Thursday 10 July: Post Office bosses must be held to account for the Horizon scandal

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

451 thoughts on “Thursday 10 July: Post Office bosses must be held to account for the Horizon scandal”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Just did Wordle in 6 today – a double Bogey.

    Wordle 1,482 6/6

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  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site. Just did Wordle in 6 today – a double Bogey.

    Wordle 1,482 6/6

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    2. Not alone.
      Wordle 1,482 6/6

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  4. Good morning all.
    A tad over 15°C this morning and clear skies forecast for the whole day.
    It's going to be a bit warm!

    1. To market? To market? To buy a fat pig? (Good morning, btw, Uncle Bill.)

          1. If that's a boar will it have been circumscribed?

            Morning folks. Off to the chandlers today to get a new battery temperature sensor… don't ask….

      2. I'm convinced that Our Bill has a market stall where he sells legal advice.

  7. Morning, all Y'all.
    Sunshine and sweaty promised, but the weather gods didn't get the order. Grey, dull, rain expected later, and I need a light jacket as it's chilly out.

  10. How does one function in this world when miscarriages of justice are considered a normal way to do business, and to complain about it is an offence?

    All sorts of precedents are being set which perturb me greatly.

  11. When The Guardian prints a headline like this.. sit up and take notice.

    Jury-free trials proposed to save criminal justice system from collapse
    Senior judge Sir Brian Leveson unveils radical proposals to clear huge backlog in crown courts in England and Wales.

    Peter Hitchens replies..
    Without a jury, a criminal courtroom is just a chamber full of state employees, trying to work out how long the defendant should go to prison for.

    If the courts are overwhelmed, it is because dozens of them have been foolishly closed. The House of Commons Library discovered in 2019 that the Government had closed half the magistrates’ courts in England and Wales (162 out of 323) in the previous ten years. As for Crown Courts, 8 out of 92 of them have been shut in the same ‘efficiency’ drive. It is ridiculous and wicked to respond to weak policing and closed courts by making it easier to convict the innocent.

    1. Maybe this is intentional when we are being governed by criminals, who have their own interests to consider?

    2. When one has a country like ours that has slipped up and courted and knighted celebrity types , who has a national broadcasting company who is biased against the truth , a groomed police force , a government who has slid down the path of sheer stupidity , a government who coined the phrase net zero , and a broken civil service plus a pathetic foreign secretary who fills his own pockets and belly, well you know we have hit the rocks .

      3. We've been on a forced decline for many years. I think Lady T was an aberration (that the Left have now 'managed through lawfare') rather than considered the norm.

        It's the lies that I find comic. We're going for growth/so we've slapped up taxes and creted onerous legislation, we're working for you/while robbing you blind, jailing the innocent and releasing the criminal, there is no two tier policing/but don't you dare speak the truth or we'll get you.

        It's an utter farce. Why don't they just say 'we hate you, we've other masters and they pay better. Sod off, there's nothing you can do about it'?

    3. I posted this last night:

      The key clause in Magna Carta.
      “No free man shall be seized, imprisoned, dispossessed, outlawed, exiled or ruined in any way, nor in any way proceeded against, except by the lawful judgement of his peers and the law of the land.
      “To no one will we sell, to no one will we deny or delay right or justice.”

    4. Closing courts and drastically cutting hospital bed numbers causes problems? Surely not? It is especially non-sensical given the rapidly increasing population, with a significant proportion of the unwanted 'additions' arriving with expensive health issues that are given priority over British citizens, as well as them being serious criminals.

  12. I submitted a short article to FSB Backlash yesterday on the headline topic.

    10 Downing Street was well aware of Horizon's shorcomings when it was brought to Tony Blair's attention back in 1998. His instruction was to brazen it out, and use the law to scapegoat the postmasters. This was Government policy, even as late as 2015, when the whole issue was exposed, but Government dragged its feet fearful of the cost of compensation. It was only under the Sunak Government, with Kevin Hollinrake as Post Office Minister and Kemi Badenoch as Business Secretary that serious attempts were made by Government to right this wrong.

    Since then, there has been an election, and voted in as Prime Minister was the same man that, when DPP, saw to the wrongful prosecution of several postmasters that did not qualify for direct summary justice from Post Office Ltd, duly privatised and deregulated, but given special legal powers to act as prosecutor, judge, jury and beneficiary of its criminal behaviour.

    I have lost all confidence in most of our national institutions, but am none the less obliged to their extortion for their criminal actions, and Government's action was to abolish the Law Lords and replace them with a biddable Supreme Court.

    What can I do about it? Liz Truss's former chairman blames Badenoch for the mess, but the current Tory Leader was one of the few honest brokers in this debacle.

    1. In a surprise move, Belfast City Council has decided in a private session on Wednesday to clear the site of the proposed bonfire at Meridi Street due to asbestos concerns.
      The decision saw support from Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party, the SDLP, and the Green Party..       LOL

        1. Highly contaminated by the brake shoes of some manual pallet trucks.. actually.

        2. Highly contaminated by the brake shoes of some manual pallet trucks.. actually.

      2. Oooofff! Are they looking to recreate the protest & riots of the 1970s? This time with Prods & Micks on the same side?

      4. Funny how the bonfire shown is a sign of "hate" but the annual burning of an effigy of a Catholic plotter (Guy Fawkes) seldom raises any objection.

  14. 43rd wedding anniversary today! I'm the luckiest man on earth, having SWMBO as my Bride for so long.

      1. Thanks, Belle.
        I used a whole lifetime's worth of luck and blessings when she met me and agreed to be my bride. I remind myself daily of my good fortune!

        1. Thank you.
          Forgot to add Congratulations to yourself on my original post!

      1. Thank you, Spikey. Appreciate the sentiment, and am working on it already!

  16. Isn't that why they use them on community bonfires? Designed to catch light easily?

  17. BTL Comments:-

    R J P
    27 min ago
    Reply to michael knowles
    Surname-only is the convention for convicted criminals. So seems not unreasonable for Starmer, Davey and, of course, Khan, the knight-mayor of London.

    All three deserve to be in the dock sooner rather than later.

    reply2 replies 4 0

    R. Spowart
    26 min ago
    Reply to R J P – view message
    Message Actions
    Knight-mayor!! I like it!

    R J P
    5 min ago
    Reply to R. Spowart
    Thank you.

    You may also like Chancer-Liar for Ms Reeves.

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunshine again it must be summer 🤗
    Of course the civil service and who ever must be held responsible and to account for their actions against the post office people, but as the self supposed hierarchy usually do they'll get away with it.

    1. Morning Eddy,

      Here in these rural areas , delivery is done by electric vans !!! We know how much they cost .

      Our home delivery is probably 3 times a week , not every day and we haven't had second post deliveries for decades

      1. Morning TB. 🙂
        We are only a few miles from St Albans and Hemel Hempstead where the Herts area sorting offices are. Our good old postie (nice guy) is around every day. And we can have parcels containing online purchases delivered to our village post office.

  19. SIR – I was pleased to read that Dr Rosie Boxer has found a pub where she can get two good meals and three pints of Harvey’s bitter for £33. Not only was this excellent value, but the pub and its kitchen were actually open on a Monday – a rare find these days.

    As a former licensee, I deplore the current trend for people running pubs as a part-time business. To be successful, they should be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.

    Charles Murray
    Botesdale, Suffolk

    Shock from me .. £33 pounds for 2, in a pub ?

    Decades ago , one could enjoy a basic plough mans lunch for pennies , or a nice chunk of homemade pate , what on earth, or a dish of whitebait and fresh brown bread, or a generous crab sarnie .

      1. Around £10 for cod and chips and a pint in Spoons on weekday afternoons. Cant be beaten. Many places offer a Friday fish&chip deal but its not cod.

      1. Blimey, Johnny: Two pieces of bread, a slice of cheese, some salad and a pickled onion for £17? That's a fair wedge of money for a simple lunch.

      2. Morning Johnny,

        Hmm, Many people have their own kitchens ( Luxury ) , they should prepare their own food .

        Eating out out years ago was a treat.

        People stuffing their faces is appalling , pubs should be pubs , a place to have a drink and say hello to mates is fine , but if pubs are going to the wall, the breweries are to blame .

        1. Most of them have to do food now to keep going.
          I meet my old workmates for lunch once a month and we usually go to a different local pub each time these days. Fish and chips or ham, egg and chips is usually £15 or £16 now.

        2. "…the breweries are to blame."

          Not many pubs are owned by breweries today. Famously independent brewers such as Adnams, Elgoods, Harveys, Hook Norton, Timothy Taylor's, Wadworth's etc still have tied estates and are doing very well but the majority are owned by pub chains. Free houses are struggling the most.

          The Tories MMC report of 1989 was a disaster for breweries and pubs.

        3. We do not eat out any more. Just not good enough. We do better ourselves.

    3. £33 gets me exactly 5½ pints of Guinness at my local, Belle. As it happens that's precisely what I had to drink early doors yesterday while talking fishing. The ½ pint was due to not being able to manage another full one as I had to nip home to finish the cooking. It's an expensive business, drinking in the pub I mean, these days.

      1. £33 gets me just over eight pints of Butty Bach bitter at the club I use. Sadly, there no pubs in my part of the city due to err… demographics so it's a taxi job to the club.

        1. An 8 minute walk to my local, all uphill. Oddly enough it’s a bit further coming home.

      1. My local is open everyday. We try to support it as we know how lucky we are to have such a good one. It comes at a cost.

  20. Right, that's overalls & shores on so I'm off up the "garden" before the sun shifts round and turns it into a furnace!
    I've half a dozen paving slabs to carry up and the back of the large shed to sort out so I can get a 2nd rain water tank placed.

  21. David Lammy appoints campaign donor to Foreign Office board
    The foreign secretary is facing questions over his appointment of Karen Blackett as a non-executive director

    The foreign secretary has appointed an advertising executive who donated thousands of pounds to his election campaign to a top role in the Foreign Office.

    Karen Blackett donated £5,000 to support David Lammy’s office in the run-up to the general election last year.

    Lammy appointed her as one of four non-executive directors on the Foreign Office’s supervisory board last month.

    Blackett will be paid up to £15,000 a year for the role, for what is typically a commitment of 20 days a year for three years.

    Karen Blackett speaking at a podium.

    The board, which also includes all the department’s ministers and four of its most senior civil servants, provides “strategic direction, oversight, support and challenge for the department with a view to the long-term health, reputation and success of the FCDO.”

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/david-lammy-foreign-office-karen-blackett-6g7jft875

    Arthur Reid
    8 hours ago

    Is it because she is black?

    Reply

    Recommend (2)

    Share
    Steve Gardner
    6 hours ago

    And female. So that’s two boxes ticked.

    Reply

    Recommend (3)

    Share
    WJ Richman
    2 hours ago
    Replying to Steve Gardner

    Known in DEI circles as a Twofer.

    Reply

    Recommend (2)

    Share
    Mr William Hill
    10 hours ago

    Don't forget folks, we were promised a Government of Integrity and Service…

    Reply

    4. I wonder if Nottlers could similarly each donate £5,000 to the charlatan FS, and be rewarded with a position to provide "strategic direction, oversight, support and challenge for the department with a view to the long-term health, reputation and success of the FCDO.”
      He is clearly cheaply bought.
      Of course, we might need to top-up our suntans ……..

    5. I wonder if Nottlers could similarly each donate £5,000 to the charlatan FS, and be rewarded with a position to provide "strategic direction, oversight, support and challenge for the department with a view to the long-term health, reputation and success of the FCDO.”
      He is clearly cheaply bought.
      Of course, we might need to top-up our suntans ……..

  23. Good morning Nottlers, far from the warnings of magma venting through the land, and we poor Britons melting like extras at the opening of the Ark in 'The Ark of the Covenant', it's 16°C damp with light wind. Walking football awaits, if I can wade through the pools of magma between here and the ground.

    1. Strewth, the wet office suggests we start naming heatwaves. I always thought that they already have a name… summer.

      2. Yet, they’ve ducked the idea of naming dunkelflauts. It’s almost as if they have an agenda? 🤔

  24. This appalling self-aggrandising little shit is more dangerous than Starmer and the restof them. Lamp-post needed.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31e773435648054add17bc901af02a3975d48a9df2aad4991570546df9061006.png

    Lord Hermer gives himself ‘veto’ over government policy

    Documents reveal extent of Attorney General’s ‘power grab’
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/07/09/TELEMMGLPICT000428298017_17520856330890_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqjIwIjDXBmcU79gdGK1cNfv4Xpit_DMGvdp2n7FDd82k.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    Lord Hermer has watered down instructions by Suella Braverman to avoid lawyers becoming a ‘block’ to government policy Credit: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Getty
    Tony Diver
    Associate Political Editor
    09 July 2025 9:15pm BST

    Lord Hermer has handed himself an “effective veto” over government policy, documents reveal.

    The Telegraph has seen the guidance given to government lawyers by the Attorney General, and the previous version of the document, which was issued by Suella Braverman in 2022.

    Analysis of the documents reveals that Lord Hermer has made a number of changes, including inserting a new “snitch clause”, telling civil servants to inform him if ministers may be about to break the law.

    "9. This guidance applies in equal force to assessing risk in the context of international Law. The UK, like other States, has obligations which are binding in international law. The Ministerial Code recognises the 'overarching duty' on Ministers to 'comply with the law', which has been confirmed by successive governments as including international law. Further, the rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in international law as in national law, even though they operate on different planes: the government and Ministers must act in good faith to comply with the law and in a way that seeks to align the UK's domestic law and international obligations, and fulfil the international obligations binding on the UK. To honour the UK's international obligations, the government should not invite Parliament to legislate contrary to those international obligations"

    Lord Hermer has also inserted 23 references to international law and watered down instructions by Mrs Braverman to avoid lawyers becoming a “block” to government policy.

    He has told lawyers they should assume that every decision made by a minister will be subject to a legal challenge, while the previous advice was that lawsuits were very unlikely in most cases.

    The changes can be revealed after a series of complaints from Cabinet ministers that Lord Hermer had tried to block their decisions with spurious legal objections.

    Guidance is issued to government lawyers by the Attorney General on the approach they should take when advising ministers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/lord-hermer-gives-himself-veto-over-government-policy/

    Lord Hermer’s advice has included that the UK should not join US and Israeli strikes on Iran because they may be in breach of international law.

    Sir Michael Ellis, a former Conservative attorney general, said the changes to the document amounted to “empire building” by Lord Hermer, who had “effectively given himself a veto over all government business”.

    Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, called the guidance a “surrender charter” that cements “rule by lawyers” at the heart of the British state.

    He said: “Measures like the snitch clause will undermine discussion across government and harm our national interest.

    “Keir Starmer’s Attorney General is putting the partisan views of activist lawyers before the national interest.”

    The updated guidance includes two new sections focused on international law, taking the total length of the document from three pages to five.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/lord-hermer-gives-himself-veto-over-government-policy/

    It argues that civil servant lawyers must treat international treaties, such as the Chagos deal, with the same weight as national law.

    “The rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in international law as in national law, even though they operate on different planes,” it says, adding that allowing ministers to breach international law could “incur significant consequences, be they legal, political, diplomatic and/or reputational”.

    The Telegraph’s analysis of the documents reveals that Lord Hermer also banned the Government from using Parliament to override international agreements, as Rishi Sunak’s government did last year to stop the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) from sinking the Rwanda plan.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/lord-hermer-gives-himself-veto-over-government-policy/

    The new “snitch clause” says that government lawyers should report their politician bosses to the Attorney General if ministers defy the legal advice they have been given.

    “If it is proposed to proceed with a course of action despite advice that it would be unlawful to do so because it is not supported at least by a tenable legal argument, law officer advice must be sought immediately,” it says.

    Sir Michael said: “This is another extraordinary overreach by Lord Hermer, who has effectively given himself a veto over all government business.

    “It is quite something if ministers of the crown within the same Government cannot be trusted, and have to be snitched on by their own officials.

    “I often received advice from lawyers whose opinion was that there was a minimal chance of success and then when the matter was later litigated the Government actually won the case.

    “This is an empire-building charter for a stagnating and internally divided Government.”

    Mrs Braverman’s advice, which The Telegraph has seen for the first time, was designed to weaken the power of government lawyers to block policy and included several warnings about being obstructive to ministers.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/lord-hermer-gives-himself-veto-over-government-policy/

    It was revealed after questions were laid in Parliament by the Conservatives requesting that the Government publish the guidance.

    Mrs Braverman’s version of the document said it was “rarely the case” that a legal risk to a government policy would prevent it from going ahead and warned civil servants not to become a “perceived block” by focusing on minor issues.

    She also said that lawyers who have objections to a policy should “identify mitigations” to help ministers pursue their policy.

    Those lines were removed by Lord Hermer, who said that Civil Service lawyers should instead give “full merits legal advice” that does not focus on whether a policy is technically illegal.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/09/lord-hermer-gives-himself-veto-over-government-policy/

    A source close to Lord Hermer said the accusations against him were “desperate nonsense from a Tory party that has lost credibility on law and order and upholding the rule of law”.

    The source said his guidance “demands lawyers to be creative solution finders, enabling our ambitious plan for change to succeed – unblocking obstacles so that policies are not held up for years in the court as was always the way under the last administration”.

    A spokesman for the Attorney General said: “We are getting on with delivering the Plan for Change, from getting NHS waiting lists down, to rolling out free breakfast clubs in primary schools, expanding free school meals, and creating growth, wealth and opportunity for all.

    “Government lawyers advise ministers, but it is always ministers that make decisions on policy as has been the case under successive governments.”

    ************************************
    Wyatt Burp
    11 hrs ago
    So the country is now run by a mate of Starmer’s who is a proven terrorist sympathiser and al round scum bag ! Lord help us all !

    Dave Reckoning
    11 hrs ago
    Remember. Not a single person voted for this man and now he is lording it over elected politicians.

    No ministerial posts for those who are not accountable in the Commons.

    Helen Stoddard
    11 hrs ago
    Who are you? I'd never heard of you. Nobody in the UK had ever heard of you. I would like to ask you, Attorney General, who voted for you, and what mechanism … oh, I know democracy's not popular with you lot, and what mechanism do the people of the UK have to remove you? Is this UK democracy? Well, I sense, I sense though that you are competent and capable and dangerous, and I have no doubt in your intention, to be the quiet assassin of the United Kingdom democracy, and of the United Kingdom nation state.

    Nigel couldn't have said it better himself!

    Shaun Nelson
    11 hrs ago
    Didn't Hermer defend Gerry Adams?

    This ex Soldier wonders why he served.?

    Starmer/ Hermer!😡😡

    2. My comment on press reader wasn’t very complementary either. Something about venal and corrupt.

    3. Special Kaye
      33m
      Roger Scruton.. "Communism has morphed into Human Rights"… Know thy enemy…

    4. What about funding Ukraine's weapons against Russia? Giving away UK property without permission? Is he acting to remove criminals from hotels?

    5. It was Hermer who engineered the great betrayal of the Chagos Islands.

      He is certainly guilty of high treason and he should be taken to court to face the charges, found guilty and be given the appropriate punishment.

      Those who corrupt, exploit and live by the Law should perish by the Law!

    6. I can't be bothered to read all that, these people should never have been allowed to get into these positions.
      They are collectively our nightmare..

    7. Out of all the commie Marxist ponces.. Hermer is the worst of the worst.
      Look at his form.
      Just missing an intern stint at Stonewall.

    1. NIce brown “thumbs up” there Sharron. Are you allowed though? Looks like cultural appropriation to me👍

    2. It's not for the children, it's so the school doesn't get sued. There will be a parent who – because they're stupid – hasn't told their child about the effect of heat and thus blames the school when they have to buy sun cream.

      1. 409207+up ticks,

        Morning W,

        When I was a kid we seemed to have a built in survival kit,far removed from perennial intervention.

    1. It's bad enough seeing them individually. These snaps only confirm that they are working Together to wreck our country.

  28. George Finchley
    9h
    We keep hearing about cracking down on the “small boat gangs”, but what about the corporates here in the UK who’ve built entire business models around this crisis? Accommodation providers, legal aid firms, “welfare” charities, outsourced Home Office contractors, all feeding from the same pot. Many are on long-term contracts. Some are shifting profits offshore. And all depend on the flow continuing. It’s not enforcement, it’s enterprise.
    Let’s be clear: the real pull factor isn’t the gangs, it’s what’s waiting on arrival. Free accommodation, NHS healthcare, legal assistance, pocket money, all funded by the taxpayer, delivered by commercial players, and guarded from scrutiny by the state. The boats may come from abroad, but the incentive is made in Britain.

    Now we’re told 50 migrants a week will be returned to France, and 50 with “UK links” will be accepted from France in return. Net effect: zero. Not a reduction. Not a deterrent. A pure numbers swap dressed up as diplomacy. They call it “one in, one out”, but it’s actually “one more PR line while the problem grows”.

    This isn’t policy, it’s theatre. It’s managed failure dressed as control. And while voters are shouted down for raising concerns, an entire domestic industry profits from a crisis no one wants to solve. If you traffic people in a dinghy, you’re a criminal. If you house them at £100 a night on a 10-year contract, you’re a government supplier. Same demand. Different uniform.

    A country without borders is not a country. If the political class no longer believes in sovereignty or national control, then have the guts to say so. Until then, stop pretending this is a solution. The public knows better, and patience is running out.

    stephen dean
    11h
    The only good deal T2K ever struck was to safeguard his own pension whilst DPP.

    Colin Macinnes
    11h
    Anyone would think the Labour Party just pluck figures out of the air. Like building millions of homes.
    The government lacks a coherent plan to recruit 6,500 new teachers or to stop experienced staff from being driven out by bad behaviour in the classroom, a report says.

    VAT on private school fees was supposed to pay for the extra teachers — one of Labour’s main election promises — but ministers have recently said this revenue would be spent on wider public services.

    The public accounts committee said it was unclear how the government would achieve its aim, and that it lacked suitable targets or sufficient evidence for how to improve teacher recruitment and retention.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/da58cdd831d49986f5dc1d82170f4902f2528a9c1894abe62997abf617b35caa.png

    1. I see that the opportunity to spread islam doesn’t get a mention in the pull factor. This is nothing short of jihad.

  31. At about 2am I was unceremoniously woken by a large paw to the face, swiftly followed by another one.

    Batting them away both paws decided to start CPR. I find Mongo hovering over me, looking a bit 'odd'. His ears were up (and a News ears are never up) and his tail wasn't wagging. Now, odd as it is, his tail is basically 2 feet of prehensile club, so it not to be moving is both unusual and disconcerting.

    He heads off to the stairs and looks back as if for me to follow so I do.

    It's then that I hear clattering and doors opening and closing so I pull clothes on and follow the fellow downstairs. As they're stone, they don't creak (one nice thing about this house).

    I get downstairs and find one of our friends (who're staying on a hop over from Germany to America) starkers in the kitchen, making a sandwich. I rather thump about a bit to make myself heard and not a peep, so I said hello and 'just going to the loo' thinking it'd get her attention. She just carries on making her sandwich, completely in the buff, oblivious. I look at dog, dog looks at me. We both think 'This is a bit odd'.

    Then it clicks. She's sleep ruddy walking! I get a long coat off the door peg, wrap it around her and guide her back upstairs.

      1. You assume if food is out there's a choice of his eating it or not.

        Although he has got better when he snaffled a whole pile of cheese and onion sausages and was very sick. Mainly because he Dad grabbed him quickly and crushed his tummy until he vomited.

    3. Wow!
      Will you be telling her when she awakens?
      Good on Mongo, a dog of great sensibility!

      1. I thought to keep quiet about it all. Could be a bit embarrassing for all concerned!

  32. That's why pubs had a public bar and a lounge bar. Food served in the lounge, and no working clothes – go in the public if you are scruffy or mucky. Crisps & pork scratchings the only solid sustenance in the public.

  33. VAT on school fees was used to pay back the unions for their campaign funding. It was slapped straight into generic pay rises. There was never any intent to spend it on children's education.

    Because absolutely no research was done – it was an act of spite, after all; Labour had no idea how much money it would raise/cost. The tax was levied simply out of malice. When parents already on the edge simply said 'we can't afford this' the state was left with a massive cost it wasn't able (or interested in) to meet and it hung the children out to dry and left councils picking up the pieces.

    1. An entirely appropriate accompaniment to Rod Liddle's column in today's Speccie.

  37. A masked killer attempted to snatch a man's gold watch before stabbing him to death in front of his partner outside a high-end London casino after he fought back, witnesses told MailOnline today.

    The murder victim died outside the £1,650-a-night 5-star Park Tower Hotel and Casino, which is directly across the road from the Harvey Nichols department store in Knightsbridge.

    The stabbing took place in Seville Street, which is also close to Harrods, a host of luxury stores and also Hyde Park. The Park Tower Hotel and Casino is also next door to Nusr-Et, the steakhouse run by celebrity chef Salt Bae. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14892223/Knightsbridge-casino-stabbing-London.html

    1. 25'c heat and the man is wearing a mask. Obviously a diversity. It's always a sodding diversity.

  38. The US Supreme Court has recently ruled that Trump can go ahead with his DOGE clear-out of the bloated US civil service.
    However, it seems that the data management is being handed over to a private company, Palentir, who is joining it up into one big AI-powered all-knowing database. This is the misleadingly named digital Id, which is a chunk of data on every aspect of people's lives rather than a single number on a card.

    The last governments in Europe who held this level of data on their citizens fell in 1989, and before that, in 1945. And Palentir will hold even more data than either the nasties or the communists did.
    We'd be naive not to assume that the same is being planned in the UK. Capita holds many government contracts, will they be the managers of everyone's digital id?

    At about 6 minutes in this video, Catherine Austin Fitts is talking about Palentir's role.
    http://vigilantfox.com/p/supreme-court-clears-trumps-plan?publication_id=975571&post_id=167944091&r=28gmek&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    PS this is why I don't have a smartphone and generally try to be as independent from the system as possible. It may come, but I shall resist for as long as possible. I don't believe it will last long, because tyranny never does.

    1. 80 years (1917-1989) may not be a long time in the grand scheme of things, but of you are living through it, it seems pretty long

    2. Given how incompetent Crapita is, I would expect their management of a digital ID database to be sufficiently awful that the database would become sufficiently corrupt as to cause nothing but serious problems for thousands of people.

      1. On the upside, it won't work or be usable for over 20 years once the endless cost overruns, failure and incompetence kicks in.

        Yet all this continues to demand legal safeguards. Who has looked at the data? For what purpose? None of these things are difficult for a properly designed API built with privacy and security in place.

        However, politicians are morons and don't have a clue what they're doing and civil servants even less, so there;s no chance of sensibly written controls or an audit log being deployed.

        1. The Americans are bypassing that by giving the management of the database directly to the private sector.

  39. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99c21878ff72029c25067cf4215ad8d5f5b0c7a4009d7f80e25b500f0d826c86.png
    Norman Tebbit transformed the country for the better
    John Whittingdale

    My first job in government was working for Norman Tebbit as his special adviser in the Department of Trade and Industry. I received the call 41 years ago, in the summer of 1984, and it was agreed that I would join him immediately after the Conservative party conference concluded that year in Brighton. He was already a hero of the Margaret Thatcher government. But few saw as close up as I did just how much courage – and compassion – Norman, who died this week aged 94, had.

    On the final day of that conference, in the early hours, an IRA bomb exploded in the Grand Hotel. Republican terrorists had nearly succeeded in murdering the Prime Minister. Norman was badly injured, enduring the agony with stoicism. However, his wife, Margaret, suffered worse and was left paralysed from the neck down. It was only through good fortune that she survived at all.

    Norman was determined to continue running his massive department but was equally clear that he needed to be there to support his wife. As a result, a private office was set up at RAF Northolt and I and his private secretaries would travel to see him in his bed at Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

    He did all he could to balance his loyalty to his wife with his loyalty to his other Margaret, the Prime Minister. Eventually he concluded that he could not manage both and chose to step back from politics to care for his wife, which he did for the rest of her life.

    That commitment to doing the right thing instilled a feeling of loyalty in those around him. Working for Norman was always fun, as he had a mischievous sense of humour. In opposition, he delighted in tweaking the tail of the dying Labour government through parliamentary guerilla warfare which he waged with his fellow Thatcher loyalists Nicholas Ridley and Ian Gow. Norman was a master at crafting provocative questions and introducing bills such as his Limitation of Legislation Bill, which required that any new bill could only be introduced alongside the repeal of an existing act.

    As his special adviser, my duties were sometimes unusual. In preparation for a question from a Labour MP on support for the car industry, he had me go to the car park of the Transport and General Workers’ Union and count the number of foreign cars. He then delighted in listing the number of Mercedes and BMWs that were parked there, against those made by the British manufacturers Vauxhall, Ford and Rover.

    That patriotism and the willingness to take the fight to the enemy were part of Norman’s success – and he was the engine of the government’s economic reforms. He started his life as a trade unionist and yet went on to be Thatcher’s secretary of state for Employment, dismantling trade union power in the process. Although he was secretary of state for Trade and Industry for less than two years, he pushed through a programme of radical privatisation which saw British Steel, British Shipbuilders, British Leyland and British Aerospace released from public ownership.

    Norman became chairman of the Conservative party in 1985 and was in his element as the party’s attack dog, taking on Labour in the TV studios. His sometimes aggressive style led to the satirical TV show Spitting Image portraying him as a leather-jacketed bovver boy. Rather than resenting the attack, he revelled in it. The former pilot knew that you’re only taking flak if you’re over the target.

    Tebbit ran the 1987 general election campaign which delivered Thatcher a majority of 102 MPs. However, the campaign led to tensions between him and Lord Young, who had also been appointed to advise on the campaign. It was after this that he decided to retire from government. As a result, Thatcher lost one of her most devoted supporters. When Geoffrey Howe resigned from the government in 1990, I was by then political secretary to the Prime Minister and helped to persuade her to ask Norman to return to the front bench. However, after agonising, he did not feel he could do so and still give his wife the care she needed.

    So, although Norman survived the bombing, he, his wife and the country were all victims of the IRA. If he had returned to government in 1990, he may well have prevented the slow loss of confidence in the Prime Minister among MPs which led to her downfall. And when she did eventually stand down, if he had chosen to, he would have been a frontrunner to succeed her. I believe he would have been a great prime minister: resolute, radical, honest, unafraid.

    He did not, because he had resolved to put his family first, and that decision – his loyalty to his wife, and his principles – only reinforces my belief that he would have made an outstanding prime minister. In his example there is a lasting legacy for my party, and our country.

    Cheers for Mr Tebbit
    By Dominic Lawson

    The late Norman Tebbit happened to be a director of The Spectator when in 1990 he made his instantly notorious ‘cricket test’ remarks: to the effect that if a British subject cheered for say, India, in a cricket match against England (the Indian team, as now, was then playing a Test series here), he could not be considered a loyal subject or properly assimilated into the British way of life.

    We immediately published a leading article – ‘No cheers for Mr Tebbit’– which was as complimentary about his remarks as the headline suggests, and it included the observation: ‘Mr Tebbit is in danger of confusing Yobbo chauvinism with citizenship.’ At the next board meeting, Tebbit, looking straight at me (the responsible editor) with apparent menace, said: ‘Mr Chairman, I wish to address the matter of the recent leading article “No cheers for Mr Tebbit”.’ After a measured pause, he then declared it was a tribute to the editorial independence of The Spectator that its editor felt free to ‘traduce one of its directors’, and that this independence was part of the reason for the magazine’s great success.

    I took it as an act of admirable principle; but it was also a measure of the man, a much more generous-spirited person than his public image.

    1. Lord Tebbit , apart from Maggie Thatcher , was the only person I believed who had the most integrity and intelligence .

      I feel so sad that a man like him will no longer appear on our radar.

    1. Minor hint – watch at 1.25 speed. You don't miss much but it's a lot easier to listen to.

      He also treats every answer as a political history essay rather than simply answering it. He also, frustratingly, keeps going back to the problem without presenting long term solutions. I don't think he knows what they are.

      1. Just wild animals. That's one of the attractions of being there – the wildlife (Eagles, beavers, deer, mountain cats, and metallic coloured rattly dragonflies… wonderful!

        1. We did see a deer last night – but shortly afterwards a crash – I think some driver might have knocked it down.

    2. I'm sure Phil can give us the recipe for venison Wellington – sans death caps, preferably.

  42. Good Moaning.
    Put your hands together for the family orientated enrichers who have added such sparkle to our dull British lives.

    A driver who killed a “good Samaritan” when he ploughed into a crowd in the middle of a wedding brawl told police “that’s why you don’t mess with” his family.

    Hassan Jhangur, 25, hit five people with his Seat Ibiza when he arrived at his sister’s wedding reception, where a fight had broken out between the two families.

    Sheffield Crown Court heard Jhangur first drove into the father of the rival Khan family, who was standing in the street, throwing him over the vehicle’s bonnet.

    He then crashed into a group of four people, including Chris Marriott, 46, who was out for a post-Christmas walk with his wife and two sons and had stopped to help one of Jhangur’s sisters as she was lying in the road.

    3. Slap on the wrist – didn't understand local customs. Easy mistake to make…

    4. A driver who killed a “good Samaritan” when he ploughed into a crowd in the middle of a wedding brawl told police “that’s why you don’t mess with” his family.

      Deport the entire family, then.

      1. Seeing as the accused was convicted of murder, this instance confirms my view of implementing the death penalty for murder.

  43. Morning everyone. Just relaxing after my morning coffee and feeding the dogs. Will have to carry out my ablutions and face the day’s tasks shortly.

    Accountability seems to be absent these days.

  44. Where we lived before near Wimborne decades ago , a local country pub , near a river only offered fresh trout , peas and new potatoes, or a plate of chips , or a ploughmans .. that was it !

    3. It's already cost £220bn directly, let alone the lost economic opportunity cost (money you have to waste on green taxes is money not going into shops), and ignore inflation (caused by energy prices) and legislation (such as the endless forms to blither on about how your company is 'fighting climate change'.

      Also remember this is over 25 years, where that 220bn direct cost is in the last 3.

      David Turver points out the cost is likely significantly higher – because the CCC continually pretends unreliables will get cheaper, when the facts remain that they get significantly more expensive every year until they're obsolete.

  47. Ah! That was an easy task and completed before it got too hot!
    Bags of concrete ballast shifted from behind shed, rain water tank drained into other receptacles and cleaned out, textile matting recovered, refolded to 4 x layers and placed along the shed wall with slabs on top. Both water tanks put in place ready for pipework to be done.
    I already have sufficient plastic pipe but need 2 x straight tank outlets, a couple of 90°bends and some plastic cement.
    Now for a mug of tea then back to the work.

    1. Crikey. I thought getting out of bed was hard work. I'll have a nap on your behalf, Bob.

  48. Gosh – it was hot at the market. Just back – put out the bedlinen after washing it. Pillowcases already ironed and put away!

    1. I took the washing out, walked in a circle and came back in. Was bone dry after 2 minutes in the sun.

  49. Just packed up some of our hedgehog tea towels ready for Stroud Show on Saturday. It's going to be a hot one unless we have thunderstorms like two years ago when they decided to cancel the show.
    When OH comes back with the car I'm going over to Cirencester to the printers with the calendar for 2026 on a memory stick. Then have some lunch.

    As I was awake so much earlier than usual I'll need a rest this afternoon – going on a trip to the Forest of Dean to (hopefully) see nightjars this evening. I've seen them in Africa and Brazil but not in this country.

  51. 409207+up ticks,

    We are witnessing the ultimate in treachery the chopping block and the treason laws must be reinstated via people power these current politico's are spitting in the eyes of ALL patriotic peoples in history, in regards to building and protecting ENGLAND, with royal seal.

    Truth be told Wellingtons boot would have been so far up starmers arse it would have been declared a nation holiday.

    Dt,
    Live, French allow hundreds of migrants to cross Channel hours before return deal announced

  52. French allow hundreds of migrants to cross Channel hours before return deal announced
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/10/politics-latest-news-starmer-macron-uk-france-summit/

    BTL

    Mass illegal migration into the UK is an integral part of Starmer's plan to destroy Britain.

    No prosperous country wants to become communist but there are several communists in the Labour Party, including the prime minister, the home secretary, the chancellor and the foreign secretary, who can see that economic ruin is the surest way of turning Britain into a communist state.

    1. So strange that when I was at school , part of the school curriculum were languages, French German and Latin .

      Fortunately , because my parents travelled and lived in Africa during our early informative years , I can speak a little Arabic .. yes I can , and can even remember 1–10 in Arabic as well as basic phrases , I can also recite several poems in Latin and French. I never took to French , it is a romantic language but linguistically lost on me .

      I liked Latin , because it is understandable , however , now I am wondering whether received Queens English , ( how I speak ) will become a rarity .

      Jerry , my eldest son really sounds so Hampshire .. yet he has lived in Dorset most of his life , his grandparents had Hampshire accents , and Mohs grandfather had the richest loveliest rural Hampshire accent .
      Son no 2 is plain talking , and pleasant voiced , despite his partner having a great East end / sometimes voice .
      My father sounded similar to Boycott or Trueman , he never lost his proud voice , even though he was fully conversant in Arabic , my mother was received English , with South Western Cork back ground .

      Funny isn't it that our collective rural cultural voices are being destroyed and drowned out by the media ?

      Forgot to mention my other 2 sisters and brother,living in SA, oh so South African !

      1. Yep, French, German and Latin GCE's for me – among others. Latin was compulsory at my school in that time – 1957.

        The only one I can sort of read these days in French – don't know why but it has "stuck" better than the others.

      2. They say that counting in Polish is like the sound of rustling leaves;

        For example 36 is trzydzieṡcieszeszcz.

    3. Macron congratulating Starmer on his election to EC, and Starmer thanking him for support. Rayner mia lately, what's going on there I wonder……

  55. Listen up Nottle cricketers

    Why don't the BBC use the word Maiden Over anymore?

    In cricket, a "maiden over" is an over (a set of six balls) in which the bowler does not concede any runs. The term "maiden" is used because it implies something untouched or pure, reflecting the fact that the over has not been "tainted" by runs. A maiden over is considered a good performance by the bowler, showing their control and ability to restrict scoring.

      2. A girl from the Girton vicinity
        Till 15 preserved her virginity,
        The fellows at Magdalene,
        Must have been dagdalene:
        It couldn't have happened at Trinity

        1. Here lies the body of Ellie Mae-
          From Notting Hill, or so they say.
          She was fourteen when she lost her virginity-
          Not a bad record for that vicinity.

    2. The same place as the 'leccy for electric cars that we all have to have…

  57. Spotting John Major in the crowd at the test match v India at Lords prompted from me the question "Hey, Mr Major why don't any of your beloved Europeans play serious cricket?".

  59. Too hot for outdoor work so my sitting room is getting a vary much needed sort out.

  60. THE LEPER HOSPITAL
    Wimborne is not the sort of place that one immediately associates with leprosy, yet in the 12th century the town had its own leper hospital, St Margaret’s, outside the town boundary, beside the high road to Blandford.
    The chapel of St Margaret and St Antony was built as the Chapel of the Leper Hospital. The chapel was here in the reign of King John and measures 38' x 13'. As far as is known this is the only leper hospital left in the county to remind us of those grim days when lepers were a frequent sight on the roads.
    Just as today’s charities rely on the generosity of benefactors, so St Margaret’s Hospital relied on the church and the aristocracy for its funds. One effective way to raise money then was through the issue of ‘Indulgences’, offering remission of varying amounts of time in Purgatory in exchange for the donation of alms. Peter, Bishop of Exeter, issued 30 days remission to benefactors of St Margaret’s.
    Leprosy is known to have existed in England as far back as the 10th century. It was probably introduced by pilgrims returning from the Holy Land or by traders from the East. Its spread was due to insanitary conditions and to an excessive use of salted food.**
    With the disappearance of leprosy from England, the role of St Margaret’s changed to that of an almshouse. It is clear that by the end of the 17th century the five cottages at St Margaret’s were occupied by poor local people.
    From the middle of the 17th century, St Margaret’s was administered by the Steward of the Manor of Kingston Lacy. This arrangement continued right up until the death of Ralph Bankes in 1981, when he gave his entire estate to the National Trust. However, by then St Margaret’s had been formally registered as an independent charity, so it was not included in his gift.

    **Leprosy (or Hansen’s disease) is considered one of the oldest infectious diseases ever known in human history: it has been the scourge of humanity since antiquity. Leprosy’s spread all around the world followed human paths of migration from the African Continent to the Asian one, and then to Europe.
    The people most affected were women, who accounted for two-thirds of the sick. According to some sources, the causes of leprosy could be attributed to overuse of certain rotten or salted fish.
    Wars, unhygienic conditions, social and health inequality created conditions for its spread, before its gradual decline after the Middle Ages due to the rise of other worse pandemics.
    Photo: St Margaret's Chapel And The Almshouses in Wimborne, 1908. The woman (left) is wearing a traditional Dorset bonnet. ©Francis Frith.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b8539d98937a90d28ec6ded3f561919002ca4ad7d8fe15adfd325eea6e265dcc.jpg

        1. My reason for posting that article , how many disgusting diseases are contaminating the British when arrivals appear on our shores ?

          I gather STDs are a major headache .

    2. An lot of diseases common up until the 19th century disappeared when living standards rose and we can thank the Industrial Revolution for that? Of course in the 20th century life expectancy lengthened considerably and we then began to experience health problems associated with old age which had hitherto been comparatively rare.

    3. St Giles in Shrewsbury served the leper colony, but I think it may have been much altered.

    4. There was also a problem with accurate diagnosis.
      Unsightly eczema or psoriasis could also get you shunned.

    5. Interesting True Belle.. At my brother's funeral last month donations went to the Leprosy Mission. After donating I received a personal thankyou card through the post. The photo on the front was of various smiling people who were surprisingly all of colour, possibly Indian, which gave me the impression that Leprosy was a disease which only affected those in that area – and we know it was common in the Holy Land years ago. Thanks for clarifying that it affects white people as well!

      1. So glad you enjoyed the article Dave .

        Yes , I had read that Leprosy was a problem with our Missionaries overseas.

        Modern treatments for leprosy have been available since the 1940s, and isolation is no longer medically necessary.

        Yes, leprosy exists in the UK, although it’s rare. It’s primarily found among individuals who have recently arrived from countries where the disease is more common. There have been no confirmed cases of people contracting leprosy in the UK from someone else in England and Wales for 60 years.

        Albert Schweitzer
        He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize for his philosophy of “Reverence for Life”, becoming the eighth Frenchman to be awarded that prize. His philosophy was expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon).

      1. 409207+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        Make one of both with a note forewarned is forearmed, the English worm at long,long,last is, I believe turning.

    2. Two-tier practice extends to the effigies you want to burn!

      Burn an effigy of Katie Hopkins and that is fine.

      Burn effigies of illegal migrants in a rubber dinghy and you are Islamophobic.

  65. Starmer’s PMQs Claim Debunked as Business Confidence Falls to Three-Year Low

    Dissident
    3h
    Another PMQs, yet another misleading of Parliament.

    Honestisayitasitis
    Dissident
    3h
    Bet the Speaker won’t be calling on him to correct the record!

    Foulan
    2h
    Anyone paying attention to confidence trackers will know Starmer’s grand claim doesn’t stand up.
    In short, he is an outright liar.

    Of course his vapid cabinet and Labour MPs are living in a world of such fantasy that they believe every word Starmer says!

    This is what Marxists do to stay in power – lie, cheat, intimidate and impoverish the proletariat, while the leaders live the lives of the bourgeoisie.

    Bruce Everiss
    3h
    John Profumo or Peter Carrington would have resigned for telling just one of 2TK's lies.
    He occupies the lowest moral ground.

    2. If we had any sense we'd withhold the fruits of our culture from those disinclined to earn their share.

  67. Starmer will rue the day he made Lord Hermer de facto deputy PM

    This is a Government of human rights lawyers, by human rights lawyers, for human rights lawyers

    Stephen Pollard • 10th July 2025, 8:16am BST

    Whoever would have thought that a Government headed by a human rights lawyer new to politics would give a veto over its policies to a human rights lawyer new to politics?

    Let's just say that – invaluable as today's Telegraph scoop is – it simply confirms what has been obvious since Labour took office last July. This is a Government of human rights lawyers, by human rights lawyers, for human rights lawyers – and mere politicians, driven by the needs of those unspeakable oiks, the general public, need to remember who's in charge.

    They act, they must never forget, at Lord Hermer's pleasure. And that means that his interpretation of the law is what counts. Always. And everywhere.

    Since day one of the Labour Government, ministers have made plain that they feel as if they are acting with their hands tied behind their back – the rope being, of course, the Attorney General. Lord Hermer appears to think that his role is to impose his particular view of the primacy of his interpretation of human rights law onto British Government and politics, and that anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be neutered.

    To date, however, the only evidence we have for this has been the off the record complaints of ministers – widespread as those have been. Now, however, we have the evidence in Lord Hermer's revised "guidance" to ministers – although rarely has a legal phrase meant something else so clearly, since this is not guidance but orders.

    Indeed, not only has he ordered ministers to act as if every decision made by a minister will be subject to a legal challenge – thus reverting to the same sclerosis in policy and decision making that existed before Suella Braverman loosened such guidance in 2022 when she was Attorney General, making lawyers key to policy making – but he has even added a so-called "snitch clause", demanding that civil servants inform him if they think ministers may be about to break what he considers to be the law.

    To be blunt: if this is how Keir Starmer wants to run his Government, so be it. He is Prime Minister and it's his call who is his Attorney General and how they operate.

    But for a party which is regarded as having done nothing of any real worth to improve people's lives, and to deliver on the public's demands, it's difficult to imagine a more bone-headed, self-inflicted act of political destruction than making Lord Hermer the de facto deputy Prime Minister; the man who must be satisfied that all decisions conform to his world view. As ye sow, Sir Keir, so shall ye reap.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/10/starmer-lord-hermer-veto-rule-by-lawyers

    Why will he rue it? He's all for it, surely? He's part of it. It's how he got there.

    1. I dislike the term "international law". Agreements and treaties between governments, whether bilateral or multilateral, ought not to carry the same weight as acts of parliament. Yes, agreements and treaties have rules and impose obligations, and breaches might amount to a de facto abrogation of anything bilateral or the suspension or even expulsion of a state from anything multilateral, but it seems wrong to me that these international agreements and treaties amount to de facto domestic laws.

    2. Please, pretty please, resurrect Bluff King Hal or his feisty younger daughter.
      They not only loved this country, they had a way of dealing with uppity lawyers.

  69. Starmer must drop his authoritarian crusade against 'Islamophobia'

    Conflating a religion with a race is an affront to freedom of speech

    Tom Slater • 10th July 2025, 9:23am BST

    Keir Starmer insists he isn't waging war on free speech. He even had the gall to push back on US vice-president JD Vance, after Vance dared to criticise the British state's zealous pursuit of speech criminals. "We've had free speech for a very long time, it will last a long time, and we are very proud of that", was the Prime Minister's insipid defence in the Oval Office in February.

    He didn't sound convinced himself. Perhaps because, barely a year into power, Starmer's Government seems hell-bent on making speech in this country even less free.

    Witness the row over "Islamophobia", and the official definition a secretive working group has been drawing up on behalf of the Government. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has reportedly extended a public consultation over the proposals.

    This won't be a law against Islamophobia as such. If it were, it would probably be surplus to requirements, given you can now be convicted for burning a Koran under our existing "hate speech" legislation. Still, such a definition would be imposed on public bodies, and thus curtail how issues of faith, integration and extremism can be addressed and discussed.

    If this wasn't alarming enough, the definition has up to now been worked on largely behind closed doors, with a crack team led by Dominic Grieve KC. Grieve himself is far from impartial. He wrote the foreword to a report published by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on British Muslims in 2018, which defined Islamophobia as "rooted in racism and… a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness". Labour has already adopted that definition as a party, and it is being used as a model for the working group.

    Thanks to a threat of legal action by the estimable Free Speech Union, the Government has now been forced to open things up to a bit more consultation. The process will now run for an extra week and a call for responses has been made public.

    But those of us who believe in free speech need to push hard to ensure this definition is stopped in its tracks entirely. Indeed, the issue here isn't how precisely Islamophobia should be defined and policed, but that we are defining and policing it at all.

    Islamophobia is a nonsense term, cooked up by Islamists and repeated by credulous do-gooders. The point is to conflate Islam, a religion, with a race and thus render criticism of that religion to be unacceptable. It has been wielded to clamp down on discussion not just of Islam, but also Islamist extremism and even the grooming-gangs scandal.

    Indeed, that 2018 Islamophobia report heavily implied that references to the grooming gangs are a racist trope, approvingly quoting an "expert" who said the debate around the abuse of girls by disproportionately Pakistani Muslim men "humiliates, marginalises, and stigmatises Muslims". Tell that to the thousands of victims.

    If Keir Starmer doesn't like being accused of being a sinister authoritarian, perhaps he should stop behaving like a sinister authoritarian. Dropping this crusade against "Islamophobia" would be a good place to start.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/10/starmer-labour-rayner-islamophobia

    2. Dropping his crusade against the general British public might be a better move.
      Islamaphobia is obviously a reaction to their dreadful attitude towards our culture and social structure.
      They obviously don't like it here, so they shouldn't be here.

    1. Interesting, it takes me back to the early mid 50s.
      A few miles away from where I grew up was a huge gas works at Mill Hill East. Right next to the northern line station. Coal delivered by rail.
      My friends and myself use to push a few old prams to the gas works and pay for and collect sacks of coke. Used the heat our water and heat the kitchen at my home.
      All flattened now no remains at all, a super market and the obvious housing has long taken its place.
      And the huge old army barracks opposite, all housing. Not such a nice place these days.

      1. My mother and I used to do the same to the gas plant in Stourbridge. Two miles there and two miles back.

    1. She's stuffed, as at every turn, Labour can turn around and say 'why didn't you lot sort it out, then?'.

  72. The Test:
    "England slump to lowest first innings total in a century", joked BT.
    They avoided that when they passed 52!
    It's only a modest spoiler to report that England scored 8 from 8 overs after lunch. Bazball is suspended.

  73. A 45-year-old man in Afghanistan has married a six-year-old girl..

    He explained to the Imam.. "She looked nine to me."
    ©Jimmy Carr

  74. Father-of-two, 26, stabbed to death by 'masked Rolex ripper' outside luxury Knightsbridge restaurant..

    London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan promised a police blitz on crime in the capital, including knife crime. However, firstly Sir Sadiq requested some clarifications..
    What do you mean by stabbed? I don't understand.
    What do you mean by death exactly? I don't understand.
    Could you describe knife crime?

    3. Don't. Those are practically his own answers. He steadfastly refuses to accept responsibility.

      London is overrun with the diversity. It'd be improved a nuclear bomb.

  75. I was a border force officer. Starmer’s ‘deal’ with Macron is worse than useless

    There’s still no serious long-term plan for halting the increase in Channel crossings, let alone stopping them completely

    There’s still no serious long-term plan for halting the increase in Channel crossings, let alone stopping them completely Credit: Carl Court/Getty

    10 July 2025 11:39am BST
    Tony Smith
    I’d have loved to be in the room when the deal of the century was negotiated between Macron and Starmer. From one in, one out, to 17 in, one out – and that’s if you’re lucky. It’s a safe bet to assume that there will be no end to the small boat crossings anytime soon, then.

    The Government will be keen to spin this as a win, given that we’ve never had a safe third country agreement with France. Starmer can say it’s the first substantive negotiation as a sovereign nation. It’s also a way for them to counteract complaints from Remainers that whinge that, if only we had stayed in the EU, we could remove the Channel migrants under the Dublin Convention.

    This is the height of ignorance: even under that we hardly ever sent anybody back to France, as I know well from my time working on this in the Home Office, over many years. We had to prove that irregular arrivals had a family connection or had already claimed asylum there, and regularly sent over finger prints in order to see if there was a match. Funnily enough, we never seemed to get a positive result – unlike our more helpful allies in Holland and Germany. In fact we ended up taking more people in from the EU – mainly from Ireland – than we ever sent back under Dublin.

    The devil, as always, is in the details. One statistic I saw bandied around about the actual likely rate of removals under the terms agreed with France would put attempted removals at just 6 per cent. Given that on our busiest crossing days we now can expect to get a thousand people arriving on our shores, that means only 60 people would be targeted for return to France. Hardly a deterrent to others.

    It gets worse. How would these returns actually work in practice? The Border Force won’t be able to rescue them and take them straight back to Calais. Boat arrivals will still have to be taken to Western Jetfoil and Manston for triage. Will there be a limit on how quickly they can be returned? (Most migrants can only stay at Manston for 48 hours maximum, and the immigration detention estate is full). Many will go straight on to migrant hotels. The tiny figure we try to remove will be welcomed by a veritable army of immigration lawyers who helped wreck the Rwanda plan before a single flight could even get off the ground. So how many people will be on the plane to Paris? 20? 10? Less? Will this figure be under escort?

    Even if that’s the case, it would be a waste of resources. We know well what the French will do as soon as they receive our detainees, as they’ve made their working operations clear through previous experience. Migrants will be dumped out, free to make the journey back to Northern France for another attempt at the border.

    And who are the 60 we will take back in return? There are already legal routes for refugees in the UK to bring family to the UK. So presumably we are now opening up new routes for people who are currently inadmissible?

    While these migrants wait in Calais for another opportunity to cross, we can rest assured that the French police’s involvement will be minimal. Unlike in the UK, where we actively arrest and challenge people we suspect to be here without permission, the French just leave migrants in limbo with little attempt to arrest and deport them. Occasional raids on French encampments have little impact, with migrants simply moving elsewhere in the area and surviving on handouts from local refugee groups pending their turn to cross the channel. Factors like this have helped to turn parts of northern France into lawless zones, with gang shootings and stabbings becoming an increasingly frequent occurrence, much to the upset of local residents.

    It is therefore in Macron’s interest to move forward on a genuinely effective mutual agreement between our two countries. But he is also correct to childe us for failing to remove the pull factors that make Britain an even more attractive destination nation than France. If you can get within a 12 mile zone, you’ll get fresh clothing, food, somewhere to live and a nice off-the-books job that can provide a decent income – and, best yet, you’ll never have to repay the costs incurred to the British taxpayer.

    The inconvenient truth is that this scheme is in no way the deterrent the Government is attempting to suggest it is. The message going out to people smugglers this week is that the crossings can carry on. For the sake of the country, I hope I’m wrong. But I know all too well how easily even the extremely modest ambitions of this agreement can be frustrated.#

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

    Nicholas Boon
    3 hrs ago
    I'm just a 'normal' member of the British public and anyone can see that Stomer’s “deal” with Macron is worse than useless. Stop every benefit given to any illegal migrant whether they come by boat or swim or any other method.

    Groucho Thunberg
    48 min ago
    Reply to Nicholas Boon
    I think it's fair to say that whatever Starmer (or any other government minister) does, it's guaranteed to be aggressively working against British interests.

    Justin Furablether
    2 hrs ago
    How about none in, all out? No illegals get any benefits? This is what we want but nobody is listening.

  76. https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Rod-Getty-1.jpg
    The unspoken truth about 7/7
    Rod Liddle

    Did you take part in any of the mysterious commemorations last weekend? The newspapers were full of it – something called 7/7, apparently. I read a long report on the BBC’s website about this tragedy but remained entirely unclear as to who killed the people on those trains and bus. The report said ‘bombs were detonated’ on the Tube, as if the bombs – anxious to fulfil their purpose in life – had blown themselves up, without the aid of any external agency. Nowhere in the report did it mention who brought the bombs down from Yorkshire and then set them off. Nowhere in the entire article were the words ‘Islam’ or ‘Islamist’ or even ‘Muslim’ mentioned, nor even the names of the murderers. It was as if they were coincidental to the atrocity, and not worthy of consideration. Mind you, a day later there was a piece explaining how 7/7 had changed the lives of British Muslims and had made them less trustful of the white community.

    At the time of those bomb attacks in London there were 1.8 million Muslims in the UK. Twenty years later that figure has more than doubled, and it will double again before the end of this paragraph, most likely. We might assume that the proportion of Muslims who want us dead has remained roughly the same over the past 20 years, so there are now more than double the number of semi-literate, virgin-obsessed potential murderers among our midst, which I would argue is a counter-intuitive response on our part to 7/7. But then if you insist, against all the evidence to the contrary, that Islam is irrelevant when considering who wants to blow us up, then it is not much of a surprise.

    Since 2005 the number of murderous Islamic terror attacks has ramped up a bit, with more than 40 people killed and hundreds injured. Because the authorities have swallowed the post-rational narrative that it is nothing to do with Islam, the numbers maimed and murdered will continue to rise and so, consequentially, will the number of news pieces on the BBC telling us how fearful Muslims have become of late. Indeed, our Establishment has become so wedded to the narrative that no terrorist attack has anything to do with Islam or Muslims – no matter how many times the murderers themselves beg to differ – that it has even dreamed up legislation banning people from linking the two.

    This delusional state of mind is part of Labour policy and is detailed in full in its web page of official advice for local parties, under the heading ‘Labour’s Islamophobia Policy’. It states that this horrible, wicked thing, Islamophobia, can be occasioned by ‘suggesting that Muslims, individually or as a group in British society, pose a threat to British or European society, civilisation or values, for example, by claiming that Muslims are a demographic threat to British people, by claiming that Muslims are taking over British society or civic or political institutions through their presence in the same, or by catastrophising immigration from Muslim majority countries’.

    The way we have dealt with 7/7, then, is effectively to deny that it happened at all – OK, some bombs went off and all those people were killed, but there was no rhyme or reason to the bombing and the fact that the bombers were all Muslims is simply a coincidence, so we may as well just get on with our lives because there is nothing that can be done about it. And as soon as you begin to suggest what might be done about it, the charge of Islamophobia will be brought down upon you. It is Islamophobic to suggest that a great many terrorist attacks, here and elsewhere, are carried out by Muslims, just as it is Islamophobic to suggest that Muslim men may be proportionally more likely to be involved in grooming gangs that rape young white girls, despite the fact that the truth, in both cases, tells you the complete opposite. This is why those grooming gangs were not apprehended earlier, of course – why they are still continuing today, in fact.

    I suspect it is the sign of a society in rapid decline for it to begin dreaming up legislation to deny patent realities – and our society has been doing this an awful lot these past 20-odd years. It did so most obviously in the case of transgenderism, by insisting that someone who had surgery in order to more closely resemble a member of the opposite sex actually is a member of the opposite sex and there’s an end to it. Those important facts about testosterone and chromosomes, musculature and heart capacity were of no account. It did this in order to protect its absurd dictum that everybody can be exactly what they want to be, as well as to wage war against what it considers the conservative heteronormative community, i.e. about 96 per cent of the country.

    It has denied reality with Islam in order to preserve its commitment to multiculturalism as well as insisting that no culture is inherently better than another. Further, because the majority of Muslims are what we might call not-white, rather than white, they are therefore oppressed and thus deserving of preferential treatment: their culture must be protected.

    There is a similar denial of reality on the left when it comes to refugees. It does not matter that our country is crowded and our infrastructure tottering; it does not matter that we have crises in our housing sector, health service and schools. Because the refugees are something called ‘human beings’, they must be allowed in and afforded every financial benefit they can get their hands on. The left knows that this is financially ruinous, but it does not care. It does not even attempt to engage with the problem. And so we are fighting a cultural battle which we cannot win, because the other side has decided that truth does not matter.

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

    Veritas numquam perit
    14 hours ago edited
    Do you remember the Muslim marches, those marches proudly declaring "these atrocity aren't in our name". No of course you don't because they never happened. There are of course marches for Hamas murderers which strangely British Muslims believe were justified and are in their name. But a phobia is the unwarranted fear of something which isn't a threat, where as Islamaphobia (a confected word) is truly justified. As it stands history condemns it, its atrocities condemn it and its intolerance of all other religions condemns it. Islam has no place in the West as it is diametrically opposed to the world the West built.

    Social Process Warrior Veritas numquam perit
    6 hours ago
    The one, truly authentic definition of ‘Islamaphobia’ which we all know, about fascists, cowards and morons, is often wrongly attributed to Christopher Hitchens. However, I regularly think about Hitchens’ exhortations about Islam in one particular video clip I’ve seen. ‘Speak out. Criticise it. I implore you. While you still can.’ He knew what was coming.

    Xylophoney Social Process Warrior
    5 hours ago
    He said "They will use the word Islamaphobia" and here we have our PM designing a law against that very word.

    There is a video of women in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan in the '50s to now. They were dressed and behaving very much like Westerners. Now they are all clad from head to toe with only their eyes peeping out – in Afghanistan not even their eyes.

    For the sake of our women and homesexuals YES. I am afraid of Islam but it is not a phobia.

    Nicola Grevatt Xylophoney
    2 hours ago
    Anyone with a brain needs to be afraid of the medieval barbarity which is Islam.

    Blindsideflanker Veritas numquam perit
    7 hours ago edited
    There was a video of a Muslim march in Melbourne, where Muslim men surrounded Melbourne Cathedral and started chanting and slapping their chests , very disturbing stuff .

    Baron Veritas numquam perit
    an hour ago
    You may like to visit on u-tube 'The Angry Bootneck', Veritas, his take on it echoes Rod's in more colourful language, highly enjoyable, also sad.

    Pravda Verify
    8 hours ago
    Once again , thank you Rod.
    Thank you Brendan O’Neill.
    Thank you Douglas Murray.
    Thank you Matt Goodwin.
    Thank you David Starkey.
    A few sane voices in a sea of madness.

    We are governed by cowardly gaslighters. Starmer, Cooper, Mayor Khan, to name but a few. They are backed up by supine and complicit msm like the BBC, ITN, Channel 4 News and Sky News. And in print by the likes of The Guardian and The i.
    We cannot let them win.

    2. Rod, ALL muslims want us, the kuffar, dead. Their book tells them to do it. They may not act on it, but they won’t condemn it because those who do act are carrying out the instructions in the koran.

    1. People like him have run out of excuses to explain why they behave in such a biased manner. Or over the past twenty years he and many others have never been able to come to terms with the undeniable facts and truth.
      The other three islamic terrorists involved whose bombs fortunately failed, were i belive defended by a London firm of human rights lawyers.

      1. When did Rod Liddle make excuses for Islamic terrorism? He's criticising the BBC for doing just that.

          2. He wasn't at all keen on the "far right" and their sensible views when I met him about 11 years ago.

      2. I just don’t know how they sleep at night.

        The Leftards and Islamo-fascists have one thing in common: they are all consumed with hatred.

        What a way to live your life. What bitter and twisted individuals they are.

  78. As far as I can tell, ONLY the Telegraph referred to people being murdered. The mealy-mouthed "politicians" and other MSM merely said that people had "lost their lives" – as though they had been stupid (and careless) enough to get on the Tube and sit next to a slammer carrying a bomb.

    1. Sent this to the Warqueen. She said, 'You're not getting any. It's too hot'.

      Then she said 'BTW, Sophie sleep walks.'

  81. Andrew Gilligan
    Miqdaad Versi and the troubling war on ‘Islamophobia’
    9 July 2025, 1:29pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-12.54.43.png Miqdaad Versi at the Cambridge Union (Credit: YouTube)

    Readers of progressive newspapers have occasionally been invited to admire a man called Miqdaad Versi. He was the subject of a respectful 2018 profile in the Guardian for his ‘personal mission to confront…the Islamophobia of the British press’ one complaint at a time. Versi’s ‘spreadsheet of shame’ showed ‘how flagrantly British papers get their news about Muslims wrong’. Alas, a large number of this piece’s claims about the corrections supposedly forced on shameful British newspapers by Versi were themselves wrong and had to be corrected at the bottom of the online version. That is, as it happens, a truer reflection than the Guardian intended of the organisation which Versi set up, and where he remains ‘lead strategist’.

    Versi’s organisation is called the Centre for Media Monitoring (CfMM), until this week part of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), of which he is also spokesman. It claims to specialise in challenging false, negative and ‘Islamophobic’ reporting by the British media about Muslims and Islam, through monitoring ‘thousands of articles and broadcast clips daily’ and complaining to regulators and media outlets about those which fall short.

    The CfMM claims that media falsehoods are ‘widespread’, with almost 10 per cent of news stories involving Islam ‘misrepresenting Muslims, misusing terminology or misinterpreting Islamic beliefs and practice’. As Versi puts it:

    Sixty per cent of articles [about Muslims] analysed [by CfMM] associated negative aspects and behaviour with Muslims or Islam… Little wonder Islamophobia is so common in society.

    When we at Policy Exchange looked into it, however, we found that CfMM simply doesn’t substantiate these serious and damaging charges. In the group’s entire seven-year existence, the rulings database at Ipso, the press self-regulator, shows a grand total of one case brought by CfMM from which Ipso required a newspaper to make a correction: in December 2020, more than four years ago. In a further three cases brought by CfMM, the latest three years ago, Ipso found that a breach of its editors’ code had occurred but that the newspaper had already corrected the error, with no further action required.

    CfMM complains directly to news outlets too. But it has made wildly varying claims about the number of articles it has monitored (from several million to several tens of thousands) and the number of successful complaints it has brought as a result (from 300 to 22.) Even taking its highest claimed number of successful complaints (300) and its lowest claimed number of articles monitored (55,500), that is about 0.5 per cent, nowhere near a tenth.

    In submissions to regulators and consultations, CfMM repeatedly reuses the same, or some of the same, twenty or so news stories, often many years old, as examples of inaccurate and ‘Islamophobic’ journalism. In the group’s latest published submission, in 2023, the newest examples given were from 2020. Some old favourites had been published as long as 15 years before.

    Remarkably, the CfMM’s ’60 per cent’ tally of negative stories appears to include factual accounts of Islamist terror attacks. The ‘top three offenders’, it says, are the wire services Reuters, AP and AFP, sources of almost entirely sober, factual and straight reporting – at the opposite end of the spectrum from the usual suspects of the right-wing tabloids.

    So if the media is not, as it turns out, a pit of anti-Muslim falsehood and hatred, what is the CfMM’s true objective? It is, in the group’s own words, ‘taking control of the narrative’ about Islam. It appears to be to pressurise journalists to accept a partisan view of the faith held by the MCB and its activists.

    CfMM tells journalists they should never use the terms ‘Islamism’, ‘Islamic extremism’ or ‘Muslim extremism’ at all. It attacks news outlets for describing terror groups, including Hamas and Islamic State, as Islamist. It appears to claim that moderate Muslims abandon their ‘religious identities’ for a ‘version of Islam that has been sanctioned by the state’, and that they may even be liberals or government spies.

    CfMM seeks to pressurise journalists into a conservative view of Islam, describing the hijab, the headscarf for women, as ‘normative’. They attacked a Muslim writer, Qanta Ahmed, for ‘misrepresenting Muslim behaviour and belief’ after she wrote in The Spectator that there was ‘no basis in Islam for the niqab’, the full-face veil.

    CfMM has criticised TV dramas for showing Muslim characters who do not want to wear a hijab, or who drink alcohol, or who are gay. It has openly taken the side of intimidating mobs staging banned anti-gay demonstrations outside primary schools (news reporting which criticised those demos was, it says, ‘Islamophobic’.)

    CfMM claims to support free speech. But it says that press regulators must discourage ‘insults’ against Islam. Nor, it says, should the media be allowed to accuse the authorities of failing to investigate wrongdoing because the perpetrators are Muslim, as in Rotherham. It describes the reporting of grooming gangs as based on ‘shoddy’ underpinnings, and has repeatedly attacked those, such as the late Andrew Norfolk of the Times and GB News’ Charlie Peters, who have done most to expose it.

    How much does this matter? Potentially, quite a lot. Versi and CfMM have been welcome guests in media offices and at Ipso, claiming to be ‘instrumental’ in drawing up the regulator’s guidance on Islam. A senior BBC News manager spoke at a CfMM event only last month, and it has been ‘feeding in’ to BBC policy. Major newspaper editors and celebrity reporters have endorsed some of CfMM’s worst, most questionable research. CfMM organises regular workshops and training events in news organisations. It says it teaches journalism students at ‘all the top universities’, and actually has done so at several.

    And now, CfMM has a powerful new weapon in sight. It and the MCB are part of the wider campaign for an official definition of Islamophobia – something which, in the campaign’s words, should be used to control and police activity ‘far beyond’ anything that can currently ‘be captured as criminal’. This includes setting ‘appropriate limits to free speech’ when talking about Muslims. The government has stated its support for a definition. The man it has appointed to draw one up, Dominic Grieve, wrote a supportive foreword to the report in which these words appeared.

    Most investigative journalism looks at governments, public bodies and companies. But there’s another set of people who need just as much scrutiny, and who can act with just as much shoddiness: the activist groups, working away behind the scenes, to skew society and the national conversation in wrong and dangerous directions.

    ***********************
    Fencesitter
    a day ago
    We are living in dangerous times. As this article demonstrates, Islam is simply not compatible with what Karl Popper called the open society. Not all that long ago, the UK was such a society. It is now governed by people who seek to appease a political religion that wants to subjugate us. Appeasement will not work. It is wrong. But the left will try and implement censorship, because they too want to subjugate and control the free people of this country. Years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Popper discussed the paradox of tolerance, as first articulated by Plato. This paradox, which has its own Wikipedia entry, supplies the rationale for the resistance that needs to come, if we are still capable of it.

    Fencesitter Fencesitter
    a day ago
    Popper argued that a truly tolerant society must retain the right to deny tolerance to those who promote intolerance. Popper posited that if intolerant ideologies are allowed unchecked expression, they could exploit open society values to erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices.

    Liz Beaumont
    a day ago
    It appears that our leaders are already self imposing the ban on criticising Islam, as none of the eulogies from them on the 7/7 anniversary mentioned Islamist terrorism, it was all 'those who lost their lives on this tragic day'. Anyone who didn't know would have thought they died in an earthquake or flood.

    Anna Liz Beaumont
    a day ago
    Four Islamic terrorists also 'lost their lives' on 7/7 in the course of their murderous campaign. The Prime Minister's tribute should have made a clear distinction between the terrorists and their victims whose lives were not lost, but cruelly taken.

    MikeF
    a day ago
    There is no such thing as 'Islamophobia' – it does not exist. The term embodies a verbal trick in which an imitation of the sound and appearance of proper scientific terminology is used to provide a spurious veneer of intellectual credibility and disinterested impartiality to what is in reality sectarian special pleading. It is a mythology masquerading as a pathology. No 'definition' can alter that.

    1. By 'misrepresenting muslim' does he mean they don't draw attention to muslim atrocity, murder, stabbing, bombing, threats, abuse, insults?

      1. That bastard did everything he could to fight and overturn Brexit.

        He should be jailed for treason.

        In other news, muslim scum has destroyed another ship. When will we stop pandering to the vile savages of muslim?

      2. In an idle moment during Covid (there were many), I turned Dominic Grieve into Gino Vermicide…

        Anagrams – 4th form humour!

  82. Wordle No. 1,482 4/6

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

    Wordle 10 July 2025

    An edgy Par Four?

    1. Me too though with a lot of help from "best word" lists etc.

      Wordle 1,482 4/6

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

    2. NNot Agoodstart but struggled to bogey

      Wordle 1,482 5/6

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

    3. Just made it.

      Wordle 1,482 6/6

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

    5. Quite a few options there, happy to have got it at the second attempt! Par again….

      Wordle 1,482 4/6

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

  83. 409207+ up ticks,

    Lest we forget,
    That fruitcake Gerard Battens personal adviser on all things pakistani / paedophilic, that was enough to bring down the successfully rising UKIP under Batten leadership via ukip nec and farage input, just prior to "nige" launching the brexit mountain fusiliers £25 a pop ( one outing) marching up and down hill and dale to honour the johnson chap.

    https://x.com/TheGriftReport/status/1934557823100174672

    1. Mud thrown is ground lost.

      Has this odious woman the integrity to apologise?

    1. 409207+ up ticks,

      Afternoon W,
      Read up on the treacherously manipulated take down of the UKIP party under Gerard Batten successful leadership in 2019, and the parties NEC / farage input.

      In my book a multitude of fools are going in, headlong, to repeat the 2019 debacle.

    2. He is, as is his wont, referring in a VERY obtuse, cryptic and roundabout manner, to the hammering Gerard Batten received for DARING to use Tommy Robinson, not least from Nigel Farage.
      The video shows Tommy Robinson defending himself against a VERY hostile audience, including the panel on the stage which included Saira Khan who told him to, "Stop being a racist and a bigot."

      The video then cuts to cover how Saira Khan herself has now received death threats because of her criticism of Islam extremists and how she is no longer a Muslim because of those threats.

      2. She was saying how terrible is was that there are "people of my colour, of my religion" giving her death threats. What has her colour got to do with it – should she somehow be exempt because she is the same colour as many Islamists – or because she is a muslim?

  85. I counted about fifteen "Irony Alerts"..
    and still to this day if you played this back to them they'd still say.. "Well stop being a transphobe islamophobe bigot.."

  86. I counted about fifteen "Irony Alerts"..
    and still to this day if you played this back to them they'd still say.. "Well stop being a transphobe islamophobe bigot.."

  87. That's me done for today. Very hot – unpleasantly so. Just dealt with the watering – thanking the Lord (yet again) for the well.

    Have a spiffing evening cooling off – and forget about the mendacious statements by Starmer and Toy Boy. They are quite meaningless and will not prevent one single illegal coming to the UK. I hate these lying grifters – hugging and kissing each other while Rome (metaphorically) burns.

    A demain – if I survive the night.

  88. DEI Constable Lydia Ward, who jurors heard is heavily pregnant.. boo-hoo.

    So your new bestie has just lamped you in the face. Sympathy?

    the demographic you've been telling everyone is special.. above the law..
    You've spend nearly three decades, a generation..
    covering up the industrial scale rape of little girls by this lot..
    you've given special treatment to this demographic..
    handed over No-Go areas to community elders..
    put the likes of Lucy Connolly in jail over a Tweet..
    raided people's homes because they were brexity & Spectator readers..
    arrested old white women for praying..
    gave up on policing crime..

    sorry.. you deserve each other.

  89. DEI Constable Lydia Ward, who jurors heard is heavily pregnant.. boo-hoo.

    So your new bestie has just lamped you in the face. Sympathy?

    the demographic you've been telling everyone is special.. above the law..
    You've spend nearly three decades, a generation..
    covering up the industrial scale rape of little girls by this lot..
    you've given special treatment to this demographic..
    handed over No-Go areas to community elders..
    put the likes of Lucy Connolly in jail over a Tweet..
    raided people's homes because they were brexity & Spectator readers..
    arrested old white women for praying..
    gave up on policing crime..

    sorry.. you deserve each other.

    1. I'll answer this.
      We don't have enough police. Too many are not good enough. Many of the rest are badly led.
      Dismissing this assault on a policewoman is, nevertheless, a low point for this forum.

    2. Not to mention killed 52 people and maimed hundreds of others.

      muslim is vile and has no place in this country.

  90. 409207+ up ticks,

    Maybe the police have an eye on the future regarding the victims becoming policemen with in-depth knowledge of peadophilia, and all things poof.

    Rotherham, rochdale, seemingly was of little consequence seeing as the political parties lab/lib/con never lacked support & votes post JAY report.

    Marvelous stuff that deflection material, look over there at what that Tommy Robinson is doing, cry the PIE supporters.

    https://x.com/ripx4nutmeg/status/1943268133004877938

    3. These twisted perverts create these organisations then seek 'legitimacy' through the state. Really they're just evil characters who want to hide their proclivity and the state encourages it.

  91. Farage Red Flags Nos 17 & 18..

    Tom Tugendhat fanboy & ultra wet Tory Jake Berry joins Reform. LOL
    Matt Goodwin gives up on Farage's migration policy.
    Farage thinks Jenrick will “almost certainly” end up to the right of him on migration by the next election: New Statesman

    3. Arguably, if you go into politics with the sole aim of getting to the top, then you aren't normal.

  95. Lord Farquard
    4h
    Isn't it strange that the 7/7 coverage in the regime controlled media failed to link it to L## Rigby, Charlie Hebdo, the Nice truck, the Batley grammar teacher, Manchester , Fishmongers Hall, MRGs, etc etc etc etc

    Richard
    4h
    Starmer, Hermer and Sands are all partners in crime who go way back.
    Naturally, they are the Philby, Burgess and Maclean of the 21st Century, but the elevation of Starmer crony, Hermer, to the Lords and his appointment as Attorney General, does make me wonder whether he has some kind of hold over Starmer, beyond simply being a long standing partner in crimes against the British people.

    Ex Tory
    3h
    That the lawyers are in charge should come as a surprise to no one. The politicians are just a useful punching-bag for the populace to get angry with and take the flak.
    Our system has been designed this way since traitorous-tony's time, and will be the biggest obstacle to a successful Reform administration.
    When the time comes

    Richard
    Ex Tory
    2h
    The only solution is to repeal the Blairite horrors at the outset.

    Rufus Onslatt
    3h
    DT-
    King hears about ‘traumatic’ Channel crossing migrants rescue from RNLI crew

    The King has heard how crew from the RNLI on the South Coast made a “traumatic” rescue to rescue the lives of migrants crossing the Channel.

    On a visit to Deal in Kent, Charles visited the Walmer lifeboat station where he met Andrew Holland, Victoria Ward, Dan Sinclair and James Foster.

    Mr Sinclair told the King: “Myself and three crew members saved five lives from a sinking boat in the Channel ten miles off shore on a cold winter’s morning in 2022.

    “It was quite a traumatic call-out. The boat started taking on water and started sinking in front of our eyes. There were 40 on board. Luckily we pulled five of them out of the water, the other 35 were pulled out by UK Border Force.”

    When the King asked about the vessel the migrants were travelling in, Mr Sinclair said: “It was in a small dinghy.”
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83a75e675378d020e6b55046296f9eb22e05525e9f94212f0ee2381c97f51842.png

  96. stephen dean
    2h
    This is the same Macron who threatened to cut power to the Channel Islands in a dispute over fishing.
    Nauseating that 2TK is sucking up to him.

    Jan
    stephen dean
    1h
    Starmer has probably promised him the Channel Islands in another iffy deal.

    It’s only Me
    3h
    how is it one in one out if only 6.5% get returned. They really do think we are f00ls, don't they!

    Hugh Janus
    2h
    Micron: "The British people were sold a lie with Brexit, and it achieved exactly the opposite of what was promised."

    Little Micron typifies the usual arrogance of the French. He's walked all over Spanner without any resistance. Not unexpected of course; he's never acted in our best interests of course.
    Hugh Janus
    2h
    Micron: "The British people were sold a lie with Brexit, and it achieved exactly the opposite of what was promised."

    Little Micron typifies the usual arrogance of the French. He's walked all over Spanner without any resistance. Not unexpected of course; he's never acted in our best interests of course.

    It’s only Me
    2h
    Macron is laughing at how weak the PM is, because Starmer just wants to be a good European! He doesn’t want to be a good Britain!!!!

    Dissident
    2h
    Considering half of France was occupied during WWII, I wonder what Macron's grandfather did during the war… And for that matter, I wonder what Macron's wife did during the war too.

    1. Of course Brexit achieved exactly the opposite of what was promised; those who held the levers of power made sure it failed, that we were kept tied as tightly as possible to EU rules and regulations (all EU law was subsumed into UK law on "exit"), that we gave in to everything the EU wanted (and they wanted to punish us for the audacity of wanting to leave). I could go on, but it's too depressing.

      1. When you read about the back stabbing, the betrayal, the sheer spite, arrogance and malice of so many MPs as they tried frantically to overturn Brexit it's all very, very depressing.

        I do genuinely recommend Tim Shipman's books on it. Fall Out, No Way Out and onward.

  97. That's the Polish electrician just leaving – 20:43. He's away on vacation, wanted to finish the job before he went (new wiring, underfloor heating). Good lad! Wires all nice & straight, with proper 90 degree bends, power back on for the rest of the house.
    Proper job!

  98. Sometimes the writer will refer to "yourself" when he/she means "you". I find that completely odd.

  102. Yes, i remember the ghastly May ordering that, with the CS only too happy to oblige. I thought at the time – why not just scrap the lot?

    1. The EU was literally going to destroy everything: no flights overhead, no trade going in, completely breaking the supply chains, 24 hour delays at ports, forbidding trade of any sort – both ways.

      Heck, we're talking about an organisation that was determined to set the Irish Border at Dover and proclaim absolute control over the entire UK – because it thought that was sensible.

      They were determined, desperately to ensure Brexit failed by imposing the most egregious, spiteful, unnecessary and damaging policies going. They didn't care if it hurt European nations. All that mattered was punishing the UK for well, not paying them money.

      After all, if we left, and were successful then other nations would go as well.

      1. That was what terrified them. Yet, in spite of it all, we are still doing better even with Starmer's frantic attempts to wreck the economy!

      3. The EU is doomed. There have been very strong speeches in the EU Parliament attempting to dispose of Ursula and suggesting a return to a more “Democratic” system of governance.

        The problem remains that the EU by definition, a commune of unelected politicos, is profoundly undemocratic. The EU comprises some retreads from failed European nations, others are merely compliant morons put in place by the WEF, Rothschilds and their long time thieving banker affiliates, Soros, Gates and other corrupt funders.

        The EU cannot survive the immense changes in the world of geopolitics. The great powers are China, Russia, the US and India. By comparison with the current major powers the EU is a minnow with little geopolitical influence.

      4. The EU is doomed. There have been very strong speeches in the EU Parliament attempting to dispose of Ursula and suggesting a return to a more “Democratic” system of governance.

        The problem remains that the EU by definition, a commune of unelected politicos, is profoundly undemocratic. The EU comprises some retreads from failed European nations, others are merely compliant morons put in place by the WEF, Rothschilds and their long time thieving banker affiliates, Soros, Gates and other corrupt funders.

        The EU cannot survive the immense changes in the world of geopolitics. The great powers are China, Russia, the US and India. By comparison with the current major powers the EU is a minnow with little geopolitical influence.

      5. The EU is doomed. There have been very strong speeches in the EU Parliament attempting to dispose of Ursula and suggesting a return to a more “Democratic” system of governance.

        The problem remains that the EU by definition, a commune of unelected politicos, is profoundly undemocratic. The EU comprises some retreads from failed European nations, others are merely compliant morons put in place by the WEF, Rothschilds and their long time thieving banker affiliates, Soros, Gates and other corrupt funders.

        The EU cannot survive the immense changes in the world of geopolitics. The great powers are China, Russia, the US and India. By comparison with the current major powers the EU is a minnow with little geopolitical influence.

  103. So at last we have a great deal with France to solve the dinghy boat migrant problem.
    One migrant with ties to the UK, in, one British born millionaire persecuted by the state, out.

  104. I dont know if it affected anyone else but my Microsoft Mail account was down this morning when I tried to sign on – I spent my life in the IT industry (albeit in sales rather than support) so I'm fairly tech savvy.
    I searched all the usual sites to see if there was a broader problem but there was nothing.
    I then tried to contact a friend of mine who is an IT tech and does this sort of stuff but I couldnt connect with him – phone going to messaging.
    I considered setting up a Gmail account, which is simple enough, but to change all the contact emails for all my sites was just too horrific.
    Anyway I was sitting having a drink with my missus and moaning my head off at around 6.00pm tonight – she went on-line and reported back that there had been a massive ms-mail outage affecting millions – it was on the Sun website and many others.
    So I signed back on and bingo!! I was back in the ball game…
    The thing that really effs me off is that Microsoft clearly werent prepared to admit a problem – I could have set off down a painful alternative route which I really didnt need to!!
    God I hate that weasel Gates (apparently he isnt on Epstein's list along with everyone else that isnt on it…..
    Sorry for the rant… I feel better now 😉

      2. I guess so, SB, weasels are weaselly recognised but stoats are stoatally different…..

    2. Rant away. In my experience the faster you're told there's an outage the less hassle life is.

      1. Well yes Wibbs – what really pisses me off is that I could have done a lot of stuff as a work around and it would not have been necessary.

        If Microsoft had said – we have a problem with Outlook and we’re working on it – I would have sat tight.

    3. They never do . They used to tell you what the updates were all about but now they say nothing about them. they have far too much power.

    4. If you ever need to change for whatever reason, G4…I've had a Google Chromebook for quite a few years, running Google (GMail etc). So far? 10/10, would get another if this one packs in. Glad you're feeling better 🙂

      1. I’m tempted KJ – I really am. But unfortunately I’ve grown up with Microsoft, so I’m rather stuck with them!

        1. Know what you mean, G4…but had enough of M/soft at work. My mble is Samsung, runs on EE, never let me down. Obviously not male (joking, joking, OK!) x

  107. Highest Temp. we had today was 24.0C at 1415 Hrs. Dissapointing for the Met Office.

    1. Oh dear they won't like that…I expect they might find somewhere that was closer to the goal they have set themselves. 🤗

        1. Makes a change for Wales 😊 nearly every time I’ve been there it’s been chucking it down with rain.
          Except one time at the beautiful Rhossili Bay.
          And a family holiday in lovely Tenby a couple of years ago.

  108. I've just finished watching the mix doubles final. Good game.
    Within hours I managed to get another face to face GP appointment today. He's going to chase up the cardiology department and try and get me sorted out one way or another. I might have to have a pacemaker, I'm getting very 'cheesed off' with my condition.
    It's been very disconcerting in many ways.
    Oh well orff to bed now, at least I sleep well…..
    Good night all Nottlers 😴

    2. Good luck with all that lot!
      Again I give thanks for my basic good health with few complications.

    1. None in, several thousand out would only barely begin to touch the surface of the problem.

  112. Been so hot here (North Salop) that I put the parasol up for some shade when I sat outside. Even so, it was too warm.

    1. What is odd and uncomfortable here, Conners, is that we are on the top of a high hill and there is not a breath of wind. It is sultry.

      1. I'm only on top of a relatively small hill. There was a slight breeze earlier on, but even that was warm.

  113. BBC East Midlands Today included a report on the closure, 10 years ago to the day, of the last colliery in the region and the biggest, Thoresby. At its peak, its 1,500 miners were bringing up 100,000 tons a week. At one point, it was the most profitable mine in Europe.

    Today, the site is, predictably, being turned into a nature reserve with some housing around the edge. From the low hill that is the old spoil heap can be seen the headstocks of Clipstone, another big producer, closed in 2003. Just across the Ollerton Road, opposite the entrance to the site, are 12 acres of solar panels, scattered around a sewage plant. Well done to the two Eds. Look at what you did.

    Standing on scrubby grass with the large disused workshops behind them, five members of the colliery brass band played a part of the Gresford Hymn in the evening sunshine. It wasn't just the end of a local way of life that they were lamenting.

  114. From the Telegraph
    Britain is trapped in a dizzying decline and London is its epicentre
    My recent visit to the capital highlighted the grave consequences of uncontrolled immigration and reminded me why I have moved abroad

    10 July 2025 8:00am BST
    The hollyhocks are at peak beautiful in the village I call home.

    Rearing out of clumps of vibrant lavender that has self-seeded all the way up the street, their little bells come in shades of pale yellow, white and faded pink. As autumn approaches, the plump, green stalks will keel over, flopping onto the pavement like the swords of fallen fairies. For now, they line the road like sentries protecting a piece of England that is so beautiful that being there is like drinking an aphrodisiac. On a midsummer evening, when the air is heavy with the smell of cowslip and the only sound is the beating wings of fat wood pigeons as they sail between slate rooftops, it is dizzyingly perfect.

    Returning to the UK this week from a long period abroad, I fell in love with my country all over again, the transition from gleaming, steaming Dubai eased by this glorious weather and a run of luck with trains and planes. For once everything worked, from the seamless eGates at Heathrow, to the thrilling and most unusual availability of decent public transport into London.

    Back in the Cotswolds, it was so damn lovely that living overseas suddenly felt like a mistake. If the UK is like this, what on earth am I doing, living in the Middle East? Instead of staring across the Arabian Gulf, looking out for stray missiles, I could be smelling peonies in the garden or walking the dog through barley fields. Very briefly, I wondered if, in joining the growing exodus of people from the beleaguered UK, I had taken leave of my senses.

    Beautiful Cotswolds village of Broadway with flowers, Gloucestershire, England
    Idyllic villages like Broadway, in the Cotswolds, do not represent the real England any longer Credit: iStockphoto
    But hang on! The idyll I briefly re-entered is but a bubble. Real as it is, my village is one of a diminishing number of places in the UK that are – as yet – unaffected by the terrifying change sweeping the rest of the country. And herein lies a problem: for well-heeled people like myself who live in places like this, are almost entirely insulated from what is going on elsewhere. In the kind of towns and villages in the shires where sweet old ladies mark Armistice Day by knitting poppies and slip crocheted love hearts through letterboxes on February 14, the wealthy can, and do, exist in almost complete ignorance of the way our country is sliding into angry and dangerous division.

    Sure, it was ever thus: rich and poor have always led divergent lives, knowing little to nothing of how the other half lives. What is genuinely new, however, is the devastating impact of mass, uncontrolled immigration; ballooning dependency on the welfare state; and the associated sky-high taxation of workers and wealth creators.

    Of the many issues blighting Britain, the loss of control of our borders has the gravest social, economic and cultural implications. The tidal wave of incomers who enter the country illegally, speak no English, and are dumped on already downtrodden areas, is exacerbating the grinding poverty that has always existed in those places.

    In the last 12 months alone, the number that have crossed the Channel – around 45,000 – would be too many to fit into Chelsea FC’s Stamford Bridge stadium. Unless someone, somehow, stops the boats, by this time next year, the total number would fill Wembley Stadium. The more that come, the more resentment grows among those who have always lived here and are now forced to compete on equal – or even disadvantaged – terms.

    In parts of the UK where it is not normal to spend a tenner on a piece of purple sprouting broccoli, there are all manner of other desperate problems. Central London is a showcase. To the casual eye, the capital certainly looks splendid in the sunshine, but the rampant crime and aggressive promotion of foreign cultures and causes is impossible to ignore.

    Mid-afternoon on Embankment, I watched as a Rastafarian swaggered down the middle of the road, high as a kite on God knows what. He was waving two gigantic Palestinian flags – far more prolific, it seems, in town centres these days than the Union Jack. Pathetically, Sir Keir Starmer now says he didn’t mean it when he talked of an “island of strangers”, but such spectacles suggest he is right. Near Lambeth Palace, a tented shanty has sprung up on the steps of an underpass. As the rubbish piles up, the authorities do nothing.

    Then there’s the pickpockets, shoplifters, spliff smokers and Tube dodgers who have always been around, but have never before operated with such open contempt for authority or their fellow citizens. In the last fortnight alone, two friends have had phones snatched by masked muggers.

    On the Strand, dozens of rough sleepers hang around gurning at tourists and breakfasting on cans of cheap cider. Around Charing Cross, there are so many ruffians that fashion retailer Jigsaw – a most unlikely sounding target for thieves – now locks its doors. This isn’t Tiffany’s, or even Greggs the baker: it’s a mid-market women’s clothing retailer. Who on earth is stealing linen skirts?

    Opposite the headquarters of Coutts, a soup kitchen draws all manner of toothless desperadoes. On the doorstep of the prestigious bank, an old retainer, suited and booted, is part security guard, part symbolic buffer between the destitute and the company’s well-heeled clientele. He watches silently as a shirtless man calling himself “Little J” reels around the pavement, swearing he is the King of Iran. Half an hour later, Little J’s story changes: he is one of Elon Musk’s many secret children, and had £900,000 in the bank, until someone took it.

    Some 40 per cent of rough sleepers in London are foreign nationals who have discovered the streets of Great Britain are not, in fact, paved with gold. Nonetheless, several told me that they can make £40 an hour just by sitting on the pavement with a dog and a sad sign. Evidently not all are genuinely homeless: many privately admit to claiming benefits.

    Spend too much time in places like my village, and it is quite possible to imagine that none of this is happening – or worse, not to care. Amid the heady scent of climbing roses and the chime of ancient church bells, I too almost fell into this trap. After the aphrodisiac, however, comes cold hard reality. For the time being, at least, I was not wrong to step away from this dizzying decline.

    Read more Isabel Oakeshott

    1. They are also being dumped on places that were not down and out before they were foisted on us. Socialism – spreading the misery.

    1. I remember a little song back in school that involved 'teachers' and 'prefects', but they are easily replaced by;

      Build a bonfire,
      Build a bonfire,
      Put illegals on the top,
      Put our MPs in the middle,
      And burn the effin' lot.

      2. 409207+ up ticks,

        Evening Mo,
        Currently would be very apt as the national anthem.

  116. From the Spectator

    Like Forrest Gump, The Spectator has an amusing habit of turning up at the right moments in history. Boris during Partygate? There was a copy of our mag in one of the No. 10 snaps. The latest season of Industry? There was a fake front cover proudly on display. And now it seems that this august institution is turning up on the right peoples’ desks in Westminster, Whitehall and beyond…

    A new report out by Portland Communications polls what 529 decision-makers from the public and private sectors are reading every day. It reports that:

    Although our panel skewed to the left politically, one interesting finding is how much more influential the right-wing Spectator is compared to the left-wing New Statesman. We found that 27 per cent of decision makers read The Spectator, compared to just 19 per cent who said they read the New Statesman. Despite a Labour government, the NS has a narrower audience.

    Not a bad result, even if Mr S says so himself. Still, both the Staggers and the Speccie finish behind the Economist, which is preferred by 58 per cent of respondents as the most popular news and current affairs magazine for decision makers. Watch out Bagehot: Steerpike is coming for you…

    Steerpike
    WRITTEN BY
    Steerpike
    Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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    1. The Speccie certainly bears a huge responsibility for getting rid of Boris and Truss and installing Hunt and Sunak, and then, the coup de grace, Starmer. I don't think it has anything to be proud of there, The end of the beginning of the end of democracy.

  117. Just spotted a wag btl on Guido suggesting that Palestine Action or somesuch should disable the British lifeboats etc. and then the French would have to take them straight back (International Law dontcha know)

  118. Bedtime for me now, chums. So Good Night to you all; sleep well and I hope to see you all early tomorrow morning.

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