Thursday 26 May: The buck stops with Boris Johnson for the chaotic culture at No 10

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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689 thoughts on “Thursday 26 May: The buck stops with Boris Johnson for the chaotic culture at No 10”

  1. Morning, all Y’all.
    Hooshing with rain.
    Ascension Day holiday here in Weegieland.
    😀

    1. Ascension Day here, too, but nobody celebrates it, unfortunately. We had the collect and reading for Ascension Day yesterday in church.

  3. Good morning Nottler Friends

    Flight back to UK from Turkey tonight and then back to France on Sunday so this is our final time of being early Nottler birds and we shall have to leave it to other Nottler birds to catch the worm.

    1. Katie Price faces up to five years in jail after pleading guilty to breaching restraining order.

      Well the day’s not going to be an entire waste then? Morning Richard.

    2. Katie Price faces up to five years in jail after pleading guilty to breaching restraining order.

      Well the day’s not going to be an entire waste then? Morning Richard.

    3. Good morning , richard.
      Most likely she’ll get off with a slap on the wrist.

  5. Battle for Donbas shows Russia has finally got its act together. 26 May 2022.

    That Russia looks poised to close the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the battle for the northern half of the Donbas should not come as a surprise.

    The surprise is that it has taken this long for a once-upon-a-superpower to get its act together.

    Following the unceremonious ejection of his forces from the north of the country, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, tried to convince the world his main objective all along had been the “liberation” of Russian-speaking people in the Donbas. Few were convinced.

    Nevertheless, after a proper period of reconstitution – resting and repairing exhausted fighters and equipment – it was widely accepted that Russia should have been able to mount coordinated and effective strikes.

    I for one am suspicious both of this praise for the Russian Forces and their actual rapid advances. We know that the Ukes have been building a reserve force over the last month or so and nothing would make more sense militarily for them than to allow the Russians to extend themselves to the limits of their logistics and then counter attack!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/25/battle-donbas-shows-russia-has-finally-got-act-together/

  6. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A beautiful sunny start to the day, which will help us in some small way to get over putting our intelligent and faithful Lab of twelve and a half years to sleep on Monday.  To say that we miss her is woefully inadequate, but we will get over it in time, just like we did with her two predecessors.  Those who are not dog lovers will think we are self-indulgent in our sadness; those who are will know the pain involved in saying goodbye to a faithful and loving companion and true member of the family.

    Anyway, on to the leading letter for today:

    SIR – Whether one is fed up with “partygate” or not, it appears that Downing Street is just completely chaotic.

    Do we really want Boris Johnson in charge of the country during what are likely to be very dark days ahead, when he presides over such a culture?

    Lady Dutton
    Sherborne, Dorset

    I think the description of “chaotic” is not unexpected, given that No10 is currently occupied by a bumbling lightweight who seems to have no idea what it is to be a Conservative and who thinks that the way to govern is by endless photo-ops and blustering his way through shambles after shambles.  My broadside yesterday evening to our MP did not hold back, not that it will make a shred of difference when his leader is surrounded by so many spineless sycophants and yes men, too short sighted to prevent the loss of a huge (and squandered) majority at the next election. Or something even worse – the return of socialism.

    2. So sorry about your Lab, Hugh. The loss of a pet is devastating and the gap in your lives is huge. Sending love and good wishes to you all.

        1. Our Hector was 12 yesterday, and only a few months ago I wouldn’t have given tuppence for his survival. However, he has rallied and although he’s very slow now I feel my old man needs the extra time with him.

    4. Please accept my condolences, the loss of a long term pet is a shock even if one had to make the decision to do so.

      2. My sympathies, too, Hugh. Thinking of you and Mrs Janus and your joint loss.

    6. Oh, man. That’s awful. Sorry for your loss.
      It took ages to get over the loss of Magnificat, so I sympathise deeply.

      1. I missed that you’d lost Magnificat (a name I might steal, with permission, when I’m in a position to have a cat again). My belated sympathies.

        1. By all means use the name. He was over 16 and suddenly went downhill very quickly, to the extent that we one morning had to take him on the one-way journey to the vet. THat was about 5 years ago. Took ages to stop looking for him on his favourite warm mat just inside the door when we came in, and although we have two Norwegian Forest cats now, we still miss Magnificat. He was a proper cat, independent, fearless, aloof, great hunter, climber (used to go up the outside of the house and walk around on the roof!) and choosy with his cuddles.

      2. Thanks Oberst, it will with Milly but get over it we will. Nevertheless, of our 3 she was perhaps the most entertaining one…

    7. The loss of a beloved pet (member of the family) is always hard. My sympathies.

      1. Thanks N. Yes, she was certainly that. Some of our grandchildren will be here tomorrow for the weekend, one of whom absolutely doted on her. Lots of questions I expect, and it won’t be easy…

    8. Good morning Hugh, my condolences on your decision. I had the same ‘choice’ 20 years ago with my namesake. Gone but not forgotten. Remember the good times, of which I’m sure there were many.

      1. Thanks Feargal. Yes, very many good times and many happy memories. With her condition – bladder cancer – she was very stoic, like Labs generally are. The vet kept her going and pain-free from early October, but the moment her appetite started to fade we knew that time was up.

        1. So sad. Condolences, Hugh. I still miss the canine companion of my childhood.

    9. Oh, I’m sorry for your loss. Twelve and a half years of labrador love is a wonderful thing.

      1. Thanks A, it certainly is and we were always grateful for such a faithful friend.

    10. So sorry for the loss of your friend. I have lost 5 dogs, most of them too young, and a cat. What I always missed was the pattering of paws on the floors.
      My sympathy to you and your wife.

    11. As many others are Hugh J I am also so sorry to hear of this very sad news. We have a lovely Black Lab nearly 12 years old and she is one on the nicest ‘people’ i have ever known. She has never been any trouble except she’s a bit grumpy now and seems to bark at anything she doesn’t quite understand. But is still filled with enthusiasm when the postie shoves our letters through the letter box and runs to pick them up and bring them to me like a puppy would. And she has never chewed anything.

      1. Thanks Eddy. She sounds rather like ours. Her demands were few – food, walks and swims. Never a chewer, having been brought up from 7 weeks old and popped in her cage at night or if we were out for an hour or two. That was ‘home’ to her for the first few months and a refuge from demanding grandchildren (and some adults) when she needed some undisturbed sleep. It’s rather quiet for now – no greeting at the bottom of the stairs in the morning or when we have been out. Fortunately for her she went almost everywhere with us – “caravan” and long walks on Ashdown “Forest” being the magic words!

        1. What i find wonderful is the memory they have locked in the heads. There are many places near where we live where we have taken her for walks in the past, some times as long as 4 years between the walks and she remembers exactly where to go, even gaps in the hedge rows.

    12. Sad to hear, Hugh, they are always the best of friends. I’m sure you’ll find a replacement, when time allows.

      1. Thanks Nanners. We are making the most of our ‘freedom’ for the next few months, but I can’t see us being dogless for much beyond the summer…

    13. Oh dear, I’m late to things as usual.

      So sorry to learn of your loss – I don’t think that people who haven’t had, or have, a lovely animal in their lives quite understand what a loss it can be. Part of the family – often much more so than some people in one’s family.

      It is so sad that our beloved pets don’t have our lifespan.

    15. Sorry to hear about your Lab. It’s awful to have to make the decision, but you know it’s the last (and kindest) thing you can do for one so loved. I still miss Charlie even after more than a year, although having Oscar helps.

  7. SIR – For those of us crying out for a government that can offer ethical and inspirational direction, Sue Gray has provided explicit ammunition.

    Partygate itself is damning – but No 10’s culture of routine drinking and carousing is devastating.

    Suitcase deliveries of liquor have come to symbolise an administration beset by alcohol-fuelled diversions. Britain’s leadership has never seemed so inadequate.

    Cameron Morice
    Reading, Berkshire

    Very well said, Mr Morice, and time is fast running out to avoid the inevitable price to be paid for this. The Conservative Party seems to be living out a death-wish.

    1. Let us have ALL MPs, Peers, senior Snivel Serpents etc. subject to the same Drug & Alcohol Policy I was subject to when I worked on the Railway.

      That included being:-
      Tested at EVERY medical.
      Tested “For Cause” i.e. when involved in an incident when my actions may have been a factor;
      Tested at random when unannounced testing teams turned up at whatever depot I was working out of.

      Failing or refusing the test meant instant dismissal.

    2. I agree, it’s childish and immature. There have always been these career politicians, but they have been leavened with people who entered politics in later life to try and make a difference, in the past.

    3. Well said, Michael Geddes (BTL):

      Michael Geddes
      42 MIN AGO
      Sue Gray talks of a culture not just of drinking, but of drunkenness. On a regular basis.
      It’s not about a glass of wine, a piece of cake or a quick toast at a leaving do. But I think we all knew that. Leaving the scene at 3:30 am, with vomiting, fighting and damage to property featuring during the revelry , points not only to parties, but to out of hand heavy drinking sessions.
      I am saddened by those who trivialise such repetitive behaviour at or near the heart of our government. The Conservatives MPs must decide whether they condone or deplore this culture. And so must we all make this decision. I am not hopeful.
      Are we not entitled to leadership with integrity? People we can trust and have faith in?
      From what I read here every day, it seems that many see it as acceptable to follow absurd rules that have lessened their enjoyment of life, while applauding the disobedience of those rules by their instigators!

  8. Good morning all. A dry start and a heavy overcast with another 8°C outside, but rain is forecast.

  10. SIR – With the latest outpourings over partygate, we have surely summited the Everest of hypocrisy. The leading climber is, as usual, the BBC.

    Partygate is no Watergate, and ordinary people are fed up with all the virtue-signalling. It’s time to move on to things that matter.

    RB Skepper
    Sudbourne, Suffolk

    Not possible under Johnson’s ‘leadership’. As I posted yesterday; when the law makers are law breakers we are deep in the mire. Few things are more important than this massive political betrayal by the Bullingdon Boy.

  11. 352830+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 26 May: The buck stops with Boris Johnson for the chaotic culture at No 10

    Not so bad if it had stopped at number 10 but the tory (ino) treacherous plague spread throughout the Country, ask any trawlermen.

    The johnson chap is in top form continuing the tory (ino) line of political treacherous pro eu letdowns pushing the green
    reset / replace campaign for ALL its worth.

    The rot in the party can be clearly seen when one witnesses the DOVER daily influx
    via the smugglers / government actions.

    Surely the build,build program will have top rated hotels on the agenda because those illegals that are currently residing in them will take that to be the norm.

  12. SIR – As a Tory voter and canvasser, I hope Conservative MPs can be mature enough to back Boris Johnson. He has apologised and it’s time to move on.

    The general election is but two years away. Tory MPs risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and returning Labour to power if the topic of leadership change isn’t put aside.

    Dominic Shelmerdine
    London SW3

    Try looking beyond the end of your nose, Mr Shelmerdine. The deep-seated loss of trust is far more than a matter of mere “maturity”! The damage inflicted is permanent if it is not corrected now.

    2. Caroline Triggs letter explains it rather well. Apology not accepted.

  13. SIR – The Prime Minister may have been right about Brexit, Covid and Ukraine; but although he is good at presenting disadvantage as advantage and defending the indefensible, his erratic judgment, flawed character and moral bankruptcy should disqualify both him and his misguided supporters from office.

    Alexander Hopkinson-Woolley
    Bembridge, Isle of Wight

    Hole in one, Sir!

  14. Russian mercenaries accused over use of mines and booby traps in Libya. 26 May 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ade9bbc1385c12beda54de5f5a0475167443168cbe5642d36907d5de86e3cce9.png

    According to a confidential UN report that will be made public in the coming weeks, fighters from the Wagner Group, a private military company that has been repeatedly linked to the Kremlin by western officials, also rigged booby traps to powerful explosive anti-tank weapons that were responsible for the death of two mine clearers working for an NGO.

    Investigators suspect that a booby trap found in a civilian neighbourhood in Tripoli – made of a mortar shell and plastic explosive attached to a teddy bear – was also the work of Wagner fighters.

    They obviously have something of an impish, if somewhat macabre, sense of humour as well!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/25/russian-mercenaries-accused-over-use-of-mines-and-booby-traps-in-libya

    3. That explains why Damian from ‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ always took his own bear to the conflicts.

  15. SIR – Why was Boris Johnson able to toast his adviser Lee Cain goodbye with a glass of wine while my family were unable even to have a cup of tea – let alone a wake – to say goodbye to my lovely mother on November 5?

    Caroline Trigg
    Solihull

    Quite so, Ms Trigg.

  17. SIR – The NHS is in denial over the state of dental services (report, May 25). I have a client who has lost half her teeth due to four pregnancies and is unable to eat anything substantial.

    She is in fairly constant pain and her mental health is suffering because she is embarrassed to be seen in public. She cares for three school-age children and cannot get help, despite repeated attempts to find an NHS dentist.

    Are we still in the Middle Ages?

    Gillian Powell
    Oswestry, Shropshire

    If only she could get to one of these…

    https://dentalhospitals.org.uk/about-us/dental-treatment-students/

    1. I went down that route. I wouldn’t recommend it…even to someone who is desperate.

  18. SIR – You report (May 24) on plans to speed up food production in Britain through the use of gene-edited crops. However, if farmland continues to be built upon or given up to electricity generation at the present rate, I fear that any such plan will be pointless.

    Here in east Kent, there has been a constant reduction in arable land in favour of housing and solar panels for the last 10 to 15 years. There must come a time when we say: enough is enough.

    Christopher Lucy
    Margate, Kent

    I hate to disillusion you, Mr Lucy, but the ‘net zero’ insanity has only just got started!

  19. Which does Comrade Joe think he is? Lenin or Trotsky? 26 May 2022.

    Reagan thought it was “morning in America” or some such rubbish. Scranton Joe is revealed as the dimwitted front man for a group swept up in revolutionary dreams. I won’t bother to name them, but the policies of the Joe/Kamala Administration are clearly intended to transform the US into something resembling Russia in 1917/18 with the Bolsheviks striving to do away with both the imperial government and the Mensheviks.

    Gun control (confiscation), pauperization of the masses through programmed inflation (leading to desperate dependence on government), programmed elevation in energy prices leading to a reduced standard of living and yet more dependence on government. Joe gloried in that yesterday saying that “this is just a transition that Americans have to go through.” Forced politization and bolshevization of the armed forces so that they will be reliable instruments of oppression even to the idiocy of changing the names of army posts so that they will have no local meaning.

    Trotsky believed in endless revolution. To the extent that Comrade Joe believes in anything I would vote for him as Joe’s role model. Harris? She has no role models or thoughts. Pat Lang.

    Colonel Lang clearly has no more doubts as to the political orientation of the United States Government than I do that of the UK!

    https://turcopolier.com/which-does-comrade-joe-think-he-is-lenin-or-trotsky/

    1. Actually, I think Biden is speaking no less than the truth when he says “it’s just a transition that Americans have to go through.”
      What most people don’t understand is that the fiat currencies of the West are finally dying. They only lasted this long because the Americans made a deal with the Saudis whereby oil was traded in dollars.
      The Chinese have steadily been building a gold-backed yuan system in Shanghai for the purchase of oil over the last ten years, and it’s now in use.
      China and India are both countries that recognise the importance of gold. When the power shifts eastwards, gold will be valued again.

      I think what we are going through is the painful transition of the currency back to a gold-backed standard.
      Our friends in Davos seem to think that it will be OK to issue us with food stamps with permissions attached (Central Bank Digital Currencies), while transitioning their own wealth to digital currencies backed by gold, silver, copper, palladium and iridium (said to be XRP, XLM, XDC, ALGO and IOTA respectively, but I haven’t found the proof yet).
      It seems likely that they envisage the transition not just as a return to precious metal backed currencies in the West, but also the cementing of a new social order in which we are serfs with food stamps, and they own everything worth owning and deal in real money. And if the evidence of masked servants waiting on the ultra-rich is anything to go by, they don’t want to see our faces either.

      The first part is inevitable (fiat currencies die), the second is something that can be fought against.

      1. So what you are saying bb2 is that in the UK we can look forward to the proverbial Digital Brass Farthing as our local currency, the value of which will buy the square root of *uck all?

        1. The more things change….. you know the rest. It has always been ever thus. They see to that.

        2. Worse, Stephen. They will program permissions into the Digital Brass Farthing, to prevent us from buying “too much” petrol or meat.

  20. SIR – Am I alone in being horrified by the poor environmental example set for gardeners by the show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show (Features, May 25)? Surely this is not the year to move mature trees and build concrete walls, regardless of the supposed mitigations that may be claimed.

    Professor David Evans
    Oxford

    SIR – The Chelsea Flower Show is becoming a political tool.

    I do not want to see gardens that try to persuade me to adopt the designers’ beliefs. I want to see flowers in pleasant surroundings that inspire new ideas for my own garden.

    Erik Farr-Voller
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire

    The RHS Chelsea Flower Show – to use the full title – has become a preachy-greenie extravaganza for virtue-signalling people with too much money. Which is why we turned it off.

  21. SIR – Yet again, a small number of individuals are bringing the country to a standstill with a demand for an 11 per cent pay rise on their current £60,000 package (“Rail union votes for national strike action”, report, May 25).

    This demand is just ridiculous, especially considering the salaries of nurses and doctors. It’s time the public made its feelings known.

    R Williams
    Chigwell, Essex

    SIR – Few young people in Britain seem to understand the consequences of the deliberate abuse of trade union power by their hard-Left leaders. But the 1970s will never be forgotten by those who put up with strikes and industrial anarchy.

    The long-term strategy is to cause chaos and discontent, and bring down this Conservative government. The Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s leaders boast that their planned strike actions over the summer will bring the country to its knees. While Mick Lynch, the general secretary, is no Arthur Scargill, Boris Johnson lacks the iron will of Margaret Thatcher, who faced down the miners in 1984-5.

    Forty years ago, British police dealt robustly with public order disturbances. Today’s police seem more concerned with appeasing demonstrators. If we have a summer of discontent, younger British citizens will be in for a terrible shock.

    Ian Jenkins
    Hereford

    1. ‘If we have a summer of discontent, younger British citizens will be in for a terrible shock’.

      I for one am looking forward to that. It might make them grow up.

    2. Why not 11%?

      The Bank of England has given its employees an 11% payrise, and I assume that they fully understand the situation.

  22. All these people on their moral crusade high horses over Boris and his so called erratic judgement, flawed character and moral bankruptcy that makes him unfit for office all appear to have very short memory spans.
    All those characteristics are a qualification for the top job and have been since Thatcher.
    The only difference here is that there are moles in Downing Street undermining him.
    And what would getting rid of Boris achieve?
    Another would take his place and be far more authoritarian.

    1. I don’t know, Boris is useful to them.
      I took the same line as you until recently, but now I think anything that disrupts their plans isn’t bad. Another Tory leadership contest would give us the chance to ask them in public “what are your ties with the WEF?” for one thing.

      1. That will never happen,
        They will put in their place man or women and the press will just stop reporting on or making up stories of wrong doing.
        The same thing happened to Trump

      2. That will never happen,
        They will put in their place man or women and the press will just stop reporting on or making up stories of wrong doing.
        The same thing happened to Trump

    2. 352820+ up ticks,

      Morning B3,
      Was he not the chap who wanted an amnesty for illegals ? that and overseeing the Dover illegal influx tells me he is the right man for the tory ( ino) party.

  23. Our rotten government’s betrayal of the Afghans. 26 may 2022.

    The folly began well before the fall. In an attempt to believe things into being, HM Government appears to have pursued a policy of ‘optimism bias’ – simply pretending that the US withdrawal would not happen: ‘As a result, the UK made only limited attempts to shape Washington’s decision by convincing it to remain, or to leave enough troops to prevent collapse of the Afghan government.’

    No one listened, anyway. This reveals two sobering facts: that the US required informing that its plans were disastrous and would not listen, and that the UK has no power remaining to be heard. We don’t matter. Remember this when the US pivots to its next obsession without warning.

    One of the most repellent aspects of UK Foreign Policy is that it is nothing of the kind. It’s American Foreign Policy. We used to have our own until Blair junked the Middle East aspect and the rest has simply followed under a string of spineless governments. You name it; it’s American; Ukraine, Russia. The Pacific. None of these things have anything directly to do with us and if they did we lack the means. This is bad enough but they now dictate our domestic policies. The recent visit by Pelosi and her Senate buddies to tell us what to do over Northern Ireland just one example. We are the fifty first state without any of its advantages.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/our-rotten-governments-betrayal-of-the-afghans/

  24. Good morning, all. Another grey looking day, but dry. To market shortly.

    Thank God there is no news.

          1. I got a notification from Moonpig and just scanned it. I sent a birthday card by mistake. :@(

    2. Happy anniversary to you and the MR, Uncle Bill! Have a great day! 💐

    3. To market to market
      To buy some yuk Quorn
      Home again, home again,
      A Vegan re-born!

  25. A couple of fours recently, a five yesterday 🙁 but back to a thee today 🙂
    Wordle 341 3/6

    🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟩⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  26. Replying to William Stanier’s late post yesterday.

    Tory Britain faces extinction at the hands of a radical hard-Left alliance If the Government fails to change course, it will lose the next election to parties that will devastate the UK

    What does the author of this piece thinks that the Davos/WEF/NWO/WHO connected Johnson government is attempting to do to this Country? Certainly, an election of the insane people hating left would be a disaster but the current Johnson led Tories are set on a similar disastrous course and for as long as Johnson and his group of globalists are in power the extinction of the Country is guaranteed. As if a mere change of course will suffice, is a piece of misdirection unworthy of consideration.

    Only a root and branch replacement of the current Tory party leadership with a group that both supports and follows the democratic will of the people and the national interests, will suffice. The latter will not happen without a catalyst interfering and driving the changes required. That catalyst should be the new parties but until they can reach a consensus on how to work together, or better, put their egos aside and merge into a party of national unity the status quo will prevail and the Country will continue its slide into Johnson’s globalist ‘Net Zero, pandemic ridden, vaccinations for all and meat free etc’ dystopia and all that that means for the people.

    1. Good morning KK

      What in God’s name is going on here ..

      The world is approaching a disaster , hunger , more war, yet here in this county I am living in , the fields have been planted up with maize once more , acres , hundreds of acres of maize .. wgich will be used for animalfeed / but mostly bio fuels ..

      This green policy this crazy government is insisting farmers follow doesn’t make an sense .

      1. A couple of weeks ago I drove into Suffolk to meet a friend for lunch. Rape was in blossom, the wheat and barley, despite a lack of rain, looked fine and fields of potatoes had been set. Looked normal for N Essex and Suffolk. The only blots were the houses being built in the villages and the developer’s signs on small parcels of land.

    2. 352820+ up ticks,

      Morning KtK,

      I would truly like to witness a mass peoples vote for the likes of Anne Maria Waters, it worked before in regards to the Brexit victory
      There would be plenty of soiled underwear in parliament with Anne Marie / Tommy Robinson
      rhetorically spouting home truths.

  27. A British aviator showing the Americans how it’s done!

    Commodore Nick Harris, British naval officer who became a fighter-jet instructor at the US Navy’s elite TOPGUN school – obituary

    Praised as a ‘superb aviator whose flying abilities are limitless’, he joked that Tom Cruise’s character in Top Gun was based on him

    ByTelegraph Obituaries
    23 May 2022 • 4:17pm

    Commodore Nick Harris, who has died aged 80, was a revered British instructor at the US Navy’s Fighter Weapons School, popularly known as TOPGUN.

    The school famously featured in Top Gun, the 1986 film that propelled Tom Cruise to superstardom, and Harris liked to joke that Cruise’s character had been based on him.

    In 1970 Harris was an instructor on the Royal Navy’s air warfare course, flying Sea Vixen II fighters at Lossiemouth, Scotland. There, after the tragic death of a colleague, he became the obvious choice to fill at short notice the appointment of exchange officer in the USN’s VF-121 squadron in Miramar, southern California.

    Since 1966, the Fleet Air Arm had established a liaison with VF-121, the American squadron that became famous for its TOPGUN school, established in 1969.The school had been founded in response to the unsustainable losses, both of aircraft and crew, that the USN had been suffering in the Vietnam War, despite the technological superiority of its jets. Its aim was to drill pilots in air-to-air missile dogfights.

    As an instructor Harris, flying Phantom and Skyhawk jets, earned a phenomenal reputation, which his American commanding officer expressed in grateful hyperbole: “Lt Harris is a superb aviator whose flying abilities are limitless, his knowledge level and expertise are incomparable and his ability to impart this knowledge to others is exemplary.”

    Nicholas Richard Harris was born on September 24 1941 in Peacehaven, Sussex, but in 1949 his family emigrated to South Africa. He was educated at Bishops College, Cape Town, Krugersdorp high school and General Botha nautical college.

    At 16 he ran away to see the world in tramp steamers, and earned his second mate’s ticket, before joining the Royal Navy aged 22, determined to be a fighter pilot.

    Harris first flew solo in a Tiger Moth over Roborough airfield, Plymouth in 1963, soon progressed to Provost and Hunter jet trainers and by 1965 to the de Havilland Sea Vixen, the Navy’s twin-engine, boom-tailed, two-seat fighter.

    From 1965 to 1967 he flew the Sea Vixen FAW2 in 899 Naval Air Squadron from the fleet carrier Eagle, seeing service on the Beira Patrol – an operation intended to prevent oil reaching landlocked Rhodesia – and during the withdrawal from Aden.

    Harris’s talent as a pilot, and a safe pilot too, saw him serve with 766 NAS, the Navy’s all weather fighter school, as an instructor from 1967 to 1970, before his exchange service with the US school.

    On his return to the UK, he took the staff course, on which he was top student, followed by a series of demanding appointments, obtaining his sea watch-keeping certificate – essential for any aviator wishing to progress on the general list – on the destroyer Devonshire in 1973, then working on the Sea Harrier desk in the MoD from 1974 to 1976.

    Promoted to commander in 1977, Harris was given command of 892 Naval Air Squadron, destined to fly Phantoms from the fleet carrier Ark Royal. On July 10 Harris celebrated the Queen’s jubilee with a flypast over London. The exaggerated perspective of a picture appeared to show him flying below the Post Office Tower; he accepted all blame, but the picture made good publicity for the Navy.
     
    He was looking forward to leading his squadron on board Ark Royal when, in late July 1977, he had unexplained symptoms of hyperventilation and dizziness: no cause was found, but he was grounded. He had flown 1,970 hours in fixed wing aircraft and made 144 deck landings and 164 catapult launches by day and by night.

    Subsequent service included second-in-command of the destroyer Bristol, which led a convoy of reinforcements to the Falklands in May 1982; naval attaché in Rome from 1987 to 1990, and head of Defence Medical Services Reorganisation from 1994 to 1997.

    Harris was “mad about cars”. In his early 20s he wooed his wife, when she was still a sixth-former, in a French-built Facel Vega; his next car was an Aston Martin DB2, and his idea of a family car, after the birth of his first child, was a DB4.

    During the course of 19 domestic moves, the Harrises bought and renovated a number of derelict houses. In retirement he bought Anore, a 72ft sailing boat based in Florida, and then Moonbeam, based in the South of France.

    He learned to ski late in life, and was a member of the MCC. As a child in Africa, he had loved sports, riding in the bush and keeping unusual pets (particularly snakes), and in old age in Gloucestershire, he enjoyed walking the countryside.

    Harris was a showman: precise, self-disciplined, well-spoken and always immaculate in dress and demeanour.

    He married Philippa Easten in 1966: they divorced in 2005, and his partner from 2006 was Juliet Carron. Two daughters and two sons survive him.

    Commodore N R Harris, born September 24 1941, died April 18 2022

    BTL:

    Richard Cosby1 DAY AGO

    I had the memorable pleasure of working under Nick Harris in the late 70s in London when he was 2 I/c of The RN Presentation Team He was an utter delight to have as my boss! Fun, encouraging, amusingly quirky, quick of decision, he himself reported up to another outstanding naval officer, Captain Robin Hogg, who led us. To have landed up in a team like this was an experience I have never forgotten. I can’t imagine him ever getting old he had such a youthful approach to life. A very sad loss.

    1. The route from the last lot of dictators to the current ones does appear to be remarkably direct.

      1. 325820+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2
        ,
        Since major, their real agenda become more noticeable daily.
        I did post seeing it as a three tier semi reentry missile with the wretch cameron the take off tier, treacherous treasa as the intermediate tier & johnson as the reentry pilot

    3. Morning Delboy, morning all. Yesterday was a low point for me – crashing weather headache all day (sun came out five minutes before it set) and absolutely no energy. Seems a bit better today, alhough still cold and overcast – right, my brother’s weeds had better watch out!

  30. Headline in today’s DT:

    “Landlords face £23bn bill to meet Government eco rules
    Three million buy-to-let landlords will have to pay thousands to upgrade homes”

    First remove any remaining tax incentives and then make impossibly expensive eco-demands…a sure-fire way of shrinking the rental market and/or putting up rental costs!

    The BTL posters are not impressed:

    Martin Mitchel
    2 HRS AGO

    Restoring my Victorian house which was subdivided into five independent flats I enlisted the local council who advised me on everything I needed to do to bring the place up to spec. The result was the energy rating went from E to… well … E…. I looked at next door which had no loft insulation and was end of terrace so had an extra wall exposed to the elements (and was council owned) It was also E. There is no practical route to upgrade a Victorian house to C and to my everlasting joy I sold the place in 2019…. and this government just keeps on giving…

    David Ayers1 HR AGO

    EPC is shorthand for BS. There are lots of identical properties up and down the country which have completely different ratings.

    To think that all you need is to change a few light bulbs during an inspection to go up a grade is ridiculous.

    Anthony Magauran1 HR AGO

    Becoming an energy assessor is going to be a ready made job opportunity for Tory MPs after the next election. If they don’t figure out how to use an 80 seat majority pretty soon they will be in need of a new occupation.

    A Sayer37 MIN AGO

    The bottom line is that there are far too many people in government paid to interfere in the private sector. And as the private sector begins to shrink under the burden of increasing rules, regulations and loony eco policies, the remnants are taxed more heavily to support the public sector behemoth. And then collapse.

    A strong economy starts with much less government.

    1. And these mysterious cash buyers with deep pockets will keep slurping properties up…

        2. All bought with tax payers cash. Or it could just be a desperate attempt to force di-worse-ity on the programme. After all, who wants to see a middle class couple buy a second little flat for their mother in law?

    2. As many of the older types of homes are now Grade listed it’s very difficult to get planning permission to make alterations. But some people seem to be able to get away with a lot more than they have previously.
      I use to do a lot of work in London and especially Islington, Chiswick, Hammersmith, Hampstead areas, many of the houses were older than Victorian with three above ground Floors, already large basements. We usually sealed them off from the upper floors and gave access to the owners from out side. as we cleared the old flooring to replace drainage etc. It was quite worrying to see the original footings which were stepped out brick (About a metre wide) work on rubble spread out on the London clay. As usual people have been greedy and tried to excavate the below ground to build “Do you know who I am” basement extensions and many buildings including the adjoining homes have collapsed.

        2. I’ve been growing garlic for quite a long time, i found it better to dilute Chicken manure granules and use it to feed the plants.
          Although the stalks are a bit of a giveaway then the start to wilt. The good thing about the plants is you can use your fingers to dig around the bulbs to see if they are ready.

  33. Rapist, 37, who forced girl, 17, into his car while she waited for her parents after a night out, drove 10 miles then attacked her is jailed for 15 years
    Mohammed Atif Khan kidnapped a girl in Hemel Hempstead in August 2021
    Khan, 37, reversed his car after seeing the girl, 17, and asked her to get inside
    He drove the car to Chesham where he subjected her to rape and sexual assault
    He was today jailed for 15 years with a further eight years on extended licence

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10854373/Rapist-kidnapped-17-year-old-girl-jailed-15-years.html

    2. Phew !

      We’re so pleased that he hasn’t been put down for deportation. He’s now got another chance of claiming continued benefits.

    4. Appalling! But not unexpected, given his name. Clearly a demented Norwegian Methodist.

    5. Appalling! But not unexpected, given his name. Clearly a demented Norwegian Methodist.

    6. Appalling! But not unexpected, given his name. Clearly a demented Norwegian Methodist.

    7. Just another POS living off our once civilised nation doing what they want when they feel like it and getting away with it all the time.

    8. No doubt excused endlessly. I’m just waiting for the day when a judge lets off the repeated rape of a child as ‘it’s their culture’.

      At that point the rapist will be found hanged, with the judge alongside. At that poin society will have completely lost it’s mind and, frankly, there are a lot of thick people out there.

    2. …and back, with a raging gum ache where two old tooth roots were extracted – somewhat forcibly.

  35. Good morning, everyone. Busy day today, ending with a trip to the local theatre to watch A COMEDY OF ERRORS (play by W. Shakespeare, not a play about our current Government) as recommended on here last week by Anne Allan.

    1. Westmonster could be a bit low on bums on seats. Be careful you don’t end up siting amongst them they might be out on a learning curve.

      1. The play was rather good. I especially liked the 1920s music and songs and the pantomime which made the play – with which I was not familiar – a lot clearer.

        1. When I was young someone gave our family a large old mahogany gramophone player, I had to stand on a chair to play the many dozens of old records that were kept in the two door cabinet below. One of my favourites Was the Andrews Sister Sunny Side of the Street.

  36. From today’s DT:

    COMMENT

    Tory Britain faces extinction at the hands of a radical hard-Left alliance

    If the Government fails to change course, it will lose the next election to parties that will devastate the UK

    ALLISTER HEATH
    25 May 2022 • 9:30pm

    Wake up, Tory loyalists, for time has almost run out to save the Conservative Party from its drift into incompetent, unprincipled oblivion, and prevent the nightmare of a hard-left Government. If a general election were held tomorrow, Boris Johnson’s Tories would be toast, the thrashing more severe even than that meted out to their Australian counterparts last weekend.

    In candid, private moments, Conservative MPs, in northern as well as southern seats, will admit to being shaken at the scale of their constituents’ fury, even before the cost of living crisis runs its course. By 2024, in the absence of a seismic change to the Government’s performance and style, impoverished swing voters will surely find a “time for change after 14 years in office” message all too irresistible.

    Partygate and sleaze are more a symptom than a cause of the implosion: Johnson’s 2019 voters would find the gross violations of the lockdown rules detailed in Sue Gray’s report easier to forgive if this Government were doing what it was elected to do in the manner it pledged to do it. It is because they are so bitterly disappointed with Johnson’s overall performance that his popularity has plummeted.

    Gray’s report describes a delusional, arrogant elite who thought the stringent rules they had imposed on the public didn’t apply to them, a politically toxic state of affairs in the middle of a cost of living crisis. Johnson’s Conservatives were meant to be different, humble servants of the public, implementers of the general will; instead, they have turned out to be just as bad as other ruling castes, breaking manifesto promises with as much abandon as they ignored the Covid rules, convinced that they could get away with everything. It is the gulf between what was promised and what has actually happened – in terms of substance as well as of style – that has hurt Johnson (or “our Boris”, as voters once saw him) so much.

    Tony Blair suffered numerous scandals, but voters stuck by him for years because they liked what he was doing – on schools, on the economy – and thought that he was, despite everything, on their side. The problem for Johnson is that his base sees his performance as a crushing anti-climax. He hasn’t delivered for them – and in many cases, from national insurance to banning boilers to waging war on motorists, has targeted them. The Treasury’s idiotic windfall tax, while superficially popular, won’t help.

    Crucially, Johnson was meant to be an anti-establishment candidate. Unlike other PMs who deferred to technocrats, Eurocrats or paternalistic do-gooders, he was supposed to be relentlessly focused on the preferences of Middle England: Brexit, a war on crime, the end of the tyranny of Left-wing judges, genuinely controlled migration and an improved health service.

    He appealed to those who wanted to be listened to at last, who wanted real reforms after Labour’s failures, the expenses scandal, the financial crisis and the elite’s refusal to implement Brexit. Johnson’s genius was to reposition the Tories as the protest party, an agent of change, while retaining most of its appeal as the home of lower taxes, private property and enterprise. Two and half years on, the failure has been total. Far from being populist insurgents, Gray’s report shows that too many close to the seat of power had behaved like the worst caricature of a fin-de-siècle establishment.

    This Tory failure is a godsend for the Left. The electorate shifted to the Right in the 2000s and 2010s, propelled by widespread discontent at Labour-led cultural change and the emergence of Ukip (and then the Brexit Party) as a transformational force. Centre-Right ideas became anti-establishment and exciting. Something huge was happening, a major counter-reaction to the Blair-Brown consensus, a gigantic realignment whose most visible moment was the Brexit referendum.

    By the 2019 general election, the Tories grabbed 43.6 per cent of the vote, only 0.3 points below Margaret Thatcher’s triumph of 1979, while Labour managed a mere 32.1 per cent. As ever, a majority of the electorate voted for Left-wing parties, but the overall “centre-Right” share of the vote was more than 46 per cent, including the Brexit Party and unionists. This was only six points less than the 52 per cent who voted to leave the EU in 2016.

    By contrast, David Cameron collected just 36.1 per cent in 2010, and Ukip 3 per cent. But even that was a much higher centre-Right vote than what we are seeing today, with the Tories polling at 31 per cent, Labour on 39 per cent and the combined Left-wing parties at a 25-year high of some 66 per cent, with strong performances by the Greens and Liberal Democrats.

    The problem is not just that the Tory party is back to levels of popularity last seen when John Major or William Hague were in the hotseat – it is that Left-wing parties are capturing the protest vote again, and a 20-year great realignment is being undone at a speed of knots.

    Scandalously, some Tories don’t seem to care that they are heading, Titanic-style, towards the iceberg of electoral Armageddon. Some have given up hope and claim privately that a period of opposition would do the party good. That is preposterous, lazy defeatism, as well as a selfish betrayal of the voters who rely on the party to protect the ideas, institutions and values that they hold dear.

    The great danger isn’t an outright Labour victory, but an even worse calamity: a Labour-led, but SNP, Lib Dem and Green-backed hard-Left alliance determined to inflict a disastrous cultural and economic revolution upon Britain. Taxes would be jacked up, including on homes, income and capital; the drive towards socialism would accelerate, with greater spending, regulation and trade union rights; full-on woke cultural warfare would be declared, including a drive to erase women; the family and individual responsibility would be undermined further; the green agenda would be imposed entirely via restrictions and rationing; there would be attacks on private schools and a destruction of standards in state education; a rapprochement with the EU; and a referendum on proportional representation.

    In a political and cultural sense, England would soon look a lot more like Sturgeon’s Scotland, only worse because control of Westminster is far more empowering than control of Holyrood. Is this really what the Tories want? If not, what are they planning to do about it?

    This BTL post is, in my view, spot on:

    Steve Green10 HRS AGO

    I think the majority of Tory voters are angry because they feel betrayed by Boris. There he was with an 80 seat majority and seemingly on the same page of the silent majority who voted
    him in yet he has squandered this and proven to be utterly useless.

    His government has achieved practically nothing and kicked the hard decisions down the road yet all that will lead to is the nightmare scenario of a rabble of left wing groups who seemingly hate the majority of its electorate coming to power and I dread to think of the state of the country after that lot have been running the UK down for the next 5 years. For that he’ll never be forgiven. Never has there been a need for another party that represents the majority views of the UK.

    * * *
    Coincidentally the word ‘betrayed’ appeared in my email to my MP yesterday, only in my case I don’t FEEL, betrayed, I know so!

    1. Johnson’s a globalist and he’s following an agenda. End of!
      Journalists, join the bloody dots!

      Kifaru1’s trio below are part of the problem.

    1. except, if you are a Flight deck Officer (or similar) , controlling the landing of a helicopter

  38. Starmer proved yet again yesterday that

    his confected outrage is merely designed to camouflage the fact that he

    has no answers to any of the big questions facing the country.

    He delivered his attack on Boris with all the panache of an I Speak Your

    Weight machine. There’s no accounting for treacherous embittered

    Continuity Remainers calling for the PM’s head.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10855077/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-witch-hunt-proves-theres-ridiculous-political-class.html

    1. Starmer being a membe of the Trilateral Commission, ultimately his allegiance must be to the wankers…sorry, bankers club. He’ll talk crap because he’s fundamentally dishonest, as are they all.
      His ex-girlfriend, Jennifer Arcuri, said that Boris locked us down under orders from the Bank of England to shrink the economy. I’m quite willing to believe her simply because it makes far more sense than any of the excuses we were fobbed off with.

    2. Starmer is stuck. What can he say ‘We would do exactly the same, only worse’? Or ‘we would do this [insert tax cutting conservative values]. He can’t. He’s in a corner being out socialisted by a bunch of socialists.

    1. Floyd had a choice. He was a drug addled criminal. He didn’t need to be there, could have been somewhere else. Stuff him.

    2. New Home Office visa statistics suggest ………….

      Total CR AP

      We do not have a ‘New Home Office’…(if we do, it cannot not be worseresterer than the old one, could it?)

      owsabouta

      New statistics about visas, from the Home Office, suggest…….

    3. New Home Office visa statistics suggest ………….

      Total CR AP

      We do not have a ‘New Home Office’…(if we do, it cannot not be worseresterer than the old one, could it?)

      owsabouta

      New statistics about visas, from the Home Office, suggest…….

      1. None, not even the ones bringing them here. I wonder if border force could be sued for intentionally doing the exact opposite of what they’re required to do?

    5. But Belle you don’t understand. The ‘New Home Office’ is precisely that for those hoping to make a new life in the UK.

    1. What put me off was the constant swearing from the brattish kid. It’s a nice premise with a daft plot, but the swearing – utterly unnecessary.

      For me, if I want a spy thriller In the Line of Fire, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games is perhaps the highlight.

  42. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/05/26/ftse-100-markets-live-windfall-tax-bp-share-price-energy/

    The Chancellor is expected to give households hundreds of pounds off their energy bills ahead of another jump in the price cap to £2,800 in October.

    This will be partly funded through a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies, set to come into effect in the autumn.

    When she read this the Warqueen sprayed tea through her nose with laughter. Unlike me, she understands this stuff and said (I paraphrase) – You’re the government. You dump a hundred tons of sewage into a river. That poo floats downstream. Then you make someone else pay to remove that poo (the taxpayer) and while they’re getting rid of it, you kick them in to the poo and make them pay to clean it up.’ She described it as the stupidest approach possible.

    Given that her bank has dealings with the real energy producers, they’re ‘remodelling’ to avoid the tax and add it to costs. The Treasury is infested with morons.

      1. It would seem very logical for any oil company to have a different subsidiary for each geographical or national area.

        As North Sea production has been waning for a number of years I suspect that there is not much profit to tax in the North Sea subsidiaries.

        That’s the problem with killing the golden goose — you don’t get as much as you hope for.

        1. The in-country operation is locally registered with the head office as owner.
          So, Royal Dutch/Shell own A/S Norske Shell, for example.

          2. I strongly suspect that you wouldn’t be allowed to tax the holding company, so the answer would be “only the subsidiary”

          3. I strongly suspect that you wouldn’t be allowed to tax the holding company, so the answer would be “only the subsidiary”

  43. Hooray we’re saved NoTTlers
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0264c7baa8d76a377a9f7f852f1cb52b2aa780b53c4c511034457373031b753.jpg

    Rishi Sunak will announce measures to give EVERY home in Britain hundreds of pounds off their sky-rocketing energy bills and could boost council tax rebate to help families cope.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

    Rishi is FINALLY set to announce £10bn cost-of-living package with hundreds of pounds off bills for EVERY household as he U-turns on imposing a windfall tax on surging energy firm profits

      1. Dwarf variety.
        It’s all going to be stolen back out of people’s savings accounts via inflation anyway!

    4. Go on he’s had an unexpected flash of inspiration and sold off the rubbers boats to the previous owners in france.
      Or is making charges at las for the upkeep directed at the invaders, they must have assets hideaway some where.

    5. Right… so taxing companies (to pay for energy bills that are expensive precisely because OF tax) to help people pay those energy bills (that government makes expensive) will just make energy more expensive in future.

      Now facing inflation – caused by taxation, the government decides to take money out of the economy to give it back to the people who’ll be forced to pay for it later on.

      It is the sort of demented byzantine idiocy only government could think sensible. It is spin. Public cry ‘da wich energy companies!’ ignoring that most of the bill is tax given to windmill farms that are precisely NOT being hit by this (ironically named) windfall tax) – because that’d be stupid, giving them money then taxing it – and then because they’re ignorant don’t understand why energy is expensive and so when big fat state hops in to say how benevolent it is being by giving us our own money back.

      I despair. People are ignorant and stupid. If they can’t understand that the basic problem is taxation then they don’t deserve to be allowed to vote. Government bribes us with our own money because they can get away with it because people are dumb. I’m tired of dumb people manipulated by greedy socialists ruining my life. It is time to remove the franchise from the public and return it only on proof of net tax contributions or significant social worth.

    1. They need to remove all the energy on costs that the government put on vat. green tax and any other hidden ones.

      1. Yep, and to make energy a market again. Stop taxing nuclear and gas and subsidising wind so it can compete. Want to be green, then buy wind energy – at market rate. That way we can split the hypocrites from the fanatics.

      1. True. The ingestion of Lead no matter how it is administered can prove fatal….

  46. If one wished to guarantee a Starmer government, followed by a return to the EU and total subservience to the NWO could one do a better job of it than the PTB are currently undertaking?
    If those were my objectives, I’m not sure I could improve on what is happening.
    Green lunacy, inflation, strikes, immigration, taxes, indoctrination of the young, dismantling of institutions corruption wherever one looks; the list of competent destruction can hardly be bettered/worsened.

    1. If anyone wants a laugh, here is an email I sent to my MP, having received a load of guff about how the government were doing so well in tackling illegal immigration in “response” to an email I had sent him. I guess I was lucky to receive a reply at all – I don’t expect one this time!

      Dear Dean,

      I’m afraid that your non-answer [to my email] simply won’t do. It doesn’t address the point that more and more illegal immigrants are coming here. That next to none are actually sent back. That the border force provide a taxi service to escort illegals from their dinghy to the mainland where they are taken to hotels – ALL PAID FOR BY US. Not by the Government – by US, the taxpayer, whose taxes you squander as if it were monopoly money.

      The Tories had better wake up – you were voted in on the basis that you would get us out of the EU (I mean really out – not still stymied by EU rules, regulations and VAT) and that we would get our borders back. You have achieved neither. Nul points, as they say in Europe.

      1. HL. and all……..Here’s part of a reply i received from my MP when i asked a similar question. 26 July 22021.
        The united Kingdom has a proud record of helping those fleeing persecution, oppression or tyranny from around the world.
        The key objective of the borders bill is to deter and prevent illegal entry into our country. By cracking down on illegal immigration, we can prioritise those in genuine need         blah blah blah.
        Wadda load of bolero. 99.9% of the boat people are illegal they should have been turned back. Perhaps he and the rest of the idiots in downing street don’t know that all o these people who have arrived illegally over the past decade were living in France and not fleeing persecution oppression or tyranny and could have and should have stayed in France. It’s more than twice the land mass of the UK and has a smaller population. Now it’s costing us 13 billion each year to support all these none illegals that have arrived in rubber boats.

        1. They don’t stay in France because the French aren’t stupid enough to pay them benefits. Where do they find the money to pay the traffickers?

    2. The state of the nation is bad enough already Sos social structure wrecked with deliberate and obvious planning. Culture going the same way. Nearly everything that is displayed or sent for public information is multilingual. In an almost apologetic manner. If they cant be bothered to learn the language tough. They clearly have no respect for the culture they seem to have come here to destroy.
      ‘Green lunacy’, whilst meantime, there is now so much new home building going on I seriously wonder how the masses will be fed in the future it wont be from a our own agriculture.

      1. Are the new homes social housing or built for sale? Who can afford to buy them these days?

        1. Where new expensive homes are being built the social housing is usually on the same plot but being much smaller and les important are shoved out of the way. There is probably some back handed arrangement with the local planning departments and the builders price wise, to cover the costs of the people who don’t buy.

          1. I was once told that any developer wishing to build more than 9 units has to build 25% of the total as Social housing.

          2. It doesn’t seem to be happening as it should or did any longer i suspect the legal departments have found a way around this. When new housing developments that sell for at least 1.5 million are being marketed, I don’t think social housing comes into it.
            There’s a new development close to where we live and there is nothing under 680 k most are quite a bit more than one million.

          3. As it happens The Tynnings Meadow development near Bathampton has a lot of £1million+ houses and at the very entrance to the development is a selection of ‘affordable housing’

      2. If I ruled the UK from here, I would insist that the local MP’s/civil servants/planning people’s properties were demolished without monetary compensation and multiple occupancy homes built on the site of their house/home. As I am a generous man I would allocate one of the new properties to the individual whose property had been confiscated.

        2. All these new estates are forced on local communities who don’t want them. They are built on good farm land, green belt, flood plains, you name it and councils don’t seem to have much choice but to agree. Local plans all have to include thousands of new homes to be conjured up from somewhere.

          They are too expensive for local people to buy so are sold to ‘white flight’ fleeing from the cities which are overwhelmed with invaders.

          1. Were we live there was a perfectly decent well attended secondary school built in the 60s.
            In time it became quite obvious a plan had been hatched to get rid of the successful HM and a dire replacement was placed in the school the reputation became rather soured and people stop sending the kids to the village secondary. They had to travel out of the local area on school buses each day. At first it was free but not long after including our selves we had to pay. And now the whole of the area taken up by the school has housing on it. At the rear of where they school was is avast playing field and recreation ………watch this space. Devious forward planning (bungs from developers) by the local council sometimes more dangerous and destructive than the idiots in our parliament.
            And the locals have still to send their children on busses to school that are becoming fuller by the term. In fact a brand new school had to be built beyond the boundaries of our village to accommodate around a thousand or even more of the local youngsters.

          2. The local primary school my boys went to is now housing, and the school playing field built on. The primary school is now in the 60s building which was the secondary school, which closed. All around it is housing.
            The local football team, celebrating their win of div 2, is going to move to a brand new stadium being built a few miles away – their old home undoubtedly will become the site of yet more housing. They have already moved once, selling off the old pitch for the housing that is now there.

          3. We were “consulted” on the number of houses to be built, starting at 3000. There was no option for “no more housing at all”. County insists that our local market town will nearly double in size (everything being built on greenfield sites), while they have closed the ambulance station, driving test centre, police station and have tried to close the cottage hospital, despite there being insufficient capacity in GP provision. The roads are inadequate for the volume of traffic and generally, life has deteriorated over the last ten years at least.

          4. Sounds similar to round here. All the small towns in Gloucestershire and villages too, are being surrounded by new estates. We are lucky to live on the edge of the Common, which is managed by National Trust, or we would be surrounded too. as it is, there has been no new develpment in our little enclave, apart from extensions to existing houses.

    3. 352820+ up ticks,
      S,
      We are witnessing a coalition in action, as it has been so since major ruled the double dealing, treacherous roost.

      Party first regardless of their actions is a Nation killer.

    4. It’s bloody hard to believe, but it’s appearing to be a conspiracy in fact not just a theory.

  47. Just made it Morning all.
    I managed to have my much ‘needed’ Steroid jab into my left knee yesterday and it’s feeling quite good.

      1. I sent a WhatsApp to my eldest son saying “I cant wait for the local anesthetic to ware off” ……..but apart from the intial entry i didn’t experince much pain.

        1. Glad it worked. I was offered steroid injections for my neck but i refused. When my neck plays up i get the Tenns machine on it. No had any of those problems this year. Touch wood.

      2. I sent a WhatsApp to my eldest son saying “I cant wait for the local anesthetic to ware off” ……..but apart from the intial entry i didn’t experince much pain.

    2. Hope it works. I fought the NHS for a steroid injection when I had a swollen tendon that immobilised my left thumb and it worked a treat. Initially I was told that it might not have the desired effect so just take ibuprofen. But ibuprofen upsets my stomach said I. Oh, here’s some pills for your stomach then, said the doctor. No way. The injection caused a nice bruise but that faded and the thumb was restored to lasting normality.

      1. See my reply to Anne above. My problem was also my left thumb but the needle was inserted into my wrist at the base of my thumb, back in 1978. 24 hours later I was pain-free and I’ve had no further trouble.

      1. Just keep badgering you GP for the jab. it’s the second successful jab i have had.

          1. I had am HC jab into my left wrist in 1978 and have had no further problems. The needle was the size of a knitting needle. I got the distinct impression the operator had problems with the weight as he tottered towards me with it.

      1. And today arrived my August date set for the long awaited Cardio version. We will just be back from our family holiday in Cornwall.

  48. I have signed up to a freebie site…LatestFreeStuff

    A kilo of dried dog food and assorted nibbles. Got a free Platinum Jubilee commemorative coin from the Royal Mint. Four food kits including one for Massamam curry. An electric toothbrush normally priced at £200. All free!

      2. I get a buzz out of getting stuff for free. When the item is delivered i unsubscribe. :@)

          1. 10 offers in the email every day. Just a few mins of typing which i do anyway. I don’t bother claiming all of them. Just the things that i want.

          2. Great. I realised recently as I unpacked stuff I packed up to move 2 years ago that apart from some treasured items i.e. books ,LPs etc that I had over the past 7 decades accumulated stuff that I no longer need. So I’m trying to cut down and not accumulate more…

          4. I almost wrote “Get thee behind me Phizzee” but that might well be totally misconstrued by you, sos et al!

          8. But when the economy hits the critical point and totally collapses, you will have lots of stuff to barter with. Just get good padlocks.

          9. Funny, I had the same thought after moving in 2013!

            There are still some boxes I haven’t unpacked yet. I don’t mind – it will be like getting a load of new stuff when I am finally reunited with the things!

          10. I have some boxes in my attic that i haven’t unpacked from my last move. 1989.

          13. I dug out some scarves from the bottom drawer of the wardrobe this afternoon. It was like going to the sales! 🙂

          14. I was thinking the same thing. I need to get rid of a load of stuff, not acquire more!

          16. Trouble is, I don’t do Ebay. The stuff (vintage computers) actually could bring in a bob or two, which would be useful, so I don’t want just to bin it.

          17. You don’t need to do ebay. Just check out what is for sale of the goods you want to dispose of. You may find the final sales price of each item is so low that the local tip beckons…

          18. I’ve had a look on a Facebook vintage computer site and some of the more common ones are on offer at £100. I have some rare specimens as well.

        2. What about the poor suppliers who thought they had hooked a new mug? You are being very unfair.

          1. It’s like a mail merge. They only expect to hook about 3 to 5%. They cost it in to their business plan. It’s not as if i am ripping off the Church Fete ! :@)

          2. Don’t bring marketing facts into things! It’s an emotional thing. There are probably hundreds of suppliers climbing, at this very moment to the top floor of the nearest tall building to throw themselves off. Whole boards of directors holding hands as they leap to their doom…

          4. Poor Bob Cratchett returns to his hovel, tears streaming down his thin face. Entering the only room, a tiny fire glimmering in the iron grate, he addresses his wife and their six children, “My dears, I do not know how to tell you this. There will be no holiday on the Costa Brava this year, and..and…there will be no goose this coming Xmas. We are ruined. Phizzee has unsubscribed. “

          7. I found by putting my details in for one freebie it auto generated my info on the next one. So no laborious inputs for each thing.

          8. Of course, you may find that your house has been sold without your knowing…{:¬))

          10. Cynical Bill is what i will call you from now on. I made £17,000 on crypto ! It’s the other mugs that stay in the game too long that lose. One UK Rapper lost £7 million on luna coin when it collapsed. He had previously lost several million on another crypto a few years before. They never learn.

          14. I saw my first hobby for some years when walking the dog on Kit Hill a few days ago. A giant swift comes immediately to mind on first spotting one.

          1. Well, for the toothbrush you register as a product tester and write reviews about it. All the other stuff is just to get you acquainted with their products in the hope you will buy more. As soon as i get my mitts on the other items i close the account. :@) When you unsubscribe they cannot legally contact you.

  49. A 41-year-old has been arrested and charged for setting a service station alight. Dreary Fail

    Dramatic moment man who was refused cigarettes ‘douses service station shelves in petrol before setting them alight’ and triggering an explosion. (Sydney Australia)

    Face and body blanked out and no comments allowed. What possible reason could there be for that?

    2. Read this ……..where every they go. https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=30294d984eda4fa33dbd6b846e054375d8415ae27dc9f689a8048f68ff721523JmltdHM9MTY1MzU3MDM2MSZpZ3VpZD0yNTgzNTFiZS05ZjUxLTRjNzctYjJhMy01YzU1YmM0ZTRlZDQmaW5zaWQ9NTIwNw&ptn=3&fclid=97856fb4-dcf4-11ec-811c-743bd6c3b0a6&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvMjAwNV9Dcm9udWxsYV9yaW90cw&ntb=1

    1. Sounds like old-fashioned, competent buying and cooking – IF she is really doing it, as the photos for the article look very professional!
      I glanced at the top headline and note another slap in the face for hard workers
      “Sunak says EVERY household will get £400 off fuel bills, families on benefits will get a £650 lump sum, and pensioners are in line for £300”

      Do nothing and live off others, the government loves that and rewards it. Government handouts are the answer to precisely nothing.

      1. She does sound on the ball. Organisations like Olio are a good idea. Saves wasting perfectly good food. I won’t be joining though because they are unlikely to stock caviar and smoked salmon. :@)

          1. I only buy the lumpfish caviar really. I did buy the real stuff once but i didn’t like it. Too strong !
            The lumpfish caviar looks good on canapes when i’m entertaining.

          2. I wasn’t keen on smoked salmon although MH loves it. Asda and Sainsbury’s do a milder version and it’s really nice. We aren’t overburdened with money so we shop where we can afford a few treats now and again.

          3. Aldi and Lidl are the cheapest for just about everything. I prefer the milder smoked salmon too. Iceland are offering 10% discount for pensioners in store. They also do free delivery. Some of their items are quite nice. They also stock Greggs !

          4. Iranian Ossetra caviar could be got in Khasab Oman, if one knew who to ask.
            Very good and not an exorbitant price.

          7. Iranian Ossetra caviar could be got in Khasab Oman, if one knew who to ask.
            Very good and not an exorbitant price.

        2. My son fed himself from these free food apps last year while he was doing a course. There was an awful lot of trekking across the city at 9pm to pick up two bulging carrier bags full of sandwiches and Danish pastries!

        1. They are insultingly offering a smidgen of taxpayers’ own money back to them! Unless you’re on benefits of course, in which case you get more, and it’s other people’s money.

          1. Socialism…And increasing numbers of certain groups have never paid a penny into ‘the system’.

      3. Just a very expensive bung o cover for the complete absence of a sensible and affordable energy policy. Net zero don’t come cheap! That is yet more money to be borrowed, on top of our existing debt mountain. The annual interest cost is said to be £87bn p.a. – and that was at low rates. Heaven knows what the cost will be now.

      4. Well we’re pensioners but we are also still tax-payers. This year’s pension increase was well below the level of inflation. The £100 each winter fuel payment doesn’t go far against a tankful of heating oil. Like the £10 Christmas bonus, it has never increased until now.

      5. The damned fool is a complete moron. Oh dear, we’ve taken too much. Here, we’ll give you some of your own money back – but only to some people. We don’t want to resolve the problem we’ve created now, do we?. Be grateful. Shut up.

        Someone needs to wrap their hands about his bread stick neck and throttle him, and the rest of the treasury fools until they get the message.

    2. How far does she need to go to get the reducd items from the supermarket or the things from Olio? I shop once a week, and it’s a five mile round trip. Waste of diesel to go more often than that.

      1. I assume it is in her home town so can’t be that far away. And of course the crate of food is free.

        1. If it’s on her way home from work it makes sense. She’s right about people not knowing how to cook.

          1. It should be mandatory in schools. They could cook their own lunches ! Cut out the appalling businesses that provide poor food at a high price. It’s not rocket science to boil pasta and make a pasatta to go with it. Add some tinned tuna. Job done.

          2. I did Domestic Science up to O level- I failed. My mother was a terrible cook but I basically taught myself. When we got to the US, I wasn’t allowed to work officially although I did one or two things and ran a seasonal Christmas Shoppe each December.
            But I had more time to cook and experiment and I did. I love Italian food, some Indian meals also. One Xmas in NC I made Lamb Jalfrezi, Chicken Tiki and Sag Aloo for dinner. Two turkeys within a few weeks is too much.
            MH is a whizz at Chinese meals and, when he’s well, has cooked some scrumptious grub.

          3. I didn’t learn a lot in our school cookery lessons – tea & toast the first week….. then weeks & weeks of cheese pastries. We never made anything remotely useful for a meal.

          4. Not allowed to say that Ndovu! I’m very impressed with her – despite the false eyelashes and wriggly eyebrows! Presumably courtesy of the DM!

      2. Would you like to do lunch? It is at Kingsclere in Hants on June 19th. I’m not only paying but i will also arrange a hedgehog raffle !

        1. I’d love to but I don’t drive that far these days. I’ve rather lost my confidence except for local places where I know the way. Also my eyes aren’t as good as they used to be, and several pairs of new specs haven’t made a lot of difference.

          I hope you have a wonderful day.

  51. We have received letters from NHS Scotland, the Sultana and myself. We are being offered vaccination against shingles. They say,”it won’t stop you getting shingles. but it won’t be as bad.” Really? I seem to have heard something similar before. Some research results on what is in all the stuff with which they wish to vaccinate us. Chinese Hamster ovaries, “redacted”, and blurb for doctors.

    https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21540058/
    https://www.fda.gov/media/108954/download
    https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/shingles/hcp/shingrix/about-vaccine.html

    1. Vaccine
      A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins, or one of its surface proteins.

    2. I’ve had shingles and it was very unpleasant and painful, but I had no long-lasting neuralgia as the anti-viral tablets appear to have worked. I thought long and hard about accepting the shingles vaccine but in the end I did, and had no apparent side effects. I had the Zostervax one.

      I do believe the coercion and lies about the gene-therapy jabs have made me less likely to accept any kind of vaccine in future, although I have had many, mainly for travel purposes.

    3. It appears to be normal practice to develop the vaccine in some form of animal part.

        1. Is that what they told you? Did they blame the antibiotics? It’s your body! Have a drink!

          2. Ah pet! I’m so sorry. Teeth and ears produce dreadful pain. Take care!😘

        1. I gather so. I never wanted to run away to a circus. I wanted to own a department store with all those things to play with. And a permanent grotto.

        2. I gather so. I never wanted to run away to a circus. I wanted to own a department store with all those things to play with. And a permanent grotto.

    4. They’ve been like that for at least 25 years on the existing stations. Southall was always Sikh. At least you could walk down the road dressed how you want.

      1. I recall being horrified when passing through Mogadishu, I mean Manchester, Airport, a few years ago by signs directing to the ‘prayer room’…

        1. Those prayer rooms are labelled as being for all religions, but they are smelly and frightening if you’re not a muslim male.

    5. B#stards! Why must we put up with this sh#t? In Scottish land we have cr#ppy gaelic!

      1. You mustn’t say that Duncan Mac looks in from time to time. You do know the Mac stands for Macbeth don’t you?!

          1. Sadly no. I was hoping to progress my knowledge of Gaelic beyond ‘Hoots Mon…..’

          1. Great , great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandson of Thorfinn (half-brother of Duncan) Christian name Macbeth.
            See Dorothy Dunnett for her account of Thorfinn

          6. Yes.
            It’s ok, only about 35mins until you can open a bottle of vino 🍷🙂

      2. As I live in the Marches, I have to put up with Welsh, even in England! That’s when the signs aren’t in Polish, of course.

    6. Signs on a Dorset beach are warning visitors not to leave their “nonsense” behind after a translation error.

      Anti-litter signs were put up following an increase in visitors to Durdle Door, especially after the location featured in Bollywood film Housefull 3.

      However, the Hindi translation of the word used on the sign means talking rubbish rather than litter.

      Caroline Sharp, of Lulworth Estate, said: “It’s a good lesson learnt not to use any kind of Google translation.”

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-42050339

    1. Of course, when October hits and the prices soar again, and are compounded by the taxes this moron has levied now… what will this useless, spiteful state do then?

      1. Tell everyone there are more handouts…you just have to register an account for the new digital pound…

    3. Brilliant – Typical Boris though – bribing us with our own money while taxing the energy companies who will then pass on the cost to us, which we can then pay with the pitiful amount that the government returned to us! Why not just tax us less and/or reduce fuel tax??

      2. Those 91,000 civil servants are trying to dodge redundancy. Lots of paper shuffling needed to take people’s money and then give a bit of it back to them.
        Those votes don’t come cheap, I’ll have you know.

    1. And Par Four for me, too …
      Wordle 341 4/6

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

    3. Squeaked in with a 3.
      Wordle 341 3/6

      🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Without cheating today.

      Wordle 341 4/6

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

  58. Tell the Greeniac elites that to protect the planet that the world should forego all phizzee drinks.

    Then bet on how quickly they make an exception for champagne, prosecco etc. in the same way that they did regarding executive jets.

    1. They’d just put an outrageous green tax on them to make them unaffordable to the cattle classes.

    2. Ah, what you do, you see, is take a leaf out of Elton John’s book. He justified his loan of his private jet to Whinge and Ginge by pointing out, quite po-faced, that he had offset their use of the jet by the fact that he (well, his gardening contractor) had planted enough trees to offset the carbon emissions of the jet over the next, ooh, what, twenty years or so?
      So he can sleep peacefully in his bed tonight, knowing that he has done his bit to save the planet. And probably get a bit of Forestry and Woodland Tax offset into the bargain.
      What’s not to like?

  59. From experience many here think the NHS is woeful. I think if for example you are in a RTA the NHS will pull out all the stops to save your life and put you back together. Jeremy Rhyming Slang, putative PM, would allegedly like to see the NHS dismantled. Some may think this is a good thing. If one explores the US Model it may cause one to rethink:

    https://twitter.com/larry_levitt/status/1527657554142040064?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1527660880015437826%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fobamacare-time-bomb-hit-right-midterms

    1. Why do people always cite the American model, when there are many European countries on our doorstep with social healthcare systems which although not perfect, are better organised than the NHS.
      The huge difference is the principle of whether everyone in the country should have healthcare (Europe) or not (USA).
      Reform of the NHS does not have to mean giving up this principle.

      1. I only cited the US because I’ve a strong suspicion that’s the way some in government would like to go….

        1. It’s always used as the bogeyman to frighten Britons back to the NHS.
          What the government has already done, and no doubt will carry on doing is to sell parts of the NHS off to rapacious healthcare multinationals. A better way would be local non-profit making trusts for hospitals, and private practices for GPs, specialists and minor surgery.
          You don’t expect to go to a branch of an American multinational when you consult a solicitor, so why do people think it’s OK when you want to see a doctor? And why do people think that if they see a skin specialist for example, it’s got to be in a hospital? Why not in a private practice with decent parking?

          Another mistake they are making is to sell people nationalised care insurance, which is what the tax levy for care is. Force the insurers to provide a decent, regulated product that actually pays up!
          I have such a policy that I got in Germany, with a reputable German insurer – it pays out if I need care at any point in my life, including old age. If I am looked after by a family member, it pays out for that too.

          1. One solution is to make patient treatment and successful outcomes rewrded by payment, as opposed to getting paid anyhow. Compare doctors and vets. Maybe patients (with a very few exceptions) should have to pay towards treatment, so the doctor doesn’t get an income unless he treats patients. Same with hospitals – unless admitted with blue lights, you have to pay towards treatment – personally, and/or by insurance.
            If these people have their job and get paid anyway, whether they treat anyone or not, guess what the outcome is…

          2. Targets have a habit of being abused.
            Example, last winter, some hospitals in Germany were paid extra if 75% of their intensive care beds were filled.
            You guessed it – they were putting ingrowing toenails in intensive care beds in order to get the extra cash.

            Covid restrictions were then justified by the government, quoting scary figures of how many intensive care beds were occupied…

          3. Indeed, but the insurance / individual won’t pay more to hit a target for treatment – but if unreasonably delayed will go elsewhere, so depriving the delayer of income. Also, by not processing patients effectively, revenues are reduced. Pay bonuses for directors foregone…

      2. The NHS outsources quite a lot. In my experience, I can cite the following:

        Spire Healthcare – did an MRI scan in the car park of Clare Park – a private hospital somewhere between Surrey and Hampshire, at 7 am on a Remembrance Sunday morning. No fuss, was back home playing for 9 am and 10:30 am services.

        Podiatry – when I was a frequent flyer at the diabetic foot clinic, the podiatrists were almost all employed by Virgin Healthcare. Appointments would invariably begin exactly on the programmed time. No delays. Frimley Health have taken podiatry back ‘in house’. I can’t believe that has improved things. not that I need podiatry these days.

        Prolly the best facility in the UK for amputees, Queen Mary’s Hospital in Roehampton hosts the Douglas Bader Rehabilitation Centre. The ‘in-house’ prosthetists are outsourced, along with the manufacture of prosthetics.

          1. Ho ho. Actually, I have a persistent callousy bit of hard skin on one stump. I’m sure a podiatrist could deal with it, but it’s a bit further North than their remit.

    2. Incidentally, the unspoken factor in this story is that when the American couple were young, they paid peanuts for their healthcare. A good continental European plan should allow you to make payments towards your health insurance premium in old age.

  61. Work visas: 277,000 (50% higher than pre-pandemic)

    Sponsored-study visas: 466,000 (58% more than pre-pandemic)

    Family visas and permits: 301,830 (63% more than pre-pandemic)

    Asylum claims: 55,146 (56% more than pre-pandemic).

    The new visa statistics suggest that about a million people were granted entry to live in the UK in the twelve months leading up to March 2022. This

    may indicate the highest level of immigration to the UK in one year

    ever (although further statistics are required before this can be

    confirmed).

    A total of 1.6 million visas and permits were granted, of which just over 600,000 were visitor visas.

    STOP: NO MORE WE ARE FULL AND OVERFLOWING

    How I feel………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81ce0aeb8d8f654c9d183787ac3ddee8b4f0d48b7e5585dcbd68f78395e0ccd1.png

    2. I suggest that at the next election, every party should lay out their prospective MPs’ links with the WEF, the Gates foundation, the Wellcome Trust and Open Borders, for starters.

        1. All we have to do is ask them, and keep asking! The WEF conference this year has got a lot more publicity than in the past.
          It’s like the feckin King’s court there in Davos, with underlings trooping in to pay their respects. The Chancellor of feckin GERMANY was speaking there today!
          So given this high profile, the question is not as outlandish as it might have been a few years ago when nobody really knew what the WEF was.

          2. Given that attendees are often photographed and listed on the internet, lying about WEF involvement could be tricky.
            Yes, the WEF is not the whole story, but they are way too comfortable at the moment! We need to pursue these traitors a bit!

        1. It would be a start if people would just ASK them! In letters to their MP. On Twit. On TCW, Daily Sceptic and other widely read alternative media.

  62. “Wow” say this cynical old bat “the Elizabeth Line is really impressive.”
    All the tunnels are much wider, as are the platforms. The train speeds are incredible and the trains themselves are so quiet. One of the fascinating things is that, as the carriages are continuous, you realise how twisted the tunnels really are; you can sit there and watch the whole train snake around the corners and up and down the slopes. And then you start wondering why the route isn’t dead straight. What obstacles were they avoiding?
    Canary Wharf station is seriously impressive. When we watched the series, I did wonder why there was such a palaver over the wooden roof; I assumed someone was being arty farty. In actual fact, under that glass and wood construction is a lovely garden – rather like one of the large greenhouses at Kew. There are also a couple of restaurants as well. The place was buzzing, and the waitress told us that they had been really busy since the line opened on Tuesday.

    1. Restaurants? On the train? Now there’s posh.

      Seriously – where did you get on? What did it cost? Do you have an Oyster card – and did it work? I gather the line is not yet completed and that on has to change at either Paddington or Liv St.

      I was reet impressed with the films about the construction and the skills shown. And that so many women engineers were in charge of lots of it.

      1. Above the trains. I assume the tree roots won’t be allowed to dangle over the tracks.

      2. We bought tickets at Colchester to cover a number of zones. MB and I have Old Farts’ cards – same as student cards but at the other end of life.
        Sonny Boy did the the booking as a group deal …. in short, I don’t have Scooby but I gave him £30 and he seemed quite happy.
        We travelled from Liverpool Street to Abbeywood and then crossed the platform and went back to Canary Wharf.
        We then travelled to Paddington, back to Tottenham Court Road, pottered round Soho and then EL’d back to Liverpool Street.
        Bond Street is still closed, but looks finished, so we assume it’s now only tests to be done.
        The escalators seem to conserve energy by moving very slowly when empty, but speed up once someone steps on them. Quite weird until you get used to it.
        I think quite a bit of the EL is above ground and follows the same route as the old railways e.g. one leg goes out to Shenfield.

        1. There’s a CMC site at Abbeywood. Should I ever again venture to the Great Wen to go to the Battle of Britain service in Westminster Abbey, it might be worthwhile to camp there, rather than Crystal Palace and take the Elizabeth Line rather than take the Number 3 through foreign parts.

    2. I’m was told by the Chap who was appointed the construction manager of the Millennium Dome that the adjoining Jubilee Line station North Greenwich is the same cubic size as the Canary Wharf Tower…

  63. There has been a thread today about how/with what to replace the NHaitchS.

    HMG advise those plucky enough to leave UKstan to furnish themselves with an EHIC. I believe I have one. Anyway, the small print is very unclear and it seems to me to suggest that one will almost certainly have to PAY the Dr/hospital etc – and the likelihood of getting any of it back from Newcastle is very remote.

    Do any NoTTLers have an experience of this card?

    1. I thought you just gave it to the hospital and they got the money back from Blighty.
      If they ask for a deposit up front, refuse and keep refusing.

        1. Wouldn’t the NHS card function like a French social healthcare insurance card? Once they’ve been in touch and ascertained that the card is genuine, they ought to get the go-ahead for payment.

          1. My dear, I must introduce you to the real world!

            The UK thing is NOT remotely like the Carte Vitale in France. And with the CV you have to pay upfront, or at the end of the consultation/treatment. A proportion will be refunded in a month or so

            With the UK card – which I used a couple of times in France – you produce the c card. They copy it. Then charge you for the treatment (as with any other patient). You then send all the receipts to Newcastle and – after many months apart MAY be repaid to you.

            In the 2010s a scheme was introduced that meant you had to go to the French Mecial Social centre – queue up (having taken many copies of everything, including passport, birth certificate etc etc). I gave details of my FRench bank account.

            After a gruelling interview (think the worst GP receptionist you know) you are let out and – in my case four moths later I received a cheque in Euros drawn on a German bank in London for HALF what I was due. When I took the cheque to my French bank – the chap larfed and said that the fees for dealing with the cheque would exceed the amount on it.

            I never bothered after that.

          2. Why not go on holiday to Germany or Austria instead – the health insurance takes care of everything there!

          5. “in my case four moths later”
            Bloody old fashioned French treatments, will they never move forward to using leeches?

          6. It was a flight of fancy…. I saw a lovely moth last evening…no idea what it was.

          8. Many years ago, Robert Morley published a book called The Book of Bricks. It was full of clangers that people had dropped. One of the funniest was a tale from a bloke who said when he was a lad he’d bought his brother a book for his birthday. Said brother was a keen butterfly and moth fan. His brother unwrapped the book on his birthday, perused it and complained it was all about women having babies.
            The book’s title was A Book for Young Mothers. I am sure I do not need to explain;-)

        2. Here’s a thought, why don’t you call a random French hospital, tell them you’re thinking of having an accident nearby during your visit to France, and how would they deal with your NHS card?

          2. The only alternative is working….
            But at least I am not going to bill the customer for time spent on NOTTL.

    2. Umm… since Brexit, does it still function? We have been advised that our Norwegian ones are no longer valid in the UK.

        1. What isn’t covered by Ehic or Ghic?
          One of the biggest changes since the UK left the EU is that the Ghic and most Ehics no longer give UK nationals access to healthcare in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland as they did before. That’s unless you were already visiting one of them before 1 January 2021, in which case your existing Ehic is valid until you leave, if it’s still in date.

          It’s important to get travel insurance with health cover in place for trips to these countries, and for any overseas travel – especially during the coronavirus pandemic. And check it’s safe to travel with the latest FCDO travel advice before you go.

          Remember, Ehic and Ghic do not cover every eventuality. For instance, mountain rescue and medical repatriation are not provided for. They do not cover private treatment.

          1. Yeah but, no but. Just TRY to get your money back….. Blood and stones

    3. Yes, Bill, I had a hernia operation in 2011 in Rambouillet and they wanted to charge me €1100, despite my having a valid EHIC – I was told it wasn’t an emergency, despite my French doctor insisting I was checked out by a heart specialist before-hand. Anyway, I refused to pay and, shortly after, we moved to Spain so I don’t know what the follow-up might have been.

  64. That’s me for this day of two halves. Market trip was very satisfying, as was Morrisons. Then the wind got up and the sky went grey and was most uninviting. It is said it will be better tomorrow – like the economy, I expect.

    Anyway, have a jolly evening

    A demain – DV.

    1. All good software developers look both ways when crossing a one way street. I suppose it’s the experience of using microsoft products that does it.

      1. You will always have cyclists going t’other way along a one-way street. This is Cambridge I am talking about.

        1. Very true! Anyone who has driven in the same car as my ex will never expect motorists to behave rationally ever again as well.

      2. I’m not a software developer, but I always look both ways before crossing a one-way street. There are several round here where people ignore the one-way signs!

  66. Interesting discussion on the subject of windfall tax:
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/
    Sunak’s wrong-headed windfall tax will have unintended consequences
    It’s not as simple as saying a policy is good or bad – a lot depends on the quality of the administration that’s implementing it

    BEN WRIGHT 26 May 2022 • 6:00am
    It would be foolish to pretend that there is no merit whatsoever in the plans for a windfall tax on energy companies. The idea wouldn’t have generated such a groundswell of support if there was nothing in it. A levy would raise funds to provide desperately needed help for households being squeezed by the cost of living crisis. It wouldn’t be a lot of money – but right now every little counts.

    Some of the arguments being trotted out in opposition to the proposal – it will prevent investment, it will hit pensions, it is unconservative (whatever that means) – feel a bit mealy-mouthed in the face of the bleak reality faced by households having to choose between heating and eating. Nevertheless – and in the full knowledge I may be fighting a losing battle – I don’t think this particular Government can afford to implement a windfall tax.

    Many of the recent converts to the proposal have caveated their support with the proviso any levy is “well designed” in both scope and duration. But how confident are we that this Government is up to that task, especially given that it looks like an announcement is being rushed out on a political timetable in order to provide air cover to mitigate the fallout from Sue Gray’s report?

    At one point it appeared as if the tax would apply to renewable energy and nuclear companies. This seemed a tad short sighted given we’re desperate to both improve energy security and hit ambitious net zero targets amid a “global competition for capital”, as Investec phrases it.

    Shares in many electricity providers duly slumped on Tuesday; on Wednesday they rebounded when the Government backed away from plans to widen the scope beyond oil and gas. Does anyone else get the feeling this lot are making it up as they go along?

    But, come to think of it, why should green energy companies be exempt if they’re doing well as a result of an unusual spike in energy prices? Because that’s where the logic of this kind of a retrospective levy takes you. Once you decide that some companies are making “outsized” profits because of the war in Ukraine, you’ll soon find others are too. Where do you draw the line?

    You could argue that traditional energy companies have benefited from state support and are, in part at least, corporatist creations of government policy. However, that’s already acknowledged by the fact that oil and gas firms operating in the North Sea are taxed differently, paying 30pc corporation tax on their profits (compared to 19pc for other companies) with a supplementary 10pc rate on top of that.

    It’s not as if renewable energy companies haven’t enjoyed years of explicit support in the form of state subsidies. Indeed, we’ve just been through a period when almost every company was eligible for state support in the form of furlough and Treasury-backed emergency loans.

    What’s more, we already have a system that ensures companies pay more in tax when they make bigger profits – as was amply demonstrated by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility’s latest report on the national finances. The money flowing into the Treasury coffers was up 18.5pc in April compared to the same month last year and £6.4bn higher than the fiscal watchdog’s forecasts.

    Income tax receipts were boosted by high bonuses at the start of the year – damn those pesky bankers! – while VAT and corporation tax “also surprised materially to the upside”. This extra revenue – “windfall”? – is over three times more than the £2bn Labour claims its proposed windfall tax would raise. That somewhat suggests the Government already has the wherewithal to help struggling households without raising more debt.

    Then there is the question of unintended consequences. A good example of the potential pitfalls here is HSBC. At the start of the pandemic the Bank of England demanded lenders stop buying back their shares and making dividend payments to shareholders. Partly this was a prudential measure, but partly it was political: it wouldn’t look good.

    UK pension schemes don’t have big holdings of UK equities. Therefore, a cessation of dividends or a windfall tax doesn’t result in a huge hit to British pensioners as some like to claim. But that’s not to say no-one suffers. HSBC has a big retail investor base in Hong Kong that is furious the dividend was stopped and is currently rallying behind the calls from Chinese insurer Ping An for the bank to be broken up.

    It is this kind of knock-on unforeseen effect that illustrates why the broad principle of governments and regulators setting the rules and tax regime, clearly signalling future changes and not imposing them retrospectively is so important.

    It is fair to say a windfall tax won’t change the investment plans of oil and gas companies – of course they weren’t relying on these profits. But this misses the point. The real question is whether global investors, who have a wide-rage of choice in where they put their money to work and a say in how those companies are run, will passively accept the goal posts being shifted or start turning their noses up at the UK.

    Sure, there’s plenty of precedent for this kind of move and, yes, Margaret Thatcher imposed windfall taxes. Her Chancellor Geoffrey Howe used a bank levy to tax excess profits in the recession of 1981 before doing the same to oil and gas companies the following year.

    However, global capital was far less fleet of foot back then. More importantly, Thatcher’s government was unmistakably pro-business and its overwhelmingly inclination on tax was to cut.

    Boris Johnson’s government is the polar opposite in both regards. A windfall tax would therefore likely reinforce the prevailing view it makes up policy on the hoof depending on which way the political wind is blowing and that, when in doubt, its default reflex is to wallop business. (my emphasis)

    That’s why vision and competence are so important. They buy governments the licence to be flexible and pragmatic in times of crisis. It’s not as simple as saying a policy is good or bad, right or wrong – a lot depends on the quality of the administration that is implementing it.

    1. It generated a groundswell of support because a) people like to think they’re getting something for nothing (they aren’t, it will have to be paid for one way or another) and b) people want “something to be done”, never mind that it’s the wrong thing to be doing.

      1. “Free” money, what’s not to like? Especially if it comes from “greedy” capitalists.

      1. Changing the subject, I would like an introduction to the gorgeous blonde amazon of the Lochside, King Steph …

    2. I’ve only heard him speak live once and even then what he said wasn’t true.

    3. He is preserved for his future role as president of this country and then president of Europe and the world.

          2. Quite.
            That’s what happens when you get closer to a bargee than a barge pole.

          4. You are missing 24 inches – it’s 12′ but I’m not one to brag….

          6. You are missing 24 inches – it’s 12′ but I’m not one to brag….

        1. Satan took off his mask and it was Tony Blair.

          Tony Blair took off that mask

          And it was still Tony Blair

    5. Satan has promised Blair eternal life…….
      He doesn’t want the competition in Hell

  68. Does anyone have a problem with the phrase ‘the cost of living’?
    Has someone decided that if certain people live then the cost is too much for the planet?

    1. It’s been around most of my life! Never thought it meant very much.

  69. I have a couple of Enrico Caruso (archive remastered CDs) and the nearest I can find is Luciano Pavarotti: so I’m having an opera night with this and more.

    https://youtu.be/I8A61eY1Efg

    And a glass or two of Shiraz 🙂

    1. I prefer Domingo and Bryn Terfel. Nathan Gunn is good also.
      Enjoy your music and your shiraz.

      1. I remember the 3 Tenors concert and I think Pavarotti had the most controlled and powerful voice of the three.

        2. I agree.
          It helped that he was a noticeably bigger man – so, more chest to develop the sound in.

          2. Yes indeedy! Saw them in Newcastle 1972! Forgotten that Francis Monkman went on to form Sky with John Williams and Kevin Peek! Not forgetting Herbie Flowers!

      1. I am tempted to post yours. ! Probably shouldn’t though. Miss your voice. :@(

          4. She has a wonderful voice and such a regret that recording technology was not what it is now

      2. Dearest atd,
        I for one would like to hear you sing. My sources tell me that somewhere on youtube there is a recording. Would you kindly publish the link?

        Alternatively, can I invite you and any other Nottlers to meet up at bel and the dragon Reading on Tuesday 31st May. They do a fine lunch and there is the prospect of a Narrowboat cruise along the upper Thames.

        Anyone interested sign up here. Places on the boat are limited to 10 persons (plus Skipper)

        https://belandthedragon-reading.co.uk/?utm_source=googlemybusiness&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=yext&utm_content=BD05&y_source=1_MTUyMzg0NTctNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

        1. It wasn’t me ! Besides…………..it’s another Bel and Dragon ! And i didn’t post this either !!!

          2. As usual my big gob will get me in trouble. Nottlers that know me know i can’t keep secrets. :@(

          6. Way beyond anything like that now. How big did you say your barge was?……*sniggers…

          8. 14 tons ! And it floats !

            I did mention you could sell this to Nottlers. I would very much like to take a trip on your boat sometime. I’ll bring a hamper !

          10. I won’t say a word but I did track her down…and, tra la, her voice is very similar to mine although she is far better. I am better at religious music and show tunes.

          11. When I lived in Hindhead, a pub in the neighbouring village of Churt – the Pride of the Valley – was a previous haunt of David Lloyd George. It later transmogrified into Bel & the Dragon. I didn’t understand this, until a former church by Waitrose in Godalming became B&TD also. It didn’t last. It’s now a branch of Cotswold.

        2. Yo, King Stephen. Happy to sign up. Reading-bound trains routinely stop at Wanborough until 1004 hrs. The station is three minutes’ walk from my front door.

          1. Splendid. I’ll see you there Geoff. I’ll aim to be at the adjacent quayside by around 11:00 a.m

            Any more for the Skylar?k

          2. Yes please. You will probably have to make several trips !!! Given how the Airports are so fucked up.

          4. Not the Bahamas? :@(
            Okay i suppose…………………..still slightly interested though. Always funny to see Geoff get his sea legs. :@)

          9. Perfect. Reading-Redhill trains don’t generally stop at Wanborough, but Tuesday evenings I have choir practice at Puttenham, and – living in a taxi/Uber desert – I usually go to Guildford by train, and take a taxi from the station rank. So this should work out splendidly.

        3. Dear Stephen,

          Gladly! Here’s a link to a bit of Dalila live in concert (chosen because it’s less Sturm und Drang than most of my repertoire)《

          https://youtu.be/ndw9gEIb6VI

          Other recordings can be found on the same YouTube channel (no theatre stuff, as that’s all proprietary).

          Thank.you for the invitation. I think I shall be on the wrong side of the country to attend, but I shall be moving around, and would love to meet you.

      3. Dearest atd,
        I for one would like to hear you sing. My sources tell me that somewhere on youtube there is a recording. Would you kindly publish the link?

        Alternatively, can I invite you and any other Nottlers to meet up at bel and the dragon Reading on Tuesday 31st May. They do a fine lunch and there is the prospect of a Narrowboat cruise along the upper Thames.

        Anyone interested sign up here. Places on the boat are limited to 10 persons (plus Skipper)

        https://belandthedragon-reading.co.uk/?utm_source=googlemybusiness&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=yext&utm_content=BD05&y_source=1_MTUyMzg0NTctNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

      4. Dearest atd,
        I for one would like to hear you sing. My sources tell me that somewhere on youtube there is a recording. Would you kindly publish the link?

        Alternatively, can I invite you and any other Nottlers to meet up at bel and the dragon Reading on Tuesday 31st May. They do a fine lunch and there is the prospect of a Narrowboat cruise along the upper Thames.

        Anyone interested sign up here. Places on the boat are limited to 10 persons (plus Skipper)

        https://belandthedragon-reading.co.uk/?utm_source=googlemybusiness&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=yext&utm_content=BD05&y_source=1_MTUyMzg0NTctNzE1LWxvY2F0aW9uLndlYnNpdGU%3D

    1. Congratulations. Marriage has such a familiar ring; Engagement ring, Wedding ring, Sufferin’

        1. Sue you know what they say: “A man is not complete until he is married. And then he is completely finished!”

          1. Oh King Stephen! I’m shocked…shocked I tell ya! Just don’t tell my old man…

    2. Congratulations to both of you! May you have many more happy years together.

  71. Evening, all. I am beginning to despair of this country ever being godly and quietly governed. I read in my local rag that Sunak is going to harvest the magic money tree and give millions of households £500 which doesn’t need to be paid back (as opposed to the £250 loan which did). WTF? We are trillions in debt, living beyond our means and now this? Just cut the effing taxes, you pillock! People will have more money in their pocket and find it easier to cope with the “cost of living crisis” your greenery created in the first place. As for a “windfall tax” on oil and gas suppliers – give me strength! They’ll only pass it on to their customers (who won’t be able to put it on their expenses to be paid by taxpayers)..

    1. I think a lot of us have the same feeling. The madness can’t last forever – humanity will struggle on somehow. I’d love to read how historians will view the insanity of our times though!

    2. The bollocks they are announcing is for the idiots to vote them back in again.

          1. I am OK- in a lot of pain, yet again. Husband’s wound is tender and he’s leaving the dressing on for a while which I think is wise.
            The Pinot certainly helps but I shan’t be up late tonight…had a rotten night and badly need to sleep.
            Tomorrow we need to go to the shops which will be such fun;-))
            I am so grateful for the opportunity to let off some steam here and for our wonderful cab company; they are great; on time, friendly and more than helpful.
            Thanks for asking Sue and I hope all is well with you and yours. X

          2. Bless you both, and hope you sleep well. Shopping is such fun, eh?🤪

          3. When both of you are ill, as we have been too, it is very perilous path that is trodden. Look after yourselves and rest up. So sorry to hear you are in pain again. I hope you get a good night’s sleep.

    3. All driving us towards basic income, complete control by the government and the great reset. “You will own nothing and be happy”. And our health will be governed by the WHO. .

          3. Find ways to make it difficult for them. They are so wrapped up in red tape. Use it against them.

  73. Good night all.
    A frustrating morning with the weather not being able to make it’s mind up, but I did get a mix of mortar done and some work done on the wall, but we did have a right downpour at tea time!

    2. We had a similar pattern of rainfall. Fortunately, just AFTER I’d planted out my cucumbers. That will help them settle in.

    3. Good night, BoB. Don’t forget that Rome The Great Wall of China wasn’t built in a day. Sleep well.

  74. Goodnight Y’all- am so tired can barely keep my eyes open.
    Hope you all sleep well and thank you for your friendship. X

  75. Good night all

    We had a busy day . cold weather, planting plants in the garden and our eye test appointment in Dorchester .. strange old day really.

    Had a free coffee and cake offer in Dobbies .. Moh and I had the same , but funny old me with my wayward tum felt very blown up and horrible a couple of hours later ..

    What do you think of this?

    https://twitter.com/fadzcfc/status/1529882014970683393

      1. What is that Naval expression?

        “To bed with the Wren, up to a Lark….”

        1. 4.30am was no lark ! and i have a dentist appointment later today. 🎵 Things……can only get better 🎵

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