Tuesday 13 February: Letting standards drop in the Army would threaten national security

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.

464 thoughts on “Tuesday 13 February: Letting standards drop in the Army would threaten national security”

  2. Good morrow, gentlefolk. Today’s (recycled) story
    DRINKING BEER COULD TURN YOU INTO A WOMAN

    Beer contains female hormones! Yes, that’s right, FEMALE hormones!
    Last month, Montreal University and scientists released the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. Men should take a concerned look at their beer consumption. The theory is that beer contains female hormones (hops contain Phytoestrogens) and that by drinking enough beer, men turn into women.

    To test the theory,

    100 men each drank 8 schooners of beer within a one (1) hour period.

    It was then observed that 100% of the test subjects, yes, 100% of all these men:-

    1) Argued over nothing.

    2) Refused to apologize when obviously wrong.

    3) Gained weight.

    4) Talked excessively without making sense.

    5) Became overly emotional.

    6) Couldn’t drive.

    7) Failed to think rationally, and

    8) Had to sit down while urinating.

    No further testing was considered necessary!!

    Send this to the men you know, to warn them about drinking too much beer and women, to help their man!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86296201ce82fecca49e7decf7cdf3e181499e321bb7cac4c1f20a75877641fb.gif

  4. The real reason for Labour’s Rochdale muddle over Islamists. 13 february 2024.

    So there we have it. Putin, the worst monster in Europe since the death of Stalin, looks well in charge as his own, rigged, election approaches. Trump, the biggest ego-maniac ever to enter the Oval Office, is where he wants to be in his election race. And Biden who, for all his faults, is not in himself a danger to world peace, is torpedoed, perhaps below the water line. Not a good week.

    There is of course much effort expended in both the MSM and by the Nudge Unit Trolls to equate Vlad with not only Stalin but Hitler. It could be pointed out that there are no Concentration Camps or the Gulag in modern Russia and it is also worth remembering that during the period of Putin’s Presidency that Europe has participated in a series of Wars, waged under false pretences that have been disastrous, not only for those that we have attacked, but for ourselves. Iraq is still an occupied country, its oil revenues are paid to the United States who then dispense the cash as and when they please. Libya has been destroyed, Even the irrigation system was demolished along with the means of repairing it. Worse than either of these was the clandestine war against Syria which has killed over a million people. The real War Criminals reside in the West and the UK has in Blair and Cameron two of the worst offenders.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/12/theres-a-reason-why-labour-is-pandering-to-islamists/

    1. I thought that Blair and May were the two most obviously evil prime ministers in the 21st century. Cameron has managed to get onto the list and is challenging the other two.

  6. ‘Morning All

    Last night Tice was wittering on about an “enquiry” into clotshot harms………

    Just another lying arse revisionist here’s what he really is

    https://twitter.com/banthebbc/status/1617657986654306305?s=20

    Reform?? Just a controlled waste of space

    Never forget,never forgive!!

    Rest of a very bitter medley

    Oof

    https://twitter.com/AMBULLDOG249/status/1755563963645915392?t=41_9RFi2w6mS-NuQSBDgyA&s=08

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a3431eecdaf3a99125ab5906c0910e407a581b48a199bbc963d2c70d0d56929f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/54d3698d4f158c4040eb8e6152b825954a0b873ad18f3457f204588be7294b57.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c900e51c034e87dcef17e2415ba872221939dd66b33fe6f561f55ddea63a80ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7a6dd7ab63d4aadf3bd8981bf93c418afc9adb6bd4187a1f6f0b935a496ecab0.jpg

    https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_UHU10n8fEXPnN0_v-AcGBcUqT9oQ7UQfNeOw1cc6FRKU8SzFwbmNtHhlRgWvSE5XImpsf4WGetuVYRo0kfAsrk029HUS6TV9POAkCv9izU958AiEY63YeWIfKCQNeDX9esY6WjJB0hU15S-eshPUk6NhGoe9Viv53hQqeXUUn7ObCbodJu0OwQJYBAg/s605/90miles6e671b0e61aba86ac73753dd39467551_0615ad4a_500.jpg

    1. Morning Rik. Though I am going to vote for Reform (who else is there?) I do have my suspicions about Tice.

          1. I will never vote for any political party that has any of the words: ‘Social’, ‘Democrat’ or ‘Peoples’ in their name.

      2. I fully appreciate your valid point, Araminta. However, a vote for any small wannabe party will clearly put Starmer’s dangerous, clueless, quarter-wit nonentities in power.

        For that reason, for the first time in my life I shall return my ballot paper despoiled as NOTA. Not a single politician, of any party, is fit-for-purpose.

      3. I’d rather see the back of Tice, but I too will be voting Reform as the only semi-realistic option.

    2. What bothers me about Tice in this particular episode is that he so readily followed the narrative put out by Johnson et al. Did he really have no doubts about the hurried design, manufacture – really? – and deployment of the “vaccine”, none at all?

      For me, the short timeline created doubt very early on and I started looking around on the internet for information. At that time there wasn’t much but it was sufficient to allow me to make a firm decision: under no circumstance would I go near the stuff. If I could do that why couldn’t a politician, especially a politician leading a party named Reform, do the same?

      Reform means improvement, changing behaviour or structure and here was the party’s leader advocating doing what the hidebound established parties were so keen on doing, jabbing everyone with a novel, untried and untested (there wasn’t time to test in the usual manner) potion. Tice didn’t have to say “don’t take this novel jab” he could have erred on the side of caution and said “wait” but he just followed what others were saying. He owns that decision and no later change of direction will erase that blunder from his record.

          1. I agree. But it’s in all frozen and tinned food. 2% level of insect contamination is also allowed in the UK.

          2. Reminds me of a young American technician who burst into the recording room and shouted, “Hey, the cooks say we have weasels in the flour!”

          5. If you pick your own blackberries or raspberries you’ll often be picking a fair few maggots with them, many of which will end up in your crumble, pie of jam!

  7. BTL@DTletters

    Trevor Anderson
    3 HRS AGO
    “You will put Starmer in No 10, Sunak warns Reform voters.”
    Sunak, your delusion and inability to take a look at the sorry state of this country, requires professional help. You and your ilk have caused the creation of a proper right wing party.
    Your ‘King Midas in Reverse.” disastrous premiership has caused so much damage that even with the risk of Starmer, the electorate want to punish you. Everything you touch, fails.
    Disassociate yourself with globalism, scrap Net Zero and bring a halt to all immigration with radical and immediate overhall (leave the ECHR and ignore other Human Rights unfit for purpose nonsense) forget the idiocy of Rwanda, and you might achieve something.
    The rise of radical Islam should be stopped immediately, too, no more mosques, conversions to Christianity, misogyny, prayer mats in schools and other divisive practice.
    You are complicit with the utterly careless prospect of projecting this nation towards the total loss of democracy and hard earned freedoms, with the insane view that “We live in a fantastic multicultural society” – you might, the rest of us do not.

  8. Wordle 969 X/6

    Oops. Failed to get it in six today. I didn’t spot that in my second try I repeated the same letter in position two, hence wasted one attempt.

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

    1. Very annoying!
      I got lucky today – about time after my recent dismal run!
      Wordle 969 3/6

      🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
      🟨⬜🟩🟩⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. I also had brain failure as well and repeated to letters in the wrong place

      Wordle 969 4/6

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

        2. According to experts because of all the rain we have been putting up with. The breeding season for owls has been shorten. And their could less owl’s than usual.
          Because it has been too wet to woo.

  11. SIR – The Bishop of Durham, Rt Rev Paul Butler, accuses me of presenting “an imaginative range of allegations” regarding the fake conversions of asylum seekers that I uncovered during my time as priest in charge of St Cuthbert’s in Darlington (Letters, February 12).

    He presumably means to convince your readers that the sizable groups of young male Iranians – failed asylum applicants who came to me week after week asking for baptism – were imaginary. Are my clergy colleagues with similar experiences also deluded?

    Bishop Butler accuses me of not raising the matter with him or presenting evidence. Quite apart from the fact that the eyewitness testimony of a priest (backed up by congregation members) is evidence, there would have been little point in raising the matter with him, for two reasons.

    First, I dealt with the matter myself by speedily shutting down the conveyor belt of applications (hence the small number of pre-booked baptisms that took place after my arrival). Secondly, when I disclosed to Bishop Butler, on two occasions, that I had been bullied by congregation members (one cause of my resignation), he dismissed my claims without investigation. Any confidence in his commitment to investigate the present matter would therefore have been misplaced.

    This is made clearer now by him publicly rubbishing my claims without bothering to contact me for the further evidence, which I could have provided.

    Rev Matthew Firth
    York

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

    Sarah Hiser
    5 HRS AGO
    Well done, Rev Matthew Firth. Your courage and honesty are refreshing. I do hope the good Bishop has had a read of your excellent letter – and learns a thing or two.

    John Twentyman
    59 MIN AGO
    Reply to Sarah Hiser – view message
    I suspect the Bishop of Durham only reads the Guardian, essential reading for all senior Bishops.

    3. I heard a former Bishop of Kensington actually preach on a Guardian opnion piece and he openly referenced the article in question. It was at the licensing of the current Vicar of Fulham and the subject matter had no relevance whatsover.

  12. Now this is “Awkward”

    ‘Living in India permanently
    Unfortunately, there is no path to
    permanent residency for foreign citizens in India unless they have
    Indian ancestry. The maximum amount of time that you can spend in the
    country is 5 years, after this, you will have to return to the UK to
    have your permission to live in India reassessed.

    However, there
    is a path for UK citizens to naturalize as Indian citizens after they
    have lived in the country for at least 12 years. To be eligible, UK
    citizens will also have to meet several other requirements and supply
    several documents to prove that they meet them, these include:

    Having knowledge of at least one of India’s languages – you’ll need to language certificated
    Meeting the good character requirements – you’ll need two statements from Indian citizens testifying to your character’
    We have an Indian PM perhaps he could give US the same rules……
    No,thought not

  13. What could possibly go wrong…………..

    From ‘The Muslim vote’ website:

    OUR GOAL IS SIMPLE

    This election signals a shift – Muslim issues at the forefront. We will no longer tolerate being taken for granted. We are a powerful, united force of 4 million acting in unison.

    We are focused on seats where the Muslim vote can influence the outcome. We are here for the long term. In 2024, we will lay the foundations for our community’s political future.

    Tells you all you need to know.

    1. That Muslim can only live in hope and die in despair.

      With a Real Conservative Government in place, he and his compatriots will soon be hustled off this island, back to the shit-holes they came from. If they’ve converted or are homosexual, tough, face up to what your shit-hole Imams will mete out to you. You want Sharia – live with it.

    3. Civil War?

      Who will be the Roundheads and who will be the Cavaliers?

      (In the last Civil War the Roundheads won the first part – but ten years later back came the monarchy. In my view one side needs to be circumscribed as soon as possible.)

      1. The Population will be the Round heads and Westminster and the Civil Servants the Cavaliers.Roll on the Piano-wire and the lamp-posts.

      1. That was always coming. All they were waiting for is the increase in numbers the Government has kindly arranged for them.

  14. Britain is almost bankrupt. PM Starmer will be the final nail in the nation’s coffin

    A Labour government will not grow the economy or make the welfare cuts needed to stave off crisis

    SHERELLE JACOBS
    12 February 2024 • 7:31pm
    *
    *
    *
    ***************************************

    Bill Tong
    11 HRS AGO
    The UK has been wrecked by almost every government since 1945.
    Successively, each destroyed something of our national identity and fabric until the heroic efforts of Margaret Thatcher to resist, Canute style, the tide for an all too short decade or so.
    Blair did so much damage in his term that I still don’t understand why he’s not rotting in the Tower to be quite frank.
    My view is that we’re at tipping point. Either we demand politicians implement the immigration and economic policies that will save the nation from further harm, or we tell our children and grandchildren to work towards emigrating elsewhere and abandon the UK to its fate.
    Skier will indeed be the final nail.

    Alex Thomson
    11 HRS AGO
    Reply to Bill Tong
    The problem was neatly encapsulated a decade or so ago by Angela Merkel (of all people):
    Europe represents 7% of global population, 25% of global GDP and 50% of global welfare spending. That was 2013 so those numbers will now be worse.
    On top of that Europe has embarked on a mad dash to Net Zero, enthusiastically embraced lockdowns and has added tens of millions of low economic value migrants and soaked them in welfare.
    We’ve gone from being nations where the citizen has access to public services and pensions to where the citizen has the right to a high standard of living on the welfare pound (and because of our leaders’ moral vanity we want to offer that deal to the world, mainly Middle East, subcontinent and Africa).
    We have a dwindling tax base of high earners, key sectors all of which are highly transient, and declining borrowing capacity which our children will pay for.
    Pain is coming.

    Bill Tong
    11 HRS AGO
    Reply to Alex Thomson – view message
    Massive, Great Depression style pain is coming.
    All of a sudden, the money supply will cease, credit rating will fall and the IMF will be there to mortgage Britain’s soul to the WEF forever.
    We have a tiny window to prevent it but it’s closing fast.

    1. Can’t argue with any of those comments.
      There’s going to be a huge shock when the welfare stops and the Chinese tat gets far less affordable. That’s what they need a probably short-lived period of CBDCs for, so that people don’t realise what’s happening while it’s happening.

  15. Morning all! I’m off to sunny Kenya later on today. Will chip in when I can, depending on WiFi. Leaving here about midday. Looks to be dry and grey outside.

  17. Good morning all.
    A bright start to the day, dry at the moment with a tad under 2°C outside.
    I’ve 10 logs to get chopped then back to Twiggs on the 11:00 bus as they’ve found a cutter bar in stock and the replacement chain is ready!

    2. 383318+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Seemingly this coming General Election will be to
      ascertain which of the governing political overseers are the best odious party to finally give old blighty the
      coup de grace, so the continues majority vote that got us here is still necessary

  19. Morning all 🙂😊
    No sunshine today, at least we know its still up there.
    Letting standards drop in the Army would threaten national security. Well that’s just one more of the many duties of our political idiots they have effed up on. The list gets longer buy the hour.

  20. Letting standards drop???

    Fekkin Telegraph.

    How about letting the whole bloody army drop, and sending what’s left of serviceable kit to be sold by Ukes on their black market? Might that have an ever-so-slightly deliterious effect on our ability to defend ourselves?
    What about not having the wherewithall to stop the French escorting a bunch of foreigners across the channel, as though there might be a load of money to be had by Tory donors from housing them? – maybe having God-knows-who in the country might compromise us a tad?

    Standards.
    FFS.

        1. Starting with Heath and his lies and then blair, who did more long term damage to our home countries than hitler.
          It’s just been one disaster after another.

    2. The Armed forces, plus Plod and the NHS have all dropped to nothing. Full overhaul required, together with Government and Civil Service. They’re all a bloody shambles.

    1. Wendy Patterson @wendyp4545 on twitter has been highlighting this nonsense all week. Pelosi once said, sign the bill to find out what’s in it. It appears too many in the Capitol Building thought she meant that to include every bill.

    2. I watched J D Vance on Bannon’s War Room last night. Vance is a brave soul, an ex-Marine, and he’s not afraid to draw political fire. We are very short of politicians like Vance.

      Bannon summed up their conversation by stating that this $61B (and further sums in 2025 – 2026) cannot be for supporting an already lost war or for bolstering Ukraine. Bannon talks of this support for Ukraine as a sick obsession, a fetish and that there’s something deep and dark, so dark, so dark about this support for Ukraine.

      What could he mean?

      1. They are terrified of the public finding out what Ukraine is really all about. I have read things I never thought possible, they haunt me as I try to sleep. I cannot mention these things here. Zelensky knows these things. As does Putin.

        1. I agree with your comment, poppiesmum.

          I would add that I think that Steve Bannon has a good idea but no proof: his demeanour when he spoke about this reflected his concern that something was not right.

  22. Good morning everyone. Mrs D didn’t have the procedure yesterday but had a CT scan which seemed to show the clot had disappeared. Balloon angioplasty today.
    Thank you for all. your encouraging messages.

    1. One of the worst aspects of rejecting Covid-19 vaccines is the somewhat greater risk – if infected – of suffering virus-induced myocarditis.

  24. The end of a fishing dynasty: Family that’s been fishing
    off the coast of Britain for 300 years is forced to quit the industry
    due to new Government regulations.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13074965/family-fishing-britain-300-years-pollack-catch-quota-zero.html

    Another nail in the coffin of the British fishing industry. The government in negotiations with the EU (i thought we had left) continue to attack our food producers. It is not about sustainability. It is about the WEF agenda.

    Edit…Pollock in our waters are dangerously low but i can’t find a quota for French trawlers.

    1. Terrible. I can remember visiting markets in Spain and France and seeing hundreds of undersized fish on the trays and our fishermen had been force to throw them back. Most Dead already of course.

    2. Brexit was destroyed by these two great capitulations:

      Northern Ireland and Fishing.

      Boris Johnson should rot in hell for these two gross betrayals.

    3. ‘His father, John Hunkin, asked why the government left the industry with ’10 days’ notice’.

      He said: ‘Why don’t they say in five years’ time we’re going to do something? They keep talking, they’re good at talking. They say help is coming but the crew are leaving.’‘

      It’s come 5 years too late and too suddenly. The netters/trawlers have been overfishing before and after Brexit. Rod and line commercial fishermen are worse affected than the netters as there’s no option of keeping the by-catch. Pollack stocks have plummeted in the last 5 years as I and many recreational anglers can attest to. It was the bread and butter species for at least the first half of each year. English Channel cod will probably be next on the list. Bass are doing well but it doesn’t take long to overfish if commercials redirect their efforts.

      A lot of these fish stock drops have coincided with the return of giant bluefin tuna to SW English waters. More research is needed, not the voluntary half-hearted research we now have and then just go along with ICES.

  25. During a political rally on Saturday in South Carolina, Trump complained about what he called “delinquent” payments by some NATO countries and recounted what he said was a past conversation with the head of “a big country” about an attack by Russia on such countries.

    “No, I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay,” Trump said he told the unnamed leader.

    https://www.reuters.com/world/us/republicans-blast-trump-over-threat-abandon-nato-allies-2024-02-12/

    The likely choice facing American voters in November of Biden or Trump dismays me. It’s one thing warning America’s NATO allies that are not pulling their weight that they cannot count on US support if attacked by Russia, but to suggest he’d encourage the Russians in their endeavours is quite beyond the pale.

    1. I see that Canada has failed to meet its NATO defence spending commitments. In the unlikely event of Russia threatening Canada, would a Trump administration come to Canada’s aid, stand aside and do nothing, or actively encourage the Russians to attack its immediate neighbour.

      1. Canada is “a big country”, by the way; bigger – geographically – than the USA.

      2. The hypothetical notion of the Russian Federation attacking any country that doesn’t strike first is too outrageous for the Trump threat to be a serious proposition. Ukraine had killed thousands of Russians before Putin took any action.

        1. Discounting the possibility that he made a grave misjudgement in revealing this conversation, whether true or not, it must have been the case that he truly believes it will improve his prospects of winning the next presidential election. He must actually believe that he’ll win more votes than he loses if he can convince American voters that he’d support a Russian attack on any NATO member – including Canada – which is failing to meet the organisation’s defence spending requirements. I find it very hard to accept there are sufficient American voters willing to support such a notion. It must be the case that he knows he will not be taken seriously, that it wasn’t a gaffe so much as some kind of joke.

        2. Discounting the possibility that he made a grave misjudgement in revealing this conversation, whether true or not, it must have been the case that he truly believes it will improve his prospects of winning the next presidential election. He must actually believe that he’ll win more votes than he loses if he can convince American voters that he’d support a Russian attack on any NATO member – including Canada – which is failing to meet the organisation’s defence spending requirements. I find it very hard to accept there are sufficient American voters willing to support such a notion. It must be the case that he knows he will not be taken seriously, that it wasn’t a gaffe so much as some kind of joke.

    2. I see that Canada has failed to meet its NATO defence spending commitments. In the unlikely event of Russia threatening Canada, would a Trump administration come to Canada’s aid, stand aside and do nothing, or actively encourage the Russians to attack its immediate neighbour.

    3. “No, I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay,”

      This is a story that Trump recounted. He does not name the individual and strangely the person involved has not repeated it in the meantime. I have considerable doubts about its authenticity.

        1. I would guess that if he said it he was deliberately trying to get the person to wake up. I do not see at all why the Americans should defend Europe. The Europeans have taken advantage of the USA in terms of defense for way to long whilst, on the other hand, trying to undermine US foreign policy. Europe is an enemy to the Anglo-Saxon peoples and it’s high time that we accept that. Their behaviour toward the UK and Brexit is all the proof you need. As Dr Starkey rightly said: “They hate us for liberating them.” Second world war and the EU showed up their inadequacies in such a way they can never claim to be superior to anyone or anything ever. Anti Democratic and totalitarian in their attitudes. Let us remember that Napoleon, in context, was no better than Stalin or Hitler, another demagogue hell bent on crushing Europe. Three of the worlds great tyrants in history, all European.

          1. America does also use Europe, and in particular the UK to fight its own wars around the world.

          2. I don’t think that the US uses the UK. But then having lived there for most of my adult life I don’t fall for the left wing propaganda that seeks to divide us that’s so prevalent in the UK. Remember the callous vitriol that was hurled at the American Ambassador after 9/11 on Question Time?

      2. I doubt the authenticity of most things I read in the newspapers.
        I wouldn’t like to be young these days but yearn for the simplicity of life we I was younger. No doubt our parents had the same feeling as we do.
        When vw was expecting our first baby my mum said “I wouldn’t like to bring a child into the world as it is today”. I reminded her that she had lived through two world wars. That was in 1968/69.

    4. “No, I would not protect you. In fact I would encourage them (Russia) to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay,”

      This is a story that Trump recounted. He does not name the individual and strangely the person involved has not repeated it in the meantime. I have considerable doubts about its authenticity.

    5. If press reports and the utterings of military bods and politicians are to be believed, Russia is already planning to attack Nato and doesn’t need encouragement from DT. Its about time the mealy mouthed Europeans are put on the spot and started paying for their defence.

      1. Why would they attack NATO? And how? They can’t even finish Ukraine, and that’s without NATO manpower.

        1. Forget Europe. Just send Russian troops north over the arctic into the Canadian north. Canadian forces are completely run down so there will not be much resistance.

          It all wilderness but has a lot of untouched resources (thanks Trudeau for killing the mining industry) that would be useful.

          Just don’t stray too far south or orange man might consider them a threat.

  27. GB News lost much of its credibility when it dumped Mark Steyn and abandoned covering Covid Vaccine damage and Pakistani rape gangs.

    Patrick Christys is making very good progress and Nigel Farage is one of the best and most coherent journalists on UK TV media.

    Although I approve of hearing both sides of an argument some of the lefties that GBNews drags up are so ridiculous that they cannot be taken seriously. I suspect they employ people like Amy Nickel, Benjamin Butterworth and Rebecca Reid deliberately in order to make the arguments of the left totally risible.

    1. The first two you mention Rastus, have to be the most ludicrous people on any panel anywhere. I don’t think that Nickel would fail to support even the most absurd position you could dream up as long as she thought it left wing. As for Benji, a ludicrous queen. As for Reid she is so memorable I have no recollection of her.

        1. Somehow I must have missed her. Vaguely familiar but can’t recall anything she has said. She must embody stunning mediocrity.

    2. Is not that the whole point?

      They can show Ofcom “balance” but at the same time demonstrate to viewers that the “balanced” lefties are ignorant shytes?

  28. 383318+ up ticks,

    May one STRONGLY suggest,

    Surely it must be a requisition that ALL current
    MPs intending to stand in the coming General Election must have a BOOSTER jab of vaccine
    Witnessed & administered by a peoples jury.

    1. Companies do this all the time in an attempt to fool the public. Hermes was shit so they changed their name to Evri who are still shit. Some people will be fooled. Others don’t care. Which is what ‘they’ rely on.

        1. Not too bad, thanks, Our Susan. A desperate wish to rub the eye, of course, because it feels wet and gritty!. Trying to be positive….(you know me!!)

          2. Oddly enough, I have no wish for alcohol. And Lent starts tomorrow – so not a drop (apart from Sundays) until Easter Day

          3. You can always do the muslim “not a drop” – take a drop out of the glass of wine or whatever and flick it over your shoulder. That’s the drop of alcohol that did not pass your lips…you can then drink the rest.

  31. Morning to all. Another rather gloomy morning. Thus it goes. Here for your pleasure and delight is your dose of relentless news about Islamic activity.
    Turkey Threatens to Invade Greece and Armenia

    https://www.meforum.org/65551/turkey-threatens-to-invade-greece-and-armenia?utm_source=Middle+East+Forum&utm_campaign=044f21efbb-MEF_Rubin_02122024&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_086cfd423c-044f21efbb-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D&goal=0_086cfd423c-044f21efbb-33703725&mc_cid=044f21efbb&mc_eid=161056dcdd

  32. Good morning all! Shrove Tuesday. Anyone up for being Shriven of their sins? That is to say, going to confession? Elizabeth I summed it up as, “All may, none must, some should”.

      1. I wonder if Elizabeth herself opened up to her priest. She certainly came into the “some should” category?

  33. F-F-F-Four . . .
    Wordle 969 4/6

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

      1. Wordle 969 4/6

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

        Me too. I always thought it was an Americanism!

  35. Good morning, all. Well, so far, so good. Can still see – vaguely!

    Have I missed anything in the news?

  36. Azhar Ali claims to be a champion of the tolerant, multicultural society. I’ve not seen this quote in any of the national media:

    Mr Ali, made an OBE for public service in 2020, told the media he had tackled the issue of extremism and antisemitism in his role as a government adviser on countering extremism and terrorism.

    He said: “I don’t want to be a candidate that divides communities. I want to be a candidate that brings communities together. I was involved in calling it out after 7/7 and before. I’ve taken on the BNP and the EDL, I’ve had death threats myself, so you know, I’m not going to take any lessons from anyone saying to me, ‘you know you’ve not called it out’.

    https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24115225.oxford-mp-campaigns-fire-labour-politician/

    Took them on single-handed, eh?! Of course, the ‘far-right’ must always be invoked when talking about Islamism and its apologists. The British people, Jews in particular, have good reason to be more scared of 4 million Muslims than of a few hundred ageing football hooligans.

    1. Have you tried go compare?
      Ours is due before the end of the month.
      It’s turned into yet another absolute Rip Off.
      They seem now increase the cost entirely by age. Nothing to do with the risk factor, drink driving conviction, average mileage, previous claims and speeding fines.
      I’ll bet there are thousands of people driving around on our roads who have never passed a driving test in the UK nor ever read the Highway code.
      Around 25 years ago I remember an insurance chap at my golf club, telling me of a very private UK wide insurance companies meeting, designed to stitch motorists up.

      1. Judging by their failure to observe the “vulnerable users” section of the Highway Code, there are probably hundreds of thousands of drivers who have never read that section at least.

    3. No. All car insurance is a con. I asked why ours had gone up 40% and was told ‘inflation and higher costs across the industry’. Profiteering then, I said. The woman didn’t say anything. So I cancelled and went with the cheapest.

      As it is, if car insurance were not an legal force then no one would have it. Insurance companies are thieves. Plain and simple.

      1. The cheapest type of insurance is “Road Traffic Act cover”. It does what it says on the tin. It just covers you for the minimum compulsory cover so you are legal.

    3. He was NOT “… trying to ‘convince’ the public to vote for him again.”

      He was trying to persuade them to vote for him! If you are English, then speak English, not Yankese!

  39. Todays examples of government ineptitude.

    Thr Trudeau government came up with a nice sexy smartphone app to track trsvellers covid shots, the app had an estimated cost of $85,000.

    The Auditor General just released a report into the finances behind the app. She cannot be sure because there is missing paperwork but her best guess estimate is $59.5 million.

    To cap it off, the app didn’t work.

      1. Blimey I bet a few nice homes, cars and holidays have come out of all
        that.
        What an absolute scandal.

      2. I wonder what actual role Dido Harding played in all this. She seems to have an abysmal but very well-remunerated employment track record.

        1. What annoys most is in industry if she’d been that inept she’d be unemployable. Yet in the state she just gets promoted.

    2. Our little company produced an app for customers to track their support tickets and log faults with the kit we installed. That’s a lot of integration points. It took about 6 months and cost about 20K in time and platform.

      Simply put, government’s are incompetent and should never have access to public funds.

  40. The first part says, ‘My husbands has suspicions’ – you can guess the rest. The word ‘salaud’ does not refer to a meal with lettuce and tomatoes etc., it refers to a person born out of wedlock – a rude word!
    https://scontent-cdg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/424674901_1591312371680974_1810632886291917043_n.jpg?_nc_cat=1&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd5e9f&_nc_ohc=0um3J1Rmh54AX-RORtf&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg4-2.xx&oh=00_AfAhgNjv3KnxfMIczmZXrkkN-qimdjzcnS_ziABKnSXxDw&oe=65D03C06

      2. Talking of flat (iron) when I walked Kadi this morning, one of my neighbours was ironing a curtain – it was still hung in the window!

    5. Good lad.

      Here in Sweden they celebrate Shrove Tuesday with a semla. A semla is a soft bun (a bit like a Devon split) with whipped cream, but the jam is replaced by frangipane.

      1. I even made them gluten free so i could toss some to my neighbours. You know what batch cooking is like.

    6. It isn’t Lent until tomorrow, Pip! Today is Shrove Tuesday. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday (not to be confused with Sheffield Wednesday) and the start of 40 days of fasting, Bible study and prayer (except that I doubt I’ll manage any of that).

  43. 37 billion? That’s a lot of zeros. I would bet that as with the Canadian case, no one has been fired or reprimanded.

    I will stick with Canadian incompetence though, the 60 biIlion was literally just for development of the software,.

      1. That’s canada for you!

        The Norwegian fund managing their oil revenues also makes mistakes – apparently $150 million on a small spreadsheet error.

  44. Oi Laffed

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff8803956b2868657294fd4ae1b3850c3b99a6513acc48845f9ba7b6ed7f1499.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9cab795fe4171ea1f338bbfde40d281b81293ae58e12bc24ac97ebf2daeec2b2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9194d21475eb15e312a554f206e8753ccd623bffe5ae38132417b9d86a4dc615.jpg

    https://scontent.fbrs4-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/428340545_10227875026039698_4226976853832360418_n.jpg?stp=dst-jpg_p180x540&_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd5e9f&_nc_ohc=hUCz7SK4CmwAX-yhdWN&_nc_oc=AQnGf8Ntju3viL-59glPcqo3sNv1d5CnnEEtN95o1To80hjVzd7Fbbo6-N8kjQLFRzzYe-UDRpX9C_x9HWt6usL2&_nc_ht=scontent.fbrs4-2.fna&oh=00_AfCdZRgPBkYHWIymKOHZczI7wAhd6wdIioq6F1yZUro4dQ&oe=65D01676

    1. I remember an American guy I Adelaide invited us and a few of his other acquaintances to his apartment to watch a super bowl final……..
      Apart from the beer and nibbles It was so boring.

      1. One of the arguments AGAINST stopping the clock in rugby (and, I suppose, Wendyball). Makes a long afternoon twice as long!

        1. Yes and you can bet most of that could be planned.
          I’ve never really liked the idea of the game continuing until the ball is kicked out of play.
          But Super Bowl is like watching pinball.
          Aren’t you outside today Bill ?

      2. ALL Yank “sports” are boring. They cater for the lack of attention span of your average brain-conditined Yank. Ten minutes of ‘time-outs’ followed by two minutes of action. It’s the very reason why Yanks have a very limited vocabulary (just listen to them: they all string along the same few banal and trite idiotic slang words).

        2. Football boring? Try looking at their half time “show”. Hundreds of apparently famous performers prancing around in a seemingly random manner, accompanied by unusual noise. Completely diverse of course.

          The golf was much better.

      3. A game of 4 x 15 minute quarters, I believe, that takes 3-4 hours to get through.
        And people say cricket is boring but at least there’s more action than American ‘football’.

  45. Russia declares Estonia PM Kaja Kallas ‘wanted’. 13 February 2024.

    In sharp contrast, Putin is subject to an international arrest warrant for war crimes, which obliges many countries to arrest him if he is on their soil.

    Last month, Putin taunted the Baltic nations by flying close to Estonia and hugging the coasts of Latvia and Lithuania in his presidential plane.

    He then visited the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, which is seen as a potential flashpoint in a war with the West.

    Does the writer of this article really believe that Political Leaders go around buzzing the competition in their private planes?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/02/13/russia-estonia-kaja-kallas-wanted-vladimir-putin/

    1. A moment’s reflection: if he flew to Kaliningrad without overflying Nato territory, he would have had to fly close to the coastlines of the Baltic triplets.

    1. The ‘They’ hate people power.
      If Donald (not a fan) Trump becomes president again it’s because people want him to be President.

      1. They’ve just voted the bill through! As Americans slept, these selve-serving rats have screwed their taxpayers. The votes included over 20 so called Republicans.

        1. They’re scared. Terrified that their frenzied political failures will be exposed. The terror the Left have of people realising they’re nothing but destructive, incompetent fools is astounding.

    2. The incredible web of shell companies and fronts Biden uses to channel government money into his pocket is disgusting. He’s senile now, but not after a lifetime of corruption and fraud.

    1. 383318+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      Now here’s a bloody good idea we could try following.

      “BUT they say we can win change at the ballot box”?

    2. The people who have done absolutely nothing at all to stop these invaders coming into their country have committed treason. Not even a single one of the protesters are guilty of that.
      Same in our own country.

    3. Hitler did it, Stalin did it, Lenin did it, Mao, Biden the EU – name any hard Left dictator dictator and you’ll find someone who, unable to stop the people choosing who they want sets about destroying the democratic choices through law – law it fiddles with to get it’s own way.

      The Left are all the same – nutters, desperate for power to oppress and control.

    1. Those people are just out to wreck our long established culture and our social structure.
      Something needs to be done about it PDQ.
      Oh hang on, unlike Australia the indigenous people of this country don’t count.

    1. You don’t have to be a BBC celebrity to qualify as a filthy paedophile, they are everywhere – but they certainly have a claim to lead the pack!

          2. I’ve often wondered who, amongst the top politicians throughout the World, has not been compromised by the honeytraps run by the various intelligence agencies. It is the only rational explanation for some of the insane decisions that are taken that are not in our best interests.

  52. Top neuropsychologist who found puberty-blocker drugs
    given to trans children may lower IQs reveals three journals rejected
    her ‘biased’ research and scolded her for using ‘sex-based terms’ like
    male-to-female.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13077445/Top-neuropsychologist-puberty-blocker-drugs-given-trans-children-lower-IQs-reveals-three-journals-rejected-biased-research-scolded-using-sex-based-terms-like-male-female.html

    Make them stupid.

    1. Most were born stupid. They have stupid parents and stupid teachers so their IQs have negative values.

      1. New way of the po-lice treating suspects, instead of “GET ON THE FLOOR NOW”!
        Get on your knees and put your head on the floor.

      2. My niece is a police(wo)man in the Met. She was reprimanded for asking a muslim gentleman to be a Good Samaritan and help his friend. Said gentlemen did not approve of being asked align himself with a character from the New Testament and made a complaint against my niece.

    2. And if the black Christians had been shoplifting they would have been ignored by plod. I’m not of a religious bent but there’s something fishy going on.

    5. It is so strange as our basic laws are based on the principles of Christianity, the laws they purport to uphold.

  54. After the recent farmers protest about exports from the UK, the UK minister of Agriculture Mark Spencer, declared he is an extractor fan.
    But he’s not sucking up to anyone.

  56. Hi guys! I’m having a cup tea and some nuts at Heathrow.
    Check in girl was very pleasant and helpful even though wearing a hijab.
    Security people were a bit surly but I got through without setting off the alarms.

    4. Bon voyage. Listen carefully to the safety instructions; in the event of an emergency, it may save your life.

    1. 1. Connery.
      2. Craig.
      3. Dalton.
      4. Brosnan.
      5. Lazenby.

      That useless clown, Moore, does not count since he had the acting ability and personality of a clothes peg.

    2. Timothy Dalton, for me. Saturnine and with an edge of danger; far nearer the character as written than any of the others.

  58. Final update on Mrs D: angioplasty complete and stent fitted. Thanks again for all the upbeat messages.

    3. I hope she’ll be home soon.
      You’ll need to keep her from doing too much, even if she feels fine.
      If she has as many pills to take as I’ve been prescribed I really recommend a pill box that can be preloaded for a week with morning noon and night containers.
      Makes dealing with them all a lot easier.

      2. A dosette. At one time I had three on the go; two for MOH (am and pm) and one for Charlie my dog (.5 of a steroid every other day). Now I just have one for me, am only. Makes life a lot simpler! I am, however, thinking of investing in one for Oscar; he now has a course of antibiotics to add to his other medication.

        1. Mine is fairly large, 7 days, each day with 4 sections, morning, mid day, early evening and bedtime, I only need to use 3 sections at the moment.

          1. Yes. It must have become infected (he and Kadi were both licking at it!). So Kadi is coming to the end of his course of antibiotics (.5 of a tablet twice a day) and Oscar is just starting his (.75 of a tablet twice a day). Combined with his half a paracetamol three times a day and gabapentin ditto, I have to keep a chart to make sure he’s had everything, but not too much!

    4. DB,

      You have both been through a very anxious few months , and I do hope Mrs DB finds that the procedure she has just been put through helps her back to normal energy and health wise after a proper recovery period .

      You can both relax now x

      1. Thank you, Maggie. We now await an appointment for a catheter ablation to stop the AF. She comes home today.

  59. One can’t help but wonder at the timing of this and what may have been extracted before administration.

    Tim Symes, partner in the Insolvency and Asset Recovery team at leading law firm Stewarts, said: “This could be a tactical administration appointment designed to shed creditors and cut costs following the purchase by new owners just before Christmas, or the directors simply had no choice.

    “Putting the business through administration will give immediate respite from creditors and allow a leaner, viable business to emerge, albeit with substantial creditor casualties in the form of suppliers and landlords.”

    https://www.standard.co.uk/business/the-body-shop-administration-retail-high-street-frp-collapse-insolvency-shops-trading-b1138878.html

    1. “One can’t help but wonder at the timing of this and what may have been extracted before administration.”

      The urine no doubt?

    3. High-street retailer The Body Shop’s UK business has collapsed into administration, the firm confirmed today, only weeks after private equity firm Aurelius bought the business.

      Yes, something stinks to high heaven on this.

      1. One wonders at the standard of the due diligence inspections prior to purchase.

        “Yeah we can turn a fast buck here”

  60. There is No Man Made Climate Emergency!!!
    The True Causes of Climate Change
    The following information is from Andrew Kissack…
    Some say Human caused CO2 drives climate.
    Human caused CO2 is only 0•4% of the total Atmospheric CO2
    (96•06% of atmospheric CO2 is from natural causes)
    In addition to CO2 there are many far more powerful causes of “climate change”
    None of them have anything to do with human activity
    Variations in solar inputs, especially sunspot activity, occur on the sun and are transmitted to Earth as heat.
    Cosmic rays traveling across the universe are redirected towards Earth by sunspots’ bursts of energy.
    This increases the Earth’s temperature. Sunspot activity has now diminished, and this will cool the Earth.
    Precession. The Earth’s axis moves in a cycle that lasts 26,000 years, during which time it varies by 23 degrees from the neutral axis, which is perpendicular to the sun’s rays. This changes the locations of deserts and forests.
    Eccentricity of Earth’s orbit It changes the distance from the sun to the Earth.
    This varies the amount of heat the Earth receives from the sun.
    It warms and cools the Earth relatively and is called the Milankovitch cycle.
    Meteors and comets are plentiful but every so often can cause devastating changes to the Earth when they impact.
    One has been blamed for the extinction of the dinosaurs, at least in part.
    Volcanoes. Caused by tectonic plate movements, which occur in unpredictable ways and have been known to create extreme global temperature variations.
    The eruption of Tambora caused the 1815 “Year without a Summer,” with effects that lasted 3 years.
    There are approximately 1,500 active volcanoes, 500 of which have erupted in modern times, and 60 which are currently active in approximately 60 countries around the world.
    Yellowstone is a supervolcano that will significantly change the climate when it erupts again.
    The majority of volcanoes are on the seabed and therefore hidden from view.
    There is an active volcano on the seabed close to Antarctica which has melted some of the ice.
    But this has wrongly been blamed on man-made global warming.
    Submarine volcanoes,
    or seamounts, of which there are about 120 that have erupted in modern times, create about 75% of the magma of the Earth and also heat the oceans.
    Shifts in the Earth’s molten core,
    in unpredictable ways, change the magnetic poles and move them approximately 35 miles per year and can lead to pole reversals every 7,000 years.
    Gulf Stream
    and other currents are generally consistent, but other variations of hundreds of miles can cause huge environmental changes.
    Jet stream shifts (Ancillary).
    They move heat energy in unpredictable ways.
    Intermittent interacting cycles (Ancillary): El Niño, La Niña, Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, Pacific Multidecadal Oscillation, Arctic/Antarctic Oscillations, and Madden-Julian oscillation, among others.
    Periodic variables warming and cooling effects of the atmosphere and water throughout the world.
    Unpredictable ice ages. Continental drift, over the very long term.
    Moon gravity affects all parts of the ocean and land and has worldwide effects but localizes based on its immediate position.
    Measurements from NASA state that the Earth has only warmed 1.53 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880.
    That is 142 years, through the Industrial Revolution.
    NASA also states that there has been no temperature increase since 1998.
    The presumptions of the eco-lunatics are that this trend will continue forever.
    Also, that man caused the heating problem and that man can cool the Earth down.
    They further discount the evidence of history of recorded weather that shows that the changes are natural and cannot be shown to be caused by humans.
    Man-made global warming is a guess upon a guess upon a guess.
    In reality It is a lie and needs to be stopped

  61. Went in to hospital – an hour and a half each way – expecting the kidney stone to be removed. On arrival, I am told I don’t need the surgery because it’s not 7mm but 3 and isn’t causing a problem – except feeling like I’m being poked in the back constantly – and if I get an infection or blood in my wee then to let them know.

    Oh, and I’m fat and on warfarin, so am a death risk. I asked why they hadn’t called me, or emailed me the letter, but instead not checked my address, not communicated with my doctors – no answer. Apparently patients are an annoyance to the NHS and it’s on the individual to get ill before they’ll bother to do anything – 18 months late. By then they won’t do anything at all.

    A morning wasted because they’re so utterly inefficient and self obsessed. I’ve still got a pain in my lower back – where the yes! Kidneys are! I can’t lay on my back for more than half an hour – I am so utterly sick of their inefficiency, the runaround they have you go through for their benefit, the choice of the slowest, most unreliable, expensive and inefficient methods, the disinterest in wasting your time for its benefit – the NHS does not work. It needs a kicking like no other.

    1. Can you try a natural remedy to dissolve the kidney stone, something like a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar* (with the ‘mother’ i.e. includes the whole apple mushed into it) in a glass of water twice a day? It may take some time to get rid of as it has taken some time to grow, and you don’t want it to get any larger. It is worth researching a more natural approach. Look up Barbara O’Neill, a herbalist-naturopath, she is brilliant. I think we are all going to become a little more DIY as far as the nhs is concerned. Like the State, it now exists only for itself and sees patients as a nuisance.

      *The label usually says if it contains the ‘mother’ – you can buy it online. Disregard the Billy Bragg brand, I understand it comes under the Gates umbrella now.

      1. Thanks for explaining “with the mother”, pm. I’ve seen that on concoctions and I always wondered what it meant. Some sort of secret ingredient!

        1. From Google: “Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother is the purest form of Apple Cider Vinegar you can get. It hasn’t been fussed with, it is unrefined, unfiltered and 100% natural. The existing bacteria (the Mother) hasn’t been destroyed in pasteurisation, therefore Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother has a cloudy, thick appearance.” Years ago I read that it was made with the whole apple, I don’t know whether that included the pips, possibly that assists in the formation of the necessary bacteria.

          1. Sounds a bit like what I’ve ended up with from some of my attempts to make cider.
            Does not get wasted though, I used it in cooking.

        2. From Google: “Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother is the purest form of Apple Cider Vinegar you can get. It hasn’t been fussed with, it is unrefined, unfiltered and 100% natural. The existing bacteria (the Mother) hasn’t been destroyed in pasteurisation, therefore Apple Cider Vinegar with Mother has a cloudy, thick appearance.” Years ago I read that it was made with the whole apple, I don’t know whether that included the pips, possibly that assists in the formation of the necessary bacteria.

      2. Hot Epsom salts baths to draw out the impurities that the apple cider vinegar is dissolving. When you get hot water.

    4. In November, my time was wasted in a private hospital, albeit with NHS funding. I was to have had abdominal hernia surgery. I had already attended pre-op consultations with both the surgeon and anaesthetist who both would have been aware of the complications my case presented, nonetheless, on the day of my admission, I was stripped down to underwear and dressed in a patient gown when, some 3-4 hours after my admission the surgeon came to me, rather apologetically, to tell me that, after further consideration, they had come to the conclusion that that particular hospital was not best equipped to deal with my case and I was told I should go home to await further communication. I am now waiting for an NHS appointment to be treated for the same condition at my local NHS general hospital, a wait that would have been less long had I been added to its waiting list several months ago after the pre-op consultations at the private hospital had led to the same conclusion then rather than waiting to tell me on the day of the surgery. I saw the NHS hospital’s anaesthetist yesterday and saw the same surgeon, this time in an NHS capacity, at another of the trust’s hospitals three weeks ago where he formally added me to the trust’s waiting list, despite him already knowing all about my condition.

    5. Re ‘Pàtients are an annoyance to the NHS’

      I calculated our DNA appointments for the last quarter today. 682 appts wasted in just three months.

    1. Can I say my bit ..

      A large group of black children from some London district came down to this area in a coach , Moh and I witnessed their bewilderment and excitement .. Lulworth and Durdle Door are an eyeful , a different experience and a journey back in time by virtue of the amazing rock formations .. pre Jurassic times .

      The girls and boys ate icecream , and jostled their way down to the Cove , Moh and I followed it is a narrow little lane , past cottages and a few tea rooms down to a rocky beach which goes all the way around the cove to the inlet , quite tropical really. https://lulworth.com/visit/places-to-visit/lulworth-cove/

      We noticed the teenagers busy concentrating on trying to get a phone signal , poor reception , they were getting bored , and a few of them just stood there chucking stones into the sea . They were eager to get back to their coach.

      Dare I say this , because on other days , when Asian children visit the area they embrace the area , and show an interest , and examine the rocks for fossils etc .

      We have also seen Hungarian , German , and French children , all enjoying the view and the rocks and little museum ..

      Spanish children are rowdier , but they are nothing like the London black children who are totally out of their comfort zone .

      Sorry , folks , but what I am saying is the truth .

      I am sure that most black children have no idea what Britain looks like and that we are on an Island 850 miles in length with a wonderful variety of countryside and coastline .. I think they believe their lives are all about cooked chicken and burgers and tube trains !

      1. I’m sure you’re correct, Belle. David Blakeman was dealing with a group of very high achievers, far above the average.

        1. I can imagine his delight with the group he was leading .

          Five decades ago I use to be an organiser for a holiday scheme for children from inner cities .. who would come on down to Dorset , and stay with kindly minded hosts for a week or 2 .

          In those days the WRVS had a clothing store , and children would come on holiday with out even a spare pair of clothes .. , usually white children , poor as hell , and I mean from poverty stricken homes .

          The first few days were bewildering for youngster, but after that , they blossomed , proper diet , fresh air and activities .

          The spin off was the youngsters sampled something different and realised that there was a way out of poverty re education and ambition ..

          That is all it takes , isn’t that true ?

          1. The PTB don’t want youngsters to realise that there is a way out of poverty; they want to keep them docile and sucking at the teat of welfare so they will never break free.

          2. That is why, also, mass shoplifting (stealing) by blacks is allowed to happen without any intervention.

          3. That is why, also, mass shoplifting (stealing) by blacks is allowed to happen without any intervention.

          4. When I use to take our doggo for our long walks in the countryside, at least twice not too far from the village centre, and car parks I was confronted by groups of obviously non locals and children.On both and separate occasions they went out of their way to keep away from our black Lab.
            I heard one adult say that dog should be on a lead.
            She was the most unlikely on the 8ft wide footpath that needed to be on a lead.
            Good job they didn’t hear my reply.

      2. I understand that the aim in a European, nominally Christian, country is “to dispel the perception that rural Britain is a “white, heteronormative” place”. When are they going to waste hundreds of pounds to dispel the perception that the Masai Mara is a black, heteronormative place?

    2. Down amongst the replies is this:

      “A chap called Haroon has just told us, on the radio, that we need to be more ‘inclusive’ in the countryside. Haroon is the Chair of the ‘Muslim Hikers Association’….”

      Haroon Mota has popped up before. Here he is telling us about ‘the racist countryside’:
      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/02/minority-communities-uk-green-spaces-nature-racial-disparities

      Michael Deacon responded to this:
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/07/is-the-countryside-racist/

      Predictably, Mr Mota appeared on ‘Countryfile’ last year:
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001m0ch/countryfile-mental-health-awareness

  63. Right, Valentine’s Day tomorrow and the big question. Roses – of course. But how many is right? 6? 12? Even 24?

    Or shall I just give her the whole box?

    5. It’s supposed to be eleven roses on VD because the person you’re giving them to is the twelfth.

  64. Fine BTL comment:

    Ministrone Baxter

    Four horsemen of Tory Apocalypse…Gove, Cameron, Hunt, and of course SUNAK!

  66. Afternoon, all. I’m here early because I’m out for a meal later. The headline letter writer is out of date; standards have been dropped quite a while now and the security of the country has long since been wrecked.

  67. Departed Par Four!

    Wordle 969 4/6
    ⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    1. Me too.

      Wordle 969 4/6

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

    2. And me.

      Wordle 969 4/6

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

    3. And me.

      Wordle 969 4/6

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    1. Getting complicated for me. If they pass the Bill, Trump won’t be President and if they don’t pass the Bill and he becomes President he will be indited.

      Lawyers …shoot on sight.
      Bill Thomas gets a free pass. H doesn’t have a green card.

  69. Look at my eyes . I am tearful .

    Stranded livestock
    SIR – On January 5 a boat left Australia bound for Israel with about 15,000 sheep and 2,500 cattle on board.

    Due to war conditions, it was eventually rerouted back to the west coast of Australia. These animals were not allowed back on Australian soil because of rules and regulations. They were therefore stranded on this boat, standing in their own excrement, which after five weeks must have been appalling. Another boat left on February 1, this time with 60,000 sheep, also destined for the Red Sea.

    Is this the way to treat animals in our day and age?

    Evelyn England
    Southam, Warwickshire

    1. Well, here in the UK we give them free room and board after they’ve urinated on other people’s luggage.

    3. The Australian government are absolutely barmy.
      Over the last century plus they have allowed dozens of alien creatures in to their country. Usually follow by a lot of damage and many problems.
      And now this nonsense. On the main land you are not really allowed to take an apple across state borders.
      A few years ago we were on the flight from Singapore to Melbourne, it had been my sisters birthday. Through my BiL they had a lovely birthday cake on board. We were told that the rest of the cake wouldn’t be allowed into the country.
      Other passengers enjoyed it.
      The ozzies are Barmy people, they have more self created problems with imported animals and shrubbery than any other country on the planet.

  71. Fake conversions
    SIR – The Bishop of Durham, Rt Rev Paul Butler, accuses me of presenting “an imaginative range of allegations” regarding the fake conversions of asylum seekers that I uncovered during my time as priest in charge of St Cuthbert’s in Darlington (Letters, February 12).

    He presumably means to convince your readers that the sizable groups of young male Iranians – failed asylum applicants who came to me week after week asking for baptism – were imaginary. Are my clergy colleagues with similar experiences also deluded?

    Bishop Butler accuses me of not raising the matter with him or presenting evidence. Quite apart from the fact that the eyewitness testimony of a priest (backed up by congregation members) is evidence, there would have been little point in raising the matter with him, for two reasons.

    First, I dealt with the matter myself by speedily shutting down the conveyor belt of applications (hence the small number of pre-booked baptisms that took place after my arrival). Secondly, when I disclosed to Bishop Butler, on two occasions, that I had been bullied by congregation members (one cause of my resignation), he dismissed my claims without investigation. Any confidence in his commitment to investigate the present matter would therefore have been misplaced.

    This is made clearer now by him publicly rubbishing my claims without bothering to contact me for the further evidence, which I could have provided.

    Rev Matthew Firth
    York

    I was christened at St Cuthbert’s all those decades ago , in the town where I was born .

    1. My only reservation is that there is in fact a genuine movement amongst Iranians to become Christian.
      The younger people are rejecting the mosques & converting – even in Iran where it is still dangerous to do so.
      Mahyar Tousi, himself a child of an Iranian & a Londoner, has been talking about it.

      I’ve no doubt there are loads of dreadfully false ‘conversions’ taking place (which is horrible for genuine believers)…but I suspect it is not so easy to draw a line between the false & the true.

  73. Eye, eye; that’s me lot for today. I can still see out of the eye they did today and look forward to rapid improvement. Just thankful we got the logs done yesterday.

    Have a spiffing evening.

    A demain – if I am spared.

    6. It was notable that the 6pm news on BBC1 led with his death rather than with the story of Stürmer’s Starmer’s embarrassment over the suspension of another MP.

    1. It’s Hamas who started it. Muslim has to learn that if it won’t behave then it’ll be treated like the brat it is and that means the adults send it to it’s room without dinner.

    2. It’s Hamas who started it. Muslim has to learn that if it won’t behave then it’ll be treated like the brat it is and that means the adults send it to it’s room without dinner.

    3. Amusing but not actually true of course. The return of the Ashkenazi Jews began in the 1880s and at that time the only people already living there were the Mizrahi Jews and the Bedouin. Also, under Ottoman rule it was all called Syria and the Ottoman Turks sold land to the Jews. Pre-WWI, it was theirs to sell. The Arabs who claim to have been displaced by Jews actually moved in after the Ashkenazim settled and began to rebuild, not before. The Arab war on Israel displaced them, not the Jews.

    1. Par four for me.

      Wordle 969 4/6

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    1. I doubt that. I think the BBC will accuse Labour of being islamophic or whatever the nonsense is. Then it’ll be mysoginistic and at no point will the Left wing press ever, ever permit the discussion of why the individuals were sacked. The media won’t want that.

  83. Spring is sprung
    The grass is riz
    I know where the birdies is

    The first skein of cranes flew over this evening. Summer is on its way, hooray.

    It was a relatively short time between the last leavers last year and the first arrivals this.

      1. More or less.
        There are three distinct lines they follow mainly NE and along contours, such as there are. The route is essentially the same. Height varies considerably.
        We get one going directly over the house, one about 1/2 a km south of us and one the same distance north.
        At the height of the migration we see probably several thousand a day. The noise is incredible.

        1. That certainly would be a stunning sight and sound. Is it the earliest you’ve seen them heading north?

          1. I don’t think so, Valentine’s day or thereabouts is not unusual, the real difference was how late they left last year.

          2. We had an odd autumn. It started very early, stopped and reverted to a late summer before becoming autumnal again in early November.

    3. Spring has Sprung
      The Bird is on the Wing
      But that’s Absurd
      The Wing is on the Bird.

      [Edit: Bike-shed, c. 1948]

      1. Spring is Sprung
        The grass is riz
        I wonder where the birdies is
        The Bird is on the wing etc…

        Henry Gibson….

          1. Me too.

            My original post on the thread was merely using it as an introduction to the cranes observation.
            That link has lots of different versions.

  84. I’ve never heard of the “Ritchie boys” before, but the obituary of Guy Stern (d. Aged 101) was interesting to read:

    “Guy STERN, who has died aged 101, was a German-born member of the Ritchie Boys, an American Military Intelligence interrogation unit, during the Second World War.

    The Ritchie Boys were composed of German, Austrian, and Czech refugees and immigrants – many of them, like Stern, Jewish. They were encouraged to converse in the language of their enemies and were selected for their linguistic skills, cultural background and intelligence.…”

    “… He was born Günther Stern, the son of Julius Stern and Hedwig (née Silberberg), at Hildesheim, Germany, on January 14 1922. He had a younger brother and sister. His father sold clothing materials and was often travelling and away from home.
    After the Nazis came to power in 1933, the treatment of Jews became increasingly oppressive. At young Günther’s school, during a history lesson, the teacher handed out razor blades and the class had to cut out the pages in their text books indicated on the blackboard. All Jewish achievements were excised and replaced by distortions and falsehoods.
    One evening, his father was putting letters in the mailbox when he was brutally beaten by a uniformed SS man. He only managed to get home with the help of a policeman.
    Aged 14, young Günther was removed from high school by his father and an English tutor was hired to teach him. His Uncle Benno and Aunt Ethel, who lived in St Louis, Missouri, agreed to help him get to America and become his guardians.
    With the help of a consular official in Hamburg, in November 1937, Günther left Germany and embarked for New York. He never saw his family again.…”

    Lest we forget. Oh, wait. We have forgotten.

    1. Went back to Europe on D-Day as an interrogator. At the age of 22. Just imagine a 22 year old these days coping with that. Probably the same age as most of the soldiers hitting the beach, but even so.

  85. Got back from my weekly evening walk round the leafy borough of Richmond upon Thames just now. We saw a curious sight in the distance on the river and wondered what it was – perhaps a crane, lifting a boat out of the water?

    Turns out it was a gigantic bright light suspended over the river. At ground level, a system of some kind was pumping smoke out atmospherically. And a out 1000 film crew.

    I suspect they are filming something. Last week we saw them half way up Hill Street, filming in one of the Georgian-looking mansions.

          2. After
            becoming a saint, Valentine was not initially associated with love; 14
            February was the day associated with the beginning of spring and when
            birds were thought to start seeking their mates. In Sussex, it was called ‘Birds’ Wedding Day’.5 Feb 2020

  89. A bit of a wet afternoon it turned out, so when I got back from Matlock I went to bed for 1½h, then did sea bass fillets with lemon and garlic accompanied by a vegetable stir fry with egg noodles and a plum and hoisin sauce.

    Still trying to ignore the news, too depressing.

    Good night all.

    2. That’s exactly what Schwab, Gates, WEF, WHO and UN want – rid of us.

      Who finances then, then?

  91. 383318+ up ticks,

    How do you like these apples, lots more of this treachery post General Election… only worse,
    unless……..

    Home Office pays for 16,000 homes for asylum seekers despite housing shortage
    Landlords offered five-year guaranteed full rent deals in bid to cut £8m a day cost of housing migrants in hotels

    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    13 February 2024 • 9:30pm

    69
    The Comfort Inn hotel on Belgrave Road in Pimlico, central London, where the Home Office have reportedly asked a group of refugees to be accommodated four to a room
    The Government has pledged to reduce its use of hotels to house migrants and the Home Office is now expanding its use of rented accommodation CREDIT: James Manning/PA
    The Home Office has built up a stock of 16,000 properties for asylum seekers, despite acute shortages of homes for young workers and families.

    Contractors working for the Home Office are offering landlords five-year guaranteed full rent deals to take over the management of properties as they race to transfer asylum seekers out of hotels.

    The properties, drawn from the private rental and social housing markets, are being used to house more than 58,000 asylum seekers across England, Wales and Scotland – double the number in so-called “dispersed accommodation” a decade ago.

    Insiders said the Home Office was expanding its use of rented accommodation to meet Rishi Sunak’s pledge to reduce the use of hotels, which have been costing up to £8 million a day. Fifty asylum hotels were due to shut by the end of last month with a further 50 closed by the spring.

    Until the end of last year, there were about 50,000 asylum seekers in 400 hotels paid for by the taxpayer. Putting up asylum seekers in dispersed accommodation can cost as little as £30 a day, compared with £150 a day for hotels.

    Asylum seekers at the Atrium Hotel in Feltham, London. The government is working to cut the use of hotels to house migrants
    Asylum seekers at the Atrium Hotel in Feltham, London. The government is working to cut the use of hotels to house migrants CREDIT: Maureen McLean /Alamy
    However, experts advising the Home Office have warned that local families and young workers face being deprived of cheaper rented accommodation.

    A Home Office insider said: “The department’s strong preference is for dispersal accommodation because it is so much cheaper and much more discreet than hotels. That’s not to say it’s not unpopular.

    “Some of the contractors are taking properties in pretty normal streets. You can buy yourself a £300,000 house and suddenly find your next-door neighbour is a house full of asylum seekers. MPs are starting to report problems as a result of this.

    Scheme ‘creates ghettos’
    “It has also been very heavily clustered in places where property is cheap – Hull, Bradford and Teesside. It is potentially damaging to these places because it creates ghettos which are terrible for integration.”

    The Telegraph understands that as many as 30,000 properties may be needed to end the use of hotels unless the Government can substantially reduce the 100,000 backlog of asylum seekers waiting for a decision on whether they can remain in the country.

    “There is a shift away from hotels to putting people into housing which on one level is not a bad idea but on another level, on the scale it is being done, is going to have quite a significant impact in areas where it is being done at scale,” said one insider.

    “That’s 16,000 properties that would normally be available to families looking for somewhere to rent and live, and often to get themselves off the local housing register.”

    There were 1.2 million people registered on council house waiting lists at the end of 2021-22, up from 1.19 million in 2020-21.

    The contractors behind the scheme – Serco, Clearsprings and Mears – have been paid £4 billion over 10 years to provide accommodation to asylum seekers.

    More than 25,000 asylum seekers have arrived in Britain via small boats since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister
    Asylum seekers have been put up in hotels as the Home Office deals with the backlog of 100,00 applications CREDIT: Jordan Pettitt/PA
    Serco promotes the benefits to landlords as five-year leases with “rent paid in full, on time, every month, with no arrears”, as well as full repair and maintenance, except for structural defects.

    Utilities and council tax bills are also paid under the contracts, which offer “full Houses of Multiple Occupation and property management” and no letting or management costs.

    With more than a third of UK landlords experiencing rental arrears a year, one housing expert close to the project said the deals were highly attractive. “If you’re a landlord, wouldn’t you take a five-year contract where they’re going to pay all the rent regardless,” they said.

    A Home Office spokesman said: “We continue to work across government and with local authorities to identify a range of accommodation options to reduce the unacceptable use of hotels which cost £8 million a day. The government remains committed to engaging with local authorities and key stakeholders as part of this process.”

    The spokesman refused to comment on the figures but said: “We are working to procure sufficient dispersal accommodation to meet our statutory obligation.”

    Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said: “The Government’s gross mismanagement of the asylum system has led to immense human misery, with people left in limbo for years on end in a huge backlog of cases resulting in billions being wasted on hotels and other accommodation.

    “It would not be like this if the Government focused on operating a fair, efficient and effective system instead of the Rwanda plan that will only lead to more cost and chaos.”

    1. As for those hotels, I hope they are boycotted by local populations. How many people have had celebrations ruined by hotels cancelling all bookings in order to accommodate asylum seekers. Weddings, parties, retirements, anniversaries, birthdays and celebrations of all kinds were summarily cancelled by hotels and hoteliers ignoring their obligations so as to make a quick buck. If it bites them in the behind after they return to their normal commercial activities, so be it.

    2. Four to a comfort inn room is hardly high living, they might be persuaded to leave the country if that keeps up.

      Hell, we can argue when two of us share one of those rooms for a night.

      1. Hardly high living when compared with the standards we are used to. For illegals from $h1tolistan it’s probably luxury beyond their wildest dreams.

      2. Hardly high living when compared with the standards we are used to. For illegals from $h1tolistan it’s probably luxury beyond their wildest dreams.

    1. 383318+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      These coppers are suffering from a terrible malady,med. name, reverse torso’s.

      Symptoms, rhetorical diarrhea
      from betwixt lips

      1. Unfortunately, these policies come from high up. The copper of the beat is merely the messenger. The cancer if islam is deep in society. Note the judge that let off the Palee glorifiers of terrorism today, not quite British was he..

  93. 383318+ up ticks,

    Evening DW,
    I do agree but, how many of those very same peoples have supported / voted in the manner that has brought this situation to its current head ?

  94. Well, chums, I’ll now wish you all a Good Night. Sleep well, and see you all in the morning. Keep warm, and keep well.

    1. They only said it was sudden.
      I guess we will have to wait for further information.
      He seemed like a good chap on the radio and when he presented TOP.
      But sadly that was an early departure.

      1. It worried me as I’m just a year behind him! Sudden is normally heart attach or stroke, will have to watch the press.

        1. Try not to worry, Kaypea. My husband’s mother told him that the men in their family didn’t live much beyond 40, this when he was a teenager. He will be 83 on his next birthday. I suspect Steve Wright has had ‘the jab’. It is not so much my going that bothers me, but the manner in which I depart. Steve Wright did look very overweight when compared with his younger days.

        2. Don’t Worry, KP, I’m 10 years ahead of him and still pissing and moaning! Survived 4 heart attacks – one, a straight-line vf, required the battery charger to bring me back – that was 2002 and I’ve survived for a further 22 years.

  96. These people are now deliberately taking the Piss, there is no other way to describe this shiite.

    1. It’s the modern way, isn’t it? Being exclusive in the name of inclusivity. Being homogeneous in the name of diversity. Being unjust in the name of equity.

  98. I got it all round the wrong way this evening.
    Feeling unwell and shaking I had to go to bed early.
    But I’m wide awake now. I might even have to open a fanlight it’s quite warm with all the winter (duvets) bedding on board.
    Night all.

      1. Upper respiratory infection Bob.
        I get them quite often now.
        I’ve an awful feeling it could be something to with working with asbestos in the mid sixties.
        I’ve been told I have scaring on my lungs. But I kept it to myself I don’t want to worry the rest of my family they have enough on their plates as things are.

        1. You really are going through a rough patch aren’t you. We’re thinking of you and wish you well.

  99. Goodnight, all. The meal (and the company) was excellent. Oscar was flat out when I left him and still in exactly the same place when I got back! Gabapentin and trazadone really knock him out.

  102. Why the Terriblegraph employs this idiot I have no idea. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard:

    “ Pop­u­lar re­sis­tance has not caused a re­treat from net zero – the process is now un­stop­pable

    The dogs bark, the caravan moves on. Beyond a superficial wobble in Europe, there has been no retreat from the post-fossil transition across the world.

    Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) estimates that capital expenditure (capex) investment in clean energy was $1.2trillion (£952bn) in 2021, $1.5trillion, and $1.8trillion last year, despite a stiff increase in interest rates and a credit crunch for green start-ups.
    The total is now over three times as much as upstream capex on oil and gas.
    You would scarcely know it from the political noise but the pace of decarbonisation accelerated last year, and has crossed a critical threshold.
    The renewable roll-out is running near 800 GW (gigawatts) a year, greater than the 700 GW annual increase in power consumption. The International Energy Agency and Rystad forecast that fossil use in electricity generation will decline this year in absolute terms. From there it is a one-way street.
    The West has woken up to the technology threat from China, pulling slightly ahead last year with combined capex spending of $718bn on cleantech and the mineral supply-chain. Clean capex rose 38pc in Europe, reaching $341bn in the EU and $74bn in Britain.
    “It is simply a technology battle at this point. There are three key races in clean-tech and China is winning all of them,” said Kingsmill Bond from the Rocky Mountain Institute. “The US and Europe are massively behind, but last year was the year they got back into the game. There is an exponential growth story taking place across the leading regions and sectors of the world,” he said.
    Global capex on electric vehicles (EVS), fuel-cell vehicles, and charging infrastructure rose 36pc last year to $634bn. Spending on energy storage has risen fivefold in two years. There is now enough investment in the pipeline for solar, batteries, and mine production to meet the world’s immediate CO2 target by 2030.
    All those stories predicting a shortage of critical minerals seemed to assume that miners sit on their hands and that technology is static. The greater likelihood is a glut. There are already as many solar panel factories as could possibly be needed this decade. Hence the drastic deflation in solar prices.
    One should not read much into Labour’s retreat from its £28bn green plan. The party is still committed to 100pc clean electricity by 2030, easier than it once seemed given the arrival of sodium-ion batteries promising to slash grid storage costs by two thirds. Britain will still need gas with carbon capture and some green hydrogen to back up wind power during the dunkelflaute doldrums. But it is doable.
    Rishi Sunak has hurt Britain’s reputation by breaking the cross-party consensus on climate policy. He has set back the City’s ambitions to be the world’s green finance hub. Tory recourse to anti-green pub-bore tropes as a “wedge issue” has been squalid.
    But nothing substantive has changed. The five-year delay in the ban on petrol and diesel sales is irrelevant. Britain’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate is still there, requiring that 22pc of all cars sold must be zero emission this year, ratcheting up to 80pc by 2030. Mr Sunak has increased the heat pump subsidy to £7,500. He has ended the de facto ban on onshore wind. He is still aiming for 50 GW of offshore wind and 95pc clean power by 2030.
    Both parties know that it would be suicidal for Britain to shut itself out of the greatest economic growth story since the industrial revolution. They are covering their flanks until the election is over and fuel bill fury has subsided.
    I wager that Labour’s plan will exceed £28bn annually as excess savings in China again flood the world with capital and cut borrowing costs to pre-covid levels. That would create an extra £50bn “headroom” even under Britain’s flat-earth budget framework.
    Within 18 months the picture will be different. By then the long-awaited “€20,000 EV” will be flooding Europe’s market, just in time to fend off an existential challenge from China’s BYD.
    Technology will have added 100 miles to driving range, even before solid state batteries change everything again in the late 2020s.
    I am keeping my old banger for a bit longer until these models arrive, and I imagine others are doing the same. Even so, EV sales in Europe did not collapse last year. They rose by 37pc in 2023, according to the car lobby ACEA. The drop in December was due to a 48pc crash in Germany after Berlin suddenly ended its subsidy after a ruling by the German constitutional court.
    Europe has made a mistake by relying on green coercion. America’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) uses the carrot of tax cuts to lure investment. It is “technology-neutral” so long as it is low-carbon. It does not pick winners and losers. The result has been spectacular.
    Goldman Sachs estimates that it set off $282bn worth of clean-tech projects in the first year, and will ultimately unleash $3 trillion. Furthermore, the IRA pays for itself. The US Treasury estimates that it will generate tax revenues over time that are roughly equivalent to the cost.
    This column does not normally stray into climate science, but if you have read the latest research on the gulf stream published by the journal
    Science Advances, you may be relieved to know that the world is getting on with decarbonisation quite nicely.
    It warns that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is closer to a tipping point than feared because of Greenland ice melt, which dilutes seawater salinity and weakens the ocean gyres.
    The collapse could come at any time, it could be non-linear and sudden, and it could lower average temperatures in northern European cities by 5 to 15 degrees – turning Britain into southern Alaska. It would set off a global chain-reaction and destabilise rainforests. It is not a remote tail risk. It is more likely than not. Worth a read.”

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