Thursday 15 May: It’s only right to give people control over how their lives will end

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

421 thoughts on “Thursday 15 May: It’s only right to give people control over how their lives will end”

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

    Wordle 1,425 6/6

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  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,425 6/6

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    1. I don't know what happened today with the Wordle solution. It seems to have printed yesterday's result, because I was unable to complete today's in 6 attempts.

      1. It was a bit of a devil today. I also failed, having got stuck early on with the second and last two letters. So many options! I got it only by having another go on a different OS.

        1. Failed as well.
          Wordle 1,426 X/6

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    1. Good morning, Meest Mintee. I know no languages, een fact I no nothing, I am from Barcelona. (With apologies to Fawlty Towers.)

  5. Off to Cornwall today. Taking the boat on a trial run to Salcombe and back tomorrow/ Saturday.

    1. The one on the right has the name of the cartoonist and today's date? Lol.

      1. Sir Keir demands a UN set of international standards for spyware & comms.

        1. Fitting the equipment for data collection, remote control and spyware is standard practice for China, not so? I don't fancy flying in their commercial aeroplanes…

          1. They all do it. The US bugs phones and Embassies around the world. I expect they have the House of Commons/Lords bugged too.

            I found it hilarious when Angela Merkel discovered her phone had been bugged by the Americans. The naivety is shocking.

      2. Sir Keir demands a UN set of international standards for spyware & comms.

    2. Likely in use, could pose risks, no proof. Hardly definite, kowloonbhoy.

  8. Morning, all Y'all.
    Sunny, cold, blowing a hooley. Back to jumpers… 🙁

  11. Quote of the day

    ‘I would never knowingly share anything anti-Semitic. It goes against everything I believe in.’

    – Gary Lineker apologises for sharing an anti-Semitic Instagram story.

    Then why did he post it in the first place?

  12. Good morning all.
    A somewhat overcast and slightly dull start to the morning, but still with the temperature a tad above 12°C, as it has been since Monday.
    A bit of work to do up the hill. The tree fellers returned and cleared away a couple of large ash which were threatening the new extension of Old Des's cottage next door.
    Rather annoyingly, they dropped a couple of trees on top on some seed grown saplings I'd recently planted forcing me to lift them again so I've them to get replanted this morning.
    I also need to get across to Worksop to pick up an auction purchase for t'Lad, a lot of machine tooling for his big lathe either today or tomorrow.
    As the DT is working the weekend, I'm tempted to overshoot Worksop and treat myself to another couple of days on the Lincolnshire coast.

      1. I'm starting to walk lengths of the coast and just enjoying being in the area.
        The last auction pick up I stopped at Horseshoe Point and walked up to North Cotes Point, to link in with the walks I did the previous two days.
        Before the tide came in; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9908b5f10cb82d4ceb09f2358d2ab25d9d9dd32bc45fc69acbe998749aa77dfc.jpg When the tide came in; https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7937abfcccc5a97415bcb6e425288532f3230150055137bf9d5935fcafec9593.jpg A tanker lying offshore at the discharge buoy with a couple of tugs in attendance.
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9ed999c6d2e8f08807a6b1a576bcddbcfe31898112c62a65efb52337645bd00.jpg Looking along the path on top of the flood defence berm at North Cotes Point https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e0198850e99fc9f2f4e112095ed41b2a72436c686b26511010926bc0519b9c94.jpg And looking across the marshes https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba21835e402ace91a5e26124bb0c2bd5d4f795cb6d4bb94ec958a044c73cba95.jpg Then I picked up this path leading to North Cotes Point Beach https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b87965f19026b8c68774769da22bf8edb9755f6eed5112dc0d16ae35842e879a.jpg Unfortunately by the the tide was well out, but what a lovely remote beach with absolutely no one there! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ad0edef23c6ede9d2354f35a6fe7356ce1316198f83d2a9b235e7ad320b1f12.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cab8eccd5089de2830a8dec1566b0fd9762cec18f86099daae70f7bdd3111392.jpg

        1. Those pictures remind me of cold childhood summers at a caravan site in Hunstanton.
          Thanks, Bob!

          1. It was anything but cold that day.
            In fact, so remote and deserted was the place, I stripped off and just enjoyed the sunshine!

          7. I remember that most of our childhood family holidays involved wearing a Pacamac.

        3. When I was a licensed BTO bird-ringer, we operated a ringing scheme — every summer —at a site just to the south of there at Theddlethorpe Dunes.

        4. The sky and seas on the East Anglian coast can reduce me to tears.
          Ancestral memories? My grandfather's family came from Alderton. My aunt spent her honeymoon at Aldeburgh. I find Sutton Hoo very moving.
          Sadly as the persistent North Sea wind causes problems with MB's hearing aids (his face becomes very white and drawn with the constant sound), I can really only go on my own or with a fellow coastline nut.

    2. I used to live just outside Worksop.
      Woodsetts, to the north west (1987–1991) then Carburton, to the south (1991–1999).

      1. In the 80’s I landed a job in the booze trade as a Regional Controller, South East Brewery. I had 4 account managers reporting to me and the company’s South East started in Worksop and then all the counties down the eastern side of the country to West Sussex.

  13. 405630 + up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    All the beneficial to common sense political stars are lining up nicely, enough one could say to support THREE REPLACEMENT PARTIES.

    Out of gross stupidity via continual tribal voters & the polling stations over decades we are suffering BIG TIME in a gatden of political criminal shite.

    Continuing support for the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled / party controlled immigration has brought these Isles to its knees, one might say in all honesty , five times a day,.

    Time for replacement parties as in the Farmer FOOD & Freedom Party, / Integrity, ( under a joint leadership,Ben Habib & Rupert Lowe) / Reform.
    All running on stopping & reversing the invasion, mass deportation main issue platform.

    Each acting as a safety net / fallback, anti treachery party against any loss of patriotic integrity by any other party.

    At the time of reckoning vote tactically / amalgamate. https://x.com/Basil_TGMD/status/1899199698046451790

    1. No, I wouldn't, I won't be voting for another splinter group. Reform UK, whatever devils lurk in their midst, currently have the momentum.

      1. 405630+ up ticks,

        Morning Mo,

        Sad to say to my mind following what has been the regular voting pattern, with NO safety net

        1. I'm, like many here, running out of time. They are my last hope. If they turn out to be false, that'll be my end of voting I think.

          1. 405630+up ticks,

            Mo,
            I cannot see why there is any objection to having an anti treachery fall back party especially when knowing the dubious
            history of the political contenders.

        2. I'm, like many here, running out of time. They are my last hope. If they turn out to be false, that'll be my end of voting I think.

        3. I'm, like many here, running out of time. They are my last hope. If they turn out to be false, that'll be my end of voting I think.

      2. Agree, likely to split the vote even further. Bit reminiscent rats in a sack.

        1. Rats in a sack.
          That description appropriately covers the world of politics.

          1. Does indeed, Eddy. First time I ever voted was for the old Liberal party…half a century and more ago…have voted ever since, albeit with reservations, possibly for the last time. Sick and tired of the lot of ’em.

          2. Yes…It's pretty obvious our own rats are taking orders from others (WEF NWO) who consider themselves via intellect, way above the general public.
            And that really means all these hundreds of self opinionated, over self important wreckers in Waste-monster are obviously irrelevant.

          3. Agree…and unfortunately paid for by the sad saps that we are…always easy to spend those funds..

  14. True,, and even truer , not a fib either ..

    During the 1990's , my father knew a few chaps who were the stuff of films and novels .

    I met a couple of them .. in Wanderers , Jo'burg , at the long bar .

    Their lifestyles and stories were all for the greater good ..

    They weren't Nazis or Wagner group men .

    My friend who lost her brave capable husband in March has a few wonderful stories to relate , yes re Aden in the 1960's.

    Me as a child , returning from a school Christmas holiday from Nigeria in the early 1960's , when my parents were based out there .. A BOAC school special Britannia aircraft was diverted to the Congo and returned with injured missionaries , nuns and priests , poor bods had been caught up in this ..

    Me and dozens of expat schoolchildren were requested to stay calm and quiet on the flight .. the injured were just that .
    They got off the aircraft when the aircraft reached Rome . Present day young liberal journalists haven't a clue how fraught and vicious Africa used to be .. British servicemen weren't terribly clued up , neither was our government .

    Of Mann’s forebears the two that most stand out were “Mad Mike” Hoare, a stiff-lipped Anglo-Irishman and one-time accountant, and Bob Denard, the flamboyant Frenchman with whom he had an unspoken rivalry.

    Hoare, who bore a passing resemblance to Montgomery, led his motley fighters, the fabled Wild Geese, in defeating Congo’s China-backed Simba rebels, who numbered Che Guevara in their ranks, and shoring up the breakaway province of Katanga. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/05/15/simon-mann-last-generation-of-white-mercenaries/

    He and his 300 men recaptured Stanleyville, later to be renamed Kisangani, from the Simbas, freed 2,000 European hostages, most of them nuns and priests – and then dynamited the vaults of every bank in the city before drinking its taverns dry.

    It was a tale of derring-do worthy of Empire and made Hoare, who made his men attend church every Sunday, a hero on Fleet Street.

    Among those who lapped up his antics back home was the young Simon Mann, sitting in the back of a classroom plotting imaginary coups in his atlas.

    1. People forget that in the chaos of The Congo, it was the Mercenaries who were most effective in stopping the rebels from murdering their hostages. Other than the one incident with the Irish lads, the siege of Jadotville, the UN were totally bloody useless. And even then Connor Cruise O'Brian was prepared to hang his own men out to dry.

  15. How is British culture defined these days ?

    Humour and manners are off the list , so what is left .. American films ?

    Food?
    Rap music
    Theatre,

    Pop concerts,
    Fashion ,
    boring architecture
    What exactly do foreigners view as British culture?

    1. TV advertising and programmes that are obviously stuffed with diversity for no other reason but the most obvious.

          1. Thanks for getting back to me OLT. I hope you are enjoying your holidays.

        2. Good day, to you, Elsie.

          I am hoping that “rappers” will quickly follow suit.

        1. DW, I am aware of its origin, my comment was questioning whether or not (c)rap qualifies as music as we know and understand it.

    3. Cricket, rugby, football, equestrian sports.

      Sunday roasts, fish & chips, meat pies.

      1. Good quality cask-conditioned English ale, dispensed by beer-engine, at 13–15ºC, and served in 'sleever' pint glasses.

    4. Royal family, changing of the guard, traditions, etc. Or as my American friends put it, "It's so quaint".

    5. In my experience, foreigners generally have a positive view of British culture, including humour and manners, that is sadly a few decades out of date.

    1. With this kind of behaviour, and they expect to govern the UK? Looks like they couldn't govern a kindergarten, even though the behaviour is appropriate for that task.

      1. This is the worrying thing.
        There seems to be no political party in Blighty that rises above the level of a play group.

        1. As we have witnessed in scenes from the infamous “Train to Kiev” all European leaders and the political, legal and judicial class are addicted to the white powder.

          Cocaine gives these cretins a sense of omnipotence and false security. They are secure in the belief that they are all knowing masters of the universe. This also explains the chaos imposed by their erratic decision making and shear lunacy in supporting the green goblin in Ukraine.

  17. Labour refuses to fly flag celebrating British fight against Napoleon

    Tory government raised the Middlesex county ensign over Downing Street, but Starmer’s team has no plans to follow suit
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/05/14/TELEMMGLPICT000424150064_17472469337440_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqCv6uBzM0Vpg9-uDRPx5xeMewpXs8WfY_TzmzPR2q8kY.jpeg?imwidth=1920
    Labour has refused to fly an historic county flag over Downing Street that celebrates a British battle against Napoleon.

    Number 10 has no plans to mark Middlesex Day this year by raising the county’s flag on Friday, in a break with the previous Conservative government.

    Middlesex Day celebrates the historic county, which covers all of London north of the Thames, including Westminster and Sir Keir Starmer’s constituency.

    It is marked on May 16, the date when the Middlesex Regiment fought the forces of Napoleon in the Battle of Albuhera, in Spain.

    In the battle, the allied forces of Britain, Portugal and Spain opposed the French advance on the city of Badajoz during the Peninsular War. It is celebrated as one of the regiment’s most heroic moments.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/05/14/TELEMMGLPICT000424150521_17472469952540_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqkLf8cnBMOyhlUUcJZU3Nsa7Ndeq2osHVU97TWyNDSmo.jpeg?imwidth=960
    The allied forces of Britain, Portugal and Spain countered Napoleon’s forces on the city of Badajoz during the Peninsular War Credit: Battle of Albuhera, by William Barnes Wollen./Zoom Historical / Alamy Stock Photo
    Middlesex, first mentioned in a 704 AD chronicle, was abolished as an administrative council and subsumed into Greater London in 1965. It gives its name to the Middlesex Cricket Club and appears on road signs across north London.

    Despite its abolition, the county retains a small but passionate group of supporters, who gifted one of the flags to Downing Street in 2022, when it became the first county flag to fly above the prime minister’s residence.

    The Ministry of Local Government has also flown it over Westminster in recognition of British bravery against Napoleon, and it was flown again on May 16 under Rishi Sunak’s administration.

    The Telegraph understands that despite calls to raise the flag again this year, there are no plans to do so from Sir Keir’s team.

    The decision has provoked anger from campaigners and Conservative MPs, who said the Prime Minister would be more familiar with “the white flag of surrender”.

    It comes after Zia Yusuf, chairman of Reform UK, said the party would only fly the Union flag and St George’s Cross over town halls it had won at the local elections earlier this month.

    This decision prompted backlash from Labour, which said it was a betrayal of Ukraine. Downing Street flies a Ukraine flag daily in solidarity with Kyiv against Russian aggression.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/05/14/TELEMMGLPICT000335763944_17472468331290_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqsH-58VODPdcKIHDrpuDOORmW8JbqtMJVydduxhLvB4I.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Middlesex, first mentioned in a 704 AD chronicle, was subsumed into Greater London in 1965 Credit: Eddie Mulholland
    Jeff Barnes, the chairman of Middlesex Heritage, told The Telegraph: “We at Middlesex Heritage are obviously disappointed at the decision taken by Downing Street not to fly the Middlesex flag, purchased by our members.

    “May 16, Middlesex Day, is as always in remembrance of our county regiment, the Middlesex, as well as celebrating our historic county of Middlesex that Westminster has been a part of for well over 1,000 years.”

    Richard Holden, a Conservative shadow minister, said the decision was a symbol of Labour’s “betrayal” of Brexit.

    “As the Labour Government prepares to give in to betray Brexit and make our country an EU law-taker, it speaks volumes that they refuse to fly the historic flag that marks victory over the forces of Napoleon,” he said. “Keir Starmer would rather hoist the white flag of surrender.”

    ‘Snub’ to supporters
    Andrew Rosindell, the Conservative MP for Romford, called for Sir Keir to reconsider his decision to “snub” the county and its supporters.

    “I think it is a snub to the proud heritage of Middlesex, the people of Middlesex, and towns and villages throughout Middlesex that still celebrate their Middlesex heritage,” he said.

    “It’s very disappointing that the new Prime Minister has decided to discard quite a nice tradition that’s harmless.

    “It doesn’t offend anyone or cost anything, so I think really they should rethink their decision on this and put the flag up on Friday.”

    A Downing Street source said: “Led by the first Prime Minister to host a St George’s Day reception in Downing Street, Labour obviously understands the importance of celebrating our proud heritage.”

    1. I was born in Middlesex, and often thought as a child that crossing the Thames between Hampton Wick and Kingston was as good as going abroad.

      1. Bentalls store was an amazing place to see as a child, and Kingston Market was a bustling sight.

        1. As a child, I was familiar with Bentalls in Ealing. There was a third branch in Bracknell as well.

          2. Don't know, but the cars are from that era, so that gives the age of the photo.

          4. Allegro estate on the left, and Cortinal estate on the right?
            Can't identify the other two.

          5. That was the only picture I could find.
            But thank you for suggesting I'm younger than my sons.
            🙂

        2. Abroad then. I remember going through Norbiton on the train to London from Hampton Wick. No passport, but I did need a ticket.

    2. Strange as it may seem Middlesex Polytechnic still exists at the Burroughs Hendon NW4 next to What was once Hendon Town Hall. Now known as 'Barnet Town' Hall. Barnet is approximately 12 miles away in Hertfordshire, but what are these fiddling political idiots trying to achieve. History is History. Just because the French don't like being reminded of how many times they where thrashed by the English what's the point of trying to disguise it ?
      Still nothing recently visible from anywhere in France showing how much they all appreciated being rescued from Nazi occupation.

    3. How very odd of Starmer's team. Wonder what the reason/s might be…hmm..🤔

      1. Don't want to upset the leading Frogleiters and Krautleiters of the Eurounion Reich!

        1. Exactly, Per. I predict a long hot summer ahead, possibly even marches/riots on the streets.

    4. So it's ok to fly a foreign flag (Ukraine) every day in Downing Street but not to fly the flag of a local area on one day in the year.

    5. "Gaily into Ruislip Gardens
      Runs the red electric train,
      With a thousand Ta's and Pardon's
      Daintily alights Elaine;
      Hurries down the concrete station
      With a frown of concentration,
      Out into the outskirt's edges
      Where a few surviving hedges
      Keep alive our lost Elysium – rural Middlesex again."

      1. "Does Mum, the Persil-user, still believe
        That there’s no Devil and that youth is bliss?
        As certain as the sun behind the Downs
        And quite as plain to see, the Devil walks."

    6. So, this government will not continue a tradition which has stood the test of time since the dim and distant days of 2022. How very dare they!

  18. Morning all 🙂😊
    Oh dear completely and solidly grey and windy, perhaps some rain on the way.
    The trouble with today's headline is and as usual, how much influence our political idiots might have within this deciding factor.
    They are bound to be poking their nasty little noses in somehow.

    2. Watch for the so-called Gaza MPs.. they are growing at a faster rate than Reform.

    1. Following your instincts and being cynical can often prove to be the best courses to follow.

      Caroline and I quietly did so and this served us well.

      1. When I had to decide between open heart surgery and a medical device used for children, to close a hole in the heart, the open heart proponent, a professor of cardiology, said ‘it is not always a good idea to be the first in something new’.

        I chose the Amplatzer device, much less invasive and much quicker recovery. It was inserted by a Mr Andrew Redington who worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital. It was done privately as Alf had insurance through his employment at the time and I never even saw him!

        1. And judging by the fact that you are still visible on NoTTL, it was the right choice! Thank goodness…

    2. I considered the dangerous immediately after searching the web and discovering that it took between 10 and 15 years for a new vaccine to be considered safe. That was after all the proper trials à phases had been carried out.
      My conclusion was that anything that took on 9 months to produce was nit going anywhere near my bloodstream.

      1. Same here. Not that I'm anti-vaxx, having had many Cholera shots, for example, just that vaxx. It was rushed out too quickly to have been properly tested, and at the time they were saying that Covid was like flu, I'd had one flu vaccination before that made me sicker than a dog (much worse than flu), so I declined and started with Vitamin D3 pills.
        Never caught Covid, and haven't even had a cold since then.

        1. I suspect MB and I had it a good month or more before the hysteria kicked off.
          Not fun; I like my sleep and the cough interfered with it.
          MB was having to pause half way up the stairs to draw breath. With hindsight, that could have been an indication for him to give the jab a miss. Sadly, he has other health problems, so the injection seemed at the time to be a precautionary measure.

    3. Transparently dishonest..

      You mean Enoch was right.. you are already an Island of Strangers and the experiment is still very much 'On'?

    4. It was a fact that the long term trials on the shots had not been completed when vaccinations began. In conjunction with the makers being relived of any damage liability, I considered the risk to my reasonably healthy self and gave it a miss. We did have a friend in her 50s who died, she was an asthma sufferer.

    5. When the government indemnified big pharma I smelt a rat and researched Pfizer. I discovered that all their test animals had died and my mind was made up.

      1. I didn't know about the animals, but the indemnifying was a significant moment.
        Governments aren't known for their benevolence.

          1. TBF – even to a British government – that is not a high number.
            Was it 100% of eight mice or eight mice out of a higher number?
            Overall, eight is not a good enough number for any such test.

    6. Can't find it.. but there's a YT Short of a UK home careworker alarmed at how many of his customers are still taking the boosters.. and he says they all watch the BBC for their news.

      1. My elder sister and BiL had every single covid booster and jab available.
        Both suffered from covid twice.
        BiL in particular suffered from accelerated long term illness and passed away last November.
        He had a good life, I but I felt it could have been better and possibly longer without their dedication to supporting certain convictions.

  21. GB News deliberately employs venomously nasty people to to attack decent people with reasonable views such as the publican Adam Brooks.

    Is there as venomously nasty a person on GB News as Nina Myscow? I cannot understand why presenters such as such as Patrick Christys don't shut her up for her sheer rudeness and offensiveness to others on his show.

      1. I seldom shout at my TV set – but this repulsive woman makes me do so!

        1. There is a case for knowing the enemy. An echo chamber is not the best guide to life.

          1. There is a case for knowing the enemy. An echo chamber is not the best guide to life.

            Essential advice, that.

    2. GBN include such people to shut up Ofcom, which is desperately trying to close it down.

      1. GBN include such people to shut up Ofcom, which is desperately trying to close it down.

        Exactly. They get dross like Myskow and deranged libtard loonies like MccGwire and Alibhai-Brown on their programmes to show "balance" to the State Censor.

  22. The NHS is treating nursery-age children who believe they are transgender after watering down its own guidance, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The health service was previously set to introduce a minimum age of seven for children to be seen by its specialist gender clinics, claiming anything less was “just too young”.

    The limit was removed after the proposals were put out to consultation, with new guidance due to be published showing that children of any age are eligible.

    However, a source close to the consultation process said NHS England had “caved to the pressure” of trans activists to remove the limits.

    The children are not given powerful drugs such as puberty blockers at the clinics, but are offered counselling and therapy along with their family.

    Up to 10 children of nursery age are being treated, according to new data, while as many as 157 children aged nine or younger have been referred to the clinics.

    Seven ‘just too young”
    The NHS previously said that children under seven years old were “just too young” to be considered to have gender dysphoria, citing an example of a young child taking a liking to toys or clothes typical of the opposite sex as normal.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/15/trans-toddlers-gender-treatment-nhs/

    Timothy Brown
    just now
    Streeting… Stonewall… Enabler.

    Wretched government.

    4 years to go.

    Comment by Phil Davies.

    PD

    Phil Davies
    just now
    It's child abuse. Plain and simple.

    Comment by David West.

    DW

    David West
    just now
    Damn the activists, this is child abuse plane and simple!

    Time for the police to investigate, this is far more important than "hurty words'!

    1
    1 new reply
    show new reply
    Comment by Jill Davidson.

    JD

    Jill Davidson
    just now
    At least a couple of contributors to this forum have suggested that the parents of these children could be exhibiting symptoms of Munchhausen's by proxy, a very good point.

    Which then makes me wonder if many of those adults who feel the need for chemical and physical mutilation are actually also experiencing classic Munchausen's syndrome.

    Comment by Dee Gee.

    DG

    Dee Gee
    just now
    NHS being prepped for sale

    Comment by Patricia Smith.

    PS

    Patricia Smith
    1 min ago
    Child abuse for adult fantasies, those involved should be prosecuted. Twisted minds and dangerous.

    1. "Which then makes me wonder if many of those adults who feel the need for chemical and physical mutilation are actually also experiencing classic Munchausen's syndrome."

      I've made the point before that on these occasions, the child's father does not appear to be available for comment or on the scene.

      1. Jill Davidson
        just now
        At least a couple of contributors to this forum have suggested that the parents of these children could be exhibiting symptoms of Munchhausen's by proxy, a very good point.

        Esther Ghey, please, above all. Munchausen's By Proxy on stilts. A sane society would have removed her son into care and placed her on a watch-list.

        2. And that wicked woman who founded Mermaids.
          Her 16th. birthday present to her son was castration in Thailand.

    2. It certainly is child abuse. Children know from an early age that they're boys or girls – but it doesn't stop girls being tomboys or boys playing with dolls. Leave them alone to be children.

  23. "What are these so-called British values that the Right go on about?"
    Is the James O'Brien favourite Gotcha Question..
    "Well, if you're so worried about your British culture & values you must be able to describe them. Why can't you? Nobody has answered this question for me." He sneers.

    The short answer is.. Every single thing the progressive liberal goes to great length to sneer at, jeer at, trash, vandalise & ridicule and replace are "The Great British Values".

    1. A knockout question for James O'Brien:

      "Many boys' boarding schools used to put bromide in their pupils' food in the hope that it would make them less libidinous?

      In the remoter parts of Yorkshire the additive was deemed especially necessary. What did they use at Ampleforth and has it left you permanently impotent?

      1. In the remoter parts of Yorkshire the additive was deemed especially necessary. What did they use at Ampleforth-

        – for the boys and the teaching staff, we mean, James.

      2. Used to be strongly rumoured that it was given to those called up for National Service.

        1. It was given to us in our tea when I was an RAF apprentice in the 50's – I think it's beginning to wear off

        2. It was given to us in our tea when I was an RAF apprentice in the 50's – I think it's beginning to wear off

  24. So just list them..
    Common Law & Christian principles.. booooo EU law is better.. down with Christainity.
    Francis Bacon's objective test of evidence.. all replaced by Critical Theory's *point of view*, right from under our noses. 500 years of scientific method out of the window.
    Meritocracy. Booo that's racist. DEI is the way forward.
    Lawyers are nowhere near power. Must insert Courts above parliament.
    Your nation's sovereignty is encapsulated in a trio of elements.. Will of the people.. parliamentary democracy and The Monarchy. They are indistinguible. Some things shouldn't involve the little people, said Tony the man who shifted power to NGOs, Select Commitees & Supreme Court.

  25. Good Moaning.
    As I'm a pallid wimp, I quite enjoy the lower temperatures. I would have made a dire Daughter of the Empire.

      1. At least you had some experience of it.
        The nearest I got to hot exotic climes was the Palm House at Kew. (Oh, maybe a holiday in Gambia might count.)
        How are you feeling? It is often forgotten that a tooth extraction like yours is serious surgery. You should be escorted there and back and allowed time to recover.

        1. Belle also needs to eat cake to raise her sugar levels against the shock and shakes.

    4. There would have been punkah wallahs to make sure you were kept cool-ish, if you had been sent to India.

      You do get used to heat and humidity, it happens here every summer to a lesser extent. 35C+/- temps, and high humidity. Took me a while to come to terms with warm rain, though.

  26. "When you come here you don’t have to be like us.. because we never had a passion for enforced identity like the French, like the Germans.. like even the Americans.. That's because all European states are inventions put together at different moments of time and for different reasons, and one of the key instruments in this forging is education. So they used a single version of the language and single interpretation of history and a single set of values. We never did that because we never had a single set of education. Scotland has its own set of entrenched education.. wales did.. at the same time we had multiple faith schools, local authority schools. We had charitable schools, public schools. We never had this uniformity. We could absorb a huge number of immigrants without tearing the structure apart. Which is why it's coming apart in France because you have this brittle model. It means there is only one way to be French.

    In UK we had no revolution because we had a flexible system with immense elasticity. There was no nation of Britain, that was for export only. However, it relied on this unspoken assumption.. One dominant political & behavioural culture that accommodated the good & ill the radical.. a very complex arrangement.. (damaged by Blair). We gave state recognition to Catholics Jews Quakers and incorporated them into the establishment. Which is why wokery attacks the dominant unspoken assumption.

    Actually what you are doing here when you get that passport & acquire citizenship you become a subject of The Crown. You are effectively subscribing to 1,000 years of history. The central embodiment of that overarching identity wasn’t nationhood it was the Monarchy.

    which is why wokery is determined to edge out the Monarchy."

    David Starkey.

  27. Matthew Lynn
    The City backlash against Reform has begun
    14 May 2025, 11:30am

    It will be like Liz Truss on roller skates. The next election may still be four years away, and the manifestos still need to be fleshed out. Even so, the City has already started issuing stark warnings of a run on the pound if there is a Reform government led by Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. Of course, it is a measure of how far the party has come that the City is taking it seriously. The trouble is, there is also an element of truth in it. Reform would face a huge backlash in the markets – and the party will have to be ready for it.

    The financial markets will be ready to crush a Farage administration just as brutally as they crushed Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng

    Even a few weeks ago, City analysts would not have wasted their time trying to work out the impact of a Reform-led government. But Simon French, an economist at Panmure Liberum, is now warning of an ‘immediate and violent’ sterling crisis if Farage becomes prime minister. According to French, the party’s tax and spending plans would blow an £80 billion hole in the government’s budget two to three times more extreme than the Truss mini-Budget and send interest rates sharply higher. In effect, the UK would face a financial crisis every bit as severe as during Truss’s short administration – and perhaps far worse.

    If Reform stays ahead in the polls as the election draws closer, we can expect a lot more similar warnings. If anyone thought City financiers, or Farage’s old mates in the metal trading business, would like its mix of tax cuts, lower immigration and a smaller state they are kidding themselves. The financial markets will be ready to crush a Farage administration just as brutally as they crushed Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng.

    It will be tempting for Reform’s leaders to dismiss that as scaremongering. In fairness, however, there is an element of truth in the warnings. Reform’s numbers often have a ‘back-of-a-fag-packet’ feel about them. And the City banks profit from a high debt, low-growth economy, and are hostile to anything that might change it. They like governments that issue lots of bonds and pay the interest on time because that is where they make the big money.

    Either way, the party will have to reckon with a hostile City. A run on the pound will be inevitable, and there will also be a spike in bond yields, and the party will have to figure out in advance how to deal with that. The backlash against its policies has already started – and it will get a lot worse closer to the next election

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

    Burkean
    a day ago
    £80bn is a rounding error compared to the cost of Net Zero. Has Panmure Liberium issued a warning of Armageddon unless the Climate Change Act is repealed? If not, this is just politics.

    Mr R M Bellamy
    a day ago
    Of course. So reminiscent of the pre-Referendum 'debate'.
    What was it the Governor of the Bank of England (now the Canadian PM) said?
    Something like, " …Just a vote for Leave will trigger an immediate technical recession and a run on the pound.."?
    And was there?

    GUBU
    a day ago
    Either way, the party will have to reckon with a hostile City.
    Since our governments effectively mortgaged the state to the bond market, all of us have had to reckon with a hostile City.

    1. City out in plain view. Now the enemy has shown themselves, they can be dealt with. It's just when they are hidden, they are most troublesome.

      1. Uncle Bill is being punished by the weather Gods for planting out his tomatoes too early.

    1. Looks to me like a combination of cirrocumulus and contrails. The latter is not responsible for the former.

      1. 405630+ up ticks,

        DW,
        To me also, but that does not answer the question,

        "Who has the final word on any spraying we witness is taking place ?"

  30. https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Douglas17May25-V2.png?resize=1391,1080
    Should you be arrested for reading The Spectator?
    Douglas Murray

    17 May 2025

    Regular readers will know that I have an obsession with home burglaries. Specifically those occasions when a burglar goes into a British home, helps himself to the contents of the household and finds that the last people on his case are the British police. Scanning some recent burglary statistics, I was struck again by the almost miraculous failures of force after force.

    Take Kent Police. In a recent breakdown of crime statistics, the force managed a career high. In one of the areas where they are meant to have oversight, there were 123 home burglaries. Of those 123 burglaries, they managed a great, round zero in their detection rate of the burglars. Or 0.0 per cent as it comes up, slightly forlornly, on the stats chart, presumably to differentiate it from those majestic years in which Kent Police may find themselves capable of locating, say, 0.1 per cent of culprits.

    A report from 2023 dug into some of the possible reasons for this. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) not only found that the number of crimes solved by Kent Police is ‘unacceptably low’ but that there are ‘areas for improvement’. One such area was their record of responding to the public. As of March 2023, the force did not have a call switchboard for the public to dial when they are victims of a crime. Almost exactly a third (33.4 per cent) of calls went unanswered, because they use a system which puts callers to the non-emergency number straight through to what is called ‘a call handler’, who then never calls them back. Responding to these problems, Deputy Chief Constable Peter Ayling said: ‘We acknowledge there are areas where improvements could be made and are being made.’

    Even if you are one of the lucky people who gets your call picked up, it doesn’t matter, because the only thing less likely than your call being picked up by them is that they will do anything about it. Just about the only thing Kent Police have been praised for in recent HMIC reports is their innovative use of ‘emotional support dogs’ for vulnerable victims.

    But then I looked at the front page of the Telegraph this past weekend and read the story of Julian Foulkes. As it happens, he is a retired special constable. The newspaper revealed that, in November 2023 Foulkes was visited at his home in Kent by a bevy of local police. Six officers came to his door, handcuffed him on his doorstep and then searched his home. The cause of this was that Mr Foulkes had written a post on X (formerly Twitter) concerning the hate marches that were then going on every weekend in London and other cities.

    Foulkes responded to a post by a participant in these marches who was threatening to sue the then home secretary, Suella Braverman, for correctly identifying the hatred in question. In a post seen by a grand total of 26 people – most of whom were presumably members of Kent Police – Foulkes replied that given the recent storming of an airport in Dagestan by people hunting for Jewish passengers, things in Britain looked like they would soon be ‘one step away from storming Heathrow looking for Jewish arrivals’. No member of the public reported the tweet to the police – but that didn’t stop a specialist unit, which is apparently meant to be focused on terrorism and extremism, from investigating. Officers arrived at Foulkes’s front door the next morning.

    Armed with batons and pepper spray, the police asked Foulkes to identify himself, then said they were arresting him ‘on suspicion of an offence under the Malicious Communications Act’. For more than an hour, officers searched the 71-year old’s house, even rummaging through his wife’s underwear drawer. After looking through newspaper clippings relating to the death of Foulkes’s daughter in a hit-and-run incident, they went to the kitchen, where they commented on an ‘odd list’ of items, identifying bleach, foil and gloves. Foulkes explained to Kent’s finest that this was not because he is some master bombmaker, but because, more prosaically, his wife is a hairdresser.

    Foulkes was driven to Medway police station. He was booked in, finger-printed, photographed and had his DNA taken. After many hours in detention he was released on bail. A week later he was forced to return to Medway police station to be issued a caution. As a distraught Foulkes told the Telegraph, he didn’t agree that anything he had done warranted this, but was so intimidated that ‘I felt I had no choice’. The police had succeeded in beating down someone who had given over a decade of his own life to the force. Imagine what they could do to the rest of us.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/paul_wood_170525_1_sg.jpg?resize=440,282
    ‘Brexity books? What Brexity books?’

    This is of interest for many reasons, most of which do not need to be interpreted or extrapolated for readers here. But one thing that especially bothers me is that the police bodycam footage shows them rifling through Foulkes’s bookcases for evidence of wrong-think. One idiot policeman performing this task finds that Foulkes has a copy of my international bestseller The War on the West on his shelves. Showing that Mr Foulkes has exceptional taste in reading materials, there were also copies of The Spectator in his home. One suspicious police officer flags up these things as signs of extremism – as ‘very Brexity things’. Which goes to show that members of the Kent Police dawn-raid squad not only can’t read, but can’t think either. Even if a book of mine on issues wholly unrelated to the EU and some parts of this magazine were ‘Brexity’, that would only mean they reflected the majority views of the British public.

    But ah – the British public. Who is meant to care about them? Surely all we are fit for is to be harassed in our homes for non-crimes, and given emotional support animals after actual crimes. I would say that heads should roll, but Kent Police might misread that – and besides, they never do roll, do they?

    *********************************************************
    McGonagall
    4 hours ago
    I was struck by the similarities in Mr Foulke's arrest, between Kent Police and The Cheka during the 1930s Great Purge.
    Both would turn up mob handed
    both would arrest the victim
    Both would then spend hours rummaging through the home searching for any material they could use to assemble a case.

    In fact the only difference was that Kent Police initially cuffed Foulkes until one recognised him as a former special and suggested removing the cuffs.
    Where's the Cheka rarely, if ever, handcuffed their victims as they were led to the Lubyanka.

    (the cuffing of Foulkes was questionable under PACE as he wasn't resisting, nor was he likely to flee, nor was he likely to struggle. The search also seems to have broken PACE)

    SO WELL DONE KENT POLICE! Your arrest process is worse than that of the Cheka.

    until Officers are held accountable for breaking the law, prosecuted and punished, this will continue. And I'm sorry, but this goes for the front line officers as well. They are the ones unlawfully trespassing, they are the ones stealing property and they are the ones committing the assault and unlawful detention an illegal arrest is.
    The front line officers are accountable for their own conduct, they are Constables not Gendarmes, they are uniformed civilians.
    the 'Nuremberg Defence' is no defence. If a junior officer is being asked to break the law they should refuse. It's called a moral backbone

    Tom Bartlett
    4 hours ago
    The Malicious Communications Act is often misapplied by police, but in this case its use was so egregious that it's astonishing it ever got this far. The offence requires a message to be grossly offensive and sent with intent to cause distress, neither of which remotely applies to Foulkes’s tweet.

    He had legal representation throughout, and it’s remarkable that his advisers allowed him to accept a caution. That said, when decent people are suddenly arrested, handcuffed, and interrogated, the experience can be so bewildering and traumatic that they’ll do anything to make it stop, even accept a caution they don’t deserve. This dynamic was also evident in the aftermath of the Southport murders, where several people entered early guilty pleas over tweets.

    The police, still determined to demonstrate parity between Islamic extremism and so-called “right-wing” threats, have once again overstepped the mark.

    McGonagall Tom Bartlett
    4 hours ago
    He was concerned that if he didn't accept a caution he would be unable to travel to Australia to visit his surviving daughter.

    it's all part if the old Stasi tactic of Zersetzung… the deliberate decay of a dissidents life. The petty acts of tyranny, the petty intimidation of 8 hours in a cell. The evening 'interview'. The confiscation of technology for an indeterminate period: technology that is vital for modern life as many no longer have a land line phone and can only bank using their phones. For self employed people such confiscation is a catastrophe.

    it's all designed to spread fear, to bully, to silence and as someone who was raised in the Cold War it makes me ashamed, angry and sick to my stomach to see Britons treated like this by Constables… uniformed civilians… behaving like petty Gendarmes or Chekists

    1. With the way things seem to be going, I'm quite sure if a burglar was knocked to the ground and tied up for collection. The occupants of the violated property would end up on trial.

      1. I think so too, Eddy. Likely charge GBH. Sometimes an alarm can put burglars off, buy a good reliable one. Elderly friend of mine, many years ago, whose house was so full of antiques she lived in a caravan in the garden, and set up an alarm to warn her. Alarm was meant to bark like an alsatian dog but was so old actually sounded like a duck quacking. Those days were a bit safer than those at present, she was never robbed.

      2. Very different here. There was a case not too long ago when a guy tried to rob a cafe, by pointing a gun at the cashier. One of the customers shot him, and was publicly praised by local law enforcement for his action.

      3. Like the pensioner some years back who defended his home and his disable wife with a screwdriver.

    2. I think Lord Young's Free Speech Union lawyers may be acting for Mr Foulkes. Be interested to see how his case progresses…it could affect each and every one of us.

      1. Fund for legal fees now up to £56,115.
        It's slowing down. How to gee things up again?

    3. Ah. Now it becomes clear why Kent police regard the possession of a book by Douglas Murray as a crime.

  31. Newly installed fibre – no faster than snail mail. I give up!
    Not so bad with Wordle though:
    Wordle 1,426 3/6

    ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨
    🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. I've just discovered that my fibre connected router's default WiFi setting is on adaptive channel assignment to ensure it works with legacy wifi devices. Realistic optical data rates can only be transmitted on 5Mhz WiFi band.

      1. Back in the 1960's I was using the latest portable military computers to calculate artillery trajectories. Nowadays I can't even tell which is the off switch.

        1. That's religion for you, Alec, rules n regs. God a different thing:-), only asks that you believe – bit like an artist?

      2. I guess that the basketball player is asking God to create an outcome such that a best of 7 series is won 4—1, making Him more believable in the process. Not exactly rib-tickling, is it?

    4. I've found this explanation on a Facebook posting, but I'm not seeing the humour.

      Gordon E. McQuillen
      Gerald Etkind They’re the scores of the first six playoff games in which the winner must win 4 of 7 (at any time during the playoffs one team reaches 4 at any point in a series, that team wins & the other is eliminated. The “best of 7” can be achieved by winning any of these games: 4 — 0
      4 —. 1
      4 — 2
      4. — 3.
      In only the last instance will the series go a full 7 games. There’s a huge advantage when one team wins well before its next playoff opponent has to play 7 games, because the former team gets plenty of rest before playing its next game whereas the latter will be very tired when the next series begins.

      https://www.facebook.com/newyorker/posts/todays-daily-cartoon-by-michael-lukk-litwak-newyorkercartoons/1101393135194542/

  33. Plague of flies here. None of the fly sprays work. In the olden days they dropped in mid flight. Now they just carry on and lick it off. Anyone know an effective brand?

        1. Are you aware that you spray the room and shut the door? (sorry if i'm teaching granny to suck eggs).

      1. I have several. Best of the lot but too many to cope with. It is an old longère. I think they come in through the roof. I get moths, wasps, bees, butterflies and birds and the occasional bat.

        1. Have all o’those here too. Fewer moths and butterflies this year, possibly been too little rain for eggs to hatch. Many hoverflies, birds same as ever, and also lovely pipistrelles currently raising their young in the nursery they fashioned in the roofspace. Flies the one thing I’m not keen on, I like that bats will eat them so I never use fly spray.

    2. Reads like the type of fires Colchester had a several years ago when disused public properties – MOD, NHS and Social Services – with a lot of useful land were crying out for "development".

  35. I am signing off early. Lunch, then a trip to Cambridge to see old chum (a woman whom the MR taught 40 years ago!!) and her daughter who is up at Trinity. She is in the choir an we are going to Evensong. Home late.

    Have a spiffing day – trying to keep warm.

    A demain.

  36. (I do.like the idea of having so many beautiful things that one gracefully cedes the house to them and moves to a caravan in the garden!)

    1. Me2, she couldn’t get in the house though, relied on the kindness of strangers. Was in the days when I kept hens, she thought the eggs ‘superb, as they used to be’. All long gone now….would we turn back time if we could, Kathie? x

      1. Ah – a hoarder with money!

        I don’t let myself hypothesise about things which cannot be changed. Waste of energy! (And there’s always a catch… 🤣) x

        1. Thanks, Kathie. Not so good, sleeping mostly, will only eat food from my hand. Antibiotics possibly working a bit (not quite as much blood in his pee). I think his liver’s packing in, but vet hasn’t confirmed that, as yet. He’s 15 so in human terms around 80 odd years old, he’s had a splendid life ruling me 🙂 x

    2. Has a look of Roy Hudd about him – though Roy Hudd was a far more worthwhile person!

    2. Same Old story, everything they come into contact with they eff it up and big time. No way of fixing any of the issues they create.

    1. "Our" river is "a big muddy" this morning, with a lot of debris, the result of a few days of solid rain across the catchment area – the tail of a big storm further south. That speeds up the flow which causes erosion which throws up lots of silt and mud – hence the river is brown. It's also flooded into the woods on either side.

      1. Was this the same band of rain which fell on Quail Hollow, ahead of this week's PGA Golf Championship in North Carolina? Commentators have remarked on how heavy and prolonged it was a few days ago.

        1. Yes, it came up the coast from Florida where it was described as an "atmospheric river", made it's way through the Carolinas and into Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia. Not too far from here, there was a good amount of flooding but nothing like that further south. "Our" river (the Potomac) is in flood, but the house is on top of a 100+ foot cliff so I get to look down on the river, not have it come to visit me!

    2. I spent much of my childhood in that part of Cornwall and I regularly sailed from St Mawes to Helford.

      Wordsworth's words in The Prelude may have been about something entirely different (The French Revoliton, in fact) but my upbringing in Cornwall reminds me of:

      Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive
      But to be young was very heaven.

    3. Wonderful place with excellent scenic views. I love the entire Lizard peninsula

  41. Warm out there! Just been cleaning the conservatory windows…….. not perfect but at least we can see out a bit better now.

  42. Just received a survey from the BBC. Mostly multiple choice answers which were quite irrelevant to what I would want to say. But there are a couple of free text boxes so I'm giving them both barrels there.

    1. The multiple choice questions will be computer processed. The comments are probably never subject to any analysis, just thrown into the "comments bucket". There might be a keyword search through them, or there might not. Must likely the latter.

      1. Typical question with multiple choice answers:

        "In a world where there can be more misleading and false information, we think the BBC should prioritise making content that is accurate and that people can trust.
        Q6a. In the future, how important or not do you think it is that the BBC delivers this by seeking to pursue truth with no agenda?"

        When most of their output is blatant propaganda it is hard to pick one of the answers! Choices from "Extremely important" to "extremely unimportant" and "Don't know".

        1. BH joined the Conservative Party, renewal almost due…he receives email surveys ('our survey said…') how popular is such and such a person (most of whom we've never heard of) how positive do you feel about this policy (ditto)..I used to think the tv licence was solely for the BBC but it's apparently for the whole of terrestrial TV.

          1. Yes – it’s illegal to watch or record any telly if you don’t pay the tax.

          2. I think if you just watch eg Netflix (subscription) that’s ok…but I’m not entirely sure about that:-)

          3. If you watch live TV you need a licence. You can watch a catch up as long as it isn't i-player.

          4. Yes, thanks Conway. I mostly watch Prime (have a family sub) or Netflix. He can’t miss any footie/MotD (obvs), but he won’t take out a sub to Sports channel..hmm

    3. I received that survey too.

      I didn't open it but I spent the next ten minutes looking for the 'flush' button on my computer.

      1. Why send it to you when you don’t live in the UK? Presumably you don’t pay the telly tax.

        1. Thanks to my VPN the Beeb ‘thinks’ that I live in the UK. They even ‘think’ I have a licence. I even have a spoof UK address on my account that may or may not exist!

  43. Spent an interesting morning at Eastbournes Tesco Mobile changing my old 3G phone (link that they are phasing out this year) for a new 4G phone. I was well looked after by a real white male older person. Thanks Tim. It has all sorts of things I will never use.

    1. I'm facing a similar prospect. O2 alerted me that my SIM card will not function after the 2G and 3G networks are shut down. They sent me a free replacement. Now they are telling me that the mobile phone won't work after they are shut down and advising me to go to one of their outlets to buy a discounted replacement. Are these claims genuine? I mainly use it for calls and text messages, not for internet access. Am I being scammed into buying a phone I don't need?

      1. From a quick Google, it seems that calls go through 3G at the mo but that is being turned off this year, so you will need a 4/5G phone. Not an expert though, Wibbs will know!

        1. Had to switch to 5G a while back now. The turn off of the old stuff caused havoc with autodialers used by the likes of security systems, etc.

      2. Yes, it won't work. The antenna is made for the specific wavelengths of the 2G and 3G networks and the software stack in your phone will be only 2G and 3G protocols.
        Personally I am going to wait until the GSM signal disappears. It has so many small uses, it wouldn't surprise me if it carries on for a bit longer.
        My mission then will be to find a non-smart 4G phone…

          1. It runs Mocor operating system, which is not Android-based. That’s good news, as it might not be able to install a digital ID app.

            “Mocor OS is a proprietary operating system used on feature phones powered by Spreadtrum/Unisoc systems-on-chip. It is not to be confused with Mocordroid or Mocor5, an Android-based platform used on Spreadtrum smart feature phones.

            Some Mocor OS devices, such as the Nokia 3310 3G, support Java MIDlets via either JBlend or Esmertec Jbed. Certain older models have limited support for Mythroad applications.”

            The digital id app might be adapted to run on the above devices, but it’s still worth a shot. Why make it easier than it has to be to impose tyranny?
            I still hope to find one with a small, non colour screen!

      3. Our new ones were £24.99 with £10 of calls. Full of features I do not understand and will never use. all i want is voice and text.

      4. EE sent me a new sim card last year – it took me a while before I put it in and they harassed me a bit over that, but once I got the hang of it it works and I think it's on 4G. I do use it for internet access and hardly ever make a call. I've had my current phone for five years.

    1. Interesting comment by Maitlis towards the end of this clip.

      "…lowly paid jobs are not worth coming off benefits to do."

      Might the solution be to reduce benefits drastically for physically able young people?

      I have never in my life received the dole or any out of work benefit. I expect that many Nottlers could say the same thing.

      1. My one and only contact with the employment bureaucracy was when I first started work and had to get an NI card. I was aked, did I have a job lined up, or did I need their help to get one? Oh, you have a job? Good.

        Mind you , back then in the West Midlands there was no excuse for anyone not having a job. The B'ham Mail had pages of "SIts Vac". Jill reckoned girls who worked in offices could turn in their notice on a Friday and be interviewing for new jobs the next Monday. Very different these days, of course. Nowhere near as many jobs for the relatively unskilled. given the wipe out of manufacturing and all its supporting jobs.

        1. I remember waltzing into the Employment Exchange (as it was called in 1967) and asking for an NI number. I was given it and it remains one of the few numbers that I instantly memorised.

          1. I still know mine, having had to use it post appendix op, away from work two months.

      2. I would make the physically-able young do necessary tasks such as leaf-clearance, snow-sweeping, road-sweeping, litter-picking, etc. No work: no dole.

    3. In the gay 90s a twenty-something Maitlis could be seen hanging around Jacob Rees Moog's debating club held in the library at David Tang's China Club every other Thursday. A spectacular art deco hotspot right in the bowels of the CCPs old Bank of China building.

      She always had a soft spot for lidderally any sons of Grandees.. such as Dominic Lawson. I recall she had one shot at a debate.. fumbled through her notes and sulked off at the end. I have to say Jacob was superb. A couple of short bursts of Latin would put any AmCham presidential wannabes back in their box.

      Anyhow.. fast forward to now.. Question Emily: Give us your position on Gaza. Cmon you always have an opinion about everything faaaar right. Do tell.
      Oh surprise surprise you keep very quiet on this one. I wonder why.

    4. In the gay 90s a twenty-something Maitlis could be seen hanging around Jacob Rees Moog's debating club held in the library at David Tang's China Club every other Thursday. A spectacular art deco hotspot right in the bowels of the CCPs old Bank of China building.

      She always had a soft spot for lidderally any sons of Grandees.. such as Dominic Lawson. I recall she had one shot at a debate.. fumbled through her notes and sulked off at the end. I have to say Jacob was superb. A couple of short bursts of Latin would put any AmCham presidential wannabes back in their box.

      Anyhow.. fast forward to now.. Question Emily: Give us your position on Gaza. Cmon you always have an opinion about everything faaaar right. Do tell.
      Oh surprise surprise you keep very quiet on this one. I wonder why.

  46. Mother jailed over tweet could have sentence reduced

    Lucy Connolly was in ‘state of anxiety’ triggered by the death of her 19-month-old son when she made Southport attack tweets

    Martin Evans

    15 May 2025 12:58pm BST

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/05/15/TELEMMGLPICT000418889759_17472932564260_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqVeWbzNniXvwJjhL3wWqmjUWy_sGK6oioMu5BzggyGUY.jpeg?imwidth=1920
    Lucy Connolly, pictured with her husband Raymond, was jailed for 31 months in October 2024
    A mother jailed for a social media post is attempting to have her sentence reduced in the Court of Appeal.

    Lucy Connolly, a former childminder and the wife of a Conservative councillor, was sent to prison for 31 months in October after pleading guilty to a charge of inciting racial hatred.

    Hours after Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls during a knife rampage at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday club in Southport, Connolly took to X to express her outrage.

    She said: “Mass deportation now, set fire to all the f—ing hotels full of the b——s for all I care, while you’re at it take the treacherous Government politicians with them.

    “I feel physically sick knowing what these families will now have to endure. If that makes me racist, so be it.”

    The 42-year-old, who had lost a child herself, deleted the post fewer than four hours later but not before it was viewed 310,000 times.

    Giving evidence via a video link from HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire on Thursday, Connolly was asked how she had felt when she posted the offending tweet.

    She said: “Really angry, really upset and really distressed that those children had died and those parents would have to live a lifetime of grief. [I was] really angry and upset that this had been allowed to happen.

    “It sent me into a state of anxiety. It made me worry about my children. I thought, I know how they [the parents] feel and I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy. It just made me so angry.”

    Triggered by anxiety
    Connolly explained that news of the murders had triggered her anxiety, which was caused by the death of her 19-month-old son Harry in a hospital blunder.

    Adam King, who is representing Connolly, said: “Did you intend anyone to set fire to any asylum hotels?”

    She replied: “Absolutely not.”

    Asked again whether she intended anyone to “murder any persons”, she responded: “ Absolutely not”.

    Connolly was arrested on Aug 6 following widespread riots across the country in response to the Southport attack.

    Police officers searching her devices found other social media posts commenting on the reaction to her initial comments. In one message, she joked that she would “play the mental health card” if arrested.

    In another post about the knife attack, Connolly wrote: “I bet my house it was one of these boat invaders.”

    But many were shocked by the length of her sentence and leading politicians, including Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, Liz Truss, the former prime minister, and Suella Braverman, the former home secretary, called for her release.

    Connolly, who had no previous convictions and cares for her sick husband, also won the support of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and owner of X, who accused Britain of operating a two-tier justice system.

    His social media platform rejected a complaint that the tweet had violated X’s rules.

    Appearing before three Court of Appeal judges on Thursday morning, Connolly’s lawyers have sought permission to appeal the sentence.

    Connolly's lawyers are expected to point to the impact of her situation on her 12-year-old daughter during the appeal
    Connolly’s lawyers are expected to point to the impact of her situation on her daughter during the appeal
    Her lawyers were expected to argue that the trial judge made a mistake when categorising the severity of her crime. They would also claim that the sentencing failed to give sufficient weight to her mitigating circumstances, including her emotional sensitivity to child deaths after the loss of her son.

    They were expected to remind the Court of Appeal judges that she posted the tweet before any of the later violence against asylum seekers began and point to the impact on her 12-year-old daughter.

    Liam Muir, who was her defence barrister at the sentencing hearing in October, told Judge Melbourne Inman KC, the recorder of Birmingham, that the death of her son had affected her judgement.

    Mr Muir said: “The horrendous way in which she lost her son…can only have a drastic detrimental effect on someone.

    “Whatever her intention was in posting the offending tweet, it was short-lived, and she didn’t expect the violence that followed and she quickly tried to quell it.”

    Jailing her for 31 months, the judge said: “When you published those words, you were well aware how volatile the situation was. That volatility led to serious disorder where mindless violence was used.”

    He added that Connolly had encouraged activity that threatened or endangered life.

    Since being jailed, Connolly was denied the right to spend temporary leave at home with her daughter and husband Ray, who suffers from a bone marrow complaint.

    She has been eligible for release on temporary licence since November 2024 based on the prison time she has served. This form of release is open to inmates as a way to “rebuild family ties” and allows for up to two overnight homestays each month.

    Despite winning credit for good behaviour, Connolly has so far been refused permission to leave HMP Drake Hall in Staffordshire to visit her family.

    Recommended

    The full story of the woman jailed for two years for a tweet
    Read more
    Calling for Connolly’s release, Mrs Braverman said: “Lucy Connolly is a victim of a politicised two-tier justice system in Starmer’s Britain. She should not be in prison.

    “Yes, her comments were crass, tasteless and vile, and I disagree with them. Lucy deleted them quickly and apologised for her error of judgement. That is why the sentence of 31 months’ custody for her first-time offence seems excessive.

    “She has deliberately been made an example of to intimidate others into silence.”

    Ms Truss said: “Lucy Connolly should be released immediately and reunited with her family. The severity of her sentence is completely unjustifiable and a shocking example of two-tier justice which now prevails in Britain.

    “We are now suffering the consequences of a system that has been captured by Leftist ideology.”

    The appeal will be heard before Lord Justice Holroyde, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Sheldon.

    It comes as prisoners will be released from jail from as little as just a third of the way through their sentences if they behave well.

    Government plans to tackle the overcrowding crisis could see offenders able to earn their freedom early if they complete work, training or education assignments.

    It would see the current automatic early release of offenders 40 per cent of the way through their sentences scrapped.

    The changes will be recommended to the Government next week by its independent sentencing review led by David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary.

    It will be the biggest shake-up in sentencing for more than 30 years, ending a blanket approach to automatic early release introduced in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act.

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

    Stephen Phillips
    5 hrs ago
    She should be released immediately and should never have been imprisoned in the first place.

    1. If the atrocity had been undertaken by a crazed black Christian from an asylum hotel attacking a Muslim event and the Muslim wife of a Labour councillor, who had also lost a child, had posted similarly what punishment would have been applied?

    2. It's very difficult to understand exactly what this government are trying to prove in this case.

    3. Mrs Connolly wouldn't have been the only one, she was the only one made an example of. Completely agree released immediately and never imprisoned at all. One day, we'll know the full truth behind that.

        1. Could be, he’s a councillor too..eventually the back story will come out. UK needs more investigative journalists/journalism, asap.

          1. Talking with a Saffer a couple of days ago, he advanced a thought that hadn't occurred to me… pretty well all the politicians and journos were at school together, so no journo is going to rip the pol a new one over their latest stupid idea or stupid actions.
            Seems logical.

          2. It does seem logical. Hopefully a new, younger breed similar to Charlie Peters won’t give a flying one about that.

  48. R.I.P. Andrew Norfolk (and more thanks to Charlie Peters)

    Charlie Peters
    Doubted then vindicated, Andrew Norfolk was peerless
    15 May 2025, 3:34pm
    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Andrew_Norfolk_GRADjpg-JS975090047.jpg
    Andrew Norfolk (Bethany Clarke, The Times)

    Rotherham whistleblower Jayne Senior has endured countless painful conversations with me. Across many years, we have reflected on cases of brutal sexual exploitation and explored cover-ups, bullying and brutal political scheming at the expense of children battling abuse. But the first time I heard her cry was when she phoned to share the devastating news that Andrew Norfolk had died.

    At the height of the crisis, Jayne passed Norfolk boxes full of key documents exposing the scandal of mass exploitation in Rotherham. When police and the council leadership of the South Yorkshire town were seeking to punish anyone who spoke out, Andrew was the lone voice that heard her and ensured the truth was revealed.

    When reports of roaming sex abuse gangs made up of predominantly Pakistani men first started circulating in the 2000s, the bulk of the outrage came from the BNP, the far-right party that was soaring in the north west, and Labour MP Ann Cryer, who was derided by party grandees as a racist for sharing parents’ concerns in Keighley. Some reporters had penned dispatches from a handful of towns, but were dissuaded from continuing their coverage.

    When Norfolk heard these reports he later admitted that he first dismissed the issue as a far-right fantasy. He wrote up one story on Pakistani abuse gangs and then moved on. But years later, he noticed ongoing reports that matched this pattern. Norfolk described the moment he overcame his liberal angst while on a drive up to Edinburgh for a long weekend in 2010. He heard a news bulletin about a gang being convicted in Manchester, researched the case and found that all of the men in the dock were Pakistani. Researching court records, he found dozens of other gang-based offenders with an overrepresentation of Pakistanis.

    He published his first extensive report on grooming gangs months later in January 2011. On the front cover of the Times, the headline read: ‘Conspiracy of silence on UK sex gangs’. Despite mounting evidence, no one in authority would speak to him. But he pushed on against the failure of the authorities to react.

    After years of coverage, working closely with Jayne Senior and several survivors to reveal one horror after another, Rotherham Council eventually ordered an inquiry into the scandal. The council’s chief executive later admitted they commissioned Alexis Jay’s investigation because ‘the Times won’t leave us alone’. During those years of reporting against a wall of ignorance, the council briefed that Norfolk’s findings were ‘the lies of the Murdoch press’.

    Jay’s report found 1,400 victims from 1997 to 2013 and reaffirmed the over-representation of Pakistani men, outlining abuse so horrific it could be termed as torture. She did not mince her words and Norfolk was vindicated. Even then, left-wing academics hounded him for years. I have shared some of those crazed detractors, who fling slurs about racism and islamophobia in spite of the evidence. If their goal in attacking Norfolk was to stop others from being inspired and continuing where he led, then they have failed miserably.

    His unrivalled reporting from Rotherham and Rochdale demonstrated a pattern of exploitation that has never truly been understood. In his last interview in January, he shared regret that the ultimate cause of the scandal had yet to be properly investigated. Links between religion, culture, cousin marriage, sociobiological kinship and ethnicity and the prevalence of this form of child abuse remain unknown because the establishment has not shared Andrew Norfolk’s commitment to uncovering the truth, no matter how disturbing it might be.

    It has been my mission to continue coverage of the scandal that Norfolk first properly exposed. He stopped reporting on the grooming gangs after years of constant coverage due to the ‘unrelenting grimness‘ of the matter. It just became too much. Inspired by his example, GB News has collated over 50 different towns and cities affected by the same pattern, finding shocking new examples of abuse and silence.

    I have also been blocked by the conspiracy of silence that Norfolk encountered in Rotherham. Recently, GB News heard from former DCI John Piekos who said that he was threatened with arrest by a senior social services director – with a uniformed officer in the room – after he presented evidence of trafficking and exploitation from care homes in Bradford. The council did not provide a response when I approached them for comment.

    Even now, as there are growing calls for an inquiry across the Bradford district, political leaders such as the council leader and mayor have rejected calls for a probe, rejecting demands as recently as last month. Survivors I have spoken with and the testimony of cover-ups I have heard have convinced me that the scale of the abuse in Bradford would dwarf Rotherham.

    From years of research about trafficking links from Bradford to the rest of Britain, I am certain that an independent inquiry there would expose horrors so grave that the country would struggle to come to terms with it. It is the example of Andrew Norfolk that has inspired me to continue to press against this conspiracy of silence, so that those who are yet to have their truth and justice might one day receive it.

    1. He first reported the rape gangs when he covered Anne Cryer's 2003 speech in Keighley. He allowed himself to be silenced on the matter for EIGHT YEARS for fear of giving the "Far Right" something to campaign on.
      His much belated 2011 "exposé" only came about because the BNP had taken up the Rape Gang Scandal in Rotherham and were making quite big inroads into the Local Authority.

  50. Wordle No. 1,426 4/6

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

    Wordle 15 May 2025

    Enthusiastic Par Four?

    1. Not so thrilled double bogey.

      Wordle 1,426 6/6

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

    2. A phew problems today.

      Wordle 1,426 6/6

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

    3. Also par.

      Wordle 1,426 4/6

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

    5. Bit late today – shoulda beena two!!!

      Wordle 1,426 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  51. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats-last-7-days

    Look , Britain is our home , we live here .

    Some of us have garden gates and web cams to monitor strangers who venture too close to our property .

    Most of us have car alarms as protection against theft from our cars.

    We carry home insurance and many other protections to insure smooth happy lives .

    We have inoculations during childhood to protect us from childhood illnesses ,

    We have locks on our front doors , we have security for bikes and other goods ..

    We used to have a Royal Navy who guarded our shorelines against scurrilous invasions ( used to)
    We have an army of fit men and Royal Marines who will give a hand in times of crisis.

    We have a Royal Air Force who patrol our skies against usurpers because of those who want to harm us from the sky above /

    So , why in God's name don't we have a British government who puts our own interests first , and is brave enough to see off the thousands of foreigners who want to harm us and take advantage of our naive trusting so called Christian character..

    Why aren't the words " We have had enough" sufficiently strong and threatening to those who mean to do harm to our national culture and nature .

    Why cannot we say clear off , we don't want you , you are squeezing us dry and you have nothing to contribute but wailing and hollering from the Muezzin ..

    Our prisons are full of you, , our roads are full of your careless driving habits , and I am well and truly pissed off with the sight of kebab shops , takeaways bored barbers and car wash outlets!

    1. The western leaders are too busy sniffing the white powder to care too much about their constituencies.

      If not the white powder then the added stench of Zelensky No.5 turns their heads and minds.

    2. So only 1,200 last week, Belle, perhaps only enough to fill 10 or 11 medium sized hotels, or 50 Fawlty Towers.

    3. The answer to that, Maggie, is because ALL politicians today, of ALL parties, are nothing more than placements of the WEF and are carrying out that misanthropic institution's agendae.

      There are NO altruistic politicians on the planet any more, they are all dancing to the tune of the Global Corporations and Big Pharma who fund everything. Globalism WILL come, they are all intent on it happening. It matters not the politician — or the party — you vote for. The result will always be the same.

      The 'sanctity of the Nation State' is now history. The 'defence of the realm', once the prime remit of government, is now just a pipe dream.

      Welcome to the New World Order.

      1. An additional advantage of the Rwanda scheme was that it majorly pee'd off the Irish virtue signalling class.
        Because of the deterrent effect, the "refugees" heading to Ireland instead.

  54. Evening, all. Been a lovely day here; sunny but not too warm. After coffee with a friend this morning I got one of the lawns cut. Then, to prove I am not yet 100%, I had to stop and put off the second lawn until tomorrow.

    I don't think it's "only right" to give people control over ending their lives at all. It strikes me as reducing the value of life.

    1. When there's an over production of a commodity its value decreases. Is that what we're seeing?

      2. I don't think it is over production of labour, rather the parasite class thinks that with AI they can manage with fewer peasants.

        1. I guess my "over production of a commodity" was the number of humans on Earth.

          1. That is what I understood! For the parasite class, our only value is our labour!

    2. Agree. I've noticed as I've aged I notice both hot and cold weather more than I used to.

  55. President Donald Trump said there would be no peace deal in Ukraine until he and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet on the subject.

    'Nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,' he told reporters on Air Force One as he traveled from Qatar to the United Arab Emirates.

    His comments came after Putin declined to attend peace talks in Turkey, sending aides and deputy ministers instead of going himself. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Istanbul to meet with Turkish President Erdoğan but has said he won't attend any peace talks without his Russian counterpart.

    Trump mulled making a stop in Turkey himself to attend the talks but is in the midst of a packed schedule in the Middle East.

    He said it was 'obvious' Putin wouldn't go to Istanbul since he wasn't there.

    'Obviously, he wasn't going to go. He was going to go, but he thought I was going to go. He wasn't going if I wasn't there. And I don't believe anything is going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying,' Trump said.

    Because he's been feted wherever he goes Zelensky has become a jumped up little twat who thinks he's in charge of a major country on the world's stage.

    He's nothing of the kind, and until he accepts that the reality is that Russia and the US will decide Ukraine's fate the meat grinder will keep up its kill rates.

    2. The leaders of countries do not indulge in negotiations of the nature of the Ukrainian peace deal. It is normal for countries to send their negotiating teams who are expected to conduct discussions and report back to their leaders.

      Russia has sent an accomplished team of negotiators. It is doubtful that Ukraine (or the Europeans for that matter) could match such a strong team of experienced diplomats, expert professionals and senior military personnel.

      As to the Ukrainian demands for a ceasefire prior to the commencement of negotiations: this was never possible especially since Russia is winning the war and has an advantage.

      You may be assured that Putin is leaving the negotiations to a very strong team of serious negotiators capable of simultaneously sitting down with the Americans. The Ukrainians are irrelevant and it should be no surprise that Putin has sensibly taken a step back in this instance.

      1. Putin knows what he is doing and also knows what is at stake.
        He leaves the nitty gritty to his experts, unlike far too many politicians.

  58. I know Bill Thomas is busy this evening.

    I do hope he has caught up with this article in the Times . Eight out of ten ginger cats are male. Now we finally know why.

    https://www.thetimes.com/uk/science/article/orange-cats-male-geneticists-dm89ztbc6

    Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation linked to marmalade moggies’ X chromosome that differs from other redheaded animals (and humans)

    Marmalade-coloured cats are not the only orange-furred mammals in the animal kingdom, but scientists have discovered something that sets the tabbies apart from tigers, orangutans and even redheaded humans.

    Only in domestic cats is the colour orange strongly linked to one sex, with males making up at least 80 per cent of ginger felines.

    Researchers have now not only uncovered the gene responsible, but also the process that causes it to be linked so strongly to males.

    A gene known as Arhgap36 is shared by many mammalian species, including humans, but it normally has no link to pigmentation. Instead, it helps to govern the relationship between the nervous and hormonal systems. Cancers have been linked to the gene’s activity, but not hair colour — until now.

    Researchers in the US examined 51 variants on a cat’s X chromosome and found one that switches on the Arhgap36 gene within pigment cells — a type in which it normally plays no role — to cause a change in colour that leads to orange fur.

    In other orange-haired species, this disruption takes place at an earlier step via different genes, meaning that it can affect males and females equally.

    • What I learnt at the world’s biggest festival for redheads

    The fact that it is linked in domestic cats to the X chromosome means that a male, which has an XY chromosomal make-up, only needs one of these variants to create orange fur.

    A female (XX) would need the same variant on both chromosomes. A variant on just one will lead to a female being partially orange, in a tortoiseshell or calico pattern.

    Dr Christopher Kaelin from Stanford Medicine in California said: “In a number of species that have yellow or orange pigment, those mutations almost exclusively occur in one of two genes, and neither of those genes are sex-linked.”

    Referring to the unique mutations that take place within the pigment cells of orange cats, he added: “Certainly, this is a very unusual mechanism where you get misexpression of a gene in a specific cell type.”

    Orange cats feature in very old paintings, showing that the mutation has been around for centuries at least. It may have become more common as humans tried to breed cats with orange fur for their novel appearance.

    “This is something that arose in the domestic cat, probably early on in the domestication process,” said Kaelin, whose team’s study was published in the journal Current Biology. “We know that because there are paintings that date to the 12th century where you see clear images of calico cats, so the mutation is quite old.”

    • How cat lovers changed the course of art — from Da Vinci to Tracey Emin

    Advertisement

    There is often a stereotype that orange cats are more feisty, or affectionate, or fearless, but this may simply be because most of them are male. “There are not many scientific studies of the personality of orange cats,” Kaelin said.

    (The comments are interesting)

    1. So, are you suggesting that Phizzee should change his moniker to Arhgap36?

        1. Tortoiseshell cats – black & ginger or black, ginger and white – are always female.

  59. From Coffee House the Spectator

    17 May 2025

    Coffee House
    Jonathan MillerJonathan Miller
    Who judges the judges?
    15 May 2025, 10:23am

    I started out as a reporter covering the criminal and civil courts in Ohio. I got to read every piece of paper filed with the clerk’s office, a bottomless source of stories. These were the days when people still trusted reporters and talked to us. I hung out with the prosecutors and cops, and wandered in and out of the judges’ chambers.

    It horrifies English lawyers when I suggest there is merit in electing judges rather than allowing them to be appointed by the diversity-obsessed Judicial Appointments Commission

    After the closing gavel, judges, prosecutors, defence lawyers and we reporters would assemble in chief judge Kessler’s chambers for a whiskey. He kept a spittoon by his desk, a cigar in his jaws and hens at his farm. They produced green eggs, which he would gift to his cronies.

    In 39 American states, voters got to know the measure of those putting themselves forward for judicial office. Because we, the reporters, told them. And they rendered their decision at the ballot box. In my corner of Ohio, it worked pretty well.

    It horrifies English lawyers when I suggest there is merit in electing judges rather than allowing them to be appointed by the diversity-obsessed Judicial Appointments Commission, a gift from Tony Blair. The idea that the courts should be transparent is anathema. British reporters don’t hang around with judges, can’t rummage through the dockets and the judges carry on judging with no accountability to voters or anyone else.

    I reflect on this trying to understand how the British legal system, once touted as the envy of the world, has been able to produce a miscarriage of justice as grotesque as the Lucy Connolly case in Birmingham. I have been especially curious about the judge who sentenced Lucy Connolly, who celebrated her 42nd birthday in prison in January, for her social media posting during the disturbances following the murder of three girls at a dance class.

    Mrs Connolly was sentenced to 31 months in prison for publishing a post that supposedly stirred up racial hatred, but it was ambiguous, seen by few and quickly taken down by Connolly herself. The sentence was handed down at Birmingham Crown Court on October 17, 2024, following her guilty plea, which seems to have been extorted when she was warned that she could remain on remand for months, if the case was to go to trial.

    The sentence was imposed by Melbourne Inman KC, apparently aged 68, the Recorder of Birmingham, apparently a bigwig at a provincial chambers before his elevation to the bench. Details are scarce. I have consulted 24 sources for this article and can find nothing substantial whatsoever about this judge, his legal scholarship, not even where he was born.

    As Laurie Wastell reported here, three days into the disorder, ‘the Prime Minister told the country that the unrest we were seeing was the work of ‘gang[s] of thugs’ who had travelled to ‘a community that is not their own’ to smash it up; ‘far-right thugs’ would become his mantra. He also said the violence was “clearly whipped up online”, prompting a fierce crackdown on online speech.’ Keir Starmer was whipping up the police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts to hysteria, demanding convictions. And none of it was true.

    Here, perhaps, is where one might expect the exercise of judicial temperament from a senior circuit judge. Judge Inman disappointed. He parroted the prime minister’s talking points. And the judicial hierarchy above him also disappoints. Lucy Connolly is appealing her sentence today, but as of today, she remains in prison.

    Is this the two-tier justice that our politicians deny? Judge for yourself. In an earlier case I have discovered, Judge Inman sentenced one Antonio Boparan, who pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving after killing a young girl. Boparan received an 18-month sentence and served fewer than nine months. Less than Connolly.

    The judge told Lucy Connolly, who had repented for her mistake, and who is a woman with no criminal record and a challenging family life: ‘Sentences for those who incite racial hatred and disharmony in our society are intended to both punish and deter.’

    Not, so, apparently for those who kill children.

    Perhaps in Birmingham, Judge Inman might nevertheless be elected, were there to be elections. He certainly played to the gallery, coming down like a ton of bricks on a white working class woman who remains incarcerated, to the shame of British justice.

    Who is this judge? At least we might know more about him, and would do, if he were forced to account for himself before voters. He’s a man who seems to have risen without trace.

    The Judicial Appointments Commission which examines all candidatures in secret was introduced by Tony Blair’s government in 2005, replacing an equally obscure but perhaps more effective system of appointments by the Lord Chancellor, after ‘soundings’. It was one of the great constitutional reforms, credited to the influence of Blair’s barrister wife, Cherie.

    We know a lot about the long march on such institutions as schools, universities, the police, civil service. Rather less about the transformation of the judiciary, or the machinations of legal process, where we are allowed to know virtually nothing at all. The reporters are kept out. Transcripts are unavailable. The qualifications of judges secret.

    It’s time for some order in the court.

    Jonathan Miller
    Written by
    Jonathan Miller
    Jonathan Miller, who lives near Montpellier, is the author of Shock of the News: Confessions of a Troublemaker, Gibson Square. He is on X @lefoudubaron.

    1. If it's a deterioration and doesn't work, it's bound to be one of Blair's ideas.

      1. He's been pulling the strings for many years. Why else would he have had a huge brick wall built right around his Buckinghamshire property.

    2. If it's a deterioration and doesn't work, it's bound to be one of Blair's ideas.

    3. Electing judges works fine here. It certainly forces judges to think about the likely outcome of say, letting some thug loose after a nominal sentence. Similarly, it's not that uncommon for the DA to appeal to have a sentence lengthened if he or she feels it's too light. In general our sentences are harsher than the UK – with the death penalty still on the books in more than half of the states and also for federal crimes.

      Many violent criminals though elect to try to fight the police, which usually ends up saving the cost of a trial. Waving a gun at law enforcement here is an invitation to be shot, but it's amazing to me how many are seemingly incapable of working that out.

      1. How about if a person comes into a shop, waving a handgun and threatening people. Is it allowed for the shopowner or someone else on the premises to shoot the bastard?

    4. With the stratospheric rise of Islam in the UK, I'd be wary about asking for judges to be elected. You'll get slammers elected, and that'll just make things much worse, believe me.

        1. … with the stratospheric rise of Islam… would there be any difference?

  60. Sod it.
    I'm off to bed.
    A trip to Worksop tomorrow, then hence to the Lincolnshire coast.
    Goodnight all.

  61. Aha. Operation Sealion is being dusted off.

    Germany must have stronger army than Britain, says Merz

    Chancellor commits to meeting Trump’s demand that Nato members spend 5pc of GDP on defence

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/8a519467116395bb

    Sebastian Harwood
    4 hrs ago
    Germany rearms as Britain keeps its borders open to unwanted migrants travelling through Europe to get to the camps in Calais and Dunkirk. We need a regime change in our country and fast.

    David Eden
    4 hrs ago
    The mental weakness that Mr Gauck notes is not only confined to Germany – most of the West is like that. We have to toughen up. Instead many of our younger citizens are having nervous breakdowns and crying in their cornflakes about trans rights.

    Angela Hartland
    3 hrs ago
    We can't even protect Kent.

    1. "Germany must have stronger army than Britain, says Merz"
      Why? To what purpose?

      2. I fear the script may be "those dastardly Germans started WW3"
        Merz is like the rest of them, obeying orders from on high.

  62. When one of my favourite TV program's Digging for Britain has finished, I'm orff to get my head down.
    Goodnight all Nottlers 😴

  63. Just sat down……… it's been a busy and quite a productive day. Just given one of the cats a flea treatment – have to try the other tomorrow but they hate it – I think it must sting a bit and they can certainly smell it. Kitchen tidied up and we can see out of most of the windows a bit better now too.

    1. I stopped giving my two dogs both flea and tick treatment months ago…so far, all good. Ticks are anywhere wild dee/badgers are, fleas usually other cats/dogs, I think.

      1. I don't know where they come from – but the gritty bits they leave irritate them. So I don't do them too often but about twice a year usually. And the eggs drop off too.

        1. They are horrible, have seen rabbits/deer with their faces almost covered in them, but not so much in recent years. Get the impression the seasons are changing back to how they were a few years ago, possibly seem them again soon. The joy……

  64. Cats.

    We have a very beautiful feral cat that comes in and out of the garden.

    It meows constantly.

    I tend to "patrol the estate" at dusk, and this evening, after what seems several weeks, he/she/it and I were standing close to one of the compost heaps where I was improving the nitrogen content.

    The cat was meowing as usual and I approached it very slowly. Normally it flees like a started rabbit if I'm anywhere near.

    It lay on its side and I stroked it very gently. It became more confident and stretched out to be stroked from head to tail; I was very surprised to feel how thin it was. It's as if it's almost a large kitten

    Cat lovers:
    What should I feed it; (we're not keen to have it in the house)?

      1. I don't know.
        It's so skinny that I suspect it doesn't.
        When it first appeared I thought it must "belong" to one of the neighbours, but if it does they don't look after it.
        The markings are so symmetrical that I assumed it must be some kind of pedigree beast.

        1. What kind of markings? Our girls are both tabby but quite different – Ziggy has white bib and paws and mackerel tabby mostly but the most beautiful tail – ringed like a lemur. She holds it up like a flag. Jessie is a dark, classic tabby – no white except her chin. Very symmetrical and stripey. They are both gorgeous – middle aged rescues who came to us in 2023. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b41e3108db70a8a67dbdc2a135d4285a2eb12c469aa4930c0168d8db96ed0c64.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cb88e71ee494d3fe6eb8a53de633a8ac9fc19b8bc4f7a526fd5ec0ccca3e1a2.jpg

          1. Lovely cats, Ndovu…I'd like one, plenty field mice here, but also cars/roads. Occasionally a neighbour will get a cat, but they don't last long. Plus…did you see my recent post about the large black cat….don't fancy seeing that again……

          2. No – I must have missed that one. When we bought this house, 30 years ago, we had two cats and the quiet lane was one thing we liked. There's not a lot of traffic, though a neighbour's cat (a black one) was knocked down and killed about 18 months ago. People do tend to accelerate as they go up the hill.

          3. Black cats are good at disguise day and night. I once had one a really good mouser, she had beautiful green eyes. Would find small furry things on doorstep, lined up, looking like bees…closer examination, mouse heads…she must have eaten the rest…

          4. We had two lovely black cats – brother and sister – Sam and Suzie – they were kittens and came from our local rescue – their mum was pregnant so they were born in care. Sam died at 15 – he had cancerous tumours; Suzie was deaf by then but otherwise healthy. But a few days after her 17th birthday, she demanded to go out one evening and never came back. I think she may have been taken by a fox – she was small and completely deaf so wouldn’t heard anything creeping up. She was a great character. I’ve always loved cats – never long without one or two. They’re all gone but never forgotten.

            My childhood cat, Tibby, would catch baby rabbits – she’d eat everything except the giblets and the back legs.

          5. Ginger, white, black, I'll try to get a picture, but it is really very pretty.

        2. If you feed it outside, plus a bowl of clean water, feed nearer your door each night..eventually may come indoors. Have a friend for life x

    2. Every dog/cat I've lived with loved poached salmon, complete with skin (but no bones).

    3. Every dog/cat I've lived with loved poached salmon, complete with skin (but no bones).

    4. When we lived in France we fed our cat on dry food (kibble), which he seemed to prefer. He wasn’t bothered about fish or other delicacies. The main benefit of dry food, particularly in warmer weather, is that it doesn’t attract flies or go off. A feral cat will, I’m sure, be happy with this. I can’t remember the name of the food in question but I do remember that it was made by a Nestlé subsidiary.

      1. Milk — though popular in myth — is not a good idea for cats. Their system will not take it.

        2. We haven’t kept cats for a long time, but I seem to remember them lapping up the milk happily. Didn’t know it wasn’t good for them.

    6. Mine loves raw cod, haddock, herring and cooked beef. He is a cat of taste.

    7. Vet recommended white fish and boiled rice when one of my cats was on the blink.

    8. In short, you've been peeing in the compost heap and stroking a pussy in the garden. How bohemian.

  65. Scotland Yard has tonight charged a man with arson following a series of blazes that targeted Sir Keir Starmer.

    Roman Lavrynovych, 21, of Sydenham, a Ukrainian national has been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life.

    He is accused of setting the Prime Minister's £2m north London property alight on Monday night, just days after the torching of a car and a flat which the Labour leader had previously owned.

    Ha ha ha
    Deep breaths
    Ha ha ha
    Fly the flag Starmer, you twat.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14717069/keir-starmer-fires-man-charged-arson.html

    1. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      There's not much too laugh about but I'm having a good chortle that it's not the knuckle-dragging northerner of Max's mental picture.

    3. These Ukrainians are ungrateful bastards. Just think of the billions Starmer has spaffed on Ukraine for no return and the billions he has promised in perpetuity to fund the ghastly country.

    4. These Ukrainians are ungrateful bastards. Just think of the billions Starmer has spaffed on Ukraine for no return and the billions he has promised in perpetuity to fund the ghastly country.

  67. I believe that tomorrow, there will be another reading of the "assisted suicide" bill, or 'Kill Bill', as we know it.
    Is it a coincidence that tonight on Channel Five at 2200, there is a programme called "The Trial of Harold Shipman"?

  71. Well chums, it's now off to bed for me. So Good Night all, sleep well, and I'll see you all in the morning.

    1. TBH I don't drink spirits. Hope you enjoy it all the same, cheers! Just finished my last glass of wine. For tonight, at least.

      1. Hey Mola! It's one of those 'after the winter' milestone moments – and enjoy your wine! We only have one type of grape that can survive up here, and the home brew wine from it is average at best.

        1. I could never get homebrew wine to work. Always too sweet, even if left in peace and reasonable warmth for the yeasts to do their thing. Beer or cider, no problem, but wine… 🙁

  73. Heh heh, DW. Well the Polo team let us down, the neighbours were busy, and Mrs DC is away – so I had to force this one down all on my lonesome.

  75. Many years since I last watched Question Time. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/85370eb38317cb4762502be6af06ca63f68f33c14c236727988e34b782202dd9.png [Sonia Sodha was Ed Miliband's ?Special Adviser?]

    No Reform representative
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87fb91e4760e2792b37272485646dfc46c40cdd6696a6bff64adea1de6a45bb5.png
    Captain Hindsight
    9h
    I see the BBC have found a way to stop Reform, you just de-platform the most popular party in the UK and then wonder why nobody is watching your channel or voting for the Uniparty anymore.

    Dissident
    Captain Hindsight
    9h
    People in Islington must be bafflled… How can this party be so popular when it's never on the telly, radio 4, or bluesky, and barely any mention in the Guardian, not even in its daily TDS supplement?

  76. Luxury. I'd love a sleep-in, but with the house filling up with workmen at 08:00 or so, not possible.

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