Thursday 20 August: Boris Johnson needs to get a grip on this rudderless Government

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/08/19/letters-boris-johnson-needs-get-grip-rudderless-government/

586 thoughts on “Thursday 20 August: Boris Johnson needs to get a grip on this rudderless Government”

      1. Beats being a misery. Anyhow, soon as I’m at work, you can guarantee some bastard will ruin the mood for me… :-((

  6. SIR – As a dairy farmer I have always worked from home, and I understood the delight of office workers who did not have to commute during lockdown.

    I could see that expensive offices would soon be emptied forever. So why do we still need HS2? It has already cost a lot of money, and will cost a lot more.

    Trees Fewster-Verhaar
    Gomersal, West Yorkshire

    Worthy of publication simply for the name.

    3. Here she is…

      https://www.leeds.anglican.org/sites/default/files/images/treesinterviewbiblereading400.JPG
      The new Bishop of the new diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales, Bishop Nick Baines has signed up to kick off an 84-hour non-stop Bible reading marathon.

      Bishop Nick will read the first 15 minutes of the beginning of the Bible at the reading event called Alpha to Omega which will take place in St Mary’s Church, Gomersal, in the Huddersfield Episcopal Area this September.

      The organiser, Trees Fewster-Verhaar, who is pictured here being interviewed by her local Christian radio, Branch FM about the event said: “I am delighted that Bishop Nick has accepted to start off the challenge of our 84 hour non-stop reading marathon – and not only that, but he will also preach at the 9.30 am service on that Sunday.

      “This gives the whole project an enormous boost and we are all extremely grateful for his spontaneous and generous response.”
      *
      *
      *
      https://www.leeds.anglican.org/content/beginning

  8. Good morning all.
    Advised by Hospital yesterday that stepson will be discharged tomorrow.
    They wanted to discharge him today but were unsure as to whether his flat was habitable.

    It’s largely ready for him, but there are a few jobs that need doing so I’m going in today with student son and will be again tomorrow.

    1. I hope the hospital will have stabiised him successfully and that he’ll keep to his regime for as long as possible.
      Good luck to you all.

    3. 322809+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      As would neglecting to kiss X the candidates in the polling booth same with ALL the coalition party’s.

    4. Morning Bob. It is a sobering thought that though the vast majority of the indigenous population are in favour of stopping Mass Migration you would be doing well to name one MP from any Party who opposes it!

    5. Give them a short but absolutely dreadful experience of what life’s like in the UK for them and then return them to France.

      The more you return, telling tales of woe and misery, the fewer will want to try to get to the UK.

        1. Even better would be Manston.
          Picked up off the dingy, bus to Manston, plane back to France all within a couple of hours.

          1. It needs a few days of being DNA’d fingerprinted, shouted at, told that having come in illegally they will NEVER be allowed to stay and then shipped back to pass the news to their fellows.

  10. Has there been any update on how Bill T is getting on? Seems a long absence already… :-((

    2. 90% excellent 10% poor.

      Rumour has it that he’s slowly going stir-crazy.

      It’s so bad he’s even asked for an escape ladder.

  11. 322809+up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    “johnson has to get a grip on rudderless government but,but,but, johnson IS the rudder”

  12. Morning all

    SIR – I was delighted when Boris Johnson won the election.

    As a libertarian with a concern for both social justice and economic competence, he offered the ideal combination. I voted for buccaneering globalism, the rolling back of the state and the encouragement of individual enterprise.

    I took it as a given that he would form a competent administration. But that assumption has now been tested to the limit. I am prepared to give the Government a chance – Covid-19 would have tested anyone – but it’s time for a change in the Cabinet.

    We need competence – and fast. Please, Prime Minister, do something to restore my faith.

    Nigel Hindle

    Nice, Alpes-Maritimes, France

    SIR – Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, may be so incompetent as to be pitied, but why was he given the job in the first place?

    One of the responsibilities of a leader is to identify talent and appoint the best people. Another is to be visible when things go wrong. The Prime Minister has failed on both counts. Not for the first time, he has shown questionable judgment and weak leadership.

    I, for one, have completely lost faith in this Government.

    Mark Mortimer

    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    Advertisement

    SIR – When I am presented with constant excuses like “X and Y are working extremely hard”, yet I see nothing but failure and confusion, I have to conclude that X and Y are not up to the job.

    The Tories need to get a grip.

    Doug Littlejohns

    Tavistock, Devon

    SIR – I am becoming increasingly annoyed by those attacking the Government, which is dealing as best it can with serious problems, and under serious pressure.

    Yes, mistakes have been made, but all governments make mistakes. The question that needs to be asked is whether a Labour government, led by Jeremy Corbyn, would have done a better job.

    Anyone who believes that it would is living in cloud cuckoo land.

    Geoffrey Wyartt

    Newent, Gloucestershire

    SIR – The Prime Minister keeps 
telling us that he “will not hesitate” 
 to act.

    Perhaps, instead, he should hesitate, think and then make his decision.

    John Moseley

    Monmouth

    SIR – In the past, many mistakes by those in government have been put down to the law of unintended consequences.

    However, the exams debacle, which has unleashed a domino cascade of chaos, has followed a different law: 
the law of totally predictable consequences.

    David Jacobs

    Calne, Wiltshire

        1. It certainly is when you get four muppets voting a ‘hit’ for two puppets!

          1963 (and the advent of decent music) couldn’t come along soon enough.

    2. Mark Mortimer, Since when (in the past 30 years) has any prime minister “identified talent and appointed the best people”?

      Political appointments, these days, are nothing more than cronyism and soft sinecures for the inept, the chinless, and the downright fucking useless.

    3. I’m with Doug Littlejohns, the likes of Patel, Hancock, Williamson et al. are working extremely hard, at the bottom of the holes they’ve created for themselves and still digging furiously. There is an old adage, ‘Work smarter, not harder,’ and it’s about time that members of Johnson’s chaotic Cabinet learned that lesson.

        2. Working smart means connecting up to the central server every 30 minutes to report the whereabouts of householders to prospective burglars.

        3. Morning, Anne.

          That’s a given. Sadly, some people are either incapable of seeing that truth or worse, unwilling to embrace change for the better. I met a few of both persuasions.

        2. Then why not fix that?
          Disband a few departments, firing all staff and civil servants. And political appointees. Make Cabinet smaller. Cull quangos.

          2. There needs to be a cataclysm for the departments.
            As of 01 September, 50% of all Government civil servants to be fired/retired. 30% of all departments to close the same day. 50% of ministers to disappear. Cabinet to slim to max 12.
            First activity, to be completed before 01 September: All activities within a department to be identified and prioritised to “Essential”, “Important” and “WGAF”. Only essential activities to be done, with the remaining staff, so that gives you a scale of how much essential activity there is allowed to be.

          4. Groan….
            so nobody’s fallen off the merry-go-round. Pay rises all round, no doubt.

  13. Good morning, everyone. Great granddaughter staying for a long weekend. She brought her parents with her.

  14. SIR – I have just renewed my passport, under the impression that the new British passports would be blue. My new one arrived, and is black.

    What’s going on?

    Lyndon Yorke

    High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

    2. I wish mine was black (like my old ones were). I obtained my new passport 18 months ago and it was still in that gruesome EU burgundy! I’m going to find out if I can swap it for a black one.

      1. “Lose” it and apply for a new one.
        My new one, issued in April this year, is Burgundy. My second passport needs renewed, so saving taht until September, when hopefully a new colour will be available. Then, I’ll have a choice for when I don’t travel anywhere…

    1. Keep him in a cell and let him take the Epstein way out – voluntarily or otherwise.

      1. 322809+up ticks,
        R,
        Return to reality soonest, real justice, not in many respects the ersatz justice meted out currently,
        MUST be seen to be done.
        ie
        Have the judge nip down to the cell and say ” look
        me old cock we are banging you up for life plus”
        Satisfies all parties concerned.

  16. Britain is about to be sucked into a catastrophic economic doom loop. 29 August 2020.

    For the first time in years, I’m turning bearish on Britain. Our economy, trashed by Covid and the lockdown, is about to be sucked into a catastrophic doom loop, with no escape hatch. Forget about a V-shaped recovery: the future is a truncated square root, with years of stagnant growth to follow a partial rebound next year. We are leaving the EU, but are set for Eurozone-style semi-stagnation. It’s a tragedy.

    Morning everyone. I have no idea what a “doom loop” is and I’m not particularly strong on economics but I am convinced that Catastrophe is on its way. You cannot shut down the World Economy without experiencing some form of disruption and since it appears to be orchestrated one suspects dire endings.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/19/britain-sucked-catastrophic-economic-doom-loop/

    2. You can’t spray other people’s money around like a demented socialist and not expect major financial trouble.

    3. 322809+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      I don’t like “truncated” in the equation it holds
      islamic ideology connotations for me, along with the instruction manual in-house they swear by & the canteen menu.
      ALL omens of DOOM.

    1. The article has baffled me somewhat, Annie. When my alarm clock goes off in the morning should I get up and run the risk of serious dementia or turn over and go back to sleep and spend all my life producing Zzzzzs?

      1. The article suggested to me that it was more broken sleep than early risers per se. Presumably people who don’t sleep well tend to get up early, but aren’t necessarily ‘morning people’, who in my book are the ones that wake up naturally at sunrise are bright and cheerful and view going to bed at 10pm as staying up late. This does not include me (2am+- an hour or 2, wake up 7-8 hrs later with slow quiet morning start).

    2. I got to:

      “The team from Imperial College London studied….”

      At which point I went back to sleep.

  18. BBC News Home page. 3 Headline stories:
    “DNC 2020: Kamala Harris blasts Trump ‘failure of leadership'”
    “Obama and top Democrats go after Donald Trump”
    “Key takeaways from the Democrats’ star-studded night”
    They’ve given up even pretending to be impartial.

      1. In the ratings “America’s Got Talent” beat “Democratic National Convention 2020” last night. {:^))

    2. They were smarming all over the Democrat Convention last night. Oh, how they praised and loved it. Praise for speeches that had not yet been made.

    3. I heard on R4 this morning that O’Barmy made a “rare” criticism of Trump.

      It must have been someone else impersonating him with all the negative stuff since 2016.

    5. Must be something to do with all that lovely dosh they get from the Gates Foundation!
      Good morning all!

  19. A bit sloppy in places…

    Douglas Murray
    The Foreign Office has lost the plot in the Middle East
    We’re behind the times when it comes to dealing with Iran and Israel
    From magazine issue: 22 August 2020

    Last Friday the UN Security Council rejected any extension of the arms embargo on Iran. That embargo — imposed in 2007 — began to get phased out after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. But a ‘snapback’ provision was put in place intended to allow the return of all such sanctions should Iran violate the terms of the deal. Iran has been violating those terms for some time, but on Friday, when the United States hoped that its allies would join it in deploring this fact, only the Dominican Republic voted with it. The UK, like France and Germany, chose to abstain. On the question of whether Russia and China should once again start selling arms to Iran, this country apparently takes no view.

    It would be nice to be able to say that this was peculiar. But it isn’t. In the same week that Britain abstained at the Security Council the US brokered an historic deal elsewhere in the Middle East. Under its supervision, the United Arab Emirates and Israel signed an agreement to normalise relations. The Israeli President, Reuven Rivlin, has now invited Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed to visit Jerusalem. As the economic and diplomatic benefits of normalisation become clear, other countries in the Middle East are expected to follow suit. Deals like the UAE-Israel agreement are part of a larger attempt to find unity among states wishing to avoid Iranian dominance. Hence President Rouhani’s threatening condemnation of the UAE for its ‘treacherous’ actions. There are rumours of Bahrain and even Saudi Arabia at some point joining the UAE’s acceptance of reality.

    In the British Foreign Office, meanwhile, such reality appears to be a world away. Responding to the US-led initiative the Foreign Office (FCO) released a statement which made precisely two curt points. The first welcomed the normalisation. The second consisted of the FCO’s perennial claim: ‘Ultimately, there is no substitute for direct talks between the Palestinians and Israel, which is the only way to a [sic] reach a two-state solution and a lasting peace.’

    Defenders of the FCO like to present it as a first-class vessel, cruising along on the deep wisdom accrued from decades of masterly global circumnavigation. Recent events suggest otherwise. Just take last week’s statement. The Foreign Office was insisting that the only way to peace in the Middle East is for ‘direct talks between the Palestinians and Israel’. Yet it was doing so in response to an agreement that demonstrated precisely how unnecessary any such ‘direct talks’ actually are.

    The historic nature of the UAE–Israel deal is not just the normalisation itself, but that it demonstrates how states in the region can make peace with Israel without needing to go through the corrupt and rejectionist Palestinian Authority. For decades the wisdom of the FCO (trotted out whichever party is in government) has been that an Israeli-Palestinian ‘two-state solution’ will ‘unlock’ and otherwise solve all the wider problems of the Middle East. It is to this failed venture that British diplomacy remains principally wedded. But if the UAE can reconcile itself to making peace without needing to go through the Palestinian cartel, then why can’t the British Foreign Office?

    It isn’t just on the Palestinian issue that the Foreign Office’s thinking is proving un-able to adapt. Take the status of the Golan Heights. Seized by Israel at the end of the 1967 war, the Golan provides a strategic vantage point that would always be able to be used against Israel so long as it was in its opponents’ hands. For more than half a century it has been a defacto part of Israel. There is no scenario in which Israel would hand it over. The American government last year acknowledged that reality.

    Back in London the FCO continues to think otherwise. ‘The occupied Golan Heights’ is how the FCO still refers to the area. Indeed it does so in its latest Covid travel advisory warning. It remains the FCO’s position that Israel should give the Golan back. To whom, one wonders. Almost anyone, would appear to be the view of the FCO. But what this means in practice is handing the Golan Heights to the Syrian regime. The institutional delusion must be strong to imagine such a scenario. Why would it help anyone if the Israeli government presented a peaceful and well-maintained piece of Israel to Bashar al-Assad? It isn’t as though his family has had any paucity of territory to immiserate over the past decade.

    As on so many issues, the FCO’s stance is anachronistic. Which is strange because on other issues, not least Hong Kong, the UK has shown itself to be engaged, principled and practical. In the morass of the Middle East, by contrast, it is stuck, flailing to find a position that even acknowledges the shifting regional scene.

    On the Iran vote, Britain had two directions in which it could have gone: the American route, which seeks to keep Iran isolated so long as it keeps up its nuclear ambitions; or the European one, which broadly continues to seek to ‘open up Iran’ and enjoy its markets even if that does allow the region’s largest terror-sponsor to boom.

    So why should Britain sit out a vote which seeks to hold Iran to account? One reason is that there are strong elements within the FCO as well as the wider government who have been consistently sympathetic to the Iranian government. Six years ago here, I identified Ben Wallace MP as part of an active ‘Iran lobby’ within Westminster. Since then he has distinguished himself as one of Boris Johnson’s most prominent defenders in parliament and been rewarded with his current position of Defence Secretary.

    Perhaps Wallace and others believe it is worth Britain carving out a niche as ‘neutral’ on the question of Iranian rearmament. But even if it were morally defensible, diplomatically and strategically it makes almost no sense. In any scramble to enrich ourselves at Iran’s teat, Britain is a long way behind both France and Germany. And our failure to stand by America at the Security Council leaves us unnecessarily distanced from our most important international partner.

    There are parts of the world where it is doing well, but in regards to the world’s most volatile region, the FCO isn’t helping us to glide through the international waters. Rather it is showcasing British foreign policy as not just out of date but all alone, and very much at sea.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-foreign-office-has-lost-the-plot-in-the-middle-east

    1. Follow the money attached to the Iran deal. Those who got payoffs are the ones squealing.

    2. It’s appalling that the media has ignored the Israel-UAE deal, purely because Trump had a hand in it.

      1. It’s fairly unconsequential – the animosity is not really between Israel and the Gulf Arabs, who have a common ally in America.

        I’d be far more impressed if Trump came up with a deal between Israel and Iran. Cyrus of Persia managed it – he rebuilt the Temple. So too did those three wise men following a star.

        Then neither of them would need a nuclear deterrent.

  20. Can’t understand why peeps think Boros is incompetent when he’s doing the demolition job Gates and Soros want done brilliantly !

  21. Labour heading for five per cent lead over Tories after series of Government blunders, internal polling reveals. 20 August 2020.

    Labour will be consistently five per cent above the Conservatives by August next year amid growing public disillusionment over the party’s competence in Government, according to its internal polling.

    The Daily Telegraph understands that the data shows trust and competence ratings for the Conservatives are falling. These are early indicators of polling trends, from which researchers have drawn the five per cent projection.

    We really need Farage to set up a Reform Party in preparation for the next election.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/20/labour-heading-five-per-cent-lead-tories-series-government-blunders/

        1. I think after leaving the EU it is going to take a generation for all the old globalist rubbish to relinquish power and for people that actually beleive in our country to get any power, probably far too late by then I expect

          1. Unless the corruption of the past is exposed, there’s no hope.

            That’s the only way to wreck LabLibCon.

    2. 322809+ up ticks,
      AS,
      Truth be told whichever of the toxic trio win we as a nation LOSE.
      Reform group good but, evidence the leader is highly suss. is on record and smacks to me of being a re-play of the johnson placement.

      The “nige” clearly aired his views of members of UKIP
      30000 plus via LBC, uncalled for & undeserved and that was of peoples that loyally supported him & gave him a platform.

      For me Hearts of Oak have ALL the right ingredients for an opposition.

    3. We need the dissolution of the Conservative Party and a new political party – possibly led by Nigel Farage – without delay.

      Surely we can’t go on like this?

  22. – Has anyone noticed how the MSM especially the BBC call all the Democrats by their full names and their job titles past and present but only refer to the actual President as Mr Trump, they never say Mrs Obama for some reason.

    1. The whole MSM is subtly – and sometimes not at all subtly – anti anything remotely to the right of extreme left. I ask myself why.

      1. Yes, they are mostly very well paid and have a lot to lose when the anarchy that they support comes around.

      2. Flip knows. Their hatred knows no bounds.

        The greatest riser of human wealth, growth and freedom has been market capital economics.

        Their hatred of Trump is simply because they don’t understand him and cannot control him. Like all cowardly savages they are terrified of what they do not understand.

    2. These terms are not random or personal. They are all given out at Editorial Meetings and since they almost always transcend a single outlet it is more than likely that this comes down from above. Which countries are given the title of Government or Regime for example is pretty universal. This is important because it acts as subliminal propaganda absorbed at the very lowest level of any report and affecting how you see the rest.

  23. Toady spent several valuable minutes on tne case of the (allegedly) 16 yo Sudanese who met his predictable fate in the Channel. Much wringing of hands. It’s talkRADIO for me.

    1. Strangely, no mention of the number of road deaths yesterday – and those poor souls are probably here legally.

      ‘Morning, JBF.

      1. ‘Morning, HJ. Your comment put me in mind of the “I hope we don;t crash” sketch from The Young Ones. Come on Nottlers, find a link!

    2. French prosecutors have claimed a Sudanese ‘boy’, 16, who died trying to
      reach England on a blow-up children’s boat is actually 28.

      1. No need.

        A generous dose of Covid will decimate elderly home owners so that the State can take over houses in lieu of death duties.

        1. Strangely enough a chap on the radio talking about a new Covid vaccine wanted people “over 55” for trials. When the radio interviewer said 55+? – the answer was a very strong “NO – OVER 55 – – -56 upwards”. Don’t think a vaccine would really know the difference between a day before the 56th birthday – and the day after.

          1. Perhaps it gives a better fit with current morbidity statistical cut-off points?

            If so, it’s a strange and somewhat arbitrary reason, why not over 50’s or over 60’s

      2. 322809+ up ticks,
        Morning VOM,
        The priti johnson will make sure there is hence the build,build,build rendering.

      3. They should be housed in the gated compounds that protect the elites who drive this agenda. Not the great country estates mind, those belong to our communal history and heritage.

    3. Refugees have to stop in the first safe country and apply to where they want to go then. Those refugees in their application have to state a reason why they want to go to their requested country *and can be refused*.

      The criminals arriving in boats are not refugees. They are illegal gimmigrants and have no right to be here whatsoever.

  25. On Scottish News on TV last night there was a clip on the closure of the Two Sisters factory in Coupar Angus. I noticed the men in camouflage uniforms. These were the Covid-19 test team.
    Here is part of the report – my highlighting – from the BBC website:
    “The number of coronavirus cases linked to a food processing plant in Coupar Angus has risen to 29, NHS Tayside has confirmed.
    The health board said the cases, which are related to the 2 Sisters plant in Coupar Angus, are all displaying mild symptoms.
    All of the plant’s approximately 900 employees have been advised to self-isolate for 14 days.
    The plant has been closed for two weeks while staff at the site are tested.
    A mobile testing unit was set up at the site by military personnel on Tuesday, and contact tracing is ongoing”.
    I find it rather worrying that the military have become involved in the clinical side of things. Will the military soon be involved in vaccinations, round-ups, checks, enforcement, kind of thing?
    Especially so, as NHS Scotland employs about 60,000 nurses. As hospitals are pretty empty, I’d guess that many thousands of nurses are doing nothing, yet soldiers are carrying out medical tests?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-53838299

    1. Morning Horace. They can be relied on to give the results required and not blab afterwards!

      1. The Highlands could do with clearances. The wild and lonely places of natural beauty have been overrun by hordes of campers and tourists, clogging the roads and leaving huge amounts of filth behind.

        2. Rest assured, Horace, I shan’t be heading north of the border with my campervan; your roads are safe 🙂

    4. There was an eejit on RT News this morning saying that this virus is so dangerous because it spreads very easily and most people don’t get sick with it. How can anyone with two brain cells to rub together say that with a straight face? I flicked the switch.

    5. There are quite large numbers of the military on the medical side, Army, Navy and RAF. Derriford hospital is jammed with ’em.

      1. My question is “Why?”. The NHS is running at half capacity, if that, and there must therefore be hundreds of doctors and nurses doing nothing?

        3. Our tame army nurse is currently on a 5 week leave. She’s currently based in Kent and was seconded to the NHS for 90% of that 3 month period when the C-19 was going to kill us all.

    1. Quite spooky how many of those we eat and grow on a regular basis. My sage plants have grown enormous this year.

      2. It’s been an odd year here.

        Sage always seems to do well. The basil, both green and purple got some sort of blight, the leaves dropped but the stems were healthy and are now showing a fairly good crop of leaves again. Parsley poor, coriander excellent but as always very quick to set flowers and seeds, both of which we use. Thyme excellent the rest average.

        1. I bought a pot of basil and divided the plants up into three pots. The green house versions are good but the o plant on the patio wall was looking under attack i lifted the pot to find hundreds of Woodlouse hiding under the base of the pot. Growing again as normal now.
          I do like the taste of ripe fresh tomato and fresh basil.

          2. I slow roasted some small split tommie’s earlier this week in a little olive oil and chopped garlic.
            Delicious in home made whole meal and rye bread for lunch with basil leaves.
            Did you know Sos that if you take the side shoots of the tomato plant out from the main stem and plant them in a pot they will root and grow into full size plants.

    2. Excellent article. But……….if only it all worked for everyone Sos.
      But i am able to find my way around the garden by sniffing rosemary, perhaps it steers me away from going round the bend in these increasingly troubled thymes.

      1. I’m fairly sure many people will have adverse reactions to some of them.

        There is something that regularly seems to appear in restaurant curries that I am becoming more and more sensitised to. No idea what it is, so no longer venture too far away from my regular dishs.
        The last time I ate whatever it was, I got a very nasty rash and some breathing difficulties, which were cured by antihistamine.

        2. Fortunately and touch wood i have never had an adverse reaction to anything.
          Perhaps it might be due to mum mother cooking in earlier life. I certainly wouldn’t eat some of the food we were brought up on in the early 50s. Or the school dinners. Perhaps the daily dose of milk helped.
          We have friends that swear by a regular intake of turmeric. But it’s too much of a faff.
          Kept in air tight boxes, we have a packages of most curry spices. Home made are nearly as good as brought versions, if you are careful with the chilli. And at least you know exactly what went into it.

          1. It’s quite pecular.

            Apart from bee-stings there is very little that gives me a really bad response. It’s the fact it gets worse each time that’s a bit disconcerting. At least with a bee sting one knows it’s happened and can take measures.

        4. Are you allergic to nuts? Cashews feature in some dishes and pistachio desserts are common in ‘Indian’ food now. Perhaps there has been some cross-contamination in the restaurants you have visited.

          1. Nope.
            And unlikely, unless there is a centralised didtribution point as it’s happened in Manchester and SE England and once in France

    3. morning sos – I like beetroot but as a messy eater I don’t eat it often. I eat quite a few of the others, usually in soups.

      1. I particularly enjoy it pickled.

        It can sometimes dye pee red and that is very disconcerting the first time it happens!

        1. I used to grow my own beetroot and pickle it myself (to my M-i-L’s recipe) once MOH couldn’t do it any more. I haven’t bothered the last couple of years because I’ve still got jars unopened.

          2. Yes, it does, but I don’t have the storage space. My raspberries are prolific (the only treatment is preserves!) so I need the storage for jars of jam.

          4. My last crop steadfastly refused to fill out the roots 🙁 I ended up with things that looked more like carrots.

    6. It’s good to be off topic, i’m absolutely sick of the conspiring and lying from our MSM and the vile political classes.

      1. It’s only going to get worse.

        The Hard Left media won’t let facts and public opinion define their narrative.

        1. We were planning to visit our friends in Oz next year…..still hoping, i think i’ll go walkabout……..

  27. What has happened to the DT? It is no more than Guardian-lite. A comment on the letters page starts: Why does this right-wing newspaper back the Democrats? Answer: Because it is not right wing!

    One only has to see a ridiculous article by someone called Rosa Prince to see how pathetic and how appeasing of the left this paper has become. The article is about a short speech at the Democrat convention by a young far-left socialist of Puerto Rican origin. She says: “They were the 90 seconds that could define the future of American politics for the next 50 or 60 years”. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

    Here is a transcript of the entire speech

    “Good evening, bienvenidos, and thank you to everyone here today endeavoring toward a better, more just future for our country and our world, in fidelity and gratitude to a mass people’s movement working to establish 21st-century social, economic and human rights, including guaranteed health care, higher education, living wages and labor rights for all people in the United States.
    A movement striving to recognize and repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia. And to propose and build reimagined systems of immigration and foreign policy that turn away from the violence and xenophobia of our past. A movement that realizes the unsustainable brutality of an economy that rewards explosive inequalities of wealth for the few, at the expense of long-term stability for the many. And who organized a historic, grass roots campaign to reclaim our democracy.
    In a time when millions of people in the United States are looking for deep systemic solutions to our crisis of mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care, en el espíritu del pueblo, and out of a love for all people, I hereby second the nomination of Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermont for president of the United States of America”.

    A recipe for Marxism! She didn’t even endorse Sleepy Joe or his black running mate (who isn’t black)! She wants America’s Corbyn-equivalent to be President of The United States!

    The convention was a festival of Trump bashing, racism, endorsement of BLM, unfettered immigration and assorted vapid rhetoric. There was almost nothing about policies.

    God help the entire world if these people win in November!

    1. Rosa Prince used to write about food and drink. I’m not sure when she became an expert on US politics.

    2. Wasn’t the Convention intended to endorse Sleepy Joe? So they can’t even agree on that if AO-C endorses Bernie Sanders? As for the long list of perceived wrongs – why weren’t they sorted out by the previous administration that lost to Trump?

  28. It is interesting to see how united the MSM is in its criticism of Bumbling Bonker Boris and his incompetent government.

    However there is very little support in much of the MSM for Starmer and Labour or for Davey the Libdum.

    So if we get rid of Bosris and there is no credible alternative, what then?

    Surely a completely new political party is desperately needed to restore some faith in the disintegrating system?

    1. The MSM surely want the UN to govern, with just a compliant parish council in Westminster…oh, wait a minute, that’s what we’ve got isn’t it?

      1. The BBCs endless party politicals for that oaf Biden, the uninterrupted anti Trump wafflers – introduced without any reference to bias makes it clear Al Beeb would prefer we were run by the hard Left democrats.

        (The party that dislikes democracy).

    2. How about a government along the lines of one that is currently being formed in Tunisia? The President (independent) appointed a new PM (independent) who is forming a government of technocrats, all experts in their own fields – no political parties! People are fed up with bickering politicians, especially the Islamic party, the leader of which is on a 15% approval rating – and this in a 98% Muslim country!

        1. 322809+ up ticks,
          W,
          It is NOT what you / peoples want it has been made abundantly clear surely, and has been so for years, it is what the chief
          political overseer wants.
          Plus these overseer’s are there by peoples consent again.again.& again.

      2. God protect us from “experts”. Older people with a proven track record is what is wanted.

        1. Experts should advise the “Wise Men” (other sexes are available), but not take the decision.

        2. I agree in principle but, in Tunisia, all the people named so far are at least 50 and all have proven track records.

      3. Daft Dickie Dawkins thought that the question of the UK’s future in the EU should be decided by a panel of experts and not by the plebs for whom it was too difficult a subject.

    2. What is interesting is the mob’s reaction to his independence of thought. They hate that someone could have prinicples of their own, that they do not automatically obey them.

      That is what we must resist. After all, it’s simple fascism. The Left change their name, but underneath they’re still oppressive, abusive, mindless thugs.

    3. It seems to me that ‘taking the knee’ has become a similar jester to the Nazi salute.
      I’ll get me V sign……………… 🏃‍♂️

        1. It came to me last night watching Portillo and his German train journeys.
          Lot’s of old film of the past.

  30. French prosecutors have claimed a Sudanese ‘boy’, 16, who died trying to
    reach England on a blow-up children’s boat is actually 28.

  31. Manchester bomber escapes whole life term as judge’s hands are tied.

    Hmmm! I don’t recall reading, from my history lessons, that Judge Jeffreys’ hands were ever tied!

    But, then again, humans were not nearly as stupid in his day as they are today.

  35. The truth about the migrant crisis isn’t what you think
    Edward Crawford
    20 August 2020, 12:31pm

    Home Secretary Priti Patel visited the port of Dover last week to gee up the beleaguered Border Force and offer words of encouragement to the British people. ‘It is our mission and objective to break this route up,’ she told her personal cameraman and tightly-controlled media team. Priti hot footed it out of the docks as soon as the PR stunt was over. Job done for another day. More fake promises of stronger borders by a Conservative party who seem unable to control anything, let alone a porous expanse of water separating England from France.

    The reality is we all know what’s going on. Not from the mainstream media who eagerly line the dock side waiting for exhausted looking women and children being brought off the boats. We all know the reality from alternative media and independent reporters that have filled the void.

    I’ve covered the migrant crisis for more than five years and worked on the ground in more than eight countries. I’ve visited dozens of refugee camps and illegal migrant encampments. I’ve spent hundreds of hours with refugees and migrants listening to their stories and trying to make sense of this crisis. The picture I see in the news does not reflect my experience and that of many others.

    Over my time on the refugee trail, I’ve noticed that the majority of people making the journey to Europe are males between the age of 18-35. In fact I’d estimate up to 85 per cent of the migrant influx is comprised of young men. I always found it difficult to turn on the TV and see women clutching their infants and fathers weeping as they landed on the shores of Greece. Difficult because of the humanitarian empathy that wells up within us all, but also difficult because it’s not a reality I’m seeing on the ground.

    What I found over five years across the Balkans and Europe is not what’s written about in the papers, it’s not the stuff that wins journalism awards. It’s the painful reality that the refugee crisis is more complex than we are led to believe. ‘Everyone who needs asylum should be given a safe place,’ a leftist volunteer once told me. That’s true and it’s a nice notion to live life by, however the reality is starkly different.

    What I’ve witnessed over the years is people, who by their own admission are not refugees, taking advantage of European gullibility and generosity. In 2015, when Merkel declared anyone who came will be welcomed in Germany, the door was truly opened. A green light lit up across the Middle East, Africa and other more far-flung parts of the world. With the aid of Google and volunteer organisations people knew exactly what type of persecution, sexual persuasion, religious or ethnic identity would secure them a ticket into Europe.

    I don’t mean to be flippant on the subject of fraudulent asylum claims but it seems all too common. In warehouse refugee camps I’ve witnessed men from Egypt studying maps of Damascus to fabricate their identity. I’ve seen North Africans all claim to be Syrians and coincidently all from Damascus.

    Around a fire on the Serbian-Croatian border I’ve shared cigarettes and fruit with middle class, metropolitan Iranians who are taking their chances on reaching Europe. ‘We will say we are Christians and suffer problems because of that. I have had friends who say they’re gay and it worked. The funny thing was when he arrived in Berlin they housed him with other gay refugees.’

    Countless stories that don’t fit the narrative pushed on the evening telly fall by the way side. Violence, drugs, alcohol, disease and criminality are the bleak reality I saw on Europe’s borders. I shared the hardship to an extent to understand what truly drives people to pack up everything and come to Europe.

    Thousands and thousands of genuine refugees suffer in the Balkan barbed wire. More lie restless in stifling, overcrowded camps waiting for their turn to continue onwards to Europe. In the West, we know all of this yet we neglect to have the difficult conversations that are vital moving forwards.

    How do we protect public health with an influx of uncontrolled migration? How do we address the elephant in the room: integration? What about family reunification? The numbers are vast! If Germany has six million new arrivals then how many more will come if their families are allowed to join them? How will Europe cope with all these people?

    The British public are alarmed by what they see in Dover. Not out of a knee jerk, racist reaction but out of a genuine sense of concern. People have the right to ask questions: Where are these people going to live? What about the school placements? The doctor’s surgeries? The opportunities to work in an already crumbling economy?

    The reality is we all know what we are hearing about the refugee crisis is not the full picture. It’s not as clear cut as the London bubble would have us believe. Across the world, there are hundreds of millions who would qualify for EU asylum. The question we are all going to have to ask is how much is enough? How many people can the West really take?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-truth-about-the-migrant-crisis-isn-t-what-you-think

    2. We all know that if the politicians wanted to stop the traffic of illegal immigrants across the Channel into Britain they would do so.

      So, the question is:

      Why do they not want to do so?

    3. The truth about the migrant crisis is EXACTLY what I thought, and have known since the late 90s.

      One “asylum seeker” that I heard about was so ashamed of the lies he was about to tell about being persecuted by his government, that he went to his country’s embassy in London and apologised in advance. They laughed and said “good luck, if the British will believe that”
      He got asylum.

    4. “Difficult because of the humanitarian empathy that wells up within us all ..” Not me, mate. I’m all empathied out. It isn’t so much “European gullibility” as a deliberate ploy and I personally am sick of being forced to put up with it and pay for it.

    5. What we Nottlers have suspected for some time. The question is….Why is this happening under successive Conservative Governments.

      Afternoon, Boss.

      1. I think we all know, Phil, that “Conservative governments” have not been conservative in any way, shape or form since Major.

    7. “… see women clutching their infants and fathers weeping as they landed
      on the shores of Greece. Difficult because of the humanitarian empathy
      that wells up …”

      I feel no empathy. They could apply legally. They don’t.

  37. Good morning, my fellow Nottlers

    Two stories that are hitting the DM.

    One is the story of the black man who gave his white girlfriend illegal drugs and watched her die without doing anything to try and save her.

    He has had his murder conviction overturned. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8642685/Its-kick-teeth-Family-Holby-City-actors-daughter-say-denied-justice.html

    The other is that of the drug dealer of oriental origin – who was a pupil at pupil at Dulwich College and then at Westminster School – who has been given a ‘barbaric’ beating for selling drugs – including crystal meth – in Singapore. He was tied naked to a frame and given 24 strokes of the cane. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8644705/Diplomatic-row-looms-Briton-jailed-drug-crimes-Singapore-caned-24-times.html#newcomment

    However if the man in the first story had been aware that he would have received the same punishment as the man in the second story then perhaps the poor family of the girl would have been spared the devastating death of their daughter.

    And yet outrages which occur in the Middle East or are committed by Muslims are often completely ignored or swept under the carpet by the MSM

    1. Another fine British tradition that lives on in Singapore. From the sound of it, the fellow was lucky to have been spared the noose.

    2. 322809+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      Check out the warnings Gerard Batten has been giving since 2005 on the dangers of islamic ideology.

    3. Good morning R

      What on earth is going on , it seems to me that white lives don’t matter. That poor silly girl was one of many who indulged in drugs at the Bestival here in Dorset. The police and drug sniffer dogs were kept very busy at our local railway station, yet somehow that chap escaped the net and DELIVERED to his girlfriend.

      Of course he murdered her, that’s what drug dealers do , these people deliver drugs knowing the risks involved .

      1. While she had the agency to walk away he was guilty of supplying drugs and not getting her help. He’s an inhumane animal. The only way to treat such characters is to collar and chain them until they learn to walk at heel.

    4. I thought dealing drugs was a capital offence in Singapore. He got off lightly.
      Bearing in mind the consequences of drug dealing, I don’t consider a thrashing to be barbaric at all.

    5. The overriding connection between capital and corporal punishment is the concept of punishment. When they were both outlawed in the UK punishment, of any sort, died along with them.

      People are no longer punished for their sins (or crimes). Putting someone in prison for 30 years is effectively giving them warmth, shelter, exercise, entertainment, medical treatment, food and drink, tax-free, for life. No more financial worries or, indeed, worries of any kind. Crime, especially heinous crime, pays.

      And we call ourselves an intelligent species!

    6. He got caught once and was caught again while out on bail.

      If he’d been given even 6 strokes after the first offence I very much doubt he’d have committed the second offence and he would probably be in the UK now.

    7. And so on and so forth………..Last evening standing on a beach in northern France ITVs Raggi Omar (spl) stood almost in tears telling the whole nation who i guess only around 0.0001% were interested about a 16 year old Somalian boy found dead on a beach, along side him was his mobile phone. No passport mentioned of course. RO almost weeping when he explained how this poor young man had travelled mainly on foot (debatable) from southern Somalia to Calais.
      But not one mention as we have said previously this week about the 5 year old white boy who was brutally murdered by his 27 year old black neighbour in the US. Shot in the face for riding his little bicycle on the neighbours alleged property.
      I suspect the reporter is now self isolating at his London home.

      1. The French prosecutors have claimed a Sudanese ‘boy’, 16, who died trying to
        reach England on a blow-up children’s boat is actually 28.

        1. God only knows how many of these invading scrounging liars have been landed on British soil.

      2. If he’s travelled from southern Somalia to Calais, then he’s traversed safe countries where he should have claimed asylum. Good riddance!

        1. The lure of UK streets paved with gold is killing people it’s got to be stopped. We all ready have thousands of people living on our streets with no jobs and no future.

    8. Why is it barbaric? He was a drug dealing criminal. 24 lashes seems light.

      The criminal who killed that girl not only gave her the drugs but ran off to save his own skin. The very idea he escaped justice is intolerable. I wouldn’t have tied him to a stake, I’ve had chained him there and flogged him to death.

  38. Anxiety grows as China’s Three Gorges dam hits highest level. 20 August 2020.

    Extreme floods have hit China’s Three Gorges dam, which recorded the largest inflow of water in its history, prompting officials to assure the public it would not be breached.

    Inflows to the world’s largest hydro-electric dam reached 75m litres of water a second, according to state media. By Thursday morning, 11 outlets of the dam had been opened to discharge 49.2m litres of water a second, the largest release since its construction.

    After two months of heavy floods across central and south-west China, officials have promised the dam can withstand the flows.

    I have actually read reports that this thing is inherently unstable. Needless to say the Chinese Government have always denied this. If it washes away they are going to look pretty stupid!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/20/china-three-gorges-dam-highest-level-hydro-electric-floods

    1. If it washes away are we a) going to get to hear of it or b) have the failure blamed on attacks from the West?

      1. if it washes away, someone will spot that it has disappeared on some satellite imagery sooner or later.

    3. I understand that the Chinese comissioned a civil construction engineer from the West to advise on the integrity of the dam.
      The report said the design of the dam was pants but the Chinese maintaintained that it was gorgeous.

      1. 322809+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        Shades of Ptv ?
        Gerard does it on purpose is my belief to show he is not above being human.

    1. Saw a BLT comment on a DT article which noted that a poster on the Spectator referred to ‘wokels’ and hoped that the term could be spread and used by other non-pc people.

  41. Mail to a Conservative MP………….

    Just when I thought things in the UK couldn’t look more suspicious……..

    ………it turns out John Major forgot to put George Soros in his autobiography, as well as Tony Blair forgetting… and David Cameron forgetting!

    Just let’s think about this. John Major, the ERM, Black Wednesday and George Soros go together.

    But Major forgot Soros!

    So what’s going on with the cognitive abilities of UK politicians?

    Have you all forgotten poor George Soros?

    Is that why you never mention him… because none of you know who he is?

    …..or is there another reason?

    I think it’s ”another reason”.

    More soon……….

    Polly

      1. ”Is there anything else to which you wish to draw my attention, Mr Holmes?”

        ”To the curious incident of UK politicians and George Soros, Inspector Gregory”.

        ”UK politicians have said nothing about Soros, Mr Holmes”.

        ”That, Inspector Gregory, is the curious incident”.

    1. It is ironic that the EU is forced to use English despite almost no one in it speaking it.

      Oh how that must gall them.

  43. The exams fiasco is just the beginning. Spiked 20 August 2020.

    In Germany, exams went ahead across the country, despite protests from some students and teachers who raised concerns about safety and how the pandemic might hit attainment. In the end, several states reported results that were higher than usual.

    In Britain, we have lived under a tyranny of presentism and panic for months. Entire sections of economic, civic and social life have been shut down, with little thought given to the obvious carnage and injustice this will unleash further down the line.

    The exams fiasco is just the beginning.

    Yes. I suspect that when this business is finished so will the UK be!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/08/20/the-exams-fiasco-is-just-the-beginning/

    1. And these are mainly the single arrivals. When the families arrive – then what??? Is the govt trying to fill all the hotel spaces up with them, then say there is no space for the millions of HK families wanting to come?

      1. It’s disgusting. We have homeless people here.

        The French should have processed these people. The French should have sent them back. This isn’t our problem. They should not be here. We certainly shouldn’t be helping these utterly criminal, illegal characters to get here.

    2. 322809+ up ticks,
      Morning PT,
      The build, build,build campaign will not be triggered with the indigenous homeless in mind, treachery ongoing.

      1. Morning ogga1
        People who are granted refugee status have leave to remain in the UK for five years. After this, they can apply for settlement.
        If the status is refused, the decision can be appealed in some circumstances.

        Do they look like refugees?
        ….It’s time the gov. took control of our borders….

        1. 322809+ up ticks,
          PT,
          Well past time, to my mind even 24/6/2016 was to late, but it should have been done post brexit verdict all the same.

          I and many more was calling, build on UKIP party membership as a credible pro UK party, a safeguard, especially on hearing post victory “leave it to the tories”, but no the peoples saw fit to once again go lab/lib/con proven pro eu parties.

          To me it seems these governance parties major,
          cameron, may, johnson ( ? ) have been trying to outdo each other in the treachery stakes.
          `
          The wretch cameron pledged to reduce intake then promptly raised it and so the trend continued.
          Dover tells us that priti johnson will continue the trend.

    3. I really don’t understand why they even get here. We should turn them back. Refuse them entry at gunpoint.

      Instead, the state ensures they are brought here under all sorts of nonsense such as safety and international waters.

      1. 322809+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        I cannot understand how mass uncontrolled immigration has been given carte blanche via the polling booth for decades.

          1. 322809+ up ticks,
            W,
            The choice is always with the peoples
            if you disagree with mass uncontrolled immigration you do NOT continue to support / vote for that party.

  45. Just back from Miller & Carter. Thoroughly recommend. Food and service 10/10. I even managed to work my way through the cocktail list (Go me !). I gave the Long Island Iced Tea a miss though. Didn’t want to be dancing on the tables on the first visit.

    1. Running round in the dark? At least if one falls and hurts themselves they’ll be able to sue the council or Highways for lack of street lighting.

  48. I’ve got to go now to practise my chipping and golf swing in the garden for a bi. Putting’s okay i had a session on the hall carpet yesterday.
    My eldest is treating me with my fathers day present this afternoon. I’d better let him win eh 😏

  49. Our travellers left early this morning. No windows were broken nor cars vandalised overnight. Maybe they really were just mobile people who liked horses. Give a dog a bad name…

    I met some different travellers this morning. I was on my way into town (the first time for almost a month) when, barely 300 yards from the house, two young women and four children, the oldest about 6, stopped me. All were white. One of the women, a pudgy blond, asked me: “Where is shop, please?”

    “Which shop are you looking for?” Blank looks. “There’s a small Morrison’s up there, a short walk.” More blank looks. “A supermarket? Sainsbury’s? The other way. It’s a bit further.” Slightly panic stricken blank looks.

    “Not supermarket…” Some mumbling followed and the oldest child was pushed forward. She got as far as “Que…” and blushed. Then the other woman, slightly built and dark-haired, blurted out “Boots!” (from “Que…” to chemist). She smiled triumphantly.

    “It’s that way, through the park, in the town centre.” I pointed along the footpath which, even in our lockdown loony land, had a steady stream of walkers on it.

    “Thank you!” they said. They continued in the direction of the supermarket. I headed towards town.

    Where were they from? It was hard to tell from the way they spoke. Were they really lost or just having a joke? If they really didn’t know, what are they doing here? How do they survive? I passed several Poles the way into town. There was no mistaking them. I walked through Morrison’s car park which was as multi-national as any UK airport car park. And everywhere litter and the grass uncut.

    The sunny weather didn’t cheer me up much on the way home but at least I didn’t have an encounter with any of our psychocyclists. Still, look on the bright side. It’s not like London. Yet…

    3. I am a mobile person who likes horses (at least, I’m mobile when I can get out in my campervan). Hopefully, I’m not all bad 🙂

      1. It’s always in my shirt pocket – they couldn’t reach that.

        And there was a low parking barrier between us.

      1. I did wonder, given the presence of the other lot, but I’ve heard a few Roma speaking when the fair’s been in the park and they didn’t sound the same. There was a hint of Spanish about their voices but I wasn’t convinced.

        1. The writer George Borrow gives an account of the similarities of gypsy speaking to ancient languages in his books The Romany Rye and Lavengro.

          1. I expect that many of us Nottlers learnt this by heart as I did when I was at school:

            The Rolling English Road
            BY G. K. CHESTERTON

            Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
            The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
            A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
            And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
            A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
            The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

            I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
            And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
            But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
            To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
            Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
            The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

            His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
            Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
            The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
            But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
            God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
            The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

            My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
            Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
            But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
            And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
            For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
            Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

          2. I expect that many of us Nottlers learnt this by heart as I did when I was at school:

            The Rolling English Road
            BY G. K. CHESTERTON

            Before the Roman came to Rye or out to Severn strode,
            The rolling English drunkard made the rolling English road.
            A reeling road, a rolling road, that rambles round the shire,
            And after him the parson ran, the sexton and the squire;
            A merry road, a mazy road, and such as we did tread
            The night we went to Birmingham by way of Beachy Head.

            I knew no harm of Bonaparte and plenty of the Squire,
            And for to fight the Frenchman I did not much desire;
            But I did bash their baggonets because they came arrayed
            To straighten out the crooked road an English drunkard made,
            Where you and I went down the lane with ale-mugs in our hands,
            The night we went to Glastonbury by way of Goodwin Sands.

            His sins they were forgiven him; or why do flowers run
            Behind him; and the hedges all strengthening in the sun?
            The wild thing went from left to right and knew not which was which,
            But the wild rose was above him when they found him in the ditch.
            God pardon us, nor harden us; we did not see so clear
            The night we went to Bannockburn by way of Brighton Pier.

            My friends, we will not go again or ape an ancient rage,
            Or stretch the folly of our youth to be the shame of age,
            But walk with clearer eyes and ears this path that wandereth,
            And see undrugged in evening light the decent inn of death;
            For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen,
            Before we go to Paradise by way of Kensal Green.

          3. Nope but a nice piece. We were obliged to learn Abou Ben Adhem and crap like that.

            After leaving school I taught myself poems by Shelley and John Clare which I can still recite.

          4. Abou Ben Adhem, may his tribe increase. Well, we’ve seen that first hand for ourselves now.

          5. “Grow old along with me, the best is yet to be, that last for which the first was made…”

  50. Afternoon, all. Been another busy day for me, so I’ve come here for a rest (and to look up Continuing Health Care on the computer to see if I can get any help – I’m not holding my breath; most of the things they don’t do are things I need!). As for the letters; the writer of the headline letter must be incredibly naive if he/she/it/they/ze thinks Boris has any intention of stopping the rudderless drift. It’s all part of the plan.

      1. Not really, but thanks for offering. I need help with having a shower put into the downstairs cloakroom (MOH can’t get in and out of the bath and I can’t put up with only having a shower, so I need to keep the bath) and the provision of a stairlift would help, plus an orthopaedic bed. I’ve paid all this money into the NHS over the quarter of a century I was working and it seems I can’t get any help at all. These are items that would make life much easier for me (although MOH grumbles about everything I try to do to ease my burden). I’ve emailed the Continuing Health Care people (I’ve heard nothing from the surgery since the appointment and I was supposed to be referred to all these “teams”) explaining the situation and asking if I qualify for help. I’m doing my bit … In the meantime, I’ve opened a bottle of red 🙂

        1. Have you looked at these motorised belts that make a seat (hammock-style) across the bath. You sit on that and it lowers your butt into the bath, and can hoist you back up afterwards.
          If YOH has difficulty getting tinto the bath, she may well become unstable in a slippery shower, too. Sitting would be better, and a hot bath can be very relaxing… ;-))
          Cheers, BTW.

          1. And I just opened another box of red. The volumes consumed these days means I can’t carry all that empty glass to the recycling… :-((

          2. I had been quite good at the beginning of the week; I actually had two days, despite problems, where I didn’t reach for the bottle. I fell off the wagon yesterday as the strain was beginning to get to me 🙂

          3. Wine in a box has improved tremendously. It used to be cheap and horrible but not anymore.

          5. In a shower we could have a seat to sit on (as my friend with Parkinson’s does). The problem is the shuffle; entrance to any area needs to be as flat as possible! Ceiling hoists are definitely on the “not provided” list.

          6. Can you buy some of the things you need? I’ll send you some money if that would help.

          7. That’s very kind of you, Phil, but I think we should be able to afford the necessary if we can’t get any help (depending on what the final bill is). What irritates me is that people rock up here without paying a penny and get everything provided, while I, who have paid into the system for decades, can’t get anything 🙁 I am determined to try to get something if I possibly can. Only if I have exhausted every avenue shall I sanction our forking out. It’s a matter of principle – like refusing to get a BP machine at home when a trip to the surgery (what ARE they being paid for, after all?) sorted it in minutes.

          8. Understood and i entirely agree with your stance. Keep at them and don’t take no for an answer. I believe it is discretionary so make a fuss and a hullabaloo and threaten to go to the press. Make a lot of noise so they cave in just to make you go away. Not that you should need to in the first place.

          9. That’s what I intend to do. It will wear me down, but I am sick of being taken for a ride.

          10. https://www.completecareshop.co.uk/bathing-aids/electric-bath-lifts/

            Would this help in the meantime?:
            “Electric Bath Lifts
            Bath LiftsOur bath lifts offer powered movement to aid people with low mobility to immerse themselves in a nice, relaxing bath while comfortably seated. Bath lifts allow the bather to wash in safety and comfort by making the bath much more accessible. Excellent for both domestic and professional use, bath lifts are a popular bathing aid for elderly or disabled people.”

            They’re not prohibitively expensive (around £180)

            I used this site to get some anti-slip discs to put on the shower-trays in our house. The one I use, supplied by the builder, is totally smooth, and dangerously slippery when wet with soap/shower gel. The shower tray is 1800mm long, with just a shower screen, no handles or anything to grab onto, so I slipped one day and was quite bruised up, but luckily didn’t break anything, i.e. me.

            Anyway, the site does lots of useful items which might help.

          11. My aged aunt had something like that – a kind of blow-up cushion which raised up so she could ease herself over the side of the bath, then let some air out slowly to lower herself into the water.

          12. Thank you for the link. I’ve bookmarked it to peruse at leisure. The problem with MOH is the complete lack of mobility – even swivelling to get out of the car is difficult (we do have a rotatable cushion, but that doesn’t seem to help). I would envisage having a mat in the shower (we have one in the bath) as I know smooth floors are slippery and I’d be looking at a corner bath with a sliding door and handles.

          13. When looking at photos of hotel bathrooms, the first thing I look for is a safety grab handle in the shower. The next is, is it a walk-in shower or would I have to step over a high lip like the side of a bath.

  52. In 1994 Ramadan (the bombers’ father) settled here, with his wife
    Samia and eldest son Ismail, making Fallowfield their home. They went on
    to have four more sons – all born in the UK (Salman, Hashem, Wesel,
    Othman) – and a daughter (Jomana).

    With no known employment,
    Ramadan spent a lot of time in the mosques around Manchester where he
    was a well-known figure. His wife Samia was also deeply religious.

    Years
    later, when they were old enough, Ramadan would take the boys back to
    north Africa, during their school holidays, to take part in the Arab
    Spring wave of uprisings. But the country’s turmoil didn’t end – and so
    the Abedi family returned to Manchester two years later.

    By August
    2013 they were all back at Elsmore Road in Fallowfield, where mother
    Samia was claiming housing benefit for herself and her five youngest
    children, Ismail having moved out by then.

    The family’s return to
    Manchester didn’t stop the teenage brothers Salman and Hashem spending
    the summer of 2014 back in Libya, possibly fighting in the civil war
    that was raging there at the time. The pair had to be rescued by HMS
    Enterprise in Tripoli in August 2014, with more than 100 other British
    citizens caught up in the fighting.Their rescue was one of many
    acts of humanity and generosity they were happy to accept from a country
    they grew to hate. As well as their council home, the family enjoyed
    approaching £200,000 in state benefits and student loans across seven
    years, some of which would end up being spent on preparations for the
    Arena bomb.”
    So 200k say 150k in housing rates etc 350k over 7 years call it 50k a year remind me again what’s my old age pension that I PAID for…………………….

    1. The under current theme here is that we are breeding b####y terrorists here in the UK, the ungrateful workshy devils are duping us , and they are utter parasites , fed by subsequent governments and do gooders.

      WHAT are they doing here and why didn’t the Intelligence services demand the whole family to be deported .

      That massacre need never have happened if the Intelligence services had had strong leadersip .

      1. why didn’t the Intelligence services demand the whole family to be deported

        See my comment above. The intelligence services brought them here. And they won’t be the only ones.

      2. why didn’t the Intelligence services demand the whole family to be deported

        See my comment above. The intelligence services brought them here. And they won’t be the only ones.

      3. But the PTB think it is a price worth paying for diversity.

        How long are we going to put up with this? Has our spirit been completely broken?

        1. So it would seem. The shootings in the USA are a price worth paying for the 2nd Amendment. Whereas here, it does not work the same way.

          1. Nobody counts the number of times that producing a firearm has stopped violence dead. Quite a few YT videos, but no statistics.

    2. Aesop wrote about “the viper in one’s bosom” two and a half thousand years ago. We never learn.

      1. O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth!

        [Chaucer: The Merchant’s Tale]

    3. This wonderful enriching family were over here sponsored by MI5, part of the western game of 5D chess whereby we nurture some of them here so that later on we can allegedly defeat some others over there.

      Except they never leave here, we never defeat them over there. And then they blow themselves up here anyway.

      See also: the Boston bomber (and family) coddled by the CIA.

    4. And they would say you are racist to mention these facts but unless we stand up for ourselves and rid ourselves of this evil we are lost.

  53. Just lurve my ‘mask exempt’ thingy.
    People are so accommodating; they either leap out of the way or apologise profusely if our trolleys collide.
    Whether they think I’ve got an embarrassing ailment or am a mental case and likely to go off on one, I don’t much care. I imagine Moses had the same feeling when he crossed the Red Sea.

    1. That’s been my experience too, Anne. Was especially amused when I paused to think and consider for a moment while in M&S Food Hall and a couple of masked Oriental ladies asked if they could help me.

        2. I could have done with one of those this morning. I needed to grapple with my bank (unsurprisingly there was a regulation which stopped them doing what I wanted, so I had to negotiate my way around what was allowed before I could do what I needed – not an easy matter for me when I’d worked out how much I had to get to pay the bills and suddenly had to recalculate – aagghh!!), Instead of a quick in, do the deal and leave, I was there for ages 🙁 By the time I got out, I was very unhappy indeed and dragged the face covering off as soon as I got through the door. It doesn’t get any easier for me the more I do it; quite the opposite, in fact.

          2. Why did you need to get lots of cash? If that’s what you meant….. I haven’t been into a bank for years. We pay all our bills either by standing order, DD or debit card.

          3. I needed to pay a couple of large bills and I save in order to be able to fork out when necessary. As I couldn’t get it direct from my savings account, I had to transfer part of it to my current a/c and will have to break the habits of a lifetime and pay for my winter fuel with a cheque.

          5. I make a point of only using cash.
            Why give the Government a means of monitoring or controlling what I spend my money on?

          7. Yes, I do use my debit card online and my pensions are paid direct to the bank, but for day to day purchases it’s cash.

          8. With small tradesmen (not their stature, but their business) I like to hand over cash because then they don’t have to pay bank charges.

          9. I hadn’t thought of that – but I was using very little cash anyway. I don’t know how HHH will manage when they finally allow us to go to events again, as we can only take cash on the stall.
            As far as I know the charity bank account is a business account – but I don’t think we are paying any charges. I’m not the treasurer, so I don’t have access to the account itself but I do see the transactions on the spreadsheet and the accounts are audited.

          10. Just don’t wear a face mask. If it causes that much anxiety you have every reason not to wear one. You don’t need any badges. If anyone says anything just say you are exempt for medical reasons. They have no right to question you further.

    1. He might be right at the bottom but he is not really right in the head.

      I think that one day out of the blue he’s going to say:

      “I’ve had enough. I cannot cope. I resign.”

        1. Plum is the sobriquet of the finest humorous writer of English: P.G. Wodehouse.

          3. What’s more, the piece of apparatus which women have to mount for an ‘internal’ examination, & which leaves their feet dangling in mid-air is known as a Pflaumbaum (plum tree).

  56. One for Minty.

    President Putin biggest critic is now in a coma after being poisoned with toxins in his tea at an airport.

    Of course Putin didn’t do it. We did.

      1. “In bed with the devil.”

        There’s an interesting hypothesis, Maggie. If he is in bed with the devil, we have to suppose that the bed is in a place known, euphemistically, as “Hell”. Apparently, according to the literature, this place called Hell is a furnace of eternal fire. If that is truly the case, it is my guess that his bed must be burning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpkGvk1rQBI

      2. It is all about making Putin look bad. That is why i said we did it. Neither Trump nor Putin have fallen for the globalism scam which is why they are constantly attacked in the media.

      1. Sorry for suspecting you personally, Sos. But you do come across as a bit of a Hit Man sometimes. 🙂

        2. Firstborn can shoot the arsehole off a fly at 200m with a 30-06.
          We call him “The Mechanic”. Contracts taken… cash in advance!

    3. ‘My death wouldn’t help Putin’, rival said before suspected tea poisoning. August 21, 2020

      Moscow: A day before Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny collapsed in what his allies say was a case of poisoning, he met a group of young supporters in private and took a familiar question: why aren’t you dead?

      According to one of the supporters, the 44-year-old smiled. His campaigns against the Kremlin and official corruption had made him many enemies and the target of several violent attacks over the years, so the question didn’t come as a surprise.

      “He even joked that he has to make excuses that he hasn’t been killed yet,” said Ilya Chumakov, one of two dozen activists who met Navalny on Wednesday in the Siberian city of Tomsk.

      Then, according to Chumakov, he grew more serious and added that his death would not help President Vladimir Putin.

      “He replied that it wouldn’t be beneficial for Putin. That it would lead to him (Navalny) being turned into a hero,” Chumakov said.

      https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/my-death-wouldn-t-help-putin-rival-said-before-suspected-tea-poisoning-20200821-p55nul.html

    5. As there are any number of gangsters oligarchs in Russia who would have wanted him to shut up, there are probably hundreds of likely suspects. Why would Putin do anything, when the oligarchs will take care of things, without him being implicated or even knowing anything about it?

  57. DM Story

    Thanks, Miss! QUARTER of all GCSE pupils get A/A* equivalent grades that were recommended by their teachers after government U-turn ditched algorithm – an increase from a fifth last year

    How can a teacher who wants the best grades for his pupils possibly be an objective judge of the grades to which they are entitled? The problem is CONFLICT OF INTEREST

    In politics the old principle of SEPARATION OF POWERS (Executive, Legislature and Judiciary) has come under threat through things like the Supreme Court which, as we have seen, is clearly politically tainted.

    As I said here last week, when GCSE with teachers having to provide the grades for their own pupils came in Caroline and I quit and moved to France to set up our own business..

    1. Conflicts of interest are fine provided the result is what Bill and Boros want…………….

      ”Bright Blue has been the source of radical and exciting ideas that have shaped government”. The Rt Hon Michael Gove MP.

      ”The Daily Telegraph has described the organisation as “the modernising wing of the Tory party”[4] and the ConservativeHome website has described it as “a deep intellectual gene pool for the Conservative Party’s future”.[5] In 2018, the Evening Standard[6] noted “[Bright Blue] has managed to set the party’s agenda on a number of issues”.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bright_Blue_(organisation)

      Amusing then how ”Conservative Party gene pool” ”Bright Blue” is partnered by George Soros’ Open Society, RenewableUK and the Offshore Wind Industry Council…………

      …………and recommended the Conservative Party to enact legal ”Net Zero” which they did !

  60. Minimum of 55 years for the Manchester bomb plotter.

    Wouldn’t it have been cheaper and easier all round if they’d just taken him outside and strung him up instead?

      1. Precisely what MB and I discussed. A spot of the Epstein treatment or something quicker. He can’t be kept under intense observation for 55 years.

      2. Highly unlikely. He’ll be greeted by his fellow religionists and treated like a hero. He’ll be part of a gang and in a few years, some politician, lawyer or other do-gooder will be campaigning for his sentence to be reduced, and for him to be let out on good behaviour. Human rights, and all that.

    1. I think Boros got the call………………

      ”Good afternoon Prime Minister, this is George Soros’ Open Society London here………….

      We wondered if you might be free one day for lunch at the Ritz ? We have a little proposition to put to you from George personally which I’m sure you will find very interesting………

      As you know George is very keen to assist migrants overcome the difficulties they face…. and he’s also very generous indeed when it comes to helping cash strapped politicians too……

      You’re a little short in the wallet you say ? Six children, maybe more, and three wives or is it four, you’re not quite sure….. never mind and don’t worry, George is very kind, understanding, doesn’t ask questions and has the instant cash solution you need. Discretion absolutely assured !

      See you at the Ritz tomorrow then, Prime Minister, we look forward to doing business, thank you Sir, and… Ciao !”

    1. I’ve decided to award myself a PhD in Nottler prejudices.

      My thesis was “The death of common sense and the need for spurious vaccinations”

      I expect to be given a fellowship at Boghampton University on the back of it, with a research grant of £250,000 PA from the Gates Foundation

      1. An achievement we would have said was impossible at the start of the year.
        I’m waiting for the cries of “Bring back Philip Hammond!”

      2. Not true! May would have given everyone an A and instead of discussing the problem with the gimmigrants would have sent the royal yacht over there to bring them over by the boatload.

  63. 322809+ up ticks,
    🎵
    Out on the street I was talkin’ to a man
    He said “there’s so much of this life of mine that I don’t understand”
    You shouldn’t worry I said that ain’t no crime
    ‘Cause you have always got it wrong you’ll best get it right next time,

    An alternative to the lab/lib/con coalition is imperative for these Isles to
    survive, the peoples are there it needs a leader of integrity.

    https://twitter.com/AgainBraine/status/1296436330705158155

    1. Good ol’ Gerry Rafferty, one of my favourites. Most people under a certain age have no clue who he us.

      1. 322809+ up ticks,
        Evening Ims2
        Many peoples under a certain age have
        no clue … period, on many issues.

  64. There are people who cope , and then there are people who do more than cope, and can cope with anything.

    Marvin Creamer, sailor who circumnavigated the world without a map, watch or compass – obituary
    He withstood sandstorms, 50 mph winds and RAF fighter jets, navigating by the sun, the stars and the flight patterns of migrating birds

    Marvin Creamer, who has died aged 104, was 68 when he achieved his boyhood dream of circumnavigating the world without a map, watch or compass.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2020/08/18/marvin-creamer-sailor-circumnavigated-world-without-map-watch/

    1. Excellent, Belle, shame about the DT’s screwed up start to the obit.
      “By night, Creamer’s guides were the passage of the sun, the colour of the water and the flight patterns of migrating birds; by night, he had the stars.”

    2. I have from time to time used the sun to get on back on track in the days before satnav. I have steered us through and across Paris using the time of the day and the sun only. Our younger son had claimed ‘who needs a satnav when you can have a mumnav?’

      1. Poppiesmum the sundial !

        Navigating on a miserable low cloud day is a different matter though.

        I used to love sailing when I was younger, but sadly after trips out in recent years I have seccumbed to feeling terrible on a boat , and all I want to do is curl up and go to sleep .

        1. I loved my sailing, although there were hairy moments in the Solent with a Force 6 against the tide. We once sailed home to Poole from Yarmouth, IOW, in a thickish mist by dead reckoning & picked up the Harbour entrance buoy right on the dot.

          Seccumbed?

          3. Moh and I went into Poole today first time for over 6 months.

            We had a useless trip to PC World , trying to find an upright freezer because our 20 year old one is now almost past it’s best .

            Total palavar, queueing outside , in the sunshine , then let in and guided to the fridges and freezers.. All the freezers were enormous American things, funnily enough with out the space inside nor door shelves that I have in my current one..

            We then drove to Poole quay .. Old Poole High street is no longer accessible to traffic , people munching and slurping from a cafe society which has sprung up on the old road I expect .

            Drove down to where Poole Pottery used to be, just an empty shell now , the quay side was heaving with people, and I mean heaving , and where the old fishermans quay was and old Lifeboat station and further ontowards the bridge was like an overcrowded yacht marina / bling type cruising motor boats/ and what looked like an trillionaires “yacht”.. Then further on down the normal Brownsea Island boats were moored etc .

            To my mind, it was pretty congested . , and when you consider all the yacht clubs and marinas there are in Poole , money does not seem to be in short supply.

            All the way around to Baiter , the car parks were full, cars parked on the road , buses have to squeeze through.

            We felt like strangers in what used to be a favourite area of ours . We didn’t bother going around to Sandbanks to get the car ferry back to the Purbecks , the roads were so busy . I feel utterly depressed , because there has been so much building and new traffic lanes ,the place seems to have changed so much since Lockdown .

          4. Aye, they don’t make them like that anymore.
            Have you read a long article by some bloke who trespasses everywhere because 200 years ago some businessmen put their lucre into land and fancy houses? It mentions your neighbour Richard P-E-E-Drax.
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/english-theft-countryside-taken-public-using-profits-slavery/

            Have you looked at John Lewis for deep freezes? Extra year’s guarantee compared to most retailers.
            Or you could try contacting sensible local charity shops, because some of them sell furniture and they get offered loads of stuff.

          7. All the freezers were enormous American things, funnily enough with out the space inside nor door shelves that I have in my current one..

            Very true. They’re all mouth no freezer space.
            Our freezers is a bit expensive, but we bought it for storage space and ease of finding things in it (we do a regular stocktake and keep a list). It’s a Liebherr upright, with the biggest capacity I could find without being a chest freezer.

          8. Sounds dreadful.
            Do you remember the Shipwright’s Arms on the Hamworthy side of the Quay? Long since demolished. We used to meet up there on a Sunday lunchtime, there was a marvellous folk singer. Only locals because the grockels could see us from the Poole side, but didn’t know how to reach us. Sometimes we sailed there – in a Wayfarer, of course.

          9. Ah, wind against tide, a very interesting experience when the donkey has packed up and you are trying to return to Lymington from Cowes. Happy days though.

          10. Yes I know, thought I would give you something to pull me up on .

            I used to sail from the HMS Dolphin side into Portsmouth harbour , out into the Solent , on either the large RN yachts that the experienced sailors used , the nurses were always willing crew mates, or on easier days , use the Bosuns or Wayfairers just to sail around the harbour in , for a few hours.

          11. Used to sail Wayfarers in Poole Harbour & Studland, arranged camping-sailing weeks on Cleavel Point. That was before it became a commercial site. Sometimes we would have a Shearwater cat or a 420 in our midst.

          12. We used to have a trip down to Studland for the kids doing their RYA level 3 course once a year. It turned out the whole sailing club used to make the trip, instructors bringing their own dinghies to supplement the club toppers and enterprises. We used to take trips out to Old Harry and back with all and sundry.
            The number of enquires from people who wanted to hire our boats was amazing, we could have made a profit on the day.

      3. Imagine trying to drive back to UK for a funeral, tired and arriving at Paris circa 2 a.m. Satnav working, but peripherique closed and diversion signs nowhere to be seen. Satnav kept sending me back to the peri-useless, but eventually a lorry driver guided me back to some outer area.
        Nowadays I travel via Rouen, or Le Havre, or Cardiff, anywhere except Paris.

        1. If you ever want a very pleasant cross country route from the tunnel to the SW of France, let me know.

        2. We also used the Rouen route latterly when travelling to and from the south, it is so much more peaceful and apart from the sheer hassle of Paris we found the route from Paris to Calais very tedious and dull. I love the gentle rolling hills and valleys of Normandy and the long views from the road over the Channel from the Pas-de-Calais, the road climbing to Cap Gris Nez and the long, last downward stretch to Calais and then home.

          2. We have been via Chartres but never stopped, although we have been to the cathedral at Amiens to view the stained glass – it was superb.

        3. I feel your pain, having had peripherique nightmares of my own.
          Just avoid the centre of Metz, it’s smaller, but just as bad. Finding the escape route is well nigh impossible.

          1. Avoid Milan. Go anywhere near the outskirts & it’s like being sucked into a whirlpool.

      4. I used to be able to navigate anywhere, after a quick calibration from the sun, but my stroke killed all that stone dead. For a while, I even used to get lost in the local shopping centre, and that’s about as big as my garage… Things are better now, but nowhere like it used to be.

        1. How so?

          I get lost in Tesco because they keep moving things around. It’s incredibly annoying.

        1. Except in Orleans you want the days to stay for as long as possible and night to go quick just to get out of the wretched place.

      6. I used a car compass, had it for years from car to car. I wonder what happpened to it.

      7. You have a far better sense of direction than I do, clearly! My children’s memories of driving round Paris with me were so traumatic that my son bought me a second hand satnav for my next birthday.

    3. ♫ “Got no compass, watch or map,
      Nonetheless I’m a happy chap,
      I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night” ♫

      ……. I’ll get me sou’wester …….

  65. Pimlico Plumbers boss rages at UK’s university obsession and ‘mickey mouse degrees’ Charlie Mullins did not hold back on his opinions of the UK’s “over-promoted” university ambitions as he listed reasons why a vocational course could be much more beneficial for British young people.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1325162/pimlico-plumbers-news-charlie-mullins-uk-university-degrees-a-level-gcse-exam-result

    Call out for a plumber £50 jus to look at a leaking tap……

  66. Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet – her results were on the way.
    She’d made a complete pox of the tests in her mocks
    But guess what! She got an A!

      1. Hmm, yes, it would.

        However for this reason: if you kill your emeny he is dead. If you break him to your will he changes forever.

        The BBC must be made to report the truth, using all the sides of a story. That way it will be forced to broadcast and publicise all those things they fight so hard to hide.

    1. Obama’s father was born in Kenya in 1936 – a British colony. The ex-President is no friend of Britain – I doubt if the future (?) Vice-President is any friendlier.

      1. It’s reported that O’Banana’s hatred of Britain stems from the supposed “torture” of his grandfather at the hands of the British in Kenya, who allegedly squeezed Grandad O’Banana’s testicles between parallel iron rods.

        It’s a pity they didn’t squeeze them a lot harder.

        1. Which was a load of bollocks.
          Grandad was not Mau Mau as claimed, but was arrested for simple theft and was not tortured.

          1. Obama’s father was a small time thief by comparison with Barack Obama who stole many millions from the American tax payer in cahoots with the Clintons.

    2. When I went for my Turkish lunch on Monday, there was no nonsense about contact details.

    3. A Toronto strip club now has a confirmed CV case and they are still trying to find 500 of their customers who gave false ID

    1. 74, 77. Hell they should both be out at the bowling club.

      There again, if you want a younger model we will happily give you a 48 year old Trudeau.

    2. If Biden wins then how long after the election will he live?

      Will senility or the Democrat Party see him off to install their own chosen one.

      (Very bad times lie ahead for the world. Where is Jill Backson to rub salt in the wound?)

    1. These invaders are not refugees – they are at best, freeloaders and spongers who think the world owes them a living and at worst, they are criminals and/or terrorists who pose an existential danger to Britain’s security. Whichever way you cut it, they are both an unsustainable burden on our society and a grave threat to our way of life.

      Colour me heartless, but as far as I’m concerned, they can live or they can die …… as long as they don’t do it in my country.

      1. Merkel invited millions of these opportunistic chancer peasants into Europe. May signed the UN Migration Pact.

        Both Merkel and May should be strung up with piano wire attached to their big toes. Any lamppost will do.

    5. The Roman empire ruled by force. You at least had a choice – your hetman resisted, you fought, you died – or you didn’t.

      The EU our own government sold us out to for 30 pieces of silver – well, multiple six figures a piece, a 7 figure pension, no work for life and a gravy train so thick the Bisto factory in a flood would be a thumbnail in comparison.

    8. That’s what the Book of Daniel predicts. The recreation of the Roman Empire in the End Times.

      1. Enjoy and experience life while one can is the only answer. Have new experiences, make friends, be kind to people.

        BTW….Mine’s a double… 🙂

          1. I have nothing left to contribute to society and country except my best wishes. My short term memory is …what was i saying?

            Joking aside…i really do have to make notes. I read my kindle every night and then have to re read the following day. Perhaps i should buy better books.

    2. Not for me, thanks, cynarch. I’m off to bed. I’ve just watch a 45 minute-long documentary on YouTube called “Sullivan’s Winter” all about a chap’s whimsical and interesting view of exploring Scotland in the winter months. Highly recommended to all NoTTLers. (You’d enjoy this, Grizzly.) Night all!

  75. Everything bad leads back to Blair.

    Don’t blame judges for controversial legislation

    TELEGRAPH VIEW

    Hashem Abedi has been jailed for a minimum of 55 years for his part in the atrocious Manchester Arena bombing, which murdered 22 and injured hundreds. This means he won’t face parole until he is 75 – but Abedi couldn’t receive the symbolic whole-life tariff because he was under 21 when he committed the crime. Any hint of leniency, no matter how small, is commonly pinned on the judge. In this case, however, Mr Justice Jeremy Baker rather nimbly – and accurately – pointed the finger of blame where it really belongs: at politicians.

    The whole-life tariff used to be the preserve of the Home Secretary. After a European Court of Human Rights ruling, this discretion was handed over to judges – and UK legislation in 2003 put in place a series of sentencing rules that set a minimum age of 21. The home secretary at the time was David Blunkett, but even Lord Blunkett says he can’t recall the loophole being inserted and that it went against the anti-crime spirit of his administration. “Twenty-one … doesn’t have any legal basis at all,” he told this newspaper. “You reach adulthood at 18 and ought to be treated as such.”

    The contrast with America is profound: to persuade the UK to help prosecute members of the Islamist execution squad known as The Beatles, the United States has promised that it will not seek to execute them, and one can almost guarantee that they will never walk free again. If Britain is a softer touch – though 55 years is hardly a slap on the wrist – then it is important to acknowledge that so many of the rules are set by our elected representatives, and that if MPs want to make the case for tightening them, they can.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/08/20/dont-blame-judges-controversial-legislation/

    1. You’d have though the Supreme Court would have overruled Parliament’s wishes again and scrapped the 21 year old threshold.

    2. All they needed to do in 2003 to slip in a clause unseen by the Minister was to bury it in the despatch boxes and forget to translate it into braille. The good David Blunkett may have had the sterling service of his black labrador, but sadly they cannot always proof-read the work of a crafty civil servant, and maybe Blunkett’s PPS was asleep on the job?

      1. I”m here now in Amsterdam and I have to wear one on public transport. Not in shops, but compulsory in two busy shopping streets and two street markets. All at the discretion of the mayor, so the restrictions are very localised.
        Took in some Carravagio at the Rijksmuseum today BTW.

    1. Arizona, that’s next door to California isn’t it?
      Not short of village idiots, clearly.

  80. Good night all.

    Spicy brinjal fritters & zucchini fritters, baked nectarines for supper.

Comments are closed.