Tuesday 12 March: Lessons the Conservatives must learn from Lee Anderson’s defection

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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952 thoughts on “Tuesday 12 March: Lessons the Conservatives must learn from Lee Anderson’s defection”

  1. Good morning, chums, I did today’s Wordle in 5 but posted it on last night’s page. I hope you all slept well and enjoy your day. Mine with be action-packed, starting now with an hour in the garden before the rain begins. PS – Good grief, I am first today!

  2. Good morning, chums, I did today’s Wordle in 5 but posted it on last night’s page. I hope you all slept well and enjoy your day. Mine with be action-packed, starting now with an hour in the garden before the rain begins. PS – Good grief, I am first today!

  3. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story Sleepy today. Elsie beat me to it

    BRIEF ENCOUNTERS

    There was a knock on the door this morning.

    I opened it to find a young man standing there who said: “Hello sir, I’m a Jehovah’s Witness.”

    I said: “Come in and sit down.”

    I offered him coffee and asked: “What do you want to talk about?”

    He said: “Buggered if I know – I’ve never got this far before.”

    1. There’s more…
      Chinese guy comes in and stands next to me.

      I turned and I was standing in a bar in Norwich, minding my own business then i asked this little chink, “Do you know any of those martial arts things, like Kung-Fu, Karate or Ju-Jitsu?”

      He says, belligerently, “No, why the f–k you ask me? Becoz I Chinee?”

      “No,” I said to him, “It’s because you’re drinking my beer, you little shit.”

      1. Good one, Sir Jasper, but I think perhaps that you meant to say ” minding my own business when I said to him…” Lol.

    3. “Do you believe in the Bible?” I knew someone ( a genuinely eminent academic) who used to invite them in and then at the key moment show them an older edition of the Jehovah’s Witness Bible which differed from their current Bible.

  5. Lessons the Conservatives must learn from Lee Anderson’s defection

    Vote for Reform, I suppose and hope they are not just more controlled opposition.

  7. We are going to build more gas power stations to keep the lights on. You could not make it up.

    2. Buying gas power stations seems easy for the government, but buying nuclear SMRs from Rolls Royce seems a tortuous process. Is it me?

  10. It may now be too late for the West, a corpse that cannot be galvanised. 12 March 2024.

    How to reintegrate the country is what Conservatives should think about during their coming period in opposition. They should plan a radical reform of the state and public institutions to ensure that accountable politicians are really in charge. Their first step must be to bring their own party closer to its supporters, if it is not already too late. Mistakes in politics can be forgiven, but betrayal is fatal.

    This is a beautifully written account of the Travails of the West and the UK in particular. There is nothing in it that Nottlers are not already acquainted with. As to correcting it. It is already too late. The betrayal has been total. The question now is personal survival in a hostile state.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/too-late-for-west-corpse-that-cannot-be-galvanised/

    1. Tombs is one of a number of very eminent and outspoken real conservative academics and writers including Nigel Biggar, a couple of whom I know and one is a friend, who believe in conservative Christian civilisation and society. They are staunch opponents of the Left, globalism, Putin, Xi, Islam etc, and for me show that we Western conservatives need to articulate and defend our own distinctive and superior way of life, beliefs and values against all comers.

      1. The West is finished. Putin and Russia will be the inheritors of its history and culture. Only they have the will to resist. It will be destroyed everywhere else.

    2. Good morning, Araminta. It is very unlikely that a rejuvenated Conservative party, or any of the current major political parties for that matter, will be able to remake/rebuild the Country if what this US law researcher has discovered is anything like the truth.

      Other sources have linked the CV-19 episode to the USA and this lady ties together the long and winding road within US law that was created over many decades and, in her assessment, finally led to the Plandemic and what is likely to follow.

      I can’t remember coming across any information that UK laws have similarly been ‘arranged’ in this fashion but then, I can’t imagine all that went on was done ‘on the fly’, so to speak. Looking at the quality of our politicians any confusion in the arrangements could easily be put down to their innate incompetence: some, I expect, need a diagram to instruct them to tie their shoelaces. Nevertheless, they and their policies remain a threat to the people.

      The support from this government for the WHO’s new proposals clearly is a major part of the plan. This move is a betrayal of the people. Is the threat from islamists the only reason that the politicos are demanding personal protection?

      This video is a difficult watch/listen.

      https://twitter.com/RealDrJaneRuby/status/1640098047261638658

      2. Thank you Korky. Seems all too credible to me. I think the Covid business was a brilliant trial of psyops and manipulation on the public which was a resounding success. The WHO/IHR part is only too real and it seems to me that the majority of people will do exactly the same all over again, when the next plandemic/scamdemic “turns up”.

      3. How are we going to stop this, other than refusing all medication and dying from the side-effects..

        1. The first step is non-compliance and then when they turn their dogs of war on us we must stand our ground. Those responsible can no longer label their plan a conspiracy theory, if the people look they will find that those organising this worldwide coup are saying out loud what their end game is. ‘You will own nothing and be happy’ is probably a bit dated now.

          1. Ho do I manage with this My daily intake:
            Drug AM PM
            Entresto 1 1
            Tamsulosin 1 0
            Bisoprolo 1 0
            Furosemide 2 0
            Lansoprazole1 0
            Clopidogrel 1 0
            Thiamine 4 4
            Vitamin D3 1 0
            Magnesium 1 1
            Spironolactone 1 0
            Forixa 1 0
            Trimbow 2 2?

          2. Non-compliance with any novel jabs or drugs they try and force on us, not what you need now.

            However, according to some presenters in the USA, China has control/monopoly on many medicines and could exercise that control at any time to the detriment of others, especially the West.

  11. It may now be too late for the West, a corpse that cannot be galvanised. 12 March 2024.

    How to reintegrate the country is what Conservatives should think about during their coming period in opposition. They should plan a radical reform of the state and public institutions to ensure that accountable politicians are really in charge. Their first step must be to bring their own party closer to its supporters, if it is not already too late. Mistakes in politics can be forgiven, but betrayal is fatal.

    This is a beautifully written account of the Travails of the West and the UK in particular. There is nothing in it that Nottlers are not already acquainted with. As to correcting it. It is already too late. The betrayal has been total. The question now is personal survival in a hostile state.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/too-late-for-west-corpse-that-cannot-be-galvanised/

  13. Morning all,

    Shaun Spiers, Executive director of the Green Alliance, has just been on BBC R4 this morning discussing the Government’s plans to build new gas power stations and not to rely on imported gas.

    He reckons that in the Government’s legislation to achieve net zero there is a predictable shortfall in future UK energy needs mainly because the base load of electricity cannot be supplied on cloudy windless days. He said that the Government should have seen this coming and not just rely on UK’s entrepreneurial skills to find an alternative base load electrical energy source.

    He really had no idea from whence our energy demands could be met in future.

    I do know however how hydogen gas can be produced from aluminium car engine blocks and water with the use of gallium which is really galling.

    2. The Grid simply won’t be ready to fully electrify the nation for many decades and the extra pylons will wreck what’s left of the countryside.
      Nuclear for base load has to be the way to go for generation.
      That doesn’t solve the problem of the lack of energy density of batteries versus oil/gas for vehicles, heavy machinery or remote locations or certain industrial processes that require huge amounts of power quickly,

  14. Good morning all.
    Another damp and miserable start with a tad above 2°C on the Yard Thermometer. Light rain, heavy overcast and mist clinging to the trees up the valley side.

    An interesting read picked up from Faceache:-

    The Queen’s Royal Hussars Museum is in Italy.

    Jumping into battle with the kangaroo army
    My first shock on joining “A” Squadron was to find the following:
    l. I had been assigned as wireless operator to the SSM (Squadron Sergeant Major), one Sgt. Major “Busty” Thomas, as Welsh as it was possible to be.
    2. His tank wasn’t the nice, solid-looking Sherman on which I had been trained for the past three months, but was instead a Stuart tank from the 8th Army desert days. To make matters worse its turret had been removed and the only protection “up top” was a canvas hood that was designed to keep the rain off.
    3. The SSM’s job on the battlefield was to act as nursemaid to the squadron, and this involved anything and everything that no-one else had been detailed for, including picking up stragglers, prisoners, the wounded, and in fact every job that no one else could be spared for, or, would want to do.
    Once I had recovered from my first shock I settled in quickly and soon discovered the difference between being in a unit that was strictly an “up front” operation, as opposed to being in a support role such as the Ack Ack regiment I had previously been in.
    The next thing I found out was that the Regiment was now part of an armoured spearhead that had been formed to capitalise on the breakthroughs that were taking place here in the very north of Italy. The Germans were finally on the run, and the need was not so much for heavy artillery and slow moving support groups, but rather for fast moving light vehicles and particularly armoured vehicles that could carry infantry right up to their firing positions.
    Consequently the Sherman tanks and Priest SPGs had their turrets and guns taken off, their sides built up and almost overnight were transformed into a new secret weapon with the code name ‘Kangaroos’.
    I was elected cook for our tank and also Lt.Walmsley’s tank and to my surprise made a pretty good job of it, of which, more later.
    The crew consisted of myself as wireless op and gunner, Busty as tank commander and a lad called Steve Hewitt, or more commonly referred to as “Hewie” as driver. By the way, on the point of nicknames, everyone had one and I was always known as Goldy. The armament of the tank consisted of a .30 Browning machine gun mounted fore, a .50 Browning mounted aft,a 2“ mortar, loads of grenades and pistols that we all wore in our webbing holsters.
    We were always very mobile. This mobility was taken to such an extreme that it is worth a short description of the routine. Suppose that we had been moving along a road and the order to halt came over the radio. We would pull off the road, get under the nearest tree for camouflage purposes and then our bedding sacks would be thrown off the back of the tank, quickly followed by the small cooker and the half petrol can that served as the brew up can.
    If we were there for five minutes tea would be made and we would start to cook a meal. If the order to move came crackling over the radio we would simply throw everything back on the tank and the hot brew up would be hung at the rear of the vehicle.
    If, however, it became apparent that we were there for the night, the bedrolls would be unrolled and, providing we were not on guard or wireless watch, we would get down to some sleep. The tank suits that we wore were ingeniously designed so that one could unzip them right down to the ankles and we would then use them as an extra ground sheet. In the morning one would then just reverse the process, zip up, roll the bedroll back to its packed position and we were ready to move off again.
    Regimental Diaries for that period read as follows:
    1st March to 8th March 1945,
    Re-equipping of A Sqn
    16th March
    A Sqn moved to new location 522270
    19th March
    A Sqn trained with Royal West Kents
    20th March
    A Sqn trained with Royal West Kents. 1200 (hrs) One Kangaroo carrying guardsmen of the 2nd Coldstream Guards exploded on a dump of mines causing the complete wreckage of the Kangaroo and killing 3 Guardsmen and wounding 5. The commander was killed and the driver seriously wounded.
    21st to 25th March
    A and C Sqns trained with Infantry with B Sqn as Armd protection.
    29th March
    A Sqn carried 6th RWK in exercise HOSANNAH, the Armd protection supplied by the 9th Lancers. 49 Wos,Sgts and Ors departed on Python
    By the 15th A Sqn was equipped with the long promised Priest Infantry carriers and on the 16th the Regt started to move up into an area where it could train Infantry units of 56,78 and 8 Indian Div. as they were available from tours in the line.
    All this month the ground has been dry enough for tracked vehicles to deploy and move across country.
    One of the perils of rapid advancing that was taking place at that time was that if you broke down, you were left to your own devices until the rear parties could catch up with you. On one occasion, later in the day, we had some barbed wire entangled in our tracks that brought us down to a crawl, and we had to drop behind the main advance. Fortunately we were near a farmhouse, and so we decided to bed down for the night and wait until daylight would allow us to see what we were doing.
    Before we could get to sleep we were disturbed by some Italians who had their hands full of rifles of various types. Apparently they had been informed by some earlier troops that if they had arms on the premises they must hand them in to avoid being shot as German collaborators. Quite naturally they were very keen to hand them over to us, but by the same token we were loath to tell them to fill our small crowded turret with their antiquated firepower!
    We solved the matter in a rather black comedy manner by allowing them to pass the guns up to us and then, in the dark, we threw them over the other side of the tank instead of into the turret. At first light we got rid of the offending barbed wire and got away sharp before the Italians discovered they had been spoofed.
    Back to the cooking while I think of it. It was the practice then for two tanks to “mess” together for the purposes of drawing rations etc., and we used to mess with Lt. Walmsley’s tank. If I remember rightly he was second adjutant to the squadron leader, but he was certainly Canadian by birth. I still remember the fact that he used to put his marmalade on top of his fried bacon, and when he once saw me looking at him with amusement he rejoined; “It all goes down the same hole, doesn’t it?”
    As official cook I would draw rations usually every second day, and I would be permanently on the lookout for a chance to swap items with the locals for eggs or bread, to supplement our diet. I became a pretty dab hand at finding potatoes in the fields and even managed to produce the odd spotted pudding for high occasions.
    On one occasion only Busty complained about the “sameness” of the cooking, and I was so incensed that at the next meal I gave him his plate piled high with his original rations of corned beef and dehydrated potato. Fortunately for me he saw the humour of the matter and accepted the fact that of the six crew that I was cooking for, I was probably the best bet.
    As I have already mentioned I found I had an aptitude for languages and by now my Italian was pretty fluent. Consequently, whenever it was necessary to do a small reconnaissance I was often chosen to go with to interpret.
    Trooper Ron Goldstein 4th Queen’s Own Hussars

    1. Strange that the opposite of “Open borders” seems to be “Controlled boarders”. Lol.

  16. Congratters Richard III for;
    SIR – I’m unaware of any award for ironic political statement of the year, but if one exists then we already have a clear winner: the Conservative Party spokesman who, commenting on Lee Anderson’s defection, claimed that “voting for Reform can’t deliver anything apart from a Keir Starmer-led Labour government that would take us back to square one – which means higher taxes, higher energy costs, no action on Channel crossings, and uncontrolled immigration”.

    I’m sure many voters had a wry chuckle over that claim.

    Richard Scott
    Kirkbride, Cumbria

    1. The answer being, “Who needs Labour when you have the Tories to implement their madness for them?’

    1. Kind of you, JD, but I’d much rather you call be Elsie. Ma’m sounds incredibly servile. And stop touching your forelock when you address me, you West Country Peasant! Lol.

  18. Ukraine to lose significant ground to Russia without US support, head of CIA warns. 12 March 2024.

    Ukraine risks losing “significant ground” to Russia in 2024, the head of the CIA has warned, as Volodymyr Zelensky announced he was building 1,000 kilometres (621 miles) of front-line defences.

    Ukraine is under pressure to maintain its southeastern front line after Vladimir Putin’s forces overran Avdiivka on Feb 17 – Russia’s first capture of a city in nine months

    The CIA has discovered what everyone else has known for the last twelve months?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/11/ukraine-to-lose-significant-ground-to-russia-without-us-sup/

  21. ‘Morning All

    Medley Time

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7cb8106e5c41987451a9f763fd0bced62a36e8b1e33142981205b612c8defc9f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6b270b6a8cce6ee0917cc2988f19c582c03474fd05d89dad734f2ece2c17ded4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/887696b103b4f12d373d22f898c327beb60478a1d7d499892da70abcedaa5d6d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af1718b971d4c1f0f1623f5f4f35e5ccdd7f0573693faf9fbea2e9f48006b11c.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ccd879593177960eef5b6af016ae2f0e850273fb38d5bb3f3a6f86323eaee85.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a184d9a02b90c82955eb334ae729cf9ebc27867fef505eeaa92f46f8f3f7e93d.jpg

    Finally,remember in any conspiracy of four or more people at least one will be a police informer/agent

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d26dc4422b0f3b3c2cebbebc56fc5565e891cfeea4393fc783be758d197a6c9a.jpg

    1. I particularly like the Thomas Sowell quote. It exemplifies a large proportion of my acquaintance.

      1. Sadly not only acquaintance but members of my own family it’s very disheartening at times the MSM has much to answer for…….

      2. My experience, too. See also Jonathan Swift’s aphorism: “You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.”

    4. The sheep one reflects reality. Undercover cops infiltrated a drug cartel. They were in it so long they ended up running it.
      I kid you not.

    5. The last one reminds me of an early Tom Sharpe book where, IIRC, every member of a terrorist cell was actually an undercover BOSS agent?

  22. How strange, Minty. When President Trump said “build a wall” to keep out undesirables he was excoriated for it.

  23. Good morning all and the platoons of the 77th,

    There’s but one word to describe the scene out of my study window at McPhee Towers this morning: Dreich. Wind in the South-West, 8℃ with the climate cultists promising a scorching, record-breaking 12℃ this afternoon.

    Oh dear.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0a934d8eb3b0c3f9a0c99381226f1aafe8f18d6a1ba221997bc245505925503.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/frank-hester-diane-abbot-conservative-party-donor/

    That’ll have them shrieking their little lefty heads off at the Grauniad and the Grauniad Broadcasting Corporation. Mind you, I can see his point:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e370d176df678c0b9441835ca76ddaa4d2d4b77f009c93dcf0cf593586615f1b.png

    But maybe saying she should be shot is taking it a bit too far.

    Seriously though, methinks Mr Hester, despite his undoubted economic success, is a bear of very little brain. It’s more than a trifle unfair to all those magnificent black women who have, or who are, showing themselves to be ‘one of us’. One thinks of Esther Krakue, Inaya Folarin Iman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Candace Owens and so on. Silly Frank.

  24. Good morning all and the platoons of the 77th,

    There’s but one word to describe the scene out of my study window at McPhee Towers this morning: Dreich. Wind in the South-West, 8℃ with the climate cultists promising a scorching, record-breaking 12℃ this afternoon.

    Oh dear.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0a934d8eb3b0c3f9a0c99381226f1aafe8f18d6a1ba221997bc245505925503.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/frank-hester-diane-abbot-conservative-party-donor/

    That’ll have them shrieking their little lefty heads off at the Grauniad and the Grauniad Broadcasting Corporation. Mind you, I can see his point:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e370d176df678c0b9441835ca76ddaa4d2d4b77f009c93dcf0cf593586615f1b.png

    But maybe saying she should be shot is taking it a bit too far.

    Seriously though, methinks Mr Hester, despite his undoubted economic success, is a bear of very little brain. It’s more than a trifle unfair to all those magnificent black women who have, or who are, showing themselves to be ‘one of us’. One thinks of Esther Krakue, Inaya Folarin Iman, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Candace Owens and so on. Silly Frank.

  25. The Sunak-Gove exchange is pretty difficult to beat. Probably because it is true?

  26. Germany confirms UK talks on ‘weapons-swap’ to get missiles to Ukraine. 12 March 2024.

    Germany’s foreign minister has confirmed that Britain and Berlin are discussing a weapons rotation, or “Ringtausch”, which would allow more deliveries of long-range missiles to Ukraine.

    Under the proposals, Storm Shadow missiles from a UK stockpile would be sent to Ukraine and then in turn replenished with Taurus missiles from a German stockpile.

    Crucially, the arrangement would allow Germany to indirectly give Ukraine long-range missile support without breaking a key red line of Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, who is staunchly opposed to handing over the powerful Taurus system as he fears it would be used to strike Moscow.

    Who is supposed to be fooled by this infantile arrangement?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/11/germany-uk-weapons-swap-long-range-missiles-ukraine/

  28. Boosting gas capacity is the insurance policy Britain needs while we deliver net zero. Rishi Sunak. 12 March 2024.

    You can’t protect national security without delivering energy security. The war in Ukraine reminded us all of that. A nation that is dependent on the whims of dictators for its energy supply can never be truly safe.

    That is why we stopped Russian energy imports and are standing on our own two feet. Instead of empowering Putin, we are powering Britain – delivering new sources of home-grown energy, with new nuclear power plants, record investment in renewables, and new oil and gas licences in the North Sea.

    We should be proud that our domestic energy production is thriving, directly supporting over 160,000 jobs, with tens of thousands more along the supply chains. And we should be proud that we are on track to meet our net zero targets.

    He wasn’t on his way to Damascus was he? The content of this article is positively sick making. We have never imported Russian Gas just for starters. It is actually a recantation of Conservative Energy policies for the last ten years. An unspoken admission that they were all bollocks!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/12/rishi-sunak-energy-security-gas-net-zero-north-sea/

  29. Following from Robert Tombs’ article (in today’s Terriblegraph but posted here yesterday), from Charles Moore’s piece. It is another example of our country slowly falling apart.

    “ Last autumn, one sunny Sunday morning, a country neighbour of ours drove down to check his beef cattle. Sitting on his quad bike, he lifted the electric fence to drive under it and felt fierce stabbing pains. He had been electrocuted. The electricians told him afterwards, “You should have died.” They attributed his survival to his quad bike’s rubber wheels. A mains cable – a three-phase 415-volt power line – had fallen in the field, sending its current through the farmer’s fence. It lay there live, sparking and smoking, so no one could go near it.
    The farmer rang UK Power Networks (UKPN) and the fire brigade. He was desperate to avoid any shocks to his 56 cattle as they grazed. Normally, on such occasions, the mains power is switched off fast. But this time, for reasons which remain obscure, this did not happen.
    The danger was great. Walkers on the nearby footpath, which is about a yard from the electric fence, were warned off only just in time.
    The farmer, his family and the fire brigade tried to protect the herd from the live fence surrounding them. But then one cow moved, touched the fence and collapsed. This terrified the others, who ran straight over it. Most escaped, or fell stunned to the ground with lesions; but six, who were caught on the fence, died. All those present could only watch the terrible sight, helpless. Two hours later, the power was cut off. It took longer to move and calm the surviving cattle. The cleaning up was a grim and expensive task.
    According to the farmer’s land agent, UKPN said the incident was “an accident which could not have been foreseen”. They maintained, without producing evidence, that their inspections were in order. They admitted no liability but handed over the value of the dead cattle and a modest sum for the ensuing vets’ bills etc “as a goodwill gesture”. No compensation. The contents of a so-called “independent report” commissioned by UKPN were never disclosed.
    The farmer accepted the offer. Life, except for the six cows, goes on. He is not seeking more money. Why do I tell this story, then? Just because those involved feel that, if the company in charge of our country’s power cables can permit such literally deadly risk to people and animals, the public should know.
    Bishop James Jones, speaking of the Hillsborough disaster, famously criticised “the patronising disposition of unaccountable power”. After the word “power”, I would add only the word “lines”.”

      1. An imposed globalist stooge put in to do the bidding of wasters who want to do this country in.

    2. The man is an utter oaf. Net zero is a nonsensical economic wrecking ball. That’s what it’s designed to do.

      It must be abandoned.

      As it is, he’s not building them now. The plan is to build them ‘in the future’. As it is, we need double – likely triple the energy production capacity we currently have. Yet again, he’s a liar and a charlatan.

      1. “The man is an utter oaf.”

        But of course he is, he’s a politician. The expressions, “oaf”, “politician” and “bent corrupt bastard” are all synonyms.

    3. I can’t read the article but what does he mean by ‘domestic energy production’? Boosting gas capacity might well mean importing gas from abroad into newly built containers. Burning imported natural gas in the UK could easily be called ‘domestic energy production’.

  31. I’m going to an external meeting for 9 and so because of the rain decided this morning to go straight there on public transport rather than go into work first (either on my push-bike, puncture now mended thanks to marvellous spouse, or motorbike.)

    I am on the Tube waiting for it to depart. Lucky me. Of all the empty seats that the moron talking on the phone could have chosen, she sits next to me in her wet, dripping coat. It’s not an auspicious start to the day.

    Edit. She is also slurping cofffee.

    2. Why don’t you move seat? It would be a lovely passive aggressive way of showing your irritation.

      1. Well I had got myself all sorted out – taken my coat off, put my brolly somewhere unobtrusive, ditto my bag – and the carriage was filling up so it would have become a bit of a pain. I suppose my point is, why would you have a telephone call with anyone in public, let alone at 7:30 am?

    2. Morning Rik. I’m not sure that you should have put that up! It will have the phones at Ofcom ringing like the Bells of Hell!

  33. OT – in this depressing weather and dispiriting political scene – here is something stunning to cheer you up:

    Discovering the Music of Antiquity – YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddjxJZU3VzU

    Sheer magic

    (It was on BBC TV but appear s not to be on catchup (it is a French programme))

    1. Thanks, Bill; that really is interesting. I shall watch the rest after swimming to this morning’s tango classes (biblical rain today in Buenos Aires!!).

  34. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a horrible day.
    It makes me jealous of those who have chosen to move out of thus dismal and dismantled country.
    I’d like to think that the Conservatives would learn something, but it’s pretty obvious that they are set firmly on their own path of destruction, including everything around the path of thier destiny.
    Everything they have touched or even looked at they will or have wrecked. Gove is at it, at this moment in time. Suggestions they may learn lessons is the opposite of any expectations. They are not only collectively stupid but extreemly destructive, pompous and arrogant with it.

    2. If it helps, it is chucking it down in absolutely biblical proportions here in Buenos Aires!!

    3. If it helps, it is chucking it down in absolutely biblical proportions here in Buenos Aires!!

  35. Michael Deacon is becoming more like Auberon Waugh with each passing column:

    Bad language

    A leading French linguist, Bernard Cerquiglini, has caused a stir by arguing that English is nothing more than “badly pronounced French”. This is of course an outrageous slur. True, we may have stolen quite a lot of their language. But we have also improved on it – by very sensibly dispensing with its silliest features.

    For example, its insistence on assigning a gender to every object under the sun – even when comically inappropriate. According to the French, female genitalia (“le vagin”, “le clitoris”) is masculine. Goodness knows where Frenchmen got their reputation for being expert lovers.

    Similarly, we see how unwise it is for the French to have two different forms of the word “you”: one for people they’re close to, the other for everyone else. What if you address someone as “tu”, and they address you back as “vous”? The potential for offence is huge. No wonder the French always look so sulky.

    Most sensibly of all, though, we eschew their absurd names for numbers. The French word for 70 translates as “60 10”, 80 as “four 20s”, and 90 as “four 20s 10”. Who came up with this nonsense? And how much wine had he drunk?

    In short: English is not a badly pronounced version of French. French is a primitive version of English.

    1. Good news about Deacon! Auberon Waugh was a top man. It’s not just the French, the Italians are up to the same thing. A table is masculine ‘ un tavolo’ until it is laid for a meal, at which point it identifies as female ‘una tavola’. I say a table’s gender is defined in the factory and is neuter.

    2. Young women in German are neuter. The Belgians use ‘septante’ and ‘nonente’ for 70 and 90.

      The ritual of ‘tutoyage’ is an important one in French culture. They have this culture whereby preferential terms are given to trusted friends, and so it is important to establish a personal relationship before conducting business with the French. It is the way they do things, and perhaps not an unreasonable precaution. In Slav cultures, nobody can be trusted until they have been observed blind drunk, which exposes true character and intentions as well as anything.

      The French are notoriously chauvinistic, and the best way to handle their incessant mocking is to mock them back. However, there is also a charm in the way they express things. I was robbed once in Normandy by distraction pickpockets from Romania working the tourist areas. A hamfisted Clouseau bashing out my Statement on his typewriter wrote out for me “I as admiring the beauties that is the Cathedral, when a young lady, full charming approached me…”.

      I find this practice of arbitrary gender allocation of nouns in French somewhat tiresome, and often make mistakes. As I am playing a scary Russian in an opera next week, I must always remember never to use ‘a’ or ‘the’, since the Russians do not use these words.

      English is a mongrel language, and most things can be said several ways, with each cultural nuance from whence it came. Norman French, Anglo-Saxon, Roman, Viking, and then later arrivals including bastardisation of the language by Americans and things picked up in Empire days (including Chicken Tikka Massala, which Indians insist is a British abomination, but by no means as dreadful as Currywurst) all continue to confound foreigners trying to speak like a native.

    4. The late, much-missed Bron Waugh was still rebelling to the end.

      He submitted all his copy on his old, trusty, Imperial typewriter since, as he never tired of telling us, “Computers don’t work!”

    6. We used to have two words for you (and still do in dialect and church). 70 is septante in Belgian French (and so octante and nonante).

  36. And you thought the UK’s liars were bad?
    https://www.takimag.com/article/remedial-math/

    It’s a good thing President Joe Biden wasn’t strapped to a polygraph while giving his State of the Union speech on Thursday, because his results would have come back about as clean as O.J. Simpson’s. That was especially true when he recited a lot of tall tales — and some whoppers — while touting his administration’s alleged successes.

    Here is a list my top five half-truths and in some cases outright fabrications:

    1. “My administration cut the deficit by $1.7 trillion.”
    2. “We will make the rich pay their fair share.”
    3. “I inherited an economy [from Donald Trump] that was on the brink …”
    4. “Fifteen million new jobs created in three years.”
    5. “Inflation keeps coming down and mortgage rates will come down as well.”
    Disgraceful.

      1. I think there used to be a debt clock near NY Times Square.
        40 years ago, when I first saw it it was whirling like a Dervish.
        This is the current state of play broken down:
        https://www.usdebtclock.org/

        Lots of interesting figures to watch.

      1. That looks to me like a rather silly statistic trying to put a gloss of accuracy by quoting a precise number.

        You have put that in quotes.
        Do you have chapter and verse on all of those or did you merely pluck the figure from thin air?

        1. During and after his term as President of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post’s fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.
          “In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims”. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021.”

          1. You really must learn to try to understand what you are reading and particularly where you are reading it.
            One lie repeated 100 times is still only one lie. That doesn’t make it any less a lie but calling it 100 lies is merely another lie.
            WAPO has a very poor record on fact checking and is so Democrat biased that it makes the UK Guardian look even handed.

          5. Probably because nobody bothered and Trump derangement syndrome destroys the sanity (what little there is) of Democrat supporters.
            Bill and Hilary Clinton lie instinctively, they can’t help themselves.

          9. Trivial it may have been prima facie.
            Nowadays, if Trump had closed down two runways for an hour the WAPO would have run the story for weeks

            Interesting how you ignore the serious things or do you think Whitewater, Lewinsky, Iraq bombing, unexplained deaths of opponents and whistle-blowers is acceptable?

          10. from your link

            “Later investigations revealed that only one commercial airliner was delayed, and that delay was only two minutes,[43][44] “

          13. Get real.
            If POTUS Air force one is expected, everything gets changed.
            No matter who is on it.

          15. not actually concerned with media coverage per se. There pro and anti. I was concerned with 35,000 lies.

          16. You are very gullible.
            And as I noted much earlier, what exactly are the individual lies?
            All 35,000 of them.

          18. Do the same for Biden and then come back to me.
            Oops they don’t.
            Why?
            Because it’s all about undermining Trump

          21. you content that there is no count. There is. The same criteria were applied in both cases. they also explain the difference. Trump speaks off the cuff more and and social media more. He doesnt check before he speaks (thats charitable). Result is you just get an avalanche of cr@p, recorded and fact checked. I honestly dont get why the GOP just didnt go with DeSantis. Right wing without the baggage. I dont care much about 99% of Trumps policies because I live in the UK. Roe vs Wade is of academic interest to me only, as is “the wall”. But his conduct is very well documented and not for me.

          23. perhaps we might reframe “telling 100 lies” as “lying 100 times”, if that makes you more happy?

          24. perhaps we might reframe “telling 100 lies” as “lying 100 times”, if that makes you more happy?

          25. You really must learn to try to understand what you are reading and particularly where you are reading it.
            One lie repeated 100 times is still only one lie. That doesn’t make it any less a lie but calling it 100 lies is merely another lie.
            WAPO has a very poor record on fact checking and is so Democrat biased that it makes the UK Guardian look even handed.

        2. During and after his term as President of the United States, Donald Trump made tens of thousands of false or misleading claims. The Washington Post’s fact-checkers documented 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidential term, an average of about 21 per day.
          “In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims”. The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 20, 2021.”

      1. His point was regarding mortgage rates:

        Mortgage interest rates under Biden have more than doubled. When Biden came into office, the rate was 2.9%, and it averaged about 3.5% under Trump. Under Biden, the rate skyrocketed to 8%, and now nationally it stands at 7.1%.

        I guess that was too hard for a Biden supporter to spot.

          1. That speech was a party political broadcast more than a traditional State of the Union.
            Like so much of modern politics things are being used for purposes not originally intended.

            Trump was also guilty when he gave them, but this one was the worst I can recall.

  38. 384642+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Reform can’t win election but they ‘can stop’ Tories, warns Rees-Mogg

    They could always consider a coalition party, the wretch cameron and leg over clegg done it, or would that blow reforms cover and compound the farage treacherous actions in 2019.

    1. The whole thing is ridiculous – especially the “photoshopping” claim. Either tell us – and show us – that she is alive and well – or say and do nothing until she reappears in public. Don’t play games with the great unwashed.

      The one thing about the original photo that struck me as off was that she was NOT wearing her wedding and engagement rings.

      2. Good morning Mr T and everyone.

        Perhaps her fingers are slightly swollen or sensitive after her recent operation? Alternatively, it could have been a spontaneous photo session on a sunny morning, and she had just been doing the washing up. Either way, it’s a story for Hello! magazine.

    1. The graphic artist thinks that DT readers are as ignorant as he is, and need telling that Guyana used to be British.

      1. That graphic artist thinks that it was called ‘Guyana’ when it was still British (as this map — from 1838–1917 — displays).

        1. Quite so. I do get the impression that the DT employs a lot of school-leavers.

    2. Is the chart suggesting that Indians were the first invaders ad that the Eritreans, Sundaese and so on just latecoming amateurs?

    2. That is not how I imagined the Lady of the Lake would actually look like, if I’m honest. Something of a disappointment when you actually see her.

      1. This woman is of low calibre, nothing at all like our own lost Excalibur bearing Ann.

    5. Like Wishy-Washy who really should sack his tailor who has been tailoring to him under false pretences. Half-mast and drainpipes.

    7. Last time we visited our daughter in Dubai I was picking up some made to measure shirts and a chap was having his wedding suit fitted. I remarked that the trousers were too short and he said it was the fashion. I said I would rather not be fashionable.

      2. As a trend setter whose clothing and colour choices are featured on the catwalks of London, Milan and Paris I am used to people copying my style. It’s a burden I must bear.

      1. There’s a couple of painted wood swords here for re-enactments – we made one for Junior as well over lockdown. The blacksmithing of a real sword wore him out!

      1. One of my dance teachers does actually have a pair of trousers with one leg chopped off at the knee. I have absolutely no idea why.

        The first time i saw him wear them, I attempted a joke about masonry. Still haven’t managed to explain it… 🤣🤣 (there are some things you really do have to be fluent in a language to manage!)

    13. whoever she is her hosiery is twisted on her left foot – you can see the heel mark in the foot area from the last wearing – not good sartorially

  46. At last but many years behind the outset, the media have latched on to the cost of veterinary services. Dreadful costs.

    1. I gave up on pet insurance. I just put £100 a month in a separate account for when the doggies need it.

      2. #Me Too. Oscar’s premium went up to over £800 but the excess was £150 and the previous year all his treatments had come in at under £100 each. Despite his problems with his eyes and his pain killers I was still quids in by doing that.

    2. Our cats anti flea medication is about 200% too expensive but cant buy it without the vet prescription.

  47. And a 20mph road sign! I received a parking ticket yesterday. A fine of £25 for parking somewhere I should have paid £1 to park. I’ve parked there hundreds of times before and this is my first ticket, so I consider myself well ahead of the commissars!

  56. NHS staff numbers surge above two million for first time. 12 March 2024.

    The number of staff employed by the NHS has surged above 2 million for the first time as Jeremy Hunt prepares to plough an additional £6bn into the service.

    More than one-third of the almost 6 million people employed in the public sector now work for the NHS, according to the Office for National Statistics, with a further 208,000 employed in other state-funded health and social work.

    First Aid post to the Third World!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/12/nhs-staff-numbers-surge-above-two-million-first-time/

      1. We are rapidly becoming a failing public health service with a bankrupt country attached.

    2. Perhaps a new NHS target could be “My government will reduce NHS waiting lists to below the number of NHS employees “?

    3. I’ve noticed the same thing – the problem is always resolved by more people, never better processes. I heard from a nurse chum that her first two hours are spent telling two different groups of people the same information because the second group can’t get to the first one.

      I suggested putting summary notes out for the second group but they refuse that approach as it’s easier to talk to the people: regardless of the time that costs.

    4. Yo Minty,

      May I fiddle

      More than one-third of the almost 6 million people employed in the public sector now work are employed by the NHS, according to the Office for National Statistics, with a further 208,000 employed in other state-fundedhealth and social work.

    5. The overwhelming majority of the work force have nothing to do with treating the sick.

    6. The first question is not how many staff work in the NHS but how many full-time equivalents. The second is how do the numbers break down by the various jobs.

    7. The first question is not how many staff work in the NHS but how many full-time equivalents. The second is how do the numbers break down by the various jobs.

  57. I don’t move out of their way, I expect them to move out of mine. I’m not actually going to knock them off their bikes but I’d like them to think I might!

  59. Ok, it’s Edward and Sophie then. Actually, the one in the uniform could be Princess Anne.

  60. As Putin orchestrates his reelection, a resilient Russian economy is a key selling point. 12 March 2024.

    MOSCOW (AP) — Russians are finding a few imported staples, like fruit, coffee and olive oil, have shot way up in price. Most global brands have disappeared — or been reincarnated as Russian equivalents under new, Kremlin-friendly ownership. A lot more Chinese cars are zipping around the streets. Those who want a particular luxury cosmetic may be out of luck.

    Other than that, not much has changed economically for most people in President Vladimir Putin’s Russia, more than two years after he sent troops into Ukraine.

    That’s despite the sweeping sanctions that have cut off much of Russia’s trade with Europe, the U.S. and their allies.

    I wish we could say the same! This is a sobering look at the Russian Economy which flatly contradicts the MSM’s propaganda.

    https://apnews.com/article/russia-economy-putin-election-ukraine-97a5f92113e54cd9af0aa31778069a3e

    1. As Tucker Carlson showed us the Russian supermarkets are full of produce. Plenty of American Brands too.

      1. With not to much to do yesterday afternoon I was looking for something near Budapest on Google earth.
        I ventured across the Russian border and was more than extremely surprised to find every town including Moscow had street level veiwing they have certainly been very busy in Russia.
        Unlike China north Korea and many African and Arab countries. Nothing to see move on.
        Dubai looked very tidy and well laid out.
        Our youngest son is going there to work sometime next month.

    2. Tucker Carlson also did a price comparison with the USA. He said what he had purchased at the Russian supermarket would cost four times as much in the U.S.

      1. “MSM, blah, blah, cant trust them, blah blah. Weird cr@p on the internet is more reliable, as long as it agrees with my preconceived ideas”

      2. “MSM, blah, blah, cant trust them, blah blah. Weird cr@p on the internet is more reliable, as long as it agrees with my preconceived ideas”

  61. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/03/11/frank-hester-diane-abbot-conservative-party-donor/

    At a visceral level this is a stupid thing to say. People are different wherever you go, with character and wit of their own. Diane Abbot is a nasty, petty, not very bright woman who does a great service for the Tory party and without the demographic vote would have go no where in life, so she plays the racist card.

    Equally my chum’s wife, a furiously efficient 4’10 dynamo has turned around his life through ruthless control over his huge salary, has taken on a team of contractors and managed them, with a very, very good contractor who has huge respect for her and her quality demands. She has huge common sense, is highly literate, motivated, a great mother to her two children. They’ve gone through 3 homes – his bachelor flat, a 2 bedroom townhouse, a 4 bedroom Georgian place and now a cottage in the country while renting out the London house.

    1. It is indeed an imprudent thing to say about the wreckage that is Diane Abbot. But I cannot help but agree with his sentiment.

  62. Just my luck, you couldn’t make it up…….
    I’ve been hoping for a cataract operation to take place for around 6 months.
    I Had to postpone my appointment today after a phone call earlier, I have an eye infection (blood shot) bloody nuisance.
    Hopefully new appointment with in 3 weeks.
    Sigh……

    1. Yo Eddy

      Cataract operations are as easy as watching the flashing lights on the ‘Rotating Globe’ at a 60’s Disco.

    2. In late June, 2016, I visited my optician for an eye test and the ophthalmologist detected an ‘anomaly’ that need further investigation (she couldn’t say exactly what since she was not qualified to make a diagnosis). Instead she made me an appointment at a local eye hospital and told me there might be a two-month wait.

      I got an appointment the following week and, after the diagnosis of cataracts was confirmed, they offered to perform the first examination on my left eye … immediately! This was the 6th July and on 1st September I had the same operation on my right eye. The only charge made to me, on each occasion, was a SEK300 [£23·00] standard consultation fee.

      1. Then it seems I was lucky mine is at a private hospital. But NHS financed. I’d have been put back twelve months with NHS if I had actually been able to get this far.

  63. I’d just like the war to end and the region be properly negotiated. The people there are ethnically Russian. The rest of Ukraine wants them for their own.

    Continuing to pour materiel into the Ukrainian army is just prolonging a miserable situation.

    1. Basically, what you are saying is what Putin wants. The Russian speaking areas of Ukraine go to Russia and an agreement that Ukraine be neutral, not a part of NATO which threatens Russia and its borders. Reasonable requests to my mind. That Ukraine wants to pretend it is a different country from Russia is stupid but if that’s what they want….. But I suspect the silent majority do not want that, they have been manipulated with hate and propaganda into that position for years before the war even started.

      1. Any British person aware of 20th century history will have a troubling image of former PM Neville Chamberlain waving a document at the airport and claiming “peace in our time”. That was in 1938.

        History may not always repeat itself, but it sometimes does. In any case, annexation for whatever reason has been frowned on ever since. What to do about it is the question the UN really needs to ask itself.

        Nobody has the automatic right to friendly neighbours, which is why governments anywhere invest in border control and national defence.

        A declaration of independence is another matter, and there have been many of these since WW2. Sometimes they get nowhere (Scotland for example), and sometimes new sovereign nations are formed (South Sudan being perhaps the most recent). Ukraine was declared and recognised a sovereign nation since the 1990s, regardless of its provincial status before then.

        This mistake was made by Russia during the breakup of the USSR – they should have insisted that Crimea and the Donbas either be allocated to Russia or that they become independent states, capable of deciding its own destiny. However, the deal struck then was that these two regions become part of Ukraine, perhaps as part of a package whereby Ukraine relinquished its nuclear deterrent. Kazakhstan, on the other hand, chose not to.

        1. It gets complicated by the fact that Ukrainians And Russians do not think of themselves as foreigners to each other. So such thoughts as true independence didn’t arise. As I said, this has been fueled by politics, much of it by people like Zelenskyy and the extreme right wing in Ukraine who really are NAZIS, hard though it may be for Westerners to understand. On the other hand it has been caused by the machinations of the West, in particular the USA who simply can’t let go of the image of Russia as the Soviet Union and who, after making a deal with the Russians when the USSR collapsed, promptly failed to keep to that agreement. On top of that you may remember that when the USSR collapsed they had far greater concerns then the idea that their brothers, for that is what Ukrainians and Russians are, would enter into conflict and what has transpired, would happen. The Russians/Ukrainians would have thought that mad. Ukrainians are Russians, that is the point. The name Ukraine is from ukraina, the borderlands, i.e. of Russia. So what you are seeing is essentially a civil war, not a war between two long standing countries. It is not even a civil war between, lets say, the English and the Scots. It is a war between Yorkshire and the rest of England. It is madness. Further, modern Ukraine, is an invention of Stalin. It has no history apart from Soviet propaganda and political machinations. In short the situation is much more complicated than it appears to those who do not know the history of the region or know the people. In my own family there are both Russians and Ukrainians and they do not make distinctions between one another at all, they are all Russians.

          1. hmm, Russia doesnt have a history of treating its “brother” Ukrainians very well…

          4. Not true. You are only looking at a very short span of history. Most of it well within my life time and my step-fathers. One of the things that bothers me is how little people know of Russian history, how far back it goes and/or its complexities. Instead a false narrative is imposed. It is a narrative imposed by the misfortune Of Communism, which overshadows everything about perceptions about Russia in the West. But, as I have pointed out before, communism is a Western ideology imposed upon Russia and a distorted lens by which the West sees Russia. The tragedy is that the West still imposes a misperception on Russia because of communist history and Western propaganda, but it is a false perception. The speed that Russia got rid of Communism should tell you that it was not essential to Russia or part of Russia ‘soul’, as it were. It was an alien dress that when the opportunity arose, was removed in an instant and the people returned to the old Russia, prior to the Communist revolution, back to “Holy Mother Russia and the Tsar” The latter institution embodied by Putin.

          5. I’m not sure what any of this has to with Ukraine tbh. This just reads like a very long winded way of saying “you’ve got it all wrong”. You haven’t said what this great misperception is. I have no idea why you conflate a system of government with a country’s “soul”, whatever that is. Russia adopted communism itself it wasn’t forced upon it by an outside force. If anything, Europe helped White Russians fight the communists no?

          6. “The name Ukraine is from ukraina, the borderlands, i.e. of Russia. So what you are seeing is essentially a civil war”
            NOT how you define a civil war.

          7. Yes, it is a civil war. I was not trying to define it, it is exactly that, a civil war.

          9. “…modern Ukraine is an invention of Stalin.”

            Indeed, but only after he stamped on the independent Ukraine that tried to establish itself after the first 1917 revolution.

          10. Hardly the point since there was no Ukraine even before that. There is no mention of a country called Ukraine for over 1000 years of history until Stalin. You are aware that Kiev is the ‘holy city’ for all Russians.

          11. The name ‘Ukraine’ appears in the 12th century but it wasn’t until mid-19th when the idea of a Ukrainian people arose as Russia effectively banned what they, the Ukrainians, considered to be a separate language.

          12. The word appears, yes. But as I have already pointed out it is a term meaning something like “border Russian” as opposed to someone who lives in the heartland. It has no nationalistic connotation at all until the Communist era. And, Ukrainian is not a separate language, it’s a dialect.

          18. They don’t discuss it. Or at least, I have never heard them talk about it. You are misleading yourself in the sense you think that would pit Ukrainians against Russians. What they understand clearly is that was Stalin and everyone Ukrainian, Russian and a 100 other groups suffered under him. Millions of Russians also died in that tragedy. It wasn’t exclusively the Ukrainians at all. Over 8 million died in that, not even half of them were Ukrainians. The Holodomor was not exclusively launched against Ukraine, it attacked all Kulaks (farmers) throughout the USSR. It is a disgrace that the present government of Ukraine uses it as a political weapon against people who, historically, suffered just as terribly as they did. It is a cynical and dishonest use of history by distorting and misrepresenting fact.

          19. As of 2023 34 countries and the European Union have recognised the Holodomor as a genocide

          21. I mean, the Ukrainians just don’t seem keen to be part of Russia. There wasn’t much of a welcome mat for the invaders…

          22. In fact it isn’t quite like that. What you don’t see are the Ukrainian troops defecting and you don’t see the welcome mat being rolled out by ordinary villagers in Ukraine when the Russians arrive. What you should question is why, if the West is telling the truth, almost all, if not all, news directly from Russia or its friends are blocked from transmitting into the UK/USA etc. You only hear the version that Western governments want you to hear and you only hear what they want you to believe about Putin.

          24. I mean, the Ukrainians just don’t seem keen to be part of Russia. There wasn’t much of a welcome mat for the invaders…

          25. hmm. In February 1917, a “Ukrainian National Republic” (UNR) was declared in Kyiv. After the Bolsheviks took power in Moscow, the UNR declared independence in January 1918.

            This is not consistent with your claims

          1. wouldn’t it make sense for the Ukrainian people to decide if they want to be part of Russia or not? They dont seem keen, so far

          2. The ordinary Ukrainian does not think of himself as non-Russian probably because they are Russians. As I pointed out, “Ukraine” is from a Russian word simply meaning ‘borderland’. In other words, Ukrainians are Russians living on or in the borderland of Russia. It is roughly analogous to when the Americans in the East used “The West” meaning the new territories that later became California, Oregon, etc.

          4. and resorting to etymology is pretty weak. Nobody has ever drawn a border on that basis. Maybe on that basis the USA should cede New Mexico, and England can reclaim Georgia (named for our king). That argument doesnt stand up even for a second. Why would you even make it?

    4. maybe Russia could remove its military from Ukraine and each region could vote on national membership?

  64. Another very wet morning , strong breeze , 11c

    Potholes are your problem to fix, council tells 101-year-old woman
    Residents in Somerset seaside town say ‘we are all elderly and do not have that kind of money’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/11/council-tells-woman-101-potholes-are-her-problem-to-fix/

    Liam Strange
    5 MIN AGO
    £11.20 for a big bag of cold lay macadam from Wickes. Haven’t the old fogeys got any grandchildren with a shovel?

    Are we allowed by law to infill holes in the road that are severe .

    Loads of holes around here , and as the motor bikers like my son will be longing to get out and about when the finer weather starts , the local roads are in a parlous state.

    1. Pot holes are actually the responsibility of local councils. What they mean is, they can’t be bothered and would rather spend the money on diversity.

      1. I have just this minute glanced at the online Dorset Echo , which needs a subscription so i can’t read the whole article .

        Dorset Council gets HS2 cash to repair roads and potholes.

        DORSET has scooped more than £4 million to help with repairing potholes and damaged roads.

        It is called , levelling up . (sarc) and robbing Peter to pay Paul.

  65. And in other news….Passenger jet pilots fall asleep mid-flight for 28 minutes
    Co-pilot of Batik Air plane in Indonesia had his previous night’s sleep disturbed by newborn twins

    Thai and Die, eh?

      2. “Good morning ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are now flying across the Atlantic heading for Boston. We are switching to automatic pilot now and would like to assure all of our passengers that nothing can go wrong.” ……..click, can go wrong…..click, can go wrong…..

    3. Aircraft suddenly dives on flight from Sydney to Auckland. Many passengers injured as they are thrown from their seats.

        1. If I remember correctly it was a Boing. An ashen faced pilot is alleged to have told his passengers all its instruments went blank….

          1. Latam Airlines: Passengers who cheated death were offered ‘tiny meal’ as compensation after their plane suddenly plunged out of the sky.

            Chilean airline… And it WAS a boeing, boeing bong

      2. All the other passenger were seat belted and wondered why 50 other passengers had decided to visit the ceiling.

  67. Whoops, it’s happened again, and just before he was due to testify to Federal Aviation Authority:

    Boeing whistleblower found dead
    Sudden death of John Barnett comes as Federal Aviation Administration investigation raises further safety concerns

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/12/boeing-whistleblower-charleston-factory-john-barnett-dead/#comment

    ——————–

    Top BTL comments:

    SL

    Sir Lancelot
    1 HR AGO
    Someone who had major dirt on one of the largest defense contractors just happened to kill himself before he finished his deposition… sure and I’m Santa!

    REPLY
    2 REPLIES
    158
    1
    REPORT
    Reply by David Livermore.

    DL

    David Livermore
    35 MIN AGO
    Reply to Sir Lancelot – view message
    Bit like well-timed balcony fall in Moscow.

    REPLY
    17
    0

    1. Cheltenham starts today 😁🏆🥂🍾
      And Bet 365 have just boosted State Man to evens from 1-3

      1. Not going to be a great day for outdoor activities. Wet sandwiches and watered down champagne!

    2. I can’t warm to this chap. Funny thing is – he looks and sounds like a policeman – and acts like one, sometimes. Yet the perlice hate him.

    3. I can’t warm to this chap. Funny thing is – he looks and sounds like a policeman – and acts like one, sometimes. Yet the perlice hate him.

  69. Actually, the road in question is a public right of way, not a public road, so has not been adopted by the council. That means that the residents are responsible for the maintenance of the road. But if it’s a public right of way which can be used by everybody, I would have thought that the council should have adopted it.

      1. Then the residents need to tell the council this, because they are denying responsibility.

  70. I remember wet periods with the weather, for example Spring 2000 to Spring 2001 and 2012 when it must have rained on over 300 days here in Birmingham. It feels again like we’ve had an unusually wet 12 months here in Brum, and I get the impression that the South Coast and SE England have shared our misery.

    What a contrast with the glorious sunny Scamdemic spring of 2020.

    1. To me the weather reflects my feelings about HMG and all that’s going on in the world.

      1. ChickenDaddy for me lol. Will make an excellent Christmas present for one of my friends.

  73. Crypto is doing well at the moment. I cashed in most of my currencies a while ago. I left a £100 spread in there. Today i withdrew £200 and i’m still left with £100.
    That’s the way to do it !
    I might treat myself to LewisDuckworth’s Chicken Daddy calendar below. :@)

        1. I thought that you were a rigger but never knew that there was such a thing as a “multi-talented” one. But was does an armourer like me know of the higher forms of life?

        1. Whoops – I meant to reply to JR’s post, the “male”[?] walk-thingy prancing down the catwalk. Revolting.

          Mind you,Clockwork Orange too – Kubrick wanted to shock (nothing new there). I think perhaps bowler hats were the only real thing they had in common…

        2. Whoops – I meant to reply to JR’s post, the “male”[?] walk-thingy prancing down the catwalk. Revolting.

          Mind you,Clockwork Orange too – Kubrick wanted to shock (nothing new there). I think perhaps bowler hats were the only real thing they had in common…

  77. Her son was doing well for himself. Private school. A job in Whitehall handed to him on a silver platter. Drugs. Prison. Chasing his mother around the house threatening to stab her with a pair of scissors. Happy families.

    2. But that is because West Indian women CARE so much more about their children than the English women do. Didn’t work out too well in her case, did it? Or maybe he would have been a murderer if he had not gone to private school – maybe West Indian boys need more CARE – from a father, perhaps?

      1. Mid 90s labour government tried to set up a scheme where absentee fathers had to register with new government department and make payments towards their estranged children. They soon chucked the towel in on that one.
        Think of all the votes it could have cost them.

    3. But that is because West Indian women CARE so much more about their children than the English women do. Didn’t work out too well in her case, did it? Or maybe he would have been a murderer if he had not gone to private school – maybe West Indian boys need more CARE – from a father, perhaps?

  78. Boeing whistleblower found dead

    Sudden death of John Barnett comes as Federal Aviation Administration investigation raises further safety concerns.

    Shades of Jeffrey Epstein and associates

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/03/12/boeing-whistleblower-charleston-factory-john-barnett-dead/

    PS. The ‘tyre’ did not fall off the aeroplane, the wheel did!
    If the aircraft was operational for a company, the maintenance of aircraft is their responsibility

      2. If the Quality Control system is run properly, the QA person does his/her audit, then gives the findings to The Line Manager, to rectify the non compliances.

        On the next Audit, the QA man will check that remedial actions, practices, etc have been carried out.

        If not, he raises another Audit Report and give it to the Line Manager’s Boss.

        He ALWAYS keeps Hard Copies of his findings, so when the excretia hits the blades of the rotating cooling system, he has proff that the faults or Defects were recorde

        With Quality Assurance Control

        A Defect is an Error in Design

        A Fault refers to failure in an otherwise Serviceable System.

        For my sins, I was ISO9001:2000, Third Party Assessor, which meant I could ‘audit’ Third Part Suppliers.

        Whistleblowers should never be needed, the Japanese started the whole Quality Bandwagon, when they realised the people who most abbout failures/errors in Design/Construction etc, were the people putting things together.
        That is where I always started an Audit “Right Chaps, what problemds do you have”. If errors faults proved to exist, it is the maanagers job to fix them

      3. If the Quality Control system is run properly, the QA person does his/her audit, then gives the findings to The Line Manager, to rectify the non compliances.

        On the next Audit, the QA man will check that remedial actions, practices, etc have been carried out.

        If not, he raises another Audit Report and give it to the Line Manager’s Boss.

        He ALWAYS keeps Hard Copies of his findings, so when the excretia hits the blades of the rotating cooling system, he has proof that the Faults or Defects were recorde

        With Quality Assurance Control

        A Defect is an Error in Design

        A Fault refers to failure in an otherwise Serviceable System.

        For my sins, I was ISO9001:2000, Third Party Assessor, which meant I could ‘audit’ Third Part Suppliers.

        Whistleblowers should never be needed, the Japanese started the whole Quality Bandwagon, when they realised the people who most abbout failures/errors in Design/Construction etc, were the people putting things together.

        That is where I always started an Audit “Right Chaps, what problems do you have”. If errors faults proved to exist, it is the managers’ job to get them fixed

    2. The Late Mr Barnett is reported to have said that in order to not delay the production schedules, sometimes parts were taken from the defective parts bins….

      1. He should have put it in writing and given it to the appopriate Line Manager.

        If not fixed, report it, in writing up the chain. Any mishaps, the men responsible, who did not take corrective action can be identified

      2. He should have put it in writing and given it to the appopriate Line Manager.

        If not fixed, report it, in writing up the chain. Any mishaps, the men responsible, who did not take corrective action can be identified

  79. 384642+ up ticks,

    Surely, surely an interim finding concerning the excessive deaths odious issue MUST be announced before any thought of a General Election taking place.

    Currently we could very well be on par with casting a vote for Bugsy Siegal, Al,Capone, or
    Albert mad hatter Anastasia of Murder Inc.
    Plus the fact the vote casters leave themselves open to aiding & abetting premeditated corporate manslaughter / murder charges I would say.

    https://x.com/TruthSlingerX/status/1766084250439213359?s=20

    3. There’s absolutely no doubt that very strange numbers are being documented, but why the “cherry picking” of navy pilots? Might it be that other cohorts show nothing like such an alarming rise in cases? What are the figures like for, say, the navy’s catering corps? Then there is the sharp rise in cases of what appear to be completely unrelated incidents. Is this what typically happens when dealing with small numbers – a single case one year followed by three the next – or is something going on with the data gathering and documenting process itself?

      Earlier this week, he came forward with the newly discovered data. According to article, “the following incidents exhibited increases in 2021 above the five-year average: exposure to forces of nature (773%), water transport accidents (7,400%), land transport vehicle (526%), suicide attempts (33%), assault (828%), slipping, tripping, stumble and falls (471%), and intentional self-harm (147%).”

      Macie says if his findings are true, “these problems must be addressed immediately – especially when you’re dealing with increased attempts at suicide, assault, and intentional self-harm.”

      But with an increase in external cause morbidities unrelated to the adverse effects of a vaccine, he questions whether some of the incidents could have been improperly handled and misappropriated.

      https://afn.net/national-security/2023/08/29/congress-urged-to-look-into-spike-in-non-vaccine-related-morbidities-among-military/

      1. 384642+ up ticks,

        Afternoon DW,
        May one ask,are you saying there is no case of excess deaths to answer ?

        1. A 7400% increase in water transport accidents definitely warrants an investigation.

          1. 384642+ up ticks,

            Dw,
            “A 7400% increase in water transport accidents”

            Self inflicted via the Dover invasion.

            Returning to excess deaths due to the compulsory jab for example is there any truth content there in your opinion.

          2. As the data relates to the US services, the Dover invasion is not a factor.

            The history of the jab’s administration is a mixture of compulsion, coercion and encouragement. I was no more than encouraged and was entirely free not to take it had I so wished.

            There is some certain evidence linking the Covid-19 jab to a few deaths. There’s a great deal of circumstantial evidence linking it to more deaths, some of which I’m prepared to accept. However, I’m also still confident that the vaccine has saved more lives overall than it has cost and that the excess deaths are more to do with the virus itself plus the disruption to healthcare services generally through the diversion of resources to tackle the virus along with the effects of social isolation with both resulting in delays for the treatment of other conditions. My one caveat to that is that the vaccine should have been targeted at the most vulnerable, mainly the elderly, immunocompromised and those with known risk factors. Not only would this have spared the vast majority of those younger and healthier people for whom the Covid-19 virus presented a very low risk, it would have spared the public purse too.

          3. 384642+ up ticks,

            DW,
            Are you denying it was an orchestrated campaign comprising of treacherous
            threats,people manipulation,
            insider dealing regarding PPE
            Etc,etc,etc.

            In point of fact it was a vaccine with no history, and in my book it killed and maimed in body and mind a great many peoples,ongoing.

  82. Despite scenes of defiance, plenty of Russians support Putin as election nears. 12 March 2024.

    “We will definitely vote for Putin, he made Russia a much better country,” said Dmitry, a 41-year-old real estate worker from the Komi Republic, in Russia’s far north, who was visiting Moscow with his wife.

    Asked about the war in Ukraine and if he held Putin responsible for Russia’s involvement, he replied: “No, we support him in it. Victory will be ours and if it is needed, I will go and fight too.”

    Sergey, a 25-year-old office worker, said he felt his job was secure and stable, with good health benefits. He rejected any suggestion that international sanctions on Russia had made the country poorer.

    “I just don’t feel any impact of sanctions as an ordinary Russian citizen,” he insisted.

    I would vote for Vlad if he was standing for Prime Minister. Let’s face it he stands head and shoulders above any of the traitorish trash that we have.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/12/europe/russian-support-putin-election-intl-cmd/index.html

    1. “The fact that he is our uncle – and three policemen are pointing guns at us – is irrelevant.”

      1. Ah Bill. That’s because you can still remember being shot in the behind when you were running that courier service into Eastern Europe for the BBC during the sixties.

    2. My lifetime experience is that ordinary people tend to support their country and its policies.
      They believe what they have seen on television or read in the newspaper.
      Readers might cast their minds back to the seventies and eighties and remember conversations they might have had with people from for example South Africa or maybe Argentina.
      People from other cultures often see things in quite a different light.

    4. One happy Russian is hardly a reliable survey.

      He would probably have said anything to be allowed out of the snowy Komi district.

  83. Despite scenes of defiance, plenty of Russians support Putin as election nears. 12 March 2024.

    “We will definitely vote for Putin, he made Russia a much better country,” said Dmitry, a 41-year-old real estate worker from the Komi Republic, in Russia’s far north, who was visiting Moscow with his wife.

    Asked about the war in Ukraine and if he held Putin responsible for Russia’s involvement, he replied: “No, we support him in it. Victory will be ours and if it is needed, I will go and fight too.”

    Sergey, a 25-year-old office worker, said he felt his job was secure and stable, with good health benefits. He rejected any suggestion that international sanctions on Russia had made the country poorer.

    “I just don’t feel any impact of sanctions as an ordinary Russian citizen,” he insisted.

    I would vote for Vlad if he was standing for Prime Minister. Let’s face it he stands head and shoulders above any of the traitorish trash that we have.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/12/europe/russian-support-putin-election-intl-cmd/index.html

  84. Our eldest is over there now on business right as we speak Phizz.
    I was looking for one of the factories.

  89. The Child Support Agency. I am reliably informed that they targeted divorced dads who were supporting the kids but whose ex-wives kept reporting to the CSA that they believed their ex was earning more than he admitted. Cases where the mother wouldn’t or couldn’t name the father were generally ignored.

    1. Close, a chap I was working with his wife had walked out on him with their two young children had moved in with a very wealthy chap and was demanding a lot of extra money from him to ‘support’ her new way of life.
      Last I’d heard he buzzed of to Spain to live.
      Couldn’t name the father’s because they had walked away leaving their responsibilities of a family behind and in serious financial stress.
      But the government couldn’t be bothered with such an awkward task.

  90. The Child Support Agency. I am reliably informed that they targeted divorced dads who were supporting the kids but whose ex-wives kept reporting to the CSA that they believed their ex was earning more than he admitted. Cases where the mother wouldn’t or couldn’t name the father were generally ignored.

  91. Michael Gove’s ‘hate tsar’ quits before he’s even begun. 12 March 2024.

    Michael Gove’s mission to tackle extremism has got off to a shaky start. Fiyaz Mughal, the man who was reportedly lined up to officially begin as the government’s anti-Muslim hatred tsar today, has quit after being bombarded with hate mail.

    Mughal said he received a ‘torrent of abuse’ from both Islamists and far-right extremists just hours after his name was leaked on Friday. ‘Serious stuff was coming through my inbox,’ Mughal said, who hit out at ministers for failing to protect him from the backlash.

    The far-Right? What all five of them? Lol!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/michael-goves-hate-tsar-quits-before-hes-even-begun/

    1. It looks as though he tagged ‘far right’ on the tail. There weren’t any because there aren’t any but you have to keep up with the Jones’s.

  94. Of course they do. They follow the line of least resistance. It explains Hitler and Stalin. No one wants to feel that they are up against the state.

  95. Of course they do. They follow the line of least resistance. It explains Hitler and Stalin. No one wants to feel that they are up against the state.

  96. As recently as 10 years ago a white South African was assuring me that Britain was a racist hell hole but everybody was getting on wonderfully well in the Rainbow Nation. That was, of course, why she was trying to build up her points for getting a British passport by working over here.

    1. The south African didn’t mention that just like north of the border where white farmers and their families were murdered the same was happening in SA.
      And at the time there was not one mention that hitler mugabe was murdering thousands of people he knew would never vote for him. Another tribe. And that’s what has happened to SA now tribalism. It’s far worse than racism.
      Our neighbour is from south Africa she’s in the Cape now.
      She’s been in the UK for years.
      And has told me as soon as her elderly mother passes away she’s cutting all ties.

    2. Fraser Nelson has just penned an article on the Spectator site about the potential Emirati sale.
      Titled: Is an Emirati minority stake in the Telegraph compatible with a free press?
      I’ve posted a comment below the article that implores him to rethink the disastrous new Spectator commenting systems.
      If you still retain access to the Spectator I’d ask you to add your thoughts onto this article.
      If enough comments get posted, maybe we can demonstrate to the Speccy high command what a stupid and counter-productive move this has been.

      1. I will Gussie. It will be under another name as I registered an alternative with my Spectator account – as a Wodehousian you will work it out I’m sure.

    1. Is Eddie ‘Suzy’ Izzard hankering for a shot at the ladies’ fashion award?

  98. Fine BTL Comment from the DT:

    Warren Alexander
    1 HR AGO
    Reply
    ‘The current government makes the late and unlamented Ted Heath seem hard right and economically sound’.

    1. For ‘Sailor’ Ted, hard right might mean the direction of the tiller or that of the vessel.

        1. Yes, indeed. Hard-a-starboard (right) for turning the vessel left and hard-a-port (left) for turning the vessel right.

  107. I have signed up to a monthly plan with the Vet. It covers all appointments and the flea and worm treatment for my two dogs. It ends up saving me £50 a year.

    1. When we had to have our lovely doggo put to sleep, our veterinary practice wanted around 500 pounds. I found another local smaller practice who did it for 200 and a plaster paw print.
      Ashes not required, ashes are ashes.

      1. I paid £500 for the cat last time. I got the ashes included but the price is wrong. Dolly and Harry are going to be buried in the garden…once they’ve squawked.

      2. In France it costs around 100€. Cremation is extra but most people bury their pets in the garden.

        1. I remember our friends in Charent Maritime telling us their neighbours had buried a dog in their garden.
          Not for the first time.

          1. I’ve always buried pets in the garden, wherever I’ve been. On the other hand of course, some people don’t have gardens.

          2. Mind you a fully grown labrador is quite a big dog. We have many memories and lovely photographs.

      3. Oscar cost me just over £240. If I had taken him home to bury and not had him cremated it would have been less than that. The paw print was free.

    2. which says something about the starting price… I looked at the same drugs elsewhere but cant buy without a prescription. bit peeved

      1. Perhaps as pet owners we should be a little less polite to Vets. Just a bit. To begin with.

          4. is that a person who was schooled at Winchester or someone with colourful sexual preferences? As in , “I sentence you to 10 years for Wykamy”

          5. I see that William of Wykeham founded New College, Oxford. Never understood how they avoided the Trade Description Act. The college is really old.

          9. Absolutely. Well, not really, but you will show the kind of person you are by how you manage the situation. I haven’t found a way to avoid the fees (maybe I should just ask for a prescription?) but I have learned the hard way that losing my rag is not the answer. Quite often when one is upset, its just a member of the admin team on the receiving end, rather than the avaricious price setter.

          10. I agree with you. Not good for the blood pressure either.

            Not good form to take it out on people who aren’t responsible.

      2. You do know you can get a prescription from the vet (for which you have to pay) and then purchase the drugs more cheaply on the internet?

        1. I did look into exactly that. It didn’t work out. I think the prescription more or less equals the mark up, or is close enough to make it no worthwhile. I don’t recall exactly

      3. I can understand drug companies wanting to make their money but with ordinary medicines they eventually become generic/cheaper. Doesn’t seem to be the case with Vets.

  108. Our American friend has just told us that Americans are being told to leave Russia. Wonder what’s coming.

  109. One’s job prospects in this governing setup seem so much better with a surname like Mughal, rather than Whitehouse, Armstrong, or Greene etc.

  110. It’s Groundhog Day.

    United States tells citizens: Leave Russia immediately

    February 13, 2023 2:49 PM GMT Updated a year ago

    MOSCOW, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The United States has told its citizens to leave Russia immediately due to the war in Ukraine and the risk of arbitrary arrest or harassment by Russian law enforcement agencies.

    “U.S. citizens residing or travelling in Russia should depart immediately,” the U.S. embassy in Moscow said. “Exercise increased caution due to the risk of wrongful detentions.”

    “Do not travel to Russia,” it added.

    “Russian security services have arrested U.S. citizens on spurious charges, singled out U.S. citizens in Russia for detention and harassment, denied them fair and transparent treatment, and convicted them in secret trials or without presenting credible evidence,” the embassy said.

    “Russian authorities arbitrarily enforce local laws against U.S. citizen religious workers and have opened questionable criminal investigations against U.S. citizens engaged in religious activity.”

    The Kremlin said it was not the first time U.S. citizens had been asked to leave Russia. The last such public warning was in September after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilisation.

    “They (warnings) have been voiced by the State Department many times in the last period, so this is not a new thing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

    The Federal Security Service (FSB) said in January that prosecutors had opened a criminal case against a United States citizen on suspicion of espionage.

    Last December, U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner was released in a prisoner swap, having been sentenced to nine years in a penal colony for possessing vape cartridges containing cannabis oil – which is banned in Russia – after a judicial process labelled a sham by Washington.

    Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine, is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian penal colony after being convicted of espionage charges that Washington also says are a sham.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/united-states-tells-citizens-depart-russia-immediately-2023-02-13/#:~:text=MOSCOW%2C%20Feb%2013%20(Reuters),by%20Russian%20law%20enforcement%20agencies.

  112. Uh-oh.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15f853e438a7fd5fb29a62102def7bfb888f2e74b8bf38a266e1ac307a164853.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/11/britain-hidden-carbon-emissions-net-zero-lie/

    Here’s where the problem for us lies:

    Scientists and business leaders fear that if politicians are allowed to keep citing only the UK’s national emissions figures, while ignoring those generated by imports, consumers will become complacent about the environment.

    Myles Allen, Oxford University’s professor of geosystem science, who served on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says the real discussions about emissions should be around ending them completely.

    “Achieving net zero should mean, from 2050, no one can be allowed to sell stuff that causes global warming,” he says. “So anyone who sells a product that causes global warming would need to explain how they are going to stop it causing global warming – whether through its production, use or disposal – by 2050.

    “If a single politician could spell it out in these not-very-complicated terms, it would have far more impact than claims about the UK’s carbon footprint”.

    Did you get that from the ‘professor’: No one can be allowed to sell stuff that causes global warming. These people are truly dangerous to the rest of us.

    1. Canada sells coal to China whilst refusing permits for lng exports. If this entire net zero shebang was really about reducing co2 emissions, we would be doing our best to replace coal (yuk, so dirty) with a cleaner fuel and increase canadian gdp at the same time.

      The fact that our environment minister is a director of some Chinese government climate change organisation is purely coincidental and has nothing to do with the increasing coal shipments to China.

      1. Germany has been building lignite (just about the dirtiest fuel imaginable) generators – just sayin’.

    3. I saw an Open Reach van this morning with the smug message “100% no emissions – electric vehicle” on the side. My first thought was, what produces the electricity? Wouldn’t be coal, oil or gas generators, would it? It was cold, dull and threatening rain at the time, but no wind.

  113. Don’t like them don’t open them
    Others seem to over the years i’ve been posting them

    1. They are right there, open. and lame. that cr@p is available on twitter. I thought this page was for discussion. Maybe use your words?

      1. If you’re too stupid to use the “hide media” facility that’s not my fault
        What an unpleasant refugee you are

          1. Are you not seeking refuge here from the changes at the Spectator? Can you not be a little more accepting of the environment into which you have inserted yourself? Wordy enough for you?

          3. Reply to the wrong person. I merely explained what you clearly could not comprehend of the previous post (which, for the sake of clarity, I had not made).

      2. If you’re too stupid to use the “hide media” facility that’s not my fault
        What an unpleasant refugee you are

    2. They are right there, open. and lame. that cr@p is available on twitter. I thought this page was for discussion. Maybe use your words?

    2. Seems like poster boy has a lower IQ than the president – between them Net Zero?

      1. “Donald Trump Fails Math Question, Still Insists He Got It Right” The question was “what is 17×6?

        1. Biff I get the impression you’ve taken against the former President. How do you rate the current one?

          1. Joe Biden doesnt like the English. So he can fook off. He screwed up withdrawal from Afghanistan.
            I suppose you can take the view that the Christian right does on Donald Trump. He is an idiot piece of garbage, but has signed off some right wing policies. Frankly the GOP could have got Trump without the baggage if they had gone for DeSantis.
            My only concern about Trump 2024 is that he will defund Ukraine. Most of the other damage he does internationally will probably be mendable. Domestically, the US gets what it votes for (notwithstanding the popular vote, obviously)

        2. Perhaps, like me, he suffers from dyscalculia. I’d struggle to answer that question (even if I wrote it down). It doesn’t mean I’m stupid any more than someone who has dyslexia is stupid. My talent is for words (and foreign languages in particular).

          1. You have taken a different approach to you number struggles. You just flat out say “I can’t do that”. Which is fine. I admire that. DJT has never admitted discalculia that I am aware, so much as claims that he is correct when he was simply flat out wrong.

    4. If only “the jokes” were amusing. I mean you know how the supreme court is balanced right?

      1. Don’t you find it sinister that Democrats want to pack the court, even if it means changing the number of Justices?

        If the judges are doing their job, independently ruling on the law and the constitution, it really shouldn’t matter who appointed them.

        1. If the laws and constitution are clearly written then I agree that the political leanings of the justices shouldn’t matter. However, when it comes to interpreting the rules, personal biases come into play. Right or wrong would thar Roe v Wade decision have been upheld by a liberal court?

          This is far more relevant in Canada where lax law wording is resulting in the Supreme court having to make significant rulings about how laws are implemented.

          1. What has become apparent is that judicial political bias is influencing decisions far more than was the case 50 years ago.
            What horrifies me is the way the lower courts are being used for dishonest lawfare against political opponents.

            Once the law is undermined in this way, one of the pillars of the democratic process gets destroyed.
            Whether of the left, right or centre, everyone should be very concerned by these trends.
            Canada is becoming a case study of the problem.

          1. 6 3 at the moment, although some supposedly right of centre appointees have moved away.
            Historically the justices tended not to be as partisan as they are becoming, in my view a dangerous thing.
            You have avoided the point I was making about independently ruling on the law and the Constitution.
            Are you suggesting their politics should overrule that?
            If so, shame on you.

          3. Perhaps, just perhaps, Roe v Wade was incorrect?

            As I understand the ruling, what the current court did was to refer the decision back to the individual States to make their own decisions, on the grounds that that the substantive right to abortion was not “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history or tradition”, nor considered a right when the Due Process Clause was ratified in 1868, and was unknown in U.S. law until Roe.
            A very technical argument which may yet be changed by the Politicians.

          4. perhaps Roe v Wade was incorrect. But the whole drive was to get conservative judges into the supreme court to get it overturned after half a century. It helped mobilise the Christian right for Trump(a sinner doing gods work ) That is what then happened. I think you are at least partially wrong or incomplete about the law. The legal original decision looked iffy (to me), but was something to do with the right to privacy rather than bodily autonomy. I think the supreme court decided that the privacy right was not correctly applied originally so the federal level law should not apply, hence the decision reverts to being made at the state level. Caveat, I know next to nothing about US law.
            It is essentially impossible to pass an abortion law at the federal level, so the original ruling was a sort of a back door which got the job done. (no jokes about using the back door and unwanted pregnancy please)
            This is what I read in the accursed MSM.
            I’m not sure where the law heads next on this issue. the 6/9 conservative bias will persist for a long time. At the end of the day, this is what people voted for.

          5. I’m not sure the drive for “conservative” judges was principally a Roe issue, there are far more aspects in play.

            On balance I believe it is probably a vote loser across America, yes there are many anti-abortionists but far more voters who believe in the woman’s right to choose.

          1. Currently there is the Chief Justice and 8 Associate Justices.
            If you can’t even get that basic fact correct I suggest you find a different topic.

          3. Currently there is the Chief Justice and 8 Associate Justices.
            If you can’t even get that basic fact correct I suggest you find a different topic.

    5. A nicely dressed young person or the always angry old man Trump. Guess who the uninterested, unaligned voter will go for!

      Add in Bidens big budget proposals to (surprise) tax the rich and end student loans and sleepy joe could easily be returned to the white house.

    6. He’s 12. (that’s not a typo). He will only realise how stupid he is decades later – assuming he ever grows up at all.

      Chances are he’s wangling for a job in the trough.

        1. He comes across in the comments as an arrogant smug little git. The comment thread is mostly filled with photos of young girls killed by illegal migrants.

    7. The funny thing is that its conservatives banning books in schools. “because reading can make you gay”

      1. Please explain the difference between that and liberals wishing to ban books like “Of Mice and Men;” “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” and several Dr. Seuss titles ?

        With very few exceptions, banning is wrong on most counts.

        1. indeed. so “cancel culture” appears to prevail across the spectrum. Not in favour of banning anything. To claim it is unique to liberals is a lie

        2. indeed. so “cancel culture” appears to prevail across the spectrum. Not in favour of banning anything. To claim it is unique to liberals is a lie

        3. its kind of ironic that the “no sex and violence” prescription for childrens books meant that the bible was off limits.

        4. its kind of ironic that the “no sex and violence” prescription for childrens books meant that the bible was off limits.

  115. 99% of my best audit findings were “free”, because that was the approach I used.

    If someone said, “can I tell you something in confidence” I would reply
    “No, I’m the auditor, nothing is in absolute confidence, but if you do decide to tell me I will double check and confirm what you are saying and report accordingly. If I get challenged and I have to say where the information came from I will only say it was you if it is absolutely necessary. Do you still want to tell me?”

    Every time I did that I was told what they wanted to tell me, I guess a lot is people wanting to get things off their chests and into the open where they have genuine concerns and they knew my report carried significant weight.

  119. Well you know the election is about to be called when the Left start playing the race card.
    It looks like Starmer is doing the same campaign as Blair did back in the 90s, it looks like Mandelson’s handywork

    1. Mandelson should be chained by the neck to the bottom of a sewer and everything he has ever stolen or grifted confiscated.

    1. I thought you knew the answer to that one, wibbles; they hate us and are out to destroy us.

  121. 384642+ up ticks,

    Afternoon B,
    In my book yes, it would be a case of forming a coalition within a lab/lib/con /current ukip coalition.

  122. Victoria Coren Mitchell in ‘despair’ after Ovo Energy takes thousands from account. 12 March 2024.

    Victoria Coren Mitchell has accused Ovo Energy of “driving her to despair” after “wrongly” taking thousands from her bank account.

    The television presenter has suggested she would take legal action after claiming the energy firm took an erroneously large payment.

    Writing on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, she said: “Nothing but legal action will do for them now.”

    Energy suppliers have become a law unto themselves. They know you can’t do anything. Ms. Mitchell is lucky in that she is famous. They will probably appease her. At the moment I’m the subject of a campaign by Eon to make me install one of their smart meters. This will spread and get much worse.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/bills/energy/victoria-coren-mitchell-ovo-energy-driven-to-despair/

    2. I know some Nottlers don’t care for Victoria Coren Mitchell much but she is a world class Poker player. That makes her a good egg in my book. Plus i have met her husband. A very nice chap. IMO

      A simple way around these highway robbers emptying your bank account is to have a separate account for Bills.

          2. Okay.

            I’m seeing Geoff this week. I’m taking him the same as last time which you were most insistent on paying for. This time he’s getting half size. I will tell him it was because you wouldn’t ‘cough up’.

          1. Yes. I explained in my greeting post. It’s a mistake I shan’t make again as some #@$@?! posted the result of two races from Cheltenham that I hadn’t had time to watch and it spoiled the enjoyment of sitting down not knowing who was going to win (although I could have pretty much guaranteed it would be Irish and almost certainly WP Mullins).

          2. Not at all good. I will have a word with Geoff and see if we can add it to the rules. As a courtesy.

          3. Thanks, but I wonder why it should be necessary. A little commonsense would make people think.

  124. Two more syphilitic propaganda pustules on Radio 4’s Today this morning – David Yelland former editor of the Sun and his co-presenter on another R4 programme, Simon Lewis, together with the turd-faced regular, Justin Webb, spent 10 minutes denigrating Princess Kate because she titivated a family photograph.

    Yelland, self proclaimed alcoholic for 24 years, didn’t know his real parents, found out his father was a supporter of the IRA, himself a supporter of Islam after the attack on the Twin Towers and homosexuals in general. His mate, Lewis was Director of Communications for Gordon Brown (and the Queen during Diana crisis) and Head of PR for Social Democratic Party. His brother is former editor of the Telegraph, Will Lewis.

    The BBC should be closed down and replaced by a more trustworthy news organisation – Pravda would be a great improvement.

  125. Macron allies liken him to Churchill for plan to send troops to Ukraine. 12 March 2024.

    Emmanuel Macron’s allies have likened the French president to Winston Churchill in the face of Hitler for his plan to put boots on the ground in Ukraine.

    Mr Macron’s Ukraine strategy is to be put to a symbolic vote in parliament’s lower house on Tuesday amid growing tensions on the suggestion that Western troops could be deployed to the battlefield.

    This is just posturing for a domestic audience.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/03/12/macron-allies-liken-him-to-churchill-for-ukraine-plan/

    2. Macron, like so many of his predecessors, has delusions of French grandeur, and so is always keen to strut hs stuff on the world stage.
      On his much vaunted, yet humiliating summit in Moscow, when he was forced to sit a mile and a half away from Uncle Vlad at the other end of a ludicrously long, ‘despot-chic’ table, he tried to suggest he’d scored an important diplomatic victory.

      On his return, practically waving a piece of paper and declaring “Paix dans notre temps!” (just as Russian tanks started rolling across the border in Ukraine), I christened him Nouvelle Chamberlain.

      Unlike Macron, Chamberlain was a deeply honourable man who was wrong, but for the right reasons – but both Neville and Nouvelle were hoodwinked and humiliated by dictators who talked peace whilst not breaking stride in their preparations for war.

      Having learned nothing from his demeaning experience with Putin, Le Petit Appeaser jetted off to Beijing for a spot of Xi -Simping, with similarly unimpressive results, so now Macron feels he ought to sabre-rattle, safe in the knowledge that it won’t come to war.

      Quelle plonkeur!

      I’m not sure there’s ever been a European leader in my lifetime who opens himself for easier criticism than Macron. The more seriously he wishes the world to take him, the more ridiculous he seems.

      He’s just too obviously desperate to be considered a major world player but always seems to end up scoring a massive own-Gaulle.

  126. Afternoon, all. Don’t faint! I am merely killing time waiting for the chiropodist to arrive. I needed to check an email so as the laptop was on …
    Sad to say, I think the Cons are incapable of learning from anything, including the haemorrhaging of support from their core voters. They should be done under the Trade Description Act!

    1. No one in the Party (especially at CCHQ) listens to, enquires about or cares for, the wishes of Conservatives.

    1. Don’t want to encourage wanton behaviour among the Churchy folks. Besides which i have already given him the honour of buying me lunch.

        1. Mean? Last time i bought all the wine and drinks for 14 people. Even though VW insisted on moving the table and knocking my expensive cocktail over (guess what i did next).

          The time before that i spent £1000 on a Sunday roast for 12. (9 of which were sent back…Geoff just covered his in Colmans and waded through..what a trooper ! )

          4. I also have all my own hair when all around are going bald. I put it down to the fact that i am blessed. Or not poisoned with radioactivity recently.

          9. I’ve heard they sigh with relief when they spot the inch of slack which is the middle third

          11. I’ve heard they sigh with relief when they spot the inch of slack which is the middle third

          20. I also have all my own hair when all around are going bald. I put it down to the fact that i am blessed. Or not poisoned with radioactivity recently.

  129. PROJECT FEAR is alive and well – hooray:

    “Britain braces for flooding chaos: Map reveals location of 200 alerts and warnings across UK with high tides leaving parts of St Ives and Cornwall under water following days of torrential rain”

    2. I had an email from the CMC yesterday, warning me how to drive my motorhome in “storm conditions”. I would never have realised that strong gusts of wind might affect my high-sided vehicle and that camping under a tree when gales were blowing might be risky! It also invited me to email the Met Office to “name a storm”.

        1. You should be okay if in a vehicle, but tents with poles are iffy because the lightning doesn’t disperse very well.

  130. Just been made to feel a right heel.
    Twitterx just sent me lots of pictures of happy old ladies at Mother’s care home, opening Mothers Day cards.
    I forgot – and Mothers Day is a different day in Norway, so no reminder there, either! Oops…

    1. The fourth Sunday in Lent. Refreshment Sunday. Goes back to the Middle Ages and is about Mother Church, not how much you spend at the Post Office and the florists.

      1. It’s a bit depressing when everybody else is opening things and going “OOh!” and you have nothing.
        It doesn’t help that Lent moves, so I can’t even set an appointment in Outlook with 2 weeks +notice to remind me.
        Buggerit again! 🙁

      2. It’s a bit depressing when everybody else is opening things and going “OOh!” and you have nothing.
        It doesn’t help that Lent moves, so I can’t even set an appointment in Outlook with 2 weeks +notice to remind me.
        Buggerit again! 🙁

      1. Nope.
        That was in Mother’s house wot we cleared, so it’s somewhere else in the world now.

    4. Don’t feel bad about it Oberst, when I first moved to the US I had the same problem, Mother’s Day is in May so I tried to remember to get cards to send the following Spring.

    5. Don’t feel bad about it Oberst, when I first moved to the US I had the same problem, Mother’s Day is in May so I tried to remember to get cards to send the following Spring.

    8. Don’t beat yourself up Paul

      Many years ago when Georgia Mann was presenting a Sunday morning programme (Note They aren’t effing ‘Shows’) she read out an email from a chap who was complaining about the fact ‘That his mother had washed and tumbled dried his mobile phone’. I winged an email back which Georgia read out on air:
      “Serves him right for asking his mother to wash his mobile phone. It’s Mothering Sunday, he should have done it himself!”

  131. Was there not – earlier today – a little video posted of a dog falling backwards from a straw bale into the arms of a young woman?

        1. Years ago I had an American friend who lived in a condominium in New York where dogs were not allowed, but she had a dog. When other residents asked her why she had a dog she would reply very firmly and with a perfectly straight face, it isn’t a dog it’s a cat. When asked what breed she would say a very rare one from the Far East. She actually got away with it and the dog was a Red Setter 🤣

      5. I hate to say it, but a dog will keep doing that even if you don’t catch it. I know this because Mongo was about to leap into Junior’s arms and I shouted at him to stay. Mongo would get hurt and Junior would have 80 kilos land on him.

      1. Hi OB,

        I don’t do heat , nor do I sunbathe ..

        I had a melanoma on my leg in my early twenties , just a tiny funny dark looking freckle .. Probably due to childhood in hot climates .

        Moh ‘s back is covered in the most appalling moles, but all harmless , he is a sun lover , and isn’t fair skinned like me, he goes nut brown .

    5. “I am worried about Jim”…. © Mrs Dale’s Dairy (He was really a Farmer) 195s….

    6. “I am worried about Jim”…. © Mrs Dale’s Dairy (He was really a Farmer) 195s….

    7. Will he resign from all public appointments and STFU if he’s wrong?

      No?

      Thought not.

    8. Will he resign from all public appointments and STFU if he’s wrong?

      No?

      Thought not.

    9. Just been chatting to Bruce today
      in Victoria, it’s been very very hot there recently up to 40 degs.
      Some thing that has been happening during our more recent calls, he rings me, we keep hearing high-pitched buzzing sound and then get cut off, quite often. It almost seems some one might be listening and doesn’t like what we are saying.
      Any ideas folks ?

      2. He’s being monitored. Remember what the Oz perlice did to honest citizens during the plague.

        1. One of his SILs is a copper over there.
          I’ll send him a ping.
          He was also telling me they their guns taken away from them quite a few ago. Pre planning.

    11. Jim Dale is the founder of British Weather Services, an independent consultancy providing weather forecasts, so ‘Senoir Meteorologist’ might mean that he is senior of very few people. I do not know how credible they are in the weather forecasting world, but as something of a weather geek myself, I’ve never heard of them before, and I’m rather sceptical. I would reckon that his definite forecast of a hot start to April is bunkum – it is impossible to forecast that far ahead with any degree of certainty.

      I have found the following on the About Us section of their website:
      “We are proud to promote and support racial, sexual and minority-group diversity; our aims being to treat those that engage with us with
      fairness, consideration and respect – where respect is due.

      Where we hold fundamental views such as the very real threat of man-made climate change, we will not shirk from our role of informing
      and placing our views on record – and that includes the economies-of-the-truth with concern to climate change, spread by political organisations and individuals such as the US Republicans, Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees-Mogg, The ERG, UKIP, Brexit,
      Nigel Farage, Nigel Lawson, Charles Moore, Piers Corbyn, The Daily Mail, and others, in attempting to deny that man-made climate change even exists.”

      Not an organsation that I would give any time to.

        1. That leaves out south carolina then. We had over an inch of rain one day and golf courses were open the following day with hardly a puddle to be seen.

    1. If you think cancel culture doesn’t exist I suggest you study Canadian politics or look at what happens to anyone who tries to challenge current orthodoxies.

      1. I think we are saying that censorship occurs across the spectrum no? I live in the UK, so not super interested in Canadian media. Its a bit ironic that in the UK when someone points out the money that came into the country from the slave trade, people say “but you are changing history” like that’s somehow a thing which never happened. Not that I’m in favour of tearing down statues or vandalism.

        1. Yes.
          It’s not the changing aspect that I find so idiotic, it’s the way that certain sections are using history and in particular the slave trade to denigrate everything that was achieved by my forbears and pretending that black people did things that clearly they didn’t.

          1. A friend of mine said that some PC ideas are ridiculous, but they are at least well intentioned. I think the stuff you mention is probably the minority of cases ( I cant think of any, but interested to hear of some). History is complicated. “Reparations for stuff that happened 300 years ago”?? get to f@@k. I’ve never seen the benefit of Coulsons slave money in my bank account. The English had 100-200 years of global dominance and we probably weren’t too much better or worse than any other superpower through history. We screwed a bunch of people over. Thats how the world was. We were racist. Thats how the world was. We should live in the present and look to the future. The Empire is in the past. Apart from that movie about Rorke’s Drift, which is awesome.

  139. Where are the “missing” three? 9+3=12, or at least it did when I was at school.

    2. should have read 6/9 as in , 6 of 9,or six ninths. I can see how that was not clear. SO. A conservative majority would be the point

  140. Where are the “missing” three? 9+3=12, or at least it did when I was at school.

  141. Cheltenham going well so far. State Man and Chianti Classico both came in for me. Fingers crossed for Lossiemouth.🤞

    P.S. Yay! Another winner 😁😁😁

        1. Just a tip – if you’re going to boast about your betting prowess by giving out the results, would you mind putting a heads up and then putting the results behind a spoiler. Not all of us are able to watch the racing live. Knowing the result does tend to dull the excitement somewhat. How would you like it if you’d recorded some of the Six Nations and someone told you the results of some of the games before you’d had a chance to watch?

      1. That’s one of the problems with social media and discussion forums. I try to miss any references to F1 results so I can watch the Channel 4 highlights (refuse to pay Sky for anything). Every now and again someone somewhere makes a comment…

        1. As it was one of the newcomers I am prepared to forgive him (as long as he doesn’t do it again!). I felt the need to spell it out, though, as there has been no apology or recognition of the annoyance caused.

    3. RNAS Lossiemouth, aka HMS Fulmar, then RAF Lossiemouth

      When they built proper accommodation (not Nissen Huts) we knew the Crabs were moving in

  142. https://chng.it/yd8rxTwv4G
    If, like me you love elephants and are concerned about the recent hunting of three “big tuskers” in Tanzania just over the border with Kenya, then please consider signing this petition. These big elephants are few in number and should be protected.

    1. I declare an interest in having Ivory pieces I cannot sell.

      I can’t help wondering if the total ban on Ivory sales and burning seized tusks isn’t making matters worse as supply drops the prices rise on the black market, making poaching even more tempting.

      1. These are being trophy hunted in Tanzania when they are part of the Amboseli population. Nothing to do with the ivory ban.

          2. It’s an odd one for me.
            The local hunt clearly enjoy it and they eat what they kill.
            I like attending the hunt feast.

          3. It is one thing to hunt for food it is another kettle of fish to go trophy hunting….

          4. Indeed and agreed, but you were questioning hunting for pleasure and our locals get a lot of pleasure from it

    1. Let us hope that the Home from Palestine Office appeal (though they do NOT appeal to me…)

    2. Any public money used to bring these people here should be stopped immediately.

      What’s funny is the Home Office handles these sort of issues in no time. If a local actually need something from them they are told ‘we’re got your letter, we can’t be bothered to open it so you might get a reply in 6-12 month, when we can be {beeped] to get off the chair.

      1. 384642+ up ticks,

        Afternoon N,

        Although true the spelling is atrocious

        check out callibre also.

    2. Oh yes, he acts like a normal person and none of those fancy suits. He will be a wonderful PM leader to finish off the Tories.

    2. I’ve met the Iranian author of a coffee table book on falconry with fantastic full page colour photographs, bound in leather, designed as presents for the Middle East market they retail at £400 per book….!

          1. I don’t think they are as hefty as they look. Very airy bones and lots of puffy feather.

          2. I was quite surprised when I held a hefty-looking hawk on my wrist how light it was.

  147. Phew! – a Double Bogey.

    Wordle 997 6/6
    ⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Draw

      Wordle 997 6/6

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

    2. Par today.

      Wordle 997 4/6

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

    3. A wild guess got me there in 4

      Wordle 997 4/6

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

    5. Four here. My third guess is a much better word :-))

      Wordle 997 4/6

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

    5. Friend Dianne is in the last week of an extended, multi – location holiday in the Far East. (Her youngest lives in Bangkok).

      She’s been suspiciously quiet of late, until I got this WhatsApp this morning: “Just realised I forgot your birthday. Sorry hideously ill out here in India.Am afraid India will kill me. I don’t know if coming home early yet. Hope u had a nice day”.

      So clearly, the answer is Delly Belhi. Or something…

      1. Oh , that is terrible , and a very inconvenient horrible way to exist , she will be dehydrated , painfully so and feeling very weak .. and possibly with a fever .

        Decades ago when MOh and I were in Nigeria , our young son who accompanied us , no 1 son was back in England at B/school.
        Youngster had prickly heat , and a worm infestation , he was only 4 years old , and very poorly .

        Moh caught Blackwater fever and nearly died , I had to tepid sponge him to bring his fever down , day and night for 3 days . His pee was black / bloody as were his stools .. he was so ill , I thought I was going to lose him .

        Despite all the vaccinations and inoculations , malaria tablets etc , something finds its way in to infect and perhaps kill you .

        I am very strict about handwashing and washing fruit and cooking everything thoroughly, although Moh does enjoy his steak rare .. ugh ..

        People must learn to cook pork and chicken thoroughly.. pink meat , nah .

  149. Tory donor’s comments about Diane Abbott were racist, says Kemi Badenoch
    Minister strays from No10 stance over Frank Hester’s alleged comment that Labour MP makes you ‘want to hate all black women’

    Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, has described comments made about MP Diane Abbott as “racist” despite government refusals to characterise them as such.

    Frank Hester, the biggest donor to the Conservative party, is alleged to have told colleagues in a 2019 meeting that looking at Ms Abbott makes you “want to hate all black women” and that she “should be shot”.

    Downing Street has said that the comments were “clearly unacceptable” but would not say whether they were racist.

    The Prime Minister’s spokesman would not confirm whether the Prime Minister had spoken to Mr Hester directly since the comments emerged on Monday.

    Really?

    Perhaps Miss Abbott has forgotten that the most dangerous of all is her son?

    Diane Abbott’s son ‘had crystal meth delivered to her £1.2million home and chased her with scissors claiming to have a gun in his dressing gown pocket’, court hears
    James Abbott-Thompson was found to have suffered drug-induced psychosis at his mother’s home before being sectioned under the mental health act
    Officers who attended Diane Abbott’s £1.2mn home found signs of crystal meth use in Abbott-Thompson’s room
    In court yesterday he was handed an indefinite hospital order and banned from entering the Foreign Office after attacking police officers there.

    Diane Abbott’s son had crystal meth delivered to her home when she was Shadow Home Secretary, a court heard yesterday.

    The diplomat is then said to have chased her around her £1.2million home with scissors, claiming he had a gun in his dressing gown pocket.

    James Abbott-Thompson was high on a cocktail of drugs when he started ‘threatening his mother with violence’. He then went on a drug-induced rampage, attacking nine police officers, doctors, nurses and security guards at various hospitals.

    Wood Green Crown Court heard the Cambridge graduate had been taking crystal meth, the ‘chemsex’ drug GBL and cocaine since 2013. At just 27, he was posted to the British Embassy in Rome as first secretary for exiting the EU, advising Britons in Italy on their post-Brexit rights.

    But his addiction and mental health issues ended his career.

    Yesterday the ex-diplomat was handed an indefinite hospital order and banned from entering the Foreign Office after attacking police officers there and throwing a stone at a member of the public when he was refused entry after being sacked last summer. Prosecutor Benn Maguire told the court the Labour MP was ‘chased around her home’ by her son ‘who said he had a gun in his pocket’, although no gun was later found.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8573653/Diane-Abbotts-son-crystal-meth-delivered-1-2million-home-court-hears.html

    1. Kemi Badenoch is right – Frank Hester’s comments were racist. If he had stuck to attacking Abbott on the grounds of her political beliefs, that would have been fine, but to then go on and introduce the ‘all black women’ comment is clearly racist. And calling for her to be shot, even if clearly he didn’t mean it, is completely unacceptable.

        1. Damn! That’s supposed to be a clip of the Fast Show’s Rowley Birkin QC but it can only be watched by playing it on YouTube.

    3. the Labour MP was ‘chased around her home’ by her son ‘who said he had a gun in his pocket’,

      She must have thought he was just pleased to see her.

    5. “…Wood Green Crown Court heard the Cambridge graduate had been taking
      crystal meth, the ‘chemsex’ drug GBL and cocaine since 2013. At just 27,
      he was posted to the British Embassy in Rome as first secretary for
      exiting the EU, advising Britons in Italy on their post-Brexit rights….”

      For [expletive] sake.

      Nepotism, corruption, waste, fraud – this cannot go on. The entire state machine is utterly thoroughly corrupt.

  150. I do worry how much i like (self-proclaimed Marxist) Brendan O’Neill. Here is in the Speccie on an article on that photo. I particularly like the image of the Govt as a duck, waddling towards defeat…

    “ The obsession with that pic of Catherine and her three children has become unhinged. It’s still on the front pages of the papers. ‘PICTURE OF CHAOS’, screams the Mirror. Oh behave. There’s war in Europe and the Middle East, an energy crisis, a lame-duck government waddling to defeat and people waiting five days in A&E to see a nurse, and you’re still yapping about a princess slightly misaligning her daughter’s sleeve while editing a family photo? ”

    1. What a dishonest little piece Brendan wrote.
      ‘I can’t be the only person wondering what it says about our country that so many people have oodles of time to scrutinise a pic like jumped-up Columbos’
      This particular sentence is a gem. How to flip the omelette over as they say.
      Most people of course saw a photo of Kate with her kids and thought, all is well with the world.
      However international press agencies, not the submissive British media, rang alarm bells and told the world the photo was a fake. It wasn’t unemployed Brits analysing the picture with a magnifying glass. But Brendan knows this already..
      Just another example of how the facts are being changed before our very eyes.
      How to indulge in doublethink.
      We understand how, but we don’t understand why.

      1. The sheer air-wave clogging obsession of Al Beeb with this endless cruel speculation tells us all we need to know. It’s almost jostled the Jew-Hate into the shadows (not quite, of course)

        1. This is being discussed all over the world. Here in Spain, where I live, there are endless theories about what is really happening behind the scenes.
          A few photos, a video perhaps or simply a public appearance would of course dispel most speculation, and of course this hasn’t happened.
          So the speculation will continue like it or not.

          1. I have a strong suspicion that she may have gone from slender to skeletal under the strain. Leave her alone.

      2. An exercise in attacking the monarchy pure and simple.

        Who cares?

        Given everything else going on in the world, to prioritise this flimflam onto front pages anywhere is farcical.

        1. ‘An exercise in attacking the monarchy pure and simple’
          Of course this is the oldest trick in the book.
          Should you question anything it will be interpreted as an attack on the party itself.

          2. Oh, I’ve heard so many explanations over recent weeks that I wouldn’t even like to favour one or the other.
            The facts speak for themselves. The princess has inexplicably disappeared and seems to be held incommunicado. In an attempt to normalise the situation a photo with her children was published and accepted by the national press which seems to accept restrictions from palace authorities. However international sources immediately revealed the photos were fake.
            After a night desperately planning their next move, it was decided to reveal that Kate herself had performed this axe job on the photo. The original, they refused to publish, probably because it had originated in a magazine some time earlier.
            Kate is said to be really upset.
            But at no time has anyone made any attempt to simply publish photos, videos or give a personal appearance.
            The obvious explanation is because they can’t
            This is not an attack on the royals. Many people in fact are concerned because they like them and care about what might have happened to her.

          3. I agree with most of that.

            They live in a goldfish bowl and modern “communication” seems to require constant update on their activities and to a great extent I believe they bring it on themselves by joining in; the mystique is gone, probably forever.

            I would tend to believe the Kate isn’t a competent photo shopper narrative as much as any other explanation, the evidence I would put up to support that is her general tendency to “have a go” whenever she is out and about.

            When all other explanations fail I tend towards cock-up being the most likely.
            If anyone is at fault I would place it at the door of the advisors.

            For what it’s worth, I believe the better advice, from the outset of purdah, would have been to keep her head down and reappear when good and ready

    2. I honestly don’t have an inkling as to what that is all about. The MSM should know all about faking things.

  151. Hongkongers face jail for keeping old newspapers
    National security law to prosecute people with copies of the defunct publication Apple Daily

    Hongkongers could be convicted and imprisoned for sedition for keeping old copies of newspapers, the territory’s pro-Beijing authorities have said.

    New security laws being pushed through in Hong Kong will leave people who hold onto copies of the now defunct newspaper, Apple Daily, liable to prosecution.

    The outspoken, pro-democracy tabloid closed in 2021 after its bank accounts were frozen and senior staff arrested, including Jimmy Lai, the millionaire proprietor and founder.

    Lai is on trial on a range of charges, including conspiracy to collude with a “foreign country or external elements to endanger national security”, as well as creating a “seditious publication” and conspiracy to “endanger national security” through his newspaper.

    He is being prosecuted under the national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the Chinese government in 2020, following the suppression of street protests the previous year. Almost 300 people have been arrested since then for national security offences, including activists, journalists and elected politicians from pro-democracy parties.

    Other activists have fled abroad to avoid arrest. The new law being rushed through the territory’s legislature, which has been purged of pro-democracy politicians, will give the authorities enhanced powers to prevent anti-government protests and to prosecute opponents even when they are outside the territory.

    “If you keep a copy [of Apple Daily] at home as a memento and read it in the loo in your free time, it proves that you do not have [criminal intent],” Ronny Tong, a member of Hong Kong’s Executive Council said in a radio interview on Monday.

    “But if you show it to people visiting your place from time to time and say ‘It is different now. What was said before is true,’ then you may be committing an offence with seditious intention as you are using it to achieve subversion or other unlawful purposes.”

    Ron Manley
    23 HOURS AGO

    In the novel ‘1984’ Winston Smith’s job was to edit old newspapers so that the text confirmed to a new political/military reality.

    S warner
    19 HOURS AGO

    no sign of this government taking action against the biggest threats to democracy and free trade ( China, America )

    oh look over there , a dead cat with an islamist label on it…

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hongkongers-to-be-jailed-for-keeping-old-newspapers-3v55jnz7l

    2. Wish I’d seen Hong Kong pre-’97. There’ll be nothing left before long. Just another Chinese city.

      1. It was nice back then, enough eastern mystique to be interesting but English was spoken widely.

        My first visit was to resolve problems that a distributor was having with product sales to China. Almost his first words were Your CEO is too big but you I could throw out of the window. I left the local office manager to give him my final report.

    3. Hey that’s an idea that Trudeau might want to follow. He is being inundated at every opportunity with his quotes from his first election back in 2015. All of his grand announcements about transparent and 90en government sound very hollow when every move is surrounded by secrecy and blatent attempts to deflect questions. Yes indeed and he is not the only politician that would benefit from destroying the past.

      wasn’t there a book about that kind of censorship and newspeak? As is often said, 1984 was not a how to manual.

    4. Of course, folk forget that OFCOM are desperately trying to do in GB News. That they went for Dan Wooton and Russek Brand. How there is so much bias in the Left wing press and yet it is the centrist ones who are punished. How utterly without balance ‘green’ is.

      We’re worse than China for censorship. They don’t deny it. Our wasters lie continually.

  153. That’s me gone for yet another dreary, grey day. Not a drop of sunlight. Though it is milder now that it was at 7 am. The Wet Office says it’ll be 14ºC tomorrow and dry. Hmm. We’ll see

    I really do repeat my recommendation of the TV documentary: “Discovering the Music of Antiquity “ (details and link below). NO poncey sleb “presenter” waving his arms about and gurning; NO walking in and out of shot. Just really skilled people explaining the (to me) miraculous way they worked out both Ancient Egyptian and Greek and Roman musical notation, made the instruments and played them. It was spell-binding, truly.
    And it all arose because someone at the Louvre opened an old biscuit tin in the stores and found a piece of papyrus which he could not decipher…..

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain

    2. I had a window of opportunity to go grocery shopping (after yet another prolonged spell of rain), during which was the briefest hint of sunlight, otherwise it was just as you described. I live not far from the driest county in the country (Essex), yet I cannot recall a time when there was so much standing water in this locality. I take a walk through some managed woodland in the middle of town. It’s now peppered with ponds, rivulets and woodland tracks which have become boggy quagmires. I keep strictly to the paths at times like this for fear of sinking without trace.

  154. ‘Night All
    Funny Old World
    Tens of thousands on the street calling for ethnic cleasing and a pure racial Palestinian state
    All good
    Now if i were to try and organise a march calling for ethnic cleansing of incomers and a white state my feet wouln’t touch my front door would be in flinders
    Double standards much??

    1. Those protesting as pro- Palestinian are the duped mob of a cult.

      That cult is not dissimilar to the Covid cult where millions of complete idiots submitted to the Covid jabs, wore masks and were generally abusive to those of us who saw through the scam and refused to comply.

      Similarly the pro-Palestinian protesters for the most part could not find Gaza or Jerusalem on a map. The political strategy of Jew haters viz. advocacy of a two state solution to the conflict is obviously nonsense given that one of the two states is sworn to eliminate the second state Israel.

      90% of people in Israel are opposed to a Palestinian state.

      It is worth noting that many of the photographs purporting to show the destruction of Gaza are in fact recycled images of Aleppo in Syria. Likewise the supposed Gazan cardiologist covered in tomato ketchup reappears a few days later as a plumber or some such. A massive propaganda war is being waged against Israel. We have witnessed similar in other battlegrounds year after year.

      The fact remains that the billions of pounds and dollars donated in aid to Hamas have been used to construct a system of underground tunnels and shelters/operations rooms to rival the London Underground. Barely any of that aid was used to benefit the population of Gaza and everyone sees this.

      Despite all of the iniquity 80% of occupants of the West Bank celebrate the murderous activity of Hamas on October 7th.

      Talk if you will about the intractable problem of Jew haters.

  155. I see Meagain has raised her head to say that she would never make the same mistake as Catherine.
    I assume this is shorthand for I would make a much better princess of wales.
    She also claims the press would have skewered them, but not her.
    Poor Kate has been in hospital having serious surgery. She really doesn’t need or deserve this.
    What a nasty piece of work Meagain is.
    So she photoshopped a picture, so what? It was only her and the children.
    Considering how old the montecito
    witch is, her photoshopping is
    obviously much more professional.
    As for the press, they have been tricking us with carefully crafted images one way or another ever sibce papers started to include photos, so they needn’t get on their high horse.
    Like the rest of the unpleasant media, they go for the low hanging fruit and those who cannot fight back.

    1. If there is one thing guaranteed to rally support to Princess Kate it’s the hideous Megain creature attacking her.

      1. I don’t know how anyone could dislike Kate, JD. She doesn’t even have the sickly=sweet wiles that at least one of her predecessors had. She is just the legendary breath of fresh air. And not a toff, to boot.

        1. She and her family typically go on holiday to the same place and at the same time as us. Several times I have bumped into her with no cameras or security around, interacting spontaneously with children who are complete strangers. I was very impressed indeed. She has kindness and genuine warmth, qualities quite alien to the Megain creature.,

  156. 384642+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    When will the installations on our places of incarceration start as in, due, in the main, to the dover daily invasion, revolving doors / bat-wings will be installed within all HM prisons ?

    We must surely either sell the dover invasion bridge -head to the french, or build more 5* HOTELS.

  157. Oh god! The Abbot creature is now saying she is in fear for her life. You couldn’t make it up!

  160. No criticism implied but is it my imagination that most of the newbies post mainly during working hours?

    1. Thus far I had not noticed a temporal tendency or pattern. Perhaps they have a younger age profile with fewer yet to retire.

      1. Shame on you, I never block, nor do I down vote (except by mistake)
        If I get fed up I just ignore.
        Even Phizzee posts some things worth reading every now and again…

        1. I just couldn’t be bothered i’m not feeling too well at the moment.
          BP very high for no particular reason.
          I can’t be bothered to ring 111 they’ll just tell me to go to A&E who will keep me and my good lady waiting for hours (over 15 last time) and hours and then just increase my medication which I can do at home for myself. I’ll phone my GP practice in the morning.
          Night all.

          1. Good luck and good night.

            You’ve been getting far more than your share of bad luck recently.

          2. Thanks Sos. As I mentioned this morning my cataract removal had to be cancelled due to a very blood shot eye.
            Meds and head down now.

          4. I think you need to take it easy sometimes Eddy, I mean easy .

            No fussing around with family, cooking or running around . Be kind to yourself , and enjoy a nice cup of tea .

          5. I’m sure you’re right, but I can’t help thinking that he gets so much pleasure from doing so that it’s positively therapeutic in his case.

      1. Bad error, now Phizzee will stalk you requesting photographs.

        It’s why ashesthandust fled to Argentina, allegedly

  161. It all seems a bit strange that this Tory donor’s racy comments have taken five years to all come out, if it was that serious then why sit on it all this time for maximum impact in the run up to an election?
    What if something had happened to Diane in the meantime and someone had just been sitting on it for electoral gain?

    1. Over.?..probably!! Diagnostic hearing test this morning showing I am definitely ‘over the hill’ Need some BT’s medicine to cheer me up!!!

          1. Not many of us will still recall that there were a couple of protagonists from water collection.

      2. The Hill

        Rupert Brooke
        1887 –
        1915
        Breathless, we flung us on the windy hill,
        Laughed in the sun, and kissed the lovely grass.
        You said, ‘Through glory and ecstasy we pass;
        Wind, sun, and earth remain, the birds sing still,
        When we are old, are old….’ ‘And when we die
        All’s over that is ours; and life burns on
        Through other lovers, other lips,’ said I,
        ‘Heart of my heart, our heaven is now, is won!’

        ‘We are Earth’s best, that learnt her lesson here.
        Life is our cry. We have kept the faith!’ we said;
        ‘We shall go down with unreluctant tread
        Rose-crowned into the darkness!’…Proud we were,
        And laughed, that had such brave true things to say.
        —And then you suddenly cried, and turned away.

        Just thought you would enjoy this , Jill x

        2. Somewhat late seeing this, Maggie….Rupert Brooke, one of my favourites.. thanks for that…xx

  163. you would need to reference the WAPO for that. I would say the gullible people are the ones who suck up the lies. Mentioning no names.

    1. I don’t believe most things I read in the press, so I must assume you are speaking of yourself.

      Now come on, you’ve made the 35,000 claim, put your money where your mouth is.

      But please wipe it thoroughly before putting the money there.

      1. you would contact WAPO for the list. The lies came from DJT , and you are wise to be sceptical. It seems you are happy to believe random conspiracy theories on the internet, so I’m not sure why you feel you occupy some kind of sceptical high ground

        1. I don’t.
          But then again I don’t make spurious claims of huge numbers of lies and then hide behind WAPO.
          Your Trump derangement syndrome has addled your brain.
          Put up or shut up.

          2. Hold on.
            YOU repeated it as fact.
            Stop squirming and produce the evidence.
            And to give you a get out of jail free card: are you accepting that WAPO may have exaggerated?

          5. I love it when an insult comes out. just saying “I’ve got nothing to offer” using different words.

          6. No, just an observation.
            You’re a cut and paster, no different from an unintelligent chatbot.

          8. You really are scraping the barrel if you think that this approach to the debate is intelligent.
            You’ve now given up even trying to provide concrete evidence.

            You’ve made numerous claims, cut and pasted vaguely but not accurate rebuttals, and you refuse to to provide chapter and verse.
            You’re like a child: “Oh Mummy it’s WAPO not me, don’t make me answer the question”

            It’s like arguing with AI that is programmed always to take the Democrat stance.

            As I requested earlier, put up or shut up.

          13. up to you. Stick with the lame insults. a grubby white flag is still a white flag, pal

          15. I am not retyping a list of Trump lies, any more than I am going to re-count them. You may live in the age of the abacus. I live in the age of the computer.

          16. well, it might be that they counted one lie repeated twenty times as twenty lies. Maybe ask them?

          18. no ,WAPO made the claims, ask them. Also CNN and the Toronto Star.

            (January 20, 2021). “In four years, President Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims”. The Washington Post.

            (June 5, 2019). “Donald Trump has now said more than 5,000 false things as president”. Toronto Star.

            (March 9, 2020). “Trump is averaging about 59 false claims per week since … July 8, 2019”. CNN.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b648845e294fef868c789a7820b3bfc74b0befda030c67b7e8fc78fdb84a896d.png

          19. I’m sorry, you come onto Nottle making various claims and then hide behind what for me are spurious sources.
            The US Press hatred of Trump makes anything they post doubtful.
            And I reiterate, I don’t like Trump
            If YOU, PERSONALLY have anything that you can guarantee is correct I’d be delighted to see it.

          21. Thank you.
            It must be huge, it won’t down load here / or I’m too impatient.
            I’m in rural France and internet speeds are dreadful.
            Is there a different link?

          25. Looks like they may have repeat counted when he told the same lie many times. So the number of distinct lies might be lower (10k? single digit thousands?). The Washington Post fact-checker created a new category of falsehoods in December 2018, the “Bottomless Pinocchio,” for falsehoods repeated at least twenty times (so often “that there can be no question the politician is aware his or her facts are wrong”. Does repeating a lie 20 times count as one lie or 20? what would you say?

          26. A lie is a lie, but please don’t try to tell me that Trump is any different from every other politician on the planet.

            And just for clarification:
            I think Trump is possibly the second worst potential winner in November, unfortunately for America, Biden is even worse

      2. JAN. 21 “I wasn’t a fan of Iraq. I didn’t want to go into Iraq.” (He was for an invasion before he was against it.) JAN. 21 “A reporter for Time magazine — and I have been on their cover 14 or 15 times. I think we have the all-time record in the history of Time magazine.” (Trump was on the cover 11 times and Nixon appeared 55 times.) JAN. 23 “Between 3 million and 5 million illegal votes caused me to lose the popular vote.” (There’s no evidence of illegal voting.) JAN. 25 “Now, the audience was the biggest ever. But this crowd was massive. Look how far back it goes. This crowd was massive.” (Official aerial photos show Obama’s 2009 inauguration was much more heavily attended.) JAN. 25 “Take a look at the Pew reports (which show voter fraud.)” (The report never mentioned voter fraud.) JAN. 25 “You had millions of people that now aren’t insured anymore.” (The real number is less than 1 million, according to the Urban Institute.) JAN. 25 “So, look, when President Obama was there two weeks ago making a speech, very nice speech. Two people were shot and killed during his speech. You can’t have that.” (There were no gun homicide victims in Chicago that day.) JAN. 26 “We’ve taken in tens of thousands of people. We know nothing about them. They can say they vet them. They didn’t vet them. They have no papers. How can you vet somebody when you don’t know anything about them and you have no papers? How do you vet them? You can’t.” (Vetting lasts up to two years.) JAN. 26 “I cut off hundreds of millions of dollars off one particular plane, hundreds of millions of dollars in a short period of time. It wasn’t like I spent, like, weeks, hours, less than hours, and many, many hundreds of millions of dollars. And the plane’s going to be better.” (Most of the cuts were already planned.) JAN. 28 “The coverage about me in the @nytimes and the @washingtonpost has been so false and angry that the Times actually apologized to its dwindling subscribers and readers.” (It never apologized.) JAN. 29 “The Cuban-Americans, I got 84 percent of that vote.” (There is no support for this.) JAN. 30 “Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage.” (At least 746 people were detained and processed, and the Delta outage happened two days later.) FEB. 3 “Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” (There is no evidence of paid protesters.) FEB. 4 “After being forced to apologize for its bad and inaccurate coverage of me after winning the election, the FAKE NEWS @nytimes is still lost!” (It never apologized.) FEB. 5 “We had 109 people out of hundreds of thousands of travelers and all we did was vet those people very, very carefully.” (About 60,000 people were affected.) FEB. 6 “I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35.” (Much of the price drop was projected before Trump took office.) FEB. 6 “It’s gotten to a point where it is not even being reported. And in many cases, the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it.” (Terrorism has been reported on, often in detail.) FEB. 6 “The failing @nytimes was forced to apologize to its subscribers for the poor reporting it did on my election win. Now they are worse!” (It didn’t apologize.) FEB. 6 “And the previous administration allowed it to happen because we shouldn’t have been in Iraq, but we shouldn’t have gotten out the way we got out. It created a vacuum, ISIS was formed.” (The group’s origins date to 2004.) FEB. 7 “And yet the murder rate in our country is the highest it’s been in 47 years, right? Did you know that? Forty-seven years.” (It was higher in the 1980s and ’90s.) FEB. 7 “I saved more than $600 million. I got involved in negotiation on a fighter jet, the F-35.” (The Defense Department projected this price drop before Trump took office.) FEB. 9 “Chris Cuomo, in his interview with Sen. Blumenthal, never asked him about his long-term lie about his brave ‘service’ in Vietnam. FAKE NEWS!” (It was part of Cuomo’s first question.) FEB. 9 “Sen. Richard Blumenthal now misrepresents what Judge Gorsuch told him?” (The Gorsuch comments were later corroborated.) FEB. 10 “I don’t know about it. I haven’t seen it. What report is that?” (Trump knew about Flynn’s actions for weeks.) FEB. 12 “Just leaving Florida. Big crowds of enthusiastic supporters lining the road that the FAKE NEWS media refuses to mention. Very dishonest!” (The media did cover it.) FEB. 16 “We got 306 because people came out and voted like they’ve never seen before so that’s the way it goes. I guess it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan.” (George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama all won bigger margins in the Electoral College.) FEB. 16 “That’s the other thing that was wrong with the travel ban. You had Delta with a massive problem with their computer system at the airports.” (Delta’s problems happened two days later.) FEB. 16 “Walmart announced it will create 10,000 jobs in the United States just this year because of our various plans and initiatives.” (The jobs are a result of its investment plans announced in Oct. 2016.) FEB. 16 “When WikiLeaks, which I had nothing to do with, comes out and happens to give, they’re not giving classified information.” (Not always. They have released classified information in the past.) FEB. 16 “We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. But we had a bad court. Got a bad decision.” (The rollout was chaotic.) FEB. 16 “They’re giving stuff — what was said at an office about Hillary cheating on the debates. Which, by the way, nobody mentions. Nobody mentions that Hillary received the questions to the debates.” (It was widely covered.) FEB. 18 “And there was no way to vet those people. There was no documentation. There was no nothing.” (Refugees receive multiple background checks, taking up to two years.) FEB. 18 “You look at what’s happening in Germany, you look at what’s happening last night in Sweden. Sweden, who would believe this?” (Trump implied there was a terror attack in Sweden, but there was no such attack.) FEB. 24 “By the way, you folks are in here — this place is packed, there are lines that go back six blocks.” (There was no evidence of long lines.) FEB. 24 “ICE came and endorsed me.” (Only its union did.) FEB. 24 “Obamacare covers very few people — and remember, deduct from the number all of the people that had great health care that they loved that was taken away from them — it was taken away from them.” (Obamacare increased coverage by a net of about 20 million.) FEB. 27 “Since Obamacare went into effect, nearly half of the insurers are stopped and have stopped from participating in the Obamacare exchanges.” (Many fewer pulled out.) FEB. 27 “On one plane, on a small order of one plane, I saved $725 million. And I would say I devoted about, if I added it up, all those calls, probably about an hour. So I think that might be my highest and best use.” (Much of the price cut was already projected.) FEB. 28 “And now, based on our very strong and frank discussions, they are beginning to do just that.” (NATO countries agreed to meet defense spending requirements in 2014.) FEB. 28 “The E.P.A.’s regulators were putting people out of jobs by the hundreds of thousands.” (There’s no evidence that the Waters of the United States rule caused severe job losses.) FEB. 28 “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption by imposing a five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials.” (They can’t lobby their former agency but can still become lobbyists.) MARCH 3 “It is so pathetic that the Dems have still not approved my full Cabinet.” (Paperwork for the last two candidates was still not submitted to the Senate.) MARCH 4 “Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” (There’s no evidence of a wiretap.) MARCH 4 “How low has President Obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/Watergate. Bad (or sick) guy!” (There’s no evidence of a wiretap.) MARCH 7 “122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!” (113 of them were released by President George W. Bush.) MARCH 13 “I saved a lot of money on those jets, didn’t I? Did I do a good job? More than $725 million on them.” (Much of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.) MARCH 13 “First of all, it covers very few people.” (About 20 million people gained insurance under Obamacare.) MARCH 15 “On the airplanes, I saved $725 million. Probably took me a half an hour if you added up all of the times.” (Much of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.) MARCH 17 “I was in Tennessee — I was just telling the folks — and half of the state has no insurance company, and the other half is going to lose the insurance company.” (There’s at least one insurer in every Tennessee county.) MARCH 20 “With just one negotiation on one set of airplanes, I saved the taxpayers of our country over $700 million.” (Much of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.) MARCH 21 “To save taxpayer dollars, I’ve already begun negotiating better contracts for the federal government — saving over $700 million on just one set of airplanes of which there are many sets.” (Much of the cost cuts were planned before Trump.) MARCH 22 “I make the statement, everyone goes crazy. The next day they have a massive riot, and death, and problems.” (Riots in Sweden broke out two days later and there were no deaths.) MARCH 22 “NATO, obsolete, because it doesn’t cover terrorism. They fixed that.” (It has fought terrorism since the 1980s.) MARCH 22 “Well, now, if you take a look at the votes, when I say that, I mean mostly they register wrong — in other words, for the votes, they register incorrectly and/or illegally. And they then vote. You have tremendous numbers of people.” (There’s no evidence of widespread voter fraud.) MARCH 29 “Remember when the failing @nytimes apologized to its subscribers, right after the election, because their coverage was so wrong. Now worse!” (It didn’t apologize.) MARCH 31 “We have a lot of plants going up now in Michigan that were never going to be there if I — if I didn’t win this election, those plants would never even think about going back. They were gone.” (These investments were already planned.)

        1. AND?
          If you think that’s 35,000 you need to go back to your abacus.
          Also.
          Not to put too fine a point on it, this is exactly what Biden was doing in his State of the Union

          1. yeah. Disqus limits post length, and thats not the WAPO list. which of those comments were in the SATU?

  164. 484642+ up ticks,

    You certainly were a significant factor,treacherously so in the 2019 General Election.

    Seriously putting down a great many patriots.

    Reform will be ‘significant factor with or without me’ at next election, says Farage

  166. Completely and utterly off topic
    I know the wordlers here enjoy their eagles and completing the daily challenge.

    My waste of time (apart from Nottle) is the daily Microsoft Solitaire speed challenge.

    The challenge has numerous bots and people who have found ways to game the system, so a podium place is always a good result.
    This evening I managed to secure a first by one second.
    It gives me enormous pleasure to bump three people who have improbable records, eg 789 first 123 second and 5 third places.
    I often find myself in the 5-9 region out of 50 yet in the under 10,000 out of half a million.

    It’s a pity the system can’ separate the bots.

      1. It’s very childish on my part.
        My real assessment is the overall position, I once had a very lucky streak, no mistakes at all and came in the top 2,000 out of nearly 600,000.
        Generally I pitch into the 3rd/4th cohort overall.

    2. My eldest daughter’s challenge is to do one particular set of Sudoku puzzles in under 2 minutes. She tells me she can do them on paper in under 2 mins but the app she uses can’t keep up to speed with her inputs…

      She does these for fun (apparently):”f you like to live dangerously and push beyond your mental comfort zone, steel yourself for The Times’ toughest Ultimate Killer puzzles. A bumper collection of more than 360 puzzles for hard-core solvers. Selected from The Times these puzzles will challenge the sharpest minds.
      Includes Deadly-level Killer puzzles, and Extra Deadly, to really test your limits: this is the only place you’ll find such a torturous collection in a single book.

      1. That’s interesting, I sometimes wonder if I’m at a disadvantage using a mouse.

        I like doing the paper puzzles when I’m in the UK and have access to M-i-Law’s DT.

        There is no doubt that regular doing improves the speed as Phizzee said to the bishop
        When I was commuting I used to do various crosswords.
        The Times was usually finished by Sevenoaks. Now I would struggle to get even a quarter of it.

      2. Yes, I use a Sudoku app and challenge myself against a timer. There are four levels of difficulty and I try to beat my previous average to set a lower target in any of the four. That maintains my interest in the easiest setting as completing it is no problem but doing so faster is what keeps me going.

  167. Good Bruckner 7th on R3, but now I’m off for a bath and away to bed.
    G’night all.

  168. On the basis of the CofE saying it will make payment to Carribean countries to right the wrongs of the past do you thing it will make similar payouts to women who were denied education, equal pay and entry to many professions up until recent decades?

    I think I’ll write to the Bish.

    1. Dear StorminaDcup,

      Thank you for your very valid observations.

      Please go back to the kitchen sink where you belong.

      Love and Peace

      Wellpastmysellbydate
      CantIam

  171. Mother, father and son were having dinner, and the son wouldn’t eat his sprouts, mother says son eat your sprouts, no said the son.
    Father leans over and whispers in the boys ear, the boy quickly eats his sprouts and goes to his room.
    The mother says what did you say to him? father says I told him his willy wouldn’t grow any bigger if he didn’t eat them !!!
    Mother slaps father around the head, he said what was that for?
    For not eating your sprouts when you were a child.

  172. Right, chums, I will now you all a Good Night and head up the stairs to Bedford. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

  174. Oh, for goodness sake, grow up you silly child.
    Trump’s not the candidate I would chose, but tell me how Biden can possibly be better.

      2. 384664+ up ticks,

        Morning MM,
        A pleasure to oblige,

        BBC Question Time 07/12/2023
        with a studio audience in Petersfield

  179. I don’t know why I’m still up. Thank you all for your most charming company. Off now.

Comments are closed.