Thursday 23 February: Assisted dying and the primacy of the individual’s right to choose

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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546 thoughts on “Thursday 23 February: Assisted dying and the primacy of the individual’s right to choose”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    When You’re Over 70, Who Gives A Damn?

    This asshole Girl looked at my beer belly last night and sarcastically said, “Is that Corona or Bud?”
    I said, “There’s a tap underneath. Taste it and find out.”
    ***********
    I was talking to a girl in the bar last night. She said, “If you lost a few pounds, had a shave and got your hair cut, you’d look all right.”
    I said, “If I did that, I’d be talking to your friends over there instead of you.”
    ***********
    I was telling a girl in the pub about my ability to guess what day a woman was born just by feeling her boobs.
    “Really” she said, “Go on then – try.”
    After about thirty seconds of fondling her nipples she began to lose patience and said. “Come on, what day was I born”?
    I said, “Yesterday.”
    ***********
    I got caught taking a pee in the local swimming pool today.
    The lifeguard shouted at me so loud, I nearly fell in.
    *************
    I went to the pub last night and saw a fat chick dancing on a table.
    I said, “Nice legs.”
    The girl giggled and said with a smile, “Do you really think so.”
    I said “Definitely! Most tables would have f*****g collapsed by now.”

      1. Sometimes, Elsie. the story When You’re Over 70, Who Gives A Damn? reflects my current viewpoint.

  4. Assisted dying and the primacy of the individual’s right to choose

    Yes from a list

    Astro Zeneca
    Moderna
    Pfizer
    And many more

  5. Tony Blair and William Hague have joined forces – and it’s a disaster for Britain. 23 February 2023.

    For large parts of our establishment, the old partisan divisions have dimmed, replaced by technocratic statism.

    These are wretched, febrile times, not just for Britain but for the whole of the West. Wherever we turn, the foundations of our civilisation are under threat. The crisis is all-pervasive: a stalled economy and declining living standards, a broken welfare state, an authoritarian Great Awokening dedicated to re-engineering our society, a new values-based class conflict, and war between the great powers. The public craves enlightened political leadership and demands grand, sweeping change. The never-ending conflict between Left and Right is now in its fourth incarnation, with anti-capitalist, woke and environmental stormtroopers pitted against Brexiteers, cultural conservatives and free-marketeers.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Anthony Plowright.

    At last confirmation that the conspiracy theories were on the money.

    For Technocratic Statism read tyranny. I wish that I could say that I was pleased about being right about everything over the last twenty years but unfortunately it’s no comfort whatsoever! It didn’t even require any brainpower or flashes of insight. Most of it was as obvious as a wart on the end of your nose. Common sense, a modicum of knowledge of History and the rules of Geopolitics and Hey Presto! I suppose that Heath finally waking up and this article in the Telegraph is some sort of compensation but it is way too late. We are now living in that totalitarian Police State that I always feared. It’s true that it is incompetent, corrupt and led by stupid people but we are at their mercy. All those things that our forefathers gifted us have been destroyed. The British people themselves will soon be strangers in their own land. Thank God that I am old!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/22/davos-party-has-seized-power-uk-manifesto-dismal/

  8. Democracy??Not so much……….

    What hasn’t been made entirely clear is the extent of the break-up.

    One senior Fox figure has let slip, however, that Donald Trump is

    effectively ‘banned’ from appearing on Fox News at present. He hasn’t

    been seen on the main channel since he declared his candidacy for the

    2024 presidential in November and other Fox sources have confirmed that

    there’s a reason Donald is not appearing on their network.

    A source familiar with Fox insisted that ‘the network would never

    apply a ban on any presidential candidate’. No doubt that is true.

    But, as another source with deep contacts inside the company put it:

    ‘Fox News digital will write about Trump and give him little phone

    interviews. But he has not been on the actual channel since he

    announced. Rupert doesn’t want him to win.’

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/fox-newss-silent-ban-on-donald-trump/

  9. Good Moaning.

    “Christine Lagarde, the head of the European Central Bank, has described spending her career surrounded by men as “not new” but “always disappointing”.”

    Heck, some of them are actually honest.

    1. I have spent my career surrounded by men, and I actually like working with them. They are pretty simple and easy to manipulate.
      In my naive younger days, I once worked at a company where a third of the developers were women. I thought it would be wonderful.
      It wasn’t.
      They used to congregate in breaks in the kitchen and discuss yesterday’s developments on soap operas.
      Also, they ganged up and hated me.
      I like the ten percent of developers who are women under natural circumstances, before feminism and positive discrimination mess things up though – they tend to be logical, and you know where you are with them.

    2. Morning all.

      I believe she may have been honest in that context but wasn’t she in some French scandal years ago? Can’t quite recall what but …

      1. It was something to do with ahem, irregularities when she was head of the IMF: “In December 2016, a French court convicted her of negligence relating to her role in the Bernard Tapie arbitration, but did not impose a penalty. Lagarde resigned from the IMF following her nomination as president of the ECB.” (Wiki). She was also the French finance minister.
        She was originally a lawyer, perfectly qualified to run a large financial institution!!
        They compounded this stupidity by appointing her as head of the European Central Bank.

  10. Medley…..

    https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/1628279588567543809?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e02108df53ceed03bb66e03689a833b13837e340b683325f02d0eb2f0b0c35f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64b19528e74a3aa6adc6976c54ddfdfda3e941cea97b26d15244b8eeecd52738.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6d1edf272b260fcaaacc3007c5c9595f44ab2f04ecf37f6d3a39dcada13f769b.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/792899730875f14a4363ae501659740b0b44d68722e2247a8b5962728f8aea6b.jpg

    1. Yo Rik

      Those falling Hi-rises, would have been handy for us to house the Doveristas in , especially if they were inside them when they toppled

      1. Good morning, BoB. I have a different theory: in this word of false news, it is just a fast motion film of Chinese construction work run backwards to fool us all. Lol.

    3. I think whoever set up the demolition of the twin towers did a better job that some of those Chinese attempts, which failed to collapse in their footprint.

  11. Yo and Good Moaning All.

    If you have a weak constitution, do not read the hmg (lower case on purpose) response to the petition to

    “Hold a referendum on removing the London Assembly and London Mayor”

    The Government believes that with the right incentives and strong ccountability directly elected mayors can provide valuable local
    leadership. This leads to more joined-up public services and better outcomes for local communities. A directly elected mayor is the strongest, most transparent and most accountable form of local government leadership.

    Sad Dick Khant rules then…… forever.

    1. Nope quite the opposite in reality.
      They just become the tools of world government that bypasses Westminster

  12. Nato chief sees ‘signs’ China may provide support to Russia. 23 February 2023.

    Nato’s chief said Wednesday that the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.

    Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press in an interview that the alliance, while not a party to the war, will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

    It’s not a violation of International Law and even if it were NATO is already breaking it by supplying Ukraine which also makes it a party to the war. I don’t of course know whether China is going to support Russia’s efforts, though common sense and the iron rules of Geopolitics; which apply to all States at all times, regardless of their political orientation, say that they should. In simple terms it’s hang together or hang separately. The battle brewing here is between two totalitarian systems and I don’t like either of them and I’m pretty sure that they don’t like me or my ilk. Like WW2 and having to choose between the Third Reich and Soviet Russia a sensible person would have chosen England, a haven of Freedom, Sanity and Security in a world gone mad. This is not possible this time, since it no longer exists, so I will be sitting this one out.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/23/russia-ukraine-war-live-vladimir-putin-nuclear-forces-nato-chief-china-support

    1. Yo Minty

      a sensible person would have chosen England, a haven of Freedom, Sanity and Security in a world gone mad

      ergo, The Doveristas

  16. SIR – I spent 16 years as an engineering officer in the RAF and a further 25 in the UK defence industry, equipping both the RAF and foreign air forces.

    I can assure those calling for aircraft to be sent to Ukraine (Letters, February 22) that, without the vast logistic and engineering support required to maintain them, their useful life would be measured in days before they were grounded and unable to operate. It would also take months to train Ukrainian pilots to operate aircraft such as the Typhoon, even if they were already highly skilled.

    Apart from this, after decades of government cuts to our forces we don’t have enough jets to defend our own country, never mind Ukraine.

    Sqn Ldr Roger Vincent RAF (retd)
    Beaumaris, Anglesey

    And there you have it. I do hope that the next politician or armchair warrior who is shouting about the need for military aircraft to be sent to Ukraine immediately will at least read this letter first. It may save him or her looking like an ignorant prat.

    1. Sqn Ldr Vincent (retd) is commenting on the realities of sending highly sophisticated jet aircraft to Ukraine. Sadly, our current crop of politicos do not deal in realities whether it be this p(r)oxy war, the intricacies of the climate, energy provision…

      1. I thought of that minor detail when looking for a Youtube video to tell me how to fire up the induction hob in the Dower House.

    2. Parachuted in …. but, regrettably, what with money being in short supply, some corners had to be cut.

  18. SIR – In the 1940s, when I was seven and attending Cholsey Primary School, the boy who sat behind me, Michael Ridge, thought I was “teacher’s pet” and would dip the end of my long pigtails into the inkwell on his desk (Letters, February 21). However, he must have had something about him as next year we celebrate our diamond wedding anniversary.

    Rosemary Ridge
    Rowlands Castle, Hampshire

    Ha ha, nice one Mrs Ridge!

  19. Betrayed again.
    Today’s DM
    “An amnesty in all but name’: Fury
    over new Government plans to fast-track 12,000 immigration applications –
    including Channel migrants – with new questionnaire that is ‘likely to
    see 95% of claims granted’.
    Migrants will be granted refugee status on the basis of a 10-page questionnaire.
    More
    than 95 per cent of the 12,000 claims are expected to be granted, based
    on current rates, allowing them to settle permanently in Britain and
    sponsor relatives to join them here.”
    The final nail in the Conservative coffin

    2. 371490+ up ticks,

      Morning Ric,

      It was all voted for right up to 2019
      I do wonder did anyone read “the road to freedom” by whatshisname.

      1. I have; as did Margaret Thatcher and her team.
        I doubt any of the current bunch – anywhere in Westminster – have the necessary levels of concentration.

    3. The final nail in the Conservative coffin Wishful thinking. Most people seem to believe they are being nice to poor refugees, and the government is right. The reality is slowly dawning, viz. the tweets last night about schoolgirls having to dress differently to appease the scum, but that view is by no means universal – and so the Tories will be voted for in the sme was as before, Labour will likely win, and so what will change? Nowt, except it will cost more in jobs and money, that’s all.

    4. Well, Rik, you may well be correct with your final sentence. However, nothing would surprise me if a few more nails were to appear.

  20. Good morning all,

    Grey and drizzy here at McPhee Towers, 5℃ with a steady NNE breeze,

    The ‘Leader of the Free World’ does it again:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/23/joe-biden-falls-air-force-one-stairs-latest-stumble/

    He doesn’t compare very well to this fellow, does he?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKf0ZxQCLu0&t=560s

    The trouble is, Vlad, your old colleagues in the KGB did too good a job of subversion in our schools, universities, cultural institutions and political parties.

    Yuri Bezmenov warned us in the 1980s but we didn’t listen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yru14mMES1c

  21. Good morning all,

    Grey and drizzy here at McPhee Towers, 5℃ with a steady NNE breeze,

    The ‘Leader of the Free World’ does it again:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/02/23/joe-biden-falls-air-force-one-stairs-latest-stumble/

    He doesn’t compare very well to this fellow, does he?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKf0ZxQCLu0&t=560s

    The trouble is, Vlad, your old colleagues in the KGB did too good a job of subversion in our schools, universities, cultural institutions and political parties.

    Yuri Bezmenov warned us in the 1980s but we didn’t listen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yru14mMES1c

  22. Ukraine can bring down Putin’s crumbling regime. 23 February 2023.

    A total Russian victory, thankfully, now looks to be practically impossible. The vicious military assault on Kyiv in February and March last year failed because the Russian armed forces made virtually every mistake possible in the lexicon of modern warfare – a truly woeful display.

    We have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down. Adolf Hitler. 1941.

    This was after the Winter War debacle in Finland where the Red Army performed woefully against a better trained and more nimble enemy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/23/ukraine-can-bring-putins-crumbling-regime/

    1. More nonsense from the USA/NATO aggressors. This war was won by Russia on the first day they commenced operations. Now the West simply and consistently lies about what is really going on. Ukraine is shattered, it will take decades for it to recover, as Zelenskyy and his henchmen live out their days in exile and luxury on money they have stolen from the West. With the approval of the American hawks and their yes-men in Europe.

      1. Precisely. Everything we are told about plucky little Ukraine is a bare-faced lie. The Ukrainian army are defeated and their losses enormous.

        All the rest is western propaganda to disguise Biden and other American politician money laundering and the illegal placing of ‘gain of function’ military bio-laboratories in Ukraine territory.

  23. Tell us something new! From today’s DT. One day perhaps the message will finally get home.

    Nobody is buying heat pumps because they’re an awful product
    Is anyone surprised that the heat pump rollout is failing? They cost a ton and aren’t particularly efficient

    MATTHEW LYNN
    22 February 2023 • 12:39pm

    We could sign up some snazzy influencers, perhaps, to promote their warm, green homes on Instagram and TikTok.

    Or try some clever product placement, with shots of 007 twiddling with the knobs on his boiler as he sips a martini in the next James Bond movie. Or perhaps just try some TV adverts for the few people left who ever watch those anymore.

    That principle applies to heat pumps, too. There are two reasons why people are not buying them. First, they are very expensive, running to £12,000 to £17,000, or three times more than the traditional gas boiler.

    And second, they don’t heat your home very effectively, typically requiring extensive insulation, and possibly a scarf or two as well in February, to hit the level of warmth that most of us are used to. Against that, even the finest marketing wizards and advertising agencies in the world would struggle.

    As David Ogilvy, widely regarded as the greatest marketer of all time, and the founder of modern branding, once put it: “Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster”. Heat pumps are not selling because they are a bad product – and “mixed messaging” is just an excuse to avoid that inconvenient truth.

    * * *

    Jerry Soton
    17 HRS AGO
    Nobody is buying heat pumps because they’re an awful product. Nobody is buying electric vehicles because they’re an awful product. Our govenment is an awful product.

    Jane Baker
    14 HRS AGO
    We have a house heated by a ground source heat pump. It works but is expensive to run and not at all reactive as it can take days to warm up. Even if heat pumps worked I am at a loss to understand where the government is expecting all the electricity to run them to come from.

    Andy Stone
    11 HRS AGO
    No one is buying heat pumps because they convert input energy (electricity) to output energy at a ratio of roughly 3:1 for ASHP and 4:1 for GSHP. Yet the input energy is still 4X as expensive as gas.
    Make electricity no more than 2X the cost of gas and a lot of people would buy them.
    The insulation issue is a red herring. It’s simply a mathematical calculation that currently is a still a long way from working.
    Journalists like MP’s, simply don’t “do” numbers.
    I have a GSHP so had to learn the numbers the hard way. In 5 years time I will be allowed to install a gas boiler and will do so unless the critical ratios are achieved. One way or the other!

    1. Our sons’ business had freezer units; they were so noisy you could not speak or hear while anywhere near them. And this was on an industrial park, specially designated for noisy industry.
      Imagine one of those – ‘working’ in reverse – outside every house in Acacia Avenue and Oil Drum Lane.

      1. When our sewerage (!) collapsed, we rented a cottage whilst it was repaired. The cottage had an air-source heat pump that was both effective and extremely quiet. So, it is possible.

        1. Feels like home, but there’s still a helluva lot of sorting out to do.
          Cupboard space (lack of) is the most pressing problem.

    2. Crucial question that nobody is asking: Where does the electricity come from, and how does the 30+% increase in demand actually get to the house?

    3. If we insulated our buildings and scavenged heat when ventilating them, and also acclimatised ourselves to adapting to a bigger range of ambient temperature (15ºC use to be the comfort norm before our Americanized tastes pushed this over 20º), then what has this to do with heat pumps?

      It applies just as well to conventional heat sources. Gas boilers would need to be turned on a lot less, and may actually turn out to be more CO2 emission-friendly than heat pumps.

      Government thinking is all too often profoundly counterproductive, and really founded on spin and public gullibility.

  24. 371490+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 23 February: Assisted dying and the primacy of the individual’s right to choose

    Thursday 23 February: Assisted living and the primacy of the individual’s right to choose is much more acceptable to the sound of mind.

    I would like to ask when are the majority voters / peoples going to wake up to the fact that these political overseers are already practising that en masse, ( ass, dying) paying out compensation is the proof

    The master race is once more entering the scene, the forth Reich is being assembled the hierarchy uniting as in a coalition,the bog man & vague hague showing out as some sort of item will most definitely be front runners in the reset world.

    Lest we forget, every lab/lib/con vote is for the rapid assembly of RESET and the triggering of the political overseers kapos residing ar this moment in 5* hotels at your expense.

    2. People who regularly use laxatives are up to 50% more likely to develop DEMENTIA, study suggests
      Over-the-counter drugs used to soften stool can lead to dementia, study finds
      Researchers believe the drugs are causing toxins to form in a person’s gut
      READ MORE: Doctors blame GRAVITY for irritable bowel syndrome symptoms

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11781003/People-regularly-use-laxatives-50-likely-develop-DEMENTIA-study-suggests.html

      What next?

      1. That is not fair.

        Sunhat & Co
        Snivel Serpents
        Net Zero
        WEF
        The Paddington of Ukraine
        Gimmy Grants

        are all Laxatives to me

  27. SIR – The Retained EU Law Bill, which returns to Parliament today for its Committee Stage, was initially described by the Government as a “Brexit Freedoms” Bill. In seeking to remove or reform 4,000 UK laws with some link to our EU membership by the end of the year, it purports to offer a clean break.

    We fear, however, that the Bill would diminish vital protection for the environment and public health, as well as handing virtually unlimited powers to ministers without proper public scrutiny by Parliament.

    The Bill sets an arbitrary deadline of December 2023 and proposes to change regulation through secondary legislation, effectively enabling ministers to make crucial decisions behind closed doors. This risks losing current protections for things like local wildlife, river health, air quality, food safety and standards, and chemicals in toys.

    This legislation is deeply flawed. We urge the Government to guarantee in law that the existing level of protection will not be weakened, and that the important role of Parliament to scrutinise changes to this significant body of law effectively will not be removed at a stroke.

    Lord Krebs (Crossbench)
    Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (Lib Dem)
    Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (Green)
    Baroness Boycott (Crossbench)
    Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Con)
    Baroness Willis of Summertown (Crossbench)
    Baroness Young of Old Scone (Labour)

  29. From the Age of Aquarius to the tyrants of today. 23 February 2023.

    IN 1970, at least as far as the calendar was concerned, the 60s came to an end. But as with all comets, brief as they may be, the tail, as well as the aptly-named coma, has proved extensive.

    The 60s was a decade which looked forward breathlessly to a complete end to censorship. All restrictions were to be cast off in a paradise of artistic freedom. There were numerous failed prosecutions throughout the decade and campaigners such as Mary Whitehouse, attempting to hold back the tide of licentiousness, were dismissed as eccentric dinosaurs whose time was over. They were routinely and unquestioningly ridiculed by the media. But in more recent decades there has been a complete withdrawal of this assumption of the existence of a basic right to express any view, idea or opinion, without fear of censorship.

    Given this particularly startling volte-face, it might have seemed reasonable to assume that the complete polarity shift which has taken place from the anarchic, ‘anything goes’ 1960s to today’s iron-cast rule, weaponised with the demonisation and censorship of anything which can be deemed even potentially ‘offensive’, is the result of some sort of massive change in the identities of those who govern us.

    But here’s the curious thing: it is not. This complete reversal, denying as never before the once-presumed right to freedom of expression, has come about not as the result of a counter-revolution. There has been no revisionist movement struggling against the odds to kick out the progressives who had laboured so long and hard to make the 60s an irreversible phenomenon. In fact, quite the opposite. Many of the people who now rule over the intellectual prison camp which the West has become represent the same people and organisations who, half a century ago, were themselves leading the charge ‘against authority’ and spouting their anarchic battle cries against the very concept of authority, whether that be in theory or in practice.

    Because of this, it’s pretty clear to me in retrospect that the ‘anarchy’ of the 60s was not the innocent, inevitable and spontaneous by-product of the dawning of the age of Aquarius, as it was endlessly sung about, but actually a tool for the demolition of the old country to clear the way for a much more effective replacement system of authority. The capture and reshaping of the entire education system paved the way for the dismantling of the institutions themselves, under the false banner of ‘progressiveness’, replaced by vacuous replicant organisations masquerading as their legitimate successors. This has resulted in the inevitable erosion of the public’s respect and trust for everything which had once made this country a comfortable and benign place in which to live.

    This process of disillusionment and bewilderment is completed with the devaluation of any pride which people had felt in their country and particularly in its glorious history, replaced by an orchestrated campaign of debilitation using guilt and shame. Pride in our country is dismissed as unhealthy and evil, with the invention of ridiculous terms such as ‘othering’. At least, dismissed in every field except the realm of organised international sport. This alone can be officially encouraged, for the purpose of safely siphoning-off any residual nationalistic feelings into an area that is assessed by the Committee for Public Safety as harmless and meaningless.

    Additionally, the consistent promotion and normalisation, via Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley, of recreational drug-taking, similarly misrepresented as symbolising growing personal freedom, has in reality created and fostered a dependency culture which inevitably imprisons its adherents.

    Today it’s the vacuum created by the emasculation of all the country’s long-established institutions under the false flag of ‘freedom from authoritarianism’, which has actually resulted in the removal of everything which might have helped us in our struggle to retain what remains of our personal freedom. How remarkable it is that the very same people who stormed the barriers in the 60s in the cause of freedom are the ones who support the infinitely more narrowly defined and unforgivingly policed barriers being erected in the 21st century.

    I couldn’t have put it better myself so I’ve left it to Mr Meredith!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/from-the-age-of-aquarius-to-the-tyrants-of-today/

    1. My generation do not support the destruction of personal freedom. It is subsequent generations who happily conform to the soul sucking zeitgeist.

      1. I am not so sure.

        I was 20 years old during an historic lunchtime debate at University College London. The motion was deny a spokesman from the National Front a platform because their views were considered inappropriate and should not be given the dignity of being expressed in a university forum.

        I opposed the motion, but was defeated by my peers. I argued that whatever one felt about the NF’s programme for Government (repatriation of those perceived as aliens mostly), it was better that it be expressed in public where it can be challenged robustly, rather than festering underground and unseen where it could explode malignly as a knee-jerk response to events.

        In the same year, the Students Union voted to depoliticise itself under the slogan “For Students, not Politics”, and limiting SU debate in future purely to matters affecting students’ interests and withdrawing from any broader discussions, including the world students must enter when leaving university.

        The 1970s also brought us Feminism in its man-hating form, honed by the self-serving and hateful yuppies and punks that superceded the old romantics of the early 1970s.

    1. Forgot to add this:-

      Sir Sidney Ruff Diamond
      14 hours ago edited
      Just thought I’d update everyone on the score…..

      Labrador pup no 6 has just taken his first breath. He is going to be called Jerry Lee.

      Today is a good day.

    2. Crikey, must be only days – hours old not to have opened her eyes yet? Or did someone nobble from one dozing?

      1. I adore Colman’s English mustard, Tom, but I prefer to have mine on: cold ham sandwiches, roast beef, roast pork, roast chicken, Yorkshire puddings and dumplings.

        In fact I’ve just bought three jars of it (and three jars of Colman’s mint sauce) from the ‘British Corner Shop’ (online). It was delivered yesterday from their depot in Amsterdam so I don’t have to pay import charges.

        1. How about a cheese & ham sandwich with a thick layer of English mustard on one slice of bread and my own homemade chutney on the other?

          1. I like a ham and cheese sandwich; soaked in a mixture of beaten egg, 1dsp of milk, 1 dsp of Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper; then fried on both sides until crispy and the cheese has melted, Served with fresh tomato wedges (and occasionally with baked beans).

            Try as I may, I cannot get myself to like chutneys. And I would never pair cheese with mustard.

    2. Yo Mr Grizz, aged 22.002739726

      Can you remember Bread and Dripping made with Fat/Juices from the Sunday Roast

      1. Yo, Mr Effort.

        Remember it? I still eat it. I always save the fat and juices from roast pork and spread it on bread with a little salt. It is heavenly.

      1. There was a time during a difficult period when I nearly went out altogether. A chum took me for a walk around the homeless in Newcastle (where we were at the time). It was shocking to think that I had so very much and some so little.

        My Dad was very big on trying to provide for the homeless as well. He became infuriated by the greed, malice and deceit of council officials wanting to trough off public money

        1. Your 2nd paragraph encapsulates the unspoken reason behind the sell off of Council Houses. The amount of corruption in local housing authorities.

    2. He has made it that complicated by his refusal to do what must be done. The solutions, in reality are simple. Politically difficult but they are both vote winners and will do the economy wonders. It simply means making necessary and long awaited cuts to welfare, spending and over manning.

  36. 371490+ up ticks,

    I believe we can expect an amnesty every year or two until we
    are under the control of the imams / mullahs.,
    well done the United Kingdom electorate , as we most certainly will be.

    Dt,

    Asylum ‘amnesty’ to clear backlog of 90,000 claims
    More than 12,000 migrants from five countries with highest asylum success rates will have applications processed without interviews

      1. She is a courtier.
        “Put not thy trust in Princes…”
        But at least a Princess came through for her.

      2. Because SH is loyal to the institution and Annie repaid that loyalty. In other words, Anne behaved as Royalty are supposed to do.
        I do so hope that Li’l Sis pinned back her brother’s substantial lugholes with a few home truths.

        2. I suggest you read the Constitution. You mistake personalities for the institution. And what you very evidently don’t understand, is that we live in a hereditary constitutional monarchy and without the king our whole system collapses and the left has won in its unceasing effort to destroy Britain and, in particular, the English. King Charles is only disliked by 12% of the population, so that puts you in a very low minority. Perhaps, as I said a few days ago, you should look at your confirmation bias and determination to drag him down. It is unfair and it is unseemly. Excuse me for being blunt, but I see modern attacks on the monarchy as an existential threat, not only to the institution, but a direct attack on a corner stone of our institutions and thus our validity as a people.

          1. Might I respectfully suggest that you lighten up a bit?

            Many of the comments posted here are flippant and aim to amuse and some also contain a grain of truth!

          2. Well, you will not excuse me, I suppose, but I don’t see your attacks on the king as flippant. They seem to me to be consistently and unfairly hostile.

          4. Of course he has the right. But I also have the right to reply and frankly I see it as corrosive. A form of sedition.

          6. I fear that in the dark, it will only corrode more, because there are genuine reasons that go beyond merely not liking Charles.
            A pox and a thousand curses on Blair for destabilising our country.

          7. Good morning, again, Jonathan

            You certainly make a fair point and I admit that I am prejudiced against the man. I thought he was an odious child, an odious adolescent, an odious young adult, an odious husband, a buffoon and an odious old adult. Apart from that I try to have an open mind about him!

          8. Your arguments are valid, and I am a monarchist – but reasons for supporting the monarchy don’t encompass the situation where the monarch is himself a vassal of a bigger group of foreigners with an anti-human agenda.

            Our system of monarchy subservient to aristocracy ensured that the monarch had to act in Britain’s best interests, because the aristocracy owned 80% of it, so they weren’t about to sabotage their own country.

            These ties that kept us stable, and gave us a good system of government, have now been cut.

            What is essentially the difference between a monarch and his political lackeys steering us towards totalitarianism, all of them bowing the knee to more powerful despots – and a country without a monarch being steered in that direction by politicians?

      4. The monarchy is the only government department that makes money. While it does, more power to it.

        When it stops, I’ll become a staunch republican – only some will find my presidency brutal and harsh.

    2. Well done the Princess Royal. I would like to know what she really thinks of her contemptible older brother and her weak nephews?

      I see that the DM readers are critical of the King and his heir:

      BTL

      Everybody knows that the Ngozi Fulanus affair was a deliberate set up. That the King and Prince William fell for it and effectively sacked Lady Susan Hussey shows how lacking in judgement they are and raises the question of whether they are fit to be kings.

  39. Good morning .

    Overcast , 7c and haven’t had an proper rain for a long while . Fields behind me have been ploughed, sheep and lambs moved on , and I am sure the farmers want a da or so of wet weather .

    “Some 12,000 asylum seekers to the UK are to be considered for refugee status without face-to-face interviews.

    A 10-page Home Office questionnaire will decide the cases of people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria and Yemen who applied before last July.

    The move aims to reduce the asylum backlog which Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to end this year.

    The Home Office says this is not an asylum amnesty – but it will streamline the system for five nationalities.

    Applicants from these countries already have 95% of their asylum claims accepted, says the Home Office.

    The usual security and criminal checks will still be conducted and biometrics taken, but, for the first time, there will be no face-to-face interviews, say officials.

    Instead, eligible asylum seekers must fill out a form and answer up to 40 questions.

    The questionnaire must be completed in English and returned within 20 working days, or the Home Office may consider the asylum application has been withdrawn.

    However, officials say there will be a follow-up notification if no reply is received, and every application will be considered on its own merits”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-64736123

    1. “However, officials say there will be a follow-up notification if no reply is received, and every application will be considered on its own merits”

      If you can find them.

    3. Perhaps we should just declare those countries British protectorates and give the people British law, order and values so that they are able to live peacefully in their own homes. Oh, hang on, they didn’t like that first time round.

    4. A complete betrayal of the British.

      Maybe he is a different sort of Indian but Sunak is having his Little Big Horn moment, imitating Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse and completely annihilating the indigenous British.

      The indigenous Americans won this one but Sunak is hoping he will wipe out the indigenous British!

          1. 371490+up ticks.

            Morning R,

            Learning by rote is best only a fool would deny that, where do you stand?

            The farage chap blew his tory (ino) cover
            by his own tongue.

            As for the electorate majority we would, after three plus decades supporting / voting lab/lib/con never have got to where we are today “in deep shite” without their input.

          2. As you know we agree on many matters. Farage is arrogant and vain but he is no worse than Sunak and Starmer and I have to admit that he is an excellent TV journalist.

            I haven’t voted since leaving Britain and settling in France in 1989. I am not at all sure that I would vote in an UK election other than spoiling my ballot and commenting: None Of The Above.

          3. 371490+ up ticks,

            R,
            A major tool in a conmans kit is putting across believable patter farage has it.
            farage con demed farage.

            NOTA is a negative marking time vote
            Mass build in membership on a fringe party, one with NO farage ties,consider this Rome was not built in a day for the simple reason the voters favoured NOTA.

        2. 48 % voted to remain chained. About the same fervently obeyed covid restrictions – including dobbing in their neighbours.

          Labour get about that number of votes usually.

          The average IQ is about 100. Thus there are people below that average. Say about 48%, inn a population of 80 million.

          Therefore, thick people vote Labour, thick people want to remain chained and thick people like giving up their freedoms to an authoritarian government.

          If we could get rid of the thick people there would be far fewer problems and mankind would b far further ahead than we are.

    5. Yo T_B

      The questionnaire must be completed in English and returned within 20 working days,

      and the handwriting checked against that of Mr Rashid & Co

    6. One of my favorite Rhodos, Macabeanum with primrose yellow flowers, is looking very sorry for itself and I had to put the water on for a time yesterday. We do need rain, we’re just getting dribs and drabs. Yesterday I watched as rain drifted up the estuary but it’s not coming over our way…

      1. Can Rhodos not be damaged badly by mains tap water? Certainly, that has been my experience.

          1. Stephen. You can still buy peat, because I grow Proteas it is an essential ingredient for my potting mixes. I get it from here on Ebay.
            https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/384966105417?hash=item59a1c49949:g:fkMAAOSwTvditW-y&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAkC9H5qXWJkfdgle0151gCFBdyDsrS3%2F%2B%2F5dnuT8vUBBruoMk3puxbwWf2u2tzntNnB%2BEhedHd9MaFQ2dLSudawXcSpcTUe3My7uk25YAtKLMMqtXFPAD8GLrf4Jcdf5qGFB8QVSeeL3PR3BFpOGUagQAMzbklnAJinS%2FAqtroxklZgSgV%2F2VLu1aqk8K0Ou%2FmQ%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6z__9zPYQ

        2. Your tap water must be very limy, Ours comes down the Dee from the Brenig reservoir and is quite acid.

      2. Fingers crossed it survives. Yesterday I finally got round to installing a 210ltr water butt to collect rainwater off the new shed roof. The rainwater will be reserved for the dozen azaleas recently planted in the front garden.

    8. “The usual security and criminal checks will still be conducted and biometrics taken“- why bother? We know that a number of foreign criminals have been identified but the vast majority are still here!

    9. Why is there an asylum backlog? There hare 150,000 civil servants in the home office. Get them all on the job and it’ll be done in a day. The answer is simple in either case – immediate deportation. No need for a questionnaire (which will be filed, read, processed same as the interview). It is all spinning out the farce to just dump a million violent rapists on us.

    1. In a genuine free market, the prices would simply rise. If they are stopping growing, I guess it’s because the growers are locked into abusive contracts with supermarkets.

    2. There seems to be something very sinister indeed going on right now and it appears to get worse every day.
      Most of our tomatoes are grown in warmer climates of course. But what’s really causing this problem.
      Is this something else our useless government has managed to eff up ?

      2. There was a cold snap a few weeks ago that affected the Continent, I think. We often get price hikes in Jan/Feb.
        British growers stopping production is far more worrying if that’s true.

  41. A question for anyone here with legal knowledge. How does an individual who is not a British citizen get legal aid? Just askin’ for some hard pressed taxpayers.

    2. Aren’t there some issues for which everyone automatically gets legal aid?
      I got it once, when my ex violated the Hague convention (abducted our children in the UK). At the time, I wasn’t resident in the UK, and was earning €€€€€. They weren’t interested in my circumstances. I assume it’s the same principle.

        1. Not sure. They didn’t ask me to prove that. I thought it had to do with the case being around an international treaty. Perhaps Bill T would know more, but he is in the Big SmokeStab today.

    3. You have to be foreign, have arrived here illegally, be receiving endless welfare, have never worked, have no savings, assets or social utility whatsoever. You then need an ambulance chasing foreign lawyer and a Left wing cause, such as greeniac, communism or invasion.

      Otherwise forget it.

    4. As Kifraru says. Phone Citizens Advice Bureau. They are excellent to give you pointers about where to go for help on almost any legal topic.

  44. 371490+ up ticks,

    Post
    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021
    ·
    52m
    Now even one of the former great editorsof the Scum Press is sufficietly alarmed at the mass invasion of our shores to think something should be done about it. The consequences have reached his comfy home territory.

    It made me smile that they discuss ‘what Nigel would do about it’? Farage will only ever stay within the bounderies of what is allowed under controlled opposition.

    https://gettr.com/post/p29fjfndf56

    1. It is now patently obvious that government couldn’t organise a p1ss up in a brewery and Ian the last (dis)organisation I would trust.

      1. Quite the opposite – they’re steadily, intently destroying the ability of this country to leave the EU. The entire state machine is devoted to doing as much damage as possible to cripple the UK with the sole intent of forcing us back in to the hated EU.

    2. I’m disappointed that Hague would associate himself with the monumental hypocrite sitting on the right.

    4. Two remoaners, desperately fighting to overturn a democratic vote.

      Why must we suffer these creatures?

  46. Good Morning all! Another drizzly dull morning with the lights on in West Sussex.
    Re todays letter. We do not voluntarily come into this world but we should have the right to go out of it when we decide. Assisted dying should be a right not something that we have to leave the country for, if we can afford it.That people can, in this day and age die without pain or discomfort, I know, as I have no doubt, that many others here can testify, is a lie.

    1. Totally agree with you. What was the stuff being doled out willy nilly in care homes during the Covid years, marzipan or something?

      1. Midazolam. It is used before surgical procedures to make you drowsy. It was Misused in care homes. Matt Hancock is worse than Harold Shipman.

    1. The Warqueen will tell you that ‘the hot ones’ are not reliable and won’t be around tomorrow.

      1. In today’s society, one just hopes that one’s daughters will find this out and that one’s sons will negotiate the women who know they can rely on the Daddy Welfare State, both without accruing babies along the way.

      1. Gomorrah, twinned with Sodom, in ancient texts I read it,
        Symbolic of past decadence yet Sodom gets the credit,
        So come on all ye Gomarrites, restore your reputation,
        Gomarrise whene’er you can, in every single nation,
        Gomarrise by day and night, hastily, don’t tarry,
        Re-assert your Goma-rights, insist on full Gomarry.

        2. 🤣 Brilliant.

          What utterly perplexed me when I was nobbut a sprog (and still perplexes me to this day) is the inexplicable anomaly of swear words.

          It was strictly forbidden to use the word ‘fuck’, which is a slang word for a perfectly normal and acceptable act. However, at the same time, I was permitted (even encouraged) to use the comical word ‘bugger’, which is a word describing sodomy. Why?

    1. I find it so difficult to understand how that thing managed to get into the position he is in. What the hell is happening in the world ?

        1. There was a Cabal (Henry Kissinger, Herman Kahn, etc.) David Rockefeller was probably the least intellectually able of the bunch…but he knew a lot of people.

      2. The rich and powerful are going to control everyting if we let them.We must not vote for any of the main parties.

  51. Morning all 😉 😊
    I was awake at Tom’s first post but dozed off again.
    Still waiting for the antibiotics to kick in and stop this horrendous coughing. Oh well, give time eh.

    1. How kind of Grizzly to post a picture of his Mum and his siblings from his childhood photo collection. Lol.

  53. 371490+ up ticks,

    It is a very sad thing to say and in no way inciting trouble that the killing and maiming CANNOT continue to come from one side
    without repercussions, tis only human nature for one to protect family / Country.
    May one ask what is the body count up until now in killings / rape & abuse atrocities since the day tripping invasion was orchestrated.

    And via a amnesty do we need a standing army of raping / murdering / abusers added to every day 24/7 ?

      1. 371490+ up ticks,

        Afternoon RE,
        It was and has been for decades a political criminal coalition supported knowingly by an electoral majority favouring party before Country, not
        once / twice, but time after time after time.

  54. Another testimony from the US of how farmers are being squeezed.
    I am involved in a food group of families that buy directly from farmers. These movements are important – our orders may be small compared to the big supermarkets and fast food chains, but we pay supermarket shelf prices!
    Support farmers before Mr Global gobbles up all the food production.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be34c222705327ea26b07451411ad09198127b31d58156659db6934ed0a78feb.jpg

  55. EU Laws (and ours)

    The problem with ‘laws’ is that the PTB make them too exact, then have to invoke more to cover the Mistake.

    Example, This Law is passed”

    Before riding your bike, you must make sure your shoe laces are correctly tied.

    Problem One

    Do you have Laces?
    What Knot/Bow should be used

    Problem Two

    What constitues a “shoe’
    Does it cover boots, Flip flops

    Problem Three.

    What footwear fastener is used
    Zip
    Velcro
    Buckle
    Slip on
    etc

    Problem Four
    Does the law apply if you ride someone else’s bike

    Problem Five

    Tri-cycles or Mono-cycles

    What if you are barefooted

    So, what you wanted was to make sure something simple was covered by Law, in the end you have a nightmare

    1. I bet if you trawl through all current legislature you will discover countless laws that were once apt and apposite for the day they were enacted, but have little relevance to reality since.

      The Vagrancy Act of 1824 is still, in the main, effective. It was brought in to counter the plague of vagrancy that swept the country as an after effect of the Napoleonic Wars. On first conviction under this Act people were branded as being “An idle and disorderly person”. On second conviction for a vagrancy offence you were known as “A rogue and vagabond”. On third conviction you were imprisoned as an “Incorrigible rogue”.

      Most current offences against the person, e.g. assaults occasioning bodily harm to various degrees, still come under the Offences Against the Person Act, 1861.

      1. It would be very easy, even for the likes of me, to challenge a prosecution as

        An idle and disorderly person

        A rogue and vagabond

        Incorrigible rogue”.

        Purely by the definition of the word “Rogue”

        2. I would doubt that anyone has been prosecuted, let alone convicted, of any of those for well over a century.

      2. It would be very easy, even for the likes of me, to challenge a prosecution as

        An idle and disorderly person

        A rogue and vagabond

        Incorrigible rogue”.

        Purely by the definition of the word “Rogue”

    2. That’s the English & Scottish system.
      Norwegian law focuses on the intention – ie, that footwear, if worn, is properly secured.

    3. Laws are made by lawyers for the benefit of lawyers, they word the laws so that only other lawyers can understand them, they leave loopholes for other lawyers to exploit then exploit legal aid to do so, fleecing those who do not qualify. Their only goal is gaining brownie points to the detriment of justice.
      Excluding our Bill of course

    1. I must confess to a certain perverse pleasure in watching this from the EU loving, virtue signalling Irish!

      1. Didn’t they (the people) once voted to not join the EU or Single currency but were then made to vote a second time for the ‘correct result’?

    2. I must confess to a certain perverse pleasure in watching this from the EU loving, virtue signalling Irish!

  59. A man turd suspected of killing a woman on Wednesday in Florida returned to the scene of the crime hours later and gunned down a television reporter and a nine-year-old girl, authorities said.
    The attacks occurred in Pine Hills, a suburb west of Orlando in central Florida. A 20-year-old woman was slain there at around 11am, the sheriff’s department said Wednesday.
    A team from Spectrum News 13 arrived hours later to cover the murder, Mr Mina said at an evening news conference.

    Shortly after 4pm, Mr Moses arrived and opened fire on a Spectrum camera operator and a reporter as they stood near their vehicle, killing the reporter and wounding the camera operator, the sheriff added.

    The gunman then entered a nearby home and shot a woman and her nine-year-old daughter.

    The victims were all taken to the hospital, but the girl and the Spectrum News 13 reporter died,
    (Sheriff) Mr Mina said the suspect was armed with a pistol when taken into custody and has a lengthy criminal record that included arrests on charges of firearms offences, aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and grand theft.

    I hope they have the death penalty still.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/02/23/TELEMMGLPICT000326451597_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-IWLY18X4-CzgyIcjLEAj0k9u7HhRJvuo-ZLenGRumA.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Keith Melvin Moses, 19

  60. A by-the-way

    On 1 April 2022 the total size of the full-time UK Armed Forces (trained and untrained) was just under 158,000
    Most personnel were within the Army (56%), with the remainder being equally split between the Royal Navy/Royal Marines (RN/RM) and the Royal Air Force (RAF)

    The Salvation Army (TSA) is a Protestant church and an international charitable organization headquartered in London, England.
    The Salvation Army has 1,650,000 members

    So, they outnumber us by 10 to 1

    Now, in the last 10 years, how many immigrants have we let into (what was) our country

    504,000nNet migration for the UK in the year ending June 2022
    This was estimated to be at 504,000, an increase of 331,000 compared with the YE June 2021

    1. There was a time a few years ago when 9% of the Army were unfit for active service, I don’t suppose the percentage has gone down.

  62. Me and my wife have been married 35 years and I never let her look in
    the safe. But last week when I was up the market she looked in the safe,
    when I got back she said “I’ve looked in the safe!”

    “I told you not to look in there.”

    She said “There’s £40,000 in cash and 3 eggs. What’s the eggs doing in
    there?”

    “I’ll be honest with you, for every time I bonk someone else’s wife I
    put an egg in the safe.”

    “Well that’s not that bad after 35 years is it…?” she replied.

    “No, but when I get a dozen I’ll sell ’em and that’s where all the money
    comes from.”

  63. R.I.P John Motson.

    For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are in the all-yellow strip.

    The unexpected is always likely to happen.

    In a sense it’s a one-man show… except there are two men involved, Hartson and Berkovic, and a third man, the goalkeeper.

  64. More Bon Motsons.

    Gary Lineker has now scored 37 goals. That is precisely twice as many as last year.

    Nearly all the Brazilian supporters are wearing yellow shirts – it’s a fabulous kaleidoscope of colour.

    And I suppose they [Spurs] are nearer to being out of the FA Cup now than
    any other time since the first half of this season, when they weren’t
    ever in it anyway.

  65. British drivers are hurtling towards the electric car cliff edge
    A lack of public charging points and a directionless strategy mean UK is far behind in the race to electrify
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/23/british-drivers-have-betrayed-electric-car-race/

    BTL

    Jane Baker

    That’s why I see a strong possibility of the electorate dumping the current party duopoly if they both press on with this nonsense.

    Reply to Jane Baker
    Percival Wrattstrangler

    But Richard Tice is failing to grab the opportunity of coming out against Net Zero and against the imposition upon unwilling people of Covid jabs which have undoubtedly had some disastrous side effects.

    Come on Tice. You have some open doors so you don’t have to push very hard.

    3. The state does not care. The point was never about the environment or ecology, it was solely about removing the ability for individuals to have personal freedom.

      1. That happened in St Albans our council is Lib dem all they do is keep increasing the costs of everything. I don’t think they have every achieved anything noticeable at all.

        1. I should have added of course, plenty of planning permission for new homes on green belt land.

  66. I’m sick of this sodding government.

    Last week, Mongo cost £31 in food. That’s chicken, fish and beef. A bag of pasta, some vegetables. The state has made food expensive, energy expensive, living expensive and for NOTHING except a puerile ideological crusade to get cushy jobs after office.

    The whole lot of them need to be taken outside and smacked about until they learn to behave . If they won’t govern in the best interests of this nation, then they shouldn’t be allowed to at all.

    What we need is simple – low taxes and a small state. The government is fighting that at every level. It’s fighting Brexit, it’s fight deregulation, it’s fighting cheap energy, it’s fighting food production. Every single thing is wrong. It is bringing in an invading, rapist horde and forcing the ever shrinking tax base to fund it. It waffles on about inflation yet rams up the main driver – tax – of that inflation. It complains about it, but keeps borrowing and wasting like a drunk in port. Hell, there were more plod in Oxford to stop the public defying the state than there were at the violent criminal black looting mob. Utterly, utterly disgusting.

    They have got to be stopped and the course restored to sanity. It’d utterly ludicrous that the lot have not been removed and put against the wall.

    2. It’s enough to make one despair isn’t it. What the bloody hell can we do! Unless young people get riled up we’re up the creek without a paddle.

      2. I don’t know why but an image flashed into my mind of FJB sitting in the rocking chair, leaning all the way back, and then being pinged and projected and impaled on that homely white picket fence…..

  68. Although both are US observations they apply almost as much in the UK;
    And therein, ladies and gentlemen, lies the problem. You don’t get huge numbers of doctors and engineers and hard working upwardly mobile people, you get huge numbers of gimmegrants and very few who make a genuine contribution.

    Good bye white people welcome to a fecund third world world.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-simple-solution-to-the-coming-demographic-challenge/
    https://www.takimag.com/article/nikki-haley-offers-moral-instruction-to-u-s/

        1. True if it is a fungus. Make sure to clean your watering can and only water from the bottom.

          If it is the bacterium you may want to give it a hard prune.

          1. The main thing that seems to spread the bacterium in the USA and Australia seems to be a particular sap sucker, not seen here.

  70. Does Todays headline has a bit of a sinister factor about it, are they even slightly suggesting that assisted dying is part of our hideous current Government, led NHS FOAD tactics. I wonder how many people out there with out private insurance are struggling with their various and assorted ailments against everyday life, when only a decade ago they would have been treated with a smile and have been very thankful they had made contributions all their working lives. That being known as National Insurance contributions.

      1. Five people who were killed when a small plane crashed soon after takeoff near Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock, Arkansas were a group of environmental consultants.

        All of the deceased worked at The Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, and they were traveling to Columbus, Ohio, to respond to a recent deadly explosion at a metal manufacturing plant in Bedford.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11781897/No-survivors-twin-engine-plane-five-passengers-board-crashes-near-airport-Arkansas.html

    2. Serving corporate interest there’s a surprise.
      I wonder how busy Rob Bilott is these days.
      https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=0b6fea3c830ccf35JmltdHM9MTY3NzExMDQwMCZpZ3VpZD0zYzc3MzA4Mi0wYTgzLTYzYTctMzgwNi0yMjNmMGI4NzYyZTEmaW5zaWQ9NTIwNA&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=3c773082-0a83-63a7-3806-223f0b8762e1&psq=rob+bilott+dupont&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvUm9iZXJ0X0JpbG90dA&ntb=1

  73. Re John Motson R.I.P. Nice if somewhat loquacious chap. Met him 15 months ago at the wake for FiL. He gave the eulogy at FiL’s funeral.

  76. As someone who likes to garden I prefer well rotted pig shit and straw to plain old bullshit. Sadly, the former is almost impossible to come by but the latter is being excreted in vast amounts from the orifices of Labour politicians. I’ve long given up on the Tories’ lies and now Labour’s authors of fables are becoming more ambitious in their attempts to gull the electorate.
    Yesterday, Starmer was waffling on about helping the farming industry, and today:

    https://twitter.com/shirley738213/status/1628718459054968832

    Not to be outdone, Rachel Reeves has created this enormous cowpat:

    https://twitter.com/ClauseSchwab/status/1628731988378021889

    We are most definitely up that well known creek without methods of propulsion or steering.

    1. A Labour government will have a relentless focus on the things that matter most.

      With five bold missions for a better Britain, our long-term plan will unlock our country’s pride & purpose.

      That starts with securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.

      You have to wonder how somone could utter such complete cr*p! Even if they actually intended it, it still wouldn’t happen! You need to be either a congenital liar of Cosmic Proportions or Completely Deranged.

    2. A Labour government will have a relentless focus on the things that matter most.

      With five bold missions for a better Britain, our long-term plan will unlock our country’s pride & purpose.

      That starts with securing the highest sustained growth in the G7.

      You have to wonder how somone could utter such complete cr*p! Even if they actually intended it, it still wouldn’t happen! You need to be either a congenital liar of Cosmic Proportions or Completely Deranged.

  83. The survival of international law is at stake in Ukraine, David Miliband 23 February 2023.

    The war shows what happens when checks on power are destroyed. We must stand firm against a future where the law of the jungle rules.

    Strictly speaking there is no such thing as International Law. There are agreements between countries to cooperate on certain issues but they are usually mutually beneficial and when they aren’t the parties agree to disagree. The recent killing of Harry Dunn is a good example. Even if there were such a thing Miliband is the last person to talk about Ukraine. He was Blair’s cheerleader for Iraq, where the death total dwarfs that of Ukraine. He also threw the Tibetans under the bus to suck up to the Chinese and of course there’s Rendition. What was that? I see no rendition. That Miliband. This and his $M1 dollar a year salary for looking after refugees raises him to Olympic levels in the Hypocrisy stakes.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/23/survival-international-law-stake-ukraine/

    1. Indeed. The Telegraph should hang their heads in shame to have such a no-good waster with a record of destruction spreading his poison in their rag. But of course, they work for the same masters as Milliband.

    2. The international Rules Based Order is very simple? The 1% do as they please and the 99% do as they’re told.

  84. “Police rushed to four separate incidents in Walthamstow with local

    MP Stella Creasy calling for residents to avoid “commentary and

    speculation”.”

    If the police stopped withholding information about the people involved there would be no need for speculation.

    No word from khanage about London being safer now than before he became mayor.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0f95a2d5768fef5a1bb97671b92121bca41d1055e52401f99911b4a993ab0672.png

    Meanwhile

    https://twitter.com/MirrorPolitics/status/1628671628660842496
    He’s right the war will be between us and the gimmegrants

    2. There is no excuse for what these useless politicians have inflicted on this country. They’d better get a big shift on.

    1. Instantly recognisable as an artefact of the Neolithic Fourliter tribe, often found in the Avebury branch of Sainsbury’s

    1. by Margaret Fay Shaw
      A trained musician, Shaw’s primary motivation was to hear and transcribe the songs of authentic Gaelic singers at their source. Over the next six years, while living with the sisters, Shaw used photography and film to further document their lives while she transcribed the MacRaes’ songs and those of their neighbours, learning Gaelic over this period, too. Shaw was to maintain a friendship with the sisters throughout her life

    3. Really hard work to cut them by hand like that.
      We help with Firstborn’s smallholding, and the time and effort required to harvest any Goddamned thing is huge! Apples for cider, blackberries for sale, honey… let alone cutting oats by hand. Half a day’s work to make a bowl of porridge…

      1. I rescued two hand scythes and a full size upright scythe from one of Erin’s relatives a few years back.
        It’s very heavy and takes a bit of practice using it. But I bought a new strimmer last year. It wins hands down.

        1. We have a number of scythes (ljå, in yer Weegie – as in Mannen med ljåen – the old man with the scythe) . The cutting is all in the rhythm of the wing – no rhythm, appallingly high level of effort.

      2. There’s a rumour doing the rounds that your skills in sowing oats are to be commended on two levels, speed and efficiency.
        };-O

    4. Used to go to South Uist to launch our reconnaissance drones from the missile range. A pretty island but practically deserted. Once walked over a dead whale which had been beached on the foreshore and covered in sand. Thought it was a wobbly hill at first. 🙂

  89. These images were taken by underwater photographer Robert Stansfield, from Southampton, UK, on a blackwater dive in the open ocean surround the island of Cozumel, Mexico.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/c88fafe33d171b6b910f67e2660751682efecfff/0_0_3780_4724/master/3780.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=8cc37af43b27d7c258089d85f52c9944
    Squid

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/080bc6988f26adb3a58618fc3a5c95fd87346fe5/0_0_3780_4724/master/3780.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=70e967ab9775d4fa03e97811f196cd15
    Rainbow Tripodfish

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/dda3cdb456156bff067a2db17aa1fb9ba935de7a/0_0_3780_4724/master/3780.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=681b4b5f1131e93b26a32de98b43fe25
    Flying Fish

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/9ef81198bda1f191158d6c553d4ba346c3e58987/0_0_3780_4724/master/3780.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=4c3009415920ae369ab23592052c3af3
    Soapfish

    1. I can see why it’s called the soap fish – it comes with its own hook so you can hang it in the shower!

        1. I’ve noticed lots of Anglers use towels. I asked one: “if he dries the fish before putting them back’?

  90. 371490+ up ticks,

    Is there a set date for fight or flight.

    breutbart,

    Amnesty in All but Name’ – UK to Hand Thousands of Migrants Asylum without Even Talking to Them

    1. What are they going to do when one day soon, the money has run out and they are in a cold country with nothing, instead of a warm one?

    2. What will they do? They’ve no skills, no economic value, most are criminals. They can’t work, none will ever provide for themeselves so the state has really just dumped upward of a million welfare dependent criminals on us – and more will come.

      They must go. Every single one. Where, I don’t care but they must be removed. Or, house them with Home office staff. Women especially. See how long their desperate spite lasts for.

  91. The real conspirators who lied about Covid’s origin, funded fraudulent trials of therapeutics, and controlled the Covid pandemic are the top public health leaders.

    https://merylnass.substack.com

    Meryl Nass is a physician and researcher who proved the world’s largest anthrax epidemic was due to biological warfare. She revealed the dangers of the anthrax vaccine. Her license was suspended for prescribing COVID medications and ‘misinformation.’

  92. Jason Arday to become youngest ever black professor at Cambridge. 23 February 2023.

    Arday was born and raised in Clapham, south London, and was one of four children. Until the age of 11 he used sign language, and much of his childhood was spent with speech and language therapists. His family were told it was likely he would need lifelong support, but he defied all expectations.

    After gaining two GCSEs in PE and textiles, Arday studied for a BTec at college, then completed his first degree in PE and education studies, after which he did two master’s qualifications, a PGCE to become a PE teacher, and a PhD at Liverpool John Moores University. He funded his studies by working part-time at Sainsbury’s and Boot

    The message of his story for other young people from under-represented backgrounds is that “everything is possible”, Arday said. “I knew I didn’t necessarily have huge amounts of talent, but I knew how badly I wanted it and I knew how hard I wanted to work.”

    The message of his story is that anyone can be a professor provided they are Woke enough!

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/feb/23/jason-arday-to-become-youngest-ever-black-professor-at-cambridge

      1. I was hoping he might have an open mind about his future opinions. But from his comment,
        he’ll probably have to excel at target practice.

    5. Good luck to man;
      BUT
      Does anyone in the UK world honestly believe that if a white man had appeared with exactly the same background he would have been selected?
      And as an aside, I can’t help wondering whether this chair was specifically created for him and if it was, who is the sponsor.

    6. Oh pull the other one. Nothing about his CV suggests that he belongs in the academic elite that one used to expect to find at Oxford or Cambridge.

  93. A lil’ Birdie Three today.

    Wordle 614 3/6
    🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. A par for me, better than yesterday at least.
      Wordle 614 4/6

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

  96. To this double talking title from the Triteograph:
    How long before the right to choose becomes the duty to not be a burden?
    My MiL has been given about 24 hours by the doctor. She has been living with us for three or four years and has been been-ridden for 12 months.

    She is now surrounded by her grandchildren praying with her in French, her surviving family and friends have telephoned her to say goodbye and the priest has given her the anointing of the sick (Last Rites).
    She couldn’t have asked for a better death.
    Right to choose.
    Pff

    2. I hope your mourning will remember all the best of her life and the families’ lives together.

    6. How wonderful that your MiL had you and your wife to live with, and to enable her to have a death that many would pray to have.

      Good for you and for the whole family – even in sorrow there is joy.

    7. Thanks to all.
      Bizarre that you can have more care from among people you’ve never met than from the people we pay to look after out interests.

    8. Excellent for you, MiL and the family. Condolences too.
      I have to say, just from a personal viewpoint, if it was me being bed-ridden for my final year, I would rather have taken a quicker way out.
      I hope she had a lovely life, too. Just toasted her with a glass of wine.

      1. I missed my Father by about an hour. Mother couldn’t bear to be with him that last journey, and I was too slow in getting in from Norway, so he died alone. I deeply regret that, and althoug it happened 25 years ago, it still hurts. Nobody should cross the Styx alone.

        1. I got “the call” and missed my mother in flight as it were. Fortunately she went in her sleep peacefully, my father woke up that morning and she was gone.
          My father died alone but I suspect that is how he would have preferred it.

          1. I was wondering how I’d like to go.
            A “lights out” when you just switch off ( pretty easy, really, you don’t even notice, had a practice a few weeks ago making breakfast coffee in the kitchen), or a more drawn-out experience, when you know you’re dying. Finally came to the latter being the better way, as long as it’s painless, as dying is an experience you only have once, and it’d be a pity to miss it.
            Either way, it doesn’t scare me. The upset to family I would regret, but there’s not a lot one can do about that.

          2. Agreed.
            My only request is to outlast HG, not for selfish reasons, but because of the two of us I can cope better alone.

          3. My mother knew that my father would not have been able to cope without her and she prayed that he would die before she did. I know I could not cope without Caroline and she should have many good years after I have gone.

          6. Sometimes they wait for you to return. Sometimes they wait for you to depart the room so that they can go in peace. My mother waited for me to return. I was staying B&B nearby in Southwold, my mum was in the cottage hospital 5 minutes walk away. She died 5 minutes after my return to the hospital from just having had breakfast. She heard me say “Hi Mum, I’m back” one last time as she had heard me say on and off for years, and she knew then that she could go.

        2. Same as with my father. I had no phone signal where I was working in rural Hertfordshire. My sister rang the local post office and the guy came across the road to pass on the news. I drove down to London immediately. To say fair well pop’s.
          My mother died a few years later when I’d just had my hip replacement. I couldn’t even get out of bed.

    11. My MiL was give hours to live by the Hospital Consultant….that was three years ago………

    12. That’s sad, LiM. But at least the farewells can be taken properly, much better than just dropping dead without notice. And she can fade away surrounded by love…

        1. Someone much more erudite than I wrote on this site about an elderly relative who was fading and wanted to finish it all, and the poster wrote that her fading away was unselfish, as it allowed all those who loved her to show that love in spades, as she had for them. Or something like that. Broke me up, it did.

  97. Good evening all. Just passing through.. London was great. All worked swimmingly – apart from station carpark. All will be revealed tomorrow.

    Only irritation – lost my cap and gloves while trying to inch into the car – the bloke next had parked about three inches away… Cap and gloves in pocket – now in Ling’s Lynn station carpark. Please ring a call centre in Bangladesh to report lost property..(sort of thing).

    No news, I see.

    Will catch up tomorrow. TTFN

    2. I once got blocked in a carpark in Woking by two enormous SUVs either side. Each had left plenty of room on their driver’s side so they could get in and out, but on both my driver’s and passenger side i had less than 3 inches. Of course it must have been my fault as i was in an enormous 1 litre Vauxhall Corsa. Luckily i managed to climb in through the boot but I can’t tell you how much I loathe selfish SUV drivers.

      Edit i was parked first, with nothing either side of me.

      1. When something similar happened to me, I let down two of the car’s tyres and left a note on the windscreen telling the driver that I hoped two flat tyres would cause them as much time and inconvenience as their selfish parking had caused me.

        1. Yes, something needs to be said to those selfish people – and there are many ways of saying things. Nowadays, though, the carpark cameras would see you unscrewing the hub caps…

          1. No need, just a biro on the valve
            Agree re cameras nowadays
            Perhaps everyone should carry a stock of caltrops for accidentally sticking under their tyres

      2. I had my daughter with me who was about 13 so I didn’t. If i’d been on my own…

      3. The SUV drivers would have had children in with them. That’s what they do to let the kids out.
        No thought for anyone else.
        But the spaces are always very narrow. It’s all about the profits.

        1. Car parking dimensions are the same as when mark 1 Escorts were around. And Frod Anglias, and the like.

          1. Not in France.
            Car park spaces usually allow me to park my land rover in the space and open both front doors fully and they don’t infringe on the next space. Even in “tight” car parks there is usually sufficient space to get driver and passenger out if slightly squeezed.

          3. It certainly ain’t perfect here, but so much of the life in France makes the UK look like Yemen on a good day.
            We were driving to the shops, the drains on either side of the main road, roughly a “B” UK, were being cleared, cleaned, hosed and repaired. That’s annual. Do we get flooded roads? Do we Hell!
            Our “route” gets the sides cut back twice a year, the drains cleared every couple of years, the trees/branches by the sides are cut back every five or thereabouts, the road surface is repaired annually and redone totally every ten.
            To put that into a UK perspective, most of our “route” is single track, if we get 50 different vehicles a day passing in each direction I would be surprised, it is the equivalent of a “c” class road in the UK.

        2. I do take your points but permit me please one further rant.

          Most SUV drivers don’t need them.

          I survived perfectly well with a dog, two kids and a Corsa, including long 6 hour treks to my in-laws and 3 hours to my folks.

          1. I agree totally most people who drive SUVs think they are more important than the other road users. Especially Range Rovers.

    1. If the Yanks were serious about cleaning up behind Epstein, i am led to understand plenty of people would be behind bars including Gates.

      1. Mr Gates,
        It my my solemn duty to sentence you to death by:

        Sudden unexpected and inexplicable.

        1. Not that I have any faith, so to speak, but what do believers think Gates’ reception would be like at the Pearly ones?

          3. Oi, YOU, back of the queue, we’ve several billion to deal with before you thanks to your interference with the natural order.
            In the mean time off to purgatory

  100. I’ve just finished reading a book about the 7-UP series published just after 42-UP aired. So I’m now off to watch as many of the series as are available on YouTube. So it’s goodnight from me, chums. Sleep well.

    3. I watched the first few of those when I was teaching. The social studies bod (I was drafted in as crowd control) used to show them to his classes.

    1. Good thing you didn’t hear the groans and abuse when I read that out to the family… ;-))

          2. But on the plus side you’re amusing and take the abuse in good spirit.
            Akevitt, I believe…

          5. The boundless generosity of Firstborn, who brought it back from Finland a week or so ago. And duty-free, of course.

    1. As I understand it the silly giddy girl is now in contempt of court and subject to penalty including a custodial sentence. Or have the Americans under Biden lost it completely. I pray that is not the case.

  106. My word Erin’s been down with some sort of stomach problem today.
    I’ve been coughing so much my head is aching.
    All druged up now, amoxcillin last to swallow.
    Hoping for a much brighter day tomorrow.
    I might be terribly mistaken but, as i am now an old septic. But my health seems to have taken a huge turn for the worse since my 3 days in hospital just before Christmas. God only knows what they were shoving into me via the canular.
    Night all. 🌙 🎇✨

    At least I’ve managed to miss the TV news today.

    2. Sleep well Eddy and I hope you both feel better tomorrow. Hospitals can be bad for your health.

        1. Thanks for asking…. we’re OK. My husband has a procedure tomorrow in hospital and I have to wait in for a small repair on the gas boiler- should be in the morning and then I can pop to the supermarket.
          He’s doing all right but his leg still gives him some pain. But his mobility is certainly improving.
          My face is quite painful but am coping. We’ve both had a few nights of poor sleep but generally we’re managing. There are certainly people worse off than we are.
          Hope you are OK also and Oscar and Kadi.

          1. I’ve had a few bad nights, too – not being able to get to sleep or waking up every few hours. Then barely able to walk when I get up. Thankfully that improves as I move around. Touch wood, Oscar and Kadi are fine. I’ve finished Oscar’s drops so we’re no longer trying for three falls, two submissions or a knockout and he’s had the last of his doggy paracetamol as well.

  108. Evening, all. We all know how it will end once assisted dying (i e bumping people off) gets a foothold. Remember that abortion was only supposed to be to save the life of the mother …

    1. The state will be demanding of the elderly not to be a burden on society, to do the right thing. Ultimately it will become compulsory.

  112. For a long while I thought Obama was directing the idiot Biden in the White House. I may have been mistaken. The prime movers in the search for WWIII are surely the Clintons and the Obamas are merely sidekicks to their monstrous plans.

    I am not suicidal.

    I am also struck by the fact that the narcissists Harry and Meghan, publicity seekers with far too much social media influence, exhorted us to take the ‘vaccine’. Were they paid for this propagandising or what? The scum couple seem to have more money than the bankrupt Royal Family.

    1. I couldn’t agree more. MP Andrew Bridgen was offered cash to keep quiet and he refused (volunteered when interviewed by Mark Steyn) so there is evidently plenty of that sloshing around. No doubt Harry and Megan were given cash to promote the ‘vaccine’. They have no scruples as far as money is concerned, and I suspect much of the book was written and overseen by her.

  113. The more I read about Bill Gates, the more I hope that the bastard is struck down by God. The man is pure evil as are those such as the diminutive follower Tony Blair and his other disciples.

    Please God strike these fuckers down, I implore you. I can supply a list if this helps but you will know the bastards anyhow. There are so many anti-human money makers out there, many in our supposed elected governments. (not for much longer, granted).

    Please God, strike these bastards down.

    1. The Big Man, allowed Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and Stalin to reap swathes of humanity off the planet. Maybe Schwab, Gates and Soros might fall into a different category, with their intention to reduce the World Population by hundreds of millions. We can only hope.

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