Thursday 9 October: Kemi Badenoch’s barnstorming speech should revive the Conservatives

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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489 thoughts on “Thursday 9 October: Kemi Badenoch’s barnstorming speech should revive the Conservatives”

  2. Morning, chums. Thanks, Geoff. Wordle in 6 today.

    Wordle 1,573 6/6

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    2. A Tory Grandee that was often flown over to open anything belonging to David Tang during the reign of "Fat Pang".
      Lovely daughter, Annabel.. smart too, well proper-ish journo.

        1. Apparently, he and Enoch Powell were close friends who, as much as they differed politically, fully enjoyed each others company.

      2. Foot was spot on. I also laughed at Alan Clarke's waspish put down of the comparatively nouveau riche Heseltine that he was the sort that bought their furniture.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly. You are a Scottish Boy Band, and I claim my free bowl of porridge. Lol.

        1. Good morning, Auntie Elsie.

          Did you know that 'boy band' made a certain Mr Reg Presley a millionaire (again) overnight?

          Reg was the lead singer of the 1960s band, The Troggs, who wrote and sang the original (and still best) version of Love Is All Around. When Wet Wet Wet had their worldwide hit with their cover version (courtesy of it being the theme song of the film, Love Actually), the royalties the song made boosted the long-retired Reg's bank balance over a millionfold.

        2. I have seen Wet Wet Wet described elsewhere as a boy band, but I disagree. The key elements of boy bands, in my view, is that they be young male vocal groups singing mainstream pop designed to appeal to teen and pre-teen girls, often assembled and managed by a svengali figure and performing highly choreographed routines on stage and video. The term emerged in the 1980s but has been backdated to include the likes of the Bay City Rollers, Osmonds, Jackson 5, the Monkees, even the Beatles. Wet Wet Wet, although producing mainstream pop and appealing to girls, were a self-assembled foursome who were musicians on stage, video and in the studio and who didn't perform dance routines. To me, typical boy bands include Take That, East 17, NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys, One Direction, Boyzone and New Kids On The Block.

          1. Blimey. Now I feel reely, reely old.
            I vaguely know the names of those groups and that's it.
            I assume they're later than the Stones and T.Rex.

    5. Decent? DECENT??? D E C E N T ?!?!?!!!!!!!
      He's a self absorbed, smug, arrogant, back stabbing traitorous poseur.
      (Hang on while I check the thesaurus for a few more epithets.)

      1. About the rubbish, perhaps; certainly not about him not seeing a single white face.

    4. Sadly, he's right. It's horrible. It's horrible not only because the pollution of diversity are there. The problem is welfare. A bunch of people, given everything, owning nothing, with no care or commitment to the area are not going to care about it. They'll treat it like a tip because, to them, that's what it is.

  8. Good morning all.
    A dull but dry overcast to start the day with a light breeze and 12½°C on the thermometer.

    1. That is because the citizens of other countries fight to keep their own territory.

      That 'fight' has been bred out of Britons! All they do, these days, is whinge and moan. The powers-that-be recognise this and are encouraged in their atrocities.

  12. Four Margate Streets evacuated following reports of a Bomb in a Bag..

    Them middle-aged white saddos causing trouble again. Gary was right.

    1. BBC report obviously written by someone who doesn't know the difference between "ordinance" and "ordnance"!

      "People from homes in Rosedale Road, Glencoe Road, Wharfedale Road and Malham Drive were taken to a local leisure centre, and an explosive ordinance team was sent to the scene."

      Grammarly – "While they may sound similar, ordinance and ordnance refer to very different concepts. An ordinance is an authoritative order or decree, often a rule established by a governmental authority or church. It typically involves legislation or regulation and has a civic or religious context. On the other hand, ordnance refers to military weapons, ammunition, and equipment used in war. This term is most commonly associated with the armed forces"

  13. Kemi Badenoch’s barnstorming speech should revive the Conservatives

    Nope, the uniparty leaders all seem to have developed a way of public speaking that just makes everyone listening tune out.

    1. Those cattle are Belted Galloways. I bet a few Jocks are upset at seeing the St George's cross painted on the side of on their ain coos.

    2. Should have used pigs and then taken them to marches where Pally supporters are protesting

  16. Israeli hostages held by Hamas are expected to be released this weekend as part of the first stage of a peace deal signed by Israel and Hamas last night.

    It's all those Palestine Protesters that I feel sorry for, all out of a job now.
    I suppose they will just have to go back to protesting about Oil now.

  17. https://x.com/snook_magg88153/status/1976180995847241859 This means that all 14 rounds in 2026 will be played with the Dukes, which is the default ball in England and used for home Test matches. The Dukes is British made, hand-stitched, and known for greater lateral movement, although production issues in recent years have occasionally neutered it. The Australian Kookaburra is machine-stitched and, historically, has been less friendly to bowlers. It is used in Test matches in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

    The experiment was first recommended by Sir Andrew Strauss’s ill-fated high-performance review of 2022. The aim was to challenge English bowlers, improving seamers’ ability to bowl in unhelpful conditions, encouraging the selection of quicker bowlers, and promoting the use of spin, which is often reduced to a fringe pursuit in county cricket.

  18. Sir Keir Starmer has described the deal as a “a moment of profound relief that will be felt all around the world”.

    Why. Are all the lazy fat little flag wavers going home?

  19. Applaud the essential aspects of ending the war in Gaza by ending Hamas terrorism proposed by US President Donald Trump within the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.
    Gaza will be a terror-free, deradicalized zone that will not pose a threat to its neighbors. Israeli forces will withdraw to the agreed-upon line to prepare for the release of hostages. During this time, all military operations, including aerial and artillery bombardments, will be suspended, and the battle lines will remain frozen until the conditions for a complete phased withdrawal are met. It is important that the hostages be returned. Family members are grieving for their loved ones. Hamas members who commit to peaceful coexistence and surrender their weapons will be granted amnesty.
    The rehabilitation of infrastructure (water, electricity, sewage), the rehabilitation of hospitals and bakeries, and the entry of necessary equipment to remove debris and open roads. Gaza will be governed under a temporary transitional government of a technocratic and apolitical Palestinian committee, responsible for the day-to-day management of public services and municipalities for the people of Gaza. This committee will be composed of qualified Palestinians and international experts, with oversight by a new international transitional body, the “Peace Board,” to be headed and chaired by President Donald J. Trump, with other members and heads of state to be announced, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair. This body will establish the framework and manage financing for the redevelopment of Gaza. This body will rely on the best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment. A Trump economic development plan will be created to rebuild and revitalize Gaza, convening a panel of experts who have contributed to the birth of some of the miraculous and modern thriving cities of the Middle East. Many thoughtful investment proposals and interesting development ideas have been developed by well-intentioned international groups, and they will be considered to synthesize security and governance frameworks to attract and facilitate these investments that will create jobs, opportunities, and hope for Gaza's future.
    Hamas and other factions agree to play no role in the Gaza government, whether directly, indirectly, or in any other way. All military, terrorist, and offensive infrastructure, including tunnels and weapons production facilities, will be destroyed and not rebuilt. A demilitarization process in Gaza will be carried out under the supervision of independent observers, including the permanent disabling of weapons through an agreed-upon dismantlement process, supported by an internationally funded buyback and reintegration program, all verified by independent observers.
    The United States will work with Arab and international partners to establish a temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF) to be deployed immediately to Gaza. A process of interfaith dialogue based on the values ​​of tolerance and peaceful coexistence will be established to seek to change the mindsets and narratives of Palestinians and Israelis, emphasizing the benefits that can be derived from peace. The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence.

  20. Much strength and love to Professor Jordan Peterson and his beloved daughter Mikhaila Fuller for the stress she is suffering due to her extraordinary dedication to constantly challenging the system, fighting for reason, decency, and freedom. We recall her involvement in Bill C-16, in the first session of the 42nd Parliament of the Canadian government, which incorporates gender expression and identity as grounds for protection in the Canadian Human Rights Act, as well as in the provisions of the Criminal Code that address hate propaganda, incitement to genocide, and hate speech that promotes violence and intolerance. The devastating effect of hate, unfortunately, is nothing new. However, its scale and impact are now magnified by new communication technologies. Hate speech—including on the internet—has become one of the most common ways to spread divisive rhetoric on a global scale, endangering peace throughout the world. Rather than generating more violence, freedom of expression facilitates the ability to express oneself safely and freely; in practice, it is often correlated with less social conflict and violence. Expression can act as an outlet, allowing people to express their frustrations and vent their anger without resorting to violence. It enables legislators to understand the views of their constituents in order to legislate effectively.

  21. Scientific research is subject to the power of large corporations. It is not about generating knowledge about reality, but rather about adapting reality to the manipulation of power. It is about data science, in which computer science and social sciences come together to produce and systematize a vast amount of information. This fits perfectly with corruption in the United States, where the Pharmaceutical Mafia and, historically, certain government institutions can feel free of corruption, or at least less corrupt, given their dependent relationships. Something is changing, and consequently, we have a statement in the article: “As authorities in the United States and elsewhere call for reform in medical research away from tendentious and willfully misleading study design and execution, [Nature Communications] will also serve as a key example of the fatal flaws inherent in current medical research methods.” Along the lines of the excellent report by Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.: Over the past five years, thousands of physicians, medical experts, journalists, analysts, concerned citizens, and vaccine victims have conducted and published their own research, using data from government websites, peer-reviewed publications, and even conducting their own laboratory analyses and clinical trials with patients. Their findings document the unprecedented health risks that COVID-19 mRNA-LNP injections pose to Americans and the rest of the world. Many have called for the withdrawal of these injections from the market or at least a re-evaluation of their use. Among these courageous individuals are HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.; NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya; FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary; and CBER Director Dr. Vijay Prasad. Considering the known reproductive harm caused by LNP-mRNA technology injections, infants, children, men and women of childbearing potential, and pregnant women—all of these demographic groups—should have been excluded from the trials, and the FDA should never have authorized or approved their use in these populations under 21 USC 312.42(v)(AC). On October 22, 2020, the FDA, Pfizer, Moderna, and other manufacturers met to discuss how they would track the "working list" of unreasonable and significant risks of illness, injury, disease, and death that COVID-19 mRNA-LNP injections could cause in multiple vital systems, including:
    – Nervous system diseases (e.g., seizures, Guillain-Barré syndrome, myelitis, encephalitis, encephalopathy, encephalomyelitis, narcolepsy, cataplexy, meningitis, meningoencephalitis, acute demyelinating diseases)
    – Heart diseases (e.g., acute myocardial infarction, myocarditis, pericarditis, stroke)
    – Blood and circulatory diseases (e.g., disseminated intravascular coagulation, thrombocytopenia, venous thromboembolism)
    – Musculoskeletal diseases (e.g., arthritis, pain) Joint)
    – Reproductive and pregnancy disorders (e.g., adverse pregnancy outcomes, adverse birth outcomes)
    – Autoimmune diseases (e.g., VAED, multisystem inflammatory syndrome)
    – Death
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/sacrificing-safety-name-science/5887281 (2025).

  22. President Donald J. Trump campaigned on a list of “20 core promises to Make America Great Again” — and in just six months, he has unquestionably delivered. From lowering costs to securing the border to enhancing public safety, President Trump has done more to make good on his promises than any president in modern American history, and he’s just getting started.

    The list goes far beyond these promises. President Trump has successfully forced hospitals nationwide to abandon their so-called “gender-affirming care“ and chemical castration programs for kids, defunded biased PBS and NPR, ended woke DEI programming across higher education and corporate America, weeded out nonsense “climate” initiatives, made English our official language, and so much more.
    Promises Made, Promises Kept:
    Seal the border and stop the migrant invasion: “We will close the border. We will stop the invasion of illegals into our country.” (10/12/24, Aurora, CO)
    • PROMISE KEPT: Under President Trump, the number of illegal immigrants crossing the southern border are at historic lows and border wall construction has resumed. Last month, illegal border crossings were the lowest ever recorded, while this fiscal year is on track to see the fewest illegal crossings in five decades. For two straight months, zero illegals were released into the country’s interior.
    The 20 promises in the link

    https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/07/president-trump-has-kept-his-promises-and-then-some/ (08/2025)

  24. FOR those who don’t believe in miracles, I give you Kemi Badenoch. Her party is hated; rivals want her job. Yet she closed her conference with a speech that wasn’t just good, it was the best of the whole season, culminating in a pledge to abolish stamp duty that will be received, in my neck of woods, like the fall of communism.

    Tim Stanley, DT.

    Her "pledge"? She's a politician. Just count the "pledges" made by her ilk over the past century and see how many were fulfilled.

    A "pledge" is nothing more, nothing less, than a request for power.

    1. Judge the Tories on what they have done not what they say the will do. She would not be allowed to do all this by the party. Another Truss.

    2. A politician dies. Instead of going straight to heaven or hell, a spirit appears to him.

      The spirit tells him that, rather than being judged for his sins, he gets to choose whether he goes to heaven or hell.

      The politician replies that of course he wants to go to heaven. The spirit tells him that before he chooses, he has to visit both places so each one will get a fair chance.

      First they visit heaven. It looks pretty nice. Big fluffy clouds, angels singing and playing harps, everyone seeming to enjoy themselves. The politician is pleased, if a bit underwhelmed.

      Hell, on the other hand, is magnificent. It’s the most beautiful place the politician has ever seen, and everyone there is having the time of their lives. It has a buffet table filled with delicious-smelling food, a beautiful garden, a pool with a water slide, a dance floor, a massage parlor, and innumerable other attractions. It makes heaven look dull and boring and comparison.

      “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” says the politician, “but I think I’d rather go to hell!”

      “Very well,” says the spirit. “Turn around.”

      When the politician turns around, though, hell appears to be completely different than it had been less than a minute ago. All of the attractions are gone, everything is on fire, and the people are screaming in agony.

      “I don’t understand!” cries the politician. “This isn’t what you showed me before!”

      “Well, that was the campaign,” replies the spirit. “Now you’ve voted.”

    3. Tim Stanley can't make his feeble mind up. Started off as a Labour supporter and candidate for Sevenoaks, changed to Tory then said he preferred the Social Democratic Party. Raised a Baptist, then baptised an Anglican now Roman Catholic. Refuses to give the name of his gay partner or partners – I can't think why!

    4. Agreed, Snotty McDoom went to court to successfully argue that political manifestos weren't worth the paper they are written on.

  25. Surely nobody expects the release of the Iraeli hostages to go smoothly. Hamas will make sure that expectations are not met merely to assert their nastiness.

    1. Doubtless they won't be able to find some, particularly bodies, and will blame Israeli bombing.

      2. The BBC has already made that excuse. The 'Chews' are to blame because of their indiscriminate bombing of women and children in hospitals and schools where the captured Israeli murderers were being cared for.

  26. I'm a Pom, but I know that the once-impressive Dukes ball is no longer manufactured to the same exacting standards that it once was. These days it goes out of shape in no time at all. At least the Aussie Kookaburra, though machine-made, lasts longer.

    If matters don't improve with the Dukes ball, and soon, I can see it going the same way as its old rival, the Reader ball.

    1. Me too. Safari can’t connect to the server etc. I found another route in, via Disqus. Apparently Safari is known to have an issue with WordPress – but I’ve not encountered it before. Back to normal now.

    2. Until Home Office officials, the border farce are all held accountable for aiding terrorism and people trafficking this farce will only get worse.

  30. Good morning Nottlers, 13°C, windy and damp as a Heseltine on the Costa Clyde. Walking football awaits, and I'll push myself to attend the gym as it's a tad inclement for a stroll along Prestwick promenade.

  31. The Grimes

    Starmer accused of lying about China threat in spy case collapse
    Former intelligence heads and legal experts seek explanation after prime minister’s account was contradicted by evidence from time of alleged crimes

    China ‘spy’ Chris Cash was paid — for translation, not secrets
    Revelations about evidence at heart of collapsed China spying case have raised questions about the material prosecutors were intending to use

  32. Morning all bright and sunny 🌞 today.

    Some serious TDS in the DT. They just don't like it when the Donald does what he says he's going to.

    1. Charter a couple of 500,000 tonne tankers to ship the excess to Norway. Oberst likes his cider and it will keep him + sons warm during the winter.

    4. Truly, this country is bonkers. We have a bumper crop and the state says no. Nothing grows and the state says 'grow flowers'. Farmers grow flowers and the state says 'haha! Not paying you!' and destroys the scheme.

      They're insane.

  34. Morning, all Y'all.
    Spectacular sunrise today – enough broken cloud to catch the orange sunlight. Lovely!

    1. Pouring with rain all night. More threatened for today High 20 degrees. Typical public holiday weather.Day of Valencia. Lots of people at the seaside for long weekend. Of course I should have known I was bringing it on as I washed the car yesterday.

          1. If you've washed the car by mistake, Rob, take a small portable umbrella with you to the seaside. I find that guarantees it won't rain.

    1. Why bother drilling for oil or gas when you can drill the population with tax's in your quest to destroy the country?

    2. I wish someone would drill Miliband – and I mean with a bullet or skewer, not his boyfriends plaything.

      1. Nah. That's too easy.

        Milioaf should be forced to sign the opening of our fracked gas well, sign off the building of a coal power station and sign to levy heavy taxes on unreliables.

        That'd hurt him far more than any temporary pain. He would have to undo everything he has so desperately forced on the public.

  36. A very disturbing interview on Andrew Gold’s Heretics podcast, with Jon Wedger (ex Plod) on the paedophilia cover ups in the UK:

    …“This is hard facts that came out in many inquiries. I get angered by the Epstein stuff, and people going, Epstein, Epstein, look at what they had in the UK, the ICSA inquiry, and no one knows about it. Or they think, I've heard about that.

    It was, it involved our politicians. Lenny Harper said to me, be very careful, Jon, in speaking out, right? Because this goes right to the heart of the British establishment.

    And that is it. And look at Sir Peter Hayman, head of our intelligence services for MI6, right? Sex offender, right?

    It's remarkable. It's so scary as well.”

    From heretics.: Britain’s Own Epstein: Whistleblower Exposes Elite Cover-Up, 6 Oct 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/heretics/id1515932214?i=1000730418382&r=4289
    This material may be protected by copyright.

  37. 413910+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Two-thirds of 2,200 polled also want the nil-rate band to be lifted
    as Britain braces for a painful Budget want inheritance tax abolished

    All the more reason that the Farmers Food and Freedom party should be finding mass support.

    A true and proven party backed by a long heritage of time served loyally in the peoples corner, should find no trouble even in a semi stable Country coming to the fore.

    The rhetoric issuing from both the political house of ill repute and their conferences is a talking game of "I'll raise you"
    more houses and reduction in invaders, as in the regular tripe for tribals.

    1. 413910 +up ticks,

      O2O,
      The cows have it ,the cows have it,

      Dt,
      Farmers paint St George’s flags on their cows
      Move to highlight the ‘difficult time’ farms are facing in light of new inheritance tax rules

      May one ask,
      will the TOOL explain to the Indians the reason he wants to erase cows ?

    2. Solving the problems this country has are not difficult. They start by closing some 1000+ quangos. Then half a dozen government departments.

      After that, scrapping stamp duty, capital gains tax, business rates, inheritance taxes, council taxes and scrapping the upper and higher rates.

      In return the basic rate starts at 20,000 and is at 22% therefore. VAT is abolished and replaced with a sales tax that applies to everything, at 8% and is given to local councils. This forces councils to compete for business as they are relying upon it for revenue.

      Government is forced to put aside the amounts paid for pensions into a ring fenced untouchable account and managed by an arms length body. Any law affecting private pensions takes effect at minimum 10 years after it's enactment, preventing government using them as cash pots.

      Welfare becomes time limited and is radically overhauled: immigrants cannot claim any form of welfare for ten years. Individuals pay a small amount from their gross pay toward the NHS, such as £50 a month. More can be contributed toward a sort of 'private health insurance' scheme of which one provider may be the department for health. Others are invited to compete. Immigrants contribute significantly more, say £200 up to ten years.

      A low tax, small state, cash starved government can no longer waste money. It will try, but then the budget will be refused. Head count falls as public sector career average pensions are stopped for new entrants. A twenty year pay free is imposed.

      The underground is automated one train at a time, with the equipment being installed on every train. If this is damaged the driver and union are jailed without trial.

      Unions pay the salaries of striking staff – including pension costs, overheads and taxes, and for union time. Strikes require 52% of the total membership to be lawful.

      A gunboat is put in the channel and fires upon gimmigrants. Home office, border farce and RNLI staff aiding and abetting criminal invasion are charged appropriately.

      1. 413910+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,
        Agreed,
        The difficulty is finding a party to carry out the deep cleansing needed.
        I really do believe that the Farmers Food and Freedom Party would fill the bill.

        The toxic trio are proven pro illegals, pro eu, after sampling farage's actions in the past I find he can only be trusted within eyesight.

        Conclusion,
        At the next IMHO ( last ever) General Election where fools rush in, we need a fall back party,IN CASE.

        Hence the FF& FP.

  38. Yesterday someone pondered what Starmer would give away during his current India trip.
    Answer: Our privacy and data

    Now Keir Starmer wants digital ID cards to be expanded to cover Britons' everyday lives

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15175429/Keir-Starmer-digital-ID-cards-cover-Britons-lives.html

    Keir Starmer wants to expand the use of controversial digital IDs to cover Britons' everyday lives.

    The Prime Minister announced last month that a mandatory system would be introduced so people can prove they have the right to work here – in an attempt to curb illegal migration.

    But Sir Keir has now said the system could also be used on a voluntary basis by citizens to prove identity and make it easier to apply for public services, such as childcare and benefits.
    And he will press ahead with the radical policy despite tumbling public support.

    Sir Keir, during his trade mission to Mumbai, met IT giant Infosys' Nandan Nilekani who founded India's biometric ID system under which more than one billion people have cards.

    The PM was asked if he had killed off support for digital ID in the UK.

    He replied: 'We need to address the fact that too many people can come to this country and work illegally, and that's why ID mandatory for working is really important.'

    But he went on: 'I think there is a case to be made about the benefits for voluntary ID into other areas.

      1. Infosys, a big outsourcing and tech company (a la TCS – Tata Consulting Service) was founded by her father.

    2. Supposedly the Indian desire than more of their people come here is not in the cards. We shall see because it seems Starmer will say one thing to one party and quite another to the other in the hopes that people wont notice the contradiction. Who believes anything he has to say? Compulsive liar.

      1. It was 'Call me Dave' that encouraged the Indians to come here. All well and good to get the hard working and the entrepreneurs.

        We got some of them but we also got flooded with Paki dross.

        1. Indians started coming back in the late '60's. I remember driving through Southall around 1969/1970 and I thought I had been transported to Calcutta. Meanwhile parts of Birmingham were starting to look like Jamaica…

          1. Yes. They didn’t come for the welfare though. They came to set up businesses.

            When Cameron was in power he encouraged a lot more to come. Around the same time he said he looked forward to a Muslim PM one day.

    3. Very soon after forcing it on the public Starmer will ensure it is added to utilities, to ration and control those and then the internet, so everything you do online is identifiable.

      Before that he will desperately adopt the chat control nonsense going through the EU right now (Germany has, thankfully said no as last time the fascist Left did this they used it to kill Jews – just as the Left will use it so again). Starmer, because he is an authoritarian control freak will ensure the UK adopts these draconian, invasive and hateful measures – of course, not for him or his.

  39. Morning all! Sunny but cool, rather nice actually.

    Posted below another video of England in the late 19th Century. Things really have changed. Starts with a good old Choo choo Train hooting along as it rushes from A to B.

    In the evening I have been binge watching ' Joe & Nic's Road Trip' https://www.youtube.com/@JoeandNicsRoadTrip Joe simply drives around the more obscure places in the USA covering every state in the Union. Well worth watching to get an idea of the real America which is not all the glamour of New York or San Francisco or the usual places. Mostly it is an image of decay as small towns die and the cities grow, like cancers destroying the peoples peace and harmony with nature.

    Listened to Kami Badenoch's speech. To little to late as far as I'm concerned. Or rather, to many promises of things that should have been. If you can only learn your lesson when you have thrown yourself over the cliff, then you aren't worth listening to. Pity really because I do prefer to be a good old fashioned Conservative. And I'm not happy that I'm in a position where I may well not be able to vote at the next election due to the viable alternatives that are presently available.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyleH3H137c&t=35s

      1. Morning Rastus. A capella, the best form of music. One tradition I always enjoyed in the USA was Glee clubs, which I have no doubt you are aware. And, of course all Orthodox music is done without musical instruments. I have to say you video is very enjoyable, thanks!

    2. Odd that last week some Labour wonk was arguing with Julia Hartley-Brewer that Britons hadn't been here for thousands of years.

      It is sad how ignorant they are.

      1. According to the DNA evidence our ancestry goes as far back as the end of the ice age when these islands became habitable again.

  40. Good Moaning.
    The Boss should soon be posting and pinning this information, but I'll kick off with this notice.

    Thanks to R NHS' wonderful communication system (aka don't acknowledge the patient's potential social life, just ignore them) MB cannot make the posh lunch on the 23rd. October.
    So, if anyone is interested …… come and join the reprobates.

    Details:
    Francatelli,
    St. James Hotel and Club
    7-8 Park Place
    St. James
    SW1A 1LS

    Date: Thursday, 23rd. October
    Time: 1.0 pm
    Price: £30. 3 course set lunch with a glass of Prosecco.

    1. Have you checked what size party they allow?

      With the Lanesborough it was any number over 12 you had to go through an Events Manager. Which would probably up the cost.

      1. I booked for 6 people. It is too late to cancel one of the vouchers.
        MB has been bu88ered about by the NHS – he has been trying to change the date of his appt. for fortnight and still no response. It is an important consultation, so he daren't miss it.
        Sonny Boys x 2 are on tap, so I can abandon him with a clear conscience. St. James is hardly trekking through the Hindu Kush.

  42. Blue sky but cold. Bog standard foursome:
    Wordle 1,573 4/6

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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  43. We haven’t room for a new Sheffield every year
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/we-havent-room-for-a-new-sheffield-every-year/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2025-10-09&utm_campaign=TCW+Daily+Email

    BTL

    "Our concerns are not with immigrants’ skin colour, country of origin, race, religion, beliefs, age, family or behaviour. Our concerns are with the sheer numbers of them."

    I agree only with a part of this: our concerns are not about the immigrants' skin colour but most of us are concerned about their behaviour and whether or not they want to integrate into our society without trying to impose their religion, culture and social mores upon us. Our country is not awash with money so we also need to be sure that they will contribute economically to our country and learn to speak English.

    In a word those who come must accept that they will have to leave certain things behind if they wish to live in Britain.

    1. Question is, Rastus (good afternoon) who's going to have to leave to make room for the ones who want to come…answer…we are.

    1. It's disgusting. He should be jailed for life. Sadly, plod will no doubt arrest the white folk who captured him.

      1. Agree. Insufficient jail places tho'. Sex Education in schools – bet this isn't included.

        1. vw here again. In future a "boy" who has decided for the day to be a girl will be exceedingly confusing to the poor mo ham medan.

      1. Remember what a good newspaper the times used to be. Now look at what it has come to.

        2. The two definitive papers in Britain were The Times and the Manchester Guardian,

          How have the mighty fallen – especially the Guardian.

          2. At the tiime, it was not in the same class. It was a cut below both of them. But back then there were multiple decent papers. Hard to reconcile the then Mail or Express with today's versions, as they have both gone tabloid.

          3. The old broadsheet Daily Express, when owned by Beaverbrook, was also a well-regarded paper.

    3. That vastly overrated clown and his idiot family appear most days in the DT.

      Why? I can give you a list of two-thousand better footballers than that gurning, self-publicising nonentity.

  47. Evil, utterly utterly evil.

    Children will be able to choose their own gender at any age under controversial new EU proposals.

    Therapy to check whether children are certain they want to change their gender and age limits on gender recognition could be discarded in the new plans.

    The proposals, which are laid out in the European Commission's new 'LGBTIQ+ equality strategy 2026-2030', have been condemned for 'silencing women'.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15176391/Children-able-choose-gender-age-EU-proposals.html

      1. Then it becomes clear that Labour have been pushing for this – first the brainwashing in schools, then the reducing the voting age, now the bribe. It's pathetic.

        Worse, it's child abuse.

          1. "More than well on the way" you say???
            It's more than that, it's all but totally complete.

        2. it's criminal. (vw posting here). Utterly criminal. Poor kids. So how will the conversation go, does their teacher say, please put your hand up if you are a girl today but wish to be a boy instead? Is it just for the day, just for this lesson, just for this week? Does any boy in this class wish to be a girl instead? … talk about despair for our children and grandchildren if this is what's really going to happen. For God's sake all governments should flatly say up yours.

      2. Those children will struggle to choose their 'gender' when the ridiculous Americanese use of nouns, as verbs, becomes standard.

        [That comment will go over the heads of most, Grizz].

          1. That is no news. That list has been known for a long time. I'm talking about (as you well know) bona fide nouns, i.e. 'medal', that Yanks bastardise as verbs, as in the risible "to medal" (when winning one).

            BTW. I qualified as a proofreader back in 1998.

          1. My parents couldn't work it out. They would lock up at night and if i wasn't in they didn't seem to care.
            I would leave my bedroom window unlatched. Take the garden gate off its hinges and stand that against the porch. Climb up that then on to the porch roof. Then lean right out and grab the window sill and in. Go down and out the front door and put the gate back.

          3. Nor was ours – but then is not now in Britain.

            However in rural Brittany doors are often left unlocked which is not the case in urban France.

          5. I suppose that the male equivalent of a tomboy is a girly boy or a cissy. The former is often a term of approbation; the latter is always a term of contempt.

            I was never a cissy and when I was a child those who were were branded wets or drips.

            I think that many boys liked tomboys because they wanted to share in adventures rather than stay at home playing with dolls; on the other hand few girls liked or respected cissies.

            William Brown, Richmal Crompton's eternal 11 year old, despised Violet Elizabeth but adored a girl called Jill who was a tomboy who appeared in some of the stories.

          7. Well, as long as you were able to get back down again, Kate. If not, then you are a cat and I claim my tin of Whiskas. Lol.

          8. Ah, not quite, Elsie – I think I owe you half a can. We had a small outbuilding attached to the house, the drop from my bedroom window was several feet as opposed to what? a lot more to the ground. Luckily a drain pipe I could both scale down and up, my very own exit, any hour. No way I’d have ever allowed my offspring to act similarly:-) ……………I’ll send you the can of Whiskas…….xx

      2. My sister, having three older brothers, was too, very much so.
        She attended a mixed boarding school where girls were expected to play sport with and against the boys up until the post puberty strength differences made the contact sports dangerous.
        She now has children of her own.

    4. It’s a sterilisation programme. Doesn’t achieve anything else. A eunuch in a frock isn’t a woman. Nor can he father children.

      1. I sometimes wonder if it’s an anti-white, anti-Christian plot to undermine our race and culture.
        I may have missed them all, but I don’t recall seeing or reading about huge numbers of such creatures from other races and creeds; in fact in many other areas there are significant social pressures and even laws against the alphabet soupers.

        1. It's the same with abortion clinics. Mostly white women.

          You can add the assisted suicide to that too.

          Yes they want rid of us.

          They need a compliant class of people and people with higher than average IQ are more difficult to control.

        2. It very definitely is. They never use just the one method, but by differing modes of attack they can make serious inroads – abortion clinics, the promotion of gay lifestyles, making it difficult for white couples to have children (housing, university debt amongst others). Death of a race by a thousand slices.

  48. Wi-fi on our trains slower than Romania’s
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99be0fd2e7e0e1cd54f6c33097c843e34c7dc3d6158b58d257e97c84f0251647.png

    BRITISH commuters must endure slower train Wi-fi speeds than Romania, figures have revealed.
    The UK ranks 16th out of 18 major European and Asian countries, with average download speeds languishing at 1.09 megabits per second (Mbps), according to data from Ookla.

    That puts Britain behind nations including Poland, Lithuania and Romania. Speeds on Ireland’s railways are almost 25 times faster.
    The findings will enrage commuters who struggle with poor train Wi-fi, given that the research shows there is no reason why it should be so slow.
    A speed of 1Mbps would allow only for basic internet browsing and email, while it would struggle with streaming or larger downloads. By contrast, full-fi- bre broadband achieves speeds of around one gigabit per second (ie 1000Mbps). Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight, said: “Poor connectivity on trains is a regular customer frustration that the mobile industry, government and train operating companies have long struggled to address.

    “The economic potential for good on-board coverage is significant, given that data from the Department for Transport suggests that close to a third of people using the train do so for work or education purposes. This is particularly relevant given the Government’s growth ambitions.”
    Researchers blamed the UK’S poor performance in part on its reliance on outdated technology, with almost half of all rail connections using Wi-fi 4 – a standard dating back to 2009. The Government has come under pressure to tackle so-called signal “not spots” on railways amid complaints that patchy coverage is harming productivity.

    Luke Kehoe, at Ookla, said: “Europe and Asia’s rail networks, long heralded as a backbone of economic competitiveness, are now judged not only on punctuality and comfort but on the quality of the digital experience onboard.”

    I live in Sweden and I have never experienced a loss of mobile phone coverage, anywhere. And broadband signals are ten times stronger than in the UK. That goes for when on trains as well as in the countryside.

    Even the Micks have a massively better system than the UK.

    1. I can quite believe these findings. I'm not a commuter, using trains mostly for leisure or visiting friends and family. I don't need wifi for business or education and I'm not one for using streaming services, so it's mainly for information or sites such as this. Nonetheless, even the basic job of signing onto the train operator's network can be tardy.

      1. Large parts of France rurale are far far slower than those rail speeds. Nearer to UK rail speeds. I sometimes get 3, but only on "good" days, usually it's between 1 and 2.mbps

  49. Lenbit Opik making surprisingly good sense on “Nick Talks”.

    “Lib Dems are just bit part players. The reason you don't hear about them is because they've got no particularly interesting narrative.

    Rejoin the European Union. Talk about transsexual politics in schools. Support this ludicrous idea that human beings are driving the climate.

    It's all nonsense, really, and I'm so sad, really, because I invested really a quarter of a century in that party. I need to see it become just a laughing stock. Now, the Labour have got a similar problem, but in a way, it's worse because they've done it completely to themselves, and almost knowingly so.

    And also, luckily, the Lib Dems weren't in any serious authority when they were in coalition with the Conservatives. They didn't have any power. Nick Click was far too incompetent to actually wield any significant authority in that administration, but these people do.

    These people have power. You've got Keir Starmer, who promised change, but I never said it would have got to be for the better. This is the thing.

    He promised to clean up politics. We've had a bunch of resignations because of exactly the kind of scandals that ironically Angela Rayner was slamming the Tories for, and then[…]”

    From Nick Talks: The LibDems Need To Thank Reform UK For Their MPs, 8 Oct 2025
    https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/nick-talks/id1643721749?i=1000730866187&r=812
    This material may be protected by copyright.

    1. Sonny Boy Snr knew Lembit at Britosl University.
      He was surprised that LO became involved with the LimpDumps, as he was an amusing character.

  50. Good morning, all. Overcast and calm.

    If a major policy change is the repeal of Net Zero then surely the impact of that change must have been discussed. Understandable that the fine detail would come along later but the coarse detail e.g. continuing with ICE vehicles, would have been on the agenda if the Tories were really serious in their "promises".

    https://x.com/HerdImmunity12/status/1976204068801360190

  51. Must have missed this gem..

    Motion passed at Greens’ conference in Bournemouth calling for the “abolition of private landlordism” through rent controls, a “land value tax,” and other means.
    Landlord & Green official, Adrian Ramsay insisted that he is not making a profit on his rental and would soon stop being a landlord.

    Other means? Buried alive inside former coal mine.

  52. Spain’s overwhelmed public healthcare system is treating a growing number of undocumented migrants and displaced foreigners, despite Spaniards enduring increasingly longer waiting times for appointments and operations.

    Dontcha just love Socialist Workers Progressives?

  53. 413910+ up ticks,

    On humanitarian, health & safety grounds NOT because some
    misguided monied bloke wanted to curtail cow burbs via the abattoir and the final solution.

    To the unwary, if the mad twat chaps intentions are realised then in time the cows plight could be extended to humans.

    Dt,
    Jeremy Clarkson forced to cull Diddly Squat’s first calf after TB outbreak
    Presenter reveals cow was pregnant with twins when she caught the infectious disease and had to be put down

    1. 413910+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      ANTIMXP,

      Welcome to the near sane club, feel comfortable within the fold.

      2. Hogarth's series of eight paintings, A Rake's Progress (1733–1734), showing the social and moral decline of Tom Rakewell leading to his admission to Bedlam suffering from insanity.

        Robert Hooke's design for the new Bethlem was highly original. All patients were accommodated in single rooms, which opened onto a broad corridor. The ‘gallery ward’ was derived from the layout of individual cells for monks in monasteries set alongside a gallery similar to those in some grand houses of the period.

    1. More power to the Toad, been following him ever since I first read him in Spectator, then onto Lockdown Sceptic (now Daily Sceptic, a very different beast).

      1. The thing that gets me about the ad industry is the "families" they portray where the parents are white, yet the kids are black. Or vice versa. And sometimes an Indian kid is thrown in for good luck. They obviously have never heard of Mendelian Inheritance.

        1. It’s their lazy way of getting to all parts of population, jack. I believe you can pay for ad-free programmes, not doing that -prefer to spend my money on Netflix, currently re-watching Breaking Bad and Godfather.

    2. What was he doing in a park at around 10pm…not as though it's a drink/dance place….oh wait….

  62. This message is mainly for the information of those NoTTLers who migrated here from the old DT Letters' forum nearly a decade ago.

    I received sad notification, earlier this afternoon, that my good friend and former fellow commentator on the DT forum (but only shortly on NoTTLe), Martin Burgess (username 'Toots') passed away on September 7 this year.

    Martin was a regular letter writer to the DT and had a good number of excellent letters published over the past 15 years that I was privileged to call him a good friend.

    We contacted each other in private after both of us had been targeted by a particular nasty troll on the DT forum, and we stayed in contact ever since. In his professional life he had been a prominent member of the design team at Ford Motors in Dagenham.

    As Toots he was a robust debater and was knowledgeable on a myriad of topics. He stopped contributing to these forums when his health started to deteriorate.

    I know a few other NoTTLers have met him, in particular: Anne Allan, Peddy the Viking, and Naomi Onions.

    He used the avatar name Toots since he was a fervent jazz fan. He initially wanted to be called Zoot (after Zoot Sims) but that name was taken by someone else on Disqus. So he took up Toots instead, in tribute to another of his heroes, Toots Thielemans.

    We only met once, back in London — he lived in Beckenham — in November 2019 (below).
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/144b845129062b1cdfead6dcb9b4e28fcce48eb58801c9af0dff1167519cc3f6.png Martin is in the middle, I am on the right. The chap on the left, another good friend, may introduce himself when he sees this post 😊.

    Martin Burgess: 20/05/1952 – 07/09/2025. RIP my good friend.

    I shall miss him.

      1. No.

        We did communicate for a while with an ex-Nottler called Steve. Stephen Roy Cook ('Thatlldo' on the DT forum) was the latterday husband of Anne Cook (formerly Morris) who was known to us all on here as LadyoftheLake. Both passed away in 2024.

        1. Angels, they walk among us Grizzly. None of that feathered wings look hovering in the sky with halos 🙂 RIP to your friend x

    7. Saddened to hear Grizz – he was one of our original gang of 5. I wonder if he ever completed the Airfix kit of the Lightning which I sold him

      2. Who were the original gang of five? And how many are still here? Perhaps Grizzly could add being the Nottlers' archivist to his many other talents?

        I'm a relative new boy here and I can't remember exactly when I first came but it was quite a few years before Covid. Bill Thomas managed to pierce my identity from my rastusctastey pseudonym which he saw on my comments under DT articles. He emailed me and suggested that I might enjoy this site. Rastus C. Tastey is silly name given me by some of my UEA friends nearly 60 years ago.

        When I first arrived I recognised Grizzly's name as he was using the same name he had used on the DT and now there are a few Nottlers whom I recognise who also comment on the CW site.

        1. I was invited by Stigenace, probably in the first few months of its creation by Geoff.

          We used to compete for the weekly Adams cartoon caption competition and conversed on various DT pages.

        2. Around 13–14 years ago, Toots and I (Grizzly) contacted each other in private after both of us had been viciously and repeatedly attacked by a cretinous troll on the old DT forum.

          Not long after, Thatlldo joined us, since he and Toots had a common love of jazz. Following on from that Zaharadelasierra (now 'Elsie Bloodaxe') and Spikey (now 'Fallick Alec') also joined our "band of Musketeers". Finally Naomi Onions also joined us and we swapped chats in private as well as online.

          The five did not last long since Toots and Thatlldo fell out. Thatlldo became quite nasty in his private messages and treated Toots in a most obnoxious fashion, his rants being punctuated with all manner of vile language. Zaharadelasierra had had enough of this silliness and was on the verge of leaving but we persuaded him to stay and, instead, got rid of Thatlldo to preserve the harmony of the group.

          Last year, Toots stopped communicating with us due to his poor health and Naomi Onions, who had contacted us less and less, (while also suffering ill health) also cut communications.

          These days, just Spikey, Zaharadelasierra and Grizzly remain in close daily contact.

          1. Thatlldo also posted under other names – watermelonineastherhay – and targetted Elsie who was at that time Zaharadelasierra in quite an unpleasant fashion.

          2. I know, I was in the middle of it at the time. ‘Onourwayome’ was another moniker of his , as was ‘Honkinginawardrobe’.

          3. He had the creepy red sofa avatar. But I fell out with him when he was extremely rude to Elsie.

          4. The red sofa was from the cover of one of Frank Zappa’s Mothers of Invention albums.
            He was a huge Zappa fan.

          7. He popped in a few years ago but was busy renovating a property for his sister. He’s probably busy.

        3. 3 of us are regulars and one very occasionally – names have been changed from the DT days

    10. That's a really lovely photo of Toots, Grizzly. Like you, I also met him several times, along with his lovely wife Christine.

  63. Trump has moved mountains with the sheer force of his gargantuan personality. How puny and ridiculous Starmer now looks.

    Keir Starmer and his fellow political pygmies – French president Emmanuel Macron, Canadian PM Mark Carney, along with the Spanish and Australian prime ministers Pedro Sanchez and Anthony Albanese – have had nothing to offer but performative gestures over the ‘recognition’ of a non-existent ‘Palestinian state.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-15177251/Trump-moved-mountains-sheer-force-gargantuan-personality-puny-ridiculous-Starmer-looks.html

    1. Trump could end every war on the planet and I suspect he would still be snubbed by the NPP committee.
      The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Obama for his "extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples". being the first black POTUS

      1. I thought they gave Obarmy the Peace Prize because of the wars he started.

        I doubt they will award it to Trump for ending one.

        1. He hadn't been in office long enough to start many.
          Nominations for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize closed just 11 days after Obama took office.
          It was almost entirely because he is black.

          2. I think that's somewhat unlikely, even though he was active in the US Trump didn't really hit the world's notice as a politician until well after Obama's award.

          3. At the time of the award, Trump was the host of The Apprentice, which is what brought him to the general public's attention.

          4. That's hardly the world's notice.
            I doubt most of the planet would have known who he was unless they followed golf or US politics fairly closely.

          5. Much of the planet did not know much about him, except for his wives and the ghost written book.

            Besides, it meant when he decided to run, he had great name recognotion in the US – which is all that matters to get elected.

            I remember his election well, as the choice was him or Hilary – and she was extremely unpopular. He got in because a lot of Dems stayed home – which is what happened again for his second term, as Harris was/is equally unpopular.

            It always seems that elections are more about who people vote against, rather than who they vote for.

          6. I'm not a great fan of Trump, but nothing will ever persuade me that the Biden vote was honest.

          8. It seems that it was. There were enough lawsuits forcing hand recounts, all observed by Trump representatives, none of which changed anything. Except there was a case proven of a dead man voting in Pennsylvania – the deceased father of a voter who apparently cast a vote forthe Republican party.

            Pennsylvania is a critical state for any party to win. The problem is that the major population centres, like Philly and Pittsburgh tend Democratic while rural PA, of which there is an awful lot, tends Republican. So any given election will probably be close. As one of the TV political commentators memorably said, the rest of the state is like Alabama but without the blacks…

          9. And you really trust the mail-in (postal) voting system?
            I don't.
            And I most certainly do not trust anything involving the second most corrupt political family in America.

          13. There have always been low level mutterings. The ultra right neo Nazis have claimed it was a Jewish plot, as "all the Jews were not at work that day", which of course was totally untrue.

            Rather more people thought that the US response was ridiculous – one comment was that invading Afghanistan was as if the US had attacked Korea in 1941. What a lot of people thought should have happened given the overwhelming Saudi involvement, would have been to turn that country into glass – there's plenty of sand to make that happen.

            Heard nothing lately, except the odd claim that "like the moon landings", it never happened. But since I had an old friend (also English) who worked in one of the World Trade buildings and got lucky in that he chose that day to take a day off, plus another good friend whose son lost his fiancee that day, it happened alright. I heard about the first plane when I was out shopping, called Jill and told her to put the TV on. She did, just in time to see the plane hit the second building.

          14. I still remember that shot, the plane flying into the tower.
            Another eye-worm that will never go away.

          16. Why the "almost"? Anyway, he's only half black. Just imagine what honours would have been heaped upon him were it not for the misfortune of having a white parent.

          17. He had been making reconciliatory noises in previous positions.

            Like most of his kind he errs to calling himself black rather than one of the various "roons"

          18. Affirmative Action at work. He was/is a bright guy, but ticking the "black" box gets preferential treatment, especially when trying to get into a top college. Apparently, when he was at school in Hawaii, he called himself Barry, not Barack. Nothing like repackaging to successfully market a "product".

          24. God, how awful. So he won a Nobel prize for being elected as half black. But a complete blackman would not have such an accolade, nor ever be elected. Look how close we are in the UK to having an Idi Amin lookalike (thinkalike?) absolute clown installed as PM

          26. His black father bu88ered off back to Kenya and left the white mother and her parents to bring up the young O'Bummer.
            I wonder if he ignored her in life as he's ignored her existence since?

  65. Afternoon all,

    CT (current topic or continued testing)

    I concluded yesterday, after continued testing of my valve actuator,
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/09b529ef44bce03e7e7c089babb8db2a97ee480bd53e663548e9669247757558.jpg that despite been servicable it was actually FUCT (Failed Under Continued Testing).

    Looking more closely at the actuactor that opens the valve https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f2e3df784a8c82708ce3733e226b0b99ddd2a1903344bd0e29834ef6b9cad5f6.jpg there is a lever that manually opens the valve which can be a.useful diagnostic tool. It is important to remember however that whilst this lever can be used to lock the valve in the open position, https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/191a4393902d7361d43d02f004d08e2917722aa2e2615c924c5b6f5e6bcc17f8.jpg it does not activate the microswitch which is essential for signalling to the boiler that the the valve is actually open and that water will flow through it.

    This state of affairs means that pushing this lever can simulate a fault where an electrical signal can be sent to a controller giving a false reading.

    This is something that.can happen in actuators used for a number of purposes in an aircraft.

      1. I’m searching for the truth.
        I have been recording the evidence so that I can accurately review perceptions that may have been totally wrong.

        My boiler problem is a good example of where things can go drastically wrong and legislation and regulations can cause anomalies and misinterpretations.

        I have discovered after seven years how my central heating system works and I can save more money by programming it to be used more efficiently.

          1. Tonight, I’m finely tuning my CH timer, radiator thermostatic control valves and a room thrmostat to limit the boiler having to waste unnessesary wasted heat through a CH bypass circuit in the heating system plumbing.

          1. Thr truth is what you will find by asking the right question.

            If your question is not specific enough you will get a qualified answer.

      2. Afternoon Alf.

        Perhaps it is a reptile that is actual whereas an alligator is a reptile that is only alleged.

        {:^))

      4. Basically in a heating system the actuator is an electric motor that drives a water valve on and off to control hot water flow to either radiators or a hot water cylinder.

        In a central heating system the actuator engages with a microswitch to signify to the boiler that it has fully opened the valve.

        Actuators are employed in aircraft to enable pilots to remotely control various wing surfaces, fuel pumps and valves under computer control.

      5. I remember that a History master at Blundell's told us he had been delighted when the scripts of children sitting for a scholarship came in and he saw a question in the Science paper which asked:

        "What is a Geiger counter?"

        To which one baffled candidate wrote: "An instrument for counting geigers?"

        The boy did not win an award but he came to the school anyway and five years later he did win an open exhibition to read History at Balliol.

    3. Interesting. My boiler seems to be triggered solely by the water temperature. Turn the underfloor on, by turning up the thermostat, and the circulating pumps start. The boiler then detects a drop in temperature and fires up. On reaching room temperature, the pumps go off, and the boiler turns itself off until more heat is called for.

      Seems to be a very similar process for the domestic hot water.

      1. I’ve found it interesting enough to discovr how careful programming of my CH timer, thermostatic radiator control valves and an upstairs room thermostat can save gas energy that I have otherwise been wasting.

        The main points of attention are the changes that happened when a heat only boiler was replaced by its natural sucessor where a pump overrun was omitted and boiler firing was controlled by semiconductor thermistors measuring outflow and return water temperatures

  66. Michael Deacon
    Greta Thunberg hasn’t got a clue about Israel – and here’s the proof

    A typically holier-than-thou message about Israeli ‘cruelty’ was illustrated with an image of a man snatched by Hamas on Oct 7
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/10/08/TELEMMGLPICT000443594753_17599340148860_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqH8g0IxmZhOOFzRvM6k8ERqCouN84rUAp50eOqfwh1uc.jpeg?imwidth=1280
    Critics of Greta Thunberg seem to think that her latest failed mission to Gaza was a complete waste of time. I, however, disagree. Because at least one good thing came out of it.

    Just look at the photos of her. Doesn’t she have the most wonderful tan? Normally, poor Greta is rather pale and pasty. But now she’s a gloriously radiant bronze. And no wonder. After all, she’s just been on a month-long Mediterranean cruise.

    Being rather pale and pasty myself, I wish I could get a tan like hers. Sadly, though, I can’t afford it. For mere members of the public like me, month-long Mediterranean cruises can be prohibitively expensive.

    Thankfully, though, I’ve just had a brilliant idea: I’m going to buy a keffiyeh, and pretend that I’m now a rabid anti-Israel campaigner. And that my wife and our 11-year-old son are rabid anti-Israel campaigners, too. Then, with any luck, some rich, Israel-hating idiots will pay for us to have a fabulous Mediterranean cruise. And at the end, we won’t even have to pay for our flights home, because those will be provided free of charge by the Israeli taxpayer. I can’t wait.

    Of course, Greta’s own voyage was most certainly not a holiday. She undertook it solely because of her passionate commitment to the Palestinian cause. But, while I wouldn’t dream of doubting her sincerity, I do fear there may be one or two gaps in her knowledge.

    Earlier this week she shared a post on Instagram, designed to highlight “the suffering of Palestinian prisoners”. However, she seems not to have noticed that the post was illustrated with an image of Evyatar David: an Israeli man taken hostage by Hamas.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/briefs/2025/10/08/TELEMMGLPICT000443691348_17599339418360_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Thunberg’s Instagram post featuring an image of the Israeli hostage Evyatar David (bottom, right)
    Showing him in the darkness of a tunnel, looking desperately emaciated, the image is a still, taken from a video released by Hamas this summer. In that video, he croaked: “I haven’t eaten for days… I barely got drinking water.”

    He is also seen digging what he says will be his own grave.

    As you can imagine, quite a lot of Instagram users replied to Greta’s post, telling her that this shows she hasn’t got a clue what she’s talking about. And I’m afraid they may have a point.

    In which case, perhaps it’s time for dear Greta to think about switching to her next big cause. She’s already done climate change. What now? Gender identity? Fatphobia? Bring back the 10p Freddo?

    Alternatively, she could just take a well-earned holiday.

    Ideally somewhere nice and warm. Wouldn’t want to lose that lovely tan.

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

    STEWART RODGER
    4 min ago
    Thunberg's mission was never about Israel .it was always about Greta.

    R M Williams
    7 hrs ago
    Absolutely brilliant. I totally agree with you about Greta Thunberg and her attention seeking views. Also Lenny Henry. I have long wondered why no one points out the fact that African nations kidnapped and enslaved other tribes.

    Artful Dodger
    6 hrs ago
    Reply to R M Williams
    Oppressed and held back with zero opportunity SIR Lenny you mean

    1. She's autistic, her parents were relieved and pleased when she found a subject she could relate to. Possibly not quite as much now, although they possibly like the wealth her activities have brought them.

  67. Should black Africans ask Muslim countries for reparations?
    Some examples of slavery appear to be more important than others for those demanding atonement
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/09/should-black-africans-ask-muslim-countries-for-reparations/

    Lenny Henry was affable, popular and seemed to be well integrated but then he became uppity and lost his charm, bonhomie, sense of humour and became boorish as well as boring.

    He has "des idées au-dessus de sa gare." Terence Rattigan. (French without Tears)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c86e5189dee51f267c2a50ca8298bef044464d03e9a304006d383fad0d5b91af.png

    1. He was offered an opportunity for a grift by Lord Hermer.. and he took it.
      Unfortunately he got his sums wrong.

  68. Anne Allan posted earlier about a lunch coming up in St James's SW1.

    The lady advertised for a person to fill the gap as her dear husband cannot make it.

    The Boss has stepped into the breach !

    Glad about that. He can pay for the cocktails !

  70. A splendid afternoon in bucolic, very rural Norfolk. I have lived here for 41 years – and drove along lanes not five miles from home for the first time!

    Five churches – the 6th was visible but inaccessible!) Each with its own special features. The last one – Guestwick – is a 15th C church built over the ruins of a Saxon church which, in turn, had been done up by the Normans. Sadly, they have a terrible bat problem – and we all know that bat lovers would rather old buildings became uninhabitable or fell down rather than disturb a bat…

    Reepham has two churches which share a common wall. Extraordinary to see.

    1. My friend and her husband bought an old 17th century mansion , not huge but manageable .. The whole building had to be stripped and repaired , a project that is going to take over a year .. the costs are horrendous , it is in the hands of a well known architect re the repairs and structural safety etc .. a team of specialised workmen are busy repairing roofs, flooring , damp courses , chimneys , walls , and a deep well that was fond in the kitchen ..

      Before anything in the roof could be touched , a bat expert was required to do a survey , 2 colonies of different bats were located , the fees for the survey was well into five figures .. I nearly fainted when she told me the cost ..

      The historical position of the house and grounds and the remedial work are closely watched .

      The National Heritage List for England is a unique register of our country's most significant historic buildings and sites. The places on the list are protected by law and most are not open to the public.

      Moh and I are amazed at the dedication to the restoration ..

      Thank goodness there are people who live a dream to restore a beautiful old building in a lovely location , and especially at their time of life .

    2. Reepham. Hmm…

      In my late teens, I and a few friends had a fortnight on the Broads. We moored some distance from Reepham, set off on foot for the village. Half way, we encountered a ghostly figure. Perhaps a bicycle light would have helped.

      As we approached the pub, there was much chatter and laughter inside. Until we entered. Utter silence.

      One of our number ventured to the loo. A series of corridors ended somewhere near Coltishall. Utterly scary.

      Frankly, I'm surprised thst Reepham has any churches at all…

      1. There were three. They were paid for by three sisters. One has virtually disappeared. The other two are still there.

        When I moved here in 1984, there was a pub 100 yards away. My then wife and I thought we'd give it a go. As we walked in, silence fell and the chap behind the bar said, "No women allowed – she can sit in your car". We left. Never returned.

      3. Reminds me of pub in the Fens, middle of nowhere near a dyke. Ordered a couple of pints in silence.

        When we left some hairy biker at the bar muttered “And don’t come back!”

      4. I played a bit of Rugby in North Wales – you could go into a bar where they're all speaking English, they hear your accent and all start talking Welsh!

        At least I think they were talking Welsh, they could just have been having a phlegmy coughing fit…….

    3. As I mentioned a week or two ago when I was at UEA in the 1960s my friends and I used to love exploring Norfolk. We used to go to Iteringham Mill for tea with Derek Neville, the poet, and we used to visit the pub near Reepham ferry.

      My very dear friend, Beano, at whose funeral I gave the eulogy last year, had a 1948 drop-head Mark VI Bentley and so we travelled about in style.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a295da502deac215bf02da962248da7130b837315e247bec5fc9c0a27548d33.png

  71. Wordle No. 1,573 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    Wordle 9 Oct 2025

    Bold for Birdie Three?

    1. Another par and that was lucky.

      Wordle 1,573 4/6

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

    2. I was overdue a bit of luck and I got it in spades today! I was actually going for a slightly different word but changed my mind at the last minute, didnt expect it to be right though……

      Wordle 1,573 3/6

      ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Bogey today.

      Wordle 1,573 5/6

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

    4. Par here. Late on parade after visit to Sudbury (Gainsborough Trail).

      Wordle 1,573 4/6

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

    5. Well done. Just back from a day at sea and could only manage this.
      Wordle 1,573 5/6

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

  72. Called Mother this lunchtime. She was totally confused. Couldn't understand who I was, couldn't hear (although the carers could perfectly well) didn't understand what I was saying.
    Not a positive call.
    I hope she's not on the way out. When we left a couple of weeks ago, I was afraid that was the last time I'd see her – maybe my premonition was right.
    Sigh

    1. Dear Paul. You won't thank me for this, but Mother is on her way out. We all are. Dementia is cruel, perhaps more for those around the sufferers, and distance obviously doesn't help.

      My Mum, having borne me at the tender age of 43, was widowed when I was five. I wasn't allowed to attend my Dad's funeral, but various well-meaning folk said "You're the man of the house now. Look after your Mum."

      I took this to heart. Finally, I flew the nest at the age of 30, for work reasons. Now 300 miles from home, I would get phone calls, demanding that I change a light bulb. Local cousins would offer to help, but she insisted that "Geoffrey would do it." 600 miles later…

      In the latter years, she couldn't shop in person. So I would phone her weekly, with Tesco Groceries on the screen, and agree and order whatever she wanted. She would have hated a care home – not least because of her own mother's experiences in such an institution.

      1. I'm afraid so, Geoff. I realised that a while ago, it's just a matter of time.
        Mother's care home is lovely – the staff are very kind, it's reasonably local to where she lived, they publish Facebook videos of the daily events (some look quite fun…), but it costs a lot. About £200 a day.

    2. Not easy, Paul. I lost my father (with whom I was never close) when he was 81. He was away with the fairies at the end.
      My mother went aged 81 but she was clear and lucid all her life.

      Life seems to be a lucky bag at times!

      Toots was just 73!

    3. Oh dear.
      A time when words are pretty much useless.
      What an awful time you are having.

      1. Indeed.
        The last call, she was bright and cheerful. And when we visited. Today, not so.
        Oh, well.

        1. You have bad days OB.

          We all have bad days .. your mother is still functioning , don'y be scared of the inevitable but enjoy and hang on to her every expression .. Her voice will vanish from your memory when that time comes and you will struggle to remember unless you have her on video .

          2. I haven't got my mother on video – but I have no trouble remembering her voice, her mannerisms, the things she said…….she's been gone 36 years now. I still miss her – every day.

    1. Sorry to be boring, but why is no-one asking who is sending the boats back to be re-used?

    2. Well said that Jewish chap. Frightful beeboid trying to talk over him. I am SOOOO glad that I never watch or listen to news, politics and current affairs on any broadcaster.

          2. TNT is BT Sports in a newer guise. However, Ndovu is correct in that watching linear transmissions on any channel necessitates buying a TV licence.

          1. It’s an illegal fire stick which is loaded with all the channels unavailable without a subscription! We watch some very odd stuff! But we get sport!

        1. At almost 83 he can’t play tennis or any sport any more but he does like to watch and I want to keep him happy.

    5. I asked that same question of this parish only the other day. Paying your licence fee is paying for the destruction of Great Britain and especially England.

  79. That's me for today. A nice market trip. Smoked haddock for supper. A delightful afternoon in autumn sunshine miles from anywhere admiring buildings that are hundreds of years old.

    Time for a celebratory glass.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

  81. "Donald Trump is often accused of being a bully. This time, it worked."

    The BBC on Trump forcing Netanyahu into an agreement.

    1. It just sticks in their craw that Trump seems to have engineered a ceasefire and route to peace, where nobody else did. Every headlike I have read is disparaging, overtly or covertly, of DT – in Norway, mentioning Nazis in the same headline!
      Yet, everyone was screaming for a cessation, as the Israelis were seriously kicking Gazan ass. Now it's happening, they hate that DT has made it happen. They'd be happier if the killing continued.
      Bastards.

      1. Of course they would! So they can support the “victims” (aggressors)

      2. Don't you worry, Hamas will kick off again soon enough, and it will all be Trump's fault.

  82. Hooray for peace.
    Let the Hamas rearmament begin.
    /sarc

    I hope to goodness that ALL aid is checked very very carefully and that the rebuilding destroys the tunnels.

      1. Why, if the hostages have been returned?

        The only people and things down there will be Hamas and their supporters and weaponry.

        1. Then, fill them in.
          But, check first.
          That part of the world, lying is easier than breathing.

  83. Yousaf: it is ‘difficult’ to accept Trump as peacemaker
    9 October 2025, 1:13pm

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2150136060.jpg
    After two years of war, both Hamas and the Israeli government have agreed to a ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump. The pact will see the remaining hostages released by Hamas and the bombing of Gaza to stop. British politicians of all stripes have lauded the deal, while Trump has been praised for his part in the negotiations. But one former first minister has been more than a little begrudging in his praise for the President’s coup.

    Ex-SNP first minister Humza Yousaf, whose wife had family living in Gaza, was quizzed today on BBC Radio Scotland about whether he accepted that Trump was helping bring about peace. In a rather scathing reply, Yousaf fumed:

    I find this question really difficult because of the role the US administration has played in funding, arming and giving impunity to the very administration and government that has committed a genocide against Palestinian people. It is akin to … there’s an individual who provides matches and petrol to the arsonist and then asks for praise when he puts out the fire.

    Shots fired!

    Yousaf backtracked only slightly when he added:

    I’m not negating the fact that Donald Trump has played an important role; I think credit should also be given to the state of Qatar, who were just a few weeks ago bombed by one of the parties in this conflict – but they still held steadfast to the belief and tried to bring people together.

    Scotland’s current First Minister John Swinney packed less punches in his statement this morning, in which he welcomed the news and called for a two state solution. ‘I dearly hope that this is the first step towards that outcome,’ he said. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has insisted that Britain ‘stands ready to play our part’ in the implementation of the Gaza peace plan, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer has described the agreement as a moment of ‘profound relief’.

    The remarks follow an announcement by Trump on his social media site Truth Social, where he announced: ‘I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first phase of our peace plan.’ Yousaf may not think the US President deserves praise for his role in the ceasefire deal – but then again, the ex-FM is hardly renowned for his good judgement…

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

    Bob Johnston
    5 hours ago
    The same Himza Useless who danced around the school playground and cheered the destruction of the twin towers. The same Himza Useless who thinks minorites who number fewer than 5% of the population should be given all the top jobs in Scotland. The same Himza Useless who asked refugee Ukrainian women where their men were. Just go away, Useless, and be useless somewhere else.

    Mark F. Nowland Bob Johnston
    4 hours ago
    Yeah, that's the vile little racist c***.

    Bob Johnston Mark F. Nowland
    4 hours ago edited
    Now now. That's an unacceptable use of the word c***. He's way worse.

    Arch Stanton
    4 hours ago
    This being the same Humza Yousaf who omitted to disclose the nature and content of his meetings with the Hamas sponsoring and Jew hating Jihadi supporting Qatari officials , contrary to the Ministerial Code, when visiting Qatar for no good reason, then promised to divulge the details of those meetings “within twenty four hours” when his subterfuge was discovered, only to continue to refuse to do so more than a decade later?

    This being the same Humza Yousaf who provided Hamas with UK taxpayers money , in order to secure the release from Gaza of family members?

    What a piece of work!

    2. The Arabs have been offered a “two state solution” many times. They always reject it.

      1. Fancy that. Some people have very short memories. It's almost as though there are some Arabs who want the Jews gone.

        1. Nevertheless, sos…Hamas have declared the war is over. We’ll see how it goes, amazingly or otherwise….

  85. Just had a hunt through the meat drawer in the fridge.
    Oops… packets with use-by dates back mid June 2023… now in the bin! Don't look furry, but won't take the risk.

          3. PS no wonder you were so worried about little cat.
            Too much evidence for big cat to eat alone.

        2. The big cats certainly do. Live humans too. Cats have a very short gut so they can’t digest vegetation but some long pig goes down alright?

    2. I've never found any out of date stuff that was frozen in good time ever did any harm. Taste and texture may have deteriorated but it's perfectly safe to eat when properly cooked.

  86. Last post (after a glass or three).

    Displacement activity in yer France. The corpse of Robert Badinter (30 March 1928 – 9 February 2024) – who was involved in French legal and political circles years ago – is being transferred to the Pantheon. Wonderful opportunity for yer Frogs to forget about governing and have a bloody great "service" (followed, inevitably by a gut bash). All of the 20 prime ministers of the last three years are there plus Toy Boy (now with greying temples) giving a eulogy.

    How the 99% of the rest of the French population must be SOOOOO pleased that nothing else is happening. Like a government governing…
    (Yawns and goes back to glass)

    TTFN

  88. Evening all. Have had a lazy day today after a fairly busy week.
    Speech isn’t going to save the Cons. They have to DO something to show they mean business. When they eject all the foreigners, heathens and left leaning wets they might start to gain some credibility. I won’t hold my breath.

    1. Until they return the selection of candidates to local constituencies, there will be no change and no hope. Selection by a few insiders has been the destruction of their party.

      1. I may be wrong ("nooooooooo," cry all NOTTLers) but I get the impression that CCHQ is being gone through with a fine tooth comb.
        I will do some checking.

    2. Hear you Conway – stopped holding mine a while ago…regretfully. For me, they will always be the party of Thatcher, she must be spinning…

  89. After the Practice Pharmacist at my GP surgery went on about my high cholesterol and statins the other day, I raised the issue with a specialist cardiac nurse at the rehab clinic today. She said that the danger with cholesterol is that it can cause disease of the arteries and my CT scans show no sign of that therefore, balancing the issues, statins are not appropriate. She does want me to have a 30 minute session with the nutritionist, which I’ve agreed to, though I could probably write the script!

    2. Good news, Sue, far as I remember from husband – awful leg pains, he stopped taking them. You'll know/research the diet suits you best, good luck x

    3. Statins cause more harm than good I think. I bow to Dr Kendrick's good sense on that one.

    1. What type of creature is that?

      Have you posted this to tease out all the prejudicial Nottlers?

    1. The Government Accountability Institute's Director of Research, Seamus Bruner, has pulled the curtain back on a troubling pattern — how non-governmental funding networks are bankrolling protest and activist movements across the U.S.

      According to Government Accountability Institute's Director of Research, Seamus Bruner's findings, the chaos now gripping cities like Portland, Chicago, and Los Angeles — especially the recent waves of anti-ICE violence — isn't spontaneous. It's organized, coordinated, and funded.

      1. Over the past few days I've shared a number of posts on my Facebook page – of protests I've been on from 2012 to 2019……. not against Hamas but against animal abuse, trophy hunting and the ivory trade. Nobody bankrolled those – all the attendees paid their own way and got there by train, coach, bus or whatever.

          3. I remember that..Lamont/Major special. So many issues now we can have no say in/no effect on, ever thus. Perhaps times were kinder to us when we were ignorant, in the dark.

  92. Labour's 'one 384-in, one-out' scheme sees just 26 small boat migrants sent back to France while 10,000 have arrived, including 1,000 on a single day this week

  93. I have been out most of the day, so I may be several hours behind in referring to this case.
    Anyway – Bloody Good Show. M. Dogan is a shit to the power of 10. and then some more.

    The only man to appeal against his conviction for raping Gisele Pelicot has seen his sentence increased.

    Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, was the only one to have maintained an appeal after the first trial last year of 51 men, including Pelicot's husband Dominique Pelicot, in the mass sexual abuse case.

    On Thursday he was handed a ten-year prison term after a jury of nine people found him guilty of raping Ms Pelicot in her bedroom in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

    2. I haven't been able to get my head around the whole story. How could you possibly find 51 'men' to do this?

        1. Local newspaper Ads.
          "Wanted, any men wanting to screw my wife while she's unconscious."??

    1. 'Evening Grizzly. I've spent a good part of my day, today, listening to such videos etc. I can only apologise, and say I now know I can never be a lesbian even if I ever thought I could before (which I didn't). Why are some women so stupid….

      1. Believe me, it ain't just women. And btw, I think I would have made a wonderful lesbian, if I hadn't been a bloke.

        1. Great comment, mola. There have been reports of men cross-dressing to make women think they are a woman too. What a world 😀 I think I’d have made a better man than many I’ve encountered. Wimps!

      2. 'Evening, Kate. I would like you whether you were a lesbian or not.x

        I've actually had a few female friends friends in my life who prefer women. I have also supervised a few in my job. They have never presented me with any problem.

        1. We have quite a few female couples at the golf club. They are sociable people who just get on with life without flaunting their orientation.
          Really, who gives a damn?

        2. I don’t quite know what to say, Grizzly…😄 except I am female but definitely not lesbian or bi-. Further, majority of my friends have all been male with a very few notable exceptions…and those females had similar outlook on life to myself. I don’t make close friends easily but I think I’ve found more than a few here including yourself. Sleep well Alan George 😴 💓

          2. ‘morning Grizz…I can’t get on nttl to reply, seems to be a glitch again, some responses duplicated etc. Also a line of characters at the very top of the page. Geoff will sort it, I’m sure. Meantime, I’ll be walking the dog….K x

  96. And that's me off to bed.
    A bit of pottering about but for some reason unable to concentrate on what I want to get done.
    Goodnight all.

  99. Yo All

    We are having a great holiday, if we get more sunburnt/tanned, we will have to come back via Calais – Dover……..

  100. Trump's Gaza success shows just how wrong European leaders have been on the issue

    Israel's victory is a reminder that peace is ultimately achieved through strength, rather than moral posturing from afar

    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    9th October 2025, 7:18pm BST

    After two years of hostilities, the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on Thursday comes as a welcome step towards a just and lasting peace.

    As things stand, the last hostages taken in the October 7 pogrom will soon be reunited with their families, or at last be given a dignified burial, with Israeli forces pulling back but retaining control of the majority of the Gaza Strip for the present.

    Beyond this, things are less clear. There is still a great deal of work to do in implementing the longer-term steps in the plan laid out by the White House, with perhaps the most urgent obtaining the vital concession that Hamas will agree to lay down arms. After that, attention can begin to shift to the long-term governance of the Strip, the installation of a mooted transitional authority, and the task of ensuring that Hamas and its members never again have any role in ruling over Gaza.

    There is still a long way to go before these objectives are obtained. Yet it is also the case that there is more optimism now that a long-term peace can be reached than there has been for years. And as Sir Keir Starmer has directly stated, this "would not have happened without President Trump's leadership". ["…the bastard!", he said, under his breath.]

    That we are now in a world where a long-term deal is obtainable that would see the realisation of almost every demand the supporters of the Palestinian cause have professed to desire is thanks to the willingness of the White House to work with the Israeli state rather than to condemn it from afar, and to the success of the IDF in systematically dismantling Hamas's terror network.

    In other words, it has been attained by pursuing precisely those actions which those claiming to speak on Palestine's behalf have condemned. Sir Keir, Emmanuel Macron, and the other leaders in Europe who lined up to offer Hamas the morale boost of official recognition of an as-yet non-existent Palestinian state should feel shame at their weakness. They should reflect, too, on how little their efforts to appease Hamas achieved.

    Israel's victory in this conflict is a reminder that peace is ultimately achieved through strength, rather than moral posturing from afar. President Trump's success in brokering the first stage of this ceasefire similarly serves as an illustration that negotiation requires you to talk with the other party rather than simply issue denunciations. These are lessons that an increasingly irrelevant continent should take to heart, and soon.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/10/09/trump-gaza-hamas-success-peace-deal-rebuke-europe

    1. I quite understand the symbolism of denying Hamza any stake in Gaza's future, but Hamza represents an idea, an attitude. So what if it's dismantled? Its adherents and others of like mind will simply adopt another name but still pursue the same ends.

  101. BBC East Midlands TV featured this tonight.

    Mum's plea as city has England's highest TB rate

    Leicester has had the UK's highest TB rate for the past two years.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c708l071njzo

    Rob Howard, quoted in the website piece, spoke to the camera about "changing migration patterns and people coming here to work and study in an inclusive city". It's certainly inclusive now.

    Dr Pranab Halder: "TB is not a Victorian disease, it is a disease of our time," he said. Cobblers. He's trying to say "It never went away, you know." Actually, it did…almost.

  102. From the Telegraph

    Labour could give digital ID cards to 13-year-olds
    Ministers consider expanding scheme, despite opposition from civil liberties campaigners

    Here in Spain even children can have ID cards. Many years ago we went to the police station to get DNI for our children and thus confirmed their status as Spanish citizens. I have grandsons in the US and they not only have Spanish passports but also Spanish DNI. Very useful as they were born in the US.
    Norhing really unusual if the UK government has similar facilities.

    1. I have had ID cards from two EU countries in my time, but these have nothing to do with the digital id. The digital id is a database of health, education, tax, banking, criminal, work and all other information held about citizens.
      It is the basis for a social credit system that will control what people are allowed to buy, where they can go etc, similar to the one in parts of China.

      1. The DNI number in Spain is also your fiscal identification number which is on the stickers with which all taxpayers are issued

  103. Well, chums, it's now my bedtime. So I you wish you all a very Good Night, and hope you all sleep well. I hope to see you all early tomorrow morning.

  105. "Publishing failed. The response is not a valid JSON response."

    I regularly fet emails from WordPress, saying NTTL has been updated. The latest was around 8:20 last night. I'm assuming this is why the site is broken. The solution may be to wait patiently for the next update. There's not much I can do from this end…

    Meanwhile, keep posting here.

    1. G'day, Geoff.

      I noticed that strange line of symbols appearing for the first time yesterday (Thursday). Bizarre!

          1. And now repeat messages…🤣…will try the blog again, now I finished stacking wood…nope Friday 10th still not working..

    2. Hi Geoff, I can see it now. Possibly something software (i.e. Disqus) related. Him Outdoors was telling me something about 'free' software such as Disqus…when it reaches a certain number of characters/posts, it stops in order to promote a paid upgrade (or similar). If you ever go the subscription route, Geoff – I for one am happy to pay…love Kate x ps have a good day 🙂 btw symbols still there, first clue something amiss.

Comments are closed.