Sunday 7 April: The Government should intervene to arrest the decline of the Church of England

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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740 thoughts on “Sunday 7 April: The Government should intervene to arrest the decline of the Church of England”

  1. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) Story

    BRILLIANT REPARTEE

    For those who no longer listen to the ‘Today’ programme on Radio 4, this was the standard many years ago and this was repartee at its best:

    Right at the end of the programme one day, there was a discussion about the obscene cost of entry into Premiership football games – the cheapest £60, and £100 per game is common.

    An older chap being interviewed said he could recall many years ago arriving at the turnstile (it was probably West Ham United or Queen’s Park Rangers) to be told “That will be 10 Quid Mate”.

    “What!” the old chap said “I could get a woman for that!”

    The guy on the turnstile said…
    “Not for 45 minutes each way you wouldn’t – and a brass band in the Interval!”

    1. Great story.
      I use to go to Whitehart Lane, Spurs ground, Paxton Road boys entrance. Half a crown

      1. I went to Fulham in 1957, schoolboy entrance 1s/3d programme 6d. 2d cheaper than my local club, Arsenal/

    1. Sixteen soldiers
      from Number 7 Company Coldstream Guards will join troops from 1er
      Regiment de la Garde Republicaine to provide the Presidential Guard
      outside the Elysee Palace, in what will be the first ever example of a foreign state guarding the French Presidential Residence.

      1. What? Have the French renamed the Elysee Palace, Buckingham Palace? Non Capisco, Johnny. (Good morning, btw.)

      2. I was puzzled to see the word Gendarmerie on the French uniforms. Does the word apply to other kinds of soldiers apart from the militarized police that we are used to seeing in films?

        1. The Dutch Military Police/Border Police /Royal Protection (Marachaussee) come under the department of defence and are classed as a Gendarmerie.

    3. I find it quite amusing that the fact we haven’t been at war with the French for 120 years is such a thing to celebrate!

    4. The reason is because Macron knows that the British are experts at protecting a world class queen, having had more than 70 years experience, and his personal guard still don’t know how to even address him properly – not knowing whether he or Camilla is the rightful Queen of France.

  5. Good morning, chums. Enjoy your Sunday. I’m now off for a cuppa. I’ll be back when I have completed Wordle.

    Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

    1. Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

      I think that one’s a cheat but never mind!

    2. LONGA was the NY Times answer today for its Wordle. Never heard of it before. Got it through playing around with the letters. Apparently, its an aboriginal word, or, what I think is, a fairly obscure musical term. What’s the point of using such a word? Maybe it’s me.

      1. Well, jellybea, that’s not what I found to be the correct word today.?!?!?

  6. Farage calls honeytrap scam MP’s actions ‘abominable’. 7 April 2024.

    But on Saturday Mr Farage, the honorary president of Reform UK, told The Telegraph: “Honestly, I think it is reprehensible to give out private phone numbers of public figures to people who you know are bad actors.

    “I think that is absolutely appalling and frankly a security risk as well, and all I’m hearing from Westminster is sympathy and what a courageous man William Wragg is. What he has done is abominable – no one dares call it out.”

    Nigel is of course correct here. One suspects that Wragg is only one of a large number of people with his proclivities who have been enrolled in the Tory Party by CCHQ. A coup in effect. They have gathered together here to protect him from his own folly.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/06/honeytrap-scam-william-wragg-nigel-farage/

    2. If someone in high office is going to flash his bollocks on the internet then they should be prepared for a blackmail attempt and, when it comes, have the guts to emulate the Duke of Wellington’s response to a former mistress.

    3. I see Mr Wragg believes himself to be a victim. Can someone please tell me how does that work?

    4. Minister for Perversion. And when all our young have been conscripted, it will be the likes of this lunatic pervert who will be in charge of their lives.

  7. Good morning. Liam Halligan in the DT….

    Yes, I know there’s a cost of living crisis, and the airwaves are filled with seemingly endless doom and gloom. But over the last week and more, we’re seen quite a bit of relatively upbeat economic news.

    During the second half of 2023, of course, the British economy fell into recession. GDP shrank 0.1pc during the three months from June to August, followed by a further 0.3pc drop during the final quarter of last year. That’s two successive quarters of economic contraction – the technical definition of recession – the first the UK has seen, outside of lockdown, since the aftermath of the 2009 global financial crisis.

    Despite the second-half shrinkage, Britain’s GDP did grow during 2023 as a whole – albeit by just 0.1pc. And there are now clear signs the economy began to recover in early January – with the latest survey data suggesting that economic expansion, however tentative, continued into February and March. Official data (which may yet be revised) point to GDP growth of 0.2pc during January, boosted in part by buoyant post-Christmas retail sales. On top of that, an influential survey of business opinion last week indicated our main three economic sectors all grew in March – the first time that has happened since June 2022.

    What’s most striking is that UK manufacturing just returned to growth for the first time in 20 months, with production and new orders picking up following prolonged contraction. The latest purchasing managers index (PMI) survey of business leaders across the manufacturing sector rose to a better-than-expected 50.3 in March, up from 47.5 in February – with readings of 50 or more signalling economic growth. The survey also found other signs of stabilisation, with falls in manufacturing employment and purchasing activity “slowing sharply”. Almost three in five UK manufacturers now expect their output to rise over the coming year – the highest since mid-2022, despite ongoing concerns about relatively weak export demand and continued supply-chain stresses.

    This relative positivity among manufacturers, despite demand for UK exports falling for the 26th successive month, suggests business leaders now sense a homegrown recovery. As and when UK borrowing costs finally ease over the coming months, captains of industry are banking on the inherent strength of domestic UK demand. This is in sharp contrast to what’s happening elsewhere in Western Europe. The latest manufacturing PMI across the 19-nation eurozone was just 46.1 last month, deep in sub-growth territory. The reading among German industrialists was a truly ghastly 41.6 in March, down from 42.5 the month before – as the European Union’s largest economy, having weaned itself off sanctioned Russian gas, continues to suffer from high energy costs.

    The EU, in fact, has been the main drag on overseas demand for UK manufacturing exports, at a time when ongoing hostilities at the mouth of the Red Sea have impacted supplies of Asia-sourced components heading for both UK and EU manufacturers.

  8. UK has failed to prepare itself for war, warn former defence ministers. 7 April 2024.

    Britain has failed to prepare itself for war as a “whole nation endeavour”, former defence ministers have warned in a stark wake-up call to the Government.

    James Heappey, the former Armed Forces minister, has revealed that only Whitehall officials from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) bothered to take part in an exercise to find out how the country would be governed from the UK’s wartime bunker.

    Since no effort (cash) is being made to boost the UK’s Professional Forces we can only assume that all this is simply propaganda.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/06/uk-failed-prepare-war-former-defence-ministers/

    1. They only start telling the truth when they leave government and announce they’re leaving Parliament.
      I always liked PJ O’Rourke’s description of Parliaments composed of professional career politicians as ‘Parliaments of Whores.

    2. ‘Britain has failed to prepare itself for war as a “whole nation endeavour”…..’ Whatever do they expect as their policies and media rhetoric over the last fifty years have been designed to dice and slice the nation in any which way they can. The nation pulling together as one has been the last thing on their minds as those in government have followed totally different agenda.

      1. And a lot of issues which have the potential to lead to war have been caused, fuelled or enabled by our uni-party anyway (or the supranationals which they support). And then they have the gall to want to enforce conscription and send our young off the war meatgrinder, to solve the problems which they have caused originally.

  9. Good morning all.
    Made my tea, sat down and started up the computer, went to Radio 3 to hear the start of RV-W’s Tallis Fantasia.
    A lovely and relaxing start to the day.

    A dry and sunny start with threatening cloud to the Northwest. A bit windy with a tad over 5°C on the Yard Thermometer.

  11. 385534+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 7 April: The Government should intervene to arrest the decline of the Church of England
    I would say that the Church of England in its true form would be in complete, overall opposition to this political gang of criminal governing imbeciles.

    Also bear in mind that the leader of the COE is King Charles and he is of the WEF ilk.

    Also the people mass, should mass pack the COE churches, in mass opposition to them becoming a mass of mosques.

    As with many an issue that these last four decades is throwing up, YOU use it ( via people power) or lose it, and a prime example of that is the United Kingdom as a total.

    1. The problem is the careerist and rarely Christian hierarchy seem determined to destroy the local parishes. We’re in the early stages of yet another battle with Diocese and they are extremely unpleasant, dishonest, threatening and constantly attempting to sow division. Similar battles are underway across the country. PCCs need to organise a mass withholding of Common Fund.

        1. The same thing indeed, but the current terminoligy is Common Fund.
          Again the Diocese cannot make a PCC pay it.

          1. All Souls Langham Place did it I think and one of the City parishes, I can’t recall which one. I always hoped Holy Trinity Brompton would have the guts, instead of caving in. The Kensington deanery would really feel the pinch and it needs to.

          2. We have done it a couple of times in recent years. They really sit up and take notice.

        1. The PCCs are elected by the congregations and cannot be overruled by the priest or Diocese.

          1. Time for them to show some muscle, and take control of the whole sorry mess.

          2. I don’t know about where you live, but most PCCs comprise about a dozen members, all of whom over seventy.

  12. Good Moaning.
    Global Warming has struck North Essex.
    Abandon Hope All Ye Who Make It Past Chelmsford On The A12.

    1. I’ve driven along the A12 just once in my life. Once was enough.

      The A149 is my favourite road in the UK. Closely followed by the B1257, the B4343 and the B8007.

    2. The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.

      (John Milton: Lycidas]

      And shame it is, if a prest take keep,
      A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep.

      (Geoffrey Chaucer: The Parson in The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales)

      John Milton, the strict puritan, regarded the Catholic church with fear and contempt and thought its teaching did not give people what they needed spiritually; Chaucer’s Parson is one of the few pilgrims who is not satirised – this priest led by good example.

      I cannot imagine that either Chaucer or Milton would have been very impressed by Welby’s Anglican Church today!

  18. Morning, all Y’all.
    Snow stopped, replaced by fog. Deffo warming up. Got to feed the bees this morning, whilst we can still get across the snow (it’s waist deep, but with a crust that supports weight). Won’t be able to do that in a day or three.

  20. A final stop to antisocial behaviour on trains

    SIR – When I was training to be a primary school teacher, I went into a school where the level of discipline and behaviour was impeccable. I asked the headteacher how he achieved this, and he said that, if you pull the children up on even the smallest instance of “bad” behaviour – for example, not tucking a chair in – they don’t even think about doing anything worse than that, because they understand the level of expectation.

    I frequently travel on trains in London and the South East, and I have often seen members of staff (who are checking tickets) completely ignore passengers who have their feet on the seats, or who are vaping on the train. It is human nature for people who choose not to follow the rules to get away with as much as they can.

    By ignoring bad behaviour, railway staff invite unpleasant treatment. The only way to reverse this trend is to adopt a Rudy Giuliani-style zero-tolerance policy on any transgression, and this needs to be consistent across the networks.

    Lester Purdue
    Colchester, Essex

    Dream on, Les. Even thinking about making a sea-change — to the ingrained modern customs of bad manners, ill-grace, lack of high standards, paucity of decorum, execrable dining etiquette or thoughts for one’s fellow humans — marks you down as a dinosaur.

    Decades of no discipline (self- or given), laissez-faire attitudes to everything, piss-poor parenting, lamentable teaching (much poorer than in your day, Les); coupled with a massive rise in self-interest, sloppiness, filthiness, gormlessness, and nihilism, and you have the perfect recipe for the decline and extinction of civilised society.

    Who are you going to train up and administer your zero-tolerance policies? Those now in control of every echelon of the British establishment are in dire need of a damn good thrashing — and replacing — themselves!

    1. Given how scruffy most train attendants are themselves, there’s no chance of any such change.

    2. Remember these lyrics from the Beatles?

      Have you seen the little piggies
      Crawling in the dirt?
      And for all the little piggies
      Life is getting worse,
      Always having dirt to play around in
      Have you seen the bigger piggies
      In their starched white shirts?
      You will find the bigger piggies
      Stirring up the dirt,
      Always have clean shirts to play around in
      In their styes with all their backing
      They don’t care what goes on around
      In their eyes there’s something lacking
      What they need’s a damn good whacking
      Everywhere there’s lots of piggies
      Living piggy lives
      You can see them out for dinner
      With their piggy wives
      Clutching forks and knives to eat the bacon

      1. After much meditation, George Harrison gave up the sitar, which others were much better at, and resumed writing in the Western tradition. This was the result.

        1. “George Harrison gave up the sitar, which others were much better at …”

          Brian Jones being one of them. Ravi Shankar being the maestro.

      2. One of George Harrison’s finest pieces of satire: and as pertinent then as it is today.

  21. Good morning! Bright but windy here – and that’s not just what I ate for supper! Of course the government is driving the decline of the Church of England, or their masters are. The bankers [sic] appear to want moral as well as financial decline.

    1. Their hatred for and implacable opposition to Christianity is a measure of its strength. People forget that, they take Christianity for granted and think it’s a weak philosophy.
      People who adhere to the old Babylonian religion want moral decline, of course.

  22. It’s not that easy. We do not elect the clergy.
    The similarities between parishes/Diocese and Tory party associatons/hierarchy are extremely close.

  23. Good morning.
    The headline is proof that Telegraph readers are clueless! Who do they think appointed Welby? Do they expect the assortment of Grindr regulars, crooks, weasels, cowards, WEFers and other knaves in the government to make anything better, let alone the Church of England?

    1. Please don’t use the word ‘weasels’ as an insult. Weasels are far more intelligent and charming than any human.

        1. Good! I hate, loathe and detest rabbits. For their repulsive looks, their dreadful flavour, and the fact that they are an unnatural occurrence in the UK (and Australia), where those obnoxious invaders have an ongoing deleterious effect on the ecosystem. I also abhor the practice of people regarding them as “cute” and giving toys in their image to their children. Finally I simply execrate the Yanks for using them as a symbol of Easter, when ducks and chickens have traditionally (in a more enlightened country) held that place.

          Let the vile vermin — which were initially imported into the country by Roman and Norman invasion forces as “food” — report me for a hate crime.

          BTW, highly-intelligent and resourceful weasels are part of the naturally-evolved endemic wildlife of the UK.

          Anything else you’d like to know about those unwanted and unwelcome invaders?

  24. Good morning, all. Blue sky, puffy clouds and breezy here in N Essex.

    Late yesterday Pretty Polly put up a comment re an Immune Escape Pandemic being in the offing.

    According to virologist Dr Geert Vanden Bossche, the covid “Inevitable Immune Escape Pandemic” is imminent and all fully vaccinated individuals should prepare stocks of anti-virals now…..

    A number of investigators including doctors, a lawyer, researchers and scientists have investigated the probability of a second pandemic and, of course, Bill Gates has also been vocal on this issue.

    One of the issues being investigated is around EMFs – Electro Magnetic Fields – and especially the imminent arrival of 5G is an issue of concern.

    Here, lawyer Todd Callender explains what his research has uncovered – from 2 minutes in.

    Todd Callender on Marburg and 5G

    Here, Dr Lee Merritt explains how CRISPER inserts genetic pieces that are light – light is an EMF – sensitive and gives an example of the impact these inserts can have. From about 19 minutes in.

    Clearly, something is being/has been planned and the arrival of 5G is either a providential coincidence or an essential component of the plan.

    Dr Lee Merritt

  25. Good day all,

    A picture paints a thousand words.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/80689e615dda4f336f27aae4381c2336506dfca30df61c9834b4320365b513b3.png

    Well, whodathunkit?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e3751b3718abae4e586a4302571f645c5bf756867d17de68f843fd78164e663.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/07/aberdyfi-wales-second-home-council-tax-harm/

    In the village centre, there is a butcher’s shop established in 1861. Martin Fowles, who grew up in the area, is its current proprietor. “Ninety per cent of people with second homes here are customers of mine,” he says. “If you take those all away, I don’t exist.” Summer holidaymakers come for one week trailed by a supermarket delivery van, says Fowles, whereas second homeowners who have been coming for 20-plus years are the mainstay of his business. They visit regularly and shop locally.

    There is a community of a different kind, however, says Jane Storkey, who moved to Aberdyfi with her husband from Devon. “A lot of them come down every weekend – they’re reasonably local. Chester, or Birmingham, or Wolverhampton,” she says. “It’s not like Salcombe [in Devon] where second homes are only occupied one month of the year and… are empty the rest of the time. This is not like that – this is more real. People are here nearly every weekend.”

    At the time of writing, there are 58 properties for sale in Aberdyfi on Rightmove, ranging from £140,000 for a one-bedroom flat to £1,000,000 for a hilltop five-bedroom house. Many have clearly been used as holiday lets, with tell-tale identikit furniture and folded towels at the end of the bed. On Zoopla, one five-bed seafront terrace, currently run as a B&B, has been on the market since March 2022. These pricey properties have broken the ceiling of what locals can afford – most open jobs in the area are either seasonal or close to minimum wage.

    Anecdotal evidence suggests that those who are choosing to sell are struggling to do so. “People phone me to complain… that they’re trying to leave and can’t,” says Craig Ab Iago, the Plaid Cymru cabinet member for housing in Gwynedd. “They bought an expensive place and now that the only people looking to buy are locals who can’t afford it.”

    A perfect example of what happens when you let councils be stuffed with people who have ideological and party political axes to grind instead of acting pragmatically in the interests of local people. They use councils as training grounds before possibly moving on to eff things up on a national scale. This is why Rachel Matthews’ Council Watch is such a great idea which is catching on all over the place.

    1. I think the best way to view our councils in general and government in particular is as minority interest extremists characterised by their having a very low membership and rather too much influence. Relying on ideology driven zealots to do the right thing is far fetched to say the least. Funny isn’t it that government is thinking of combatting extremism the more we see the effects of political parties’ involvement in every aspect of our daily lives.

      1. As politics is all about forcing others to do one’s bidding, it’s bound to attract particular types.

        1. Quite so. All the more reason to keep government in its box. I don’t let conmen into my home in order for them to tell me what to do. Politics is ram jam full of disreputable types.

  27. Police spammed with complaints by neo-Nazis under new Scottish hate crime law. 7 April 2024.

    Neo-Nazi and far-right agitators are exploiting Scotland’s new hate crime law to make vexatious complaints en masse in an attempt to “overwhelm” police systems.

    A prominent figure in England’s white nationalist movement is among those urging followers to spam Police Scotland with anonymous online reports, the Observer has found.

    The leader of a far-right group – one of several fringe organisations being assessed by the UK government under its new extremism definition – promoted a private channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that includes a “call to action” urging members to “mass report”

    Lol! The author of this piece presumably felt unable to name this “far-right” figure for fear of prosecution under the Hate Crime Law!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/police-spammed-with-complaints-by-neo-nazis-under-new-scottish-hate-law

    1. No hate crime should go unpunished. Unless of course, it’s not aimed in the correct direction.

    2. Far right neo nazis ?
      If that doesn’t come under the category of a hate crime what does ?
      Is Shanti Das completely barmy ?
      Just askin’…..

    3. The really scary thing is that the freedom-hating government has a new definition of extremism – we all know what that means – and is examining ‘far right’ groups which it no doubt wants to shut up.

      1. While defending the rights of far left ones such as the SNP to impose restrictions on us and the BBC to articulate the left’s propaganda. Convenient I feel, too. I think more devolution to those organisations who say the right thing, along with powers to enforce their wishes is in the offing.

    5. They love it. Grinding on with their constantly offended revolution. To quote Carl Benjamin they are “committed to a set of ideological demands that insists we characterise the world through its own lense”. If you object out they trot the Far-Right deranged pearl clutching chant.

    6. Is making “vexatious” complaints actually breaking the law? If not, then these far-right persons are surely every bit as entitled to use the measures open to them as left-wingers.

  28. Police spammed with complaints by neo-Nazis under new Scottish hate crime law. 7 April 2024.

    Neo-Nazi and far-right agitators are exploiting Scotland’s new hate crime law to make vexatious complaints en masse in an attempt to “overwhelm” police systems.

    A prominent figure in England’s white nationalist movement is among those urging followers to spam Police Scotland with anonymous online reports, the Observer has found.

    The leader of a far-right group – one of several fringe organisations being assessed by the UK government under its new extremism definition – promoted a private channel on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that includes a “call to action” urging members to “mass report”

    Lol! The author of this piece presumably felt unable to name this “far-right” figure for fear of prosecution under the Hate Crime Law!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/07/police-spammed-with-complaints-by-neo-nazis-under-new-scottish-hate-law

      1. While I understand your sentiment, the Princess of Wales is most unlikely to be troubled by Polly’s repeated concerns and speculations. Others of us, however, might appreciate the break.

        To me, it’s a private matter for Kate and her family.

    1. Whoops ! And if I remember correctly according to the rules, he’s stuck with that for the rest of the round.

        1. Well years ago I was playing on a group tour in County Cork. The head suddenly came off my putter. I had to use my 4 iron.
          I hardly noticed the difference. 😉🏌‍♀️

  31. Morning all 🙂😊
    At least it didn’t rain here overnight. But still very windy.
    And the government should intervene ?
    They haven’t got any intention of sorting out any of the current problems we have on our small group of islands. Most of them would have been arrested for at least treason, years ago.
    I think the fact that Welby is still walking amongst us, suggests that they may not be anything recognisable up there watching over us after all.

  32. And it seems the children haven’t been seen as well, there is a supposition that Carole is looking after them. Good morning, Polly.

    1. Good morning, poppiesmum. I still think there’s something very odd going on about Kate’s disappearance. It looks to me that they want us to forget all about her.

      1. I am of the same mind. It seems that the last video has been established as a fake, but there has not been the same outcry. I too think they want us to forget. I think there will be a sad announcement a few months down the line and that will be that. I hope I’m wrong.

        1. Me too.

          There is every possibility that she is seriously ill, and that they covering up for the family as they cope with the loss of one of the most senior and popular royals there are, as well as having the first four in the line of succession preoccupied with caring for her, and the next four in line being out of it for various reasons.

          I have two cousins and an ex-brother-in-law who all died of cancer in their early forties.

          We’ll know what is really going on at Wimbledon, where the Princess is Patron.

        2. I agree. That’s exactly what it looks like to me. A sad announcement covering up what, I wonder? Maybe that should be a discussion for another time if it happens?

          I hope I’m wrong too.

    2. I think it is urgent now for King Charles to issue letters patent and make Michael Middleton an earl.

  33. BBC Radio 4: Poor old Jeremy Bowen is crying copiously into his gold-plated microphone from the safety of Jerusalem. His beloved ‘Pals’ in war torn Gazza are to continue being harassed by the evil Izzies and the Yanks are continuing to send weapons of mass destruction to the despotic ‘Adolf’ Netanyahu. The BBC should double his multi-million pound salary to compensate for all the soaking wet suits he has had to purchase in the past six months. Poor chappie – Will no-one stick up for this disconsolate wretch?

    1. The poor chap probably considers himself on the front line, sitting as he undoubtedly thinks he is in the middle of the viper’s nest. Go Jeremy, strike a blow for all the journos and the cause of truth.

        1. Feeling ignored in your role at the BBC? Can you cook? Then volunteer for World Crazy Kitchen.

          1. ??? What’s that all about?

            Anything I cook looks and tastes like vomit. I live alone, although the rats like my cooking. Sometimes.

  34. Costa del Skeg in the sun

    Since 01 March 2024, I have spent more on my Electrical Standing Charges, than on electricity

    1. They announced a huge hike in standing charges at the beginning of this month as “a cut in the average cost of energy”. Isn’t PR wonderful!

    2. That’s the idea of the Brown-Miliband-May-Sunak LibLabCon mob; even if you have photovoltaic panels installed, you need to be connected to the mains at some point. I am planning an ‘off grid’ system because PV panels have fallen in price. However, battery storage is expensive (unless obtained second hand) and the cheapest practical backup is a petrol-powered generator. For example, washing machines need a kick to get going, but PVs would struggle. Something to do with frequency.

      1. A promising technology is the graphene condenser battery. This uses cheap and benign materials – elemental carbon basically – and because the layers are one atom thick, the surface areas in a small space are immense. Its shortcoming is a short life and that it can only hold its charge a short time. The most they have achieved is a week. However, what condensers can do is to provide bursts of high power, such as that required to fire up a motor in a washing machine or a car. The energy require to keep it going, once started, is something that could be handled by technology such as PVs.

  35. I feel the Telegraph might have got its priorities a bit awry here. Surely it’s the Church, not government that ought to intervene to arrest its own decline?

    1. Morning James. The church like every other state institution has been suborned.

      1. Indeed, morning Araminta. The secular world has its own religion, now. I just can’t see why the Church had to give up its own in order to follow that one.

  36. UK has failed to prepare itself for war, warn former defence ministers. 7 April 2024.

    Officials urged to put ‘whole nation’ plans in place for how country would run during a conflict.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Pete Smith.

    “UK has failed to prepare itself for war, warn former defence ministers”

    UK has failed to secure it’s own borders for decades.

    Our own government has betrayed the native people of this country to internationally agreed political agendas that no one voted for.
    Conservative: WEF

    Labour: WEF.

    The Telegraph finds itself unable to even convince its own readers. There is scarcely a dissenting voice from this post on the entire thread. This explains the two articles yesterday with their fake troll comments.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/06/uk-failed-prepare-war-former-defence-ministers/

    1. Exactly!
      They have the cheek to tell us to prepare for war abroad when we are forbidden from defending our own border!

      1. Minister for Perversion, William Wragg in charge of the lives of our young. Righto.

    2. The government and media are behaving as if they want a wipe out war with Russia.

      Maybe the plan is to pretend there’s a war with Russia, make everyone’s phone give a nuclear warning and deliberately bring the entire country to a standstill just like covid. Thereby wrecking the economy totally, causing mass starvation and collapsing the Pound?

      It would be perfect for taking control of everything through a confected state of emergency and ideal for Davos’ puppets in Downing Street and the puppet theater.

      1. Morning Polly. They are having trouble maintaining the war. By rights, and the amount of propaganda, the peasants should be foaming at the mouth. Instead, as is obvious from the threads (see above) no one is buying it. Hence this massive effort to convince us all that we need to sign up.

      2. Morning Polly. They are having trouble maintaining the war. By rights, and the amount of propaganda, the peasants should be foaming at the mouth. Instead, as is obvious from the threads (see above) no one is buying it. Hence this massive effort to convince us all that we need to sign up.

      4. I would say that all news from the Russian side is blocked and heavily censored because people would find that Russia has zero intention of expanding the war beyond Ukraine and its reason for war is entirely legitimate. In fact the only reason it would conquer the whole of Ukraine is because Zelenskyy would refuse to come to the table and negotiate a peace. Russia is only interested in those areas of Ukraine that are traditionally Russian and Russian speaking. Areas in which the Ukrainian regime has banned, yes banned, the use of Russian in the public sphere in its attempt at cultural genocide against Russians in Ukraine. It is a source of shame to me that I live in a country that used to fight for the truth and now operates under lies and deceit for the basest of aims.

    3. The government and media are behaving as if they want a wipe out war with Russia.

      Maybe the plan is to pretend there’s a war with Russia, make everyone’s phone give a nuclear warning and deliberately bring the entire country to a standstill just like covid. Thereby wrecking the economy totally, causing mass starvation and collapsing the Pound?

      It would be perfect for taking control of everything through a confected state of emergency and ideal for Davos’ puppets in Downing Street and the puppet theater.

    4. The Establishment is certainly beating the war drum though isn’t it? That will probably be the next step to totalitarianism.

      1. Morning Tom. Welcome back. I haven’t discounted the possibility of a False Flag to widen the war.

        1. Thanks AS. The whole woke crusade against Russia is a shameful con and we should resist involvement at all costs.

    5. The Establishment is certainly beating the war drum though isn’t it? That will probably be the next step to totalitarianism.

    6. I know it is a “Silly Sunday” question, but why did these loons, when they were defence (or was it de gate) ministers not do the task to which they were appointed.

      Look what Brown did:

      Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, was principally responsible for the decision. The period takes its name from Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who decided to sell approximately half of the UK’s gold reserves in a series of auctions.

  37. No, the government should not intervene. The CoE is, like the Tory Party, beyond redemption and needs to die. It will be replaced by a genuinely Christian church without the woke baggage. And really, does anyone really think that government intervention is the answer to any problem, despite all the evidence to the contrary?

    1. “The Government should intervene to arrest the decline of the Church of England ”

      It is interference by “our” government (Conmoron) that has put Christianity per se in UK, into the *parlous state it is in now.

      *full of danger or risk.

    2. Yes, government should control the Church. That’d work. What could go wrong?

      They did such a good job of “repurposing” marriage, perhaps they could be let loose on the rest of Canon Law. Perhaps they could call an assembly of the faithful to set Christian doctrine as a whole straight, while they’re at it 🥺.

  38. Oh deer!
    Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

  39. Good morning to all NOTTLERS. Usual grey day but, at least, no rain.
    A quick scroll down and I notice that no one has put the leading Telegraph letter on here. So I thought I would do so for the benefit of those who don’t read the Telegraph.
    In my opinion, in brief, the problem is Protestantism. It’s simply unsustainable as a spiritual path. To quote Gertrude Stain: “There’s no there there.” It is an empty vessel.

    IR – Peter Stanford is the latest columnist to describe the numerous woes of the Church of England (Features, March 31). Many readers will simply say to themselves: “What does it matter if the former leading religion in the country fades into oblivion?” A tour of the villages of England will provide an answer: in every part of the country, parish churches occupy a central position.

    Prior to the establishment of parish councils in 1894, the local church not only provided spiritual guidance to the population, but also acted as the first tier of the civil administration. Parish church records (if they are still available) make fascinating reading.

    To arrest the further decline of the Church, the Government needs to intervene to review the situation and should be prepared to pass legislation that instigates change. The repeal of the Act of Supremacy would remove the obligation for the sovereign to fill the role of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Church could also lose the right to incorporate its General Synod measures into law, and to retain 26 seats for bishops in the House of Lords. The reformed church could then focus on its core role of supporting parishes, rather than acting as an unelected political lobby. A central agency supported by the taxpayer could play a leading role in maintaining the many church buildings.

    These changes would provide a framework to revitalise an important institution and maintain our Christian heritage in this country.

    1. I don’t think anything government does could help to maintain our Christian heritage, frankly. In any case government only approves of Church when it conforms to the wishes of the State. The idea that the State would move to remove the 26 is probably a non starter too, unless they get caught up in a wider Constitutional reform. This is because there are not so much “troublesome prelates” in the House, rather compliant poodles. Far too useful for the State, this crop regrettably.

    2. Good morning JR, and everyone. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition. Seriously, instead of bashing Protestantism, may I politely suggest that you need to keep an eye on the Devil and all his (her, their) works. There is an eternal war between good and evil.

        1. Not necessarily. I actually think the Devil has as much access to everything human as God does, and the nowhere is spared the burden of vigilance.

          Like liar and truthsayer both swear honesty, the Devil will present as honourable and true, so we need other tests than merely relying on someone’s word and assertions.

          I take my clue from a couple of English words similar to ‘Satan’. One is ‘satisfied’ and the other ‘insatiable’. Those that are possessed by the Devil are never satisfied. They want more and more and MORE and MORE!! until all around is laid to waste in the drive for acquisitiveness. Those that are not so possessed know when to stop and how to.

          1. I take my ‘clue’ from the Orthodox Church, of which I am a member. The Church unbroken since the time of Jesus Christ and which has thus maintained the Christian Truth unbroken whilst other churches , in particular for our purposes, the Roman Catholic Church, rebelled against the True Christian Church in order to promulgate false doctrines and thus spawned our present spiritual difficulties.

            The consequences for the West has been the destruction of Christianity by splitting Christendom into an uncountable number of false Protestant Churches ignorant of Church history. Sects that wandered further afield seeking false solutions. We are thus at this pass, the end of Christianity in England and the end of our civilization and culture. Before Augustine and his mission to the Anglo Saxons, this was an Orthodox country and it is my belief that in order to save ourselves we must return to our true Christian roots. Articulate them properly in the modern world and stand by them forcibly.

  40. All of our institutions have declined under the uni-party. We are increasingly signing up to inefficient supranationals which hate white people and resent the success of the west. Our ruling class enable the fomenting of trouble overseas with their political meddling and policies. Indeed, they increasingly enable our enemies to implant themselves here with their dodgy trade and open border policies. And then when the ordure inevitably hits the fan, what is their solution? To nudge nudge and then enforce conscription so that they can shove our young into the meatgrinder of war.

  41. I wondered what power the king has to step in with regard to the governance of the C of E. It is disposed of in two short sentences on the website of the Church of England. To quote: “His Majesty the King is the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The King appoints archbishops, bishops and deans of cathedrals on the advice of the Prime Minister.” So it seems that the buck stops at the feet of a Hindu. That seems problematic to me. It tells me that we could expect nothing at all from him.

    1. I expect Rishi Sunak takes advice, in turn, from those in his administration who are Christians. James Callaghan was an avowed atheist yet it doesn’t appear to have been an impediment during his time as PM to QEII.

      1. Benjamin Disraeli, one of Queen Victoria’s prime ministers, was a Jew, but I don’t think they had any problem appointing bishops.

        1. I think Dizzy had converted to C of E. He was a politician when all’s said and done.

          2. I think Dizzie’s father had converted to CoE.
            In the early C19, even Roman Catholics couldn’t hold public office, let alone a Jew.

      2. Apocryphally when he was asked what his religion was Disraeli replied: “It is the religion of all wise men.” And when asked what was the religion of all wise men he said: “Wise men do not disclose their religion.”

    3. We had a special service last year to commission a couple of lay pastoral visitors. One was the Rector’s wife. The other an American lady, with a history involving Holy Trinity Brompton. One of her family supporters was a son of bloody Welby. Not knowing his parentage, I had a pleasant discussion with him (together with a former High Sheriff of Surrey), about diabetes. He talked about his brother, who has ‘issues’.

      It made the A B of C seem rather more human, but in my book, he’s still a ‘see you next tuesday’…

  42. OT – I wonder how many NoTTLers smoke cigarettes or a pipe. Many of us must be of the generation where everyone around one smoked all the time…

    I started aged 10 – encouraged by my parents. Mother used to give me 20 Players to take back to school! I gave up aged 27. Never touched tobacco since.

    1. I never took up the habit. Listening to my father’s morning smoker’s cough put me off for life.

    2. I smoked ready-rolled cigarettes between the ages of 13 and 33. I never got on with other forms of tobacco (roll-ups, cigars, cigarillos, pipes) although I attempted them all at times.

      Incongruously, although my parents were chain-smokers of cigarettes in the house, my mother slapped me, aged 17, when she discovered my prefatory habit.

      1. Caroline has never smoked a cigarette in her life but she quite likes the smell of my pipe tobacco. However her parents smoked 100 cigarettes a day between them.

        1. I loved the smell of my uncle’s pipe tobacco when I was a nipper. In the tobacco pouch I mean, not when being smoked.

          1. My father took up smoking Gold Block. There are many aromatic pipe tobaccos. His stank.

          2. Pipe smokers ought to be subsidized, and paid to smoke while walking in the streets. They are a fast disappearing amenity.

    3. I used to smoke 28 cigarettes a day until December 31st 1987. I have not smoked a cigarette since then. I married in April 1988.

      I used to smoke a pipe after supper but I am not addicted to smoking pipe tobacco so I can easily do without it. This meant that I stopped my pipe when I ran out of duty free pipe tobacco but my sister-in-law gave me a tin or my favourite smoking mixture for Christmas which I have enjoyed and I hope she will give me another next Christmas!

    4. I smoked cigarettes until spring 1976 when I had influenza, the real McCoy, not a sniffle and laid me flat for 10 days and off work for another week to recover. Had the odd one out two since then and the occasional cigar but none at all for the past 20 years.

      1. I and 4 of my many siblings took up smoking after the fags killed Dad with the big C in 1967. None of now smokes.

    5. In 1967 I stayed with a French Farmer family in Normandy. I was 13. Two, of the three sons, aged 13 & 11 respectively were permitted to smoke their pipes….

    6. I smoked but it was never a habit.
      First one of the day would have been after the evening meal. Maybe a couple in the pub. Less than 20 a week.
      When my parents sat down in the evening, you couldn’t see across the room.
      Father’s St Bruno in his pipe mother’s Senior Service.
      I haven’t smoked for well over 50 years.
      My two sisters were never smokers.
      Lesson learnt at home I guess.

      1. My mother was more of a social smoker. She wasn’t much in the habit of smoking during the day, but rather of an evening and when with friends/family.

        One curiosity I recall is that we had a side table with a drawer in which were kept packets of 200 cigarettes. These arrived through home delivery. I cannot remember how my parents placed their order. This was decades before the internet age. I imagine it was by telephone, unless they had a contact they’d see face-to-face.

      2. A smoking group in Yeovil used to meet in a tobacconist’s (do such people still exist?) to discuss their favourite brands. During one meeting there was so much smoke coming out from under the door that some one called the fire brigade.

    8. I had one puff on a Player’s No.10, given to me when I was 12 by an older boy on the train home, coughed profusely and have never smoked since.

    9. I started when I was fifteen and gave up ten years later. Fifteen is a great age to smoke.
      I gave up because it was bad for health not because of the price. I lived in Spain and cigarettes were really cheap.
      Haven’t smoked now for over forty years but still remember how happy it used to make me feel.

    10. Both parents smoked. As a child, I thought that the non-smoking aunt and uncle were rather strange. Yet I hated the smoke-filled atmosphere. I’ve never felt the need to try it, while acknowledging that legislation has helped to destroy manypubs.

    11. I’ve never smoked apart from trying the occasional cigarette and giving up in disgust.

  43. Who is going to pay reparations for the enslavement of local people in South Devon by Barbary pirates many years ago?

    And in accordance with the Way of Life in the Woke World of 2024, when are

    The the Italians going to pay reparation for the cruelty inflicted on the people of this country by the Romans.
    and

    The Viking dating from around AD 800 to 1050. The homelands of the Vikings were in Scandinavia, although the countries of
    Scandinavia as we know them today did not exist until the end of the Viking-age, so they should all pay.

    2. Don’t forget that the ‘Barbary’ pirates, they sound like fun. Travelled back and forth to Alhambra Palace, where their very religious
      bosses kept children in caves for the use of.
      And then fed them to their pet lions when finished with them.
      Such lovely people.

      2. I’ve searched online for accounts of slaves being fed to lions but, thus far, I’ve only found them in histories of the Romans.

        2. Something wrong with disqus today the pages are jumping around.
          Look for, Blood and Gold: The making of Spain By Simon Sebag Montefiore. Based on the Alhambra.

    3. I understand attempts to draw an equivalence, but the numbers of captured English sold into slavery by Barbary pirates was few in comparison with British involvement in the slave trade.

      1. Probably true but, as a percentage of the then population of South Devon compared with that of West Africa, still significant.

      2. And British involvement in the slave trade was tiny when compared with African and Arab involvement in the slave trade.

        And world-wide involvement in trying to abolish the slave trade was tiny in comparison to British involvement.

        1. I’m trying to draw comparisons between English/British victims of slavery and victims of British slavery against a background of attempts to extract reparations from the United Kingdom and its institutions for its involvement in slavery and posts here which seem to think there was some kind of equivalent collective injustice against the two groups of victims.

          1. What irritates me is that the reparations people seem to believe that only white people should pay reparations.
            It’s history and paying reparations would not change it.
            AND, I believe that most of those attempting to claim money would not be alive today if their ancestors had not been enslaved.

            Slavery has existed in various forms since time immemorial and it still exists.

      4. More recently though. My late step-mother in law was rounded up in the siege of Warsaw and deported to a Labour camp. Why is the German government not paying reparations to her descendants?

        1. This is the problem with reparations, collective compensations and collective punishments. Once started, there’s little end to it. Not a problem for international lawyers and courts, though. They get rich on it.

        2. No one ever mentions the war. They only talk about things that happened two hundred years ago.

      5. The most significant British involvement in the slave trade was ending it David.

  45. “Guten morgen my little Rishi, is Klaus”…

    “Oh good morning, Herr Schwab, how kind of you to spend your extremely valuable time calling your adoring and obedient puppet, little me. How can I help you today, Sir?”

    “Destroy ze C of E!”

    “Yes, of course, Herr Schwab, it will be done!”

    1. I would say the CofE is making a pretty good job of destroying itself, and needs no outside help.

  46. Don’t you think David Cameron’s appointment of Justin Welby in 2012 looks very suspicious?

      1. You should Aeneas. The CoE should be a bulwark of conservatism and a stronghold for muscular Christianity, two essential defences against the woke, globalist onslaught we face.

        1. My difficulty with that is I’m an atheist. Were I to champion the Church of England as “a bulwark of conservatism and a stronghold for muscular Christianity, two essential defences against the woke, globalist onslaught we face”, I’d struggle to defend myself against accusations of hypocrisy.

          1. It’s pretty easy. I’m an agnostic bordering on atheistic but have not trouble supporting Christianity as I think that folk should be free to believe or not believe, but accept that it could be a stabilising force in society making us all better off, believers or not.

          2. I’ve been either an Anglican chorister, organist or choirmaster for sixty years.

            My current employment contract runs out at the end of September next year. My rural untied united Surrey parish is anything but woke. I despise the hierarchy, as does our Rector and at least one suffragan bishop.

            Frankly, I’ve had enough. From 1/10/2025, I’ll find somewhere more convenient to worship, There’s an Anglican church in south Farnborough (our former assistant priest has gone there) which is on a convenient bus route. Or I might be tempted by Catholicism. They have a Cathedral just a few miles away at Aldershot Garrison. And then there’s Farnborough Abbey, with one of the few Cavaillé Coll organs this side of the Channel….

          3. Good luck.
            I was raised as a (reluctant) Methodist. Any idea how they are doing?

          4. I’ve always been an Oxford Movement Anglican, but for a long time I couldn’t find any churches that were High Church. The shennanigans with the wrecktorette mean that I have since found one and I have made myself at home.

        2. It’s difficult to take seriously an organisation the leadership of which rejects its own beliefs.

          1. Very difficult, but the ‘leadership’ of the CoE is no different to the political ‘leadership’ of the UK. That does not mean the original institutions are intrinsically rotten, just the leadership.

          1. No, but I think all Christian denominations are under threat. I was speaking generically because basically it’s Christianity vs islam or freedom vs subjection.

    2. I’ve been saying that for years! Welby was appointed with the instruction to destroy the CofE.

    1. That reminds me of a true story. Many years ago an electrician on a ship I managed committed suicide. New crew members had brought a bunch of blue movies onboard, and the lecky’s wife was the main ‘actress’ in several of them. Inconveniently, he topped himself by connecting to the main electrical switchboard, destroying it and rendering the ship without power. She had to be towed into Soyo, Angola, at the mouth of the Congo river. I went there with a lead-lined coffin in my check-in luggage. Thankfully I’ve never had to go back.

      1. What a dreadful discovery for the man and difficult outcome for the whole crew.

        1. The crew were shocked and initially sympathetic, but after a month in Angola they were more than a bit discombobulated at his method of topping himself.

      2. Did the widow get some insurance money and a pension? Just asking for a photogenic friend.

        1. Don’t know. I was just in charge of the engineering and the insurance claim on the ship. Crew are normally covered, but in this case the insurer’s might have decided that the widow was earning enough already.

      3. I heard of something something similar in Germany.
        A Squadron do with porno films being shown, and one of the lads suddenly swore, shouted “I’ll kill the bitch!”, left the bar, went home and started pummelling his wife.
        It turned out that, on a previous posting in the UK, he’d been away from home for 6 months with his unit and his wife had gotten into debt. She borrowed a loan shark and when she couldn’t pay it off, was persuaded to do some porn films.
        Allegedly, the loan shark was later found dumped at the local hospital with several broken bones.

  48. And still there are idiots who think Islam is benign.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13276105/Hot-oil-poured-rivals-forcing-inmates-read-Quran-Muslim-extremists-won-brutal-gang-war-British-prisons-caged-jihadis-target-weaker-inmates-join-army-bars.html

    Hot oil poured over rivals and forcing inmates to read the Quran: How Muslim extremists have won brutal gang war in British prisons as caged jihadis target ‘weaker’ inmates to join their army behind bars

  49. ‘Morning All

    https://i.imgflip.com/792w02.jpg

    https://i0.wp.com/uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a94e2d6b7fc428cd3feada56dd6d077dfe1f30fb0367e5f0a50d5d03aaa94c60.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e703a64688dcc5ababce9e1aa399c6b42535a37e0a3d3edaa22b3bfbc76f489b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f9a5d5955c94b5204d69e6b472acf1d84097f837df6729df960ed8810740d6c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6f2a2e73f3aae9499c674702c6072af2b8fcbcaccfb395ab6574a47add3d928f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/964f6f0a0f3b322b14a2abe5a4fb9e217dc9818d64ff13e30d964628283aabb3.jpg

    https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1748299764276343216

    2. Have you ever seen such cruelty? That poor woman having to run so fast like that!

    3. Linda Culkin, one of Spacey’s accusers.

      Woman killed by car in Quincy served time for death threats

      Mary Whitfill | mwhitfill@patriotledger.com

      QUINCY — A 59-year-old Quincy woman hit by a car Monday night while crossing Burgin Parkway has died.

      Linda Culkin, who was convicted in 2013 of making bomb, anthrax and other death threats, was struck around 7:30 p.m. at Granite Street and Burgin Parkway.

      Police Sgt. Karyn Barkas said Culkin was crossing while the traffic light was green. She said the driver tried to avoid her and hit another vehicle head-on.

      Both drivers remained at the scene and Culkin was taken to Boston Medical Center, where she died Wednesday. Neither driver had been charged as of Friday afternoon.

      Between 2009 and 2011, federal investigators said Culkin mailed threats to several people and their workplaces in the United States and abroad. One of her hoax bomb threats caused police in a foreign city, near one of the biggest train stations in the country, to evacuate a building and close off a neighborhood. Another, an envelope that contained a white powder that looked similar to anthrax, caused people nearby to be quarantined and fear for their health.

      Prosecutors also said she was obsessed with actor Kevin Spacey, saying she threatened to kill the actor. She also sent bomb threats to two of his workplaces and sent threats to his coworkers and associates.

      Culkin pleaded guilty in federal court to sending threats to the mail and over the internet, sending threats and false information regarding explosives and sending threats about biological agents. She was sentenced in 2014 to 51 months in prison, three years of probation and ordered to pay more than $125,000 in restitution.

      Pedestrian accidents have long plagued Quincy. A Patriot Ledger analysis of state traffic data from 2002 through 2014 found that on average a pedestrian is hit by a car in Quincy every five days, with one or two killed in a typical year. In those years, there were 897 Quincy crashes involving pedestrians, including 17 that resulted in a death.

      https://eu.patriotledger.com/story/news/local/2019/03/01/woman-killed-by-car-in/53223397007/

        1. Didn’t that happen to the Dutch guy who was a real and working explosives expert, when he questioned the collapse patterns of the Twin Towers.

          1. Probably yes. Accidents are always the best policy, I find. The admin is so much less messy.

          2. He also bought to light the small building along side that collapsed in a similar way. And was not even involved with the assumed attack, or hit by any of the debris.

    5. Yo Rik

      had to get an upgrade on ‘puter RAM, to get all those in…..

      Ta muchly

  51. If Dr Bossche is correct about the imminent covid “inevitable immune escape pandemic”, it looks like the PTB will blame it on mutated bird flu, H5N1.

    So it won’t be the mRNA jabs wot caused the new pandemic partly through wrecking immune systems, they’ll say it’s H5N1 and they’ll push a new mRNA mass vax, wrecking immune systems even more.

    Isn’t this the plan?

  52. In between slaving away at work, looking after me, cooking and gardening, the MR has completed this jigsaw. EIGHTEEN pieces missing. We get puzzles from a church jigsaw swap several times a year. There is an unspoken convention that one ALWAYS indicated whether a piece or two is missing. EIGHTEEN. Grr. The MR is going to burn the puzzle so that no one else is conned…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14a443a5f06f6696b006c076cf626aba3ba1ae4c9c3db852e49c238eee06ea93.jpg

    Edit: For some reason some of the puzzle is not shown.

  53. In between slaving away at work, looking after me, cooking and gardening, the MR has completed this jigsaw. EIGHTEEN pieces missing. We get puzzles from a church jigsaw swap several times a year. There is an unspoken convention that one ALWAYS indicated whether a piece or two is missing. EIGHTEEN. Grr. The MR is going to burn the puzzle so that no one else is conned…..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/14a443a5f06f6696b006c076cf626aba3ba1ae4c9c3db852e49c238eee06ea93.jpg

    Edit: For some reason some of the puzzle is not shown.

    2. It’s because you photographed the jigsaw puzzle holding the camera in portrait mode instead of landscape mode.

      This is why people using their phones to record events (common on the internet) have large black sides to the image.

      1. Thank you, David Bailey. The puzzle was “portrait” – not “landscape”.

    4. Before the MR burns it, Bill, has she looked for the missing 18 pieces in the fridge? Lol.

    5. It is the very worse kind of puzzle. Especially frustrating if, as in this case, you end up with a boring and almost featureless picture.

    6. You sure Gus and Pickles haven’t hidden them? I put any puzzles with missing pieces in the paper recycling bag.

    1. The puzzle room is upstairs. Once I found several pieces on the stairs and in the (downstairs) sitting room…

  56. Just in from watering the greenhouse. It is blowing a hooley – sounds like the ocean hitting the shore. Most unpleasant – though mild.

    2. Conscription is a form of community service. Community service is one form of sentence which courts can impose on those found guilty of crimes. What have the vast bulk of the British people done to be collectively punished in this way?

      1. What have the vast bulk of the British people done to be collectively punished in this way? The list is endless David: too white, too conservative, anti-woke, anti-mass immigration, net-zero sceptic, patriotic, meat eaters, fly off abroad on holiday, and so on down the list of woke orthodoxy.

        Conscription is a form of slavery, possibly justified if the nation is in dire peril, but today that dire peril is due to those now talking about conscription, the woke globalist ruling class.

        1. I rather hope they do it. Citizen armies can tend to escape the control of appalling political classes as the New Model Army did, plus arming and giving training to the indigenous population could come in handy.

          1. Interesting point JD and I’d like to think it might work. But the weakness is that currently, unlike recruits to the New Model Army, the vast majority of those who would be conscripted believe in nothing.

          2. At the moment, but these things can develop a life of their own, especially when such people are armed and organised.

          3. Sadly, I think that conscription would be used to further brainwash the people. Resisting it might, however, have the effect we both want.

      2. 385534+ up ticks,
        Afternoon DW,

        “Community service is one form of sentence which courts can impose on those found guilty of crimes”

        Agreed,

        “What have the vast bulk of the British people done to be collectively punished in this way?”

        Self inflicted punishment administered when
        supporting / voting lab/lib/con.

    2. If she was a working sheepdog, she’d not just be herding the sheep, she’d be training them to do ballroom dancing or something!

  60. The Government should intervene to arrest the decline of the Church of England

    Everything governments get involved with turns to mush

    1. They are well practiced at effing up everything they come into contact with.

    2. Eg Cameron made Welby Archbishop of Canterbury despite him being well down the list of potential candidates.
      It should have been Chartres of London, or even Sentamu, but both are genuine Christians and Chartres was anti same sex marriage and anti woke so neither met Cameron’s requirement.

    1. Looking at the remarkably clean men in shirtsleeves and the absence of any horses, I would hazard a guess that this scene was composed as a PR photograph before the serious pulling began.

        1. Like the standard footage of ‘British’ troops at Alamein, who were actually Aussies, well behind the lines, before the real battle.

    2. That’s probably why the Royal Artillery used to beat us hands down in tug-of-war competitions.

  62. Chewing on a Graun article posted here earlier I was reminded of their tiny violin playing a tune of financial victimisation at the end of a piece of foaming. I know most here will have seen it before, but it does raise a chuckle…

    “This is what we’re up against

    Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see.

    Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.

    Authoritarian states with no regard for the freedom of the press.

    Bad actors spreading disinformation online to undermine democracy.”

    1. I saw that pop up on the end of an article about the Alhambra from 20 years ago.

  63. Chewing on a Graun article posted here earlier I was reminded of their tinny violin playing a tune of financial victimisation at the end of a piece of foaming. I know most here will have seen it before, but it does raise a chuckle…

    “This is what we’re up against

    Teams of lawyers from the rich and powerful trying to stop us publishing stories they don’t want you to see.

    Lobby groups with opaque funding who are determined to undermine facts about the climate emergency and other established science.

    Authoritarian states with no regard for the freedom of the press.

    Bad actors spreading disinformation online to undermine democracy.”

  64. S.S. James W. Nesmith.

    Complement:
    82 (0 dead and 82 survivors).
    3,375 tons of tobacco, fertilizer, lumber, crated aircraft parts and 8 P-47 aircraft as deck cargo

    At 17.23 hours on 7th April 1945 the James W. Nesmith (Master Reginald Stanley Rossiter) as the fourth ship in line in the port column of convoy HX-346 was torpedoed by U-1024 (Hans-Joachim Gutteck) off Holyhead. One torpedo struck on the port side at the #5 hold. The explosion damaged the steering gear, flooded the #4 and #5 holds. The machinery was damaged as water came through the shaft alley into the engine room and fireroom. The nine officers, 31 crewmen, 41 armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, three 3in and eight 20mm guns) and one passenger remained on the vessel. She was taken in tow by the HMCS Belleville (K 332) and beached off Holyhead during the night. The ship was later refloated by salvage vessels and towed to Liverpool, arriving on 23 April. The badly damaged James W. Nesmith was towed to Bremerhaven, loaded with surplus chemical ammunition and scuttled in the North Sea in June 1946.

    Type VIIC/41 U-Boat U-1024 was captured on 12th April 1945 in the Irish Sea south of Isle of Man by the British frigates HMS Loch Glendhu and HMS Loch More. The boat was taken in tow by the frigates but it foundered on 13th April 1945. 9 dead and 37 survivors.

    https://uboat.net/media/allies/merchants/am/james_w_nesmith.jpg

      1. Mustard gas munitions were stockpiled ‘just in case’ on the orders of the joint Chiefs of Staff, with the authority of Roosevelt and Churchill as there was concern the Germans in their desperation would use them first.

        In connection with this the air raid on Bari on the 2nd November 1943 caused horrendous casualties when the SS John Harvey (a Liberty ship) was hit.

        Ladies and Gentlemen, please don’t read this article if you may be upset, it doesn’t make for pleasant reading:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_John_Harvey

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari

      2. Phosphorus – there’s lots at the bottom of the North Sea. very nasty stuff.

        1. All I can remember of phosphorus is that it smoked the moment the science master lifted it out of the water.
          I assume it has to be left at the bottom of the sea. Does it have an active lifespan or does it remain eternally dangerous?

          1. Don’t know. Just don’t get it on you! Apparently burns like nothing known to man, and can get into your bones, buggering them, too.

  65. Starmer’s Labour is not moderate or safe – and here’s the hard evidence

    PETER HITCHENS, 7th April 2024

    What will a Keir Starmer government be like? If the polls are true, the voters do not care. They have decided that election day will be a few hours of fun, during which they can kick the Tories. I can sympathise, having despised the Conservative Party for two decades. But shouldn’t they wonder just a tiny bit about the next five years, and the possibility that a Starmer government could in fact be considerably worse than what we have now?

    I’ve warned before about Sir Keir’s dogmatic past, which he neither conceals nor disowns. He belonged, in his adult life, by clear choice, to bodies of the very hard Left. He is fervent both about the green ideology, which will condemn us to darkness and poverty, and about the radical sexual politics which make him so hard to pin down on the transgender issue.

    Given the chance to step back from this in a friendly interview by a Left-wing magazine, he was asked if he was still a ‘red-green’. Sir Keir enthusiastically responded: ‘Yeah!’ He stated: ‘I don’t think there are big issues on which I’ve changed my mind.’ Why not take his word for it?

    He explained: ‘The big issue we were grappling with then [in his 20s] was how the Labour Party, or the Left generally, bound together the wider movement and its strands of equality – feminist politics, green politics, LGBT – which I thought was incredibly exciting, incredibly important.’

    And what about the others? We know that Angela Rayner, Sir Keir’s deputy, is a crude class-warrior who seems to think it is still the 1940s and who calls Tories ‘scum’. But look at the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who is being promoted as a thoughtful, moderate-minded economist.

    In a recent speech, the noted Mais Lecture, Ms Reeves duly bored the world with jargon and slogans. But careful watchers noted a couple of flashes of red-hot militancy.

    The first was her dismissal of the former Tory Chancellor Nigel Lawson, who died last year. Lord Lawson, who I met and interviewed, was a man of piercing intelligence and huge experience, whether you agreed with him or not. But Ms Reeves brushed him off with scorn.

    Janan Ganesh, an acute commentator for the Left-wing Financial Times, thought it was a bit much. He said: ‘In a speech of amazing gracelessness, Nigel Lawson, the reforming Chancellor of the 1980s, was credited with almost nothing.’

    But who did she praise? She singled out the eccentric Cambridge economics professor, Joan Robinson, who died in 1983, saying: ‘As Joan Robinson understood when she wrote 60 years ago, economics is not just about quantitative models and abstract theory – it is about values, rooted in political, philosophical and moral questions about human nature and the good society.’ We have to assume that Ms Reeves writes this stuff herself, or at the very least approves it before delivering it.

    Who was Joan Robinson? As a person she was a fine old British Left-wing eccentric, sleeping each night in a freezing hut at the bottom of her garden, breakfasting on yoghurt long before that was fashionable and allowing birds to pluck out strands of her long grey hair to build their nests.

    But Joan Robinson had another side. She was in fact a long-time Maoist – a keen defender of the Chinese tyrant and mass-killer Mao Tse-Tung. During and after many gullible tours of Mao’s empire, she defended or excused its unhinged, ruthless Cultural Revolution, its economically catastrophic Great Leap Forward and much else.

    She rowed back a little in later life, but she terribly misjudged these events at the time. Modern study shows the measures she defended were connected sometimes with disastrous famine and sometimes with terrifying repression, and often with both.

    She was also an enthusiast for the North Korean tyranny, writing an astonishing article for the Left-wing magazine Monthly Review in 1965. She admiringly described Pyongyang as ‘ a city without slums’. After dutifully listing all the statistics she was fed by the Kim il Sung regime, she concludes: ‘The economic miracles of the post-war world are put in the shade by these achievements.’

    North Korea’s young women are said to be ‘studying, driving cranes in the steelworks, or showing off gymnastics in the patriotic mass games’. Meanwhile, Kim il Sung, founder of this Utopia, ‘seems to function as a messiah rather than a dictator… he gives them a coherent and practicable vision of what they are to be. No deviant thought has a chance to sprout.’ I’ll say.

    Hilariously, Professor Robinson proclaims: ‘If professed liberals find all this abhorrent, their duty is plain: let them explain to the people in the South [of Korea] what is happening in the North and leave them to choose what they prefer.’

    So here we have Joan Robinson’s values, praised by Rachel Reeves, ‘rooted in political, philosophical and moral questions about human nature and the good society’.

    Silly people will now accuse me of saying Ms Reeves is herself an apologist for the appalling Mao and the even worse Kim. I am not saying this. Modern politicians know very little of the past. I wonder if she even knows about Joan Robinson’s adventures in Peking and Pyongyang.

    But I am saying that one of the reasons the Labour Party has so repeatedly and incessantly messed up our economy is because of its sentimental attachment to vast projects of equality and state control. They never work. They are often disastrous.

    A speech which dismisses Nigel Lawson and praises Joan Robinson is a worrying sign that we are in for yet another round of that, heaven help us. Yet millions have already decided to vote for it.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-13279261/PETER-HITCHENS-Starmers-Labour-not-moderate-safe-heres-hard-evidence.html

    1. Thanks for that, I dont bother with the Mail any more now they have a paywall but I always used to read Hitchens. He can get a little barmy at times but he’s more often incisive and, occasionally, amusing!
      Perhaps you can post his columns here every Sunday? 😉

    2. With several beery 3rd year Engineering contemporaries, occasionally went to Joan Robinson’s lectures for 1st year Economist newbies and ‘participated’. She was absolutely barking and the newbies loved her.

    3. Ancient Nottlers may recall that I had a lengthy phone convesation with Andrew Gilligan, re Sam Tarry. He married the delightful Dr Julia Fozard in our church (I was the organist) – gave her a couple of sprogs and then shacked up with the Ginger Growler. Apparently, Sam ‘n’ Ange have now split up.

      AG’s phone call to me , as Verger, was investigating Tarry’s claimed address. Standing as a Loondon councillor, he claimed to live there, while everyone knew he was living in Brighton. I wasn’t able to help AG, at least dreckly, but the register clearly stated that he lived in Brighton.

  66. The Tottenham turnip wannabee Magabe, Lammy says Angela Raynor has Labour’s full support _ how reasuring .

      1. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,
        shake them by the left hand.

    2. That is not new. Look at any classic interpretation of Britannia and you will see that:

      Her brains are Scotland;
      Her breasts are Wales;
      Her heart is The North;
      Her feet are Cornwall.
      Her arsehole is the Thames estuary!

    3. Difficult to keep your feet still on the bog seat while reaching for that.
      (To blow your nose.)

  68. Taken most of today, on and off, to do the bloody wordle. I just was bamboozled for ages.

    Wordle 1,023 5/6

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

    1. Yes, really not sure this should be allowed – I only got it as I simply could not think of any alternative!

      Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

    3. Not a word that I was looking for

      Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

    4. Merde; J’ai perdu!

      Wordle 1,023 X/6
      ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩

    1. More transhumanist BS, but they still can’t get first class letters delivered the next day.

  71. Smut time !

    I was in ecstasy, with a smile on my face, as my wife moved forwards then backwards…. Forwards then backwards…. Back & forth, back & forth… In and out… In and out…. Her heart was pounding faster, her face was getting flush & she started to grunt and groan, then she let out one almighty scream…
    “I can’t park this fucking car, you do it u smug bastard”

  72. “Just one in four British Muslims believe Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel”

    Surprise, surprise. Rather in the same way that a majority of “British” slammers thought the London attacks were justified.

  73. Jessica Alves shows off her surgically enhanced curves in a bold pink catsuit as she steps out in London – after thanking OnlyFans subscribers for ‘validating me as a woman’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13280853/Jessica-Alves-shows-surgically-enhanced-curves-bold-pink-catsuit-steps-London-thanking-OnlyFans-subscribers-validating-woman.html

    Bob of Bonsall
    Matlock, United Kingdom
    5 minutes ago

    Dear God! How the FOXTROT do people find that bizarre and unnatural appearance attractive?

    She looks horrible! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de44c016519eb39537e6c59bcef40a214a7568a4320ab8a0f683135e237dce5d.jpg

    1. “LOOK AT ME!!!. LOOK. AT. MEEEEEEE!!!. OH, PLEASE LOOOOOOOOK AT MEEEEEE!!!”

      Am I to assume under all that plastic there is an actual woman?

      1. That remark was quite funny JD. I laughed. Since what I have been doing most of the day is listening to Christian/Islam debates the laugh was very welcome.

    4. A classic example of an atrophied brain due to: eating vegetation, reading the Daily Mail, and listening to various internet “influencers” (all of whom possess a similarly massive vacuum between their ears).

    5. It’s a man. Formerly known as the Human Ken before he became a sacrifice to Baphomet, according to the Daily Mail, source of all knowledge on such matters.

    9. I thought that maybe the nose was OK but apparently even that has been fixed.

      With all of that plastic, he/she/it could be put out with the recycling.

      1. She’ll melt when the global boiling starts up again in the summer. Meanwhile, she had better not sit too close to a radiator.

          1. I saw some others said that. It’s certainly doesn’t resemble a normal human being, regardless of what it keeps in its undies.

    1. She had hundreds of procedures when she was a he. I wondered where the money was coming from.

    2. History repeats it’s self.
      No surprises the obvious is happening, the more of them who arrive the more problems we have.
      Get a grip Dopey Wokies.

  76. Hello my little one, we bring you clarity and light. Are your parents there?

    Who is it?

    Daddy, mummy, it’s the electricity company.

    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/433950802_982761316541407_8882765823456944769_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p843x403&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=4NhBGJN7bOIAb6Jk7Ho&_nc_oc=Adg_oQ12wSlQFayAa4kd5npEZb4ri3-GzYPre4rKl_za9llByM3Ww2_KKO-gvhZzTDWkw7J843NPz2kSIRmlZ8V9&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&oh=00_AfCMlrLOzJkDbD2rYGQuSOGFgJyZJOkZRWusQ2XF-GZjFA&oe=6618581E

  77. Had fun on the train home from church. Got on the HamCit line at Farringdon and at Kings Cross a large group of people chanting, “Wemburlee, Wemburlee, we’re going to Wemburlee!” all boarded. I remarked to the young woman sitting next to me that they’re not going to Wembley as this is a Hammersmith train. She then shouted, “Dad! We’re on the wrong train”. Dad checked, agreed and thanked me for pointing out that they needed to change at Baker Street for the Met line. The rest only realised at Edgware Road that they were heading west instead of north.

    1. 7 April

      BRISTOL STREET MOTORS TROPHY FINAL
      Peterborough United v Wycombe Wanderers

      Afternoon Sue. If you have watched Ads for Bristol Street Motors on GBNews, you may presume that….

    1. Or as Woody Allen once put it, “Why do all my girlfriends say I’m a lousy lover. How can they make a definitive judgement in just three minutes”.

          2. Quite. In campanology circles, the Tenor is usually the lowest.

            St Laurence, Seale has a ring of six bells, two of which reputedly came from Chertsey Abbey. I lived just across the road from them for fifteen years.

            The neighbouring village (part of our “united” parish) also has a ring of six bells. But, as a ‘musician’, i find there’s something not quite right about the harmonics. So they’re less sonorous, or more irritating. Take your pick.

            It may be instructive that Puttenham bells don’t have a presence on the interweb thingy, unlike Seale…

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g7RoP_xbJ0

      1. Londoners voted him in. It’s up to them to vote him out – or accept the status quo.

          1. Then they deserve what they get, or do as I did 46 years ago – move out of London.

          2. I was born and bred in North London. I don’t enjoy going there anymore
            He’s even extended ‘London’ as anything inside the M25. Parts of the home counties. It could be his downfall unless he finds another way to re-issue an ‘Administration error’.

        2. Due to ‘an administration error’ the majority of people in Jewish areas didn’t receive their ballot papers in time.
          And given the circumstances it’s very a lot if not most of the support came through as postal votes.
          Probably many from overseas.
          It’s pretty obvious that he’s wrecking the capital of England.

          1. Born and bred in South London in the 1950s. London is nothing like the place I grew up in. I now have little reason to visit it again as most of my family members who lived there have died.

          2. Totally agree with all of that.
            I’m from Mill Hill north London, where quite a few famous people had chosen to live.

          2. I am a Londoner, but not a cockney. My grandmother was a real cockney – born within the sound of Bow Bells in a workhouse in 1886.

          3. My Gt Grandparents were born in Bethnal Green & Stepney. My grandmother in Walthamstow and Grandfather on the Old Kent Road. I last went to London for a demo in 2019. No reason to go there now.

          4. I was also born in the workhouse!

            I’m not joking. Scarsdale Hospital in Chesterfield (now demolished) was a former Victorian workhouse.

          5. If they were genuine cockneys, Khant would be given the bum’s rush.
            You’ll find more cockneys in Essex and Kent than in Londonistan.

    3. On all the evidence we have seen so far, she is not fit to be a priest. I don’t care what advice her lawyers gave her, she fails the test of being a decent human being.
      Who gave her a pass at vicar training school, and who short-listed her for Bishop of London?

  82. Just One in Five Scots Back Draconian Hate Speech Law, as Leftist SNP Government Set for Big Election Defeat

    A paltry one in five people in Scotland are in favour of retaining the leftist government’s draconian new speech law as Humza Yousaf faces the prospect of being removed from power at the general election.

    A survey conducted by the FindOutNow polling firm has found that just 21 per cent of the Scottish public support the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021, which came into force on Monday, criminalising the “stirring up hatred” against several protected classes of people with up to seven years in prison.

    Conversely, the poll found that 45 per cent were in favour of scrapping the new speech codes, while a further 35 per cent said that they were undecided. Broken down by party, three in four Conservative voters want to axe the law, compared to just under half of Labour supporters.

    Strikingly, nearly one-third (31 per cent) of supporters of the leftist separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) government of First Minister Humza Yousaf were also in favour of repealing the law, The Times reports.
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/04/07/just-one-in-five-scots-back-draconian-hate-speech-law-as-leftist-snp-government-set-for-big-defeat/

      1. They rigged the voting system. No longer FPTP – but some weird PR system than ensures the weakest, worst parties get most MEPs. Or something!

    3. How can 35% be undecided? Are they aware of what is involved and how much freedom of speech is threatened?

        1. They do not realise what is at stake, being either too young, too fervid or too ignorant. Or any combination of the three.

        2. As long as they keep their free prescriptions, rent and benefits ….. having said that, I have a cousin (well educated, supposedly lectured at a top university in Scotland) who is rabidly pro-independence and pro-SNP. I’d be interested to know what he thinks of the destruction of free speech and free thought.

          2. He’s arrogant enough to think it wouldn’t apply to him. Even as a child, he was rather obnoxious, though maybe that had something to do with his parents being card-carrying commies.
            I got to know his dad (my uncle) in later years, and he was quite a pleasant old man, more as my dear remembered him form growing up. Maybe when he separated from his wife (who, from what i heard, was an out-and-out commie brought up by commie parents.), he dropped the extremism. Shame the ex-wife kept the kids – probably explains his son’s politics, and the fact the son refused to have any contact with his dad, even after my uncle sustained life-changing injuries and dementia in later years.

          3. Happy families…….. we haven’t many rellies to worry about. Two sons, both single and now over 50; my first cousins are all late, but we still have Christmas card contact with their other halves. OH’s sister decided years ago she wanted nothing to do with us – haven’t seen her since her son’s wedding in 2008. She was very miffed that he wanted us there. Her son and daughter and remarried ex are all fine and we will be seeing them for a weekend get-together in a couple of weeks’ time.

          4. You can choose your friends but not your family. I would certainly have ‘chosen’ a different wife for son no.1. Even MH finally woke up to the reality of our very own Meagain Markle, though he won’t talk about it. His cowardice almost resulted in another almighty explosion on the recent visit, even though the wife stayed away. Older son is well and truly ‘Markled.’ If I could, I’d ban ‘her’ from my funeral. (That would mean son and grandchildren stayed away too, but so be it.

          5. As you won’t be there (apart from in the coffin) you won’t need to worry about it. But I think you’d want them to be there. I’ve been thinking about mine, and the format. I’ve been to a few modern ones in the last few years and I’m not keen. My elder son said I should leave some instructions.

          6. It’s definitely a good idea to leave some indications as to what sort of funeral. An avowed atheist (WW1 to blame for his loss of faith), my late grandfather was very clear that he wanted no service of any sort, and he left his nearly 100 year old body to medical science. The large family obviously wanted to mark his passing and his long life, but respected his wishes, so arranged a family meal in a local hotel. Everyone felt that was ‘lacking’, but it was what their father had wanted.
            Unless there is considerable change in madam’s behaviour, I am certain I wouldn’t want her at my funeral, but I doubt I will go as far as to tell anyone in the family that.
            Goodnight, sleep well.

          7. A good friend died in February -when I spoke to her husband and asked about the funeral, he told me she didn’t want one – just to be cremated with no send-off.

  87. Well, well, what a surprise, I’d never have guessed
    /sarc

    ‘Do not approach’: Police issue warning as they name and release CCTV pictures of suspect in murder of mother, 27, who was ‘stabbed five times in the neck while pushing baby boy in pram’
    Habibur Masum, 25, from the Oldham area, is wanted by police after a stabbing

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13281111/Find-Police-suspected-knifeman-mother-27-stabbed-death-streets-Bradford-broad-daylight-pushing-baby-pram.html

    2. I’m so glad we have imported so many stabbers and rapists. We were in danger of running out!

    1. They are not very happy looking bunnies are they? Even in real life they always look miserable.

      1. You would be too. No singing, no dancing, no drinking, no smoking. No anything really …except preying.

          1. If the ‘authorities’ wished/wanted integration they wouldn’t be installing those squat toilets everywhere. Which always stink because not enough water flushes through. I can understand it in desert regions but the UK isn’t one of those…yet.
            Pandering to people who have learned techniques of survival in hot countries does not apply here. They should accept our ways and not insist on theirs.

          4. Not even a squat hole in this loo in Uganda. Sorry- still can’t post the image.

          9. In my worldwide travels i have never, ever, ever, ever come across one of these squatter facilities that was clean. There is always a mixture of shit and piss in the area where your feet are designated to be. It is utterly disgusting. And it stinks. I just don’t understand why it is so impossible for *some people* to sit on a loo rather than (as I gather is increasingly happening in parts of our capital city) crap in the street.

          10. Can’t possibly be Dalyan. There’s not a single mosquito… 🙂

            Have been there several times, en route to Dalaman airport at the end of a holiday in Kaş. “Food is now being served”, announced the waiter. Clearly, he was talking to the mozzies, rather than us punters…

          11. Please tell me that this is not so? Is this why all our public lavs are being closed? (i thought it was the cottaging)

          12. It is not universal yet but squats are being installed.

            Public Lavs are being closed because councils don’t want to fund anything but their pensions.
            Cottaging is a problem for normals who just want a pee but they should be happy that Police now provide condoms and advice in laybys. :@(

      2. That is because they are instilled form birth with a sense of superiority, grievance and virulent hatred. Not a combo conducive to happiness.

  91. Man stabbed to death outside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 7 April 2024.

    A man has been found stabbed to death outside Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium in north London hours before the team’s Premier League fixture there on Sunday evening.

    Police and paramedics were called to Northumberland Park at 5.51am on Sunday. Officers said the victim suffered “a number of stab injuries” and was pronounced dead at the scene.

    What is this one we wonder?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/07/man-stabbed-to-death-outside-tottenham-hotspur-stadium/

    1. Max Power saves me some typing.

      “Max Power

      4 MIN AGO

      Let me guess…. person of the faith associated with Spurs murdered by tanned swarthy gentlemen of the sort likely to be waving a pro-Hamas flag ?”

  93. Merde! J’ai échoué!

    IMHO, today’s word is an inappropriate choice for Wordle, fellow Wordlers!

    Tracy Bennett should learn English, peut-être?

    Wordle 1,023 X/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟨🟩🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩

    1. I got it in four (can’t do the boast chart yet) and it was not the one revealed in the spoiler below. I agree that it is a surprising word but take comfort from the fact that Wordle bounces it if it’s not allowable, so you don’t lose a try

      1. “but take comfort from the fact that Wordle bounces it if it’s not allowable, so you don’t lose a try.”

        Alas, not true; I have lost today – and my cumulative ‘streak’, opop!

        Boast Chart:
        1. press ‘Share’ on your result.
        2. Press Microsoft Squares key and ‘v’ simultaneously.

        1. Oh, that’s harsh! The one I do I don’t sign in for , and if I enter something that they don’t consider to be a valid word it shakes and goes away without counting in the finale. How very frustrating for you!

          1. From your description, you are not doing the NYT ‘Wordle’; there are several cheating versions…

          3. No; you are not doing the NYT ‘Wordle’; your description doesn’t fit, opop.

            There are numerous parasite ‘Wordle’ sites.

      2. Press ‘Share’ on your results page, then come to this page and right-click and ‘Paste’ on your post.

    2. Five here

      Wordle 1,023 5/6

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

      1. I don’t accept the result as legit, Bob.

        If foreign exclamations were allowed, that would greatly increase the number of words in an unspecified plethora of languages!

        1. But then adieu, as the most popular starter word shouldn’t really be allowed either.

    3. Once I worked out where the A went and having no other options left, well…

      Wordle 1,023 4/6

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

  95. In my case, it was because I couldn’t afford to buy what I wanted in South London. Nowadays, I wouldn’t want to live there anyway (apart from certain select areas e.g. Dulwich).

  96. Lovely concert this afternoon – The Linos Trio – played CPE Bach, Fanny Mendelsohn and finished up with an old favourite – the Archduke Trio. In between they played a piece by the pianist, who is Thai. They are a top-notch trio.

    2. According to Race Marxists the Thai pianist is “internalising whiteness”.

        1. I am afraid so. However if it was whitey playing some Thai music or incorporating a Thai style into their own sound then that would be “Cultural Appropriation”. This stuff is truly deranged.

  97. Another day is done and even if it’s early so, I wish you goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

  98. Enough said

    Three out of four British Muslims don’t believe that Hamas committed murder and rape in Israel on October 7, shocking poll claims
    The findings come on the six-month anniversary of the massacre in Israel

    This headline isn’t really accurate, but the analysis is truly horrifying, if the detail is true

    Today’s poll says 39 per cent of British Muslims said Hamas did not commit atrocities, while 37 per cent said they did not know whether they had or had not.

    Younger and well-educated Muslims appeared the most likely to think Hamas did not commit atrocities that day – including 47 per cent of those aged between 18 and 24 and 40 per cent of university graduates.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13281219/Three-four-British-Muslims-dont-believe-Hamas-committed-murder-rape-Israel-October-7-shocking-poll-claims.html
    Researchers also found just over half, or 52 per cent, of British Muslims believed it should be illegal to show pictures of the Prophet Mohammed, as opposed to 16 per cent of the overall public.

    Some 32 per cent or almost a third of British Muslims questioned said they backed Shariah law in the UK in comparison to nine per cent of the general public, the Telegraph reported.

    The poll also indicated 46 per cent of British Muslims and 16 per cent across the board felt Jewish people have too much power over UK government policy.

    Some 41 per cent of British Muslims said Jews have too much power in the media and 39 per cent when it came to Britain’s financial system.

    Fiyaz Mughal, founder of interfaith groups Tell Mama, Faith Matters and Muslims Against Anti-Semitism, described the results as ‘shocking but also not shocking’.

    He said: ‘Hamas is an Islamist extremist and terrorist group and has been terrorising Gazans, Israelis and liberals within society for decades.

    ‘The sense that Hamas did not conduct massacres and rapes in Israel is atrocious because it shows a closed-off mentality to anything emanating from Israel.’

    ‘The findings confirm that a lot of work needs to be done to inform, challenge, and address old anti-Semitic tropes that are still circulating among some of my co-religionists.

    ‘The Government has got to provide better guidance for teachers, schools and education establishments. The investment needs to happen as soon as possible because we are at real risk of a social cohesion problem.’

    1. “…The Government has got to provide better guidance for teachers, schools and education establishments. The investment needs to happen as soon as possible because we are at real risk of a social cohesion problem.’

      It does already, old fruit – it encourages slammers to be vile. Just look at “Batley man”.

      1. What is actually needed, instead of a load of self-professed “spokespeople” popping up following each Islam inspired atrocity opining that Muslims are terrified of an Islamophobic backlash, is, instead, an unequivocal condemnation of the truly inhuman violence committed by their co-religionists in their name and the name of their religion.

        Then it might conceivably begin to turn the tide of our country being invaded, threatened and ransomed by maniacal nutjobs. But it’s getting late in the day.

        1. Open borders are desired by every upwardly mobile politico because they want the lubbly dubbly payoffs from the billionaires at Davos and the Bilderberg Group.

          That’s why Tony Blair opened Britain’s borders. To get rich quick from Soros and every subsequent administration followed suit because Soros’ money 💰💰💰 was so good.

          1. How true. Remember the Caliph of Londonistan telling Iranian TV that slammers who reported slammers who rape and murder are “Uncle Toms”…

    2. Further proof, if it were needed, that Islam is totally incompatible with Western democracy and that Muslims will never assimilate into society.

        1. Why the f*ck do they all emigrate from Muslim countries and want to come here then?

          2. …the takeover being financed by UK taxpayers via exploitation of the benefits system. We’re bonkers.

          3. We’re not. We never voted for any of this – in fact we voted against it. Common Purpose and the WEF have decreed that there is no longer any need to respect a democratic vote and they will continue to do what they want, regardless of democratic mandate. Common Purpose calls this “Leading Beyond Authority” or somesuch. Peter Mandelson (perhaps the most sinister bugger of them all) calls ours a post democratic age. No = no no no no no.

            It has taken the antics of parliament since the Brexit vote to expose this. We now know – we see these slimy reptiles coming out from under their stones, tongues aflick. We need to act and vote accordingly.

          6. They really like being extreme in every possible conceivable way at every available opportunity.
            And it’s pretty obvious.

          7. They are “spreading the word”. They are also using our own laws to become councillors, MPs and Ministers of State. Slowly, slowly, catchee monkey.

        2. Islam will never ve compatible to the 21s 22nd or 23rd century. And beyond. Shame they don’t all fit into a little old town like Gaza.

    3. What does Mohammed look like? Who knows? How do you know the picture is of him, unless it contains a pig.

      1. As schoolgirls, we used to play a game identifying our suitors as “person you would least like to be raped by”. Black humour, I know. My guess is that the appearance of this filthy minded, murderous old paedophile would come in at No 1

    4. As I said earlier (repetition is the soul of brevity) – most “British” slammers said that they thought the London attacks in 2005 were perfectly justified – though some added that they would not have done it themselves, of course…(ha ha).

      1. In the modern world nothing they actually do or take part in can be justified.
        Their medieval mindset will never fit in any where in the western world.

    5. Just wait until a Muslim is elected as MP for an Islamic party and the dimwit Ropers realise that it doesn’t mean that they can have sharia law in their constituency…

      3. You can’t tell me that Luton, Tower Hamlets, Bradford et al do not have sharia.

    6. They surely mean muslims who live in Britain. No man can serve two masters so they are either muslim or they are British. The two are incompatible, in terms of values.

  100. Re the discussions below about slammers and Oct 7 rape – and Scotland and voting for the SNP etc – this was part of a comment in he Times last week by a 26 year old, public school “educated” young woman (about why should could not under any circs date a man who was a Conservative).

    ” Like many young people, I’m terrified about climate change and want politicians to do more about it.”

    Sadly, no comments were allowed (of course). Otherwise one would have suggested to this daft bint that she did some research into the global boiling scam…..

    1. Of course comments weren’t allowed. We can’t have her suffering from hurty feelings on top of being “terrified”, can we?

    4. I strongly suspect this delightful lady would also use the phrase “Women’s reproductive rights”.

      2. One of the many, many things that makes me want to scream, AA, is the change of language from “abortion” to “reproductive healthcare” along with all the other Stonewall-driven, sinister repurposing of our language to align with their taxpayer funded paedophile agenda.

        1. Did you hear the deranged cheering and whoops when President Biden mentioned “Women’s reproductive rights” at the recent State Of The Union address? He simultaneously managed to subtly threaten then misrepresent and insult the Supreme Court. I believe those judges were there, looking on somewhat bewildered and probably disturbed.

  101. That’s me for today. Had there not been (an ongoing) gale – it would have been quite nice out. Still, sorted out pots for potting on the tomatoes etc later in the week.

    Have a spiffing evening avoiding slammers with knives.

    A demain.

    1. Beautiful day here, up to +15C. At Firstborn’s place, snow melting frantically, down at our place it’s pretty well all gone. Managed to feed Firstborn’s bees (involving scrambling through heavy, icy wet snow deeper than my legs – an all-fours crawl worked), as there still isn’t anything for the poor wee stripy buzzers to forage for. So, triumph! :-)) One hive’s feeder was pretty well empty, so the timing was good.

      1. There are reports here in US that we are seeing a Honeybee explosion, after the reported 2006 die off. Again I would imagine statistics will tell some story or other!!

        2. We had loads of little things that looked like bees on our apple blossom today. The hives are nearby. Then you have to pay a tenner a jar to buy the honey that’s made from your own flowers back!
          Still, at least the flowers were hopefully all pollinated today!

          1. You are charging the bees a tenner a jar for their own honey? That is well cheeky

  102. It gave me great pleasure to use the page bearing her smug face to light the stove….

  103. Do they chew or suck?

    Theatregoers given trigger warning over ‘sound of people eating oranges’

    Customers also told that performance may not be suitable for those with citrus allergies

    Max Stephens
    7 April 2024 • 4:23pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/04/07/TELEMMGLPICT000373019509_17125028302660_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq3480UNUU8UfSxDSaY1n7MG8nGi5dnbzU1Uvp1fqu20E.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Out is showing at the Lilian Baylis Studio on April 25-26 CREDIT: Sadlers Wells/Glodi Miessi

    Theatregoers for an upcoming London show have been given a trigger warning over the sound of people eating on stage.

    Sadler’s Wells has warned ticket holders for the two performances of Out at Lilian Baylis Studio in Finsbury later this month may find the noise “uncomfortable”.

    Out is advertised as a musical duet, which “defiantly challenges homophobia and transphobia” and aims to “reimagine, reclaim and celebrate aspects of Caribbean culture from a queer perspective”.

    Customers wishing to purchase the £17 tickets are also told that as the production involves oranges it may not be suitable for those with citrus allergies.

    “The performance contains sounds of people eating so those with misophonia might find some parts uncomfortable.”

    The NHS describes misophonia as an “extreme emotional reaction to certain everyday sounds that most people would find relatively easy to ignore”.

    When casting for Out earlier this year, advertisements offering dancers £1,000 a week stipulated that all the applicants must be “queer, trans+ or gender non-conforming black performers of Caribbean heritage”, the Mail on Sunday reported.

    The show, scheduled for April 25-26, is marketed as an “interdisciplinary performance inspired by ongoing global struggles for LGBTQIA+ rights” and a “defiant challenge to the status quo”.

    “Bravely embracing personal, political and cultural dissonance, this work smashes through our violent colonial histories to reimagine, reclaim and celebrate our delicious queer future,” it continues.

    Ray Young, the creator and director of Out, said “I am extremely excited to be bringing Out back in 2024, the themes in the work resonate more now than ever before.

    “As queer people, we are still living in a world in which it is contentious for us to dare to thrive in our bodies, this is doubly so for our trans siblings whose lives are often under threat from the simple act of living authentically.

    “Surely being able to do this is non-negotiable.”

    Sadler’s Wells has been approached for comment.

    Earlier this month, Cate Blanchett said trigger warnings imply a “lack of mutual respect” between artists and the audience.

    The Australian actress told the Sunday Times that “tough conversations” are needed and that audiences should be challenged or even offended by what they see.

    Fellow actor Ralph Fiennes has similarly called for trigger warnings for theatre audiences to be scrapped, saying people should be “shocked and disturbed” by what they see.

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

    Larry Mi
    1 HR AGO
    Sounds like one to miss.
    “all the applicants must be “queer, trans+ or gender non-conforming black performers of Caribbean heritage”,
    What if a job advert said “all applicants must be straight and of white British Heritage”? Law suit!

      1. Fortunately the fleshpots of the state-subsidised arts scene can safely be ignored without losing too much of value…it has deteriorated a lot in the last four years alone.

        1. Butt (and it’s a big one) like AlBeeb, we are still compelled by law to pay for it

          2. None of us do. So why do we vote, when those we vote for implement the exact opposite policies to those we want and for which we did vote?

    2. I wonder what they would have said about trigger warnings in Shakespeare’s day when the audience was eating oranges?
      I can’t remember anything where Shakespeare dealt with such monumental stupidity, but perhaps Rastus can come up with a suitable quote?

          2. Mid-17th century (Charles II died in 1685, having been restored to the throne in 1660).

          3. r. 1660 – 1685. But I seem to remember reading about oranges being consumed at the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare’s day if my memory serves me right.

    4. I was all set to go and see the play until I saw the warning about the sound of people eating oranges. If it had been bananas, I might have been able to cope.

    5. We know muslims will not be going because that sort of entertainment is forbidden. Why the trigger warnings Except for virtue siganling to a declining audience. Death wish.

    7. If, and perish the thought, the venue was targeted by someone with a bomb-vest fetish, what organisations would the police be looking for to blame it on?

    9. So oranges are the trigger not the degenerates wallowing in debauchery. Caligula would be proud. I won’t be offended of course. I won’t be there.

        1. i know – they’re everywhere. Let it end. It will shortly become compulsory.

      2. Caligula would back away politely from these weirdos.

        Or have them executed.

    10. After a good meal and plenty of local wine all I got from that us something about transphobic oranges and queer Carribs.

      Ils sont tombés sur la tête ces crétins ?

      1. I have a pith helmet. I wear it when visiting France to imply that wogs begin at Calais.

          1. I saw that and corrected it, but I see you were quicker than me! I particularly dislike that error as well!

      2. I have a pith helmet. I wear it when visiting France to imply that wogs begin at Calais.

    12. Believe me, people eating oranges would be the least of the offences in this production!

  105. They also play the system and laugh their arses off at what mugs we all are to pay for them.

    1. They are delighted because they’re forcing us to pay jizya – the tax that dhimmis pay to live in a muslim country.

    1. No, it just posts your result the same way as everyone else’s, with different coloured squares instead of letters.

  110. Evening, all. The government should stay away! It’s the fault of the government and their “anybody but Christian” attitude that we’re in the state that we are.

  111. Good evening all.

    I hope you have all enjoyed your warm weather and have managed to potter around or go out for a trip ?

    Moh and I drove to Portland Bill .. the weather was sunny and warm , traffic galore , meaning the roads were very busy .

    It was pointless popping down the road to Lulworth , too full of visitors and car parking beyond the pale , so we decided to clear off and see some rough sea, real rough sea .

    We drove through Weymouth , and there were loads of people on the beach , usual holiday atmosphere , and along the quayside / harbour , were some VERY expensive yachts and motorboats .. but the nicest sight recently a few days ago was the TS Royalist , which is now mid ocean .

    The current position of TS ROYALIST is at North East Atlantic Ocean reported 1 min ago by AIS. The vessel arrived at the port of Weymouth, United Kingdom (UK) on Apr 4, 10:49 UTC.

    We drove onwards to Portland and we could see the wind whipping the dust off Chesil beach on our right hand side as we drove along the causeway , whereas the Portland harbour side was relatively quiet , speed boarders and kite surfers were having fun .

    The Causeway was busy with traffic , and athletes running along the long footpath .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Tq8C21KYHuU

    I asked Moh to drive the car up the very steep hill on to Portland , it is a daunting uphill drive to the top , the rocks and and old quarry equipment and the height as we travel upwards has recently made me almost sick with vertigo !

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yx9BeS6eX0s

    I visited the Portland bird observatory and asked them why they weren’t on Twitter any more , one of the chaps told me they had switched to Blue Sky .. a calmer form of Twitter /x, but I could still access them by googling Portland bird observatory. I felt happier with that news .

    Moh and I then drove to the Bill Lighthouse carpark , got out amongst the crowds of people , many of whom were Chinese , or I don’t know, not Nepalese I don’t think . The wind was screeching , the sea was thunderingly loud , visibility was strange , blue sky but dusty and salty , and the Portland Race was the fiercest I have seen for ages , the sea looked lethal , Kittiwakes and gulls hovered in the wind ..

    We felt very warm really, Moh didn’t wear his cap or even a heavy jacket , and I felt just right , cosy .

    There were long queues at the Lobster pot cafe for ice creams , and the cafe was full ..

    We have eaten there in the past when we have had visitors , delicious easy food . https://thelobsterpotportland.co.uk/

    We had to get home to put the turkey crown in the air fryer to roast , and do a few more things before the weather broke, but so far no rain here and the wind has backed and slackened off .. all my towels were dry on the line !

    Hope you enjoy the videos .

    The barge is inaccessible , it is in a heavily policed area of Portland port .

    1. Sun came out here about 13.00 so I decided I’d take Kadi to the local stately home gardens. By the time I’d got there (ca 20mins) it had clouded over and it was raining! It rained so hard last night the roads were flooded (the ditches are full and the fields are saturated so there is nowhere for the water to go).

        1. I took my phone to take some photos and the battery died, so no, unfortunately 🙁

    2. Erm…warm weather? Massive gale here all day with intermittent showers.☹️

    4. Sounds like a bracing day!
      That 2nd video certainly shows how the term “White Horses” was coined for waves in a storm.

  112. Taqiyyah allows them to lie, so they can be whatever they wish to be, on the route to conquest.
    The ends justify the means.

    1. I meant the article should refer to them as “muslims in Britain”. Their whole purpose is to turn this once Christian country into an islamic hellhole.

  113. I don’t take part in the charade any more. Have stopped believing in fairy stories.

  114. Exactly. They are doing us a favour by bestowing their stifling presence upon us and we must pay for the privilege, according to sharia law.

  116. It was very expensive. I believe the construction cost Edward I £1,500. He ran out of money building his ring of castles around Gwynedd which is why the walls of Beaumaris are so low. Caernarfon castle was his premier castle, the octagonal walls of which were modelled on the walls of Byzantium.

      1. I never found them funny. Put off by the Jayne Mansfield and the lobsters sketch.

    5. Hi Bob, I live about 15mins drive from you. We haven’t lived here for long and we don’t really know the area in terms of trusted services (still taking the cars to our usual garage – now almost an hours drive away). Anyway, we have inherited a large and unkempt garden and I wondered if you might know of a reliable person who would help us knock it into some shape and maintain it in the longer term – without breaking the bank.

      1. Heyup!
        Not really. If you do find one, let me know!

        If you’re driving up or down the Via Gellia, stop of and, if I’m in, I’ll do you a cup of tea!

        1. I will let you know if I find anyone. I will try to let you know if we are in your area, a cuppa would be most welcome. If you are ever out near Haddon Hall, let me know and I’ll put the kettle on.

      2. Was he? I know he was wooden etc, but he did tell even more lies than Boris.

  121. They are on a roll!

    In a move intended to restrict mass migration, Switzerland will hold a referendum to restrict their population to 10 million until 2050.
    The vote will take place after the populist Swiss People’s Party (UDC) harvested 114,600 signatures in just nine months, meeting a government requirement for 100,000 signatures within 18 months for the referendum to go ahead.

    If approved, the referendum will ensure Switzerland maintains “sustainable demographic development” by restricting the permanent resident population of the wealthy European country to 10 million for the next 25 years.

    “Under the proposal, the Swiss government would have to take urgent measures as soon as the permanent resident population exceeds 9.5 million by, for example, suspending the ability for migrants to obtain residence permits, Swiss citizenship, or any other right to stay in the country,” reports Remix News.
    The vote would also likely mean Switzerland would be forced to end its bilateral agreement with the European Union on free movement and pull out of the U.N. Global Compact for Migration”

    Gnomes sweet home!

    1. Time to apply for residence in Switzerland then. It would beat being here with Trudeau bringing in a million gimmegrants a year

      1. Depends when Eddy plans to get up, Squire. I usually head upstairs at around 10 pm with my alarm clock for 6 am.

        1. Why so early, Elsie? If you need the alarm you need more sleep. Unless you have an urgent appointment.

          1. Not true, Ndovu. I get up at 6 am so that I can get cracking on my morning jobs: trip to the loo, downstairs to make a cuppa and take my morning tablets, a quick check on my finances to see if any outstanding cheques have cleared, another check on the weather to see if I can fit in an hour or so of gardening before it rains, and then testing my brain with the day’s Wordle, ready for Geoff’s posting of the new NoTTLe page at around 7 am.

          4. The only time I’m up before 6am is when I’m in Kenya – up at 5am most days while I was there in February. Out before it’s light. Three hours ahead of GMT here. No problem getting up then. At home I don’t get up early at all.

          5. …and i too rise at 06:00, Elsie, to be sure that today’s funny is ready for Geoff’s kick-off.

  123. 🙂 I infer no Frog has ever understood why I wear the thing as no one has ever commented. I have not been to sub Saharan Africa….I wonder how it would go down there?

    1. One of my French friends has a solar topee. When I was in Calais, a group of really dark-skinned Africans walked past. Vraiment les negres commencent a Calais.

  124. On reading the comments section of The Telegraph article today on Dame Lipman I was surprised at the levels of historical illiteracy amongst many of those holding anti-Semitic or anti-Semitic adjacent views, even after a polite correction and clarification.

    1. They make it up as they go along, AA. It is terrifying how blind their spot is.

    2. Yes, there are a couple of throbbers posting whose monikers I recognise from previous run-ins.

      Total bell tips.

    4. I’m nor in the least surprised.. I say this as someone too stupid to know otherwise.

    5. I tried looking that up last night before going to bed and got a blank white page.
      Will try again this morning.

  125. Ugh! 6am is a horrid hour. If I wake at six I sometimes can’t go back to sleep and end up getting up grumpily. Once I’ve had a couple of coffees my mood improves…..if the sun is out.

    1. These days sunrise is around 6.15 am. Squire, so that although it is pitch black at 5.45 am, by 6 am it is clear enough to see that the sun is out.

      1. Sunrise is a little earlier here, but I believe bed is the proper place for gentlemen until at least 7.30.

    2. I love it! An unspoilt day. And one of the joys of this time of year (the next three months or so) is that one can enjoy that earlier and earlier before having to have any interaction at all with other people.

    1. I do have thicker curtains in my bedroom, Conners. But once the alarm clock goes off and I move from the bedroom to the upstairs loo it is daylight.

  127. What about ladies, Squire? And, as a P G Wodehouse fan, I can categorically state that the consummate gentleman who is Bertram Wooster often slept in to the late morning, as Jeeves would attest.

    1. Ladies do not usually appear before luncheon, surely? They need a equal amount of sleep and then they disappear into the feminine complexities of the bathroom for a couple of hours…..

    2. I don’t believe Bertie ever received a female visitor before lunchtime, except for his troublesome aunts of course.

    1. There is and has been a Palestinian state and Israel is occupying that land. That kind of thing.

    2. There is and has been a Palestinian state and Israel is occupying that land. That kind of thing.

  130. Well. I was always told that it was the Elven hour that one had to watch out for.

  131. Well chums, any minute now my iPhone will remind me it is close to bed time (10 pm). I will therefore now bid you all a Good Night, a restful sleep, and hope you awaken refreshed. Otherwise I will be up until midnight or later because large numbers of you will continue interacting with me, telling me why my waking and sleeping hours are all wrong, i.e. not what they would do. Can’t we each do our own thing without telling others how to live their lives?

    1. You should pour yourself another drink and refrain from retiring until 11pm so we can all enjoy reading your posts and excuse ourselves for getting up later!😄

      2. Well, Squire, I mentioned that I did not appreciate others telling me how I should live my life and you were one of those who upvoted those sentiments. Yet now you have just posted that I ought to stay up until 11 pm so that you can have a lie-in yourself. Isn’t this a sign of hypocrisy on your part?

    2. Exactly, Elsie. My diurnal rhythm has changed, I don’t sleep at night but grab a few zeds during the day..

  132. Doesn’t seem worth it does it. Elsie? Yet it has to be done, the whole rigmarole.

  133. Not for me, Squire. That comes later, when the human world of other people lurches into gear. The early hours = a magic interlude of peace and sanity.

      1. I am a pianist and have loved this piece since I was twelve when I first learned it.

        1. I was taught to play the piano as a child myself. Then along came the young ladies and motorcycles, then I transferred my musical attention to electric guitar and bands.
          It’s only when something like this comes up that I realise what it is that I have missed.
          The pairing of the light show(which I had never come across), took my breath away.
          Many thanks again for an emotion I hadn’t visited for many years.

      2. I am a pianist and have loved this piece since I was twelve when I first learned it.

      3. I am a pianist and have loved this piece since I was twelve when I first learned it.

  139. War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, intermittent energy is secure and the Climate Change Act 2008 and Legal Net Zero 2019 are disguised billionaire payments to, among others, Tony Blair, David Miliband, David Cameron, Theresa May and Lord Adair Turner, the first chairman of the Climate Change Committee and the current chairman of the Energy Transition Commission.

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