Thursday 10 April: Labour has laid waste to Birmingham – and the rest of Britain is at risk

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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383 thoughts on “Thursday 10 April: Labour has laid waste to Birmingham – and the rest of Britain is at risk”

  1. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff for today's new page.

    Wordle 1,391 4/6

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    2. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,391 3/6

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      1. Get you.
        Today we will have chicken schnitzels; made from thigh meat, not breast. I really do not understand why people are so hung up on a meat that is pallid, tasteless and prone to drying out.

        1. Breast meat is fine for a sandwich but thighs for everything else. Including curry.

          I bone out the thighs with scissors then bash them with a rolling pin for Schnitzels.

  3. morning all. Comedy moment earlier on the Tube when I realised I had forgotten how to fold my Brompton (I only use it about once a month so may still be forgiven).

    Small extract from Robert Toombs’ piece I the Terriblegraph:

    “…What is often called the “seminal disaster” setting off all the rest was the outbreak of war in 1914. This, too, emerged from the sudden and unexpected collapse of a rules-based order. By 1914, 194 international treaties included provision for arbitration of disputes; there were more than 400 peace organisations in the world, and a Palace of Peace to house their conferences opened in The Hague in 1913. In 1910, a best-selling book, The Great Illusion by Norman Angell (who received a Nobel Peace Prize) argued that economic interdependence made war irrational, even impossible. Britain and Germany were each other’s greatest customers.

    As it was so senseless, 1914 has been explained as an accident, with nations slithering (as Lloyd George put it) or sleepwalking into disaster. Lenin believed it was the inevitable explosion of those toxic forces, capitalism and imperialism.

    In reality it was a deliberate, yet unnecessary, decision made at a crucial moment by a small number of ordinary, inadequate men. Three years earlier, or three years later, the crisis might have passed. But in 1914, all the peace campaigners, economists and bankers terrified of financial collapse were powerless.

    Sometimes individuals do change history, and sometimes their personalities – even their obsessions – are decisive, for good or ill. But only when everything is in flux. In normal times, Lenin would have died an unknown exile in Switzerland; Churchill would perhaps be remembered for introducing unemployment benefit; Hitler might have run a vegetarian cafe in Munich; Putin would be living on his KGB pension. And Donald Trump? A not very successful property developer…”

    1. “Nevertheless, moments came when these people acted, and when one looks closely, it is very unlikely that, if they had not been there, someone else would have done what they did. They were not even riding great waves of popular enthusiasm. Lenin singlehandedly insisted on sabotaging Russia’s struggling democracy. Hitler forced a war that Germans feared. Churchill decided to fight on and refuse negotiation. Trump started a global trade war. How many Maga enthusiasts wanted or expected that?

      One must conclude, economic interest still does not rule the world. There is no safety barrier restraining those in power. If we need an example close to home, take net zero. It is not based on economic rationality. It is not the result of popular demand, but the decision of a few in power – it was hardly even debated in parliament. It has little effect on global warming. It is financially ruinous, and, to crown it all, it is impossible to achieve. The emperor has no clothes, as Kemi Badenoch has started to point out.

      We are now – once again – in a time when wishful thinking and crude political power have replaced economic calculation. Hume and Smith got it wrong: “commercial society” still cannot guarantee peace, prosperity and cooperation. We can no longer assume that “experts” have any idea what they are doing. If economic reality finally dawns, it may be too late. Only voters’ common sense must control politicians – if it can.”

      1. Marxists contend that history us inevitable, Easy enough with hindsight, they're not much good at applying their phoney science to the future.

        2. Something the Left never, ever do is learn from the past. If they did, it'd expose how stupid their ideology is.

          Heck, they put more effort into re-writing history than learning from it. The rational mind changes if confronted with the fact that everything it held dear was utter hokum. Not the Left though.

    2. The tariffs placed on Germany that crippled her industry, combined with the massive war reparations were as much the catalyst for the rise of Hitler as anything else. The German people needed a leader to get them out of the mire and he promised to give it to them.

      If we hadn't been so punitive who knows what might have happened.

      1. I thought it was the French at Versailles that pressed for the tariffs? Although that’s probably a bit simplistic.

        1. Not sure. My history falls over once I get passed ranting that Hitler was a Lefty and so were the Nazis. (which they were. All evil is Left wing).

          Any form of trade restriction is a bad thing. It prevents choice. Governments like it because it gives them power and bargaining chips over those industries (French farming in the EU, German cars) but ultimately central planning for industry is moronic. It reduces competitiveness (French farming in the EU) , hikes prices for goods (German cars) adds a boat load of state control (German cars, French farming) in mandating all sorts of nonsense (so called 'safety' and emissions demands) which are really just an effort to exclude competition and keep prices high.

          The customer always loses as the function of markets to improve products is lost and government mandate becomes the driver.

    2. Question Richard.. what's Zia Yusuf's plans for Net Stupid Zero & immigration? Do tell.

      1. Reform have shown they don't understand the problem this country has with energy at all. They just don't get it, and think that a tax one way or the other will solve the problems. They don't get the subsidy/grifter cycle at all. Nor are they prepared to confront the endless quangocracy embedded (and funded by the green slush fund) specifically to continue to pointless farce.

        They'll be just another tentacle of the same failed fools we labour under today.

      2. Tice was deposed as party leader by Farage and accepted it 'for the good of the party'.

        Is it not now time for Tice to get Farage and Yusuf out and bring Rupert Lowe back 'for the good of the party'?

  8. Lady on the wireless saying that their are genetic differences between black people and white. Call the cops!

    1. Heavens and bejezuz! Next thing, someone will say that men have a Y-chromosome…

    2. Aside from melanin, yes, there are. This is why there's medication specifically for black people same as there's meds for white folk.

      1. Sickle Cell anaemia is a black affliction..
        Thalassaemia occurs more in those of Mediterranean or African descent.
        Multiple Sclerosis varies in severity according to ethnicity.

    3. And between races, depending on how much Neanderthal vs Devonian you have in you. It is fascinating and belies the notion “we are all the same”.

      1. Indeed – the DNA coding required to run away from lions may be distinct from the DNA coding required to keep warm and healthy in cold and dark subarctic winters.

      2. I am finding this 'global minority/majority' thing funny as there are more fleas than humans, yet no one thinks they're better just because there's more of them.

    4. Black and white share 99.5% of our DNA but that half a percent is significant. We share 99% with apes and 97% with mice. Of course most of it is just the building blocks for life.

    1. Well, a brisk run on the spot will get some colour into your cheeks and put another few layers on for the cold.

    3. Good morning Mr T and everyone.
      Thank you for a concise description of the Prime Minister.

  11. Reform is just a different shade of the Lib/Lab/Con… What expectations they gave us – and what a disaster it has become.

    1. Sadly true. The smearing of Rupert Lowe and the desperate, rabid assault on the man showed they're low characters. I despair. No policies. No plans, nothing to get behind, no reason to vote for them.

      Folk squeal 'vote Reform' as a battle cry but why? What is there to vote for? Their policies are not credible and don't address the fundamental issues. Their energy policy is simply a demonstration of a complete lack of understanding of why energy is so expensive.

      1. Something came out this morning, that they are having to import iron ore and coking coal in order to keep the blast furnaces going. Isn't Britain made of the stuff?

        What difference does it make to Net Zero whether we import it or dig it up locally?

        I might ask whether some of the energy used to make steel could be harnessed and sold on. Every new home must have a heat pump, why not a few on the factory chimney? As for a need for high grade steel, either to make our military vehicles or to eat our dinner with, then if this is required to remain civilised, then the price to the planet of not being civilised may need to be factored in.

        1. More the blast furnaces are shutting down because they use coal an the Left hate that. Of course, if they were honest what they really hate is industry, jobs, wealth and growth.

          All the difference in the world! If it's imported then that's carbon free. It doesn't count against the statistics. Yes, that's the level they've reached. utter fantasy, pretence and nonsense. But then, that's the 'climate change' agenda all over.

          Civilisation means overcoming nature. Even the crudest mud hut is a form of civilisation as it is something nature does not provide. I think the intent of the Left is to do so much damage to this country that there's nothing left to rebuild and the imported savages will feel properly at home.

          Thing is: how do you feed 85 million people when there's no supply chain? Our domestic farms could support maybe 2 million, as long as they were distributed around the country.

          1. If we are still using the class system to pigeon-hole people, then the working class's greatest enemy is the Labour Party.
            Ironic, given its origins.

    2. It is always distressing to find that one's idols have feet of clay.

      Not that Farage was my idol – I have always been aware of his faults but I deluded myself into thinking that he was sincere about Britain future and – given the absurdity and weakness of Labour, Conservative and Lib/Dem – he was an answer if not a perfect answer.

      His feet are not made of clay – they are made of the sort of sludge at the bottom of our septic tank.

  12. Reform is just a different shade of the Lib/Lab/Con… What expectations they gave us – and what a disaster it has become.

    1. The reason the BBC is not a workable business model is because it is not fulfilling its brief as the national public broadcaster. In order to attract ratings, it is apeing the American model, when it should be pushing hard for the highest standards and a degree of dignity in doing so. Leave the shouty-shouty to Netflix and their ilk.

      1. It's trying to adapt to the 'modern audience'. It's also likely realised that the youth don't bother any more and that terrifies the Left.

      2. One of the advantages of watching BBC TV programmes was the lack of adverts. Now in between programmes – and sometimes in the middle of them – the BBC transmits advertisement after onanistic advertisement about themselves.

      3. One of the advantages of watching BBC TV programmes was the lack of adverts. Now in between programmes – and sometimes in the middle of them – the BBC transmits advertisement after onanistic advertisement about themselves.

      4. Occasionally, MB watches US Public Broadcasting films (Channel 4? Channel 5?).
        We have found them to be informative and entertaining without being patronising or dumbed down.

    2. I have no interest in watching Netflix and have given up on the BBC. We still pay for it so that OH can watch sports.

  14. SIR – The fashion for posh sleepwear, to be worn during the day (Features, April 8), is nothing new. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, it was popular as daytime and evening wear. I can remember the soft green, Empire-style nightie and several others that I often wore.

    They were very attractive and much enjoyed, especially when the weather was warm.

    J Harrison
    Fetcham, Surrey

    SIR – In the 1960s, there was an advertisement for a nylon nightie with lots of lace, which ran: “She didn’t. She did. She wore her nightdress to the ball at the Carlton Towers Hotel.”

    I too wore a patterned one from M&S to a West Indian Medical Ball in the 1970s, along with a mask. I don’t think I would get away with that now.

    Alexandra Badcock
    Emsworth, Hampshire

    What the hell is "sleepware"? Are you telling me that people dress up in clothing before getting into bed? That is beyond weird!

    I know the Victorians were prudishly strange people and that they wore things called "nightgowns" and "pyjamas" in bed. They even wore such bizarre attire when bathing!

    I thought all that nonsense had been consigned to history.

    1. I wear a pair of light cotton shorts in bed. This is primarily to stop body secretions in the night messing up the sheets.

      1. Our very dear friend, Jim, who died this week at the age of 89, was far happier when he accepted that he needed to wear nappies.

      2. I might be persuded to wear underpants if I ever became incontinent. However, at age 74, I hope that I am a long way from that!

      1. I wear cotton top and pyjama bottoms nightwear set from John Lewis, long and brushed cotton for the winter ( with a layer beneath ) and short sleeve linen for summer .

      2. My three duvets keep me warm. Thick in winter, medium in spring/autumn, light in summer.

    3. I've a pair of 30 year old shorts that are almost rags. They don't fit any more as they were bought when I was much fatter so getting up to go to the loo in the middle of the night can see them fall down and my trip over.

    4. I used to wear a suit in bed, Grizzly. It was my birthday suit. But these days I wear several layers of clothing just to keep warm. I think it's an age thing. By the way, I like your avatar for today, but… (there's always a but) can't you manage a smile? Lol.

    5. I abandoned pyjamas many years ago. I wear a cotton nightshirt when the weather is cold.

      1. I have a nightshirt but I am such a restless sleeper that it usually ends up wound round under my armpits. I stick to pyjamas.

    6. Yo Mr G

      I can remember the soft green, Empire-style nightie and several others that I often wore.

      I was relieved when I saw that you had printed a letter and it was not you

    7. Good morning Grizzly

      Please would you put up a gallery of your avatars so we can rate them?

      1. Good morning, Rastus.

        Why on earth would I want to put my fellow NoTTLers under that type of severe stress? I may be full of myself (even up my own arse, as some fellow commentators would happily say), but my vanity doesn't reach those proportions.

        One hatted (or hatless) mugshot a day will have to do.😊

    8. In my early shop assistant days we had some customers asking to buy a sleeping suit, they were always the better off with a high opinion of themselves.

      1. Living in a house with 15″ thick insulted walls and triple glazing I never get cold at night, even when it is –15ºC outside.

  16. Things are getting weirder and weirder at Chez Wibbling. Not only has the Warqueen asked for her own internet connection (we've two proper fibre runs coming in, suppose that'll be another one) but she doesn't want it to go through any of the proxy or adblocker the rest of us use.

    And there is a sliding bolt on the inside! I've never said no to anything she's asked and if she doesn't want to tell me, that's up to her.

      1. Phew… Odd, to say the least. If you need a separate internet service, just go through your mobile phone.

  17. Funeral of a friend who had the covid booster – and developed raging cancer
    Professor Angus Dalgleish – April 10, 2025 https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/funeral-of-a-friend-who-had-the-covid-booster-and-developed-raging-cancer/

    We all know people who have been killed by the Covid gene therapy.

    Marguerite, Caroline's close friend, who had seven children had to have the jab or she would lose her job as a nurse, had the jab; so she didn't lose her job; she lost her life instead.

    The PTB cannot afford to admit it therefore they will never confront the truth.

    1. Meanwhile..

      Footage has emerged of Anthony Fauci telling an audience at the New Orleans Book Festival, where he was hawking his COVID book, that there will be a new pandemic in the near future, and that it will be a new respiratory virus with a higher rate of morbidity than COVID.

  18. ”Sir – – My granddaughter was born in 2009 and received a Child Trust Fund voucher to the value of £250 from the then Labour government, which was invested as instructed.

    In March a letter arrived from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, saying the investment had reduced in value. Growth has not been sufficient to offset the annual fee charged for the management of the fund, so it is now worth less than £250.

    Columbia is offering the opportunity to transfer the money elsewhere and is prepared to make it up to £250, plus a goodwill payment of £50. It also makes clear that leaving the money where it is will mean it is unlikely to see any investment growth between now and when my granddaughter reaches 18.

    Such tales make one wonder how Rachel Reeves hopes to convince people with cash Isas to make the switch to stocks and shares.”

    1. I very much doubt it was invested as instructed. It sounds to me like it was left in cash and ignored for 18 years.
    2. My children are 16 months apart in age. My son got £250, my daughter got £500, so I topped my son’s up and invested one in a far east fund and one in a UK small companies fund. Halfway through, the original investment manager advised they were charging fees for managing the funds, so I swapped to a different provider which wasn’t charging fees.
    3. On maturity, I left the funds where they were and certainly didn’t tell the children about them. But just last month the provider nagged me to get rid of them, as they have been matured for a while now. So I arranged for new ISA accounts to be opened with AJ Bell and for the funds to be transferred in cash to the new accounts.
    4. One of the things I was interested in was which fund would have the most money at the end of the experiment. At various times over the years, one had more than the other, but last week once the final scores were on the doors, it turns out the UK small companies “won” by £13.10
    5. I had been expecting to write a cheque to the losing child to make up the difference, but for £13.10, I am not going to bother.

    1. Captain Hindsight says.. if she had ignored the expurt's advice and.. ripped up £249 then bought bitcoin with the remainder she'd have about £70,000,000.

      1. We invested c. 2004/5 and got £2,900 out of it. so it worked for us.

        I have friends who actually put money in to their children’s trust fund and then were surprised when the children reached 18 and spent it.

    2. I have a cash ISA because I didn’t think stocks and shares would give a good return. With the complaints clerk in charge I haven’t changed my mind.

  19. ”Sir – – My granddaughter was born in 2009 and received a Child Trust Fund voucher to the value of £250 from the then Labour government, which was invested as instructed.

    In March a letter arrived from Columbia Threadneedle Investments, saying the investment had reduced in value. Growth has not been sufficient to offset the annual fee charged for the management of the fund, so it is now worth less than £250.

    Columbia is offering the opportunity to transfer the money elsewhere and is prepared to make it up to £250, plus a goodwill payment of £50. It also makes clear that leaving the money where it is will mean it is unlikely to see any investment growth between now and when my granddaughter reaches 18.

    Such tales make one wonder how Rachel Reeves hopes to convince people with cash Isas to make the switch to stocks and shares.”

    1. I very much doubt it was invested as instructed. It sounds to me like it was left in cash and ignored for 18 years.
    2. My children are 16 months apart in age. My son got £250, my daughter got £500, so I topped my son’s up and invested one in a far east fund and one in a UK small companies fund. Halfway through, the original investment manager advised they were charging fees for managing the funds, so I swapped to a different provider which wasn’t charging fees.
    3. On maturity, I left the funds where they were and certainly didn’t tell the children about them. But just last month the provider nagged me to get rid of them, as they have been matured for a while now. So I arranged for new ISA accounts to be opened with AJ Bell and for the funds to be transferred in cash to the new accounts.
    4. One of the things I was interested in was which fund would have the most money at the end of the experiment. At various times over the years, one had more than the other, but last week once the final scores were on the doors, it turns out the UK small companies “won” by £13.10
    5. I had been expecting to write a cheque to the losing child to make up the difference, but for £13.10, I am not going to bother.

  20. Good Morning!

    Given all the turmoil in the markets and the underlying conflict between globalist economics and national economies, today’s article by Graham Cunningham, Globalism vs National Conservatism , is well-timed and informative about the competing world-views at the heart of it all.

    Zhang Yingyue’s article about widespread rumour and speculation in China that hundreds of millions of people have disappeared, suspected dead, attracted a lot of interest. If you missed it, read her Where Have All The Chinese Gone ?, make your own mind up and let us know what you think.

    Energy watch 07.30: Demand: 30.89 GW. Total UK Production: 27.41 GW from: Hydrocarbons 42.5%; Wind 11.4%; Imports 12.1%; Biomass 9.8%; Nuclear 14.1%. Solar: 1.8%.

    Jacqui Derriman sends her thanks to all for their good wishes, and says that as soon as she’s able she’ll look in. She came home yesterday, “after being ravaged by a strong dose of chemotherapy, which almost killed me”. Let’s hope she’s on the mend.

    1. Unreliables are returning barely a fifth of their total installed capacity. At what point do we all say 'Enough' and end this scam?

      1. At 07.30, yes. It’s 21.2% now, with wind down to 9.9% – if you believe the figures. Imports are up to 17.7%.

  21. Yo and Good Moaning from a dull and cold C d S

    Brum

    The citizens of Brum should get organised.

    Find out where the nearest striking binperson to you live and dump your rubbish at their house

    1. I wonder how many dead bodies are buried under those piles of rubbish .

      Crimes will be hidden for weeks as bodies decompose .. I mean the residents of a different culture and crimes against women and children and of course the drug dealing fraternity .. might soon be revealed ..

      I feel as if a good crime novel is about to emerge , the evidence will be very difficult to detect , but it will be there buried , amongst the stench of rotting halal remnants of food , and beady eyed rats , the size of cats .

      Disposal and dispersal has never been easier , who knows who will be classed as lets say " on holiday"..

      Will the disease factor rise as the wee nuisance from rats creates an outbreak of the lethal leptospirosis or even heaven forbid , cholera or even the Black Death..

      Poor old Birmingham .. the second city .. their plight and maybe others mirrors the 1978/9 mess that Labour government created before Mrs Thatcher took the helm and made things better for many .

      In the mean time where are the bodies and where will the rubbish go , exported , or burnt , or buried .

        1. Apparently they are 'collection points'. OLT has the answer, find out where the binmen live and dump your rubbish in their gardens

    2. Only certain areas of Brum appear to be affected.
      The areas where people get off their RRsis and take stuff to the tip (or somewhere else if revolting union apparatchiks are blocking access) seem to be coping. I do agree that those areas also have more storage space to hide the bags; but the houses are largely owned by people who have actually worked.

      1. I can't get an appointment at the tip but my bin was emptied this morning. There are piles of black bags on many grassed areas.

  22. Grizzly, most of us realise how much you enjoy meat in your diet (so do I), so how about an avatar showing you tucking in to a sizeable steak one of these days?

    1. I was busy all yesterday, Auntie Elsie, as I shall be again today (helping to clear out Inez's house prior to putting it on the market). Last evening Bertil and Marianne provided us with a hearty meal of braised pork fillet with lots of gravy.

      It was delicious.

      1. There used to be a great restaurant in Edinburgh called Desperate Dan's that did serve cow pie [with plastic horns] and beef skewers that a friend of mine described as "a stampede on a stick" – wonderful but sadly closed last time we visited!

        1. Blast. Would have mentioned it to granddaughter.
          (So she could treat visiting granny, of course.)

    1. Good morning Mola ..

      Aha , and look at this ..

      The 'Great' plague or 'The Black Death' as it popularly recalled, was brought ashore from a sailing vessel docking in Weymouth harbour on 25 June 1348. Its arrival was documented in the Grey Friars Chronicle, 'In this year 1348 in Melcombe, in the county of Dorset, a little before the feast of St.

    2. I presume the doors of affected houses will feature a crescent and 'Allah Have Mercy Upon Us'.

  28. Morning all 🙂😊
    High cloud no breaks but that chilly wind is no more.
    The accounts person is now apparently taxing something else that our British public are enjoying. Garden centres.
    When will she stop her hate campaign that's paying for the repopulation of our country.
    She's already driven out the rich.

    1. What is she doing to garden centres?
      Apart from bu88ering around with heating costs, minimum wage, NI etc…..

  29. Robert Jenrick is certainly putting himself about. Here he is linking WWII with the current desperate state of our energy security. Interesting facts, shame that his first reference to the Spitfire displayed a Hurricane – both great aircraft – nit-picking aside, Jenrick makes a good case against the Net Zero advocates and their outrageous aims to stop oil and gas production in the UK.

    Pity he's a Tory. If he really is outside of the useless and dangerous, wet LibDem in blue Tories, he ought to consider where his political future will do most good for the UK.

    https://x.com/GBNEWS/status/1909859942820950317

    1. Nice one.
      Agent Orange on farmland with monthly top ups to ensure top soil remains toxic for decades.
      Got to be done. It's the only way to save us all.
      Ed says so.

  30. I must get on, I have to contact my gp practice abd then try and get my pharmacy to admit that they made a mistake and did not included one of my medications in my last collection and now I have none. And another haircut at 11 am. And withdraw some More cash from the local cash point to pay for the haircut……🤔
    Slayders.

  31. Re the DT letters comments ..

    Not much in the press about this , nor the TV media .

    The Old Brigadier
    3 min ago
    Well it’s true, the police are ‘Institutionally Racist.’ Certainly the Senior Officers of West Yorkshire and some other forces are.

    West Yorkshire have stopped the recruitment of ‘White Officers’ in favour of recruits from the Asian Community….not the best officers just those from minority ethnic groups.

    Surely if a company decided only to recruits from only the ‘White Community’ we all know the uproar this would cause.

    The rule must be the best qualified person for the job regardless of ethnic background or religion.

    Does something happen to Police Officers when they achieve the rank of Assistant Chief Constable and above. Do they lose all common sense and stop worrying about crime and only become interested in ‘anything other’ than solving crimes. Rather than believing they can cure all societies ills, which they certainly cannot, A return to the basics of policing without fear or favour would be best for all communities and social cohesion.

    I hope those who made this decision are cautioned or dismissed if necessary for breaking the Race Relations Act.

    1. Not a good look from West Yorkshire given their record of not investigating mainly muslim rape gangs.

      1. "Good morning, Constable Mahommed. May I call you Cousin Abdul?
        Those screams you can hear are only white meat being uncooperative."
        "Fine, Sir. Sorry to have bothered you."

    2. Their ideology is only defensible if they can claim that the same range of talents and abilities are to be found in each racial group, making the smartest black or Asian candidate naturally on a par with the smartest white candidate. That isn't true but they can't admit it because the whole house of cards comes tumbling down if they do. In reality, equality of opportunity does not produce equality of outcome and the appearance of equality of outcome is only achieved by the exercise of power. Added to which, they thrive on the exercise of power.

      1. Which Prince Philip picked up on straight away.
        Given his awful childhood, he had learnt who to trust.

    3. Somebody should send the DNA testers to check up on Lilibet and Archie? While they're at it they can also test their alleged father.

      1. The older Harry gets the more he looks like Charles, so I think he's ok on that score. Look at the nose, and the eyes too close together. Not sure about the kids though – what was the chance of a "woman of colour" having red-haired kids?

  33. Good Moaning. (But not the weather.)
    Well, every day's a school day. Given the work done on the house a few years ago, we wondered why it was not on a water meter. A lovely chap from Anglian Water came round and, apparently, because of the plumbing lay-out, a meter cannot be fitted. However, as I had filled in a form beforehand, giving AW detail about the household, we will automatically be charged the lower rate (about half the bill we had received based on rateable value).
    Inevitably, there are many houses that are unsuitable for metering, so that is how the company gets round the problem. There is a check every few years in case circumstances have changed. This system is based on householders' honesty, but if the inhabitants appear to be of breeding age, then probably the checks would be more frequent.

    1. Morning Anne ..

      Eek , a water meter ?

      We/I have watered the garden every evening for over ten days .. and Moh has spent a considerable amount of time watering his renovated lawn after scouring , raking and seeding the bald areas .

      1. Actually, from previous experience, water meters do reduce your bills.
        Our bills were based on rateable value. By filling in the online form, our estimated bills immediately halved. That is what they will be based on for the future.
        But we are pleased to have a puzzling question solved. The rest of the changes were so well done, we couldn't work out why such a basic alteration had not been made.

        1. We probably should go for a meter for just the two of us here. We've never been hose-pipe users.

          1. When you get your next bill, go on to the company's website and complete their questionnaire.
            When I did that, the estimated bill nearly halved.
            Before it was based on the rateable value; a three bedroom house likely to be occupied by parents and two children.

          2. Ours is on rateable value – band D but probably I should keep quiet about that as this isn't a standard three bed house. We're probably been under-rated since we moved here 30 years ago this week.

        2. We don't have water bills.

          We have our own well and an automatic electric pump which keeps the reservoir full.

      2. Haven't you got rainwater butts? We have three – now down to just a half one – I've just been round again with a couple of can-fulls on the pots – things which had begun to sprout had then started to shrivel so I hope they will revive.
        We've never worried about watering the lawn and shrubs in the borders are fine but things in pots get very dry.

          1. We’re high up on a limestone hillside. But none of the shrubs are struggling. If you saw my post on Facebook yesterday you’ll have seen the magnolia, Forsythia and ribes all in full bloom. None of those need watering. The ‘lawn’ will look after itself.
            The things in pots are suffering, and the daffs went over very quickly. We only use the hosepipe to top up the pond from one of the waterbutts.

        1. It doesn't look as good as it should.
          I remember the first time I had turbot – it was breakfast on the train to Paddington – a steam train – back in the 1950s. Those were the days!

    3. Behave yourself, Margaret.

      Brill (similar to turbot) is a king among fish. Ramsons (wild garlic are mild and excellent). Brown butter is a standard and lovely condiment.

      Not ruined in the least.

      1. I am about to grill a Dover sole (12 minutes) in brown butter, capers, shrimp and lemon.

        And i'm going to lock myself in the cupboard and eat it all myself. Oink.

        1. An Englishman stands among the cabbages and peas.

          A Welshman stands among the cabbages and leaks.

  35. Good morning all.
    Sat in the Honesty Cafe in Overton having a pot of tea, toast & marmalade and a warm up after a colder night than I expected.
    Would not have been so bad, but it's cloudy so it's not warming up at all.
    Stopped off at Deddington on the way down here and took a few pictures of the church.
    Not an easy one to take external photos of, but I liked these bits. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dbc535bb5865ae1c0198b0d97a43a443e6d51b22d3d60e8a6928b5654c17b9b1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9cd69f517d9aa695047f2059e9d01e5e06517c444e66d20b1b334e1d07d783b4.jpg Some nice stained glass too. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5784dc861a9c1ea86a5065312bf68601fc16c863952e65cb52e80f09ac4d2b92.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9fe2515ce0d9ab4036e7652683a4a678f7f16e41b5a0ed40bb081d97c21b6780.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83b81014f2569b4246a2642e26b3d0eadd7acabd759d0c9199d5b174a01035bd.jpg

    2. What unusual stained glass. I like the more muted colours.
      And the mediaeval carver obviously knew and loved his animals.

    3. A face like that of Miriam Margolyes should be exploited. She may not have the beauty of Helen of Troy whose face launched a thousand ships nor the loveliness of the tragic features of The Lady of Shalott upon which Sir Lancelot commented, but she has the face to inspire a stonemason.

      Her name rhyme gives us an obvious clue – she should market her face under licence to those who carve gargoyles into the stone on church walls.

  36. Well, I've had to 'fess up to MB.
    Following the conversation about The Family From One End Street I tried to remember the children's names. (Yes, I do need to get out more.)
    Lily Rose (from the Sargent picture)
    Kate named after Mr. Ruggles' mother
    James and John (from the Bible – not Philip and Bartholomew – phew)
    Joe (after Dad)
    Margaret Rosie (after princess and Mrs. Ruggles)
    and …. er ….. definitely seven children because Mr. Ruggle's poorly written number 7 was mistaken for a 1, so Kate was refused a grant towards her grammar school uniform.
    I cheated and googled. I had missed Baby William. Of all the names to forget!!!!

      1. I have to admit – apart from one year when we first moved from London to Essex – I've always been to private schools. So I read it voluntarily.

        I can only remember two things about my year at Bocking End primary school;
        1. We had beads on wire for counting and doing sums.
        2. The bogs were outside on a long pipe running the length of the loo block. Each cubicle had a seat which was basically an opening on the pipe with a wooden seat perched on top.

        Childhood memories are so selective.

        From my parents' perspective, I learnt the square root of naff all during those three terms.

        1. We had a separate toilet block at my village CofE school – it was placed so the girls at one end had far more of a walk than the boys who could go straight from their playground. The girls' playground was separate from the boys – things like skipping with a long rope and hopscotch used to come round seasonally.

        2. I was plonked into a state school for a year ( primary school in Surrey ) after we came back from overseas , I was 10 yrs old . Then thereafter b/school.

  38. Dan Hodges in the Wail. Remember, Dan is a Leftie. Like his late mother.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-14588239/DAN-HODGES-Elon-Musk-grooming-gangs-Labour.html

    "DAN HODGES: The shocking truth about Labour's Asian grooming gang whitewash – and how Keir Starmer and his party betrayed white working-class girls

    Published: 17:15, 9 April 2025 |

    At the start of the year, Elon Musk launched a sudden and increasingly frenzied attack on the British Government over Muslim rape gangs.

    There had been a cover-up, he charged. Ministers – including the Prime Minister – were complicit.

    While people were being sent to jail for social-media posts, the victims of the gangs were being denied the justice they deserved through a proper national inquiry.

    At the time his comments were condemned across the political spectrum, including by Sir Keir Starmer.

    ‘Those that are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible, they’re not interested in victims,’ he told reporters. ‘They’re interested in themselves.’

    Yesterday, though, we saw the ugly truth. For once, Elon Musk was right. There is a cover-up. Ministers are complicit.

    And, as a result, the victims of some of the worst abuses in British history are indeed being denied the justice they deserve.

    It was left to Jess Phillips – whose prime responsibility is supposedly safeguarding and preventing violence against women and girls – to announce the betrayal.

    Yesterday Phillips revealed that those were now being watered down in favour of ‘a flexible approach’ that would involve ‘more bespoke work, including local victims’ panels’.

    This new plan had been adopted ‘following feedback from local authorities’ she said.

    Politics is a grubby business. But it’s hard to fully quantify the duplicity and cynicism attending this statement.

    The announcement was, in my view, deliberately timed for the last sitting before Easter Recess – when Parliament takes a break. It was the day the Prime Minister was appearing before Parliament’s Liaison Committee and amid the unfolding crisis of Trump’s tariff war.

    The Official Opposition was given just 45 minutes’ notice. So, to use the parlance of Westminster, the Government decided Tuesday was a good day to bury bad news – and the victims of the rape gangs.

    It wasn’t just the timing that exposed ministers’ deceit. Yet again, they attempted to downplay and sanitise the nature of the abuse and, in particular, the overt racism that saw primarily Pakistani-heritage men deliberately targeting white victims.

    In a powerful intervention, shadow Home Office minister Katie Lam graphically revealed to the House how one of the perpetrators of the abuse had boasted, ‘We’re here to f**k all the white girls’.

    Jess Phillips’s response? ‘I think it is a shame that she referred to only one sort of child-abuse victim, when the statement is clearly about all child-abuse victims. There should be no hierarchy.’

    But most staggering – and shamelessly blatant – was the Government’s own rationale for shelving even those limited inquiries to which it was committed. Every investigation conducted into the abuse has found the local authorities in those areas where it was being perpetrated were guilty – through sins either of commission or omission – of failing to prevent it.

    And yet in Phillips’s own words, the change of strategy is a direct result of lobbying from those same local authorities.

    Even before yesterday’s announcement it was clear ministers’ claims to be seeking justice for the rape gangs’ victims were a hollow sham.

    Last week it emerged Tom Crowther, the independent barrister Yvette Cooper claimed to have appointed to establish the framework for the local inquiries, had been forced to telephone the Home Office and ask ‘do you still want me?’.

    In response he was told the framework was now being drafted by ministers and advisers.

    It’s obvious why. No 10 has decided that it is simply too politically toxic to allow the full truth of Britain’s grooming scandal to see the light of day.

    They have calculated that it would primarily be Labour councils and councillors that would have to be held to account.

    That, if they were seen to be highlighting the fact the perpetrators were primarily Asian, they would offend their progressive middle-class supporters. And that by specifically exposing the role of Pakistani-heritage men, they would risk a further erosion of their electoral base within the Muslim community.

    There is, in reality, a hierarchy of priorities. A hierarchy in which, for reasons of political expediency, white girls and white women are placed at the bottom.

    Labour is not even pretending to mask its strategy any more.

    On Monday, more than 70 of its MPs dutifully lined up in Westminster Hall to stand ‘in solidarity’ with two of their colleagues who had recently been barred entry into Israel.

    But the display had little to do with the principles of parliamentary accountability. Or the unfolding horrors of the Hamas/Israel conflict.

    Instead it was primarily another attempt to try to appease a Muslim constituency that itself believes it is falling victim to Starmerite betrayal.

    Which brings us to the other main problem with the U-turn on the rape-gang inquiries: the way in which its mendacity was exceeded only by its stupidity.

    Ministers generally thought they were being clever. They honestly believed they could sneak it out when Parliament and the Press were otherwise distracted, and smother any criticism they did receive beneath a blanket of self-serving indignation.

    But they can’t. The country can see straight through Labour’s whitewash.

    This is the party that has called for wolf-whistling to be made a criminal offence. That has demanded stiff prison sentences for those who engage in discrimination on social media. That demanded a full public inquiry into the institutional racism underpinning the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

    And yet when confronted with the racism, torture, rape and gang-rape of predominantly white working-class girls and women in Northern cities by Pakistani-heritage men, Labour’s cries of righteous indignation have suddenly fallen silent.

    Their passionate demands for transparency and justice have been mysteriously muted, to be replaced by a half-hearted offer of a ‘locally led audit’.

    Yet there is no mystery. Keir Starmer knows the truth. Every member of his Cabinet knows the truth. So does every minister and every Labour MP.

    Children and women were abused on an industrial scale.

    The authorities – councils, social services, the police – at best turned a blind eye, and at worst bullied the victims into submissive silence. And they did so because those who were being raped were white, and their rapists were Asian.

    Remember the Prime Minister’s response when confronted by Elon Musk and his supporters with the allegation he was guilty of covering up these atrocities?

    ‘They’re not interested in victims. They’re interested in themselves.’

    This morning, Sir Keir should reflect on those words. When Musk first made that charge it was nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory.

    But it’s not just a theory any more."

    1. Well said Dan Hodges! A large number of politicians, police officers and local councillors should go to prison for their part in this appalling scandal but I'm certainly not going to hold my breath waiting for that to happen!

      1. To his great credit Dan Hodges is considerably more rational and unpartisan than he used to be.

        He has grown up and is no longer 'Mummy's Boy'.

          1. Dan went up in my estimation when he light heartedly referred to his mother as 'the babysitter'.

          3. Don't suppose he saw all that much of her? In my ignorance I had to look him up to find out who his mother was. Glenda Bloody Glenda.

          4. I may not have agreed with her politics but Glenda Jackson had a level of probity that is conspicuously lacking at the top of the current party.

          5. The poor chap lost the sight in one of his eyes in a pub brawl when he stepped in to protect a friend who was being attacked.

          6. The poor chap lost his sight in a pub brawl when he stepped in to protect a friend who was being attacked.

    2. I wonder if Dan or even Jess Philips realise the rape by Paki men against white girls is still going on.

      Nothing has changed. Some received quite lenient sentencing and are now back on the streets where they committed and continue to commit rape.

      Leopards can't change their spots.

    3. It's such a shame that the progeny of a Paki man and a (raped) white girl isn't sterile, like a mule.

      Perhaps if that were the case they would all leave the country and return to rape their own kind in whatever shithole country they left.

    4. I think Phillips was initially reported as crazy, on starvation slimming diets etc (she's anorexic).

    5. But these rapes have been going on for many decades and nothing has every been done about it. I suspect that our useless political classes have backed down because of threats of riots from the perpetrators and their type. And now look where we are.
      Common sense is a sadly lacking element in our government's agenda.

      1. Kier was DPP when it was happening. When the father of a victim was arrested for trying to stop it.

  39. Katie Lam's speech.
    No wonder the unknown male's hands behind Jess Phillips (693 majority in Birmingham Yardley) were so clenched.

    I thank the Minister for advance sight of her statement.

    In January, the Home Secretary said that the Government would conduct five local inquiries into the rape gangs who have terrorised so many innocent children. More than three months since the Government announced those local inquiries, Tom Crowther KC, a barrister invited by the Home Office to help establish them, knows almost nothing about their progress, and neither do we. Why is the framework for local inquiries now being led by Ministers, rather than by independent voices such as Tom Crowther? Why is the £5 million set aside for inquiries no longer being allocated, but instead delivered on an “opt-in” basis? What do the Government intend to do about local leaders who say there is no need for an independent inquiry, as they do in Bradford and in Wales?

    The girls we are talking about are predominantly white. The men who preyed on them were predominantly Muslim, generally either from Pakistan or of Pakistani heritage. One of the victims from Dewsbury was told by her rapist:

    “We’re here to fuck all the white girls and fuck the Government.”

    Does the Minister accept that in many cases these crimes were racially and religiously aggravated? How, without a national inquiry, can we understand what part those factors played?

    There is no question but that the state has failed these children time and again. Take the case of “Anna” from Bradford. Vulnerable and in residential care, at the age of 14 she made repeated reports of rape and abuse to social workers who were responsible for her. Just the following year, aged 15, she “married” her abuser in a traditional Islamic wedding ceremony. Far from stepping in to stop it, her social worker was a guest. The authorities then arranged for her to be fostered by her abuser’s parents. The ringleader of the Rochdale rape gang, Shabir Ahmed, was employed as a welfare rights officer by Oldham council. Yet not one person—not one—has been convicted for covering up these institutionalised Toggle showing location of Column 732rapes. Why have Ministers refused to establish a dedicated unit in the National Crime Agency to investigate councillors and officials accused of collusion and corruption?

    I am sorry to say that that unit must also investigate police officers. In one case, the father of an abuse victim in Rotherham was arrested by South Yorkshire police when he attempted to rescue his daughter from her abusers. He was detained twice in one night, while on the very same evening, his daughter was repeatedly assaulted and abused by a gang of men. It is clear that these criminals were unafraid of law enforcement. In Kirklees, Judge Marson said:

    “You were seen with your victim on at least three occasions by the police…none of that deterred you, and you continued to rape her.”

    How, without a national inquiry, can we know how and why these monsters enjoyed effective immunity for so long, and how can we be sure that it will not happen again?

    Conservative Members have voted for a national inquiry, and tabled amendments that would guarantee the publication of ethnicity data on a quarterly basis, terminate the parental rights of convicted sex offenders, and make membership of a grooming gang an aggravating factor during sentencing, so that offenders get the longer, harsher sentences that they deserve. Will the Minister commit to accepting those amendments to protect our children?

    Finally, I would like to read to the House one particular ordeal—just one example of what these children have suffered. I must warn colleagues, and especially those in the Gallery, that this is extremely graphic, but we must not look away or sanitise this evil. Sentencing Mohammed Karrar of Oxford to life in prison, Judge Peter Rook said: “You prepared her”—that is his victim, a 13-year-old girl—

    “for gang anal rape by using a pump to expand her anal passage. You subjected her to gang rape by five or six men. At one point she had four men inside her. A red ball was placed in her mouth to keep her quiet… When she was 12, after raping her, she threatened you with your lock knife. Your reaction was to pick up a baseball bat with a silver metal handle, strike her on the head with it, and then insert the baseball bat inside her vagina.”

    This is not about me, the Minister, the Home Secretary or any hon. Members in the Chamber; it is about the little girls, up and down our country, whose brutal and repeated rapes were permitted and hidden by those in the British state whose jobs were to protect them. They deserve justice. In five towns, those children and their families may get partial answers, but I have mentioned five towns in the past few minutes alone, and there are at least 45 more. In those places, children and their families will get no answers at all, so what does the Minister have to say to them? The British people deserve to know the truth. What darker truths does the suffering of those girls reveal about this country—and why will the Government not find out?

    1. This government is totally obscene in its efforts to cover up the crimes and protect the men who have raped children.

      2. 'Afternoon Rastus. This government is merely the latest in a long line. BBC Radio Four (You and Yours) was the first time I heard it mentioned – Ann Cryer, then (back bench)( MP for Keighley who reported it to the DPP at the time, one Keir Starmer, think around 2008. Perhaps happening even before that date.

      3. Who do think voted for them in, en masse, (even if most of them did not know it)

        Chap in the m.sk doing all the Postal Votes knew though

    2. This government is totally obscene in its efforts to cover up the crimes and protect the men who have raped children.

    3. It’s Ok, we are very tough on people who say hurty words which people of this peaceful religion may not like. They go to jail without passing “go” and wothout any decent legal representation.

      1. It's more than that Araminta. It is the woke who have captured almost every institution, are reviving our history, literature and anything else they can get their grubby hands on. Worst of all they are in our children's educations destroying their minds so that, eventually, there will be no way back

        1. Good afternoon, Jonathan

          I think you meant reviling or rewriting rather than reviving.

  40. "Well-off pensioners face £2.5k in extra tax to maintain lifestyle."
    This article has some annual pension figures for different retirement lifestyles – minimum £14,400, moderate £31,300 and comfortable £41,300. The article then has examples of expenditure for each category. I don't know who drew up these lists but they don't have very much similarity to what my wife and I have to spend our limited pension funds on, but the reality is we seem to have less available each month as living costs keep rising.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/stealth-tax-raid-adds-cost-comfortable-retirement/

      1. Per couple I think. There don't seem to be any figures to indicate how many pensioners there are with that sort of pension income, I don't think there are that many.

        1. Hmmm.
          Just read the first part of that piece, with the three categories. We spend well over £70 on groceries now, our car is 15 years old, we never have takeaways and seldom eat out. I can't read the bottom half as the slider doesn't seem to be working.
          We spend little on rail fares, though we are going to Sheffield this weekend.
          My indulgence is travel – but that comes out of my own money, not the joint account.

          1. Only yesterday I divided my outgoings into essential, necessary (for my health and sanity) and optional. Most of the optional have already gone.

    2. Makes my 6 shillings a day pay, when I joined the RN, pretty poultry, ooops paltry

  41. "Well-off pensioners face £2.5k in extra tax to maintain lifestyle."
    This article has some annual pension figures for different retirement lifestyles – minimum £14,400, moderate £31,300 and comfortable £41,300. The article then has examples of expenditure for each category. I don't know who drew up these lists but they don't have very much similarity to what my wife and I have to spend our limited pension funds on, but the reality is we seem to have less available each month as living costs keep rising.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/stealth-tax-raid-adds-cost-comfortable-retirement/

  42. "Well-off pensioners face £2.5k in extra tax to maintain lifestyle."
    This article has some annual pension figures for different retirement lifestyles – minimum £14,400, moderate £31,300 and comfortable £41,300. The article then has examples of expenditure for each category. I don't know who drew up these lists but they don't have very much similarity to what my wife and I have to spend our limited pension funds on, but the reality is we seem to have less available each month as living costs keep rising.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/stealth-tax-raid-adds-cost-comfortable-retirement/

  43. "Well-off pensioners face £2.5k in extra tax to maintain lifestyle."
    This article has some annual pension figures for different retirement lifestyles – minimum £14,400, moderate £31,300 and comfortable £41,300. The article then has examples of expenditure for each category. I don't know who drew up these lists but they don't have very much similarity to what my wife and I have to spend our limited pension funds on, but the reality is we seem to have less available each month as living costs keep rising.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/stealth-tax-raid-adds-cost-comfortable-retirement/

  44. Brilliant day so far. Excellent market. Cold but doable. A dozen eggs laid yesterday frm Top Farm, Great Snoring (a sleepy village) . Then to Martin's Farm Hindolveston for chicken and pork AND venison (a new line from a neighbouring farm). Home for "proper" coffee and crumpet. Then finished pruning the yew tree by removing a couple of branches the MR couldn't reach. Bonfire still red hot – so prunings cut up and placed in middle of fire. All gone in ten minutes. War against the moles continues…..GRRRR. The cold edge has gone and it is now agreeably mild – and getting more so by the minute. It's almost good enough to be alive!!

  46. Russian cable attacks ‘threaten to cut off world’s internet’. 10 April 2025.

    Military chiefs at Nato have been warned of global internet blackouts following a string of suspected Russian attacks on subsea cables.

    There is of course no evidence to support of any of these accusations. Indeed the two recent attempts to do so collapsed. It should be understood that these cable have always suffered accidental attrition; usually from fishing vessels trawling the sea floor.

    These accusations can be put down to similar motives as the so called Russian European sabotage program or their sudden elevation to sponsors and enablers of Mass Immigration. They are completely false. They do however give us an insight into the dark forces at work in the West. These are able to invent and publish on a vast scale whole geo-political fantasies. The Truth doesn’t really have much of a chance in the public realm. This of course is the hidden reality behind the attacks on the Internet and Free Speech. Only there among ordinary people does a remnant of Freedom and Truth still reside.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/10/nato-warned-over-internet-blackouts-in-wake-of-subsea-cable/

    https://blog.telegeography.com/what-to-know-about-submarine-cable-breaks

    1. Probably a 17 year old whizz kid doing it on his computer, in his bedroom, whilst his mum leaves his dinner on a tray outside his bedroom door. Hikikomori-style.

    2. We should start a bingo card for the "catastrophe" that will plunge our country into chaos.

      Carrington event
      Dastardly Russians cutting underseas cables
      Deadly plague
      Russians invade the Baltic states – > war
      Argentina invades Falklands -> war
      Aliens invade earth (good old aliens, the media is still promoting them!)

      Whatever it is, you can guarantee that if the BBC reports it, 99% of the country will swallow it hook,, line and sinker however improbable!

      1. We don't need a bingo card, the top result is a dead cert – Starmer, Reeves, Rayner and Millipede.

    3. The Truth doesn’t really have much of a chance in the public realm.

      The Truth is what they say it is.

    4. Irony Alert.

      Free pass for US Navy P8 Callsign BART12 blowing up Nord Stream pipes in September 2022.

  47. The Birmingham bin strike – isn't this more than just 'mismanagement' by the Labour Council? Doesn't the dispute go back to the dinner ladies equal pay case? A BBC report says:

    "The dispute centres on the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles. The union stated that this role brought safety expertise to an 'often dirty and dangerous job', citing the example of the death of a Coventry bin worker last year. It said about 170 affected workers faced losing an average of £8,000 a year due to the decision."

    If that was a cost-cutting exercise, then surely it can be linked to the dinner ladies case and the £760 million bill that broke the council. I don't see any mention of it in the reports I've seen so far.

    1. Would you rather collect other people's waste in all weathers, or dish out dinners in a warm, dry school?

      1. I'd rather be a labour MP and pickup £76,000 a year in rent on the properties I let out.

        1. I always wonder if the wince at the tax they have to pay (like i do). Or is it different for MPs? And i suppose they make it up in expenses

          1. Of course – they have the finest tax advisers – FREE.

            Talking of which, I have just received today my tax return for 2024-25. On the envelope it says: “Your tax service – here to support”

            Yeah, right. If they DID support us, they’d reply to letters in less than three months. Bastards.

      3. This is a btl comment following an article on Spiked on this subject:

        “I normally agree with most of what’s written in Spiked but, in this case, Hugo Timms is talking uninformed, middle class twaddle.
        I was a bin woman for 5 years – the only female loader in the council – and I’ve also worked as a cleaner. Of course cleaning and refuse collection are comparable jobs, the only substantive difference being the level of physical risk refuse collectors face from vehicles – you’d be unlucky to be run over by a 26 tonne lorry in the course of cleaning the toilets in the council offices but, as a bin man, you take your life in your hands every time you step out of the cab. Conversely, I’d rather stick a wheelie bin on the back lift of a lorry than put my head down a toilet to clean it.
        Challenging the pay disparities between highly unionised, male dominated industries like refuse collection and silo’d, diversified sectors like cleaning – largely composed of part-time female workers – was always the right thing to do. That the bosses cocked up the funding and implementation of that is on them.”

        Note, she wasn’t a dinner lady but a cleaner, and a binwoman.

    2. It is disgusting but he should register himself as living there to avoid the double charge. Local and national government conspire to make the families' lives hell when a homeowner dies, with inheritance tax assessments costing thousands, long tax forms and double council tax.

  49. Afternoon All
    Ahem
    Rupert Lowe MP

    There are two choices on forcing a rape gang inquiry. Post slick videos on social media, moan and ultimately achieve nothing. That’s one option. The second is to actually try and DO something. I choose the latter.

    Labour has an enormous majority. Starmer is the PM, that is not going to change anytime soon.

    If they don’t want a Government-backed inquiry, it will NOT happen. It’s that simple, whether we like it or not. Demanding one in Parliament, repeatedly, will achieve NOTHING. That’s a fact.

    I’m not going to pretend I’ve been campaigning on this for decades, because I haven’t. Others have done that, at great personal cost. But I’ve learnt about it, and I’ve got lots more to learn.

    I have been so horrified and so disgusted, sitting back and hoping for the best is just not good enough. In life, I’ve always tried to actually DO, not just talk.

    So, we return back to the two options.

    Let's DO something.

    We’ve raised £541,000 in under a fortnight. The biggest ever political crowdfunder in British history, achieved in 13 days. We’re building a team, and more will be announced on that soon.

    To those who have donated, contributed and supported – THANK YOU.

    We are just getting started.

    I hope that MPs from all parties will consider supporting our efforts – we will need all the help we can get.
    Even the turd Neil is right at times
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/349427afedfde1156a7a3fc8818baf9c6b4831e47f64cf893510436cd2eb9ade.png
    Both barrels
    https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1909618770772918614

    1. Katie Lam is excellent – she doesn't pull her punches. She should be the leader of the Conservative Party.

      I wonder if the BBC would dare interview her about the rape gangs on live television?

    2. Dear Mr Lowe.. if you really want to upset the Elite.. Farage Ltd.. The Blob.. BBC and all the Lefties.. register a new political party with subscribers.. then field a candidate at every by-election following a vacancy arising from some Labour MP caught raping a child or lamping a random passer-by. They come up every month like clockwork.

  50. Am I alone in not being able to get into the BTL comments in under the DT articles today?

    1. I haven't been able to read the BTL's below the letters for a few days. Must be the Russians !

    3. Well – that's odd. I don't subscribe to the DT – but sometimes I can read articles by pressing the ESC key at the right moment. When I do, if there are BTL comments, they open for me. Did so just this minute.

      Must be you, Richard, cast into outer darkness for your far-right views!!

    6. There has been an issue with some browsers, I believe. Matt B put a lengthy post earlier on a note of his to the DT. They acknowledge there is a prob.

    1. Why didn't the Italian Government rustle up a similar vehicle for him? Or even the PopeMobile seeing as the disgusting old Communist isn't using it.

    2. To be fair to Charlie boy, who hasn't had their Bentley shipped to Rome for a jolly?

    3. It is a state visit, so other people organise and are responsible for the King's transport, schedule and welfare.
      Although I am not a great fan of HRH, it is not appropriate to label him as a 'sc….g' or 'tra…r'.

    4. It is a state visit, so other people organise and are responsible for the King's transport, schedule and welfare.
      Although I am not a great fan of HRH, it is not appropriate to label him as a 'sc….g' or 'tra…r'.

    6. Why was he not using the King's Flight?

      How did the car get there? Don't they have cars in Italy? Just asking…{:¬))

  53. Moh and I had a few gardening tasks , couple of hours later , feel exhausted now .

    Sun is shining strongly , Moh having an afternoon snooze .

    First house martins and swallows flitting overhead .

    Raven arrived again for his breakfast , he has a family to feed .

  55. From Coffee House the Spectator

    12 Apr 2025
    Coffee House
    Stephen Pollard
    Who cares if Kemi Bandenoch has watched Adolescence?
    10 April 2025, 3:14pm

    Watching Kemi Badenoch being interviewed this morning on the BBC, I couldn’t help but think of one of the public shamings during the Chinese Cultural Revolution: confess your crime, woman who refuses to watch Adolescence.

    Breakfast hosts Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty asked the Conservative leader whether she had finally watched the Netflix drama about a teenage boy who kills a classmate, which has now been adopted as a sort of sacred artefact by much of the left. It has even been the subject of a Downing Street summit, during which the prime minister suggested that it be shown by every school in the country.

    Their question followed Mrs Badenoch telling LBC presenter Nick Ferrari last week that she hadn’t seen the programme – which was, he then suggested, ‘almost a dereliction of duty’.

    Cue what seemed like the entire left media and political establishment exploding with outrage that she had not watched it. James O’Brien, a phone in host who specialises in a sort of unthinking outrage, told listeners that:

    ‘The idea that you could have got to today, if you were in any way concerned with public conversation, if you were in any way invested in the national conversation, or public discourse… If you were in any way connected to it, invested in it, dependent upon it for your livelihood… the idea that you would have swerved this programme is unthinkable… It’s not just the ignorance and the sort of blithe arrogance that’s offensive, it’s the revelling in it.’

    You might think Mr O’Brien would have had difficulty keeping a straight face but he delivered this rant with what appeared to be genuine anger that the leader of the opposition hasn’t watched a Netflix drama.

    A week on and, in response to Stayt and Munchetty asking if she had seen it yet, Badenoch told her BBC cultural commissars, ‘No I haven’t. I probably won’t. It’s a film on Netflix, and most of my time right now is spent visiting the country.’

    But, but, but…Ms Munchetty seemed unable to grasp that this was even possible: ‘Why would you not want to know what people are talking about?’

    To which Mrs Badenoch replied, rather wonderfully: ‘I think that those are all important issues, and those are issues that I’ve been talking about for a long time. But in the same way that I don’t need to watch Casualty to know what’s going on in the NHS, I don’t need to watch a specific Netflix drama to understand what’s going on.’

    It’s easy to dismiss this as a rather bonkers row that doesn’t really matter in the real world, away from the TV and radio studios. But the premise behind the idea that Mrs Badenoch is somehow unfit for her job because she hasn’t watched Adolescence is revealing about the state of modern political debate – or rather of the broadcast media’s coverage of it.

    ‘Why would you not want to know what people are talking about?’ is about as idiotic, yet typical, a question as has ever been asked.

    When Munchetty next interviews Sir Keir Starmer, will she ask him why he doesn’t watch – I am making an assumption here – Strictly Come Dancing? It has far more viewers than Adolescence, after all, and people talk about it a lot. Why does he refuse to know what people are taking about? Who does he think he is? The arrogance of the man.

    What people are also talking about, and what Mrs Badenoch wants to talk about, is crime – real crime that happens to real people. But for Nick Ferrari, for James O’Brien, for Charlie Stayt and for Naga Munchetty – and whoever else has jumped on the bandwagon – what really matters is a fictional crime committed by a fictional character at a fictional school. How perfectly emblematic of our times.

    Written by
    Stephen Pollard

    1. You will know what real people are talking about if you go out and talk to them. Much more informative than watching some dramatisation which portrays somebody’s interpretation of events. Especially since the perpetrator went from black to white.

    2. This afternoon, one of my dog walking chums came back to the Dower House for a cuppa and a chat.
      Her job is teaching 'problem' boys. The subject of this film/programme did not raise its head.
      Of all the people I know, she is the most likely to have encountered boys with such traits.

    2. BTL:
      Simon Sab @friendofthefox
      Nothing compared to the infernos that come with ignoring climate change

      ****!

    3. If a battery plant explodes in the forest and there is no one there to hear it.. is it still Trump's fault?

      1. It happened because since Brexit we have absolutely no safety standards whatsoever.
        I'd imagine.

      2. I met up with one of my LD neighbours when we were walking our dogs. He couldn’t resist blaming Trump and for good measure had a go at Maggie Thatcher and capitalism. Ironically he commented later in the conversation that tariffs were good for bringing manufacturing back home. I resisted commenting that it was okay as long as Trump didn’t do it.

      3. If a lone man speaks in the forest and there’s no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?

  57. Afternoon, all. Scorchio here. Even the sun worshipper Winston was lying in the shade. Have spent a lot of the day trying to chase up the referral made last year and getting fobbed off. In the end I found an email address and contacted them on that. They have acknowledged receipt so maybe something might happen now.
    Labour has wrecked everything they have been in charge of, including the whole country.

  58. Wordle No. 1,391 3/6

    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle Apr 10 2025

    Booster for Birdy Three?

    1. Surprisingly…

      Wordle 1,391 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Well done! Looks like it may be a low-scoring day, birdie here also!

      Wordle 1,391 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. a bit of a boost, only a par here.

      Wordle 1,391 4/6

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

    4. Good one, par here today.

      Wordle 1,391 4/6

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

      1. #metoo.
        Wordle 1,391 4/6

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

  59. Waltzes in – Good late afternoon. Another joyous early Spring day .

      1. I see, well okay, not want to be greeting greedy as I peruse sites- I shall visit America First and say good afternoon and then I’ll visit Australia Spectator and say ‘ good day from the old country ‘ .

    2. Does the music play in your head when you do that? Otherwise, how do you hold the rhythm?

      1. ClassicFM in the background or whatever music genre or one just imagines music. It’s how I also write poetry by thinking of rhythmic words .

  60. Pruning completed. Bonfire still hot enough to get rid of some of the debris. Then – exactly as foretold – the wind went round at 4pm and the bonfire had to be stopped.

    It is glorious out now. Will sit in the sun and do the crossword.

    1. There's a clear blue sky over White City and the southerly wind is only 2 mph but the temperature is still down at 17°C.

      1. Yo Sue

        White City, disgusting and racist.

        Change its' name immediately toWoke City

        1. The nickname for the NCB estate where I grew up (among the snot-nosed) was "White City" (due to the white rendered walls on many of the houses).

      2. Yo Sue

        White City, disgusting and racist.

        Change its' name immediately toWoke City

  61. That's me for today. A very successful and happy day all round, especially after lunch in the garden. One of the extra delights of fine sunny weather is that Gus and Pickles come out to join us – and chase each other, and hunt and explore – all within 50 yards of us – coming up to see what we are doing every five minutes or so.

    Have a spiffing evening preparing for the mini-heatwave over the next three days.

    A demain.

  62. A family accused of masquerading as Afghan nationals to illegally claim asylum in the UK have appeared in court to deny immigration charges.
    The four who have already twice failed to obtain visas are alleged to have made the claim when they arrived at Heathrow Airport in December, 2023.

    Does it really matter? There isn't a functioning border.. and they didn't require iPhones or the RNLI taxi. Why waste money on a sham trial.. they'll end up in new build next to the solar farm anyways.

  64. Perhaps those that are old enough to remember could enlighten us,
    Back in the late 1940s early 1950s when the idea of immigration from around the world and into the UK kicked off, did the government explain to the general population at the time that their grandsons and daughters would be excluded from employment on the basis of their skin colour to fill quotas?
    And that young girls in particular could be gang raped while the authorities turned the other cheek, just to keep the peace and protect their new voter base?

  65. Cross party support for Rupert Lowe's snuggle struggle gang inquiry.. Esther McVey & [drumroll].. Reform MP James McMurdock to join panel.

  68. I've Had a busy day, hair cut, doctors, phone calls, medication problems now sorted, work in the garden. I'm feeling my age now.
    Not 21 again I can assure you all.
    Nice programe on bbc about Doris day. Seemed like a decent person but married four times. Maybe a better actress than she Seemed. What ever will be…… was.
    Night all 😴

    1. You're only as old as the woman you feel, Eddy.
      SWMBO is older than me, by 2 1/2 months… just saying.

      1. In response.
        She's just posted:
        You're only disappointed if that huge man you married feels smaller than you recall.

    2. There's a story that when Doris Day was making a film, she was "involved" with someone and was often late on set. Once, when she was particularly late, on her arrival, the crew sang "Little Day, You've Had a Busy Man". The story doesn't say what her reaction was!

    3. As I recall, Doris Day's ambition was to become a dancer, but an early physical injury put paid to that . . .

    1. If you had the chance to sit down with Robins and genuinely convince him against implementing such policy, what would you say?

      I would take the Churchillian approach:

      "WHY?"

    3. To avoid you having to click:

      “Yesterday, it was revealed Robins and the West Yorkshire police hierarchy has temporarily blocked applications from white British candidates to boost "diversity".

      They've said the policy is to ensure that “diverse communities” are represented by the officers serving them.

      The same force employs 19 diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) staff at a cost of just over £1 million a year.

      The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to treat someone less favourably because of their race.

      But the government quietly inserted loopholes—“positive action” measures that let public bodies tip the scales in the name of “representation.”

      This is the same police force that also—according to recent FOI data—ranks among the highest in Britain for arresting citizens over online speech.

      If you had the chance to sit down with Robins and genuinely convince him against implementing such policy, what would you say?

      It might be an obvious point to make: but how is the wider public supposed to trust a force that actively discriminates—it erodes the very thing communities need: fairness.”

  70. Twitchers’ horror as Peregrine falcon eggs are smashed on livestream
    A ‘deliberate act’ of destruction is suspected after a live broadcast of the birds nest at St Albans Cathedral showed the eggs being crushed under foot    . https://www.thetimes.com/uk/environment/article/twitchers-horrified-as-peregrine-falcon-eggs-smashed-on-livestream-6p68jgs0n

    Police are investigating after three rare peregrine falcon eggs were destroyed during a livestreamed broadcast from a nest on the roof of St Albans Cathedral in Hertfordshire.

    The livestream, which attracted hundreds of thousands of viewers, was abruptly taken offline on Monday after shocked birdwatchers allegedly saw a pair of legs appear on the feed, stepping over the nest and crushing the eggs.

    The rooftop camera, installed as part of a conservation project by the cathedral and the Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, had been monitoring a pair of peregrine falcons, named Alban and Boudica, as they prepared for their young to hatch. The birds began nesting there in 2022, and the livestream was introduced the following year to allow the public to follow their progress.

    Screengrab showing damaged peregrine falcon eggs.
    A still from the livestream, which has been taken offline “until further notice”
    TOBY SHEPHEARD/STORY PICTURE AGENCY
    However, the effort to document the rare birds’ breeding has been halted by what the cathedral described as a “deliberate act” of destruction.

    The Very Rev Jo Kelly-Moore, Dean of St Albans, said: “We are so desperately sad at the harm done to eggs in our peregrine falcon nest here in the tower at St Albans Cathedral.”

    Last year the livestream attracted 519,882 viewers. On the most popular day more than 12,000 people watched three newly-hatched chicks.

    Chloe Edwards, director of nature recovery at Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, said peregrine falcons were among the fastest animals on the planet and had full legal protection under the Wildlife and Countryside Act.

    Peregrine falcon perched on St. Albans Cathedral; three eggs damaged.
    The peregrine is renowned for its high-speed hunting swoops which can exceed 200mph, making it the fastest animal

    Hertfordshire constabulary confirmed that it was investigating the incident and that “a person is assisting police with their inquiries”. The livestream will remain offline “until further notice”, the cathedral has said.

    Comments
    Andy Mitchell
    1 day ago

    Why would somebody do this?

    Tragic.

    Reply

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    S Graham
    1 day ago

    Try the ‘Raptor Persecution’ blog to get an idea of how some of our rarest birds are systematically and illegally killed by poisoning, trapping, shooting, battering and stamping. The why often leads back to certain countryside pursuits.

    Reply

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    J R Rylatt
    1 day ago
    Replying to S Graham

    Pigeon fanciers particularly dislike peregrine falcons.

    Reply

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    J P Richards
    1 day ago
    Replying to J R Rylatt

    Id gladly have such a falcon in my garden to keep pigeons away

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    J Mayhead
    1 day ago

    Has to be an inside job, who else would have access to roof.?

    I just hope the perpetrator get some painful experience in return. Public stoning whilst in stocks on Cathedral green might be appropriate

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    Phil Rogers
    22 hours ago

    Throw him off the top as in Iran.

    Reply

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    S McLane
    1 day ago

    It starts with killing small animals…. Terrible

    1. I see someone had to have a pop at field sports without the slightest evidence and totally ignoring that country sports do massive amounts for conservation.

  71. You can still have a fishy on your little dishy but it won’t include mackerel unless we act soon. That is the message from the Marine Conservation Society, which warns that we are in danger of fishing the species to extinction.

    The charity’s updated Good Fish Guide, which scores fish for sustainability, has advised supermarkets and restaurants to stop buying most of Britain’s catch of mackerel after demoting it to level 4, the second most endangered category. Scientists estimate that the mackerel population in the northeastern Atlantic has plunged from 7.3 million tonnes in 2015 to 2.8 million tonnes last year.

    That’s bad news for fish-lovers, for whom no barbecue is complete without a freshly grilled mackerel over the coals, but it presents an even greater problem for the many millions more who have taken to adding smoked mackerel to their weekly shop for its promise of quick and easy protein with a healthy dose of omega-3 on the side. We’ve all been encouraged to introduce more fatty acids into our diets to improve our heart health and mackerel has been one easy fix.

    So if we can no longer sling a packet of smoked mackerel in our baskets, where do we turn next? Eggs, nuts and seeds also contain omega-3 but in nothing like the quantity of oily fish, with mackerel top of the pile. The obvious substitute is salmon, with packets of hot smoked fillets the most direct swap. However, salmon doesn’t have the cleanest bill of health either and, as with most fish sustainability, the devil is in the detail.

    Mackerel is actually still OK (rated 3) if caught by hook and line, but that smoked mackerel will have been caught in a fixed net (a wall of netting anchored to the seabed that snares fish pretty indiscriminately). The fisherman and restaurateur Mitch Tonks, who is based in south Devon, warned about declining mackerel stocks in the southwest 15 years ago. “You used to see big shoals of them sitting in the bay but that is very rare nowadays,” he says. He buys his mackerel from small boats off the Shetlands but is paying six times the price he used to. “It’s the scale of the operation that’s causing the problem in the northeast Atlantic.”

    According to the Good Fish Guide the best alternatives are herring, sardine and something called horse mackerel. The last of these doesn’t sound promising, being caught primarily to make fish food, “although some can end up on your plate too,” the guide says. Hardly a ringing endorsement. I can’t see a rush for it in Waitrose.

    • Hold the lobster! Chichi tinned fish is in vogue

    Tonks agrees about herring, which he describes as one of the best tasting fish around. “Fishermen say it’s not worth catching because there is no demand, which is madness,” he says. You’ll sometimes find them in Waitrose for as little as 60p. They are full of bones, which may explain why they are not more popular, but Tonks’s favourite way of eating them is pickled, which means the fine bones dissolve in the acid. He suggests covering the fillets with a 50/50 mix of sugar and salt for an hour, then rinsing and patting them dry before sousing them in a sweet-sour bath of white wine vinegar and sugar flavoured with onion, fennel and other aromatics. “The next day you can have them with a bit of the juice, some orange segments and a drizzle of olive oil. Delicious.” The lazy route is to pick up a tub of rollmops from your local deli (or with your M&S shop, 280g, £3.50). Alternatively Tonks likes fresh herring gently devilled, fried in butter with cumin, turmeric, mustard, ginger and chilli.

    If sourcing and preparing fresh fish sounds like too much work I have one word to say to you: tinned. Yes, I know it doesn’t have the best reputation, not helped by the fact that if you search for tinned fish on most supermarket websites, you pretty soon find yourself among tins of Sheba and Felix cat food. Still, I rate Ortiz for its tuna, Fish4Ever for its herring in tomato sauce (110g, £2.45) and Parmentier for its range of flavoured sardines (135g, £2).

    If you want to go for the best quality, there are a number of upmarket brands around. Tonks has his own range, including Mount Bay sardines (aka pilchards) in chilli (120g, £5.95, http://therockfish.co.uk ), but you can’t beat the range from the specialist Patrick Martinez, owner of the Tinned Fish Market in Borough Market, London ( http://thetinnedfishmarket.com ). He stocks dozens of fish from Spain and Portugal, which have long been the centre of the European canning industry.

    “Tinned fish is automatically more sustainable because there is less waste,” he says, “but the quality and price will vary depending on how the fish is caught. To achieve a cheap product you will resort to less sustainable fishing methods and that is why mackerel has been downgraded.”

    The mackerel he sells is a slightly different product — Spanish, or narrow-barred, mackerel is more muscular, with a flaky texture more similar to tuna — and it has been caught by day boats off Spain according to strict quotas. Prices range from £5.95 to £11.95.

    Martinez considers sardines to be the best value alternative to mackerel (125g cans from £4.95). Stocks off Portugal are healthier than ever, he says, and he believes they will be upgraded to the Marine Conservation Society’s best rating of 1 within the next few years. Supermarket versions are more likely to be from overfished stocks in the northeast Atlantic.

    Mussels in sauce served with bread and olive oil.
    Mussels are a sustainable source of omega-3, and are rich in zinc, iron and calcium

    He also rates white albacore tuna from the Bay of Biscay and skipjack tuna from the Atlantic. Check the tin for provenance. Bonito del Norte guarantees it is from Spanish waters and will have been individually line-caught rather than using nets.

    However, Martinez’s tip for the most sustainable source of omega-3 of all is mussels, which are also rich in minerals such as zinc, iron and calcium. He stocks Hevva! mussels, which are grown on ropes in northern Cornwall close to the Bude cannery. Roasted first to produce a firm chewy texture and marinated in a spicy ’nduja sauce, they are ultra sustainable — the ovens they are cooked in are even powered by wind turbines.

    If you’d rather not eat out of a tin, you’ll find mussels in most supermarkets, fresh in 1kg netted bags on fish counters, frozen for freshness in the freezer aisle (Tesco, 400g, £3.50) or precooked and vacuum-packed with white wine sauce in the fish section (Waitrose, 500g, £3.95). Even more versatile than a packet of smoked mackerel, in other words.

    https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/food-drink/article/best-mackerel-alternatives-overfishing-3qjg9l0hz

    1. Commercial fishing on an industrial scale is always very destructive. By definition it's not sustainable. Rod and line commercial fishing is sustainable but can't ever keep up with demand, as well as being more expensive. I'd recommend the book, I might have said this before, "The Unnatural History of the Sea". Human nature really doesn't go hand in hand with the marine environment, or any other environment if it comes to that.

  72. Bit quiet on here , are you all watching the Masters Golf , Augusta ?

    Just thought I would resurrect a few bits and pieces .

    https://www.thetimes.com/comment/the-times-view/article/the-times-view-on-migrants-and-uk-population-picking-winners-lkwhcqgb7
    Mrs R Jones
    28 January, 2025

    What are the 'brightest and the best' going to find most appealing about the UK? Our broken health service? Our creaking transport network? High rents and higher utility bills? Our littered and shabby public realm? I'd love to know.

    Reply

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    Paul Champagne
    29 January, 2025

    That depends which miserable corner of the planet they come from.

    Reply

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    B Shaw
    29 January, 2025
    Replying to Paul Champagne

    The brightest and best don't tend to come from the miserable corners of the planet as it means getting in a dinghy and crossing the channel.

    Reply

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    Paul Champagne
    29 January, 2025
    Replying to B Shaw

    We accept anyone with the right qualifications in those sectors where we need them. There is no shortage of them. India is a good example.

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    Laurie Blackwell
    29 January, 2025
    Replying to B Shaw

    I just get the Portsmouth ferry.

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    1. I'm not watching the Masters because a) I don't have a TV and b) golf is a good walk spoiled and watching it is less interesting than watching paint dry.

        1. It was really cute, she was overcome by the crowd reaction and just wanted a hug from her Daddy!

      2. I remember nice things when I was single , and I always loved walking along the embankment with friends in the evening , and in the morning , this time of the year with the blossom on the trees .. so different to the countryside .. buzz and hum of a different activity .

        Just being there was thrilling .

    2. I'm surprised he's still around. I remember when he was an aspiring teenage amateur in the English Open or some such.

  80. It's my bed time, chums. So Good Night, sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

  81. Hello good people. Minus 15C, 18" of snow. Not unusual for North Ontario this time of year when looking at a 10 year history.

    I'm California Dreaming as I eye up my trip to San Diego for an Opening Night gig, where it is warm.

    I shall be that guy wearing shorts in the snow when he boards the plane at YYZ, ready to arrive in the warm…..

    Mmmmm. Warm no snow. :hums Mama and Papas:

  82. Hello good people. Minus 15C, 18" of snow. Not unusual for North Ontario this time of year when looking at a 10 year history.

    I'm California Dreaming as I eye up my trip to San Diego for an Opening Night gig, where it is warm.

    I shall be that guy wearing shorts in the snow when he boards the plane at YYZ, ready to arrive in the warm…..

    Mmmmm. Warm no snow. :hums Mama and Papas:

  83. Hello good people. Minus 15C, 18" of snow. Not unusual for North Ontario this time of year when looking at a 10 year history.

    I'm California Dreaming as I eye up my trip to San Diego for an Opening Night gig, where it is warm.

    I shall be that guy wearing shorts in the snow when he boards the plane at YYZ, ready to arrive in the warm…..

    Mmmmm. Warm no snow. :hums Mama and Papas:

  84. Day off work tomorrow; up to Brum airport to pick dad up from his trip to Perth.

  86. In today’s Terriblegraph there is a picture is of a model (Bella Habib – no, me neither) and she is sitting on a motorbike as if she were riding it. Which piqued my curiosity, as I ride a motorbike and it’s nice to see other women who also can.

    Terriblegraph’s caption also states: “Model Bella Habib rides a motorbike in Paris…”

    Except of course she is not finding anything. There’s a bloody great big rigid pole attached to the front wheel, holding the motorbike static and upright.

    So the caption should really read: “Model sits on static bike”.

  87. In today’s Terriblegraph there is a picture is of a model (Bella Habib – no, me neither) and she is sitting on a motorbike as if she were riding it. Which piqued my curiosity, as I ride a motorbike and it’s nice to see other women who also can.

    Terriblegraph’s caption also states: “Model Bella Habib rides a motorbike in Paris…”

    Except of course she is not finding anything. There’s a bloody great big rigid pole attached to the front wheel, holding the motorbike static and upright.

    So the caption should really read: “Model sits on static bike”.

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