Tuesday 1 July: How it felt to watch Glastonbury as a member of the Jewish community

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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636 thoughts on “Tuesday 1 July: How it felt to watch Glastonbury as a member of the Jewish community”

  2. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's new NoTTLe page. Did Wordle in 4 (a Par) but a tip to others – this is an American not British spelling.

    Wordle 1,473 4/6

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

      1. Happy birthday, Richard. And my best wishes to you both as you celebrate his birthday together today.

      4. Only at 9 o'clock on a Saturday……
        Many happy returns Richard have a lovely birthday you deserve it 😉😃🥂🍾 cheers..

      1. Henry is staying for a few days so I am exploiting him and we shall be cutting some logs.

    7. Happy Birthday, dear Rastus!! I'm sure you're having a wonderful day, what with Caroline being in charge 😎 – here's to a happy and healthy year to come x

  4. 408584+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 1 July: How it felt to watch Glastonbury as a member of the Jewish community

    Stepping from a time machine and finding it being very reminiscent one would think of Germany 1930s, with nowhere to escape too, thoughts of the future to terrible to contemplate.

    This evil bud needs very harsh nipping NOW, not left to fester.

    2. Some might suggest that using a food distribution hub as the only permitted way of feeding ghetto inmates ,as bait in order to shoot at starving enemy civilians is very reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s, and also against a people with nowhere to escape to.

      I believe there were calls for "death to the SS" that were not censored in Britain. I imagine there were some German patriots with hurt feelings then.

      1. Whoever thought that was a good idea needs their head examined. I hope there's a good explanation as to why they started shooting at those poor buggers queueing for food.

    3. Not to worry,the self-appointed Antifa have it all under control…

      Oh…antifa are the fascists? Oops!

    1. 30 Years? It wil cost the taxpayers millions. He should be put down, along with all the other mass rapists an murderers.

      1. Good grief, Stormy and Ndovu. I missed that today! Happy new month to all NoTTLers!

    2. At least Pride month is over. But then I read Michael Deacon…

  11. Morning, all Y'all.
    Good weather over. Cool n cloudy this morning, rain later. Ah, well, summer for a day allowed me to cut the grass and get very sweaty…

    1. You're lucky, Herr Oberst. I will have to water the garden myself today, as it will be another scorcher. (Good morning, Paul, btw.)

  12. When claiming poverty in order to warrant squeezing the disabled, what did it for me and for a Labour MP with any conscience is the profligacy of the Spending Review a couple of weeks ago, when there was no shortage of billions for pet PFI projects.

    I only wish I could write this on the 'New Statesman'. Does the Left have the wit to create a "Not the New Statesman Letters' forum? We grumble here about the number of new parties on the Right, some of which have not been led by Farage, but spare a thought for leftwingers who really should do better than Starmer and his soulless package of clone bots.

      1. I'm only a part time leftie. There are some issues where I wind them up a bit.

    2. I have no sympathy. They are too stupid to realise their own role in causing the current catastrophe…

      1. Actually all these witless MPs did was to stand for Parliament. They now have the choice of voting for what they believe in, or becoming encloned by Starmer and his Blairite machine.

        The stupidity lies in those who allowed them to be elected on a landslide. The Labour vote actually went down since “its greatest defeat since WW2” under Corbyn. It was Tories that sat at home or were beguiled by Farage that let them through, but I can hardly blame them after five Conservative prime ministers and very little positive to show for it.

        What do we do now? Name me any MP or PPC under 60 who is fit for Government.

        1. They lack the courage to rebel. Most of them are probably already compromised by the whips.

        2. I can't think of any. Our Labour MP was a local GP till last July. He voted for assisted dying and killing unborn babies.

    2. The ball has been in the air for over a year too many rackets involved.
      He couldn't serve anything straight.

  16. Good morning, all. Pinch and a punch. Happy month. Overcast and cool at present.

    I see the wet, weak, woke beeboid DG was AT Glastonbury during all the vile anti-jewish comments. I'll gladly thrust a ten punnote into the hand of anyone who can produce a genuine video of this squirt "singing along" with the "death to IDF" wanker.

    1. Anyone with any sense of English poetry must know that "death to IDF" doesn't rhyme, whereas "deaf to IDF" does.

    2. It won't be long before an EDF is needed.
      Not the French energy company.

    1. And as it heats up even more thsa today, guess where they will be heading?

  19. Morning all 🙂😊 happy July.
    18c already but rain forecast for tonight….seeing is believing.
    I'm not a fan of people who dress up to massively emphasis their religious beliefs. In my view it's not at all necessary. But Europe is being overtaken by the obvious and it seems that the rest of the world is also in a similar situation.
    Where ever this happens on our shared planet lives are immediately at risk. It's got to be stopped.
    Its not that they are converting others, islam is an extremely aggressive hatefilled concept.
    They should all stay where they are and leave those who don't want to be forced to convert alone.
    I new quite a lot of Jewish people in my younger days and have the feeling my maternal grandmother was Jewish. But it was never mentioned or confirmed. She was very kind generous and gentle. They are not aggressive but after Hitler, protective. If they hadn't been forced to defend themselves from the Iranian backed Hamas they would have been wiped out by by now from islamic agression. I'm not suggesting that any given religious beliefs are perfect, most of the beliefs were developed or invented.
    I'll move on to a light hearted cuppa tea 🍵

    1. I am more concerned about islamic aggression taking hold in Western Europe after they have bred enough to make a bid for power.

      I find it odd that the current special military operation in Gaza and the West Bank over a land rights dispute is considered "generous and gentle", or that the vast majority of Jews, including relatives of mine, are having to be tarred with the same brush as the current regime in the Knesset.

      Iran may well be acting as the British did when they supported the French Resistance and the Polish Free Fighters, and that their campaign is one primarily of civil defence against a paranoid and extremely violent, belligerent and well-supported neighbour. It is masking the very real threat Islam poses to the civilised world elsewhere, and indeed to the more benign sections of Israeli society.

    1. Good way to distribute shop lifted goods.
      There's a farm known as Bell End.
      I hope they are not breeding.

  23. Had to happen sooner or later..

    The Velvet Sundown a suspected AI band hits 550K Spotify listeners in weeks..

    1. He's appeared several times on the Death List, but they got him at last. Dick Van Dyke has been on ten times, and as he approaches his centenary, remains hale and hearty and good for a few years yet, and may actually threaten Clive Dunn's fourteen appearances.

      Incidentally, ITN don't have newsreaders; they have newscasters. The idea was that rather than someone reading from an autocue with authority and eloquence like the BBC, independent newscasters were primarily serious journalists with experience on the front line (Sandy Gall himself was in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion there).

        1. Everybody loved Reginald Bosanquet. The character Henry Davenport from ‘Drop the Dead Donkey’ was modelled on him, and his double act with Anna Ford.

      2. I don't normally engage with you on this site, Jeremy, but I have to correct you: Dick Van Dyke died aged 99 and is not "hale & hearty".

        1. First I’ve heard of it. I have just checked online, and while he had to pull out of an engagement because of ill health, there was nothing about him actually dying. The Death List is usually pretty hot on claiming another hit.

    2. The late Queen Mum referred to her jewellery as her "props". It reinforced the dignity and majesty of royalty, thereby giving it the authority required to serve the nation, and keeping it above the oiks that purport to be "captains of industry" but are in reality no better than well-remunerated and hardworking professional thieves. The royals have a tradition of "noblesse oblige" evolved over centuries that balances privilege with duty, but this must be seen to be special and something grander than Elon Musk or Bill Gates.

      I was against the scrapping of the Royal Yacht Britannia. It was Britain's floating embassy, and its royal status allowed the UK to punch diplomatically well above its weight, and at a considerably lower price than many Government initiatives that achieve less. Yes, it was tired and needed a thorough overall, including a new more fuel-efficient engine, but that could have been done.

      Likewise, the royal train is a way for the royals to be seen getting about the country, and making their presence known and respected more than if they drop by on a helicopter in the same manner as a police raid on a dissident's home.

    3. I hope it goes to a Heritage Railway.

      The Watercress line does a beer train and a dinner train and is often fully booked for the next year.

      The Royal train could easily make a lot of money even if it wasn't going anywhere.

      1. It'll probably end up at the NRM in York (if they can find room for it).

      1. A jellyfish has value in it's ecosystem. Starmer, like all Left; s just a maggot.

        1. A maggot is a noble creature compared to Stoma.

          Maggots clean up dead and decaying flesh.

  28. 408641+ up ticks,

    Dt,

    Heart patients will get job advice in hospital
    Streeting’s reforms will set NHS targets to tackle worklessness crisis

    Daft I call it,
    It could be adding to the problem currently, by creating MORE heart patients via giving them job advice.

    1. The NHS is nowhere near hitting its targets for public health so how the hell is it going to meet worklessness targets? We must get rid of the clowns in Westminster!

  29. So Two Tierism is back again,
    The King is scrapping his train,
    For two lovely choppers,
    It's so good for my coffers,
    So sod Davos, net zeros insane

  30. The industrial scale rape gang scandal will forever define the legacy of the progressive liberals & Labour party.. as

    Marcus Johnstone managing director at PCD Solicitors in Warrington says grooming gangs, nearly always Pakistani Muslim men, are 'absolutely' still operating in Britain but have changed their tactics to target girls online rather than in the street.

    The trinity of girls from Care Homes, AirBnB & Online help.

    2. There is no need for the diversity to be here. Throughout Brexit the Treasury said we needed gimmigrants. We didn't. We needed less welfare so the dross locals got off their backsides and worked. That alsso means lower taxes, so it is worth working.

      In short, the state imported tens of millions of wasters to pretend GDP was going up while paying even more wasters to sit at home doing nothing all to keep taxes at an insanely high level to punish the increasingly small pool of people who did work.

    3. Reality is, not all families want/can care for elderly dementia sufferer relatives. And another reality is that Care Homes can't recruit white people as much because very few apply. Been there, done that, with dad.

      2. Some relatives put a secret camera in the room, guessing the footage is similar. Will we all end that way? I guess we just might, Alec. Very difficult caring for a relative with dementia, why so few are able to do it – working full time to pay their bills, plus some dementia sufferers are violent. Been there, did that.

        1. Me too Kate until my health started to deteriorate then I was forced to place her in a home – a terrible day x

          1. So sorry to read that, Alec…it’s a worry, wondering how they are all the time. When my dad admitted, I kitted him out all new clothes labelled with his name, only to visit and see someone else wearing them (and he’d be wearing someone else’s, but all clean and tidy). He did put weight on, it was a BUPA home with it’s own kitchen staff. His Social Worker told me ‘whatever you do, don’t put him in a LA place, they’re really really bad’ (UK). It scares me, knowing I will likely end up in a similar place. Starting to think about the alternative. Here’s a big kiss XX and hug for you :-))

          2. Thankfully there was a vacancy in the local home which was one of the best and she was well looked after. I used to visit 2 or 3 times a week and played the keyboard there every fortnight. Then came covid and I was only allowed to see her through her ground floor window – even on her birthday. I'm sure this hastened her demise and she passed away 4 years ago, thankfully I (and the family) had anytime access by then. Yes clothes went missing as did a few other things, the home closed a couple of years ago through lack of staff but is due to re-open soon under new management (NHS) but I won't be returning to entertain them.
            Hugs and xx's returned

          3. Neither you nor KJ200 should feel guilty.
            It's a heart rending decision to make, but once the demented person starts wandering at all hours and / or becomes violent, then the task becomes impossible for the immediate carer and family. We are watching this played out next door to us; the wife who is caring for her husband has bad heart problems herself.
            There is only so much family can do, particularly as many patients in their second childhood do deliberately play up relatives but are as good as gold with care staff.

          4. Mine was never violent, just couldn't do anything for herself, she was loved by all the staff and in spite of everything always had a smile on her face. I often used to get my lunch at the home when I was playing and it was nice to be able to feed her and give the staff a rest.
            I'll have to stop commenting on this as it's upsetting me

          5. I am totally convinced that the lack of visitors during the madness of 2020 was a major cause of my late MiL's death. Until we placed her in a home local to us at the end of 2019, and in spite of the distance, her sons & families visited her weekly in the house she had lived in for around 50 years. Her long-standing neighbour & friend checked on her daily, did her shopping and another local lady did her cleaning.
            The home is (or certainly was) excellent. Not the most fancy place, but homely with resident cook, and caring staff (all local people, no furriners) who treated residents really well. When lockdowns hit, the staff went above and beyond with extra activities to try and keep the residents engaged. Over the phone, my husband helped them set up Skype, so that family members could interact with their loved ones. Unfortunately, MiL never engaged with the screen, seeing it is a form of TV; they found that most of the residents with dementia reacted in the same manner. Poor lady, she must have just felt abandoned.
            Carers are underpaid, and so often undervalued and under-appreciated.

          6. I am totally convinced that the lack of visitors during the madness of 2020 was a major cause of my late MiL's death. Until we placed her in a home local to us at the end of 2019, and in spite of the distance, her sons & families visited her weekly in the house she had lived in for around 50 years. Her long-standing neighbour & friend checked on her daily, did her shopping and another local lady did her cleaning.
            The home is (or certainly was) excellent. Not the most fancy place, but homely with resident cook, and caring staff (all local people, no furriners) who treated residents really well. When lockdowns hit, the staff went above and beyond with extra activities to try and keep the residents engaged. Over the phone, my husband helped them set up Skype, so that family members could interact with their loved ones. Unfortunately, MiL never engaged with the screen, seeing it is a form of TV; they found that most of the residents with dementia reacted in the same manner. Poor lady, she must have just felt abandoned.
            Carers are underpaid, and so often undervalued and under-appreciated.

    2. That’s not necessarily true. We incentivise people not to work though.

      2. Yes, by giving them peanuts wages and loads of benefits if they don't work. Ordinary indigenous people don't want to work to earn just enough to give them a lifestyle that some immigrants are happy to live in

  33. I see that the climate propagandists are saying that yesterday was the warmest opening day to Wimbledon ever, but they fail to mention that they have recently moved the start date back a week, for some reason

    1. And Carol Kirkwood has been working very hard on centre court all morning rubbing it in.

  34. Good morning all from Barnard Castle.
    An enjoyable but tiring day looking round the Bowes Museum.
    A three hour skim over the surface of the place did not do justice to it.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f28cb081b907d228fc4b3720579287f0bd551f00a349fc1153c648be9e1eb16f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3185489cc6214705ce7cb25d39ab10e5923eca207ba574f67730d92bbc569530.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c74dfaf8a2e24ea2a6019e33bdf2c45fbd022a0addaf05f5be7a7e30dcc58342.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6777570fd44a2aba4993cbfd6600bb5e9a35bee6353ce211b73fcb108761912b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bec1e9dba8d877988052559e9f7b959387abaa30d0ded6aa9d7d7a26d408da7c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7f41cb9dc560a465c8d9daa483df915b1086468d618d21a0fdd0d0df0340529d.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16882dc6061c215aa6e13d625d424bd34daa734301e92259a0778f77348eca8b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a8df600f71ca92581c1891dab0817ca394442aa87258790478c1665b083ef1a.jpg

      2. Gosh – I remember that! We stopped off on the way to a walking trip in the Howgills!

        1. You mean Sir Reginald Sheffield, Bart, father-in-law of David Lord Cameron? I do see a certain likeness and similar shiftiness of demeanour…but I doubt it.

      1. I donated to Tommy Robinson to help fund an event. Which makes me a foam flecked racist bigot.

        2. You and me both. I've attended TR events and I contribute when the buckets come round. I'm a bit of a coward and I prefer to put cash in the collection but it's always gratefully received.

          3. In the US BLM now stands for 'Buy Luxury Mansions'.

            Also, in an example of poetic justice, I'm sure that I read that one of the mansions bought from BLM donations was burned down in the recent California wildfires.

  37. Just emptied the firewood store, levelled it and restacked it. Doesn't sound much, but man, am I wrecked and sweaty!

    2. I did a load of ironing.
      I was so hot a lady-like glow was an aspiration, not an achievement.

  38. It was rainy, and chilly. Now, the clouds have moved away and it's sunny. Having taken a day off work, didn't want to waste it.

    3. This morning after it was announced that the equivalent of a quater of a football stadium has arrived already this year. They filmed someone stabbing a dinghy.
      I expect he's been arrested since.

  40. EXC: Ofcom Backed Down to GB News After Attempt to Privately Overrule Supreme Court on Trans
    As Guido revealed yesterday, Ofcom rejected the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on biological sex and ordered broadcasters to give airtime to the claim biological men are women when discussing trans. Now Guido has seen the correspondence showing Ofcom initially tried to do so in secret…

    In letters between the regulator and GB News, Ofcom said it did not accept the judgement meant the debate is ‘settled’. Ofcom marked its letter ‘Confidential’, not once, but three times across the page…

    GB News challenged the decision to make the letter private, stating it should be made public due to the importance of its content and Ofcom’s duty to make their views relating to their Code available to those they regulate. Ofcom backed down. The regulator claimed the inclusion of ‘confidential’ was ‘unintended’ and they don’t consider their position to be confidential after all. When the regulator becomes the regulated…

    July 1 2025 @ 09:30

    Captain Sensible
    23m
    Something is rotten in the state of Ofcom. We are paying over £226 million a year for this pseudopodium of the Blob.

    Obnox
    23m
    This has to end. These Quango's have no electoral accountability and so they can just keep making things up to suit their agenda without fear.

    EnglandLaments
    15m
    Yet another example of institutional capture.
    Are there any UK institutions prepared to stand up to Stonewall?

    Stonewall has become toxic and does much more harm than good these days.

    Paleface
    16m
    Even when they're caught out they still think they can lie and get away with it
    You don't stamp a document as being "confidential" four times by accident

    Like the Labour Party, Marxists still think they're living in the 19th Century when it was so much easier to fool all the people all the time

    1. OFCOM, like all the regulators works for the state. It is actively Left wing. Being packed with Lefty, ex BBC wonks it's main goal is the destruction of any alternative message it dislikes.

      1. Note the phrase 'Base salary'. With expenses they will probably take much more that the list.

    3. A tax-funded body refuses to accept a Supreme Court decision? Sackings all round.

  41. Lots of flights into LHR this morning. Many more than usual at this time of day. I think they just changed the approach direction as it’s all of a sudden gone quiet. Many small jets going into Farnborough.
    We’re about 20 miles from LHR by road and 7 mikes from Farnborough.

  42. Woke up, washing machine hadn't finished. Odd, I thought. Was set to finish at 5am. Not spinning. Hoiked soaked washing out. Called Samsung to invoke ten year warranty.

    Was told no ten year warranty. Read her the number again. No, no such warranty. Of course, it's an indian so has no idea what I'm saying and line is bad so can't hear her.

    I get off the call after a waste of time and buy a new one. Yes, it could be as simple as the belt having gone but I am not technical nor do I have the time to take a washing machine apart, replace the belt (I wouldn't even know how). The cost of my time to do that, assuming the belt arrived Thursday would be less useful than just replacing the machine in the first place.

    But still. £400. On top of the car service.

    Hung the washing out after wringing it as much as could. Upside, it's supposed to be warm so maybe they'll 'dry'. Don't have to be bone dry, just dryer. They can go out again tomorrow. Everything else can wait until Friday.

    Then I get a reminder to update our mobile telephone (as I stopped it from the 25th to restart it on the 1st). Of course, there's outstanding credit of pennies due to their keep alive so that restarts in August. Not July. And of course. Instead of starting on the 1st, the plan starts on the first, but the payment goes out on the 31st of July. Not the 1st as I damned well intended to set everything up for.

    I am extremely hot, decidedly bothered and it's not even 11.

    1. Ask a silly question.
      Are you sure it's actually broken?
      When we get power cuts our machine stops at that point of the cycle and has to be restarted.

      1. Yeah, the power was on, the timer just wasn't ticking down. I think the belt has gone, but have no idea. It's 5 years old or so. I can't be doing the hassle.

        I've tried repair fiddles before and you end up buying another one anyway.

        1. We managed to get ours running again recently by cleaning out the filter – it kept finishing with an error code. The underwire from a bra was stuck in there…no idea how that happened…

          Is there some local green workshop that would collect the old one, fix it and sell it on cheaply to someone who can't afford a new one?

          2. I am a bit grumpy at them, to be honest. We had some older, but good condition office furniture and when the blokes arrived to collect it they refused because of one tiny scuff on the veneer in a corner.

            I said 'Would you prefer we just bought new stuff and gave you that?'. I really was damned miffed off. It was near mint but for a cm2 white mark on the underside. I'd also lost a day waiting for them to turn up and they didn't.

          4. Honestly don't know. I've John Lewis'd the new one to collect, remove the old and fit and plumb the new. Yes, it's two pipes but again, hassle and time.

        2. When our dishwasher stopped working last year, OH was on the verge of ordering a new one. I stopped him just in time and suggested he ring Bosch to ask about repairs. No problem, they said. The man came on election day last year at 7.30am and replaced a small part. ( a water filter or something) It started working and is still fine. Cost £100 instead of £400 for a new one.

      2. Call out charge was £70+ VAT.

        Parts and Labour at 50+vat / hour.

        Which equates to more than half the cost. I would honestly like to be able to call someone, have them take it apart, replace the broken bit and be up and running again. All that re-use and recycling lark. But the massive cost of materials, tax has made it uneconomical.

        1. Spares are horrendously expensive – If you built a machine using spares it would cost around £2000
          It's usually a PCB which goes and they are expensive

          1. That's not a bad idea. I would if we weren't so reliant on the thing. There's sometimes two loads a day.

      1. No idea. To find out would mean taking it apart. Which would mean knowing how to. Which, again means knowing what to look for.

        The numbers worked out in the four hours I could spend faffing, and the next four to maybe, possibly repair it using bought parts, I could earn the money for the replacement.

        I don't like just scrapping what is probably ok kit, but equally I can't justify £80+40x hours + parts when a new one can be here on Friday morning.

    5. Mine packed up a few days ago – was completely dead, checked fuse etc to no avail, suspect PCB – spare would be £192 so bought another. Motor was fine so removed it in case a spare needed, rest will be recycled. Also keeping the belt as spare. New one due in a couple of days.
      17 years old so can't complain

  43. Yo and Good moaning to you all, from warm, but dull (weatherwise ) C d S

      1. Look East reported live on a lad who didn’t want to risk the currants at Wells-next-the-Sea. He said it sands to reason not to go with the flow.

      2. There's a pattern amongst all these organisation founders. From stonewall to kids company, to proud, to gimmie (even more) money we're black.

        They're always started by disreputable people of low moral character. It's as if, in creating these organisations for hard Left causes, getting public money they then become 'normalised' and then the state protects them.

    3. Seemingly an acceptable cultural difference.
      That really should not be tolerated.

      1. I remember I supported her from the start, got quite a lot of abuse online. Open minds, wonderful things.

      2. Or they are convicted, Letby is freed in a fanfare of How-could-this-happen and trial by jury is sanctimoniously abolished because clearly it locks up friendly nurses rather than evil managers.

    3. Also reported Spectator, sos. Hope David Davis MP puts out a statement of support for her. Whole place sounded dysfunctional. Similar cases Lancaster, I know a young woman admitted there in labour to give birth to her overdue baby, ended up with a complete removal of womb, ovaries etc, for no apparent reason.

    4. "Det Superintendent Paul Hughes said: “In October 2023, following the lengthy trial and subsequent conviction of Lucy Letby, Cheshire Constabulary launched an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

      “This focuses on senior leadership and their decision-making to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities.

      “In March 2025, the scope of the investigation widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter.

      “This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.

      “It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.”"

      Of course not; just a guide to the wording of any report whitewash.

      1. Why do the police always “launch” an investigation, implying that they have been pro-active. All too often, the launching is only after all their excuses for inaction have been exhausted.

    5. "Det Superintendent Paul Hughes said: “In October 2023, following the lengthy trial and subsequent conviction of Lucy Letby, Cheshire Constabulary launched an investigation into corporate manslaughter at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

      “This focuses on senior leadership and their decision-making to determine whether any criminality has taken place concerning the response to the increased levels of fatalities.

      “In March 2025, the scope of the investigation widened to also include gross negligence manslaughter.

      “This is a separate offence to corporate manslaughter and focuses on the grossly negligent action or inaction of individuals.

      “It is important to note that this does not impact on the convictions of Lucy Letby for multiple offences of murder and attempted murder.”"

      Of course not; just a guide to the wording of any report whitewash.

      1. The private Lindo Wing at St Mary's Hospital, Paddington will be safe. All the royal ladies give birth there. A trend started by Princess Anne.

  54. Good afternoon, all.

    I do not have access to the Telegraph and so cannot check the detail. Destroying good farming land across the country and now this nonsense. Either he's beyond help or he is deliberately setting out to infuriate the people. A "leader" would never have employed this clown in the first instance and as there is no "leader" in sight to stop the clown, the clown will continue his boring, unfunny and disastrous routine.

    https://x.com/tesssummers98/status/1939895039691251952

    2. Doncaster North, not too many lakes there I guess, or fields. Lots of roofs tho'.

    3. Miliband to cover Britain's lakes in floating solar panels

      Energy Secretary plans to quadruple the use of the technology in Britain

      Tony Diver, Associate Political Editor
      30 June 2025 9:37pm BST

      Lakes and reservoirs will be covered with solar panels under Ed Miliband's plans to quadruple the use of the technology in Britain.

      Mr Miliband is hoping to make it more difficult for locals to object to bodies of water being covered in the panels and to the erection of telegraph poles in rural areas. The plans are part of the Government's new "solar roadmap", under which an area more than three times the size of Birmingham will be covered in solar panels in the next five years.

      Ministers believe the strategy will mean the equivalent of seven million more homes are powered by solar electricity by the end of the decade, and claim it will cut energy bills by £500 a year. The Conservatives called the plans "mad" and said they were "exactly what we have been warning of all along".

      The plans include new "canopy" solar panels to be built over public car parks, and more farmland to be used for generating electricity. Renters could also be able to install plug-in panels on balconies or rooftops, allowing them to save money on energy bills for the first time, after Mr Miliband launched a safety review.

      Mr Miliband is concerned that the planning process is a "burden" to landowners hoping to cover lakes with solar panels, and is exploring "levers" that would make them harder to oppose. The Government hopes that by 2030, an estimated 0.4 per cent of the total land area of the UK will be covered in the panels, up from 0.1 per cent. That would equate to 376 square miles, or more than three times the size of Birmingham.

      Mr Miliband is also pushing ahead with controversial plans to make solar panels compulsory in most new build homes, and hopes to change valuation rules to make homes with the technology more valuable. The Energy Secretary aims to make Britain reach net zero by 2050, despite opposition from the Conservatives.

      Labour has also committed to delivering "clean power" by 2030, with 95 per cent of the UK's electricity demand met using renewables. But the plans are likely to be controversial with countryside campaigners, who have complained that solar panels "dramatically alter" views of rural areas.

      Announcing the strategy on Monday, Mr Miliband pledged to go further on the technology and said he would "push ahead on a solar rooftop revolution, while tackling the barriers of planning, grid, supply chains and skills".

      The changes to development rules will be pushed through jointly by Mr Miliband and Angela Rayner, whose department has responsibility for planning. The Telegraph has previously reported that the two ministers intended to team up on planning rules for new builds, which will almost all be required to install solar panels and heat pumps.

      Monday's solar dossier said they would now "explore how planning levers could further support floating solar projects" and "consider reforms to planning requirements for distribution power lines carried on wooden poles". It also said that more farmland could be converted into solar fields, but that developers would be encouraged to first use "brownfield" land, including disused car parks.

      The report said: "Where the development of agricultural land is shown to be necessary, lower-quality land should be preferred to higher-quality land. If a solar project proposes to use any best and most versatile agricultural land, developers are required to justify using such land and design their projects to avoid, mitigate and where necessary, compensate for any impacts."

      The document also claimed that building solar panels over a field can improve biodiversity by encouraging pollination.

      In April, Kemi Badenoch warned that "farms that have been in families for generations" would either be sold off because of Labour's inheritance tax raid or "replaced by solar panels driven by Ed Miliband's net zero by 2050 zealotry".

      The Tories have repeatedly accused the Government of "betraying" farmers and destroying the countryside with planning changes. Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy secretary, said: "This is exactly what we have been warning of all along. Instead of prioritising cheap and secure energy for this country, Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband have pursued mad energy policies guided by their blind adherence to net zero by 2050, no matter the cost.

      "Meanwhile, thousands of jobs in the North Sea are left at risk and our domestic oil and gas industries are warning that the government is squeezing them out of existence. Kemi Badenoch has been clear about the cost of net zero by 2050 – including bankrupting the nation and plastering it with expensive and unreliable renewables made by Chinese slave labour. Until Labour are prepared to do the same, the British public will keep paying the price."

      Ministers are keen to promote a new policy of building solar "canopies" over public car parks, which would also provide shade and electric car docking stations. Mr Miliband's solar "rooftop revolution" has previously come under fire over claims that many of the components used in the UK are built with forced labour in China. But on Monday he promised to "eradicate the abhorrent practice of modern slavery" and said that "Uyghur and other minorities" in China's Xinjiang province would not be involved in the supply chain in Britain.

      The Government also formally dismissed the idea that solar panels are not "ethically sourced" as a "general misconception" about the technology.

      Some Noddy diagrams with the following captions:
      • High temperatures cause EV charging times to increase and the risk of battery combustion rises
      • Solar panels are less effective in extreme heat and may be turned off to prevent damage to infrastructure
      • Heat pumps work harder to regulate indoor temperatures, add to energy demand and increase the risk of shortfalls

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/06/30/ed-miliband-britains-lakes-floating-solar-panels-roadmap

      Sadly, there are too many landowners, including farmers, quite willing to sell their land for this madness. Here in Northants there are proposals to install solar panels in a corridor of land about 12 miles by 3, running across the county from near to Kettering, down between Northampton and Wellingborough and southwards to the Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire borders. Almost 5 square miles will be covered.

      https://www.northantstelegraph.co.uk/news/people/have-your-say-on-huge-solar-farm-planned-for-fields-near-north-northamptonshire-villages-that-would-cover-1680-football-pitches-5037920

      2. I would be in favour of the local reservoir being covered over providing Miliband, Starmer and most of the politicians are sealed underneath. Win-win situation.

    4. He just hates nature. There are acres and acres of roofs, carparks that could be roofed and land on the embankments of motorways. Milliband just likes destroying the natural environment and the food production.

    5. It would be more environmentally friendly to import millions of South American electric eels and fill the lakes and ponds with them.

      At least that would be a saner solution to his bonkers quest.

      1. It would be most environmentally friendly for us to move Milibrain permanently out of this country.

  55. I suspect this was taken at one of Phizzee's tea parties. Am I right?
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/513437450_1281787276844752_6337505089431139547_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p526x296_tt6&_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=FGzhMrnvfCkQ7kNvwGEO3un&_nc_oc=AdnBIX8Utn1zExwAlDlT5-8ohDeriY8SaMHVlDuCDlj-YsLolZz4LkzeMqlLHhgqPtc2FDwtgDk-9ZCyaycUnA-x&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&_nc_gid=Kqlpdl7aSc2iLbW-6-qabA&oh=00_AfOTTVuYnQWQ_9WBV93Ey9RfjTEYuPrDiioKWyRp6XCSWg&oe=686986AA

  57. Use Your Vote. Get them out. Vote Reform. 40% did not turn out for the last GE. Other communities are savvy and politically motivated en masse. We need to do the same. I reckon we could all harness at least three other votes by arranging postal votes for the busy or housebound who we know. We need to remind others to do their patriotic duty and use their vote.

  59. They’d have realised once they met up with him. Poor lad, lot of problems there.

  60. The liberal elite’s maddest brainwave yet: give babies the vote

    The Guardian says the arguments for enfranchising tiny children are ‘hard to refute’. Are you quite sure, dears?

    Michael Deacon
    Columnist

    01 July 2025 6:00am BST

    As we know, Sir Keir Starmer is planning to give the vote to 16 year-olds. According to some radical thinkers, however, that’s simply not good enough.

    Because they say we should give the vote to all children – including babies.

    This fascinating proposal was examined at the weekend by the The Guardian – which concluded that the arguments for it are “hard to refute”. It cited John Wall, a political philosopher, who thinks it’s “unjust that up to a third of the population [is] excluded from the democratic process”. It also cited Clémentine Beauvais, an education researcher, who says children are good at asking important questions about major issues, such as “war”, “money” and “meat”. And it cited Harry Pearse, another researcher, who believes that five-year-old voters would add “some healthy chaos” to “the system”.

    Surprisingly, though, The Guardian overlooked what is surely the main reason why so many progressives are eager to enfranchise children: they’d overwhelmingly vote for Left-wing parties. Children, after all, are natural socialists. From birth they’re provided with food, housing, clothing and much else, without having to work or pay for it. So of course they’re attracted to an ideology which promises to extend this arrangement into adulthood.

    The Guardian also missed a key argument against giving children the vote, which is that it would undermine the mantra of “stranger danger”. Come election time, politicians would be constantly lurking outside playparks and primary schools, in the hope of buttering up infant voters with pledges of later bedtimes and free sweets on the NHS.

    Still, perhaps this peculiar debate explains why Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, has suddenly started urging us to have more babies. It’s not about saving the economy and the NHS. It’s about saving Labour, by producing millions of tiny Labour voters.

    Over the rainbow
    LGBTQIA+ Pride Month is sadly at an end. But don’t despair. We’ve still got many, many other dates to look forward to in the calendar of inclusivity.

    Starting on Sunday, July 6, with Omnisexual Visibility Day.

    I must confess, the term “omnisexuality” is a new one on me, but I presume it means having sex with absolutely everyone. I wonder what this group is planning to do to increase its “visibility”. I hope it’s just a march. Rather than, say, orgies in the street.

    Anyway, once that’s over, it’ll be International Non-Binary People’s Day (July 14) – which heralds the start of Non-Binary Awareness Week (July 14-20). In the middle of which, it’s International Drag Day (July 16).

    After that, we’ve got Bisexual Awareness Week (September 16-23), National Coming Out Day (October 11), International Pronouns Day (Oct 15), Asexual Awareness Week (Oct 19-25), Intersex Awareness Day (Oct 26), Transgender Parent Day (November 2), Intersex Day of Solidarity (Nov 8), Transgender Awareness Week (Nov 13-19), Trans Day of Remembrance (Nov 20) and Pansexual Pride Day (December 8).

    Then, once you’ve got your diary for next year, remember to pencil in LGBTQ History Month (February), Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (Feb 15-21), International Day of Trans Visibility (March 31), International Asexuality Day (April 6), Trans History Week (May 5-11), International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia (May 17), Agender Pride Day (May 19) and Pansexual Visibility Day (May 24). Followed, just a week later, by LGBTQIA+ Pride Month 2026.

    If you can’t wait till then, though, not to worry – because nowadays, there are local LGBTQIA+ Pride events literally every weekend between April and October. This coming weekend, for example, it’s Caerphilly Pride, Cleveland Pride, Fife Pride, Hartlepool Pride, London Pride, Macclesfield Pride, Redruth Pride, Sherborne Pride, Tavistock Pride and Ulverston Pride.

    Perhaps we should enjoy them while we still can. According to a report in the Independent, Donald Trump’s “assault on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” has led to some UK Pride events facing an alarming fall in corporate sponsorship.

    So, if we wish to applaud LGBTQIA+ activists next year, there may be only several hundred opportunities.

    Satire is dead
    Kneecap, the balaclava-clad Belfast rap group, have insisted that controversial comments they’ve made during concerts – such as, “The only good Tory is a dead Tory” – should not be taken literally. When onstage, they explained in an interview on Saturday, they’re “playing characters”, and any such comments are purely “satirical”.

    All I can say is: Lucy Connolly must be kicking herself. If only she’d thought to try that defence.

    “You see, Your Honour, when I go on social media I’m playing a character, and my tweets about asylum hotels are purely satirical…”

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

    Pandora Box
    6 hrs ago
    Could we have a day celebrating biological women? They could call it Mother's Pride.

    3. The vote to be given to those babies that survive the killing fields of the womb of course. Labour disgust me more than ever.

    4. I read one of those as 'Aromatic Spectrum Awareness Week' and thought it would be rather pleasant.

    5. According to Wikipedia, Omnisexual is different to Pansexual.

      It is nice to know that there is a gender specific to followers of Peter Pan and Wendy!

    6. Or celebrating biological males – it could be called “Daddie’s Sauce”.

  61. Labour Keeps China Off Top Tier of New UK National Security Scheme
    China has been left off the top tier of the new foreign influence registration scheme system. A joke…

    The system, called Firs, was introduced in the 2023 National Security Act and comes into effect today. Russia and Iran are on the top “enhanced” tier…

    China has been put on the lower “political” tier which means only official lobbying on behalf of a foreign power will be publicly tracked. Pointless…

    The Tories have been calling for China to be added. The long-awaited China audit from last week has been withheld by Labour as the party waits to approve a new mega-embassy for the country at the Royal Mint Court. Golden Keir-A in full effect…

    UPDATE: Shadow home secretary Chris Philp says:

    “Labour are splurging on energy projects that will push us into the arms of China, Rachel Reeves has been to Beijing with her economic begging bowl and now Angela Rayner looks set to approve a Chinese spy hub at the heart of our city. The Conservative government introduced measures to crack down on hostile states, then Labour quietly exempted one of the biggest of all. This government’s systematic kowtowing to China is shameful. We Conservatives will continue to keep the pressure on Labour, until they finally stop protecting Beijing and start protecting Britain.”

    July 1 2025 @ 10:09

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af1f37d1e4b71a435e7d03db8b757d4c78d73701fdb983cf0250c2c6a21fd7b7.png

    Special Kaye
    3h
    And they are about to allow the CCP to build a massive spy centre right in the heart of London. Deliberately opening the borders, Chagos giveaway, how much evidence do we need? Labour are the biggest national security threat we have faced since the cold war and should be forcibly abolished….

    Leon
    2h
    It's time a spade was called a spade. British sovereign territory of Chagos handed over to Beijing. On Chagos, Cable and Wireless strategic data and communications cables come ashore., Labour give Beijing permission to build their London embassy above our strategic underground data and communication cables. Starmer is a Trotskyist aka international Marxist aka a communist. He is aiding and abetting Beijing. And what about the 'shape' of his home life?
    https://image.vuukle.com/78c67229-5c52-4477-a11e-1c4bfa21b17e-c170f78c-958d-47b4-83f4-4eec8538a652

  63. If Starmer loses today, he will have to resign
    The Prime Minister seems to have no vision for the country or the Government he leads
     https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/01/keir-starmer-welfare-vote-parliament-resign/

    BTL

    The resignation of a prime minster should automatically trigger a general election.

    Starmer could perhaps redeem himself with the electorate by getting his own back on his MPs by announcing:

    I am resigning from office to take effect from the moment irrevocable arrangements have been made for an immediate general election

    1. The resignation of a prime minster should automatically trigger a general election.

      It didn't when Tony Blair, David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss resigned.

      1. If they have a GE, it'll be for the purpose of shoehorning the dishonest Farage in so that he can supervise the digital id database (as Trump is currently doing in the US) and the CBDC attempt.

        1. Spoken like a 'Kipper, Sir. We always insisted on renegade MPs resigning their seats. Separated the sheep from the goats

        2. And the defection of an MP from one party to another should trigger a by-election.

          1. Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless resigned their seats as Conservative MPs before standing again for UKIP.

            MPs who lose the party whip should choose to do so too.

          2. It doesn't, because in the UK you vote for the individual who just happens to be a member of a party, as opposed to voting for a party who is represented by an individual.
            End of teaching egg-sucking.
            But, I agree with you about the by-election.

          3. Yes, MPs are elected as individuals, but if and when they change allegiance, they are cocking a snook at voters who elected them based on the political party on the ballot paper.

          4. Carswell and Reckless both called by elections when they changed party. Both were reelected.

    2. We need the Trump effect here. Kick the left into touch and start again.

      1. We could just 'kick the Left'. And keep kicking them until they never get up again.

  64. Greetings, my fellow Nottlers!

    Goodness, but it's chilly here. The cold snap brought the temperature down to the freezing point last night – uncommon here in Buenos Aires.

    I am therefore pathetically grateful that the plumber finally managed to fix the heater – hooray!! Had to bite my tongue when the first thing he said upon entering was "Wow, it's cold in here" 🙄, but he behaved himself – I don't think he can help doing the labrador-eyes thing – and now I am luxuriating in being able to think, move, and feel my fingers and toes again. Happy bunny!

    1. Are temperatures and climate in Buenos Aires equivalent to Rome or somewhere further south?

      1. More like Athens or Gibraltar. They get a cold wind in winter though.

        1. Thank you.
          Trying to apply northern hemisphere to the south is like trying photocopy the right way round.

      2. Not dissimilar to Rome – scorchio in summer, very pleasant in spring and autumn. Never been to Rome in winter, so I can’t compare that; not sure the Romans I know would deal well with the freezing winds that sweep up from Antarctica.

    2. But… but… there's glowbawl warming! How can you have freezing when London is about to self-combust?

    3. Would you care to write an article for FSB about the state of Argentina now Ashes? I've been several times, firstly in 1974, and always enjoyed it and liked the people. What 25 de Mayo St like now?

      1. I wouldn’t know what to write! Here, as in many countries, the politics are so sharply divided that everything is seen through the lens of one’s left or right affiliation. Very difficult to work out what’s actually happening.

        Avenida de Mayo continues to entice tourists, but the steaks and Malbec are so tasty that the high prices (they’d probably shock you) are happily paid. 🙂

    4. Would you care to write an article for FSB about the state of Argentina now Ashes? I've been several times, firstly in 1974, and always enjoyed it and liked the people. What 25 de Mayo St like now?

    2. I havent spoken to my wife for about 6 months – I didnt want to interrupt…. runs for it…

  67. BBC.
    The UK's chief rabbi has strongly criticised "the airing of vile Jew-hate at Glastonbury" after a live broadcast of Bob Vylan's performance at the festival went out on the BBC, during which the band's singer led the crowd in chants of "death, death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]".

  69. Diane Abbott posted on X this morning calling the IDF the “Jewish Defence Force”. It’s now been deleted…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a68570ed8aa437c977c5ec5f2a34d81cce1c9213193421d49300df9d92d5733a.png
    Chris Riches
    2h
    I thought journalists weren't allowed in Gaza??? Ah it's 2001, DA always on top of current affairs

    Jess the Grooming Gang Champion
    1h
    O/T
    'Rumours abound that a few pusillanimous MPs, doomed to be one-termers, are considering doing the unthinkable to save their seats — defecting to Reform. Some are apparently even eyeing up the dubious charms of the Green Party. There’s Starmerite loyalty for you.' Rosie Duffield/Unherd

    1. I'm not keen on religious beliefs as I mentioned earlier today.
      But sometimes 'we' need to be honest.
      I don't think this continuous war would have happened if the Islamics hadn't started it. Because the Jewish people are well organised and very efficient and because they are very successful in their own defence. They are being blamed for every single thing that happens.
      This could soon happen in many other parts of the world. It needs to be addressed before it's too late.

    2. It's more likely that on arriving at the aid station, manned by the IDF for the protection against muslim saw muslim grab children to use as human shield and fired upon Israeli forces.

      1. That sort of thing has been happening in the middle east for decades.
        I remember years ago seeing reported violence by Israel against residents and a child's toy on the top of the rubble. But someone forgot to remove all the weeds growing around the toy.
        And also the clips of the same little girl being rescued. More than twice.
        Taqiyyia takes over every time.

          1. Not just that – simply read your Old Testament. The Jews and the Philistines have been at each others throats for thousands of years. Nowadays, the weapons are worse.

          3. Maybe what they need is a sharp slap and to be told it's all invented fiction, that there is no such thing as god and to grow up, or be annihilated.

          4. Perhaps Trump will apply the slap. He has been telling both sides to grow up for a week or two but nothing will happen unless he jumps into the fray.

    3. Hedges is a religious zealot, a Presbyterian pastor, as was his father who was also a conscientious objector, he is a Green vegan along with his vegan activist wife and children, He also has two children from a previous marriage. He is an admirer of Karl Marx, a regular participator in demonstrations. He believes that the Jews are set on eliminating Palestine and the extermination of the Palestinian people and always have been. He has been arrested by several warring anti-Western states but never held for long. He suffers from PTSE. His good points are listed below.

      NONE

    4. It's honestly hard to tell the difference between the real Diane Abbott and the satire.

        2. Young Master Bates? No. Cabin boys were not for the likes of first trip apprentices.

  72. A very good analogy. Go up one. One of my (many) failings is not knowing which way to put the reverse page into the printer so that the material on each side faces the same way!!

    1. Ah, don't! I dread to think over the years how many reams of screwed up paper have hit the bin.

  74. If Trump deports Musk is there any chance that he could be sent back to Canada instead of SA?

    Just asking for friends who are more than disappointed with golden boy Carney.

      2. Even though he will win the by election in August and return to parliament, he is probably on the way out.

        Carney has carefully repositioned the liberals towards the centre, dismissing Trudeaus record and casting Poilievre as a mini Trump. The liberals might be crap but they are excellent politically and Pierre has been tainted in the eyes of the majority. True or not, the Trump association kills his chances.

        Carney has usurped many conservative policies so on the surface life could be better. However, I just struggled through Carneys book Values, it is scary and presents a net zero WEF world view as his objective – he is Trudeau with a mature presentation.

        With Carney backing down on US tariffs and showing that he is not the great messiah, maybe his approval will change but that doesn't help PP.

        We are in south eastern Ontario, lots of lefties who love Carney

        1. I suspect part of his problem would be Trump teasing the 51st state comment. Have seen a few of PPs videos, I like him, but he seems quite tired – possibly because of the travelling he’s done making the videos which are good imo, but mostly with the ‘working’ class (the ones creating wealth). My great-aunt left her husband quite suddenly one day in the ’40s, last anyone saw of her was at the bus stop complete with young family and also sporting a black eye, turned up in Canada sometime later. Somehow lefties manage to never run out of steam, very similar throughout Europe. Will keep an eye/ear on Carney, thanks for your reponse:-)

  75. Comments gathered from DT letters

    Jane Marple
    1 hr ago
    Nigel Lines got me thinking . I wonder how many are now wondering where Starmer got his reputation for being forensic from? We have yet to see much evidence of the benefits of such fabled ruthless attention to detail….Being forensic was all he had, and now even that is disappearing into the sunset…

    Reply by Graeme Williams.

    GW

    Graeme Williams
    1 hr ago
    He was supposed to be "forensic" in opposition but he missed every open goal that Sunak offered him during PMQs.

    He is not a politician but a lawyer who can only aske prepared questions and is unable to think on his feet when answering them, hence the lack of answers in the current PMQs.

    It seems to have also infected those cabinet ministers he sends onto the media who can only answer questions by obfuscating and misdirection.

    Reply by Jane Marple.

    JM

    Jane Marple
    1 hr ago
    Indeed – but what I find odd is that I think he is a barrister. Don’t they have to think on their feet much of the time? I am gobsmacked at the fact that he ever won any cases. Goodness only knows what the other side were like…

    Reply by Aunty Cyclonic-Gloom.

    AC

    Aunty Cyclonic-Gloom
    1 hr ago
    I thought his reputation was for not being Corbyn or a Conservative. It was a reputation for an absence of anything positive. The embodiment of greyness and Blandness.

    Reply by Andrew Stevens.

    AS

    Andrew Stevens
    1 hr ago
    Forensic only when it comes to getting a unique tax free pension for K Starmer

    Reply by Julian Hardwicke.

    JH

    Julian Hardwicke
    1 hr ago
    If he was forensic he would still be at the bar.

    Reply by S T Smyth.

    ST

    S T Smyth
    1 hr ago
    It is hard to think on your feet when you do not believe in anything

    1. I am very surprised* that the Dinner Lady hasn't scrapped Cur Ikea's outrageous pension scheme.

      * sarc.

  76. Frittenden in Kent has reached 33.6C, followed closely behind by Heathrow Airport where the mercury has risen to 33.2C, according to the Met Office.

    The temperature at Heathrow will always be high, with the air coming from the Jet Pipes of the private jets 'commandeered by HMG, taking off and landing (especially when landing aircraft activate Reverse Thrust)

  77. I have just ordered two car seat belt extenders, from Amazon:

    The are made by

    GuangZhouQianLingXueShangMaoYouXianGongSi

    Or, set to music:

    Ging—Gang—Gooli—Gooli—Gooli—Gooli—Watcha

    Ging—Gang—Goo—Ging—Gang—Goo

    Ging—Gang—Gooli—Gooli—Gooli—Gooli—Watcha

    Ging—Gang—Goo—Ging—Gang—Goo

    Heyla—Heyla—Sheyla—Heyla—Sheyla—Heyla-Ho

    Heyla—Heyla—Sheyla—Heyla—Sheyla-Ho

    3. Shallawalla, shallawalla! Shallawalla, shallawalla!

      Oompah-oompah! Oompah-oompah!

    4. Just took delivery of a three-rung cheap Chinky stepladder from the newly-wed Mr Bezos. The reviews implied an issue with the side rails. I don't need them, which is just as well, since none of the bolt holes are within an inch of where they need to be… They're in the bin.

  78. Migrant with grey hair was 15 when he crossed Channel, tribunal rules

    Judge allows asylum seeker to stay in UK as grey hair may have been caused by ‘stress’ of journey from Afghanistan

    Charles Hymas Home Affairs Editor
    01 July 2025 3:49pm BST

    An Afghan asylum seeker who arrived in the UK with grey hair was a child at the time, a judge has ruled.

    An asylum court ruled that the migrant, who came to Britain via a small boat after three failed attempts, was 15 despite starting to go grey on the side of his head.

    Authorities in the UK found that he was an adult when he arrived, saying he had an “established jawline and lack of youthful glow”.

    But an upper immigration tribunal has overturned that decision, ruling that the “stress” of his journey from Afghanistan might have led him to go grey.

    The asylum seeker, who has been given anonymity, had lodged an appeal at the Upper Tribunal following the decision by East Sussex County Council that he was 18 when he entered the UK in October 2022 and claimed asylum.

    A tribunal judgment said: “He claims to have left Afghanistan in or around August 2021. He travelled through various countries including Iran, Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, Switzerland and France.

    “Following three unsuccessful attempts to enter the UK, he arrived here by small boat on Oct 10 2022.

    “In an interview with the Home Office shortly after his arrival, he explained that he had come to the UK ‘for a better future, for better opportunities’, that he would ‘return to my country after I complete my studies in the UK’ and that he had come here ‘to support my family financially’.”

    Two weeks after arriving, he was placed with a foster carer by East Sussex County Council. A number of the council’s social workers then conducted an age assessment because “evidently there was some doubt as to whether he was as young as he claimed to be”.

    The judgment said: “The assessors took into account that the [migrant] had been described as having an appearance older than his claimed age of 16, specifically some grey hair earlier in the report described as ‘flecks’ on the sides of his head and an ‘established jawline and lack of youthful glow’.

    “Furthermore, [he] had not grown out of his clothes or shoes during his journey to the UK and, by his own account, he had reached his ‘adult height’ before leaving Afghanistan in August 2021. He also appeared to have facial hair before starting his journey to the UK.”

    The assessors said his growth “was not in keeping with that of other 16-year-old young men they had worked with”. They said his body was “fully developed”, he had “established facial hair and body hair” as well as “grey hairs which are in keeping with chronological ageing”.
    *
    *
    *
    http://ww.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/01/migrant-grey-hair-15-channel-crossing-tribunal-afghanistan/

    2. Judge allows..

      Just going through the motions.. a tidying up process that's all.. important in terms of documentation.
      DNA? Nah could nae be bothered..
      Details like country of origin? Nah could nae be bothered..
      Details of allegiance? Don't go there..

      1. I wonder what the name of the judge was – Mohammed Something? Ali something?

          1. There seem to be a lot of those. It’s not just neoliberal indigneous judges making daft decisions.

          2. It brings one close to despair, Hertslass, but I am amongst the Fattipuffs, who are often defeated but never vanquished. We never give up

    4. Er… shouldn't the onus be on the asylum seeker to prove his/her age? No proof, no case.

  79. Wordle No. 1,473 4/6

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

    Wordle 1 Jul 2025

    'Merican rotten Par Four?

    2. I was comfortable with the US spelling – it's an American site now and it's happened before…. Par here.

      Wordle 1,473 4/6

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

    3. Also par four.

      Wordle 1,473 4/6

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

    4. Nasty.

      Wordle 1,473 5/6

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

  80. " An upper immigration tribunal " A new phrase for a bunch of morons. There must be money involved. No mentally sound person could come to that conclusion.

    1. They can if they are immigrants or second generation immigrants themselves.

        1. Thank you. Oh – I can't be arsed to read all that stuff. La vie soit trop courte.

  82. Live Met Office blames man-made climate change for heatwave

    The Met Office has blamed man-made climate change for the heatwave.

    Amy Doherty, a climate scientist at the forecaster, said it was “virtually certain” that the searing temperatures were caused by global warming.

    However, she made the claim while admitting “we’ve not conducted formal climate attribution studies into June 2025’s two heatwaves”.

    “Numerous climate attribution studies have shown that human influence increased the chance that specific extreme heat events would occur, such as the summer of 2018 and July 2022,” she added.

    It comes as Tuesday became the hottest day of the year so far, with a record high of 33.9C in Writtle, Essex.

    Gritters were deployed on the roads to stop them melting, while NHS trusts warned the public to stay indoors, wear sunscreen and avoid exercise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/01/nhs-warning-britain-hottest-day-2025/?recomm_id=25e4c144-7d2b-4180-8f88-ba8d60fabd93

    July 1808 1. Notably warm month (using the CET series since 1659). With a value of 18.4degC, it is in the 'top-10' of such-named months for warmth. In particular, there was a hot spell from the 12th to the 15th, with a peak around the 13th/14th, when the CET daily temperature (i.e. average of 24hr maximum & minimum) climbed to just over 24degC. Studies since that date have shown that individual day maxima were well above 25degC (possibly to 28degC) in the West of England; up to (almost certainly over) 32degC in London & possibly as high as 34degC in Kingston upon Hull (ER Yorkshire): however caution is required with all these values due to the differing instruments, exposure, accuracy of recording etc. It was undoubtedly a very hot spell though, as deaths (people & animals) from heat exhaustion were recorded, particularly from the agricultural areas in the east and north of England. One report at the time (from farm records in the eastern Fens), says that the temperature in the shade near London was 96 (degF), which converts to just over 35degC: the same reference notes that this spell is the "hottest day ever known in Eng'd … the Hot Sunday in 1790 was only 83 Deg". [ NB: August 1808 also reasonably warm, with anomaly circa + 1degC. ]
    2. 13th: 'Hot Wednesday': shade temperatures 33 to 35degC in E. and SE England, 37degC (99degF) reported in Suffolk (exposure & instrument details unknown . . see 1. above).
    3. Damaging hailstorm affected counties in SW England afternoon / evening of the 15th (presumably as the hot spell above was breaking down), primarily affecting Dorset, Somerset & Gloucestershire. The storm first hit areas in the Sherborne / Templecombe area late afternoon then moved (or developed) NNW'wards to reach Bristol mid-evening. From reports at the time, the diameter of much of the hail was of the order 11 cm, with much damage being recorded – including injury & death to people in the open. If these reports are correct, then this 1808 hailstorm (according to Colin Clark / 'Weather' July 2004), produced the largest hail diameters for Britain known (along with that for 1697). 6, TORRO, CET
    1808/09 (Christmas & New Year) Fog daily 24th December to 2nd January (London/South). Further fog on 7 days later in January. 8
    January 1809 A flood occurred, which may have been tidal in the lower reaches of the Thames, carried away bridges at Eton, Deptford and Lewisham. Flooding noted at Windsor. Highest flood level (as at 2003) on the upper River Thames recorded at Shillingford Wharf (47.25m above OD). After a cold / frosty period, during which the ground became thoroughly frozen, rain fell on the 19th January, which itself froze, plus a period of snow. Then on the 24th, what is described as 'intense' rainfall, coupled with snowmelt produced a rapid rise in the waters of the Thames over the near-solid surface. A major flood was the result, causing much damage (which may have been aggravated by an above-average high tide in the lower reaches of the Thames), which amongst other things took away the central arch of Wallingford Bridge, part of the old Bridge at Wheatley, and damaged or destroyed bridges downstream, e.g. at Bisham, Eton & Windsor. flood damage also specifically noted at Deptford & Lewisham. Has been dubbed by some: "The Great Thames Flood". It wasn't a particularly wet winter, but the combination of snow/frozen ground and high-intensity rainfall was more than poor flood defence schemes (if they existed) could cope with.
    26th: SW gale and a rapidly rising temperature in Scotland after a snowstorm ended a severe frost period with easterly winds which began in December 1808. https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1800-to-1849-ad/

    1. Is Amy Doherty Twerp of the Year?
      How come roads don't melt across Europe when they routinely have higher temperatures in the summer?

      2. They can and they do – the roads round our village in the Aude became a nightmare once the temp reached 40ºC

        1. Funny – I never saw roads melting in Germany or Austria! The highest temperature that I remember was a mere 36 degrees though! Still higher that which they are claiming for Essex.

          1. It was regularly 42, 44 and 48 degrees in Les Pyrénées Orientales, far too hot for me.

      3. Different formulation of the tarmac – less bitumen, more aggregate. Same in Nigeria – areas where there was just bitumen used to melt in the sunshine.

    2. So – nothing to do with the Sun – and predictable seasonable variations over the last ten thousand years? What a relief…

    4. Humans certainly do contribute to temperatures around the world, it would be ridiculous to say otherwise. Just travel from the countryside into the nearest large town or city. You can find a difference more than a few degrees C. Urban areas trap and generate heat.

      https://bolt.eu/en/blog/urban-heat-island/

      1. 1752-1840's According to Lamb, this period (though with a 'lull' from 1783-1802) was "extraordinary for the frequency of explosive volcanic eruptions, which maintained dust veils high in the atmosphere & may have contributed (perhaps significantly) to the reversal of what otherwise would have been a noted climatic recovery from the late 1600's onwards. Some of the more notable events were:
        (a): 1783 – Iceland, Japan.
        (b): 1812 – St. Vincent, West Indies & Awu, Celebes.
        (c): 1814 – Philippines.
        (d): 1815 – Tambora, East Indies. (Lamb/CHMW) Optical effects recorded by observers of the time, along with some famous 'sunsets' in paintings by such as Turner.
        [ see details against the particular years – where available. ] 1
        20th July 1752 A whirlwind associated with a thunderstorm lifted two boats several feet (3 feet ~ = 1 metre) out of the Thames at Vauxhall and smashed one of them to pieces on the river bank. It is claimed (?) that this was the only thunderstorm in London during this year. A cool, damp summer.

        https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1750-to-1799-ad/

      2. Urban heat islands are well known. But they measure temperatures adjcent to jet runways, such as Heathrow Airport and RAF Coningsby…

        It's been the same quoted temperature here as Heathrow today. Without the planes…

        1. The last time I was at RAF Coningsby was 1972, but I don’t remember it being in a city. True about airports and meteorological readings, but cities not only absorb the heat, they generate it too. I prefer cow fart CH₄ emissions here in the sticks. When I say cities you can include almost any large urban areas.

        2. I hope they wait a while after the Typhoons take off in reheat before taking the temperature of the runway

      4. But it hardly affects the Universe. Or are we talking butterfly flapping its wings in Patagonia?

        1. I surely said nothing about the universe, just localised temperatures. Nothing in our solar system, let alone anything on Earth, affects the universe, or does it? It certainly has an effect on computer modelling apparently.

          “In 1961, Lorenz was running a numerical computer model to redo a weather prediction from the middle of the previous run as a shortcut. He entered the initial condition 0.506 from the printout instead of entering the full precision 0.506127 value. The result was a completely different weather scenario.”

    3. Wow, have a lovely Birthday Richard – the cake looks yummy and no doubt Caroline has spoilt you rotten (nothing new, then!).

    4. Wow, have a lovely Birthday Richard – the cake looks yummy and no doubt Caroline has spoilt you rotten (nothing new, then!).

    5. Bon anniversaire, Richard. You ought NOT to be digging into the calories…!!

      2. Don't be rotten, Uncle Bill. Cut him a bit of slack on his special day.

      1. If he has any sense – the answer is yes.
        In fairness, the baker should get one slice; so she can check for quality purposes.

    8. Happy Birthday, Rastus.
      Just remind me; how many candles are missing from that cake?

      1. The pompiers said they weren’t coming out again!
        Happy Birthday Rastus! Hope you have great fun and thank you for all the good wishes you supply! 🎂🥂🍾⭐️

    11. 🎵Happy Birthday to you🎵 dear Rastus! 🎵 Happy Birthday to you! 🎵 And may you have many happy returns 🥂🍾🍰🎊🎈

    1. The old chap looks like one of these completely barmy (and dangerous) cyclists who lie on their backs and pedal. And the tennis racket is in the right place for the front wheel!!

    1. Brian Hunt
      1 min ago
      Cousin marriage with birth defects, and few girls due to the late abortion rule bought in to appease medieval child killers.

      We are doomed.

      1. I pity the younger generations that will follow us – I hope we'll be gone before things get really bad.

        1. The only vaguely positive thing one can say about that, Jules, is that they have no knowledge, memory or recollection of what life was like when we were all under 30. So – fortunately for them – they don't know what they are missing.

        2. I don't think there will be anything left of the countryside , they won't value our flora and fauna .

          Dear heavens , the wretches are destroying rural areas and our seaside beaches with their rubbish .. https://www.oceansplasticleanup.com/Oceans_Seas_Rivers/Niger_Rivers_Plastic_Waste_A_To_Z_Index_Top_Ocean_Polluters.htm

          The Niger river is 9th ranked most polluted river on a list of the 10 dirtiest. It is the main river of West Africa. The Niger River supports over 100 million citizens of Africa. From Nigeria, it flows through five countries before ending up in the Atlantic Ocean.

          Around ninety percent (90%) of plastics in the ocean comes from just 10 rivers. Nine of these rivers are located in Asia and one of them borders Thailand.

          The top 10 most polluted rivers in the world have one thing in common – they are located alongside large human populations with poor waste management (PWM) systems.

          1. How on earth can those poor countries afford all that disposable stuff?
            Maybe we could give them …… ah ………

    2. Do the math, as the yanks say, it's pretty goddam depressing – there's no hope……

    3. If that is to "foreign" parents, how many are being born to nominally British (but really foreign) parents? Or to the indigenous?

    1. Spot on .

      I pity the poor people who live in new ecco friendly homes with tiny windows.

      A new estate was built in the village a few years ago , the homes are cruel draught free enclosed tightly crammed in inhuman spaces to just lay your head then go to work/ no not work ,to loaf around , to fornicate , gain a few tattoos , green or purple hair , waddle with their babies , all on the social!

      1. There was a piece today on Jeremy Vine's radio show about new-build eco-friendly homes – it seems everyone who has one is spending a fortune on gas-guzzling aircon as the heat in these conditions is unbearable. Ironic…….

        1. Glad you heard that, we were also listening to the prog . Builders and consultants are dancing to the tune of wokeism and stupidity .. no one can breathe in those suffocating homes .

        2. Despite having Talk Radio on from dawn to dusk, I missed JK's item.

          However, Dianne -he-Ex moved to a new zero-carbon eco home in Devon just before lockdown.

          I accompanied her on the viewing, and – compared to the other properties viewed – may have encouraged her in her choice.

          Standards of fit and finish were outstanding, in the view of this retired rough-arsed builder (QS, really).

          The MHVR system clearly saves energy in terms of heating. There's a summer bypass setting, which avoids warming the intake air, but frankly, most folk don't understand this. It is possible to introduce cooling to the system, at some cost, but if in doubt, just open the bloody windows…

  88. That's me for today. Done a couple of heavy things in the garden with no ill effects (except tiredness!) Filled the 1000 litre cubi by pumping from the well. Haircut. A beer for lunch – I seem to be over the worst!!

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain (forecast to be grey, possibly damp and coolsh).

  89. It seems TTK has done yet another U Turn/surrender on welfare – who was it described him as looking like a frightened supply teacher who has lost control of a classroom of 12 year old girls!?

  91. Celebrity Chef Nadiya Hussain MBE net worth is estimated to be around $3.7 million.

    “I won’t always be grateful” says Nadiya Hussain after BBC axes her cookery show. She described how growing up in an immigrant household had shaped her understanding of gratitude.
    “Grateful for being let in, grateful for having work—even if underpaid, grateful for safety—even if it meant silence,” she explained. “Gratitude became something that I was expected to wear like a uniform.”
    “We didn’t come here just to survive; we came here to live, to grow, to contribute, to belong—not as a guest, but as a person who has rights and dreams and dignity.”

    Ok cheers. Thanks.
    Why do they say.. it's never enough for them.

    3. She should be grateful that had the BBC not been so woke she probably would have gone out in the early rounds and never been seen again.

    4. She's gone back to wearing the enveloping hijab instead of the head covering she previously affected.

    5. She's a race-baiting chancer, always has been, cant abide the dreadful woman……

  92. Gotcha.. it's another milestone smashed..

    Some 879 migrants made the journey in 13 boats yesterday, taking the total to 19,982, while hundreds more have arrived today.

    (Whiny noise in background.. )
    "I know you're angry about immigration. I get it.
    Mark my words: I will take back control of our borders.
    That means cutting migration, ending the use of asylum hotels, and ramping up our efforts to stop small boat crossings.
    We will smash the people smuggling gangs at source.

    1. To get rid of the vermin means leaving the ECHR. Starmer will not do that. Not only is he obsessed with rechaining us to the hated EU (membership of the ECHR being a requisite) but he simply doesn't care. He's had police protection for donkeys years. He is pro the diversity. Hisparty is reliant on muslim vote. He is not going to suddenly change his core beliefs and stop the invasion destroying this country.

      1. Denmark and Belgium are getting rid of immigrants. They are in the ECHR. It's just an excuse.

        1. Massive uncontrolled invasion is a deliberate assault upon those who voted to Leave. The state was determined to punish Leavers.

          1. It punished those who voted to remain too. In fact it punishes all of us.

          2. Our Government hates us. Above all, it hates us and is determined to spite us.

          3. I'm never sure about the hate part. I don't think they waste energy in actually hating us – I just think that we are utterly inconsequential to them, and just an irritant, like flies. Except for the charade every election time.

    1. These young fools seem to be very keen to rush into a war. I doubt he will get the reference, but it is OK because he won#t be arrested anyway, as he did not rail against the invasion.

    2. Firstly, Britons, and should be capitalised. Secondly, the Israeli defence force is not commited to wiping out muslim. muslim however, is determined to kill all Jews.

      Unlike a normal personal making rational argument (which Lefties cannot make), he has tortured logic to suit his prejudices. In truth, the enemy is muslim and the other diversity. He knows this, his bigotry prevents him admitting it.

      However, in two tier Britain, the diversity will get away with their vile abuse.

      1. If the IDF really was as appalling as painted, they would say to the so-called Palestinians within Israel:
        "You've got 72 hours to leave, after that we're killing all who remain"

        They won't.
        But if Hamas wins they will to the Jews.
        But the Jews won't get 72 hours.

        1. All muslim had to do was just ignore Israel. It's the easiest thing imaginable. Just go about your day as normal.

          But no. They went about killing Jews. Because that's what muslim does.

  94. Just been reading the obit of the wonderful named Jimmy Swaggart.
    Apparently he was Jerry Lee Lewis's cousin.
    Those good ole boys had style!!!

    2. There was an 1980's film, Great Balls of Fire about Jerry, and Swaggart is portrayed in it. It also covers him marrying his 13 year old cousin. They had to go to Texas to get married, where marrying at that age was legal with parental consent. That did him in when he came to England to perform and the press got hold of the fact that he had brought his "child bride" with him.

      The other scam was the Jimmy Bakker PTL religious broadcasting network. Turned out he too had been paying "ladies of the night", with money donated to do good works. When that all came out, plus the huge amounts the Bakkers had syphoned off into their own pockets PTL officially the Praise The Lord network became known as the Pass The Loot network, and Bakker went to jail.

      These "on line preachers" we have here (well in the South, actually) all seem to get very rich – obviously not worried about the rich not going to heaven…

      1. We were much the same age as JLL's (third?) wife.
        We thought it was all rather exciting.

    3. There was an 1980's film, Great Balls of Fire about Jerry and Swaggart is portrayed in it, It also covers him marrying his 13 year old cousin. Thy had to go to Texas to get married, where marrying at that age was legal with parental consent. That did him in when he came to England to perform and the press got hold of the fact that he had brought his "child bride" with him.

    2. Dad could easily get his revenge by changing the WiFi password and then claiming ignorance…

        1. Bloody right. Passwords (unknown) into dead parents'/partners' accounts are going to be a real cash cow to many companies claiming security issues.

    3. Thank you, Michael. Some years ago, I had a few days in a cottage in Hope Cove, owned by one of Dianne the Ex's teaching colleagues.

      We went to the Hope and Anchor. Lovely pub. Found a sofa in front of the open fire. She was much )and remains) into "Words with Friends", an online form of Scrabble. I went along with it for peace, whilst not liking the effect on the phone memory.

      So there we were, at either end of a comfy fireside sofa, playing Scrabble against each other, via a server somewhere on the planet which wasn't Cornwall. I was the first to notice the utter silence in the place.

      Without exception, every sngle customer in that pub was fixated on some sort of screen. Phone, tablet or laptop, they were all there.There wasn't the slightest audible hint of conversation, and the pub could have turned all the lights off, for all the difference it would have made…

      1. I remember reading about a pub somewhere in the Scottish Highlands (possibly the Shieldaig Bar) where the landlord got so fed up with the silence caused by everyone being engrossed in a screen that he turned off the public WiFi in order to reinstate the customary murmur of conversation that one would expect in a busy hostelry. Good for him.

      2. You were so engrossed you didn't even notice you were in Devon not Cornwall.

  96. How many warships does Ukraine have left?
    Ukrainian Navy – Wikipedia
    In the aftermath, the Ukraine Navy relocated its main operational base to its Western Naval Base in Odesa. The current fleet consists of 11, mostly small operational ships, one frigate commissioned in 1993 and four corvettes.

    Ukrainian warships lead Exercise Sea Breeze at Portland Port

    EXCLUSIVE access has been given to a Ukrainian warship as part of a maritime operation on Portland.

  97. 408641+ up ticks,

    FACT,

    Paul Weston
    @PWestoff
    ·
    9h
    Wars are fought along tribal or ideological lines, and consist of the invader and the defender. When the leaders of Western Civilisation import the tribal invaders and persecute the native defenders, they have definitively and unarguably declared war against their own people and Western Civilisation itself.

    When the numbers involved are so vast as to threaten the continued existence of the native defenders, then the war declared by Western leaders against their own people becomes genocidal in both practice and intent.

    People need to understand that what has been done to us by our criminal Traitor Class represents an Act of War involving the Greatest Crime Against Humanity in the History of Mankind. Can we vote our way out of this? Not a chance in a gazillion.

    1. And only £15 Mn a year to support them at a bare minimum.
      It's looking to be a very expensive summer

    1. No question about that. “Foreign” doesn’t include people who ought not have been given British citizenship – so the position is worse than described.

  101. Allison Pearson
    The only acceptable outcome after the BBC’s Glastonbury horror show is Tim Davie’s resignation

    A cesspit of bigotry played out on a national stage and the Beeb’s feeble excuses only deepen the betrayal of licence-fee payers

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/07/01/TELEMMGLPICT000430543719_17513900816560_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqhZJ9vnP3TZj6dX4F0TnhrvDTufBC9MNehXEHi3U8syo.jpeg?imwidth=1920
    Bobby Vylan performing at Glastonbury 2025, whose incendiary chants sparked widespread outrage Credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire

    In 2026, there will be no Glastonbury. Have all the BBC execs and Corbynistas from Crouch End (often the self-same insufferable people), with their recreational keffiyehs and kefir yogurt poultices to treat Chlamydia (the sexually transmitted disease not the name of their daughter), decided a year of atonement is in order for the grotesque display of anti-Semitism? I’m afraid not.

    The Somerset festival has a fallow year to allow the land to recover from the righteous stampede of woke wellies and ethically-crafted Crocs. Well, the grass may grow back, but the reputation of our national broadcaster is as scorched as the earth the hordes of stoned progressives leave behind. Millions of licence-fee payers will today be asking, why should the corporation continue to call itself the British Broadcasting Corporation when it promotes anti-British values while causing pain and fear to our Jewish citizens?

    “Death, death to the IDF [Israeli Defence Forces]!,” crowed rapper Bobby Vylan, real name Pascal Robinson-Foster, and the vast crowd joined in the blood-curdling, homicidal chant – a moment which the Chief Rabbi has rightly described as a “time of national shame”.

    I met Sir Ephraim Mirvis recently and he is a man of almost saintly sweetness, but the “Be Kind” brigade at Glastonbury caused him finally to snap. “The airing of vile Jew-hatred [… ] and the BBC’s belated and mishandled response brings confidence in our national broadcaster’s ability to treat anti-Semitism seriously to a new low,” the Chief Rabbi posted on X.

    “It should trouble all decent people that now one need only couch their outright incitement to violence and hatred as edgy political commentary for ordinary people to not only fail to see it for what it is but also to cheer it, chant it and celebrate it.Toxic Jew-hatred is a threat to our entire society.”

    After that stern rebuke from the spiritual leader of British Jews, you would have expected BBC director-general Tim Davie to tender his resignation. The situation demands nothing less. It turns out Mr Davie was present at the festival on Saturday afternoon and he could easily have ordered the livestream on BBC iPlayer to be halted. Instead, the repugnant performance at the West Holts stage was allowed to continue with a feeble on-screen warning.

    To add insult to potential incitement, the Irish rap trio Kneecap, took to the stage directly after Bob Vylan (as Bobby Vylan’s rap group are confusingly called) and led chants of “Free Palestine”. Band member Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh – performing as Mo Chara – appeared in court last month charged with a terrorism offence for allegedly displaying the flag of Hezbollah, a proscribed terrorist organisation.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2025/07/01/TELEMMGLPICT000430454432_17513907689180_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqrS8Z1b0ZQjNoViJZ3HnGQ3dJc07HAYL41V_gkWNKJsI.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Viewers on iPlayer were unable to watch Kneecap’s performance live Credit: Samir Hussein/WireImage

    Could some highly paid, Bafta-winning Tristram not have looked at that charming line-up and thought, “Hang on, this is a potentially incendiary bit of programming. Should the BBC really be giving a platform to someone accused of terrorism?” Even Sir Keir Starmer said Kneecap’s appearance was “not appropriate.” Either no one in a position of power cared, or – more likely – they were happy to tacitly endorse those performers and their rancid sentiments.

    (Although the BBC didn’t live-stream Kneecap, it did upload a largely unedited version of the performance to iPlayer.)

    The Beeb’s official apology was a joke: far too little, too late. “The anti-Semitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves,” it said.

    “We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance. The judgment… to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with our editorial guidelines […] With hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.”

    Editorial guidelines? Unacceptable? Regret? As the whole stinking, Jew-hating mess is now under investigation by Avon and Somerset Police as a possible public order incident, something stronger than regret is urgently called for. Compare and contrast the leisurely reaction to Bob Vylan calling on a vast throng to murder Israelis (the IDF is not just soldiers, a majority of people in Israel are either in the IDF or are IDF reservists) with the lightning clampdown on Lucy Connolly and others who merely tweeted their anger and dismay to a small number of followers after the Southport massacre of little girls. A few days ago, Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, told the BBC it was “disgusting” to claim the UK has a two-tier justice system.

    Let me tell you what’s disgusting: it’s the way flagrant displays of anti-Semitism have been tolerated on the streets of our capital city for 20 months, since the October 7 murderous Hamas rampage through southern Israel, with that prejudice given daily succour in biased reporting about Israel’s actions by the BBC, which has a clear problem with anti-Semitism, whatever it might say, and other news outlets. There is a straight line, I reckon, from Jeremy Bowen’s sympathetic accounts of Hamas-controlled Gaza to crowds in a West Country field chanting, “Death, death to the IDF!”

    What’s disgusting is ordinary Britons being criminalised for their justifiable anger at the predictably awful consequences of illegal migration as successive governments fail to “smash the gangs”. Instead of stopping the boats the ineffectual cowards stop the mouths of their own people.

    Yesterday, on the phone to her husband Ray from Peterborough prison, Lucy Connolly wondered, “Why can pop stars at Glastonbury get away with saying stuff like that while they send me to jail for 31 months?”

    We know the answer, don’t we? It is fashionable in Leftist circles to cosy up to the Islamist barbarians, waving the Palestinian flag. But murmur a word against undocumented, young male “asylum seekers” who, as Lucy Connolly told police, pose a danger to British children and you’re guilty of inciting hatred against a protected characteristic.

    The Jews may have suffered actual genocide in the 20th century but, as one senior police officer explained to me, they are now seen as “white supremacists”. While this floundering, shameless Government plots an Islamophobia law in a desperate attempt to shore up its Muslim client group, it is Judaeophobia that stalks the land.

    As it happens, Lucy Connolly does not believe anyone should be behind bars for “shooting their mouth off”. Not even that vile preening idiot Vylan. Lucy is a believer in free speech, as am I, although we may shudder and feel that a line is most definitely crossed when a gathering of entranced Britons engages in Two Minutes Hate against Jews at a music festival.

    The BBC should stop spending a fortune on Glastonbury, a corporate jolly attended by between 400 and 900 staff with an estimated (although unconfirmed) £7 million handed over to the Eavis family.

    The hotels with buses and taxis laid on every morning, the on-site designer pods and dinky little vintage caravans bedecked in jaunty bunting, that rosary of the “Be Kind” brigade. The mountain of free food, the staff bars, the four-wheel-drive buggies that are on tap for the broadcasting elite

    A massive clique of bien-pensant backslapping, “they greet each other as if it’s their annual Club Med holiday, the entitlement is off the scale,” recalls one engineer who worked at Glasto but grew too nauseated to go back.

    Why do all those smug creatives feel they have a licence (the bill footed by our licence fee) to impose their embarrassing political views on the rest of us? Not just by signalling the correct way to vote and feel, but by actively insulting people in middle and older age who are the ones that continue to pay for the BBC.

    Bobby Vylan wished death on the IDF, on the men and women who have done their damndest to protect Western civilization by routing Hezbollah and Hamas and damaging Iran’s nuclear capability. He also took aim at the corporation’s audience whom he called “gammons” in his execrable doggerel:

    I heard you want your country back
    Shut the f— up
    I heard you want your country back
    Uh-uh, you can’t have that
    I heard you want your country back
    Well s—, me too…

    We the people on the street
    Got the gammons in retreat

    About that, at least, Bobby Vylan is correct. We do want our country back because it doesn’t belong to the hateful and divisive likes of him. Part of getting our country back and banishing anti-Semitism may involve defunding the BBC, now so deeply and fatally detached from the best instincts of the British people. Many of us have supported the Beeb all our lives; the Jew haters of Glastonbury could just have changed our minds.

  102. Next time I'm getting a flipping shitzu. Bloody great beasts are too strong, too big and too fluffy for this weather. They won't let me groom them, brush their teeth, they're active but too hot. I imagine they're as fed up as I am as we're all cold weather folk.

    Apart from the Warqueen, who thinks this should be the default temperature.

          1. I remember my mother asking me – grumpily – why antiquities like fahrenheit and imperial should be abandoned – she would insist on converting everything to daft measurements 'It's 2040mm' 'What's that?' she'd whinge. 'It's 2040mm', people would answer, bewildered by the anacroynism.

            Base ten is simple and works flawlessly.

          2. Most of a certain age here do both. Body weight and height are set in stone (and feet and inches) though. Cooking in metric. Car speed in mph and consumption in mpg. Beer in pints, wine in litres.

          4. The Warqueen has half litre ones.

            She doesn't drink, but she likes the glasses.

          9. Exactly. I can only work out in my head what 10 cm is by knowing that 1inch is (about) 2.54cm.

          11. The metric system is utterly arbitrary, a product of the 'rationalists' [sic] of the French revolution. The imperial system should properly be called 'customary' because it grew out of habit and custom. Many of the older measures have gone but they were themselves multiples or fractions of others e.g. ells, gills, hogsheads.

            In most people's every day life, measurements are approximations, visualisations, benchmarks. Absolute mathematical precision isn't required. I can't see how describing someone as a six-footer is an offence against logic.

            And what does "Base ten is simple and works flawlessly" actually mean?

          12. We built an Empire and an Industrial Revolution on base 12 and the old Imperial system.

          13. No one ever explained to me how being forced to buy petrol by the litre instead of the gallon made my life, the country or the economy better. It was just a pointless waste of money.

          14. It was more than that, it was the start of the campaign to destroy Britain.

          16. So true. A pint of beer cost two shillings under the old system but after metrication the pound was devalued significantly and a pint of beer suddenly cost more.

            Everything cost more. A bloody scam.

          17. The least anything could rise was 1.2d even if it was only a halfpenny in decimal.

          21. You've never seen my brother in law slice a cake into 5….

            There's no approximation there.

          23. So is base 16…

            Imperial measurements are more practical for real life use. 200g of flour FFS!

          26. Bollocks, wibbers: the trade-based duo-decimal system is much more user friendly!

          28. Actually, prices are starting to be put up in decimal. I haven't got a clue, whereas even I can work out 5/2.

          29. They have more sense. Their business depends upon measuring odds accurately.

            Decimal points and recurring decimal points would obstruct. We would have punters wandering around the racecourses with calculators and getting trodden by the horses!

          30. When it comes to measurement imperial is much more human based. Metric was made up based on something that wasn’t even correct in the first place.

          31. Even in Megalithic times it has been established that the unit of measurement in setting out Stonehenge and numerous other stone circles was the Megalithic Foot.

          32. Had you worked in industry you would know a little more about the inadequacies of a system of measurement where one has to rely upon recurring decimal points.

            Put simply ten is not divisible by three in whole numbers whereas twelve is!

            We enjoyed a beautiful measurement system in England before we were forced by the wretch Ted Heath to join the EU.

            Everyone understood and could visualise a half a pound of butter, a pound of sugar, and the rest. Likewise we all used inches, feet and yards. Those involved in engineering understood 1/64th, 1/32nd, 3/64ths, 1/16th, 1/8th, 1/4 and so on.

            We measured the thickness of metal sheet in a similarly straightforward way, so we had 16 gauge for example. Lead sheet was described as 4lb, 5lb, 6lb and 7lb lead etc.

            I can think of no benefit whatsoever of our enforced adoption of the stupid Metric system. In Britain we reckon to count on more than the fingers on our hands.

        1. Hi, Kate. I’m good, thanks; hope you are too.

          Vision still leaves much to be desired, but the blood from the last 9 months or so of retinal bleeds in the “good eye” seems to be clearing. I can see stuff which I coudn’t a week or two ago. I just need no to bleed anymore.

          The eye doc I saw last Wed thought I don’t need surgery. That’s fine with me: I’ve been through that on the other eye. Which worked, until it buggered up the injections for retinopathy.

          Still can’t read black on white – music in particular. Hymns: I can rattle them off, as long as I know what key they’re in and how many verses. Voluntaries? Not so much.

          1. All cool except hay fever worse this year. Interesting that your experience mirrors husband’s…had bleeds, told to rest, cleared, another bleed…continued until one day when out walking with dogs I met a neighbour whose wife had recently been for eye op Mancs Infirmary. Couldn’t believe we were still in the loop. Long story short, went to Manchester had quite a lot of lasering done but fine ever since. He started a carnivore diet a year or so ago, his bloods been in check for a while but now back on Metformin. Hoping for no further eye bleeds, with luck. Good news on the hymns, if not the voluntaries! I find my sight deteriorating with age, as generally:-) take care, Geoff, love K x

          2. Thanks, Kate. I had thelast possible lasering done a few months ago. Bleeding hasn't recurred (tough some blood remains). Most recent eye doc said my problem was mainly cataracts, but was reluctant to deal with themdue to diabetic complcations. But on waking, and before rising, I can ead my smart watch without specs, while the blood lurks on the periphery of my vision. As oonb as I get up, it disperses, and blurs the vision. As I type, I've been sat in front of the laptop for hours, and the vision isn't bad at all, though far from perfect. But I can't remain still, all day, every day…

            As long as I don't bleed again, I'm hopeful that the mists will cleart soon… x

          3. I suspect as we age, Geoff..we all suffer dry eyes, I know I do…I don’t blink using any screen phone or laptop. He likes the eye bath liquid he uses Hylo-Forte 0.2% preservative free, perhaps you use similar. Also eyebath helps. One eye worse than other think the one with a Pauls tube. I hope your mists clear soon, my vaccine fog still present but thankfully much diminished. Pfizer…🤔 g’night Geoff sleep well 😴 😊 xx

  104. The whinging Lefties are ignorant, arrogant and stupid. They haven't a clue about the world and are just making a huge fuss because they want to say 'something' because they think it's cool.

    Plod should fall on them like a hammer, just as they set about destroying decent people.

  105. If the boot had been on the other foot and it had been Muslims and Islam being attacked all Hell would have been let loose.

  106. If Starmer had any real conviction that what he was doing was right he would have said "vote for it or I'll call a general election."

    The self-serving greedy MPs would vote for it, because they know they'd be unemployed and unemployable in a wrecked economy with no hope of jobs elsewhere.

    1. He didn't want to reform welfare. He wanted to save money. In reality, it's 5bn in a total spend of 55bn. Barely 5%. The savings involved are trivial. If 30bn of cut had been considered that would be a real cut to welfare.

      3. Starmer has no idea. He is actually a Third Rate solicitor posing as a KC.

        The cost saving from the abolition of the Winter Fuel Allowance supposedly saved half a billion pounds. I doubt very much that any savings resulted from this cruel and inhumane action by Starmer. People will have died, required hospitalisation or otherwise have suffered illnesses including hypothermia and neglect.

        The dolt Starmer meanwhile is seemingly happy to finance his best friend, the Green Goblin crook Zelensky, to the tune of six billion per annum and in perpetuity, presumably inflation proof. “In perpetuity” is clearly showing a fundamental ignorance of the British political system. The idiot Starmer cannot “bind” future governments. Such a promise would require a formal Treaty.

        The fact that the elderly, deprived of the Winter Fuel Allowance, will still be here next year, whereas Ukraine will no longer exist as a sovereign state, seems to have been missed by this idiot posing as a British Prime Minister.

  108. I don’t believe this government had any intention of reforming welfare. They haven’t been challenged by their backbenchers. They’ve all got what they wanted. Two murder bills waived through and no meaningful change to welfare.

    1. It's now being used as an excuse to give visas to Palestinian 'refugees'.

      1. Dear God no. We must not import any more foreign conflicts under the cloak of "refugees."

          1. True. But I’m not convinced that Islamism in this country can be contained by banking on “ordinary” muslims playing nice. Or by governments suddenly changing their spots and doing mass deportations.

    2. The only policy Starmer has is simply to facilitate the return of Great Britain to the clutches of the EU.

      His every action mirrors those of the EU where those opposing the policies of the EU leadership are ostracised, victimised and in many instances fined for their dissent. This is a daily occurrence in Germany where folk are fined for dissenting against EU policies without trial viz. without evidence, the ability to defend opinions or actions and foremost without a trial and jurors.

      We have seen already that Starmer has tendencies which would have sat comfortably with Germany under Hitler and as is now apparent Germany under Merzz.

      1. He is hoping for a nice little overpaid EU sinecure to supplement his untouchable gold-plated pension and keep him in Ukrainian rent-boys

    1. I like Rupert Lowe. He isn't shying away from telling the truth. He also exposed Reform as a bunch of rats in a sack, same as all the others.

      I am genuinely concerned that the disapora of parties is going to dilute the vote, but I don't see anything in Reform to vote for yet. They aren't looking deep enough to really solve the problem.

        1. I liked him too, but he must see that he's splitting what is a party of mainly (99%?) people who agree with what he says. The grass roots of normal thinking Brits are showing what they believe by supporting Reform UK, regardless of the fact that Farage/Tice might not quite have the 'bottle' for it. I'm hoping there will be enough bright newly elected councillors that will gear up for a GE, which might not be too far away. Check out the Kent CC Reform UK leader.
          https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/request-by-reform-s-kent-county-council-leader-to-delay-local-government-overhaul-met-with-hard-no/ar-AA1HnJgH

          1. You say that, but he's not the one who accused himself of death threats, reporting himself to the police and so forth, nor did he expel himself from Reform. Rupert is not the bad guy in all this, however unpleasant the consequences of facing up to the truth (before it's too late) may be.

          2. I hope he’s not the bad guy in this. I’m just looking at a ‘last chance saloon’ ousting of the current PPE toting, WEF, Common Porpoise, (haha), Net Effing Zero bunch of bastards in, or waiting to get in.

      3. Aim is, as a movement (not a party) to move discourse to the right (Reform is moving to the centre left)

    2. Reform ain't perfect, but there are many people in it who believe it might become big enough to challenge the current powers that be, whatever colour they hide behind or claim to support.

    3. When a party gets elected/publicity in the Daily Mail, it creates a vacancy…

      I'm sure it's a better bet than Reform, but really the small parties should join together.
      Heritage/UKIP/Farmers/Restore

      2. Restore is not a political party (yet) – its intended function is that of a focus or pressure group to keep parties on track. Hopefully merging of smaller parties will happen later. Of course it is possible that if Restore becomes so successful, then anything may happen. We shall see.

        1. As long as it exists mainly on the internet, it’s just more corralling people into a cul-de-sac. People have to get off their backsides and do things in real life.

        1. It’s beyond time for a grass-roots movement in Britain. I know that there is one on the Continent and it involves regular, weekly meetings of neighbours. The idea is that over time, people will get to know each other so that there will be a network in place in emergencies or a repeat of the plandemic.
          The only similar thing in the UK is Dick Delingpole’s First Wednesday pub meetings.
          But such a grassroots movement isn’t about published literature or politics or the internet, it’s about physical meetings, food cooperatives, community gardens, shared walks, talks on various self-help issues, community schools etc. People have to put regular face-to-face time in, which is a leap too far for most in Britain.

    5. Is Reform UK perfect?

      Clearly not. But, for the time being, it is led by Nigel, who has uniquely changed UK politics. I get it – he's Marmite. Consequently, he's being careful with his pronouncements. Ben and Rupert are both good guys, but they're in danger of splitting the right of centre vote, going forward.

      Too many egos in play.

      1. i hard two very good explanations on the point of the Restore phenomenon (on BBB and the Lotus Eaters) which convinced me to join. It’s a cross-party movement.

        ““It is our vehicle, it is our centre of gravity for all of the sound people and all the people worth listening to on the British political landscape and every person who is concerned about the future of this country and its present trajectory in terms of politics, economics, culture and society in general. We are not a party, we are a movement. We are some combination of a pressure group, a think tank and a mass movement.

        And we don't endorse any parties, we don't endorse any personalities. We exist purely to act as a mouthpiece for ordinary British people who are concerned about the way this country has been governed for the better part of 30 years….“we're looking at the small c conservatives, people who are quite happily with family, faith, and on our nationhood, looking at the royal family as being key, armed forces, all of that.

        People who recognise this programme, the project of multiculturalism, net zero, social progressivism, woke, whatever, all of them have been hugely damaging to this country. And actually, speaking personally, I'm hoping to bring children into this country in the very near future. I look at the prospects, I look at the fact that they're hopefully, God willing, going to be alive to see the turn of the century.

        And I imagine what this country is going to look like at that time. And it's people who have that same terror at what we're staring down the barrel of right now in this country…

        “That's why we absolutely need something like this, because you ask Nigel Farage that question, he'll say, well, that's why we need to appeal to Islam, because they're going to be the majority. There's absolutely nothing we can do about it. We just have to appeal to them.

        And that's the point. We want to show political leaders in this country what British people actually think. And that doesn't just include Reform and Farage, it includes the Conservatives, it also includes Labour, and the Greens and the Lib Dems, it includes everybody.

        Because Rupert himself has already shown that he has the ability as an independent MP to command the discourse in this country and to shift the oversem window in a really meaningful way. And so with this organisation behind him, and with a mass movement of people behind us, I mean, I think that the sky is the limit, basically.

        So why is it a movement, not a political party?

        A political party, you know, now is not the right time for another political party, in our opinion”

        From The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters: The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #1198, 1 Jul 2025
        https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-podcast-of-the-lotus-eaters/id1544753433?i=1000715305310&r=474
        This material may be protected by copyright.

  112. Christopher Booker and others described how some local authorities made fools of themselves when issuing rental notices to allotment holders with each plot quantified as 25.3 square metres…

  113. Base ten panders to people who can’t be bothered to do arithmetic. In days of yore, every child could calculate in base 12.
    Hex has many advantages of which I’m sure you are perfectly well aware, mostly to do with more data in a smaller space.
    Of course, one can’t use one’s fingers to calculate with…

      1. I use mostly base 16 (hexadecimal) or base 2. Just looked up vedic maths – interesting.
        But base 12 is otherwise known as calculating in shillings and pence.

  114. Well, chums, apart from Bill telling us that he is now improving a little, and a photo of Rastus tucking into his Coffee and Walnut cake, my day has been a less than pleasant one, with the heat and complications with computer "gizmos". So I shall wish you all a Good Night. See you all tomorrow.

    2. "and a photo of Rastus tucking into his Coffee"

      Oh dear, the sooner I get a cataract operation the better.

  115. Evening all. Have had a mixed day. Worked in the garden (pleasant temperature) then set off for the diocesan synod. I hadn’t got far when the traffic ground to a halt and stayed stationary. After a while of not moving I could see I had no chance of making it to Walsall especially with the M6 traffic so I turned round when I got the chance and came home. Winston was pleased.

    For some time I have been thinking I am reliving the thirties. Current events make it more obvious.

      2. I wasn’t looking forward to the journey anyway; the last time I went to Aldridge I got stuck on the M6 and was late. I hadn’t got anywhere near the M54, let alone the M6 this time.

    2. A meeting is something where one person takes the minutes and the rest waste hours.

  116. Dotty civil servants spend £500k on a full stop
    Whitehall publishes 150-page dossier on how to use the point in government’s main website address

    https://x.com/snook_magg88153/status/1940170293768560691 The Whitehall communications diktat explains the significance of the dot in the logo for GOV.UK, the Government’s main website, with detailed instructions on its “brand guidelines”.

    As part of a rebrand of the site, the full stop between the words “GOV” and “UK” has been moved upwards from its position at the bottom of the letters to halfway between them.

    The idea is explained in the guidance as a “concept” that can act as “the bridge between government
and the UK, by the side of users to help make information and services easier and more useful”.

    The guide adds: “Used within our wordmark and as a graphic device across all GOV.UK channels, the dot is a guiding hand for life.”

    The dot is a circle on a background of a different colour, and will be used in graphics for government services such as paying taxes or checking the balance of a student loan.

    It will be used in the new GOV.UK app and GOV.UK wallet, which can be used to save government documents to a mobile phone.

    Dotty Dossier
    At 150 pages, the document is longer than:
    Strategic Defence Review: 144 pages

    National Security Strategy: 55 pages

    Spending Review: 135 pages

    Spring Statement: 44 pages

    Chagos Islands deal: 37 pages

    The guidance – which at 150 pages is longer than the most recent Strategic Defence Review (144 pages) and three times as long as the recent National Security Strategy (55 pages) – gives examples of how the dot could be used.

    Zia Yusuf, the head of Reform UK’s department of government efficiency, accused civil servants of showing “disrespect for taxpayers’ money”. He criticised the cost of the rebrand, which is equivalent to the income tax paid by 43 average British households in a year.

    Mr Yusuf said: “The disrespect for taxpayers’ money continues to be astounding. Spending more than £500,000 on changing a logo on a government website is a joke at the taxpayer’s expense, quite literally.

    “This is just the kind of thing we have been uncovering in county halls on a daily basis. It’s abundantly clear that Whitehall also needs a visit from Reform’s Doge team.”

    The dossier, published last week, suggests that the dot could be used to depict a coin being placed into a piggybank, or be used as a text bubble advertising a step-by-step guide on how to vote.

    “The dot can take on different roles – guiding users through content, journeys and experiences across GOV.UK channels,” it says. “It should always serve a clear purpose.”

    The reinvention of the dot is one part of a £500,000 upgrade to the Government’s digital identity.

    Procurement documents seen by The Telegraph show that the previous Conservative government paid LNET Digital, a private firm, £99,950 to conduct market research for the “refresh” before it was launched.

    The creative agency M&C Saatchi was also reportedly handed hundreds of thousands of pounds of government contracts to work on the project.

    The dossier tells staff that the dot “has defined roles and behaviours” and should never be “overused”, deployed in a “decorative way” or cropped.

    How to use 'the dot'
    Do:

    Use the dot in a purposeful way
    Make sure the dot is serving a clear purpose
    Change the colour of the dot if the brand requires more expression
    Don't:

    Overuse the dot
    Use the dot in decorative way
    Distort or skew the dot

    When the dot is used alongside the crown that already features in government logos and the “wordmark” GOV.UK, the guidance says that “the spacing between the crown and the wordmark is three dots, and the dot within the wordmark is two dots in width”.

    Elsewhere in the document, it is explained that there may sometimes be a need for a dot that is a different colour to the words “GOV” and “UK”, but the rules on when that would be allowed are very strict.

    “The adaptive dot colour should be reserved for moments where the brand requires more expression, and should not be used in communications that require a more sombre or serious tone,” it says.

    Examples of incorrect usage of adaptive dot colour were “combinations that are not accessible”, “colour combinations that lack contrast between the wordmark and dot”, and “colour combinations that are not from the same tonal range”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/07/01/whitehall-publishes-150-page-dossier-on-how-to-use-the-dot/

    3. What are they thinking of? It's like a dog sanctuary that has already taken in a disproportionate number of Pitbulls, who have proved temperamentally unable to integrate with the general mongrel population and killed most of them and also each other. The management now proposes importing "poor, misunderstood" Bully XLs.

      What could possibly go wrong?

    1. I agree about the spite. That's probably because we are not yet their slaves.

  120. Just like Blair. His mean little mouth is starting to look like Blair's in some photos too.

  121. Triumph of hope over experience. Like "anything is better than the treacherous TINOs". Ha! Just look where that has lead us.

    1. I am hoping that there are enough decent people to put pressure on Farage and hold his feet to the fire.

  123. It's time to rip up the outdated refugee convention

    When even a centre-left peer is calling for reform, it's clear the situation is unsustainable

    Melanie Phillips
    Monday June 30th 2025, 8.08pm BST

    Much discussion around how to stop the illegal migrant traffic across the Channel has centred upon the rule of human rights law in preventing Britain from getting to grips with the problem. There's another elephant in this particular room, however, and that's the international law governing refugees.

    In a speech in the House of Lords, amplified on Joshua Rozenberg's A Lawyer Talks podcast (full disclosure: said podcaster is m'learned husband) the former director of public prosecutions Lord Macdonald of River Glaven made the case that reforming refugee law was pivotal to tackling the issue.

    His concern was that the current scale of mass migration and the organised crime gangs profiting from it are weakening faith in democratic institutions, driving populist politics across Europe and the rise of authoritarian governments.

    That much is a not unfamiliar concern. But Macdonald's most striking observations were about refugee law. The Refugee Convention of 1951 defines a refugee as someone with a well- founded fear of persecution in their home country and who must not be sent back to face serious threats to their life or freedom. This convention was created after the Holocaust in response to the fact that virtually every country denied entry to the Jews trying to flee Nazi Germany. In 1967, the convention was broadened to encompass refugees from all countries.

    As Macdonald observed, the world was a very different place when the convention was enacted. In 1951, there were an estimated 2.1 million refugees under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 2024, according to the UNHCR, there were no fewer than 122.6 million internally displaced persons around the world and no fewer than 43.7 million refugees. These numbers are increasing all the time.

    In addition, the world has become a lot smaller thanks to international travel and the fact that, through the spread of information, people in developing nations are now well aware of what developed countries can offer them.

    So talk about smashing the human trafficking gangs, said Macdonald, was pointless. Globally, tens or even hundreds of millions of people could claim asylum status. Why wouldn't they use criminal gangs to get them to some unimaginably rich country? Why wouldn't these vast numbers not seek better lives or escape from violence and oppression?

    But these numbers are now putting a strain on developed countries that is simply insupportable and was unimaginable in 1951.

    It takes courage to say this. Macdonald belongs to the centre left, where it's an article of faith that mass immigration is the route to establishing the brotherhood of man through multiculturalism and the consequent erosion of white, oppressive western identity. Anyone opposing this is said to be a fascist, everyone claiming refugee status must be believed and if people are fleeing only economic hardship that's a good enough reason to admit them.

    To illustrate the point, Macdonald referred to the Columbia University professor Mark Lilla. In his 2016 book The Once and Future Liberal, he wrote that centre-left parties promoting identity politics would never be able to create winning electoral coalitions. Instead, they would alienate the left's natural supporters and usher in an age of populism. For this prescience, Lilla was labelled a white supremacist by some of his university colleagues.

    If the crisis of mass migration hinges on refugee law, what role is played by the European Convention on Human Rights, which Reform is committed to leave in order to deal with the issue, and over which the Tories are agonising?

    The ECHR is separate from the refugee convention but lends its support to the right of refugees to avoid being killed or persecuted through its articles upholding the right to life, prohibiting torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and providing the right to family life. Critics believe the courts' expansive interpretation of these provisions has stymied the government's ability to control the number of migrants claiming the right to live in Britain.

    Macdonald thinks this complaint can be addressed by reforms to the ECHR that are now being considered by member states that are facing the same crisis over mass migration. And rather than leave the refugee convention, he suggests that countries should agree refugee quotas among themselves.

    The issue needed to be gripped by a centre-left government, he said, because centre-left politics were particularly threatened by the rising threat of populist politics.

    He was obviously thinking of the rise of Reform. Although that also threatens the Tories, it was the Labour governments under Blair and Brown that deliberately encouraged mass immigration in accordance with the multicultural shibboleths of the left.

    So although the Tories won't be forgiven for having gone along with this, it's Labour that has abandoned its core constituency of working-class people, who feel passionately that they are now "strangers" in their own country – and who will abandon Labour unless this crisis is ended.

    Macdonald has spoken aloud something that his colleagues on the centre left refuse to acknowledge. He should be saluted for such bravery and clarity of thought.

    He appears to believe, however, that both the refugee convention and the ECHR can be reformed rather than junked in order to deal with the issue. That, though, may be yet more of the wishful thinking that now poses an existential threat to the left from which it is incapable of finding refuge.

    https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/its-time-to-rip-up-the-outdated-refugee-convention-2sfm20qvd

    1. We need a moratorium on all entry into the U.K. for at least 5 years. Where nobody is granted asylum.

  126. Dustin Needle
    4h
    True, the mess Starmer has got himself into is hilarious. How could not he or a single member of his senior cabinet – the ones that have mastered joined up writing and breathing through the nose – not anticipated this?
    But a sobering point needs to be made about the terrifying lack of joined up thinking. In UnHerd, for example, there is an article headed "What Starmer could learn from Blair – Cuts require persuasion" by a youthful looking Richard Johnson, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Queen Mary University of London.

    It's more a puff piece for Satan by a chap with one eye on a gig with the exotically financed TBI than praising Starmer, but it really left me scratching my head as to where these people come from and how closeted from reality they have been for 25/30 years.

    It's commonly accepted that there 9 million economically inactive people. All will feel aggrieved by any attempt to reduce or remove their benefits and many will privately scoff at the idea of being "managed back to work".

    Add to that a politically active student population, many in debt and feeling very disenchanted with their lot. Plus Greens and Corbyn-ites who just want a reason to watch the country burn, and public sector "union officials" with nowt else to do. And last but never least, the mainly peaceful, religiously, conservative folk who also have serious skin in the welfare game.

    In a nutshell – literally millions ready and willing to take to the streets if even £1 was to be shaved from Welfare. They'd outnumber crowd control of even a combined police and army by several to one. The student riots in 2010, which got out of hand back then, would be a picnic by comparison.

    All of them – according to this Senior Lecturer in a London University – just requiring Blairite "persuasion".

    None of our parties can take this on. It's off the scale dangerous. Just like the NHS, it's grown so big in scope and coverage, that expectations can never be managed without civil disorder.

    Seriously – where do we go from here? IMF? Frogmarched into the Euro? Or into the arms of Labour's Chinese friends who know just what to do with uppity citizens?

    1. We are being shepherded towards a CBDC, and the theatre of failed cuts this week is just part of that process.
      "You greedy citizens wouldn't accept cuts, now it's your fault that we've run out of money and you have to accept your benefits via CBDC"

  128. Lucky me ! I have a table booked at the Ivy Winchester today.

    I am going in my wheelchair as i want everyone to know how needy i'm feeling.

    Once i have filled my gorge i intend a 'dine and dash' at 8mph.

    I have both Pride and Palestinian flags mounted.

    I have fitted loud speakers playing Yaketty Sax.

    Wish me luck !

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