Thursday 20 March: The Government’s cynical plan for schools has already been discredited

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.

539 thoughts on “Thursday 20 March: The Government’s cynical plan for schools has already been discredited”

      1. I am – just sorted out the most important task of the day – feeding the cats their breakfast!

        1. I just stripped the chicken carcass. Two very noisy excitable doggies banging my ankles trying to trip me up.

      2. No wonder nobody else was around, BB2. Geoff opened the new page an hour early. (Good morning, btw.)

  3. What's wrong with these, from the Smellygraph? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/19/yvette-cooper-could-overhaul-gun-laws-school-shooting-plot/
    – Gun sellers will have to alert police before handing over firearms
    – Triple killer who plotted a school massacre was arrested with illegally purchased shotgun
    So, if I'm buying a gun from a bloke down the pub, he has to call the fuzz first and tell them? Really? Otherwise, you need a certificate, issued BY THE POLICE to buy a long arm – handguns being banned back in 1997 or so.
    So how will this help? Did anyone think it through?

    1. Morning Oberst. Knee jerk reaction. They would like to ban them totally but there isn't time in the present political climate.

      1. It's the total disconnect between the two statements. Like, a few years ago, a city in the UK was having problems with geese shitting in the square with a waterfront, so the council went about shooting the ducks…

    2. As I understand it the "illegally purchased" shotgun was obtained by the killer forging the application and supporting documents – presumably that included the form required from his GP. The application should have been checked by the police before a certificate was issued, as I believe it was in this case.
      Edit – It seems that he actually bought the gun privately from a previous owner using a forged shotgun licence – a rather different matter from what I originally understood.

    1. It is ridiculous that this should be allowed. The world record holder would not have beaten me by that distance, and I was only a moderately good club athlete.

    3. Bloody Hell.
      This is WRONG and wrong on so many levels.
      Why are the girls bothering to compete?

  7. The Government’s cynical plan for schools has already been discredited

    Every time government, especially Labour interferes with education, they always make it worse, for some reason.
    If we had just kept the grammar school / secondary modern system we would have far better educated school leavers and plenty of skilled tradesmen, we wouldn't have needed immigration.

    1. I went to a secondary modern that had excellent facilities for needlework, woodwork, metalwork and a pottery. Not sure I’d want the metal workshop made available to some of the imported scum. My school had one very nice black kid who’d been adopted by a local white family and he was our only nod to diversity. Being the only one never seemed to bother him.

      1. When I attended B/school, there were two young Chinese sisters , the first Chinese I had ever seen .. little small chunky children , but so athletic, back flips etc and brilliant pianists and violinists , brilliant at maths, alert , but oh my goodness they had terrible tempers , and would kick off for no apparent reason, slinging their school books around the classroom , screaming and shouting , lashing out at everyone , I was 12 years old , we were all young and quite frightened of them .

    2. The original plan in 1944 was for technical schools as well as grammar and secondary modern. My grammar school had originally been a technical school hence it had a suite of workshops.

  8. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site. It took me two goes before I got the final 4 letters. I therefore only had four attempts to solve today's Wordle – but there were five possible solutions, i.e. five possible first letters. Just my luck to find my the wrong four possibles before the solution became apparent.

    Wordle 1,370 X/6

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

    1. Similar situation here Elsie.
      Wordle 1,370 5/6

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

  11. UK shut out of £125bn EU defence fund in victory for France
    The Bloc is taking a ‘Buy European' approach to defence spending.

    ‘Buy European' French & German approach.. always was.. always will be.
    The only difference is UK isn't footing the bill.
    Hold your horses, here comes Baron Hermer with a blank cheque.

    1. Betcha bottom dollar that Sir Keir signs an EU defence pact that pools resources & technology.
      Then, UK is included in faux bidding process only for German & French manufacturers to win every bid.. and of course UK foots the bill.

    2. Good morning KB

      Putin fears our nuclear weapons, insists Starmer
      Trident has proved ‘incredibly effective’ in being a crucial deterrent in the eyes of the Russian president

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/20/putin-fears-our-nuclear-weapons-insists-starmer/

      Starmer .. Visits HMS Vanguard, and talks nuclear talk .. now he is pro nuclear and war mongering .

      Rayner the deputy PM says no to nuclear so does Lammy and half the cabinet .Rayner hasn’t ‘changed mind’ on nuclear weapons but backs Labour policy

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jun/03/angela-rayner-says-she-supports-labour-policy-on-nuclear-weapons

      I loved this DT comment .. brilliant

      Ian Hammerton
      4 min ago
      When I was a lad I served a term

      As office boy to an Attorney's firm.

      I cleaned the windows and I swept the floor,

      And I polished up the handle of the big front door.

      I polished up that handle so carefullee

      That now I am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!

      Nineteen Eighty Four
      just now
      Starmer is the ultimate fool with his goading publicity stunts seemingly designed to provoke a reaction from a known unpredictable and dangerous foe.

  12. Good morning all .

    Sunshine , cold and I was awake so early . Moh was screaming with pain , cramp in his thigh , he was tangled up with Cpac machine mask and wires , yelling his head off .. at 5am .. I tried to help by applying pressure to his toes .. this went on for about ten minutes .. he was yelling like hell, the neighbours must have heard him , and I am surprised the police didn't turn up to investigate ..

    Cramp in the thigh , have any of you experienced that?

    1. Hi Belle! I had it quite recently while having dinner with friends, and a following a day working in the garden! Fortunately we were in their house, not in public, as I hopped about taking my heels off! Very painful! But I didn’t yell….

      2. A couple of times I have had cramp as I knelt at the altar to receive communion. I just had to grit my teeth and tell myself I would be getting up very soon.

    2. Poor man! Sounds awful. I don't get cramps often (when I do, in the calf) (cross fingers), so no experience.
      If anyone asks, just say you were having a passionate early morning, rekindling your youth…

      1. Yes, I get calf muscle spasms. The muscle seems to become solid and needs vigorous massage to soften it again. It does hurt but I tend to swear rather than cry with pain.

          1. And, as I'm sure you know, next to impossible on your own whilst suffering a crippling cramp

        3. Try and touch your knee with your toes (same foot of course!). That works for me.

          P.S. I love it when you swear. 😘

        4. Do you use strong swearwords, Sue Ed, like "You goldurn pesky calf muscles are Very Silly Sausages"? Lol.

    3. My husband gets dreadful cramp affecting different parts of the leg.
      The nurse at the surgery advised taking magnesium before bedtime which helps . He also does gentle leg stretching exercises which help .

    4. I get cramps in numerous muscles.
      I find that drinking tonic water in the evening helps considerably as a preventative.

        1. I used to like a G&T, or two or three.
          I seldom drink any spirits nowadays.
          My grandfather had similar cramps and he took his tonic with gin, so I guess it would still work.

    6. Oh yes! Horrible. I had cramp in my calf this morning. Only remedy is to get out of bed and walk.

    7. The worst cramps I've had were in the tropics after heavy work in hot conditions. A bit of extra salt could help.

  13. Waltzes in to say Good morning, changeable weather in Somerset .

    1. If I try dance moves so early and with a low blood caffeine level, my feet get tangled and I fall down. 🙁

      1. Oh dear, that isn’t very good, maybe just stretching your legs .
        I do like to wander around the kitchen with bare feet and swirling around a little. I like ballet movements very much, keeps one flexible, this is after all my original Terpsichore muse of dance account:-) .
        Try some stretches and yoga exercises.

        2. Rule in Norway, as we all have polished wood floors, is "shoes off at the front door" – so it pays to not have holes in the socks… and everything is done in bare feet.
          Stretches & yoga are better later on in the day. Yesterday, stretched plenty by shifting nearly a tonne of wall & floor tiles from a pallet by the front gate into the house.

    2. Good morning Ms Zummerzet ,

      Waltzing in, I love that ..

      Why is your weather changeable , ours here in South Dorset is sunny, and my goodness we need some rain.

      We spent an hour watering the garden late afternoon , pots were thirsty , flower bed was looking neglected , and Mohs newly scarified / sharp sanded / seeded lawn was in need of lots of water .

      Rain not likely in the weather forecast in the next few days .

      1. It’ll be changeable later, sunny / cloudy mainly.
        I do love dance.

    4. waves gaily whilst tangoing past

      Good day dear Nottlers! Fine day here in Buenos Aires, looking forward to a visit from a certain Mr G. Bloom and his lovely wife next week. 🙂

  14. That's why cat breakfast is the first activity of the day. Fed in the sitting-room, it means I can manoevre around in the kitchen with little danger of being tripped up by a cat lying down just behind my feet. The two furry monsters go "glop, glop, glop" then find their favourite spot for a post-prandial snooze.

    1. I am early-watch cat feeder. I feed him in the tvättstuga but he is determined to trip me up before I serve him!

      1. Grizzly, I know that you swear by eating meat, but it looks as if this diet is taking years off your appearance avatar. Lol.

  15. Latest exchange with Octopus, following me querying the bill, which led to a very alarming email informing that the meter was on fire and I need to enter the burning building to investigate.

    "On 19/03/2025 08:37, Octopus Energy wrote:

    Hey Hazel,
    Thanks for reaching out!

    In relation to the colleague that responded previously, they are not an "AI Bot" – your query was flagged to our emergency team because you stated your meter was 'leaking' so one of our emergency EMTs responded to the query to check if the situation is safe or not.

    In relation to your statement amounts, the statement that was generated with charges of £100.80 for gas and £20.92 for electricity. Bringing the total owed balance to -£120.72.
    The gas meter charge is based on an estimate, if you can kindly provide a photo of the reading for the gas meter, I can get this added to the account and rebill accurately based on the actual reading, rather than an estimate!

    If you need anything else or require any additional support, please do not hesitate to reach out!

    Kind Regards,
    Jake @ Octopus Energy"

    Because I am a grumpy nottler of a certain age, my sarky reply is as follows:

    "Hey Jake (never seen that greeting used before!)

    Reaching out is what a drowning man does to a floating straw.

    I might suggest that your colleague might struggle passing the Turing Test, if a flag word such "leaking" generates a warning that the meter is on fire and I need to call out the emergency services before a set up that has been inspected as safe only a few months ago is about to burn the house down. I might suggest that leakage of electricity is not the same as a gas leak, and my gas usage is probably correct, given that I have been keeping the flat at 10C during the cold weather, rather than the 20C preferred by my former tenants. I had an EICR inspection done last year, so any electricity "leakage" is unlikely to be dangerous installations. The only appliances I have turned on are the boiler and the smoke alarms.  Normally, these extra consumptions go unnoticed in normal everyday living, but are exposed when a place is empty. I cannot rule out dishonest trading sadly, even though I grew up in an age when people in authority could be trusted.  Now that it is Spring, I can turn everything off and then monitor the meters.

    As requested, I have been supplying monthly readings at this address, so a pattern of gas usage should have built up since the change of occupation in October 2024. How can you be estimating usage based on readings taken when it was occupied, rather than its current position of being empty and on the market?

    I am next in Malvern on Friday, and for this occasion can take a photograph of the meter then. However, in return, I expect estimates in future to be based on current usage, not on what they were a year ago.

    Best regards
    Jeremy Morfey

    P.S. Hazel died last month, but perhaps bots or their human versions cannot tell the living from the dead!"

      1. Hey Jeremy,

        Thanks for getting back to me!

        I am sorry to hear about your loss, I can see the emailing system we use had not quite updated to reflect the name change with yours to match the Octopus account, I’ve got this amended for you so this mistake is not replicated in future correspondence. I myself have experienced significant grief recently so I completely empathise with you in regards to this and genuinely wish and hope you all the best.

        Regarding the estimates, they are generated based on historic usage, and we are unable to change this while the property is temporarily empty. The estimated readings are based on up to five years of history at the property and are linked to the national database used by all energy suppliers.

        As part of our terms and conditions, we require a meter reading once a month because we bill on a monthly basis. If this is not possible, the system will generate an estimate. However, please note that you are not obligated to pay an estimated bill. We would simply need to wait until you can provide a meter reading, so we can recalculate the statement accurately. The more readings we receive while the property is empty, the better the system will be at adjusting the estimates to reflect any new usage patterns.

        We could look at getting a smart meter installed for you, so the readings are all done remotely and automatically so that you don’t need to worry about when you can get to the property to obtain an actual reading to be billed accurately, if this would work for you let me know and I can look into getting that sorted out as a solution.

        If you need anything else or require any additional support, please do not hesitate to reach out!

        Kind Regards,

        Jake @ Octopus Energy 🐙

    5. PPS
      Tell your accountants that with charges of £100.80 for gas and £20.92 for electricity. Bringing the total owed balance to -£120.72.
      It isn't, it's £-121.72

  17. Good morning all.
    Another bright and sunny morning, but will it stay clear like yesterday or will it cloud over?
    Forecast says clear until some cloud forms this afternoon.
    A tad warmer than yesterday with 4½°C on the thermometer after yesterday's frost.

    2. We can ponder over the metaphysics of Change.

      Doesn't it mean "more of the same"?

      Makeovers, along with exciting redevelopments, deliver Change, but usually I find the "New! Improved!" version to be considerably worse, but more expensive than the "Before".

  21. SIR – Some might find it odd that the Education Secretary, with no qualification in teaching or experience in the classroom, can make banning the use of expert teachers without official qualifications a main point of her education reforms.

    What lessons can we learn from this?

    Mike Jeffes
    Baldock, Hertfordshire

    Katy Liz
    4 min ago
    Bridget Phillipson knows and cares nothing about teaching or children. This is Bliarism of the I997s all over again. Back then it was dumbing down Universities to wreck academic elites. Now it is repeating the process for schools.

    All because Marxism can’t thrive on excellently educated populations because we are too questioning and free thinking. It needs majority unfocused easily conned/distractible little minnow-people

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

  22. 403553+ up ticks,

    An whocantell alert if factual, coming to a girl / woman
    near you in the United Kingdom.

    I believe that the fact we are being attacked daily by a
    vicious, dangerous foreign species, alien to these Isles
    and common decency, sorrowfully NOT recognised by many indigenous as such ( you don't make pets of alligators or politicians).

    https://x.com/LusinskiS/status/1901995141436416437

    1. Dear mother in heaven ,

      We are being governed by fools .

      Strange how the government here made Bully dogs and other huge woof varieties illegal, because of their temperament issues , yet yesterday a monster lad with doubtful ancestry was putaway for 45 years . and more monsters exist who do not get punished .. and mention the word black or Muslim and it will be us who are hammered forever.

      1. 403553+ up ticks,

        Morning TB,
        Because over the last four decades we as an electorate refused to recognise, clearly recognisable FACTS via party before Country voting what was truly happening to these Isles.

      2. "We are being governed by fools."

        Who is the bigger fool? The fools in power … or the fools who put them there?

    3. Clear empirical evidence, if it were ever needed, that the human species is a spent force no longer fit for purpose. If anyone had tried this scam just fifty years ago then all hell would have broken loose in a solid determination of a defence of the realm. 21st century humans are too physically weak and mentally retarded to even think about that.

      Modern mankind: by a country league the most stupid organism ever to evolve. A good century past its use-by date!

    4. Caroline asks me: 'Is this notice real?'

      Can anybody here give the answer? Phizzee says it is a hoax.

      1. 403553 + up ticks

        Morning R,

        If tis a hoax it is based on guaranteed foreseeable reality.

    5. Caroline asks me: 'Is this notice real?'

      Can anybody here give the answer? Phizzee says it is a hoax.

    1. 403553+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Please take on board that in the contest to maintain democracy and freedom of speech is at the moment in the lead, but is being seriously challenged by diversity and anti freedom of speech that are gaining ground daily.

  24. Well my friends i have gotten rid of my sore throat and snotty nose but I still feel as if I've done five rounds with a grizzly bear. It hurts if I laugh or cough and sleeping is still a problem. Very unusual. It's very rare that I catch colds.

  25. Another freebee for a traitor?

    Ex-MP Starmer ally who branded Rule Britannia 'alienating' and charged taxpayer for £22k worth of Arabic lessons to 'welcome' refugees takes her seat in the Lords
    A Keir Starmer ally who branded Rule Britannia 'alienating' has taken her seat in the House of Lords.

    Thangam Debbonaire was a rare Labour casualty at the general election, losing her Bristol seat to the Green Party. She was flanked by Lord Alli – who was at the heart of the furore over gifting clothes and spectacles to Sir Keir – and former minister Baroness Winterton.

    Lady Debbonaire served in the shadow cabinet for four years, holding posts including shadow housing secretary, shadow leader of the House of Commons and shadow culture secretary.
    After the election she said she had been expecting to lose her seat because Labour's stance on Gaza counted against her.

    The peer is no stranger to controversy, including claiming tens of thousands of pounds for Arabic lessons to 'welcome' refugees and branding the famous green benches in the Commons sexist. Asked during during a Spectator interview last year about calls for Rule Britannia to be cut from Last Night of the Proms for its colonial overtones, Lady Debbonaire said: 'It's not my favourite bit of music. And the Proms is a fantastic institution and it's the world's greatest music festival…

    'I think it's a decision for the people who run the Proms and again, like I said, it shouldn't be politicians who tell people how to run cultural events.
    'I think for a lot of people that feels like a very sort of British moment, which I think has to be respected as well, but for a lot of people… it will feel alienating.

    'As I want the Proms, I want culture, to be accessible to everyone, I think it's a good debate for us to be having.'Before entering the Lords, Lady Debbonaire used a Commons facility to get more than £22,000 worth of Arabic lessons.
    Parliamentary records show that she had been taking the classes since 2017-18, including £1,408 worth of classes in 2023-24 and £4,344 the previous year.

    There is no suggestion that the MP has broken rules, with the Commons offering politicians 'training in accordance with their parliamentary duties'.
    Over the years MPs from all parties have taken classes in Mandarin, Russian and Icelandic as well as more traditional languages such as French and German.

    Lady Debbonaire previously argued that the Arabic lessons 'help communicate with the diverse population' in the Bristol West constituency she has represented since 2015.

    During a Commons debate in June 2018, Lady Debbonaire said: 'I've been learning Arabic for the last 18 months in order to make a better MP for the Syrian and other Middle Eastern refugees in my constituency…
    'The idea is to make that welcome as genuine and sincere as possible.'
    The Commons said that since 2001 MPs have been able to 'receive training in accordance with their parliamentary duties'.
    Also during her Spectator interview, Lady Debbonaire suggested the historic green benches in the Commons should be replaced because they are too big for women.

    The 5ft 1in politician complained that it is 'ridiculous' that her legs dangle off the end.
    Ms Debbonaire also spoke about her experience of arriving at Parliament in 2015, saying she was surprised how much she 'loved' it despite the atmosphere being like a boys' public school.

    'The seating for a start – it's built for men with long legs,' she said mentioning elements she would like to change…
    'If I sit back my legs dangle like a little girl. It's ridiculous.

    'The fact the House of Commons is so small, the fact that most of the food is like school dinners. Some of it's great by the way, in case any of the chefs are listening they are fantastic and they work really hard.
    'It surprised me, and I don't know why it surprised me, that it was so similar to a boys' public school because that's what it was probably modelled on.'

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

    2. Many public schools now use outside firms to do the catering.

      At Allhallows they used Gardner Merchant and the food was excellent. They did excellent fare for our wedding parties after the service and again at the evening party.

      The GM employees were given accommodation in the school grounds and we got on very well with them.

  26. Morning all. Am having scaffolding put up ready for the long awaited repair to my barge boards at the weekend. Hence my early appearance.
    Education, like everything else, is suffering from Labour malice and incompetence.

    1. I suppose they'll use poles to deal with the barge boards…

      I'll get me ladder

      1. My ladder is currently on my lawn which has put cutting it on hold for the moment. That and the impossibility of squeezing the lawnmower through the gap between the scaffold poles.

  27. Good morning to everyone. Another sunny day etc.
    I find it quite remarkable that this is going on in Turkey but not a word in the Telegraph, nonsense about how to drink coffee and something or other about actresses and a quick look at the Daily Fail, nothing in there either. But huge demonstrations against Erdogan arresting the opposition. A politician who is, apparently more popular than him. Of course the interference of the EU has nothing to do with the silence in the MSM, you think!!! I was aware of this last night. So blackout is no excuse because of to late for the papers etc.

    Huge UPRISING In Turkey Against Erdogan's Islamists
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y58J7tMQwhc

    1. Erdogan suffers from the Farage syndrome – he cannot bear anyone to be more popular than he is.

      When we first sailed to Turkey in 2005 every shop, every office had a picture of Ataturk (Mustafa Kamel) , the father of the country hung prominently on their walls. His birthday was still celebrated 80 years after his death and he was regarded as the country's saviour. One of his creations was that Turkey was a lay state and no people working for the state should be allowed to wear religious clothes or display religious icons while they were at work.

      Erdogan, an ardent Muslim, despised and loathed Ataturk and is still intensely jealous of the reverence in which he is held. Erdgan has done much to overturn the country's laicity confident that he will finally succeed given that the population is 99% Muslim. But the difference between the majority of Turkish Muslims and many of the Muslims who have moved to the UK is that they are not fanatical: they are nominally Muslim just as many members of the Church of England are nominally Christian.

      Erdogan's jealousy of Ataturk may well destroy him just as Farage's jealousy of Rupert Lowe may destroy him and the Reform Party.

      "O beware my lord of jealousy, it is the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on"

      [Iago: Othello]

      1. When I visited northern Cyprus in 2007 there were still huge pictures of Ataturk lining the main roads and in other public spaces. I don't know whether the reverence for him remains there.

      2. Morning Rastus. It goes without saying that I agree with you. To add one other thing. His systematic persecution of the Orthodox Christians in Turkey and the systematic 'strangulation' of the Patriarchy of Constantinople, the oldest patriarchy in the world, preceding even the papacy, the Patriarch of Rome. In fact contrary to papal pretentions it is the Patriarch of Constantinople who holds the title of 'First amongst Equals'. The forced closure of the only seminary left in Turkey, so no more priests, and the closure of churches. The Patriarchy territory is now reduced to a few besieged buildings and that is all. I must include too, the murder of clergy and laity which Erdogan encourages by silence and a lack of will to catch the killers. All in all, like so many Islamic rulers, a thouroughly evil man.

  30. In very irritating nasal whine..

    Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said there was a need to tackle the "emerging and growing problem" raised by new documentary Adolescence.

    Because every man & his dog knows that the biggest threat to UKs kids is violence perpetrated by weedy fifteen year old incel white kids.
    Entire sitting Labour MPs nod heads vigorously.

    1. Am I the only person on this forum not to hear the nasal whine. While I might disagree with much of what Starmer says and does, the timbre of his voice has never been a problem for me.

      1. Starmer hasn't got the nuance we expect especially as he had speech therapy during lock down ..

        His voice sounds like one of the radio characters we used to hear on either Round the Horne or Hancocks half hour or even worse from one of the very early Peter Cook and Dudley Moore progs .

        Starmer sounds terrible , my voice is received English so is my Moh, (his with some detectable Hampshire , and mine with a short a and not an argh..

        Starmer hurts my ears , as they all do , is so similar to boring old unf###able John Major .

        The other voices that make me shudder are too numerous to mention , and very sadly that girl called Emily married to Patrick Christy on GBnews has the the screechiest voice ever .. I cannot cope with more than five minutes of that !

        2. Down here in Cambs I get told (suspiciously, accusingly, I feel) "you're from up north, aren't you?" and on the very few occasions I do venture 'oop north' – Yorkshire – these days, I am informed "you're not from these parts, are you?" or "you've lost your accent!"

        3. The first names which came to mind when thinking of unpleasant voices were Stacey Solomon and Joe Swash.

        4. Look East have an appalling presenter called Felicity Simper.
          She is even worse than her name.

  32. Good Morning!

    Today we have an account by Frederica, HMRC are coming! of her dealings with HRMC, the first two letters of which stand for Highway Robbers. Any suggestions for the MC?

    The assault on free speech gathers pace, and we talk about this and the Online Harms Acts latest iteration in force on 16 March in Do No Harm , focusing especially on comments. And if anyone missed it and likes a good conspiracy that is likely to be true, read T he Real Exploding Tanker Conspiracy for one involving acts of state terrorism against international shipping.

    Energy watch 08.00: Demand: 36.39 GW. Total UK Production: 29.48 GW from: Hydrocarbons 42.92%; Wind 2.7%; Imports 19.8%; Biomass 6.3%; Nuclear 10.2%. Solar: 14.3%.

    We are currently importing almost 20% of our electric power requirements, mainly from France. Despite all the windmills, wind is generating just 2.7%. Over the last 24 hours, renewables have provided 11% of our electric power requirements.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  33. 403553+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    Why if the islamic contingent within these Isles say NO halal will cut down the muslim population considerably
    are we still putting up with this evil barbaric practise daily taking place, Lowe is anti halal / illegal immigration, give him a well supported platform to work from, and when the drain of members from reform to support Lowe takes place, seriously vet ALL supporters.

    1. There are nowhere near enough people willing to vote for parties prepared to outlaw the practice of halal slaughter. While many dislike or abhor it, when it comes to voting, people rank it quite low on their priorities and much prefer to cast votes based on other factors. Single issue voters are too small in number to much effect electoral outcomes.

      1. 403553+ up ticks,

        Morning DW,

        Which is precisely the mindset that has got us as a nation, to where we are today, in very deep shite.

        1. Do you vote on single issues? There are numerous factors influencing how people vote, often based on scanty or false information, family tradition, misplaced loyalty, often infuriating to people such as you who care about some things above all else while the bulk of the electorate have other priorities. They'll continue to vote in their millions for mainstream parties leaving you and a few tens of thousand others voting for whatever's left of UKIP and parties with similar views.

          1. 403553+ up ticks,

            DW,
            The ukip party went the same way reform is going now, with the same political players, in 2019.
            The only true UKIP that ever existed for one year was under Gerard Batten leadership then
            the treacherous party NEC with “nige” input
            shot it down, my opinion alone

            Our own species are our worst enemy enemas
            tribal / family tree / best of the worst voters,
            without whom we would never have got to where we are today.

      2. Quite a lot of people voted Labour in 1998 on the single issue of foxhunting. Probably the exception that proves the rule though.

        1. I doubt they did. Some of my hunting friends voted Labour because they didn’t think he would do it and they wanted a change of government. It was 1997,surely?

          1. Trust me, they did! Probably the main reason the Cons never legalised it again was that it would have been – and still would be – a massive dog whistle for people to vote Labour on a promise to get rid of it for once and for all. Sorry, I know this is not what you want to hear, but that’s how it is for most people.

          2. I can only say it doesn’t accord with what I heard from pro-hunting friends at the time. They held their noses and voted Labour DESPITE the threat to ban hunting. When I was campaigning, hunting never came up as a reason to vote among Labour supporters.

          3. I think the hunts have genuinely never understood the level of resentment against them in the country. In the past, because people couldn’t afford to fall out with them, and nowadays because the circles are so tight and like so many of us, they live in a bit of an echo chamber.

  34. Who is the "you" Benonwine tried to warn? Was it the 20% of the electorate that actually voted for Starmer's Labour or the 80% who either didn't vote or who chose to spread their vote across several opposition parties? Why, for instance, do Reform supporters not concentrate their efforts on, say, 100 seats, as LibDems do, so as to raise their representation above a paltry 5 (now 4) instead of securing dozens of second and third places? The LibDems dont mind coming fourth or fifth in hundreds of seats if they can come first in over seventy others.

  35. Market busy. Wonderful to be warm while walking around the stalls. Lots of outdoor work planned.

    Long may this last – well it will until Sunday night…!

  36. Apropos the ridiculous hysteria in the meeja about Russian ships sailing in international waters:

    "(A Russian ship) retains its right of passage through the Straits of Dover under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
    As an international strait, Dover falls under transit passage rules (Article 38), meaning all vessels, regardless of sanctions, can pass freely as long as they move continuously and expeditiously"

    1. The English Channel is one of the busiest seaways in the world. Those wanting to dye their hair white should save money of dye and try sailing across the Dover Straits in a dense fog with just a hand-bearing compass as guide.

      With the prevailing wind in the English Channel being South West the defeated Spanish Armada had to try to get home via Scotland.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0402cce1fe8bc5cf338bf11f95521f3cf1b96f173dd00259d79d795fb1203b7.png

          1. Thank you. Molto complicando! So 1½ stère – which what I shifted and stacked yesterday = ½ corde.

        2. Une corde représente un volume de bois empilé de 1,2 mètre de haut, 1,2 mètre de large et 2,4 mètres de long, soit un total d'environ 3,6 mètres cubes.

          There seems to be different numbers on different sites. The first one I came across was that a cord is 1.5 metres cubed.

          2. I think the confusion is deliberate and used by those selling logs.

            When we came to live in France we bought logs by the cord.

        3. Une corde représente un volume de bois empilé de 1,2 mètre de haut, 1,2 mètre de large et 2,4 mètres de long, soit un total d'environ 3,6 mètres cubes.

          There seems to be different numbers on different sites. The first one I came across was that a cord is 1.5 metres cubed.

      2. Navigating across La Manche is no problem, Rastus. You simply follow your nose.
        If it picks up garlic, you're heading for Dieppe.
        If it picks up coffee and freshly-baked batons, You're en route to Boulogne.
        If it picks up human effluent, you are on course for Calais!

          2. Apart from my knee Griz. And I think but I’m not sure yet, that I might have been fobbed off again. We’ll see, my old neighbours and lifelong buddy (same problem) seems to be being fed a similar story in his part of Bedfordshire. Lies, book your own appointment and GP practice won’t get involved. FOAD might have spread to other sections now.
            And oh what an irony, as I’m replying to you my gp practice has sent a message to tell me I should book an appointment for a ‘king covid booster.
            The last one of those I had caused Atrial fibrillation. And an a catheter ablation. They need to get their ducks in a row.

          4. Apart from my knee Griz. And I think but I’m not sure yet, that I might have been fobbed off again. We’ll see, my old neighbours and lifelong buddy (same problem) seems to be being fed a similar story in his part of Bedfordshire. Lies, book your own appointment and GP practice won’t get involved. FOAD might have spread to other sections now.
            And oh what an irony, as I’m replying to you my gp practice has sent a message to tell me I should book an appointment for a ‘king covid booster.
            The last one of those I had caused Atrial fibrillation. And an a catheter ablation. They need to get their ducks in a row.

        1. I had a significant amount of white hair by my mid-twenties but I cheat. Having my roots done again on Saturday. I was offered two slots, Saturday or Sunday, for a CAT scan at Hammersmith Hospital this weekend. Chose to skip church rather than skip my hair appointment. Bad girl. Will hopefully still go to Evensong and there is also an evening mass on Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the foundation stones being laid for Barts hospital and priory on 25 March 1123.

          2. I found my first white one in my twenties and started dying it in my thirties. Got fed up doing that and stopped about 20 years ago. I’m quite used to being white now.

          3. There is a mass on Tuesday to mark the Annunciation. I have temporarily resorted to alcohol for last night and today due to stress!

          4. Whatever helps! There was a lot of wine consumed in the cloister yesterday evening at the lent course session. The poetry of George Herbert this year.

          2. From my late 20s I had a Mallen Streak, aka hair poliosis, that increased in size with my age.

  38. That has crossed my mind. No Halal or Kosher. Would remove a few Muslims. I wrote a while ago about an Orthodox lady I knew in New York. She didn't keep Kosher. When I asked why she gave me a long explanation, a history, of why keeping Kosher was important and why it was now redundent. Boiled down to hygiene, ancient observations of why this and not that culminating in modern hygiene methods and refrigeration made Kosher redundent. She had no time for the ritualism of modern Kosher, thought it a fetishizing of ancient custom now pointless. My first wife who was also Jewish loved bacon and it seemed to me that almost every other Jew I knew ate it too. My point is that I don't think many Jews would leave, they are to sensible and those that do, well they are defending the indefensible. I would add that for Islam Halal can not be given up because it is the word of God, the Koran. Islam does not allow itself an out on Halal.

    1. Ooh, we have to be careful here. Some will say: "Remember, if you criticise non-stun slaughter, you are not interested in the welfare of the animals but simply demonstrating your Islamophobia as well as your hypocrisy, because it's also a Jewish custom and you support them, don't you?"

      1. To say I'm pro-Jewish is an understatement. But you can't have it both ways. The danger to Jews will grow as Islam increases in this country. Would you rather do without Kosher or would you rather have your children and family slaughtered? Jewish custom is not immutable. There is a huge difference between the ultra-Orthodox and Reform. And, of course there are shades between. So wiser to give up Kosher and hopefully have an exodos of Muslims. As for discrimination against Muslims, I do not approve, I grew up in a Muslim culture. I disapprove of Islam and I don't care what your colour is. As I have pointed out before. there are millions of white Muslims. They can go too.

        1. You appear to have interpreted my message as a personal viewpoint rather than a sardonic observation on the likely response to proposals to ban non-stun slaughter (legalised in the 1933 Slaughter of Animals Act).

          1. Oh and ops! Sorry William. As mitigation it is time for my nap. Get tired around now so a bit slow.

    2. That's been my main problem all along, with organised rituals, many of which had a purpose centuries ago, but now not so.

    4. My Jewish father gave the same explanation that Kosher rules made sense for a tribe living in the desert without refrigeration but the practical considerations no longer apply and the ritualistic elements can be safely ignored. Dad wasn't keen on shell fish but he liked roast pork and would eat pork sausages and pigs liver.

      1. Corporal Al Phillips, RE, loved his bacon sarnies and whenever his mother or mother in law were about to visit, his wife would strip the fridge out and thoroughly clean it to make sure no bacon was left in it.

  39. A quote from Judge Chamberlin. The judge vpresiding in Tommy's hearing

    We need an equivalent of the US First Amendment — the protection given to freedom of expression in UK law, including under the European Convention, is too anaemic.

    So maybe there is hope with this judge.
    Ezra is now tweeting from inside the court room.

      2. I joined the Y this month, it is the best gym in the area where we are staying. They have one of the most outgoing instructors in the classes that I have been taking – Kick your butt's y'all. Is typical encouragement from her during quad stretches!

        It is certainly inclusive of all ages, I was able to buy a seniors membership.

          1. And a principle member of the New York City Ballet.

            He may have been principled, but he was a principal member.

          1. That handy little central red rectangle with a white arrow tends to give a clue that it is a YouTube video.

            The logo in the bottom left-hand corner also helps.

          2. Indeed. But not infrequently, an image is posted which IS a still but the arrow etc show – because it is a still image taken from a video.

  42. One chainsaw sharpened and one barrow loaded with split firewood.
    Then wheeled across to the path steps, transferred into two large builders buckets and one bucket dragged down the steps ready for stacking.

    Pictures to follow!

  43. Wishing Katy (Ashes) in Buenos Aires a very happy Autumn.

    Don't worry, me duck, we'll look after the sun for t'next six months.😘

  44. Just looked it up your post.
    "Cordwood" is logs cut to a length of 4' and a cord of logs is a stack of "cordwood" 4' wide by 4' high or 64 cubic feet or the equivalent size of sawn & split firewood.

        1. Oh very clever. Look at what I said yesterday. “Interesting. In Laure we bought logs by the “stère” = 1 cubic metre. I didn’t know there was a larger measurement. What is the French for a “cord”, je me demande…?”

          I posted this because I had mentioned stacking 1½ cubic metres of logs and Richard (Tracey) said that that what they called a “cord”. And I asked him what the French for a cord was.

      2. D'accord – Corde de Bois. Nor very original I am afraid,.

        We have different cord measurements. A face cord similar to the volume that Jack mentioned but then we also have full cords that are 8' x 4' x 4' which is about the amount that @bobofbonsall:disqus cuts every morning before his first mug of tea.

          1. They probably say it differently in yer france, my rendition is bastardised Quebec French.

          2. When I was in Quebec they had no difficulty understanding my French, but I didn’t have a clue what they were saying!

    2. 64 cu ft is the capacity of the standard American pick up truck bed, usually 8' x 4' x 2' deep. That's why in suburbia here late in the year, there will be marauding pick up trucks stacked with logs driven by good ole' country boys. Strictly cash.

      Having about 3 acres of woods,, I could go into the business just based on the number of fallen trees I have.

  46. A substantial amount of the blame can, quite fairly, be placed at the feet of the Tory (In Name Only) Party who, by turning against their party's principals and members, made themselves unelectable.

    1. The blame for their election can certainly be placed that way; however, they are still —undeniably — the worst government in British parliamentary existence.

      By a country league.

        1. Not yet, not by a long chalk.
          Starmer's mob are merely incompetent and vindictive.

          Blair's wrecking crew set out to destroy as much as they possibly could. And they certainly succeeded.

  47. Mug of tea drunk, 2 x slices of toast eaten, now off to do another 2 barrowloads of logs.

  48. It's a glorious day out there today! Warm and sunny, and the wind has gone round to the south.
    Some of our neighbours held a vigil outside for our late neighbour a few doors down who died recently – his private cremation early this morning will be followed at the end of this month by a celebration of his life.
    Busy day today – lunch with the girls and a meeting later of the Swift group.

  50. 403553+up ticks,

    Ask yourself why are peoples still giving support & votes to governing PROVEN political umbrella holder parties
    " from the beach to the cradle foreign pedophiles"

  51. A beautiful sunny morning and 16 degrees Celsius. Lovely walk along the river with Oscar. Glimpsed a kingfisher hurtling downstream and heard a yaffle calling from the meadow on the opposite bank. Saw a few butterflies, a couple of red admirals and a few small tortoiseshells, but I saw more than 20 brimstones. They're not uncommon here but I've never seen so many in one walk.

    1. The brimstones are out here today in force in s. Cambs, and a few bumble bees nosing around the grape hyacinths and forsythia. V. Warm here, I was out in my fleece and woolly mufler early this morning, dog walking and baby sitting at the same time. There's always one day every year that catches me out, I'm still dressed for winter and suddenly England bursts into south of France mode for a few hours. I think I saw more bees during the course of my little walk than I did the whole of last summer, so fingers crossed for our resident bee population this year.

      2. I counted 16 different species out in the garden today. Also saw a tortoiseshell butterfly. Spring she is sprung, mes amis.

  52. Afternoon all 🙂😃
    Just back from my appointment, 2 hours in total including an X ray. It seems that I AM still on the waiting list. But apparently because of renovations last year it seems it was all put on hold. No body told me ….. But i'm sure the surgeon and his team found work in other places whilst the patients queue came to a standstill. And a new promise that i will be treated before the end of summer. But they didn't say northern hemisphere, or which year. But i now have the phone number of the lady who is in charge of appointments. I'll give it a week or so.
    Thank you for all your kind words it makes 'one' feel a little bit better.
    And as I sat in my chauffeur guided wheel chair today I noticed a lady who look familiar in the X ray dept, she lives in our cul-de-sac, we had a nice chat before she had her hip X ray.
    Oh well, onwards and upwards for as long as possible.
    Sad news about Eddie Jordan today.

  53. Canada Is now officially screwed.
    Just as the media started reporting some of Carneys shortcomings, Trump has given his blessing to Carney, he has said that he prefers him to that conservative who said nasty things about him.
    His meddling in Canadian affairs and economic war have gained him no allies in Canada.

  54. That's another barrowload sawn & chopped.
    Now waiting for Graduate Son to get it all stacked.

  55. The court for Tommy Robinson has adjourned until 2:00. But the judge is apparently angry. He ordered that the court be cleared so that Tommy could talk to his lawyer privately, they are on some phone system because Tommy is still in the jail. It turns out that the jail cut the sound off so that Tommy could not speak. Appalling behaviour to defy the judge that way and gag Tommy. Lets hope that the judge, in seeing the behaviour of the warden favors Tommy and he ends up with better living conditions or, even better, the judge has him released. Apparently, at one point, Tommy held up a page for the judge to see, no one else could. Whatever it said did not please the judge at all. You can read Ezra's account of happenings here https://x.com/ezralevant Thanks to Elon for free speech.

    Dan Wooton is in the courtroom, so no doubt, he will give an account of the days doings on his program tonight (Outspoken). That can be seen on You Tube at 5:00 for anyone interested.

  56. It was five years ago to the day that we left Laure for the last time and drove north to stay the night four hours from Calais. The oddest drive I have ever made. First, armed police at the motorway toll demanded to now why we were travelling. Fortunately, the MR had the relevant bit of paper, AND a copy of the sale conveyance to show them. Then 500 miles on empty roads – 50 cars in all and a lorry perhaps every ten miles.

    Fortunately, it is something which we will never have to do again.

      1. Yes – and they often send snaps of the various improvements they have made. A delightful couple – who have taken our place in village life.

    2. Surely most French Police are armed when on highway patrol late at night.
      I remember being stopped by police in a town in SW France at extremely late o'clock one night. The leader spoke good English and breathalysed me.
      0% fortunately.
      IIRC I was very tired and keen to get to my destination before I fell asleep at the wheel (didn't tell them that). That's one of the risks of driving a long distance on the Continent, the temptation to go just another 100 clicks.

      1. They are – indeed, the are ALWAYS armed. It is a sad fact that many police officers are shot and killed by their colleagues (sometimes accidentally!).

        Our encounter five years ago was at 9.30 am on a sunny day. The chap had his machine gun (not hand gun) pointing at the driver (me), mouthed that we should NOT open the window and then demanded the documents which we produced and showed through the windscreen.

    3. Ah, lockdown. I remember walking Mongo and both of us being surprised that there was no one else about. At all.

    1. Then he was arrested and is now doing ten years for daring to assault an innocent slammer.

      1. You are too young to be as cynical as me, Bill.

        Good to see the dindu being treated properly though.

  58. "Prince William lands in Estonia to visit Nato forces"

    With luck he'll stay there. Wazzock.

    1. I'm surprised they let him go, what with the imminent invasion of those parts by Vlad the Bad. It is sad that the RAF now allow beards to be paraded in uniform, its nothing short of scruffy..standards eh!

          3. Adnams was the beer of choice, being the fav of my flight commander. Sadly, he was later killed by walking into the prop of his Auster. A great guy, but another on the list of lost acquaintances. As many of us realise, life is quite fragile

    2. A dead cert, but how utterly depressing. The poison and corruption within the Scottish assembly is a disgrace to democracy. And they don’t even bother to hide it any more.

    5. Well, you could have knocked me down with a rolled up copy of Exchange and Mart……..

    10. I could be wrong, sos, but my understanding is that Scotplod has discontinued its investigation without giving a reason. So – cleared? no. Just no longer investigated and the crimes remain unsolved.

  62. With the first Poole Harbour Osprey sighting of 2025 yesterday, we know just how excited many people will be for our Osprey webcams to go live so that you're able to watch any touchdown moments if/when our local pair return to the nest site at Careys Secret Garden.
    Unfortunately, we've been experiencing some tech issues in the last week, which has caused a delay to us being able to get the cameras online. The cameras and microphone themselves are all set up and working (looking better than ever before!), but we are currently experiencing issues with getting them streaming online, due to network changes that were beyond our control.
    Please be assured that our team are working very hard to get the cameras online for you all to enjoy and we will share them with you as soon as we can. Last year, 022 and CJ7 returned on the 25th and 26th March respectively, so we hopefully should have a while longer before we risk missing any of the action! Thank you for all your patience.
    In the meantime, let us know which dates you think the birds will return this year below, bearing in mind we could see the return of 2023 chicks for the first time – 5H3, 5H4 and 5H5!

    1. They're all foreigners. All of them. More, they're all at home during the day. Yes, I am as well today, but it's just notable.

      1. We used to have a black bloke on the bin crew. He never did much and I see he has disappeared.

    2. Yet my bins have been emptied this week and last week, so some bin crews are working.

  68. Tommy Robinson. Judge has said that he needs to think overnight. So that's it for the day. A bit disappointing. Still, no news is good good news for now. His decission will be handed out 'electronically'. Which means the lawyers will know first.

        1. Look at what happened to all the Southport "rioters" and "tweeters". The judges were told what to do. I can't prove that – but it was all too organised to be chance judgments plucked from the blue.

        2. We all know how the hard Left work. There's no chance Robinson will be released. The state cannot permit dissent. If a miracle happens and he is, no doubt plod will be instructed to arrest and jail him on a whim

  69. "… Reeves’s Spring Statement will include the biggest spending cuts since austerity, with Whitehall budgets set to shrink by billions more than expected…"

    Austerity is nothing of the short. A man hopelessly indebted and continuing to borrow and waste other people's money, were he suddenly to stop spending more than he earned and to start paying off his debt is not considered austere, he is praised for being sensible.

    Why, when bloated, incompetent, useless state has to do the same is austerity invoked as if good sense and common practice doesn't apply?

    1. I hope he's released soon, this government seems to be making up new rules to suit themselves.

      1. 403553+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,

        This “government ” have great problems making aggressive faces like real soldiers,
        all the S(TOOLS) rules / regs. are WEF / NWO
        origin.

        1. None of our more recent government’s have had a mind of their own. They have all since Blair been obeying orders from WEF and NWO and the Brussels mafia. Not one genuine politician has stood up for overall public opinion. What type of ‘management’ allows thousands of people to arrive on their door step and steal billions from the kitty blaming everything on the public who don’t have any choice.
          Public opinion is firmly against all of this.
          Any country with half an ounce of common would have used the military to remove these treasonous monsters in Parliament. And safe guarded the indigenous population.

          1. Do you truly admire countries which use military force to oust their duly elected parliamentary representatives? In my inexperience, the public is usually thankful it doesn't live in such anarchic countries, often found in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and large parts of Asia.

  72. From the Telegraph

    Why do we still care about JFK?
    President Kennedy succeeded in crafting a remarkably powerful image akin to that of a Hollywood star
    Mark White20 March 2025 12:22pm GMT
    A feverish sense of anticipation greeted the announcement that Donald Trump had authorised the declassification of thousands of documents on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which were released this week.

    Interest in his murder has remained undiminished since that fateful car ride in downtown Dallas on November 22 1963. Not long after the assassination, the first books contesting the official explanation – that the murderer had been a lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald – began to appear.

    The conveyor belt of works on the assassination has continued ever since, so much so that more has now been written on Kennedy’s death than any aspect of his life, despite the crucial issues he faced as president, such as the Cuban missile crisis, Vietnam and civil rights. Public fixation on Kennedy’s death has matched that of historians. Simply put, the killing of Kennedy has become the most famous murder in history.

    62 years on from Dallas, that begs the question why – and, in particular, why do the American people still care so much about the assassination yet with a sceptical eye as to what they have been told about it? The answer to that question relates to fundamental aspects of American history, and the unique nature of Kennedy’s life in politics.

    To bring closure to the controversies surrounding the assassination, such as what seemed to many Americans the suspicious shooting of chief suspect Oswald by nightclub owner Jack Ruby while Oswald was in police custody, President Lyndon Johnson established the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination and reach a definite conclusion on it so as to curtail public speculation about the tragedy.

    In autumn 1964 the Commission released its final report asserting that the assassin was indeed Oswald. That verdict has never convinced the majority of Americans, who instead believe in one of the various conspiracy theories that have developed, such as the idea that it was the Mob or even a government coup, as alleged in 1991 by director Oliver Stone in his Oscar-nominated film JFK.

    That so many Americans reject the official explanation is due in part to a deep-seated suspicion in US culture towards official Washington, the feeling that fundamentally centralised power should not be trusted. That sentiment goes back to 1776 when the American revolutionaries believed they were fighting against a distant and duplicitous British government. Governmental power was more a threat than a protector. In establishing the American political system, power was deliberately divided for that reason – between the executive headed by the president, the legislative branch (Congress) and the judiciary with the Supreme Court at its apex.

    This strand in the tapestry of US political culture has continued to be apparent in recent decades, with successful presidential candidates, including Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, portraying Washington as corrupt and incompetent and saying if elected that they would come into town and clean up. Hence there has been a strong inclination to consider but reject what official Washington has said about the assassination and instead to embrace anti-Establishment conspiracy theories.

    The enduring fascination with Kennedy’s murder is also linked to his unique political career. More than perhaps any Western democratic leader, he succeeded in crafting a remarkably powerful image akin to that of a Hollywood star. That was no accident. His father Joseph P. Kennedy had been a Hollywood producer, as well as successful businessman, and JFK himself spent time in Hollywood.

    A friend recalled that when JFK visited him in California in 1946, he studied movie stars like Gary Cooper. What was it about them which meant that when they entered a room, you couldn’t take your eyes off them? What was it about the way they moved, the way they dressed, the way they spoke? More image conscious and savvy than any president before or since, JFK constructed a multifaceted, powerful image as a war hero (having served in the Navy in World War II), sex symbol, family man (paradoxically given his philandering), literary figure and American royalty. He worked hard at his televisual skills, a key reason why he was able to defeat Richard Nixon in the 1960 election; he had been behind in the polls until their first television debate.

    Despite her grief, Jackie Kennedy thought quickly and strategically after the assassination about how she could ensure JFK’s image and reputation would continue to enchant the American people. She was worried that historians might remember him less charitably than she wanted, and so deliberately used the power of myth to counter any sort of objective history.

    One week after her husband’s murder, she granted an interview to the journalist Theodore White for Life magazine in which she revealed that on evenings in the White House she and her husband liked to listen to a record of the hit musical Camelot about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. White wrote up his article with the Camelot legend as his central theme. The idea was that Kennedy has been so incredible it was appropriate to think of him in terms of the Arthurian legend. This made JFK’s image even more powerful.

    In these ways, Kennedy was no ordinary politician. He became part of popular culture, like Marilyn Monroe or James Dean. And just as those stars, who also suffered premature death, with a youth preserved in aspic, continue to fascinate people today, so does John Kennedy. The magnitude of his stardom made his death seem even more tragic and his slaying even more terrible.

    Beyond all of that, there are facets of the human condition that help explain our ongoing fascination with Kennedy, his death as well as his life: our obsession with sex and death, key themes in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (which, interestingly, Robert Kennedy quoted from when giving a speech on his brother’s life at the 1964 Democratic Convention). More than any modern politician, Kennedy symbolises both the erotic life and mortality, and that’s an important reason why our interest in his life and death will continue.

    Mark White, Professor of History at Queen Mary, University of London, is author of Icon, Libertine, Leader: The Life and Presidency of John F. Kennedy

    1. The 2 James Ellroy novels, American Tabloid and The Cold Six Thousand, cover events before and after the assassination. Very hard hitting and well worth a read.

    2. Because on some level, many people understand that the people responsible for JFK's death were never brought to justice. I saw on the alternative media this morning that a "rogue element within the CIA" narrative has been 'discovered' in the released documents.
      So that's alright then. It was just a rogue element, all gone now, nothing to investigate.

  73. Very late on parade. Lots done, back and legs aching.
    Got there in the end:
    Wordle 1,370 5/6

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

    1. Wordle 1,370 4/6

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

    2. Wordle 1,370 5/6

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

      Well done

  76. Gosh – they don't give up, do they? This morning I received an e-mail from the GP outfit suggesting that I probably need "medication" to help with cholesterol levels. All I have to do is reply to the mail and an appointment with the "pharmacist" will be arranged at very short notice.

    Funny that. The MR wished to make an apptmt with a GP – and the earliest date in 15 April.

    The "medication" proffered is, of course, statins – though, natch, no mention of that as made in the "invitation".

    They must be running short of money and have been told by BIG Pharma to get their sales team on the job.

    1. Surely, a medical need (such as demonstrated by a blood test) should be established before taking pills?

      1. Takes three weeks to arrange a blood test, though the women who do it are sitting in their room chatting away to each other. Makes me spit.

        2. The last three times I have been to my local surgery although a large waiting area with at least 6 private rooms plus nurses stations. Was empty. Everyone I speak to says the same. The doctors parking area has usually one car only.

      2. What a charming old-fashioned idea!
        Now take your pills, there's a big Pharma chief executive who needs to pay for his private jet.

    2. I received three letters yesterday for three appointments for the same procedure. Just rang to confirm which is the correct one but I bet they'll mark me down as a no-show for the other two, even though the woman I just spoke to promised she'd correct their records.

    3. I keep getting messages from my gp practice on my mobile suggesting that I book covid booster jab. I know where they can put those.
      And as you say you cant get an appointment.
      I tried to get some help booking an appointment for my long awaited knee op. They replied saying they were no longer able to make contact with the hospital department…..
      And other medical procedures suggested that I should have, like your own suggestions.
      Be careful Statins can cause many people problems. Muscle cramps especially. Becauseof the extreme and obvious difficulties in making appointments, I wonder how many people now are self medicating.

      1. They have already been told – many times and firmly – that I shall never take statins.

    4. As all GP Practices are being swallowed up by foreign investors and hedge funds they need to return a profit for their shareholders not forgetting the £3million plus bonuses for the controllers.

      Practices are pushing patients to A&E and now they are squealing they are now pressuring pharmacists to take up the slack at the same time as hundreds of pharmacies are closing because their businesses can no longer support them or their staff. NI rise anyone? One would think Risky Sunak whose parents had a pharmacy in Southampton might have had some influence…but no. They are billionaires now so they don't give a shit.

      They will push these drugs relevant to ones condition or not.

    5. After I refused to continue with the Pfizer Statin (Lipitor) I had hoped to be left alone. No such luck! The GP recommended an alternative tablet for those like me who have an adverse reaction to statins.

      I tried a few days of this non statin but it gave me stomach cramps so I have binned it. Just reading the many possible side effects made me queasy.

      Any medication aiming to reduce cholesterol is in my view a device to enable big Pharma and those dispensing this shit to line their pockets.

    6. I had the drug pushing when I dutifully toddled along for a check up to see if I was still alive.
      That reminds me, they took some blood.

  77. Just flicked through the UK papers.
    How is it they are all filled with articles decrying Trump, cartoons taking the piss, yet the same effort is not applied to Starmer and his crew?

      1. The perfect name for a springer spaniel.
        "Look, he's so adorable, what's his name?"

        1. A few years before I came along, my family booked a summer holiday in a caravan called "Why Worry". One of my brothers fell into the trap. "Mum, what's this caravan called"? "Why Worry". "Because I want to know" And so on…

    2. Big Donny is putting a lot of pressure on the useless destructive political idiots across Europe. But it obviously doesn't fit the adgenda of the WEF and NWO.

      1. The French have realised that after Ukraine is diminished that the Nazi regime of Zelensky and his successors will have to be contained in Lvov.

        From Lvov the threat will be directed not only at Russia but towards the west viz. Poland and parts of western Ukraine where Hungarian speakers have been badly treated for decades.

        The French “boots on the ground” will be facing towards the west not the east.

        Russia will protect itself from the Lvov rump with an extensive demilitarised zone martialed and led by Russian troops and Police.

        Starmer seems to have allowed some visceral hatred of Russia to have impaired what little judgement if any he possesses. This is derived from a century or more of the MI6 requiring a bogeyman following the reunification of Germany and end to the Cold War.

  78. Yesterday I visited an excellent delicatessen in Simrishamn ( a beautiful little seaside town here in Skåne) and bought a delicious lump of Colston Bassett Stilton (the best, and my personal favourite).

    It weighed 331g [11·7oz] and I paid SEK254·10 [£19·29] for it. That works out at 5·828 pence per gram. Does anyone happen to know the current price that wonderful cheese sells for in the UK?

    1. AI answers:
      "Colston Bassett Stilton, a renowned British blue cheese, is available in various sizes and prices across different retailers in England. Here are some examples:

      – **British Fine Foods**: Offers a 200g portion for £5.95. citeturn0search0

      – **Waitrose & Partners**: Provides a 200g piece for £4.00, with an estimated price of £20 per kg. citeturn0search1

      – **Paxton & Whitfield**: Lists a 200g hand-cut portion at £8.25. citeturn0search3

      – **Fine & Wild**: Sells a 160g piece for £4.00 and a 250g piece for £6.00. citeturn0search4

      – **Mills Butchers**: Offers a 400g portion for £11.95. citeturn0search5"

      – **Cheeses of Muswell Hill**: Provides a 250g piece for £9.50, with larger sizes available at proportional prices. citeturn0search6

      Prices vary among retailers, with a general range of approximately £4.00 to £8.25 for a 200g piece. Purchasing larger quantities often offers a better per-kilogram rate. Availability and pricing may change, so it's advisable to check with individual retailers for the most current information.

      1. Thanks for that, Paul. It seems I am paying 2–3 times the price of most UK outlets. But, as a rare buy, one has to treat oneself sometimes, doesn't one?

        Cheese prices of all types have risen recently in Sweden. I wonder if that's to get more people to buy the ubiqitous hushallsost [pron:"hoose-hals-oost"] ('household cheese') a cheap, mass-produced lump of soap that is ten times worse (and much blander) than even the mankiest-quality cheap 'cheddar'.

        2. I thought you only eat meat……

          How can cheese be regarded as meat?

          Just asking.

    2. Michael Portillo has been travelling Scandinavian by railway in his latest TV adventures. It all looks rather lovely. But I wouldn't want to be there for the winter. We travelled by ship up and back to Norway's Fjord land a few years ago. Throughly enjoyed it.
      The tv programme is worth a watch.

      1. It's definitely parky up in Norrland in winter. I, though, live as far south as you can get in Sweden. I'm on the same latitude as Kelso in Scotland, i.e. much further south than Spikey is up in Wester Ross. Our weather is on a par with most of the UK.

        1. I know he’s a bit of a ponce, but I like the programs. I often have the feeling that I need to be in these places.
          I get the impression they are as England was in the 60s when I grew up here.

      1. ..and going…

        You know what it is like where he lives. Hoof and straw for lunch and antlers for dinner served with a moose jus.

      2. They also sell Valrhona chocolate!

        It's a much better deli than that place in Cley-Next-The-Sea. But not as good as Larners & Bakers in Holt.

    4. Dunno. I could shop lift some for you. Walk out the door with a big lump of it in me pants…

    5. We cannot get stilton in Canadian stores nowadays. It is a fallout from brexit that opened up problems with tariffs.

  79. Wordle No. 1,370 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 20 Mar 2025

    Paste for Birdie Three!

    1. Ell done. Bogie here today.

      Wordle 1,370 5/6

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

  80. There were half a dozen options left and I was lucky that the right one was the first to come to mind.

    Wordle 1,370 4/6

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

    1. Bough? Cough? Dough? Gough? Hough? Lough? Rough? Sough? Tough?

      I don't do Wordle so I'm just supposing a few words that end in 'ough', for example.

      1. You missed Thorough and Hiccough!! There's a word for words that end the same but sound different but for the life of me I cant recall it……

          1. You might be right Rene but I thought homographs were words that were spelt the same but mean something different – Wiki gives the example ‘bear’ meaning carry or ‘bear’ meaning the animal, although the OED insists that they should also be pronounced differently eg ‘sow’ as in to plant seeds and ‘sow’ as in female pig…… not sure we’re quite there though……..

        2. No, I only went for the five-letter versions (for Wordle). I have a copy of poems that show all the alternative pronunciations of ‘ough’.

  81. Well done! I got another great start but was slightly fortunate to guess the right one of two options! Boydie!

    Wordle 1,370 3/6

    🟨🟩🟩🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  82. Wordle No. 1,370 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 20 Mar 2025

    Paste for Birdie Three!

    2. Late again but here we are:

      Wordle 1,370 4/6

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

    3. I listed six words in alphabetical order and opted for the first and possibly most unlikely one. Bingo.

      Wordle 1,370 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  83. "There’s only one way to save the welfare state: end mass immigration."
    Michael Deacon telling a few home truths.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/19/save-welfare-state-end-mass-immigration/
    It is interesting to see the contortions many Labour politicians are having to go through to try to square the circle of benefit cuts and trying to keep true to their Marxist aspirations. Reality of immigration is beginning to strike home to some and they don't like it. Starmer however is burying his head in the sand by escaping to the International stage trying to take a lead on Ukraine. The harder he tries the deeper he digs himself into the international cesspit.

  84. That's me gone for this delightful day. Nice trip to t'market; then to Great Snoring for Top Farm eggs (laid this morning). Crosswords done. Then an afternoon in the garden WITHOUT a pullover, finishing off with a mug of tea (© Robert) in the sun. Also sowed the leeks.

    Tomorrow said to be similar – I wonder…

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

    1. When I lived in Briston there were no fewer than three places in the village that sold freshly-laid eggs of an excellent quality.

      These days I get them from a friend who just lives just a mile away down the road on the edge of our village.

    2. I had to take Winston to the vet, which rather discombobulated my schedule. Then I received several phone calls further effing up my plans. Have temporarily suspended giving up alcohol for Lent.

    1. They all look Chinese to me. Plus China doesn't recognise dual nationality. Which has clearly been used a vehicle to get drugs into the country.

      One shot to the back of the head…Next !

    2. I don't think us Brits can get too upset over this when you consider the Opium Wars.

  86. It looks like Canada will have an election next month.

    Trudeau prorogued parliament until March 24th, it is expected that Carney will call the election on the 23rd. We have had no working parliament for about six months, who needs a government when the country is in total disarray.

    Time to see how much damage Trump has done to conservative prospects by his economic attacks and threats of 51st state status.

          4. Yes I do but I haven’t recorded it – I’m not sure I play it correctly but I’ll have a go 😘

          6. Tip top, Spikey. It is a haunting and timeless tune. I simply love it and your version does it credit.

  87. So Nicola Sturgeon is no longer under investigation for the embezzlement of SNP funds although her husband is in court for that offence and has been released on bail. She says she's done nothing wrong but you can bet your last groat she knew all about it and is happy to see her estranged husband take the wrap. The party treasurer Beattie has also been released from investigation, he will no doubt have been complicit too.

        1. Yes, I’m not sure they ever had a sex non-ban – if you get my lavender drift…….

  92. 403553+ up ticks,

    This chap would make a good leader but in becoming one would he he hung out to dry by the followers, as a replay of post referendum, when the electorate returned to the pro eu parties and earnestly set about
    arranging our downfall as a country via the polling stations, and to date making a bloody good fist of it.
    https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1902693117930729548

    1. The welfare reforms are a tiny, tiny fraction of the total cost of welfare: 5bn vs 300bn. It is less than 2%

      We simply cannot afford the cost of welfare. Some need the support. Others just abuse it. How do you tell the difference?

      A start would be refusing any form of welfare to the immigrant until they've lived here 10 years. For others set a lifetime limit of 10 k or what has been paid in tax.

      Make child benefit a tax credit. Married couples receive monies for their first child by paying less tax. Don't work, no money.

      Phase out housing benefit over ten years by 8% a year. That'll normalise house prices as well.

      Then cut stealth taxes, remove council funding and simply demolish government. Trump is closing the department for education, just as Milei is. This is a good decision: government has no business meddling in children's lives and notably it's the first thing socialists set about controlling.

      1. Make child benefit a tax credit. Married couples receive monies for their first child by paying less tax. Don't work, no money.

        That might well be the key.

        1. It's got to be. The dross cannot be allowed to keep breeding. The number of feral chavs, of wasters, of hordes of foreigners: every problem can be traced to a generation of effluent we do not need. Cutting welfare for the wasters stops that.

      2. I am sure that child benefit used to be in the form of tax relief. My parents didn't get anything for my brother, but got reduced taxes for me when I turned up, unplanned.

    2. Watched 3 minutes and it all seemed hazy and lacking words from Starmer or Charles.

      1. Our bridesmaid's husband commanded one of these.

        He made rear admiral.
        I have often wondered what he would have thought about all this.

      2. Dear Mr Putin. Please aim for London. This is where two tier Kier lives, this is Angela Raynor's houses, Caroline Lucas' houses, Lammy, Miliband…the Khunt, Mayors office, Whitehall… the list is endless.

        Please don't use one bomb. Do it properly. Ten to twenty per address. Before April the 1st, too. No one will miss London. It's an open sewer. Nuclear fire and radiation would be cleaner than it currently is.

        Yours sincerely, a tax payer.

        1. Use a bomb that just wipes out the necessary people and leaves the buildings intact, please!

  97. That assumes Russia has no missile defence systems or aircraft. Or submarines of it's own. Or radar.

    Our missiles – the ones we have – are old, slow and easy to stop using couter measures.

    Glib? Our country is overrun with criminal foreigners. They hate us, and are everywhere. Our government refuses to do anything about it. Our taxes are appallingly high yet our roads are pot holed ruins. Council officialdom happily pays itself half a million or more a year though. Bin men collect twice a month where it used to be both bins, weekly. Buying a house costs a fortune in tax. Starting a business sees you taxed before you make a profit. Our energy grid is a fragile, barely functioning system wherre energy is horrifically expensive.

    Those in need of support are derided. The waster elevated. The crook feted and released, the innocent jailed because big state wanted to punish them.

    Everythng is more expensive because of tax and waste policies. The Left wrecked education and gave the money to their union paymasters.

    The country is a polluted wreck, forcibly made so by the Left who has been desperate to do this country down after they lost the war.

    I hate the idea of war, let alone nuclear war. I've fought in them, for goodness sake. I'll tell you this though: going through Northam is little different to stinking Afghanistan now. The pollution are everywhere, littering, stinking the place out, organised crime is rife. It's wrong and I'm tired of the most beautiful, deserving, greatest country in the world being treated as a toilet by the Left, crapping out sewage they spread over the country.

  98. From Coffee House the Spectator

    Today is World Happiness Day. So, like every year on 20 March, you are likely to see a lot of headlines reporting on the publication of the annual World Happiness Report. ‘Finland is again ranked the happiest country in the world [while] the US falls to its lowest-ever position’, a headline in the Associated Press ran this morning. Forbes even got philosophical, promising ‘5 Life Lessons From Finland, Once Again the World’s Happiest Country’.

    Published by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network and the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University, the basic message of the report has remained the same since its launch in 2012. The happiest countries in the world are in Scandinavia; this year, Finland is followed by Denmark, Iceland and Sweden. America, despite being one of the richest large countries in the world, persistently underperforms: this year, the United States only comes in 24th out of the 147 countries covered in the report, placing it behind much poorer countries like Lithuania and Costa Rica. The United Kingdom has also experienced a steady decline in the league table; ranked as the 13th happiest country in the world at its peak, it has now declined to 23rd position.

    I have to admit that I have been skeptical about this ranking ever since I first came across it. Because I have family in both Sweden and Denmark, I have spent a good amount of time in Scandinavia. And while Scandinavian countries have a lot of great things going for them, they never struck me as pictures of joy. For much of the year, they are cold and dark. Their cultures are extremely reserved and socially disjointed. When you walk around the – admittedly beautiful – centres of Copenhagen or Stockholm, you rarely see anybody smile. Could these really be the happiest places in the whole wide world?

    So, to honour World Happiness Day, I finally decided to follow my hunch, and look into the research on this topic more deeply. What I found was worse than I’d imagined. To put it politely, the World Happiness Report is beset with methodological problems. To put it bluntly, it is a sham.

    News reports about the World Happiness Report usually give the impression that it is based on a major research effort. Noting that the report is ‘compiled annually by a consortium of groups including the United Nations and Gallup’, for example, an article about last year’s iteration in the New York Times warned darkly that ‘the United States fell out of the Top 20’ without a hint of skepticism about the reliability of such a finding.

    In light of such confident pronouncements, and the absence of any critical voices in most of these news stories, you might be forgiven for thinking that the report carefully assesses how happy each country in the world is according to a sophisticated methodology, one that likely involves both subjective and objective criteria. But upon closer examination, it turns out that the World Happiness Report is not based on any major research effort; far from measuring how happy people are with some sophisticated mix of indicators, it simply compiles answers to a single question asked to comparatively small samples of people in each country:

    Please imagine a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to ten at the top. Suppose we say that the top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. If the top step is 10 and the bottom step is 0, on which step of the ladder do you feel you personally stand at the present time?

    The obvious problem with this question, commonly known as the Cantril Ladder, is that it doesn’t really ask about happiness at all. We know from many surveys that people tend to give very different answers to questions about what makes them satisfied with their life and to questions about whether they are feeling good in the moment. Having children, for example, tends to raise parents’ assessment of how meaningful their life is; but notably it does not make them report higher levels of happiness at any particular moment, including when they are spending time with their kids. At most, a ranking based purely on the Cantril Ladder could therefore give us something called a World Self-Reported Life Satisfaction Report – and it’s easy to see why such an honest title wouldn’t entice many journalists to write about it.

    The less obvious problem with the Cantril Ladder is that it does not even do a good job of measuring respondents’ satisfaction with their own lives. When one set of researchers asked over a thousand survey respondents in the United Kingdom what they took the question to be getting at, the most commonly mentioned responses included ‘wealth’, ‘rich’ and ‘successful’. As August Nilsson and his colleagues painstakingly demonstrate, some of the specific language in the question – such as the metaphor of the ladder and its emphasis on the ‘top’ as well as the ‘bottom step’ – primes respondents to think about social hierarchies. Their conclusion is sobering: ‘The Cantril Ladder is arguably the most prominent measure of well-being, but the results suggest caution in its interpretation – the Cantril Ladder’s structure appears to influence participants to attend to a more power- and wealth-oriented view of well-being’.

    But perhaps the biggest problem with the World Happiness Report is that metrics of self-reported life satisfaction don’t seem to correlate particularly well with other kinds of things we clearly care about when we talk about happiness. At a minimum, you would expect the happiest countries in the world to have some of the lowest incidences of adverse mental health outcomes. But it turns out that the residents of the same Scandinavian countries that the press dutifully celebrates for their supposed happiness are especially likely to take antidepressants or even to commit suicide. While Finland and Sweden consistently rank at the top of the happiness league table, for example, both countries have also persistently experienced some of the highest suicide rates in the European Union, ranking in the top five EU countries according to one recent statistic.

    It turns out that my hunch is born out by the data. Scandinavia doesn’t just seem a lot less happy than headlines suggest each year; if you look at a variety of metrics that have at least as much connection to a layperson’s understanding of happiness as the single metric used by the World Happiness Report, countries like Finland don’t do especially well.

    Two distinguished economists, Danny Blanchflower and Alex Bryson, set out in a recent paper to discover what would happen to the world happiness rankings if they looked at a broader range of indicators – and what they found is a totally different picture.

    Instead of relying on a single metric of life satisfaction, Blanchflower and Bryson consider eight survey questions which have widely been asked in different countries around the world. The first four of these questions measure different dimensions of positive affect. They are based on asking whether respondents experienced enjoyment yesterday; whether they smiled or laughed a lot; and whether they felt well-rested. (Their measure of positive affect also incorporates answers to the Cantril Ladder.)

    The next four questions used by Blanchflower and Bryson measure different dimensions of negative affect. They ask respondents such questions as whether or not they experienced sadness yesterday; whether they worried during a lot of the day; whether they experienced anger; and whether they were in physical pain.

    What Blanchflower and Bryson found is striking. Responses to the Cantril Ladder barely seem to correlate with expressions of either positive or negative affect. Denmark, for example, came top of their ranking on the Cantril Ladder. But, like most other Scandinavian countries, Denmark did much worse on both metrics of positive affect such as how likely respondents had been to smile or laugh a lot the previous day (111th out of 164 countries) and on metrics of negative affect such as whether they had worried a lot (93rd out of 164.)

    As a result, the overall ranking constructed by Blanchflower and Bryson looks totally different to the more famous version published by the UN. Finland, for example, falls to 51st place. Conversely, countries like Japan, Panama and Thailand, none of which do especially well on the official ranking by the UN, suddenly appear a lot happier; all of them are ranked above Finland and other supposed top performers.

    Supposedly serious news outlets still have a long way to go in subjecting publicity exercises like the World Happiness Report to appropriate journalistic scrutiny

    Another surprise suggests that the story about happiness in the United States is not nearly as bleak as is usually suggested. For it turns out that happiness varies widely across America – and some parts of the country are seemingly the happiest in the world.

    Once you break the United States into its component states, it becomes clear that parts of the country really are doing quite badly. Residents of West Virginia, for example, ranked 101st out of 215 countries and states, making them about as happy as those in much poorer places like Sri Lanka and Mauritania. But residents of other US states are, according to the ranking constructed by Blanchflower and Bryson, among the happiest in the world. Seven of them – Hawaii, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas – are at the very top of the list, meaning that their residents are happier than those of the happiest country in the world (which turns out to be Taiwan, located in East Asia rather than Northern Europe). All in all, the residents of 34 US states, plus those of the District of Columbia, have higher average levels of happiness than do the Fins.

    Sadly, Blanchflower and Bryson don’t break the United Kingdom down into different regions. If they did, the country’s performance would likely also look better than the official rankings in the UN report suggest. It turns out that Britons don’t feel a lot of positive emotions, ranking poorly on positive affect; but they are also much less likely than many peer nations to feel anguish or anger. Apparently, some national stereotypes, like that of the stiff upper lip, do survive empirical scrutiny. Overall, Blanchflower and Bryson rank Britain in 57th position, just behind Finland but well ahead of the United States as a whole.

    In a culture obsessed with happiness and wellness, there will always be huge demand for content that sells readers on the one great hack for how to improve their lives. Want to live to a ripe old age? Eat like the residents of ‘blue zones’ such as Sardinia or Okinawa. Want to be happy even though you’re not rich? Move to Bhutan, a country often portrayed as having figured out the key to happiness because the government announced in 2008 that it would henceforth be focusing on growing its ‘Gross Happiness Index’.

    But that one great hack for how to improve your life nearly always turns out to be a sham. The residents of blue zones aren’t especially likely to live long because of their unique diets; more likely, blue zones are distinguished by poor record-keeping, leading to an abnormally high number of people defrauding the government by overstating their own age or continuing to collect pension checks for deceased relatives. Similarly, the government of Bhutan may talk a big game about prioritising happiness over economic growth; but in reality, it doesn’t do particularly well in either the World Happiness Report or on Blanchflower and Bryson’s alternative metric – and the steady flow of people leaving Bhutan appear to believe that they could lead much happier lives elsewhere.

    This suggests that, for all of the evident shortcomings of a purely economistic mindset, attempts to abandon tried-and-tested metrics like GDP for new-fangled indicators like happiness rankings may do more harm than good. After all, it remains extremely hard to measure happiness – and even if we could somehow come up with a reliable metric, we’d have precious little idea about what government policies could actually boost this outcome.

    More broadly, supposedly serious news outlets still have a long way to go in subjecting publicity exercises like the World Happiness Report to appropriate journalistic scrutiny. It is easy to see why editors are tempted to assign some beat reporter without expertise in the social sciences to write up a fun little story about how much happier those enlightened Scandinavians are compared to benighted Americans. But if the media wants to live up to its self-appointed role as a gatekeeper of reliable information, it can’t continue to be complicit in the spread of such shoddy clickbait.

    Over the last years, media outlets like the New York Times, universities like Oxford, and international institutions like the UN have devoted themselves to the fight against so-called ‘misinformation’. It is certainly true that our political discourse is awash with dangerous distortions and outright lies. But any institution which wishes to address that problem must start by looking into the mirror – and cease spreading ‘elite misinformation’ like the World Happiness Report.

    This article was originally published on Yascha Mounk’s Substack.

    WRITTEN BY
    Yascha Mounk
    Yascha Mounk is a professor at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, D.C. and the author of The Identity Trap.

    1. I'm blasted miserable. My calves have a nasty rash on them, I'm having to make the choice between winding down my company or, more likely working longer hours just to keep the same level of revenue.

      I can't hire someone because of Raynor the moron. I've just done the waitrose shop and what cost £87 3 years ago is £132 today.

      I filled the car up but not to the brim and am weirdly annoyed at that. My bills are going up relentlessly, regardless of additional value and it's all because of an incompetent, lazy, arrogant, thoroughly series of stupid governments for the last 30 years.

      1. Yep, I feel the same (except I don't have a company to worry about). Food bills going up, utility bills going up (water rates have hit four figures for the first time), electricity, insurance, car repairs … The only thing not going up commensurately is my income.

    3. I knew a few Finns in my work days – they were generally pretty happy as they were either pissed, or in the sauna, or both!!

    4. World Happiness Day? NOW they tell me! It hasn't been a particularly happy day for me; I seem to have had even more landed on my plate than I already had 🙁

        1. He's got some sachets of probiotic to take for a week. He had stomach problems over the weekend and his SBDs (Silent But Deadlies) are eye-watering. The woman on reception said, "mix it with his wet food or he might not eat it". I told her he was a beagle, it wouldn't matter if I just put it in his bowl! In fact, there was a little bit left in the sachet so I sprinkled that in his bowl after he'd eaten his meal. It was gone in no time.

    5. 'If I ruled the world
      Every day would be the first day of spring
      Every heart would have a new song to sing
      And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring'

      I thought of this song this morning and it brought to mind the beginning of a sermon I heard when I was a ten year old altar boy. The priest began his homily with the words of the song and then said in disparaging tones that the song writer imagined he could manage things better than almighty God.
      Gosh even at ten I realised what rubbish people put up with because it came from the pulpit.
      Spring always brings joy as it takes us away from the oppression of winter.

    6. 'If I ruled the world
      Every day would be the first day of spring
      Every heart would have a new song to sing
      And we'd sing of the joy every morning would bring'

      I thought of this song this morning and it brought to mind the beginning of a sermon I heard when I was a ten year old altar boy. The priest began his homily with the words of the song and then said in disparaging tones that the song writer imagined he could manage things better than almighty God.
      Gosh even at ten I realised what rubbish people put up with because it came from the pulpit.
      Spring always brings joy as it takes us away from the oppression of winter.

  100. From Coffee House the Spectator

    When Donald Trump ordered the declassification of thousands of secret government documents on the assassination of president John F Kennedy, it looked like it would be a red letter day for America’s conspiracy theorists. The reality has been rather different. The JFK files – as well as other documents about the killings of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, which were released on Tuesday – look like a very damp squib.

    These documents lead to more questions than answers

    Around 2,000 documents were included in the release from the US National Archives and Records Administration. But despite Trump’s insistence that the files should not be redacted, many still have passages blacked out. Others are so faded or imperfectly photocopied as to be illegible.

    The files contain memos from the CIA that describe how a KGB official had reviewed volumes of files on JFK’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, and were ‘confident’ that he was not an intelligence asset. Another document claims that Oswald communicated with a KGB officer in the months before the assassination. But those hoping for a silver bullet in the files will be disappointed: these documents lead to more questions than answers.

    As a result, this batch of redacted documents will probably add to accusations of a deep state conspiracy rather than solve mysteries still surrounding the Kennedy and King killings more than 60 years later. Over the decades, polls show that many Americans believe that the trio of men arrested for the Kennedy and King assassinations did not act alone and that the state was somehow implicated in the crimes.

    You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to feel that there was indeed something fishy about the killing of the young and charismatic president Kennedy when he was gunned down in Dallas, Texas, by a sniper (or snipers) in November 1963. Oswald, a former US Marine marksman, was arrested for killing the president after he had shot dead a Dallas cop, officer JD Tippett, within hours of the assassination. Oswald was then himself shot dead on live TV while in police custody by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner with links to organised crime.

    Oswald had previously defected to Russia at the height of the Cold War, had a Russian wife, and was apparently a pro-communist activist defending Fidel Castro’s Cuba – a regime that Kennedy had tried, and failed, to overturn.

    Before his murder, Oswald claimed that he was a ‘patsy’ set up by the dark actors who had killed Kennedy. There were credible reports of other gunmen being seen around the famous ‘grassy knoll’ in Dallas’s Deeley Plaza, where Kennedy was hit. The number and trajectory of the shots that struck him was an important part of the mushrooming conspiracy theories.

    To put such theories to rest, Kennedy’s successor, president LB Johnson (who had been present in Dallas and was himself accused by the wilder theorists of being behind the killing) set up a commission under Chief Justice Earl Warren to investigate and produce a definitive report on the assassination.

    But the Warren report, published in unseemly haste, was riddled with inaccuracies. It merely served to fuel the theories of those who doubted its conclusion that Oswald was the sole gunman.

    Apart from Russia and Cuba, those most often accused of being behind the killing are the Mafia, angry at the war against organised crime being waged by the Kennedy brothers. Others point fingers at the CIA, who allegedly blamed the Kennedys for the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, and for being ‘soft on communism’.

    When it emerged that Oswald had contact with government officials and shady characters linked with the Mob and CIA during a visit to Mexico shortly before the assassination, theories about a deep state plot thickened. But America’s trauma was only just beginning. In 1968, came the double whammy of Dr King’s killing (like Kennedy, King was shot by a sniper, in his case on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee) and the fatal shooting of JFK’s brother, Senator Bobby Kennedy (in a Los Angeles hotel after he had won the California primary).

    King’s killer, a white supremacist called James Earl Ray, fled to Britain and was arrested at Heathrow airport as riots swept the US in protest at his crime. Ray died in jail in 1998 while serving a 99-year sentence. Sirhan Sirhan, the Palestinian man who shot Bobby Kennedy at point-blank range with a pistol, allegedly because of the senator’s support for Israel, is still in jail, where he has been visited by Trump’s Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

    No new shock revelations have yet emerged from the examination of the partially redacted documents released this week. Nonetheless, Trump has, at least, kept his promise to release the JFK files. With an estimated 80,000 documents still to wade through, in an age when few believe anything that governments say, the conspiracy theorists will be kept busy for some time yet.

    WRITTEN BY
    Nigel Jones
    Nigel Jones is a historian and journalist

        1. I meant the chappie in the cartoon above.

          The appointment was on time but I leave with the feeling that they are trying to fob me off again and await FOAD. My best friend from ou child hood, lives in Bedfordshire. A year older than I am and he's in exactly the same position. Needing a similar operation to improve the rest of his life.
          But obviously having the same problem.
          Thanks for asking. 😊

  102. I see that Stoma is volunteering to provide air cover in Ukraine. I dont remember any other peace keeping force having offensive air assets. I thought we might of learned not to poke the bear, but 2TK seems to be set on poking Vlad with the sharpest of poles. He is raving mad along with a number of others in the cabinet.

  103. That pratt starmer was filmed boarding a sub. Another missed opportunity……..

  104. Will somebody please tell Starmer that Russia is not and never was poised to attack Europe. Why on earth would it?

    Russia is a vast country with unfathomable depths of resources. It has better manufacturing facilities than anything in the west and is presently developing its wide body civil aircraft programme. Its armaments are far superior to anything the west can produce and its bombs, missiles, drones and air defences actually work, unlike the crap the west produces.

    Starmer is equally misguided in believing that the future of the UK sits best within the EU. Understand that the EU is on its last legs, run by unelected morons and bankrupt. Starmer is a prize fool unaware of just how ridiculous hie will appear when Russia and the US are trading amicably.

    2. Absolutely correct..
      But why is our stupid media and all of our useless political morons so obviously hell bent on trying to destroy Russia?
      Oh yes ….they and Vlad have enough common sense to realise that the WEF and NWO are trying to destroy their country so they do want to be involved in this stupid and gawdawful global diversity bolero.

    4. Maybe.
      If the west is adequately defended it may be inadvisable to attack Europe.
      I always think of Saki, When William Came.
      Why did he come? Well, there was the Warum Nicht? group and there were others. In the end Warum Nicht ? triumphed.
      I seem to remember that most of Europe at one time was behind an iron curtain as it were. Even then many said we had nothing to fear from the USSR.
      I saw George Bernard Shaw in a short film made in the 1930s where, in patronising tones he told us not to worry about Herr Hitler.
      So who wants to advise Starmer?

  105. And that's me off to bed.
    A trip to Ashton under Lyne tomorrow to pick up some auction purchases for t'Lad and the DT is actually going with me!
    Should be fun.

  106. I've been watching a prog on Iceland and all the eruptions that keep take place. Perhaps millipede could pop up and stick his finger in it. 🔥
    Now popping orff my self.
    Good night all 😴

    1. Another triumph for the corrupt, poisonous and evil SNP, if you don’t mind me fiddling with your comment!

      1. Well, yes, but Ferguson is the only significant commercial shipbuilder left in the UK.

        1. And the creep Swinney tried to wriggle out of the blame, at FM questions today. Instead of a nationalised company winning the contract it was given to a Polish yard! What part of the process does Swinney not have responsibility for? He is an inept and dangerous little weasel.

    1. A neutron bomb is a nuclear weapon with a much reduced blast; a dirty bomb uses conventional explosive to distribute radioactive material.

      1. Yes, blast reduced but neutrons emitted at an intensity which kill but are short lived so access is available shortly after

        1. Correct, the Neutron bomb was designed for that express purpose. Use it an a town or whatever, and your own troops can move in relatively quickly and safely shortly thereafter.

    2. It's not dirty, one can enter the area within minutes. 'Dirty' bombs are those which spew contaminated earth etc over the area eg ground burst or those which spread radioactive material from the bomb over a wide area (as far as I know)

  111. Goodnight, all. I'm off to bed; an early start and a stressful time have worn me out.

  113. Well, chums, it's my bedtime now. So I wish you all a Good Night; sleep well and hope to see you all bright and early tomorrow.

    1. It never has been.
      Anyone declaring "The Science is settled" on any matter, dark or otherwise, is talking out of their arse.

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