Thursday 28 September: Drilling for oil close to home makes sense in a time of growing volatility

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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452 thoughts on “Thursday 28 September: Drilling for oil close to home makes sense in a time of growing volatility”

  4. Drilling for oil close to home makes sense in a time of growing volatility

    In times of adversity every country should have it’s own source of energy production if they don’t then they are lost

    1. Morning all.

      But this was obvious from the start. HMG have allowed eco zealots (idiots) to make all the running. Plus, of course, the usual suspects funding all the protests – WEF, UN, WHO. Who want us disabled. Makes their pathway much easier.

  5. Russia’s economy predicted to grow as rising oil prices trump sanctions. 27 September 2023.

    The Russian economy has been forecast to beat previous predictions and expand this year after rising oil prices overpower Western sanctions.

    A sustained rally in oil prices following a squeeze on supply has significantly boosted the Russian economy, which is now predicted to grow by 1.5pc this year.

    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which is owned by 71 countries and two EU institutions, has revised up its projections from -1.5pc at the time of its May forecast.

    Good!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/27/russia-economy-forecast-grow-oil-prices-sanctions/

    1. Maybe Putin invaded Ukraine because he knew that this would bankrupt the West and enrich Russia.

  6. 377189+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    The peoples opposition knew that they could not deny the peoples both fracking and oil extraction with winter and a General election on the doorstep.

    In their pursuit of boosters the urge to deny licences to drill in place of to kill appertaining to boosting the depopulation numbers, must have been mighty strong.

    The truth is to support these political creatures of doom & treachery is a very short term win, they are programmed to bring about the full destruction of these Isles, with YOUR help.

    Thursday 28 September: Drilling for oil close to home makes sense in a time of growing volatility

  8. Good morning all.
    A dull but dry 9°C up here with the worst of the night’s winds passed over.

    A fair comment by Laurence Fox on the site formerly known as Twitter with the text for the non-Tw@terati:-

    https://twitter.com/LozzaFox/status/1707026332637360508

    @LozzaFox
    There’s a 15 year old girl lying tragically and avoidably dead in a London morgue, who should be going into afternoon lessons with her mates. A whole life ahead of her. There is a family family whose life has been torn apart forever thanks to
    @SadiqKhan
    ’s lawless London.

    THIS SHOULD BE THE STORY TODAY.

    But instead Twatter and the fake media are obsessed with cancelling me for NOT being interested in shagging some boring, misandrist, feminist cry bully, whose disregard for men’s mental health and male suicide is clear for all to see.

    Words cannot express how much disdain I have for the false virtue of the cancel culture.

    The only useful lessons taken from times like these are that the cos play freedom fighters show themselves for what they really are.

    Cowards.

      1. 377189+ up ticks

        Morning Siadc,

        I think that young girl would have liked an English lesson in the afternoon on the day in question.

    2. No. I’m sorry Laurence you have fouled up! Ad Hominems are not permitted in political debates. You should have stuck to the facts and not allowed your personal preferences to intrude! Moreover you should not have used the death of this young girl to excuse your own behaviour!

      1. 377189+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,
        I was of the same mind in tune with what you say, then on a
        re-think I thought you cannot fight what is happening regarding today’s society, with padded gloves, you’ll lose.

        The political @rseholes & supporters set these unwritten rules and peoples die, that is fact.

        The young girl was a loss to not only her family but to the nation / world that fact should not be used to make political brownie points but nor should it be concealed in a “gotta play fair” manner”

        1. Morning Oggy. I partially agree with what you say but Fox should never have said that on TV, even if it’s true, in fact particularly if it’s true. It was a first class tactical blunder and it looks as if he’s taking Wooton down with him!

          1. 377189+ up ticks,

            AS,

            I do believe we must use all the tools at hand to combat what is taking place, the young girl is,sad to say, an everyday product of today’s society.
            ,

      2. I suspect that the suicide topic touched a very raw nerve. Look at the poor chap’s difficult divorce and the horrible tattoos on his hands and arms. He drank too much and lost control of his mind.

    3. Sadly, with that one intemperate outburst, LF has damaged both himself and GBN. Ofcom has been champing at the bit for an excuse to close down or restrict a telly station that doesn’t toe the party line.

  9. Germany is jeopardising the security of the West. Con Coughlin. 28 September 2023.

    The upcoming summit in London between bin Laden and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is pressing Germany to approve the Typhoon sale, would be a good moment to begin reinvigorating this key alliance.

    Freudian slip springs to mind but it is the last paragraph. I would suppose that he was pretty incoherent by then!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/28/germany-is-jeopardising-the-security-of-the-west/

      1. Morning Stephen. He’s a legend in his own lunchtime. The Telegraph once made him Foreign Editor under the urgings of Mi6. This came to an end when he returned to the office from the pub and rang all the Foreign Correspondents and sacked them to the accompaniment of personal abuse. They kept him on but I think that Mi6 pays his salary. He subsidises it, as here, with approved support for the Saudi’s.

  10. Today’s leading letter and, in my view, deservedly so:

    SIR – Protesters will go ballistic when they hear that drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea has been approved (report, September 27). Yet they fail to take into account the high emissions involved in importing oil and gas – of which Britain does a great deal.

    There is a long time to go before such energy sources can be fully phased out, and we cannot leave ourselves dependent upon others in the meantime. Maybe now the powers-that-be will see the value of fracking and get started on that project as well. The world is too dangerous for us to just sit back and hope.

    Mick Ferrie
    Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

    I haven’t watched BBC News for some time now, but on the basis of ‘know your enemy’ I gritted my teeth and did so in the light of the Rosebank drilling licence. Some eco-nut who calls himself their Climate Editor launched into an anti-oil rant that would have done Caroline Lucas proud. Anyone who is not familiar with the BBC’s infamous bias might be forgiven in thinking that the news had invited on a JSO protestor or similar. It was even more shameful than I had expected. What a total bloody disgrace from our ‘impartial’ national broadcaster.

    1. Morning Hugh. After your dreadful experience may I suggest you visit your local mental Health Counsellor.

      PS (It’s Sir Cur’s most ardent wish that there should be one in every school – It’s enough to drive anyone sane person round the bend!)

      1. ‘Morning, Stephen. I propose to vent my spleen, and thereby restore my mentaw elf, on a formal complaint this morning, copied to my MP.

      2. Cripes: psychologists are just plain barmy. Their qualification serves the same purpose as spots on a leopard. Camouflage.

    2. All we need is for Gove – that well known arbiter of aesthetic taste – to decide what form of fencing is pretty enough to hide all that nasty, butch fracking.

          3. Very, very bad.

            If he doesn’t want publicity then by definition he must be doing something against

            the interests of the average white voter

    3. On the same subject:

      SIR – Common sense has prevailed with regulatory approval for the Rosebank oil field.

      Until the UK has sufficient reliable sources of clean, cheap energy such as electricity derived from mini nuclear plants, we will need both gas and oil.The challenge for the Government is to put an integrated solution together quickly.

      Kim Potter
      Lambourn, Berkshire

      Ms Potter was doing so well until her final sentence. Drinking sessions in breweries spring to mind.

    4. Blair made sure that ‘climate change’ was excluded from balance reporting. They can say what they like.

      However, I’d like to see the BBC without oil. Their cameras for one wouldn’t exist. Nor their headsets, computers, jacks, terminals, cabling, desks, sets, clothes, makeup, communication methods…. the list goes on and on and on.

      As our newly full time was an apprentice grumpy lass (and oh is she grumpy! She fits right in!) said ‘they’re morons. Everything in our world uses oil, from the jackets of cables to the glasses that presenter wears. Idiots.’

      1. A local parish council held a “green weekend” recently. Did they walk everywhere and go without heating, lighting, cooking, mobile phones, etc? No, they held an exhibition for greeniac ideas with people travelling from all over!

    5. Haven’t been watching the bBC Newz? No doubt you are one of those ‘news avoiders’ that Toenails Robinson was lamenting about as listening figures for the Radio4 Toady programme melt away like snow. Of course it never occurred to the clown that people are taking the option of finding their news elsewhere, without the need to run a full fact check on that information.

      Always Worth Saying ‘reviews’ bBC Question Time each week on going-postal.com His review is far more illuminating, interesting and entertaining than anything the bBC produce.

    2. One might be forgiven for thinking the last item might be the incontinence report.

      Morning M.Thomas….

          1. On those lines, apparently now that cars are an international product, there are brain storming sessions when picking new – and suitably anodyne names.
            A super whizzy name in, say, Spanish, can be something very rude in Hungarian.

  12. Good Moaning.
    Oh, for the days of material corruption; those who are convinced they are right, the “Gott (Gaia?) Mit Uns” syndrome ultimately causes more havoc as the believers are never satisfied. Though I do suspect HS2 and Greenery Wokery are testing that theory to destruction.
    I got this 1960’s greaser muddled with Maudling and his silver coffee pot.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/columnists/article-12567891/PETER-HITCHENS-HS2-Low-Speed-One.html

    1. Ogga, you’re mistaking the electoral process with the policies. Most people don’t really want or need government about. It does very little of worth or value. All parties are the same: high tax, big state, spendaholics.

      We do not live in a democracy. I find it odd that you think voting makes any difference. It doesn’t. No matter who you elect, you get the same thing.

      1. 377189+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        I beg to differ and totally disagree

        ” No matter who you elect, you get the same thing.”

        You can expect nothing less when you restrict yourself to supporting / voting for one of the lab/lib/con coalition close shop parties.

        The majority voter is only voting for the party (ino) name, FULL STOP not wanting to acknowledge their parties
        odious actions these past four decades.
        I will grant you the fact that the electorate are not circling democracy
        in a defensive manner but seemingly in a kill mode.

        1. I had a newsletter from Malvern Hills District Council, with a lovely map with photographs and party group affiliations of the councillors. Right now, it comprises:

          11 Democratic Independents
          7 Conservatives
          7 Greens
          3 Liberal Democrats
          3 Malvern Hills Independents

          I leave it to you to guess which coalition is currently running the council. The Leader of the Council is a long-serving Democratic Independent who was until a couple of years ago a Liberal Democrat, who stood for Parliament in 2005, and who is vigorously despised by Conservatives outside his ward. The Chair of the Council is a long-serving Conservative in a ward that has never been anything but Conservative. I never got to the bottom of the reason for the bust-up amid the Independents. The town of Malvern is now without any Tories on the District Council, despite the Conservatives having on overwhelming domination of Worcestershire County Council.

          Not a sign of the three Rs – Reclaim, Reform or Ratarse, nor of Labour, other than their 2015 parliamentary candidate is now one of the Democratic Independents.

          What does that say of next year’s likely affiliation of the occupants of Downing Street?

      2. As Quintin Hogg said many years ago – we live in an ‘elective dictatorship’. This lot or the other lot, they are all the same and we have no say.

        1. That is very true. Elective Dictatorship = Elective Oligarchy. It is very far from being a Democracy.

  14. A BTL Comment:-

    R. Spowart
    JUST NOW
    Message Actions
    No comments allowed on the article telling us of the sacked BA Pilot, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/27/british-airways-pilot-sacked-snort-cocaine-topless-woman/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
    But this quote has me wishing our politicians and senior civil servants were subject to the same runes:-
    “Mr Beaton was suspended and flown home as a passenger the following day before undergoing a drug test at Heathrow. Class A drugs were found in his system and he was sacked.”

    1. We’re not surprised. It’s well known that cocaine damages judgment.

      ……………….which reminds us of the newspaper reports some time ago that 90% of the HoC toilets had traces of cocaine.

    2. We’re not surprised. It’s well known that cocaine damages judgment.

      ……………….which reminds us of the newspaper reports some time ago that 90% of the HoC toilets had traces of cocaine.

  15. ‘Morning All

    Medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00971be6538dd6973e7e5091be016a376e38c99f24f714b5449f788243c19d22.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a9168bae8b99076ccba87168a43e02b92ceeb354ae67214bb8cbe29ba913e145.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/345f3b786e521ac581fa702d8a6d5b2989a610ba6e87215a65a2d466bae93ec1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/67b13755d605d61f0b202f81ad0e6913f585c7a33c2d550dc2c133dea4e49707.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a02694e097085482ad13ef94fe276845ffc75b4015b6350c03f2ced16a42f733.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ef6e239baadeb4a71fa08246eb3e8db667dbbca42d6cc6911d0abcba3bb09a42.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5662d6ea694fd6a5535d40fc4db1d79521894364c42e1babb8ade77d02ef6503.jpg

  16. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not much to report weather wise, but calm now might brighten up later.
    Oh dear, drilling for oil in the UK?
    That’s brought out the usual morons who walk or cycle everywhere just because they hate oil. The saviour of the modern world.
    We’re off for a walk along part of the North Coast this morning. National trust parking of course. Not sure what it’s called but I know it’s fairly level. I think it’s Bedruthen.
    Slayders.

  17. Dominic Weston Smith’s letter regarding his catchphrase of “Forgive me for interrupting” reminds me of the time I was giving a talk on wedding photography to a camera club, 2 young ladies in the audience were constantly chattering so I stopped, looked directly at them and said “Excuse me for talking while you’re interrupting”, they looked a bit sheepish and I got a round of applause from the other members. They never spoke after that

    1. The population has been infantilised. Like nursery school children, nothing is as important as their own restricted little world.

    2. At one notable Opening of Parliament the Queen was addressing the assembly when suddenly a loud Mobile phone started ringing.

      Claire Short, the MP and Labour minister whose phone it was, fumbled in her pocket trying to silence it. When she had succeeded in doing so the Queen, with great sang-froid said: “I do hope it was not something important.”

  18. While many of us have criticised Laurence Fox for his stupidity I cannot but think that he is a disturbed soul who needs our compassion as much as our condemnation.

    Why did he disfigure himself with those horrible badly executed tattoos all over his hands and arms? Surely to commit such an action of self-harm was a cri de cœur – a cry for help? Imagine the inconvenience for an actor to have to mask his limbs to hide the body graffiti every time he appeared on the stage or on TV – it is not the action of a sound-minded person.

    And after his well-publicised divorce and the difficulties of his family relationships I can well believe that he may have contemplated suicide.

    So, if he had had a few drinks and then heard this foul woman mocking the topic of men who commit suicide then is it entirely surprising that he snapped?

    1. Morning Richard. I would not deny his right to hold such an opinion. It is the uttering of it where the error lies!

  19. France will use ‘empathy lessons’ to tackle bullying in schools. 28 September 2023.

    France on Wednesday unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle bullying in schools via Danish-style “empathy lessons” and social media bans.

    Elisabeth Borne, the French prime minister, said that cracking down on bullying, which concerns “two pupils per class and more than a million over the past three years”, was an “absolute priority”.

    The push will see special “anti-bully brigades” created and a “systematic” referral of complaints to prosecutors.

    It will be guided by the principle of ”100 per cent prevention, 100 per cent detection, 100 per cent solutions”, Ms Borne said.

    What utter bull! Have these people ever entered the real world? Bully’s by their very nature are undeterred by toothless sanctions. The children who are foolish enough to complain will suffer even worse!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/27/france-empathy-lessons-bullying-schools-elisabeth-borne/

    1. Complaining about being bullied gets you more of the same. I soon learned not to mention it to my parents.

      1. Morning Phizzee. Yes it’s a sad lesson in real life. The best trick I found was to truckle to the most powerful individual in the playground and then hide behind them!

        1. Good morning.
          He ripped my shirt which got me punished by my parents. No pocket money for a month. I got my own back. I took a sledgehammer to his Chopper bike when he was visiting a neighbour.
          The little shit was the son of the local Bobby and thought he could do what he liked.

          1. Our two sons had similar problems with the sons of parents who were parent-governers at the school. They thought they owned the school (the sons, that is, and the parents weren’t far behind).

        2. When my father was 13 he was bullied by an 18 year old prefect but as he was a good boxer he knocked out the prefect with one well aimed punch to the chin.

          This caused quite a stink so my father was moved to Monkton Combe School near Bath where he ended up as Head boy and captain of rugby and won a scholarship to St John’s College Cambridge where he rowed for the college and got a First in Classics and then went to the Sudan in the colonial service.

    2. It is a sad fact of life that bullying erupts in many schools from time to time. When I was a housemaster 4 boys were expelled for bullying and this had a purgative effect on the whole school and bullying was practically eliminated for several years.

      There seems to be two ways in which those who are bullied react: they either become bullies themselves or they do their best to save others from the fate they suffered.

    3. BTL & Tw@ter comments made:-

      “EMPATHY LESSONS”???
      What a total load of bullshonet.
      Bullies have NO empathy and will only modify their conduct when the consequences of their actions affect themselves.

      1. Ah, I’ve read about the arsonists problem in France. All those churches going up in smoke…..

  20. Are you all being badgered by the NHS to get your ‘seasonal Vaccinations’? So far I’ve had two texts and today an email. Fed up with it. They weren’t so persistent last time round.
    This is bullying.

    1. Ditto. All blitzed.
      I also had a questionnaire asking how satisfied I was with the surgery’s service.
      FFFS, a nurse took a bit of blood from my arm; precisely what she’s trained to do.
      I deleted the ‘survey’.
      GP Surgery twinned with Amazon.

      1. They even included an absolute lie – that the ‘vaccinations’ give enhanced immunity compared to any acquired immunity from previous infections.

        1. That’s no doubt because people are refusing on the grounds that they’ve already had the disease and so have natural immunity.

  21. Are you all being badgered by the NHS to get your ‘seasonal Vaccinations’? So far I’ve had two texts and today an email. Fed up with it. They weren’t so persistent last time round.
    This is bullying.

  22. More on the Home Secretary’s New York speech. Last night’s East Midlands Today reported on the reaction in Leicester, that grand English city of racial and cultural har-mo-nee.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bec8d23a126e152a8878aa56dcd422d4fdb67a19bbe4e43b17ae0e093c8cc3c4.png

    Leicester mayor Peter Soulsby was reported thus: “Ms Braverman clearly doesn’t know Leicester. Community cohesion is always work in progress.”

    Later in the programme in a separate report he came on to tell us how wonderful Diwali is but that the plug might have to be pulled on the Leicester celebrations because they cost a lot and take a lot of organising. Is that the only reason, Mr S?

    2. How is the CofE going to succeed in cutting Jesus Christ out of the creed and the rest of the liturgy and replacing him with Mohammed?

      Welby and his bishops are certainly working hard on the project.

    4. That would be the city where there are religious wars (and the few Christians hide behind the sofas)?

    1. It makes one weep – the poor little girl! And where is the picture of her murderer?

      Why are the Left so determined to destroy good race relations?

      1. As we know, all schoolboys carry a long knife or machete as a matter of course; it’s so natural they don’t even realise it’s there!
        On a related note, it would seem that the local RC comprehensive is bumping up its income and numbers by taking troublesome pupils.
        Yesterday, they were piling out of the school at 2.00 pm (why!). The ethnicity and intimidating behaviour suggested that downtown Brixton had moved into a Colchester suburb.

          1. Valuable learning curve.
            Introduces this fusty old fuddy duddy into the delights of the modern world.

        2. When I was at school, Tuesdays and Thursdays finished early (at 13:00), followed by lunch and then sports.

          4. We had lessons on four afternoons a week ( Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri) followed by games on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and CCF on Friday.

            School matches were played on Wednesdays or Saturdays when there were lessons until lunch time but no afternoon school classes – but there were still games to play when there were no fixtures.

            As a result the school could field 4 senior rugby teams, 2 Senior Colts teams, 2 Junior Colts and two Foals (Under 14 ) teams.

      2. The alleged killer will have his identity protected until he is at least 18, and possibly for longer.

  25. I see that the maniac who stabbed the girl in Croydon killed someone who was trying to intervene.

    He should be locked away for life, but given his age I suspect he’ll be out well before he’s 40.

    1. And, I suspect his ethnicity will give him a free pass.
      Part of their culture.
      Tell that to the victim’s parents who were trying to do the best for their daughter.

    2. No calls to shut down the BBC as a result of Brand (oh, yes, he was mean to a bloke, so that’s OK) or other scandals…

    3. But but, it’s fine for the woman they were criticising to say that women should be able to make false accusations of rape and laugh at male suicides. She’s pretending on Twitter/X that she didn’t do that and people are responding by posting the videos of her doing it. (Wootton has switched off replies to his comments but she still seems game for a fight. Credit where it’s due!) GBN should have just aired those videos and condemned her behaviour, without trying to score blokeish points.

      1. Exactly – it’s the blokeishness that cost the two men their credibility. What Eva whatnot said was ghastly and absolutely indefensible, what the two men said was stupid, crass, indefensible – and completely off the point.

  27. That’s a load of jars sorted, different sizes, but all with the same sized lid, washed and placed in the oven to sterilise, lids checked for serviceability and placed into a pan of boiling water and the chutney having a last boil up whilst I enjoy a mug of tea and a snack before jarring up.

    I need to have a good sort out of the jars I’ve collected over recent years!!

  28. Good Morning to all. Listened to this earlier this morning. Useful information.
    And a Question unrelated to the video but of interest. How many of you know about Jury Nullification? I was surprised to see that it is controversial in the UK since it is so well known in the USA.

    Multiculturalism + Mass Immigration Is Destroying Britain. Diversity Has a Darker Side

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd5OJ66juZ0&t=237s

    1. Just wondering when this was made. Posted yesterday judging by the comments, but must be from 2022 as he mentions Cameron and that we are 2 PMs along from him.

  30. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/59ad19e86a55335d24e6c36bfc80ee8e761e28ee3a35793c6dd83c96e5b90d34.png
    Matthew Lynn – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/27/government-heat-pump-targets-fining-companies/

    BTL (Percival Wrattstrangler)

    “Replacing traditional oil and gas boilers with heat pumps that run on electricity will play a role in combating climate change. No one disputes that.” writes Matthew Lynn.

    I dispute it! Carbon dioxide is entirely beneficial.

    Man-made Climate change/global warming is a great scam the purpose of which is to impoverish everybody and frighten them into submission.

    1. ” No one disputes that” – that’s the sort of sloppy, arrogant assumption that really pisses me off – I certainly dispute it!

      Edit – sloppy editing corrected!!

          2. OK I will be the softie and accept that we have been responsible for some increase in CO2 levels in the atmosphere and that there might indeed be some correlation between CO2 levels and climate changes. But is it causative or just correlation and how much of climate change is just natural.?

            The latest figures apparently show that annual emissions from all Canadian sources is equal to the annual increase in Chinese emissions. If world governments were serious about reducing CO2, they would be giving China a hard time about their carbon footprint.

          3. Examination of ice cores has shown that an increase in CO2 FOLLOWS an increase in temperature. CO2 isn’t responsible for a rise in temperature.

          4. Examination of ice cores has shown that an increase in CO2 FOLLOWS an increase in temperature. CO2 isn’t responsible for a rise in temperature.

    3. It’s odd that government is deliberately driving up the cost of energy, forcing people to install incredibly energy inefficient heating systems and, alongside that fining the installers of efficient ones.

      When people are freezing and dying – leading to massive demands on the NHS – what will it do?

    4. What really can’t be disputed is the fact that tree made oxygen is entirely beneficial otherwise it wouldn’t be the first thing that medics stick up one:s nose when we are sick.

      We really need to concentrate on producing enough carbon dioxide for all the trees we are planting to save the planet.

      The odd thing is that carbon dioxide is also necessarily administered to humans to force them to breathe properly.

    5. I dispute it, too. When there’s no electricity because the sun don’t shine and the wind don’t blow, what’s going to power the heat pumps? Duh!

    1. Gosh – that’s a lot of chutney! It’ll be a while before the smell of chutney leaves your house!

  33. World famous Robin Hood tree on Hadrian’s Wall ‘felled by vandals’. 28 September 2023

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2afe8306e3ace3de76abc006f35cf945a3605551ff36cac9e65359481fcf024.jpg

    The world famous tree at Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland has been felled by vandals overnight, park authorities fear.

    The tree, which was voted English Tree of the Year in 2016, is visited by tens of thousands of walkers each year and featured in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman.

    Northumberland National Park said it had “reason to believe” that the tree had been illegally felled overnight and Northumbria Police said it was investigating.

    Judging by the location and the cut through the tree, not some casual act. In fact a detemined effort. I have a suspicion behind the reason but no more.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/28/hadrians-wall-sycamore-gap-felled-northumberland/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

      2. My suspicion is that it was felled by

        someone upset by certain National Trust policies.

        In any case sycamore is simply a weed.
        Recently I heard a sound ( a crack, followed by rustling noise) and watched as an oak tree shed a large bough, laden with haycorns. ‘Twas an anxious moment for those of us who were standing just yards away. (Thank you God!)

      1. I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree.
        Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all.

        [Ogden Nash]

        We could update Nash by changing billboard to turbines or pylons.

        Does anyone remember this?

        Woodman, Spare That Tree!
        (George Pope Morris, 1802-64)

        Woodman, spare that tree!
        ⁠Touch not a single bough!
        In youth it sheltered me,
        ⁠And I’ll protect it now.
        ‘Twas my forefather’s hand
        ⁠That placed it near his cot;
        There, woodman, let it stand,
        ⁠Thy ax shall harm it not.

        That old familiar tree,
        ⁠Whose glory and renown
        Are spread o’er land and sea—
        ⁠And wouldst thou hew it down?
        Woodman, forbear thy stroke!
        ⁠Cut not its earth-bound ties;
        Oh, spare that agèd oak
        ⁠Now towering to the skies!

        When but an idle boy,
        ⁠I sought its grateful shade;
        In all their gushing joy
        ⁠Here, too, my sisters played.
        My mother kissed me here;
        ⁠My father pressed my hand—
        Forgive this foolish tear,
        ⁠But let that old oak stand.

        My heart-strings round thee cling,
        ⁠Close as thy bark, old friend!
        Here shall the wild-bird sing,
        ⁠And still thy branches bend.
        Old tree! the storm still brave!
        ⁠And, woodman, leave the spot;
        While I’ve a hand to save,
        ⁠Thy ax shall harm it not.

    4. Robert of Locksley (Robin Hood) had nothing to do with Hadrian’s Wall; and he certainly did not resemble that useless, charisma-free ‘actor’ the wooden Costner, who has the acting ability and personality of a clothes-prop. That film of his was beyond dire!

      The real Robin Hood tree is the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, just outside Edwinstowe.

    1. I’m not, but no one is listening t me, a working upper tax payer hetero sexual married father with a son.

      I want the government to go away – completely. I want nothing from it apart from tax cuts. This is the one thing the state refuses to offer: whoever is in office.

    1. I present the same missive to everyone pushing socialism that if we’re all going to get the same I’m going to stop working. Why bother? They then say ‘but that’s unfair because you’re not contributing!’ and I then say ‘Why should I if I’m not being rewarded for my effort?’

      And they go all around the houses and eventually come back to markets and capitalism no matter how they try to spin it.

      1. Most of us have probably come across this before but This illustrates your point clearly:

        Suppose that once a week, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

        The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
        The fifth would pay £1.
        The sixth would pay £3.
        The seventh would pay £7.
        The eighth would pay £12.
        The ninth would pay £18.
        And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59.　
        So, that’s what they decided to do.

        The ten men drank in the bar every week and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20.” Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.

        The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free but what about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone would get his fair share? They realized that £20 divided by six is £3.33 but if they subtracted that from everybody’s share then not only would the first four men still be drinking for free but the fifth and sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.　

        So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fairer to reduce each man’s bill by a higher percentage. They decided to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using and he proceeded to work out the amounts he suggested that each should now pay.

        And so, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (a100% saving).
        The sixth man now paid £2 instead of £3 (a 33% saving).
        The seventh man now paid £5 instead of £7 (a 28% saving).
        The eighth man now paid £9 instead of £12 (a 25% saving).
        The ninth man now paid £14 instead of £18 (a 22% saving).
        And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59 (a 16% saving).　
        Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free.　

        But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings. “I only got £1 out of the £20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, “but he got £10!”　
        “Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a £1 too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefit than me!”　

        “That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”　

        “Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, “we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!” The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.　

        The next week the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important – they didn’t have enough money between all of them to pay for even half of the bill!　

        And that, boys and girls, journalists and government ministers, is how our tax system works. The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.　

        For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
        For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

    1. ‘It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’

      [P.G.Wodehouse – on Lord Emsworth’s gardener, Angus McAllister ]

    2. ‘It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’

      [P.G.Wodehouse – on Lord Emsworth’s gardener, Angus McAllister ]

    3. ‘It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a grievance and a ray of sunshine.’

      [P.G.Wodehouse – on Lord Emsworth’s gardener, Angus McAllister ]

  37. Putin has lost control of the war, head of UK armed forces says. 28 September 2023.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    Martin Teling. 5 HRS AGO.

    I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that AT is spreading his special brand of russian propaganda on other DT articles the latest being about VAT on school fees.
    So the DT allows the likes of AT , Pig B and the MRSR to pollute these pages with their pro russian anti UK sentiment yet MM gets a permanent ban.

    Something clearly wrong here.

    Bad Bob. 2 HRS AGO.

    My post in support of Martin has been removed.

    Martin Mitchel is the best Ukraine war investigative reporter the DT never had. If you compare the depth and quality of his information compared to some of the ex-army columnists whose articles are basically schoolboy standard then without Martin (and other ladies and gentleman reader’s contributions) the DT’s coverage of the war is very flat and uninspiring.

    I urge the DT to allow him immediate posting access and also to match the quality of his posts

    These posts in the Telegraph are bewailing the loss of Martin Mitchel a contributor to everything concerning the Ukraine War. He’s been banned permanently by the Telegraph Mods and so far no explanation has been forthcoming. I never liked him myself, there was a “gung ho, get it up you Ruskies” element to his comments that I didn’t like. This is not partisanship. I had a suspicion that he was a fake. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to any of his fans but I wouldn’t be at all surprised that theTelegraph has discovered that he’s a Ukie Intelligence Troll!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/09/28/ukraine-russia-war-live-counter-offensive-zaporizhzhia/

    2. I’ve lost count of the number of times Putin has been at deaths door in the past 2 years as well as how many times the Ukes are on the verge of victory.
      It only confirms, to me, that the truth is the first and lasting casualty of war.
      Believe nobody.

      1. I wouldn’t mind but there is never any historical analysis because that doesn’t suit the government narrative. What, we’re arming people who were shelling the blokes now being invaded and the invaded see the invaders as liberators?

        This is complicated! Who’re the goodies and who’re the baddies?

      2. And the chubby chappie from North Korea was suspected of having died of surfeit of unwholesome comestibles.

        Maybe he did die and they are now using a clone?

        (One of my sons designs robots; the other writes Artificial Intelligence computer programs. I wonder how long it will be before they start producing diabolics to put into the robotics?)

        2. A trope in the Western world is that people of the Far East look alike. A clone should be easy to find but North Korea has few as well fed as its esteemed leader.

  39. Anyone know anything about Zoom? It says free version is only 40 minutes, next is £120.00 version. I’m not that enthused by something that I’m only going to use once a week for 2 hours, if that, and costs £120.00.

      1. Hi Araminta. With reference to your below comments. Still prefer Col Macgregor. Like the fact that he backs up his remarks with concrete observations. EG, surveillance satellites identifying number of graves, that sort of thing and, his deductions in general seem to be firmly rooted in logic rather than ideology.

    2. If you’re only speaking to family what about FaceTime if you have Apple or WhatsApp , both free.

    3. Zoom is free, from memory?

      What problem are you trying to solve? If it’s chum to chum use whatsapp or signal. If it’s a business thing then push for either slack or google hangouts – hangouts are a bit easier.

      We use google internally. It’s relatively cheap and simple. We are, however, brutally rigid in our document structuring in naming conventions, folder types and what not (as we couldn’t find anything).

      Most of our client data is in a google form and from there a database which we run queries against for billing.

      1. It’s a group wibbling. Meets once a week. But Zoom is what they use. Promised the district nurse I would try it. But not if I have to pay for something I might not like.

        1. Push them to using google hangouts.

          These are free for as long as you want, or a whatsapp group. I resent people being forced to pay for something or it being limited. Reminnd them that while used during lockdown, they can take a flying leap if they think people will keep paying.

    4. According to the MR, who uses it a lot, the free Zoom session gives you 40 minutes. Should you be timed out – just start again immediately with another free 40 minutes. Simple.

    5. We used zoom a lot during the dark days of lockdown.

      We never had more than about twenty people in a single session, it worked OK.
      The forty minute session limit was a pain but you could just restart the session and carry on.

      We used zoom for some impromptu gym sessions , the instructor at home and us leaping around our living rooms trying to keep up. Zoom would freeze at the most inopportune time.

      This wax before the days of other group chat software.

      1. I used Zoom during the lockdowns, too. I didn’t like it. The (possibly) good side of it was that the camera on my laptop doesn’t work 🙂

    2. Where does campaigning end and political views espousing and promoting a particular agenda end? Far too many people are thick and will vote whichever way ‘that man of the telly’ suggests. He will say ‘we should give more money to the poor’. Yay! Great! But ‘we’ isn’t you. It’s me. And I earn it, and I want to keep it for myself – it’s mine, after all.

      That is lost on vast numbers of the populace – especially those who watch the BBC.

    3. Not a chance.

      Meanwhile on GB News, if there is any hint whatsoever that a right-wing view isn’t balanced by a left-wing one, OFCOM are in like a shot…

      1. Ofcom is as crooked and twisted as a spiral staircase.

        The way they hounded Mark Steyn was a disgrace and many times Steyn invited his protagonists to debate with him on air with GB News and, because of the clandestine malevolence of the people within Ofcom who hate coming out in the open, nobody from this duplicitous oganisation was prepared to respond to his invitation.

        Q. What is the difference between Ofcom and a Bucket of Porcine Excrement?

        A. The Bucket.

    4. The BBC will judge more spending on the NHS, asylum seekers and welfare to be right wing whereas even more spending on the same will be deemed left wing.

    1. Good for you – I hope you both have a lovely time!

      I don’t (at the moment!) have arthritis, but as a matter of interest, how did you come across this helper? Was it suggested by the NHS or did you find it yourself?

      1. The surgeon who diagnosed the arthritis and did an arthroscopy on the knee in Jan 2020. I’d never heard of these braces but the fitting room this morning was full of the so I presume they’re in quite common usage and yes it’s from our tax money via the NHS.

          1. I saw the surgeon on 23rd June when he put through the referral and 3 months later it’s fitted. I should only wear the brace 2 hours a day for the first week then 4 hours the second week and 8 hours subsequent weeks to let the skin get used to the brace. Might exceed that if I think all is going well .

      1. Yes this also gave relief to my back pain as I stood upright immediately and the limp I’ve had for the past few years also disappeared. Really quite amazing.

        1. I told my physio, “I don’t walk very well”. You waddle, she told me. I like to think I’m imitating Douglas Bader (but without his handicap). The reason being I have a dodgy left hip and dodgy right knee.

      2. Heat to loosen the muscles. Lay over a chair (to extend your spine) and put a hot water bottle on your back and stay there ’til it’s cool.

        I’ve done that to my tricep which I’ve torn and it’s done wonders.

      1. Not at all. It transfers the load from side of the knee with the least cartilage and equalises it. That’s my explanation. It really was incredible the immediate relief and made my stand upright. I would never have thought it possible. The fitting room at the hospital had boxes of them. It looks as though they’re a normal prescription/referral item.

        2. I’m having my knees X rayed (an MRI scan request from my GP was refused) in about a fortnight assuming they don’t put it off again. I’ll ask, if they refer me to Gobowen (centre of excellence, you know) if they could fit me with a pair.

  42. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/09/27/pound-falling-euro-dollar-inflation-interest-rates-sunak/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    SZ Clark, you speak for so many of us:

    And the US is exploiting its traditional energy reserves, whereas our evil rulers want to a) worsen the balance of payments b) reduce tax revenues c) reduce employment and d) reduce energy security
    All accomplished by inhibiting domestic traditional energy production.
    I HATE the Westminster/Whitehall/Quangocrat Blob SO MUCH. They are pure evil. Especially the unbelievably appalling ‘Climate Change Committee’. EDITED

          4. “I HATE the Westminster/Whitehall/Quangocrat Blob SO MUCH. They are pure evil. Especially the unbelievably appalling ‘Climate Change Committee’.”

            That calls for a competition. Stop being subtle and say what you really think. The challenge would be to circumvent Disqus bots while maintaining a high level of invective.
            (Only write on one side of the paper in case the green ink soaks through.)

          5. That’s me lifting a quote from someone else (S Z Clark) on the article. I happen to agree with him.

            I find invective crass, but put it this way – when the lights go out and there’s no power because of these morons I will have no qualms with hunting down these useless fools and subjecting them to suitable punishment.

            After all, the phones won’t work so there’ll be no way to squeal for help.

          6. Funnily enough, I’ve just watched newsreel footage from the 70s – high inflation, strikes, rubbish on the streets, the dead unburied, etc. Back to the future! Only this time white people are fewer.

  44. Another police officer faces the sack for shooting a criminal suspect despite cleared of criminal offences. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is set to announce that he will face a gross misconduct hearing that could result in him being sacked.

    Police marksman who shot dead gangster faces sack despite being cleared
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/27/met-police-officer-jermaine-baker-shooting-london-sack

    It sounds to me as though the IoPC is another body infected with a political virus.

    1. Why are they all on the side of the criminals.
      They all seem to be suffering from the George Floyd syndrome?

      1. It is one of the 11 aims of the Frankfurt School to break down society – side with the criminals. Other aims are emptying the churches, easy availability of alcohol, teaching of sex and homosexuality to children, undermining parental authority…. support for minority groups over the majority (this dilutes and weakens the majority, as does massive immigration); support for the criminal over the true victim by the judiciary confuses and demoralises the indigenous.

    2. I’m pleased that he was rightly found not guilty. But I’m afraid our hierarchy don’t have the slightest idea of the coming problems that will develop from another act of self inflicted stupidity.
      The officer was carrying out the task he was trained to do. And in a no win situation.
      The person he shot was a known gangster, not mentioned by our pathetic media. I wouldn’t be a surprise if he’d had a firearm in his car and it was removed by some one after the fatal act.
      He’d be better off out of that form
      of ’employment’.

  45. For a few paragraphs I was with The Moonbat – but then he had to spoil it with the usual climate change nonsense. I think he simply underestimates the level of sheer stupidity and incompetence in the political class.

    Every time a project like HS2 becomes a costly fiasco, we wonder why. So let me tell you: it’s clientelism
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/sep/28/hs2-fiasco-clientelism-profit-big-projects

    And BTW Georgie old chap, isn’t it time to update your photo?

    1. No longer a shell of his former self. I can’t help wondering if they are eggstolling his virtues as he was a good egg.

    2. As the story is retold from one generation to the next, he’ll eventually become a yolk hero.

  47. There was chatter earlier on about using local energy resources over imported.

    Here’s our example of why that is needed.

    Most of our gas and oil comes through a pipeline from Alberta. Daddy Trudeau shut down the idea of a cross Canada pipeline so the pipeline we have now runs through the US.

    Lo and behold they are now threatening to shut the pipeline down because they are worried about a leak someday. A lower court said shut it down, they are now working up through the various appeal courts to overturn the verdict.

    Although Trudeau will have an orgasm at the thought of carbon levels going down it will be quite interesting with no gas in southern Ontario. No heating in winter, no fuel for cars.

    2. Oof!
      Pipeline integrity management is a whole discipline in itself. complicated stuff – did some of that in Sudan (a.o.)

  48. They are bright really.

    Looking at the DM story about that tree being cut down, the police stated that it looked like it was cut down deliberately.

    Seriously? At least three cuts with a hefty chainsaw and they can only say that it might be deliberate.

  50. Serious question.

    In the spring I planted 6 of these plants:

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

    Clearing the bed to make way for winter flowering plants, i was horrified to see that they had produced hundreds of petit pois sized seeds a great number of which have found they way into the soil. Has any Nottler gardener grown these plants over a few years and can tell me wether all those seeds are likely to germinate next year?

    2. Sounds as though you’ll need to keep them in check. The wiki says it dies down but the roots will sprout again in the spring, along with all the seedlings.

      1. It is not surprising, I agree, and sadly what we have come to expect, but I found it shocking to hear it being read out at an enquiry, everyone has known this and yet these people are still walking around with their freedom.

    2. It’s not an own goal – it’s a jolly good thing that more people have discovered the truth about vaccines! Including the hit job done on Andrew Wakefield and his work on the MMR.

      1. And the DTP seems to be the cause of a lot of autism and other ill effects in the USA. I told you the other day of my son’s reaction. I should have stopped him having any more.

    3. It must be a different variant * over here, they are pushing a moderna jab for anyone over six months old.

      * Different variation of the truth that is.

    4. I immediately deleted the text from the NHS saying I was eligible for the ‘flu AND covid vaccine. I won’t have either for fear they would give me the one under pretext of the other. Trust, once lost, is hard to regain.

      1. I’ve had two texts and an email so far…….. saying I was ” a priority” due to my age and also ” Seasonal vaccinations have proven safety records. They give you better protection than any immunity gained from previous infections.” which appears to be an absolute lie.

        OH went to the surgery this morning and the doc asked him if he was going to have the flu/covid jabbs, but didn’t push the point when he declined.

        1. I’ve already told my surgery I don’t want the ‘flu jab – didn’t stop them pushing it again. Grrr! Like you I had the “priority” email. My priority is staying well (away from “vaccines”, that is).

  54. That’s me for this gloomy day. Not exactly cold but not warm.. Still in shorts to try to convince myself about global boiling…

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain. Briefly – I have to take the MR to horsepiddle for an x-ray. (nothing serious).

    She is risking a glass of wine this evening….so she must be on the mend!

  55. Of course the fact that Laurence Fox is an Old Harrovian encourages me to put a new twist on an old story about the Old Boy from Eton, the Old Boy from Winchester and the Old Boy from Harrow asked to fetch a chair for an old lady to sit on. The Etonian finds the chair, the Wykehamist carries it to the old girl and the Harrovian sits in it.

    WARNING – VERY NAUGHTY INDEED

    The three of them were invited to a Buckingham Palace garden party to meet the Duke of Sussex and his wife, Migraine.

    On seeing the duchess the Old Etonian bowed low and said: “It is an honour to meet you. Please can I contribute a donation to the Archewell Foundation?”

    The Old Wykehamist said: “Please may I invest £10m in your new Podcast?”

    The Old Harrovian turned to the Old Etonian and the Old Wykehamist and said: “Who in the world would want to shag that?”

  56. Yesterday walked to Janet’s Fosse and back. Mrs D did very well. Dined at the Lister Arms. I had the wonderful sausage and mash. Three butcher’s sausages the size of courgettes. I could only eat two (the Springer was delighted).
    Today a very long walk at Bolton Abbey along the river.to the Strid (a very narrow channel through enormous rocks 9 metres deep). Mrs D doing very well.
    Tonight at the Lister Arms I will have the fish and chips having seen it last night. Tomorrow, our last night, we will dine again at Beck Hall.

  57. Allison tells it as it is……….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/09/28/the-establishment-cant-stand-that-gb-news-exists/

    Allison Pearson

    28 September 2023 • 6:00pm

    I am not going to get tangled up in the weeds of the GB News furore,
    but I do want to write about my own experience of the channel which
    several senior broadcasters and even a Tory MP (although the Trades
    Descriptions Act would surely ban Caroline Nokes from calling herself a
    Conservative) have demanded be shut down. Shutting down news outlets
    because a contributor said something extremely distasteful sounds a bit
    Soviet for my liking, but we appear to have an establishment which
    supports free speech as long as they agree with the thoughts being
    expressed.

    1. TRADE Descriptions Act….

      GRRRRR I wish people, especially journalists, would get that right… GRRRR

  58. Haven’t seen any Wordlers’ results so…

    Par here.
    Wordle 831 4/6

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

    2. Four here

      Wordle 831 4/6

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

      1. I hate those puzzles when even after taking out the naughty words, there are three or four possible solutions and you have to guess which one was in the authors mind.

    3. Par for me.

      Wordle 831 4/6

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

  61. 377189 + up ticks,

    Well now,

    ARTICLES
    ABOUT
    ARCHIVE
    FORUM
    DONATE
    NEWSLETTER
    MHRA Finally Admits it Failed to Test the Safety of Mass Manufactured Covid Vaccine Batches
    BY NICK HUNT 28 SEPTEMBER 2023 3:13 PM

    On December 8th 2020, June Raine, Head of the MHRA, assured us all that “no corners have been cut” when the Government gave Temporary Authorisation to the Pfizer Covid vaccine. Based on the evidence from another of my FOIs to MHRA, it’s hard to see how that was an honest statement.

    Before I go on, a bit of background. Most development trials in any sector use a product made using small-scale manufacturing facilities or a lab. You don’t want to invest in mass production (new machines and tooling and maybe a new factory) until you’ve got confidence in the design. On the other hand, scaling up production creates new risks. It’s a huge subject but to keep it simple just imagine scaling up from making a dozen cup cakes in your kitchen to producing thousands to sell in the shops. You’d encounter massive problems obtaining, measuring and mixing the large amounts of ingredients. They might have to come from multiple sources and you’d have to assure yourself they were equivalent. Mixing large amounts homogeneously in large vats is harder than in a pudding bowl and cooking them in your kitchen oven. You might have to change the actual production process and even add or substitute new ingredients. There’s a high risk that you’ll end up with ‘different’ cup cakes. So unless you compare test results from the first full production batch with the results from the cup cakes you made in your kitchen, you are flying blind.

    For medicines, you’ll be relieved to know that there are strict regulations governing this scaling-up process. For example, here is one relevant document from the European Medicines Agency.

    I became aware in 2022 of the potential ‘bait and switch’ issue with the Pfizer Covid vaccine – the suspicion that in December 2020 the MHRA approved a vaccine (made by ‘Process 2’) different to that tested in Pfizer’s clinical trials (made by ‘Process 1’) without any comparative data. Here is one example, by Josh Guetzkow, an Israeli academic, which drew on FOIs in other countries and the release of Pfizer documents enforced by the U.S. courts.

    But one thing bothered me – his statement that: “To the best of our knowledge, there is no publicly available report on this comparison of ‘Process 1’ versus ‘Process 2’ doses.” As with correlation doesn’t equal causation, absence of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence.

    Guetzkow’s article led me to Pfizer’s undertaking in October 2020 (bottom of p46 here):

    The safety and immunogenicity results for individuals 16 to 55 years of age vaccinated with study intervention produced by manufacturing ‘Process 1’ and each lot of ‘Process 2’ will be summarised descriptively. A random sample of 250 participants from those vaccinated with study intervention produced by manufacturing ‘Process 1’ will be selected randomly for the analysis.

    I therefore submitted an FOI to MHRA requesting a copy of the relevant Pfizer report. MHRA’s first response was to send me a link to the European Medicine Agency’s archive of reports and, in effect, told me to go and look for myself. Not very open and transparent, was it?

    So I requested an Internal Review, and have now received a response in which MHRA finally comes clean – it does not hold such a report. Bombshell or what.

    It also turns out that the promised comparison between ‘Process 1’ and ‘Process 2’ product remained a condition of authorisation until September 2022 when the EMA and MHRA eventually acquiesced to Pfizer’s argument that the promised comparison was unnecessary due to the “extensive usage of vaccines manufactured via Process 2”.

    I draw the inexorable conclusion that June Raine was, how can I put this delicately, not being completely straight with us in December 2020 when she said that no corners were cut. Her agency didn’t follow its own regulations for production process validation. It was flying blind.

  62. According to the Aberdeen Press & Journal, a diver is missing in Scapa Flow. Helicopters sent from Inverness – why is there no chopper closer?

      2. I rather suggest that Scwab give away all his money and property before other people do. I doubt he’s that willing when it’s his.

  64. Today we went to Bedruthan for a cliff top walk, my word the scenery was stunning.
    It reminded us of the sea shore of the Great Ocean Road.
    But the walk was absolutely exhausting for an old injured codger like me.
    After the long flight of steps downward I had to cut across a field and walk back to the car park along the road and back for some well deserved lunch at the National Trust cottage.
    We’re leaving in the morning, driving back home to Herts. A very long journey. After an enjoyable break.
    Slayders. 🤗

    1. Ever since my knees were first jiggered, many years ago, I have always found walking down steep slopes and stairs has been far worse than going up.

      1. My knees are in OK condition for a 62 year old, and I suffer exactly as you describe. Downhill worse than uphill.

        2. To both, I was amazed I actually managed to walk back along road. I had to strip off my sweater and sit outside on a bench to try and cool off.
          My poor old legs are aching I’ll be going to bed soon.
          The problem is I have been inactive for two years with Afib.
          I’m actually very pleased with my progress.

          1. You did it, which is the best thing. Don’t worry about having to stop. That’s a good thing as you’re listening to your body. Take your time, go easy and before you know it it’ll be a doddle.

        1. And in my case it’s very easy exercise.
          A relatively short season this year, for various reasons. Only 180 km.
          I might continue in a public pool over the winter.

    1. He was doing so well until 5g monitoring and LED streetlights. LEDs simply use less power, 5g is merely a wavelength.

      Any telephone provides a location signal. It has to to find the tower.

      What IS interesting and valuable is that Canada is also implementing 15 minute cities. Where has this come from? Oh look. The WEF. The bigger question is why – and obviously, it’s about control.

      The even bigger issue is why is he making a speech that will be ignored? Why is he not demanding what will happen and the state saying ‘yes sir’ with no ability to deviate from his instruction?

  68. Waiting for Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique to start on R3 and have had to endure a heap of shite called Duet for Cello and Orchestra by someone called Cassandra Miller and now as an interval piece their playing another heap of shite by another unknown “composer”, Charles Curtis’s Unfinished Song.

  69. Evening, all. Drilling for oil (and fracking for gas) closer to home (and to be self-sufficient) obviously makes sense, which is why those in charge will fight tooth and nail to prevent its happening. Heaven forfend we should be successful and self-sufficient. That would stop them sliding us back into the EU “for our own good”.

  71. Laurence Fox apologises for ‘demeaning’ comments made on GB News

    The actor-turned-politician says he is still angry with Ava Evans but
    regrets his language as it was ‘not representative of who I am’

  73. Another bonus of drilling for oil and gas is it will make the eco lunatics mad with rage!

  75. It’s been a busy day for me, so I’m now off to bed. Sleep well, chums, and see you all tomorrow.

    1. Too much? Certainly. Fox said he was rambling, and he was. Concision would have helped. As for Ava Evans, I was unaware of her until Fox said she wasn’t shaggable. Had he, like I, also been unaware of her, he wouldn’t have felt provoked into expressing that rather ignoble sentiment. This adds weight to my view that news avoidance, along with both opinion and current affairs avoidance, is a wise lifestyle choice as all lead to discontent and unhappiness. Whoever coined “ignorance is bliss” knew what they were talking about.

  78. Signing off now, folks. I’ve just done my mountaineering feat to read my meter because my electricity company sent me an estimated bill. The difficulty I’ve had logging in (click on the email link), sending the latest reading (the amount flashed up for a second then it logged me out again), re-logging in with the email link malarchy (new link, of course), trying to update the old bill amount (to be told you can only submit one reading a day – I just want to see the final amount, that’s all!) and finally getting to “my bills” and having to add the two together myself to find out how much I have to pay. Seething over this lack of user friendliness, I was absolutely incensed when a stupid “chat bot” popped up and asked if I needed help reading my meter! No, just using your effing website. Of course, I was polite (I don’t want to be cut off) and just said, “no help required”. I shall have to go into town and pay it tomorrow. Normally they bombard me with emails and texts telling me to submit my readings. Today they just estimated it and told me by email to pay it. Not likely. I don’t pay estimates.

  79. Here is a message for Grizzly posted at 6 am on Friday the 29th of September:

    1/- I have just seen your post of a Brylcreem ad which you made 10 days ago. The answer is Canadian actor Robert Beatty who starred in the TV series DIAL 999. He also portrayed Ronald Reagan in a later docu-drama about Reagan’s meeting with Gorbachev. And, of course, was central to the story in the film WHERE EAGLES DARE. Do I get the three merit points, Grizzly old chum?

    2/- I know that you swear by eating nothing but meat, but was it really necessary to travel to Stockholm with your blunderbuss to shoot the moose who had strayed on to the Underground track? Perhaps you plan to eat the mousse moose as a dessert after your main meal of meat? Lol.

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