Thursday 22 April: Heating and car-charging adaptations will cost a household £20,000

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/21/lettersheating-car-charging-adaptations-will-cost-household/

662 thoughts on “Thursday 22 April: Heating and car-charging adaptations will cost a household £20,000”

  1. Ex-minister Johnny Mercer says ‘almost nobody’ tells truth in Johnson’s government. 22 April 2021.

    “This is the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in, in government. Almost nobody tells the truth is what I’ve worked out over the last 36 hours.

    “And, you know, I don’t think anyone really can get on their high horse about trust and ethics and all the rest of it in politics, because as far as I’m concerned, most of it is a bit of a cesspit.”

    Morning everyone. Thirty six hours? Where’s he been? On a Desert Island? Truth is the very last thing that’s on their mind. They lie without thought. It comes as naturally to them as breathing. They actually prefer it!

    Westminster is a knowing clique of corruption, lies and deception aimed against the people. Mercers real offence, and the reason for the style of his dismissal, was not to play the game!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/21/ex-minister-johnny-mercer-says-almost-nobody-tells-truth-in-johnsons-government

    1. “not to play the game” …. I guess that makes him Mercer nary….

      Morning minty et al.

    2. I doubt that Mercer is alone in the Tory ranks in realising that the government of Johnson is corrupt to the core and has created a web of deceit around its actions and pronouncements. Sadly, these gutless MPs remain sitting on their hands and follow the Whip, come what may. After the fiasco of the past year and Johnson’s confirmation of his green crap agenda the electorate surely deserves some strong representation from those they elected. Instead all we see is a supine cabal intent on putting party before the Country.

      1. KtK mng. They’re beyond even that, it’s “me, me, me” then oh yes, party then [for now] country. Mercer is one of “the few” who managed to switch on. And those of his ilk don’t fit

        1. Mercer may have switched it on, regarding Boris’ betrayal of the Veterans to the SF/IRA, but he seriously blotted his copybook when he jumped on the anti-Scruton bandwagon without checking for facts, i.e. George Easton’s creative editing.

          1. agree, usual issue with “politicians” they forget / ignore the bad bits and looked stunned as if hit by a taser that collectively “we” the people don’t forget. Yet they believe they can suppress dissent using Whac-a-mole gambit via MSM coverage

    3. He’s a bit slow on the uptake, isn’t he? I’m surprised he qualified the statement with “almost”.

  4. Suddenly, the wind is back – and not as a result of overindulgence in sauerkraut last night, either. (goes well with reindeer stew, so it does).
    :-((

  5. Sad. End of an era.

    MI5 joins social media in new era of openness

    By Robert Mendick, 21 April 2021 • 10:00pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/04/21/TELEMMGLPICT000241920999_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqzk2KTpM4k2SUng9XWBqYb12xdtKI7HBkMFAkNb2dT_g.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Ken McCallum is the youngest-ever director of the intelligence agency

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/21/mi5-joins-social-media-new-era-openness/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/04/21/2204-MATT-GALLERY-WEB-P1_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.png?imwidth=1260

    1. In The Telegraph, Mr McCallum said the agency needed to continue to attract a more diverse workforce, calling time on any “lingering” association intelligence agencies might have with James Bond, the archetypal British spy, who is white, male and Oxbridge-educated.

      In a reference to his own upbringing, growing up in Glasgow and studying at the local university, Mr McCallum said MI5 would be “stronger” for recruiting people from “all kinds of places”, adding: “Including, crucially, people who have never thought of working somewhere like MI5.

      Morning Citroen. It’s just being “wokified like all the other State Institutions! Your friendly Marxist Gestapo cum Thought Police. “Would you like to tell us about your neigbours?” It is a measure of their duplicity that James Bond actually works for Mi6!

      1. Morning! Slight adjustment. “Calling time on any lingering association with intelligence”.

        1. further slight adjustment Sue “calling time on having any intelligence, replace with nodding dog in a tie with a Windsor knot”. It’s Box 500, so time to put 2nd class stamp on it

    2. In The Telegraph, Mr McCallum said the agency needed to continue to attract a more diverse workforce, calling time on any “lingering” association intelligence agencies might have with James Bond, the archetypal British spy, who is white, male and Oxbridge-educated.

      In a reference to his own upbringing, growing up in Glasgow and studying at the local university, Mr McCallum said MI5 would be “stronger” for recruiting people from “all kinds of places”, adding: “Including, crucially, people who have never thought of working somewhere like MI5.

      Morning Citroen. It’s just being “wokified like all the other State Institutions! Your friendly Marxist Gestapo cum Thought Police. “Would you like to tell us about your neigbours?” It is a measure of their duplicity that James Bond actually works for Mi6!

    4. He hardly looks like a hard man who rose through the ranks by bumping off East Germans, terrorists and millionaires threatening world peace. In 2018, McCallum took charge of the MI5 response to the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal. Hmmm. Well, at least he didn’t go to Cambridge.

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

      1. when I saw his mug earlier I thought he was someone who took the minutes at a “diversity group” gathering in a wheelchair. It says all he took charge of Skirpal investigations let alone non existent terrorism investigations for 2012 olympics.

    1. If there’s any hope, it lies in the despised rural and post-industrial backwaters: Deep England. Perhaps only outside the bubble of elite discourse, our nation’s instinctive appreciation for the paradox of constitutional monarchy is robust enough to survive the progressives who seek to tear down its moral and political dimensions.

      Never mind heaven on earth. On the whole, Deep England would just like to be left in peace. On this difficult birthday for Her Majesty, we can only pray that the destructive forces of progress accord her the same courtesy.

      Yes. It is only outside Westminster and Londonistan that the dream of Freedom and Democracy still exists!

      1. mng, the virtual “elite” bubble signalling got its first prick [one of many] re European Super League. That merely masked over [c/o complicit MSM] the wider, deeper issues that is now facing them front on. They’re increasingly more aware they’ve screwed up, the people know, don’t forget and are looking / hoping for a way out

    2. ‘Morning, AWK, “This homeopathic dilution of theocratic tyranny proved exceptionally liberating.”

      I think many Muslims would experience an exceptional liberation, if they could break free of the theocratic ideology that is Islam.

      1. mng NtN, am sure there are more than many Muslims that do believe that. Like any religion / sect there’s aways those “who believe” and “those that play the game / toe the line”, and those that don’t

  7. The Met Office is working with Microsoft to build a weather forecasting supercomputer in the UK.
    They say it will provide more accurate weather forecasting and a better understanding of climate change.
    The UK government said in February 2020 it would invest £1.2bn in the project.

    If I remember correctly all these super computers are named – IBM’s ‘Deep Blue’ . Perhaps this new one should be known as Ferguson’s Deep Doo Do….?

    2. Unfortunately, as the Met Office has shown in the past, it matters not the cost of the computer if it falls at the first hurdle to ‘garbage in, garbage out’.

  9. Esther Rantzen makes an appearance and other contributers obviously did not receive a Ramadan party invitation so had to write to themselves:

    SIR – The Government appears firm in its plan to reduce carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, but the costs and who will pay them are vague.

    The plan requires huge offshore wind farms, solar panel farms, nuclear power stations and hydrogen generation plants. This electricity-centric economy will push our primary energy cost to more than twice its current level. Every household will have to change from gas to electric heat pumps, and have car-charging facilities, at a cost of about £20,000. To meet the plan, we need to start now.

    If the Government spells out the true costs it becomes unelectable.

    Professor R G Faulkner
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    SIR – What purpose is achieved by passing a law to make government climate objectives obligatory?

    Who is going to be prosecuted if we do not meet these targets in 2035? Will the Government be fined, or will the prime minister of the day be sent to prison? Is it not just meaningless virtue-signalling?

    John Snook
    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    SIR – One short-term easy win to help meet the carbon emission target is being unnecessarily delayed. Why wait until 2025, when we can build houses today with low-carbon solutions, such as heat pumps and solar panels? It is far cheaper to build these into a new house than to fit them later – typically no more than 5 per cent of the price.

    Big building companies are unlikely to do this, unless it is made mandatory. With a massive house-building programme now under way, we are losing a big advantage here.

    Alistair Powell
    Sherborne, Dorset

    SIR – There is a major drawback with air-source heat pumps. I have had one for nine years underneath a balcony. The pump noise makes the balcony unusable when it is working.

    I cannot imagine the noise in a row of houses all having them in the garden.

    Judith Thompson
    Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

    SIR – Cutting carbon emissions 15 years early is a noble aspiration, but it is business, the nation’s wealth creator, that ultimately pays for it.

    Some businesses can use green energy, but high-intensity sectors such as steel will be rendered uneconomic.

    While all this sacrifice is to be borne by households and the enterprise economy, it is galling to see vast amounts of power consumed by server farms feeding a speculative digital currency industry that ultimately adds little real-world value.

    Rupert Gather
    Chairman, InvestUK
    London W1

    SIR – Why raise aviation and shipping costs just as exporters are looking for post-Brexit markets further afield?

    Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
    Northwood, Middlesex

    The Floyd verdict

    SIR – After the guilty verdicts in the George Floyd case, the US government must overhaul the country’s gun laws. Police attending virtually every incident in America are trained to expect to be met with deadly force. This promotes an almost trigger-happy attitude, resulting in otherwise avoidable deaths.

    British police are not routinely armed and therefore such incidents here are much rarer than in America. Likening the level of so-called police brutality in Britain with that in America is extremely misleading.

    Colin Goodchild
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    SIR – Suppose, in Britain, a black policeman is on trial for murdering a white suspect during arrest.

    Film of the arrest is analysed on the news for weeks; rioters in the streets of London demand “justice”; the Queen and prime minister opine freely on the accused’s guilt; the victim’s relatives hold a press conference outside the Old Bailey; the jury is chosen to reflect issues surrounding the case; the victim’s supporters threaten violent disorder if the jury does not vote the correct way; the accused is convicted.

    I wonder what the Court of Appeal would have to say.

    John Sheridan Smith
    Southampton

    One prof too many

    SIR – MacDonald Critchley (1900-97) was an eminent neurologist and brilliant teacher at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London, where I was his last house physician in the 1960s.

    Neurologists came from all over the world to see Critch at work and often referred to him as “professor” (Letters, April 19). On one such occasion, he said to his admirers: “In this country, ‘professor’ is a derogatory term.”

    L S Illis
    Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire

    Snookered viewing

    SIR – There was a fuss when television channels duplicated coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.

    For the next two weeks, for several hours a day, the BBC is covering the World Snooker Championship on both BBC One and BBC Four, bumping off other programmes. The over-coverage of the royal death was understandable. This is definitely not.

    John Taylor
    Purley, Surrey

    The beautiful money

    SIR – In trying to justify the new Super League, the president of Real Madrid claimed that younger people were no longer interested in the game.

    A possible reason for this is that in Spain youth unemployment is nearly 50 per cent, general unemployment is about 20 per cent and the cost of going to see a match there prohibits most young people from attending the match at the ground.

    Relying on television money, top clubs there have shunned all self-control when it comes to transfer fees. They have insulted the citizens of Spain with these fees and admission charges.

    Ray Davison
    Marlow, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – I wonder if the plans for a European Super League would have been received better if they had been presented by a former prime minister.

    John Catchpole
    Beverley, East Yorkshire

    Ex-servicemen failed

    SIR – The resignation of Johnny Mercer, an honourable man, as a defence minister is a white feather for another government that is failing to support elderly ex-servicemen who were sent to Northern Ireland. Manifesto pledges and promises in leadership campaigns have meant nothing.

    The Prime Minister must bear the responsibility for this failure. The current shameful prosecutions of veterans is set alongside increasing civic unrest in the province, the cowardly attack by Republican terrorists on a serving officer of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, and cuts to the Armed Forces.

    Alec Richardson
    St Martin’s, Shropshire

    Vaccine immunity

    SIR – Win Dewsbury (Letters, April 21) should rest assured that her vaccination is very likely to protect her against the virus.

    All vaccines in use generate antibodies to the spike (S) protein of the virus. Previously infected patients have antibodies against both the spike and the nucleocapsid (N) protein.

    It is likely that in her case the negative antibody test was for the N protein antibody – confirming that she has not encountered the virus – rather than the S protein antibody.

    Andrew Roberts
    Oswestry, Shropshire

    Remote pub service

    SIR – On April 15 1848, the Bucks Gazette reported another step in the “March of Science”: “An electric telegraph has been fitted up in an Inn in Birmingham, by means of which the guests can give their orders immediately at the bar.”

    Richard Sharp
    Glanton, Northumberland

    Nosing out garlic

    SIR – The garlic-loving David Sisson (Letters, April 21) believes that his body has adapted to his daily consumption so that he no longer smells of it. Perhaps his own nose has adapted so as not to detect it. But 10 minutes on the Paris Metro would disabuse him.

    Dame Esther Rantzen
    Bramshaw, Hampshire

    SIR – My father read in The Dalesman that strapping cut garlic to the soles of the feet drew out impurities from the body. We never lost him in a crowd.

    Angela Hayes
    Carlisle, Cumbria

    Jane Austen and slavery: a storm in a teacup

    SIR – It is beyond ludicrous to connect Jane Austen to the slave trade because she drank tea, used sugar and wore cotton.

    The “historical interrogation” supposedly taking place at Jane Austen’s House Museum would be better described as hysterical interrogation.

    Charles Dobson
    Burton-in-Kendal, Cumbria

    SIR – My father was a lifelong lover of tea. In addition, he spent four years in India and Burma, albeit as a private in the Army, between 1941 and 1946. As far as I am aware he did not enrich his family through his colonial adventures; the only things he brought back with him were memories and recurring bouts of malaria.

    Can anyone advise me on whether I should renounce him?

    B H Sherrad
    Barton on Sea, Hampshire

    SIR – Somebody has lost the plot – and it wasn’t Jane Austen.

    Susan Ratliff
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    Something even worse than the split infinitive

    SIR – Although I personally would never consciously split an infinitive (Letters, April 20), I don’t get too irate when I hear “to boldly go”.

    The usage that really upsets me is “to meet with people”. I meet people, or have a meeting with people. I know this is just my age showing.

    James Reeves
    Bradfield, Berkshire

    SIR – Suzanne Kirk (Letters, April 20) wonders if she is one of a dying breed in shuddering at split infinitives.

    The answer, regrettably, is yes – but there are still a few survivors, among whom I count myself. Worse, however, is the dreadful “different to”, the usage of which now appears to be universal.

    Rod Ellis
    Wareham, Dorset

    SIR – I agree with Suzanne Kirk about split infinitives but am even more exasperated when people say that 
“you cannot underestimate” something, when you can easily underestimate it.

    What I think they mean is that you cannot overestimate it.

    David Miller
    Diss, Norfolk

    SIR – I accept that language will evolve, but it should never do so at the expense of correct grammar and use of English.

    My main bête noire is the use of the adjective “quicker”, when the correct form following a verb is “more quickly”.

    Chris King
    Woking, Surrey

    1. Professor Faulkener has hit the nail on the head and I am glad that he has opened the debate on the likely cost of Johnson’s ill thought out climate proposals. Personally I think the £20000 cost per household is on the low side. Johnson will destroy the gas distribution infrastructure paid for by the people in their taxes over the years. Our streets and pavements will be disrupted by the installation of new systems to provide electricity, insulation and other necessities. Imported labour will be needed to help with the work and cowboy workers will have a field day.
      Johnson is a dreamer but needs to get proper advice from practical people with common sense and knowledge about the true cost of Johnson’s dreams.

      3. Correction, clydesider: “… the true cost of Johnson’s Carrie’s dreams”.

    3. “Why raise aviation and shipping costs just as exporters are looking for post-Brexit markets further afield?”

      Because, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, they don’t want Brexit to succeed.

  10. Yo all

    SIR – The Government appears firm in its plan to reduce carbon emissions by 78 per cent by 2035, but the costs and who will pay them are vague.

    If the Government spells out the true costs it becomes unelectable.

    Professor R G Faulkner Loughborough, Leicestershire

    Become unelectable….

    After a failed Brexit

    Inaccurate False COVID – 19 death figures

    Loss of our freedom through endless lockdowns

    Bowing to Biden

    Not stopping BLM, Extinction Rebellion, LGBTERTY protests, but ensuring all others are

    Sacking Mr Mercer

    The Limp Blues are already Unelectable

    Lozzer for PM

    1. The Government is behaving just like Labour did in Blair and Brown days .

      Stealth taxes

      NHS hospitals have been spending millions of pounds a year on government charges to bring in much-needed staff from abroad, it has emerged.

      NHS trusts in England have spent at least £15m since 2017 on visa charges, according to data released to the Labour party following a freedom of information request.

      The charges have been labelled a “stealth tax” on the NHS by Labour, which accused the government of in effect punishing hospital trusts for its own failure to train enough sufficiently qualified nurses and doctors. Before the coronavirus pandemic, NHS trusts in England were facing around 100,000 vacancies, according to NHS providers that represent trusts.

      The charge is known as the immigration skills charge and is levied by the Home Office on any employer wanting to apply for a visa for someone to work in the UK for six months or more under either a tier 2 (general) visa or a tier 2 (intra-company transfer) visa.

      Portsmouth Hospitals NHS trust paid the most to bring in foreign workers, running up a bill of £2m since 2017. Barts Health NHS trust in London has paid £1.3m over the same period, University Hospital Southampton NHS foundation trust paid £1.2m and Royal Free London NHS foundation trust paid just over £1.1m.

      “The irrationality of the immigration skills charge for NHS trusts has been underlined by the coronavirus pandemic,” said Holly Lynch, shadow minister for immigration.

      “The Conservative government should be doing all they can to support the NHS. Instead, they are presenting trusts with an unenviable choice: either leave life-saving specialist roles unfilled or fork out expensive fees for overseas staff.”

      As part of the UK’s departure from the EU, employers bringing in workers from there may also have to pay the £1,000 charge for the first 12 months of a worker’s employment and £500 for each subsequent six months.

      The Department of Health and Social Care referred inquiries to the Home Office, which operates the immigration skills charge that came into force on 6 April 2017.

      A government spokesperson said: “Right across the immigration system we are supporting frontline healthcare staff through initiatives such as visa extensions and the creation of the bereavement scheme. We are incredibly grateful for all the hard work that health workers and care workers continue to do in the fight against coronavirus.

      “We’ve already taken steps to support the NHS during the pandemic by removing the skills charge for employers when automatically renewing visas. Our new points-based immigration system, for introduction from January 2021, will go even further to make sure the NHS and wider health and care sector can continue to access the best and brightest talent from across the world.”

      1. If the NHS recruited nurse as trainees/apprentices there might be more applicants than those willing to attend an academic course. Nursing is not an academic profession, nor is doctoring. There should be a route for qualified nurses to become doctors that does not require academic qualifications. Oh, and the medical schools should prioritise UK born applicants over high fee paying foreigners.

        1. Agree, the ‘unenviable choice’ mooted by the shadow minister for immigration(?) should have read, “…either leave life-saving specialist roles unfilled or fork out expensive fees for overseas staff…or train homegrown health workers”. In the long term, training staff would be less expensive than forking out immigration fees on foreign staff.

          I suppose in the short term, until staff numbers are increased locally, that there could be an allowance to drop fees for such ‘specialist’ workers but I’m sure that could be abused, especially given the gerry-built drafting of ‘laws’ we have seen over the past 30 years. Most of which appear to have been drafted by failed lawyers, hence they work in politics, and have built-in loopholes for their learned friends to exploit using UK legal aid.

  11. Please tell me if I have misunderstood – but I read that HMG is “rushing through” covid passports – to “open up” the travel industry.

    What these “passports” will NOT do is provide you with the eye-wateringly expensive “tests” that will be demanded by most countries on entry and the UK on return.

    So what is point?

    1. you’ve not misunderstood at all and they want C-19 PPTs ready for the summer – ahead of their cyber polygon mtg on 9th July in the hope less attention will be focused on mtg. The point is they created their own version of a runaway train and they have to keep going regardless, or with their expertise showing through – when in a hole, keep digging

    2. …and doing so, Bill, despite promises to the contrary when the ‘Pass Port’ was first mooted.

      Nothing changes, Government lies, nothing changes.

  13. Apparently, they’re aren’t enough Bames working in the Cof E. Toady has spent much time on this pressing issue this morning. No mention of the fact that many Bames are, er, not Christians.

    In similar vein, if they are no non-white soldiers commemorated on my local war memorial, might that not be because the area was almost entirely white until well after the end of Hitler’s war?

      4. If they are really worried about this, then they should be pressing for the prevention of followers of those religions openly hostile to Christianity being granted permission to immigrate to this country.

        No?

        Must be virtue signalling then.

        1. they’re not interested in facts. Virtue signalling = yes, statement of intent = without doubt. Open door / boat policy. Remove via C-19 jab etc indiigenous population with knowledge of history, replace with “boat people” any religion, change rules. Give it 50 years, ask about the “Blitz” they’ll assume you mean a nightclub with a C-70 passport.

    2. bottom line is another business simply losing money and partly, trust. Hence Govt has to push what passes for faith and moral coded narrative. Not helped unless I’ve missed something, there is still an entity called the Commonwealth and C of E still exists / functions. Or maybe as usual, they ignored that part as it doesn’t fit their agenda

      1. Henry VIII was the king of England (1509–47). He broke with the Roman Catholic Church and had Parliament declare him supreme head of the Church of England, starting the English Reformation, because the pope would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. He wanted to remarry and produce a male heir.

        No moral code there , ever!

        2. Whilst the annulment of his marriage is an oft quoted reason, there was also the matter of Rome’s continual interference with English politics and the way Church’s immense wealth was tipping the balance between Church & Crown.

          1. You can go back to Henry II v. Beckett, the Lollards and even Chaucer to realise that the tension between the Roman church and the English state has a long history.

          2. Was it the Synod of Whitby where the Northumbrian Church, up till then largely following the Celtic Tradition, agreed to become subservient to Rome?

    5. I thought not being a Christian was a prerequisite for working in the CofE at the moment.

  14. Good morning all from a beautifully bright, sunny but slightly frosty Derbyshire with -2°C on the yard thermometer.
    Looks like yesterday’s 5° was a flash in the pan!

      1. Good morning m’Dear!
        We were overcast on Tuesday night, hence the higher temperature yesterday morning. When I was pumping bilges in the small hours I was struck by the amount of moonlight outside, so not surprised by the frost.

  15. Lessons Learned

    One day, Veronica got her first period.

    Confused and frightened, she decided to ask her pal Johnny if he could figure out what was going on down there.

    So she pulled down her pants and pointed to her crotch.

    Johnny became serious and said, “You know, I’m not a doctor, but it looks to me like someone just ripped your balls off!”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJI2Ua4xhKs

  16. Why I have finally stopped watching football. 22 April 2021.

    At the root of all this is an over-mature, radically secular society that has lost confidence in itself. No transcendent values exist beyond material self-preservation, hence the obsession with safety.

    To use an extreme example, something like the Japanese ‘Seppuku’ – ie, to choose death over shame – would be absolutely alien to us, and totally antithetical to our current culture.

    In fact, the very concepts of merit and individual striving, so inherent to sporting achievement, have now become problematic, as they are seen to be tied up with old-fashioned, oppressive, patriarchal societal structures.

    This is a wonderfully perceptive piece about much more than football!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/04/22/why-i-have-finally-stopped-watching-football/

  17. Aren’t lefties lovely?

    The Left Calls Black Conservatives ‘House Negroes’ For Daring to ‘Think Differently’, Says Kemi Badenoch MP

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/04/1600px-Official_portrait_of_Mrs_Kemi_Badenoch_crop_1-640×480.jpeg
    The UK’s Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch condemned the insults being launched against black conservatives from the left, such as ‘Uncle Toms’ and ‘House Negroes’, following a government report on the state of institutional racism in Britain that has outraged the left.

    The Conservative MP, who gained international press coverage after she reprimanded schools for pushing Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory tenants such as ‘white privilege’, said on Tuesday that ministers have received death threats following the release of the government race report.
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/21/the-left-calls-black-conservatives-house

    1. mng Citroen another “virtual signal “gladiator” who feeling “emotionally wounded” through insufficient MSM coverage. Another non entity

      1. On the contrary, she’s a well educated, intelligent, articulate and free thinking young woman who is determined not to be corralled into the expected Leftie Groupthink expounded by the likes of David Lammy and Dawn Butler.

        And, dare I say it, she’s not bad looking either!

        1. points noted Bob, but all following the same grain in keeping the issue in MSM “profile” for her “political” future further down the road. In doing so, it’s another tenet “imported” from US. I still have no idea why there’s even a Ministerial post for Equalities

          1. I suspect that the Ministerial post for Equalities was made necessary by Labour’s continual dredging up of past racial problems and refusing to admit that, by & large, racism in the UK has subsided to a miniscule level.

          2. thanks, at least it confirms what little I knew of post created. Yr last point validates my take racism as an issue is at miniscule level, if at all.

          3. Policy in the UK is now being decided at the whim of tiny minority groups within tiny minorities.

            I am serious when I say that I blame “sochul meeja”. Before twitter etc, none of these lunatic fringes would have been able to get their ridiculous messages across.

            For example, look at the attacks on universities for “links to slavery”. 4 0 years ago, a small group of disgruntled students would have marched up and down carrying banners. After half an hour, they would have gone to the pub – and that would have been that.

            Now – they tweet their hatred and it is immediately on the telly and governing bodies cave in.

            So, nationally. Just one person can start a twitter storm which results, the very next day, in HMG announcing a change in a particular policy.

          4. totally agree with you BIll. Even more bizarre, living here in Nairobi even with youth fond of their smartphones etc, there’s absolutely nothing approaching the perceived hysteria MSM throws up in UK. Trying to continue stoking an issue

          5. This is because the entire purpose of the state machine is now to soak the worker for every penny they have while doing as little as possible.

            When you can’t do that, there’s no point in the continual scaremongering.

          6. which is exactly where Kenya or rather, Uhuru and his inner cabal are at present [not caremongering, just ignoring reality]. He’s only attempting through decrees to punt, since the beginning, a non existent C-19, lockdowns and tweaked curfews. Everyone knows he’s merely a puppet for Western banks / system. When he’s soberish, he’ll make a pre planned statement, take no questions and disappear

          7. They would. Modern tools have just made it easier for them. rabble like gathering together. It validates and reinforces their own opinions where they are not challenged.

          8. I suspect that the Ministerial post for Equalities was made necessary by Labour’s continual dredging up of past racial problems and refusing to admit that, by & large, racism in the UK has subsided to a miniscule level.

        2. points noted Bob, but all following the same grain in keeping the issue in MSM “profile” for her “political” future further down the road. In doing so, it’s another tenet “imported” from US. I still have no idea why there’s even a Ministerial post for Equalities

          1. A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory tablet – Ibuprofen, for example – will help your gout.

          2. A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory tablet – Ibuprofen, for example – will help your gout.

    2. Kemi was right. Dawn Butler and people like her are simply making race relations worse in this country and playing into the hands of BLM.

      1. Agreed, J and that includes those who support ‘Build Large Mansions’, bend the knee and teach this treason in schools.

      2. Agreed, J and that includes those who support ‘Buy Large Mansions’, bend the knee and teach this treason in schools.

    4. I’m sure BLM are proud of the fact that hideously white Saffron Walden chose Kemi as their MP. Aren’t they?

    1. he’ll end up being the next Italian PM given they go through PMs faster than a hot knife through butter. As long as he remembers “with the connivance of his supervisors”

  20. Morning, all! I am getting myself ready to join the freedom march in London on Saturday, and am driving down from Oop North. I wonder if any kind and knowledgeable soul might point me in the right direction for free parking near a tube station? I was thinking somewhere like Stanmore; the station car park only allows 24 hours, and I don’t want the hassle of a confiscated car if I happen to get arrested and stuffed in a cell overnight, so free street parking somewhere vaguely safe would be better. I don’t mind a bit of a walk to the station.

    1. Ages ago we used to park down one of the side streets at Cockfosters in Hertfordshire, I don’t know if that is still a possibility though. It is then about 3/4 of an hour by tube into central London (there is a fairly large carpark as well by the station). To get to Cockfosters it is straight down the A1 from oop north then when you get to the M25 head left (east) on the M25 and after a few miles you should see the sign for Cockfosters. I would join you but poppiesdad has put me under curfew, he doesn’t want an old lady being made an example of by the police for the nation. Good luck, my spirit will be flying along side.

      1. Thanks, Poppiesmum! Hoping someone will chime in with up-to-date knowledge as I don’t want to be faffing around finding a parking place instead of doing the important bits. Cockfosters is a good idea. I’ll march for you and for anyone else whose spirit flies alongside!

        1. Thank you! Cockfosters tube station (the end of the tube line) is on the left as you approach from the north, entrance to carpark (if you need it) is alongside (I can’t remember whether it is before or after but I think from memory it is immediately before. Good luck and do let us know how things go.

    2. Ages ago we used to park down one of the side streets at Cockfosters in Hertfordshire, I don’t know if that is still a possibility though. It is then about 3/4 of an hour by tube into central London (there is a fairly large carpark as well by the station). To get to Cockfosters it is straight down the A1 from oop north then when you get to the M25 head left (east) on the M25 and after a few miles you should see the sign for Cockfosters. I would join you but poppiesdad has put me under curfew, he doesn’t want an old lady being made an example of by the police for the nation. Good luck, my spirit will be flying along side.

  21. Morning, all! I am getting myself ready to join the freedom march in London on Saturday, and am driving down from Oop North. I wonder if any kind and knowledgeable soul might point me in the right direction for free parking near a tube station? I was thinking somewhere like Stanmore; the station car park only allows 24 hours, and I don’t want the hassle of a confiscated car if I happen to get arrested and stuffed in a cell overnight, so free street parking somewhere vaguely safe would be better. I don’t mind a bit of a walk to the station.

  22. ‘Benin Bronzes’ to be repatriated by Church of England are from 1980s
    The sculptures Lambeth Palace is returning as a ‘gesture of goodwill’ were made 100 years after most Benin Bronzes were seized
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/22/benin-bronzes-repatriated-church-england-1980s/

    So the CofE is making another meaningless gesture, trying to make it appear as though it is atoning for a non-existent ‘sin’. Indeed, the gesture could be seen as an insult by the people of Nigeria who made the gift.

    1. Tourist souvenirs?
      Anyone got a straw donkey they’d like to repatriate to Spain?

      1. We’ve got a lot of foreign criminal freeloaders – can we repatriate them ???PLEEEEEEASE?

  23. ‘Benin Bronzes’ to be repatriated by Church of England are from 1980s
    The sculptures Lambeth Palace is returning as a ‘gesture of goodwill’ were made 100 years after most Benin Bronzes were seized
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/22/benin-bronzes-repatriated-church-england-1980s/

    So the CofE is making another meaningless gesture, trying to make it appear as though it is atoning for a non-existent ‘sin’. Indeed, the gesture could be seen as an insult by the people of Nigeria who made the gift.

  25. 331860+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Surely with the foota / racial problems being ramped up to high tension level with another covid wave rhetorically building the peoples are once again biting as the politico’s require them to do, whilst they get on with their reset agenda.

    The pillow whisperers ( climate change) material being slipped in under cover of ” look at what they are doing to football”

    The climate change material via the pillow from the Pms squeeze covers up nicely the border incoming ( “orchestrated DOVER leak”)

    To bring the whole sorry orchestrated agenda forward to the very near future the electorate are once again going into early post referendum mode as in ” leave it to the tories” ( ino) taking their eyes of off the main
    ball and concentrating on football ect.

    Bearing in mind that behind all this political chaff we are witnessing is a very real threat building within parliament a pointer is the oath taking
    book is in place ( permission to lie to NON believers) and halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

    So seemingly the peoples are supporting / voting for a same/same political coalition that is hellbent on bringing in reset via knee bending
    appeasement methods, handing the governance reigns eventually to an alien foreign force of a islamic persuasion.

    This ain’t no conspiracy theory this is in your face current ongoing facts.

    1. usual MSM / SM smoke and mirrors ahead of impending elections. Laurence Fox standing but facing an impossible task to win.London’s now a majority Non English city due to mass illegal economic immigration bringing corrupt electoral practices with them. So you get local leaders covered by MPs and their own system organising mass postal voting / online vote rigging requests and then harvesting them. He would have to get twice as many votes as Khan to win and that is a big ask with existing rules being changed behind the scenes and no challenge

    2. usual MSM / SM smoke and mirrors ahead of impending elections. Laurence Fox standing but facing an impossible task to win.London’s now a majority Non English city due to mass illegal economic immigration bringing corrupt electoral practices with them. So you get local leaders covered by MPs and their own system organising mass postal voting / online vote rigging requests and then harvesting them. He would have to get twice as many votes as Khan to win and that is a big ask with existing rules being changed behind the scenes and no challenge

  26. https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/1385137558951235587

    £71,400
    PCC Salary, Expenses and Allowances
    The Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset is paid an annual salary of £71,400. Levels of PCC pay were set by the Home Secretary following recommendations put forward in a report by the Review Body on Senior Salaries.

    Other county PCCs are paid considerably more , much more .

    Is this what Patel means by plans for police league tables ?

    Police say they would prefer to have more policemen , less paperwork and more support .

      1. Including herself when she was Dfid Sec! Her trip to Uganda to meet Liam Fox to attempt cutting oil deal with M7, til May called her [and NOT Fox] back, then “dismissed” for breaking protocol

      2. Even further down as well. Last night on tv Police prog, A man had his car seized for no insurance. It turned out that he had come from Romania, ( and apparently brought his whole family for their freebies ) where he already had 26 points on his license. AND already got 15 here on his EXPIRED UK provisional license, ( driving without anyone sat at the side and I didn’t notice L plates either ). So NO insurance, license, 15 points so should be banned, driving unaccompanied, Also been done several times for speeding – and he was moaning that it was wrong to take his car????? Import them from the 3rd world – and this is what you get. When the inevitable massive crash comes and some innocent, licensed, insured English person loses their limbs or even life, will this freeloading scumbag be bothered??? NOPE. – -and still they are waved in.

      3. Morning, Maggie; just lie down, get Other Half to peel you a grape and mop your fevered brow.
        Failing that, hit the gin bottle – very hard.

    4. Can we have a table for people like her NOT doing their job? – – She was going to stop the dinghies – and so far this year the number has doubled – and not a word from her or Dan the invisible immigration man.

    5. rather than another box ticking exercise, how about criminal charges be brought against the Home office for breaking the law and letting in thousands of illegal immigrants?

  27. An evening’s contemplation over a pleasant bottle of red with neighbours (outside of course, warmed by a chimnea) led to the conclusion that many of the so called national institutions have all gone to pot with pseudo equality stuff, wokeism:

    The Government
    MSM in general and the BBC in particular
    National Trust
    Church of England
    The Armed Forces

    I’m sure there are others, and our conclusion was that present day life for us oldies is depressing and in order to cope we had to open another bottle.

    1. A little while ago I saw two Egyptian women, in normal western dress, interviewing a bearded Islamist on the BBC Arabic channel. They asked him about Adam & Eve. He started by saying “Of course, Adam & Eve spoke Arabic”!

      Insofar as the whole thing is a myth, predating Islam by many centuries, if they spoke anything it would likely have been Hebrew! How deluded some people like to be!

      1. Given that God is an Englishman, and that he forbade Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge, it is obvious that they must have spoken English.

  30. 331860+ up ticks,
    Dt,
    Covid passports proving vaccine status will be available for summer holidays
    Fully vaccinated travellers told they ‘should be able to sidestep tests and quarantine’, potentially opening up breaks in over 20 countries

    The “should” word again,

    🎵
    Git along little dawgies git along.

    People who go along with this to open the way to costa bomba for two weeks are loco, and also complying with the Pms ( who is proven dangerously/ treacherously LOCO” ) in his reset agenda.

    1. Looked at the evidence. He was clearly on drugs. Did those drugs affect his breathing?

      Was there evidence of resisting arrest? Has he previously violently resisted arrest?

      Did the officer intend to kill the man?

      If the answers to the first 4 questions are yes and the last is no, then very probably there is a charge of unintentional manslaughter and 2 years in a minimum security prison. This person is not a danger to the public, floyd was.

      2. Yes.
        Yes.
        Yes.
        Probably not.

        The thing about the whole case is the way the video clips of those 9 minutes became the entire case with scant regard given to other evidence, in particular the fentanyl overdose.
        Another was the pathetic comment, “George Floyd is not on trial here,” whenever Floyd’s own behavior, including his drug abuse, was raised as an issue.
        George Floyd’s own behaviour was entirely relevant to the trial.

      1. But it’s the same stink of shít and corruption and just as useful to a watching human.

  33. Good Moaning. Allan Towers is preparing for a not so bright future.
    While Spartie pedals like fury, I will crank up the laptop and communicate with the outside world.
    After this, we will wander round the local woodlands, gathering winter foo-oo-ell. That’s if CBC doesn’t forcibly declaw all dogs so they can’t run.

    1. A mixed race female friend ( born here ) recently took some training to be a carer/helper in a Special Needs ward in our NHS. She had to fill in 20 “units” on her laptop first to see if she had the right attitude – the first one was about Diversity.

      1. I was asked what the organisation could do to improve diversity and inclusion. I said ‘Bin it. It’s a nasty, divisive term used to label people.’

    2. Boris taped a bit of wood over the top so he could press them all at once.

      My garage where I take the Aston is frightened. They’re going to have to shut down completely in 9 years. About 40 jobs lost and all their suppliers, subsidiaries, everything. All for no reason except the arrogance and ego of maniacs who will never be bothered by their own malicious attitudes.

      Banning normal engine cars for electric ones is stupid. There’s no data on life time, newer technologies, anything. It is a knee jerk response to an irrelevant issue.

    3. DH Lammy’s been leaning hard on that middle button on the BBC news this morning is their an election coming on ?

    3. Savages. They need to be taught to walk at heel.

      “I aint a dog” they’ll scream. Yes, you are. A badly behaved one. You’ll learn your place first.

    1. Might be awkward but it’s true.

      However – there’s a difference between the illegal gimmigrant and the genuine migrant who is here to work. I work with loads of Poles, Czechs, Indians, Greeks, Welsh… they’re all here to work because they’ve specific – often amazing – skill sets.

        1. 331860+ up ticks,
          R,
          Ex politico, Gerard Batten was warning of islamic ideology back in 2005.

          1. Those who think seriously have been aware of the threat of Islam for many years and Douglas Murray has written a book about it called The Strange Death of Europe.

            Funnily enough William Shawcross warned of the dangers of Islam in the Jerusalem Post in 2006:

            Yes, the problem is ‘Islamic fascism’ – We must not shy away from labeling this evil ideology.


            It took President George W. Bush to tell the truth to Britain about the massive plot to blow US-bound airliners out of the sky. In his first comment on the apparently foiled attempt to explode airliners flying from Britain to the US, Bush put it simply: “This was a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists.” He is right. But in the early news reports in Britain the words “Islamist” or “Muslim” were hardly emphasized. Let alone “extremist” or the dread word “fascist.” Instead the common code words on television were that the 24 men arrested were “British-born” and “of Pakistani origin.” No mention of their Islamist ideology. Did the BBC think they might turn out to be from Pakistan’s embattled Christian minority? I don’t think so. In Europe the truth is so terrible that we are in denial. Perhaps it is understandable. We simply do not wish to face the fact that we really are threatened by a vast fifth column – that there are thousands of European-born people, in Britain, in France, in Holland, in Denmark, everywhere – who wish to destroy us. They are part of a wider war, what Tony Blair rightly calls an “arc of extremism” – Islamist extremism. YOU SEE this denial in the coverage of Israel’s war against Hizbullah. Civilian deaths in Lebanon are utterly tragic. But if you watched only British television, particularly the BBC, you would be hard-pressed to understand that Israel has been forced into a war for its survival, one in which Iran has empowered its proxy, Hizbullah, to undertake the final solution of “the Zionist entity.” The fact that since Israel pulled out of southern Lebanon six years ago Hizbullah has been allowed to hijack the whole area to create a vast attack station whose purpose is only to destroy Israel, is taken for granted and certainly not shown to be a cause for opprobrium. Protesters in London have been marching through the streets carrying banners proclaiming “We Are All Hizbullah Now.” Do they know that every Lebanese child killed is a triumph for Hizbullah and a tragedy for Israel, as well as for Lebanon? Do they know that among the prisoners Hassan Nasrallah demands that Israel release are men arrested after rejoicing in smashing out the brains of Israeli children? Do they know that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the eager seeker of nuclear weapons, considers the utter destruction of Israel an Iranian priority? Or that Hizbullah’s Nasrallah has said that he wished all Jews would gather in Israel so they could all be destroyed at once; and that there is no creature more disgusting in the world than a Jew, “and note that I said a Jew, not an Israeli”? THE AWFUL thing is that many of those who march in support of Hizbullah may well know such things. Those who don’t know them don’t want to trouble themselves. And it’s not just the extremist marchers. Reasonable, conventional armchair critics concentrate on the mistakes of Israel rather than the evil ideology of Hizbullah. They refuse to acknowledge that a small, decent society is now literally under the threat of death from an illegal fascistic military machine built throughout the hills, valleys, towns and villages of southern Lebanon. As the American historian Victor Davis Hanson recently pointed out in these pages, there is a kind of moral madness at work here. We refuse to admit that there is a pattern to global terrorism. European papers are frightened to publish cartoons which some Muslim leaders demand we censor, but are happy to portray the Israelis as latter-day Nazis. Not for nothing does Hanson say we have forgotten the terrible lessons of 1938. IN A LIVE BBC interview recently, I called Hizbullah “Islamo-fascists.” The interviewer said nervously, “That’s a very controversial description.” I replied that it was merely accurate. She brought the interview to a swift close. But how else should one describe a military machine that marches under the banner of a demagogic leader who seeks above all to kill Jews? Its not just Hizbullah, of course. The same ideology of hate and destruction motivates al-Qaida, perhaps the inspiration, if not the controller, of the arrested British bombers. In Britain we are actually quite lucky. We have a prime minister who, in my view, has committed many, many errors at home; but abroad Tony Blair has a clear vision, both moral and pragmatic, of the threat that we face. And for this he is mocked and abused as nothing more than Bush’s “poodle.” In a thoughtful recent speech in Los Angeles Blair spoke of fighting an “arc of extremism.” That extremism is Islamic extremism, whether it is inspired al-Qaida or by Teheran, whether its foot soldiers are Sunni or Shi’ite, whether they were born in Britain, or southern Lebanon, or Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or anywhere else. As Blair said: The battle is over the values that are to govern the future of the worlds. “Are they those of tolerance, freedom, respect for difference and diversity; or those of reaction, division, hatred?” “This is war,” said Blair. Alas, it is. Wherever they were born, the men who want to blow up airliners, who want to destroy Israel and, not coincidentally, who want to kill all hope of a decent society in Iraq – are Islamo-fascists who are united in hatred of us. The sooner we in Europe understand that, and that they must be defeated, the safer everyone – Christians, Jews, Muslims, and non-believers – will be. The writer is author of Allies – Why the West Had to Remove Saddam.

          2. 331860+ up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            Gerard Batten also put it in book form and in rhetoric the
            person on the shop floor could understand him & the party
            he was successfully rebuilding was proving to be a credible danger within the very near future, he / they had to go.

            That triggered the vote splitting brexit group £25 a pop run by a sprinter of renown ( when needed) “nige” something, along with the party nEc.

            ALL now on record.

            All this farce was abetted by, at the best,well meaning fools
            ( brexit group supporters ) never members, only one member.

            With LLC party members castigating Batten / party to protect the lab/lib/con close shop.

            Being a Batten activist at that time was like trying to run in a treakle march, you were really battling against a sea of idiocy.

      2. I don’t think many people have problems with immigrants per se. It’s the number and type which we can’t cope with.

    2. Why would they want jobs? Free living standard upgrade just for getting here and doing NOTHING.

  43. Please don tinfoil hats.

    Thought for the day.

    The Chauvin trial and the run up intimidation, the $27mn award, the political comments the unopposed riots etc. etc

    Perhaps all this was deliberate, to create unassailable grounds for appeal.

    The appeals go through the various levels of the courts, right up to SCOTUS and a mistrial is declared or even an acquittal.

    That would prove beyond any shadow of a doubt that the whole system is racist and give the Democrats the excuse they need to dismantle it.

    Impossible?

    1. A lot of work when the state wants to prove the country is racist and look good on camera.

      2. ……. look good on camera? America has certainly succeeded in looking very bad indeed on camera! But not for racism but for giving in to those who have ‘weaponised’ the word in an attempt to destroy civilisation and justice.

        1. 331860+ up ticks,
          Morning R,
          The lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition taught them well.

      3. ……. look good on camera? America has certainly succeeded in looking very bad indeed on camera! But not for racism but for giving in to those who have ‘weaponised’ the word in an attempt to destroy civilisation and justice.

    2. the most liberal / woke elements ( US E & W Coasts) while the majority heartland in the USA more like the Trump base. Liberal / woke elements will follow what’s already been decided in advance, the rest of the US will boil. And it’s pointing once again to another civil war along same tenets as the first one. Not sure how TV would cover a blue on blue incident, or in this case white on white and black on black [maybe cartoons or a movie about climate change]. Let it roll

    3. the most liberal / woke elements ( US E & W Coasts) while the majority heartland in the USA more like the Trump base. Liberal / woke elements will follow what’s already been decided in advance, the rest of the US will boil. And it’s pointing once again to another civil war along same tenets as the first one. Not sure how TV would cover a blue on blue incident, or in this case white on white and black on black [maybe cartoons or a movie about climate change]. Let it roll

    5. Impossible? No probable.

      They have had the publictrial lynching, no doubt the sentence will be massive when announced in a few months but then it will all go quiet as appeal after appeal works its way through the system until a mistrial is eventually announced or rather, not announced.

    6. My thoughts too, when I heard that Biden had been speaking about the trial before it was over.

    7. More likely to push the US into civil war, I think. A USA fighting with itself has obvious advantages to China and Russia.

  44. Posted at midnight but a reminder that today is

    Jay Sands’s birthtday

    Caroline and I extend our best wishes for a Happy Birthday and many happy returns.

    We haven’t seen much of Jay here recently – we hope this will be remedied.

    2. Thank you – I do read Nottlers every day, I don’t often comment though I do often laugh.

          1. Hi, John. Struggling to cope, unfortunately. I’ve been out and about today putting my details forward to find another dog. I never realised just how much time during the day I spent with Charlie and how much it matters that he isn’t there.

          2. ‘Twas always going to be tough, especially with all else you have had. Finding a new companion will help, whilst not losing memories of you and Charlie. Keep us posted when you can. Our little Nottl family cares.

          5. I will be re-homing a dog that needs a home. I’m not going down the commercial breeding route. I just have to find one. I’m not fussy about breed (although I don’t want anything so small it’s going to trip up MOH, for practical reasons). I’d be happy to have a mongrel; they are so full of character.

          7. Yes, I don’t want things like separation anxiety issues as they will be too difficult for MOH to cope with. I’ve had one emotionally disturbed dog and we failed to bring him round. We were his last chance saloon and we had to admit defeat.

          8. It’s very hard I think to cope with a damaged animal. We were very lucky with our little Lily – although she was very frightened when she came to us after several months in the rescue pen, she settled down after a couple of weeks and had clearly had a happy home beforehand. She’s a real sweetie.

            Our neighbours took on a cat a couple of months ago and she still won’t let them anywhere near her. They wanted a pet, not a feral.

          9. My parents took two rescue dogs that were said to be “difficult.” One turned out absolutely fine, with love and attention. The other one was a dear little thing, but not quite right in the head, I think.

    2. I remember attending a briefing on the importance of water ‘control’ and it’s possible foreign policy application in the late 80s. The examples given were the source of the Euphrates, the Nile and the Mekong. The damming of which could cause considerable economic and ecological trouble for those living downstream. It seems that the Chinese have realised this control.

  46. Nicked,’cos oi laffed

    Dear Marje Proops,

    I am on the horns of a dilemma, and hope you may be able to help. Now I
    have been looking forward to St Stephen Lawrence Day, to the prospect of
    flagellating myself with for the sins of my race against the holy
    martyr and his equally holy brethren (and sistren !), and later to stage
    a commemorative ‘Drug Deal Gone Wrong’ in the town square. I was
    athirst for penance and self-hatred, Marje – athirst !!!

    But now I
    have woken up to discover that not only is this the Feast of Innocent
    St Stephen The Gang Signer, but Earth Day, too !!! Oh, calamity !!!!
    How can I find the time to celebrate both festivals in a fitting manner ?
    What if my scourges turn out not to be ethically sourced !?! I fear
    they may be made in Burma, the dark land that oppresses our peaceful
    Rohingya brothers and sisters !!!

    How can hate myself properly today, and yet still
    find the time to walk around tut-tutting in a superior manner at those
    Brexit-voting troglodytes who refuse to drive an electric vehicle ? The
    evil fools who refer to our sacred Windfarms as ‘ugly’, ‘bird
    choppers’, and even to our Blessed Great Thunberg as ‘that weird little
    doom goblin’ !?!

    It’s sooooo exhausting being a self-hating white
    oppressor, Marje. And that’s before I schedule time to make offerings
    at my personal shrine to the Blessed NHS, and call out paternalism in
    the local newsagent. Please help, Marje. Which should I prioritise ? You’re my only hope !

    BTW isn’t it typical of the unthinking white oppressors to have designed a
    calendar that doesn’t have enough days to cover every progressive
    commemoration without doubling up !

    1. Dear Guilt-Stricken Middle Class Whitey:
      Sorreeeee, I’m dead. Try CarriOn c/o 10, Downing Street.

    1. I forget which book of the Gulag Archipealgo that’s from. I thoroughly recommend reading it. Lefties won’t because if they encounter facts their heads will explode.

    1. Oh Kaaayyyy …… who handed the asylum keys to the lunatics?
      Don’t be afraid.
      Speak up: your reward is a government job sinecure.

    3. It really is time any organisation promoting and supporting mental illness was shut down. Let’s start with Mermaids. It’s not a charity, it should never receive public money of any sort whatsoever.

      Stick your privates whereever you want. It’s your business. I don’t care. Your lifestyle choices are your own and should receive no promotion or special tolerance whatsoever.

    1. 331860+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      When I posted the same an hour ago I ask for it to be considered at the next voting opportunity.

  55. The repercussions from the Floyd travesty are being felt far and wide.

    A Fox News ‘anchor’ said that he was glad that Chauvin has been convicted on all counts, even if he isn’t guilty.

    And the news from South Africa:

    “We welcome the verdict of guilty on the perpetrator and the murderer of George Floyd. What we’re looking for now is a harsh sentence that is befitting to the crime, which is murder,” said Themba Masango, Secretary General for Not In My Name South Africa.

    I thought that South Africa already has its fair share of murders, especially of white farmers, and it doesn’t need BLM to stir things up further.

    An article in the Washington Times today says:

    Americans who identify as liberal or very liberal believe 1,000 or more unarmed Black men were murdered by police in 2019, according to a survey produced by Skepic.com. Only 12 were.

    Liberal politicians, by championing the BLM movement, are causing this distortion in reality. They’re also indirectly causing crime rates to jump in Black communities around the country as police officers back away from their jobs, and some quit altogether.

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/21/crime-rates-spike-as-social-warriors-take-charge/

    Things will only get worse with Biden in power!

      1. I like it!
        It’s been obvious for decades that the UN has a serious sex abuse problem where ever it deploys.

          1. It’s the XR mob breaking windows of banks in London. They think that’s going to stop ‘climate change’.

          2. and I just heard they’re “planning” to invade the countryside [which loc not sure] on Saturday under “reclaim the countryside” involving trespass. Some Nottlers may be in for some target practice

          4. pity she didn’t use an electronic car, ram raid the door and fry herself at the same time. Surely the photographer was “aiding and abetting”?

          5. What happened to rubber bullets? They could discourage these vandals as they attack buildings. Then arrest them.

          6. Yeah. Picked up on that earlier.
            Not the first time they’ve done that and not the first time the Police stood back and let them do it.

  58. Joe Biden pledges US will halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 during climate summit. 22 April 2021.

    President Joe Biden is expected to unveil the ambitious target of halving US coal and petroleum emissions by 2030 as he moves to cement the nation’s credibility in tackling climate change on Earth Day 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b7e94ea9363a5f4d0f4c19f73d8bf9e6754154d7d4f60cc14003a08a44a36be6.jpg

    Won’t be long before they are declaring themselves Gods!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/22/earth-day-us-attempts-reassert-global-leadership-climate-change/

    2. Is he going to shut down the whole economy and keep people imprisoned………..oh……..?

          1. Sorry accidental downvote. Now removed.

            The question of his name is to get you to enlarge the picture. Then you see the ‘surprise !’

            For the sake of argument it is George. :@(

  62. My first 2 cuckoos of the year while walking the dog. A mating pair! Only heard the female burbling and then they flew very close to us in a tree. No call from the male. I’m fairly sure that’s the earliest sighting, for me at least, since we came here 17 years ago. Oh, 2 adders on the path yesterday, separate locations, brazenly sunbathing.

  63. Prince William calls on the nation to use the same dedication shown in tackling Covid to fight climate change

    Prince William joined other prominent figures to call on the nation to ‘transform its relationship with the planet’ as it faces ‘the most pressing challenge in human history’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9497921/Prince-William-calls-nation-transform-relationship-planet.html

    Covid science?

    Climate Change science?

    I think it is worrying that the second in line to the throne is getting involved in very dubious pseudo-science.

    2. He could be more useful if he were to preach against overfishing; reduce of plastics – oh – what about all those masks?; trophy hunting of already endangered species; and stop unnecessary and illegal immigration into this already overcrowded country.

      As for climate change – it’s all greenwash.

    3. Happy Thursday Rastus, no surprise there, he has inherited bad genes ( Chromosome ” L” – known to cause chronic Tree Huggers Syndrome ) from his dad & his late mum.

    4. He is definitely the son of Charlie. He has inherited all his faulty genes. I was hoping the lass he married would have a tighter control over him. This is worrying.

    5. Yes. That will kill the monarchy off faster than anything else. They really ought to stay off twitter and recognise that it represents a tiny minority.

          2. I think they’ve jumped on this from RIA news..
            Separately Russia is ordering its troops to return to their main bases according to the RIA news agency.

            It claimed the country had completed a “snap inspection” of its southern and western forces.

    3. It is merely a precaution against the fall-out from the soon to be deployed nuclear weapons aimed at both of Britain’s two serviceable tanks, which are expected to arrive within a week or so. The Russians are krappin’ themselves.

  65. If only people reacted to the climate change scam with the same vigour as they did to the super league scam.

    1. Kicking a bag of wind around a meadow is less intellectually challenging than a scientific analysis of the variable factors in climatology – or comprehending the mendacious dissimulations of avaricious capitalists and loony eco-warriors.

    2. If only people reacted to the loss of our freedoms with the same vigour as they did to the super league scam.

  67. Afternoon, all. I’m just popping in for a while – sort of breaking myself in again. Thank you for all the supportive comments.

          2. So sorry to hear your news. A lot of us on here are pet lovers and know just how you feel. We are here for you for whatever you need. If you want to rant and rave or just talk about anything we understand and welcome your posts.

          3. Unfortunately our beloved pets do not live our human lifespans & so with human longevity as it is today they go long before us. Just remember all the good times & love that your doggie gave you unconditionally .

          4. The Power of the Dog

            Rudyard Kipling – 1865-1936

            There is sorrow enough in the natural way
            From men and women to fill our day;
            And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
            Why do we always arrange for more?

            Brothers and Sisters, I bid you beware
            Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.
            Buy a pup and your money will buy
            Love unflinching that cannot lie—

            Perfect passion and worship fed
            By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
            Nevertheless it is hardly fair
            To risk your heart for a dog to tear.

            When the fourteen years which Nature permits
            Are closing in asthma, or tumour, or fits,
            And the vet’s unspoken prescription runs
            To lethal chambers or loaded guns,

            Then you will find—it’s your own affair—
            But… you’ve given your heart to a dog to tear.
            When the body that lived at your single will,
            With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!).

            When the spirit that answered your every mood
            Is gone—wherever it goes—for good,
            You will discover how much you care,
            And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

            We’ve sorrow enough in the natural way,
            When it comes to burying Christian clay.
            Our loves are not given, but only lent,
            At compound interest of cent per cent.

            Though it is not always the case, I believe,
            That the longer we’ve kept ’em, the more do we grieve:
            For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
            A short-time loan is as bad as a long—

            So why in—Heaven (before we are there)
            Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

          6. He was seventeen and five months; that’s a long time he’s been part of my life. Apart from four awful months I haven’t been without a dog since 1984.

          7. A late uncle of mine in the UK who lived into his 90’s had a few different dogs over the years and always had a cat, a ginger one, as a pet. He simply called each new cat ” Ginger “

    2. Afternoon Conway ,

      I can feel you are putting on a brave face , do you have a photo of your dearly beloved pet wuffle that you would like to share with us .

      It may help if you and us . The majority of us are pet lovers , and understand these things .

        1. Conway,

          What a sweetheart , so very very sorry for you .

          You know , we have all heard that the rainbow bridge is a comfortable place for our pets to cross.

          Safe now .

          1. If he meets up with his former companion, he’ll be bullying him again! He used to use Jazz as his pillow and wriggle himself so that poor Jazz was squashed up against the back of the bed they shared and Charlie had 90% of it. He was an alpha terrierist.

    3. Afternoon, Conway.
      Good to hear from you. I was thinking this morning that we’d not heard from you for a while and wondered how you were getting on.
      April really has been the cruellest month for NOTTL dog lovers.

  68. Exports from China’s Xinjiang province to US more than doubled this year despite sanctions

    Direct exports from China’s northwestern Xinjiang region to the US surged 113% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021 despite Washington’s import ban on cotton and other products.
    Xinjiang’s American-bound exports amounted to $64.4 million in the first three months of 2021, the South China Morning Post reported, citing data from China’s customs agency. While year-on-year data is not representative as it comes from the pandemic year’s low base, exports also rose compared to pre-crisis levels. They gained 46.5% compared with the first quarter of 2019.

    1. It’s all comparative according to the White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, who said in a press statement:

      “Maybe Chinese exports to the US have grown by 113% but just imagine how much more they would have grown, had President Biden not had the foresight and wisdom to apply sanctions in the first place.

      It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

        1. I understand her basic job descrption and therein job Is to make things up as he goes along as long as SHE understands it [ex CNN so not too difficult]. Her primary role as spokeswoman for Demented Joe is to pretend Demented Joe didn’t say what everybody heard him say, in order to put across what he was supposed to say, and as it’s from the White House, it must be fact.

  69. Bidet/Harris, God’s gift to us Brits 🙂

    “Nemesis4ever • 22 minutes ago
    Amen! The Brits used to be tough
    2•Reply•Share

    Jack S Nemesis4ever • 20 minutes ago • edited
    Americans used to have Reagan in the White House.
    3•Edit•Reply•Share”

        1. You made the right decision.

          I get my window cleaner to do my guttering. It’s only a bungalow but i can’t be arsed.

          2. There are some posters on here who live in Châteaux. At least two that own what i would call forests !

  70. 331860+ up ticks,
    May one suggest that another weight be employed as an attachment to the farage leg.

    breitbart,
    Mr Fox had better have a security element in regards to his six.

    Farage and Reform Party Throw Weight Behind Anti-Lockdown Fox to Replace Sadiq Khan in London Mayoral Race

      1. 331860+up ticks,
        Afternoon E&S,
        “nige” had a great many fooled right up to the referendum result then his cover as a covert tory
        ( ino) UKIP coxswain asset began to be revealed.

        The anti Batten letter, siding with the UKIP treacherous nEc, tha mass knifing of the real UKIP membership, the pro johnson brexit stand down actions after splitting the Batten / UKIP vote, a chap to be watched.

        1. “”nige” had a great many fooled…”

          The majority of 17.4 Leave voters never voted for Nigel or his “party” at any election.
          5.5 million at the 2109 EU elections was the most he managed.

    2. First you worshipped Nigel, then you worshipped Batten.
      Do you ever think you might be a jinx:-)

  71. Frying tonight !

    Sole Meunière with steamed Jersey Royals and a bottle of Prosecco courtesy of a secret Nottler admirer. :@)

      1. Can’t tell. Sworn to secrecy but it’s not just me they are generous with.

        Meunière is a classic and you can’t go far wrong with that.

        1. French (à la) meunière, literally, (being done) like a miller’s wife. 😃 🍸 🍹 🍾 No comment.

      2. If you are posting tonight’s dinner menu, you are Peddy.
        Please send my prize postal order by return mail.

  72. From the ‘You-couldn’t-make-it-up’ files:

    A US Representative (believe it or not), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is so far to the left that she is in the infra-red spectrum, says that climate change is caused by the trampling of racial injustice!

    A more sensible person has described Mr. Biden’s ‘Green New Deal’ as a document worthy of a 19th-century communist manifesto — or a 21st-century undergraduate student council resolution.

        1. Justice is her being hit by a stray bullet from a black drive-by, aimed at someone else.

          EDIT after wibbling’s correct observation
          Poetic justice

          2. If I recall correctly, the video posted this morning stated 50% plus of murders are committed by blacks, who themselves are only 13% of the total population.
            When one considers that probably 90% of that 13% are law-abiding, what it suggests is that there is a hard core of career criminals,and that Floyd might well have been a killer in waiting, or even an uncaught one.
            Real justice for blacks would be a concerted effort to eliminate that hard core.

          3. For the life of me I can’t recall the name of the African-American murdered by a mob of burning & looting blacks around the same time.
            Ex-cop, African-American, helping his mate defend his business from the mob.

          6. No, justice would be a criminal being arrested for a crime.

            It’s not complicated. Don’t commit crime and the police will probably leave you alone.

      2. That happens when noisy, spiteful nasty Lefties set about destroying those they disagree with. The Left do this a lot. They have throughout history.

  73. Decided earlier to take the day off and went for a walk this morning from Holcombe farm to Dundas Wharf:
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e29cd59725ecd425eb0223d9505f930fc8b891d61d6a5816d433dcf103686c15.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67d74d3acd564595590697486e5b4f1e94f25bc93deaab78405716999cca364d.jpg

    This afternoon decided it was warm enough to sunbathe au naturel in the secluded garden whilst listening to Rachmaninov and Ravel – the latter appropriately enough ‘Ball air o’! At the climax a white effusion appeared above the top of the fence at 15:48 (it was the half moon rising)….

  74. Life beyond Nord Stream 2? As demand for natural gas skyrockets in booming China, Russia says it’s ready to meet Beijing’s needs

    China’s fast-growing economy has an insatiable need for natural gas, and Russia is ready to heavily ramp up its cross-border supplies. That’s according to Viktor Zubkov, the chairman of Russian energy giant Gazprom.
    As things stand, gas is sent from Far-Eastern Yakutia to China through the Gazprom-operated Power of Siberia pipeline, which first became operational in December 2019. Its construction secured another economic partnership for Moscow, while its gas connections to Europe face increasing resistance.

    On Wednesday, when speaking to Moscow news agency TASS, Zubkov revealed that China’s demand for gas increases every two years at the rate of the entire capacity of the Power of Siberia pipeline, which transports 38 billion cubic meters every year.

    According to Zubkov, China has already become the largest importer and the third-biggest consumer of natural gas globally.

    “It will remain the most promising gas market for the foreseeable future as well,” he said. “We are sure that China needs additional gas supplies from Russia, and Gazprom is ready to supply them.”

  75. The day after I receive an email informing me of this:

    ” ‘Request for Investigation’ of the UK Government and its advisers, for genocide, crimes against humanity and breaches of the Nuremberg Code, issued to the International Criminal Court at the Hague, on Tuesday 20th of April 2021.

    On Tuesday 20th of April 2021 we, the undersigned, issued a 27 -page ‘Request for Investigation’ to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague, with a view to asking that our allegations of genocide, crimes against humanity and breaches of the Nuremberg Code, by the UK Government and its advisors, be accepted by the ICC and investigated.

    We believe that we have provided compelling reasons as to why our Government and its advisers are guilty of the above charges. However, at this stage it is important to note that we are not required to provide all the evidence we have (which would run to several hundred pages) and are limited to a maximum of 30 pages, simply to make an outline case as part of our Request.”

    – this appears in the DM. Screech of the brakes and back pedalling like mad?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9499125/Covid-no-longer-leading-cause-death-England-Wales.html

    1. Report Tony Blair & his entire government for war crimes in Iraq & Afghanistan and for Human Rights violations & Ethnic Cleansing of White British citizens resident in the UK during his time as PM

    2. ” Look how the floor of heaven
      Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold:
      There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st
      But in his motion like an angel sings,
      Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins;
      Such harmony is in immortal souls;
      But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
      Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.       ”

      Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice Act V Scene I

    4. The cat is bottom right, four cm up, two in.

      And if you don’t believe me, measure it.

  77. A little light interlude.
    Two new “energy from the sea machines” are in the process of being installed near Orkney. One will operate on wave power and the other on tidal currents (and the difference is?). Money has been spent on many such devices over the last forty years. All previous devices were converted by wave power and tidal currents into rusty junk within six months. My prediction is that these will go the same way.
    For some reason that I cannot understand the search continues for a means of generating electricity from the sea. It is almost as if we have never heard of coal-fired power stations, nuclear power stations, gas-fired power stations, and internal combustion engines, dynamos and turbines, all very efficient and cheap.

    For more fun consider what we are doing to Mars (the red planet, and not the shrinking chocolate bar). We are converting the carbon dioxide atmosphere into oxygen and carbon monoxide. Good plan. By the time there is enough oxygen for colonists to breathe there will be enough carbon monoxide to poison them.

    Scientists, eh, don’t you just love them.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-56818538
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-56846859
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56844601

    2. “SeaGen turbine was the world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine. It was developed by Marine Current Turbines (MCT) and was commissioned in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in July 2008.

      The 1.2MW SeaGen project, comprising of two 600KW turbines, required a total investment of £12m.

      The project reached an important milestone in September 2012 by producing up to 5GW/h of power since its commissioning. It was equal to the power required by 1,500 households annually. The milestone indicated the completion of the demonstration phase of the project.

      It exported over 11.6GWh of power during its life cycle and was successfully decommissioned in July 2019.”

      Seems they haven’t given up.

      1. The state never does.

        I wonder how much those turbines cost to build – as that’s a cost of call it a million a year not including maintenance and parts costs. Can the turbines be re-used, or are they now scrap metal?

        The Left wing green nonsense must be binned and genuine next generation energy production methods developed.

        1. Swansea Bay barrage scheme springs to mind. Tories again, John Gummer in particular profited from that scam.

          “In June 2018 the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced that the Government would not approve the plan, but other options to enable the proposal to go ahead are reportedly still being explored.”

        2. Swansea Bay barrage scheme springs to mind. Tories again, John Gummer in particular profited from that scam.

          “In June 2018 the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced that the Government would not approve the plan, but other options to enable the proposal to go ahead are reportedly still being explored.”

      2. The Rance tidal power plant in Brittany was built in 1966 and as far as I know still going strong.

          1. No Jack I have visited it several times. For once I remembered it as I thought it a good idea. The tidal height there is high. I loved Brittany.

      3. “SeaGen turbine was the world’s first commercial-scale tidal turbine. It was developed by Marine Current Turbines (MCT) and was commissioned in Northern Ireland’s Strangford Lough in July 2008.”

        This development was on a busy, mostly non-commercial seaway. I guess it was intended as an experimental development with a deadline:

        “It was successfully decommissioned in July 2019.”

        The max current is some 9 knots – it is an interesting ride under sail …

        1. “…it is an interesting ride under sail …”
          As a few unwary yachtsmen have learnt to their cost 🙂

    3. There was one tidal power generator in the bay of fundy that lasted for about twenty years, it was closed down when they realized that it was doing a great job mincing fish.

      All of the others have lasted a few months as you say. Not to worry, they have just blown some more taxpayer money on another demonstration plant.

    4. There is a very good reason why Mars is a frigid planet with a thin atmosphere and no liquid water. It is a small body and hence cooled very quickly and when the core cooled its magnetic field failed. Without a magnetic field the Sun’s solar wind blew away the atmosphere and any liquid water evaporated. One set of astrophysicists give the reasons why Mars is in the state it is and another set are planning to terraform it even though the planet has no magnetic field to protect the atmosphere that they are planning to create. Perhaps there is a plan to plant nuclear bombs deep into the planet to melt the core and create a magnetic field or there is some other fanciful plan to deflect the solar wind away from the planet. Whatever, it all sounds very, very expensive.

      1. Tide mills, like wind mills, have existed successfully for hundreds of years. It’s the scaling up of the size that brings our current crop of misadventures.

      2. “Whatever, it all sounds very, very expensive.”

        Whatever, it all sounds extraordinarily insane …

  78. According to Barts NHS Health Trust they had 54 patients yesterday with laboratory confirmed Covid-19 and they have 56 today but none were newly diagnosed in the last 24 hours. It begins to look as if the numbers are pulled out of a hat.

    1. Experts claimed that, because there are so few daily Covid deaths a day now, the country’s death rate could be close to zero because a portion of the victims would’ve passed away from natural causes anyway.

      The DOH’s death figure includes anyone who dies of any cause within 28 days of a positive test, meaning patients who succumb to cancer, suffer a heart attack or get hit by a car within four weeks are counted.

      Oxford University professor Dr Jason Oke said that when a lot of people are swabbed – about a million per day at the moment – and test positive, some of them will inevitably die naturally of causes ‘unrelated to Covid’.

      Professor Karol Sikora, an expert in medicine at the University of Buckingham, told MailOnline the Government’s 24 average Covid deaths per day had the potential to be ‘significantly’ lower. Official figures show about a quarter of Covid deaths are people who died ‘with’ the virus, rather than directly ‘from’ it.

      But other scientists said even patients in which Covid was not their underlying cause of death, the virus probably ‘made their last days much more uncomfortable, or even shortened their life by a substantial amount’.

      Meanwhile, a raft of other statistics published today revealed Covid is no longer the leading cause of death in England and Wales for the first time since October, and the number of people falling ill with the virus is at its lowest level on record.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9500469/Is-end-Covid-sight-Cases-fallen-age-group-just18-deaths-today.html

    2. Numbers have rocketed in Germany, apparently.
      Coincidentally they started testing all the school children twice a week recently, and compulsory tests to go into non-essential shops too.
      That Covid is so smart, you can catch it if you go to B+Q, but not if you go to the supermarket. Amazing.

    1. Explain to the birds that the strawberries are to be left alone, and they will comply. Of course, as birds are polite.

    2. I net my cherry tree when the fruits start appearing. One year i didn’t and i had no fruit. I know who the culprit is. Collared Doves that can barely fly because they are so fat.

    3. Sounds like a jolly good plan to me. Unfortunately I doubt it would work for slugs.

  80. Gourmet note: a couple of days back we visited Perrywoods Nursery; among other things they sell venison and game supplied by Ben Rigby a local butcher. We had the haunch steaks tonight. They are scrummy and extremely tender. In my drive to encourage people to buy local and British produce, I’ve attached a link.

    https://www.benrigbygame.co.uk/

      2. Since his heart episode, MB has to eat earlier than we used to do so he gets a good night’s sleep.
        Sometimes it’s actual lunchtime, other days late afternoon/early evening depending on what we’re doing.

          1. It is a classic addition for Venison and Steaks. Careful not to over do it and you end up with Chocolatey Notes which apparently complements the meat.

          2. Same principle as adding a tiny bit of mega-dark chocolate to game stews in Italy, or mole poblano. Delicious! And I speak as one without a sweet tooth.

          4. Dark chocolate is a classic ingredient of Mexican meat dishes e.g. Chili con Carne …

      2. Yes, we do.
        Tonight we had homemade crab apple jelly. I have one small bottle of juice left in the freezer. Once I’ve made that into jelly, that will be it until the autumn.
        I just hope the roadside stall will be well stocked up again.

      1. Hi Jack ( pun unintentional ) FYI Breitbart uses auto-moderation & not human mods. As part of the auto-moderation they have the various updates to the Disqus highly Liberal ” Restricted Word ” Filter along with the other parameter’s they set such as Low Rep exclusion – ie . Low Rep posters comments go automatically into Pending & since there is no human Mods they remain in Pending indefinitely . Contacting them by Email to release a Pending post usually goes unanswered & if like me you mail them repeatedly they simply Delete the stuck post.

        1. “Low Rep posters comments go automatically into Pending…”

          That must be why so many regulars over there have problems posting their comments. Cheers Elf.

          1. Correct, the Up Vote Theft Bot programme reduced most of the Disqus reputations of former Channel posters to Zero up votes & gave them unseen Negative down votes turning our accounts permanently Low Rep & that’s why I retired my veteran Mahatmacoatmabag account from use & use this one on here as it never posted on Channels & was originally used by me on the Daily Telegraph back in 2013

          2. “Mahatmacoatmabag account”

            Had I realised that I wouldn’t have wasted my time replying to you.

            You and Truth Revealed made up yet? And where’s Spam Fritter/Horace Cope these days?

          3. Jack I am not in dispute with Truth Revealed & I have posted on his new blog a few times when he started it . I was along with Spam Fritter one of the Founding Mods on the Absolutely Not the Troll-O-Graph channel. He & Spam fell out over a Troll from our DT days being allowed to post & a little while after TR fired Spam as a Mod I left on good terms to create my own channel, but I expect you know that as you might well be SF. 😜😜

          4. On TR’s channel, where you were a mod, you threw a hissy fit when he refused to ban ‘Mailbiter’ from posting on his blog.
            He did right, there was nothing wrong with Mailbiters comments.
            You’re a control freak, as you soon proved when you set about accumulating Disqus channels.

          7. mailbiter 7 years ago
            Every now and again kippers come out with a new mantra. “People’s Army” (although that is only 12% of the people), “Vote UKIP, get UKIP” (certainly not true in Westminster.

            The latest tactic (and I am sure they all coordinate this through Twitter) is to call everyone else racist and bigots.

            I’m sure it is not just me that sees the irony in that one!

            Signing off for a while – so the swivel-eyed extremists can leave negative relies and insults to your heart’s content. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61ed945ad2d3845b99d4412a47c6a4fac5b653c7cd1f8174be69209734b2cf3e.jpg

          9. Spam banned Mailbiter, I was not on the blog at the time that Nailbiter duked it out with Spam, but yes I supported his decision & I tried to get TR to reinstate SF as a Mod & yes that was part of my decision to leave TR’s channel & create my own. I eventually owned 10 channels & was a Mod on 15 others but all that is water under the bridge now, currently I own 2 blogs, am an Admin Mod on 2 other blogs that I created & transferred to others & am a Mod on another blog. So Jack you are Mailbiter, you were a complete pain in the Tuchus on the DT & are about as welcome on my blogs as the plague.

          2. The old story, Gentlemen & Players 🙂

            ETA: Fred Perry was a player. The Gentlemen are still waiting.

          5. Well Jack, if you ain’t Spam, then you might be one of the other former NTTL channel posters but I can’t now recall the names of some of the less than popular folks who used to post on NTTL

          7. “JillT” over on British Awakenings channel ring a bell 🙂
            I borrowed her account, NTTL had banned me for some reason.
            You three clowns provided some of the best comedy posted on Disqus trying to figure out who JillT was.

          1. Well not me obviously with my youth and film star looks.

            I just thought older and golden with a sense of humour. The young and the Leftards don’t have that. And it shows.

      1. Afternoon Bob and Nottlers.

        Alf and I played Bowls last night, first time back this season but with huge restrictions and petty rules to be “compliant” with the little Hitlers. Anyway lovely evening, both played reasonably well although it was an effort.

        Almost the first thing people said to us, “have you had your jabs yet?” I have now decided to dive straight in and say ooh no, I’m not having an experimental injection. Vaccines take 10-15 years to develop properly. There were some ooohs and aaaghs but the vast majority have had theirs.

        So now we have it. Covid vaccine status passports to get out of the country and I wonder where next within the U.K., I.e., pubs, restaurants, etc. Bastards they are all of them. We are in prison.

        1. I tried the one the other day about volunteering not to have the jab and be on the reserve list just in case it all went wrong as they will need people to switch all the lights off, but it didn’t go down well.

          2. I say I’ve had Covid and survived so I’m allowing somebody else to have my jab as I don’t need it.

      2. It’s now “have you had your second jab?” so we chorus “we’ve not even had a first!” The person who is asking then looks slightly alarmed, they cannot cope with where this conversation may be going.

        1. Well done you two. That’ll be our next question on Saturday when we see others at the club.

  84. That’s me for the day. Narridge was half empty – apart from the streets which were full of the obese tattooed, eating as they walked (many pushing prams full of obese children eating). We had a nice roast pork sandwich (that chap in the market stalls) and a tray of chips for our extravagant luncheon out.

    Managed to buy shoes that fitted. But not a sun hat of the sort that exist in the millions in yer France. Only horrid polyester/cotton mix – with brims too large. I shall task (ghastly phrase) the MR next time she is in town.

    Let us hope there is NOT a frost tomorrow morning. It is getting boring.

    A demain.

        1. I got myself one but i’m not sure if it goes with my Paisley pattern sequin Cocktail jacket. I wouldn’t want to appear overdressed.

          2. I did once have the honour to wear the Queen Mother’s tartan to a black tie dinner

      4. Ooh, they have British pith helmets! I already have a French one, but I’m tempted … 🙂 I am a hatoholic, unfortunately.

    6. Absolutely clear sky here in Derbyshire so I’m expecting a frost tomorrow morning.

    1. Boris: Cameron say he’s got some Italian contacts;
      Dilyn: Garibaldi; squashed flies, no thanks.

      1. On and off 🙂 I had a fall yesterday (riding a different horse from usual). We had a disagreement and I lost.

        1. Neigh lad! Not much fun Conway! Did you sustain any damage? Hope things a re getting a bit easier for you.

          1. It was a fitting end to a bad week 🙁 Fortunately I’ve taken to wearing a body protector so, unlike the last time, I didn’t break a rib.

        2. Last time I fell off something the height of a horse, it took a week before what passes for a brain to stop rattling about in my head.
          Hope you landed relatively softly, Conners.

          1. The arena has a sand surface and I’ve been wearing my body armour since the last time I had an unscheduled dismount (when I broke a rib). That helped.

  88. A short story for the children. By me.

    A Cautionary Tale from from Grandfather’s Youth
    Not All Bad Things Are Sudden.
    Once upon a time in a country quite far away, the people of the country all lived together quite peacefully. One group of people were a little bit different.
    They were fine musicians, and tailors. They were shrewd bankers and moneylenders. They were very intelligent professors and teachers.
    One morning the leaders of the country got up very early.
    They had a nice breakfast and talked. They made a plan. They did not like the special group of people very much and that was what the plan was about.
    After breakfast they all rushed to their different offices and put the plan into action.
    By lunchtime they had arrested every single one of the special group and collected them in trucks to drive them to special camps for special people.
    Late in the afternoon all the people in the camps were killed. All the special people were killed, bankers, professors, tailors, shopkeepers, all of them. Their families, even the little children were killed.
    Now, of course, children, that is a horrible story and it did not happen like that. It did happen, but not all on the one day.
    It took several years. At first there were a few regulations about what the special group could and could not do. That was all right. Then there were laws that were more restricting. Then there were laws that prevented people in the special group from doing things, and also forced them to tell people that they were in the special group.
    After a little more time passed people in this special group had to wear a badge on their arm so that everyone else would know who the special people were as soon as they saw the badge.
    Some of the special group of people were forced to work in factories.
    Then came the day that they were all taken away to special camps where they were all killed.
    So, you see children, bad things don’t always happen suddenly, all at once. They can start slowly and just get worse. They may get worse so slowly we don’t notice at first and that is why we have to be watchful and stop bad things happening as soon as we see them.
    When the time does that you have to have a Covid-19 vaccination certificate on you at all times, and also stamped in your passport to allow you to travel, you will know that you were not watchful and you did not stop bad things from happening.

    1. “After breakfast…”

      Back then, victims of the Holodomor could only dream of having breakfast.

    2. When the Nazis came for the communists,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a communist.

      When they locked up the social democrats,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a social democrat.

      When they came for the trade unionists,
      I did not speak out;
      I was not a trade unionist.

      When they came for the Jews,
      I remained silent;
      I was not a Jew.

      When they came for me,
      there was no one left to speak out.

      Friedrich Gustav Emil Martin Niemöller

      1. When Maggie came for the unions,
        I remained silent.

        When she beat down the miners, poll-tax demonstrators,
        I remained silent.

        Etc, etc. Too late now. She handed over to Blair and he finished us off.

          1. Her fans were too busy counting the profits they made from her asset-stripping the country’s assets and selling them on to Johhny foreigner.

          2. Problem is, the Brits weren’t capable of managing the assets by themselves. So, to preserve at least something of them, gotta sell them off.
            Also, anything government touches, it buggers up.

          3. True. We used to have a motor industry.
            Until Honda, BMW, Nissan etc caught up then overtook our managements.

          4. … and the management were weak towards the unions, who wrecked it all. Poor design, shite quality screwed the UK car industry. Nissan, Honda and others showed what the British working man could produce when properly led – quality better even than the Japanese.

          5. “… and the management were weak towards the unions”

            Not Edwardes. He closed down Triumph production at Liverpool Moved it to Coventry.
            Sacked Red Robbo. Workforce backed him and Robinson remained sacked.
            Edwardes showed how hopeless British management were.

          6. One man doesn’t make a success story – anyhow, he wasn’t British. He was from S Africa.

          7. He wasn’t British management. Why he came closest to saving BL.
            Too little too late. His appointment was one of Maggie’s better moves.
            Ian MacGregor and his carrier bag not so much.

          8. One of the ironies of McGregor was that a plan he worked out in conjunction with an American rolling mill to save steel production in Ravenscraig was scuppered when it was leaked to the Scottish press, the Daily Record I believe, and splashed over the front page causing the American mill to pull out.

          10. Scottish Trade Unions have a lengthy tradition of self-destruction; mostly, they have been successful …

            Whole, large and traditional industries have been wiped off the map …

          11. Ship building being a prime example.
            After the QE2 fiasco it is notable that for it’s next vessel Cunard went elsewhere.

          12. By which time it was too late.
            British Leyland’s reputation had already been destroyed and British motorists in general were not prepared to take the risk of their offerings.

          13. Down the road, Ford were showing them how to make cars the public wanted to buy.
            BL management thought they knew better.

          14. Ford produced basic bread & butter motors that did exactly what it said on the tin, but the BL designs were generally not that bad, but were let down by piss poor build quality and having to source their sheet steel from British Steel.
            Sheet steel that, after being rolled to a high quality, was then stored for several years before being dispatched to the customer, by which time it had already began rusting.

            BL were also financially screwed by their inability to properly cost their production. Ford rather famously took an 1100 to bits and costed EVERY item and were amazed to find that BL were losing money on every car they produced.

          17. I well remember being stranded in my Mini because a deluge had soaked the distributor cap through the grille.

          19. Years ago, late seventies from memory, I visited an exhibition at the Royal College of Art in London which featured the works of the two Bugatti brothers.

            One was a famous sculptor in his time producing bronzes with those silly winged feet. The other, less famous in his time, designed the Bugatti motor vehicles.

            The aspect of the contrast which struck me then and now was that the motor engineer Bugatti also designed the tools which enabled him to make the parts for his vehicles. Those tools included lathes and other sophisticated equipment in his workshop.

            I remember taking a lift from Sheffield to London in about 1972 from Dr Tattersall, a great lecturer at the University of Sheffield who had been prominent in British Steel Research and the Cement and Concrete Association (think reinforced concrete). He had bought a Lancia Fulvia. I asked him about his choice of Lancia to which he replied along the lines of it having been ‘engineered’.

            If you want great products they must be well designed and well engineered. I rest my case.

          20. No mention of Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis CBE FRS RDI (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a Greek automotive designer, widely noted for the development of the ground-breaking Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second* most influential car of the 20th century in 1999.

            *First was the Model-T Ford …

          22. So true. I should add that my wife’s Mark 1 Ford Escort‘s bodywork rotted from the inside out. Eventually you poked a finger through the paint job before ordering a wing replacement.

            Alfa’s were renowned for rotting bodywork until they took advice from Saab. My Saab 900 Turbo managed 175,000 miles before the turbo went awol. No bodywork repairs were ever required.

            By contrast British Leyland vehicles were universally poor, every component of their engineering was crap, both in performance, material specifications and longevity.

            The Rootes Group had produced some decent vehicles. I had a Hillman Minx which seemed a luxury in the late sixties. My elder brother had a Wolseley 1.5 which was a great small car, twin carbs and Walnut dashboard. My mother’s best friend had a Rover 90 which was a luxurious vehicle which purred.

          23. Rover Sterling??? Better than the Japanese version.?
            The Americans didn’t think so.

          25. … and the management were weak towards the unions, who wrecked it all. Poor design, shite quality screwed the UK car industry. Nissan, Honda and others showed what the British working man could produce when properly led – quality better even than the Japanese.

          2. Happy Thursday Jules, Mailbiter still has a couple of other accounts but they have closed profiles & so its hard to know where else he is posting besides on here.

          4. I accepted that TR was the boss & had every right to remove Spam as a Mod & the falling out of TR & SF gave me the impetuous to create my own channel

          8. TR was the only relatively sane one of the three.
            Baggie’s multitude of channels must have died through lack of interest if he’s back on NTTL.

          12. I think he did for a very short time. But TR’s blog was always about serious politics.

          15. Spam never posted on TR’s blog.
            You were the only other mod.
            Until TR refused to ban Mailbiter and you stomped off in a hissy fit.
            Remember?

          16. Channels were not blogs. Channels were a separate sub-unit of the Disqus platform with a limit of 10 mods & all posters could post a page although it had to be approved by a mod & only a mod could trigger the invite function. Blogs have a complete separation between the article page ( NTTL uses WordPress , mine us Googles “Blogger” , others us Wix, Tumblr etc ) & only authorised posters can post a page on a blog and the comment section below the article page is the Disqus platform with a variety of different plans giving the blog owner different moderation tools & analytics according to which version of Disqus they have installed – basic limited mod tools free version, basic monthly paid plan , premium paid plan or corporate / commercial website plan.

    3. 331860+ up ticks,
      Evening HP,
      One GLARING discrepancy is that it did happen over four + decades, the people’s DID notice the glaring difference but their party came before our Country.

    2. That’s the third world vaccine, Trudeau is treating younger Canadians with AZ now, it the only one he can get.

      No deaths over here yet but 3 blood clot recipients required intensive care treatment.

  90. Right. I am now sucking thoughtfully upon one of my excellent filbert brushes, wondering what to paint upon the other side of my placard for Saturday’s march.

    The first side was easy.: “NO to vaccine passports”. I want to put something different on the other side but can’t decide what. I’d like to make an impassioned argument against digital I.D., but space is limited.

    I thought of “Cry, Freedom”, but worried about being perceived as selfish. Ditto “Marching for Freedom”. Any ideas?

    Also, to reiterate my earlier question for those who have joined the party at a later time, being cooler than the rest of us, any good ideas for free parking near a tube station at or near the end of the line in North London, as I’m driving down for the march on Saturday.

        2. Not 100% sure that licking one’s opponent signifies victory in the animal world 😉

      2. “The truth will set us free” – hehe! Actually I like them both on an individual level.

        1. That one is good as so many lies have been told every day. It may even awaken some to the fact that we have been told lies. ‘Truth’ and ‘freedom’ in the same sentence is excellent.

        2. “The truth will set us free” or a good lawyer as was the case in OJ Simpson’s first trial where a good lawyer got a guilty man free!

      1. Absolutely what I would wish to communicate! Sadly can’t get that in on the limited bit of cardboard I have.

          1. These actually have “Large” printed on the other side. Remnants of my late mother moving house.

            A few glasses in, wondering if I might be able to squeeze that quotation in! Heh.l

        2. Shame you’re not in Surrey. I have a few cardboard boxes, surplus to requirements, which – flattened – are 1.2 x 0.6 metres. Four by two in old money…

    4. If you are cautious, obviously the back end should read black lives matter – the police will leave you alone if you wave that.

  91. Philip Johnston’s suggestion (re. Scottish referendum) would require Boris Johnson to display courage. That’s why it’s unlikely to happen. The greater threat to the UK is, however, not the danger of fracture along nationalistic lines but social breakdown. Recent events in the USA and London demonstrate how easily the country could quickly become unmanageable.

    The Union will remain in peril until an English parliament is on the table

    There is only so long the PM can hold off the forces of separatism without constitutional reform

    PHILIP JOHNSTON

    We are on the cusp of the greatest constitutional crisis for 100 years. Victory for the SNP in next month’s Holyrood elections will confront Boris Johnson with a renewed demand for an independence referendum which he proposes to deny them. Next month also marks the centenary of the partition of Ireland and the creation of the United Kingdom as we know it today. The anniversary coincides with an upsurge of anger among supporters of the Union in Northern Ireland who believe they have been betrayed by the Brexit trade deal. As the summer advances and the marching season begins, these tensions can only worsen.

    What is to be done? Is constitutional reform the answer or are political solutions available? The immediate threats could be disarmed by two decisions. The first would be to accept that a SNP win on May 6 is a mandate for another referendum and let Nicola Sturgeon hold one.

    This is the best time possible for Unionists. Scotland’s voters are aware that being part of the UK has helped them through the Covid pandemic and accelerated the arrival of a vaccine. They know they get a good deal out of the Barnett formula, with £130 spent on public services north of the Border for every £100 spent in England. They don’t want to join the euro but would have to if they sought membership of the EU, even assuming their application is not vetoed by Spain. Recognising this weakness, Alex Salmond is now proposing signing up to EFTA instead.

    All of these arguments could be deployed in a campaign held soon. But denying a referendum will change the narrative to one of an English Tory leader blocking Scotland’s right to self-determination. Those urging Boris to tough it out need to consider that it will be politically impossible to hold the line but by then the advantage will have been lost. Boris should call Ms Sturgeon’s bluff by proposing an immediate plebiscite and not wait until 2023 as the SNP leader has suggested. It would be a gamble but one the separatists would lose.

    The second issue can be resolved by repudiating the Northern Ireland protocol and stop treating part of the UK as though it were still part of the EU. Mr Johnson does not want to do this because he signed an international treaty evidently trusting that the Unionists would not notice that the status of the province had changed.

    Again, politics might work here if an agreement can be reached with the EU to remove the absurd amounts of red tape that now foul up trade between Britain and Northern Ireland. But the province would still have to stick to single market rules, so the fundamental flaw at the heart of the protocol would not be dealt with.

    Since these are essentially matters of identity, instead of cobbled together political solutions that fall apart with a change of administration, might they need permanent fixing through new structures of governance? To that end, the Constitution Reform Group (CRG) is today proposing a new Act of Union to forestall what they fear will be the break-up of the UK. Made up of Tory, Labour and Lib Dem politicians, as well as former first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the CRG says in a letter sent to all party leaders that the existing constitutional arrangements for the United Kingdom are “unsustainable and deficient”.

    When it comes to discussing these great matters, however, the biggest piece of the jigsaw always seems to be ignored. It’s all well and good proposing a new relationship between the constituent parts of the kingdom, but it needs to accommodate the dominant member, England.

    Indeed, one reason why devolution was always a problematic concept was because it enfeebled the centrifugal forces of the Union that bind England to the rest. Its institutions tend to unify, whereas the differing traditions and history of its component parts pull in the opposite direction, sometimes breaking the bonds entirely as in 1921.

    Devolution weakened the glue that held the whole together but there is no going back now. The challenge is how to stop it cracking apart entirely and this needs to address the English Question. While the English feel their identity strongly, they rarely make much of it.

    Friday is St George’s Day and though there will be events up and down the land, more so than when I was growing up, the Thames won’t be dyed red and white nor will many people be sporting red roses in their lapels. Overt expressions of Englishness always appear to be frowned upon whereas flaunting one’s Irish or Scots heritage is almost obligatory.

    Arguably, devolution has transformed the UK into a multi-nation state, though only two of its constituents can truly claim the status of a nation in modern times. Scots nationalists, of course, would be delighted to see separatist impulses develop in England because they want to break up the Union.

    Without committing itself, the CRG says the option should be available, through a referendum, to set up an English parliament and replace the House of Lords with an elected national assembly. Would this help consolidate a new set of constitutional arrangements – or blow them apart because of England’s size and dominance? I don’t know the answer to that question; but it certainly needs to be discussed within the context of a proposed new settlement.

    Boris Johnson, like his predecessors, will not want to go anywhere near this if he can avoid it, hoping that defeat for the SNP and a wet summer in Northern Ireland will dampen the immediate problems he might otherwise face. Yet in their 2019 manifesto, the Tories promised to set up a constitutional commission to look at all the issues thrown up by devolution, Brexit, judicial activism and the rest.

    Events put paid to that and there seems to be no hurry to revisit the idea. Perhaps there will be something in the Queen’s Speech next month, but such reform is difficult and the arguments hard to make. Politicians tend to embrace the concept until they have a big enough majority not to bother. Tony Blair’s flirtation with PR in 1997 comes to mind.

    More likely, Mr Johnson will try to manoeuvre his way across this minefield without treading on a detonator. But he needs a map and he’s not yet got one.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/20/union-will-remain-peril-english-parliament-table/

    1. Joe Biden is deliberately undoing all the good things that Trump did.

      Couldn’t Boris undo all the bad things that Blair did?

      Problem solved!

      (Not holding my breath, of course)!

    1. Fanx Boss

      For you to post it. ie just not replying to comments, IT IS IMPORTANT

    2. I watched it earlier. It really is all about vaccine passports and population control.

      Edit:

      I truly want Johnson, Hancock, Vallance, Whitty, Van Tam and the retinue composing SAGE and its several tentacles to be brought before a Nuremberg Tribunal for this betrayal of our human rights and crimes against humanity.

      2. The problem is worldwide. Exactly the same is going on in France, Canada, USA and everywhere in the Western World you care to look with a couple of exceptions.
        So either there is a coordinated attack or a political opportunists have jumped on this to make some money – but the big pharma are all international(ist).
        We have seen the judiciary captured in the UK over Brexit and in the USA over the elections. Good luck finding a court to examine this.

    1. That’s the kind of lullaby – hundreds of tap-dancing feet – which would keep me up all night!

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