Thursday 21 September: The PM has put common sense before ideology – but will have to face down the net zero zealots

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.

377 thoughts on “Thursday 21 September: The PM has put common sense before ideology – but will have to face down the net zero zealots

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolk, today’s story

    Life Goes On
    A 60-year-old man went to the doctor for a check-up. The doctor told him, “You’re in terrific shape. There’s nothing wrong with you. Why, you might live forever. You have the body of a 35 year old. By the way, how old was your father when he died?”

    The 60 year old responded, “Did I say he was dead?”
    The doctor was surprised and asked, “How old is he and is he very active?”

    The 60 year old responded, “Well, he is 82 years old and he still goes skiing three times a season and surfing three times a week during the summer.”
    The doctor couldn’t believe it. “Well, how old was your grandfather when he died?”

    The 60 year old responded again, “Did I say he was dead?”
    The doctor was astonished. He said, “You mean to tell me you are 60 years old and both your father and your grandfather are alive? Is your grandfather very active?”

    The 60 year old said, “He goes skiing at least once a season and surfing once a week during the summer. Not only that,” said the patient, “my grandfather is 106 years old, and next week he is getting married again.”
    The doctor said, “At 106 years, why on earth would your grandfather want to get married?”

    His patient looked up at the doctor and said, “Did I say he wanted to?”

    1. Obviously from the time when unmarried girls who got pregnant were expected to get married asap.

      My elder sister fell madly in love with her boyfriend and married him when she was three months pregnant. They have now been very happily married for 66 years.

  2. We won’t reach net zero unless we take the public with us. 21 September 2023.

    Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent while managing to grow our economy by 65 per cent. France, meanwhile has only managed a 22 per cent reduction, the United States none at all, and China’s has risen by 300 per cent.

    How can someone (the author is the Net Zero Secretary) write such bunk knowing that the Chinese emissions are massively larger than our own and thus render our reductions irrelevant?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/09/20/claire-coutinho-net-zero-changes-pragmatism/

    1. I think we’ve entered the area of discussion where men who possessed vaster intellects than the Net Zero Secretary possesses are correct and the Secretary exposes herself to ridicule:

      “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” – Carl Sagan
      A rewording of Laplace’s principle – “the weight of evidence for an extraordinary claim must be proportioned to its strangeness”

    2. “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent…”

      This is not the first time I have seen this distortion of climate change policy. The CCA wasn’t passed until 2008. It’s true that awareness of global warming was around in the 1980s and that Mrs Thatcher had mentioned it (but later recanted). Indeed, in the 1980s, legislation was passed to offer incentives to move to ‘low carbon’ energy sources.

      Any reductions in emissions from 1990 were evolutionary as much as deliberate. Far more efficient petrol and diesel engines might have made a contribution, though of course we mustn’t forget Heseltine’s mad ‘dash for gas’.

      I’ll have a look later to see if I can find the previous reference.

    3. “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent…”

      This is not the first time I have seen this distortion of climate change policy. The CCA wasn’t passed until 2008. It’s true that awareness of global warming was around in the 1980s and that Mrs Thatcher had mentioned it (but later recanted). Indeed, in the 1980s, legislation was passed to offer incentives to move to ‘low carbon’ energy sources.

      Any reductions in emissions from 1990 were evolutionary as much as deliberate. Far more efficient petrol and diesel engines might have made a contribution, though of course we mustn’t forget Heseltine’s mad ‘dash for gas’.

      I’ll have a look later to see if I can find the previous reference.

    4. “We’re now approaching getting a quarter of our energy coming from offshore wind – up from less than one per cent in 2010.”

      Stupid girl. A quarter of our electricity.

      1. Terrible gale during the night, torrential rain too but now just ordinary dreich with a slight breeze

  3. 276960+up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Letters: The PM has put common sense before ideology – but will have to face down the net zero zealots

    Give credit where due, as a top ranking violin driver he is unsurpassable, first the much heralded cull on petrol / diesel
    transport deflection threat, then the climb down ALL the while the covert actions of replace, RESET are pushing ahead.

    Already the majority voter is suffering damp underwear,
    chomping at the bit,raring to go, with what they think is superior political governing bodies fit to run this nation, that is the mindset of criminally dangerous idiots.

    The past forty years have been a trailer as to what we are about to receive in the future thanks to the party before country voting pattern.

    And now how the Romans squandered their empire, our electorate has learnt from that as seen by doing it in a quarter of the time.

    By the by we could be leading the world in net zero, once China decides to vacate the planet.

    1. Morning Oggy. It doesn’t say who the Committeee Chair is though. It would be useful to know who thinks that Parliament has the right to interfere.

      1. 376960+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,
        I do agree, In my book though it could be any of the shysters within the, what passes for, the tory party

      2. The anti-hunting woman is the Chair; there is also a subcommittee which looks at the Orwellian subject of
        ‘Online Harms and Disinformation’.

      3. The anti-hunting woman is the Chair; there is also a subcommittee which looks at the Orwellian subject of
        ‘Online Harms and Disinformation’.

  4. Morning all.
    Bright crisp morning – no clouds in the sky. No water left up there after yesterday’s monsoon.

    1. Good morning, Stormi – a few clouds here but a sense that the air has been cleansed! I hope it’s good news for your Swifty today. Fingers crossed for you.

    2. It was the same here; everyone I met while I was out walking the dog commented on what a lovely day it was! (We actually speak to each other in this neck of the woods).

  5. The House of Commons select committee on Culture, Media and Sport has written to Rumble asking if the company will be following suit with YouTube in demonitising the content it has from Russell Brand. This appears extraordinary in a number of ways. Rumble has replied as can be heard in this YT video posted by a Canadian professor.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEa9pcOAZo8

    1. This is, sadly how things are going. Facts and evidence no longer exist. It is only opinion and emotion that matters. This is what the Left want. An end to law and due process.

  6. There are no fewer than eight letters today about Sunak’s announcement yesterday. For me this one stood out:

    SIR – First the car manufacturers claimed that a ban on new petrol car sales by 2030 was unachievable. Now they moan about the Government’s long-overdue U-turn.

    This is probably the first sensible policy that Rishi Sunak has proposed since becoming Prime Minister. The Government’s priority must be to save the country from bankruptcy induced by net zero.

    David Miller
    Chigwell, Essex

    A couple of BTLs that reflect the general tone of the rest:

    Olivia Wilde
    2 HRS AGO
    Net Zero;
    As the price for any renewables are linked to the price of gas, so don’t expect any cheaper domestic fuel bills in the near future.
    With our country’s emissions being just 1%, when will all this complete abject stupidity and lunacy that Is Net Zero, finally come to an end?! EDITED

    Reply by Trevor Anderson.

    TA

    Trevor Anderson
    1 HR AGO
    Hi Olivia, well put.
    It will fail eventually when the costs of everything on top of Net Zero hurl us further into irretrievable penury. The lists of financial commitments (many of them gratuitous and unnecessary, eg: immigration, overseas aid), are endless. Just wait until the costs of rebuilding all the public and private buildings built with dodgy concrete, becomes apparent.
    As you know, every penny we spend has to be borrowed – adding to our national debt of over £2.5 trillion (greater than our GDP) – never to be repaid.
    With the green looneys wanting to ban meat eating, dairy produce (farting cattle), cars, what we can buy etc etc, I wouldn’t bet against food rationing as per WW2.
    We are well and truly kna ckered. Rule Brittania eh?

    1. Mad Milliband was on R4 shouting that green energy and EVs are cheaper than what we have now. They dont even try and hide their lies any more.

      1. People make decisions on pricing all the time. If what he says is true he wouldn’t need to say it.

      2. Problem is he believes it. He’s carefully cherry picked specific figures that confirm and support his ideology – and ignored the basis for that data because it doesn’t suit him.

  7. Good morning all,

    Sunny start at McPhee Towers but there will be showers later. Wind going Sou’- West, 11℃ going up to 15℃ so a tad cool.

    Some mountain bikers had a surprise. Good job no-one mentioned the Great Reset.

    https://youtu.be/q97gUrw3ib4

    I didn’t know there was any such thing as a professional mountain-biker either.

    “Well, nice to meet you”. No ‘Sir’ or ‘Your Majesty’.

  8. Good morning all,

    Sunny start at McPhee Towers but there will be showers later. Wind going Sou’- West, 11℃ going up to 15℃ so a tad cool.

    Some mountain bikers had a surprise. Good job no-one mentioned the Great Reset.

    https://youtu.be/q97gUrw3ib4

    I didn’t know there was any such thing as a professional mountain-biker either.

  9. Good morning all.
    A bright start to the day with clear skies and a mere 4½°C on the thermometer when I first poked my nose outside.

    Troubles, troubles, troubles!
    Stepson is causing problems and, in addition to the weeping clutch slave cylinder, front tyres worn to the limit & slow puncture on the rear left tyre, my rear right has gone flat!! At least it’s taken a quick 25psi, so it’ll hold for the quick trip up the village to get sorted.

  10. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aa0edf533dca9c319b495613fe158d9b971de1f20cb2ad0212007eeeed9e36a2.png
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/after-jabber-jacinda-things-will-only-get-worse/

    “WITH the opposition National Party favourite to win next month’s election, leader Christopher Luxon and health spokesman Dr Shane Reti have promised financial incentives to doctors if they administer Covid vaccination to 95 per cent of those registered in their practice. As well as standard payments, which were $75 (£36) per jab during the pandemic, under National’s plan doctors will be paid an additional $10-per-person bonus so long as they can persuade 95 per cent of eligible patients to receive jabs by June next year. This compares with the UK’s payment to GPs of £10.06 per jab, reduced this month to £7.54.”

    BTL

    All I can say is that I hope Italy manages to defeat New Zealand in the coming Rugby World Cup Match. This would mean that France and Italy would proceed to the knockout stage and New Zealand would be out of the competition!

    1. Italy beat NZ? Not an snowball’s chance in the Sahara. If they confine the All Blacks to 50 points they’ll have done well.

      1. Unlikely – but not impossible – Italy are top of the group with maximum 10 points. And Fiji beat Australia in their group and France made the All Blacks look very ordinary.

      1. To withdraw from paying the TV licence is like giving up tobacco smoking: it saves money and is a healthy choice.

        1. I cancelled my licence more than 3 years ago but I still watch all my favourite programs on UKTV Catchup legally and free, if you don’t want to watch the adverts you can pay a small subscription to stop them. Why everyone doesn’t do this is beyond me

    1. It wasn’t so much ‘break the law’ as ‘is this acceptable’. Chris Packham is right in that the current activity is not changing anyone’s mind about anything. His personal ideology isn’t necessarily something held by others and like a lot of Lefties he struggles to understand this.

      Like a lot of those head in hands oh woe is me folk either haven’t or never will understand the terror of a £500 electricity bill just to wash. These same types also support the very thing being done which is accelerating the problem- massive immigration, for example.

      1. Packham is not just a Lefty, he is also a committed vegan, which means that his brain and body are malnourished … a precursor for the onset of advanced stupidity.

        1. And autistic or, if we want to be euphemistic, he “is blessed” with Asperger’s syndrome.

          .

    2. He praised the loony JSO protester who brought the Motorway to a halt and discussed blowing up an oil pipeline. He needs to be sectioned.

  11. Many people are doing very nicely out of the absurd Net Zero policy – otherwise how come there are so many vested interests objecting to Sunak’s plan to slow down the rate.

    And who is stuffing our exceptionally corrupt politicians’ pockets to keep them on side with the wrecking of the UK economy?

    1. Heartbreaking. How could so called “carers” treat people that way.

      I’m sorry to say that our d-in-law, a business manager for a care homes group, was fully on board with all this, she had to be and had to have the injections. I told her it was utterly inhumane to prevent people seeing their relatives in care homes. I had no idea there were guidelines allowing visits. Not that I had anyone in a care home but the thought of it made me so angry.

    2. You Tube haven’t got the message re the truth. Censoring evidence from an official enquiry, for goodness sake.

      Organisations supportive of; governments’ lockdown actions; the banning of effective early intervention medications; the disastrous use of untried novel “vaccines” and the widespread use of misdirection and misinformation in addition to outright lying by governments, continue to deny not only what went on but what continues to this day, and intend to keep things that way.

      …it’s our job to make sure that You Tube is a safe for all.

      https://twitter.com/profnfenton/status/1704415210314870927

  12. Time for me and the MR to prepare to go to the funeral. I fear that there will be the ghastly “Old Rugged Cross”. As virtually no one goes to church anymore, no one knows the hymns….

    Back later. Play nicely.

    1. I attended a memorial service on Tuesday. We sang Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, I vow to Thee our Country and Jerusalem. The sevice ended with Colonel Bogey.

      1. Love Divine, My Song is Love Unknown, Dear Lord and Father of Mankind were the three hymns at our wedding.

        I read 1 Corinthians xiii at my Father’s Funeral and recited Heraclitus. At both my parents’ funerals we sang Abide With Me and The Day Thou Gavest.

        The school in which Caroline and I taught was called Allhallows so we sang For All the Saints on Old Boys’ (and Girls’) chapel service.

    2. I attended a funeral yesterday – very dignified, tasteful and traditional, not one of the ‘family production’ type of funerals. All very sad, though, a lovely, kind lady who lived in the village, gone before her time.

    1. That situation has been the wet-dream fantasy of countless adolescent boys. Moreover, would he have ever made it to become Boss of Frogland without her assistance?

    1. It provides for reasonable force to be used for them to enter your home and check your appliances too

  13. Zelensky proposes peace plan as he warns Putin could expand conflict throughout Europe. 21 September 2023.

    As outlined on his Telegram account, the first step of Zelensky’s peace plan consists of the complete withdrawal of Russian troops and military formations – including the Russian Black Sea Fleet – from the entire sovereign territory of Ukraine.

    The second step outlines a full return to Ukraine of effective control over their state border and exclusive economic zone.

    Zelensky wrote in his third step that “a system of aggression prevention through early response to actions directed against the territorial integrity and sovereignty of states is needed.”

    Wow! I don’t see how Vlad could refuse.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1814936/Zelensky-peace-plan-warns-Putin-expand-conflict-Europe

    1. Set impossible demands so that you can use non-compliance as an excuse. Of course as Peter Lavelle regularly points out on RT, Ukraine will lose comprehensibly and the Americans will claim victory on account of the Russian army not reaching the English Channel. That the Russians will have achieved what they set out to do will be completely ignored.

  14. Do not comply is one answer to the scaremongering e.g. rising cases of “covid”, whatever that is/was.

    Amazing, a new variant pops up around the World and the testing programme swings in to action with a rise in “cases” detected. In addition we’re promised a new “vaccine” in next to no time despite the alleged significant changes in the ‘spike protein’. It’s The Science, allegedly.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/383473ccaaed39f47f31a96dbce507866c9631400f72a96c6b60b0fc3a1d4aa1.png

    Daily Sceptic – Germans not exactly rushing out to have the new potion

          1. MB and I have made the same decision.
            I have never had a ‘flu jab; MB used to because of his poor health, but he has lost faith in it.

          2. I have mine booked for Saturday lunch time. I’m content to continue as I’ve yet to experience an adverse reaction to any previous one.

          3. I succumbed to a flu jab for the first and last time in 2020 – the propaganda must have got to me that time. I was also persuaded to have a pneumonia one. Other than that – I’ve had enough jabs for travel purposes to last the rest of my life.

            I had a chat with the Post Office lady this afternoon – she knows several people who have fairly suddenly been diagnosed with heart problems and cancers – she said “I know what you’re thinking” and she’s not having any more jabs either.

        1. The nhs has done some wonderful things but examination of the other side of the coin reveals a very dark political heart within.

          I don’t trust the nhs either. I haven’t for many years. It is 40 years since I last had a vaccination of any sort. The ‘flu jab, it seems, is at best only 26% effective and that is for approximately one month – if they get the type of ‘flu correct for that season. It simply isn’t worth being injected with heavy metals and other toxic chemicals for that sort of dubious protection.

          1. When you consider the childhood jabs we had – smallpox, polio, and if you didn’t react to the skin test – TB. My children had a few more than that but not the many they dish out these days. We’re all in good health.

            When you read how many jabs they give American children – it’s frightening – no wonder they have so many autism cases. It’s clear the Amish have the best health in that country as they spurn all jabs.

          2. I had a scarlet fever jab as well I’m pretty sure. Diptheria also, possibly. None has had to be repeated.

          3. I probably had those. I remember queuing up at the Nurse’s house for the polio one. I didn’t need the TB one as I reacted to the heef test.
            As a child I had measles, whooping cough and chicken pox – but not mumps, which was extremely unpleasant and painful at 25.

          4. My arm came up in a lump about the size of a sixpence and a good quarter of an inch high! I had a very good immune system as a child – probably something to do with all those animals and spending a lot of time outdoors getting dirty 🙂

          5. I don’t remember bad reactions from any jabs really. But I spent plenty of time outdoors; we had a dog and a cat; I walked a mile or so to school every day. I think we had a much healthier life than most children have now. Plus all the anti-bacterial cleaners people use now mean children don’t develop immunity to dirt. Thats my excuse for bad house-keeping anyway.

          6. I agree. Houses are too clean and airless. I had a big lump on my upper arm from the smallpox jab – it was a bit like Mt Etna. I also used to react violently to insect bites – huge great blisters and Mt Vesuvius-esque raised red lumps.

      1. I know two people who regularly had tests and they were both multiple jabbees. Hasn’t been mentioned recently and neither has the new ‘booster’: either they’ve come to their senses or for some reason or other they’ve become reluctant to mention their “covid” status.

        1. At lunch with old colleagues yesterday the latest round of jabs came up – one or two said they’d be having them – I said “You mean the ones tested on 20 mice? For the variant that is no longer current?” Maybe they might just think for a moment……….

      2. I know of several people who’ve had a cold and tested. Usually it’s negative. Some claim they have covid, but in my view it’s either an excuse to stay off work or a false positive.

    1. Then again, given the King’s deep affection for France and his call for a renewal of the Entente Cordiale, I’m sure he’ll be delighted that the UK’s timetable for achieving Net Zero by 2050 now aligns more closely with that of France and the European Union.

      1. The meddling king should keep his nose well out of British, French, European and World politics.

          1. I think you have swallowed the climate change con hook line and sinker.

            Of course you are as entitled to your opinion as I am!

          2. It is his meddling which will bring down the monarchy. I suppose you are an avid republican and the sooner that happens the better!

          3. I am indifferent as to whether or not his “meddling” leads to the monarchy’s downfall. I’m content for the monarchy to remain because changing things often leads to worse outcomes. There has to be a very positive reason to change to a republic. As to the monarchy, easy come, easy go.

          4. I don’t think the monarchy will end. But I do object strongly to Charles the Petulant breaking the vow he made at his accession – that he would stop commenting publicly on political and controversial issues.

            His banging on about the climate is not right.

          5. He maybe thinks that ‘climate change’ is not controversial or political, but a truth. Perhaps he’s just taken in by the whole scam.

          6. If I may say so, that’s a rather complacent attitude. Republicans are looking to change to a republic and will welcome and use any excuse. Best not to hand them the ammunition.

          7. A republic works when you have a Cromwell to lead it but once he was gone, his successors failed and restoration of the monarchy was the best option?

          8. Cromwell was hated by the people and they could not bring a new king back quick enough. He ws the godfather of woke..

          9. England under the Commonwealth was not a happy place. Cromwell ruled because he was backed by the New Model Army.

          10. I’m not an avid republican. I have no strong opinions on the matter. The way we are governed would be largely the same either way.

          11. He’s a constitutional monarch. Part of the deal is that he keeps out of politics. If that bit falls apart the rest may well follow. Republicanism isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and doesn’t sit well with our constitution. We tried it once and soon got tired of it.

          12. I don’t consider 17th century England to be a template for where we are today. Yes, there’s a longstanding understanding that the monarch stays silent on political matters. I think the importance of that is greatly overstated. Yes, there is a substantial minority who get rather agitated about it. I suspect most, like me, are not much fussed. He has opinions whether or not we know what they are. So what if I disagree with him.

          13. Perhaps in the grand scheme of things whether or not you disagree with him is neither here nor there. It’s what activists might do that can cause things to kick off.

          14. If true, what a sorry state of affairs that people would resort to violence over the opinions of an ineffectual and impotent King. Thoughts of straining at gnats and swallowing camels spring to mind.

          15. When people get a bee in their bonnet about anything they passionately believe in, they can get carried away – witness the climate change fanatics.

          16. So? I would suspect you are in the minority. A constitutional monarch who dabbles in politics is on a sure route to eventual civil war.

          17. This country would resort to civil war over a monarch’s opinion? I think not. The modern monarchy is too unimportant and ineffectual to rouse the populace at large to violence. The power and influence of the monarchy has waned greatly since the time of Charles I.

          18. Perhaps I am in a minority. My gut instinct says no but I have very little on which to base that supposition other than that in everyday conversation I have yet to hear anybody complain about the King’s meddling, even though that sentiment proliferates on this forum.

  15. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15a738e6de38714804900c62556a54ec59cd9546d868eefe5d5a079af6022843.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/09/21/king-charles-queen-camilla-live-france-visit-paris-latest/

    King Charles has called for action to step up the fight against climate change.

    Will our Idiot King – The Meddlesome Monarch – never learn that he should keep his nose out of politics?

    What did Hamlet say when he found that he had not stabbed and killed his step-father, Claudius, as he had hoped, but Polonius who was hiding behind the arras?

    “Thou wretched, rash, intruding fool, ……”

    1. The climate has certainly changed in this country.
      The lying thieving politicians are even more against the people than they used to be.
      None of them are trustworthy and should be barred from standing for election again.

    2. Whatever happened to the statement that Camilla was to be Queen CONSORT? I haven’t seen any mention anywhere.

  16. 376960+ upticks

    The political / pharmaceutical bastards will be remembered by all decent peoples for all time + a day.

    Jacqui Deevoy
    @JacquiDeevoy1
    The last three years and a half have been hell for the majority but, despite our abusers slowly admitting to the lies they’ve spun, they now want us to forgive and forget.

    But that’s not going to happen. It really isn’t.

    Over the last two and a half years, I was drawn into the dark world of care homes and the crimes being perpetrated by our government and media against care home residents and their families. The ‘no visitors’ policy was never a law and the fact that the government website always quietly stated that visits should be facilitated whenever possible, care home managers followed what the TV told them and locked down, some as far back as February 2020. Then that was it – elderly residents locked in and their friends and families locked out.

    Care home horror stories started to emerge: I investigated and penned several. Remember this? https://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9023539/Shocking-moment-dementia-stricken-removed-window-visit-daughter-begs-carers.html And this? https://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9304591/Woman-reveals-told-waving-father-80-care-home-window-illegal.html (The gentleman in this article – Attilio Criscuolo – sadly passed away in September, a mere 18 months after its publication. RIP, Attilio.)

    We are never going to forget how much suffering the government – and those that did their bidding – imposed upon our elderly in care homes and hospitals. Neglected, imprisoned, deprived from seeing loved ones, thinking they’d been abandoned, many not getting the treatment they needed, unnecessarily and dangerously jabbed with a toxic experimental injection, many euthanised with morphine and Midazolam (as used in the US to execute Death Row criminals) all under the guise of treatment for an illness that’s never been proven to exist. The Covid Death Pathway, I called it. For that’s what it was. Thousands were callously killed on end of life ‘care’ programmes and their deaths were written off as ‘Covid’ deaths. (I offered stories on this obvious and deliberate misattribution of death to Covid to a few newspapers – along with stories of vaccine death and injury and proof that the so-called pandemic was a hoax – but all such pitches were rejected.)

    They want us to forget stories like this: https://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9027457/Officer-refused-visit-dying-mum-care-home-able-recognise-him.html

    They want us to forget that they ever published stories like this: https://dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8785349/Care-home-nurse-sacked-claiming-pandemic-hoax-insists-shes-seen-no-evidence-cornavirus.html

    I had to push hard to get stories like this one into the mainstream press: https://telegraph.co.uk/family/life/incensed-dads-care-home-shutting/ – stories about my dad, stuck in a locked down care home for 10 months, but freed as soon as I threatened to take them to court for false imprisonment and violation of human rights. https://telegraph.co.uk/family/life/sprung-dad-care-home/ And now it’s being suggested that we just forget all about it and move on. Yes, they lied – about pretty much everything – but, hey, that’s all in the past and it’s important to let bygones be bygones. Really?

    My dad was never the same after being deprived of visits, hugs, kisses and cuddles. He could not understand why we were only permitted to speak through a closed window and he was permanently perplexed as to why he was being punished.

    When I got him home, he was an echo of his former self: he had become fearful, depressed, anxious and paranoid. He started self-harming, he had suicidal thoughts and was suffering from a clear case of survivor’s guilt, his joy at being free overshadowed by worry about the people he’d left behind. That miserable stint in the home had caused him to lose the will to live and, exactly a year after his homecoming, he died when a paramedic injected him with a too-high dose of a drug he’d never had before. https://telegraph.co.uk/christmas/2020/11/23/caring-dad-home-hard-know-done-right-thing/ I told the Telegraph what had happened to my dad. The editor I deal with there didn’t offer any condolences – she just said that that sort of story wasn’t really her department and gave me the email address of an editor who she thought might be interested. I emailed this other editor three times but got no reply.

    [more to follow…]

    1. I must be in the “minority” for whom the last three years have been far from hell. Yes, there has been a little inconvenience but nothing I couldn’t cope with.

      1. 376960+ up ticks,

        Afternoon DW,
        ALL I can advise is that you do not bother with the UK lottery, but go for the European one.

          1. 376060+ up ticks,

            DW,
            I was only saying may your three year run of amazing good fortune continue via the lottery.

          2. It wasn’t amazing good fortune. I was one of many for whom the restrictions which followed the outbreak of Covid-19 were not very onerous. I’d rather not have had them but they were a long way from hell for me and, no doubt, many others. The Blitz was hell. The First World War trenches were hell.

          3. 376960+ up ticks,

            DW,

            Granted, but to lose loved ones via
            “care homes” incarcerated on “government” orders is a tad hard to get ones head round also.

        1. It’s all down to individual circumstances. Those who had to resort to home schooling of their children, who were deprived of access to elderly parents, who have experienced delayed and diminished healthcare, who have seen their businesses damaged, sometimes beyond repair, will have had a far worse time of it. I was spared all that.

          1. I wondered at the time how mothers coped with young children when they were confined in tower blocks, and of course since then we learnt that some children did not survive that period but were killed by the people who should have looked after them. Social workers not having access to those vulnerable children left some of them dead or badly damaged.

      2. I don’t mind my own company and seldom feel lonely – so perhaps that’s you as well, David.

        I continued to do my weekly shopping. I wore a mask (which I hated ) until I didn’t. I met friends for a takeaway bacon sarni and coffee which we had sitting in the very cold lych gate (stone benches) of the church. I booked a holiday in Kenya which was postponed twice due to the ban on travel. I had two jabs for that reason. I went for walks. My husband was ill in the January 2021 lockdown period and I took him to hospital.

        The whole time has left me angry that they could take away our freedom of movement and association for several weeks at a time and I hope they will never do it again. I will not be so compliant if they do.

        It was worse for younger people and especially children, as it badly affected their development and education. Also for the people in care homes and their families.

      3. Same here. I don’t go out that much, anyway.
        Biggest worry for me was that my mother (90yo) was on her own and couldn’t get out to see her friends, gi shopping etc. My sister did a weekly shop for her then and we made video calls to her most nights with a weekly video quiz with the whole fam taking it in turn to write the questions eahx week.
        About 6m ago, my mother had to give up driving. Not happy. She’s just getting to grips with online shopping g although, like me, never really needs to order enough to make it viable.

      4. Bully for you! Lucky you don’t run your own business which requires people to travel from one place to another.

        Covid restrictions reduced our income by over 70% for two years and there were no furlough payments for the self-employed running their own businesses.

        However all our courses this summer and this coming October were fully booked as they used to be before the great Covid Scam.

      5. You were fortunate, as was I, apart from very minor inconveniences we scarcely were aware of the closing down of society. But millions were not so fortunate, families and single mothers in high rise flats, suburban and urban dwellers, elderly living in care homes and their distressed relatives outside – these should not, and never should be forgotten. It is not acceptable to take an ‘I’m all right Jack’ attitude when millions were suffering, disorientated and dislocated from their normal lives, young people committing suicide because they did not have the life experience to realise that all things come to an end. And all this, for what? I suppose lessons were learned.

        1. If you’re accusing me of taking an “I’m all right Jack” attitude, you’re very much mistaken, as demonstrated by other comments I’ve posted in this thread.

      6. Lockdown was the beginning of the end for MOH, who couldn’t understand why we couldn’t go out to cafes any more. Lockdown was terrible for people with little or no mobility.

  17. Funeral over. No one spoke loud enough for anyone else to hear (including the excellent Rectorette). I think they think that the “sound system” installed at some expense actually works….

    Two proper hymns plus “Morning has broken”. They managed to locate the Janet and John version of Paslm 121…..

    What we did learn off piste, as it were – was that there had been a frightful falling out over 40 years ago – a deep unbridgeable rift which continues to this day. And all just four doors away….

    Gentle garden work beckons.

        1. Back home – Swift ran out of the house as soon as I opened the carrier.
          She hasn’t eaten anything for a couple of days so I expect she’ll be back soon.

          Bet couldn’t finding cause for the symptoms so we’re on a watching brief to see if she takes another turn

          Will have to keep an eye on her sister, Bold.

          1. Swift and Bold? Whose motto is that? 🙂 Certa Cito (Swift and Sure) is the Royal Corps of Signals and Swift is No 72 Squadron.

          2. The Rifles. I wanted two cats as I’d decided on the names before I got them 😄
            I’m a Royal Green Jacket at heart so should really have called them Celer and (et) Audax but I thought I’d have blank looks and would have to keep spelling those names for everyone.

          3. I don’t think I would have called my animals Forewarned and Is Forearmed (Royal Observer Corps). Going by my school motto I could have called them Ad and Astra 🙂

          4. Then again, I was later in the Adjutant General’s Corps. My next two cats may well be called Animo et Fide.

  18. Swift safely collected and back home. They couldn’t find anything wrong and as she was so frightened and wary of any of the vet staff, she wasn’t eating anything so they thought she’d be better off at home.
    Several quoted items not done (Xray, intubation, jabs etc) so bill was about £400 not £1700 as estimated.
    Insurance Co. Will be pleased.

    1. Nice start to my day to see your post! It is 9.50am here in WV, breakfast over and done, washing on it’s way, now Nottle time!!

    2. So pleased for you and Swifty, and such a relief for you. She lives to fight a few more battles.

  19. UK prosecutors authorise charges against five people suspected of spying for Russia. 21 September 2023.

    The three men and two women, aged between 29 and 45, are accused of “conspiring to collect information intended to be directly or indirectly useful to an enemy”, the CPS said.

    Nick Price, the head of the CPS’s special crime and counter-terrorism division, said: “The CPS has authorised a charge of conspiracy to conduct espionage against three men and two women suspected of spying for Russia.

    This looks a little like those wishy-washy charges they use against the “Far-Right.” A photograph of Vlad on the piano and a copy of War and Peace on the bookshelf is probably it.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/sep/21/uk-prosecutors-authorise-charges-against-five-people-suspected-of-spying-for-russia

  20. Europe is on the verge of surrendering Ukraine to Putin. Robert Clark. 23 September 2023.

    However, even if relations between Warsaw and Kyiv thaw, the limitations in terms of what is physically available to give will still hold. So, too, will the uncomfortable knowledge that doubt is spreading across European capitals. As the war rages on with no end point in sight, it’s hard not to wonder: which domino will be next?

    Mr Clarks last article (18 Sept.) was: Ukraine is poised for a gamechanging victory in Tokmak – but has just weeks to break the line.

    He’s not alone of course. Opinions change daily in the MSM. I stick to my original analysis. Russia has the big battalions and all things being equal will eventually win. This victory, if it occurs, will bleed Ukraine white. They will probably need their own War Poets to remind them of the sacrifice. They should have been negotiating from day one. The nearer the Russians get to total victory the less they need to concede!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/18/ukraine-is-poised-for-a-critical-breakthrough-tokmak/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/21/poland-weapons-grain-ukraine-putin/

    1. They might well have been negotiating earlier had it not been for Johnson’s intervention. One wonders how much he might have been paid for that.

    2. Yet Russia isn’t really moving into Ukraine. It’s sort of stopped. They feint, as if they’re going to but I don’t think they want to conquer the whole thing.

      1. Afternoon Wibbles. I think the Russians are just sitting back killing Ukies. It doesn’t matter if they lose people themselves. They can afford it! They have three times the population!

      2. I think they only really want the South Eastern corner. The whole trouble started because the Russian speaking population in the Donbass was being continually bombarded for years.

          1. No – I think she may be in hospital again. Rose was sending her an e-card last week, but I don’t know if she responded. It is worrying that she is absent.

    3. Had Trump been president the War would never have started and millions of lives would have been saved.

      1. Are you anticipating that millions of lives will have been lost by the time hostilities cease? Thus far, we’re well below one million. Something in the order of a quarter of a million is nearer the mark, although much of it is guesswork based on opposing forces announcing figures either exaggerated or understated.

        1. It is certainly very difficult to believe anything that appears in the MSM. But you are far less cynical than I am!

  21. The DT piece by Claire Coutinho included this: “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent…”

    I noted that this changing of parameters had happened before. I have found the reference. I posted this on Tuesday 25th July.

    Today’s PM on Radio 4 started with soundbites of The Apocalypse followed by Evan Davies:

    “We’ll take stock of what’s happening on land and at sea but we’ll also take stock of the debate in the Conservative Party. Here, for example, is the former Brexit secretary Lord Frost speaking last night: ‘Seven times as many people die of cold than of heat in Britain. Rising temperatures are likely to be beneficial.’

    “Is he speaking for the Conservative Party? We’ll be talking to two MPs.”

    The debate [sic] was specifically about the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, hybrid cars from 2035, and the consequences thereof. A short piece from Justin Rowlatt followed, in which some members of the public pointed out the obvious problem with electric cars e.g. lack of public charging points, the time taken to charge, 35% of UK homes without off-street parking, the lack of a national strategy (local authorities are required to make their own plans).

    The MPs were Anthony Brown, vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the environment (pro NZ) and Craig McKinley, chairman of the Net-Zero scrutiny group (anti-NZ but offering a few platitudes, unsuccessfully, to repel Davies).

    Davies to McKinley: “What was the point of Frost’s speech? Is he saying we don’t have to worry about warming? I didn’t quite get it?”

    Davies: “I don’t know. I didn’t write his speech for him.”

    Brown: “Frost’s stats are true but the answer to that is to make sure that people’s houses are better insulated rather than frying the entire planet. The changes that we need to make sure the temperature rises are limited should be based on pragmatism not zealotry.” What?!

    When challenged by Davies on the point that only the UK is engaged in this self-harming activity, Brown blethered on about how much our per capita emissions had fallen 60% since 1971 (“which is setting a great example to the world”) and are the lowest for 150 years. At this point I very nearly switched off. I have rarely heard any stats used so completely without context or qualification and so irrelevant to the subject.

    You can guess the rest. Brown thought deadlines were useful because they compelled manufactures to “do something they wouldn’t otherwise do.” No, Mr. Brown, legislation by arbitrary targets is the worst kind of government policy i.e. the quick fix. McKinley made the point that it’s more likely that innovation and capitalism will come up with solutions. Simply banning things won’t.

    McKinley then shot down CC mathematical modelling and took the BoE, the OBR, Treasury and Covid with it.

    Davis: “The scientific community/consensus is against you. Do you really think we should do nothing?” He spoke as though McKinley had just asserted that the sun orbits Earth.

    This wasn’t a proper debate. The public deserve better. They’ll never get it from the BBC.

    Brown’s 1971 figure is easily explained away by a huge move from coal to gas in homes and business properties (before the move to generating electricity from gas) and vastly more efficient internal combustion engines.

    To return to Countinho’s garbage:
    “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent while managing to grow our economy by 65 per cent.”

    Attempting to link economic growth to reductions in CO2 emissions is embarrassing, especially since most of that growth occurred before Fat Gordy’s financial crash and MIllipede’s CCA.

    1. Everyone in the argument seems to begin at the starting point that carbon reduction is a good thing.

      Some scientists say that carbon is beneficial and poses no dangers to the planet.

      I am not a scientist and have never pretended to be – though I passed “O” level sciences at a time when “O” levels were much more difficult than GCSEs are today.

      Ya Boo – my scientists are better than your scientists” sums up the impartiality level of the debate on both climate change and Covid jabs.

      1. Didn’t they just come up with some revisions to Newtons laws?

        Yet climate ‘science’ is decided.

  22. The DT piece by Claire Coutinho included this: “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent…”

    I noted that this changing of parameters had happened before. I have found the reference. I posted this on Tuesday 25th July.

    Today’s PM on Radio 4 started with soundbites of The Apocalypse followed by Evan Davies:

    “We’ll take stock of what’s happening on land and at sea but we’ll also take stock of the debate in the Conservative Party. Here, for example, is the former Brexit secretary Lord Frost speaking last night: ‘Seven times as many people die of cold than of heat in Britain. Rising temperatures are likely to be beneficial.’

    “Is he speaking for the Conservative Party? We’ll be talking to two MPs.”

    The debate [sic] was specifically about the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, hybrid cars from 2035, and the consequences thereof. A short piece from Justin Rowlatt followed, in which some members of the public pointed out the obvious problem with electric cars e.g. lack of public charging points, the time taken to charge, 35% of UK homes without off-street parking, the lack of a national strategy (local authorities are required to make their own plans).

    The MPs were Anthony Brown, vice-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on the environment (pro NZ) and Craig McKinley, chairman of the Net-Zero scrutiny group (anti-NZ but offering a few platitudes, unsuccessfully, to repel Davies).

    Davies to McKinley: “What was the point of Frost’s speech? Is he saying we don’t have to worry about warming? I didn’t quite get it?”

    Davies: “I don’t know. I didn’t write his speech for him.”

    Brown: “Frost’s stats are true but the answer to that is to make sure that people’s houses are better insulated rather than frying the entire planet. The changes that we need to make sure the temperature rises are limited should be based on pragmatism not zealotry.” What?!

    When challenged by Davies on the point that only the UK is engaged in this self-harming activity, Brown blethered on about how much our per capita emissions had fallen 60% since 1971 (“which is setting a great example to the world”) and are the lowest for 150 years. At this point I very nearly switched off. I have rarely heard any stats used so completely without context or qualification and so irrelevant to the subject.

    You can guess the rest. Brown thought deadlines were useful because they compelled manufactures to “do something they wouldn’t otherwise do.” No, Mr. Brown, legislation by arbitrary targets is the worst kind of government policy i.e. the quick fix. McKinley made the point that it’s more likely that innovation and capitalism will come up with solutions. Simply banning things won’t.

    McKinley then shot down CC mathematical modelling and took the BoE, the OBR, Treasury and Covid with it.

    Davis: “The scientific community/consensus is against you. Do you really think we should do nothing?” He spoke as though McKinley had just asserted that the sun orbits Earth.

    This wasn’t a proper debate. The public deserve better. They’ll never get it from the BBC.

    Brown’s 1971 figure is easily explained away by a huge move from coal to gas in the home and business properties (before the move to generating electricity from gas) and vastly more efficient internal combustion engines.

    To return to Countinho’s garbage:
    “Since 1990, we have cut our emissions by almost 50 per cent while managing to grow our economy by 65 per cent.”

    Attempting to link economic growth to reductions in CO2 emissions is embarrassing, especially since most of that growth occurred before Fat Gordy’s financial crash and MIllipede’s CCA.

  23. Good afternoon.
    Article by Michael Deacon in the DT.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2023/09/20/noughties-russell-brand-sexism-women-jk-rowling-trans/

    Yes, the Noughties spawned Russell Brand, but the 2020s are far more toxic

    Forget grubby lads mags, now we have a new form of misogyny that’s applauded even more loudly – because it pretends to be progressive

    Almost overnight, an unmistakable consensus has formed.

    Since Dispatches and The Sunday Times made their allegations against Russell Brand – which he emphatically denies – countless commentators have deplored not just the man himself, but the decade in which he shot to fame.

    En masse, they seem to have decided that the 2000s – otherwise known by the suitably tacky nickname “the Noughties” – was a time of unparalleled cruelty, sexism and toxicity.

    “The Nasty Noughties: Russell Brand and the era of sadistic tabloid misogyny,” fumed the headline in The Guardian. “The Noughties enabled Russell Brand,” explained Unherd.

    The Times shook its head at a decade “when laddish misogyny was applauded – it’s startling how recent that was”. BBC News, meanwhile, described old clips of Brand’s work as “a sobering reminder of Noughties culture”.

    I don’t dispute any of this. But, amid all the horrified disbelief at how nasty the Noughties were, we’re in danger of overlooking something.

    Which is that the 2020s are far, far worse.

    Take the bullying of female celebrities. In the Noughties, laments The Guardian, it was miserable to be a famous woman, because “the tabloid press was untouchable – and women in the public eye faced ceaseless persecution”.

    The tabloids did indeed write many unkind things about Britney Spears, Jade Goody and others. But today, unlike then, female celebrities must endure the unrelenting onslaught of abuse hurled at them on social media.

    Noughties hacks may have been rude about the women they reported on. But at least they weren’t sending them death threats and photos of their own genitals.

    As many pundits have sorrowfully observed, another unsavoury feature of Noughties life was the lads’ mag. There’s no denying that these magazines were cheap and grubby.

    I should know – I worked for one. But they were nowhere near as foul as what’s replaced them. Today, thanks to the wonders of the digital age, men – and boys – have free, 24/7 access to hardcore pornography.

    In comparison, an issue of Nuts or Zoo looks like a cheeky seaside postcard from the 1950s.

    The other point we keep hearing is that, in the Noughties, misogyny was applauded. That’s certainly true. Think of Frankie Boyle, mocking the swimmer Rebecca Adlington for resembling “someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon”, and suggesting that, to keep her boyfriend, she must be “very dirty” in bed.

    The 2020s, however, features a new form of misogyny, and it’s applauded even more loudly – because it pretends to be progressive.

    Any time a woman, such as J K Rowling, dares to speak up for women’s rights, a man can scream that she’s a hateful transphobic bigot, and join the rush to wreck her career – while still affecting to be one of the good guys.

    Just look at the recent attempts to cancel the singer Roisin Murphy, for daring to query the use of puberty blockers. What a glorious time this must be for Left-wing men who hate women, but never previously had the guts to say so.

    It’s not just about gender ideology, though. All Left-wing social justice movements attract bullies. And no wonder. A righteous cause gives them perfect cover.

    By painting anyone who disagrees with them as a Nazi, they give themselves permission to be as vicious as they like. After all, Nazis deserve everything they get.

    This is the main reason why the 2020s are actually crueller than the Noughties. It’s because these days, cruelty is so often disguised as compassion.

    Still, since it’s taken us 20 years to see how awful the Noughties were, it’ll probably take us another 20 to see how awful this decade is, too.”

    1. Unless anyone is a relative of the chap Sir Jasper was writing about first thing this morning, 2044 may be Nottler free!

      1. I may still be around, my rellies last into the early part of the next century and my father’s sister prepared the spread for her 97th birthday by herself. She did say on one occasion that if she knew she was going to live as long as she had, she would have paid more attention to her pension. She survived three bouts of pancreatitis over her much later years, and was told that people of her age (then) rarely survived one. We’re tough, we northerners from oop north.

    2. The sheer cruelty of the degenerate Brand – aided an abetted by that piece of filth, Ross – makes me hope that they will rot in Hell. But such people should not be denied a proper trial for the actions they are accused of having done.

      But it is the actions of the often unnamed wokists who want to do away with the concept of innocent until proven guilty which is far more cruel.

      How many totally innocent people have been cancelled and financially ruined by the woke?

    3. You want degenerate woke?

      Here is village idiot Trudeaus response to the Hands of our kids demonstrations that were protesting against schools supporting kids transitioning without their parents being informed.

      “Let me make one thing very clear: Transphobia, homophobia, and biphobia have no place in this country, We strongly condemn this hate and its manifestations, and we stand united in support of 2SLGBTQI+ Canadians across the country – you are valid and you are valued.”.

      Absolutely perverted.

    4. These Lefties forget that the blokes reading the lads mags in the 2000’s are now about 40 and working, contributing members of society.

      As the Warqueen will tell you having some bloke drooling over you puts you in a position of power, not him. At events when she met her ‘followers’ as she termed them most were shy, quiet chaps who barely strung a sentence together so tongue tied did they get.

      The Noughties were not awful. The were, like any decade, a period of change and a positive one as blokes started to put the mags down and form long term relationships. Since then those men have been derided, insulted, abused, wasted and used by bitter, harpyish women – but, notably the women they rejected in their youth.

  24. Referring to the Russel Brand, and all the wokery and trans crap:
    Isaiah 5, 20: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter”.

    1. I pass that quotation every time I drive to Shrewsbury. It’s on a trailer parked by the side of the road.

  25. Bulgarian beautician accused of spying for Russia. 21 September 2023.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59063a1207c7dca62a62551369dccc56a5e479b2773c8988aba272583a6dd956.jpg

    “The charges follow an investigation by the Metropolitan Police.

    “Criminal proceedings against the five individuals are active and they each have the right to a fair trial.

    It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings.

    Obviously a report and photograph of Ms. Gaberova in a national newspaper does not contravene these rules.

    The five defendants are not Russian but Bulgarians. This makes a change to my experience of Russian spies who have usually been University Graduates from the British upper class and almost invariably work for Mi6.

    It is early days yet but there is about this business the whiff of deception.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/21/katrin-ivanova-bulgaria-beautician-arrested-spying-russia/

  26. That was a nasty surprise.
    Just received an email purporting to come from the police detective department (Kripos – Kriminalpolitiet), saying (with apparent scanned letter) that I am under investigation for kiddy porn.
    The clue is the senders email address @gmail.com, so not authentic. Didn’t help the blood pressure, though. Will advise the Kripos tomorrow, and hopefully they might do something about it.
    Take care, folks. It gets more & more plausible.

    1. Googled this, and there are several news articles about it from the spring.
      Stressing down… if it was from Kripos, how do you prove innocence?
      Where’s the gin?

      1. There is a similar scam in yer France. An e-mail from some high-level perlice outfit. Quite phoney.

        I do not for one minute think that the Weegie perlice would e-mail about such a thing. Rock up fully armed and bash your front door down…yes. E-mail? Never.

  27. That’s me for today. Eventful. Funeral. Dealing with a fallen branch. Sowing grass. Boiler serviced for first time in 3 years. Working – apart from one thermostat. Boiler man (from one of the “respected” companies in the town), arranged for one of their plumbers to come and replace it. Didn’t warm to the man. Especially when he told me he hated systems like the one in my house; and started to drain the AGA hot water system rather than the CH…..

    I’ll use them for boilers – NOT for plumbing.

    Anyway – the house is nice and warm!! Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain.

        1. So you keep telling me but other Nottlers think i have the knees of Bees. I think i got that right.

    1. Par today.

      Wordle 824 4/6

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

    2. Well done. Par for me.

      Wordle 824 4/6

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

    3. Almost joined you but that fourth letter beat me.

      Wordle 824 4/6

      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Most certainly. They chase each other. They clamp jaws which i assume is doggie kisses seeing as they do it so often. They even do it lying down. They have different beds to chose from but often they switch then end up in a huddle.

        1. Oh, that is so sweet! I would like to get another pup for Rico but poppiesdad isn’t so keen, especially after today’s mudfest in the woods and fields today. Rico had a brilliant time. He needed a bath when we returned – it requires both of us at the moment to keep him in the bath – he climbs out – and we end up with back ache leaning over the bath shampooing, rinsing and drying. I see what he (poppiesdad) means, but I would love a Maltipoo. For Rico. But mainly for me. I love the Maltese mix.

          1. Does Rico want a buddy? Some dogs are best off as only dogs – Charlie was one such; he was agressive to other dogs when he had his pal, but once he became an only dog he changed completely and became nice as pie. You have to remember, three’s a pack.

          2. I don’t think it’s going to happen, actually, bearing in mind the fact that the ‘expedition travels at the speed of its slowest member’.

  28. Poor SWMBO.
    She’s under 24 hour blood pressure monitoring, and the machine springs into life every 30 minutes with a groan that would suit a T.Rex movie. Then crushes the life out of her arm.

  29. 376960+ up ticks,

    The charlie chap in full WEF mode,

    In regards to the frogs he should be calling for war.

    breitbart,

    King Charles Brands Climate Change World’s Largest ‘Existential Challenge’, Calls for French-UK ‘Sustainability Agreement’

    1. When you have everything yet still aren’t happy until you’ve crushed the life out of everyone else.
      The man is bewitched.

      1. He’s a monster. The conclusion that he is happily regarding the future deaths of a large part of the peasantry to further his Babylonian ideals is inescapable.

      1. I doubt he has to pop to the corner shop to top-up his prepayment card for the gas or electric meter.

    2. Climate change wokery may well prove Charlie’s largest “existential challenge”. Charles I lost his head through losing touch with his subjects. Charles II tried to sell us out to the French. He’s worse than either of them!

  30. Just for the hell of it I’ve been keeping track of Russell Brand’s YouTube subscriber numbers. Currently 6.64m. Rising at the rate of 10,000 per day.

  31. Good evening. I am a bit late to the party, but this Versailles shindig really turns my stomach.
    A luxurious banquet at Versailles, with the usual tawdry showbiz crowd, just as the West sinks under record levels of debt, and is shepherded into a great depression by Charles, Macron and their cronies who want to take everything that makes life worth living away from those peasants that survive the death jabs. It is highly inappropriate, decadent and just plain wrong.
    Watching the media fawning over Camilla’s caped frocky horror almost made me puke too!

    1. Hello BB2

      We are livid , raging at this woke king , he is cavilling to Europe .

      The king has forgotten how France sucked up to Argentina and sold them weapons which sunk our RN ships during the Falkland’s debacle .

      NEVER ever trust the French , ever .

    2. Sinking under record levels of debt appears to be catching even at local government level. Shropshire County, already far into the red, has “accidentally” approved borrowing £92m to help build the NW Relief Road! You couldn’t make it up!

      1. I’ve only seen statistics for the US but there, it is every level of society including private households. Very worrying.

        1. I’m glad to say that this private household is debt-free. Hopefully I shall continue to keep it so (depending on the governement’s efforts to make day-to-day existence unaffordable).

      1. My friend’s working cocker bitch was 15 years old and was PTS in April , so she was so wracked with emptiness , that she decided to investigate litters of working cockers , and her new pup is now 12 weeks old , chocolate and adorable , but a bit of a crocodile .

        We took our 10 year old w/c with us , and Pip was curious and happy to meet her .

        Jack my lovely 15+ who died last week was 5 years old when Pip came into the family, so poor chaps is now a lone dog.

        I think we are too old to get another puppy as a companion for Pip, and some of the older rescues have horrendous problems, behavioutal as well .

        In Jack’s latter years , vet bills were horrendous .

        1. Oscar, half Springer, half Staffie, is nearly 9. Insured, but lots of things are not covered. Bloody insurance people.
          He was a rescue dog, but from a rescued litter so no bad habits etc, except what he’s acquired from us.

          1. Jack’s insurance rose hugely when he reached 10 years. Adder bite , goolie probs , plus expensive examinations and the rest .. latterly his lung problem.

          2. MoH and the children had never had a dog until Oscar. My family had dogs when I was a child. When I married a Swiss girl at 20 and moved to Geneva she was keen on having a dog. Probably not a good idea in a busy city, but we lived by the lakeside in an apartment close to the jet d’eau. One summer Saturday morning in 1975 I was walking Onko ( not my idea) on my own along the lakeside, off the lead, as it was 40 yards wide and 20 ft below the road level.
            He always had a great time down there with other dogs, and even an otter, which was sometimes on a lead and sometimes swimming.
            Anyway, on the way home and up the stairway to cross the road, a bloody busy 6 lane road with traffic lights, I couldn’t get the puppy to come to me as he ran up ahead to where we would cross the road. I probably should have walked along the promenade until he returned to me. Instead, I tried to get hold of him. He bolted across the road just as the traffic lights changed and was hit by an accelerating sporty car. Instant death for the dog, a crying young driver and me, carrying the puppy’s body back to the apartment 50 yards away.

      1. 376960+ up ticks,

        Evening MM
        Really unsatisfying truth be told, not a great deal of meat on them there vegans.

  32. Evening, all. Just spent half an hour finding quotes for my motorhome. Managed to get the same deal for £100 less than the renewal. No wonder they wanted to auto renew (despite my having told them at the beginning not to – I confirmed it by email).

    1. Two points.
      What have we allowed our politicians to do to us?
      Note the two missing factors, obesity and non-white people.

  33. I spent some considerable time gardening this morning, so didn’t get a chance to say “Hello!” And now it’s almost midnight, so I shall say Good night, chums. I hope you all sleep well and awake refreshed tomorrow morning.

  34. The public is wiser than the net zero hysterics

    The broadcast media’s absurd overreaction to the PM’s plans shows the gulf between voters and elite

    ALLISON PEARSON • 21 September 2023 • 6:00pm

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/edd3f4b7331688b432c16f9c7ed29ce8d0b0ada7038e12b88c9343ab8517074f.jpgJustin Rowlatt travels the world to find victims of climate change. [CREDIT: Jane McMullen]

    All together now: “He’s got a lampshade on his head…”
    ______________________________________________________________

    Poor Justin Rowlatt! Spare a thought for the BBC’s climate editor. He appeared to be having conniptions on News at Ten and that was before the Prime Minister confirmed the rumour that the Government would be rowing back on some of its net zero targets. Justin was nowhere to be seen on Wednesday’s programme after Rishi Sunak had fleshed out the new plan, saying he would delay the ban on new petrol and diesel car sales from 2030 to 2035 and not coerce people into buying one of those unloved heat pumps.

    Where was Justin? Had he, like Krook in Bleak House, self-combusted on hearing of this heretical act against the green religion of which he is a high priest? Was he now, indeed, a heap of smouldering ash under the desk at Sophie Raworth’s feet? Perhaps the climate editor has legged it to Mount Ararat where he can gather in the animals two by two, preparing for the Biblical flood that will result from permitting Britons to hang onto their oil and gas boilers until 2035.

    In his Tuesday report, Rowlatt seemed to be seething with anger, so entirely lacking in perspective (he failed to mention that pushing back the electric-vehicle target five years merely brings the UK into line with the EU) that I scribbled “Ofcom?” on my pad. Forget the balanced reporting the regulator requires of broadcasters, the climate editor of the publicly-funded BBC is allowed to carry on like a Poundshop Nostradamus, furiously brandishing his “The End is Nigh” placard to terrorise viewers.

    Over our dismal summer, Rowlatt flew off in search of “heat storms” and “wildfires” which he claimed were directly caused by climate change while the local Spanish arsonist smirked just off-camera with his box of X-long matches and can of petrol. Sorry, but Rowlatt is an activist not a journalist.

    That is the kind of blind intransigence Sunak is up against as he dares to challenge the wishful-thinking of the EV evangelists, an establishment chock full of eco-zealots who have never had to put a price on their fantasies. In the boldest speech of his premiership, the PM pointed out, quite reasonably, that the plans to meet net zero will only succeed “if public support is maintained or we risk losing the agenda altogether”.

    The man in the street has been way ahead of politicians and the media, refusing to adopt costly or plain stupid measures that don’t make any sense unless you are a member of the powerful Climate Change Committee or have your sticky fingers in a few renewables pies.

    Look at Wales. I was supposed to be driving there today to see my mother and sister, but with a reduction in the speed limit from 30mph to 20mph in many areas, my estimated arrival time in Tenby is March 2025. A petition opposing dopey Druid Drakeford’s nonsensical net zero initiative has already attracted over 340,000 signatures – around 22 per cent of the total number of people who voted in Wales in the last general election. A much-mocked video shows Lee Waters, the Labour Senedd member responsible, explaining how an “economic climate catastrophe” will be averted by making Welsh motorists slower than your average dog-walker. His scientific ignorance is sadly ubiquitous.

    On ITV, not hiding his displeasure at the PM’s reforms, political editor Robert Peston casually linked global warming with extreme temperatures, proving he doesn’t know the difference between weather and climate.

    And with what glee did all mainstream channels report the business backlash against Sunak’s welcome pragmatism. They highlighted critical comments made by the Ford motor company, but somehow failed to mention statements by Toyota and Jaguar Land Rover who said they were actually in favour of a delay. Channel 4 News blew a gasket, of course. The tone of its almost comically partisan coverage was easily gauged from a backdrop that bellowed: Emergency on Planet Earth.

    Guests who supported Sunak’s plans on all the channels were few and far between, and when someone was briefly allowed to challenge the green groupthink they were subjected to a much tougher grilling. On Radio 4, Ed Miliband was allowed to get away with saying the delay will “add billions in cost to families”. How? Even if that were true (it so isn’t), it’s a case of billions schmillions compared to the trillions net zero will actually cost the ordinary men and women of this country.

    Labour’s shadow climate change alarmist, Ed is so deluded he claims unreliable renewables will provide enough energy “because the wind is always blowing somewhere”. Well, I am reliably informed by a Cambridge professor that the UK could need an impossible number of wind turbines even to begin to provide enough power for all those EVs no one wants to buy. But don’t worry, Ed! Your windmills can carpet over this blessed isle and the 65 million humans can move to the Outer Hebrides. I’m sure it’ll be fine if we all budge up.

    As for Boris Johnson lashing out at his successor’s shrewd rethink – Britain “cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country” – do bear in mind it was dear Boris who made up that unattainable 2030 EV target on the fly to show off to his mates at COP26. Details, details! The fact is we have all been lied to on an unimaginable scale about net zero and its likely cost and consequences. “But we are miles ahead of any other country,” wailed one of the outraged eco-zealots yesterday. Funny that no other country wants to join the UK in a race to impoverish itself, isn’t it? What Kemi Badenoch witheringly called “unilateral economic disarmament”. Would we had more of Kemi’s steely kind. “But net zero will create thousands of high-quality green jobs”, say the zealots. “Yes, in China,’ quipped a Telegraph reader under my column. Spot on, Sir! Don’t let the b——- take you in.

    What the past 24 hours of toddler tantrums from Westminster, business and the media (poor Justin Rowlatt crooning green mantras to himself in a darkened room!) have revealed is how much wiser is the common man than the supposed elite. A YouGov poll found that some 44 per cent of the public support delaying or dropping some of our net zero commitments against 38 per cent who say the Government should stick with its current climate change plans. See how woefully disconnected our leaders are from actual public opinion. They need to get out more, although not to Wales where the fastest form of transport is currently the pit pony.

    Personally, I think the Climate Change Act should be repealed, and Britons freed from its crazy, punitive legal targets. But that’s for another time. Rishi Sunak has made an excellent start. Carry on, Prime Minister. We’re right behind you.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/21/public-wiser-than-net-zero-hysterics/

    AP has clearly missed Badenoch’s remarks about China and puts too much faith in The Fakir. Nevertheless, a rising stated of apoplexy in BBC Land can only be a good thing.
    ______________________________________________________________

    This column is sponsored by Robinson’s Old Tom.

    1. “CO2” and climate change is a fraud, pure and simple. Just a fraud being pushed by the world’s most powerful people against the masses.

  35. goodnight and God bless, Gentlefolk. I may not be around in the morning’s light, Please forgive me.

      1. In May this year, we were driving down to Dover and someone had hung a Ukrainian flag by the motorway between Folkestone and Dover and the word FRAUD was written in big letters on it!

Comments are closed.