Tuesday 12 November: Nato’s effectiveness now depends on European investment in defence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

748 thoughts on “Tuesday 12 November: Nato’s effectiveness now depends on European investment in defence”

  2. Good morning to all my chums, and thanks to Geoff for today's new NoTTLe site.

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    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,242 5/6

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  3. G'Morning Geoff and Friends after a 2-day chuckle moratorium
    Today's Tale:
    Dogs are Better than Women Because
    • Dogs don’t cry
    • Dogs love it when your friends come over
    • Dogs don’t care if you use their shampoo
    • Dogs think you’re a great singer
    • Dogs don’t expect you to call when you run late
    • The later you are, the more excited dogs are to see you
    • Dogs will forgive you for playing around with other dogs
    • Dogs don’t notice if you call them by another dog’s name
    • Dogs are excited by rough play
    • Dogs don’t mind if you give their offspring away
    • Dogs like it when you leave things on the floor
    • A dog’s disposition stays the same all month long
    • Dogs never need to examine the relationship
    • Dogs’ parents never visit
    • Dogs love long car trips
    • Dogs understand that instincts are better than asking for directions
    • Dogs never criticise
    • Dogs agree that you have to raise your voice to get your point across
    • Dogs never expect gifts
    • Dogs don’t worry about germs
    • Dogs don’t want to know about every other dog you’ve ever had
    • Dogs don’t let magazine articles guide their lives
    • Dogs would rather you buy them a hamburger dinner than a lobster one
    • Dogs don’t keep you waiting
    • Dogs enjoy heavy petting in public
    • Dogs find you amusing when you’re drunk

    2. Kadi wants to know about every other dog I've met while I was out – he hoovers me where they've touched!

    1. 396774+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Back a thousand years, 48% of the Country will go for it, and ALL the political content of parliament.

      The Quran in parliament is a ticket to lie to non believers, plus the odious halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

    5. 'Morning, JN. Just another of those ill-conceived photo ops that confirms their inflated view of their own importance. For Starmer this takes brown-nosing to new heights. I just know that Little Micron will walk all over him and we will pay the price.

    5. I have the genuine McAfee on my laptop but I do get the scam versions as well. They're not very subtle so easy to spot.

    8. I use Apple and have never needed McAfee, yet I get these constant reminders. Fortunately, they are automatically consigned to junk by my discerning laptop.
      Just zap it.

        1. If you look carefully, there will be minute alterations to the logo or typeface. Perhaps an extra punctuation mark.

    10. I did get a really horrible noisy spam pop up last summer which I couldn't get rid of. It put the wind up me but fortunately my son in Basel was able to kill it.

      1. 396771+ up ticks,

        Morning Pip,

        Could very well be another staged propaganda, even so, did we learn from it,I personally think not.

      1. 396771+ up ticks,

        Morning AS,

        If so, it would make a very good valid debating issue,as in, the benefits and non benefits of beating up a policeman via different cultures.

    3. No one wanted the scum here. They were forced on us by the Left. The sad thing is the officer can't fight back. The foreigner should now be in a pool of blood, wondering where his lower leg went. The bloke filming it drooling blood from a belly wound.

    5. If the minimum height requirement for police officers still applied that weedy little cop would not have been there. The immigrant scum would think twice before tackling a beefy six footer.

  15. Good morning all.
    A bright start to the day with -1°C on the Yard Thermometer and scattered cloud.

  17. Michael Deacon
    Britain needs its own Donald Trump. Step forward Jeremy Clarkson
    A polling expert says the former Top Gear host really could topple our political elite. And I for one agree

    Michael Deacon Columnist 12 November 2024 7:00am GMT

    Many people – especially on the Left – will scoff. But as James Kanagasooriam is the polling expert who coined the term “Red Wall”, it’s fair to say he has a reasonable handle on what ordinary voters think. His latest pronouncement, therefore, should be taken seriously.

    Because he says we could soon have our own Donald Trump – in the form of none other than Jeremy Clarkson.

    If the former Top Gear host were to announce that he’s entering politics, argued Mr Kanagasooriam at the weekend, it could be “Britain’s Trump moment”. He was not, he hastened to add, suggesting that Clarkson has the same character or views as Trump; a regime led by the former would obviously be “far more English and less authoritarian”. None the less, Clarkson “has reach, a massive TV show, [and is] part of the nation’s mental furniture. He has become the countryside’s most effective representative in decades. He’s far more heterodox than his opponents suggest. [And he] winds up all the right people.”

    I for one agree. And there are plenty of other reasons why Clarkson is perfectly placed to topple the political establishment.

    Unlike conventional politicians, he speaks the same language as actual human beings, rather than reciting pre-programmed drivel about “working people” and “community leaders”. He takes a rational, sensible, mainstream approach to the “culture wars” (i.e., by merrily ridiculing everything the Left says). He appeals to Brexiteers despite being a fervent Remainer (a gift that is surely unique). And, thanks to his constant battles with infuriating bureaucrats on Clarkson’s Farm, he understands how red tape is throttling the UK economy.

    On top of that, there’s no risk of him accepting freebie designer suits, if only because he has absolutely zero dress sense. Nor, unlike seemingly every current MP, could he be tempted by free tickets to Taylor Swift, because he doesn’t like any music made more recently than Led Zeppelin IV.

    Also, he’s clearly capable of handling a hectic workload. At the last count, he has at least seven jobs (farmer, brewer, shopkeeper, pub landlord, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? presenter, author, columnist). So there’s no reason why he shouldn’t be able to squeeze in MP and PM, too.

    As far as I can see, there are only two obstacles in the path of Clarkson’s otherwise inevitable march to power. First, he recently had a heart scare – which means he might not be in ideal shape for a career that would entail high stress, constant pressure, and listening to speeches by David Lammy.

    Second, there’s our electoral system, which ensures that, to stand any chance of becoming PM, you have to lead either Labour or the Tories. On the whole, Labour members might be a touch reluctant to elect a man who once wished a happy Christmas to everyone in Britain except Diane Abbott – on the grounds that she “probably isn’t celebrating because in her endlessly muddled head it’s December 47th”. Tory members, meanwhile, might feel just a tiny bit guilty about dumping Kemi Badenoch after less than a fortnight in charge.

    All the same, this doesn’t mean Sir Keir Starmer can breathe easy. Clarkson still poses a lethal threat to the Government. Because, this coming weekend, he’ll be joining a protest by farmers against Labour’s new “tractor tax” (inheritance tax on farms). His presence will guarantee wall-to-wall media coverage. And if the protest escalates, and leads to every farmer in Britain going on a full-blown strike, the Government is toast. The sight of empty supermarket shelves will blow apart Labour’s unearned reputation as competent, serious “grown-ups”. And it’ll land them in a crisis that, for once, they can’t blame on the Tories.

    In which case, Clarkson needn’t bother standing for election. He can bring down Sir Keir from the comfort of his tractor cab.

      2. “Today, I'm surrounded by farmers and plasterers and brickies and butchers and all I hear, all day long, is that there's too much immigration. “

    3. Clarkson already has. Clarkson's Farm has done more for the farming industry and the countryside generally than the BBC ever has.

      It has also exposed the stupidity, ignorance and incompetence of big fat state – the automated helpline that you can't get through to, the daft computer inputs, the pointlessness of registering livestock – solely for EU rules.

      Jeremy himself has started to realise why he was wrong over Brexit. Folk like him have lived in comfortably bubbles, insulated from the damage the government does.

  18. Доброе утро, товарищи,

    A bright morning at Castle McPhee, 4℃ risng to 10℃ with a moderate breeze from the North so it'll feel a tad cooler.

    Just how did we get here?

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/944070a318968f0563ed8df853490386a5ca88e3ebb48337b93fe44750ec12cb.png

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/income/workers-facing-67pc-tax-rates-rachel-reeves/

    Isn't it time that toothless organisation, the Taxpayers' Alliance, found a spine and a pair pf balls and organised a nationwide tax strike? I'd join in because of the IHT raid on private pensions and the fact that my private pension is taxed under PAYE at 20% by the provider so I have to pay most of the other 20% in arrears every year. I could easily withhold that.

    The tax system is manifestly unfair to married couples, especially single-earner couples and couples where one earns more than £100k while the other is on a relatively much lower rate, and especially pensioner couples who are in the same position.

    It's end is long overdue. Why on earth do we put up with it?

    1. When tax payers don't work, they don't get paid and lose their jobs/businesses. When the public sector strikes big fat state hands them our money.

      The way we strike is by stopping work and going out of business. Government doesn't care about that though. It just hikes taxes to make someone else pay the higher welfare bill. This process continues until more people are out of work than working, and tax revenues collapse. We're well over the hill on that front.

      1. This is basically what Ayn Rand explained in Atlas Shrugged. She saw how socialism worked in the Soviet Union. They never learn, do they.

    2. The IHT thing. So my plan will be just to spend it all, rather than aim to use it sensibly and anything left over goes to kids.

      Get it out the pension, give it away then do equity release on the house(recognising on death the house will go to the equity release people). But has the advantage that (a) the kids get the money when they need it, not when I croak (b) there is no IHT on my estate as i have spent it and (c) the Council have to pay any care-home costs bug my home is already taken.

      Point is: people find a way around punitive taxation.

    3. Same old story, everything they come into contact with they eff it up and big time. No change from the Wastemonster machine.

  19. Good Moaning.
    Quick, throw up zillions of pylons. Sunny morning and IT'S ALL OUR FAULT!!!!

    Off topic. MB and I watched a schlock programme about people with nasty skin conditions; all patients were covered in tattoos. Given the inks penetrate below the epidermis, is there a link?

      1. In my time, I've learnt to understand the mental workings of the deluded and the down right mad.
        But my imagination and empathy totally fails when I see these acres of inked up skin. What DO they see in the mirror?

        2. Tattoos are expensive , how can chavvy types afford them yet send their kiddos to school without a full tummy of breakfast , or use charity food stores.

    3. I've been arguing for years that tattoos will become the next big drain on the NHS now that smoking has fallen and they appear to be doing something about obesity.
      Labour needs to start culling more oldies to make way for them all.

  20. Russia suffers deadliest day as Kursk counter-offensive falters. 12 November 2024.

    Russia lost a record number of soldiers in one day on Monday, Ukrainian intelligence said after its forces appeared to repel an initial phase of Moscow’s counteroffensive in the Kursk region.

    Some 1,950 Russian troops were killed or injured on Monday, the Ukrainian army said, after footage showed Russian armoured vehicles being destroyed as they launched their offensive.

    Yesterday was Monday. Crystal ball? Tea leaves? Lies? They seem to be getting increasingly desperate at the Telegraph. There was an entire article yesterday about the non-existent phone call between Trump and Putin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/12/ukraine-russia-kursk-offensive-latest-news/

  21. Russia suffers deadliest day as Kursk counter-offensive falters. 12 November 2024.

    Russia lost a record number of soldiers in one day on Monday, Ukrainian intelligence said after its forces appeared to repel an initial phase of Moscow’s counteroffensive in the Kursk region.

    Some 1,950 Russian troops were killed or injured on Monday, the Ukrainian army said, after footage showed Russian armoured vehicles being destroyed as they launched their offensive.

    Yesterday was Monday. Crystal ball? Tea leaves? Lies? They seem to be getting increasingly desperate at the Telegraph. There was an entire article yesterday about the non-existent phone call between Trump and Putin.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/12/ukraine-russia-kursk-offensive-latest-news/

  22. Somali Ali Musse charged with murder after multiple stabbings in south London and is set to appear before Magistrate Alex Alawode at Croydon Court on Tuesday. Fruit stall holder Nihad Osmam assisted police at the scene. Chief Superintendent Seb Adjei-Addoh urged anyone with information to call 101, or to contact Forvis Mazars at CrimeStoppers.

    Fear not.. a whitey did feature in all this.. he's one of the victims.

    3. I used to make a point of insisting that Croydon is part of Surrey, not London. I don't bother any more.

      2. Since the obnoxious mayor took offence in general…..whoops took office.
        Every single town inside the M25 has become 'London'.

        1. Not for the Met police. Their area used to encompass parts of Hertfordshire inside the M25 (Bushey, Boreham Wood etc) but their boundary is now the county line which is well within the M25.

    4. Thankfully for us all, apparently this event was not a terrorist event. We can all sleep safely and no need to riot. Odd how it is always a nutter from one particular group that run around slashing random people with knives.

      1. I'm delighted that they can tell so quickly that it's not a terrorist attack, compared with the great

        length of time that it takes to decide that it is a terrorist attack by the cult that cannot be criticised.

    5. How much more evidence and how many terrible incidents such as this are needed before our useless political idiots admit that they have made a now fatal insurmountable and huge on going error ?

  25. 'Morning, Peeps and Geoff,

    Bright and breezy down here, dare I hope that this will be the last bit of mowing for now?

    SIR – The jetting in of world leaders to the Cop29 climate conference (Leading Article, November 11) is the greatest example of virtue-signalling hypocrisy of our age. These self-important people believe the world is “boiling”, and that other countries should be implored to cut emissions.

    Perhaps Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, might reflect on the fact that, in his push towards net zero, he is committing us to a miserable future, in which the population cannot be sure of having the basic human right to a 24-hour energy supply.

    We are being told that climate change is all our fault: we use too much energy at the wrong times. But it is the job of the Government to provide the required amount of electricity whenever it is needed, and failure to do so would represent a catastrophic neglect of responsibility.

    Engineers have been calling on governments for 40 years to plan properly for the transition to carbon-free power – without the cost or energy-security implications that we are currently facing.

    The future is bleak. We will be manufacturing products with energy costing two to three times that of our competitors, and we won’t even be assured that electricity will be available on still, sunless days, or when the French, Saudis or Americans decide they don’t like us anymore.

    Professor R G Faulkner
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    Well said, Prof. Faulkner. Elsewhere in the DT is the headline: Starmer: 'Our net zero plans don’t mean telling people how to live'. Forgive me while I choke on my breakfast! What an insult for all those who have a brain and aren't afraid to use it. He really is the cretin of all cretins…

      1. Like the Bishop of Birkenhead who told us rural-dwellers one Harvest Festival that we should "get out of our gas-guzzlers to save the planet" and then went out to the car park to get in her Porsche.

    2. I was chatting to a chum who I hadn't seen for a few months.
      She had lost a noticeable amount of weight.
      Apparently, her doctor put her on the flab jabs because she had developed diabetes.
      Once a week, she injects Ozempic. For her, it works by creating a permanent state of nausea.
      I'm none too sure that's a good idea.

  27. Morning all 🙂😊
    What a lovely sunny start.
    Despite the headline what is really needed from the political classes is, care sympathy and investment in their own countries and nearly everyone else would be able to take the steain ans be happy. But there's no chance of that happening.

  28. Today Free Speech has a new article by James Gatehouse, ‘ My Mother Drunk Or Sober ’, on the nature of patriotism and the dangers of allowing it to be hijacked by pusillanimous politicians.

    Our Remembrance Day appeal is now closed. It raised £245 for the ex-forces charity Help for Homeless Veterans in the ten days it was open. Many thanks to those who contributed. (Further donations will be used by FSB to cover running costs.)

    As most will know, foaming fanatic Milliband, the Minister for Putting Your Lights Out, has jetted off to Oil-State Azerbaijan to committ you to poverty and climate change tyranny. So I thought it might be useful to record exactly what the current sources of our energy supply are. Today at 0850, the situation was as follows:

    Total demand: 39.79 GW; Supply: 'Fossil' (Gas) 19.1 GW (47.9%); Renewables 8.5 GW (23.4%). Imports accounted for 9.5% and the rest made up of nuclear and 'biomass' mostly shredded trees imported from the US.

    Is this something you would like to see on a daily basis? Please let me know in the comments.

  29. Good morning all,

    Blue sky , yes a blue sky, sunshine , no breeze and 5c, brrr .

    Bats ..

    SIR – Visiting churches in rural Norfolk, one often sees notices on bat conservation (Features, November 11).

    There are also bat ambulances and safeguards to ensure that they are protected. No one seems to care about medieval artefacts such as pew ends, carvings and brasses, which all suffer from bat droppings and the corrosion they cause.

    Avril Wright
    Ingoldisthorpe, Norfolk

    If there is a shortage of moths and other flying insects, how on earth do bats survive.

    During the 1980's , I became the 151st person in the country to have found a Bechstein bat .. so rare are they .. and generally found near oak woodland .

    The Bechstein's bat is a very rare bat that lives in woodland and roosts in old woodpecker holes or tree crevices. Like other bats, the females form 'maternity colonies' to have their pups, and the bat has a long lifespan .. 20+ years .

    I am not a bat geek, but … when the bat experts appeared , where we previously lived , chaps had some amazing electric sonar equipment to detect bat squeaks at dusk.. think Ghostbusters .. or UFO hunters.

    Quite fascinating differentiating the squeaks from the different species we heard flying around .. and also the height they fly is also significant to the type of bat flitting around .

    I developed a whole new learning curve ..it is amazing to know there are such small creatures surviving .. delicate furry mammals that fly .. like winged men who glide off tops of mountains .

    I have seen many types of fruit bats when we lived overseas .. but it is so amazing to see a mammal that flies and lives upside down hanging by its legs .

    2. "… delicate furry mammals that fly… like winged men who glide off tops of mountains" – gorgeous writing! Thank you.

      (Particularly appreciated as I have a small colony on my balcony. 🤣)

      2. Do you wear a see through low cut negligee with your balcony door open on moonless nights?

        Asking for a bat fiend.

      3. Do you wear a see through low cut negligee with your balcony door open on moonless nights?

        Asking for a bat fiend.

    3. On a nature note, MB was watching the film produced by the Poole Harbour Osprey Project. It covers the entire breeding season, from mating to their migration.

    4. Dr Desmond Morris was once interviewed about why he preferred to introduce programmes on wildlife from a studio (Zoo Time, ITV) instead of going out into 'the field' like David Attenborough did on BBC?

      Desmond replied, "I prefer to keep clean, unlike Attenborough, who is not happy unless he's wading up to his knees in batshit!"

  30. Good morning, all. Sunny and dry.

    I'm still fighting to get my new laptop into shape. This morning I managed to get my two devices to synchronise bookmarks etc. Not sure what will happen when I log off. Lots more to explore e.g. why X plays up on my old machine but is fine on the new one etc. but not today.

    Listening to this moron makes me think that we are in real trouble re food security. Statements telling us that home grown food causes many more times pollution than industrial farming have been around for a while so expect seeds, fertiliser etc. to be banned in the coming years. An attack on two fronts, farming and home grown.

    https://x.com/UnityNewsNet/status/1856105849208377548

    1. Perhaps farmers could blockade him inside his home and refuse to allow any food that has been "farmed" to be allowed to cross the threshold.
      I wonder how long he would last before starving to death.
      He could pretend he's on hunger strike.

    2. So that’s it. Sheer petty nasty revenge. God god we really have some horrid people ruling us.

      2. OLT, can you suggest/recommend a decent lunch venue in your neck-of-the-woods, I am looking at a car for sale in Chapel St. Leonards. Thanks!

    5. Seen that guy before. There is something wrong with him. He hates everyone and everything. Watched him a few weeks ago denigrating OAP's. Thoroughly obnoxious.

    2. A toughie for me today.

      Wordle 1,242 5/6

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    1. The Knysna Regional Court in the Western Cape has sentenced a man who murdered his spouse over WhatsApp texts.

      State Prosectuor, Candice Simon secured the conviction of Thamsanqa Eric Booi, 45, who beat his spouse, Gqabisa Dayimani, to death with a knobkierie after he found WhatsApp messages on her phone which revealed infidelity.

      https://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-and-courts/another-murder-rocks-the-eastern-cape-as-two-women-gunned-down-2bff1ab7-af60-4e37-b92e-ae46b6a2605e

    2. But look at the behaviour of the other three people in the video. Not one of them stops to help the 91 year old or tries to prevent the attack – they just watch it, and then run past the victim.
      I find that as shocking and disgusting as the mugger.

    3. There was an old bat on Patrick Christys's panel of commentators on GB News last night called Scarlett MccGwire,. She claimed that had the person pushing the old woman down the stairs been white rather than a Syrian asylum seeker the MSM would not have been interested in the story. She way have a point but she is a weird person who spouts unmitigated extreme left garbage..

      Here is some luxury accommodation to which she should go!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d9cbe029d7f509f0d1a7336b3a9497aa6a55169e93c1d31216345541c40f96e.jpg

    4. There was an old bat on Patrick Christys's panel of commentators on GB News last night called Scarlett MccGwire,. She claimed that had the person pushing the old woman down the stairs been white rather than a Syrian asylum seeker the MSM would not have been interested in the story. She way have a point but she is a weird person who spouts unmitigated extreme left garbage..

      Here is some luxury accommodation to which she should go!

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2d9cbe029d7f509f0d1a7336b3a9497aa6a55169e93c1d31216345541c40f96e.jpg

  33. SIR – I’ve just bought a Grade II listed town house in Wiltshire. Last week a survey found one lonely bat was in the roof. I am now not allowed to touch the badly leaking roof, which has been attacked by deathwatch beetle and woodworm. I need a DNA test to determine what sort of bat it is. And I have to commission a Bat Emergence and Re-entry Survey, and Arb S1, Arb S2a and Arb S2b reports.

    The total cost comes to £5,876, plus VAT.

    Mike Crowther
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    Just another greenie rip-off, based on the same principle as the £100m bat tunnel for a stretch of HS2. Apart from that, I know I wouldn't want to purchase a Listed property and all the expensive restrictions that normally go with them. And I do wonder if the author had it surveyed prior to purchase – if so I find his decision to buy the place beyond mad!

    1. A friend of mine is in a similar position to the gentleman from Salisbury .. identical. !!

      Bats come and go , they must be resilient , after all , how on earth did they all survive before bricks and mortar ..

      The HS2 bat tunnel is the daftest , worst waste of money ever.

      Typical of that type of precious greenie.

    2. In the village I lived in Norfolk.Anyone could borrow a mains lantern to put in the loft if you had a bat. You leave the light on 24/7 till it/they left. They think more of bats than people.Bats can carry rabies . A bat handler died after being bitten. The bats finf somwhere else to roost.

      1. I look forward to his resignation but I hope that they do not replace him with another woke bishop or, God help us, a woman. No women are priests and it would completely destroy any possibilities in dialogue with Catholicism or the Orthodox and isolate the Anglican church for ever.

          2. Would not put it past them. After all the hierarchy of the C of E seems to be hell bent in destroying the institution. It's truly sad. All our institutions are under attack and pretty soon there will be nothing left to defend and we will have no claim to our country at all. You can't defend nothing.

    1. They weren’t joking when they said wind turbines would spread like wildfire, were they.

    2. The smoke from these inefficient, subsidy-devouring monstrosities will be far more polluting and harmful than the emissions from a modern coal-fired power station.

      1. Do you remember the two poor men who were trapped at the top of one of these things when it caught fire. One burnt to death, the other jumped, a more painless way to die.

        1. No, I have no recall of that. Jumping would definitely be preferable and, as you say, probably a quicker death.
          Was that in this country?

  36. Morning all. Hope all are doing fine on this sunny, cold and windless day. I hear that Millipede has called for a system where donkeys can be used to turn the windmills in these trying times. I noticed my next door neighbour, a detestable type, has a child little pinwheel stuck in his lawn, that's not moving either. Here's a pic of Millipedes system.
    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/df/83/37/df8337574c7b0561be369269d71291d8–fuerteventura-donkeys.jpg
    I also thought you might enjoy a brief word from Trumps appointee, the new border czar. We need someone like this dealing with our immigrant problem. Great guy!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_VPUDXnooA

  37. Morning all. Hope all are doing fine on this sunny, cold and windless day. I hear that Millipede has called for a system where donkeys can be used to turn the windmills in these trying times. I noticed my next door neighbour, a detestable type, has a child little pinwheel stuck in his lawn, that's not moving either. Here's a pic of Millipedes system.
    https://i.pinimg.com/736x/df/83/37/df8337574c7b0561be369269d71291d8–fuerteventura-donkeys.jpg
    I also thought you might enjoy a brief word from Trumps appointee, the new border czar. We need someone like this dealing with our immigrant problem. Great guy!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_VPUDXnooA

  38. Trump’s National Security Adviser Pick Strongly Opposed Chagos Deal

    Trump has appointed Mike Waltz, colonel and representative in Florida, as his National Security Adviser. That news will cause more dread to Starmer…

    A former White House and Pentagon policy adviser, Waltz was the first Green Beret to be elected to Congress. He strongly opposed the Chagos deal in 2022 when it was first doing the rounds, warning that “ceding control of the Chagos to Mauritius could deliver the CCP an enormous strategic win.” Waltz correctly pointed out the base on Diego Garcia “remains our most critical basing option to counter the rising threat of the Chinese” in the Indian Ocean after the loss of Bagram airbase…

    Trump supported efforts to keep the islands. As Guido first reported Starmer’s close mate Philippe Sands is Mauritius’ chief legal adviser on Chagos, while Jerome Powell, who oversaw the swift cession of the territory, is now our National Security Adviser. Some heads will be butting there…

    This is good news for Nigel as the UK’s cryptoambassador to the US. Guido reminds co-conspirators that the handover treaty is neither signed nor ratified. Up in the air…

    1. The hand over treaty has not been ratified, but has Starmer already handed over British taxpayers'

      money which he had promised to the pro Chinese government of Mauritius?

      Anybody know?

    1. Look on the bright side. We won’t need the assisted suicide bill if we are all forced to drive electric vehicles.

      1. The other day, we had a phone call from the car dealers claiming that production of MH favourite car, a self-charging hybrid, will be stopping, and asking if he want to get one of the remaining ones. No way will we consider a plug-in hybrid.

    2. In all fairness the article does say: "There is a manual override button in Tesla cars but experts say the feature is not widely publicized.
      It directs crash victims to pull away a panel in the door and then tug at a cable underneath, which will open the doors.". So, if you buy a car it is incumbent on you to read the manual. Not that I'm unsympathetic to the victims, it is a terrible way to die.

        1. I would assume it is very easy to open for safety's sake. It would be as easy for a woman to open as a man and would require little strength. I suspect as easy as opening a conventional car door. But if someone is so injured they can't do that they are as equally done for if it were a conventional handle. I would suspect too that the panel is there because it requires very little effort to tug the cable.

          1. They could be in a state of panic. But as you say the same could be said for exiting any car in those conditions.

    1. Evil bunch of spiteful, grudge-bearers.
      A banner popped up when I went to read the piece: "Should Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby step down? – vote now" It can only be signed by those who pay.

      1. Pay to vote. Says it all. Want to buy some democracy? There's plenty going.

        Having never got over actual God and yet having finally got over the Church of England I regret to have to announce my severe disinterest in Welby. Yes he ought to go, but then so many other things about that sorry edifice I should prefer to change, too. He's only a facet of its overall failure. Everybody knows that he sits upon a raft of potential replacements any of whom are unlikely to do any better. Sad, but to my mind true.

    2. I saw this on GB News yesterday – I feel rather sorry for John Mc Ternan – he must be one of the most ugly and physically unattractive men in Britain.

      Something I have noticed watching political programmes on TV is that Conservative, Reform or right of centre political supporters are far more willing to criticise their own side than Labour supporters and pundits are of criticising Labour policies. Labour enthusiasts will support anything the Labour government does regardless of how lunatic it is and damaging to both the country and the people..

      1. Thanks Rastus, I only just picked it up. That's a good observation. The left these days is a monolithic, somewhat Borg-like hive mind.

        We Conservative, Reform or right of centre political supporters who criticise are fully aware of the left and I suppose it's all old news to us watching Commies and Trots doing their usual thing. They're beyond criticism; they just need to be defeated. The Conservatives are guilty of a greater sin is the problem. The sort of sin that gets you dispatched to the ninth circle of the Inferno.

      2. Thanks Rastus, I only just picked it up. That's a good observation. The left these days is a monolithic, somewhat Borg-like hive mind.

        We Conservative, Reform or right of centre political supporters who criticise are fully aware of the left and I suppose it's all old news to us watching Commies and Trots doing their usual thing. They're beyond criticism; they just need to be defeated. The Conservatives are guilty of a greater sin is the problem. The sort of sin that gets you dispatched to the ninth circle of the Inferno.

      3. The British establishment is strongly anti Christian and especially anti The Church of England. This was clearly demonstrated when the BBC appointed a Muslim to head its Department of Religious Affairs.

    3. Well, we know what happened when a spiteful Labour apparatchik said they wanted to "rub the Right's nose in diversity."
      If we are to take him seriously, food shortages in 5, 4, 3, 2, …..

  42. Britain’s farmers brace for Miliband’s solar shock wave

    Tenant farmers warn they face being cleared out as landowners sell up to net zero developers
    *
    *
    Switching from crops to solar can boost the rental income of farmland at least fourfold. That prospect is tempting landowners across the UK to clear out the food farmers – and invite in the solar farmers.

    The economics is simple. Farmers typically pay a top-rate annual rent of £500 per acre for good land growing lucrative crops such as potatoes. That can drop below £250 when crop rotations mean a field is producing anything less valuable.

    Solar panels, by contrast, can generate rents of £1,000 to £1,200 a year every year for up to four decades, with rents linked to inflation. It is a huge increase in income for landowners that is impossible for farmers to compete with.

    The UK’s planning rules were, until recently, the only thing blocking a solar explosion. There were plenty of proposed solar farms but most had generated hundreds of objections from angry local people, and so were held up by lengthy planning enquiries.

    In July, however, just days after the general election, Miliband approved the 2,500-acre Sunnica solar farm on the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk border, despite the objections of thousands of local people, four local authorities and his own planning inspectors.
    *
    *
    *
    *****************************

    Colin Belshaw
    1 day ago
    Somebody will make a lot of money out of this.
    Which means decisions to turn some of the best farmland in the world into solar generation facilities has nothing to to with sense, let alone engineering and science.
    Here's why, and it's very simple:
    Over the last 7 days, solar facilities generated 0.22GW, this from an installed capacity of 16.9GW. So they operated at a load factor – effectively measuring efficiency – of 1.30%. Isn't that brilliant!!
    This means, for the 7 day period, of that 16.9GW of installed capacity, 16.68GW generated . . . PRECISELY NOTHING.
    Someone will now say, but that's not fair – for the last week we've experienced near dunkelflaute conditions.
    Okay, so let's look at the past 12 months, shall we:
    Over the last 12 months, solar facilities generated 1.52GW from an installed capacity of 16.9GW and therefore operated at a load factor of 8.99%.
    Isn't that enough to make you laugh your head off . . . or weep!
    Solar generation has got to be the most stupid and most inefficient option available to us, and therefore the most expensive!!
    So why are we doing it?!!
    Because someone who seriously deserves to be on the receiving end of a 9 iron will be making a lot of money. Period.

    1. Who is going to clear up all these solar panels when they reach the end of their lives? The good old taxpayer, I suppose.
      That's always supposing that there are any left after the food shortages and the hungry mobs in the cities.

        1. What if they leach noxious chemicals? That’s also assuming that they don’t get smashed by hailstorms. Also, there is a lot of electrical infrastructure that would have to be dug up and taken out.

          1. Don’t worry. We will all have starved to death by then, so it won’t matter to us.

  43. Max Hastings, love him or loathe him wrote one of the best book dedications I have ever read. In Overlord written for his son, it reads:

    “To Harry in the hope beaches will mean no more to him than buckets and spades.”

    I pray that that is all it means to my boy.

    1. He also wrote a dedication to his other son Charles in Nemesis: The Battle for Japan. Charles committed suicide in China in 2000.

      1. His daughter, Charlotte, a lovely girl, came on one of our French courses in the 1990s.

    2. One of my favourite dedications was by P.G. Wodehouse who dedicated one of his books to his step-daughter saying: "without her advice and cheerful encouragement the book would have been completed in half the time."

  46. Remember that it was Cameron who chose Welby to be the Archpillock of Canterbury – obviously with the intention of doing as much damage as possible to the Church of England.

    In Cameron's obituary, when it is time to write it, I hope it will be noted that he had very few actual successes in his time as prime minister but his one overwhelming success – as far as actually achieving what he set out to do – was the part he played in the dramatic decline of the Church of England by appointing Welby.

    And now it looks as if Welby will resign and if he does then Starmer, an avowed atheist, will be the person to select his successor. Starmer is very unlikely to wish success to the Church of England and I suspect he is already casting his eyes over the list if Anglican bishops. One who stands out as a suitable candidate is one who has already publicly claimed that she is woke – she was also born in Jamaica, and already stands in for the current holder of the office in Canterbury – she is Rose Hudson Wilkin.

      1. In this respect the PM acts as the Monarch's representative. It's part of the constitution of the UK that the PM is the Prime Minister of the Crown.

    2. Is she, by any chance, also a lesbian and a victim of waycism?
      If he merely resigns, does that mean he can then be appointed to the HoL?

    4. As noted above, Hudson-Wilkin is as thick as Lammy. The Worldwide Anglican Communion, especially the Africans, will make mincemeat out of her.

    1. I've just had a conversation with an old friend whose best mate recently died in hospital. The family presented a letter to the coroner regarding in their opinion and the obvious terrible lack of treatment and care he had not been getting during his last few weeks of life. After reading it and checking the facts of the content, the coroner tore up the death certificate and told the family that he had indeed died from a total lack of care and effective treatment. In Effect, Killed.
      That seems to sum up Britain at this moment in time.

  49. Irony Alert..

    Guess who is being denied provisions listed under Article 3 17.1 of the beloved ECHR since 7 Nov 24.
    He's a Cat D terrorist in HMP Woodhill max security prison who has just been moved to main section for a good beating.

    1. Donald Trump has threatened to slap “large sanctions” on Turkey Sir Keir Starmer's Trotskyite regime unless London frees an American pastor Tommy Robinson whose detention has further strained relations between the Nato allies.

    2. It’s his birthday in a week or two. There is an idea for people to send him a birthday card as a show of support. But don’t lick the envelope and wear gloves!

    2. Hudson-Wilkin? Thick as Lammy. To be fair, the Midwife would be a better choice but then who would be foisted on us in London. Cottrell would also be relatively benign but that would leave a vacancy in York. Sentamu was well liked, despite Welby trying to, err, blacken his name. Perhaps the Ugandans can send us someone. They'd send a Christian of course. So maybe not.

      1. I suggested in a post on the forum a couple of hours ago that it would be her. She ticks all the boxes: she is woke, female and black – the ideal choice for an extreme left wing atheist like Starmer.

  51. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    When Rachel Reeves went out to sell her £40bn tax-raising budget on the airwaves, she offered a message of reassurance: ‘We don’t need to come back and ask for more.’ The Chancellor suggested that last month’s fiscal event would be the one and only big budget – she was making the tough decisions early on so the Labour government wouldn’t have to keep coming back and asking for more. However, as ministers get their heads around the incoming Trump presidency, doubts are growing as to whether Reeves will be able to stick to her pledge.

    The problem is twofold. First, borrowing costs. If Donald Trump is true to his word on imposing tariffs on UK exports to the United States, it could have a negative effect on growth – which is already looking anaemic on recent projections. The Labour government will look to win an exemption (but in doing so could find themselves having to pick a side between the US and EU). Even if they succeed, borrowing costs are on the rise – they are 0.3 per cent higher than the OBR forecast. If this is accompanied by low growth, Reeves could wipe out her fiscal headroom.

    Second, defence spending. While Reeves did announce a funding boost for the Ministry of Defence in the Budget, she stopped short of setting out a route to 2.5 per cent of GDP. It’s likely that Trump will put pressure on European countries to at minimum hit 2.5 per cent if not higher. If Reeves has to find more money for defence in the spending review – scheduled for spring next year – that means tough decisions elsewhere. For all the talk of a high tax, high borrowing, high spend budget, most of the money went on the NHS. Seven departments are on track for real-term cuts. That means money is tight – and if Reeves has to dig deep on defence or respond to higher borrowing costs, both tax rises and spending cuts could be on the horizon.

    Katy Balls
    WRITTEN BY
    Katy Balls
    Katy Balls is The Spectator’s political editor.

    1. Defence spending will rise but it won't be to the advantage of the British. It will all be spent on arms and ammunition to support Zelensky's and the EU's pointless continuation of the WEF/CIA war against Russia. It wouldn't surprise me if the moronic Starmer authorise the use of British troops on Ukrainian soil.

      1. Mark Rutte says he's going to expel the US from NATO if Donald Trump tries to end the Ukraine war. According to the NATO website, the US provides two thirds of its budget.

        5. President Trump will crash NATO and the EU. Robert Kennedy will crash WEF and the WHO.

          I for one cannot wait to see the demise of these rotten elites.

      2. You see that's the thing. Lots of Russian troops are getting real honest to goodness live fire training……

    2. Defence spending will rise but it won't be to the advantage of the British. It will all be spent on arms and ammunition to support Zelensky's and the EU's pointless continuation of the WEF/CIA war against Russia. It wouldn't surprise me if the moronic Starmer authorise the use of British troops on Ukrainian soil.

    3. Thieves began her GBN interview with "When I was an economist at the Bank of England". You were employed in the mailroom, you lying cow. I told our postie at work that he's now an economist. He just grinned. Mind, he seems a sensible chap. (No offence to cows, by the way. Bitches are on the whole also nicer creatures.)

    4. Thieves began her GBN interview with "When I was an economist at the Bank of England". You were employed in the mailroom, you lying cow. I told our postie at work that he's now an economist. He just grinned. Mind, he seems a sensible chap. (No offence to cows, by the way. Bitches are on the whole also nicer creatures.)

  52. From Coffee House. the Spectator

    European farmers have called for a day of protest in Brussels on Wednesday, 48 hours before the EU is expected to sign the Mercosur trade deal. The agreement, which has taken two decades to negotiate, will give Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay access to EU markets. It will be good for the German car industry, and disastrous for European farmers, particularly smaller farms.

    The president of one farmers’ union in France, Véronique Le Floc’h, has said the deal will likely lead to the ‘death’ of French farming. In an interview at the weekend, Annie Genevard, the minister of agriculture, said: ‘It’s a bad agreement, which will bring a flood of products into our country in direct competition with our producers: 99,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of sugar, and as much poultry.’

    The French government has been expressing its opposition to the deal since the country’s farmers descendedon Paris with their tractors at the start of the year. That demonstration – which was replicated in other European countries – was the culmination of growing despair at the marginalisation of their industry. The fear in Paris is that if the Mercosur deal is signed the country’s farmers will besiege the capital. Those fears are justified. I met with my neighbour on Monday, a farmer in Burgundy, and his anger was palpable. ‘Maddening’ was how he described the situation. On Monday two unions announced that blockades on some motorways will begin on Friday.

    What particularly infuriates Europe’s farmers is the unfairness of the deal. They are subject to stringent regulations concerning chemical fertilisers – such as atrazine, a herbicide banned in Europe – and meat traceability but these restrictions won’t apply to the meat and cereal imported from South America. The same is true of the CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU.

    Wednesday’s agricultural protest in Brussels is organised by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), which describes itself as a ‘confederation of unions and organisations of peasant farmers, small and medium-scale farmers’.

    They are furious at the Mercosur deal, as they are with the EU’s proposal to compensate – or ‘bribe’, in the words of ECVC, farmers in exchange for accepting the agreement. They demand an end to ‘free trade agreements and unfair competition, with a definitive halt to negotiations on EU-Mercosur’.

    This is also the ultimatum issued by FNSEA, the largest of the French farmers’ unions. ‘The tractors are hot, and as soon as we finish sowing, we’ll be out on the streets again,’ said their vice-president recently, Luc Smessaert.

    A fortnight ago Sophie Primas, France’s trade minister, warned the EU that signing off the Mercosur deal this week at the G20 summit in Rio would be a grave mistake. ‘We risk fuelling an anti-European sentiment not only in France, but all over the world,’ she said.

    She is correct, and her words have more resonance than ever following the landslide victory of Donald Trump last week. Few French politicians have celebrated Trump’s win as much as Eric Zemmour, who in a television interview on Sunday described it as ‘the defeat of wokeism and all the revolutions of the left’. These revolutions, continued Zemmour, include mass immigration, decolonisation and globalisation.

    In rejecting Kamala Harris, the American electorate were rejecting the Progressive dogma that has captured elite Western society this century. European voters have for a number of years been expressing their dissatisfaction with the elite, in countries such as Italy, Holland, Hungary, Portugal, France, Spain and Britain.

    They have little to show for their sedition because power in Europe no longer resides in Rome, Paris or Madrid, but in Brussels.

    In many ways Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission and the most powerful politician in Europe, is the bloc’s answer to Kamala Harris.

    Von der Leyen presents herself as a centre-right politician but like Harris she espouses all the tenets of progressivism such as free movement, LGBTQ rights and net zero. Earlier this year she urged EU nations to nominate women for the next European Commission regardless of whether they were the best qualified for the roles.

    The other commonality between Harris and von der Leyen is that they have ‘failed upwards’. The American was picked by Joe Biden as his running mate in 2020 despite the fact that her own campaign to be the Democratic candidate was, in the words of Newsweek a ‘miserable failure’. She was a poor vice-president but was still chosen by the Democrats as this year’s presidential candidate.

    Von der Leyen was appointed commission president in 2019 after an unimpressive six years as Germany’s Minister of Defence: ‘Aristocratic ineptitude’ is one description of her leadership style.

    During this time she fell out with Trump and did little to improve the efficiency or budget of the German military. It was on her watch that German soldiers were reduced to replacing heavy machine guns with broomsticks during a Nato exercise in 2014.

    Quite how von der Leyen was appointed to the EU’s top job was a mystery; it is also baffling as to how she was re-elected Commission president this year. The EU bloc has never been so demoralised, ravaged by economic, social and security issues. But no one in Brussels seems to be to blame.

    But if the Mercosur deal is signed this week in Rio, Europe’s farmers know exactly who to blame and it will be their tractors doing the talking.

    Gavin Mortimer
    WRITTEN BY
    Gavin Mortimer
    Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport

    1. Fat lot of good the "protests" will do. The Commissars will do as they please and to hell with millions of "little people".

    2. Fat lot of good the "protests" will do. The Commissars will do as they please and to hell with millions of "little people".

    3. Fond of Lying has never had a clue about anything. That's why Frau Doktor Merkel (spit) sacked her.

    5. I suspect Gavin Mortimer might not be long for the Spectator if he carries on like that what with Gove now in the chair.

      "They have little to show for their sedition".

      Sums it up all up, pretty much.

  53. From Coffee House. the Spectator

    European farmers have called for a day of protest in Brussels on Wednesday, 48 hours before the EU is expected to sign the Mercosur trade deal. The agreement, which has taken two decades to negotiate, will give Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay access to EU markets. It will be good for the German car industry, and disastrous for European farmers, particularly smaller farms.

    The president of one farmers’ union in France, Véronique Le Floc’h, has said the deal will likely lead to the ‘death’ of French farming. In an interview at the weekend, Annie Genevard, the minister of agriculture, said: ‘It’s a bad agreement, which will bring a flood of products into our country in direct competition with our producers: 99,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of sugar, and as much poultry.’

    The French government has been expressing its opposition to the deal since the country’s farmers descendedon Paris with their tractors at the start of the year. That demonstration – which was replicated in other European countries – was the culmination of growing despair at the marginalisation of their industry. The fear in Paris is that if the Mercosur deal is signed the country’s farmers will besiege the capital. Those fears are justified. I met with my neighbour on Monday, a farmer in Burgundy, and his anger was palpable. ‘Maddening’ was how he described the situation. On Monday two unions announced that blockades on some motorways will begin on Friday.

    What particularly infuriates Europe’s farmers is the unfairness of the deal. They are subject to stringent regulations concerning chemical fertilisers – such as atrazine, a herbicide banned in Europe – and meat traceability but these restrictions won’t apply to the meat and cereal imported from South America. The same is true of the CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU.

    Wednesday’s agricultural protest in Brussels is organised by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), which describes itself as a ‘confederation of unions and organisations of peasant farmers, small and medium-scale farmers’.

    They are furious at the Mercosur deal, as they are with the EU’s proposal to compensate – or ‘bribe’, in the words of ECVC, farmers in exchange for accepting the agreement. They demand an end to ‘free trade agreements and unfair competition, with a definitive halt to negotiations on EU-Mercosur’.

    This is also the ultimatum issued by FNSEA, the largest of the French farmers’ unions. ‘The tractors are hot, and as soon as we finish sowing, we’ll be out on the streets again,’ said their vice-president recently, Luc Smessaert.

    A fortnight ago Sophie Primas, France’s trade minister, warned the EU that signing off the Mercosur deal this week at the G20 summit in Rio would be a grave mistake. ‘We risk fuelling an anti-European sentiment not only in France, but all over the world,’ she said.

    She is correct, and her words have more resonance than ever following the landslide victory of Donald Trump last week. Few French politicians have celebrated Trump’s win as much as Eric Zemmour, who in a television interview on Sunday described it as ‘the defeat of wokeism and all the revolutions of the left’. These revolutions, continued Zemmour, include mass immigration, decolonisation and globalisation.

    In rejecting Kamala Harris, the American electorate were rejecting the Progressive dogma that has captured elite Western society this century. European voters have for a number of years been expressing their dissatisfaction with the elite, in countries such as Italy, Holland, Hungary, Portugal, France, Spain and Britain.

    They have little to show for their sedition because power in Europe no longer resides in Rome, Paris or Madrid, but in Brussels.

    In many ways Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission and the most powerful politician in Europe, is the bloc’s answer to Kamala Harris.

    Von der Leyen presents herself as a centre-right politician but like Harris she espouses all the tenets of progressivism such as free movement, LGBTQ rights and net zero. Earlier this year she urged EU nations to nominate women for the next European Commission regardless of whether they were the best qualified for the roles.

    The other commonality between Harris and von der Leyen is that they have ‘failed upwards’. The American was picked by Joe Biden as his running mate in 2020 despite the fact that her own campaign to be the Democratic candidate was, in the words of Newsweek a ‘miserable failure’. She was a poor vice-president but was still chosen by the Democrats as this year’s presidential candidate.

    Von der Leyen was appointed commission president in 2019 after an unimpressive six years as Germany’s Minister of Defence: ‘Aristocratic ineptitude’ is one description of her leadership style.

    During this time she fell out with Trump and did little to improve the efficiency or budget of the German military. It was on her watch that German soldiers were reduced to replacing heavy machine guns with broomsticks during a Nato exercise in 2014.

    Quite how von der Leyen was appointed to the EU’s top job was a mystery; it is also baffling as to how she was re-elected Commission president this year. The EU bloc has never been so demoralised, ravaged by economic, social and security issues. But no one in Brussels seems to be to blame.

    But if the Mercosur deal is signed this week in Rio, Europe’s farmers know exactly who to blame and it will be their tractors doing the talking.

    Gavin Mortimer
    WRITTEN BY
    Gavin Mortimer
    Gavin Mortimer is a British author who lives in Burgundy after many years in Paris. He writes about French politics, terrorism and sport

  54. Well, that's the bonfire well and truly seen to. 2½ hours – all the garden trimmings etc burned. Just the right amount of north wind to keep it going nicely. Very satisfactory.

  55. Well, that's the bonfire well and truly seen to. 2½ hours – all the garden trimmings etc burned. Just the right amount of north wind to keep it going nicely. Very satisfactory.

      1. Some of the lunatics are also withholding certain activities with partners who voted for Trump.

        2. Given the type of partner they are likely to have they will soon be bald and single. Good move girls !

        3. Given the type of partner they are likely to have they will soon be bald and single. Good move girls !

    3. 4B Movement = (no sex. no marriage. no dating. no childbirth until sh1t changes) Boring, Belligerent, Bitter, and Barren.

      er, Kinda like the circular firing squad.. you kill yourself off.

        1. Well that really would shut them up! Not sure how long they'd be able to sustain sexual abstinence though….!

        1. I can't, Auntie Elsie. Sausages are proper food, which they do not understand.

          Clueless carrots, perhaps?

  61. Welby worked for eleven years in the oil industry, five of them for the French oil company Elf Aquitaine based in Paris. In 1984 he became treasurer of the oil exploration group Enterprise Oil plc in London, where he was mainly concerned with West African and North Sea oil projects. He retired from his executive position in 1989 and said that he sensed a calling from God to be ordained.[26]

    In July 2013, following the report of the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, Welby explained that senior bank executives avoided being given information about difficult issues to allow them to "plead ignorance".[27] He also said he would possibly have behaved in the same way and warned against punishing by naming and shaming individual bankers which he compared to the behaviour of a lynch mob.[27]

    Ministry
    Welby was at first rejected for ordination by John Hughes, the Bishop of Kensington, who told him "There is no place for you in the Church of England."[28]

    He was subsequently accepted for ordination, with the support of the Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton, Sandy Millar. Throughout his ministry Welby has been linked to the charismatic evangelical wing of the Church of England associated with Holy Trinity Brompton, and in a 2019 interview said "In my own prayer life, and as part of my daily discipline, I pray in tongues every day."[

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Welby

  63. The New York Post tells us that Costco had to recall 60,000 pounds of butter from sale recently. Apparently the packs did not contain a warning that the butter contains milk.

    You wonder why people voted for Harris?

    1. I kid you not; I once bought a bag of salted peanuts that had the warning message, "Warning: may contain nuts!"

      Those who think that butter contains milk need a science lesson. Butter is nothing more than the solidified fats from cream. This process happens after the cream is separated form the milk. The 'buttermilk' that then separates from the fat in the churning process is also washed away leaving pure fat.

      Of course, salt is often added, as are 'lactose cultures' to make a sour 'cultured' version. Those who prefer such adulterated butter (which tastes rancid to me) are more than welcome to the muck.

      1. I buy M&S unsalted butter, which tastes nice. I don't like salty butter.
        The label (which I confess I've never bothered to read before) states:
        Ingredients
        Unsalted Butter (Milk)
        Allergen Information
        Contains Milk
        Dietary Information
        Suitable for Vegetarians

        1. That is good butter. Though it is made from what was originally milk, it does not contain milk. They only posted that to show its source.

      2. Dairy milk has on average 3.8% milk fat, with a minimum of 3.2% milk fat. In other words, full-cream milk is 96% fat free. The higher fat content of full cream milk is perfect for creating tender baked goods and creating thick and creamy sauces.

    2. I kid you not; I once bought a bag of salted peanuts that had the warning message, "Warning: may contain nuts!"

      Those who think that butter contains milk need a science lesson. Butter is nothing more than the solidified fats from cream. This process happens after the cream is separated form the milk. The 'buttermilk' that then separates from the fat in the churning process is also washed away leaving pure fat.

      Of course, salt is often added, as are 'lactose cultures' to make a sour 'cultured' version. Those who prefer such adulterated butter (which tastes rancid to me) are more than welcome to the muck.

  64. Starmer not having a good day again, he travels all the way to Baku, Azerbaijan only to bore the third world attendees with a long soundbite diatribe lecture concerning all the dystopia he is going to inflict on the UK.

    It must have put them all off the agenda completely, as it has us at home.
    Was this supposed to make him look more prime-ministerial?
    He cannot be getting very good advice.
    Especially as none of the big polluters turned up as they have realised it is all a big con and the game is up.

    By 2030 we could be the only country in the world with a government following the agenda and wanting to rejoin the EU.

  65. Starmer not having a good day again, he travels all the way to Baku, Azerbaijan only to bore the third world attendees with a long soundbite diatribe lecture concerning all the dystopia he is going to inflict on the UK.

    It must have put them all off the agenda completely, as it has us at home.
    Was this supposed to make him look more prime-ministerial?
    He cannot be getting very good advice.
    Especially as none of the big polluters turned up as they have realised it is all a big con and the game is up.

    By 2030 we could be the only country in the world with a government following the agenda and wanting to rejoin the EU.

    2. The county, or the sauce? ‘Cos they are spelt the same but pronounced very differently!

  68. Christmas is 'CANCELLED': Festive references 'banned' from school pantomime performance to be 'more inclusive to all faiths'

    A Hampshire primary school has sparked controversy after requesting all Christmas references be removed from its festive pantomime production to make it more inclusive.

    The headteacher of Wherwell Primary School in Andover sent a letter to parents of 126 children, announcing that their upcoming performance of Jack and the Beanstalk would exclude any mention of Christmas.

    The decision was made to ensure children whose families do not celebrate Christmas could attend the pantomime performance, irrespective of their religious beliefs. The letter sent to parents read: "As this is not a Christmas event, but a pantomime, it can be enjoyed by everyone wit the changes we have requested. We are keen that ALL of our children should enjoy the pantomime and for it to be a fully inclusive event, have removed Christmas songs from the production. Children will continue to enjoy our usual Christmas events as we progress through the remainder of this term."

    Following backlash from angry parents, headteacher Mandy Ovenden issued a second letter this week explaining the school's position on making the event "fully inclusive." In her letter to parents, Ovenden explained that discussions with the pantomime company revealed Christmas songs were included in their standard performance: "We have a number of families who either do not celebrate Christmas or do so in a different way. The children of these families are removed from events such as this, at the request of their parents," she wrote.

    The headteacher emphasised that as this was not specifically a Christmas event, it could be "enjoyed by everyone" with the requested changes. She assured parents that traditional festivities would continue, stating: "Children will continue to enjoy our usual Christmas events as we progress through the remainder of this term."

    Parents have expressed outrage over the decision to remove Christmas references from the pantomime. One parent told the Daily Mail: "This shouldn't be allowed. Christmas is celebrated all over the UK and the world, and you just can't eradicate it so a few people will not be offended. A pantomime is only ever held at Christmas, but it's crazy that there can be no mention of the word."

    Another parent criticised the headteacher's approach, stating: "The head is wrong pandering to the whim of a small minority of parents. She or the panto company should have said 'no'. You cannot eradicate our history and culture."

    A spokesperson for Chaplins Pantos, the Essex-based company staging the production, confirmed they typically include festive elements in their shows.

    "We don't always mention Santa Claus, but there would usually include a Christmas song and there would be reference to Christmas. On this occasion, the school asked us not to include any reference."

    A Wherwell Primary School spokesperson said: "We are very excited to be able to treat our pupils to a fully inclusive pantomime this year. As we do every year, we are also running a range of Christmas celebrations across the remainder of the term, ensuring that overall our planned schedule of events is well-balanced and reflects our whole school community."

    https://www.gbnews.com/news/christmas-references-banned-school-pantomime-more-inclusive-faiths

    Given that Wherwell is a very well-to-do village in rural splendour with the famous River Test running through it (and almost three miles from Andover, not in it), I suspect that the complainants are not Africans or Asians, Moslems or Hindus but ghastly neo-Blairite, Guardian-reading, militant atheist, kill-joy toss-pots who, when they're not campaigning against Christmas, complain about slurry-spreading and will undoubtedly be looking forward to The Reiver's farmland clearances.

    They should held face down in a dung heap until they beg for mercy.

    1. Can the children opt out of visits to mosques or repeating/reading/listening to/drawing islamic prayers during RE lessons too, or does this only apply to Christmas?

      1. Many years ago, a teacher at a local village primary school decided the Y6 class should go on a visit to one of the massive mosques in Peterborough. It was very much a 'hearts and minds' session, with the hosts supplying juice & biscuits, and a 'goodie bag' to take home. I went along as a helper, and made sure to wear socks which were about to be thrown out 🙂 .
        As the coach made its way along the scruffy ghetto street approaching the building, one child stated, 'My mum says they're all dirty down here!' Unfortunately, the teacher heard and was beside herself with horror; I was secretly chuckling to myself.

    2. Pandering only to a minority and alienating the majory is exclusive not inclusive since it excludes more people than it includes?

      1. Maybe they would if their parents allowded them to but, as I said above, it might not be immigrant parents who are complaining.

    5. For those that do not celebrate Ramadan, Diwali and the others, can these be banned too? That would only be fair.

  69. 12th November, 2024

    Cochrane

    (The Invisible man?)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f15108925be65a9a2608d8e25edca14c950fe7218c958fddb1d38927a117d0b9.png

    We recorded the date of your birthday when we first asked people to tell us what their birthdays were but since then we have hardly heard a word from you!

    You have the distinction of being the only Nottler with a birthday in November which suggests that many Nottler parents abstained from procreating during February.

    Anyway, wherever you are!

    Best Wishes

    Caroline and Rastus.

    1. He may be looking in, or here under a new name – but he was not too popular and got banned a couple of times. He did contact me on Twitter some time ago.

  71. Telegraph View
    A zealot’s delusion can’t prevent blackouts
    The Neso report is not a vindication of Mr Miliband’s approach but a warning of how dangerous it has become

    Telegraph View 05 November 2024 9:00pm GMT

    As an exercise in wishful thinking, Ed Miliband’s response to a new report on his plans to decarbonise the electricity grid within five years would take some beating. He commissioned a body called the National Energy System Operator (Neso) to examine the feasibility of his plans amid widespread scepticism in the industry that it was remotely achievable.

    Neso said this accelerated timetable (it was originally planned for 2035) could technically be met but would require a Herculean effort on every front. Nearly 620 miles of new power lines would have to be built at a time when demands for other construction projects were being expanded amid a desperate shortage of workers.

    In addition, millions more people would have to be persuaded to turn off their power at night to conserve energy. Most ministers would consider this analysis and conclude that the 2030 target is far too ambitious, even reckless.

    Not Mr Miliband. He greeted the report as a “rebuke to those who said it couldn’t be done”. But it hasn’t been done. Mr Miliband is suffering from the zealot’s delusion that simply wishing something would happen will make it so.

    Local objections to the power lines and pylons that will snake their way across the countryside will lead to legal challenges. Mr Miliband indicated these would be overcome by legislation forcing the plans through on grounds of national security. He has already over-ridden planning refusals for new solar farms in eastern England and will do the same for pylons.

    Once again he maintained that this means cheaper energy, even though electricity in the UK is more expensive for businesses than anywhere in the industrialised world. In a newspaper article he said: “We will get our country off the rollercoaster of volatile fossil fuel markets so we can deliver cheaper electricity.” Yet even if he does hit his target it will be necessary to use gas as a backup on windless, sunless days. That will mean relying on other countries for supplies.

    With old nuclear power plants about to be decommissioned, what happened to the idea of a fleet of small modular reactors to replace them? Are they to be part of his mix of renewables?

    The Neso report is not a vindication of Mr Miliband’s approach but a warning of how dangerous it has become. It will be touch and go to avoid the lights going out before the next election. Sir Keir Starmer has been warned.

    1. Its collectivist knickers wet with excitement, the BBC is reporting on Max's announcement at COP to reduce emissions even more and even sooner that the world might be saved.

    2. “forcing the plans through on grounds of national security.”

      Do they ever listen to themselves???

    3. “forcing the plans through on grounds of national security.”

      Do they ever listen to themselves???

  72. Apparently the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is being brought to the fore. Due to current problems with the local council including the mayor. All due to an emphasised 'toxic culture'.
    One guess, what has caused the problem and no prizes.

    1. Muslims and drugs. Oh, and embezzlement and fraud. Which is how the leader of the council got in in the first place.

  73. Conference Climate Change

    BBC News at One

    Justin Rowlatt has just reported from COP29 that Azerbaijan's president has declared that fossil fuels are God given gifts and those who criticise gifted 'petrostates' for using such resources are hypocrits. It doesn't look good for Sir Kier to keep pushing the message of COP26 by pretending UK to be the world leader in creating a green planet by funding wind turbine blades. He is also being critised for not promising any funds for poorer countries who have only come to COP29 in the hope of getting some cash to stop flooding in eastern Spain and inundating Arab deserts with water.

    1. Hooray. Someone with some common sense at last! Let’s hope this is the start of a roll back movement. But will it dawn on the idiots that represent HMG?

    3. I suppose climate change has reached its goal of impoverishing the west, so it can be ditched now. Only, some idiots in Britain actually believe it's real, and will carry on to the bitter end….

    4. I suppose climate change has reached its goal of impoverishing the west, so it can be ditched now. Only, some idiots in Britain actually believe it's real, and will carry on to the bitter end….

    1. Between Charles and Starmer, we're unlikely to get anyone better. We can pray for a miracle, I guess!

      1. If you had read my post the other day, you would know if left up to Charles we would have a very traditional priest as Archbishop indeed, because he is pro Orthodox Christianity. After all his paternal grandmother was a Greek Orthodox nun and Philip, his father was Greek Orthodox, forced to change to Anglicanism because he married the late Queen. But it is not up to him. The Prime Minister gives a recommendation and the king accepts it. That is how it works according to the Constitution, that people believe we don't have but do, it's just most of it is not written down but consists of precedent and tradition, especially concerning the Church of England.

    2. You mean the ABC is now XXX.

      He should be investigated by the police for covering up crimes of sadomasochism and paedophilia thus allowing them to continue.
      No wonder he likes muslims so much.

  75. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14072609/archbishop-canterbury-justin-welby-pressure-resign-keir-starmer.html

    Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby QUITS after Keir Starmer says CofE abuse victims were 'very badly let down'
    Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby QUITS after Keir Starmer says CofE abuse victims
    NEW Justin Welby said he was standing down after a damning report found his failure to act meant that 'abhorrent' serial abuser John Smyth was never brought to justice.

  76. Don't worry, keep calm, be patient. After 5th November.. everything changed.

    Xmas wish.
    Donald J Trump demands all Anti-Woke political prisoners held in jails in Nato countries be released by January 6th.. or be considered a security risk and face sanctions.

    Irony Alert radar has meltdown.
    David Lammy screams that's hurtful words.
    Sir Keir Savile of Rotherham decries US leader meddling in another country's politics.

    2. Thank heavens ! Welby the sanctimonious ex banker wasn't even a true Christian, he has destroyed the Anglican church in this country with his leftwing wokiest agenda.

      1. Yes i can read it, it says blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah and blah.

  79. Wonderful news in regards to the anti Christ Archbishop Welby of Woke resigning .

  80. Wonderful news in regards to the anti Christ Archbishop Welby of Woke resigning .

  81. Welby Offered Labour Adviser Post

    Welby has been offered a post with Labour Party HQ as a special adviser to Ed Miliband. A short statement read "We are pleased to welcome Justin to the team. He shares our values of low public ethics and morals, atheism and a hatred for Brexit. He will provide specialist advice to Mr Miliband demonstrating how his destruction of the Church of England can be replicated in the wider political landscape".

    3. Can't he take the post that Sue Grey has just turned down? Some sort of envoy for the regions, I believe.
      Patrolling the border between Essex and Suffolk ….. mind that riv ……… too late.

      1. Reminds me of a rather off-colour joke from the 1960s.

        Twiggy is so very thin that it is not surprising that her boyfriend can only be Justin.

  82. I’m just checking the odds I can get if I place a bet that the next ABC will be a practicing Muslim…..,

  86. Request for help. The MR has just sold on ebay a 2.25 metre pruning saw. Good price, too. It weihs about 3 kg. She has since discovered that NO carrier firm will take it – apart from the Royal Sodding Mail who want £45!!!!!

    Has any NoTTLer used a UK carrier who will take an odd shaped item without charging the earth?

      1. Up to a point. The price offered was almost the same as a new one. Had the RM fee of £45 come into play – buyer would not have bid! The MR thought it would be a tenner.

  87. I understand it's the job of 2 tier Trotskyite Starmer, as Prime Minister to chose the next Archbishop of Canterbury. I trust this is correct . God help us .

    2. Selection by a PM of no known beliefs? – a bizarre and flawed practice.

      Shouldn't the Archbishop be chosen by a band of Christian peers – with or without billows of white smoke?

  88. Marcus Walker
    Why Justin Welby had to resign
    12 November 2024, 2:32pm

    ‘The scale and severity of the practice was horrific. Five of the 13 I have seen were in it only for a short time. Between them they had 12 beatings and about 650 strokes. The other eight received about 14,000 strokes: two of them having some 8,000 strokes over the three years. The others were involved for one year or 18 months. Eight spoke of bleeding on most occasions (“I could feel the blood splattering on my legs”, “I was bleeding for three-and-a-half weeks”, “I fainted sometimes after a severe beating”)… Beatings of 100 strokes for masturbation, 400 for pride, and one of 800 strokes for some undisclosed “fall” are recorded.’

    Ichose to open with this quote so nobody can be under any doubt why Justin Welby has resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury. The quote is from 1982. That’s how long this has been going on. Back then senior figures within the evangelical movement, which ran Varsity and Public Schools holiday camps, held an inquiry into whether one of their leaders, John Smyth, was systematically abusing boys and young men in their trust.

    Their answer was an unambiguous yes. Should they do anything about it? Their answer was no. ‘I thought it would do the work of God immense damage if this were public,’ said David Fletcher, the leader of the Iwerne Trust. Smyth offshored his sin to Africa. Up to 100 more boys were abused; one died in mysterious circumstances.

    Fletcher went on to be the rector of St Ebbe’s, the leading conservative evangelical church in Oxford. The author of the report was the vicar of Round Church, the leading conservative evangelical church in Cambridge.

    To understand the enormity of this scandal, you must understand the enormity of the project of which the Varsity and Public Schools holidays was the major part: the taking of bright boys from elite public schools and universities and training them in theology and leadership to transform the Church of England. In their stated ambition to change the Church they have been astonishingly successful. Name a major evangelical church in the country, and you will likely find at least one of their leaders has been through these camps. Bishops, too, among them the now departing Archbishop of Canterbury himself.

    Not just an attendee, in adulthood Justin Welby was a dormitory monitor and a speaker at the camps. After Smyth moved to Zimbabwe, he also sent money to support his project and continued to exchange Christmas cards with him. He says he did not know what was going on.

    Maybe. Or maybe not. But he lived with Mark Ruston who conducted that report in 1982. Welby is reported as having had a ‘grave’ conversation with him about Smyth in 1978. He was also warned about him in 1981. He may not have known. But the entire world he moved in knew.

    This was all long before Welby’s failures to act in 2013, when the allegations were formally brought to his attention as Archbishop. It’s these failures which triggered the Makin Review. This report shows his inaction meant that neither the police nor South African authorities were adequately briefed to stop Smyth potentially continuing his abuse up until his death in 2018.

    So many people knew. Makin holds that ‘on the balance of probabilities, it is the opinion of the reviewers that it was unlikely that Justin Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980s in the UK’. That is why this scandal has exploded the way it has.

    This is not an attack upon my evangelical friends and colleagues, especially those who have been let down – and, in some cases, brutally abused – by shepherds who should have been willing to lay down their lives for the flock. I know that wolves have been masquerading as shepherds in all parts of the Church.

    But for this awful situation to be redeemed the only honourable thing was for Justin Welby to resign.

    2. Curses. No readundery.
      At the moment, all I can picture is my sons during the 1970s and early 80s.

  89. From the Religion Media Centre (no, me neither)

    The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) chooses Archbishops of Canterbury. Currently only one of its 16 members is a representative of the Anglican Communion. The Archbishops’ Council is consulting on a proposal that would increase that number to five. The number of representatives from the Canterbury diocese would be reduced from six to three on the grounds that the archbishop spends only about 5% of his time on diocesan matters; most of those duties are carried out by the Bishop of Dover.

    Within the Church of England there is some disquiet about the implications of independent churches having a greater say in who runs its affairs. Those who would like to see a woman in St Augustine’s chair, as well as those who wish to move the church in a more liberal direction on LGBTQ+ issues, fear that increased representation from the Anglican Communion might mean a more conservative choice of archbishop.

  90. From the Religion Media Centre (no, me neither)

    The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) chooses Archbishops of Canterbury. Currently only one of its 16 members is a representative of the Anglican Communion. The Archbishops’ Council is consulting on a proposal that would increase that number to five. The number of representatives from the Canterbury diocese would be reduced from six to three on the grounds that the archbishop spends only about 5% of his time on diocesan matters; most of those duties are carried out by the Bishop of Dover.

    Within the Church of England there is some disquiet about the implications of independent churches having a greater say in who runs its affairs. Those who would like to see a woman in St Augustine’s chair, as well as those who wish to move the church in a more liberal direction on LGBTQ+ issues, fear that increased representation from the Anglican Communion might mean a more conservative choice of archbishop.

  91. From the Religion Media Centre (no, me neither)

    The Crown Nominations Commission (CNC) chooses Archbishops of Canterbury. Currently only one of its 16 members is a representative of the Anglican Communion. The Archbishops’ Council is consulting on a proposal that would increase that number to five. The number of representatives from the Canterbury diocese would be reduced from six to three on the grounds that the archbishop spends only about 5% of his time on diocesan matters; most of those duties are carried out by the Bishop of Dover.

    Within the Church of England there is some disquiet about the implications of independent churches having a greater say in who runs its affairs. Those who would like to see a woman in St Augustine’s chair, as well as those who wish to move the church in a more liberal direction on LGBTQ+ issues, fear that increased representation from the Anglican Communion might mean a more conservative choice of archbishop.

        1. Please forgive this out-of-context reply, but as I understand you know Rev. Marcus Walker, would you kindly pass on to him somehow this comment that I posted under his article in today's Spectator. I'm not sure if many authors read the comments under their articles (some do).

          Quote: "This is not an attack upon my evangelical friends and colleagues, especially those who have been let down – and, in some cases, brutally abused – by shepherds who should have been willing to lay down their lives for the flock. I know that wolves have been masquerading as shepherds in all parts of the Church."

          I am grateful for the author's considerate remarks here, in contrast to some others in the CofE who have weaponised the Report, especially one of its appendices, to attack the entire conservative evangelical section of the Church.

          1. Angus, yes, I’ve been going to Barts since Marcus wrote an article for The Times opposing the closing of churches during Covid. I then interacted with him on Twitter. He does read and reply to comments there.

      2. 396771+ up ticks'

        Afternoon MIB,

        Characteristics ? brown envelope size,

        458 x 229 is usally favourite..

    3. The three others are – Francis Dehauani – she is half Iranian and the Bishop of Chelmsford, Martin Snow – Bishop of Leicester and Graham Usher the Bishop of Norwich .

      1. As a matter of clarification I would like to let readers know that the Bishop of Chelmsford is Guli Francis-Dehqani. Interestingly, it appears that the Iranian tradition is that when a couple marry, they combine their surnames with a hyphen, so when Lee Francis married Guli Dehqani-Tafti, they became Lee and Guli Francis-Dehqani.

    4. That's disappointing. I had a vision of the replacement being a pudgy-faced, pink-haired, ring-nosed lesbian with an image of a vagina tattooed on her forehead.

    7. Most 'atheists' I know — and I am one — have a higher moral code than most who have had their minds hypnotised by religion.

      It seem to me that all modes of 'Christianity', especially Roman Catholics and Anglicans, count child abuse as 'character building'.

      Give me their god-bothering kiddie-fiddlers and let me show them what punishment is!

  95. 396771+ up ticks'

    Afternoon MIB,

    Characteristics ? brown envelope size,

    458 x 229 is usally favourite..

    1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96dfa868dcfea4f5968db68f60c74fe6f1b9d1833705471c673b195a4e4c9d7d.png
      Thanks. Pet, but I can't beat the paywall on the DT online.

      That bird in Yorkshire is either a green female or winter male Scarlet Tanager Piranga olivacea which is common in the eastern parts of the USA and Canada. The summer-plumaged male of that species is a quite dazzling scarlet (above), as its common name implies. I haven't seen one so I'm a bit envious.

      I have, though, seen a good number of vagrant American songbirds in the UK in autumn. The most colourful was this Golden-Winged Warbler Vermivora chrysoptera (below) which turned up in a Tesco's car park at Larkfield, New Hythe, Maidstone, Kent, back in 1989. This bird was very elusive, hopping around from garden to garden on a housing estate that had six-foot high fences! The door of one house opened and a young lady called to me to tell me it was on the washing line in her back garden. She encouraged me to open the tall side gate and I was given the opportunity of seeing this gorgeous bird for a maximum of four seconds before it flew off again.
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01ca10498e5810f7fad23c296886086f432b7c045ca4e7b7cec74cb81fa5b093.png

      1. Tesco's? At Larkfield???
        All we had when I lived there from '73 to '75 was a Wavy Line shop!

    2. Wow, Sue…have never seen one, and if I had would probably have thought an escapee…not keen on the trade in 'wild things'. Very handsome bird tho 😊

  97. That's disappointing. I had a vision of the replacement being a pudgy-faced, pink-haired, ring-nosed lesbian with an image of a vagina tattooed on her forehead.

    1. Quite possibly. There’s an article in the DT accusing Mr L of Pontificating. If true seems he may be well qualified….

  100. This has been known for over 40 years.
    Our sons would have been the 'right' age.
    I feel quite sick.

    Article in the Spectator by the Rev. Marcus Walker.

    ‘The scale and severity of the practice was horrific. Five of the 13 I have seen were in it only for a short time. Between them they had 12 beatings and about 650 strokes. The other eight received about 14,000 strokes: two of them having some 8,000 strokes over the three years. The others were involved for one year or 18 months. Eight spoke of bleeding on most occasions (“I could feel the blood splattering on my legs”, “I was bleeding for three-and-a-half weeks”, “I fainted sometimes after a severe beating”)… Beatings of 100 strokes for masturbation, 400 for pride, and one of 800 strokes for some undisclosed “fall” are recorded.’

    "I chose to open with this quote so nobody can be under any doubt why Justin Welby has resigned as Archbishop of Canterbury. The quote is from 1982. That’s how long this has been going on. Back then senior figures within the evangelical movement, which ran Varsity and Public Schools holiday camps, held an inquiry into whether one of their leaders, John Smyth, was systematically abusing boys and young men in their trust.

    Their answer was an unambiguous yes. Should they do anything about it? Their answer was no. ‘I thought it would do the work of God immense damage if this were public,’ said David Fletcher, the leader of the Iwerne Trust. Smyth offshored his sin to Africa. Up to 100 more boys were abused; one died in mysterious circumstances.

    Fletcher went on to be the rector of St Ebbe’s, the leading conservative evangelical church in Oxford. The author of the report was the vicar of Round Church, the leading conservative evangelical church in Cambridge.

    To understand the enormity of this scandal, you must understand the enormity of the project of which the Varsity and Public Schools holidays was the major part: the taking of bright boys from elite public schools and universities and training them in theology and leadership to transform the Church of England. In their stated ambition to change the Church they have been astonishingly successful. Name a major evangelical church in the country, and you will likely find at least one of their leaders has been through these camps. Bishops, too, among them the now departing Archbishop of Canterbury himself.

    Not just an attendee, in adulthood Justin Welby was a dormitory monitor and a speaker at the camps. After Smyth moved to Zimbabwe, he also sent money to support his project and continued to exchange Christmas cards with him. He says he did not know what was going on.

    Maybe. Or maybe not. But he lived with Mark Ruston who conducted that report in 1982. Welby is reported as having had a ‘grave’ conversation with him about Smyth in 1978. He was also warned about him in 1981. He may not have known. But the entire world he moved in knew.

    This was all long before Welby’s failures to act in 2013, when the allegations were formally brought to his attention as Archbishop. It’s these failures which triggered the Makin Review. This report shows his inaction meant that neither the police nor South African authorities were adequately briefed to stop Smyth potentially continuing his abuse up until his death in 2018.

    So many people knew. Makin holds that ‘on the balance of probabilities, it is the opinion of the reviewers that it was unlikely that Justin Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in the 1980s in the UK’. That is why this scandal has exploded the way it has.

    This is not an attack upon my evangelical friends and colleagues, especially those who have been let down – and, in some cases, brutally abused – by shepherds who should have been willing to lay down their lives for the flock. I know that wolves have been masquerading as shepherds in all parts of the Church.

    But for this awful situation to be redeemed the only honourable thing was for Justin Welby to resign."

    1. Utterly sickening behaviour by the filthy pervert, and from Wetby for covering it all up. Any remorse Wetby shows will only be from being caught out, and he should never be allowed near a church again. How somebody in such an elevated position could even think of covering up such serious, depraved behaviour, never mind doing so for decades, beggars belief.
      Also, did no member of staff at that school have any inkling of such abuse? I find that hard to believe.

      1. Yo MiB

        I understand welby is to bemade the Im am ofall of London, by his Soulmate Sad Dick Khan

    3. Just show me a religion. Just one. That is free from any form of outrage.

      Mind control at its absolute worst!

  102. Martin and Graham might only be in the list for 'balance'/to pull the wool over the eyes of the sheeple. Neither stands a chance purely because they are/sound like white males.

  103. Today Free Speech has a new article by James Gatehouse, My Mother Drunk or Sober on the nature of patriotism and the dangers of allowing it to be hijacked by pusillanimous politicians. Please suppot us by reading and commenting, as it greatly encourages the writers.

    Our Remembrance Day appeal is now closed. It raised £245 for the ex-forces charity Help for Homeless Veterans in the ten days it was open. Many thanks to those who contributed. (Further donations will be used by FSB to cover running costs.)

    As most will know, foaming fanatic Milliband, the Minister for Putting Your Lights Out, has jetted off to Oil-State Azerbaijan to committ you to poverty and climate change tyranny. So I thought it might be useful to record exactly what the current sources of our energy supply are. Today at 0850, the situation was as follows:

    Total demand at 08.55 today: 39.79 GW; Supply: 'Fossil' (Gas) 19.1 GW (47.9%); Renewables 8.5 GW (23.4%). Imports accounted for 9.5% and the rest made up of nuclear and 'biomass' mostly shredded trees imported from the US.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  104. Both birds are so striking, almost looking like something a child might dream up.
    Until the Spring of 1987, we were still living in Larkfield, about 15 minute walk from Tesco.

      1. We lived in the older part of Larkfield, close to Safeway, and a wonderful French restaurant, The Wealden Oak.

    2. I was in Briar Close opposite the Fire Station from '73 to '75.
      Didn't have a Tesco's in those days!

  105. Ross Clark
    Keir Starmer isn’t being honest about his COP carbon pledge
    12 November 2024, 12:52pm

    ‘It’s not about telling people how to live their lives. I’m not interested in that’ said Keir Starmer of his new target for Britain to reduce its carbon emissions by 81 per cent on 1990 levels by 2035. Really? In that case perhaps he would like to tell us how he does intend to reach his target. If he thinks he can do it without mandating changes to our lifestyle he must have a cunning plan indeed.

    Let’s have a look at this 81 per cent target a bit more closely. According to government figures the UK has already reduced its territorial greenhouse gas emissions by 53 per cent compared with 1990 levels. Therefore, if he wants to reach an 81 per cent reduction by 2035 it will mean cutting emissions by 60 per cent on current levels – in just 11 years.

    What would that involve? On the face of it a 53 per cent reduction since 1990 sounds impressive. It sounds a lot less impressive when, as the IEA reminds us this morning, a lot of it has been achieved by closing factories and other industrial plants such as chemical works, as well as by the fall in North Sea gas production and reduction in agricultural output. In the 1980s the UK was nearly 80 per cent self-sufficient in food; that is now down to 60 per cent. Britain’s progress towards net zero seems a lot less remarkable when you look at consumption-based emissions, which include those spewed out elsewhere in the world producing food and other products for UK consumers. On that basis, emissions are down 36 per cent.

    As for the genuine element of the fall in greenhouse gas emissions, a lot of that is down to the switch from coal to renewables in electricity production. In 1996, UK electricity was 43 per cent coal-powered, 23 per cent from gas, 29 per cent nuclear and zero per cent wind/solar. In 2023 it was coal 1.6 per cent, gas 37.7 per cent, nuclear 17.1 per cent and wind/solar 33 per cent. As can be seen from the above we have become more reliant on gas power as a way of balancing intermittent renewables. Nuclear, the most obvious means of decarbonising the electricity system, is going backwards. Unless there is action in the very near future, by 2035 we will likely be down to just one nuclear power station by then: the yet-to-be-completed Hinkley C. But even if the government could somehow reach its target to decarbonise power entirely by 2030 it still wouldn’t get it close to the new target of cutting overall emissions by a further two thirds by 2035, for the simple reason that electricity generation only currently accounts for 11 per cent of UK territorial emissions.

    Even if the government were to finish off Britain’s remaining industry as well as agriculture (which it seems to be having a go at) that still wouldn’t get us to the new 2035 target. Industry accounted for 14 per cent of emissions in 2023 and agriculture 12 per cent. Decarbonise power, offshore all industry and agriculture, in other words, and still we have only reduced UK territorial emissions by 37 per cent on current levels. To reach the new 2035 target we need a further 23 per cent of cuts. And that, inevitably, takes us into areas where consumers very much are involved. It simply cannot be achieved without slashing emissions from domestic transport (29 per cent of emissions in 2023) and buildings (20 per cent).

    So, yes, contrary to Starmer’s reassurances, his target very much is going to have to involve telling people what cars they are allowed to drive and how they are allowed to heat their homes. It could mean telling people they cannot fly off on holiday. And even then, it won’t necessarily do the planet much good if a large slice of UK carbon emissions have merely been offshored. Not for the first time, Starmer’s government is being far from honest with us.

    1. I’m probably missing something here but, if our emissions have been reduced by 53% since 1990 and the goal is to reduce it by 81%, that leaves 28%. N’est ce pas?

  107. Gavin Mortimer
    Ursula von der Leyen is Europe’s Kamala Harris
    12 November 2024, 9:31am

    European farmers have called for a day of protest in Brussels on Wednesday, 48 hours before the EU is expected to sign the Mercosur trade deal. The agreement, which has taken two decades to negotiate, will give Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay access to EU markets. It will be good for the German car industry, and disastrous for European farmers, particularly smaller farms.

    The president of one farmers’ union in France, Véronique Le Floc’h, has said the deal will likely lead to the ‘death’ of French farming. In an interview at the weekend, Annie Genevard, the minister of agriculture, said: ‘It’s a bad agreement, which will bring a flood of products into our country in direct competition with our producers: 99,000 tonnes of beef, 180,000 tonnes of sugar, and as much poultry.’

    The French government has been expressing its opposition to the deal since the country’s farmers descendedon Paris with their tractors at the start of the year. That demonstration – which was replicated in other European countries – was the culmination of growing despair at the marginalisation of their industry. The fear in Paris is that if the Mercosur deal is signed the country’s farmers will besiege the capital. Those fears are justified. I met with my neighbour on Monday, a farmer in Burgundy, and his anger was palpable. ‘Maddening’ was how he described the situation. On Monday two unions announced that blockades on some motorways will begin on Friday.

    What particularly infuriates Europe’s farmers is the unfairness of the deal. They are subject to stringent regulations concerning chemical fertilisers – such as atrazine, a herbicide banned in Europe – and meat traceability but these restrictions won’t apply to the meat and cereal imported from South America. The same is true of the CETA trade deal between Canada and the EU.

    Wednesday’s agricultural protest in Brussels is organised by the European Coordination Via Campesina (ECVC), which describes itself as a ‘confederation of unions and organisations of peasant farmers, small and medium-scale farmers’.

    They are furious at the Mercosur deal, as they are with the EU’s proposal to compensate – or ‘bribe’, in the words of ECVC, farmers in exchange for accepting the agreement. They demand an end to ‘free trade agreements and unfair competition, with a definitive halt to negotiations on EU-Mercosur’.

    This is also the ultimatum issued by FNSEA, the largest of the French farmers’ unions. ‘The tractors are hot, and as soon as we finish sowing, we’ll be out on the streets again,’ said their vice-president recently, Luc Smessaert.

    A fortnight ago Sophie Primas, France’s trade minister, warned the EU that signing off the Mercosur deal this week at the G20 summit in Rio would be a grave mistake. ‘We risk fuelling an anti-European sentiment not only in France, but all over the world,’ she said.

    She is correct, and her words have more resonance than ever following the landslide victory of Donald Trump last week. Few French politicians have celebrated Trump’s win as much as Eric Zemmour, who in a television interview on Sunday described it as ‘the defeat of wokeism and all the revolutions of the left’. These revolutions, continued Zemmour, include mass immigration, decolonisation and globalisation.

    In rejecting Kamala Harris, the American electorate were rejecting the Progressive dogma that has captured elite Western society this century. European voters have for a number of years been expressing their dissatisfaction with the elite, in countries such as Italy, Holland, Hungary, Portugal, France, Spain and Britain.

    They have little to show for their sedition because power in Europe no longer resides in Rome, Paris or Madrid, but in Brussels.

    In many ways Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the EU Commission and the most powerful politician in Europe, is the bloc’s answer to Kamala Harris.

    Von der Leyen presents herself as a centre-right politician but like Harris she espouses all the tenets of progressivism such as free movement, LGBTQ rights and net zero. Earlier this year she urged EU nations to nominate women for the next European Commission regardless of whether they were the best qualified for the roles.

    The other commonality between Harris and von der Leyen is that they have ‘failed upwards’. The American was picked by Joe Biden as his running mate in 2020 despite the fact that her own campaign to be the Democratic candidate was, in the words of Newsweek a ‘miserable failure’. She was a poor vice-president but was still chosen by the Democrats as this year’s presidential candidate.

    Von der Leyen was appointed commission president in 2019 after an unimpressive six years as Germany’s Minister of Defence: ‘Aristocratic ineptitude’ is one description of her leadership style.

    During this time she fell out with Trump and did little to improve the efficiency or budget of the German military. It was on her watch that German soldiers were reduced to replacing heavy machine guns with broomsticks during a Nato exercise in 2014.

    Quite how von der Leyen was appointed to the EU’s top job was a mystery; it is also baffling as to how she was re-elected Commission president this year. The EU bloc has never been so demoralised, ravaged by economic, social and security issues. But no one in Brussels seems to be to blame.

    But if the Mercosur deal is signed this week in Rio, Europe’s farmers know exactly who to blame and it will be their tractors doing the talking.

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

    Mr R M Bellamy
    5 hours ago
    Across the western world, but especially in Europe (including the UK) there has been an assault upon farming.

    In some countries this assault has been open and cruel, in others (up till now in the UK), sly and obscure.

    But the message is clear – the Woke World wants your land. And we will import millions to take it over and green industries will replace your stunning views and ancient monuments.

    And it is well under way.

    MikeBrighton
    5 hours ago
    VdL is far worse than Harris. At least Harris stood for election, and got rejected. VdL not so much.
    I still have very fond memories of ardent remainers and professors of European studies explaining to me in 2016 that I was thick and that the EU was ‘very’ democratic.

    For these transnational political classes what is most important is virtue, looking good and getting applause and love from international conferences.
    National interests not so much. Farmers, an inconvenience. Stable power grid, well someone else’s problem.

  110. Another couple of hours clearing detritus from up the hill, uprooting brambles & ivy and burning what needs burning.
    A few photos of when the woodsmen began clearing the trees, all taken from the road:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e4108874b1130fce34bae617f0dc210fd0d261bb65eb8202990b4a379deb2dd1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e96f1df6156c4e794353561c383265a5370adcdf68cb88526f78f862628c267d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fd206a3020b1bcab1476f0072a7f08e75a49c0a99b51a852c80785cab1f4ab1.jpg

    And some of the resulting logs:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ee2e400e1ec9b90f8d575412acfb7eec34d7c9ffbbc097fc57336305cf3aae5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5eed7a7026a3710847743f6b381b5d28a81863576423aa6905a904b28ab6a120.jpg

    And they left a couple of ash trunks for me to finish off:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b963e3629a1012aaa1c3e18f53b726b717fd46458969e18ac2cd01b87c4257ad.jpg

    Part 2 to follow.

      1. Not quite.
        I'm only planning to clear one small part of the hillside which will give me a chance to plant some fruit trees with, perhaps a chestnut and walnut. All seed grown too!

      1. Not really, that's the heartwood of the elm they felled and it's still quite firm.
        I often wish I had one of the smaller Woodmiser bandsaws.

  113. I find it amazing and not a little irritating that whenever I point out how undemocratic her appointment, and that of Lagarde, was, someone always comes wittering on that is WAS democratic because she was appointed by elected politicians!

  116. From the president of Azerbaijan at jolly for climate-zealots: " Mr Aliyev hit out at 'unfortunately double standards, a habit to lecture other countries and political hypocrisy' from the West." Obviously, he doesn't want his country's oil and gas industries to be damaged/wiped out, but he is quite right to call out the hypocrisy of Western leaders, who would have flown there on private jets, while also imposing impossible and pointless targets on their own countries to drastically reduce CO2, and thereby destroying economies and taking the lives of millions back to pre-industrialisation levels. Actually, our lives would be even harder than that, because we would be banned form having fires to heat our homes.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14072285/Oil-gas-gift-God-Azerbaijan-tells-Keir-Starmer-Taliban-thinly-attended-COP26-climate-summit-descends-farce-PM-commits-81-cut-emissions.html

  118. I've just been watching a nature Prog on the Elephants in Africa. The locals were trying to drive them off from eating their crops.
    I made me wonder given time what Elephants might develop into in million or so years.
    We already know how the lowest forms of life have changed in shape form and habitats the microbes have settled in next to the Thames in London.

      1. Funnily enough during the filming there were some very large white birds standing on the Elephants backs.

    2. Though it is unfortunate for the locals they could try another way. Elephants are an important part of the ecosystem. Just with their digging for water they support many other species.
      Perhaps a scheme where the locals are compensated or even encouraged to run safari or some such.

      1. And their huge piles of poo support many other species.
        I was with a friend driving along the North side of the Zambese River towards Kariba late at night. When Mike slammed on the brakes. In his VW beetle.
        A huge male elephant filled the road ahead. Fortunately towering over us he stood and stared for a minute and then walked away.
        From the debris left on the road It was obvious he was bringing up the rear of the herd. A minute earlier and I don’t think we would have survived.
        A very close call.

      2. And their huge piles of poo support many other species.
        I was with a friend driving along the North side of the Zambese River towards Kariba late at night. When Mike slammed on the brakes. In his VW beetle.
        A huge male elephant filled the road ahead. Fortunately towering over us he stood and stared for a minute and then walked away.
        From the debris left on the road It was obvious he was bringing up the rear of the herd. A minute earlier and I don’t think we would have survived.
        A very close call.

        1. He did have a lot to say about Gaza. Wouldn't that be a better posting?

          Somehow I don't see him being truly sorry and doing a Profumo level of penance

          2. Given his complicity in those depraved crimes, he should never be in the HoL. Maybe all previous Archbishops have gone to the upper House, but there can always an exception in bad cases.

    1. Migrating American birds are blown off course and into the Atlantic by weather systems (usually by the seasonal storms and hurricanes). No doubt hundreds of thousands of the smaller birds perish in the 3,000 mile stretch of ocean. The more fortunate ones manage to rest on rocks, islands, passing ships and lighthouses along the way before flying in to the same weather systems again after gaining desperately required rest. Many that do make landfall quickly succumb due to the lack of nourishment gained on their transatlantic sojourn. The Halifax Scarlet Tanager was one of the fortunate ones that managed to refuel after making landfall.

  122. Whatever is Starmer wittering on about? What is secure about energy that is literally controlled by the capriciousness of nature? The last few day's weather should have raised doubts within the densest of people: without gas we would have been sitting in the cold and dark and unable to cook food.

    His economy of the future is a pipedream that will beggar the UK.

    https://x.com/dadiani_george/status/1856304679451230316

  123. A former Par Four?

    Wordle 1,242 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
    ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
    ⬜🟨🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. I went off at a tangent.

      Wordle 1,242 5/6

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

    4. Five for me.

      Wordle 1,242 5/6

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

      1. Me too
        Wordle 1,242 5/6

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

    5. Back to normal, choice of two… wrong one….grrrrr…. piss poor bogey!

      Wordle 1,242 5/6

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

  124. Boris Johnson says British troops may have to go to Ukraine if Trump cuts support Dreary Torygaff

    Just as I forecast earlier. Bonking Boris is as moronic as he looks.

    3. Boris just like Gove is a slithery slug. It has already been suggested from the new American administration that British forces may need to police a neutral zone along with European forces.
      Why the bloody hell should American military keep bailing Europe out because we don't do what is right.

    1. I am going to sign on at the job centre and say why i can't do every job i am offered…in blackface.

  127. We have had a busy afternoon , and can you believe an amazing surprise , the duvet covers and towels etc dried in the sharp chilly wind , on the rotary line .

    Weymouth beckoned and we visited a garden centre for some large shrubs .. Euonymus 'Emerald & Gold and Cornus Midwinter Fire – Winter Beauty Dogwood. Need some colour at the end of the garden , and the shrubs are about 3'ft high .

    We heard on the car radio about the Welby farce , and thought well , about time too.

    He was hardly comforting during Covid , was he .. and he kept on going to retreats.

    My thing is , why do we need bishops , archbishops and popes.. We don't need wokeness , we have our own thoughts about God and goodness , and the depths that evil plunges to .

    Why did he keep quiet .. he put his own popularity over the difference between good and evil when he should have spoken up ..

    What direction was his interpretation of God leading him ..

    Damn and damn again to err is human .. he should have spoken out , and been an upright example .. unless of course he had similar fantasies .

  128. Good choice for winter colour. Had I known you were buying Euonymus 'Emerald & Gold', i would have happily posted you a few cuttings. They grow VERY quickly.
    Wetby was clearly complicit in that horrendous abuse. How many other pedos was he pretending to not know about?

    1. Mib

      What a kind thought , we did think about taking some cuttings from the plant at the front of the house , but … after the shock we had last night when a lady collapsed locally , in the car park , dog in car … air ambulance / blues and twos every blue light .. sadly dog is now adopted by a kind neighbour .. she was younger than us .. and so we thought … do we have time for cuttings to grow ?

      1. Our government's are obviously responsible for all these crimes.
        They have provided easy access to all of these terrible people who just walk ashore and take advantage.

      1. I also just noticed there is no luxury hotel either – or maybe those orange keys are for their luxury room in said hotel.

      1. Boom boom!
        Mind you, if this was real, there probably are parents who would buy such nonsense. Ofsted would probably expect to see such toys in infant classes and nurseries.
        Nearly 30 years ago, when Ofsted were booked to visit our children's 3 class village primary school, an infant class teacher bought some dark dolls for the home corner and books featuring effnics for the school library. Funnily enough, they (the box ticking items, not the inspectors) didn't see the light of day again. She was common sense 'old school.'

        1. It's a shame that even 'salt of the earth' types like this teacher feel they have to kowtow, to a degree, to the prevailing norms (idiocies?) or risk cancellation. I despair…..

          1. I think she just wanted to get through the inspection without any conflict, as did the other staff. It was a very good school.

  130. She must be very important to deserve a 6 week holiday…

    Downing Street Does Not Deny Gray Was Paid for Six-Week Holiday

    Lobby journalists have had an entertaining session with the PM’s spokesman this afternoon after Guido revealed Sue Gray wouldn’t be getting her fake job after all. Following which Lobby hacks credulously published Gray’s spin that she decided not to take the job…

    Downing Street says they aren’t hiring for a replacement envoy for the nations and regions. Approximately no-one will be surprised by that one…

    The PM’s spokesman also did not deny that Sue has been on the payroll for her six-week holiday and just says all “HR processes” have been followed and details will come out in transparency publications. Downing Street was also “not getting into” whether Sue still has a No 10 pass or if she would be receiving a peerage, as she boasted about. Relaxing in the service of working people…

    3. Owls are so secretive , a tawny owl visits our telephone pole in the garden , and sometimes brings a pal ..

      The calls are eerie, but wow, they seem to talk to each other.

  134. Another former Larkfield resident. You, me and then Grizzly. We were there for just 4 years.
    We were only a few minutes walk from Safeway. On the tannoy, there were regular calls for, 'Mr Pissenden, call 9 please.' 40 years later, we still joke about that.
    I think it was built in the mid-1980s, along with a big new housing estate, all on a greenfield site.

    1. I remember there being a 3/4 collapsed Kent Cob farmhouse on the track leading towards Lunsford and a more modern brick farmhouse further on.
      Looking on the map I can’t believe how built up it is now!

      1. Lunsford was urbanised quickly. Though, compared to the rabbit hutches currently being thrown up everywhere, the Lunsford estates probably seem quite spacious and spread out.

  137. That's me for today. Very satisfying one, too. I was that chuffed t be able to have two consecutive days in t'garden doing quite heavy work. A week ago I thought my number was – if not up – moving closer.

    Have a jolly evening planning your first sermon as Archbishop of Canterbury.

    A demain.

      1. Thanks – we did – they want £47 to do it!!!!! More than half the price of the pruner!!!

  139. Just been thinking on the Letter/Story about someone buying a house where to their surprise after spending so much money apparently without thorough survey they found a single bat in the attic and said through all the processes and surveys it would cost about £5,500.

    It occurred to me that the report was total bollocks.

    IMO you leave the bat where it is and use a flame thrower on the overpaid inspectors.

  140. Just been thinking on the Letter/Story about someone buying a house where to their surprise after spending so much money apparently without thorough survey they found a single bat in the attic and said through all the processes and surveys it would cost about £5,500.

    It occurred to me that the report was total bollocks.

    IMO you leave the bat where it is and use a flame thrower on the overpaid inspectors.

  141. Second lot of photos taken t'other day.
    Looking up the hill from the top of the Yard Shed:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e213ed7ae814c3369d1239b922c7b37952ba031a5b2ef38c55ef07a3b56f4138.jpg
    The pale piece in the top right corner is the sawn off stump of one of the ash trunks that were left partially standing.

    One of the tangles of ivy and brambles that I'm clearing. Because of the slope of the hill I'm having to strip the ivy & brambles off by hand and then, using a hand pick, get what I can of the bramble roots up. Also clearing a LOT of detritus made up of sticks & leaves and getting that burnt.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f55980fc2913656bf25f46efadc1393c8f09e577a64696ff05c08c194e2838ff.jpg

    Looking towards next door, which is currently half demolished before being rebuilt retaining the front and Bonsall end walls. The tree trunk is an apple, Lord Derby, and is the boundary between the two properties.
    The bank leading down to my containers is a mass of brambles.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e662f736ba83e5bd0b66fe6e26a17059c182846869ad40ad12d29f7976c73ff.jpg

    Looking in the other direction to give an idea of how steep this bit of the bank is. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16f059b5f5e2a2cfd78f93372d3ba62c05b15ebb9b5b0f7ee062f7583d328c38.jpg

    There is a section of slightly less steep bank, this is where I plan planting a handful of fruit trees, hence getting the area cleared of brambles.
    The conifer is an ex-Christmas tree which, after three or four turns of festive duty was honourably retired over 20y ago and the tower behind the house is the water tower for the mill.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c238dd7188f46aaa7dcabc4e1541a455fb4939c3802274b228b7e058eb5ade5.jpg

    And this is what remains of Old Des's house.
    It is, effectively, being rebuilt and expanded with only two of the original walls left standing.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b37748c17b7bf28d08123888f6ed8001da228a86724e1789429d932067baee84.jpg

      1. The work next door is being done by the buyer, a local landscaping company.
        They are currently stuck until the Buildings Inspector can bother his arse to check what has been done so far.

    2. Good heavens , Bob

      What a very steep slope you live one the down path of .. and congratulations for all the clearing of all the undergrowth and trees.

      Do you have a deluge of water coming down the road and slope when the weather is bad .

      What will the end result be when you have cleared the bank ?

      1. The bulk of the work, felling the trees, was done by the woodsmen contracted by the new owners of Ball Eye Quarry on the other side of the hill.
        Their land stretches right over to my boundary and they are clearing the diseased ash & elm that may be liable to fall onto neighbouring property.

        In heavy rain the opposite side of the road becomes a stream, but thanks to the camber it keeps away from my property.

        Clearing the bank will reduce the numbers of bramble runners snaking their way over the ground. As I mention in one post, I’ve had them up to 30′ long!!

  142. Second lot of photos taken t'other day.
    Looking up the hill from the top of the Yard Shed:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e213ed7ae814c3369d1239b922c7b37952ba031a5b2ef38c55ef07a3b56f4138.jpg
    The pale piece in the top right corner is the sawn off stump of one of the ash trunks that were left partially standing.

    One of the tangles of ivy and brambles that I'm clearing. Because of the slope of the hill I'm having to strip the ivy & brambles off by hand and then, using a hand pick, get what I can of the bramble roots up. Also clearing a LOT of detritus made up of sticks & leaves and getting that burnt.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f55980fc2913656bf25f46efadc1393c8f09e577a64696ff05c08c194e2838ff.jpg

    Looking towards next door, which is currently half demolished before being rebuilt retaining the front and Bonsall end walls. The tree trunk is an apple, Lord Derby, and is the boundary between the two properties.
    The bank leading down to my containers is a mass of brambles.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5e662f736ba83e5bd0b66fe6e26a17059c182846869ad40ad12d29f7976c73ff.jpg

    Looking in the other direction to give an idea of how steep this bit of the bank is. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16f059b5f5e2a2cfd78f93372d3ba62c05b15ebb9b5b0f7ee062f7583d328c38.jpg

    There is a section of slightly less steep bank, this is where I plan planting a handful of fruit trees, hence getting the area cleared of brambles.
    The conifer is an ex-Christmas tree which, after three or four turns of festive duty was honourably retired over 20y ago and the tower behind the house is the water tower for the mill.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2c238dd7188f46aaa7dcabc4e1541a455fb4939c3802274b228b7e058eb5ade5.jpg

    And this is what remains of Old Des's house.
    It is, effectively, being rebuilt and expanded with only two of the original walls left standing.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b37748c17b7bf28d08123888f6ed8001da228a86724e1789429d932067baee84.jpg

  143. It's a funny old world and there is nothing so weird as left wing liberal morality and ethics.

    No Lefty Liberal will support capital punishment for murderers because they say it is uncivilized, the wrong person might get convicted and just that one mistake would be too much of a risk.

    But Lefty Liberals would support assisted dying even if their was a possibility that someone might die against their wishes.

    And they all support terminations during pregnancy even though that potential life could have missed out on a long and productive life.

    It's all a bit of a many tiered conundrum really

  144. Just catching up on today’s Terriblegraph and have come across this I. Charles ore’s column. Yet another extremely disturbing consequence of Diversity Strength.

    “A secondary, but disturbing aspect of the anti-semitic football riots in Amsterdam is the reported use of taxi drivers’ Whatsapp groups to track and trap Jewish and Israeli fans.

    I gather from Jewish friends that some Jews in Britain have already become wary of taking Ubers because of the need to give their addresses to the drivers. They do not know if they can trust them all.

    As we should have learnt from the Rotherham child abuse scandal, it is disastrous if a transport group, such as a town’s taxi drivers, is corrupted. The disaster is compounded if police dare not investigate lest they be accused of racism.

    Control of the streets is ceded to bad actors. Detection of wrongdoing becomes much harder and, as seems to be happening in Amsterdam, racism becomes an organised force. It reminds me of the days in Northern Ireland 40 years ago when the black taxis in West Belfast were run by the IRA.”

    1. Taxis have long been recognised as a Muslim intelligence source when looking for wives or daughters who have run away from their families and have been known to have played a part in the murder of several women who tried to escape.

    2. When I lived in Clapham Common fifty years ago it was impossible to get a licenced black cab to take you south of the river.

      Of the cabbies in general there was a hatred by some cabbies of many (or most) who were Jews.

      Even worse was the rivalry between undertakers north and south of the Thames followed by the Ice cream van dynasties on similar lines.

  145. – I notice that the Left are being very quiet about Welby for some reason.
    The most woke Archbishop of Canterbury ever.
    What is it with the Left and molestation of children?
    We've had the grooming gangs, silence.
    Now the Archbish, it should be an open goal to the Left with their hatred of all things to do with Christianity, but no, nothing.

      1. At least he’d be in a league of his own!🙄 And Fat Sam’s ‘tactics’ involve ‘lumping it up to the big man’! 🤣

  147. Trump hasn't even taken up residence in the White House yet and already Lineker and Welby have gone.

    1. Glimpses of the Telegraph suggest that more Bishops are involved.
      I don't pay for the Telegraph, so can't read the content.
      How depressing can they get?

      1. Yes, but they are commenting that they thought the police and Lambeth Palace were dealing with it.

      1. "The review found that Justin Welby, 68, "could and should" have reported John Smyth's abuse of boys and young men to police in 2013."
        He knew it was happening long before then. He should be charged for conspiracy to withhold crucial evidence.

  149. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    They tried, they really did. Dignity in Dying, the lineal descendent of the 1930s Euthanasia Society and therefore great-great-niece of its sister the Eugenics Society, has been struggling for weeks to frame a bill that’s innocuous enough to pass through parliament. Today we saw the fruit of their efforts.

    The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill has ‘the most stringent safeguards in the world’, says its sponsor, Kim Leadbetter MP. It’s only for the sickest people with less than six months to live; you need two doctors and a judge to confirm you’re really dying and really want to end it all early; you have to commit ‘the final act’ by administering ‘the approved substance’ yourself.

    There is a reason that, since the dawn of the Christian era, infanticide, euthanasia and eugenics have been banned

    But it doesn’t work. Even on its own terms the bill will fail to stop people with chronic conditions or mental health problems – including eating disorders – from seeking state aid to commit suicide. No doctor can accurately predict death six months hence. Anyone with a long-term illness who needs treatment to stay alive can qualify by refusing their drugs (or an anorexic by refusing their food) and shopping around until they find a pair of doctors to confirm they are now terminal.

    The bill allows a doctor to ‘assist’ the ‘final act’ – lift the pills to your mouth or press your finger on the syringe. This is a hairsbreadth from euthanasia on demand, the actual object of the century-long campaign to overturn the most basic imperatives placed on doctors: ‘do not kill’.

    Did I say ‘doctor’? In fact the bill doesn’t even require this, merely a ‘medical practitioner’, to be defined in due course once the bill is law. So we can expect nurses, pharmacists or, in time – for here the gruesome logic leads – specialist professionals trained in the administration of the lethal dose, no doubt operating out of specialist clinics conveniently located by the old people’s home.

    The bill explicitly authorises ‘medical practitioners’ to suggest assisted suicide – cleaner, cheaper, so much kinder than expensive, messy, painful bed-blocking – even if the patient has never mentioned the idea. Meanwhile it explicitly requires doctors who do not want to kill their patients to refer them to someone who does.

    It also allows a ‘proxy’ – either someone you’ve known for two years, or someone ‘of good standing in the community’ (the neighbourhood assisted death advisor, perhaps; a colleague of the ‘practitioner’ in the suicide clinic) – to organise everything, including signing all the papers on your behalf. And it puts no requirement on anyone to tell the family of the depressed, suicidal patient that the NHS is about to kill them.

    Of course, the bill’s backers stress its limited scope. Ms Leadbetter claims only a few hundred people a year will avail themselves of this new NHS service. If those were the only people Dignity in Dying had in view, of course, they’re wasting a lot of time and effort trying to change the law. For a fraction of the budget they spend on campaigning, they could give a few hundred people a year the airfare to Switzerland and the fees for Dignitas.

    The purpose of this bill, and the avowed ambition of its less discreet supporters who keep letting the cat out of the bag, is to establish the principle that the patient has the right to summon the state to take their life. And indeed this is the ineluctable logic of the bill, and the culmination of the argument that people need ‘choice’ at the end.

    The minute this bill is passed there will be – indeed, there are already are – calls to widen its scope. A new human right will have been established, and human rights are universal. Every safeguard in the new law, like the ban on people seeking death because of a mental illness, or because they have a long-term but not terminal condition, would instantly become a barrier to the ‘right to die’. The European Convention would be invoked, and that, as we know, is holy writ.

    It’s good we are debating this topic. The bill we now have to examine is so ghastly in its text – I pity the parliamentary drafters who had to write it – that surely people will see this is not the road to embark upon. There is a reason that, since the dawn of the Christian era, infanticide, euthanasia and eugenics have been banned. We face a great new darkness here, masquerading as an angel of light. I trust my colleagues in parliament will see it for what it is.

    Watch the debate on Spectator TV:

    WRITTEN BY
    Danny Kruger

    1. Richard Tice has just been on GBN arguing in favour. Not impressed. Has Nigel Farage expressed any view?

    2. A recent study in Canada looked at who was getting the medical send off.

      Some are close to death, for others death is not immanent. The majority of the others seem to have been people who had no money, no prospects of getting viable accommodation or known medical treatments.

      2. When my first would be marriage fell apart I lost my job teaching almost the same week. It was my birthday and I sat in the window of a tall flat falling apart. I looked down, and down and suddenly down was coming up to meet me.

        I fell on to a corrugated iron roof that pretty much saved my life. Aside from a few scratches I got up, went back inside and within a month moved down here.

        2. Many years ago………..I was feeling desperate and depressed……….. the thought of my very young children not being able to remember me stopped me doing anything stupid. There is always a reason to live.

    3. When abortion was introduced there were all sorts of safeguards. They soon went. This will be no different.

  150. Well David Cameron, you appointed the man, what do you have to say about your own lack of judgement?

      1. Oddly enough, I have a smidgeon of sympathy for him.

        The police were informed and it appears that they did very little.
        Yes, he should have pursued matters more vigorously, but so should have the police and once it became a police matter surely the Church should stand aside and let them deal with it?

        1. As always, we're probably only getting ten percent of the truth and 90% of what we are being told is fabricated!

          2. Yes. And when there is someone in public life who is honest and honourable, they usually smear him or her and make them look like villains.

    2. Unfortunately Sos, Cameron no longer responds to questions about his lack of judgement, he decided it would take far too long…..

    1. Yes, it was rather funny wasnt it? The collective intake of breath could be heard thousands of miles away!…..

      2. Trouble finding a video of it. Certainly if he spoke in Arabic then Allah would have been used.

        1. According to google translate it would be Allah, but given the audience he may have spoken in English.

          1. You would have thought that a video of any and all speakers at COP29 would be easy to locate…

          3. I've just seen a clip from Channel 4 News and it was in English, "God", although with modern technology it might have been someone else doing a simultaneous translation.

      1. Possibly, but not at the rate we use them. We would also need to have sea level changes and lots more forests that are allowed to grow on ground that has had forests before them. The way us lot live on this planet means that natural hydrocarbon renewal won’t happen while we run the place.

        1. I concur. I believe we need to exploit nuclear on a smaller scale but with security. I just hate the loss of Grade 1 Arable to solar farms. We have a 1000 acre one in Fixearth near us which once yielded mostly cereals Wheat and Barley.

          As an aside I just got Birdie on Wordle. A pleasant change from some recent results. I do Wordle early morning when it is quiet.

          Wordle 1,243 3/6

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

    3. Dame Sarah is Lord Bishop of London so if thicko Rose is appointed, she may have to suck it up on the title front.

  154. Evening dear Nottlers. If anyone is in touch with JD de P can they drop him a line politely requesting his insight and take on the CoE situation please? I am sure Tom at Free Speech Backlash would happily host JD's thoughts there. I know he is out of the online scene for now but I would greatly value his take on this situation and I am not local to his church! Just a thought if any of you know him.

    1. I think he 'retired' himself after getting banned from the Speccie (Christ knows why!), AA. A good man and much missed…..

      1. I know he was familiar with this parish post Spexit.
        As it goes it was listening to Gove say very little of any substance after the facts of the matter on Spectator TV that got me thinking about JD.

        "A good man and much missed….".Indeed, very well said sir.

        1. JD is still on our trusted list – and very welcome to post here if he should so wish. I remember him being upset with the church he attended.

    2. Hello A A…would you say who JD de P is please, I'll look out other sites, just in case and refer back to you here? Kate

      1. JD de Pavilly, KJ, you must remember him from the Speccie – he often interacted with PetaJ (have you heard anything?)……

        1. Sorry, don't recognise but very few of the old crew on there now, definitely not PJ. Gove seems pretty hands off as Editor. I had a couple of messages from PJ following Tom's post which I think you'll have read? The last exchange was our certainty we'd meet again somehow somewhere – no further contact since, possibly in a hospice final days, but wherever I hope comfortable final hours. I think of her every day, and the laughs we had, online buddy – she helped me a lot and I'll always be grateful 🙂 Will look out for JD de Pavilly, have you searched Disqus for him? (I did, looking for Peta, came up with her last message to me, like the dope I am I replied – you never know;-)) UPDATE: went on Disqus myself, settings seem to have changed so couldn't search for user, looked on Spectator briefly, again nothing…sorry, if I do see him will let you know…night, Kate x

          1. He's actually a published author, although I havent read any of his stuff!

            If you do ever get to contact PetaJ, please send her my love. x

          3. HI G4..I found his book on Amazon, The Unseen Path, has good reviews. The seller is World of Books, I msgd them to ask if they had any contact please mention a number of his friends on nttl.blog been asking about him esp GGGGaspar if he’d like to contact you. Hope that’s all OK with you. Have you read his book? I might give it a go…’Night K x

          5. I'm sorry Peta J seems to have stopped posting here or elsewhere. Her last post on Nottl was 24th September, which was the day I arrived in Brazil.

            I know she was ill, and maybe is unable to communicate now.

            I was so pleased when, back in May, we had a conversation about a painting of the Last Supper, which we had both seen in Peru – but I hadn't taken a photo of it, and she had. She very kindly dug out the photo and posted it here and I was able to save it in my file of photos of that trip.
            Jesus and the Apostles were dining on guinea pig.

          6. The last I heard was the post a few days later where she said she had cancer terminal and aggressive she sent it to Tom to let others including me know. She was very frail by then. I mailed her direct she replied straightaway we’d meet again. One of the best, miss her daily. She’s probably giving someone a piece of her mind, wish I was a fly on that wall. Yes she was widely travelled, had quite a bit of sadness personally but tough. I could ask her anything. Yes I guess guinea would make a reasonable meal, coypu related and even bigger 😄 thanks for your msg Ndovu, appreciate it, Kate x

          7. I reread Peta's last post, I got the feeling she didn't have long left and was saying goodbye. I just feel Peta wanted people to know why she wasn't around anymore, she was very open and engaging so would've wanted her friends to know. I believe she had the same form of that disease as my late mother, they don't have more then a few months and the ending is mercifully quick. I understand Peta stopped sending emails at the time of her last post on this site. Peta was a lady of much dignity, warm and engaging and would want that to be remembered.

          8. Yes – she’s much missed – especially by those who knew her well, and for longer than we did on Nottl. I hope she’s no longer in pain now.
            She did say to KJ that she was sure they’d meet again.

          10. Hadn’t heard of that blog, took a look and searched his name – nadda. Blog seemed full of adverts – only two models, subs or adverts, for most blogs.

          12. Hello GGG, sorry but I do have the very sad feeling that Peta J probably passed away soon after she got in contact to tell people why she couldn't post anymore . I believe Peta had the same form of that disease as my late mother, when the doctors said a few months left to live they meant that, it was mercifully quick. I returned to that last post Peta sent on this site ( Geoff kept it open ) Peta in a very dignified way was saying goodbye, I don't think she had long left at that point and she did say she was too weak to post, I understand she stopped emailing about that time too . GGG, you and Peta were good friends, you'd know she'd want to be remembered for the lively, intelligent, warm and engaging lady she was and she was the type who'd wanted to go quietly without any fuss and with dignity.

    4. I believe Hertslass of this site has JDs email address, I'm sure she'll pase on a message if you ask. JD is on the Nottler list of contacts which Hertlass looks after for Geoff . There is a Nottl email for those who wish to contact each other.

  155. Compare and contrast the actions of the ABC with the couple who answered the knock on the door on Christmas Eve and invited in a homeless man who then stayed with them for 45 years. Full story in the DT

    1. I have just finished reading that beautiful account of the kindness of people given to a helpless broken man .

      Sweet tenderness and trust in ones judgement , helped along by a strong desire to make life matter ..

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/non-fiction/a-knock-at-the-door-homeless-man-stay-45-years/

      If any of you have a chance to read A Knock at the Door, by Rob Parsons (HarperCollins, £18.99), is out on 21 November and available to preorder from Telegraph

          1. Yes – and I can imagine how insecure the wife must have felt when she was pregnant but all turned out well.

      2. The day my mother threw my brother out I was 15. He was 13. My Dad and I walked him to our friends up the road and he stayed there for a week or so while Dad tried to calm mother down.

        I hated that wretched woman for that. Eventually he was put into care and I wasn't long after. My narsissitic mother made me the problem because we wouldn't bend to her. He couldn't. I wouldn't. My sister did and had an easier time of it, which made me angry at her and mother played on that.

        They stopped taking me to a child psychologist when Dad said 'they'll take him away' and mother, realising she could lose a source of narcissist supply stopped it.

        At 18 I took my brother with me to university and once I graduated he lived with me until eventually he moved into his accommodation as his autism became so profound he was a danger to himself.

        There's a reason I don't care about my mother. I don't dislike her, she's just not there. When she dies the void of unhappiness she causes will be gone.

        I am not as kind and decent as those people are. They are an example of everything good in the world.

        1. Don't want to be rude Wibbling , but although I don't know you , and I have always felt sorry for you , and have always enjoyed your dramas .. but I fear that you have married your mother .. your warqueen !

          I am so sorry you have had such a disruptive childhood, and I genuinely applaud the tenderness and understanding your poor brother received from you .

          Is he in care now, and has he got worse?

          1. Morning Belle, no, the Warqueen is highly strung, awkward, frustrating but she is also grounded, warm – once you get to know her, kind, gentle and forgiving. It was she who first hugged me. She has made me a better person, a far less angry one. We went to a parent's evening once and had almost an entire conversation without speaking. She is far more than I deserve and, I know, she thinks the same about me. We've had our problems and a fair few fights due to her own insecurities but we make one another better as compliment more than antagonists.

            Case in point: I have some t shirts that are falling apart. Holes torn in them, rips, the works. A chum said angrily, 'Will you just buy some more damned clothes and stop going on about it!' And the Warqueen laughed and said 'you've properly made sure he'll never buy new ones now.' As she knows I'm stubborn, but she also knows that were she to buy some more, yet keep the old ones eventually I'll wear the new. She won't say anything. It'll just happen.

            My first to be was like my mother – she would have made me miserable!

            He lives in sheltered accommodation a few miles away. He can walk here if he wants but doesn't. We visit him on a strict schedule. He has a warden, a mellowing Mrs Trunchbull character and 5 other special needs residents each in their own flat. I hire him to do some coding we might need. He works for my company as a freelancer and has his own clients who understand his autism and are respectful of his needs (mainly to never go on site or speak to anyone).

          2. You have described everything with such clarity , and you know , most marriages have peculiar patches of ups and downs , you 2 sound well matched and are sensitive to each others foibles .

            You are an honest decent bloke Wibbling , solid to the core , your large dogs are guarding against you going down the route to Hades .. and beyond .

            Can I ask are you living nr Southampton , you mentioned several areas over the months , Moh was born in Southampton , and his parents lived near the Netley end ..

        2. My mother was the opposite but my father was mentally ill I believe from his life experiences from childhood in Wales and then Burma during WWII. He was incarcerated twice at intervals in Mendip Hospital near Wellls and Shepton Mallet.

          I had two spells in Children’s Homes with one of my brothers and another of my sisters. Firstly at Muller’s in Uphill near Weston super Mare and secondly in Threeways at Combe Down in Bath. I thrived in those ‘homes’ although admittedly my brother and sister did not.

          I do not blame my father for his condition nor my mother for being unable to cope with all five children. I believe I learned from my experiences and that this made me stronger and better equipped to succeed in life and do good work in my professional capacity.

    1. Being an actual Christian is fairly low down on the list of qualifications.

  159. I like the Prisoner diary. Here’s todays:

    “The SO (Senior Officer) on my wing is Mr Jackson (or, at least, let’s call him that). He’s about my age – mid-50s, grizzled, a little heavier set than I am. Towards me personally, he went out of his way to be amiable and encouraging, perhaps sensing I was initially horrified at being in prison for the first time.

    I have never seen him be other than reasonable. I have seen him extremely angry, berating a former padmate for brewing hooch, but that was not unreasonable: because the greatest danger to his officers and to other inmates, he roared, arose when prisoners were high or drunk. The message, a no doubt oft-delivered performance, was received loud and clear.
    Last week, Mr Jackson told me that when he joined the service, 20 years ago, most officers had served 10 or 15 years. Today, he explained with a shrug, most officers have served 10 or 15 weeks. An exaggeration, perhaps – there are, thankfully, quite a few other experienced officers in the prison – but an illustrative one. It used to run like clockwork, he recollected fondly. He did not say what he thought it ran like now.

    Being a new prison officer is a steep learning curve. New officers, I suspect, are more likely to be assaulted because they have not worked out what riles prisoners, and may lack the gentler tone of experienced turnkeys, assuming instead – a bit like new teachers – that authority equals strictness. On average, on our wing, I would say an officer is assaulted somewhere between weekly and fortnightly, which can mean anything from a shove to ultra-aggressive acts such as strangulation. Some very nice officers have received nasty injuries in my time here.

    It’s quite an event when an assault kicks off: the alarm is pushed (there are buttons every few yards all over the prison) and other officers rush, not in pairs but in dozens, often coming at a run from other wings, first to pin the offender to the ground, then to ensure that all other prisoners are pacified, which might mean shutting us behind our cell doors for a period. It’s easy to understand why: there’s a tinderbox atmosphere with prisoners looking on, usually from behind the bars which partition each spur from the rest of a wing, hooting and roaring like animals in the proverbial zoo.

    Because there are just as many female as male officers, women are every bit as likely to be assaulted as men. I have been impressed by our female officers, who are pretty chilled and more than capable of running an all-male prison with minimal male involvement – indeed, there are several relatively young female SOs here. Some are butch (there’s strong lesbian representation in the profession). Some, whatever their sexual orientation, are rather beautiful. A common prison conversation is about which female officers we fancy (it’s framed in slightly cruder terms). But only in one instance have I seen a relationship brewing between a female officer and a prisoner which crossed the boundaries of propriety.
    It’s called conditioning when prisoners, sometimes over several years, soften up officers to the point that they become friends. The best officers, I sense, allow that process to happen knowingly: there are advantages which can work their way too, and prisoners are quite easily tipped into being informers. The social background of prison officers is pretty similar to the background of the inmates – the difference might be the extent of alcohol and drug addictions and the fecklessness of prisoners’ parents. Like prisoners, officers swear with gusto and sport tattoos and jewellery. And, like prisoners, a large contingent of officers are immigrants. Few are from the same demographic, however: I have yet to meet an Albanian prison officer, while a large proportion of new prison officers (and hardly any prisoners) are west African.

    Prisoners almost invariably disrespect the police, but few disrespect their prison officers. In a recent conversation, Mr Jackson presented the case for his profession being more demanding than that of the police. Knowing how much better paid the police are, I raised an eyebrow, but he won me over: “A prison officer has to be a hotelier, a psychologist, a bouncer, a paralegal and a paramedic, as well as a policeman.” Having come to view the police – from personal experience – as a largely paramilitary organisation entirely divorced from people and community, I liked, and had to agree with, the way he put that.

    Next week, the Secret Prisoner writes about guard shortages and drone drug delivery”

    1. Why don't prisons set up signal scatterers and radio jammers? Phones won't get a signal then and drones will crash.

    1. I want to ask all these nutjob greeniacs – if we completely shut own our economy, if we produce no co2, will 'climate change' stop? Will these 'freak weather events' stop? Will we have perpetual balmy days of 21'c, with a cooling breeze?

      Of course it won't. These 'freak weather events' have been occuring throughout history. All we'll cause is starvation, abject impoverishment and death on a horrific scale – as communism always causes whenever some gormless fool tries it.

    3. You have to think – a society capable of interstellar flight crashes in our atmosphere having made it here, to the garden shed of a galaxy at the very bottom of the galactic garden to talk to the ants.

      We are an amazing species at one end and at the other there's pure, utter evil – whether it be the arrogance of Ed Miliband, the spite of Reeves or the malice of Lammy, the drug dealers, murderers. It's simply a matter of scale for the torment and misery they cause. At least the criminals are honest with themselves – they just want to get rich. So does the political class, it's just a lie they tell themselves that it's to 'help others'.

    4. They come across space and enter the Earth's atmosphere undetected and always seem to crash in New Mexico…

      1. Quite, perhaps the Yanks should investigate what it is that attracts them, some mysterious element essential for inter-galactic time travel.

  162. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14067971/perfect-temperature-set-thermostat-winter.html

    As I sit here, the temperature in most of the chateau is roughly 12°C.
    The sitting room is probably 20° because of the wood burner and the doors being closed.
    I will soon open the double doors into the rest of the house, which might move the whole up a degree or so, but by tomorrow morning I doubt we will even be in double figures.
    I've got a cardigan on over my shirt.
    I'm reasonably comfortable.
    Experts? pah!

    1. The 'Great Storm' of 1703 which commenced on Friday 26th November (old-style, 7th December new-style) was probably the worst ever experienced in England; it is described by Defoe in his work: "The Storm 1703". This storm was associated with a deep secondary depression which swept across Ireland, Wales & central England; it is possible that this secondary developed from a West Indian hurricane which had been off the coast of Florida a few days previously. The gale first blew from the south, then veered to west-south-west and finally to north-west. The southern half of the country felt the full force of the storm and it was worst in London on the nights of Friday 26th November(OS) and Tuesday 30th November(OS), when bricks, tiles and stones flew about with such force, and were so numerous, that none dared venture forth from their homes. After the storm the price of tiles increased by about 300%.
      The tidal flood affecting the Thames on Sunday 30th(OS) was associated with this storm, though the tidal storm surge for this event was more significant on the Severn and along the Dutch coast. Twelve warships with 1300 men on board were lost in sight of land, Eddystone lighthouse was destroyed and practically all shipping in the Thames was destroyed or damaged. In London alone, 22 people were drowned, 21 people were killed and 200 injured by falling and flying debris. It was estimated that 8000 people lost their lives in the floods caused by the storm in the rivers Thames and Severn and in Holland. The damage due to the storm and flood in London alone was estimated to be £ 2 000 000.
      [ Lamb quotes 'new-style' dates for this event of 7th/8th December 1703.]
      Additional notes:
      1. Possibly a rejuvinated Atlantic hurricane, this storm produced estimated winds reaching 120mph/104 knots (Lamb estimates 150kn).
      2. There was apparently little rain.
      3. On the south Wales coast, a tidal surge drove up the Bristol Channel, leaving the port of Bristol in ruins, and the hinterland under water.
      4. Considerable structural damage occurred across England & Wales, with large loss of standing timber (much as 1987/Oct). Estimates of total loss of life are around 8000, which makes it much worse than the October 1987 event. The heavy lead on the roof of Westminster Abbey being ripped off and carried well clear of the building. The Eddystone lighthouse (newly built/2nd time) was destroyed, and its designer/builder (Henry Winstanley) was killed as he was on site at the time.
      5. The storm dealt a severe blow to Merchant and Royal Navy shipping in the Channel and along the English east coast. For the latter, over 1000 seamen were killed, including many senior RN personnel, and 15 ships. (England was then at war with France).
      6. Much salt contamination of inland fields by wind-driven spray/salt-laden winds.
      7. The depression (possibly a secondary within the circulation of a parent further north/North of Scotland) approached SW England/Celtic Sea and moved across Wales to Yorkshire (estimated eastward speed ~ 40kn; a factor in the surface wind speeds), with widespread southwesterly severe gales on the 26th, and a rearward surge of strength affected the eastern English Channel during the early hours of the 27th.
      8. It is estimated that a very intense pressure gradient developed on it's southern flank, with central MSLP almost certainly below 960mbar (some sources, and Lamb, say possibly 950mbar).
      9. During 27th & 28th, this storm caused widespread problems Low Countries, North Germany, Denmark and adjacent areas.
      [ NB: the 'stormy' spell had actually started around two weeks earlier, with local damage / loss of shipping reported; for example on the 24th, a storm of such proportions would, if this latter had not occurred, been regarded as the 'major' event of this time. Earlier still, on the 12th, another severe gale affected the English Channel & southern North Sea. The 'final' storm marked the conclusion of the spell.]) 8, Lamb, Wheeler,
      23
      1704 Perhaps the driest year for 20 years .. but not everywhere. A warm summer (London/South). 8
      1705 A dry year; "Mild & Dark" (?) with fogs and close weather during the first half of March 1705.
      A dry summer (London/South). 8
      1705
      (August) A 'great storm' affected the south English coast on the 11th August (OSP). Great damage was done to shipping, with many deaths. Onshore, there was considerable loss of / damage to property in the Brighton (Sussex) area. x
      1706
      (November) From Norwich cathedral records . . . "Two great floods in Norwich". (If it is this time of year, suggests events due to heavy / prolonged rainfall rather than severe thunderstorms.) x
      1707 A dry year (London/South). 8
      July 1707 "Hot Tuesday": many heat-wave deaths in England (temperature details not known .. but must have been 'notable'!!) 6
      1708 The coldest spring, summer & autumn for 47 years, apart from 1698. 8
      1708/09
      (winter) 1. This was a severe winter: the frost lasted for over three months (December – March) and the temperature fell (location unspecified) to 0degF (or -18degC). A notably foggy period in December 1708 (from 15th to 24th/OSP). The Thames frozen in London. Reputed to have been more severe, and more destructive and continued longer than in any year since 1698. Cold/severe winter, by CET series. (1.2 degC or about 2.5C below all-series mean, which is a lot for the three months as a whole.)
      2. For London/Southeast in particular, a cold spell which started on 7th January 1709(OSP) lasted for nearly two months, and it became so cold that the Thames froze over completely, with the usual 'booths & tents' being set up on the frozen surface. (Actually, one report I have found says that the Thames was frozen sufficiently for such 1st-4th January; this would imply that the spell starting 7th was immediately preceded by a 'milder' spell of a few days, with December being cold. Inspection of the CET record has that month as a 'below-average' event, but not exceptionally so, therefore some confusion here.)
      (Sounds a bit like 1962/63 with the fog at the start of the episode).
      [ Also "probably" the COLDEST winter across Europe (as a whole) in a series starting 1500; combining proxy & instrumental data. (University of Berne / RMetS / 'Weather' 2004) ] 6, 8, CET
      1709 A wet year.

      https://premium.weatherweb.net/weather-in-history-1700-to-1749-ad/

      2. I am at a loss as to what the green communists expect to happen. They'll slaughter millions as their cause always does and then their insanity will be abandoned, as it always is.

        Could we skip the communism, genocide and poverty and just carry on as we are, a market capital society?

          1. I dont want to scare the horses 😉 20 years of Boxing and Rugby has taken its toll……. my missus still likes me though! (I think)

      4. Curiously Defoe’s writings give great insights into all manner of things.

        When I was Architect to the Privy Garden Restoration at Hampton Court Palace, Defoe’s recollection that Queen Mary had the box hedging removed because she disliked the smell of urine proved their existence.

        The relevant passage is in his book: A Tour through the Whole Island of Great Britain. I cherish my copy because it has proven to be a valuable resource on various projects requiring historical enquiry.

    3. The house I grew up in is the same. "Close the door!" was the constant refrain of my childhood. Stone walls eighteen inches thick. Only a woodstove has a chance of heating them up a bit.

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

    1. I’m always struck by how nicely dressed everyone is in those films. These days so many go out looking as if they’ve just crawled out of a dustbin.

  165. I've had a very nice evening in our local pub with a good old friend……it's quite amazing how two elderly chaps over a couple of beers can put the world to rights but our politicians can't run a bath between them.

  166. Evening, all, if there's anybody left. Had a meeting which went on a bit then had to drive home and got a phone call before I even got into the house!

    The EU states won't want to pay their way in NATO; they never have really pulled their weight.

    2. The Knight:

      All the pieces except the knight move in a straight line

      I think we're aware of that.

    1. Blimey, Geoff, that's an early start to Wednesday – are you up early to start your "prep" ready for the Archbishop of Canterbury job interviews? Lol.

  174. Good morning Grizz, and thanks for reply, which is very interesting. I feed s/seed hearts to garden birds every day, the numbers of individual birds increase/decrease depending on weather/season etc and some disappear altogether (eg not seen wagtails or long tailed tits for a few years). Large number of mistle thrushes this year. Sparrow hawk takes a number of small birds as does the tawny (and also bats). I’ve never seen a Tanager, Scarlet or otherwise, although I’ve seen a few misfits which I reckon are possible escapees, couldn’t identify them. One of the best views – long eared owl, very handsome with orange eyes.

    1. Hi, Katy. I currently have no fewer than 82 species of bird that I have seen in, over and from my garden. I’ve seen the odd mistle thrush but they are extremely rare here. Song thrushes are also rare in my garden and I get a lot more redwings and fieldfares in winter. Long-eared owls are, as you say, a striking creature. I also like short-eared owls, a bird of which I’ve seen a lot more. They have dazzling yellow eyes and very short ‘ear’ tufts. They are also the only UK diurnal owl that routinely flies during daytime. I’m now looking forward to having the first bramblings on the feeders as well as a good number of siskins. I used to get redpolls but they have been absent this past five years, I also get an infrequent visitation by waxwings in winter.

      1. Ooooo, lovely post Grizz, thanks. No redwings here, but have the others you mention. Only owl here now is a tawny, she shrieks at him most nights, he sounds like a drunk rolling in saying ‘hello my lovely’ – I like to hear them both. I think she may be the baby I saw a number of years ago on my windowsill – she raises her young in a box my husband built in an old oak tree…a real treat to see the young leave.No bramblings either, nor siskins…nor long tailed tits. Saw a female greenfinch today, first for many years – they had clubfoot, awful to see. Many goldfinches, bullying the lesser sized on the feeder. I suspect we may be due for a harder winter this season, we’ll see.

        1. Thanks, Katy. I have never had long-tailed tits in this garden, though I have had treecreeper, another favourite. I’ve only heard tawny owl on a very few occasions. Our commonest bird is the tree sparrow; house sparrows do exist around here but few visit our garden, mainly because the tree sparrows are aggressive towards them. Greenfinches and chaffinches are common in winter, but I have also had a few much rarer birds pass through at migration time. Nutcracker being a very special one.

          1. I’ve mostly seen ltts in the wood, I love how they make their nests and share in one big ball, also see them in hedgerows. Treecreepers too, reminds me of an old chap I knew, neighbour when I was just a few years old..he and I would birdwatch together, he would put out breadcrumbs, surrounded by a noose of string..small birds would feed and soon the sparrow hawk which would then be snared. He left and I didn’t see him again for many years, then he asked me what a treecreeper was and very suited when I knew. I very much like to see and hear the tawny owls. And I’ve never seen a nutcracker bird, lucky you! Please may I ask you to post if you see any other ‘special ones’, always interested to hear about wildlife, thanks Grizzly – super post 🙂

  175. Thanks, Bob…that worked grand, will take a closer look later, cursory one suggests looks just like my polytunnels – rasp canes impenetrable..aaaagghhh….

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