Thursday 18 April: The Government’s move to stub out smoking is an assault on liberty

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

825 thoughts on “Thursday 18 April: The Government’s move to stub out smoking is an assault on liberty”

  2. Chugging quickly through the paper. It’s not good news. Off to work very shortly. Catch you all later!

  4. The world is on the brink of a nuclear holocaust and Biden is blind to the risk. 18 April 2024.

    It won’t. The West’s refusal to face reality means that it is increasingly likely that Iran will eventually gain a nuclear weapon, and quite possibly use it against Israel, itself a nuclear power, with the explicit view of triggering a millenarian moment. The world is careering towards a three or four-pronged third world war involving Iran, Russia, China, and North Korea: the Islamic Republic is the weakest link, the least difficult one to deal with today, if we had the sense to act.

    Unfortunately for Allister’s thesis action against Iran would almost certainly precipitate what he is trying to prevent. There is no magic solution here. The destruction of Iran’s nuclear facilities by bombing is beyond the reach of the United States and could not take place without a response. That response would probably involve other factors, the closing of the Red Sea, an invasion of a sympathetic Iraq, attacks on the Saudi oil fields etc. The world would be plunged into chaos. To counter all this would require an invasion. The people of the United States would not support such a move and the credulity of the Global South has been exhausted by Iraq, Libya etc. Even this ignores the response of Russia and China. Does anyone believe that they would stand idly by?

    This possibility of course may already be redundant. The Israeli’s will shortly attack Iran which may well initiate this process.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/17/bidens-appeasement-driving-the-world-to-nuclear-holocaust/

    1. Good morning, the Iranians could block the Red Sea by bolstering their support for the Houthi militants, but they have no need to invade Iraq or Saudi as they could easily block the Strait of Hormuz. The flow of Saudi/Iraqi oil to the West would be stopped and the Iranians wouldn’t have any logistical supply chains to worry about.

    2. If there is a tiny glimmer of hope here, it is that any action taken now against Iran might result in the overthrow of the Mullahs through a popular uprising.
      That will be bloody, and to be honest I don’t think the population has the strength or the stomach for it unless the Revolutionary Guard could be split or turned.

      1. This is unlikely if Israel persists in pushing the boundaries of international law by escalating its spat with Iran. Attacking that embassy in Damascus was itself an act of extreme stupidity, even though they did take out a few troublesome generals doing so. Surely there must be a legal way to assassinate difficult foreign opponents? What a revenge attack on Iran might do though is to unite the country and rally them alongside the Mullahs, whereas what the West would prefer is for the Mullahs to die of old age and be replaced by someone more enlightened.

        1. Israel claims, quoting Wikipedia:

          “The Israeli military spokesman claimed that the building is neither a consulate nor an embassy, but a military building of Quds forces “disguised as a civilian structure in Damascus”.[91] Israel told the U.S. that if a retaliatory attack by Iran would prompt a robust response from Israel.[92][93]

          Considering the fact that Iran’s followers have a habit of hiding military targets in hospitals, schools and other civilian structures, I tend to believe the Israeli’s and not the Mullahs who are habitual liars. After all the practice of Taqiyya is, historically, primarily a Shi’ite habit. You can see that in the internal propaganda of Iran’s governments practiced against its own people in order to legitimize their murder of innocent people resisting their bloody regime.

          1. All very well, but the broadcast reporters have to check their stories, and if they have verified that it was part of the Iranian Embassy in Damascus, then I believe it was. Most embassies also have military attachés, but they are entitled to them, since it is deemed sovereign territory.

            I do not doubt Taqiyya is a component of Islam, but that does not stop Muslims telling the truth either. I certainly do not trust any authority that orders civilians to a safe space only then to bomb them. There is an important word “Chutzpah” that applies more to Israel than to Iran.

            As for escalating the tit-for-tat campaign of vengeance, where does it stop? There was very little damage done to Israel by the Iranian salvo, thanks partly to Iron Dome, but also to intervention from Britain and the US. Israel owes it to their staunchest allies to consider a request to draw a line on this cycle of retaliation and show some magnamity in denying Iran their hit, which is strategically far more sensible. It would then put pressure on Iran to draw a line on their hostilities.

      2. Naughty step for you and write out 100 lines “I must not sing dirty ditties about Oily Wragg, sneaky fag“

      3. It took me a long time to figure out what you mean (fag), but I got there in the end!

      1. I don’t smoke but I like the smell of cannabis and can detect the minutest amount. I should get a job with the police narcotics squad – except it would eliminate an occasional whiff of pleasure.

  7. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) list
    HOW TO CONSOLIDATE RELATIONSHIPS

    I was sitting watching Match of the Day when the Mrs came into the lounge and says, “Fancy a shag, Babe?”
    I said, “After the football love”
    She said, “You do realise that you can record it?”
    I said, “Nice, you get the camcorder, I’ll come upstairs when the footy finishes”.

    My girlfriend has just asked me how many women I’ve shagged.
    I said, ‘I really don’t want to answer that love, you know I’ve had a past and I don’t want to upset you!’
    ‘C’mon’ she said, ‘I can handle it!’
    So I had to sit there and count them all, “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, you, 10, 11, 12”

    A husband emerged from the bathroom clearly aroused and naked.
    As he leapt into bed his wife complained, as usual, “I’ve a headache!”
    “Perfect!” her husband exclaimed. “I was just in the bathroom powdering my penis with crushed aspirin.
    You can take it orally, or as a suppository, it’s up to you!”

    My Wife asked me to go to the Doctors about my Erection problem.
    She wasn’t pleased when I came back and gave her some Slimming Pills

  8. Good Morning Folks,

    Blue sky and chilly.
    Waiting for the planes to spoil it with contrails.

  10. A solid par today,

    Wordle 1,034 4/6

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

    1. Same here, but it took us a LONG time!
      Wordle 1,034 4/6

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

      1. I’m embarrassed here. Never got it in one go before.
        I think I know your starting word so I had a head start. I’ll have to do future Wordles before looking at the forum in future.

        Wordle 1,034 1/6

        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Maybe I should have looked as well

          Wordle 1,034 5/6

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

  13. The Government’s move to stub out smoking is an assault on liberty

    yep, a foot in the door for more surveillance

    2. It’s unworkable and unenforceable, and will simply foster smuggling, creating more wealth for criminal networks.
      Sunak is a clown.

      1. How about growing your own?

        When I was an apprentice technician back in the late 60s I worked with a really nice gentleman who taught me lot about telecommunications and as a side issue how to grow and cure tobacco – being a life-long non-smoker I’ve forgotten the latter. He was a pipe smoker and the home cured was vile.

          1. I’m with you on those points and non-smokers should have the right not to be affected by smokers.

          4. Vaping in a pub is the equivalent of leaving the toilet door open and turning the fan on.

        2. I had a go at growing, drying and curing tobacco, even though I don’t smoke. It was just curiosity. It was possible, but I’ve no idea whether it was smokable.

          1. When set alight it certainly created smoke and for a passive smoker it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

            My mentor, Roly, also had a habit of losing pipes in the exchanges and I would occasionally find one with its mouthpiece wedged between some cables. His smoking habit aside he was an amiable and knowledgeable man who gave me great advice. He also took me for a pint at lunchtimes even though I was underage, the Lavenham Swan being our favourite bar. Happy days.

  16. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d32550dae5b1715f4863370643d42064c9e49b8c/0_0_3500_2309/master/3500.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=3423052acf37c76907df60258f8b9f63
    Thockrington, Northumberland
    The northern lights (aurora borealis) illuminate the sky just before midnight

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/249f76f80f86aedbe86dbad7bf5f5fc3391c0a58/0_0_2875_1916/master/2875.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c5a8821e887922d76e3688920fc88028
    Seoul, South Korea
    A worker sprays water on to the statue of King Sejong during a spring cleaning session at the Gwanghwamun plaza

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/25c8a24cc6579f156a2f31897e893f27d31f010a/0_0_4928_3280/master/4928.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d4f33c61cec7c7d5bcf8b0adaf1330f9
    Pyongyang, North Korea
    People bow to statues of the late leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on Mansu Hill during celebrations marking the 112th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d6c6abbe202007307e15eb955cd196f28baec562/0_0_8142_5431/master/8142.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=eca84810ff13d726330fc204004912ad
    London, England
    Gallery assistants view a painting called The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula during a press preview of The Last Caravaggio exhibition at the National Gallery

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/710e160aea499fc2419714de4265ba20a06bc278/0_0_6000_4000/master/6000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b379c6c58edb67d3b1633d20a0a12946
    Tehran, Iran
    Motorists pass a billboard depicting ballistic missiles, with text in Arabic reading “the honest [person’s] promise” and in Persian “Israel is weaker than a spider’s web”, in Valiasr Square

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2d499be589f0987a32716cdc78fccca4033fd6bc/0_0_8640_5760/master/8640.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=ab4af3999093e4ab7b5e46ad77199e8a
    Athens, Greece
    Performers who will take part in the flame-lighting ceremony for the Paris Olympics join a rehearsal at the ancient Olympia site

      1. I would have thought that all 16 of them should have been heading for the the airport rather than for the coast.

        (Surprisingly the French seem to have assembled rather more Vestal Virgins than the originally specified number)

        https://www.google.com/search?q=Witer+shade+of+pale&oq=Witer+shade+of+pale&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQABgKGIAEMgkIAhAAGAoYgAQyCQgDEAAYChiABDIJCAQQABgKGIAEMgkIBRAuGAoYgAQyCQgGEC4YChiABDIJCAcQABgKGIAEMgwICBAuGAoY1AIYgAQyDAgJEC4YChjUAhiABNIBCDc5ODFqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:a841ab48,vid:Mb3iPP-tHdA,st:0

  17. They’re all mad…quite, quite mad…

    Scottish primary schools appoint children as ‘LGBT champions’

    Pupils can also join ‘gender and sexual orientation alliance groups’ as part of a scheme run by charity

    Daniel Sanderson, SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    17 April 2024 • 9:34pm

    Scottish primary schools are appointing children as “LGBT champions” and are being urged to ask pupils as young as four if they are gay, lesbian or trans, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Documents show that schools are setting up LGBT clubs and “gender and sexual orientation alliance groups” for pupils as part of their membership of a scheme run by the charity LGBT Youth Scotland.

    The charity, which received nearly £1 million of taxpayers’ money last year, also urges head teachers to install gender neutral lavatories and mark Transgender Day of Remembrance, an event critics say is designed to reinforce myths spread by trans activists.

    It comes after the Cass Review into NHS gender identity services last week raised fears that found the evidence for allowing children to change gender was built on weak foundations.

    Dr Hillary Cass, a paediatrician, said allowing “social transitioning” for young people – when they are treated as the opposite gender – could “change their trajectory” and lead to them pursuing a potentially damaging medical pathway in later life.

    The SNP Government was urged to address concerns over the promotion of ideology in classrooms in the wake of the revelations and the Cass Review.

    It also follows a major row about the introduction of new hate crimes law in Scotland which introduced new legal protections for trans people.

    Miriam Cates, co-chairman of the New Conservatives group of MPs, said: “We have seen from the Cass Review the appalling results of using children as pawns in adult political battles. Indoctrinating small children with sexualised ideologies is deeply unethical and breaks all established safeguarding principles.”

    Sir John Hayes, chairman of the Tory Common Sense Group, said: “Those responsible for the outrage of approaching four year olds in this way should be rounded up and charged with child abuse”

    Carolyn Brown, an educational psychologist, said: “Children of primary school age are very suggestible and are still at a very early stage of their psychological and emotional development.

    “What we are seeing here is the product placement of gender ideology in schools which is potentially very harmful.

    “Kids in primary school cannot possibly know if they are LGBT because biologically, psychologically and emotionally they will not yet have the capacity.”

    LGBT Youth Scotland in 2022-23 received almost £450,000 in taxpayer funding from the SNP Government and a further £340,000 from local authorities. NHS organisations handed over a further £154,000.

    It claims that more than 200 Scottish secondaries, more than half of the national total, and over 40 primary schools, have joined its LGBT charter for education. The fees it charges to join range from £850 to £2,000.

    It claims the programme enables schools, colleges and universities to “proactively include LGBTQ+ people in every aspect of [their] work”.

    As part of membership, staff must be trained by the organisation, which provides an online guide and letter templates for children wishing to change their gender at school.

    Each school joining the scheme is told it must appoint at least two pupils and two staff members as “LGBT Champions” and those hoping to obtain “gold” status are told to consider a survey of pupils to ask them if they are “part of the LGBT community in order to discern whether bullying affects those pupils proportionally within the school”.

    Documents given to schools in the scheme say the champions should hold quarterly meetings to drive forward LGBT inclusion.

    One primary school tweeted about its group of champions with a picture of five young children.

    Among 10 annual events that Scottish schools are being urged to “celebrate” are “National Coming Out Day” and “Transgender Day of Visibility”.

    Schools hoping to obtain a gold award are also told to provide evidence of their “LGBT safe spaces” such as gender neutral lavatories and PE classes.

    Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, said: “I do not understand why these organisations want to brainwash children with peculiar ideas. Primary school children should be allowed to live in the innocence of childhood. They will learn soon enough from their contemporaries and parents, who have the principal role.”

    LGBT Youth Scotland states that it has trained more than 5,000 teachers since 2021 and that its scheme means it is “reaching a minimum of 30,000 young people” and successfully changing the “culture and ethos” of Scottish schools.

    To achieve its gold award, schools are told they must “undertake at least one activity which specifically addresses the needs of transgender young people” such as “conducting a campaign that addresses trans rights”.

    They are also told they must put up the organisation’s posters and rewrite school policies in areas such as transgender inclusion and school uniform to ensure they are “inclusive”.

    Ash Regan, a former SNP minister who quit the government to vote against Nicola Sturgeon’s gender self-ID law and is now an Alba Party MSP, said: “Reports I’ve received on the promotion of gender ideology in Scottish primary, high schools and even nursery schools present a grave concern, especially in light of the Cass review recommendations.

    “We need governments to engage in a comprehensive debate on the Cass review in parliament urgently.”

    A Scottish government spokesman said: “We are committed to doing everything we can to make Scotland the best place to grow up for LGBTQI+ young people. This includes funding LGBT Youth Scotland to deliver a range of projects, such as the LGBT Charter programme.”

    LGBT Youth Scotland has been approached for comment.

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

    J McIvor
    9 HRS AGO
    This is nothing less than institutionalized child abuse, legitimized by being endorsed by the SNP government. It is appalling in every aspect and surely merits UK government intervention .

          1. No idea.
            I think I read several days before the Natzi bill was activated, that they were closing down for that reason.

    2. Steerpike
      Why won’t Humza close Scotland’s tartan Tavistock?
      18 April 2024, 7:00am

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2083610216.jpg

      Another day, another Holyrood mess. This time, it’s hapless Humza Yousaf being criticised for his slow response to the Cass review into gender services. Not like the SNP government to be missing when it matters…

      The wide-reaching Cass review last week found ‘remarkably weak evidence’ to support gender treatments for children and concluded that the ‘toxicity’ of the gender debate meant professionals were ‘afraid’ to openly discuss their views. That report came after an independent review in 2022 led to the closure of NHS England’s Tavistock clinic — the only centre in England treating children for gender dysphoria. And while this latest report focuses specifically on services south of the border, it offers a stark warning for gender clinics across the whole of the UK — particularly for Scotland’s very own ‘tartan Tavistock’, the Sandyford clinic, which is still treating children with gender dysphoria. Given the response in Westminster, you might have thought the Scottish government would to have something to say about it all too. Well, don’t hold your breath…

      Despite having an opinion on everything under the sun, Yousaf has spent remarkably little time on the matter in a BBC Radio Scotland interview. The First Minister told presenters that his government wouldn’t be taking an ‘inordinate’ amount of time to consider Cass’s findings — but a week on from the report, his beleaguered cabinet still hasn’t figured out quite exactly what it thinks. But while Yousaf dithers over the gender service review, the First Minister has no qualms about defending the need for the tartan Tavistock. ‘I don’t believe there is a case to close the Sandyford,’ he told radio listeners. It is rather curious, Mr S thinks, exactly what the FM chooses to be decisive on. Talk about being decisive for the cause of indecision.

      But the more the Scottish government drags its heels, the more pressure piles on the FM. Tavistock whistleblower David Bell, former Scottish Green leader Robin Harper, Scottish Labour’s Jackie Baillie and even the SNP’s own Joanna Cherry are among the many voices urging Yousaf to act on the report. The Scottish Tories’ deputy leader Meghan Gallagher has fired off a barrage of queries, including: a ministerial statement, a topical question request, an urgent question request and even an amendment to a parliamentary business motion. Yet every single one of these enquiries has been rejected.

      But the SNP government’s dithering over the Cass report is only drawing more attention to it. An angry Gallagher slammed Yousaf’s ‘deafening silence’ as ‘unacceptable’ while an SNP source told the Daily Mail they felt the government is ‘determined to ignore Cass’. Ash Regan, an ex-SNP MSP who made her name for rebelling against the gender bill, has even accused the Scottish government of ‘hiding behind state-funded lobbyists’ on the trans healthcare debate. Strong stuff. Regan lodged a topical motion on Monday and an urgent question on Tuesday but they were — you guessed it — rejected.

      What has the Scottish Government got to say about all of this? Erm, not very much. Its spokesperson said this week that the government doesn’t ‘comment on question selection other than to say the selection of questions is a matter for the Presiding Officer’. And in the Chamber on Wednesday, SNP minister Jenni Minto told MSPs that ‘the Scottish Government, our officials and our senior clinicians are all looking at what the report contains and we will begin giving an initial review on that as soon as possible’. Talk about leadership…

    3. I agree wholeheartedly with J McIvor’s first sentence and the opening six words of the second but the plea for the UK government to intervene is sadly lost on me: the perversions being inflicted on children is happening in many countries, it is another lock-step manoeuvre from the globalist cabal. Destroying familial and societal links is part of the cabal’s strategy and using sexual orientation etc. is a tactic of that strategy.

      The SNP does seem to embrace the ‘New World View’ with relish.

    4. In the interests of diversity and equality, it can only be a matter of time before there is a legal challenge from PIE for the assertion of their rights in primary schools. Are they not the “+” to be under Scottish law? Pride in childhood sexuality should not be limited to queers!

      Never mind reading or writing, adding up or the proper way to prepare Mars bar fritters, get the priorities sorted and instigate orgies in place of morning assembly!

          2. And is flushed with her success at creating division and hatred through relentless pursuit of identity politics.

    5. Why don’t they call these right-on pupils “Young Pioneers”?
      They could wear a distinctive marker – a red scarf, mayhap?

      1. Doesn’t the wearing of a scarf rather go against the spirit of what is being proposed? Better rainbow-coloured body paint.

          1. That’s how it all starts, get them young and brainwashed and they are yours for life. Stonewall need and deserve to be put against the wall.

    6. Why on earth did it take the ‘Cass Report’ for people to wake up to these dreadful indoctrinations?

  18. https://thecritic.co.uk/ww3-and-the-end-of-history/

    Interesting perspective but fundamentally flawed by its neglect of religious sentiment being fundamental to societal assumptions and motivations. Presumably the writer is an atheist as he seems blind to the civilisational challenge of expansionist Islam. In a way Darwinism sowed the seeds of Western decline today.

  19. Oh dear oh dear….

    Passenger car sales dropped in Europe as demand for electric vehicles dried up. New-vehicle registrations fell by 5.3pc across the European Union to 1m last month, according to the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association, with EVs particularly hard hit.

    Sales of battery-powered cars dropped by 11.3pc as demand in Germany, Europe’s largest economy, plunged by 28.9pc. The market share for EVs shrank from 13.9pc in March last year to 13pc in the same month of this year.

    It comes as Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla all reported falling electric vehicle sales in the first three months of the year.

        1. Morning Lacoste. I think this applies to other things as well such as climate change and Net-Zero. the Globalists have oversold them.

          1. It could be argued by some that less climate interference, depletion of biodiversity and product longevity is created with EV cars than with those powered by petrol or diesel, and local emissions of air pollution is certainly improved, but the sales patter can only be kept up for so long if the things don’t actually do the job – getting people and things from A to B without taking all day to hang about waiting for a charger.

          4. “Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!’

            p.s. I wonder if Downing Street will wish us all “Happy St. George’s Day”?

          5. Doubtless, some self-loathing type will yet again, remind us that St George “..wasn’t English, you know”.

        3. The market is going to force the politicians to keep deferring the ICE ban or basically collapse the European car industry.

  20. Average car insurance bill climbs to almost £1,000. 18 April 2024.

    The average annual car insurance bill has hit almost £1,000 as MPs warned that premiums risked becoming so expensive that drivers are put off making claims.

    Insurance bosses spoke at a Treasury select committee on Wednesday to explain the surging cost of car insurance, for which quotes have risen by 43 per cent in the past 12 months, according to research by comparison site Confused.com.

    With recent comments on Nottl about pet insurance I’m pretty sure that any excuse is nonsense. The truth is that the insurance industry has formed a cartel against its customers. They are not alone in my view. The services, Gas, Water, Electricity are the same. The victory of Globalism over Government has ensured that the offenders need fear no reaction. The milking of the peasants has begun in earnest.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/18/average-car-insurance-bill-climbs-to-almost-1000-pounds/

    1. EVs and higher repair costs have undoubtedly pushed up costs but nothing like the scale of the rises in premiums. There should be an OFT enquiry.

    2. This is just one example of far too many of the general ethical breakdown of our institutions that have shown themselves unworthy of the public’s confidence or trust.

      The only thing holding back a campaign of general non-co-operation with them all is that at present the organised criminals still control the judiciary.

          2. TBF – I doubt John was any worse than his brothers.
            Richard “Lionheart” only came to England to squeeze the country for taxes.
            But RL was crusading so got a good press from the monkish chroniclers; John swived his way through the court ladies – including the barons’ wives – and was somewhat irreverent so pee’d off the only literate people in the country.
            Mediaeval monarchs were not exactly into wokism.

          3. John ‘swived’ did he?

            It sounds rather exciting. Have I missed out? Or have I ‘swived’ without realising it? 🤣

          7. Swive Verb (third-person singular simple present swives, present participle swiving, simple past and past participle swived)

            (archaic, transitive) To copulate with (a woman).
            Synonyms: occupy, sard, jape, roger, f*ck.

            (archaic, transitive, dialectal) To cut a crop in a sweeping or rambling manner, hence to reap; cut for harvest.
            Synonyms: crop, gather, glean, harvest, mow.

            Interesting synonyms !

          8. I didn’t ‘do’ Chaucer for nothing!
            (And nowt to do with swiving, neither.)
            Minor boast, I was about the only ‘O’ level Eng.Lit. pupil in my class who didn’t collapse into a heap when faced with Chaucerian English. I soon learnt that reading it phonetically in my mind, made most of it pretty clear. And the glossary helped with obsolete words.

    3. Totally agree. All coordinated at their dinner parties. With car services encouraged with extra zeal to rip us off. Net Zero. Just Stop Oil. Luxury Gits with Luxury Beliefs.

    4. When we moved to France in 1989 car insurance in England was much cheaper than in France.

      We have just bought a brand new car and the fully comprehensive cover cost us under €500. (about £430 at today’s exchange rate)

  21. Good morning everyone .
    A bright sunny day but somewhat chilly .
    I’m about to have my cup of tea – always English breakfast tea or Earl Grey
    Whereas I prefer a cappuccino for breakfast when In Europe .

    3. It is odd how your tastes alter when abroad.
      When we stayed with our son’s Danish in-laws, the father always had a shot of Gammel Dansk for breakfast.
      First day – ‘yuk’ but be polite.
      Second day – h’mmm ….
      Third day – “Come on, Hans, get pouring”.

  22. 386202+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    That’s the smoke taken care of, and the mirrors
    comes into play with the reflection of one’s self realising they are taking the chaffing piss again after I returned them to power, AGAIN.

    Could very well come about that Mushroom cloud, (the ultimate in seeding ) is on the menu and he the WEF political overseer is worried about kids smoking when they could very well be shoving charlie up their nasal channels as fast as poss.

    Priorities,
    Get a fast track interim report with each member of the inquiry team publically swearing on oath the honesty of the content so far into excessive deaths due to experimental, mandatory in many cases, vaccines.

    The politico / pharmaceutical personnel run a no mercy no quarter given campaign , we the decent peoples of these Isles must return the compliment “lest we forget” for the good of the party, in sentencing the guilty.

    Get very real, a fag behind the bike shed in school is of no consequence compared to ……

    Thursday 18 April: The Government’s move to stub out smoking is an assault on liberty

  23. ‘Russia doesn’t care’: Sweden sounds alarm over unsafe oil fleet

    Russia appears prepared to create “environmental havoc” by sailing unseaworthy oil tankers through the Baltic Sea in breach of all maritime rules, the Swedish foreign minister has said.

    Speaking to the Guardian during his first visit to London since Sweden became a Nato member, Tobias Billström called for new rules and enforcement mechanisms to prevent the ageing and uninsured Russian shadow fleet causing an environmental catastrophe. About half of all Russian oil transported by sea the passes through the Baltic Sea and Danish waters, often operating under opaque ownership, and using international waters to try to avoid scrutiny.

    This is really about Russia’s successful evasion of sanctions. Possibly to eventually justify the seizure of the ships.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/18/swedish-foreign-minister-tobias-billstrom-unsafe-russian-oil-fleet-baltic-sea-environmental-catastrophe

    1. Existing rules not working, so make some more? What kind of fcukwit idea is that?

      1. Even when long existed rules have worked well, in this moment in our history, you’re gonna get a bunch of DHs sitting around a table trying to be awkward.

    2. This idea that oil spills in the sea are ‘environmental havoc’ is a bit silly. We have no idea how much oil simply oozes out of the rocks on the sea floor all around the world. As we have seen from past oil spills it disperses fairly quickly and soon everything is as if the spill had never occurred. That is not to say it doesn”t make things unpleasant for a while for sea birds and sea mammals and spills should be prevented for that and economic reasons but a long term environmental disaster it ain’t.

  24. The oaks in my garden are in leaf, whereas the bud of the ash have not yet burst.

    Does this indicate a hot, dry summer? Best get the fire buckets ready!

    1. Quick. Plant lots of cacti and succulents. Then spend the summer peering through rain splattered windows watching them rot.

      1. We put in Canna and Banana Musa last year , for novelty .. ruined, and also an early spring flower, gorgeous , but short living .. Crown Imperials .. which were a flop .

        I have bought more varieties of lavender , curry plant , Rosemary, tree peonies, no dahlias this year, but Moh likes gladioli, and just now a huge clump of blue iris are starting to flower under the dining room window .. sadly they don’t last for long either

        1. They live in a 5th apartment over looking a marina, the floods drained fairly quickly. But of course not everywhere.

    3. Whatever ash we have left to come into leaf is always the last after the elm, hazel, sycamore etc.
      I’ve several potted oaks that need to be planted out and some half dozen seedlings from acorns I planted into the amaryllis pots that will need transferring to pots of their own when the aforesaid amaryllis die back.
      Waiting to see if I get any seeds this year.

    1. I doubt they’ll give up that easily.
      A “United Europe” can only be achieved through fascism.

    2. Sometimes I think they make it look as if we have won a battle, just to dissolve wholescale dissent, I think.

  26. Re actors having hump backs to play Dick the 5H1T

    The only problem is that Bader lost his legs in a flying accident – meaning that, for half the film, the actor would need to have legs.

    Heaven help the next persons selected to enact the Life of Horatio Nelson

    The LGBTwertyers will lurve his final comment to Hardy

    1. I’m wondering about pantomime horses.
      Will two halves of a real horse have to trot onto the stage?

      1. Now that the majority of children are born out of wedlock to unmarried mothers there will be no shortage of bastards to play political theatrical roles!

        1. One of my favourite musicals.

          (One of my cousins married a girl who was a photographic model who looked just like Anne Miller)

          https://www.google.com/search?q=it%27s+too+darn+hot&oq=It%27s+too+darn+hot&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggBEC4Y1AIYgAQyCggCEC4Y1AIYgAQyBwgDEAAYgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyCggFEC4Y1AIYgAQyBwgGEAAYgAQyCAgHEAAYFhgeMggICBAAGBYYHjIICAkQABgWGB7SAQg5NDYwajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:180870a0,vid:WS_YAKZH3lw,st:0

    3. When I was a union rep, the lack of representation in the staff of disabled people was brought up in a meeting. My fraternal colleague from the mechanised office next door said drily “that can be arranged”.

    5. Have you seen Strike on BBC. The lead character, Strike, is an ex serviceman with a prosthetic leg below one knee. He is not disabled but is seen take the artificial leg off.
      The marvels of modern technology.

      1. Thomas Hood may have given puns a bad name but I must say I enjoyed his verse when I was a boy.

        Faithless Nelly Gray : Thomas Hood

        Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
        And used to war’s alarms;
        But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
        So he laid down his arms.

        Now as they bore him off the field,
        Said he, ‘Let others shoot;
        For here I leave my second leg,
        And the Forty-second Foot.’

        The army-surgeons made him limbs:
        Said he, ‘They’re only pegs;
        But there’s as wooden members quite,
        As represent my legs.’

        Now Ben he loved a pretty maid, —
        Her name was Nelly Gray;
        So he went to pay her his devours,
        When he devoured his pay.

        But when he called on Nelly Gray,
        She made him quite a scoff;
        And when she saw his wooden legs,
        Began to take them off.

        ‘O Nelly Gray! O Nelly Gray!
        Is this your love so warm?
        The love that loves a scarlet coat
        Should be a little more uniform.’

        Said she, ‘I loved a soldier once,
        For he was blithe and brave;
        But I will never have a man
        With both legs in the grave.’

        ‘Before you had those timber toes
        Your love I did allow;
        But then, you know, you stand upon
        Another footing now.’

        ‘O Nelly Gray! O Nelly Gray!
        For all your jeering speeches,
        At duty’s call I left my legs
        In Badajos’s breaches.’

        ‘Why, then,’ said she, ‘you’ve lost the feet
        Of legs in war’s alarms,
        And now you cannot wear your shoes
        Upon your feats of arms!’

        ‘O false and fickle Nelly Gray!
        I know why you refuse:
        Though I’ve no feet, some other man
        Is standing in my shoes.’

        ‘I wish I ne’er had seen your face;
        But, now, a long farewell!
        For you will be my death — alas!
        You will not be my Nell!’

        Now when he went from Nelly Gray
        His heart so heavy got,
        And life was such a burden grown,
        It made him take a knot.

        So round his melancholy neck
        A rope he did intwine,
        And, for his second time in life,
        Enlisted in the Line.

        One end he tied around a beam,
        And then removed his pegs;
        And, as his legs were off — of course
        He soon was off his legs.

        And there he hung till he was dead
        As any nail in town;
        For, though distress had cut him up,
        It could not cut him down.

        A dozen men sat on his corpse,
        To find out why he died, —
        And they buried Ben in four cross-roads
        With a stake in his inside.

        1. I also enjoyed the story of John Gilpin’s big day out written by William Cowper.

          My father’s favourite lines were the lines about Gilpin’s wife which he quoted at my mother when she was planning an excursion:

          John Gilpin kissed his loving wife.
          O’erjoyed was he to find.
          That though on pleasure she was bent,
          She had a frugal mind.

      2. The other day, in a supermarket there was a chap with two artificial legs – the sort that seem to be provided to servicemen.
        He was walking very well and I doubt he ever uses them to play the victim.

  27. Good Moaning.

    Remember the bad old days when potential candidates’ wives were informally judged by the selection committees?
    Thank you, Lord Greenswill. Thanks to your allocating additional powers to CCHQ, that practice is now a thing of the past.

    “According to a source close to Mr Menzies, the MP had met a man on an online dating website and gone to the man’s flat, before subsequently going with another man to a second address where he continued drinking. He was sick at one point and several people at the address demanded £5,000, claiming it was for cleaning up and other expenses.

    The source said Mr Menzies decided to pay them because he was scared of what would happen otherwise, but did not have the funds to transfer the money from his own savings.”

    1. What a bum. We might as well just drag vagrants off the streets and make them MPs. And some of them would do a better job, I warrant.

    1. Watching magpies and jackdaws pick up stale bread and then dunk it in water before eating it shows a level of intelligence that other birds do not exhibit.

    2. Not sure if you’ve seen the TV programme ‘The Detecorists’,
      But the guys seem to have missed a trick. After they have gone home for the day, the Magpies move in and dig out the coins they have been trying to find, and fly off in to a tree with the mounting hoard.

    3. Hate seagulls. See them flying round our way and some are as big as dogs (smaller ones). Fools still put out food for them. And they shove all the other birds out of the way for it. A plucky pigeon once took on all newcomers – on the neighbour’s bird table. Even saw off a couple of the dog gulls. Mind, the pigeon was the size of a football itself. Don’t know how it flies tbh. Like a jumbo, on an airstrip, out of the Congo.

      1. They are nasty birds. Like to watch them in the distance at the beach but up close, and they’re not afraid of humans as they aggressively forage for food, they can be frightening.

    4. I’m sure most NOTTLERs remember this poem.
      I’ve loved jackdaws ever since. They are the Jack Russells of the bird world.

      The Jackdaw Of Rheims

      The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal’s chair!

      Bishop, and abbot, and prior were there;

      Many a monk, and many a friar,

      Many a knight, and many a squire,

      With a great many more of lesser degree,—

      In sooth a goodly company;

      And they served the Lord Primate on bended knee.

      Never, I ween,

      Was a prouder seen,

      Read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams,

      Than the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims!

      In and out

      Through the motley rout,

      That little Jackdaw kept hopping about;

      Here and there

      Like a dog in a fair,

      Over comfits and cates,

      And dishes and plates,

      Cowl and cope, and rochet and pall,

      Mitre and crosier! he hopp’d upon all!

      With saucy air,

      He perch’d on the chair

      Where, in state, the great Lord Cardinal sat

      In the great Lord Cardinal’s great red hat;

      And he peer’d in the face

      Of his Lordship’s Grace,

      With a satisfied look, as if he would say,

      “We two are the greatest folks here to-day!”

      And the priests, with awe,

      As such freaks they saw,

      Said, “The Devil must be in that little Jackdaw!”

      The feast was over, the board was clear’d,

      The flawns and the custards had all disappear’d,

      And six little Singing-boys—dear little souls!

      In nice clean faces, and nice white stoles,

      Came, in order due,

      Two by two,

      Marching that grand refectory through!

      A nice little boy held a golden ewer,

      Emboss’d and fill’d with water, as pure

      As any that flows between Rheims and Namur,

      Which a nice little boy stood ready to catch

      In a fine golden hand-basin made to match.

      Two nice little boys, rather more grown,

      Carried lavender-water, and eau de Cologne;

      And a nice little boy had a nice cake of soap,

      Worthy of washing the hands of the Pope.

      One little boy more

      A napkin bore,

      Of the best white diaper, fringed with pink,

      And a Cardinal’s Hat mark’d in “permanent ink.”

      The great Lord Cardinal turns at the sight

      Of these nice little boys dress’d all in white:

      From his finger he draws

      His costly turquoise;

      And, not thinking at all about little Jackdaws,

      Deposits it straight

      By the side of his plate,

      While the nice little boys on his Eminence wait;

      Till, when nobody’s dreaming of any such thing,

      That little Jackdaw hops off with the ring!

      There’s a cry and a shout,

      And a deuce of a rout,

      And nobody seems to know what they’re about,

      But the Monks have their pockets all turn’d inside out.

      The Friars are kneeling,

      And hunting, and feeling

      The carpet, the floor, and the walls, and the ceiling.

      The Cardinal drew

      Off each plum-colour’d shoe,

      And left his red stockings exposed to the view;

      He peeps, and he feels

      In the toes and the heels;

      They turn up the dishes,—they turn up the plates,—

      They take up the poker and poke out the grates,

      —They turn up the rugs,

      They examine the mugs:—

      But, no!—no such thing;—

      They can’t find THE RING!

      And the Abbott declared that, “when nobody twigg’d it,

      Some rascal or other had popp’d in, and prigg’d it!”

      The Cardinal rose with a dignified look,

      He call’d for his candle, his bell, and his book!

      In holy anger, and pious grief,

      He solemnly cursed that rascally thief!

      He cursed him at board, he cursed him in bed;

      From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head;

      He cursed him in sleeping, that every night

      He should dream of the devil, and wake in a fright;

      He cursed him in eating, he cursed him in drinking,

      He cursed him in coughing, in sneezing, in winking;

      He cursed him in sitting, in standing, in lying;

      He cursed him in walking, in riding, in flying,

      He cursed him in living, he cursed him in dying!—

      Never was heard such a terrible curse!

      But what gave rise

      To no little surprise,

      Nobody seem’d one penny the worse!

      The day was gone,

      The night came on,

      The Monks and the Friars they search’d till dawn;

      When the Sacristan saw,

      On crumpled claw,

      Come limping a poor little lame Jackdaw!

      No longer gay,

      As on yesterday;

      His feathers all seem’d to be turn’d the wrong way;—

      His pinions droop’d—he could hardly stand,—

      His head was as bald as the palm of your hand;

      His eye so dim,

      So wasted each limb,

      That, heedless of grammar, they all cried, “THAT’S HIM!—

      That’s the scamp that has done this scandalous thing!

      That’s the thief that has got my Lord Cardinal’s Ring!”

      The poor little Jackdaw,

      When the Monks he saw,

      Feebly gave vent to the ghost of a caw;

      And turn’d his bald head, as much as to say,

      “Pray, be so good as to walk this way!”

      Slower and slower

      He limp’d on before,

      Till they came to the back of the belfry door,

      Where the first thing they saw,

      Midst the sticks and the straw,

      Was the Ring in the nest of that little Jackdaw!

      Then the great Lord Cardinal call’d for his book,

      And off that terrible curse he took;

      The mute expression

      Served in lieu of confession,

      And, being thus coupled with full restitution,

      The Jackdaw got plenary absolution!

      —When those words were heard,

      That poor little bird

      Was so changed in a moment, ’twas really absurd.

      He grew sleek, and fat;

      In addition to that,

      A fresh crop of feathers came thick as a mat!

      His tail waggled more

      Even than before;

      But no longer it wagg’d with an impudent air,

      No longer he perch’d on the Cardinal’s chair.

      He hopp’d now about

      With a gait devout;

      At Matins, at Vespers, he never was out;

      And, so far from any more pilfering deeds,

      He always seem’d telling the Confessor’s beads.

      If any one lied,—or if any one swore,—

      Or slumber’d in pray’r-time and happen’d to snore,

      That good Jackdaw

      Would give a great “Caw!”

      As much as to say, “Don’t do so any more!”

      While many remark’d, as his manners they saw,

      That they “never had known such a pious Jackdaw!”

      He long lived the pride

      Of that country side,

      And at last in the odour of sanctity died;

      When, as words were too faint

      His merits to paint,

      The Conclave determined to make him a Saint;

      And on newly-made Saints and Popes, as you know,

      It’s the custom, at Rome, new names to bestow,

      So they canonized him by the name of Jim Crow!

  30. Good morning all, and the 77th of course,

    It did dawn blue and clear overhrad McPhee Towers but the chem-trails are beginning to appear now. As I type this I’m gazing out of my study window watching one drift gently Southwards on the upper winds. The breeze is in the North going West today, 5℃ with 12℃ expected later.

    In casting around for a clown-world tale to highlight today it was a choice between the four-year-old primary school LGBTQWERTY champions in my native land and the idiots who would part with £265 for a single cup of coffee. I’ve decided to go with the latter.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/292001f72bb763f3598efe1fb4822de0c978a003195dfc327b7f0064c0cb28ab.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/17/britains-most-expensive-cup-of-coffee-is-265/

    People do stupid things; stupid people do spectacularly stupid things but rich stupid people do the stupidest things of all.

    For one lousy cup of coffee.

    Why not just drop £265 into the hat of that former soldier, sailor or airman who is sleeping in the doorway over there? It would make you feel so much better about yourself.

    2. You can bet your bottom groat that Susy Atkins, funded by the Daily Telegraph, did not pay £265 out of her own purse for that coffee.

    3. You can bet your bottom groat that Susy Atkins, funded by the Daily Telegraph, did not pay £265 out of her own purse for that coffee.

    4. Be aware people, that the coffee beans are only half the ingedients of a cup of coffee.

      An equally important part of the mix is “The Water”, of which there must be 1000’s of different tasting ones coming from the
      taps in UK, ie off.

      the water supply where it started off

      the water works that made it fit for human consumption

      the pipe lines

      it’s purity

      lime content

      distance travelled

      Chemica content Flouride etc

      etc

      to name just a few.

      (this is why you should not put ice cubes or tap water into drinks that you have asked for by name ie MacSmith’s Single Malt
      Whisky, cus they will not taste right).

      So unless it is made with bottled water, of known heritage, it is a vanity exercise

      1. That’s in exactly the same category of ‘stoopid’ as asking for a particular bottled mineral water then saying ‘yes’ when the barista/waiter asks if you want ice in it.

      2. Indeed, Mr Effort, indeedy.

        ‘Boil-to-spoil’ with coffee. ‘Clean’ water, heated to no more than 92ºC [197·6ºF], expressed through the fresh grounds at 9–15bars pressure, is the only way I shall take that beverage.

        As for single malt: simply neat is how I like it.

  31. Good morning all.
    A bright sunny morning with clear skies and very little wind with a cold -1°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    According to R3 news, a Home Office official has been caught trying to sell residency permits to migrants.
    Now, any bets on his/her skin colour??

    1. Comment is immediately zapped. Even the longer word ‘faggot’ is verboten.
      Even if you are writing about mediaeval capital punishment or English meat balls..

    2. Comment is immediately zapped. Even the longer word ‘faggot’ is verboten.
      Even if you are writing about mediaeval capital punishment or English meat balls..

    1. She should have stayed at school a bit longer, maybe done an economics and accounting course or something like that.

    2. Or Is it just typical of most of our Wastemonster personnel ? They are probably all on the fiddle some how.
      They don’t seem to be effective in any other areas.

  34. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a beautiful start to Thursday.
    Not a cloud in the sky and bird song fills the air.
    I’m not a smoker nor is anyone i know. And agreed, the government have no right to tell people what they are allowed to do regarding smoking. The laws about smoking are already very effective and over the last few decades have made going to pubs and restaurants much more pleasant.
    If they get away with this, the next move on banning will be alcohol. And then what will they make us all do ? Ladies covering their hair ? Kneeling mumbling and banging our heads on the ground ?

  35. Having been in my local town (Newbury) reasonably early yesterday morning I found the number of burquas and niqabs walking around to be a little more than disturbing. All pushing baby buggies as well. The invasion and colonisation is going as planned.

    1. The Republicans in Ireland used to hope that the Catholics in Northern Ireland would outnumber the Protestants because of the Catholic Church’s stance on contraception and when this demographic had been achieved Northern Ireland would reunite with the South.

      Of course Northern Ireland will soon become part of the Republic because of of the NI Protocol losing Article 16 with Sunak’s disgraceful Great Windsor Betrayal rather than because of the fecundity, or lack of it, of Northern Irish catholic coleens.

      However there seems to be no lack of fecundity amongst Muslim women whether or not they have been ‘circumcised‘.

  36. Having been in my local town (Newbury) reasonably early yesterday morning I found the number of burquas and niqabs walking around to be a little more than disturbing. All pushing baby buggies as well. The invasion and colonisation is going as planned.

          2. No. I’m adjusting my body clock for Summer. I’m normally in bed around 7pm. I read for a while then nod off. That is far too early as Summer gets started with sunsets around 9.30pm !
            So, late mornings it is.

          1. The young curate, meeting the Bishop was asked what he knew of ethics, he replied, “Not a lot as I was born and brought up in Thuthex.”

  40. And just what do you suggest Israel does?

    Sit still, suck up all the attacks, ignore all rockets and other violent provocations and just wait for the final solution I suppose.

  41. Good morning all,

    Blue sky, frost earlier , 5c..fresh clean air.

    Just wondering about the excessive rain in Dubai, seems like a Biblical event to me .

    Intervention likened to the story of the Tower of Babel ?

    2. Our daughter said, a couple years ago, that it rained in March and that was the first rain in over a year.
      They accept that this type of weather happens, it’s not unusual and they prepare for it and cope with it.
      They get on with life and living while the rest of the world talks about climate change and catastrophe. Much of the rain will be collected processed and used for irrigation.
      They are very resilient and employ many expats from across the world and it works.

  42. Jemima Lewis is 100% correct. These monstrosities are appearing increasingly to disfigure the Isles of Scilly.

    We spent the school holidays, as we always do, leaning into the sideways rain of south Devon. It’s worth it because, roughly twice a fortnight, the clouds relax their grip, and the landscape is transfigured by sunshine into a tableau of English beauty so dazzling that it feels scarcely plausible: neon-bright hills of green and yellow, primroses in the hedgerows, newborn lambs like puffs of cotton wool on springs, the river Dart sparkling and serpentine and alive with little sails, and pretty old towns in glowing pastels clambering up the steep banks.

    But what’s this? A gigantic machine – almost 800ft long, weighing 58,000 tons and carrying nearly a thousand souls – glides slowly into view. It looks like the monstrous love child of Le Corbusier and HG Wells: a brutalist space ship sent to crush the puny inhabitants of planet Earth. This is – or will be, if the Dart Harbour Authority (DHA) gets its way – the next phase of tourism for the English Riviera. The DHA wants to open up Dartmouth harbour to the kind of cruise ships more often seen blotting out the Bermudan sun or shaking the foundations of Venice.

    It’s already happening in the Cornish town of Fowey, which last year hosted the Spirit of Adventure: a cruise ship of the above dimensions, big enough to contain almost half Fowey’s permanent population. It cast a day-long shadow over parts of the little town, blocking the view across the estuary; but local officials declared themselves delighted. The mooring fees alone must be a juicy incentive, and then, always, there is the promised boost to the local economy.
    It’s not that this promise is a lie, exactly: more that it is a counsel of failure.

    Tourist economies always end up eating themselves. The very qualities that make a place attractive to holidaymakers – unspoiled beauty, peace, local interest and a strong sense of place – are eroded, inevitably, by holidaymakers.

    Once tourists reach a critical mass, there aren’t enough locals around to sustain the out-of-season economy: the decent grocer and the lamp-mending shop that make a town both liveable and interesting. The economy becomes ever more dependent on the tourist pound until, eventually, you can’t buy anything except fudge, wetsuits and naff nautical art.

    The place starts to feel like it’s losing its identity; the original holidaymakers notice that their secret paradise is getting a bit touristy and down-at-heel. So now the town has to ship in – literally – new customers. By the time the cruise ship idea is mooted, the economy does indeed need a boost. And there will be some local businesses (the fudge shops) that benefit from the temporary disgorging of thousands of day-trippers.

    But many cruise passengers are on all-inclusive deals, so they get their food, drink and entertainment on board. A friend who runs a restaurant in Dartmouth tells me the smaller cruise ships that sometimes moor in the harbour bring in very little business: “Maybe a dozen tables over the past few years.” He dreads the arrival of the giant space ships. “Loads of tourists milling around, dropping litter, not spending, just clogging up Dartmouth.”

    We should learn from those who have gone before. Venice, Amsterdam and Barcelona have all banned large cruise ships, on the grounds that the social and environmental costs are too high. And they’re never an economic cure – just a symptom of the disease.

    1. Spot on.
      Cruise ship passengers spend very little if anything. They just gawp. Local councils do it for the money the mooring fees bring in. Like prostitutes. Local people should be aware of who their councilors are and what they are doing. Then remonstrate with them and or vote them out.

    2. When we stayed in Madeira, we always used a hotel that overlooked the harbour.
      Many hours of fun were spent watching the crews shoehorn old dodderers out of the ship and into the dinghies for their brief visit ashore. (Funchal and Madeira ticked off the list.)
      By the time the last old biddy had been extracted through the minute door in the bowels of the ship, it was time for the first adventurers to be brought back.

        1. Nor can I. The most auful people you can find on cruises and coach holidays. We did the coach only once never again. I still do not understand why we did it.

        2. I think it depends on what type of cruise you are on. One of my best holidays was on a Turkish gulet cruising round the coast. About 85 feet in length with three crew and 6 passengers.

        3. We enjoyed our river cruises in Russia.
          I’m hoping MB will be well enough for a Danube/Rhine/Douro cruise.
          A very different type of person chooses river cruises (yes, I’m a snob!)

          1. We did have a short river cruise on the Nile…… and a hilarious one in a bath tub of a boat on a tributary of the Amazon in Bolivia….. but those huge liners would be purgatory.

          2. We went on the SS Sudan – the first ship ever to cruise the Nile as seen in “Death on the Nile”. It only took 46 passengers but we went not long after the Arab Spring and there were just 12 of us – it was lovely!

          3. Ours was in January 2007 – about 50 passengers. We were able to visit several of the temples.

          4. We did too, but sadly the middle Nile was closed for security reasons so we only went from Luxor to Aswan. Even so, that was quite enough to take in over four days!

          10. Mary Ure was Desdemona; Diana Rigg and Vanessa Redgrave both had minor walk-on parts.

            The pinnacle of my father’s thespian career was as a member of The Cambridge Mummers (an undergraduate AmDram group) when he had a role which called for him to pour a bucket of water over (later Sir and father of Vanessa) Michael Redgrave’s head at each performance. Redgrave was an insufferable lefty even in those days and Dad took great joy in his duties. {:^))

          11. I saw Vanessa Redgrave in “The Seagull” in London around 1980 – I could forgive her almost anything! Diana Rigg was one of my favourite actresses. I’d have enjoyed your father’s duties too 😁

        4. We enjoyed our river cruises in Russia.
          I’m hoping MB will be well enough for a Danube/Rhine/Douro cruise.
          A very different type of person chooses river cruises (yes, I’m a snob!)

        5. Much smaller cruise ships with just 100 guests cruising the Danube is delightful. You can book a table for two for dinner or if you would like company you can opt for a larger table and make friends with whoever turns up. Much more civilised than those monstrous floating children’s playgrounds.

          1. Indeed. We went on one in the Chilean Fiords in 2014. The ship took 100 guests but it was towards the end of the season so only 70 were on board – representing 14 different nationalities! It was great fun as being such a “specialised” cruise we all had something in common – we actually really wanted to be there! We were allocated tables at the start of the four-day cruise but the crew were clearly experienced at doing this and we had no complaints about our table companions representing four European countries. I was the odd one out as for the purposes of the trip I identified as Rhodesian 😁

    3. Cruising has never appealed to me. Staying on a floating block of flats, shut in with thousands of other people and stuffing your face full of food every day is not my idea of a holiday.

  43. Planet Normal: I had to be snuck into NatCon behind a bin, says Miriam Cates
    Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan speak to Miriam Cates MP about her experience in Brussels this week
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/17/dubai-airport-flooded-record-rainfall-one-dead/

    We know the Left are Orwellian Pigs – I wonder who is Old Major (the inspiration) and who will turn out to be Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer.

    (Apparently snuck is the past tense of sneak (verb transitive and intransitive)

      1. I agree. I always used the word sneaked rather than snitched for the betrayal of someone to the authorities.

          2. I like the evolution of language.
            That is why flexible English, rather than rigid French, has become the lingua franca of the world.
            Funnily enough, America has both changed English – e.g snuck, but also stuck to older English – e.g. gotten. I find the history behind those differences fascinating.
            Language that doesn’t adapt and remain relevant to a particular society soon becomes a dead language.
            (And no-one can top my loathing for corporate speak or psychology jargon.)

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        Quite so. What would be the past tense of feak in the US – feaked or …..?

    2. I read that yesterday. Laughed my head off…..how stupid do you have to be to think you’re going to get away with that?

  45. Exploring why we photograph animals

    Photography on display at the Cheltenham science festival 4-9 June 2024

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5559cc1a16fd201aefe74e73bbc4d69b6b30c19e/0_60_1646_1220/master/1646.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=cea77e07663cbd3e0c99642a370e1bde
    A seven-month-old cheetah in the back of an SUV hisses at a rescuer’s outstretched hand, western Somaliland, 2020

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/19d25a658406ea4c01b0cd74b06f8bf3efc7341f/0_0_1920_1013/master/1920.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=f29bc2b3301b203515c8728e8bed9bc5
    Tree swallow, Grand Teton national park, 2019

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1b6de3f512a373aa62e9020ef5557956ba38d431/0_0_1920_1074/master/1920.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=fea7555c6727e5282aaaa6d3de2c2a4b
    Dalmatian puppies, 2010

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/908a170ff033bb267cbc97895a87ac46b7a01553/0_0_1440_1920/master/1440.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e6ed68479ef391a1d5636ea27f9b2497
    Hengifoss sheep, Iceland, 2017

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3044431deba768e679bd30aafdb354fe23fc7853/0_0_1920_1920/master/1920.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=c2ea0f68f1c61accf8ca0e27068e006a
    Arctic fox stealing a snow goose egg, Wrangel Island, 2011,/i>

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6ee0f9d13a3a635bc260cb68f7b70dd36e27a50a/0_0_1280_1920/master/1280.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1ee833718b0554265ad7013a1433edd9
    Honeybees colonise a black woodpecker nest cavity, Germany, 2019

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/b134be49aaed129d0f8a28206e3933e4ca9a0c45/0_0_1432_1920/master/1432.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=843ba0c62b9fcd1486bfa3a2e7b75e89
    African elephant at the edge of Victoria Falls, Zambia, 2007

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c8c0618211f2274b6c9abae5793a17d9c6e3ae5d/0_0_1920_1179/master/1920.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=0647e5b55f62a4efb8b328e4a3dda349
    Park ranger and a school of bigeye trevally, Cabo Pulmo, Mexico, 2015

      1. Er, the supposition is that it is being rescued and will be cared for by an animal refuge, possibly for release later on.

    2. I’ve stood where that elephant is standing.
      But someone has put all my colour slides ‘in a safe place’.

        1. I might have told you about the time I was driving with a friend from Victoria falls to Kariba in the pitch black night we turn a bend and a huge male was standing in the road, the herd had gone across before him and the head lights went out on the VW Beetle, we could still see him with the side lights but he looked at us and fortunately walked off. When we arrived in what was then Salisbury, we stayed with some friends who showed us photographs of two cars that had been almost flattened by elephants. A close shave for Mike and I !

  46. New Rachel Reeves adviser said ‘codger’ pensioners should pay more taxes
    Historic comments emerge in which Sir Edward Troup called for sweeping tax rises, especially targeted at elderly

    Nick Gutteridge,
    CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    17 April 2024 • 5:25pm

    Rachel Reeves has been criticised for appointing an adviser who suggested “codger” pensioners should face higher taxes and be stripped of free TV licences.

    Last week, the shadow chancellor unveiled Sir Edward Troup, a former head of HMRC, as part of a panel of experts advising her on tackling tax avoidance.

    But she has faced a backlash over the move after historic comments emerged in which Sir Edward called for sweeping tax rises, especially targeted at the elderly.

    Sir Edward, also previously a special adviser to Ken Clarke, the former Tory chancellor, made the comments at a think tank event in November 2019.

    Speaking at a round table hosted by the Resolution Foundation he described pensioners as an “under-taxed generation” who “have had it ridiculously good”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/04/17/rachel-reeves-sir-edward-troup-baby-boomers-tax/

    Lindsay Davis
    6 MIN AGO
    You can tell how wealthy Politicians and Civil Servants are by the way they refer to Pensioners.
    They know that they themselves will have lovely, comfortable Retirements…so, Pull up The Drawbridge…and fleece the rest.

    Comment by CM Price.

    CP

    CM Price
    6 MIN AGO
    I’m fed up to the back teeth of this incessant touting of the “free tv licence” among the elderly as some great privilege. It is an unequivocal form of taxation, and a vehemently detested one at that. The BBC is a national disgrace; rabidly left-wing and institutionally antisemitic and survives by virtue of this tax.

    Comment by Ed Hutt.

    EH

    Ed Hutt
    9 MIN AGO
    From what we read in the papers, it sounds more like members of the Labour Front Bench should pay more tax (CGT, Council, etc etc)

    Comment by Carol Rossiter.

    CR

    Carol Rossiter
    9 MIN AGO
    He’s free to voluntarily pay as much tax as he wants to or feels he should-nothing stopping him.
    But I bet he is paying not a penny more than he is obliged to.

    Comment by MDA GROUP.

    MG

    MDA GROUP
    9 MIN AGO
    I would like to see that socialist idiot live on the state pension …. As I have said before – Socialists do not understand economics …

    Comment by Charley Farley.

    CF

    Charley Farley
    10 MIN AGO
    Start with Starmer’s special arrangement.

    Reply by M J A Church.

        1. I’d gladly get rid of the telly but my OH likes to watch sports so it keeps him happy.

          2. When you’re on your own you only have yourself to please, but I need my OH happy for the time he has left.

          3. Much as I like Portaloo’s documentaries, I am getting a sense of deja vu.
            I can’t decide whether MB doesn’t remember the repeats, or he just needs moving wall paper.
            He was brought up in a household with television – I wasn’t and some (cough, cough) years later, it still shows.

          4. It does, doesn’t it! My mother refused to the end of her life to get a telly. I would happily live without it now, though I’d miss my laptop more.

          6. Snap.
            I still have my old laptop which takes DVDs.
            a few days ago, as part of Stage II of sorting out stuff from the move, I finally got the DVDs organised.
            I would love to watch (some of) them again. I emailed my pet ‘pooter nerd about whether it was safe to recharge the old laptop and use it as a DVD viewer. I’m waiting for a reply. I don’t like to hassle him as he has an ancient mother who’s not been too well.

          8. Sadly we no longer have any thing that will play DVDs. I’m getting to grips with the new laptop (new at Christmas) but there are one or two things which I might have to ask son no2 to fix.

          9. You can get an external DVD drive to plug into your laptop. One of mine didn’t have a CD/DVD drive and I needed to access stuff on a CD, so I bought one to play it.

          10. Our first tele arrived on the day I was born. My 10 older siblings were more interested in the box than yet another baby. I gave up TV and the licence in 2005 and don’t miss it.

      2. Shows how completely out of touch they are. They haven’t a clue about anything.

    3. “Sir Edward, also previously a special adviser to Ken Clarke, the former Tory chancellor”

      He’s an old codger himself then. I wish I could meet him. I’d put him straight on whether or not baby boomers who have adhered to the traditional family ways have been under-taxed. The opposite is true.

      1. It is the fault of successive governments who have mis-managed revenues over the last few decades. Ramping up debt thinking that things would always be sunny. And now it rains. Of course, they have to resort to fleecing pensioners. Wonder what they’ll do when that money runs out? I expect the only good thing about us going bankrupt will be that welfare payments will have to stop. I expect the population will dramatically decrease, for some reason – and I don’t meant because of mere hunger or failing services.

        1. You could set Dolly and Harry on his ankles.
          I’ve seen grown men prance like Tinkerbell when small dogs approach.

          1. They bark at strangers but they don’t bite. Though Dolly did once nip the ankle of my financial advisor, But that is perfectly acceptable.
            She didn’t break the skin and he told me he has chihuahuas as well so was quite understanding. He’s a bit of a weirdo. He drinks decaf coffee.

          3. I had a white cat called Tinkerbell and I can assure you that she pranced for nothing and nobody 😆

    5. My word these people are so out of touch with reality. I doubt if any recent rubber boat arrivees would survive on the basic UK pension.
      A single politician costs the British taxpayers more per week than the individual basic state pension.

      1. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13315727/sicknote-Briton-refusing-job-shocking-insight-lives-economically-inactive.html

        ‘I get £1,300 a month and all my housing costs paid. Why would I need the hassle of work?’ A shocking insight into Britain’s worklessness crisis by LEO MCKINSTRY and INAYA FOLARIN IMAN
        Britain is once again being labelled ‘the sick man of Europe’ with 2.8m people on long term sick leave.
        4,000 applications for sickness benefits were being made every single day

        1. That’s what Ayn Rand tried to explain of course. When you bleed the productive working class dry to pay for the self-appointed elite and their client underclass, inevitably the productive class shrinks and the dependent class expands.

        2. Yet another Mail article behind a paywall.
          I refuse to pay any more subscriptions for news content.

          1. Can you use a VPN?

            Also, on some sites merely refreshing the page removes the shield. I don’t know if the DM is one such.

          2. I heard our own MP for his own convenience, rents a property in London for around 3 grand a month.
            It’s only 25 minutes on the main line train from where he lives.

    6. Top comment by Carol Rossiter. It is perfectly possible to donate money to HMRC; something that the Leftards seem to forget when they say they would be willing to “pay more tax” for the NHS or whatever; they can, the mechanism is there; it’s just they don’t avail themselves of it because what they actually mean is they want everyone else yo “pay more tax”.

    7. Standard approach: the State spaffs our wealth; finds the nation has overspent; blames plebs and pensioners.

      Strikes me that Sir Edward is nothing more than a State sponsored Establishment troll.

    8. Former senior taxman wants more taxes levied rather than cuts to spending. Big surprise.

    9. Many pensioners don’t have a “free” TV licence anyway. You have to be receiving benefits to qualify for the waiver.

    1. I have just been reading a doc where my company has to desperately describe its “diversity” as we are mandated to by the paragon of virtue that is the FCA. Apparently it’s “really important” that firms operating in the financial sector are “diverse” but of cpurse no one explains why, exactly.

        1. Lol we did last year; lovely girl, well-educated, under the “10,000 black interns” initiative; however, one of the last people who needed a leg-up. But we ticked a box saying we had yet another “diverse” person.

          (I am the only native white Brit in my team of 8, let alone the only English person). There are two of us who are white. I’m not sure we need any forced “diversity”.

    3. Will they be issuing a public and heartfelt apology?

      I’m getting a bit tired now of politicians saying that something has gone wrong and that something must be done, only to find that it was they who caused it in the first place.

    4. I fear the whole abomination will continue but the mutilators will find different ways of going about their business.

  51. Support for Reform UK in key Red Wall seats has hit a record high, according to a new survey conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies.

    The poll, carried out between April 13-14, put Reform on 18 per cent, just six points behind the Tories on 24 per cent. Reform was up by two points when compared to the company’s previous Red Wall poll from March 16 while the Tories were unchanged. Labour maintained its position in first place but support for the party has fallen. Labour was on 44 per cent, down by four points, to give the party a 20 point lead over the Tories.

    The continued rise of Reform in the Red Wall is likely to prompt alarm bells in Conservative Party HQ, amid Tory fears the former could cost the latter votes.

      2. When that happens the floodgates will open and it will become clear that a vote for the Conservatives will boost Labour while Reform takes over as the only viable opposition.

        1. The ONS states that Reform has 1,200,000 members whilst the Tories have

          only 200,000 members.

          A vote Conservative is a wasted vote.

    2. If, by the election, Reform was only one or two points behind the Con-servatives that would really encourage people to vote for them. They also need more True Blue MP’s to switch to them. Simply put people will only vote Reform if it is perceived that they can win. Perceptions are often more important than reality!

  52. This came into my feed today. Disturbing to say the least. It’s the sewcond video. For some reason I can’t post that without the first video. So if you want to skip the first video, it is fine to do so. But, I suppose, the first does provide some sort of context.

    https://twitter.com/i/status/1780623014557544882

    1. What astounds me is that the police ( 3 people I counted) have so much leisure that they can sit in this guy’s living room discussing such trivia.
      What about all the shoplifters, burglars, muggers?
      Why aren’t they out patrolling the streets, protecting people?

  53. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61f61d3353470ed295aae4466a213c785afe73657a76ed4131341dda05d48d1e.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/84ee18890075edb4bd2627a4a7d96a1302c95f88475695bb81a47ff5cfa584be.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df0c25139429165b39206cf11c06ffceec99380003324c22ba5fc86c1db2a189.png

    CNN do not have sole rights on this one!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e17ddfaf31ee24b3d7dfc1d4e0356d8b67d3724aed8e3ed6e9ddebf67d1fa761.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ea7079c6d41435d5500bae05ed8c56b2ebcb689736a1086ad69b62c6a2f8b4dc.png

      2. Cause and effect muddled up once again……try ‘low IQ causes belief in climate change’!

  54. From The Telegraph:

    ‘Tory MP Mark Menzies allegedly called aide at 3am to ask for £5,000 as ‘matter of life and death’

    MP for Fylde suspended after denying claims he asked for help because he had been locked up by ‘bad people’ demanding money for his release.’

    The aide paid with their own money and was repaid using funds donated to the Conservative Party. If this is true the ‘Honourable’ Member should be shortly enjoying His Majesty’s hospitality………

  55. What is going on?

    I have just had a comment removed from the Nottlers which was about the video posted by Jonathan Rackham about the chap who had a visit from the police and the NHS’s mental services for saying that Christians should stand up for themselves. Apparently he was sneaked upon to the authorities by the priest.

    It seems that Jonathan’s video clip has also been removed.

  56. Oh dear. How sad…

    Google has sacked 28 employees who protested the technology giant’s work for the Israeli military by staging sit-ins at the company’s US offices.

    The staff were sacked after demonstrations at Google offices in New York and Silicon Valley, in which nine were arrested after refusing to leave.

    Google is facing protests over its work providing cloud computing services and artificial intelligence software to the Israeli government through a programme known as Project Nimbus, which is reportedly worth up to $1.2bn (£1bn).

    On Tuesday, dozens of staff wearing T-shirts saying “Googler against genocide” unfurled banners and posed inside the office of Thomas Kurian, the head of Google’s cloud computing division.

    2. Quite. Skiving off work and labelling it a “protest” is just skiving basically.

  57. Yes, I think there was some sort of odd error. But iut seems fine now. I just checked.

    1. Indeed so. You only have to look at the value of the contract to understand that even Google cannot afford to keep on the staff a small number of children who it cares for on a daily basis.

  60. Never mind.
    We have no proof that the Polis south of the border is any less inefficient or corrupt than ScotPlod looking for a mislaid £600,000.

  61. Here you go Anne

    ‘I get £1,300 a month and all my housing costs paid. Why would I need the hassle of work?’ A shocking insight into Britain’s worklessness crisis by LEO MCKINSTRY and INAYA FOLARIN IMAN
    Britain is once again being labelled ‘the sick man of Europe’ with 2.8m people on long term sick leave.
    4,000 applications for sickness benefits were being made every single day
    Leo McKinstry and Inaya Folarin Iman investigate the causes
    By LEO MCKINSTRY and INAYA FOLARIN IMAN

    PUBLISHED: 01:46, 17 April 2024 | UPDATED: 07:39, 17 April 2024

    It is a mid-week afternoon in the Essex seaside resort of Clacton. Under heavy grey skies, a biting wind howls through the almost empty streets of the town and waves crash onto the deserted beach.

    Despite the cold, a group of five men have gathered in the town’s main square. None of them are in work. Sitting on a bench with a can of beer in hand, 38-year-old James explains that he has not had a job for eight years and is content to live on welfare.

    ‘At the end of the day, working — it’s not worth it for me,’ he says. ‘I get my housing costs paid for and I get £1,300 a month. To be honest, I’m better off not working. I just don’t want the hassle of waking up at a certain time in the morning and going through that energy.’ His companions nod in agreement.
    On the nearby seafront, four men in their 20s and early 30s can be seen laughing as they stroll along the pier. In contrast to James, who did have a job until he suffered an injury and subsequently developed tinnitus and mental health problems, none of this quartet has ever been employed or had any ambitions to take an occupation or career.

    All are on benefits and living with their parents. ‘I don’t feel ready; I just couldn’t work,’ says one. ‘I can’t handle the pressure. I find it overwhelming,’ says another.

    What is particularly striking is that all four now claim disability payments because of poor mental health, citing problems such as depression and anxiety.

    Another young man, Tom, 25, who is standing at a bus stop, says he has been out of work for more than a year and lives on benefits. ‘I also get PIP [Personal Independence Payment] for my ADHD and autism.’ He blames ‘the economic crisis’ on his inability to find a job.

    Such conversations provide an alarming insight into the epidemic of worklessness that has swept Britain in recent years, hindering economic growth, pushing up welfare bills, making it hard for employers to fill vacancies and throwing millions of people on the economic scrapheap.

    It is a disastrous waste of talent and human capital — and the crisis is becoming worse. In 1979, the Conservatives won a famous election victory under Margaret Thatcher, helped by an award-winning advertising campaign by Saatchi & Saatchi that featured billboard posters with an image of a snaking dole queue, accompanied by the slogan, ‘Labour Isn’t Working’.

    Today, 45 years later, it could be said that after 14 years of Tory rule, ‘Britain isn’t working’.
    The depressing experience of Clacton is replicated across the country, as welfare dependency accelerates and a swelling army of citizens abandons the labour market, many of them arguing that they need to protect their mental health.

    For a country that once pioneered the Industrial Revolution and was known as ‘the workshop of the world’, the scale of the worklessness phenomenon is shocking.

    A total of 9.4 million people of working age are now economically inactive, meaning they are neither employed nor looking for work.

    Of this huge group, around 5.5 million are claiming benefits.

    And yesterday it was revealed that more than 2.8 million of these are on long-term sick leave — the highest figure ever.

    At the end of last year, 4,000 applications for sickness benefits were being made every single day. In such circumstances, it is no wonder that the costs of social security are soaring.

    Currently standing at £297 billion, the overall welfare bill is projected to climb to £360 billion over the next five years — the equivalent of 11 per cent of Britain’s entire economic output. Over the same period, spending on sickness benefits is expected to rise from £66 billion to more than £90 billion.

    Particularly striking is the pattern of worklessness among young people. One recent survey by this paper showed that in the 16 to 24 age group, 280,000 people are in receipt of unemployment benefits — twice as many as a decade ago, and 50,000 more than before Covid struck.

    And it appears that the younger generation are more likely to be afflicted by negativity about their mental health.

    Research by the Resolution Foundation revealed that the number of 18 to 24-year-olds who are economically inactive due to mental health has more than doubled in the past decade from 93,000 to 190,000.

    Strikingly, the think tank found that some 12 per cent of people in their 20s and early 30s say they are ‘disabled’ because of their mental health — more than in any other age group.

    In the late 1970s, before Margaret Thatcher swept to power and embarked on a programme of national renewal, Britain was nicknamed ‘the sick man of Europe’ because of the prevalence of strikes and unemployment under Labour.

    There is a real danger that such a label is becoming appropriate once more as too many Britons turn their backs on the world of work.

    A recent study by King’s College London, found that a fifth of Britons did not feel that work is important to their lives — the highest proportion out of the 24 countries surveyed, which also included France, Sweden, the U.S., Nigeria, Japan and China.

    One major international investor, Neeraj Kanwar of India-based Apollo Tyres, has said that he would not open a factory in Britain because the welfare state has bred a spirit of idleness here. ‘British workers hardly work — they go down to the pub,’ he complained.

    The disturbing reality is that Britain is in retreat from the political achievements of recent governments — most notably David Cameron’s Tory-led coalition, which talked of supporting ‘the strivers, not the skivers’ — in rolling back the frontiers of the welfare state and promoting the work ethic.

    In place of ambition and personal responsibility, there is now a mood of entitlement, fatalism, lethargy and fragility, epitomised by demands for more generous benefits and attacks on politicians who attempt to address the issue.

    Last month, when Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, expressed his concern about the rise in benefit claims related to mental health, warning that the ‘normal anxieties of life’ are now being labelled as psychiatric disorders, his comments were met by a chorus of disapproval led by opposition MPs, pressure-group campaigners and experts.

    The reaction of Dr Lade Smith of the Royal College of Psychiatrists summed up the attitude of his detractors. Stride, she said, had ‘diminished and misrepresented people with mental illness’. She added that people ‘are not pretending to be sick, they really are sick’.

    Dr Smith might be right in some cases — but something does seem to have gone badly wrong in modern Britain, and the damage is being felt right across the country.

    Even in supposedly booming Manchester, 18 per cent of the adult population in the city is on out-of-work benefits. This figure rises to 20 per cent in Birmingham and Liverpool, 23 per cent in Middlesbrough and 25 per cent in Blackpool, once the jewel in the crown of British holiday resorts but now falling on hard times.

    Indeed, as Clacton and Blackpool show, there is a particular problem with the UK’s seaside towns, which have never recovered from the loss of custom to overseas package holidays and often suffer from poor transport links.

    In fact, Clacton is reportedly the most deprived place in England, with 47 per cent of the population economically inactive, compared with a national average of 21.7 per cent.

    But why has the problem become so much worse in recent years? Why has the traditional work ethic been so badly eroded? One explanation is the impact of Covid, which encouraged people to re-evaluate their priorities and place more emphasis on aspects of their lives beyond work.

    The introduction of the £97 billion furlough scheme, under which millions were effectively paid to stay at home, broke down the stigma of claiming something for nothing. The whole nation was doing it with the express approval of the Government, and that spirit still lingers.

    Covid also pushed up property prices by 20 per cent, discouraging many young people from working to get up the property ladder. They see their modest incomes being swallowed up by exorbitant rents and take the view, with some justification, that they may never own a home no matter how hard they work.

    Meanwhile, the obsession with ‘mental health issues’ has a twofold impact.

    First, it is undoubtedly true, whatever the Royal College of Psychiatrists says, that there are perverse incentives to claim disability benefits such as the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) because they are both more generous and, once awarded, impose fewer conditions on the claimants.

    A single adult aged over 25, deemed fit for work, will receive £393.45 a month in Universal Credit. But if they are found by a Work Capability Assessment to be unfit for work, they could be entitled to an extra £416 on top of this standard rate.

    And this payment does not even include additional subsidies for housing, travel, child support and council tax discounts.

    Once in place, the money from PIP keeps flowing. Since April 2019, out of 2.4 million Work Capability Assessments conducted, no fewer than 65 per cent of them concluded that the claimant would never have to work again.

    The second consequence of the current neurosis about mental health is it has robbed too many young people of their resilience. With all the emphasis on ‘trigger warnings’, ‘victimhood’ and ‘safe spaces’, they inevitably feel daunted by challenges rather than determined to overcome them, particularly in the wake of the disruptions and isolation they had to endure during the pandemic.

    ‘It’s a difficult arena out there for them,’ says Vicky Head of the charity Catch22. ‘Covid hasn’t helped and I don’t think there was enough put in place at the time. They need a bit of hand-holding.’

    The rich irony is that the best antidote to mental health problems is actually to enter the workplace, as a job helps people find purpose and spend less time mulling over their troubles.

    And in that reality lies the hope of conquering the worklessness. One of those who has recently escaped the ranks of the inactive is 20-year-old Elysha, who gained work experience via the Prince’s Trust and has since taken up a post at Sainsbury’s. ‘Being out of work negatively affects you mentally,’ she says. ‘It is not good. If you suffer from mental health issues, it makes them worse.’

    Since she found employment, her life has been transformed. ‘I am interacting with people and have opportunities to progress. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am feeling much more confident about the future.’

  62. Also, like sosraboc I strongly encourage you to get a VPN. I use Nord and all I have to do in order to read the Daily Mail is switch to a server in the USA, then the rag is free. Nord is really easy for you to use. You have to be brain dead not to understand how it works. There is a world map, you click on the country you want to be in and off you go. It is how I read all the Russian stuff that is censored in the UK?USA/Europe. I go to an Asian country that enables me to read Russian articles. Besides that you can access free movies, TV series, all sorts of stuff.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW59MS8cHHk

      1. It is quite simple. Just like installing any other software. Google can help. It certainly does provide a great deal more access and privacy. I think if you install the Opera browser it comes free already installed.

      2. Just type into google. VPN or something like ‘best VPN available for use’. Or to be more specific, ‘Nord VPN’ or the name of another. You can also go on to You Tube, type in VPN reviews. and go from there.

      3. You could begin experimenting with a free VPN such as Proton, then see how it goes.

  63. By the way. One of the reasons I posted the video below about the Christian being visited by the police is because, as I mentioned a few days ago, I have been watching a lot of videos about Christian/Muslim debates. Many of the recordings take place at Speakers Corner in Hyde Park. The Christians are often harassed and even attacked by the Muslims. I have noticed that when the police interfere in these incidents, they almost always take the side of the Muslims. It actually looks like there is a deliberate policy to side with the Islamists even when they are at fault, which is, overwhelmingly, most of the time. I think this is actually because the police understand that the Christians are not aggressive and will comply with police requests. But if they were to turn around and go for the Islamists, they would have a riot on their hands. So it ends up, often, with the Christians being ordered out of the park and the Muslims lording it over every one else. In short, the police behaviour is the policing by cowards to afraid to deal with the real culprits because they are afraid of consequences. This strikes me as an overall pattern concerning the policing of Islamic events, demonstrations or anything else. Nothing done about pro Hamas demonstrators breaking the law. But some guy waving the Union Jack is arrested for doing something lawful.

    Seems to me we are sailing into dangerous waters in which we are handing over power to the enemy and, that by the time the authorities come to their senses it will be to late for us all.

    1. The same happens with pikeys – police don’t dare enter a “Travellers'” site.

        1. That includes all the surrounding road systems in certain areas of Newport/Cardiff. Overtly cruel pony chariot racing (for which roads are effectively closed unless you fancy a Glasgee Kiss) will be conducted as will other activities that are in contravention of the Law of the Land, which seemingly does not apply to these settled “travelling communities”, with their ugly brick built urban sprawl that is not subject to planning consent.

    2. The authorities will never come to their senses because one of the Agreements (Barcelona or Marrakesh, I cannot remember which) states that said authorities will allow and encourage the spread of islam. Thus we see what we are seeing.

  64. We have just received a pile of bumpf about the forthcoming election of a Mayor, for the newly formed “East Midlands Combined County Authority” or some such. This seems to be a method of wasting yet more taxpayer’s money – I don’t recall being asked if I wanted this extra layer of waste but apparently there was a “consultation” – I understand the majority opposed the concept, yet we still have it!! So much for democracy, Luckily there is a Reform candidate to vote for, who has promised to get rid of the entire EMCCA crock!!

    1. Yes, we got the local PCC bumph too, who is up in our area. What a waste of time that is. Needless to say I won’t be offering legitimacy to the position by actually turning up to vote.

      1. I’ve got four of the same old, same old and one different. I’ll vote for the non-conformist.

    2. I had a visit from a gentleman yesterday. He asked me if he could rely on my voting Conservative. I said ‘yes, absolutely’.
      If a Labour activist comes round they will get the same answer.

      1. You missed a golden opportunity there Phizzee to tell one of ‘em what you really thought of ‘em!

  65. They always play the victim in a most aggressive manner, show a cartoon of Mohammed and get machine gunned in your office, but it’s never their fault because they were provoked. God help us because it is too late. Thank you Blair.

  66. Islam must silence and bully its ideological opponent, since it has no really credible counter arguments.

    Kicking the Christians off Speakers’ Corner has arguably been one of the true litmus tests down through the years of who is the most intolerant in British society. Today it’s Islamists. Not too long ago it was actually our own government.

    Observe the herd, it’s always instructive.

  67. Ignorant ruddy vandal…ought to be locked up in the Tower.

    The King’s solar plans for Sandringham – and their potential (and unwanted) consequences

    King Charles wants to create energy on his Norfolk estate by using the power of sunshine – but there could be unwanted consequences

    Ed Cumming
    18 April 2024 • 9:00am

    After inheriting a property, it is only natural to do the place up a bit. You want it to reflect your interests and tastes, rather than your parents’. A lick of Farrow & Ball Elephant’s Breath here, a snooker table there, finally getting rid of that mangy old sofa.

    For King Charles, it means going green and going big. Less than a year after Charles’ coronation, the Sandringham Estate, his Norfolk residence, has applied for permission for a hulking great solar farm within its 21,000 acres of grounds.

    According to planning documents submitted last week, the proposed project, comprising 2,000 panels on land off Admirals Drive, near the Royal Sawmill, would supply 1.9 megawatts of electricity per year, “the majority of the Estate’s electricity demand, with a modest amount of spare capacity exported to the grid”.

    The documents say the solar farm would be part of the estate’s “ongoing commitment to sustainability and promoting environmental practices”. If given the go-ahead, it will replace a paddock currently used to graze horses.

    The project has the backing of several high-profile environmentalists. Author Tony Juniper is the King’s former environmental adviser (he is also chair of Natural England, but not speaking in that capacity).

    “It’s a significant installation,” Juniper says. “It reveals how renewable power – which not so long ago was seen as a bit marginal and novel, a bit unrealistic as a major contributor to our electricity needs – is going mainstream and gathering scale. It’s fantastic to have the leadership of His Majesty the King in making this practical step. It’s hopefully something that will lead others to be inspired to see the potential for renewable electricity.”

    Others believe that the King’s decision to put in an array on a decent scale, rather than a few token panels, proves how far solar power has come as a source of energy.

    “It demonstrates how much of a mainstream technology solar is now,” says Chris Hewett, the chief executive of Solar Energy UK. “It is the cheapest way of generating electricity in the country, alongside onshore wind. If you want to power an estate, or factory, or your home, it’s a cost-effective way of doing it. The overall costs of the technology have fallen about 90% over the past 10-15 years. There are now 1.5 million homes in the UK with solar in their roof. And half a million of those have been since the subsidy stopped.”

    He adds that improving technology also means panels can be cost-effective even in parts of the world that do not scream sunshine. It’s easy to see why solar might be effective in Morocco, say, or China and India, where many of the largest solar plants are located. But not Norfolk.

    “The technology has improved so much that solar is cost-effective almost everywhere in the world,” Hewett adds. “There are solar farm projects being looked at in the north of Scotland. It works even better further south. One of the factors is that it’s not about heat and sun but daylight. It’s most effective at a lower temperature. If you get a lot of daylight in a temperate climate, that’s very good for the technology.”

    Some hope that King Charles’ influence will raise awareness of the UK’s global status in the field. “Typically now you get your money back within five to seven years, even in a country where we only get extensive sunlight half the year,” says Professor Tapas Mallick, a professor of clean technologies at the University of Exeter.

    “It’s very symbolic that a head of state has decided to do this, a very welcome step,” he adds. “Britain is leading the way in solar technology.” Earlier this month, an Oxfordshire-based firm, Space Solar, revealed a prototype for a solar farm in space. This system envisages installing giant mirrors in space that would gather sunlight and beam it back to earth, bypassing the pesky clouds over the east of England.

    However, not everyone is quite so enthusiastic. The Sandringham farm will replace paddock rather than arable land, but some worry that the King’s example will give licence to campaigners with less sensitive schemes.

    “The Sandringham scheme is about two hectares, which is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things, and it’s not on productive agricultural land either,” says Professor Michael Alder, the ex-chair of the UK Solar Alliance. “Solar energy is renewable energy and we’re all for that. We don’t have a problem with that. But our view is there is good solar and bad solar. I would say Sandringham is good solar. Our concern is four- or five-thousand acre schemes on valuable farmland which put food security at risk.”

    The UK Solar Alliance, a group set up to help campaigners against large solar farms on UK farmland, is organising a demonstration in Westminster today, to coincide with a debate in Westminster Hall. They are protesting against the growing number of large 50-megawatt-plus solar developments being built on land that might otherwise be used for growing crops.

    “There’s a danger [Sandringham] can be misinterpreted and used as an excuse for rapid expansion where it’s not appropriate,” Alder adds. “Sandringham is fine, but it mustn’t be an excuse for expanding all over the country.

    “I think if you were able to interview the King he would equally be concerned about the loss of good farmland. It’s all a balance. There’s a trade-off when you change land use. I would say in his case it’s positive, but in other cases it isn’t.”

    Waste is another significant concern. Panels are designed to last 25 years or so. Bloomberg NEF, a research organisation, has estimated that the global annual volume of solar panel waste will grow to more than 10 million tons by 2050 – up from 30,000 metric tons in 2021. Other estimates say this could be much higher. Ute Collier, of the International Renewable Energy Agency, has suggested it could be 200 million tons.

    In Bangladesh, there is a growing realisation of the problems of not having a functioning recycling system. In Dhaka alone, nearly 81,000 rooftop solar systems have been installed, but an estimated 80 per cent are reportedly not functioning, with many simply removed and discarded with waste destined for landfill.

    Here in the UK, there are insufficient recycling facilities at present – with just one small site, in Scunthorpe – but it is an issue being examined. In Grenoble, France, the specialist solar recycling company ROSI works at extracting silver, copper and silicon and hopes it will one day be able to extract and re-use 99 per cent of a unit’s components.

    There are also objections to solar farms on aesthetic grounds, the hectares of sprawling gleaming blue-black panels not being especially green or pleasant. Some residents have complained that their beautiful landscape is being ruined in the quest for cleaner energy. In 2021, the actor John Nettles joined a chorus of opposition to a site in Devon.

    “Enough is enough,” he said. “People need to understand the enormous scale and visual impact.”

    He added: “The giant new project at Derril Water would desecrate the pastoral vista in this part of Devon, turning it into an industrialised landscape of solar panels and security fencing.”

    The planning documents for the Sandringham plan promise that the panels will be “well-screened” by trees. And besides, says Chris Hewett, there can be other environmental benefits to the array, beyond green energy.

    “There have been some views that solar is unpopular in parts of the countryside,” he says. “The fact the King is willing to put a solar farm in his own backyard is symbolic, as well. It’s going to be carefully sited.

    “Solar farms can often have ecological benefits as well as the energy ones,” he adds. “If they are well looked after you can seed the grass around the farm like a wildflower meadow, to increase biodiversity. We see increases in butterflies, bees and birds.”

    The buzzing of bees and chirruping of birds will be music to the ears of a King who has prioritised environmental causes for decades, from reducing carbon usage to organic farming. He took over the management of Sandringham from his father, the late Prince Philip, in 2017, and has already implemented several changes. He has planted hedgerows and trees, installed bird boxes and turned its farm organic. In 2022, a small solar array was installed on the roof of Sandringham House. At an event in Dubai last year, the King said that dealing with climate change was a “job for us all,” adding that “change will come by working together and making it easier to embrace decisions that will sustain our world, rather than carry on as though there are no limits.”

    A decision on the Sandringham proposal is expected later this year. Should it go ahead, after 50 years as the son-in-waiting, King Charles may find himself waiting for the sun.

    1. If people wish to install such panels and get paid for supplying the national grid all well and good.
      But if they then need to extract electricity from the national grid when the sun isn’t shining they should be charged a significantly higher rate.
      Similar for wind farms.

      1. The scheme to pay wind farms on windless days for not producing electricity sucks.

      2. Punishing Solar Users
        Sos, you should do some more research. Shout at the Providers, not us Solar users. I went Solar recently because I could foresee the MAD push for electric vehicles, Net Zero and Heat Pumps resulting in power shortages and even higher electricity charges from Providers.

        At night, when Nuclear power stations (and some others) are still generating, since it’s too expensive to shut down and start up again, the Generators sometimes PAY the Providers to take it off their hands, so to speak. The Providers (e.g. Octopus – see here: https://octopus.energy/smart/go/ ) then offer to sell it to you in the wee small hours (00:30 to 04:30) at 9.0p per kWh. But that’s only any use if you either have an Electric vehicle to charge (not I) or battery storage in your house. We Solar owners get pennies for the power we export, and pay at night for electricity which the Providers may be getting for free or very cheaply from the Generators. Jam for them both ways.

        If you have battery storage (as I do) you can at least try to maximise your Export tariffs by programming your batteries to export most between 4PM and 7PM, the highest-demand time slots when the Generators are struggling. So you could say we are HELPING the country by providing renewable energy at our own expense, rather than robbing it. Please don’t punish us.

        1. Whilst I can see why you are objecting, you are facilitating the Greeniacs to punish the population as a whole with their debilitating net zero policies.

          I stand by my approach to evening the playing field.

          1. I didn’t go Solar to be Green, (as both the Conservative and Labour parties are infected with Greenism), I did it as an elderly man to survive the coming cold and power shortages that the MAD Net Zero policy will undoubtedly cause, if they are not stamped out by a change in policy (I wish).

          2. I’m sure your personal motives were sensible, but if the population as a whole refused to accept the Green route being taken and voted the proponents out of office, we would all be a lot better off and your own power needs would be much cheaper.
            The anti-nuclear lobby has a lot to answer for.

            Console yourself that there is no chance for my proposal to be enacted.

          3. Dear Sos, just had my supper – back to the Nottle.

            This fragment from your first sentence “if the population as a whole refused to accept the Green route being taken” , taken with your last sentence, says it all.

            In 2016 the majority of those who voted in the Brexit Referendum wanted a true Brexit, That turned out well, didn’t it.

            Although I always used to vote, ever since that Referendum I have concluded that the result will ALWAYS be subject to the will of external Mandarins. Just look at Liz Truss – who WAS chosen by vote, being hastily ditched in favour of High Risk Anus, who wasn’t voted for. The sheeple will safely graze their way through the coming General Election. I despair.

          4. Sad isn’t it?
            Democracy is dead, we just stare at its corpse hoping for the resurrection.

          5. Dear Sos, just had my supper – back to the Nottle.

            This fragment from your first sentence “if the population as a whole refused to accept the Green route being taken” , taken with your last sentence, says it all.

            In 2016 the majority of those who voted in the Brexit Referendum wanted a true Brexit, That turned out well, didn’t it.

            Although I always used to vote, ever since that Referendum I have concluded that the result will ALWAYS be subject to the will of external Mandarins. Just look at Liz Truss – who WAS chosen by vote, being hastily ditched in favour of High Risk Anus, who wasn’t voted for. The sheeple will safely graze their way through the coming General Election. I despair.

      1. At a Summer country show i went to they had ferret racing. It was funny to watch. They have amusing character. Once they had raced they ran back to their cages and hopped into little hammocks and went straight to sleep. They were very sweet but they don’t half stink of wee.

        1. Just goes to show that ferreting around trying to get energy from nature will land you up with a wee problem.

    3. When is King Charles going to install a dozen noisy heat pumps to heat Sandringham?

      1. Last time we went there I saw a blue and ancient MGC sports car in one of the garages. That ticking over would keep them both warm.

    4. One of several BTL Comments:-

      6 min ago

      “….would supply 1.9 megawatts of electricity per year, “the majority of the Estate’s electricity demand, with a modest amount of spare capacity exported to the grid”. ”

      Oh dear. Looks like the Day-release trainee is being allowed to write articles! That phrase “…would supply 1.9 megawatts of electricity per year,” is meaningless.

      Did they really mean “would supply 1.9 megawattHOURS of electricity per year”?

    5. King Charles’ solar farm.

      “If given the go-ahead, it will replace a paddock currently used to graze horses.”

      Mamma would not have approved.

      2. It is also an area which will convert the “dreaded” CO2 into carbohydrate and oxygen through photosynthesis. None of which will a solar “farm” do.

    1. Here’s a thought. I knew somebody who gifted her second home to one of her children who, as he already had a house, now has a second home. The house was valued independently as the donor had to pay CGT and the value was needed in case IHT became payable if she didn’t survive 7 years. So, as the son acquired the house for nothing, having effectively been given a 100% discount, does he have to pay CGT on the whole value if he sells it? Or does he just pay CGT on the difference between the independent valuation and the sale price? If it is the latter, maybe Ange’s CGT liability is not on 59K (or whatever has been cited as the difference between purchase and sale price) but merely on the difference between the sale price and the valuation which was about 35K more than she actually paid ie the technical gain was about 24K. That can, I suppose, be discounted for the 3 years of her 8 year ownership when it genuinely was her only residence. If she can then deduct improvements it is possible that her capital gain was under the threshold.
      Of course she would have to be able to prove that the new kitchen was installed after she got married….
      All this points to Labour playing a game where it all goes away as Rayner reveals such factors and the real issue – that of whether she defrauded the council by failing to repay part of the discount – is conveniently memory-holed.

    2. I’m sure I remember another Labour MPette who claimed woods flooring on her expenses.

  70. Ukraine’s frontline is collapsing – and Britain may soon be at war. Hamish de Cretin-Gordon. 18 April 2024.

    It is in Europe where all our military focus must be. Whether we will be at war with Russia in Europe could well rest on what we do in the next few months to support Ukraine. Westminster needs to get hold of this notion now. If not, we will not be going to the polling stations in November, but to the enlistment centres to draw our packs and rifles to go and fight in Europe, once again.

    After you Hamish. Vlad is no enemy of ours. No one in their right mind would sacrifice themselves for this totalitarian Police State!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/18/ukraine-frontline-collapsing-putin-iran-israel-europe/

    2. The Russian people are certainly not our enemies. They are more likely to be allies in the war against woke and Islam.

    3. The Russian people are certainly not our enemies. They are more likely to be allies in the war against woke and Islam.

    4. Indeed. Anyone in their right mind should gather to remove the criminals who have been left to strut the stage too long . The war is not to be with any country but with the forces of the dark.

    3. The most recent article I can find in the Telegraph is Sept 22. I’m sure he’s written more recently than that.

      1. I’m not sure that he has.
        I always read his pieces, and I would say it was several months since he last wrote.

  74. This weeks Parliamentary Stinking Turd Award goes to: LGBTMP Mark Menzies

    Suspended from the Tory whip amid an investigation into allegations he misused campaign funds.
    Claimed he was being held by ‘Bad men’ and begged for £6,500 at three o’clock in the morning from local Lancashire mayoress. She rang his office manager, who then paid out £6,500 from her personal savings to the ‘bad men’ holding Menzies hostage, and was apparently later reimbursed from Conservative Party funds raised from donors.
    Another £14,000 given for use on campaign activities was transferred to Menzies’ personal bank accounts and used for private medical expenses.
    Paid Brazilian male escort, Rogerio dos Santos Pinto, for sex and asked him to buy illegal drugs.
    Attempted to get a friend’s dog drunk (so he could have *** with it?) and started a fight when his friend objected. The dog almost died from alcohol poisoning.
    Kicked over chairs and poked people in a drunken rampage at a posh Katherine Jenkins Proms concert because he wasn’t allotted a VIP seat.
    Opposed Brexit and worked to close down fracking and the shale oil industry in the UK.

    Bring back the stocks – they are sadly missed!

    2. Stupid git. The BBC is making the most of this on the radio news. It’s a great distraction from the Stockport Slapper. At least he’s only a backbencher.

    3. Voters should wake up and stop voting for these ghastly people. It’s not enough to go out and put a cross next to your usual party. If the MP looks skanky, don’t vote for them!

      1. Selected to up the diversity numbers. Didn’t bother looking too closely into his background.
        Well, they have achieved diversity. Crooks, perverts and deviants.

        1. One could almost think that Conservative Central Office was on a mission to discredit democracy and usher in an unelected world government…

      2. Three quarters of people are unable to name their MP, according to an annual Hansard Society survey.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22555659

        That headline is 11 years old, so may not be very reliable, although I suspect today’s reality will not be far adrift. If true, it suggests that many voters will have little idea of the character of those chosen by their fellow constituents – maybe even their own choice – to represent them in the House of Commons.

        1. Depressing, isn’t it? Andy Slaughter (Labour) is my MP. Some friends at my old church know his family and like them very much. I’m put off voting for him because he toes the party line and I don’t like the party line!

        2. My MP is a Lib Dem woman. I know her face (it’s always in the papers as she attaches herself to any cause that’s going), but I always forget her name. She is the only MP for NS whose name I don’t remember!

      1. A sweetly pretty woman with a voice I really don’t enjoy listening to. Maybe I’m weird. At least she’s not gobby like Church

    5. I feel the stocks are insufficient for that catalogue of infamy! He deserves an appointment with Tyburn-gate.

  76. Modern warfare, continued.
    Israel-supporters might not like this, but it’s a tactic that could and will be used against anyone, not just people who are dim enough to Whatsapp with Hamas.
    Remember, Lavender AI identified 37000 potential targets – quantity over quality is clearly its watchword.
    But Facebook respects your data privacy….

    Arnaud Bertrand
    @RnaudBertrand
    This is an insane story. One input to Israel’s dystopian “Lavender AI”, which selects targets to be killed by the IDF, is “whether you’re in a WhatsApp group with a suspected member of Hamas”. Which means that Meta is sharing this data with the IDF, making it directly complicit.

    and

    Suppressed Nws
    @SuppressedNws
    🚨BREAKING: TIES BETWEEN WHATSAPP AND LAVENDER – META ASSISTING ISRAEL BY LEAKING DATA?
    Accusations suggest Meta, via WhatsApp, may share user group metadata, potentially aiding Israeli military targeting in Gaza.
    Despite WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption claim, concerns about privacy and complicity in conflict situations persist, heightened by Meta leadership’s ties to Israel.
    Source:
    @paulbiggar
    Read more: https://t.co/4nfsQ7NGNX

    1. BB, you work in something connected to IT, so you should understand about binary choices. 1: release the hostages or 0: accept the increased likelihood of serious injury & sudden death .

      1. What has that got to do with using social media to identify targets for smart weapons?
        There will always be legitimate grievances in the Middle East…

    3. He’s Buckleberry Bound.

      Yogi Bear will be invited to the ceremony.

      To be frank he is considerably better that most of the people in the HoL

      A better system for the Upper Chamber would be one where an appointee serves a term of 9 years and every three years one third of new appointees arrive and one third of the existing members has to retire as the maximum number of people in the chamber cannot rise above 300. (They used to have a system vaguely like this in the French Sénat)

      Such a system insured that every three years the composition of the chamber will be different as one third will leave to be replaced with a new third.

    5. I’ve heard William is not faithful. Of course my sources are dodgy. But if so, it could be a bung to Kate.

  78. Post office plotted to rob sub post masters pension. Inquiry reveals.
    Bloody snivelling (serpents) servants they should be having a look at their own pensions and the pensions of our useless do nothing political idiots.

  80. The Wee Pretendy government has watered down its climate change legislation. Its target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2030 has been put back by 15 years. The BBC is reporting it in the way you might expect it to react if Stalin had just died.

    1. Putting it back 15 years is nowhere near enough – the target should be abandoned now.

      1. The Lib Dems’ leader in Scotland, Alex Cole-Hamilton, said the announcement was a “monstrous generational betrayal by the SNP and their Green partners…[the Scottish government is] incapable of getting even the basics right…Their nationalism has always trumped the environmentalism”.

        His “faux outrage” should earn him an Oscar, responded Mairi McAllan. She insisted the issue is too important to be politicised.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cq5n92qpdxzt

        Humanity must be saved from these people.

    2. I smell Leftist propaganda. Incompetence yeah in spades. Dishonesty and corruption, mmmmm well no more than any other party really.

      1. Looking at what is happening around the World reduces the chances that incompetence, certainly amongst the so-called leaders, is rampant. Now, dishonesty and corruption are different kettles of fish. This holds good for other parties wedded to the globalist narrative.

        Not just the Tories but they are the party running the (their) show at the moment and they deserve the opprobrium that’s being directed at them. Next up…

    3. You could replace “Tories” with any of the parties in Wastemonster, Cardiff and Edinburgh.

    1. And put the female do-gooders in a cabin with chaps like this.

      Mind you I remember a report from Calais a couple of years ago when a young female helper in the camps was raped by an immigrant. She did not report the event because she thought it might damage the argument in favour of immigration to the UK.

      She must have been listening to the MP Naz Shah who said that in the interests of diversity ‘sluttish’ underage white girls should not report being raped by Pakistani rape gangs.

  84. Oxymoron of the day: H de Cretin Gordon’s track record. Last year he was predicting the collapse of Russian forces, today “Ukraine’s frontline is collapsing – and Britain may soon be at war.”
    Britain at War- with what exactly, Britain couldn’t even deploy a brigade group, and at that for a couple of months as the logistical support has been given away.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/18/ukraine-frontline-collapsing-putin-iran-israel-europe/

    1. Fags or faggots.

      In the 1960s when attitudes and vocabularies were rather different a former flatmate of mine went to the States and innocently asked for a packet of fags. He was broadly harangued and sworn at by the shopkeeper who thought he was a homosexual on the make.

      2. When working in New Orleans many years ago I was asked by somebody who had hired a car and driven from London to Scotland and back, what we had against football coaches. Every service station she had passed had signs saying ‘no football coaches’.

        A coach in the US is a trainer and nothing else.

      1. Being Jewish is their ethnicity. George Soros was born a Jew, as were most of the Frankfurt School communists. Many on “our side” seem incapable of understanding the separation between ethnicity and belief and blame Judaism for all the ills of the world. Israel is the epitome of the naton state. The very thing secular communist Jews hate. Netanyahu is not Soros.

        1. Jewish people are the best in the world at everything. When they go bad, they are the best in the world at that as well. (Exhibit A: Karl Marx)

  87. I do wish it were not de rigueur to provide incidental music in so many television programmes. More often than not, it’s intrusive, unsuitable and irritating. I accept it can capture, suggest or enhance a mood in motion pictures, comedies and dramas, but I find it quite unnecessary in most documentaries and sport.

      1. That, too, Spikey.

        A particular example I’ve noticed is that during live sport broadcasts, there’s no music during the actual live action, but as soon as there’s a recap, a summation, a caption showing such details as a scorecard, team list, recent results of the protagonists, music will be used behind a voice going through the details, and it will be the same fragment of music each time. During a long broadcast, such as a four day golf tournament or five day test cricket match, you’ll be subjected to the same theme countless times. I have to question how many viewers would be lost if these incidental themes were turned off. I cannot believe they make the difference between viewing and not viewing for those interested in the sports concerned.

    2. I have noticed that the background music/noise has increased about 20 fold . . . yes, 20 fold, in the past year. I have to have the radio on at home to cancel my tinnitus. Sometimes the incidental noise is louder than the conversation. I truly believe it is a scam to provide income for the friends, family and associates of those running the BBC. Theft of licence payers money.

        1. #metoo.
          Came on after a fusillade of rifle fire by my head, and no ear protection.

          2. Mine was an explosion on a ship, when some (vaporised) idiot cut into a tank that had contained diesel oil.

    4. The BBC programming I am subjected to at my parents house uses it incessantly. Mawkish and twee. Or sinister synth pads if describing something that doesn’t lead to more government.

          1. Only at one remove; I haven’t had a telly for decades, and have actually run away to dance the tango in Argentina rather than risk watching the BBC by accident. I remember the trend, though.

  89. Oh dear.
    The bungalow down the road towards Cromford had been empty for approaching 2 years and I’ve been trying to keep an eye on it, though my attempt at fitting a bolt to secure it didn’t last long.
    This morning I noticed cars passing it were running through water so had a nose-ache and some tw@ had tried ripping some of the copper piping out, leaving a full stream of water running out.
    Managed to bend the pipe and reduced the flow, then reported it to Severn Trent.
    Call out bloke arrived and managed to stop the problem.

    Apparently the place is going on the market as a demolish and rebuild project.

  91. MB and I visited a garden centre today (along with hundreds of other old farts).
    As we treated ourselves to coffee and cake, I watched the crowds and played a game.
    How many could I visualise being young in the 1960s and 1970s? I know I had no way of verifying my choices, but some had a spark to them.
    The fittest were not necessarily the obvious choice; some people seem to become middle aged at about 15 and settle into that state for the rest of their lives (MB’s v.v.v. boring cousin being an obvious example).

      1. It is odd. How can you be born without curiosity – or the desire to question everything?

    3. I know what you mean. Funeral tomorrow for a 1st cousin who was 8 1/2 years older than me and really, really good fun. Always looked forward to going to stay on their family farm and working hard all day long. Go fishing on the Windrush in the evenings or rabbiting or somesuch. My bookish and intellekshul elder brother didn’t have much time for me (he’s better now).

      What I’m dreading about the funeral is the expected presence of three other truly deadly 1st cousins who Bore for Britain. I’ll probably do a runner.

      1. MB’s v.v.v. Boring Cousin started working with Colchester Borough Council in his mid-teens (some sort of paper shuffling job). From that moment, he did nothing but moan about how he was looking forward to his retirement.
        Strangely enough, we lost contact with him.

  92. A plane Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,034 3/6
    🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Well done. 5 for me but there was logical progression, which I kinda like.

      Wordle 1,034 5/6

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      1. Same here.

        Wordle 1,034 5/6
        ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
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    2. I posted earlier that I got a hole in one, but there was a clue for me in knowing someone’s starting word. Must play before reading posts.

      Wordle 1,034 1/6

      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  93. ‘Night All

    Late Medley

    https://twitter.com/LibertyCappy/status/1780638036058865856

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af98f7b3318e8987b4a4f87ae77474455d543ecb49223e4585eda62c1c31f27d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8939e69681142fdf9f22058ba70cdebd61fadd62354ac8ef863bdcd9b557ed76.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4ba8a4fe442c39e2ea76412f635de8d80c5da7c5323d6c34ca36bbce3830853.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8541e6a5cd01505d70e742f7a05e201fbe8d31d152c7c4c84d3ed4cdeccacc2a.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0542e88d5dffbf592003c0a52289fa601b1539df48cd7dc2b0dfd994a7c711ae.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/314003af492ac84fcd670bd7c76dbf6ecfcb1a62b6e4af14886938dc7c5f6eaf.jpg

  94. I’ve been listening to a Canadian military veteran talking to Jim Ferguson. The discussion has moved on to the immigration into Canada and the interviewee has revealed that the incomer per capita ratio is greater than that of the USA’s border problem; obviously the immigrants aren’t pressing Canada’s borders but are being flown in and housed in 3* & 4* hotels before moving to ‘tent cities’ within the majority of Canada’s cities. A cost of $115 Million (Canadian dollars) has been revealed. Canadian homeless are being ignored whilst immigrants are being cared for.

    Except for the ‘tent cities’ – Sunak’s shower are using disused military camps – this sounds very similar to what’s happening here. Dangerous times ahead in the Western World are literally being created by governments.

    https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1780966629679005758

  95. 386202+ up ticks,

    Almost half of public willing to pay for better NHS services
    Poll respondents say they would be open to paying extra to have operations more quickly and get routine opticians’ check-ups

    as long as homo sapien inmates of the United Kingdom have
    apertures at the rear of their torsos, this can never be achieved under the current infrastructure.

    In the beginning ( when sanity ruled) after a major op or malady you could be sent to a convalescent home to round of the treatment the difference being, now you are in many cases routed to a hospital bed via the car park waiting ambulance, hospital corridor / lining cupboard, ward bed, time span, open-ended.

    The cause of such an odious change was that cottaging PM,
    the political creep that crept out of the crypt in the public park toilet when it lifted the entry latch and let the world in.

    Under todays set up it will probably end up as a series of medical auctions and bidding from a menu of different ops.
    this will be on the internet worldwide so there is a good chance there will always be someone with a pound, dollar, yen, etc,etc
    more than you.

    “Almost half of public willing to pay for better NHS services”

    Lest we forget,

    Almost half the public wanted to give the nation away.

    1. Given the £thousands MB and I have spent circumventing the NHS – * aka trying to keep fit, healthy, mobile and painfree – I’m damned if we’re paying extra after 50 years of working and taxpaying.
      * add making sure we can see, hear and chew our food.

    1. 386202+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      The speaker,

      We will have to clear the peoples gallery,

      They’re cheering in the peoples gallery.

      ,

  97. Good Afternoon, ladies, gentlemen, all animal pseudonyms ( mainly cats and a few dogs, flowers, butterflies, teddy bears, cars, trains, planes, gold ball masks etc ) Phizzee’s dogs Dolly and the one named after Harold of Sussex, Pseudonym cartoon of Tom Jones The Foundling character who likes drinking, hunting and riding around the countryside dispatching small animals . Not forgetting Aeneas _ The Trojan hero of Troy and Rome and son of the goddess Aphrodite . And the very fine and brave Byzantine Emperor Nikephoros Phokas ( JD ) famously called ‘ The Pale Death of the Saracens ‘ https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25b157fd77db6126b993c49ddf6b01c7bca5785219f24c3aeeedd5f735eac7ef.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d734c250593190523a701bd13c14e22484874d405aa739eb7353fd17dcdb568b.jpg

      2. I am the female of the species and hello
        Give Harry some coal – good for the digestion .

      3. I am the female of the species and hello
        Give Harry some coal – good for the digestion .

  98. Oh dear. ScotPlod not handed a big enough cut of the £600,000?

    “Nicola Sturgeon’s husband Peter Murrell, the former Scottish National Party (SNP) chief executive, has been re-arrested as part of an investigation into the party’s finances.
    Mr Murrell had previously been arrested in April last year in connection with the probe into the funding and finances of the party.”

          2. You know she was nicknamed ‘seaweed’ at University, right? Because only the tide would take her out.😂

  100. What ho, Nottlers! Votes, please, for the best setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis. (I will give you the correct answer tomorrow 😁)

      1. Well which is your favourite then? Byrd, Tallis, Stanford, Noble, Howells, Leighton?

          1. Well you will have to wait until tomorrow 😁. Only entrant so far is Stanford in C. A good choice but certainly not the winner.

          2. My kneejerk reaction would, of course, be Byrd, but I’m sure this is a trick question and will explore

      1. Ah! The Nunc Dimittis is wonderful, but I’m afraid the Magnificat is obscure for a good reason.

          1. Yes. I have not come across Mag and Nuncs being split in a cathedral. I have done it myself, but that was because of the vocal resources I had at my disposal.

    6. Philip Moore, Third Service. The Nunc is particularly beautiful. I’d link to a recording, but there isn’t a good one on YouTube.

  101. If anyone knows how to manipulate images using that photoshop thingy then if Sanook were swapped out for that wretched suspended MP who used Tory donors money to pay for some Brazilian rent boy (allegedly, yr honour) and the word ‘fag’ substituted for ‘smoke’ it would be quite amusing.

  102. Depends upon the context and contuation of a sentence. Fellow alone is masculine but using the word in the context of a group or organization is neutral in terms of sex –

    ‘ for she is a jolly good fellow ‘ but i think that is a song .

  103. Good news, all….Niclola Sturgeon’s husband has been arrested again. (Though why McPlod keep arresting the monkey rather than the organ-grinder is a bit of a mystery)

      1. ooh…sitting. Most of these memes are made by young people. Can’t see anyone else bothering.

    2. The people i have had the pleasure to meet from this site are pleasant, well mannered, interesting and i would happily invite them in to my home and be entertained, fed and watered.

      I cannot say the same about that lot. Sneering, gloating…….

        2. Audrey Hepburn like myself was slender, have long necks which suit hats to be perched on the head.
          I am a great admirer of Audrey Hepburn and have her autobiographies and have seen all the films . She had a dreadful childhood enduring Nazi occupation. She was fragile, beautiful ( had a beautiful soul too ) feminine ,she helped children , had a bad relationship with her father. She had a sense of humour, never felt sorry for herself, intelligent and kind.

          1. Two For the Road with Albert Finney. A film I loved when I was a student in my early 20s.

            Scene in which she comes back after having been unfaithful.

            Get out the Kleenex:

            https://www.google.com/search?q=two+for+the+road+music+clip+with+audrey+hepburn+clip&sca_esv=494940dbc25649b8&sca_upv=1&ei=7mIhZuXVNfyYkdUPgYas2Aw&ved=0ahUKEwjlhOb-rsyFAxV8TKQEHQEDC8sQ4dUDCBA&oq=two+for+the+road+music+clip+with+audrey+hepburn&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiL3R3byBmb3IgdGhlIHJvYWQgbXVzaWMgY2xpcCB3aXRoIGF1ZHJleSBoZXBidXJuKgIIAUgAUABYAHAAeACQAQCYAb8loAHEbqoBAzktM7gBAcgBAJgCAKACAJgDAJIHAKAHnxM&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:12b82038,vid:UmL-9B_H0sk,st:0

  107. I suppose it’s inevitable that a country whose national dress for men involves them wearing a skirt would be far more completely conquered by the whole pervert and Trans ideologies than it’s neighbour where men wearing skirts are held in ridicule.

    Just as the Cass Report threatened to turn the tide of trans ideology in England, Scotland is doubling down on its commitment to that same philosophy. Primary schools north of the border are appointing children as “LGBT champions” and are being urged to ask pupils as young as four if they are gay, lesbian or trans, The Telegraph has revealed.

    It’s an initiative by LGBT Youth Scotland, a publicly-funded charity that also urges teachers to install gender-neutral toilets and claims that more than 200 Scottish secondaries – more than half of the national total – and more than 40 primary schools, have joined its LGBT charter for education. As part of membership, staff are trained by the organisation, which provides an online guide and letter templates for children wishing to change their gender at school.

    A core part of trans ideology – and one that was perhaps fatally undermined by the Cass report into gender care for young people – is that anyone, however young, convinced that they were born “in the wrong body”, must be affirmed in that belief. But what is happening in Scottish schools appears to be more than that. There can’t be much justification for recruiting primary-aged children to the LGBT cause, other than to advance a political movement and guarantee the continued public funding of the various organisations whose members’ jobs depend on it.

    First Minister Humza Yousaf, meanwhile, whose government seems committed to the LGBT Champions programme for children, prides himself on being the most progressive political leader in the UK. He was slow to respond to the findings of the Cass Review (Sandyford Clinic, Scotland’s only gender identity clinic for youngsters, has only just announced a “pause” in the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs to under-18s) and has invited further controversy by announcing that the Scottish Government’s long-awaited Bill to protect women from misogyny will be extended to include biologically male “trans women”.

    The First Minister’s most high profile and influential critic, the author J.K. Rowling, said he had revealed his “absolute contempt for women”. She highlighted that the recently enacted Hate Crime and Public Disorder Act offered protection to trans people – but not women – from hate crimes. Rowling expressed outrage that with the new anti-misogyny bill, trans women would receive “double protection”.

    Yousaf took to Twitter to hit back: “The faux outrage claiming trans women have double protection under the law because of who they are is as ludicrous as being upset that a disabled, black woman has triple protection under the law.” Expect much fun and games when MSPs get to the part of the Bill that calls for a definition of what a woman actually is.

    To understand why a party that used to prioritise independence, and which used that issue to gain office, now sets so much store in advancing trans ideology in government, two important factors need to be understood.

    The first is that the SNP have profited politically by claiming that culturally and politically, Scotland is different from England. And many Scots have bought into this fallacy, which is why Yousaf and his ministers felt, initially, at least, that they could safely ignore Cass’s review, since it was undertaken in England. Secondly, governments are encouraged to persevere with a controversial policy if it is confident that the main opposition parties will raise no objections. Scottish Labour has been as wholly captured by the trans lobby as has the SNP; Yousaf’s plans to include protection for biological males in anti-misogyny legislation will likely provoke no protest from Anas Sarwar or his front bench.

    But when children become the target of the LGBT ideology, voters might just start to notice, especially if our large neighbour to the south looks like it might finally be showing signs of resisting the intellectual tyranny to which it has surrendered in the last decade. And when political parties choose to ignore angry parents, there can be only one winner.

    1. What they appear to be accepting is that paedophilia is normal and child molestation is acceptable.

        2. It really is just to please Muslims. Bacha Bazi…Bacha Posh.

          It also suits the Frankfurt and WEF plans in destroying the nuclear family.

          1. It’s not just moslems. There does seem to be a growing number of paedos that would like to see this horrendous practice normalised.

          2. You may well be right. Where people would have reined in and controlled the worse parts of their nature the permissive society allows them to think they can indulge.

  108. The head of the International Monetary Fund invoked Winston Churchill as she urged governments to prepare for the next global economic shock. Kristalina Georgieva urged countries to lower borrowing and slash red tape to revive growth as she warned the world was becoming more shock-prone than ever before. “There is plenty to worry about,” she told reporters at the International Monetary Fund’s headquarters in Washington.

    Ms Georgieva urged countries to rebuild their rainy day funds and get debt down as she warned that the medium term prospects for global growth were at their lowest in decades. She said: “In a world where crises keep coming, countries must urgently built fiscal resilience.” She added: “We know we will be tested again”.

    Quoting the former British prime minster, she added: “This is no time for ease and comfort. It is time to dare and endure.” Sir Winston made the comment during a speech in 1940 at the height of the Second World War.

    Ms Georgieva warned that global debt levels were far higher than before the pandemic and compared the trajectory of global growth to a “Swiss ski slope” with prospects dimming every year. Ms Georgieva said countries should do more to boost growth, including “foundational reforms, strengthening governance, cutting red tape, increasing female labour market participation, and improving access to capital. They’re all essential for growth and even more so, our productivity.”

    Fat chance under LibLabCon.

    2. Her treatment of Cat at the end of the film was heartless, marred her mystique and saddened me.

    3. She might be the most famous Belgian of all time, and absolutely gorgeous, but she couldn’t bloody sing!

          5. Both are screen goddesses, whether one finds them attractive or not. Both suffered for their physical beauty.

          6. I didn’t find any of the plastic, peroxide puppets of that era remotely attractive. Diana Dors was plug ugly.

        1. Second raters, along with Eddy Merckx, a few painters, Jean-Claude (and Ivo!) van Damme and …… Django Reinhardt, if you like that sort of stuff, and I do!!

          1. I suspect that Adolphe is rather less well known than his creation and both Poirot and Tintin; his nationality even less so.

          2. Georges Simenon was Belgian, n’est-ce pas? His creation was better known than he was, too.

        2. The front man of Plastic Bertrand and the voice came from different sources.

          It was the same with The Crystals.

          1. Rather like Milli Vanilli.

            It has been widely circulated that the last album released as Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell was voiced by Gaye and Valerie Simpson. She and her husband Nick Ashford wrote several of the Gaye/Terrell recordings. Terrell was struck down with a brain tumour and was said to be too fragile to record the songs for their last album, so Simpson stood in for her. Some who have studied the voices claim to have detected the difference, although I haven’t been able to. Simpson admits she was present at the recordings and did, indeed, provide guide vocals for the ailing Terrell, but insists that Terrell, with Simpson’s assistance and thus spared several retakes, was able to record her own part. Where the truth lies, I do not know.

            Simpson did have a brief albeit unsuccessful recording career with Motown but fared rather better later on with her husband as Ashford & Simpson. Solid was a big international hit. Other less well known songs did moderately well in the USA. It was as a song writing partnership, however, that they made their reputations, especially in the late ’60s – early ’70s at Motown: Ain’t No Mountain High Enough, Ain’t Nothing Like The Real Thing, You’re All I Need To Get By, You Ain’t Livin’ Until You’re Lovin’, Good Lovin’ Ain’t Easy To Come By, The Onion Song, Reach Out And Touch (Somebody’s Hand), Remember Me, Surrender – then later with I’m Every Woman, Solid and several Gladys Knight & The Pips songs.

          2. My favourite, among Marvin Gaye’s many female singing partners, was Kim Weston (“It Takes Two“).

        1. Well, I’m extraordinarily attractive, and I can sing! (albeit just belting out a few Rugby songs, women tend to like that……)

  110. Wordle 1,034 5/6

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    1. Four here

      Wordle 1,034 4/6

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  111. Lefty Grifters…

    BBC anchor who reacted ‘gleefully’ to Boris Johnson quitting Tory race sues for discrimination

    Martine Croxall, 55, takes legal action against corporation after being off air for nearly a year

    Anita Singh, ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
    18 April 2024 • 1:54pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2024/04/18/TELEMMGLPICT000313858304_17134432005910_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqxIUOXo3XoFMfrPiNJ4XDlYESnwskFWnLuuAwGEOPzj0.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Martine Croxall, the BBC news anchor, is suing the corporation for age and sex discrimination after spending nearly a year off air.

    The 55-year-old, previously taken off air after reacting “gleefully” to news that Boris Johnson had pulled out of the Tory leadership race in 2022, last presented on the BBC News channel in March last year.

    Croxall and other colleagues were told to reapply for a small pool of chief presenter roles after it was announced last year that the corporation’s home and world news channels would be merged.

    She was one of five female presenters, all in their late 40s or 50s, who missed out. They were left without roles but remained on full pay.

    The others were Geeta Guru-Murthy, Annita McVeigh, Kasia Madera and Karin Giannone. Guru-Murthy and McVeigh recently returned to work after other vacancies opened up.

    Croxall’s case is listed at a central London employment tribunal on May 1, where she is suing for age discrimination, sex discrimination and equal pay.

    It will be the highest-profile BBC tribunal since Samira Ahmed successfully sued the corporation over gender pay in 2020.

    The presenters chosen for the chief presenter roles were two men, Matthew Amroliwala and Christian Fraser, and three women, Yalda Hakim, 40, Maryam Moshiri, 46, and Lucy Hockings, 49. Hakim has since moved to Sky News.

    When the merger was announced, 18 presenters were required to apply for the five roles. Some, including Joanna Gosling, quit rather than face the “humiliating” process.

    According to Deadline, the five women who lost out challenged the BBC’s recruitment process via an internal complaints procedure, alleging that the broadcaster already had a preferred list of presenters in mind.

    The BBC said the chief presenters were recruited “via a competitive interview process in accordance with BBC HR procedures”.

    Tim Davie, the BBC director general, told a parliamentary select committee last month that the corporation was working towards a “fair resolution” for the women.

    “It is not a good situation where you are paying people [who are off air], and we are trying to get it resolved as fast as possible. I recognise that it has been going on for some time,” he said.

    Paul Royall, the head of the BBC News channel, was asked at a recent Media Society event how paying the women to be “on the bench” represented value for money for licence fee payers. He said that, for any business, there was “a transition phase, a transition cost that has to be part of the wider project”.

    The BBC declined to comment.

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

    Gerald Martin
    4 HRS AGO
    So, let me get this right, she’s suing the BBC for paying her when she should’ve been sacked?

    K Drury
    4 HRS AGO
    So along with Huw Edwards these women have been on full pay yet not appearing on screen. The BBC needs to buck their ideas up. Why should we pay a license fee so the BBC can fritter our money away like this?

    1. If they are as good as they think they are themselves, they ought to be able to walk into a post with one of the BBC’s competitors.

        1. William!! I am positively shocked your observation! Are you suggesting that these Totties are experienced Street Walkers?

    4. If she is an ‘anchor’, why is she not half buried in the silt on the bed of the Thames?

  112. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgFhNbFvl_s

    Fur Elise . When people say this is overplayed they are not taking the time to feel the emotion Beethoven was trying to portray . The whole piece has three sections and is in rondo form or A-B_A -C-A . The beginning strains have the familar A-B _ A pattern . It has clashing and contrasting emotions . It is powerful and utterly wonderful .

    2. Sadiq: I intend to stamp out all toxic emissions in London!
      Angela: You’ve just farted, haven’t you?

      1. Funny how he’s never noticed how windy it gets in the UK. And obviously an advantage when it comes to getting rid of even his own vile air pollution.

    1. Not sure who that lady is, but she is the exact image of my lovely old neighbour. Her name was Kathrin. Her mother was a lovely German lady.

        1. Lovely as well.
          I grew up with Kathrin, she married a local (north london) guy, had one daughter. I hadn’t seen her for many years until her husband’s funeral. She came to lunch an few weeks later. But died two years ago. So sad.
          All the nicest people seem to go first.

  120. At a training event today I heard a visiting speaker slip in the bizarre phrase “Capitalist model of business”. As opposed to what exactly? The Holodomor model of business? Gulag forced labour model of business? True story.

      1. Continual professional development day. This nuget was in a section on some software. Bizarrely still it came out of the mouth of the main developer of this software. There was a couple of other choice cuts in there, to the extent I wondered if I would be surprised at all if I ever heard his views on Israel.

      2. Continual professional development day. This nuget was in a section on some software. Bizarrely still it came out of the mouth of the main developer of this software. There was a couple of other choice cuts in there, to the extent I wondered if I would be surprised at all if I ever heard his views on Israel.

    2. The visiting speaker probably had in mind the Kray twins’ model of business: provided you pay enough and on time, then ‘fings’ won’t get broken…

      2. We lived on the same estate as Reggie Kray had a flat.
        There was never any thieving or vandalism, despite the place being the last stop, and shabby.
        Wonder why that was?

  121. When the publication of the memoirs of walking social-skills-bypass, the Rt Hon Liz Truss, isn’t even in the top three most dubious things members of your party have managed to achieve in a week you know you’re in trouble.

    In all honesty, I hadn’t heard of Mark Menzies, MP for Fylde, before today but then I’m not a regular on Grindr for obvious reasons. It turns out that I’d missed out on quite a colourful life. Back in 2014 Menzies was forced to resign as a ministerial aide following allegations made by a Brazilian rent boy. More recently, he’d allegedly rang up his elderly campaign manager in the early hours of the morning saying he’d been kidnapped by “bad people” and needed £5,000 to pay them off as a matter of “life and death”.

    Perhaps most damagingly in this nation of dog-lovers, it was reported that Menzies had previously been interviewed by police over claims he’d almost killed a neighbour’s dog by getting it drunk, which sounds like Jeremy Thorpe’s idea of a stag party.

    Such developments are increasingly the “new normal” in the Conservative Party. They make the previous champions of British political perversion, the Lib Dems, look like a Brownie pack. It’s indicative of their current topsy-turvy morality that Tory HQ seems more exercised about legal adults having a crafty smoke than dealing with the apparently endless sleaze.

    Madeline Grant hitting bullseye. What a bunch of mendacious, money grubbing perverts the Tory party MPs are.

    1. Let’s hear for CCHQ; the dead eyed, brain dead controllers over candidate selection.
      Boy, do they know how to pick the winners!

    3. Well that continued in a similar fashion. Thank you sir.
      “The Evening Report with JD”.

    4. Yes, Mr Menzies was undertood to have fought with the dog owner who was not keen for him to have sex with it, drunk or sober….. So I think the Jeremy Thorpe reference is not quite apposite, ain’t that right Rinka?

    5. I remember in the ’90s that Tory sleaze was building up a head of steam, leading to three terms of Tony Blair. We’re doomed.

    6. Alluded to but not mentioned, those ‘bad people’ were his drug dealers. If he had actually been kidnapped rather than just held against his will until the debt was paid the Police would have shown more of an interest.

      1. Shagging? I only ask as her proclivities have been questioned by scurrilous sources!

    3. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.
      If only he’d bunged a smidgen of that £600,000 to the ScotPlod’s Ball Fund.

      1. I’d heard when they’re selling tickets for the ScotPlod’s Ball, it’s a raffle not a dance…..

    4. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.
      If only he’d bunged a smidgen of that £600,000 to the ScotPlod’s Ball Fund.

    5. Who’d have thought it, what with them being such a nice couple. Wonder if Alec Salmond is enjoying this.

    6. One would think his wife would have asked where all the extra money was coming from.

    7. Don’t worry everyone.

      The Scottish “Attorney General” still has to approve it before it gets to court, and we’re sure

      that there will be one or more defects found in the evidence.

    1. Steady, JD, you’re getting obsessive! Understandable, though, but I’m more of a Katie Price man myself- now that’s class.

      1. I have a whole gallery! 🙂
        Katie Price as in slap by the bucket load, silicone by the tanker, falsies by the yard, tattoos by the ink factory and class by the open cast mine?

        1. The real good lookers in the past didn’t need plastic faces and silicone lips (and rhyming) to be successful.

          2. Well she spends most of her time bandaged up like a mummy inbetween plastic surgery .

          10. Theyre rubber inflatable balls that she clings onto when swimming .

  126. “I hate purity, I hate goodness. I don’t want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.”

    Today’s politicians have taken Winston Smith’s line at its literal truth, missing the message entirely.

    1. Did any one mention that they are all habitual and pathological liars.
      Where does the hard working taxpaying honest member of the public stand in such circumstances?

      1. I don’t blame politicians for lying
        I blame the people that are supposed to hold them to account for letting them get away with it.

        1. Remember, now Dame Elizabeth Filkin? She held those bastards to account over their thieving of expenses. They got rid of her.

  128. Another day is done so, despite it being early, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh.

    1. God Bless you Sir J! You never fail to brighten my day. Sleep soundly and with great peace.

    1. She was also fragile, vulnerable and used dreadfully. Died too young

        1. Pedant …’They need to be both rough and ready’ /’They both need to be rough and ready’ – isn’t that the same?

          I know dozens of Rugby songs – most of them utterly dire and gratuitously crude (heh heh!) but one or two corkers – which ones do you know?

  134. Some reasonable weather-related questions from Twitt: ( the Tara P-T reference is to an old clip of her on HIGNFY where she said that her father paid to have sunny weather for a party in response to a news item saying the P McCartney did the same)

    Bo
    @KingBobIIV
    To seed or not to seed?
    We have seen, today alone, that people like Paul McCartney, Tara Palmer-Tompkinson and Glastonbury Festival, since 2004, have paid to change the weather in order to enjoy their events. They have employed companies that can make it sunny, in layman’s terms.
    We know, provably, that The British government has used this technology, and weather technology to make it rain, in the UK as far back as the 1950s.
    We know that Dubai uses this technology to produce rain.
    We know this technology exists – that is a fact, and provably true.
    We know, that governments around the world, have the ability to make it rain, and make it stop raining.
    The question is; are they using it?
    Why, then, has this government NOT used it to reduce the rainfall in the uk when they know the farming industry is being destroyed?
    Did they use this technology on us during Covid to stop us complaining about lockdowns?
    Have they used this technology on us in the last few months to create rain? And if so, why?

    1. I have not heard of the technology available to stop rain. Once the moisture is up there, I dont think there is not much you can do about it. May be I’ve missed something.

  135. There is a spreadsheet doing the rounds on Twitt that purports to be about Tory MPs and their little secrets.

  138. DT was in Derby today and brought me a copy of the Metro back.
    So I’m off to bad to attack the crosswords.
    Goodnight all.

      2. I am glad to see no one has suggested Blair in B minor. Magnificent episodes but no underlying cohesiveness. Popular with choirs good enough to sing it though.

          3. I am interested to see what it will be. The correct answer is a 20th century composition.

  141. Chem-trails go public.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/691fea423444262dd4f406969295eed1e5ba841249462fe178f8c15eb0ba4836.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/04/18/british-scientists-world-weather-reading-middle-east-cloud/

    Could this be why we have had such a wet winter?

    It’s a short step from this to trying to block solar radiation in the name of ‘combatting climate change’.

    Or is this a ‘limited hang-out’ because TPTB know that what they are up to cannot be hidden any more.

    1. I think they are farting around incompetently with local weather systems and I think it is causing negative results,. Absolute greedy, hubristic eejits.

      1. As with all matters I just wish our government would quite simply leave us all alone. Every single thing these morons engage in altering is to our collective disfavour.

        Government as presently constituted comprises a venal bunch of crooks in it for their own personal social gains and monetary profit.

        The government ministers will prance around the world as though they have relevance in world affairs whereas they have not.

        The British Empire was lost post Suez 1956 yet nobody has communicated this actual fact to the moronic “Lord” Cameron and the rest of the uneducated Eton and Oxford class. We do not have an Empire, we are a third rate nation having lost our former dominions and having (back home) flogged off the family silver to foreigners.

        Our Stock Exchange is now utterly diminished if not yet burnt to the ground as is the instance of the historic Copenhagen Stock Exchange.

        Our politicians have all but destroyed our great country and consigned us to a mere receptacle for ignorant and malevolent third world immigrants.

        Our successive governments have got fat whilst denying us true British our right to a peaceful life after decades of wars and fighting for such.

  147. Israeli missiles hit Iran in retaliatory strike. 19 April 2024.

    US intelligence officials said Israel had struck Iran directly in what would be major escalation.

    Local media reports that an explosion has been heard near the Iranian city of Isfahan, although authorities have not clarified what caused it.

    “The cause of these sounds is still unknown, and investigations continue until the exact details of the incident are determined,” Fars news agency said.

    Time to get in your Anderson Shelter Nottlers!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/04/19/israel-missiles-hit-iran-retaliatory-strike/

    1. It seems to be OK generally for Iran to directly attack Israel, but not for Israel to directly attack Iran in retaliation.
      How does that work?

      2. Israel can call on its powerful allies to shoot down any missiles heading their way, whereas Iran, like Gaza, is defenceless against a retaliatory strike. Israel, because unlike Iran it never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, has that threat if things really get nasty.

        The kids in the playground does tend to favour the popular bully over the nerd on the principle of ‘Might is Right’. Any sign of weakness now from any party will lose face.

        Madness!

        1. It’s all so predictable, really.
          We all knew what the next thing would be when Hamas attacked Israel last October, because that’s always the way with Israel: You give them a smack, they break your legs in return. In fact, here we thought that Hamas used that principle to gather sympathy and support: “Poor little Hamas, being crushed by the brutal Jews. We’d better give them whatever they want to help!”
          So, Iran now shows again how it all works: They shot a load of drones at Israel – who are now responding in like coin, and the world is suddenly up in arms against those bastard Jews – I don’t recall hearing such a wailing within hours of Iran’s attacks on Israel.
          So, the conclusion must be that most of the world is actually not standing with Israel, even though they were the one’s on the receiving end of an unprovoked attack. I begin to understand why Israelis are so prickly.

          1. Not forgetting recent Jewish history (mid last century) where turning the other cheek didn’t go well for them.

          6. You know my feelings about your inveterate anti Semitism. You’re lucky to get that much of a response.

          7. You have opinions. I doubt you have many feelings, considering what you are happy to support.

          8. Except that the RAF was scrambled to shoot down all but one of that Iranian incoming, whereas no such defence is offered to Tehran, and even support for Ukraine against a similar and ongoing bombardment coming out of Russia. My main regret is that it seems that nobody saw coming the Hamas-led raid of 7th October, which certainly should have been stopped at the border.

            Nobody seems to be stopping the bombardment of Gaza, which is proceeding at will. “Standing with the civilians of Gaza” seems to be a lot of hand-wringing, but the RAF has not been scrambled to stand with them.

        2. Well…. if Iran is defenceless against a retaliatory strike, it was pretty daft of them to fire 300 missiles/drones/etc at Israel, who have the weaponry to hit back. The Iran government must have been relying on the wide-spread Jew-hatred prevalent in the West, which allows the use of manipulative arguments such as the one that appears in the comment above to try to use emotional blackmail to stop Israel from using deterence to prevent another similar attack.

    2. The whole thing is completely fake, and people can’t see it because they’ve been suckered into supporting one side or the other!

    1. …”This really boils my piss...”

      Nicked from Korky, Paul, I believe. And I know why!

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