by excess vegetation. The scientific community says it reduces not just fatal smoke pollution but is critical to reducing the huge carbon emissions that wildfires generate.

    So guess what our officials are doing? Yes, you got it right: going through Parliament at the moment are regulations that effectively ban winter burns across England. So appalled are our country’s wildfire scientists that they have written to the Department for the Environment. It is a polite note asking it to wait for the results of a research project. The fire bosses are less restrained, saying that the ban risks “larger, more intense wildfires… increasing the danger to firefighters and the public”.

    They know the dangers. This summer’s long-running wildfire in North Yorkshire saw firefighters risking the flames and 18 explosions as the heat set off buried Second World War shells. The National Fire Chiefs Council has warned the Government that our wildfires are also threatening urban areas. We all remember what happened in January in Los Angeles – 30 dead and 200,000 people forced from their homes.
    So why are our environment officials allergic to elite science and basic common sense? Short answer? They’ve got the religion of rewilding, which instructs its devotees to allow nature to do its thing. Human management is inherently evil. So out go winter burns. Out goes mowing of vegetation. And out go sheep: the civil servants’ creed says that these munchers of vegetation have manicured our hillsides for too long. Sheep numbers have reduced by 11 per cent in the past three years.

    All this leaves huge amounts of vegetation on our hillsides and fire chiefs fearful about what next year’s wildfires will be like. Responsibility for that rests with the Environment Secretary, Emma Reynolds. She will be in the spotlight if firefighters start dying and fires reach residential areas in the dead of night. My suggestion to Ms Reynolds is to review the policy and start by asking how many wildfire experts helped develop it. She could also have a word with the Prime Minister. Sir Keir is no fan of Natural England, and he signed the G7 communiqué calling for winter burns.

    What is beyond certain is that Downing Street does not want the disaster which everyone with an ounce of common sense can see is coming. Our fire services could not cope with this year’s fires. They are pleading with the Government to listen and not go ahead with this ban on winter burns. We do not ever want to say “we told you so”, because lives are at stake.

    Very true, Lord Beefy. That is not all. The repeated failure of councils to dredge rivers and canals is the direct cause of every episode of flooding that occurs each winter. None of this has anything to do with all the insane 'climate (pick your own adjective)' bollocks!

    [The only sentence I dispute in Botham's diatribe is: "120,000 years ago years ago the Aborigines invented winter burns…" He has added a zero too many to that figure since Aborigines did not exist that long ago, and their predecessors certainly did not engage in any controlled burning.]

    1. The trouble I have with this analysis is that it may well apply in Australia, in California and in the Mediterranean, which catches fire routinely.

      The eucalpytus, a very common tree in Australia, has about the same relationship with fire as [edit-typo] the European oak has with frost. It uses fire to clear away competing vegetation, and relies on fire to germinate its seed. The leaves burn off, true, but are quickly replaced from under the thick fireproof bark. The Aborigines learnt to live with the eucalyptus, rather than looking wistfully to the oak as the way trees ought to behave.

      England, on the other hand, has a temperate maritime climate, with a large population of micro-organisms, fauna and flora evolved to work with wet weather to break down vegetable matter and convert it to humus topsoil, which greatly benefits them all, including humanity.

      True, during extended periods of heatwave, these mechanisms may break down when everything dries out, but most of the time it was pretty reliable.

      What may be messing things up though is human ignorance as it kills off many of these symbiotic agents and replaces them with a monoculture, or even paves over the land because this is fashionable.

      At the moment, I still pile up brushwood confident that it would break down and deliver a goodly supply of good soil, but I am mindful of climate change and may have to reconsider this if we have any more sustained heatwaves and summer droughts.

      1. You killed off your argument for me when you declared that you are "mindful of climate change".

        I didn't know you had been influenced by the hyperbole.

      2. We have lots of firs. They give off combustible vapour much like eucalyptus. Once firs ignite a roaring inferno quickly follows.

    2. Doesn't winter burning apply only to heather and peat moorland? It's hardly practical in wooded land. I suspect the move to ban burning is associated with the urban prejudice towards country pursuits – heather moorland is grouse shooting territory and we can't have that.

      1. In general heather burning, in small manageable patches at any time, is the preferred means of maintenance. Its safety, over centuries, is proven. This has been shown to benefit the moorland and the wildlife (including game) that breeds there.

        Curlew, merlin, golden plover, peregrine falcon, stonechat, wheatear, skylark, meadow pipit, lapwing, hen harrier, snipe, ring ouzel, dotterel, and a good many other bird species that favour high moorland have been shown to benefit from such traditional management practices.

    4. In Turkey swathes of trees and vegetation are cleared to form breaks should a fire start.

      Many of the Mediterranean fires reported in recent years turned out to be caused by arson.

    5. There is an entry in Captain Cook’s log mentioning seeing fires burning on land (Australia). Not as long ago but unlikely to be a recent occurrence.

      1. The aborigines did not arrive in Australia until between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago at the earliest. But at that time no one had developed agriculture as a way of life until it was started by the Babylonians and Egyptians as recently as just 10,000 years ago.
        For Botham to state that ‘controlled fires were being lit 120,000 years ago’ is pure idiocy or, at least, hysterical nonsensical guesswork with no basis in fact.

  32. Green policies will lead to more wildfires

    Winter burns have been used for thousands of years to manage landscapes safely. Now Labour is planning to ban them
    The National Fire Chiefs Council has warned that our wildfires are threatening urban areas.

    Lord (Ian) Botham, The Sunday Telegraph, 5 October, 2025.

    Imagine if I built a kerbside petrol station in London outside the headquarters of the Department for the Environment, stacked with hundreds of two-litre bottles of petrol. You would expect me to be surrounded by blue flashing lights in no time. Yet this is just the type of thing that officials inside that building are doing around the countryside in a policy that is so idiotic our top scientists and fire chiefs have written to the Government pleading with it to stop.

    Let me first explain the fuel. Vegetation, be it grass, gorse or heather is growing fast. Why? Because there is more plant food in the shape of CO2 in the air, water from wetter winters and sunlight from hotter summers. And in recent years the plants have been drying out much faster as humidity drops. The result is huge volumes of tinder dry vegetation. No surprise, then, that the UK has just experienced its worst-ever year for wildfires.

    Humanity has a solution. About 120,000 years ago the Aborigines invented winter burns, a way of reducing the fuel load of vegetation to avoid summer wildfires. In 2025 the White House, the G7 and the EU Commission have all endorsed winter burns as a key solution to the risk posed by excess vegetation. The scientific community says it reduces not just fatal smoke pollution but is critical to reducing the huge carbon emissions that wildfires generate.

    So guess what our officials are doing? Yes, you got it right: going through Parliament at the moment are regulations that effectively ban winter burns across England. So appalled are our country’s wildfire scientists that they have written to the Department for the Environment. It is a polite note asking it to wait for the results of a research project. The fire bosses are less restrained, saying that the ban risks “larger, more intense wildfires… increasing the danger to firefighters and the public”.

    They know the dangers. This summer’s long-running wildfire in North Yorkshire saw firefighters risking the flames and 18 explosions as the heat set off buried Second World War shells. The National Fire Chiefs Council has warned the Government that our wildfires are also threatening urban areas. We all remember what happened in January in Los Angeles – 30 dead and 200,000 people forced from their homes.
    So why are our environment officials allergic to elite science and basic common sense? Short answer? They’ve got the religion of rewilding, which instructs its devotees to allow nature to do its thing. Human management is inherently evil. So out go winter burns. Out goes mowing of vegetation. And out go sheep: the civil servants’ creed says that these munchers of vegetation have manicured our hillsides for too long. Sheep numbers have reduced by 11 per cent in the past three years.

    All this leaves huge amounts of vegetation on our hillsides and fire chiefs fearful about what next year’s wildfires will be like. Responsibility for that rests with the Environment Secretary, Emma Reynolds. She will be in the spotlight if firefighters start dying and fires reach residential areas in the dead of night. My suggestion to Ms Reynolds is to review the policy and start by asking how many wildfire experts helped develop it. She could also have a word with the Prime Minister. Sir Keir is no fan of Natural England, and he signed the G7 communiqué calling for winter burns.

    What is beyond certain is that Downing Street does not want the disaster which everyone with an ounce of common sense can see is coming. Our fire services could not cope with this year’s fires. They are pleading with the Government to listen and not go ahead with this ban on winter burns. We do not ever want to say “we told you so”, because lives are at stake.

    Very true, Lord Beefy. That is not all. The repeated failure of councils to dredge rivers and canals is the direct cause of every episode of flooding that occurs each winter. None of this has anything to do with all the insane 'climate (pick your own adjective)' bollocks!

    [The only sentence I dispute in Botham's diatribe is: "120,000 years ago years ago the Aborigines invented winter burns…" He has added a zero too many to that figure since Aborigines did not exist that long ago, and their predecessors certainly did not engage in any controlled burning.]

    1. At a quick guess, to answer his question, maybe many of yer unwhites are not high achievers or in clink.

      2. How is it that the wogs can be racist, but the whites not? Two tiers, one asks oneself.

  34. 413831+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    And so the political rats in a sack are jockeying in the coalition seeking support against Reform, prior to a week before a General Election when old misguided loyalties rear there people killing,
    children raping abusing, Country destroying heads to further the modern history books as being WORSE than what we are suffering at this moment in time.

    Sample of suffering waiting in the wings evidence is bird fodder
    great bunches of, awaiting the coming winter, culling numbers should show a rise in numbers as with the invasion incoming troops.

    1. I happened to hear it when transmitted yesterday. She's very good and should be elevated to a higher educational role. There again pigs might fly…….

    1. Morning Rik, and All,

      Doesn't surprise me with some of the second-rate lawyers that the CPS seems to have. I have met a couple, and they struck me as less than impressive.

      On another point, your link brings with it a picture of the item you are linking to. So did my links previously, but then they suddenly stopped and now I only have the link itself showing. I have tried to go into what causes this but have drawn a blank – have you any suggestions?

    2. This should be front page news in The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and The Independent.

      BBC TV and Radio should cover it – but won't but let us hope GB News does.

  38. Can anyone recommend a toilet paper that does not come apart in the fingers, as most brands do these days?

    It was a revelation visiting my sister. She had some old stock in her loo, left over from ages past. First off there was none of this silly embossing that is designed to give the impression that the paper is thicker than it really is. It was a decent size, so there were no bits at the edge where I could catch my fingers. It held together, however runny the stool, and still remained wipeable even when moistened from the tap, whereas the modern stuff just dissolves to nothing. It was the first time in ages I could wipe my bottom without leaving residue either on the fingers or on the bottom.

    These days, it's all SOFT, SUPER SOFT and QUILTED. I don't want to sleep with it; I want it to wipe my bum.

    Even better if it were made of recycled paper. I remember some stuff I got in the Netherlands about 30 years ago that was unbleached and pale grey, but it was fine.

    3. The Guardian, failing that Aldi do a pack of 12 or maybe its 24 (Saxon brand) for a fiver which seems to do the job.

    7. Bog-standard lavatory paper, here in Sweden is much better than any I experienced in the UK.
      Our preferred make is Lambi, which does not rip but remains very soft.

      [I still have nightmares over the San Izal hard paper at my primary school! 😲]

      1. The rolls were kept in a cupboard in the classroom and we had to ask for it, rather sheepishly. It was doled out (three sheets only) by a monitor, usually the prettiest girl in the class. I am still scarred by the experience!

      2. Indeed, I used it as tracing paper.

        The bog standard stuff in Poland is also better than anything in the UK.

    8. Too much information !

      You could have just asked for recommends rather than describing your shitty fingers !

      1. I would simply get sales patter about softness and style, and platitudes at best. I am being specific about what it is really used for. and how currently nothing on the market I can find is fit for purpose.

      1. As a child travelling to Argentina by ship I would regularly purloin a few sheets of Izal paper and use them for tracing paper.

        PS – Reading further down the page, I may have been mistaken; it might have been Bronco I used for tracing paper.

  40. Kemi Badenoch risks becoming the next Ed Davey
    Tory leader will need a barnstorming conference performance to quell fears that her party is slipping into irrelevance
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/10/05/kemi-risks-becoming-the-next-ed-davey-tory-conference/

    Bring forth the paddleboards for her to fall off.

    And why not try a monocycle?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56f68cf4c2cec10d320936a1692128a9ee317d41c5f0e7eb8d077c1dc7dc147d.png

  41. A sunny day with a brisk breeze so a load of washing done and hung out.
    I've dragged my apple "scratter" and press out of storage, and have just "scratted" a large preserving pan full of the windfalls ready for pressing.
    Now having a grapefruit and mug of tea before going out to press them.

  42. More luck – two starter words, second one correct.
    Wordle 1,569 2/6

    🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  45. Starmer is losing/has lost the battle of words, ideas (if he has any they're bad for the UK and its people) and ideology but he attempts to reinforce his failure, a definite no-no in a battle.

    David Atherton's comment produced these:

    Well spotted by OpenSeason
    https://x.com/OpenSeaon007007/status/1974740914976203178

    Wind of change blowing through the Met?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ac148e7ad04661b5a5e05e10139dd07f575b71a494ee03c8da12ea8e2b7cbe4.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ffa8c41be8db61b3953ad55725c1a4d04c293b6a1d97f51f22578a694025dd30.png

    Courtesy of Truhaven on X.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a6ceb24127b29ab1e7ed741cd30dcbf923f1721e70f7e421f2af8a000534638.png

    Registered electorate number incorrect as of 2021 but you get the drift.

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity (not the full link)

    In December 2021, there were 46,560,452 Parliamentary electoral registrations

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e39fa0a688062d55333ef728b80f3f090b257923495e1d23254c6bb6b93a32aa.png
    Starmer a man of U-turns, contradictions and goodness knows what else.

    1. 9,731,363 members of the electorate voted for Labour.

      57,595,206 members of the population did not vote for Labour.

      This is because a good number of the latter number were not of voting age; another good number couldn't be arsed to vote at all; while the rest split their vote over a high number of noggie-pog parties, thus enabling that 9,731,363 to break open the champagne.

      It will be exactly the same in 2029. Lessons are never learnt.

        1. It was a term of insult (similar to "numpty") that was coined by an old detective sergeant I once worked with. All manner of scrotes, toe-rags and ne'er-do-wells were labelled by him as "noggie-pogs". The term became popular currency locally but I've not heard it elsewhere.

          2. We also had a detective inspector — Peter Walters — who got nicknamed ‘Pog’, a shortened version of ‘noggie-pog’.
            It soon became ubiquitous that everyone referred to him as “Pog Walters”.

      1. They contain a bigger number of that part of the population who have no wish to be deported.

    2. Maybe it would go down better with the politicians if it was phrased "Britain demands mass repatriation". (I won't hold my breath!).

      eta; vw post

    3. Maybe it would go down better with the politicians if it was phrased "Britain demands mass repatriation". (I won't hold my breath!).

      eta; vw post

    4. If they adhere to the ideology they are all extremists. It’s lIke saying not all National Socialists are bad.

    5. The map source says FINDOUTNOW, but I've searched its website and haven't found where those figures come from. I certainly won't accept Rupert Lowe's word without verification. I have unanswered questions, such as mass deportations of who?

    1. From Taboo to..
      Mass deportations now the accepted narrative..

      next up..
      Simon Webb (Hello Again) reckons, as with the Norwegian govt of 1942-45 led by Vidkun Quisling, and France led by Pierre Laval.. both 5th columnist traitors were executed.. Retribution for Treachery will be up for discussion then demanded.

    2. From Taboo to..
      Mass deportations now the accepted narrative..

      next up..
      Simon Webb (Hello Again) reckons, as with the Norwegian govt of 1942-45 led by Vidkun Quisling, and France led by Pierre Laval.. both 5th columnist traitors were executed.. Retribution for Treachery will be up for discussion then demanded.

      2. It has to otherwise there will be a bloodbath. It is worth listening to Firas Modad, a Lebanese member of the Lotus Eaters group. He thinks that if we do nothing we will end up the same way as Lebanon. He can already see the pattern that he experience in Lebanon developing here. He also has a sub stack for those interested in reading.

        1. That is the view of David Betz.
          The "political off-ramp" as he calls it.. will slip by as the centre-right (LOL) dim-wits like Camilla Tominey flap..
          The tipping point has passed. Though he did concede that UK had a better chance than EU if there was political Will.
          Unfortunately, Farage shows no sign of that.

        2. That is the view of David Betz.
          The "political off-ramp" as he calls it.. will slip by as the centre-right (LOL) dim-wits like Camilla Tominey flap..
          The tipping point has passed. Though he did concede that UK had a better chance than EU if there was political Will.
          Unfortunately, Farage shows no sign of that.

    2. I don't suppose there will ever come a time when King Charles III declares:

      "Will no one rid me of this troublesome priestess?"

      1. I think he said that once years ago about another woman.. And maybe he was taken seriously

  50. Morning all,

    Yesterday I set my cylinder tank.thermostat to below 50 degC https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72cdc9e66207d3cb9a071053e515a7e1f57ac691827c6ec853217f9fd16040dc.jpg because the water coming out off my hot tap was above 50 degC https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64a6eedc38b79488b061a9e290846084c1ae9572d8fa7f99ba6bf655378d70eb.jpg .
    This morning I measured the hot tap temperature and it was under 50 degC which I feel doesn't scald me. The heating technician however will leave the cylinder tank temperature at 60 degC if he is trying to fix a reported fault.

    1. As I replied to you yesterday, the temperature is set at 60 degrees as that will kill the Legionnaires virus if present. Surely you can mix hot and cold taps to reach your desired washing temperature.

      1. Yes, I can.

        My bathroom sink does have a mixer tap the top of which can be seen in the posted image.
        Furthermore at the times when the whole family’s hair is washed in my bathroom sink the visiting haidresser uses a sprayer head with an led indicator showing if the delivered water is within safe range. There are times however with a family hairwash that the water runs too cold and a request for a boiler boost for the cylinder catches the hairdresser by surprise as the shower head delivers water at a temperature greater than 50 degC.

    2. 50c is ok for hand washing under the tap but it's not hot enough for a shower with a mixer head.

      1. I can’t argue with your comment but it does raise questions about the viability of a heat pump if you need a shower.

        MOH is very fussy about her showering experiece.
        When I chose the products for her new bathroom I specified a shower product that a local bathroom fitter routinely fitted and could deliver water at a rate of 12 litres per second.

        The Aqualisa unit is fitted remotely from the shower cubicle and is required to be fed at water with maximum temperature of 50 degC.

        I have had no complaints for seven years after it was fitted. I have been trying to restore thr CH and HW settings that I had before technician came to fic a reported system fault.

        1. Always problems! We had to get the plumber back to put the temperature back up to 60C – he'd reduced it to stop the cylinder overflow leaking through the ceiling……..but although the water in the basin tap was hot enough, the shower was not. Anyway so far the shower is good and the leak hasn't started again………yet.

          We haven't got a heat pump, but we have two hot water systems – an oil fired boiler for the radiators and kitchen/bathroom hot water in the main part of the house and an immersion cylinder in the loft above the bedroom & en suite in the newer part of the house.

          1. I can sympathise with your problem and can understand the further problems a plumber could have trying to sort them out.

            I specifically designed a HW and CH system as part of complete upgrade of a boiler/bathrooms upgrade for the home replacing an ageing Potterton.

            The work required two contractors – a bathroom fitter and a central heating specialist.

            However there are some issues that arose owing to conflicting requirements of my specification.

            The main one is the need for an Aqualisa shower unit that needs a generous water supply of 12 litres/minute at no more than 50 degC and a cylinder hot water tank that has to be set at 60 degC by the intaller to avoid Legionella.

        2. At the last place (not mine), I had an Aqualisa Digital power shower. The unit was in the loft, above the bathroom. Best shower I've ever had. Since the landlord was an inmpoverished village church, I sourced a replacement when the thing died. As far as I'm aware, five years after moving on, it's still going strong.

    1. No chance of Starmer planning a Sikhobobia definition.

      His Muslim supporters would never accept this – they do not ask for – they demand – special protection that they do not wish to be extended to any other political or religious group.

      1. ……special protection that they do not wish to be extended to any other political or religious group except LGBQWERTY.

        1. I doubt his Muslim supporters would protect that group.

          More likely to offer them free flying lessons and freefall skydiving.

        2. You forgot the 2SQ++ extension to that loser acronym.

          some ++ person might get hurty feelings and have Mr plod demolish your front door.

      2. If the last election is anything to go by, muslin voters are about to jump ship from Labour to their own parties.

      1. The Sikh separatists in Canada must be an exception then, lots of problems with their campaigns for a Sikh homeland – which included planting bombs o. An Air India 747.

  52. Sir Rocco Forte: ‘I left Britain because I knew Labour would get everything wrong’
    While he regards Brexit as a disappointment, the veteran hotelier says successive failing governments are to blame for the nation’s demise
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/05/sir-rocco-forte-interview-left-britain-labour/

    A couple of BTL comments:

    1. How many members of the government have ever worked outside the public sector and/or have been self-employed.

    I spent half my working life as an employee and the other half self-employed. This certainly gave me a far broader understanding of the world of work – an understanding that very few politicians seem to have.

    2. Why was Brexit a disappointment?

    Boris Johnson did not want Brexit but he wanted to be elected. He did not want to cooperate with Nigel Farage and he did not sack every single pro-EU Conservative MP before the 2019 general election leaving Parliament stuffed with remainers determined to wreck Brexit which they are still successfully doing. Nigel Farage was naïf in trusting the duplicitous Johnson and so he did not field Brexit Party candidates against remainer Conservatives in the 2019 election.

    And then Lord Frost was bullied into giving way on the two things on which he had sworn vigorously that he would not give way: UK fishing and Northern Ireland. Having succeeded in wrecking Brexit from its very inception with its pathetic Agreement the Remainers and the EU knew that they would have an easy job destroying it.

    1. It was a disappointment because the people who promoted it never looked further than the referendum had no real plan and didn't consider the fact that as half the population would be against it a second referendum would be demanded and attempts to leave would be thwarted.
      The fault also lies with the PM David Cameron who believed he would win the referendum and foolishly did not have a plan B. His resignation was simply an act of cowardice. His sense of duty should have made him stay on and fix the mess he had created.

      1. 413831+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Rob,
        The main fault post 24/6/2016 was Many voting for exit returned to their
        regular voting pattern that being,the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party.

        1. Maybe. But the electorate had a right to expect leadership and responsibility from those in charge especially from those who had created the situation.

          1. 413831+ up ticks,

            Afternoon Rob,

            In my book that right was lost after witnessing the voting trend, and the path the
            lab/lib.con pro eu coalition party was taking.

            It was tribal voting in the extreme continually
            putting party before country, with no regards for the evil consequences.

            They are surely now proved to be the political enemy enemas in total.

      2. Major – Cameron – May – Johnson – Truss – Sunak
        A Succession that has failed to succeed!

        I doubt if Badenoch will be Good enough to change the tide of failure?

        1. I've voted Conservative ever since Thatcher, Rastus…no more. Next vote I have will be for Reform (or abstain if no Reform candidate my area).

          1. There will be a Reform candidate in every area, I’m sure. I don’t foresee a Reform/Tory collaboration.

          4. Let’s hope the CONservatives step down in constituencies they don’t stand a chance of winning.

          6. You have my sympathy, Geoff. It could be worse, I’m in what was Truss’s constituency and we now have a wet-behind-the-ears Labour bloke.

        2. Liz Truss never got a bloody chance before she was targeted by the Technocrats who wanted Sunak.

          2. Although he was long gone she blamed Mark Carney's works for her ousting.
            I regard him as a Blair-a-like Governor/Brexit wrecker.

          4. The way in which the institutions and her party treated Truss was the bullet that fatally wounded the Conservative Party. It showed all party members that their vote counted for nothing and the person that they had not voted for – Sunak – was put into office against their wishes.

            Every day under Sunak the party died a little bit more until the 2024 general election which has shown conclusively that
            there is no way back.

        1. Yes. Of course. But it was irresponsible not o have a plan B. And simply resigning was a betrayal of his position.

          2. Especially as he had put in print that the government would implement what we decided. It was the first indication of the betrayal that was to come.

      4. Cameron only called for the referendum because very many shire tories were abandoning the party to join Ukip because of their disgust at Cameron's policy of enablling gay marriage. Dominic Lawson explained the connection in this article (second on page, scroll down to headline 'Gay marriage and a bitter Brexit divorce.')
        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3661413/DOMINIC-LAWSON-architects-Project-Fear-pay-shameful-lies.html

        Extract:
        "It is now largely forgotten, but Cameron’s insistence on pushing through a Bill to legalise gay marriage — which eventually passed in 2013 — caused consternation within the Conservative Party. 
        The proposal, which had not been in the Tories’ 2010 election manifesto, was vehemently opposed by about half of his parliamentary party — who happened also to be the most Eurosceptic — and appalled countless members of local Conservative associations.
        This was seized on by Nigel Farage. I had lunch with Ukip’s leader at that time and I recall two things above all from it.
        First, how disgusted he was that I did not want to have a drink before sitting down; and second, how gleeful he was at the way the gay marriage row was sending shire Tories in droves to switch to Ukip membership."

      5. Cameron only called for the referendum because very many shire tories were abandoning the party to join Ukip because of their disgust at Cameron's policy of enablling gay marriage. Dominic Lawson explained the connection in this article (second on page, scroll down to headline 'Gay marriage and a bitter Brexit divorce.')
        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3661413/DOMINIC-LAWSON-architects-Project-Fear-pay-shameful-lies.html

        Extract:
        "It is now largely forgotten, but Cameron’s insistence on pushing through a Bill to legalise gay marriage — which eventually passed in 2013 — caused consternation within the Conservative Party. 
        The proposal, which had not been in the Tories’ 2010 election manifesto, was vehemently opposed by about half of his parliamentary party — who happened also to be the most Eurosceptic — and appalled countless members of local Conservative associations.
        This was seized on by Nigel Farage. I had lunch with Ukip’s leader at that time and I recall two things above all from it.
        First, how disgusted he was that I did not want to have a drink before sitting down; and second, how gleeful he was at the way the gay marriage row was sending shire Tories in droves to switch to Ukip membership."

      6. Would you have wanted Cameron leading the UK's negotiations to leave the EU? Had he announced before the referendum that losing would lead to his resignation, some would have voted to leave purely for that reason, which would have increased to the chance of the Leave campaign winning, the direct opposite of what he was in favour of.

        1. No – because he wanted to stay in the EU. He was a weak and ineffectual leader but his replacement – Boris – was a bit of a disaster and Rishi was also weak. It's no wonder they were thrown out out at the next election but what we got by default has been far worse.

        2. Not only did he resign but despite this he wanted to carry on being PM for some time and left only under pressure from his party.
          Yes he should have had a plan B and should have established a team to begin withdrawal immediately.

        2. Mohammed was a strategist, that claim was to justify Islam's eventual presence in the Holy Land and to Jerusalem.

        3. They make that claim but the Quran uses Biblical names attached to fictional characters invented to fit its narrative. One theory is that Mahomet built his story on a sketchy knowledge of the Scriptures.

      1. In our nursing days, when we stopped for a coffee and a chat, the subject of actually evil – as opposed to merely mentally ill – patients would be sometimes be discussed.
        In a hospital, which at that time still had around 1,000 patients, the same half dozen names would crop up. They were not necessarily the most violent or disturbed of patients, but many of us picked up an "X" factor.

    5. The reading this morning was, I thought, particularly appropriate. Habakkuk 1:14, 2:1-4. All about judgement being perverted and justice not prevailing.

    6. Lefties always provide evidence of God by uttering their 180 degree upsidedown nonsense.
      Whatever they say, the opposite is truth.
      Here's some examples.

      Leftie scientist; "Give me one miracle, and I'll explain the rest with mathematics."
      1970s Leftie Silicon Valley computer expurt; "Man made God not the other way round, consciousness is man made and is created inside man's head (and her Reg).. shout out aloud the following.. WE WILL COMPUTATE CONSCIOUSNESS.. WE WILL COMPUTATE CONSCIOUSNESS.."
      50 years and billions of dollars later; "It's a chemical reaction inside the brain.. yeah.. no no.. life is random, that's it."
      2000s Leftie Silicon Valley computer expurt; "Memory resides inside the brain, defo, we just haven't found it yet."
      2000s UCLA expurt; "The collapse of the wave function is just unresloved physics.. or summit.. give me another billion."
      2000s Leftie Silicon Valley expurt; "If I submit ever more complex models, ever more copious notes.. do you think God will award my homework with a soul?"
      Richard Dawkins tattoo on his thicko bonce..there is no purpose in nature. the evolutionary process has no purpose or direction.
      Your thoughts and intentions cannot have any effect at a distance because your mind is inside your head. Therefore all the apparent evidence for telepathy & other psychic phenomena is illusory. People believe these things happen, but it's just because they dont know enough about statistics. Or they're deceived by coincidences or just wishful thinking.

      and lastly,
      memories are stored in your Leftie brain as material traces. somehow everything you remember is in your Leftie brain in modified nerve endings, phosphorylated proteins. No one knows how it works but everyone in Leftie science believes it must be in the Leftie brain.

      1. He’s certainly a product of Satan.
        The Muslims rejected him, just as they have re Gaza, so he’s a pretend Catholic instead.

      1. Quite. Unless and until the so-called Tories accept full responsibility for their dire administration – they are toast.

          2. Younger couple I know voting for the first time, haven’t asked which party but guessing Reform.

      2. Exactly Ndovu. Think it's Conservative Home does a survey of Conservative MPs, always good for larf…

    2. Not a good idea to bandy figures around.
      We've heard similar since the era of Windmill Dave.
      Set out philosophy and policies. Set the tone; many are now listening who wouldn't even a year ago.
      But definite numbers is a bad idea.

    3. LOL.
      This time last year, it was toxic – pure toxic. Many tried in Parliament to paint me as a blaring loon for talking about mass deportations.
      Now? Every political party is falling over themselves trying to prove their deportation credentials.
      R Lowe.

  55. Afternoon all. Back from church- it was extremely cold! Despite two woollen jumpers and a woollen coat I was frozen. The woman doing the intercessions was woke so we had climate change, Gaza and Ukraine. My lips moved but the responses were not as set out!

    My feeling about bad enough is that it will be all talk.

      1. The vicar said she thought it was a good choice for lots of reasons but didn’t elucidate. Over coffee afterwards I and at least one other expressed the hope that she would at least be a Christian.

  58. Today I enjoyed the first of my batch of steak-and-kidney pies and puddings that I made in the week. I chose a pudding since I have only ever had about three of those in my entire life! I steamed it for 40 minutes in my new Instant Pot pressure cooker and it turned out quite delicious.

    Do you know, I never had either steak-and-kidney pudding or pie when I was a youngster. Mum said they were too expensive to make and, instead, she would make her favourite (not mine!) meat and potato pie. Over and over again.

    She would put bland stewing meat into a large enamel pie dish along with copious chunks of potato then cover the lot with a lid of shortcrust pastry. It was very boring. I was grown up before I first sampled a Kate & Sydney Pie and it soon became a firm favourite.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e897211a47207583a4824c024a67a1a27873cc6d3a0858779de070ac3fecf795.png Small (½ pint pot) S&K pudding with peas.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/169e49c3fa3fce06533ea8335118524ac327e0cb01a1c37d46ecff15adea5514.png The same pudding opened up and covered with Colman's English and gravy.

    2. Oooo… Lovely looking food! Bet it tastes even better.
      The only improvement could be to use runner beans cut as small parallelograms…

          1. Broad beans were always my favourite.
            Gammon steak, mashed spuds, parsley sauce, broad beans, mushrooms, grilled tomato.

    3. Doesn't the mustard hide the flavour? I would be happy to enjoy the taste of the steak, kidney and that nice suet pastry.

      No need to send me a pudding, it will never be delivered because our money losing post office workers have a death wish and is on strike for more money and benefits.

        2. My taste buds just shout eek and shut down.

          At least Grizzly is not following American habits and dousing the delectable zdish with ketchup!

          1. Colman's is too much for me too but there are some very nice mild mustards like Dijon or Pommery.

        3. I'm not sure most people would regard many of their mustards as mustard, but they are delicious and the variety is extraordinary.
          We discovered them many years ago when we were in Beaune and saw tours of the production being offered.

          https://www.fallot.com/

      2. I only use sufficient mustard to enhance the flavour, not overpower it. Dumplings (same recipe) and Yorkshire puddings always benefit, I find, from a little English mustard prior to being coated in good gravy (or stew).

        I summer, or with lamb, I like a little mint sauce on my Yorkshire puddings as well as the gravy.

  59. Well, that's two pressings of apples done and 5 litres of apple juice produced.
    Dinner is on, chicken pieces with a red pepper, some mini-tomatoes that needed using up and some pineapple pieces that have been cluttering up the freezer and all in a kung po sauce with rice noodles. Grad.Son has just brought the washing in as the weather looked to be turning wet, only it's got brighter now!

    2. We are about to start a sourdough starter and press the last of our apples

  62. With veteran Tory Keith Prince defection, who represents Havering and Redbridge, Reform UK now has an official group on the London Assembly for the first time.

  63. With veteran Tory Keith Prince defection, who represents Havering and Redbridge, Reform UK now has an official group on the London Assembly for the first time.

  65. Mrs Badenoch is a charming lady but of course it’s all talk.

    I was back at church this morning. Good to be there. The mass setting was Missa Brevis in B Minor by Mozart and Hilary Cronin was lead soprano. She has a lovely voice. I won’t attempt to do Evensong as well but after the service is Sunday Night Film Club this week. Movie and pizza. “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. The Franco Zeffirelli film about St Francis and St Clare.

    2. Glad you're back, Sue. This being my first Sunday in 54 years not as an organist, I did some research. Closest via public transport Is St Nicolas, Guildford. Somewhat further, and a probable taxi ride (since TPTB thought it would be a good plan to put it on a hill top) is the Cathedral.

      I was minded to attend the 09.45 Cathedral Choral Eucharist, but realised that it was Harvest, and I had nothing to offer. "Not to worry", I thought. "I'll watch it online." Not available, "due to organisational issues", apparently. Bugger.

      So I watched Mass from St Nic's. Large choir, decent organ. What's not to like? Well, actually – everything. Hesitant organist, choir and clergy all singing in different keys, etc. I'm sure it would have been better in person, rather than via laptop speakers. Or maybe not.

      My former choirs may have been small, but at least they sang in tune.

      In need of an antidote, I sought out St Bart's the great livestream. While aware that you worship there, it was mostly driven by articles in the Speccie by Fr Marcus Walker, and the fact that it's accesible by train from here on a Sunday morning, without having to spend a night in a Travelodge.

      I'm so pleased I did. After decades of Series 2, ASB, and Common Worship, it was like coming home. The music was glorious, and it turns out that I know James Norrey your organist as well. He's accompanied several "Come and Sing" events for Robert Mingay-Smith, my old assistant organist. Church music is a small world.

      Might see you next Sunday…

  66. Lovely here in Athens, warm and sunny. A Very busy city. At nearly 6pm we're off to the bar now and later dinner. Off on our cruise tomorrow..

  67. OOOOFF!
    Very attractive young Greek MEP, Afroditi Latinopoulou, cooking on gas and giving the EU Parliament both barrels!

    "You have filled Europe up with Mohammedans. You have subsidised the Islamisation of Europe. They are raping our children in the name of Allah. Kick them out before Europe dies” https://x.com/nogulagsagain/status/1974406729241952600

  69. Interesting times in Japan as strong Conservative Takaichi Sanae becomes their new Prim Minister:-

    Former Prime Minister Kishida doesn't look happy Takaichi won. He supposedly compared her to the Taliban because she has extreme views.
    She opposes same-sex marriage, she opposes gender equality because it will destroy the social structure of Japan.
    She supports imprisonment for citizens or foreigners who deface the Japanese flag. She's anti-CCP and she believes in rebuilding the Japanese military. https://x.com/AsianDawn4/status/1974509931115192691

    1. Curious video just showing an elderly Japanese man walking along. Excellent commentary, though!!

    2. Given that Japanese has men’s language and women’s language, opposing equality is no surprise.

      1. Indeed, but I can't help thinking that if she'd been Anglo-Saxon British she'd have been given the Ray Honeyford treatment.

      2. The Education Secretary should be adopting Birbalsingh's way of doing things but ideology is more important than lifting children out of the gutter.

          2. Indeed – so there is no chance whatever of "the Education Secretary should be adopting Birbalsingh's way of doing things…"

    2. Funny how they can all spout grand ideas when in opposition but when they had the power, nothing could be done.

      1. It is nothing more than an undiluted megalomania: an obsessive craving for power that impels them all make impossible-to-keep promises.

        The modern breed of politician will gob-off whatever they think will get 'the people' onside, when out of power, no matter how preposterous. When they finally achieve power it all turns to, "Fuck you, plebs!"

    3. "Katharine Birbalsingh needs to be in the next Government in some sort of capacity."

      Only if the "next Government" is not another Labour maladministration.

  71. Squeamish football always runs scared from anti-Semitism

    Yet again the game has failed to properly pay tribute to victims of terror attacks against Jews

    Oliver Brown, Chief Sports Writer
    4th October 2025, 7:14pm BST

    Of all the fixtures scheduled in the aftermath of the Heaton Park Synagogue attack, the first purely faith-based killing of Jewish people on British soil in living memory, Leeds United at home to Tottenham leapt out.

    These two clubs, after all, are both steeped in Jewish heritage and tradition. When Don Revie, at his zenith as Leeds manager in the early 1970s, attended a bar mitzvah in the city, the rabbi presiding told him: "We share the same congregation, Mr Revie. I have them in the morning and you have them in the afternoon."

    As for Tottenham, it has been estimated that up to a third of their supporters in the mid-1930s were Jewish, while the significant representation at board level in recent decades – from Irving Scholar to Lord Sugar to Daniel Levy – cemented a popular image as "the Jewish club".

    If any match could do justice to the magnitude of the heinous events in Manchester, then surely it was the lunchtime kick-off at Elland Road. And yet when the moment came, there was nothing. Not a minute's silence, not a black armband, not even a word to reflect that the terrorist atrocity across the Pennines had happened.

    The silence was, to put it politely, peculiar. After all, football has been guilty of sins of omission on this front before. Cast your mind back two years ago, when every Premier League club summoned silences for the victims of an earthquake in Morocco and flooding in Libya. But one month later, the pogrom of October 7, the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, went wholly overlooked during that weekend's top-flight matches.

    It was the ferocity of the subsequent backlash that brought a change of course. After David Bernstein said he was "shocked, hurt, but not surprised" at the Football Association's decision not to light the Wembley arch in Israel's colours – despite doing so for terrorism in France, Belgium and Turkey – the governing body decided that any future illuminations would only be for football and entertainment reasons. Similarly, the Premier League has adopted a position since 2023 of resisting blanket tributes for non-footballing tragedies.

    Exceptions can still be made, though. Last November, at Mikel Arteta's request, Arsenal wore black armbands to commemorate those killed by devastating floods in Valencia. And this weekend, Manchester United were permitted both a minute's silence and black armbands to express sympathy for the attack that had convulsed their community. Similar commemorations will be witnessed when Manchester City visit Brentford on Sunday afternoon. The gestures are not being replicated elsewhere on the pretext that this is, fundamentally, a tragedy for Manchester.

    You can apply that logic elsewhere, however. Diogo Jota's death in a car crash in July was, ultimately, a tragedy for his family, for Liverpool, and for their fans. But that did not prevent a minute's silence from being ordered the following month at every Premier League ground in the land. The dimensions of what unfolded in Manchester, by contrast, go far beyond the local area. A murder at a synagogue in a major English city on the holiest day in the Jewish calendar? That is not merely Manchester's loss, but a national outrage, and it demands to be treated as such. No wonder the Campaign against Anti-Semitism has called the Premier League's failure to issue a league-wide directive "unacceptable".

    It makes the cogent point that the organisation's "No Room for Racism" campaign is supposed to mean what it says, stamping out the scourge of racism "everywhere". So why the impression that its application is more zealous in some areas than in others? Do not forget, the practice of taking the knee – which multiplied in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd in the United States – still continues five years on, with Premier League players opting to perform the gesture twice more over the coming weeks to mark Black History Month. Where is the same rush to engage, across the board, with a monstrous act specifically targeting Jews? After all, if you are committed to eliminating discrimination in all its forms, should you not also take the fiercest stand possible when the upsurge in anti-Semitism in this country reaches its hideous, inevitable conclusion?

    Football, sadly, is squeamish on this issue. You can detect it even in the language used by United and City, two clubs who have done the right thing. "We are shocked and saddened by the tragic events which took place in Manchester this morning, and we are sending our support and condolences to all those affected during this difficult time," read the statement from City, with United's version almost identical.

    There are a few words conspicuous by their absence here, the main one being "Jewish". It should surely have not been beyond the wit of these clubs to conjure a response that conveyed who the victims were, and why. Fulham managed it, referring to both Yom Kippur and the Jewish community. The Premier League insists that it "continues to strongly condemn all acts of violence against innocent civilians". But football's lack of a much broader recognition of the Manchester attack illustrates how anti-Semitism, all too often, is the subject from which it runs scared.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2025/10/04/manchester-terror-attack-leeds-tottenham-arm-bands-tribute

    1. Why should the administrators of wendyball be any different from the gang of racist chancers pretending to be a government?

    2. All the Premier League clubs were quick off the mark 'taking the knee' and supporting Black Lives Matter when George Floyd died. It would seem that some events/organisations are worthy of support whilst others are not.

    3. The prospect of football matches becoming a contest between competing claims for our sympathies fills me with dismay. Just stop them all and let each of us show compassion in our own ways.

    1. How can the council argue that pushing tax payers money into gimmigrants would not impact local services? Reform pointing this out is not misinformation, it's a blatant fact.

      The pot isn't infinite – although, sadly, officialdom thinks it is – they just take whatever they want. This is a problem that must be dealt with: councils just take whatever they want. If it's above a certain level they just ask the government to approve it and it does.

      Where is the tax payer in preventing the state from taking our money as it chooses? That, more than anything is the problem.

  73. Wordle No. 1,569 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 5 Oct 2025

    Straight for Birdie Three?

    1. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,569 4/6

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

    2. Rather Easy birdie today

      Wordle 1,569 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Well done!
      Had that awkward situation where you get two 'orange' vowels in the first guess – do you proceed to your second regular starter word or try to place the vowels you've already got. I went for the latter this time and got lucky with the first letter, straightforward birdie thereafter…..

      Wordle 1,569 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Well done, same here.
      Wordle 1,569 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  74. "Barely a single Conservative will be elected. Funding will dry up. Whole Conservative Associations will shift to Reform. That's what happens when parties come to an end. Nothing is Eternal."
    David Starkey

    1. However, Starkey backs Robert Jenrick to lead the Right. LOL

      "I put my reservations about Farage to Gawen Taylor just before the Reform Conference.
      "The split on the political Right risks allowing Left Wing forces through in certain constituencies (see some of the recent council by-elections), whereas combined the Reform Party and Conservative Party poll at around 45%: enough for an epic landslide in the First Past the Post electoral system."

      Sorry, Mr Starkey.. The Tories are dead & buried. Deceased. Having ceased to be, expired, and gone to meet its maker.

      1. "…combined the Reform Party and Conservative Party poll at around 45%: enough for an epic landslide in the First Past the Post electoral system…"

        WRONG! Unless they do a deal – they'll split the centre right vote and allow the marxists back in.

        1. Exactly. Starkey issues this warning. However, I believe The Tories should step aside out of shame. They underestimate how much they are hated.. thanks to the countless betrayals.

        2. Exactly. Starkey issues this warning. However, I believe The Tories should step aside out of shame. They underestimate how much they are hated.. thanks to the countless betrayals.

    2. The Whigs became a busted flush in 1900 when Labour overtook them to become the second party to challenge the Tories.

      Will the Tories follow suit in 2025 when they are replaced by Reform?

  76. The MR has just returned from Harvest Festival – a good turnout -25 including our local farmer. And NO mention of the Midwife.

    I am signing off now – hoping that the near gale that has been blowing all day will calm down over night. Chimney sweep coming tomorrow. I knew him when he was a newly married young man; now his son is a partner in the business!

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. When I gave up soliciting, one of my last clients was the grandson of one of my first!!

          1. That reminds me of the question:
            'What goes up a chimney down but not down a chimney up?'

          4. One of my dad's favourite riddles?

            Along with "How many threepence three-farthings in a thousand pounds?"

          5. That sounds a bit like the military command:
            “Send three and fourpence we’re going to a dance” – it doesn’t make sense.

          6. 3¾d x 2 = 7½d. [2]
            7½d x 2 = 1/3d. [4]
            1/3d x 2 = 2/6d (half a crown). [8]
            2/6d x 8 = £1. [64]
            £1 x 1,000 = £1,000. [64,000]

            Answer: There are 64,000 threepence three-farthings (3¾d) in a thousand pounds.

          8. I worked it out before reading the answer below, and I hadn't come across the riddle before. Can I have a gold star please?
            (OK, an upvote will do.)

      1. Feel free.
        Every time you see Islamophobia mentioned, reply "it's not fear it's vomit inducing Islamonausiatica"

  78. Police release photos of mosque arson suspects..

    BBC on the case with 24hr Live stream.
    While no-one was injured in the incident, the front entrance of the building and a vehicle parked outside were damaged according to Sussex Police, who are investigating it as a hate crime.

    It's not a hate crime.. it's a pogrom.. lidderally genocide.

    1. "Attacks against Britain's Muslims are attacks against all Britons and this country itself."

      But Muslim attacks against Britons are almost always described as lone wolves who don't represent Islam.

    2. "Attacks against Britain's Muslims are attacks against all Britons and this country itself."

      But Muslim attacks against Britons are almost always described as lone wolves who don't represent Islam.

      1. Oh yes! And if that’s the front entrance, I’m Fanny Craddock! It’s the back door of a restaurant!

    5. I know nothing about this. It's one of the pleasures of a day when I can escape news. I prefer to know nothing, but it somehow seeps into one's consciousness more often than I'd like.

      1. I've been more interested in trying to work out how my central heating system works.

        I think domestic boilers have evolved over the period of 20 years whilst my Potterton was heating my home.

        I didn't want a condensing boiler because I was concerned that it wouldn't have the performance to meet my needs – something that was confirmed when I had to manage the condensing boiler in MOH's holiday lodge.

        I chose to upgrade my Potterton with a Baxi 'system' boiler which was my old boiler's natural sucessor.

        It only recently created a problem from which I have deduced that the boiler, despite being able to give diagnoses of its own faults, reached a state from which it was not programmed to deal with and took control of itself and refused to respond to any user controls.

        It was just like trying to fly a Boeing 787 that had performed reliably for over seven years and then suddenly did something really stupid.

        1. With the difference, hopefully, that your Baxi won't crash into anything and destroy your house!

  79. Police release photos of mosque arson suspects..

    BBC on the case with 24hr Live stream.
    While no-one was injured in the incident, the front entrance of the building and a vehicle parked outside were damaged according to Sussex Police, who are investigating it as a hate crime.

    It's not a hate crime.. it's a pogrom.. lidderally genocide.

  80. 'Night All
    Finish with a bit of a medley
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/082b2dad266a8dd0aefd25e02f5cf363a9e7f10fd52939cf05f5d0c18658ca99.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fbc45f515c6a96e3a94eeaa4bd5e63a6d2b077118c5a87fcafb6048c9e222e29.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33d5198b9049d8c0c66d1a6a023675df7135d6f090c2f567fb2dda0f0ec7ed0a.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/adea86d8df781fcf8bd2787b9b8a10017eaad077df72b99327960606f5a0ffee.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/048dfd4ffed96d34873d7d83381cf33d2f187210f72921f6b60e1b5535501b88.png
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08e3b9778ed2386ee8816209a7a8691898543a09d811b33015bc560e275ad035.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e66e9324c9ba976a46e027d63e75b80d88e23b57abfbc4c6546bb36302010cf.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9244964dce427b6a51d25a7a6b28aaca07508f1b8bbde49d96596de56e2aa728.png

    1. I spent a few days among the Amish and Mennonites back in 1983 [Intercourse (formerly Cross Keys), Lancaster County, Pennsylvania].

      The were exceptionally pleasant people and the food they served was utterly delicious. I bought their cookery book.

  81. Ooooo tell us some more Gary (Neville)..

    'I just kept thinking as I was driving home last night that we’re all being turned on each other. And the division that’s being created is absolutely disgusting. Mainly created by angry, middle-aged white men, who know exactly what they’re doing.

    'Funnily enough on one of my development sites last week there was a Union Jack flag put up and I took it down instantly.'

  82. BabylonBee: two corkers; here’s the first:

    UK Police Still Searching For Motive Of Terrorist Named 'Jihad Jewkiller'

    “MANCHESTER, U.K. — Police in Great Britain are working to determine the motive of a man named Jihad Jewkiller who attacked a synagogue earlier this week.

    "So far we have no idea why Mr. Jewkiller would have attacked a synagogue," U.K. police officer Cecil Landers told reporters. "His social media profile, replete with messages about conducting a jihad against the Jews, has so far been unhelpful. We promise that we will continue to investigate what could have motivated such a surprising rampage."

    Jewkiller's family said the man is fueled by deep hatred for members of the Jewish faith and that he often mentioned a desire to do harm to the community, further confusing officers working on the case. "Our leading theory is that evil right-wing extremists were being Islamophobic," explained Landers. "Yet, witnesses report that Mr. Jewkiller shouted 'I hate the Jews! I'm doing this because I hate the Jews,' It's left us with quite the puzzle."

    At publishing time, British police had announced that to keep people safe they would go ahead and burn down any remaining synagogues in Britain.”

    1. UK Prosecutes Synagogue For Provoking Attacker By Being Openly Jewish

      “MANCHESTER — The Crown Prosecution Service announced that charges had been filed against a Jewish synagogue on Thursday for provoking a violent terrorist attack against themselves by being openly Jewish.

      A synagogue located in Manchester was the site of a deadly attack last week in which two people were killed and three others were injured. Authorities were acting quickly to punish those involved, including the synagogue and its members, for being openly Jewish.

      "We have a zero tolerance policy for violent stabbing offenses," said Crown Prosecutor Henry Thomas. "That's why we have to punish these Jews for being so Jewish. It just incites more stabbings."

      Authorities officially charged Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue with incitement of violence and advanced displays of Jewry. If convicted, the synagogue will have to pay a hefty fine of £5,000 or 453,285 afghanis. In addition, Jews who refuse to sign an official apology could face up to five years in prison.

      A defense barrister speaking on behalf of the synagogue was unable to get the charges dismissed because his clients are, in fact, quite Jewish.

      "I don't know how we're going to win this one," Barrister Clyde Wrinkles said. "My clients are definitely Jews, and we have the Muslim stabber on video saying, 'I am stabbing you because you are Jews.'"

      Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he hoped this case would prove a lesson to other Jews out there. "Think of all the stabbings that could be avoided if there were fewer Jews being Jewish," he said in a statement. "We could be living in a socialist utopia if it weren't for these Jews doing Jew things."

      At publishing time, all Manchester Jews had been detained pending trial for their own safety.”

      1. Very good!
        I'm really sorry, but just now my sense of humour is bent out of shape on this subject, and so I can't laugh at them. Not even a "huff, da!"

          2. Understandable, but it's how modern Britain treats Jews.

            Imagine the outcry if it had been a Jew attacking a mosque at the end of Ramadan in the same way.
            The protesters would have been out in every town and city in the UK and they would have been given police escorts.
            Manchester attack and the Muslim marches go ahead with relatively little objection.
            Yes, I do accept lots of "essentially harmless silly old bats" have been arrested, but if it had been violent Muslim demonstrations do you think the police would have gone in mob-handed?
            I don't.

        3. The Yanks are calling it as they see it. Britain is sick. At least they are saying it, even as satire. I have to live here. With this government. I’m glad there are people in the USA who care.

      3. Horribly probable.
        No doubt either Harmer or some half witted chief constable will be spouting much the same tomorrow morning.

        1. Given that somebody was once arrested for being in an area and looking too Jewish, satire doesn't even approach reality!

    1. Bono of Live Aid.
      The charriddee dat done produce more starving Africans than any other.

      That Bono?

    2. They’re both wrong. Waters is an out and out Hamas supporting Jew hater. Bono (real name Paul Hewson – we can all play that game) claims to support Israel but thinks Netanyahu is wrong and a “two state solution” can work.

      1. Waters is a revolting piece of carp! He doesn’t deserve airtime, as his views are abhorrent. Bono is a self-absorbed virtue-signalling moron, but he’s not evil, like Waters is!

      2. I should have read your post before commenting.

        I am not sure that the political opinions of Waters and Bono should carry any more weight than the average punter.

    3. Neither Pink Floyd nor U2 played my kind of music. As a result I take no notice of the utterances of any of their members.

      1. The opinions of musicians and singers are of little importance to me. On the whole, I much prefer U2's style of anthemic rock to Pink Floyd's more cerebral noodlings. That said, some of their 1960s psychedelic recordings when Syd Barrett was present sit well with me, as I enjoyed that period's psychotropic effects on aural perception. As for Another Brick In The Wall, it irritates me that such a dreary plod replete with adolescent sentiment proved to be such a big success.

        2. Roger Keith 'Syd' Barrett was a trailblazer, a veritable Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I still love to hear See Emily Play and Arnold Layne, but not the later, overblown and pretentious stuff.

          In a parallel way, I loved the early stuff from The Moody Blues during the Denny Laine era, but got tired of the tedious offerings from his replacements, Justin Hayward and John Lodge.

        1. I understand that. It's just that I don't like their respective music and, following on from that, I have no interest on their opinions on other matters.

          There are quite a good number of other musicians — and other people in the public eye too — who like to moralise on countless subjects of which they have no expertise. I find their pontifications on those topics equally worthy of disdain.

  84. PM, I have a cunning plan,
    What is that, Baldrick?
    Well PM, we ferry in old geriatrics and halfwits into London every weekend and get them to protest in the support of Hamas, wave placards that sort of thing.
    What for, Baldrick?
    Well PM, it will tie the police up arresting them and the court system, they won't be able to cope.
    What will that achieve, Baldrick?
    Well PM, we will then have the excuse to curtail free speech and the right to protest with the support of the public.
    Go on, Baldrick,
    Well PM, then when things get really bad with the the channel dinghy boat crossing we will have everything in place to stop the Unite the Kingdom marches, that sort of thing.
    Splendid Baldrick, how would you like to be home secretary?

    2. Really? Why so?

      Honestly, I don't see the point in these conferences. The party faithful will attend and clap and cheer on cue. They're irrelevant. The big donors are already moving away.

  87. Last post before I have my dinner. In The Sunday Times "Culture" section today, is a review by the ever reliable WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK about an exhibition of photographs by Lee Miller, the American photographer (at the Tate Modern). His two page review ends:

    "But the show’s most devastating room, a room that moved me to tears, has her visiting the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald, where the bodies are piled up on rubbish tips and dead German soldiers float in the mud like old tyres on a Hackney canal. The greatest thing Miller did was to refuse to avert her eyes from these terrifying sights and to record them for us as unshiftable reminders of what humanity is capable of when it allows hatred and prejudice to flourish.

    It’s not a lesson confined to this show. Many of the shadows she records can be seen again today, darkening our horizon."

    In view of the events of the last few days – and the endless anti-semitism demonstrated on our streets weekend after weekend – he could not be more right.

    2. I visited several concentration camps with Firstborn's class, autumn 2006 and SWMBO went in 2016 with Second Son & class.
      We hated the camps, but are both glad we went. Quite an eye-opener even after 60+ years.
      I particularly remember the display case filled with poor, broken shoes, and another with suitcases in, names painted on them. The last remains of real people. Even now, writing about it, I get emotional.
      You want to get an idea of what it was about, go to visit the Polish camps. Leave a pebble on a foundation when you get there. Photograps are good, they just don't convey the full atmosphere.

      1. I spent a week in Krakow and did the day trip to Auschwitz. I asked one of the guides how she could bear to do it every day. She just said, “We must”.

        1. I stayed for a few days in Krakow mid seventies. I did not visit Auschwitz but spent time in the museums.

          Edit: It was winter and snow lay on the paths. I walked below the Wawel and was impressed with the permanent granite chess board ‘stations’ and stone benches arrayed beside the adjacent river. It took me back to Clapham Common where most nights the local Polish community would meet to play chess on the Common.

          The Wawel was the seat of the Polish kings built on a rocky mound and impressive.

          I was haunted by some of the Polish music which had been generated by the death camps and bought several vinyls which I still have. I also visited the Poster museum a harrowing experience in itself.

          Music by Penderecki, Gorecki and Lutoslawski is relevant not just to the Holocaust but also Hiroshima.

      2. There is a case of brushes on display in Auschwitz. They were taken from the prisoners' cases – for what purpose, heaven only knows.
        Among them is the identical crumb brush that belonged to MB's aunt. We still have it in the dining room.
        I imagine a Jewish wife, believing (or hoping) that they really were being moved to a new work place, assumed she would be holding the usual shabbat for her family. Of course, afterwards, there would be crumbs to brush off the table cloth…….

        2. I've read that description a number of times now, Anne, and each time it brings a tear or two.
          Thank you for the reminders of ordinary people who are no more.

  88. Last post before I have my dinner. In The Sunday Times "Culture" section today, is a review by the ever reliable WALDEMAR JANUSZCZAK about an exhibition of photographs by Lee Miller, the American photographer (at the Tate Modern). His two page review ends:

    "But the show’s most devastating room, a room that moved me to tears, has her visiting the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald, where the bodies are piled up on rubbish tips and dead German soldiers float in the mud like old tyres on a Hackney canal. The greatest thing Miller did was to refuse to avert her eyes from these terrifying sights and to record them for us as unshiftable reminders of what humanity is capable of when it allows hatred and prejudice to flourish.

    It’s not a lesson confined to this show. Many of the shadows she records can be seen again today, darkening our horizon."

    In view of the events of the last few days – and the endless anti-semitism demonstrated on our streets weekend after weekend – he could not be more right.

  90. HG likes "pricks and bums prancing" for the music and dance, but even she is being sickened by this year's wokefest.
    My money is on "macho-man" being first off.

    1. Moh has been glued to it for years , I cannot bear the noise , the voices of the jury and the hostesses..

      Same old formula , it is too much of a box tick, , and really and truly it is loud , raucous and boring .

      1. When it first appeared it was light entertainment that was quite entertaining.
        Each to their own.
        Now? No longer.

          1. Because I always danced with every woman at the table, we got lots of invitations to dinner dances.
            Few of the men would dance, even with their wives.
            HG was amused because she knows I'm blessed with two left feet and little sense of rhythm.
            However, most of our female friends were quite happy just to shuffle round the dance floor, because their husbands/boyfriends/partners were too shy to try.

          3. Me neither. In country dancing at Uphill Junior School near Weston super Mare (I was in the Muller Children’s Home for a year or more) I dreaded having to clasp the girl’s clammy hands.

            To make matters worse I would find myself stranded and facing in the wrong direction during the various prancing moves.

            I loathed Come Dancing but could at least laugh at the Military Two-Step. The latest version called Strictly I find abominable. There can be nothing worse than the sight of exhibitionist clowns dressed in sequins and showing off.

    1. I've seen gobbets on Gogglebox. It's harmless entertainment with amusing moments. I wouldn't switch it off or leave the room if someone else was watching it.

  93. Katie Hopkins says UK has been "overrun in every way" by Islam: "Time of crusades must come again"

    From the safety of the US.

    1. Other than what I become aware of second hand, it's had very little impact on me. My life hasn't been remotely overcome by Islam. However, I appreciate that I'm supposed to moan about it incessantly in a vain attempt to ward it off.

      1. Be grateful that nobody you care for has been assaulted/raped/killed.
        Chances are that it might well happen soon.

        1. Chances are that it won't happen soon. Rather like with motoring accidents, serious victims are very much in a minority.

          1. I usually agree with you, Stigenace, but I do fear the impact of Islam on this country. It may be rather like motoring accidents when serious victims are very much in a minority but, to continue the metaphor, most sensible people still wear seatbelts and make sure that their car is safe to drive.

          2. Wearing seatbelts is a legal requirement, as are many aspects of car safety. Regardless of law compliance, seatbelts add to ride comfort and are a trifling inconvenience compared with the risk of not wearing them.

            I do not warm to Islam, but I'm not interested in making myself a victim of its presence by behaving in ways which impede my enjoyment of life. I'm not going to cower in corners and spend as many hours as possible hiding indoors in order to reduce my risk of becoming a victim of Islam from 1 million to one to, say, 10 million to 1. My alcohol consumption presents a bigger risk.

          5. I had noticed that! I have witnessed a couple of near misses recently; if I hadn't slowed down to give the overtaker more room there would have been a head-on.

        1. I'm not remotely interested in making everyday life fearful by imagining that I'm in imminent danger of becoming a victim.

          2. Wary in what ways? Islam's presence in the UK has not altered my way of life one iota.

          5. Appreciate my church more – use it or lose it. Keep away from walking binbags and if I'm travelling by public transport avoid muslims with haversacks. I'm not terrified, but given their attitude to kuffars, of which I'm one, I don't put myself in harm's way.

          7. You think so? I'm in control and I drive defensively. I don't take risks, match my speed to road conditions and I read the road. I'm vigilant – much the same way as I feel about the invaders. Other drivers, unless they hate kuffars, aren't deliberately out to kill me.

          8. I have been blocked by Stig so cannot read his comments. I find this really stupid as it means that I an unable to see any continuity in the threads on which he comments. I have concluded that the chap is just an arsehole.

          9. He appears to be determined to believe that he's alright, Jack. I hope he doesn't have cause to regret having failed to heed the warnings we've been trying to give.

          11. He appears to be determined to believe that he's alright, Jack. I hope he doesn't have cause to regret having failed to heed the warnings we've been trying to give.

          12. Very far from it.

            He tries to be polite and reasonable, in the debating sense.
            I'm surprised he has blocked you.

          13. One day it may be that you can't get a hospital appointment, or a doctor's appointment, or see the dentist. Or you may be taxed out of living in your house because the government needs more and more money to pay for the ever increasing people who have arrived and are a drain on resources. Or you stray into what has become a no-go zone. Or you can only get halal meat. Or that your taxes are being spent building new airports in Pakistan…

            Many of the effects are more insidious than being killed. And it really isn't pleasant living in a country with all the killing, stabbings, rapes of children etc. etc. even if you are not personally the parent or uncle of one of those children. I personally have to admit I don't like going down a High Street and feeling like I am in another country. Nor do I like the fact that if I don't like it, it is down to me not to go there.

            It's not a question of being fearful, but of seeing what is happening to our lovely country.

    1. Hi Bob,

      I wonder if you would be be to alleviate the hair tearing-out that I am doing at the moment. I used to be able to send things from the internet both here, and to emails. Now, recently, if I try to copy a link + preview (which always used to go together if I highlighted and copied the link only) it now only send the preview and not the link, like this

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idcaRTg4-fM&list=RDidcaRTg4-fM&start_radio=1

      However, if I try to copy something online (such as property details from Rightmove) and send them to an email in my hotmail, it will only show the link and not the preview, like this:

      https://www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/155884082#/floorplan?activePlan=1&id=media12&channel=RES_BUY

      Have you any idea what I can do – it's driving me crazy, and you seem to be doing it right (at least on your youtube clips)!

      3. Wot ho Stig.

        You've been getting a lot of unjustifiable stick lately and I hope that it won't put you off Nottle.
        We disagree at times but I've always liked your approach to all topics.
        I doubt that you need one, but if you ever require a very thick skinned attack dog, you know where I am!
        Take care.

    1. We have lovely flat land near us, Maggie, several acres, a flood plain ….could they be sufficiently stupid, why yes they could, it's been suggested.

    2. Regrettably some farmers are complicit in this. Farms near us with some of the best graded arable land are succumbing to government bribery and allowing large acreages to be given over to solar ‘farms’.

      Even the description of these monstrous implants on our open countryside as ‘farms’ is insulting.

      We have a large solar farm at Foxearth and another being planned also close to Cavendish.

      I am not convinced that farmers care so much for the countryside as some may claim. We have slurry lakes fed by massive tankers carrying digestive to be deposited prior to spraying on our fields. These heavy vehicles cause great damage to our narrow lanes where verges have collapsed on already fragile metalled surfaces.

      I notice this year that the same farmers are sporting ever larger vehicles such as tractors and fork lift trucks which are wider than the roads and highly destructive of our lanes. This is a mystery to me since the actual acreages being farmed are dwindling. Such massive vehicles are not suited to our minuscule field systems but more suited to the prairie states if Canada, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

        1. My observations are based on what I witness daily and locally.

          We had orchards when we first moved here. All now gone. Grapes could be cultivated here but all we see are fields of wheat, barley and occasionally maize and oats, not for human consumption but for conversion into bio-fuels.

          Apples previously made cider and other drinks. I believe the James White brand still survives but the cider industry was destroyed when the EU decided that apple growing and cider making was no longer agricultural use of land.

          This exposed many folk already living in dwellings with an agricultural use certificate essentially prone and potentially homeless.

          I represented one such individual whose home was destroyed by fire. It had been the home of James White himself who had built it in the early seventies. I battled loss adjusters mostly about their concept of ‘betterment’ because Building Regulations required more expensive construction than the destroyed original.

          I won that argument but had still to contend with the bloody planners. Fortunately and with my client I obtained the necessary permissions to rebuild the property.

          I have long suspected that it is not just mad Ed Miliband driving the wind and solar agenda but that he is a mere tool complying with EU policies first and foremost. The same idiots are seemingly determined to take us into a war with the mighty Russian Federation.

          2. Many years ago I read an article by an American, Christopher Alexander, titled “The City is not a Tree”. I have long treasured its lessons.

            Hamlets, cities, villages, and towns evolve over time in what we now term organically. Arrogant planners thought that they could plan places but the results have mostly been disastrous with but a few exceptions.

            King Charles believes that he can insinuate his own personal predilections on real people. He cannot for the reason that he is so far removed from real life and reality that his efforts are dead in the water before any of his initiatives leave the drawing board.

            Poundbury is not a place which has evolved but a place which has been imposed. There is a difference and it is real not imagined.

            King Charles has always to my architectural mind chosen to follow the advice of fools and charlatans and we see the results in his backward developments.

    3. Regrettably some farmers are complicit in this. Farms near us with some of the best graded arable land are succumbing to government bribery and allowing large acreages to be given over to solar ‘farms’.

      Even the description of these monstrous implants on our open countryside as ‘farms’ is insulting.

      We have a large solar farm at Foxearth and another being planned also close to Cavendish.

      I am not convinced that farmers care so much for the countryside as some may claim. We have slurry lakes fed by massive tankers carrying digestive to be deposited prior to spraying on our fields. These heavy vehicles cause great damage to our narrow lanes where verges have collapsed on already fragile metalled surfaces.

      I notice this year that the same farmers are sporting ever larger vehicles such as tractors and fork lift trucks which are wider than the roads and highly destructive of our lanes. This is a mystery to me since the actual acreages being farmed are dwindling. Such massive vehicles are not suited to our minuscule field systems but more suited to the prairie states if Canada, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

    1. Gary Neville ex England and Manchester United footballer is apparently a prominent developer in Manchester.

      On my last visit I thought Manchester was being degraded with the erection of a number of ghastly office developments. I suspect Neville will be responsible for one or more of them.

      One of the worst architectural practices I have come into contact with throughout my career is BDP, based originally In Preston but with offices in Manchester and many other places including overseas. The founder George Grenfell Baines became Professor of Architecture at Sheffield, my first school, and was the reason I left for London. Several creeps on that course ingratiated themselves with him and became partners in his wretched practice.

      It was his insistence on sticking drawings of his firm’s designs for the Halifax Building Society Headquarters in Halifax on the walls of our coffee bar that strengthened my resolve to leave Sheffield.

      1. "On my last visit I thought Manchester was being degraded with the erection of a number of ghastly office developments…"

        A recent letter in the DT made a similar observation, noting how many low-budget 'hotels' had sprung up.

  103. Would you take a 29-hour direct flight? This airline just made it possible
    China Eastern’s new Buenos Aires to Shanghai service will cover 12,500 miles

    Even if you’re someone who can doze easily on flights, it remains a daunting prospect, spending 29 hours (minus a two-hour stopover) in the skies, as your plane travels 12,500 miles in a brain-scrambling journey across the globe.

    That’s the reality that will await lucky customers of China Eastern Airlines this winter, as they embark on what is set to be the world’s longest ever direct flight: an epic journey between Buenos Aires and Shanghai which will cross some 15 different time-zones.

    Leaving aside who would even want to do that, it begs the obvious question: how on earth is a 29-hour flight even possible? The answer to that lies in the fact that the aviation industry uses a slightly different definition when it comes to the word “direct”.

    Direct vs non-stop flights
    Generally speaking, a flight that goes straight from one destination to another (i.e. the sort of thing you and I might describe as “direct”) is actually called a “non-stop” flight. By contrast, a flight that is advertised as “direct” goes between two destinations, but makes at least one stop along the way. Clear? Not quite.

    Furthermore, a “direct” flight is different from a “connecting” flight, which is when one airline essentially sells you two tickets at once, requiring you to change planes. With direct flights, passengers will stay on the same plane – even if they disembark during the stop to stretch their legs – and in the same seat.

    For British travellers, the most famous example of an ultra-long direct flight is probably the British Airways/Qantas flights between London Heathrow and Sydney. All in all, the journey takes almost 25 hours, which includes a short fuel stop (1 hour 40 minutes) at Singapore’s Changi Airport.

    Doing your homework
    What’s it like to take these kinds of flights? Even for travellers used to spending the best part of a waking day in the sky, the challenge requires a bit of extra planning – not least a thought-through strategy to maximise sleep. That’s particularly so if you’re braving the whole flight in economy.

    Back in 2019, Rhys Jones, aviation editor for the travel website Head for Points, managed to purchase one of the “golden tickets” when Qantas held a centenary sale, selling a handful of tickets from London to Sydney for just £205. After getting over the excitement of bagging a bargain, he put together a plan to try to make it as painless as possible.

    “As a frequent flyer with BA silver status, I had the advantage of being able to use the lounges – which had showers – including during the stopover,” he says. “But the most important thing was getting the right seat. With a bit of research I worked out the row that was most likely to be empty (unless the flight was totally full) and luckily my homework paid off.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/china-eastern-longest-direct-flight/?recomm_id=0548f8ac-8f67-4f5b-ab35-34db455630c5

    Never ever!

    1. I did 25 hours to Melbourne, but I did have to change at Changi. I'm lucky in that I don't have long legs; one of the few occasions when being short is an advantage.

    2. I did 25 hours to Melbourne, but I did have to change at Changi. I'm lucky in that I don't have long legs; one of the few occasions when being short is an advantage.

  106. Daniel Hardaker
    05 October 2025 10:04pm BST
    Daniel Hardaker
    A Norwegian business consultant has been crowned the world porridge-making champion thanks to his special spoon.

    Sven Seljom claimed the annual Golden Spurtle trophy in the Scottish Highlands on Saturday – without using a spurtle.

    Instead of the traditional rod-like tool, he used a slatted wooden spoon that he brought from Norway to stir the porridge.

    The 57-year-old made his dish with Norwegian black oats, which used to be grown all over Europe but disappeared in the 19th century.

    To complete the porridge, he added sea salt and water which were also brought from home.

    Speaking after his victory, Mr Seljom said the award was a “great honour”.

    “I heard about the world porridge-making championship many years ago on Norwegian radio and thought it sounded really different, and I’ve wanted to enter ever since,” he said.

    What?

    A foreigner winning a porridge competition?

  108. It's almost midnight, chums, so I will wish you all a "Good Night". Sleep well, and I hope to see you once again, refreshed, early tomorrow morning.

  109. Morning all 🙂😊🤗
    We're off on our cruise today. Istanbul and back via Greek Islands. Storm forecast in Athens today.

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