Thursday 11 May: The NHS is bound to need 300 managers to train 200 medical apprentices

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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627 thoughts on “Thursday 11 May: The NHS is bound to need 300 managers to train 200 medical apprentices”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    It’s All About Nature

    There was a missionary in deepest Africa with a tribe that had never seen a white man before.

    One day a young native girl gave birth to an albino baby. Immediately this was noticed by the Chief and he was upset with the missionary.

    The missionary, realising the danger he was in, knew that he had to explain how nature sometimes created these oddities. He took the Chief alone into the jungle in an attempt to explain his innocence.

    While walking through the jungle, God gave him the perfect example he needed to clear up this mess. They had stumbled across a flock of sheep. All were white as could be except for one small sheep which was jet black.

    The missionary pointed this out to the chief and said “look at that little black sheep, you see what I am trying to get you to understand now?”

    The Chief hung his head and said, “Ok. I understand. So… you no tell on me and I no tell on you!”

  3. The NHS is bound to need 300 managers to train 200 medical apprentices

    No need to be so modest with the number of managers

  6. Morning all.

    An oldie for you all,

    In a golf tour in Ireland, Tiger Woods drives his BMW into a petrol station in a remote part of the Irish countryside.
    The attendant at the pump greets him in a typical Irish manner completely unaware of who the golfing pro is.
    “Top of the mornin’ to yerz, sir” says the attendant.
    Tiger nods a quick “hello” and bends forward to pick up the nozzle. As he does so, two tees fall out of his shirt pocket onto the ground.
    “What are dey den, son?” asks the attendant.
    “They’re called tees” replies Tiger.
    “Well, what on de good earth are dey for?” inquires the Irishman.
    “They’re for resting my balls on when I’m driving”, says Tiger.
    “Feckin Jaysus”, says the Irishman, “Dem boys at BMW tink of everything.

  7. Russia’s collapse has handed China a once-in-a-millennium opportunity to secure domination. 11 May 2023.

    What is certain is that we are now truly in a new Cold War, a historic battle between the West and a resurgent Chinese civilisation-state. The emerging world grasps this, and is taking sides in this new world order. Tragically, China’s reputation is soaring, and America’s is faltering under the pathetic Joe Biden administration.

    China has already brokered a rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, endangering Middle East peace. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s far-Left president, has “reset” relations with Beijing. In Latin America and Africa, the CCP’s influence continues to rise thanks to its Belt and Road initiative, the loans it dishes out, and the deals it strikes to corner the market in key materials and minerals. China is also undermining the Commonwealth. India is buying Russian energy.

    China is of course obeying the iron rules of geopolitics as do all states of whatever political hue that wish to survive. Like organic beings States try to grow and become stronger so as to fight off predators. If they cannot do this they ally themselves with a protector as does Europe and the UK with the United States. This technique has existed before the word geopolitics was even dreamed of. Success is measured by survival.

    Though resources, economic and military are important to this process there is a moral dimension as well. The people must be on side in any struggle! The most powerful tool to achieve this is Nationalism. Nothing equals it. China for all its Communist blather is unashamedly patriotic, is in fact deeply racist. The West in comparison; and in reality this means the Anglosphere, has abandoned its people in favour of a feeble Marxist Doctrine that denies reality.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/10/russias-collapse-handed-china-once-a-millennium-opportunity/

    1. There are nation states in the East pitted against trans-national commercial interests in the West which dress up their players in national flags.

      They are going to fight for the South (American, Africa, the Pacific). At the moment my money would be on the East. They seem more coherent.

  8. 374208_ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Penny Mordaunt,

    The Coronation celebrated what we have in common
    I’m grateful if people wish to recognise my role. But my thanks are reserved for all those who took part

    The Coronation celebrated what we had in common
    I’m grateful if people wish to recognise my role. But my thanks are reserved for all those who took part.

    We have yet to witness what the future brings, what road is being taken, is WEF /NWO going to receive a royal seal

    I think Dover is working at full capacity so a new invasion front will have to be opened, the by election returns seemingly show that the electorate majority in the main fervent supporter / voters for the (ino) tory ersatz party, they will support a lib/dems / lab coalition to show their displeasure with the lookalike (ino) tory party.

    The inlet valve / valves are fully opened, the enticement to “come on in” is a 5* hotel and unlimited welfare, politically sponsored and condoned via the polling booth

    Not long now we the decent indigenous will be viewed as
    persona non grata, that in turn will trigger the GREAT HOWLING as in ” Why O why has this happened” led loudly by the thick as constipated shite lab/lib/con coalition voter.

  10. Ukraine’s Tvorchi on Eurovision, the war, and their message for Russia. 11 May 2023.

    For Ukraine, Eurovision is about more than just winning – although that is exactly what they did last year.

    And it’s always a big task to come back and try to win again, especially when your country is at war.

    But those hopes rest on the shoulders of electronic duo Tvorchi, who will enter their track Heart of Steel for this year.

    This ludicrous competition makes Triumph of the Will look neutral.

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraines-tvorchi-on-eurovision-the-war-and-their-message-for-russia-12877434

    1. I suspect that its already in the bag for the Ukes. Corrupt voting will be confirmed by the UK getting more than nul points..

  11. Ukraine’s Tvorchi on Eurovision, the war, and their message for Russia. 11 May 2023.

    For Ukraine, Eurovision is about more than just winning – although that is exactly what they did last year.

    And it’s always a big task to come back and try to win again, especially when your country is at war.

    But those hopes rest on the shoulders of electronic duo Tvorchi, who will enter their track Heart of Steel for this year.

    This ludicrous competition makes Triumph of the Will look neutral.

    https://news.sky.com/story/ukraines-tvorchi-on-eurovision-the-war-and-their-message-for-russia-12877434

  12. Good morning all.
    A damp start with a light drizzle after overnight rail with 6½°C on the yard thermometer.

    A Folkie Treat from Radio 3, Shirley Collins singing Sweet Primroses accompanied by her sister, Dolly.

  13. When I see that barge that can hold up to 500 migrants, I cannot help but wonder if these are reserve troops for if or when another pandemic hits.

    1. I see your conspiracy theory and raise it to:
      There’s tens of thousands of these fighting age men strategically positioned in hotels and camps around the Country. Approaching the next GE they are induced to riot and cause mayhem: state of emergency declared; people ordered to stay at home (lockdown); GE cancelled; new emergency laws introduced and opponents of the regime arrested. In a nutshell, normal life suspended, probably forever.

      How is that ‘theory’ any more extreme than a non-pandemic being declared; new emergency laws introduced; people being ordered to stay home (lockdowns); queue for shopping etc whilst remaining masked and separated by an arbitrary (useless) 6 feet; pubs, churches etc closed; people encouraged to work from home; furlough payments etc. etc? In a nutshell, normal life suspended until the final nail in the coffin arrives i.e. the novel, untried and untested “vaccines” and tens of millions of people accept the jab.

      1. Good morning KK

        Can you remember the riot that spread to Croydon in 2011..

        We thought the riots would spread to the whole country by many out of control blacks .

        We have lots to fear because we are importing trouble.

          1. “Waterstones was untouched.”

            But in the winter of 1988-89, book-burning ceremonies took place in Bradford and Bolton.

        2. The government are deliberately importing these young men; if that wasn’t the case the flow would have been halted and deportations en masse would have happened. Why import thousands of idle young men at great, and ever increasing, cost against the will of the people living here? The government must have a purpose for these men and we can only speculate what that reason is: my speculation is troubling.

    2. The question remains, where will they house the subsequent days crop?

  14. When I see that barge that can hold up to 500 migrants, I cannot help but wonder if these are reserve troops for if or when another pandemic hits.

    1. Morning BoB,
      There’s a lot I could say, but I’ll obey instructions and keep shtum.

    2. Have you ever noticed how the singers of English traditional folk songs adopt a really strange, weird, voice in which to sing them?

      This is reminiscent of how singers of country & western songs cannot sing them without adopting a strange, yodelling “yee ha” accent.

      2. Richard Stilgoe did a great parody about folk-singing quantiy surveyors (Haul the sails away) which I’m trying to find on YT.

  16. To the title,
    – Again the Telegraph just potters on the edges – when are they going to denounce the extorionate PFIs brought in by Bliar and tolerated ever since?

    Apart from that, mornin’ all.

  17. The NHS is bound to need 300 managers to train 200 medical apprentices

    A reminder of the fact that the Government does not run the NHS, but that the NHS runs the NHS.

    1. There’s a point at which bureaucracy becomes self perpetuating. It needs more people to do ever more work it has created for itself.

      We’re consulting on a small project that’s had 3 years to get over the line. 28 months were spent on specification and design, with lots of fingers poked in lots of pies where they shouldn’t have been and nothing got done. The business still hasn’t got what it wanted from the work, either.

      A boot up the bottom, some discipline and rigour and we’re on track and delivering. It’s been 3 months and half the work has been done, with a pipeline of improvements in the backlog.

  18. Bonjour tootle mond,

    Partly cloudy at McPhee Towers, forecasting sunny periods with showers later. Wind in the North-West, 10℃ with 14℃ the forecast maximum. The cool spring continues. A quick perusal of the Met Office data for SE and Central S England ( where I am) shows the average daily maximum from 1991-2020 to be 17.15℃. Why is no-one talking about this, I wonder?

    Mordaunt-mania continues. An a woman, attired fetchingly in a blue dress and head-dress with gold laurel-leaf-like embroidery, cuts a boudicca-like pose, holds a sword erect for a short while and all of a sudden she’s PM material? Oh, come-on. She doesn’t even know what a woman is and has said so on the floor of the Commons. She is also a Billy-boy groupie and she treated Andrew Bridgen abominably.

    Apart from that, a woman of her age, pleasing on the eye even if a little plump, with no children, is suspicious. Her genes have no skin in the game.

    1. “…a woman of her age, pleasing on the eye even if a little plump, with no children, is suspicious. ”

      Jeez

      2. Good morning Stormsy and everyone.
        There was a comment in these pastures yesterday or on Tuesday about Princess Di having been ‘promiscuous’ which effectively made her a Bad Person. I almost intervened to defend the sisterhood, but IIRC the commenter was female.

        Anyway, Fiscal has a point, but it applies equally to male and female politicians: Messrs May, Murrell, Macron, Merkel, Rutte, Varadkar, Shinzo Abe, Paolo Gentilini, Kamala Harris (some uncertainty), Xavier Bettel (who?). Having children or not having children is neither wrong nor right, but it is something that is noticed by voters.

    3. I don’t know how she treated Bridgen, but considering her allegiance with the WEF and hobnobbing with the earwigs of Gates and co I don’t trust her to behave honestly, or accept critique of such an important issue.

      She’s a government drone, happy to do as she’s told by the ruling clique for the next rung in the ladder.

      1. ………and she’s the head of the Privy Council, so now you know what advice HM King is receiving.

    4. You referred to her having no children a few days ago. Both Grizz and I have no children and replied accordingly. You have not replied. Would you care to enlightent us?
      You refer to “..having no skin in the game” and “with no children, is suspicious”.
      Care to follow up that remark?

  20. Ho hum. Off to work.
    I don’t look forward to work as much as I used to – I’ve got sooooo much to do and no staff to delegate to – we’ve advertised four times over the past six months and no applications (save for two wholly unsuitable for the job).
    All the meeja stirrings about the NHS make things worse as people are put off from applying for jobs that might be right up their street.

    Meanwhile, people get worked up about minor things, like thinking the dress code isn’t fair and that they should be allowed to wear trainers.

    1. Crikey, for the amount of time staff pootle about I’d think soft comfortable shoes would be a requirement. Is there a medical reason why not?

      Can you cheat and do what we did, hire someone with lower skills and then put them through a training programme to bring them up?

      I don’t mind my work at the moment. I do find some of the university processes arcane (I’m on site plumbing in). They seem to like filling in forms rather than getting things done.

      1. Wearing trainers continually can lead to poor foot posture (spreading or flat feet) or to the feet becoming wider.
        This widening process is hard to reverse. Therefore, trainers should be
        worn only in moderation, because healthy feet generally do not need
        such extreme cushioning.

        1. What a load of bollocks!

          I was born with flat, wide feet (a hereditary condition) and I spent my childhood and youth in abject misery and pain as a procession of foot doctors and ‘experts’ tried — and serially failed — to raise my arches by insoles and other artificial means without success.

          On Monday I visited an excellent podiatrist for some foot-care and she told me that trying to produce arches in naturally-born flat foot is wrong on every level. I had already worked this out decades ago and I only get comfort from shoes that have no arch supports. For that reason, for the past 20 years I have only worn Reebok training shoes since they do not have an arch support.

    2. Good luck. As hard as it will be to get back into harness, at least you’ve improved to where you can get back to work.

  22. I must admit that I was triggered by this one today

    Wordle 691 5/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
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    🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
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    1. I’ve crashed down to Earth after my two eagles in a row.
      Wordle 691 6/6

      ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Happy with a Bogey Five!

      Wordle 691 5/6
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
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      ⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. And me.

        Wordle 691 5/6

        ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
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        ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  24. ‘Morning, Peeps. Another dry, sunny day with a reluctant 15°C forecast. Standby for the inevitable hosepipe ban, thanks to the inability of SE Water to provide a reliable supply. Roll on the day when we can have a choice of water supply company, like other utilities…

    The article on the crass “terribly white” comment wasn’t allowing BTL comments last time I looked, so the Letters comments are standing in for some DT-reader spleen-venting. This one caught my eye – but it remains to be seen how long it will survive:

    Colin Harrow
    1 HR AGO
    If anyone needed proof of the monster into which the once worthy cause of anti-racism has now mutated it was the comment by Bridgerton actress Adjoa Andoh that the Buckingham Palace balcony after King Charles’ crowning was “terribly white.”
    The one plus point of her remark, if it can be described as such, is that according to Ofcom it has now become the most complained about comment on TV so far this year.
    However such is the strength of the now professional so-called anti-racist lobby, or race baiting lobby into which it appears to have warped, these complaints will no doubt be twisted by these lobbyists into evidence of “institutionalised” racism against her rather than those at whom this clearly racist remark was originally aimed.
    The fact that Ms. Andoh is only a celebrity because of her role in a TV drama infamous for it’s massive exaggeration of the number of people of colour in the English regency in which it is set, takes the irony of her remark to Olympic proportions. As is the fact that it was almost certainly only due to this that she was invited on TV to comment on the coronation in the first place.
    Racism must be stamped out. But remarks like Ms. Andoh’s and those who support her for saying what she did merely provide racism with a toxic acceptability by expanding it with artificially manufactured theories like CRT and “white privilege” to include another ethnic group.
    But it is still by any name racism.

  25. One more BTL comment from the Letters lot:

    Nigel Redhead
    23 MIN AGO
    ‘The Telegraph values your comments but kindly requests all posts are on topic, constructive and respectful. ‘
    The DT’s request at the top of this comment section.
    I would happily only comment on here ‘on topic’ if I was free to comment on other articles without hindrance. But unfortunately we are not.
    So – off topic – Sharon White cannot save John Lewis. She does not reflect the demographic of John Lewis customers. Also she has links with Ofcom.
    I have bought nothing from John Lewis since she became their chairman. Nothing to do with colour, everything to do with understanding the unique character of the store and her links with Ofcom.
    And can someone tell me why she is a Dame and has been awarded a CBE? All these people who are anti our history and are awarded these letters after their names, really should reject them as they are related to Empire which they apparently find abhorrent.
    Mrs R

    * * *

    We haven’t bought anything at all from JL for a couple of years now. Nothing to do with Ms White but everything to do with their deeply flawed advertising which is blatantly racist. I reckon we aren’t alone in this crazy scheme to aleinate a large slice of what was a loyal customer base. Go woke, etc…

  27. The WEF’s agenda for Britain event
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-wefs-agenda-for-britain-event/

    We must not forget that the new king, the Archbishop of Cannterbury and most of the government and opposition are completely on board the WEF agenda

    Here is an extract form today’s The Conservative Woman which is worht reading.

    “WE DO live in remarkable times with extraordinary things going on in our society – not only here in the UK but in societies all round the world. This strangeness – sudden and quite dramatic interventions in our ways of living, our freedoms and choices – has all the appearance of being well co-ordinated and carefully choreographed.

    Take the transgender movement, unheard of just a few years ago, or the censoring of visiting speakers by universities that since the cruelty accorded Professor Tim Hunt in 2015 has become all but institutionalised. Look too at how science is controlled to reflect and further specific narratives through allocation of funding; take the sudden emergence (creation) of hate speech, again unheard of just a few years ago, and the early and perverse sexualisation of young children. And all that is quite apart from (or is it?) the internationally hyped so-called climate emergency and destructive Net Zero policies, 15-minute cities and plans for central bank digital currencies. All appear to be encompassed under the memes of ‘Build Back Better’ and ‘The Great Reset’ that we first heard from our then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, in 2020 and later parroted by world leaders as if in planned unison. ”

    And several other things could be added such as previously unheard of levels of immigration designed to swamp and eliminate our old Christian culture.

    We must fight back against this. But has our spirit been crushed so totally that there is no fight left in us.

    2. She is probably called Smith – but “adopted” an African name to humiliate people – compare the black woman who did for Lady Hussey.

      1. Yep. Does it have the Nordic th sound? That becoms a hard t for all central Europeans? I used to work with a lovely Slovac lady who spoke good English and liked to go to the theatre but always called it the tay-at-ur and try as she might, couldn’t do otherwise.

        1. …and then try and teach them the various pronunciations of the ‘th’ sound as in path, then, three, thirty…

          …and many more.

          1. Hebblethwaite has three things the French find hard to pronounce; H, TH and W!

        1. 🙂and I don’t live in Lostwithiel (another word they cannot pronounce!)

  29. Application submitted to relocate Dambusters’ dog from historic site https://msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/application-submitted-to-relocate-dambusters-dog-from-historic-site/ar-AA1b14Q6?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=282050912572407fbb59ab388090e4ce&ei=78 War on Dogs in the UK continues as a Application is put into move Dambusters Dog Grave, before Illegal Immigrants move into the base, as it would be at risk of damage from 🥷 Immigrants🐶

    An application to remove the grave of the Dambusters’ dog at RAF Scampton has been submitted to the local council.

    The 617 Squadron, based at the RAF site in Lincolnshire, undertook a low-level night attack on German dams in 1943 and was one of the most famous raids in the history of the force.

    Wing Commander Guy Gibson used his dog’s name, which is a racial slur, as a code word to say the dam had been breached – with the Labrador retriever dying the same night of the raid.

    The application was submitted on Tuesday to West Lindsay District Council to remove the grave from Hangar Two, one of four Grade II-listed C-Type hangars at RAF Scampton, and move it along with any remains to RAF Marham in King’s Lynn.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/application-submitted-to-relocate-dambusters-dog-from-historic-site/ar-AA1b14Q6?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=282050912572407fbb59ab388090e4ce&ei=78

    1. Scampton Parish Council
      Submitted today. This must not go ahead.
      Description of proposal:
      Listed building consent to remove the railings, excavate and remove the grave marker and any zooarchaeological material for relocation.
      Reasons for the Request As there is now no guarantee of a sustainable heritage focussed future for Scampton with careful management and interpretation of the story of the raid and Wg Cdr Gibson’s dog, we believe the grave site is at risk and carries significant reputational risk given the racial slur now associated with the dog’s name. We feel it would be better to return the marker and any remains to 617 Squadron. The dog was one of the Squadron’s mascots and would take care of the story for the foreseeable future. Ideally the grave would remain at Scampton as part of the important story in the location hugely significant parts of the RAF, and indeed the Nation’s, story but the future is now too uncertain to recommend this course of action. Recent video footage of a group known as ‘Abandoned’ who broke onto the base and accessed the Officers Mess increases concern over the future of the heritage fabric of the site.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4160c6f9078f01221c0c0dc3da9961a61701e39ab73a5848862ba48eddb8ed36.jpg

        1. Sad times Maggie – I know Scampton well, I was stationed there for a couple of years

      2. “Given the racial slur now associated with the dog’s name”. They acknowledge then that the word is not in itself intrinsically offensive?

      3. “Given the racial slur now associated with the dog’s name”. They acknowledge then that the word is not in itself intrinsically offensive?

      4. Just whose fault is it that there is now “no guarantee of a sustainable heritage focussed future for Scampton”?

    2. It would certainly be destroyed. I can think of few things more offensive to Islamic sensibilities than a memorial to a dog.

      1. Not all Muslims dislike dogs.

        Indeed, in SW Turkey dogs are treated with great affection and the chap who ran the Marina shop at Marmaris had a cocker spaniel whom he adored and who was very friendly with everyone.

        1. True Rastus, but the Turks are an exception to the rule. Arabs certainly have no affection for dogs neither do Pakistanis. Again, it harkens back to Islam. It is because Mohamad claimed that a dog prevented an angel from speaking to him and therefore they were on the side of the devil. So mans best friend is unclean in Islamic eyes.

    3. A “racial slur”? Funny how blacks can use it themselves then. Some time ago, I put up a photo of the grave I took when I visited Scampton.

  30. Looks like the ladies rowing at Henley is f*****:-

    Henley trans fears as umpires told: Keep quiet on gender
    Exclusive: Officials told not to question gender of any junior crews sparking concerns that the race could be vulnerable to exploitation

    By
    Oliver Brown,
    CHIEF SPORTS WRITER
    10 May 2023 • 10:44pm

    Rowing umpires are in uproar after being told they were not allowed under British Rowing policy to question the gender of any junior competitors.

    “If we have a crew of what we think are junior boys and yet they declare as junior girls,” said one, “then we just have to accept it.”

    Ahead of Friday’s crucial vote on the future of British Rowing’s transgender policy, several umpires listened in horror to being informed that they would not be permitted, under the governing body’s rules, to incorporate gender into their assessment of fairness.

    In a recent Thames Region umpires’ briefing an update on British Rowing’s rules and regulations suggested that under no circumstances could an umpire query a junior rower’s gender.

    The message sparked such consternation that umpires expressed fears after the meeting that it could make a mockery of the Henley Women’s Regatta next month. Carole-Ann Turner, who has umpired in three different regions, was among those present.

    She said: “As umpires, our primary concerns are supposed to be safety and fairness. We have that drummed into us. So, if you are umpiring a race and something untoward happens, you can interpret the rules to ensure fairness.

    If you see something clearly unfair, you can change what would normally be standard procedure in order to make it fair. And yet the fundamental issues of fairness around trans women, we’re not allowed to question.”

    Umpires worry that Henley Women’s Regatta, which began in 1988 as a response to the absence of women’s events at Henley Royal at the time, would be left especially vulnerable to abuse of British Rowing’s policy. “The Thames Region does not religiously check the competitors in each race,”

    Turner said. “And there is Junior Under-16 (J16) rowing at Henley Women’s. So, if you have 10 qualifier crews at Henley Rowing, there will be a time trial a few days beforehand. And if you have boys able to row with girls, then it’s likely to be all-boy winners.

    “It is totally ridiculous that you could have a whole category at Henley Women’s being boys. They would only have to be second-boat standard, depending on when they’ve had their growth spurt. I coach juniors, 14- and 15-year-old boys. If you were to select those who have gone through puberty, even the very best J16 girls wouldn’t have a chance against them at all.”

    The historical evidence bears this out: in 2008, the British women’s quad selected for the Beijing Olympics staged a warm-up race against a crew of 15-year-old boys from the local William Borlase School, and lost. It is up to Claire McIntosh and the Henley Women’s committee to consider whether biological males can race in defiance of British Rowing, to protect the regatta’s integrity.

    As it stands, umpires must accept whatever gender is entered for a junior rower on the British Rowing online entry system (BROE). “But with juniors, their parents can enter their information for them,” said Turner, who expressed concern that the system was open to being exploited. “

    If you get a medal and you apply to certain universities, they won’t ask what type of medal you got. The rowing system is such that it will just say, ‘Yes, this person won a Henley medal as a junior’. That means, depending on the university, that you could receive £1,000, £2,000, £3,000 as a bursary or as a rowing scholarship. So, there is a financial motivation for the boys to do this.

    “A lot of umpires are very uncomfortable. All of the questions are based around the unfairness of it all, that it just shouldn’t be happening. The fact that trans women can make an ass out of the law means that the law needs to be changed.”

    British Rowing policy mandates that trans rowers over the age of 16 can only compete in the female category if they prove their testosterone serum levels are below five nanomoles per litre over a 12-month period. But it leaves the path open for Under-16 boys to identify as female without the need for any testosterone suppression.

    The rule states: “Due to the unique variance of physical and psychological developmental changes that take place during puberty, and the medical options available to adolescents, the eligibility panel may, where appropriate, consider and approve an application without medical evidence.”

    There is now pressure on British Rowing to defy World Rowing by ensuring that the women’s races are reserved solely for those born female. The organisation’s 31,500 members have until 5pm on Friday to vote on their favoured trans policy, with one option to “adopt a new approach to the women’s/female category in particular, that allows only athletes who have been declared female at birth to compete in the ‘female’ category”.

    1. What a farrago of nonsense! They should just give the trannies a separate competition and keep the women’s one for natural females.

    2. Until real women boycott sports events that are open to transexuals, at all levels, the farrago will continue.
      The sporting bodies will see their events made farcical by lack of competitors and they will see sponsorship vanish. That will hurt the men’s side too, if not as much.

      Sorry girls, but the solution is in your hands; I suspect it would take a year or so, but it’s the best solution.

      If the women could set this ball rolling it might also spill over into other areas where women, and for that matter men, are being disadvantaged to promote a tiny minority, most of who are probably mentally ill.

      1. Yes, if every real female athlete went to the starting line or onto the field of play and then, when the starting gun fired, just walked away leaving only the trans athletes to complete against each other this would surely have an effect.

        Come on women, you must show that you have the balls ovaries to do that!

    3. One of my nieces, Susie, was in the Oxford University Ladies Rowing VIII in the 1970s and her sister, Harriet, was the captain of the Oxford University Ladies’ VIII in the 1980s.

      I expect they are white with anger and have the BLUES with rage!

    4. My father went to William Borlase School when it was still a grammar school; he was a scholarship pupil in the days when you could still buy your way in.

  31. Jacob Rees Mogg is clearly furious with Sunak for the gross betrayal of Brexit and his broken promise to scrap all EU legislation.

    In this video of JRM’s GB News programme last night he expresses his views on the perfidy of Sunak very clearly – so much so that I cannot see how he can remain in the Conservative Party without showing that he is a complete hypocrite.

    Go to 9m15s and ff to see the relevant extract

    https://www.google.com/search?q=jacob+rees+mogg+gb+news+may+10th&ei=1J9cZK6EDMCnkdUPhfiQ4Aw&oq=Jacob+Rees+Mogg+GB+News+May+10&gs_lcp=Cgxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAQARgAMgUIIRCgATIFCCEQoAEyBQghEKABMgUIIRCgAToKCAAQRxDWBBCwAzoFCAAQogRKBAhBGABQoAtYnBBgtSFoAXABeACAAbMBiAGoApIBAzAuMpgBAKABAcgBBMABAQ&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:cd996d3d,vid:tZKPRQoQAv0

      1. If he has any integrity this is what he must do. And he must get several of his Conservative MP colleagues to follow him go.

        This really is becoming a key moment on Brexit.

        “There is a tide in the affairs of men
        Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
        Omitted, all the voyage of their life
        Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
        On such a full sea are we now afloat;
        And we must take the current when it serves,
        Or lose our ventures.”

        [Julius Caesar: Shakespeare]

        Unless something is done the UK will be bound in the shallows and miseries of the EU

    3. I have watched quite a few of his programmes now, he does appear to be wavering and often criticises the government, I thought he would have made a great leader, he said he didn’t want to take the job on because it would interfere with his family life, but maybe it was for other reasons.
      He is a deeply religious man, I don’t think he wants what is coming our way on his conscience, although I could be wrong, as I have over the years about most politicians that I thought were on our side.

    4. You have answered your own question because he is a hypocrite, much like another 80 or so from the much vaunted ERG.
      As the old saying goes, like the barbers cat, all wind and piss!

  32. That’s the market done and dusted. 8 15 is the time to be there. Nice and sunny now.

  33. How did the police manage to apprehend the Art thief?

    Because the thief had no Monet to buy Degas to make the Van Gogh.

    Take that Oberst !

    4. Surely it’s “How did the Constable manage to apprehend the thief?”

      1. Probably stuck his truncheon up his Warhol.

        On second thoughts, he could have taken him by the Pollocks

  34. 374208+ up ticks,

    Gerard Batten,

    Sadly UKIP is finished, a tragic end to a great political movement.

    The article states that UKIP was ‘a vehicle for one man’s (Farage’s) political ambitions’. True because Farage ensured it did not develop into a radical populist party. He is a Tory & used UKIP just as a stick to beat the Tories with.

    It accuses me of taking the Party to the ‘far-right’ with my ‘anti-Islam’ stance. This is a lie. For 27 years I campaigned to return national independence & democratic accountability to the UK. That is as far from ‘far-right’ as you can get.

    As for being ‘anti-Islam’ I was the only elected politician prepared to confront the incompatability of literalist & fundamentalist Islamic ideology with western liberal democracy.

    UKIP is dead & a political void is left behind.

    UKIP on brink of wipeout after losing all seats in local elections – BBC News,https://apple.news/AO6JBVWXvSI64SN…

    UKIP has lost almost all of its councillors, as the Eurosceptic party struggles to redefine itself.

    https://gettr.com/post/p2gmkrb3f31

    1. Hi Ogga! I left when they ousted Gerard and haven’t paid attention to anything they have said since then. What a wasted effort they have been.

      Pointed out in a post yesterday the difference between Islam and Christianity. People should understand that the difference is profound in that Islam really spells the end for progress due to its metaphysical attitude. It is not simply a matter of religious opinion to oppose it but a struggle between progressive civilization and stagnation. Christian attitudes represent the former, Islam the latter. Wherever Islam has taken hold in a higher civilization it has always, without exception, represented the low point of and demise of that civilization. There are no exceptions to that rule. These issues are not to be dismissed as mere religion but should be understood as the foundational attitudes of societies. What motivates them and what makes their achievements or lack thereof possible. In that sense Islam is the greatest threat to us in the West and our failure, as a society, to drive Islam out will literally kill us.

      1. Wherever Islam has taken hold in a higher civilization it has always, without exception, represented the low point of and demise of that civilization
        Centuries back, Arabia used to be the science and medical centre of the world – then came Islam, and they vanished from sight.

      2. 374208+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,

        I also,as many did leave when Gerard left,
        thanks for your input well penned a touch of the old Willy Shakes there.

    2. As there were large areas where elections did not take place this year the BBC is wrong (again) . UKIP still has sitting Councillors.
      You may not have noticed that Reform and Reclaim made no headway in the local elections and that the Independents, whilst doing well in one area in Lincolnshire, lost masses of sitting councillors

      It really does pay to get your facts right – never GB’s strong point.

      1. 374208+ up ticks,

        Morning N,
        By the same token you may not have noticed the treachery meted out via the ukip party nec ( still in power ) along with farage, ALL on record.

        Reform is still farage influenced, good at hill marching..

        Reclaim is relatively new to the party scene.

        “It really does pay to get your facts right – never GB’s strong point.”

        I’m pro Gerard so your parting shot should be taken up with him,surely.

        1. The UKIP NEC is elected by the membership – there are elections every year where one third of the seats are up for grabs. The elections are run electronically and are overseen by an outside body. Results are published by that body.
          most who was involved in the GB affair are long gone and any left would be vastly outnumbered by the newly elected.

          Reform is a Tory Construct to replace UKIP. Most of their policies are straight lifts from the UKIP book.
          Reclaim is a (now) 2 man band. Not really interested in anything other than frees speech platform.

          GB is yesterday’s man.

          1. 374219+ up ticks,

            Evening N,
            Sadly not so still to many covert tories in situ.

            “GB is yesterday’s man.”

            The true leader post Gerard Batten was, by a country mile majority vote, Richard Braine, it is all on record.

            Only fools do not learn from history.

  35. Bugger.
    Went out to do my morning stint of bag filling and only got 4 filled when the rain started and had to come in.
    Still got another 2 to fill and the whole lot to carry up to the folly.

    1. Bugger in Essex as well; there are unpainted fence sections giving me significant looks.
      Either the forecast is inaccurate or it’s too accurate. Either way, I just can’t win.
      Signed,
      Thoroughly Pissed Off of Colchester

  36. After Archprick Welmeaning’s garbage in the Lords yesterday, the Spectator is calling him the Archbishop of Ranterbury…

    1. During the Coronation there were points where his speech reminded me of a Dalek. Appropriate image if you ask me because he is certainly determined to destroy the C of E.

        1. His mother and father were alcoholics, his mother, a personal secretary to Sir Winston Churchill, was a ‘scrubber’ who had a variety of partners, and his early life was a mess – he didn’t know who his real father was until he had a paternity test. His father, who died of alcoholism, was the son of a German-Jewish immigrant called Weiler, and his step-father was from a Quaker family. He was nearly twenty before he found God – possibly during a drugs session with a (gay?) Christian friend in Cambridge.
          Primus inter pares of the worldwide Anglican Communion. If that’s the best they can do the Anglican church is doomed.

          1. The Archbishop’s mother, Jane Portal, was not a ‘scrubber’. Born in 1929, she was descended from a French immigrant who arrived in England in the early 18th century. One of her uncles was Rab Butler.

          2. He can’t help his family and upbringing. What he’s doing to the church, on the other hand …

      2. But he was appointed to be Archpillock of Canterbury by the atheist Cameron with the specific instruction to destroy the C of E.

      1. Just one ear, I hope, two would be too much for a normal person to cope with, especially in a moderate gale.

      1. Similar to Bellamyisation, rapid removal of anyone popular who contradicts the new orthodoxies.

      1. I don’t watch TV at all. So my only exposure to these people is via clips on You Tube. I have to say that I don’t feel I’m missing anything from what little exposure I get to them. What is particularly offensive is that the BBC and other MSM stations give them air. Any white person behaving the way these people do would be persona non gratia for eternity.

  40. Why do all BBC newsreader, reporters and presenters in general always refer to a time period as ‘decades’? They never (or very rarely) say ten, twenty, ninety years etc, always two, three, nine decades. Is it some sort of shibboleth which helps them to recognise each other and identify ‘the enemy’? I have noticed it creeping into the newspapers too recently. Anyone know why? Is it part of an indoctrination into the world of WEF and wokedom?

      1. A decade is wider in time than a year, so less precise. 9 decades can be between 90 and 100 years.

    2. Same reason being hospitalised is ‘fighting for life’ or government is investing, rather than wasting, dividend payments are unearned income rather than deferred investment.

  42. Dagnabbit – went out to the greenhouse to empty it prior to preparing to plant tomatoes etc. Got everything out – thunder started and risk of downpour.

    God getting his own back for doing the watering last evening…

  43. Can anyone explain the reasoning behind the huge fines that lorry drivers were landed with when asylum seekers were found stowed away intentionally or by accident when the lorries crossed the Channel either by tunnel or ferry.

    YET the RNLI has been aiding and abetting the smugglers, by enabling asylum seekers a foothold on our beaches and ports .

    Therein lays a conflict of interest , don’t you agree?

    1. How many life threatening incidents or even deaths have occurred at sea in SE England due to RNLI vessels catering to illegal immigrants and not responding to the calls that are their raison d’être?

      1. You obviously are a mariner, but the answer is almost certainly zero; the RNLI survives because of its history, but helicopters now do much of the rescue work.

        1. Much of the work for sure, but those, relatively small, choppers need a handy vessel to lower survivors onto and get more.

    1. I love the way DS seems to annoy so many people, therefore I judge he must be onto something that is close to the truth.

      1. I would love to see him verbally rip that horrid person Jasmin Alibhai Brown to pieces.

        1. Agree, that is a truly obnoxious racist individual that has gotten away with it for years.

  45. Well the weather here has behaved itself over the last couple of days despite the BBC weather app showing rain or showers. I managed to wash the windows front and side and have now just cut the grass.
    Just one more day please to let me finish the few odd jobs that need to be completed before our 2 weeks away. 🤞

  46. Morning all……..😉😊
    My planned withdrawal didn’t last long, i was just about to send a reply to the email I received this morning from the Hospital management.
    Just before i clicked send I thought i would try the number I had for the appointments. three rings and through to a lady who was charming and told me that I am on the ‘priority list’ and it’s possible I might get a letter some time next month informing me of an appointment in July or around. THIS YEAR ! 🤗
    What a relief, I feel like twenty tons of horror has been lifted from my shoulders. If I could skip I would. 🙂😊😄

    2. I’m glad for you Eddy but it still seems a long way off for someone with your problems. Good luck and hang in there.

      1. I expected far worse to be honest Ann.
        As long as they meet their commitment I’ll be grateful.

    3. Brilliant, Eddy! It must have been kismet! I’ll skip for you, if you’d like?

    4. My OH had an appointment with the GP this morning (having been told yesterday there were no appointments available) and there has been no improvement in his a-fib, though the readings from the dr’s machine were slightly lower than he’s been getting from the one lent by the cardiac nurse. Anyway the dr seems to be suggesting he sees the cardiologist again so we’ll have to see what comes next.

      1. It really is a lottery. I have 2 weeks still to wait, meanwhile the lump grows and is affecting my balance and hearing. Given up on paracetamol as it gives me stomach ache.
        What a total mess this country has become!

        1. Really sorry to hear this, LotL. What a state we are in. Can you not get some better pain relief from your gp?

          1. I really don’t like taking pills anyway. Ibuprofin and aspirin have the same effect.
            A bit of Pinot helps;-))

          2. It certainly takes the edge off things, rounds the corners. Rioja for me when necessity demands.

      2. There is a drug called Amioderon.
        It actually stops the afib but it can have side effects.
        Has anyone mentioned this?

        1. Not as far as I know. All they’ve done so far is keep upping the Bisopralol, which has done nothing. Just had a look – sounds a bit risky.

      1. It’s lifted my spirits Obs I can tell you.
        I was at ‘the end of my tether’. Phew.

  47. The coming coalition of chaos

    Thinking ahead, the political map is now changing.

    Labour has only managed to match its 2019 vote share in the 2023 local elections, so in terms of voters he’s done no better than Comrade Corbyn, its the Tories going backwards that has given Labour the council seats.

    Now this turns all talk to coalitions and how Labour is going to handle coalition or “confidence and supply”.

    The prevailing thinking is that Labour will only need the Limp Dims, and that’s going to be tricky enough, Labour are supposedly 28 seats short of an outright majority.

    We also know that polls tend to narrow upto an election, that would mean that Labour would likely go backwards rather than forwards with regards to a majority.

    Lets go wild and firstly suggest that Labour and the Limp Dims with likely Greens manage to get a majority of 10-15

    Labour are dead set against PR and for good reasons, it would likely see their party split into two or three factions.

    The other worry on the left is that it would likely boost the Limp Dims from a handful of seats to something like 50-100, that currently would be mainly at the cost of the Tories but also opens up Labour.

    If 30-50 currently Labour seats were to go to a new hard left party, Labour would be squeezed both ways, forced endlessly into coalitions with either the hard left of Limp Dims or rainbow coalitions.

    The argument from Labour is “who else do the Limp Dims have to vote for” and Labour has a point, however, how long will it take before Labour policy cuts across the Limp Dims new voter base who likely vote for them?

    If the Limp Dims end up having a large section of the blue wall, housing plans is going to be a tinder box issue, as is housing migrants and a continued flood under a woke Labour government.

    Confidence and supply is not going to save the Limp Dims, if you voted for it, you’ll get the blame.

    Watering down policy for Labour is another risk, the hard left that number 29 at the moment are Starmer’s real hazard. At some point the migrant crisis is going to reach epic proportions.

    1) If Labour magically approve the backlog of asylum seekers and numbers keep going up, housing is going to be near impossible in the south and south east, they’ll be forced to ship them “tup north” into Labour heartlands.

    2) New housing is not only politically difficult in the SE and home counties its difficult planning wise with environmental and simple planning issues, like flood plains, something called “nutrient neutrality”, lack of infrastructure and already blocked local roads. NOTHING is going to happen fast, its going to take massive unpopular planning changes and with doctors and hospitals already in short supply politically toxic.

    Therefore both legal and illegal immigration is going to become a real toxic issue by the next election, and its all very well saying “give these migrants the jobs” but the jobs are mainly in the south, London and home counties, that will mean they have to be housed there if they are going to work there.

    Then of course, do they actually speak English, do they have any recognised qualifications? who is going to employ them without basic skills and qualifications other than the most menial jobs?

    And if they do these menial jobs, how are they going to afford any housing where basic flats are commanding £1200 a month upwards, who is going to be paying for that? You and I are with housing benefits – yet more money!

    Now, if not by the next election, soon after it immigration is going to be an existential issue and Labour will be FORCED to do something about it, it will be too little and woeful, thus exacerbating the problem.

    As soon as Labour attempt to address it the hard left will be up in arms and that will be 30 or so votes going against the government or a vote swing of 60 wiping out a Labour/Limp Dim majority and of course the SNP will be horrified and vote against it as well.

    It will very quickly become a coalition of chaos.

    Now imagine if Labour need SNP votes as well, this is where the super fun starts.

    Now we all know that the SNP want another referendum or more exactly the powers to hold their own endlessly.

    It why the SNP exists, and as we all know Labour don’t want to do any deals with the SNP, but then again, the SNP know that they won’t get the powers or another referendum by simply knuckling under and taking no for an answer.

    So its likely tactics will be to hold Labour to ransom on every major piece of legislation, demanding huge Scottish beneficial changes to it in order to pass it, and will do it time and again on each major bill.

    The argument that the SNP are terrified of the Tories getting back in is a complete myth, and it wants that referendum and if it cannot get it by voting in Scottish elections the ONLY way to do it it is by holding Labour to ransom.

    So creating a coalition of chaos is EXACTLY what the SNP want, the loner it goes on, and the less Labour can get done means that it increasingly looks like a government that cannot do anything and therefore loses support rapidly.

    That means Labour has a stark choice, either do a deal with the SNP or go back to the electorate for a full mandate which it will look increasingly unlikely to get.

    The sparks, fur and feathers fly, the hard left attacking Der Sturmer for not doing enough giveaway, the Limp Dims afraid of housing and immigration and high spending attempts and the SNP sitting back and turning the knife.

    So unless Labour wins a majority which takes its hard left out of play, that’s about 65-70 its going to be a coalition of chaos that if you are lucky will last no more than 18 months to 2 years.

    By then they’ll be begging the Tories to come back

    1. For the first time I did not vote in the local elections. I doubt very much I will vote during the general election unless something changes, very drastically, within the Conservative Party. Here, in the Chichester district of West Sussex, it is a complete exercise in futility to vote for any third party, it is even an exercise in futility to vote Labour, thank God. It’s Conservative or nothing. Now I prefer nothing.

      1. What you are currently getting from the Tories is a punch in the face, and undoubtedly you don’t like it.

        When you have had Labour around with their knuckle dusters and baseball bats, i suspect you might think again.

        1. I doubt it very much unless the Conservative Party becomes conservative. Otherwise, either way, they are both dragging the country into purgatory. Perhaps if people refuse to play along we can look forward to some sort of real change. Other than that all we are doing is repeating insane behaviours again and again. And I do remember the disaster of Labour. I first left this country as did many others in the late 1970’s because of the Winter of Discontent. So, we learnt nothing from that, still the Labour Party regained power under Blair and still the Conservatives have behaved as the utterly useless pillocks that they are. The only relief was Thatcher and, sadly, we are not going to get a repeat of a person like that due to the fact that we only vote in ‘yes men’ and mediocrities now a days.

          1. “we only vote in ‘yes men’ and mediocrities now a days”…… maybe that’s all that’s on offer, except few and far between very small minor parties with few candidates.

  48. ‘Afternoon All

    Generally a good news day finally got to see the quack in person to explain the various tests after my stroke revealed my diabetes,thanks to a few months of mainly diet changes my Blood sugar has gone from 74 to 39!!

    MRI revealed the blood clot in the brain has vanished but the left side numbness remains and has not improved over 6 months quack says may take 18 months (:^((

    Now a medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b01e166511d8cb50157597f3c400c1afc2be7a00a7548693dd11e06fb086d4d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be0d1037d2956dbb3df6fc08d83f0e9a3850cc3157cfa9e5033cb595d1524cf0.jpg

    https://i.imgflip.com/7jjmvm.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fc760e066cdffdb74cab60db8a257a5dd2c3f48cd8aa99d8d0d1a6cc74283b6e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06eca7191dc97cfc7244bce215eac41580d9f9d802bf5ba7472dd87685a4c50d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0282949035d19786192b5bd70cd35d5ea6408cb3424d5773bf24f6c6bc615d2.jpg

    2. So pleased for you, Rik. Delighted to hear a good news story. It is uplifting for us all.

    4. Cows may fart like vegans, but they don’t perpetually whine, protest, throw their teddies out of the cot, demonstrate and damage public property.

  49. A survey has revealed that 8 percent of American adults believe they could beat an elephant in unarmed combat.

    Well, to be fair, quite a few of them have a significant weight advantage.

  50. Calling Paul,calling Paul

    The plumber is trying to renew a washer on the bath tap. He’s struggling
    with a spanner and extension, I’ve told him not to faucet.

    1. I remember in my first office job working for an advertising agency in Grosvenor Street there was an account executive called William Faussett and of course he was referred to as Willy Foreskin.

      Poor chap. And at prep school, where we all called each other by our surnames, I felt rather sorry for a chap whose surname was Jane because he was addressed by a girls’ Christian name. I was certainly not best pleased when I discovered that my surname had become a girls’ Christian name!

  51. In England, they will take a tree, cut it down, remove the branches and
    the bark until they are left with a cylinder. Next, they will take the
    cylinder of wood and turn it on a lathe and whittle away until they are
    left with a perfectly formed bat. The bat will be cured and treated to
    strengthen it and then, when it is finally ready, they will use it to
    knock a leather ball around a park.

    In Scotland, they just throw the tree.

    1. Yes, but can they manage to make it last five days with lunch breaks and tea breaks?

    3. Why are there so few cats remaining in Scotland? Most have been strangled. What else is small enough for the bairns to practice playing the bagpipes.

    1. That is only the first course – she would have gone for seconds during the anointing.

    1. The second most stupid thing the government has done. The most stupid thing was collaborating with the Yanks and the EU in the expansionist drive into Ukraine in the first place. We are one step nearer to global nuclear warfare, Idiots, every one of them.

      1. Ben “I was a soldier, doncha know” Wallace – another lunatic with the keys of the asylum.

        1. He only served seven years. Just long enough for a junior office to learn how to tie his own laces and turn the map so it was aligned North.

          2. Hope he didn’t go to The Hague. The main map of the town is oriented to the WEST!

    2. These people really are brain dead – this is effectively the Cuban missile crisis in reverse.

      1. America and all the other useful idiots are effectively encouraging Ukraine to provoke a Russian response similar to the US shock and awe approach to Iraq.
        Ukraine might stand up to it for a while but unless NATO intervened the country would be reduced to rubble, like Germany in WW2.

      2. Agreed, and I was there October 1962 on active service on 85 Sqdn, RAF West Raynham.

        Scary.

        1. We weren’t to know that Aleksandr Feklisov was trying and succeeding to cool the whole situation down.

          Recently on TV they showed his grave in a Moscow cemetery and commented that few passing by will know of him.

        2. 3 Sqdn at Geilenkirchen Germany – even closer to the action. Slept under aircraft on QRA

          1. Ah, 3 Sqdn were also with us at Laarbruch in the early/mid sixties.

            I was on 31 Sqdn

          2. I came back from my tour of Germany in Dec ’64 and I think our Sqdn moved to Laabruch in ’67

          3. You could be right, Spikey, I was at Laarbruch 67 – 69 so I’ve no idea when 3 Sqdn arrived.

            16 Sqdn was also there on the other side of the airfield.

            I think we all flew Canberra of various marks, 31’s were PR9s, and I’ve seen stunning photographs they took in Hamburg harbour, where there are sailors looking DOWN at them from a ship.

    3. This is just more escalation. There will come a point where Vlad will have to decide whether to pack it in or go for broke. That’s not the sort of choice anyone should look forward too.

      1. If Vlad stops you can guarantee that the West will be on the hook for billions if not trillions of rebuilding for the whole of Ukraine, plus rearming and financial support for refugees.
        If Vlad wins the Russians will have to do it themselves in the areas they control.
        Either way it’s going to hurt us.

    4. This is just more escalation. There will come a point where Vlad wil have to decide whether to pack it in or go for broke. That’s not the sort of choice anyone should look forward too.

    5. And so it goes on. From Wikipedia – range about 300 miles so not really that long, ie won’t reach Moscow. But ‘It is a fire and forget missile, programmed before launch. Once launched, the missile cannot be controlled or commanded to self-destroy and its target information cannot be changed.‘ which is somewhat worrying. I despair at our intervention here and like many view Ukraine and its government as corrupt as the Russian one. But try and tell that to your friends and they instantly accuse you of everything under the sun.

      1. Very few have heard of the Minsk agreements, let alone the Azov brigade or the Biden’s involvement or the overthrow of the Yanukovych government.
        It’s all Putin bad Zelensky the hero

          1. Probably true, but a few are/were in the services, at least one a fairly senior officer, and I would have expected them to be better informed.

  55. More BBC indoctrination: The word ‘apartheid’ is an Afrikaans word meaning separateness and is properly pronounced ‘apart hide’. The BBC always pronounce it ‘apart hate’. Such a little change, but George Orwell would be proud of them.

    1. I have just checked in both Chamber’s and The Oxford English Reference Dictionary and both give a-pärt’ hāt as the preferred pronunciation. Chambers adds a-pär’ tīd as an alternative.

      1. Try reading it in its original language – Afrikaans – as spoken when it was first coined.

      2. I have South African cousins who pronounced it a-par-tate

        When I was a student in the 1960s I wrote a protest protest song.

        How I hate Apartheid: Richard Tracey

        You’ve seen me in the papers, you’ve seen me on the box
        I complain of Vietnam – or the hunting of the fox
        Of hunger in Biafra – or the nuclear atom bomb
        And where the filthy capitalists get all their money from

        How I hate Apartheid,
        But how I love to demonstrate

        I say that what we need is tolerance and peace
        In proof of this I smash up cars and throw things at the police
        I refuse to hear a point of view that’s different from my own
        A really reasonable debate’s a thing I’ve never known

        How I hate Apartheid,
        But how I love to demonstrate

        We really had a field day with Springbok sporting tours
        We cut up cricket pitches for the multi-racial cause
        When we stopped the Lions’ rugby game it was our finest hour
        But we don’t see any racism in those clamours for black power

        How I hate Apartheid,
        But how I love to demonstrate

        But now, alas, my student days I’ll have to leave behind,
        I’ll put away my banners and I’ll regiment my mind
        I’ll shave off all my whiskers and I’ll wear a pin-stripe suit
        And catch the 7.50 – cos it’s such fun to commute

        It was great to demonstrate,
        But now it’s time to vegetate.

        1. Beginning in the late 50s and early 60s the anti-apartheid faction were indoctrinated from childhood and graduated in universities, the church and the media. I don’t know who started it but I suspect the UN/USA/CIA was deeply involved.

          2. Another one from a broken family, his father deserted the home when he was only four. His early experience with Australian aborigines probably introduced him to sexual perversion. He led the campaign for gay rights and queer emancipation” in South Africa and several other countries. He is also an eco-nut.

    4. And it’s never mentioned that most of the african people in south Africa have migrated to the south because the opportunities were far better under Apart Hide. Unlike places like Zimbabwe where Mugabe murdered 20 thousand african people, because he knew they would never vote for him.

        1. I missed them – I do quite like gospel singing. They weren’t included in the highlights programme we watched on Saturday evening.

  57. The BBC is at it again. It has reported gleefully that ‘Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time’ – but only in the first quarter of this year. In other words, a very misleading headline. The article below goes on to point out that electricity only accounts for 18% of the UK’s total power needs.

    Also mentioned is the delay many new projects have getting connected to the grid. This was in a brief news report on ‘The World at One’, with a breathless Justin Rowlatt enthusiastically endorsing the wonder of wind and blaming the National Grid for delaying the complete ‘green’ electrification of everything. 18%, JR, 18%…

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65557469

    1. If we could only get the BBC and the rest of the media to stand in front of the windmills and spout their sh*t we wouldn’t need to import any coal or oil for decades.

    2. Almost on a par with the Left media managing to avoid any mention of the Gaudrian cartoon. As is often the way, it’s their hypocrisy which best defines the Left.

  61. PPsst

    Have you got a spare house to rent /

    The Advantages of Social Housing with Asylum seekers

    There are many advantages when providing housing for Asylum seekers with Serco and Mears. Both of them were awarded the contract for 10 years from the Home office( Serco, Mears win £2.9 billion refugee housing contracts in Britain

    ). Whilst providing housing to Serco, Mears there are no voids, no management as well as maintenance is covered unless structural. ( See below for more details). There is an immense shortage of these properties whilst extremely high demand.

    https://bhinvestment.co.uk/faq-for-asylum-seeker-property-sales/

    1. Does having your house burnt to the ground by a gimmegrant count as structural?

    2. Two aliens are flying near earth~ The first one says, “The dominant life form here have developed satellite based nuclear weapons.” The second one says, “Are they an emerging intelligence?”
      The first one says, “I don’t think so, they have it aimed at themselves.”

      Zelensky: Why did you invade Iraq?
      United States: Because we “suspected” nuclear weapons.
      Zelensky: So why not attack Russia now?
      United States: Because we know that Russia has nuclear weapons.

      What’s does nuclear radiation specialist have for dinner?
      Fission chips!

      A Ukranian man is out on a walk with his grandson. The little boy turns to him and asks, “Grandfather, is it true that there was a nuclear disaster here many years ago?”
      A Ukranian man is out on a walk with his grandson. The little boy turns to him and asks, “Grandfather, is it true that there was a nuclear disaster here many years ago?”
      “Yes, child,” he says, patting his grandson’s head.
      “But I heard that there were no consequences at all; is this true too?”
      “Yes, child,” he says, patting his grandson’s other head.
      And then they strolled off together, wagging their tails.

    4. Get the public sector to process the paperwork. The war will be over by the time they leave our shores.

    5. The Russians have far greater capabilities than anything the UK and EU can provide. Ukrainian armed forces deaths are estimated to be seven times those of Russian forces.

      Our dimwit Ben Wallace should be seeking an end to the killing on both sides not fuelling a US proxy war prosecuted by the stupid Nuland, Sullivan and other Obama neo-con retreads.

      President Trump in the CNN Town Hall makes this argument forcefully.

      1. Estimates differ according to source but for every Russian soldier killed it is 7 to 10 dead on the Ukrainian side. Col Doug MacGregor is a useful source for that sort of thing being a soldier. You can find his channel on You Tube. The Russians are winning.

        1. As RFK Jr pointed out in his interview by Mark Steyn, for Russia this is an existential struggle that they cannot lose.

          1. They must not lose. It is the stronghold of Orthodoxy and therefore, true Christian Civilization. The Westerners will destroy the Church as they have destroyed it in their own countries. To me, this is literally a struggle between god and evil and, in this context, the West is the source of that evil.

          2. Our Lady of Medjugorje said before the fall of the USSR that Russia was destined to carry the torch for the Church.

          3. That, if I may venture to say so, is because we still have both the tradition and the Bible. People in the West forget that the Tradition is older than the Bible, it is the Tradition that created the Bible, the Bible is not the only authority or the ultimate authority. Most importantly, it is the tradition that gives a living interpretation of the Bible. That aspect of Christianity, the Tradition, is totally dead in the West. Christianity is like a bird that flies because of its two wings. Western Christianity only has the one wing, the Bible, and thus is bound to the earth and unable, properly, to understand the teachings of Christianity of its methodology in practice. No Western Christian unless he/she has hade contact with the Orthodox Church understands how to achieve Theosis, the Divine Light of Mount Tabor, and likewise, no Western Christian understands how to pray without ceasing in order to achieve that light which is union with the Trinity.

            Excuse me if I sound dogmatic, I’m not, it is just in my study of such things I firmly believe the above to be true. Others can believe as they please. We believe, anyway, that Christ will draw all to him in the fulness of time, therefore there is no need to push people into conversion. But, dialogue is obviously good and so is an honest exposition of ones position for clarities and honesties sake.

        2. I have listened to Col Douglas MacGregor frequently, lately on The Stone Zone.

          Alexander Mercouris of The Duran is also informative.

          As you say estimates vary principally because we have to rely on Ukrainian estimates which are quite obviously false.

          We should not be supporting this war but seeking by every diplomatic means to halt it.

      2. Estimates differ according to source but for every Russian soldier killed it is 7 to 10 dead on the Ukrainian side. Col Doug MacGregor is a useful source for that sort of thing being a soldier. You can find his channel on You Tube. The Russians are winning.

      3. If Ukraine wins this war, or fights Russia to a draw, what gratitude will be shown to us by either side?

    6. Our Dear Leaders are, and we shall bear the consequences, no doubt.
      I hate warmongers.

    2. Why Rwanda? They all come via France – send them back to France – and stop paying the Frogs million for doing nothing to stop the mass transit of tens of thousands of potential rapists, robbers and BBC heroes.

      1. But they’ve already paid millions to Rwanda as well so they will have to send a few there.

      2. Why indeed.
        I wonder how the French would handle it if we did.

        The problem is that there are far, far too many willing helpers, RNLI, charities etc. who are importing them and advising them how to play the system. It’s a great pity that the government doesn’t revoke their charitable status.

      1. 22c here in Costa del Solent. All the doors and windows open !

        Glad it was warm because i had fibre installed and they were in and out for the afternoon. Now have 75 meg. Whoopie !

          1. Glorious here too, Spikey! Alan is in his shorts, so I’m hiding inside in case anyone sees him and his milk bottle Scottish legs! He actually went and painted in the lane!! 😱

          3. Getting there, Spikey! His heart has calmed down and one of the kidney stones has removed itself!! 😱😱

          4. Ouch – that can be painful, depending on size, as it finds its way out through the uterine tract.

          6. We’re on the south coast and I’m still wearing a sweater as is my husband- mind you, he always dresses like Scott of the Antarctic. Sunny though but we could use some heat!

          7. Mine dried but I forgot to take it in and we had a shower………not too wet but some of it needs airing.

      1. Today was the day that others ate it.

        If you ever graced my table i would make damn sure the food was as advertised ! :@)

  67. Off topic, it looks like a scam but the organisation exists.
    Has anyone else ever received this?
    Subscription ID: 210587229
    Product Discription: Trustworthy Family Web
    Renewal Date: 5/11/2023 7:40:18 AM
    Service status: RUNNING (1 DEVICES) ACTIVE
    Total: $684.84
    Sales Tax:
    $0.00

    Payment status: Completed (Savings Auto Debit)
    Support Helpline: +1 (866)#324# 0281

    Your account will be debited through a direct debit, and the charges will be recorded on your statement within the next 48 hours.

    Toll Free Helpline USA / CANADA +1 (866)#324# 0281

    Thanks and regards

    Shirley D Holt

    Trustworthy Family Web

    1. I automatically ignore such things but then check with my bank and warn them of the scam. They are always grateful to know and, often, will give you some useful advice.

      1. Thanks,
        I have a very old email address and lots of other people with the same name use very similar addresses just adding a number or a character so I am constantly receiving genuine emails but intended for the other person when they forget to add the extra character/s.

      1. I’m fairly sure it is, but it could be someone else has done so with an email very similar to mine.
        Having a fairly common name can be a real pain at times.
        I get genuine emails sent by mistake to me, rather than the intended recipient, fairly frequently.

        1. It could be but if the genuine person doesn’t respond and the company is genuine, they will try again if the subscription is real.

          1. In the past I’ve cancelled contracts on behalf for those who persist in using the wrong address, when I’ve received a series of the wretched things.
            Initially I used to write back explaining the situation but only ever had one person thank me and apologise.

      2. I have received many emails from ebay uk advising me of orders being shipped and delivered. The recipients name is the same as mine but somehow they are using my email address.
        Ebay were less than helpful and although I don’t have one, they suggested that I delete my ebay account.

        There is a Richardl in Cheshire who must have a very poor opinion of ebay because he never receives any notifications for all of the cycle parts and accessories that he orders.

        1. I have similar with someone in Southampton, who uses Dunelm! I’m getting all their special offers!

    3. If it were genuine, it would include some of your details e.g. your name, partial postcode or partial bank account no. The immediate giveaway is if it isn’t addressed to you by name.

    4. Have you tapped the email address it was sent from. With scams the emails bear no resemblance to the name they purport to be. You can then block the address.

      1. Thank you

        Yes, and it looked valid.

        Hence why I posed the initial question

          1. Yes, it exists, but the prices are not as high as the one quoted on the email.
            I’m leaving well alone, it’s been spammed and reported, just in case.

  68. Off topic, it looks like a scam but the organisation exists.
    Has anyone else ever received this?
    Subscription ID: 210587229
    Product Discription: Trustworthy Family Web
    Renewal Date: 5/11/2023 7:40:18 AM
    Service status: RUNNING (1 DEVICES) ACTIVE
    Total: $684.84
    Sales Tax:
    $0.00

    Payment status: Completed (Savings Auto Debit)
    Support Helpline: +1 (866)#324# 0281

    Your account will be debited through a direct debit, and the charges will be recorded on your statement within the next 48 hours.

    Toll Free Helpline USA / CANADA +1 (866)#324# 0281

    Thanks and regards

    Shirley D Holt

    Trustworthy Family Web

      1. Pity. He’s usually good for a laugh.

        Waters rejoins the party she and her fans helped destroy.
        As the fella says “You couldn’t make it up.”

    2. He’ll be here shortly. But don’t forget we don’t tolerate denigration of other posters. You may think what you want but don’t say it.

      1. As Nottlers tell each other each time one is banned from Twitter, Facebook, Telegraph et al, I’ll wear my ban as a badge of honour. Afternoon N 🙂

        1. Bans from here are usually permanent. The list is far too long to ever find the offender again.

          1. At least when I need to create a new account I keep the same name.
            Makes it a bit easier for mods:-)

    3. Bring back pretty polly. He/she/it was always up for a bit of provocation

      Then we could resurrect ignation Jack whatever his name was who posted very long meaningless diatribes about … well, nothing really.

      1. Polly has deserted us for TCW – she’s not banned here. Jack was only ever on the DT and not here.

        1. I must look at tcw again, he made many election malfeasance stories seem quite feasible when compared to what he was peddling.

        2. She is all over the Spectator blethering on about the same old same old.

      2. I vaguely remember IJ. Him, the parrot and Ogga1. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

        1. He used to operate under the name Calmdown……………very strange.

          And ukcia…………very strange and constantly downvoted.

      1. Not as nice as it used to be.
        Duncan Mac out, Ogga1 in?
        Not convinced that was a good swap.

          1. Last I saw of him he put me in my place over on Breitbart.
            Had to upvote his reply.

          2. Duncan would be welcome here any time. Especially when he does his Stanley Unwin voice.

          3. I think that I upset Duncan a few years ago when I demanded that he moderate his language, I received several very strong threats in response.

            I am even more convinced now that we will get caught up in the internet control laws that are being passed in many countries and that will be the end of it.

          8. Last I saw of him he put me in my place over on Breitbart.
            Had to upvote his reply.

          4. I haven’t a clue what you are referring to, my reply was to ogga1 where he asked why you would be banned.

            My comment reflected that you tend to attack ogga1 and that she was being protective of him.

          5. Why get riled up over a poster? Just block them, life’s too busy to bother with replies and getting hot under the collar.

          6. I never block anyone (except the very obvious spambots)
            I believe in freedom of speech for everyone, it’s up to them to decide whether to block or exchange views.

            In this instance I was interested in the boarding school bum boys comment and the rationale behind it (ho ho)

            The fact there has been no reply suggests that he was merely trying to be offensive.

          6. I have put my Dad’s Rifle Brigade cap badge onto my Teddy’s sweater. He looks right pleased, does Teddy.

          8. Perhaps “mod” badges are invisible to other mods when on duty, so that if one goes rogue the others won’t be biased when banning a fellow mod?

  72. That’s me for the day. Knackered. Four hours in the greenhouse planting out the indoor tomatoes and sort out generally. Lots of kneeling, standing, bending and stretching. Hard on an old body.

    Good news is that I have given all the old (very old) carpenter’s tools that are no use to me (and never have been) to a chap in the village whose brother and nephew are woodworkers. All the tools – planes, brace and bits, chisels were pre-war and of high quality. Eddie was thrilled. So they will be put to good use once more after a gap of 35 years. They all came from my father who died in 1988.

    Time for a rewarding glass of something alcoholic. I assume I missed nothing this arvo…..

    TTFN

    A demain.

      2. They have strung it out for so long it matters not. Same with HS2 and the Vax. The majority of them will say they didn’t know or were not informed.

    3. This ws in the begging bit at the bottom……… Have they just discoved censorship?

      “The free press is under attack from multiple forces.
      Media outlets are closing their doors, victims to a broken business
      model. In much of the world, journalism is morphing into propaganda, as
      governments dictate what can and can’t be printed. In the last year
      alone, hundreds of reporters have been killed or imprisoned for doing
      their jobs. The UN reports that 85% of the world’s population
      experienced a decline in press freedom in their country in recent
      years. “

      2. Given that the guardian is relentlessly pro state propaganda what is it really complaining about?

      3. “ In much of the world, journalism is morphing into propaganda”

        Nice to see the Grauniad is able to display irony…

    4. The grid only needs updating because of the unreliability and inefficiency of unreliables.

      We’re forced to pay for that through the massive standing charge, green taxes and soaring energy costs. At the end of the day, it will make absolutely no difference to the environment at all. But politicians know that. Green isn’t about ecology. It’s just a tax scam.

    5. As I wrote earlier (about JR):

      The BBC is at it again. It has reported gleefully that ‘Wind is main source of UK electricity for first time’ – but only in the first quarter of this year. In other words, a very misleading headline. The article below goes on to point out that electricity only accounts for 18% of the UK’s total power needs.

      Also mentioned is the delay many new projects have getting connected to the grid. This was in a brief news report on ‘The World at One’, with a breathless Justin Rowlatt enthusiastically endorsing the wonder of wind and blaming the National Grid for delaying the complete ‘green’ electrification of everything.

      18%, JR, 18%…

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65557469

  76. Far on the Wordle front. Edit; Par even.
    Wordle 691 4/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Five today and could have been worse.

      Wordle 691 5/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  77. Far on the Wordle front. Edit; Par even.
    Wordle 691 4/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  78. I find Prince Louis’s behaviour – trying to draw attention to himself with pulling faces and sticking his tongue out pretty odious and rude. Not to put too fine a point on it he is a spoilt brat and is developing the worst of younger sibling character traits just like his Uncle Harry whose wife is also a younger/youngest sibling.

    (Having said that both Caroline and I are each the youngest of 3 in our respective families!)

    1. Well it is a bit early to give up on him, but I have to admit, the words “Uncle Harry and Uncle Andy” did spring to mind!
      Cute it is not.

        1. 24th May 1944 (Empire day as was) at the Beauchamp Arms Hotel (my Mama’s hostelry) on the banks of the River Yare, that flows from Norwich to Gt Yarmouth.

          2. Tel’ no used to be Thurton 203.

            I was born in what is now their dining room.

          4. Worth a read, all Y’all.
            Interesting life, Sir Jasper has lived, and (I, at least) found the writing style engaging and easy to read.
            Recommended.

          6. Just the truth, Tom.
            I was always envious of those who can write. I can do a mean technical report, but who reads those for pleasure?

          7. I’ve found those books so easy to write.

            The Autobio, i just listed every address that I had been at (listed on a word processor).

            Then I went back, dredged my memory for everything that I could remember about that address, as a list of bullet points.

            Step three was to take each bullet point and turn it into a narrative of what happened. Voila, une livre.

            In total, it probably took me about 5 years to do it all – only working part-time.

          11. I might be mistaken, but that brought back a memory; I can’t recall the number but I do recall it was a party line and others could be listening in and one had to book a call..

          12. I have been there. I was taken there by a young lady (from Thurton) with whom I had a relationship many years ago. If I remember correctly Beauchamp is pronounced “Beacham” by the locals.

          13. Certainly is pronounced that way in Leicestershire. “Kibworth Beecham (Beauchamp)”, for example.

          15. It’s pronounced that way in Shrewbury (Shrowsbury or Shoesbury depending on which side of the river you come from); there was the Beauchamp Hotel, pronounced Beecham.

    4. For goodness sake, he’s only just five years old.
      He lives an goldfish bowl.
      His parents are on duty 24/7/365.
      Every time he picks his nose there are cameras on the poor little boy.
      Give him a break

    5. I think the papers use only those shots where he has a compromising expression.

      1. Very likely. Louis has a certain resemblance to Michael Middleton; let us hope that he has inherited some of his Grandpa’s down to earth stability too.

    1. Operation “warp speed” for the vaccinations was a Trump initiative, funny how the Trump hero worshippers don’t comment on that…

        1. Indeed.
          But the point is that lots of people were reacting, Trump included, and to all intents and purposes panicking.
          Trump is claiming his administration was triumphant, the truth is that there were many failures and mistakes.
          I was a great fan of Trump, I even contributed to his campaign funds, but he’s now badly damaged goods and the sooner he retires from the Presidential race the better the chances of avoiding a Democrat POTUS and for that matter Democrat control of both Houses.

          1. Surely, not even the Merkins, thick as they are, wouldn’t vote Demonrats again.

          2. Don’t you believe it.
            Free money?
            Yes please, give me lots…

            Put your X in the Demopox box and it’s yours

          3. Since their judicial system is based on ours, isn’t there something about bribery for votes?

          4. One huge difference is that judges can be elected by the locals, or if more senior, appointed by elected politicians.
            Bribery???
            who’d a thunk it!

    2. Well done Florida and Texas too.

      Where is the equivalent U.K. investigation and probing letter to the Minister for Health?

  80. A bit of a washout today though I actually managed to get the van washed for first time in nearly a year, including doing the roof before taking it down to the garage to have a new handbrake cable fitted tomorrow.

  81. Since I had no sleep last night and caught up on the Zeds in my charpoy from 08:36 to 13:06. I think I shall have to say Goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk; so that I might get some charp before 06:00 in the morn.

  83. Today we had a ride out to Stenshuvud National Park again .

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96e03c62273f256c99cf3f50814ae280689190eb9f308fca3a7bdb7ab22beefb.png

    We not only heard the first Thrush Nightingale of the year, I managed to get a record shot from distance of one skulking in the grass. I’d seen it through my bins and noticed its cocked red tail and drooping wings. I took countless shots but most were blurred since the twigs and undergrowth that concealed it as it foraged on the ground affected the camera’s focussing system, much to my frustration.

    Apart from that we saw (and heard) woodlark, lesser whitethroat, common whitethroat, blackcap (we particularly like the female), linnet, spotted flycatcher, wood warbler, redstart, green woodpecker, yellowhammer, marsh tit, goldfinch, wren, robin, nuthatch, and countless chaffinches, blackbirds an great tits. We spent considerable time at one area where breeding tawny pipits return annually. That other speciality of the reserve, scarlet rosefinch, was also absent. I was also disappointed to not see any of my favourite butterfly, orange tip, especially as this is a stronghold and May is the right time to see them. There are still no pied flycatchers, swifts, whinchats nor wheatears yet!

    In the garden, over the past week, we have had a spotted flycatcher and our returning pair of common redstarts has reappeared, hopefully to breed again. Yesterday we heard our first singing garden warbler of the year.

    There is a massive area of marshland at Stenshuvud that was wall-to-wall with marsh marigolds (kingcups). I’ve never seen so many in my life. The magnificent
    carpet of wood anemones and lesser celandines throughout the woodland has still not faded.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3fd1f77879a1242e530ba791b78fcf1567b06331cc2b7cb186a0ee2f41ca8d1b.png

    1. I admire your ability to hear the different calls and tell the birds from memory when seeing them.
      I have to double check with my reference books to be certain of what I see, unless they are regular visitors.
      I’ve stopped feeding “mine” because it’s time for them to repay my over-winter care by eating the weed seeds and insects that I don’t want in my vegetable patch and around the house.

      1. Thanks, but it doesn’t come easy. I picked up visual identification quite easily in my early days as a birder (and bird-ringer). This was mainly as a result of associating with other chaps who had far better identification skills than me. I simply took notice of them and learned.

        As for bird calls and songs: the common ones come fairly easily but I still struggle with the calls and songs of many annual visitors.

        1. I just bathe in the beauty here, we have so many birds that apart from July/August after the main breeding season when they seem to vanish (peace and recovery after their exertions probably?) there is an orchestral quality to the song.
          Even in the worst of winter we get glorious birdsong and woodpeckers tapping and owls hooting.

    2. Excellent. Saw an orange tip yesterday near the river, and they should be in the garden soon. A hen blackcap turns up here occasionally with that lovely rufous/chestnut hat.

  84. – Latest Breaking News

    Remainers release their new bus slogan

    Why spend £ 350 million a week on the NHS when we can fund the EU instead?

    Vote Labour

  85. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Now calling criminals ‘convicts’ is ‘offensive’. Instead they must be called as ‘persons of lived experience’ – even if they are murderers. Welcome to Porridge, 2023-style…

    Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought before this court and it is now my duty to pronounce sentence.

    ‘You are an habitual person of lived experience, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner.

    ‘However, since the offences to which you have admitted guilt are all considered to be non-violent, I must pass the maximum term allowed. You are free to go.’

    Welcome to Porridge, 2023-style. According to the woke bureaucrats at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) criminals must no longer be called ‘convicts’.

    Apparently, the term is deemed offensive. The correct way to describe them is ‘persons of lived experience’, even if that lived experience involves everything from armed robbery to murder.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-12073593/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-calling-criminals-convicts-offensive.html

    1. When I was an usher we were supposed to call defendants , customers. Didn’t happen in my court. Perhaps that’s why they closed it. 🙂

      2. When I was doing shopping for housebound/disabled/old people, for the council we were told to call them clients! My old man thought we sounded like call girls, and we continued to call them ‘old biddies’, or pet!

        1. The people who come up with rubbish must lead very protected lives with a lot perverted acquaintances.

    3. Evening, Maggie – and everyone. When I was in A&E yesterday a “person of lived experience” was handcuffed to two pollice officers while waiting to be triaged.

        1. Kind of you to enquire. I have a couple of broken ribs – painful, but not, thankfully, life-threatening.

  86. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Now calling criminals ‘convicts’ is ‘offensive’. Instead they must be called as ‘persons of lived experience’ – even if they are murderers. Welcome to Porridge, 2023-style…

    Norman Stanley Fletcher, you have pleaded guilty to the charges brought before this court and it is now my duty to pronounce sentence.

    ‘You are an habitual person of lived experience, who accepts arrest as an occupational hazard and presumably accepts imprisonment in the same casual manner.

    ‘However, since the offences to which you have admitted guilt are all considered to be non-violent, I must pass the maximum term allowed. You are free to go.’

    Welcome to Porridge, 2023-style. According to the woke bureaucrats at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) criminals must no longer be called ‘convicts’.

    Apparently, the term is deemed offensive. The correct way to describe them is ‘persons of lived experience’, even if that lived experience involves everything from armed robbery to murder.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-12073593/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-calling-criminals-convicts-offensive.html

  87. Two cowboys lost in the desert.
    One sees a tree covered in bacon. “A bacon tree!” he exclaimed, “We’re saved!”
    So saying, he rushes up to the tree and dies in a hail of bullets.
    It wasn’t a bacon tree, it was a ham bush!

    2. A cowboy from Canton, Connecticut,
      Once tried on his wife’s silken petticut,
      To say more would be
      As I’m sure you’ll agree
      A terrible crime against etiquutte.

      1. They say there’s a fellow in Norway
        Whose joke book’s a little bit awry
        The punch-lines cause panic
        In fact quite Germanic
        Quite funny, but ever so wordplay

    3. The Lone Ranger and Tonto are trapped in a narrow gorge. He can see the bows and arrows glistening in the sun. Injuns Tonto we’re surrounded !
      What chew mean we kimosabi ?

        1. I found an old forgotten joke book in our waste bin a couple of weeks ago. I’ve saved it. Erin must have chucked it out. It’s too rude for me to use here.

  88. A bloke tried mansplaining to SWMBO about what a sawhorse is, but she shut him up.
    She knows it’s the past tense of seahorse.

          1. Eddy is not a bugger and he’s not responsible for those saw (sore) goats.

            Nor their saw (sore) camels!

  89. The Scandinavian Marathon starts in Norway and ends at the Finnish line…

          5. Sorry, Sos, your earlier comment was hidden under “Show 4 new replies.”

  90. Phew!
    The weather turned out lovely this evening, so that’s another 8 bags of soil filled and, together with the 4 I did this morning, humped up to the Folly, tipped and spread!
    These light evenings do have their uses!

    1. Was supposed to be wet here on and off but it was sunny almost all day. Now, because I want to go to the shop tomorrow- cue the rain 🙁
      Saturday looks gorgeous, will sit outside and move the herbs out also.

  91. Well I’m orff now, how much difference that one answered phone today has made to my outlook.
    Good night all.
    And Thank you all for the kind support during this dire period of my life.

  92. Just having listened to Robert F Kennedy talk to Mark Steyn and to Colonel Douglas McGregor it is absolutely clear to me that the current administration in the USA has turned it into a rogue state.

    1. Like many Western states, there is now no pretence of governments working for their peoples. They work to their own agenda. Trump is one of the few who dares to dissent, so the might of the state is brought to bear upon him. Evening, good or otherwise..

    2. Painful to watch yet, we are supposed to be to blame for all this slave trade. Pah.

  94. Friday’s DT editorial:

    Ministers must avoid the whiff of defeatism

    Facing electoral defeat, the Government seems more inclined to tread water than to attempt to set out a bold conservative agenda

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 11th May 2023 • 10:00pm

    The era of free money is well and truly over, with the Bank of England raising interest rates yesterday to their highest level since 2008. The overly indebted might complain, but this is monetary policy returning to normality. Britain can no longer rely on money-printing and ultra-low rates to create an illusion of prosperity. The country will have to work a lot harder to secure economic growth.

    Unfortunately, the Government is in no mood to create the conditions to achieve this. As we report today, its economic strategy appears to be limited to importing vast numbers of migrants, mechanically flattering GDP figures. Having raised the tax burden to an intolerable level, there is already evidence that businesses are leaving the UK. Little effort has been put into making Britain more attractive through regulatory reform. If anything, the weight of red tape has grown since Brexit, reflecting a safety-first political culture in which risk-taking is judged to be unwise.

    This is one of the reasons the Government’s decision to reduce the ambitions of the Retained EU Law Bill is so troubling. It may well be the case that the Bill had become impractical, and it is plausible that the Civil Service proved resistant to removing EU laws from the statute book. However, the result is that the Government looks both defeatist and lacking in grip over the machinery of state. It becomes much harder to believe its promises of further deregulation to come.

    Sadly, this is part of a pattern. The country may be only a year away from a general election that present indications suggest will return a Labour-led government. Instead of using this period as an opportunity to outline a distinctive Tory agenda, ministers seem more inclined to tread political water. In the case of regulation, they appear terrified of upsetting the army of Left-wing campaign groups that denounce any change to environmental rules or labour law as heralding climate collapse or a return of the workhouse. Ministers rarely puncture such absurdities.

    Voters might appreciate the return of relative calm after the political storms of recent years. It is positive that the Tories are seeking to restore their reputation for competence. But the danger is that, by failing to get on the front foot, the terms of debate are being set by the party’s opponents. Is it any surprise that many Conservatives are left unenthused, wondering whether they are already living under a social democratic government?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/05/11/ministers-must-avoid-the-whiff-of-defeatism/

    1. Let’s not forget, who was Chancellor during the supposed ‘Pandemic’ and sought to find our economic way out by ‘Quantitative Easing’, i.e., let’s just print money to make up for any shortfall..

      If I remember correctly it was a person called Rishi Sunak.

      …and has he been flogged within an inch of life, and sentenced to life imprisonment for fiscal stupidity?

      No chance, he’s now been wangled into becoming our Prime Minister, not by party election but rather by stealth.

      Will I ever vote for this calumnious party in future – No effin’ chance.

      1. Sunak is a WEF puppet. He was not elected but selected to do whatever the globalists require.

        This explains some of the more stupid policies of our government in recent years. I am thinking of their disdain for President Trump and support of the dolt Biden. More recently our backing of the deposition of Imran Khan in Pakistan and his recent arrest in an election season. The reason of course because Imran Khan would not support sanctions against Russia.

        It is quite clear that our government is at one with a stupid US government composed of Obama retards (retreads) and its diabolical agenda. Just as the Americans have need to dispose of Biden, we in the UK need to dispose of our ‘conservative’ government.

        We should stop echoing the position of the US State Department. They are not our friends and Sunak is demonstrably a puppet and hypocrite. Pakistan should be left to make its own democratic decisions irrespective as to whether we support their global position.

    2. We haven’t left the Tories, the Tories have left us.

      They put time and effort into grovelling before “progressive” left wing pressure groups who wouldn’t vote Tory in a million years.

    3. We haven’t left the Tories, the Tories have left us.

      They put time and effort into grovelling before “progressive” left wing pressure groups who wouldn’t vote Tory in a million years.

    4. attempt to set out a bold conservative agenda .

      The real problem is that there are so few Conservatives in the Conservative Party and the cabinet have no idea what they’re doing.

  95. Friday’s DT editorial:

    Ministers must avoid the whiff of defeatism

    Facing electoral defeat, the Government seems more inclined to tread water than to attempt to set out a bold conservative agenda

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 11th May 2023 • 10:00pm

    The era of free money is well and truly over, with the Bank of England raising interest rates yesterday to their highest level since 2008. The overly indebted might complain, but this is monetary policy returning to normality. Britain can no longer rely on money-printing and ultra-low rates to create an illusion of prosperity. The country will have to work a lot harder to secure economic growth.

    Unfortunately, the Government is in no mood to create the conditions to achieve this. As we report today, its economic strategy appears to be limited to importing vast numbers of migrants, mechanically flattering GDP figures. Having raised the tax burden to an intolerable level, there is already evidence that businesses are leaving the UK. Little effort has been put into making Britain more attractive through regulatory reform. If anything, the weight of red tape has grown since Brexit, reflecting a safety-first political culture in which risk-taking is judged to be unwise.

    This is one of the reasons the Government’s decision to reduce the ambitions of the Retained EU Law Bill is so troubling. It may well be the case that the Bill had become impractical, and it is plausible that the Civil Service proved resistant to removing EU laws from the statute book. However, the result is that the Government looks both defeatist and lacking in grip over the machinery of state. It becomes much harder to believe its promises of further deregulation to come.

    Sadly, this is part of a pattern. The country may be only a year away from a general election that present indications suggest will return a Labour-led government. Instead of using this period as an opportunity to outline a distinctive Tory agenda, ministers seem more inclined to tread political water. In the case of regulation, they appear terrified of upsetting the army of Left-wing campaign groups that denounce any change to environmental rules or labour law as heralding climate collapse or a return of the workhouse. Ministers rarely puncture such absurdities.

    Voters might appreciate the return of relative calm after the political storms of recent years. It is positive that the Tories are seeking to restore their reputation for competence. But the danger is that, by failing to get on the front foot, the terms of debate are being set by the party’s opponents. Is it any surprise that many Conservatives are left unenthused, wondering whether they are already living under a social democratic government?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2023/05/11/ministers-must-avoid-the-whiff-of-defeatism/

  96. Goodnight Y’all. Husband cooked chili tonight and it was nice and the kitchen, for once, didn’t look as though Attila the Hun and his men had been through.
    Hoping to sleep but who knows- pain isn’t fun.
    Sleep well.

  97. Some of you may recall that I am working my way through THE 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE. Tonight I watched WAVELENGTH, an experimental film lasting 43 minutes directed by Michael Snow. I can honestly tell you that this film, available for free on YouTube, is the worst film I have ever sat through. If you don’t believe me then… No, ignore that, I wouldn’t wish the experience on my worst enemy. Also, I wish you all to know that I am unlikely to appear on this site tomorrow (Friday the 12th of May) as I shall be away for most of the day.

    So it’s a Good Night from me, chums, and see you all at some point on Saturday.

    1. Thank you for the warning Elsie, and I shall take care to die before seeing Wavelength…

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