Sunday 12 November: The real problem with pro-Palestinian marches over this solemn weekend

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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553 thoughts on “Sunday 12 November: The real problem with pro-Palestinian marches over this solemn weekend”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. today’s story
    International Co-existence

    On a group of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following people are stranded:

    Two Italian men and one Italian woman
    Two French men and one French woman
    Two German men and one German woman
    Two Greek men and one Greek woman
    Two English men and one English woman
    Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman
    Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman
    Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman
    Two American men and one American woman
    Two Irish men and one Irish woman

    One month later on these stunning islands, the following things have occurred:

    One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

    The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a ménage-a-trois.

    The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

    The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

    The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

    The two Bulgarian men took one long look at the endless ocean and another long look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming.

    The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are awaiting instructions.

    The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy/liquor store/restaurant/ laundry, and have got the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their store.

    The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, because the American woman keeps on complaining about her body; the true nature of feminism; how she can do everything they can do; the necessity of fulfilment; the equal division of household chores; how sand and palm trees make her look fat; how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do; how her relationship with her mother is improving and how at least the taxes are low and it isn’t raining.

    The two Irish men divided the island into North and South and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets sort of foggy after the first few litres of coconut whiskey. But they’re satisfied because at least the English aren’t having any fun.

  3. Morning all. Off to walk the dog; then to go and cut down that Hamas-supporters’ flag I mentioned last night. Will be a while.

      1. Annoyingly someone else had done the job for me! After I had braved the shed and found my pruning shears to cut the cables ties and all! Just back, doggy snuggles and a cup of tea.

  4. I am trying to work out why felt so discomforted yesterday when rehearsing in the choir my village Anglican church. Even though I am now a Catholic, I make a point of attending CofE Remembrance in memory of my late grandfather, who was Chaplain to the Forces in Burma in WW2.

    It wasn’t the anthem by John Taverner, which was beautiful and right for the occasion, despite the organ drone being a quarter tone sharp throughout.

    I think it was the dropping of the lovely old Remembrance hymns such as ‘I Vow to Thee my Country’ and ‘O Valiant Hearts’ in favour of a horribly bowdlerized (sic) “inclusive” version of ‘Praise my Soul the King of Heaven’ and ‘Make me a Channel of Your Peace’.

    Having been active in the Peace Movement in the 1980s and very much of the beard-and-sandals liberalism of the guitar-playing 1960s and 1970s, I would have thought the latter completely appropriate as a plea for peace when the world is descending into the madness and malice of war, as it was in the 1930s, but instead I felt it trite and missing the gravitas of what good people were now having to take on. Those old sweats, whose memory we honour with our poppies, on the other hand knew all too well and had the courage and the forbearance to take on that malice and prevail.

    1. I would add that nobody would dare come out with ‘Jerusalem’ right now. The city that was supposed to be a model for the meeting of great civilisations in peace, order and tolerance seems now to have been consumed by the very same malice that is intent on tearing this civilisation apart in its zeal for vengeance and bears down on the good and the innocent as ancient heritage is bombed to dust.

      Sometimes I think Blake’s poem could be renamed ‘Birmingham’ and sung in Jerusalem right now.

    2. Families leaving their synagogue in St John’s Wood yesterday were faced with hateful, frightening and intimidating behaviour from hamas supporting thugs shouting hate and spraying green smoke from their cars.
      Police had to escort victims to safety.
      Police ‘launch probe.’
      Police have identified the cars (clever plod, number plates in full view) and are ‘working to locate suspects.’
      When they ‘locate’ them, will they be arrested for hate crimes and dealt with? No prizes for guessing the answers.
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12738885/Police-launch-probe-Jewish-families-leaving-north-London-synagogue-targeted-pro-Palestinian-activists-spraying-green-smoke-shouting-cars-Armistice-Day-march.html

  5. Far-Right thugs and Hamas sympathisers disrespect our heroes. 12 November 2023

    Rishi Sunak condemned far-Right “thugs” and “Hamas sympathisers” after a day of violence in the capital saw more than 100 arrests.

    The Prime Minister said far-Right hooligans clashing with police, and pro-Hamas regalia witnessed during the National March for Palestine, had disrespected the military and Britain’s fallen on Armistice Day.

    He will meet Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to seek assurances that evidence of anti-Semitic hate crimes will be followed up as robustly as far-Right were dealt with.

    Rishi Sunak. Man of Decision. Lol. One would think sitting on the fence would be excruciating but of course: No Balls = No Pain!

    Something similar must apply to the Telegraph. They have attached this story to yesterday’s: (Welcome to our coverage of today’s pro-Palestine march in central London.) where they shut down the (hostile) comments last night. This has saved them having to shut this one down as well.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/11/pro-palestine-rally-protest-armistice-day-london-police/

      1. This was originally attributed to Goebbels in the adaptation of Colonel Bogey ‘Hitler has only got one ball…”

        1. Himmler has two but very small,
          But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all,

          Thus it went in my childhood.

          1. I thought it went
            “Hitler has only got one ball,
            Goering had two, but they were small,
            Himmler was very similar,
            But poor old Goebbels has no balls at all.”

    2. ,,,and how many pro-Hamas were arrested and are in custody?

      Let me guess – Nix, nada, zilch.

      1. Struggling to get light, Sue@ 07:09 but only 1°C here in The Borders. Brr when I took the rubbish out.

        1. ‘Morning Tom! It’s freezing here for the 2nd day running! Cold and clear! How is the lady from Annan?

      2. Struggling to get light, Sue@ 07:09 but only 1°C here in The Borders. Brr when I took the rubbish out.

    2. Morning, Paul.

      Dull November brings the blast;
      Hark, the leaves are falling fast!

      ‘The Months’, Sara Coleridge.

  7. 378727+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Sunday 12 November: The real problem with pro-Palestinian marches over this solemn weekend

    Sunday 12 November: The real problem with pro-Palestinian marches over this solemn weekend was triggered 40 years ago with the political put down of MRs Thatcher when the footings were laid down with repress,replace,resettle, RESET very much in mind.

    A mixture of voting Lethargy, party before country, political treachery / treason via the
    cottaging PM all with the support of out & out fools proving again & again their dense stupidity over the following 40 years.

    Currently the theme seems to be the continuation NOT the commemoration of
    WW 1 WW 2, in a country rapidly becoming unfit for decent human habitation via its polling stations.

  8. Ukraine military officer had key role in Nord Stream sabotage, reports say. 12 November 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/62a8ede2d5fd1c94980d4c3bfdea4b66c46f2ce50b3990673dab2c0a32f37f92.png

    A Ukrainian special forces commander played a key role in sabotaging the Nord Stream gas pipelines in September last year, according to an investigation by two international newspapers.

    Mystery has surrounded who was behind the blasts that damaged the pipelines – which run from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea – cutting off a major route for Russian gas exports to Europe and heightening already high tensions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Judging by the spread of this story its main function is as a distraction from the news. The only mystery about the responsibility (US) for the destruction of the pipeline is how the German Government is managing to keep a lid on it; though one suspects that the rise of the AFD is not completely unconnected !

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/11/ukraine-officer-had-key-role-in-nord-stream-sabotage-reports-say

    4. I see that the Telegaffe version suggests a rogue Ukie SF element were responsible, from a hired yacht!! Apparently Zelensky was kept out of the loop and the CIA tried to stop the attack but failed? In other news pigs are taking over from the Red Arrows and a well meaning fairy is collecting teeth!

  9. Good morning, chums. Dry here until 1 pm, then rain (most of the day) for the next three and a half days. Today is a thinning out of emails day, combined with a lot of reading (an extremely lengthy Book Club book [BABEL] interspersed with a Jeffrey Archer page-turner [A PRISONER OF BIRTH]). See you all later in the day.

  10. Suella Braverman has set herself against the very values Britain fought for. Keir Starmer. 12 November 2023.

    Such was the ferocity of the attack, those shores would come to be known as “Bomb Alley”. The next day, the British frigate HMS Antelope sank, its hull shattered by a bomb, nearly snapping it in two. It was, in the words of one onlooking Royal Marine, “a majestically awful sight.”

    8,000 miles away, back home in Britain, families of those serving sought news of their loved ones. I know, because mine was one of them.

    My uncle was on Antelope. My family huddled round the radio, listening in grim silence to every update, my mum hoping not to hear her brother’s name. By some minor miracle, he and many of his fellow crew mates survived.

    The Ancient Romans used to show their scars at elections. Here we quote specious narratives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/11/starmer-braverman-set-herself-against-values-britain-fought/

    1. I don’t know how the spineless kneeler had the audacity to open his drivel with the Falklands conflict! We all know that had it not been for the determination of Margaret Thatcher to preserve democracy, the Falklands would have been handed over to Argentina, without a murmur.

      1. My lad was the youngest member of the task force – 17 on the way back, wasn’t allowed off the ship at the Falklands

  12. Why to we bring people into our country that hate us. Our politicians are totay barking.

    1. 378727+ up ticks,

      Morning JN,
      Who supports these politico’s / parties on a regular basis.

      Tis not the politicians that are “barking”.

      1. ogga1 we know that the very system for these twerps getting to ‘power’ is broken! Stop blaming the demos!

        2. 378727+ up ticks,

          Morning SM,
          The very “system” is given succour and driven by people power, these peoples go on “demo’s” a good many I believe NOT for the serious reason of the march but for the “fun” of it.

  13. Morning, all. Overcast, calm and dry at the moment; light rain arriving later.

    Modern Britain. Alan D Miller of the Together group enters the White Swan pub in Vauxhall London because he needs a pee and he’s not allowed to leave without being searched. Pub surrounded, by his estimation, 200 police officers. All formalised by ‘Emergency Powers’.

    Soundtrack on this event is not very good due to background noise.

    https://twitter.com/alanvibe/status/1723395042482483659

    Alan D Miller talking on Talk TV with Nick de Bois, ex-conservative MP, after his detention and search.

    https://twitter.com/Fox_Claire/status/1723457646399729779

  15. I wonder what lies the MSM are going to bring us today? Carefully selected stories from various sites in the UK whose residents have been ‘shocked’ by ‘right wing thugs’ destroying their ‘peaceful’ demos? Care to take a bet? Anyone?
    Sorry – I’ve not slept much!

      2. The only certainties in life used to be death and taxes. To those one can now add “the Bbc labelling normal people extreme far right”.

    2. Even GB News described the group who opposed the Jewish Extermination Rally as Far Right Yobs.. Laura Dobsworth – a GBN journalist/author – objected strongly to the fact that even this channel had used the terminology of the BBC and the MSM – indeed she said that the articles attacking those opposed to those calling for jihad were written before the event.

      Indeed the opposition group was very probably infiltrated by those wishing to discredit them and even the police were, apparently, seen provoking the group in order to try and take the focus away from the fact that they treated the Muslims with kid gloves to justify their over-reaction to those who do not agree with prescribed line.

      1. Yes Rastus! Much the same on Talk Radio! Peter Cardwell voicing his displeasure at Tommy Robinson and calling his supporters ‘acolytes’! I was very taken aback!

        1. Good morning Sue.

          How is it that civilians defending the rights of the majority of us are castigated for being far right, guys who feel outraged that majority of us are being ignored , not forgetting it was guys like them at a young tender age rose to the challenge to bravely defend us against the evil that battered right against wrong in 2 world wars .

    5. The Telegaffe, which also includes an article by Cur Squirmer, mentions “right wing thugs” numerous times and I suspect they aren’t alone. They do however have a good piece by Allison Pearson, and a real attack on the crisp munching expert on international affairs by Zoe Strimpel, so all is not lost!

    1. Takes me back to my Selly Oak days.

      As a young naive 22year-old freshly arrived in B15, my then-boyfriend and I thought it would be nice to walk to Bournville, the picturesque village on our doorstep, for a drink.

      Lol.

      1. Just what my wife and I were doing yesterday morning. We had our coffees at Bournville Garden Centre.

          1. I bought my first house in Dartmouth Road in 1989, opposite the little chapel that had been turned into a mosque. There was only one student house in the road, next to mine. By the time I sold in 2006, mine was the only house that wasn’t a student house.

  18. Good morning all.
    A chilly start with a tad below 1½°C outside. Dry & a bit misty at the moment, but rain forecast.

    1. Ici aussi – first frost of the winter but blue skies now although still chilly – frost not gone

  19. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53bd9353d91d30e7b25b5d3faf5db79e7b227b2f4693f80bff54ee372e709967.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/11/young-people-remembrance-day-first-world-war-survey/

    By the time Percival Wrattstrangler got to this article comments had already been closed but this BTL by Clive Richardson (544 up votes) says what he probably would have wanted to say:

    Two thirds of youngsters know nothing about WW1 or Armistice Day.

    Yet they know how to take the knee, be ashamed of our history, change gender, share naked images on their phones, be hateful on twitter, and have effectively been told to vote Labour by their teachers.

    God help us all.

    1. “The Poppy Is For Sacrifice”: From the ANZAC Day Commemoration Committee’s website a paragraph below:

      Colonel John McCrae who wrote the poem “In Flanders’ Fields”

      The verses were apparently sent anonymously to the English magazine, Punch, which published them under the title, In Flanders’ Fields. Colonel McCrae died while on active duty in May 1918. On the eve of his death he allegedly said to his doctor, “Tell them this. If ye break the faith with us who die we shall not sleep”. His volume of poetry, In Flanders’ Fields and Other Poems, was published in 1919.

    2. They don’t want to teach history. It’s almost verboten. One day brats won’t know and it will die away, only for the next war against the Left to replace it.

      Can you imagine teaching some blue haired lesbian hippy that Left wing socialism created massive poverty in germany allowed the growth of an extremist party to promote a progrom of oppression where all dissent was forbidden?

      They’d leap at it and say how righteous that was.

  21. I have watched this 20 minute discussion a few times now and it is definitely of interest given the current situation in the West. I imagine most here know of Dave Rubin who was once a progressive but is now a conservative. Eric Weinstein is the brother of Bret- an evolutionary biologist who along with his wife Heather were forced from their jobs as professors due to activists in their university and now host the Dark Horse podcast.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKolY2Zyvk8

  22. Good morning all,

    Wet wet wet , miserable morning, and so still , no breeze.

    Moh enjoyed his football visit to Southampton , trains ran on time and he said he walked to the St Mary’s ground from the station , and of course , Saints won.

  23. Ubiquitous ‘Vape’ Shops

    SIR – Walking through a Hampshire town, I was disappointed to see, in the space of 50 metres, three shops selling vaping equipment (Letters, October 29). I also noticed other such shops open in the same town.

    Do we wish to encourage young people to vape? It is already known that it has a negative effect on both the heart and lungs. Have we not learnt the tragic lessons of cigarette smoking?

    Paul French Andover,
    Hampshire

    Why are you surprised? Are that naïve? Just think of the opportunities this gives to those in control. Opportunities to add their chemicals-of-choice to these substances to control the — already feeble — minds of those large factions of the population who are obsessed with sucking on and inhaling this wacky shit!

    1. Given that many are owned by the “usual suspects”, one suspects they have the same primary purpose as Turkish barbers etc.

    2. As an ex -tobacco smoker of 60 years, I value my vape as it quietens the brain-call for nicotine and harms no-one in my pursuance thereof.

      Not feeble at all, George, if you’ve ever been addicted to a substance, you’d begin to understand..

      1. Good morning, Tom.

        I smoked (an average of) 25 cigarettes a day between the ages of 12 and 33. I then stopped and have not touched, nor craved, one since.

        1. ‘morning, George, hardly a continuing addiction. Still present at 79 years.

          …and I buy the e-liquid online – no vape shops, necessary.

        2. ‘morning, George, hardly a continuing addiction. Still present at 79 years.

          …and I buy the e-liquid online – no vape shops, necessary.

        3. Good afternoon George

          I gave up smoking cigarettes nearly 36 years ago and I haven’t touched one since. However I dare not smoke a cigarette now because if I did I would soon be back to 28 a day. (How do I know it was 28? Because I managed to escape from the boarding school in which I taught to go to the tobacconists in Lyme Regis and buy a pack of 200 Dunhill cigarettes on Friday afternoon and this lasted me a week and I seldom ran out). My mother used to smoke just three cigarettes a day – one after lunch with a cup of coffee, one with a glass of Scotch before supper; and the third after supper with a cup of coffee. I tried to do this but I couldn’t – with me it’s all or nothing!

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVz5K63iYDs

        4. I went from 40 a day to zero overnight in 1973, not touched one since. Vapes are foul smelling for those close to the vaper – I wonder if those who vape are aware of that or are they selfish twats with a lack of self discipline – like other addicts

    3. Regretably they will always need some sort of crutch. There is nothing wrong with then they just have no will power.. Very weak people. “In the absence of willpower the most complete collection of virtues and talents is wholly worthless.”

  24. Good morning all,

    Dull, grey and wet again at McPhee Towers ( it’s winter in England after all). However it’s supposed to clear a bit before the Remembrance Service at the church. Wind Sou’- Westy and a tad warmer at 13℃.

    You’d think that on this one day the DT/ST would refrain from publishing articles such as this. The headline is honest though – an ackowledgement that this war in Ukraine is, de facto, the West’s. It has been from the start.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea92a433ff33f7d6ee2851c84249c61d38098c31b8a91e6b3b78925690c47100.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/12/ukraine-counteroffensive-failed-russia-putin-war-plan/

    I wonder if the young man in the photograph is still alive and if he is, does he still have all his limbs?

    On a day when we honour our own war dead from two World Wars, the Korean War, the Falklands War and sundry minor conflicts would it not have been better to keep under a veil an article which reminds us of the money making opportunities that war offers to the bankers and the military-industrial complex? President Dwight Eisenhower warned us but he was only underscoring what had earlier been said by US Marines General Smedley Darlington Butler when he wrote “War is a Racket”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

    Half–a-million dead and countless numbers wounded on both sides. Where are the protest marches to stop this? Silly me, they’re white European Orthodox Christians who are slaughtering each other. So that’s alright then.

    1. But it cannot be! Just recently we were assured of final victory, Russia on it’s knees, the West Ukraine supreme!

      1. Is Putin dead yet, from whatever ailment he was supposed to have?

        We shouldn’t be arming Ukraine, we should be bringing pressure to stop the conflict and that means allowing a compromise on the Crimea.

    2. Agree with your sentiments, but the Falklands shenanigans was a ‘conflict’, brought about by UK govt. penny pinching. IMHO.

  25. Good morning all,

    Dull, grey and wet again at Mcphee Towers ( it’s winter in England after all). However it’s supposed to clear a bit before the Remembrance Service at the church. Wind Sou’- Westy and a tad warmer at 13℃.

    You’d think that on this one day the DT would refrain from publishing articles such as this. The headline is honsest though – an ackowledgement that this war in Ukraine is, de facto, the West’s. It has been from the start.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea92a433ff33f7d6ee2851c84249c61d38098c31b8a91e6b3b78925690c47100.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/12/ukraine-counteroffensive-failed-russia-putin-war-plan/

    I wonder if the young man in the photograph is still alive and if he is, does he still have all his limbs?

    On a day when we honour our own war dead from two World Wars, the Korean War, the Falklands War and sundry minor conflicts would it not have been better to keep under a veil an article which reminds us of the money making opportunities that war offers for the bankers and the military-industrial complex. President Dwight Eisenhower warned us but he was only underscoring what had earlier been said by US Marines General Smedley Darlington Butler when he wrote “War is a Racket”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket

    Half–a-million dead and countless numbers wounded on both sides. Where are the protest marches to stop this? Silly me, they’re white European Orthodox Christians who are slaughtering each other. That’s alright then.

      1. Why wasn’t he strong enough to tell his parents that Diana was not the girl for him?

        The what ever love is statement turned me off that man forever .

        1. Yes I remember Diana telling us all about the problem with her marriage.
          I’m still convinced she was bumped off.

          1. I am sure she was. Too many unanswered questions, avoided questions, some evidences brushed off and ignored.

          3. But the car that was supposed to have caused the ‘accident’ was never found. Her driver couldn’t have been drunk because Diana, her boyfriend and body guard all had to travel down in a small service lift with the driver. Her body guard, possibly all of them would have smelt the alcohol if he had been. The ‘doctor’ who suddenly arrived at the scene was never heard of again. And her body guard was threatened probably with his life if he’d said anything. And since vanished.

          4. In the report of the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Stevens, he claimed that there was a high likelihood that a Fiat Uno belonging to Le Van Thanh, a Vietnamese man, unnamed at the time, was in collision with the Mercedes in which Princess Diana was being driven. Both the vehicle and man have been located.

            https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/found-the-mystery-white-fiat-uno-driver-in-diana-death-crash-7271422.html#:~:text=However%2C%20inquiries%20about%20Andanson%20ended,170%20miles%20away%20from%20Paris.

            The doctor who attended to Princess Diana at the scene of the accident, Dr. Frederic Mailliez, was interviewed by The Associated Press in August last year on the 25th anniversary of the crash. He recounted his memories of that night and seems not to have gone into hiding.

            https://apnews.com/article/princess-diana-death-french-medic-50e4b4dcddb4475f52a55bd2e08ff7de

            Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, has not vanished. He just tries to live a quiet life away from the spotlight. The Sun published an article about him just five days ago.

            https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4155628/trevor-rees-jones-princess-diana-bodyguard-car-crash-survivor/

    2. That Birthday portrait photograph of the Idiot King published in the DT yesterday should have been in Portia’s silver casket.

      Prince of Arragon:

      What’s here? the portrait of a blinking idiot,
      Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.
      How much unlike art thou to Portia!
      How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
      ‘Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.’
      Did I deserve no more than a fool’s head?
      Is that my prize? are my deserts no better?

  27. Base Details : Siegfried Sassoon

    If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
    I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
    And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
    You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
    Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
    Reading the Roll of Honour. “Poor young chap,”
    I’d say — “I used to know his father well;
    Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.”
    And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
    I’d toddle safely home and die — in bed.

    Nothing much has changed – those who give the orders still do not pay the price.

    1. Good morning Richard

      Another Sassoon poem which touches the core.

      Dreamers
      BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON
      Soldiers are citizens of death’s grey land,
      Drawing no dividend from time’s to-morrows.
      In the great hour of destiny they stand,
      Each with his feuds, and jealousies, and sorrows.
      Soldiers are sworn to action; they must win
      Some flaming, fatal climax with their lives.
      Soldiers are dreamers; when the guns begin
      They think of firelit homes, clean beds and wives.

      I see them in foul dug-outs, gnawed by rats,
      And in the ruined trenches, lashed with rain,
      Dreaming of things they did with balls and bats,
      And mocked by hopeless longing to regain
      Bank-holidays, and picture shows, and spats,
      And going to the office in the train.

    2. It’s a pyramid built on the bones of youth. Just visit any British public school and glance at the Great War roll of honour; fatality rate for junior army officers was typically in excess of 20%. The gene pool never recovered.

      1. It was noticeable yesterday when they read out the names, that there wasn’t a single officer among them.

  28. Good morning everyone. Neil Oliver’s latest speech posted on Twitter. I haven’t had time to watch and listen to it yet, we have to take new pup for a walk. He likes to run and walk much further than did Poppie, if he has a ‘Poppie walk’ then he is bouncing off the walls come late afternoon. But then he is a young ‘un. I may therefore be some time.
    https://twitter.com/wolsned/status/1723426315682943396

    For those of you who find Twitter is not loading, I have found that by using the ‘return to previous page’ arrow, waiting a few seconds brings it into view, I have no idea why.

    1. If I could walk I would love a new dog. But I feel I would let doggo down.
      We are surrounded by open countryside and woodland. Our old lab loved it.

        1. Tell that to new dog, he doesn’t know, he didn’t get his email. He would walk and run all day if he could! His eyes nearly pop out of his head when he sees wide open grassy spaces, unfortunately he has to be on a lead when on the village green (22 acres of it) because it is criss-crossed by a central through road and then smaller, gravel roads to the surrounding cottages. However, the fields and woods, a very short walk away, are ideal for him. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/193b2e6964819b3a9e53f3ebec045eac5909d8fe334479a532d1ba81570bd738.jpg

          1. What a cutie.
            Harry dashes around so fast he’s like the cartoon Tasmanian devil. I can’t let him off the lead in the park as i would never see him again.

          1. In a James Heriot story there is an Irish wolfhound called Clancy, which was described by Siegried Farnon as being ‘a cross between an Airedale and a donkey’. Large enough?

          2. One of my cousins had an Irish wolf hound, he sat with his bottom on the sofa an his hind and fore legs on the floor.

          3. A smaller dog is still a dog with the same joyful doggy instincts and the rest! Neither if us could manage a larger dog now.

          4. I used to think that, but since I lost my wolfhound x GSD I’ve had a Patterdale cross, a Border Terrier cross and now a Westie x Cairn and a Fox Terrier. Not big dogs, but big personalities,

    2. Good morning p m.

      I read the Twitter comments .. and saw this ..

      This could well be Neil’s last monologue.
      It sorta sounded like that.
      If that is the case, good job sir, good job.

      I do hope that isn’t true.

      By the way, please be careful exercising pup, you are not the youngster you once were , don’t allow pup to trip you up and ,lead you into danger.

      Now that Jack older dog is no longer with us , Pip spaniel (10 years old ) is becoming rather naughty and assertive and strong , and puppy like , hence the accident I had the other night .

      1. Thank you for the reminder Belle, I do tend to forget my age and that connective tissues simply get weaker over time (hence my torn knee cartilage which is improving but oh so slowly – the knee support assists greatly) and we don’t have the muscular strength we did have.

        I hope your skin injuries are healing, awful experience for you. As we get older it is also more difficult to get up as well, limbs and body behave as a dead weight with no strength.

        My DiL’s brother has Poppie’s elder brother from a previous litter. His partner had their half-brother from a two years later litter. The half-brother was put to sleep due to liver cancer in March this year, three months before Poppie. The elder brother is now aged 15 and is said to have blossomed now he is the only dog in the household. He has just flown out to Dubai (he had a seat next to his owner on the plane). I do have thoughts about this, but there was no point in voicing them! In the photo below, Poppie is on the right, her elder brother is on the left. I think he looks like a brother! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee0106ad9a369544b00d924511e35d3c6d52898c5ec1a1deb712155dae10a85e.jpg

          5. Hedge hogs were present last night , small one medium and the large one I fell on top of in the lilac bush .. They are attracted to the bird table area and flower beds.

          9. That was my question last night! Apparently so. Poor TB not so good – she went to the vet for treatment/advice.

    3. Absolutely brilliant Neil, spot on every single word.
      Many of The Liars are lined up in Whitehall now.

  29. Morning all 🙂😊
    Back to normal grey and not at all pleasant.

    I’m not quite sure of the explaination and real problem with Palestinian supporters is, but noticeably where ever supporters of islam gather there will be trouble of some sort.
    In home countries they even fight amongst them selves.
    They seem to have a long standing and ancient problem with everything imaginable.

    1. Those of the Muslim faith are gradually taking us over , we are being bullied .

      We will be eradicated , and our culture is under threat , because we are being used and abused .

      England will soon be very divided , and many of us will be consigned to our own Gaza strip

      1. As a nation we are letting the people who remembrance Sunday is arranged for. Now playing Rule Britaina. Hearts of oak.

    1. Interesting quote from that article, by an anonymous serving policeman – ” We have seen appalling anti-Semitism, with mobs calling for jihad against Israel. My colleagues have been ordered to police these intimidating displays of disorder with the lightest of touches. It was the same with Black Lives Matter protests and, for a long time, the hugely disruptive stunts by groups such as Just Stop Oil. In contrast, anti-lockdown demonstrations during the pandemic were robustly dealt with by officers in full riot gear.

      1. In an anti-lockdown protest an elderly lady was pushed to the ground and another was bodily thrown into the back of a paddy wagon.
        If they tried those tactics on muslim hamas supporters there would be widespread rioting and police stations burned to the ground.
        These are the actions of cowards and bullies. The police are shameful.

  32. Getting ready to go to Church parade. Back later.

    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.

    Try reading that out loud …..

    Tricky. I always find something sticks in my throat
    .

  33. Listening to the reports, the BBC are doing their best to stoke the anti right agenda. They linked Tommy Robinson with the protests, calling him leader of the EDL. Its a matter of record that he left the area earlier on and he left the EDL in 2013. There is a linking of the violence of the right to the Palee march, from what I read it was some issue with them trying to get to the Cenotaph and nothing to do with disrupting the march. Alongside this, is the charge that the Home Sec inspired the violence. Given that it was aggro against the police and not the Palees, it’s a completely untrue comment. I was in the Westminster area between 1145-1215 and all was calm. Im not sure when the fighting took place or why there were arrests of ‘right wing hooligans’ but that issue seems to being blown out of all proportion. Just heard on the latest news, the protesters were not just right wing but extreme right wingers. I was in London to visit my son and as the Tube was closed down for most of the day, chose to walk from London Bridge to Victoria to travel home.

    2. The BBC lies habitually. I is desperate to set the narrative to suit themselves Truth is irrelevant to their arrogance.

    1. My father was one of eleven children of whom six were boys. The three eldest fought in WW1. Uncle Geoffrey who was killed at the age of 19; Uncle Leonard who was a ‘hero’ and was awarded the M.C.; and my father who served in the trenches but broke his leg in a rugby game. He was operated on by a drunken doctor who made such a mess of it that he had to be sent back to England to have the leg rebroken and reset. While he was being treated most of his unit was wiped out so myself and his other 20 direct descendants of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, owe our existence to a drunken doctor.

      On my mother’s side my Uncle Dick lied about his age to join up at the age of 17 – he survived the war, and like his father, the well respected steam locomotive engineer, he worked as an engineer for the LNWR. His elder sister, my Aunt Faith, was married to a doctor but she volunteered to drive ambulances and was awarded the MBE.

      Our family was extremely lucky to have lost so few.

  36. Well said Peter Hitchens
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12738547/PETER-HITCHENS-fiercest-critics-agree-time-make-peace-Ukraine.html
    Ukraine peace and this:

    I must respectfully ask Suella Braverman, the current Home Secretary, how she has until now failed to realise the police in this country are a militant Left-wing organisation. I mean, apart from anything else, she is Home Secretary and so has to pay some attention to this increasingly strange organisation, with its rainbow flags, its Twitter patrols and its knee-taking.
    Actually, the conversion of the police into a Blairite Army has been a long, slow business. It began even before the 1999 Macpherson report. But that document greatly speeded up the change.

  37. I may, or may not, condone this:

    “V ANDALS attacking Ulez cameras have run up a repair and replacement bill of up to £10 million in only six months.

    The estimated total comes as Transport for London (TfL), which runs the Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez), is now being forced to hire security guards to protect engineers installing and repairing cameras and mobile Ulez camera vans.

    Latest figures show that from April 1 to Oct 31 this year, the Met Police recorded 220 cameras stolen and 767 cameras damaged. With each camera believed to be worth £10,000, the total would come to £9.87million if they all need to be replaced.

    TfL refused to comment on the sum, saying that the cost of Ulez cameras was commercially sensitive and would also encourage more attacks, and denied that the losses would be recouped by raising the £12.50 a day Ulez charge and insisted the repair bill would be covered by the existing Ulez budget.

    There are more than 3,400 cameras in place across the London-wide Ulez. An insider at TFL said there are currently between 40 to 60 attacks on Ulez cameras a week.

    There has been widespread evidence of cameras and vans becoming the target of activists as they are sprayed with paint or even toppled in an effort to halt the tax on drivers.

    Vans with automatic number plate recognition have been rolled out by the Mayor of London in an attempt to curb the rise in Ulez-related crimes.

    But enforcement officers are now donning balaclavas, sunglasses, caps and dark clothing in a bid to hide their identities as they face growing abuse from angry residents and protestors.

    Neil Garratt, the leader of the Conservative group in the London Assembly said: “The Ulez expansion is costing Londoners millions of pounds every week and people are rightly angry.

    A TfL spokesperson said: “Camera vandalism will not stop the Ulez operating London-wide. All vandalised cameras are repaired or replaced as soon as possible.”

    1. I find it sinister, and intimidating, that these ‘enforcement officers’ are wearing balaclavas while working.

        1. That’s quite likely, but it shouldn’t be permitted. It’s a civilian job, nobody is forced to do it. Supping with the devil. If they believe in what they are doing, then they should carry out the job openly.

        2. Attacking the people putting them up is wrong. They’re just doing a job. The culprit is kahn. Go for him. Hold his car up, deal with his body guards and then hang the rodent.

          1. We have seen no evidence that the people are being attacked. There were photos of vans with the tyres let down, that’s all.

            How best to divert public sympathy away from the blade runners; accuse them of intimidating honest workmen…

    3. And when repaired or replaced they are destroyed again. You’re not going to get your way, khan.

    1. I doubt if I do either, but if you eat anything processed, such as breakfast cereal or the occasional pizza or something, it’s impossible to know how much. I never add salt to my food, but use a little when cooking.

  40. Even my fiercest critics now agree – it is time to make peace in Ukraine. Peter Hitchens. 12 November 2023.

    The conflict in Ukraine was always unnecessary. It has done nothing but harm to Ukraine and Ukrainians. Ukraine has been used as a battering ram in someone else’s quarrel. The whole thing was cooked up in the same Washington DC kitchen where the even crazier invasion of Iraq was prepared. And I did try to tell you that the policy of driving Russia crazy with Nato expansion would make us less safe, not more so.

    Amen to that Mr Hitchens. One of the personal observations I have of this war is that if you call for negotiations online; and I’ve never read anyone calling for Ukraines surrender; the 77 Brigade Trolls and their ilk descend on you with all manner of accusations. Usually that you are a Russian warmonger. They on the other hand always call for war without end. As good a guide to the nature of their employers as any!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12738547/PETER-HITCHENS-fiercest-critics-agree-time-make-peace-Ukraine.html

    1. How many shysters/politicians need to be directly affected by these savages/parasites before they do something?

  42. Last night, I recorded the RBL Festival of Remembrance.
    The first of the ‘personal reflections’ was an elderly veteran of the Merchant Navy. Very moving.
    Next up, Rev Michael King. Seemed fine, spoke of his Windrush gen father … until he commented, “…. rebuilding a stronger and more multicultural Britain.” Fine to speak of the contribution of overseas ‘Brits’ to the services, but what is the relevance of multi-culti to Remembrance events?
    Then an army reservist. What is the relevance of her sexual preferences to a traditional Remembrance occasion?
    Finally, a very poised young lady, who spoke movingly for families left behind when a serviceman/woman loses their life in active service.
    There is absolutely no need for any politically correct nonsense during remembrance.

    1. The state can’t help itself. It has to force ‘the message’ whenever it can – especially during events celbrating national pride and historical defeat of Left wingery.

    2. The minute that woman introducing the Festival of Remembrance started squawking about Windrush etc … we changed channels , we were sooo angry .

      1. How many of the young black yobs, thugs and criminals in London (and elsewhere) are descendants of Windrush era immigrants, blaming slavery for their vile behaviour too? Some are (and would shame those original Caribbean arrivals who, as far as I’m aware, were mostly decent, law-abiding people) though undoubtedly many are ‘asylum seeker’ vermin and their descendants.
        What a contrast they are to the young black boy singing solo at the event.

          2. It is possible, but I bet that if there were equally good white boys he would have been given preference. That’s what positive discrimination makes one feel – not picked on merit, but for some diversity quota.

          3. Absolutely.
            So-called positive discrimination always means somebody is on the receiving end of discrimination. But everyone knows that white, able-bodied, straight people, especially males, don’t deserve equality.

      2. We didn’t watch it. I agree with the sentiment, but it’s far too tedious to watch these “celebrations”.

      3. Over the years I have lost much of my hair – the signs are clear – balding is occurring!.

        Yes, not a very good joke – but it is better than than homophonic BBC presenter!

        1. Here’s a good one for you Richard.
          She was in a programme some time ago where she was riding a bicycle around various parts the the country. And on the Welsh border. A balding dyke on a bike in a dyke.

      4. And they picked out as many black people as they could to try and support their lies and false assumption we are now only a third of the population. It gets worse every day. But it was quite clear the marchers were hideously white.
        And might add, I have every respect for al those who fought against our enemies. But Wind Rush had nothing to do with any of it.

        1. It’s the same with the racing; there might be 20,000 racegoers at a big festival meeting and they will find the one or two non-whites and keep showing them.

  43. I do not care one bit for T Robinson – but I think it curious that the perlice keep having a go at him.

    One would have thought that many perlicemen would be supporters…

    1. Its not the police but the state through the legal system that hounds TR. It clearly makes an example of how it will crush anyone who dares to fly against its pro slammer policies.

    2. Robinson represents everything the state hates. He is white, British and a patriot. He raises things the state wants to cover up – the mechanistic rape of children by pakistani muslim paedophiles. He is a figurehead for a set of values the state wants to erase.

      Of course plod will target him. They’re just the state’s oppression force, as we know they interpret law differently depending on how is involved that it is meaningless.

      1. The house search over the trumped-up car theft accusation was a particularly low point. Laurence Fox had a similar experience with his remarks about ULEZ cameras.

        1. The state simply cannot be trusted. It is no longer impartial. Law is irrelevant when it is interpreted by the statists who proclaim their DIE obsession.

          When big government is obviously partisan it cannot be trusted and more importantly, should not be obeyed.

    3. It’s not just the police Bill. They’ve had Mi5 at work as well! The Nudge Units. Antifa. HatenotHope. The MSM. The only thing they haven’t tried is assassination!

      1. Well, the establishment has tried assassination by proxy several times when he was incarcerated in jail on flimsy excuses amongst his muslim enemies.

        Edit: see his autobiography ‘Enemy of the State’. It’s not an easy read.

    4. It’s not just the police Bill. They’ve had Mi5 at work as well! The Nudge Units. Antifa. HatenotHope. The MSM. The only thing they haven’t tried is assassination!

    5. He was identified very early on as a potential leader of the working class – the very last thing thing the establishment wants – change and revolution starts always from the lowest and oppressed amongst us.

      1. TR is a better leader than Farage , who ducks and dives at every opportunity .

        TR is loved by white van man ..he gets to the heart of the matter and needs to be recognised by many others .

        I hope he creates fear in the hearts of those who oppress us .

        1. You probably saw that some 7 months after TR’s blackballed video was released by someone in the US, he has been summonsed for contempt of court this week. I suppose it keeps him busy and maintains the pressure on him personally and his funds.

    6. It’s al they seem to have Bill.
      What they are doing is just highlighting the ignorance that is now spreading through our police farce.
      Perhaps it’s time he was Left alone.

  44. “Teach us, good Lord, to serve you as you deserve; to give, and not to count the cost, to fight, and not to heed the wounds, to toil, and not to seek for rest, to labour, and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we are doing your will.”

    We all learnt that prayer , and can still remember it .

    When Moh and I joined the RN.. he in 1964 and me in 1965.. that was only 20 years after the end of WW2..

    We wanted to do our bit . We were so young and impressionable .. 18 years old .. and the world was still an insecure place then ..

    We both had a lengthy interview processes.. and were accepted months later .. He , Dartmouth, and me , RNH Haslar .

    My parents served in the war , Mum a Wren and Dad Fleet Air Arm , carriers in the Indian ocean .

    Moh’s father built Spitfires at the Woolston Supermarine , RJ Mitchell works , sheet metal worker on air frames .

    I feel so tearful knowing the direction politicians are taking us .

    Sadly so with knowing the direction the younger generation are leaning to.

    2. You’d think it’d be tethered to the space suit… or did a man suggest they do that and the woman, knowing better ignored them?

  46. Demand: Bring me my chariot of fire!

    Response: It may not be quite what you had in mind but would an EV do?

  47. Been watching the Remembrance Day parade.
    I note with disgust that the LBloodyGBT had a contingent of queers ahead of some of the real Old Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen. How far we have fallen morally.

    On a happier note our grandson called to say he can now prepare Chemotherapy medication without supervision. Quite an achievement as he only works when home from university. We’re off to see him this afternoon and son an dil.

    1. What on earth have LBGT politics got to do with Remembrance, which remembers ALL fallen members of the armed forces? Always pushing in where they aren’t wanted or needed.

      1. Makes one wonder if they declare themselves LGBT whatever, just for the attention, rather than for anything else.

      2. Such an old fashioned view that I share.

        Blackface decreed a special indigenous veterans day that would be held several days before remembrance day even though most of us thought that everyone was included on November 11th. There was also a directive passed down from above that November 11th ceremonies mention first nations service, multiple ethnicities while avoiding Christian prayer.

      3. I said to a friend today that I have no problem remembering the contribution that non-whites made to the war effort, I just didn’t like them being singled out for special praise. The same goes for the queers.

        1. When some groups are singled out for special attention, it automatically accuses us of not remembering them in the main ceremony, which is not the case at all. It’s all about divide and rule.

  48. Came across this picture. What a bloody awful shower of hypocrites posing with their best solemn expressions on display.

    The SNP PoS is a disgrace but I suppose that goes with the territory. My FiL was a proud scot, fought west to east in North Africa and up Italy taking in Monte Cassino on the way. He would have been horrified that his and his comrades’ bravery was sullied by a point making political cretin.

    I’ve marked the six I know, except Truss who wasn’t around long enough to prove herself one way or the other.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/eb3127069f0a5bdfc9ee6b902868c213050d72c0d7ebfff58ec1381fc9451bd8.png

    1. There were at least 5 more far end, to have been highlighted Korky and sad dick who is costing the people of Londoom millions.

      1. If you mean Khan, he’s highlighted with the SNP reptile, the one with the wreath upside down. Who are the others, for the sake of my memory?

      1. I couldn’t put names to all of them, as I said in my post. Non-entities like Davey haven’t registered with me.

    3. There was a lack of dignity in the demeanour of the SNP’s leader at Westminster. The body language was all wrong. It’s easy to read too much into this but he behaved as if he was performing a tiresome chore with his sloppy, casual gait.

      As for Boris Johnson, is it too much of a bother for him to comb his hair when on a ceremonial duty? He looked as if he had jumped out of bed about 30 minutes beforehand. I am no fan of Sunak, Starmer, and Davey, but they at least made an effort to behave with solemnity and dignity.

        1. I missed that detail. As a fully involved member of the Scottish National Party, it does not surprise me. After all, he wants Scotland to not be a part of the United Kingdom. In all likelihood, he does not regard the UK as his country and probably resents that, officially, it still is.

  49. 378727+ up ticks,

    The NT is preparing for the near future after reading the signs the polling stations are giving out.

    Don’t know what muslim / islamic funding will amount to without strings being attached, such as ALL private mansions, houses etc,etc.being given mosque status

    Dt,

    Christmas and Easter excluded from National Trust’s ‘inclusion’ calendar
    Diwali, Eid and Ramadan dates feature but Christian festivals go unmentioned, as members fear ‘woke’ policies will prevail after AGM vote

        1. When you re-watch the Israel clip – where Hacker demands we abstain and it trickles down to being the opposite – it’s very close.

          That’s why it’s timeless. A bunch of wasters supported by overbearingfolk with an agenda. Yes -Prime-Minister was a comedy but it was far too true.

  50. Just booked Xmas trip to UK – gee, what a logistical nightmare:

    Cats to cat hotel.
    Us humans to airport hotel for early departure to UK via Schiphol
    Car parking at airport
    Flights
    Car rental in UK
    Hotel at Rhoose airport to visit
    Mother the next day. Drive to Bideford.
    Rinse & repeat for the trip home. Feels like we are single-handedly supporting the tourism & travel industry. Certainly seems like we bought our own airline – KLM

    1. “O, wind, if winter
      comes, can spring be far behind?” “Winter is the time for comfort, for
      good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk
      beside the fire: it is time for home.” “They who sing through the summer
      must dance in the winter.”

      1. Many of the good things you mention, Johnny, are available in a good local pub.
        Had a magic afternoon yesterday with an old mate – beer, wine, fish dinner. He’s a huge bloke, makes it difficult to reach up and give him a proper hug. He needs it, he has prostate cancer, being treated by some vicious radiation therapy, but you can see it takes it out of him.

    3. Do none of these work, Paul.

      No discounting your efforts but there seems many ways to skin the cat.

  51. I see that plod are reporting ‘extreme violence’ orchestrated by the right wing, hang on, extreme right wing thugs. I regret any police injury but 9 injured hardly falls into the category of extreme. We all remember the miners strike for a start. Wonder which superlative can be used next.

    1. 1pm news headlines on Radio 4: “126 people were arrested, mostly far-right counter-protestors.” In other words, the easier and preferred targets.

      This was followed by the calls for Braverman’s resignation for describing the Muslim-organised demonstration in support of mass murder as a ‘hate march’.

      And so on and so on…

      1. There is a photo in the Telegaffe of 5 plods kneeling on a protestor, whose face is being pushed into the tarmac – I suspect we all know which group the poor sod belonged to!?

        1. As a child in St Mawes if they asked me if there was a good sailing breeze the locals said I’d usually say: “There’s always either too much bloody wind or too little bloody wind.”

          And it was the same when I grew up. I have twice sailed south across the Bay of Biscay – the first time we were becalmed most of the way and it took us a week to get from Falmouth to Corunna; the second time we had a gale off Ushant

          Same with policemen – when you want then they’re not there; when you don’t there are far too many of them!

      2. Plod clearly set out with an agenda from the woke heirarchy looking for promotion over duty. The labels, the insults, the drivel of ‘da commoonidy’ – in trying to pretend they’re no racist they reinforce the fact that they are.

        1. About time we all challenged Plod on their interpretation of Common law and their carrying ou their duties according to their oath.

          2. You can say a lot of defamatory things about Stephen Yaxley-Lennon many of which may be true but I don’t think you could accuse him of that. Certainly he’s opposed to Islam ( I won’t use the -phobic word) but aren’t all of us here?

          3. I didn’t think he hated non-whites – that’s anti-TR propaganda. He can’t stand islam – and so say all of us.

  52. The disturbances and confrontation with the police this weekend was instigated and encouraged by the BBC and a cabal of wet Tories who’s main aim is get rid of Suella Braverman. They are the same left-wing/Jew hating anti-British tossers who want the UK back under the control of the EU and WEF. We need a real revolution to clear this scum from the media and Parliament.

    1. This is how the Left behave though. They’re no different to the Nazi party of old. The Left are still fighting WW2. The EU is simply an extension of that revolting bunch of fascists. They changed the weapons, but didn’t stop fighting.

    2. I believe you are right. The constant pushing of the march in the media for a week before it was going to happen must have created a toxic atmosphere for all sorts of elements to come out of the woodwork. The lockdown marches I went on the other year were not even mentioned on the day never mind before hand. They deliberately wanted to big these ones up because they went against government narrative. Why is one not allowed to march for peace?

      1. Government needs to also check common law as they are often in breach of it.

        Magna Carta was long before Parliamentary Law.. That’s what pisses them off, They cannot change Magna Carta, nor common law.

    1. I can’t find the article but apparently a scammer took some £9000 from a council.

      I can’t quite fathom how they got into that situation.

      Long ago we were told to use up the budget on consumables, so we ordered servers, disks, paper and so on. Being the fed up with big government let’s just not waste public money fellow I am, I put in for a Harrier jet. It got all the way to purchasing before a chap I knew – and who knew me – stopped it with the argument it had an on-cost, namely fuel.

      3. If you’d got it, you probably wouldn’t have fitted in it, wibbs. There isn’t much room – I’m not very big and my elbows were touching the sides!

  54. If you know of any lonely old people who will be eating Christmas dinner
    alone this year because they have no family or close friends, can you
    please let me know so I can contact them.
    I need to borrow some chairs.

    1. My mother will be.

      My sister hosted her for years until mother became rude and finally utterly offensive.

      Then mother went to a friend’s and managed to insult them, so won’t be asked again.

      She deserves to be alone at Christmas because she’s a nasty old bat.

      She does have well over 12 table chairs that haven’t been used for many years, let alone the 24 seat conference table in storage.

      2. Perhaps your mother is suffering from dementia? Our elderly parents are very clever at hiding this from us. My mother was always what is politely termed ‘a difficult lady’ but she lived with us for two years before we sought residential accommodation, because she had become even more difficult and offensive. It wasn’t until she was installed in her new accommodation that the manageress mentioned my mum’s dementia “of course your mother’s senile dementia is not going to improve” and I thought “what does she mean, my mother hasn’t got dementia….” I went to say cheerio to my mum and in that instant I realised that she did in fact, have dementia, it was vascular dementia as it happened. I suppose she had become clever at hiding it, the forgetfulness, and at the same time I was in denial.

        1. My cousin upset her mother, my aunt, by coming out with hurtful things. She’d always had a very wicked way with words, but this was something else. As her illness progressed, it was clear that that was just the start – she had the early stages of PSP – and like with dementia, she’d lost her inhibition and self-censorship. She died a year or so later, aged 60.

      4. How sad, W.
        What prompted your Mam to become so offensive? A feeling of total exclusion? Onset of mental daftness?

      1. Among other things Christmas is about thinking of others. Why don’t you hold a party in December for the other residents. You never know…you might get an invitation back.

        1. I’m a very solitary person, Philip, not given to throwing parties. I’ll manage by myself. Thank you for the suggestions

    2. The NT are not to be trusted.
      They have been blessed with looking after our heritage. What they have will not turn support against them. And hasten the demise of public interest and donations.

      1. If it is for the volunteers only, one might argue that 99.99% of them know when Christmas and Easter would be as opposed to wogstivals, which they probably wouldn’t

  56. Ukraine’s counter-offensive has failed for now – the West needs a new plan. 12 November 2023.

    We should stop listening to the argument that the Ukrainians are fighting wrongly. Yes, Western tank armies have beaten Soviet-equipped ones easily in Iraq and Kuwait but this was not because they had Western tanks and Western officers: they won because they had total dominance of the air and thus could use precision strike weapons anywhere in theatre.

    We should give the same capability to Ukraine, firstly in the form of proper full-fat ATACMS and then by making sure that the coming F-16 fighter jets are equipped with everything up to and including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Munition (JASSM), which is everything that Storm Shadow is supposed to be and more.

    It’s time to cease taking counsel of our fears and end the stalemate in Ukraine, by taking steps no more aggressive than those we have already taken.

    The West needs to get this war wrapped up, so that we can look elsewhere.

    The last sentence tells you everything. The problem here is of course that the West is not fighting this war. It’s the Ukies with western weapons and an army whose average age is 43. It’s an army of old men. The addition of more advanced weapons is not going to change this except to raise the average to where Nottler’s will be eligible for service. This thing should have been negotiated out of existence a year ago.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/12/ukraine-counteroffensive-failed-russia-putin-war-plan/

    1. It’s time to get it wrapped up – and let whoever is left alive to clear up and get living again. Enough young men have died for no good reason.

    2. If the idiot who wrote that article really believes that supplying such weapons as he suggests will “end the stalemate in Ukraine, by taking steps no more aggressive than those we have already taken” then he needs his head examined. I think the west is very close to committing an act of war.

      1. We are probably on the edge of war now. The West’s Political Elites are obviously insane!

        1. The West’s Political Elites are obviously insane!

          That goes without saying but they are equally devoid of compassion, failing to take responsibility and therefore incapable of ever admitting to being wrong. If confirmation is required then listening to Neil Oliver in a comment just above is all that is needed, especially the double whammy of lockdowns and the following, and sadly ongoing, “vaccine” programme. Warnings were given about a range of disastrous outcomes from following the lockdown policy but the insane pursued the equally insane idea and trashed much of the World. The same goes for the “vaccine” and millions of people have suffered as a consequence.
          Perhaps insane with a large dose of evil thrown in is closer to the mark?

      2. There is no stalemate in Ukraine. Russia continues to eliminate Ukrainian reserve forces. The illusion of a stalemate is because Russia has not as yet seized further territory.

        Russia is on course to take the Russian cities of Odessa and Kiev. Few think that Russia will wish to go further. The rump of the present Ukraine will probably fall to Poland and/or Romania.

    3. The West needs to get this war wrapped up, so that we can look elsewhere.

      And just where else does this idiot think the West should be looking to wage war?

  59. Afternoon All

    Funny Old World

    Had the misfortune to catch a couple of minutes of an Al-beeb news last night the howls of fury agin the FAAAAR RIGHT and Braverman were deafening

    Then I did a double take at the images used skinny

    thugs in black jeans black tops black masks and head coverings

    Hmm never seen the EDL dressed like that,where do I remember this from?? Oh Yeah every Antifa protest I have ever seen

    The narrative was set,the agent provocateurs were sent in and the desired result was obtained

    What a farce

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b270b6a8cce6ee0917cc2988f19c582c03474fd05d89dad734f2ece2c17ded4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64110038cf017293d0c88311f5992e2fcf2acb261791b9175e2eacc2fe4711b3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/286e42ccbd7512d437d7389c18bb0cc63aaba6a06353d1924a95649520dc926f.png

    See Neil Oliver on the endless lies for more details

    https://twitter.com/wolsned/status/1723426315682943396

  60. Went to the Remembrance Service at church this morning of course. Better attended than recent years. The church was full. Yes, at least 98% white. Hymns were O God our help in ages past, O valiant hearts, Jerusalem and I vow to thee my country. Sermon on a poem by Wilfred Owen that I recognise from Britten’s War Requiem. Basically, war is bad but sometimes the alternative is worse and there’s a huge difference between a soldier and a terrorist. Sad that point needs to be made.

    1. Paid one of my VERY rare visits to St. James’s in the village for the Remembrance Service and it was 100% white.

    2. It needss to be made often, Sue, so that people really understand, and do whatever it takes to avoid war – until you can do no more, you’ve hit the boundary between the alternative and war.
      And war is truly awful.

      1. It seems to be those who have been the closest to it who are the most anti-war. I don’t know any serviceman who, having been to war, wishes to repeat the experience.

    3. 98% seemed to be the proportion in the Cenotaph march-past which I’ve looked at this afternoon. 100% at our church this morning.

      1. Wonder if it occurs to the absent that, if it were not for those who are no longer amongst us, there would be no ceremony of remembrance for them to sneer at and reject? Many of those with cloured shin would not be in the UK at all, as entry would be forbidden (at best), or their ancestors would have been massacred, and they would not exist.
        Just a thought.
        And, as an addition, there were many soldiers of colour who also partake in the honour of being remembered, as they also contributed to the defeat of totalitarianism.
        Respect.

    4. I can beat that; our church was packed and there wasn’t a dindu anywhere. The sermon was on “Too Much Information” and about how people who’d been through war bottled stuff up and people didn’t listen. I was reminded of the padre mentioned on here yesterday who sat in a freezing wreck with a corpse. Some people do listen and go beyond.

  61. Article on yesterday’s events in the Speccie:
    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-blm-and-the-remembrance-day-protests-had-in-common/#comments-container
    Quote: “ This felt especially strange when I read what Channel 4 news was right then tweeting: ‘After being branded hate marchers by the Home Secretary, a massive pro-Palestinian march passed off peacefully, with hundreds of thousands in attendance. The only scuffles on the day involved far-right protestors who clashed with police.’ Channel 4 News was tweeting an outright lie.”

    1. So Hamas supporters setting off fireworks into police officers’ faces is peaceful and doesn’t count as scuffling?

    1. If I know anything about Farage, he’d be the one to forcibly stuff id up their arses and ask for change.

  64. There were 20 at our outdoor village church commemoration. A said service. Wisely no hymns. The “names” read out by a retired Brigadier, formerly CO of 2nd Batt Coldstream Guards, a retired SAS soldier and my neighbour who served in Afghanistan.

    It was dry but chilly. As always – it made one think.

    Apropos that headline from the Telegraph that “two thirds of children don’t know what Remembrance Sunday means.” I’d say that is bollocks. Both World Wars are required study on the national curriculum. And many thousands of school children are taken to Flanders and the Somme every year.

    1. The village primary schools in our 3 village group of churches (1 vicar to share) walk their older children to their respective local church for a little service.
      One just takes the year 6 class as there’s a very busy main road to cross before the church. Each child ‘plants’ a little wooden cross into a special plot in front of the church. Each cross has the name of a village soldier who perished during WW1, which makes the sacrifice more real to the class, especially as some share the same surname as that on their cross. Inside the church, there is always a display including a village map marking the home of each fallen soldier – some homes have more than one name attached, quite shocking for what was, back then, a small rural village. In most years, one or more children are surprised and somewhat awed to find out that their house was once the home of a fallen soldier.
      The children are always a lot quieter on the walk back to school.
      I’ve no doubt many schools up and down the country hold such services.

      1. When I laid the wreaths yesterday the children from the village school (just across the road from the memorial, which is in the cemetary) had been with their offerings (home-made wreaths) the day before. They’d had the same service as we’d had.

    2. Mmm… not so sure. On our October half-term courses I mentioned the Cenotaph and even the Londoners on our courses had no idea what it was. A few said “oh yes” when I told them.

      You’re right, of course, that many school children are taken to Flanders and the Somme on school trips. And they have all been taught about the World Wars. But they don’t join up the dots by themselves!

      2. I didn’t know what the Cenotaph was until I was an adult. Of course, we all wore poppies and kept the 2 minute silence, but we didn’t have a TV so our commemoration was local rather than national.

        1. It was dinned into me as a child. Father in RAF; elder brother on way to Sandhurst; second bro destined for the Royal Navy. Bloke my mother was to marry killed in the Great War.

        2. Having been born and brought up in the centre of London I didn’t realise how fortunate I had been. My parents took me and my siblings to see the Lord Mayor’s Show, a walk from home to the corner of Ludgate Hill and Old Bailey to watch the procession. I knew St Paul’s cathedral, Whitehall, Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Horse Guards Parade, The Cenotaph etc. I’ could go on.

          1. Having been brought up in Worcestershire, I knew Paris better than London – I’d been to Paris 🙂

    3. Those two thirds are probably the non-indigenous. There were plenty of youngsters at our service and not just the Cubs, Beavers, RAFAC etc. All bar one managed to keep quiet in the silence as well. I blame the parents.

  67. My maternal Grandfather’s ship:
    HM LST Thruster was a large landing ship, not unlike a modern RoRo (roll on roll off ) ferry, except she only had a bow ramp for embarking and disembarking vehicles and she had a flat bottom, and would as a result ‘roll on wet grass’ as we used to say.
    Thruster was built by Harland and Wolf, Belfast, Northern Ireland and launched on September 24th, 1942, being commissioned in the Royal Navy on January 28th, 1943. She later took part in the invasions of Sicily, Salerno, Anzio and Southern France.

    The initials LST stood for Landing Ship, Tank or more often to their crews as a Large, Stationary Target.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7ff93562dc61192f2c79d6113b17952604527c0e0c6ca0cc6b69fd8503a0d353.jpg

    1. I feel a bit left out.
      No photos suitable for the Armistice Day remembrance. A few for after, when Father was involved in atomic weapons, but these aren’t significant: Just a bloke with hair, in long, ironed, trousers. I guess, like most: They just got on with what needed done, and many didn’t come back afterwards.
      Still proud as fcuk over my Dad. He didn’t kill anyone, but did enable atomic weapons, that stopped things dead (see what I did there?) after blowing Japan to fcuk. Faced down the Nigerian Army, when the General wanted to come on campus and shoot riorting students. Then faced down the students, who went away. The Nigerian university “leadership” had run away by that point. That’s how things were, when you were son of a mineworker and came from West Hartlepool.

  68. Seven charged with variety of offences following Saturday’s London demonstrations. 12 November 2023.

    Those charged during the pro-Palestinian demonstration and counter-protest by far-right groups range in age from 21 to 75. The charges relate to offences including assault, possession of weapons, inciting racial hatred and possession of drugs.

    It’s pretty obvious from these charges that these people have been fitted up. 75? Well done that man.

    https://news.sky.com/story/seven-charged-with-variety-of-offences-after-making-arrests-during-pro-palestinian-march-13006525

      2. If only more people fought back, citing Common Law it wouold bring the police back to seeing where they stand – on shakey ground.

  69. Poor lady. That’s one Elk of a way to go….

    “An Arizona woman has been trampled to death by an elk in the first fatality blamed on the species in the US state’s history.”

        1. Oh, you got that Elkie Brooks was in the band Vinegar Joe – well done Pip!

          That’s between thee and me…

        2. Oh, you got that Elkie Brooks was in the band Vinegar Joe – well done Pip!

          That’s between thee and me…

    3. I’m sure you would have been happy to be trampled by Elke Sommer when she was in her prime in the 1960’s and 70’s.

    4. I’d not mess with a reindeer – or especially a moose. Deer can be dangerous – especially those with spiky horns, like a dagger. Know a bloke, big Kiwi lad, who was shit scared by a deer with spikes, who was trying to get a spike under the guy’s riot shield and stab him.
      Don’t mess with the wildlife. It’s better than you at it.

  70. Nicked from the TCW threads
    “IanE
    8 hours ago
    Oh to have a great like Julius Caesar in charge; instead we have the anti-Julius Sunak – weeny, weedy, weaky.”

  71. Braverman: Pro-Palestinian marches ‘polluting’ streets with hate ‘can’t go on’

    Home Secretary claims London’s streets have been used to ‘valorise terrorism’ and says ‘further action’ necessary

    By Daniel Martin, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR and Charles Hymas, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR • 12 November 2023 • 4:32pm

    Suella Braverman has said weekly pro-Palestinian marches that have “polluted” the streets with hate “can’t go on”.

    The Home Secretary claimed London’s streets had been used to “valorise terrorism” and “further action” was necessary. Mrs Braverman said some of the placards and chants in evidence on Saturday’s march in the centre of the capital were “clearly criminal”. Her words raised the prospect that she could put further pressure on the Metropolitan Police to ban the marches.

    She took to X, formerly known as Twitter, after criticism that her rhetoric last week had fuelled some of the violence seen in the capital on Armistice Day. Nine officers were injured and 126 people arrested, the majority far-Right activists seeking to “protect” the Cenotaph.

    The Home Secretary tweeted: “Our brave police officers deserve the thanks of every decent citizen for their professionalism in the face of violence and aggression from protesters and counter-protesters in London yesterday. That multiple officers were injured doing their duty is an outrage.

    “The sick, inflammatory and, in some cases, clearly criminal chants, placards and paraphernalia openly on display at the march mark a new low. Anti-Semitism and other forms of racism together with the valorising of terrorism on such a scale is deeply troubling.

    “This can’t go on. Week by week, the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence and anti-Semitism. Members of the public are being mobbed and intimidated. Jewish people in particular feel threatened. Further action is necessary.”

    Mrs Braverman did not outline what further action could be taken.

    Saturday’s pro-Palestinian march was the biggest in the UK since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct 7. Marches have taken place every week on a Saturday in central London since the attacks. The pro-Palestinian demonstration on Armistice Day saw some 300,000 people march through central London to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.

    Rishi Sunak said those involved in crimes must face the full force of the law, adding: “I condemn the violent, wholly unacceptable scenes we have seen today from the EDL [English Defence League] and associated groups and Hamas sympathisers attending the National March for Palestine. The despicable actions of a minority of people undermine those who have chosen to express their views peacefully.”

    Mr Sunak said that “EDL thugs attacking police and trespassing on the Cenotaph” had disrespected the honour of the UK’s Armed Forces.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/12/suella-braverman-pro-palestinian-marches-cannot-go-on/

    I’m not sure my opinion of The Fakir can go any lower. The honour of the Armed Forces was disrespected by allowing the Muslim march to go ahead. It should have been banned. The scum would have ignored the ban, wreaked havoc and revealed their true nature to the gullible saps who believe in peace, love and brotherly understanding.

    Braverman’s remark is interesting. Is she facing the sack and so going for broke or does The Fakir think that removing her will, in the eyes of those who haven’t spoken yet, put him on the side of the Muslim mob?

        1. As a matter of interest, what else can she do?

          Short of calling in the army and taking the police out of the equation altogether, she’s hamstrung by the Met.

          1. Neither she (who was once, believe or not, attorney general) nor the present Law Officers of the Crown have the ability (or desire) to explain to the head of the Muslipolitan Police Farce EXACTLY what powers are available right now to stop all this malarkey. Sheik Rowley has faced her down.

          2. Which goes back to my point.
            Hamstrung by the Met.

            I’m also pretty damned sure that Sheik Rowley knows exactly what you are suggesting he should be told and is deliberately ignoring it.

          4. No – Director of Public (non)Prosecutions. One of the worst in the long history of that office.

          8. Between her and the PM, they are two of the three most powerful in the country.
            They can declare war – so they can instruct the police, and the Army if necessary, to do what needs done. It’s just testicular fortitude they lack.

          9. It still comes back to Rowley deliberately putting the ball in their court.

            Yes, I agree they should act and slap the bastard to the back of beyond

    2. “This can’t go on. Week by week, the streets of London are being polluted by hate, violence and anti-Semitism. Members of the public are being mobbed and intimidated. Jewish people in particular feel threatened. Further action is necessary.”

      Then bloody well stop it! PM & HS can stop it, or quit immediately as being totally ineffective and useless.

    3. She seems to be tapping into the mood of the country. She had two choices – cave in and apologise or stick to her guns and rely on grass-roots support. She seems to have chosen the latter. Good for her.

      2. Aye – we’ve all had too much of someone saying something half way sensible and then being forced to grovel by a baying mob.

      3. Precisely why I cc’d my Braverman email to our local MP.
        They need to be made aware of how we feel.

    4. She seems to be tapping into the mood of the country. She had two choices – cave in and apologise or stick to her guns and rely on grass-roots support. She seems to have chosen the latter. Good for her.

    5. The headline on one of the papers suggested Fishi Rishi was about to do a reshuffle and get rid of her. If the police had done its job and cancelled the marches there would have been no need for ordinary people (aka “far right yobs”) to have to protect monuments and memorials.

    6. What does Suella Braverman have to say about Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion protesters?

  73. As it’s that sort of day.

    My mother’s brother, Roy, who at the time of this photo (1940-1942) was in the Air Transport Auxiliary. He’d previously been an RAF pilot officer (1932-1937) on a short term commission and served with No. 11 (B) Squadron in Risalpur. A falling out with the ATA in April 1942 led him to a job as civilian test pilot for the Ministry of Aircraft Production.
    “On 23 July 1942, he undertook a flight in Supermarine Spitfire Mk.V W3958 after work had been carried out on it at No.1 Civilian Repair Unit at the Cowley works of Morris Motors, staffed by civilians under the management of the Air Ministry. The aircraft was reported to have climbed into a very black cloud about 5 minutes after taking off from RAF Abingdon. Moments later it emerged, diving at high speed straight into the ground at Cumnor Hill, three and a half miles southwest of Oxford. Roy was killed on impact. ”

    I don’t know for sure why he didn’t go back to the RAF, but perhaps because his wife gave birth to a girl in 1939. Sally is her name, and a cousin who I’ve never met.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55e965945a3332af194ed65bb13bdab8bf83937f5ba282b313ad83453209d7d4.jpg

    1. My wife’s uncle was a Spitfire pilot killed in the USA while he flying recruiting exercises, an American pilot lost control of his own plane and cut off the tail of her uncle’s Spitfire.
      Such a waste.

    1. It was obviously cold at the time. She should have done a bit of warming-up first (or worn a vest).

    2. Having watched it to the end, purely to understand yoga of course, there are lots of other sites that pop up.

      Are they the ones you’ve watched recently?

  76. Thoughts for the evening of Remembrance Sunday:

    I didn’t go to war. I served in the RAF for 19 years, 15 of those years as a fighter pilot. The RAF had the opportunity to get me involved during the Falklands War but the hostilities ceased before I was due to report for a Harrier refresher course. I subsequently found out that my C/O at the time had successfully persuaded the posters to defer me for a month or two. Had he not done so I would have gone back to the ‘Hoover-jet’ world, probably missed the action anyway and never flown the Tornado. I was out before the first Gulf War but still on the reserve so recallable. The ‘phone didn’t ring. I left the Service with a chest as void of medals as the day I joined.

    However, I did go to rather too many funerals. Fast-jet military aviation is a hazardous business and we lost jets, and their pilots and navigators, at a worrying rate even in peacetime training. Whether it was striking the ground, mid-air collision, cannon-shell ricochets, bird-strikes or malfunctioning ejector seats hardly a month went by at one point during my service without the RAF losing a fighter and its crew. I had some narrow escapes myself and one “Martin-Baker let-down” when I had occasion to explosively abandon my jet and leave it splattered across the floor of a Welsh valley. I counted them up again today: 19. Nineteen young men whom I knew who gave their lives in peacetime training. One for every year of my own service. I couldn’t make it to all the funerals but I attended most. Two were memorial services only because the bodies were never found.

    I think of them this day.

    4. First time we had summer vacation at the North York Moor railway, on the way from the ferry terminal to Pckering, we passed a wrecked (Tornado?) where the ambulance had arrived but not the fire brigade. Terrible smell of crushed vegitation and jet fuel. Found out afterwards that the pilots had banged out, so nobody killed.
      All a bit dramatic.

    7. In my early groundcrew days I strapped in a few jockeys for their last trip and attended a few nasty crashes and funerals as guard of honour (many coffins filled with sand to make up the weight)

    3. I’ll raise a Stein to her and the band. Born Angela Trimble apparently (Wiki), name changed on adoption at 3 months.

  79. Mobs chanting genocidal slogans have free rein on British streets. Enough is enough

    How shameful it was that so many British Jews were too intimidated to venture into the heart of their own capital city

    ALLISON PEARSON • Saturday November 11th 2023 • 8:05pm

    It was a tale of two countries. Or of two groups within the same country, barely a mile apart on Armistice Day in central London, but worlds apart in attitudes.

    As a military band at the Cenotaph struck up the mellow, moving strains of Our God, Our Help In Ages Past and all the proud medals on all the proud blazers gleamed in the wonderful autumn sunshine, it was possible for a moment to think that this was an England that the soldiers who gave their lives for us would recognise.

    But then the thrilling sound of a bugle was drowned out by the thunderous chug of a police helicopter overhead and distantly, very distantly but drawing nearer, came the cry, “Free Palestine!”

    I was standing with the British Friends of Israel at the foot of the statue of Winston Churchill (If only the great man were here in the flesh and not cast in bronze to show the present Government what leadership looks like!). Lots of Telegraph readers had travelled from far and wide to join us. “It takes a lot to get Brits out of their armchairs,” said James, a gentle giant from Thaxted in Essex, “We are a nation of armchair critics, aren’t we? But if this doesn’t get you to stand up for your country then nothing will. Enough is enough.”

    I lost count of how many times I heard that phrase. Events at the Cenotaph were blighted by football hooligans and “far-Right yobs”. There was disorder, and some men who looked as if they weren’t entirely there to hum along to Edward Elgar. But that was hardly the whole story.

    Things were worse down at Embankment where Tommy Robinson, leader of the English Defence League, had summoned his followers to “protect” the war memorial and “honour” the fallen.

    But where we were in Parliament Square, and till well past noon, it was respectful, peaceful and good-humoured, with no pro-Palestinian protesters to spoil the two minutes’ silence as we had feared.

    “Do you think you’re far-Right yobs?” I asked a group of elegant and venerable ladies.

    “Oh, no, we’re from Kensington mainly,” came the startled reply.

    From Kensington, from Yorkshire, from Dorset, from Kent, from Stratford, from Hertfordshire, from Reading, from Belfast, from Swansea; the silent majority of decent people, who agree with Suella Braverman, showed up, perhaps because they intuited that a mob who were chanting genocidal slogans, driving away poppy sellers from their annual perches, posed an existential threat to their country.

    How shameful it was, too, that so many British Jews were too intimidated to venture into the heart of their own capital city. Gary Mond, chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, did come along and movingly, and quite instinctively, the rest of us closed ranks as if to protect him.

    As we stood there, people expressed dismay that Sir Mark Rowley, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, had failed to ban the fifth pro-Palestine march through London since the heinous Hamas massacre of Israelis on October 7. And this latest one on a most solemn, sacred day in the national calendar; almost calculated to give offence.

    “It’s incredibly disrespectful to Britain,” said a veteran of Asian background who had been coming to the Cenotaph on this same date for 25 years. “This is a Christian country. When my grandfather came to the UK, he fitted in, he didn’t start laying down the law about what he wanted. This is a good country, show some gratitude”.

    The Home Secretary may have a point when she says the Metropolitan Police have favourites. Peter, a sweet, deeply courteous man who had been helping me hold up the British Friends of Israel banner, popped over to invite a couple of coppers to pose for a picture with our group. They declined.

    “They did it for the Black Lives Matter lot, they took the knee to them, didn’t they? We’re not woke enough, Allison,” Peter laughed, bitterly.

    And why were so few police officers wearing poppies? It did not go unnoticed. “You’ll wear your Pride patches and badges, won’t you?” jeered Jayne at some passing coppers. Jayne complained how hard it had been to get across town, passing stall after stall selling Palestinian flags.

    “You let your country down!” one man, half-drunk already, bellowed at the police who formed a cordon on every side of us,” We all shushed him. “Not now, not today, now is not the time,” soothed another chap putting a hand on the agitated man’s shoulder to calm him.

    Unfair or not, there was a widespread perception of double standards when it came to policing the two countries. Did 92 arrests of “counter-protesters” accurately reflect the balance of offence and disturbance caused or did it tell us which group the Met feels more confident arresting?

    As I left Westminster, walking through what felt like a heavily militarised city, I ran into the vast pro-Palestinian march snaking around Victoria station. It was alarming. Some of the men were hooded and masked illegally.

    Others in London carried anti-semitic placards and chanted, “Khaybar ya yahood” which my friend said refers to a seventh-century massacre of the Jews. “No offences were committed,” said the Met.

    It was a tale of two countries. If the Government and the police think the only “counter protesters” to the pro-Palestinian marches are “far-Right yobs”, I have some ladies from Kensington they should meet. “You don’t need to know my name,” said a reader from Beverley. “Just say I came today to protect those who protected us.”

    We are the Dead
    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 grown in Flanders fields!

    Enough is enough.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/11/palestine-protests-armistice-day-london-remembrance-sunday/

    1. I keep posting this. It’s powerful in it’s simplicity, and so true.
      That’s why I stand with the Jews, of any nationality.

      When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

    2. I get that Alison Pearson is at some kind of breaking point but who is willing to butcher pro-Palestine demonstrators? Will they be discerning enough to distinguish between the peaceful and the violent or will they murder indiscriminately?

  80. Evening, all. Back from a trip to my former church (visiting celebrant) for the Remembrance Day service. The place was physically warm, but spiritually cold, I felt. Several ironies during the service, not least saying that the country was unified – had they not seen the news this past week? It was very nice to catch up with old friends but the choir was sadly missed, despite the order of service stating “the choir will sing the anthem”. We had a Grey Friar to play the organ – “pedestrian” was my friend’s comment. I shall be in no hurry to rush back. My new church may be cold in the temperature sense, but the atmostphere is warm and welcoming.

  81. Too effing true:

    SIR – Regarding the demands for a ceasefire in Gaza, David Lander (Letters, November 7) suggests that wars only end when weapons are laid down.

    However, I’m afraid the reality is that Golda Meir’s statement in 1973 remains true 50 years on: “If the Arabs put down their weapons today, there would be no more violence. If the Jews put down their weapons today, there would be no more Israel.”

    Vincent Phillips
    Naburn, North Yorkshire

    1. As I observed recently, I could end the war in ten minutes (on reflection it would take longer for them all to crawl out) if Hamas surrendered and left their rat runs.

        1. The Israelis could consider heavy duty pumping equipment and start flooding the tunnels with sea water.
          To reverse the Hamarse chant,
          from the sea to the river.

          1. The only combatant to call for a ceasefire is the one that is losing. What would the Israelis gain from a cessation of hostilities? Nothing.

    2. That’s what I thought when I saw the front page virtually telling Israel to cave in due to pro-Hamas pressure.

    3. The anti-war protesters are sadly missing the point. There is little to gain by Israel holding fire now when tackling Hamas. What the protesters are not considering enough is that Israel may have the right to defend itself and its citizens, but it also has an obligation to those innocents caught up in this who are not responsible for the carnage.

      Rescuing those Israelis kidnapped and being held to ransom is only part of the story. Israel has an obligation to be in the forefront of humanitarian action to relieve those citizens of Gaza who have not been lobbing rockets over the fence or raping, looting and pillaging Israeli villagers. There are several strategic advantages to Israel in doing this.

      – It will make the protesters quite uncomfortable about condemning Israel.
      – It will establish the authority of the Israeli military when attempting to restore order.
      – It will allow Israel to make friends around the world with the humanitarian institutions.
      – It will offer Israel a wonderful opportunity to gather military intelligence, whilst under the cover of humanitarian work.
      – It may even make Palestinians more accepting of the existence of Israel, relegating the ‘From the River to the Sea’ contingent to the political fringes.

      That they are not doing this in any meaningful degree suggests that Israel’s actual motives for clearing out Gaza are much darker and more sinister.

  82. A late thought for the day:

    Today when I was watching the veterans marching, and silently paying their respects, and the numbers were described as being in the thousands and I compared them to the supposed 100’s of thousands marching for Hamas it occurred to me that each of those veterans was a better person than most of the1,000’s of jew haters screaming support for the new Nazis.

    1. When my father was alive and I would whinge to him about some injustice or the state of the world, he would simply say “well, what are you going to do about it then?”.

      I suggest that one reason these veterans command such respect is that, rather than waving banners and chanting slogans, they actually got down and dirty and did something about the grave national threat of the day.

      WW1 has already passed out of living memory, and WW2 is not far off it. We have the Falklands veterans in late middle age now, who addressed a hostile opportunistic invasion of British territory. We have the Yugoslav peacekeepers, who tackled the factional breakdown of a post-communist nation. We have the Gulf War veterans, who dealt with yet another hostile invasion of a small country by its larger neighbour. Then we have Iraq and Afghanistan, which was mostly about dealing with Islamist insurgence. I am sure we have not seen the end of grave threats, generating the banner wavers on one had and the future veterans, who actually have to risk their lives sorting it out. There are even veterans of those who rescued the London Olympics from privatised security outfits eager to take public money but incapable of doing the job they were being paid to do.

      It is not limited to military operations. Throughout industry, there are the advisers and speculators, chancers and fiddlers, and there are the doers and makers. There has been scant support for the latter, and perhaps there is a ready market for any party willing to improve their lot.

      [edit – missing word]

  83. Thoughts for the evening of Remembrance Sunday No 2:

    Many of us here will be children of the World War 2 generation. Some may have been born before their fathers or mothers went into harm’s way, Others, like me, were not.

    My father was a bomber pilot. He finished his training in early 1941 and joined No 50 Squadron at RAF Lindholme in Yorkshire from where he flew Handley-Page Hampden light bombers. Those were the days when bombing accuracy was so poor that bomber crews were often lucky to get their loads within 5 miles of the target aiming point. Early ‘ops’ were often ‘gardening’, that is laying mines across the entrance to harbours on the Baltic coast or the Channel coast of occupied Europe. He was also involved in attacks on the German Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau as they lay in Brest prior to their ‘Channel Dash’ to the Baltic and Norwegian waters.

    After he completed his ‘tour’ of ‘ops’ on 50 Squadron he was involved in ‘blind approach’ development and training to devise ways of getting bombers home in adverse weather such as low cloud or fog.

    He was returned to operations on No 109 Squadron, a Pathfinder squadron flying the De Havilland Mosquito which moved around between RAF Marham in Norfolk, RAF Little Staughton in Bedfordshire, RAF Wyton in Huntingdonshire and RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire. His rôle on operations was to go in ahead of the main bomber force and mark the target from low level using pyrotechnic flares. As the marking flares lasted a finite time or would drift on the wind, Pathfinder crews often had to fly in again underneath the main bomber stream to re-mark the target.

    On the night of 6th and 7th June 1944 he flew in support of the D-Day landings, marking targets at Fôret de Cerisy and Argentan. Although a Mosquito pilot he flew a Lancaster twice. Once to be ‘checked out’, the second time to bomb Wesel on the Rhine. They did that sort of thing in the RAF in the Second World War.

    All in all he few 120 operations – 120 – over Third Reich territory visiting many major German cities which I was to visit myself when I was based in West Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. That is a remarkable total at a time when the chances of a bomber crew surviving a full ‘tour’ of 30 ‘ops’ were slim indeed. He had a couple of non-operational accidents but escaped with minor injuries. Statistically, he should not have survived 120 operations in which case I would not be here to write this.

    It makes you think.

    Tragically he died young at 53 as I was on the threshold of my own RAF career so I was unable to share my experiences with him or to break down his renowned reticence when it came to his wartime exploits. They were the silent generation too.

    1. That is an amazing record. Pathfinder tours were more ops than the standard. One of my RAFARS friends was a radio operator during the war. I remember him telling me that he went all through training with his mate until they crewed up. He turned left, his mate turned right – he made it, his mate didn’t. He said it’s decisions like that which determined whether he lived or died.

      1. Yes. 45 ‘ops’ for the Pathfinders. So his total was 2 x 45 plus the normal 30 on Hampdens. Bomber crews were supposed to do only 2 tours if they survived but he did 3.

    2. That is an amazing record. Pathfinder tours were more ops than the standard. One of my RAFARS friends was a radio operator during the war. I remember him telling me that he went all through training with his mate until they crewed up. He turned left, his mate turned right – he made it, his mate didn’t. He said it’s decisions like that which determined whether he lived or died.

    3. My late father in law (my husband’s father) was a Mosquito navigator. Late in life he had a meeting with his pilot – i must look out the photos we took that day as they reminisced.

      My first father in law had a different sort of war as a member of the Pioneer Corps. Both survived.

    4. Somebody definitely was smiling on him.
      Respect – four tours of duty. That was really something.

    5. My late father was in the RAOC. His unit with much of the corps were posted to East Scotland to be part of the D Day deception plan to invade Norway. They had to rush back to the South coast of England and he crossed the Channel on D Day 3. He was to supply ammunition to the front line From Normandy to Germany with so many narrow escapes that he did not like talking about. Just one of the many, and survived. and here I am. thanks Dad.

      1. A chap I used to meet when out walking my dog went in on D Day. He had a bullet hole in his hand as a memento. I remember him telling me that, as they were approaching the beach and the landing ramp was being lowered, the lad in front of him said, “I shouldn’t be here” and then dropped dead with a bullet through his forehead.

      2. My Dad was in a reserved occupation originally and had a weak eye (which I remember being sealed up in the 60s).. He was eventually called up in 1943 at the age of 30. Was trained as an RA gunner and signaller. He was due to go to Normandy but was sent instead to Catterick on a signaller’s course. Half of his troop were killed in Normandy and it was the only time my Mom ever saw him cry.
        He ended up in Naples in 1945 and was employed as a Broadcaster Operator on forces radio. I have his discharge documents and training record from initial enlistment along with service record from the Army Personnel Centre. He was eventually discharged in early 1947. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03d3ce602edb26b4b22643db4aa8d5caaa0fc8eb9d228aa0ad54d8960568a245.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01e8e37406006efa17025cc9bc7b50798dbb90c99bb61d3ef9a0c4342cb0d240.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/037fe5c2ad0dc1e2e20a0753cf91e1e1cf07f8c90e95e9731f7b318892e10cc0.jpg

    6. My father never made it to the glories ranks, he wax a lonely infantryman who served in the middle east (so hamas is his fault) and then Burma.

      He never spoke about what he did or saw.

  84. A scene from Nazi Germany? No, this is London in 2023: The horrifying anti-Semitic placards brandished by protestors on the Armistice Day march – as Suella Braverman says ‘sick, inflammatory’ signs on display ‘mark a new low’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12740393/Police-probe-pro-Palestine-protesters-pictured-carrying-anti-Semitic-placards-Armistice-Day-march-Suella-Braverman-says-sick-inflammatory-signs-display-mark-new-low.html

    1. Not just anti-semetic. There was one doing the rounds on Twitter that was explicitly anti-white.

    2. It is clear that feelings about the Israeli siege, bombardment and invasion of Gaza, along with the shelling of hospitals and fleeing refugees on the pretext that they might be harbouring the enemy, are running high. Any protest in a country that prides itself on free expression should be able to express this disgust in words that can be understood, rather than brushed under the carpet.

      The Israelis, and Benjamin Netanyahu in particular, along with his apologists, of whom many frequent online forums including The Spectator, have made a rod on the back of all Jews by insisting that all heated criticism of Israeli action against enemy citizens is the hate crime of antisemitism on a par with Krystallnacht. This definition was adopted by the International Holocaust Memorial Association, and anyone argues with this at their peril. It is not the first time political or social terms have been perverted by tweaking with definitions. Linguistically, it makes open debate very difficult, and therefore fosters factionalism and identity politics, which I personally abhor.

      The British Labour Party’s National Executive attempted to draw a line between legitimate political criticism and a hate campaign against an entire race or creed that could descend once more into genocide. However, democracy in the United Kingdom was undermined by a campaign designed to maintain this confusion, and destroyed the careers of a number of senior politicians in Britain, including the Leader of the Opposition and a former London Mayor, leaving a constitutional vacuum in Britain. This has perverted the course of democracy in my country and is no longer limited to a troublesome region in the Eastern Mediterranean.

      The lies and hatred directed at me personally have been disgraceful.

    3. I will not be bothering with that. The sole purpose is to incite me to hate people I’ve never met and about whom i know virtually nothing. I do not know and do not want to know. I think I’m in the majority.

    1. I think it’s Biden, but he’s no mastermind – he’s just just the puppet. Somebody is pulling his strings and he’s the mastermind.

  86. Given the choice between a world without Judaism and Jews and a world without Islam and Muslims I would have to think very carefully.

    Ok my nanosecond is up, the Jews stay.

    1. Islam’s avowed intention (which is no secret) is world domination. Its ‘evangelisation’ is by force. Judaism has never been interested in gaining converts.

  88. Thoughts for the evening of Remembrance Sunday No 3 ( the last, I promise):

    My late father-in-law was a merchant seaman, a ship’s officer. He sailed on the Atlantic and Arctic convoys. In 1943 his ship was torpedoed and sunk. Fortunately, the ship did not go to the bottom rapidly as many did so the crew had time to launch some lifeboats and he was aboard one, the only officer with about a dozen crewmen. They were not picked up because the policy was for the convoy to continue on course and the destroyer escorts wouldn’t leave the convoy because that would leave a defensive gap through which U-boats could slip.

    He and his crewmen were adrift in the North Atlantic for two weeks during which half the men died, probably of exposure. Eventually they were picked up by the Nantucket Coast Guard and taken to Hospital. My father-in-law had lost a considerable amount of weight, had deep sores due to the exposure and sustained a permanent realignment of his right shoulder bones due to many long hours at the lifeboat tiller in heavy seas.

    On repatriation he spent several weeks recuperating in hospital in Haverfordwest where he met my late Mother-in-Law. He was very lucky to be alive.

    Had he not survived, my wife, my daughter and my grand-daughter would not be here.

    Such are the fine margins between existing and not existing.

      1. I couldn’t believe it either, I thought it was a joke too. Unfortunately it seems not to be.

    2. 378728+ up ticks,

      Evening PM,

      What, under the guise of anthony charlie lynton,
      no park toilet will be safe.

    3. From the outset my intuition told me that Blair was a wrong ‘un.

      That same intuition worked against others, especially Johnson and all that he did during the ‘Plandemic’. It drove me to do some research on masks, distancing and of course the real nasty, the “vaccine” programme.

      However, it did fail me during the early Brexit years with May, therefore going some way to indicating that nothing is perfect.

    1. I’m not playing that. I know that people despise our King but I will not be a party to whatever calumny this is.

  91. Par on Wordle today.
    Wordle 876 4/6

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

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 876 4/6

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

    2. Same old, same old.
      Wordle 876 4/6

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

    1. To think that Dimbleby senior went on a bombing mission over Germany and broadcasted his experience.

        1. Apparently they bombed from such a low height (4000 ft) because of low cloud obscuring the target. His pilot was Sqn Ldr John Gee. 153 Sqn operating Lancs from Scampton.

          2. I think so, in terms of Lancs bombing during raids. Whitleys couldn’t reach the altitude Lancs could make and thus were more vulnerable to flak (and bombs being dropped on them from heavies above them). B17s typically bombed from ca 20,000 ft.

    2. And when he said the Windrush generation came over to assist with the reconstruction of the United Kingdom I nearly choked on my coffee….. the bbc simply cannot help itself, can it?

      1. I suppose that isn’t exactly a lie; we did need manpower after the war, but they came over for a better life.

        1. They certainly did, it was not out of the kindness of their hearts as was the implication. As is always the implication when this phrase is used.

          1. As with everything the Bbc does and says, there is a hidden agenda. It’s what they imply and what they don’t say.

          2. Like this example earlier (now edited) Mr Scott (US presidential candidate) has decided to quit after lying “fourth behind Mr Trump and other Republican candidates” — Implying Trump is lying third.

            Morning Conway and all.

      2. When our men returned from active duty and were demobbed, given a Burton’s suit and overcoat and told to seek employment they often found the Windrush mob had taken their jobs.

      3. Didn’t see it. But my girlfriends are mostly Leftards (“we are just so kind and caring”) and one of them was wittering on about how wonderful it was.

        This might make you laugh. Last might the gobbiest of them (she thinks i am a far-right fascist and loves the jug-eared crisp-sslesman) admitted to having, and using, private medical AND dental insurance. She is one one of those “do as i say, not as i do” “socialists” (though most socialists ate hypocrites so it’s not really that surprising). I could go on but you probably all know such types.

      4. I think the word ‘reconstruction’ is stretching the point. They came and worked as cleaners, drivers, building and in some case nurses. They also brought their food and culture. Which are not inimical to our own. Unlike the muslims.

    3. Someone far more knowledgeable than me would have to discern that. I thought his tone of voice sounded about right but I’m too dim to know where he got it wrong.

  93. List of wars involving the United Kingdom

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    This is a list of wars and humanitarian conflicts involving the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and its predecessor states (the Kingdom of Great Britain, Kingdom of England, Kingdom of Scotland and generally the British Isles). Notable militarised interstate disputes are included. For a list of wars before the Acts of Union 1707 please see List of wars involving England & List of wars involving Scotland. To see wars that have been fought on the United Kingdom mainland, see the list of wars in Great Britain.

    Historically, the United Kingdom relied most heavily on the Royal Navy and maintained relatively small land forces. Most of the episodes listed here deal with insurgencies and revolts in the various colonies of the British Empire.

    During its history, the United Kingdom’s forces (or forces with a British mandate) have invaded, had some control over or fought conflicts in 171 of the world’s 193 countries that are currently UN member states, or nine out of ten of all countries.[1]

    British victory – 102
    Another result – 22 (e.g. a treaty or peace without a clear result, status quo ante bellum, result of civil or internal conflict, result unknown or indecisive, inconclusive)
    British defeat – 22
    Ongoing conflict – 1

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

    2. I was interested to see so many High Commissioner and Diplomatic representatives laying wreaths at the Cenotaph on Sunday honouring those from their countries who died after joining British forces to fight pure evil.

    5. Tried to read the address but couldn’t quite make it.
      The lorry in last scene was for London E.C
      My family all lived in London EC1 and I lived there until 1965.

    1. I get a weeks ban regularly but when I flag anything it seems it doesn’t go against their standards – even full sex shown on one site (which I blocked)

      1. Sky.com, that would be the same channel that reported that Laurence Fox was present during scuffles at the Cenotaph, when in fact he was in a plane flying off somewhere else at the time?
        Whether they lied or not, is purely a matter of someone’s word against someone else’s. Anything can be proven in order to support the agenda.

        In the US, a white teenager has been beaten to death by fifteen black youths, who he was trying to prevent from bullying a smaller boy. Do you think there will be any George Floyd (career criminal) style riots? Any cries of White Lives Matter?

        In London at the weekend, a placard was photographed in the crowd saying “Are you on the White Side or the Right Side?”

        The manifesto of the trans school shooter was recently leaked onto the internet, and it spews hatred against white people (although the shooter ended up murdering an innocent black man as well as the white victims!).

        The ongoing racist murder of white farmers in South Africa garners no attention in the mainstream media.

        These are just a few examples, I could go on.

        An explicitly anti-white agenda is being pushed in both the US and UK. It is not helping anything to pretend that this agenda doesn’t exist.
        That doesn’t mean we should fall for the lies and plunge into a race war. But we will be attacked if we try to pretend that nothing is happening. Head in the sand is not a good strategy when someone is directly attacking you.
        We need to notice what is happening, talk about it, and explicitly reject the race hate agenda.

    1. After reading more on the subject these practices were outlawed under the Islamic Emirate Talban. When the U.S invaded Afghan and installed the puppet Ashraf Ghani the practice increased, because under the Islamic Republic these things are acceptable.

  100. It’s 6.30 am and I’m finally going to bed. Won’t be logging in here tomorrow (i.e. Monday) until much later.

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