Thursday 31 August: The expanded Ulez means fresh challenges for families and carers

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

398 thoughts on “Thursday 31 August: The expanded Ulez means fresh challenges for families and carers”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s sick story

    It’s In The Breeding
    There are 2 puddles of vomit on the floor. One turns to the other and asks: “Hey, how come I got lumps in me but you don’t?”

    “I don’t know,” replies the other one, “it’s just the way I was brought up I guess.”

      1. My thoughts exactly, Paul but I’m honour-bound to give you a story, no matter how sick.

    2. Groan, Sir Jasper! (But keep them coming, they are most welcome as a diversion from ULEZ and other frustrating news.)

  3. Morning, all Y’all.
    Sunny, but chilly. Cat bitten, we think by a snake, yesterday, so lots of fuss to get vet appointment this morning, then find cat, box him up ready for delivery. Poor Big Cat, definitely unwell and with a sore swollen paw.
    :-((

    1. So, everything late this morning. Need more coffee… not served on the bus, however.

      2. Beat you, Herr Oberst – I was much much latererer today. PS – Hope the vet sorted big cat’s paw.

        1. Paw cleaned, drained of pus, antibioticked, and Big is now home again, looking much happier.

    4. He could have one of those spiky grass seeds that get in paws and ears, they are about 1 cm long with spikes peeling off the central stem and a wicked spike on the end; they work their way up through the paw and get infected. Poppie got one down her ear in France, the vet told us he saw two or three a week with infected paws caused by these seeds. I hope he makes a quick recovery.

      1. Are you sure that the vet was sober, poppiesmum? If he was looking down her ear but thought it was her paw, then I doubt if he could tell his ass from his elbow. Lol.

      1. Was it an adder?, Annie? I thought you said you were hopeless at Maffs. Lol. (Good day, btw.)

  4. ‘Abuse of power’? Theresa May is the expert. 30 August 2023.

    The Abuse of Power is a promising title for Theresa May’s book. There is much she could say on the theme: how she ran government as a triumvirate with two unelected special advisers, keeping her Cabinet colleagues in the dark about things such as the 2017 election and even the Tory manifesto. But those hunting for references to such dramatic moments will be disappointed: May’s book is not, really, about her. It’s a reflection on the failings of others and what led them to make the mistakes they did.

    Exhibit A is John Bercow, the former Commons Speaker, whose shenanigans she blames for the collapse of her Brexit deal. “Not just a bully but also a serial liar,” she says: yet this bully was in charge of the parliamentary system. This brings her on to her wider theme: corruption within these systems, and what happens when those in charge care about themselves, not others – leaving the powerless without a voice.

    There’s a good case for hanging every British Prime Minister since John Major; May being by no means the worst, but I don’t think reading this would do my nerves; or my new Kindle, any good.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/review-theresa-may-abuse-power-fraser-nelson/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. People like May are shameless; berating Bercow as a serial liar? Pot and kettle, anyone?

      1. Oh no, does that mean if you buy a pack of half a dozen toilet rolls you get six books?

    3. We have had bunglers, buffoons, megalomaniacs and idiots but never have we had anyone as evil as Teraita May.

    4. Don’t tar them all with the same brush, Minty. Lizz Truss and her original Chancellor’s excellent budget was torpedoed by Mr Sunak.

    1. Not the same heavy Jew thrown out of the synagogue for eating pork scratchings during the sermon?

      1. I use to work with a couple of Jewish chaps who admitted they ate a bacon sandwich now and then.

        1. I was wrong Tom, it’s been sunny and hot all day – I’ve continued with pruning the trees, cutting down a couple and logging them – tomorrow it’s cleaning the gutters while I have the scaffolding up

  6. Good morning, all. Bright with a light overcast here. Rain expected later.

    From 7.45 in, Dave Walsh talks facts re energy. Having an expert, as opposed to the likes of Kerry et al., explain in simple terms what is, and what has been, going on is worth a few minutes of time.

    War Room – Dave Walsh on Energy

    1. My supplier has been pestering us for ages. I take the monthly readings and post on their website.

    2. I don’t see what all the fuss is about. It’s just a more efficient way of being billed bilked!

    3. OVO keeps sending me an appointment card for me to choose a date and time to have one installed. I keep putting it in the bin.

      2. Scottish Power keep sending me emails to make an appointment “to replace [my] aging meter”. I looked at the link and it’s to have a smart meter fitted. No thanks.

  8. Morning all 🙂😊
    Once more this month a grey day and rain forecast.
    It’s our 49th wedding anniversary today.
    Fond memories of a lovely occasion. Sadly The Waggon and Horses pub hotel where we had our reception, was buried long ago under the awful M25.

      1. I think we will be organising a Satuday or Sunday lunch at my old golf club.
        For more a lot more than four.
        I better make sure they are not putting on something else that day.

      1. It’s all past quite rapidly Richard.
        But we have three lovely sons and so far 4 grand children.
        I’m going to dig out our album for reminiscence.

  9. Just had consultation with neurologist following MRI a week or so ago. To my relief, there’s no brain tumour causing the occasional unconsciousnesses and confusion – a colleague was diagnosed with that some few years ago, and I don’t want to die like that. Great relief, so much that I can barely stand up!
    So, more tests to come.
    Big Cat at the vet – he’s definitely not well, and his front stbd paw is swollen and painful. Cat or snakebite, we wonder? Poor Big.
    Must do some work – see ya later.

    1. He even married his mate Michael who had obviously had a bit of work carried out.
      Remember both the daughters are adopted.

        2. There is a married couple who are friends of the Obamas, and when you put photos of them next to the Obama daughters, let’s just say that one is the image of the man and the other is the image of the woman.
          Also, there are no photos of Michelle Obama pregnant.
          They are rumoured to be the real parents.

  11. Good morning all,

    A wet start to the day in Pembrokeshire. Heavy rain until mid-morning then slowly clearing up to be quite bright by late afternoon. Wind Sou’-East, 12C going up to 17 C.

    Penny Mordaunt tries hard, you have to give her that.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/30/penny-mordaunt-national-service-volunteering-youth-uk/

    As always, it’s the comments which reveal the truth of where this might go. Here’s one which perfectly illustrates the general tenor:

    Rollo Parsons 36 MIN AGO.

    No Penny, what we need is a full on Gabon style coup and a ruthless dictator in charge who believes in Britain. That is the only way of changing a political system that is broken beyond repair and peopled by lazy, crooked incompetents hell bent on self service.

    It is quite an achievement, in 13 years your government have broken every system that worked, damaged our youth and undermined our standing internationally. If the Angolans had been in charge they would have done a better job than the conservatives have.

    Sorry, Love, your sword-waving days are over.

    1. Don’t worry Rollo, we’re very nearly at critical mass for the gimmegrants to take over.

      Young, diverse, and extremely violent with a recently imported cohort that are fresh from the fight, many of whom will have had military training in street fighting and guerrilla warfare..

      1. It really is insulting that government keeps telling us we need massive uncontrolled gimmigration when we have 5 million foreigners unemployed and welfare dependent.

        The motivated ones keep forcing ever more demands for themselves and the Left wing state keeps pushing those powers but only applying them for their lot, not as common law. That’s the biggest problem: it stops being law when only one side wants to apply it.

    2. To be fair, some systems were already damaged before the TINOs took over. NHS for example!

        1. Forgot her name, but a Tory front bencher. One of the desperate architects of the authoritarian on line harm bill and a wef promoter.

          We don’t need national service. We need an end to massive uncontrolled gimmigration, welfare and statism. None of those things Penny Mordant – that’s her name – is remotely interested in.

          1. National Service as it was in the 50s and early 60s might just instil discipline and self-discipline on our younger generation – sadly lacking today but any wishy-washy version will do more harm than good.

          2. Yet that lack of discipline comes from inter generational welfare. When your parents didn’t bother working, and you don’t have to, and you’re breeding for an income and you see brats as a way to ‘getting a bigger house’ nothing is going to change your perspective except cutting off that tap forever and leaving you literally destitute.

    4. Schwab-Jugend courtesy of the faux Tories?

      Indoctrination camps? Obedience training? I think we’ve seen this before and it didn’t end well.

          1. And the Germans were the only ones aided by the US, who demanded full payment to destroy the British Empire – which they feared.

  12. Good morning all.
    A dry start to the day with 7°C, bright but cloudy with blue patches.

  13. ‘Morning All

    Oh Yeah

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b31d1f51adb1b4184f3c6851d3df9fd59d0637952f5346fe1c7616939d144f08.jpg

    Rest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8a9bf11726c94660e7cd3dc99f01c04cec840c3e4e897062b7da7e3f7a403dd.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc0f7f4057585354d9b5d0eb7862b2e6082ecf24d8a4dea500bba0db147031ab.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d3606c9a0e55dc97ea80a2910699d2d5c85c2f0558dfa8989663c529cdd6115.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19c3ddf26da423ca2a6026eb7500fd59a7ef3a0fd32f54871a25fe351afd134e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d0da39ae4478ec08f48400d28c5e0b9179e736d45925c2bd70e93a1bb6a0cd8b.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8dfd298ab90fce14e938e6e371ef545c3713d56822649ee95d2d35708638ce0.jpg

    1. I think the bigger difference is plod on the right didn’t have to deal with 30 million foreigners, a desperately Left wing, oppressive state, appalling law, the ‘rights’ act and all the other tripe and abuse forced on us by big fat state.

    2. Your first cartoon gives a good caricature of the Evil Monster Teraita May – it should be on the cover of her new book!

    3. Is the chap on the left Grizzly in the days when he restricted facial hair to the just the upper lip?

      (I suspect not – he seems to me to be an all or nothing sort of chap!)

        1. I suspect he’s been through male puberty; look at the size of his forearm relative to all the real women’s.

      3. Not good enough for the men’s team, so the selfish creature steals the place of a real woman.

    3. Willyectomies, permanent removal of facial beard growth and castration should be the minimum requirements for any man who wants to use women’s facilities or engage in events especially reserved for women.

  15. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/be94ff1774d599139beaa3e7c6d9daa1cfa930edee912b6d5012e7efeb926f1f.png
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/30/londons-revolt-against-ulez-set-to-shatter-politics/

    The point is made clearly in this brief exchange of BTLs – Khan is here to stay – and with Sunak’s compliance, approval and blessing..

    Ian Lane

    Khan won’t be beaten as long as postal votes remain legal.

    Reply to Ian Lane by Percival Wrattstrangler

    Stopping postal votes – that’s another thing that Sunak ought to do but will chicken out of doing.

    1. Don’t stop them but tighten the rules drastically and do much more thorough checks and statistical analysis of how the postal votes voted from every postcode, to allow further follow up if anomalies appear.

  16. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12de66f581b7a975dbfeb571629c4d48a6827e23590fe8b835e46f11ee3fce86.png

    SIR — Why not also kick out all those useless chief constables and other senior officers, most of who have scant experience on the streets? (report, August 31). I’m referring to the intake who made it to the top via the ill-thought-out graduate-entry scheme which was then followed by Common Purpose indoctrination.

    That type was directly responsible for recruiting those corrupt and sub-standard officers who have badly let down the public they were recruited to serve.

  17. Oh botheration ! I was just clarifying my Madeira, red wine, sherry vinegar and beef stock for the Madeira sauce for tomorrows’ Wellingtons when i had a spasm and half of it went over the floor.

          3. Fine thanks. Just the usual.

            I have managed to resurrect the sauce with half bottle of Merlot and some redcurrant jelly.

          4. Drat! I could have sent you a jar of my apple and plum jelly. It’s a beautiful colour and as clear as I’ve ever made!

        2. I think that’s one of those unfortunate events that can’t generally be treated as such, other than passage of time and being extra careful.

    3. Forget dear old Flanders and Swann, – this song is brilliantly nasty and Lou Gottlieb’s facial expressions are exceptionally groteque. Very well worth a watch and a listen.

      (I wonder if I would have become like this if I had never met sweet Caroline? Certain Nottlers I can think of might have done!)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hO4qvEtPZ4

  18. Is it just me who is getting fed up with all the blue supermoon hype? Even the Telegraph is at it – “British stargazers were treated to an astronomical event that happens only once every few years”.

    No, DT, a supermoon is a very common astronomical event – there are 4 this year (the next full moon, at the end of September, will also be a supermoon). A blue moon is not an astronomical event, it is simply a function of how we choose to manage dates with our calendar.

    So stargazers can see a repeat performance of last night’s event in a month’s time and continue to enjoy one many times in the coming years.

    Rant over. And good morning everyone!

    1. Ah, Ken! You’re just cross ‘cos you didn’t see it! There won’t be another like it until 2037 and it really was pretty special! Absolutely huge, close and very impressive!

      1. You’re right, we didn’t see it – too cloudy here!

        The supermoon on 29 September should be just as bright, as the moon will be almost exactly the same distance form the earth as it was last night.

        1. I actually saw it as it was about to set, at about 5.20am. It was amazing with just one streak of cloud across it!

          2. Unfortunately not! I should have got my iPad, but was a bit brain dead at the time! 😱

          3. Do you remember when there was that red moon hype a few years ago?
            I saw the red moon directly above what looked like a red planet. Was it really aligned with Mars? I don’t know, but it was amazingly beautiful. No photo can ever replace that memory, but I might put it in a painting one day.

          4. Oh please do! I remember it very well! I have a fascination with the night sky, instilled by my Dad. I love the changing patterns, constellations and planets, but also the stability of the events that occur every season. The meteor showers, the moon changing shape and the fact that the same comet will appear every x years!

      1. There will be very little difference between last night’s and September’s. The earth – moon distance last night was 223,241miles,in September it will be 224,953 miles.

        The average distance is 238,855 miles,it can over 254,000 miles, that is why the moon seems different sizes (I’m sure you know that molamola, others might not).

        1. As I said it’s just the detail. Mind you, 1,712 miles might be very small in astronomical terms but I wouldn’t fancy walking it in the next 4 weeks.

    5. Agreed. It amused me when our weatherman on the Beeb suggested that 0254am (or whatever) was the time to see it – that is just the actual instant when the moon is 100% full. Yes I did look out, big bright yellow thing all night…. Our amateur radio club net was eulogising about it last night, didn’t have the nerve to disappoint them.

    1. Mark Steyn has published a book this year in April called The Prisoner of Windsor

      Has anyone here read it?

      It is available in a Kindle version but I would like a printed version. I can find it on Amazon US but does anyone know where one can buy it in France or the UK?

          1. Good morning, Tom

            We used to use Kindle books when we spent several months each year on Mianda – but we now prefer printed paper books.

            Each time we went back and forth from Le Grand Osier to Mianda in the Med we used all our baggage allowances carrying books we had finished with back home and new books out to he boat.

            Knowing when we bought Mianda that we would be home-schooling Christo and Henry the first thing we did was to build more book shelves!

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d829cf555306477de2067b0336881b8e3f3266c7ff2bced5eeba01042551a1f4.png

      5. Richard, I have asked my local library to order a copy for me. Whether they will follow through, I know not.

  20. DH Biden is using the Florida storm as proof of climate change. I suppose its come at the right time for him after the deliberate burning of Maui.

    1. You should have seen CBC news pushing climate panic on Tuesday night.

      Going on about flooding will be worse because Florida is so low and how the beaches are so shallow, no continental shelf etc etc.

      No real climate change accusations, just fear mongering weather issues.

      1. Are they trying to put Canadians off driving down there for winter hols? What a miserable, joyless bunch they are!

  21. US fighter jets capable of nuclear bombing to be based in UK. 31 August 2023.

    New United States fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons will be based in the UK as soon as this year.

    Two squadrons of F-35 As have been deployed and will arrive at the US-rented RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk imminently, The Telegraph understands.

    The stealth jets are designed to carry out tactical nuclear bombing and are capable of conducting air-to-air missions and intelligence gathering.

    Deploying two squadrons of advanced aircraft is not something that is usually done either hastily or cheaply. What one wonders has prompted this sudden move? Is it in preparation, not for the present, but for the immediate future?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/30/f35-fighter-jets-nuclear-weapons-raf-lakenheath-suffolk/

    1. The top American generals had heard that Shapps was going to be made Minister of Defence, and correctly

      assumed that we are going to need a lot of help

    3. I guess they must have sneaked in under the ATC fiasco.

      Doubtless Shapps will send them straight on to Ukraine.

      2. Tice was Nigel Farage’s side-kick in the Brexit Party just as Brown was Blair’s side-kick in the Labour Party.

        Does a side-kick ever emerge to be the main-kick?

    1. BTL…

      Oh dear I’m sorry but when I talk to students who come into my business
      they are all against kicking out illegals even the ones we know nothing
      about with no id and no knowledge of any criminal record and say how
      much we should be doing for them. That’s because they think it doesn’t
      effect them. Now that it does do they still think we should keep them,
      house them, give them everything that should be given to our own first? I
      can’t help but snigger a little I know its not right but maybe the
      spineless little do gooders will now see a bit clearer and realise it
      will effect them and their future and safety.

      1. They’re stupid kids, brainwashed who don’t understand the problem gimmigrants cause.

        These same people will blame someone else, anyone else when they can’t get a job, can’t save any money and can’t own a home. Their outrage will reach to the sky – and not once will they acknowledge that they are solely to blame.

        1. They will blame the elderly and what is left of the ‘boomers’ for their predicament for ‘stealing their future’. Not so long ago the DT was working overtime on this.

          1. Not so long since they were trying to force the elderly to downsize and free up their homes for families.

          5. I find I feel more and more resentful of foreigners – even seeing them in the street. There are far too many of them.

          7. Indeed. I get emails from Age UK and the latest was from some woman who’d “suffered” from the Windrush shenanigans. I thought, why are you complaining to us? Your parents brought you over. Then I deleted it.

          8. I’m fed up with blacks taking over full stop. There’s an advert in Horse and Hound showing a black woman with the tag, “the best way to remove dog hair from clothes”. Every time I see it I mutter, “I’d like to know the best way to remove blacks from adverts”.

  24. EU imports of Russian liquified gas leap by 40% since Ukraine invasion. 31 August 2023

    EU imports of Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) have increased by 40% since the invasion of Ukraine despite efforts to cut down supplies.

    Member states have bought more than half of Russia’s LNG on the market in the first seven months of this year, according to analysis of data by Kpler, which tracks marine and tanker traffic.

    Spain and Belgium, which acts as major gateways for LNG supplies to the bloc, have emerged as the second and third-biggest customers of Russian LNG respectively after China.

    “EU countries now buy the majority of Russia’s supply, propping up one of the Kremlin’s most important sources of revenue,” said Jonathan Noronha-Gant, a senior fossil fuel campaigner at the anti-corruption group Global Witness, which did the analysis.

    Sanctions not doing too well?

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/aug/30/eu-imports-of-russian-liquified-gas-leap-by-40-since-ukraine-invasion

    1. So the financial crippling of Russia is full steam ahead? Ha ha ha what a joke! More like HMG is crippling us one way and another.

  25. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/31/defence-secretary-is-a-big-job-and-shapps-might-not-be-up/

    Ben Wallace leaves the role to generally positive reviews but it is fair
    to say that he has only made a start on the reconstitution of the UK’s
    Armed Forces that is needed. What of his successor? Grant Shapps is a
    classic competent but not outstanding minister who has held a succession
    of mid-level positions. (Although observers of his time at Transport
    might doubt the first part of that). He is someone who will steady the
    ship but not introduce or see through anything fundamental. As such, and
    given the closeness of the next election, this is a holding
    appointment. Sooner rather than later though the fundamental questions
    ducked in the 2010 review and emphasised by the Ukraine war will have to
    be addressed.

    2. In political terms Sunak’s ministerial appointments are now irrelevant.

      Even with a new dynamic, conservative Conservative party leader they will still lose the next election but they will be able to start rebuilding now; come the election, with Sunak still as leader, the party will be eliminated to a point where it will be dead beyond resuscitation.

    3. When they have finished their reorganisation the entire army will be able to be comfortably seated into Wetherspoons .

      1. Kill whitey off and claim the UK for themselves , that is the plan ,

        The streets will run with foetid muck , and the wail from the Muezzins will be worse than living in Iran or Kabul .

        We all loved London once up on a time , and our parents risked their lives to protect our flag and our dominions .

        All gone in less than 70 years.

      2. Kill whitey off and claim the UK for themselves , that is the plan ,

        The streets will run with foetid muck , and the wail from the Muezzins will be worse than living in Iran or Kabul .

        We all loved London once up on a time , and our parents risked their lives to protect our flag and our dominions .

        All gone in less than 70 years.

  28. Good afternoon,

    Visitors have now left , and it was pouring with rain earlier , now just damp and dull 16c . No breeze .

    GRANT SHAPPS, what on earth is going on .

    1. Isn’t that the usual delivery of weapons from arms manufacturers to the Ministry of Defence? Of course, the MoD keep paying the appalling contractors vast sums in the hopes of after office jobs.

  36. The annual celebration of Caribbean culture and social enrichment went off with minimum stabbings, rapes and robberies thanks to the forethought of the Greater London Council, who donated several million pound to the organisers and funded the 10,000 policemen and women on duty, not forgetting the cost of cleaning 30+ miles of streets, contaminated gardens and private premises. How much poorer culturally would Britain be without these generous donations of taxpayers’ money? Surely it should be moved to Downing Street and Westminster area so that the ‘Great and the Good’ can participate and enjoy the ethnic enrichment they so much admire.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/08/30/22/74845031-12463059-A_man_is_seen_to_wield_a_large_machete_type_blade_as_another_per-a-51_1693429591030.jpg

      1. Perhaps not a celebration but definitely a demonstration of black ‘cult’ ure.
        Heathens.

  37. Update on the fibre broadband. Popped out for usual short morning walk, all of ten minutes of it, forgetting (as normal) to take my mobile. Got back to find a two missed mobile calls and a voice mail and one missed on the landline. Openreach woman. She rang back just now, think it was an Indian call centre on an 0800 number so hard to understand. New appointment to complete my installation next week, yuppee…

    1. Dave, as you know, I had my BT fibre installed last friday but full connection wasn’t established until sometime over the weekend so my call diversion on the landline wasn’t operational before we went away.

      However, now its working at an impressive rate:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aabb2afa37e35c1ec0a693de2f9af138dfb22fa8f3613106a91b8d6af94b12f1.jpg

      I’m having to upgrade my internal ethernet connections with Cat6 cables to wired PCs with WiFi repeaters at the ends for WiFi only devices..

      1. Er, well done, Angie. Especially the latent 4 manuscripts. (As you are aware I am as good at computers as Annie is at Maffs.)

      2. Just remember to divide by 8 to get MB (megabytes) rather than megabits. A 1GB files is 1000MB (really 1024MB).

  38. Good morning, er afternoon, er tea-time chums. I have been so busy with lots of odd jobs that I needed a rest (Zeds) at just before noon, and when I awoke it was several hours before I realised I had not had my daily NoTTLe. So belated greetings and enjoy the rest of the day. I myself shall now continue with the rest of my chores – no rest for the wicked – and maybe pop in later tonight before I retire to bed.

  39. Re Gabon, an interesting article.

    We still think of Africa like a post-colonial afterthought and not as central to climate and development struggles. It’s no longer the Sixties when the EU population was twice that of Africa. Today Africa is almost double the EU in size. By mid-century it could be quadruple. Worse, we still think we are the Britain of 1997 — the last year our economy was bigger than the Chinese and the last year the UK administered a major Chinese city.

    The year Tony Blair became PM.
    Coincidence? I think not; the UK was deliberately set up for destruction by Blair and his wrecking crew.
    https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/gabon-coup-africa-west-failed-ben-judah-b1103967.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=News%20email%2031/8/2023&utm_term=ES_News_Daily_CDP

  41. Interesting analysis of what may happen re Ukraine Russian peace talks, if any.

    The problem for the media influence campaign for a truce is that there is no reasonable peace to be had right now. A hastily cobbled truce by Christmas is likely to be a mere flick of the pause button at best. When it resumes the war would be worse — for all of us across Europe and the western alliance.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/volodymyr-zelensky-secret-summit-us-joe-biden-ukraine-offensive-b1103947.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=News%20email%2031/8/2023&utm_term=ES_News_Daily_CDP

  42. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/31/glencoe-beauty-spot-damage-national-trust-scotland/

    Visitors to Glencoe should be more considerate when going to the toilet as some areas are becoming “biohazards”, the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) has warned.

    Toilet waste is a growing blight at the beauty spot, the trust said, with popular areas beside car parks and paths becoming toxic.

    The
    NTS also said that campfires should be banned on the ground in Glencoe
    after a surge in visitors led to damage to its sensitive habitats and
    the collection of more than 200 bags worth of litter.

    The trust
    said that fires had damaged Glencoe’s Coire Gabhail, better known as the
    Lost or Hidden Valley, with people fuelling them by cutting off tree
    branches covered in mosses and lichens.

    1. When I’m out in the van and am unable to use a toilet, I either bury the waste or use a compostable bag and drop it into a dog-shite bin.

    1. Which way are you goin’? Jim Croce.

      Which way are you goin’?
      Which side will you be on?
      Will you stand and watch while
      All the seeds of hate are sown?
      Will you stand with those who say
      Let his will be done?
      One hand on the bible
      One hand on the gun
      One hand on the bible
      One hand on the gun

      Which way are you looking?
      Is it hard to see?
      Do you say what’s wrong for him
      Is not wrong for me?
      You walk the streets, righteousness
      But you refuse to understand
      You say, you love the baby
      Then you crucify the man
      You say, you love the baby
      Then you crucify the man

      Everyday, things are changing
      Words once honoured turned to lies
      People wondering, can you blame them
      It’s too far to run, and too late to hide

      Now you turn your back on
      All the things that you used to preach
      Now it’s ‘let him live in freedom
      If he lives like me’
      Well your light has changed, confusion rains
      What have you become?
      All your olive branches turned to spears
      When your flowers turned to guns
      Your olive branches turned to spears
      When your flowers turned to guns

  44. Gosh – I have discovered that, thanks to the Caliph of Londonistan, my car is EXEMPT from the ULEZ charge.

    Not that wild horses would persuade me to drive anywhere near central London. But it is a nice gesture…(sarc)

  47. Wordle three today.

    Wordle 803 3/6

    ⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
    🟨🟩🟩⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too, Sue.
      Lacoste AWOL, hope he’s ok.

      Wordle 803 3/6

      ⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
      ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Plodding along with a par today

      Wordle 803 4/6

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

  48. EU accused of introducing ‘Orwellian ministry of truth’ to tackle fake online news. 31 August 2023.

    The European Union has been accused of creating an Orwellian “Ministry of Truth” with its new plan to crack down on what it views as online “disinformation”.

    Under the regulation, web bosses are expected to prioritise advice handed to them by an EU-approved network of “trusted flaggers” and fact-checkers monitoring information posted online.

    Cristian Terhes, a Romanian MEP, argued the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) gives it sufficient powers to rule on what content it believes is and is not true when published on some of the world’s largest websites.

    This is the EU version of the On Line Harms Act. There’s no need to be finicky; both exist to prevent the peasants finding out the truth.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/08/31/eu-creates-ministry-of-truth-to-tackle-fake-online-news/

    1. According to my son, there is wild, wild information on the dark web, not just drugs and guns for sale. He assures me that he hasn’t looked at the crime sites since he was a teenager. You can’t think how much that reassures me…

    4. The recently Communist dominated countries recognise this plan for what it is.
      They have recent painful memories of such regimes.

  49. That’s me gone. Hole in back improving daily. Pain in back unchanged. Car loaded very well by the MR (under supervision, of course!!)

    I’ll be off for a few days. May or may not be able to get onto NoTTL. So have a splendid start to the month of September and I’ll be back.

    A bientôt.

    1. I hope you have a good trip and good weather, Bill – what a dreary, miserable day it’s been today.

      1. It’s rained here which put a stop to my idea of cutting the front lawn. By the time I get around to it, I’ll have to scythe it first!

      1. Never noticed it before but there is a Canal Barge in the last few frames of the above clip….!

    1. The BTL comments in the Daily Mail suggests people are sick to death of the matter.
      Let’s hope the sheep actually show a spine.

      1. My old man and I received our flu and Convid booster appointments yesterday. Mine went straight in the recycling, his is pinned on the notice board! 🤦🏻‍♀️

          1. I really thought he’d got over the brainwashing! He’s so furious with the NHS and our GP’s in particular…..

      2. There’s only so much fear that can be generated within a population, and then it wears off..

          1. Many are, but I don’t think they are particularly fearful. They just enjoy trooping off for their next injection. But also for many the fear has worn off. The 2020 event had novelty value for the masses, they enjoyed the adrenaline rush and being part of something bigger than themselves.

      3. They won’t. Lots of people are now stamping their little feet but as soon as the state says ‘Obey, or we destroy your lives!” they’ll all happily comply. Some may grumble, but the herd will spout the same frightened idiocy and set about the same insulting ‘you’ve got to get the jab!’ twaddle.

  52. Attempting to sign up for council tax. “We aim to respond within 20 days”. Fine. If you can’t be bothered to operate efficiently that’s your problem and gets me 4 weeks free of your theft.

  53. Politics latest news: Grant Shapps knows very little about defence, says Lord Dannatt

    Grant Shapps “knows very little about defence” and it will take him “quite some time to get up to speed”, the former head of the British Army has said.

    Lord Dannatt said Ben Wallace “did a good job, but he leaves with work in progress” at the Ministry of Defence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/08/31/cabinet-reshuffle-latest-news-tory-sunak-wallace-fox-shapps

    Politics eternal news: most ministers know SFA about anything (except their expenses forms).

  54. NHS management is a bullying, incompetent cult

    The Letby inquiry must range wider than her awful murders and investigate a chilling cover-up culture

    ALLISON PEARSON • 31 August 2023 • 6:00pm

    The status of the Lucy Letby inquiry, which will consider how a nurse was able to murder seven babies, has been upgraded to statutory. That is welcome news but, really, it should never have been in any doubt. Heinous attacks were committed against the most vulnerable patients in the care of the National Health Service. Managers at the Countess of Chester hospital were told by paediatricians that something sinister was going on.

    A run-of-the-mill inquiry would not have been able to compel witnesses to give evidence under oath. For example, the former £175,000 per annum medical director, Ian Harvey, who has been accused of having “fobbed off” victims’ parents, would have been able to go on residing pleasantly at his French villa, glancing up from his glass of Malbec to issue the standard concerned platitudes. Ah yes, “open, inclusive and transparent”, the three monkeys – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil – of the morally unaccountable NHS.

    Former managers at the Countess of Chester who, according to consultant Dr Stephen Brearey, obliged him and other clinicians to attend mediation with a baby killer, should have no place to hide. But the remit of the inquiry must be far wider than merely adjudicating the bitter war of words between hospital executives and senior doctors.

    What the Letby case has revealed is no less than the systematic and deliberate disenfranchisement of the medical profession. As one despairing consultant emailed: “The NHS ‘leadership’ is now staffed predominantly by over-promoted, under-qualified people, especially nurses, but also others with inadequate skills. Many are incompetent bullies (so many bully to hide their incompetence), part of a back-slapping self-congratulatory club which presides over a culture of ‘no bad news’.”

    In other words, the brightest, most well-qualified members of staff have to answer to an elite class of numpties which has gained institutional and personal control of the system while rewarding itself with vast salaries, especially for failure. (In fact, technically you can’t really fail if you’re in NHS management; you’re often just moved to another important role where you can fail better.) Incredibly, Tony Chambers, the former CEO at Chester, went on to get three senior NHS jobs after presiding over the Letby calamity.

    I asked a current member of staff at the Countess of Chester what Chambers was like. “Total gobshite,” he practically spat. That’s the technical term, I believe. “The number of clueless nonentities in senior positions in NHS trusts is unbelievable,” the medic continued. “They are obsessed with reputational management and preoccupy themselves with empire building, wasting time on the plethora of talking shops and obsess over bureaucracy and process to ensure that, under no circumstances, does anything get done. This all takes place alongside absurd gimmicks and virtue-signalling.”

    Paediatricians raised concerns about an unusual number of babies dying on Letby’s shifts and nothing happened for three months. “That’s how they operate,” my source says. “Ask them what day is it tomorrow and they’ll come back to you in two years.”

    NHS management is a cult, I have come to realise. They ruthlessly attack any heretics (aka doctors or nurses raising safety concerns) who dare to deviate from the theology of true believers. “They believe they are untouchable,” one doctor says, “because they think the public loves them and politicians daren’t do anything about NHS failure.”

    I am not easily shocked, but what I have found out since the Letby verdict about the way the NHS treats whistleblowers has shaken me to the core. One trust chief executive was heard boasting he had £1 million to spend “if consultants raise issues”. A former lawyer who used to work on clinical negligence claims for neonatal deaths and injuries, being brought against her firm’s main client, the NHS, said that cases were deliberately dragged out for as long as a decade with “both sides billing huge sums”. Grieving parents had to fight to get anywhere with discovery (the medical records paid for by you and me, the taxpayer).

    “The sheer incompetence of the NHS staff was shocking,” recalls the lawyer, “and there was definitely a culture of cover up.”

    How a nurse was able to get away with murdering at least seven babies at the Countess of Chester hospital is a grave matter for the forthcoming inquiry. None graver. But I have been given the names of numerous hospitals, all with equally awful management, where clinicians claim exactly the same thing could happen.

    What kind of organisation gets away with an estimated 340,000 of its customers dying on a waiting list while spending millions of customers’ money making sure that failings and negligence never come to light?

    Open, inclusive and transparent? Don’t make me laugh. It’s time to bring down the untouchable numptie class of the NHS. If its managers remain untouchable, how long before there’s another Lucy Letby?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/31/nhs-management-is-a-bullying-incompetent-cult/

    The only quibble I have about this kind of article is the use of the anonymous contact, the equivalent of Enoch Powell’s constituent. Otherwise, this could be a comment on any part of the public sector.

    1. They could make a start by getting rid of the Equality and Diversity and Inclusion managers that have sprung up everywhere.

  55. With all the other issues I am dealing with, now my computer is acting up! Just what I need. Boy, have I had enough!

    1. Courage, ma brave!
      Nil illegitimi carborundum – don’t let the bastards grind you down.
      😉

        1. Back into bed soon after an uncomfortable night in an hospital bed. There is nothing truly wrong but the over all idea is that the falling is caused by inbalance of the inner ear also because of the cancer.
          I miss my husband and want him back.

          1. That last sentence makes me want to hug you tightly. I hope you have a decent night’s sleep in your own bed x

          2. Reminds me of a comment by the widow of a well known county cricketer who said “I don’t want A husband, I want MY husband”.

  56. The SNP’s incompetent nanny state has reached a new low

    The ham-fisted attempts to govern everyday life would be funny if they weren’t so terrifying

    TOM HARRIS • 30 August 2023 • 4:12pm

    The risk of the SNP not achieving the only thing they want or care about – another independence referendum – is that they will actually try to govern. It’s not a particularly high risk, but it’s there.

    On the few occasions where Scottish government ministers have managed, briefly, to turn their attention away from their obsession with flags and lines on maps, they have succumbed to the worst impulses of the progressive “Left”. Denied another attempt to destroy the Union, they have reluctantly tried to develop new policy in at least some of the areas which they have responsibility for.

    Their policy of imposing a Minimum Unit Price (MUP) of alcohol is one such area. The thinking was transparent and fits into other reforms like the abolition of NHS prescription and road bridge tolls: if the party were seen by the majority of the populace as competent and benevolent, maybe they’ll trust the same party to govern an independent nation.

    As the latest figures for alcohol deaths have shown, MUP hasn’t quite worked out that way. In fact, such deaths are now at the highest level in 14 years. There were those, including myself, who, despite reservations about the policy, were willing to give it a go, given the absurdly high levels of alcoholism that has historically plagued Scotland. Had it had the intended effect, if fewer Scots were dying because of drink, then even the most diehard of SNP critics could have accepted that this was a reform that was worthwhile.

    Unfortunately, such hopes have been dashed. But will the Scottish Government now re-examine their policy? Doubtful. Because MUP fits snugly into an agenda that holds that ordinary Scots need the wise and firm guidance of their political masters in order to know how to live their lives.

    Remember the “responsible person” legislation that was eventually scrapped by SNP ministers after legal challenges and a public outcry? Then first minister Nicola Sturgeon thought she was perfectly entitled to introduce a system whereby a “named person” – usually a teacher or other publicly-funded official – would have ultimate responsibility for the well-being and happiness of every child in Scotland, entirely sidelining the role of actual parents.

    The defeat of such a sinister policy didn’t mean the end of the SNP’s ambition to intervene in ordinary people’s lives and to try to prevent them from making decisions with which the government disagreed.

    The Hate Crime Act 2021, promoted by then justice secretary, Humza Yousaf, still hasn’t been implemented. Even the police seem unsure how on earth to enforce clauses that allow officers to bring charges of “stirring up” hatred against people for having private conversations in their own homes. An Englishman’s home may be his castle, and lucky him! In Scotland, a home is just another arena where citizens’ behaviour is to be monitored and regulated.

    Before that, there was the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act, which made singing sectarian songs at football matches a criminal offence. That piece of legislation was subsequently repealed against the SNP’s will in an all-too rare example of Holyrood asserting itself over the executive.

    The list goes on. There is no area of life where the SNP have judged that they had better stay out of it. The introduction of their much-loved Baby Box scheme – where a cardboard box containing basic supplies for new-born infants is sent to every new mother in Scotland – is frequently feted as a positive, progressive policy. Yet it has failed to improve infant health.

    Perhaps if the nationalists were allowed to get that one policy, the one they all joined the SNP to attain – another independence referendum – they might stop trying to interfere with ordinary Scots’ lives.

    But bad behaviour, either by children or by politicians, shouldn’t be indulged or rewarded. Better that the people themselves, those whose actions and behaviour, whose very speech their political leaders are seeking to control and change, should offer their own verdict at the ballot box.

    The huge amount of time, resources and hard cash that the SNP have wasted in their pointless attempts to control everyone around them should serve as a warning to Keir Starmer and the Labour Party as they prepare to enter government. Better to ignore the worst instincts of well-meaning, “progressive” MPs and focus instead on the stuff that actually matters. You know, like governing and stuff. You never know, it might catch on. Even in Scotland.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/30/the-snps-incompetent-nanny-state-has-reached-a-new-low/

    Starmer might just have the sense to avoid such nonsense but many of his budding little Kommandants looking forward to high office will be regarding Scotland’s experiments as field trials.

    1. And within minutes of posting the above, what should I trip over but the outstretched leg of the English authorities:

      English football’s new blasphemy laws

      ‘Tragedy chanting’ is offensive. But that should not make it a criminal offence.

      Mick Hume • 11th August 2023
      ….

      With the full support of the Premier League and the Football Association, the CPS has issued new guidance making clear that tragedy chanting is now officially a crime which can be prosecuted as a public-order offence.
      ….

      https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/08/11/english-footballs-new-blasphemy-laws/

      Football hasn’t come very far since the 1970s when you could expect to hear “You’re gunna get your ****ing heads kicked in”, “You’ll never make the car park”, and “You’re going home in a St. John’s Ambulance”.

    2. The drugs deaths isn’t mentioned nor the SNPs idea of safe places for the taking of drugs where the drugs are tested for purity before letting the idiots take them. The UK government has said ‘no’ to these safe places but the SNP want to go it alone – there was the usual do-gooders on BBC Scotland this morning pontificating how it’ll reduce drug deaths. What bollox – people know the problems with drug addiction yet they still take them and expect the tax payer to fund their rehab – I have no sympathy with druggies, give them as much drugs as they want and the taxpayer will pay for their funeral – it’ll be cheaper than rehab

      1. They only have to look at San Francisco to see that when the drug laws are relaxed drug deaths go sky high. Even with clean needles and so called safe spaces.

        Just as with lockdowns they all sing from the same hymn sheet. WEF agenda.

  57. Evening, all. I’m starting to think about where to spend my holidays (and thus also my hard-earned cash) next year. Anywhere with a congestion charge/lez/ulez/clean air money maker zone is out.

        1. Smuggle ’em in – plenty of delicious meat in Argentina (although the people hqve first dibs on the entrails) 😉

          Seriously, yes, not practical. I know Godfrey B always takes his dogs on walking holidays – if you would like, I could ask him for hound-friendly recommendations for hotels/BnBs in whatever area you’re considering.

          1. Thank you, but I have a motorhome so no problem with accommodation, provided the campsite is dog friendly (and the CMC ones are – I’m a member). I normally take them with me unless I’m travelling to go to a meeting/event like the Battle of Britain service at Westminster Abbey (will be giving that a miss in future thanks to the state of Londinistan and the ULEZ) in which case I need to get a house & dog sitter for the weekend.

    4. The Scillies, Jersey, Guernsey, the South Downs, Dorset, South Devon, the Quantocks, the Solway Firth and Kirkcudbrightshire, Isle of Skye, Northumberland, N.Norfolk, Southwold and Aldeburgh……..

      1. So far I’ve got Goodwood (Spitfire, racing, the possibility of hacking out, Petworth – although that’s National Distrust – and maybe other stately homes).

        1. I went to Norfolk last year (it was HOT! not to mention a long journey). I’ve already visited Skye and parts of Scotland (they’re a VERY long way away!) I don’t want to go on a ferry, bearing in mind I’ll have the dogs with me – they’d have to be left in the hold. If I do go down to Goodwood, I’ll do it in stages, I think. I have learned a few things from my wet week in Yorkshire this year that I shan’t be repeating.

    5. New Forest is nice. Not cheap unless you are camping. Lots of nice little camp sites dotted around the forest.

      1. I looked at that. I’ve got the motorhome. Trouble is, it’s a fair distance. What stately homes are there around there (apart from your own bijou residence, of course )?

  58. I have included some photos I took when I was at Bovington a couple of weeks ago.

    Lieutenant Cecil Harold Sewell VC (27th January 1895 – 29th August 1918), Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment, British Army, attached to 3rd (Light) Battalion, Tank Corps.

    In 1918 he was a Lieutenant in the 3rd (Light) Battalion, in command of a section of four “Whippet” light tanks. On 29th August, near Bapaume, France, during the last “Big Push” which eventually led to the Armistice, Lieutenant Sewell’s section was advancing towards the German lines in support of New Zealand troops. The official V.C. citation in the London Gazette of 29th October 1918 takes up the story. “When in command of a section of Whippet light tanks in action this officer displayed most conspicuous bravery and initiative in getting out of his own tank and crossing open ground under heavy shell and machine-gun fire to rescue the crew of another Whippet of his section which had side slipped into a large shell-hole, overturned and taken fire.” The tank’s door had become jammed against the side of the shell hole so Cecil Sewell dug away the earth so that the door could be opened and the crew was able to escape.
    Seeing one of his own crew lying wounded behind his tank, he again dashed across open ground to his assistance. He was hit in doing so, but succeeded in reaching the tank when a few minutes later he was again hit, fatally, in the act of dressing his wounded driver. During the whole of this period he was within full view and short range of the enemy machine guns and rifle-pits, and throughout, by his prompt and heroic action, showed an utter disregard for his own personal safety.
    He was buried where he fell, but in 1920 he was re-interred at Vaulx Hill Cemetery, France. His parents were presented with his VC by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 13th December 1918.

    https://i0.wp.com/victoriacrossonline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/1-44.jpg?resize=270%2C452&ssl=1 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb70f5c7162330a8063d912567223b3b69e5f169322fb2e88b5a996b6eea405c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5bf384a8af92867dc2e05d0e013df4834ab2fc3942a5b9bf4d6c5c03efe85243.jpg

    Lieutenant Sewell’s Whippet tank:

  60. Well, chums, that’s me off to bed. I hope we all have a good night’s sleep and wake up next month feeling refreshed.

  63. Happy September!
    Well, I’m here folks! Second sleepover over, and the boys Mum and Dad will be back today! I’m knackered!

    1. Like perpetual motion machines aren’t they. 😂😂
      We miss cuddles with our grandchildren. Not surprising as they’re 19, 20 and 21.

Comments are closed.