Thursday 20 June: Labour’s message to hard workers is that prudence will be punished

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

482 thoughts on “Thursday 20 June: Labour’s message to hard workers is that prudence will be punished”

  1. Good morning, chums. I've only just posted Good Night on Wednesday's page, so I'll now wish you all a good morning, and give you my Thursday Wordle results (I only just made it in 6):

    Wordle 1,097 6/6

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

    By the way, thanks to Geoff. And I can say today: FIRST!!!

  2. Good morning dear people .

    Ouch, fell asleep downstairs, we both nodded off when the news was on TV after the Scotland game , me awake just about and Moh snoring on sofa .. time to put Pip outside for his final wee, so good morning and goodnight to you all . x

  3. Forced to get up by excruciating cramp so I’m icing the affected muscles. Any tips for prevention will be gratefully received (obviously magnesium already on board)

    3. I get appalling cramps too at times. Cold does alleviate but doesn't help in the long term. Try Centrum multi vitamin. Glucosamine. COQ10. All of these supplements are not a magic arrow but GP's never seem to suggest these things.
      Also………..moving about a bit and flexing the muscles might help.

  4. corimmobile
    corimmobile
    True_Belle
    12 minutes ago

    Reposting as I was late responding on the spraying of Stonehenge by Soros funded idiots of Just Stop Oil.

    I have visited the stones at Stonehenge several times. In terms of their depiction in times past we have the C17 architect Inigo Jones opining in his journals that these are a Roman monument, the English caricaturist Rowlandson illustrating them as rickety fragments of stone built as a folly and finally Henry Moore nailing it by drawing them as subtle highly honed shapes which would have required a high degree of human activity and working of the external surfaces.
    I imply that Moore was likening the finely honed surfaces to the entasis on a Greek or Roman column. Sculptors of renown often have an exceptional understanding of the form and surface of historic artifacts.

    Excuse my long sentence. Relatively recently the archaeologist and writer Alexander Thom has published the results of his measurements of many similar Megalithic structures whic occur not only in England but in Ireland and northern France. Thom established that these structures were set out geometrically and with a standard unit of measurement which Thom defined as the Megalithic Foot.

    Despite these revelations a couple of Soros funded morons, equipped with their canisters of orange paint see fit to desecrate our ancient, partially understood ancient monuments.

    Jail is not enough for these idiots, public flogging would be more appropriate, that or recreating the Stocks of old where the public can be stirred to mete the punishment using rotten cabbages and tomato’s.

  5. corimmobile
    corimmobile
    True_Belle
    12 minutes ago

    Reposting as I was late responding on the spraying of Stonehenge by Soros funded idiots of Just Stop Oil.

    I have visited the stones at Stonehenge several times. In terms of their depiction in times past we have the C17 architect Inigo Jones opining in his journals that these are a Roman monument, the English caricaturist Rowlandson illustrating them as rickety fragments of stone built as a folly and finally Henry Moore nailing it by drawing them as subtle highly honed shapes which would have required a high degree of human activity and working of the external surfaces.
    I imply that Moore was likening the finely honed surfaces to the entasis on a Greek or Roman column. Sculptors of renown often have an exceptional understanding of the form and surface of historic artifacts.

    Excuse my long sentence. Relatively recently the archaeologist and writer Alexander Thom has published the results of his measurements of many similar Megalithic structures whic occur not only in England but in Ireland and northern France. Thom established that these structures were set out geometrically and with a standard unit of measurement which Thom defined as the Megalithic Foot.

    Despite these revelations a couple of Soros funded morons, equipped with their canisters of orange paint see fit to desecrate our ancient, partially understood ancient monuments.

    Jail is not enough for these idiots, public flogging would be more appropriate, that or recreating the Stocks of old where the public can be stirred to mete the punishment using rotten cabbages and tomato’s.

    1. You old softy you
      I was thinking more along the line of something involving Druidic robes and Obsidian knives……….
      'Morning Corim

    2. When I was a child, we wandered amongst the stones and had what would nowadays be described as an 'immersive experience'.
      There are small carvings on the sarsens – including if my memory is correct – the double headed Minoan axe.
      But that was in the days when our history was respected.

    1. That's the relevant information – a seat by seat poll. Nationally Reform is too spread out.

  14. Chance of heatwave at 40pc as UK says goodbye to chill of early June. 20 June 2024.

    The UK has a 40 per cent chance of a heatwave in some areas next week, the Met Office has said, as promises of summer finally shine through.

    After a relatively chilly start to June forecasters now predict a “fine and settled” spell of weather next week, with top temperatures likely to exceed 25C for at least two or three days.

    Good heavens. How will we manage?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/chance-of-heatwave-40pc-uk-says-goodbye-early-june-chill/

    1. A heatwave – so a 40% chance it won't rain for a couple of weeks? So a 60% chance it's going to be miserable.
      Sounds about right.

    2. So at a 40% chance of a heatwave, the odds are against. If anyone fancies a bet that there will be no heatwave, you would probably win.

      1. 25ºC is the same as 77ºF and, for me, it is the optimum temperature for cold-smoking bacon.

  15. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Todays (recycled) story.
    Stolen Car

    The light turned yellow just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

    The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection… dropping her cell phone and makeup.

    As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

    He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell.

    After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

    He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do' bumper sticker, the 'Choose Life' license plate holder, the 'Follow Me to Sunday-School' bumper sticker, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk, so naturally…

    …I assumed you had stolen the car."

      6. A pedestrian crossing (or crosswalk in American English) is a place designated for pedestrians to cross a road, street or avenue. The first with a signal was invented by John Peake Knight and installed on Bridge Street, London December 1868. It was a mechanical arm operated by a police office. Unfortunately the gas lamp on top exploded in January 1869 injuring the policeman and the idea was abandoned for about fifty years. Belisha Beacons, orange globes, were introduced in 1934/35 and he first zebra crossing in the world was installed in Slough in 1951.

        1. There's something awry with the year numbers for the mechanical arm signal. The explosion appears to precede the installation.

      7. A pedestrian crossing (or crosswalk in American English) is a place designated for pedestrians to cross a road, street or avenue. The first with a signal was invented by John Peake Knight and installed on Bridge Street, London December 1868. It was a mechanical arm operated by a police office. Unfortunately the gas lamp on top exploded in January 1859 injuring the policeman and the idea was abandoned for about fifty years. Belisha Beacons, orange globes, were introduced in 1934/35 and he first zebra crossing in the world was installed in Slough in 1951.

  19. One thing for sure. Nigel Farage has brought hope back into our country.
    He can wipe the floor with all who stand in his way and thats why the BBC are scared to have him on Question Time.
    He would show them all to be very weak men.

    1. Morning Johnny. One wonders what is the true situation? Are we looking at a Mega-Brexit style upset where voters concealed their intentions until the day of the vote?

    2. The man is no Hitler though and cannot do it on his own. We saw that with UKIP in 2015, such hope producing just one flaky MP.

      He has enormous charisma and energy and in his element down the pub, but he does need a good team of able lieutenants to follow up behind the scenes and make things work.

  21. Good Moaning.
    A little puzzle to start the day.
    From Colchester Freecycle.
    Which half is working? Should we worry about the other half?

    OFFER: Miele washing machine – semi working (Lexden)

  22. 'Morning All
    Dirty tricks from Hope Not Hate??
    Quelle Surprise
    https://x.com/georgegalloway/status/1803382209111531914?s=61
    Galloway ain't my cup of tea but destroying these swine would be a job well done
    Rest
    Make it so……….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c4692ce7ab5a643f77f17015fdb324a97bdbf7adcbcc9f4dae3540a6c914492.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3785beb45bbe4b22b2a7c002c14392639b56212714b05bfd0050e994ed8a8151.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc356476f379f48da5af0531b2e8503e2f90841702555c180456f496a399fb03.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac139a5c0f74e4640a1566cb8c92379a02f1284bb7e5cf1596c92cb329d6e715.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8847f620545b661aa763ff3f3c972e2bfb3cace8d13553dd3632c5fe696f53ac.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4f7722ae48b69178dea3eebea58a3b7711c55d7a507ff32de495e665c80c7e33.jpg

    1. That last one resonates.
      Walking Spartie on a windy day and trying to open a dog poo bag.
      Blood pressure goes through the top of my head.

    2. I don't know what 'Ben' is smoking, but it has clearly altered his grasp of reality.

  23. Ross Clark
    How Keir Starmer plans to rule through the courts
    June 2024

    Never mind Labour’s promise not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT – the party will soon be jacking up taxes for everyone. That sums up the Conservatives’ attack line for this election campaign. But in focusing almost wholly on tax, the Tories are missing what threatens to become the real theme of a Keir Starmer government: the eclipse of elected politicians and the continued draining away of power to the courts.

    According to polls, Labour is heading for a majority of more than 200. That in itself would clip the wings of the House of Commons. Opposition parties will be too weak to challenge a Starmer government, while Labour’s backbenchers will have virtually no power either, as it would take too many of them to threaten Labour’s majority. But who needs large numbers of parliamentary bills when – as Labour showed last time it was in government – the left can achieve what it wants by passing overarching pieces of legislation and relying on judicial activism to do the rest.

    Take migration. One of the reasons support for the Tories has collapsed is its very visible failures to ‘stop the boats’ and curb illegal migration. That was not for want of trying. We have had the Rwanda Bill, as well as numerous failed deals with France. But every initiative has been usurped by a combination of the European Convention on Human Rights and Britain’s own Human Rights Act, which incorporated the former into UK domestic law. Both act as a permanent legal infrastructure capable of frustrating the will of the elected House of Commons. On migration, the Blair government has effectively been continuing to rule from beyond the political grave.

    No one knows better than Starmer how small tweaks by lawyers can effectively change the law with hardly anyone being aware of it. He is now promising a Commons vote on assisted dying – which, in keeping with past practice, will presumably be left as a matter of conscience to individual MPs. When the subject was debated in the Commons in 2015, a bill to legalise assisted dying was defeated by 330 to 118 – with Starmer voting in favour. But what did that count for when he had personally effectively decriminalised assisted dying in Britain 15 years ago, before he was even an MP? As Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2009 he issued guidelines which recommended that friends and relatives would not be prosecuted for helping the terminally ill to commit suicide so long as it was the intention of the person to take their life and that they had merely assisted, not encouraged the act. This was following the case of 23-year-old Daniel James, who died at the Swiss clinic Dignitas after being left tetraplegic in a rugby accident, his parents having helped him to travel to Switzerland.

    Neither government nor parliament had spoken, yet Starmer had effectively amended the Suicide Act 1961 – which confirmed that helping someone to take their life is a criminal offence – with no public debate, let alone democratic vote involved. As a result, people helping friends or family members to kill themselves have been able to act with increasing impunity, even though they are technically breaking the law.

    As DPP Starmer did much the same with abortion law. In 2013 an undercover investigation by the Daily Telegraph appeared to catch two doctors red-handed as they offered an abortion to a woman who told them she didn’t want to have a baby girl. Abortion on the grounds of sex selection is meant to be illegal – terminations are only to be offered when two doctors agree that continuing with a pregnancy would be injurious to the mother’s health. Yet Starmer declined to bring a prosecution, arguing that it would be impossible to prove that sex selection was the only reason for the abortion, so it wouldn’t be in the public interest for the Crown Prosecution Service to proceed. Again, he effectively decriminalised something without any intervention by parliament.

    Five years ago the former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption used the BBC’s Reith Lectures to warn how what he called ‘the expanding empire of the law’ was seizing powers which ought to be the preserve of elected politicians.

    While judges have always been involved in the evolution of the law – through common law, for example – he asserted that during the past three decades ‘the courts have developed a broader concept of the rule of law which greatly enlarges their own constitutional role… they have inched their way towards a nation of fundamental law overriding the ordinary processes of political decision-making, and these things have inevitably carried them into the realms of legislative and ministerial policy’. As well as snatching power from parliament, he argued, courts have been extending their tentacles into what has previously been private matters between citizens.

    Britain, in other words, is evolving from a democracy towards a kritarchy – the rule of lawyers. Starmer is the living embodiment of this process. Read through his programme for government and one thing jumps out: his determination to involve the courts even more deeply in our day-to-day lives, in ways that will prove hard to predict and difficult for future governments to unwind. As well as the Human Rights Act, the last Labour government left us with the monster that is the Equality Act. By introducing the concept of ‘protected characteristics’, the act effectively handed immense power to minority groups in ways which a Conservative government has proved incapable of dismantling in spite of ministers regularly lashing out at the ‘woke’ takeover of public institutions.

    Starmer now wants to extend the provisions of the Equality Act. He promises to enact the ‘socioeconomic’ duty which requires public bodies to adopt effective measures to address inequalities resulting from differences in occupation, education, place of residence or social class. In other words, a Starmer government will elevate being working-class to yet another protected characteristic, allowing people to take public authorities to court if they felt they were being discriminated against on that basis.

    Labour is also promising a Race Equality Act, which would extend the right to equal pay from gender to race – this in spite of the havoc which has been caused by existing legislation. When equal pay was first legislated for in Britain in 1970, it was designed to protect women who worked alongside men – for clear cases of discrimination, essentially. Yet over the decades the concept has been subtly extended to include ‘work of equal value’ – in other words people doing different jobs but which a court or tribunal has ruled are somehow equal.

    Moreover, a 1999 ruling by the European Court of Justice opened the way to discrimination cases based on statistical differences on pay without evidence of active discrimination. The result has been catastrophic for residents in Birmingham, whose council went bust as a result of an equal pay claim which awarded £760 million in back pay and damages to cleaners, cooks and care staff – female-dominated occupations employed by the council. Their work had been deemed to be of ‘equal value’ to that of dustmen and other male-dominated occupations.

    When Birmingham sought to settle equal pay cases in 2012, the Conservative-led coalition reacted with delight, seeing that Birmingham Council was Labour-controlled. The Conservatives failed to notice that equal pay law had put Birmingham council, along with all public bodies, in an impossible position, expected to carry out highly subjective assessments to compare different
    occupations so that they didn’t fall foul of the law. If the court made a different – again highly subjective – judgment, then the council was stuffed.

    The present government has done nothing to prevent the same debacle happening with other councils and public bodies. With the Equality Act, the Brown government planted a huge bomb under its successors, and it is one that the present government has failed to defuse.

    What has happened on equal pay law is typical of how power is drifting away to the courts. What greatly enhances the powers of judges is when we have laws based on vague principles which are open to a wide variety of interpretations. There is no better example than the ‘right to a family life’, which over the years has come to be interpreted in all manner of ways, many of which undermine government efforts to control migration and maintain law and order.

    The lawyers who drafted the original European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) in 1950 are unlikely to have foreseen that the right to a family life would one day help the likes of the Albanian criminal Gjelosh Kolicaj to remain in Britain. He was supposed to have been deported from Britain after serving a sentence for money-laundering, yet a court ruled it would infringe his human rights because he had family here.

    Nor could they have foreseen that the ECHR would one day rule in favour of a group of elderly Swiss citizens who argued that their right to a family life had been infringed because they hadn’t been able to go outdoors during a heatwave – the Swiss government being blamed for the hot weather on the grounds that it hadn’t taken sufficient action against climate change.

    In a chat with London mayor Sadiq Khan to celebrate Eid this week, Starmer seemed to promise new laws that would make ‘Islamophobia’ a crime. Yvette Cooper, likely to be home secretary in a few weeks’ time, has also said that police will be obliged to record all ‘non-crime hate incidents’ of Islamophobia. Given that we already have laws against racial and religious hatred, it is hard to see what would be gained from this – except to make it a crime to attack or criticise the religion of Islam itself (as Ed Husain discusses in his article). As with the SNP’s Hate Crime Act, the power will come with the vagueness of the wording. If such an Islamophobia law arrives, no one will feel safe even making a mild joke about Islam, because they couldn’t be sure how a court would interpret the law.

    If and when the Tories return to power, they will find it a lot more difficult to tackle the drift of political power to the courts. By then, a Starmer government will have further entrenched the process. If the polls are correct, Britain won’t be so much electing a government for the next five years as voting for the permanent enfeeblement of parliament and representative democracy.

    1. This was covered succinctly by Hitchens & Starkey in their review of Starmer's hidden manifesto of; reducing parliamentary powers to a fussing chamber by shifting all the important decision making to

      Quangos.. & Local Labour city councils.. and most importantly the Supreme Court.

      permanently.. forever.. and make it illegal to undo.

      1. as Tony Blair liked to remind everyone.. "somethings are just too important for little people to be involved in.."

    2. This was covered succinctly by Hitchens & Starkey in their review of Starmer's hidden manifesto of; reducing parliamentary powers to a fussing chamber by shifting all the important decision making to

      Quangos.. & Local Labour city councils.. and most importantly the Supreme Court.

      permanently.. forever.. and make it illegal to undo.

    3. Not a single bonus banker or executive openly defrauding the public were prosecuted under Starmer's watch as DPP, but plenty of innocent subpostmasters were.

      That man is not fit to run the country, let alone be rewarded with absolute power on a lower popular vote than Corbyn. He fiddled the law and is now fiddling democracy itself. He looks shifty and his cabinet look dead-eyed and flat-voiced as they submerge their character to do his bidding. Just look and listen to Reeves as she speaks. My Nokia is more human. I had hopes for Lisa Nandy, when she campaigned for reviving market towns, but my goodness she seems permanently anaesthetised since Starmer took over the party.

      The Conservative Party is on a downer right now, so cannot be relied on to put up any fight against Starmer. Therefore, it is down to a motley crew of Liberal Democrats, Nationalists, Greens and Reform to do what is necessary.

      If Labour does put up a candidate with enough spirit of character to take on Starmer, then good luck to him or her, and I for one give my blessing to this person. Perhaps we nottlers could identify and list below such worthy people, so we can direct support accordingly.

    4. The "equal value" judgement is good actually. A politician's work is of equal value to a Birmingham binman I reckon and so it's obvious that politicians have been over generously compensated. It's only fair that they return the balance of the overpayments they've received over the years in the form of back pay to the bin collectors.

      Justice. A double-edged sword.

  25. BBC Question Time omit Nigel Farage from two-hour party leaders special..

    first question up for our panel..
    "How much more funding.. and how many more migrants do we urgently need to solve every problem..?"
    Lots? or Lots lots lots more.. ?
    to save time can you please elect a spokes-person.."

  26. "Growth without taxes" is being reported right now on R4's Today Programme as being the cornerstone of Labour's economic policy.

    Isn't this a straight lift from Liz Truss's programme of 2022?

    1. Grow the Economy

      Yesterday morning, I listened to our next Chancellor Rachel Reeves being interviewed (i.e. harangued and interrupted) by Nick Robinson.

      I was struck by the number of times she said that Labour would “Grow the Economy”. So this morning I replayed that 16 minute item and counted the actual numbers:

      Rachel: ‘Grow the Economy’: 16 times; ‘Deliver Growth’: 5 times
      Nick: ‘Grow' or 'Growth': 6 times

      So I look forward to lots of Growth, fertilised no doubt by loadsamoney extracted by her from (among other things) ‘bearing down on Tax Avoidance’ (you know, the LEGAL sort, like the tax free interest on ISAs). Better move your savings somewhere else. And soon.

      1. Reeves has already sold out to the globalists. She has been enjoying the services of a 'campaign adviser' provided by FGS Global. FGS represents a variety of finance houses who wish to know the inside track on any future Labour economic policy.
        They have placed and she has accepted a spy in her camp.
        *Private Eye.

    2. Grow the Economy

      Yesterday morning, I listened to our next Chancellor Rachel Reeves being interviewed (i.e. harangued and interrupted) by Nick Robinson.

      I was struck by the number of times she said that Labour would “Grow the Economy”. So this morning I replayed that 16 minute item and counted the actual numbers:

      Rachel: ‘Grow the Economy’: 16 times; ‘Deliver Growth’: 5 times
      Nick: ‘Grow' or 'Growth': 6 times

      So I look forward to lots of Growth, fertilised no doubt by loadsamoney extracted by her from (among other things) ‘bearing down on Tax Avoidance’ (you know, the LEGAL sort, like the tax free interest on ISAs). Better move your savings somewhere else. And soon.

  27. 388741+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    I will go along with reform on this occasion taking on the incumbent political cartel it is, at this moment in time, the only
    forward motion step that can be taken.
    As for trust in its leadership and much of its body content, there is none, if it seems like, & looks like the tory mk 2 then highly likely it is ……

    https://x.com/SandraWeeden/status/1803658835552358481

    2. This map has West Worcestershire, where I live, turning red. Labour doesn't even have a district councillor here, and my review of the six candidates and the small number of green and orange posters (and no red or blue ones) suggests that the local Tory is home and dry.

    3. Looking at that map, we are done for here in my part of Dorset .

      The redness everywhere smells of Marxism/ Trotsky/ every possible ism ever , including total diversity , Mohommadism .. and total control for decades to come .

    4. If true, His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition will be extra – Parliamentary. Withhold taxes, do not comply.

      3. Interesting how the compiler of that graphic seems to be numerically-challenged.

        He adds +316 (seats) to Labour's 202 and comes up with a new total of 516. New Labour: New Maths?

  29. Good Morning Folks

    Bright sunny start here

    Wordle 1,097 5/6

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

    1. Even brighter here, another 30C sunny day on offer.

      Wordle 1,097 3/6

      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟨
      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. The standard of driving in our country has hit rock bottom.
          And of course it the fault of our Government.
          New arrivals should have been tested on their ability and knowledge. Not just allowed to get behind the wheel and seemingly do what they like.

          1. Especially so with coloured taxi drivers who are appalling drivers .

            How do they get their licences to transport the public around ?

          2. Brown envelopes TB
            Tuesday I used a cab to get to the hospital in Hitchin. He did ask but he was talking on his phone in a forgien language all the way there and even missed the turning and had to reverse turn round and go back.
            I don’t know if you saw my comment last year after we had been staying overnight in London before my hospital visit last July. We sat on a street bench alongside a large parking bay. After about ten minutes some people arrived to get into a large SUV. Blue disabled notice across the dash in a disabled parking bay. Three women not wearing recognised western attire got in and three bearded males followed them akso. Not one of them showed even the slightest resemblance of being disabled.
            Me being a sceptic figured out that perhaps a Bung or two had taken place during the application.
            Cheap easy and safe parking at least all over London. Mates Rates.

          3. Not all illness is physical. By your description of their clothing, they could well have been suffering from some religious affliction – perchance Norwegian Methodists.

  32. Good morning from the Devon Riviera,

    Glorious morning here. Clear blue sky with a few streaks. Wind South. Not too hot. Just nice.

    A tip for travellers on the A303/A30 to the West who don’t like Starbucks/Costa etc. The Tea-room at The Vine in Honiton. It’s off the High Street down Vine Passage but it is on Google Maps. Good loose-leaf tea, fresh scones and home made cakes, light lunches. Sensible prices, excellent value.

  33. Good morning from the Devon Riviera,

    Glorious morning here. Clear blue sky with a few streaks. Wind South. Not too hot. Just nice.

    A tip for travellers on the A303/A30 to the West who don’t like Starbucks/Costa etc. The Tea-room at The Vine in Honiton. It’s off the High Street down Vine Passage but it is on Google Maps. Good loose-leaf tea, fresh scones and home made cakes, light lunches. Sensible prices, excellent value.

  34. Good morning all.
    A warm, dry but overcast start to the day with 10°C on the Yard Thermometer and little wind to disturb the trees over the road..

  36. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely sunny start again.
    Labour are as useful as a chocolate tea pot.
    Here's an example of what happens to our social structure when even other stupid people are in government. Our 4 year old granddaughter is now in a class of four at her school. And other schools around the country are already closed. Could that be because the hard working working/middle classes can not afford to have families ? Because they are being forced to support all those who who don't want to work, mainly because they don't have to work. Another 800 plus yesterday !
    This is all happening Because our apocalyptic political classes have effed up every single thing they have come into contact with.
    And now they want us to vote for them.

    1. Morning Eddy,

      My 2 sons are un married and in their fifties , husband and I lament the lack of grandchildren in our lives .

      No 1 son has no desire to have children or even a wife , he has had so many useless girlfriends , that now he sticks to his hobbies and athletics .

      No 2 son has a male partner , a stable long term relationship , they are a grand couple !!!

      However , we glory in the glory of the various successes both sons have achieved .

      We have heard so many horrific stories from other couples who have terrible problems with their families and lack of access to grandchildren etc .

      My younger sister in SA is unmarried , childless but a terrific aunt to my younger sisters children and my brother 's children .

      When I am shopping , I always take a peek at small babies , and I even asked a mum if I could hold her baby for a moment whilst she was being checked out, amazing to remember how heavy and wriggly some babies are.

      I love children , but I also have the sort of glare that can stop a toddler whining!!!!

      Some mums don't appreciate that.

      1. Lovely sentiment TB.
        I can't help reacting to little children around 2- 4 years old when we are out. But somehow they change seemingly automatically when they start school. It's a shame not all older men are nasty. But the 'little uns' can wear us oldies out. ☺️

      2. Babies are okay as long as they are quiet or asleep. Toddlers can be funny but they grow into teenagers. That's when i start harbouring murderous thoughts. Lucky for them i am childless. :@)

      3. Plenty of men in their fifties are willing and able to have children, even if relationships can be difficult. Has he thought about a trip to Thailand?

  38. Guten Morgan:
    Wordle 1,097 4/6

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

  39. Flawed Troubles Act

    SIR – Families who lost loved ones in the Troubles are unanimous in their view that the Legacy Act is an abomination, which would put justice out of reach forever.

    The High Court in Belfast ruled earlier this year that core parts of the Act breach human rights.

    Far from presenting a danger (report, telegraph.co.uk, June 16), repealing the legislation will contribute to societal healing and help the provision of longed-for answers.

    Families deserve the truth of what happened to their loved ones. To characterise due process as vexatious is insulting to victims and undermines the basic tenet of the rule of law.

    The next UK government must not only repeal, but also replace this flawed Act with processes that put victims and their rights to truth, justice and reparations at its centre.

    Grainne Teggart
    Deputy Director, Northern Ireland
    Amnesty International UK
    London EC2

    Ah, the victims. All of them from both sides of the border, Ms Teggart? Military, police, civilian? I suspect not…

  40. Rural-phobic Labour has a vendetta against the countryside

    Tory incompetence risks handing Sir Keir Starmer's party swathes of seats it couldn't care less about

    MADELINE GRANT • 19 June 2024 • 6:26am

    One of the untold stories of this election is the crisis facing the Conservatives in rural England. There are seats here that have voted Tory since the Reform Act or before which are now looking like they might switch to Labour or the Lib Dems.

    The fact that the PM spent Tuesday campaigning in Sir Geoffrey Cox's new seat of Torridge and Tavistock, previously home to a circa 25,000 Conservative majority, testifies to the party's electoral malaise. In 2019, the Tories won all but two of the "deeply rural" seats. This time, Labour could win half of them. Rural voters should be careful what they wish for.

    Sir Keir Starmer recently vowed to end the "divisive" era of culture wars (hilariously implying that the Left never starts them). Yet front and centre of his rural commitments is not a statement on farming or on crime or on anything else that actually comes up in country life, but a ban on trail hunting.

    This is an obvious case of throwing a bone to Labour's Left-flank, plus the well-heeled pressure groups within its ranks. The policy appears rooted in vindictiveness, with neither evidence nor necessity propelling its introduction.

    Since hounds cannot be domesticated, what does Labour intend to do with these estimated 12,000 animals when there are no longer funds to care for them, and their keepers have been made redundant? With an overstretched police presence as it is, the idea that chasing a scented rag should be prioritised over burglaries and machete attacks can only come from one place – a sort of rural-phobia.

    The targeting of trail hunting epitomises Labour's approach. Prior to being elected MP for the loamy acres of Croydon North, shadow environment secretary Steve Reed was a councillor in Lambeth. For the current Labour frontbench, rural areas are like Chamberlain's Czechoslovakia; a far-off land of which we know nothing.

    They know nothing, and say less. Tucked away in the "Make Britain a clean energy superpower" section of the Labour manifesto is a single paragraph on farming; 87 words, amid more than 130 pages of padding, word salad and photos of Sir Keir.

    One of the party's few tangible pledges is to end "ineffective" badger culls – even though, this year, the most rigorous analysis of its kind found that rates of bovine TB in cattle had fallen on average by 56 per cent in the first cull areas after four years. That Labour has chosen to misrepresent the impact of culling is telling; placing evidence-free sentimentality above farmers' interests.

    The list goes on. Until recently, Labour was gleefully demanding a Scottish-style universal "right to roam" in England, despite its higher proportion of residents and farming land. It plans to raise firearms licensing fees; proceeds to be diverted towards violent crime prevention schemes for urban youths. Quite why legal firearm-owners in rural areas must be financially responsible for city knife attacks is not explained. Clearly, some in Labour view the countryside as a Barbour-jacketed ATM to be pillaged.

    Then there is the insanity of Welsh Labour's "Sustainable Farming Scheme", which would harm food security and place unrealistic burdens on farmers; bribing them to commit 10 per cent of their land to tree-planting schemes, plus a further 10 per cent for environment and wildlife. The Welsh government has pushed for this, even after its own impact assessment estimated an 11 per cent cut in labour on Welsh farms, the equivalent of 5,500 jobs. Welsh Labour's illiberal 20mph zones and road-building bans also drew farmers' wrath, contributing to the mass protests earlier this year.

    Labour's plans to boost house-building are long overdue and, to my mind, the most commendable part of its manifesto. The trouble is that encouraging relentless population growth, as our political class has done from Tony Blair onwards, threatens to absorb much of it. Britain needs as many as 500,000 new homes annually to meet population growth. Will Labour's plans be accompanied by a similar drive to reduce migration? If not, how much of the countryside must then be devoted to building?

    There is already a serious issue with rural Britain being overlooked by a political system that prioritises the majority; the realities of country life are rarely reflected in debates about green policies; from wood-burning stoves to electric cars.

    Memories are long in rural areas and many people will still remember the pyres of burning livestock during foot and mouth, the loss of livelihood and culture over the hunting ban (which Blair later cited as one of his biggest political mistakes).

    Of course, many in rural areas are furious with the Conservatives, too, and with good reason. The state of our waterways, the lack of support for farmers, the neglect of problems like flooding and rural crime: Tory administrations have at times treated the countryside shamefully. Some rural seats, deemed "safe as houses", became a dumping ground for Central Office urbanites who needed or wanted an easy ride into Westminster; or a reward for Spads who have rarely left SW1.

    Conservative incompetence and arrogance risk handing Labour many of these seats, but where there is a diligent incumbent Tory MP, rural voters might consider holding their nose and backing them. The idea that anyone under the Labour whip will have the interests of the countryside at heart is for the birds. Country-dwellers, in their anger, risk voting in those with an active vendetta against them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/19/rural-phobic-labour-has-vendetta-against-countryside/

    1. Labour's policy mirrors the national food security strategy. A typically misnamed government document that deals with neither food nor food security. What it waffles on about is forcing net zero which means, as we saw with salads, rationing. It is as simple as that. The state wants to starve people of energy and food.

      It is truly, honestly insane.

      What's even more bonkers – the Tories wrote the national food security strategy. (well, defra did, and that's basically a branch of the EU). They're both the same. The telegraph doesn't seem to make that point. It needs to say that these are current Tory policies.

      1. Its a good point in general wibbly. With all this 'catastrophising' about Labour getting in, presumably designed to scare people back into the blue pen as usual, people are in danger of forgetting that the Tory Wets support most of what Starmer and co want to do, in any case.

      2. Its a good point in general wibbly. With all this 'catastrophising' about Labour getting in, presumably designed to scare people back into the blue pen as usual, people are in danger of forgetting that the Tory Wets support most of what Starmer and co want to do, in any case.

      3. Nothing new. When the Chinese communists invaded Tibet, there wasn't enough food; the Tibetans starved, while the People's Army grew fat.

    1. Not a lot of grammar or spelling though.

      If there was a none of the above it'd probably win every time. As it is, the fundamental problem is a complete lack of democracy. The state lumbers along, doing whatever it wants using our money to make our lives more expensive, harder and dumping more dross on on.

      If the state were given nothing – not a penny – and had to justify what it would use the money for then it would be forced to be more efficient. Imagine if the MoD had to justify why it employs 150,000 civil servants yet there are only 70,000 serving personnel?

      1. 388741+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        If he was a life saving surgeon who’s approach to you was,
        “wocha me old cocker ow yer doing” would you hold the same sentiments ?

      2. I understand your frustrations but by what mechanism can the state be denied even a penny? It's just wishful thinking with no means of fulfilling it.

        1. A general tax strike is a good idea. We need a completely different form of government. One totally removed from the existing 'vote and it makes no difference' nonsense.

  42. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/06/20/just-stop-oil-targets-taylor-swift-airfield/

    That these joilers think they can do this is because the state didn't properly punish them the first time around. As it is, the hypocrisy is staggering. A power tool powered by a battery, oil based paint, clothes made using oil.

    This woman needs to be arrested, beaten to a pulp and then thrown into a fenced off compound with absolutely nothing made from oil available to her or the rest of the wasters.

    Do the same for all such mental cases. Within 3 months they'll be screaming for medicine, or clean water – which is basically the same. At that point we say 'we've stopped oil for you.'.

    Make them live the future they want. Punish their stupidity and hubris.

    2. You miss the point; such women wish to beat YOU to a pulp, or work you to death whilst you are being starved. If you ignore tribal societies, two examples of similar political ideology would be Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, and North Korea today. Anti-intellectualism is a key part of the 'mindset', which is why the r*pe. torture and killing of Israeli women is celebrated every Saturday in London by communists who muster under the banner of Hamas.

      1. Oh i know. She's a typical communist who wants to be in charge. She wants the whip hand over those she hates. THus why it's so vital that she be properly punished.

      1. Is that standing on her hind legs?

        Mongo wanted a hug today so he jumped up – it's rare, but he does. His paws went over my shoulders.

    2. From Dear Mary in the Spectator.
      Thought this custom had disappeared with Upstairs Downstairs

      Q. A friend has married somebody very grand and has bought into the upper-class-twit lifestyle. Her husband (aged 30) expects the women to leave the table after dinner. She has invited me to stay for a weekend but others in our friendship group say it would be a betrayal of all our feminist principles if I allow myself to be ushered into a sort of Barbie zone to talk about handbags while the men talk about politics, and that I should take a stand. What should I do?
      – M.M., London SW18
      A. Withdrawing is ultra-retro and certainly not the norm in ‘upper-class-twit’ circles. Since the feminism battle was won so many decades ago, it would be equally retro for you to rise to this bait. You should have the confidence to enjoy the living-history aspect of the quaint custom, as you may never get another chance.

      1. Bizarre. Post dinner conversation separation was long ago replaced by golf and shooting and other creative ways of excluding the ladies.

      2. Don't know about that; I'd just drop a big fart in the bloke zone before gracefully withdrawing. Note to self: prep is essential for this kind of campaign; lots of kedgeree for brekkies.

        1. But a little lonbee should be a cuddly furry creature from one of Attenborough’s jungle programmes.

  44. Summer solstice today, it's nearly noon and so cloudy/dark that we need lights on in the house.
    The weather forecast is dire, but I console myself that those forecasts themselves are dire in their inaccuracy.

      1. This year's is by far and away the worst run up to summer that we've had in the 15 years we've been here.
        I've yet to be even remotely tempted by the pool and jumping in to get the cold shock over with would probably kill me!

        1. From a seaside village in Valencia
          23°C
          Thursday 11:21 Mostly sunny
          It’s raining

  45. Matt Ridley
    Whoever you vote for, the Blob wins

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Screenshot-2024-06-19-at-15.55.32.png

    At the age of 66 I feel like a first-time voter. As a member of the House of Lords, I was not allowed to vote in the last three general elections. But I retired from the House in 2021, so democracy here I come. I shall scan the ballot paper with interest: who is standing for head of the Office of Budget Responsibility, or chair of the Climate Change Committee? I would like to read their manifestos, since they seem to be the folk whose ‘models’ tell the country what it must do, brooking no dissent.

    What’s that you say? It doesn’t work that way? How quaint of me to think that the mighty quangocrats who wield so much power should have meaningful accountability to parliament, let alone the people. Joking aside, I have now seen how government works close up. Stealthily but steadily, almost all real political power has been stripped from elected councillors, MPs and even ministers over the past two decades by ‘officials’ and handed to ‘experts’ in quangos, nationalised industries, arms-length bodies and courts.

    Watch a clip of Yes Minister and it’s like looking at something from the political Cretaceous period, because Humphrey and Hacker were on equal terms. Today, when Hacker suggests a policy, Humphrey reminds him that he has devolved responsibility to the National Paperclips Authority, or it’s not within his power, or judicial review will stop it, or it’s against human rights law, or he’s bullying Bernard by asking him to turn up to work.

    Rory Stewart tells alarming stories of civil service obstruction in his memoir. When he tried to stop aid going to jihadis in Syria, he was told it was not within his power, then that the decision came from a ‘small group’ of senior civil servants who outranked him. He called their bluff, exposing these excuses as false. But when he wrote to the prime minister, his draft was edited to remove his argument; when he reinserted it, they ‘lightly edited’ – i.e. re-removed – it. When he wrote his own letter to the prime minister’s foreign policy adviser, the chap refused to pass it on.

    In my nine years in the House of Lords, I saw this at first hand. No matter how cogent my argument in the chamber, or even in a select committee, and no matter how polite the minister’s reply, most of the time she or he might as well have just been saying: Sir Humphrey says no. Who was the monkey and who the organ grinder? Parliament was mostly an elaborate charade. It was one of the reasons I decided to retire.

    This growing democratic deficit is not only a slow-motion coup; it’s surely a big cause of our stagnation. More and more people are drawing salaries for interfering in more and more ways in small matters that affect the freedom of ordinary people. There are few quangos with a vested interest in change. The economy is increasingly run for producers, not consumers.

    For example, the sloth-like speed of our planning system is a lucrative symbiosis that rewards local officials, consultants and their lobbyist chums while its barriers to entry suit the developers just fine. The planning system fattens inexorably, and is indifferent to criticism because who is in charge? Not the housing minister: he’s just there to take the blame, while being quietly thankful it stops any development in his own constituency.

    All bureaucratic bodies do the same thing, regardless of their titles: they maximise their budgets and widen their remits. The Office for Civil Society, the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the Zebra Crossing Authority (I made the last one up) all have the same goal: to expand and endure. I recently spoke to a quango chairman who, with great honesty and no little pride, listed his main achievements: ‘I’ve doubled our budget and increased our head count by 2,000.’

    That same quango now gives itself ‘up to’ (i.e. at least) four months to reply to the simplest application. It darkly hints that decisions might come quicker if you hire its commercial arm to prepare your application – which is blackmail by any other name. I dare not name it for fear of retribution when I next need its permission for something.

    The bigger these agencies get, the longer it takes them to make a decision, the more time they spend talking to themselves and the less time they have for us, their supposed customers. Notice how the key people are often ‘on courses’ (golf ones, sometimes).

    MPs are little more than human shields whose job is to take the blame for decisions made by bureaucrats. The ever-growing reach of parliamentary standards rules, implemented by appointed outsiders, keeps them in line. This is not to deny that bad behaviour happens and must be punished. But even virtuous MPs live in fear of a vexatious claim of misbehaviour launched by a politically motivated enemy in the permanent bureaucracy.

    Even ministers are scapegoats. The job of the health secretary is to apologise for waiting lists and scandals, not fix them. The job of the defence secretary is to shield admirals from blame for ordering two aircraft carriers and forgetting to equip them with planes. The job of the foreign secretary is to represent the views of the Foreign Office (and foreigners) to us, not vice versa. For many ministers, this devolving of responsibility is welcome and convenient. Notice how successive Post Office ministers from Sir Ed Davey onward enthusiastically denied they could intervene in the Horizon scandal.

    The ministers who thrive are those who go along with the system, obediently setting up OBRs (Osborne, G.) and CCCs (Miliband, E.) and football regulators (Sunak, R.). The ones who resist are kicked out for ‘bullying’ (Raab, D., Patel, P.) or eating a cake at a party mostly attended by – you guessed it – officials (Johnson, B.). The leaking and briefing is against the ones who try to resist the growth of the democratic deficit, I notice. It’s not in that sense ‘political’.

    It would be a mistake to imply that civil servants are evil. There is no devious plan. The common refrain from Tory ministers in recent years – ‘my civil servants are actually great guys’ – is usually genuine and not always a case of Stockholm Syndrome. But the alacrity with which civil servants have seized on pre-election ‘purdah’ to cancel all Tory initiatives, even ones started months ago, has shocked several ministers I know.

    If you talk to quangocrats, it quickly becomes apparent that the thing that annoyed them most about Liz Truss – and boy did they hate her – was that she criticised the Bank of England and fired a senior Treasury civil servant. The effrontery! The Bank of England could not believe its luck when its own disastrous mistakes over interest rates and liability-driven investments were blamed almost entirely on her.

    Labour promises to kick the last hereditary peers out of the Lords, completing its transformation into a giant patronage quango. Real reform of the Lords, if it ever comes, must not take the form of elevating experts from different areas of industry and policy: that would be a further victory for the bureaucratic elite. Instead I would grant the power of appointing peers to local councils, or even call people up randomly for service in the Lords like jury service. That would really give Sir Humphrey conniptions.

    Of course, ministers get to appoint the chairs of quangos but even that power is shrinking. Latterly, the Tories in government found that their preferred appointees were kept off shortlists by civil servants on some pretext or other. Partly this was ideological, anybody with a whiff of conservatism being deemed ‘not impartial’ (it happened to me), whereas lefties were fine, but a lot of it was just civil servants gradually expanding their power. I suspect the Starmer administration will not find it as easy as Tony Blair’s did to stuff their chums on public boards.

    The toolmaker’s son heading for No. 10 is not just the bureaucrat’s friend, but a knighted quangocrat himself. He is one of them. They are going to love him, but will they allow him any power? To start with, at least, they will let him believe he is in charge. Yes, Sir Keir, of course, Sir Keir, right away, Sir Keir. But the moment one of his cabinet ministers starts asking awkward questions about why something is taking so long, watch them resist. Wes Streeting is my candidate for the first ministerial resignation for ‘bullying’ his officials, for which read asking them to actually reform the NHS.

    Brexit was the one victory of the Tories over the bureaucracy – and that was forced on them by events. When David Cameron made a referendum promise he thought a coalition would prevent him having to keep, democracy sneaked through. The democratic deficit in Brussels had grown too obvious to be ignored: the euro-clerisy had overreached. For me, it was the three years of frantic efforts of the establishment to stop, reverse, water down, deflect and delay Brexit that brought home just how bad the democratic deficit has become at home as well as in Brussels. It is a shibboleth of the new elite that referendums must never, ever happen again.

    So the ballot paper that confronts me on 4 July will disappoint. I know that real power lies at court, not in parliament. I shall vote Conservative, but only because my local MP is a friend. And I pray that somehow, a groundswell is growing to kick back against the stagnation imposed on a great nation by battalions of beadles and busybodies.

      1. Why? It should be common knowledge. The entire edifice of state is determined to ensure absolutely nothing improves because it affects their income.

    2. two things..

      1/ There is no devious plan. LOL.
      2/ I shall vote Conservative.. Matt, you really are part of the problem.

      1. "Establishment Are Going Tonto With Fury" | Nigel Farage Is "110% Committed"

    3. two things..

      1/ There is no devious plan. LOL.
      2/ I shall vote Conservative.. Matt, you really are part of the problem.

    5. Another verification of the type of dire and disastrous people who infest Wastemonster and s(w)hiite Hall.
      There is no other choice but reform the whole set up. It stinks.

      1. Reforming it gives it legitimacy. The solution is to starve it. Significant cuts to spending. Cut budgets 40-70%. Just keep cutting until there's nothing left. Take their responsibilities away. Close entire departments. However statists just don't think like that.

    6. That's made a joke reality, and is truly scary.
      How to unwind the situation… since it would be those who will lose power and authority who will have to do it, that will be difficult at best.
      Maybe an armed revolution, with massed tumbrils and Mme Guillotine is the only answer?

    7. Absolutely shocking and well done to Matt Ridley for speaking out. Why, though, aren't more MPs speaking out about this? Gove and Cummings tried to do something about the Blob, but predictably, they were eviscerated.

    1. Just as a warm, sunny, dry spell has begun to establish itself. Robert Thomson is a few days late with that one.

    1. Legacy of Blair.

      I wonder what the Supreme court would say if Surrey council stated:
      We considered the climate scam and decided it was utter garbage.

      3. Funny how Soros' employee, Lord Adair Turner, has managed Britain's transition to Net Zero for 13 of the last 16 years!

        Chairman of the Climate Change Committee from 2008 and chairman of the Energy Transitions Commission from 2016 with a break in between working for his patron, Soros.

        Just by random coincidence, the other three individuals crucial to the Climate Change Act, Blair, D Miliband and Cameron all got Soros jobs too….

        So Soros clearly bought the Climate Change Act with the promise of future riches and arranged for his puppet Turner to be the long term manager!

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

    2. Oil wells in Horley? Have traveling folk been tapping into Gatwick's fuel supply.

      1. Not only do I know where the well is, but I also know the owner of the land on which it stands. There was talk of finding natural gas in that area 60 years go.

    3. This country is nuts. We need energy. We need oil. We need fuel. If those who want to destroy it think so then they should be made to live in a world without it. When they're dead – within 3 months – the problem goes away.

    4. I don't suppose anyone will dare to take HMG to court for increasing the UK's demand for fossil fuel energy through mass immigration.

  48. Imagine the outcry if Farage stated that all legislation passed by the Blair government was to be repealed.
    If it was, the UK would become a better place almost overnight.

    2. Especially if that repealment programme returned the age-old crime of high treason, then Blair could be hanged for his crimes.

      1. Treason has not been taken off the statute books, it is just now not punishable by death. Still haven't seen it utilised…

        1. Prior to the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, which abolished the death penalty for treason to life imprisonment, there were only two offences on the UK statute book that still commanded the death penalty.

          Treason was one; the other was Piracy on the high seas.

          1. Yes, Blair tried to abolish treason altogether but was foiled by the then Law Lords, who ruled that to abolish it was itself unconstitutional. So he then abolished the Law Lords and established the leftist-puppet Supreme Court.

          2. That, in itself, is a treasonable act, and he should be summarily punished as such for his actions.

          3. There is so much that he should be punished for and never will be; no wonder he thinks he’s a god.

          4. Indeed – Blair should be behind bars for a myriad of reasons, but he won’t be.

    3. Nice try..
      However, after much deliberation, long and careful consideration Lady Hale came out of retirement and decided the rules no longer applied, and felt Farage was not only wrong, but was acting unlawfully (though not illegally).. and by magic founded a legal principle out of thin air… then acted accordingly.

      The Blob then swamped social media & MSN with the truth..
      Democracy Saved. Stop right there Farage.. you military dictator.. No one is above the Law.

    4. Nice try..
      However, after much deliberation, long and careful consideration Lady Hale came out of retirement and decided the rules no longer applied, and felt Farage was not only wrong, but was acting unlawfully (though not illegally).. and by magic founded a legal principle out of thin air… then acted accordingly.

      The Blob then swamped social media & MSN with the truth..
      Democracy Saved. Stop right there Farage.. you military dictator.. No one is above the Law.

    5. Cue every single judge stopping all court activity. Every quango fighting back and spewing manure into the press. Every governemnt department immediately going on strike, schools closing as teachers walk out, prison guards striking, nurses, doctors striking, welfare not being paid, the entirety of HMRC would revolt.

      There would be abject chaos. So much needs to be undone first – massive cuts to state spending, a complete reform of strike law, unions brought to heel and controlled, the NHS only paid by results, same for the tax office.

      Big government will fight anything Reform does to intentionally paralyse it's getting anything done. They have got to prepare for that. They will spend so much time fighting that they ensure nothing gets done.

      1. This is where Cummings was right.. he suggested privatising problematic departments of the civil service in overnight raids if necessary removing their executive powers.

      2. A period of absolute anarchy might be just the thing to wake the populace to do something.

      3. Matt Ridley agrees. However, suggests it's much better to do nothing, keep calm.. and continue voting Tory.

    6. My dream is that people of good intent will hack the computers and cancel the bad guys in the same manner that the bad guys habitually cancel the more outspoken of the good guys but once that's done, we'll still need trees in Trafalgar Square in order to remove the possibility of the bad guys regrouping.

  49. I came across this on substack. It's an old Guardian article, but Golding's Lord of the Flies always depressed me, and this is a welcome antidote:

    When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman. The article gives a more hopeful view of human nature than Golding's.

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

    1. Thing is, the graindiad is Left wing, and deliberately refuses to understand human nature in it's waffle. Humans are bestial, vicious creatures. Take away food, water, shelter under the communist green act and you will get anarchy and violence where the strongest survive.

      It's as simple as that. Look at London. Lefties always ignore the human equation.

      As Quark (from Deep Space Nine, which demonstrated more of human nature than has been) rightly says:

      Quark's assessment about hew-mons in "The Seige of AR-558"

      Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people… will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes

      1. I take your point re. the Grauniad generally. But presumably we as a species have also (previously) survived in groups largely through co-operation within group societies. (The urge to fight and encroach is obviously also present but has often been seen during different eras to be directed outside the group).

        The fact that humans are animals, and will often behave in a bestial way is indisputable, and I certainly don’t believe that all coming to our shores, or all within it, are positive creatures. But I do believe that there is some good (as there is in many animal societies). To me, that article was positive.

        1. You're right at an evolutionary level. We are social animals. We like our own. The problems come when you (plural) account for scarcity. We need 'stuff'. Where there are limits on that stuff we fight over them. Mates, food, tools, water, fuel.

          This sort of died out when farming became the norm many centuries ago as we couldn't move around for more food and needed a singular force which we would pay for it's dispensation of violence on our behalf. That eventually become laws and so on. Problem is, the sole dispensers of force became greedy and it became more sensible to steal what others had, until we got the corn laws and Kentish riots.

          We're seeing some of this in reverse these days. As law is applied unfairly to different demographies the losing side, now able to move their crops away from the violence holders is doing so. They're also removing the stabilising influence they brought which leaves an ever more savage and worthless (because there's far less to steal/less point in growing 'crops' (working) than there was – thus we have ghettos where poverty is enforced and sustained by the theft of other people's effort.

          I find the guardian annoying because it looks at the surface problem and says 'this is the solution' without actually addressing the root cause, which is often five layers deeper and, invariably disagrees with their attitude. They are much like the BBC in that they deliberately stop when the solution opposes their ideology. It's the difference between a Righty and a Lefty. The Lefty wants to tell people what to do because he is convinced he knows best. The righty wants to solve the problems and then leave the people alone to make their own way.

          It is the difference between 'You need food. Someone must be made to give you food.' and 'You need food. I will give you some seed and show you how to farm.'

          Humans will always be savages. That is restrained by the need to co-operate. If there is no need to co-operate for resources then you get, well, Brixton.

          1. I agree with what you say there (edited). I just liked this particular little story. :o)

          3. The book is ridiculous. Human beings needed thousands of years to come to the kind of civilization we have today where the weak are strong enough to protect themselves from the bullies.
            That a group of children should when not supervised by adults be divided between strong bullies and weaker individuals is hardly surprising nor indeed worthy of comment.

            It was also an answer to the Coral Island by RM Ballantyne. This book published in the late 19th century follows the adventures of three teenage sailors with ages ranging from 14 to 18. They are shipwrecked on a desert island. Really there is little similarity between the two stories except the setting. Golding’s book is about a very large group of little boys of different ages but none over the age of twelve. However whenever this book is thrust down the throats of secondary school kids it is always compared to Ballantyne’s escapist novel for young boys. I imagine that with the typical arrogance of an unimaginative schoolmaster he believes that none of his captive readers have ever read it if indeed they have read anything.

            Lord of the Flies formed part of the shallow world of sixties schoolmasters who thought it was bright to say the easiest way to kill a man was putting him in the middle of the twentieth century and leave him there. Not realising nor recognising that we were very lucky kids to start life in the middle of the twentieth century.

    1. If you want climate scam look no further than the Canadian media coverage of this weeks summer weather.
      We apparently have a large heat dome bringing record high temperatures to the region, local councils are opening municipal buildings as cooling centres, we are being warned to stay inside and drink lots of water. More people due in the heat than from extreme cold, etc etc.
      Strange that our senior golf league went ahead under such trying conditions, no one fainted, we had to bury no one either.

  53. which it why it is essential for Trotskyites & Liberals to have 'lawyers' in your power structure..

    funnily enough, exactly why Tony Blair inserted a Supreme Court out of nowhere into the mix.. somehow wedging in nine justices above The King, above Parliament, above "The Will of The People".

    1. How i loathe that man. And the Tories for doing nothing to reverse it.

    1. The problem the eft have is that they want to fundmanetally retard human progress. They literally want to stop everything and enforce their own worldview – a backward, miserable, grey communist hell.

      The way for man to progress is to get 'out there' and climb the mountain because it's there. We need to reach into space, explore, built orbital habitats, discover new worlds, mine asteroids (there's lots of them), adapt, overcome, grow, change.

      Imagine a future humanity spread across multiple worlds, living on a terraformed moon, one where bionics, cybernetics have replaced crude prosthetics, healed childhood injuries, where energy is so abundant nanotechnology generates cooling and heat from our biolectric field to cure all sorts of ailments. A future driven by logic, reason, science.

      A place where Lefties are given their own planet and because they are backward can't get off it or lecture anyone else on how to live….

      1. We need a B Ark.

        Golgafrincham was a planet, once home to the Great Circling Poets of Arium. The descendants of these poets made up tales of impending doom about the planet. The tales varied; some said it was going to crash into the sun, or the moon was going to crash into the planet. Others said the planet was to be invaded by twelve-foot piranha bees and still others said it was in danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star-goat.

        These tales of impending doom allowed the Golgafrinchans to rid themselves of an entire useless third of their population. The story was that they would build three Ark ships. Into the A ship would go all the leaders, scientists and other high achievers. The C ship would contain all the people who made things and did things, and the B Ark would hold everyone else, such as hairdressers and telephone sanitisers. They sent the B ship off first, but of course, the other two-thirds of the population stayed on the planet and lived full, rich and happy lives until they were all wiped out by a virulent disease contracted from a dirty telephone.

        The B Ark had a captain who spent all his time in the bath, and two security guards -the overly-militant Number Two and the mellower Number One. It was onto this ship that Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect found themselves after escaping from the Disaster Area's stunt-ship.[1] The ship was programmed to crash-land on their destination planet, which Ford and Arthur discover is prehistoric Earth when they find the signature of Slartibartfast, the Magrathean coastline designer, on a glacier in what would become Norway.

        1. But Arthur, they aren’t the human race. The human race is currently sitting round that boulder making documentaries about themselves.

      2. A bit of a dream that. Would you accept the world being run by a fixed ideology based on the rantings of a seventh century warmonger?

        Coming soon to a world near us.

        1. As war is illogical and somewhat irrational not sure that's the ideology that was really being espoused.

      1. I came out as literally Hitler in the Michael Deacon quiz.
        I'll have to see if I can better that result.

    1. Let's not forget that "Lord" Greenswill gave away the last of them to the Americans!

    1. Roped to the stones. Knife through the heart. Then chop their heads off and burn them.

      But that's because i'm nice.

      2. I'd make them work in prison (at prison wage rates) until all the expense resulting from their actions was paid off. Should only take a decade or so.

    2. There's a large stone for ritual sacrifices.
      But no god worthy of the name would want the liver and lights of those two.

  61. A question for our resident nurses and anyone who has had perhaps a similar experience.
    2 hours ago we were just on the way to do the weekly shop. I was in the passenger seat. As we turned the 2nd corner from home I experienced something like a sudden switching off of my body. My head slumped and I felt every ounce of strength rush out of me. If I hadn't had a seat belt on I would have slumped to the floor. Didn't black out or anything and within a second I started to come back slowly.to myself. Within 5 minutes I just felt a bit weak and shaken, We carried on to Morrisons 5 miles away. I did the shopping but instead of on my own the new wife came in and made sure I didn't conk out. I've been as normal since then.
    Any ideas please?

        1. Thanks, Belle. It was hot in the car. I've never fainted before, would that also be a possibility?

          1. Ah, you've just answered one of my questions.
            How are you on drinking (fluids, that is)?
            But still get yourself checked.

          4. The heat can catch people out. They seem to be dropping like mad Englishmen in grease. :@(

        1. Are you on blood pressure medicine? The figures you give aren't too high but you need to be aware of sudden spikes and drops. Blood sugar might also be an issue so watch what you eat. I would see a GP if i were you.

          2. I like your priorities. 😉

            Hope you got yourself checked out and will continue just fine x

    4. Dear Mm, ,

      Please please get yourself checked out asap.. I mean it , not being a panic merchant, M, but please see the urgency required x

      Transient ischaemic attack (TIA)
      A transient ischaemic attack (TIA or mini-stroke) is the same as a stroke, but the symptoms last a short time. You get stroke symptoms because a clot is blocking the blood supply in your brain. When the clot moves away, the stroke symptoms stop.

      You might feel like you're fine afterwards, but it's vital to get medical help right away.

      Having a TIA is a warning that you are at risk of having a stroke. The risk is greatest in the first days and weeks after a TIA. So you urgently need to find out what caused it, and get advice and treatment to help you stay healthy.

      I had one about 6 years ago, it gave me the fright of my life .. just the same as you .. lasted about 9 minutes .. saw a doctor within the hour then was tested . Now taking blood thinners etc.

      1. Thanks, Belle. Did you have the classic Face, Arms and speech symptoms though? I didn't, nor any of these;
        complete paralysis of one side of the body
        sudden vision loss, blurred vision or double vision
        vertigo
        being sick
        dizziness
        confusion
        difficulty understanding what others are saying
        problems with balance and co-ordination
        difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)

        2. She’s right. I am recovering from a TIA and had similar symptoms to you, but with an accompanying crashing headache on one side of my head.
          My vision went a bit weird and I could not sequence time properly for about two or three hours.
          Mr Croc said that for Hal an hour I was just weird!
          The stroke association were great, but the symptoms for a TIA can be very perculiar.
          I am fine now and almost back to normal but on blood thinners for life.
          I am fit, have low blood pressure and cholesterol and am not type 2 diabetic, so they don’t know why I developed a clot.
          It can happen to anyone so take care.
          We need mor nottlers not less!

    6. I am not a nurse and have no medical qualifications. If you are generally healthy, but old enough to be a Nottler, you might consider the possibility of a lack of electrolytes (eg salts such as potassium), and that might extend to a condition that the web tells me is called hypokalemia. But if you are not remotely diabetic, then TIA is a dashboard warning light so go to A&E.

    8. TIA?

      A transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or "mini stroke" is caused by a temporary disruption in the blood supply to part of the brain. The disruption in blood supply results in a lack of oxygen to the brain.

        1. Supposed to be even hotter next week. Fluid levels are important but you still need checking out. Do as you are told !

    10. I would endorse the suggestion of a TIA, mola, you should call an ambulance. First responders will quite likely turn up first and will do BP, ECG etc. while they are asking you all sorts of questions. Ambulance crew may turn up first and will do all the same checks. But do not just feel you are back to normal. It is a warning sign of some sort or other so please do not ignore it or feel squeamish about ringing 999.

      1. Yes, sounds scary and a nuisance but you're only going to worry if you don't get it checked. Maybe all you'll need is a pill.

    11. Not a medic, mola, but my old Dad technically died some years before he actually did and was revived in a public place (by, thank the Lord, a random Doctor's ministrations) because of a simple faint. You are lucky, if that was the cause of your weird experience, because what saved Dad (now long dead) was laying him flat on the floor and doing the usual things. A simple faint is, according to that doctor, a catastrophic sudden drop in BP, and quite a common cause of sudden death in older people. It happens to me at the sight of blood. Really odd.

    12. I think the consensus of opinion is get checked out……….. please! It's a warning even if you now feel ok.

    13. Sounds like a sudden drop in blood pressure.
      Worth getting checked to try to find out the cause.

    1. Stupid doesn't begin to describe that woman! Did she not bother to do any research!🙄

    1. Paul Golding's tweet is clearly Islamophobia. Whereas True_Belle's is technically a "Retweet"..

      and taking Sir Keir Starmer at his word..

      "We need to say over & over again Islamophobia is intolerable. It can never be justified. We have to continue with a zero tolerance approach. And I think as a government we can do more. Much more robustly than it is at the moment."

      I'll give Paul three years in jail, five if he uses a sticker.. and Sue a suspended sentence.

      Buckle up. Anneliese Dodds' 'no-loophole' Islamophobia Bill is all ready for first hearing.

  68. Afternoon all. Good one today.
    Wordle 1,097 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Looking forward to seeing you both. I have been making foodie notes for ages. Got to narrow it down to half a dozen or so appetisers and hors d'oeuvres. Everything will be gluten free too.
          An interesting mix of people are invited. Dress for a Summer holiday. As loud as you like.

  70. Rutte to become head of Nato after lone rival drops out
    Outgoing Dutch prime minister expected to be named as the alliance’s next secretary general ahead of summit next month    .
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/20/rutte-to-land-natos-top-job-after-lone-rival-drops-out/

    Rutte is now absolutely loathed in Holland. He is a WEF stooge, environmental fanatic and a dangerous idiot who wants to destroy agriculture and make us all eat insects farmed by Gates.

    It seems the less you are liked and the more you are despised by your compatriots the higher the position to will be given in international organisations .

    2. Totally agree with your assessment of Rutte. On the plus side NATO is on the skids and following the impending Russian victory in Ukraine will be disbanded.

  71. A fragrant Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,097 3/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟨⬜🟩🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par today.
      Wordle 1,097 4/6

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

    2. On the same trail.

      Wordle 1,097 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟨⬜⬜🟩🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  72. I’m getting really worried about a Starmer government now.
    The media seem to be producing poles that show him so far ahead, it’s difficult to see how any fool thing he does is ever going to be stopped.
    They also say that his large majority will be based on a very low turn out and not necessarily be the will of the majority of the electorate.
    Meanwhile, Starmer himself is starting to look like he believes he is the second coming and gets more authoritarian every day.
    This will not end well for you and me!

    2. I fear that Starmer's style is Blairite rule by the judiciary to undermine democratic control.

      It will be difficult to achieve the status quo ante . .

    3. I remember when Lebanon was a peaceful Christian country. US foreign policy over the years has resulted in it becoming a conflicted country with Christian-hating Muslim elements including Iran backed Hizbollah factions.

    2. The only African golfer I've heard of is Gary Player and it doesn't look like him. {:^))

    1. Lying bastard. The WHO Gates backed vaccines have killed many more than they have saved. India and Africa want to put Gates on trial for the harms his vaccine promotions have caused to women and children.

      I truly despise Cameron, the Lord Snooty of his horrible conservative governments. Please God take vengeance on the creep.

  80. Moh is fixated by the England game .

    Dare I say they are a load of rubbish, not a proper team, they are half asleep .

    Scotland were a proper team , they embraced each other and played well.

    England are prima donnas , useless and self centered , no rhythm , waste of space and money , and that Kane character is a wally , not a serious player , is he .

    2. I expect he was fixated as I was – upon the sheer ordinariness mediocrity of it. Defensive, cautious, lethargic, error-strewn, utterly lacking in intent.

      Southgate must answer some questions. He picks the side, chooses the tactics. I was half expecting a furious Alan Shearer to charge down onto the pitch and ask him directly…

      2. He does, but there are times when I think the players aren't actually good enough to complete the task, they just play their usual game as if it was for their club.

    3. I found watching the Denmark England game a high blood pressure experience. Kane has a great goal scoring record but now in his thirties lacks pace.

      There are glaring disconnects that a half decent manager would have corrected long ago. Players who are good at club level are played out of their club positions and this applies across the board. There is too much fidgety short passing interplay and no attacking vitality. We see more back passing, especially to the keeper, and little forward bursts of speed from our good midfielders.

      It is all rather depressing but perhaps illustrative of our general national decline, too many useless managers and too few creative thinkers. It is as though gifted players are burdened by management instead of being encouraged to be positive and do the best possible.

      1. I blame the 'playing out from the back' that has taken over the minds of so many teams. All they seem to want to do is pass it back and forth across the pitch as if trying to create the perfect pass and goal. There's no flying down the wing and crossing any more.

        2. I do agree. It is the same negative tactic we see in all of the top teams. The managers I witnessed in my younger years would never have adopted such tactics.

          I could not imagine Malcolm Allison, Don Revie, Brian Clough, Alf Ramsey, Bobby Robson, Terry Venables, and a whole host of others ever resorting to this managerial theory.

          As I have posted previously the problems arise from management and in particular management overthink. We witness these fools with their laptops and diagrams where they attempt to maintain some ethereal control over the progress of a match. This close control nullifies any creative ambition among the players who inevitably become confused and despondent.

          I would scrap the managers bar a single responsible person who would be expected to fall on his sword and give the platters free reign to sort out the match on the pitch,

    1. Superb actor.
      RIP
      Hopefully we might get a tribute season of films on one of the movie channels.

    4. I've just told my good lady the sad news and once more she has reminded me that years ago she stood next to him in Hamleys in London.

      1. Lucky woman. I really admired him as an actor. People who met him also said he was quite a gentleman.

  83. Got home this evening to find a bunch of flowers on my doormat. No card and no indication of who put them there. The wrapping shows they came from Waitrose but beyond that, nothing. I brought them in and put them in a vase. What else to do? Don’t like it though.

    1. You're being stalked by Phizzee.
      Spray the doormat with an in-sexual repellent, it should work.

      1. I am going to visit you. Water is wet.
        Actually. Could i buy your gite seeing as how terrible a landlord you are.
        £20,00 cash.
        Edit. £20,000

          1. Serious mode…
            I have met quite a few Nottlers at lunch. Each and every one of them far right racists. Strangely enough none of them have tattoos. Or even shaved heads.
            Come to my party! Put Bill Thomas in a straight jacket and a Silence of the Lambs mask.
            He can't hear anything anyway !

          3. Best place to be.

            I have six guests arriving for Perigord roast pork on the 29th. Two are gluten intolerant and three of them don’t much like pork. So……………I am doing chestnut stuffed Poussin for them.
            Why do i put myself through this !!!!

          6. True, posted by mistake as he had put water is wet and “water” stuck in my mind.
            At the moment I have both in the pool, I think due to the long time before I could remove the cover.

      1. How is the eye today? Eventually my right eye might need to be done and I have only peripheral vision in the left one so couldn’t cope with blurry vision.

        1. I can’t believe the difference it has made Sue. I don’t really need my glasses to read now. The new lense is a marvel, my vision has improved dramatically.
          It’s still a little painful and I have to use two different types of drops 4 times a day. For 4 weeks.
          I’d say that perhaps the other eye will be next on the list. 😉

  84. Hold on here, weren't these same morons telling us a moment ago that we had had the hottest average temperatures ever, for May?

    Having already faced temperatures 3C to 5C below the season average over the past few weeks, temperatures are set to be cranked up as hot weather travelling across Europe from north Africa reaches these shores.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13551351/Heatwave-set-scorch-UK-week-Met-Office-map-reveals-temperatures-reach-29C-DAYS-miserable-June-washout-dampened-spirits.html

    May 2024 has left Britons scratching their heads as the Met Office's provisional figures reveal that May 2024 was the warmest since records began in 1884, with a mean average of 13.1C. This not only surpasses the previous record of 12.1C set in 2008 but does so by an entire degree Celsius!

    https://ypte.org.uk/news/astonishing-may-2024-shatters-temperature-records

    Climate change is a scam folks, it's a scam.

    1. A very clever scam. We’re being taken for a ride and there’s no way to get off the bus. A very lucrative business for so many people.

    2. It could be argued that those of us who watched the England game saw no football…

    3. As an ex amateur player for several teams I played because I enjoyed it.
      It seems to me that some of it has turned into the same aspect as politics. Only in it for what they can get out of it.

      1. Me too. I played for Old Salesians in the London Old Boys' League back in the 1970s. No histrionics or bad feeling – a good game every Saturday, followed by a session in the pub for both teams – exchange of jugs of beer. 'Career' brought to an end by several injuries.

    5. Works for me to. I’m fed up to the back teeth already.
      Why can’t they just have a football channel and give the rest of us a break!

      1. There's some American tournament on at the moment as well. We get the European stuff plus a big helping of the local tournament.

        I prefer to take my naps in front of the golf channel. What is more, after three hours slogging round the course in 30C temperatures, I deserve my nap.

      2. There was a time when we were tortured with football and sports programmes in general. I remember how irate my father would become when Saturday night on all three channels there was nothing but football, sometimes the same match on BBC1 and ITV because some people preferred different commentaries. But that was years ago. No one has to put up with sports programmes unless you have people living with you who see nothing else or when your favourite bar is full of football bores watching a live broadcast.

        1. I beg to differ. The racing coverage is full of interviews with people I've never heard of (and who know nothing of/have no interest in racing) simply because they have some connection with football. I bet they don't have lots of racing pundits on footy programmes, nor do they spend ages advertising the racing. What bit of "it's a RACING programme" do they find difficult to grasp?

          1. I’ve never been very interested in racing so contaminated interviews are outside of my experience.
            Here in the seaside village in Valencia where I hope to spend part of the summer, many years ago I had an English friend much older in fact than I am now who used to spend his days watching UK races with his satellite dish and placing bets by telephone. He owned a racehorse and often brought his jockey over with him.
            He must be long gone now. I always suspected there was something dodgy about him and his wealth but he was always very nice to me and my family.
            He never spoke about football, only his horse.

          5. My parents spen wtinters in Spain in their retirement. They met a lot of British people who lived there year round. They soon learned it was not the done thing to ask why they were there or what they in the UK before migrating.

          6. Not many British people in this area, in fact he and his wife were the only ones I knew. At one point his wife had confided to my Spanish wife that they hadn’t wanted to be around their own compatriots and so had chosen our village.

    6. That's me. I am seriously p1$$ed off that ITV has messed around with the racing coverage because of the Wendyball. I've been reduced to watching some of it live because my pvr can't cope with all the switches.

    7. That's me. I am seriously p1$$ed off that ITV has messed around with the racing coverage because of the Wendyball. I've been reduced to watching some of it live because my pvr can't cope with all the switches.

  86. Off to get her Highness of the train station as she's back from Ladies day.

    Last year I took the little car and Junior, which means Mongo and Oscar as well and as she'd brought half her old school chums with her I was given evils for a week, so this time I'm taking the tank.

  87. I've just been sitting out in our back garden enjoying the mainly peace and quite. Children playing is pleasant and so many different aromas drifting through the still air. Some recognisable like candles, many familiar but not easily recognised. No BBQs.
    My plan for one evening this weekend is to use our iron fire pit and burn some of the stack of logs stored away out of sight.
    Share and share alike.

    1. Save your log stack for the winter Eddy, please .

      We will all need warmth if Starmer nationalises energy and everyone goes on strike .

      1. I've just had my oil tank filled and have already ordered my coal, although it won't be delivered for a couple of weeks. I've got a stock of candles, torches, tea lights, oil lamps and I've bought a generator. I'm switching to Calor for cooking when the Rayburn isn't lit. If I had the space for it, I'd have a well and a reed bed for sewage. Eff 'em all! I need to get a shotgun licence and a stock of Eley.

      2. We don’t have an open fire place in the house TB.
        It’s enjoyable on a summer night to sit around and open fire having a few drinks with friends and family.

    1. People don't need to die. Just stay in France where you don't need to take the risk of crossing the Channel. But perhaps you realise that there is very little risk, with the French escorting you to mid-Channel where you are guaranteed to be 'rescued' and taken to England. Welcome to your benefits in the UK!

    2. In the replies there is another tiresome row about the use of the term 'native British'.

      1. Haven't looked – but as if there would be any such disagreement about native Chinese, or native African, for that matter. These bastards should fuck right off.

        1. Similar to its being fine to be proudly Scottish, Irish or Welsh, but woe betide anyone who's proud to be English.

          3. It's all beyond me. I have been a bit put out because i am English and when visiting Wales or Scotland on the odd occasion and being spoken to harshly. Mostly people were fine but it does happen.

  91. Another day is done so, I wish you a goodnight and may God bless you all, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen früh. If we are spared!

  92. According to official statistics, Scotland's population was projected to be 5.51 million in 2024, up from 5.35 million in 2014. However, the 2022 census recorded Scotland's population at 5,436,600, which was the highest figure ever recorded. This was a 2.7% increase from the 2011 census, and the population is still growing, but at a slower rate. The census also showed that people aged 65 and over make up a fifth of the population, and that data will be important for planning services like health, education, and transport.

    What are Scotland's demographic trends and how do they compare to the rest of the United Kingdom? Official statistics project that the population of Scotland is projected to rise to from 5.35 million in 2014 to 5.51 million in 2024 and to 5.7 million in 2039. This is an increase of 7 per cent over the 25 year period.

    According to population data, 95.4 per cent of the Scottish population3 report their ethnicity as 'White'. Approximately 4.5 per cent of the population are from ethnic minorities, with the Asian population being the largest minority ethnic group (2.8 per cent).

    At the 2011 census, Muslims comprised 1.4 per cent of Scotland's population (76,737). In the 2022 census, this grew to 2.2% of the population (119,872). Pop.

    I can think of some lovely places in Scotland to live in and enjoy , in fact we lived in Ayrshire in the countryside nr Dalrymple in the early 1970's when the miners strike was on.

    Like everyone else there , we struggled for heating in a very cold winter , coal.. I walked the spaniel along an unused railway line coming from a pit at Drongan to Ayr , and gathered coal in a large basket , we all did it , Moh was in the Fleet Air Arm flying Sea Kings then (anti submarine ) We also burned peat lumps .

    If the Greenies and Labour/ lib Dem etc go along with the crazy zero carbon / global warming nonsense we will all freeze.

      1. That is because you are unwell , lonely , Tom

        You are a Norfolk chap , aren't you ?

        We were in our twenties when we lived up there and had a large circle called a Squadron , and things to enjoy , but the cold was a genuine worry re finding heating resources .

        1. I've also lived (with my family) in Banff and Irvine.

          Yes, the loneliness IS a killer.

      1. I think that's tomorrow..or the 24th! There is disagreement amongst the cognoscenti

        1. 24th June is midsummer’s day. 3 days after the start of summer. 6 days, about right for the length of summer.

      2. I think sunrise is slightly later, but sunset is also later, so it probably evens out.

    3. Yes, I've got that one too! I have an irresistible urge to start howling – and it wasnt the footy!

      2. I'm pleased you have recognised that earliest/latest sunrises/sunsets do not necessarily coincide with solstice days. It depends where in the world you are but my latest sunset will be the 24th.

  97. Two weeks today until we'll have a one party state leftist utopia.

    God help us

    Good night from Audrey and myself x

    1. I thought that she was pretty good with Davey, Swinney and Starmer but a bit too argumentative with Sunak. Surprisingly, all four put up a decent show and, in my opinion, Sunak was impressive, and I am not a Sunak fan. I didn’t think that any of them made serious mistakes except for Starmer who was clearly extremely uneasy and evasive on the issue of immigration.

      1. I am not very interested in football but I watched Spain play Italy rather than a BBC political show.

    2. I remember Jeremy Clarkson said on his car programme that Fiona Brice has a nice bum!

      But what use is a nice bum when the person that goes with it is snide and bitchy?

    3. Fiona Bruce knows as much about antiques as she knows about politics. Fuck all.

      I am sick of the sight of her smug flat face and feigned smiles. She is a BBC whore.

      1. My sentiments exactly.
        Surprised you use the words that always bubble up in my head though. :@)

  100. Evening, all. For some time it has been the case that hard work doesn't pay. It isn't only Labour that has sent that message. You are better off on benefits as a member of the client state.

    1. Up to a point, my Lord. If you work in the public sector the opposite applies, as you are the administrator and the beneficiary of the client state.

          1. When I was teaching, I did, too, but I suspect we are the exceptions to the rule.

          3. What can i say…………….I understand why you do it 're…The kindness of strangers' film.
            But at the end of the day you are not only helping the people in your care you are making an easy life for your bosses. Sorry for being opinionated.

        3. Sorry, Conway, but my experience of the Civil Service is that there are large pockets where staff do work conscientiously and diligently. I accept that these are not necessarily the norm across the public sector but don’t malign everyone. I, of course, always worked hard and for hours far in excess of just about everyone in the whole country!!!

    1. I tend not to take a lot of note as to who is performing when I listen to the radio, so Jodie Devos is not a performer who'd consciously crossed my radar, but far too young and, having just listened to some pieces on YouTube a doubly tragic loss.

  102. What i would say: people are out in their droves in London. To think 4 years ago we were rold we wouldn’t get “back to normal”. Well, we have.

  103. Lol – for Sorbasoc – I have been attending the internal award dinner tonight . What a night to do it – the longest night of the year, in a hotel dungeon. Well.

      1. Sorry, internal audit. I have it in the back of my mimd he was one once.

  104. Lol – for Sorbasoc – I have been attending the internal award dinner tonight . What a night to do it – the longest night of the year, in a hotel dungeon. Well.

  106. Surprise, surprise. The BBC report on this story only refers to EIA being based on EU law. It doesn't mention how it came to be in UK law.

    Another blow to our energy industry

    An extraordinary judgment from the Supreme Court has put North Sea oil drilling at risk

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 20 June 2024 • 10:00pm

    One of the supposed benefits of Brexit was the opportunity it provided to ditch EU laws harming growth and innovation. These included a directive requiring an assessment to be carried out before planning permission can be granted for a development project likely to have significant environmental effects, known as an EIA.

    This was contained in regulations passed by Parliament in 2017, after the vote to leave the EU, and reinforced later by Theresa May's commitment to net-zero carbon emissions.

    The consequences of not repealing this provision became apparent this week. The Supreme Court ruled that Surrey County Council had failed to follow the law when granting permission for oil extraction because it had not taken into account the impact of future emissions on climate change.

    This extraordinary judgment, taken by a 3-2 majority, would effectively stymie all future oil and gas exploration in Britain. The court said an EIA was necessary "to identify, describe and assess the likely 'direct and indirect significant effects' of the project on the environment, including (among other factors) the impact on climate".

    While the legislation does not prevent the planning authority from giving consent for a project deemed to be harmful, it must reach a reasoned conclusion on the impact and take this into account in making its decision. The council thought this applied only to the immediate emissions associated with the scheme. The dissenting judges considered it constitutionally inappropriate for a local planning authority to be expected to take long-term decisions that were usually the responsibility of central government. Moreover, it went beyond the text of the directive and was contrary to the EU principle of proportionality.

    But the majority ruling that future emissions from burning oil must be considered adds another layer of uncertainty to an industry already pulling back from investing in extraction under threat of even heavier Labour windfall taxes. We will need oil and gas for the foreseeable future despite the fantasies of net-zero proponents and will either have to produce our own or import it. Without North Sea oil and gas Labour's plan for growth will be hot air.

    This damaging ruling can only encourage the Just Stop Oil zealots who have spray-painted Stonehenge and tried to attack the private plane belonging to the pop star Taylor Swift. Their arrogance and self-regard seemingly knows no bounds.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/06/20/another-blow-to-our-energy-industry/
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cxwwzmn12g9o

      1. Wotcha. Fancy coming to my party? I have lots of charming people Nottlers persons coming.

  108. Just about to go to bed, so I will wish you all a Good Night. Thanks too to Geoff for his hard work in providing this site for us. Can I remind you all that I shall be away from Friday morning until late Sunday night or early Monday morning, so if someone could refer my NoTTLer chums to this post of mine posted here at the end of Thursday's page at the start of Friday's NoTTLe page (Minty?) I would be most grateful. And I am pleased with today's (Friday's) Wordle effort:

    Wordle 1,098 3/6

    🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. ' Morning, Geoff, thank you and cheers for all the sterling work you have done to overcome difficulties. Wel done!

Comments are closed.