Thursday 31 March: Britain can allow no more delay in exploiting its rich energy resources

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments 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.

681 thoughts on “Thursday 31 March: Britain can allow no more delay in exploiting its rich energy resources”

  5. There was an interesting figure turn up on the Today programme just now (at the graveyard spot around 6am when nobody is awake and they think nobody is listening).

    It seems that the total cost of rebuilding the Ukrainian infrastructure (and I presume this means homes as well as hospitals and theatres) destroyed by the Russians has been put at £100 billion.

    Which is about the same price as that quoted to build a single zil lane railway and a handful of stations in Britain.

    Do they have cheaper builders?

    1. Yes, I heard the £100bn figure and thought it well below what it will eventually cost. However, as long as the invader has to cough up by way of reparations, the final figure is almost irrelevant!

      1. They’ll never get the money out of the Democrats and the globalist cabal!

        Presumably Russia will re-build the Donbas region, and the most heavily damaged city (Mariupol) is in this region.

        1. As they rebuilt Grozny,

          I hope they can afford it – most of Russia’s wealth is in yachts in the Cayman Island and Mayfair on the Monopoly board.

          1. You’re talking pre-Putin. Things have changed a bit since then, they’ve been buying gold for one thing.

    1. It might be more accurate if the last picture showed the chimney of a crematorium.

  7. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    The leading letter today:

    SIR – Your Leading Article is spot on.
    Oil and gas play a vital role in our retail sector. And greater domestic supply will help reduce costs to consumers. We need to make full use of the North Sea’s capacity, including the proposed Cambo and Jackdaw fields. The Government must take the lead and support investment.

    John Barstow
    Pulborough, West Sussex

    I’m not sure the message is getting through, judging by Johnson’s refusal (as far as I can tell) to discuss the matter in public, if at all

      1. WEF’s multi-layered de-population strategy, virus, “vaccine”, cold weather combined with rationing of energy and food and the odd war here and there. De-hydration is quicker than starvation… just saying.

  8. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    The leading letter today:

    SIR – Your Leading Article is spot on.
    Oil and gas play a vital role in our retail sector. And greater domestic supply will help reduce costs to consumers. We need to make full use of the North Sea’s capacity, including the proposed Cambo and Jackdaw fields. The Government must take the lead and support investment.

    John Barstow
    Pulborough, West Sussex

    I’m not sure the message is getting through, judging by Johnson’s refusal (as far as I can tell) to discuss the matter in public, if at all

  9. Horror crimes lurking behind closed doors on a typical terraced street in Sheffield. 31 March 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7dad4b0ce4f9b302554a0d85f6bb5ff8d56a2223618901a12d08590e00488d7c.jpg
    Around 100 officers gathered for a briefing outside the utility arena in Sheffield.

    From the outside, they look like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill terraced houses. The kind found up and down the outskirts of cities across Yorkshire.

    But behind some of the pebbledashed walls and the chipped painted doors, the tenants inside are hiding secret get-rich-quick schemes. The illegal type that have devastating consequences for communities and the victims they take in.

    The street name is Prince of Wales Road, and I am out on a huge police operation with South Yorkshire Police – the latest iteration of Operation Duxford. It’s an impressive drive by the force to stamp out crime affecting streets just like the one I am stood on, alongside 400 other officers in other, equally humdrum streets such as this.

    Contract killing! Sweat shops? Islamic terrorism? The Mass Rape of underage White Girls? Beware! To read this is to enter an alternate reality. Yes even I am left gasping. It’s dognapping and the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.

    https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/horror-crimes-lurking-behind-closed-23546427

    2. Good morning, Araminta.

      I haven’t a clue what that report is all about but I know Sheffield better than anyone on here. Prince of Wales Road is a dual carriageway (crossable only by footbridge) that forms part of a ring road around the city on the south-eastern approaches. Sheffield Arena, a premier concert venue, is on the northern end of that thoroughfare but nowhere near the dual carriageway estate shown on the photographs.

      As for Sheffield City Hall, another concert venue in the centre of the city (I have attended more rock concerts there than I care to think about), is a good five miles away from the Arena. Why the police were mustering there is anyone’s guess.

    3. Good morning, Araminta.

      I haven’t a clue what that report is all about but I know Sheffield better than anyone on here. Prince of Wales Road is a dual carriageway (crossable only by footbridge) that forms part of a ring road around the city on the south-eastern approaches. Sheffield Arena, a premier concert venue, is on the northern end of that thoroughfare but nowhere near the dual carriageway estate shown on the photographs.

      As for Sheffield City Hall, another concert venue in the centre of the city (I have attended more rock concerts there than I care to think about), is a good five miles away from the Arena. Why the police were mustering there is anyone’s guess.

    4. Actually Araminta, and good morning! I don’t think that is a bad idea. At the end of it they claim to have
      👮‍♀️ Made 13 arrests
      👮‍♂️ Executed 5 warrants
      👮‍♂️ Seized 79 cannabis plants
      👮‍♂️ Completed 15 stop searches
      👮‍♂️ Recovered Class A drugs
      👮‍♂️ Seized 7 dogs (including 2 puppies) and 1 parrot
      It reminds me a bit of Rudolph Giuliani’s zero tolerance for crime in New York that cleared up the place when it was completely crime ridden. Perhaps if police did do sweeps like that more often, then crime would lessen as people get the idea they are not going to get away with it. To be consistent, they have to keep this up.

  10. Horror crimes lurking behind closed doors on a typical terraced street in Sheffield. 31 March 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7dad4b0ce4f9b302554a0d85f6bb5ff8d56a2223618901a12d08590e00488d7c.jpg
    Around 100 officers gathered for a briefing outside the utility arena in Sheffield.

    From the outside, they look like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill terraced houses. The kind found up and down the outskirts of cities across Yorkshire.

    But behind some of the pebbledashed walls and the chipped painted doors, the tenants inside are hiding secret get-rich-quick schemes. The illegal type that have devastating consequences for communities and the victims they take in.

    The street name is Prince of Wales Road, and I am out on a huge police operation with South Yorkshire Police – the latest iteration of Operation Duxford. It’s an impressive drive by the force to stamp out crime affecting streets just like the one I am stood on, alongside 400 other officers in other, equally humdrum streets such as this.

    Contract killing! Sweat shops? Islamic terrorism? The Mass Rape of underage White Girls? Beware! To read this is to enter an alternate reality. Yes even I am left gasping. It’s dognapping and the enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act.

    https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/horror-crimes-lurking-behind-closed-23546427

  11. Fox News’s short first look at the second tranche of Pfizer documents. More bad news for Pfizer. People need more exposure to these revelations along with clear and precise explanations of what the contents mean.

    Naomi Wolf in the USA has put together a team of around 2500 people, including doctors and lawyers, to read the documentation and expose the ‘gems’ of information contained within. Lawyers are then advising on future legal challenges based on what has been uncovered. Steve Bannon’s War Room programme is supplying air time for Wolf to up-date the public on what is being uncovered.

    One News Page – Fox News – Ingraham Angle

  12. The Met Office could not even forecast this cold when they published their lies about warming last week.

    1. Actually, it was the International Cycling body which barred ‘her’ from competing this weekend, not British Cycling.

    2. My cynical alter ego [the one that posts here] did wonder if the transition from male junior [national champion] to male senior [disappointing results] might have been a minor factor in the decision to transition to women’s races?

      1. There seem to be quite a few second-rate male sportspeople suddenly ‘becoming’ women.

  14. SIR – Prior to cataract surgery an 89-year-old friend attended a pre-op appointment at his local hospital.

    In the course of the process he was asked if he was pregnant. At the time he assumed that the question was posed in jest. Now he is far from sure that this was so (Letters, March 30).

    John Birch
    Rossendale, Lancashire.

    Surgeon: “Sir, is there any possibility you may be pregnant?”

    Male Patient: “Do you know, doctor, I think there is a high probability that I could be. After all, I’ve been fucked senseless by the government for decades!”

      1. Stand by for screaming and yelling and threats from the Trans Mob – and the chap litigating on grounds of “discrimination”.

        Aincha just sick of all this?

        1. It’s already being described as a fudge.
          Totally sick of it.

          I’ve thought of another possible solution.
          Just before any race involving a tranny starts, the 10 highest ranked women should kick him in the balls.

          1. I have a better idea. If he wants to compete in a woman’s event then why do a Bobbit on him just before the race begins? Then he could really say that he had really transited to a woman.

          3. Perhaps, but I suspect it would persuade him not to enter a women’s race ever again.

          4. It’s the old joke about which is more painful, childbirth or a kick in the balls.

            Women will say let’s have another baby, no man ever says please may I have another kick in the balls.

          5. We need a Handicapper General like Diana Moon Glampers who did this to Harrison Bergeron to cut down on his natural advantages.

            “A police photograph of Harrison Bergeron was flashed on the screen-upside down, then sideways, upside down again,
            then right side up. The picture showed the full length of Harrison against a background calibrated in feet and inches. He was
            exactly seven feet tall.

            The rest of Harrison’s appearance was Halloween and hardware. Nobody had ever born heavier handicaps. He had
            outgrown hindrances faster than the H-G men could think them up. Instead of a little ear radio for a mental handicap, he wore
            a tremendous pair of earphones, and spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only
            half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides. Scrap metal was hung all over him. Ordinarily, there was a certain
            symmetry, a military neatness to the handicaps issued to strong people, but Harrison looked like a walking junkyard. In the
            race of life, Harrison carried three hundred pounds.

            And to offset his good looks, the H-G men required that he wear at all times a red rubber ball for a nose, keep his
            eyebrows shaved off, and cover his even white teeth with black caps at snaggletooth random.”

            Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut

      2. If one is born with male attributes then in all matters where sexual segregation is traditional, one should continue to be treated as male. This should apply even if there has been surgical and chemical/hormone intervention and even, perhaps especially, if one wears a frock and lipstick.
        No exceptions. Of course the same applies, in reverse, to those born female.
        A little harsh maybe. But life is not fair.

  17. Oh bloody Hell! I wondered why it had suddenly got dark and realised it was snowing outside!

    1. Beat you to it by a day. I had 4″ here yesterday, but it’s clear blue skies again today (and frosty). Most of the snow is disappearing.

      1. The snowfall didn’t last long and it’s bright sunshine now with very little lying on the ground.

    4. Now it reminds me of the Christmas tale:

      It was Christmas Day in the workhouse,
      It was snowing, thick, and fast.
      They said, “We don’t want you pudding,
      We had some the night before last.

    7. Driven indoors from the garden by the snow. Now preparing to make a fruit loaf or two with fruit soaked in strong tea. An ill wind…

    8. Is this were you live?
      https://www.visitpeakdistri…
      Up in the hills 2 miles south-east of Matlock, Bonsall has a harming atmosphere all of its’ own. Sort of explains your weather! And someone need to correct their spelling.

  19. SIR – There are two problems with the solar-panel plan. First, they only produce about 10 per cent of their rated output. Secondly, agricultural land is being swallowed at an alarming rate. With shortages in wheat and other commodities highly likely, where will the crops come from?

    Robin Whitefield
    Buntingford, Hertfordshire

    SIR – You report that the country is going to be carpeted with solar panels.

    Should we not first ensure that every garage, shopping centre, hospital, industrial building or office building has solar panels on its roof, and that no new buildings can be constructed without them?

    Diane Alder
    Godalming, Surrey

    Yes, in theory all public buildings with roofs facing the right way should be utilised, but unfortunately the National Grid has limited ability to handle the intermittent nature of solar power.

    As for the ‘10%’ claim, each of the panels we installed in 2014 were rated at 250w, and that is what they produce in sunlight – obviously less in less favourable conditions.

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh, I think that Robin Whitfield’s 10% refers to the total power available to the Grid.

      1. ‘Morning Nanners, you may be right. Perhaps the editing is at fault. Nevertheless, the ‘10% of their rated output’ is very misleading…

        1. And as Matt pointed out in his cartoon: when the sun is shining we can use the electric fire!

          (Sorry – reading down I see that Minty has already made the point.)

    3. Turkey is far sunnier than Britain.

      We keep our boat in Turkey and have two solar panels.

      In the summer when the sun is consistent and the days are long we do not have the lights on for long periods at night and we do not need to use the heater because the solar panels provide us with all the electrical power we need.

      But in the winter when the sun is weaker and less reliable and the days are shorter the solar panels are useless and we have to connect to the mains when we are in the marina and when we are at anchor we have to use our petrol-fuelled generator or start up the diesel-powered engine to get electricity from the alternator.

      (We used also to have a wind generator but one day when the wind blew too hard the blades flew off and it was not worth repairing it)

      And our politicians want us to be dependent on solar and wind power both of which are unreliable and inconsistent!

      1. That’s odd, Richard. I thought that before the onset of engines, all ships had to rely on wind power! Lol.

        1. This reminds me of the speech my father gave at the wedding of one of my cousins, called Marion, who is a very keen sailor and her groom, Barry, who was in the Leander Rowing Club.

          “When there is a fair wind Marion will lightly take the helm but if the wind fails Barry will damned well have to row!”

          (The marriage was a great success and the couple had three children)

    4. Robin Whitefield hasn’t understood the agenda yet.
      The government WANTS solar panels and “carbon-storing” trees to swallow up farmland – how else can they credibly introduce food rationing?
      I am not joking.

        1. You should have cropped the upper photo just above the watermark and it would still have made the point.

        2. You should have cropped the upper photo just above the watermark and it would still have made the point.

        3. You are 100% right! Perhaps the Ukraine situation will have focused their minds a little.

          1. Sadly I think “their” minds are beyond any hope of being focussed, either by stupidity or design.

          2. Apart from the Ukraine (the bread basket of Europe) ten days or so ago Hungary banned all exports of grain.

      3. The planned population reduction will be offset against the reduced food supplies, which will in turn further reduce the population………

  20. Why there is no way back for Prince Andrew now
    While the Queen may be keen to maintain good relations with her second son, as far as the rest of the Firm is concerned, he’s finished
    Camilla Tominey : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/03/30/no-way-back-prince-andrew-now/

    I am no great fan of Prince Andrew but there is something deeply un-British and counter to our traditions of fair play, tolerance and justice.

    BTL

    I think it is outrageous that so many journalists are happy to attack Prince Andrew. He has never been found guilty in court and he has never admitted that he did the things he is said to have done.

    Of course he may be guilty – but the whole basis of British law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

    The baying mob should stop salivating and allow the Queen to have her son near her. What impertinence it is for people like you to interfere.

    1. Dan Wootton yesterday was foaming with spite about him. Clearly the Queen wanted his support at the service and it was her right to choose him as her son.

      1. Dan Wootton needs a damned good slapping. Where is Will Smith when he is needed?

    3. Assassination of those disliked is de rigeur these days. Evidence and fact have takena back seat. Far easier to blame than seek truth.

      Sadly, people don’t really want the truth. The truth is a grey area where dozens of different bits of information present a murky picture.

  21. Why there is no way back for Prince Andrew now
    While the Queen may be keen to maintain good relations with her second son, as far as the rest of the Firm is concerned, he’s finished
    Camilla Tominey : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/03/30/no-way-back-prince-andrew-now/

    I am no great fan of Prince Andrew but there is something deeply un-British and counter to our traditions of fair play, tolerance and justice.

    BTL

    I think it is outrageous that so many journalists are happy to attack Prince Andrew. He has never been found guilty in court and he has never admitted that he did the things he is said to have done.

    Of course he may be guilty – but the whole basis of British law is that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

    The baying mob should stop salivating and allow the Queen to have her son near her. What impertinence it is for people like you to interfere.

  22. And now, amongst the general doom and gloom, something uplifting:

    Maurice Ramsay, awarded an MC after leading a party of stretcher-bearers and casualties on a perilous trek through the Burmese jungle – obituary

    They journeyed in darkness, under fire, and with taunts from Japanese ‘jitter parties’ designed to make them give away their position

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    30 March 2022 • 11:30am

    Maurice Ramsay, who has died aged 101, was awarded an MC while serving with the Gold Coast Regiment (GCR) in the Burma Campaign.

    In March 1945, Captain Ramsay was in command of a West African Auxiliary Group Platoon, 3 GCR, part of the 82nd (West African) Division and serving in the coastal province of Arakan.

    His platoon was made up of African bearers, most of them unarmed but whose skill and stamina in carrying reserves of food, ammunition and equipment for long distances allowed the division to operate effectively in close, difficult terrain. They had to rely on air drops from Dakotas for their food and the platoon had the additional task of establishing and marking dropping zones (DZ) in the jungle.

    3 GCR was deployed to the bridgehead at Ru-Ywa to support an infantry battalion which had run out of vitally important rations and stores. The platoon collected these supplies at the harbour but the battalion position was two miles away on the far side of a valley, and on the way there they were ambushed by the Japanese.

    Ramsay abandoned the stores, made a skilful withdrawal and set up a defensive position for the night. At first light, they collected the stores and delivered them intact to the battalion.

    The platoon and the battalion were then surrounded, cut off, subject to constant mortar fire and shelling and taking increasing casualties. Their only DZ was mortared and set on fire. There was a danger from exploding ammunition, and for four days they were unable to access their rations; there was also an acute shortage of water.

    Two brigades fought their way south to relieve the siege but it was almost four weeks before the first of them got close enough for a rough track to be hacked out to enable evacuation of the badly wounded. Ramsay led the stretcher-bearers on a tortuous 12-mile route through the jungle in complete darkness and under sporadic shelling.

    With their nerves already at full stretch, they were harassed by Japanese “jitter parties” – taunts shouted in English – and random firing to try to provoke them into giving away their position. This led to some deaths from “friendly fire”, and it was 12 hours before Ramsay was able to hand over the casualties to the medical teams. The citation for the award of an MC paid tribute to his courage and outstanding leadership throughout the campaign.

    Maurice William Ramsay was born in Northumberland on April 18 1920. When his father took on the tenancy of a mixed farm, the family moved to Norfolk. Young Maurice went to Hamond’s Grammar School, Swaffham, before joining Lloyds Bank at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire.

    Having volunteered for the Northamptonshire Regiment, in April 1939 he was called up. His unit became a searchlight battalion equipped with Lewis guns. On a cloudless night, the searchlights could pick out enemy aircraft flying at up to 25,000 feet.

    After attending an OCTU at Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in March 1943 he was commissioned into the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and posted to a supply depot in Shropshire.

    In autumn 1943, Ramsay was posted to 82nd (West African) Division and embarked at the Firth of Clyde, bound for Nigeria. On his arrival at Lagos he was taken up-country to Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, and posted to 3 GCR.

    After six months’ training they embarked for the seven-week voyage to Karachi and then went by train on a week-long journey to Ranchi in the north-east of India. In the tented camp, one man was bitten by a krait and died. The adjutant was so worried about snakes that he got himself a mongoose.

    In December 1944, the whole of 82nd (West African) Division was mobilised in the campaign to drive the Japanese out of the Arakan. Ramsay saw more fierce fighting in the pursuit southwards but, in May 1945, with the onset of the monsoon, his part in the conflict came to an end.

    He was due for demobilisation after the Japanese surrender but he volunteered to see his men safely home. They disembarked at Takoradi, the only time that he actually set foot in the Gold Coast (now part of Ghana).

    On his return to England, he was demobilised at York. His father had sold his interest in the farm because his other son, a wireless operator and air gunner, had been killed in a wartime flying accident. Ramsay rejoined Lloyds and worked in Norfolk, Greenford, Middlesex and Cambridge before becoming regional manager and local director for East Anglia by the time he retired aged 60.

    He subsequently joined the Government’s Small Firms’ Service as an adviser, for which he was appointed MBE, and then worked with Lord Young on the Department of Trade and Industry’s Enterprise Initiative. He was a life member of the Burma Star Association.

    Maurice Ramsay married, in 1949, Dilys Evans. She predeceased him and he is survived by their son.

    Maurice Ramsay, born April 18 1920, died February 13 2022

      2. From my own experience, military service ‘summons up the blood and stiffens the sinews‘ giving one the spirit to carry on, despite the odds.

    2. Takoradi was the first of the staging posts for flights of supplies of aircraft to the UK.

  23. Good morning, everyone. Had a restless night last night, hence my late arrival on this site.

  24. 351748+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Thursday 31 March: Britain can allow no more delay in exploiting its rich energy resources

    These can be found on every level of the indigenous workforce in manufacturing etc,etc,etc,

    Working from home with political overseers financial incentives is in many cases buying the bent misguided allegiance of the workforce and the NEED to strive in a
    forward progressive manner is removed.

    39/45 with the iron cage / dining room table in place
    within the house the English indigenous after enduring a nightly dose of reality bombing staying under the table was a NO NO, the countrywide attitude was
    ” hold my beer a minute.”

    As for other sources of energy the common sense answer is dig & drill ASAP, combatting a nation emergency in a PRO British manner.

    1. Common sense has nothing to do with statist policy. They’re all wedded completely to the Left wing tyranny of green.

      1. 351748+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Common sense via the polling booth in so far as you do NOT support a coalition that ‘s role model is Murder INC. unless you have psychopathic tendency’s.

    1. Down to 1.7C here, and I can see snow on the Welsh hills but we have escaped so far and the sky is blue…

    3. Snowing a little across here too. Some fields are green, or brown, while some remain covered with a light layer of snow. I do not know why a field ploughed couple of days ago has no snow on it while the neighbouring green field has a blanket of snow, Snow is lying in our garden. The gardener arrived to cut the grass twenty minutes ago. He used the strimmer on the borders for a few minutes, then gave up and left.

      1. i think the ploughed earth freezes solid and so is colder and the snow settles – whereas the grass insulates the soil and the snow doesn’t lie unless it’s very cold.

  26. Wordle 285 6/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    I need more practice at this thing!

    1. Wordle 285 4/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  27. Wordle 285 6/6
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
    I need more practice at this thing!

    3. Who is Gary Neville?. I suppose I”ll have to look him up. No, won’t bother it’s only Starmer…

          1. The fact that he wants to become an MP for the Labour Party is testimony to his limited intelligence. So you’re right

      2. He’s a gobby Manc.

        A Manc is someone from Manchester. It is not a coincidence that Manc rhymes with Wank.

    4. Who is Gary Neville?. I suppose I”ll have to look him up. No, won’t bother it’s only Starmer…

    5. Let’s hope one of the Gallagher brothers stands against him as an independent. That would be a Manchester derby worth watching.

    6. One wonder why they bother. Labour aren’t credible because everything they’re offering is exactly the same – only more – of what the Tories are doing already.

    2. There’s no success like failure
      And failure’s no success at all.

      [Bob Dylan : Love Minus Zero]

    1. She pleaded guilty. She hasn’t been sentenced yet, although her licence has been withdrawn until sentencing in May.

      1. The government and our courts are not on the side of independent people who want their children educated and who need to run their own businesses and go to work to support their families. They prefer the scroungers who have the time to mess about people like Sherrilyn Speid.

        Welfare is a cancer which has destroyed us.

        1. It was a silly action to take, but I would guess millions of motorists have some sympathy for her. If she didn’t take legal advice before pleading guilty to dangerous driving, she should have.

          1. Would it have been impossible for her to bring a legal case against the police for not preventing the scrounging recipients of state benefits from her earning the money and paying tax on it. Some of the tax she pays goes towards paying the Police as well as benefits for scroungers.

          2. She shouldn’t have to, Rastus. A bit of common sense?would have prevented all the bollox!

          4. Badly advised! Not stupid! I have great admiration for her restraint! I’m not sure I’d have stopped.

        2. Well said. And if nothing else, the decision to charge the driver with such a serious motoring offence will surely embolden those who make a bloody nuisance of themselves by obstructing the roads for those trying to go about their lawful business. And the tacit support of the police for these idiots is deeply worrying too.

      2. I see. The press is giving the impression that she has been banned from driving for life.

          1. But with the “Justice System” now a days, it is most likely that the jerk on the bench sympathises with “Insulate Britain” and would take revenge on a decent person who defies them. From the behaviour of the police towards them, they are obviously considered as privileged.

          5. I have noticed that. I noticed it in the American system too. I once told an American judge , that if Lady Justice walked into her court, she would have her thrown down the steps of the courthouse like a whore. She was not pleased but I was so angry she knew very well I would not back down even though she threatened me with contempt of court. so she let it drop.

    2. Sentencing seldom makes sense; it can be quite arbitrary. The other night I watched a Panorama programme about rape. It followed my old force, Derbyshire, trying to get the CPS to prosecute two cases.

      The first case, in which a father had serially raped his two daughters, ended up with him being sentenced to 40 years imprisonment.
      The second case, in which an uncle had serially raped his nephew, ended with him being given a two-year suspended sentence.
      40 years in the clink compared with being given instant freedom, for two similar scenarios, is what is wrong with the justice system.

  31. 351748+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Germany Suffering ‘In the Most Brutal Way’ Over Russian Gas Addiction – Minister

    As in going through a period of cold turkey self inflicted.

    In the self inflicted department the United Kingdom cannot be bettered, any successful advancement is
    immediately quashed by the lab/lib/con coalition & supporter / voters.

    Give credit where due we, as a nation, could NEVER,EVER of got into such a state of distress as a Nation without the continuing input of the lab/lib/con coalition, member / voters.

    There would surely have been without doubt a nationwide shortage of welfare dependants, illegal immigrants, paedophiles, imam’s, mullah’s, knifers,
    & run of the mill terrorist, then I ask you, where would we have been.

  32. Back from the market. Bluss – it was cold! Bitterly strong wind – half the stalls were absent. Bright sunshine but still unwelcoming. Snow has gone – though “flurries”promised.

    Don’t forget to read your electric meters today.

      1. I think I would be being economical with the truth if I said that he is one of Adam Smith’s direct descendants.

          1. He’s an actor, Phizzee! I don’t think he’s any worse than the rest of them. Having seen him interviewed several times, he comes across as a smart, intelligent and amusing guy! And, I too look below the skin colour. Our son in law is quite tanned!

          2. Just me being unfunny. I quite enjoy his films. I think the slap was for publicity.

          3. Perhaps someone could tell the ‘outraged’ Oscar’s d*ckheads and the moronic MSM who want to see him cancelled!
            Edit : not referring to Conway!

          4. He’s an actor, Phizzee! I don’t think he’s any worse than the rest of them. Having seen him interviewed several times, he comes across as a smart, intelligent and amusing guy! And, I too look below the skin colour. Our son in law is quite tanned!

    3. What he says is quite correct, Phizzee, but don’t forget that we are all human and sometimes snap when provoked.

        1. Hard to tell, SB. I personally thought that it was a punch. And why did Chris Rock say “Here comes Richard (the name of the character Will Smith played in his latest film)” when Will stormed on to the stage to perform the slap/punch?

  38. ‘If a man dates a younger girl it’s fine!’ Shirley Ballas, 61, says she finds it ‘offensive’ people refer to her beau Daniel Taylor, 48, as her ‘toyboy’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10671827/Shirley-Ballas-61-says-offensive-beau-Daniel-Taylor-48-called-toyboy.html#comments

    I am sixteen years older than Caroline and we soon shall be celebrating 34 years of marriage. I have never referred to Caroline as my Toy Girl but if she said I was her Toy Man I would not be offended I would be astonished!

  39. ‘If a man dates a younger girl it’s fine!’ Shirley Ballas, 61, says she finds it ‘offensive’ people refer to her beau Daniel Taylor, 48, as her ‘toyboy’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10671827/Shirley-Ballas-61-says-offensive-beau-Daniel-Taylor-48-called-toyboy.html#comments

    I am sixteen years older than Caroline and we soon shall be celebrating 34 years of marriage. I have never referred to Caroline as my Toy Girl but if she said I was her Toy Man I would not be offended I would be astonished!

  40. ‘If a man dates a younger girl it’s fine!’ Shirley Ballas, 61, says she finds it ‘offensive’ people refer to her beau Daniel Taylor, 48, as her ‘toyboy’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10671827/Shirley-Ballas-61-says-offensive-beau-Daniel-Taylor-48-called-toyboy.html#comments

    I am sixteen years older than Caroline and we soon shall be celebrating 34 years of marriage. I have never referred to Caroline as my Toy Girl but if she said I was her Toy Man I would not be offended I would be astonished!

  41. 351748+ up ticks,
    breitbart,

    Labour Light: Half of Conservative MP Backbenchers Join Party’s Net Zero Green Agenda Group

    May one ask are they ALL having their evil way with carrie ?

    1. Good afternoon ogga

      The other half should join Richard Tice in the Reform Party and then stand down from their parliamentary seats and present themselves in their new colours at the by election.

      You keep telling us that we must stop voting Lib/Lab/Con and I don’t disagree with you – but we must have a viable alternative. A new right of centre party that believes in Brexit and does not believe in all the Green’s filthy, fanatical faeces could be a good way of changing things.

      Yes, I know defections from Labour by Rodgers, Jenkins, Williams and Owen to form the Social Democratic Party did not ‘break the mould’ of British politics as they hoped it would and that Carswell’s and Reckless’s defection to UKIP did not achieve anything either but a defection of fifty of more Conservative MPs to the Reform Party might actually achieve something.

      Have you any practical suggestions?

      1. 351748+ up ticks,

        Afternoon R,

        This tice chap is leader of the reform party the renamed brexit party, renamed to protect the guilty Lest we forget 2019 treachery.

        A new party built on a base of proven pro tory (ino)
        reform, members , mountaineering knowledge an asset, & sitting tory (ino) members,that would be a sure winner of more of the same.

        A great many of the electorate have NO intentions of letting go of the tory ( INO) party right up until the imam / mullah tells them to.

        My way forward is backing Anne Marie Waters she has IMO political balls & integrity, so For Britain is for me.

        1. Yes – but is this a practical suggestion? Do you honestly believe she will get anywhere?

          Something positive needs to be done now or it will be too late.

          1. 351748+ up ticks,

            R,
            Certainty in building a party of success is a great deal to ask, it ain’t no off the shelf item it is to be worked at
            we were in the process of doing just that under Batten and the genuine UKIP only nige & the party nec saw Batten success looming and quashed it in a very,very pro tory (ino) manner.

            What many want is to step from a lab/lib/con coalition party after four decades of damage done as members of the coalition into a tailored made party preferably with a great deal of tory (ino) material in it.

            I would rather go down with building a fringe party that soil my vote & name supporting lab/lib/con.

            Check out the by election votes in May after the
            rotherham in depth look at the police see if there is a ripple in the voting pattern.

            lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition party, ONGOING.

        2. Yes – but is this a practical suggestion? Do you honestly believe she will get anywhere?

          Something positive needs to be done now or it will be too late.

  44. The German economic miracle no longer exists. A E-P. 31 March 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bd5d30ca24be7613988f0d9c71b902b9283172ded1930f6873dc21a3f675ac6.png

    “The euro has become the successor of the Italian lira, not the successor to the Deutschmark, just as we feared,” said Professor Thomas Mayer, Deutsche Bank’s former chief economist and author of Inflationsgespenst (The Ghost of Inflation).

    “We were seeing echoes of the 1970s even before the war in Ukraine started. The ECB has been using models that do not work and has forgotten about the money supply: the Keynesian paradigm rules supreme,” he added.

    “It has succumbed to pure fiscal dominance just like the Banca d’Italia in the 1970s when it was obliged to buy Italian government bonds.

    Southern Europe is now so deeply indebted – including France – that the ECB cannot raise rates. It is completely boxed in. Of course, everybody will blame Putin and claim that none of this could have been foreseen,” Professor Mayer said.

    It woz Vlad! This we can guarantee. In fact it has already begun.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/31/german-economic-miracle-no-longer-exists/

    2. Before the Brexit referendum six years ago there were over €1.30 to the £; now, six years later, there are under €1.20 to the £; i.e. since the Brexit vote the pound has fallen by about 13%

      As our clients pay us in pounds we welcome a stronger pound but since we bought our house in France in 1988 the £ has fallen from 12.5 French Francs to the £ = €1.9 to its current level of the £ = € 1.19 – a fall of 37%.

      Why do they talk about the weakness of the euro when it has fared rather better than the pound recently and even more against the money used in France 30 years ago?

    1. I doubt it’s intentional. Heck, with the best friendly fire systems available Americans still managed to shoot at us in the Gulf.

      1. WWII – “When the Germans opened fire, the British took cover. When the British opened fire, the Germans took cover. When the Americans opened fire, everyone took cover”.

        2. Great minds! Was just going to reply to Wibbers with that and then I saw your post.

      2. It was intentional. You do not make a mistake for 8 years and kill 14,000 people as a result. This was the Azov Battalion, the neo-Nazis that we support by supporting Ukraine. And, to be clear, the Azov battalion aren’t the only ones, there are two other battalions that I’m aware of plus a political party that sits in the Ukrainian Parliament. The Wests propaganda is to pretend the Russians are the bad guys when the opposite is the case.

      1. Can anyone on here help me with a summary of this documentary? Who is the person at the start claiming that his people will win because they give out pensions and benefits to Seniors and children? The leader of Ukraine or of Donbass? To me it is confusing and I don’t have nearly an hour to watch it in bewilderment.

        1. Yo Elsie

          Prolly Boris, when I saw:

          because they give out pensions and benefits to Seniors and children?

          1. Well, on re-watching the start, it suggests that it is the (then) president of Ukraine who is speaking. And quickly skimming to the end the film states “© 2016” which suggests that all of the bombing and shelling took place before the recent Russian invasion. So what am I to deduce from this?

          2. I think that is a documentary that was made prior to the current invasion, in order to try and draw attention to Ukraine’s attacks on the Donbas republics.
            I couldn’t watch it all, because it’s too upsetting.

        2. That is Ukrainian President Poroshenko. He is saying that the people of Ukraine will have pensions etc and that the people of Donbass because they are Russian speaking Ukrainians, will not have pensions and that their children can hide in cellars against the Ukrainian bombs. The reality is Elsie that the Ukrainians started this when, in the first act of their overthrow of the democratically elected President, who fled to Russia, was to make Russian a second class language in Ukraine in favour of the Ukrainian dialect, despite the fact that 30% of Ukrainians speak Russian as their first language. The Ukrainians then went on to actively discriminate against the Russian speaking Ukrainians, in education, jobs, etc. As a result the people of Donbass (Russian speaking) rebelled and in response the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion was unleashed against them so that they were under siege for 8 years in which 14,000 of them were killed including at least 44 children. The bombing was indiscriminate. This is one of the reasons that Putin went to war against Ukraine, to stop the killing of Russian speaking Ukrainians.

  46. Afternoon all.
    Well my early appointment today at Lister Cardio went well. Echo cardio gram for an hour, all greased up and lots of slushing sounds and other funny noises, lovely young lady holding me down with the electronic stick, very well informed nurse to chat with after and now looking forward to Cardio man himself mid next month. And an admission there had been more then usual cases such as mine attributed to the covid jabs.
    Blizzard when we set off at 8:45 A1 south jammed l solid.
    Home to another strange letter from NHS re ‘my none arrival’ for an appointment on the 3 of Feb this year !!??
    I ring the phone number on the letter and was told in no uncertain terms that the mail box is full,…….. goodbye ! Slam.
    I ring the main hospital switch board and get through immediately to a very pleasant lady who looks up my record and confirms that I had no such appointment. And further explains that all the trust paper work had recently gone up the creek and many letters of that sort had been sent out. I had told her I already had some previously.
    And i’m booked in for a steroid jab in my knee towards the end of may. Yippee. I might be able to go for a longish walk with doggo before the weather gets to hot………………..

      2. Don’t mention the war……….i think i got away with it.
        One thing i did not do Bill, was stand at our front door and clap.

    2. Stay well, Eddy. Keep pushing them. Much like any public body, there’re two groups: those who want to help and those who want to get paid.

      1. Well this morning session has given me a bit of a confidence booster in that there is some one out there………but it’s been some time.

      1. Nope. As the Caliph of Londonistan says about his co-religionist murderers – “Learn to live with it”.

          3. Which is why they cannot define a woman! Bloody idiots all of them. Think I might be a penguin again today- it’s cold enough.

  48. Trying to send EON meter reading. Phone – permanently engaged; e-mail – no acknowledgement; website – not available.

    The very handy “CEO Contact” website ALSO not available at all!!

    However – an e-mail to an alleged e-mail address for the CEO WAS ack’d. So they HAVE my readings (took photographs).

    We’ll see.

    Still sunny – still bitter – still a gale blowing.

    And EVEN BETTER – delightful Dr Nigeria telephoned as promised. He is one of those rare people who remember what they said to you last time…

    1. You hear about and experience the rotten ones all the time, Nigeria is systematically corrupt. Anyone who’s been there will probably agree, but it means that when you come across a genuinely nice one they really stand out.

      1. I was dreaming about Nigeria last night. Left me sad and nostalgic for the place… where I did growing up. Fond memories – Sigh…

    2. Passed my readings to EDF online about 20 minutes ago. EDF’s site crashed on my first attempt but succeeded, albeit slowly, on the second. I have a screenshot of the completed transaction, complete with date, on my laptop.

  51. ADD ON – any EON customers who are as frustrated as I was, here is the e-mail that actually got acknowledged. Automatically, of course – but better than nowt.

    ceo@eonnext.com

    1. EDF customers: website is down but automated line 0333 200 5108 is working for giving meter readings and making payments

  52. If anyone wondered how Australia went full throttle on “covid” and why there is a strong odour around so many countries’, including the UK’s, responses to the ‘virus’ then this video will help explain. The shenanigans and political contortions that were performed to position Australia, and probably many other countries, for a public health disaster and then herald the arrival of the “saviour vaccines”, are laid bare. Many current politicians and so-called public servants, are in fact, the scum of the earth.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49b694f8f13d545b5e79a4242b954059d8514ec3532c13a9e4270d7c633a6228.png

    Australian barrister opening the can of worms that is covid-19

    1. I am sorry, I cannot believe there are any government leaders who are capable of such a worldwide conspiracy!! Boris cannot even organise his own party events!

      3. Snivil serpants do the organising. And this has been a long time in the organising, this has been no rushed job.

      4. I believe this is all organised by Anthony Fauci, Bill Gates, and George Soros, to name but three. There is a huge amount of money involved to back them up in their desire to reduce world population, and the release of the virus has given them the opportunity to accelerate the method of control. There are many corrupt politicians and governments all in on this western world conspiracy, what with the great reset, CBDC, and I have read on here today that the WHO wishes to take control of every country’s health. There is a aTreaty that no doubt will be signed by the U.K. to concede control to the WHO when it comes to “pandemic” response. The WHO can “declare” a pandemic even if there isn’t one and then all countries will be expected to follow WHO actions/orders – lockdowns, face nappies, blah blah blah. All choice will be removed.

  54. What is Biden’s fave drink, if he goes head-to-head with Mr Putin

    Pino Collida

    Pino = President in name only

    1. Todays puzzle didn’t fit my key words, two guesses and only two wrongly placed letters found.

      Got it in five eventually.

  57. Putin vows to cut gas supply tomorrow unless Europe pays in roubles – live updates. 31 march 2022.

    Russia will cut off gas supplies to Europe if countries refuse to pay in roubles, Vladimir Putin has warned.

    The Russian leader said he had signed a decree saying customers must pay in the local currency from tomorrow or their contracts will be terminated. The G7 has previously rejected the demand.

    In televised comments, Putin said buyers of Russian gas should open accounts in Russian banks, adding that the move was an important step in strengthening the country’s ailing economy.

    The Gas Mans coming round Mam! I can remember hiding under the stairs from the Rent Man when I was little but I don’t recall dodging either the Gas or Electric, probably because they were both on meters. Perhaps Germany could do something similar. A huge meter and start shovelling in the roubles!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/31/ftse-100-markets-live-news-russian-gas-green-energy/

      1. That would be the same gold that, was it Warren Buffet? mocked as “your pet rock” a few years ago? The same gold, that experts told us in the early 90s would never have a high worth again, because it’s so common on the Earth.
        In those days, I was young and gullible and believed them.
        Now I know better, and I think that however much gold there is, it will never be enough to satisfy the longing of everyone on this planet to own it!

    2. Of course this reminds me of the Flanders and Swan song!

      It also reminds me of John Wain’s story which I have posted below.

      When I was doing my PGCE at Southampton University we had to read a children’s book each week to discuss how we could use it the classroom. As I have always enjoyed reading this was my favourite course and in the course of the term I read some of the recent children’s books which had been written since my own childhood – for example: Watership Down, Smith, The Wizard of Earthsea, The Hobbit, The Iron Man, The Silver Sword, and some collections of short stories and other children’s novels whose titles now escape me.

      When we were home schooling our boys as we sailed around the Med we read and I am delighted that both Christo and Henry are still as avid readers now in their 20s as they were when they were children.

      A Message from the Pig-man : John Wain

      He was never called Ekky now, because he was getting to be a real boy, nearly six, with grey flannel trousers that had a separate belt, and weren’t kept up by elastic, and his name was Eric. But this was just one of those changes brought about naturally, by time, not a disturbing alteration; he understood that. His mother hadn’t meant that kind of change when she had promised, “Nothing will be changed.” It was all going to go as before, except that Dad wouldn’t be there, and Donald would be there instead. He knew Donald, of course, and felt all right about his being in the house, though it seemed, when he lay in bed and thought about it, mad and pointless that Donald’s coming should mean that Dad had to go. Why should it mean that? The house was quite big. He hadn’t any brothers and sisters, and if he had had any he wouldn’t have minded sharing his bedroom, even with a baby that wanted a lot of looking after, so long as it left the spare room free for Dad to sleep in. If he did that, they wouldn’t have a spare room, it was true, but then, the spare room was nearly always empty; the last time anybody had used the spare roomwas years ago, when he had been much smaller -last winter, in fact. And even then, the visitor, the lady with the funny teeth who laughed as she breathed in, instead of as she breathed out like everyone else, had only stayed one or three nights. Why did grown-ups do everything in such a mad, silly way? They often told him not to be silly, but they were silly themselves in a useless way, not laughing or singing or anything, just being silly and sad. It was so hard to read the signs; that was another thing. When they did give you something to go on, it was impossible to know how to take it. Dad had bought him a train, just a few weeks ago, and taught him how to fit the lines together. That ought to have meant that he would stay; what sensible person would buy a train, and fit it all up ready to run, even as a present for another person -and then leave! Donald had been quite good about the train, Eric had to admit that; he had bought a bridge for it and a lot of rolling-stock.At first he had got the wrong kind of rolling-stock, with wheels too close together to fit on to the rails; but instead of playing the usual grown-ups’ trick of pulling a faceand then not doing anything about it, he had gone back to the shop, straight away that same afternoon, and got the right kind. Perhaps that meant he was going to leave. But that didn’t seem likely. Not the way Mum held on to him all the time, even holding him round the middle as if he needed keeping in one piece.

      All the same, he was not Ekky now, he was Eric, and he was sensible and grown-up. Probably it was his own fault that everything seemed strange. He was not living up to his grey flannel trousers-perhaps that was it; being afraid of too many things, not asking questions that would probably turn out to have quite simple answers.

      The Pig-man, for instance. He had let the Pig-man worry him far too much. None of the grown-ups acted as if the Pig-man was anything to be afraid of. He probably just looked funny, that was all. If, instead of avoiding him so carefully, he went outside one evening and looked at him, took a good long, unafraid look, leaving the back door open behind him so that he could dartin to the safety and warmth of the house … no! It was better, after all, not to see the Pig-man; not till he was bigger, anyway; nearly six was quite big but it wasn’t really very big.

      And yet it was one of those puzzling things. No one ever told him to be careful not to let the Pig-man get hold of him, or warned him in any way; so the Pig-man must be harmless, because when it came to anything that could hurt yqu-like, the traffic on the main road, people were always ramming u into youthat you must look both ways, and all that stuff. And yet when it came to the Pig-man, no one ever mentioned him; he seemed beneath the notice of grown-ups. His mother would say, now and then, “Let me see, it’s today the Pig-man comes, isn’t it?” or, “Oh dear, the Pig-man will be coming round soon, and I haven’t put anythin? out.” If she talked like this, Eric’s spine would tingle and go cold; he would keep very still and wait, because quite often her next words would be, “Eric, just take these peelings”, or whatever it was, “out to the bucket, dear, will you?” The bucket was about fifty yards away from the back door; it was shared by the people in the two next-door houses. None of them was afraid of the Pig-man, either. What was their attitude, he wondered? Were they sorry for him, having to eat damp old stuff out of a bucket -tea-leaves and eggshells and that sort of thing? Perhaps he cooked it when he got home, and made it a bit nicer. Certainly, it didn’t look too nice when you lifted the lid of the bucket and saw it all lying there. It sometimes smelt, too. Was the Pig-man very poor? Was he sorry for himself, or did he feel all right about being like that? Like what? What did the Pig-man look like? He would have little eyes, and a snout with a flat end; but would he have trotters, or hands and feet like a person’s?

      Lying on his back, Eric worked soberly at the problem. The Pig-man’s bucket had a handle; so he must carry it in the ordinary way, in his hand -unless, of course, he walked on all fours and carried it in his mouth. But that wasn’t very likely, because if he walked on all fours, what difference would there be between him and an ordinary pig? To be called the Pig-man, rather than the Man-pig, surely implied that he was upright,and dressed. Could he talk? Probably, in a kind of grunting way, or else how would he tell the people what kind of food he wanted them to put in his bucket? Why hadn’t he asked Dad about the Pig-man? That had been his mistake; Dad would have told him exactly all about it. But he had gone. Eric fell asleep, and in his sleep he saw Dad and the Pig-man going in a train together; he called, but they did not hear him and the train carried them away. “Dad!” he shouted desperately after it. “Don’t bring the Pig-man when you come back! Don’t bring the Pig–man!” Then his mother was in the room, kissing him and smelling nice; she felt soft, and the softness ducked him into sleep, this time without dreams; but the
      next day his questions returned.

      Still, there was school in the morning, and going down to the swings in the afternoon, and altogether a lot of different things to crowd outthe figure of the Pig-man and the questions connected with it. And he was never further from worrying about it all than that moment, a few evenings later, when it suddenly came to a crisis.

      Eric had been allowed, “just for once”, to bring his train into the dining-room after tea, because there was a fire there that made it nicer than the room where he usually played. It was warm and bright, and the carpet in front of the fireplace was smooth and firm, exactly right for laying out the rails on. Donald had come home and was sitting -in Dad’s chair, but never mind -reading the paper and smoking. Mum was in the kitchen, clattering gently about, and both doors were open so that she and Donald could call out remarks to each other. Only a short passage -lay between. It was just the part of the day Eric liked best, and bed-time was comfortably far off. He fitted the sections of rail together, glancing in anticipation at the engine as it stood proudly waiting to haul the carriages round and round, tremendously fast.

      Then his mother called, “Eric! Do be a sweet, good boy and take this stuff out to the Pig-man. My hands are covered with cake mixture. I’ll let you scrape out the basin when you come in.”

      For a moment he kept quite still, hoping he hadn’t really heard her say it, that it was just a voice inside his head. But Donald looked over at him and said, “Go along, old man. You don’t mind, do you?”

      Eric said, “But tonight’s when the Pig-man comes.”

      Surely, surely they weren’t asking him to go out, in the deep twilight, just at the time when there was the greatest danger of actually meeting the Pig-man.

      “All the better”, said Donald, turning back to his paper.

      Why was it better? Did they want him to meet the Pigman? Slowly, wondering why his feet and legs didn’t refuse to move, Eric went through into the kitchen. “There it is”, his mother said, pointing to a brown-paper carrier full of potato–peelings and scraps.

      He took it up and opened the back door. If he was quick, and darted along to the bucket at once, he would be able to lift the lid, throw the stuff in quickly, and be back in the house in about the time it took to count ten.

      One -two -three -four -five -six. He stopped. The bucket wasn’t there.

      It had gone. Eric peered round, but the light, though faint, was not as faint as that. He could see that the bucket had gone. The Pig-man had already been..

      Seven -eight -nine -ten, his steps were joyous and light. Back in the house, where it was warm and bright and his train was waiting.

      “The Pig-man’s gone, Mum. The bucket’s not there.”

      She frowned hands deep in the pudding-basin. “Oh, yes, I do believe I heard him. But it was only a moment ago. Yes, it was just before I called you, darling. It must have been that that made me think of it.”

      “Yes?” he said politely, putting down the carrier.

      “So if you nip along, dear, you can easily catch him up. And I do want that stuff out of the way.”

      “Catch him up?” he asked, standing still in the doorway.

      “Yea, dear, catch him up”, she answered rather sharply (the Efficient Young Mother knows when to be Firm).”He can’t possibly be more than a very short way down the road.”

      Before she had finished Eric was outside the door and running. This was a technique he knew. It” was the same as getting into icy cold water. If it was the end, if the Pig-man seized him by the hand and dragged him off to his hut, well, so much the worse. Swinging the paper carrier in his hand, he ran fast through the dusk.

      The back view of the Pig-man was much as he had expected it to be. A SLOW, rather lurching gait, hunched shoulders, an old hat crushed down on his head (to hide his ears?) and the pail in his hand . Plod,plod, as if he were tired. Perhaps this was just a ruse, though, probably he could pounce quickly enough when his wicked little eyes saw a nice tasty little boy or something … did the Pig-man eat birds? Or cats?

      Eric stopped. He opened his mouth to call to the Pig–man, but, the first time he tried, nothing came out except a small rasping squeak. His heart was banging like fireworks going off. He could hardly hear anything.

      “Mr Pig-man!” he called, and this time the words came out clear and rather high.

      The. jogging old figure stopped, turned, and looked at him. Eric could not see properly from where he stood. But he had to see Everything, even his fear, sank and drowned in the raging tide of his curiosity. He moved forward. With each step he saw more clearly. The Pig-man was just an ordinary old man.

      “Hello, sonny. Got some stuff there for the old grunt-ers?”

      Eric nodded, mutely, and held out his offering. What old grunters? What did he mean?

      The Pig-man put down his bucket. He had ordinary hands, ordinary arms. He took the lid off. Eric held out the paper carrier, and the Pig-man’s hand actually touched his own for a second. A flood of gratitude rose up inside him. The Pig-man tipped the scraps into the bucket and handed the carrier back.

      “Thanks, sonny”, he said.

      “Who’s it for?” Eric asked, with another rush of articu-lateness. His voice seemed to have a life of its own.

      The Pig-man straightened up, puzzled. Then he laughed, in a gurgling sort of way, but not like a pig at all.”Arh Aarh Harh Harh”, the Pig-man went. “Not for me, if that’s watcher mean, arh harh.”

      He put the lid back on the bucket. “It’s for the old grunters”, he said. “The old porkers. Just what they likes. Only not fruit skins. I leave a note, sometimes, about what not to put in. Never fruit skins. It gives ’em the belly-ache.”He was called the Pig-man because he had some pigs that he looked after.

      “Thank you”, said Eric. “Good-night.”

      He ran back towards the house, hearing the Pig-man, the ordinary old man, the ordinary usual normal old man, say in his just ordinary old man’s voice,

      “Good-night, sonny.”

      So that was how you did it. You just went straight ahead, not worrying about this or that. Like getting into cold water. You just did it. He slowed down as he got to the gate. For instance, if there was a question that you wanted to know the answer to, and you had always just felt you couldn’t ask, the thing to do was to ask it. Just straight out, like going up to the Pig-man. Difficult things, troubles, questions, you just treated them like the Pig-man. So that was it!

      The warm light shone through the crack of the door. He opened it and went in. His mother was standing at the table, her hands still working the cake mixture about. She would let him scrape out the basin, and the spoon – he would ask for the spoon, too. But not straight away. There was a more important thing first. He put the paper carrier down and went up to her.

      “Mum”, he said. “Why can’t Dad be with us even if Donald is here? I mean, why can’t he live with us as well as Donald?”

      His mother turned and went to the sink. She put the tap on and held her hands under it.

      “Darling”, she called.

      “Yes?” came Donald’s voice.

      “D’you know what he’s just said?”

      “What?”

      “He’s just asked …” She turned the tap off and dried her hands, not looking at Eric. “He wants to know why we can’t have Jack to live with us.”

      There was a silence, then Donald said, quietly, so that his voice only just reached Eric’s ears. “That’s a hard one.”

      “You can scrape out the basin”, his mother said to Eric. She lifted him up and kissed him. Then she rubbed her cheek along his, leaving a wet smear, “Poor little Ekky”, she said in a funny voice. She put him down and he began to scrape out the pudding-basin, certain at least of one thing, that grown-ups were mad and silly and he hated them all, all, all

  58. PROJECT FEAR LIVES

    “Keep wearing facemasks because of high Covid levels, public urged” The Grimes headline this arvo.

          1. Limoncio and tonic… not too bad, lots of lemon oil, makes you believe it’s good for you! Gin strength… oceans of sugar!
            Hic!

    1. One thing I can guarantee is that if Zelensky “wins” any pro Russia Ukrainians had better pack up and leave, because I don’t expect them to be welcome and they will almost certainly be killed by the Azov people.

      1. I read this comment yesterday on the Mercola site.
        “President Putin has achieved the goal, and agreement with american puppet-state Ukraine has been signed yesterday, Wednesday. Ukraine will remove all NATO bases. All american 26 bio-weapon labs will be dismantled and removed from Ukrainian soil. This agreement could have been achieved a long time, without bloodshed and without any loos of human lives. But the criminal thugs at the White House thought that Ukraine would be their little puppet forever and US could keep intimidating Russia with NATO bases and biological weapon labs.”

        1. Intimidating? Irritating, more like.
          I’d like to see Vlad intimidated – that wouldn’t be easy.

        2. I’ll believe it when Putin himself actually states it’s all over and even then I’ll be wary.

          1. The problem is, the US and the west don’t want us to know that it is all over, it is far too useful to them in the fear stakes. I think they will gradually just let it all fizzle out, you can get a sense of that yesterday and today by just glancing at the reported headlines. Then it can be fanned into life as required. And they would never give Putin such a platform, either. Perish the thought that he be seen as a reasonable guy, let alone a good guy.

          2. Agreed, unless Zelensky suddenly agrees unconditional surrender.
            Not impossible, if the Russians eliminate all bar guerrilla forces.

    2. I am treating all the stories about trouble in the Red Army with a GREAT DEAL of salt. Lorryloads.

      2. How would they know, anyway? Who informs these journalists of what happens in the army? Today I read 300 Russian army conscripts are hitchhiking home as they feel abandoned. Just who informed the DM? I am convinced it is all made up.

        I hope you all feeling better, now, Bill.

      3. So you should. What they are doing is concentrating on neutralizing the abilities of the Ukrainian military. It is obviously a slow process in which they move about from one place to another. The aim is not to capture territory except to consolidate territory in the Donbass and Luhansk region and Odessa/Crimea.

      4. The conscripts have probably upset with Putin after they heard about how diverse and coddled western soldiers are.

        Either that or the growing hysteria about the Russian army being broken is pure B.S.

    1. Be nice to be hot for a while.
      Beginning to wonder about a trip to Bahrain to soak up some degrees – and cocktails…

      1. Let me check my diary and see when I’m available….cocktails and sunshine sound good;-)))

        1. Gulf Hotel, Bahrain.
          Excellent place. Nice cocktail bar, nice brown pub, good food, limo pickup from the airport…several good restaurants of various nationalities… next door to a bottle shop. What’s not to like?

    1. That is probably the intention. All their moves have been designed to harm, under cover of “it’s for your health”.

  62. Biden expected to announce record release from US strategic oil reserves – live. 31 March 2022.

    Oil prices fell sharply on Thursday morning amid speculation that Joe Biden will order a record release from US emergency reserves later today, intending to ease Americans’ pain at the gas pump.

    The plan to release up to a million barrels daily, first reported by Bloomberg, is set to be announced at the president’s scheduled lunchtime briefing on energy. CNBC reported an initial drop of almost 6% in crude oil futures on Thursday at the news, leaving the cost of a barrel hovering around the $100 mark.

    They are in trouble already with these sanctions! Usually when the US and its poodle the UK impose Sanctions the rest of the world just falls into line. Not this time. Everyone outside the EU and the Anglosphere has just ignored them. In fact refused to take part. India, China, the Arabs. Mexico. They’ve had enough. They’ve bought the popcorn and they are going to sit back and watch the show. When it’s over they will still have their oil!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2022/mar/31/biden-oil-strategic-reserves-release-ukraine-russia-pence-us-politics-latest-updates

  63. I have just read my electricity meter. Not easy in a blizzard with the wind howling, the path damp and slippy, and the meter positioned in a box six inches from the ground.
    I then found that the Scottish Power website was down. No surprise, really. I telephoned all four telephone numbers I could find for their departments as per the bumf I get with the bill. The phones rang out then disconnected.
    I am guessing that their telephone services are now “Voice Over Internet” as this is the modern thing. However if the internet service crashes then there are no phones. This is what happens in “denial of service”attacks.
    Here is a very sound reason for the old, long-serving, reliable telephone landline services to continue indefinitely.

    1. I do not think this “crash” is genuine. It is a deliberate move to screw people yet again in this country. Absolute bastards and sorry, Horace, I am past the point where I am going to apologise for my language.

      1. You could be right. On the other hand, they don’t seem to think things through. The geeks in IT come up with whizzo schemes that sound good, but no analysis is done on a “what if” basis. That’s the job of management but many do not understand that, or the implication of the mechanics they are attempting to operate. BT is a recent example.
        Of course if one considers the overall picture and compare it with our infrastructure at the start of WW2 the you may be more right that you think.
        In 1939 our utilities and railways operated independently of each other. While individual trains could be knocked out, for example, the entire service could not be, as steam trains can operate if there are rails. Our modern electric trains can be turned off across the country with one turn of a switch.

        2. Ditto water supplies in 1939. Dwellings in the UK tended to have galvanised cold water tanks in the attic, whereas continental buildings were served by water towers etc. Loss of pressure, no water.

      2. “Bastards” is no longer considered bad language, M’Lady, since most births these days are from unmarried parents.

        1. Willie the Conk was known as William the Bastard. Was true by birth and true by nature;-)

    2. During the great Ontario ice storm, we were without power for about two weeks.
      Mobile phones were not that popular then but it didn’t matter because wise guys were stealing the backup generators from the cell towers.
      We had the traditional old landline service and the phones continued to work throughout the entire period.

      As you say, a sound reason for the traditional way.

    3. Shell Energy just the same. Eon are blaming Martin Lewis for the ‘send in your meter readings’ panic today.

      In other news, Putin has finally weaponised the gas he sells to Europe by demanding that all payments are now in Roubles and not Dollars/Euros etc according to the DT. If not then he says the taps will be turned off tomorrow. Let us hope that someone will explain to him that what is left of the Russian economy will vanish down the toilet in short order.

      How I wish this was an early if very silly April Fool…

  64. I have just read my electricity meter. Not easy in a blizzard with the wind howling, the path damp and slippy, and the meter positioned in a box six inches from the ground.
    I then found that the Scottish Power website was down. No surprise, really. I telephoned all four telephone numbers I could find for their departments as per the bumf I get with the bill. The phones rang out then disconnected.
    I am guessing that their telephone services are now “Voice Over Internet” as this is the modern thing. However if the internet service crashes then there are no phones. This is what happens in “denial of service”attacks.
    Here is a very sound reason for the old, long-serving, reliable telephone landline services to continue indefinitely.

      1. 98%, thanks, pet.

        Dr Wonderful did the biz. The downside is that I need blood thinners. As I suffer regularly from short nosebleeds (and have for 40 years), the thought of thin, unclotting blood worries me.

        I put this to Dr W. And he wisely said you need to weigh the risk of a stroke caused by a clot with the inconvenience of a nose bleed….

        Much snow your way? Bet you are glad you Farrow and Balled your gate…!!

        1. Goodbye, white shirts… carry a box of tampons just in case.
          Seriously, better a thinner blood than a dead Bill. Been too much croaking these last few days, it’s like a rainforest at dusk.
          :-((

          1. Thanks, Paul.

            I was surprised that there was a not a spray coagulant available. Perhaps there is an opening there….

          4. Following a recent hospitalisation Addenbrookes switched me from Warfarin to Apixaban which was contrary to previous GP advice.

            Accordingly, I no longer have to have frequent blood tests as with Warfarin. INR with Warfarin was up and down like a yo-yo.

          5. Vitamin K will counteract the effects of the anti-coagulant known as warfarin within about two hours.

            However, more modern anti-coagulants such as edoxaban (Lixiana) can not be ‘cancelled’ as easily, so there is a greater risk of bleeding.

            I am not in any way qualified to write what I have just written above, so always check with a physician.

          7. Alf takes rivaroxaban. Used to have warfarin but had to have regular blood tests for regulation purposes. With the new blood thinner there is no reversal.

        2. Hopefully more advanced thinners than warfarin (the rat poison) they used to hand out. Just pretend that you are hemophiliac Russian royalty, that will gain respect.

          Oh hang on a mo, best not try for Russian nowadays.

          1. Haemophilia runs in my family too. One of my dad’s cousins had it and another only had one daughter, just in case and the daughter never had kids- just in case. That branch relocated to Canada.

          2. I would just like to point out that I knew it was spelt haemophilia but this American spell checker had a fit over the haemo bit.

          5. Yes but I don’t need to; I know the difference and my US pals like the novelty.

          8. How sad to miss out on children/grandchildren – just in case.
            REspect their decision, but even so… :-((

          9. The direction that Trudeau is taking Canada, not having grandchildren might be seen as a blessing..

          10. Warfarin is still handed out, despite my asking for others that require no INR.

            I think they are frightened, after my Australian experience.

            2 GPs and a vascular surgeon kept badgering me for taking warfarin since 2002 – this was 2017 – so I stopped taking it on a Friday – the following Tuesday I had a fairly serious heart attack, that fortunately missed my heart but took out my spleen and one kidney.

            That was when I decided to retun to England. Aussies seem to have medicine upside down.

        1. No, I haven’t; but the post is all over the show.
          The Spekkie can arrive any day from Friday to Tuesday. A few weeks back it was the Thursday – only a day before the next issue.

    2. Thank goodness for that, Bill. After the number of times I have called you a Very Silly Sausage, I have recently had nightmares of you coming to my front door, ringing the bell and then giving me a really strong slap in the mouth. Lol.

        2. I have lived most of my life abroad and it was wonderful. But in the end it just made me more English, not British but English.

          2. I am feeling the same way, we could never move back to the home counties and live in those crowded places.

          3. It depends where you are. I live in West Sussex but I could just as well be living in some remote part of Scotland. This is still the old England, May queen, the maypole, the lot. Very quiet, very green and the only foreigners here are the Chinese take away and an Indian restaurant, that’s it. The place is probably 99.9% native English. This is were I live.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU0oO2GJXGg

          6. Home Thoughts From Abroad
            Robert Browning.

            Oh, to be in England
            Now that April’s there,
            And whoever wakes in England
            Sees, some morning, unaware,
            That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
            Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
            While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
            In England—now!

            And after April, when May follows,
            And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
            Hark, where my blossomed pear-tree in the hedge
            Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
            Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
            That’s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
            Lest you should think he never could recapture
            The first fine careless rapture!
            And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
            All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
            The buttercups, the little children’s dower
            —Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

        1. I can get good cask ale here, and bottled. Firstborn’s local brewery, NDB, do an excellent IPA and Stout, and Nøgne Ø do the best IPA I ever had – English style (not aggtressively hopped, like the US variants) and the right % alcohol. Superb beer, it is.
          Can’t get good cider without paying more than wine… :-((

          1. I can (occasionally) get a reasonable cask ale here, but not a great one. Even a good bottled beer (i.e. one not watered down to 3·5% for supermarket sale by the punitive Svensk liquor laws) will never hold a candle to a proper cask beer.

          2. Drank the last (bottle) of London Pride at the local pub. sigh.
            Amunden pub in Olso not only brews a selection of excellent beers, but they have a huge choice of import beers – most from the UK & Ireland. They know how to care for them, too. Good food, well worth a visit.

          3. It would be great to host you for a weekend, Grizz. A beer or two, a pie or two…

      1. It is incredible that such a blatant error should appear in this document. The person responsible should be sacked but he, she or it won’t be.

      3. Even if she were, she would still rank lower than her three brothers in line to the throne, as the male primogeniture rule does not apply to her generation.

    7. Sarcasm. I get into so much trouble over here where people take a sarcastic comment as being meant.

      Small cars. This American obsession with big trucks is ridiculous.

      Mild weather. I have really had it with minus twenty degree winters and snowstorms. The extremely hot summers don’t do much for me either.

      1. Gawd, I understand the sarcasm bit. Got very tiring always pointing out that you were being sarcastic.

          4. We had a master who could ping pupils’ ear lobes with deadly accuracy. Who would have thought that a stub of airborne gypsum could be so painful?

        2. I don’t think anyone understands sarcasm quite like the English do!! It’s taken Jack and I 25+years to educate our s-i-l but I can say our grandkids worked it out and take great delight in practising on us olduns!!

    8. Three things I like? The NoTTL site, The Bash Street Kids (and other 1950s cartoon characters) and Fish & Chips. Perhaps I should replace the third one with my own Rhubarb Crumbles.

      1. Fish and chips we can get (sort of) but ask for mushy peas and curry sauce with them and you get dumb looks.

        Many other English delicacies could go on the list and accompany my desire for your rhubarb crumble – toasted tea cakes and meat pies come to mind.

        1. I missed all those in this food desert called Sweden. ‘Missed’, though, in the past. I now roll up my sleeves and make all manner of English food delicacies, many much tastier than shop bought.

          1. Your home-made mushy peas are legendary, Grizzly. One day I hope to sample them in person.

          5. That’s the definition of a sheep worrier….someone who runs around after sheep shouting, “Mint sauce, mint sauce!”

          6. Roast shoulder of lamb, mushy peas, mint sauce; what’s not to like?

            Also roast spuds, roast parsnips and onion gravy.

    9. 1. Decent (Real Ale) Pubs.
      2. Fish & Chip shops.
      3. Eavesdropping on conversations spoken in English.

      1. Sadly British Fish & Chip shops are in deep trouble. Costs are rocketing. 830 out of 11,000 can’t find buyers. The industry is looking at 50% closures in the next 12 months.

        People need to be prepared to pay a lot more for their fish supper.

        Added to that…40% of white fish landed in the UK come from Russian trawlers.

        1. Prices have gone up here as well. I buy my freshly-caught fish from a shop at the docks and I render beef tallow to fry it in.

          It’s not the same, though, as having someone in a chip shop fry it for you.

          1. Crazy as it sounds Scottish langoustines are cheaper than cod and haddock. I have no problem with them cooked in batter.

          2. I remember the first time I tried them, in a restaurant in Portree on Skye. A wonderful memory.

          5. Not sure. It was 1987/88. I didn’t have Internet then. I research everything now. Nor was i brave enough to venture to the kitchen in those days.

          6. I’ve been twice but have as yet to see it, Philip, covered in mist – more like fog.

          7. A pal of mine goes out in his boat daily and catches ‘prawns’ but he sells ‘langoustines’

    10. 1. Sunday roast rare beef.
      2. Fish & Chips.
      3. Pubs and the conversations you get in them.

      2. Reverse the order, for 10/10. Can I have an extra? The countryside that is sooo English!

        1. …and soon to be covered in solar panels – unless we all get off our backsides and complain, object and picket the greedy land-owners.

    11. “Around 66 million people live in the UK.”

      At least ten years out of date…

    12. I cannot think of three things, or even one, everything has been buggered up by the Marxists

    13. Queue, you bastards.
      No, Islam isn’t an acceptable alternative to Christianity, you bastards.
      We invented white supremacy and we were right, you bastards.

      Oh, and lack of accuracy in the Press:
      The Queen: “She has four children: Princess Anne is the oldest, followed by Prince Charles, Prince Andrew and Prince Edward.”

    14. Driving on the right side of the road
      Brenda
      TV adverts (not that I like ours but they are ten times worse in the other countries I’ve been to)

        1. I did put ‘correct’ in brackets after ‘right’ at first but decided you’d all know what I meant.

    15. One of my away days in the camper led me to stay near a steam railway and a cricket club. As I was walking back across the fields from church a steam train went over the bridge and then, round the corner a cricket match was in progress. England as it was when I was growing up.

  68. I know there are some serious problems in the world, but perhaps we should spare a thought for the newspaper editors and suchlike who are trying to come up with an April Fool story for tomorrow’s papers – given some of the absurdities we are being asked to believe every day, what can they possibly produce to compete with the “real news”??

    1. Compulsory masks
      Fifth booster
      Petrol £2 a litre…

      What a larf, eh? Real Loof Lirpas

    6. A real Conservative Manifesto.

      Fracking and Nuclear.
      Invoking article 16
      Deporting illegal immigrants
      Islam to comply with the customs ands laws of the UK
      Reforming education to remove the Woke
      Firing 90% of civil servants
      etc etc etc.

    7. April fool: Boris winds back on greenery. Ukraine admits nazism. Covid an April Fool joke. Starmer a puppet… Oh! Oops :-((

    8. Loch Ness monster surrenders to Nicola Sturgeon, who promptly claims he wants independence?

        1. IDK. The fourth line/ attempt was only partially visible – the top 50% of the line.
          Further attempts didn’t register …
          Frustrating …

    4. Phew, indeed. Six!
      Wordle 285 6/6

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

      1. Snap!
        Wordle 285 6/6
        ⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
        ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
        ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

        1. Hi Grizzly, you mentioned a reference to a trial recently. The Mail online has featured it today, including some video footage.

  70. That’s me for this unpleasant day. Lotsa sunshine – so it is nice indoors – but cold and gales outside.

    Have a smooth evening trying to send your leccy meter readings.

    A demain – (I hope).

    2. I got in with a fixed two year contract before the proverbial hit the rotating thingy.

          1. August 2023 for me – stayed with EDF. I’m glad I didn’t go for one of the slightly cheaper deals – I would have ended up with a bust supplier and a variable rate.

          1. If you keep falling apart at the current rate you won’t die of shock when yours changes.

            Stay healthy, wealthy and survive.

      3. Our electricity bill has been £86 for ten years. Ten years. To say it’s stable is beyond sense.

        Now Boris blurts in with his taxes, his daft green agenda and poof, we’re looking at £200+ a month. I cannot express how much I hate these useless fools.

        1. Mine’s gone up from £22 to £37 a month, most of the increase being the Standing Charge although what this has got to do with the price of fuel God knows – pure profiteering

  72. Johnson. Is this coke nose or……. is the mask splitting? And look at the inner corners of his eyes, especially the right eye, it looks like a mask that is not fitting properly, no longer adhering to his skin and it is forming a pocket. You can see this on the left eye as well. Well, Jennifer Arcuri, a former mistress, has said that the man in 10 Downing Street, the (B)BPAPM is not Boris Johnson. She said it was Johnson who went into hospital at the start of the covid fiasco, but it was not Johnson who came out.

    https://twitter.com/BBlues60/status/1509551446295031808?s=20&t=Bc3twcvkB-6fzwkm-bRtRQ

      1. Nah. Someone thumped the bastard and broke his nose.

        Edit: A cleft nose is one thing but I would wish to view his thumbs for cleavage. Horrendous as it might seem but I would also wish to view his arse in order to check for a tail.

        The fucker is hardly human after all.

        1. It looks more like a cut. Apache squaws accused of adultery used to have their noses split.

    3. I thought she meant figuratively speaking, that he was not himself after the illness.
      His face is … odd though. I’ve no doubt there’s perfectly simple explanation.

      1. No, Arcuri meant that the person in 10 Downing Street was an imposter, I have followed her channel on Telegram and she was quite clear about that, she said she should know as she’d been with him for three or four years.

        2. Surely they would just have picked the next mug to follow instructions if Boris had succumbed to covid? There’s no shortage of Tory MPs eager for the brown envelopes, and it would have been cheaper!
          I can believe that his personality changed enormously.

        1. More relaxed than i have been. I dropped one of my Meds and my heart has stopped pounding in my ears and throat.

          Thanks for asking.

          2. As they are dragging their feet about reviewing my Meds i decided to take action. GP’s hate that.
            Thanks.

          3. Phizzee, I have been constantly impressed by your gourmet knowledge & lifestyle, but then suddenly you mentioned that you had several cans of fizzy cola in your possession. Points deducted.

      1. He tried after a while (he was much more relaxed for the first few shaves than last time), but I make sure he’s muzzled.

      2. We recently employed a mobile groomer. Her first remark on taking Sinbad into her van was that we were more nervous than Sinbad.

        In short, the lady groomer was confident with yappy dogs and had a sort of reciprocity with Sinbad where he was almost immediately calm and loved her attentions.

        Previous groomers were always nervous and skeptical that Sinbad might have a seizure or whatever, given his medical history.

        Anyone local to North Essex on here wanting a professional (mobile) groomer let me know. The lovely lady is already grooming our neighbours’ large dogs (Old English Collies) and we have recommended her to others in the village.

    4. Oooph ….. one of the ‘granddogs’ had a similar stripping. He now likes to be cuddled up in a blanket; I think this one could run and run, regardless of how much his coat grows.

      1. We’re fortunate, Anne, the groomer comes to us and only requires a mains connection to her van, so Dotty gets done on the drive and is then cuddled back home. Good wash and dry, nails clipped – they used to get the anal glands expressed but apparently that’s now a vets job.

        I’d do it myself but Best Beloved objects (Dotty is the first dog she’s had.)

          3. The only way we discovered her age, as she was adopted after eviction from a ‘care home’ is a microchip under her skin.

            She remains very nimble, fussy eater and likes expensive tuna cat food and occasional raw fillet steak and can punch her fish toy like a seasoned southpaw but with a vicious left cross, er….. almost ambidextrous.

      1. Thank you. He didn’t get a chance to nibble (although he tried) because I muzzle him. He was much better than last time, so I’m hoping, with lots of TLC, T touch, Reiki and handling, he’ll get to accept it and won’t need a muzzle.

  74. As I said earlier on today, I have not been on the ball, sort of confused all day. So apart from acquiring bladder stones because of the lack of action on the part of the Urology department, after three tests in the last 10 days, I was finally told at 4.45. this afternoon, that I now have a urinary infection to accompany all my other joys. I am not going to do it now because the cretins have to operate on me on the 20th of next month. But I am certainly going to put in a formal complaint. I was so positive when it came to the Oncology department. But I realize that was a fluke and the NHS is an abomination. I think I mentioned the other day that someone is going to have the same procedure as me. From being seen to being operated on has taken him 3 weeks. It has taken me 9 months and many screw ups along the way. They really do take the piss, don’t they.

      1. I will be getting medication in the morning. I don’t know what it will be. I’ll let you know. But I will tell you one thing. I am genuinely nervous that these people will operate on me.
        Just looked up D-mannose. Not sure if it would work on me. I drink 2 litres of Cranberry juice every day and that isn’t helping.

        1. Cranberry juice doesn’t work. D-mannose does – it’s basically just brown sugar, the nicest medicine you’ll ever take.
          I have tried all the alternative remedies!

          1. I’ll order some blackbox, any suggestion about brand or just any at all?. In the mean time I just took my first capsule of Nitrofurantoin, it just arrived. Sounds like I might explode if not careful!

      2. I will be getting medication in the morning. I don’t know what it will be. I’ll let you know. But I will tell you one thing. I am genuinely nervous that these people will operate on me.
        Just looked up D-mannose. Not sure if it would work on me. I drink 2 litres of Cranberry juice every day and that isn’t helping.

      2. I take it Ann, that in the USA you had health insurance? I now regret giving mine up. It was an excellent plan in which I had to pay a small amount out of my own pocket. It was by MONY, a wedding present initially. I would be better off if I could fly to New York, get seen to and fly back here. Stay with friends while I was in the USA. I know very well I would have been seen to much faster, if not they would have been sued in the time honoured tradition of the USA. Here you can do almost nothing to them. It really illustrates the virtue of private health care against Socialised medicine where they really don’t care because they get paid anyway.

        1. Only through my ex husband’s work. It wasn’t full coverage and there was a hefty deductible.

        2. When we lived in the USA I passed blood in urine and my wife rushed me to a walk-in clinic.
          They gave me a number of business cards of Urologists. Our neighbours recommended one and we saw him two days later.
          He examined me and diagnosed bladder cancer. Three days later I was in surgery and he was confident he had got it all. That was in 1998.
          I had insurance. What a difference it makes when you pay directly rather than to a useless outfit like the NHS.
          I know that they do good in a few areas.

      3. And as I’ve said before, it’s not “Our” NHS, it’s “Theirs”, the upper echelon REMFs & entrenched vested interests.

  75. Watch channel four news.
    You will become so hot and cross that you will be able to turn down your heating.

    Today’s helpful, money saving contribution to Nottlers brought to you by sosraboc’s home economy channel…

  76. Have not seen anything from True-Belle lately, has anyone heard how she is doing?

      1. Thanks for the update. Hope she feels able to rejoin us here soon, I miss reading her comments.

  77. Lewis Hamilton admits he’s ‘struggling mentally’ and admits it is a ‘constant effort to keep going’

    Aah, bless.
    Funny that this has come now that his car isn’t as fast as his friends’…

    1. Ah, but it could well be.
      George Russell, their so called number two driver, came fifth in a Merc.

    2. “Constant effort to keep going…” He should try living like the ordinary folk in the UK and those of us who are trying to cope with the insane behaviour of the so-called NHS.

      1. If he truly is suffering from a mental illness and wants to walk away from his job he should reflect on how fortunate he is that he can do that and still live in luxury. Most people have to soldier on.

        2. Or some of us who had to give up work because of stress had to manage on a fraction of what we were earning.

    4. Good grief. If I had his wealth I would be worry less.

      His engineers will soon sort out his car as they are the best financed team of the top three. It all about money and investment in technology.

      The F1 rules have been changed and geared to adult if go kart racing theme but at very high speeds. I predict Max Verstappen will likely kill himself and one or more others under this new template with his aggressive driving.

      Actual racing at speeds in excess of 200mph has little correspondence with privileged infants go karting. This is now compared with the same privileged lot of superannuated jumped up infants in very fast cars.

    6. Eight important Mercedes engineers have defected to Red bull. Now you know why his car isn’t so fast. Money, money, money!

    1. I’m pretty sure that our judiciary are leaning to the lenient side in their sentencing.

      1. Ours may be dreadful but :

        In United States v. Hawkins, the defendant possessed and distributed multiple images of child abuse of kids, including photos of prepubescent boys engaging in oral and anal sex, a video of an 8-year-old boy masturbating, and one of an 11-year-old boy being anally penetrated by an adult man.
        The federal sentencing guidelines recommended eight to 10 years. Judge Jackson sentenced the defendant to three months.

  79. Next time some idiot politician can’t answer “what is a woman”, perhaps the journalist might ask:

    “If you can’t tell us that, please tell us what a penis is?. Oh, and by the way, we know you’re a dick”

  80. In the future when they look back at the 2020’s, the decade that became synonymous with males transitioning into females to get ahead in sport, will it be labelled the Dickensian era?

  81. Latest Breaking News – Labour pledge to cut energy bills by £600, they are going to turn off the supply for one day every three months

  83. Well, I have just emailed Stumpy Steyn. He won’t read it but if you hear an email from someone saying that they could identify as a penguin…..

    1. It is time for these panic mongers to be locked up. I don’t care what happens to them after that. Sorry, i am out of patience.

  86. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10671779/Ukraine-holds-military-Oscars-seven-best-video-moments-war.html

    This is sick beyond belief, but it suggests to me that those in power in the Ukraine:
    1 Don’t give a shit that they are at war, nor how badly their citizens are hurt
    2 They are losing. Because they are posting crap like this.
    3 They clearly think the whole thing is some kind of joke.

    So: (or if you prefer, thus):
    What is really going on here?
    Who benefits from this war?
    Why hasn’t it stopped?

    EU/NATO/USA and those international lapdogs who bite as instructed, the UK (shame on us)

    1. I remember the videos that were being shown during Gulf War I.
      People being killed and yet it was being shown as if it was some sort of entertainment game.
      Macabre voyeurism for the entertainment of the great unwashed, with no thought for the families of both sides whose loved ones were involved.

  87. A run to Mansfield today so the repair shop used by Direct Line Insurers could assess the damage to the van.
    It’s actually a bit worse than I realised because, as well as hitting the bumper, riding up over it and hitting the doors, the Transit that struck me also bulged the rear floor up by a ¼” which will need pulling and beating out.

    A very cold day with frequent snow flurries interspersed with beautiful sunshine!
    Decided to schlep over to Sutton in Ashfield & have a look round the shops.
    Found the rather delightful indoor market with a pair of excellent butchers, so stocked up on pies & pork chops!
    Also three VERY nice sausage rolls that I put into the Rayburn when i got home and served up with baked potatoes & salad.

    1. You’re such a busy person you make my head spin! Sorry that the damage to your van is worse than you thought.
      We had strong and cold wind here, clouds and bright sun but no snow- thank goodness. It is still cold though.
      I made beef stew for dinner and I had Yorkie puds with mine- the world’s most perfect food. Nothing like a beef stew on a cold day.

      1. I’m looking forward to the weather warming up and slinging my camping gear in the back of the van so I can bugger off for a week or so!
        The only problem with that is that i need the rear doors, jammed since the collision, to open!

  88. We live in a society of haves and have nots. It was ever thus. The Enclosure Acts which stole common and common agricultural lands from the populace and allowed land owners to fence off the vast areas and claim title to them was the start of the fraud.

    Since those distant days we are regularly subjected to the abuses of the upper classes inflicted on the rest of us. We are in their terms the ‘have nots’ and the less we have, the happier they will be.

    We are presently their ‘lab rats’ and they wish to dispose of us with their lethal injections. Anyone failing to grasp this reality is deserving of a kick in the arse.

    I am afraid that there is little chance of re-educating the foolish masses. Years of dependence on government (taxpayer) handouts have left the recipients in a moronic state. It was all deliberate government policy. We are in a parlous state and those of us retaining a few brain cells must needs rebel against the tyranny of government.

    1. Yes its very disapointing how they took these jabs without question.We resisted for over 2 years and have been proved right to do so. The many are still wearing masks and believe everything they are told by the government..

      1. I remain mystified that anyone would take the advice of SAGE, a bunch of ill fitting suits, declaredly backed up by Susan Michie and other Marxist fools, with the appearance of convicts from some penitentiary (I am being charitable), and the demeanour of Mengele.

        The poor folk deluded into taking the Covid jabs simply took a chance as on the lottery, except that in this instance the stake in the lottery was their very own lives.

        Whether the recipients of the jabs survive will depend largely upon the dose or doses they received of the killer poison. It is now understood that not every dose was potentially lethal, that some batches were less effective than others. In addition the drug companies appear to have colluded in a sort of ‘mix and match’ whereby they consorted to release the more toxic ‘vaccines’ in a supposedly random order, presumably to further attempt to mask the toxicity of designed batches.

        We are now confronting evil at its core. I have no trust whatever in our government or its health advisors. All are utterly corrupt and should be held liable for their obvious crimes.

        1. The Gov propaganda on CV was fed to the unwashed on Facebook. Now there are MoD briefings by ernest Generals and Air Marshals to ensure the yoof are onside. FB can not possibly be wrong, of course.

      2. I remain mystified that anyone would take the advice of SAGE, a bunch of ill fitting suits, declaredly backed up by Susan Michie and other Marxist fools, with the appearance of convicts from some penitentiary (I am being charitable), and the demeanour of Mengele.

        The poor folk deluded into taking the Covid jabs simply took a chance as on the lottery, except that in this instance the stake in the lottery was their very own lives.

        Whether the recipients of the jabs survive will depend largely upon the dose or doses they received of the killer poison. It is now understood that not every dose was potentially lethal, that some batches were less effective than others. In addition the drug companies appear to have colluded in a sort of ‘mix and match’ whereby they consorted to release the more toxic ‘vaccines’ in a supposedly random order, presumably to further attempt to mask the toxicity of designed batches.

        We are now confronting evil at its core. I have no trust whatever in our government or its health advisors. All are utterly corrupt and should be held liable for their obvious crimes.

      3. I remain mystified that anyone would take the advice of SAGE, a bunch of ill fitting suits, declaredly backed up by Susan Michie and other Marxist fools, with the appearance of convicts from some penitentiary (I am being charitable), and the demeanour of Mengele.

        The poor folk deluded into taking the Covid jabs simply took a chance as on the lottery, except that in this instance the stake in the lottery was their very own lives.

        Whether the recipients of the jabs survive will depend largely upon the dose or doses they received of the killer poison. It is now understood that not every dose was potentially lethal, that some batches were less effective than others. In addition the drug companies appear to have colluded in a sort of ‘mix and match’ whereby they consorted to release the more toxic ‘vaccines’ in a supposedly random order, presumably to further attempt to mask the toxicity of designed batches.

        We are now confronting evil at its core. I have no trust whatever in our government or its health advisors. All are utterly corrupt and should be held liable for their obvious crimes.

    3. I am afraid that a new enclosure is coming, and they will find some way of depriving the peasantry of land again.

  89. Especially for Grizz & Paul. Beer:

    From John Ward:

    “Most brewers have at least one very strong beer in their output. Many years ago while still in the advertising business, I pitched for an 8% beer and – trying to sound tuned-in to the beerage class – asked the marketing director, “What role does this product fulfil in your portfolio?”
    His reply was a classic of wit:”

    “I couldn’t define for you its role in our portfolio, but I certainly can give you a very clear consumer role….it’s a major leap forward on the way to meths, and its job is to dull the pain of rising pavements”.

      3. I was doing my BSc at Sheffield Hallam when Wards was shut down and used to cycle past the brewery quite often from where I’d parked my old Transit van.

        1. Have they been taken over by a bigger brewery and had its operation moved? Or have they just disappeared? Waaahd’s was a decent drop; much better that that Stones’ Cannon Brewery muck!

          1. They were taken over by Vaux of Sunderland in the ’70s and then in 1999 Vaux themselves got taken over by a group of asset stripping financiers who only wanted the tied estate and closed down the two thriving and very popular breweries.

            The Wards name has been resurrected by a groups called Double Maxim which was a Vaux beer.

          3. Disappeared. The Brewery has, by & large, been replaced by blocks of flats.

      4. You Northerners ! You don’t even pronounce your ‘r’s even when there is one in the word. :@)

        1. It is a septentrional skill that those from austral regions can only wonder about.

  90. Meter readings – if you didn’t already know…

    E.On – “If you’re having trouble logging in to your account, don’t worry, you have until 9 April to give us your meter readings online for 31 March.”

    British Gas – “If you can’t do it today, don’t worry. You’ll still be able to send us your readings for 31st March over the next few days – and we’ll use them to make sure your bill is accurate.”

  91. I stand before you all tonight, the Iron Lady of the Western World….oh hang on wrong speech;-)
    Thanks tonight to Craggers for some great conversation about actors/actresses and shows.
    Thanks also to Mola who understands my sense of humour all too scarily well.
    Your support and conversation is well appreciated these days- long may it continue.
    Goodnight Y’all and may flights of angels wing thee to thy sleepy rest.

        1. Yes, I did pick up on that.
          I had toyed with the idea of loading my camping gear into the van but the rear end shunt last week and the change in weather knocked that idea on the head.

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