Thursday 13 March: No farmer is safe as long as policy is made by clueless Labour urbanites

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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532 thoughts on “Thursday 13 March: No farmer is safe as long as policy is made by clueless Labour urbanites”

  2. Channelling a certain Indian, I think that free trade would be a good idea. But we must take the world as we find it, not as we might wish it to be.

      1. https://www.twincitiesindianmotorcycle.com/–inventory?condition=new&condition=pre-owned&make=indian%20motorcycle%C2%AE&pg=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=OG_FY_IM_GOOG_SEARCH_PMAX_LEADS_PFED_NA_CONV_NA_PLAINS_MULTI_Evergreen_MN&sd_campaign=22307048317|||imc|&sd_digadprov=ovative&sd_channel=Search&sd_campaign_type=AdWords&sd_digadid=&2230704831722307048317&sd_digadkeyword=&sd_location=9045130&sd_placement=&sd_targetid=&gad_source=2&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhMq-BhCFARIsAGvo0KfdVqMWxw-hS12pGeC-14FiGEn8o5g549r6JvqCOrRwoZJewHncfqQaAlqHEALw_wcB

    1. OK, was the dickhead of a van driver;
      a; Texting on his cellphone?
      Or
      b; Fiddling with the tw@nav touchscreen?

  5. Good morning, chums. And thank you, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,363 4/6

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,363 4/6

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  9. We might not get it all right, but we’ll put Britain back in the driver’s seat. Keir Starmer 13 March 2025.

    This is a generational opportunity, and our task is clear. National security and national renewal. We won’t shrug our shoulders and look away. We might not get everything right, but people can know we are doing everything in our power to get the state and its systems working for them. In contrast to what’s come before, this Government will take responsibility, roll up our sleeves and make the reforms needed.

    It’s quite possible that Starmer wrote this himself. It is his Marxist vision of the UK. All hail the State; which has a few minor things wrong with it but we can fix them. There is no mention of Mass Immigration or Rape gangs. Freezing pensioners or small boats No grasp that it is all dissolving around his ears. He in fact praises its apogee (in his view) when it crushed the riots and gaoled the perpetrators last year. Nothing of Mr Lynch or Tommy Robinson. It is the sort of thing the Warsaw Pact dictators would have written prior to their extinction.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/12/keir-starmer-put-britain-back-in-drivers-seat/

    1. Fear not, he has plans for AI to run the government. (Actually, it could hardly make a worse job of it.)

  10. (On topic for a change.) If the free trade head-bangers have their way, we'll have no agriculture to speak of.

    1. Labour is determined we won't have any agriculture whether the advocates of free trade have any say in the matter or not.

    2. Labour is determined we won't have any agriculture whether the advocates of free trade have any say in the matter or not.

  12. Labour MPs vote to end conversations in pubs.. boosting employment for ‘banter police’.

    Reform spokesperson says.. It won't affect our new core voters as they don't drink.

  13. Why Nigel should listen to Rupert
    Douglas Murray

    I was thinking lately of Robert Kilroy-Silk. For younger readers, and people who were never students or unemployed, a quick refresher course may be needed.

    From 1986 to 2004 Kilroy-Silk was the presenter of a BBC daytime television programme called Kilroy. It had something of a cult following because of its unintentional hilarity. The live audience was carefully ring-mastered by Kilroy-Silk, who wandered around the studio with a microphone asking people what they thought about various ‘ishoos’ of the day. For some of us the main entertainment came from the fact that there was never quite enough room on the audience banquettes and so we watched for those moments when Kilroy-Silk would ask the opinion of an audience member and then inadvertently sit on them.

    Kilroy-Silk’s career on the BBC came to an end at the beginning of 2004 when he used a Sunday newspaper column to express views on Arabs, whom he described as including ‘limb amputators’ and ‘women repressors’. The media and political class agreed as one that there was absolutely no excuse or justification for such comments. The BBC took Kilroy off the air and the man himself needed a new berth.

    So he joined Ukip and was swiftly elected to the European parliament. His time in Ukip turned out to be short-lived, because he soon told an interviewer that he would like to lead the party – which was where he made his bloomer. Political parties – especially newish ones – tend not to appreciate people saying they would like to lead them. After less than a year Kilroy-Silk announced that he was leaving Ukip and set up a political party of his own called Veritas. Neither he nor his party ever quite succeeded in breaking through.

    So why do memories from that halcyon age of daytime entertainment float back into my mind? Largely because of the discomforts afflicting another new party: Reform.

    Given our electoral system, it was an astonishing achievement that Reform got five MPs elected at the last election. Since that time the party, led by Nigel Farage, has made more than its fair share of political weather. With the Conservatives under new leadership, Reform has had a fine opportunity to outflank the traditional party of the right.

    For it is hard to imagine how a party of Reform’s size can exist with two-fifths of its parliamentary members believing they should lead the party – although that is almost certainly lower than the percentage of the parliamentary Conservative party who believe they should lead their party.

    It is safe to say that Lowe is not among those who regard diversity as being our greatest strength

    In any case, as many readers will know, Lowe and Farage are no longer friends. Indeed Reform has referred Lowe to the police on allegations of ‘threats of physical violence’ which Lowe vehemently denies. Some will put all this down to the usual teething problems of any new party; others to what some on the right believe is Farage’s inability to deal with rivals. Or as Dolly Parton once said when asked about her small shoe size: ‘Nothing grows in the shade.’

    Early on there was talk of Elon Musk donating a large sum of money to it. Then Farage suggested in an interview that he was not in favour of mass deportations of illegal migrants. Musk said on X that Farage did not have what it takes to be leader of Reform and that Rupert Lowe should be the party’s leader. And that is where one felt a Kilroy-Silkian sense of foreboding.

    These fallouts to the right of the Conservative party tend to be too labyrinthine to follow, though even a casual observer might note that there is a fair amount of road-kill within Reform, as there was in Ukip. But for once there does seem to be a dispute that is bigger than personalities. That question surrounds the issue of deportations.

    In recent weeks Lowe has stepped up his rhetoric online and in parliament against what he sees as the failings of multiculturalism. It is safe to say that Lowe is not among those who regard diversity as being our greatest strength. But while he was ramping up his musings on this matter, Farage appears to have gone in the opposite direction. In a number of recent interviews – including with Steven Edginton on GB News – Farage has been asked what he would do about the million or so illegal immigrants who currently reside in the UK.

    That number has remained strangely static for years and is almost certainly an underestimate. After all, boatloads of illegal migrants arrive on these shores every day and are almost never deported. Which is one reason why the government has to splurge hundreds of millions of pounds on accommodating and otherwise looking after people who should not be here.

    And that is where the real rift on the right is taking place. Because in what is presumably a leap for the centre-ground, Farage has kept insisting that there is no way to deport the people who are here illegally. At the same time, Lowe and others insist that if people should not be here then they should be removed, however large their number.

    Farage may be right that the British state currently has no ability to deport hundreds of thousands of people. But there does not seem to be much point in a party to the right of the Conservatives which simply observes Tory failures while proposing no radical means to redress them.

    Donald Trump’s electoral success in America came substantially from his promise to deport illegals. He has installed a team of border enforcement agents who are performing this task – beginning with removing violent criminals.

    The world is shifting fast, and if you do believe illegal migration is one of the principal threats to your country, then squishing onto the sofa and just watching seems a very 1990s option.

          1. He was a pretty boy whose appeal, I suspect, was not appreciated by many Nottlers.

            I once worked for a headmaster who initially seemed very charming. However such superficial charm soon fades and many of his staff concluded that he missed his real vocation in life which was to sell double glazing door to door.

  15. Good morning, all. Overcast and dry at the moment with rain forecast for later.

    This, from a government and the departments it supposedly oversees, which, when the controlled Uni-party in power at the time demands it, will be controlling our every move, purchase, pint we drink*, steak we consume** etc. Just imagine the utter chaos these loons will create: Alternatively, perhaps that's the plan.

    https://x.com/CraigMurrayOrg/status/1899856743175180684
    * I'm assuming that sharia law hasn't kicked in and that alcoholic drinks will be available.

    ** Other assumptions – some cattle farmers still exist and that meat remains available to the plebs despite its production being detrimental to the Planet.

  17. Who would have thunk?

    Harry De Paepe
    Why the English education system is so envied in Belgium
    11 March 2025, 1:10pm

    ‘Just compare this essay by one of our students to the essay of a peer from Birmingham.’ A theatre packed full of teachers was listening to the education expert Tim Surma. He was touring Flanders, the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, with his Thomas More Expertise Centre which supports teachers in providing better lessons and managing their classes more effectively.

    I was reprimanded by pedagogical advisors for expecting students to learn a timeline with dates and facts

    Twenty-five years ago, Flanders was at the top of the world in terms of education. Our children were the best readers and the best at maths. As a region with little else to offer the world besides great art, beer and chocolate, we were quite proud of our ‘little grey cells’. Today, that same Flemish education system is in deep crisis. Every new Pisa rating is a step backwards. To our shame, we no longer amount to much in the field of education. A recent international report revealed that the level of maths and science among ten-year-olds has declined more in Flanders than anywhere else.

    I’ve been teaching history to children in secondary school in Flanders for 20 years and have experienced the decline firsthand. Vocabulary knowledge withered because language lessons had to be ‘functional’ and ‘fun’. That meant, above all, that lessons couldn’t be too difficult. Even now, I find myself explaining words in history lessons that were easily understood 20 years ago. We taught students to be ‘more outspoken’, which only resulted in increasingly impolite children, who shout wild answers during lessons or chat unabashedly.

    Students have been required to engage in ‘self-discovery learning’, and teachers expected to act as a ‘coach’. The era of the teacher as a ‘subject expert’ was declared over. I was reprimanded by pedagogical advisors for expecting students to learn a timeline with dates and facts. I was told I could simply hang the timeline on the classroom wall so students could read it. ‘Knowledge is such a dusty word,’ they said. Meanwhile, the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students widened. Those from strong social backgrounds manage to muddle through. Poorer students fall even further behind. Lowering the bar didn’t really help anyone.

    And so my jaw dropped in that theatre when I saw the difference in quality between the two essays: one by a Flemish student and one by an English student. The English student’s essay was of a quality we thought was no longer possible ‘in our modern times’. It was my ‘Bridge on the River Kwai’ moment, where Alec Guinness realises that the entire construction of his model bridge achieved the opposite.

    Our new Flemish Minister of Education, Zuhal Demir, seems equally concerned about the future of our education system. The minister is supported in this by Daniel Muijs, a Fleming who was Head of Research at Ofsted in England for several years. Minister Demir is in the United Kingdom this week to look at the English model, which has been praised in our press and by our education experts for its results. ‘Fewer behavioural problems, better results, and more top performers,’ headlined a progressive Flemish newspaper.

    About ten years ago, England faced similar problems to our region, but today England ranks among the best-performing European countries in international tests. This turnaround was achieved by focusing more on knowledge and disciplined learning.

    England is now an inspiration for Flanders. It would be particularly unfortunate if the current Labour government were to squander a model which has garnered so much admiration. Compromising on quality and discipline inevitably leads to a ‘What have we done?’ moment. Take it from a reluctant expert.

    Written by
    Harry De Paepe is a Belgian history teacher, journalist and the author of several books focusing on England and English history. He is known in his own country as ‘Flanders’ most famous Anglophile.’

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

    Damon
    2 days ago
    Copy Birbalsingh's work at the Michaela School. Simple.
    Labour, of course, are trying to undermine it. There's nothing a bourgeois progressive hates so much as working-class success built on small-c conservative principles.

    Cyclops
    2 days ago
    I believe Ms Phillipson is at this very moment touring Belgium schools poaching your worst ideas.

    jbcardi Cyclops
    2 days ago
    A woman of zero teaching experience

    1. I could believe that our education system was enviable in the sixties and seventies. Since Blair standards have plummeted and this government is determined to finish off what little we have left that is functional.

      1. Exactly what I thought. Just how low had it sunk that it now looks up to the educational standards in the UK?

  18. Reynolds Finally Corrects Record After Saying He Was a ‘Solicitor’ in Commons

    In a point of order Jonathan Reynolds tonight corrected the official record after claiming to have been a solicitor in the House of Commons:

    “Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. On a point of order it has come to my attention that in a speech I gave on the 28th of April 2014 recorded in column 614 of Hansard on the subject of High Speed Rail I made a reference to my experience of using our local transport system in Greater Manchester when I worked as a solicitor in Manchester City Centre. I should have made clear specifically Madam Deputy Speaker that was a reference at the time to being a trainee solicitor. This was an inadvertent error and although this speech was over a decade ago as it has been brought to my attention I would like to formally correct the record and I seek your advice on doing so.”

    Guido brought the matter to Reynolds’ attention. The Solicitors Regulation Authority opened an investigation into the business secretary three weeks ago. The Commons was only one of several places where the claim was made, including on official election material, LinkedIn, a parliamentary bio, and newspaper write-ups. Can’t correct the record on those as easily…

    UPDATE: Robert Jenrick says: “Reynolds should apologise for the many other instances, spanning well over a decade, where he deliberately lied about his qualifications. As a former DPP, Starmer knows Reynolds broke the law. Unless Starmer sacks him, it’ll be another cases of two-tier justice under Two-Tier Keir.”

    March 12 2025 @ 19:59

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

    Dale lindsey
    12h
    So he broke the ministerial code. So where is his sacking or resignation. TTK, strikes again.

    Mr Blue Sky
    Dale lindsey
    11h
    They are trying to make out it was a one-off inadvertent slip of the tongue. The problem for Reynolds is that it wasn't and he repeated the lie for over a decade.

    1. 403104+ up ticks,

      C1,
      "This was an inadvertent error "

      OK jonny you lying deceiving bastard you have cleared that up nicely, NEXT.

      1. As an inadvertent error, I claimed to have been the Chairman of the Bank of England governors recently. Pure slip of the tongue, could have happened to anyone.

  19. It’s closing time for free speech in British pubs

    A clause in the new Employment Rights Bill will make people fearful about what they say when getting a drink

    11 March 2025 11:02am GMT
    Toby Young
    According to the Campaign for Real Ale, 37 pubs close every week in Britain. This is a rate that shows no sign of slowing. Judging from the actions of this Government, though, pubs aren’t disappearing nearly fast enough. Say hello to the Employment Rights Bill.

    I’m not just talking about increasing business rates, hiking National Insurance and outlawing zero-hours contracts. The measure I’m most concerned about is clause 18, which will amend the Equality Act to force employers to “take all reasonable steps” to insulate their staff from “harassment” by “third parties.”

    In other words, this will mean publicans can’t tell their customers risqué jokes or express heterodox opinions in case they are heard by a member of staff who may take offence. Why? Because according to the employment tribunal, “harassment” includes remarks that a person with one or more “protected characteristics” might find upsetting.

    It’s not clear how the Government expects publicans to comply with this new duty, but it is bound to cost more than the official estimate of £17 per pub.

    Not only will they have to seek expensive legal advice, but it may mean employing “banter bouncers” to eavesdrop on customers and eject them if they say anything a pink-haired barmaid (they/them) might object to.

    Customers may even have to prove to a doorman that they have attended a full complement of diversity courses before they are admitted. Perhaps certificates showing the holders have received the relevant “training” can be included in a digital wallet on your mobile phone alongside your ID. Or maybe a Labour Party membership card will suffice.

    You think I’m exaggerating, but comedians are already required to sign “behavioural agreements” when appearing in student venues. They have to promise not to joke about racism, sexism, classism, ageism, ableism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia or religion. Once this new law is in place, what landlord will risk a member of their staff being triggered by a politically incorrect gag? Jimmy Carr, get your coat.

    This turbo-charging of the Equality Act will mean that the joyless atmosphere found in contemporary workplaces, where everyone is looking over their shoulder before daring to whisper what they really think, will be extended to pubs.

    Say goodbye to the anti-authoritarian tradition that gave birth to Britain’s first free speech society in a public house; your local speakeasy will soon be turned into a listening post.

    If Sir Keir Starmer really is determined to stamp out dissent, he is going to run out of prison cells. But maybe that won’t matter. In future, the punishment for wrong-think will be a lock in at a trendy pub called the Royal Woke.

    But it’s not too late to do something about this. The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the Bill which will delete clause 18; the Free Speech Union has created a template email that you can send to your MP urging them to vote for this amendment. If that is defeated, we will try again in the Lords. At some point, we may convince the Government that the “banter clause” of the Employment Rights Bill doesn’t pass the “growth test”.

    2. The government is working towards its aim of closing down all free expression. They have shown their power after Southport, the online harm Bill will close down any other subjects they dont like, and Clause 18 mentioned above just about covers the spoken word. I remember the days when we pointed at the USSR and said how dreadful they were for limiting expression and people were sent off to salt mines…. I think we still have salt mines in Cheshire.

    1. 403104+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK

      You just pipped me, may I add

      I believe sent in a cool calm decent reaching out manner,

    3. I had hoped that Reform might be the answer to Britain's problems [assuming we ever have more elections] but it seems that Farage's ego won't allow that to happen. I won't be joining Reform, at least for the present!

      1. Nigel Farage metaphorically scrapping with Rupert Lowe; Lee Anderson literally scrapping with provocative anti-Brexiter, Steve Brtay, in Parliament Square.

        If Farage is keen on scrapping and if he wants more competent scrappers then he should make peace with Tommy Robinson and invite him to join Reform as soon as he is let out of prison.

        Mind you Tommy Robinson has no wish to join Reform and can probably see as clearly as many of us that the only way the Reform Party can now flourish is if Farage stands down as leader.

          1. I would love to meet that vacuum-head and ask it this question:

            Were you born a cunt, or do you simply put it down to lots of practice?

          2. Good evening, Grizzly. I am so glad to see that you are no longer Green in the gills. Your new look suggest to me that you have now brought out your French beret. Would a full-length photo reveal a striped T-shirt and a string of onions hanging over your shoulder as you stand alongside your bicyclette? Lol.

          4. Hooped, Auntie Elsie, hooped, not striped. [stripes are vertical: hoops are horizontal.]😉

          5. I stand corrected, Grizzly. (Actually I am currently sitting at my computer, reading your correction. Lol.)

          6. I don't know why he's still at it. Doesn't he realise the government has, in effect, stopped Brexit before it got going?

      2. Same here, SB. I’ve been debating whether to join or not and now, like you, I’ve put any decision off for a few months.

        1. I wish I had waited…. my instincts were precisely to do that; Badenoch's comment Dec/early Jan persuaded (persuaded, please note, not convinced!) me to do so.

      3. I know from first hand experience how Nigel treated volunteers. Useful for a while then denigrated when he no longer needed them.

    4. Reform Membership ticker is showing a loss of around 800 members since this all blew up!

  22. Good morning all.
    A cloudy with blue patches start to the day with the wet ground suggesting he've had some overnight rain.
    Marginally less chilly at a tad over 4°C after an overnight minimum of a tad over 1°C suggesting the overnight "rain" may have been hailstones.

    1. Similar here, Ndovu…cold…sunny..still…but plenty wind out of various politicos, if we could harvest that – free energy…..x

    2. Sun has just come out here, but it’s bitterly cold thanks to the wind. I have just got back from their walk and am thawing out.

  24. Good morning all,

    I haven't been here much lately – been very busy in the garden and redecorating. Anyway, it's a lovely day at Fiscal's Folly but cold. Wind in the North, 3℃ rising to 7℃. Off to the Great Wen for a couple of days.

    Here's a gruesome pic to ruin your breakfasts:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/102ccb897fe7bc9466942cb9ae72ecc57f950cffe2610e55d3e23036e6cd52e3.png
    A mad zealot, a husband beater and a back-stabber.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/12/ed-miliband-heat-pump-farce-greta-thunberg/

  26. Trump is a true Conservative. Wish we still had some…

    Trump’s new tariff war is radically rational

    There’s no guarantee that the President’s plans will work, but that he even has a plan beats out his critics
    136
    US President Donald Trump
    Credit: WILL OLIVER/EPA-EFE
    Tim Stanley
    13 March 2025 6:00am GMT
    Tim Stanley

    Investors are panicking. Conservatives are furious. By tearing up free trade orthodoxy, and hitting allies with tariffs, Donald Trump appears to be fuelling inflation at the very moment when unemployment is on the rise – rejecting every metric of success he endorsed in his first term.

    Trump I boasted one of the best stock market performances in history. Trump II is relaxed about a recession and pinning a sell-off on “globalists” who “see how rich our country’s going to be and don’t like it”. Has he gone mad?

    No. There’s method here. The new administration is willing to risk a downturn – or “transition” – because it believes it can and must reset the US economy. The theory, tying together Right-wing anxieties about economics and culture, is that America is a drug addict, hooked on state spending/money printing and foreign imports. The stock market’s position is an unsustainable high triggered by Joe Biden’s handouts. Last week, at a speech in New York, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, urged a “detox period” to kick such nasty habits.

    “Access to cheap goods is not the essence of the American Dream,” he argued; it’s prosperity, mobility and security. The Trump tariffs are designed to be a foreign policy tool – ie, bully Mexico into policing its border – but also to generate revenue; shift from buying things from abroad to making things at home; and to punish bad behaviour by friends who dump their goods in the US market while penalising imports from America.

    How much of the latter actually occurs is keeping the fact-checkers busy. In his address to Congress, Trump claimed that South Korea imposes an import tax four times greater than America’s, at 13.4 per cent. But, said Seoul, this is out of date: thanks to a preferential trade deal, we only charge the US about 0.79 per cent! Economists bemoan that Trump doesn’t seem to understand how his own tax regime works. Others suspect he does and is lying. He’s confecting a row about theoretical tariff rates to force allies to buy his country’s products.

    Bessent observed that the US currently functions “as a consumer of first and last resort” while also providing for the defence of the free world, a situation that is “not sustainable” and will necessarily cause pain as the US untangles itself. Prices might rise as a result of protectionism; the administration has probably factored this in. It’ll be balanced by what Bessent calls the “reprivatisation” of the domestic economy, boosting productivity and wages.

    Step one: financial deregulation, to promote “material risk-taking, rather than box-checking” and get private capital flowing. Next: the Trump I tax cuts will be extended, accompanied by cuts to federal spending, symbolised by the shake-up of foreign aid. (Marco Rubio has announced the elimination of 83 per cent of overseas programmes.)

    Trump is thus pursuing a classic conservative strategy of shifting power and wealth from the state to the private sector, with the long-term goal of deficit reduction. Bessent said: “If we bring back more manufacturing, if we have cheap energy, good tax policy, deregulate, we will end up with a strong dollar,” which one assumes also means minimal inflation. It’s this or declining growth and bankruptcy. A civilisational turning point.

    To conservative critics of this strategy, I offer two rebuttals. First, you’re the ones who’ve been screaming for years that we’re on the verge of ruin. If true – if Western states are terminally obese, with business atrophying and workers idle – then your own alarmism surely justifies a radical response, just as the paranoia that Russia is poised to invade Poland justifies Trump forcing Europe to spend more on guns.

    Second, is Trump doing anything less disruptive than, say, Javier Milei of Argentina? Milei’s deregulation and cost-cutting were celebrated by conservatives, yet they initially increased unemployment. A cynic might say that Milei draws less criticism because the targets of his austerity are public sector employees and welfare recipients – whereas Trump’s tariffs are likely to hit the wealthy. Worse, his tariffs are supported by trades unions. The head of the United Auto Workers described them as “triage” to stop the haemorrhaging of working-class jobs.

    I don’t know if the nationalist/protectionist plan will work, but it is a plan, not just a disparate collection of knee-jerk responses to whatever is going on in Trump’s head. As with Ukraine, we might find that certain actions generate a hysterical reaction in the media – “someone walked out of a negotiation, this is unheard of!” – yet turn out to be just one phase in a long, slow process that will eventually reveal itself as a rational strategy.

    End the war. Get others to pay for their defence. Rebuild American manufacturing. Reinvigorate the economy. Make America … you know the rest.

        1. What was the man doing with a gun in the bed? Especially since he also seemed to have a woman with him.

      2. Fooling around with a gun in bed without the safety on. The dog made the right decision. Shame the dog wasn't a good shot.

  27. Michael Deacon
    Ed Miliband’s heat pump was a farce. Why should the rest of us be forced to get one?

    The energy secretary is not some dippy but essentially innocuous dope, he’s a raving zealot – and could well prove to be this country’s ruin

    12 March 2025 5:30pm GMT
    Michael Deacon

    I’m afraid I must own up to a deeply embarrassing secret. For the sake of my reputation, I would very much prefer that it never got out. For the sake of my conscience, however, I simply cannot go on living a lie. Today, therefore, I’m finally going to pluck up my courage, swallow my pride and admit it.

    I actually used to quite like Ed Miliband.

    Obviously I don’t mean that I supported him. I’m not completely certifiable. What I mean, really, is that I felt sorry for him. During his ill-fated spell as Labour leader, I thought he was nothing more than a comical but somehow rather endearing dweeb. Hapless, but fundamentally harmless. And anyway, since the poor goof’s efforts to become prime minister were so obviously doomed, he was nothing to worry about.

    How wrong I was. Despite having been roundly rejected by the electorate in 2015, he’s now become one of the most powerful people in Britain regardless. As a result, there’s certainly no reason to pity him. Instead, there’s every reason to fear him. Because finally, even I can now see that the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero is not some dippy but essentially innocuous dope. He’s a raving zealot. One whose plans to save the planet – from the £22 billion “carbon capture” scheme to the ban on new North Sea oil and gas licences – could well prove to be this country’s ruin.

    What makes his zealotry all the more disconcerting is that it’s so plainly misguided. The latest evidence of this was supplied on Tuesday by The Telegraph’s own Tom Haynes. Installing a heat pump in Mr Miliband’s home, our Money reporter found, had barely improved the house’s energy efficiency at all. It had merely raised its EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) from a D to a C. And a C isn’t much to boast about: it’s only a little above average. So the world’s remaining polar bears, I suspect, will not be dancing for joy across their slowly dissolving ice floes, while whooping to passing seals: “Have you seen the news! The right honourable member for Doncaster North has very marginally enhanced his EPC! We’re saved!”

    The question that many British homeowners will be asking themselves, therefore, is this. After Mr Miliband’s heat pump farce, why should the rest of us be forced to get one? Why should already hard-pressed members of the public be subjected to this extortionate rigmarole?

    Of course, I’m sure Mr Miliband will still insist that his heat pump is a glorious miracle of green engineering, and that refusing to install one yourself is tantamount to carpet-bombing the Great Barrier Reef. Nothing will ever deter him from his crazed crusade. I should have realised this the moment I first saw the look in his eyes in that famous photo of him with Greta Thunberg.

    [Insert Fiscal's photograph of Greta]
    Ed Miliband looked on awestruck as Greta Thunberg addressed MPs in 2019 Credit: PA

    It was 2019, and the temporarily fashionable Swedish eco-truant was haranguing a roomful of British MPs about the urgent need to destroy our entire way of life (or words to that effect). And, in the photo published by just about every newspaper, Mr Miliband was not ostentatiously yawning, rolling his eyes, sticking out his tongue, or even just smiling politely. He was gazing at this small, irate child with a look of rapturous awe, as if she were the improbable offspring of Martin Luther King and Mother Theresa. At the time, I thought the photo was funny. Well, I’m not laughing now.

    My only consolation, looking back, is that I wasn’t the only one who called Mr Miliband wrong. A great many other commentators used to dismiss him as an ephemeral chump, too. Indeed, one of the most common criticisms made of him as Labour leader was that he was too weak and wishy-washy. Too willing to compromise. Lacking in any real beliefs.

    Did these accusations anger him, and inflame a frenzied determination to prove us wrong? If so, I fear, this country’s ruin will be our fault, as much as his.

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

    Danny Skipper
    14 hrs ago
    I've got a heat pump and I love it! Sure,it cost about twenty thousand pounds when you factor in all the redecorating we had to do after they ripped the old radiators out,but I've done the maths and it should pay for itself in about thirty years.Mind you,my neighbour doesn't seem too keen on it,he's always shouting at me over the garden fence! Luckily for me though,with the noise from the heat pump I can't hear him.

    1. "Did these accusations anger him, and inflame a frenzied determination to prove us wrong?"

      No, the writer is fundamentally misunderstanding modern politics.
      Milliband was always and still is a clueless marxist. He's just carrying out an agenda bigger than himself, for which he has powerful backing from the deep state.
      When he was in a role where his personality mattered (leader), it was easy to spot his lack of talents. When he's merely carrying out Agenda 2030 plans, backed by the civil service and the media as well as his House of Commons colleagues, he is able to keep up the pretence of being competent.

      I do wish the mainstream media would stop pretending that it's still the 1980s!

  29. Madeline Grant
    Big Ange rocks the mashed potato look – but Starmer’s smarm has had its chips

    PMQs is beginning to look more like a theatrical farce every week – but the Tories manage to dial down the patronise-o-meter

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2025/03/12/TELEMMGLPICT000411980442_17417993478020_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq5Qjy_JjfXKF1UCUsOwwdo7UYpXo1SfGiw4G6OZQw7ok.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner – the hoddit and doddit of UK politics Credit: Anthony Devlin/Getty

    Madeline Grant
    PARLIAMENTARY SKETCHWRITER
    12 March 2025 3:57pm GMT

    Another week, another instalment of long-running British farce “Prime Minister’s Questions” comes to the stage at His Majesty’s Westminster Palace Theatre. All our old favourites were there: Sir Oinky, Rachel from Complaints, Big Ange (dressed today in a white fluffy number reminiscent of mashed potato), the resident ghoul Pat McFadden (dressed as always like an undertaker), Paraffin Powell and Bridget Philistine were all present and correct. No sign alas, of fan favourite, the Sage of Tottenham. Presumably he was off trying to pay Mauritania to annex the Isles of Scilly or something.

    But lo, a new character arrived, a candidate for the much coveted “Bottom Crawler of the Week” award. A man who looked exactly like what he is, an over-promoted local council apparatchik, stood up and announced how the Tories had no right to talk about immigration and Labour’s plan for change was wonderful. Apparently this man was the MP for Telford, who led the council during the grooming gangs scandal and then (surprise, surprise) rejected calls for an inquiry. If only he were actually stuck in the upper reaches of the PM’s sphincter: he’d do less damage there. As it is he stands as another reminder that the quality of the 2024 MP intake is so low that it has to be measured in Kelvins.

    Over to the leader of the Opposition, who cornered the PM on the effect of the Government’s NI rise on councils, businesses and nurseries. Unfortunately, someone had got out on the wrong side of the sty this morning. This is quite the statement, but I don’t think I have ever seen the PM more patronising than he was today. “She really shouldn’t be denigrating what I think she calls 60p breakfast clubs,” he huffed. The PM has a special ultra-patronising tone which he deploys when he’s disappointed. If you turn to the Wikipedia article for “smarm” it’s just a recording of this voice. It’s like listening to a copy of The New European made animate.

    Kemi Badenoch
    All credit to the leader of the Opposition for not leaping over the Despatch Box and bashing the world’s mansplaining champion on his smug head with her briefing notes Credit: House of Commons/UK Parliament/PA
    It is to Mrs Badenoch’s credit that, when faced with the world mansplaining champion, she didn’t leap over the Despatch Box and bash him on his smug head with a pile of briefing notes. By contrast she maintained her questioning calmly, and sometimes punchily. This clearly frustrated Oinky – he was reaching for the pre-prepared “£22 billion black hole” a lot today. At times there was a sense that Starmer.exe was undergoing an internal circuitry error; getting each soundbite ever-so-slightly wrong. “£22 billion hole”, he said. “We’re clearing up the mess that they lost!” The error clearly affected the Starmbot’s calendar function too as he followed one MP’s lead in wishing the House a happy St Patrick’s Day when it wasn’t until next Monday.

    “He should do his homework,” he spluttered at Tory MP Andrew Snowden, as if he were a pre-Ozempic Demon Headmaster. Snowden had dared ask about the two-tier scandal of the sentencing council. Again, for all the patronising – coherent answer came there none. We were transported further into the schoolmaster’s study when, during a sermon from Oinky on how the NHS provides equal care to people regardless of background, a Tory heckler pointed out that this was now no longer the case for the justice system.

    “This is a really serious issue,” said the PM, the patronise-o-meter now about to burst. This was followed by a deep sigh and a final salvo: “you’ve let yourself down, you know it”. I was genuinely surprised that this wasn’t prefaced with “you’ve let me down, and you’ve let the school down”. Next to him, Paraffin Powell pulled a face like one of the Thundercats having a stroke and fixed it on the offender.

    The best question came from Lib Dem MP Sarah Dyke, who asked about the Government’s deranged punitive war against the people who produce our food. Yet another Defra scheme had been abandoned with no warning, giving the very real impression that the entirety of Labour’s rural policy is based on a visceral loathing for the countryside. Here was a chance for the PM to provide some substantive policy. Alas, no such luck. Put on the spot and unable to lecture, he spluttered and waffled and then sat down. A reminder that for all the puffed up pomposity, when a pin is taken to him, he is a very little man indeed.

    2. I've noticed that on pm questions he always seems to have been advised in advance with his printed list of answers. Some with a focus on a personal content.
      Slime seems to have adhered.

      1. I believe it is traditional that the PM knows what the questions are going to be in advance.

        2. I think you’re right Phizz, but of course it gives them the chance to look clever and on top of the situation.

        3. Useed to be after the PM's response, the original quesioner could ask a supplementary question – which was where the real traps were.

    3. Sara Dyke appears to have realised the truth of Labour policy with regard to the countryside. They hate it and want to urbanise it so it’s no longer countryside.

      1. They hare farmers because they are independent business men, and they hate them even more beause they own land – which of course rightfully belongs to the proletariot.

        1. They hate them particularly because they are small C conservative in their views, not woke but practical people in touch with reality.

    4. I used to get regular updates from the ex council leader now MP for Telford (part of my parish council work). He was always celebrating what they were doing but never a whiff of the rapist scandal. There doesn’t appear to be much change with the new management.

    5. Angela Rayner is reputedly 5' 8" and Smarmer claims to be 5' 8 1/2" high.

      Is she standing on his wallet?

  31. Allister Heath
    Britain has no friends, no money, and no grasp on reality

    Neither America nor Europe has our back: we must become truly independent once again

    Allister Heath
    12 March 2025 6:53pm GMT

    Britain stands alone in a brutish world. Our small, impoverished yet special nation has spent too long lying to itself. The horrifying reality is that we have no real friends, just interests and beliefs. If we want to ensure the security, liberty and prosperity of the British people, and as Lord Palmerston put it, be “the champion of justice and right”, we will have to do it ourselves. Nobody, least of all the greater or lesser powers, has our back, or any interest in fair play.

    Donald Trump’s America is putting itself first, reshaping the world, trashing allies and waging idiotic trade wars. Europe, mired in decadence and welfarism, is interested primarily in our military know-how, nuclear umbrella and, as always, our fisheries. Russia is a fascistic empire whose advances must be halted. China is a hostile civilisation. India doesn’t really care. International institutions and courts serve as useful idiots for proto-Marxists keen to destroy the West.

    We comfort ourselves with tales of how we can serve as a bridge between Europe and the US, or build a coalition of the willing in Ukraine. It’s inspirational stuff, but it would be madness to cling to the certainties of the past. It’s time for a total reset of our assumptions, of our understanding of history, of our modus operandi, of our international role.

    We must reconstruct our economy, military and society for an era of trade wars, diplomatic blackmail, banditry, spheres of influence and power politics. We must embrace a neo-Gaullism with British characteristics, centred around a renewed love of country, a turbocharged, technologically advanced capitalist economy, much larger and more modern Armed Forces, a fully independent nuclear deterrent and a focus on resilience.

    We need to be able to operate our own military without having to rely on parts from unreliable providers, to withstand embargoes or sanctions or cyber-attacks or pipelines being blown up or star wars. We must learn from how Trump treats Ukraine, or how Biden treated Israel, suspending arms sales. We must be able to project power and defend trade routes worldwide. We must retain as much free trade as possible, and slash tariffs further on friendly nations, but make sure that we can always get hold of essential goods and commodities.

    We can no longer be naive, and assume that mercantilists who leverage trade for warfare are in fact followers of Milton Friedman or David Ricardo. In many cases, we will have to produce more military equipment in Britain, requiring reindustrialisation and greater steel manufacturing; in others, ensure a diversity of trading partners, buying weapons from Israel and Poland as well as the US, or food from Argentina rather than Spain.

    The Atlanticists and the pro-Europeans alike are wrong. We should be friendly to the US and EU, but beholden to neither. America saved Britain during World War I; it rescued us from totalitarianism in World War II; it destroyed Soviet tyranny in the Cold War. It earned the eternal gratitude of mankind.

    But those of us who love America must acknowledge how the US ruthlessly exploited its participation in the wars to demolish Britain’s financial, maritime and geopolitical power. It treats its allies as vassals, rather than equals. In Stalin’s War, Sean McMeekin recounts how Roosevelt suggested to Stalin in 1943 that India be taken away from Britain. It was best “not to discuss the question of India with Mr Churchill”, the US president said, arguing that America and Russia should remake India “from the bottom, somewhat on the Soviet line”. Stalin couldn’t believe his luck, or the way Roosevelt spoke of the greatest Englishman of all time.

    John Maynard Keynes was sidelined at Bretton Woods. The 1947 sterling crisis was precipitated by America. The US betrayed us over Suez. Ronald Reagan disappointed on the Falklands, and invaded Grenada, a Commonwealth member, without properly informing Lady Thatcher. The IRA spent decades fundraising in the US while murdering in Britain. The UK sacrificed much in Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 for no return; the “special relationship” started to feel abusive. Barack Obama and Joe Biden disliked the UK, and removed Churchill’s bust from the Oval Office. Obama took the EU’s side over Brexit. Trump is an Anglophile, and may offer us a trade deal, but has no interest in our perspective.

    Yet while America is now explicit in its leveraging of power for transactional purposes, Europe isn’t the answer. The EU is an imperialist technocracy with an obsession with Hegelian dialectics and a hatred for traitor-nations that have thrown off the shackles of the acquis communautaire.

    Membership of the EU crippled Britain: our parliamentary tradition, common law and what Hayek called our true individualism, the source of much of our exceptionalism, were eroded; our ties with the Commonwealth largely severed. The French (via agricultural subsidies and the containment of Germany) and the Germans (via a Germanic euro and the single market in goods) got far more out of the EU than we did; the European services sector was never liberalised, discriminating against Britain’s comparative advantage. The EU treated us abominably when we left, seizing partial control of Northern Ireland.

    We were regarded as enemies during Covid. In December 2020, France shut its borders to Britain, imposing a blockade that could have led to shortages of food and vaccines; the excuse was the Kent variant. In March 2021, Ursula von der Leyen threatened to block vaccine exports to the UK and to cancel private contracts. We remain too dependent on the EU, and on the Calais-Dover bottleneck. Any military help we offer Europe must come as a quid pro quo for easier trade.

    The Government should immediately launch a Year Zero review of all policies, on the postulate that we cannot rely on anyone. We need to decouple from China when it comes to high-tech. We must scrap net zero, and produce more of our own energy. Faster productivity growth is required, necessitating a bonfire of regulations, a smaller state and reduced tax. We need to pull out of the ECHR and UN conventions to restrict migration and forge a cohesive civic nationalism.

    Our early 21st-century settlement was predicated on an imaginary utopia in which we expected fair dealing from friends. In today’s dog-eat-dog world, we must stand up for ourselves.

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

    RE

    Richard Evans
    14 hrs ago
    All good suggestions. But after years of mass immigration ‘we’ aren’t ‘we’ any more.

    660 +upvotes

    1. Much good stuff but I suggest an edit "Russia the EU is a fascistic empire whose advances must be halted".

    2. 403104+ up ticks,

      C1,
      Order of play, first get a Trump like leader.
      Next enter pre uni schools with a "learn by rote morning assembly agenda",
      We were a free speaking, independent nation, WE aim to regain that stance for ALL children regardless of birth origin.

      Rhetorically
      KILL loudly any seen in opposition.

    3. All summed up in a single sentence.
      Our political idiots have effed up every single thing they have come into contact with.

      1. That fails to attribute evil to them. I think they know exactly what they are doing.

    4. We’d need a government that was on our side for a start. This one clearly isn’t. At least America has someone in charge who puts its best interests first.

      2. The last government on our side was run by Maggie Thatcher. Since then we have been run by Quislings.

  32. Morning all 🙂😊
    Back to normal, chilly grey and damp.
    Funny (but not really) how the media didn't post any footage of the last London protest by our farmers. But from private content of the tractor gathering the London police were all over it.
    But not one copper to be seen when after the kneeled demo at Westminster Hall and Windsor, came the Whitehall surrounding the cenotaph kneeled demo. Our government has already set out its own rules. And they don't correspond with democracy, at all.

  35. Quote of the day

    ‘The time is right for me to embrace different opportunities.’

    – Nicola Sturgeon quits politics

    Who might be lucky to be embraced in the back of a camper van?

  37. Good Moaning from Sunny, but Cold, C d S.

    It is nice visiting relations, but really lovely to get home.

  40. Morning everyone. Another chilly, dull day so I think the garden will have to be put on hold for another day unless it brightens up.
    It isn’t just the farmers who aren’t safe under Labour; law abiding indigenous taxpayers are at risk, too.

  44. Bluss it was cold at t'market. Icy cold rain, a bitter north wind all the time we were doing the rounds of the stalls. Then struggled back to the car and thence to Tesco (to warm up). By the time we came out, there was bright sunshine. It will rain again shortly.

    2. Wanted to buy a small chicken today from M & S. couldn't get one, I would have had to buy a halal chicken.

        2. I do have a question for you however. I noticed that M & S carry Poussin. Is this the same as Cornish Rock Hen? That's what the Americans call them. Used to eat them a lot.

          1. Poussin bought here are likely to be non-descript young chickens. I would assume the Cornish rock hen is similar to guinea fowl. Not too gamey but a better flavour.

          3. A Poussin will feed you once. A Guinea fowl twice. Look out for them when on special offer.

    2. Does that also mean he refuses to support any organisation that supports Commies?

      Since we know that both Commies and Nazis are one and precisely the same bunch of twats.

    1. Will be interesting to see if the ordinary patient waiting for a doctors appointment notices anything different. I suspect not or maybe worse service.

      1. I have been waiting six years for a Knee operation.
        But i have managed to force an appointment with a surgeon, not for surgery, i have seen him previously as i have other consultants.But another bloody waste of time examination ?

  48. Good morning/afternoon soon all 😊 Usual problems with health delaying my day. But I wanted to post a couple of things and have a look at what everyone else is saying and, of course, stick my oar in!

    First a video by the Lotus Eaters. Sometimes it is hard to contain ones anger but….

    Second is the Black Belt Barrister who thinks he has detected an error in Tommy Robinsons conviction. Would be interested in hearing what those familiar with law have to say about this.

    So it was a coverup then
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6Odva_Bj6o
    Why Rules are SO Important! Pls Share.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6okNF5k4Bns&list=TLPQMTMwMzIwMjW46qBJ_oyvpQ&index=2

  49. 403104+ up ticks,

    As far as "to many bodies" is concerned then the top priority MUST be, the Dover daily Invasion incoming troops as you are well aware of you political deceitful
    GIT.

    Goodbye NHS England, 12 years after its creation

    1. Considering as soon as private school taxes rolled in the wodge was handed straight to the unions that's no surprise. It was never intended for education. It was pure troughing corruption.

    2. Who on earth would want to teach these days? It was bad enough when I was still at the chalkface, but things have got infinitely worse since.

    1. Charles definitely appears to be a doomed name for the British monarchy.
      Charles I – openly mediaeval king when times were definitely a-changing
      Charles II – closet Catholic at a time when the papists were trying to destroy protestantism
      Charles III – closet Muzzie? – certainly he indulges the enemy within.

        1. Didn't he tell his first wife that the Prince of Wales always had a mistress or two and he felt it was his right to have a mistress or two too?

          And of course the Stuarts endorsed the idea of The Divine Right of Kings. I think the Idiot King has confused rights to mistresses with Islamic rites as far as Muslims are concerned.

      2. That's more or less what I said when he decided to go for Charles rather than George.

  54. Rachael Reeves. You are clearly thick as mince and don't understand basic economics so, as a business owner I will explain it to you.

    1 You hike costs on business through tax.
    2 Business passes those costs on (inflation).
    3 Customers spend less.
    4 Business has to either hike costs (got to 1) or lay people off.
    5. If people are unemployed they cost the tax payer even more, so taxes have to rise
    6. Unemployed people have no money to spend so cannot buy from businesses.
    7 Businesses then shut down

    The result is an ever tighter circle that even you, as a liar and crook should understand: you are enforcing poverty and destroying the economy.

    You have three levers:

    Cut taxes. (small changes to the economy)
    Cut taxes. Reduce regulation (long term real growth)
    Cut taxes. Reduce regulation and put the welfare bill and state through a blender, sacking… half of all the non-jobs and making welfare time limited and scrapping housing, child and a host of other benefits.

    The latter will massively assist long term as the wasters and dross of foreigners will leave. Scrapping regulation makes for a more flexible economy that can respond to shocks more easily. Companies with more cash in the bank can pay more, creating more jobs.

    Some may not. They'll die off. Good ones will succeed.

    However. You're Labour, and are morons. No, shut it, you're dumb as rocks. Your response to the mess you have created is more tax, more regulation. You simply don't care about the damage you are doing because you are driven by ideology, spite and stupidity. Not any awareness of economics, markets or even reality.

      1. She's a Communist who wants the state to own and control everything and if that means destroying small businesses on the way then so be it.

        1. Yet she couldn't be trusted to run a tap, let alone a bath. They're utter, useless morons.

          1. Russia has changed out of all recognition under Putin's control. Putin holds a mirror up to the West and it does not like what it sees of itself.

      2. Yet madness implies she has no awareness of what she does. Reeves knows full well what the consequences of her actions will be. So does the Treasury. They're based solely on spite, greed and malice.

        1. They are filled with hate for British people and know what they are doing and most of it if challenged would be illegal.

    1. Polygamy is illegal in the UK. He's a benefit cheat. Simply cut off the taps to him and his and he'll go.

      If he doesn't, force him out.

        1. Pushing in gay marriage did for the Tories. He refused to open it up because 'he knew best'. Wanquer.

  57. My thriving farm has an £8k black hole overnight thanks to Rachel Reeves
    Labour axes vital subsidy without warning and farmers fear it could devastate their businesses
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/13/farmers-labour-subsidy-rachel-reeves-sfi/

    BTL

    It is easy to understand why the government wants to destroy private ownership of farms and private farmers.

    Many of the members of the government are Communists. In communist states the state owns the land.

  58. Good afternoon from Somerset, I am avoiding newspapers atm, probably for the best.

    1. Good afternoon from Essex.
      I am spending less and less time reading the news.
      I'm not good at feeling helpless.

      1. I like Colchester Castle and the home is near Dedham – Constable Country . For for reasons I’m in Dunster for at least 6 months on my own .
        I agree, newspapers and the news on the radio make me feel helpless and afraid – I ignore both as much as possible and find more cheery and positive things to do.

        1. I managed to get my rowing boat stuck on a gravel bank near Dedham! Got it clear eventually, thankfully, and without getting wet.

    2. Good evening from Shropshire; I have been avoiding newspapers for some time and the TV for even longer. I feel better for it.

  59. Abrupt Suspension of Vital Farming Scheme

    A GB News article (March 12, 2025) titled “EXPOSED: Damning evidence shows Labour’s ‘cruellest betrayal of farmers to date’ may be ILLEGAL” reports that the new Labour government suspended the Sustainable Farming Initiative (SFI) – a crucial subsidy program paying farmers to farm sustainably – with only 30 minutes’ notice​

    This sudden halt to SFI, a scheme that paid farmers up to £3,000 for eco-friendly practices like soil improvement and hedgerow maintenance, blindsided farmers who had been preparing applications for weeks​
    The move immediately provoked outrage and despair across rural communities, especially since Labour had promised before the election not to cut SFI payments (just as they promised with farmers’ inheritance tax relief)​
    Farmers felt betrayed by what one industry leader called Labour’s “reckless” action, as the SFI funds were embedded in their business plans and its loss leaves a sudden financial gap​

    Farmers’ Fury and Claims of Betrayal

    Leading figures in the farming sector have lambasted the suspension as the “cruellest” betrayal yet of British farmers. Victoria Vyvyan, President of the Country Land and Business Association, noted that SFI was an ambitious, world-leading green agriculture policy that Labour had pledged to support – yet “at the first available opportunity they have instead scrapped it.” She remarked, “Of all the betrayals so far, this is the cruellest. It actively harms nature [and] the environment… to actively harm our food production is reckless beyond belief.”​
    The article outlines that this SFI cut is just one of several blows farmers have suffered under the new government. Labour has already slashed a vital inheritance tax relief for farmers and imposed new taxes on farm essentials like fertilisers and pick-up trucks in pursuit of net-zero goals​
    Even the normally measured National Farmers’ Union president, Tom Bradshaw, voiced despair – calling the SFI suspension “another shattering blow to English farms delivered, yet again, with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care.” He added that ministers touting the cut as a success “shows how desperately detached they are from reality on the ground”​
    Many in the farming community are now convinced that Labour’s “attack on farmers” is either a cash grab or driven by ideology​

    Some farmers warn they may abandon sustainable practices just to stay afloat – for example, switching land to intensive wheat farming (a monoculture harmful to biodiversity) now that the incentive to farm green is “dead and gone,” which “will damage the environment and ultimately produce less food for the nation,” as one farmer told GB News​

    Evidence and Legal Implications
    The “damning evidence” referenced by GB News revolves around a broken promise that could put the government in legal trouble. According to the report, the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) had explicitly told farmers (via its website) that they would receive six weeks’ notice if the SFI scheme were to be suspended​
    By giving only a half-hour warning instead, Labour may have violated the principle of legitimate expectation in public law​
    Agricultural law experts note that when a public body makes a clear promise that people rely on, suddenly reneging on it can be unlawful​
    Stuart Maggs, a fellow of the Agricultural Law Association, explained that while outcomes of such cases are “never cut and dried,” this situation “seems pretty clear” in favor of the farmers’ expectations​
    He suggests that Labour’s conduct could be challenged in court, and even urged MPs like Victoria Atkins to press the issue in Parliament​
    An image in the article highlights the Defra website’s own wording about the six-week notice, underscoring the breach of trust​
    GB News notes that Maggs has testified to parliamentary committees on related farming issues (like inheritance tax changes), and he believes Labour “could be in legal hot water” over the SFI fiasco​
    In short, there is talk of a possible legal challenge on behalf of farmers, arguing that the government’s last-minute U-turn not only betrayed promises but also **may have broken the law​
    Government Response and Next Steps
    In response to the uproar, Defra defended the suspension of SFI as a necessary fiscal decision. In a press release, the department explained that the new government “inherited an uncapped [SFI] scheme” with a fixed budget, and record-high participation meant the budget was fully tapped out​
    “The highest ever level of participation in SFI means the maximum limit has now been reached… Therefore… the Government is stopping accepting new SFI applications today,” the statement read​
    “Now is the right time for a reset,” it added, saying the aim is to support farmers and nature with funds targeted “fairly and effectively” to priority needs​
    Food Security Minister Daniel Zeichner insisted that more farmers are enrolled in schemes, and more money is being spent on sustainable farming than ever, asserting “we have now successfully allocated the SFI24 budget as promised.” All existing SFI agreements will continue to be honored (some running until 2028), but no new applications are allowed​
    Despite these assurances, farming leaders remain deeply concerned. The article emphasizes that confidence in the agricultural sector has plummeted, and farmers are “scrambling to fill gaps in their business plans” after this surprise policy change​
    Critics argue that if the government knew the SFI budget was running low, it should have managed a gradual wind-down or transition instead of a shock cutoff​
    The legal implications also loom large – the principle of legitimate expectation gives farmers a possible avenue to challenge the legality of the SFI suspension in court​
    As GB News puts it, Labour’s “war on farmers” now has a potential legal front: what was meant as a cost-saving measure may turn into a costly battle if farmers pursue judicial review on the grounds that the government broke a clear promise​
    http://gbnews.com

    1. While I am generally not in favour of subsidies, if you're going to end them, they need to be phased out so people can make adjustments to practices to take that into account.

    2. Jesus says you want to be OK with both God and the Devil – an old Spanish saying – if you don't understand the gist of the detail in his comments then you are DOOMED!

  62. Critics are aghast that Mark Carney will become Prime Minister of Canada, without standing for election to public office in any capacity.

    Why would he have? That's not how Freemasonry works.

    1. I'll shake your hand for that.

      (While rolling up my left trouser left and baring my right tit!)

  63. More Spring cleaning.
    My reward – a threesome:
    Wordle 1,363 3/6
    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  64. Just placed a small piece of pork belly into a vacuum-sealed bag and then placed it into a sous vide bath at 70ºC for 8 hours. When the time is up I shall wipe it dry, perforate the rind all over with my 'perforator', then cover the rind with salt and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours to dry out the skin. Tomorrow I will roast it at 250ºC to get a (fingers crossed) perfect bubbly crackling. I shall then slice it all up finely for future snacks.

    This is really a dry run for my roast porchetta that I am cooking next Saturday as a belated birthday meal for some invited guests.

      2. I don’t (no Marks & Sparks in Sweden). I love experimenting in the kitchen with real food.
        Much tastier and far more nutritious than bought-in muck.

    3. I have several perforators: a 12-bore version, a 30-08 version, a 9mm version, a 357 version, a 44 version, a 32 version and a 22 version.
      All excellent perforators…

  67. Good for the blood pressure? Take a reading and claim a new car.

    Government-funded BMWs epitomise Britain’s dysfunctional welfare state

    A well-intentioned scheme for the genuinely needy has grown to gargantuan proportions

    Sam Ashworth-Hayes13 March 2025 8:00am GMT

    If you want a brand new BMW i4 M Sport, you have two choices. The first is to lay out the full £52,770. The second is to tell the DWP that your mental health makes it hard to leave the house, claim the enhanced mobility rate of the Personal Independence Payment (Pip), fork out a down payment of £7,999, and get the Government to lease it for you.

    In exchange for the mobility component of your benefit, you’ll get a new BMW every three years, your insurance and accident breakdown paid for, your servicing and tyre replacements covered, and your choice of “conventional metallic paint option”.

    The only catch is eligibility, but thanks to the soaring growth in sickness benefits claims, that’s less of a barrier than it used to be.

    The number of people who could potentially claim a Motability vehicle has risen by over half a million since 2019, and the organisation now has 800,000 clients. The result is a bizarre behemoth: a car-leasing programme for the disabled that accounts for roughly one in every five new cars sold in Britain, and is one of the country’s largest issuers of corporate debt.

    It’s hard to think of a better summation of Britain’s welfare state: a well-intentioned scheme set up to help the genuinely needy swelling to gargantuan proportions as the state struggles to control the numbers eligible.

    The total bill for working-age sickness benefits is now in the region of £48bn annually, and is set to reach £67bn by the end of the decade. Each month, 80,000 new applications are lodged for Pip and there are roughly 1.2m more people claiming disability or incapacity benefits than there were in 2019.

    Attempts to explain this increase usually note two features. The first is the post-pandemic timing. The second is the composition: roughly 16pc of the rise is explained by claims for mixed anxiety and depressive disorders. Another 10pc, claims for autism. Fibromyalgia explains another 5pc, ADHD and depressive disorders 4pc each, PTSD and anxiety around 4.8pc between them, and various back pain conditions another 3pc.

    In other words, about 47pc of the rise is attributable to conditions with few hard, physical conditions for diagnosis. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies notes, there is some evidence that people are in worse mental health than they were previously. Lock a group of people in their homes for a year and a half, and it’s not surprising that they might take a while to adjust.

    But applications for diseases with hard physical markers have also increased significantly. Part of the issue might be incentives. For the last decade and a half, Britain has effectively been engaged in a monumental effort to incentivise people on the boundaries of work to identify as sick. The net effect of cutting back unemployment benefits while raising sickness benefits has been to make the latter more appealing, particularly as they’re not means-tested: if you find a job, you can keep your claim.

    Moreover, Pip is more generous than the benefit it replaced, with 32pc of working-age adults transferring on to the scheme awarded the highest possible payment. Only 11pc of the same group received the highest award from the previous scheme. In part, this might be down to a change in the assessment process triggered by remote working during the pandemic.

    Prior to 2020, around 80pc of assessments took place face-to-face, with roughly the remainder waved through based on sufficient paper evidence. Since 2020, however, the number of face-to-face assessments has plummeted to just 4pc, with remote phone or video calls displacing them. These remote assessments have a success rate of around 57pc, compared to 44pc for face-to-face meetings.

    It’s true that the system could probably be tightened up. Dig into the data, and among those claiming Pip are 23 people with “factitious disorder”: a condition whereby otherwise healthy people fake illnesses. To put it another way, people who want to be sick, but aren’t sick, are categorised as sick and therefore receive sickness benefits. Some 14 of them paid the enhanced mobility award necessary to access a state-funded BMW.

    Another 16 people have managed to claim Pip for acne. Five were awarded the higher mobility rate. Some outcomes are less amusing: people attempting to claim for asbestosis are less likely to win an award than those claiming to have autism (around 59pc of whom are eligible for Motability).

    But the timing and scale of the rise might not be down to remote working or NHS dysfunction alone. Welfare claims are state-dependent: people who claim welfare at one point in time are more likely to do so again in the future than similar people who don’t.

    Part of this is due to differences between individuals that are hard to identify in statistical datasets, but part of it seems to be a treatment effect: exposure to the welfare system has the effect of increasing future use.

    What happened during the pandemic was a country-wide experiment with exposure to the benefits system. People who were working went on to furlough. They learnt to navigate the system, and they learnt what was on offer. The social stigma was broken. And we know that the more people in your community there are claiming welfare, the more likely you are to follow their example.

    Behavioural economists have found that when people view benefits less as a matter of eligibility than as money that belongs to them, their interest in claiming rises significantly. Is it particularly surprising that once normality was restored, more people were interested in submitting claims?

    Since the pandemic, the relationship between people and the state has shifted. Public services have stalled out in productivity. The NHS waiting list has ballooned, teachers have gone on strike. And against this background, the rise in benefits claims might have become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

    In a high-trust society, you might not claim every benefit you’re eligible for, reserving the money for the genuinely needy. If, however, you see people claiming who clearly shouldn’t, while state services are falling apart and the Government is using your taxes to house illegal migrants in hotels, you might see things in more transactional terms.

    You might come to believe that if you’re a taxpayer who doesn’t claim every single penny you’re eligible for, you are a mug, a mark, or to borrow a word from our Israeli friends, a freier: someone who lets others take advantage of them.

    If the state sees you as an ATM, you might see it in the same way. That disability benefit is an effective rebate that you’re owed for your contributions. Why would you pass it up, and watch the Government give it to someone else?"

    2. CDon't expect much to change – making too much money for its owners:

      Motability Operations Group PLC, owned by:
      Barclays
      Lloyds Banking Group
      HSBC
      NatWest Group

  68. There is an age limit for mobility eligibility. In other words, those who are most likely
    to need it because of mobility problems and being on a pension are not eligible.

    1. Someone where I worked kept his wife grossly, grossly overweight so that they could claim the motability allowance. She had one hip replaced but was told that the other hip could not be replaced until she had lost weight. So she didn't. She carried on eating…. and eating. He used to snaffle cakes with a deft hand to take home to his wife from the lunch picnics I prepared for students.

  69. Things that make you hmmm
    Interesting
    Carl Benjamin
    @Sargon_of_Akkad

    "How the right can win:

    "The first and best manouever would be for Lowe and Habib to entrench themselves. Found a new political party and invite the politicians, policy makers, activists, celebrities and influencers which Farage left carelessly on the table. The unused right is enormous in Britain and is ready to campaign.

    "A large and loud political force will emerge overnight. It will literally spring out of the ground with a vitality hitherto unseen in British politics. It will be able to hold massive conferences, project its message to millions, and genuinely capture a youth vote which is crying out for a positive vision of the future.

    "The way to monopolise the discourse is then to pick a popular right-wing issue and polarise it so that the public have to come down hard on a yes/no answer in order to sidestep Farage's calculated hesitancy by eliminating the middle ground.

    "The easiest thing to do this on would be illegal immigration: all illegal immigrants should be deported, forthwith. Most people already agree with this, and the arguments against it are essentially preposterous and rely upon a level of prosperity we simply don't possess.

    "The slogan "we will deport all illegal immigrants" or some formulation thereof is enough, but it must be confidently and stridently announced.

    "It is an inevitable win and the other "right wing" parties, Reform and Tories, will be left paddling in its wake in their desperate attempt to catch up.

    "What it requires is a man of credentials, good character, and a steadfast belief in his cause, who is prepared to weather the media arrowstorm. He must understand that he is at war with the system and use the system's own weight and power against it to reveal that it is, ultimately, parasitic and draining the life out of the country in order to serve itself.

    "Could this be Rupert Lowe? Who knows, but so far he has shown this Trumpian will to fight, and has not yet put a foot wrong. If ever we had an opportunity for such a turn of events, it may lie in him."

    3. 403104+ up ticks,

      Complete agreement and afternoon Rik,

      Must priorities, Dover invasion / deportation and halal brutal murder would be a win double to launch any new party on.

      Say what you mean and via actions taken, mean what you say.

    4. As a paid up Reform member I would vote for that. Rupert Lowe comes across as a very realistic man.

  70. For those NoTTLers who are avid readers of my gardening column – you will be delighted to know that, for lunch today, we had a bowl of nourishing TROMBETTI soup – from the last of the trombetti that we harvested last September. And very good it was, to.

        1. Yes , I remember you did Bill, years ago , and of course suddenly things like that become trendy , so copy cat Monty , after his European gallop probably thought , aha

        2. 'Wazzock' is far too nice an epithet for that smarmy, self-satisfied BBC-placement climate warrior.

  71. PM abolishes NHS England in reforms

    For one glorious second, I thought it meant that Cur Ikea had abolished the whole shebang…..

    Sadly not.

    2. One of my sons works for NHS England.
      He and his colleagues now feel highly motivated to do their best work –
      Cleaning up their CVs.

  73. David Atherton
    @DaveAtherton20
    ·
    2h
    A follower on WhatsApp has penned this to me in frustration at living in a predominantly Pakistani area of Glasgow. It's awful & soulless.

    "Hi David, I think I told you I live in Glasgow's Pakistan where Kriss Donald was snatched. Having lived here for a year now, I can see that every single worker out on the street is WHITE. Imagine Humza's voice in his WHITE tirade.

    "Binmen – WHITE
    Repair men who come to the flat – WHITE
    The men who clean the stairwell on a weekly basis – WHITE
    The construction at the bottom of the street – WHITE Burst pipes on the street – WHITE
    Delivery men – WHITE

    "The other thing to note in this area is that it's not 'normal' as you and I would experience 'normal. No one goes off to work in the morning, and no one comes home from work at night. At the weekend, you don't see couples going out on dates.

    "There's no coffee shops. No theatres. There's nothing recreational or social or fun to do except go to mosque.

    "The only movement you see is on a Friday at 1 when the buildings empty themselves of men in their religious frocks to head to mosque. No one's working.

    "The only ones who do work are in the kebab shops and the cash 'n' carry. And the heavier Islamic the population becomes, the more that 'nothingness' spreads in terms of things to do.

    "It's very bizarre. It's also a stain on any community to enter this country and to strip things back to a point before enlightenment.

    "They don't seem to need to want or require anything other than islam. And I wonder why that would be. Brainwashing? Conditioning? Fear? I wonder why young men in their leagues are drawn to islam instead of going out and having fun.

    "Most importantly, Muslims aren't being excluded from these dirty, manual labour jobs. They simply feel it's beneath them. So it's in direct contrast to Humza's speech.

    "They are supremacist by nature.

    "Also, there's NO PETS anywhere. No dogs being walked. No cats sitting at windows. The only dog you'll see is when a WHITE man passes through on his way to the city

    "Truly a joyless bunch."

    1. It will be peer pressure applying fear that keeps them tied to islam. After all, apostasy means death.

    2. It will be peer pressure applying fear that keeps them tied to islam. After all, apostasy means death.

      1. Empowering women to do as their fathers/brothers/husbands decree.

        Reminds of the old Appalchian mountain folk joke:

        "Say, when I divorce my wife, will she still be my sister?".

        1. Jerry Lee Lewis.
          Boy, did we enjoy the furore over his third marriage.
          His bride/cousin was about our age; rather distracted us from dropping our perpendiculars.

    2. Mrs P-B really doesn't understand how white, English people feel about her stupidity.

  77. Deported Ghanaian fraudster can return to the UK after becoming depressed
    An immigration judge ruled it was ‘unjustifiable’ to separate Samuel Frimpong from his children

    Charles Hymas
    Home Affairs Editor
    Related Topics
    Immigration, Migrants, Ghana
    13 March 2025 11:21am GMT

    A convicted Ghanaian criminal deported from Britain 12 years ago has been allowed to return under human rights laws because separation from his family left him depressed.

    An immigration tribunal ruled that Samuel Frimpong should be allowed to come back to Britain, as deporting him was an “unjustifiable interference” with his rights to a family life under article eight of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

    The father of two was deported in 2013 to Ghana after four months in jail for using a faked document to try to “circumvent” the Home Office’s leave to remain rules.

    An immigration tribunal was told Frimpong had lived a “depressive life” away from his family. His children – who are 11 and 15 and were born after his conviction in 2008 – had found it “difficult to explain” where their father was to school friends and felt “socially isolated” as a result of his absence.

    His appeal seeking to revoke his deportation order was rejected by a first-tier immigration tribunal but this was reversed by Judge Abid Mahmood at an upper tribunal hearing.

    The judge said: “I conclude that, despite the very heavy weight to be afforded to the public interest and the presumption of deportation, the [Home Office’s] refusal to revoke the deportation order… amounts to an unjustifiable interference with the article eight rights of [Frimpong], his partner and his two children.”

    The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest exposed by The Telegraph in which migrants or convicted foreign criminals won the right to remain in the UK or halt their deportations, often by citing breaches of the ECHR.

    They included an Albanian criminal who avoided deportation after claiming his son had an aversion to foreign chicken nuggets and a Pakistani paedophile, who was jailed for child sex offences but escaped removal from the UK as it would be “unduly harsh” on his own children.

    There are a record 34,169 outstanding immigration appeals, largely on human rights grounds, which threaten to hamper the Government’s efforts to fast-track removal of illegal migrants. Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to close a loophole that enabled a Gazan family to come to the UK after applying under a Ukrainian refugee scheme.

    Frimpong’s case was unusual because he was appealing from abroad having already been deported. The tribunal was told that his wife and two children had been evicted from their home following his removal from the UK.

    His wife said this meant the children had to move schools. “The children are somewhat socially isolated without their father and find it difficult to understand why their father is not with them and they find it difficult to explain to others at school and the like where their father is,” she told the hearing.

    She told the hearing “keep begging their father to come to England and always pray for his safe return, to have his attention, support and affection”.

    His wife also said she was unable to work full-time while caring for the children and so the family could not afford to travel back to Ghana. “[She] said that [he] was very sorry and remorseful every day for what he had done. The 11 years apart had had a huge impact on the family,” the tribunal heard.

    “She had not been able to visit Ghana and nor had her children, because despite living in difficult accommodation in the UK, there is little in the way of funds available to undertake any international travel.”

    Arguing against, the government representative said that Frimpong’s use of false documents “fundamentally undermines immigration control”.

    Revoking the deportation order, Judge Mahmood admitted Frimpong’s dishonesty had been “serious” but said it would be “insurmountable” for the children to move to Ghana, separated from their friends and forced to live in a one-room home.

    “Modern means of communication have been tried in this case and have failed, as shown by the depressive lives being lived by the children and their mother here in the UK. Additionally in light of the depressive life being lived by [Mr Frimpong] in Ghana.”

    On Frimpong’s criminality, the judge said a probation report made clear there was no risk of harm to others and no reoffending since the original crime in 2008. “He has apologised profusely for his offending and behaviour. He has sought to make amends by practising and assisting others in his religion,” he said.

    Frimpong, who is a pastor and had been studying to become an accountant before he was deported, can now apply for entry clearance to come back to the UK.

    Read more of our asylum seeker coverage
    Legal challenges – largely on human rights grounds – could hold up efforts to remove thousands of migrants.

    A child's distaste for chicken nuggets halted the deportation of an Albanian criminal.

    One Nigerian migrant was rejected eight times for asylum, but succeeded after joining a terror group.

    An immigration court granted asylum to a convicted Pakistani paedophile.

    Under the ECHR, a Jamaican drug dealer avoided deportation by promising to only smoke cannabis.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/13/ghanaian-fraudster-deported-from-uk-allowed-to-return/

      1. That your chap? Why the collar? G & P were fitted with those when four months old and they were castrated. They had them off by the time we reached the roundabout after the vet – about 400 yards!

        1. We didn't know but we inherited him with a gum disease that has badly affected his lower jaw. He was refusing hard food and drooling quite a lot. We took him to the vet yesterday and he has had a number of teeth removed. He kept the collar on overnight but decided to remove it himself this morning. He is such a quiet, gentle and uncomplaining fellow that he has never cried out or wailed in pain. He was so happy to be back home he followed me everywhere yesterday, purring constantly.

          1. That is very good news. There is just something about cats that makes me go all (and uncharacteristically) soft inside!

          2. He’s my best mate. He sits waiting for me each morning (he sleeps in the conservatory) and then wraps himself around my feet, purring like a Triumph Bonneville, until I feed him. This afternoon I found him asleep on my old piano stool next to the radiator in my workshop office. He needed to catch up on his sleep after, no doubt, having a fitful night.

          3. As he has taken to your house, and has latched on to you, I reckon it will be fine for him to wander outdoors. He now knows where he sleeps and – much more importantly – where his food is. As to the road- one has to take a view. Behind our house is a 1½ acre garden and five miles of farmland. So, natch, G & P are to be found wandering along the road, though, to be fair, much less so than when they were younger. Just wait till you see the joy with which he climbs a tree.

            I have trained all the cats I have had to respond to a whistle – which they can hear 200-300 yards away. It may take them several minutes – but they always come back quickly.

            Do keep us posted…

          4. I have to say that after four weeks (yesterday) Winston comes when he's called. He comes even faster if I append the word "bikkies" to his name.

          5. My late hound responded so instantly to “dinner”, I thought I would speak of food as “Shapes” (Spillers Shapes). Before you could say Bonio – he knew the word “Shape”!!

          7. Yes, Poppie understood the spelling of certain words, she also became adept at understanding some French words as well. Rico has no inclinations towards etymology and is not food motivated. He is, however, an affectionate and bossy little dog and moves like quicksilver.

          8. I haven't yet spoken. to Winston in French. Kadi ignores it and Charlie used to think, "damned foreign". Oscar appeared to understand the Russian for "watch out, the doors are closing" (off the underground in Moscow) when he was going through the door and I wanted to shut it.

          9. Yes, Poppie understood the spelling of certain words, she also became adept at understanding some French words as well. Rico has no inclinations towards etymology and is not food motivated. He is, however, an affectionate and bossy little dog and moves like quicksilver.

          10. Cats never need to "catch up on sleep". They have three modes. Eating, sleeping and, er, sleeping!!

    1. As those of you who have visited relatives in a Nursing Care Home know most (if not all) the care staff are foreign and often come from abroad. In my experience of visiting 2 different homes over the past 7 years I only recall two English Surnames listed among the staff employed in both….It seems to me that it is either an area of work that English folk don't want to apply for of if they are qualified and apply are discriminated against?

      1. Moh’s late mothers care home had several Philipino and rather pleasant Poles , but a very elderly 100 year old lady I know refused the care agency staff access to her home because they were Ugandan males , and one Egyptian … yes I was there when that happened , poor woman was so distressed an inconsolable .

      1. Yes Audrey ,

        I really do like Rupert Lowe .

        The pressure he is under must be incredibly hard .. and I think blinking Farage and his rotten ego and bolting tendencies are exactly what we have seen during the past few years , inconsistency .

        1. I do not have a warm feeling for ANY politician, at ANY level, of ANY party. Never have done; they are all a gang of milksop charlatan chancers.

          As for Niggle Farrago, I've always been highly suspicious of that self-serving motormouth.

          3. Lowe has dared to mention that which the rest of them dare not. He has been seen to be prepared to stick his head above the parapet and peer at the world beyond. He does not like that which he sees. However, is this all theatre for our benefit, is the question. We have to wait and see and let it all play out. I am exhausted by all this going on around, Ukraine, the potential WWlll, the mayhem caused by the Labour govt, everything; it is exactly what TPTB want. They want us tired and broken with fatigue so that we will accept their monstrous CBDC without a fight, without even a world-ending whimper.

    1. So true. Back in 1962, I was in Birmingham when there was a widespread smallpox outbreak – origin below. I had not been vaccinated as a small child, so I went to our GP's surgery. It was full, and there was an overflow crowd outside.. The doc did not shut up shop for the night until he had seen everybody. Back in the day when practicing medecine was a vocation, not a part time job.

      In January 1962, a smallpox outbreak in the UK, originating from a traveler returning from Pakistan, led to a large-scale vaccination campaign and resulted in 19 deaths, primarily in South Wales.

      See? England was being "enriched" even then.

      1. Was that smallpox outbreak confined to Birmingham and South Wales, Jack? In 1962 (in Chesterfield, about 50 miles to the north) I had a BCG inoculation (for TB) but nothing was mentioned about smallpox.

        1. I hadn't been vaccinated as a child, so the 1961 Bradford smallpox outbreak was the first time I'd been jabbed for that disease. My left arm blew up something chronic.
          I was rather peaky afterwards, so presumably if I'd had the real thing, I'd have been brown bread.

          1. I wasn’t aware of any outbreak in 1961/62. The disease was never mentioned and no vaccinations were offered.

          3. I think I must have had the jab in '61, although I don't recall hearing anything about an outbreak (I never listened to the news then anyway – now, I'm reverting to childhood!). I had a nasty scab come on the site of the wound, but that was it. I still have the scar, although at this distance in time it's faded somewhat.

  84. I expect alot of you are now fed up with my tweets and comments, but if a few of you understand me , you will know I am upset , so very angry with the monster in charge of the government .

    There is something badly wrong with Starmer and his witches and black court jester ..

    Have they been taking tips from Hitler or Stalin ?

    They are everyone's bad dream and have caused endth damage since their short term in power since July last year .

    1. I sympathise, Maggie. I knew it would be bad, but even I am shocked by the sheer vindictiveness.

    2. Afternoon Belle. I am not fed up. Keep them coming. What is Nottl for except for us to air our concerns? They may very well shut us down eventually and it will be an opportunity lost.

        1. Look at that sentence: reshaping the state: by doing what? Deliver security: how? You're letting tens of thousands of dross pour into the country every day. They're pushing two tier justice, preferring the dindu. They're actively destroying people who speak out. Working people? Who are they? What is 'work'? Union activity isn't work. Business are being destroyed left right and centre by their insane ideology.

          Nothing labour are doing is helping people of any sort, let alone keeping the country secure and the state is a ruin.

        2. Another meaningless soundbite. All he means is he will tinker with a system that already is creaking and break it completely.

    3. Cheer up. Only another four years and five months until we can get rid of the Labour government (provided some other Opposition party can stop squabbling and gets its act together).

    6. I totally agree with you TB.
      Now that vile pile of dung and his revoluting front bench is going to wind up and finish off the NHS.

  85. Off topic
    I've a funeral to attend.
    I just tried on a suit from 20+ years ago, which fits perfectly.
    Very satisfying, it was made to measure in Singapore and still looks almost new.
    The best bit is that it's been hanging in the attic since we came to France and there are no moth holes!

          1. The camera refused to respond.

            True story:
            We both used the official photo-booth for our latest passport photos, hers was accepted mine was refused.
            We could not see any reason why.

            It took three attempts before the PP office would accept a picture, I could not see any discernible difference between any of the pictures.
            Even with the new passports I often find the electronic gates refuse to open and I get sent to the manned exits.

            However, I will admit that I’m a lot uglier than your pictures.

          3. The passport renewal was all done on-line.

            I don’t know if the electronic gates can be over-ridden to stop entry.

          4. I am almost always refused at the e-gates. Then have to call for help and join a queue – while the MR is waiting patiently outside….

          5. I wonder why?
            We both have fairly thin faces, perhaps that has an influence.
            I wear glasses all the time normally and perhaps the nose piece marks affect the image comparison.

          6. I don't know but it is a bloody nuisance. And worse is to come when (if) the EUSSR biometric bollocks starts. The MR has virtually no fingerprints. So that'll be another session waiting for a human to turn up…in French!

          7. I completely sympathise re the fingerprints.
            I can't get touchscreens to work as they should.
            I used to tease my children that I had had the fingerprints removed so I could work as a secret agent.
            It isn't actually funny, it's a bloody nuisance

          9. When I had my photograph taken for my Swedish passport the clerk said, "Are you happy with that one?"

            I replied, "We could stand here all day, taking dozens, and I still wouldn't be happy!"😲

      2. Because I was still participating in a lot of sport, I was much more heavily muscled, shoulders, legs and chest in my 20's/30's, but with a slimmer waist.
        Weight has dropped from nearly 14 stone at peak fitness to around 12 now. but waist has moved up to 33 / 34"
        I can still wear a dinner jacket from the mid 1970's.

        1. I always identified not with the young executive in John Betjeman's poem: Executive but with the quiet country market town.

          I am a young executive. No cuffs than mine are cleaner;
          I have a Slimline brief-case and I use the firm's Cortina.
          In every roadside hostelry from here to Burgess Hill
          The maîtres d'hôtel all know me well, and let me sign the bill.

          You ask me what it is I do. Well, actually, you know,
          I'm partly a liaison man, and partly P.R.O.
          Essentially, I integrate the current export drive
          And basically I'm viable from ten o'clock till five.

          For vital off-the-record work – that's talking transport-wise –
          I've a scarlet Aston-Martin – and does she go? She flies!
          Pedestrians and dogs and cats, we mark them down for slaughter.
          I also own a speedboat which has never touched the water.

          She's built of fibre-glass, of course. I call her 'Mandy Jane'
          After a bird I used to know – No soda, please, just plain –
          And how did I acquire her? Well, to tell you about that
          And to put you in the picture, I must wear my other hat.

          I do some mild developing. The sort of place I need
          Is           a quiet country market town that's rather run to seed
          A luncheon and a drink or two, a little savoir faire –
          I fix the Planning Officer, the Town Clerk and the Mayor.

          And if some Preservationist attempts to interfere
          A 'dangerous structure' notice from the Borough Engineer
          Will settle any buildings that are standing in our way –
          The modern style, sir, with respect, has really come to stay.

        1. There was a tailor in Changi Creek who made them but apparently once you were wearing it you had to keep moving

        1. That is the assumption I made – but of course we will never know as the suspect's identity may not be released (under age).

    2. The was a charge of statutory rape brought against Errol Flynn. The sophisticated and well-dressed women who had been more than eager for the coupling turned up in court wearing pigtails and bobby socks.

      Flynn was acquitted but thereafter any woman approaching him who looked eager for congress had to produce her birth certificate!

      1. If it was ‘statutory rape’ then it must have been in the US because no such offence exists in the UK.

    4. Precisely what MB and I said.
      If a 13 year old is genuinely clutching a teddy bear after murdering a woman (her mother?) then she is one dangerously mixed up kid.
      Or, as you say, her lawyers put her up to it.

    1. More like "the country that has spent a long time hating you now needs you as cannon fodder".

  88. This monster broke into a stable and did the unspeakable !

    A man has admitted having sex with a Shetland pony after trespassing into a stables in Wiltshire.

    Damion Ogeare, 43, pleaded guilty to penetrating a living animal and trespassing with intent to commit a sexual offence.

    The incident happened on land in Hilperton, near Trowbridge, Wiltshire on January 24 last year, Salisbury Crown Court heard.

    https://x.com/True_Belle/status/1900202802082701709

      2. Would that be a zebra from Kenya?

        When I were a sprog 'Zebbras' came from 'Keen-ya'. Nowadays (for some unfathomable reason) 'Zeebras' come from 'Kenn-ya'.🤔

  90. "A dog shot its owner in Tennessee after jumping on a gun trigger, causing it to discharge.

    Memphis Police responded to an emergency call from a man who told them he was lying in bed with a gun when his dog jumped up, causing the weapon to fire.

    Jerald Kirkwood was in his bedroom when his one-year-old pit bull, Oreo, leapt onto the bed and got his paw stuck in the trigger guard of his gun.

    As a result, the gun went off, and a bullet grazed the top of Mr Kirkwood’s left thigh, according to local news station WREG.

    Following the incident, a woman who had been in bed with Mr Kirkwood allegedly left the house with the gun, while the injured man was ferried to hospital in a non-critical condition."

    All comments to be suitable reading for a family newspaper. I wonder position they were following from the "Joy of Sex"?

    3. Gun safety: Safety-catch on until just about to fire.
      Why a loaded gun in bed at all?

  91. Good Law Project and Stop Funding Hate Turn on GB News as Coffers Dry Up

    Left-wing Good Law Project and Stop Funding Hate have been tireless in their censorship campaign against GB News. The Good Law Project rallied its supporters to fill out complaint forms against GB News to send to Ofcom while, conveniently harvesting their data for potential use “to further develop the campaign.” They then did the same again “to stop Sky funding hate speech” by facilitating ads on GB. Meanwhile, Stop Funding Hate is still handing round the begging bowl, urging donors to “help build the fightback against GB News.” A quick look at the books sheds some light on why they’re rattling the tin…

    Latest accounts show Jolyon Maugham’s Good Law Project clawed back just £467 in legal costs last year, as its fortunes nosedive under Labour. Once rolling in crowdfunded cash – raking in £1.86 million in 2022 – it scraped together a mere £83,523 through five crowdfunders since July. They closed its vanity law firm, burning through £439,100 on the way down. Stop Funding Hate isn’t faring much better, limping along with a £28,005 net income loss and scrambling to cover its £92,683 campaigning bill via another crowdfunder. Baroness Claire Fox said:

    “These revelations show that it’s craven intolerance of media freedom and viewpoint diversity that animates these campaign groups. That these attacks on regulated media outlets are also used by activists to raise cash to fund their continued assaults on free speech, is especially grubby.”

    Eyebrows raised over whether targeting the ‘People’s Channel’ is just a handy cash grab as the coffers run dry…

    13 March 2025 @ 15:32

    ***************
    James Stevenson
    48m
    Has the good baroness bothered to raise the issue with the charity commission on how it sees organisations who actively try to censor the media are classed as a charity.

    We are all doomed
    41m
    Can we launch "Stop Funding 'Stop Funding Hate ' "?

    Mr Blue Sky
    We are all doomed
    31m
    They are vexatious, and serve no other purpose than to attack GB News, and have done since before they even aired their first show.

    Neil Parkin
    We are all doomed
    34m
    Yet in true 'lefty projection', it is the organisation that is to stop hate that appears to be generating a good deal of hate in trying to achieve its end. What ever, it is high time that these narrow but well funded ideological campaigns came to an end, which will come, (as Mrs T keenly observed),

  92. REVEALED: Bridget Phillipson’s Private Meeting Minutes Expose Deep Ties to Union Bosses

    The Department for Education has finally released transcripts of meetings held with teaching union bosses since 4 July last year. Bridget met 33 times with union officials while giving only one chat to the Independent Schools Council…

    Guido asked for transcripts of meetings with Daniel Kebede (National Education Union) and Paul Whiteman (National Association of Headteachers). At a meeting just four days after the general election Bridget met with NAHT general secretary Whiteman:

    BP said “she was keen to meet early on. Want to work with you and your members.”
    PW: “Feel the refresh already. We are pushing in the same direction… We will be offering the expert advice.“
    PW: “The Government is moving with pace already.“
    At a call with radical National Education Union head Daniel Kebede the education secretary provided an early briefing of a 5.5% teacher pay award for 2024/25.

    BP: “Securing this package has been very challenging and it will be funded by savings found across government.“
    DK: “Very pleased to have been briefed. From his perspective SoS has already succeeded in resetting the relationship with the sector with this announcement… He passed on his sincere thanks to SoS.“
    Bridget held a separate call to discuss the award with Whiteman, who said “this was really helpful.” Meanwhile copies of five entire meetings with union bosses Daniel Kebede, Paul Whiteman, or Mary Bousted are fully redacted – curious…

    During a call before the budget, Bridget went out of her way to soothe Daniel Kebede’s concerns:

    DK: “have read other press releases and NEU probably won’t be as positive.“
    BP: Emphasised “this is a 1-year settlement and the need to look to the future and the multi-year settlement.“
    BP: Clarified “that schools and colleges will be compensated on NICs and more details will follow on this.“
    BP: Offered a call with Officials if Daniel felt one was needed in the coming weeks.
    A call with Whiteman confirmed provision of new money and added: “NAHT have no complaints at the moment and are positive.” No surprise there…

    Bridget also called Kebede, NEU representatives, and Whiteman on the Sunday prior to her reform speech at the Centre for Social Justice last month.

    PW: “Thanked SoS for the briefing – this is another signal of a welcome different approach. There is nothing that SoS said is surprising or concerning, and he may have some things to say about that but the overall thrust is one he wants to support.“
    NEU: “Would like it to be clear in the speech tomorrow that every single teacher and every leader wants the best for their children, and the unions represent 90% of teachers and leaders.” Telling Bridget what to say…
    PW: “The conclusion of SoS’s speech sounds exactly in the right place. The previous government went through Education Secretaries rapidly, and none of them set out a vision for the education system – what SoS has said sounds like a vision and ambition.“
    BP: Concluded the call to reiterate her thanks.
    A love-in of some proportions. Compare that to Bridget’s meeting with Birbalsingh. Unions cheering Bridget on as she tears down some of the only Tory reforms that have been almost universally successful…

    Read the full released transcripts below:

    13 March 2025 @ 13:15

    **********************
    Captain Sensible
    3h
    One of the few achievements of recent years has been the improvement in secondary education in England. (Wales and NI have stayed where they were, while Scotland has gone backwards). This has been the result of freeing schools from bureaucratic control. The teaching unions are determined to reverse this and Phillipson is their puppet.

    Mr.D.Advocate
    3h
    Marxists can't afford to have the plebs independently educated as then they might look too closely at Marxism.

    1. They are much reduced. I know this because i use a finger print entry system to my home.

  96. Wordle No. 1,363 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 13 Mar 2025

    Hunting Birdie Three?

    1. Well done! Disappointing par here after a good starter word…..

      Wordle 1,363 4/6

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

    2. Well done. A rare (for me) eagle here.

      Wordle 1,363 2/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Managed a birdie today

      Wordle 1,363 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    5. Me too. All three guesses are words I frequently use because they feature common letters.

      Wordle 1,363 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  97. YAY!!!!! After two years of trying to work round 'imperfections', oven problem has at last been solved.
    I realised that the previous inhabitant of the Dower House had not been into cooking, but when I was baking the deficiencies were painfully obvious (after I spent an entire afternoon decoking the oven when we first moved in).
    New thermostat and now new heating element have solved the frustration. Cakes are now rising and cooking evenly.
    Next, see if the dreaded conduction hob can be replaced with a gas one – depending on where the pipes are running.

    2. Induction i think you mean.
      If the pipework is non-existent then consider gas bottles.

      1. I recommend gas bottles. I'm very happy with my Calor supply (and I don't have nasty bills after I've used it – I know how much a replacement will cost).

        1. I haven't done the sums but if not connected to gas one is not paying the standing charge.

          1. No, no standing charge, just the initial deposit for the gas bottles which I shan't have to pay again as I'll be exchanging an empty one for a full one.

          2. Believe Calor in bottles is more expensive per therm due to lower volumes and delivery charge. A spare cylinder is a good idea, in case of sudden running out.

          3. I don't have gas on the property any more (another one of MOH's decisions which I've had to work round). I had an electric cooker. With the price of electricity and the standing charge shooting up it made sense to replace it with gas and Calor was the answer. I do have a spare cylinder.

          4. Mother used Calor bottled gas for years. No mains supply, being out in the sticks. It was good, although she had an electric oven as well.

          5. I was used to it from the motorhomes. Seemed like a no brainer to use it at home, doing away with a standing charge and using less electricity.

          6. My bottles were delivered free from the local garage. At a pinch I might be able to collect them myself if they would fit in the car.

      2. I have a gas bottle on my Weber Spirit II gas barbecue, but in the kitchen I am more than satisfied with my induction hob. A few years ago I bought a stand-alone gas ring in case of emergencies but I've only used it a few times.

        It is superb, though, for my traditional carbon steel round-bottomed woks. I can get a flame like a Chinese kitchen.

        1. Some people find getting to grips with induction hobs a bit difficult. I wouldn't want one even though they look sleek.

          I call your gas ring and raise you an instant kitchenette…

          From my camping days i have a fold out kitchen, in my loft. Hob, sink draining board which doubles up as a chopping /prep area. Two storage areas underneath. Room for waste water an gas bottle in the middle.

          All packs down to the size of two standard suitcases.

          2. Try cooking proper food on a hexamine stove, as supplied with compo rations.

          5. You can buy that in tins. Just add a shaved trombetti salad…with a lemon dressing. Nowt Cuisine !

          7. I suppose. If all you want is tea or coffee/hot choc.

            When i go camping i take fold out tables and tablecloths.

        2. My hob is Butane/Calor powered, a 19Kg bottle lasts 3 years. My oven is electric but isn't used much as I prefer the air fryer

        2. When ever we go away stay self catering they always have induction hobs. Obviously for safety reasons.
          I could get use to one.

      1. The result of ever more stupid parents and a determined governmental dumbing down of the education system.

          1. Well I think you know what our Fur King media are up to. I’d say that they interviewed quite a lot of young chaps until they had the results they were after. And obviously kept diversity out of it.
            I wonder how the left out others reacted to their silly questions.

    2. I would lock my three sons in a safe place rather than let them risk their lives for this now shiite hole of a country..

  99. What do you know, Carney is talking about some new fangled crypto currency for Canada. No worries, guaranteed by the bank, better returns than regular money.

    Having visa know my spending habits is one thing but Carney and his corrupt liberal government is not going to happen.

    1. Democratic control? He wouldn't know democracy if it hit him in the face (and he'd like it just about as much as a slap round the chops).

      1. Professional managers would be my preference, from private industry. Those that can manage and effectively.

    2. I can see now why Amanda Pritchard entered the lifeboat first.

      Rats and sinking ships.

      Fuck the patients dying in corridors and A&E.

      What an utter fucking bitch.

      2. All that will happen is that the money gets spent elsewhere, if it's spent on patients, all well and good, but most of it won't be.

    4. Knowing that starmer is an absolute shit, I can't even be bothered to read it.
      Is he going to refund the thousands of pounds paid by the public to fund and support the NHS ?

        1. I don’t like to use such obscenities in public.
          But he’s incredibly and increasing nasty and absolutely vile. He seems to be enjoying wrecking our culture and social structure.

          1. I understand fully that word is the last to be used but even our lady Nottlers who wouldn't ordinarily swear are using the F an B words on a regular basis.

            This is what they have done to us.

          2. I used to say I stopped watching the news because it brought on Tourette's. I am much less foul mouthed since I ditched the TV.

  102. That's me for today. A miserably cold one, albeit there was some sunshine. Definitely NOT a day for gardening.

    There nearly was a sunset – one of those skies that build up the colour and look promising – then just stop – as though God switched it off.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

    1. That was .the conclusion I came to very early in the day, Bill! Enjoy the rest of your evening – see if you can finish that fiendish jigsaw

  103. Reform UK party membership Tuesday at 1045 was 219,620, Wednesday at 1124 219,282 and today at 1836, 219,035.

    Falling slowly.

    1. Ignore all those useless childish bas stewards. Fcuk Reform, it's dead now, just doesn't know it. And forget Farage, man's an egoist dick.

    2. 403104+ up ticks,

      He recognized it all tight as a success in the making, with Gerard Batten also a UKIP founder member a true leader
      Until the "nige the knife" in conjunction with the party NEC came up with Gerard was NOT of good. standing within the party
      He, Gerard asked the members for £100000 and in reply received
      £ 300000 putting the party in the black
      In my book then the ukip NEC was pro lab/lib/con anti Brit coalition.

    3. I'm no expert in any shape or form, but I believe Farage has been exposed for what he actually is. An old saying, "all mouth and no trousers". I'm not wishing to single him out in British politics but the vast majority of them are the same. Comfortably living off the British taxpayers. And that's how our once safe and respected country is now being carved up. By the same sort of pretenders.

      1. I enjoy going to the theatre (not that I get the chance very often, living where I do).

      2. He is far too busy to work. He has to service his wives and thank his god 5 times a day for the shower of benefits. There is a good chance of a disability up his sleeve in case a job is offered.

  110. Elon sacks thousands of civil servants, emboldening lefties all over the world, ironically to attack Tesla cars, for they love electric cars, for some mad self harming ideological reason, yet when Starmer shuts down NHS England, sacking thousands of civil servants, but alas he unfortunately he hasn't created anything of any material value during a lifetime of failing upwards, living off the back of taxpayers that can be boycotted in retribution.

      1. And an economic crisis and exacerbated a housing crisis. He has helped create a cancel culture (our culture for a start).

  112. More than a dozen members of the European Parliament are suspected of taking bribes from Huawei, according to prosecutors in Brussels, after raids were carried out on homes and offices across Belgium and Europe.

    On Thursday, the federal prosecutor’s office said that police had searched 21 premises and questioned several suspects “in connection with their alleged involvement in active corruption within the European parliament”.

    It said: “Several individuals have been arrested for questioning in connection with their alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forging and use of forgeries.”

    The probe was initiated by Belgium’s intelligence services, the Financial Times reported.

    Those arrested were understood to include former MEPs, it was also reported.

    As many as 15 MEPs and former MEPs are suspected of taking bribes from the Chinese state-controlled tech giant, according to reports.

    It was alleged that MEPs had been paid or given “excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” in exchange for favourable political statements.

    The “alleged bribery” would have benefited Huawei, the prosecutor’s office later added.

      1. The train that moved everything from Brussels to Strasbourg and back was nicknamed the Gravy Train.

      2. The train that moved everything from Brussels to Strasbourg and back was nicknamed the Gravy Train.

      1. Several of us on this forum are or were school teachers. I doubt if many of us would want to go into teaching today.

    3. Stupidly disgusting. Absolutely awful.
      What are these 'king idiots in Wastemonster and W(s)hitehall trying to achieve or prove ?

      1. They are trying (and succeeding) to turn this country into an islamic hellhole. They are proving we can't do a damned thing about it.

    6. FFS, he's going to be running Star Academies at the same time.

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

      "As a multi-academy trust, Star Academies is an exempt charity regulated by the Department for Education. 15 of the schools under Star Academy have Muslim religious character, 10 of which have been rated Outstanding by Ofsted, with the other 5 still waiting to be graded.

      The trust's change of name followed its change of focus; it had originally only been responsible for Islamic schools, but expanded to secular and Christian schools."

      How on earth can this be happening?

      1. I think the Labour Party Hierarchy have calculated how many extra votes they can secure by such appointments . Be prepared but not shocked by dozens more in the future….

        1. The thin end of the wedge.

          "They" will create parties, charities, schools, colleges etc, that are muslim biased and Allah help you if you vote against them

        2. The thin end of the wedge.

          "They" will create parties, charities, schools, colleges etc, that are muslim biased and Allah help you if you vote against them

      2. Remember that islam means submission. Any sign of weakness (and this government has it in spades because it hates the indigenous culture) and it will take advantage.

  114. And that's me off to bed.
    Not a lot done today, but I do need to get the back of the van sorted and cleaned out.
    It's getting close to time for loading my camping gear!

  117. Well, chums, I'm now off to bed. Good Night all, sleep well, and see you all tomorrow.

  122. I'm off now, Erin's watching the apprentice.
    I was an apprentice in the 1960s.
    But I actually worked and learned a lot and after five years I wasn't fired.
    Good night all 😴

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