Thursday 29 August: The Prime Minister is laying the ground for years of economic pain

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

646 thoughts on “Thursday 29 August: The Prime Minister is laying the ground for years of economic pain”

    1. Oh dear….
      that is Bavarian traditional costume. Scholz is not a Bavarian. Neither is that a Bavarian flag on the braces. Sharply indrawn breaths all round….

  4. 'Morning All
    This one is all over the internet (including here)
    TTK must be delighted
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9e94c462b0dc1a9a2a2903d871218bd3775a4d72a38427d46bf8a08423972119.jpg
    Rest
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  5. Good morning
    Grrr…..
    Wordle 1,167 5/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
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        1. No, you can tell its a woman, she is reapplying her lipstick before the handsome police and firemen arrive.

  9. Quote of the day

    ‘I want to put Reform out of business. I want to make them redundant.’

    – Tory leadership candidate Robert Jenrick.

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

    We feel exactly the same about you, Jenrick.

    1. That wish will require so many 180 degrees turns that he'll be spinning for a week. What a 🤡.

    2. There is not room for the Conservative Party and Reform. Together they polled 38% of the general election vote to the 34% polled by Labour and yet Labour has a parliamentary majority of 167.

      The Conservative Party is steadily dying; the Reform Party has only just been born. The Conservative Party is the past and is suffering from senile dementia – it must give way to the fledging.

  11. France charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov. 29 August 2024.

    In a rare instance of the top official of one of the world’s social media platforms being personally charged, officials alleged the 39-year-old was complicit in a number of illicit transactions.

    It has been alleged his platform is being used for child sexual abuse material and drug trafficking, allegations he denies. Telegram is also accused of refusing to share information or documents with investigators when required by law.

    This is an attempt to coerce the proprietors of internet platforms into becoming accomplices to the suppression of Free Speech. It is a repeat of the history of the Printing Press which conferred vast freedoms on the people by disseminating news and views that the Elites of the day did not wish to be seen.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/08/28/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-charged-app-france-police/

  12. A remarkable gallery well deserving of a couple of minutes to peruse.

    Young wildlife photographer of the year 2024 – preview

    Selected from almost 60,000 entries from 117 countries and territories, the winners of the 60th competition will be announced on 8 October. The 100 winning images will be on display at the Natural History Museum in London from 11 October

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/gallery/2024/aug/29/young-wildlife-photographer-of-the-year-2024-preview

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/affca3edc99df956dade581f019c379e52acd167/0_0_3449_2299/master/3449.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d9634c2b72d36bce230c36682a443f30

  13. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d4b56e530fda456ba49381d187fd42fffcd9bab3/0_0_5180_3453/master/5180.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=b70e319534e73c2ce622cff60f58eccf
    Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1d3d0b13f30d55d1964f1ebb0155134e2ea0402b/0_0_3000_2000/master/3000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=a2b7914b61ac0d2c4d44082b6da43875
    Chicago, Illinois

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/1ce3da51c2a0cf4ebf61f32efe0de6f9dc25022d/0_0_7477_4487/master/7477.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=5de977c68bef477ca549659572aa8eb3
    Ladakh, India
    Black hat dancers at the Hemis monastery.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a0ac442b9c0e9a3b7fddaebe6c0e42141a6d1996/0_873_3072_1843/master/3072.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e35c47bc389eab3efc61284265d170fb
    Pyrénées Ariègeoises, France

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/a10371193c8734a19a18822a13be859e3b95097e/0_155_2717_1630/master/2717.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=dc41c68f8bf572e244b7351e53e78a22
    Pont Drift, Botswana
    ‘A mid-morning bath at the hide waterhole in Mashatu game reserve.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d844253898c8c9edc430dd7d1d22fdd2aa5431e4/0_384_5557_3333/master/5557.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=e907a589bcbc2b598dcb79f882d7e419
    Balcombe, UK
    ‘Ouse Valley viaduct.

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/58b328ec08b95e852334a9fc66463f95ade7d34d/0_123_3702_2221/master/3702.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=d937209c34e11d9a832b00e0588c9227
    Bridgetown, Barbados
    ‘Every morning between 5am and 8am, the grooms take some of the racehorses to Pebbles Beach.

  14. We are not alone in our madness…

    Gavin Newsom to Decide After CA Democrats Pass $150,000 Home Loans for Illegal Aliens

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2024/08/Gavin-Newsom-Associated-Press-640×480.jpg
    California Gov. Gavin Newsom casts their votes for Democratic presidential nominee
    JOEL B. POLLAK28 Aug 2024

    California Governor Gavin Newsom will make the final decision on a bill that would make illegal aliens eligible for $150,000 in home loans for first-time buyers, after the State Assembly passed a final version of the bill on Wednesday.

    Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R-Corona) helped lead Republican opposition to the bill, but Democrats passed it by a three-to-one veto-proof majority, sending it to the governor’s desk — and drawing attention to the party’s pattern of creating incentives for illegal migration by heaping taxpayer-funded benefits onto people who are not supposed to be in the country at all.

    As Breitbart News has reported, the loan program expands an existing program that does not require a down payment or interest payments, but instead requires borrowers to repay the principal and a percentage of the appreciation of the value of the home.

    Newsom’s decision will be closely watched, not only because it will be a sign of Democrats’ policy direction, but also because California is the home state of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

  15. Good morning, chums, and thanks to Geoff for today's NoTTLe site. Today I tried using lacoste's daughter's preferred Wordle starter word and got the Wordle in six – but only just. I shall try this new starter word for the next few days until I get the hang of it, but then maybe revert to my original five letter starter word.

    Wordle 1,167 6/6

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  17. Good morning, all. Sunny. Blue sky.

    Watched that Freddie Flintoff creekit lads prog. If that Adnan is 16, I am a Dutchman…!!

      2. The same Freddy Floggoff who sued the BBC and got 9 million pounds of licence payer's money when he fell off a bike whilst doing a stupid stunt for his employer – the BBC?

  19. Good mourning. Not easy:
    Wordle 1,167 4/6

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    1. According to the comments, it's not an asylum hotel, it was taken from an Australian TV show.
      I have heard (from a building that was used for housing asylum seekers near where I live) that everything was renovated after their stay, but I don't know the specifics.
      No doubt the 'fact checkers' will be all over this to try and 'prove' that asylum seekers are lovely people who don't sh*t all over the place…but the public sh*tting is getting too common and too many people have witnessed it. I have seen it myself.

      1. Me too, in two buildings i have worked in in London. It’s not the Methodists (or Jews or Hindus or Sikhs or Zoroastrians) that are making the mess

        1. Actually it is an Indian thing too, although the chap I saw doing it (in a multistory car park, so watch your shoes!) looked middle eastern. An Indian doctor gave a fascinating lecture on this subject a few years ago. Apparently shitholes used to be emptied by untouchables, but now they are supposed to have forgotten about the caste system (yeah right! like in the UK!) nobody wants to be an untouchable, so nobody will empty earth latrines, which is one factor that leads to a lot of open air pooing.
          UNICEF funded a catchy song aimed at Indians to try and persuade them not to shit in the open air. Unfortunately, this tickled my son's sense of humour, so I am far too familiar with the words of "Take the poo To the loo"
          (those of a sensitive disposition might want to avoid this video)
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l01AMCBG0Wk

  22. 392617+ up ticks

    The risk factor alone will allow any wanna be felons to walk across the English Channel on small boats, clutching the "pass jail collect the proceeds of crime " card.

    Dt,

    Prisoners to be freed after serving a fifth of their sentence
    Burglars, thieves, fraudsters and those convicted in the riots will be released early in electronic tagging scheme

  23. 392617+ up ticks

    The risk factor alone will allow any wanna be felons to walk across the English Channel on small boats, clutching the "pass jail collect the proceeds of crime " card.

    Dt,

    Prisoners to be freed after serving a fifth of their sentence
    Burglars, thieves, fraudsters and those convicted in the riots will be released early in electronic tagging scheme

    1. It is indeed reminiscent of another country in the 30s. I don’t say that lightly. My degree was history and german and i studied under a famous professor of that period.

      I don’t know how Plod sleeps at night. “Only obeying orders” is not an excuse.

      Edit. I was musing this morning on my way into work, why the Human Rights lawyers aren’t up in arms about this flagrant abuse of power.

      2. For a while I was saying I thought I was reliving the thirties. Now I'll be reliving the seventies as well.

      1. 391617+ upticks,

        Morning Pip,

        Under a variation of fairy tale, made up charges,as in, if his name was Tommy and he had patriotic tendencies, that link is heavily frowned upon.

        1. Good morning. I know kids as young as 11 can be right little bastards but the police don't normally bother.

      2. As I have mentioned many times, most of them take home more every two weeks in 'expenses' than the basic pension allowance for 12 months.
        No wonder they got rid of Elizabeth Filkin.

    2. WTF is a Parliamentary credit card? How the other half live, eh…

      edit: Is it an updated form of brown envelopes?

  26. This weeks' public disorder in Cork highlighted the serious consequences of the Anchor Baby Scam that flourished between 1994-2004. The scam exploited immigration loophole whereby a fresh off the airplane pregnant Nigerian drops her baby on Irish territory, and then claims instant citizenship for the sprog.. along with the rest of her extended family. (Axel Rudakubana, Kemi Badenoch..in UK?).

    In turns out every single one of the following unemployed defendants were Anchor Babies.
    Godson Ikebundu
    Martin Ekhosuehi
    Matthew Ekhosuehi
    Marvin Ekhosuehi
    Emmanuela Anabo
    Maureen Aigbera
    Checkwuebka Ian Akaboga
    Kanyisola Akintope
    Dylan Mdangoh Nchantea
    Malcolm Oshe
    Melanie Oshe
    Farid Murphy Lahadjo
    Djomiou Lahadjo
    Emmanuella Itsede
    Kamji Gotwen
    Chimdi Oji

    1. though Judge King was told that some of the defendants occasionally worked with areas of employment including supermarkets, a sports shop and in 'trades'. One of the defendants has just graduated from college whilst another is due to start a university course in Belfast.

  27. Good Moaning.
    Glowball warming doing just fine.
    Well, there's a yellow thing in the sky.

    1. Our friends who arrived yesterday from Perth WA, are saying they have had a chilly time down under recently.

  29. Good morning all.
    It's 9°C on a bright but overcast morning. Hope the rain stays away as I've a load of washing to get hung out!

  30. Good morning, all. Beautiful start to the day.

    With so many administrations acting in lock-step i.e. lockdowns, mass legal/illegal immigration, censorship, money to support Ukraine etc. I think that we should be concerned about this plan for USA homeowners spreading.

    Being asset rich and cash poor would be an awkward situation for many people.

    https://x.com/wdunlap/status/1828429259268124787

    1. Even if you downsize those vile greedy bustards will be all over it.
      Selling and moving into a care home your lifetime savings and profits will last Less than 5 years.

      1. moving into a care home..
        "Looked after" by a vindictive, sadistic "Dr" of reparations Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.. there to even up the score. (plenty of unpleasant vids out there of carehome abuse in the USA.. not pretty).
        https://youtu.be/UiuNyOCfU5Q?t=291

      2. moving into a care home..
        "Looked after" by a vindictive, sadistic "Dr" of reparations Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.. there to even up the score. (plenty of unpleasant vids out there of carehome abuse in the USA.. not pretty).
        https://youtu.be/UiuNyOCfU5Q?t=291

      3. moving into a care home..
        "Looked after" by a vindictive, sadistic "Dr" of reparations Shola Mos-Shogbamimu.. there to even up the score. (plenty of unpleasant vids out there of carehome abuse in the USA.. not pretty).
        https://youtu.be/UiuNyOCfU5Q?t=291

      1. I predict a riot.
        By the Kaiser Chiefs
        Check out the lyrics, all so true and long before it all started.

      2. aka communism.
        I suppose the parasite class realised that there was little hope of duping 21st century workers into supporting marxism, so they switched tactics.

  31. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny start, could even be a decent weekend.
    I think someone needs to bring about a vote of no confidence in this Government it seems to be making a lot of people feel very uneasy. They are supposed to be runing the country for everyone's benefit, not ruining people's lives.

      1. Well as it was when our parents, fathers and grandparents fought to keep our island’s safe from invasion.

    2. Only the House of Commons can hold a vote of no confidence in the Government, and all those newly elected Labour MPs have only just got their snouts in the trough, they won't rebel against Starmer's extremism and end their careers.
      Starmer is exploiting the UK's system of five-year elected dictatorship.

      1. Pointing out, yet again that we do not live in a democracy. Didn't David Davis seek to pass a law making criticism or planned overthrow of 'representative democracy' a crime? That suits the state but we do not live in a democracy in any way, shape or form.

        1. I once did an essay on democracy when I was studying politics. It’s a slippery term whose meaning gets hard and harder to define as you get closer to it.
          We used to live in a largely benevolent dictatorship (the best form of government) until Blair dismantled it.

  32. I've put these two pieces together because they belong together. Lord Blackwell's point has been well made for a long time i.e. the corruption of the meaning of 'human rights'. However, he omits the other perversion of political language, the false distinction between Left and Right that Mr Chesterton so chillingly describes, even thought he falls into the trap himself with the use of 'far-right' in respect of the recent demonstrations.

    The Left has captured the language of political debate

    If 'rights' are thought of as 'entitlements', then there is little hope for Tories who argue for a smaller state

    NORMAN BLACKWELL • 28 August 2024 • 5:00pm

    While the Conservative Party may soon settle on a new leader, the crucial task that follows will be winning back the consensus over the nation's core political values – and, in particular, the balance between the individual and the state. That, in turn, will mean reclaiming the language of political debate, which has moved relentlessly to embrace a big state view of the world.

    Perhaps the most damaging shift in the language has been the changed meaning of individual rights. The essence of Conservatism is to emphasise the opportunities for individuals to progress through initiative and hard work, alongside their responsibility for themselves, their families and communities. Since Magna Carta the word "rights" has referred to the individual freedoms that support this – freedom under the law to live your life without discrimination or unfair persecution. Gradually, however, the concept of rights has shifted to now imply "entitlements" granted and funded by a benevolent state.

    All parties in the UK agree about the need for a welfare state that provides support for those in genuine need. The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights defined as a legal "right" the entitlement to social security benefits and social services, as well as the right to social and housing assistance "so as to ensure a decent existence for all". Few could argue with the principle but, while the UK is no longer bound by the charter, there is a continual political push from the Left to extend the scope of entitlements individuals have a right to expect.

    Does a decent existence include a TV subscription? How much choice should individuals have over what work they are willing to take? It must be open to question what level of entitlements are guaranteed by unbounded rights – and how far they extend against the balancing concept of obligations and responsibilities, as well as budgetary considerations of who will pay the bill.

    This implicit acceptance of big government in the language of political discussion is reflected in the frequent demand that "they" – meaning government – should do something to respond to every issue, leading to a flurry of knee-jerk legislation and short-sighted initiatives. Conservatives need to challenge the concept of "they" always being the state, asking whether responsibility lies first with families and communities. Sadly, the last government's adoption of the phrase "levelling up" was a reinforcement of language that gave the impression it was up to the state to redistribute wealth, rather than seeing its role as fostering wealth-creating enterprise

    Another shift in meaning is the way equality is now often interpreted as meaning equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunities. Conservative values respect the achievement of high performers with appropriate reward for enterprise and merit, recognising individual success as a prime motivator of social progress. The new concept of equality too often decries such unequal outcomes as unfair and undeserved, justifying state intervention and the politics of envy to replace the old class warfare.

    Similarly, the word "elite" has now become a term of criticism – suggesting some privileged group or culture that excludes ordinary people. Yet without those pushing at the leading edge of academia, business, music or art, standards for everyone will ultimately begin to fall. To be elite is still a source of pride when applied to the Armed Forces – or football – but deemed unacceptable when applied to schools or universities. We need to restore pride in the achievements and contribution of elites in every walk of life.

    And "multiculturalism", instead of meaning a society with tolerance and acceptance of different cultures, is now used by social justice warriors to undermine anything that reflects pride in our historic national culture or identity as a nation.

    Judging the actions of famous historic figures against current social values will always fall short, but pride in our nation and its achievements is part of what Conservatives believe creates community cohesion and public spirit.

    These are just a few examples of the way the changed meaning attached to words shapes the debate. For Conservatives to regain support, they will have to be bold in challenging the way much of our language has shifted in ways that undermine Conservative values. They also need to have faith that taking this on will strike a chord with a public that still holds true to those same values. Failure to do so will inevitably mean that the centre ground of debate continues to move away from them.

    Lord Blackwell was head of the Prime Minister's Policy Unit 1995-97, and is a former chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/28/left-has-captured-language-of-political-debate

    _______________________________________________________________________________________________

    Anti-Semitic extremists are winning the war on words

    There's nothing organic about the appropriation of the word 'genocide' – it's a deliberate tactic to undermine Israel's right to exist

    GEORGE CHESTERTON • 28 August 2024 • 7:00pm

    Zionists caused the Right-wing riots. Zionists were responsible for the gender controversy at the Olympic boxing. Zionists fixed the Venezuelan elections. Zionists ate my hamster. Most of these are real, public accusations. The war of words – and on words – is being won by those who would deliberately twist language in the cause of their own bigotry. The end point of this process is very disturbing indeed.

    Students across the US are returning to their anti-Zionist activism and their British counterparts are preparing to do the same, all certain in the knowledge that by fighting Zionism they are fighting fascism and genocide. Some Imams in London, the North East and the Midlands have meanwhile openly blamed recent far-Right riots on Zionists, which is to say Jews. And amid this progressive predisposition to seemingly support literally anyone opposed to Israel – a viewpoint disseminated on social media and not robustly challenged by authorities – the struggle for control of the language is being lost to extremists and the deluded.

    A recent flyer for a Finchley Against Fascism event gets to the heart of the problem. The headline read: "Get fascists, racists, Nazis, Zionists & Islamophobes out of Finchley!" As Harry Hill would say, "You get the idea". Zionists have been casually dropped in after Nazis because, well, they are the same thing. Apart from being ghoulishly provocative, this clearly states that anyone who believes in the state of Israel is evil.

    The words Zionism and Zionist have been turned against the people and the country that conspiracy theorists would have you believe possesses an iron grip over the world's economy and media. Well, some iron grip that turned out to be. As with the history of Israel and Palestine, the facts are apparently irrelevant. Zionism is the desire to have a Jewish homeland (it doesn't even denote what kind of homeland that would be). Can you imagine any other minority being thought of as Nazis for wanting self-determination and security after a millennia of persecution?

    Think about the widely held current assumptions about "Zionists" for a moment, on the basis that this applies to most Jewish people in the UK: they are warmongers, child killers and they support genocide. How many Jewish people do you think "support" genocide or believe children suffering is no big deal? You'd have to work pretty hard to find a Jewish person in Britain who supports Benjamin Netanyahu's government, even if they unequivocally support Israel's right to defend itself. They are distraught about the suffering in Gaza and the majority would favour a secure, peaceful two-state solution (even though that looks a long way off). Yet they are also somehow complicit in mass murder. The sheer absurdity of this idea shows how far the discourse has collapsed from reason.

    A common accusation levelled at Israel by its opponents, and at the Jewish community more widely, is that the Holocaust has been weaponised to suppress criticism of its actions. The truth is the opposite. The Holocaust was the final, dreadful point at which a Jewish state became a necessity. After centuries of oppression and persecution (the kind of experience that would normally afford limitless sympathy and support to other minorities), Jews could no longer be both an eternal minority and survive. So when anti-Semites say "the Holocaust is always used as an excuse for Israel" they are correct. But to diminish the Holocaust in this way is the real, grotesque, weaponisation.

    Anti-Israel activists and anti-Semites have also aligned themselves with the protestors who gathered against the far-Right during recent unrest on Britain's streets. They are hiding in plain sight amid the anti-racist movement. In Leicester, an Imam proclaimed: "You have Zionists such as Tommy Robinson, paid by, supported by the fathers of all genocides, the Zionist regime, to perpetuate these ideas amongst them."

    What's key here is not the reference to Robinson, but to Israel as the "father of all genocides". The appropriation of the word "genocide" is not just casual or organic, but a deliberate tactic. If the Holocaust made the creation of Israel possible, then accusing the state of perpetuating a genocide of its own delegitimises it in the eyes of the world. In other words, falsely using the word genocide is part of a conscious attempt to undermine Israel's right to exist.

    We celebrated when large numbers of people stood up to the far-Right, collectively patting ourselves on the back and saying "We're not that kind of country after all". However, as the dust settles on the actions of those egregious mobs, anti-Jewish activists continue to successfully equate the state of Israel, and any Jew who supports it, with fascism. That's the agenda of the hard-Left (it always has been) and it's finally working. It's working because Palestinian flags are waved proudly and anti-Israel chants reverberate loudly at anti-fascist marches. But an anti-fascist march full of anti-Semites is not an anti-fascist march. Those two things are a contradiction in terms.

    The endgame of this effort to undercut the meaning of words is to undercut the justification for the existence of Israel. Doing so is not only in the interests of those who oppose it, but of those who promote ignorance and propaganda anywhere, from Moscow to Tehran and from New York to London.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/28/extremists-winning-the-war-on-words-anti-zionism

    1. "The EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights defined as a legal "right" the entitlement to social security benefits and social services, as well as the right to social and housing assistance "so as to ensure a decent existence for all". Few could argue with the principle "

      I can. How about, we can't afford social security benefits? From their inception onwards they have been paid by creating money that we don't have out of thin air. This illusion is about to collapse. I don't think the BRICS nations will be very sympathetic to the west printing money to fund unearned privileges for its citizens and freeloaders during the next economic cycle.

      1. It misrepresents the purpose and intent of government. The state is not there to provide for the citizen. It's role is to allow companies to create jobs. The citizen must provide for themselves with the state as the absolute minimum back stop. Here the EU makes provision the role of the state – which is the socialist perspective.

      2. I argue with it, too. I quote the Bible (St Paul again), "he who will not work, neither shall he eat". Everybody can do something to contribute. Taking money from those who work hard to give to those who can't be bothered is not ensuring a decent existence for all. The hard working have their existence worsened.

      3. I argue with it, too. I quote the Bible (St Paul again), "he who will not work, neither shall he eat". Everybody can do something to contribute. Taking money from those who work hard to give to those who can't be bothered is not ensuring a decent existence for all. The hard working have their existence worsened.

  33. Good morning all

    Fine start to the day , blue sky. 12c.

    Did you know … Kier Starmer

    Born: 2 September 1962 (age 61 years), Southwark, London

    Starmer passed the 11-plus examination and gained entry to Reigate Grammar School, then a voluntary aided selective grammar school.[1][10] The school was converted into an independent fee-paying school in 1976, while he was a student. The terms of the conversion were such that his parents were not required to pay for his schooling until he turned 16, and when he reached that point, the school, now a charity, awarded him a bursary that allowed him to complete his education there without any parental contribution.

    The subjects that he chose for specialist study in his last two years at school were mathematics, music and physics, in which he achieved A level grades of B, B and C.[15] Among his classmates were the musician Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim), with whom Starmer took violin lessons; Andrew Cooper, who became a Conservative peer; and the future conservative journalist Andrew Sullivan. According to Starmer, he and Sullivan "fought over everything … Politics, religion. You name it."[6]

    In his teenage years, Starmer was active in Labour Party politics and was a member of the Labour Party Young Socialists at the age of 16.[16][6] He was a junior exhibitioner at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama until the age of 18, and played the flute, piano, recorder and violin.[17] In the early 1980s, Starmer was caught by police illegally selling ice creams while trying to raise money during a holiday on the French Riviera. He escaped the incident without punishment, beyond the ice creams being confiscated.[18][19] Starmer studied law at the University of Leeds, becoming a member of the university's Labour Club and graduating with first-class honours and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 1985, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keir_Starmer#:~:text=His%20parents%20were%20Labour%20Party,know%20whether%20this%20is%20true.

    So, now we know what we are dealing with.

    1. The Wikipedia entry for Starmer appears to have been "modified" recently.

      Who can forget that Starmer was the editor of the Trotskyist newspaper Socialist Alternatives?

      Well, readers of the latest Wikipedia entry on Starmer will certainly be unaware of his Trotskyist past. It's all

      been ignored. We wonder why?

      We wonder whether there are any other unsavoury facts about him that have been ignored by Wikipedia?

      1. Hello Janet jH

        I knew he had Trotskyist links , and also queried why that wasn't mentioned .

        Look at this ..

        About us
        Momentum is a socialist and anti-racist organisation committed to a fundamental and irreversible shift in wealth and power to the working class in all its diversity.

        Momentum’s role is to build popular support for socialist ideas and policies through political education and campaigns, and to organise to advance them in the Labour Party, with the aim of electing a socialist Labour Government to deliver them. https://peoplesmomentum.com/about/

        We ill end up in the same position as Venezuela.. finished , ruined , destabilised .

        1. Momentum are a bunch of lefty fascists whose sole aim is control and abuse of other people by stealing what they have earned. It is funny, they consider 'fairness' theft. It's pure doublethink.

      2. Starmer is a Communist. He wants growth – but he does not want growth in the private sector indeed he wants to wipe it out. He wants growth of the State believing the Keynsian equation that with an increase in government revenue (tax) GDP will rise.

        Will the UK be recoverable if his government serves a full term of 5 years?

      3. Imagine if he got the same treatment in such reference locations and the MSM as Tommy Robinson gets.

        Every reference regarding him would start: "Cursed Harmer former editor of the extreme left newspaper Socialist Alternatives"

    2. The present headmaster of Reigate Grammar School is the son pf Alvin Stardust. The previous head banned me from a hustings there – great publicity.

  34. Hate speech laws.

    SIR — News that “zero tolerance” hate-crime measures are being considered by the Home Office (report, August 28) should give pause to everyone who values free speech. It comes hot on the heels of the scrapping of the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act and calls to “toughen up” the 2023 Online Safety Act.

    Hopefully we can all agree that hating others is wrong. But previous attempts to properly define “hatred” have proven both elusive and divisive: just take a look at the Hate and Public Order (Scotland) Act. Such restrictions can come at great cost to freedom and do not deliver the benefits that are claimed for them. As respected historian Professor Timothy Garton Ash has said: “There is no correlation between the presence of extensive hate speech laws on the statute books and lower levels of abusively expressed prejudice about human difference.”

    “Something must be done” is not a sound basis for clamping down on free speech.

    Ciarán Kelly
    Director, The Christian Institute Newcastle upon Tyne

    “Hopefully we can all agree that hating others is wrong”? What sort of a cretinous, hare-brained statement is that?
    Hatred is a naturally-evolved human emotion, designed as part of our natural defence strategy. Am I not permitted to hate any of the following?:

    Murderers,
    Thugs,
    Thieves,
    Liars,
    Perpetrators of bodily harm,
    Rapists, and those who make false and malicious accusations of rape,
    Arsonists,
    Damagers of property,
    Those who are determined — through acts of will or omission — to make me ill, poorer or bereft of happiness,
    Rabbits.

    You can abolish hate just as much as you can abolish love, indifference, distaste, apathy, delight and sorrow. The concept is idiotic. The thought that you can actually legislate do so is preposterous.

    2. So much of the present 'hate' never really existed in our island's as has come to light recently. Simply because our people were fair minded and had respect for new comers who came here to work and join culture events. The hate seems to have been stirred up by our political classes who never ever consider the results of their actions further than they can see.
      Stop the invasion and send them back. It's so simple. But beyond the imagination or the extent of the common sense of the so misnamed hierarchy. That's where the hate lies.
      They are unable to provide justification for all these dreadful mistakes. So they've invented a barrier to hide behind whilst blaming others.

    3. Will expressing hate for a devout group of muslims be classed as a crime. For the avoidance of doubt PC plod, I refer to the Taliban.

      1. I don't hate the taliban. I do think they, and their barbaric ideology should be kept out of this country using whatever means necessary.

        No reason to hate them, just ensure you and yours can never be affected by their attitudes. However, government refuses to do that. Government forces the savage on us.

    4. We have rabbits and moles in our garden. I tolerate the rabbits but I hate the moles who wreak havok with the lawn with their mounds.

    5. Yes, entirely misguided isn't it Grizzly. Now, if only the government had the gumption to create a new Ministry of Love in order to combat Hate….

      1. It has. It's called the Home office. Create the problem, give yourself the power to suppress those fighting against the problem you have created to crush those you hate.

        It is evil.

      1. ALL rabbits. I loathe their looks, their flavour and their verminosity.

        Damn those Romans and Normans for introducing the filth!

        1. Ate rabbit a few times when we'd run out of money back in 1980. Vile meat – hated the texture, flavour, you name it. Now, I'd rather be hungry.

          1. I was force-fed the shit whenever my dad had one given to him by one of his gun-happy friends. Utterly disgusting and stomach-churning 'food'.

    7. It is the intolerance of dissenting voices that they are really wanting. Anyone who disagrees with the Left is crushed.

      They've created this problem, now they want to destroy anyone pointing out the obvious. It really is Soviet era politics.

      I don't hate any of those people. I think anyone who carries out any of those – and other – actions should be shot. There's no passion about it. Anyone known to cause those problems should be removed from society. The problem is, this would expose the Left who've created the problem they're now using force (as they always do) to control other people.

      Goes back to O'Brien:

      Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others ; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?'

    8. "Hopefully we can all agree that hating others is wrong"
      I disagree. there are usually good grounds to hate someone, or a group of people. Deny the hate, you deny the grounds for it.

    3. I suspect the Spanish have well etched and long memories after it took more than 300 years to be free of Islamic issues.

        1. I watched on TV Blood and Gold with Simon Sebag Montefiore.
          I seem to remember it was 300 years but they are back again from what I have seen.
          Every where they are, they cause so much trouble.

    4. Good morning Fiscal and everyone.
      Interestingly, the Telegraph has replaced the video excerpt with a screenshot. At least one comment suggests that the speedboat was carrying cigarettes or narcotics, not illegal migrants.

  37. Starmer’s betrayal of those who have saved and worked hard is built on lies, ignorance and class hatred

    Allister Heath
    28 August 2024 • 8:10pm

    1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/08/28/labour-tax-onslaught-extinction-event-middle-class-britain/
      Allister Heath:

      This is going to be the worst budget in decades, a milestone in Britain’s accelerating decline, a farrago of deceit, vindictiveness and economic illiteracy. Having sworn that its spending commitments were fully costed, that it had “no plans” for further tax rises, Labour is now warning of “painful” increases to come, especially on those with “the broadest shoulders”.

      Not content with having lied so grotesquely, and being elected under false pretences, Labour is continuing to take the voters for fools. The Government is showering union comrades with cash and the economy is recovering, but we are meant to believe that it has no choice, that a supposed fiscal black hole inherited from those dastardly Tories must immediately be filled by higher taxes. Yes, the Conservatives were useless, but Keir Starmer didn’t need much of a casus belli to unleash a socialist war on wealth.

      Life is about to become a lot nastier for what the Left describe as “the rich” but who would usually be more accurately categorised as belonging to the coping classes. These are the kinds of people who often struggle to pay their mortgages, afford childcare and accumulate a little wealth for retirement. Those likely to be singled out for a shakedown belong to five overlapping groups: the top fifth of income taxpayers (soon to be anybody on £50,000, where the 40p tax rate begins, or above); small investors; private school parents; owners of expensive homes; and pensioners.

      Gordon Brown’s raid on pension funds in his first Budget was one of the most destructive decisions ever taken by a chancellor. He removed the 20 per cent tax credit enjoyed by pension funds on dividends from UK companies, trashing returns, fatally undermining retirement schemes and triggering a series of other unforeseen catastrophes.

      Rachel Reeves could go one further if she chooses to follow a blueprint from the Fabian Society that is being widely discussed in Left-wing circles. Tax relief on employee and employer pension contributions, the last big “loophole” in the tax code, is worth £66 billion a year; only a third of that (£22 billion) is offset by tax levied on pensions paid out. Some 53 per cent of the tax relief went to the top fifth of income tax payers, which to the Fabians is terribly unfair.

      Their answer: slash tax relief to a flat rate of 25-30 per cent; drastically reduce the tax-free lump sum that pensioners can take out of their pots; charge national insurance on private pension incomes; slap employer national insurance on pension contributions; and charge inheritance and even income tax on pension assets.

      The end result: a massive increase in tax, special privileges to protect public sector final pension schemes and, to rescue private schemes, an increase in employer contributions under automatic enrolment from 3 to 7 per cent of earnings, depressing pay rises for years.

      Such a proposal would be a disaster for Britain’s army of 40p and 45p taxpayers, the linchpin of the economy. Why should they bother staying in Britain? If the 40p rate were to affect the same, smaller share of people as it did in 1991, its threshold would need to double to £100,000 in 2027–28, the Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates. On top of that, taxpayers used to enjoy mortgage tax relief (phased out by Brown) as well as generous pension tax relief.

      This has been hacked back, but the Fabian plan would be the final nail in the coffin. The top fifth of taxpayers would also bear the brunt of Reeves’ likely decision to increase capital gains tax, perhaps aligning the rate to that of income tax, and also to widen the scope of inheritance tax. Those on somewhat higher incomes are already being hammered by Reeves’ class war against private schools, and many professionals will see their opportunities diminished as non-doms leave London.

      Pensioners, reeling from the removal of the winter fuel allowance, might be hit again: the Treasury would love those still in work to pay National Insurance Contributions. Last but not least, I fear that Reeves will either revalue council tax, landing millions of families with higher bills, or introduce a property wealth tax, replacing council tax (and perhaps stamp duty) by a proportional, annual levy on houses, forcing hundreds of thousands of asset-rich but cash-poor homeowners to sell up.

      In The Politics of Procrustes, Antony Flew identified the malady at the heart of the socialist project. Procrustes was an egalitarian bandit who would lurk between Athens and Eleusis. He would force travellers to lie in a metal bed. If their legs were too long, he would amputate them; if they were too short, he would stretch them to make them fit.

      Starmer and Reeves are Procrustean technocrats. Their egalitarianism is their central value, which explains why they are so confused about growth. They seem to think that the economy is driven by house building, infrastructure projects, mass immigration, green energy and trade with the EU, all of which can be partly directed by the state.

      Of course, we need more homes and infrastructure, but real, sustainable growth requires gifted entrepreneurs to create new, more productive companies that compete globally. It involves growing the City of London again, as well as tech and science firms; it necessitates a boom in private investment and innovations by flexible workforces; it needs cheaper energy and less regulation. Real growth stems from, and leads to, inequality: it entails a tax system that rewards work, investment and success.

      In Denver, aimed at 5- to 6-year-olds, David McKee, the best-selling children’s author, tells the story of a wealthy man. He is kind and generous, and employs many villagers. He is popular until a stranger turns up and begins to ferment jealousy by telling the villagers it isn’t “fair” that he is richer than them. Disgusted, Denver divides his money equally between his neighbours and moves to a more welcoming town, where he rebuilds his fortune. The original villagers burn their cash on a holiday, before returning to their impoverished, jobless hamlet, destroyed by the green-eyed monster.

      McKee, who lived in France, was inspired by that country’s disastrous wealth tax. Britain is now equally set on a path to ruin, and it is the middle classes that will bear the brunt of the coming calamity.

  38. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Jumping To Conclusions

    A 60-year-old man went to the doctor for a check-up. The doctor told him, "You're in terrific shape. There's nothing wrong with you. Why, you might live forever. You have the body of a 35- year-old. By the way, how old was your father when he died?"

    The 60-year-old responded, "Did I say he was dead?"

    The doctor was surprised and asked, "How old is he and is he very active?"

    The 60-year-old responded, "Well, he is 82 years old and he still goes skiing three times a season and surfing three times a week during the summer."

    The doctor couldn't believe it. "Well, how old was your grandfather when he died?"

    The 60-year-old responded again, "Did I say he was dead?"

    The doctor was astonished. He said, "You mean to tell me you are 60 years old and both your father and your grandfather are alive? Is your grandfather very active?"

    The 60-year-old said, "He goes skiing at least once a season and surfing once a week during the summer. Not only that," said the patient, "my grandfather is 106 years old, and next week he is getting married again."

    The doctor said, "At 106 years, why on earth would your grandfather want to get married?"

    His patient looked up at the doctor and said, "Did I say he wanted to?"

  40. Yo and Good Moaning to you all, from a SUNNY Costa del Skeg

    Prisoners to be freed after serving a fifth of their sentence

    Burglars, thieves, fraudsters and those convicted in the riots will be released early in electronic tagging scheme

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
    (it may be a tpyo!!!)
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/28/prisoners-set-to-be-freed-after-serving-fifth-of-sentence/

    1. Good morning OLT

      Good heavens above .

      It means burglars, thieves, fraudsters and even some people convicted in the riots who are serving fixed-term sentences of under two years could be freed on tags a fifth of the way through their sentences.

      Offenders jailed for lower-level offences and judged to be the lowest risk to the public will also be eligible for the tagging scheme, known as Home Detention Curfew (HDC). About 8,000 prisoners a year are freed under HDC.

      So burglars, thieves, fraudsters will be be able to carry on as before ..

      1. But the good news is that far-right patriots will be banged up for years and years.

        1. “There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always— do not forget this, Winston— always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.
          If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face— forever. ”
          ― George Orwell, 1984

          Only it's not the future. It's now. The eternal, perpetual present. Time has stopped. (ooh, that sounds familiar….)

          “Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped.

          Orwell again.

          Oh, and, of course:

          All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.

          I could go on, but we're living in an awful, blatantly two tier society run by psychopathic, power crazed, malicious nutters who should be sectioned, not given government posts.

          2. I imagine some foaming Lefty read 1984 and thought 'this is great. I want to be O'Brien!'

            They're demented. It was a warning, not a blasted guidebook!

          8. O'Brian has to be just about the most obnoxious leftie I have ever had the misfortune to come across on the media.

    2. Yo, Mr Effort.

      In the early 1960s — as a St John's Ambulance Brigade cadet based at Ireland Colliery, Staveley, Derbyshire — I and the rest of the local Brigade used to visit Skeggy, for a long weekend every spring, where we took part in uniformed parades behind a brass-and-drum band, and we marched through the streets, ending up with a service at a local church in the town.

      The gathering was, ostensibly, to 'open' the Derbyshire Miners' Welfare Holiday Centre, situated in that town, for the forthcoming holiday season. At the same time, the girl cadets of our division did precisely the same at the other holiday camp owned by the county's miners, at Rhyl in Flintshire.

      1. Just as well you did not 'go to the same camp, at the same time.

        Nudge Nudge
        Wink Wink

        1. Sadly my mother had a number of old monochrome snapshots (taken on an old Coronet box camera, using Ilford 120 film), but they disappeared, along with many other mementoes, when her prodigal daughter assumed possession of them upon her death.

          2. My sister did the same. And not just with photographs. A bookcase full of the best literature was promised to me by my mother but my niece her daughter got it.
            My sister also convinced our elderly father to sell her the house cheap and she would look after him in his dotage. He did. She didn't.

    3. A prison warden I know refers to his inmates as 'residents'. He has said, many times that the 'guests' vary by as little as 3-5% in a population of 2000. It is the same people committing the same crimes over and over again. habitual, persistent offenders. One 'regular' has over 100 convictions for armed robbery.

      It should be simple: for the first offence we make every effort to rehabilitate and reintegrate the criminal into society.
      For the second we flog them.
      For the third we lock them in a pit and forget about them forever.

      1. Allow the population to be armed. Armed response to attempted armed robbery, rape, murder would either reduce the numbers of those so inclined, or they'd have a dose of cold feet first.

    1. The Left do NOT CARE. The body count is irrelevant. Deaths are irrelevant. As long as they can pontificate on their own insane self-righteous cause no amount of dead matter.

      It is doublethink. They cannot acknowledge the slaughter, rapes, thefts because then they are faced with it being entirely the fault of their own ideology.

    2. It was not a wheelchair but a mobility scooter. The victim's left leg appears to have been amputated and he wore a metal prosthesis, so he was probably capable of walking. Nothing to do with drugs or gangs or culture, so move along there.
      PS obviously he didn't deserve to die.

  44. 391617+ up ticks,

    Many of the current lab/lib/con supporter / tribal voters would still say "ang im" he was EDL you know.

    Gerard Batten
    @gjb2021

    ·
    40m

    Tommy’s ‘contempt of court’ lies in making a film that proves his innocence in the original libel case.

    Watch his film Silenced for the full facts.

    Tommy was, & may be again, a political prisoner, put there by politicised corrupt courts.

  45. SIR – There is growing fear among education professionals for GCSE students who didn’t get the grades they wanted.

    Many will still look to study at further education colleges from September, and eventually progress to Level 3 courses. But others who don’t achieve the right grades will need high-quality, supportive places at Level 1 or 2. Yet there may not be enough spaces for them at colleges in the coming years.

    This potential crisis could prevent thousands of 16- to 18-year-olds from studying bridging qualifications for A-levels, T-Levels, BTECs and other technical courses.

    Poor national planning is to blame. Despite a rise in the number of 16- to 18-year-olds in cities like Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham, little capital funding was awarded to create the extra spaces needed to educate them, and this has been exacerbated by a failure to fund, recruit and retain specialist teachers.

    Unless the Government acts now, we could be in a crisis by September 2025. There is currently a gap of around 2,000 places in education for 16- and 17-year-olds in Leeds alone.

    We need immediate decisions and fresh policies that prioritise young people and their families.

    Colin Booth
    CEO, Luminate Education Group
    Leeds, West Yorkshire

    I wonder what caused that rise…

    1. Looked up this 'luminate' group and it's an academy management thing. What he's doing is demanding to be given more money.

      Now, I imagine that planning for future events is actually down to…. him.

  46. I shall go to the test match in Khan's caliphate tomorrow, my son has a spare ticket to give his poor pensioner Dad. I was thinking about what I would take from the Tesco meal deal range for sustenance but I see from a DT report on Lords that spectators are frisked for consumables lest they avoid the rip off offerings inside the grounds. Sounds like a challenge to me.

    1. A chum takes in a ruck sack filled with soup and water. In his case, beer mixed with water. There might be more beer than water.

        2. Just wear a nightshirt and a lacy cap (plus a false beard if necessary). You'll be untouchable.

    5. I was deprived this year as I had 4th day tickets for the WI test that finished on Day 3. But, in the past, it has been standard to take picnics into Lords. Have they been corrupted?

  47. Anyone else feeling gloomy at the way this country has declined in the last few weeks?
    That's before we have the extra taxes etc.

    2. Yes, it is soul destroying. Labour always are. Their rampant theft of other people's effort is mind numbing in it's audacity and spite.

      Lefty groups that keep demanding that property earned through effort simply be taken 'because it's fair' is the most ludicrous, arrogant and insulting concept ever, but this is how they think.

      While Labour blame 'da torwees' and all their supporters will, because their supporters are stupid, malignant vile creatures – I do as well. The groundwork could have been laid to fundamentally change how this country works. Irrevocable changes to wealth creation, tax cuts, true, free market reforms, the decimation of the state, control over the unions: all could be in place so when Starmer comes in saying 'we're gonna fix things by robbing you' every says 'But I have never been better off. I've a job, paying me more than ever. I keep more than ever. My energy is cheaper than ever.' and Labour evaporate as an entity. But no. The tories forced socialism on us. Starmer is just accelerating the insanity.

      1. Well put. The Tories have actually electrified the Labour Frankenstein. They might not have made it but they have certainly given it the life it shouldn't have had by now. If the Tories had done their job, Labour would be a very different entity – more sensible and productive. Our FPTP system should spur us on to true progress; now all it does is accelerate the downward spiral. There needs to be complete overhaul of the kinds of people we vote for. Because we are now getting to be a third world country, I see third world type politics more on the horizon. Reform must win.

    3. Things are better than we're led to believe, Ndovu…smoke & mirrors from Labour govt, in order for them to boast it's all down to them once better figures trickle through….what d'you reckon to that scenario? 🙂

      1. They're too incompetent and divorced from economic reality for them to enable better figures to trickle through. Every Labour govt (Attlee, Wilson, Callghan, Blair, Brown and now mad max) has destroyed the economy.

        1. Look ahead six months and see where economy is then….they’ll blame everything/everyone but themselves. Still, what do I know – I quite liked Sunak re economy, just a shame he couldn’t see immigrants same light.

      2. I don’t believe in their ‘black hole’ – it’s just to frighten people- but the extra taxes and the restrictions on freedom will hit us.

    4. I've reached the stage where I feel queasy and frightened.
      I would hate to lose my grandchildren, but I really don't see any future for them in Britain.

  48. 391617+ up ticks,

    Thursday 29 August: The Prime Minister is laying the ground for years of economic pain

    Plus,
    Thursday 29 August: The Prime Minister is laying the ground for years of indigenous financial dairy herd DRAIN.

    As in ,you will pay through the nose, the nose that is with the ring through it.

    1. All taxes create unemployment. The Hard Left institute of stealing private property, a socialist nut job outfit forgets that every single time their demented policies have been tried, they create massive, crippling poverty. Oh, stealing from earners and saverrs and giving it to dossers and wasters sounds great to a Lefty, but on paper the worker stops bothering. Why would they?

      We're already seeing this. Until the state forces people to work and pay the state more – and then their productivity collapses as they're not doing the job willingly (ring any bells?) – the economy simply stops and it takes decades to recover those jobs.

      The Soviets realised this. The Chinese are sort of getting it but they still have government officials in every company 'monitoring' production.

      Labour either immediately accept that the only thing they can announce is massive cuts to state waste (which they won't) or the economy goes into recession and unemployment soars and with it, welfare costs and inevitably their grand vaunted tax theft simply evaporate and the state is left with even more going out.

      But these people are thick. Their actually spiteful, malicious and bitter. Not one of them has ever had a real job and doesn't understand a thing about working for a living.

  49. I was wondering if it'd be blacks or muslims who killed the mobility scooter rider. The muslim likes killing the helpless so if the bloke had been white and elderly it'd be them, but now we know the victim is black it was clearly other blacks.

    I find it difficult to express how angry the media blackout 9no pun intended) makes me. The despeeration to avoid admitting there's problems is laughable if it were not so serious. What Starmer's arrogant suppression of white free speech has done is tell the alien they have carte blanche. They can rape, steal, murder with impunity. He has made it clear he doesn't care. All he's interested in is stamping on a white face, forever.

    This is the omission Orwell forgot as, I imagine, he didn't expect his country to be overrun with foreigners.

    1. I’m going for drugs related! ‘Known to everyone’ ‘Always around’ etc etc!

        1. I vaguely remember that – wasn't the killer genuinely mentally ill? A victim of "don't care in the community".

    3. They can rape, (soon to become compulsory under (pun intended) Starmer

      Have been able to for a while, with the support of the Liebore Party.

      Just look at the goins on in Rotherham et al

    4. Wibbling. Twitter is still free of censorship. It is rapidly becoming the only source of real information. As long as Musk adheres to his promise that the only thing that will be censored are posts that break American law, we will be OK. Free speech is well protected in American law. Case in point. Nothing that Tommy Robinson has said or done would count as criminal in the USA. apart from one thing, when he used a cousins passport. But that is not an issue of free speech.

      1. " when he used a cousins passport. But that is not an issue of free speech." A muslim female can use a relation's passport without fear of prosecution in the UK. It's that longstanding 2Tier system in operation.

  50. Keir Starmer and the evil of banality. 29 August 2024.

    Since then the evidence has been mixed. I’ve heard from friends of colleagues that Starmer is astute, hard-working, resourceful. But there have also been negative indicators, and in the last weeks since the election these warning signals have multiplied. I’m now halfway convinced that Starmer is both odd and banal, and banality in particular is not good.

    The oddness came across best in a peculiar interview he gave to the Guardian just a fortnight before the 2024 election. In this interview Starmer makes several bizarre admissions, sometimes inadvertently. He confesses he has no favourite poems or novels. Really? Not one? Surely even the most technocratic of managers has a favourite Enid Blyton or Roald Dahl from his childhood? Or is Starmer scared of citing anything (Dahl is racist!) as it might be seized as wrong think?

    He’s certainly strange though I would put it more strongly than that. He is one of those people convinced of his own absolute righteousness. Anyone opposed (as can be seen in his reaction to the riots) to him is not simply wrong but evil. They must be destroyed. I think that as his rule progresses you will see him become more and more unhinged. He will exhibit signs of persecution and irrational decisions will multiply. You should watch his colleagues in the cabinet as they try to deal with this. Some of them will buckle under the pressure. Others will compete to carry out his vision. Nothing should be discounted. He’s not simply a Marxist ideologue. He’s a nutter.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-and-the-evil-of-banality/

    1. He''s not just a weirdo he is a Communist weirdo who wants to wipe out private enterprise and all dissenting private individuals

    2. It took me a while to work out precisely what was so strange about his manner. It's his speech defect. He talks with his lips pursed. The words struggle to get out, the edges of the consonants being knocked off as they are squeezed through the orifice. Sometimes it's quite hard to understand him.

      That, coupled with the boxer's nose, the piggy eyes and their impatient, incomprehending, indignant stare, make for a repulsive spectacle.

    3. Hannah Arendt pointed out that evil is banal. I believe that Starmer is banal, non to intelligent and likes to scapegoat, cruel, because he lacks empathy and imagination. It is right to fear him.

      1. Very little common about evil. It takes effort. You have to be either truly stupid (like Raynor and Lammy) or utterly malignant to pus the sort of policies the Labour fools have.

    4. Sir Starmer's A-levels were maths, physics and music, though no idea which exam board. IMHO that makes him an unlikely lawyer for England & Wales. If he genuinely had some aptitude for maths & physics, a careeer in engineering or computing might have been a happier choice. He seems to be a person whose intelligence and potential career path was far beyond his parents' socioeconomic level (in the 1970s), which is often a handicap in Britain, but much less so in (for example) Germany or the USA. Edited slightly. I don't intend to criticise him, only his politics.

      2. I think that Maths and Physics are compatible with any career that requires a capacity for logical reasoning. Are you suggesting that the law doesn’t?
        But also, kids are obliged to choose a small number of subjects for A-level and what they choose could reflect all sorts of things (including parental influence). Some have the potential to do either arts or sciences well and some are restricted to whatever they can manage (if anything).

    5. What a very nasty little man he is

      Steerpike
      Starmer snubs No. 10 Thatcher painting
      29 August 2024, 9:34am

      (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

      Well, well, well. It seems Sir Keir Starmer wasn’t exaggerating about his ‘change’ agenda. It now transpires that the new Prime Minister has taken it upon himself to redecorate parts of No. 10 – and has reportedly gone so far as to remove a portrait of Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street. Talk about a Labour takeover…

      The rather curious report comes after Sir Keir’s biographer Tom Baldwin was interviewed in Scotland, at Glasgow’s Aye Write summer book festival. The Gordon Brown-commissioned picture, funded by an anonymous donation that covered its £100,000 price tag, is the first painting of an ex-PM ever to be requested by No. 10 – yet despite its links to the last Labour prime minister, it seems Starmer wasn’t overly impressed. As set out by the Herald, Baldwin described how he was recently taken to the former Downing Street study – or the ‘Thatcher room’ – before admitting the PM agreed with him that the Iron Lady’s portrait was ‘a bit unsettling’. The biographer said he quizzed Starmer whether he would ‘get rid of it’, with the Prime Minister reportedly confirming he indeed planned to do so. ‘And he has,’ Baldwin confessed.

      The revelation has prompted cries of outrage from the opposition, with Scottish Tory leadership candidate Russell Findlay branding the PM as taking a ‘petty approach’ to his political opponents. Of course, Sir Keir seems to have long been confused by his own feelings about Mrs T. While No. 10 declined to comment on the matter, readers might want to cast their minds back to December. Starmer Chameleon took to the fine pages of the Sunday Telegraph to praise the former PM, writing that ‘Margaret Thatcher sought to drag Britain out of its stupor by setting loose our natural entrepreneurialism’. But after facing backlash from Labour lefty lot Starmer U-turned less than a week later, telling a Scottish Labour gala dinner that: ‘She did terrible things, particularly here in Scotland which everybody in this room, myself included, profoundly disagrees with.’ The lady wasn’t for turning – but it seems Starmer can’t stop…

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

      Quercy
      3 hours ago
      With every day we see more clearly how petty this excuse for a man is.

      Smoking tobacco is to be banned, yet smoking marijuana is to be applauded.

      May the good Lord save us as the British people seem to be passively accepting the continued destruction of our country by Two-Tier.

    6. You ain't seen nuttin' yet – oh, sorry, I mean things are going to get worse (before they get even worser).

  51. Food for thought.

    It is generally accepted that the universe is around 13,700,000,000 [13·7 billion] years old.
    The age of the earth is taken to be 4,530,000,000 [4·53 billion] years old.
    The time when dinosaurs became extinct was 66,000,000 [66 million] years ago.
    Modern humans rose around 2,750,000 [2·75 million] years ago.
    The age of agriculture commenced around 10,000 [ten thousand] years ago.
    Christianity came about just 2,000 [two thousand] years ago.
    The industrial revolution started around 250 [two hundred and fifty] years ago.

    Let’s try to visualise that on a linear scale.

    If a long straight line is drawn (on a sheet of paper long enough) depicting the age of the universe going back in time from the present, then on a scale of 1mm = 10,000 years, the following events could be drawn on that line to that scale.

    Age of universe = 1·37 kilometres [⅞ mile or 7 furlongs].
    Age of the earth = 0·453 kilometres [<500 yards].
    Age when dinosaurs went extinct = 6·6 metres [<7·72 yards or <22 feet (⅓ of length of a cricket pitch)].
    Age of modern humanity = 275mm [10·8 inches].
    Age of agriculture = 1mm [0·039 inches].
    Age of Christianity = 0·2mm [0·00787 inches].
    Age of industry = 0·025mm [0·0009843 inches (the thickness of a human hair)].

    I wonder how long it will take, from now, measured in µm (micro-metres) on that scale, until the self-annihilation of the human species?

    4. Lot more optimistic than you. I don't think we will ever get there. Catastrophes now and then, of course, but we will go to the stars. But then it depends on what you mean by the 'human species'. Are we still human if we learn how to download ourselves into organic machines (already exist) or hardware so we have no limitations and can go more or less anywhere?

    5. You've forgotten "Age of measuring temperatures so that we can assess global warming and say that the science is settled" = 0.0002mm (approximately) – so thin that the naked eye can't detect it.

    6. "humans rose around 2,750,000 [2·75 million] years ago" – yes, and I feel every one of those years today.
      🙁

    7. And a tiny fraction of a mm for the time it's taken the purple haired wokers to ruin everything and force us backward.

  52. That was fun. Just hung out a line of washing. The plastic clip that attaches the clothesline to the hook snapped off. What larks having to undo the whole thing, mend it and rehang….

  54. The end of freedom thanks to Labours communist state.
    This is how it was in East Germany.
    You live in fear of the government.

    1. One of the things I learnt a little while ago was that people actually volunteered to be informants without pay, almost just for the fun of it. After the fall of the regime, one woman found that her fiancee who later become her husband, was spying on her all the while. Can you imagine the sense of betrayal she must have felt? I'm sure there are thousands of other stories like that from that regime.

          2. I had someone in the supermarket berating me for going up an aisle with a down arrow somewhere on it. She didn't say anything about no mask just that I was going the wrong way down (up) the aisle. All I said was "I don't think that germs take much notice of arrows", and walked on.

        1. Sadly, I think I know people who would and I suspect that you know people who would too.

  55. A stoopid question.

    When anything is put on the Sochial Meeja site "X," why is that always followed by "formerly (known as) Twitter,"

    That 'referal' does not normally happen with Takeovers

    2. I just call Tommy Robinson, 'Real Name' now. It is so silly and obvious. They're probably trying to do a similar thing with X as it is associated with a dissenter. It's a pathetic attempt at reduction. They only do it to the powerful who they fear.

      2. I wonder about Musk's rationale for renaming the microblogging service. Could it be that Twitter suggests something trifling and inconsequential? If so, it still doesn't explain why X was chosen to replace it. The 24th letter of the alphabet is hardly a symbol of gravitas.

  56. I suspect that it is because if you type "X" into google you get nowhere fast. You just get a lot of info about X this or that. Elon should have used a word.

      1. The black sort. The muslim likes to kill the defenceless, but as the victim was black it's vastly more likely statistically to be another black.

  58. "The British yachtsman Sir Ben Ainslie has been robbed of his Rolex watch after being mugged at knifepoint in Barcelona before the America’s Cup.

    The 47-year-old was threatened with a knife last Saturday by a gang who took his watch, which had an estimated value of €20,000 (£16,800), the newspaper La Vanguardia reported."

    What an absolute fool to display an expensive watch in Barcelona, of all places notorious for street theft.

      1. I have a bindweed tendril that has invaded my bathroom via the window. Rather like the weed so I'm letting it grow, curious how far it will go by the end of the growing season. Exciting?

    2. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      In defence of airport pints
      Comments Share 29 August 2024, 10:18am
      It is hard to think of anyone in aviation history who has done more to degrade the passenger experience of air travel than the man who has run Ryanair for the last 30 years. So forgive me if I’m not rushing to listen to Michael O’Leary’s thoughts on how to improve it.

      Being allowed a drink before and during a Ryanair flight is about the only thing that makes the experience bearable in the first place
      But his claim yesterday that we should significantly restrict passenger alcohol consumption has sparked apparently serious consideration. Suggesting that the remedy to the supposed problem may lie in a two-drink-per-passenger limit, O’Leary told the Daily Telegraph: ‘We don’t allow people to drink-drive, yet we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet.’

      Putting aside the fact that the way O’Leary phrased his comparison makes it sound as if his more inebriated passengers might be asked to actually fly the plane rather than just sit on it – which would require a significantly greater degree of mental competency – it’s still a terrible idea. Because being allowed a drink before and during a Ryanair flight is about the only thing that makes the experience bearable in the first place.

      His suggestion that out-of-control drunks are increasingly making flying unviable simply doesn’t chime with lived experience. Yes, the Magistrates’ courts at Uxbridge (for Heathrow), Chelmsford (Stansted), Crawley (Gatwick) and Luton do a fairly brisk trade in passengers who have been arrested on landing. And inevitably, there will be the usual bunch who blame pesky prescription drugs for skewing their otherwise entirely reasonable intake of vodka towards the anti-social. But these incidents remain exceptional rather than the norm.

      In fact in all the 50 odd years I’ve been flying, I can honestly say that I’ve only ever encountered one passenger who was getting to the point of being properly drunk on a plane – and that was me. But it had been a very long trip, I was coming down with something and there was no suggestion of criminality.

      The places that would be most affected by O’Leary’s proposed restriction are those airside ersatz traditional pubs which are Britain’s unique contribution to global travel culture – and arguably as representative of our wider national culture as anything you might see on stamps or The One Show.

      When Harry Wallop wrote a feature forthe Daily Mail last week about a day in the life of The Windmill – the airside Wetherspoons at Stansted – he found 50 people already drinking lager and Pinot Grigio when he arrived… at 3.30 a.m. That really is starting early.

      I’m an occasional patron of this establishment myself. But favouring EasyJet over Ryanair, I more regularly enjoy its sister pubs at Gatwick, The Flying Horse and Red Horse. On my most recent visit there, ahead of a trip to Cyprus, at the more sedate hour of 6 a.m., their £12.99 full English breakfast was tempting but at 1,250 calories seemed potentially just too much that early. So I contented myself with breakfasting on two pints of Guinness, which I have no doubt helped me to snooze through much of the subsequent flight. By lunchtime I was looking down at the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite, eating grilled sea bream and sipping a chilled Xynisteri white while the sun glinted on the Mediterranean. I regretted nothing, except perhaps having spurned a third Guinness earlier.

      Of course people can be snooty about such places. And indeed the class system is reflected in the variety of airport drinking venues, with lager at Wetherspoons for the masses, wine at a Wagamama for the middling and those champagne and oyster bars for the ostentatious elite.

      But I’m happy at Spoons. I’m not sure I’d want to share my holiday accommodation with the rest of their clientele for ten days, but half an hour together dulled by early alcohol is just fine.

      Any suggestion that we should legislate these travel drinking rites away is just another attempt to make the UK even more nanny state-ish that it has already become – and that’s before the government bans smoking in beer gardens and outside hospitals, as floated just today.

      Would they really have us drive through miles and miles of 50 mph average speed limit motorway zones in the middle of the night, pay £20 a day to park in a field seven miles from the terminal, wait 20 minutes in the dark and rain for a bus to actually get us there, clutching our tiny bag, worried in case it is too big, make us check in two hours early for no apparent reason, throwing all our liquids in the bin at security, only to finally ban us from killing the hour and half that remains before we are finally allowed to board our plane in the pub? Yes, I’m afraid that they would.

      But it would be pointless. Because the real problem powering any serious degeneration of mid-air social etiquette was actually identified by O’Leary, just not in the headlines: cocaine.

      The line about, er, lines was buried much lower down in the story: ‘In the old days people who drank too much would eventually fall over or fall asleep. But now those passengers are also on tablets and powder,’ he said.

      And he’s right. The mass take-up of recreational cocaine use over the last 20 years has fuelled everything from a resurgence in football hooliganism to an almost comic explosion in the number of cash-only barber shops across the UK.

      Anyone serious about reducing anti-social behaviour on flights should start treating airports like nightclubs: installing more bouncers and cameras and removing flat surfaces from toilet cubicles. If there is a real problem, it’s not from pints and Pinot Grigio.

  61. A long read, but a good one, from Pete North (Northern Variant) on X:

    In Starmer's speech yesterday, he highlighted that some of the recent riots saw racists slogans and gestures and "swastika tattoos". There was only one instance of this that I know of. But Starmer is addressing the largely politically disengaged, knowing that there's enough of them for a lie like that to find an audience. He's laying down the justification for all the draconian policy that follows. He's manufacturing a phantom menace.

    This is reinforced by his reference, in a speech today, to the rise in "mass far-right populism" as seen in Germany and France. He's building the rationale for ignoring popular sentiment on immigration. We are all tarred with the same brush, and in Starmer's mind there are no legitimate concerns and no reason for him to divert from his policy agenda.

    This means Starmer will spend his entire time addressing issues that don't exist at the expense of problems that very much do exist. In that regard, he and Sadiq Khan are peas in a pod. Government by gaslight.

    This sets the tone for the entire administration. We've already seen much the same from Yvette Cooper in her determination to treat misogyny as terrorism. Whatever merit her case has, we know this will not extend to the endemic misogyny in British Islamic culture. Labour doesn't actually need to adopt the APPG definition of Islamophobia because they're already telling us British Muslims are a protected class and that which should not be tolerated will get a free pass. Labour's electoral fortunes depend on it in 2029.

    In fact, Starmer's need for a far right to exist is so acute, he will take measure to provoke one into existence. If that was the intent of locking up people for tweets while granting early release to rapists then it will surely work a treat.

    Labour's class war is absolute. This was abundantly evident during Brexit. The issue for Starmer was not that we voted to leave the EU. For him, it was an abhorrence that we were even allowed a vote on it.

    Fundamentally, the modern left sees the primary function of government as one of shaping public morality. He will take steps to control what we're allowed to read and say out loud, and he will turn the police into a morality police. Everything except crime will be policed, except if that crime can in any way be labelled far right. A definition that will expand in scope over time.

    This, of course, is not going to work. It will be his downfall. Labour has never had to govern alongside social media before, and Labour still thinks that the state has the means and the right to control the narrative. Starmer is in for steep learning curve. The metropolitan media and the midwit left are just stupid enough to buy his "far right" shtick, but most of us aren't. He's painting himself into a corner.

    It should be recalled that Starmer won power with only twenty percent of the vote and his mandate is threadbare. His only moral authority is by dint of being in office, and his every diktat from here on in erodes it. His approval rating is already collapsing and he has nether the charisma or the competence to recover it.

    Moreover, he is already on the downward slide. He's already breaking election pledges, and will likely be forced into a humiliating u-turn over winter fuel payments. You can't on the one hand tell the public you're taking prudent measures to get public finances under control while spunking billions on foreign aid and climate boondoggles. You can't impose further tax rises and austerity on the public while doling out bumper public sector pay rises. He's already toast. The next parliamentary term will more resemble an episode of The Walking Dead.

    As such, we can expect to see more of Starmer parading on the "world stage and in the foyers of Brussels, since they will be the only places where he is well received. He has more in common with Europe;s dilapidated political elites.

    Meanwhile, his attempts to remedy the economy will flatline. There is no economic recovery without first getting a grip on energy policy. This is highly unlikely, having appointed a circus clown as energy secretary, who is hellbent on plastering the landscape with useless social panels and transmission lines to nowhere at the cost of tens of billions. The green lobby will get their subsidy bungs and we'll be presented with the bill.

    This is against all against a backdrop of rape, murder and lawlessness that a police force, uttler hamstrung by wokery, has no chance of getting a handle on. It's hard to see anything going well for Starmer. To stop us noticing the state of the country he would have to unplug the UK internet connectors and confine us to our homes again.

    This administration does not have the first hope of bringing remedy to any of our serious problems, not least because Labour dare not name them. They will thus waste their time with yet more witless constitutional tinkering, rapidly facing the prospect of being the most unpopular government since polling began. Even the most sycophantic pundits on the left will have to concede that the "adults in the room" have no answers, and that fixing Britain requires more than just a change of management. Though it helps if those "adults in the room" aren't also narcissistic, despotic morons.

    1. Brilliant essay.

      "To stop us noticing the state of the country he would have to unplug the UK internet connectors and confine us to our homes again."
      Then that is what he will do…

    2. His accusations of swastikas and Nazis strongly reminded me of one Justin Trudeau smearing the truckers. That was also done without a shred of evidence. And his vicious reaction to dissent was just as disgusting as Trudeau's. I could not help but feel that Starmer was aping his Canadian counterparts despicable reaction to dissent on the part of the upstart citizenry. Villains of a feather…

    3. "To stop us noticing the state of the country he would have to unplug the UK internet connectors and confine us to our homes again." I suspect he's already contemplating that.

    1. "You can't have a nuanced conversation on there anymore so I’ve stepped away from that side of things."

      You mean people disagree with your half-witted, nouveau-riche nonsense and tell you ever so politely to be quiet?

    2. Hallo Pip. Honestly, I couldn't care less what Lineker thinks. That someone like him has opinions is odd in itself. Non entity declaring the vacuity of his useless life in thinking himself important.

        1. He is an influential presenter for the BBC. He should keep his opinions to himself. Either that or resign and stand as a politician.

          1. If, as some here are suggesting, he's so unpopular that people boycott Walker's snacks because of his association with them, then his open support for or opposition to any cause will swing public opinion in the other direction.

          2. Liverpuddlians stopped buying the sun newspaper after their Hilsborough coverage. Didn’t seem to affect their profits much.

        2. Well you know what lots of people are, so are you surprised? He's a wonderful tool for those behind BBC propaganda, but of course his views are just his own…

      3. The BBC should have defenestrated him. Now the smug twit has the pseudo backing of the BBC. Another weak Lefty on twitter, but on sacked by Al Beeb has far less validity.

    4. I wonder how much dosh Walker's Crisps has lost because potential customers have boycotted their Brands, as they continued to employ Liemaker, after all the 5H1t that he has spouted on so-called sports programme

      2. How do you download libgen to kindle? I can only get it to download to kobo unless i go via Amazon.

  65. I hope that they will get a move on with mpox (formerly monkey pox) or it will be a wasted panic – just like bird flu came and went. We now have sloth fever being touted as the next great killer that will arrive before the fall covid season.

    The scary thing is that some people are taking the warnings seriously.

    2. There's a lot of sloth in the Civil Service.

      Let's hope that they all get vaccinated soon.

    3. Public Sector think it a grand idea to shut down now.. and start applying single broken lines on the pavement for Social Distancing when applying for food rationing booklets.

    4. Just been reading a book about Victorian home life. Under the section on sanitation it stated, that the epidemics (cholera, typhoid. thyphus, smallpox, influenza, scarlet fever) in the middle of the 19th century were understood nowadays as "the lethal result of a combination of bad weather conditions, high food prices leading to malnutrition among much of the populace, sudden influxes of immigrants, and cities without the sewers and water supplies to cope with the sharp rise in population." (The Victorian House, Judith Flanders p 298). It struck me when I read that, that certain sections of the PTB, if they ever really did understand that, seem to have forgotten or ignored it. Those who do not learn from history …

    1. Good for him. But it speaks volumes when someone speaking out has to rely on the fact he’s an “immigrant” and a native trying to say the same thing gets exoriated.

      1. Like Mahyar Tousi and Alp Mehmet. Three, out of how many? We really need such people, who show what assimilation really should look like. Not immigrants or second-generation immigrant people in Parliament, local government or the media, letting more of themselves in and race-baiting the rest of us.

      2. Like Mahyar Tousi and Alp Mehmet. Three, out of how many? We really need such people, who show what assimilation really should look like. Not immigrants or second-generation immigrant people in Parliament, local government or the media, letting more of themselves in and race-baiting the rest of us.

    2. An excellent talk, but why did the poster feel the need to overdub that crap music over it?

      1. I didn't get music, but I just clicked on the arrow rather than go into the site itself. Maybe that made a difference?

    4. What's going on with that photo of the man on the right? The claim of Far-Left sexual liberation is that we are all oppressed and trapped by "social constructed" cages of "normalcy". Yet that man is has put his head in a cage. So how does that work?

    5. What's going on with that photo of the man on the right? The claim of Far-Left sexual liberation is that we are all oppressed and trapped by "social constructed" cages of "normalcy". Yet that man is has put his head in a cage. So how does that work?

  69. Kim Ung Starmer has decided that smoking kills thousands of people every year and is a great burden on the National Health Service and the tax payer and it will be banned completely within a few years.
    By that reasoning all politicians should be eliminated as they cause at least ten times more deaths and misery than smoking, drinking and McDonalds fast food combined. Vote for your politician of preference and have them put down. I'm in favour of that.

    1. He obviously expects the vote of the (largely but not exclusively, I suspect, Labour-voting) smoking population to be unnecessary for his next term in office. Either that, or because he will have stripped them of everything except benefits, they will be grateful for the benefits and prepare to pretend not to smoke in pub gardens.

      PS Any statistics on how much immigrants cost the NHS (or rather us, as we fund the NHS)?

      By the way, I remember that animals used to be put down because "it really is kinder" – for them. In your suggested case it is more a case of being kinder for us.

      1. I have had to have my beloved dogs put down because it was kinder for them. They were incurably ill and starting to have no quality of life.

    2. He obviously expects the vote of the (largely but not exclusively, I suspect, Labour-voting) smoking population to be unnecessary for his next term in office. Either that, or because he will have stripped them of everything except benefits, they will be grateful for the benefits and prepare to pretend not to smoke in pub gardens.

      PS Any statistics on how much immigrants cost the NHS (or rather us, as we fund the NHS)?

      By the way, I remember that animals used to be put down because "it really is kinder" – for them. In your suggested case it is more a case of being kinder for us.

    1. It was horrible for most people then. The average life-span of an industrial worker during the Industrial Revolution was 34. The same as for an average slave life-span.

  73. Our GP surgery, having realised I'm still alive as I eventually borrowed a BP monitor from my neighbour and sent them two readings, have confirmed that they are within the target and are now bombarding me with exhortations to get the flu vax and also the RSV vax, which will be 'offered' to all patients between the ages of 75 and 79. I will ignore them………

    1. ♬Asylum boats is a-comin', their sails are in sight;
      Asylum boats is a-comin', there's stabbin' tonight.
      Why don't 'cha hurry hurry hurry home?
      Why don't 'cha hurry hurry hurry home?
      Look here, the asylum boats is a-comin', there's stabbin', there's stabbin', there's stabbin', there's stabbin' tonight.♬

      With apologies to Paul Weston (and Jo Stafford).

    1. Not in jail, that’s for sure. Though illegally entering without documents is a criminal offence, surely?

      1. Certain offences, like shoplifting (and entering this country without documents or permissions), are no longer important. And I read somewhere that if people in small boats are picked up by our Welcome Border Force then they cease to be committing a criminal offence, because they have been brought here. Technically.

      2. Certain offences, like shoplifting (and entering this country without documents or permissions), are no longer important. And I read somewhere that if people in small boats are picked up by our Welcome Border Force then they cease to be committing a criminal offence, because they have been brought here. Technically.

    3. The Labour Government is finding solutions to make big unpalatable changes as promised in their manifesto.
      It realises that it cannot keep housing immigrants at taxpayers' expense so the onus is now being transfered to councils who have resorted to compulsorily purchasing unoccupied housing that OAPs without Winter Fuel payments may be squatting in:

      https://youtu.be/2WX7naBPcxo?si=FHTgoP45rRPAENVO

      1. Surely it would not be a question of "deeds" – the property would be registered in the Land registry (even if it is first registration), and that is final. If whoever did the conveyancing had not done that, or at least made an application, I would be very surprised. Wasn't this a story a few months ago, or was that another couple?

          5. He will be hatching another plot soon . There is no point in brooding, and no need to crow.

    1. Their likelihood of going "to heaven" is entirely in their own inflated minds. If there is a God, then He will see beyond what we pretend to/convince ourselves…(that's one of the difficulties I had with some of the interpretations of the Christian church – how someone like Blair (Catholic) or May (Anglican, I believe) can genuinely convince themselves, and believe within the tenets of their religion that they have behaved well is beyond my comprehension. The same goes for certain other religions…

      1. The church in the West has been infiltrated by people who can convince themselves that what Marx said is what Jesus meant. The next pope actually needs to be an African or Filipino, if the Roman Church survives to see another pope.

          1. Now, now, Big Brother says cannibalism in Africa is a myth, so repeat after me…
            Have I told the story before about my dad, when posted to Accra and Lagos with the army during WWII, being sent to arrest a guy who couldn't understandd what he'd done wrong. He explained to the nice British soldier what had happened. He and his friend had agreed to chop his brother and share him but the friend had refused to share so he chopped his friend and that made everything right. They were even and there was no case to answer. End of.

          3. Human = long pig (ie tastes like pork – I guess being omnivores we probably would do) according to Ballantyre's children's book (I can't remember the name but there was a character called Peterkin in it)

          6. Human = long pig (ie tastes like pork – I guess being omnivores we probably would do) according to Ballantyre's children's book (I can't remember the name but there was a character called Peterkin in it)

        2. Unfortunately the Christian church, in several forms, has been able to convince itself (or at least the people) of many things that are neither what Jesus said or (ergo) what he meant (by what he didn't say in the first place). Martin Luther had something to say about some of these things.

        3. Unfortunately the Christian church, in several forms, has been able to convince itself (or at least the people) of many things that are neither what Jesus said or (ergo) what he meant (by what he didn't say in the first place). Martin Luther had something to say about some of these things.

    2. Their likelihood of going "to heaven" is entirely in their own inflated minds. If there is a God, then He will see beyond what we pretend to/convince ourselves…(that's one of the difficulties I had with some of the interpretations of the Christian church – how someone like Blair (Catholic) or May (Anglican, I believe) can genuinely convince themselves, and believe within the tenets of their religion that they have behaved well is beyond my comprehension. The same goes for certain other religions…

  78. Of course I can't comment for or against, but I thought this might interest some people…

    "The 2024 US Presidential Election Has Already Been Stolen
    Paul Craig Roberts – 29th August 24

    On August 28, I listed some of the electoral procedures Democrats are putting in place in order to steal the November presidential election:

    Minneapolis has designated those who entered the US illegally “justice impacted individuals” and put them into a protected class which apparently includes the right to vote.

    The DNC has filed a lawsuit against the Georgia Election Board to block the rule that requires counties to ensure the accuracy of the votes prior to certification. If you remember, this was a question in the 2020 election when Georgia and other states’ votes were certified without authentication.

    In Wayne County, Michigan, the 19th most populous county in the US (there are 3,244 counties in the US) which includes Detroit, Warren, and Dearborn, 98% of the poll watchers appointed to oversee the 2024 presidential vote are Democrats.

    The Wisconsin Supreme Court overturned the ban against ballot drop boxes that allow fraudulent ballots to enter the vote count. Here is the NBC News headline: “Wisconsin Supreme Court overturns ruling that barred most ballot drop boxes”

    The Biden regime provides immigrant-invaders with federal ID cards when they enter. In blue jurisdictions immigrant-invaders are registered to vote when they apply for a driver’s license. The Democrats can then vote the registrations.

    Thus the presstitute false news report from the Democrat New Republic that “Kamala Harris is inspiring many new voters to register.” https://newrepublic.com/article/185354/bad-news-trump-surprise-data-shows-pro-kamala-surge-new-voters

    This is the way that the ruling establishment will explain the sudden increase in ballot numbers from illegal alien votes. These votes might be accounted for by illegal aliens voting or by Democrats stuffing drop boxes with the automatic registrations of illegals that puts immigrant-invaders on voting lists when they are issued driving licenses.

    As Republican poll watchers have been eliminated from such populous areas as Wayne County Michigan, there is no check on illegal alien voting.

    Newsweek reports that “Kamala Harris Overtakes Donald Trump in New Poll.” https://www.newsweek.com/kamala-harris-overtakes-donald-trump-new-poll-1945154

    This particular poll comes from the Florida Atlantic University Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab. If memory serves, this is the left-wing university, financed by the insouciant Florida government and taxpayers, that has caused so much trouble for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump.

    Ask yourselves how in less than one month Kamala Harris went from the most disapproved of American politicians to being the front runner in a presidential election and such an inspiring candidate that the voting rolls are bulging with new voters for Kamala.

    The answer is that it is all a media and establishment orchestration to create the impression in the limited minds of insouciant Americans that as Kamala is leading, the election wasn’t stolen.

    As Republicans and American citizens are apparently incapable of acknowledging reality, they have taken no effective steps to protect the integrity of US elections.

    Theft it is, and theft it will be.
    And no one will do anything about it."

    1. Bit risky giving illegals the vote, I would have thought. Many of them will have heard of both Trump and Biden/Harris.
      Unless of course they are planning to fill in their ballot forms too.

      1. I think your second sentence is no doubt being relied on.

        Ed. Rightly or wrongly – Labour is not going to be able to rely of the muslim vote for too much longer, no doubt why they want to flood us even more…

  79. Gobshite Lineker demonstrating the latest fashion in £100,000 ill fitting suits in his bid to outdo King Charlie in the 'Badly Dressed Big Ears' contest.

    He is a serious drain on the tax and licence payer. He could be better employed off the Scottish coast as an independent wind farm – and his ears will be biodegradable when he finally snuffs it . . . if they can get a crane big enough to recover them.
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/29/09/89053459-13791621-image-m-6_1724921872238.jpg

  80. Gobshite Lineker demonstrating the latest fashion in £100,000 ill fitting suits in his bid to outdo King Charlie in the 'Badly Dressed Big Ears' contest.

    He is a serious drain on the tax and licence payer. He could be better employed off the Scottish coast as an independent wind farm – and his ears will be biodegradable when he finally snuffs it . . . if they can get a crane big enough to recover them.
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/08/29/09/89053459-13791621-image-m-6_1724921872238.jpg

  81. Starmer says ban on smoking in pub gardens could reduce burden on NHS. 29 August 2024

    Sir Keir said: “My starting point on this is to remind everybody that over 80,000 people lose their lives every year because of smoking. That is a preventable death, it’s a huge burden on the NHS and, of course, it is a burden on the taxpa

    “So, yes, we are going to take decisions in this space, more details will be revealed, but this is a preventable series of deaths and we’ve got to take action to reduce the burden on the NHS and the taxpayer.”

    How about it is none of the damned Government's business.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/29/pub-garden-smoking-ban-could-close-thousands-of-venues-tory/

    1. 80,000 pub-garden smokers die each year?

      Just think how much NHS time and money could be saved if, for instance, people didn't stab one another. Or take illegal drugs. Or play sport to stay healthy. And so on…

      1. Yes its all very selective. You could apply that so called logic to all sorts of things.

      3. Duty on cigarettes is 16.5 per cent of the retail price plus £6.33 on a packet of 20. The average price for a pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK is currently £12.84. = Tax £8.45 per packet if my maths is correct.

        I don't smoke but looking at that I believe the smokers more than pay for the extra care that they may need and, as an added bonus, snuff it sooner than the average grannie. I agree with banning it (and vaping) in pubs and restaurants but no objections to them puffing outside.

    2. Superficially, he's correct, but even non-smokers experience illness sooner or later. I expect that, per head, non-smokers cost the NHS more for dementia treatment. Over a lifetime, which of the two groups costs the NHS more? In addition, given the shorter average lifespans of smokers, they receive less in state pension in total. Therefore, I am yet to be convinced that smokers are more burdensome to taxpayers, in the round.

      3. And they contribute a huge amount in tax. I'm a non smoker. I don't think smoking should be banned in designated areas outside, though inside pubs and restaurants is a lot pleasanter now.

      4. Added to which, the prevailing ideology of it's own management is the greatest financial burden on the NHS.

        1. My old Uncle Dick was killed by tobacco and alcohol. He started smoking cigarettes at the age of 13 when he was at Shrewsbury School and joined up as soon as he couldto fight in the First World War. He then decided to add pipe smoking to his cigarettes and drank two pints of beer every day after returning from the War in 1917 aged 20. He took up whisky drinking in his early 20s and had good tot every night after supper.

          He worked for the Railways and designed a revolutionary coupling system for joining carriages or trucks together and had a successful career.

          But his vices caught up with him in the end – he died in 1990 aged 92.

          1. By coincidence my chain smoking former Garrison Sergeant Major grandfather also died at the age of 92 but maybe retiring at 45 and then gardening for the rest of his life had something to do with his longevity.
            But my other chain smoking grandfather (who started the vice in the trenches) died from lung cancer aged 60.

          2. My non-smoking father died at the age of 68. Life is a lottery; may as well enjoy it as best you can while you can (and put two fingers up to the nanny state).

          3. My Dad smoked and died of lung cancer at the age of 54. I was 11 at the time. it still didn't stop me and several sisters taking up the habit. I shifted to roll-ups in 1981, as my fags were annoying two men I worked with. I only had four a day and only smoked in a bar or my own accommodation.
            I gave up overnight in 1991. I used to moan at others smoking at work when I was still a smoker.

          4. By coincidence my chain smoking former Garrison Sergeant Major grandfather also died at the age of 92 but maybe retiring at 45 and then gardening for the rest of his life had something to do with his longevity.
            But my other chain smoking grandfather (who started the vice in the trenches) died from lung cancer aged 60.

      5. The ideal would be for people to die shortly before they retire.
        Alcohol abuse is also a burden for the NHS and the taxpayer. In order to set an example, the Palace of Westminster should ban the consumption of alcoholic beverages and the smoking of tobacco on its estate.

        1. Perish the thought – just like Starmer has already made sure that any tax on pensions would not affect his own pension personally. The subsidised (by us the taxpayer) bars and restaurants for the ridiculously privileged MPs will be exempt.

      6. So what which group costs the NHS more? We are humans, we do silly things sometimes. This banning of stuff because it supposedly costs more can be ridiculous. (Yes I do understand that if a proportion of the population decided that it was fun to throw themselves off tall buildings (just for the experience), one might have to have a re-think).

        Sure, I don't like the smell of smoke, and I don't like smokers holding their cigarette at arms length so that the smoke from it doesn't go up their nostrils and their exhaled smoke doesn't go up their nostrils either. I think it was right to ban smoking indoors in public places, because non-smokers had no choice and passive smoking can be harmful. But to ban it completely in public places is simply being tyrannical.

      7. Hmm. Vascular dementia is much more likely to affect you if you smoke because smoking furs up the arteries in every part of the body.
        That is not to say that I approve of 2TK’s drive to suck the last residual enjoyment out of smokers’ lives. I have never smoked and loathe the habit but a stint working with the sanctimony squad in Public Health almost drove me to start.

    3. If it saves just one life.

      No one is safe until everyone is safe.

      Used to justify lockdowns, facemasks and smoking bans.

      But not a crackdown on immigration (illegal or otherwise).

    4. How about smokers pay NICs (our staffroom was so smoke-filled before smoking indoors was banned you couldn't see across it) to contribute to the NHS? Also income tax and tax + duty on tobacco. It would serve them right if everybody stopped smoking and they lost all the revenue from tobacco.

    1. How they have progressed in Sweden!" I'm sure the manoeuvres of the 2023 representatives required a great deal of cerebral application, and indicated an enviably civilised society.

    2. 🤣
      I'll tell you what, Sue. Even before Africa emptied its continent northwards, anyone visiting my local small town of Tomelilla, expecting to find it wall-to-wall choc-a-bloc full of tall, beautiful, leggy blondes might be a tad disappointed.

      On my first visit there I thought I had landed in the Hillbilly country of Georgia, USA. I couldn't hear any banjos but the slack-jawed, snaggle-toothed, beyond-ugly locals are on the other side of parody.

      1. Doesn't Tomelilla mean "little thumb" or Thumbelina, or something like that? Who is thumbing what, at whom?

        1. It does, indeed, Dukke, apparently mean “Little Thumb” but why that is, no local can tell me.

  83. I use my laptop to download to using an epub extension in firefox (epub extensions available for all browsers)
    I think Mobi is the file type for kindle try setting “Format” at the top of the page to mobi and try direct to kindle or download to laptop and transfer to kindle
    Best offerings I’m no expert!!

  84. The (London} Standard's description of the assault and subsequent murder of Jade Barnett in East London yesterday afternoon bears the hallmarks of a targeted attack. While those who knew him speak of his good character and popularity, details suggest personal grudge or enmity is involved. His assailants rammed his mobility scooter before killing him with a knife.

    <blockquote><b>Clapton murder: Mum's heartbreak as disabled son in wheelchair killed in 'car and Rambo knife attack' in London street

    <i>Emergency responders tried to save Jade Anthony Barnett, who had one leg, but he died at the scene following stabbing in broad daylight on Wednesday</i></b>

    A disabled father was killed when three men in a car rammed his electric wheelchair and set upon him with a Rambo knife in a street in east London, a witness said.

    Jade Anthony Barnet, 38, died after being attacked in the street near his home in Clapton, east London, on Wednesday afternoon.

    His mother described him as a “wonderful man who wouldn’t hurt a fly”, who has a daughter, “loved life”, and had “bounced back” after losing a leg in a motorcycle accident in his teens.

    She told the Standard that she had no idea how anyone could attack the Arsenal fan in his wheelchair. He was attacked within a couple of hundred metres of his family home in Clapton.

    Mrs Barnett, who is in her 60s, said: “He was loved by everyone around here. He was a joy, he loved life. He wouldn’t hurt a fly and would never get involved in a fight. How anyone could attack him in a wheelchair I don’t know. We want answers.”

    She added: “He had bounced back after being down following his motorcycle accident. He moved back home and was on the up. He was looking forward to his future and he has been taken from us.”

    Witness Darren Thomas, 47, described how three men in a car drove into the victim’s wheelchair and when he fell to the ground they set upon him with a Rambo knife.

    He said: “I heard a bang and saw the car had hit the wheelchair. They rammed it again and he fell out. There were three in the car, two jumped out for the stabbing. They were guys, their faces weren’t covered. They were in a silver Honda like car. After it happened he was screaming – it was horrible to hear. People were running around shouting ‘he’s been stabbed, he’s been stabbed’.

    “It happened outside the community boxing club where he hangs out. I’ve known him years, a nice guy. Whatever it was over who attacks someone in a wheelchair? It’s just terrible.”

    Tributes Pour In for Jade Anthony Barnett, 38, Stabbed to Death in Clapton

    Two men, aged 21 and 28, have been arrested on suspicion of murder.

    The Metropolitan Police said officers were called at 3.38pm on Wednesday to reports of a fight in Rushmore Road, Clapton, Hackney, and found Mr Barnett, with a stab injury.

    He was treated by London Ambulance Service paramedics but was pronounced dead at the scene. Forensics experts have been combing the crime scene for clues.

    Officers are trawling through CCTV footage while detectives are carrying out door to door inquiries.

    Mr Barnett’s sister, Simone, who is at the family home comforting her mother, said: “He was loved by everyone around here. He was a wonderful brother.”

    A local shopkeeper said: “The victim was my customer, he was always respectful and lovely to everyone, we are really shocked.”

    Road closures remain in place around the area as inquiries continue.

    The arrested pair, who have also been held for failing to stop for police, remain in custody at an east London police station.

    Mr Barnett has been described as "cheerful and caring" by his sister, who said “he never took nothing too seriously, he laughed everything off".

    He used to live in Clapton with his mother but his friends said he had moved to the Stratford area.

    Friends said he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident in 2007.

    Ms Barnett said: "He comes around here (Clapton) all the time, everyone knew my brother – young, old, mothers, fathers, everybody knew my brother.

    "Everybody is family, he's just that character."

    A woman who was also at the cordon and who did not want to be named, said: "He was always funny, making jokes, friendly with everybody, always had a smile on his face, and always pleasant.

    "There's not a bad thing I could say about him. I know him from long time, he's a nice guy, very nice guy, always see him, he's always pleasant.

    "You never expect (an incident like this) at all, to be honest, but to him, least of all – he's just nice, always, always a pleasure to see him, he's upbeat."

    A man who knew Mr Barnett, but also did not want to be identified, said he was "a young guy, good spirit, no enemies, no guns, no crime, no gangs".

    A black and grey electric wheelchair could be seen standing behind the cordon close to a forensics tent at the scene late on Wednesday evening.

    The wheelchair and tent are on Overbury Street overlooked by a housing estate, with the cordon stretching on to Rushmore Road.

    Detective Chief Superintendent James Conway, responsible for policing in Hackney and Tower Hamlets, said: "Our investigation is still in the early stages and my detectives are working hard to establish the circumstances of what has happened this afternoon.

    "If anyone has any information about this tragic incident I urge them to come forwards and speak to us, or you can contact Crimestoppers anonymously with any information.

    "A number of streets have been cordoned off as our investigation continues at pace and I am grateful for the patience of the local residents of Clapton.

    "Our thoughts are with the family of the victim at this difficult time. The public can expect to see continued and significant police activity in the local area as we continue with our rigorous investigation."

    Anyone with any information has been asked to call police on 101 or message @MetCC on X, formerly Twitter, quoting CAD 4793/28AUG.</blockquote>

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/man-stabbed-clapton-hackney-stabbing-east-london-rushmore-road-police-helicopter-wheelchair-b1178850.html

    1. Sorry about the absence of formatting. It no longer seems to work on my Kindle.

    2. He'd obviously upset these thugs – maybe over a drug deal? I don't think it was a random killing. These people are vicious.

    3. “He was loved by everyone around here. He was a joy, he loved life. He wouldn’t hurt a fly and would never get involved in a fight. How anyone could attack him in a wheelchair I don’t know. We want answers.”

      As soon as I read that I knew he was bad'un.

    4. The victim was using a mobility scooter, not an 'electric wheelchair'. He (reportedly) lost his leg as a result of a motorcycle crash, or Road Traffic Collision, not an 'accident', when he was approximately 21 years old. My guess is that he was able to walk, but not run. My second guess, which is unkind, is that he may have owed money. FYI, many drug addicts receive state benefits which they can use as security for loans to purchase illegal substances; sadly, those debts tend to attract debt collectors.

    5. No details about those detained, I see. They don't have to be named and shamed, but some description might allay speculation.

    1. Should that be 'I miss hating the Tories.' or am I getting the wrong end of the stick?

      Edit: On reflection, oddly, both lines do actually work!

  86. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/08/29/angela-rayner-right-to-switch-off-opposite-flexibity/

    This is the sort of thing someone who has never had a job comes up with. They don't understand how work really 'works' and think they can just legislate behaviour. They're stuck in a failed, student politics idea of heavily unionised industry that simply no longer exists.

    Work is global now. It's continual. We offer 24/7 contracts. We have to, as if we don't our competitors do. A lot of our work is done out of hours and in the evening for initial site visits and cabling. One client was revamping their offices and told us when we could go in – it was 4am on a Sunday to be finished by 8 on Monday. We've no choice if we want the work. We kept a client who moved to Italy. He knew and trusted us, so we support his install over there remotely. His billing created our second apprentice role – in three months. Said apprentice has flown over to Italy twice now.

    Equally there are days when we're almost idle and I spend it sitting on the water front with 3 daft dogs playing in the inlet complaining about 'da guvmunt'.

    Raynor is a dinosaur. A failed, inept, lazy, hidebound oaf trying to push a brick into a plug socket.

    1. Jein. I switch off because I am freelance so they don't have me on a leash. My permie colleagues have iPhones from the company. Most of them use them as their private phone too, and they get emails and messages at all hours. One in particular is so conscientious, he replies if you send him an email any time. But I've seen people emailing him when he's supposed to be on holiday, knowing they will get an answer. I think it borders on abuse.
      It's understood that someone from IT will be on call, but they split the responsibility between them.

      1. That could have been MH. No matter what his role was, he let employers walk all over him because he couldn't say 'no.' Thankfully, our offspring seem to have grown up with backbone.

    2. I used to support clients in Europe as well as clients in Asia and Australia. I can just see how they would have taken We work 8 till 5 Eastern Time!

  88. Ayaan Hirsi Ali
    The death of free speech in Britain
    From magazine issue:
    31 August 2024

    In Michel Houellebecq’s satirical novel Soumission, the French elite submits to Islamic rule rather than accept a National Front government. Nine years after its publication, submission seems more imminent on this side of the English Channel.

    My American friends are surprised to learn there’s no equivalent to the First Amendment in Britain. They have forgotten a free press was one of the things their ancestors rebelled to establish in the US. Free speech is a much more recent thing in the UK. If it was born in the 1960s, it seems to be dying in the 2020s.

    After the recent riots, people were given prison sentences for posting words and images on social media. In some cases, the illegal incitement to violence was obvious. Julie Sweeney, 53, got a 15-month sentence for a Facebook comment: ‘Blow the mosque up with the adults in it.’ Lee Dunn, 51, on the other hand, got eight weeks for sharing three images of Asian-looking men with captions such as ‘Coming to a town near you’.

    As these sentences were delivered, the government announced its intention to axe the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the act, which requires universities and students’ unions to protect free speech and academic freedom, would place too much of a burden on universities and expose them to costly legal action. But there’s been speculation the real motive for ditching it is to avoid antagonising China, a country noted for the number of students it sends to the UK, not for its commitment to free speech.

    When I came to the West in 1992, free speech seemed a settled issue. From defamation to fraud, perjury to libel, insult to incitement, the legal limits were largely decided. Some European countries kept blasphemy laws, but these were dead letters. We understood why Mein Kampf was banned in Germany but not in the US. Each country had taken a different historical journey towards the liberal end of history.

    Beginning in the 1960s, the UK moved away from a paternalistic regime of censorship and censoriousness. The British were proud of their new-found free speech, including their tolerance for lèse-majesté and blasphemy. Think of the impotence of the BBC’s ban on the Sex Pistols’ ‘God Save the Queen’ or the success of Monty Python’s Life of Brian.

    But a triple whammy towards the end of the 20th century upended this: the arrival of fundamentalist Islam in the West, the rise of far-left critical theories of social justice and the advent of the internet as the public square.

    The clash between fundamentalist Islam and modern British values became clear in 1989, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, issued a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for The Satanic Verses. At the time, Margaret Thatcher provided Rushdie with taxpayer-funded protection. The message was clear: Britain wouldn’t submit to foreign actors who threatened murder in pursuit of censorship. It wasn’t enough. The threat to Rushdie continued, very nearly claiming his life two years ago.

    Those who expressed concern about the cultural differences with fundamentalist Islam were condemned as xenophobic. Even the police feared confronting Muslim men who ran grooming gangs for fear of being viewed as racist.

    The second trend was the rise of far-left ideas within the Labour party. Though Jeremy Corbyn was too obvious a leftist for British voters, Keir Starmer successfully presented himself as a harmless alternative to an inept Tory government.

    Now his government seems intent on enshrining a definition of Islamophobia in law, using the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims’ definition of Islamophobia as ‘a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness or perceived Muslimness’. In opposition, Labour consistently supported adopting it. Health Secretary Wes Streeting was the APPG’s chairman. Starmer reportedly intends to introduce the definition in a non-legally binding fashion, similar to Theresa May’s anti-Semitism definition in 2016. But I agree with those, such as Bob Blackman, the chairman of the 1922 Committee, who warn this is a move towards a blasphemy law. Blackman should know. He was accused in parliament of Islamophobia for sharing a post critical of sex gangs in the UK.

    The third force at work is the internet, which gave Islamists and the radical left the chance to reach impressionable youths. It particularly suited them in 2020 when the most popular platforms made clear they would adopt critical race theory and other elements of woke ideology, under the guise of ‘content moderation’.

    Of course, some internet regulation is necessary to prevent it becoming a bazaar for child pornography, drugs and weapons. But conservatives underestimated how regulation could morph into a regime of surveillance and censorship. The Online Safety Act was passed by the Tory government in October last year. As Fraser Nelson argued, it could serve as a ‘censor’s charter’ because of its inclusion of the phrase ‘legal but harmful’ to characterise certain content.

    Now the left wants more. London mayor Sadiq Khan said after the riots that amendments are needed. He described the act as no longer ‘fit for purpose’. Peter Kyle, the Science and Technology Secretary, added that the government is committed to ‘building on the Online Safety Act’ – whatever that means.

    The losers in all this are not the hapless fools languishing in jail because of their crude online posts. The losers are the millions of people who believe the government exists to protect us from foreign enemies and criminals, not to prohibit ideas, words or images that might offend. The winners? That unholy alliance of Islamists and leftists who want to use the state to impose their dogmas on everyone else.

    Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and founder of the AHA Foundation. She served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 2003-2006.

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

    JuliaM
    12 hours ago
    My admiration for Aayan is boundless.

    J K Browne
    8 hours ago
    Jail time for hurty words. Meanwhile, in Bradford, Muhammad Hassan gets a suspended sentence for physical and verbal assault of three women, including punching, hair pulling and slamming a victim’s head against a car dashboard.

    1. BTL:

      Northern Light
      8 hours ago
      A good article but the rot set in in 1984 when the brave Bradford head teacher, Ray Honeyford, had the temerity to speak up and was subsequently hounded out of his job and livelihood.

    2. Julie Sweeney, 53, got a 15-month sentence for a Facebook comment: 'Blow the mosque up with the adults in it.'

      As I pointed out a day or two back (a little sardonically, it must be said), it was highly unlikely that the thought hadn't already crossed the minds of rioters beforehand.

    1. From the OBR:

      Tobacco duties are levied on purchases of cigarettes, hand-rolled tobacco, cigars and other forms of tobacco. In 2024-25 we estimate that tobacco duties will raise £8.8 billion. This represents 0.8 per cent of all receipts and is equivalent to 0.3 per cent of national income, and £302 per household.

      From tonight's Evening Standard Newsletter.

      Smoking has of course been banned inside pubs, restaurants and most workplaces since 2007. But the habit still costs the National Health Service an estimated £2.6 billion per year and in 2019 there were estimated to be 74,600 deaths attributable to the habit.

      I don't think the NHS argument holds water, particularly when one considers the likely earlier deaths so less money spent on end of life diseases and care and then smaller pension outgoings and earlier IHT receipts.

      1. Furthermore, VAT is levied on the duty inclusive price of tobacco. Therefore, some of the VAT raised has been generated by the duty.

      2. No costing for those who rock up, go to hospital, get treated and leave without paying the bill for their treatment, I suppose. It happens. I've had eye-witness accounts from NHS people near LHR.

  91. 50.000 pension fuel payments right there
    DM.
    Failed migrants returning from UK will receive free accommodation, 'cash assistance' and help getting a job under £15m Home Office plan to help them 'reintegrate' back into home countries.

    The Home Office wants to deliver the support in 11 countries including Albania, Iraq , Pakistan and Vietnam, which are common source nations for Channel migrants.

    1. One wonders whether that will actually create a magnet for migrants to arrive so that they can then be set up in their own countries.

      The law of unintended consequences is getting into gear as I write!

      1. And then their relatives will come for some more…the governments we have had are so – CHILDISH – in their thinking.

        2. I imagine that was a civil service idea. No doubt 'climate change' will be involved somewhere. It is facile, stupid thinking.

          It's very simple, Starmer. You've got to stop the invasion and deport those here. Every single one must go.

    2. Did they say what they were going to do for Veterans?…….

      Do you read off a Tablet/laptop because i can't get epub to work for kindle?

    3. Why do they get any kind of bonus? They should be pleased to be delivered alive, not out of the back of a Hercules at 20.000 feet, no parachute.

      1. I was thinking that last night before I went to sleep. What can I do to stop the rot? Answer came there none.

  94. A screwed-up Par Four?

    Wordle 1,167 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. 3 here today, Very American.
      Wordle 1,167 3/6

      ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. More screwed up bogey five.

      Wordle 1,167 5/6

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

    3. Started badly but recovered with a par.

      Wordle 1,167 4/6

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

  95. Walter took his wife Ethel to the state fair every year, and every time he would say to her, “Ethel, you know that I’d love to go for a ride in that helicopter.” But Ethel would always reply, “I know that Walter, but that helicopter ride is 50 dollars c and 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
    Finally, they went to the fair, and Walter said to Ethel, “Ethel, you know I’m 87 years old now. If I don’t ride that helicopter this year, I may never get another chance.” Once again Ethel replied, “Walter, you know that helicopter is 50 dollars and 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
    This time the helicopter pilot overheard the couple’s conversation and said, “Listen folks, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll take both of you for a ride; if you can both stay quiet for the entire ride and not say a word I won’t charge you! But if you say just one word, it’s 50 dollars.”
    Walter and Ethel agreed and up they went in the helicopter. The pilot performed all kinds of fancy moves and tricks, but not a word was said by either Walter or Ethel.
    The pilot did his death-defying tricks over and over again, but still there wasn’t so much as one word said.
    When they finally landed, the pilot turned to Walter and said, “Wow! I’ve got to hand it to you. I did everything I could to get you to scream or shout out, but you didn’t. I’m really impressed!”
    Walter replied, “Well to be honest I almost said something when Ethel fell out but, you know, 50 dollars is 50 dollars!”

  96. Rod Liddle
    Who will protect me?
    From magazine issue:
    31 August 2024

    Police are hunting a ‘hooded figure’ who sprayed ‘no whites’ on the wall of a primary school in Birmingham. The coppers presumably have racial hatred in mind, but there could be a much more innocent explanation for that which otherwise would be simply a case of vandalism – or even one of laudable graffiti art which may, one day, sell for millions of pounds to a rich idiot devoid of discernment. The school is located in the Alum Rock area of the city, a ward which consists almost entirely of ‘BAME’ people, according to a city council factsheet. So it may be that the hooded figure with the spray can was simply stating a fact, much as perhaps you are inclined to do when looking at television adverts or trailers for new BBC drama series.

    This is just one of the ticklish problems which arises when attempting to police that thing, racial hatred – we are sometimes lost for a meaning, or that meaning is vague or inchoate. The lack of a verb phrase in the graffito suggests to me one of two possible options – either a local non-white person (about 90 per cent of the ward) expressing pride, satisfaction or dismay that there are no whites in Alum Rock, or a white person venturing much the same observation. Hatred may not have been on the agenda at all. The vandal may have merely been saying: look – this is how it is.

    I fear that these nuances may be well beyond the grasp of our new Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper – a small ball of confected outrage perpetually on the cusp of detonation. Yvette is already in a spot of bother as the Home Office described all those charged, or about to be charged, for having taken part in those ‘far right’ riots as ‘criminals’ – thus somewhat circumventing our judicial system and leaving it, without doubt, in contempt of court. The Free Speech Union has notified her of this transgression but has yet to receive an explanation.

    There seems little doubt in my mind that Yvette believes everybody who took part in those demos and subsequent thuggery, plus anyone who knew anyone who took part in them, plus anyone who cavils a little at the lengthy sentences doled out to people who just shouted arguably insulting things about an imagined God, are de facto criminals and undeserving of the checks and balances we use in our criminal justice system to ensure that people are treated fairly. Or it may be simply that she has a lot on her plate given that she is also in effect attempting to entrench the odious concept of ‘protected characteristics’ so that it includes misogyny.

    There has been talk, too, of placing the crime of misogyny in the basket marked ‘terrorism’ which – if I might venture tentatively – seems at first sight to be a certain overreach. For example, if I were to suggest that Ms Cooper is ‘as fit as a butcher’s dog’, it would undoubtedly be misogynistic, as well as crass, boorish, insulting and untrue. But would it be the same kind of offence as stabbing lots of folk to death? Or blowing them to kingdom come? I am not saying definitively that it isn’t – merely, y’know, gently asking the question.

    Of course, as soon as the liberal left came up with the notion of protected characteristics, you could see immediately what would happen. What started as an attempt to ensure that black and Asian people, as well as homosexuals, were not discriminated against in the workplace ballooned to include everybody in the country apart from white men. There are a total of nine protected characteristics detailed in the 2010 Equality Act – which was, incidentally, the greatest gift bestowed upon our nation by Yvette’s sponsor, Gordon Brown. It is such a perfect example of the manner by which the left disappears up its own sphincter with an agreeable ‘phutt’: if you afford protected characteristics to almost everybody, then they are no longer protected characteristics at all. Even so, people more radical than Yvette have cavilled. The National Union of Students, for example, decided in 2016 that gay men were no longer deserving of being wrapped in that copious cloak of protected characteristics because they were not actively discriminated against.

    Now, with Yvette’s intervention, protected characteristics will be afforded to pretty much everybody except white men, which makes me suspect that it would be simpler to enact legislation saying it’s open season on white blokes, fill your boots. It is probably not my place, as a white bloke, to suggest that effectively singling out for discrimination that tranche of the population which has contributed to the overwhelming majority of great inventions, works of art, industries, literary works, scientific discoveries, explorations and so on may seem a little counterintuitive. It may well be that in our brief hours off from dragging the world out of barbarism we can be quite nasty – I believe ‘toxic’ is the current description of choice – but surely this is counterbalanced by that other stuff I mentioned?

    I would suggest that discrimination against white males in the job market, as well as in applications for university courses, will not necessarily result in our society making giant strides forward. Unless, of course, those employment opportunities and university courses are doled out to people from East Asia and India. And yet those people are also being punished by the left in the USA, which leads me to the conclusion that this is a war not against nastiness and toxicity, but a war against competence. People who are quite good at stuff should be restrained so that those who are not as capable can have a go. It’s all there in Lionel Shriver’s latest novel, if you want a glimpse of what the future might be like.

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

    Chris D Roberts
    13 hours ago
    Rod, you forgot that white men were also in the majority when it came to fighting and dying in huge numbers in defence of the country, Royalty and Govt that now shuns them.

    Cyclops
    8 hours ago
    I just read Shriver's Mania, amusing & penetrating. I suggested it for my book club. They turned it down on the grounds that Shriver had supported Brexit, or so it said in The Guardian. Time to find a new book club.

    LloydR
    9 hours ago
    "Yvette Cooper – a small ball of confected outrage perpetually on the cusp of detonation."
    A perfect description.

    HJ777 LloydR
    9 hours ago
    It's not a perfect description as it left out a major ingredient of Yvette Cooper – self righteousness.

    Mr R M Bellamy HJ777
    8 hours ago
    And being a former WEF 'Young Global Leader'.

          4. I think that’s the eventual plan but the Government may be beating around the bush – could be a smoking gun!

  99. https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61PzUR5DFOL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg

    Miliband deals ‘final blow’ to North Sea oil after siding with Greenpeace

    Energy Secretary will not resist legal challenges against Rosebank and Jackdaw licences

    Jonathan Leake
    29 August 2024 • 10:46am

    Ed Miliband has bowed to Greenpeace by refusing to fight a climate lawsuit brought against two of Britain’s biggest North Sea oil schemes.

    The Energy Secretary has said that he will not resist legal challenges against licences issued for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil fields – meaning the two projects are at high risk of being halted.

    Claire Coutinho, the shadow energy secretary, described the decision as a “final blow” for the North Sea.

    Equinor is developing Rosebank, 60 miles west of Shetland, which contains up to 500m barrels of oil and was planned to operate until at least 2050. Jackdaw, which would produce 40,000 barrels a day for two decades or more, is being developed by Shell.

    A spokesman for the Energy Department said: “The Government will not challenge the judicial reviews brought against development consent for the Jackdaw and Rosebank offshore oil and gas fields in the North Sea. This decision will save the taxpayer money.

    “This litigation does not mean the licences for Jackdaw and Rosebank have been withdrawn.”

    The legal dispute over Rosebank and Jackdaw follows a landmark decision by the Supreme Court in June, which ruled that emissions from burning fossil fuels must be considered when approving new drilling sites.

    Greenpeace and fellow climate campaign group Uplift subsequently secured judicial reviews of oil licences already issued by regulators, including the North Sea Transition Authority, which approved Rosebank and Jackdaw and is ultimately overseen by Mr Miliband’s department.

    A final decision on the licences will depend on the companies and the courts, but if the Government refuses to defend the case the environmental groups are almost certain to win.

    Brendan Long, director of research at investment company Zeus Capital, said that Mr Miliband’s decision would put wider investment in Britain at risk.

    He said: “The issue is not so much how this will affect the energy industry, but how it will affect the broader trust in the UK as a reliable jurisdiction.

    “London has fallen out of the top 10 capital markets in terms of monies raised from initial public offerings. That might reflect that financial markets are increasingly concerned with the UK as a jurisdiction that values and defends property rights and the sanctity of honouring agreements made.

    “It is a big mistake to believe financial markets will not appreciate the broader implications of such measures across all sectors of the economy.”

    Ms Coutinho, who approved the Rosebank licence when serving as energy secretary in the previous Conservative administration, said: “No other major economy is shutting down its domestic energy supply as the UK now is. We get roughly half of our gas from the North Sea but we will now be more reliant on imports with higher carbon emissions.

    “It means £9bn of tax revenue and 200,000 jobs are being put at risk plus billions of investment into clean energy just so Ed Miliband can virtue signal on the world stage. It’s both economically and environmentally illiterate.”

    The last government said the Rosebank project was consistent with Britain’s climate goals, adding that emissions would be offset by the shuttering of older oil fields.

    Mr Miliband disagreed, attacking Rosebank as “climate vandalism” while in opposition. He has already made clear he is banning the issuing of any new licences beyond those already handed out.

    A Shell spokesman said: “Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and we are carefully considering the implications of today’s announcement by the Government.

    “We believe the Jackdaw field remains an important development for the UK, providing fuel to heat 1.4m homes and supporting energy security, as other older gas fields reach the end of production.”

    An Equinor spokesman said: “We’re currently assessing the implications of today’s announcement … Rosebank is a vital project for the UK and is bringing benefits in terms of investment, job creation and energy security.”

    ‘Permits should never have been granted’
    Mel Evans, Greenpeace UK climate team leader, said: “These permits should never have been granted without being properly assessed for their impact on the climate, and following the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, conceding these cases is the logical course of action.

    “The two new fields combined would generate a vast amount of emissions while doing nothing to lower energy bills. The only real winners from giving them the greenlight would be multibillion-pound oil giants.

    “Shell and Equinor should respect the Supreme Court’s decision and the Government’s position that their permits are illegal, and not waste time and money in greedy tactical legal battles.”

    Tessa Khan, executive director of Uplift, said the last government’s decision to approve Rosebank had been unlawful. She said: “It is astonishing that the massive emissions from burning oil and gas have been overlooked by decision-makers till now.

    “This Government has rightly accepted that this huge oil field cannot proceed without the full extent of the damage it will do to our climate being taken into account.

    “Rosebank is also a bad deal for Britain. It’s mostly oil for export and would do nothing to lower bills or boost our energy security yet, because of huge tax breaks for new oil and gas drilling, the UK public would effectively cover a huge chunk of the costs of developing it.

    “This Government is right not to waste time and money trying to defend the indefensible. It’s now up to the Scottish courts to decide if Rosebank’s approval was unlawful.”

    **********************************
    Richard Frost
    6 HRS AGO
    Milliband is not just an idiot – he's dangerous. Shutting down our own oil and gas industry then importing it is downright stupid. For example, we'll soon lose our last refineries so fuel will be imported from India. Who's oil do they use – Russia's. Why incur the cost of shippiing LPG from Quattar when we can produce our own gas far more cheaply and with lower emissions. The loss of jobs, lost tax revenue and risk of energy shortages is seriously worrying. Worse still, the UKs net zero effort won't have any measurable effect on global CO2 emissions from China, India etc. What were about to do is madness and we're just shooting ourselves in the foot. I despair.

    1. When the insanity of net zero was forced into law the state made it a legal obligation to meet it. Not literacy, not numeracy, green communism. This left the state open to all sorts of legal challenges that it really shouldn't be for anythng else.

    2. People should stop thinking the likes of Milliband are idiots! He's on a mission to push through the great reset – he knows perfectly well what he is doing. I'd be surprised if he believes in the climate nonsense.

      1. I think it's the UK's obsession with "leading the world" We no longer have an empire, we are no longer a major power, yet the Great and the Good still retain a desire for a form of neo-colonisation. We must lead by example; be a world leader in this that and the other.
        Cameron said that we must become a world power in foreign aid of all things! Apparently, this is what is called "soft power".
        The rest of the world has not asked for our "leadership" while China, Russia and India look on in amusement.

      2. I think it's the UK's obsession with "leading the world" We no longer have an empire, we are no longer a major power, yet the Great and the Good still retain a desire for a form of neo-colonisation. We must lead by example; be a world leader in this that and the other.
        Cameron said that we must become a world power in foreign aid of all things! Apparently, this is what is called "soft power".
        The rest of the world has not asked for our "leadership" while China, Russia and India look on in amusement.

  100. That's me for today. Just spent an hour watering the vegetables. New people have moved in three houses away. Seem a nice couple – want to take part in village life. Unlike some newcomers….

    Will be watching Flintoff's Magic Circus to see whether Adnan's passport arrives and he finds – to his utter amazement – that he is actually 35. But carries on going to secondary school, of course. Cynical, moi??

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  102. Sue Gray behind plan to ban smoking in pub gardens, ‘ministers believe’
    Sir Keir Starmer facing Labour backlash over ‘mad’ proposal amid heavy criticism from hospitality industry
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/29/sue-gray-plan-ban-smoking-pub-gardens-ministers/

    BTL

    Starmer is a bully who is drunk with power and is sadistically trying to hurt as many people as he can while pretending he is being virtuous.

    Bullies are usually cowards and I should imagine that Starmer has a very long and deep yellow streak. I wonder who will discover what it is and how best to use it to terrify the wretched tyrant into resigning.

    2. Don't pressure him into resigning, pressure him into doing what you want.

      That's what the WEF does!

    3. As of December 2023, a pack of 20 cigarettes in the UK cost £15.67 on average.

      Will Starmer ban smoking weed , snorting cocaine , injecting heroin, sucking vapes , nah of course he wont , the nut jobs will carry on stabbing , raping , thieving , conning ..

      Will he ban Multi marriages , the Burkha, arranged marriages , Sharia banking , Halal slaughter , female mutilation of the private parts , grooming , Paki interbreeding , nah of course he won't .

      Only a few twerps smoke . They smoke outside hospitals , they know it is bad for them , smoking was a generation thing .. what about cigars , pipes etc , no more .. oh dear

      Look , banning smoking outside is similar to stopping a child from sucking its thumb .. leave people to have their comfort in peace ..

      The blinking country has had it any way.

      You would be shocked to smithereens if you knew how many farms and huge country estates were on the market .

      Britain has had it .. we are scuppered , well and truly .

    4. I suspect someone has already discovered it and is leaning on him to implement Agenda 2030.

  103. Just wondering how will they police a new smoking ban at the Notting Hill Carnival next year?
    Does it only apply to tobacco?
    Will it be two tiered?

    1. There's no atmosphere on the moon, so a cigarette wouldn't burn as portrayed in the cartoon. Bit of a boo-boo there by Matt.

  105. Ed Conway on how Net Zero policies are deindustrialising Britain…

    … the shift from fossil fuel energy to low-carbon energy has unequivocally pushed bills up. How could it not? For most of the past two decades wind turbines were far more expensive than fossil fuels. So a complex cocktail of charges — renewables obligations, feed-in tariffs, contracts for difference, emissions trading schemes — were bolted on top of wholesale energy prices to tax polluters and subsidise green schemes. In Germany all those costs were passed on to domestic customers; here in the UK they are shared with heavy industry, which, by the way, is part of the reason Britain is deindustrialising faster than every other developed economy.

    From : https://order-order.com/2024/08/29/ulez-tax-expansion-one-year-on-negligible-effect-on-pollution/#comments

    1. Can't argue with that, except that judging by my electricity bills. part of the cost has been passed on to the consumer as well.

  106. "Olaf Scholz is poised to remove benefits from refugees who arrive in Germany through other EU countries, leaving them with the bare essentials of “bed, bread, and soap.”

    Well that will encourage them all to move to the UK – Well done Kier!

          5. Also known as the ‘alt’ key. It’s situated between the ‘control’ and ‘command’ keys on the bottom right of my proper iMac keyboard.
            [I have nothing in my life that puts money into Billy Goats’ pocket!]

          6. I have an alt key. It’s on the left side. No wonder I can’t get on with iMacs given I touch type!

  108. Quote of the day

    ‘I loathe these people and their very instincts.’

    – Nigel Farage opposes the touted ban on smoking in pub gardens.

      1. Me too, mola. But how I do love the smell, and how I miss it. I do still congregate with the smokers at parties. Not only does it give you a break, but by far the most interesting people gather there. Dissidents, on the whole.

        1. I disagree – smokers smell. Their clothes smell, their hair smells. Even when I smoked myself, I could smell stale tobacco smoke. And coming down in the morning to an ashtray overflowing with cigarette butts – yuk!

          1. Cannot argue with that. But the first whiff of a Gauloise when one arrives in, say, France and all the other evocative – maybe not so pleasant – smells! Take Naples, for example, on the smell front.

          2. And their breath smells aferwards for a long time. I can usually tell when someone who has been smoking recently comes into a room – the dog-breath is unmistakable.

      3. 54 years for me, mola…I still love the smell of the smoke when I walk past someone in the street who's smoking. Family would go bat sh*t crazy if I started again, only thing that stops me.

    2. Smokers have a disgusting habit. It's akin to spitting on other people. If I had my way a cigarette would only be smoked in an air tight booth and locked until the smell had gone.

      However I'll defend people's right to choose.

      2. I like a very occasional ciggy; I bought a pack of twenty in March and I've still got seven left. At £16.00 per pack i relish every one!

      3. I like a very occasional ciggy; I bought a pack of twenty in March and I've still got seven left. At £16.00 per pack i relish every one!

    1. You reward good behaviour rather than punishing the bad. Most dogs want desperately to please their pack. If you tell them off chances are they won't know why. If you praise and make a fuss when a dog who barks is quiet, they'll be quiet more often. You do end up making a lot of fuss of them but that might just be mine.

      Having a 1 year old Newfoundland try to climb into your lap because he wants a cuddle is the funniest thing.

      1. I am just thankful that our sons haven't noticed (I think/hope) how much more indulgent I have always been of our dogs than I ever was of them.
        So that coloured my reaction to the cartoon.

        1. I discipline my dogs so they are well behaved. They have been allowed in lots of places and the comment has usually been, "they can come in; they are better behaved than a lot of children." I should say that any punishment is withholding affection and treats, a stern voice and making sure they understand what they've done wrong. They have all known I'm the pack leader.

      2. ”You reward good behaviour rather than punishing the bad”. Unless, of course, you are a Labour government.

  110. Labour backlash over Starmer curbs on smoking

    Plans have been derided as ‘mad’ and an attack on working-class culture

    Nick Gutteridge, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    29 August 2024 • 5:45pm
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/08/29/sue-gray-plan-ban-smoking-pub-gardens-ministers/

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

    Robert Abraham
    1 HR AGO
    Starmer is hopelessly out of his depth. Sue Gray and the union barons are running rings around him. He looks a total loser.

    Charlie Burkett
    1 HR AGO
    Maybe stopping 750,000 people per year coming into the country would have a greater impact if he wants to ease the pressure on the NHS.

  111. Evening, all. Been an in-and-out sort of day here; it was lovely and warm and sunny when I took Kadi for a walk (so much for my plans to light the Rayburn when the sweep had gone), so I got out in the garden. Managed to do a couple of jobs, then in because it was raining (quite heavily). Eased off to a drizzle so I went out again to carry on. Back in again. Finally got out about 14.30 to do a few more things like clear a space in the shed and the greenhouse and then in again to deal with the sweep. Out again to plant 1.5kg (a net) of daffs in the cut flower border. Then the sun came out and I thought "I'm just going to sit out and enjoy it!" So I did until the sun went down.

    Two Tier is laying the ground for going to the IMF to be told that we have to rejoin the EU. He'll do a Pontius Pilate and wash his hands of it, pretending it's nothing to do with him, but that's his aim all along.

    1. Agree. As we had a vote to Leave, we should also have a vote to Rejoin, and the opportunity to scrutinise the Deal. Game On.

          1. The only reason they went ahead with the first vote was because they were confident they could terrify us into voting to remain. They won't make that mistake again.

          2. I wonder if any research has been done – apparently some people now wish they’d voted Remain. Farage has said he didn’t think the vote would be as it turned out to be. I’m on the cusp of not voting again, can’t really see much difference between main parties atm.

          3. I think we can safely say that the majority that did vote to leave the EU did so against all odds, even having to pay (I think it was £9million at a "conservative" estimate) for the government propaganda saying that we should vote remain. Still that made no difference to this relentless tide of plonkers who think they know better, and need to overturn a democratic vote in order to "protect deomocracy". WTF do they think democracy means?

          4. The CP didn’t recognise the amount of anger in the Red Wall Constituencies, didn’t bother to find out why that was/still is. The huge irony is that it’s even worse today, and even worse than that is the number of legal immigrants thanks to ECHR – we’ll never leave that. We can kiss goodbye to the life we knew.

          5. For some years, the majority of immigrants have been from countries that are not in the EU. When we were in the EU, we could have stopped or at least controlled this immigration but governments lacked the courage and conviction to do so. Now we are out of the EU, governments still lack the courage and conviction to control immigration. In short, leave or remain didn’t make any difference given that the inherent cowardice of governments didn’t change.

          6. You’re correct. Majority are indeed from outside the EU but they travel through the EU to get to the UK – reasons vary, but benefits and housing usually figure – and so are counted as being from the EU and ECHR still applies. Good trick eh, Enri?! If only UK politicians were as cute as EU counterparts. Anyhow, ECHR allows for relatives to live and work here – I wonder what proof of relation is required, how it’s checked.

          7. I am not sure that you are right in that because they travel through the EU they are counted as being from the EU. Travellers arriving from anywhere at a UK port or airport still have to go through passport control (even UK citizens).

          8. If there are people who regret having voted to leave it might well be because we haven't actually left. We've been denied the benefits of Brexit by remainers in power and the EU, naturally, has tried to make life as difficult as possible (supported, of course, by the remainers in power).

          9. We’re not going to leave in any further respect than we already have. We’ll always be subject to ECHR because it’s embedded in NI Agreement it being subject to EU ruling which the Republic is. The reason immigration numbers will not decrease in any meaningful way.

          10. I wonder if any research has been done – apparently some people now wish they’d voted Remain. Farage has said he didn’t think the vote would be as it turned out to be. I’m on the cusp of not voting again, can’t really see much difference between main parties atm.

        2. 'We' wouldn't. More than eight years have elapsed since the last time. That's eight years of young people joining the electorate and of those leaving it, a churn sufficient, in itself, of reversing the outcome. Then there's a realisation that we no longer have a political class capable of governing the country. Many of those who remain in the electorate from last time would switch their votes as a consequence. A new referendum would see a comfortable win for rejoining, bigger than the majority which voted to leave in 2016.

          1. Well, in 2016 the PTB were confident they would win with a large majority. It remains to be seen if they would be right second time around. Personally, I think they would make sure, by fair means or foul, that they got the “right” result. They won’t trust to democracy and pesky voters’ choice again.

    2. Agree. As we had a vote to Leave, we should also have a vote to Rejoin, and the opportunity to scrutinise the Deal. Game On.

  112. It's all over Twitter that 2TK has ordered the removal of Margaret Thatcher's portrait from 10 Downing St.
    Couldn't bear to see the portrait of the last Prime Minister who loved Britain as he goes about destroying it, I suppose.

    2. I don't believe it. Portraits of past Prime Ministers (including Margaret Thatcher) line the main staircase.

      1. Those are photos. This is, apparently, a painting to be found in the "Margaret Thatcher Room". I do wonder to whom it will be re-dedicated.

          4. In fairness to Trotters at least he taliked a good fight when it came to the Working Class.

        2. Ah, that explains it. What's going to replace Margaret Thatcher's portrait – one of Lenin?

      3. The portrait of Margaret Thatcher in question was donated privately and hung in her Private Study in Downing Street, the so called Thatcher Study or Thatcher Room.

        Starmer is so obviously a resentful person with no significant achievements other than entirely negative ones. It is no surprise that he would seek to expunge any reference to one of our better Prime Ministers.

        Hopefully Starmer will shortly be deposed. Nobody voted for him, nobody likes him, most of us hate him and he will shortly become the most unpopular British Prime Minister in history. He should resign sooner rather than later, lick his wounds and then fuck off back to his world of practiced mediocrity and bad law.

      4. The portrait of Margaret Thatcher in question was donated privately and hung in her Private Study in Downing Street, the so called Thatcher Study or Thatcher Room.

        Starmer is so obviously a resentful person with no significant achievements other than entirely negative ones. It is no surprise that he would seek to expunge any reference to one of our better Prime Ministers.

        Hopefully Starmer will shortly be deposed. Nobody voted for him, nobody likes him, most of us hate him and he will shortly become the most unpopular British Prime Minister in history. He should resign sooner rather than later, lick his wounds and then fuck off back to his world of practiced mediocrity and bad law.

    1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

      Starmer may regret an outdoor smoking ban
      Comments Share 29 August 2024, 3:40pm
      It’s a curious political world. Few who voted Labour last month actually wanted Labour policies, or for that matter had more than the haziest idea what they were. Now the Labour leadership is returning the compliment. It is increasingly obvious that it has neither much idea what electors want, nor any great desire to provide them with it. Withdrawing the winter fuel allowance, going hell-bent for net zero (whatever the consequences), clamping down on our rights online, the list goes on. The government’s proposed extension of the smoking ban, leaked yesterday, is a further case in point.

      Most British people have strong views about liberty and minding one’s own business
      The plan, apparently hatched in collusion with Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, looks at introducing a smoking ban in many public spaces: pub and club gardens, restaurant terraces, playgrounds, sports grounds, streets outside hospitals, nightclubs, schools and universities. It graciously accepts that we should continue to be allowed to smoke in homes, streets and wide-open spaces, but not in many other places.

      While an indoor smoking ban could, just plausibly, be justified as stopping people from causing direct harm to others, banning smoking in gardens is just authoritarian. Proscribing it in the street outside hospitals and university campuses goes even further: it amounts essentially to mandated virtue-signalling – a legal ban on the public display of activities that the government disapproves of. Britain is now on the road to prohibition. Layla McCay of the NHS Confederation, the trade body of NHS bureaucrats, said on BBC Radio 4 that the latest plan is to be welcomed as part of the move towards abolishing smoking.

      But there is a limit to how much even a newly-elected administration can discount the views of the ordinary people that voted for it. Keir Starmer has managed in less than two months to drop into seriously negative approval ratings. According to YouGov, more than half of the country now disapprove of his government. And this poll was taken before the smoking ban plans were leaked – there’s good reason to believe ordinary people will dislike Starmer more when they hear about them.

      For one, unlike the middle-class technocrats who largely populate the Labour benches, most British people, especially those in the just-about-managing class, have strong views about liberty and minding one’s own business, and objections to being ordered not to do something when it causes no obvious harm to anyone else. The idea that you should not be allowed to light up after a pub meal in the garden is likely to inspire a feeling that officials are meddling in something that is none of their business.

      It is becoming clear that members of this government have no particular interest in individual liberty. Their approach to smoking is to see it not as a political issue but as a matter of project management. The project is to improve health, and to do this smoking must be abolished. The Department of Health, having said it did not comment on leaks, then proceeded to do exactly that, saying that smoking killed thousands a year and that it wanted to ‘finally make Britain smoke-free.’ Arguments about freedom, or what is or is not the business of the state, clearly bore ministers. They are seen as little more than aspects of some passé culture war, which the new, grown-up Labour administration has now happily left behind it.

      The second reason this ban will anger ordinary people is that it involves an awkward element of class. Few of the middle class now smoke: smoking is concentrated among those who do trade and manual jobs, the unemployed. Working-class people do not want to be patronised by middle-class MPs. Once, Labour MPs with direct links to working-class life would have been immediately aware of this. No longer. The Labour party, in Parliament and outside it, has for some time been a middle-class caucus. Labour has won five years in power, but it needs to be reminded that people who voted for it are quite capable of pressuring MPs, protesting, voting against the party in local elections. Keir Starmer is not as invulnerable as he might think.

      1. Au contraire; I think they have a great interest in individual liberty – they want to stamp it out.

      2. I'm overweight. It's only a matter of time that I be mandated to attend concentration or, rather, fat camp. Not just for my wellbeing, of course, but also to ease the burden I selfishly impose on the altruistically conscientious who think of nothing but their fellows by striving day and night, regardless of personal hardship, to maintain a weight that meets with the approval of our far superior betters.

      3. Problem is, nobody voted for them. They've no voters to lose. 80% already hated them before 2TK set foot in Downing St.

    1. The kid is underage.

      But the cctv of the murder clearly shows the diversity… errr attacker.

    2. That is a heartbreaking case.
      I know all such cases are tragic, but what a waste of a young life.

    3. In some parts of the United Kingdom, 16-year-olds are allowed to vote. Are they children or adults?

    4. Wasn't there a published picture of a 16 year old recently sent to gaol under our new flimsy offences?

  116. Well, chums, the sun has now fully set and I've given the garden a good soak of water. Enough for today, so I'll wish you all an early Good Night. Sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow. By tomorrow evening the front and side gardens will be fully pruned and weeded, then it will be on to the back garden and lawn over the weekend. I'm slowly getting there.

    1. Glad to hear it, Elsie. Mine is a work in progress and won't be finished any time soon 🙁 Goodnight. Sleep well.

  117. So the powers that be knew from what has happened in Europe that mass immigration from the third world would lead to a huge rise in violent crime, rape and murder.
    So what did they do?
    Stopped reporting it and accused those that stated the obvious of being far right and racist.

      1. If a hideous crime / crimes fail to make the news or receive any public attention then in the eyes of the powers that be, it never happened.

        1. Exactly. It's why they need to keep such a tight hold of the media and try to shut down the Internet/social media.

  119. There is a by election coming up in Montreal next month in what used to be a safe Liberal seat.

    Unfortunately for Trudeau, a number of Liberal Ministerial staff members are refusing to work on the election campaign and have threatened to quit if the Liberals do not recognize Palestine and ban the sale of any military goods to Israel.

    Oh what a dilemma for the pretendy emperor, does he bow to the demands of his muslim staff or does he defy them and appease the Jewish constituents.

    It couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

    1. We are a bit late to the party, but in Starmer the country finally has it's Trudeau, it's Macron, it's Ardern, it's Rutte and he has hit the ground running trying to catch up.

      1. Precisely. That fucker Starmer has been itching to inflict his hatred on the British people. If the silly sod would only grasp that Macron is dead in the water, Trudeau is Toast, Rutte is about to become defunct and their inglorious EU and its NATO funding is about to be pulled from under it.

        Starmer, his support for a cretin in Ukraine and his obvious hatred of white British people and our institutions will fall very heavily on his sword or the curved blade he forgives when Muslims use it to slice up and decapitate his fellows.

  120. Got the van dekitted, except for the bunk for which I have to clear a space in one of the containers.
    I'm off to bed.

    2. It's an invaluable illustration of his character. Better this than him quietly grinding his teeth each time his eyes fall upon it.

    3. Jesus Christ, what a creep Starmer is.

      He is not fit to wipe Margaret Thatcher’s boots clean. I wonder how on God’s Earth this wee shite Starmer ever surfaced in the political bucket of shit to sit on its surface.

    4. Her legacy of independence and freedom terrifies this small minded little piece of excrement.

    3. I didn't realise that he wrote "Heartbreak Hotel". PS – Have just looked it up and it was not written by him. So the title of the album simply means that Roger Miller sings the words and music of various songs on this album, and not necessarily any of them are written by him.

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