Thursday 30 January: Labour’s proposals for the economy are riddled with inconsistency

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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439 thoughts on “Thursday 30 January: Labour’s proposals for the economy are riddled with inconsistency”

  3. Good morning chums, including good old Geoff.

    Wordle 1,321 6/6

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    1. Sir Kneelalot is a pathetically easy target for personal abuse. Nigel doesn't need to join the baying mob.

    2. Farage has never fallen for the "Tory Scum" approach. I recall him saying Michel Barnier was always professional & polite. He also said Nicola Sturgeon was a nasty piece of work. Lastly, Badenoch is petulant & rude.

      2. He seems to have been perfectly happy to call out Tommy Robinson for being violent towards women.

    4. He has an annoying habit of backing away when he has the advantage.
      Perhaps he is often reminded of past events, such as when his wheels nearly fell off his car and a banner was caught up in the propeller.

  6. Five years in prison for nonviolent protest: it’s plain wrong, and Keir Starmer knows it. Caroline Lucas. 30 January 2025/

    Sixteen jailed Just Stop Oil activists will appear in court this week in an appeal against their sentences, which were believed to be the harshest ever for peaceful protest in Britain. For damaging picture frames, obstructing the road, or just talking about obstructing the road, they have received punishments that we would normally reserve for serious crimes. People trying to draw attention to the government failure to confront the cause of the climate crisis were imprisoned for up to five years.

    She’s noticed now that it’s JSO.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jan/29/five-years-nonviolent-protest-wrong-keir-starmer

    1. What is JSO, Minty? These acronyms are very confusing to Elsie, aka (also known as) Confused of Colchester.

    2. We could export them to the middle east. And we could guarantee never to see them again.

  7. Good morning.
    Now we see the reason for Trump's threatened tariffs….
    This is how the Americans are sucking some gold back into the USA in preparation for some form of backing the dollar with gold (not in your pockets, you peasants! Gold is for rich people and will be hidden behind sophisticated digital assets that we will tell you are trustworthy for you!)

    From the Substack of Michael Lynch:

    Massive vault moves from London to the USA could expose the gold and silver paper charade
    All because of a rumor about tarriffs
    Michael Lynch on Gold & Silver

    Jan 29, 2025 2:00 PM

    The comex / LBMA paper charade could soon be exposed by the vault moves triggered by the possibility of tariffs. This could expose the dearth of physical metal underpinning gold and silver at ETF’s and the price setting venues.

    Tarriffs vs Vaults

    The threat of tariffs is apparently causing metal movement from London’s vaults to vaults within the USA. Comex publishes vault holdings daily on a one day lag thus it is readily apparent that a metal surge into comex vaults is now occurring. As shown below over 11 million oz of gold has entered comex vaults in the last few weeks:

    And silver is up about 40 million oz:

    Where is it coming from? Almost certainly LBMA vaults. Unfortunately LBMA vault totals are published only monthly and on a 5 week lag. It won’t be until early March when the January data is published.

    Hours ago The Financial Times published a piece saying the wait to withdraw bullion from the Bank of England has risen from a few days to between four and eight weeks.

    https://www.ft.com/content/86a5fafd-603e-4ee1-9620-39b5f4465f53

    So what you may say? Most metal for ETF’s are vaulted in London … at least that’s what they report. Metal for those funds is assumed to be present and owned by the funds. For example, BlackRock’s SLV trust publishes a 5000+ page list daily of each bar associated with the fund. FYI 77% of that total is in a single JP Morgan vault in London with the balance being in a single vault in NYC. One entity controls all that information.

    Back to the SLV 5000 page bar report … why do they do publish that? It’s smoke and mirrors. The fund's prospectus CLEARLY states that the fund is not an investment in silver.

    2. So glad the in one case at least J P Morgan Bank is holding the baby!

      Morning BB2 and all.

  9. Will Donald Trump be fooled by Peter Mandelson’s volte-face? 30 January 2025.

    The best that can be said about Lord Mandelson’s change of heart over Donald Trump is that it shows how much he wants to be the next British ambassador to Washington. He is expected to be confirmed in the role shortly. Even so, Mandelson was taking no chances in an interview he gave to Fox News, widely believed to be Trump’s favourite TV viewing.

    I don’t think that “The Donald” is fooled by Mandelson or Lammy or Starmer. He knows them for what they are. I’m waiting to see what he “does” as opposed to talking.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/will-donald-trump-really-be-fooled-by-peter-mandelsons-volte-face/

  11. I've been peering at the map to see where might be affected by the new HS2 – the superhighway enterprise zone between Oxford and Cambridge. Is there anyone here who lives in the following places?:

    Northern Route: Oxford – Bicester – Buckingham – Milton Keynes – Bedford – St Neots – Sandy – Cambridge
    Southern Route: Oxford – Aylesbury – Leighton Buzzard – Luton – Hitchin – Letchworth – Stevenage – Royston – Saffron Walden – Cambridge

    Pity any bats or newts living there!

      2. We had black squirrels in our garden for several years. They came, and they went. We've not seen them for quite a few years now.

  12. TANSTAAFL, as I'm sure assembled company will agree, The cost of suppling water and disposing of it after use must fall upon the consumers of water. So now we face massive rises in our water bills in order to catch up with the neglect resulting from water companies being better at financial engineering than the civil kind.

    Water supply and sewage disposal are essential services and natural monopolies. We've tried privatisation, maybe we should draw our stumps on that one.

    1. You may draw your stimps on TANSTAAFL, Joseph B. Fox, but I haven't a clue what you are on about. Similarly with jeremy Morfey who states above that both the Northern and Southern routes from Oxford to Cambridge start at Oxford and end at Cambridge. Surely one of them starts at Cambridge and ends at Oxford?

        1. As far as I can tell it doesn't matter where Jeremy lives, he is unlikely to drive to Oxford before then driving to Cambridge would he? Are both you (Joseph) and jeremy both in need of an extra lie-in and a mug of tea and/or coffee before you post here? Or is it me? PS – I see that you have amended your "stimps" to "stumps". I still have no idea, however, what TANSTAAFL means. Can you help me?

      2. Where I live, Oxford is closer than Cambridge. It would be perverse for me to start in Cambridge!

          2. I am assuming that GIFY! is some kind of an insult, Joseph, either to BoB or to me. But I am not prepared to continue our conversations on acronyms. I suspect you are just trying to bait me. Schadenfreude is not a nice trait to possess.

          3. Google is your friend, apparently Elsie. I had to look it up and I also didn’t know what TANSTAAFL.

          4. What the devil is GIFY?

            I tried looking it up, and could only find a liking for cheesy online images, or 'Gay in Five Years'.

            I could see no connection with Elsie's pedantry suggesting that if I go to Cambridge, I'd have to return home in the opposite direction.

    3. There was no neglect – bonuses were paid on time, executive remuneration kept up above inflation and those in possession of share options well rewarded for their investment in their aspirational abilities.

      That is the only remit for such a business. Avoiding dumping sewage in rivers and beaches, and fixing leaks – well that's not productive and a drain on the company. If customers want that sort of thing, they should pay for it themselves, and not rely on money from bills which legally belongs to the executives by order of the regulator.

      Hard decisions must be made.

  14. G'Day all,

    A lovely dawn at McPhee Towers today, wind Nor'-West, 1℃ rising to 6℃.

    It's always useful to hear the wise opinions of VDH. Six minutes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucwPWzjlyQ
    A longer podcast (1 hr 16 min) with his views on the Trump administration and the USA's future, in which he reveals that the world nearly lost him last year when he was stung by bees on his farm and went into anaphylactic shock. He was reached by rescue workers who knew what to do in the nick of time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-1RZML5FnE&t=3780s

  15. G'Day all,

    A lovely dawn at McPhee Towers today, wind Nor'-West, 1℃ rising to 6℃.

    It's always useful to hear the wise opinions of VDH. Six minutes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LucwPWzjlyQ
    A longer podcast (1 hr 16 min) with his views on the Trump administration and the USA's future, in which he reveals that the world nearly lost him last year when he was stung by bees on his farm and went into anaphylactic shock. He was reached by rescue workers who knew what to do in the nick of time.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-1RZML5FnE&t=3780s

    1. Seems a military helicopter got in the way of a regional jet on (final?) approach.
      What was the chopper doing there in the first place, in the terminal control area? Were they playing silly buggers by trying to be stealthy in the heavy traffic area, where the pilots are heads-down and busy with controlling and checklists – not that it would be easy to see and even more difficult to avoid…

      1. I believe one of the last things asked of the chopper pilot was to look out of the bloody window.

    2. Seems a military helicopter got in the way of a regional jet on (final?) approach.
      What was the chopper doing there in the first place, in the terminal control area? Were they playing silly buggers by trying to be stealthy in the heavy traffic area, where the pilots are heads-down and busy with controlling and checklists – not that it would be easy to see and even more difficult to avoid…

  17. Good morning all.
    A clear morning so far, with the thermometer showing 0.1°C after yesterday's maximum of 7.9°C.
    Nothing in particular planned, so it'll be giving the chainsaw another touch up with the round file and more wood chopping, though if it warms up a little, I might give the van a wash!

    1. Close, King Stephen, but I do find it intensely frustrating that people use acronyms which are incomprehensible to me and don't both to explain them. I guessed that AFAICT meant As Far As I Can Tell, but it took BoB (Bob of Bonsall) who took the trouble to explain TANSTAAFL to me.

  19. Lord Sugar, known for his sharply sceptical tone, also described Brexit as "the biggest disaster in [his] lifetime".
    "It is now [that] the full ramifications of us not being in the European Union is starting to really take its toll," he says. He thinks rejoining might help the UK out of its current trouble.
    "If I was Prime Minister, I would be coming along on my bended knees and asking to be allowed back in," he says.
    Lord Sugar, speaking to BBC Breakfast to mark the launch of series 19 of the Apprentice"

    Various profanities are available to express outrage of one who disrespects the democratic mandate to leave the EU and all those who plotted to thwart the leaving process. The worst profanities are reserved for the duplicitous seeking to entrap GB in the EU!

      1. Indeed it does. I never said it doesn't. My point is about those thwarting the democratic will.

    2. No Lord Sugar, Blair was the biggest disaster, and amongst his appalling pieces of deception was tying us up in knots inside the EU so that his acolyte Brown would eventually sign the Lisbon treaty.

    3. The Apprentice – there are several "shows" on the BBC which are well past their sell-by date – The Apprentice is surely one of the worst, and should be among the first to be culled!?

    4. The Apprentice – there are several "shows" on the BBC which are well past their sell-by date – The Apprentice is surely one of the worst, and should be among the first to be culled!?

    6. As a champion of British enterprise, I am surprised that Lord Sugar admits so readily that the British are no longer capable of supporting themselves without the supervision of a superior foreign power. Money for growth is at best a sugar hit.

      His show is all about talentless numpties bragging their way forward with cliche, deceit and chutzpah.

      I had my suspicions when I voted in 2016, but it needed to be put to the test.

      It is too late for me now to join in the recovery – I was born in 1956 and I will never work again, nor have the energy to fight my way through the mire.

  21. Good morning, all. A fine day in prospect.

    I've listened to this piece twice and, bearing in mind what Reeves has done and is planning to do, I am at a loss how this twerp can be so enthusiastic. And as for animal spirits, since when has the Labour party been into zoolatry? Is it more likely that he's purveying plain old bullshit? That's as close to animal spirits as I can link his piece.

    https://x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1884506324081250747

  22. Peter Hitchens asks.. Would the King and Starmer prefer our new subs to be called HMS Retreat, HMS Victim Support and HMS NHS?

    2. The Idiot King is determined to live up to his sobriquet.

      I saw him on GB News last night and they also showed the clip in which he said: "Diversity is our strength".

  23. What's wrong with me? (Please limit your answers to 10,000 words at a time please!) I slept through this morning's interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Did I miss anything?

    1. When it was suggested that we could send our illegals to Ascension Island, we were told that there was no accommodation for them there. So we spent the next year or so building some. (Only joking.)

      1. If the government had any good negotiators they would be making bulk orders for tents in which to house illegal immigrants. I see that MIllets are currently having a sale and offering grand reductions.

        It would be the culturally sensitive thing to do because many of those people come from countries where a fair proportion of the population live live in shanties and have nomadic roots.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/029431e2af69d2bc1fc22032d76371d03acb5e1f616b89c53544a41ff8d28cdd.png

  26. Germany federal elections on 23 February 2025.. Another Donald II upset on the cards..
    .
    JUST IN: The German left is now calling for a BAN on the CDU and the AfD.
    That is over 50% of the voting population, according to polling.

    LOL. Dontcha just love Lefties? Starmer scribbles down copious notes.

      1. From "on this day" in the Times:

        in 1933 Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, became chancellor of Germany;

      2. From "on this day" in the Times:

        in 1933 Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, became chancellor of Germany;

    2. One would have thought that the Germans especially would have learnt the lesson of banning opposing political parties (14th July 1933).

      1. And suppression of free speech. The Left don't care. They accuse their enemies of what they are.

    3. And still there are people who claim the Nazi's were far right even when the left demonstrate unequivocally that they are the real Nazi's.

        1. If they learn from their predecessors then Pol Pot as he's the most recent, otherwise pick your "favourite" despot.

    1. "By a vote of 348 to 345, the German parliament voted to close the borders to all those not permitted to enter the country."

      Sounds like a vote for something already in place that's just not being followed.

      Edited for a bit of gibberish.

      1. This should be the default, not the unusual. Besides, I'm sure 345 are now fighting desperately to ensure that gimmigrants are still let in.

    2. "By a vote of 348 to 345, the German parliament voted to close the borders to all those not permitted to enter the country."

      Sounds like a vote for something already in place that's just not being followed.

      Edited for a bit of gibberish.

    3. "By a vote of 348 to 345, the German parliament voted to close the borders to all those not permitted to enter the country."

      Sounds like a vote for something already in place that's just not being followed.

      Edited for a bit of gibberish.

  29. Yo and Good Moaning to you all, from a Sunny C d S.

    The Cental Heating is on and the Solar Panels are charging.

  30. Morning all 🙂😊
    Lovely Sunny start again, but was frosty overnight..
    Labour as most recent governments have are obviously making an absolute catastrophic mess of everything that they come into contact with. And raising taxes on a massive scale in order to cover up their own increasingly large blackhole.

  31. Today in FSB Clive Matelas uses historic official data to predict that demographically, and therefore politically, UK may be a Muslim state in the near future, though given the ONS’ predictions of millions of more immigrants in the next few years, it might be sooner than that.

    Yesterday was the beginning of Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake , and Zhang YingYue’s lovely piece gives an introduction to Chinese ‘horoscopology’, and includes some spectacular Lion Dancing.

    Energy watch 08.30. Demand: 42.02GW. UK generation: 37.57 GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 41.6%; Wind 27.4%; Imports 12.3%; Biomass 5.7% and Nuclear 9.8%. Solar: 0%.

    We are importing – very expensively – almost 13% of our demand for electric power from the continent while cheaper UK gas powered stations are off-line but still being paid – the economics of the mad house.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. "………UK may be a Muslim state in the near future, though given the ONS’ predictions of millions of more immigrants in the next few years, it might be sooner than that."

      Good morning, Tom.

      Have you some reliable statisticians to hand and if so when is the near future – i.e. in how many years' time? (and when is sooner than that!)

      At 78 it will probably not come in my lifetime but my sons are aged 29 and 31 respectively.

      2. By the next election it will be to late. That is the reality of the situation. I am now 76. I may not die in an Islamic Britain but I will not be surprised if I do. People really need to wake up and wake up fast. I honestly believe we are on the brink of civil war and that is why the government is cracking down on speech. It is trying to control the situation but because it isn't honest about the situation, it is cracking down on everyone, like a beast flailing around because it does not want to face reality and sees everyone as the enemy because it has trapped itself in its own lies. There is only one danger but the government must pretend that danger comes from the Right, as well as Islam. You will notice they are blind to left wing extremism which really exists and is the handmaid of Islam. We also have a civil service in the control of Islam and until that is dealt with we will be continuously undermined.

        The Islamic Network Really Running Britain

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daH7Nn-6gj8

        1. It’s not just the Home Office, there’s a Civil Service Muslim Network (CSMN) which “is the sole cross-government, departmental umbrella network representing and supporting departmental Muslim networks and civil servants”.

          As a civil servant almost 20 years ago, anything along these lines would have been forbidden and, even now, it seems counter to the Civil Service code which includes “‘integrity’ is putting the obligations of public service above your own personal interests, ‘objectivity’ is basing your advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence, ‘impartiality’ is acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving equally well governments of different political persuasions”.

      3. By the next election it will be to late. That is the reality of the situation. I am now 76. I may not die in an Islamic Britain but I will not be surprised if I do. People really need to wake up and wake up fast. I honestly believe we are on the brink of civil war and that is why the government is cracking down on speech. It is trying to control the situation but because it isn't honest about the situation, it is cracking down on everyone, like a beast flailing around because it does not want to face reality and sees everyone as the enemy because it has trapped itself in its own lies. There is only one danger but the government must pretend that danger comes from the Right, as well as Islam. You will notice they are blind to left wing extremism which really exists and is the handmaid of Islam. We also have a civil service in the control of Islam and until that is dealt with we will be continuously undermined.

        The Islamic Network Really Running Britain

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daH7Nn-6gj8

    2. Given there's some 70GW of windmills, why are they only supplying 11% of our energy needs? What're the rest doing?

  32. Today in FSB Clive Matelas uses historic official data to predict that demographically, and therefore politically, UK may be a Muslim state in the near future, though given the ONS’ predictions of millions of more immigrants in the next few years, it might be sooner than that.

    Yesterday was the beginning of Chinese New Year and the Year of the Snake , and Zhang YingYue’s lovely piece gives an introduction to Chinese ‘horoscopology’, and includes some spectacular Lion Dancing.

    Energy watch 08.30. Demand: 42.02GW. UK generation: 37.57 GW. Supply: Hydrocarbons 41.6%; Wind 27.4%; Imports 12.3%; Biomass 5.7% and Nuclear 9.8%. Solar: 0%.

    We are importing – very expensively – almost 13% of our demand for electric power from the continent while cheaper UK gas powered stations are off-line but still being paid – the economics of the mad house.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  33. To mark the milestone of 69,000 subscribers, Matt Goodwin is offering a one-time discount on subscriptions (expires at 10pm tonight). Quote from his latest article:

    "I don’t know about you but I genuinely believe that this is one of only a handful of platforms that consistently and credibly challenges many of the narratives that are imposed on us from above —and I’m really proud of that.

    I do think this community of ours is a haven of sorts for the Forgotten Majority, a place where they can join together and draw strength from that solidarity.

    So, look, if you’ve not considered supporting us so we can keep doing all this then, please, consider doing so today.

    To mark reaching 69,000 supporters you can grab an annual membership, a full year, for 69% of the usual rate and then know you are helping us hire more people, spread our message, and speak up for hardworking people who love their country.

    That’s £4.31 a month or £0.99 pence a week. And the discount expires in about 12 hours."
    https://www.mattgoodwin.org/p/we-are-69000-strong

  37. 400758+ up ticks,

    The pertinent question that will be asked in today's current caring society is, will he have grounds to apply for a return ticket refund, as in, will that be necessary ?

    Former Obama administration adviser flew to Britain to rape nine-year-old girl
    Banker and counter-terror expert was caught by undercover officer posing as grandmother of victim who did not exist

    Gift this article free
    Rahamim Shy
    Rahamim Shy was trapped by an undercover police officer to whom he sent graphic messages about his plans for his victim, who did not really exist Credit: Crown Prosecution Service/PA Wire
    Max Stephens.

    Connor Stringer
    Deputy US Editor
    29 January 2025 9:36pm GMT
    A former policy adviser to Barack Obama’s administration flew to Britain planning to rape a nine-year-old child…

  38. Back from the market. Bluss it was cold. Zero degrees. The weird thing (to this old ignoramus) was that earlier it was warmer. The Sun comes out and the temperature plummets. Can't figure it out.

    Thank God for the woodburner.

    1. Yer sun sets the surface air rising which is cold having been in contact with the cooled earth overnight. Pilots should be aware of fog soon after sunrise!

  39. I was somewhat amused by the following which came up in a Telegraph Weekend Codeword. 13 letters, and I had guessed the Es and the Rs (the Ys were a given letter:

    3 6 8 8 e ry 5 2 7 e r y

    The word, a noun, has 2 parts. There's quite a lot of it about these days. Answer in 20 minutes.

      1. Well done!

        I was working on buggery being the first word!

        Qui est un garçon intelligent, alors!

          1. I know who did it – he is normally very friendly. Could have been “fat finger”, I suppose.

  40. I was somewhat amused by the following which came up in a Telegraph Weekend Codeword. 13 letters, and I had guessed the Es and the Rs (the Ys were a given letter:

    3 6 8 8 e ry 5 2 7 e r y

    The word, a noun, has 2 parts. There's quite a lot of it about these days. Answer in 20 minutes.

  43. 400758+ up ticks,

    One wonders how the warning would have been worded had she physically poked her tongue out to accompany the rhetoric, " You will be taken henceforth at dawn tomorrow into the yard……."

    Met Police officer who called black colleagues ‘cotton pickers’ given final warning
    Pc Mia Korell was found to have committed gross misconduct in using the term ‘cotton pickers’ to describe her black colleagues

        1. Many years ago I had a girlfriend who worked as a secretary to Prince Philip at Buckingham Palace. One of the perks of her job was that they allowed palace staff to use the royal box at The Albert Hall when the royal family wasn't using it. She took me to see Gordon Lightfoot who has always be one of my favourites.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-q-7pLOEcBs

  45. Morning all. Sunny, no wind for Millipede. Nothing much to comment on.

    The Telegraph letter is about a self evident truth that Labour has no idea and are engaged in running the country into the ground.

    Plane crash in DC, tragic. There's little to say about such things. I tend to feel sorry for the living who's lives are irrevocably changed and not for the better by such dreadful events.

        1. The Tower asked the helio pilot if he could see the aircraft.

          I think that was the mistake. Tower should have moved them out of the flight path of the descending aircraft.

        2. The pictures of the flight path also show the black hawk flew close to the White House.

          At best poorly planned.

    1. Well done! Good guessing seems to be a happy trait that you possess. I guess that it is largely based on a very good grasp of words.

      1. I have a list of previous answers and check before I enter a new guess. It can be frustrating when all the guesses have been used before.

    2. Better than mine
      Wordle 1,321 4/6

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

  48. Good day, NoTTLers,

    Headlines like this Telegraph Article from yesterday (below) really make my blood boil: "Britain relying on foreign mothers to keep fertility rates up". For goodness sake, we are already an overcrowded island. A large and increasing proportion of the inhabitants do not work, or work in low-skilled jobs that carry benefits with them. A large and increasing increasing proportion of the inhabitants are actively damaging to our society. A large and increasing proportion of our society are third-world in both intelligence level and in their behaviour. Why the he££ do we need to "keep fertility rates up"? We don't. We don't need to replace every single head in this country, we need the number to decline, and for a greater proportion of those of working age to actually work in a job that doesn't carry benefits with it.

    "Britain relying on foreign mothers to keep fertility rates up

    The fertility rate for foreign-born mothers has increased in the past two years to 2.03 children per woman. This puts it close to the so-called replacement rate of at least 2.1 children per mother, which the UK needs to sustain its population.

    However, the foreign-born fertility rate is nearly a third (31 per cent) higher than that of UK-born mothers, whose rate has fallen to just 1.54, which is well below the level needed for population growth and puts it on track for long-term decline.

    It means the overall national fertility rate is now 1.6, which is the joint lowest since records began two decades ago and on par with most European nations, where fertility rates have fallen to 1.4. Among the lowest globally are China (1.2), Japan (1.3) and Canada (1.3).

    The data, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also mirrors its projections on the UK’s population, which showed it would remain static without immigration.

    Net migration of 4.9 million will account for the entire rise in the UK population to 72.5 million in 2032. The ONS projected that, between 2022 and 2032, some 9,914,000 people will move to the UK long-term, while 4,978,000 are anticipated to emigrate.

    In 2023, one in three babies were born to a foreign-born mother, up from a quarter in 2008, and one in four were born to parents who were both foreign-born.

    In more than one in 10 local authorities (33 out of 317), greater than 50 per cent of live births were to foreign-born mothers, rising to 76 per cent in the London borough of Brent and 75 per cent in Newham in east London.

    Between 2022 and 2023, the number of babies born to foreign-born mothers increased by 2.6 per cent. This was driven by mothers from Western Africa (up 32.5 per cent), India (up 21.2 per cent) and Bangladesh (up 12.6 per cent).

    ‘They do not consider it a pressing issue’
    Although the fertility rate of foreign-born mothers has increased in the past two years, it has steadily declined from its peak two decades ago, when it was averaging 2.46.

    Experts have attributed this to increased integration within the UK, improved education and income levels and a shift towards delaying childbearing, in tune with many UK-born mothers.

    Dr Paula Sheppard, of Oxford University, said: “University-educated women only start seeing the timing of when they have children as an important decision at age 33. Before this, it seems they do not consider it a pressing issue.

    She continued: “This contrasts with all other groups for whom baby timing is a significant factor from the youngest ages (21 for university-educated men and 18 for non-university-educated men and women).”

    Another factor driving the higher birth rate among foreign-born mothers is the number of migrants bringing their spouses and families.

    New analysis of work visas shows that a third of nationalities have more dependants than workers arriving in the year ending September 2024.

    This includes 21,102 Zimbabwean dependants for 5,107 workers, 29,625 Nigerian dependants for 7,926 workers and 11,249 Ghanaian dependants for 4,809 workers."

    Load of bollox.

      1. Ah, but we need more immigrants in order to treat those children. The rest of us can just FOAD. And we must make first cousin marriage illegal because we must respect their customs, argued a muslim MP. (Anyway, they would just go and get married in Pakistan or Bangla.) WTF?

          1. You would think that after the first one or at most two, that couple would have learnt something, but obviously not. Never mind, we are paying for their treatment (the offspring, that is – there’s no cure for stupid). That couple obviously did their bit in “Britain relying on foreign mothers to keep fertility rates up”, i.e. replacing our population.

          2. Someone i went to school with who is indigenous white, his wife had six miscarriages one after another.

            I think after two they should have considered adopting.

            There is no cure for stupid.

          3. To be fair, there are some people who simply don’t want to adopt. Also, the adoption agencies can be terribly picky as to age etc., and also there are not that many indigenous babies for adoption.

    3. we are already an overcrowded island.

      The Demographic time bomb is real. South Korea & Han people are about to disappear, believe it or not.
      My friend in Wales tells me.. on his road in the countryside.. every single family neighbour has zero kids bar 1 or 2.. all had about 5 siblings growing up.
      In China, the "lying flat" movement is real. After one child policy followed by lots of kids to zero kids.
      Anyhow. It's how you go about it that's the problem. Why not pay the Welsh to breed? Much preferable to paying for a hairy a rsed violent low IQ migrant to roam the streets late at night for his jollies.

      1. The indigenous aren't breeding, but the flow of incomers (who breed like rabbits) more than makes up for it.
        Also, as the countries the incomers come from get a reduction in population, the West not only pays them for food, but their populations continue to breed as before – and there's no starvation to make the numbers reaching adulthood more reasonable. Result: Global overcrowding and food problems.

      3. “Paying the Welsh” to breed could encourage animals like Axel R and his ilk to spread his seed around. Before you pay or encourage anyone, you need to make very sure exactly who is covered.

      4. Orban in Hungary put in place support for indigenous women to have children. I think Russia did too. Well above child benefits.

      5. When AI spreads its wings there will be highly paid jobs and minimum wage gigs and not much else. A demographic timebomb could be a blessing in disguise.

    5. It's conflating two fallacies: that we need immigration and that those immigrants contribute to society. The last statistic – 11,000 dependents and less than half are workers. I don't imagine they're all high paid whizzkids so that's a net loss of 11,000.

      We simply don't need or want the population we have. In 97 the birth rate was falling because people were having children later in life. Our technology allowed this. The result was a highly educated, richer, older population.

      However crime was lower. Welfare demands were far lower. Academic outcomes were higher. Bluntly, we were going in the righ direction for a high tech, advanced society.

      Then Labour got in and realised that rich, bright old people don't vote for socialism and flooded the country with dindus and wasters, gave brats cash and a free house when they got pregnant and this became a lifestyle choice.

      In short, that highly educated, intelligent workforce of law abiding contributing citizens has been replaced with idle foreigners who live on welfare and organised crime.

    6. 'They' want an expanding population to justify the ever expanding bureaucracy. If the population was stabilised at 50 million we wouldn't need new houses and other infrastructure.

      We could also decimate the civil service and NGO's.

    7. When you import a race of people with an average IQ of room temperature, you get very few workers and a hell of a lot of useless welfare dependents.

  49. Good day, NoTTLers,

    Headlines like this Telegraph Article from yesterday (below) really make my blood boil: "Britain relying on foreign mothers to keep fertility rates up". For goodness sake, we are already an overcrowded island. A large and increasing proportion of the inhabitants do not work, or work in low-skilled jobs that carry benefits with them. A large and increasing increasing proportion of the inhabitants are actively damaging to our society. A large and increasing proportion of our society are third-world in both intelligence level and in their behaviour. Why the he££ do we need to "keep fertility rates up"? We don't. We don't need to replace every single head in this country, we need the number to decline, and for a greater proportion of those of working age to actually work in a job that doesn't carry benefits with it.

    "Britain relying on foreign mothers to keep fertility rates up

    The fertility rate for foreign-born mothers has increased in the past two years to 2.03 children per woman. This puts it close to the so-called replacement rate of at least 2.1 children per mother, which the UK needs to sustain its population.

    However, the foreign-born fertility rate is nearly a third (31 per cent) higher than that of UK-born mothers, whose rate has fallen to just 1.54, which is well below the level needed for population growth and puts it on track for long-term decline.

    It means the overall national fertility rate is now 1.6, which is the joint lowest since records began two decades ago and on par with most European nations, where fertility rates have fallen to 1.4. Among the lowest globally are China (1.2), Japan (1.3) and Canada (1.3).

    The data, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also mirrors its projections on the UK’s population, which showed it would remain static without immigration.

    Net migration of 4.9 million will account for the entire rise in the UK population to 72.5 million in 2032. The ONS projected that, between 2022 and 2032, some 9,914,000 people will move to the UK long-term, while 4,978,000 are anticipated to emigrate.

    In 2023, one in three babies were born to a foreign-born mother, up from a quarter in 2008, and one in four were born to parents who were both foreign-born.

    In more than one in 10 local authorities (33 out of 317), greater than 50 per cent of live births were to foreign-born mothers, rising to 76 per cent in the London borough of Brent and 75 per cent in Newham in east London.

    Between 2022 and 2023, the number of babies born to foreign-born mothers increased by 2.6 per cent. This was driven by mothers from Western Africa (up 32.5 per cent), India (up 21.2 per cent) and Bangladesh (up 12.6 per cent).

    ‘They do not consider it a pressing issue’
    Although the fertility rate of foreign-born mothers has increased in the past two years, it has steadily declined from its peak two decades ago, when it was averaging 2.46.

    Experts have attributed this to increased integration within the UK, improved education and income levels and a shift towards delaying childbearing, in tune with many UK-born mothers.

    Dr Paula Sheppard, of Oxford University, said: “University-educated women only start seeing the timing of when they have children as an important decision at age 33. Before this, it seems they do not consider it a pressing issue.

    She continued: “This contrasts with all other groups for whom baby timing is a significant factor from the youngest ages (21 for university-educated men and 18 for non-university-educated men and women).”

    Another factor driving the higher birth rate among foreign-born mothers is the number of migrants bringing their spouses and families.

    New analysis of work visas shows that a third of nationalities have more dependants than workers arriving in the year ending September 2024.

    This includes 21,102 Zimbabwean dependants for 5,107 workers, 29,625 Nigerian dependants for 7,926 workers and 11,249 Ghanaian dependants for 4,809 workers."

    Load of bollox.

    1. The ultimate irony will be that a Reform government might well get any economic benefits of such a runway.
      The same applies to the Oxbridge links.

      1. Michael Oleary Ryannair CEO says if the new runway gets the go ahead it will still be 25 years before it is open.

        He should know.

        1. I think that'd be a short time frame. It'll be dragged through a decade of lawfare first, most of that by the sewage khan.

          5. There's a seventh, a short one that went right through the central area – you can see stubs of it pointing NW-SE, about 130/310 degrees.

        3. Yes, as I posted recently:
          – Lots of legal challenges over the runway
          – Lots of challenges over the compulsory purchase of land and buildings
          – Slow planning process
          – Slow construction process
          and just the impossibility of the UK getting on with anything…

          1. Lots of money laundering in the style of HS2 and if the runway ever does emerge, it'll be private jets only.

          1. The Chinese would have done it in a month. Obviously the concrete needs another week then planes landing from all over !

    1. You've only got to look at the immigration staff at Heathrow to see that few of them are indigenous English.

      1. Allister Heath
        Starmer must sack lunatic Miliband to save Britain
        Red Ed is a delusional fanatic who birthed our ruinous approach to net zero – he will soon destroy both the UK and his party

        Allister Heath 29 January 2025 7:11pm GMT
        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/724a00b85b1eab64d3fd65b627afe18ac6a1e0a44d1a68b22ee252d794e3c34c.png
        Here’s a suggestion for Sir Keir Starmer. If he wants us to take his professed conversion to pro-growth capitalism seriously, he should immediately sack Ed Miliband.

        The Secretary of State for Energy is the author of the dreadful Climate Change Act, a supporter of wealth taxes, and the pro-growth agenda’s public enemy number one. Kicking out Miliband, who more than any other politician symbolises Labour’s pathological hatred of free markets, would do more to rekindle the economy’s animal spirits than any gimmick dreamt up by the Treasury.

        The former Labour leader, who once threatened to resign from government if Heathrow was expanded, didn’t bother to attend Rachel Reeves’s pro-third runway speech: his vision for Britain is incompatible with the Chancellor’s desperate need to boost GDP. Net zero fanatics, of which he is the honorary leader, want fewer of us to travel by plane. They hate cars, and oppose building the Lower Thames Crossing, another good idea that Reeves now claims to support.

        Miliband’s plan to green the grid by 2030, which will lead to even pricier and scarcer energy, will cripple Reeves’s Oxford-Cambridge growth corridor. High-tech firms require cheap and plentiful energy, especially in the pursuit of AI (and this remains true even in the post- DeepSeek era), and they are not going to find any in Miliband’s Britain. Even increased house-building and new towns are a problem for the reactionary de‑growthers, as real-world homes are carbon-intensive.

        Starmer has a massive problem. Even he must occasionally realise his policies are ruining the economy, not least his extension to workers’ “rights”, the phasing out of North Sea oil and gas, the higher taxes on working people, the deranged profligacy, the war on private schools, the wanton destruction of standards in the state sector, and the obsession with tying everything that moves in red tape, even football clubs.

        Reeves is obviously panicking, and could take him down with her: lower gilt yields have granted Britain a temporary respite, but the Chancellor is staring into the abyss. The policies she is proposing this week, if they eventually materialise, would all be positive for the economy over the next decade, though they would not be as transformative as some seem to think, given the scale of the economy’s woes.

        The Prime Minister desperately needs Reeves’s new-found agenda to be implemented, if only to shift vibes, but he also needs some shorter term, more urgent wins.

        This will require choosing between his increasingly panicky Chancellor and his Energy Secretary. While the nonsensical official line remains that “there is no trade-off between economic growth and net zero”, it is obvious that diluting the latter would be the easiest way to eek out gains.

        We need more roads and runways. We can’t ban new petrol cars in four years and 11 months. The five-year carbon budgets that govern all of British economic activity and legislation are too tough. The Climate Change Committee should no longer wield this much power. It would be better to get rid of Miliband now, even at the cost of a massive rift within the Labour party.

        .

        1. They are all equally deluded – Mad Red Ed and the Crazy Reeves Thieves and Two Tier Starmer. Who will rid us of these charlatans?

        2. "The Secretary of State for Energy is the author of the dreadful Climate Change Act, a supporter of wealth taxes, and the pro-growth agenda’s public enemy number one."

          That's not his full title is it? His full title makes a mockery of his actions. He is the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, mutually exclusive objectives.

    2. Patrick can set up his own channel on YouTube or X and he'll make a good living from subs and ad revenue. Best to skip the four heart attacks.

  54. Hot off the press: The Norwegian government is in process of collapsing. The second biggest party, SV, does not agree with the Labour party (biggest) that Norway must sign up to EU climate directives – that will be disadvantageous for Norway, further increasing the cost of electricity.
    So, the Prime Arsehole Minister will have to move fast to create another government.
    Excellent! At last someone had the balls to give the finger to the EU.

    1. We had a very civilised Turkish Muslim friend who kept his boat in Marmaris. He used to sail regularly to Simi, a Greek island a day's sail away, where he bought pork, bacon, whisky and gin!

        2. He was what I call a CofE Muslim – one who says he's a Muslim with the same level of veracity as some members of the CofE say they are Christian!

          He had been brought up in Paris, where his father was the ambassador and he himself had worked in the diplomatic service.

          He said that when Turkey was at a crossroads between being Muslim or being Christian the country took the wrong path.

          Indeed people such as he were very enthusiastic about Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) who brought about the lay state and against Erdogan who is undoing all the good that Atatürk did.

        1. Give me some time and I can list at least 12—15 top-rated single malts; from various locations, lowland, highland and island; and with various degrees of smokiness (or lack of it).

  56. Good Afternoon.
    Bright yellow thing in the sky.
    Spartie and I made sure we wore our tin foil hats when we went for our walk.
    Can't be too careful.

  57. Just walked to the bottle bank. Lovely sunshine – but, bluss, it is cold. Then set three mole traps. Now trying to re-establish feeling in my hands…..

    1. It's on his doorstep.
      The council did a cost benefit analysis and concluded that his consumption was such that it is cheaper to leave one there than have other people leaving bottles by the side and getting broken, because he's filled up the public ones.

    1. Like when you replenish 'his' barstocks at the supermarket

      The same withe sweet things of course

  60. Right Rev John Perumbalath resigns as Bishop of Liverpool and retires.

    One of the good old Lancashire Perumbalaths.

    He was appointed Bishop despite allegations of sexual misconduct.

    I am agog to see what peccadillos the next Archprick(ess) of Canterbury will bring to the party.

    2. Of the women, the worthy candidate would appear to be Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle, described by the guys at Anglican Ink/Anglican Unscripted as the only one with any balls and no, they don't mean that she's trans! That will ensure that she's overlooked of course. Someone with principles who speaks out is the last thing Starmer wants.

      1. Very good! How do you cope?

        By the way – was the down vote you gave me this morning meant? Or an error?

        1. Is it still there, I though I removed it. Its my fat fingers.. too many years pressing buttons for a living. Surprised it hasn't caused a storm on here!

          1. Bill gets a bit tetchy about downvotes. At least the button you pressed only delivered a can of diet coke as opposed to a thermo nuclear missile launch.

  61. Tragedy on the Potomac.
    Once I read that back in the day, when an aviator made a fatal error, Americans would say that he got "sucked in".
    Anyone remember that expression?
    Did it originate in Vietnam, or was it civil?

    1. By standing infront of the intake of a gas-turbine (ie jet) aircraft.

      The Rolls Royce Spey Engine of the UK Phantom aircraft could suck a ton of air through its system, per minute.

      Aircraft being ground run had 'Debris Guards' fitted to prevent this happening. It would easily suck in a human

      1. Yes I understand that risk, would result in an awful mess.
        But my reference to 'sucked in' would be figurative, as in 'sucked into believing he is correct', like being 'in the zone' (i.e. The Twilight Zone).
        Coincidentally, two days ago the inquest verdict on the Leicester City helicopter crash (2018) was announced.
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2jx7gqgx5o#:~:text=The%20football%20club's%20chairman%20Vichai,crash%20on%2027%20October%202018.
        They blame the tail rotor actuator design rather than maintenance.

  62. Muslim Judges, Muslim Police Officers, Muslim Mayors, Muslim Councillors, Muslim MPs.. all in cahoots.
    Nick Griffin & Yaxley Lennon been on about this for years..

    Thirty years later.. Oh btw Two former South Yorkshire police officers have been arrested on suspicion of historical child sexual abuse offences, dating back to 1995 …

    1. Of course the Lefties immediately draw attention to the Glasgow child sex abuse gang.. because it is exactly the same, identical in fact.. thus proving beyond all reasonable doubt Muslims are a benefit to all societies.

          8. Apparently there is a fish shaped comet which is going to destroy the planet on Friday March 12th 2045. Good day for frying.

            I will be enjoying my fish and chips while all around me are screaming in fear or not…

  65. I could be wrong but the air accident in Washington could have been deliberate – the helicopter appeared to fly towards the plane.

      1. He didn't reply when warned by the control tower, "PAT25, do you have a CRJ in sight? PAT25, pass behind the CRJ," an air traffic controller says at 8:47 p.m. (0147 GMT), according to a recording on http://liveatc.net ." and the headlines say "More than 60 feared dead after jet hits helicopter, crashes into Washington river" but it appeared to be the other way round – helicopter flew into the jet.

        1. He may have seen the one taking off to the south and thought that was the aircraft he should follow. Not easy to identify aircraft at night in a sea of lights. Flying visually at night in EU land in controlled airspace is not allowed.

          2. Trump is blaming 'diversity hires' – seems like they were perhaps recruiting unsuitable people to meet quotas. Very worrying policy in most areas, especially where safety is paramount.

          3. I agree, but what concerns me about Trump's statement was that when pressed for his source to make the claim he responded "Common sense".

            Whilst it may well be the reason I believe he should have kept quiet until the cause has been established.

          1. I am not. But i do know those helios have state of the art proximity alert warning systems.

            Over.

          4. I see your point…but the AAIB in the UK is regarded as pretty straight. Why should the Yank one be any different?

          8. If you see the radar trace, it's flashing in orange "CA" for both aircraft – Collision Alert – for a period before the collision.

          9. I could have misinterpreted the audio on that clip. but it seemed to be telling the helicopter to land immediately, which it could have done vertically. The plane, of course, couldn't. Fishy, IMO.

    2. No doubt the names and the ethnicities of those on board the chopper will be released in due course.

    5. I don't believe it was intentional. It has been said it was a training flight and when one looks at the approaches the Blackhawk didn't get out of the way as it should have.

      It will be interesting to hear who all the pilots and passengers were in this case but i would like to stress most strongly no Welsh Choir boys were involved.

  66. Yet again, go woke, go broke.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-art-museums-galleries-woke-b1208095.html?lid=adez6c5yhk5u&utm_medium=email&utm_source=braze&utm_campaign=News_email_2025-01-30&utm_term=ES_News_Daily_CDP&empar=a5a4791040899364e61ef9f1d5449150a9c0012b4e500bdb121b158033542c2a

    How the capital's art world went broke on woke
    Lectures on social issues instead of just amazing art: no wonder London’s major galleries are in crisis, says JJ Charlesworth

  67. This month’s deadly and destructive Los Angeles fires that claimed 28 lives burned with such intensity that electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries melted to the ground, creating hazardous conditions as residents began returning to their communities Jan. 28.
    Specialists with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were leading the large-scale cleanup of the batteries Tuesday.

    The Palisades Fire burned more than 36 square miles and tore through neighborhoods full of electric vehicles and solar panels after years of state-sponsored green-energy policies.
    The size of the Palisades fire and number of lithium-ion batteries left behind make it one of the largest hazardous-materials cleanups that local first responders have seen, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Adam VanGerpen.

    “We’ve never seen it on this scale,” VanGerpen told The Epoch Times. “We are talking a very large scale.”
    Lithium-ion batteries are used in cellphones, tablets, laptops, wireless headphones, electric cars, and solar panel storage.
    Many of the batteries and electric vehicles melted after they were abandoned by fleeing residents starting Jan. 7, VanGerpen said.
    “We have to remove the entire vehicle,” he added.

    Actor and Pacific Palisades homeowner James Woods said in a post on social media platform X Monday that the melted electric cars were “creating a real problem for safe debris removal.”

    1. You don't say….

      Well at least all those Hollywood actors who majority voted Green/Democrat have had a wake up call. Though i doubt it. Too busy employing PR to show how virtuous they are… (Tom Hanks with survivors guilt)

      Meagain and Mr Markle spending an afternoon handing out bottles of water for a photo shoot.

  68. Wordle No. 1,321 3/6

    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 30 Jan 2025

    Overendowed Birdie Three?

    1. A good day for my starter word, back in the ballgame!!

      Wordle 1,321 3/6

      ⬜🟩🟨🟨⬜
      🟨🟩🟩⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Good one. After a two yesterday, five today for me.

      Wordle 1,321 5/6

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

      1. Metoo.
        Wordle 1,321 4/6

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

    5. Blimey! This doesn't happen often for me…
      Wordle 1,321 2/6

      🟨⬜🟨🟨🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  69. from Coffee House, the Spectator

    A change in the law letting people demand help from the state to kill themselves is the sort of thing any government ought to take a great deal of time over. It’s an area where thoughtful delay is entirely desirable, with committees of the great and the good encouraged to take a deep breath, hear as many views as possible and take their time over any conclusions. Unfortunately this is the exact opposite of what is happening with the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

    It’s increasingly apparent that this proposal is being treated more as if it were some urgent infrastructure project that needs to be cleared and got under way as soon as decently possible. We have already seen this in the short notice given to parliament of the Bill’s terms and the minimal time allocated for debate. It was also visible in the determined efforts by those in charge of the private member’s bill committee to seemingly skew the evidence it receives towards those in favour of the Bill and limit as far as possible the number of opponents it is prepared to listen to. (The committee had to be shamed into hearing even from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, having previously voted to exclude it because of alleged shortage of time.)

    It’s increasingly likely that this plan to railroad the Bill through will not work

    Yesterday there was another bizarre development. The committee has now apparently proposed using a panel of experts, possibly composed of social workers, psychiatrists and retired judges, to sign off on every request for assisted dying. This comes after the plan to require a High Court judge to sign off on each request was rightly criticised as an egregious waste of court time. It was also seen as being aimed more at outward respectability than effective restraint, since the judge’s function would, it seems, have been largely one of confirming that the doctors had got the forms correct rather than applying his own independent scrutiny.

    Although such a move would admit freeing up family division High Court judges for more important work, this is a pretty preposterous proposal. If approval by the panel remains essentially an exercise of checking that the doctors have got the paperwork right, it’s not clear why you need a collection of experts to do this. And if the panel is supposed to go further and make its own decision on the merits of every case, then the potential for every case to potentially give rise to long-winded arguments between legal, psychiatric and social work professionals – with the possibility of further judicial review of any decisions they take – leaves the mind boggling.

    But really, this misses the point. One suspects that those putting forward the new proposal know pretty well that it is for show more than anything else.

    Kim Leadbeater and her supporters are getting worried. Their previous plan had been simple. They would say that since the House of Commons had agreed to give the Bill a second reading, it was too late for anyone to argue about anything more than points of fairly minor detail. It was therefore just a matter of getting as many reliable supporters onto the committee as possible, hearing from a sufficient number of witnesses to make the process look respectable, accepting the odd minor amendment and presenting the House with a fait accompli.

    Unfortunately, however, it’s increasingly likely that this plan to railroad the Bill through will not work. Worrying numbers of MPs have said they remain unconvinced; many of these precisely on the basis that the provision for High Court judge approval is a mere fig-leaf, and the protection against undue pressure non-existent.

    Hence this new proposal, which is pretty clearly aimed at giving the naysayers an opportunity to gracefully withdraw their opposition by saying that their concerns have now been met. The hope, I suspect, is that even if they know that the change will actually make little difference they will take the easy way out; after all, they are only human and, like all MPs, they will have other matters in their intray and will warmly welcome the opportunity to move on.

    Increasing numbers of MPs are unhappy not only with the Bill as such, but with the determination of the bill committee to suppress as much argument as possible and get it through come what may with as little argument as possible (a determination quietly shared by the government, which would love an opportunity to get the matter off its own plate). We can only encourage them to continue to see the issue as one of principle, reject the invitation to accept a plausible excuse to back off, and vote according to their conscience. Opponents of this wretched measure owe it to us as voters to stand firm and assert their independence.

    Written by
    Andrew Tettenborn
    Andrew Tettenborn is a professor of law at Swansea Law School

    1. It's pretty obvious that supporters of the bill expect any approval by doctors, high court judges or others to be merely a rubber-stamp exercise.

    2. What's the problem? I think it should be legal for anyone to kill people if they're not up to scratch.
      </sarc)

  70. I was listening to his press conference on the car radio, GB News, about the tragic plane / helicopter crash.
    When Trump spoke, the press went hysterical.
    Like people that had never heard the truth spoken before.
    How are they going to report it, without getting cancelled?

    1. Much as I believe too little common sense is used generally, I don't think he should have made that comment when pressed re diversity hires.
      This is not the time to make such a conclusion without genuine evidence.
      In the unlikely event that all those involved are experienced, white, heterosexual MAGA males he's going to look pretty silly.

          2. I suspect that as soon as the ATC recording was published on the internet he would have asked a senior member of staff to get hold of the ATC at the airport and ask a few questions….

    2. Moh and I cringed and grimaced with shock, but laughed at the notion that Trump had suggested that there were dwarf ATCOs directing air traffic from low level positions in the tower and low IQ advisors .. overseeing events .. one shudders with disbelief!

    3. Would have been better if Trump had stuck to platitudes of sorrow rather than finger-pointing before the wreckage is recovered, let alone the investigation completed.
      It does him no favours.

  71. That's me for today. Sunny but cold (weather similar). Tomorrow to be cold and gloomy (weather similar).

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

  73. Which of these DEI hires was to blame for the Air Traffic Controller "incident"?

    Trump read from what he says was the FAA website listing diversity categories.

    'The FAA website states they include hearing, vision, missing extremities, partial paralysis, complete paralysis, epilepsy, severe intellectual disability, psychiatric disability and dwarfism all qualified for the position of a controller of air planes pouring into our country, pouring into a little spot. A little dot on the map. A runway.'

    1. What we do know is the jet was exactly where it should have been on its final approach to the runway, and the helicopter was advised of its presence. Both aircraft were fitted with TCAS collision avoidance system but because it was below 1000 feet, the system couldn't advise them on whether to climb or descend (it normally tells one aircraft to climb and the other to descend, but it was too low for one of them to descend).

    2. Repeated..

      Moh and I cringed and grimaced with shock, but laughed at the notion that Trump had suggested that there were dwarf ATCOs directing air traffic from low level positions in the tower and low IQ advisors .. overseeing events .. one shudders with disbelief!

  74. We had the big tree plucker back down again this morning. It took 20 minutes to get rid of a 50' lime.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1943464f9109f7144ce7f0eec9661611b09a4e6675cf09917660eedd01c144e1.jpg The orange bit on the end has jaws to fold the tree and a chainsaw to cur through it.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/52a38830247eec7e3ef47a8c7fe5d09c571ae98b8d9eda6d713e663304cfc338.jpg It takes the tree apart section by section.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae149af53f9e83494217717ee411f4778449a7b0306d09826b281d88ae6a183f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44b67043ac7981c4b39af49e50b76d22b1558f807505a20b3e93c3a41d6c1fba.jpg You can see the massive pile of logs in this picture.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/925779c6e39ecf239b4c820d0ff90a2ea972a0f4a6f154a5353db01779bf168e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cdb7b1da71e972fe74ed846584734f56969b8c21cd88b2f0b96c70dd0412624.jpg It will, apparently lift half a ton at 30metres!
    Then it picked up it's outriggers, turned round at the junction and trundled back off up the road
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19d9e21e34a603984297821303417c56c32cacbb595dd84c8ed84b2f712770d5.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a8920d5fe5f9674f25188984890ea3dfb373bcde6940f22ff706ba95c5e4aa40.jpg

      1. Too bloody big!!
        Nowhere to park it, plus I'd be stuck for somewhere to store all that wood.

        1. You build a wood store out of some of the wood – then you log and stack the rest.

          Come on, Robert: think laterally!!

    3. Made in Cuneo, Italy. It's a family firm. In the USA there are similar devices for safely reducing trees in built up areas, see Youtube.
      Limewood good for carving. Great photos.

        2. I wonder if he was also treated as was Thomas Chipendale. Who died with very little in his bank account. I think it was 50 pounds. Totally ripped off by the very wealthy people of the UK.

          2. I take it you mean also the same thing happened with all the portraits still on display and probably still goes on in a similar way today.
            The rich certainly certainly didn’t become that wealthy by being honest.

          1. My sister was a Richmond girl at the time and had a connection with Brian Jones. How she met Marianne I don’t know.

        2. A friend from years ago was also a friend of Marianne.

          My friend Sonia became a bunny girl , and then went onto become an air hostess with TWA, she also knew the Stones , and strangely was there when Peter Sellars married Brit whats her name in Guildford .. Those years were strange connected years where everyone knew everyone .

          4. Indeed. Her Swedish name was Eklund but she changed the spelling (to Ekland) in order to sound more 'British'.

  76. And with all that wood to harvest, the chain on my saw has begun trying to cut off straight and it needs a bit more than a touch up with a file.
    OK for up to 4 or 5", but for anything decent, it's hard work even after being sharpened.
    As I'm heading over to see Stepson on Saturday, it's his 52nd birthday, I'll stop off at the Husquy dealer and servicing place in Ipstones and see if they have a replacement chain and can sharpen the old one as a spare.

  78. Have you investigated "diamond" chains?
    I bought one and whilst it was relatively expensive, it worked like the knife through butter cliché.

  79. Marianne Faithfull dead at 78: Pop icon best known for classic As Tears Go By dies as tributes pour in
    RIP

    Although I thought she was best known for Life on Mars

    Perhaps that was David Bowie

    1. Very sad. It's not pleasant seeing your youth bow out and finally leave the stage..
      However, I'm amazed she made it to 28, let alone 78.

      1. She was born in Hampstead three months after I was born in Hampstead.
        Possibly the same nursing home.
        Now a gated private residential property.

    1. That is one of the most dreadful threads I've seen, I'm surprised it hasn't been surpressed.

      The whole makes one ashamed to be British, because the majority could have protested like Muslims after a Koran burning, but nobody did.

        1. A cross-party group of MPs and Lords have set up a new parliamentary caucus to protect free speech from new threats by the Labour government.
          Former Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden set up the new All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) this afternoon, after a number of Bills from the new government were revealed to present a major threat to free speech in Britain. It will be headed up by Mr Holden, alongside Labour MP Graham Stringer, and Baroness Claire Fox. newly-ennobled peer Toby Young, a long-time free speech advocate who set up the Free Speech Union in 2019 to not only campaign against cancel culture but also defend individuals whose jobs and positions have been threatened by anti-free speech campaigners.
          He was installed in the House of Lords yesterday after being nominated for a peerage by Kemi Badenoch. The new APPG will invite speakers to the commons to talk about the importance of free speech, as well as scrutinise all legislation coming from the new Government to insure it does not impinge on Britons’ right to speak freely.
          Speaking to the Express this afternoon, Mr Holden flagged a number of bills already coming down the track which may affect free speech in Britain, including the Football Governance Bill, changes to the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act, and the Employment Rights Bill. Last year it emerged that the friendly-sounding Employment Rights Bill poses a major threat to pub patrons, as bar staff will now be liable for anything offensive said by customers.
          It sparked claims Labour is planning on enforcing ‘banter police’ in bars, pubs, cafes and restaurants. Lord Young said that the change to the law amounts to a “Snowflakes’ charter”. Announcing the new APPG, Richard Holden told the Express that it’s more vital than ever that MPs and peers “come together to defend this most important of values”. “It's clear that whether it's on our university campuses, in our civil service, or even in football, free speech is a big target for those who want to curtail both criticism and free expression and this can have a real chilling effect on normal human discourse and interactions as well as damage the pursuit of knowledge and our ability to challenge ideas. “With sensible and sound Labour MPs on board and well-known free-speech Peers like Claire, Baroness Fox of Buckley and Toby, Lord Young of Acton on side, we'll be able to make a real difference and help defend freedom.”
          Baroness Fox added: “It is brilliant to have this new APPG as it is very important that we legislators across the political spectrum, are alert to a seemingly endless array of threats to free speech.”

  86. Evening all. Not stopping because I am on my phone and have no internet. Effing talk talk have cut me off because they say I haven’t paid although I have sent them proof that I have. Ave atque vale.

      1. I can only concur, but I am locked in until August. I didn’t choose them, they took over the company I was with.

        1. Yes, we ere with Tiscali and TT took them over some time ago. We then went to Virgin who were not much better. We have been with Zen for the last few years, and while they are not cheap we have fond them to be reliable and good customer service.

  87. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2d3ndj3r27o

    A charity has said it is "saddened" that its home care service for end-of-life patients is set to end.

    Marie Curie's contract with the NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board (ICB) to provide care in people's homes will end on 31 March.

    The charity said it would continue exploring what alternative support could be offered to dying people and their families in Dorset.

    NHS Dorset ICB said it had an ongoing responsibility to "offer the best care along with demonstrating value for money".

    Marie Curie currently provides end-of-life care for people both in hospices and at their homes.

    It said it had been given notice by the NHS Dorset ICB that its service contract, which sees its medical staff support people at home, would not be renewed.

    🙏🏻🙏🏻
    Marie Curie nurses are the angels whose presence by the bedsides of terminally ill dear people provide comfort and reassurance .. Marie Curie nurses are amazing people , they really do look after terminally ill people who prefer to stay at home amongst the comfort of their own surroundings . Marie Curie nurses are trained , skilled empathetic professionals . Lloyd Hatton MP for South Dorset is a young inexperienced man .. Labour have betrayed their caring principles for the ordinary person. Labour are now a ruthless cruel party , guilty of malfeasance, doing intentional harm to many , whether physically , mentally or financially.

  91. Well, chums, it's almost midnight, so I'm off to bed. Good Night all, sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  92. Raises culinary debate by eating cheese and onion sammich, with carbonated gin.

    :presses soda stream hopefully: Fail.

    Mmmm, flat gin. The breakfast of champions.

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