Tuesday 1 October: Kemi Badenoch deserves credit for sparking debate in the Tory party

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its commenting facility (now reinstated, but we prefer ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

678 thoughts on “Tuesday 1 October: Kemi Badenoch deserves credit for sparking debate in the Tory party”

        1. Not bad, thanks. A few days with in-laws, home again at weekend. Hope it’s all good with you.

  4. Good morning, chums. And thanks, Geoff, for today's NoTTLe page.

    Wordle 1,200 3/6

    ⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
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    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    A very belated postscript: I forgot to say "White Rabits" and "A Pinch and a Punch". Welcome to a new month.

    1. Good morning Elsie
      Wordle 1,200 3/6

      ⬜🟨⬜🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  6. Morning All (and continued thanks to Geoff). A Pinch and a Punch and all that…

    Today's Tales
    Roxy, a large black labrador, was sitting up in the seat at the movies, wagging his tail, growling at the villain and barking excitedly at the hero’s escapades.
    The man in the seat behind was intrigued. “Excuse me,” he said, tapping Roxy’s owner on the shoulder. “That dog is extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
    “He surprised me too,” said the owner. “He hated the book.”

    Max usually took his kelpie for a walk down to the local pub. Max was enjoying a few drinks when the results of the football games appeared on the television set. The kelpie rolled over onto his back and started whining mournfully.
    “What’s wrong with your dog?" asked the barman.
    “He always behaves like that when my team loses,” replied Max.
    “What does he do when they win?” asked the barman.
    “I don’t know. I’ve only had him two years.”

    1. That decision will be directly responsible for the deaths of thousands if not millions of people. The climate is getting colder, quickly.

  9. Biden should allow Storm Shadows to be fired into Russia, says US agency. 1 October 2024.

    Helsinki Commission says president should offer Ukraine more help and call Kremlin’s bluff over threats to West.

    This “bluff” has existed for most of my lifetime. It was called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). We are now being told that it was never true. I would point out that true or not it prevented any nuclear exchange between Russia and the West for nearly forty years. This is all now to be abandoned in the cause of Ukraine. A country that only two years ago most people in the West couldn’t find on a map. This latter, is of course, only an excuse. The aim is the destruction of Russia. Vladimir Putin must know this and so his bluff is no bluff. He knows what is at stake.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/09/30/biden-allow-storm-shadows-fired-russia-helsinki-commission/

    1. Anyone that has played the board game 'Risk' since childhood knows precisely where Ukraine is. Interestingly there, Moscow lies within territory 'Ukraine', as does Belarus. There is no Russia in 'Risk'. Its territories are known as Ukraine, Ural, Siberia, Yakutsk, Irkutsk and Kamchatka.

        1. I came a cropper though over Australia, a little island just off the Asian mainland that only got a bonus of 2 armies. I always imagined it to be like the Isle of Wight, and the distance from, say Melbourne to Cairns was no more than Ventnor to Ryde – a nice morning tootle.

          When my brother took me to folk festival from Adelaide to a village just into Victoria, only about half an inch on the map, it took all day to get there!

      1. I think that they have made the decision. Biden is simply waiting for the Election to be over.

        1. Let us hope not! The US may have missiles, but Russia has the financial nuke – they could take their currency gold-backed any time.
          The return of gold to the financial system is inevitable – no attacks on Russia will prevent it. One can only assume the Americans are looking for countries from whom they can loot gold, as they looted it from Iraq.
          It has been said that the gold held by the Federal Reserve has been leased out…but I don’t know the details about that. At any rate, it hasn’t been audited for about half a century I think, so one wonders how much is left.

  10. Wet. Rain. Rain. Rain. Central heating on. And I'm under the weather as well. I've caught some sort of bug that has no overt symptoms. No Cough. No Cold. I'm just shattered.

    2. Take care of yourself Minty! Nourishing food, Vit C, sleep!
      Someone I know (89) had a bug about a month ago, he was very sleepy and coughing, the nurse came and did a c test, positive so they took him to hospital and a night on oxygen did the trick.

    3. Shattered & pooped eh? A runny tummy can be nasty…..

      Hope things brighten up for you.

    4. #metoo. I've been feeling useless and unable/unwilling to communicate normally for the past three or four days. Totally knackered and can't think straight. Nowadays I live on top of a very exposed hill and was wondering if the persistent high and gusting winds were upsetting such equilibrium as I still have.

      1. I think it's the wider political events that have put the wind up Minty……

        Good morning Michael & all. Even if things don't you 'can only get better!'

  11. Morning, all Y'all. Looking damp, down here close to Bideford. Visit to In-laws.

  12. 393875+ up ticks,

    I do totally agree, the roots of evilness are to be found in W1 on home turf and require radical justifiable eradication.

    Dt,

    The West’s true enemy is clear. We must strike now before it’s too late
    No foreign nation should be enabled to infiltrate our societies to destabilise and destroy us. Here are three ways to fight back

    1. Well, those two lines do open up a lot of possibilities. Air strikes on Davos? Nuking Pakistan? We could get the Dutch for killing all our elm trees too!

      1. 393875+ up ticks,

        Morning BB2
        Lets be civil about this issue and commence a lot closer to home,

  15. ‘Everyone has abandoned us and now Iran has, too’. 1 October 2024.

    As for their brethren across the Middle East, Iran has long been their political and spiritual lodestar. “What the Vatican is for you Christians, Iran is for us Shia – only more so,” one is often told by Shias in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.

    Yet with Iran shying away from direct confrontation with Israel even as Hezbollah – its creation and most important proxy – lurches ever deeper into crisis, there are mounting signs that, in Lebanon at least, loyalty has begun to slip.

    It’s difficult to see how Iran can sit this one out. It is of course outmatched militarily by Israel and the US is stood on the sidelines waiting to interfere should there be any difficulties. Still doing nothing as Hezbollah and Iranian credibility are destroyed would not seem to be a viable plan. Even if the Ayatollah’s survive. How long could their rule last? They will have been revealed to be a sham. My guess is that they will do something desperate and in the nature of things it will be even worse than supporting Hezbollah. Sealing off the Gulf and cutting the oil supply springs to mind.

    As the world goes down the toilet Nottlers should congratulate themselves on having had the foresight to have lived in what will prove to have been a Golden Age.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/30/iran-hezbollah-supporters-lebanon-israel-attacks/

    1. Daft as it may sound, I can envisage an alliance and close friendship emerging between Israel and Iran, whereby their respective peoples, alienated by religious zealotry, decide enough is enough, and life is much better served by trading with one another and ignoring troublesome Arabs that separate the two nations.

      1. Yes. Older Iranians who can remember the pre-1979 Iran and youngsters who just want to get on with their lives make up a huge percentage of the population.

    2. Your mention of the golden age reminds me of old Gonzago: the man who provided Prospero with his books when he fled in exile with his daughter, Miranda, in The Tempest.

      Gonzago was a completely unrealistic idealist who was both "green" and a communist – a sort of Miliband without the nasty malevelonce of Miliband!

      When asked how he would govern were he in charge he replied:

      I' the commonwealth I would by contraries
      Execute all things; for no kind of traffic
      Would I admit; no name of magistrate;
      Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
      And use of service, none; contract, succession,
      Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
      No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
      No occupation; all men idle, all:
      And women too, but innocent and pure;

      All things in common nature should produce
      Without sweat or endeavour; treason, felony,
      Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,
      Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,
      Of it own kind, all foison, all abundance,
      To feed my innocent people.

      I would with such perfection govern, sir,
      To excel the golden age.

  16. ‘Everyone has abandoned us and now Iran has, too’. 1 October 2024.

    As for their brethren across the Middle East, Iran has long been their political and spiritual lodestar. “What the Vatican is for you Christians, Iran is for us Shia – only more so,” one is often told by Shias in Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.

    Yet with Iran shying away from direct confrontation with Israel even as Hezbollah – its creation and most important proxy – lurches ever deeper into crisis, there are mounting signs that, in Lebanon at least, loyalty has begun to slip.

    It’s difficult to see how Iran can sit this one out. It is of course outmatched militarily by Israel and the US is stood on the sidelines waiting to interfere should there be any difficulties. Still doing nothing as Hezbollah and Iranian credibility are destroyed would not seem to be a viable plan. Even if the Ayatollah’s survive. How long could their rule last? They will have been revealed to be a sham. My guess is that they will do something desperate and in the nature of things it will be even worse than supporting Hezbollah. Sealing off the Gulf and cutting the oil supply springs to mind.

    As the world goes down the toilet Nottlers should congratulate themselves on having had the foresight to have lived in what will prove to have been a Golden Age.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/09/30/iran-hezbollah-supporters-lebanon-israel-attacks/

  18. Doc Malik's podcast with Melissa Ciummei about a VERY worrying development to implement health tyranny stealthily (my bold)

    "The Public Health Bill (Northern Ireland) consultation, issued on 5 July 2024 with responses required by 14 October 2024…

    At its core, this proposal seems to introduce protectionism into public health by stealth. It asks us to give up informed consent and bodily autonomy, with an extension into surveillance—where we must forfeit privacy and biometric data in exchange for supposed protection from crime. Melissa believes the Bill is ultimately driven by economic factors, such as impending financial collapse, which will lead to a totalitarian one-world government. Imaginary global health emergencies are used to justify the issuance of Vaccine passports, which are, in essence, digital IDs that allow for the introduction of Digital Currency, which will be tied to Social Compliance, also known as Social Credit Score. This is tyranny disguised as protection."
    (The podcast in on substack so you might have to click through "No Thanks")
    https://docmalik.substack.com/p/232-special-episode-melissa-ciummei?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email#media-64be9c61-db27-4f63-82a2-fd2559b5e4f8

  21. Good morning all,

    Dull again at Castle McPhee, wind West going North-West, 9℃ going up to 13℃, rain from late morning.

    On the DT website front page last night but gone this morning:  Are we going to see the rehabilitation of Enoch?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/907cf54d824b7caad011462167dd57d3023d62fffc2fb5efe3989e1686a5588a.png fron

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/09/30/tories-told-to-unsmear-enoch-powell-rivers-of-blood-speech/

    It's difficult to argue against his views now.

    1. Well as far as I was concerned he was never smeared. He was sacked for telling the truth.

    2. I have always liked Enoch Powell, even when I was a radical teenager. A profoundly thoughtful man not afraid to speak his mind and be damned.

    3. Truth's a dog, must to kennel, while my lady's brach may sit by the fire and stink
      [King Lear]

      That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot.
      [Enobarbus Antony and Cleopatra]

      This is why in less than 50 years time the UK will be an Islamic state with Sharia Law – none of the PTB nor the MSM is prepared to tell the truth. Thank God I shall not be here to see it but God had better get his skates on if my sons don't have to see it.

      The leading BTL comment by Jim Lewin is right.

      Powell was one of the three great Conservatives of the 20th century, the other two being Churchill and Thatcher.

      He spoke 13 languages (including Urdu); he was the only British soldier ever to go from private to brigadier; he was a professor at 21; a classical scholar, a biblical scholar, a poet, a brilliant economist… and of course he was entirely right about the cataclysmic effects that a mass Commonwealth influx into Britain would have.

      It's HIM who should be on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square!

    4. Gayboy Ted Heath, who was then the leader of the Conservative Party then in Opposition, dismissed Powell from the Shadow Cabinet the day after the speech.
      Thatcher certainly seems to have known Heath. "When I look at him and he looks at me," she once remarked, "it doesn't feel like a man looking at a woman, more like a woman looking at another woman."

  22. Steve Kirsch, the billionaire anti-covid campaigner, is currently getting ChatGPT to analyse data around death rates. He re-names the inputs so that ChatGPT doesn't know it's dealing with vaxx statistics. His results up til now have been what one might expect, but the project is ongoing…
    From his substack…
    "The Czech Republic data is the highest quality data on vaccine safety and efficacy that is publicly available. That is precisely why nobody in mainstream science will touch the Czech Republic data with a 10-foot pole.
    Fortunately, since I’m a misinformation superspreader, I have no qualms at all in analyzing data like this and sharing what I find :)."

    1. What I will never be able to come to terms with is, none of the so called vaccines actually worked as vaccines should have done.
      Unlike all the other vaccines we have all had pumped into us since we were children and teenagers.

      2. Eddy, we have no proof of how they were intended to work at all. A Danish test on children in Africa vaccinated against common illnesses found that more of the vaxxed kids died than the non vaxxed ones, but they died of all kinds of ailments. Vaccines are increasingly being linked to gut disorders including autism and allergies like peanut allergy. If you look at charts of the decline of deaths from once-common illnesses like measles, you can see that they were already declining before vaccines were introduced, and vaccines made little or no difference.
        There is a valid case for saying that plumbers and water engineers saved the world, vaccines didn’t.

  24. Good morning all.
    Another dull and wet start, thought the overnight rain has subsided to a light drizzle with 6½°C on the Yard Thermometer.
    I think I might just hibernate for the day!

  25. https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/the-simple-reason-why-you-should-stop-using-gmail/
    I have to say, I am increasingly reluctant to communicate with people who still use hotmail, outlook, gmail etc. I have a private family plan with Protonmail that prevents commercial exploitation of our family communications. But over the years, Google and Microsoft have collected FAR too much personal data from me via email.
    It is very difficult to tell people that you don't want to email them because they still use the data-slurping emails, especially when you have been corresponding with them for years!

    1. gmail & google banned in China.

      However, your email account is the least of your worries. That kind & fluffy iPhone is a supa surveillance device with AI feature & advanced sensory capabilities including;

      Eye tracking feature to see what yer looking at even without camera on.
      Listens to you without a trigger.
      "iphone mirroring" the OS is sharing yer screen with head office.
      Tracking you 24/7 with power off.
      IR tracking detects yr presence every few seconds. It can communicate without an internet connection using the apple mesh network even w/o sim card & in airplane mode. using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
      The worst.. Media scanning all yr photos. The AIs know what's in yr photos linked to Apple Intelligence: a multi layer ai environment. Lots of goodies here when connected directly to open ai. A lovely Sir Keir content alert.In other words its image processor understands whats in yer photo.. I mean really understands. It can tell if you are a faaaaaaaaar right transphobe for instance.

      Elon Musk to ban all iPhones devices at his companies — which include SpaceX.

      1. And before you say.. I don't own an iPhone.. it has the ability to carry out some of these tricks even if you stand near to someone who has an iphone.

        1. So, best just to say "Fk Apple!" loudly if you suspect you might be near one of those things?
          I have a mac mini on my desk for work. Hope it's not up to those tricks as well.

      2. And before you say.. I don't own an iPhone.. it has the ability to carry out some of these tricks even if you stand near to someone who has an iphone.

      3. Google pays dumb kids a few dollars to tag all their photos with names.
        I have to use iPhones to test in my work. I can’t stand the whole Apple infrastructure – it forces you to behave in a certain way that is ‘allowed’ or ‘approved’ by them, and behaviours outside this narrow path are almost impossible. I would never have an Apple product by choice.
        Google is little better.
        My private phone is not a smartphone.

      4. Hi KLB,
        Any idea what happens if you use a VPN (as I do) and (virtually) bounce around the world for your Internet connection all the time?

        For the Internetically ignorant, a VPN is a Virtual Private Network that makes it appear that you are working from any country you choose. It also allows you to view material that is restricted to its country of origin.

    2. gmail & google banned in China.

      However, your email account is the least of your worries. That kind & fluffy iPhone is a supa surveillance device with AI feature & advanced sensory capabilities including;

      Eye tracking feature to see what yer looking at even without camera on.
      Listens to you without a trigger.
      "iphone mirroring" the OS is sharing yer screen with head office.
      Tracking you 24/7 with power off.
      IR tracking detects yr presence every few seconds. It can communicate without an internet connection using the apple mesh network even w/o sim card & in airplane mode. using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
      The worst.. Media scanning scan all yr photos. The AIs know what's in yr photos linked to Apple Intelligence: a multi layer ai environment. Lots of goodies here when connected directly to open ai. A lovely Sir Keir content alert.In other words its image processor understands whats in yer photo.. I mean really understands. It can tell if you are a faaaaaaaaar right transphobe for instance.

      Elon Musk to ban all iPhones devices at his companies — which include SpaceX.

  26. Came back from a trip to the Channel Islands on Friday full of what felt like Covid, which I had in 2022. My travelling compnion tested positive for it. Meanwhile, my daughter seems to have had a bout of it, so I can't blame the Crown Dependencies.

    1. That's a bugger, Joseph. Hope it goes over quickly. I trust to Vit D3 and it seems to work. Nothing since the first outbreak a few years ago.

    2. I keep getting reminded by my local GP surgery that I'm running out of time to book my now 'annual' covid and flu jabs.
      My memory isn't that short I'm still very much aware of what happened the last time I had the same jabs in quick succession.
      Having covid was much easier to cope with.

  27. Is there anything lower?
    Human rights lawyer Philip Shiner pleads guilty to pursuing false torture and murder allegations against British soldiers.

    Well, apart from turning a blind eye to your daughters being tortured and folded up like deckchairs above the kebab shop.

    1. There is a certain grim satisfaction to having proved what we all knew, that those 'human rights' lawyers are lower than a snake's belly.

  28. Yo and Good Day to you all, from a very, very, very rainy Costa del Skeg.

    Did I mention that it was pouring with rain?

  29. SIR – I am left-handed (Letters, September 30) and militant with it. I have left-handed scissors and a left-handed keyboard (which really upsets our IT people when they have to use it), but the best buy was a left-handed corkscrew. When righthanders try to use it and fail, I point out that this is what the majority of my life is like – having to compromise in a right-handed world.

    My biggest bugbears are electric circular saws that, when held in my left hand, insist on spraying me with sawdust. More left-handed tools, please.

    Roger Watson
    Nottingham

    .tfel-ot-thgir (daer dna) detnirp eb ot srepapswen dna skoob referp osla dluow ,goR ,uoy ekil ,srednah-tfel ‘tnatilim’ taht esoppus I

    or

    .left-to-right (read and) printed be to newspapers and books prefer also would ,Rog ,you like, handers-left ‘militant’ that suppose I

    1. Arabic is read right to left, so I suppose left handers could become Muslims. Which hand do they use when they wipe their bottoms?

        1. No, it’s unhygienic. I know that they use one hand to wipe the bottom, and other hand to shake hands. There’s an etiquette there, and they get most offended if you use the wrong hand. Posh Muslims have this little shower they wash themselves with.

        2. They use their finger nails to pick off the crusty bits. Then they go and make your curry.

    4. Cashpoint machines are my biggest bugbear – they are almost impossible for left handers. One ends up contorting one's wrist to extract the card and cash.

      1. Cheer up.
        If you drive a Tesla in the UK it is a bonus to be left handed because it is easier to use the touch screen controls with your dominant hand.

        1. I hope I never have to drive a car with touch screen controls. No wonder the price of second hand cars is going through the roof.

        1. I have to shield entering the PIN from view though. The world is just an inherently less friendly place to left handers, but we’ve never known anything else so we just take it for granted most of the time!

          1. Yes, obviously, but for the taking of the card and the money, moving over would work without your having to resort to contortions, I would have thought.

          2. I admit I hadn’t thought of that, but it would be exposing too much information to people behind me. Lizard brain doesn’t want to do it!

          3. By the time you get to take your card and your money, the screen has reverted to adverts, hasn’t it?

    5. He should read Hebrew books; they start at the "back" (I have a Hebrew prayer book given to me by a friend who came back from Jerusalem).

  30. Feeling more cheerful today. Had the cloud of a premonition of something bad yesterday, but that's gone today. Thank goodness, it wasn't pleasant.

    2. Thank goodness. However hard you try to be logical about such feelings – blaming yesterday's over rich dinner, too much coffee, reading too much news – it is very hard to shake off that doom feeling.

      2. Morning Anne.
        It's very easy to suffer the slings and arrows of stress by keeping up with the MSM propaganda. But it's very difficult to differentiate between what they want us to believe and what is actually happening in the world.

          2. They never seem to understand that the public can see through every foul move that they make.

      3. I had it a lot when I was a teenager and in my twenties, when it was very hard to cope with, and usually led to despair. I can usually conquer it nowadays, now that I know it's all in my head (or in my tummy…not sure really).

  31. Symptoms started on Friday, now almost completely gone, but I lost my appetite, so I'm a bit frail and wan.

  32. I am informed it is Black History month.

    I thought you might like to know about one chappie with a 50% claim to be included in the History Month – Alexandre Dumas. Born in 1762 in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue, the son of Alexandre Antoine Davy, the Marquis de la Pailleterie and mother a black slave -Dumas. When he was taken to France by his father he joined the French army at the lowest rank under the name of Alex Dumas. He rose in the ranks to become a General. I really like him because one of his most famous exploits was to tell Napoleon, who at the time had a lower rank, to piss off! Not exactly career enhancing in later life as it turns out!

    Tom Reiss has researched this chap's life and published it in his book 'The Black Count'

    Alex Dumas was the father of the Alexandre Dumas the novelist.

    2. All they do is moan all the time.
      How many of them have gone back to beloved Africa to see if their ancestors need any help ?

  33. Good Moaning.
    Oh what a grey day.
    Too many of these, and we'll run out of boring jobs.

  34. A bright moment this morning:

    Opened my emails to find one from the West Berkshire District Council telling me my challenge to their Parking Charge Notice has been successful and the case cancelled.

    2. Just reminded me that I have an outstanding challenge. The bay I was parked in was marked as closed apparently, looking at the notice, it was closed from 8am next day. Not heard anything in about 6 weeks.

  35. A bright moment this morning:

    Opened my emails to find one from the West Berkshire District Council telling me my challenge to their Parking Charge Notice has been successful and the case cancelled.

  36. 303875+ up ticks,

    Are we as a nation entering the green period as in a massive swing to the greens over the winter months, not meaning the political party but the body deterioration type mold on the dead.

    Tell me is it written that we must obey this political life tailoring, cut to suit lifespans, to conform with their
    alien agenda ?

    https://x.com/AllisonPearson/status/1840661483551699159

    1. This morning's BBC News had them saying proudly that now all our coal fired stations are closed we

      are importing large amounts of electricity from the EU.

      We don't think that is anything to be proud of.

      Do you?

      2. It's unwise. It puts power in the hands of others, who may not be our friends sometime in the future.

  38. BBC news article on that a disabled reporter had to bum-walk across the floor of his LOT flight to get to the loo. LOT don't have aisle-width wheelchairs, apparently.

    1. Was that Frank Gardener ?
      He was ambushed in the middle east and shot several times in the back his camera man was killed.

    2. Maybe book a flight on an airline that does? Or get someone to drive you to Poland?

  40. Morning again 🙂😊
    A Pinch and a hard punch 👊 especially to all of our political classes.
    How many people's lives have they ruined since their election. It was bad enough pre election.
    Is it so much of a danger to the rest of the worlds population that thrives on oil gas and coal to survive that our ultra leftie and viciously Vindictive Dopey Wokies think stopping us from using our own natural resources, as all others around the world do, will make the slightest difference to anything or anyone else's lives. Meanwhile those morons in Wastemonster are planning to build over a million new homes. Where do they think all the roof tiles, bricks, water, concrete, ballast, sand cement, plaster, tar mac, gravel, timber, metal work, plastic and all the interior furniture, glass, pipework and the hundreds of other etc's come from ? And of course the energy that will be used in running the new homes schools, hostpitals, the list is endless.
    And of course all the ground extracted petrol and diesel fuel that will be used in these processes.
    How absolutely thick are these people who are supposed to be in charge and maintain, how ridiculous that they think they know best in every single circumstance ?
    All they ever do is sit around all day talking and interferring with everything they can.

    1. They will get Lord Alli to pay for it, well he has paid all the Labourites at Wateminster's Bills

    1. Another clone! Is the picture on the right one of her, or of Bridget Philipson, or Rachel Reeves, or Lucy Powell, or Liz Kendall?

  43. 393875+ up ticks,

    One could also view it as depicting "A NAKED TRUTH SAYER,"

    Dt,
    Giant naked Trump effigy is ‘deplorable’, say Republicans
    Sculpture of former US president has been erected near Las Vegas purely for ‘shock value’, say local politicians

    1. I imagine the man himself is thrilled and delighted with this tribute.

      If he became President again, I think he may think it a good investment to floodlight it, so it can be seen from space.

  44. Frederica has a new article today in FREE SPEECH that is both charming and disturbing on the way the older generation are now portrayed by the Establishment, who clearly views them as a nuisance. She has also done a short article on the garden in October , so a well-deserved round of applause for her please.

    I hope she doesn't mind me saying but she is under some pressure with personal matters, so please support her by reading her articles and leaving comments. They really do boost a writer's moral.

    And Badenoch deserves no credit for trying to pull the wool over gullible eyes and persuade them that the Tories will ever do anything about mass immigration other than increase it.

    freespeechbacklash.com

    1. Kemi Badenoch has the luxury of four or five years in Opposition, when she can think of something not already tried by the hawkish Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, or Labour's auto-pixie Yvette Cooper.

      Everything seems to come down to who has got the cleverest lawyers.

      1. Thatcher had the 'luxury' of four years in opposition to develop and propound her philosophy with a good team around her who had experienced a proper fight for survival.

    2. Badenoch won't be allowed on the final ballot paper because she isn't a WEF member. That's why she and Braverman were weeded out early last time. The powers that be made a mistake with Truss. She is a member of the club but didn't toe the line.

      1. Jenrick seems to have been choice from day one, Sue (good morning:-) Badenoch lost yesterday, no matter her explanations, bad press folllowed. Jenrick camp must have been over the moon.

        1. They are all useless tossers tainted by their active support for the eco-freak, limp dumb "policies" of the last 14 years. I wouldn't cross the road to piss on them should they be on fire.

          1. I can only hope you’d piss on me if I was, Bill….they are indeed useless, don’t live in the same world as the rest of us…

      2. Interesting, thanks Sue. Worth looking into exactly who is a member. Are they listed on the WEF website?

      1. Please do Kate. I do my wood stacking before Easter, trying to make sure it dies out enough before burning in the winter. I won’t burn wood with more than 20% moisture content.

        1. Thought I’d replied Tom, sorry. You sound super organised! I just do it when asked/instructed. My style is chucking rather than stacking…seems to work..possibly a hand to eye thing..but I win Christmas quoits similarly..

  45. I'd like 2 simple laws. The first, that direct debits and standing orders can be processed on bank holidays and weekends if the payee opts in.

    The second that if a direct debit isn't taken on the day it is supposed to go out, it cannot be taken.

    EE, I am looking at you. We've a sort of family account where we can have any number of SIMs for phones and they're all charged to the same account. EE haven't taken our money yet despite the DD due to go out on the 1st.

    1. Today is the 1st, wibbling….you may find if you check again tomorrow (2nd), it's back-dated to the 1st. We think it's all done electronically/automatically, doesn't always seem so especially with new debits – and have you noticed if you pay a cheque in, it takes more time to clear than you thought..

    1. Oh goody, BHM back again! Doesn’t seem 5 minutes since the last BHM. We are so privileged to live in a society where we benefit from this annually.

  47. TTK is after your Private Pension
    After reading Ogga's post about an hour ago, I have just listened to UK column News, introduced by Brian Gerrish. There was a short video clip, introduced by Prof. Diane Rasmussen McAdie of Edinburgh Napier University, of old TTK addressing the United Nations 79th General Assembly on Thursday 26th September. I couldn’t believe what he was announcing, so I replayed it a few times and wrote it down. This bit starts at 3min 57 secs in. My emboldening.

    “I can announce today that we are creating a new facility, the British International Investment, which will work with the City of London to mobilise billions in pensions and insurance funds to invest in boosting development and fighting climate change.
    This is a great British innovation”

    If you have a private pension, be afraid, be VERY afraid. None of us asked for this.

        1. Didn't make the K connection. Sorry, blood flow to a stomach filled with black pudding & away from brain.

    2. British International Investment
      I just checked on the Internet to see if British International Investment was indeed a new thing. Not a bit of it. Near the end of the item, Wikipedia says [my interjections in square brackets]:

      2021 rename
      In November 2021, the FCDO announced that it would rebrand the CDC [Commonwealth Development Organisation, set up in 1948 by Clement Attlee] as British International Investment (BII) in 2022 as part of a strategy to deepen economic, security and development ties globally, increasing its financing to 9 billion pounds by 2025.
      [The then] Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in the announcement the change was to "grow economies across Asia, Africa and the Caribbean while drawing them closer towards free-market democracies and building a network of liberty across the world". A group of NGOs and trade unions criticised the change as part of a move to "repurpose BII as an institution that focuses solely on private-sector investment and profit-making, rather than development goals and poverty reduction", and as part of offering an alternative to foreign partners to loans from China.

      Incidentally, Wikipedia also mentions criticism of the original CDC:
      "CDC was the subject of extensive investigations by the magazine Private Eye, which devoted seven pages to criticizing the organization in September 2010. Amongst other allegations, it claimed that CDC had moved away from financing beneficial international development towards seeking large profits from schemes that enriched CDC's managers while bringing little or no benefit to the poor; and that when Actis [another rename in 2004] was spun out it was given an "implausibly low valuation"."

      Draw your own conclusions.

    3. It has been said that there isn't a pension fund in Europe that can meet all its obligations, and the financial reset is only going to make that worse.
      What do you do if you have a bunch of angry pensioners and you can't pay out the pensions they were promised?
      You have to have fewer pensioners, more money or else a magic trick.

      The first option is being tried I believe, and this sounds remarkably like the third.

      1. But..but..BB2, that's one of the reasons for mass migration…comin' over 'ere to well-salaried professional jobs, paying their dues, which in turn will fund future pensions (and the NHS, even tho' they'll rarely use it).

        1. Yeah, I have three siblings, two of whom definitely still believe the immigrants are workers lie. They live in a cosy little cocoon relying on the mainstream media for their link to the outside world. Only one of them questions but the other two are convinced that they're both well informed and sceptical. The token scepticism tends to be aimed at the truth, not the lie.

          1. Which is strange, Sue, as the ONS announced some months ago that 1.1 million "migrants" had

            stated on their applications that they had no intention of working.

          2. La-la land lives and breathes, Sue. I first mentioned it to a neighbour around 25 years ago, response was ‘ yeh well it won’t affect us up ‘ere will it’. So many people/countries now affected, governments must surely take action – and soon. But then I’ve said that afore so don’t hold out much hope.

    4. Innovative? Trudeaus finance minister announced a similar redirection of our pension funds about a month ago.

      Not that there is a higher authority directing these national governments.

  48. Terrifying TV.

    We have almost completed watching (one instalment left) a series called: "Corridors of Power: Should America Police the World?"

    A very clear example – indeed, lots of examples – showing that yer Yanks have not the faintest idea about how the world works – and stick their beaky noses in where they shouldn't, or, worse still say that they are going to do things ad than DON'T.

    Watching their top level meetings where they simply haven't a clue – plus talking heads – later – saying that they were embarrassed that they got things SO wrong…..

    Horrifying.

    1. Morning Bill. You only have to look at the wars they've waged in the Middle East. They have all been disasters.

      1. It's a refusal to accept that not every countries wants 'democracy'.
        I am seriously wondering if that now applies to Blighty.

    2. But are there $$$ to be made, Bill – for the military complex and financiers. See Wolfowitz Doctrine for clues – I can't remember the clause ref but it essentially says 'we reserve the right to clobber you if you're even thinking about challenging us'. Ukraine included.

        1. Could be, was written early 90s I think? Cheney & Powell …I think it’s Clause (d) :-DD Whatever/whenever…gotta keep the American military machine funded, witness Ukraine the latest operation.

    4. Americans have every climate and geological condition within their borders. Which means that they do not need to leave the USA.
      Less than half of Americans have a passport and their knowledge of the outside world is still 'impressive'.

    5. The Yanks obsession with the destruction of the British Empire has led to the present state of world affairs. They were happy to sit on the side-lines during two World Wars while the Germans waged war on the Brits, but got a bit huffty when their ships supplying the profits from bombs, tanks and ammunition were sunk before the Brits could pay for them. The start of the current mess was their interference in the Suez Crisis. The rest is history. I haven't counted them but I believe they have started – and lost – more wars than any other nation in history. The majority of American citizens are innocent, or ignorant, of what has been done in their name but their politicians are the from the same festering Rsole as the ones we have to deal with today.

  49. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats/5cede69b-a408-47eb-8933-31fb2813ab77

    So, now there is a crisis in Lebanon , and 10,000 British nationals are being evacuated .. Tents are ready in Cyprus , what happens next , heaven only knows .

    10,000 people , hmm twice the size of the village I live in .

    Having said that , Lebanese people seem to have much more to offer than the trash coming ashore on the inflatable boats .

    1. In my experience the Lebanese are good people. But then the ones I knew were Christians. I suspect too that many of the British nationals are business people. Beirut is a centre for all sorts of commerce, including British banks, in the Middle East.

    2. The US based author and campaigner Brigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese Christian who was rescued by Israeli soldiers. Her book, "Because They Hate" is well worth reading.

    2. The problemo is.. this isn't just a one-off event for this brave aspiring architect. This will recur ad infinitum.
      And plenty more arriving by the day.

  51. Dr. James le Fanu in the DT on the subject of why the more money is thrown at the NHS, the sicker people become.

    "Lowering the threshold for diagnosing raised blood pressure or diabetes and the number of prescriptions has increased respectively seven and five fold. And more, for now the previously normal are labelled as having an “illness” (with all the adverse consequences that may have) and thus join the legions of those with a “long-term health condition”.

    In short, even the slightest change in a physical condition or variation from the "perfect" (submissive?) human being is medicalised. To who's advantage?

    1. How many of these conditions could be cleared up with a long walk, a hearty meal and a clean house?

        1. I have a broken shoulder. It happened more than three years ago. Do you think they will take a look at it if I make an appointment with the local (UK) clinic? I wouldn't want to waste their time but it really does hurt, especially in the morning.

    3. Husband Type 2 for many years, many different medications, high bp etc. Recently started Carnivore Diet, eats once daily usually steak – he notified his GP who said he was doing similarly but more like the Atkins diet. Husband's sugar, bp levels, weight, all reduced – including medication/s. NB: This is not advice – if interested please consult your GP…:-)

        1. General Paresis otherwise known as GPI before ‘insane’ became too pejorative a term in the era of everyone having ‘mental health’ 😉

  52. 393875+ up ticks,

    Just musing,

    We must be the most tolerantly insane nation on the planet

    for putting up with, even consenting to via the polling stations,
    Mass murder , mass paedophilic rape & abuse,mass bent coppers, due in the main to mass uncontrolled / politically controlled, morally illegal, immigration.

    Are we trying to achieve a nation of mass suffering, self inflicted,
    martyrs ? if so, currently I believe we will have a success on our hands.

      1. 393875+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,
        Ho but we can, and we know we can, All we need is a Will with a
        Brit patriotic way.

        1. Araminta is right.
          You'd need a very young brave savvy charismatic leader. Articulate, posh, tele-friendly good looks.. with a clear grasp of what "undoing Blair's work" really means. And PDQ.
          Perhaps, with an eye patch for effect.

          There isn't anybody on the horizon. There is no cavalry.

          1. All that will be available is an articulate tele friendly good looker with zero intelligence who will appeal to the masses.

          2. 393875+ up ticks,

            Afternoon KB,
            Not necessarily young or brave just a middle aged typical, feet and mindset planted on English soil, non-script Englishman, a plain Jane but not a trannie.
            (posh, telly friendly, good looking )
            Would put them in the target department.

            Integrity and common sense gained through the years is a major factor.

  53. ‘People are hopeless here’: Sudan’s sick, starving and injured spill into camps across its borders
    Twenty years on from the Darfur genocide, history is repeating itself in this region of east Africa
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/terror-and-security/sudan-war-refugee-camps-chad-africa-rsf/

    I have just posted this BTL comment under the article. I wonder what the DT readership will make of it?

    My father was the governor of the Northern Sudan Province until he retired in 1948.

    After the Sudan was granted its independence a few years later he was on a visit to Rhodesia (as it was then called) to visit his brother and he stopped at Sudan where he was welcomed by the elders with whom he had worked.

    "The only thing you ever did wrong," they said, "was to leave us.

    Since the British left the Sudan there has been endless civil war, plague, famine, genocide, the collapse of the infrastructure through neglect, economic ruin and finally partition.

    How right the elders were.

    1. "Sudan: a case study of the benefits of religious multiculturalism " [Book5 in the 'Diversity Is Our Strength' Series].

  54. Gavin Mortimer
    What will happen to Europe if it can’t control the migrant crisis?
    30 September 2024, 8:28am

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/GettyImages-484577770.jpg
    Migrants arrive in Greece, 2015 (photo: Getty)

    The victory of the Freedom party in Austria’s general election came as Israel intensified its air strikes across Lebanon. Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, says that more than one million people have been displaced from their homes as a consequence of the military strikes.

    Included in that figure are a substantial number of the estimated two million Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon a decade ago to escape the war in their own country. Many have faced discrimination in Lebanon and it has been reported that during the Israeli air strikes Syrians have been refused entry into the country’s air raid shelters.

    Thousands of Syrians are now returning to their homeland along with a growing number of Lebanese. They will find a country still ravaged by war. Earlier this month the UN Syria Commission of Inquiry warned that Syria faced ‘new waves of hostilities’.

    The ramifications of the turmoil in the Middle East will terrify Europe. At the weekend the foreign secretaries of Britain, France and Germany called for a ceasefire. ‘A diplomatic solution is the only way to restore security and stability for the Lebanese and Israeli people,’ said David Lammy.

    Ten years ago the war in Syria was at its height. In its end of year report, the United Nations Refugee Agency declared that ‘2014 was the year which the humanitarian assistance reached a breaking point and so if things do not improve we will face a critical situation.’

    That situation duly arrived in 2015, and Europe’s response – or more specifically Germany’s response – was to throw open the continent’s doors in August that year. Approximately 1.3 million refugees and migrants surged into Europe, creating an instability that exists to this day.

    That is why the Freedom Party triumphed in Austria’s election. Voters support Herbert Kickl’s goal of turning the country into ‘Fortress Austria’ after a decade of mass immigration.

    In 2015 Austria was third behind Hungary and Sweden in terms of per capita asylum applications, and resentment has been steadily growing ever since. Immigration and insecurity were at the heart of the election. The Freedom Party claimed that the ruling centre-right People’s Party have ‘not secured our borders, but have degraded our police force to a kind of “welcoming committee” for illegal immigrants.’

    An estimated 240,000 illegal immigrants have arrived in Austria since the People’s party won the 2020 election. This is despite the extensive publicity campaign launched by the government in 2022 to deter immigrants. Among the adverts broadcast on social media was one which read: ‘Illegal Migration: You will fail’. Another boasted ‘There’s no getting through’.

    Like a growing number of centrist governments in Europe, the People’s party were punished for their failure to fulfil their promise to police their borders.

    This issue has come to dominate European politics like no other, and parties ignore voters’ anger at their peril. Rishi Sunak paid the price for his inability to curb mass immigration (as will Keir Starmer in time) and Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz have seen their authority ebb away in the last two years because they sat on their hands while their borders were breached.

    Europe is now confronted with a fresh refugee and migrant crisis in the Middle East. This time around no European leader will copy Angela Merkel in issuing an open invitation but there will surely be a marked increase in the number of people arriving illegally either through the Balkans or across the Mediterranean.

    When Merkel opened up Europe in August 2015 she did so with a cry of ‘we can do this’. History has proved her hopelessly wrong. Europe will have to follow Austria’s example and turn itself into a fortress. If it doesn’t, the continent may in time go the same way as Lebanon.

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

    Trojan
    a day ago
    Well written. The question in my humble opinion is whether the “far right” victories will translate into a complete overhaul of asylum laws. Unless the whole apparatus of human rights legislation, including the UN and ECHR, is dismantled, it will be very hard to deny entry to anyone from a host of African countries, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon etc.
    This probably has to be accompanied by a wholesale reduction in benefits to immigrants – stays will have to be in camps, medicine restricted to emergencies, no dole, no hotels, no right to stay etc etc. Unless it becomes no more attractive to stay here than in their home countries and easy to deport, this problem will not be solved.
    I don’t think that any politician has the stomach for any of this, so we will be stuck with both high immigration and high votes against immigration.

    Matthew L Trojan
    a day ago edited
    A good start would be to just copy Denmark: even if you are granted asylum, you are granted it on a temporary basis with no pathway to apply for permanent leave or citizenship, and deportation to your country of origin upon a government determination that it is safe.

    Trojan Matthew L
    a day ago
    It’s beginning to dawn on me (slow, I know) that one reason why the elite hated Brexit so much was that, when we left, it became much more obvious that we are tied up to a whole set of supranational bodies (ecj, echr, in etc) that have removed our ability to control our own destiny.

    anyfool
    a day ago
    If it doesn’t, the continent may in time go the same way as Lebanon.

    "May go in time" We are already halfway there, Muslims are voting for extreme Islamist parties, they are organising politically, crime is out of control, alien gangs control the streets, many ghettos in the inner cities are no-go areas, we are so far down that road the police have to ask permission from "community leaders" to enter Muslim enclaves, Muslim schools are becoming madrassas or terror training schools.
    Europe is a powder keg and the fuse is lit.

    1. A good idea would be to look at how other nations deal with the problem.

      Norway deported 2000 "asylum seekers" who had criminal records, and HALVED the crime in their country.

      Although this was reported in Britain the British government has completely ignored the lesson.

      Very strange !!

    2. Too late. When you put turds, drugs and alien diseases into the drinking water it is bound to be a little threatening to the public health.

      It is 56 years, 5 months and 11 days since Enoch made his famous speech and the idiots still haven't admitted that he was right. Let us hope the next generation sees the light and cleanses the dung from the stables.

    3. Ah the good old invasion days when it was not just military aged men on the rubber ferry.

    4. What will happen to Europe if it can’t control the migrant crisis?

      In a word: LEBANON

      (Lebanon was a predominantly Christian country until, little by little, it was infiltrated by Muslims who took over as soon as they had a majority. Muslims have used this tactic many times and you would have to be an idiot not to see that they are doing this in Europe now.)

  55. Tonight's Lotto looking good.
    Wordle 1,200 3/6

    ⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
    🟨⬜🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. For some that is

      Wordle 1,200 5/6

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

      1. Talking of which I wondered out aloud on another thread whether the Conservative Party should change the colour of its logo to Norwegian Blue…..?

  57. BETTER TO BE FAR RIGHT THAN FAR WRONG.

    Lots of talk about Far Right politicians and Far Right parties gaining popularity in Europe. Most of them are not 'Far Right', they are right thinking moderates. Let us hope that this continues until the Marxist/Socialists, Festering Greens and Soaking Wets are driven out of office and true democracy returns to Western politics.

    1. What the hell is “far-Right”?

      I wish the press would cease using idiotic, made-up, descriptions such as the risible (and eminently unprovable) term, "far-Right" (or “extreme-Right”, or "hard-Right"), which simply does not exist. “Far-Right" is a mythical concept invented by the far-Left (which does exist) to provide a smokescreen to cover the excesses of the various opposing factions of their own wing.

      1. Senator Sharon Keogan (Independent) speaking in the Seanad Éireann (5 Oct, 2022).

        [Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas, which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann. It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members senators. Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by various methods.]

        “Leader, amid last week’s budget business, I found myself some time to d some thinking. I thought about how important labels are — not on food or on fragile boxes, but on people. I remember a time — a brief time, around eight years ago, where Western society’s attitude towards labels were that they were not for people and that the fullness of human expression and complexity could not be placed into neat boxes and that swathes of people could not be tarred with the same brush.

        That lasted up until about 2016, when the one-two punch of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump upset the ruling
        progressive elite to such an extent that they changed tactics — the message of individual empowerment and self-determination had yielded dissatisfying results: people were deciding to think the wrong thoughts. And so, the powers-that-be arranged for a return to cultural tribalism — no longer would there be individuals, varied and unique, there would only be the labels placed on them — based on what they supported, or choose not to support — unquestioningly and unreservedly.

        Someone who had concerns about Black Lives Matter? Easy, they’re just a racist.

        Someone who asked questions about uncontrolled migration? Xenophobe.

        Someone who thought that life in the womb is vulnerable and worthy of protection? Obviously, they just hate women.

        And 2016 gave us the worn-to-death, catch-all phrase for when you knew you didn’t like something and had to slap a
        label on it to de-platform, discredit, cancel and silence — ‘far-Right’.

        Wanting houses for your own citizens? — ‘far-Right’.

        Wanting Irish girls and Irish women to be safe, and to have their identity as women respected and protected? — ‘far-Right’.

        Asking for robust mental health assessments by professionals prior to subjecting children to irreversible medical
        intervention? — ‘far-Right’.

        Wanting to protect your communities from crime? — ‘far-Right’.

        Supporting women in politics, not just those with the “right ideas”? — ‘far-Right’.

        Not supporting gender quotas, and believing that the right woman or man should get the job based on merit? ‘far-Right’.

        Opposing the commodification, buying or selling of children via contract? — ‘far-Right’.

        Allowing each man and woman to have their own national and religious identity, and to be proud of it? — ‘far-Right’.

        It’s a cheap trick, it’s political and intellectual laziness. And it’s a crying shame that this low level of discourse has infiltrated Irish politics through social media. But at the end of the day, when you’re sitting on the far-Left
        and you’ve zero perspective, everything looks ‘far-Right’.”

      2. Quite agree, Grizz. The difficulty is that it’s all relative, so the likes of John Major or even Boris appear 'far right' to those responsible for (say) the BBC's news output, whereas those gentlemen appear to me as wet liberals!

    2. On a US talk show last week, Trudeau opined that his fall in popularity is down to the unacceptable rise in populist politicians worldwide.

      There again he also claimed that the Canadian economy is doing well.

  58. Morning all. Into the rain and wind for shopping later.

    All I can say is that if Kemi is to be credited for sparking debate among Tories then it's a wasted endeavour, since none going on previous evidence is at all interested in it and even if they were they'd be completely incapable of engaging.

    1. She should join Reform. I think the Tories are done now. They would have to make some iron clad commitments to policies the British want in order to attract support. But they wont because they are spinless social democrats from whom all conservativism has fled.

      1. Up to the next election, the Tories will continue to mimic labours lefty policies.
        It will take another election loss before the party grandees decide that taking over reform is the way forward.

        1. By then, I hope, Reform will be the government. Considering the debacle that is Labour, I fully expect that to be the case. No one will want to vote for Labour or the Conservatives next time round.

      2. Probably right Jonathan. The Tories are so hollowed out for talent it’s debatable they’ll ever come back in their previous stature. That said, Reform shouldn’t pick up any old political lifeboat they find in the sea.

        1. They could find another Maggie and it would make no difference, the party is riddled with One Nation Wets, more at home in the Limp Dums.
          Any change of direction towards a return to conservative thinking proposed by the next leader is destined to fail, the very heart and soul of the Conservative Party is effectively decaying right in front of their members eyes.

          1. That’s the truth of it. The days when they were in a position to reform themselves are long gone. Their whole ideological stance is too firmly left of centre, even if by just a few degrees. The problem for them is that they don’t actually see it. The biggest ‘tell’ for me is that just like Labour they aren’t attracting political talent anymore. When UKIP were a thing in their early days you’d expect a mix of good and bad but both Lab / Con have been around forever. Good people ought to be flocking to them.

            The way they’re going the Tory future is same as Labour’s, which in Starmer, Reeves and Lammy has one of the most untalented front benches I’ve ever seen; not to mention most embarrassing.

        2. I agree James. They should not let in any old Conservative. Musch as I liker him I would exclude Jacob Rees-Mogg, the consummate fence sitter.

    2. She should join Reform. I think the Tories are done now. They would have to make some iron clad commitments to policies the British want in order to attract support. But they wont because they are spinless social democrats from whom all conservativism has fled.

    1. Thank you. I might give it a go….can't be any more depressing than the current state of World affairs …can it?

      1. You need strong nerves and wife tolerant of you shouting "Wanker" when O'Bama and B'iden appear or speak….

    1. Ah but they are fighting the dreaded zionists so this is totally acceptable in the overall scheme of things.

  61. All those tens of thousands of blooming virgins must have been bored stiff waiting for the 1,000s of new martyrs…..

      1. Probably- but we have seen a lot – especially the key species so I’ll be ready to come home when we leave. It’s very hot too which is energy sapping. I’m probably the oldest in this group by some years. But I’ve not had any health issues and managed to avoid sunburn so far.

    4. Would you have room in your luggage for a couple of adorable teeny weeny baby capybaras?
      Yes, I have enough grass and a pond.

      1. Nip over to France and get some Coypu/Ragodin.
        You won't be popular if they escape.
        It is probably illegal too.

  63. I came to the opinion some time ago that the ‘Executive’ in the US had been captured by the Shallow State. It seems to me that if the forthcoming Presidential election results look dodgy one or two States may Secede from the Union (best case) or widespread civil unrest may ensure. As Musk has pointed out if the Dems win the Presidency then Americans can say goodbye to what currently passes for democracy.

    1. What a stupid woman. No other word for her. Why attempt to defend the indefensible?

      2. Of course all those suits would have involved a lot of measurement taking and fittings. He had plenty of time to think about what he was doing.

          1. I am thank you. Energy levels back to normal and sleeping much better. I still have a bit of a cough but it is manageable and doesn’t keep me awake.

  66. Senator Sharon Keogan (Independent) speaking in the Seanad Éireann (5 Oct, 2022).

    [Seanad Éireann is the upper house of the Oireachtas, which also comprises the President of Ireland and Dáil Éireann. It is commonly called the Seanad or Senate and its members senators. Unlike Dáil Éireann, it is not directly elected but consists of a mixture of members chosen by various methods.]

    “Leader, amid last week’s budget business, I found myself some time to d some thinking. I thought about how important labels are — not on food or on fragile boxes, but on people. I remember a time — a brief time, around eight years ago, where Western society’s attitude towards labels were that they were not for people and that the fullness of human expression and complexity could not be placed into neat boxes and that swathes of people could not be tarred with the same brush.

    That lasted up until about 2016, when the one-two punch of Brexit and the election of Donald Trump upset the ruling
    progressive elite to such an extent that they changed tactics — the message of individual empowerment and self-determination had yielded dissatisfying results: people were deciding to think the wrong thoughts. And so, the powers-that-be arranged for a return to cultural tribalism — no longer would there be individuals, varied and unique, there would only be the labels placed on them — based on what they supported, or choose not to support — unquestioningly and unreservedly.

    Someone who had concerns about Black Lives Matter? Easy, they’re just a racist.

    Someone who asked questions about uncontrolled migration? Xenophobe.

    Someone who thought that life in the womb is vulnerable and worthy of protection? Obviously, they just hate women.

    And 2016 gave us the worn-to-death, catch-all phrase for when you knew you didn’t like something and had to slap a
    label on it to de-platform, discredit, cancel and silence — ‘far-Right’.

    Wanting houses for your own citizens? — ‘far-Right’.

    Wanting Irish girls and Irish women to be safe, and to have their identity as women respected and protected? — ‘far-Right’.

    Asking for robust mental health assessments by professionals prior to subjecting children to irreversible medical
    intervention? — ‘far-Right’.

    Wanting to protect your communities from crime? — ‘far-Right’.

    Supporting women in politics, not just those with the “right ideas”? — ‘far-Right’.

    Not supporting gender quotas, and believing that the right woman or man should get the job based on merit? ‘far-Right’.

    Opposing the commodification, buying or selling of children via contract? — ‘far-Right’.

    Allowing each man and woman to have their own national and religious identity, and to be proud of it? — ‘far-Right’.

    It’s a cheap trick, it’s political and intellectual laziness. And it’s a crying shame that this low level of discourse has infiltrated Irish politics through social media. But at the end of the day, when you’re sitting on the far-Left
    and you’ve zero perspective, everything looks ‘far-Right’.”

  67. Whispered in Gaza – "Where's the Victory?"

    “Back in the days of the first and second Intifadas, we used to believe in something called resistance,” says “Othman.” “But today, the ‘resistance’ has become a business.” Every tobacco stand and coffee shop is forced to pay Hamas protection money, he says, and when war breaks out, “[Hamas] sit in their bunkers while we have to bear the brunt. And at the end they tell us it’s a victory.”

    Whispered in Gaza™ is an animated series by the Center for Peace Communications featuring actual voices of Palestinians residing in the Gaza Strip who have stories and ideas they want the world to hear. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmSHPtUSx3s&list=PLgMrrtQlw2QNQ0o6WAqH-_FiEiEYn0g3U

      1. Plenty will be though! All those do-gooders that march around London and have college sit-ins, for starters!!!

  68. Morning all,

    Energy price increases are a press topic today and not having smart meters my increases are:

    Off peak electricity 20%
    Peak electricity 8%
    Gas 12%

    When you understand that daily electrical energy usage profiles follow the Duck Curve (which means that renewable energy can increasingly adequately meet demand during daylight hours – the ducks back) then producing renewable energy becomes less profitable.

    This accounts for a bigger hike in nightime peak demand because more people are using it. Unfortunately it is the coal fired plant that provides peak nightime electrical energy demand at a much higher cost is the very one that the Government has just shut down. There is nothing ro replace it.

    Gas, on the other hand, comes out a hole in the ground.

  69. Morning all,

    Energy price increases are a press topic today and not having smart meters my increases are:

    Off peak electricity 20%
    Peak electricity 8%
    Gas 12%

    When you understand that daily electrical energy usage profiles follow the Duck Curve (which means that renewable energy can increasingly adequately meet demand during daylight hours – the ducks back) then producing renewable energy becomes less profitable.

    This accounts for a bigger hike in nightime peak demand because more people are using it. Unfortunately it is the coal fired plant that provides peak nightime electrical energy demand at a much higher cost is the very one that the Government has just shut down. There is nothing ro replace it.

    Gas, on the other hand, comes out a hole in the ground.

  71. Those dastardly Russians have announced now that they are buying precious metals like silver, platinum and palladium, and gemstones. Clearly they are a threat to our security and need us to teach them a lesson they won't forget in a hurry!

    1. Russia mines & produces over 350 metric tons of gold per year, most of it through PJSC Polyus ПАО "Полюс. The production cost is really low at $1,300 per oz.
      However, I hear.. thanks to being banned from SWIFT they are flying in & out crates of bullion to pay for stuff esp to China, and collect for oil deliveries.

      Now there's a couple of lessons for the economically illiterate. No one wants Chinese Yuan least of all the Chinese or Russian Ruble least of all the Russians. And the idea of gold backed currencies is idiotic.

    2. Russia mines & produces over 350 metric tons of gold per year, most of it through PJSC Polyus ПАО "Полюс. The production cost is really low at $1,300 per oz.
      However, I hear.. thanks to being banned from SWIFT they are flying in & out crates of bullion to pay for stuff esp to China, and collect for oil deliveries.

      Now there's a couple of lessons for the economically illiterate. No one wants Chinese Yuan least of all the Chinese or Russian Ruble least of all the Russians. And the idea of gold backed currencies is idiotic.

    1. He is right but I am astonished that that got onto MSN. Not sure if we have an anti-world government left wing party, maybe the Social Democrats?
      That is definitely the true divide now.

  74. Yesterday at the Conservative Party Conference Jacob Rees-Mogg suggested that there ought to be a proper cooperative agreement between the Conservative Party and the Reform Party. He suggested that as there were very many constituencies at the last election where The Reform Party came second to the Labour Party and so in the seats where Reform came second the Tories should not contest and in the seats where the Tories came second Reform should not contest. Indeed two right of centre parties are appealing to the same voters – but too many Conservatives are now left of centre. There is still too much woke trash in the Conservative Party which needs to be completely weeded out. I posted this suggestion as a BTL the other day:

    What we need is The Reformed Conservative Party in about three years time.

    All the left of centre members of the Conservative Party party should not be nominated as future parliamentary candidates and any sitting left of centre Conservative MPs should be deselected.

    All the the candidates for the new party should be firmly right of centre with the majority being those from the current Reform Party. The leader should be Nigel Farage.

    Such a party would wipe out Labour in five years time.

    (Where Johnson went wromng as far as Brexit was concerned in the 2019 election was that he allowed too many remainers to remain as Conservative MPs – they should have been deselected. He should also have come to terms with Nigel Farage who had a greater knowledge of the workings of the EU parliament than anyone in Britain having served so many years as Euro MP)

    1. The Conservative Party should ban its people from membership of the WEF or any other such internationalist body with globalist aims. In my dreams.

      1. I certainly wouldn't ever trust them while half of them are running off to Bilderberg/WEF/Chatham House etc meetings.

      2. One of the policies that Poliviere has put forward for the Canadian conservatives when they hopefully win the next election.

        It would be a change from the current situation where many ministers are members and our despised deputy PM is a wef board member (oh yes she really puts canadians first).

    2. As Sue says below, it's not a black and white left or right of centre divide. It's a global movement that has infiltrated the West like fungal mycelia, impossible to remove without burning it all down.

    3. 393875+ up ticks,

      Afternoon R,

      The mogg chap a chaff sprinkler supreo, easing
      the tory (ino) MK2 party into being.

      R, you seem to pass over the fact that Gerard Batten was also a UKIP founder member and served a great deal of time as a Euro MP.

      Batten leadership in running the UKIP party 2018 / 19 is / was a success story in its own right, that short time was in leadership was far superior to much of the farage action whilst leading UKIP.

    4. I would agree to that if the Conservatives were truly Conservative. As it is a coalition would be a disaster as they set about contaminating Reform with their bovine ordure. So no, a coalition would spell disaster for the country. Both the Conservatives and Labour need to go. They have no answers, they are just legacies, corpses of no political relevance to the 21st Century, muck in the machine.

      1. Yes, I agree with you that The Reform Party should not touch the Conservative Party with the clichéd disinfected bargepole unless and until it has purged itself.

    5. Rees-Mogg thinks a coalition with the Reform Party would cause a rebalancing of voices towards the slightly right of centre – for his own party. This is a great deal for him, but a bad one for Reform. It would result in the coalition talking about things dear to the Conservatives' hearts within a Conservative structure and ethos. But Reform are winning hearts and minds with a fresh approach entirely, not solely by having what look like slightly old fashioned Conservative values about them.

      The problem with the Conservatives is that they are no longer a right of centre party. If these were the days of Margaret Thatcher Reform would be a cuddly irrelevant little laughing stock that's all. If I led Reform I'd be asking why would I want to go into coalition with a slightly left of centre party at all. I'm sure Jacob does think that a great plan if it'll get his wing of the Conservatives back on track.

      1. Yes, the left of centre Conservative MPs should stay where they are or join the Lib Dems. Right of centre Conservatives should combine with the Reform Party to form The Reformed Conservative Party.

        I agree that there is no point for Reform to amalgamate with the Conservative Party while there are so many left of centre people in it who should join the Lib Dems.

        1. I’m sure there are some good people in the Conservatives somewhere, but Reform can afford to be picky. Time is now on their side. The next round of locals will kick things along methinks.

    1. So much easier when the sanctimonious frauds ruled the waves.

      Italian authorities detain Banksy-funded migrant rescue boat. Yacht impounded over alleged breach of far-right government's new rules for rescue vessels.

      1. Far Right, Far Right! Faaaarrrrr riiigghthhththththttttt!

        GOOD FECKING GOD. We just don't want tens of millions of child raping, women raping, murdering, stealing, welfare dependent criminal wasters forced on us.

        It's not blasted 'far right'. It's common damned sense!

    2. So much easier when the sanctimonious frauds ruled the waves.

      Italian authorities detain Banksy-funded migrant rescue boat. Yacht impounded over alleged breach of far-right government's new rules for rescue vessels.

    1. A 2nd term for Labour and it's game over for the UK.
      Those with long memories will recall it's got to get really really really really really really really bad.. and I mean really really really really really really really bad..
      before wet Tories finally open their eyes & wake up.

    1. They want to make sure that none of those ghastly ordinary members with their frightful far right opinions can get in.

  81. Acid attack at school leaves girl, 14, with horror injuries and two others in hospital..

    Clue No1 Westminster Academy in Notting Hill.
    Clue No2 Lots of reporteres outside Sir Naim Dangoor Centre..
    Dangoor's many projects include trusts and endowments to provide food, education, and other benefits for refugees and disadvantaged communities across the globe .

    1. btw, Tommy Robinson has been advised that he's looking at four years prison time on two counts of contempt of court for the screening and sharing a film!

      Four years? Blimey, that's up there with Mao, Hitler.. but not quite Keir Stalin. obv.

          1. No but I’d hate to see the smug bastards in our government feeling pleased at their twisted efforts.

    1. It's a bit long-winded that, but if you read between the lines it's perfectly in step with what I'm expecting, for one. And no, the good journo is wrong. It's not a long term WEF plan.

      Putin has only one objective on his Eastern front and always has. He wants to stabilise it. In a perfect world he'd have a new proxy Iron Curtain but a stand off will suit him fine. The reason he's timing it for now is because he sees the end of Biden and the possibility of Trump coming back. Biden would very much like to see a provocation and if anyone wants to talk WEF motivation then that's more in keeping if anything. Trump will agree readily to a cessation, then an establishment of norms in the region.

    2. Sorry lass, I get it that you've identified the problem, but we're really not interested in helping any more. You're on your own. I'm tired of cleaning up other people's poo.

    1. During her pregnancy the Warqueen was nigh intolerable, ranting, shouting, complaining, going on with 'you're never coming near me again!', 'you try peeing wearing a [beeeep] armchair on your belly…. and other such delights of language.

      Yet afterward, when we found out she couldn't have any more children she was distraught and cried for days, weeping, apologising, begging almost. Then the depression set in and we all had _fun_.

      1. Sorry for that, Wibbling. It's ard, so it is. SWMBO was a bit beside herself after hysterectomy.

  86. How long will it be before we find out what Starmer is trying to hide. He keeps the fire burning.

  89. He’s a thoroughly decent sort is Jacob, I’m sure. I have plenty of time for him, He does though, seem to possess that sort of gentle naivety of the sort Michael Palin portrayed in the old comedy, The Missionary. He can see things perfectly clearly and yet I think has a fuzzy belief that in the end things will just sort themselves out for the better on their own.

  90. The grand plan to spend some time with the Warqueen and see her in a nice tight white top was ruined when on arriving in the New Forest on our day off she proceeded to don a jumper, light coat then Arctic adventure level parka, wrapped a scarf around her neck, nose and lips, pulled the hood up and toggled it tight. Even the jeans were baggy ones over leggings.

    Still, we set off and then within minutes 'it's really cold, it's raining, I'm cold…' and so our grand day out together, alone in the outdoors ended not in the passionate moment I'd hoped for but in scrabbling back to the car and listening her make burrrhing noises as she blew on her double gloved hands.

      1. Aye, but would've been nice to go a couple of miles, rather than a couple of hundred yards.

        1. It is cold, wet and miserable here today in the southern most outpost of the fens. Find a good pub with a log fire.

  91. I am seeking advice. Our humble property is not registered with the Land Registry. Is there any good reason why we should not do this? Our new solicitor, a slip of a lass in her thirties, has given us good reasons for registering it but none against, and I am sure there must be some. I am loathe to let our Deeds leave our hands and its safe, fire-proof box – never apparently to be seen again as we "won't need them now it's registered" especially as they (the Deeds) were quarantined for two years somewhere near Coventry during 'covid' when our local solicitor was closed down for doing naughty things with accounts (a minor misdemeanour it seemed to me). All opinions and advice welcome on registration and especially otherwise.

    1. I can't advise about Land Registry as that's way beyond my pay grade. But solicitors… Let's put it this way, seek out a few more and ask them before relying on just yours. They're not always the straightest of people, I find.

        1. I could name a string of good ones myself, too. I could also do the same about bad ones. I know we have some here and yes, they're different though!

          1. Old, though…and – in my case at any rate – long out of touch about most things legal!

          2. Old Indeed Bill. Most of us here are old despite whatever we did in former lives. We'd like to think we have years of wisdom to dispense, including legal. In my case no one ever comes looking for that. Hey ho, it's quite nice being out of touch.

          3. In 1980 I edited the first edition of The Encyclopedia of Consumer Law (for Sweet and Maxwell). I continued until 2005 – then handed it on. An author’s perk was twice yearly updates (it was a loose-leaf book). Last week the current Managing Editor of S & M e-mailed to ask if I still wanted the subscription. I suspect he was checking, tactfully, whether I was still alive! I told him that I thought it could stop – since I found the way the law has changed since I began in October 1959 completely bewildering!

          4. About right. In the end we just have to let them get on with it. Nice of him to check you were still alive.

          5. You were very popular for the sensible advice you gave to those who got in touch with you at the the J Y Prog – as the host called his programme.

      2. Thank you. I am aware of the fee motive as well. I also feel the lass lacked life experience, as you do in your thirties. It felt a little like being advised by the average gp during 'covid'.

        1. That's a good point. Without experience she might be just spewing out the standard text for you, but we all know in life that there's more to it than that. You don't want to know how something is done or if it's possible, or even if it just works. You want to know if it's best. Same whenever you go to the surgery, which is why I make a point of never going there unless I'm forced into it. I certainly ain't gonna get advice. I'm going to be treated to the book according to Standard Doctrine mostly.

          1. That's the problem, the Age of Care, Compassion and Best Interests has gone, it finally disappeared without trace, gasped its last, 31 December 2019. We are now firmly in the Era of The Profit Motive.

      3. My parents used a firm of solicitors in Lymington named Moore and Blatch; they were referred to locally as Claw and Snatch.

        In Dartmouth there was a firm of estate agents called Letcher and Scorer; we contacted them asking if they would send details of romantic hideaways to one of our libidinous colleagues who was full of enthusiasm for the ladies but his enthusiasm was seldom reciprocated. We hoped this firm would not only provide him with details of suitable properties but also with the sort of advice we thought their name implied they could give.

        1. Amazing how that happens. I am still waiting for Mssrs Bodgit & Scarper, (builders), to appear.

    2. I can't advise about Land Registry as that's way beyond my pay grade. But solicitors… Let's put it this way, seek out a few more and ask them before relying on just yours. They're not always the straightest of people, I find.

    3. (a) There is a fee payable t the Land Registry: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-registration-services-fees#scale-1-fees
      depending on the value of the property;
      (b) There will be solicitors' fees – no idea of them, these days.
      (c) If you intend to stay put until the last one leaves in a box – do NOTHING. Leave it to your beneficiaries.
      (d) If you may sell in the next ten years (or so) do NOTHING. Let your purchasers deal with regstration.

      That'll be a thousand guineas…!

      1. Does having the land registered make searches more convenient for the buyers and thus fewer delays when one comes to sell?

          1. I've just looked out my copy of Megarry and Wade.

            A third edition, I think it cost me a few pounds, certainly not many, when I bought it second hand in 1971.
            I was staggered to see it is now into its 10th Edition.
            I wonder how much legislation has passed and case law established to necessitate so many, and more to the point, why is it needed?

      1. Thank you – I had heard of fraud involving the Land Registry a few years ago which made me somewhat nervous, I cannot remember the detail now but I wondered at the lack of checks on the way the fraud was perpetrated. Our previous solicitor, he of the financial naughtiness, said "Ach, there is no need to register it" and I believe (again from memory a few years ago) that only a third of land is registered at the LR in the UK. I will give the link a read through – thank you.

      2. I have alerts set up on all the family properties (except my parents!) so Land Registry email me if there is any activity on these properties.

        I do occasionally buy the details of other properties- it’s about £15 – for example when we were buying the Southampton property earlier this year I bought the info on out two neighbours’ properties just to be sure what was ours and what wasn’t (as it was a complicated access)

      3. I have alerts set up on all the family properties (except my parents!) so Land Registry email me if there is any activity on these properties.

        I do occasionally buy the details of other properties- it’s about £15 – for example when we were buying the Southampton property earlier this year I bought the info on out two neighbours’ properties just to be sure what was ours and what wasn’t (as it was a complicated access)

    5. Parallel Mike had some things to say on this subject and land ownership. Not sure if he was correct or not but it might be worth checking out. Can't remember the details but he thought you shouldn't register.
      BT's advice seems pretty sensible!

    6. I would consult at least one other solicitor 'mum. It's possible you may need to protect yourself/family against Inheritance Tax. Best to be on safe side. Most solicitors will give you a certain amount of time 30 mins or so free advice, check first. Good luck 🙂

    7. Ours is registered but we have the deeds here and they go back a century or so – but our neighbours have some interesting documentation from when ours and theirs belonged to one owner.

      1. The solicitor was adamant that the deeds would not be returned to us (because we don’t need them, all the information is registered, she said) which rather perturbed me as they are a historical document. Our home is not ancient, it is late Victorian, a former farm worker’s cottage semi D built by (i.e. at the request of) Trinity College, Cambridge so there is a little history there.

        1. But there is history even if not of great interest to others. Our deeds were returned to us when the building society no longer wanted to hold them after we’d paid off the mortgage. It’s been interesting to compare them with our neighbours ‘ documents and see who the previous owners were. They align with the census records.

    8. My parents’ isn’t. The land registry requirements only came in relatively recently and our house has been in our possession sunce 1964. It isn’t unusual or anything to worry about (i would say – unless of course you bought it in the last 30-40 years!)

      1. We bought our house in 1981, just a few years before the requirement came in. I am relieved to know of someone else’s property that isn’t registered, I was beginning to feel like a lonely rebel!

    9. Mine wasn't registered (I bought it in 1982 and the registry only came into force fairly recently) until I put the house into a family trust a few years ago.

  93. Thank you, Bill. You have told me what I needed to know and confirmed my instincts to hold tight. I don't like being persuaded against, oh, not my better judgment in this case as I didn't have enough information, but my gut instincts. A thousand guineas actually was what it was probably going to cost us. We also updated our will(s) and changed the existing, Enduring Power of Attorney to Lasting Powers of Attorney (both). It was all going to come to a tidy sum. It will be slightly less, now! Thanks so much.

    1. You are very welcome. I was staggered at the cost when the MR and I made our wills ten years ago. I realised that I had spent 40 years undercharging clients!

      1. Get a charity to pay for the will writing and leave them a few quid, or like me, write it yourself! I also do Deeds of Variation, IHT and Probate. Got to do something to get away from looking at the news. The coming budget will probably force me to rewrite my will to take account of IHT changes.

  95. Last 2 1/2 hours in local pub with the two lads. Thatchers cider sliding down a treat, conversation flowing well on all kinds of subjects.
    Couldn't be better. Wonderful day, magic lads. Doesn't happen often enough. Made an old man happy to the point of tearing up.
    More cider needed!

      1. Events like this are simple, but to treasure.
        I so rarely get to socialise with both lads together, it's so impactful. It emphasises how well their Mother brought them up, to cook and think, and my smaller contribution in how to work.

        2. I doubt yours would be smaller, unless they went on to become chefs :-)) That’s a hard life, not for older men. Breaking: Iran planning to launch imminent attack on Israel…

  96. Sound familiar?

    New French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is today (October 1) expected to reveal early clues to the draft budget for 2025, with tax changes one of the avenues being considered to reduce the deficit.

    It comes after Mr Barnier described the country’s public finance situation as “extremely serious” at the weekend.

    After he became PM, Mr Barner said: “When I arrived at Matignon [the PM’s residence], I found a very serious situation, much more severe than I had been led to believe. The public deficit is now over 6% of gross domestic product, a far cry from the 4.4% initially targeted for 2024,” he added in an interview with the Journal de Saône-et-Loire, on September 27.

    He said that the debt accumulated as a result of past deficits had reached a new record of €3,228 billion by the end of June, almost €1,000 billion more than the figure when Emmanuel Macron took office in 2017, according to INSEE figures of September 27.

    1. Shows that each is as bad as the other. As one would expect – looking at the shysters.

    2. Robert Jenrick dismisses Nigel Farage and Tories 'joining forces'..
      Poll Suggests Nigel Farage Is More Popular Than All 4 Tory Leadership..
      and finally Farage said Kemi Badenoch always rude towards him..

      Will they ever learn?

      1. Why don't they dump all four party leadership candidates and appoint Jacob Rees-Mogg as temporary leader of the party until after the next general election?

      2. Why don't they dump all four party leadership candidates and appoint Jacob Rees-Mogg as temporary leader of the party until after the next general election?

    5. Four members of the most lethargic, untrustworthy, lying and useless Tory government of all time are vying to become leader by asking people to believe that they have changed their allegiances to unwanted and unnecessary policies and hence their behaviour.

      Fool me once, shame on me, try to fool me twice+, fool on you.

      The very least they can do in penance is denounce the devil that is the WEF/Globalist cabal.

      PS I wouldn't believe them if they grovelled on their knees and did penance.

  99. China is ‘supporting our enemy’ by trading with Russia, says BlackRock 1 October 2024.

    The head of the world’s biggest investment company has accused China of “supporting our enemy” by continuing to trade with Russia.

    Larry Fink, chief executive of $10 trillion (£7.50 trillion) fund manager BlackRock, said businesses should “re-evaluate” their involvement with China because of Beijing’s economic support for the Kremlin.

    Addressing China, he told a conference in Berlin: “Ukraine is at our doorsteps here and I’m surprised that there’s not a larger questioning or demanding – you’re supporting our enemy, we’re putting billions and billions of dollars into supporting the survival of Ukraine, and there should be a cost to that.

    Whoever thought that China could look good?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/01/china-supporting-enemy-trading-russia-says-blackrock-fink/

    1. When Blackrock says "our enemy" presumably they mean anyone who stands in the way of them making money?

    2. Russia.. China.. but we all know your real Blackrock enemy No 1: Texas.

      Texas Issues Subpoena To BlackRock For Pushing ESG Agenda
      …“uncover” the extent to which investment entities like BlackRock have been “playing politics using Texans’ hard-earned money.”

      Go Woke, Get The Hell Out: Texas Bans Wall Street Giants Blackrock Over Energy Boycott.

      BlackRock, BNP Paribas, and Credit Suisse are among the list of firms that Texas has just issued that will now be banned from working with the state due to their hostility to the energy industry.

  100. OT – for rugby enthusiasts – some suggestions from yer French:

    "Raynal and Poite’s group will soon propose the law changes to World Rugby so they can start the process of trialling them. Their suggestions are:

    • a 30-second clock to speed up the formation of scrums;
    • cutting the time allocated for kicks at goal, which at present is 90 seconds for a conversion and 60 seconds for a penalty;
    • stopping the clock after a try, or the conversion, until the next kick-off to reduce time-wasting;
    • using squads of 25 players, not 23, with teams allowed to make six substitutions in a match, rather than eight.

    Raynal explained how the French are determined to speed up their game. “In the Top 14 we have around 34 minutes of ball-in-play time. It’s not enough for entertainment, for the show. We need more,” he said.

    “We think if you’re more tired on the pitch, then you will have more space, more show, more tries. We must not forget that when you have a lot of tries in the game you have low ball-in-play, as it takes a lot of time to score the try and take conversions. Another proposal, therefore, is to stop the time after a try, or conversion, until the ball is back in play from the kick-off. There are a lot of things on the table."

    1. Item 57 ii (c) : after any infraction of the new guidelines, players will be required to carry a pager at all times when absent from the stadium.

      Seriously, there is a trend for the 'creatives' and the 'talent' to be paid relatively less compared to the most senior executives and the money people. This seems to be occurring across many fields of employment, from plumbers to medical consultants to pop stars. Ms Taylor Swift and Mrs JK Rowling escaped the net through general cussedness and accumulated wealth, but they are exceptions. One of the reasons is that when a work activity can be automated, or mechanised, or industrialised, etc, the skilled artisan can be replaced by a less-skilled technician, or a machine. For example, Artificial Intelligence can write a will, or 100 wills in a few seconds; you might then ask a human 'solicitor or an accountant to check it over, but chances are they will hand the task to a more specialised AI subscription service. Clearly, the 27,000 pages of UK tax code present an obstacle way beyond anything that could be understood by current AI, because the rules are nebulous, but that could change. Your French rugby players are being told to play harder & faster to enable their bosses to sell more advertising. Who cares about a rugby star's health or longevity when money is at stake.

      1. Hmm. I was commenting as a viewer/spectator. I am fed to the back teeth with scrums taking up nearly half the playing time. And with blatant time-wasting.

        1. Actually went to a game just over a week ago. Have a seat five rows back virtually in front of the posts meant that when all the bluddy substitutes decided to go and exercise in the ground behind the post (a frequent occurrence) spectators couldn't see the match….

    2. Item 57 ii (c) : after any infraction of the new guidelines, players will be required to carry a pager at all times when absent from the stadium.

      Seriously, there is a trend for the 'creatives' and the 'talent' to be paid relatively less compared to the most senior executives and the money people. This seems to be occurring across many fields of employment, from plumbers to medical consultants to pop stars. Ms Taylor Swift and Mrs JK Rowling escaped the net through general cussedness and accumulated wealth, but they are exceptions. One of the reasons is that when a work activity can be automated, or mechanised, or industrialised, etc, the skilled artisan can be replaced by a less-skilled technician, or a machine. For example, Artificial Intelligence can write a will, or 100 wills in a few seconds; you might then ask a human 'solicitor or an accountant to check it over, but chances are they will hand the task to a more specialised AI subscription service. Clearly, the 27,000 pages of UK tax code present an obstacle way beyond anything that could be understood by current AI, because the rules are nebulous, but that could change. Your French rugby players are being told to play harder & faster to enable their bosses to sell more advertising. Who cares about a rugby star's health or longevity when money is at stake.

    3. Item 57 ii (c) : after any infraction of the new guidelines, players will be required to carry a pager at all times when absent from the stadium.

      Seriously, there is a trend for the 'creatives' and the 'talent' to be paid relatively less compared to the most senior executives and the money people. This seems to be occurring across many fields of employment, from plumbers to medical consultants to pop stars. Ms Taylor Swift and Mrs JK Rowling escaped the net through general cussedness and accumulated wealth, but they are exceptions. One of the reasons is that when a work activity can be automated, or mechanised, or industrialised, etc, the skilled artisan can be replaced by a less-skilled technician, or a machine. For example, Artificial Intelligence can write a will, or 100 wills in a few seconds; you might then ask a human 'solicitor or an accountant to check it over, but chances are they will hand the task to a more specialised AI subscription service. Clearly, the 27,000 pages of UK tax code present an obstacle way beyond anything that could be understood by current AI, because the rules are nebulous, but that could change. Your French rugby players are being told to play harder & faster to enable their bosses to sell more advertising. Who cares about a rugby star's health or longevity when money is at stake.

    4. Scrums are some of the biggest time eaters.
      If the scrum collapses call a line out.
      Referee to decide which side was at fault and give the throw in to the opposition

      2. Watching at the weekend, I thought they should change the new rules about what to do when the ref is unsighted and has to decide between a try being scored and the ball being held up over the line.
        There was a situation where we thought it was highly likely that the attacking side had scored but there was no unequivocal footage of the ball being put down so it was deemed ‘no-try’. Fair enough, but the pile of bodies meant there was also no footage to support it being held up. In those circumstances I think they should go back to the 5 yard scrum rather than the defence getting a drop out. If the ball is unequivocally held up they could keep the drop out just as they would award the try if it’s unequivocally grounded.

    5. I agree with the first three bullets, International Rugby is becoming a joke with the amount of time wasting and messing about – the first half of the Lions 2nd Test against the Springboks in 2021 took 62 minutes!! (rather than the 40 minutes it should be).

      Not sure how increasing the squad sizes will help. I'd reduce substitutions down to injury replacements.

      Overall, though, not bad….

        1. Possibly exacerbated by the anticoagulant. I heard that the technical scientific name for your chest ailment is the 100-day cough.

          1. Happy hour all day at compass lounge. Two for one.

            Shame it was absolutely pissing down when you were there. :@)

      1. We didn’t actually hear them howling – I think they only do it very early in the morning. But they were fun to watch and very agile. I don’t really like monkeys much – too much like people.

      1. The reading last Sunday was about not worrying what you would wear (Consider the lilies in the field, they toil not, neither do they spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed as such as these) because the Lord would provide. I think Starmer mistook Alli for the Lord.

  109. The media seems to be ignoring the hurricane catastrophe in the US, but on Gettr and Parler there is a lot of footage and comments, mainly about the slow response and the absolute devastation, whole rows of buildings by main roads washed away, infrastructure destroyed.

    Meanwhile here's something to ponder…NOTTLers already know this of course! (slightly confusing because of the Americans' insistence on calling petrol gas, but you get the gist)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc95037c7982c809da6cab22c298f5cda6d505a1ad0e5655d95219f33ca6a563.jpg

    1. That's why I've gone gas and petrol for my cooking and power tools including the generator.

  110. A hooked-up Birdie Three!

    Wordle 1,200 3/6
    ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Par for me.

      Wordle 1,200 4/6

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

    4. Likewise! I've just clocked up a run of 50 since my last fail – it would be fun to know what the other Wordlers are on, it builds the tension!!

      Wordle 1,200 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜🟩⬜
      🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. There is such a thing as arriving in style you know. And of course i need someone to carry all my purchases.

      Besides that. 100 yards even up a slight hill leaves me on my knees. Even when sober.

        1. My admiration knows no limits. Your walking and cycling and swimming is an inspiration to us all.

          I'll get me wheelchair…

  113. 393875+ up ticks,

    I do not believe the indigenous of the United Kingdom will be to happy with a political carpetbagger, one highly suss, kneeling tool, to be in negotiations with his pals in brussels.

    His, and his gangs carve up of the Kingdom is in my book treacherous high treason, nothing less,we actually have patriots
    threatened with long term imprisonment for truth telling and others hiding out in their OWN HOMELAND.

    England really is losing its undeclared civil war,via neglected of the realm whilst financing a foreign war betwixt Russia and Ukraine

    We will not allow Starmer to cherry-pick new Brexit deal, EU vows
    European Commission tells member states it will guard against British efforts to bend rules or alter red lines from original negotiations

  115. That's me for today. Another wet, dreary day. Similar tomorrow, apparently until lunchtime.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain

      1. Maggie – DON’T fear. There is sod all any of us can do about it – just live each day – as it comes. Forget world affairs and politics.

          1. Live like a dog, completely in the present and in that moment. I know how you feel, I too can worry for Britain. "I've had a lot of worry in my life, most of which never happened" – a comment attributed to a friend of Churchill's on his (the friend's) deathbed.

      3. Imagine Phizzee is coming to visit, now that's something to fear, because it's possible.

        As for the rest?

        Fuggeddaboudit.

        1. I only go where people least expect me and then they wonder why they had not previously begged me to come.

      4. There's nothing you can do about it, Maggie. Worrying won't change a thing, but it will make you ill.

    1. 'The Israeli military says Iran has launched missiles towards Israel, after the US warned earlier that a missile strike from Iran could be imminent'.

      The US seems to know so much.

    3. If Israel "took out" the leaders in Tehran as they did Hezbollah's, I wonder whether the rest of Iran would throw out the Ayatollahs.

      2. Knocking off 'Ayatollah-style' headwear has become a popular pastime amongst young Iranian girls!

  117. Poor Israel , terrible news and a terrorist attack as well to coincide with the missile attack .

    For God's sake , evil is amongst us all ..

    Too horrible for words .

    1. Dreadful bloody Arabs think that they can do anything they want. Where's Vlad when he's needed..
      Even China shouldn't sit back and let this happen. As old has been byedon will.

  118. David Lammy is an idiot and very naive , useless , useless useless , he should stick to his flaming black roots ..

    He is NOT a diplomat , he hasn't a clue.. He knows nothing about the EVIL that Muslims generate ..

    I know how nasty they were when I was a child caught up in the Suez debacle .. it was this time of the year almost.

    1. I'll bet my house, that despite his continued moaning about everything, that he's never bothered to find his ancestors in Africa to ask if they need any help.

        1. So are ours Ellie but we had knowledge of what they had been through.
          When are you back ?

      2. Au contraire, a few years ago he made a great show of visiting Nigeria and being feted by ‘his people’ in some ceremony.
        He appears to have no inkling of how it was that his ancestors were enslaved and who made a profit from selling them to Whitey.

    2. Could be worse.. Ange is still struggling to find Lebanon on something called a map.

    4. I got this email this morning from the subscriber list of Rafi Farber:

      Repos Gone Wild!
      Repo volume spikes by half a TRILLION during quarter-end all night monetary rave. Repos to reserves surge to 80%. Fed yawns furiously. And why RRPs may not need to fully drain to bring on final clog.
      Repo volume surged by $446B to a record $2.523 trillion, driven by quarter-end book-balancing, pushing the SOFR rate up by 12 basis points.

      Not sure how seriously to take it, but wasn't that also the crisis in August 2019 that led to Blackrock recommending pumping money directly to companies?

      We always knew that when the financial system looked like cracking up, we would get some seemingly unrelated turbulence, in the same way we got covid, which resulted in pumping money directly to companies.

  120. Caught the start of BBC coverage in Israel but I have now stopped the live feed as they were wetting themselves about Israel's incursions into Lebanon.

    1. The pictures coming out of Tel Aviv (latest shooting) or downtown Lebanon could be straight out of London, Bradford, Birmingham, Luton, Rochdale.. list goes on & on & on.

    2. We are watching GB news ..

      Conservative conference , some one said we should be concerned , it might happen here , we should be vigilant .

  122. Great Scott, Notice something unusual?

    Police are hunting a suspected 'acid attacker' who fled on an e-scooter after dousing two teenagers in a corrosive substance outside a school.

    A 14-year-old girl was left with life-changing injuries and two other victims were hospitalised after the attack outside Westminster Academy in Paddington yesterday.

    Police spearheading the manhunt described the suspect as a 'tall, slim, Black male' who was wearing dark clothing with his face hidden by a mask or balaclava. They added that the suspect rode an e-scooter to and from the scene.

    1. Thank goodness he wasn't polluting the environment in a petrol getaway car.
      Should be shot when found…

      1. Probably, but how many times is the colour of the suspect given when presumably all that the witnesses might have seen was his hand/s

          5. I think he was eventually discharged from the hospital to further his recovery at home. And that was the last we heard of that.

            Safe journey home, Ndovu, it's blowing a gale here now, tale end of Hurricane Helene or simply equinoxal gales? It might be a little bit turbulent mid-Atlantic.

      3. "Cur Rowley apologises profusely for terrible, abject racist slur in even suggesting that a diverse person might have been anywhere near where these people poured acid over themselves."

      1. I tend to capitalise when using it as a noun rather than an adjective.

        It may be incorrect but it shows it is a person:
        He is a Black, he is a black man.

  123. This just now from another blog site:
    "IRAN HAS LAUNCHED MULTIPLE ROCKETS AT ISRAEL. IT'S LIVE ON AL JEZEERA NOW. AMERICA HAS OFFERED FULL SUPPORT TO ISRAEL. IT IS 102 MISSILES COMING IN NOW."

    1. STOP looking at TV news. Just stop. Your blood pressure will return to normal almost immediately.

      1. I don't watch tv news! This was staring me in the face from another blog site which I read from time to time but don't take part!

      2. Off to the local in 20 minutes, over 14 quid for three pints and we've had the heating on for the first time today.
        I'd better buy a lottery ticket.

    2. The Mullahs need to show a response to make it look as if they are doing something. All PR for their own home market.
      It is about time Israel shoved Iran back in its box and took them out.

      The US has no choice in this matter now Israel has acted.

      1. From the DT coverage:
        "A senior Israeli official to The Telegraph that “Iran has declared war directly on the State of Israel”."

  125. My word our MSM have excelled in their normal reluctance to avoid the truth and described the acid attacker outside the London school as a tall slim black male.

    1. Cynical me wonders whether the suspect was wearing black gloves as well as a face mask/helmet and he/she will turn out not to be black at all and it will be used to close down reporting even more.

      1. You mean it could be a far right white chap on a diesel scooter who targeted the girl because she self-identified as a rabbit.

    2. They are taking a bit of a chance on that. Did they mention where the acid was procured from? Normally they just say a corrosive substance.

  126. Jenrick defends special forces claim after backlash

    Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick has stood by his claim that British special forces are "killing rather than capturing terrorists". Speaking on stage at a conference event, Jenrick said human rights laws would make it "difficult" for British forces to "conduct a similar operation to the one that the United States did to kill or capture Osama bin Laden".

    Tory leadership rivals James Cleverly and Tom Tugendhat, who have both served in the military, are among those who have criticised Jenrick’s comments during their party’s annual conference.

    Tugendhat said he was "angry" at Jenrick's comments, adding that the assertion represents a "very serious accusation" and that the position shows "a fundamental lack of awareness of military operations, the command chain, and the nature of the law in the armed forces".

    Cleverly said Jenrick should justify his claims. "The British military always abide by international humanitarian law, the law of armed conflict. Our military do not murder people."

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp39q1ppk41o

    Tugendhat served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Was he a cook? He appears to think that upon cornering enemies, members of the SAS or SBS should say ever so nicely "Come along quietly, Abdul, there's a good boy. You're nicked."

    1. It is utterly despicable that these toads are even having this conversation.
      What are they trying to prove?
      I'm not suggesting for an instant that wrongdoing should be covered up, but is a party political election really the forum to be airing this?
      Bastards, utter bastards, the lot of them.

    2. So they can boast about killing people, but they can't protect our borders or kill the criminals causing mayhem on our streets? These Tory tinpot dictators make me sick.

    1. I can't follow this graph. Is it the Israeli Shekel or the Iranian Riail which is able to buy fewer of its rival's currency?

    2. I can't follow this graph. Is it the Israeli Shekel or the Iranian Riail which is able to buy fewer of its rival's currency?

  128. Let's face it Israel has been itching to use their atomic bunker-busting bombs on Iran's nuke facilities. Buckle up.

    1. Yes, the ayatollahs have played right into the USA's hands. What were they thinking?

      Bet there are multiple celebrations tonight in Washington DC.

    2. Apparently Sir Kneelalot gave them his steadfast support… by phoning Netanyahu and wishing him all the best while 180 missiles were launched at Israel. Well I'm sure that helped!

        1. Defence Sec vaguely trying to suggest UK helped tonight but won’t say how. They really are pathetic.

          1. (‘Morning James) I just finished reading Matt Goodwin’s substack – today he’s writing about Sir Matthew Rycroft CBE, Senior Civil Servant. Quite blood boiling. A possible reason our politicians are pathetic – as we’ve said many times, the Civil Service are the ones in charge.

          2. Morning Kate, quite true that. If I get a moment I will have a look at that. Matt Goodwin always good. The civil service are pushing at an open door with this government.

          3. (Paid) subscription is needed James if you want to read his longer pieces, but I generally get the gist from his daily posts which are foc. Yes, birds of a feather 🙁 we’re in for a long haul….

  131. And I'm off to bed.
    Not a lot done today, but did manage to safely evict another pipistrelle from the house!
    The DT lit the woodburner in the front room tonight, nearly 3 weeks earlier than last year!

      1. If you want to be rid of bats in the attic. Keep a very bright light/s switched on at night.They will soon find somwhere else to sleep at night.

        1. I have quite a number of them, Johnny (yes, I get jokes about bats in my belfry). They're harmless except to insects. They've moved to several different locations in the roof over the years, one day they'll just go elsewhere. Had a few in the house odd occasions, best thing then is as you say switch on all lights but open all doors and windows. Husband freaks out :-DDD

      2. Probably both.
        We’ve had pipistrelles between the tiles and roofing felt for a while and occasionally one gets into the main part of the house.

        1. The same here, and at previous house, husband freaks out :-DD ….I can tell whereabouts they roost from the droppings below on the ground, quite good manure mixed with eg leaf mould. I support a bat sanctuary in Israel – the babies sometimes lose their hold on their mothers and drop to the ground, someone finds them and takes to the sanctuary where they’re fed and rested before one of the volunteers takes back to where the baby was found – after a short while the baby cries out and is answered by its mother who flies down to pick it up. Brilliant to watch. Bats pollinate a lot of fruit and other foods. They are fascinating creatures, we’d be much the poorer without them, one of the oldest creatures on earth.

      2. After watching it fly about the front room for a few minutes, it landed inside one of the ornamental jugs up on the bookshelf, so popped a cover over the jug and took it outside to free it.
        How the Hell can a creature that looks so large when flying, actually be so tiny when landed with it’s wings folded?

  132. from Coffee House, the Spectator

    Mexico wants Spain to apologise for conquering the Aztecs
    Jim Lawley1 October 2024, 6:00am
    When Claudia Sheinbaum becomes Mexico’s first female president later today, Felipe VI, the King of Spain, will not be present. He has, very pointedly, not been invited to the swearing-in ceremony because he hasn’t apologised for Spain’s invasion and conquest of the Aztec empire 500 years ago.

    Spaniards are alert to the ‘emotional fraudulence’ of professing guilt for something that happened 20 generations ago
    This diplomatic stand-off began in 2019 when Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then president of Mexico, wrote to King Felipe inviting him to express his regret. Having described the conquest as ‘tremendously violent, painful and unjustifiable’, López Obrador said, ‘Mexico would like the Spanish state to recognise its historical responsibility for these offences and to offer the appropriate apologies or political reparations.’

    Felipe didn’t reply to that letter. By 2022 López Obrador was suggesting that Spain needed to learn to respect Mexico rather than regarding it as an ex-colony. Then last Thursday at his daily press conference the out-going president read out the four-page letter he sent five years ago and claimed that Felipe’s failure to reply showed high-handed arrogance.

    His successor sings from the same hymn sheet. Shortly after becoming president-elect of Mexico in July, Sheinbaum declared that ‘Spain should ask for forgiveness.’ Perhaps she has in mind something along the lines of Pope Francis’ apology in 2021 for the atrocities committed during the conquest and evangelisation of the Americas. She may well also be aware that there is a precedent: just nine years ago Spain recognised that the expulsion of the Jews in 1492 was a cruel mistake. Now one of Sheinbaum’s ministers has proposed holding a ‘ceremony of atonement’ to normalise relations with Spain.

    Most popular
    Stephen Daisley
    Iran launches a missile attack on Israel

    Felipe, first as prince and then as King, has in the past attended the swearing-in of Mexican presidents. On this occasion he has left it to Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s left-wing prime minister, to comment on Mexico’s decision not to invite him. Regretting that the relations between two ‘progressive’ governments have deteriorated to this point, Sánchez confirmed that due to ‘the unacceptable and inexplicable exclusion [of King Felipe]… there will be no representatives of the Spanish government at the ceremony.’

    ‘Spain,’ Sánchez explained, ‘regards Mexico as a brother country… We feel enormous frustration… that we cannot normalise our relations.’ Hinting that Mexico’s politicians are using a confected confrontation with Spain as a distraction from their country’s real problems, he recalled with gratitude that Mexico welcomed hundreds of thousands of Spaniards fleeing the Spanish Civil War and Franco’s repression: ‘I feel closer to those principles and values.’

    Although there will be no representatives of the Spanish government, several of Spain’s anti-monarchical, left-wing politicians will attend the swearing-in ceremony. One suggested that if Spain is represented abroad by the head of state, then it should be a democratically elected head of state. Another described Felipe as ‘arrogant’ for not apologising to Mexico ‘for the excesses’ committed during the Spanish conquest and said that the king is now ‘paying a price’ for his ‘enormous diplomatic clumsiness’.

    In fact the Spanish monarchy did once make an apology – of sorts. In 1990 during a visit to Mexico, Juan Carlos I, Felipe’s father, regretted the abuses that occurred during the conquest whilst pointing out that Spain’s monarchs sought from the very beginning to defend the dignity of the indigenous people. ‘Of course,’ Juan Carlos explained, ‘the prudence and equanimity of the monarchs was unfortunately often disregarded by… venal officials.’

    Juan Carlos’ reluctance to shoulder the blame for events that took place half a millennium ago is shared by many Spaniards. They are alert to the ‘emotional fraudulence’ of professing guilt for something that happened 20 generations ago. Besides, many point out gleefully, López Obrador’s Spanish surnames suggest that he may himself be descended from a conquistador. The Partido Popular, Spain’s main right-wing opposition party, which rarely endorses anything the government does, has on this occasion enthusiastically supported Sánchez’s decision to lodge a formal protest with the Mexican authorities, calling the decision not to invite Felipe ‘an unacceptable provocation’.

    Nor has it gone unnoticed in Spain that, while King Felipe was dropped from the guest list because he hasn’t apologised for what Hernán Cortés and his men did hundreds of years ago, Vladimir Putin, personally responsible for a far more recent invasion, was invited.

    1. Presumably, the Mexicans would prefer to be sacrificed to fertility gods by priests, rather than be murdered by drug cartels.

      1. Surrounding the building in which I live three of the streets are named Hernán Cortés, (Francisco)Pizarro, (Diego de) Almagro. The Spanish still shamelessy honour their heroes although I don't know for how long.

    2. Someone called Sheinbaum is taking offence over the hispanification of Mexico 500 years ago?
      You cannot be serious!
      It’s time for Normandy to make reparations to England…or, failing that for the Welsh assembly to atone for Wales being the cradle of the Tudors. As for the Scottish Executive, no amount of Enlightenment thought can atone for Blair, Brown, Cameron and Alastair Campbell (to name just a few).

  133. BBC under fire after allowing Iranian academic to spout 'anti-Jewish racism without pushback' on Radio 4's Today show
    By Paul Revoir, Media Editor

    Published: 20:07, 1 October 2024 | Updated: 20:09, 1 October 2024

    The BBC has become embroiled in a new row over its coverage of Israel amid claims it allowed an Iranian academic to make 'racist' and 'antisemitic' comments without challenge.

    The UK's largest Jewish community organisation said it was 'deeply concerned' about the interview on the Today programme, between Mishal Husain and University of Tehran's Mohammad Marandi.

    Marandi described Israel as an 'expansionist regime' which believed in 'ethno-supremacism' and that 'they are a chosen people' who felt they had 'exceptional rights'. He also described the events in Gaza as a 'holocaust'.

    After the interview aired, The Board of Deputies of British Jews put out a statement on social media raising concerns the comments were not properly challenged on the programme.

    It said: 'We are deeply concerned about our national broadcaster allowing such language to be transmitted via the airwaves without clear pushback. We will be raising this directly with the BBC at the highest levels.'

    Marandi, who was born in Virginia in the US before moving to Iran, previously acted as an adviser to Iran's nuclear negotiations team.

    Leading historian Simon Schama responded to the interview, saying the academic's remarks were 'antisemitic abuse' and that it had been 'appallingly offensive'.

    Read More
    'Biased' BBC is 14 times more likely to accuse Israel of genocide than Hamas study shows
    article image
    Another historian Simon Sebag Montefiore called it a 'racist rant' filled with 'lies, libels, conspiracy theories, fake facts, anti-semitic tropes and even distortion and misuse of Holocaust history'.

    Both historians said the BBC interviewer had failed to properly counter his remarks during the interview.

    The BBC responding to the row said the professor had been challenged in the interview but admitted 'we accept we should have continued to challenge his language throughout the interview'.

    The row comes after the BBC was accused of 'systematic bias' against Israel in a report labelled 'profoundly troubling' by the Chief Rabbi.

    Sir Ephraim Mirvis has backed calls for an independent inquiry after the report alleged the corporation made 'false and damaging claims about Israel's conduct' in the war in Gaza.

    Read More
    BBC is accused by British Jewry of 'institutional bias' against Israel
    article image
    On the Today programme, Professor Marandi, who is an Iranian-American academic, said of the current crisis in the middle-east: 'The only way forward is resistance, because there is nothing that will stop this Israeli regime, because that is the nature of the regime.

    'It's an expansionist regime. It believes in ethno-supremacism. It believes that they are a chosen people. They have exceptional rights, and therefore they have exceptional rights for the region.'

    Schama, who regularly presents shows for the BBC, described the academic as 'a servile apologist for the misogynist-theocratic tyranny'. He said Mr Marandi gave his 'standard exterminationist antisemitic abuse' that had been aired 'without challenge'.

    A BBC spokesman said: 'The Today programme covered the latest developments in Lebanon and the Middle East and interviewed a range of people including IDF spokesperson Lt Col Peter Lerner, US Diplomat Dennis Ross and Iranian academic Mohammad Marandi to get a broad perspective on the complex politics of the region.

    Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has backed calls for an independent inquiry after the report alleged the corporation made 'false and damaging claims about Israel's conduct' in the war in Gaza
    +
    10
    View gallery
    Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis has backed calls for an independent inquiry after the report alleged the corporation made 'false and damaging claims about Israel's conduct' in the war in Gaza

    A woman holds a sign in protest against the BBC's coverage of the Hamas-Israel war on October 16, 2023, at the BBC HQ in London
    +
    10
    View gallery
    A woman holds a sign in protest against the BBC's coverage of the Hamas-Israel war on October 16, 2023, at the BBC HQ in London

    The row broke out on the day that the BBC's chief executive of news and current affairs, Deborah Turness, wrote a blog about the difficulties in covering the conflict
    +
    10
    View gallery
    The row broke out on the day that the BBC's chief executive of news and current affairs, Deborah Turness, wrote a blog about the difficulties in covering the conflict

    'Mohammed Marandi was interviewed to gain an understanding of the view from Iran, and what their response is likely to be.

    Read More
    Israel under attack: Iran unleashes barrage of '500 missiles'
    article image
    'This was a live interview and he was challenged during the course of the interview, and the Israeli position was reflected.

    'However, we accept we should have continued to challenge his language throughout the interview.'

    The row broke out on the day that the BBC's chief executive of news and current affairs, Deborah Turness, wrote a blog about the difficulties in covering the conflict.

    She said: 'But if there is one thing we have learned more than any other in the past year, it's that such is the depth of the polarisation in this war, so many have come to see impartial reporting as being somehow against them, because it does not solely reflect their view of the conflict.'

    She said much of this was explained by 'social media algorithms' and 'echo chambers' that give consumers more of what they already 'like'.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13912929/BBC-fire-allowing-Iranian-academic-spout-anti-Jewish-racism.html

    2. "the interview on the Today programme, between Mishal Husain and University of Tehran's Mohammad Marandi."

      Somehow the names of the participants don't reflect a balanced discussion.

    3. "…Schama, who regularly presents shows for the BBC…"

      Doesn't he just. All that can be said in his favour is that he is not an anti-Zionist. In his series 'The History of Britain' (2000) he opined that "nothing beats British television drama for servicing the instincts of cultural necrophilia". We just like our past and we treasure it (well, we did).

      Here he is on the election of Trump in 2016: https://x.com/simon_schama/status/796219806932471808

      1. Is he the one who twitches a lot, William? (I don't mean bird watching, although he may of course do that in his spare time, who are we to judge)

    4. 'described Islam as an 'expansionist regime' which believed in 'ethno-supremacism' and that 'they are a chosen people' who felt they had 'exceptional rights'.

      Fixed it.

  134. Evening, all. Been very damp here; rain followed by drizzle, followed by dull. I did manage to get a bit done in the garden, but it wasn't very pleasant. Had to cut overgrown bushes down and got soaked for my pains. I also have even more cuttings to get rid of than before 🙁 I noticed only about 4 people in the streets around me had put their green bin out (the charge starts today), although they'd put their recycling out. I had a pair of folding chairs delivered today – each chair came with assembly instructions, although (for once) they arrived ready assembled! The instructions were how to open them up to sit on!

    I shall forebear to say what I think about the cons and their debate, other than it will come to nothing.

    1. Back home in the Spanish interior. It's been sunny all day, we went out this evening for a walk and a coffee, 25 degrees in the city centre. Luckily the weather's holding up as we were depressed about leaving the seaside and probably saying goodbye to the summer.

      1. One good thing about this year here is that there has been no summer to say goodbye to! What you don't have, you don't miss.

        1. So true, and I really hate the dark evenings , the drawing of the curtains and turning the heat on , and driving late afternoon when the sun sinks on to the horizon and nearly blinds you, if the sun is visible , of course .

          1. I quite like winter; blazing fires, comfort food, woolly jumpers, crisp days. The best bit for me IS the dark nights – we're back on proper time (GMT).

    1. It certainly is an historic moment. Never in the field of left wingery has so much stupidity been perpetrated by one dunce.

        1. Oh yes, as a defence method some will empty their stomachs. Perhaps the horse mackerel can't.

    3. Miliband needs to be beaten until he stops speaking, then fed his teeth, then using bolt cutters his fingers and toes. He is a dangerous, sadistic, psychotic evil creature.

    2. Seems Milliband E's Net Zero policies are going to benefit Milliband's D's business….shurely shome conflict of interesht….

    3. I hate the man. Miliband is a moron. He should be made to live without anything made in the last 300 years. He'll die very quickly and nothing of value will be lost.

  140. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Tonight’s vice-presidential debate might actually matter
    Ben Domenech1 October 2024, 4:36pm
    Vice-presidential debates rarely matter in politics except as fodder for jokes and, for today’s lazier commentariat, memes of the lesser variety. The greatest moment in modern vice-presidential debate history is Lloyd Bentsen’s ‘you’re no Jack Kennedy’ zinger of Dan Quayle, a debate win so effective that Bentsen and Michael Dukakis lost 40 states. Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman’s debate played out like a fireside chat between old friends. Joe Biden’s debates with Sarah Palin and Paul Ryan are mostly notable because watching them now puts in perspective how much the lifelong politician has faded into an ethereal ghost in his final years. Mike Pence won both of his vice-presidential debates against Tim Kaine and Kamala Harris fairly easily, but was mocked by the staggering corpse of today’s Saturday Night Live because a fly briefly landed on his head. The fly was played by Jim Carrey, but sadly, it was not funny.

    The risk for Vance is that he can win the debate in the moment while losing the audience
    It’s unlikely that tonight’s debate will be any different, but for the sake of consideration, let’s think through how it could be. The likeliest reason it could be different is that Tim Walz is an unknown quantity on the national stage. He has dodged interviews and conversations with any less than friendly interlocutor, and has not been questioned publicly about the many falsehoods that have been discovered since he was chosen as Kamala Harris’s running mate. Given the clampdown on access to candidates and a compliant anti-Trump press uninterested in pressing the matter, Walz has yet to respond to these questions personally or on camera – questions about clearly false claims about his military record, his experiences around the world and even about the fertility methods used in the birth of his children.

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    The most recent of these many exaggerations, as reported this week in a deep dive by Minnesota Public Radio and followed up with additional reporting by the Washington Free Beacon, is that Walz has for years claimed that he was visiting China during the Tiananmen Square uprising, a moment so iconic in his memory that he later chose it as the date he married his wife. As it turns out, Walz was definitively not in China at the time – photo evidence shows he was in Nebraska, and his trip came months later.

    The distinction of being a lying politician is unremarkable. But for someone like Walz, ensconced in the safe bright blue state of Minnesota, the level of falsity here makes him a deeply odd person to pair with a major candidate who already suffers from accusations of inauthenticity. To the degree that JDVance prosecutes the case against the Harris-Walz ticket, he will in all likelihood try to make the case that they cannot be trusted leading the country at a moment of serious challenge.

    The risk for Vance is that he can win the debate in the moment while losing the audience. As the younger man on stage, he has to emphasise his credentials and personal experience in war, but focus on being Trump’s best ally, not an advocate for his own personal vision of the shifting policies of the right – a temptation that would be too intellectual and inside baseball for any public debate. He by now knows the line of attack that CBS’s moderators and Walz will use against him: that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has called him a radical, that he has a ‘weird’ obsession with childless cat ladies and abortion, and that he is a young smart aleck tech bro jerk who doesn’t actually care about the place or people he came from. The last point is a trap, but it’s also very popular among online progressives. We know about JD Vance because of his life story, and he knows how to tell it in ways that speak directly to people forgotten by their national government. We’ll see tonight if Walz is foolish enough to take that bait.

    As the last orchestrated moment of conflict between these two campaigns, this debate could be more significant than vice-presidential duels of the past. But as we saw with the relative lack of polling reaction to the Trump-Harris exchange, it may prove more useful as supplying more fodder for campaign advertising than anything else. Just don’t expect anything memorable from Jim Gaffigan and Bowen Yang on Saturday.

    This article was originally published in The Spectator’s World edition.

  141. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    Rees-Mogg takes aim at Badenoch over Reform remarks
    Steerpike1 October 2024, 12:43pm
    It’s day three of the Conservative party conference, and so far the blue-on-blue has been kept to a minimum — not least thanks to the ‘yellow card’ threat, Mr S is sure. But one Tory grandee and former MP isn’t holding back on his thoughts on the future of his party following a disastrous election result — and Jacob Rees-Mogg had some firm words for Kemi Badenoch in particular…

    In conversation with the Telegraph’s Daily T podcast this morning, Rees-Mogg first criticised the four leadership contenders for not focusing enough on issues like net zero or the economy, before slamming his party’s ’appalling failure’ on immigration over the last 14 years. ‘We promised tens of thousands in the 2010 manifesto, which we knew was a lie actually,’ he told his audience, ‘because we knew we had no control over EU migration.’ He went on:

    We had 1.4 million people net come in in the two years to June 2023. We can say the most wonderful things and people will think Nigel [Farage] will do it properly and we won’t because we’ve failed before. So I don’t think trying to steal our clothes back from Reform is likely to work. We need to show we are changing by recognising that Reform is real and trying to bring them into a tent. That may mean that some people may leave the tent in the other direction, but that is something we must accept because we are the Conservative party, and not the Liberal Democrat mark two party.

    Strong stuff. Then he turned his guns on Badenoch, after her remarks on Tuesday that Reform’s leadership are not ‘real conservatives’ or ‘serious people’. ‘It’s a mistake to dismiss him,’ Rees-Mogg fumed. ‘I think to say Nigel Farage is not a serious politician ignores the evidence. We would not have had Brexit without Nigel.’ Continuing his tirade, the ex-Tory MP insisted:

    Without the success he made of the UK Independence party, of the Brexit party, of pushing us down to our lowest share of the vote in the 2019 European elections in our history, going back to Queen Anne, our worst result ever. We would not have got the referendum in the first place – which David Cameron offered to neutralise Ukip, to neutralise Nigel – we would not have won the referendum because we would not have appealed to the Labour voters who eventually came over to us, who Nigel appealed to.

    He hasn’t done it just because he swigs beer and smokes fags. He’s done it because he is a formidable figure.

    That’s her told…

    Farage may not be at Tory conference himself this year to defend his name, but evidently Rees-Mogg has that covered…

    1. The damning thing about the Cons is that they COULD have done something about the illegals and didn't even if they couldn't have done anything about the EU influx (although we did vote to leave – they could have implemented that, for a start).

      1. I keep saying it and I will say it again, it makes no difference who is elected leader of the Cons, they could find another Maggie Thatcher and make her leader. However while the party is full of One Nation wets, they will continue to be Limp Dums wearing blue rosettes because the very essence of conservatism has been expunged from the party.

    2. You cannot have net zero and an economy. Same as you cannot have welfare and massive uncontrolled gimmigration.

  145. Well, chums, I'm now off to bed. Good night, sleep well, and see you all tomorrowl.

  146. I would suggest all these morons who are squealing for war should first go and try a bit of it for themselves.

  150. interesting evening. Was invited out do a dinner and met a load of other Financial Services men (note) my age and we all agreed. Amazing. Didn’t speak to the few women there; they were younger and undoubtedly not on my wavelength. There was a double diversity there who spent the whole evening texting on her phone (it was a lecture on the state of the markets followed by scoff). You cannot teach class.

    1. Don’t you realise that it was your supremacist non-inclusive behaviour that drove her to seek solace in her phone?

      1. Lol no i hadn’t thought of that but now you mention it, it’s obviously my fault!

        1. Seriously though, although arguably uncalled for during a lecture (I prefer the sleep option personally), fixation on one’s mobile phone provides the 21st century equivalent to always being in the kitchen at parties.

    2. I wonder if my niece was one of those younger women. She sometimes writes articles for the Times on financial services.

      Natalie Kempster, of financial planner Argentis Wealth Management, explained: “The magic of compounding – assuming a 2.5pc increase – means that deferring for just one year would give you an extra £11,000 over 15 years, and the impact of this is exponential when you defer for longer.”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/tax-retirement/deferring-your-state-pension-can-give-you-higher-payments/

  152. Another day is done so, goodnight, Gentlefolk. Bis morgen fruh. Schlaf gut. Ich hoffe.

    1. 'Morning, Geoff, and thank you for all your sterling efforts on our behalf.

      The link doesn't work

      1. If you go to the very top of this page you see the words (in small capitals) NOT THE TELEGRAPH LETTERS. Click on that and it brings up a list of every day's letters. Click on the day you require and that day's forum will open.

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