Thursday 13 February: Human rights judgments that clash with the wider public interest

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

452 thoughts on “Thursday 13 February: Human rights judgments that clash with the wider public interest”

  3. Good morning everyone. No idea what it is like out there, I expect it is more of the dreary, porridgey same. I intend to return to sleep very shortly.

  4. Reeves replaces portraits of former PMs with art commemorating lockdown
    Paintings of senior politicians and royalty at No 11 axed in favour of artworks depicting social distancing and Covid anxiety
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/12/rachel-reeves-portraits-pms-art-commemorating-lockdown-uk/

    For those unable to read the story, here is an example of the art being replaced (left) with that on the right:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28ec1fa375b4c8d3453a261cc8dc6f05272d3fbfe07f3646ea38a1d50948bb98.jpg
    And here is Blower's take on it:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/53853c02c43f4ebb6d574552d9fc4a618e77b00184e61a7b9bc4c082048c77a3.jpg

    2. It is only temporarily her office. I'm surprised she has the time to muck about with the pictures.

    3. Morning all

      I reckon that glistening eyed chancellor is on the point of a nervous breakdown or psychotic, what on earth is she doing .. the art she favours is probably swooshed on by elephants or chimpanzees .

  10. Human rights judgments that clash with the wider public interest

    Everyone appears to have human rights except our right to have a free, democratic country with secure border and an environment safe from imported terrorism

    1. 401591+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,
      Then we really must stop the decades old trend of supporting & voting for pro mass uncontrolled / governing body controlled, morally illegal immigration parties, as in the lab/lib/con coalition party.

  12. Good morning, all. Grey but dry – soon off to the market.

    At least there is no news today.

  13. 'Morning All
    Medley Time
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31743c0cf74daad6a6a97c735775f31ac3763329f4cc75d2563209fd5e2ecdde.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0d6bc082e73d4cf3262b5959a152d98d0e28bd70f34ff8a5214514827eed912.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a85f17968268cc81dd1fd423b77192e0afd13d40bf2d5365d96f4437b8d9eb98.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59fb2f9af9fdf62f17d554867bd1fac3c6aaaed718a27b9316619dae366154b4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf1773809e898a40e8cb5eb9ecb52bb5b3fc121be86af76336bf0c74b2f4573f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01fa30046e54ac8b4032ff6a97810a2e9cea2fda863b773a96d0becbd91d0020.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbbce9472b16b4543c80beb55899fc791c4db47c89f7f94642973d8e2a3e70f5.jpg
    https://i.etsystatic.com/6431111/r/il/faff79/3211300061/il_1588xN.3211300061_blrr.jpg

    1. There are some truisms in that selection.
      Number three reminds me of a similar situation i found my self in some years ago.

  14. Telegraph View

    Judicial reform is now long overdue
    Sir Keir Starmer is right to say that Parliament should make the rules on immigration. It is within his power to make this happen
    https://archive.ph/ieKJZ#selection-2403.0-2427.136
    Another Bliar imposed disaster,the changes in the way judges are appointed has enabled activist lawyers to totally pervert justice in the UK

    1. The judge who allowed the Nigerian woman to stay BECAUSE she joined a terrorist group was a former activists for a 'refugee' charity.

      But the basic problem is the law and the sinister cleavage to the ECHR and the myth of the primacy of International Law.

    2. Good morning Rik

      I liked this comment re the letter written to the DT by Gregory Shenkman

      Pauline Maridor
      1 hr ago
      Gregory Shenkman

      I think we have been too complacent, we have imagined that our ancient democracy protected us from the tyrannies and excesses, but we were so wrong. Population explosion, economic vandalism…

      I wake up every day wondering how the heck this country ended up in this cul-de-sac.

      I know the UK has competent people, who could do a lot better, but how will they ever be drafted into service when the institutions are rotten?

      I pray for the coming of a true leader and a man of courage, who can bring sanity back into our politics.

      Politics has changed from left/right to a new politics of authoritarianism/freedom; both Labour and the Conservatives are pro authoritarianism and anti-freedom, a plague on both their houses.

      "The men whom the people ought to choose to represent them are too busy to take the jobs. But the politician is waiting for it. He's the pestilence of modern times. What we should do is make politics as local as possible. Keep the politicians close enough to kick them. The villagers who met under the village tree could also hang their politicians to the tree. It's terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today."

      G.K. Chesterton: Cleveland press interview (March 1, 1921).

    3. Unfortunately 'parliament' has become its own entity and has no interest in public opinion or even the outcome of their numerous actions and decision-making that is obviously causing many issues and long standing problems in the lives of the general public. The continuous insouciant behaviour of the political classes has almost brought this once reasonably happy country to its knees. Almost literally.

  15. Today we go to China for a look at cultural phenomenon that is dividing the nation and causing the CCP a great deal of concern and which has already led to violence. Zhang YingYue explains in her China's Dancing Aunties – Heroines or Hooligans? Let us know what you think of them, and whether or not we need them here.

    The Grumpy Old Git gripes about the English language and the mysteries of life in Speakin Inglish struck a chord with many – please tell us yours in the comments.

    Please look at our call for action to stop Labour cancelling the local elections and the equally unjustified rise in council tax, much of which is wasted on woke causes and inflated wages and pensions. If you haven’t done so already let us know if you would support a mass campaign of civil disobedience to stop all this.

    Energy watch 07.00 Total generation: 40.012 GW from: Hydrocarbons 57.3%; Wind 16.6%; Imports 3.5%; Biomass 7.7% and Nuclear 10.8%. Solar: 0. UK demand: 37.59GW, UK generation 35.95GW.

  16. SIR – You report (February 8) on Sharrington’s “David and Goliath” battle with BT to save the village’s only red telephone box.

    There had been a red telephone box on our village green since time immemorial, but it grew old, dusty and faded. I contacted the parish council and asked if it could be restored and turned into a library. Much to my surprise, it was removed and a brand new, very red and shiny telephone box was installed by BT. It worked for a fortnight.

    We have no mobile signal, 30 miles south of central London, so the telephone box is vital, especially for those playing cricket on the green beside it. I can only follow Sharrington and continue the fight.

    Deirdre Lay
    Cranleigh, Surrey.

    Seldom a day goes by when I do not rejoice my decision to leave the UK, especially during the past six months. During my residency here I have not experienced a single episode of having no mobile signal, anywhere in Sweden. Landlines and public telephone kiosks are now, largely, consigned to history since everyone conducts their business, in this day and age, on a mobile phone.

    The very fact that someone so close to a massive urban conurbation cannot receive a mobile signal, in 2025, is conclusive proof that the UK is on a rapid return to the third world. The ongoing mass importation of fighting-age young males from an enemy culture only reinforces my belief.

    1. I would love to have seen my grandchildren growing up in WA.
      Not the dump this country has been turned into. We live in hope it's all we have now.

      2. Despair – I can deal with despair; it's the hope I can't cope with!

        [John Cleese in Clockwise]

  18. Good morning all.
    Another dull and overcast, but at least dry start to the day with a tad under 3° outside.
    A slightly wider temperature spread for yesterday, from 2.8° to 5.5°C.

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    Chilly but a glimmer of hope for sunshine later.
    Let's be honest 'human rights' should apply to everyone and not only to those who seem to think they are in someway privileged and can't and will not appreciate other long established traditions and cultures.
    But of course it helps the ever circling swarm of lawyers fatten up their sacks. Which the public have to pay for.

  23. 401591+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Are we prepared to await the 2029 verdict ?

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021

    ·
    Feb 11

    Labour has 412 MPs (now 411) out of a total of 645. It can survive many more scandals like this without it making the slightest dent on their majority.

    Meanwhile their army of low IQ Marxists pretenders (how many of them understand Marx?) will continue their destruction of our country, it’s societal coherence, & our economy, for the next 4.5 years.

    Churchill called our system an “elected dictatorship”, & now it has abandoned patriotism we see it’s worst manifestation.

    In the 1920s Churchill argued for a proportional representation voting system (not many people know that 🤓). In our multi-party system that might have saved us from these Marxist clowns, but by 2029 we might be well beyond saving.

    Diane Abbott responds to ‘racist and sexist’ remarks about her in Labour MP’s group chat – Metro, https://apple.news/AXYIPiNArSdi5i …

    Abbott was among several targets in the 'Trigger Me Timbers' WhatsApp group.

  24. With the latest poll figures concerning the young generation's reluctance to fight for this country during a war, does it prove Norman Tebbit right all along when he faced a lot of opprobrium from the Left for saying this back in the day?

    In April 1990, he proposed the "Cricket Test", also known as the "Tebbit Test", when he argued that whether people from ethnic minorities in Britain supported the England cricket team (rather than the team from their country of ancestry) should be considered a barometer—but not the sole indicator—of whether they are truly British: "A large proportion of Britain's Asian population fail to pass the cricket test. Which side do they cheer for? It's an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?

    Well it seems that he was right all along and that mass immigration does weaken the nation state as a viable entity whereby the population feels that they have something in common worth saving and protecting.

    Something that the Left always knew, I guess and was always part of the plan for a world without borders led by a world government, a world government wedded to communist ideology.

    1. My grandchildren are aged between 18 and 28.
      There is no way I would want them to risk their lives for the shiitehole that is C21 Britain.

  25. Good morning, all. Overcast, again!

    I spent my first hour or so reading the thread posted on X by Danny Kruger MP, re the Assisted Suicide Killing Bill Committee's discussion.

    It appears, that like many others, I was of the opinion this Bill was proposed to assist terminally ill people in severe pain and distress to end their lives comfortably when all hope had disappeared. Not so, it now appears.

    BTL very supportive of Kruger's efforts and very wary of where this Bill is headed even before it has been passed in Parliament.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/83c009698d36a46d92fa99d863d9779ddc525c180f0987520c93984b14f9fe87.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c295d4a992471ec1c2543ea2817b1ba1cda3b9aa70aad11490b44769138a7566.png
    My contribution.

    https://x.com/bangerbloyce/status/1889941880231829584

  26. Pride in Britain? It’s history. Douglas Murray. 13 Febraury 2025.r

    A poll out this week found that only 41 per cent of those aged 18 to 27 are proud to be British. Frankly I’m surprised the figure is that high. After all, if you add together the immigration of recent decades and the concerted effort to demoralise the population that has gone on, that is exactly the sort of result you would expect.

    It has been achieved in a remarkably short space of time. In 2004, some 80 per cent of young people in the same age cohort said that they felt proud to be British. So within 20 years we have managed to halve our sense of national self-worth.

    What explains it? Perhaps I should get the most dangerous explanation out of the way first. One reason why a lot of young people won’t say that they’re proud to be British is that they’re not British – at least not in any meaningful sense. As of June 2023, around 18 per cent of the population of England and Wales was born outside of this country. So almost a fifth of the population is not from here. And that is before you get into counting the people who are second- and third-generation migrants to the UK.

    This is probably the greatest crime ever committed in these islands. It’s not as spectacular as the Roman Conquest or as gruesome as the Harrowing of the North by William the Bastard. Or indeed the aftermath of the Jacobite rising in Scotland. For all that it is as nearly a clean sweep in the genocide stakes as you can get outside Rwanda. The important thing is that it is not yet finished. Another twenty years and the British People will have vanished as though they had never been. This is not the doing of some World Conqueror but the actions of individuals within the UK’s Political Elites who, aided by their allies in the MSM, have lied and misled on a scale never before seen in the whole of history.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/pride-in-britain-its-history/

    1. IMHO our 'political elites' are acting on and under orders from the NWO. There's a distinct connection between other Westernised countries and recent events here.
      Now DT has reappeared on the scene and made it up with Vlad, let's hope for some thing good to surface.
      A clear out at Wastemonster would be wonderful.

  27. Why isn’t it considered racist to call someone ‘stupid and white’?

    Sam Kerr, the star striker for the Chelsea women’s football team, has been found not guilty of racially aggravated harassment, after she called a Metropolitan Police officer “stupid and white”. In court, Ms Kerr – who is of mixed race – did not deny saying those words. Indeed, there was video footage of her saying them, inside Twickenham police station. She did, however, deny that she was being racist. And, ultimately, the jury agreed with her.

    I was fascinated by this verdict. Mainly because I can’t help wondering what would happen if the roles were reversed. Imagine a white footballer were to be caught on film calling a policeman of Afro-Caribbean descent “stupid and black”. All of us, I feel sure, would agree that such a comment was racist. I can’t conceive of any possible defence for saying it. Yet calling a white policeman “stupid and white”, it would seem, is different, and can therefore be excused.

    Perhaps this story will be regarded as vindication by those on the progressive Left who have for years argued that there is no such thing as racism against white people. If I’ve followed their reasoning correctly, this is because racism is all about power and privilege. And so, because white people are more powerful and privileged than non-white people, the former can’t be victims of racism. Only the latter.

    Is that really true, though? Always? What if – to pluck an example entirely at random – we’re talking about a white police constable (starting salary £38,000) and a non-white famous footballer (reported salary £405,000)? Is the former really more powerful and privileged than the latter, just because he happens to have slightly lighter skin?

    Come to think of it, how far does this logic extend? Are absolutely all white men more powerful and privileged than absolutely all non-white women? Is a white, penniless alcoholic sleeping on the street more powerful and privileged than Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey and Beyoncé? And if a black female multimillionaire were to call a beggar a “white loser”, would we say: “This remark wasn’t terribly kind and compassionate. But on the plus side, at least it wasn’t racist”?

    For some reason, I’m not sure I can get my head round that line of argument. I find it very hard to understand. But then, perhaps this is just because I’m stupid and white.

    If Sam Kerr [rhymes with Wan Kerr] is of "mixed race" — presumably black/white — doesn't that make her "grey"?

    1. "Lefties still claim defo no two tier legal system.. if I said those three words and simply replaced one of them with the word black.. and I said them to a random little chav on the streets of London because I just watched him defecate in an alley.. I would get arrested.. i would get charged.. and i would go to prison for it. you know it.. and i know it."

      Matty Taylor The Angry Bootneck.

    2. I read an article in the Gurudian (just to hear the other side, you understand) and I thought I’d entered a different universe! Quite scary that self-professed intelligent people can hold such cretinous views!🤦🏻‍♀️

      2. Once or twice a year I try to read the Guardian and it literally revolts me. Honestly, its world view is repulsive and the fact it hosts people like Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Owen Jones, people who really do deserve to be called 'scum of the earth' makes me feel as if I have been contaminated by something degenerate and demonic.

    1. Including the current form in operation. FOAD.
      Now that my eyes are in good order I'm ready to battle with the admin barricade at the NHS for my long awaited knee operation.

        1. The ayes have had it. Job done.
          I thought if I converted to a certain religion, I could claim redress and compensation for not having the ability to kneel with out huge pain and added discomfort.

  30. Apparently the people of her home country now dislike her intently. She'll probably have to find some where else to live. The people of Perth WA are not behind her.
    And what an out of touch judgement.

  31. Morning Grizzly,

    Well you know what , we have a PM and deputy who took the knee for BLM.

    We are all sick and tired of venerating black lives , our history is being distorted .. They claim they rebuilt Britain , they claim they have more rights than us , every TV prog has a black figure , all TV adverts are aimed at Black advertising ..

    We are done for , and now annoyance is being replaced by anger , because we are now underrepresented ..

    The mucky b#### had vomited in a taxi , so I understand , and she refused to pay to have it cleaned .. and then the situation escalated so I have read .

    Bahhhhhhhhhhhh to all of them

  33. Good to see that integrity is important to some people.

    One comment claims this clip is two years old: why does that matter? I've just checked and the hotel is still trading as a hotel to the public.

    https://x.com/dave24144975/status/1889719554424578094

    Nothing too good for the Uni-party's 'guests'.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99ca89c585340a2fa27deb4d3f5cee70ef7fca14fcb453cf6ea1c1ee3e46686e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93184e24cac6eeaad465e2a4cfde208d115d2ef2341531d44b74a0e0149a5597.png

    1. Bigot. Home Office should double.. no triple the going rate. Everybody has a price.
      Failing that.. a compulsory purchase order.

        1. I think I took fright of them watching a Christmas Carol when I was very much younger. 1952 version.

      2. I love my four poster. Warm and cosy. When the wind is howling outside I can draw the curtains and shut out the world 😀

  34. Try kale when pregnant to get little ones to eat their greens.

    MOTHERS who want toddlers to eat their greens should snack on kale during the later stages of pregnancy, researchers have said.
    The scientists found that newborn babies showed a positive response to the smell of foods they were exposed to in the womb.
    The research, led by Durham University, studied the facial expressions of three-week-old babies whose mothers had regularly ingested either kale or carrot powder.

    Infants who had been exposed to carrot capsules swallowed by their mothers were observed reacting favourably to the smell of carrots. Similarly, those whose mothers had taken kale powder capsules while pregnant reacted positively to the vegetable’s scent.

    Prof Nadja Reissland, an expert in foetal and neonatal research whose work on the effects of smoking on unborn babies prompted headlines in 2015, was a lead author of the study. She said: “Our analysis of the babies’ expressions suggests they react more favourably towards the smell of foods their mothers ate during the last months of pregnancy. Potentially this means we could encourage babies to react more positively towards green vegetables, for example, by exposing them to these foods during pregnancy.”

    She said there was a tendency for weaning babies to be given sweeter foods, such as mashed carrots, pears or bananas, but babies exposed to more greens might develop a taste for them if the mother ate them during pregnancy. Prof Reissland added: “If the mother eats the bitter, healthy greens, that might get their children to like and accept them later.” Unborn babies have a very sensitive sense of smell, she said.

    The study of 32 babies from the north-east of England followed up on a 2022 research paper in which 4D ultrasound scans showed foetuses smiling when their mothers ingested carrots and grimacing when exposed to kale. For the latest study, the babies were only given swabs of either carrot or kale to smell, but nothing was put in their mouths as they were too young to be exposed to tastes.

    Scientists then analysed the video to monitor the babies’ reactions and compared them with those observed before they were born to understand the effects of repeated flavour exposure in the last trimester of pregnancy. The research team found that there was an increased frequency of “laughter-face” responses and a decreased frequency of “cry-face” responses to the smell the babies had experienced before birth.
    Dr Beyza Ustun-elayan, co-lead author, said: “Our research showed that foetuses can not only sense and distinguish different flavours in the womb but also start learning and establish memory for certain flavours if exposed to them repeatedly.

    “This shows the process of developing food preferences begins much earlier than we thought. By introducing these flavours early on, we might be able to shape healthier eating habits in children from the start.” The research, which also included scientists from Aston University and academics in France, has been published in the journal ‘By introducing these flavours early we might be able to shape healthier eating habits in children’.

    Yet more easily disprovable utter bilge on "nutrition" from the MSM.

    Young people have a natural aversion to eating vegetation since it is not a natural form of sustenance for the species. Vegetables are full of chemicals specifically designed for their own protection.

    Bitter flavours are nature's way of warning animals not to eat unsuitable foods. The very fact that children are "trained" to eat (and "develop a taste" for) vegetation is irrebuttable proof of the ever-increasing stupidity of mankind.

    Humans evolved as carnivores (despite the naysaying of the brainwashed who have no empirical proof of their own superstitions) and the advent of growing and eating grains and vegetation commenced the ever-increasing enfeeblement of what was once the planet's top apex predator.

    2. Good morning Grizzly

      I don't know if you ever watch GB News but they are currently running an advertisement for Biltong (or Jerky) a snack made entirely of meat. This originated in South Africa where it is very popular.

      Basil, our South African friend whom we met while sailing in Turkey, adored the stuff.

      2. Good morning, Rastus.

        Yes, biltong (and the similar pemmican and beef 'jerky') is available over here. Very tasty it is too.

    4. Hmm. No, we're omnivores. Our front teeth are for tearing and shredding meat, but our back teeth are for grinding. Look at a cow and a dog. Even Mongo, who eats mostly sausages has sharp teeth. I know as I cleaned them last night.

      Our diet should be both vegetables, fruit and meat.

      Although no one likes sprouts. Or cabbage. People who say they do are suffering from vegetable stock-at-home syndrome.

        1. The best Kimchi I have tasted comes from Poland and is sold in Sainsburys. It is made by VADASZ (look for the red band round the pot) and turns a boring omelette into a delish, tasty meal, especially if you mix some ham and cheddar into the omelette while it is cooking.

      2. Show me your empirical evidence for that. You have none. Obesity — a condition that you openly confess to suffering from — is caused by eating sugars and carbohydrates (which are sugar). These are only obtainable from fruit, vegetables and grain products.

        There are innumerable testimonials from people suffering from all manner of health conditions, all caused by eating crap, who have regained full robust health after reverting to being a natural carnivore.

        Since I ditched carbs and sugars I have become physically fitter and stronger, mentally more alert, and I now sleep like a log.

        Blindly following the "health advice" pumped out by those with a vested interest in selling you crap "food" will only alter your perception of reality.

      3. Show me your empirical evidence for that. You have none. Obesity — a condition that you openly confess to suffering from — is caused by eating sugars and carbohydrates (which are sugar). These are only obtainable from fruit, vegetables and grain products.

        There are innumerable testimonials from people suffering from all manner of health conditions, all caused by eating crap, who have regained full robust health after reverting to being a natural carnivore.

        Since I ditched carbs and sugars I have become physically fitter and stronger, mentally more alert, and I now sleep like a log.

        Blindly following the "health advice" pumped out by those with a vested interest in selling you crap "food" will only alter your perception of reality.

      4. Show me your empirical evidence for that. You have none. Obesity — a condition that you openly confess to suffering from — is caused by eating sugars and carbohydrates (which are sugar). These are only obtainable from fruit, vegetables and grain products.

        There are innumerable testimonials from people suffering from all manner of health conditions, all caused by eating crap, who have regained full robust health after reverting to being a natural carnivore.

        Since I ditched carbs and sugars I have become physically fitter and stronger, mentally more alert, and I now sleep like a log.

        Blindly following the "health advice" pumped out by those with a vested interest in selling you crap "food" will only alter your perception of reality.

    5. You may think this theory utter twaddle, Grizzly, but surely it's worth a try? We could get all pregnant women to eat three or four steaks daily in the final month of their pregnancy, couldn't we?

        1. If you alternate the steaks with pork chops, you would also prevent your child from becoming a Muzzy. And to be extra sure get your family a cuddly puppy dog instead of a toy teddy bear.

  35. Britons poorer as Reeves misses growth target
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/02/13/uk-economy-grows-starmer-recession-ftse-100-markets-latest/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/08baa2f69a800c7e6e3e209b8e693a5f4eb18636fb224bdda3e431a380df78c3.jpg
    THE SMIRK THAT SAYS :

    UP YOURS YOU PEASANTS!

    All is going to plan: no communist state ever came into being in a prosperous economy where the workforce is generally contented.

    Ergo if you want to install a Communist state – as Starmer, Miliband, Reeves, Cooper, Rayner, Phillipson, Hermer and many other members of the government undoubtedly do – then first you must set up the conditions in which communism will thrive.

    Reeves is doing just what Starmer and his colleagues want her to do and to make sure she succeeds in destroying the economy completely he is about to give away the Chagos Islands and many billions of pounds to Mauritius. And, as far as the peasants are concerned, he will ensure the destruction of British agriculture.

    1. Well I'm shocked. It's as if historical evidence that high taxes destroy growth isn't there. You'd imagine the thousands of volumes talking about how governments can create growth (they can't) and the negative effects of high taxes don't exist.

  36. Hi, I'm Gemma.. today's moronic Leftie lawyer & judge. I live in a safe neighbourhood, a remainer and I'm smug.
    I've never met a terrierist I didn't like..

    A Nigerian woman was finally granted the right to stay in the UK after trying and failing eight times. She joined a terrorist organisation to enhance her claim where her application was then successfully approved.
    .
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13f42b9754c215a095cd7501b0d95b050fdebdd0459489d89cd951c7d2ecd90a.jpg

  38. Morning all. That took some finding:
    Wordle 1,335 3/6
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  39. Reading the reports on the potential for peace in the Ukraine, everyone who is pro Ukraine and anti Russia seem to have forgotten history and the reason for the Russian invasion.
    In 2014 the CIA deposed the Russia-friendly President and installed Zelensky. He then imprisoned his political opponents and banned the Russian language. He sent a Nazi battalion to attack the Donbass where they slaughtered 14,000 Russian speakers.
    Putin then invaded to save those he considered to be his people. One could be forgiven for thinking this was organised by and for the military-industrial complex in the USA. They saw many $ signs.

    1. As well as the slaughter of Russian speakers in the Donbass in 2014 when the Democrat Obama was president, one of the causes of the war was the EU's, the US's and NATO's expansion eastwards which they had previously promised not to do.

      The hubris of Biden (another Democrat), Zelensky and Johnson in averting peace talks has led to the death of a million people.

      Had Trump been the president the war would never have started.

      1. Absolutely! I neglected to point out that pre 2014 Ukraine was considered to be the most corrupt state on the planet. It still is.

    3. You omitted to mention that Zelenskyy also has shot those politicians who wanted to broker a peace with Russia. That he also persecuted the oldest denomination, the official Church of Ukraine because it is part of the Russian Patriarchy. This is like persecuting American Episcopalians because they are part of the Anglican Communion.

    2. Nothing unusual there . . . traditional tribal warfare. The winners used to get to eat the losers but with the millions they earn get every week they can afford top class drugs and caviar.

  41. Well here we go again, 'the 'king' of Nigeria is in London taking the Shell oil company to court over alleged oil spills. It seems that the people's human rights are involved in the claim.
    But why are they jumping on the left wing lawyers band wagon in the UK
    and who is funding the process ?

    1. Obs we're paying the 'human rights' people because no one ever pays for their own righteousness.

    2. No oil = no money, little opportunity for dash (bribes). Unless Starmer gives the UK's "spare" cash to them, of course.

  42. Well here we go again, 'the 'king' of Nigeria is in London taking the Shell oil company to court over alleged oil spills. It seems that the people's human rights are involved in the claim.
    But why are they jumping on the left wing lawyers band wagon in the UK
    and who is funding the process ?

  43. The reason Putin went to war against Ukraine is because the EU, the American military chiefs and the British MI5/MI6 together with EU loving UK politicians wanted Ukraine to become a member of NATO and the EU in a continuing Cold War against Russia. The Yanks did the same when, after WW2, they set about destroying the British Empire. They were successful and they thought they could do the same with the Soviet Union. They partly succeeded when Gorbachev, who survived an attempted coup, resigned and Yeltsin oversaw its reconstitution into the Russian Federation.
    The Americans, together with the EU hierarchy, orchestrated the overthrow of the democratically elected president and the installation of their puppet, Zelenskyy and set in motion the incorporation of Ukraine into NATO and the EU.
    They poked the Bear and started a long and costly war. Costly in lives and hard earned money to the workers and tax paying peasants but very profitable to the armaments manufacturers and political oligarchs. A plague on all their miserable ambitions and aspirations!

  44. A belated Good Morning, chums. I was up all night and overslept. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,335 3/6

    🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  45. A belated Good Morning, chums. I was up all night and overslept. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,335 3/6

    🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  46. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14390589/Pictured-Grandmother-87-died-attacked-train-station-senseless-violence-woman-arrested-manslaughter.html

    Note that the man they want to speak to who was a witness has this description:

    "…He is described as a tall, white man in his early 30s, with a short goatee-style beard.

    Police said he wore a brown knitted beanie hat, black framed glasses, a black double-breasted wool peacoat, beige chino trousers, dark grey gloves, light grey scarf, black shoes and black rucksack.
    …"

    But the attacker, no doubt a diversity is just 'a woman'.

    Clucking bell. Everything but his ruddy shoe size but her? No. Can't admit the diversity are scum can we?

  47. Government Commits Itself to ‘Decolonising’ Kew Gardens

    The government has recommitted itself to woke plants. Defra ministers were asked in a parliamentary question why Steve Reed said new Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew need to have skills in “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.” Apparently that is “critical“…

    Minister Mary Creagh clarified that “Equality, diversity and inclusion are a priority for this Government, as they were under the last.” Nice dig…

    “Defra wants Kew’s Board to continue to have skills in those areas, in order for Kew to effectively implement their ten-year Manifesto for Change, which was launched in 2021. For example, one aim of the ten-year plan is to increase the number of visitors to Kew from under-represented communities whilst another is to train the next generation of plant experts, attracting a wide range of people to a career working in and with nature.”

    That 10-year plan includes a pledge to “decolonise” the plants collections by acknowledging and addressing “exploitative and racist legacies.” Its director said a priority is making sure “people do not feel intimidated by the Victorian wrought iron gates of Kew. At the moment we have too few role models from minority backgrounds” and that you could no longer say plants were “discovered” by western botanists. Just wait til they find out about invasive species…

    February 12 2025 @ 17:15

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

    What a madhouse this country has become. As for invasive species, there's a phrase you could write reams on…

    Inspector General in ordinary
    And we aren’t speaking about Japanese Knotweed…

    Any chance of the government decolonising Tower Hamlets, Bradford, Wakefield , Telford, Oxford, Bedford, Luton, Blackburn, Leeds, High Wycombe, Stoke etc?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fb540dcc99584c09d81d5137a244b8965c526153dc41832feeb8f5b9513edf7.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/559837f5cc1bae70b1351b6c6db2f8ab7575c0d7f3c9475248885d16bf4af65c.png

    1. Reed is a Jew hating gay boy married to his (unnamed) husband in 2022. He was the highest-ranked Labour politician in the Independent on Sunday 2010 Pink News List.

      1. He wasn’t “married “ and he just has a sodomite partner. Don’t let the deviants control the language.

          1. We don’t have to endorse a stupid law. It just encourages them. A civil partnership gives all the benefits of marriage but they weren’t content; they wanted to subvert the language and destroy the institution of marriage. Don’t let them.

    2. Reed is a Jew hating gay boy married to his (unnamed) husband in 2022. He was the highest-ranked Labour politician in the Independent on Sunday 2010 Pink News List.

  48. The last visit of the holiday today the Australian War Memorial Canberra, full of outstanding exhibitions which could take several days to see them all. The second photo is the view down to the Parliament from the War Memorial site.
    Flying home tomorrow 🙁
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0c736f2fd339a9425f9568eebdf73a1b1534aad8934dc3f4f24ffbfada30c469.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d5e1a36c950d1e29fc737f05790e52cc02b24bb8ce20e92fc9b5866b63fb6088.jpg

    1. Make sure you have your winter woollies handy. It's like stepping out into cold grey porridge here!

      1. So not to wear my shorts then 🥶
        That’s the problem coming here in Jan/ Feb, the shock of returning to the UK winter.

        1. It is sooo cold at the moment, bearable if dry but bitterly cold if the air is damp. We have had all-over cloud for days and days. Welcome home!

    1. Phew. False alarm it's Ok..

      Police say that the driver has been "secured on site" and poses "no further danger".

  54. Now.. we'll see who's boss.

    The proud righteous patriotic Mohammed Fahir Amaaz & Muhammad Amaad.
    against..
    The stupid & white Pc Zachary Marsden and Pc Lydia Ward.

    1. Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is alleged to have assaulted Pc Zachary Marsden and Pc Lydia Ward, causing them actual bodily harm. He is also accused of the assault of Pc Ellie Cook in the same incident at the terminal's car park pay station and the assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil, a member of the public, said to have taken place earlier at a nearby Starbucks café.
      Muhammad Amaad, 25, from Rochdale, is also alleged to have assaulted Pc Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

      The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, extended the defendants' unconditional bail.

  56. Morning all. Just dipping in before I go to the dentist. We had a good night’s sleep. Not a sound from either of them.

    The HRA is yet another destruction we can lay at Blair’s door.

    1. I hope you have your credit card with you Conners we have just finished paying for the dentists summer holiday.

      1. Yes I made sure I had the means to pay. Had to pay for the check up (all okay and no work needed) and a deposit (more than half) for the scale and polish. That’s gone up a fiver. Nice work if you can get it. Having the s&p on Monday. Winston didn’t want me to go without him and when I got back he was so delighted he yodelled for several minutes.

  58. At least 20 injured after car drives into crowd in Germany’s Munich

    A demonstration by the service workers’ union Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (five very rich and powerful trade unions allied to several EU organisations) was taking place at the time of the incident. It was not immediately clear whether demonstrators were among the injured.

    The weapon was a Mini Cooper – Obviously the work of an extremely far right British fanatic!
    https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/2025-02-13T110815Z_271239247_RC2MTCAWJNSO_RTRMADP_3_GERMANY-SECURITY-1739445328.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C541&quality=80

    1. Mini Cooper, owned and made by BMW in yer Deutschland.

      You can tell they are no longer made by BMC in the UK since they never rust!

      1. Allegedly there were two in the car and one was shot by police, before the crash.
        Make what you will of that explanation.

        Two men in the car, one was shot by police – eyewitness says
        German newspaper Bild is reporting eyewitness statements from the scene of the car hitting the crowd of people.

        The publication says one person claimed there were two people in the Mini Cooper, and that was one shot by police and carried away.

        The newspaper says it understands the police fired shots before the crash.

        https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/munich-car-crowd-injured-munchen-latest-updates-b2697528.html

    3. Police say the driver of a car which crashed into people in the German city of Munich is a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. Local officials say the suspect was known to police for theft and drug offences.

      That's alright then. It must have been an accident. He will be exonerated and put on a plane to join his friends and cousins in the UK.

    1. If a transgender man copulates with a transgender woman and the result is a child will the father be the child's mother and the child's mother be the father?

  61. Allister Heath
    A parasite is devouring the soul of Britain

    Labour’s virtue-signalling human rights vandals are seizing power – but the rest of us pay a terrible price

    12 February 2025 7:37pm GMT

    What happened? When did we finally lose the plot? When did Britain decide to replace our experiment in democracy with a tyranny of the human rights lawyers? I didn’t see any of this in the Tory or Labour manifestos.

    The immigration tribunals may as well be trolling the public; their rulings are incendiary. Palestinians living in Gaza have been granted the right to live in the UK despite applying through an online scheme designed for Ukrainians. An Albanian criminal has escaped deportation in part because his son dislikes the “type of chicken nuggets that are available abroad”. A Pakistani previously jailed for child sex offences has been allowed to stay in the UK because it would be “unduly harsh” on his children.

    These UK decisions push the ECHR’s strictures to new extremes, and seem designed to mock the law-abiding majority, to signal that a new juristocracy is in charge and that the public has no choice but to suck it up.

    Writing in The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense, the Canadian psychologist Gad Saad provides my favourite explanation of how this madness has come about.

    Just like people’s physical brains can be hijacked by brain-worms, their bodies reprogrammed to serve the parasites’ interests, our minds can also be infected by “ideological neuro-parasites”.

    These “idea pathogens” – wokery, relativism, communism – can cause as much damage as the physical variety, and lead to an outbreak of “suicidal empathy” of the sort crippling Britain today.

    An ability to understand the feelings of others is useful, but in this case empathy is pushed to an extreme and weaponised against the host, namely Britain. Victims are tricked into self-sacrificial and self-destructive behaviour by the canny ideological parasites that have taken over their minds, as with seemingly intelligent immigration judges willingly granting asylum status to criminals on the flimsiest of grounds, impoverishing Britain further at a time when Rachel Reeves has already run out of money.

    To make matters worse, suicidal empathy is a classic case of what Rob Henderson of the Manhattan Institute calls a luxury belief: supposedly avant-garde (but in fact idiotic) ideas that confer upon those who loudly profess them upper class status while harming ordinary people. These inane opinions are highly contagious, especially among naive, trendy or weak personalities; proponents tend to be insulated from their consequences, unlike the public as a whole.

    Keir Starmer, Lord Hermer and his gang of vandals are held in high esteem by the virtue-signallers, while the normies pay a catastrophic price in higher crime and taxes. The result is a gigantic and unforgivable Trahison des clercs, as the philosopher Julien Benda put it, a betrayal of ordinary folk by the clerisy.

    There ought to be a simple solution to this nonsense: a democratic revolution. The public hates ridiculous rules that put criminals before the law-abiding. They are aghast at the latest stories from the immigration tribunals.

    There are moments in history when populism is dangerous, when it leads to mob rule, demagoguery and fascism, but these days ordinary folk are, by and large, more liberal-minded and less prone to irrationality and hyper-emotion than the hyper-educated, such as your average human rights lawyer.

    The average punters’ views on gender, immigration and welfare are more sensible than those of the elites; this is a benign populist moment. People power is thus the only possible vaccine against suicidal empathy, the only way to inoculate the body politic against the spread of idea pathogens.

    The problem is that we no longer have a functioning democracy: too few politicians see their jobs as representing the interests and views of the electorate. The government is no longer in control of the apparatus of state, and many ministers are content with belonging to a Potemkin cabinet, to pretend to rule while officials, European human rights, ICC or ICJ judges, international bureaucrats, the OBR, the Bank of England or the Climate Change Committee take the real decisions. A permanent and unreformable bureaucracy pursues its own ends.

    Voters are furious at stories such as the chicken nuggets case, but the Government refuses to do much about it. Nothing changes, regardless of who they vote for. The ECHR is sacrosanct, a pseudo-constitution, outside of the political sphere, with anybody who dares to question the status quo beyond the pale. The ongoing Blairite project of the past 28 years helped empower a Blob that governs in the same way regardless of who is in office.

    The situation in America is similar to that in Britain, but Donald Trump gets it and has a plan to fix it. He appointed judges keen to return to a more literal reading of the constitution during his first term, forcing elected state and federal politicians to start taking responsibility again.

    Trump II will turn his sights onto the second, great pathology eating away at democracy: the emergence of an administrative state, replete with agencies and quangos, that believes that it is morally and legally entitled to ignore the entreaties of the executive. It is an unconstitutional fourth branch of government, and Trump wants to subsume it back into the executive branch he runs.

    The reason he hired Elon Musk to take a chainsaw, Javier Mieli-style, to the federal government wasn’t just to save money: it was also a declaration of war against the Blob.

    Musk put it perfectly: “If there’s not a good feedback loop from the people to the government, and if you have rule of the bureaucrat, then what meaning does democracy actually have?”

    Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage need to learn the right lessons. Badenoch has been too cautious on the ECHR. She needs to commit to leaving – and also to quitting other international bodies, including various UN conventions and the ICC. The Government, not the courts, must be able to choose which immigrants are let in.

    Farage’s challenge is to demonstrate that he could conceive and execute a Trump-style plan to destroy the Blob on Day One, and that he would be able to recruit senior outsiders to help with the gargantuan task of purging and reconstructing the state.

    We will soon find out whether we are living through the last gasp of a dying, authoritarian, elitist technocratic regime, or whether Britain’s democracy is truly finished.

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

      1. They would appear to be competing with each other to see who comes Top of the Class for Destructive Lunacy.

    2. Yeah great.. and yet Allister Heath still voted for the wet soggy Tories in GE24.
      Let me guess The Dud aka Kemi Badenoch is going to fight The Blob on day 1?

  63. WATCH: Starmer Cuts Housing Visit Short After Farmers Stage Protest
    https://youtu.be/_Ti-cbo9Emo
    Keir Starmer’s visit to a Buckinghamshire housing site today was derailed as tractor-driving farmers descended on the event, blaring horns and waving ‘Back British Farming’ placards. The PM was outlining plans for new towns when the demonstration kicked off, drowning out his speech to construction workers. He’s had to cut his visit short…

    13 February 2025 @ 11:13

    1h
    Well played the farmers.
    Starmer rarely goes out in public because he knows how unpopular he is. He should face loud protests everywhere he goes.

    He is more comfortable boarding private jets to faraway places with strange-sounding names.

    He got away with it the other day because Starmer was with the King.

    2. I bet Prince William will not have to sell 20% of Cornwall to pay Inheritance Tax on Windsor Great Park, and Sandringham etc, when his father dies.

      1. Well spotted – his parting is on the left hand side. Why has it been moved to the right.

        Let us hope there is a sublimal message in this – that he will soon be parting ways with with Downing Street.

    4. They'll have their bank accounts cancelled, be charged with obstruction – and, probably hate crime. Their farms seized….

    1. Lying grifter. She used the banks money to reward friends and curry favour. The worst type of employee if you have the misfortune to be one of her underlings.

      Her statement about leaving the bank on good terms is probably true because the bank avoids a scandal and they also got shot of her relatively painlessly.

    2. The whistleblower's complaint submitted by early 2009 was a six-page document laying out a range of concerns about an alleged spending culture in the Customer Relations department.

      It focused on the behaviour of three individuals: Reeves, Reeves's boss, and another senior manager in the department. Reeves's boss, who we are not naming, was responsible for signing off the expenses of the other two managers.

      The report and attached receipts and other documents seen by BBC News show Reeves was accused of spending hundreds of pounds on handbags, perfume, earrings and wine for colleagues, including one gift for her boss. Concern was also expressed about her spending on taxis and on a Christmas party. The whistleblower believed the spending to be excessive.

      After a call to the whistleblowing hotline, the whistleblower was instructed to hand in a physical copy of their report and supporting evidence, two sources said.

      A separate source, who contacted BBC News themselves in the wake of an article on the furore around Reeves's CV last year, was also aware that someone had blown the whistle on Reeves and another colleague.

      The report was passed to the bank's risk department and, at their request, was taken on by the Internal Audit department.

      A source who worked in risk at the bank told us: "Given the nature of the allegations – claiming expenses for things you wouldn't normally claim expenses for – and the relative seniority of the individuals, the matter was referred for investigation by a team outside of that department."

      The Internal Audit department, which had access to expenses claims and sign-offs, then assessed the complaint and supporting documents, according to two sources.

      It found that there was evidence of apparent wrongdoing by the three senior managers including Reeves, a senior source with direct knowledge of the investigation told BBC News.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg75jr5284o Read more , please .. about gifts etc

      1. She taught Cursed Harmer all he knows about taking freebies, that's why she's been appointed chancer of the ex-chequer

    4. I sent this to Henry – my son who writes Artificial Intelligence computer programs.

      His theory is that Starmer has been told by Gates and the WEF that a new chancellor is needed before the Spring Budget so that a new one can be put in place to accelerate Britain's re-entry into the EU.

      The story about Reeves nearly being sacked by the bank for fiddling her expenses has been about for some time but it is very significant that the Starmer-loving BBC is running with the story now.

      2. Wouldn't it have been great if the BBC and its cohorts had informed hoi polloi of all this corruption before the general election? But no, the great unwashed had to find out the hard way and they, meanwhile, gloat and snigger at their successful coup d'etat..

  66. Simon Schama wants you to shut up

    Story of Us is a futile attempt to unite the nation under the banner of BBC-approved orthodoxies.
    https://www.spiked-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-1196905464-1536×864.jpg
    Bradley Strotten
    12th February 2025

    When a BBC documentary about Britain’s postwar history is given a title as immodest as Story of Us, it invites two obvious questions. Who is it that’s telling our story? And who the hell are ‘we’, anyway? That it is fronted by Simon Schama, Ivy League professor and Cambridge graduate, probably tells you all you need to know before you’ve started watching.

    Story of Us is a three-part series on BBC iPlayer, which first aired on BBC Two last month. It promises to answer the question of who ‘we’ are as Britons, and asks ‘whether art, music and words can be the threads that bind us together’.

    Discovering the ‘story of us’ is apparently necessary because ‘we live in divided times’, as Schama portentously intones in episode one, as he overlooks the City of London from a nearby rooftop. In an ‘age of rising populism and tribal identity politics’, he says, we must look away from the ‘daily news cycle’ and the shouting matches of social media, towards the ‘beating heart’ of our society: our common culture.

    Not a bad suggestion, as far as it goes. But Story of Us completely misses the mark.

    A recurring theme in Story of Us is that rare moments of national unity are found when the country turns against tradition and against establishment values (or at least how Schama understands them). It begins with the 1951 Festival of Britain, which constructed a techno-optimistic vision for the country’s future on the bombed-out rubble of London’s South Bank. The festival’s modernist installations were then demolished by the Conservative government that was elected later that year, leaving behind a bubbling undercurrent of class-based resentments.

    The resentments, desires and feelings of the masses at odds with middle-class Britain would be crystalised in the hard-boiled prose of Alan Sillitoe’s 1958 novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Schama focusses on the 1960 film adaptation, starring Albert Finney, as emblematic of the period’s rebellious spirit.

    Schama lauds Finney’s immortal portrayal of the factory-working womaniser, Arthur Seaton, as ‘at last talking back’ against ‘British self-satisfaction’. Until then, postwar portrayals of working-class men tended to be celebrations of their wartime heroics or caricatures of simple folk looking ‘cheerful in adversity’. This was the 1950s equivalent to today’s BBC dramas that paint over the nation’s cracks with coats of ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’.

    Yet for all the glib celebration of Sillitoe lifting the national rug to make working-class people ‘visible for the first time’, Schama’s own vision of the unifying force of British culture is a sanitised affair. He completely sidesteps the complexity of the divisions he seeks to address.

    His championing of past working-class heroes sits uneasily with his own undemocratic vision of Britain – perhaps best summed up as a paternalistic nanny state that leaves little room for dissent. That Schama picks the 2012 London Olympics as a recent symbol of British ‘togetherness’ is telling. As Gareth Roberts once wrote on spiked, the opening ceremony was a victory lap for the widely hated liberal establishment. Its message could be boiled down to ‘just shut up’ – shut up about criticising ‘the possible downsides to uncontrolled mass immigration’, the ‘NHS and its funding model’ or the EU. Because doubting ‘our wonderful progressive hegemony’ would ‘make you a nasty person’, as Roberts put it.

    As if taking cue from these words, Schama warns us against ‘a voice that has got louder’ since 2012. That is, the voice challenging the sacred tenets of multiculturalism. While extolling the perceived virtues of cosmopolitanism in Story of Us, the masses who yearn for a coherent sense of nationhood are cast as irrational, ungrateful mudslingers. Far from unifying a divided society, Schama’s elitist ideas are precisely what is driving so much of the fragmentation.

    A story of 21st-century Britain wouldn’t be complete without the internet, which as the 2012 Olympics reminded us, rests on the ‘world wide web’ invented by Englishman Tim Berners-Lee. Yet Schama goes so far as to explicitly reject the democratisation that the internet has enabled. He tells us that ‘Knowledge and truth are under siege from people feeling they can say whatever the hell they like’. The door to participate in public discussion is open like never before, ‘but open to who?’, Schama asks.

    Ultimately, Story of Us appears to be less a celebration of ‘the gloriously contentious story of us’ and yet another exercise in talking down at the plebs who dissent from a BBC-approved worldview. Progressivism, multiculturalism and censorship are all championed. Meanwhile, those who may feel dislocated by these forces are presented as a danger to democracy itself.

    Common culture can indeed help to bridge otherwise intractable divides. But to do so, people have to feel included. For all its appropriation of working-class counter-culture, the Story of Us is really the story of Them: those ‘swivel-eyed swine’ at the top, as Sillitoe described them. ‘The bastards who are grinding us down.’

    1. Anyone who needs to define what being British is doesn't understand why the question never needs to be asked by British people.

      1. British isn’t English. Holding a passport doesn’t give any connection to a shared history or experience.

        1. I think being "British" is much wider than mere place of birth or residence, or which passport someone holds. It goes into antecedents, mindset, culture and an attitude. It is to my mind similar to what German was to people before Germany existed after they ousted the French in the 1870s. Being German was associated with a people who were part of the Holy Roman Empire with a common tongue which was centuries in making. Being British is much deeper than mere physical attributes.

          1. I am not British I am English. My roots and culture are deeper than a mishmash called British for convenience.

          3. "British" is now reduced to a piece of paper.
            The Romans did the same thing. It did not end well.

        2. I think being "British" is much wider than mere place of birth or residence, or which passport someone holds. It goes into antecedents, mindset, culture and an attitude. It is to my mind similar to what German was to people before Germany existed after they ousted the French in the 1870s. Being German was associated with a people who were part of the Holy Roman Empire with a common tongue which was centuries in making. Being British is much deeper than mere physical attributes.

        3. Quite agree .

          Winston's pedigree will be impeccable .. You know he is Beagle , and has a long line of Beagles before him .. and I suspect he has a very long pedigree .. because a Beagle is a Beagle is a Beagle …

          As I am me !
          And you are you .

          3. Our labrador's heritage included Sandringham Sailor – you couldn't keep her out of the water..

  67. Simon Schama wants you to shut up

    Story of Us is a futile attempt to unite the nation under the banner of BBC-approved orthodoxies.
    https://www.spiked-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GettyImages-1196905464-1536×864.jpg
    Bradley Strotten
    12th February 2025

    When a BBC documentary about Britain’s postwar history is given a title as immodest as Story of Us, it invites two obvious questions. Who is it that’s telling our story? And who the hell are ‘we’, anyway? That it is fronted by Simon Schama, Ivy League professor and Cambridge graduate, probably tells you all you need to know before you’ve started watching.

    Story of Us is a three-part series on BBC iPlayer, which first aired on BBC Two last month. It promises to answer the question of who ‘we’ are as Britons, and asks ‘whether art, music and words can be the threads that bind us together’.

    Discovering the ‘story of us’ is apparently necessary because ‘we live in divided times’, as Schama portentously intones in episode one, as he overlooks the City of London from a nearby rooftop. In an ‘age of rising populism and tribal identity politics’, he says, we must look away from the ‘daily news cycle’ and the shouting matches of social media, towards the ‘beating heart’ of our society: our common culture.

    Not a bad suggestion, as far as it goes. But Story of Us completely misses the mark.

    A recurring theme in Story of Us is that rare moments of national unity are found when the country turns against tradition and against establishment values (or at least how Schama understands them). It begins with the 1951 Festival of Britain, which constructed a techno-optimistic vision for the country’s future on the bombed-out rubble of London’s South Bank. The festival’s modernist installations were then demolished by the Conservative government that was elected later that year, leaving behind a bubbling undercurrent of class-based resentments.

    The resentments, desires and feelings of the masses at odds with middle-class Britain would be crystalised in the hard-boiled prose of Alan Sillitoe’s 1958 novel, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Schama focusses on the 1960 film adaptation, starring Albert Finney, as emblematic of the period’s rebellious spirit.

    Schama lauds Finney’s immortal portrayal of the factory-working womaniser, Arthur Seaton, as ‘at last talking back’ against ‘British self-satisfaction’. Until then, postwar portrayals of working-class men tended to be celebrations of their wartime heroics or caricatures of simple folk looking ‘cheerful in adversity’. This was the 1950s equivalent to today’s BBC dramas that paint over the nation’s cracks with coats of ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’.

    Yet for all the glib celebration of Sillitoe lifting the national rug to make working-class people ‘visible for the first time’, Schama’s own vision of the unifying force of British culture is a sanitised affair. He completely sidesteps the complexity of the divisions he seeks to address.

    His championing of past working-class heroes sits uneasily with his own undemocratic vision of Britain – perhaps best summed up as a paternalistic nanny state that leaves little room for dissent. That Schama picks the 2012 London Olympics as a recent symbol of British ‘togetherness’ is telling. As Gareth Roberts once wrote on spiked, the opening ceremony was a victory lap for the widely hated liberal establishment. Its message could be boiled down to ‘just shut up’ – shut up about criticising ‘the possible downsides to uncontrolled mass immigration’, the ‘NHS and its funding model’ or the EU. Because doubting ‘our wonderful progressive hegemony’ would ‘make you a nasty person’, as Roberts put it.

    As if taking cue from these words, Schama warns us against ‘a voice that has got louder’ since 2012. That is, the voice challenging the sacred tenets of multiculturalism. While extolling the perceived virtues of cosmopolitanism in Story of Us, the masses who yearn for a coherent sense of nationhood are cast as irrational, ungrateful mudslingers. Far from unifying a divided society, Schama’s elitist ideas are precisely what is driving so much of the fragmentation.

    A story of 21st-century Britain wouldn’t be complete without the internet, which as the 2012 Olympics reminded us, rests on the ‘world wide web’ invented by Englishman Tim Berners-Lee. Yet Schama goes so far as to explicitly reject the democratisation that the internet has enabled. He tells us that ‘Knowledge and truth are under siege from people feeling they can say whatever the hell they like’. The door to participate in public discussion is open like never before, ‘but open to who?’, Schama asks.

    Ultimately, Story of Us appears to be less a celebration of ‘the gloriously contentious story of us’ and yet another exercise in talking down at the plebs who dissent from a BBC-approved worldview. Progressivism, multiculturalism and censorship are all championed. Meanwhile, those who may feel dislocated by these forces are presented as a danger to democracy itself.

    Common culture can indeed help to bridge otherwise intractable divides. But to do so, people have to feel included. For all its appropriation of working-class counter-culture, the Story of Us is really the story of Them: those ‘swivel-eyed swine’ at the top, as Sillitoe described them. ‘The bastards who are grinding us down.’

  68. Apropos the Munich "incident", one would have thought that if one really WAS an asylum seeker – trying to kill crowds of people might not advance ones case….

    1. He was hoping for a ticket to Jahhah. Jannah is paradise, a garden of everlasting bliss and the home of peace. A bit like Bradford if you are a Muzzie.

    2. It was an isolated incident. No further threat to the general public.

      He was having a psychotic interlude because his medicines didn't arrive in time.

      He can't be deported back to Afghanistan because his pet goldfish would suffer.

    3. On the plus side, I have learnt the German for "Prevent".
      No doubt the peaceful chap was discharged by "Verhindern" because he presented no threat.

  69. It is clear that motor vehicles cause far more death and injury than pointy knives – so, let's BAN CARS.

    1. Don't give the cretins ideas – given the rules about EVs they are surely well on their way anyway!?

  70. Brace yourself Rachel.. & EU.

    'Today is the big one': Trump reciprocal tariffs coming today..
    in a few minutes.

  71. Brace yourself Rachel.. & EU.

    'Today is the big one': Trump reciprocal tariffs coming today..
    in a few minutes.

  72. Oh dear Ukraine..

    No, not the war against Russia.. the psychos are eyeing up your county as a dumping ground.

    Ukraine Faces Population-Replacement With Third-World Migrants After The War
    Employers and big capital are already suggesting that the “only solution” is for mass immigration of Third-World migrants.

    2. Employers and big capital are already suggesting that the “only solution” is for mass immigration of Third-World migrants.

      Well done Starmer, you have found a way of returning Britain, to the British

      I know

      NURSE

      1. Sure thing..
        after they've emptied Nigeria 223 million, Ethiopia 126 million & Congo 102 million.

    3. Ukraine is a big country. They could certainly take 200 million third world savages. I wouldn't bother rebuilding it first though.

      I wonder what they will do without women though…

    4. Plenty of room for all the Palestinians in the world, and they could be offered their own state to tunnel under to their hearts' content.

      1. Well.. that's the dea. Trump has made it clear.. he wants the rare earth minerals that CCP has just blocked exports in return for peace.

    6. According to some Times journo, Vlad will be declaring war on Nato in 5 years. They are really disappointed that the Don is going to stop the slaughter in Europe.

    2. Perish the thought that he should actually meet his critics and have a face to face discussion.
      Bloody wimp.

    3. 401591+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Up date,
      He had to be airlifted to safety, what other politico would suffer such an overdose of loving.

    4. He scuttled away like a cockroach rather than speak to the farmers. And a helicopter was fetched for him! Money (and green ethics) no object to the kneeler. What a cowardly disgrace he is.

      2. Taking the remarks down there Oberst. I was just enjoyong the fresh air in Montgenevre at 1850m. All arms and legs intact.

        1. Nice!
          I have ski prep at the weekend, we're away for a few days in the mountains next week – about 800m height, so you beat me on that!

        1. Pedant alert; it's Aer Lingus – but you'd have to have been a cunning linguist to know that….

    2. That 'bob' hairstyle suits some women but it makes her head look like a glans penis.

      Who said that you cannot have a female dickhead (or a woman bell-end)?

    3. A disgraced minister of the church. Give it a couple of years and he will be on the board of a renewable energy company. Or even the CEO of Bank Of England.

  77. Hillbilly Moms Letter

    Dear Son, I'm writing this slow 'cause I know you can't read fast.
    We don't live where we did when you left.
    Your dad read in the paper that most accidents happen within twenty miles of home, so we moved.
    Won't be able to send you the address as the last Arkansas family that lived here took the numbers with them for their house, so they wouldn't have to change their address.
    This place has a washing machine. The first day I put four shirts in it, pulled the chain and haven't seen 'em since.
    It only rained twice this week, three days the first time and four days the second time.
    The coat you wanted me to send to you, Aunt Sue said it would be a little too heavy to send in the mail with them heavy buttons, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets.
    We got a bill from the funeral home, and it said if we didn't make the final payment on Grandma's funeral bill, up she comes.
    About your sister, she had a baby this morning. I haven't found out whether if it is a boy or girls so dont know if you are an Aunt or Uncle???
    Your Uncle John fell in the whiskey vat. Some men tried to get him out, but he fought them off playfully, so he drowned.
    We cremated him and he burned for three days.
    Three of your friends went off the bridge in a pickup.
    One was driving and the other two were in the back. The driver got out. He rolled down the window and swam to safety.
    The other 2 drowned. They couldn't get the tailgate down.
    Not much more news this time.
    Nothing much happened. If you don't get this letter, please let me know and I will send another one.
    Love, Mom

  78. 401591+ up ticks,

    Really that could include 99% of the indigenous population at one time or another.

    Monday morning, raining , hungover, on the way to work report your feelings to your nearest "thought guardian" it will have you whisked to the nearest
    council shower and made casket presentable, before you can sat starmer is a …….

    https://x.com/SandraWeeden/status/1890042151716954330

    1. It just so suits the agenda. Give the useless eaters easy suicide.

      The committee clearly has no idea of history.

      When it blows up in their faces they are the ones who won't have a 'kindly' injection.

      They will be the ones swinging from lamp posts by their ankles.

      If they are lucky.

        1. They will have to exonerate Dr Shipman if this bill becomes law. He did no more than what is proposed.

      1. Reminds me of a line in a film with Walter Matthau playing the part of a doctor in a hospital asking a bad nurse:

        "Where did you do your training, Dachau?"

        I imagine that that line has been edited when the film is shown these days….

  79. Back from a lunchtime leaving do! Not many people left at my old office now who were there when I was there. Different office, different staff but still a few familiar faces, plus the two other retirees who went. Anyway, we were made welcome and there was plenty of food!
    Also just ordered a new Kindle reader – had the old one for 12 years so it didn't do too badly. Hopefully the new one will be a bit easier on the eyes than reading on my phone.

  80. RFK Jr confirmed as health secretary

    RFK Jr has been voted in as health secretary and is the latest of Trump's nominees to be selected for their chosen roles.
    He was approved by 52 to 48 votes.
    As a reminder, some of his priorities include tackling obesity and cutting out ultra-processed foods.

      1. I don't know about Mr Trump but I guess a lot of folk in the UK would vote to down Tools….(as he is disrespectfully known)

  81. Wordle No. 1,335 3/6

    🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 13 Feb 2025

    A boogie Birdie Three?

    1. Back to more divots

      Wordle 1,335 4/6

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

    2. Another par for me. That’s why it’s par of course.

      Wordle 1,335 4/6

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

    3. Well done. Me too with a birdie. Took a while to arrive at the answer though.

      Wordle 1,335 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. A strange collection of letters led me to believe I had it nailed in 3 (after much consideration) – Alas, no, just another par….
      Well done on your birdie!

      Wordle 1,335 4/6

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

  82. So as another entirely avoidable atrocity occurs in Munich, the powers that be take on Inspector Clouseau levels of naive detective work to avoid saying the reasons for what occurred because it is all down to political ideology to swamp the West with diversity and destroy western identity for their new world order.
    I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t do a Labour and cancel their upcoming elections.

  84. Hooray, summer's a coming.

    A large flight of cranes 200+ has just passed over.
    I'd heard them a few days ago but these were the first I've seen.
    They were late leaving but slightly early arriving.

    1. I learnt to drive a crane (Coles Crane) in 1950 at RAF Abu Sueir. Great fun. I was allowed to do so after I had mastered reversing, first a
      45 ft then, a 60 ft "Queen Mary" between goalposts. I imagine the elfin safety etc etc uproar if a 9 year old did that today!!!

  85. That's me gone for yet another miserable day. None of the promised sun, of course. The only good thing was the lack of any breeze. Successful market trip and buying eggs from a local farm.

    Then a day indoors again. There may be sunshine on Sunday. Or not.

    Have a spiffing evening – I am about to have a glass or three.

    A demain.

    1. It's been 3 degrees C here today and dark and dull, Bill. I have a fruit tree to put in, but I'm waiting for reasonable conditions to do it.

          1. But he still needs his 15 mile walk. Every day!
            I took my late hound, Robinson, on a walk along Peddars Way – some 15 miles – he managed to do double that by going forward and back and hither and yon.
            When we reached the end – it was the only time I saw him lie down and say, “No more!!” Next day h was up for the same. Fortunately, round here there are lots of walks of several miles and (then, anyway) virtually no traffic.

            Give him a pat from me. Robinson live for 15 years and 7 months which is a very long life for a beagle.

          2. I will. Winston seems to be happy with a mile or so, which is all I can manage. He does, however, run around the garden a lot.

          4. He's getting through my stock of bones at a great rate of knots. I shall have to stock up again.

      2. We have a morello cherry to plant – plus a couple of azaleas.
        A job for impoverished grandson.

    1. Yes. The govt can call in the currency any time. And your bank balance is an unsecured loan by you to the bank. The government allegedly guarantees it.
      Money is gold and gold is money…

      1. Except it's a commodity.
        Money never dies.. currencies die. Some call it the veneer of capitalism on a coffin of socialism.

        2. The final currency, when the shit's hit the fan, will be food. A tin of baked beans will be the coin of the realm.

          1. Food, water, shelter, community, skills, stuff to barter with, security to get through SHTF – gold for wealth transfer over to the other side.

          2. I’m not sure the current human race would get through any real loss of power without descending to early Middle Ages status. Parts of Africa (without being in any way derogatory) might not even see a difference.

          3. I was talking about this with my Turkish colleague today. He was pondering what to do about various loans on properties. I said, how did your family get through the last financial crisis in the 20s/30s? He said, we were in the village in Turkey, own land for food, no debts. That’s the answer of course, be as far outside the financial system as possible. People in the west invest their entire life’s energy into a system run by crooks and psychopaths at the top.

  88. Why has it taken so long to come to trial?

    Two brothers have denied assaulting police officers in a fracas at Manchester Airport as they made their second appearance in court today.

    Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammed Amaad, 25, appeared at Liverpool Crown Court over the incident at the airport's Terminal 2 on July 23, 2024.

    Amaaz, 20, of Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is alleged to have assaulted PC Zachary Marsden and PC Lydia Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.

    He is also accused of the assault of PC Ellie Cook in the same incident at the terminal's car park paystation.

    Amaaz is further accused of the assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil, a member of the public, said to have taken place earlier at a nearby Starbucks cafe.

    Amaad, also from Rochdale, is also alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

    This morning, both defendants appeared in court where they entered not guilty pleas. A trial, scheduled to last three weeks, has been fixed for June 30 at the same court.

    The Honorary Recorder of Liverpool, Judge Andrew Menary KC, extended the defendants' unconditional bail.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14392671/Brothers-plead-not-guilty-assaulting-police-Manchester-Airport.html

    If these had been white men attacking coloured police officers I very much doubt they would be out on bail.

  89. So Labour are planning to build towns all over the countryside where there is no employment opportunities, no local manufacturing or industry, no local resources or cheap energy while expecting them to thrive.
    It will be like planting an orchard in a desert

    1. They are planning to build ghettos for incomers. They won't need employment as they won't work anyway.

    2. I like Musk a lot, but I believe he has to be handled carefully – he's off the scale on 'the spectrum' (mind you, most of them at that level are).
      I still think it will all end in tears……more's the pity…..

      1. It was the contrast that got me. Musk is very rich from his business acumen. Reeves is a troughing waster who cheated on her CV. If she couldn't steal other people's money she'd a stacking shelves.

        1. Good points. Musk, despite his CV, has never invented anything in his life – what he does do, though, is absolutely maximise the potential of any business he is involved with – and he’s by far the best I’ve ever seen at doing that!

          3. Nah – he’s not on our side, he’s on his side – it just so happens that a lot of what he does chimes with people like ourselves.
            I repeat I support a lot of what he does and has done, but he also seems to enjoy sacking people a little too much for my liking…..

  92. I get regular updates from Ofcom (part of keeping my eye on the spectrum for radio hams). Guess which was the most complained about internet provider. I added another one to their pile last night.

      1. I'm surprised you say that – although I do understand people have different experiences – I once asked a top electrician (main man for Greater Manchester Police) who was the best internet provider and he said BT – in an instant – their hardware was infinitely superior to anyone else's, and that is my experience! Maybe I've been lucky……

        1. Yes mostly I think. When they came to install a new fibre roadside junction box they managed to swap our line for a neighbour's and it took them a whole week to sort it. In the meantime we got their calls and they got ours and no Internet access.

        2. All but Virgin Media cables here. I tried to obtain a quote from them – they're on this small estate. I was ignored. Twice.

          My broadband comes fromVodafone, via Openreach elderly copper wires between me and the FTTC caninet, which I beieve is somewhere in Surrey.

          For some inexplicable reason, none of the main mobile networks work here. Hence I rely on WiFi Calling. When it works…

  93. DT's Madeline Grant on Stoma's visit to see some real people.
    "The PM wasn’t in Westminster today but instead, in a one-man Alan Partridge tribute act, was being chased around a construction site by some enraged farmers."
    But surely, Stoma supports his Chancer's policies. Why didn't he discuss them with the farmers? His golden tongue would soon have converted them to his way of thinking.

  94. No alcohol at all will be allowed at 2034 World Cup, Saudi ambassador tells LBC..

    Lefties wince then nod vigorously.
    "Everyone has their own culture. We're happy to accommodate people within the boundaries of our cultre. But we don't want to change our culture for someone else."     says His Royal Highness Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud.
    BUT, but but..
    in England Lefties demand you to accept guys marrying their cousins.. even illegal things.. mutilating little girls. They're all for it.

    2. I think he's just sold him self down the river. Then Football experience has gone down the drain in recent years and I can't imagine many people spending thousands on flights and accommodation and turning up to watch any of it. But Will the Saudi team play in white skirts and wear headbands ?

  97. Probably. Charlie was a digger; I had to put slabs along the fence to stop him tunnelling underneath.

        1. I do like my reptiles, Belle. Not so keen on spiders, despite some of them being very beautiful.

  99. The belief that we can save the planet by the UK reducing it's carbon production to insignificant levels whilst the rest of the developing world churns out more fossil fuel carbon into the atmosphere than ever before is a bit like trying homeopathic medicine, and expecting a miracle cure, I suppose.

    1. 'Climate change' has nothing to do with ecology or the environment. It's a control system to prevent you doing what you want to do, when you want to do it.

      It is socialism.

  100. A Ghanaian tourist was granted the right to live in Britain under Brexit marriage rules – even though she did not attend her own wedding.

    Francisca Boateng, 42, won her immigration appeal after claiming that her “proxy” marriage to a German citizen living in Britain had lasted long enough to qualify her to remain in the UK.

    Ms Boateng had come on holiday to Britain where she met Fatao Sualihu, a German citizen, before returning home to divorce her husband at the time.

    She then organised the “proxy” wedding in Kumasi, Ghana in December 2018 that neither she nor her new husband attended.

    She moved to the UK with her two children to join her new husband, but the marriage broke down within 15 months and she instituted divorce proceedings, which concluded in January 2022.

    Because the marriage lasted three years from the date of the proxy wedding, she was entitled to claim UK residency under the terms of the Brexit deal’s EU settlement scheme.

    This was because her husband, as a German national, was eligible for settled status, enabling her to claim the same right to residency.

    This was despite the fact that they did not formally wed and sign a marriage certificate until three weeks later, which would have put them below the three-year time limit.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/13/ghanaian-tourist-granted-asylum-after-proxy-marriage/

    1. The judiciary are taking the piss, aren’t they? And rubbing our noses in the fact that we can’t stop them. At least not without stringing them up.

  101. I'm off to bed.
    I've an auction pickup from near Joderall Bank tomorrow so will be dropping down to see stepson afterwards.Good night all.

  102. Turning in very soon, eye drops to administer and plastic shield to tape in place. Good night all 😴

    2. DON'T FORGET THE DROPS – VITAL

      I had a friend who "couldn't be bothered". She is now with half vision and mandatory drops four times a day every day until she dies.

      1. I’m a stickler for obeying medical guidance.
        Except when I’m being fobbed off on my 6 year wait for a knee operation.

  103. Charity worker, 45, caught with sickening videos of people having sex with FISH is spared jail
    By JOSE RAMOS

    Published: 09:53, 13 February 2025 | Updated: 09:58, 13 February 2025

    A 45-year-old charity worker who was caught with sickening videos of people having sex with a fish has been spared jail.

    Hamed Faris was sent the videos by a so-called friend showing a person having intercourse with a live animal, including a fish, chicken, dog and monkey.

    Prosecutor Thomas Wickstead told North Staffordshire Justice Centre: 'They were videos, not images, which is an aggravating factor.

    Faris was sentenced to an 18-month community order with a rehabilitation activity requirement for 15 days and 80 hours unpaid work.

    He was made the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for five years but was not placed on the sex offenders' register and was ordered to pay £85 costs and a £114 surcharge.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14392949/Charity-worker-videos-sex-FISH.html

    1. Not sure what to say, Belle. This could set off a fishy pun session on a scale never seen before.

      1. She's just recovered from her operation – she had a strapadictomy – which explains her joyous countenance……

    1. In Norway, you are not allowed to keep weapons outside of the house – such as in your shed. Not secure enough.

  108. Well, chums, bed beckons, so I'm up the stairs to Bedfordshire. Good Night all, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow. PS – Just before I go, I can't wait up for Conway and his two chums, so here it is in advance: "Good Night, Conners – and Kadi and Winston".

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