Thursday 6 March: A plea to the King from Canada: reconsider a second Trump state visit

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

586 thoughts on “Thursday 6 March: A plea to the King from Canada: reconsider a second Trump state visit”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe site.

    Wordle 1,356 3/6

    🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,356 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩⬜⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Those players probably grew up playing on school pitches and in parks that didn't look very different from that!

    3. Back in the day….some of the Old Hendonians games were on Hackney Marshes.

  7. Good morning all!
    A lovely morning again with bright sunshine but also with a bit of a chill in the air, 2° when I checked.

    And a much better night's sleep than I've had for a while! Just as well as I've that drive to near Melton this morning.
    Will be making a breakfast stop at Asfordby and be picking up some pies from the butcher in the village.
    Some of his sausages will be bought too.

    1. Morning Bob, just remember to keep resting. Your body is a naff analog machine. If you overdo it, you'll get unwell again. Rest, relax, ake things easy. No building Stonehenge!

      1. Well, after getting back I did feel a bit knackered, so went back to bed for 1½h!

    1. Her rules are a complete fabrication anyway. They're a fudge to disguise stability when she's just running up more debt off book and calling it something else.

      She has to cut government spending. There is no other choice now.

      Well, she could hike taxes but the result will be further accelerating the economic ruin, any oaf can see that, but will Thieves Reeves and the morons in the Treasury?

  11. Morning, all Y'all. Almost sunny, but the west coast and intervening mountains are really getting it: Avalanches, roads closed, building flooded, mountain roads closed due to snow, railway blocked by avalanche… I think I'll stay at home!

    1. I was reading a report from the skiing competition in Trondheim yesterday – they said the weather was terrible – is that the area?

    1. Ivor
      11h
      You may get the feeling Trump never did a Speech to Congress yesterday
      You may find it impossible to find Polls, showing any US opinion today too

      Amongst the never ending choir of smears & attacks on Trump from most of our UK Press & Media who now relish in attacking Trump on a daily basis

      But CBS News did conduct a poll and we can see why our disgraceful biased politically controlled UK News outlets have hidden it

      76% of US folk fully supported Trumps speech

      2. Probably a lot more, they always shave it down when the results don't suit them.

  13. Michael Deacon
    The real reason Britain is doomed to lose the next world war

    We teach our young men to be ashamed of their country, so how can we expect them to risk their lives defending it?

    Sir Keir Starmer must be terrified of having to lead Britain into World War Three. Not least because our young men could so easily dodge conscription. All they’d have to do is tell a judge that being sent overseas would breach their right to family life in the UK.

    After all, that excuse always seems to work for foreign criminals. So why not for innocent British men?

    There is, however, an even greater problem facing the Prime Minister. Because I strongly suspect that he’s starting to grasp the real reason why Britain is doomed to lose the next war. It’s not just our inadequate spending on defence, or our complacent reliance on the USA to protect us.

    We’ve got a crisis that’s more fundamental, which is that we simply won’t want to fight.

    For decades now, young people have been taught to be ashamed of this country. They’ve been taught that Britain’s history is one of almost uninterrupted, and unparalleled, cruelty and exploitation and that the figures once hailed as national heroes, from Francis Drake to Churchill, were really villains.

    In short: they’ve been taught that the British are the baddies. And so, having had it drilled into them practically from birth that their country is nothing to be proud of, why on earth would they want to risk their lives defending it?

    As it happens, we already know they don’t want to. Remember that extraordinary poll of Gen Z from last month, showing the near-total collapse in patriotic feeling among Britain’s young? In 2004, a similar poll found that 80 per cent of young people felt “proud to be British”. Today, a mere two decades later, it’s just 41 per cent. Is it any surprise, therefore, that only 11 per cent said they’d be willing to fight for Britain? And that more than 40 per cent said they would absolutely never fight for Britain, in any circumstances at all?

    Of course it’s not. Previous generations were taught very differently. And yes, to our superior 21st-century eyes, perhaps that teaching was a little “jingoistic”. But jingoism can actually have a useful purpose. By telling children that their nation’s history was glorious and brimming with heroes, you give them a reason to cherish it, and perhaps even to become heroes themselves one day, in their nation’s hour of need. When our forefathers were sent to fight in the trenches of the Western Front, not all of them might have known exactly why the Great War was being fought. But they at least had a clear idea of what they were trying to defend.

    Would today’s young men be able to say the same? I’m not sure they would. The grim truth is that we no longer have a strong and unifying national identity – the sort of identity that pulls a country through a war, and gives it the courage to fight on. Our schools may teach something they call “British values”, but these “values” are always hopelessly vague – as, of course, they have to be. In our atomised, multicultural society teachers daren’t suggest that any “values” aren’t British. After all, we wouldn’t want anyone to feel “excluded”.

    As a result of this loss of identity, we are simply not a united people any more. In fact, many of us share little more than a language – and often, not even that. On Tuesday it was reported that almost one million people in England can’t speak English fluently – and more than 130,000 can’t speak English at all. Meanwhile, I’m sure no one has forgotten that, in 2014, it was claimed that more than twice as many British Muslims had joined Isis than the British Armed Forces.

    The Prime Minister is right that we need to spend more money on arms. The question is: who will we find to fire them?

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

    Maxwell Robertson
    1 min ago
    My late father – a decorated WW2 vetran, who lost his own father to WW1 injuries – told me long ago that there would be a third world war as soon as everyone who remembered the futile pain and suffering endured in the last world war is dead. Sadly, that day is now upon us and we will inevitably lose.

    Why? Because our gutless, self-serving, know-all, leaders have given away everything my father and grandfather fought for.

    Simon Dexter
    2 min ago
    When our best and bravest soldiers and policemen are prosecuted for doing their job.

    When we are putting the needs of those coming in before our own citizens.

    When you are called a racist for raising the Union Flag.

    When our once celebrated history is now viewed through the eyes of modern day ridiculous ideology.

    Why on earth would you fight for this lost cause?

    I would have given my life for this country in the past but our country and everything it stood for has been given away by treacherous politicians over the past 25 odd years.

    Paul Hughes
    2 min ago
    It is not just how history is taught, contemporary British society denigrates this country.

    Peter Lester
    2 min ago
    Emily Thornberry can always give a speech to the working class boys of Britain to get them to serve.

    John Pardew
    2 min ago
    It would be interesting to see the survey broken down by demographic.

    In the past I would have fought for my country without question. Now I think why should I fought for an establishment that seems to despise me. Only yesterday, it came to light that ethnic minorities will get shorter prison sentences than white people.

    Michael Culley
    3 min ago
    "We teach our young men to be ashamed of their country, so how can we expect them to risk their lives defending it?"

    We should never forget that it was the Political Elites who betrayed us.

    Ts

    TwoTK socialist multi millionaire self made from UK Public Sector

    Vivienne Cousins
    4 min ago
    Yes indeed, the chickens have come home to roost for sure. You’ve got what you asked for. A generation with no pride in their own country. Hope you left wing fanatics with your stupid ideologies think about that.

    1. Michael Deacon's not paying attention to the advertisements…young white men are supposed to go and die for Keir Starmer and multi-culturalism.

      Of course, Gen Z doesn#t watch TV and all have ad-blockers, so let's see if that works or not.

    2. I come from a generation that loved this country and knew its history.
      Today, I would beggar myself to make sure my grandson – and granddaughters, if needs be – were safely out of this country. There is no way I would expect them to sacrifice themselves for the hideous unfocussed hateful mess that our treasonous politicians have created.

    3. I was prepared to sign up to defend my country but I wouldn’t now because it is no longer my country.

  14. Good morning, all. Sharp frost to be followed by a sunny day. The garden beckons.

    They, the rabid warmongers, are not giving up any time soon. Will reality only strike home when the body bags turn up on a regular basis?

    https://x.com/igorsushko/status/1897386604404306352
    It's not only politicians that are infused with the lust for putting "boots on the ground"; here is Dan Hodges supporting the exposure of what remains of our Army to the Russian meat-grinder. I've read several pages of comments and support for Hodges's thesis is as common as rocking horse manure. Unlike the the support for George Galloway's comments.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b6a0a8a8739eb06724980240ea054e4a818cc016f7dc750bf1ef48be6af62a3.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/249bbdbbdcfb9bbac7e02026a9926063aa24a04b83dc78c7b79c529704a45f98.png

    1. European leaders have all received the same instruction. Thank goodness for Meloni.

    2. Don't be silly Dan you'd be sending brits to Gaza next.
      If Ukraine worries you that much, you go.

    4. They are embarrassing. How many sheep will start mouthing the same against Russians and baying for war, I wonder?

      1. Ditto. 11845. Not holding my breath, Ndovu, have signed several previous but no update. They would have to have a debate in the House to follow up, and doubtful they would even do that. Wonder why.

    1. We're at war with Eurasia. Tomorrow it'll be Oceania. Then we will never have been at was with Eurasia and always with Oceania.

      I'm very, very, very tired of the lies. But hey ho, the hard Left lies habitually.

  19. Ernest Nowell
    9h
    2nd attempt. Confirmed tonight BlackRock have bought the two the ports at either end of the Panama Canal.

    Eddy
    Ernest Nowell
    5h
    They have also been in place/stationed/advising in Ukraine for some years before the conflict began, ready and waiting to be the only ones to rebuild it.

    1. I read an interesting article yesterday comparing them to the Dutch and British East India companies, who both effected geopolitical change by commanding strategic ports. Prolly both backed by teh same families too.

  21. Some good comments on Michael Deacon's article today. Most saying young men today would not fight a war for Britain.

    1. Morning 🙂
      My self included they would lock their sons and daughters away to avoid it.
      I think we already know what types would not be 'selected' for the front line.

    2. Not sure I would take the shilling again today.
      I wouldn't be proud of what I was fighting for unless some changes are made.

  22. https://youtu.be/iTJBZQeebP4
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/784669dc60a19b48ffe57e0a1e857a7710713ef6db89684897995b298e6902be.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/79d75a37efad8fa0994803785e78b0dc5d8a4a2f2951fba001d8c3cdb7d7a8ba.png
    Mike b
    15h
    Been happening for years. Hospital appointments, doctors, positive discrimination in the workplace.
    Young people from the UK are back of the queue..don't vote Uniparty.

    David Williams
    15h
    Just as Trump told America in November 2024 you had to vote for him for the USA to change direction.We in the UK will have that same last chance at the next GE.It will be our only chance.

    Paul Pelosi
    15h
    The spectre of woke justice arose years ago when the Colston Statue vandals were acquitted because their vandalism was 'for the right reasons'. We had hoped that this very public instance of woke justice would herald the end of this corrupt practice. I see it didn;t.

    2. To be fair France does have a potent secret weapon.. gross but powerful.
      The Mangina.

      "You know what that is.. that's old Brigitte's vagina."
      ©The Mighty Boosh

    3. The last person, and the least useful one speaking would b a left wing bureaucrat who is ardently promoting a communist organisation whose actions were the catalyst for the conflict in the first place.

  24. 402691+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    A gathering of the shaken up bosses voice their
    fear that the "so far right" have a powerhouse leader
    coming through.

    Thursday 6 March: A plea to the King from Canada: reconsider a second Trump state visit

    1. If only Starmer could come to the same end as Lord Kitchener.

      "On 5 June 1916, Kitchener was making his way to Russia on HMS Hampshire to attend negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II when in bad weather the ship struck a German mine 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Orkney, Scotland, and sank. Kitchener was among 737 who died; he was the highest-ranking British officer to die in action in the entire war."

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    Not quite as bright as the past few days but not quite as much frost to melt.
    After what happened at Windsor Castle and Westminster hall yesterday I doubt if DT would want to come to the UK.

  29. In this whole morass, I have but one question to ask of all of us –
    Must we blame the victims of crime for being weak losers?

    1. Only if they're white; and that's because they were asking for it by displaying wan complexions.

  31. Baroness Helena Kennedy: "No communities are more criminal than other communities". (Discuss.)

    1. Fun fact: The community with the highest percentage of criminality… [drumroll].. politicians.

    2. Ahem
      The numbers make an useful idiot out of her
      #HateFacts
      "As a result, we know that the number of Muslims in prison has increased by almost 50% over the last decade from 8,900 to 13,200. Muslims now make up 15% of the prison population, but just 5% of the general population. This is a worrying trend and risks becoming a source of social division."

      1. Not social division, plain fact. They're grossly over-represented because they commit vast amounts of crime. muslim is already a source of division. They're not welcome here and must be removed.

    3. Hmm. Wouldn't mind betting she lives in an area populated mainly by people belonging to a community of lesser criminality.

    4. A Lefty who pursues hard Left causes. The sort of person who has supported the abomination of 'common purpose'.

      A statist's statist.

  32. Eventually, the numbers will catch up. 500 per day arrivals of hairy-a rsed fighting aged men requiring their ball-bags to be emptied.

    Asylum seeker assaulted and raped girl, 15, in Falkirk town centre after spotting her alone after collecting a prescription.

    1. They're no asylum seekers. They're criminal welfare shoppers. Only until every single on has been removed will this country be safe.

      1. I imagine quite a few are genuine.

        It doesn't require a huge military or criminal brain to shuffle in among them when seeking an easy way through Border Control, especially when officers have had Diversity & Inclusion training.

        They all look the same to us.

    1. See, I don't care if folk pray before starting work. I just don't. I DO mind if their personal beliefs interrupt my work day.

    2. Strange how Jews have managed to accommodate Christian prayers before council meetings (and at school in my youth).

    1. Christian names TB? What were you thinking. 8 haven't seen Christian names mentioned for donkeys'.
      All forms now just ask for First name.
      Minejew, I doubt many babies are Christened these days.

      2. We have quite a few Christenings at our church. There used to be a fad for naming parties but I have heard of fewer of those of late.

    2. When was the last time you saw Christian name on a form? Effectively they already have.

      1. With the kneeler in 10 Downing St there's no chance of getting anyone good (i.e. a Bible-following Christian).

  36. We've recently heard various politicians commenting on what makes someone English (Welsh, Scottish, Norn Oirish not questioned for some reason). Lots of non-whites saying of course they're English. In that case, why do those same people keep expecting black history to be taught in schools? (BTW one doesn't hear much complaint from those of Chinese heritage complaining of the lack of Chinese history on the curriculum. A lot of Italian people moved to S Wales between the wars Italian history O Level anyone? No-one's ever decided that is required.

  37. Eagle. Owzat! (Crickolf)
    Wordle 1,356 2/6

    🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. It's nothing to do with 'strings' it has everything to do with his irrational hatred of Putin and the fact that with no war he is finished.

    1. The only person I'd wear a suit to visit would have been Her Majesty, because I respect her.

      I dress as a scruff because usually within half an hour of working I'm covered in dust, fluff, carrying cables around my neck with network kit under each arm and a step ladder on the back.

      1. I am usually rather scruffy but I always wear a dark suit and a black tie when I go to a funeral.

  41. Ukraine’s troops dying because US cut aid, say soldiers on front line
    Morale is ‘dangerously low’ on the battlefield and the fighting has become ferocious, warn combat medics
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/05/ukraines-troops-dying-over-us-aid-cut-off-say-soldiers/

    BTL

    If people in the Ukraine are brutally press-ganged into fighting against their will – as videos showing people being forcibly dragged from their families suggest – then it is hardly surprising that morale is low.

    3. You cannot deny that: "Muslims are making a difference in British society"

      Indeed they already have done so.

      As to whether that is beneficial or not and to borrow a phrase from our late queen:

      "Recollections may vary"

      1. We must be honest and all have definitely must have noticed, that where ever they 'set up shop' they soon cause a lot of trouble.

    4. Muslims are making a difference in British society

      At last, the bustard has said something right,

    5. Ho Yus.
      They've made a difference all right.
      Totally bu88ered a peaceful, safe and reasonably happy country.

      1. It is the POLITICIANS who have buggered a peaceful, safe and reasonably happy country.

        Their imported human detritus from the third world is simply just one of the many weapons they are using to facilitate it.

  45. Good Morning!

    Today Paul Sutton gives us his disturbing but lyrical and very well-written view of life in modern Britain, in his A Girl And Her Dad . Please read and respond.

    In Starlin’s Progress, Iain Hunter sets out how Kneel Starmer has become so utterly loathed. We doubt that there will be much disagreement, but please pile in and tell us what you loathe about him. We would especially like to hear from somebody who doesn’t loathe him. Let us know please. We also have a new category today ‘Shorts’ for articles less than 800 words that can be read in a couple of minutes. To kick this off is a short on Lent, and our Editor’s giving up eating, completely. What are you giving up for Lent?

    Energy watch 08.00: Demand: 35.38 GW. Total UK Production: 27.37 GW from: Hydrocarbons 22.9%; Wind 31.8%; Imports 23.8%; Biomass 3.3%; Nuclear 11.9%. Solar: 1.4%.

    We are again importing almost 25% of our electricity – economic and strategic ruin in the name of the absurd net zero.

    Please sign this very worthy petition for an Inquiry into rape Islamic rape gangs. We know it will be dismissed, but it might help keep the issue in the public eye. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/711976

    freespeechbacklash.com

  47. It would be very difficult to make it up……
    Our eldest is off to Australia's East Coast on Saturday on a business trip.
    A cyclone named Storm Alfred is about to land there.
    Our youngest flew to Dubai in April last year and the day after he arrived was when the cloud seeding and massive floods happened.
    And they call me rain man. 🙃💦🌧⛈️☔️💧

  48. Jenrick Slaps Down BBC Spin on Sentencing Softness for Minorities

    Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick was on the morning media round today to talk about the growing row over the latest Sentencing Council guidelines. The new rules require pre-sentence reports for ethnic, cultural, and faith ‘minorities’ – a move that some say reduces their chances of being sent to jail. Justice Secretary Mahmood claimed she knew nothing about it, despite having a representative, Claire Fielder at the meeting that signed it off…

    Over on the Today Programme, presenter Emma Barnett went on the attack, saying that this guidance was actually approved in February last year under the Tory government. Jenrick wasn’t having it. He swiftly fact-checked Barnett, pointing out that what she was referring to was a draft report, which said judges “may” consider pre-sentence reports – not require them, as this latest guidance does. He also reminded her that then-Justice Secretary Alex Chalk had called the guidance “ridiculous”…

    Barnett went on to take a swipe at Jenrick for suggesting Mahmood was unaware of the new rules – repeatedly interrupting with “that’s just your perspective”, despite Mahmood admitting she didn’t know about it. Then came a readout from a listener claiming that Jenrick’s warning about discrimination against “straight white men” was “objectively false.” Labour will need to get a handle on this one…

    March 6 2025 @ 08:48

    1. Because of my late brother I can pass muster as a Buddhist or, for that matter a Muslim, due to Libya, story about that, I'm technically Muslim due to one of the houseboys. Since it doesn't matter anymore, there is no one left to embarrass I will also claim I'm homosexshull darling. That, at least should keep me out of the clutches of an Islamic gang in the aptly named pokey!

  50. Being the cultural icon I am I thought I'd weigh in on the 'Snow White' fiasco.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/how-disneys-snow-white-remake-became-a-headache/

    Rachel Zegler is a nasty, ignorant, uneducated, ill-informed, Left wing brat. She has no knowledge of the world, se lives in a small, very privileged bubble and has been gifted a role that would have, if she were not an immature twerp, have guaranteed her endless other roles. Instead, being a bratty, stupid bint she chose to blither on about things she knows nothing about and make a nuisance of herself.

    When even Disney, ultra woke as it is (until the accountants pointed out the sea of red ink) reined her in with a sharp telling off and kicked her repeatedly into doing press for the film rather than her social media dribbling against it shows the extent of the problem.

    If they had sense they'd can it entirely, bin the lot, write the money wasted off and boot Zegler into a deep dark hole and re-shoot the whole thing along the traditional story line.

    2. Never heard of Zegler. Know nothing of Snow White reboot. I won't bother reading the Telegraph link. Ignorance is bliss. I'd rather watch a race to the bottom of the window between two raindrops.

      1. Sigh! It's sunny today not a raindrop to be seen. I suppose I'll have to spit on the window to get my daily fix.

    1. "Moth Mansion" springs to mind.
      They are infesting the walls as well as attics and wardrobes.

    2. 402691+ up ticks,

      Morning W,
      Clearly, what does for me is the continuous voting pattern, party before Country we are our own worst enemies.

  53. Not a struggle:
    Wordle 1,356 3/6
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
    🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  54. I saw a dark cross daubed on the forehead of Winston Marshall on GB News last night.

    Looking down the forum I see that ogga has posted a clip from Fox News where Marco Rubio has the same cross daubed on his forehead.

    On Ash Wednesday this is to show that they are Christians and the cross is daubed on the forehead with the symbolic ashes from Christ's cross.

    1. Winston is a regular member of the congregation at St Barts, Smithfield. The church was full yesterday evening and yes, he was there. I'm impressed that he didn't wipe his forehead. I confess that I do.

      1. My faith doesn't really get on with the symbolic and ceremony, although a good hymn is very pleasing to the soul (I posted a number, both vocal and brass, a week or so ago… the music is sublime). I guess, apart from the abstinence, i'm some kind of an ersatz Friend.

    2. Here in France, the ashes come from the previous year's branches blessed on Palm Sunday. They are kept in a dry place and burnt just before the service; sometimes even at the beginning of the service in front of the congregation.

    3. I did toy with the idea of going shopping after church while the ash cross was still visible, but I had been out a lot that day so went back to see to the dogs.

  56. Back from Morrisons – shocking. Only ONE till open. Disgraceful.

    Then to the farm for the freshest eggs anywhere. Now coffee and crumpet.

    1. Do your shopping, long wait for till, leave trolley 'somewhere' go to another provider.

    2. I visited Fakenham Morrisons in September last year. I was astounded as how scruffy and dirty it had become and how much it had deteriorated since I left Norfolk in 2011.

      All the shrubbery in the car park was lank and overgrown and no one seems to have done any gardening or clearing up of rubbish for years!.

      Even the inside is not as clean and well set out as it used to be. It was a massive disappointment.

      1. Returning from Devon to Norway after Christmas, via Bristol, driving up the main road we were horrified to see the unbelievable litter on the verges, much of it half-submerged in mud and rotten leaves. Exactly as you describe, Grizz, "…no clearing up of rubbish for years!."

    3. Sadly they have gone downhill since they were acquired by a private equity outfit a couple of years ago. We were in our local store this morning, the cashier was bemoaning the state the shop was becoming, no money spent on repairs, etc

  57. From the Telegraph

    Donald Trump is spectacularly right and dangerously wrong
    Maga’s imperialistic overreach is jeopardising the global conservative counter-revolution
    Allister Heath05 March 2025 7:06pm GMT
    Donald Trump is neither the Messiah nor the Devil. The sycophants and the haters are equally wrong. The reality is nuanced. There is a benign Trump, and a malign Trump, and both coexist uneasily within the president’s persona.

    He is spectacularly right on some issues, and dangerously wrong on others. He is an exceptional figure who will mould America for a generation, but his solipsism, loose relationship with the facts and excessive respect for strongmen is encouraging him to gamble with the fate of the free world.

    When Trump is good, he is really, really good. On women’s rights, on fighting anti-Semitism, on Israel, illegal immigration, net zero, dismantling the woke madness, building a colour-blind meritocracy, free speech, tax, deregulation, spending, the war on waste and the dismantling of the managerialist Blob, his policies are inspirational.

    When the malign Trump takes charge, however, he is truly terrible. He has convinced himself of a false, victim-blaming narrative on Ukraine, enjoys humiliating its president on live TV, is forcing Volodymyr Zelensky into submission by cutting off military assistance, and appears to find it difficult to see Vladimir Putin for the genocidal monster that he truly is.

    Trump seems genuine in his desire to bring about peace, and Zelensky has mishandled the situation, but, to those of us forced to rely on Pax Americana, the idea that the US could walk away from the West is terrifying. China’s announcement that it is ready for “any type of war” wasn’t exactly reassuring either.

    Yes, our useless welfarist governments must spend much more on defence, but Trump routinely treats his most loyal allies as vassals or inconsequential supplicants, to be snubbed or taxed or tariffed at will. Everything is transactional; friendships matter for almost nought, to the great chagrin of those of us who love America. He is blowing up his own trade deal with Canada and Mexico on the basis of bogus economics, and wants to expand America’s territory.

    For many US Republicans, the response is simple: they idolise Trump, and reflexively rationalise everything he does. Right-leaning and populist political parties outside America, including the Tories and Reform, cannot fall into the same trap.

    They and their voters were hoping that a Trump wave would liberate them too from the shackles of socialism, high energy prices and wokery, and they loved JD Vance’s Munich speech. But while Benign Trump is indeed shifting the global Overton windows to the Right, Malign Trump is making life difficult for his political fellow-travellers, and fuelling the Left’s global fightback.

    Right-wingers cannot be too deferential, and must back Trump when he is right, and criticise him when he is not. This is beginning to happen.

    Nigel Farage said Vance was “wrong, wrong, wrong” after the vice president dismissed the prospect of European soldiers in Ukraine as “20,000 troops from some random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”, a comment interpreted by many as insulting Britain’s immense sacrifices in Iraq and Afghanistan (Vance says he was misunderstood). Kemi Badenoch has also forcibly distanced herself from Trump over Ukraine.

    The Maga playbook is often imperialistic rather than nationalistic, with Trump’s expansionary ambitions straddling commercial and military considerations a la Chinese belt and road. Foreigners will accept American nationalism, but won’t tolerate American imperialism, especially when it is explicitly extractive.

    The US President is already unpopular in Britain, even among Right-wing voters. Some 76 per cent of voters say he is handling the war in Ukraine badly, against 13 per cent well, a YouGov poll reveals. Reform is polling at 25 per cent and the Tories at 21 per cent, a combined 46 per cent: the most aggressive pro-Trump UK accounts on X are not representative of British Right-wing sentiment. Across Europe, patriotic voters are allergic to seeing their politicians bullied and are rightly worried about trade sanctions.

    The Maga project can’t be transposed in its entirety into the politics of other Western countries; it is not a fully coherent, rationalistic ideological blueprint detached from time and space that can be used to revive every other nation.

    It is politics as showbiz, a manifestation of the Great Man Theory of history, one unique American billionaire’s power play in an increasingly multipolar world, not a comprehensive textbook. One cannot understand Maga without watching past episodes of The Apprentice, or being cognisant of the workings of social media and the attention economy, or studying the anthropology of New York real estate, or grasping why Silicon Valley rebelled against Washington, or acknowledging the dollar’s dominance and Europe’s economic irrelevance.

    Trump wants to put America First: the clue is in the name. What works for the US Right cannot therefore automatically work for the British, Canadian, Taiwanese or Australian Right. America’s perceived national interest will often be in complete opposition to that of other countries. Maga isn’t a manifesto that can be copied and pasted wholesale overseas. Attempting to do so will lead to the political equivalent of organ transplant failure: the recipient’s immune system will attack the alien tissue, treating it as a hostile, incompatible invader.

    The case of Canada illustrates this. Pierre Poilievre, the Right-wing leader, was on course for victory following the disastrous premiership of the uber-woke Justin Trudeau. Then Trump came along, decreed that Canada would be the 51st state and imposed tariffs. Mark Carney, the former Bank of England Governor turned likely Left-wing successor to Trudeau, shot up in the polls. Poilievre is fighting back by being virulently anti-Trump and anti-American. The two countries, by rights the warmest of allies, are now close to a state of war. The King is also Canada’s head of state: where does this put Britain?

    Left-wing elites across the West cannot believe their luck. Their strategy is clear: they can make a few concessions to the Trump agenda by increasing defence spending while betting that the President’s bullying will turn voters against all Right-wing parties and causes. Labour and the Lib Dems hope the backlash to Trump over Ukraine will help the Rejoin cause. Left-wing lawyers will argue spuriously that, contra Reform and perhaps the Tories, we shouldn’t now leave the ECHR as anything that further undermines the “global order” must be resisted. Trump’s imperial overreach may yet derail the global Right-wing counter-revolution that is Britain and Europe’s only hope.

    1. The left-wing bullies have been bullying their own people for too long – they don't like it when Trump turns on them.

    2. Sadly even Douglas Murray is on the wrong side of the Ukraine debate and many who see what's going on there will then bleat about the poor Palestinians. Trump and Vance are among the very few prominent voices seeing the reality of both. Thankfully they also have power and according to a CBS poll, the backing of 79% of Americans.

      1. Fascists traditionally operate on the principle of "Might is Right" where victims are losers and deserve to be punished for being weak.

        The Law of the Jungle is another way of putting it.

        It doesn't make it civilised.

        1. Would you say that members of the Pakistani rape gangs are right wing, left wing or somewhere in the middle?

          2. The question is somewhat ironic as the actions of some extreme left wing people are extreme right!

            What we can be sure of is that Right Wing = BAD

            A sympathetic biographer of Ghenghis Khan might describe him as slightly left of centre – the place where we all should be!

          3. Not ironic at all. Extreme left and extreme right have always been authoritarian and for the non initiated difficult to distinguish apart. A different approach to economics perhaps. No matter how extreme the right it always has to respect market forces which sometimes softens it. The left wing in its extreme might resort to living in a fantasy world denying the theory of relativity or anything which doesn't conform to its smelly orthodoxy.

          4. It's all rather subjective. In Mongolia Genghis Khan is a national hero. A lawgiver and saviour of his people. So….

          5. A TV commercial for a chocolate bar puts it succinctly – is Right Twix better than Left Twix? If you were at the mercy of a woman-with-balls, would the right one produce better progeny than the left one?

    3. Heath is describing his own journalism: sometimes bang on the nail, othertimes spectacularly misguided

    4. Heath is describing his own journalism: sometimes bang on the nail, othertimes spectacularly misguided

    5. I agree with pretty well everything he writes, with a few notable exceptions. Those who know me know what they are.

      First off, I have a strong suspicion that the entire woke lunacy that has hijacked the Left in the same manner the RNLI and the National Trust was hijacked, is a product of the cynical Right. They create a bogey so preposterous and then tacked it to their opponents, like a tail to the donkey, and who were stupid enough to swallow it. Any donkey that tries to swallow its tail gets a tummyache – try it! Then it is quite straightforward to tar both with the same brush and dispense with the opposition far more effectively than fighting elections.

      The other is over Israel (and not "The Jews" as some would insist). The support for the current regime in the Knesset and its actions over provocative neighbours is no better than the support for Putin's Russia, which is engaging in a similar policy in Ukraine. I see no difference, and the evil mind that supports one is no less evil supporting the other.

      It was Jeremy Corbyn and his party's National Executive that bravely pointed out the difference between antisemitism and opposition to the industrial scale demolition of Gaza and hounding of certain ethnic groups on the grounds of religious supremacy. Precious little thanks he got from it, as he was stabbed well and truly in the back by his successor, who is now Prime Minister.

      1. Pro America and Trump. Pro Russia and pro Israel. People can be persuaded by the lies of the MSM if they want but, as I said, do your proper research using all available resources and you will not be a bleeding heart for Ukraine or the fake Palestinians. A people that don't exist and never did. A historical fiction. Just like Zelenskyy, an actor, a crook and a drug addict who's first language is Russian not the Ukrainian dialect. Kidnapping people off the street, literally leaving children on the pavement to young to look after themselves, even press ganging the sick, blind and teenagers to young for combat to send them into the meat grinder. Average duration of survival, one week. Fake all the way to his core. You do realize that is what Vance was referring to when he told Zelenskyy he was done? You can't win a war that you have lost to the point you have to kidnap non combatants and have them killed. At that point you are a criminal not a leader.

        1. I am sure people were having the same argument in the 1930s when discussing the merits of fascism and the feebleness of other systems, including a damnation of the Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Franco had plenty of champions willing to dismiss their opponents, not least in Britain or the USA. Wasn’t Churchill in the political doldrums through the 1930s?

          We were asserted at then that the Jews never existed except as a malign cancer, and warranted their extermination. It was “bleeding hearts” as you put it that took pity on the Jews in their plight. My own sister married the descendant of a Jewish refugee escaping a pogrom in Lithuania, who settled in London and did well, rewarding his gracious hosts not with a campaign of vengeful stabbing and raping, but by running a pharmacy and serving the local community.

          Why is this same old chestnut about “bleeding hearts” being rolled out again, this time with another select class of Untermensch? Perhaps a whole generation has grown up forgetting the consequences of this thinking?

          Germany and Italy did not exist until the 19th century, and the USA not before the 18th. Nations are created, and nations die throughout history. Ukraine was created out of a province of the old Soviet Union, along with a fair number of other new nations, all of which were recognised and many are stable democracies today or would be if they weren’t being shelled by bullies with more might than sense.

          Since it was the Kievan Rus that saw off Genghis Khan and liberated Moscow, it might be argued that Russia is historically a province of Ukraine, rather than the other way round, and that Muscovites should kowtow to Kyiv. All academic, since for better or worse, boundaries and sovereign nations were drawn up in the 1990s. Khrushchev was Ukrainian and Stalin was Georgian. Would that disqualify them from leading a nation based in Moscow?

          Do you condemn the French or Polish Resistance for doing precisely what you are levelling at Zelenskyy? They too did not accept their lot under the Reich and in so doing “prolonged the war”.

          3. Your last argument is daft considering the Kievian Russ were Russians, they did not speak Ukrainian. The whole point of Kiev is that it is tantamount to being the Holy city of Russia, not Ukraine.

            I condemn, Zelenskyy for the reasons I have already give. I don't know how to get it through to you but the Russians and the Ukrainians are not separate people, they are Russians. Just because they have been set against each other does not make that any different. It is a matter of fact being poisoned by people like Zelenskyy while he stashes billions in aid and because he is selling off armaments to the enemies of the West.

            As for the Palestinians, they have a state, it's called Jordan. Judea/Samaria is Jewish and it has been so for 3000 years. I am indifferent to the propaganda of the 1930's because it actually has nothing to do with the present situation. What is going on is the refusal of Islam to accept a Jewish state because it is abhorrent to that religion. Jews are to be exterminated and when that is done, conquer and exterminate Christianity and all other religions that oppose them. If you want to know who the3 modern day NAZIS are read their text book, the Koran.

          4. Nonsense of course, but it’s Thursday’s thread, and few are following this thread today.

  58. Gosh, it's as difficult today to live amongst the normies as during the years of the Scamdemic. My Conservative sister spent yesterday's phone call ( she is 200+ miles north in Wylam, Northumberland) telling me how awful Trump was humiliating that nice President Zelynsky ….. she still gets the Sunday Times each week. She acknowledges that the Paper completely misled her for months on the likely outcome of the US election …. As for my wife and her Polish friends, I cannot venture to say The West provoked Putin …..

    2. I had a chorus of nasty Trump bullying poor little Zelenskyy yesterday. I said Z deserved everything he got. Until the war broke out, even the Guardian ran articles on how corrupt Ukraine was.

  59. Gosh, it's as difficult today to live amongst the normies as during the years of the Scamdemic. My Conservative sister spent yesterday's phone call ( she is 200+ miles north in Wylam, Northumberland) telling me how awful Trump was humiliating that nice President Zelynsky ….. she still gets the Sunday Times each week. She acknowledges that the Paper completely misled her for months on the likely outcome of the US election …. As for my wife and her Polish friends, I cannot venture to say The West provoked Putin …..

  62. Woke William showing – yet again – what a complete plonker he is:

    "Prince William: make NHS staff take career breaks to stop burnout
    The Prince of Wales, visiting a wellbeing centre for hospital staff in Reading, said frontline medical workers needed help to look after their mental health"

      1. No dancing, no music, no colour in you clothing, no Christmas, no Easter. Remind me of a certain problem we are having today with another sect.

        2. TBF – that was more the Major Generals rather than Old Noll himself.
          They were zapped after a few months.

    2. Talk about stating the obvious. Would you want your appendix taken out by a nutter with a zombie knife and a glint in his eye?

      1. I wouldn't even want my appendix taken out by a surgeon who has already worked 12 hour shifts for 7 days in a row.

        i don't know what kind of burnout Prince William has in mind, nor do I know the extremes of working hours to which surgeons are currently put, but it's a hypothetical example which would give me cause for concern.

        1. Stormy could give us more insight. I believe she has worked extra 12 hour shifts because they were short staffed.

  63. The U.S Justice department brought a case against SpaceX for violating federal employment law.

    SpaceX had refused to hire asylum seekers and migrants.

    The case was later dropped when it became clear that under federal law the company could only employ people who were permanent residents of the U.S or had a green card.

    This is clearly what happened with Boeing and why they have had so many faults and disasters.

    SpaceX should sue for malicious prosecution.

    1. Yes. It was two laws that put you in the position of a person being subjected to Morton's fork, as it were.

      1. I sailed frequently to the Channel Isles in July and August when I lived in England but I did not visit the Scillies because my boat had a deep keel and the anchorages were potentially uncomfortable. However, the Bishop's Rock at the western end of the Isles was the first land I saw in 1985 when sailing from the Azores back to St Mawes, the place from which I had sailed in 1984.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f917f2a581d991db9fbeb0dd88cd57af5fe831eeef4bad80310327d25c12d81.png
        Michael Morpurgo wrote several novels set in the Scilly Isles and we read them to our boys when they were little.

        1. In 1956 I was newly qualified and had just joined my first Shackleton Maritime squadron. I was a new member of a ten man crew. We were returning from an exercise in the Atlantic, I was the radar operator and the following exchange took place.
          "Captain to Radar, have you got Sevenstones (Lighthouse) on the radar?"
          Eager and keen me: "Affirmative, Captain."
          Then stick six of them up your a**e."
          I have no idea how to respond so I remain silent.
          Five minutes pass.
          "Captain to Radar, you aren't offended are you?"
          "Uh, no captain."
          "Then stick the other one up your a**e."
          That was my introduction to Squadron life.
          I served for an enjoyable 12 years.

        2. I visited the Isles of Scilly on no fewer than eight occasions during the 1990s (sometimes twice a year). It is one of my favourite places and I am well overdue a return.

          4. Never been to Newbury. Been to Newmarket a few times though.
            And I draughted the component plans for the roof of the new stand that was built there on the Rowley Mile, in the early 1990s.

      2. Every time I look at my copy of that chart I seem to have forgotten exactly where the wreck of HMS Association (Sir Cloudesley Shovell's flagship) from 1707, actually lies!

        My record of relocating it stands at 15 minutes!🙄

        1. The internet gives me 49°51′56″N 6°23′50″W as the latitude and longitude of where HMS Association lies.

          I was very glad to have learnt how to use a sextant and do all the necessary calculations and chartwork in 1984 but although I still have the beloved instrument in its box I would have to relearn how to use it again.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40db5b10bafaf2cd90d248dc6347bf5ebfd0362b0e9a9c199b1ccbaafe6e34a9.jpg

          9°51′56″N 6°23′50″W

  66. Indeed. And the carpark surface was so badly laid that, when it rains, there is a huge puddle that has to be negotiated to reach the door.

    1. Lady Jane Grey was queen for 9 days.

      It is a shame that the current monarch didn't abdicate in fewer days than that!

    2. The Hammer of the Muslims! Who's that soldier thinking of running for London mayor?

  69. Apparently there are over a million people in this country who don't speak any English and we pay for translation services. Not just in the courts but in the NHS and other institutions.

    Of course it suits muslim men. Another hold they have over their women.

    1. Is there a political party in the UK which would make a manifesto commitment to stop giving free translation services to those who cannot speak English?

      In France you have to pay for these services though on one occasion Caroline was paid by the government when she had to interpret for the police when they interviewed a 19 year old man from Jersey who was involved in the drugs trade.

  70. I see that no one appreciated my previous comment about Trump.

    Perhaps a few of you will challenge my comment , repeated down below .

    Morning ,

    No , Trump is a Goliath , my feelings have altered , he is fickle , unbalanced and outrageous .

    Has he forgotten that if it wasn't for Europeans , there would be no USA citizens

    Millions of Americans are only a few generations away from Europe ..

    Blah blah blah , my suspicions about Trump and Vance are almost spot on .

    Starmer the harmer is of a different genre .. and I am furious that the media are calling him the best strongest statesman since Churchill.

    Blinking insult to us all , Starmer is a real red Commie taking on the Eastern block commies ..

    1. If you explain the context of your comment Belle, it would help. I really don't know what you are reacting to in your remarks.

  73. Zelensky thanks EU for support ahead of key defence summit. 6 March 2025.

    Volodymyr Zelensky has thanked the EU for ensuring that Ukraine is “not alone” ahead of a key defence summit in Brussels.

    The comments came after the US cut off its intelligence channels with Kyiv, threatening Ukrainian operations in their war against Russia.

    Speaking this morning, Mr Zelensky made clear his “appreciation” for the EU’s support from the “very beginning of the war”.

    This is the EU “leadership” that not one person in Europe has ever voted for.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/06/russia-ukraine-deal-trump-zelensky-putin-war-latest-news/

        3. As I've said many times before, though she is useless as a politician, she's not bad looking for her age and, if she were looking for a new job, working as a model doing Grannie Porn would be perfect for her.

    2. Zelenskyy is alone. The EU leaders are nothing but posturing baboons of hot air. Trump says no and that's that. See remark above. Trump is ignoring the EU.

    1. Why doesn't the Justice Secretary believe in equality before the law? That's a very hard one, can't fathom it.

      Or does the fact that she is an ethnic minority, and a muslim who has got into power here is doing what they do when they get into power – try to make our lovely country into the shitholes they or their parents were only too happy to escape from. Nobody who does not have ethnicity or integrated assimilation in this country going back continuously for at least four generations should be allowed to hold high office. That would include Johnson, Braverman, Sunak and plenty of others.

          1. Join me in my daily prayer for Lent. Grant that islam will be swept from this country.

      2. Are you not able to self identify as a black, one legged lesbian Muslim and claim equivalent rights?

        1. Identifying as any of those itself gives protection – one doesn’t need to be more than one. Sadly I don’t think I would get away with it – unlike some of the people in the latter category, lying is not part of my religion.

      3. Actually, according to the Telegaffe today, the Justice Secretary has written to the Sentencing Guidelines people to say that she does NOT support the changes, wants them removed and that the idea of different tariffs by race, minority etc is not Government policy – everyone should be equal. We know that in fact that's not true but it's nice that she is officially opposed to the idea!

        BBC – "Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has told the Sentencing Council she will review its powers and "legislate, if necessary", following a row over its new guidance on sending people to jail. The changes, which are due to come into force in England and Wales next month, would make the ethnicity or faith of an offender a bigger factor when deciding whether to jail them. Ministers do not have the power to overturn the guidance, but in a letter Mahmood urged the council's chairman to reconsider 'as soon as possible'. "

        1. Ha ha, how did those Guidelines get so far down the road without her endorsement? She’s just running scared at the response.

  76. Equality before the law is now well and truly over

    Progressive dogma has infected the sentencing council. Without urgent reform, public trust will sink even further

    Suella Braverman
    06 March 2025 9:28am GMT

    “Justice must be done and also seen to be done” – the old maxim is not a mere rhetorical flourish. It is the bedrock of public confidence in the law. If people lose faith in the impartiality of the system, they cease to respect it. And without that respect, the social contract begins to fray. To maintain order, we must all believe in a simple creed: that justice is blind, that the law is applied without fear or favour, and that everyone is equal before it. That is why the statue of Lady Justice, blindfolded and holding the scales, stands atop the Old Bailey in London.

    But that belief has been eroding for years. Too many people no longer trust the police to turn up to the scene of a crime, let alone solve one. Too many see the judiciary as an extension of the liberal establishment, prioritising fashionable causes over the rule of law. When a judge is exposed for having liked pro-Palestinian extremist material online before ruling on a case involving defendants accused of glorifying terrorism – and then allows them to walk free – it corrodes confidence.

    When hundreds of the summer rioters are jailed within days but a Labour MP, convicted of common assault, gets a suspended sentence, ordinary people rightly feel that the scales are tipped. When prisons are so full that convicted rapists and domestic abusers are being released early, yet citizens can be locked up for offensive social media posts, it is obvious that something has gone terribly wrong.

    Until now, these concerns were dismissed as paranoia, the fevered imaginings of conspiracy theorists. But two recent events have confirmed, beyond doubt, that political correctness is interfering with justice. First, in the aftermath of the Southport murders, Chief Constable Serena Kennedy admitted that the Crown Prosecution Service advised police not to disclose the perpetrator’s background or religion.

    Jonathan Hall KC, the Government’s counter-terrorism advisor, was scathing: “The failure by the authorities to spell out the basic and sober facts about the attacker led to contagious disinformation about a murderous Muslim asylum-seeker that stoked the ensuing riots.” In other words, the authorities created the conditions for misinformation by suppressing facts. Would they have hesitated if the attacker had been a white man? It is hard to believe they would.

    And then, there are the Sentencing Council’s new guidelines. These state that a Pre-Sentence Report (PSR) will be required only if the defendant is from an ethnic minority, a cultural or faith minority, transgender or pregnant. The logic is chilling: certain groups deserve more leniency in sentencing because of their identity. As Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick put it, this is blatant discrimination against straight white men. A PSR can make the difference between a custodial and non-custodial sentence. So, if you are a white working-class man who has faced hardship, tough luck – you will not get the same consideration as someone from a different background.

    The Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is now scrambling to distance herself from this debacle. But as Robert has pointed out, her department was represented at the meeting where these guidelines were approved. She oversees the Sentencing Council and appoints its members. To pretend she had nothing to do with this is an insult to the intelligence of the public.

    The justification given by the Sentencing Council is as revealing as it is alarming. They claim that these measures are needed to address “disparities in sentencing outcomes.” This is social engineering disguised as justice. It means that if you are white, you are more likely to receive a harsher punishment than an ethnic minority offender – not because of the nature of your crime, but because of your skin colour. This is what the ideology of “equity” looks like in practice: unequal treatment before the law in the name of progressive politics.

    Why is this so wrong? First and foremost, it shatters the foundational principle of equality before the law. If justice is not blind, if identity dictates sentencing, then the very concept of fairness collapses. The justice system is not supposed to rectify historical grievances; it exists to dispense justice in the present, based on individual actions, not collective identity. When identity-based sentencing is introduced, it invites resentment and division and absolves wrong-doers of personal responsibility. This selective victimhood tells one part of the population that they are inherently less deserving of leniency, regardless of their personal circumstances. This is a recipe for deepening social fracture and eroding trust in the rule of law.

    Second, this approach incentivises perverse outcomes. If leniency is granted based on race, culture, or gender identity, what stops defendants from gaming the system? We have already seen the absurd spectacle of male criminals self-identifying as women to be placed in female prisons. Now, the logic of differential sentencing suggests that identity will play an even greater role in judicial outcomes. This encourages dishonesty and undermines the credibility of the courts.

    What can be done? The Sentencing Council is a relic of the Blair years, part of the sprawling web of unelected, unaccountable bodies that dilute ministerial power. A serious reform agenda should consider abolishing it altogether and returning control over sentencing policy to elected ministers, who can be held to account. The council was created to ensure consistency in sentencing, but that function can and should be carried out by the Ministry of Justice. The truth is that progressive dogma has infected the system and, without radical reform, it won’t change.

    The public has tolerated this drift for too long. The government cannot afford to ignore the growing crisis of confidence in our criminal justice system. If justice is not blind, if the law is applied selectively, if people feel that their background determines their treatment in court, then respect for the system will collapse. And when that happens, what follows is not fairness or harmony, but disorder. We’ve been talking about two-tier justice for years. Now we see it in black and white.

    1. Dear Suella,
      Tell us something we don't know.
      First Base: Undo every Act of Parliament after 1999. Then restore according to David Starkey.
      Second Base: Act fast & hard against the civil serpents. Only Dominic Cummings knows how.

      Suella dear, you're still stuck in catch-up mode. That's because you spent your entire political career with a party that gave up in 2000. They are duds led by a dud.
      Make a move at the next transfer window to the Reform Party. They need more heavy artillery.

    3. After reading that, I have never been so glad that we sold up and left the UK back in 1998.

    1. Nah. Ramp it up.
      Civil war is the only way out. You can't vote your way out of this one.

    2. When I see that I move pork sausages into it.

      Anything muslim should be banned – including muslim.

          1. I am varnishing a box and have found an old tin of varnish which I am straining through a discarded pair of Caroline's tights.

    3. Warburton's crumpets return to Waitrose
      Oh good I can now boycott those ritually slaughtered halal crumpets again
      Not bought anything Warburtons for years
      Not paying jizjra

      1. Always buy Warburtons. Seeded batch bread is my favorite. I take it you're joking?

        1. Nope check the packaging all have the halal symbol which means they pay a jizra tax to the mussies to have
          Edit see response to Stig above the X link

        2. I object to all of that rubbish frankly, but I haven’t bought Warburton’s products for some time.

        1. I make delicious GF sourdough discard crumpets (got to be GF with my coeliac disease!) which everyone devours because both the flavour and the texture are so good. They do sometimes look a bit peculiar, though.

          4. It was always oodles of butter and my jams of preference were either raspberry seedless or Morello cherry (both from Wilkins of Tiptree) or my own home-made raspberry seedless.
            I hate raspberry seeds as they always get stuck in my teeth. I love fresh strawberries but I loathe strawberries after they have been cooked. I cannot eat strawberry jam, jelly, custard or pies.

        2. Living in a parallel food desert, food parcels of crumpets and pikelets gratefully received, Grizz.
          😉

      4. We have just stopped eating their crumpets, as that to us, the quality has gone down.

      1. JJust last Saturday I was in Sainsbury's with my Ma, buying a chicken for Sunday. I was just about to take one from the shelf when I saw the halal section sign.
        My Ma is quite deaf so fortunately I had to say very loudly that we wouldn't buy that one because it was halal and had been killed inhumanely.

      2. That's why – apart from pork – I never buy meat from supermarkets.
        They always take the easy way out; for them if not for the animals drowning in their own blood.

  78. Mongo and I are watching Crufts. He snorted at the agility bit and whuffed at the obedience bit. Then he walked off. I would say flounced, but as his usual walk is more of a forward roll that never really falls….

    Lucy and Oscar are lying outside under an umbrella – heads under the brolly, bodies in the sun. The Warqueen is pretending she can do gardening.

    1. I'm an ardent monarchist as you all know. But this really pushed me to the end of my tether to say the least. Highly inappropriate and a betrayal of his spiritual function.

      1. It is possible to revere the monarchy while despising the monarch – but at the moment it is becoming increasingly difficult.

        1. I belive in the Constitutional Monarchy system. It works very well elsewhere but that is because they have retained some of their powers. The British monarchy has become toothless.

          1. "The British monarchy has become toothless.", and with the sad death of the late Queen and her Husband, pointless.

  80. Victoria Derbyshire on BBCs "flagship" programme Newsnight.. managed to track down the most extreme Leftie activist in congress out of the 435 representatives. Delia C. Ramirez, the Representative from Illinois.

    VICTORIA: "Delia welcome to the show. Question: Would say Donald J Trump is an evil fascist, a racist, a bigot, clearly accepted cash from Russia.. many many people say he is a bad influence on children. The police have mentioned him several times in reports."
    DELIA: "Yes I would."
    VICTORIA: "Thank you.."
    .
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhs8X8DFxmU

    1. Don't watch the MSM, they are irrelevant. As irrelevant as those posturing ninny's of the EU bureaucracy. Trump has refused to deal with them. Not one EU official has been invited to Washington since he took power. Trump completely ignores them. We should be dealing with them and the likes of the BBC in exactly the same way. First order on our agenda should be to get rid of that spineless liar in number 10. God! lying to the face of the President. Didn't he really know that Trump knew he was lying about freedom of speech? Is he that dumb and how is it that someone so stupid is our PM?

      1. 402691+ up ticks,

        Morning JR,
        One of the major perils of spite filled tactical voting.

      2. Neither do we watch MSM. It's both frustrating and sickening at the same time.

        If only the idiots that voted Labour in, or preferably the majority that didn't vote them in would exercise their right of recall, where they can. It only takes 10% of the voters in any constituency, I believe, to trigger a re-election. But they won't. They deserve what's coming, but the rest of us don't.

    2. It's funny, isn't it? They really do think they're being 'balanced' in their reporting. In reality they're just putrid biased bigots.

    3. She is horrible. So left wing she's flying in a permanent low down and ground scraping circle.

  81. Hallo all. Not having a good day. Breathing is terrible and I'm taking two drugs for it that really don't agree with me, it's called an "emergency pack" so, thank God, I don't have to take it all the time.
    Anyway. I put up that story about the city of Alexandra and climate change yesterday and pointed out what a fraud the story was. Last night this video came into me feed so putting it up for you. It's Bjorn Lomborg an eminently sane climatologist pointing out some home truths about the insane policy that Millipede and co are destroying this country with.

    Scientist Destroys Green Energy Narrative w/ Facts in Minutes | Bjørn Lomborg
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UL9AeeFyNKw&t=34s

    2. Take care, Jonathan. That doesn't read well – have you seen a doctor?
      Hope it goes off quickly, your breathing difficulties.

    3. So sorry you are having breathing difficulties , are you using an inhaler ..

      Does steam help.

      I really feel for you and you must be very frightened .

      Have you got family or a friend nearby ..

      Failing that please ring 111 Nhs … they will interact with you , and act or reassure you … please do that now xx

      1. None of the above helps but I’m supposed to have oxygen but after an altercation with the powers that be at the hospital, they took it away from me. I wasn’t using it the way the tyrant wanted me to despite the fact I had explained it was impossible to physically do what she wanted. I have a phone call appointment with my doctor to get it back. Not until next month though.
        No, I’m not frightened, it’s just really tedious because you struggle to breath and it is like breathing through a pillow over your face. I deal with it by knowing it will pass and if not, I will pass and that solves that! Mostly it is just very tiering which is why I have had enough by 4 in the afternoon and go to bed.
        No family, all dead, my brother was the last one. He died last November but I never saw him anyway since he did not live in the UK. All friends are in the USA. Sometimes I phone on WhatsApp but not often unless it is to argue, they are almost all Democrats.
        Being Orthodox actually helps me. It is the discipline not the wishful thinking or what motivates most people. In all honesty I don’t know what is coming but ‘trust in the Lord’ is not an abstraction. It’s a matter of that is all you can do. Life/death, we tetter on a precipice. So you might as just well stand and wait in trust.

        1. Very philosophical, Jonathan. NoTTLers would miss you – I would, for sure.
          So, you hang on in tjere, you hear?

        2. I was a financial advisor for a couple of years and most of the people I saw needed life insurance but that’s not why they came to see me. After completing the ‘Fact Find’ I explained their need, as my licence dictated, I explained their need for life insurance to which most replied ‘I don’t need that as I’m fit and healthy’. I then thanked the for their time and just before the left I would say ‘Thank you for your time and before you go hears my phone number, if you give me a call a month or so before you die I’ll arrange the life insurance to protect you family. But I don’t know when I’m going to die response shall we do it now.
          Never taken up and I had a couple of complaints but the company rulled on my side.

  82. Talking point.

    Keir Stalin-Starmer uttered these precise words in the White House, t'other day, before a worldwide audience:

    "We have had free speech for a very very long time in the United Kingdom and it — er, er, — will last for a very very long time." … "In relation to free speech in the UK, I'm very proud of our history there."

    Reading between the lines I can see that he may use this as a get-out ticket while continuing his overtly socialist Big Brother tactics of curtailing free speech by force, and having the judiciary act as his paid henchmen, in order to perpetuate his overall strategy.

    His use of 'had', as the third word in his diatribe, could be construed as having the effect of negating that that first clause. Also he is 'proud' of the history (i.e. the past) but doesn't go on to discuss the future.

    This mealy-mouthed wannabe Trotsky is gobbing-off platitudes while, at the same time, continuing his unimpeded destruction of the country as we know it. The Defence and Security of the Realm (any government's prime remit) has been abandoned in his headlong mission to destroy every single fabric of British Society. This is, by any measure, treasonable conduct.

    Impeachment, anyone?

    1. So perfectly put Grizzly , I have been having bad dreams , a sort of return of PTSD .. that man Starmer is kicking us down down down into the ring of fire .

    1. I find it impossible to believe that once the government strays into the realm of cruel and unusual punishment, torture, nothing can be done about it. What about habeas corpus? A quick definition from Wikipedia.

      Habeas Corpus. A writ that a person may seek from a court to obtain immediate release from an unlawful confinement, as when the confinement has occurred through a means that violated the person's constitutional rights.
      Are we not in that territory now?

        1. It is part of the Common Law which is part of the English Constitution. Not all of the Constitution is unwritten, much of it is in writing and habeas corpus is very much recognized as a central part of the Constitution.

  85. 402691+ up ticks,

    My belief is the king would be well advised to stand WITH President Trump.

    Dt,

    The King must stand up to Donald Trump, says Canadian governor

    1. Sadly the KIng doesn't seem to be very well advised by his advisors at the moment. He is a craven, muslim kow-towing disgrace.

          2. She might agree with her brother of course. She keeps quiet so we don't actually know. I guess that in itself is an improvement?

    6. Charles is supposed to be king of Canada and as much of a defender of Canada as he should be of the UK.

      Very clever immitating Trump and calling numbnuts a governor. On behalf of every Canadian. – up yours!

        1. Skulls are thick. Get the forehead to their nose and there is blood everywhere. Looks quite pretty really.

          4. I guess it’s a nasty experience.

            Self defence instruction dictated that if in the position to receive one, the best response was chin to chest in the hope that the kisser smashed his nose on your forehead.

      1. 402691+ up ticks,

        Afternoon JR,

        I believe he was psychic I think he said he saw a headache coming on.

    1. A lot of people need to see this and listen.
      This is virtually what Sir Lord Richard Dannatt said when he was last spoken to by the bbc.
      He hasn't been seen on tv since.
      Our msm or our useless politicians can't handle the truth.

    2. Trump should be making the most of this. Europe needs to be reminded how this came about and the part that the Bidens, Obama, the Clintons and the CIA had in stirring up trouble in Ukraine prior to 2014.

      It ought to cause the BBC great embarrassment as well. For a while it produced many reports on 'the most corrupt country in Europe' but then went very quiet.

  91. Nature Photography Contest 2024 winners and finalists – in pictures
     https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/5157e95daff1a01fd997580340193891b7d1e5a1/81_0_2339_1404/master/2339.jpg?width=980&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=1dd663f7511be6653ec05e4a0407eb09 Polar Bear Amid Fireweed Blooms by Christopher Paetkau, winner of the Photography of the Year award

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/74037a4d47146262576b57b80a00f578dd956f6f/0_0_2500_1667/master/2500.jpg?width=700&quality=45&auto=format&fit=max&dpr=2&s=647a44cd6fa232b62fe9ccd267bdcf82 Photographer of the year 2024: Emperor Spy by Thomas Vijayan

    More below
    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/mar/04/nature-photography-contest-2024-winners-and-finalists-in-pictures

  93. Now there's a surprise – the police say the police acted reasonably when investigating the Allison Pearson fiasco!
    "Essex Police "acted reasonably" during an investigation into journalist Allison Pearson over a social media post by the Daily Telegraph columnist, a report states. The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) looked into the force's actions after Pearson claimed she felt "bullied and threatened" when officers visited her home in Essex on Remembrance Sunday in November. The Essex force has previously defended its since-dropped investigation over an allegation that a social media post incited racial hatred." Marking their own homework!

  94. Cash-Strapped Hope Not Hate Resorts to Temporary Staff Contracts as Donations Dwindle
    Labour-linked campaign group Hope Not Hate appears to be resorting to short-term, fixed-term staff contracts as their donations more than half in just two years. The Hope Not Hate Charitable Trust took just £417,000 in donations and legacies in their most recent year of reporting, according to accounts from October last year. That is in stark contrast to the £715,000 they took the year before, and over half the amount of the year before that when they took over £1 million in donations and legacies. More like crumbs not cash…

  95. Reform’s Lowe Lands Punchy Intervention on Farage

    Reform MP Rupert Lowe’s interview with Andrew Pierce, published in the Mail last night, is unlikely to go down well over at Reform HQ. In between discussions about cracking down on immigration and his vision to save Britain, Lowe was asked whether Nigel Farage would make a good Prime Minister. His response wasn’t exactly in line with the party’s usual rhetoric:
    “It’s too early to say if Nigel will deliver the goods. He can only do so if he surrounds himself with the right people. He has messianic qualities. But will those qualities translate into sage leadership? I don’t know.”

    Lowe went on to explain that Reform need to “change from being a protest party led by the Messiah into being a properly structured party with a frontbench” stating that he will not be “by Nigel’s side at the next election unless we have a proper plan to change the way we govern from top to bottom.” Restructuring and ‘professionalising’ the party has been one of Reform’s top talking points recently…

    Meanwhile, Guido has picked up a few grumbles from Reform HQ about Lowe’s rather prolific X activity. Teething problems…

    6 March 2025 @ 12:22

    2. Nigel has been rather quiet lately. Wonder if he’s feeling a bit put out by Lowe’s X comments. So far I like what he has to say.

    1. You want fre speech?

      over in yer Canada if I question the legitimacy of the thousands of residential school graves and the fact that not one of the supposed graves has been dug up and the remains exhumed, there is a law against such irrational thought.

      Not forgetting Tamara Lich from the truckers convoy, she is still on trial for mischief. Maybe, possibly the judge will rule on the case next month. Trudeau has been seeking a ten year prison term for her, obviously wants a martyr for the non woke.

      1. Supposedly the whole thing is a hoax. A result of hysteria. It reminds me of the false narrative of children being sacrificed in Satanic rituals in the tunnels of the Presidio in San Francisco. All nonsense careers ruined and innocent people jailed.

        1. We had the same thing round the Clinton/Trump election. Some MAGA supporters started a rumour that Clington was involved in sacrificing children in the basement of a pizza place in DC. First problem was, the place did not have a basement. After the staff receivied death threats, some idiot turned up and shot the place up "to free the children" while other MAGA types piled on with faked post and pics quoting the Qanon conspiracy theories. And others tried to burn it down.

          All proof positive that you just can't fix the utterly stupid.

          1. I remember that well. Yes, more stupid people. But that was before “MAGA ” I think the party that demonstrated how stupid they can be were the Democrats sitting with their childish paddles during the President speech and obscene enough not to stand for the murdered. Hardly covering themselves in glory. And then MSNBC and its disgusting remarks concerning the young boy with cancer. Who but the insane would want to be associated with such people. As you know, San Francisco is almost 100% Democrat so it doesn’t take MAGA types to make fools of themselves.

      1. Nope. That’s the good thing about modern phones. It prevents police from doing that, for the most part. And they have to be very careful in states where citizens have the right to open/carry.

  97. Gorgeous out. So warm that the self-opening vent on the west side of the greenhouse actually opened! Completed a DIY bodge (that's my forté) by using several bits of the offcuts one always keeps…just in case they might be useful!

    Soon be teatime.

  99. Afternoon all. Just back from the Fellowship Lunch. The beef, unusually, was a bit tough, so the boys had a nice surprise for tea.
    Request from Canada or from True Doh? The two are not the same.

    1. I am often disappointed when i have ordered steak. Even in quite poshish places. They often get it completely wrong.

      Dolly and Harry vehemently disagree !

      My last steak which was at Rules in Covent Garden was supposed to be medium rare. It was dry and chewy. And at £34.95 not including any veggies i was not happy.

      Was there with some Nottlers so didn't make a complaint. Didn't want to spoil such a nice mood.

      There is a chain restaurant near me that does steaks. Ranchos.

      They get it right every time no matter what the cut. At less than half the price. Plus i didn't have to buy a train ticket or get a Cab !

      1. When I'm eating out, I usually choose fish.
        A good fish chef is prized beyond rubies and pearls.

        1. True. Mostly.

          Last time i was at Horsell with the (Senior) Nottlers i wanted something light so i ordered the fish and chips. Small portion because i was feeling a little fragile. (DT's).

          The batter was like glass. I really didn't enjoy it.

          I would normally order their Liver, mash and bacon but Alf the Great is bigger than me and i can't stop him stealing it. Harry Kobeans also pinched the bacon when i wasn't looking !

          2. It balances out.

            We get 20% discount on the Bill through Alf.

            And I get to meet the most interesting people. Recommends for fab Deli's.

            They all of course think i am wonderful and insist on paying for my cocktails. :@)

        2. Proverbs 31.10

          Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies …

          which begs the question: "What does Ruby charge!"

      2. Normally when I have beef there it’s very tender. Not so today. My loss was the dogs’ gain.

        1. I have the great good fortune of having a highly competent live-in chef. As a consequence, we eat out in England about once every two years.

          1. It pleases me that you are so happy with your and the MR's company.

            I am not so solid on that front and am a bit needy.

            Obviously not to the Duchess of Sussex standards but i am gratified when i walk in and the Nottlers having a pre dinner drink faces light up with smiles.

            Also two of the regular attendees are stone deaf. I'm thinking of introducing flash cards !

            I also enjoy showing off which is why i do Summer parties.

            Just me.

          2. It wasn’t so much for the food as the company, although normally the meals are excellent. The strawberry pavlova was delicious.

    2. Probably manipulated by the emporer, he is using Trump as away to shift attention away from his record.

  100. 402691+ up ticks,

    Does this mean that ethnic minorities will be pre judged before a courtroom appearence as in, this pakistani chap WAS guilty but only a little bit, not so much, a tiny weenie bit, as for the honky chap first up in court tomorrow and have the courts key chucker on standby.

    Suella Braverman
    Equality before the law is now well and truly over

      1. She puts a lot of work in locally. A good constituency MP. But at Westminster she was continually blocked by her own party.

  101. I don't know where he is . . . but I know where he's been!
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/481816747_9118134704901810_2395953983392347678_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=aa7b47&_nc_ohc=Qo7XoOJvh8EQ7kNvgGnoq3I&_nc_oc=AdgQBMbMHFRSpx_XEkUkIRG9y-eE46QRy7AX56neH2zNAmwNlYRzodLudrHf4B4aBn8BBY-2fUNsZzx72Fh_-wXp&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&_nc_gid=ABB2ppSDbK3Nc1yNRqVUonY&oh=00_AYDo50v7G_qtmQhM-xKmF1nc2hGMN765YQ7mhSO0BgBeSQ&oe=67CF840A

    4. So far this week we have had forest fires, tornado warnings, torrential rain, high wind warnings and sunny skies.
      So much for our spring break.

  103. Farage acts like a ‘messiah’, says Reform MP
    Rupert Lowe warns leader he will not be ‘by his side at the next election’ unless party’s governance is overhauled
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/06/farage-acts-like-a-messiah-says-reform-mp/

    BTL

    In my view we need both Farage and Lowe in the party and we also need to bring back Ben Habib. Of the three I think that Lowe probably has the safest pair of hands and the most common sense.

    The two things that could destroy Farage are his hubris and his attitude towards Tommy Robinson. It is quite acceptable for Farage to say that he does not want Robinson in the Reform Party but quite unacceptable for him not to express outrage at the obscene way in which Robinson is being treated.

  104. Radio news headline: "Starmer has backed calls to scrap new guidelines from the Independent Sentencing Council…"

    Oh, dear. Is he beginning to show signs of developing a political instinct?

    3. Perhaps Cur Ikea Slammer could apply his mind to the obscene discrepancy between the violent thug Labour MP being let off richly deserved prison with middle-aged ladies being banged up for 2 year for writing words which someone unspecified found hurtful.

  105. Good afternoon, gloriously sunny and quite warm but too early for Spring clothes .

  107. Wordle No. 1,356 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 6 Mar 2025

    A canny Birdie Three?

    1. Nice one. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,356 4/6

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

    3. Proudly following in your footsteps

      Wordle 1,356 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩🟨
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Nice one.

      A 3 here too.

      Wordle 1,356 3/6

      🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
      🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  108. Luckily it's not her money, it's ours!
    "Proposing an 800 billion euro (£670 billion) defence package, von der Leyen [Fonda Lyin'] said this was a "watershed moment", adding: "Europe faces a clear and present danger and therefore Europe has to be able to protect itself, to defend itself, as we have to put Ukraine in a position to protect itself and to push for a lasting and just peace."

  109. Luckily it's not her money, it's ours!
    "Proposing an 800 billion euro (£670 billion) defence package, von der Leyen [Fonda Lyin'] said this was a "watershed moment", adding: "Europe faces a clear and present danger and therefore Europe has to be able to protect itself, to defend itself, as we have to put Ukraine in a position to protect itself and to push for a lasting and just peace."

  110. Just spent a couple of hours in the garden , moh has treated the grass after scarifying it , looks blue and terrible ( the grass)

    Earlier this morning we had appointments at surgery for our invitation to take the RSV vaccine.. respiratory syncytial virus is rampant at the moment .. so the NHS says .. one has to be over 75yrs to be invited .

    The vaccination cost to the NHS is £158.00 per dose… eeek.

    I still cannot believe they mean us .. how on earth did we reach our late seventies ?

    On a gardening theme , I have just pruned back heavily ~Salvia Hot Lips .. should I have done that ?

    The compost bin has revealed some beautiful rich dark soil.. how on earth does that happen , how can peelings , grapefruit skins , duff lettuce , and all those bits and pieces become rich soil without any help?

  111. Nice one – a great result from my starter word gave me a decent shot at an eagle but had to settle for birdie!

    Wordle 1,356 3/6

    🟨🟨⬜🟨🟨
    ⬜🟨🟨🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  113. https://x.com/RupertLowe10/status/1897360612654465107 Such was my darling no2 son, sensitive but strong , and pilloried and sent for Racial awareness training when he worked for M&S last year , all because he mentioned his Grandma ( my mother ) was killed by a car driven by a drugged up black man in South Africa .. he was reported because an ethnic worker over heard the lunchtime conversation and he was reported ..

    He was punished salary wise and had a bad report written about him.. His confidence was shattered ..

    2. This is appalling and we are very alarmed at this story.

      It is truly a foul and repulsive police state that the UK has become.

    3. Some radio news reports said Starmer was supporting calls for the scrapping of these guidelines but I suspect he's just sniffing the wind.

    4. It used to be called Telling Tales when I was at school, and the offender was dealt with accordingly, if not by the staff, then by his/her classmates.

    1. I was going to have life membership of the NT but the cost and the wokeness put me off.

      1. Ditto. I gave the MR life membership of the RHS some 30 years ago. That, too, has gone woke and DIE. I wouldn't give them a penny nowadays.

      2. I was a member but resigned 30 years ago after finding out how much many of it's trustees were getting

    1. Yes Bill, worms .

      I guess the emergence of healthy compost is similar the the wonderous birth of an intact baby, an absolute miracle .. and I will always say how even at my stage in life .. somethings are just so wonderful.

      Yesterday, during the warmth of the afternoon I took Pip spaniel for a gallop on the heathland at Arne .. the bees were buzzing on the gorse , I was the only one apart from a herd of grazing horses who thankfully ignored me .

      I have one of those magic watches and had nearly 6,000 steps counted and nearly 3 miles registered , and felt very thirsty .. so was the dog .. called into the local small farm shop to buy some more bird food , fill the water container to give him a drink, they sell plants . fresh milk , local meat etc .. but as I entered the plant area , a pair of butterflies , Red Admirals were swirling around the plants that were blossoming , but one of the butterflies had half a wing .. perhaps a cat had grabbed it , but it was fluttering normally, how amazing was that..

  118. I thought that the justice system was supposed to be separate from the Executive and the legislature,
    When there have been complaints about two tier justice and sentencing in the past, the government has always said the the judiciary is independent.
    Now with the latest proposed two tier guidelines it appears that judges are influenced into how they apply the law.

  119. Bacteria mainly, with the help of small red worms. My compost bin was alive with the worms and I kept as many as possible after I had emptied the bin. Three and a half builder barrowloads of dark moist compost this year. Worth the wait. I also have a mass of leaves rotting down, leaf mould is excellent for soil improvement.

    Sprinkling some high nitrogen fertiliser on the layers of peelings, grass etc. helps the rotting process.

  121. ‘For £3,000 you can be told how guilty you should be’: Why members are deserting the National Trust
    As costs soar and members flee, has the charity sold out its legacy for ‘woke’ politics?
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/03/06/why-members-are-deserting-the-national-trust/

    BTL

    How did people who loathe Britain and despise its history worm their way into the National Trust and replace those who love their country and are proud of its history and achievements?

  124. Apropos two-tier justice….I am reminded of my visits to University Law Departments in Czechoslovakia (as it then was) in the early 1990s.

    I endeavoured to explain the principle of being treated as innocent unless and until convicted. Blank looks all round. The Dean of the Law Department at Olomouc University said: "But you would not be in the dock unless you had done what the police said you did…."

    Beginning to sound rather familiar in yer Blighty.

    1. “The innocent don't need lawyers”. Wasn't that a line that Arthur Miller used in The Crucible? The concept is anyway very Salem.

    2. Same in Hongkong.
      He's in court.. so must be guilty.
      Of course 99/100 it's true.

      1. Wasn't the phrase "He must be guilty or he wouldn't be here, Number One Gun FIRE!" part of the chant for timing the firing of a gun salute?

    1. This subject comes up now and then, usually to praise the Muslim and condemn the Briton. The most notorious example was Channel 4's 'Slaughterhouse: The Task Of Blood' (2005) in which the ordinary slaughterhouse was apparently run by bone-headed knuckle-draggers who enjoyed nothing more than tormenting the animals as they came in whereas the Muslim operation was shown to be a place in which the slaughtermen treated the animals with great respect. All was calmness, order and peace (well, until the cow had its throat cut and thrashed around like a shark on the end of a fishing line).

      Unfortunately, the BBC report (2015) on the Thirsk slaughterhouse (mentioned above) showed quite the opposite.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-31094229

    1. Having worked in one, my experiences were positive, perhaps because it was relatively small, but the animals hardly knew what was about to happen, the throughput was very fast.
      I assume the smell of death was pervasive but the whole operation would have fallen apart if the animals could not be controlled.

  129. A friend has booked for us to go and hear Douglas Murray talk in Westminster Central Hall on 14 April. It's a Speccie event so he'll be interviewed by Gove. I'll still be interested to hear what they have to say, though some subjects will undoubtedly make me cringe.

  131. In this day and age, Our Susan, the innocent are the ones who most NEED a lawyer….

    1. Preferably one who doesn't recommend pleading guilty to avoid a long period on remand?

  133. UK and Ireland have 'turned a page on the turbulent years'

    The UK and Ireland have "turned a page on the turbulent years" in their relationship and are set on a meaningful partnership, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said. He was speaking alongside the Taoiseach (Irish PM) Micheál Martin as part of a UK-Ireland summit in Liverpool. Sir Keir said the event marked a "new era" between the two governments, which was the "right thing to do…given the global situation".

    The Taoiseach said he appreciated the prime minister's "proactivity" in resetting relations with the Irish government after years of difficulties with the Conservatives during Brexit negotiations but that Ireland reserved the right to invoke the Ulster Plantation, Cromwell, the potato famine and the 1916 Easter Uprising should Nigel Farage become prime minister.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9817w0k61jo

    [Only some of the above is true.]

    1. This is the same Ireland that is recruiting asylum seekers into their police and armed forces – mind you, that might be a really smart ploy to send them to Ukraine??

    2. "…reserved the right to invoke the Ulster Plantation, Cromwell, the potato famine and the 1916 Easter Uprising should Nigel Farage become prime minister."

      And what about the Vikings, then?

    3. Oh no – expect the Troubles to start again any moment now that twerp's tempted Fate.

    1. No it’s the beavers now- I kid you not. There is a competition for kids to name them . Step forward Beaver McBeaverface .

    1. Who knows, Bill? They might not have been trans when they arrived, but Shropshire can do strange things.

  138. That's me for what turned out to be a very pleasant day. A couple of hours in the garden – without a heavy jacket – first time since God was a boy (or girl or trans….)

    Have a spiffing evening – I shall now look for a glass of wine, to drink alone as the MR forsakes wine for Lent. I applaud her self-control but I couldn't do without it!

  140. Just done the washing-up.
    How is it that your sleeve dangles in cold greasy water, and more splashes on your favourite jumper? Then some stuff falls off the draining board to the floor… AAA!

      1. Our rule is, the cook doesn't wash up. Share the load.
        I wash up a lot…

          1. We have one. Baking tins don't go in, as they occupy too much space. Crockery & cutlery do. Mixing bowls need done by hand, too.

          2. Never understood the attraction for a family of two. Watching my elder son scraping dishes before putting them in the machine – then taking them out and fiddling about. The things you can't (or mustn't) put in. The glasses that come out permanently cloudy looking. It takes me ten minutes to wash up. My grandchildren love it – I am the only person they know who washed everything up by hand and they queue up to learn how to use a tea towel!

          3. You sound like my mother who even resisted buying a microwave.
            The dishwasher is wonderful, that's why people buy them and use them.

          8. I don't use or want a microwave but the dishwasher is great. We fill it up and run it two or three times a week only.

          9. You are, of course, entitled to your view. That is the joy of this forum.

            To me, a dishwasher is a waste of money, water, space and time.

          10. Yeah but that is not really true. The problem with dishwashers is that it isn't enough just to buy one. Often the kitchen has to be renovated first. And that is normally an expense.
            We spend much time on the coast where our kitchen is small and a dishwasher is at present not feasible. Being accustomed to having one at home has converted our time at the beach into an irksome existence as we have to face the chore of continually washing up. A dishwasher is certainly not a waste of money

          11. I really miss my dishwasher when I'm holidaying in the motorhome. I try to produce as little washing up as I can on those occasions.

          12. I have a microwave. I use it for reheating coffee and, most usefully, cooking a kipper without the aroma permeating the whole house.

          13. I'm a family of one (unless you count the dogs) and I wouldn't be without my dishwasher. It takes no time at all to load and unload. Much better for my back than standing at the sink.

      2. Our rule is, the cook doesn't wash up. Share the load.
        I wash up a lot…

    3. You have to change clothes before doing these chores. Old clothes will never be stained but an expensive sweater will always be splattered with grease. Such is life.

      2. Hmmmm…. I dont think I'd look too good in those…..talk about Fairy liquid!

        1. Now hands that do dishes can feel soft as your face, with mild green Fairy Liquid.

    5. I find doing the washing up – even though we have a dishwasher (I cant load it…) – curiously cathartic, particularly if I can watch something decent on TV when I'm doing it (a big ask I'd agree!).

    1. A new study shows that just a handful of the world's wealthiest and most powerful organisations are responsible for the overwhelming majority of all pollution. Just 36 companies produced more than half of the world's carbon emissions in 2023, according to a report by Carbon Majors. The top five polluters alone – Saudi Aramco, Coal India , CHN Energy, National Iranian Oil Co., and Jinneng Group – produced 7.4 billion tonnes of CO2.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/galleries/article-14469369/Top-5-companies-responsible-half-worlds-carbon-emissions.html

      1. What do carbon emissions matter anyway? They're a lot less now than when we were an industrial powerhouse.

      1. That’s very, very kind to him! I have an awful lot more words for him, which have seen me deleted from the DT and the Herald! Swinney is a lying, thick-headed cretin.
        I watched him waffle his way through FM questions today and I can tell you that he didn’t answer one! He uses the only ploy the SNP have and it’s ‘deflect’ then do it some more….until nobody can remember the question. The ‘speaker’ is an ex-Green and is as wet as a swamp!

    4. And, meanwhile, China and India re doing what? Switching off their gas cookers too? Blithering idiot.

  142. Just passing through this evening – out most of the day meeting my two old schoolfriends for lunch – we'd planned to go to Cote but when we got there we found it closed and the premises empty. Don't know if they've closed all their branches or just the Gloucester one.
    Anyway we went instead to Wetherspoons and sat outside in the sunshine with a huge plate of fish & chips – cheap and cheerful but good.
    This evening I have a meeting so may pop in again when I'm back – lots of posts today and I haven't had time to read them.

      1. We always had good meals there – disappointing to find it had gone. But sitting outside with fish and chips was good too.

  143. Well…..I won't be here long this evening. Our rear garden is north facing and in thirty plus years I have not seen so much moss on the main roof since we have lived here.
    But the crows gather on a regular basis and peck off large lumps of the moss which ends up spread all over our ground floor extension sloping roof and in gutter.
    And today it was time for me to clean it all off.
    5 hours of very hard work from the two windows above and a ladder from below.
    I'm worn out.
    Please excuse me. I'm orff.
    😴 back tmz.

    2. You want to try playing some Mick Jagger around the house; a rolling stone gathers…. I'll get me drugs.

      1. The times I thought of Mick and the boys when I was doing the work……
        I did see them a couple of times years ago. First time Eel Pie Island.. I wasn’t overly impressed to be honest. But they did pull their socks up.
        And working at LHR mid 60s bumped into them in a corridor. All said hello.

        1. One of the few ‘pop concerts’ I went to in my student youth was Knebworth. Mick and his chaps were playing.

    1. Why TF did whoever produce this decide to overlay Petersons's voiceover with Muzak?

  147. My apologies, Ogga, but your video was particularly upsetting.
    I think we all know that kind of guesomness.

  148. Top pension funds refuse to back defence industry
    Aviva, Royal London and Nest among firms accused of restricting investment on ‘ethical’ grounds
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/06/top-pension-funds-refuse-to-back-defence-industry/
    So, investing unethically is suddenly OK, is it? whereas a while ago, only ethical investment was OK, the other sort would bring a million people out on the streets to demonstrate.
    Fuckwits all. Make up your minds, shite-for-brains.

    1. Where are all the 'Stop the War' demonstrators marching to put an end to the Russia-Ukraine war?

    2. Isn’t Aviva the company whose female CEO said that no senior post was to be filled by a white male without her express permission??

  149. Bathed and relaxed and the fire needs more wood or it will go out.
    Time for bed I think.
    After the Big Breakfast I've eaten nothing else all day!

    And, just to shock everyone, since I got in, I've only been drinking cold water!
    Good night all.

    1. Assuming you have a wood burning stove, and for what it's worth:

      I put a round, rather than a split log on the fire last thing at night.
      I try to get the largest that will fit on the ember bed.
      I cut the air supply and the heat output to the minimum.

      Most days it's still "in" in the morning, and I just add more wood.
      Split logs seem to burn much faster.

  150. True_Belle posted a few days ago about a ridiculous Archers plotline. Was it this one? La Burchill not quite at her acerbic best but enough to upset the Guardian readers who appear to be in the majority on one Archers forum I've seen (honestly, the places one has to go to…). She's correct about the BBC's habit of inserting any trendy cause into just about every drama.

    What went wrong with The Archers?

    Julie Burchill – 3rd March 2025, 5:58am

    I was once a fan of The Archers, to the extent that the Guardian quoted me in 2007 outlining how 'an unlikely combination of support from the Queen and Julie Burchill led to the transformation of Britain's 'everyday story of country folk' from a dull and tired format to its present cult status.' Apparently, I wrote that 'No longer are the women of Ambridge stuck with 'the gallons of greengage jam that the old-guard male scriptwriters kept them occupied with for over 20 years.'

    Look, I know I was taking a lot of drugs back then and my judgement wasn't the best; witness the pair of jokers I'd been married to already! But of all the wacky attitudes I've held during my long, loony life (Tom Robinson was the best thing to come put of punk, I once crazily opined in print way back in the 1970s – again, I'm blaming the drugs), the idea of The Archers as some kind of feminist vanguard vehicle has to be one of the wackiest. Thankfully, I've since come to my senses.

    After a couple of decades of being a perfectly good soap opera, like every other serial drama, whether on radio or TV, from the BBC or ITV, listening to The Archers on Radio 4 has come to feel like sitting in a doctor's waiting room without a book, when you're forced to plough through public-health pamphlets telling you how to think about everything, from breakfast to Brexit. But the storylines of the last few months show just how far The Archers has fallen.

    These days you'd swear that there was a mandatory number of mentions of 'climate change'; a teenager from the Malik family, who joined the show in 2023, has joined the local clandestine 're-wilding' group, showing all the enthusiasm for contraband beavers that young men usually reserve for the teachings of Andrew Tate. I've limited myself to a monthly 'hate-listen' ever since the strangely mute 'Xander' – the test-tube offspring of resident Lovely Gay Couple Adam and Ian – was 'birthed' by a Bulgarian fruit-picker whose womb was hired by the hour by the pair. I'm just waiting for ten-year-old Henry to say he's trans and we'll have a full bingo card.

    But there's certainly no absence of Islam in Borsetshire. Young tearaway George Grundy is currently languishing at Her Maj's Pleasure. If he converts to Islam behind bars, he won't be the first to do so. Tellingly, an EastEnders character, Bobby Beale, did this back in 2019, while serving a sentence for killing his 'wayward' sister. It was a bit on the nose, which I'm sure the BBC didn't intend, though here was BBC Sunday Morning Live to make nice:

    'This week saw EastEnders character Bobby Beale begin his conversion to Islam, with the faith set to have a positive impact on his life. The storyline comes at a time when the media's treatment of Muslims is in the spotlight, with analysis from the Muslim Council of Britain suggesting that the faith is often portrayed negatively in some media, which may be leading to Islamophobia.'

    There's also a somewhat saintly family of Muslims in ITV's Coronation Street; ironically, Marc Anwar, the actor who played the family's patriarch, Sharif Nazir, was sacked for making racially offensive comments about Indians on social media.

    Back in Ambridge, meanwhile, the storylines about religion are getting a bit much. Lynda Snell has made the decision to start fasting for Ramadan out of respect for her Muslim lodgers. The bum-sucking, supplicating dialogue put into Snell's mouth was perhaps the state broadcaster's most sickening, self-immolating demonstration yet of the BBC's capture by and capitulation to Islam; it was right up there with Sainsbury's as highlighted by Melanie McDonagh in this week's Spectator. The supermarket recently asked its customers 'Are you Ramadan-ready?' in an advert for its range of fast-breaking foods. As McDonagh pointed out:

    'Ramadan, which starts this week, is now very much part of the calendar, much more than, say, Diwali. For the third year there will be a switch-on of the Ramadan Lights in London – previously on Oxford Street, this year in Coventry Street, where the message will be 'Happy Ramadan' until it changes to 'Happy Eid'.'

    Do these people forget that most people in Britain aren't Muslim? Anyway, Snell, who started out as a Hyacinth-Bucket-type New Money grotesque, appears to share this desire to suck up to minorities. Her character, very much a Lady Muck, must be one of the most annoying on the show. These days she has become far more 'human', if that is the word for a grovelling, guilt-ridden gutless wonder who spends an unusual amount of time worrying about being 'the R-word'. I'm sure that this facet of her character isn't the wretched writers' intention – they're not that suss or subtle – but this new version of Snell illustrates the idea of 'luxury beliefs': the term coined by social commentator Rob Henderson to describe the modern trend among the well-off to use their beliefs as a way to display their social status.

    There had been racism in The Archers before, when Roy Tucker was involved in a series of attacks back in the 1990s on the young lawyer Usha Gupta (since married to a vicar). But it was well-handled, with Roy shown the error of his ways, a sincere apology made and handshakes all round. There were no lectures or re-education back then. Was that because Usha is a Hindu, rather than a Muslim? The presentation of another family, the Gills, certainly suggests that the writers are more relaxed about the way that non-Muslims are presented. The Gills are shown as flash New Money, who bought up a swanky Archer-family home and now leave it unoccupied while they flit around the fleshpots of the infidel world. It's a world away from their depiction of the Malik family, not least practicing Muslim mum Azra, whom the BBC describes as a 'no-nonsense local GP'.

    Perhaps the most unlikely and comic aspect of the arrival of a Muslim family in town is that it's become part of Radio 4's ongoing ridic and 'beggy' (as the youngsters say) attempt to appeal to young people or right-on oldies. One sub-plot could be summed up as: 'Isn't Chelsea a slag? It's no wonder she got herself knocked up. If only she were modest and chaste like that good Muslim girl, Zainab, who doesn't go on these awful immoral dates.'

    Once again, the BBC seems determined to educate listeners whom they think are ignorant. But in doing so, they simply reveal their own ignorance; about what young people want to listen to, and about what a soap like The Archers should be about. The programme's shift from being an everyday story of country folk to a totally fantastical story of everyday Woke folk is complete.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-went-wrong-with-the-archers

    1. This stuff began in the early years of Coronation Street. Whatever government “public information” campaign was being run by the COI (Central Office of Information), the issue would be written into a Corrie script.

      1. We had a public information announcement of Radio 3 News this morning about the wonderful record numbers of Heat pumps being installed. Whenever I hear the word 'heat" in relation of government propaganda I immediately think bitches!

        1. The response to that on the BBC website won’t be welcomed by the green zealots – the top rated comments when I checked were very negative!

  151. I make no apologies for the halal slaughter post, there was a warning and the evil issue needed FULL exposure to bring home to peoples just what is taking place in reality, we should be shamed as a nation to be subject to one such case to have it multiplied a thousand times leaves us as indigenous peoples
    seriously question our stance in regards to animal welfare.

    OGGA1.

    1. I didn't watch it as I went out to a meeting – but I could use my imagination and I certainly think this kind of cruelty should be banned.

      1. I cannot believe we have allowed this to happen. By 'we' I mean all of us, not just those in posts of authority.

    1. UK prime minister refuses to ban marriage between first cousins in Britain while in Turkey before they marry people have to have a DNA test to prove they are not too closely related to each other.

      There are orphanages full of deformed people in Turkey who have been abandoned by their parents but this is not publicised.

      When we were in Turkey we had an American friend who collected money for these orphanages as nobody else cared for the poor people in them.

      Of course this is a taboo subject but at least the Turkish state is trying to do something about it while our Christian state does not.

  158. Well, chums, I'm off to bed now. Good Night all, sleep well, and I hope to see you all tomorrow.

    1. I wondered whether the Letters Editor thinks 'Barstow' is Swedish for Barsteward….?

      Morning folks…

      1. Barsteward, Barston, Barsted and (once) Bastard. And quite a few more variations.

        All names on envelopes I've received during my time.

Comments are closed.