Sunday 7 May: The Coronation gave people reason to be proud of their country and their monarchy

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

433 thoughts on “Sunday 7 May: The Coronation gave people reason to be proud of their country and their monarchy”

  1. Morning all 🙂😉🙃
    I went to bed so early last night I’m wide awake now.
    And quite correct, it was a spectacular event to be proud of. I’m not sure about all the religious aspects and anointing with special oil from Jerusalem. But very well done those who organised it all. And even more well done all those service men and women who stood out side or sat on horses getting soaking wet.
    I’d better try and catch up now, or I’ll be yawning all day.

  3. Good morning, chums. The Great Coronation Lunch today, apparently. I remembered that the guests at Charles’ mother’s coronation were served with Coronation Chicken shortly after the service, so I ate my Coronation Quiche after the Red Arrows fly-past. It seems I was 24 hours too early! Never mind, I have something else in the fridge for today’s meal. Enjoy the day, everyone.

      1. Disagree. I think he’s got the appalling Welby to a tee and, at that phase, the King looked beyond nervous. He cheered up later.

          1. I think the implication is that Charles is insufferably vain – he is big-headed.

        2. When Welby placed the crown on Chas’s head it looked like he was trying to locate the bayonet fitting

          3. I once bought a collection of 8BA screws and nuts from one of the many shops in Sheffield in the seventies, when you could purchase more or less anything.

            I used them to construct a geodesic dome as a design project. The joints or nodes I formed using lengths of medicinal swab-sticks and clear polythene tube to make the connections with the brass screws securing each node.

          4. I still have a large collection of BA Nuts and bolts which left the RAF at the same time as me – 8BA is getting small! I doubt if there’s a screw or nut of any thread which I haven’t got among my countless tins in a rack in my garage or the relevant tap and die

          5. I once bought a collection of 8BA screws and nuts from one of the many shops in Sheffield in the seventies, when you could purchase more or less anything.

            I used them to construct a geodesic dome as a design project. The joints or nodes I formed using lengths of medicinal swab-sticks and clear polythene tube to make the connections with the brass screws securing each node.

    2. I noticed that Welby either changed or got a word wrong in the Prayer of Consecration.

  9. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    We Are All Sinners

    In a small town in the middle of Georgia, there was a preacher.

    Every Sunday, he preached his sermon from memory.

    One Sunday, he stood at the pulpit and realised that he’d completely forgotten his sermon! So he decided to improvise.

    He looked out at his congregation and said, “Today’s sermon will be about sin. But first, before I start, I want all the thieves and extortionists to move to the left. In the middle, I want all the whores, whoremongers and pimps. To the right, I want all the dopers, pushers and smugglers.”

    Everybody got up and moved to their respective spot. After they had all settled, one man was still standing. So, the preacher said, “Son, why haven’t you moved?”

    The man said, “Pastor you haven’t called my sin.”

    “What is your sin?” the preacher asked.

    The man said, “Pastor, I am sexually attracted to little boys.”

    “Then, my son,” said the preacher, “come on up here in the pulpit with me!”

    1. Good morning Tom and everyone.

      There is something distinctly unfunny about the story for today.

      Although it reminds me of the school tale from some years ago:

      In a primary school one morning there was bickering between children from different ethnicities.

      The teacher shouts angrily and everyone goes quiet. “I’m fed up with this.

      I can’t bear to listen to this arguing anymore. From now on, there’s no

      black, there’s no white, got it? Today you kids are all going to be the same colour, which is GREEN. You are all green.

      Now everyone sit down, dark green at the back, light green at the front. “

    2. Good morning Tom and everyone.

      There is something distinctly unfunny about the story for today.

      Although it reminds me of the school tale from some years ago:

      In a primary school one morning there was bickering between children from different ethnicities.

      The teacher shouts angrily and everyone goes quiet. “I’m fed up with this.

      I can’t bear to listen to this arguing anymore. From now on, there’s no

      black, there’s no white, got it? Today you kids are all going to be the same colour, which is GREEN. You are all green.

      Now everyone sit down, dark green at the back, light green at the front. “

  10. Pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin injured in car explosion, says Russia. 6 May 2023.

    The incident comes after a series of apparent attacks and acts of sabotage on Russian territory, sometimes far from the front. In April a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed the 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Last August Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent ultranationalist intellectual, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow, which Russia blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv denied the charges.

    They were of course murdered by the Ukies! Strange these activities don’t draw down the same condemnation that Vlad’s supposed escapades attract.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/06/pro-kremlin-writer-zakhar-prilepin-injured-in-car-explosion-says-russia

  11. Pro-Kremlin writer Zakhar Prilepin injured in car explosion, says Russia. 6 May 2023.

    The incident comes after a series of apparent attacks and acts of sabotage on Russian territory, sometimes far from the front. In April a blast from a statuette rigged with explosives killed the 40-year-old pro-Kremlin military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky. Last August Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent ultranationalist intellectual, was killed in a car bombing outside Moscow, which Russia blamed on Ukraine. Kyiv denied the charges.

    They were of course murdered by the Ukies! Strange these activities don’t draw down the same condemnation that Vlad’s supposed escapades attract.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/06/pro-kremlin-writer-zakhar-prilepin-injured-in-car-explosion-says-russia

  12. I made a graph of all my past relationships.

    It has an ex axis and a why axis.

  14. Morning all,

    After catching the important bits of yesterday’s BBC coverage of King Charles’s coronation I heard Nicholas Witchell’s later reflections on the future outlook of Charles’s reign. Nicholas said that Charles expected that he would begin to govern the country which the reporter conceded was the parliament’s role.

    It was the images during the yesterday’s progamme of the bronze statue of Charles I

    https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/london-statues-and-monuments/king-charles-I/

    that reminded me of our late Queen’s remark that the further you go back in history the further you can see ahead.

    The statue itself is a reminder of why the Government of that period decided that the King had overstepped his powers and that the head of the monarch should chopped off.

    Present youth should reflect on why the UK monarch was deemed at that time to be so wealthy, interfering, irrelevant and disposable and yet it still exists today.

    1. Everything (well almost everything) has a cut off point. Charles I went too far and there was no obvious alternative. But any state still needs a head of state.

  16. Memetastic

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9545fe15d39d5725fa2af79e6a928bb01095e66c430017a08fe17893eac1fa7c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7751995c65b30579742f5bc5f1bf60b7091e1a441478e2198a3924ce765bfef1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd7f292b2e113ce45f4338ecbe08a7be5446f2568cbc804822a06f9f00b9b9a6.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93a43d7c5fa18308b49978334c49bc9d2cd3fe07dd72fc788a2e4d16ad2c7274.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0e12ab72d431e8ce7a870b67c8bf0194b15330001d88a33dcee542c2a0e75ffc.jpg

    1. The world is not manipulated by a global elite – the Bilderberg, Club of Rome, WEF, Pilgrims, Chatham House etc only meet to discuss the weather, and anyone who says otherwise will be locked up in a concentration camp!

    2. Neil nailed it. WE know what it means. Do THEY?

      Who wrote the script? The Rockefeller-constructed Club of Rome/WEF/Trilateral Commission/Club of Rome/UN and its Agenda 21.

    3. Well researched and very complicated but its a great shame our political idiots don’t recognise that they are further down the pile than they seem to think they all are.
      As in you work for us. This is worth stipulating often. And checks on their expenses and other non parliamentary income should be closely examined.

  18. The transport overhaul facing Cardiff and why it will have a huge impact

    The 15-minute city is here to stay whether you like it or not. Here’s what that actually means

    Cardiff

    is changing in so many ways. The capital today looks completely

    different to just a few years ago and there are plans for huge housing

    developments across the city.

    But there’s a new buzzword in town – the “15-minute city,” which is an idea

    being

    implemented across Europe. It’s been the subject of debate in other UK

    cities and somehow become a buzzword for conspiracy theorists.

    From buses and trains to cycle lanes and pedestrianisation, policies from

    the

    council and Welsh Government will change the face of the city whether

    you like it or not so it’s worth dissecting what this term actually

    means and how it will affect Cardiff.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/transport-overhaul-facing-cardiff-huge-26819059
    “Whether you like it or not” How very democratic…………..

    1. What an incredibly offensive piece of text, and I didn’t read any further.
      In effect; we are doing this regardless of what people want, and if you oppose it, then you’re a conspiracy theorist, aka lunatic who can be ignored.

      Utterly appalling.

      1. That’s a but like this wretched government dumping 1,200 ‘asylum seekers’ a mile and a half from here in six months’ time. Local democracy is not only dead but buried too.

        1. When I became a parish councillor it became painfully obvious in short order that local democracy had been dead on its feet as far as planning went. The more we, the locals, objected to developments, the more frequently we were over-ruled by County.

    2. From what I have previously seen and been aware of in various parts of Wales there has never seemed to have been any desperation to build new homes. Perhaps councilor De ath knows certain things that others don’t.

  20. The Coronation gave people reason to be proud of their country and their monarchy

    Do we need to look for reasons?

    1. It is what we do best.

      Scanning the crowds you would never know we live in a multicultural country.

      1. Indeed – it was painfully obvious. The proportion of African/Asian origin people was higher in the Abbey than in the crowd.

        1. In unavoidable fairness, there were a lot of commonwealth representatives.

          1. Yes, but they are foreigners, like the foreign dignitaries, so they don’t count!

          2. Yes but they will go back to whence they came this week if not already.

        2. I have to admit to a certain irritation (well, the grandchildren were with us, so spleen-venting and throwing things at the telly wasn’t advisable) when the gospel choir hove into view. However, their involvement was mercifully short.

      2. The interview ratio was quite high.
        But not if I remember, very visible at the Queen’s funeral.
        I expect the rest were busy making advertisements and remakes of Dickens stories etc.

    2. I am rather more proud of what Britain was than what it is.

      Much of the coronation was sheer Nostalgia.

  21. I am reading Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. Set in America it tells the story of a dystopian future where businesses collapse under too heavy regulation, high taxation and looting. That future is here, now.

    We are seeing it in cities like San Francisco, Portland and others. Brands leaving and many shops closing as they are being looted every day. Industrial collapse, quality of materials degraded and inferior products made with inbuilt obsolescence.

    The book was written in 1957. The future has arrived.

    2. ‘Morning, Bill. Is England’s second driest county not living up to its reputation??

  23. ‘Moring, Peeps. Warm, dry day forecast here, with a sweltering 18°C. Break out the shorts and flip-flops…

    The Broken Broadcasting Corporation didn’t exactly cover itself in glory – the sound was not up to scratch so what we saw was on another channel. This morning they are also lamenting the ‘restriction of free speech’ with some thwarted protesters, and their lawyer, bemoaning police involvement in their activities.

    Now, as a full supporter of free speech (llke most Nottlrs, I imagine) I nevertheless found myself on the side of those who have come to the end of their tether with the serious disruption (Dartford Bridge, M25, blocked emergency vehicles, disrupted funerals, vital hospital appointments missed and all the rest) by a relatively tiny group of eco-nutters. They have damaged their cause(s) to the point of destruction, and the legal restrictions introduced last week are the long-overdue backlash by the great majority who just want to go about their lawful business and activities.

    The abuse our freedoms (what is left of them) has a price to pay. I just hope that the police won’t abuse these new powers. Is this a vain hope on my part?

    1. The eco nutters would have got their just deserts if the police had vanished and left them alone with the crowd.

  24. Good morning all.
    A warmer start today, the thermometer has actually reached 10°C for the first morning this year!
    Otherwise bright and dry after overnight rain.

  25. Good day all,

    Grey start to the day at McPhee Towers but it should break up to be a sunny afternoon and evening. Wind in the South-West going West, 11℃ rising to 18℃. Nice. But only for one day.

    Went to a very enjoyable Coronation Concert last night. The Marlborough Choral Society and the Marlborough Concert Orchestra had teamed up and with ony three rehearsals produced an hour long programme featuring Walton’s The Crown Imperial, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Elgar’s Nimrod, an arrangement of traditonal English folk songs, Londonderry Air and Pomp and Circumstance No 4 among others, all finished with the National Anthem. A sort of Mini Last Night of the Proms. I have to say it was excellent, pretty much a professional standard. And all for a fiver a head at the door of St. Mary’s in Marlborough. Well done all.

  27. Good morning all

    The ancient 6th century bible that we had a glimpse of that the A of C showed the King ..I would love to know more . The gold illustration looed beautiful ..

  29. SIR – Watching the Coronation, it occurred to me that the few things this country still gets right invariably involve the British Army.

    John Gordon
    Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

    Ahem…Great credit goes to ALL those servicemen and women, not just the Army.

  30. SIR – I enjoyed the BBC’s excellent Coronation coverage – but why did every commentator have to overuse the phrase “A sense of…”?

    Carolyn Perren
    Porthcawl, Glamorgan

    Yes, but then most of the commentators were not up to speed. Personally I would prefer to do without them, and I noted later on that Iplayer has put up non-commentary versions of the main events.

    1. When it came to the historical aspects there was only one person to ask – David Starkey. Instead the BBC gave us …..drum roll…..
      David Olusoga.

    2. When it came to the historical aspects there was only one person to ask – David Starkey. Instead the BBC gave us …..drum roll…..
      David Olusoga.

    1. We had very imperfect reception in Brittany but we thought that this was due to technical problems with the transmission and was down to our own equipment rather than a deliberate fault.

      2. I watched (some of) it on BFMTV and listened to the commentary on Radio 4. There was a gap of about a minute between the two. The French coverage was first class.

    1. ‘Morning, Peeps. If I had a forelock I would be tugging it right now…

      1. Yes, the right hand man to the odious Schwab and the first person to go public and promote The Great Reset.

  33. The sixth-century Gospels of Augustine of Canterbury are the oldest surviving illustrated Latin Gospels in the world and the oldest non-archaeological artefact of any kind to have survived in England, continuously owned and in use for 1,400 years. The Gospels were shown to HM the King (then Prince of Wales) when he visited the Parker Library in Corpus Christi College Cambridge in March 2001. He immediately recognised their importance and has requested that they be carried in his Coronation procession on May 6 at Westminster Abbey.

    The Gospels have been in the care of the Parker Library for the last 450 years. The only times the Governing Body has given special permission for them to leave the College have been for the enthronements of the last seven Archbishops of Canterbury and for two papal visits (John Paul II in 1982 and Benedict XVI in 2010).The presence of the Augustine Gospels at the King’s Coronation affirms their status as the most precious and important medieval manuscript to survive in England. Their fundamental significance to the nation was recently recognised when the Gospels were inscribed in 2023 on the UNESCO UK Memory of the World Register.

    https://www.finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-news/sixth-century-augustine-gospels-be-used-king-charles-iiis-coronation

    3. I have seen the (Parker) Bury Bible. It is kept in a box in the Parker Library. It is written on vellum with illumination and lapis lazuli. The setting out lines remain visible which makes it particularly special.

      I am surprised that Charles, a student at Trinity just a few yards along Trinity Street from Corpus Christi, waited until March 2001 to view the Parker Legacy.

      Edit: The Parker Library was built as part of the new Corpus buildings by architect William Wilkins, architect of the National Gallery and University College London main building containing the Donaldson Library (under the dome). The Parker Library contains the Parker Legacy a collection of bibles, books and silver acquired by Matthew Parker who had been Chaplain to Queen Anne Boleyn and Archbishop of Canterbury to Queen Elizabeth I.

      There is an inscription to Matthew Parker in the floor of Lambeth Palace Chapel next the Laudian Screen. At one time Parker was rector of our little church in Ashen.

  34. Brown bear found in a town just a bit north of Oslo. Police say to leave it the @@@k alone! Snow still on the ground, the poor bugger is likely hungry, so won’t take kindly to being harassed.

      3. Maybe the bear will rise up and also sing:
        Lord, for these thy gifts….

    3. I marvel that people need to be told to leave it alone.

      Sometimes my youtube shorts comes up with a video of some hiker being chased by a bear. I just think: why the hell were you hiking where there are bears?

    5. It’s been reported in the local press that we have a lone wolf doing the rounds in our village and nearby. I may have to camp outside in the hope of snapping it.

        1. The first record I ever bough was the Tommy the Toreador EP, price 10/6.

        2. The choreography scenes in those classic 1940s–1960s musicals were nothing short of magnificent.

  36. To the title: maginificent pagentry of nominally Christian trappings does not do it for me.
    I went to Lidl. There weren’t many people about and they seemed to be speaking foreign.

        1. Join the club, I didn’t watch it either – I was preparing for the afternoons care home gig

          1. I’m also a member; I watched the 2000 Guineas and the rest of the racing.

      2. I only saw the highlights in the evening programme but it looked pretty good.

    1. Dangerous twaddle.
      The climate has always changed. Burying ourselves in this is nonsense ain’t gonna to help us adapt.

      1. I think that he is intellectually incapable of understanding anything at all once an idea has become fixed in his head.

        Some would say he is firm in his ideas, others would say he is obstinate – I would say he is pig-headed.

    2. He is completed deluded.

      He has no interest or understanding of the sound scientific evidence which contradicts what he wants to believe.

      He cannot see because he will not see – indeed he is quite determined not to see and the damage that he could inflict is a disaster.

      2. I told my neighbour that what I disliked about Charles was his political opinions, but what I disliked even more was the fact that I knew he had any. Constitutional monarchs should stay out of politics.

  38. On this day in 1915 Canadian Field Artillery surgeon, John McCrae, penned this emotive poem in memory of his friend, Alexis Helmer, who had been killed by enemy gunfire.

    In Flanders Fields

    In Flanders fields the poppies blow
    Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
    Scarce heard amid the guns below.

    We are the Dead. Short days ago
    We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
    In Flanders fields.

    Take up our quarrel with the foe:
    To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
    We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
    In Flanders fields.

    May they rest in peace and never be forgotten.

  39. I don’t need a reminder as to why I don’t watch the BBC and have not done so for years. This short clip is such a reminder and may encourage others to do the same- although I have a feeling that many here do not watch this abject propaganda channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_JsNndjECM

    1. Like my family – all white, as nobody married a black. That’s just the way it is.

      1. Yes, indeed but that’s far too obvious, it seems for the calibre of person that the BBC has to employ for such an event to make “pertinent and incisive” commentary. We had the same with regard to the England women’s football team. I suppose that is a prerequisite for the BBC- you must include race in your discussion even when it is obvious, it is not relevant. I believe there were about 2,300 people at Westminster Abbey and one family on the balcony. Maybe, the BBC thinks that all 2,300 ought to be seen on the balcony?

    2. Way to go, Dean. Word round the campfire was that during the Great Depression, most of my fellow bums were of the ivory variety, Dude. Them ebony-hued ‘Bo bros were rather thin on the sidings, Hombre.

      1. Hey Beatnik, during that Ol’ Depresssion, Dude , your compadres were riding the rails or camping in unused oil pipes not hanging around on balconies wearing fancy threads and dodgy headgear, Man.

    3. They were mostly family – of course they were white! there were plenty of brown faces at the ceremony.

    4. I’m glad she found it ‘distasteful” to say the Royal Family were too white! It’s just racism, but of course it’s ok to be racist if you are not white.

    5. I suspect that it was an unsubtle dig that the Sainted Meagain wasn’t there, centre stage..

    6. The BBC pundit’s last major role as an actor was Richard III. We all know that Billy Shakespeare took some liberties with history but he never went as far as suggesting Richard of York was a black broad. Ghastly creature.

      1. Netflix forced a black woman – a fat one at that – on to Vikings Valhalla as a Viking king.

        Is it because they hate history or because they truly want to erase it? If the latter, are they not aware that this was warned against? Did they read 1984 and see a dystopia to copy? They all seem to be frenziedly Left wing, all fervently pro EU.

        Is the intent to create eurasia?

      2. I saw an advert for the remake of Tom Jones. It had a black woman in it. It’s been a long time since I read the book, but I can’t recall any non-whites in it.

    8. She is half Ghanaian and half British.
      I wonder if she is ashamed of the “terribly white” half of her own heritage?
      A further point, could one presume that her father’s Ghanaian forebears would have been active in the slave trade?

      1. Bob, the narrative is simple as far as this debate goes- any complexity might shift the blame away those who must shoulder it all and complicate matters. The simple truth that the sale of human beings had been part of the local economy along with gold and other precious items like ivory for a very long time, must not be discussed.

    9. Perhaps she should leave and stop whinging?

      I’m truly tired of Lefties complaining about the greatest country in the world, and treating it as a toilet for their verbal excrement.

    3. I have seen them before, although quite a while ago.

      I think they may also have taken over one of “Hat’s” many sites.

    1. There are only two AHs there and the both feature in the film The Ghost Writer.

    2. “Did you realise, Vlad, that one of the previous incumbents of my country residence wanted to wipe Russia off the map?”

    4. Tony Blair, the stinking turd in the shitpan that will just NOT flush away.

  43. Off out now so here’s round 2

    Who me??

    https://twitter.com/Yoda4ever/status/1654937325153943562

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95c6ea8a26bef9a9bc2145dc402371d5d8ef680f8cdbe005730db19036d2d070.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04f2925cffac4685566b079da2623f850da5b6b95c928a104065fcfaf0c04b44.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28b841973b0b54c455335233e3d11b5fe0d84885dd4eea766a796ebccf2dbdb0.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0c7725eb3468b7e128c4bd7f12ada1f419a9e2e4a6ec1fe2a7aa41dae657dd4.gif

    1. “The past was a first-world country”?

      Marvelling at the architecture of Westminster Abbey, yesterday, confirmed that reality for me. The species has grown much too stupid to get even close to emulating such staggering feats of engineering these days.

      1. I thought the same about the Abbey excepting the cut glass chandeliers which pollute the space.

        Then the view looking at the facade of Buckingham Palace with a skyline towards Victoria now ruined by enormous angular constructions.

        The architects of the buildings looking the other way across Green Park towards Whitehall understood that the skyline should not be jarred by horizontal blocks but broken by flèche ornamentation harmonising with the tree line. Borromini wrote about ‘the light that corrodes’ in this regard. Witness the skyline of the National Liberal Club and that of Horse Guards.

        I attended two of the best schools of Architecture in the early seventies where we were taught technical stuff by persons with experience of industry. At Sheffield University Dr Tattersall had been head of British Steel Special Steels Division and at another time the Cement and Concrete Association.

        Those with pure and applied mathematics A-Levels attended the School of Engineering where we were taught the basics and how to calculate a frame.

        At University College London the emphasis was on theory. I acquired so much from the visiting Bannister Fletcher Professor, Peter Smithson, and became acquainted to the writings of Colin Rowe and Christopher Alexander.

        Entering practice was the essential starting point but without a sufficient formal grounding would have been impossible to progress.

        I am left wondering what on earth is being taught in the schools nowadays. The deterioration in the quality of thought and product is disturbing.

        1. Yes. I shuddered when one view they gave (that formerly encapsulated old Westminster) was a front-on view of Westminster Abbey with The Palace of Westminster to the right.

          Tragically the view to the left was utterly destroyed by the long ‘angular’ monstrosity in the background; but completely trashed by that idiotic fairground big wheel in the near foreground.

          1. I totally agree. The Ferris wheel was supposed to be temporary.

            Every major city seems to want an
            ‘observation wheel’. They might offer wonderful views from an observation pod but the view of this monster from, say, Parliament Fields or Kenwood is not a pretty sight.

        2. If my fine art degree course is anything to go by, it’s learning by doing (or not learning as the case may be). Theory is out.

    1. George is getting concerned, so we are in big trouble! Or in the “No Bueno Zone” as he puts it.

  46. It’s dry and tending towards being on the mild side and so, garden and seeds here I come!

    1. Just put out some Regals I’ve had growing on on a sunny windowsill. So snow is on the way.

    2. Just put out some Regals I’ve had growing on on a sunny windowsill. So snow is on the way.

    3. I just threw half a dozen seed bombs around. Nature and the weather can do the rest.

      1. I went to a garden open under the NGS scheme after church and bought some pink lily of the valley from a plant stall. Looking forward to seeing them spread.

        1. I’m no where near doing any meaningful planting up the “garden” but am moving the wild garlic I have to uproot where I’m clearing the surplus soil from the roadside verge. I will also need to shift a snowdrop clump later when I extend Bob’s Folly and will plant most of them by the road too.

          Did you see the horse racing piece on Going Postal t’other day?
          As a layman I found it interesting.

          1. I’m not sure which horseracing piece you mean, Bob. What was it about? I read a link about racing, but I can’t remember if it was going postal.

          3. Thanks. I hadn’t read that one. I think it was the National one I read.

  47. During the procession from The Palace to Westminster Abbey just before the Coronation, the BBC’s go-to fat emetic Dyke, Clare (de la Loon) Hairloss, noticed four mounted members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the parade. She gormlessly babbled (as is her wont), “Oh, look; it’s the ‘Canadian Mounted Police’.”

    It would not have occurred to the flabby, overweening, oleaginous Amazon to correctly add the necessary qualifier ‘Royal’ in the title of that august outfit. She is probably also unaware of the existence of another branch of the service in Canada, namely the North-West Mounted Police, who are as separate from the RCMP as the City of London Police are from their close neighbours at New Scotland Yard.

    1. Problem is, Grizz, that knowing stuff doesn’t matter any more, especially knowing anything about details such as “Royal” or not. The same applies to the use and spelling of language – sloppier and sloppier.

    2. Hey, Beatnik, those North-West dudes became the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and then 20 years later, the RCMP.

      1. That’s a real bummer, Dean. As you know, Man, I’m a dyed-in-the-nylon iron-horse dude. No four-legged friends in this cowboy’s paddock.

        1. Beatnik, you’re in the old caboose of the Cannonball Express when Ol’ Casey Jones is too busy watching out for those cows and critters on the line ahead, so you sneak aboard. Keep on a-rockin’ and a-rollin’, hombre.

    3. She wasn’t any better when commenting on the horseracing, Grizz, despite her pedigree.

  48. Arab League readmits Syria as relations with Assad normalise. 7 May 2023.

    The Arab League has adopted a decision to readmit Syria after more than a decade of suspension, a spokesperson for the league said, consolidating a regional push to normalise ties with President Bashar al-Assad.

    The decision was taken at a closed meeting of Arab foreign ministers at the Arab League’s headquarters in Cairo, said Gamal Roshdy, spokesperson for the Arab League’s secretary general.

    Syria’s membership of the Arab League was suspended in 2011 after a bloody crackdown on street protests against Assad that led to a devastating civil war, and many Arab states pulled their envoys out of Damascus.

    Assad was of course pro-West until we tried to overthrow him. He has now joined the opposition, Another geopolitical masterstroke!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/may/07/arab-league-readmits-syria-as-relations-with-assad-normalise

    1. But, but, but – she’s a member of the AfD, and thus obviously a wicked fascist

      1. And me! I loved ‘White Fang’ and ‘Call of the Wild’
        Where have you been, sos?

      2. And me! I loved ‘White Fang’ and ‘Call of the Wild’
        Where have you been, sos?

    1. I know…I know….it’s the one with the red indian, the policeman, and all the other stereotypes, and only one was actually gay!

    2. Inhabitants of a group of houses and associated buildings, larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town, situated in a rural area..

        1. Davs, Bamse! I can forgive Rob Halford anything – nearly. Haven’t heard his version (or even heard of it, to tell the truth). Maybe he just lived it, eh?!

    4. Always God in an aerobics class at the gym. Start going through the motions and it really confuses the others.

    1. Reflects my earlier post of the book ‘Atlas Shrugged’.
      Things will only get worse.

    2. That was the whole point of them, surely? So that disaster capitalists can buy the lot up cheaply? Catherine Austin Fitts noticed that the rioting was in very specific streets inside development zones where re-developers would get wads of government cash.

      1. Thank you. The Wisteria is only just opening and the fronds grow to 20 inches. The scent is very heady.

          1. I’m game. How about you Mrs Lottie Wilkins?

            Love that film. That’s why i planted it in the first place.

          2. I love the books too and the film is a faithful adaptation. Elizabeth and her German Garden and The Solitary Summer are two other books by Elizabeth von Arnim that I enjoyed. Restful reading.
            With my stick to brandish, I am probably more like Mrs. Fisher ;-))

          2. Needed refreshing – I’d wondered if the puss-cat had anything to do with it.

      1. There’s few beavers in Ullapool – even more during the tourist season

    1. It’s rather un-British to have the demonstration during the coronation.

      But I was thinking along the same lines – every monarch in the past who has answered to an authority outside the UK has taken the country to civil conflict. Charles will be no different.

      1. Un-British. It would seem that unless you are sexually ambivalent and preferably perverted, economically parasitical, psychopathic and driven by cold energy you are not meant to be British!

      2. The better way to object is to simply stay away. The crowds were sparse by comparison with recent Royal events, a Platinum Jubilee and the funerals of the Duke of Edinburgh and Queen Elizabeth.

        Everyone admires the organisation and spectacle such occasions provide but there is an obvious slackening of enthusiasm and expectation where current Royals are centre stage and a sense that things can never return to what they were in our lifetimes.

        Our late Queen probably found the performances of the concert entertainment at her Jubilee excruciating and likewise that threatened for this evening.

        1. The Mall was full during the balcony appearances, I think it was well attended. But the public’s reaction has been hyped up in the media.

  59. Back from an excellent Coronation Hog Roast on Shalbourne village green. Nap time.

    1. Ooh sounds lovely. Brings back memories of the Silver Jubilee venison roast at Great Bedwyn.

      1. We had the local hunt feast yesterday evening, 4 hours of eating and drinking. 7 courses, aperitif, all the wine one could possibly want, digestif and coffee.
        22 euros a head!
        Mainly various deer dishes, but also a superb terrine of bits and bobs of deer and wild boar, the “jelly” surrounding the terrine was unbelievably tasty.

    2. Is Coronation Hog like Coronation Chicken?
      Asking for a friend…

        1. Huh! If you believe that, you’ll believe that pigs might fl…. oh!
          ;-))

        2. Have a look at the book Tuesday by David Weisner. It begins with frogs flying and then the following Tuesday…pigs fly. It won a Caldecott medal for illustrations and is just wonderful. Have read it, such as it is, to the grandmonsters but it’s mainly pictures.

  60. San Francisco’s ruin is a warning to ultra-Left officials everywhere. 7 May 2023.

    Nordstrom’s announcement was yet another blow for San Francisco’s battered retail industry. The company told employees it would not be renewing its leases at the Westfield Mall, nor at the Nordstrom Rack across the street, due to the “changed dynamics” in the city.

    The “deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco,” Westfield Mall told the Washington Post, has left both customers and staff unsafe.

    The retailer is hardly the first to put up the “closing down sale” signs. The upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods has shuttered a flagship store; the H&M, Gap and Banana Republic have all left. While some British high streets risk becoming boarded-up wastelands, they could soon look positively vibrant compared to what used to be known as “the golden city”.

    Just another aspect of the Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation. It’s important to remember that all this is self-inflicted by the adoption of a culture of Marxism by the Political Elites. .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/07/san-francisco-ruin-warning-british-cities-ultra-left/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Don’t the San Franciscans see and realise the cause?

      Why are they not voting them OUT?

      I was there in 1976 and it was magical then.

    2. When they hand out reparation dosh to all of the californians that lived in slavery , where are they going to spend the money?

    4. BOASTING turquoise waters and manicured beaches, Newquay was once dubbed the ‘British Magaluf’, with thousands of partygoers flocking to its packed bars every summer.

      But while the Cornish town has worked hard to shake off its reputation as the South West’s boozy party capital, a dangerous new crime epidemic has sprung up in its place. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/22259201/newquay-seaside-town-drugs-cornwall-crime/?utm_medium=browser_notifications&utm_source=pushly

  61. San Francisco’s ruin is a warning to ultra-Left officials everywhere. 7 May 2023.

    Nordstrom’s announcement was yet another blow for San Francisco’s battered retail industry. The company told employees it would not be renewing its leases at the Westfield Mall, nor at the Nordstrom Rack across the street, due to the “changed dynamics” in the city.

    The “deteriorating situation in downtown San Francisco,” Westfield Mall told the Washington Post, has left both customers and staff unsafe.

    The retailer is hardly the first to put up the “closing down sale” signs. The upmarket grocery chain Whole Foods has shuttered a flagship store; the H&M, Gap and Banana Republic have all left. While some British high streets risk becoming boarded-up wastelands, they could soon look positively vibrant compared to what used to be known as “the golden city”.

    Just another aspect of the Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation. It’s important to remember that all this is self-inflicted by the adoption of a culture of Marxism by the Political Elites. .

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/07/san-francisco-ruin-warning-british-cities-ultra-left/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

      1. It’s fantastic Tom – it’s the Howard Doris Centre in Lochcarron – I play there regularly for the residents

        1. Lochcarron – where my kilt was woven, and sewn by a Mrs McLeod. Back in 1990. Beautiful piece of clothing, so it is.

  63. That was a pretty poor coronation celebration by the Canadian authorities. Locally zip, nada, nothing. There were apparently ceremonies Ottawa, the news televised a few Indian chants and their normal demands for money but that was it.

    New money witn Charles on it? Do we need that? Come back I’m October to see our design. I’m not sure if it is incompetence or a deliberate insult to the king).

    Now they are redesigning the coat of arms, removing religious symbols and replacing them with anowflakes (I kid you not) and Maple leafs.

    To hell with them, a lot of people were up at 4:30 to watch the broadcast.

        1. Ignoramuses then – not English speakers or writers.

          I hadn’t realised that Canadian was like the Merkin language, Misspelled and mispronounced.

          1. It is half and half now but getting worse with the American spell checkers thar everyone uses. I would have written spelling checker but gets a warning from google god.

          3. No and have you? I think my father who fought throughout WWi, was wounded and commissioned in the field, so yo don’t have to try and talk to me about belief in my country and thanks to my parents.

      2. Not when used as a proper noun, the Canadian “Maple Leaf” in this context refers to its use on the flag.

          1. It is when it is referring to the Canadian flag or the name of teams such as the Toronto Maple Leafs.

          2. You might refer to the Union flag like that, but I wouldn’t agree. I wouldn’t make excuses for those who cannot write, read and understand, ENGLISH.

          3. Like you?
            You stand on your high horse lecturing us on things where there can be perfectly acceptable differences of approach both of which may be correct depending on the circumstances.

          5. If you cannot win the argument then denigrate to opposition.

            Stupid boy.

  64. This video talks about the ECB’s digital money plans.
    The Coin Bureau chap thinks that they may have to ditch the digital Euro and use Euro-backed stablecoins instead. Not sure how that would work – would it be as an alternative to printing the Euro away to nothing? In that case, how would they get rid of the debt?
    Whatever they end up foisting on their hapless citizens will be very unstable, and unpopular too, by the look of it.
    Most people will shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to resisting the digital currencies by relying on Amazon and Sainsbury’s though, and not owning anything of real value or having genuinely valuable skills.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo2hUeWdMxk

  65. Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 687 5/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Down to a birdie today.Wordle
      Wordle 687 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  66. Just back from the do in the hall…lots of wine, Pimm’s and dubious beers. We took some of our own to be on the safe side. Quite an affable meeting although most there had not seen us before. I told them that’s because we are always in disguise.
    Some of the old dears moved their chairs closer to my husband…I just smirked- he’s a handsome bloke.
    Funny, nobody had opened the Pimm’s or tonic.
    Hall decorated nicely with bunting and all set out very well.
    Home now and will have some supper and watch the concert, mainly to see Steve Winwood.

    1. You have a hall big enough for a “do”? Mine, just enough space for a rack of shoes and for me to put my coat on without barking my knuckles on the walls.
      ;-))

  67. Not been on here much the past few days, I’ve been a bit lacklustre lately.

    Got a bit done today though, finished off drilling and splitting the rocks that needed drilling & splitting and then shifted 10 bags of soil up to the worksite from the verge beside the road to backfill the Folly.

    1. Bob, does it ever cross your mind that you maybe overdoing it a bit? I know you want to keep busy but don’t put your health at risk.
      However, it’s your call.

  68. That’s me for today. It didn’t rain, after all. Did some sorting out of the STUFF moved because of the oil tank work. Slowly getting back to what passes for normal. AGA man fr routine service tomorrow. That’s when we’ll discover whether the tank replacement has been done properly….

    Have a spiffing evening – enjoying yourselves.

    A demain.

    1. Be sure to run the first oil from the tank to the aga through a filter. All sorts of carp may be in the lines, that you don’t want in your injectors and burners.

  69. Rik-Redux posted this article earlier.

    The transport overhaul facing Cardiff and why it will have a huge impact

    The 15-minute city is here to stay whether you like it or not. Here’s what that actually means.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/transport-overhaul-facing-cardiff-huge-26819059

    The sheer condescension of the article is staggering: “It’s for your own good, you know. Stop complaining.” There are some important points about the distribution of shops and services, especially GP practices, in residential areas and town centre congestion. This, however, goes far beyond that. It is a deliberate attempt to restrict freedom of movement. The Oxford example is mentioned and is described as ‘extreme’ as though to do so is to make the rest of it all appear reasonable. Oxford will become the norm.

    You know the kind of territory you’re in when you read this:
    The Guardian reported in February that “the far right, libertarians, and assorted conspiracy theorists are riding the wave” of resistance to low-traffic neighbourhoods and the Financial Times quotes examples from protests where opposition to 15-minute cities has overlapped with anti-vaccine rhetoric and climate change denial.

    1. Odd that a libertarian is viewed as a conspiracy theorist. The emphasis is freedom from the state. Big government hates that, and is clearly setting about control. Thus it’s not conspiracy – it’s happening.

      That Left wing rag gets more facist every day – and can’t see it!

      1. here never will be such. No one wants them, same a sno one wants net zero, green, banning boilers or cars. The state just forced these things on us – it’s political rape.

    3. Reading BTL comments, noone has a good word to say about the scheme.

    4. As long as they don’t implement that lunacy until after I’ve been there in early June, it won’t affect me; I’ll never be going again.

  70. Rik-Redux posted this article earlier.

    The transport overhaul facing Cardiff and why it will have a huge impact

    The 15-minute city is here to stay whether you like it or not. Here’s what that actually means.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/transport-overhaul-facing-cardiff-huge-26819059

    The sheer condescension of the article is staggering: “It’s for your own, you know. Stop complaining.” There are some important points about the distribution of shops and services, especially GP practices, in residential areas and town centre congestion. This, however, goes far beyond that. It is a deliberate attempt to restrict freedom of movement. The Oxford example is mentioned and is described as ‘extreme’ as though to do so is to make the rest of it all appear reasonable. Oxford will become the norm.

    You know the kind of territory you’re in when you read this:
    The Guardian reported in February that “the far right, libertarians, and assorted conspiracy theorists are riding the wave” of resistance to low-traffic neighbourhoods and the Financial Times quotes examples from protests where opposition to 15-minute cities has overlapped with anti-vaccine rhetoric and climate change denial.

      1. Obviously, camping gear has become so cheap that nobody can be arsed to take it home after use.

          1. One hopes that the sleeping bags can be collected, laundered and given to the homeless.

          2. How about the invading horde be kicked out of every hotel, packed into shipping containers and dumped in the desert, and the rooms they’ve trashed be given to our homeless, along with the social care, drug addiction support and medical care showered on the legions of boat vermin living like parasites?

  75. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/05/sir-keir-starmer-king-charles-coronation-britain-future/

    A brighter, fairer future.

    Marv! I’m going to keep a lot more of my own money? Responsibility will be pushed on to people? The state will be scaled back? The woke Left removed? DIE absolished? You’ll end the idiocy of net zero? After all, it’s not fair that I am forced to pay the highest price for electricity, is it? You’ll scrap corporation tax? After all, that’s not fair on consumers, is it?

    Ah. I see. You meant politician fair. Where you’d take more of what I have, restrict my freedoms and choices, limit my options, rob me blind, rig markets and import millions of unskilled, unwanted dross.

    1. I remember watching that on TV. It interrupted a detective programme. Sat spellbound as the lads went in through the window.
      Good on Maggie giving the go-ahead. Showed the UK had balls. Now, they’d likely deliver feather-dusters.

  77. re my earlier post about the hunt feast and cultural differences.

    The feast was held in the village hall and was attended by lots of families. I would guess that the absolute age range was toddler to late 80’s early 90’s.There was music, dancing in the aisles between tables, and the children put on impromptu dances on the stage. ALL the children were beautifully behaved and stayed until the end. (To be slightly more accurate, to the time we left, as we decided not to stay for the coffee and nightcaps as it was well after 1:30 am!)
    We used to attend village functions in the UK, everyone would be more formal, with no children there, and bigwigs would have felt it necessary to speak.
    Impromptu dancing and singing would never happen.

    joie de vivre is certainly different here.

  78. Evening, all. Baptism in church this morning. Judging by the photos I’ve seen of the crowds, the coronation only gave some people a reason to be proud of their country – or maybe those who were absent didn’t consider this their country.

    1. That’s got to be Ayr in Scotland. Ailsa Craig in the background.

        1. Had many a soggy picnic there as a child;-) Sea never ever warm enough to swim in.

          2. Decades ago we nearly bought a beautiful house in Ballantrae .

            There’s a strange hill near Turnberry which is meant to be magnetic .

            The Electric Brae is a gravity hill in South Ayrshire, Scotland, where a freewheeling vehicle will appear to be drawn uphill by some mysterious attraction. The phenomenon is an optical illusion.

          4. Croy Brae [“Electric Brae”] between Knoweside and Dunure on the A719.

    2. That’s an old one Bob, that’s been ironed out for decades. 😄⛳️

  81. Just wondering this okay?

    Harry dashed home pretty quickly. Do you think that Megain is a good mother ?

    I reckon Harry is a better father than she is a mother .. That woman has a beastly nature and a sharp tongue and she must have a cruel manipulative streak .. I’ll bet she uses those children as weapons .. her narcissistic nature is not mother material .

    1. From the little I’ve seen; I’m sure she loves her children but I’m equally sure she will use them as weapons as the opportunities arise.

          7. The monetary value of that as a story is sufficient to guarantee that if it were true it would have been splashed all across every newspaper.
            Rather similar to Harry being a Hewitt, they couldn’t keep it secret.

          8. There is a lot of evidence in photographs that her “bump” came and went…. Also that she was up and about as chirpy as ever within minutes of “giving birth” ie – taking delivery.

          9. They have more than enough enemies that if it is true it will be exposed.
            Plenty of people will have sufficient access to obtain DNA evidence.

  83. Watching all the coronation celebrations and comparing and contrasting them with QEII, I wonder how different William’s will seem to the people who succeed us as we see the earlier one.

  84. Question are Muslims allowed to claim child benefit for their wives?
    10:14 AM · May 7, 2023
    ·

    Mathew.
    @Mathewrees9
    ·
    10h
    Yes, Bob, Muslim husbands are allowed to claim some sort of benefits for all wives, and the conveyor belt of babies.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/polygamous-potential-polygamous-marriage-set14/polygamous-potential-polygamous-marriages-set14#:~:text=wives%20of%20polygamous%20marriages%20%2D%20polygamy,husband%20at%20the%20same%20time

    1. Stop it -immediately Why give them 4 times access to our welfare system?

  85. Going to bed, fellow NoTTLers.

    Goodnight and God bless fellow Gentlefolks. and I shall delight in meeting you all again in the morning’s light.

  86. Little moments from the concert….Princess Charlotte singing along with Steve Winwood, The King creasing up at Miss Piggy and Kermit, and Kermit jiving in front of Prince Edward.
    Some of the music good, some crap and too much blether- but that’s the Beeb.

  87. Right, that’s me off to attack yesterday’s crosswords.
    G’night all.

    1. Gets a Darwin’s finch award. We’ve got newly hatched ducklings on the river that stay with mum but find their own grub.

  90. Going to bed now. Loved the Coronation and the concert wasn’t bad. Plan on sleeping in tomorrow.

    1. #MeToo, Ann.

      Would be nice to do it together. Oops, sorry if that’s inappropriate!

  91. A good evening’s entertainment.
    That must have taken some organising.
    Now time to turn off the football.
    And it’s good night from me.

  92. Just back from a nice party at a friend’s. My children attended the German School in London between the ages of 4-11/13 and my friends are all mixed marriage and their children therefore have EU passports. They are also liberal luvvies, obvs, as we live in the leafy borough of Richmond upon Thames. But they are still all banging on about Brexit and how lucky they are to be able to send their kids to Germany and The Netherlands to get their “cheap” University education. I am the only Brexiteer amongst them and one if the German dads just won’t talk to me (post-Brexit I did a head-to-head with him on Deursche Rundfunk on the subject). I still contened if yoi hate it so much here, why don’t you go back? But actually i do think Richmond is a more interesting place for having them here. Of course culturally we are quite similar, which helps (obviously).

    1. Ah, Richmond, sold our place in Friars Stile road in 2004, opposite the Marlborough pub. I miss the river and the park, but otherwise nothing, except my brother who still lives in Montague road.

  93. Just back from a nice party at a friend’s. My children attended the German School in London between the ages of 4-11/13 and my friends are all mixed marriage and their children therefore have EU passports. They are also liberal luvvies, obvs, as we live in the leafy borough of Richmond upon Thames. But they are still all banging on about Brexit and how lucky they are to be able to send their kids to Germany and The Netherlands to get their “cheap” University education. I am the only Brexiteer amongst them and one if the German dads just won’t talk to me (post-Brexit I did a head-to-head with him on Deursche Rundfunk on the subject). I still contened if yoi hate it so much here, why don’t you go back? But actually i do think Richmond is a more interesting place for having them here. Of course culturally we are quite similar, which helps (obviously).

  94. Goodnight, all. I’m having a frustrating time trying to print off a booking receipt; the printer either shoots the paper out or doesn’t move the paper at all and prints over itself! I’m giving up and signing off.

    1. Use The little printer icon at the top of the order and then identify which page(s) you want printed.

      1. I know HOW to do it, Tom. The printer isn’t co-operating. It seems to be that particular .pdf it doesn’t like – it printed other stuff fine.

  95. It’s been a long day so I’ll wish you all a Good Night, chums. Sleep well and I’ll be back tomorrow.

Comments are closed.