Thursday 30 September: The fuel crisis has exposed a PM driving with his hands off the wheel

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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645 thoughts on “Thursday 30 September: The fuel crisis has exposed a PM driving with his hands off the wheel”

    1. Good morrow, Peddy, et al.

      I shall not stop long this morning, as I have an appointment with the Oral Clinic in Ipswich Hospital at 10:00

    2. Good morning, Peter, and all NoTTLers. And a very happy birthday today to One Last Try. And a very happy birthday in advance to Bob3 for October the 7th. I shall be away tomorrow for a break, so no news from me for a while.

  2. A Mule is Not A Nag

    An old country farmer had a wife who nagged him unmercifully. From morning till night she was always complaining about something.

    The only time he got any relief was when he was out ploughing with his old mule. He tried to plough a lot. One day, when he was out ploughing, his wife brought him lunch in the field. He drove the old mule into the shade, sat down on a stump, and began to eat his lunch. Immediately, his wife began nagging him again.

    Complain, nag, complain, nag – it just went on and on. All of a sudden, the old mule lashed out with both hind feet, caught her smack in the back of the head. Killed her dead on the spot.
    At the funeral several days later, the minister noticed something rather odd. When a woman mourner would approach the old farmer, he would listen for a minute, then nod his head in agreement; but when a man mourner approached him, he would listen for a minute, then shake his head in disagreement.

    This was so consistent, the minister decided to ask the old farmer about it. So, after the funeral, the minister spoke to the old farmer, and asked him why he nodded his head and agreed with the women, but always shook his head and disagreed with all the men.

    The old farmer said, ‘Well, the women would come up and say something about how nice my wife looked, or how pretty her dress was, so I’d nod my head in agreement.’

    ‘And what about the men?’ the minister asked.

    ‘They wanted to know if the mule was for sale.’

    1. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale is one of my favourites in The Canterbury Tales. The Tale poses the question of what it is that women want more than anything else and the conclusion is that they want the maistrie or control or domination of their husbands and they can best achieve this by wearing their men down by keeping up an unrelenting grumbling and nagging.

      When I am feeling particularly brave I tease my wife by reminding her that she decided to study languages at Bath rather than Oxford.

      1. Not just women. My ex was a nag too. Defining the relationship so as to put the other person perpetually in the wrong is abusive.

        1. Ditto my ex.I took so much of it and then I would explode.

          Then I would be in the wrong for exploding, when ex was always calm and quiet in his criticisms.

  3. Good Morning Folks,

    Turning a bit colder now another grey start here, I expect i will be getting a few hints about putting the heating on when the wife gets out of bed.

    1. Suggestion for a Christmas present to your dearest wife.

      Neck to ankle quilted dressing gown and bunny slippers.

  7. Good morning, all. Cold – grey and about to rain all day. Just the time to go to hospital twice!

    Is it just me, but when I go to the DT webpage a panel comes up which can’t be deleted asking me to log in or register. That’s a change from yesterday, when there was a different panel with an “X” at the top right corner. So I can’t get to the letters and then use the “esc” key… Grr.

    Anyway, I am off shortly – so have a good morning and play nicely.

  8. Wayne Couzens ‘used police ID and handcuffs to kidnap Sarah Everard’. 30 September 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d94aee25d1798c1243a5016d063c27fe1bfd67d78962a8930fc2854ef7f353c6.png

    Wayne Couzens used his police warrant card and handcuffs to lure Sarah Everard off the street before strangling her with his police belt and burning her body, depriving her family of the chance to say a final goodbye, a court has heard.

    Video footage released on Wednesday showed Couzens, then a serving Metropolitan police officer, staging a false arrest of Everard as she returned from a friend’s house in south London in March during a period of coronavirus lockdown measures.

    Morning everyone. There have been more words printed, condemnation issued and air time expended on this one case than on all of the thousands of rapes carried out in every Northern City combined. I wonder why?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/29/wayne-couzens-used-police-id-to-kidnap-sarah-everard-court-told

    1. It was the right kind of murder and rape for the MSM narrative.
      The murder of the school teacher was clearly the wrong kind.

      1. And in the meantime what about Sabina Nessa ?

        How will the politicians and the MSM react if it turns out to be that her murder was more to do with RoP than RIP?

        1. Unlawful killing, not murder.
          When a man is charged with a woman’s murder, he is presumed innocent and it is for a jury of 12 of his peers to reach a verdict, and sir, you are not one of them.
          (at least whilst you are resident abroad)

          1. Unless there is an EU arrest warrant out on him, in which case presumed innocence goes into the dustbin.The same goes for any EU perceived “crime”.

        2. Let’s look on the bright side: even though we occasionally criticise poor behaviour by policemen, it is remarkable how detectives and scientists are able to use technology to identify suspects within a relatively short time.
          Without commenting on anything specific, Albania was a nasty place during the regime of Enver and Mrs Hoxha. Albanian illegal immigrants in Britain seem to be involved in pimpery and narcotics, rather than RoP politics.
          https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/prison-albania-transfer-chris-philp-b1894661.html

    2. Sadiq Khan seems all too aware of the declining standards of policing in the city he runs.

      In my youth, a police officer was someone you could turn to and trust. “We have the best police force in the world” was a proud boast, equivalent to “Made in England” that I used to see on everything I used that was well made.

      Now, when I see the world “Police”, I have a sense of trepidation and a need to get away as far as possible without being observed. “Police” means trouble. The law is not about protection any longer. It has no connection with justice, and everything with procedure, and that procedure is all too often gratuitously unfair and unjust.

      They think that by politicising Police & Crime Commissioners and making them Party appointees, it somehow absolves the National Establishment of responsibility. They are lying, but since the Thatcher promotion of Dallas and Dynasty methods of running society, lying is regarded a virtue, and those that seek the truth are gullible losers.

      I wish I could be more positive. Maybe I am acquiring an Angela Rayner view on positivity? I wish I wasn’t. Even Greta Thunberg has cut her lovely hair and any vision of a beautiful alternative has been replaced in her adulthood by Blah Blah Blah. Is that how to offer a vision?

      1. Those scissors used to cut her hair: where was the steel made, and with what fuel?
        How were the scissors delivered to her house or local hairdresser?
        Was the cut hair sold to her admirers?

      1. Morning Horace. There was an extensive Biography of him in one of yesterdays papers where he was accused of among other things, sexual deviancy. Something that is now taught in schools. Lol!

  9. Unsurprising perhaps, it seems we couldn’t be any worse off voting for Sir Starmer’s party:

    “A green energy surcharge which is applied to household electricity bills will instead be slapped on gas bills as part of the government’s net zero drive, according to reports.

    Ministers will insist that the policy will be phased in over a period of up to 10 years and maintain that combined energy bills will not increase in price.

    The proposals, which will be considered at an upcoming review, are likely to be controversial at a time when household energy bills are increasing sharply as a global gas shortage raises prices for energy providers.

    Ministers are set to announce the proposals which would see customers with gas boilers pay more than those who use electricity to heat their homes or drive electric cars, according to the Financial Times’.

    Good(?) morning all.

    2. Yesterday I had an email from my energy supplier who informed me of a 44% increase in monthly direct debit payments even though they tell me my account is in credit. Apparently I am using more than my payments cover.
      I will have to look at my tariff details to see if the price per unit has increased by 44% or is this their way of increasing their bank balance.

      1. They do this because they can.

        I wouldn’t mind if this was enabling a good company to stay in business whilst the global energy racket plays the market. What is so toxic is the remuneration directors award themselves, who then use the money to lobby Government for tax cuts for themselves, exemptions from regulation and the right to corner the market. I find the stench of all this hard to bear.

        1. I fear you are correct, looking at quotes based on my annual usage which I am told is about average, EDF and E.ON, two providers picked at random are yet even more expensive, a 58% and 66% increase in payments. Those eye watering salaries got to be afforded somehow.
          We have only one choice, to be warm and cook meals or not it seems.

      2. Morning VVOF. This is just the beginning. We, meaning the ordinary people of the UK, are now to be subjected to the rapacious attentions of those who have engineered and financed this debacle while those who have enabled it are praised and rewarded!

    3. ogga is not wrong. Unless an alternative to Con/LibDem/Lab/Green is found very soon we are lost forever but from where and how will this alternative come?

    5. “Ministers will insist that the policy will be phased in over a period of up to 10 years and maintain that combined energy bills will not increase in price.”

      Really? What’s the betting that these huge greenie taxes will be added to gas bills but not removed from electricity bills?

      ‘Morning Stephen. I read the full article earlier (not that my blood pressure needed a boost) and found so much wrong with it I lost the will to live when about to post! (No comments allowed, either.) So I’m off to do some household chores, there being nothing worth posting from today’s crop of lack-lustre Letters…

    1. This here former ice breaker boat has a vintage 6 litre single cylinder Bolinder engine that was running on Paraffin when I took the photos. For the engineering fraternity it revs at just 450 rpm, has a massive flywheel driving a 26 inch propeller. When you only have an 18 inch one it makes one feel inadequate!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf979321fc9bfc0920a59be52708bdb81c92d2cb097497c75bec84fcfd5f1d5b.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8c385ec46ec2ada214006e0e5af296f9f1d3a133b264aadcfb6459fbeb57bc65.jpg
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13334d8dbe6f089bfcde0924ffd3762d318bc726eec19b6c94d41c5a5b40bd3f.jpg

        1. Was that boat not auditioned for the speedboat chase in one of the James Bond films? Or am I thinking of the bank getaway scene in the Hatton Garden job?

    2. Teacher at school told us the way to spell paraffin properly was to hear it in your mind as ‘para fer fer in’. About the only thing I remember from those days!

  12. The energy crisis offers a taste of future war. 30 September 2021.

    The culprits were identified as a group of Russian cybercriminals called DarkSide, and while the Biden administration absolved the Russian government of any blame, the prospect of an enemy state like Russia and China launching a similar attack against Britain’s infrastructure is one that is taken very seriously at the highest levels of government.

    Protecting Britain’s critical infrastructure from hostile states will certainly be at the forefront of Boris Johnson’s mind as he conducts the final interviews this week of senior military personnel seeking to become the next head of Britain’s Armed Forces. The appointment of Britain’s next Chief of the Defence Staff is due by the end of the week, with the successful contender likely to be the candidate who has the best plan for keeping the lights on.

    We don’t need to worry about hostile states. China is a hemisphere away and Russia is indifferent to the fate of the UK. Our enemies are already here. You can watch them on TV every day or read their opinions in newspapers like this one. The War has already been fought and the battles won. What was once one of the glories of Western Christian Civilisation has been reduced to a subjugated wreck of its former condition. A Collaborationist Government services an Occupying Army. Its institutions parrot the propaganda of Submission and Treachery while its wealth is plundered to fill the coffers of the Unbelievers. RIP England!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/30/energy-crisis-offers-taste-future-war/

    1. Good morning Minty

      Too true to be good.

      But why have we surrendered without putting up any sort of fight for our culture, our history, our way of life and the beliefs we once had?

      1. Morning Richard. It’s been a long process and to some considerable extent our own nature has been used against us. Free Speech and Democracy are wonderful things but they are in themselves no protection against the Forces of Evil! I note that the President of Russia, the last large free country in the world, has cracked down on those very forces that have undermined the British State. It is something that one regrets but the alternative was much worse.

      2. Morning Richard. It’s been a long process and to some considerable extent our own nature has been used against us. Free Speech and Democracy are wonderful things but they are in themselves no protection against the Forces of Evil! I note that the President of Russia, the last large free country in the world, has cracked down on those very forces that have undermined the British State. It is something that one regrets but the alternative is much worse.

      3. At least half the population has been infantilised by covid fear. The rest are asleep, apart from Nottlers.

        1. Read the comments under the covid articles in the Mail, they show that more people than you think are awake.
          In the summer, I had a conversation with a small business owner who had been having doubts, but a few salient points were enough to raise his slumbering suspicions that it isn’t about a virus.
          I still have hopes that Britain will fight the digital ids. Most immigrants don’t trust the government, they could turn out to be a crucial factor too.

      4. I think it’s because the supposed guardians of our culture and the teachers of history and our way of life have been doing the opposite for decades now.

    2. Another illusion shattered. I’d have thought that the Chief of our armed forces, the man with his finger on the trigger, would have been appointed subsequent to a review of the records and potential of possible appointees. It seems that it will be the wokest of those interviewed by a panel of the woke.

      1. Johnson will be looking for a colourful character to fill the role: Green to the gills overlaid with Rainbow stripes and all set off with a Yellow streak where the backbone should be.

    4. The danger is real. I’d say that was the right priority.

      The best plan for keeping the lights on is not to have the whole national grid effectively on the internet for a start. Incorporate physical switches into the design. There is already ISO 27009, which is supposed to ensure that all energy companies are security aware, but it’s not being implemented effectively. The inspectors tend to be managers, and they don’t know what questions to ask, though they’re very good at box ticking.
      Plus there is a serious shortage of people who actually understand how cryptography works. Again, managers typically don’t, but they have a goal to deliver within a given time frame. Problem with cryptography is that you can spend $$$ and time implementing a system, that is wide open to attack because you forgot one crucial factor. But no manager is going to spot that, because they don’t understand the technical details. So they believe sincerely that they have delivered a secure product, when they haven’t.

      The Victorians managed to supply electricity without a smart grid.
      The main reason for needing a smart grid is the unreliability of wind and solar. So as well as hiking costs, these white elephants are making us vulnerable to invasion.

    5. “Protecting Britain’s critical infrastructure from hostile states will certainly be at the forefront of Boris Johnson’s mind …”
      H’mmm, sez a cynical old bat.

  14. Morning all

    SIR – Panic at the petrol pumps (Letters, September 29), huge 
rises in gas and electricity prices, increases in tax and National Insurance, illegal immigration out of control, Covid-related travel confusion, government sloth and incompetence apparent on a daily basis, and a Prime Minister determined to boost his green credentials and personal popularity without any concern for the costs and stresses to the general public.

    Did we vote for this?

    Adrian O’Connor

    Ruislip, Middlesex

    SIR – With a shortage of some 400,000 HGV drivers across Europe, what was the Prime Minister thinking when he called for visas to be relaxed in an attempt to make up the shortfall here?

    Doing something futile is no better than doing nothing. The more obvious answer of bringing in the Army seems to have been an afterthought.

    David Taylor

    Lymington, Hampshire

    SIR – Last weekend, the petrol station at our local Tesco Express was, like everywhere else, chaotic and gridlocked, causing major disruption on all the local roads.

    Yesterday morning, at 8.30am, not one of the six pumps was occupied. As we were told, there was no need to panic buy.

    Tony Service

    Selby, North Yorkshire

    SIR – I have just received my letter from the Department for Transport inviting me to help alleviate the driver shortage. I shall not be doing so. The several days I wasted on Driver CPC training still scar me.

    These patronising and thoroughly useless courses were imposed by the EU, and I would be interested to see if there is any evidence that they have benefited anyone besides the training providers. On a typical day, the course content was enough to fill an hour, but the rules kept you there for seven.

    One particularly sticks in my mind. The class was on healthy lifestyles for HGV drivers, delivered by a morbidly obese instructor who insisted on a cigarette break every half hour.

    Philip Collison

    Terrington St Clement, Norfolk

    SIR – Do we really need more HGVs on our roads?

    On Wednesday morning I returned home after driving 300 miles on motorways through the night. I saw nothing but HGVs, not only on the inside lane, but also filling the middle lane – and all churning out fumes.

    Brian Clark

    Lytham St Annes, Lancashire

    SIR – I envy John Howard (Letters, September 29) his range of travel options in Birmingham during the current crisis.

    Here, in a much more rural area, we have no cycle lanes, no trams, no shops within easy walking distance and buses that run once an hour. I’m not sure it’s quite so liberating for us.

    David Vincent

    Cranbrook, Kent

    1. Is it me or…
      I find that after listing many of Johnson’s current failings, but omitting the Brexit sell-out, Adrian O’Connor asserts that Johnson is looking to boost his personal popularity rather a bizarre idea.

        2. Massive delusion of grandeur? Johnson’s blathering when all about him is crumbling is reminiscent of that Austrian in his bunker ordering non-existent divisions, corps and armies around as the Russians reduced Berlin to rubble.

          However, I cannot shake off the thought that there is, within this apparent crock of incompetence, a plan to destabilise the Country. Perhaps Johnson was chosen because he would be successful as a failure. Very strange and worrying times.

          1. You can expect Bullshitting Boris to take a photo op with Greta Thunberg, pigtails and all, just as Hitler did with prepubescent girls (and Stalin too).

            It is all propaganda with history repeating itself.

      1. He’s spot on about the pointless (other than creating even more useless admin jobs) CPC ‘training’. I attended a one day course (for reasons beyond my ken Royal Mail decided to spread the five day course over five years!) and some non-driver ‘instructed’ us that if you got into as a high a gear as possible in the shortest time, this would keep your engine revs down. There was no answer to my question of how more frequently the diesel particulate filters would need replacing, with subsequent downtime for the working vehicle.
        There followed a non-practical powerpoint demonstration on tachometers, with no ‘hands-on’ examples.
        As Mr Collision suggests the ‘trainers’ managed to squeeze a one hour ‘lesson’ into a seven hour endurance test.
        If the desks had been fitted with tachometers, we would all have failed.

        Thankfully, I had moved on before any further ‘training’ days were assigned to me.

        1. I thought the CPC training course was an insult to the intelligence of any HGV driver who had been driving more than a week, bureaucracy and job creation at its worst

          1. Much like Foghorn Dreghorn’s latest idea to create another 1000 CS non-jobs to duplicate the existing benefits system, it’s just another soak of the taxpayers for no advantage to the public.
            Meanwhile, e.g. the DVLA working from home crew will have the chance for overtime and bonuses as they tackle the same backlog that they created.
            I’m sure councils and government departments throughout the land will be in a similar state.

    4. Well, Adrian, I most certainly did not vote for this – I spoiled my ballot paper rather than vote for the meaningless crap that we got.

      1. Fanx Sue,

        Just got back from Lidls and it is raining

        We were good with the shopping, anything alcaholic or fattening is for our neighbours

    9. Yo All

      Many thanks Caroline and Rastus and all you well wishers

      As a confirmed (elderly) Nottler, the age I am willing to be now is 27.

      Sumz are not my strong point

  16. Morning again

    SIR – Richard Lyon (Letters, September 28) recalls how Nye Bevan’s foolish “lower than vermin” speech of July 4 1948 (inaugurating the NHS) inspired the creation of a Tory Vermin Club, with branches in many constituencies.

    An enthusiastic young election candidate, Margaret Roberts, was at the forefront of recruitment. In her memoirs, Lady Thatcher described how “we went around wearing ‘vermin’ badges – a little blue rat. Those who recruited 10 new party members wore badges identifying them as ‘vile vermin’; if you recruited 20 you were ‘very vile vermin’.”

    By the 1950 election, the club had brought about 120,000 new members into the Conservative Party. Bevan was soundly rebuked by Herbert Morrison, who said that his comments “did much more to make the Tories work and vote than Conservative Central Office could have done”. How about a Scum Club?

    Lord Lexden

    London

    2. Having had a shower yesterday (my goodness what was I thinking of? I had one last month) I saw the familiar white crud gathering at the far end that was once me.

      Maybe the symbol for Tory unity should be the bath plug? To stop the scum getting out. All delegates at the forthcoming Conservative Conference should carry one.

    3. And so impressed was Norman Tebbit at being called a semi-house-trained polecat that he incorporated a polecat into his family crest!

  18. Hollington Drive, episode 1 review: nothing middle of the road about this suburban thriller. 30 September 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/43c280ef81d06f99a29ed943df230ef898d6476e9158ce9d84f33aa575442136.jpg

    ITV’s new psychological drama about a 10-year-old gone missing is layered and intriguing – just don’t look Anna Maxwell Martin in the eye.

    The Woke Entertainment Industry in full flow!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/hollington-drive-episode-1-review-nothing-middle-road-suburban/

        1. Minty you appear to have been right earlier when you alluded to de rigeur mortis setting in…..

      2. You are right, Nanners. I fell asleep after noting that it contained yet more seriously overworked BAME actors…and then awoke to the ludicrous scene where the missing boy’s headmistress had just humped the boy’s father!

      3. You are right, Nanners. I fell asleep after noting that it contained yet more seriously over-worked BAME actors…and then awoke to the ludicrous scene where the missing boy’s headmistress was humping the missing boy’s father!

    2. I did not watch this. I have not watched a drama on TV for many years. Grim, unsmiling and they generally look as if they have been filmed in black and white. Plots are ludicrous, characters are cardboard, and nothing is normal. I do not care who did it. They’ve got the wrong one (so watch series 2), but I’d happily watch them all die in some kind of topical disaster such as an exploding petrol tanker at “the foot of our street”.

    3. The moment I see an African bame on TV I continue channel surfing because it is bound to be an advert or wendyball or someone revising British history or a drama about the NHS.
      There’s a Winston Churchill saying to the effect that you can ask a Brit to do anything, but not tell them to do something.

      1. Bob3, you should know better than to ask pertinent questions. Re-education camp for you, my lad.

      1. They probably drove in tandem and filled two cars, or can’t the little twat go out alone?

        I wonder how much petrol he actually bought.

    3. “Not the fault of Brexit”. Can these people not be arrested for misinformation, or maybe just cancelled?

    4. Morning Maggie

      Have just filled up at Esso Burbage (A346). No queues.

      Most Britons Blame Media for Alleged Fuel Crisishttps://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/09/29/most-britons-blame-media-for-alleged-fuel-crisis/

      1. According to the TFL website…
        Waterloo & City line – planned closure.
        Good service on all other lines.
        Buses fine where I live. Dunno ’bout the rest.

    6. We are going to Sidmouth next week for a few days and my car is very low on fuel. I went to Sainsbury for fuel this morning at 0700 when they open. I was 10th in the queue and filled up with diesel. That will last me for two weeks.

        1. Morning, Maggie. When I see the long queues of cars at fuel stations I am reminded of Grizz stating that over the years the national IQ has fallen.

        1. Thank you. The last time we were there a few summers ago there was a music festival. We sat at a table outside a pub and someone sat with us and started playing a musical instrument. Minutes later we had a trio playing. If there had been more chairs we might have had half an orchestra playing.

    7. Why did he take his wife to the petrol station? Could it be that he hasn’t worked out how to use the pre-payment pump? He looked and looked but couldn’t find the slot for his credit card.

  24. Origin story of Dennis the Menace’s jumper to be revealed

    To celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Beano’s longest-running character, comic strip The Epic Yarn of Awesomeness will tell the garment’s backstory

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/922e276a8acd64aac08fa9acbd8c13caff720b80/11_0_1385_831/master/1385.jpg?width=605&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=23c795023dad8be4f596de7cd0def862

    https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/sep/30/backstory-dennis-the-menace-jumper-70th-comic-strip

  25. Windy and cloudy. At 8am I watched the ‘gang’ enter a stubble field nearby for the morning’s work.
    About six weeks ago, a mummy mallard hatched seven ducklings well away from the pond and brought them up carefully, somehow avoiding crows and moorhens. Now they are nearly as large as the mother, but she has them under control.
    Quite tame, and yes, I feed them mainly wheat but with occasional bits of stale bread.

    1. Has she managed to keep all of them? One of the most depressing things about ducks is counting one duckling less every morning.

  26. https://youtu.be/-n36kGNEy34 Global Citizen concert in Paris.

    Here is von der Leyen – unlike Starmer she is a lady who knows her own mind. She starts to speak at time 1:56 – I have just learned that if you go to the settings cog you can get subtitles and auto-translate.
    It is four minutes of very dangerous drivel but we need to know the enemy.
    Also posted elsewhere but worth considering.

    1. Creepy as anything. She’s relatively easy to understand, as she speaks simple French, I guess with a German accent which makes easier for British ears.

      “Il faut vacciner le monde entier”

      “Everyone who can do more must do more”…How are you going to make them, Ursula?

      Looking at that video, I am reminded of Soviet or Nazi displays of might before cheering crowds.
      It’s simply NOT NATURAL for a huge crowd of young people to be cheering and listening to a political leader like that. There is nothing spontaneous about that event, it is pure propaganda.

      1. When I was young, I fancied myself as a global citizen. Then I found out what most of the rest of the world was like.

      2. My reaction aussi!
        She sounded like an automaton spouting those platitudes. I found the fawning crowd of brainwashed kids equally creepy.

    2. Hi, issy. I wished you a Happy Birthday on Tuesday. Hope you enjoyed yourself and all’s well.

  28. 339447+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Thursday 30 September: The fuel crisis has exposed a PM driving with his hands off the wheel

    Get bloody real, the fat turk & ALL his unsavoury band plus starmer
    ” we gave you the foreign PIE recipe originally party” not forgetting davy boyo leader of the lib / dems as patriotic regarding the United Kingdom
    as Air Marshall Goring.

    ALL political drones manipulated from brussels STILL and running a
    blitzkrieg campaign of political fear sh!te that is finding support from a certain % of the herd.

    The main bulk of the herd now more so, are supporting / voting for open borders, mass paedophilia, ultra bordering on military policing,plus many other issues that are the root cause, guaranteed to destabilize the herd
    regarding mental health and, as witnessed, tis working.

    Those politico’s in positions of power are trying their best to satisfy their supporter / members needs so the voting pattern needs to pick up its pace
    to establish reset / replace as the way to go.

  30. 339447+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Live Politics latest news: Furlough ends as Rishi Sunak unveils new grant scheme to fund cost of living

    I do not believe it will be popular as I believe it will be called ” field work”

    2. We know that Sunak wants a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) “because it will make it easier for the government to make direct payments to people” – in other words, the universal income paid in fairy gold that is part of the World Economic Forum’s agenda.

    1. I’m not sure that chain gangs would meet with Plod approval. All that kneeling in muddy fields would muck up their rainbow-clad uniforms.

    2. 339447+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      Yeah well, that’s where we ask our members / supporters
      to go into three monkey mode prior to agreeing.

    3. I remember seeing gangs of prisoners on the IOW in the 60s cutting back hedges and the like in the lanes.

      2. There used to be a prison farm, but it was closed. I heard of a scheme to train young offenders to train as coffee makers, aka bar-istas.

    5. I once heard someone who had been to prison saying that most people in prison deserve to be there. Why doesn’t Raab set an example and hire a few prisoners himself to staff his office?

    7. What was needed a year ago was a huge recruitment programme for British HGV drivers. The government could have helped here and, as it was no longer bound by the gormless competition laws could have said ‘hgv training is now tax deductible, and we, the government will make any training basically free, paid for by at least 3 years of service as a driver.

      After all, it was obvious the Brexit would result in a reduction in the number of long distance drivers.

      1. Even before Brexit, the writing was on the wall that there would be a shortage because drivers were retiring and not being replaced/trained.

    9. Wouldn’t they try to escape? If they were put to work on farms, they could plough the fields and scatter (apologies to Ronnie Barker in ‘Porridge’).

  33. I watched a delightful programme last night (probably a repeat, but I missed it previously) about the Tornado, a privately built steam locomotive.
    The Tornado is funded by running excursions on main line routes. Wonderful! Bring back steam trains.
    Anyway what I did learn is that about 90% of rail freight operations in the UK are run by DB cargo. DB cargo is owned by Deutsche Bahn the German railway company which is owned by the German government. That is, rail freight operations in the UK are owned by the German government.
    Is privatisation not wonderful? Did nobody back in the 90s think* that the assets might be sold on?

    *”creating greater competition” My Aunt Fanny! https://www.jstor.org/stable/23289642

      1. Good question. The link below might lead to an answer. However, there was no barrier to foreign companies taking over UK businesses, even if they had just been formed for that purpose and knew nothing about the business or the UK. In contrast the French government will block any takeover that they do not like, e.g. Danone.
        The rationale of “Britain being open for business” is surely now exposed as the ruination of the UK.

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

  34. Merkel continuity leaves the European project as unworkable as ever

    Brexit has forced a radical rethink about every aspect of British existence – and Germany badly needs the same sort of shake-up

    AMBROSE EVANS-PRITCHARD
    30 September 2021 • 6:00am

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2021/09/29/TELEMMGLPICT000272950903_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqC9PogZUtSpqAqO-tnweStYO2VWxuYg_aguPtQ9FwIv8.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Olaf Scholz, Germany’s likely next Chancellor, in Berlin
    The faces change, slightly, but the permanent German government rolls on. Merkelism remains the national consensus.

    Those hoping for Europeanist romance and a leap forward in EU fiscal integration will be disappointed. France’s Emmanuel Macron and the southern debtor bloc are unlikely to secure permanent debt pooling or anything like eurobonds.

    Attempts to turn the EU’s one-off Recovery Fund into a Hamiltonian treasury will meet polite resistance, though you could argue that what began as Covid emergency relief has already metamorphosed into a Brussels patronage fund that will prove hard to reverse.

    There is the little matter of Germany’s constitutional court, which has ruled that EU debt mutualisation on a lasting basis would eviscerate the budgetary sovereignty of the Bundestag and violate the Basic Law.

    The Grundgesetz would have to be amended, by a near impossible two-thirds majority in both houses. Enthusiasts for more Europe always seem to shrug off this constraint.

    Monetary union will remain dysfunctional, more flexible than before no doubt, but still a half-finished project without the necessary backing of full economic union, and prone to premature fiscal tightening. Structural austerity is hardwired into the eurozone’s legal system through the Stability Pact, the Fiscal Compact, and the surveillance regime of the Twopack, Sixpack, and so forth.

    Ever the optimist, Jean-Claude Juncker said this week that Germany’s election is a chance to “sweep away the stupid austerity regime” once and for all, but has Berlin actually shaken off the attitudes that led to Europe’s Lost Decade and the technological neglect of the Merkel years?

    There is no majority in the next Bundestag for Keynesian New Deals beyond the €750bn earmarked for the Recovery Fund, which is spread across the EU over five years and is a smaller macroeconomic baguette than suggested by non-economists in Brussels press corps.

    Europe’s fiscal rules were waved during the pandemic but have not been repealed. The man most likely to be the next German finance minister wants them restored scrupulously at the end of next year. Christian Lindner, Thatcherite leader of the Free Democrats (FDP), opposes any eurozone slippage, as does a frugal alliance of Hanseatic states.

    The battle lines are drawn for the next great clash between the EU’s creditor North and debtor South, but with an even wider gulf in debt ratios than before Covid.

    The debt ratio has risen eleven percentage points to 71pc of GDP in Germany, but 20 points to 118pc in France, 25 points to 160pc in Italy, and 26 points to 125pc in Spain according to Eurostat data.

    Sooner or later the European Central bank will have to stop soaking up the debt issuance of these states. The market will then decide what is a sustainable debt burden in a monetary union, and at what price.

    For all the warm words about Germany’s Carolingian bond with France, diverging fiscal fortunes will surely lead to years of political friction with Paris. Mr Macron is electoral prime-pumping like no tomorrow, announcing €17bn of pork-barrel spending for targeted voting groups over barely two weeks. “Utterly irresponsible,” grumbles his centre-right rival, Xavier Bertrand.

    Citigroup says France’s structural deficit, sans Covid, has risen to 5pc of GDP and is far out of alignment with eurozone peers. Nothing remains of Mr Macron’s pledge in 2017 to make his country again fit for Franco-German condominium. He can grandstand on foreign policy but a Chancellor Scholz will be watching warily lest Paris tries to nick the German credit card.

    What has changed over the Merkel era is enthusiasm for the European project. A survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that 55pc think the EU’s political system is “broken”, a third think EU integration has gone too far.

    “Polls show that German trust in the EU has collapsed during the covid-19 pandemic,” said the council’s Mark Leonard.

    The German people increasingly see European demands on them as a “series of sacrifices” to atone for historical sins, and patience is wearing thin. This is breeding resentment that could eventually boil over in Trumpian revolt.

    At home, Germany is not about to abandon fiscal discipline. The pugnacious Mr Lindner, a Luftwaffe reserve major, deems his country’s constitutional debt-brake sacrosanct. Election arithmetic has turned him into the coalition king-maker and his FDP party is the indispensable third pillar of the next government, barring another grand coalition that few want.

    Mr Lindner insists on the finance ministry as his price. In Germany that job gives him autonomous powers beyond the reach of a British Chancellor. Olaf Scholz quietly agrees on fiscal rectitude in any case, even if his own Social Democrat party base does not.

    There is wiggle room for extra spending on capital projects through off-books vehicles, and broad recognition in Germany that negative public investment for the last fifteen years when it could borrow for nothing was misguided. But Ordoliberal orthodoxies will otherwise prevail.

    Christian Odendahl from the Centre for European Reform says a “traffic light” coalition of Greens and Liberals under Mr Scholz could agree on a “€500bn climate transition fund” for public and private investment that finesses German debt curbs and is anchored on Mittelstand family firms. This in turn could be the model for softer EU rules exempting green investment from spending caps.

    Profound change is rare under Germany’s system of proportional representation and top-down party lists. Or as the saying goes, no matter who you vote for, the car industry always gets in.

    This stability has served Germany well since Ludwig Erhard launched the Wirtschaftswunder in 1948. But it also inhibits the cathartic changes that shake up British politics from time to time, whether the lurch to welfare statism under Clement Attlee, or the lurch to free enterprise under Margaret Thatcher, both desirable in their day.

    Whatever your view on Brexit, it has indisputably opened the door to a radical rethink about every aspect of British existence, a modern variant of the break with Rome or the English Civil War, scrutable only to historians long hence.

    Germany badly needs its own shake-up, and it did not get one of any kind on Sunday. The collapse of Die Linke in the old East Germany precludes a radical “Red-Green-Red” coalition, making it easier for Mr Scholz to control his Corbynista radicals, and easier for the Green Realo leadership to control their anti-capitalist Fundi base.

    The German economic establishment has been reluctant to admit quite how much Germany’s ascendancy in Europe under Merkel was the result of Hartz IV wage compression, an intra-eurozone “internal devaluation” at the expense of the others. Productivity growth has been dire by the standards of Korea or the Nordics. Gushing admirers of German success in the UK never understood the point at all.

    It was also the result of Germany’s role as supplier-in-chief of machine tools and engineering goods for China’s growth spurt, an obsolescent model as the love affair ends and Xi Jinping retreats into autarkic self-reliance (dual circulation).

    What remains is a German economy overly dependent on mid-tier 20th century industries that lags on digital technology, robotics, or 5G. The country is inchoately aware that something is wrong but is not as worried as it should be. It almost seems to think that saving hard is enough to prepare for the ageing crisis of the late 2020s. It isn’t.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/30/merkel-continuity-leaves-european-project-unw

    What Germany needs is an electric shock, not a greener or slightly pinker version of Merkelism.

    1. I skimmed over this, in order not to pass out with boredom. But it does not look good does it?
      When one considers that big chunks of UK businesses and enterprise, finance, and jobs are in the control of EU businesses, even EU governments, including the German government (rail freight ), French government (EDF – electricity) we can see how vulnerable we are to a downturn and straitened times in the EU.
      (Here in Scotland we know exactly how painful it can be to be a “branch economy”.)

    2. “This in turn could be the model for softer EU rules exempting green investment from spending caps.”

      Heaven help us.

    3. I follow Oscar Wilde’s guidance and believe that only superficial people do not judge by appearance.

      I know nothing about Olaf Scholz but he is a bad lot. He has a nasty, shifty expression on his undistinguished and furtive face. The only positive thing I can say about him is that he does not wear a toupé.

    4. Rules were “waved”? Tut, tut! The EU always ignores rules it doesn’t like. When things go tits up because of EU policy, the answer is always “more EU”. Herr Scholz looks rather sly and self-satisfied. The fix, it would seem, is in.

  35. Important Front Page story in today’s DT: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/09/29/shakira-confronted-wild-boars-tried-rob-barcelona-park/

    Shakira’s handbag snatched by wild boars in Barcelona
    Superstar singer left bristling after encounter with group of aggressive hogs that attacked her and her family

    BTL Comment :

    We live in rural Brittany and we get regular visits from wild boar who mess up the garden.

    The organisation of ‘chasseurs‘ is supposedly responsible for culling them but with typical French logic they are not allowed to cull them during the breeding season!

    This Gallic approach reminds me of that memorable phrase from Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’: “Let copulation thrive.”

        1. It can easily suffer taint, particularly in the males, but as a meat it is delicious and makes excellent sausages, both fresh and dried.

          1. I’ve had w b sausages and pate but haven’t tried it as a roast. I’d imagine it’s a bit more gamey than ordinary pork.

          2. It is and generally we have had it as a stew not roasted, although I would guess that one can roast it, it isn’t very fatty.

          6. The one time I ate kangaroo was, rather bizarrely, in the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.
            I don’t remember anything outstanding about the meat.

        2. It was on the menu in Prague when I was there, but I never got around to trying it (like kangaroo in Oz).

      1. About ten years ago Shakira was very friendly to a child on an aeroplane who dared to say hello, and they chatted for a long time. Admittedly they were both sitting in Club or First Class.

  36. Just got back from Tesco. I saw a man with 8 crates of San Miguel, 5 paellas and 3 boxes of tortillas.

    I thought to myself:

    Hispanic buying.

  37. This is funny if you loathe Katy Kay as much as she loathes the Donald

    Ex-BBC presenter quits woke media company over impersonation scandal

    Katty Kay has resigned from Ozy Media after its chief operating officer pretended to be a YouTube executive in a conference call

    By Ben Woods
    29 September 2021 • 9:14pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2021/09/29/TELEMMGLPICT000273005120_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqJI8IQ9zNFHlX4m6wWDBpeSTKaoXR5r8f3xlDGDBoyfc.jpeg?imwidth=680

    A former star BBC presenter has quit a Left-wing media company after it was forced to call in lawyers to investigate an impersonation scandal.

    Katty Kay has resigned from Ozy Media following revelations that its chief operating officer Samir Rao had pretended to be a YouTube executive on a conference call during talks over a $40m (£30m) investment from Goldman Sachs.

    Ms Kay, an ex BBC World news presenter who hosted Beyond 100 Days with Christian Fraser, had joined Ozy as a senior editor and executive producer in June.

    Announcing her departure, Ms Kay posted on Twitter: “I have resigned from Ozy Media. I had recently joined the company after my long career at the BBC, excited to explore opportunities in the digital space.

    “I support the mission to bring diverse stories and voices to the public conversation. But the allegations in the New York Times, which caught me by surprise, are serious and deeply troubling, and I had no choice but to end my relationship with the company.”

    Ozy, which claims to have discovered Democratic politician and activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez while she was still “working as a bartender in the Bronx”, has hired lawyers to investigate its own activities after reports emerged of an impersonation by one of its senior executives.

    The New York Times reported that Goldman Sachs employees taking part in a conference call on February 2 had become suspicious about whether someone was pretending to be Alex Piper, the head of unscripted programming for YouTube Originals.

    The person reportedly told the bankers that Ozy was a commercial success on the social media video service, but when they contacted Mr Piper and YouTube after the meeting it became clear that he had not participated.

    Ozy’s chief executive Carlos Watson admitted to Goldman Sachs that Mr Rao was the voice on the call and apologised. He told the bankers and the New York Times that Mr Rao was experiencing a mental health crisis and had taken time off after the call. Mr Rao has now taken a leave of absence until the law firm’s investigation has concluded.

    Mr Watson also said on Twitter that he was “heartbroken” by the report, which he dismissed as a “ridiculous hitjob”.

    Meanwhile, Google, the owner of YouTube, has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the incident. The Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway – an early backer of Ozy – has also reportedly given up his shares in Ozy in response to the revelations.

    Ozy is a Left-leaning media company, which has attempted to capitalise on the anger felt by Generation X over social justice issues since it was forged in 2013.

    It is fronted by Mr Watson, the son of black American mother and Jamaican father who had an early stint working at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey before becoming an anchor on MSNBC in 2009. The company claims Mr Watson’s show on Ozy is the fastest growing talk show in YouTube history. However, doubts have been raised over the popularity of the show and Amazon recently complained about the use of its name on Ozy’s branding material.

    Ozy’s early backers include Google’s chief legal officer David Drummond and Mr Conway, while Politico buyer Axel Springer also became an investor seven years ago.

    Ozy believes its market value to be around $159m (£118m) after raising in excess of $83m (£62m) by April last year, according to PitchBook data cited by the New York Times.

    Ms Watson, who also sits on the US non-profit radio company NPR, stepped down as host of the News & Documentary Emmy Awards on Tuesday night.

    Ozy had an early brush with scandal four years ago when BuzzFeed reported that it had bought web traffic that caused articles to appear for readers without their knowledge.

    The company responded by saying it had taken those steps to help grow its email lists and advertisers had not been charged for those views.

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

    Holly Willis
    29 Sep 2021 9:28PM
    Why she be upset about this? While at the BBC she pretended to be a journalist while actually being a Democrat propagandist.

    Madeleine McHardy
    29 Sep 2021 11:00PM
    Can you imagine the media fuss about this if it involved a GBnews journalist?

    John Snowball
    30 Sep 2021 6:57AM
    Left wingers telling lies and being hypocritical, who could possibly have imagined it?

    bonzo dog
    30 Sep 2021 12:04AM
    Fancy that, a BBC reporter goes to a woke, left wing outfit. Shows why the BBC programme she was on was so anti-Trump and pro-Democrat. BBC impartiality my ars*.

    Terrence Rattigan
    30 Sep 2021 6:40AM
    I love the trendy excuse of “mental health” from one crook for another. And for the head of a news otfit to say that disseminating news was a “hit-job”? You couldn’t make it up.

      1. Was BBC’c New York political correspondent/presenter of BBC World News America. Never able to conceal her leftiness. You shouldn’t bovver. The BTL slapping down is well deserved.

        1. Jon Sopel’s bad enough. Couldn’t conceal his glee every time Trump misspoke – not so keen now they have dozy Joe.

    2. Morning! Awfully shallow of me I know but my first thought was, she’s not bad looking or mayble it’s a flattering photo – how old is she? The answer is 56.

  38. 339447+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    The Brexit-hating global elite is watching Britain’s chaos with glee

    Furious voters won’t stand by if the Tory Government’s incompetence turns us into a worldwide laughing stock

    May one ask “WHY NOT” they have not only stood by, but had personal
    input these past,nigh on 4 decades, in returning these same type, same party’s to power tis only of late that the strong reek of treacherous sh!te
    enveloping the whole lab/lib/con coalition has some of them wavering.

    1. It’s no good always blaming the electorate, Ogga – the politicians are to blame. They are simply not up to the job we pay them to do.

      1. 339447+up ticks,
        Morning N,
        I would agree 30 plus years ago, but from major
        ( PM) onward’s definitely not, how many cheeks has the electorate, how many times must it be bitten, could claim en masse temporary insanity on polling day, do not think it would wash though.

        People power used as is currently is a society killer as is clearly seen, people power CAN be used for good purposes the referendum proved that but the result was
        never pursued, far from it.

        I have no wish to offend but to point out issues & peoples that are a danger to my Country so in turn, to me.

          1. 339447+ up ticks,
            N,
            I agree in the main BUT, there are some who are without doubt three monkey idolisers, party first, regardless wrong doing consequences.

          3. 339447+ up ticks,
            N,
            I would love to agree but, as with political parties there are genuine & not so genuine, take the brexit party under farage for instance…….

        2. What alternative party would you support? You seem to be unable or unwilling to support any of the alternative political parties. That is the problem Nottlers like myself have on election days. We usually go for the least damaging party or None of the above.
          Nowadays all three parties are damaging prospects. I don’t believe in abstaining.

          1. I gave an answer to that question the other day on CW. They all seem to me to be petty little fiefdoms that cater to the self aggrandisement of their leaders egos. So far all they do is engender contempt in me. The first one that rises above himself and calls for a united front of all like minded parties, in order to try and defeat the corrupt establishment, is the one I will pay attention to. Until then I have no intention of supporting any of them or voting in elections because it is a pointless exercise in upholding the status quo.

          2. One should always vote, even if it is only to spoil the ballot paper. It is still recorded whilst a no-show is ignored.

          4. If very few voted, the results would stand unopposed. If, say, 50% of the ‘votes’ were spoiled/none of the above. those elected (and those who would have to count and tally such protest votes) would have to post the spoiled votes as part of the results. Thus, it would be apparent to anyone perusing the voting figures that the ‘elected’ politician wasn’t elected by popular choice.

          6. Well them civil disobedience. If you sincerely want change you have to fight for it. To my knowledge no regime has ever said, we need a radical change.

          8. I always vote as women suffered to obtain that right for us.

            It’s a difficult choice though – in local elections I usually vote for the one I know or the least worst. In national elections I voted for Brexit last time and UKIP in the EURO ones. I spoilt my ballot for the Police & Crime Commissioner as I disagree with having yet another layer of useless bureacracy foisted on us.

          10. 339447+ up ticks,
            Afternoon Cs,
            I was long term UKIP member until treachery struck, now I am fully behind Anne Marie Waters ” for Britain”

            The way I see it is a party must be selected and supported en masse NOT arguing about small parties & multiply leaders amalgamating, never ever work out.

            The situation now is you get behind one leader one party
            NO acting as political papillon’s, tactical voting, voting on graded sh!te levels, nasal gripping, best of the worst, a non vote gives the political enema’s a persons consent saying they are satisfied with the status quo.

            By the by,
            The least damaging party’s voting pattern over the last three plus decades has sure as hell done more damage the two WWs. and it ain’t finished yet.

            ANNE MARIE WATERS ” FOR BRITAIN” for me.

          11. Spoiling your ballot isn’t abstaining. Spoilt ballot papers are counted (and have to be looked at to ensure they aren’t a vote for a particular party or candidate).

      3. Increasingly it is not ability they lack, but will. There is absolutely no interest in serving the public and doing what needs to be done. They’re too busy politicking.

        Worse, the group immune from this politicking are deliberately and directly opposed to the public will. It seems any interest in growing the economy, in making us better off, in reducing poverty, welfare dependence has been binned in favour of big state, high tax, state waste, the horror of massive uncontrolled immigration, globalism and left wing green idiocy.

        1. And we will be swamped with greenery very soon when all the Cop delegates and hangers on fly in making more emissions of hot air.

      4. I do think, though, J, that the electorate has to vote the right way. MPs would not be there to foul things up if we hadn’t put an X in the box. In my next door constituency, there were 5 candidates – 4 remainers and a UKIP person. The UKIP candidate lost her deposit and was even beaten by the Greens. She was a good candidate and the only leaver on the platform. What can you do? The constituency voted Leave by 60%.

        1. You can’t take responsibility for other people’s bad judgement – where were all the Leavers when it came to voting that day?

          1. I don’t take responsibility for other people’s bad judgement. The Leavers, despite the experience of their previous MP, still voted tribally. Einstein said that it was madness to do the same thing and expect a different result. Fool me once and all that.

    2. The politicians spend their life making sure you do not blame them. Do not be taken in. it is their fault. Governments cannot run or control anything. They need to allow people to get on and sort it out, but their rules and regulation stop it.

      1. 339447+ up ticks,
        Morning JN,
        “The politicians spend their life making sure you do not blame them. Do not be taken in. it is their fault”

        Being a long term UKIP member, now ex uKiP the way I view it is after such a run of treacherous political sh!tes
        major the curry fancier onward’s this lookalike tory still has the backing of a majority of the electorate, major was bad, the wretch cameron was worse, then treacherous tresa, was totally unpalatable & now the far turk.

        Peoples cannot keep blaming the politico’s they are just
        working for the biggest penny, tis the peoples that is at fault voting for their own demise, obviously the children’s future does NOT enter the equation.

      1. Good morning JBF

        That’s it in a nutshell.

        One could add that there are too many Conservative anti-Brexiters in parliament and Boris Johnson not only lacked the testicular strength to deselect them at the last election but he also rewarded people like the odious Clarke and several other retiring remoaners.

        Farage’s fatal error was to agree not to contest parliamentary seats held by Conservative remainers and getting diddly squat – or Sweet FA – in return from Johnson.

        I am beginning to think that Johnson and Gove planned to surrender on the NI Protocol and UK fishing from the very start of the ‘negotiations’.

        1. When Nigel pulled his Brexit Party candidate it did leave a UKIP candidate unopposed so the vote wasn’t split. It didn’t do any good, though. The voters elected a Con who had campaigned for remain.

      2. 339447+ up ticks,
        Morning JBF,
        So in turn are the main political overseeing bodies regarding the United Kingdom, without a shadow of doubt.

      3. I think it’s the other way around. I think the civil service is ardently trying to punish the voter to the extent we’re crippled, then the useless, bought and paid for utterly corrupt IMF say ‘you’ve got to join the euro and submit entire to EU rule’.

  39. The Brexit-hating global elite is watching Britain’s chaos with glee

    Furious voters won’t stand by if the Tory Government’s incompetence turns us into a worldwide laughing stock

    ALLISTER HEATH
    29 September 2021 • 9:30pm

    What’s wrong with this Government? Why is it so passive, veering from crisis to crisis without a strategy, devoid of any meaningful plan? Speak to the Prime Minister’s core supporters, and you soon detect that an earlier sense of disappointment is mutating into a slow, mounting fury at the chaos and incompetence that this Government increasingly exudes.

    Such people voted Brexit in 2016 and Tory in 2019 because they thought the country was on the wrong track and that it was time for a radical shake-up. They are starting to fear that they wasted their time, that this Government will let them down just as badly as previous ones did, on crime, on the economy and on cultural issues.

    This sense is clear from casual conversations with Tory supporters ahead of the party’s annual conference, as well as from focus groups: it remains less visible in opinion polls, where Sir Keir Starmer’s own failings more than cancel out the growing disenchantment with the Tories.

    Most toxic of all for the Government, the Tory base, who are patriotic and proud of being British above all else, are increasingly worried that the rest of the world is mocking us. They look at the disgraceful queues at our petrol stations, and wonder why we appear to be the only country to have imploded in such an embarrassing way.

    Why is it taking so long to send the Army in? Why can’t the DVLA be fixed? And what about the UK’s inability to control its own borders, as demonstrated by the fact that 17,085 people have arrived from the Channel on small boats so far this year – double 2020’s total already? Or to defend Jersey, which fears the French might cut off electricity supplies if Britain doesn’t surrender on fishing rights?

    These Tory voters are right: there is plenty of international Schadenfreude at our problems, albeit much of it severely misplaced. The whole world is engulfed in an energy crisis, there are labour shortages across Europe (and the principal problem at home is British truckers quitting the industry, rather than Europeans leaving) and illegal immigration is a mess everywhere.

    But Boris Johnson, and Britain for that matter, have something to prove. Brexit was a declaration of war on the global establishment, and as a result Britain is being held to a higher standard than other, more compliant countries. After years of bad publicity from an international media that was almost entirely anti-Brexit, such an attitude is no surprise, even if it is galling. Every problem in the UK is magnified, and immediately (and wrongly) blamed on our idiosyncratic decision to govern ourselves and reject the strictures of global bureaucrats.

    Nobody cares that Italian energy prices are higher than Britain’s, or about the scale of France’s labour shortage in the hospitality industry; but supposedly intelligent people are quick to claim that rocketing gas 
 and electricity prices in the UK are somehow due to Brexit.

    To crush all of this nonsense, Johnson needed to show that he could be a successful CEO, not merely a disrupter. He had to prove to sceptics inside and outside Britain that Brexit was indeed the huge opportunity he rightly said it would be.

    For that, he had to demonstrate to global financial institutions that they were wrong to sell the pound so heavily after the referendum, in turn inflating the prices of imported goods. He needed to explain to international investors that UK share prices were far too low because of ridiculously exaggerated concerns over the impact of Brexit on our economy.

    Johnson seemed, at first, to be proving his sceptics wrong. He negotiated a deal that restored the UK’s sovereignty while retaining as much free trade as a reactionary EU would tolerate. He started to rewire some of the institutions of government to make them more effective, although this was derailed by Covid.

    The high point came with the brilliant vaccine rollout, which would have been catastrophically delayed had we remained part of the EU. Many thousands of lives were saved, and this triumph alone should have forced Remainers to accept that they got the cost-benefit analysis of Brexit spectacularly wrong. Sterling surged and the global markets began to believe in post-Brexit Britain.

    Yet barely half a year later and the mood has turned against the UK again: the panic at the pumps is making it easy for those with a grudge to write Britain off. The pound is down by 5 per cent against the dollar since May, and the economy appears to be flatlining.

    Living standards will collapse next year, thanks to the energy price shock, higher taxes, a weakening currency, surging general inflation and higher interest rates. While other countries will also suffer on that front, there are actually some valid reasons for the renewed international scepticism towards Britain: one is our absurd, self-defeating decision to sabotage our competitiveness at the worst possible time.

    Johnson’s massive increase in corporation tax and national insurance will make it far less attractive to invest or recruit in Britain. Far from embracing a Singapore-on-Thames version of Brexit that would have more than compensated for the hit to growth from the protectionist barriers erected by a vindictive EU, we are deliberately throwing away economic growth, nationalising the railways and failing to tackle the housing shortage.

    We are decarbonising on a whim, without any thought given to what might happen if there is no wind or if gas supplies are disrupted. Britain is equally unprepared to deal with post-Covid labour shortages: it is the Government’s policy to reduce unskilled migration, partly to boost wages, but where is its plan, given the dire side effects of lockdown, to encourage, incentivise or train more British workers to pick up the slack? Isn’t that what levelling up is meant to be about?

    It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that so many Tory voters are upset. They are right that the Government’s incompetence is humiliating Britain. One of the many advantages of Brexit – for despite Johnson’s errors, the case for it remains overwhelming – is the wonderful accountability it enables. The chaos can no longer be blamed 
on Brussels’ policies, or European judges or anybody else. The buck stops at No 10.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/29/brexit-hating-global-elite-watching-britains-chaos-glee/

    1. BRINO is what we got instead of Brexit and everything seems to be engineered to make our “leaving” the EU untenable. This government should be accountable but won’t be until perhaps 2024. The Cons are utterly useless, clueless and well past their use by date.

      We need certain new parties to merge together for any chance to change the status quo but I won’t hold my breath.

    2. Fundamentally the economy is down, the currency is down because the advantages of Brexit were squandered.

      Taxes up, waste up, debt up.

      If you see someone gambling with the lives of others, you don’t consider that person a safe pair of hands, so you don’t trust them. The failures are directly related to Boris’ moronic attitude and seeming desperation to align with the EU’s miserable policies.

    3. The flaw in this argument is that Bojo, who doesn’t have the necessary talent anyway, was never signed up to make Brexit a success. His woeful agreement over NI shows that. He has consistently failed to stand up to the EU and tell them, “we’ve left and what we do is nothing to do with you”. He hasn’t removed or reduced VAT where he could, for a start. He heads a big state, high tax regime that is little different from Labour.

  40. The Brexit-hating global elite is watching Britain’s chaos with glee

    Furious voters won’t stand by if the Tory Government’s incompetence turns us into a worldwide laughing stock

    ALLISTER HEATH
    29 September 2021 • 9:30pm

    What’s wrong with this Government? Why is it so passive, veering from crisis to crisis without a strategy, devoid of any meaningful plan? Speak to the Prime Minister’s core supporters, and you soon detect that an earlier sense of disappointment is mutating into a slow, mounting fury at the chaos and incompetence that this Government increasingly exudes.

    Such people voted Brexit in 2016 and Tory in 2019 because they thought the country was on the wrong track and that it was time for a radical shake-up. They are starting to fear that they wasted their time, that this Government will let them down just as badly as previous ones did, on crime, on the economy and on cultural issues.

    This sense is clear from casual conversations with Tory supporters ahead of the party’s annual conference, as well as from focus groups: it remains less visible in opinion polls, where Sir Keir Starmer’s own failings more than cancel out the growing disenchantment with the Tories.

    Most toxic of all for the Government, the Tory base, who are patriotic and proud of being British above all else, are increasingly worried that the rest of the world is mocking us. They look at the disgraceful queues at our petrol stations, and wonder why we appear to be the only country to have imploded in such an embarrassing way.

    Why is it taking so long to send the Army in? Why can’t the DVLA be fixed? And what about the UK’s inability to control its own borders, as demonstrated by the fact that 17,085 people have arrived from the Channel on small boats so far this year – double 2020’s total already? Or to defend Jersey, which fears the French might cut off electricity supplies if Britain doesn’t surrender on fishing rights?

    These Tory voters are right: there is plenty of international Schadenfreude at our problems, albeit much of it severely misplaced. The whole world is engulfed in an energy crisis, there are labour shortages across Europe (and the principal problem at home is British truckers quitting the industry, rather than Europeans leaving) and illegal immigration is a mess everywhere.

    But Boris Johnson, and Britain for that matter, have something to prove. Brexit was a declaration of war on the global establishment, and as a result Britain is being held to a higher standard than other, more compliant countries. After years of bad publicity from an international media that was almost entirely anti-Brexit, such an attitude is no surprise, even if it is galling. Every problem in the UK is magnified, and immediately (and wrongly) blamed on our idiosyncratic decision to govern ourselves and reject the strictures of global bureaucrats.

    Nobody cares that Italian energy prices are higher than Britain’s, or about the scale of France’s labour shortage in the hospitality industry; but supposedly intelligent people are quick to claim that rocketing gas 
 and electricity prices in the UK are somehow due to Brexit.

    To crush all of this nonsense, Johnson needed to show that he could be a successful CEO, not merely a disrupter. He had to prove to sceptics inside and outside Britain that Brexit was indeed the huge opportunity he rightly said it would be.

    For that, he had to demonstrate to global financial institutions that they were wrong to sell the pound so heavily after the referendum, in turn inflating the prices of imported goods. He needed to explain to international investors that UK share prices were far too low because of ridiculously exaggerated concerns over the impact of Brexit on our economy.

    Johnson seemed, at first, to be proving his sceptics wrong. He negotiated a deal that restored the UK’s sovereignty while retaining as much free trade as a reactionary EU would tolerate. He started to rewire some of the institutions of government to make them more effective, although this was derailed by Covid.

    The high point came with the brilliant vaccine rollout, which would have been catastrophically delayed had we remained part of the EU. Many thousands of lives were saved, and this triumph alone should have forced Remainers to accept that they got the cost-benefit analysis of Brexit spectacularly wrong. Sterling surged and the global markets began to believe in post-Brexit Britain.

    Yet barely half a year later and the mood has turned against the UK again: the panic at the pumps is making it easy for those with a grudge to write Britain off. The pound is down by 5 per cent against the dollar since May, and the economy appears to be flatlining.

    Living standards will collapse next year, thanks to the energy price shock, higher taxes, a weakening currency, surging general inflation and higher interest rates. While other countries will also suffer on that front, there are actually some valid reasons for the renewed international scepticism towards Britain: one is our absurd, self-defeating decision to sabotage our competitiveness at the worst possible time.

    Johnson’s massive increase in corporation tax and national insurance will make it far less attractive to invest or recruit in Britain. Far from embracing a Singapore-on-Thames version of Brexit that would have more than compensated for the hit to growth from the protectionist barriers erected by a vindictive EU, we are deliberately throwing away economic growth, nationalising the railways and failing to tackle the housing shortage.

    We are decarbonising on a whim, without any thought given to what might happen if there is no wind or if gas supplies are disrupted. Britain is equally unprepared to deal with post-Covid labour shortages: it is the Government’s policy to reduce unskilled migration, partly to boost wages, but where is its plan, given the dire side effects of lockdown, to encourage, incentivise or train more British workers to pick up the slack? Isn’t that what levelling up is meant to be about?

    It is hardly a surprise, therefore, that so many Tory voters are upset. They are right that the Government’s incompetence is humiliating Britain. One of the many advantages of Brexit – for despite Johnson’s errors, the case for it remains overwhelming – is the wonderful accountability it enables. The chaos can no longer be blamed 
on Brussels’ policies, or European judges or anybody else. The buck stops at No 10.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/29/brexit-hating-global-elite-watching-britains-chaos-glee/

  41. Douglas Murray
    The tactics of victimhood

    Late last week the Labour deputy leader was the subject of a glowing profile in the Times. The piece described Angela Rayner’s alleged physical similarity to Nicole Kidman, spoke indulgently of her ‘outspokenness’ and otherwise confirmed my suspicion that most of the people who go into politics should never be allowed near the stuff.

    Rayner described herself as having ‘thrived’ off the ‘chaos’ of recent years. Apparently ‘the trauma, the screaming, the unpredictability — this is my bread and butter’. She continued: ‘In fact, I think it’s strange when people are nice. I find taking compliments more difficult than taking abuse, to be honest. I’ve never had that love and affection, so I don’t crave it. That’s really sad, because I see how people can be fulfilled by those things. And I can’t.’

    A matter of hours later Rayner indulged in a bit of unaffectionate Tory-bashing. Not for the first time, she described the Conservatives as ‘a bunch of scum’ and made the typically dishonest accusations that the left levels at everyone they oppose (‘racist, homophobic, misogynist’). A certain amount of backlash followed. But Rayner’s own side indulged her. Labour leader Keir Starmer simply said it was not language he would use of Her Majesty’s Government. Others, such as former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, cheerily insisted that we all get a bit overheated at times and besides how could any decent person not be angry at a government doing such unforgivable things as this one is allegedly doing?

    The Road Ahead
    In other words the left, as usual, rallied. The amiably wrong Zoe Williams wrote in the Guardian that the Tories were cynically deploying ‘the language of fake hurt and victimhood’ when they presumably should have either accepted the critique or chortled along as all these prominent leftists would have, had such words been used about them.

    Naturally the people indulging Rayner’s fighting talk are almost all the same people who have spent recent years calling for greater civility in our public debate. Specifically, they have called for greater care with words. Just two years ago Rayner herself told the BBC that parliamentarians have a ‘responsibility to dial down our language’.

    But whatever the left says, their instincts always make them behave otherwise. They cannot help themselves. Because while the right tend to think that their opponents are merely wrong-headed, the left always seem to think that their opponents are evil. This causes a great asymmetry in our politics.

    Kemi Badenoch — then a newly elected MP — referenced this at the Conservative party conference in 2017 when she acted as a warm-up for Theresa May. Badenoch used the occasion to tell several important truths. One was that if there was anything you could be sure of during party conference season, it was that no Labour party member would be barracked or spat at on their way into their conference by a gang of Conservative party members. There would be no right-wing protestors or thuggish groups affiliated with the Conservative party standing outside the Labour conference. Yet the obverse is often the case. Delegates going into Conservative party conference often have to pass protests of militant leftists spitting on them and hurling insults like ‘scum’ and more.

    Raise the question of why this is, and the left will always issue the same set of responses. They either deny it is the case or they say that you have to understand that people are angry when they witness a party doing [insert excuse here]. One of the current justifications for calling Conservatives ‘scum’ is that the government is making cuts to universal credit. You only have to turn this around to see how ridiculous it sounds. Imagine crowds of militant Conservatives gathered outside the Labour party conference, screaming insults at its members and, when asked why they are doing this, replying: ‘Well they keep arguing for increased levels of borrowing.’ This wouldn’t be received joshingly, would it?

    But of course the left has one final trick up its sleeve which its members now deploy with great skill: the crybully tactic. Which is that after hounding their opponents without restraint or censure, they wait until somebody says something even mildly mean about them. They then throw their hands in the air, call for the sympathy of their comrades and announce that they themselves are a victim, and therefore in the right. One reason I suspect that Rayner receives such glowing press is the knowledge that the slightest criticism of her will trigger her into making accusations of misogyny and class-ism. She would use homophobia and racism if she could.

    Over recent months, three of the most prominent and unpleasant leftist commentators in Britain all deployed this tactic. Having risen to prominence for virulently insulting all their opponents, they then perform this magnificent trick, which is to suddenly tell everyone that they are suffering from stress, or similar upset, because of the ‘hate’ directed against them. As though the people they direct hatred towards do not suffer, or perhaps simply deserve to suffer. Their calculation is that by being seen as a victim they also become unassailable.

    It is a great tactic this, and one that no conservative would ever think of deploying. People of the right do not ask for pity, because they recognise that to do so is not just self-indulgent but also only adds to the general misery. Kemi Badenoch is a fine example. In recent months she has been the subject of repeated attacks from left-wing publications which have consistently tried to portray her as (guess what) a racist, miso-gynistic homophobe. Badenoch is quite clearly none of these things, but using doctored quotes and more, this is the critique they have pushed. I do not doubt that they have caused her upset and distress. But they do not care about this, and Badenoch does not go around pleading for sympathy, which is not just a difference between right and left, but between victims and victors. Something the left might think on, if they could.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-tactics-of-victimhood?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMo

    1. https://www.takimag.com/article/aborting-trumpism/

      This is why the right is always two steps behind the left. And when I
      speak of “the left,” I don’t mean the moronic foot soldiers of BLM and
      Antifa. I mean the smart guys, the consultant class. As the right
      watches an event unfold and asks, “Who benefits?” the left watches that
      same event and asks, “How can I benefit?”
      See the difference? Rightists are purely reactive. Something happens,
      and they say, “I’ll sleuth out who’s exploiting it.” Leftists are
      proactive. Something happens, and they say, “I’ll exploit it.

    2. She sounds like sociopathic scum. But then that could be said for an awful lot of Labour politicians mostly the women for some reason. “A clanking manhole cover has been keeping children awake at night and making them cry, according to an upset grandfather.” Whoa, it’s Jesse Phillips! Emily Thornberry of white van fame, if her nose was stuck up any further she would be horizontal on her back, Dianne Abbott recipient of the Nobel Prize for Incoherence and Abottomath, but lest I sound sexist, the cream of the crop has to be David Lammy, bandwagoner extraordinaire and thick as mince.

      1. Lammy would call you racist. You’re not, he;s seeking to deflect from the reality. He IS thick. He is a racist because he cannot accept the reality of his own spite.

        This is why Lefties are vile.

    3. When lefty folk call for a gentler kinder world it always reminds me of that story about Yasser Arafat yelling at a reporter, “I’m a man of peace and I’ll kill anyone who says otherwise”! It may be apocryphal but it sums up such people rather neatly nonetheless.

      2. Much like antifa – we’ll attack you because we want our message to be the only one – we’re fascists like that, but because we’re sanctimonious whelps we think we’re right.

        The greens are the same: you will accept climate change because I say so. What if I believe differently? Don’t care, I’m right, you’re wrong, get off my planet. Who the feck made it yours? Where’s your tolerance and respect for others? Doesn’t matter, this is for the greater good.

        Ah, where have we heard that before?

    4. The difference between Left and Right is simple.

      The Right use common sense and look at the root causes, and seek to solve those. Their debate and language is phrased around the cause and solution.

      The Left don’t want to address the cause at all. They want to take and keep power over those people and use the state machine to achieve it – the very thing that creates the problem in the first place. Because this is so obvious, they demonise and attack those *they* hate to denigrate the message and thus ensure poverty is perpetuated.

      They are nasty, stupid, bitter, spoiled and greedy malicious sewage not because of what they say or do, but because they are fundamentally hypocrites. They know their approaches don’t work, but they use ignorance and fear to ensure people keep believing the same tired lies to entrench their own power.

      Sadly, the Left know this is why the Right can never win Left wingery promises easy lies to stupid people. It’s the lazy, easy route – make someone else you demonise pay. No responsibility, no work, just hurt those you’re told to hate, the successful, the capable, the high earners, ‘da bankerz’, da ‘wich companys’ (because one thing Lefties cannot manage is spelling), those that avoid tax – never understanding companies no more pay tax than … well, practically everything else is taxed.

      The Left: bitterness and spite playing off stupidity, ignorance and fear. That is why they must be reviled and fought.

      1. The true left ( like Hitler) want to control everything and everyone. The true right (like Mrs T) want less government and let the people do what needs tp be done, provide a safety net not a feather bed.

    1. I would say the list of fcukwits I make a point of avoiding grows bigger every day, Sainsbury’s, Octopus Energy, Specsavers, all German and French car brands etc and now the DT, but to be honest I stopped a long time ago buying the paper and always bypass their paywall.
      At least I can say they get no support from me. Let’s hope Bob finds a new home soon.

      1. Which energy company are you with? I ask because I have have bad experiences with BG, and Octopus (thought too woke for my liking) gave a reasonable deal and were good on customer service. I am sceptic about the Big 6 and concerned about the viability of the others.

        P.S. I don’t view what you might answer as a recommendation, merely a view of what you have received.

          4. Dunno – he’s the boss of Ecotricity. Also bought the local football team and splashed enough cash to get them into the League.

        2. I am with Bulb which up to now has been trouble free. I have checked my tariff details which seems no worse than many others, perhaps they are twitchy about their customers building up sizeable deficits over the coming months, hence the rather large monthly payments to forestall problems.
          I will keep an eye on how the account looks, truth be told we are all going to endure bigger bills no matter who we are with, as Boris seems determined to keep green taxes on energy, so no help from him then.

          2. As AVRO went t!ts up, we were allocated to Octopus.
            Given their wokeness, I’m not happy, but, with winter coming, we’ll look around over the next few months and make a decision.

          4. Any move to any supplier is fraught with hazards these days. Good luck, I hope it works out for you.

          5. We’ve dealt with Bulb for a number of years.

            We’ve always found their customer service to be excellent, and they are reasonably cheap, but not the cheapest.

      1. thank you for the link. Interesting that the good Doctor confuses ‘solidity’ with ‘solidarity’.
        Palliative medicine is basically about pain relief, an area which is a disaster within the NHS.

      2. Sorry William, you like the facts, so do I. But in this case there is a bit of history. Bob Moran’s wife gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter, but he and his wife had believed all that guff about birthing pools and scented candles. After five days of contractions, his wife was blue lighted to hospital and the baby was born with hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, which led to a diagnosis of cerebral palsy.
        We are brought up traditionally to respect midwives, but I have my doubts. FIVE DAYS???
        On the other hand, it is prudent to avoid ANY ad hominem attack, though I failed recently and must delete a post.

        1. I didn’t make any judgement. I just wondered why he had been suspended. However, I didn’t know about his child.

      3. Dr Rachel Clarke would appear to be an overgrown child who runs to Nanny when someone in the playground is rude to her.

    3. It’s been censored because it’s clearly a seditious cartoon. It’s not right that two, in this case mature people, are free to roam, are happy and in love with one another, and worse, they are enjoying the vista provided by a green and pleasant land. This is not what Johnson’s government is promoting, in fact quite the opposite, so if you’re in love, happy, free and there’s fuel in your car’s tank then you are guilty of sedition and must be prepared to be cancelled.

        1. or ‘challenging’. rapist, cop and murderer. Perhaps he should convert to the Religion of P’leace

    3. We haven’t had justice since Blair started the long march through the institutions and manipulated the judiciary.

  46. 339447+ up ticks,
    Can this type ruling be applied to say United Kingdom political overseers,
    for treacherous services rendered.

    Dt,
    German court issues arrest warrant for 96-year-old Nazi death camp ‘fugitive’
    Irmgard Furchner, accused of complicity in the murder of over 10,000 people in occupied Poland, failed to turn up at her trial today

      1. 339447+ up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        My meaning was after the ” beginning” has come to a successful conclusion and we are in the reckoning era.

  47. Police Finland detained some 141 activists of the Finnish branch of the global environmental movement Extinction Rebellion (Elokapina in Finnish), during Wednesday’s Helsinki demonstration, according to Helsingin Sanomat.

    The environmental group kicked off their “Autumn Rebellion” at 6 pm on Wednesday by occupying the capital’s main thoroughfare, Mannerheimintie. The protest was however deemed illegal by police and was broken up by authorities an hour after it started.

          1. Yep..i used to live a bit farther down the river.
            However the Finnish pronunciation is a bit different.
            intie-ay.

  48. Just passing through. First hospital visit satisfactory There appears to be nothing wrong with the MR (that men in white coats could spot – they didn’t ask me…!!)

    Filled up in a garage as normal – no queue – though NO diesel.

    Have I missed much? Given that I’ll be going out again at 3.30 for second hospital visit…should I stay?

          3. Only because there was no diesel fuel, and people with older cars now have to buy E5 petrol elsewhere.

          3. Never joined.

            Yesterday, I could get to the front page – and than a panel with “Special offer” appeared – with an X top right – so one could delete it – and then fiddle with the articles, letters etc using the ESC key.

            This new thing is new.

        2. I don’t try to delete it Bill! I press Refresh and then hammer Escape. Sometimes once and sometimes several times. I then read the article!

        3. I don’t try to delete it Bill! I press Refresh and then hammer Escape. Sometimes once and sometimes several times. I then read the article!

        4. I don’t try to delete it Bill! I press Refresh and then hammer Escape. Sometimes once and sometimes several times. I then read the article!

    2. And the fake Hermes sent you a text asking you to reschedule your delivery by clicking this link………..

    1. The crying kid in this video sums up what Greta Thunberg has leashed in the MSM by endorsing the net zero aims of the global warming elitist cult.

      The fact that these young girls see no purpose in bringing children into this ‘world of doom’ means that Greta has already destroyed their childhoods and hope for a long and fulfilled life.

    2. The crying kid in this video sums up what Greta Thunberg has leashed in the MSM by endorsing the net zero aims of the global warming elitist cult.

      The fact that these young girls see no purpose in bringing children into this ‘world of doom’ means that Greta has already destroyed their childhoods and hope for a long and fulfilled life.

  53. A recent study found that people who take their coffee black are more
    likely to exhibit psychotic traits.

    And people who order a quad shot, non-fat, vanilla soy, extra foam,
    light whip with caramel drizzle are more than likely to be their
    victims……

  54. email from British Gas. 11:17. 30 September 2021.

    Dear Minty.

    There’s been a lot in the news lately about challenges in the energy market. We want to reassure you that there’s nothing for you to worry about as a British Gas customer.

    We buy a lot of our gas and electricity in advance, so we’re less affected by sudden increases in the price of energy than smaller, less stable suppliers.

    Yours BG.

    Dear BG. There’s a shortage because the gas has been bought up at source and not released onto the market. This has created an artificial shortfall and jacked up the price..

    Yours Minty.

        1. Just because he is a Russophile doesn’t make me wish to insult him!

          Anyway – note the comma…{:¬))

    2. Your energy problems are making a few if our wise heads worry.

      Much of our gas and oil comes through a pipeline that has a section under lake Michigan. The Democrat governor is trying to shut the pipeline down and to hell with the consequences.

      Unfortunately the liberal government leaders do not qualify as wise heads, Trudeaus answer is to build more windmills and increase his carbon tax.

      It’s going to be a long cold winter

  55. Not content with groveling to first nations, we now have a national day of truth and reconciliation. Naturally the BBC like cbc are playing this up as the only thing happening today.

    The latest suggestion is to cancel Canada and hand the land back to the original occupants.. That is going to upset the local Mohawks when they are told to pack up and leave.

    If this woke twaddle continues, I have serious concerns about the continuing health of our TV and radio.

  56. 339447+ up ticks,
    May one ask, this harmon person calling for the dick of the yard resignation, was she not the one that, with another female MP was talking with PIE in the mid 70s.

    The anthony charlie lynton will be calling for justice next.

  57. Harriet Harman calls for Cressida Dick to resign. 30 September 2021.

    Labour’s Harriet Harman has called for Cressida Dick to resign as chief of the Metropolitan Police after Wayne Couzens was sentenced to a whole-life order for the murder, rape and kidnapping of Sarah Everard. He is the first police officer to receive such a sentence. In a letter to the Commissioner, Harman writes that ‘women’s confidence in the police will have been shattered’ by the case and that it is ‘not possible for you [Dick] to lead’ the changes necessary in the force following this case.

    It is thanks to the likes of Harman that Dick occupies her position. Dick is as woke as Woke can be! This goes some considerable way to explain her staggering incompetence but she is not responsible for the death of Sarah Everard. There have been laws against murder since the time of Hammurabi. It has made no significant difference. Femicide will fare no better! Until the advent of thought crime all laws were retroactive. Perhaps this is what Harman envisions? Trial and sentence before the offence? Future Crime!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/harriet-harman-calls-for-cressida-dick-to-resign

    1. Hickory Dickory woke.
      The House wants a bloke
      The Bloke’s struck dumb.
      The House went Uumm
      Hickory Dickory woke ……

    2. Is that the same Harriet Harperson who was legal adviser to a paedophile group, and who has yet to apologise it?

  58. Russia under fire as CIA agent evacuated from Serbia suffering ‘Havana syndrome’
    The incident is said to have occurred in recent weeks in the Balkans but went unreported until now. The CIA official reportedly suffered serious injuries consistent with the neurological attacks known as Havana Syndrome. It comes following a string of what US officials are describing as an attack on American spies and diplomats posted overseas.
    Dr James Giordano, a Georgetown University professor of neurology who is advising the US government on the issue, told The Wall Street Journal: “They are seen as valid reports with verified health indicators.”

    Dr Giordano added that the cause could be some form of ultrasonic or acoustic device, a rapidly-pulsed microwave, or a laser-based system.

    What is the CIA doing in Serbia?

    In other news..Russia leads the World in Pulse Energy technology.

    1. Afternoon Harry. These “attacks” span the Globe and involve no one except Americans. That Russian agents are pursuing their quarry in such diverse circumstances for no discernible reason defies explanation. It is far more likely that the CIA are either carrying them out themselves or more likely faking the whole thing!

        1. Yes I know. How do they get them through customs and what happens when through circumstance one of them falls into the hands of the authorities? It is a stupid story!

          5. They just used to wear black Ulsters and black slouch hats. That was disguise enough. To disguise oneself as a microwave oven takes real skill, and superior technology.

      2. The Russians could have something I would surmise is electronic but I see no reason for why they would do such a thing, it doesn’t seem to me to be of any advantage. Are you aware of the incident in the Black Sea where an American warship had all its electronics fail after a couple of passes by a Russian plane? The Americans tried to keep it secret. You will find the incident reported on You Tube somewhere.

        1. Electronics can be killed of by an Electromagnetic pulse, unless some clever stuff is done with a Faraday cage and canaries, so the plane might have done something like that. But EMP does not generally hurt people, unless the Van de Graaf accelerator got overheated.
          Makes one’s hair stand on end, so it does.

    2. Would there be any point to such goings-on? However, my real question is how do they target an individual, and not also affect dozens passers-by? How do the mechanics of it get put into operation?
      The Havana story was that the Russian rays were aimed at the US people in Havana. Did they set up the ray gun in the house next door? Did they have a mobile version mounted on the roof of a van, that the Russkis passed off as a TV licence detector thingy? Was there a transistorised pocket version carried by Russian inspired Cuban señoritas who would seduce and irradiate Yanks for a few rubles, a tin of Sevruga caviar and a sable stole?
      Why cannot the vile snow-booted Muscovites beam the craziness rays down from a projector on a satellite in orbit around the Earth?
      The truth must come out. We must be told.

    3. As noted in the below article the amount of uWave energy and with beam spread needed to create the claimed effects is not really feasible , the inverse square law and attenuation of building materials sees to that. If it were a problem anyone living within a couple of miles of an airport radar would definitely be driven doolally. The same goes for subsonic warfare .

      https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/03/nas-report-on-havana-syndrome-mired-in-controversy/
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQFL-NLh0O8

  59. I am signing off for the day. Must prepare for the trip to horsepiddle. Have a good afternoon and evening.

    A demain

  61. I’ve often wondered – since Shami Chakrabarti was given a peerage for what is now a totally discredited paper postulating that the Labour Party wasn’t anti-semitic, surely subsequent evidence that this was completely untrue should make her peerage voidable?

    If not, why not?

      2. @aternoon, my dear,

        With her background, she could hardly be expected to produce anything that indicated anti-Semitism.

      1. I shot off to Toolstation for a thermostat and cable and thought I might as well top up at the Co-op over the road as I’m down to a quarter of a tank. Closed, taped and coned off.

        1. Like trying to get an appointment with a doctor.

          MOH has been in bed for 7 days – he is just phisically exhausted. He had a temperature four days ago. “Oh if you’ve had a temperature you can’t come into the surgery” said the receptionist.

          Later he spoke with the doctor, who told him to ring 119 and get an appointment for covid screening. She couldn’t wait to get off the phone, nor she did she suggest what he could do if the test was negative. He still hasn’t had the result.

          Doctors should be taken to task. Many are beng paid a lot of money for (in)effictively doing nothing.

          2. Hi HL

            Does your Moh have diffiiculty breathing , sore thoat etc, and is his temp still high , any scratches , rashes , chest pain, headache , pain anwhere else .

            Ring 119 anway, and get some advice , just to be on the safe side .

    5. And when you finally do get through, you will be told that your slot will be in 5 weeks’ time. See how you enjoy spending your days on the phone waiting for someone to answer!

      1. I have to say that my GP’s surgery has returned to the real world. Open access from around 8 until 10 in the morning, appointments until around 6 in the evening. I need a blood test before my next prescription and rang yesterday: recording told me that they were very busy but i was number 1 on the call list 😂. After close on 10 minutes a helpful human spoke to me and I have a test at 8:10 on Monday. Pretty much back to normality.

        1. Good for you, Korky. My own surgery took longer to answer – my GP will ring me back in 10 days or so.

        2. Good evening Korky,
          For many years I have needed medication related blood tests every 3 – 6 months (varies according to dosage) at my health centre. My excellent GP then passed results on to the hospital prior to appointments there. The system worked until recently but for the last two hospital visits, the consultant has had great difficulty getting the GPs to pass on the blood results. Probably not helped that most of our 18 or so GPs have ‘retired’ and most seem to have been replaced by ‘doctors’ with ‘qualifications’ from dubious parts of the world. My consultant now wants my bloods done at the hospital. I wonder if my current GP will ever request the blood tests that are needed!.

    6. And when you finally do get through, you will be told that your slot will be in 5 weeks’ time. See how you enjoy spending your days on the phone waiting for someone to answer!

  65. Being a grumpy old bat, rarely am I impressed. However; I ran out of jars for jelly making, so I trawled the interwebby to find something suitable. I had no wish to take out a second mortgage for gingham painted tops or fancy shapes; I just needed 1/2 lb-ish jars because, once opened, jelly goes off even when stored in the fridge. Wilko came up with the best answer both in price and shape, so I ordered 24.
    Order arrived a day early and beautifully packed. They are very good quality and anything up to half the price of others I had seen.
    I will certainly be using Wilko again.

      1. I once worked a radio amateur in poor conditions and was finding it difficult to make out his name, even spelled phonetically. Eventually, we communicated the necessary information for the log book. It turns out his name was Roger, cue me saying, “that’s a roger, Roger. Roger, Roger!” and bursting out laughing.

          1. Unfortunately my innate miserliness interferes with my shopping habits. I did buy another one today though in Morrisons. It cost me £3!

        2. I’ve just gone online and bought some of the 140 hr ones for a fiver each. Also lots of batteries and a couple of head torches.

    3. What happened to the jars I gave you, Annie? Are you stockpiling for when people start panic-buying jars of jelly?

      :-))

      1. Used ’em, Sweetie.
        I have been given so many tomatoes and also bullaces that Allan Towers is resembling Wilkins at Tiptree.
        Today, we nipped over to Fingringhoe and I’ve sewn up my supplies of crab apples for this year. When I plan, I show more foresight than the government (admittedly, not a high bar to set!).

      1. The Express has been doing this for while, producing bizarrely extreme versions of outlook forecasts. Describing temperatures of around 40°F as ‘bitter’ is typical.

        For the records, snow showers over the highest parts of Scotland are not unknown in early October and it’s a possibility early next week if winds turn to the north for a day or so.

          2. Oh please, the air was full of the fumes from the whisky bottling hall, and the belles in white wellies would whistle as we went by.

          4. Summer snow in the UK is unusual, even in Scotland, but, as Buxton found out a year later, not unheard of.

          5. I boarded the train to Worthing for an interview in June, probably the same year, when it was snowing.

        1. Sorry, I posted a link to a PJW talk that turned out to be much more controversial than I thought. Hence deleted.

    4. When it comes to the Express their weather forecasts mean bugger all. Always over the top on anything.

    2. I wonder which Media Company they paid. Knowing (unfortunately) a former director of one, that would be money from the fools to money for the nasties.

    2. Perish the thought! It will be the nastiest, richest people who can afford that.

      I’d rather go than be kept alive for the sake of it.

    5. I would be really happy to live ’till 130. I have yet to get bored and would love to know what is going to happen in the future. In fact 300 would be fine as long as I was intact and there was an off switch.

        1. Yes exactly and I’m really curious as to whether we will be more or less immortal because we would have amalgamated with AI and/or be able to clone ourselves or become an “artificial” lifeform in some way so that, in essence, we were immortal and thus very feasibly explore the galaxy. Or have the time to become polymaths in all sorts of subjects known and yet unknown. I have never been bored in my life and I can’t imagine ever being so, there is just so much and life really is to short.

          1. I reckon it’s 50/50 whether we ‘Green‘ ourselves back to the Dark Ages within 100 years or less.

          2. More optimistic than you. I honestly think that what is happening is typical of a period of transition. If you look back in history, there was always turmoil at such times, but in the end we continued on and didn’t go backwards.

          4. I’d like to live long enough to read all the books I’ve got stockpiled 🙂 Have you seen Centennial Man?

          5. Centennial Man. I assume it is a film? Will look it up and download it. Is it worth watching?

          6. Conway. I couldn’t find Centennial man but I found Bicentennial Man. I assume that is the film you mean? So downloading it right now and will watch this evening.

      3. “I’m not afraid of dying; I just don’t want to be there when it happens.”

        Spike Milligan …

        1. As I remarked at the crematorium, MOH hated funerals and wouldn’t have been at this one if it could have been avoided!

          1. At funerals and wakes, it is desirable to introduce an element of humour to break the gloom; the dearly departed would invariably agree …

          2. I agree. I often said to MOH, “you don’t want to go to X’s (a close friend’s) funeral; you won’t even want to go to your own!”

    6. I believe there is a question mark over that claim. Her account of Van Gogh using Daddy’s art shop is … ummmm ….

    8. Scientists will carry on fiddling around so fast with technological advances to nature that the genetically modified biorobots that evolve from humans with have to spend all their time in zoom meetings just trying to keep up with the latest advances.

      The lifespan of our biorobotic descendants will thus depend on the longevity of the Chinese manufactured prosthetic parts for which I don’t have much expectation due to their planned premature obsolescence.

    9. Scientists will carry on fiddling around so fast with technological advances to nature that the genetically modified biorobots that evolve from humans with have to spend all their time in zoom meetings just trying to keep up with the latest advances.

      The lifespan of our biorobotic descendants will thus depend on the longevity of the Chinese manufactured prosthetic parts for which I don’t have much expectation due to their planned premature obsolescence.

    12. We may not live to be 130 but the greenie and, health restrictions will make it feel like we have reached six score and ten.

  69. BBC News – In the news today, an awful lot of inconvenient stuff happened around the world, but we don’t want you to know about that, it might lead to you having the wrong thoughts and ideas.

  70. Merde!

    Nicolas Sarkozy sentenced to year’s house arrest for illegally financing 2012 re-election bid
    The former French president has been found guilty of corruption     but the sentence could be suspended if he successfully appeals the verdict

    1. We had the same sentence – but because the government panicked over a common cold virus.
      Now, at least one woman has been murdered because of arbitrary powers given to tin pot h!tlers.

    5. How short a term in prison would Biden have to be given for election fraud if he were to serve his term and then come out before he is completely dead?

      2. Nobody really knows what they are, but the pictures of the fibre, and the metallic like fragments are similar to what the German doctors observed. There is just no reason for those to be in a vaccine, surely?

      1. Belle, revelations re the jabs’ contents have been appearing for a few months now and it’s all bad news. All show ‘stuff’ that the independent experts cannot identify. Have you taken the time to watch the German symposium that was put up on here a few day ago? The English translation makes it hard going but if you want confirmation that the ‘jab’ has some very weird stuff in it then watch it.

        In addition:
        1) Why the drive to inoculate everyone, even those not at risk?
        2) Why is a “vaccine” designed to counter the Alpha variant being pushed to counter the Delta variant?
        3) see 2) above re the ‘booster’.
        There’s plenty of information out on the ‘net, all you have to do is look for it.

          2. That’s going back some time, HP. My parents wouldn’t let me or my older sister watch any of the Quatermass series. Off to bed was the order of the day!

      2. Don’t believe it, Maggie, because you don’t WANT to believe it.

        Why else would Big Pharma be given immunity?

      1. The question is – does she queue, or just go straight to a pump to fill her can? Given that she will only be taking a few litres, and will not be taking a car’s place in the queue, and will only take a minute or two to fill her can, is she queue-jumping?

  73. This was horrific, but I wonder why similar outrage hasn’t been expressed about other similar crimes.
    Please don’t try to tell me that the fact it was a policeman makes it different, although I understand why one might.
    The police are a group, with special powers and responsibilities, but too many “protected” communities also act as groups and are permitted to carry on because it’s cultural.

    https://static.standard.co.uk/2021/09/30/11/ADAMS20210930.jpg?crop=3%3A2%2Csmart&width=640&auto=webp&quality=75

    1. I think partly because he was a policeman and before she realised what what happening he’d got her hancuffed.
      Also because he had obviously planned to snatch a lone woman, and the streets were deserted.
      Plus of course, she was an attractive young woman with a loving family.

      Was there such an outcry about the two sisters – apart from their mother? Has their killer been sentenced?

    2. He was a person placed in a position of trust and authority by government agencies; those same agencies were given arbitrary powers that nobody could – or wished to – understand. Those powers were carelessly given to government agencies by a bumbling administration that reacted hysterically to a variant cold virus.

    3. There is far too much innate thuggery present within today’s Police Farce and, as such, needs Chief Constables, with no political alliance, to order the practice of Zero Tolerance both internally and externally.

  74. Should the next James Bond be a woman…?

    As Daniel Craig bows out of playing the British secret agent in No Time To Die, there have been calls for him to be replaced by a female lead.

    Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is in favour ….I wonder why?

    2. You could then squeeze in a lesbian scene without the #metoo sirens howling. Two woke boxes ticked, make her a bame an you nearly have a full house.

    3. Why? Other than to tick some effing diversity box, of course. Make her a disabled blek woman and you’ve got a Casino Royal Flush.

    1. Well, since Allan Towers is fine for bog rolls and cleaning materials, you could cause panic buying of Cillit Bang.

  79. Evening, all. Government has exposed Boris as someone who has the lights on, but there’s nobody at home. On a personal note, I have been pretending to be a housewife this evening; I’ve washed the towels and changed the bed – I’m exhausted! How do real housewives cope? I’ve downed a glass of port as a restorative.

    2. Evening Conway

      Housewife or House husband ?

      As a I am a woman , I always say a womans work is never done ..and yes , tedious jobs are always exhausting .

      Today has been hit and miss, we were geared up to have our flu jabs at the local chemist this morning , then Moh recieved a message on his phone to say the stuff hadn’t arrived , so our jabs have been postponed untill mid October .

      1. I thought it was housewives who did the housework, hence the use of the term. I’m dead old-fashioned, me.

          2. Washing machines do the washing… just saying… the loading & unloading is me, dry stuff dropped into a named bag for each inhabitant here. Ironing, they can do themselves!

          3. I’ve just put a second load into the washing machine. While I don’t mind loading and unloading the dishwasher, doing the washing seems to be much more of a fag, somehow.

    3. SWMBO manages as she has a) me, and b) a Polish racing-snake who cleans the house at warp speed, and does an excellent job!

    1. When the poorest of the poor can’t be supported by their own countries and they are told that eldorado.UK.com can support them where do you think they will head?

    2. A bit late, Old Troop but I prefer to give my birthday wishes directly to the recipient. So, hoping you’ve had a great day and can look forward to many more.

      1. Ta NTN

        I am also a believer in celebrating ‘Unbithdays’, of which there are 364, until I become 28

        Keep the Jokes coming: I have lots of sites bookmarked, however, the skill is posting the ones Nottlers find amusing.

        You hit the spot almost all the time

  82. Good night all

    Coupla veal burgers & lotsa coleslaw.

    I like coleslaw; Missy like veal burgers.

    1. The real question should be:

      Why is it harder, Covidwise, for a UK resident who holidays abroad, to get get back into UK, than for an Afghan or Dover “refugee”

          3. Just realised my comment may have seemed like referring to other forums – no, just life!

  87. If it wasn’t so serious, this would be ludicrous.
    Where do they get these people from? Dick has had what, 9 months to come up with a solution, and all the Met can say is to “ask why you are being arrested, and to see the warrant card”?
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-58757375
    Pathetic, utterly pathetic. The article suggests strongly that the Met don’t actually give even one tiny little shit.

      1. Photograph it and send it to someone you know, there and then, so that there is a trail.

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