Thursday 5 September: Labour has shamefully caved in to its misguided anti-Israel wing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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520 thoughts on “Thursday 5 September: Labour has shamefully caved in to its misguided anti-Israel wing”

    1. 392524+ up ticks.

      O2O,

      I could be wrong but are we not electing governing political bodies that are shipping in en masse foreign assassins.

        1. Nah, when that happens they’ll blame Elon for allowing Far Right Hate Crime to drive the poor innocent refugee to desperation.

          1. Indeed Sue. Even after the brutal murder of David Amess, they blamed “on line hate”. Anything rather than state the truth.

        2. 392524+ up ticks,

          Morning O,

          I do believe you have given away the only plausible,credible, sorrowful end game, as always
          ” someone must die” before truth is realised.

          The sides are now clearly defined,
          actions WILL eventually be taken
          by peoples mass justified opposition.

    2. BTL Comment on the Telegraph article:-

      So what pressures were put onto Rachael Griffin to force her to this decision? It stinks.
      Ironic really.
      It was Two-Tier and his ilk that were responsible for allowing the in va ders to falsely claim to be minors without being examined because it was against their "Yuman Rites".
      You really could not make it up.

      It seems the DT Bots do not like the word "invaders".

  8. BBC Radio 4 has just interviewed a man who has gathered one thousand nine hundred and eighty four copies of the (in)famous novel – 1984 by George Orwell. You could hear them sneering in the background, "That's nothing, the BBC employs 21,000 people worldwide and almost every one of them has a copy". The only difference is that they have been re-labelled 'Guidance for the use of employees – deviation from the regulations will not be tolerated'.
    How proud they are of Mr Orwell – he used to work for them.

  9. Morning, all Y'all.
    After yesterday's torrential rain, all the wet in the sky is on the ground, and the sunshine is beautiful! Warm (in a Norwegian context) too: 15C!

  11. Wordle 1,174 5/6

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    barely made it, but at least not another crash n burn…..

  12. Not bad:
    Wordle 1,174 4/6

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  13. ISTR that the allegedly-conservative government had plans to regulate Association Football (widely known as soccer when I were a lad). Did anything come of this? I'm sure 2TK would approve.

      1. It was a Wednesday, so I looked after my daughter's dogs. If it wasn't for that, I'd lose track of the days.

    2. Two quotes from the article – "In the moments before the assault, Troake, who works in childcare services" – "Her 18-month prison sentence was suspended for two years, and she was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,000 in compensation to Miss Calveley." Seems astonishingly lenient to both me and the victim!

    3. Two quotes from the article – "In the moments before the assault, Troake, who works in childcare services" – "Her 18-month prison sentence was suspended for two years, and she was ordered to complete 100 hours of unpaid work and pay £1,000 in compensation to Miss Calveley." Seems astonishingly lenient to both me and the victim!

    5. As usual i don't agree with the sentencing. Being drunk is no excuse. A stiff punishment is a message to others to behave properly.

  15. Ref yesterday's DT article by Allison Pearson on the subject of arms export licences, she says she will apologise to Israelis she meets. That was my initial thought, but then it occurred to me that I cannot apologise for the shameful actions of the UK Government, as I neither elected them nor work for them. I can say that, in that action, they do not represent me, my shame over the country of my birth is boundless, and that my support for Israel is increased.
    That article was hard reading. I don't want to read more in the same vein, not because I ignore them, but because there's nothing so awful to write about.

    1. It's foreign investment that pays for our chronic trade deficit. This is not, IMHO, a satisfactory state of affairs, but it is when it is.

  18. Labour eager for progress on special tribunal to try Russia over Ukraine. 5 September 2024.

    The new Labour government wants to inject renewed energy into the two-year-long international effort to set up a special tribunal with the authority to try Russia’s leadership for the crime of aggression, the lord chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, has said.

    Are we going to have a Special Tribunal for Iraq or Libya or Syria? What about war crimes trials for Blair and Cameron? These two men have caused the deaths of more innocents than Vlad could dream of.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/05/labour-eager-for-progress-on-special-tribunal-to-try-russia-over-ukraine

        1. They’re both a pain. Having our (vegetarian) son and his family to stay is like having a complete parallel universe in the kitchen. Special milk, dodgy cheese, all sorts of crap which they bring with them.

          1. I do hope you make them prepare it and eat it in their room.

            I'm quite happy to knock up a veggie lasagna. But all the other dietary tweaks are tiresome. I don't believe i would even bother to entertain a Vegan. Hosting is about giving people a shared experience.

          2. The only vegetarian in our family is my second (current) sister-in-law.
            She doesn't make a thing about it, so I'm quite happy to adapt the menu for her.
            Strictly speaking, she is a pescatarian as she will eat fish.

  21. Good morning all.
    Overcast, dull and bit damp after overnight rain with 9°C on the Yard Thermometer.

    Having passed some exams, it seems Dr. Daughter's apparently entitled to wear a different academic hat now and her "Capping Ceremony" is in London tomorrow, so I'm being dragged down to the Great Wen for a couple of nights this morning.

    I notice Two-Tier is grandstanding:-
    https://x.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1831590206589358323

      1. As the woodmen have just arrived to tackle the clump of 8 or so ash trunks above the yard that have died/are dying off, I'd sooner stay at home.
        Also, I'm going to miss the Turnditch & Windley Show on Saturday.

        1. "Turnditch & Windley" – describes perfectly the state of my guts after a strong curry, Bob!
          Congratulations to your daughter! Proper job!

    2. Morning Bob, another cloudless start, it'll be hot later when I continue yesterdays coppicing

          1. Ha! I’m landscaping today! Removing some lawn so Alan doesn’t chop the new plants with the lawnmower!🙄😘

  22. Is Rayner a hypocrite, or does she take the world as she finds it, not as she might wish it to be? What do you do?

  23. Morning folks…..

    ""On Sept. 3, the armed forces of the Russian Federation launched a precision strike on the 179th joint training center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Poltava," the Russian Defense Ministry statement began.

    It said at the institute was "under the guidance of foreign instructors" and so they were targeted for elimination.
    Ukraine's defense ministry had confirmed that at the time of the large-scale daytime Iskander missile attack classes and teaching was underway at the military academy. Ukrainian MP Oleksiy Goncharenko described that the cadets merely allowed a 2-minute warning by air defense sirens

    The Russian MoD statement further described that "specialists in communications and electronic warfare were trained from all parts and military units of the Ukrainian armed forces, as well as operators of unmanned aerial vehicles involved in strikes on civilian objects on the territory of the Russian Federation."
    Russia has for weeks been getting pummeled by Ukrainian cross-border drones strikes, which have especially impacted oil and gas facilities.
    So in an unprecedented escalation, Russia's military is saying the deadly strike on the military academy was fundamentally to take out foreign instructors from the West who allegedly were involved in guiding drone operations on Russian soil.

    Russian state media is going so far as to call the academy located in Poltava a "NATO instructor base"…

    BTL Comments are speculating about the possibility of a Nato helicopter coming down in some remote corner of the world in the next week or two with no survivors ……

  25. Spiteful Labour are ruining my last years
    Liz Hodgkinson : https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/democracy-in-decay-spiteful-labour-are-ruining-my-last-years/

    IF only more Conservative voters had realised that the Conservative Party is dead – it is the PAST and that the Reform Party is young and is, perhaps, the FUTURE – we might now have a decent Opposition.

    But even though Reality has become too dire to face we must not believe in IF any more
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-2einPmd4

    1. Watching their voting ritual tells me they have learnt absolutely nothing. I wish some of them had an iota of self reflection, but there is nothing, just more of the same. It's pathetic.

  26. Belated Good Morning, chums. Thank you, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe page. And I really struggled (and failed) with today's Wordle. More on this tomorrow. And now I'm off to London with my trusty umbrella.

    Wordle 1,174 X/6

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      1. If I had lived in Frank Fielding's or Kate Hoey's constituencies, I would have voted for them.
        Proper, honest Labour.

    2. "On behalf of the British state: I am deeply sorry." Now bugger off I have bigger fish to fry.

  28. Good morning all , dark morning and a tropical drizzle outside , patio door open , 13c, but not cold , it feels warm .

    Okay the news is grim , so I will present to you all this little gem . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdd7nj3ey14o

    A museum is hosting a special private viewing for naturists.

    Visitors to Dorset Museum will be able to wander through its galleries naked at the evening event on 17 September.

    The ticket price includes a glass of wine, changing facilities and a locker for clothes, according to organiser British Naturism.

    The organisation said it was "an amazing opportunity to enjoy a private viewing of the museum – naked".

    Dorset Museum and Art Gallery in Dorchester's High East Street reopened in 2021 after a £16.4m revamp lasting more than two years.

    Collections include the story of palaeontologist Mary Anning, the archive of novelist Thomas Hardy and works by sculptor Elisabeth Frink, along with 250 million years of natural history.

    In January the museum said Covid-19, the cost of living crisis, Brexit and the war in Ukraine had impacted visitor growth while costs had also risen.

      1. Good morning Lacoste ,

        Hilarious , isn't it .. and I expect there will be many old naked bones meeting and greeting naked old fossils ..

        Oh to be a fly on the wall, or the ancient crocodile.. 😉😊

        1. In that county museum in Dorset
          Each person must loosen his corset
          For on the agenda
          Is senile pudenda
          (But I'm not sure that I should endorse it!)

    3. Looking in the mirror reminds me before I enter the shower that the naked truth is best ignored or forgotten!

    4. No problems with that. I seem to recall a swimming pool in East London 3 or so decades ago had "costumes optional" sessions!

    8. I doubt very much Brexit had any impact. We're still waiting for it. Were there a lot of Ukie visitors before it kicked off in Kiev – sorry, Kiyiv – then? The government is responsible for the rest (lockdown and hiking the prices). They should get the main blame.

  29. Wordle before going out.

    Wordle 1,174 3/6

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    1. Wordle 1,174 5/6

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      Well done molamola. Mine a miserable 5!

      1. Better than my effort.
        Wordle 1,174 6/6

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      1. I blanked, Belle, couldn't believe it. Walked 2 miles to a granite boulder cliff and descended to a ridge down to close-in deep water for the last hour of the flood tide. Tried all depths with a variety of tried and trusted lures with not a fish to be had.

  31. A stolen BTL and I agree with every word

    A view of an England lost, from an American.

    "I cannot help but mourn for England. I grew up immersed in English literature, a child enchanted by the spirit of a nation that once stood as a beacon of tradition and faith. I was, in my heart, an Anglophile, captivated by the grandeur and grace of England's storied past.

    As an adult, I wept upon landing at Heathrow Airport. Gazing out at the English countryside, a landscape immortalized in the words of poets and the brushstrokes of painters, I thought of England's flag, the St. George's Cross. Yet, it pained me to realize that this symbol, once a proud emblem of a noble nation, is no longer flown in London. It is deemed insufficiently inclusive, not diverse enough to represent the city that was once the heart of England.

    This sorrow is not merely for a flag, but for a nation that has lost its sense of identity, its national pride eroded as traditionalism has withered. The large, God-fearing families that once formed the backbone of English society have dwindled, leaving behind a hollow echo of what once was.

    Farewell, England, land of my ancestors, my motherland. Farewell to thee, fair lady, whose crimson stripes no longer flutter in the breeze, whose chants of victory have faded into the shadows of history. The rallied troops that once marched for honor and righteousness have fallen, and there are no more valiant men to take up the cause. This is the end, old friend, my motherland that was once pure and bright, now dimmed and distant in the twilight of memory. ~Joel Tenney"

  32. A stolen BTL and I agree with every word

    A view of an England lost, from an American.

    "I cannot help but mourn for England. I grew up immersed in English literature, a child enchanted by the spirit of a nation that once stood as a beacon of tradition and faith. I was, in my heart, an Anglophile, captivated by the grandeur and grace of England's storied past.

    As an adult, I wept upon landing at Heathrow Airport. Gazing out at the English countryside, a landscape immortalized in the words of poets and the brushstrokes of painters, I thought of England's flag, the St. George's Cross. Yet, it pained me to realize that this symbol, once a proud emblem of a noble nation, is no longer flown in London. It is deemed insufficiently inclusive, not diverse enough to represent the city that was once the heart of England.

    This sorrow is not merely for a flag, but for a nation that has lost its sense of identity, its national pride eroded as traditionalism has withered. The large, God-fearing families that once formed the backbone of English society have dwindled, leaving behind a hollow echo of what once was.

    Farewell, England, land of my ancestors, my motherland. Farewell to thee, fair lady, whose crimson stripes no longer flutter in the breeze, whose chants of victory have faded into the shadows of history. The rallied troops that once marched for honor and righteousness have fallen, and there are no more valiant men to take up the cause. This is the end, old friend, my motherland that was once pure and bright, now dimmed and distant in the twilight of memory. ~Joel Tenney"

    1. I am afraid I have to agree with him.
      Our country has been wrecked by a series of useless governments.

  33. Good Morning to all, trust everyone is happy or an approximation thereof. Todays weather in West Sussex is rain, continuous until Friday at 1 am.
    But, extra special, at 1 pm today, light rain, before returning to rain at 2 pm. The cat is sitting inside the front porch contemplating the weather, what to do, what to do. As always his dilemma will be resolved by visiting me for treats and then a nap.

    Meanwhile. Thought I would post this. Worth paying attention to because of the extremists now in government intending to introduce blasphemy laws in order to protect Islam. Should be the other way round, laws to protect us, those who do not follow Islam. But ignorance will always triumph in the short term, at least. I see ahead many lawsuits which will end up destroying this attempt to shut us up because it is a law that is factually untenable, against which there is a mountain of evidence from history, contemporary events. and speech out of the mouths of Islamists themselves, that will undercut this law. But in the mean time much damage to innocent people will be done by a government that seems to be inclined to persecute anything it doesn't like. How low will they bring this country in its hatred of the people and our traditions? I have the feeling we haven't seen anything yet.

    WHAT YOU CAN'T SAY ANYMORE: THE NEW ISLAMOPHOBIA DEFINITION
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgXJPrR7u_g

    2. For now, the Muslim Party of Great Britain is relatively small. That may change in the not too distant.

      1. We should just pass a law that says
        lotsa
        When Saudi Arabia have Christians in their Civil Service, Parliament, Police, Town councils etc,
        and allow A Chrristian Party of Saudi Arabia, then we should consider there needs

        I forgot, also laws used in our Courts of Justice

        1. MBS likely to keep a lid on SA for the foreseeable. Iran quite the unknown at present. I suspect they’ll keep the pressure up on Israel through their proxies until they get the deal they seek with America.

  34. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not cold but misty and Murky.
    Typically the labour party have been taking too much notice of their own faaaar left who dwell amongst them and have not registered their minds on the facts of life.
    One being that what ever they think, they are civil servants and should heed the fact that they are not a dictatorship and should seriously listen to public opinion as all public servants should.
    So far they have come across as viciously vindictive and almost brutal in their blatantly obvious somewhat personal dislikes.
    it's not their duty to show what they like or disagree with in world affairs, it's their duty to govern our country. For all, not just their preferences. A dictatorship cannot be established with only 20% of 'public' support.
    It's got to stop.

    1. "A dictatorship cannot be established with only 20% of 'public' support." Sadly it appears that it can. Especially when a significant proportion of the remaining 80% either don't vote or vote for more-of-the-same.

      Dumbing-down the population has been a success, as far as our disgusting governments of the past few decades are concerned.

    2. She has had three children?

      A I used to mean ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION – the meaning has changed but I doubt that any man with either real or Artificial Intelligence would have wanted to inseminate her!

  36. Tower blocks, what is the percentage of migrants accommodated in them .

    If we hadn't millions of migrants , many with language difficulties, there would be no need for Tower blocks , or am I being naive .

    How many flats were sublet and overcrowded?

    The enquiry has cost millions , surely that money could have been used to build proper homes .

    Moh and I were discussing .. the influx of boat people trying to get to Britain have relatives here , so the more people arrive here , then they become relatives of those who want to get to the UK.

    1. I remember reading about some houses in Harrow found with more than twenty people living in them.
      It will be same all over the country. 7

    2. I believe that the BBC's obsession with Grenfell is based on the fact that 95% of the victims were immigrants or of foreign extraction, it has been mentioned more than forty times this morning alone . . . or is it just a coincidence?

      Why? Just what is the cause of this hatred for Britain and its former status as a world leader and liberator of the oppressed? Millions of Brits have died across the globe in an effort to free nations from hunger, squalor and national dictatorship, not to mention the suppression of the slave trade. A lot of it was in the pursuit of trade but at the heart there was always Christian compassion and the ethos of the Magna Carta. The people of this nation deserve better than this.

    3. It was interesting to note the names of those poor souls lost in the Grenfell Tower conflagration. Almost all were immigrants.

      Many years ago I worked with the architects Darbourne & Darke which practice specialised in low rise high density housing. Lillington Gardens in Pimlico was their first major scheme. Those buildings are now Listed Grade II and very popular.

      My scheme was Queen’s Road in Richmond on Thames adjacent to Richmond Park.

      In both schemes we proved that low rise high density designs could be more effective in land use than high rise. The myth put about by Le Corbusier and his ilk was that towers were visionary (the future) and took up less space whereas the reality was that towers need space between them, more space than low rise carefully planned developments.

      Our philosophy was that everyone should have their own front door accessible from the street. So we developed cross-over sections to enable this. Maisonettes would typically be 2 person over 3 person configurations. Houses would be 4 or 5 person units.

      1. The problem with tower blocks, in my experience (Essex campus), is the wind shear between the blocks. Coming out of one and trying to get to the next could sometimes mean being almost blown off one's feet by the force of the wind.

        1. Precisely. All tall buildings generate eddies where on approach to the building one moment the wind is behind you but as you get nearer the wind has hit the building and bounced off downwards creating a vortex and causing you to be pushed backwards. Should it be both windy and raining say goodbye to your umbrella.

          The combined effects of such effects when more than a single tall building is involved can be most disconcerting.

          The other problem with very tall buildings is that they necessarily sway in the wind. All manner of methods have to be employed to limit this movement and keep it within the bounds of human comfort.

  37. If Behailu Kebede put fridge-freezers with faulty electrical connections into both No 10 and Number 11 Downing Street and clad the buildings in the same cladding used in Grenfell Tower what would be the outcome?

    4. No mention yet regarding the resident of number 16 floor 6 and his assumed insurance claim for the terrible accident in his flat.
      I wonder if he he made a claim ?

    1. Eventually it will be less expensive to the stores to metal tag every item and pass through security exit gates, than bear the cost of thefts. It will be shoppers bear additional costs.

    2. I know Lush isn't cheap, but how the hell did she manage to nick £2,000 worth in one day?
      P.s. the smell in their shops gives me a head ache.

    3. Covered in black cloth as her friend's and family would be, why would she even need cosmetics ?

      1. 392524+ up ticks,

        Morning RE,
        Tis not the commodity that counts
        she is doing her bit towards the war effort, and we are at war.

        Disable the host nations infrastructure whilst draining their welfare system.

  39. I was thinking about likelihood of mental health problems affecting chromosomes, Sue. Possibly around 100%.

    1. She admitted to having mental ‘elf ishoos during lockdown! What can you say? A delicate little flower, who dropped out of Medicine degree at Aberdeen, and ends up as an SNP nutter!

      2. Surely even the basic exams required to get onto a Medicine degree would have taught her about chromosomes? If she really is that thick how the heck did she get into university – or is thickness now a protected characteristic too?

      3. Surely even the basic exams required to get onto a Medicine degree would have taught her about chromosomes? If she really is that thick how the heck did she get into university – or is thickness now a protected characteristic too?

  41. Having read the latest articles on TCW I'm now thoroughly depressed.

    The GP surgery just sent a text urging me to book an RSV jab appointment. No thanks!

    it's grey and miserable outside.
    OH is about to defrost the fridge.

    1. I think we all feel downbeat.
      Most on this forum have experienced previous Labour governments, so we knew what to expect.
      It's the sheer awfulness – the malignant spite and the loathing of this country and most of its inhabitants – displayed so early on that has taken us by surprise.
      On the plus side, our ex-sister-in-law with whom we have always remained friends is rocking up today with a load of crabapples. In exchange, we are giving her and Sonny Boy Snr lunch.

      1. Perhaps I'm an incurable optimist but I don't feel downbeat in the least. Each day is an adventure. There is always something new to learn or to discover and there is always opportunity for humor and play. I feel that I am fortunate, there are people far worse of than me, in dreadful situations of pain, physical and mental. Contemplating my situation I think God and can be nothing other than happy.

        1. I suspect it's more that I'm seriously worried about my grandchildren's future.
          They don't appear to have the hope and freedom that we had.

          1. I find it difficult to believe that England will fall. It will if people keep voting Labour or Conservative so we should all be concentrating on alternatives. At the moment the alternative is Reform, we shall see what else comes along and, as long as you can, educate your grandchildren in the truth. At worst encourage them to leave the country if you feel it is coming to that.

            But remember, England has been down many times in history, the Vikings and the Danelaw, Hereward the Wake when England was reduced to a patch in the Fens. The two years that we stood alone against the Nazi's. We have been here for 2000 years, there is no reason to suppose we will not be here for another 2000. But, that we shall disappear, is guaranteed if we do nothing. Islam may be a threat, but it isn't the majority of Muslims, it is a minority and that minority hold sway by fear. And, I can assure you that the greatest fear is within the Islamic community itself. Somehow we have to pull apart, isolate the radicals and neuter them. There is plenty we can do in that regard but we must have a government that is willing to act and take steps against the extremists. It is, for example, amazing to me, that there are known radical preachers in England that spew their hatred every Friday in the mosques. But our government fails to act. Each time a preacher is caught teaching extremism, he should be on the next plane out of here.

        2. I'm not naturally gloomy and I'm grateful for my good health and circumstances but I do tend to react to miserable weather and news.

          2. Thankyou! That’s very sweet of you!
            I’ll be in your hemisphere in a couple of weeks – 10 days in the Pantonal. Hopefully to see jaguars and other wildlife.

          3. I sooooo hope you see jaguars – what magnificent beasts! Something I would love to experience, so I really look forward to hearing how you get on.

          4. Will let you know. We’ll be staying at the South Wild Flotel and South Wild Pantonal Lodge – so have a look at their website. They pretty much guarantee jaguar sightings but ther

      2. My sister in law cut us out of her life and hasn't been in communication since her son's wedding in 2008. He's OK- he and family visited us a few weeks ago.

    2. I was asked to go for both flu and covid, I ignored 'em, requests seemed to stop at 10. Buy a self-defrosting one, next purchase?:-)

        1. Depending on your age, possibly Ndovu. Few years ago, him indoors figured out the number of large electrical appliances and got them insured, it’s a scheme where they offer a few alternative replacements rather than payout in event of breakdown beyond repair. He seems to think it’s OK, and that’s a rarity.

    3. I had one of those texts, too. It gave a link (my mobile can't cope wyith texts) if you want to refuse or have already had one. I'll have to type it all in to the laptop in order to decline.

      1. I wasn’t going to bother replying. They’ve sent a link to book the jab which expires in seven days. I’ll just let it expire.

  42. Good Moaning.
    I know September heralds the arrival of Autumn and the Winter, but for light, temperature and just the softness of the air, it takes some beating.

        1. We counted 9 bees on one of the remaining sunflowers this morning! It really lifts the mood and we have to take these small pleasures where we can!

          1. 9! That's impressive, Sue – did you know what they were, only seen a couple of buff-tails this year. No honey bees. Wasp numbers right down, usually have to get rid of a nest in a gutter – they drip a lot when they reach a certain size. Bat numbers quite high, they're nesting behind chimney stack tho…natural world always a pleasure 🙂

          4. Checking pictures I’m going for bumble bees and a couple of honey bees. We have buddleia, broom and fruit trees, plus fuchsias!
            Ooh! And lavender and catmint!

          5. We have all those, also have a mad pruner. Gonna hide the shears…..Fruit trees, large numbers of apples this year, especially red varieties. Have to catch up now, Sue…hope to see you this aft…Kate x

          6. There was a beautiful dragonfly flitting about the garden this afternoon, unfortunately it didn't land anywhere or I'd have tried to get a picture 😘

          7. What I have noticed, Sue (another positive) is that our lavender bushes which are always loud with bees are now loud with honeybees as well as the gorgeous bumbles.

        2. We watched a squirrel primping along our garden wall.
          It buried a walnut in the newly turned soil. Not doubt it will forget and we'll have to root out another treelette in the spring.

          1. Was it a grey, anne? We usually have quite a number, only seen one this year and it was quite small – also did an odd movement, tapping lightly the tops of grasses and listening to that. Perhaps they have a virus – similar to the one they gave the reds? Walnut treelette sounds good – have you ever raised one to maturity – any walnuts?! :-))

          2. We only have grey squirrels round here.
            There are several gardens round our way with walnut trees which explains them popping up like weeds.
            I have to admit we just zap them.

          3. We used to have reds, rumour was the greys gave them a virus. Do you get a good crop from your walnut tree? 🙂

          4. I have a walnut treelet that was planted by a squirrel. I have it now in a pot so I can move it around and put it where I want. It's too young at the moment to have nuts.

    2. I won't pretend there isn't a degree of trepidation over the weather changes. Last Winter for us was genuinely difficult physically and psychologically. If this Winter the house is liveable we're staying, but a lot is hanging on the heat pump.

      I don't think they're the future though. Last night wasn't cold – was 23'c. Yet when I came in I felt chilly. Just tapping the heat on for a tiny bit would add that little bit of comfort. With a heat pump you can't do that – 'tapping'' the heat on would cost £1.

    3. I'm the other way up so we're heading into spring now, and I LOVE it! For the first time in months it was sunny enough to sit outside in a park all yeaterday afternoon, scritching the ears of various friendly dogs whilst listening to a young man singing traditional Argentine songs. Lovely!

  43. Our new masters…

    Allister Heath
    4 September 2024 • 7:59pm
    Allister Heath

    1634
    Blower cartoon
    Credit: Patrick Blower

    It’s time to call out the greatest lie in British politics: the claim that the Left is more moral than the Right. This sanctimonious humbug goes to the heart of how the Labour Government sees itself, and drives its insufferable messiah complex. Self-styled “progressives” consider themselves to be better people: they “care”, they are compassionate, they are “kind”, they believe in social justice, trade union powers, anti-racism, altruism, “equity” and saving the planet – unlike the selfish, demagogic, reactionary, hateful, imperialistic, capitalist, corrupt barbarians on the Right.

    This ludicrous caricature is the product of a toxic psychological conceit. The truth is that Labour in 2024 is the new nasty party, obsessed with divide and rule. Far from occupying the moral high ground, it fights dirty. It specialises in pitting one group against another, in buying votes and paying off potential supporters, and is supremely skilled at dressing up political self-interest as virtue, hypocrisy as philosophy, and revenge as careful policy. It should engage in less virtue-signalling and more soul-searching. Its angry self-righteousness, constant slandering of the Tories as having “crashed the economy”, shamelessness in making up “noble lies” about fiscal “black holes”, the assumption that anybody who questions or disagrees must be evil, is backfiring, as Sir Keir Starmer’s plummeting popularity indicates.

    Labour’s peculiar tone, its mix of the hectoring and the triumphalist, derives in part from the fact it has abandoned its more benign traditions. It is no longer committed to its original mission of ameliorating the living conditions and opportunities of working people in Britain. Yes, it still wants to regulate companies more – which will reduce job-creation and productivity – but that is primarily displacement activity. It has become more interested in post-material concerns, in telling everybody how to live, in re-engineering society along environmental, woke and egalitarian lines.

    In the 1940s, it wanted the NHS to serve the people; today it sees the people as serving “our” NHS, hence proposed restrictions on smoking outdoors (a misguided policy on its own terms, as smokers generally die earlier). Labour once wanted the working class to own cars and travel on holiday abroad like the rich; Barbara Castle, the 1970s Left-wing firebrand, argued that “the private car has brought the boon of mobility to millions of people … that boon should be available to everyone”. Now Labour, by forcing a ban on new pure-petrol cars in just five and a half years, will price poorer drivers off the roads, at least until the cost of electric cars drops. How can it be right to prevent people from seeing friends or family?

    Ed Miliband is driving up energy prices, rushing through decarbonisation before technologies are ready, hurting the poor and middle classes for the sake of reductions in emissions that will barely make a dent to the global picture. At the same time, Labour now prefers technocracy to democracy, handing powers to quangos, such as the Office for Budget Responsibility, or lawyers, and is uncomfortable with traditional, old Labour varieties of patriotism. It venerates so-called international law, remains secretly devastated by Brexit and is heavily influenced by woke ideology. Its refusal even to pretend to tackle illegal immigration won’t do genuine refugees any favours. It is cowardice camouflaged as liberalism.

    When Robin Cook was foreign secretary, Labour boasted of its ethical foreign policy (until it was discredited by Iraq); today, it appears driven by an unprincipled fear of losing votes to Jeremy Corbyn’s alliance. Labour’s treatment of Israel is revolting.

    One day after six Israeli hostages were butchered by Hamas savages, David Lammy signalled that the terrorists’ tactics are working when he suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel. We continue to sell far more weapons to Qatar, protectors of Hamas; we continue to tolerate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Britain. Lammy’s disgraceful decision came on the 85th anniversary of the Tiger Hill scandal, an earlier British capitulation to terrorism, when the Royal Navy opened fire on Jewish refugees seeking to disembark off Tel Aviv.

    Labour’s other betrayals may not be as extreme, but they emphasise its nastiness. Angela Rayner is considering stopping people buying their council houses, despite having benefited from the policy herself. Pulling up the ladder is a Leftist trait; there is nothing moral about dashing working people’s dream of home ownership. The right to buy didn’t create the housing crisis. Britain still has a huge supply of social homes – only three European countries have a larger share of “sub-market” rental housing than we do, as noted by the Centre for Policy Studies. Our problem is that we have a much smaller overall housing stock per capita, exacerbated by very high levels of immigration.

    This Government seems to revel in preventing others from obtaining the advantages they themselves enjoyed. Keir Starmer received a bursary to fund his sixth-form studies at Reigate Grammar School when it became a fee-paying institution after he joined (itself the result of an earlier battle in Labour’s never-ending war against private education). Yet now he is punishing private-school parents, most of whom scrimp and save to pay fees out of post-tax income, with his despicable imposition of VAT and removal of business rates relief.

    His party is reducing opportunities for state school children, too. Ofsted single-word school judgments have been scrapped: this makes life easier for headteachers, and harder for parents. Labour doesn’t care about strivers, those seeking to better the lives of their families. It puts Left-wing ideology and the interest of the public sector first.

    I support the removal of pensioners’ winter fuel payments, a universal benefit that cannot be justified at a time of population ageing. But even then Labour’s motivations are vicious: the savings are being transferred to overpaid train drivers. Labour’s approach to pensioners is inspired by zero-sum generational warfare, tinged with Brexit revanchism, not principled anti-welfarism. The assumption is that young people want to hurt the old, even if they don’t themselves gain directly; there is no constructive attempt at building a more viable retirement system.

    Any move to impose a wealth tax would confirm Labour is primarily concerned with hurting those it doesn’t like, not helping those that need a hand-up. The politics of envy has never worked in Britain in the past, and it won’t succeed this time.

    1. There was an article on the daily sceptic about the different ways the Left and Right think. The Left are focussed on the result, regardless of who it helps or hinders because they believe the ideological goal is more important than the reality. To that end, when the annoying humans dissent they've no recourse to reason or explanation – they don't believe any is needed. Thus when the humans don't want what the ideology demands the Left wing view is 'tough, it is good because I know it's good.' They are, ultimately misanthropic.

      The Right minded works the other way around, looking for he individual to solve their own problems rather than imposing a system that may not suit.

      This is why Left and Right cannot operate together. The Left, seeing the Right leaving people alone can't do that. They have to meddle because they might want to help someone, but ultimately they'll put a lot of structures in place that don't help the individual but rather just help them do what they want to do.

      https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/04/things-are-going-to-get-ugly/

      1. There is a hybrid type. I know quite a few people who, in their own lives, operate as Right minded but who profess left wing ideology outside that context. For some, this is because they come from a left wing family background so are tribally Labour and they haven’t the insight to examine the contradictions in their behaviour. For others, it is entirely because they succumbed to the ‘nasty party’ groupthink.

    2. The first paragraph of this nails the mindset of many of the people who become Labour MPs. I’ve met quite a few in person and been very struck by how they take for granted that they are good people with pure motives while being completely blind to their own venality and to how patronising they are in their assumption that they know better than ‘little people’ . Mind you there has been the odd sanctimonious Tory as well, none more so than Theresa May.

      1. They like to label and pigeon hole people too. When you don’t perform quite how they expected they are quite put out.

  44. The title for today's Letter should have been 'Labour has shamefully caved in to its Imam-guided pro-Hamas wing'.

    Today at Free Speech we have an excellent piece by former fighter-pilot Iain Hunter, asking who would fight for King and Country today. We also have a new article by Paul Sutton on the nature of Truth, and another by Duke Maskell, written several years ago, on the decline of the Spectator under its present editor.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Thanks Tom, packed day ahead but will try to catch it. Have been saying similar for some time re Spectator editor, past time for change. Interesting DM wrote it several years ago 🙂

          1. Good. Leave a comment now and again so we know you’ve been. We really like your comments 🙂

          2. I’m looking now Tom, just for the few minutes I have with coffee…very pleased you are growing so well, comments are very interesting, I’ll be back!

  46. I went to a state school – but Labour’s war on the private sector is indefensible
    An ideological crusade to eliminate inequality by targeting schools can only harm, not help, the educational sector
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/05/i-went-to-a-state-school-labours-war-on-the-private-sector/

    I went to a boarding private school as did one of my sons – the other chose to go to a former state boarding grammar school. My two sisters both went to Sherborne Girls' School – between then they had ten children and they sent some of them to state schools (4) and the others to private schools (6).

    Of course I do not have any hatred towards those who went to state schools but it is very depressing that the intolerant left has so much spite and venom directed towards the independent sector. And I do not resent the success of my friends who have done well. I do not think I am envious, spiteful or jealous by nature!

    I thought that Cameron, Johnson and Blair were very poor prime ministers who went to Eton or Fettes just as Margaret Thatcher, our best PM in recent years, went to a state school. However to pour scorn on those who went to private schools is a nasty expression of inverted snobbery. Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray come from very different backgrounds but they have each come to rather similar political views!

    BTL from Robert Edwards

    "I'm simply a Rob (not a Tarquin or a Tabatha) and from the Welsh valleys. I went to a private school because my very hard working parents put all of their resources into it. The choice was that, or possibly the worst school in the country at that time. As a result, our holidays were spent in a 30 year old static caravan on a farm in North Wales. No foreign trips like the other kids on my street. Didn't have the money to go to theme parks. Never went to restaurants etc etc. And I can tell you something, I wouldn't change it for the world. I had the best childhood imaginable.

    As an adult, I have achieved things that were beyond my widest dreams back then, and I have gratitude everyday for the sacrifices my parents made.
    Just like the last Labour Government, they will absolutely destroy the UK. So very sad to see."

  47. I went to a state school – but Labour’s war on the private sector is indefensible
    An ideological crusade to eliminate inequality by targeting schools can only harm, not help, the educational sector
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/05/i-went-to-a-state-school-labours-war-on-the-private-sector/

    I went to a boarding private school as did one of my sons – the other chose to go to a former state boarding former grammar school. My two sisters both went to Sherborne Girls' School – between them they had ten children and they sent some of them to state schools (4) and the others to private schools (6).

    Of course I do not have any hatred towards those who went to state schools but it is very depressing that the intolerant left has so much spite and venom directed towards the independent sector. And I do not resent the success of my friends who have done well. I do not think I am envious, spiteful or jealous by nature!

    I thought that Cameron, Johnson and Blair were very poor prime ministers who went to Eton or Fettes just as Margaret Thatcher, our best PM in recent years, went to a state school. However to pour scorn on those who went to private schools is a nasty expression of inverted snobbery. Tommy Robinson and Douglas Murray come from very different backgrounds but they have each come to rather similar political views!

    BTL from Robert Edwards

    "I'm simply a Rob (not a Tarquin or a Tabatha) and from the Welsh valleys. I went to a private school because my very hard working parents put all of their resources into it. The choice was that, or possibly the worst school in the country at that time. As a result, our holidays were spent in a 30 year old static caravan on a farm in North Wales. No foreign trips like the other kids on my street. Didn't have the money to go to theme parks. Never went to restaurants etc etc. And I can tell you something, I wouldn't change it for the world. I had the best childhood imaginable.

    As an adult, I have achieved things that were beyond my widest dreams back then, and I have gratitude everyday for the sacrifices my parents made.
    Just like the last Labour Government, they will absolutely destroy the UK. So very sad to see."

    2. My objection to private schools is that they give an advantage in later lives over those who went to state schools. It is not simply the academic ability that they impart – state schools are probably just as good at doing that – but the extra-curricular activities that develop public speaking skills; the opportunities to travel that can be facilitated by visiting school friends who live in far-away places; the contacts, mentoring and offers that can come from mixing with influential families of school friends; and the self-confidence and expectations that can come from all this. If you think that this is not the case, please explain why a totally disproportionate number of the people at the top of almost all professions come from the private school sector?

      I am not an embittered left-winger and am to the right on most things but education and medicine are things where, to my mind, everyone should have an equal opportunity to benefit from. There’s probably nit much that can be done to discourage private medicine but private education is another thing.

      1. If people can have the choice then they must have the choice and it must not be taken away from them.

        Rob, the BTLiner in my post above , had parents who had the choice to spend what little money they had on making sure their son had a good education or to spend it on flashy holidays and trash. They chose Rob's education. Surely most of us want the very best for our children?

        1. The fact is that the vast majority of people do not have the choice – their net income is insufficient to pay for even one term’s school fees. Furthermore, the belly-aching that is coming from the private school sector is because a tax benefit is or might be withdrawn. That reflects a choice that we all made, for better or worse, at the General Election. Of course we all want the best for our children but the best for individuals has to be decided against the best for society.

          1. You’d need to show your working before you could persuade me that squeezing those who can only just afford it out of the independent school sector is doing the ‘best for society’.

          2. I don't think that dragging some people down (and that won't elevate the others) is in the best interests of society. Grammar schools were real engines for social mobility, as were the assisted places schemes. Both avenues for advancement were damaged or destroyed by Labour. They do not like people to be aspirational.

          3. I’m sad to say that the Conservative Party turned away from encouraging aspiration and self responsibility as they used to.

          5. As a Grammar School boy myself, I benefited greatly from that education but those that “failed” the 11plus were largely confined to a second-class education. The best of the Grammar Schools were at least as good as the average private schools (until I was 13, I went to one of the best) but the worst were abysmal. I went to one of these and, unless you were in the top one or two pupils and, preferably wanted to study Latin, Greek or something similar because that was the background of the Head and Deputy Head, you might as well forget about going to University. Labour did not like Grammar Schools as they were divisive but the failure was in not levelling up state schools.

          6. I taught in a secondary modern school (modern languages). The pupils there achieved as well or better than those I taught in a comprehensive school.

          7. There were and are exceptions to the rule in every category of education. My father taught in two secondary moderns – one was appalling, one was excellent. However, good leadership can turn any school round just as poor leadership can do the opposite. When you look back at your time teaching, I bet that you found this to be true.

        2. Of course. Some of us just did not earn enough in the first place! However our children have done well I’m proud to say and grandchildren are also doing well.

      2. You have a point but, even if there were no private schools, there wouldn’t be a level playing field. For example, do you think that Blair’s state school educated children (I don’t know about the youngest) – didn’t have at least as many of the advantage you mention as a kid who attended a minor public school? The children whose parents had enough money to pay school fees can provide travel and and extracurricular activities and they have ‘connections’ .

      4. I have to say that my state grammar school had a debating society and sent us on trips abroad, to the theatre, art galleries and the like. Going to university was expected of us, as was high achievement. I can't say it's held me back not going to a public school.

      5. In an ideal world state schools would emulate the public schools but we all know it’s not going to happen. State schools seem to be infested with left leaning people and original thought is ,ost definitely not encouraged. It’s great pity. I always think that, hearing American children speak, they are always so articulate whereas them rikishi kids I’ve seen interviewed on tv are nowhere near as fluent.
        ETA. Should say whereas the British kids…

        1. I lived in the US for a number of years and my children went to state schools there, as did the vast majority of children. As with so much of America, much depends on the area – those with a predominantly middle-class demographic in well-paid employment tended to be excellent schools. Those in economically deprived areas with high unemployment were not good.

      6. In an ideal world state schools would emulate the public schools but we all know it’s not going to happen. State schools seem to be infested with left leaning people and original thought is ,ost definitely not encouraged. It’s great pity. I always think that, hearing American children speak, they are always so articulate whereas them rikishi kids I’ve seen interviewed on tv are nowhere near as fluent.
        ETA. Should say whereas the British kids…

  49. What??? Leftie Labour & its stormtroopers in every institution caved in to anti-Israel wing?

    NHS Trust advises members NOT to attend ‘inappropriate’ antisemitism training
    EXCLUSIVE: Chief executive of Central and North West London Foundation Trust

    NHS Central and North West London Foundation Trust (CNWL) says.. “content may be inappropriate”, advises “all staff” against attending and says “it is conducting an investigation into “our training approval processes to prevent similar incidents in the future”.

    As if a Jew would in their right mind go to the NHS for any treatment. As for any non-Pally-Flag-wavers I would be careful as you may be on file for being a supporter of Israel, and denied treatment/they may just kill you.

      1. When does the Kindertransport leave?
        Years ago, I worked with two Professors who came to the UK on the Kindertransport. Top blokes both, and a credit to themselves and Jews generally.

        1. It is very interesting that in those days everyone sent their children to safety, if they could. Within the UK we had "evacuees". Now, however….

      2. I'm pretty sure that one day, maybe not in our lifetimes, but one day the majority of Jews will be living in Israel. It's getting a bit hairy around the world now for them.

  50. On a lighter note, I picked this from my dwarf rootstock Bramley tree. The smaller green apple is what I'd expect from that tree and the other apple, Elstar, is an average size eating apple. The side plate is eight and a half inches in diameter. Largest apple I've ever grown.

    Brown rot that has plagued my apples for a few years isn't as widespread this year and it looks as if I will have some decent fruit. Next up, sorting out the bugs for next year, I do not like spraying anything I grow but there are some physical barriers available.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ca339451ca605bdfb7cb5edcc9178eb3a731add603ba5faa8c2a08d81d820be.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1c7dac685641c4bd31fe1063ed93e7e976c5d8d17b5ca12d1fa6e19cb9bb9ca5.jpg

    1. We have a huge crop of apples this year – the glass apples mostly fell off, but later croppers are still on the trees. Most impressive – must thank the bees for the pollination, worked a treat!
      MOre cidering this weekend… tomorrow, blackberrying.

      1. So do I! I’ve never seen anything like it and we can’t keep up with them . Even giving them to friends, family the neighbours and forcing people walking by to pick some has t made a dint.
        We are holding the branches up with poles.
        I wonder if this signifies a harsh winter?

      2. Blackberries, wild or cultivated? I have an Oregon Thornless, massive crop and many are huge, I’ll show you mine if you show me yours 🤣, and I do not get ripped to pieces picking them.

        1. Cultivated. They even show on the internet maps of Norway! A few straight lines outside Firstborn’s house.

          1. I find them lacking a wee bit in flavour compared to the wild brambles but cooking them does intensify the flavour. The berries are generally much bigger than the wild type. I’m sure Elsie picked some a couple of weeks ago, perhaps she could comment.

  51. Right.
    It's nearly time to get dressed and head for the Great Wen.
    The tree fellers up the hillside are busy so I'm leaving some brewing kit in the yard shed for their use.
    Made them drinks earlier.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e96f1df6156c4e794353561c383265a5370adcdf68cb88526f78f862628c267d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ca83f126d9cccfc00cda7db1e0bf3e3aedcf5d4994555eb231326afed001c61.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4108874b1130fce34bae617f0dc210fd0d261bb65eb8202990b4a379deb2dd1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb49ad53c600a80190e3df7e7da02abdf0ccdbec2d206b03dc466947b60e744e.jpg

    2. With his penchant for ladders (for falling off) IIs This what Bill Thomas is doing during his nttl break?

  52. Right.
    It's nearly time to get dressed and head for the Great Wen.
    The tree fellers up the hillside are busy so I'm leaving some brewing kit in the yard shed for their use.
    Made them drinks earlier.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e96f1df6156c4e794353561c383265a5370adcdf68cb88526f78f862628c267d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ca83f126d9cccfc00cda7db1e0bf3e3aedcf5d4994555eb231326afed001c61.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4108874b1130fce34bae617f0dc210fd0d261bb65eb8202990b4a379deb2dd1.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fb49ad53c600a80190e3df7e7da02abdf0ccdbec2d206b03dc466947b60e744e.jpg

    1. Would I be correct in assuming that if you plead Not Guilty and are then remanded without bail you could, when eventually cleared, sue for wrongful arrest and imprisonment?

      1. I don't think so.
        Not Guilty does not mean innocent it means the evidence presented was not beyond reasonable doubt.

    2. 6 out 7 took terrible advice.
      This is a political show trial.. adopt the tactics of the IRA. Issue a statement.. a very long statement.. like the clip below.

  54. Who wudda thought.. out of the three Celtic nations it would be the Irish leaders that turned on their people with the most extreme vehement.

    Outrage over 'anti-Irish' SPHE schoolbook.. asks children which family are you?

    Family A —- thick, inbred. do not like change and that all their relatives are Irish. They are not allowed to play ‘foreign games’ or watch television or movies that were produced outside of Ireland. At the end of the paragraph, the description reads: ‘We get told off if we mix with people with a different religion from ours as they would be a bad influence on us.’

    Family B —- Mixed race, cool and inclusive. ‘During school holidays we go camping in Europe and visit the galleries to see the wonderful paintings there. We like different types of music from reggae and hip hop to classical. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a745b07da43b8acf2cff7590f1277c07a41e2866f3e19c00f15836578d7860c6.png

        1. No mention then of the No-nonsense Romans quelling local 'enthusiasms'? (vide Boudicca et al….)

    2. When I was young I naively proclaimed that when we are all brown skinned there will be no more racial disharmony and we will all live happy lives.

        1. Perhaps so, but I'd rather draw my own conclusions than be duped into thinking those words were in the actual text.

    2. But at the time there was no aerial platform available which was high enough. In the whole of Londonistan. Of course, NOW the LFB have purchased leased three Magirus 64 metre platforms.

  56. Good morrow, Gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story

    Own Goal

    An Afghan refugee got a place in Reading FC, in his first match he scored a hat-trick. After the match he excitedly tried to get through on the phone to tell his mother his news.

    On hearing his news his mother said "That's wonderful son, but let me tell you about my day. I sent your sister to the market to try & find some food & your brother went with her for protection. Just after they left the house, Islamic Terrorists caught them, they gang raped your sister & broke your brother's leg & stole all our money."

    "I'm so sorry mum" the young footballer said.

    "You're sorry?" his mum replied.
    "It's your fault we moved to Reading in the first place!"

    1. Not sure if that's funny or not – a bit too close to the truth, I fear.
      Good one, Tom!

    1. "Nary a mention anywhere of the cladding removal."

      It's a bit further down.

      8:48AM

      Rayner won’t set deadline for removing all unsafe cladding

      Angela Rayner has admitted there is no “definitive timeline” for the removal of unsafe cladding from residential buildings, seven years on from the Grenfell Tower fire.

      The Housing Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there were “a number of outstanding ways” in which the Government could look at addressing the issue, and so could not put a date on the removal of all cladding.

      She said: “My remediation acceleration plan is about how I can speed up that process. I’m always straight with people, I can’t give you a timeline today, but what I can say is that it is an incredibly slow process at the moment, seven years on, and that’s not acceptable.”

      She added: “I haven’t got a definitive timeline yet, but seven years on is not acceptable.”

      The Deputy Prime Minister said that construction and housing companies “cannot get away with not taking the action that they need to take”, insisting that “the money is there” to fix the potentially dangerous buildings.

      7:41AM

      Rayner promises to speed up removal of unsafe cladding after publication of Grenfell report

      Angela Rayner said she was “not happy with the pace” of unsafe cladding being removed from UK buildings as she promised to speed the process up.

      She said the current pace of removal was “not acceptable” as she responded to the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report.

      Asked by what date all of the cladding would be removed, the Housing Secretary told Times Radio this morning: “The challenge we have got and you alluded to it is we have recognised and we have been able to identify 4,630 buildings and 50 percent of them are already in remediation and 29 per cent have completed.

      “But of course that is not the full picture and there is a lot of monitoring, a lot of changes that have been made to building safety to ensure that we can support people in those circumstances.

      “But we have got to identify the owners of those buildings which we have been doing to make sure that that remediation package comes forward as quickly as possible. I am not happy with the pace. Since I came in post I have been very clear that this is not acceptable.

      “There has been over 400 legal enforcement actions that have been taken so far. I want to see more work done and that is why I have tasked the department and the Government to look at a remediation acceleration plan because this cannot continue.”

        1. What happened, I suspect, is that the live news page was updated ahead of the headline link. The live headline has since been updated.

        2. TBH, it's hard to tell what she is proposing. Her rambling utterances are not unlike those of Kamala Harris.

    2. "Nary a mention anywhere of the cladding removal."

      It's a bit further down.

      8:48AM

      Rayner won’t set deadline for removing all unsafe cladding

      Angela Rayner has admitted there is no “definitive timeline” for the removal of unsafe cladding from residential buildings, seven years on from the Grenfell Tower fire.

      The Housing Secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there were “a number of outstanding ways” in which the Government could look at addressing the issue, and so could not put a date on the removal of all cladding.

      She said: “My remediation acceleration plan is about how I can speed up that process. I’m always straight with people, I can’t give you a timeline today, but what I can say is that it is an incredibly slow process at the moment, seven years on, and that’s not acceptable.”

      She added: “I haven’t got a definitive timeline yet, but seven years on is not acceptable.”

      The Deputy Prime Minister said that construction and housing companies “cannot get away with not taking the action that they need to take”, insisting that “the money is there” to fix the potentially dangerous buildings.

      7:41AM

      Rayner promises to speed up removal of unsafe cladding after publication of Grenfell report

      Angela Rayner said she was “not happy with the pace” of unsafe cladding being removed from UK buildings as she promised to speed the process up.

      She said the current pace of removal was “not acceptable” as she responded to the publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry report.

      Asked by what date all of the cladding would be removed, the Housing Secretary told Times Radio this morning: “The challenge we have got and you alluded to it is we have recognised and we have been able to identify 4,630 buildings and 50 percent of them are already in remediation and 29 per cent have completed.

      “But of course that is not the full picture and there is a lot of monitoring, a lot of changes that have been made to building safety to ensure that we can support people in those circumstances.

      “But we have got to identify the owners of those buildings which we have been doing to make sure that that remediation package comes forward as quickly as possible. I am not happy with the pace. Since I came in post I have been very clear that this is not acceptable.

      “There has been over 400 legal enforcement actions that have been taken so far. I want to see more work done and that is why I have tasked the department and the Government to look at a remediation acceleration plan because this cannot continue.”

  62. Note the swipe at family businesses. Small private enterprise must go and the state must control everything in the People's Democratic Republic.

  63. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/south-sudan-floods-climate-change/#comment
    Interesting article about a flooded river plain in the South of Sudan. Possibly of interest to Mr Rastus Tastye; the Telegraph BTL comments are not exactly in agreement with The Right Honourable Anneliese Dodds MP. (unusual christian name for someone born in Scotland*).
    PS good photos.
    Edit: * The Right Honourable Socialistic MP's mum was called Ingrid and was a nurse.

    1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudd

      The Sudd (Arabic: السد, romanized: as-Sudd, Dinka: Toc) is a vast swamp in South Sudan, formed by the White Nile's Baḥr al-Jabal section. The Arabic word sudd is derived from sadd (سد), meaning "barrier"[2] or "obstruction".[3] The term "the sudd" has come to refer to any large solid floating vegetation island or mat. The area which the swamp covers is one of the world's largest wetlands and the largest freshwater wetland in the Nile Basin.

      I have flown in an Auster aircraft with my father from Khartoum to Malakal in Southern Sudan , during the 1960's , I was 16 years old ..

      We saw the Sudd and Dinka people with their cattle , the Dinka people are tall very black elegant tribal people, and were greatly respected .. they lived on the floating vegetation and land ..

      I feel so sad that what was a beautiful country has been ruined by war and mismanagement .The daft ignorant Anneliese Dodds will not have a clue how Africa used to be ..displaced people have overcrowded those swamp areas I expect

      Labour meddled and ruined Rhodesia and every other African country .

      1. They still corral their womenfolk as they let the animals graze freely. Of course it is not because they don't trust their wives it is other men that are the danger. Just like here.

        1. A strand of hair escapes – a glimpse of ankle – and they are unable to control their animal lust, poor dears. Hence we, as a host country, must change our behaviour completely to accommodate their weaknesses. Or else.

    2. A wetland is normally flooded. It's natural. Nothing to do with climate change. El Nino caused a lot of heavy rainfall and excessive flooding earlier this year.

  64. https://twitter.com/ukhomeoffice/status/1831640954383544624

    Why do they assume we hate, why cannot they understand the UK tax payers feel taken for a ride and are fed up with meddling woke government ministers who are altering the social climate and allowing foreigners to take advantage of our kindness .

    Our toleration has reached a limit , how dare they assume we hate.. Politicians hate us , we are the voting public .. Politicians should work for us , keep us safe and secure in our country , we are not the enemy , and now we know who is !!

      1. From Coffee House, the Spectator

        There’s nothing wrong with a Japanese flamenco dancer
        Comments Share 5 September 2024, 11:50am
        Japanese dancer Junko Hagiwara has become the first non-Spaniard to win one of Spain’s most prestigious flamenco competitions. Yet when Hagiwara went on stage to collect her prize, in La Union in the southeastern region of Murcia, not everyone welcomed her victory. As well as applause, there were whistles and boos from the audience. The Telegraph reported that some of her fellow (Spanish) competitors thought the jury’s decision was a ‘fix’, designed to boost the Cante de las Minas festival’s international reputation. Francisco Paredes, chairman of the jury, has dismissed the claim as ‘ridiculous’ and ‘completely false’.

        Flamenco has been popular in Japan for a century, and it’s often said that there are more flamenco academies there than in Spain
        Even if those who jeered Hagiwara did so because they believed the competition was rigged, it’s hard not to believe that deeper, more hostile attitudes contributed to their reaction. The booers probably believe that flamenco is a thoroughly Spanish art form, and that it’s therefore outrageous that a non-Spaniard was judged best female dancer at the Murcia festival. Aside from being xenophobic and small-minded, though, this attitude completely ignores the art’s complex cultural and historical roots.

        It’s true that flamenco, like bullfighting (a spectacle to which it has close aesthetic and philosophical ties), has been a strongly Andalusian tradition for centuries. But its origins can be traced far beyond the Iberian peninsula. Its core musical elements are thought to have been brought to Spain in the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries by the Romani people of India, specifically from what is now Rajasthan. Once imported, it mixed with other musical traditions that had long been a part of Al-Andaluz, as Moorish-ruled medieval Spain was called.

        Al-Andaluz was founded in the mid-eight century, by a self-exiled Muslim prince who fled from Damascus to Cordoba, and was itself a blend of Arabic, Jewish and Christian customs. As a result, Romani music was influenced by Africa and the Middle East. This many-sided heritage is evident in many aspects of today’s flamenco: the fandango, a variety of dance and song, has its roots in west African culture, where it means a rowdy musical get-together. And the similarities between flamenco dance and the Indian dance of Kathak are striking, as are the those between flamenco’s plaintive vocals and the adhan, the Arabic call to prayer.

        Flamenco has been popular in Japan for a century, and it’s often said that there are more flamenco academies there than in Spain. Curiosity was sparked in the 1920s, when two Spanish films, El Amor Brujo and Andalusia, were released in Japan. Throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, flamenco became so popular amongst the Japanese that leading artists such as Merche Esmeralda and Paco de Lucia travelled there to perform.

        Hagiwara, who lives in the Andalusian capital of Seville and is married to a Spaniard, is not the only Japanese woman to have excelled in the art. In the generation before her, Shoji Kojima and Yoko Komatsbura were credited with turning Japan into the world’s second-biggest flamenco centre, and one of Hagiwara’s contemporaries, Yoko Tamura, has also performed at the Murcia festival.

        At the core of flamenco is duende, an untranslatable word that also has applicability to bullfighting. In one sense, it signifies an intense emotional state that those related arts can conjure in performers and audiences. I have experienced it, both at flamenco recitals and in bullrings, but it is impossible to describe. Shortly after moving to Andalusia in 2015, I interviewed a flamenco dancer after an electrifying show in Granada. ‘All the elements were together tonight’, she told me: ‘the guitar, the singing, the audience. It was duende’. Could she define duende? ‘No, it’s impossible. But you felt it tonight, right?’ I had, but Hagiwara’s detractors would presumably find the idea of an Englishman experiencing duendeludicrous.

        Because duende is, in one sense, an emotional state induced by the sounds and sights of flamenco, it transcends nationality. It is universal and can be experienced by anyone who opens themselves up to the music. As Hagiwara herself said after winning the competition: ‘When I dance, I don’t think I am a foreigner, that I am Japanese… I am simply on stage… and what I feel I express in my dancing’.

        If those jeerers in Murcia last week think that Hagiwara is an imposter in an inherently Spanish world, they’re not only guilty of small-mindedness. They also have their history wrong, because flamenco is a unique musical hybrid, forged over centuries by people from at least three continents. It has always been an international affair. And the spirit of duende, as it creeps over you when you experience flamenco as its best, doesn’t care where you’re from.

        1. She's probably a very good dancer but the Cordoba Myth is tiresome. There was no multicultural paradise in Spain.

          1. My brother is a Flamenco guitarist. He wanted to study in Córdoba but the academic structure wasn’t available and he was advised to go to Rotterdam and get his degree under the supervision of Spanish musicians at the university there. He still plays there many years after graduating.
            Flamenco music is very popular in the Netherlands, possibly more so than in Spain.
            But the reaction of the Spanish to foreigners who master Spanish music is always curious. As my brother frequently pointed when interviewed on TV or in newspapers, Spanish musicians are very happy to form rock’n’roll groups, play rap, jazz or anything else coming out of the US but my goodness how pretentious they become about Flamenco.

    3. Belle, you must try to accept the fact that no matter what coloured rosette they were wearing for the past 14 years or so, they all know the contempt we feel towards them for their actions in betraying us and the country. They just don’t care, they are not working for us, their loyalty lies with others not the UK.
      I suspect they take pleasure in our anger at what is happening, we need to mock them more, perhaps we should obtain some tickets for them for the Dorset Museum on the 17th 🤢

    4. Belle, you must try to accept the fact that no matter what coloured rosette they were wearing for the past 14 years or so, they all know the contempt we feel towards them for their actions in betraying us and the country. They just don’t care, they are not working for us, their loyalty lies with others not the UK.
      I suspect they take pleasure in our anger at what is happening, we need to mock them more, perhaps we should obtain some tickets for them for the Dorset Museum on the 17th 🤢

  65. Mongo's diary, …

    It was not light and I wanted a poo so I woke bigboss by standing on his head. I did whuff but he doesn't listen as he was in sleep with Smelly.
    Girly noticed as she got up. Grumpy growled at me but I ignored him.

    Bigboss took ages to get downstairs as he puts his paws and fur on so I sat by the door until he arrived.

    Girly had come with him and when he opened the door she nipped out and Bigboss said 'well done …' …something. With the door open I sat there having a good sniff and cooling down as Bigboss nudges me to go outside. Heck if I will. I'll go when I want to.

    Eventually he got bored and made a cup of bad for me brown and looked on his small light thing. Girly came in and he gets up to close the door and I had decided I wanted to go out then. Bigboss whuffed at me and I ignored him because he is not smallboss.

    Bigboss reopened the door and I farted and went outside. It was boring as there was no one to play with so I came back in and farted again, then back to bed.

    Smallboss woke up. I like smallboss. He doesn't smell like Smelly. He does go away for a long time every day but when he comes home he makes noises and tells me about his day which makes no sense but I listen anyway. Then we play lego. We are making a grey dog.

    After morning eat I fart and Smelly makes barking noises at Bigboss. Smallboss puts his round fur with me and says 'guard' so I do. Then I forget what I'm doing and wander off to eat Grumpy's food.

    Smelly goes away and Grumpy looks out the clear wall and whines. Smelly is alright, but she and bigboss drool over one another all the time. Yuck. Drool goes on the floor. Or the ceiling. I got one just above Bigboss' head once.

    We get in the big roundy leg dog and go very fast. I put my head out the window. Girly goes in front now but she gets scared so that's ok.

    Smallboss goes to his other wall place and he says goodbye. I watch him go off, basher bashing Bigboss. I fart.

    We go somewhere else where the old lady walks with 5 paws. She gets me ice cream. She holds the fifth paw in her not walking paws. She sometimes bashes Bigboss with this paw as I do with my basher. It is funny. I fart.

    Bigboss does silly things like talking to a collar and pressing a hard blanket. I did that once and was told I was very clever and had sent 'an emale' so I do it as much as I can when he goes away.

    Bigboss eats badfood but takes us to the soft and wet where I play in the wet. Girly doesn't go far into the wet. Grumpy is plotting his escape to find Smelly. I wait until I am very wet then go on the soft and spray Bigboss and his badfood. Then I lean against him and fart. Girly farted once and everyone blamed me. I thought this was funny as I fart a lot.

    Then we go back in the big dog with round paws and get Smallboss and we do something called 'wuk'. Sometimes Bigboss helps him but he is dim so is no good. Smelly sometimes helps but Smallboss doesn't like that as Smelly is not good at the telling and Smallboss gets grumpy. Then we play lego and make grey dog.

    After not light eat we go outside and I decided I didn't want to when we got to the end of the road and everyone waited for me. Smallboss nudged me after a bit and I'd forgotten I didn't want to go out. Grumpy and Girly peed on things. I saved mine. We don't go very quickly as Bigboss is very big and Girly has not got proper paws yet.

    I did a poo on the blanket and was told I was a very clever boy. I know this. Grumpy tried but he is Grumpy so went on the side. Girly also went on a blanket and was told she was a good girl too.

    Then we got home and Smallboss cleaned my teeth and checked my paws. I did the same for his paws but they're all funny. Then I got into bed and Smallboss gave me a tummy rub. I like them. My basher was working overtime. Bigboss and Smelly turned up to say goodnight, so I farted.

    It was a good day.

    1. That's the ticket, Mongo! Don't tell Bigboss, but your musings are far better than his.

      I hope you are making him save your thorts for eternity.

  67. Royal Navy service member dies after helicopter ditches in Channel
    Merlin aircraft went down near Dorset while on exercise

    Telegraph Reporters
    5 September 2024 • 2:40pm

    A member of the Royal Navy has died after a helicopter ditched in the English Channel last night.

    The Merlin Mk4 helicopter ditched near Dorset while conducting night flying exercises with HMS Queen Elizabeth.

    There were no other fatalities or serious injuries, according to the Royal Navy. The family of the deceased, who has not been named, has been informed.

    A Royal Navy spokesman said: “It is with great sadness that we must report a member of the Royal Navy has died following a training incident.

    “Our thoughts are with the family – who have been informed – and all those affected at this sad time. A full investigation will take place.”

    The Telegraph understands that there were three crew members onboard the Merlin helicopter at the time of the incident.

    Two of those were rescued and taken to hospital and did not suffer serious injuries.

    In a post on social media, Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, said: “Deeply saddened to hear of the tragic death of a member of the Royal Navy.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/09/05/royal-navy-helicopter-channel/?WT.mc_id=e_DM399020&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Edi_Brk_New&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Edi_Brk_New20240905&utm_campaign=DM399020

    1. Horrible here , just fed Pip, and he wanted to go outside for a wee, he is soaking wet continuous rain , and my hands are cold . Moh has just dried him with a towel. .

      Our visiting cat is laying in Pips basket with the red ball , Pip is rather anxious .
      Should I evict the cat, and how long can cats hang on before they need to wee?

      Anyway , have fed the cat , because she shows no sign of moving ..

      The owner says the cat is a companion cat for her autistic son , my knowledge of cats are they like peace and quiet , food and warmth !

      What do I do .. she waits by the door / sits on the window ledge / jumps in through the downstairs loo window and doesn't bother Pip, which is amazing .

      1. They do go a long time before needing to wee – and will go outside or in a litter tray if that's what they are used to. Lily would never use the cat flap but Jessie and Ziggy are very comfortable using it. They can go out when they want. Ziggy used the tray till a few months ago but she will probably revert to that when winter sets in. She's been an outdoor girl for the last few months, but coming in more now.

      3. It's quite mild over here in the east (s. cambs). Just heavy, grey, sullen uniform skies all day which seem to sap one's energy. No need for heating yet, but it may be coming our way.

        Poppie once went 27 hours before needing (not quite the right word, she was prepared to wait!) to tiddle in France (the rain was of the continuous stair-rods type) we were all togged up to take her out but she immediately jumped back inside and that was that. She curled up into a little ball and waited it out. Cats can go quite a while.

      4. She’ll tell you when she wants to go out. Jessie and Ziggy have spent the summer outside but stayed in last night.

    3. Cloud thickened and it got darker between Luton & St,P and began raining on the approach to the station.
      By the time we got out of the station it had eased off to a light shower.

  70. Oh Belle! She sounds very comfortable and safe! Maybe take the ball out so Pip doesn’t think she’s taken everything over? If Pip isn’t worried, the pussycat will leave when she wants!

  71. Now in the Ambassador Hotel, Bloomsbury.
    Not happy being in the Great Wen, but managed to snarl at a couple of cyclists ignoring red lights as we were crossing a road and a private hire driver stopped across a crossing so felt MUCH happier.

      1. Dr. Daughter's qualified for another silly academic hat and the Capping Ceremony is tomorrow, so I've been dragged down here for two nights.

    2. We spent 2 nights at the Kingsley Hotel, Bloomsbury Way after our wedding. Went to the British Museum the next day, saw the Mummies and lo and behold vw became a mummy exactly one year later. :-))

    3. When I went racing in Woollybags the other week, a young dindu on a bike rode straight across a signal controlled crossing – the lights were on green for me. If I'd hit the prat, I suppose it would have been my fault (p.s. it wasn't dark).

      1. What’s the difference between a green traffic light an a red traffic light? Nothing at all if you’re a cyclist.

  73. Night All
    Laff Time
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7d631d85ea36b857cf13386235457b29b253eda8f52c43e30654f088fee5f0b6.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/052bf1d4f03201b89ad5aa63c2bc2542102529e0c87fb2f8d99274636207898e.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae584e0d9da93bde72ddbc51d505280e4ba5c7770d31fb28eb43803acc47101b.jpg
    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0ed68dc6d18ab1217f3234037559e41ae541f9d7eea8667554e7357afc2ca98f.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/176c8a4d40e67bc79360b35c65533b5ddac5550b9addcf576f35f46a58b5e264.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d8155016abac2eb682f40ebb622ce1b34e7bdabef4c944519ad7e0ff76a9bb44.jpg

    1. It seems to have passed me by (like all of the fruit and veg harvest this year). I am going to do some serious pruning this late summer to see if it will shock them into production.

  75. Starmer will be wetting himself with pleasure, or pleasuring himself with wetting, who knows with two tier?

    EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier makes a stunning return as he is named France's oldest ever prime minister by desperate president Macron to end political impasse in Paris

      2. That's not how the system works in France, Sue. The electorate vote for the President who then asks someone to form a government on the basis that this person will be the Prime Minister. The only requirement for the person whom the President chooses for the job is that it must be someone who will get enough support in Parliament to not be constantly opposed. The President does not have to choose a member of parliament – unelected prime ministers in the past include Élisabeth Borne and Jean Castex (under Macron), Georges Pompidou (under de Gaulle), Raymond Barre (under Giscard d'Estaing), and Dominique de Villepin (under Chirac). There may be others! Some of these then went on to hold elected office, but not all.

        Indeed, the same rule applies for all ministerial appointments: Macron himself was a banker whom François Hollande chose to be in his government, as Secretary of State for the economy. He had never held any elected position before he set up his own party and became President.

          1. I don’t know; there might be a few somewhere gathering rust.

            The last person to be executed by guillotine in France was Hamida Djandoubi in September 1977 in Marseille (the death sentence was abolished in 1981) – he was found guilty of rape, murder, torture and barbarity. A Tunisian, he came to France at the age of 18 and worked as a farm labourer for a couple of years until his leg was crushed by a tractor and was then amputated. He became bitter and twisted and mixed his strong painkillers with alcohol. While in hospital, he met a 21 year old woman with whom he started a relationship, but he ended up beating her and making her work as a prostitute. She eventually went to the police and wanted him to be prosecuted, but the case was never taken up. Just over a year later, their paths crossed again. Djandoubi kidnapped the woman, subjected her to the most ghastly torture in the presence of two girlfriends, both minors, before taking her to an abandoned hut and strangling her. The two girlfriends eventually managed to escape and go to the police who arrested Djandoubi a couple of days later.

      3. Edit
        Wrong reply, I responded via notifications and thought you were referring to Starmer.
        Correct reply:
        No and no

    2. Business as usual therefore. Centrist authoritarian after Macron's heart chosen in order to try and freeze out the right.

      There may be trouble ahead.

  76. An expanded Par Four?

    Wordle 1,174 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Adding to my threes, surprisingly.

      Wordle 1,174 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨🟩⬜
      🟨🟩🟨🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

      1. Well done.
        Wordle 1,174 5/6

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

    2. Wordle 1,174 5/6

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

      never fear, lacoste…I am, as usual, worse 🙂

    3. My five birdie run has come to an end (all say aaahhhh….). Today's was potentially tricky so happy to scrape a four!

      Wordle 1,174 4/6

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

  77. Tall Climate Tales from the BBC, 2023
    Paul Homewood
    © Copyright 2024, Net Zero Watch
    About the author: Paul Homewood had a career as an accountant in industry. He has been writing on climate and energy issues since 2011
    Executive summary
    Can the BBC’s coverage of climate change be
    trusted? Many have now concluded that it
    can’t. For years their treatment has been onesided, full of misinformation and at times factual errors, along with the omission of alternative views and inconvenient facts.
    We have detailed many such examples
    during recent years in two previous papers.
    This latest assessment covers the last year. It
    includes many examples showing how the
    public have been misled, but these are no
    doubt just the tip of the iceberg.
    Far from reducing, the problem of misinformation seems to be on the rise, with an
    almost daily stream of what is little more than
    propaganda – doom laden stories of extreme
    weather caused by climate change. Tales of
    how hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts,
    heatwaves and storms are all getting worse
    are never backed up by actual data, of course.
    One BBC report began ‘Heat. Wildfires.
    Torrential rain. Typhoons and hurricanes.
    Much of the northern hemisphere has been
    battered by extreme weather this summer’.
    There was no evidence presented that any
    of this was anything other than the sort of
    normal weather which we get every year.
    Typhoons and hurricanes were not above
    normal for the year, while the Mediterranean wildfire season, which the BBC had been
    spreading alarm about all summer, turned
    out to be no worse than average either.
    We were warned about a future without
    beer and bananas, and even a crocodile that
    bit a woman in Indonesia was, we were told,
    the result of climate change!
    It is not only climate matters where bias
    and disregard for facts are evident. In the lead
    up to the General Election, Justin Rowlatt,
    the BBC’s Climate Editor, writing about the
    Reform Party’s energy policies, claimed that
    solar and wind power are cheaper than gas
    generation. Official government data shows
    that they are actually considerably greater;
    but that inconvenient truth does not fit in
    with the BBC’s renewable agenda.
    Where climate change is concerned, the
    BBC is now little more than a lobby group.
    Given the enormous cost of achieving Net
    Zero, not to mention the wholesale changes
    it will mean to people’s lifestyles, the public
    are entitled to fully impartial reporting from
    the BBC.

    1. hottest may evah
      hottest june evah
      hottest july evah
      Coolest summer for ten years
      Climate bolleaux!!

    2. I gave up on al bebeera in the run up to the Hunting Bill. If they were lying about things I had personal experience of, how could I trust them to tell the truth about things I knew nothing of when I couldn't check?

    2. Awww c'mon, Angie's not that fat (is she?) – was the original of that pic the fantastic Bella Emberg? With Russ Abbot as Cooperman and Blunder Woman?

        1. I have no intimate knowledge of the woman so could not possibly comment (I've heard stories though….)

  80. Just got my 'energy bill" 04 Aug to 03 Sep

    Electric used £ 4.86

    Gas Used £ 2.74

    Total £7.60

    bill, with standing charges and VAT £33.62

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    1. Ask them to explain what the standing charges are.
      And send it to your mp and ask them to do what they do. Claim it all on their expenses.

    2. Sums it all up, doesn't it. You can be as frugal as you like, but you get ripped off all the same.

    4. Standing charges relate to the supply and maintenance of gas/electricity to your house and, as such, could claim to be justified (?).

      I'm guessing if the energy suppliers dropped these, and thereby increased the unit price of that energy, they would be more vulnerable to people just switching off!

      1. One couldn't help wonder if it was related to the suspicion that there would be a helicopter crash following events in Ukraine….

    2. I'm beginning to think it is a re-enactment of the earlier Norse invasions produced by the 100% Woke Beeb!!!

    3. I'm beginning to think it is a re-enactment of the earlier Norse invasions produced by the 100% Woke Beeb!!!

    1. Perhaps the EU should send a task force to take over a random African country and then export every gimmegrant there.

      It would soon be the centre of the civilised world, given how all those deportees are brain surgeons, architects, engineers, etc etc.

      1. Was talking to a chap yesterday who's home is in the Gambia. He told me Africa doesn't do drains. What they need is engineers to make the drains run on time!

      2. Was talking to a chap yesterday who's home is in the Gambia. He told me Africa doesn't do drains. What they need is engineers to make the drains run on time!

  85. Evening, all. Been out to lunch today with some Masonic friends. Very enjoyable, but I chose "cottage pie" only to find it had been topped with cheese!

    Labour doesn't like democracies.

        1. No chance, the third MR has him house trained, and he knows a good/great thing when he sees one!

  90. https://twitter.com/NotFarLeftAtAll/status/1831717161036857515
    Fag End 🚬 🔚
    @fag__end
    The NHS is already under immense strain, and now we have 700 nurses under investigation for fraudulently obtaining their qualifications? This isn’t just a scandal—it’s a matter of life and death. How did we reach a point where potentially unqualified individuals could be entrusted with British patients' care? This is a failure of the system, plain and simple. Fraud like this puts lives at risk and undermines trust in the very institution that should be safeguarding us. It’s time to clean house and ensure only those who have earned their qualifications, honestly and transparently, are allowed to care for the public.
    7:28 PM · Sep 5, 2024
    ·
    1,239
    Views

    1. I'm sure a cardiologist I was assigned to was a fake. He and his lying secretary are no longer at the hospital.

    2. I am soooooo surprised that the nurses want to leave nice and warm Nigeria, where they are not subject to white slave master/mistress' etc to come to live in country dominated by Muslims

    3. I am soooooo surprised that the nurses want to leave nice and warm Nigeria, where they are not subject to white slave master/mistress' etc to come to live in country dominated by Muslims

  91. This afternoon on completion of a boiler statutory inspection I had a chat with the insurance inspector (60 ish) and his much younger assistant/apprentice (early thirties).
    It appears I'm not the only one that despises Keef.

      1. I don't. He has, thus far, lived down to my expectations but he's within the norm of underwhelming prime ministers. Had Rishi Sunak surprised us all by winning the last election, I doubt I'd feel very much different about him. As for anybody else, I'd be just as well occupied by fretting about the prospect of a volcano in Norwich.

  92. What a dreary, miserable, wet and gloomy day it's been! Summer is well and truly over. We've got the heating on this evening.

    1. We put the heating on at 6pm , then left it on for a couple of hours , we were so cold .. ate our supper then turned the heating off .

      We wondered whether to have a coal fire , but we haven't had the chimney swept yet .

      2. And it’s just as miserable today. Have to dry the washing indoors. We’ve got quite a big event on Sunday so a busy weekend and won’t be fun in the wet.

    2. No heating here and unlikely to be switched on for at least another month. Uncomfortably humid, I thought. While a cold winter would not be welcome, yet another mild one with no snow and very little frost will be yet more evidence that there is some substance to the global warming theory.

    1. I heard a limp dum nutter on the Talk radio earlier this evening. Called Dominic Dyer he is an animal rights writer and climate loony, and is calling for people not to have children. He was very, very cross with the Pope!

      1. I expect the Pope is very cross with him, and If I was the Pope I'd have him X-communicated by having a word with Elon!

    2. Eradicate white Europeans and everything Europeans have achieved will disappear. Giving it away to the savages won’t turn them into achievers, it’ll turn Europe into Shitholistan.

  94. Prisoners could serve their time in Estonia
    Renting space in Baltic state’s jails ‘on table’ under Ministry of Justice plans to tackle prison overcrowding

    Eir Nolsøe
    and
    Charles Hymas,
    Home Affairs Editor
    5 September 2024 • 7:55pm
    Related Topics
    Prisons, Home Office, Shabana Mahmood, Estonia, Ministry of Justice, Labour Party

    Criminals could serve their sentences in Estonian prisons under plans being considered by ministers to tackle Britain’s jail overcrowding crisis.

    After the Baltic state said it had offered to rent out spare capacity to other countries, the Ministry of Justice said it was investigating “all viable options” to increase capacity because prisons were “on the point of collapse”.

    Government sources said the controversial solution was “on the table” because of the severity of the situation. Men’s prisons in England and Wales nearly ran out of cells last month, with just 83 spare spaces.

    Estonia’s low crime rate has by contrast left its prisons half empty, prompting hopes that British criminals could deliver a much needed €30 million (£25 million) boost to the country’s public finances.

    Shabana Mahmood, the Justice Secretary, and Liisa Pakosta, her Estonian counterpart, were expected to discuss prison leasing on the sidelines of a Council of Europe event in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Thursday.

    Ms Pakosta told The Telegraph: “The UK and Estonia have a history of successful international co-operation, and such a partnership would create further opportunities to benefit and learn from each other.”

    Shabana Mahmood is set to discuss prison leasing with her Estonian counterpart
    Shabana Mahmood is set to discuss prison leasing with her Estonian counterpart Credit: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing
    It emerged as Germany said it was considering deporting migrants to Rwanda, where it could use asylum facilities paid for by the UK.

    Plans by Rishi Sunak to deport illegal migrants to the east African nation were scrapped by Sir Keir Starmer immediately after he won the election in July.

    Sending offenders to Estonia, a nation of 1.3 million people, was first proposed by Alex Chalk, the former justice secretary, at last year’s Tory conference. The idea was fiercely criticism by Labour as a symbol of Tory incompetence and underinvestment, while the Prison Reform Trust called it “half-baked”.

    However, in power, Labour appears to recognise the potential of the idea even as officials caution it would be “very expensive”.

    Norway and Belgium have previously rented prison space from the Netherlands, but officials have ruled out renting foreign jails in countries including the Netherlands, where the state spends nearly £100,000 per prisoner.

    ‘A justice system in crisis’
    However, in Eastern Europe and Baltic states such as Estonia, the cost is believed to be between £10,000 and £20,000 per prisoner. The cost of housing a prisoner in England and Wales is nearly £50,000. The cost of building a jail is £600,000 per prisoner.

    Officials expect any negotiations to result in the cost doubling, as the countries would be likely to set a premium. There would be costs for flights and posting some British prison staff abroad.

    There are further questions over whether taxpayers would need to pay for family members to visit offenders in Estonia. One source involved in planning under the Tories said: “It was very expensive – potentially prohibitively so.”

    A Ministry of Justice spokesman said the Government had “inherited a justice system in crisis”.

    Around 2,000 prisoners are in line for early release on Tuesday, allowing them to leave 40 per cent of the way through their sentences rather than 50 per cent permitted under current rules. Up to 1,700 more will be freed in October as ministers seek breathing space to plan new jails and review the sentencing system.

    It comes as the prison population is expected to rise from around 89,000 to between 93,100 and 106,300 by March 2027.

    To pave the way for Labour to send criminals to the Baltic state, the Estonian cabinet must first discuss the policy and approve it in parliament.

    Ms Pakosta said several countries were interested in renting Estonia’s unused prison space, telling The Telegraph: “With nearly half of the prison spaces in Estonia currently vacant, we are exploring alternative uses for these facilities. I have submitted a memorandum to the government cabinet for discussion, aiming to determine the best course of action.

    “There is existing experience among European countries in renting out prison space. It is quite common for the demand for prison space to fluctuate across countries, leading to collaboration, mutual support, and the benefits of international security cooperation. Additionally, it is important to consider the potential to create jobs and ensure local security.”

    She added that the initiative to explore the UK as a “potential partner” arose because “both countries share a reputation for safe, secure prisons with comparable standards and rehabilitative opportunities”.

    Four more prisons in pipeline
    The previous Conservative administration abandoned its target of building 20,000 new prison places by the mid-2020s, with 6,000 constructed including new prisons HMP Five Wells, Wellingborough, and HMP Fosse Way, Leicestershire.

    Four more prisons – each with 1,500 to 1,700 places – are in the pipeline. The Government has pledged to rewrite planning rules to overcome local objections that have delayed the construction of the new jails.

    It plans to fast-track developments by declaring prisons as critical infrastructure. Details are expected to be set out in a white paper in the autumn.

    Ms Mahmood is also due to announce a sentencing review that could see many offenders facing sentences of under one year spared jail and instead punished in the community through tagging, treatment and unpaid work.

    2. I'm not opposed to the idea but in what way is this substantially different to the previous government's Rwanda scheme? Is it much cheaper, perhaps?

      2. Did you see the (quite long) piece by Damian Thomson on Unherd a while ago re Vatican…quite the eye-opener, and corrupt with it.

        2. Sry missed that one – so many topics to try to keep on top of without a functioning Civil Service!!

  96. I had another appointment at the hospital today. I'm usually out within half an hour.
    It turned out to be a pre op examination.
    nearly three hours. It was quite a surprise. I came away with a bag of bits and pieces including an energy drink and a bottle of body cleaning liquid its only a knee op. Masses of printed instructions a half hour meeting with a very informative nurse also including blood tests. A meeting with the pharmacist.
    Over all lovely people.
    Not sure of the date yet but I believe sometime in November.
    And it's goodnight from me.
    Good night all. 😴

  97. Well, chums, I am now back from London and utterly exhausted. So I will wish you all Good Night, sleep well, and hope to see you tomorrow.

      1. It's all just a theatre show.
        "When the masses need a hero, we will supply one"
        Musk didn't come from nowhere without considerable help. The deep state could crush him like a bug if they actually wanted to. Trump went bankrupt but mysteriously recovered.

        The deep state has a long history of funding (via banks) bright young men who go on to dominate the important industry of the day. Rhodes, Gates, Zuckerberg etc.

    1. A six week suspended sentence is my guess. Of course, under the present regime, he should get maybe 3 years in chokey. But he won't 2TK

    3. To be truthful anything and words uttered by anybody are under our unwritten “constitution” defined as Free Speech.

      It is not possible for any government to be selective and to claim that some speech is unacceptable simply because it does not follow that government’s preferred and “acceptable” opinions.

      Those such as Starmer and his inadequate government populated by proven fraudulent Blairite retreads have no authority to prosecute those whose speech (or media tweets) objects to their idiotic policies and pronouncements.

      The politicians supposedly governing us are supposed to represent our views and prosecute them in all matters including those views of an international nature. You might think this a moreorless simple instruction yet those elected seem to believe they have some nefarious injunction to dismiss our views and clearly stated opinions.

      Those who deny the rights of their constituents to express their own individual opinions are by definition Totalitarians.

      Starmer is by his pronouncements a Totalitarian by any reasonable definition.

      1. 392580 + up ticks,

        Morning C,

        Very acceptable points you are correct in being freedom of speech IS freedom of speech. no little bit pregnant about that.

    4. A woman who posted a comment online calling for mosques to be blown up with people inside was jailed for 15 months. So the bar has been set.

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