Thursday 29 February: Victims of the Horizon scandal deserve swift justice from the Post Office

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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579 thoughts on “Thursday 29 February: Victims of the Horizon scandal deserve swift justice from the Post Office”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    GOOD-BYE

    To help save the economy, the Government will announce next month that Border Force will start deporting seniors (instead of illegals) in order to lower Social Security, NHS and Pension costs.

    Older people are easier to catch and will not remember how to get back home.

    I started to cry when I thought of you. Then it dawned on me … oh, crap…
    I’ll see you on the bus! me
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b5e6b34fbf54f816d67c522fc5d6de5846dd63d17582e5e0401c086a05d2a6dc.jpg

    1. A very funny (recycled) one today, Sir Jasper. And a very good morning to you, too. HOWEVER, in real life Mr Sunak has announced that he will retain the Triple Lock on pensions. But, being the cynic that I now am about most things, I reckon that the real reason for the announcement is to prevent older Tory supporters from moving their allegiance to Reform at the next General Election in order retain as many Conservative seats as is humanly possible. What most Seniors (NoTTLers excepted) will forget is that once the General Election is held, the Chancellor of the day will simply say “Unfortunately, despite our best hopes, the Country can no longer afford to retain the Triple Lock”. What he really will mean is that we (the Taxpayer) need to support a different Country, i.e. Ukraine.

      1. It doesn’t matter what he promises. He can promise anything and everything.

        He won’t be in Downing Street by Christmas.

        Probably in California by then.

      2. It doesn’t matter what he promises. He can promise anything and everything.

        He won’t be in Downing Street by Christmas.

        Probably in California by then.

      3. This one time Conservative voter is no longer. Most definitely. Whatever the promises. I seem to remember quite a few promises have been broken over the years!

  3. Good morning folks a chilly wet day ahead

    And a lacklustre four

    Wordle 985 4/6

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

      1. Good morning. I agree, I’m always relieved to get four!
        Wordle 985 3/6

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

    2. Pars not bad
      Wordle 985 4/6

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

    1. It’s also happy vehicle tax day in this household. £200 for a 15 year old VW Passat diesel. 6°C on a bright breezy morning, with walking football and the gym imminent. So it’s not all bad.

    2. It’s also happy vehicle tax day in this household. £200 for a 15 year old VW Passat diesel. 6°C on a bright breezy morning, with walking football and the gym imminent. So it’s not all bad.

  6. Police must stop ‘intimidatory’ protests against MPs as threat level rises. 29 February 2024.

    Rishi Sunak has warned police chiefs that “mob rule is replacing democratic rule” as he demanded they shut down “intimidatory” protests against MPs amid an increase in threats sparked by the Gaza conflict.

    Speaking after a meeting at No 10 with police chiefs to discuss threats to MPs, the Prime Minister said they must make full use of their powers to protect politicians from threatening protests or risk losing public confidence in them.

    Lol! Public confidence vanished long ago. Oddly enough, as in so much else, by virtue of the Political Elites policies.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/28/rishi-sunak-police-politicians-protests-threat-gaza/

    1. Why just against MPs – they are the ones who caused this mess! Why not shut down “intimidatory” protests full stop and protect the rest of us who have had rampant immigration forced upon us?

  7. Neil Clark
    The genius of Flanders and Swann
    They knew how to write a proper anti-war song
    28 February 2024, 5:01am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1283764904-1.jpg

    “War has had its apologians ever since history began,
    From the times of the Greeks and Trojans when they sang of Arms and the Man,
    (But if you ask me to name the best, sir, I’ll tell you the one I mean,
    Head and shoulders above the rest, sir, was the War of 14-18)

    If you’ve never heard Michael Flanders’s rollickingly good version of Georges Brassens ‘La Guerre de 14-18’ – an ironic take-down of the industrial-scale slaughter of the first world war, then you’re missing a treat. I first heard Flanders and Swann in my schooldays: I loved ‘The Gnu’, ‘The Hippopotamus Song (Mud, mud glorious mud)’ and ‘Misalliance (The Honeysuckle and the Bindweed)’.

    But it was only since buying the three-disc ‘Complete Flanders and Swann’ (containing ‘At the drop of a Hat’, ‘At the drop of Another Hat’ and ‘The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann’) at an Oxfam shop shortly before Christmas that I’ve appreciated the full extent of their genius. Although it’s almost 50 years now since Michael Flanders died (1975), and 30 this March since Donald Swann departed, their work, far from being old hat, remains as relevant as ever. Particularly their often overlooked anti-war songs which are a much-needed antidote to the warmongering that’s been doing the rounds this winter.

    Unlike gung-ho commentators who talk nonchalantly about the inevitability of another world war, with either nuclear-armed Russia, nuclear-armed China and/or Iran – or possibly all three at the same time – and tell us all to prepare for it, Flanders and Swann were from a generation who knew the realities of armed conflict.

    Flanders survived a torpedo attack while serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the second world war. He then contracted polio and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Swann, a conscientious objector, who told his tribunal ‘Christ would never sanction a war’ served with a Quaker Ambulance Unit in Egypt, Palestine and Greece. In the 1960s, Swann wheeled his musical partner along the Gloucester Road on a Aldermaston ‘Ban the Bomb’ march.

    Michael and Donald put on their first show together at Westminster School, then evacuated to Exeter, in 1940. Their stage manager and lifelong close friend was one Anthony Wedgwood Benn, who became one of Britain’s most principled antiwar politicians. In 1972 Benn appeared on Flanders’s ‘This is Your Life’ (that would be a great watch today, but sadly seems to have been wiped), and chose ‘Slow Train’ – Flanders and Swann’s wonderfully poignant lament for the branch line railway stations lost due to Dr Beeching’s axe as one of his Desert Island Discs. One imagines ‘Wedgie’ would have been a big fan too of ‘20 Tons of TNT’, his school-friends’ powerful indictment of the nuclear arms race. In the last verse, F&S make it clear what they think should be happening in the place of billions being spent on weapons of mutual mass destruction. ‘Teach me how to love my neighbour, do to him as him to me, Share the fruits of all our labour. Twenty tons of TNT.’

    The prospect of nuclear Armageddon rears its ugly head again in ‘The Ostrich’. With its head in the sand, the bird ignores the news that the world is on the brink of catastrophe. Then:

    “Boom!
    (From a sheltered oasis a mile away, I observed that dreadful scene.)
    And a single plume came floating down
    Where my ostrich friend had been because he could not bear the sound
    Of these words I had left unsaid
    Here in this nuclear testing ground
    Is no place to bury your head!

    In ‘The War of 14-18’, Flanders actually enhances Brassens’s original because he includes more references to specific wars – including the Boer War (‘a poor war’), Britain’s war in Suez (‘that wasn’t really a war at all’) and ‘the one we’ve had all the news from, liberating the Vietnamese’. Again, one can only admire the irony and Flanders’s Gilbertian ability to find a rhyme. Listening to it made me reflect how anti-war voices, part of a long and noble tradition in our history – were tolerated much more in the mainstream during the old ‘Cold War’ – and indeed just beyond it – than they are today.

    The pacifist Lord Donald Soper was a television and radio regular. Lord Fenner Brockway, a campaigner against conscription in world war one, was still agitating for disarmament. Dickie Attenborough made ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’ and Tony Richardson skewered the foolhardy jingoism of the Crimean War in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. Playwright Harold Pinter did his bit too, while all the time F&S’s old Westminster chum Tony Benn could be relied upon to make passionate, eloquent speeches against military action.

    Fast forward to the 2020s and it’s a very different story. Despite being totally vindicated on Iraq – and other wars too (does anyone still think Libya was a good idea?) – antiwar voices are disparaged, denigrated and generally excluded from the mainstream. All the talking heads who do get air-time seemingly agree that the only solution to the world’s problems is more bombing. (And then more bombing in response to the response of the bombing)

    How did we get here? Why isn’t the counter-view – the fundamentally Christian view for peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men – given a fair and proper hearing today? Isn’t our democracy the poorer for it?

    Flanders and Swann were at their peak in the 1960s satire boom, but their more gentle brand of social commentary has aged considerably better than many of their more modern contemporaries who didn’t wear dinner jackets, bow-ties and boaters. ‘The Chameleon’ could easily have been written about Sir Keir Starmer – or indeed any other of the flip-flop politicians of today.

    “Consider the Chameleon, he colours
    Himself and his opinions by the company’s he’s in
    In Belfast he’s an Orangeman, the shade is quite ephemeral
    Directly he moves south, it fades, In Dublin, look; He’s emerald.

    While in the hilarious ‘Pxx Px Bxxxx Bxx Dxxxxxx (Pee po belly bum drawers)’, they take aim at the growing modishness in avant garde circles for being rude and using four-letter words. ‘If they all come into common use, we’ll have nothing left for special occasions,’ quipped Flanders. Again, fast forward to 2024 and it seems to be a successful comedian you simply have to clip on a microphone and say ‘fuck’ as many times as you can as you stride around the stage. Wit has been the great loser of these changes. In 50 years we’ve gone from the inventiveness of Michael Flanders imagining what a sloth would do if only it had the time – ‘I could climb the very highest Himalayas, be among the greatest ever tennis players, win at chess, or marry a princess or study hard and be an eminent professor’ – to a comedian joking on Radio 4 that battery acid and not milkshakes should be thrown at politicians like Nigel Farage.

    Of course, Flanders and Swann weren’t living in a vacuum. They were part of a far richer world of light entertainment which existed in postwar Britain before the dumbing down of our cultural life began when comedy became colder and nastier. It was a time when intelligent, civilising ‘parlour games and panel shows like Call My Bluff, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and Face the Music, were staples of the television schedules. ‘Good lyrics and tunes, wit and imagination, no malice, no blue jokes, treating the audience as if it were literate: Donald and Michael can be flip but basically they are good chaps,’ says John Amis in his CD sleeve notes. Is it asking too much to hope for a revival? Well, in 2021, it was heartening to see the youngest-ever Mastermind champion, 24-year-old Jonathan Gibson, a PhD student at St Andrews, chose Flanders and Swann as his specialist subject in the grand final. He scored 11 out of 11. Perhaps there’s still a chance then that a new generation will discover the work of two of our finest entertainers – and that by doing so, we can yet avoid the fate of the ostrich.

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

    Lewis
    20 hours ago
    Flanders and Swann could count on a literate audience. They would not be a success these days.

    Coralie Palmer
    19 hours ago
    The wonderful thing about F&S is their stuff simply doesn’t date. The immortal ‘House & Garden’ still has me weeping with laughter and if anything is even more apposite now than when it was written.

    Caroline Galwey Coralie Palmer
    12 hours ago
    ABSOLUTELY! The Northumbrian reed-cutter’s coracle gets frequent mentions in our household.

    Losthope
    a day ago edited
    How about ‘I won’t eat people…’ with the immortal lines ‘always be sincere; whether you mean it or not.” I was brought up with the albums the author refers to, first on vinyl and then on CD, and my children have been today, along with Stilgoe and Skellern who had a similar gift for skewering the absurd and pretentious. If anyone wants a treat, find their track ‘Mr James, who teaches ethnic studies, says we’ve gotta have a steel band…”

    1. Donald Swann recorded an interview with the Imperial War Museum, available online:

      (https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80008924

      in which he describes his time as a conscientious objector serving as part of Friends Ambulance Unit, definitely putting themselves in harm’s way. Very interesting interview.

      Incidentally, he added some relevant songs at the end of the interview, including the ‘I Won’t Eat People’ one mentioned. Unfortunately recording quality on these songs wasn’t particularly good, so I was asked to go to his home to re-record them. We got on well together and he asked me subsequently to record a series of songs which culminated in the 3 cassette ‘Alphabetaphon’ release, which included all the old favourites. We kept in touch and I visited him a few times at his hospice towards the end. Thoroughly decent person – a sad loss.

      1. A great insight into these two performers and their work, Very Old Man (Good Morning, btw) so thanks to you and to Citroen1 for your posts.

    2. “Have you been talking to one of your mothers again?”
      “Is it someone you ate?” Or “Is it someone he ate?” I misremember.

    3. Tom Lehrer was also not bad on the subject of nuclear war:

      I will leave the city’s rush
      Leave the fancy and the plush
      Leave the snow and leave the slush
      And the crowds
      I will seek the desert’s hush
      Where the scenery is lush
      How I long to see the mush-room clouds

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U2fpzw4qNI

    5. We are no longer a Christian country (and soon if we don’t fight back, we’ll be an islamic one) so one can hardly expect Christian morality and ideas to be prevalent.

  8. Neil Clark
    The genius of Flanders and Swann
    They knew how to write a proper anti-war song
    28 February 2024, 5:01am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/GettyImages-1283764904-1.jpg

    “War has had its apologians ever since history began,
    From the times of the Greeks and Trojans when they sang of Arms and the Man,
    (But if you ask me to name the best, sir, I’ll tell you the one I mean,
    Head and shoulders above the rest, sir, was the War of 14-18)

    If you’ve never heard Michael Flanders’s rollickingly good version of Georges Brassens ‘La Guerre de 14-18’ – an ironic take-down of the industrial-scale slaughter of the first world war, then you’re missing a treat. I first heard Flanders and Swann in my schooldays: I loved ‘The Gnu’, ‘The Hippopotamus Song (Mud, mud glorious mud)’ and ‘Misalliance (The Honeysuckle and the Bindweed)’.

    But it was only since buying the three-disc ‘Complete Flanders and Swann’ (containing ‘At the drop of a Hat’, ‘At the drop of Another Hat’ and ‘The Bestiary of Flanders & Swann’) at an Oxfam shop shortly before Christmas that I’ve appreciated the full extent of their genius. Although it’s almost 50 years now since Michael Flanders died (1975), and 30 this March since Donald Swann departed, their work, far from being old hat, remains as relevant as ever. Particularly their often overlooked anti-war songs which are a much-needed antidote to the warmongering that’s been doing the rounds this winter.

    Unlike gung-ho commentators who talk nonchalantly about the inevitability of another world war, with either nuclear-armed Russia, nuclear-armed China and/or Iran – or possibly all three at the same time – and tell us all to prepare for it, Flanders and Swann were from a generation who knew the realities of armed conflict.

    Flanders survived a torpedo attack while serving in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the second world war. He then contracted polio and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair. Swann, a conscientious objector, who told his tribunal ‘Christ would never sanction a war’ served with a Quaker Ambulance Unit in Egypt, Palestine and Greece. In the 1960s, Swann wheeled his musical partner along the Gloucester Road on a Aldermaston ‘Ban the Bomb’ march.

    Michael and Donald put on their first show together at Westminster School, then evacuated to Exeter, in 1940. Their stage manager and lifelong close friend was one Anthony Wedgwood Benn, who became one of Britain’s most principled antiwar politicians. In 1972 Benn appeared on Flanders’s ‘This is Your Life’ (that would be a great watch today, but sadly seems to have been wiped), and chose ‘Slow Train’ – Flanders and Swann’s wonderfully poignant lament for the branch line railway stations lost due to Dr Beeching’s axe as one of his Desert Island Discs. One imagines ‘Wedgie’ would have been a big fan too of ‘20 Tons of TNT’, his school-friends’ powerful indictment of the nuclear arms race. In the last verse, F&S make it clear what they think should be happening in the place of billions being spent on weapons of mutual mass destruction. ‘Teach me how to love my neighbour, do to him as him to me, Share the fruits of all our labour. Twenty tons of TNT.’

    The prospect of nuclear Armageddon rears its ugly head again in ‘The Ostrich’. With its head in the sand, the bird ignores the news that the world is on the brink of catastrophe. Then:

    “Boom!
    (From a sheltered oasis a mile away, I observed that dreadful scene.)
    And a single plume came floating down
    Where my ostrich friend had been because he could not bear the sound
    Of these words I had left unsaid
    Here in this nuclear testing ground
    Is no place to bury your head!

    In ‘The War of 14-18’, Flanders actually enhances Brassens’s original because he includes more references to specific wars – including the Boer War (‘a poor war’), Britain’s war in Suez (‘that wasn’t really a war at all’) and ‘the one we’ve had all the news from, liberating the Vietnamese’. Again, one can only admire the irony and Flanders’s Gilbertian ability to find a rhyme. Listening to it made me reflect how anti-war voices, part of a long and noble tradition in our history – were tolerated much more in the mainstream during the old ‘Cold War’ – and indeed just beyond it – than they are today.

    The pacifist Lord Donald Soper was a television and radio regular. Lord Fenner Brockway, a campaigner against conscription in world war one, was still agitating for disarmament. Dickie Attenborough made ‘Oh! What a Lovely War’ and Tony Richardson skewered the foolhardy jingoism of the Crimean War in ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’. Playwright Harold Pinter did his bit too, while all the time F&S’s old Westminster chum Tony Benn could be relied upon to make passionate, eloquent speeches against military action.

    Fast forward to the 2020s and it’s a very different story. Despite being totally vindicated on Iraq – and other wars too (does anyone still think Libya was a good idea?) – antiwar voices are disparaged, denigrated and generally excluded from the mainstream. All the talking heads who do get air-time seemingly agree that the only solution to the world’s problems is more bombing. (And then more bombing in response to the response of the bombing)

    How did we get here? Why isn’t the counter-view – the fundamentally Christian view for peace on Earth and goodwill towards all men – given a fair and proper hearing today? Isn’t our democracy the poorer for it?

    Flanders and Swann were at their peak in the 1960s satire boom, but their more gentle brand of social commentary has aged considerably better than many of their more modern contemporaries who didn’t wear dinner jackets, bow-ties and boaters. ‘The Chameleon’ could easily have been written about Sir Keir Starmer – or indeed any other of the flip-flop politicians of today.

    “Consider the Chameleon, he colours
    Himself and his opinions by the company’s he’s in
    In Belfast he’s an Orangeman, the shade is quite ephemeral
    Directly he moves south, it fades, In Dublin, look; He’s emerald.

    While in the hilarious ‘Pxx Px Bxxxx Bxx Dxxxxxx (Pee po belly bum drawers)’, they take aim at the growing modishness in avant garde circles for being rude and using four-letter words. ‘If they all come into common use, we’ll have nothing left for special occasions,’ quipped Flanders. Again, fast forward to 2024 and it seems to be a successful comedian you simply have to clip on a microphone and say ‘fuck’ as many times as you can as you stride around the stage. Wit has been the great loser of these changes. In 50 years we’ve gone from the inventiveness of Michael Flanders imagining what a sloth would do if only it had the time – ‘I could climb the very highest Himalayas, be among the greatest ever tennis players, win at chess, or marry a princess or study hard and be an eminent professor’ – to a comedian joking on Radio 4 that battery acid and not milkshakes should be thrown at politicians like Nigel Farage.

    Of course, Flanders and Swann weren’t living in a vacuum. They were part of a far richer world of light entertainment which existed in postwar Britain before the dumbing down of our cultural life began when comedy became colder and nastier. It was a time when intelligent, civilising ‘parlour games and panel shows like Call My Bluff, Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? and Face the Music, were staples of the television schedules. ‘Good lyrics and tunes, wit and imagination, no malice, no blue jokes, treating the audience as if it were literate: Donald and Michael can be flip but basically they are good chaps,’ says John Amis in his CD sleeve notes. Is it asking too much to hope for a revival? Well, in 2021, it was heartening to see the youngest-ever Mastermind champion, 24-year-old Jonathan Gibson, a PhD student at St Andrews, chose Flanders and Swann as his specialist subject in the grand final. He scored 11 out of 11. Perhaps there’s still a chance then that a new generation will discover the work of two of our finest entertainers – and that by doing so, we can yet avoid the fate of the ostrich.

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

    Lewis
    20 hours ago
    Flanders and Swann could count on a literate audience. They would not be a success these days.

    Coralie Palmer
    19 hours ago
    The wonderful thing about F&S is their stuff simply doesn’t date. The immortal ‘House & Garden’ still has me weeping with laughter and if anything is even more apposite now than when it was written.

    Caroline Galwey Coralie Palmer
    12 hours ago
    ABSOLUTELY! The Northumbrian reed-cutter’s coracle gets frequent mentions in our household.

    Losthope
    a day ago edited
    How about ‘I won’t eat people…’ with the immortal lines ‘always be sincere; whether you mean it or not.” I was brought up with the albums the author refers to, first on vinyl and then on CD, and my children have been today, along with Stilgoe and Skellern who had a similar gift for skewering the absurd and pretentious. If anyone wants a treat, find their track ‘Mr James, who teaches ethnic studies, says we’ve gotta have a steel band…”

  9. Good morning,all. And a Happy Leap Day. Rain in the night. Dry now – more rain on the way.

  10. https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5ffbbddc8311933199a6b53f2ee56626a2aca4f6/0_0_4032_2852/master/4032.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=fb54f6d3b3f6b8e21475ccd17d97f31e
    Dayuan village, in south China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous regionhttps://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d14f879bde423c5adb7ce67ac80ef461e7e91753/0_0_4032_2699/master/4032.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=60f7b9feb3fbd22a0931973952d4c4ff
    Greater Manchester, UK
    A drone view of a rainbow behind Rochdale town hall and the Seven Sisters residential tower blocks before the upcoming parliamentary byelection

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ea07116052e9671d9cd38b789dcae8f78ab50288/0_0_5000_3335/master/5000.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=af2e17a8bdef928fbe237262dd3d7b1f
    Vatican City
    Pope Francis greets nuns during a weekly audience     UGH!

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/cc9cfbfd4c0b394c69606427b9a4b79ad41f9d5e/0_156_4689_2813/master/4689.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=86254af3176ddc83c0b0cc636bd5dd1b
    Northumberland, UK
    ‘Rev Rob Kelsey blesses the River Tweed and all beings who live within and on it, and all who fish its waters. This annual service marks the beginning of the salmon fishing season. Taken shortly after dawn on 1 February at Pedwell Landing in Norham.’

  11. Good morning, chums, I hope you all slept well. I was up at 6 am and did my Wordle in four, posting the results at the top of last night’s NoTTLe site.
    Then I noticed that sunrise was at 6.45 am and that, although there will be rain for most of today, the likelihood would be faint drizzle from around 7.45 am. And, hovering over the weather forecast, that the breeze would be mild with low likelihood of rain and feeling like 9 degrees Centigrade. So, taking the chance of getting one more hour’s worth of gardening in and remembering the Centigrade guide of “Five, ten and twenty one, Winter, Spring and Summer sun”, I went out at 6.45 am and managed just under an hour’s work before the faintest drizzle began to fall. Now indoors once again, and ready to look at the dozen or so posts, after which I shall tackle some indoors jobs before driving to the supermarket for some shopping just after 9 am. Enjoy your day!

  12. ‘Morning All

    Rochdale election get the popcorn ready……..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4146dd2a9ed3fe0a82fb60b18571728abf47905392ca543848dd4d378157a0db.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/701fe176963cce3c71affdb85050c25d2f99695e336ce46ed57fec31ed940815.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/799a0a8fde264d99cf1a7e040f27ca41a62d8401768531c17bdaa27fdacdcf1d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/858f703af0c7ed7893ae6b2e80d5a4def74aa319ef91a6ad89c32c3499fc23a2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5df516abf719423d30d19b311787a69160243fb2dbad18681a4ea255f5edcbe5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe21d060b1976f2a42527ba5f5e479f18f0b50ee1f97e305a088c5f41ddfff2c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5a331dd87797744451eb1efafb075cea20956e1c1ff14993d5af0ffd0094fdb4.jpg

    2. I think – or at least I hope – that Starmer made a big mistake in the HoC yesterday by casting nasturtiums at Nigel Farage for saying that Enoch Powell’s predictions had been proved completely true.

      Is there anyone of sound mind who cannot see that Enoch Powell was right?

  13. The powers that be are trying to sell us assisted dying
    Now what could possibly go wrong?

    After the pandemic I thought they were making it mandatory anyway

  14. Good morning.

    JK Rowling’s heroism has exposed the cowardice of Britain’s ruling class

    JK Rowling is a modern British heroine, and all those who have vilified, defamed, threatened and traduced her should hang their heads in shame. She has proved to be a far more effective defender of common-sense values than all but a handful of MPs, exposing the cowardice and moral bankruptcy of much of Westminster and Whitehall.

    She has fought indefatigably for ordinary people, for the truth, for the rights of women threatened by the rise of trans extremism, incurring horrific hatred from tens of thousands of deranged woke fanatics. She has had a dramatic impact on our politics, unlike the managerialist politicians who dominate the Cabinet, most of whom go with the flow on all “controversial” subjects and are thus content to be in office but not truly in power.

    She has almost single-handedly neutralised trans extremism by running the most significant extra-parliamentary campaign in recent history, using little more than tweets and the occasional interview or speech. She is an inspiration to anti-woke dissidents across all continents, and to anybody who believes in the power of carefully chosen words to change the world.

    Until Rowling entered the fray, the Tories, under the calamitous Theresa May, were poised to allow gender self-recognition, extremist trans groups had gone mainstream, it was taboo to scrutinise “gender-affirming care” for children or the Tavistock Centre, and Labour was careering into full woke mode. Today, thanks also to a few brave politicians such as Kemi Badenoch (Tory), Lady Falkner (who quit the Lib Dems after Brexit) and Rosie Duffield (Labour), while the battle hasn’t been won, the extremists are in retreat.

    Unusually given our selfish and venal public culture, Rowling has asked for nothing in return, has been given neither the damehood nor the peerage she deserves, and has in fact paid an immense price for helping to rescue her country. As if this weren’t enough, as the author of Harry Potter, she has done more for the UK, for our soft power, for the happiness of our children, for our economy and for the taxman than any current member of the Cabinet.

    How have we come to a point when a centre-Left billionaire author from Edinburgh represents Middle England’s views better than the London-centric establishment class, and even many “Conservative” politicians? And why did so few come to Rowling’s defence when she started to expose woke madness, most notably when she rightly slammed the growing use of the idiotic term “people who menstruate”? She tweeted: “I’m sure there used to be a word for these people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud?”

    When almost our entire establishment – politicians, judges, business leaders, cultural leaders – ran for cover, Rowling took on cancel culture and won. She has broken the spell, proving that the best way to defeat social-media mobs is to call their bluff. By sheer force of personality, by refusing to accept that she had lost her freedom of speech, by crafting tight, sharp and rigorous arguments, by standing up to the bullies, she has drastically shifted the Overton window on issues of gender and sex.

    She was at it again this week, writing what many wanted to say but were still too scared to verbalise. Reacting to the fact that a transgender cat killer who murdered a stranger was being described as a woman – and that judges have been told to refer to defendants by their chosen pronouns, whether or not they have undergone surgery or applied for a gender recognition certificate – she lashed out. “I’m sick of this s—”, she said. “This is not a woman. These are not our crimes.”

    Rowling has exposed the woke commissars’ ultimate lack of power: The mainstream majority will vote with its wallets and has no time for woke capital. The Harry Potter franchise continues to boom. Hogwarts Legacy, an action role-playing game, sold 22 million copies last year, making it the world’s best-selling video game, generating $1 billion and delivering more royalties to Rowling.

    The Harry Potter theme parks are hugely successful and expanding. Rowling’s opponents’ ultimate humiliation will come in 2026 when Warner Brothers launches an epic TV streaming series based on all seven of her Potter books. The ungrateful nonentities – including Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe – who joined in Rowling’s attempted cancellation will no longer be the faces of Hogwarts for the next generation. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Warner Bros Discovery’s new boss is committed to repairing ties with Rowling after she felt betrayed by the studio’s lack of support.

    In theory, the wealthy have the freedom to speak out; in practice, most feel that they have too much to lose and prefer to exercise their influence in private, by lobbying or via political donations. This is unhealthy. They should take a leaf out of Rowling’s book, as the likes of Bill Ackman, a fund manager, has done over the vicious epidemic of anti-Semitism in US universities.

    Rowling’s emergence as our era’s leading feminist icon reminds us that the sensible Left and Right must work together, that they have much in common against the dark, extremist, authoritarian revolutionaries who seek to overthrow our society. I, for one, never thought I would come to appreciate Rowling so much, given her background as a Labour supporter.

    But none of that matters any longer: the attempt at eliminating the very concept of man and woman, the irreversible damage inflicted upon children who have had the misfortune of falling prey to social contagion, the attempt at cancelling gay people, the terrible risk to women and girls from the eradication of single-sex spaces in gyms and prisons, the despicable misogyny of those who seek to pretend that it is women, and not men, who commit many rapes and murders, all of these are issues of existential significance to our civilisation that require the unity of all sensible people, of Left, Right or neither.

    Rowling’s should be a model for other campaigns. At a time when Parliament is being cowed by Islamist extremists, we need more brave people to stand up for the silent majority. The answer isn’t to spout nonsense à la Lee Anderson, but to unrelentingly marshal reason and facts to expose the threat and danger to our liberties and democracy. Who will be the next J K Rowling?

    It’s a sign of how broken our politics is that it’s taken an author to galvanise action against extremists

      2. It is difficult to reconcile Anderson’s accusations with reality. If Khan was under the control of Islamists he wouldn’t support gay marriage. Apparently Khan has received death threats for doing so.

          1. But with the destruction of London and eventually the UK as we knew it, as an underlying agenda.

        3. Maybe he does that only under sufferance. He is, after all, a Labour party member. He’ll keep his paymasters happy but first and foremost he is a Muslim.

        4. Just politics and spite against Britain. If Khan felt that he had a muslim majority, gay “marriage” would go out of the window I’m sure.

      1. Yo Bob

        The weather forecast lives up to its’reputation on Costa del Skeg

        SaysDry….it is raining

  16. Good morning all.
    A less cold 4°C this morning. A bit of a dull and damp start, but the overnight rain has paused and it’s actually forecast to stay dry!

  17. 384065+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Thursday 29 February: Victims of the Horizon scandal deserve swift justice from the Post Office

    Doubled up with,

    Thursday 29 February: Victims of the covid 19 scandal deserve swift justice from the justice system

    Would be a sure-fired winning double.

    With a general election on the horizon any thoughts of loyalty to party (current overseers) and multi criminal politico’s, busy pulling up the protection ladder is definitely harboring
    anti English thoughts more suited to the
    WEF / NWO reset brigade and the final destruction of these Isles.

  20. Good day all and the 77th,

    Wet at Castle McPhee, wind in the West, 8℃ and only going to get cooler.

    Now, just what would cause an affluent, well-connected fellow such as Thomas Kingston, husband of Lady Gabriella Kingston née Windsor, to die suddenly at the age of 45?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d908d3c9654bbd0dc158e42301142c1eff12a618436f985fca83282627ea3af8.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2024/02/28/tom-lady-gabriella-kingston-windsor-death-life/

    1. As I posted here yesterday my first cynical reaction was Covid Jabs or drugs?

      Have you any suggestions?

      2. Beyond that, no. But it seems to me, given his Christian beliefs, that it would be unlikely to be the latter.

  21. Yes.
    https://twitter.com/davidbizley/status/1762403261628256638

    And for the non-Tw@terati:-

    INTRODUCING: BORDERS AGAINST TERROR

    QUESTION 7:

    WHY IS IT that since WW2 BRITAIN, with a CHRISTIAN value system, has welcomed followers of HINDUISM, SIKHISM, BUDDHISM, JUDAISM and TAOISM into the country, and yet none of these faith groups have attempted to translate their generational national problems onto our streets with acts of terror, mob rule, intimidation or religious domination of public spaces? Neither are ANY of these groups particularly associated with grooming gangs, paedophilia, honour killings, gang violence, gang rape, rape, acid attacks, benefit fraud or illegal immigration. Neither has ANY of these groups claimed some special STATE SPONSORED ideological defence mechanism to protect their faith from rational criticism akin to “Islamophobia.” AND WHILE we are asking questions, why is it that ISLAM has contentions with ALL these faith groups and MORE?

    1. Morning Bob, Islam is the only one who comes here with the sole purpose of taking over and destroying Western values

  22. Good morning, all. Drizzle at the moment with a mixture of light and heavy rain forecast throughout the day.

    Listen to this exchange at PMQs. Who, or what, has prompted the woman on the Opposition benches to ask such a stupid question?

    I don’t believe Sunak is sincere in his ‘defence’ of farmers, he is after all a globalist and his government is preparing the way to, if not eradicate farming, then reduce it dramatically. All in the cause to save the Planet, of course.

    Starving people to death will be a price worth paying although I’m not certain that this woman and many of those MPs with 5 watt rated intellects understand what they are so avidly supporting.

    https://twitter.com/sequi_simon/status/1762846012484321327

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcee91709016ad3eb58e5ecfde105538b188fabb692585e93416ef7695646d21.png

    3. We have got a severe weather warning for Shropshire wef midnight. Rain this time rather than snowmaggeddon.

    2. Make yourself at home: great Britain is certainly not White now.

      being white,
      hetreosexual,
      married with you looking after your children

      employed,
      car taxed, Mot’d, insured
      etc
      will soon be a criminal offence

  24. Reposted from late last night:

    Thursday 29th February, 2024

    Ped

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/838500a987397b84e04fa3fd11e1d92ef13ee181c7a4962ff250c93562964c20.png

    We hope 2024 is a good birthday year.

    Very best wishes

    Caroline and Rastus

    Do you only get Birthday presents every 4 years?

    We don’t know your year of birth – the oldest Nottler on the list (Delboy) was born in 1936 – if you were born that year you would be celebrating your 22nd birthday; the youngest Nottler on the list (ourmaninmunich) was born in 1967 so you weren’t born that year!

    3. Grattis på (quadrennial) födelsedagen, Ped. Hope it’s a good ‘un. 👍🏻🍷🎂😊

      [And, before anyone else mentions it, a happy 1,461 unbirthdays until the next one! 🤣]

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        Sorry to be pedantic (!)

        It’s rather like the debate as to when the millennium arrived.

        Do you count just the days between the two February 29ths. If you do the counting starts tomorrow and March 1st is Day 1. If that is the case then, as there will be no leap days between today and February 29th 2028, shouldn’t the answer be 1,460 days.

        e.g. If I have a rendez-vous with someone today (Thursday) in a week’s time for next Thursday I would say “I’ll see you in 7 days’ time.” (Not 8 days’ time).

          2. But I was also wrong and – as wives do – Caroline set me straight.

            2000 was not a leap year so those born on February 29th had no birthdays between 1996 and 2004.

            So Ped is chronologically 80 years old today but he has only had 80 divided by four minus one birthdays = 19.

        2. V. Good. If nit-picking was done with wool we’d have something longer than the Bayeux tapestry on here. . . I know, I know, it’s not a tapestry, it’s an embroidery. 😀 😀 😀

    6. Thank you Rastus and Caroline. I was born 1944 – The world was soon to take a turn for the better. Unfortunately, it seems to have run out of steam. It needs a kick up the backside – well, the politicians and power mongers do . . . and several clips around the ears.

      1. Happy birthday, Ped. So, 20 years old, you’ll get the “key of the door” in 4 years time.

        1. Thank you, Molamola. I cheat and have random birth dates. I will certainty celebrate if I get to 21. 😀

  25. READY MEALS LINKED TO ANXIETY AND ILLNESS.

    Scientists’ alarming report on ultra-processed foods puts several kitchen staples under scrutiny

    ‘When people abandon diet soft drinks for the full-fat version, they are at much higher risk of diabetes’
    ‘The statistics are staggering – these foods may double your risk of dying from heart disease’

    ULTRA-PROCESSED foods (UPFS) are linked to 32 different health problems, a study suggests.

    Fizzy drinks, ready meals and sugary cereal have become a staple of the British diet and make up more than half of some people’s daily calorie consumption.

    The category includes anything that could not be made in a domestic kitchen with the definition being food made from “industrial formulations”.

    This includes ice cream, ham, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, carbonated drinks, fruit-flavoured yoghurts and instant soups.

    A study of 45 different analyses including almost 10million people found that consumption of UPFS is linked to health issues including cancer risk, high blood pressure, anxiety, asthma and Type 2 diabetes.

    The study found evidence that higher ultra-processed food intake was associated with about a 50 per cent increased risk of dying from cardiovascular disease and about a 50 per cent higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders.

    Data came from questionnaires and established what people had eaten in the past 24 hours.

    Scientists from Deakin University in Australia, who conducted the study, have called for “urgent mechanistic research and public health actions” to cut down consumption of these foods by the general public.

    Unconnected scientists from the University of Sao Paulo wrote in an accompanying editorial, also published in the British Medical Journal, that labels on packaging, advertising limits and banning sales of UPFS near schools should be implemented.

    The authors of the editorial also called on the United Nations to bring countries together and create a way for UPFS to be treated in a similar way to tobacco.

    However, some scientists have criticised the paper and also doubted the assertion that UPFS are intrinsically bad.

    Most of the links between the foods and health conditions in the study are of weak strength, with only diabetes, obesity, prostate cancer and all cause mortality having a “moderate” quality rating.

    Reliably measuring UPF intake is difficult, as recollections of diet can be extremely flawed.

    Gunter Kuhnle, professor of nutrition and food science at Reading University, said that some of the claims in the study are confusing and exaggerated.

    “My worry with the paper is that fairly weak evidence is pushed in a way to make it seem that urgent action is required, when in reality a large number of nutrition scientists (including the Government’s advisory panel) do not think that urgent action is required,” Prof Kuhnle said.

    “There is a small group of scientists and publicists who push a narrative of extreme risk, which is not really supported by the evidence – and I don’t think they consider the consequences.

    “When people [abandon] diet soft drinks for the ‘full-fat’ version because of what they heard about sweeteners, they are at much higher risk of obesity and diabetes.”

    Dr Duane Mellor, a dietitian and senior lecturer at Aston University, said the statistical methodology of the study leaves it open to flaws, and “the findings of this analysis might not represent what the real effect actually is”.

    “The results reported could be a significant over- or underestimate of what the true link between ultra-processed foods and health might be.”

    But Dr Daisy Coyle, of the George Institute for Global Health in London, said the study “highlights a troubling reality” about the risks of UPFS. The statistics are staggering – these foods may double your risk of dying from heart disease or from developing a mental health disorder,” she added.

    Whoopie-do! Well, colour me surprised. I’ve only been warning about this very ‘finding’ for the past decade!

    The (irrebuttable) fact remains. Eat shit: become shit.

    BTL:

    nickname31382230. Yet another non-peer reviewed paper getting the limelight by making ill-founded controversial claims.

    Grizzly. nickname31382230: There is clear irrefutable evidence out there that the consumption of ultra-processed pseudo-‘food’ is directly responsible for the rapidly-rising increase in the unstoppable imbecility of the human species. There is also a massive library of reliable information, on this topic, available for those who care enough about their health to read it. Asinine comments by those who neither know nor care are grist-to-the-mill for my theories about the direct link between human stupidity and malnourishment.

      1. I had some Mackie’s ice-cream once. It was devoid of flavour. When I looked at the ingredients only milk, cream, sugar were listed, no vanilla (or any other flavouring were used). I’ve not bought any since!

          1. On the odd occasion I eat ice-cream I make my own. A particularly tasty one is Dulce de leche, which has only one ingredient.

            You gently place an unopened can of condensed milk in a barely simmering pan of water for an hour. Open the can when cooled and the now slightly caramelised goo can be whipped and frozen to make a superbly delicious ice-cream.

          2. There are nitrates in that !

            Going back to Mackies.. not all plain ice cream needs vanilla. A scoop of Mackies on your apple pie is much like just adding cream. But without the extra calories.

          3. “A scoop of Mackies on your apple pie is much like just adding cream. But without the extra calories.”

            And how do you justify that statement? A scoop of cream does not contain sugar, but Mackie’s ice-cream does!

            Also, forget about ‘calories’. Modern (switched-on) nutritionists discount them as a smoke-screen.

          4. Ice cream isn’t as dense as cream.

            Your Dulce de leche would be too rich/sickly for me. I prefer my caramel as a ripple.

          6. I don’t buy much ice cream but when I do it’s Mackies because I use the containers for stock or sauces for freezing.

          8. Indeed it is. As are cheese and butter.

            They are not, though, highly-processed, which means they have not been through innumerable industrial processes and have had a cornucopia of chemicals (and other nasties) added.

          9. Perhaps we can get the head chef at the WEF to serve all this highly processed stuff to the delegates at their conferences. This would fall in line with reducing the population of earth. If all this processed food is killing people why are we living longer?

    3. Oh dear! I have just received a huge box of very expensive chocolates. I suppose I shall just have to admire the mouth watering illustrations and re-read the ‘Tasting Card’ instead of indulging my desire for a little wanton avarice. Tant pis pour moi!

      1. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may die.
        Enjoy yourself while you can. It seems you’ve done OK to get this far. Don’t change the recipe.

          2. Strange you should mention that – Burnett is a family name. The chocolates were made by a firm that started in Yorkshire but is now owned by Ferrero. The box must have cost as much to make as the chocolates.

          3. Lucky you ! They say to keep them in an airtight container in the fridge in hot weather. Not that they will last that long i’m sure.

            *Allow to rise to room temp before eating

      3. So THAT’s why our son gave us a box of chocolates; It was all part of his cunning murder plan.

    4. Oh dear! I have just received a huge box of very expensive chocolates. I suppose I shall just have to admire the mouth watering illustrations and re-read the ‘Tasting Card’ instead of indulging my desire for a little wanton avarice. Tant pis pour moi!

    5. Instead of popping out to Lidl, I’ll just bop a dinosaur on the head and cook it with some of those pretty red berries that the birds haven’t touc ………..

      Thud!

      1. Those red berries are called tomatoes and the culinary experts had it wrong then, they thought they were poisonous. Same old, same old! 😀

    6. They have increased bit by bit over the years. We avoid it all if we can. We never eat out as you cannot be sure what it is and we dont eat microwaved food.

  26. Morning all 🙂😊
    No change grey and wet.
    Victims of the Horizon scandal treated with total indifference. Same old story, when the government or snivlie services cock up, it’s always everyone else’s fault.

  27. 384065+ up ticks,

    NHS waiting lists forecast to remain higher than pre-pandemic levels until 2027
    Experts say more funding and increased productivity are needed, but even best outlook is bleak,

    and will remain so right up until the last incoming illegal immigrant boat hits the Dover beach, or civil war is triggered.

  31. We’ll soon know>.

    If it’s drugs then it will be publicised.

    If it’s a result of Covid vaccinations it will disappear into a smokescreen of uncertainty and vagueness.

  32. A well-pissed off Saint?

    Here’s a poser for the Welsh. Every year the celebration days of the Saints — Patrick, George and Andrew — are routinely fixed on March 17, April 23 and November 30 respectively. Arrangements, in the respective countries for the celebration can be made well in advance (though a bit more muted, if at all, in England).

    Now, whilst the day for poor old David (or Dai, if you must) comes on March 1; every four years the poor old soul has to wait for an entire extra day in order to celebrate his day. Shirley this can’t be good for the system of your average Taff, who has probably already baked the Welsh Cakes and they must now be getting a little stale?

    2. The same applies to the others; they have to wait an extra whole 24 hours before they can whoop it up.

  33. Your morning larf:

    “Rishi Sunak: Police must do more to halt protesters’ descent into ‘mob rule’”

    Yeah, right. The Muslipolitan Police Farce will ignore him – as usual.

    Fishi has only one mode. Kneejerk. Postmasters – “Pay them immediately”. Illegals: “We will stop the boats”. Smoking: “I’ll ban it”. MP speaks truth about slammers: “Vile man, I’ll ban him.” Children and mobile phones: “I’ll ban phones in schools”. Followed by SFA.

  34. Good morning all ,

    Wet wet wet , puddles and soggy garden . 8c, and still no heating apart from the coal fire .. Waiting for a phone call re replacing boiler valve ..and I have been offered £50 to buy a heater!

    I loved the on line comments on todays DT letters . I feel so much better knowing that others have also had problems with the censors , quite cathartic .

    MB

    Matthew Biddlecombe
    41 MIN AGO
    DAILY TELEGRAPH
    YOUR COMMENTS POLICY STINKS! I’VE TRIED TO COMMENT ON DR. MICHAEL FOPP’S LETTER SIX (YES SIX TIMES) AND ON EACH TIME YOU HAVE REFUSED ME, DESPITE ME CHANGING POSSIBLE DISALLOWED WORDS.
    WHY DON’T YOU PRACTICE WHAT YOU PREACH? FREEDOM OF SPEECH? NOT IF YOU’RE UNFORTUNATE ENOUGH TO BE A BLOODY SUBSCRIBER TO THIS 💩 OF A NEWSPAPER.
    THAT’S IT. I’M DONE FOR TODAY. A POX ON YOUR NEWSPAPER AND YOUR EDITORS. 😡😡😡😡😡

    Reply by Em Hexton.

    EH

    Em Hexton
    36 MIN AGO
    Wasn’t sure whether to ‘like’ in solidarity or ‘thumb-down’ in agreement with the sentiment. (Ended up doing the former.)

    Reply by Julia Derriman.

    JD

    Julia Derriman
    36 MIN AGO
    Keep on trying Matthew, Conservative voices are needed on here.

    Reply by Gillian Jessop.

    GJ

    Gillian Jessop
    35 MIN AGO
    Calm down Mathew – we need you!

    Reply by Celia Butterfield.

    CB

    Celia Butterfield
    34 MIN AGO
    Matthew, please take a deep breath and exhale. It’s not good to get too agitated by a silly computer algorithm. I understand your anger though…have a lovely day off from the DT and I look forward to reading many more of your very interesting comments. Take care. 🤗

    Reply by Phil Franklin.

    PF

    Phil Franklin
    32 MIN AGO
    It wouldn’t be so bad, Matthew if the system could tell you which word(s) have fallen foul of the censor, while at the same time not disallowing words which can actually be found in the newspaper! KBO.

    Reply by Nigel Redhead.

    NR

    Nigel Redhead
    32 MIN AGO
    It’s not as bad as The Times. But I know how you feel. Many times have I sat and pondered as to why my innocent comments have been refused. It becomes a game to outwit them.
    Mrs R

    Comment by michael knowles.

    MK

      1. I intend to start a site called FreeSpeechBacklash.com shortly. The website will be up this weekend but will take sometime to add content, particularly as I will be in China most of March.

        The site initially will say ‘under construction’ and invite folk to leave their email address to be advised when it is functional. The objective is a right wing site promoting free speech in which anyone can submit an article for publishing, even lefties and all odds and sods, but with comments probably using Disqus.

    2. He should know better than to use the words ‘white’, ‘English’, ‘British’, ‘justice’ etc. It really gets up their nose!

  35. WOOTTON WINS APOLOGY OVER FALSE ALLEGATIONS ARTICLE FROM GUARDIAN

    https://order-order.com/2024/02/29/wootton-wins-apology-over-false-allegations-article-from-guardian/

    Another dish of humble pie is being served to The Guardian today. Last year, despite the Supreme Court’s clear ruling in ZXC v Bloomberg that suspects shouldn’t be named until charged, Byline Times breached Dan Wootton’s privacy by revealing his identity. Only a few mainstream media outlets did the same. The Guardian was one that foolishly chose to do so.

    Wootton’s lawyers were quick to contact the paper, and though the story was taken offline the next morning, it was too late for print. Since Guido’s report that Wootton has been cleared, The Guardian looks even sillier. And they’ve been forced to accept it themselves now too…

    Last night, The Guardian issued a grovelling apology to Wootton, along with coughing up an undisclosed sum to him. The next question is whether or not Byline Times will too. The six or seven figure bill might encourage them to. If they choose to double down, it’ll spell the end of the outlet. And an end to its particularly paranoid form of conspiracy theorising masquerading as gutter journalism…

    Read The Guardian’s full apology below:

    1. I stopped watching GB news. They seem to be going the Way of Woke and qualifying anything that they deem edgy with ‘we don’t know that for certain’, a lot of ifs, ands, or buts and variations on those themes. So what happened to Dan Wooten on there? Obviously I missed it. Didn’t care for him frankly I gave up on GBN because everyone that I liked got fired in favour, or so it seems, of mediocrity.

      1. No need to be so sniffy. GBNews is getting weekly (daily, even) interference from OFCOM organised by MSM and Soros’s pals who are trying to get them shut down.

          1. As you have asserted countless times before. The guy who provides the money for GBN very reasonably decided that Steyn had become too bad a risk for his money.

      2. I did not like Patrick Christys when he first appeared as Dan Wootton’s replacement. But I have changed my mind he has a very pleasing sardonic sense of humour, he is no fool and he does not shy away from asking penetrating questions.

        However Amy Nickel-Turner and Rebecca Reid need to be sacked. They always avoid answering the question by changing the subject and interrupting the others trying to prevent their point of view getting across.

        I think it is a good idea having people with different views in discussions but Ms Reid and Mrs Nickel-Turner do the left no service at all and Benjamin Butterworth need psychiatric help.

        .

      1. Happy birthday! Big Brother (my iPhone) says the rain will stop at around 6 pm. A good time to have a drinky?

        1. Thank you, Sue. Just been to the post box. Needed a towel when I got there – and it isn’t very far away! 😀

          2. Thank you Johnathan. I would post a picture of me on here but I have no wish to close it down at the moment. 😀

      2. Not that I wish to put a dampener on the festivities but remember this as you head to the bar:

        “The rain it raineth on the just

        And also on the unjust fella;

        But mainly on the just because

        The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”

      3. Yo Ped

        Happy Birthday, from Costa del Skeg.

        Also, have 1460 Happy Unbirthdays, until you can next celebrate it, on the proper date in 2028

      1. He may be daft, but he speaks more sense than mainstream politicians – and at least he utters not a single word of support about the net zero scam, trans delusions or other current fads.

      1. Google is your friend

        Snails move at a pace of 0.029 miles per hour, or 153 ft per hour. If we convert that to human speed, that’s the equivalent of walking about 2 miles per hour. It’s not fast, but definitely not standstill traffic. Perspective is everything.29 Jul 2020

  39. Government and police have been discussing the possibility of pro Palestinian demonstrations turning into riots.
    Once more they have been missing the predominant point behind the demonstrations.
    At last and of course as usual, far too late, they might be taking charge again. Possibily due to perceived threats to themselves. They clearly don’t care about the safety of the general public.

  40. Not all of you look at the late night entries, so no apologies for repeating this.

    This is a dark period for British democracy

    The Rochdale by-election has seen sectarian politics rise to the fore

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 28 February 2024 • 10:00pm

    If George Galloway wins the by-election in Rochdale today, what does that tell us about the state of political discourse in this country? He does not appear to be standing for Parliament solely in order to further the economic interests of the people of the Lancashire town or to represent their views on, say, transport links, schools, or the NHS.

    His pitch seems to be entirely sectarian, and unapologetically so. He has helped to transform what should be a contest about domestic policy into a battle about Middle East divisions. He has been aided by the meltdown in the campaign of the Labour Party, which was expected to hold the seat but which disowned its candidate Azhar Ali for making anti-Semitic comments.

    It is possible that Mr Ali, whose name remains on the ballot paper because it was too late to be changed, could still win the seat, though since Labour does not consider him to be a suitable candidate, he would then sit as an independent. There are also two former Labour MPs standing – Mr Galloway and Simon Danczuk – neither supported by that party.

    Mr Galloway is aiming to do in Rochdale what he previously did in Bethnal Green and Bradford, directly targeting his old party for not being robust enough on the Palestinian question. He has delivered thousands of leaflets claiming the by election is a “straight choice between George who will fight for Palestine … and Keir Starmer who will fight for Israel”.

    Why should this matter to the people of Rochdale? It does so only because sectarian politics has been allowed to grow in parts of England, just as they have in the past in Northern Ireland and Glasgow. They are toxic and debilitating, setting one community against another in a way that foments trouble and potential violence.

    While Rochdale is hardly typical of most of the rest of the country, this contest is nonetheless worrying. Not one of the major parties is campaigning seriously, Labour having stood back while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats did not put much effort into the by election in the first place.

    Meanwhile, our MPs are spending millions on employing private security guards following threats associated with the Gaza issue, while Harriet Harman has suggested they should all work from home. This is not a good time for British democracy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2024/02/28/this-is-a-dark-period-for-our-democracy/

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Nobody should forget Galloway’s ‘10,000 bodies’…

    Police view film of East End anti-fascist rally

    https://twitter.com/woodgnomology/status/1409224386167644161

    4. Well done, young Mogg!
      Hancock might also note that malicious gossip behind people’s backs is never a good idea.

    5. Although very amusing, it brings up a serious question:

      What were the authorities at Eton hope that the boys woulds learn from him?

      1. At Eton the various specialist societies organise their own guest speakers, although generally there would be a schoolmaster involved as the distinguished visitor would normally be invited to dinner instead of receiving a fee.

  42. One for the blood pressure.
    (No. 427)

    “Wayne Couzens sexually assaulted a child, attempted to kidnap a woman at knife point and was reported to police eight times for exposing himself in the years before he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard, a damning inquiry has found.

    The former Metropolitan Police officer had a long history of sexual offending dating back to 1995 but was never arrested or prosecuted and was able to pass police vetting and become an armed officer with both the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC) and the Met.”

      1. Good Morning! Though wretched the cold, damp gloom is. Uptick your comment because I’m as cynical as you are when it comes to the police. A refuge for psychopaths is the police force.

          1. Sometimes I get into a rather odd mood where my typing becomes a sort of shorthand, it does😁

    2. The failures in the investigations of these incidents is most disappointing. I don’t know what lies behind these failures but I suspect a culture of giving the benefit of the doubt goes towards serving police officers when they are accused or suspected of wrongdoing.

      Amongst the recommendations is that vetting of applicants and continued vetting of serving officers must become more robust. While that might prevent the recruitment of more Wayne Couzens in the future and identify sooner those serving officers with similar proclivities and tendencies, it won’t be without cost.

      Not only will these more robust procedures be more expensive, putting increased strain on funding for all other police service activities, it will also make the recruitment of applicants more onerous, deterring those who might be suitable but who find the process too demanding. As for serving officers, a more challenging, intrusive and frequent continuing vetting process might very well make retention that much more difficult.

      It could be argued that applicants (both actual and considering) and serving officers who do not withstand such increased scrutiny are not suitable for recruitment and retention, not because they are or might become like Wayne Couzens, but because more robust vetting will expose those not up to the demands of policing in general.

      I’m not suggesting that the recommendations not be implemented, but those responsible for doing so need to know that in trying prevent any more Wayne Couzens, the recruitment and retention of good officers is made more difficult to the extent that forces might suffer persistent undermanning. Perhaps I’m being needlessly gloomy about any negative impacts of these recommendations.

      2. Apart from the police “always looking after their own” I think there is a point, nowadays, where any sort of deeper investigation into an applicant’s history is seen as intrusive and – probably – discriminatory.

      3. Unfortunately, I think you are being realistic. If it can be messed up, it will be. Also, I find it hard to believe that anyone will dare to apply the same standards to muslim officers as to white non-muslims. Couzens is a terrible example, but there have also been police officers involved with muslim rape gangs, and at least one convicted gang member.
        Although the crimes also involve rape and suspicious disappearance of children, this is not searchable by “rape gang” only by “grooming gang” – as though the crimes had stopped with grooming!

        1. Absolutely I do, but I wonder if this might be a rare issue where both the Muslim and Jewish Communities shared the same interest and where their combined objections might be irresistable.

          1. I don’t think the Jewish objections would be of anything like the magnitude of the slammers’.

      2. It would but most Jews are not overly bothered and for those that are, enough food could be imported to serve their needs. They’re very few in number and certainly don’t go slitting the throats of stolen animals in their back gardens.

  45. Dave Myers the Hairy Biker has passed away from cancer aged 66.
    Seemed like an honest decent chap.

      1. They ran a nice tribute for him on BBC This Morning. He was outside the home where he grew up lots of family Photographs as well.
        It’ll probably be shown again.

    2. Oh , now that is terrible , poor man .

      I thought he was beating his battle against cancer.

      He appeared to be a good bloke , and a great character . RIP Dave Myers .

  46. Received via email.

    Allison Pearson writes for British Friends of Israel about a troubling week in which MPs were pressured by Islamists and the continued, disturbing rise in antisemitism.

    No doubt about it, this has been a troubling few weeks for any British friend of Israel. Specifically, it has been deeply upsetting for our Jewish community which has seen so much that attracted their parents and grandparents to this country – safety, rule of law, inviolable Parliamentary democracy, impartial judiciary, policing without fear or favour – seemingly tossed aside like a Kleenex to appease a belligerent, antisemitic minority.

    I often think of the words of the late, great Jonathan Sacks who called Britain “the kind country”. I wonder what Chief Rabbi Sacks would make of jihadist slogans being projected onto Big Ben as they were the other night after an infamous day in Parliament when the Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle broke with precedent to allow a Labour amendment on a ceasefire in Gaza which, he claimed, was for the safety of MPs who had received terrorist threats?

    Sir Keir Starmer who, until a week ago, had admirably held firm in his party’s support for Israel’s right to defend herself, hotly denied allegations that he personally had leant on the Speaker in order to avoid another embarrassing rebellion on the issue by Labour MPs. Whatever the precise details, the desire to avoid headlines about “Labour splits” in the run-up to a general election seems to have weighed as heavily with the Opposition as the duty of elected officials not to trash constitutional norms to keep an increasingly influential Muslim vote onside.

    At a stroke, the tacit Faustian pact certain Labour MPs have made with Islamist elements in their constituencies was rudely exposed to a startled public. To borrow from the Bible via Woody Allen, “And the lion will lay down with the lamb, but the lamb will not get much sleep.”

    The silence of the Labour lambs has been deafening and maybe, just maybe, they will now wake up to the cost of the UK turning a blind eye to hatred of Western values in general, and of Jews in particular.

    Many of us will have agreed with the former Attorney General and basso profundo Sir Geoffrey Cox, who told Newsnight that Sir Lindsay’s action, however well-meaning, was “a weak, abject surrender to tyranny and intolerance”. What message does it send throughout the world?, boomed Sir Geoffrey. More pressingly, perhaps, what message does it send to Rochdale and Bradford and Luton where imams have quietly been chalking up victories against a political class that is terrified of being accused of Islamophobia, especially when an Islamist madman has just murdered one of their own.

    Almost daily now, there are shocks like these to absorb. Like the man in Hyde Park who was removed last weekend by Metropolitan Police for the crime of carrying a placard saying, “Hamas are Terrorists”, not a particularly contentious statement you might think, unless you’re a BBC or Sky journalist. In fact, at British Friends of Israel, we are campaigning for the media to call Hamas terrorists.

    That was in stark contrast to the treatment of Pro-Palestine supporters who, on their fortnightly hate marches through the capital, have rarely been arrested despite waving posters showing Jews being put in a bin and calling for Intifada. Although, to be fair, the Met has employed “experts” with jihadist connections who have explained that Intifada is a little-known form of Arabic flower-arranging − not a call for the extermination of the Jews, as was previously thought.

    Three women who were arrested and charged after a march barely seven days after 7th October for displaying images glorifying Hamas – chilling cartoons of the paragliders that came over from Gaza to wreak carnage at the Nova peace festival – were let off with a slap on the wrist. Deputy Senior District Judge Tanweer Ikram said that, although the trio was guilty of a terrorist offence, he had “decided not to punish them” because he didn’t think they were Hamas supporters and, besides, “feelings were running high”. It was disturbing, although perhaps not altogether surprising to learn subsequently that, only a few weeks before, the judge had liked a LinkedIn post which called for a “free Palestine” and spoke of “Israeli terrorist[s]”. Mr Ikram explained that was “a genuine mistake”, an explanation not altogether reassuring to British Jews and their allies.

    Recently, when I expressed my dismay on X (formerly Twitter) about a rabbi, a chaplain at Leeds University, being moved to a safe location after he received threats to kill him, rape his wife and murder his children, several of the comments suggested I should be mindful of “the context”.

    What context, I replied, could ever make it acceptable to murder anyone, let alone women and children?

    The context, I was told, was that the rabbi in question was a former reservist chaplain in the IDF which was carrying out “genocide” in Gaza. You could almost hear their gleeful, “Gotcha!”

    Once again, I started drafting a reply to the pro-Palestinians, explaining that military service is compulsory for all Israelis who can be called upon to serve until the age of 40. But I never posted it. What’s the point? Being dragged into that kind of “whataboutery” with people who call for evidence that the half-naked, charred corpses of Israeli young women, murdered by Hamas on 7th October, were actually raped is demeaning, demoralising and ultimately futile. They don’t want to know.

    Perhaps I, too, am blinkered. Blinded by my belief that Israel, whatever the deficiencies of her current leadership or the awful collateral damage to civilians in Gaza, must persist, must be allowed to exist because she is in the unenviable, yet essential, business of holding the line for civilisation against barbarism.

    As British Friends of Israel, we have never sought to give the Netanyahu government a blank cheque in any action taken after the heinous massacres four months ago, and many of us will, I think, draw the line at an all-out assault on Rafah while more than a million displaced souls shelter there. As a mother, I think what must it be like trying to reassure your small children during the nightly bombardment. Sympathy must flow both ways if we are to hold onto our humanity.

    We would also point out, however, as the media seldom does, that Hamas remorselessly exploits the deaths of innocent women and children to shore up its diabolical project, shamelessly exaggerating the death toll whilst its senior leaders hide in an extensive network of tunnels paid for out of billions of foreign aid which was donated to ordinary Gazans. Indeed, Hamas seems to be complicit in murders which it happily attributes to Israeli forces that are trying, as no invading army has ever tried before, to minimise casualties. Although they are among the worst men in the world, you have to admit Hamas is damn good at propaganda: the Devil has the best PR. Tragically, they are winning the battle for hearts and minds, particularly among the impressionable young in the West.

    Here in Britain, we see more clearly each week how the miserable failure by the Met to properly police the pro-Palestinian marches, allegedly to contain community tensions, has had the opposite effect. Looking the other way as open displays of antisemitic bile are flaunted on the streets of the capital has merely emboldened the Islamist mob who are now openly threatening MPs who fail to do their bidding. Mike Freer, Conservative MP for Finchley and Golders Green, announced he was standing down after he and his partner received death threats from several Islamist groups including Muslims Against Crusades. Democracy rocks on its foundations when a popular MP quits his seat in fear.

    As former Home Secretary Suella Braverman wrote in yesterday’s Telegraph, “Islamists are bullying Britain into submission.” It’s not just about the safety of MPs, British values and freedoms are under attack in courts, universities, on TV, at by-elections and on the streets where, to all our shame, many Jews now fear to tread.

    I know that all of the the above should make us feel bleak and a little scared, but, instead the moment calls for defiance and courage, wherever we may find it, in each other most of all. “We have harboured those who hated us, tolerated those who threatened us and indulged those who weakened us”. The words of the woman who, ironically, once held Mike Freer’s north London seat resonate more than ever as our leaders are finally forced to grapple with what craven capitulation to extremist antisemites (and misogynists and homophobes) actually means.

    Are we really going to let one of the most successfully integrated, most productive, most precious and patriotic immigrant groups in British history be driven from these shores? Not on your nelly, to use a popular indigenous phrase.

    In October 1984, the day after the IRA bombed the Conservative Party Conference at the Grand Hotel in Brighton, Margaret Thatcher dusted herself down and declared “business as usual”. Whatever you think of her, after five deaths, and with a member of her Cabinet gravely ill in hospital, the Iron Lady must have been shaken. But she knew the line had to be held. As it does today. If the Jews are terrorised into leaving Britain, it won’t be Britain any more. The values and institutions that called so many to “the kind country” Rabbi Sacks adored will mean nothing. So, as British Friends of Israel, we persist. We insist it cannot be so. British Jews must stay in our mutual home. Please, stay.

    1. I propose one only correction to the above:
      We would also point out, however, as the media seldom does, that Hamas remorselessly exploits promotes the deaths of innocent women and children to shore up its diabolical project, shamelessly exaggerating the death toll whilst its senior leaders hide in an extensive network of tunnels paid for out of billions of foreign aid which was donated to ordinary Gazans.

    3. We haven’t had “safety, rule of law, inviolable Parliamentary democracy, impartial judiciary, policing without fear or favour”for some considerable time. The rot began to accelerate in 1997. Why is anyone surprised that islam wants to bully everyone into submission? It’s the very meaning of the word.

  47. may be so, but there is no one on there I want to watch. Not long ago I actually looked forward to listening to certain people on GBN, not anymore.

    1. Follow my example. Watch or listen to NOTHING about politics, current affairs, news…. You’ll feel SO MUCH BETTER!

      1. Or my way – follow a few independents and investment managers on Twitt, they comment on the important stuff, and you only miss wokery, slebs, royalty and crime.

    2. Give Patrick Christys a chance. Some of his panellists may be deplorable but I find he is getting better each week and I love his sense of humour.

    3. Give Patrick Christys a chance. Some of his panellists may be deplorable but I find he is getting better each week and I love his sense of humour.

          3. The saddle has a *pommel on it…..

            * (the protuberance at the front and top of a saddle.)

          7. It’s even more secure if you have a modern side saddle with a leaping head instead of two fixed heads.

        3. Love that there’s now a cheap clothing store alongside her – almost like a hint. Don’t go naked girls, it doesn’t cost much to dress at Primark!

        4. Remember the days when Marianne Faithfull was Mick Jagger’s squeeze and Paul Mac Cartney’s was Jane Asher.

          Here is Jane’s little brother (The smaller one with the spectacles):

          https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tFP1zcsNM0yKasojDdg9JLJSUypVEjPT8ksS1QoSC1JLVJIzEsBChSl5OcBAEPMDyY&q=lady+godiva+peter+and+gordon&oq=Lady++Godiva+Peter+and+Gordon&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCggCEC4Y1AIYgAQyCggAEAAY4wIYgAQyCggBEC4Y1AIYgAQyCggCEC4Y1AIYgAQyBggDEEUYQDIICAQQABgWGB4yCAgFEAAYFhgeMggIBhAAGBYYHjIICAcQABgWGB7SAQkzMzc0MmowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:cf89625d,vid:EdRj_pAMVik,st:0

        5. Remember the days when Marianne Faithfull was Mick Jagger’s squeeze and Paul Mac Cartney’s was Jane Asher.

          Here is Jane’s little brother:

          AYgAQyBwgDEC4YgAQyBwgEEAAYgAQyBwgFEC4YgAQyBwgGEAAYgAQyBwgHEAAYgAQyBwgIEAAYgAQyBwgJEC4YgATSAQkxMDEwMWowajeoAgCwAgA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:43104546,vid:n-XQ26KePUQ,st:0

        1. Slowly.
          Trying to get through on the ‘phone is as bad here as the NHS.
          At least when one does get through things generally start to move.

      2. It is what is known in the trade as ‘distressed’. I think Bill takes too many chances with listeria.

        1. Stupid boy. It is wrapped in muslin and aged in caves . Even you must have seen proper English cheese truckles. (sighs…)

          1. Yes i have. And i don’t buy them from market stalls at a fraction of the price they would normally retail.

    3. Looks interesting.
      I’m coming to the end of a “Ripening Brie” from M&S that has a sell-by date of July last year.
      Tastes wonderful but the DT thinks it smells of sweaty socks!

  52. French footballer, Pogba (Nickname the Pickaxe) has been banned from playing for four years for a doping offence!!!!

    A Frog taking dope? Can’t believe it. What next, politicians telling porkies? The world has gone to the dogs.

    1. According to his Wiki entry he is described as: ” a left winger, attacking midfielder and deep-lying playmaker”.

      Left winger, attacker, deep-lying. Can’t argue with that.

    3. He’s crap and always has been, so no loss at all! No-one loves Paul Pogba more than Paul Pogba.

  53. Oh – Woke Willie has visited a synagogue. Bet he goes to a mosque, too – to show solidarity…

  61. 384065+ up ticks,

    Suella Braverman: UK will become ‘unrecognisable’ unless immigration and asylum is curbed –

    ALERT,

    OGGA1
    UK HAS become ‘unrecognisable’ through a combination of abuse of a nation via the polling stations, and the continual support of WEF /NWO political overseeing ” in name only” parties.
    As braverman knows full well, I know full well,and a multitude of others know full well,
    NOTHING will be done until
    MASS DEPORTATION has begun.

    2. Anyone arriving illegally and without documentation should be thrown out. No appeals.
      Anyone who facilitates it like the RNLI and other charities should be prosecuted.

      1. They should at the very least have their charitable status revoked. Many others too and no political organisation registered as a charity should ever benefit from taxation.

    1. Leap Years are any year that can be exactly divided by 4 (such as 2020, 2024, 2028, etc)
      except if it can be exactly divided by 100, then it isn’t (such as 2100, 2200, etc)
      *except if it can be exactly divided by 400, then it is (such as 2000, 2400)

      Yah Boo! 🤓 🤓 🤓

    4. Our good friend Ped has now been alive for 80 years.

      Good grief. You mean that there is actually someone older than me?

    6. Gosh, how complicated!! Hapy birthday, Ped, however old you may be!! All the best from a sweltering Buenos Aires x

  64. The most terrifying thing about Putin is not that he’s delusional, but that he might be right. 29 February 2024.

    Putin believes the West is a declining force, a belief that enables his aggressive stance in Ukraine. The increasingly fragmented international response to a war that has lasted a decade has only served to embolden him further, reinforcing his belief that in the geopolitical chess game, he is the one making the boldest moves. The fact that he is not wrong and that he may ultimately win should remind us that Putin is not the only one who views the war and the world through rose-tinted spectacles. Many in the West, safe from the missiles and shelling, appear to suffer the same affliction.

    Well I would rather take Vlad’s World View than anyone in the West. Just look at them! There’s not one that you could trust further than you could throw them. Perverts. Liars. Thieves! They are all traitorous scum!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/29/putin-speech-might-be-less-delusional-than-we-think/

  66. Safety of women on the streets:

    For those of you who didn’t see it, we commend to everyone Yvette Cooper’s speech in the HoC today.

    Her speech, shown on Sky, was outstanding, made even better by the BBC ignoring it.

    We hope that she carries out all of her recommendations after the General Election.

    Can’t come soon enough.

  67. This is the shocking moment an RSPB warden stepped on the tail of a helpless seabird for up to ‘four minutes’ before eventually killing it with a rock.

    Ibrahim Alfarwi has been criticised after the video clip of him ‘torturing’ the sick Skua on Coquet Island off the Northumberland coast, came to light.

    In the clip, Mr Alfarwi can be seen chasing the ‘evidently sick’ bird and stepping on its tail before beckoning volunteers to take a look at it.

    Eyewitnesses accused him of ‘torturing’ the helpless animal by standing on it for four minutes, before wringing its neck and smashing its head against a rock, causing blood to splatter everywhere.

    But Mr Alfarwi has said he was acting as instructed by his manager and that the bird was ‘humanely dispatched’.

    However, the RSPCA has branded the video ‘distressing’ and the RSPB has apologised for his actions.

    In response, Mr Alfarwi revealed he still works for the RSPB and that the video was taken without his consent.

    He said: ‘The bird was unwell, suffering and had been on the island for several days.

    ‘I was instructed to dispatch the bird by my manager to end its suffering.

    ‘The bird was quickly and humanely dispatched and there was no widespread blood splatter as alleged.

    ‘I was not wearing the correct PPE as my manager did not provide this for me.

    ‘The RSPB was made aware of this video (filmed in 2022) the following year (2023) and the content and circumstances surround it were fully investigated.

    ‘The person with accountability and responsibility for the island at the time of the video, my manager, no longer works for the RSPB.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13140801/moment-rogue-warden-filmed-torturing-sick-bird.html

  69. We are more than fed up.
    We received our water bill this morning £1,450 .

    Next will be our rates .. F band .. well over £3k

    No wonder I feel so ill.

    2. That’s a ridiculous amount money for water with two people in the house. Ours is under 300. Pounds annually and it’s metered. We more than halved our previous bills when we had the meter installed about 5 years ago.
      And we are not frightened to use it.

        1. Have you filled in the figures on this link.
          I’d do it quickly and get you application in asap.

    3. Blimey Belle. Do you pay the water bill for the whole of Dorset.
      Our rates are similar to yours.
      We converted to a water meter many years ago and pay £29 per month.

    4. As Teady Eddy says, change to a water meter. We moved 27 years ago and the water pressure was almost non existent so we had a new link to the main supply fitted and at the same time a water meter. Much much less expensive. 3 in the house at the time and it cut a third off. Ours is now £300 annually too.

    6. We have an artesian well in our garden which gives us all the domestic water we need. The purity of this water is excellent – we might even be able to market it as eau de source. We have an electric pump which automatically pumps it up from 25 metres underground. In 35 years our maintenance costs have totalled about €1200 including the fitting of a new pump 6 years ago.

    10. My council tax includes the water rate and is £1200 (I do get a 25% discount for single occupancy)

    11. We have to give Khunt £800 in addition to Council tax and the add-on for social care.

        1. Cheaper with a meter i suspect. In my area from 2025 water metering will be compulsory.

    2. Net immigration into (mainly England) 2022-2023 745,000.

      If we built homes for that lot it would be the 4th largest city or town in England.

      2. It’s 3 Southampton’s. A quarter of Soton’s population is foreign born. In my gym classes I’d estimate about half those going are foreign.

        They work, they pay taxes, they’re law abiding, lovely people. Some are *very* lovely. but if we were to take say, every third car off the road. Empty every third house. Remove 90% of the people waiting in the walk in centre (as they’re almost all asian) that’s an awful lot of space made up.

    3. I still can’t understand why people are Islamophobic.

      Because he doesn’t know anything about the history or ideology of Islam?
      Or anyone who’s had their legs blown off by some Islamists.

    1. Apparently the office junior who’s got a crush on the Warqueen was told off by his boss. Cue ‘investigation’. She said ‘Utter nonsense. Stop this and let’s get back to work’. Turns out the complainant was… the girl who fancied him.

  73. Now that the useless but terrified MPs are going to get £48k a year for
    “security”, can we expect itemised lists of how they spent the money??
    Is this going to be taxable income??
    No thought not……….

    1. Absolute Crooks every last one of them.
      Between them they have deliberately created these dreadful problems by wrecking our established social structure and culture. They are an effing disgrace.
      I expect it will be Plus expenses for the supply of more underwear and lavatory items.

      1. The workmen moved into the local Conservative constituency office today no doubt putting in extra security. Hardly worthwhile as they won’t be needing an office shortly.

  74. WTAF!!!!!!!!!!!!

    “British MP Tobias Ellwood accused German Chancellor Olaf Scholz of a
    “flagrant abuse of intelligence” when he mentioned to journalists that
    the British and French support Ukraine with missile guidance, the
    Telegraph reported on Feb. 28.

    Scholz made the comments on Feb. 26 when he again ruled out Berlin delivering long-range Taurus missiles to Kyiv.

    Taurus
    missiles, which have a range of up to 500 kilometers (310 miles), have
    been the subject of extensive discussion since Ukraine submitted a
    request to acquire the weapons in May 2023.

    Scholz is reportedly
    against sending Taurus missiles to Kyiv because he fears the move will
    draw Germany into the war. Ukraine has received other long-range
    missiles, including the Storm Shadow from the U.K. and the French-made
    SCALP.

    “It is a very far-reaching weapon, and what the British and
    French are doing in terms of target control and accompanying target
    control cannot be done in Germany,” Scholz told reporters.

    German
    MP Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann responded on X that Scholz’s claim was
    “false” and that “German soldiers are not needed on Ukrainian soil for
    Taurus.”

    Ellwood said that the comments were “a flagrant abuse of
    intelligence deliberately designed to distract from Germany’s reluctance
    to arm Ukraine with its own long-range missile system.”

    Scholz’s comments will “be used by Russia to racket up the escalator ladder,” Ellwood said.

    German
    MP Norbert Rottgen said that Scholz’s statement “regarding France and
    Britain’s alleged involvement in operating long-range cruise missiles
    used in Ukraine is completely irresponsible.”

    A British government
    spokesperson said on Feb. 29 that there is a “small number of
    personnel” in Ukraine who support the Ukrainian military, but there are
    no “plans for large-scale deployment.”
    “Completely Irresponsible” eh?? No denial of boots on the ground then??
    These warmongers HAVE to be stopped!!”

    1. I expect the Dopey Wokies will have been sitting around a table trying work out a new name for the common Bkack Bird.
      Turdus Merula.

    1. I thought I was going to do better.

      Wordle 985 4/6

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

    2. After a miserable six yesterday…

      Wordle 985 3/6

      🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
      🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  79. That’s me for this damp but very, very mild day. Colder (and wetter) tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    2. I assume that’s a full time protection officer. Which is weird as you’d think the protection would be 24 hour.

      In either case it’s a waste of money . MPs created this problem with massive uncontrolled immigration. The public haven’t been protected from the muslim threat. Why should berks with MP after their name?

  81. 38four065+ up ticks,

    Mr gove to be under investigation seemingly for dodgy dealings, same route taken by matt on Friday, court case not to be glossed over by the silks, guilty verdict then satin the same cell as handcock.

  83. Unless it’s a double bluff on his part and he is the source, somebody really is out to get this guy.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/formulaone/article-13141827/Christian-Horners-text-messages-female-employee.html

    The leak, containing hundreds of WhatsApp messages, was sent to leading F1 figures, including FIA president Mohammad Ben Sulayem and F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali. All the team principals were also copied in, along with star driver Max Verstappen’s father Jos.

    I hope whoever did this has all their social media posts scrutinised and any “inappropriate” ones made public too.

  84. Evening, all. Those who covered up the Horizon scandal need to be prosecuted. Heads should roll.

    2. Nothing will happen. Absolutely nothing. Those responsible will get away with it scot free. The state will close ranks to protect itself. After all, if there’s real, tangible punishment here that opens the door for other screw ups to face penalty. Big government can’t have that. Down that road leads consequences and before that, responsibility!

      That’s the last thing big government wants.

          1. It has a fire break.
            Besides God only made a few perfect heads, the rest he put hair on.

          2. Met an actress with a shaven head a long time ago. Her head was absolutely gorgeous! Quite the most beautiful I ever saw. Lovely lass, too.

          8. I know when people undergo chemo they lose their hair but like with male pattern baldness it doesn’t have to be the ‘end of the world’.

          9. Most men have ugly heads, all knobbly and dented. This lass had the most beautiful skull, like carved marble, so it was.

          10. My head was always considered to be good. Though after i hit the iron banister and tumbled i was knobbled. I can show you the scars if you like.

    5. With a combined IQ of 380, if Stanley is removed the average drops to 90.
      If Lammy is removed the average rises to 100.
      If Warsi and Lucas have the same IQ what is it?
      A lot more than you would expect

        1. True, in fact at times it is better.
          I take the view that IQ doesn’t measure actual useful intelligence very well, merely potential.

          1. It’s a bit like CPU clock. Useless unless given something to do. The Warqueen’s very bright. Sometimes talking to her feels a bit like you’re a tractor holding up a sports car – which overtakes you on one of the other eight lanes of traffic she’s got going.

            Although she’s a sodding pain in the backside at the moment, so nurrh.

      1. Once upon a time he was; It took lots of times being burned brown before he discovered the answer.

      1. I had a battery fire in Mid-Atlantic in 1985 aboard my boat Raua when sailing from Bermuda to the Azores which burnt out the alternator. I covered the flames with a wet drying up cloth and the fire was immediately extinguished. A brilliant mechanic in Horta salvaged the battery and rebuilt the alternator as he could not get a Volvo replacement. The total bill in escudos came to about £5.00.

        Here is the lovely Raua which took me across the Atlantic and back.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/480561b66c3e22b3b8e3f8b798d5c75fa86141479534241837099561d32944a2.jpg

  87. Reading this article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/02/29/uk-state-pension-triple-lock-time-bomb-explode/

    About pensions I find myself very confused.

    Government for the last 25 years has imported 30 million people. Some work, a huge proportion don’t. I know of people who have no intention of ever working – they claim child benefit – and are going to be given the state pension. Why do we pay for people who have contributed so little except to receive welfare their entire lives?

    The complaints about sickness – well, yes? What did big government expect when it punished working with taxes of 70%?

    Then there’s inflation – a result of big fat state intentionally debasing the currency so it can continue to borrow vast amounts of cash to spend on things it really didn’t need to.

    Then there’s the actual investment – or lack of – NI receipts. Government is happy to waste this money on green, forcing WEF dogma through low traffic neighbourhoods, pushing cash out to wind mill owners to protect them from markets, handing money out to China and India to make the things we, the public don’t want, splurging it on the Nigerian spice girls.

    Government cannot complain that it can’t afford the state pension when it has deliberately spaffed the cash up the wall of waste in their own arrogant, dogmatic stupidity.

    The most productive, efficient and working generation is about to stop and the one that replaces it is heavily taxed, tired, suffering propaganda hectoring over green lies, woke and has decided it can’t be bothered to work harder just to see 60% of it go to the state furnace for appalling services, more hectoring, waste, inefficiency and BS.

    Government has caused this issue. Breaking the contract now I’m sure would delight them, but this mess is because of their failure. Not that of the worker.

    2. Another government and shitehall utter cockup.
      There are people in the UK who although have worked all of their adult lives, are expected to survive on around 10.000 pounds a year.
      Unfortunately Punishment never really fits the crime in our country.

      1. Our electric bill is £160 a month. January was 178 and it was continually cold. That’s a week of the pension alone gone. Then there’s council tax, at the rate that’s increasing that’ll be another week. Then there’s water, I reckon it’d leave about £300 a month for food. Warqueen has been quite sensible in her pension and I’ll get a not a huge amount but it’s just insulting that big government is deliberately making everything expensive and now complains about the cost of servicing it.

    1. I noticed at first he was wearing a blazer. Then, to my amazement, he had a smoking jacket on. Fashion, eh?

    1. It’s not The HMS Anything!
      FFS!
      It’s HMS. No “the”. How much sense does “the His Majesty’s Ship Anything” make?
      Jayzuz.

      2. It gets my goat when halfwits on telly and wireless programmes talk about bands like “The Led Zeppelin” or “The Pink Floyd”.

        GRRRRR!!!!

  94. Radio 3’s broadcast of Bruckner’s 9th has finished, so I’m off to bed.
    G’night all.

    1. I think we’ve been the luckiest generation ever. No world wars, a chance to live well if you worked hard and relatively little poverty. It’s been deteriorating for the last 30 years, but even so we’ve had generally good lives. Heaven knows what’s just around the corner.

      1. I thought on seeing it how atmospheric it was, how redolent of its time, it brought to mind Atkinson Grimshaw.

    5. I posted in some detail years ago about my taking tea (or champagne) with Sir Robert Abdy who held a collection of Atkinson Grimshaw paintings. Sir Robert Abdy was a buyer for Gulbenkian and his wife Jane ran a fashionable Art gallery.

      I imagine his collection(s) will have been dispersed by now. His house was in Eaton Square.

      The piece I have posted below comprises music composed by Elgar in memory of his Cairn Terrier Mina against a backdrop of Grimshaw paintings, possibly of Leeds with Liverpool docks at the end.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTFVfKV6vYM

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