Thursday 25 September: Is Labour capable of grasping that further tax rises are not the answer?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

503 thoughts on “Thursday 25 September: Is Labour capable of grasping that further tax rises are not the answer?”

      2. Doesn't look like a duck. I think it's a Canada goose. All they do is shit in places they are not wanted. It will taste like shit too.

  3. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe site. Wow – I got an EAGLE with today's Wordle!

    Wordle 1,559 2/6

    🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Good morning Elsie and all
      well done!
      Wordle 1,559 3/6

      🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜🟩🟩🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. I still do, Conners, and I have a complete collection from its start to the day Marcus Morris left as editor.

          2. I confess that I wasn’t aware of that, Conners. I mainly looked at the cartoon (in full colour and in B&W.) Exceptions were “The Three Js” (John, Jimmy and Jacko) plus editorials signed by Marcus Morris.

    1. He must be good at picking locks because there isn't a lunatic asylum in the UK that he hasn't managed to escape from.

  6. Good morning, everyone.
    "Speeding-fine money should be handed to police so they can catch more law-breaking drivers, Rachel Reeves has been urged…"
    How about spending it on dealing with knife crime, rape and burglary?

    1. NOT their priority according to our PCC. That’s hate crime. If we weren’t so law abiding he’d have been lynched. That was a while ago. The mood is very different now.

  8. Starmer’s plan to scrap amnesty for Troubles veterans faces Supreme Court challenge

    Conservatives to support legal move backing immunity for retired British troops who ‘risked their lives to protect us from terrorism’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/24/keir-starmer-troubles-amnesty-veterans-supreme-court

    Shaun Nelson
    15 hrs ago
    Starmer appointed Hermer as Attorney General.

    Hermer defended Gerry Adams.

    Starmer said Corbyn would make a great PM.

    Corbyn supported Sinn Fein and never called out IRA atrocities.

    Starmer, a message from an ex Soldier who took on the IRA.

    Don't you ever use the flag i was prepared to lay down my life for as a prop.🇬🇧

    I question your Patriotism to my Country!😡

    Jane Marple
    2 min ago
    Well given that Starmer defended IRA members in NI during his human rights legal career , why am I not surprised. It would appear that a pro IRA amnesty was fine to get Blair’s peace deal through, but there is no loyalty whatsoever for those who served in HM armed forces.

    2. I think that Starmer's mother may have had a very 'close' relationship with Hemer's father. Hermer and Starmer are from, the same noxious and malevolent DNA.

    3. Starmer hates this country and its indigenous people, especially those who are prepared to serve it.

    1. I can't argue with that.

      Although the previous five years under the buffoon, Major, contributed in no small part.

    1. "More work to do in the garden"? I reckon you are Bob of Bonsall, and I claim my five BoB postal order. Lol. (Good morning, btw.)

      1. Not quite such heavy work as Bob does! But I've planted the 120 dwarf narcissus and cut back the buddleia and one of the flower beds needs attention.

  13. Good morning all.
    A tad under 8°C today with clear skies and the sun shining on the valley side opposite with very little wind.

    1. 413517+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      We seem to have a great many Maladaptive on board in the shape of PM starmer (THE TOOL ) and his political kit plus followers.

  17. now this is interesting.

    “Sir
    Sheffield City Council is to encourage residents to have coffin-free burials amid a shortage of cemetery space (report, September 17).

    Councillors might be interested to know that, until the British funeral industry developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, only the upper classes were buried in coffins.

    Before then, a bier would normally be kept in the parish church, available for community use. These were moveable frames on which a coffin or corpse was placed, to be carried to the grave. Typically, the bodies of the poor were transported from their home to the church and then to the graveyard on the parish bier. These often came with what were known as “slip coffins”, which had hinges on the bottom to allow the shrouded body to be dropped into the grave. The coffin would then be returned to the church for reuse.

    Richard Stranack

    The German word for coffin is “Bier”, of course, which now makes me wonder of the etymology of the word “coffin”.

    2. Coffin used to be a pastry case.
      I would imagine mediaeval and Tudor pastry was pretty inedible; more a container for dead meat and vegetables.

    3. https://www.etymonline.com/word/coffin

      coffin(n.)
      early 14c., "chest or box for valuables," from Old French cofin "sarcophagus," earlier "basket, coffer" (12c., Modern French coffin), from Latin cophinus "basket, hamper" (source of Italian cofano, Spanish cuebano "basket"), from Greek kophinos "a basket," which is of uncertain origin.

      Funereal sense "chest or box in which the dead human body is placed for burial" is from 1520s; before that the main secondary sense in English was "pie crust, a mold or casing of pastry for a pie" (late 14c.). Meaning "vehicle regarded as unsafe" is from 1830s. Coffin nail "cigarette" is slang from 1880; nail in (one's) coffin "thing that hastens or contributes to one's death" is by 1792.

    1. Every Labour MP should be on it. They are waving all the destruction through in the House of Commons – probably in most cases they are too stupid to realise the implications of their actions.

  21. ”Claiming that Britain has a two-tier justice system is “disgusting” and “wrong”. Or so said Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, in an interview with the BBC this summer. I thank His Lordship for this valiant attempt to reassure us. But I hope he will forgive me if I confess that I still have one or two doubts.

    After the murder of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month, for example, a young Left-wing woman in Kent posted a video on social media, in which she uttered the words, “F—ing kill them all.” Having reviewed the footage, police decided that “no offences were committed”. This came as rather a surprise to those of us who recall that, after Lucy Connolly made an inflammatory post on social media, she was swiftly sentenced to 31 months in prison.

    This week, though, we read a story that’s even more troubling. In February, outside the Turkish consulate in London, a man set light to the Koran. On seeing this, a Muslim man shouted, “I’m going to kill you”, and violently attacked him with a knife.
    The first of those two men was convicted three months ago of a religiously aggravated public order offence, and is now living in hiding, having been warned by police that there are several credible threats to his life. But what about the second man, the one with the knife? The one who later told police that he’d merely been trying to “protect my religion”? What happened to him?

    Well, here’s your answer. At Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, he was spared prison. All he got was a 20-week suspended sentence, 150 hours of unpaid work, 10 days of rehabilitation activity, and a bill for £150 in court costs.

    I know I’m not alone in feeling that this punishment was possibly a touch on the lenient side. As the Free Speech Union put it: “Had a knife-wielding white male pleaded guilty to attacking a Muslim for breaching a Christian blasphemy code, you can bet your bottom dollar he would have gone to prison.”

    The above story, however, won’t just increase fears about two-tier justice. It will also leave many British people agreeing with the view of Nick Timothy, the Tory MP for West Suffolk. On Tuesday, he declared it “beyond doubt” that this country now has de facto “blasphemy laws” – which protect one religion alone. And if he’s right, even the most naive liberal will have to accept the ugly truth: multiculturalism has failed.
    For a multicultural society to have any chance of succeeding, everyone in it, of every background, must be treated equally. We can’t go treating one group’s holy book as if it were more important than another holy book. And we can’t go treating an insult against one religion as a graver offence than an insult against other religions.

    Well, I say we can’t. But we do, don’t we? Then again, perhaps we feel we have no choice. In this country, after all, we don’t hear many stories of enraged Christians trying to stab people for setting light to the Bible.

    Nor do we hear many stories about a non-Christian mother having to visit a local church to plead for mercy, after her autistic 14-year-old son accidentally scuffed a copy of the Bible. Nor, for that matter, do we hear many stories about furious mobs of Christians protesting outside a school because a teacher has dared to show his pupils an image of Jesus.

    So, if we do now have de facto blasphemy laws for one religion alone, it may simply be because our authorities are terrified of what might happen if we didn’t. Forget equal treatment. In multicultural Britain, the number one priority is to avoid “community tensions”. And I think we know which community’s tensions worry them most of all.

    Cowardice, however, won’t solve anything. In the long run, it’s bound to cause ever greater resentment. A few months ago, Sir Keir Starmer said: “When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration.”

    Today, that plea sounds more forlorn than ever. Some people who come to our country, it’s quite clear, don’t think they should have to integrate with our customs. They think we should have to integrate with theirs.

    All I can say is: just wait until the Government unveils its official new definition of Islamophobia. I’m sure that will calm things down.”

    Michael deacon, writing well again.

    1. Sorry Less. I wasn't aware that you had posted this. I have done so above. But I will remove it and put Mayer Tousi's video up instead, on the same subject.

  22. Is Labour capable of grasping that further tax rises are not the answer?

    That depends on what the question is.

  23. First they came for the Jews…
    Douglas Murray

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/GettyImages-1742614781.jpg?resize=1536,1023

    It was moving to watch Keir Starmer announce this week, from a corridor in Downing Street, that his government has decided to recognise a state of Palestine. Starmer took this bold action at the same time as his French, Canadian and Australian counterparts. But as with Emmanuel Macron, Mark Carney and someone called Anthony Albanese, he seemed to be labouring under a number of misunderstandings.

    The first was that it makes any difference. Starmer and his counterparts overseas appear to be under the misapprehension that the creation of states still lies in their hands. I had thought that the present generation of leftists looked down on imperialist western powers making their colonialist interventions in foreign regions. But apparently not if the ‘state’ in question is called ‘Palestine’.

    The second reason the announcement was so unimportant is that not one of the prerequisites for Palestinian statehood exists. There is no coherent Palestinian leadership. Nor is there any contiguous Palestinian territory. There is now vague insistence on elections, but the last time the Palestinians had an election they voted in Hamas.

    There is no agreement on what relations between ‘Palestine’ and its closest neighbour would be. And there is not even any agreement on ‘Palestine’s’ capital. Who will oversee education in this new state? Will it be another wonderful UN organisation, which allows jihadists to indoctrinate another generation of Palestinians into the idea that their highest purpose in life is to eradicate the Jews? Will there be an airport, or an army?

    Perhaps Starmer, David Lammy and Yvette Cooper have a clear plan – or ‘roadmap’ – to answer all of these questions, also explaining their precise population swap proposals for areas A, B and C of Judea and Samaria. And I am assuming that after our government has worked out whose territory is whose and let the locals know that they are ready to send British troops to sort it out, there will be an enormous amount of good feeling in the region, on all sides, towards the arrival of these British protectors.

    So what exactly is the point of recognising something that does not exist and will not be agreed on? Hamas responded to the announcements by thanking Starmer and his counterparts. In their eyes, statehood recognition is a reward for the massacres they carried out on 7 October 2023 and the two years of war that have followed. It is a terrific lesson to have taught the terrorists in Gaza, as elsewhere, that all you have to do if you want to gain a state you repeatedly rejected is to break into villages and murder and rape your way through them, taking hostages along the way. It rather amazes me that, given the success of Hamas’s actions, people with a much greater cause for statehood – such as the Kurds – do not decide to go a-raping and a-burning in neighbouring villages too. But perhaps that is a point for another day.

    In the meantime, it took the US secretary of state Marco Rubio to make the point that none of our politicians would: the principal reason these governments have behaved as they have has nothing to do with international affairs. Previous governments have tried for more than a century to persuade the Palestinians to accept a state which lives beside its Jewish neighbour. Every iteration of Palestinian leadership since then and right up to this moment is in agreement that a state of Palestine must consist of all the neighbourhood – including Israel – and that this Palestinian state must be entirely clear of Jews.

    So, no, none of this has anything to do with a negotiating breakthrough. It has to do– as Rubio said – with domestic political pressure in each western country. As well as pointing out that these ‘recognitions’ have helped derail negotiations with Hamas for their surrender of the remaining 48 hostages, Rubio observed that Britain and co only recognised a state of Palestine because our country’s immigration policies mean we have been ‘flooded with foreigners who have become politically active and are insisting their government do these sorts of things’.

    That is not language that any British politician would like to use. It would lead to tortured debates on the sofas of the BBC if they did. Yet Rubio is right. In the past two years I have spent time in each of the countries that just recognised Palestinian statehood and in each of them the same pattern can be observed. From Canada to Australia, the UK to France, each of these four countries has seen repeated disturbances by Muslim immigrants demanding a ‘free Palestine’.

    Of course it isn’t just immigrants. It is also the strange lost souls who have decided that their life’s purpose can best be found by dyeing their hair blue, wearing some Palestinian terrorist-chic headscarf and insisting that no one will be free until ‘Palestine’ is free.

    If you think that the intimidation by these curious mobs doesn’t have an effect, cast your mind back to how a Palestinian protest altered the course of parliamentary procedures in Westminster early last year. As the then prime minister Rishi Sunak said at the time, there is a ‘growing consensus that mob rule is replacing democratic rule’ – an observation that was no sooner made than it was ignored. Or look at Italy, where Giorgia Meloni’s government failed to join in this week’s statehood stampede. In response, a mob marched through the centre of Milan in their regulation keffiyehs and smashed up whatever buildings they could find.

    There may be a day when a Palestinian state could exist. But the conditions for that state to exist do not currently exist. Starmer and the others have done nothing to help peace in the Middle East. But I suppose they have managed to put off facing up to our own problems for another day, and kept a degree of peace at home – for now

    ****************************

    Marius
    2 hours ago
    I fear the consequences of Starmer's craven decision will be worse for Britain than for Israel. Muslims see that they can get what they want nationally, not just in the rotten boroughs they inhabit. Their desire to integrate, civilise or even tolerate their native neighbours is at an all time low. There will soon be a national Islamist party which doesn't feel the need for a lefty figleaf.

    Paul Rowntree Marius
    an hour ago
    Their desire to integrate, civilise or even tolerate their native neighbours is at an all time low.

    Apart from a handful of secular cultural muslims, muslims have no desire to integrate with the inferior infidels, Islam being a theocratic ideology that governs the minutiae of daily life. They require tolerance of their uncivilised beliefs, but will not tolerate any criticism of them. As such, Islam is incompatible with Western culture.

    Veritas numquam perit
    3 hours ago edited
    The Palestinian people have got exactly the cities they deserve, and the genocidal society they voted for. To be clear what they openly teach their children would make a ww2 german blush. It takes a special kind of idiot to reverse the victims on Oct 7th, but luckily for them, Canada, France, Aus and the UK each have 6th form governments in power. These imbeciles are incapable of joined up thinking, repercussion or monetary sanity. So if the so called Palestians people think things are bad now, just wait until Rachel from accounts fixes your finances, swivel eyed Ed your energy and ECHR Starmer your sovereignty.

    1. The closest parallel might well be the townships of South Africa during the Apartheid era. The national premise of ethnic supremacy of one faction over all others upon which the "Homeland for the Jews" was set up, was mirrored in South Africa's favouring of the white settlers, on the grounds that it was they that built things, fed the people and civilised the place.

      There was even a "two state" system set up. Who remembers the two entries for Miss World: Miss South Africa and Miss Africa South?

      I do not agree with you that Gaza should be the model for city living in the 21st century. We can do better than this, and I'm sorry that systematic demolition is considered by some to be the way to create a civilised world.

      Taking your final paragraph, would you say that the Polish people got the cities they deserve when Warsaw was razed to the ground, and Krakow was only preserved because the Nazis needed somewhere nice to base themselves?

  24. Morning all 🙂😊🤗
    Sunny start only 7c. Lots of vapour trails. No rain forecast.
    But…Are any of our past and present overself opinionated politicians able to grasp anything at all, except their salary cheques, the bungs and expenses claims. After all they all seem to know and completely and understand every single notion of life's circumstances before and after they have even occurred.

  26. Go easy on Starmer.. this Andy Burnham chap will revive Labour and trounce ideas-challenged Farage.

    Mainstream Organisation the centre-left political network will propel Andy Burnham to the Labour leadership. Instead of aping anti-migrant rhetoric they will go full steam with radical Leftidom including;

    German style proportional representation..
    Five cities plan which would see Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Belfast and Dublin, working more closely together to encourage healthy economic growth and other forms of development..
    Tearing up the Barnett Formula..
    Changes to the Treasury Green Book, which favours investment in the south east of England over the north..
    A written constitution and basic law..
    Scrap the whip system..
    Increase devolved powers to the region..
    Scrap the House of Lords..
    Higher council tax on expensive homes in London and the South East..
    Massive build of council houses..
    Income tax cuts for lower earners..
    50p rate for the highest-paid..

    And you know what.. he'll win against Farage.

  27. 413517+ up ticks,

    Lucky Luciano tagged our top ranking politicp's right
    as being " the commission" so this latest battle internally will commence, as the invasion masses daily sweep ashore in greater numbers.
    Dt,
    Andy Burnham: MPs want me to challenge Starmer
    Manchester mayor sets out his manifesto in clearest hint yet that he is considering return to Westminster

    1. Summary.. at yesterday's close of business 43.86% of all Muslims in UK must be deported.
      And that's the Achilles Heel of the Leftiedom.

    2. Summary.. at yesterday's close of business 43.86% of all Muslims in UK must be deported.
      And that's the Achilles Heel of the Leftiedom.

  29. The Left keep saying that if only the fascist, racist, Islamophobic, misogynistic, peado, Far Right would cut down on their hate speech then there would far less violence towards politicians and it will calm the situation.
    By hate speech they mean questioning and holding to account our failing, non existent border control, the madness of net zero and mourning the assassination of a close colleague.
    The Left never fails to hyper inflate hypocrisy when on the ropes.

    4. One in – one out? So far in the first week: 1,577 in – 3 out. A trifling misbalance. And that's just the illegal immigrants. Almost a million people moved to the UK legally in 2024. We are being swamped.

      1. I haven’t heard that phrase for decades. My addled memory us that it was Humphrey Lestocq’s.

    7. If they organised societal integration courses with the first lesson being adopting European dress the chap on the right of the photo is doing better than his wife.

  31. Britain has a de facto blasphemy law, but it only protects one religion
    The leniency shown to a knife-wielding Muslim man will simply stoke resentment
    Michael Deacon : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/09/25/britain-de-facto-blasphemy-law-only-protects-islam/

    And we all know which side both Starmer and the Idiot King are on.

    BTL
    History has told us over and over again that Islam and Christianity cannot coexist peacefully. History has also told us that Islam wants to suppress all other religions until it becomes the only one.

    So either Christianity must yield or Islam must yield. Which one will it be?

    (We all know on which side the Idiot King and Starmer will be.)

    1. The turd Hermer, unelected Attorney General and bosom friend of Starmer, is possibly the greatest enemy of Britain and the British people. A latter-day Schicklgruber.

      1. He ought to be put in manacles and dragged to The Tower of London which used to be what happened to traitors.

        A new government will then need to employ capable hangers, drawers and quarterers!

      2. Hitler never had the name 'Schicklgruber'.

        It was a name other members of his extended family had but Adolf was only ever known as Hitler.

        1. His father was the bastard child of Maria Schicklgruber – His father was Alois Schicklgruber. Everyone knew him as a Schiklegruber. British squaddies called him Schicklegruber. It was a derogatory nickname. I thought everyone knew that.

          1. Indeed, I did know that it was a common derogatory name for him, but that still doesn’t mean that Adolf was actually called “Schicklgruber” … at any time of his life.

            From Wikipedia: Hitler’s father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate child of Maria Schicklgruber. The baptismal register did not show the name of his father, and Alois initially bore his mother’s surname, “Schicklgruber”. In 1842, Johann Georg Hiedler married Alois’s mother. Alois was brought up in the family of Hiedler’s brother, Johann Nepomuk Hiedler. Alois worked as a civil servant from 1855 until his retirement in 1895. In 1876, Alois was made legitimate and his baptismal record annotated by a priest to register Johann Georg Hiedler as Alois’s father (recorded as “Georg Hitler”). Alois then assumed the surname “Hitler”, also spelled “Hiedler”, “Hüttler”, or “Huettler”. The name is probably based on the German word Hütte (lit. ’hut’), and has the meaning “one who lives in a hut”.

            Alois assumed the name “Hitler” (in 1876), 13 years before Adolf was born (in 1889).

  32. Started off so promising:
    Wordle 1,559 4/6

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

    1. The SPADS on overtime.. spouting the one hundred & eighty degree opposite of what he implements.

      protecting our long tradition of free speech..
      protecting the borders of the country wot I love..
      making sure we don't become an island of strangers..
      taking back control of the flag wot Emily & I love..
      moving power outside of Islington..
      choosing renewal over division..
      delivering real growth..
      protecting our little girls against the white male rape gangs..

    2. The logical answer for young couples faced with the decision about whether to have another child, is to go on benefits for a few years to do so. Otherwise, they are simply forced to support other people's children without being able to afford their own.

  35. Good Moaning.
    Colchester "Tapestry" off to the framer this morning.
    At least it's a journey of a few miles rather than from Normandy to England.
    And no politicians are involved.

    1. Congratulations! Did I miss your posting a photo, or are you waiting for its full framed glory?

    1. Tut, tut. All that salt.
      A pill shaped lump of Cheddar works just as well.
      (Oooops …… Spartie's looking over my shoulder.)

    2. That is beyond embarrassing! None of them are fit-for-purpose.

      They wouldn't have lasted five minutes on my shift before being handed their P45s.

        1. Your semantic point might well be valid, but, when I asked the question online (various dictionaries)"

          "Is none of them are fit-for-purpose" correct or not? The universal answer given was:

          Yes, "None of them are fit for purpose" is grammatically correct, as it follows the common practice of using a plural verb with "none" when referring to a plural noun, though a singular verb is also acceptable, particularly in more formal contexts.

          2. The below explanation tells why it is not wrong, merely a valid alternative to using 'is'.

            Why it's correct:

            Common Usage: Many speakers and writers use a plural verb ("are") after "none of them" because the focus is on the individual items ("them") that are collectively not fit.

            Agreement with "them": The verb agrees with the pronoun "them," which is plural.

            Alternative (more formal):

            Singular Verb: You can also use a singular verb, as "none" can be treated as a singular indefinite pronoun. For example, "None of them is fit for purpose" is also grammatically correct and is sometimes considered more formal.

            Examples in Context:

            "The candidates were interviewed, but none of them are fit for purpose for the demanding role."

            "After reviewing the designs, we concluded that none of them are fit for purpose and will need to be revised."

    3. Can none of them actually pick a lock? What utter cretins.

      I have to give kudos to the gardener though. That hedge is immaculately trimmed at a perfect 90' angle.

  38. Morning, all Y'all.
    Late today as finally achieved holiday feeling as a result of about a gallon of good cider, a gutload of boeuf bourgignon and unlimited zeds. Wonderful! Proper breakfast including several pork products and Black Pudding of an especially finely distributed fat content.
    Magic!

    1. I'd love to get some proper black pudding here, Paul, with massive chunks of 'white bits' in it!

    1. Did the Deliveroo (?) cyclist get traced to prosecute him for assaulting the man on the ground?
      I doubt it.

  40. I have just had a new junk call…it is telling me that "my crypto wallet" has been locked for security reasons, and that I should press 1 to get help unlocking it…

    1. I had a junk call early last week telling me that BT would be in the local area and temporarily disconnecting internet access for 4 days while works were being carried out. However, a temporary internet link would be provided but that it would entail signing on to this link. The caller had an Indian accent, did not ask who I was nor ask to speak to a named person. I was suspicious throughout, eventually said as much and ended the call. Needless to say, at no point since has the internet connection been cut nor has there been any sign of BT operatives in the area. Even so, it's easy to see how the more credulous can be taken in by these scammers.

  41. Let's hope it sets a healthy precedent for every revolting political rat.

    France's ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy is found GUILTY of criminal conspiracy as shocked wife Carla Bruni looks on in court – and he now faces seven years in prison

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15132463/Frances-ex-President-Nicolas-Sarkozy-arrives-court-wife-Carla-Bruni-learn-fate-faces-seven-years-jail-financing-scandal.html

    The problem will be getting courts to convict any left of centre politicians.

    1. Just been for a haircut and mentioned the case to the barber.
      His immediate comment was that the courts are of the left and a left wing politician would be very unlikely to end up both guilty and then imprisoned.

      1. 413517+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,

        I believe that when you have 48% voting for eu dictatorship, anything goes.

    2. People who do this do not deserve to live.

      But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

      [St Matthew XVIII. vi]

  43. Michael Deacon
    Britain has a de facto blasphemy law, but it only protects one religion

    The leniency shown to a knife-wielding Muslim man will simply stoke resentment

    Claiming that Britain has a two-tier justice system is “disgusting” and “wrong”. Or so said Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, in an interview with the BBC this summer. I thank His Lordship for this valiant attempt to reassure us. But I hope he will forgive me if I confess that I still have one or two doubts.

    After the murder of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk earlier this month, for example, a young Left-wing woman in Kent posted a video on social media, in which she uttered the words, “F—ing kill them all.” Having reviewed the footage, police decided that “no offences were committed”. This came as rather a surprise to those of us who recall that, after Lucy Connolly made an inflammatory post on social media, she was swiftly sentenced to 31 months in prison.

    This week, though, we read a story that’s even more troubling. In February, outside the Turkish consulate in London, a man set light to the Koran. On seeing this, a Muslim man shouted, “I’m going to kill you”, and violently attacked him with a knife.

    The first of those two men was convicted three months ago of a religiously aggravated public order offence, and is now living in hiding, having been warned by police that there are several credible threats to his life. But what about the second man, the one with the knife? The one who later told police that he’d merely been trying to “protect my religion”? What happened to him?

    Well, here’s your answer. At Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday, he was spared prison. All he got was a 20-week suspended sentence, 150 hours of unpaid work, 10 days of rehabilitation activity, and a bill for £150 in court costs.

    I know I’m not alone in feeling that this punishment was possibly a touch on the lenient side. As the Free Speech Union put it: “Had a knife-wielding white male pleaded guilty to attacking a Muslim for breaching a Christian blasphemy code, you can bet your bottom dollar he would have gone to prison.”

    The above story, however, won’t just increase fears about two-tier justice. It will also leave many British people agreeing with the view of Nick Timothy, the Tory MP for West Suffolk. On Tuesday, he declared it “beyond doubt” that this country now has de facto “blasphemy laws” – which protect one religion alone. And if he’s right, even the most naive liberal will have to accept the ugly truth: multiculturalism has failed.

    For a multicultural society to have any chance of succeeding, everyone in it, of every background, must be treated equally. We can’t go treating one group’s holy book as if it were more important than another holy book. And we can’t go treating an insult against one religion as a graver offence than an insult against other religions.

    Well, I say we can’t. But we do, don’t we? Then again, perhaps we feel we have no choice. In this country, after all, we don’t hear many stories of enraged Christians trying to stab people for setting light to the Bible.

    Nor do we hear many stories about a non-Christian mother having to visit a local church to plead for mercy, after her autistic 14-year-old son accidentally scuffed a copy of the Bible. Nor, for that matter, do we hear many stories about furious mobs of Christians protesting outside a school because a teacher has dared to show his pupils an image of Jesus.

    So, if we do now have de facto blasphemy laws for one religion alone, it may simply be because our authorities are terrified of what might happen if we didn’t. Forget equal treatment. In multicultural Britain, the number one priority is to avoid “community tensions”. And I think we know which community’s tensions worry them most of all.

    Cowardice, however, won’t solve anything. In the long run, it’s bound to cause ever greater resentment. A few months ago, Sir Keir Starmer said: “When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration.”

    Today, that plea sounds more forlorn than ever. Some people who come to our country, it’s quite clear, don’t think they should have to integrate with our customs. They think we should have to integrate with theirs.

    All I can say is: just wait till the Government unveils its official new definition of Islamophobia. I’m sure that will calm things down.

    *******************************

    Malcolm Tod
    just now
    Multiculturalism was never going to happen when these religions do not have any of our values or tolerance for free speech (which is fast disappearing). They have their own courts, the subjugation of women's rights and a hatred for the west.

    Dagenham Dave
    3 hrs ago
    the law should protect us from all knife wielding savages. Attacking anyone whilst holding a knife should attract at least 10 years in prison

    Peter Dickinson
    2 hrs ago
    Reply to China Sing
    There is but he did more than imply carry a knife. He went back into his home to get a knife specifically to attack him.

    Peter Dickinson
    3 hrs ago
    Islam's success has always been the product of intimidation. Over 1,000 years of oppressing both its followers and critics it has been very successful. It is completely incompatible with liberal democracy and secular law.

    1. "Peter Dickinson
      3 hrs ago
      Islam's success has always been the product of intimidation. Over 1,000 years of oppressing both its followers and critics it has been very successful. It is completely incompatible with liberal democracy and secular law."

      Just like our last few governments.

      1. History has told us over and over again that Islam and Christianity cannot coexist peacefully. History has also told us that Islam wants to suppress all other religions until it becomes the only one.

        So either Christianity must yield or Islam must yield. Which one will it be?

        We all know on which side the Idiot King and Starmer will be.

    2. Our successive weak and pathetic government's are responsible for what is happening to our country today, it's been backing off from taking direct control of Islamic agression for decades.
      I expect the threat of organised riots violence and arson has been made, so instead of our pathetic political classes standing up for our long established culture and social structure. They decided to let it be wrecked.

    3. Great. Crank it up.. to max volume 11.
      The more outrageous the better.
      The more disparate the better.
      When even a mid-wit like Camilla Tominey wakes up. (as if).

  45. Morning everyone. Just having a coffee in the cafe next to the surgery. I have managed to get an appointment appointment for next week to see about my SIJ. Today was for my knee.
    The short answer to the headline is NO!

  46. When the first person is taken to court under the coming new Islamophobia Laws, I wonder if the accused could employ a clever lawyer to argue conclusively that he or she did not have a phobia but that he or she had a genuine fear of Islam. The lawyer could call a well respected psychiatrist to confirm that this was the case.

    This would establish a precedent. Indeed if fear of Islam is established as entirely rational then cases brought to court for Islamophobia would immediately collapse.

    1. I wonder if..

      I think every man and his dog knows the outcome. At least any one with ears & eyeballs.
      Shabana Mahmood Secretary of State for the Home Department & The Rt Hon Lord Hermer KC instructs the judge.. our old friend Human Rights Lawyer Shoaib Khan to find the guilty scoundrel of murdering Speckle Jim and be sentenced to death.
      Allahu akbar الله أكبر

      In any case the more outrageous the outcome.. all the better for Farage.
      The question is.. Will Farage actually repeal any thing once in office?

      1. 413517+ up ticks,

        Afternoon KB,
        That is a prime question, will he ?

        ALL the more reason for a proven patriotic safety net party, ie the Farmers Food and ………..

    2. I wonder if..

      I think every man and his dog knows the outcome. At least any one with ears & eyeballs.
      Shabana Mahmood Secretary of State for the Home Department & The Rt Hon Lord Hermer KC instructs the judge.. our old friend Human Rights Lawyer Shoaib Khan to find the guilty scoundrel of murdering Speckle Jim and be sentenced to death.
      Allahu akbar الله أكبر

      In any case the more outrageous the outcome.. all the better for Farage.
      The question is.. Would Farage actually repeal any thing.

  47. A beautiful morning and not long back from a trip into Matlock to pick up my medications.
    Also did a quick bit of Yellow Flash shopping in Marks & Expensives!

  48. A beautiful morning and not long back from a trip into Matlock to pick up my medications.
    Also did a quick bit of Yellow Flash shopping in Marks & Expensives!

  50. 413517+ up ticks,

    You could shut DOWN parliament and shut UP all within, that would prove beneficial to the mass in the main.

    Close down the farm shops STOP the beneficial fodder chain to the mass for immediate DIRE effect.

    The parliamentary contingent look after the parliamentary contingent and their foreign assets monetary offshore, and a protection force daily coming onshore.

    Do not fall foul of rhetorical tainted saints, cover the nations arse with a back up party.

    Support the Farmers Food and Freedom Party.

    https://x.com/NoFarmsNoFoods/status/1971157642342195463

    1. Thing is, it's not about food. The entire civil service is dedicated to destroying farming because the EU has mandated it must be so due to 'climate change'. It is also desperate to destroy farmers.

  51. Those who might be interested… Wetherspoons in Barnstaple has a) good booze , and b) good wifi.

    2. And of course, most are women. When they do get places and are found to be severely lacking in competence will they be disbarred or protected to save the embarrassment of the firm for hiring diversity.

    3. I can hardly believe how openly racist this country is becoming. The quicker our grandchildren can find somewhere else to go and live safely on this planet the better their lives will be.

  55. 'Cinderella' phone snatcher who was caught by his lost shoe after hero Londoners tackled him in 'instant karma' takedown jailed for 15 months

    The probation officer said Duarte had been left with arthritis in his leg after a motorcycle accident in November 2021 so would not be suitable for unpaid work – despite showing significant athleticism during the theft.
    https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qq5FdW8trWw

    1. Straight to the comments..

      The only reason the police did a DNA test on the shoe is because the victim is a friend of Bill Clinton. The Met wouldn't even take a statement for ordinary people.
      he's white.

      Huge intervention by the public, DNA forensics, lots of police detective work, front page MSM shaming. If only all phone snatchers and robbers were given the same priority. I cant think why not.

      Stab someone and roam free as long as you're moose-limb..

      The BBC will be rushing to get this story out as a woke counter factual to virtually all robberies being diverse.
      Not a police person in sight probably too busy harassing someone for exercising free speach!

      Oh look they found a white one so he's plastered all over the mainstream

        2. While I was waiting for my appointment the TV was on. They did a piece about using a defibrillator. The effing dummy was black! I am so sick of it.

  56. Spoke to vet as all the dogs have been restless and excitable. She suggested keeping them occupied with something to do – so I went to the butchers and got them all what I think was an elephant leg bone each.

    Of course, Lucy immediately dropped hers and went for Mongo's, who also gave up and took Lucy's. Lucy then boffed Mongo. Oscar dashed into the garden and hid.

    With Mongo pootling around without a bone I revealed my secret plan and gave him a fourth I'd bought, while waiting for Lucy to get bored and wander off from the two she had pinched.

    Blasted animals.

    1. I gave my pair a ham bone each. Winston rushed off and buried his, then stole Kadi’s and guarded it aggressively. Result – no more ham bones.

      1. I roasted then pressure cooked some oxtail bones yesterday. I ended up with three pints of a good bone broth (for drinking) and lots of scraps of meat. Some of which I nibbled for today's meal and the other bits I chopped up finely for Findus. He loves a bit of beef.

        1. I understand why I’m his fourth owner when he was only two and a half! Fortunately I am made of sterner stuff and he’s mine for life.

          2. I grit my teeth at his misdemeanours and tell him that he’s mine, all mine like the fog on the Tyne 😀 Then I remind myself that I’ve only had him since February and he’s only just turned three. There’s still time for him to turn into a really lovely dog. He is actually quite good for a beagle.

          3. Fair and consistent approach, I believe, is the way forward. Poor old lad, he's not had a fair go, as far as I can understand.
            But, you're made of sterner stuff! Remember, your reward comes later…

          4. When I remember what a challenge Oscar was and how he became a loving dog, I appreciate that Winston doesn’t have as many hang ups.

  57. This is my BAXI heat only boiler wiring with S-plan wiring:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1670c0fb7b7f1cb5e9bc21402c74f6c4001935885ccd3e06696b1068021e1496.jpg
    This is the GIF I sent to the installer of a condition that proved that the boiler when first switched on at the mains was immediately firing up with an ignition sequence despite no demand from either CH or HW:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bbbe260ffdaf9d4b17b04febac67821cb8dbbc741b969720c767b98b5bea5ad.gif

    I asked Google if this state of affairs was possible.
    Google AI said NO.

    Was I asking the wrong question?

  58. Phew! It's warm out there…….. though there is a bit of a chilly wind now and then.

    J decided to walk down to the shop and buy a sandwich………. I thought the walk down might do him good…….. but then of course he had to walk back up again. Eventually I walked down to look for him, and he was halfway up, walking very slowly, but he made it to the top and seems ok.

    I've got some more jobs to do in the garden, some plants still in pots that need planting out, and other jobs need doing. Got to make the most of this fine weather spell.

    1. I sat out in the garden for a while and it was very pleasant. Then the sun went in, so I did the same.

    2. Under the circumstances, gentle exercise is probably for the best, but I quite understand your concern.

    3. Tres chilly here. It will not exceed 15ºC any time soon according to the 10-day forecast.

      Hope your chap soon regains his strength and fitness.

      1. The wind is quite light most of the time, then we get a bit of an easterly blast.
        It's very warm in the sunshine though. Google tells me it's17c here.

        He's watching the snooker now.

  59. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d216942a3037c90981239647a680f956a428f63767d23fbc58533fbb6edbf49b.png
    Time for a coffee, methinks, so I'll just mosey over to "coffee corner" here in Chez Bloodaxe. Bit of a coffee snob (aka 'nerd') but who cares, the locals love my coffee and, like them, I don't drink 'instant'.

    Took delivery of my new Gaggia Classic Pro E24 (with brass boiler) last week, replacing the old Magimix L'espresso, which kicked the bucket after 19 years' sterling service. I've had the Breville Sage eight years now and it's always handy to have two machines when guests arrive. Most Swedes drink filter coffee as a national habit (filter machine on right) but when they visit me they all ask for a flat white or a cappuccino and I oblige them.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c969c654d2f1af88f549da205ddde7d639399df525d33e14152b7b009fd748f3.jpg
    Slurp! ☕️😋

    1. My coffee is ground beans in a coffee pot, just under the boil water, stand for a whle, then strain into a cup. Its all in the beans.

      1. The quality of the beans makes a hell of a difference. As you know, I used to buy my superb freshly-roasted coffee beans from Wilkinson's in Norwich, but they went under a few years back. Sadly, the shop is still empty!

        1. I buy my own perfume, I know what I like , and am willing to try another brand .

          Yesterday was a good day , and I had saved a bit of cash to replace a finished product ..

          The girl at the perfume section was wonderful , old fashioned small department store , and she tried me out with various samples , my goodness my poor nose became quite confused ..

          Guess what she retrieved from under the desk .. a glass jar of coffee beans and asked me to sniff them for a minute or so, that was to clear my nostrils of all the scent I had sniffed , to start again .. what a clever idea .. my sense of smell was completely refreshed , and I purchased a lovely replacement for my old Chanel Mademoiselle.. which to me will also lift my mood .. Moh has no sense of smell !!

          1. My favourite women's fragrances are: "Bal à Versailles" by Jean Desprez; "Joy", "1,000", and "Sublime" by Jean Patou; and "Fleur de Rocailles" by Caron.

            My favourite men's colognes are both by Creed: "Silver Mountain Water" and "Royal English Leather" are unbeatable.

            [A former favourite was the "Light Cologne" by Andy Lucarelli (from the 1970s) but he soon went bust, much to my intense disappointment.]

          2. Well, that's something I've learned today.
            It seems that after about three different scents, your sense of smell becomes blunted.

    2. We have a line-up similar to that. Drip machine, gring-from-the-beans machine, and a capsule machine for something specialised.
      Takes a significant part of the kitchen worktop.

  60. What goes on in these peoples heads??
    Total outrage across the MSM at Farage daring to mention the diappearance of geese,swans and carp into gimmegrant bellies
    Lies!!
    No Evidence!!
    Racist Tropes!!
    It took me 30secs to find this one
    https://x.com/LeoKearse/status/1971123691611357594
    I've seen the RSPCA Inspector and the swan and the Mirror angling reporter has written about the carp
    So will it be formal apologies tomorrow??
    No,thought not

    1. It's been happening for many years, swans, geese, ducks disappearing, illegal fishing. Stealing and butchering of sheep. The problem is that because most political people are so self interested and don't really care about what is happening around them, and to others, nothing gets done. Obviously that clip shows the type of people caught red handed.
      Disbelief seems to be the solution for the most obvious side effects of our stupid dangerous illegal or otherwise justified immigration policy.

      1. Just picked up a post on Facebook from a friend of mine in Kenya about poaching of flamingoes from Lakes Bogoria and Nakuru. Wildlife is treated as free food everywhere.

    2. There was a weirdo from St John's
      Who attempted to fondle the swans
      Alarmed the old porter
      Said: "Please take my daughter
      Them swans is reserved for the dons."

      [Count Palmero]

    1. We can only buy them in packets of 16 these days. They may be a cause of ADHD and autism in the unborn if the mother takes too many, but for older people they are damaging to the liver.

      I don't think I've taken any since I had shingles, when they were a godsend.

      1. The 100 tablet box is my prescription. All meds damage the liver to some extent. Ibuprofen does far more damage than paracetamol. Let’s not even start on fentanyl and codeine. The blood thinning qualities of aspirin can also make it dangerous for some.
        Regular blood tests and monitoring is the answer.
        Paracetamol is apparently prescribed during pregnancy because it reduces fever and fever is more dangerous than the drug.

  62. France's ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy says 'I will sleep in prison with my head held high' as he is given five-year jail term in front of shocked Carla Bruni and rants about unfair justice

    They have not yet brought charges against ex-president François Hollande for riding pillion without a helmet on the back of his flunkey's moped when visiting his mistress – but we are awaiting developments.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a89c3d68d89639b965774d13458369dd09aa4f7461c56b89a9cf3579fc05dc2b.png

  63. Labour council defeated in attempt to shut London beer garden

    Trafalgar Tavern in Greenwich wins appeal to continue serving customers outside in victory against Government’s ‘war on fun’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000427187757_17587979799350_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqbc5hxA-WJljMq84jgI_tjs9luWBnPl6Sn_iGFrIRcxE.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2025/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000441672953_17588074465550_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqXOSPTBmMW9oFPJaFBflfT-nsi4rFn8Q4o4eE3cHIbHA.jpeg?imwidth=680
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2025/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000441672937_17588074379810_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq-1mRoscdjk9tCfg89ry5wsN7fXfQczlagU3Tr3NG82s.jpeg?imwidth=680 The Trafalgar Tavern dates back to the Victorian era, when its patrons included Charles Dickens Credit: Alamy

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/25/labour-council-defeated-attempt-shut-london-beer-garden

    ******************************

    Erik Evans
    1 hr ago
    It’s no coincidence that Labour began their war on pubs at the same time they sold their soul to Islamists.

    John Ashton
    1 hr ago
    Ah, the old 'unspecified number of complaints by an unspecified number/type of complainants' ruse again.

  64. Talking – as I was earlier – about the opening lines of a Jeremy Taylor song, these opening lines by Jake Thackray about his over-talkative wife are rather good too.

    I love a good bum on a woman it makes my day
    To me it is palpable proof of God's existence A
    Posteriori
    Also I love breasts and arms and ankles, elbows, knees,
    But it's the tongue, the tongue, the tongue of a woman that spoils the job for me.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wmwyp38VwMQ

    1. I seem to remember another on the same lines about giving her eyes to see you, ears to hear you, arms to hold you , legs for dancing etc etc, the last line being "then he spoilt it by giving her a gob" (Apologies ladies, I know it's not true)

  65. Phew!
    A bit of tidying up, not that you'd notice, of the bit behind the house and picked the last of the Aldi Specials off the tree. About 16lb which means I've had over 2 stone of apples off the tree this year.
    They are a green apple with a light pink blush, sweeter than a Grannie Smith, but with more flavour than a Golden Delicious. Best crop I've ever had off that tree.

  66. Some good news from Thailand, reported by Armstrong Economics and picked up by Rafi Farber

    "The Bank of Thailand (BoT), with the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau and the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, began an excessive crackdown on perceived fraud and streamlined the process under the premise of safeguarding the banking sector. Thousands of accounts are frozen each week. Panic has ensued. Retailers are no longer accepting cards, demanding payment in cash as they, too, are worried that they will be removed from the banking system."

    This week it was reported that the Vietnamese banks had frozen millions of accounts of people who had not supplied biometric data – I wonder what will happen there?

    The only advantage we have over the ultra-rich overlords – apart from that fact that most of us are decent human beings and they are not – is our sheer numbers. They can pick off a few, but every single time the majority simply refuses to comply, they lose and we win. See also Austria's failed mandatory c19 vaxxing law.

    1. I would love to believe you but i so think the system is more difficult to buck nowadays.

    1. Exactly. I haven’t had the courage to be quite as vocal about it at my work, but they do know what i think about this scheme.

  68. Just a matter of time..

    Speaking to world leaders, Mr Milei said: “I wish to reiterate our legitimate claim in terms of sovereignty over the Malvinas and the surrounding maritime areas that continue to be illegally occupied."

    Of course, all eyes turn to Liverpool to await it's fate..
    ..a lot of people will be watching & listening to Mr Burnham at the Labour event in Liverpool.

    1. Except…just like Mauritius, which has never “owned” the Chagos, neither has Argentina ever “owned” the Falkland Islands.

      1. The history is nicely documented in a Bristol maritime museum featuring Brunel's SS Britain launched in 1843 which had a very long history of serving The Falkland Islands.. even ended up there until 1970.
        Anyhow check out the old maps. Funnily enough Argentine was no where to be seen and didn't really exist until 1861.
        The real problemo only started when a big Scottish land owner of Patagonia and Falklands called John Hamilton had a daughter called Penelope Alvarez who along with her Argentine heirs saw his properties as a foothold into the Falklands as a land grab.
        They are still at it with Eduardo Elsztain's Dolphin Fund, owned by one of Argentina’s richest men, masterminding a takeover of FIH Group, the linchpin of the economy of the Falklands.

        Anyhow, who cares.. Lefties don't do history n stuff.

      2. The history is nicely documented in a Bristol maritime museum featuring Brunel's SS Britain launched in 1843 which had a very long history of serving The Falkland Islands.. even ended up there until 1970.
        Anyhow check out the old maps. Funnily enough Argentine was no where to be seen and didn't really exist until 1861.
        The real problemo only started when a big Scottish land owner of Patagonia and Falklands called John Hamilton had a daughter called Penelope Alvarez who along with her Argentine heirs saw his properties as a foothold into the Falklands as a land grab.
        They are still at it with Eduardo Elsztain's Dolphin Fund, owned by one of Argentina’s richest men, masterminding a takeover of FIH Group, the linchpin of the economy of the Falklands.

        Anyhow, who cares.. Lefties don't do history n stuff.

    1. How can it impact on illegal migration. We don’t know who they are or where they came from. What will be on their ID? Our identity, by contrast, is already known via a wealth of existing data.

      1. "Unpopular opinion: To the folks saying "we don't have a choice" as they're predictably being threatened with ostracization and inconvenience…

        There's always a choice.

        It's not pretty or easy.

        And it's definitely not fair.

        But a line in the sand isn't any of those things.

        They told you you'd never enter a shop or go outside again unless you agreed to muzzle yourself and your children.

        They told you you'd never work or travel again unless you took recurring injections of an experimental substance.

        We didn't refuse a mask or an injection – we refused to legitimise a world in which bodily autonomy was so effortlessly overlooked and the principles of informed consent so deliberately disregarded.

        Think about the power dynamic you're validating if you give way to this system.

        The goal posts for validity can, and will, be forever moved.

        Your ability to proceed in society is set to be permanently entwined with how obedient you've been on any given day.

        Don't want to be a proverbial rat in a Skinner box?

        Digital ID is the last gate you can rebel at. It is the linchpin for the technocracy that's been planned for us.

        So expect to be nudged. To be inconvenienced. To be ostracised.

        Expect all the coercion of the Covid op and more as they try to get this over the line.

        Say no anyway."
        I rebelled over Convid never masked never tested never jabbed
        They can stick their Britcard where the sun don't shine

      4. They already chuck any papers they have into the Channel. If it's a chip under your skin, can't get rid of that unless it's cut out, leaving a scar. How long until we all have one, under our skin….

    2. There are still some people who either don't have a mobile phone or have a vintage one incapable of storing apps. I have one such.

    2. My dad, being a Yorkshireman, used the Yorkshire version of that expression: "Soft as a brush" (where 'soft' means either daft or ineffectual).

      1. My late mother often used the phrase "daft as a brush". Her verdict on many ITV comedies of the 1950s and 1960s (which were quickly turned off) was "too daft to laugh at".

  72. Feeling rather grotty – and as the news is more depressing each day, I am taking a short break.

    Back when able to pass for normal.

    Play nicely.

    3. Sorry you are feeling rough Bill,

      We cant escape from the news .. people feel gloomy .

      The sweep cleaned one chimney this morning .. I feel a bit fed up .. £80, he has been cleaning our chimney for 26 years.. I forget how much he used to charge .. £20 I think ..

      1. Mine used to charge £33 a chimney. Last time it was £75 per chimney. I haven’t booked him yet this year.

    5. Rest up, Bill. I keep feeling better then try to do stuff and hit up against my limits. I’ll get there but not in a hurry. My boss saw me this morning and thought I looked well but should give it a few more weeks before trying to work. Bless him, he was a medical student at Barts before becoming a lawyer.

      1. Take it easy, Sue. Major medical intervention at a ripe takes a while to get over. And "get over" is more important then "quickly"…

  73. 'Night all
    Time to quit for the day before I get too intemperate,I'm fuming
    "I appreciate most here know, but during the Covid era, in China if you had not had your jab, your ID was turned red, you could not travel on public transport, enter a shop, basically everything, you had to go home and stay there….
    But it could never happen here……………….."

    1. A trio of NHS workers who made £412k by selling fake Covid 19 vaccination records have been jailed for 10 years.

      Hakeem Walters, 29, Rokibul Islam, 31, and Muhammed Ahmed, 27, made their fortune while employed as administrators in Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford.

      They falsified records for 847 people at the Covid clinic to allow them to escape government lockdown rules and to travel abroad, Southwark Crown Court heard.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15133531/three-NHS-workers-412k-fake-Covid.html

      3. So, an average of 3 1/3 years each, serve a third of that – they will be out in one year and presumably still have the dosh.

    2. Absolute hell for people living in Beijing and Shanghai but I wonder how well it worked out in the countryside? Also, China is a monoculture. The protected effnics here are the most likely to refuse, as they did with Covid jabs. How will Starmer handle that?

  74. Breakfast at In-Laws was lovely today. Lots of protein, lots of strong coffee, lots of loud and excited conversation. Wonderful!
    Brought a pang of deep sadness that hasn't gone away, that Mother would have loved to be surrounded by such a gathering of family, but sadly she can't, she's too frail and also lives elsewhere in a care home. That's cast a gloom over an otherwise lovely sunny day, including lots of cider… I fear our visit to her yesterday will be the last time I talk to her or hug her. That's a hard realisation, so it is.

    1. Just after my Father died, we, including Mother, had a large family breakfast, and she made a similar comment – how to kill the atmosphere in a millisecond. But I know what she meant back then ( 1997), and it's reinforced now.

      1. I feel your pain. Though joy should come from those who go forward from their love.

        Garlands funeral today.

        Sorry to add tears.

        1. Oh, man.
          That's really sad. I miss her, so I'll say a prayer for her later. Bit lost for words, TBH.

          2. Exactly that! She would have loved what her granddaughters have achieved and married and produced!

          3. 40y ago this month for my Mam's Promotion To Glory, as the Salvation Army terms it.
            Can never remember the exact date though.

          1. Not a day goes by that I don't think of her. My aunt said "you'll always miss your Mum" – she was right.

    1. The UK is not a democracy. If it were, we could tell Starmer to shove his EU control freakery where the sun doesn't shine. Oh! You didn't know? Of course this is an EU policy.

    2. 413517+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      More pressure being applied
      via queer cuss starmer & (TOOL KIT)

      By the by what do the three rent boyos /door arsonist think on it, be good to get an all round view.

      1. Oh that's not the half. There will be a mass of lies and then they'll say 'you have to show it when you buy food', oh, it's required to provide you with energy, oh, and water. And petrol. Then it'll be required to be assigned to your internet connection, then internet accounts. Then bank accounts, credit cards and presented at every purchase. If money moves about without it being tracked they'll want to know what on and I imagine freeze your account to make sure they can trace it, tax it and then fine you.

        The Left will never stop. May as well paint a star of David on our doors.

    4. "…what about the millions of people (largely elderly) who aren't online?"

      They'll all be dead soon. Problem solved.

    5. Amongst the replies:

      Charles Tannock
      EU countries have biometric ID cards which are going digital. Not aware these countries are authoritarian. Only in UK is the risible argument made being required to ID yourself to a bank or gov. authority is an infringement of your human rights. I like UK gov. protecting my ID!

      He is a former Tory party member and EU MP who was so appalled by the vote to leave that he took up Irish citizenship.

      1. I hope his ID gets cancelled and he can't travel or use his bank account and then he'll see how far he can trust the "UK gov."

    7. Not to worry, ogga…alternative will be digital id in the form of a chip, babies to oldies…you won't feel a thing (if it ain't got that swing)….

    8. Telegraph readers are venting about this in the comments.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/09/25/digital-id-cards-starmer-to-announce/

      All adults will be issued with digital ID cards under plans by Sir Keir Starmer to tackle illegal immigration.

      The Prime Minister is expected to announce as early as Friday his backing in principle for a so-called “Brit card” designed to combat illegal migrants working in the black economy.

      Anyone seeking to start a new job or rent a property would be required to present their digital ID, which would then be checked automatically against a central database of individuals entitled to work in the UK.

      At present, workers have to show one of a number of physical ID documents, but there are concerns that some of these can be faked and there is little to stop unscrupulous employers claiming they have made a check when they have not.

  76. Wordle No. 1,559 3/6

    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 25 Sep 2025

    Adorn for Birdie Three?

          1. Interestingly, everybody knows the par, birdie, eagle…. beyond that;

            3 under par is an Albatross – scoring 2 on a par 5, or a hole in one on a par 4, and (compared to the others here) relatively frequent – believe it or not!
            4 under par is a Condor – hole in one on a par 5 (has been recorded on dog-leg par 5s!)
            5 under par is an Ostrich – hole in one on a par 6 – there are very few par 6s in the World and there has never been a recorded hole in one – unsurprisingly!!

          8. When I had a meal in the Catalina Restaurant in Rose Bay, Sydney, after the float plane flight, a pelican came and sat on the wall of the balcony. I half expected it to swoop down and steal my fish, but it just sat there!

          9. I’ve only seen a handful in Los Angeles (Brown pelican Pelecanus occidentalis californicus) and Sydney (Australian pelican P. conspicillatus)

            I’ve never visited the continent of Africa (nor South America nor Antarctica).

    4. Blimey, you did well there, there must have been a fair few options!

      I chased four letters around the grid (should have played in my second starter word) and now it looks like I'm the only schmuck to get a par!……

      Wordle 1,559 4/6

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

  77. Moral high ground Lefties threaten staff at Crowne Hotel Newcastle in effort to close down Advance UK launch.

    Advance UK Will NOT Be Silenced — Newcastle LAUNCH Goes Ahead

          1. If they genuinely intend to do something, but will they? I no longer trust Nigel and I certainly don’t trust his muslim second in command.

      2. Isn't that photo from that march a couple of years ago which is thought to have been made up exclusively of CIA agents or something like that? Some mysterious "far right" group that appeared out of nowhere for a day?

          1. Yep. Bin there dun that. Deep joy is when a new patient is brought in at 4am and all the lights go on. That happened when I was in an acute care ward at St Mary’s, Paddington, last year.

          2. Usually accompanied by the rattle of the curtain rings. And a delight to wake up and see the man in the opposite bed, watching every movement…the mixed ward delights…envy of the world. Anyhow, hopefully more cheering – how are you doing today, gaining on it? x

      2. Or on the other hand when the nurse is speaking in a strong foreign accent is nearly 6 ft tall and probably weighs in around 15 stone.

      4. When I had a tonsillectomy, aged 14, there was a very large, but sensationally pretty black nurse on the ward. I made the mistake of telling another nurse that the black nurse was 'big' as well as pretty.

        After the second nurse blabbed, the black nurse came over to my bed, her eyes blazing in rage. She pinned me down, her face inches from mine, and scolded me soundly for describing her as 'big'.

        It was a surreal situation: I was both terrified and highly aroused at the same time.😲

          1. It came about as the result of a conflict between my GPs. The elder GP (Dr Boschi) was old school and didn’t recommend me for the op when I was an infant, despite his junior partner (Dr McIver) recommending it. When Boschi retired, he was replaced by a younger chap, Dr Findlay (honestly), and he backed up McIver’s thoughts on me needing the op. But by that time I was 14.

          2. 'Would you like another cup of tea, Dr Findlay?'

            'Och Janet, can a man no have a shite in peace!!'

          3. "Doctor Finlay, there's a case of syphilis outside."
            "Bring it in, Janet – we'll drink anything."

        3. Good to see you back, I like your tonsillectomy story – I was a similar age, but unfortunately no big black nurse, only a sadistic old ward sister.

          1. Thank you, Kate. I was made ‘evening drinks monitor’ (which I accepted to ease the boredom) and I made hot milk, cocoa, Ovaltine and Horlicks for the other patients on the ward. I preferred cold milk, even though I was chastised by the nursing staff for not heating it (ugh!).🤮

    2. That is why I never have my BP checked in the surgery.
      I check it at home and send them the readings.
      In those surroundings, my BP reacts as if I'd been sent to the head master's study.

      1. I agree – whenever I've had my BP taken by a medico I have terrible 'White Coat Syndrome' and it goes through the roof.

        They then immediately try to stick you on drugs (I'm positive they are incentivised to do this) – I tell them to sod off and carry on as before….

          1. Yes, but if you have a U then the non-U should be the same word without the U, I would have thought.

          2. It was a joke, I'm sorry you didn't follow
            As to U and non U ask Nancy Mitford.

            And yes, I know she's dead.

    2. I guess there's an upside as he would get on with J D Vance – I mean they both wear eye-liner dont they?

  81. "Good morning rubber boat gimmegrant, what is your name?"
    "Mohammed Mohommet"
    "Thank you Sir, here's your digital ID."

    Yeah, that'll stop the boats.

        1. Most people I know are working long hours to pay their bills, look after their families. Today’s ID card news may give pause for thought..or not.

          1. I doubt they'll see the implications until it's too late. I used to be like that until Blair got into power and woke me up.

          2. He certainly has that effect, and he's behind Starmer every step. Website Tony Blair Institute – now defending ID cards, there's a surprise, it's his agenda.

      2. Starmer is a dead man walking.

        The reason President Trump was not given an opportunity to speak to Parliament in Westminster Hall was twofold. Firstly the state was scared that had Trump been taken to the centre of London there was a real risk that millions would have turned out to demonstrate against the Starmer government as had occurred the week before.

        The second reason was that had Parliament been recalled the detestation of Starmer felt by the country as a whole will have hastened internal plotting against him by his own party.

        Of course the lame mainstream media made out that there was a worry that groups opposing Trump would have caused the government embarrassment. The embarrassment was the detestation of Starmer himself.

        Edit: Starmer was installed for one reason and one overriding purpose which was to ensure that the UK rejoins the EU. The solution to the immigration problem in the view of the political class is to do nothing but sit on their hands and wait to be able to pass it off onto the EU when we rejoin.

        The lazy blighters pre-Brexit did sod all but implement EU policies and embroider them to make matters worse for us and easier for them. I hate the lot of them, odious bastards all.

      3. Starmer is a dead man walking.

        The reason President Trump was not given an opportunity to speak to Parliament in Westminster Hall was twofold. Firstly the state was scared that had Trump been taken to the centre of London there was a real risk that millions would have turned out to demonstrate against the Starmer government as had occurred the week before.

        The second reason was that had Parliament been recalled the detestation of Starmer felt by the country as a whole will have hastened internal plotting against him by his own party.

        Of course the lame mainstream media made out that there was a worry that groups opposing Trump would have caused the government embarrassment. The embarrassment was the detestation of Starmer himself.

  82. https://hs-146483074.f.hubspotemail-eu1.net/hub/146483074/hubfs/G1sxvlvXMAAu_Sn.jpeg?width=1120&upscale=true&name=G1sxvlvXMAAu_Sn.jpeg
    Staff Departing Downing Street’s Sinking Ship

    Gone from the top of Starmer’s operation in Phase 2:

    Paul Ovenden – Director of Political Strategy
    Steph Driver – Day-to-day Communications Director
    Matt Faulding – Secretary of the Parliamentary Labour Party
    Peter Mandelson – Washington Ambassador
    Tom Kibasi – general strategist
    David Pares – Starmer’s Spokesman
    This is all since Starmer declared on 1 September that the new Downing Street was “confident and full of conviction about what we’re doing.” The curse of Keir…

    Guido is told other staff are considering their position now. Meanwhile Morgan McSweeney continues to dominate headlines for another week in a scandal over his record at Labour Together. Something something sinking ship…

    September 25 2025 @ 15:43

    2 hours ago
    Starmer hiding from public view, then sneaking off to India to avoid scrutiny.

    McSweeney will be gone by next week, but not until after the Labour clown show, I mean conference.

    Starmer will claim he acted swiftly and decisively……..

      1. Wonder whose cock he'll be taking tonight – without lube?
        Nasty little bastard had it coming – as it were!

  85. Last post for a few days This ID scheme is brilliant. All the illegals will automatically be given a card. They'll send them to Bongo-bongo land – and the NEXT wave will arrive by cross-Channel ferry carrying a "legal" UK ID card. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. Then, of course, they can say they "lost" the card and get another one.

    Rarely does one meet such genius in government.

    TTFN

    5. I wonder if this family is the origin of the expression "Bongo-bongo land"?

      "It's so much pain. You feel so alone at that moment, so alone," says Noureddin Bongo, recalling the torture regime he says he was subjected to at the hands of military guards in Gabon. Noureddin was stripped of his clothes, thrust into a cell little bigger than a storage cupboard, and forced to sleep on concrete. Guards would push a hunk of bread through the slot in the cell door and sometimes it landed in a pool of urine in the corner.

      When Noureddin was dragged away from his family by gun-toting soldiers in balaclavas, he snatched a goodbye to his wife Léa, but believed it was a mistake that would soon be ironed out. His father, Ali Bongo, had just been re-elected for a third term of office as President of Gabon, and Noureddin was making preparations to return with his wife and young children to their life in London.

      The Bongo family had been the ruling elite in the Central African nation since the 1960s, but Ali’s reign was ended abruptly by a coup led by his own cousin — a family power struggle which culminated in a ruthless power grab.

      1. It'll certainly be part of the illegal immigrants' welcoming package; Accommodation, pocket money, free phone and, of course, a new digital ID as their passports, papers or whatever were dropped overboard.

      1. Who knows G4. I do know I've signed petitions afore that reach the number to warrant a debate, only to sink without trace…..

          3. I finally got it, G4 – it is. And for the first time since I was able to, I now question voting…as dear old Kenny said 'what's the bloody point'…

        2. It's the irritation factor.
          The buggers will ignore it, as ever, but at least we can be relentless fleas.

      2. It doesn't take much effort and just imagine if it got the largest numbers ever. Shooting past 210,000 now.

      1. A few years ago you published a photo of a young Andy Burnham with a couple of those awful Blair Babes, Pixie Balls was one of them.

        I have searched high and low for it without luck so may I ask you to post it on here if you can find it.

        I shuddered just now at the prospect of Andy Burnham launching a leadership campaign against Starmer. Some might need reminding just what a prat Burnham is.

      1. Bearing in mind that if you don't have an email address you can't sign it, that's only a fraction of those likely to be opposed to digital ID.

  87. Small boat migrant takes eight-week holiday back to Afghanistan

    Asylum seeker had told UK officials he could not return to his Taliban-controlled homeland because it was too dangerous

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000441634380_17587897338420_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqTyIsZs6dLyB3zbM4RN39BfyHQSlAatX4S2lxla-i2Cc.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/9716a16a0f0674ac

    Crossing the Channel
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/09/25/TELEMMGLPICT000441635940_17587897575120_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqeZiqYh1M_n0AK-dWEps81f7pVV1W4nu1IHo0TQs5bEM.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Mark Huckstep
    6 hrs ago
    pinned
    That’s the elephant in the room concerning the asylum system. Lord Falconer wrote an article last week about how asylum seekers cannot be returned to “dangerous” countries under ECHR rules.

    The logical consequence of this is that if I am a young man in Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran, all I need to do is somehow get onto a beach in SE England and my future is assured. I will never never be deported. Even if I am a criminal or a deserter or a spy or a terrorist, I will never be deported to one of these countries because they are “too dangerous to be deported to”.

    So… say a hundred thousand, or a million, or twenty million young men from these countries decide to make the journey to Dover. We cannot deport any of them, right? So we have to welcome them, as per Archbishop Welby’s recommendation. Or if there were a hundred million of them? Ditto,

    Taken to its logical conclusion, we can see how absurd this policy is.

    Aty Chg
    7 hrs ago
    pinned
    The benefits system is completely broken when a newly arrived "refugee" can go on a 2 month holiday so soon after arriving in the UK.

    We can barely afford to get away for a week every year after working all year.

    We are fools.

    Paul Casson
    7 hrs ago
    Please stop habitually referring to illegal boat arrivals as asylum seekers. They are plainly economic migrants breaking the law.

    1. If they were genuine asylum seekers, there are plenty of safe countries where they could have sought asylum. They ignored all them to arrive here illegally. Deport!

  88. Latest polling says that Digital ID cards are most popular with people that have electric cars, heat pumps and at least ten covid boosters.

    2. I've got an electric car, a heat pump and all the Covid boosters that one could possibly have – and I think Digital ID cards are the greatest threat to freedom we have seen in a long while……(PS that earlier stuff is bollocks… just in case you thought otherwise….)

      1. We had you down as owning an electric chair, a stomach pump and bollock boosters…
        *None of which appear to work
        *}:-))

      2. I have an EV (don't like it, preferred my old diesel LR). I burn wood from my own woodland. Have had two Covid jabs (second one five years ago, finally getting myself back together)….what I don't like about Digital ID cards is that they won't be voluntary…there may be kicking and screaming ahead…otherwise happily on the same page as your good self G4…..x

        1. One of best cars I've ever owned was VW Passat TDI auto.
          60 mpg on along trip. Very comfortable.

          1. I’ve owned/driven a couple of VWs along the way, very reliable. Had an old Saab estate, very similar. Lot of room for dogs.

          5. Same here. Saab 900, Saab 900 Turbo, a BMW interlude, a succession of Golf’s and now a VW T-Roc 4WD.

            German engineering is possibly the best. Saab was great prior to absorption by General Motors when the floor plan became that of a Vauxhall Vectra. T-Roc is really a Golf on stilts and suits my older self.

            Our German friends drive Japanese, Hondas and Mazdas, which tells us something.

        2. If every single one of us point blank refuses a Digital ID card, will there be enough prison spaces to lock us up in?

    3. GBN have just had a guy from the Tony Blair Institute on air telling us about how it’s all being done for our convenience.

      St John the Divine and George Orwell are in heaven shaking their heads in disbelief. Between Revelation and 1984, they tried to warn us.

  89. Latest polling says that Digital ID cards are most popular with people that have electric cars, heat pumps and at least ten covid boosters.

  90. Lovely sky this evening. No view of the sun actually setting of course, but that's one of the problems in living at the bottom of a valley.
    Now listening to the Shostakovich 7th I missed most of this afternoon and enjoying a glass of some red wine that needs using up.

  93. Please permit me to expand on the criticism I received earlier today on my use of the expression: "None of them are fit for purpose". I was told by at least two commentators that it is "ungrammatical".

    Bill Bryson, in his excellent book, Troublesome Words, cites the following on the use of the word 'none':

    "The widely held belief that none must always be singular is a myth. Since Fowler, Bernstein, Howard, Gowers, Partridge, the Evanses, the Morrises, Follett, The Oxford English Dictionary, The American Heritage, Random House, and Webster's New World dictionaries and many other have already made this point. I do not suppose that the addition of my own small voice to the chorus will make a great deal of difference.

    Whether you treat none as a singular or plural, you should at least be consistent throughout the sentence, as this writer was not: 'None of her friends, she says, would describe themselves as a feminist' (Guardian). Make it either 'would describe themselves as feminists' or 'would describe herself as a feminist'.

    A more notable inconsistency, if only because it comes from a noted authority, is seen here: 'The total vocabulary of English is immense and runs to about half a million items. None of us as individuals, of course, knows more than a fairly limited number of these, and uses even less …" (Quirk, The Use of English). Though the sense of the sentence is clear enough in the context, grammatically it is telling us that no one uses fewer word than he knows — which is, unfortunately, the opposite of what the author intended. It would be better, I think, if we made it 'and we use even less' (and better still if we made it 'and we use even fewer')."

    I didn't go to a grammar school, just a basic secondary modern. As a direct result of this I have spent my life improving my vocabulary, together with and sense and understanding of grammar (I was always the best in the class at spelling throughout my schooldays) and I possess a library of books on the subject.

    It used to rile me when Peddy the Viking, and a few others, would reprimand me for using a "split infinitive" despite me telling him (and others) that only the anally-retentive still worry about using them. H. W. Fowler (Modern English Usage) and a few other respected authorities on English usage have stated, categorically, that the use of the split infinitive is a far superior device than to concoct a clumsy-looking method of avoiding it.

    Having said all that, the dangling modifier still baffles me!

        1. Indeed.
          It amuses me that those who appear take the most offence over their grammar being "corrected" are often the first to complain about/leap upon other people's mistakes.

        2. It doesnt matter to me one bit. What I do object to is being told that I'm wrong when, demonstrably, I am not.

          [I also object to being constantly trolled by objectionable directionless nonentities (with empty lives) like the pathetic and useless creature you responded to.]

          1. Methinks the bear doth protest too much. If it REALLY didn't matter, I would have thought you'd have let it go rather than bringing it up again to justify yourself. We all know what sos is like. He likes to get under people's skin.

          3. Are you suggesting that sosraboc is a pathetic and useless creature, nephew? If you must use strong language can I suggest that you call him a Very Silly Sausage and order him to the Naughty Step. Lol. PS – I can understand why he riles you so much.

      2. Yes, sosraboc, but I struggle to understand many posts on this site. Oggie is almost always incomprehensible, and many others use nicknames for (usually) politicians which I struggle to decipher. For example, Katie (KJ200) recently posted a comment which said "Thank you Sickear". It took me quite some time to realise that this was her name for "Sir Keir".

        1. I was thinking more of instances where an alternative spelling eg American, or an apostrophe is missing or incorrect.
          If it is clear what the writer intended why do people have to leap on the error quite so unpleasantly?
          But there, their, they’re, never mind.

          1. Agreed sos, but if the meaning is not clear and it leads to a lot of frustrating head-scratching, then that is when I find my hackles rising. I sincerely hope that I don’t leap on any error unpleasantly.

          2. There I agree totally.

            The difference between you and I is that when people leap on my unintended errors unpleasantly, I bite back, hard, and at times viciously, you’re far too polite.

    2. I went to a grammar school, wish I'd gone to the Sec Mod instead sounded a lot more fun. Hope you're having a good day Olaf, give Elsie a kiss from me x (Kate)

      1. Kate, if you want to give me a kiss why go through an intermediary? PS – Love from Elsie xx

        1. Didn’t realise i had, Elsie (my grandmother’s name!) I’m always cool with those I like, hate to lose my slice n dice temper always regret it. Love, Kate xx

          1. I've always been surrounded by Elsies. Apart from Elsie on this column, my mother was an Elsie, I had an Auntie Elsie, my milkwoman was an Elsie and the lady I live with is also an Elsie. I'm Elsied up to the eyebrows!

    3. I attended the last Technical School which was amalgamated with the Secondary School my two brothers attended. These were in Bath and therefore Boys schools.

      Subsequently I attended two universities. Everything I know and love about subjects such as music and literature has been self acquired.

      Much of what I was taught was not relevant to my chosen profession and little remembered. It is not about the schooling but about the effort you make to advance your own personal knowledge. If by chance you become knowledgeable you have a duty to pass on your acumen to others provided they are receptive.

      Keep buggering on. I greatly appreciate your comments.

      1. I think when I was being educated, what was taught was not so much knowledge as HOW to learn (and coincidentally, instilled a love of learning).

        1. Yes of course you are correct. I learnt the most important stuff when (in the Upper Sixth) our fearsome Headmaster, the late F T Naylor gave us tuition which included some philosophy.

          Fred Naylor was much more than a mere Headmaster. He was highly regarded at the Department of Education and I have acquired several of his papers commissioned by that body. Subjects included the problems with Muslim schooling in places like Bradford.

          My Art Master, the late Peter Coard, introduced me to Architecture, Architectural History and Art. He taught me the importance of research and study and provided the tools via his own library and drawings.

          1. In recent years, as my hair is now white instead of brown or grey, I fear that retaining information is not as good as it used to be.

          2. Mine is a kind of muddy brown streaked and white and grey. My grandmother had white hair blue rinsed – Conservative voter 😄 my uncle bought her a twin tub which she used to display her crochet work and proud collection of plastic flowers. I loved her very much. She and my mother didn’t get on 🤯🤣

      2. In my small Yorkshire village we had a great library, I spent a lot of time in there. Beautiful stone building. We had a great GP (brought me into the world) who was instrumental in fundraising/lobbying for local hospital. I wonder now if he did similarly re: the library. Don't seem to make GPs like that any more, and not for a long time, more's the pity. Second your thoughts re Olaf.

    5. If you want to be absolutely correct, 'despite me telling him' should be ' despite my telling him' (the gerund takes the possesive).

    6. I agree on the slavish avoidance of split infinitives. It comes from a totally made up rule that when in doubt English tales a guidance from Latin! But a Latin infinitive is one word which clearly cannot be split. It is just an example of linguistic snobbery and frequently an over-affected one.
      When Gordon Brown became chancellor in 1997, I heard an excruciating example when he was being interviewed on the radio: "Chancellor, are you going significantly to increase public spending?"
      Which verb is now supported by the adverb? Going or increasing? The whole construction is now ambiguous.
      For non-splitters, this is pronounced as "Chancellor, are you going [pause and comma] significantly to increase [pause and comma] public spending with upward inflections of the voice; sending a signal to the audience that the speaker does not split infinitives. Pure affection and snobbery.

      1. Indeed, and most respected authorities on English usage — over the past two centuries — agree with you.

      1. Was a newsflash, just a headline so far, mola. Something called Merco Press, seems Bibi’s son put it out to test reaction. Sorry to get expectations up 🙁

        1. It's not, of course, that I want us to lose the Falklands, just the kick in the goolies to Starmer.

      1. China would love to acquire the Falklands just as it loves having acquired the Chagos. Starmer is a traitorous scoundrel and both he and his cohorts are presumably profiting personally from this betrayal of British interests.

  96. I'm struggling to think of anything to say about the likes of Ms Hayes that wouldn't get me banged up.

    The insane two-tier bias of Britain's speech police

    A TikTok influencer's call to 'kill' all conservatives has exposed the police's staggering double standards

    Luke Gittos
    25th September 2025

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7e505b6862c5654bb10f52c9b785bed4cce2396cf3891a840312e866df19ce34.jpg
    In response to the killing of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk earlier this month, British social-media influencer Charlotte Hayes posted a video on TikTok appearing to celebrate his death.

    Hayes, a 25-year-old from Folkestone, Kent, said that Kirk's beliefs were 'inherently violent' and that, when it comes to conservatives, we should 'kill them all' – a line she repeated more than once. 'I'm sick of this idea that you can't meet violence with violence', she also told her 212,000 followers. As a result of her comments, she was questioned by Kent Police. However, they decided last week not to arrest her.

    Good. No one should be arrested for words they say online, unless there is clear evidence that they intended to incite real-world violence. Yet, while we can welcome the fact that Hayes will not be prosecuted, we should also recognise this as a clear-cut case of two-tier justice. In fact, it offers a perfect illustration of the authorities' blatant political bias.

    As a solicitor, I have repeatedly acted for those on the right of politics who have been arrested and interviewed for saying far less inflammatory things than what Hayes said, and to far smaller audiences. Two well-publicised cases from last year, both from the immediate aftermath of the Southport murders, reveal just how favourable Hayes's treatment was.

    In July, former soldier Jamie Michael posted a video on his private Facebook page in which he said that Britain was 'under attack'. He said that community groups need to be formed to keep children safe from Islamist terror. For this, he was charged with stirring up racial hatred under the Public Order Act and made to stand trial.

    Also in July last year, Northampton childminder Lucy Connolly posted the following on X: 'Mass deportation now, set fire to all the fucking hotels full of the bastards for all I care.' She was arrested and repeatedly denied bail. After pleading guilty, she was sentenced to 31 months in prison for stirring up racial hatred. She was only recently released, having spent nine months inside.

    Yes, Connolly pleaded guilty to an offence. However, her words were arguably less incendiary than Hayes's. Hayes was more direct and even repeated her call to 'kill' conservatives. I have little doubt that if Hayes had been right-wing and had encouraged her followers to kill, say, all asylum seekers, there would be no chance she would have escaped prosecution.

    What's more, the police could not have been more generous in their interpretation of Hayes's comments. They afforded her an extraordinary benefit of the doubt. They didn't even interview her under caution to confirm that she did not intend to incite violence. She was given 'words of advice', presumably informally, and told to take the post down. Officers took the sensible decision not to upend her life over a repugnant social-media post.

    As we have seen, the opposite approach is taken with those on the other side of the political spectrum. In Michael's case, the police had to assume the worst about every word he said to make his remarks appear criminal. Fortunately, the jury in Michael's case refused to go along with this, acquitting him after just 17 minutes of deliberations.

    The approach taken to Hayes should be applied across the board. There will be cases where people use social media to incite violence or make direct, credible threats to individuals. These are crimes and should be treated as such. But all too often, language that is merely offensive and inflammatory is interpreted by the authorities as a direct call to action. Far too many people are being criminalised simply for expressing an opinion that the authorities dislike.

    As the case of Charlotte Hayes shows, people on the right are held to an entirely different standard than those on the left. This is what two-tier justice really looks like.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/09/25/the-insane-two-tier-bias-of-britains-speech-police

    2. Apparently Lucy C was badly advised to plead guilty, and it would/might have gone better for her if she'd pleaded not guilty. I don't know sufficient about the law to say, but others here likely to agree or otherwise.

      2. They have to take notice of public opinions and the signatures on that petition. If they can't, they need to resign.

    2. But if digital ids are brought in, will Farage repeal them if Reform wins the election? If I believed that would happen (which right now I don't), I would vote Reform.

  99. What about all the older people who haven't got smartphones? How are they going to have digital ID or digital anything?

    1. thanks Geoff – off to bed now so will pick it up in the morning. Don't forget to sign the digital ID petition.

      1. I had that a couple of days ago. My Grizzly account is attached to an email address that is long-defunct. Since I could not verify the address I am prevented from logging on.

        My current (active) email address is still attached to this Olaf Bloodaxe avatar that I've not used in the past ten years.

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