Thursday 25 May: Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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514 thoughts on “Thursday 25 May: Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns”

  3. Good morning, chums. Good grief, I was only third – but at least I beat Tom today!

  4. Good morning, chums. Good grief, I was only third – but at least I beat Tom today!

  5. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Love In A Warm Climate

    Four men and one woman are taking a trip by plane when the engine stalls out and they crash on a deserted island.

    They all survive, but they’re stranded. Lucky for them, the island has all kinds of wild fruit growing on it, and the girl turns out to be a nymphomaniac, so none of the guys have to go without sex for too long.

    The men take turns, with a different guy being designated husband each week. This arrangement works out great for years, satisfying all four of the men as well as the nymphomaniac. One day, however, their beloved shared wife falls ill and dies…

    The first month goes by, it was awful. The second month is really bad, too. The third month is unbearable, and when the fourth month finally rolls around, the guys can’t handle it anymore…

    So they bury her.

      2. Quite, BoB. I thought the punchline was going to be “Now we’ll have to take it in turns to do the cooking”.

    2. Then they were so disgusted at what they were doing they dug her up again

  7. Good Morning Folks,

    Bit on the cloudy side this morning, heatwave averted again

  9. Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns

    What diversion tactic will they use next?

  10. 372625+ up ticks,

    Morning Each, (2)

    The majority supporter,member, voter want, and a major concern in their needs is a good rhetorical robust lying,deceitful, treacherous partially plausible manifesto that is the current requirements to gain the seat of power.

    Get RESET up and running that is the obvious aim of the majority voter, the slave labour are already in situ ( the decent indigenous)
    and the political in-house overseers have organised a daily top up of foreign overseeing minions via Dover

    Letters: Parties and speeding fines are low on the list of voters’ concerns

  12. A couple of BTL Comments:-

    Anastasias Revenge
    6 HRS AGO
    Another Met officer in the brown stuff makes me think, public bodies not fit for purpose
    The Met police
    The Civil Service
    The Government
    The Opposition
    The NHS
    Are there more?
    And then there are the private sector (usually former public companies) such as
    Water companies
    Railway companies

    David Carpenter
    20 MIN AGO
    One sterling exception. Quote from the Coronation. “Not many things still work in this country. Those that do invariably involve the British Army.”

    Could someone with access to comment mention to Mr. Carpenter that the MOD Civil Service are working to correct that problem?

    1. ‘Morning, BoB. Shirley much quicker to list those public bodies that do work?

    1. Gosh; plants like more food.
      How long before they are “no-platformed”?

    2. Explained before. Plants evolved in a Co2 enriched atmosphere. That is why when you grow them in greenhouses that have Co2 pumped in, the plants grow to at least 3 times the size they are in our regular atmosphere. It is not that the plants in the greenhouses are suffering some sort of giantism, they are, in fact, reverting to what should be their proper size. Simply put, the plants you see in the everyday world are suffering from starvation and that is why they are the size they are. The doom mongers are lying through omission of explaining atmospheric facts, we live in a poor atmosphere compared with other geological periods. A reality that they know to be true but never tell but try to conceal.

        1. I am talking about the Jurassic period on, Co2 was much more abundant. Opinions differ but

          “During the Jurassic Period (200 mya), average CO2 concentrations were about 1800 ppm or about 4.7 times higher than today.

          The highest concentrations of CO2 during all of the Paleozoic Era occurred during the Cambrian Period, nearly 7000 ppm — about 18 times higher than today.”

          1. Indeed, and not-forgetting that Cambrian Period was between 483 and 538 million years before mankind emerged.

  15. Putin’s Russia is now practically defenceless. 25 May 2023.

    Given that – according to Putin – Russia is supposed to be a military superpower, the country should at the very least be able to secure its own borders. For much of the opening phase of the Ukraine conflict, Russia was generally immune from attack by Ukraine, not least because the Biden administration, as the recent leak of sensitive Pentagon files revealed, pressured Kyiv not to conduct operations in Putin’s territory for fear of provoking a wider escalation in the conflict.

    “O, wad some Power the giftie gie us. The UK can point no finger at weak borders. As to the Belgorod operation. No country can stop a small incursion into its territory by an armed force. It is its ability to react that counts and the Russians expelled them with losses as soon as it mobilised its forces.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/25/vladimir-putins-russia-is-now-practically-defenceless/

    1. Was overcast here an hour ago, but now brightened up with scattered cloud.

          2. The ‘R’ simply means ‘retired’ and not making anything to earn some cash on those days. I was urged to commence a daily record of my working hours, incomings and outgoings, and expenses, when I commenced work as a draughtsman. My self-employed mentor had always done this on sheets of paper. I decided to use an exercise book instead for neatness. I continued the habit through subsequent careers and I now record events in my daily life in an (unseen) right-hand column. The recording of the weather commenced when I moved here.

          3. I just use an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of my bank account. I can send you a template if you want. HertsLass will have to send me your e-mail address.

          4. Thanks, Tom, but I have full control of my bank account online. I’ve not made any excess cash for yonks so I only keep the ‘diary’ going for trivia.

  18. Very sad to hear of the youngsters who died in Ely. However, it seems – as ever – the consequences of their illegal activity is being blamed on others. My view is that miscreants must accept whatever occurs as a result of their actions as being purely of their own doing.

    1. Doesn’t that depend a bit on the actual degree of “illegality” of the action and whether the result (if unintended and perhaps correlated, but not necessarily consequential, upon their activity) is really proportionate?

  19. Good Moaning.
    Usual pattern, I suspect; dress for summer in the morning and dress for winter in the afternoon.
    No doubt it’s all my fault and my Noddy car will be confiscated.

    1. This is quite a minor matter but it seems to me to epitomise our decline into the Third World.

      1. Or the (PTB-supported) tsunami of the Third World over our country. We didn’t decline, we were dragged down.

    2. And they say that the countryside is racist because ethnic minorities don’t appreciate it!

      1. They obviously appreciate it in a manner that is not to our understanding of appreciation!

  21. No queues and quick referrals – what the NHS can learn from Dubai

    Isabel Oakeshott’s experience of the emirate’s healthcare system left her sick with envy

    Patients get to see a GP or specialist the same day, and tests are all carried out under one roof

    The “Customer Happiness Charter” issued by the Dubai Health Authority features some 15 pledges, covering everything from service with a smile to the handling of patient data.

    “We serve at your convenience, wherever possible,” it enthuses – a notion that is entirely alien to the NHS. In booming Dubai, time is money; in healthcare, it’s often the difference between life and death. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who has built an entire metropolis in the time it took us to launch one spluttering new aircraft carrier, understands both these things, which is why his health system, based on mandatory insurance, does not feature waiting lists. As for treating patients as if they should be grateful to receive any care at all – one of many cultural problems in the NHS – any clinic adopting that attitude in the Emirate would quickly go out of business. Indeed, the King of Dubai has tasked all healthcare facilities with “exceeding expectations” – which is especially easy if the patient happens to come from the UK.

    Back in 2009, Labour introduced something a bit like the Happiness Charter, a dreary piece of verbiage now known as the “NHS Constitution”. It is rarely displayed – presumably because the obvious failure to deliver on almost every point would only make everyone more frustrated. According to Sir Keir Starmer, the NHS is not so much broken as “on its face”. The Labour leader admits it will take years to fix. Meanwhile the Government, desperate for a quick fix to soaring waiting lists, wants to refer NHS patients to private hospitals. This solution is a chimaera, because even the private sector in this country cannot cope. As those who can afford to pay for faster treatment attempt to flee the NHS, independent providers are swamped, with Bupa reportedly taking up to three hours just to answer the phone. So far from “protecting the NHS”, the response to the pandemic crashed it. The terrifying truth is that NHS patients in need of urgent tests and treatment can’t even use their own savings to jump the queue.

    The chasm between what £200billion a year public money buys patients in England and Wales and the outstanding care widely available as standard in other healthcare systems was hammered home to me during a recent business trip to the Emirates, where I chanced upon a giddyingly futuristic healthcare facility.

    Having spent two years investigating the state of the NHS (for a book published in 2019) I was curious and wandered in. Overhead, a digital information board the size of a cinema screen displayed the Happiness Charter and advertised an array of preventative health screening packages. Pleasantly surprised by the prices and a gleaming white robot distributing free caffe lattes, on a whim, I signed up to one of the deals there and then. For around £170, I could have a battery of blood tests and a 45-minute face-to-face consultation with a family doctor; more time than I’ve had with an NHS GP in the past five years. I paid by contactless and was whisked away by a nurse. Minutes later, I was back outside in the scorching sun, minus three phials of my blood, last seen being barcoded and dropped down a chute.

    Within 48 hours, armed with a five-page lab report, I was on my way to a different clinic for the GP appointment. From the outside, there was nothing special about Zia Medical Centre. Located on one of the many thundering highways that crisscross Dubai, it is neither flashy nor famous – which is precisely the point. Without fuss or fanfare, all day, every day, it does what the NHS is simply not set up to deliver, providing same-day consultations with GPs and specialists; blood tests and all manner of other tests, scans and therapies under one roof. It is just one of almost 5,000 such private medical facilities in the Emirate (permanent population 3.3million) which the Dubai Health Authority expects to provide a seamless service.

    My consultation with a cheerful young Emirati GP took place without any uncertainty surrounding the ability to action the necessary follow-ups. Based on my history and blood test results, he recommended some additional scans and checks, all of which would have involved a long wait on the NHS. The procedures were all available right away, on site. While the same doctor looked at the results, a runner hotfooted it to a pharmacy over the road to fetch some meds.

    In theory, the NHS could be remodelled to offer rapid blood tests, scans and consultations in places that are not hospitals. In practice, a critical shortfall of doctors, nurses, radiologists and other specialists in this country makes progress impossible. Dubai can only offer such an outstanding service as standard because it is overflowing with healthcare professionals. Attracted by tax-free salaries, easy visas and great weather, they come from all over the world.

    To an increasingly mobile global health workforce, the UK is currently a far less attractive prospect. However noble the founding principles of the NHS, however brilliant it can be, it is a chaotic, exhausting environment in which to work; its core purpose of making sick people better endlessly undermined by hopeless inefficiency and silly distractions like “unconscious bias training” and Black History Month. According to the British Medical Association, a third of junior doctors plan to leave the UK to work abroad. In March, The Guardian reported on a leaked NHS workforce plan which predicted that, on current trends, by 2036, the staff shortfall could balloon from 154,000 to as high as 571,000. Who can blame them?

    Vowing to build an NHS for the future, Starmer says Labour will create the biggest NHS workforce in its history. Meanwhile Sheikh Mohammed’s masterplan for turning Dubai into one of the greatest financial centres in the world involves doubling the population within 20 years. That means a lot more doctors – and they won’t all come from the Middle East.

    Starmer hopes to pay for his NHS recruitment drive by abolishing non-dom tax status. How typical of the Left to fixate on such a marginal tax. Instead of targeting a handful of billionaires, perhaps he should turn his attention to the treatment of healthcare professionals, who are taxed as ruinously as everyone else. Here in the UK, we can’t do much about the lack of sunshine, but with well-targeted tax breaks, our young doctors and nurses might be slightly more inclined to stay.

    My 50-year old sister-in-law, who lives in Dubai, is currently being treated there for breast cancer. She is in full agreement with the above report. She waited no time at all between her initial diagnosis and operation (lumpectomy), which was quickly followed by chemotherapy. She has nothing but praise for the health system in the state.

        1. It’s free for some, Johnny, just not us indigenous who have paid a fortune over the years.

      2. But this excellence comes at a price: an average of 50 to 100 euros to see a general practitioner, and 100 to 250 euros for a specialist.

        It is not possible to finance such expenses on your own, and it is therefore essential to take out private insurance in order to be properly taken care of and reimbursed in Dubai in case of illness, accident, or hospitalization.

        Insurance is “from” $2,500 a year per person..…

      3. Doesn’t really matter to my brother. He is on a huge, tax-free wage there.

    3. Oil-rich state awash with cash has top-class health service for a population of 3.3 million.
      Bankrupt state with few natural resources has a broken health service for a population of 70+ million.

      Cause and effect. The article doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t know about the appalling state of not just the NHS but the UK as a whole. I don’t suppose anyone in government will read it.

      Working in the Gulf states is nothing new. My sister, a nurse, went out there in the mid-80s for a couple of years and earned enough to put a small deposit on a house near Croydon. She came back with a fiance(!) and after three years working in the NHS in the late 80s/early 90s gave it up to support her husband’s business. She was appalled by the working conditions (Croydon General) even then.

      1. Britain doesn’t need to be a bankrupt state and it does have natural resources (but the govt steadfastly refuses to make use of them), nor does it need to have a population north of 70 million. The NHS is not short of cash; it’s just short of a rational structure and an ethos where the patient is king.

    4. Oil-rich state awash with cash has top-class health service for a population of 3.3 million.
      Bankrupt state with few natural resources has a broken health service for a population of 70+ million.

      Cause and effect. The article doesn’t tell us anything we didn’t know about the appalling state of not just the NHS but the UK as a whole. I don’t suppose anyone in government will read it.

      Working in the Gulf states is nothing new. My sister, a nurse, went out there in the mid-80s for a couple of years and earned enough to put a small deposit on a house near Croydon. She came back with a fiance(!) and after three years working in the NHS in the late 80s/early 90s gave it up to support her husband’s business. She was appalled by the working conditions (Croydon General) even then.

  22. ‘Morning, Peeps. A beautiful sunny and warm start to the day. Our Lab pup (8 months now) will enjoy a beach visit this morning, the tide being fully out about 10.30.

    Meanwhile, did anyone else watch the 3-parter called Maryland (ITV) which concluded yesterday evening? A fascinating plot and excellent acting. Suranne Jones (Gentleman Jack) is particularly good, and apparently the series was based on her idea. The best drama I have seen for some time. Recommended.

  23. SIR – Will partygate ever go away? Aren’t there more pressing problems?

    The public are sick and tired of this. The only positive to come out of the whole affair is that, in any future pandemic, the government of the day will think long and hard before imposing impossible-to-follow lockdown rules on us again.

    George Kelly
    Buckingham

    No, Mr Kelly, at least not all the time the Tory party wants to tear itself apart in the run-up to the next GE. They are handing it to Sir Kneel Hindsight on a plate and then we will see a government that will make this one look competent!

    1. No, Mr Kelly, the government will not think long and hard before imposing impossible-to-follow lockdown rules on us again. Haven’t you heard? The WHO via the International Health Regulations will be calling the shots. They will be telling us to lockdown, wear face nappies, social distance, incarcerate ourselves at home, have yet another experimental gene therapy pumped into our arms, etc.etc. And it will be legally binding.

        1. Thank you for the upvote, Hopon.

          Good to know you’re still around – managing I hope.

  24. iStock
    Three years ago this week marked my first misgivings about the government’s Covid lockdown. Sure, I was late to that particular party – my wife, for example, had been carping viciously for the previous two months. But my rational assessment of lockdown was perhaps tilted by the gentle, bucolic magic of the thing itself.

    I think I have never enjoyed a more pleasant time. The weather was beautiful, and out in the Kent countryside, where I then lived, one could enjoy it to its full. Wildlife was less shy than usual, perhaps a consequence of the state-imposed quietude. Occasionally city dwellers would infest our country lanes and I had great pleasure in yelling at them to return to their filthy tenements, taking their vile diseases with them.

    We shouldn’t adjudicate on the basis that a few cretins are incapable of discerning between opinion and fact
    There was a pleasure, too, in the Ballardian scenes at the local supermarket, as the chavs wheeled out their thousands of loo rolls and sacks of pasta. And at the local farm shop, a couple of assistants wore plastic bags over their shoes because of a theory then prevalent that the virus was heavy, fell to the floor with a kind of awkward clunking sound and then got picked up inadvertently by the nearest pair of Nikes. It was, I would concede, a time of government-enforced mass idiocy and I enjoyed it immensely.

    A very large amount of what we were told by Chris Whitty, often via that glistening receptacle of wisdom Matt Hancock, was quite quickly proven to be false. Masks, for instance, were never of use for most people, as several studies have confirmed. It was almost impossible to pick up the virus from a surface, such as a shop counter, so the hand gel was also pointless. And we now know (as some suspected at the time) that lockdown may have had a seriously deleterious effect upon our immune systems. But to have articulated any of these things at the time was to get yourself into trouble. So they remained unsayable within polite company and thus got pushed to the fringe, where they grew the comedy heads and tails of a conspiracy theory. Even so, the doubters were right and the mainstream media, especially the BBC, were quite wrong.

    Another thing Hancock got wrong, incidentally, was to suggest that smoking tobacco increased the danger from the disease. A couple of weeks after he uttered this nonsense, French doctors were using nicotine patches on Covid sufferers and a whole bunch of reports came out indicating that smokers were far less likely to catch the disease. Never got much play in the media, that one.

    ‘One huge sticking plaster, please.’
    Fast-forward three years, and I see that GB News has just been clobbered by Ofcom for allowing the kind of post-feminist feminist writer Naomi Wolf to say that the rollout of Covid vaccines was equivalent to, er, mass murder. Part of Ofcom’s adjudication reads: ‘It is important to stress that in line with the right to freedom of expression broadcasters are free to transmit programmes that include controversial and challenging views, including about Covid-19 vaccines or conspiracy theories. However, alongside this editorial freedom, the Broadcasting Code imposes a clear requirement that if such content has the potential to be harmful, the broadcaster must ensure that its audience is adequately protected.’

    This is cant, I think, if a very fashionable form of cant. You can say what you like on air, boys and girls, but not if it has ‘the potential to be harmful’. And who decides what is ‘harmful’, and how can the audience be protected, other than by telling them that Naomi Wolf is wrong?

    This kind of dissembling, of course, infests the Online Safety Bill: you can say what you want so long as it isn’t ‘harmful’. Surely it is enough for the audience to understand that the views being stated are from a woman with not even the remotest scintilla of scientific training. In other words, it is her opinion and she is no expert. Most human beings are able to grasp that, I’d suggest – and we should not adjudicate on the basis that six or seven cretins are incapable of discerning between opinion and fact.

    Likewise with the former Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen, who quoted an unnamed doctor’s claim that the vaccine rollout was ‘the biggest crime against humanity since the Holocaust’. Yes, it’s only Bridgen: ergo we will not take his word for it. Both Bridgen and Wolf conjured up, to support their suppositions, that controversial Austrian politician Adolf Hitler – Bridgen in his stupid use of the word ‘Holocaust’ and Wolf in likening the rollout to what would happened in ‘pre-Nazi Germany’ (which I assume was a slip of the tongue and she didn’t really mean to blame the Weimar Republic).

    We should be wary of persecuting these people, though. Their claims become more and more wild because entirely legitimate concerns are ignored or stamped down upon by institutions such as Ofcom and Conservative Central Office. We now know that there are many unpleasant side effects to the various Covid vaccines, including myocarditis and pericarditis, Guillain-Barré syndrome, anaphylaxis, thromboembolic effects and blood clots. More, I daresay, will be discovered later.

    I am sure it is the case that, as most of the experts aver, these side effects are very, very, rare – five to 16 cases per million when it comes to blood clots, for example. And that, as a corollary, the world was made safer as a consequence of the rollout. Perhaps: but that is the world, not the individual.

    More to the point is the necessity of challenging consensus wherever it exists. An awful lot of what was once the Covid consensus has been proved to be tripe. We should not silence those who would challenge the rest of it.

    Rod Liddle

    1. “not even the remotest scintilla of scientific training”………………

      However Bill Gates does not have any medical training but many politicians, and the media,

      listen to him intently, and faithfully parrot his comments.

      What’s the difference?

  25. SIR – With all the talk of global warming, unpredictable weather, flood and drought, I find it amazing that there has not been a greater take-up of rainwater harvesters.

    Why are developers not forced, as part of the planning process, to install tanks for every house when doing the preparatory ground works?

    The harvesting takes all the rainwater that falls on the roof, relieving the sewers (Letters, May 22) and contributing to households’ supplies, which saves money. Are there any negatives?

    Des Small
    Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire

    I can’t immediately think of any, Mr Small. A rainwater tank buried underground at the time of construction, together with a lift pump and filter to feed WCs, washing machines and dishwashers, would add very little to the price of a new house. And the reduced run-off after torrential rain would certainly assist those areas prone to flooding.

    1. Water companies would
      not like people storing a lot of rain water. They prefer it to run into the sea via rivers so they can charge more for domestic use.
      It might upset the Brussels mafia if we build more storage in the form of reservoirs.
      Three days, perhaps a week of sunshine in May could bring on a hosepipe ban. Was the past one ever lifted ?

      1. ‘Morning, Eddy. It was here, but not very long ago. And almost daily they are threatening reimposition.

    3. Water from showers, baths and hand-basins should be used for loo-flushing.

    4. Might find that less water flowing through the foul water system allows a build up (think fatbergs).

  26. Morning all 🙂😉
    I hardly dare mention it. Lovely sunny day again. Three days running.
    And of course parties and speeding tickets are not really relevant. Can someone one pass this on to our MSM. Or is this boring nonsense all that they have.

  28. SIR – One year ago my day rate tariff with my then electricity supplier, Bulb, was 18.2p per kilowatt hour. Bulb was subsequently acquired by Octopus Energy, which then applied a variable rate that has since risen to 57.01p per kWh. This is more than a tripling of the charge over a period when wholesale energy prices have perhaps doubled but are now coming down.

    The explanation from Octopus is that rates are now regulated by Ofgem and so out of its control. Applications to E.On and EDF for a better rate resulted in the same response. The usual price comparison sites such as U-Switch have been forced to suspend operations. Thus I am stuck with my existing supplier.

    This means that until July at the earliest we have a state-sanctioned cartel with Ofgem overseeing extortionate charges from the remaining electricity distributors.

    John Bunker
    Olney, Buckinghamshire

    Welcome to rip-off Britain, Mr Bunker! Not only have most of our public bodies failed, this government seems powerless to hold yet another useless regulator to account.

    Today we are told, with great fanfare, that the average energy bill will fall to just over £2k pa. Gosh, what a bargain! But still the ludicrous profits made by the suppliers will continue unabated.

    1. Bolly all round for the renewable generators where the price of ‘fuel’ has not changed one penny, but who are able to charge the strike rate for their power. Not to mention the increase in standing charges which are now funding those who cannot or will not pay their bills. What a shambles.

    2. Rates are controlled by ofgem. Of course they bloody are! That’s why energy is so expensive!

      1. Prices are inflated by the mad world of carbon credits, renewables obligations, contracts for difference and constraint payments. How easy it seems for governments to make the simple complicated.

  29. A sensible BTL comment on the waste of two young lives in Cardiff:

    NoLonger ATory
    2 HRS AGO
    Perhaps a mother that claims police killed her son should have taught them to stop for police and not run away. Chased or not is irrelevant. I’ve been rethinking this, by the number of officers that are being charged with offences perhaps running away is the sensible thing especially for women. Sad times.

    Well said. I have never subscribed to the view that the Police are responsible for chasing people to their deaths or serious injury when they fail to stop. If they had collided with a pedestrian, resulting in death or serious injury, would the police then be accused of failing to stop them??

    1. They were scum. It is better for the country that they’re dead. Now we just need to get rid of the rest of the family and everyone within 6 degrees.

      That’s not me, that’s officialdom in Cardiff. If that group were excised, crime would fall by 70%.

    2. There have been cases where suspects pursued by the police have been injured or killed. IIRC, one involved a petty thief who fell through a factory roof to his death. Naturally the police were advised to ‘proceed with caution’. It’s the same policy [sic] that prevents police chasing illegal motorcyclists, as they used to on their own high-powered, off-road bikes with great success until there was an incident or two.

  30. 372625+ up ticks,

    May one ask,
    Is the selective slaying of truth-sayers actually taking place ?
    there does seem, since the passing of Dr Kelly, (lest we forget) a growing number in evidence.

    https://youtu.be/1XeA5gSCaOs

  31. Good day all,

    Cloudy at the start of the day but soon clearing up, we hope, to be as nice a day as yesterday. Wind nor’East, 12℃ with a ‘high’ forecast of 19℃. At last I seem to be over the lingering affects of Convid but SWMBO is mightily pissed off because she isn’t yet. She feels that because she had it first she should by rights be rid of it first.

    We can all live in hope, Allister:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/24/woke-blobs-final-triumph-near/

    But you must know that the Tory party will not be permitted by their paymasters to do anything which might overturn the Long March.

  32. Morning all.

    Media full flow on the passing of a Tina somebody. Maybe I am out of touch but rock music is as far from my strains that you can get. Music means Brahms, Beethoven, a touch of Handel and definitely Charles Wesley hymns. Pop rock, switch it off in haste. But since she had gone down with whatever took her from us in 2015 it is unlikely to be a jab death.

    On the subject of EVs, Conservative Woman (oh, I mean TCW) is on form today:

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/phasing-out-petrol-and-diesel-cars-is-just-pie-in-the-sky/

    Perhaps the most challenging demand is for lithium, used to make batteries, including those in electric vehicles (EVs) which each take 63kg. So around 95million tonnes of lithium will be needed to make batteries for 1,500 million EVs globally. But only 130,000 tonnes came from mines in 2022, at which rate it would take more than 700 years to make enough batteries. If those EV batteries have to be replaced on average every ten years (assuming no increase in the number of EVs) the continuing demand will average around 9.5million tonnes pa, which is around 70 times the current rate of mining.
    On that basis alone, the plan to replace ICE cars by 2035, 12 years hence, is pie in the sky.

    1. Hallo Dave. All music is worth appreciating apart from some of the disastrous stuff that passes for such now a days. I listen to Dub Step, Rock and Role, the Classics, Ethnic Music, Gospel and other forms of Religious Music and Folk. All bring to the table something unique and therefore special. One way or another they expand your horizons and expand your appreciation of the creativity of the humane mind for beauty. Classics are but a small corner of music.

    2. For me, the best part of the coronation was Zadok the Priest, but I’m also blown away by the late Ms Turner.

      1. It is perfectly possible to enjoy any form of music; no genre is exclusive.
        I can sing along to TT or holler “Hallelujah” ….. that’s why I need the Noddy car.

      2. Some years ago we went to a Tina Turner concert in Glasgow – absolutely brilliant!

    3. Electric cars enforcement is NOT about electric cars, pollution or anything else. It is about removing your mobility. It is about control.

  35. Expectation management – let people think that net IMmigartion will be more than 700k, so when it turns out to be a bit less, we can all praise out wise rulers. Not sure it will work.

  36. ‘Morning All

    Where do we find these fuckwits…….

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ad297a7a4331a95563bb76ca93a4425558d8a9a3aaba90b4f24e62046e7aadf.jpg

    The rest…….

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FwxFPYlXsAQLG0h.jpg

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59368bc1ff8cb6756e07936617a5f26cd8018a68f371c9eef95d4077e7cb9539.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/18ad0a7120a77e32f501f8c7ee955439ea33282b10bb57a3379dea3fea2a26fa.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8ee7210026f7efdd010c2293a754ff61aee53935f2debc3502d747e2d4955e7d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e391bd516d111727b6e709162b6eb55b44d69b984795676b1b37f52b9a8230a.jpg

    1. I showed the universe one to Spartie.
      I think he had a sense of humour failure.
      Now, where did I put the plasters?

    2. Good morning all

      I have hidden a Swiss army penknife under one of the seats in my car , it has been in place for a decade or more . I also have a large mallet hidden on the back seat , why , because sometimes I cannot open the tailgate … the dogs sit in their cosy safety crate , and more than once I have been unable to let the dogs out or retrieve my shopping .

      A loud thwack with the mallet on the tail gate sometimes release the switch . My car is a 06 plate .. and has done 165,000 miles .. very economical , a real workhorse Diesel Peugeot 307 SW.

  37. Has anyone had experience with these? Or any other suggestions gratefully received.

    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/364269832752?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110013%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIMRXI%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20221003113144%26meid%3Df657ff6c65dd43a3aecc52c6f1f8fc4c%26pid%3D101100%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D24%26itm%3D364269832752%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2380057%26algv%3DSimplAMLv5PairwiseWebNoToraCoCoViewsNoHighIdfOrSortByFinalScoreBlender&_trksid=p2380057.c101100.m3021&amdata=cksum%3A364269832752f657ff6c65dd43a3aecc52c6f1f8fc4c%7Cenc%3AAQAIAAABIHuU2NWr2iCtJh0k4sTXQGMbASZuGJ1XF3G14rh566Zg4M4WE4Y%252B7EzcE2hqFXf7LL8Gts8CJWDFb71BUAL9tLEBmdtd9B86hoAkprju0Ir8L3cWAxKUfhVNbK2VXoRmKX%252Bj%252B5b%252FbnIQmdE%252FbFD2WwRH%252BMoAWgd86gMGnWdZiuQvMvKvZbA%252FUsUFKbAa9UAXGJ%252FsaZLZcq9kQsQkQ8Z9KGEfVrGcNHNs%252BEJjFAxL7TgaTWwp1SwLga37uifbdIz%252FglXDfQCwm8TxT444OyfSn%252FAKTxJbkz%252FMM%252Bn5h9emwtNa5u1k0C%252FiiSI1wN8chaMyZWfoXfpMaJrGcc%252F0zqP%252BpUaa8YLCHYhrBbm%252FDAKT3ebXgZNOwxngdIjrwJIu%252BTrRuw%253D%253D%7Campid%3APL_CLK%7Cclp%3A2380057&_trkparms=pageci%3A30b7278e-fad9-11ed-8cc7-7a8090f8f7c2%7Cparentrq%3A521a245a1880acb56e6580f6ffec0f0e%7Ciid%3A1

    2. Honestly I’d get one from John Lewis or similar. I know they’re much more expensive, but they will work far more efficiently and reliably.

    1. Well, it’s already here, isn’t it? The mechanised abuse, rape and assault of children by pakistani paedophile muslims. The Left want to normalise this.

      1. 372625+ up ticks.

        Morning W,
        As I have been pointing out for years and asking WHY the need, via the polling booth , for more of the same.

      2. 372625+ up ticks,

        W,
        “The left” I take it to mean ALL political overseeing governing parties ?

      1. Yes, it is slathered over anything to do with nature on You Tube. It’s disgraceful false propaganda.

        1. Two were wearing masks in Morrisons this morning – they were young people, too.

          2. We have some friends who still wear masks when shopping, but not in all shops.

            They will wear them in the equivalent of Tesco but not in the equivalent of Waitrose !

          3. I saw a youngish woman walking on the pavement this morning when I was coming back with the dogs – she had a mask covering her chin. What good she thought that would do, even if they were effective, I have no idea.

        2. The majority of the earth’s population is intrinsically stupid. TPTB know this and act accordingly.

        3. The majority of the earth’s population is intrinsically stupid. TPTB know this and act accordingly.

    2. Thanks for that, very interesting and informative.
      Several more bee orchids have appeared here over the last few days.

    1. Did the plod act more effectively than usual? Or did they give them drinks and sandwiches?

    1. I quite enjoyed Phil Spector’s River Deep, Mountain High when she performed with Ike; but since then her output has not moved me.

  42. Glad they have caught up with the white supremacist, racist Beatrix Potter:

    “Beatrix Potter’s most popular stories originated in African folk tales told by slaves on American plantations, an academic has argued.

    Dr Emily Zobel Marshall, a reader in postcolonial literature at Leeds Beckett University, said the author’s work amounted to “cultural appropriation” and that she failed to publicly credit the sources of her children’s stories.

    The “quintessentially English” tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck and Mrs Tiggy-Winkle are “more than just inspired by” similar stories shared by enslaved Africans in the late 1800s, according to research by the scholar.

    In an essay for The Conversation, she said recognition was owed to the Brer Rabbit tales about a cunning rabbit who lives in a briar patch and outwits larger animals.

    The tales can be traced to pre-colonial Africa and were later shared among workers on plantations. Joel Chandler Harris, an American journalist and folklorist, adapted them for white audiences in the late 19th century. They later became popularly known as the Uncle Remus stories.”

    The Grimes, today.

    1. “Leeds Beckett University, formerly known as Leeds Metropolitan University and before that as Leeds Polytechnic“

    3. I just ‘googled’ her. She looks quite ‘pale’ so perhaps her hair is a case of ‘cultural appropriation’ to help her look the part when lecturing gullible students about wicked, privileged white people.

          2. It’s about some slaves before and after freedom so it uses terms from that time.

          4. Wot – burn the slaves? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
            Seriously though, it was shocking how badly treated many slaves were, including young children as punishment if the parents ‘misbehaved’, and the way some owners abused girls they owned.

          5. Especially by Arabs and Africans – long before they left the continent.

          6. How about the Moors, who apparently fed their white abused slave girl children to their pet lions when they had finished with them? Or the Ottomans, who castrated all their black male slaves so that they could not have children?

          7. It’s as though certain races are incapable of reform, and will always remain as uncivilised, backward savages.

          9. And why should they be allowed to settle in civilised countries. Everything about them is incompatible with any decent society, and they have no intention to integrate. After all, why bother to learn the language of the tax payers who unwillingly fund their freeloading lifestyle when interpreters are provided for free and everything is handed to them on a plate.

      2. Didn’t you know – she was secretly part-black and had a black nurse…

    5. Not going into detail but there are only seven basic stories. Just about every culture in the world has a Cinderella story and in my library we had the Korean and Iroquois versions. Another one is the mistaken identity or imposter stories and I bet you can think of a few of those- The Return of Martin Guerre for example. The movie Somersby is one too.
      Stories are in every culture and to accuse Beatrix Potter of pinching them from slaves is bonkers.

      1. That’s because the proponents of those accusations are bonkers – with very big chips (whether their own or borrowed) on their shoulders.

    3. A classic case of ‘getting her knick ers in a twist’ – and then some. Reminds me of a certain person who married into our family.

        1. With me being the main target! Having said that, MH was also on the receiving end last summer. Opened his eyes. Other son also a target for whinges, grudges and jealousy. Bit like Harry and his handler except not in the public eye.
          I fear for the mental effect their regular screaming fits have on the children. They will grow up thinking this is normal and acceptable behaviour. Our home was not that way but son has been changed.

      1. The modern equivalent would be concrete boots and a one way trip over the Atlantic in a chopper.

    7. Doesn’t say much for the voters of Nebraska either – but then what do our politicians say about us, except that we have ziltch choice really, except to vote outside mainstream, which most of the electorate is too conditioned to do anything about yet.

    1. The answer was “there is a problem with your submission”

      It will appear that someone has managed to cancel the petition

      unless you tick the tiny box..

      1. Oh, and by the way:

        On this morning’s Sky News there was a lady who ran a recruitment agency stating that these illegal

        immigrants are all highly educated and highly trained.

        How does she know?

        3. Considering most are illiterate, ignorant savages who can’t read that’s quite a claim to make. More likely she wants cheap disposable staff who don’t know the law she can exploit, but hey. I’d take a short guess at her ethnicity too.

          3. “White” covers a multitude of sins – just look at E. Europe or even Ireland.

            Edit: or someone like Harry the Horrible’s “caucasian” wife.

        4. Vast majority of the migrants I know are indeed highly qualified, but are employed by various branches of the NHS and the public sector. They bring in no investment capital, nor do they generate any wealth for the UK. I only know of one exception, a couple who work in agriculture.

          1. Yes, we know a number of highly qualified legal migrants. They work hard and we are delighted that they are being rewarded.

            Our local hospital couldn’t function without legal migrants.

            However the lady on Sky was commenting on the illegal immigrants…………so how does she know?

          2. Why would highly qualified people pay thousands of someone elses’s money to be put in rubber dinghies when it’s much cheaper to fly and show legitimate papers at the airport immigration desk?

        6. Did she look and sound indigenous? (I mean not like certain so-called indigenous types [from E.Europe or the Emerald Isle] which have been in the news for keeping people in slave-like conditions.

      2. I got that then noticed a tiny ‘consent’ box. Ticked that, and it worked.

      1. It does to me, too.

        Some architects are simply snot out of the Devil’s snout.

  46. Off topic
    0/10 for observation.

    The storm on Tuesday night had some very powerful localised gusts of wind. Possibly a whirlwind of nearly hurricane strength judging by the damage inflicted. It is very surprising what a small area was so badly affected.

    I’ve just noticed that three massive oak trees have fallen, fortunately away from the fencing, which is why I didn’t see them until I was working at the boundary. Some of the branches on their own are bigger than many of the trees around them and the trunks are five feet or more in diameter. The main reason is that the hearts of the trees are rotted at ground level

    The amount of cutting and splitting that will be required and the effort in shifting the logs from where they are will amount to quite a few man weeks, but on the plus side we should have enough oak for the wood burners to see us nearly to the end of the decade.

      1. I get a man to do the chain sawing but otherwise I enjoy the work and it’s almost certainly great exercise.

        1. Caroline’s sister’s latest husband is nick-named Action Man (He objected to the first soubriquet I gave him which was Lover Boy).

          He and Caroline’s sister always come to stay with us over the New Year and Lover Boy Action Man always brings a chain saw with him because he loves physical work and keeping fit. He is 6’4″ but is as strong as an ox and weighs just12½ stone at the age of 70. I saw by hand all the wood for which he does not use the chainsaw and this keeps me marginally fit – but not nearly as fit as my brother-in-law.

      2. “Pay him in logs”….!!!!!

        You live in a different world from the rest of us!!

      3. The rule when we came to Brittany 30 years ago was that if you got a chap to chop down trees and cut them into logs he would take half the logs leaving the other half neatly stacked for you.

        We now saw all our own logs ourselves and cut them to 40cm and 50cm lengths appropriate for each of our woodburners. There is nothing more off-pissing than having logs which are too long and thick to fit in the stove.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/764fe3692815e07976ce27a01d16a7710dee5c8243a84092e175add4cdf2bd46.jpg
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13ad521a3fd3796bb3501e18f4aa7090aad61253317a7bdeec68df71562150ca.jpg

  47. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/25/chelsea-flower-show-just-stop-oil-protesters-arrested
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2023/05/25/TELEMMGLPICT000337056757_16850078026830_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqNJjoeBT78QIaYdkJdEY4CnGTJFJS74MYhNY6w3GNbO8.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    Could we please stop pandering to these vermin and just beat the living crap out of them? They’ve ruined months of hard work in a spoiled, petulant, egotistical display of their own self righteous narcissism. They’re not supporting the environment, they’re just brattish toddlers who need to be put bac on training reins.

    1. One of them stated: “I know that by carrying out this action, I risk losing my job, my livelihood and my reputation, but it is what I have to do right now”.

      Don’t worry, you haven’t lost your reputation at all!

      1. …but I have gained a badge of honour from my attention-seeking chums at my daring protest!

    2. Workshy, criminal scum. Time that all bags are searched before entry to these events.

    3. At least one of them should have ended up sat on their arse with their powder tipped over their head.

  48. Blow for Putin as UK marks one year free from Russian gas. 25 May 2023.

    New figures published today show the UK did not import any Russian gas in the 12 months to end of March 2023, while UK gas exports to Europe tripled over the same period.

    It probably helped that we never imported any before. The gas exports were the transfer of the UK’s foreign imports from Norway and the Middle East to Europe via the North Sea pipelines.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/blow-for-putin-as-uk-marks-one-year-free-from-russian-gas

  49. Phasing out petrol and diesel cars is just pie in the sky
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/phasing-out-petrol-and-diesel-cars-is-just-pie-in-the-sky/

    The PTB have been emboldened by the fact that the sheeple happily surrendered their freedom and livelihoods to the Great Covid Scam so they are confident that they will be able to get away with continuing to restrict sheeple’s ability to move about.

    And what is the point of repairing potholes when the plan is to get all ICE cars off the road and make EVs so impractical that nobody will use the roads?

    This BT by a chap called Chris is sensible.

    Chris

    We know it’s not possible for everyone to have an EV. The government and activists know it’s not possible as well, but that’s their plan. They don’t want us to have electric cars, they don’t want ius to have cars at all. The idea of electric cars is a cosy little myth, “Of course you’ll still have a car, it will just be an electric car” so that we’ll accept the phasing out of ICE cars and the imposition of regulations making non-electric cars unuseable, like Low Emissions Zones etc, but then when it’s all in place and we say “But I can’t afford an electric car, there’s nowhere I can charge one, there’s not enough electricity available to charge cars in my area, and there aren’t enough electric cars available anyway”they’ll just say “Oh, you can’t have an electric car? That’s a pity. Oh well, there’s a bus stop at the end of your street, use that”.

    They want you out of your car. They know most people won’t be able to use electric cars, and that electric cars aren’t suitable for what people’s travel needs. They don’t care. They want you out of your car, that’s all that matters to them. Reasoning with these lunat1cs is pointless, all we can do is push back and remove them and their id10tic plans from power so that we can continue to use ICE cars..

    1. Be non-co-operative. The village I used to live in had NO bus service, a car was essential and, at 79 years old, I’m damned if I’m ‘getting on my bike’ even if I had one.

      1. We have to walk a mile to the nearest bus stop. Coming back it’s up a steep hill.

    2. There might be a bus stop at the end of the street, but there’s unlikely to be a bus that gets you where you need to be at the time you need to be there (and more importantly, gets you back again). Idiots who dream up these ideas should be made to live in a rural area without a car.

  50. DT headline:

    “UK net migration hits record high despite Tory pledges

    ONS figures reveal net migration rose to 606,000 by the end of 2022 – a 20 per cent increase on the previous high”

    With the press having been primed with an ‘estimate’ of 700,000 yesterday, are we suposed to feel relief at the lower figure?

    The hell we are!

    1. Let’s face it – the PTB simply DON’T CARE beyond making a few easily forgotten and even more easily broken promises once every 5 years or so. Plus many of the MPs aren’t exactly indigenous.

  51. 372625+ up ticks,

    I do believe ALL decent peoples stand in as his family, RIP.

    Hunt for family of one of the last ‘Pilots of the Caribbean’https://www.dailymail.co.uk › news › article-11893667
    23 Mar 2023 — Retired flight sergeant Peter Brown, died alone at the age of 96 at his London flat in Maida Vale, west London, with no known family, .

  52. Animal rights activists steal sheep from King’s Sandringham estate
    Three women from Animal Rising entered Appleton Farm in Norfolk on Wednesday night
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/05/25/king-charles-sheep-removed-sandringham-estate-activists/

    No comments allowed but what’s the betting that the Idiot King will give his full sympathy and empathetic support to the sheep rustlers. While he’s at it he might also show that he defends all faiths and specifically reaffirms his solidarity with the Muslim faith some of whose adherents are actually barbarically killing and eating the sheep they steal.

      1. Hardly, slit their throats (if they have one) and however, let ’em bleed out. Barbarians.

  54. Think I’m straying into Tom et al. territory, but I found this when clearing up my email inbox…

    MORNING S£X

    She was standing in the kitchen preparing to boil eggs for breakfast,
    wearing only the ‘T’ shirt that she normally slept in.

    As I walked in almost awake, she turned and said softly, ‘You’ve got to make love to me this very moment.’

    My eyes lit up and I thought, ‘I am either still dreaming or this is going to be my lucky day.’

    Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then gave it my all;
    right there on the kitchen table.

    Afterwards she said, ‘Thanks,’ and returned to the stove, her ‘T’ shirt still around her neck.

    A little puzzled, I asked, ‘What was that all about?’

    She explained, ‘The egg timer’s broken.’

    2. We call his sort a “whippet”, Dukke.

      Whip it in … whip it out … wipe it.🤣

      3. Good afternoon, Grizzly

        You were still snapping whippers (rather than whippets) when I first heard that one at prep school.

      2. Rumour has it that Mrs Tastey has written to eggsplain it:
        “oeufs cockhotte”

    2. We are seeing some spectacular sunsets here in WV this week. Apparently due to the wild fires raging in British Columbia, the smoke and ashes are giving us very red sunsets.

  56. 372625+ up ticks

    They’ll be for the chop,

    Animal rights activists steal sheep from King’s Sandringham estate
    Three women from Animal Rising entered Appleton Farm in Norfolk on Wednesday night

    1. I can only hope they have the book thrown at them; but i expect they will be let off by an activist judge with a pat on the head and a mandate to create more trouble.

      1. Epsom has applied for a court injunction to stop the idiots disrupting the Derby. It remains to be seen if plod will arrest the fluckers and if they are detained whether the woke judges will do more than caution them.

          1. The last thing we need is another Emily Davidson – last time the horse was unhurt, next time we might not be so lucky.

    1. How to tell they are poking the right people;

      NOTICE TO USERS IN FRANCE
      Because of French government demands to remove creators from our platform, Rumble is currently unavailable in France. We are challenging these government demands and hope to restore access soon.

      1. The Diia app encourages people to snitch on their neighbours in order that those criticising or otherwise dissenting against the state can be ‘disappeared’.

        The US insisted on its adoption in order to distribute the billions in funding to support the Ukrainian people and to ensure that money is paid directly into their bank accounts.

        Ukraine remains the most corrupt country in Europe. Much of the aid is laundered and never leaves the US Treasury.

        1. to ensure that money is paid directly into their bank accounts

          The Biden’s I suppose?

  58. Animal rights activists steal sheep from King’s Sandringham estate. 25 May 2023.

    Sarah Foy, 23, Rosa Sharkey, 23 and Rose Patterson, 33 claimed the lambs were destined for slaughter as they handed themselves in to a police station in Slough, where they remain in custody.

    The trio armed themselves with placards and slogans including “I rescued the King’s Sheep” at the time they surrendered to officers in Berkshire.

    Video footage released by Animal Rising on Thursday shows the women explaining their actions as they said the lambs were rescued so they could have a “life of freedom” instead of being sent to slaughter so they can be eaten.

    This is idiocy beyond measure. Do these women really believe that farmers are going to provide a safe haven for livestock with no financial return? The moment the population of the UK becomes Vegan or Vegetarian will be followed shortly thereafter by fields being turned over to the production of Soya.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/05/25/king-charles-sheep-removed-sandringham-estate-activists/

    1. Those lambs would not have been born, had it not been for the farmers. Sheep are bred for meat.

    2. Forget the soya, farms are being closed to stop all of that nitrogen abuse.
      It’s bugs for you.

    3. What they really should do is stand out side Halal slaughter houses and listen to the screams. Then get in the way.
      But they don’t have the guts, that seems to be the problem with most protesters they never really seem to attack the problem head on.

    4. What do these ditzy women think the purpose of lambs is? They aren’t field ornaments.

  59. Animal rights activists steal sheep from King’s Sandringham estate. 25 May 2023.

    Sarah Foy, 23, Rosa Sharkey, 23 and Rose Patterson, 33 claimed the lambs were destined for slaughter as they handed themselves in to a police station in Slough, where they remain in custody.

    The trio armed themselves with placards and slogans including “I rescued the King’s Sheep” at the time they surrendered to officers in Berkshire.

    Video footage released by Animal Rising on Thursday shows the women explaining their actions as they said the lambs were rescued so they could have a “life of freedom” instead of being sent to slaughter so they can be eaten.

    This is idiocy beyond measure. Do these women really believe that farmers are going to provide a safe haven for livestock with no financial return? The moment the population of the UK becomes Vegan or Vegetarian will be followed shortly thereafter by fields being turned over to the production of Soya.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/05/25/king-charles-sheep-removed-sandringham-estate-activists/

  60. King Charles meets leaders of all four main Christian faiths in Northern Ireland
    Royal couple are in Armagh as part of their first joint trip outside London since the Coronation
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2023/05/25/king-chares-queen-camilla-armagh-religious-leaders-gulliver/

    There may be different sects and several different churches within the Christian Faith – but there is just one Christian faith – the faith that believes in Jesus Christ.

    The sheer ignorance of the journalists at the Daily Telegraph is staggering. But I wonder if King Charles lll, the Idiot King, is just as ignorant.

    1. I thought the proper term was denomination. There are numerous sects and churches within protestantism, and even Catholics are divided between Western Catholicism, based on Rome and Eastern Catholicism, based on what was Byzantium. Both cities have been over-run by the heathen through history.

      King Charles is the titular head of the Anglican Communion, which includes the Church of Wales (in which my own grandfather was ordained) and the Episcopals of America. This denomination is run by a synod chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Pope Francis is the titular head of Roman Catholics worldwide.

      I do not think either are forbidden to meet those of other denominations or even of other faiths in a quest to find common ground. “Blessed are the peacemakers…” I wonder who said that?

    1. The Caliph demonstrates his ignorance, stupidity and inherent racism every single day.

    2. Didn’t the post mortem actually confirm that George Floyd was a fentanyl addict and that the drug caused the heart attack that killed him and not the poor sod who’s been scapegoated and is, in reality, a political prisoner. As I recall, it was said that Floyd came out with, “I can’t breath” as he got out of the car and before the cop even touched him.

      1. I think they confirmed he’d taken enough fentanyl to kill an ox, but they had to find the policeman guilty.

      2. Correct, but that was supressed because they needed to placate the Black Lies Matter mob.

        An effect of fentanyl is to interfere with take up of oxygen in the lungs giving a feeling of breathlessness, hence the cries of “I can’t Breathe!” BEFORE he was even placed, AT HIS OWN REQUEST, on the ground.

    6. And what is that POS Kahnt talking about now.
      I’ve got more respect for a dog poo disposal bin than him.

    7. Sadie khan – what an imbecile.

      What about Lee Rigby, murdered in daylight and cold blood.

    8. Khan writes, “We stand united in our commitment to root out racism wherever it is found. ”

      Try looking in the mirror you major racist.

  64. From: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/25/inside-labour-plans-populist-raid-debt-spending-spree/

    “The idea that anything that will deliver return on investment in the long term will be done by the market is nonsense,” said George Dibb, an economist at the IPPR think tank. “The Government can be much more patient than investors.”

    These people are fools. Government wastes money, the private sector creates it. Every single time big fat state thinks it is creating wealth all it is really doing is destroying it. These public policy researchers seem completely ignorant of history.

    1. The Institute for Public Policy Research was founded in 1988 by Lord Hollick and Lord Eatwell. The founding director was James Cornford and Tessa Blackstone was the first chair. According to academic Peter Ruben its primary aim was to provide theoretical analysis for modernisers in the UK Labour Party; offering alternatives to free market fundamentalism. WIKIPEDIA

    1. Sunak is more than a fool he is a traitor to this country, As were Cameron, May, andJohnson. And that’s just the Tories. Those poisonous vermin should be thrown in gaol.

      1. Correct, calling him and the previous culprits, fools, is excusing their duplicity.

    2. Sunak is more than a fool he is a traitor to this country, As were Cameron, May, andJohnson. And that’s just the Tories. Those poisonous vermin should be thrown in gaol.

    3. Thanks for posting this. I hadn’t heard of it. What a disgrace.

      And I understood the implications of the raid on ACT in 1997 as did many others. Which is why the BTL market took off. We thought property might be out of the politicians’ grubby hands. How wrong we were.

  68. Buckingham Palace declines to return remains of ‘stolen’ Ethiopian prince, say reports. 25 May 2023.

    Buckingham Palace has reportedly declined a request to return the remains of an Ethiopian prince who came to be buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th century.

    Prince Alemayehu, a claimed descendant of the biblical King Solomon, was taken to England – some say “stolen” – after British soldiers looted his father’s imperial citadel after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868.

    He died aged 18, after an unhappy childhood, and was buried at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at the request of Queen Victoria.

    This is a curious piece. Though it mentions his Mother, the Empress Tiruwork and the circumstances of his coming to the UK it totally fails to mention his father, the Emperor. Why this omission I don’t know. Theodore, who was as mad as a bagful of snakes and just as deadly was overthrown after he held and tortured some Brits in his capital. This was of course when the UK government thought it had some obligations to its citizens. The rescue was a masterpiece that could hardly be bettered nowadays. Just to read the the story in MacDonald’s Flashman on the March is to suffer severe spasms of patriotism. It also refutes all those tales about Africa being a haven of bucolic peace and tranquillity before the arrival of the White Man.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/23/buckingham-palace-remains-ethiopian-prince-alemayehu

    1. Did I also hear it said that Queen Victoria was fond of the young prince and treated him very well?

  69. Buckingham Palace declines to return remains of ‘stolen’ Ethiopian prince, say reports. 25 May 2023.

    Buckingham Palace has reportedly declined a request to return the remains of an Ethiopian prince who came to be buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th century.

    Prince Alemayehu, a claimed descendant of the biblical King Solomon, was taken to England – some say “stolen” – after British soldiers looted his father’s imperial citadel after the Battle of Maqdala in 1868.

    He died aged 18, after an unhappy childhood, and was buried at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle at the request of Queen Victoria.

    This is a curious piece. Though it mentions his Mother, the Empress Tiruwork and the circumstances of his coming to the UK it totally fails to mention his father, the Emperor. Why this omission I don’t know. Theodore, who was as mad as a bagful of snakes and just as deadly was overthrown after he held and tortured some Brits in his capital. This was of course when the UK government thought it had some obligations to its citizens. The rescue was a masterpiece that could hardly be bettered nowadays. Just to read the the story in MacDonald’s Flashman on the March is to suffer severe spasms of patriotism. It also refutes all those tales about Africa being a haven of bucolic peace and tranquillity before the arrival of the White Man.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/23/buckingham-palace-remains-ethiopian-prince-alemayehu

  70. Par Four today.

    Wordle 705 4/6
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    🟨🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 705 4/6

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

    2. Bogie 5 today after a decent run.
      Wordle 705 5/6

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

  71. Afternoon, all. I am not sure what voters’ priorities are. I know what they complain about, but then they go ahead and vote for the very people who are doing what they complain about!

  72. They say you learn something every day. Well, we did today.

    Last weekend I noticed what I thought was a wasp infestation below two (fairly inaccessible) dormer windows. Rang usual wasp man. No reply. Text – no response. Tried another firm this morning. They said someone would call back. They did – 2 minutes later. Chap asked for a very detailed description of the activity and behaviour of the “wasps”. He explained that they were NOT wasps but Mason Bees. Harmless – AND useful polinators. Leave it alone for a couple of months. They’ll push off – then we can clean up the mess.

    I was impresssed. They charge £70 + VAT for a visit. Chap could have come out, looked at the problem and said what he said and presented us with a bill. He didn’t. I’ll certainly use them again.

  74. Eventually it had to happen. I had a reply via PALS from the appointment department in London. Indicating that my appointment for cathater ablation will be either August or September. Why they can’t give me a set date I don’t understand.
    By the time I get there it will be almost in August, or just over two years. It must be some sort of a ‘king record.

      2. My best mate who lives in Bedfordshire went to his GP with his heart problems just over 18 months ago and was done and dusted inside 6 months at Papworth.
        This lot I’ve been delt with are an absolute disgrace.

          1. I investigated making a change from Lister to which has a somewhat bad reputation. I’m not knocking A&E, but to make the change to Papworth might have taken even longer resetting the application.
            Shame.

          2. Tomorrow at 3pm. I have been expecting a cancellation all week but it didn’t happen. So we shall see.

  75. That’s me for today. Good market trip. Nice piece of smoked haddock for supper. Tesco doing 25% off wine. Some gardening done – but, though it is sunny, there is STILL a bitter edge to the constant north wind. I just wish it would stop – but it is forecast for at least a week. When it will be getting near Midsummer’s Day….. So spent time planning a spin in the car on Saturday to visit some churches. All within ten miles and none visited despite living here 39 years!! It will be our 27th Anniversary. What an exceptionally lucky man I am.

    Have a spiffing evening. Quite a good docu on BBC4 about what they are doing to try to “save” Venice.

    A demain – when I have yet another visit to Nursie (as I now call her!!)

    2. I suspect you are both as cosy as a nest of wood-pigeons , Billing and Cooing together for decades

      Church visits are quite special . If there are pillars , I hug them , I can almost feel the centuries of time in the smooth coldness and stillness as my little old heart thumps away against the stone/ marble as I wrap my arms around it .. aren’t I strange ?

      1. No, Belle, well, except for enjoying the ghastly billing and cooing of wood pigeons perhaps.

    3. Terriible Blunder

      28th anniversary….

      Gosh – glad I remembered….!!

          3. It would have been 58 this November had my first wife and I remained together…

          5. My big sis 81 Copthall girl. 60 married years next month. Married at St Mary’s Hendon.
            Poor old BiL not very well. An Old Chomleiean. Spl.

        1. Fortunately – VERY fortunately – she never looks at NoTTL – believing that we are all completely mad, foam-flecked etc etc

          3. She probably thinks it’s your 56th, it will certainly feel like it for the poor woman.

            I’m sure all Nottlers salute her.

    4. Were visiting my sister Sunday who lives near Downham Market.
      Lunch with some nice relatives over from Holland, staying with my niece and her husband their son.
      But back home later.
      Lunch, possible BBQ, with number 3 son and his lady Monday.

    5. Happy anniversary for Sunday, Bill. My gardener came today and cut the lawns and the top of the hedge. It took him no time at all! It normally takes me all day (but then, he is considerably younger than I am and about 6’4″). He finished off the time doing some general weeding and is coming back next week to tackle the ground elder. I don’t know why I didn’t do this before!

      1. Since 2011 I have had a bloke come and cut the grass. Worth every penny.

    6. 40th last summer – spent clearing Mother’s house. Not fun. Going to party a bit in Iceland (the nation, not the supermarket chain) this summer.

    7. Sadly, the DT is not a fan of fish unless it’s been either battered & fried or cut into fingers, coated in breadcrumbs and also fried.

    3. The judicary have just said ‘carry on’ to this scum. He should have been flogged, then beaten, cut off from welfare for life – he and his mother, as there’s no father in that family and half his pay go towards those he has abused for his entire working life.

      And don’t hit him in the mouth. Hit in on the back of the head ot knock him unconscious and then start on him properly.

      1. Couple of stout lads with pickaxe handles could solve most of this carp. Firstborn volunteers.

    2. What was the occasion, Maggie?

      Everyone is well dressed; almost everyone wearing headgear.
      Almost everybody is smiling and there are no thugs 🙂 !!

      1. Tweet
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        Bobbie☀️
        @bo66ie29
        ·
        20h
        Preston, 1901, charmingly introduced to us by a striking man in a top hat. Little did these people know that over 120 years later we would be looking at them smiling and waving their hats towards us from the other side of the lens.

        Steve
        @stevew63
        I think it is the Easter gathering on Avenham Park Preston , still celebrated today with entertainment and a fair and now the children roll eggs down the slopes …

    5. No tatoos, no spitting, no chavs and no bloody foreigners

      The past is definitely another country. Theirs was great. Ours is treated as an open sewer by Left wing communists.

  78. Good evening, Gentlefolk. It’s a big WOW for me, as I’ve just woken up after a 10 hour sleep.

    I haven’t done that for a very long time and I don’t know how it happened.

    It must have been sheer exhaustion coupled with the pain-killers I took.

    I wonder if I can do the double and sleep from 19:00 until the alarm goes off at 06:00 tomorrow morning.

    No harm in trying. So, God bless to you all.

    1. 10 hour sleep? You posted a number of comments on here 6 hours ago and then another 5 hours ago.

      Are you OK?

          1. If only I could somnambulate in the middle of the night to remove excess fluid, and return to bed without waking, I would be very happy.

          4. There’s no rhyme nor reason to my nocturnal wanderings. It can happen at any time during the night … and it does!

            The infuriating thing is that what I have to drink has no bearing on how many times I get up. I can drink very little and still get up: other times I can drink a lot and not have to. What’s that about?

          8. Oscar does that for me; 02.45, 04.45 by the time 06.45 comes round I’m shouting, “go back to sleep, you’ve only just been out!”

          9. For me is worse. Just long enough before the alarm comes on to need to discharge, but not long enough to get another zed or two in before the alarm comes on… so, about 04:30 or so.

      2. I certainly don’t remember. The last thing I do remember is climbing into bed at 08:00 and the next thing I knew was it was 18:38 on the bedside clock.

        1. I suppose it is easy to lose track of time when your sleep patterns have been disrupted for so long.

          Take care.

          1. I scrolled down to find and read those posts and I do, now, remember them.

    2. Are you working nights or some such?

      I have myself just woken from a nap as I’ve been awake for about 30 hours straight and… I can’t do that any more.

      1. It must be over 40 years since I last worked nights. I can’t explain it, Wibbles.

    3. Now all there is to do is to move the sleep to the darker hours.
      Good news, Tom! Proper job!

  79. If I ruled the world (and be very grateful that I don’t) I would ensure that mobs arrived at the houses of all the stop oil protesters and removed absolutely everything that has had oil involved in their lives.

    They would be left naked and on open ground.

    Everything, but everything has had oil contributing, from digging up to manufacturing to transporting, even their eco-friendly wind farms, solar panels etc etc etc would be impossible without oil.

    1. Yep. Then force them to live that way for a few months. Money? Buying things? Barter? They’d be slaves in a field.

      Do the same for all greeniacs. Make them live in the world they want for others. The problem is, they’re fanatics. They have no concept of right or wrong and just demand their own way. They’re nothing but spoiled children.

      1. Months? Years, decades even.
        Anyhow, it’s OK as long as someone else does the suffering and dying.

        1. A few months would see them made miserable and forced to accept that they are wrong in everything they say and do. These are weak, pathetic people.

    2. I have somewhere a book b a Professor that demonstrates hwo oil has contributed to a significant reduction in poverty and suffering in the world, by delivering cheap energy and lots of money. But, who cares as long as middle-class kids get their prejudices reinforced?

      1. Mad Max was a world without oil. It’s not too far wrong. The problem greeniacs have is that they think everything would carry on as before. It won’t. Primarily when the police have no fuel and phones have no electricity there’ll be no one to come rescue them when they’re strung up.

        1. and we all wear bamboo underpants, everthing is done by hand and so fantastically expensive as a result, there’s no light unless it’s by whale oil lamp (!) and bugger-all to eat.

        2. and we all wear bamboo underpants, everthing is done by hand and so fantastically expensive as a result, there’s no light unless it’s by whale oil lamp (!) and bugger-all to eat.

    1. My grandfather used to to be a rabbit catcher on Caldey Island in the early part of last century….Tenby

      1. Now there’s a history that won’t often be told.
        Good on your Granddad.

    2. You’d think those rabbits’d organise, get themselves from surface to air missiles off Sunak.

    4. Do these programme makers not realise how intrusive that background music is? And unnecessary?

  81. Totally OT- I was looking for something on YT and I came across a video of Patricia Routledge, Helen Shapiro and a man, Colm someone, singing show songs.
    I’d seen a few episodes of Hyacinth Bucket in US and knew she could sing proper like. The big surprise was Helen Shapiro. I vaguely recall her as a young pop star way back, and don’t forget how very young I am;-)
    What a truly wonderful voice she has/had and was well able to match Routledge. I think this was recorded some years ago but it was super. I shall search for more clips.
    Oh, and what a superb commedienne Routledge is.

      1. Yes, but this was a very different thing. I don’t remember her hits but she sure can sing.

        1. Yes, I am. We moved into our house in sarf London in 1960, I was 6, and we had a feeble TV and no record player and the only wireless was in the kitchen. Music stations were never played.
          Until I took the old bakelite radio upstairs to my room to listen to Radio London or whatever. Sadly, I dropped the radio as I brought it back downstairs and it shattered.
          Result- my mother got a decent Roberts radio for the kitchen and I got a transistor radio. That must have been mid 60s so I did miss a lot.

      3. The last time I saw Helen Shapiro was on an attempted revival of the Simon Dee TV show. She was one of his guests. The show lasted just a single episode because his format had become so outdated.

    2. I have Walking Back to Happiness in my record collection. I remember buying it in Barnard’s Green Malvern when it came out.

    3. Go to You Tube. There are more than a dozen of her swings on there plus a recording of an LP

  82. It’s a repeat and I’ve seen it several times before, but I really enjoy Fred Dibnah’s programmes.

    3. Wiping off the illegal migration dinghy figures in tomorrow’s msm front pages and headlines? Whooosh…. and down the memory hole they go.

  84. Just had a couple of glasses of wine at our local “cheapo” Italian.
    I’m blown away. The smell alone was of warm, comfortable, sundown over the Med, relaxing with friends.
    Family reckon I’m daft. How can a smell reprresent anything physical, let alone emotional…?
    I tried to buy a bottle, but licensing laws… 🙁
    For reference, its Barbera d’Asti La Villa.
    Peace and happiness in a bottle. Cin cin!

    1. Now I’m remembering my beautiful friend Elaine. Married into the Mafia in Sicily. Killed herself about 20 years ago. Two small sons then. Now I’m in pieces. Best go to bed. ‘Night, all Y’all.

    2. Barbera d’Asti has long been one of my favourites, Paul. Nero d’Avolo is another.

      Smells do indeed invoke memories. I have a number that immediately transport me to specific places in my past.

    3. Scents are very evocative….cinnamon, Christmas for example.

      I am imbibing some Pinot, as is my wont, to enable sleep before the morrow.

    4. Smell can trigger some of our strongest memories because the same brain areas that process them are responsible for memory and learning.

      2. When our recently passed, lovely elderly labrador use to lay on her fluffy rug and fart as we sat and watch TV in the evenings. That’s was nearly always memorable. 🤭🥴

  85. “Armed forces race to buy electric tanks in boost for British weapons maker”. DT Hope they have plenty of charging points in Russia. There is something not quite right in trying to save the world by converting a fighting machine to electric whilst accepting the horror that war will bring by the use of these vehicles.

    1. Are they solar powered? Or do they think that they’ll find charging points on a battlefield? Rommel’s tanks ground to a halt when we cut off their fuel supplies; does nobody learn from history?

      1. Maybe they’ll develop solar powered tanks to use in wars in sandy places.

    2. i have just seen some canadian idjut bragging about canada being at the forefront of electrification of forces equipment.

      Sorry, our inclusive, gender equal army cannot come out to play – our tanks will not be fully charged until 3PM.

      Where on earth do they dig them up?

  86. I’ve got that feeling when I just know it’s bed time.
    So that’s it folks. Goodnight all. 😴

  88. Going to bed soon. Bracing for tomorrow. No coward soul is mine, as the great Emily Bronte said.
    Easier said than done.
    I wish Y’all good sleep.

  89. Evening all! We’re back from the AGM of the Music Society. Business part was followed by wine and nibbles and then a talk about JS Bach as storyteller.
    But not much talk – more a recital as the lady played several pieces from the Cello Suites but on the viola. So an unexpected pleasure. She also played an Elegy by Russian composer.

        1. Ours corrected downwards as the weekend approaches. Now 25C, and falling.
          I’d like a spot of hot.

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