Tuesday 16 May: Britain’s aspirational young have been left without a party to vote for

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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637 thoughts on “Tuesday 16 May: Britain’s aspirational young have been left without a party to vote for”

  1. Good morrow, Gentlefolks, today’s story

    Economic Sense

    Big Bob’s old lady was thinking about getting a boob job, so she hit him up for money.

    Bob said, “You don’t need my money. Just grab some toilet paper and rub it between your tits every day.”

    “And how is that going to make my boobs any bigger?” she snapped
    .
    “Beats me,” Bob replied. “But it sure as hell worked on your arse!”

  3. Britain’s aspirational young have been left without a party to vote for

    Along with everyone else

    1. I’ve been left without a party to vote for since Treasa May called the Conservatives the “nasty party” and instead of ending her career, the party fell meekly in line behind her odious left wing policies.

      1. Yes, bb2, but to be fair she said that the party was “perceived” to be the nasty party. Naturally, that was a foolish thing to say since the media and her opponents used it as a stick to beat her with. But I totally agree with you that she was a totally appalling MP and PM who did a lot of harm to this country.

        1. She wouldn’t have said it if she herself hadn’t believed that conservatism was nasty and had her instructions to pull the Cons towards authoritarian, pathologically altruistic stupidity.

          1. She never said “We are the nasty party,” but was deliberately misquoted in the Press and by Labour.
            The mis-quote came from Theresa May’s speech to the Tory Party Conference in October 2002. Have you ever read the actual words?

            “You know what some people call us – the nasty party. I know that’s unfair. You know that’s unfair but it’s the people out there we need to convince – and we can only do that by avoiding behaviour and attitudes that play into the hands of our opponents.”

          2. It was just a sneaky way of saying it. People will always criticise sensible things.

          3. It’s like the deliberate smearing of the late Mrs T, whose “no such thing as society” speech has also been deliberately misquoted ever since

      3. I always said, when asked, that I didn’t leave the Conservative Party, the Party left me.

  5. Now, I can safely repair to the charpoy and catch up on the zeds I’ve been missing for many hours.

    See yous all later.

  6. Morning, all Y’all. Chilly, after much rain & powercuts overnight.
    Needed the rain, very dry & beige after the snow melted.

  7. Morning all 🙂😉
    Bright, hopefully lasting until sunset.
    Being aspirational is the least important aspect of being young. Keeping a roof over their heads working 12 hour days, getting to work during strike fest. Worrying about their childrens future, while the government allow this mindless and disgraceful extremly costly and without any specific purpose, invasion to continue. I wonder what the Whitehall morons have up their sleeves next. Another version of black Wednesday. It’s been nearly 32 years.

  8. Million more migrants heading to Britain before next election, ministers warned. 16 May 2023.

    The Home Office has privately predicted a further sharp rise in immigration by the next election, with an influx of another 1.1 million foreign workers and students projected in 2024 unless ministers take action.

    The destruction of the ancient city is an enlightening, pivotal moment because the forces that brought about the sack epitomize the shock waves that shattered the western Roman empire between 376 and 476. Perhaps the greatest of these forces was the motivation of the barbarians. Their invasions came down to a single belief – that the Roman Empire was an El Dorado that offered a chance for a better life. They came not to destroy Rome, but to become part of it. However, in trying to win acceptance within the empire, to win peace terms and a slice of that prosperity, destroying the empire is exactly what would happen.

    Simon Baker. Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire.

    There has been some progress since then. It won’t take a hundred years this time. It will all be gone within ten!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/05/15/ministers-warned-million-more-migrants-britain-election/

    1. It will be nearly a hundred years, Minty – it started in the fifties. None of them can see that they have killed the goose that laid the golden eggs. Britain’s already so unstable, with so many unproductive people and low IQ people who can’t keep the system going, that any small disruption will destroy the semblance of a functional society.

  12. Morning all
    Up all night with my poor dog who was making strange nooses and sounded like he wanted to vomit. Turned out stroking him helped, so i did that for three hours. He seems better now but I am very tired and should be on my way to work now. My aged Mum and Dad are supposed to be looking after the dog today and I know Mum will worry on case anything happens to him on her watch.

      1. He was ok when i left. Very strange -me stroking him stopped his strange problem. But it did reinforce the number of lumps and bumps the poor boy has. He chased a squirrel on Sunday (not far or fast – but he still has instincts so that gives me hope). He is a Battersea Dog’s Home best and we will have had him 10 years in exactly a month’s time. He was a stray so we know nothing about him but it was estimated he was 3 or 4 when we had him.

        1. I will have had Oscar two years on D Day (6th June). Oddly enough, I do know his birthday (2nd October) and his age, but virtually nothing else about him. I have since discovered he’s very expensive to keep!

  13. Good morning all. 10C clear blue sky on the Sussex Coast, Looking good here in East Blatchington.

    2. East Blatchington. A mixed parish.A great place to live best of both worlds.

      https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=east+blatchington&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1152&bih=595&ei=nh1jZKzgJoXMgQa3soSYAQ&iflsig=AOEireoAAAAAZGMrroQrOzxlGmBGSC1xNUe3e3d-7ZSM&ved=0ahUKEwisp9eVlvn-AhUFZsAKHTcZARMQ4dUDCAY&uact=5&oq=east+blatchington&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIFCAAQgAQyBwgAEBgQgAQyBwgAEBgQgAQyBwgAEBgQgAQ6CAgAEIAEELEDOgsIABCABBCxAxCDAVAAWJAzYOlQaABwAHgAgAH3CIgBlhiSAQ4xNC4zLTEuMC4xLjAuMZgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1n&sclient=img

  14. Nicola is shifting positions for something…

    Sturgeon admits that her time since leaving office has not gone as planned

    Scotland’s former first minister says the past two months have given her perspective as she concedes that juryless rape trials may not work

    By Neil Johnston
    15 May 2023 • 6:14pm

    Nicola Sturgeon has admitted that her time since leaving office has not unfolded as she hoped, as she conceded that controversial plans for juryless rape trials may not work.

    Scotland’s former first minister, who stood down in February, said she could table an amendment on the Justice Reform Bill signed off by her own cabinet as she called for both sides of the debate to “take a breath”.

    Writing for The Guardian, Ms Sturgeon, 52, noted that judges could also hold the perceived prejudices that campaigners say have affected juries’ decisions.

    Since Ms Sturgeon’s shock resignation, the Scottish National Party (SNP) has become increasingly fractured amid a police investigation into its finances that saw her husband Peter Murrell arrested.

    Mr Murrell, the former chief executive of the SNP, has been released without charge but detectives are continuing to investigate allegations that the party misused £600,000 of donations.

    Backlash over juryless rape trial plans
    Holyrood has been rife with speculation that Ms Sturgeon could be questioned by detectives over the alleged fraud and although she did not discuss the case in her column, she did address the furious backlash over plans for a pilot of juryless rape trials.

    Some feminist campaigners have said juryless trials are needed because of widespread belief in sexist “rape myths” among the public, which cause them to wrongly acquit predators.

    However, criminal lawyers have said there is nothing wrong with the jury system and that plans designed to artificially drive up conviction rates risked creating major miscarriages of justice. Numerous bar associations have pledged to boycott any pilot.

    Ms Sturgeon admitted that her time since leaving office had not gone as planned and while critics have repeatedly accused her of being divisive, she expressed her frustration at being unable to “broker the common ground necessary to advance difficult or controversial policy changes”.

    ‘It has given me a different perspective’
    “It is now almost two months since I left office and while that period hasn’t unfolded exactly as I anticipated – for reasons I won’t go into here – it has given me a different perspective,” she wrote. “On the issue of polarisation, I think that, if anything, I underestimated the depth of the problem.”

    Ms Sturgeon, who remains an MSP, went on to say that it was “depressingly striking” how people adopted “immovable positions” and cited the backlash to her controversial plans for judge-only rape trials. She admitted that the arguments for and against are finely balanced.

    “Before the ink was even dry on the draft legislation and without a single word of debate or evidence being heard in parliament, let alone the shape of the final proposal being known, fixed positions had been staked.

    “I am not expecting, or even trying, to change minds with this article – but I am expressing a hope that it is not too late for us all to take a breath. This issue matters. It should be beyond party politics. And it should not be beyond our body politic to approach it differently.”

    Ms Sturgeon insisted it was not “a politician-inspired plan to undermine the justice system” and had been recommended by Lady Dorrian, Scotland’s second most senior judge.

    ‘A strong case for change’
    She cited Scotland’s poor conviction rate with just 152 prosecutions out of the 2,176 rapes or attempted rapes reported to police in 2020-21 and only 78 convictions, which she said could partly be blamed on “rape myths”.

    “It is uncomfortable to acknowledge that such views still exist in a modern society, but they do. And if they are still prevalent in society, is it credible to think they will never be present in the jury room? There is a strong case for change.”

    However in a surprising admission, Ms Sturgeon then noted that the “counter-arguments are far from frivolous” and judges could also hold prejudiced views.

    “It has long been accepted that for the most serious crimes, the sacrosanct right to a fair trial means trial before a jury of peers. Judges may be just as vulnerable to “rape myths” as juries – and as there is only one of them rather than a whole panel of jurors with mixed views, the impact may be greater.”

    Ms Sturgeon admitted she may even table amendments to the Bill that her own cabinet signed off and said she was “open to discussion on all aspects” of the legislation.

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

    Maz Cassiopeia
    12 HRS AGO
    For someone who is unable to state what a woman is and who wanted to send men to women’s prisons, Sturgeon’s should have no say in how rape trials take place.

    Atticus tou Vorra
    10 HRS AGO
    “On the issue of polarisation, I think that, if anything, I underestimated the depth of the problem.”

    It turns my stomach reading this. This woman has spent every waking minute for the past 10 years doing everything in her power to create greater division between her followers and the unionist majority in Scotland. She talks like unionists do not exist. Day after day she would appear on television banging on about her dislike for Boris Johnson, the Tories and Westminster. Her voice and body language were filled with hatred and venom no-one doubted her contempt. Scottish media outlets aired her almost daily rants live on prime time with little or no counter balancing arguments and never with criticism. The idea she now claims to be bemused by it all is simply too much. She is either supremely stupid or the biggest hypocrite to have walked this Earth.

    1. Ahem…

      Police allegedly waited two weeks for approval of warrant to search Nicola Sturgeon’s house

      Crown Office has denied any kind of delay in approving the warrant

      By Neil Johnston and Chanel Zagon
      16 May 2023 • 4:36am

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/politics/2023/05/16/TELEMMGLPICT000333381568_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqq4ZJCiq5lwABXAhqKAJFwWJoXaIvubr1VJ_EGf3sIxc.jpeg?imwidth=680
      Ms Sturgeon pictured leaving her house on April 26 CREDIT: Getty Images

      Police in Scotland requested a warrant to search Nicola Sturgeon’s home during the SNP leadership race, but waited two weeks for it to be approved – after the contest was over, it has been alleged.

      The Crown Office received the request on March 20, but it was not approved until April 3, the Scottish Sun reported.

      Police arrested Ms Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, and searched the couple’s home in Glasgow, on April 5.

      The Crown does not accept that there was any kind of delay, the paper reported, while Police Scotland declined to comment.

      At the time, Police Scotland said a 58-year-old man was held in custody in connection with an investigation into the funding and finances of the party.

      Mr Murrell was questioned by detectives for 11 hours before being released without charge. Investigators also searched the SNP’s headquarters in Edinburgh.

      Police continue to investigate allegations that the party misused £600,000 of donations.

      Ms Sturgeon has admitted her time since leaving office, following her shock resignation, has not unfolded as she hoped.

      In a comment piece for The Guardian, she expressed her frustration at being unable to “broker the common ground necessary to advance difficult or controversial policy changes”.

      “It is now almost two months since I left office and while that period hasn’t unfolded exactly as I anticipated – for reasons I won’t go into here – it has given me a different perspective,” she wrote.

      1. I was quite surprised to read that there are some genuinely bonkers independence loonies out there. Not the normal sort, who just shout on comment threads and are told how dim they are, but proper fervent wingnuts many short of a working toolbox.

    3. Instead of juryless trials, headed by faceless Government appointees, let’s have a ruling that at least half the jurors

      in any rape trial must be female.

      In these cases women are usually more perceptive, and thus there is a greater likelihood of justice being done.

  16. Victory is within Remainers’ grasp. If they win, it will impoverish us all

    Brexit Britain is now in a race with the EU to see which has the more sclerotic political system

    SHERELLE JACOBS
    15 May 2023 • 9:00pm

    Brexit is dead in all but name. That has been clear for quite some time. Still, as the project dismally implodes on all fronts, matters are coming to a head. The Tories’ flagship pledge to “take back control” of immigration upon leaving the EU is on the brink of collapse: official figures are expected to soon reveal that overall numbers have reached a high of 700,000. Plans to revitalise the UK economy by diverging from the EU are also in tatters. The Conservative Party’s last-ditch bid to remove thousands of EU laws by the end of this year has been hastily pared back, prompting an ugly slanging match between Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, and the ERG. The DUP is resisting the Windsor Framework, which reinforces rather than removes the border down the Irish Sea.

    Meanwhile, the prospect of a second referendum has gone from being a risible fantasy to a realistic scenario. Sir Keir Starmer’s plans to extend the franchise to millions of EU citizens who are resident in the UK is likely motivated more by a desperate bid to shore up Labour votes than a malevolent desire to rejoin “by stealth”. Still, such a move, coupled with the increasing likelihood of a Lib-Lab coalition, means the country may well be sleepwalking towards a re-run.

    Remainers then might indeed be on course to triumph due to a mixture of accident and inertia. But they should not be too quick to celebrate.

    To start, the idea that re-joining the EU (possibly on worse terms) would arrest the country’s decline is absurd. Despite hysterical claims that Brexit has been an unmitigated economic disaster, it has little to do with the UK’s current economic woes. The country’s troubles predate Brexit, with productivity and wages stagnant since the financial crash. At worst, Brexit has aggravated pre-existing problems, hindering trade growth by a few percentage points and mildly weakening foreign direct investment flows, which remain at energetic, if not quite exuberant, levels. What is striking about Brexit is that it failed to make much of an impact either way.

    Even more importantly, while Remainers might succeed in reversing Brexit, they cannot reverse the populist sentiments behind it. Brexit was a clear warning siren to the ruling class that, for liberal democracy to survive, the “democracy” component needs to prove that it can actually function. Underlying this was two sentiments: first, democratically-elected politicians rather than unaccountable Brussels bureaucrats should decide the nation’s use of resources and direction. Second, liberalism should never be allowed to unilaterally impose its ideals such as global integration and relaxed borders, even if its proponents might believe they were for the greater good.

    The failure of politicians to properly implement Brexit makes a mockery of this deadly serious message. It ultimately risks destroying faith in parliamentary democracy and sooner or later unleashing a populist revolt even more bitter than the last.

    The fact that Brexit’s disruptive agenda was crushed by a deeply pathological system should be 
equally concerning to so-called progressive Remainers.

    There are those who insist that Britain’s attempt to cut ties with its largest trading partner was doomed from the start. This is something of a lazy opinion, which overlooks the fact that it is not simply trade that drives economic progress, but innovation – an area in which Brexit’s deregulatory agenda had formidable potential. The systemic failure to tap this potential is symptomatic of the Treasury’s backwards attitude to economic growth. It reflects the severe myopia that handicaps a rotting ancien regime. Smaller firms are too burdened by red tape to think seriously about innovation. Meanwhile, big business is content to live with cumbersome EU regulation in the knowledge that it hurts their upstart rivals more.

    The paralysis that plagues the political system is equally alarming. Brexit has proved a dispiriting reminder that liberal democracy, with its division of powers and civil service which operates according to its own logic, is weak by design. This may be the price of staving off tyranny and dealing with complexity. But it makes it fiendishly difficult to pursue change using political levers. It has also been a wake-up call that in the era of “algorithm politics”, poll-obsessed politicians sensitive to real-time shifts in popular opinion will run scared of a disruptive agenda – even when they have a stonking majority.

    In its failure to diverge from Brussels, Britain ultimately risks being dragged down by a colossal strategic error that has been committed not by the country but by the EU. Brussels’ bid to ride out the fourth industrial revolution by entrenching itself as a global regulatory superpower will prove destructive to European growth in the decades to come. The EU is institutionally anti-innovation. Its tendency to focus on the risks of a new product or service rather than its benefits – in accordance with the precautionary principle – is a disaster for emerging industries like biotechnology and genetic engineering. Nor is it a secret that its cack-handed approach to regulating Big Tech has only served to entrench their monopolies.

    Such idiocy could have existential consequences. The knowledge economy is the only sector that has the potential to replace traditional manufacturing, both in terms of its innovation prowess and its capacity to produce well-paid jobs. It is our best shot at transitioning workers out of repetitive low-skill work at risk of mass layoffs due to AI.

    Growing the sector requires an atmosphere of competitive, decentralised dynamism, which taps the creative potential of every member of the labour force. But the EU’s conscious decision to style itself as a regulatory hegemon is instead strengthening the dominance of monopolies, retarding innovation while locking workers out of creative production. Take Europe’s large tech firms, which generate their profits not by cutting edge inventions but by routinising and then outsourcing the most promisingly creative aspects of their business, such as software development, to the Global South. Perhaps Brussels bureaucrats will eventually figure out their catastrophic error. But given that the EU is an unaccountable behemoth, it will be very difficult to correct.

    All this is lost on those Rejoiners who believe that progress is an elite project, and that the ruling class’s great challenge is to resume business as usual after wresting control back from the reactionary masses. Events will soon overtake such an obsolete view.

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

    Philip Jefferson
    4 HRS AGO
    The sheer size and scale of this Tory deception is almost too colossal to comprehend. Bunter stole all the sensible pragmatic Brexit policies to get elected in 2019, and the dropped them in favour of Net Zero day 2. Since then virtually nothing of Brexit has been put into practice, and now we have a WEF globalist socialist government (civil service) assisted by our PM ‘plant’ and a host of Woke ministers who are actually now practicing many of the policies in Corbyn’s manifesto which dumped him out of politics.
    Remember, ‘keep Corbyn out’, and ‘get Brexit done’ or ‘take back control of our borders’, or any of a long list of meaningless slogans that millions of Tory voters stupidly believed and voted for.
    Now look at it. How to ditch an 80 seat majority in no time at all. What a mess, and all because of Tory ineptitude and blinkered thinking, nothing to do with the Brexit that never happened. What a bunch of loathsome lying cheats and charlatans. I can only hope the party collapses completely and never recovers.

    1. The remainers are fighting against time – will they be able to secure really bad terms for Britain’s re-entry into the EU before The Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary. Italy and Spain manage to get out of it?

      1. I bet that the British government won’t even ask for our £40 billion back which was given

        to the EU “for a satisfactory trading agreement”

    2. The remainers are fighting against time – will they be able to secure really bad terms for Britain’s re-entry into the EU before The Netherlands, France, Austria, Hungary. Italy and Spain manage to get out of it?

    3. What Brexit most displayed was a rampaging hatred of democracy and accountability amongst far too many people. The majority accepted it, but a hard core of nutcase remoaners continually fight against it.

      These people don’t want democracy, they want their own way. The problem with their mindset is what happens when *they* don’t get their own way? When the fascists they’ve supported turn on them?

    4. There is no ‘possibly’ about being forced back in on worse terms, it’s a definite. I don’t see how anyone can possibly blame Brexit for anything because we’ve never had it; we haven’t ditched the EU laws, we haven’t developed global trade, NI is still enslaved and our borders are non-existent. We could have been successful and rich had we been allowed to take advantage of what we voted for. Instead we have been punished for being uppity.

  17. Good morning, all. Bright sunny and calm here in N Essex.

    Apropos Araminta’s comment around 45 minutes ago.

    The UK is being deliberately unstitched by our disastrous government. Mass immigration, mainly from the Third World, is the weapon being employed. With the numbers being imported it’s clear that the people responsible have decided that they can’t wait for the new arrivals’ birth-rate to do the job and so they have decided on importing grotesque numbers annually to speed up the process.

    Starmer’s rabble will not be an improvement, his votes for all ploy is designed to disenfranchise the sensible right thinking people and is just another disaster waiting to happen.

    The plan to repopulate countries is not unique to the UK: the USA is under a similar attack. Sadly, we do not have people of the stripe of Kari Lake to fight our corner as the two major parties along with the LibDems are all of one mind when it comes to inviting anyone and everyone to arrive and live off the fat of the land, or rather what’s left after the depredations of the Blair, Brown and recent Tory governments.

    War Room – Kari Lake and Others on the Immigrant Disaster in Arizona

    1. Give more immigrants the vote so that they will elect a government which will bring in more immigrants, who will vote for even more immigration. Not difficult to predict the outcome, is it?

  18. Morning all.
    Looks like it might be a nice day. Im not up yet, but there’s a bright sunny light coming in through a crack in the curtains that gives me pause to hope.

  19. Good morning, all. Sunny. Ear still dead. Grrr. Just have to get used to it.

    2. Get the appointment with the ear, nose and throat specialist!
      Go private if necessary.

    3. Bill, if you google your condition, this comes up:-
      “What does it mean if you suddenly go deaf in one ear?
      Sudden sensorineural (“inner ear”) hearing loss (SSHL), commonly known as sudden deafness, is an unexplained, rapid loss of hearing either all at once or over a few days. SSHL happens because there is something wrong with the sensory organs of the inner ear. Sudden deafness frequently affects only one ear”.

      The recommendation is to seek medical help immediately.

  20. ‘Morning, Peeps, from the deepest depths of west Dorset for a few days.

    Article in today’s DT:

    “Only old-fashioned gardeners kill weeds, says BBC presenter

    Rachel de Thame urges people to ‘put nature first’ as Chelsea Flower Show gets ready to show that wildflowers can shine”

    Well, I’m “old-fashioned” and proud of it. My garden buzzes with birds, bats and insects and, dare I say it, looks presentable and cared for. More wretched wokery from now just another Beeboid, and one I used to respect in the gardening world. I ditched Gardeners’ Question Time and Gardeners’ World some time ago because I could see where these once-fine programmes were going. I wish to be informed, not preached too.

    1. People who want to eat kill weeds. Trust a BBC presenter with a poncy privileged name to favour nature over the peasants.

      1. Yet ask her where her food comes from and she really won’t know. Such people simply don’t understand supply lines, annual cycles, crop rotation.

    2. Seems I’m not alone, the BTLs are scathing:

      Gail Ennis
      43 MIN AGO
      Oh please!
      Haven’t watched Gardeners World since Rachel fawned all over the newbie gardener drag queen as if he was gods gift to allotments. “You must come to Gardeners World Live and make a garden!” She trilled excitedly like a little schoolgirl.
      As for a man I used to openly state I adored – Mr Don – he’s obviously been drinking too much of his home made apple juice with added essence of Critical Race Theory. Will he be “coming out as a woman” soon?
      I’m interested to see what Chelsea see as “weeds”. As Alan Titchmarsh said many years ago when GW presenter “A rose is a weed if it’s not growing where you’d like it to”

      Henry Brockman
      32 MIN AGO
      Just wait until nettles colonise her wild grass and flowers.
      As for lawns, well, they are for children and grandchildren to play on, and for everyone to enjoy by having tea or playing croquet on; or simply to stroll over on one’s way to borders or trees. Not mowing one’s lawn is just barmy.

      Mike Jones
      12 MIN AGO
      Trying desperately to be a trendy wet eco fascist warrior is so old fashioned Rachel – give it a rest.
      Flowers are beautiful, weeds are ugly and invasive – that is why they are called weeds.

      * * *

      She needs to go and visit yet more multi-culti ‘community garden projects’ and leave the rest of us in peace!

      1. I’m gradually winning the battle against the nettles, brambles and briars that were allowed to over-run the bulk of the chunk of hillside that passes its self off as “my garden”, but still have to battle against several masses of ground elder that swamp some bits.

          1. I could do with borrowing a couple for a week or 2 to sort out my lawn which appears ambitious to become a silage field.

        2. Plant turnip seeds to get rid of ground elder. Also, ground elder is edible.

          1. I believe we have the Romans to thank for ground elder.
            They introduced it as a salad veg.

        3. I read somewhere that Mexican marigolds (tagetes minutiae) will deter ground elder. I can’t say if it’s true or not because I’ve never been able to get hold of any. The report that turnips will deter it seems to be false; I sowed turnips and you can’t see them for ground elder 🙁

    3. I’m old-fashioned, too. I am, however, having to get a gardener in to help me deal with the weeds since I’ve broken my ribs. If he’s any good, I may continue to employ him (despite having claimed that when I can no longer do my garden, it will be the beginning of the end).

  21. 371315+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 16 May: Britain’s aspirational young have been left without a party to vote for

    What an arrogant statement, the WEF / NWO and duped voters have made / are creating the current situation, so behind the facade of the lab/lib/con coalition IS the WEF / NWO.

    The WEF & THE NWO ARE the lab/lib/con coalition shopfront.

    Tuesday 16 May: Britain’s aspirational young have been left without a party to vote for.

    With the present state of odious affairs continuing via the polling booth Britain’s aspirational young will have been left without a Country to vote for

    1. They are voting with their feet, sadly, and have been since the turn of the century.

      1. 371315+ up ticks,

        Morning ,BB2
        These past four decades the vote has been of no consequence, it has been used as backing for the NWO / WEF via the polling booth and the party before Country brigade.

    2. Not just the young. I’ve no one to vote for. People blindly blither along to the booth, most voting reflexively out of habit, some more voting because they’re stupid, a few more because they’re spiteful. Some may vote for their actual MP, thinking he has a say. Then there’s the rest who have no one to represent them. Whose wishes are right for the country but are ignored because they don’t force him to pay their way in life.

    1. 47 years ago, and would Ronny have believed much of his wacky mad humour would be entrenched in law?

  24. Reasons to be vegan
    SIR – Bear Grylls’s carnivorous tastes (report, May 12) seem odd to me. But if he rejects the widely accepted ill effects of animal farming on the climate and the beneficial effects of vegetables on health, has he considered a third reason for veganism: the cruelty of factory farming and the terrors of the slaughterhouse?

    I find the sight of a trailerload of sheep on their way there sufficient to maintain my (healthy and economical) vegan diet.

    Richard Lennox
    Langholm, Dumfriesshire
    Where to begin… “Widely accepted” – as was the Flat Earth, for centuries. And, who is to say that veggies as a diet gives better health effects – my Diabetes Doctor advised much reduced intake of potatoes, bread etc, as these contain carbohydrates, wheras meat has no such threats to my health.
    Richard Lennox, and the Letters Editor, you are both dicks.

      1. Was playing on the author’s name… Morning, Grizz.
        He also forgets that you can turn animals out into the untillable forest and hillsides, where they can eat whatever grows there and be eaten themselves, whereas humans cannot collect nor eat what grows there (apart from rather tasty berries and a few mushrooms – and nobody would get fat on those).

    2. Richard Lennox should look in his mouth (assuming he’s still got his own teeth) and ask himself what the canines are for – tearing meat, not veg. What “widely accepted ill effects of animal farming”? Does the pillock not know that animals provide dung to fertilise the fields to grow his precious veg?

    1. The man was imposed to ensure the globalist agenda continued apace. There was no interest in serving the public or this country. He’s just looking for the net non-job.

    1. 371315+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      British indigenous conscription, long term family
      history Brits will be first “boots on the ground “as in an ALL genuine British affair.

      Would not surprise me in the least Og.

      1. The problems is the moment anyone mentions that the PM is “unelected” has immediately lost the argument. In our system we don’t elect PMs (preaching now to the choir), the PM tends to be the leader of the Party that commands a majority in the House of Commons.

        Edit: this does not mean i approve of how he was appointed leader of the Cons.

        1. But Rishi Sunak is NOT the UK Prime Minister because we no longer have a Prime Minister.

          In reality, he is the Executive Manager of UK Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of the World Economic Forum.

  27. SIR – Who can young people in Britain vote for?

    This Conservative Government seems intent on denying them the opportunity to

    buy their own homes, while making renting punitively expensive for them

    and confiscating their income in order to pay benefits to pensioners

    who, in many cases, already have more than enough money to live on.

    The Liberal Democrats now appear to be a party that opposes building

    developments, so would also make it harder for the young to purchase

    houses. Labour, meanwhile, proposes penalising companies that might

    otherwise offer employment opportunities.

    Previous generations saw generally improving living standards. The opposite is true for those currently of working age.Ian Mackenzie

    Ian carefully omits the fact that most pensioners have paid in to the tax system all their working lives and ignores the elephant in the room. Economic migrants.

    By the time Ian Mackenzie retires there won’t be any pensions. Just digital slavery.

    1. His first sentence stands though; “Who can young people in Britain vote for?“

    2. Pensioners have already paid in more than enough to fund their pensions – the government just pissed it up against a wall. If we didn’t import so many useless mouths we wouldn’t have a housing problem.

    1. That is not ‘parking’. It is merely abandoning a car wherever its self-centred owner thinks fit.

      1. A flash sports car did that once in a carpark and I drove directly beside it so the owner couldn’t get in. I was in one space, he’d straddled two.

        I came back to a stumpy little foreigner screaming and ranting and… ignored him.

        1. I stick a card under their windscreen wiper that reads: “Lär dig att parkera din bil ordentligt. Fitta!“

    2. Parking spaces are comically small though. Even pootling our little runabout has the spaces in Tesco barely able to open the doors.

      1. I had that yesterday when I went to the RAFA meeting. In order to be able to open the door and not hit the car parked (within the lines) next to me, I had to park almost into the next bay.

  31. Cultural Marxism ‘is causing mental illness in childhood’

    Cultural Marxism is destroying children’s souls and leading to increased self-harm and suicide, according to a Tory MP.

    Miriam Cates, who represents the Red Wall seat of Penistone and Stocksbridge, said the teaching of critical race theory and other such concepts in schools was responsible for causing mental illnesses.

    She told the National Conservatism Conference she was not surprised that fewer young people were becoming parents because they did not have “hope for the future” themselves.

    “That hope is sadly diminishing in so many of our young people today,” Ms Cates said. “Because liberal individualism has proved to be completely powerless to resist the cultural Marxism that is systematically destroying our children’s souls.

    “When culture, schools and universities openly teach that our country is racist, our heroes are villains, humanity is killing the Earth, you are what you desire, diversity is theology, boundaries are tyranny and self-restraint is oppression, is it any wonder that mental health conditions, self-harm and suicide, and epidemic levels of anxiety and confusion characterise the emerging generation?”

    Lord Mann, the Government’s antisemitism tsar, questioned Ms Cates’s use of the term “cultural Marxism”, saying it was rooted in a “conspiracy theory with anti-semitism at its core”.But Yoram Hazony, the chairman of the conference and an orthodox Jewish theologian, said the term was “an apt phrase to describe the cultural agenda promoted by many on the Left today” and insisted he “offers no platform to antisemites”.

    ‘Cultural’ Marxism, a moronic oxymoron if ever there were one, is also responsible for the three main maladies currently affecting human brains: socialism, transvestism, and veganism; all of which should be treated as notifiable diseases with the sufferers confined in a straitjacket in an asylum.

    Those proposing this crass, dangerous idiocy should be randomly shot!

    BTL Comment (by ‘nickname13778251’): Cates? Who? What utter guff. Trump-style nonsense. Utterly pathetic tripe. Cates is even suggesting young people should stop their education earlier and have babies. Turn back the clock stuff. Yet more reason the young and the more educated think the Tories are a threat to future generations. And the deliberate use of antisemitic references is deeply worrying. Yet another contender for a new leader for the Nasty Party? There is one of them every couple of days now.

    My retort: Clear evidence of this malady is shown in this very comments column by the inane rantings of a clear Guardianista (13778251), above.

    1. Miriam Cates is obviously not looking for advancement in the Conservative Party.

    2. Oh Grizzly i was going to ask you about PressReader as I see you comment on it. This 13778251 is clearly a troll who posts anti-Brexit anti-Govt rhetoric on practically every story. Do you know if there is a way of blocking the troll? I am fed up of reading his/her boring repetitive posts. (I have looked but couldn’t find a way).

      1. Hi, MIR. I know what you mean but it seems there is no way to block trolls on Pressreader. All you are provided with is a facility to click on ‘Report Abuse’ but whenever I do it is summarily ignored.

        1. He/she is so annoying. I have to resist my urge to respond – “do not feed the troll”. It makes you wonder about the mental faculties of someone who spends all day spouting the same stuff.

          1. He/she/it was probably detailed to do it by some other vacuous Pinko at The Guardian.

    3. Oh Grizzly i was going to ask you about PressReader as I see you comment on it. This 13778251 is clearly a troll who posts anti-Brexit anti-Govt rhetoric on practically every story. Do you know if there is a way of blocking the troll? I am fed up of reading his/her boring repetitive posts. (I have looked but couldn’t find a way).

  32. 371315+ up ticks,

    May one ask,

    What the outcome would be if a peoples militia opposed the invasion forces at Dover, acting in protection of family and Country.

    1. I am not convinced of this at all. Having lived in the San Francisco/Bay Area for 40 years it seems to me to be tosh. As you probably know, San Francisco was the Mecca for gays and you were free to do as you please. Plenty of homosexuality but not that many Trannies. I knew some of them via a theatre group called “The Angels of Light” https://www.diggers.org/angels_of_light_and_cockettes.htm and they did not particularly attract ‘converts’, to use an expression, even though they were completely open to people joining them. My wife was their photographer by way of explanation of how I knew them. Huge fun, outlandish and completely off the wall. Hard to imagine, I know, but if you can imagine the “Nutcracker” turned into a play with liberal doses of LSD by all participants you can imagine. Much like Alice in Wonderland made manifest.

      Now, my point is that, if men wanted to, they were perfectly free to go around in drag and pretend they were women. In fact several of the Angels of Light had sex change operations. But trannies were still a distinct minority in San Francisco even though they were free there to do their thing. I am talking about that period in history. the 70’s, where we all dropped acid and were far freer to do our thing than at any time since. A fun time but also a deeply profound period in consciousness. Which is why, I’m convinced, that psychedelics were made illegal. They were dangerous to the status quo. Anyway, I diverge, the point is there has been a recent time in history and a place, San Francisco, where it was perfectly possible to be a tranny but there were few takers. I suspect it is simply because the majority of gays are not interested in such things, They are, after all, men attracted to men. Not men attracted to pseudo-women.

      1. I think that that was exactly the point Cole was making, that if there had been large numbers they would not have hesitated to be public in the SF environment.

        The new “there’s thousands like us” is tosh.

  34. ‘Morning All

    The debasement of our language continues

    Opening line in a BBC story:

    “The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has

    been subjected to a heavy air attack by Russia, the eighth time this

    month, leaving three people injured”

    “Heavy air attack” I wonder what the survivors of Coventry or Hamberg would make of that statement!!

    Meanwhile a medley

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25a4c9afee981cae059f3e0d890380768b06727ae1fc9cb17b08eb430f61be1c.jpg

    https://teeherivar.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/220528BFD20024-1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/81913e06c1788b1a15bc4c284fe69aba77af080365c0795cb054102ccefcb72d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4bdd38b13f8162ae79b456aaf219b1b8b6ff1cde4dec6f4b4ab569cfb0d92436.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images
    /682ebe59521a3d059d243ef80a07afec8023520aa85d2f33fa0c69e3f5ce73fd.jpg

    1. “The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been subjected to a heavy air attack by Russia, the eighth time this
      month, leaving three people injured.”

      Morning Rik. This usually passes unremarked but the casualty figures from these “raids” are extraordinarily low. Attempts are made to portray civilians as targets by showing us damaged Apartment Blocks but this is almost certainly caused by either shot down Russian ordnance or more likely exhausted Ukrainian anti-air munitions.

      1. I have read that the Russians are taking particular care not to kill civilians if it can be avoided. I think Col Macgregor also mentioned that as a reason why the Russians advanced so slowly. And, you will also recall that the Russians were creating corridors for civilians to escape areas under attack. I have seen video of Ukrainian military threatening people who are leaving, taking photos of them and telling them they will be dealt with after the fighting. In other words Ukraine is using its own citizens as hostages.

    2. “The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been subjected to a heavy air attack by Russia, the eighth time this
      month, leaving three people injured.”

      Morning Rik. This usually passes unremarked but the casualty figures from these “raids” are extraordinarily low. Attempts are made to portray civilions as targets by showing us damaged Apartment Blocks but this is almost certainly caused by either shot down Russian ordnance or more likely exhausted Ukrainian anti-air munitions.

    3. “The Ukrainian capital Kyiv has been subjected to a heavy air attack by Russia, the eighth time this
      month, leaving three people injured.”

      Morning Rik. This usually passes unremarked but the casualty figures from these “raids” are extraordinarily low. Attempts are made to portray civilions as targets by showing us damaged Apartment Blocks but this is almost certainly caused by either shot down Russian ordnance or more likely exhausted Ukrainian anti-air munitions.

  36. Good morning all

    Fine cold sunny morning here .

    I shopped in a local Coop yesterday, there are a few shops scattered around , one on Wareham , Swanage, and another village close by.

    The mantra ” Have you got your Coop card” paid off .. my bill came to approx £ 27, fresh fruit, eggs , salad, milk etc .. I asked how many £’s
    I had accumulated on the card .. amazing .. £23 .. so all I had to pay was £4.

    Last year I had saved £43 .. Prices are terrible everywhere , but supporting local shops is important, although I do chop and change as and when , for bargains and a trip out .

    1. My Coop rewards are over £100. They always ask me if i want to use it to pay. I say no i’m saving for Christmas.

  37. Whatever happened to journalism? 16 May 2023.

    Our newspaper was a successful mixture of fun stories such as ‘He’s the biggest cat in the world and he’s afraid of mice!’ and serious investigations like the famous one about the laboratory beagles forced to inhale cigarette smoke. Although primarily a fashion writer on the paper, I was also called on to take part in investigations and exposures. These were nerve-racking, often frightening assignments and we sometimes put ourselves in real danger, such as when one reporter entertained a murderer in her flat after his girlfriend had knocked her unconscious in a pub.

    Over the years I reported, for various newspapers and magazines, on such subjects as dangers from tranquillisers, fluoride in water, alternative treatments for cancer, the success or otherwise of IVF treatments, the ethics of surrogacy and the efficacy of certain natural remedies. Editors allowed me to bring to the fore issues which were then in the shadows, such as domestic violence and child abuse. I was given freedom to write on controversial matters such as factory farming and NPK fertilisers and thus bring them to public attention. I also wrote about macrobiotic diets, vegetarianism and vitamins and minerals, at a time when any nutritional departure from meat and two veg was considered cranky.

    I can remember it! Now they just post guff from Propaganda Central.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/whatever-happened-to-journalism/

    1. Good morning Minty

      Changing the subject .. so many people are Vaping , including those who have never ever smoked a cigarette.
      Young children are vaping because they love the flavours .. people are addicted to the chemicals

      People have to make their own decisions , but why are there so many flavours .. Manufacturers profiting from more addictive misery .

  38. SIR – Dr Chris Nancollas (Letters, May 15) says there should be a charge for GP appointments. I disagree.

    I believe that those who fail to keep their appointment without good reason should be fined £10 and not seen again until it is paid.

    A high percentage of GP appointments are no-shows. Many others are taken by people who do not have ailments, and waste considerable resources that could be allocated to genuine cases.

    Repeat offenders should be struck off GPs’ patient lists.

    Dominic Shelmerdine
    London SW3

    People who miss their their appointments are probably dying or sadly dead , unable to drive , their volunteer lift has let them down .

    1. They could always let the surgery know they couldn’t make it – except the dead

        3. Last week after being number 17 I became was Number 30 in the queue when a rang the number half an hour later. Click.

        4. Fortunately no. my call gets answered on the first ring but I forget I’m in a rural community so yes, I take your point

          1. I’m also in a rural community, but I’m lucky if my call gets answered at all 🙁 I have better luck with the vet.

        5. For our surgery if there’s a queue you can press 2 and will be called back without losing your place. It works.

    2. Sad that neither Mr Shelmerdine nor the DT letters editor understand the difference between a fine and a penalty charge. (Bill of Rights 1689)

    3. The problem not mentioned is the elderly might have forgotten they had an appointment having waited weeks for it.

      I was interested to read about an unidentified Person in Lostwithiel Cornwall who repaired a 3×3 meter pot hole thus making it possible to use the road again. The council want his name, possibly to arrested him/her. Now the idiots in the council have acted with extreme petulance and re blocked the road with stop and no entry signs and other obstacles. This is what we are up against in our once sensible well ordered country.

    1. Russia helped us fight the Nazis. They are still fighting Nazis but we have changed sides.

    1. Apparently this will not turn into practice at the next election, we are looking at a decade or so before Labour would actually implement it on the ground. So, hopefully, by then, they would have made such a mess of things that they will not get another term in Parliament to implement their evil plans.

      1. The problem is that Labour would not necessarily get an overall majority and the price of a coalition will be something like PR and or voting age reduced to 16.
        PR would then see Muslim block voting and balance of power strength for Sharia and similar.

    2. It’s been admitted that there has already been admissions of voter fraud, but the hand waving morons have not been able to do anything about it. That’s why London is being effed up by that thick POS Kahnt and his friends……..because they can.

    3. Littlejohn on Starmer…’Sir’ Keir Starmer, the Blairite/Mandelsonian/Guardianista North London spiv, yuman rites lawyer.

      On Mandelson…that reptilian creep Mandelson

    4. Well he’s not wrong on the issue, is he?

      This is our sovereign birthright he is proposing to give away. The constitutional implications are enormous. But the people who run the country are political pygmies and don’t know anything about our history and traditions (and they care even less).

      2. And it would mean the UK was one of the very, very few places where such people can vote in General elections.
        The man is a wrecker of the Blair school.

    5. The Tories may be useless right now — and trust Dishi Rishi to turn up for a ‘footie’ photoshoot in a ridiculous hoodie on the day Southampton were relegated. Just about summed it all up. I do believe, though, that as the scion of immigrants who embraced British citizenship and prospered, Dishi does love this country — even though I’m a long way from convinced about the policies he is pursuing.

      And here’s the rub. I don’t believe Starmer is a patriot…

      Littlejohn is correct about Starmer. The modern Labour Party, being internationalist, despises patriotism. That’s why it rejected what was once its core vote, the working class with its respect for family and community (another vice in the minds of today’s Labour).

      Sunak is no real patriot either. He may be grateful to the country that offered his family sanctuary and allowed it to earn enough money to be able to flee anywhere in the world when the going gets tough but the Arthur Wellesley dictum applies. David Starkey was correct.

    6. The Tories may be useless right now — and trust Dishi Rishi to turn up for a ‘footie’ photoshoot in a ridiculous hoodie on the day Southampton were relegated. Just about summed it all up. I do believe, though, that as the scion of immigrants who embraced British citizenship and prospered, Dishi does love this country — even though I’m a long way from convinced about the policies he is pursuing.

      And here’s the rub. I don’t believe Starmer is a patriot…

      Littlejohn is correct about Starmer. The modern Labour Party, being internationalist, despises patriotism. That’s why it rejected what was once its core vote, the working class with its respect for family and community (another vice in the minds of today’s Labour).

      Sunak is no real patriot either. He may be grateful to the country that offered his family sanctuary and allowed it to earn enough money to be able to flee anywhere in the world when the going gets tough but the Arthur Wellesley dictum applies. David Starkey was correct.

  43. Good morning all,

    A bit late this morning again. Sunny start to the day at the McPhee Manor. Getting cloudy later, wind still in the Nor’ Nor’ West, temperature 11℃ risng to 15℃, continuing to be unseasonably cool.

    Still a bit under the weather with a bout of what I think is ‘flu. Had to cancel the theatre last night but they were very good about it. “Do you think you’ve got COVID?” said the young box-office lady. “I don’t know”, says I, “and I don’t really believe in that guff any more”. “Well,” says she, “if you’ve got COVID we have a very good COVID response protocol, I can give you a credit even though we won’t be able to sell the tickets again”. “OK,” says I, “I’ve got COVID”. Job done and we can go later in the month or early June.

    Lest we forget:

    At 2128 hours tonight, exactly eighty years ago to the minute, the first of 19 Lancasters and 133 young men of 617 Squadron took off for the Möhne, Eder and Sorpe dams. Just 11 Lancasters and 77 young men returned. Of the 56 who didn’t, 53 were killed and 3 became prisoners of war.

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

      1. No. The only thing is an actor, Martin Shaw, in ‘Dambusters Declassified’ on BBC Four at 9pm. He’s apparently trying to seperate facts from myths. Since he talks to the last living veteran of Operation Chastise ( Sqn Ldr Johnny Johnson) it must have been made at least a year ago probably more. On the 80th they can’t even do a special programme. What do we expect?

        1. Surprisingly they had a short article on the lunchtime BBC TV news.

          Well done and respectful in tone.

    4. Stumbled on this yesterday after listening to a piece played by The Royal Military School of Music (Kneller Hall). YouTube does have its uses as it tries to give a selection of music you may like.
      70th anniversary of the Dams Raid from RAF Scampton.
      My Word! The Guard of Honour commander has one hell of a voice. I think he could be heard all over RAF Scampton.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlNixIFZ6wk

      1. Thanks, Korky. I’m familiar with that video. The last ‘Dambuster’, Sqn Ldr Johnny Johnson, died last December aged 101.

        1. Before he did, he recorded a piece for the film Attack on The Sorpe Dam, soon to be premiered in Stratford Manor (18th June).

        1. Yes. The ‘cleaned up’ version that you’ve selected. Wonderful arrangement.

      3. Another major tear-jerker.

        What’s the yellow bar against the comment for?

      4. I don’t know how many, if at all, know that there are words to the Dambusters’ March. They are:

        Proudly, with high endeavour,
        We, who are young for ever
        Won the freedom of the sky,
        Know we shall never die.

        We, who have made our story
        Part of our Nation’s glory,
        Know our will will still live on,
        While Britons fly.

        1. That’s news to me. Thank you.
          Any idea of the writer/poet/lyricist?

          1. Sorry, Korky, no idea, I heard and learnt it, many years ago when I was serving in the Royal Air Force.

      5. I don’t know how many, if at all, know that there are words to the Dambusters’ March. They are:

        Proudly, with high endeavour,
        We, who are young for ever
        Won the freedom of the sky,
        Know we shall never die.

        We, who have made our story
        Part of our Nation’s glory,
        Know our will will still live on,
        While Britons fly.

      6. I don’t know how many, if at all, know that there are words to The Dambusters’ March. They are:

        Proudly, with high endeavour
        We, who are young forever
        Won the freedom of the sky.
        We shall never die.

        We, who have made our story
        Part of our Nation’s glory,
        Know our will still live on
        While Briton’s fly.

      7. The words and my reply to you Korky, both seem to have disappeared.

        I wrote them out twice and they seem to disappear each time.

        Is this some form of disqus disapproval?

        Help me, Mods, Please.

        1. Strangely, your reply and the words appear twice in my notifications.

          1. That’s so weird, Korky, I wonder if the MODS have any answers, as they regularly disappear on my site.

    5. I find, these days, that when I read about those brave young men I choke up.
      Then I look at the mendacious load of crap in high place today it makes me want to weep again.
      How have we come to this.

      Edit choke not coke.

          1. I just loved the way the dogs did a 90 degree turn without pausing or losing their stride when the real thing appeared!

        2. A rabbit would not be running about in the middle of the day, they are mostly nocturnal. Hares are diurnal, big, and run very quickly.

      4. A chap I worked with back in the 80s had alopecia. One of his friends suggested he paint a rabbit on his head because from a distance it looked like a hair.

  45. Hallo All. Sun in West Sussex Ugh! Tragically rain did not appear yesterday and it wont today either. Still, we must grin and bear it.
    Another offering of Tucker Carlson that came into my feed yesterday. Enjoy.

    Tucker Carlson: The moment I changed | Will Cain Podcast
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SthTZ5jZfDk

    1. Isn’t there a move to legislate for a minimum EPC rating on new tenancies too? Surely this will also lead to properties being taken off the letting market.

    2. Marco Longhi, Tory MP for Dudley North, said: “We should be building cities twice the size of Sheffield to keep up with net migration.”

      Mr Longhi is an idiot.

    2. Lucky you. Hope they can sort you out.

      My news is not so good. The results from my blood test are in and the Doctor believes there is a direct link with the gynaecomastia which is playing up again and giving me pain.

      The text said a Doctor will phone next Friday. I probably won’t get any pills before next week !

      1. After my meeting last night , I was chatting to a chap whose wife has the most horrendous health problems of Larynx etc

        She required a face to face with the quack, 10 day wait .. They arrived at the surgery on time , an hours wait , saw the doctor( never seen that one before ) doctor ran through the notes , (not looking at patient ) declared tests were ok for this that and the other .. Husband said , what tests .. doctor argued .. these tests .. husband was shocked , wife sat there unable to speak..

        Husband said please check the name on your computer .. Same surname , wrong patient ..

        I still feel horrified .. patients are scared of upsetting doctors .

        1. Shoddy, slapdash bastards. Does nothing get done properly in this country anymore? That’s a rhetorical question.

          1. “Does nothing get done properly in this country anymore?” Funny, I said almost exactly the same thing on another post just a couple of minutes before you!

          4. Over here, your name and population register number feature about every other sentence.

        2. Reminds of MB’s cardiac letter; wrong patient because wrong case number was used.
          As we became more perplexed, the word “retired paratrooper” caused a double take.
          All joking aside, that mistake could have killed both patients (presuming it was just a straight swap of inefficiency and not a mistake involving that whole day’s appointments – or possibly the whole week).

        3. I finally saw a doctor this afternoon. He looked as though he was in the Sixth Form! Still, he was pretty thorough and is going to send me for tests (but that won’t be until June and then, depending on those results the electrocardiogram request may be upgraded to “urgent”). The NHS is definitely a lottery.

      3. You poor chap. I feel for you. My petty medical inconveniences are nothing in comparison.

          2. Actually, that might be me because my lump is beside and sort of around my right ear. Not a happy prospect.
            Does this mean I will have to take up painting? 😉

      4. Good luck, let’s hope that the Doctor becomes more proactive.
        Could he not have organised medication as soon as he saw the results?

        1. Yes they could but didn’t.

          Speaking of proactive. That is just what i have done. The cause is low testosterone. Giving the small amount of oestrogen the male body produces free rein.

          The Doctor had already discussed using a gel to up the score. I went on Amazon and bought some. Being delivered tomorrow.

          1. So sorry to hear of your continuing problems. It’s a bugger trying to get anything done properly. We feel for you.

          2. Thanks but no need to worry about me. If my mental health remains stable i can cope with anything.

            Having supper with Hertslass this week. :@)

          8. You have bought a “gel” on Amazon? Wow – that’s cool. Hope she suits….

          12. I assume they are covered with hideous chemicals that come off on your fingers.

    4. Morning Bill. I’ve just been up to ASDA to book an eye test so that I can replace the glasses I broke when I fell over in the street during the Winter. For reasons that remain obscure the Bus decided to take a detour around the Village and then rejoin the official route later. The desk at the opticians annexe was manned by a small man with a high squeaking voice that I could hardly make out (my hearing is going as well) and, as I understand it, the computer program was new and had no record of my previous visits. After a half hour of fervent mouse manipulation and hurried consultations with his colleagues I was issued with an appointment for June 16. I then made several purchases narrowly avoiding being run over by enthusiastic shoppers and a payout assistant with acute rheumatism in her hands. Having missed the return bus I then walked home with several stops to rest my legs. Thus does fortune make fools of our intentions!

      1. I wouldn’t go anywhere near the muslim-owned, Halal-slaughterer ASDA.

    5. Morning Bill. I’ve just been up to ASDA to book an eye test so that I can replace the glasses I broke when I fell over in the street during the Winter. For reasons that remain obscure the Bus decided to take a detour around the Village and then rejoin the official route later. The desk at the opticians annexe was manned by a small man with a high squeaking voice that I could hardly make out (my hearing is going as well) and, as I understand it, the computer program was new and had no record of my previous visits. After a half hour of fervent mouse manipulation and hurried consultations with his colleagues I was issued with an appointment for June 16. I then made several purchases narrowly avoiding being run over by enthusiastic shoppers and a payout assistant with acute rheumatism in her hands. Having missed the return bus I then walked home with several stops to rest my legs. Thus does fortune make fools of our intentions!

  48. 371315+ up ticks,

    The very same peoples that made, via the polling booth, patriotism redundant.

    Dt,
    Inadequate and inefficient, Britain has forgotten how to work
    More than half of our workforce is adamant it will never go back to an office – but it could spell disaster for the economy

      1. 371315+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Atg,

        You mean, RESET to NET ZERO What a splendid idea.

  50. For gawd’s sake, does nothing work in this country any more?! I’m trying to sort out a VAT issue on an import, on HMRC’s web service. I should be so lucky –
    Temporary problem

    Sorry – HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are currently
    experiencing problems with the service you have requested. HMRC are
    dealing with the problem and hope to have this service available again
    shortly, so please try again later.”

    Somebody working from home forgot to switch it on this morning?

    2. Could be due to load. One service I manage has a similar message when it reaches over 5000 transactions per second. In it’s defence, it’s over 8 years old and being replaced with something we expect to handle 20 times that.

      1. Possibly, although it’s hard to imagine this particular service getting overloaded. If that were the case though, a more informative message would be useful. If it is something they experience regularly then they should look at the queuing systems that a lot of the online retailers introduced during lockdown.

    1. “I have never raped anyone on the surface of this Earth.”

      Of course he didn’t. He raped them in bed, in the car, in the lavatory and in the broom cupboard.

      1. The man was a radical Muslim. Hope he is convicted and put away for a long time.

  52. Phew! Sat with a well earned mug of tea after 3h of wall building.
    I’ve done about as much as I can without digging out for and dropping concrete for the next section of wall, so I think a period of tidying up is due.

    1. What’s it up to now, Bob? 20ft?

      Are you building a wall just around your garden/perimeter or for another purpose?

      1. He is terracing a very steep garden. It will look wonderful when finished, I bet.

        2. Yes.
          Pity I’ll probably be long gone by the time whoever comes after me finishes it!

  53. https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1658164896595337246

    This dangerous nonsense must be costing £Billions but the government aren’t concerned because they are planning their CBDC scam to cease the use of cash. If your credit score controls how much money the government will let you have, what happens to your savings?
    You will own nothing but will you be happy?

    1. If we stopped the state doing all the stupid things it shouldn’t be doing it would sit there, twiddling it’s thumbs wondering what the 150,000 people in each department were for.

      Let cracking, get sacking!

      1. We could do with far fewer in the House of Lords, at least 50- less would be a start. And fewer in the House of Commons – reduce to 500 as a start. And no lump sum payoffs!

        1. I think 50 fewer is nothing like enough – cull at least half of them!

          3. If they are genuine cross-benchers they can actually make a real contribution to analysis and improvement, it’s the likes of Starmer who must be avoided at all costs.

          5. Cull – like one might cull cattle when there’s bovine TB in the area, you mean?

        2. I’d go the other way. Each street, say 200 households has a representative. They elect an executive board and have small, specific funding for local issues. And up we go, with each body until you get to a national body but completely controlled by the local executive so democracy is enforced at every step.

          When we must have referism, recall and direct democracy. If we don’t want it, the state can’t have it. No spending, no budget without our express permission. It’s not numbers that are the problem – it’s that the state does whatever it wants without our permission or consent.

        3. 371315+ up ticks,

          Afternoon VW,

          Give the same as we received in the construction industry a midget Chinaman, AKA
          A wee kin lui.

        4. Treat them as self-employed. Scrutinised tax returns. Fund own pension, holiday pay, you name it.

  54. The liars are ratcheting up the lies. Putin on his last legs with the emetic warriors Sunak and Zelensky poised for victory. The reality is slightly less inspiring – women and children in Lugansk and Donetzk incinerated by Sunak’s “Storm Shadows” last weekend, and Kiev now reeling from the Russian hypersonics. Sunak is a bogus creature with no democratic claim whatever to the post that he has usurped, and controlled by the pure evil that is our enemy worldwide. Our comfortable lives are, I am sorry to say, about to become unrecognisable.

    https://tarableu.substack.com/p/russian-children-incinerated-yesterday

    1. From the RT website.

      16 May, 2023 12:15
      HomeRussia & FSU
      Seven UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles shot down – Moscow
      Other Western-made munitions and 22 drones were also intercepted, Russia’s Defense Ministry says
      Seven UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles shot down – Moscow
      FILE PHOTO: A Shadow cruise missile diplayed at the Dubai Air Show. © AFP / Rabih Moghrabi
      Several Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were recently supplied to Ukraine by Britain, have been shot down by Russian air defenses over the past 24 hours, its Defense Ministry has said.

      “Seven Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, three HARM anti-radar missiles and seven HIMARS multiple rocket launcher shells were intercepted,” the ministry’s spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, announced during a briefing on Tuesday. He didn’t say where the intercepts had taken place.

      According to Konashenkov, 22 Ukrainian drones were also destroyed over Russia’s newly incorporated territories: the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, and Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions.

      The spokesman said Russia’s overnight large-scale missile strike against Ukrainian military formations, hardware, and depots of ammunition and equipment that had been provided by the West had “achieved its goal. All intended targets were hit.”

      Among those targets was a US-supplied Patriot missile system, which was destroyed in the capital Kiev by a Kinzhal hypersonic missile, Konashenkov said.

      Moscow claims first intercept of UK-made long-range projectile
      Read more Moscow claims first intercept of UK-made long-range projectile
      Russia first announced the downing of a Storm Shadow on Monday, saying that one such missile had been intercepted.

      The authorities in Lugansk previously said that, over the past few days, the British munitions had been used in several Ukrainian attacks on the city, in which residential buildings were damaged.

      Britain confirmed the delivery of Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles to Ukraine last week. CNN earlier reported that Kiev had received the munitions well before the official announcement. With a range of up to 300km (200 miles), Storm Shadow became the longest-range weapon supplied to Kiev by its Western backers to date. UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace claimed that the missiles would allow “Ukraine to push back Russian forces based within Ukrainian sovereign territory.”

      Moscow said the decision to provide Storm Shadow missiles to Ukraine was “a very unfriendly step” on the part of Britain, which revealed the country’s “unprecedented level of involvement” in the conflict. The move would lead to “serious escalation” in Ukraine, the Foreign Ministry warned, adding that Russia “reserves the right to take any measures deemed necessary to neutralize a threat” posed by the new weapons.

      READ MORE: Russia warns Britain over cruise missiles
      During more than a year of fighting, Russian officials have often pointed out that deliveries of more sophisticated arms to Ukraine by the US, UK and their allies could cross its ‘red lines’. According to Moscow, the supply of weapons and ammo, as well as intelligence sharing and training provided to Kiev’s forces, have already made Western nations de facto parties to the conflict.

  55. Off out for a while- husband snoring like a warthog on the sofa. I asked him to put the cushions outside- whether it registered is anyone’s guess.
    See you laters alligators.

    2. Given that Network rail own and operate the railway’s infrastructure perhaps LNER should rename itself L&NE Trains

    3. For once, Grizz, I am not going to get upset by the use of ‘train’ instead of ‘railway’. The modern LNER is an operating company that runs trains on the railway but which has no responsibility for the latter.

      1. I shall always rebel, William (am I a rebel without a clue?😉) since, for me, the term ‘railway’ involves all the infrastructure of that transport system, not merely the rails.

  57. The Japanese owned Dorsett Hotel in Shepherds Bush appears to have a contract to accommodate Singapore Airlines staff. I often see them leaving the hotel and piling into a waiting coach, presumably bound for Heathrow and they’re all identifiable by their uniforms. It always strikes me that they’re all young, slim, good looking and immaculately groomed (in the old sense). Do British airlines stipulate these days that their staff must be fat, ugly and unkempt in the interests of inclusivity? It wouldn’t surprise me.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/734d034899839cbe78ed7d439e7612fb4098cbbe39d113eaed757fa0c462c435.png

    1. We have travelled on Singapore Airlines several times excellent.
      Lovely professional staff.

    2. Some while ago, my airline called in the cabin crew to be weighed, ostensibly to make sure they would fit into range of uniform available. A great many feathers were ruffled and the I suspect some sort of HR legislation was brought to bear as the weighings stopped. Might have been that the scales broke, of course…

      1. As long as it is possible for two people to pass in the aisle then weight shouldn’t be an issue.

        2. The more the crew weighs, the less available for payload, I would have thought.

    4. Speaking as one who flew for BA and easyJet, yes. That was the case some time ago. It’s only the Brits. Other nationalities are tidy.

      1. BA staff all seem to know their “rights”, that’s for sure. I’ve abandoned them this year for Air Saudi and Sing Airlines

      2. Some years ago, SAS were insulted for having old cabin staff. Wrinkly women! How appalling. They were damned good at the cabin service, though.

      3. Some years ago, SAS were insulted for having old cabin staff. Wrinkly women! How appalling. They were damned good at the cabin service, though.

    5. I flew with Singapore Airlines to Oz in the early noughties. The hostesses were all lovely and beautifully turned out, but I did wonder how they would cope in an emergency wearing their cotton dresses and thong sandals.

    1. Are we honestly any different? Jobs for the boys, cash for questions, careful favours for the ‘right’ answer. A hinderance of Brexit due to procedural interference, endless inquiries.

      1. Oh come off it, they are all at it in Ukraine. This one probably pinched a bit too much, and the others got angry.

  59. Thought of the day – I`m really surprised that women’s football has taken off so well.
    How did they find 11 women to wear the same outfit?

  62. Ahem………..

    The top comment BTL under immigration story in today’s DT:

    “A few key critical infrastructure requirements for a typical UK city with a 500,000 population.
    The city will require:
    900MW of power, equal to 1.5 large coal fired power plants or a nuclear plant.
    70 million litres of potable water per day.
    Equivalent wastewater treatment
    Around 300-350 schools
    2 large hospitals
    30 GP/outpatient Surgeries
    Collection and recycling of 3 million tons of waste annually.
    8-10 Fire Stations
    1500 strong police force.
    A prison
    Around 150,000-200,000 new homes.
    The
    reason I list these most obvious things, is that I am perplexed as to
    why Members of Parliament and indeed half of our population seem to
    think we can have uncontrolled borders and allow more than 500,000
    people to migrate to the UK in a single year. The equivalent to the
    population of a typical city?”
    What could possibly go wrong………….

    1. Put in those numbers has Lefties saying ‘so’? What’s the problem? We should just pay for it “as that’s good”.

      They ignore the training, infrastructure, materials and that their entire attitude is to stop all of those things.

    2. Don’t overlook the increase in carbon emissions that would come from an additional 500,000 immigrants. How can governments expect to reduce emissions whilst adding to the mix.

      Canada has the same problem, our overlords are bringing in about 500,000 immigrants a year even though there is a critical shortage of housing and medical care.

      1. I wouldn’t use that line, it’s admitting that there is something in the CO2 bs.

  63. Just done a COVID test at SWMBO’s insistence. She did one yesterday and had a void result. I, on the other hand, have tested positive. I’ve got the coof.

    1. Covid tests should be banned, the only reason we get this ‘covid is still around’ thing is that some people are addicted to the test. And the jab for that matter. Those who have never been boosted are not getting it, I have managed three years without catching it (just the initial two AstraZenecca shots).
      I guess some here will disagree with me though I know from previous reads many will agree.

      1. My daughter was ill recently, and we got a doctor’s appointment. The receptionist is a real piece of work, and she wanted to know if daughter had done a covid test.
        “She did one yesterday and it was negative,” I said (mendaciously).
        The cow replied, “Do another one today before coming in.”
        Utterly pointless – if the tests work, it’s unlikely that daughter’s illness would have changed from something else to covid, and if they don’t work, what are we doing them for? If she didn’t believe me, she could have asked to see the result.
        We have insurance that allows us to choose doctors, so I found another practice.

        1. Someone that I golf with has just had his sixth covid jab. He damned near passed out on the course last week. Just a coincidence of course.

          2. Most of my friends have now had six jabs. I think they must make people braindead. Nobody in their right mind would have six jabs for a cold.

      4. No shots here. Might have caught it right at the beginning, but not sure. Unlike the multi-vacced, who seem to catch it every few months.

      5. I tend to agree. I wouldn’t have done it myself. But she’s not called SWMBO for nothing.

        1. If they worked as vaccines why would you have more than one.
          If they don’t work as vaccines why would you have more than one.

          1. There you go again, applying logic to the situation. It’ll never catch on.

          2. Common sense is an extremely rare commodity and becoming rarer by the minute. The other truism is that it’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them they’ve been fooled.

      6. No jabs, no colds, no tests. Believed it was a scam right from the start and wrote to our MP on several occasions about the PsyOps. Our stance has, I believe, been vindicated.

      7. I had covid (no test, just ticked all the boxes) before they admitted it was here. Never been jabbed and haven’t had a problem since.

    2. Rishi, we asked ‘How to grow an economy and you said…tax and spending hikes. Our survey said….Eh O!’ Sorry, that is completely wrong.

    4. I know the Thames has been cleaned up so fish can flourish. Could we go back real honest pollution? Pretty please.

      1. My first girlfriend refused to buy Rimmel. She called it Rammel (dialectic for ‘crap’).

    5. Why do women hideously disfigure their faces to make themselves look really ugly? Perhaps it’s the only way they can get noticed.

      1. It is the accelerating stupidity of the species, Alf, that atrophies their ability to think coherently.

  67. Busy morning- collected a hedgehog from the hospital to take some photos. Just taken it back and sat down. Must get outside and do some work out there. Two chaps sizing up the lane – they are going to be installing cabling for Gigaclear. They said they didn’t think we’d see much improvement from our current steady 54 mbs though it does drop out sometimes.

    1. That outfit wants a wayleave over our property. I’m inclined to tell them to foxtrot oscar.

      1. Depends on the yearly fee to you. I have wayleaves for phone and electricity over my croft. Lump sum of £600 for the phone and £48 per annum for the electricity

    3. You might not speedwise alone, but the upload should be faster, and if it’s actual fibre rather than the copper nonsense BT use it will be much, much more reliable.

  68. As if it couldn’t be foreseen.

    The Canadian government is giving VW thirteen billion dollars to build a battery plant in Ontario. It’s a real economic winner that works out at about four million dollars per job generated.

    Surprise surprise Stelantis (that Chrysler, Fiat combo) have now stopped work on a plant that they have been building and are demanding an equally large bribe.

    Did they expect znything slse?

  69. Gotcha, DM…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16833b659afa5965b2381088d96ffda7a1f1b9002b4cad371456e24cc5e3c6ba.jpg

    Well, that would certainly explain a few things about modern society if true…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8f3d8c9a375b55eb1105d591b04e9fadf28f21b206b95c76198eb31ce71e3c0f.jpg

    Apparently this is vegan baby milk from the US?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5df2b2abbfe4e823b2ae89b268663565be354fab725b475b9ac1eba84b790ada.jpg

    1. Heck, I’ve just poisoned my pet ‘pooter nerd. I gave him home made shortbread and lemon curd.
      Or …. possibly I’ve saved his life.
      It depends which article you read on which day.

          3. OT – you’ll be interested to learn that I have just read* – for the first time – “The Catcher in the Rye”. A curious book. Blowed if I can see why it is a 20th century “classic”.

            There was a very good docu about Salinger last week on t’telly. Weird bloke….today he’d be in the same league as Polanski, Jerry Lee Lewis etc etc. Cancelled.

            *I only read it because the MR has been teaching and examining it for 40 years!!

          4. Not a book I care for although I also had to teach it. After leaving to teach in primary schools, didn’t bother with it again.

    3. That imbecile, Jonathan Chadwick (and his cretinous editor at the DM), need thrashing with a barbed-wire whip. They should never be permitted to work again (nor paid benefits).

      Diabetes is caused and aggravated by eating carbs and sugar. Eggs are healthy, life-sustaining protein.

      1. Aggravated Grizz but not caused – it’s the pancreas not producing enough insulin which causes diabetes IIRC

        1. You do, indeed, remember correctly, Spikey. That is the cause of diabetes in many patients. I have discovered, though, that there is another condition known as insulin resistance, which is every bit as bad as diabetes and just as health-threatening.

          Insulin resistance is brought about by an inappropriate diet, mainly the consumption of too many carbs, processed food, refined sugars, seed oils and ‘fast-food’. Dr Boz explains it here very well:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Eh0fXUEcc

          1. Sorry, Grizz, but that’s nonsense. Type 1 is indeed caused by the failure of the pancreas to make sufficient insulin. Type 2, aka NIDDM (Non Insulin-dependent Diabetes Mellitus) is caused by insulin resistance, and always has been. It’s not a new discovery.

          2. Sorry, Geoff. I simply got the types mixed up, no offence meant to any sufferers of either type.

            What I was trying to explain is that insulin resistance is a nasty thing to have per se and is the cause of problems other than Type 2 diabetes.

            Original post edited.

            There is a huge number of videos available on YouTube explaining the injurious effects of a high-carb low-fat diet, a major one of which is insulin resistance.

          3. No worries, Grizz. I’m Type 2. But I’m on insulin, so 90% of the medical profession assumes that I’m Type 1.
            Type 1 is known to have an hereditary aspect. Type 2, less so, but it still exists.
            Several on my Dad’s side of the family were diabetic. On the basis of what my Mum told me, years after his death (in a road accident) my Dad was prolly one of them.

            I know for a fact that my pancreas still produces insulin. But it battles against insulin resistance. Exercise can help with that. I’ve done 8200+ steps today, and my blood glucose remains within ‘normal’ range.

            It’s a balancing act.

          4. It certainly is a balancing act, Geoff. I don’t personally know anyone with Type 1 diabetes but I have a number of friends who have Type 2. The only family member that I am aware of with Type 2 was a maternal uncle. He developed it quite late in life after enjoying quite a Bacchanalian lifestyle (he liked his wine, women and whisky. Did I mention women? And whisky?).

            I keep an eye on my blood glucose levels and, since I have lately returned to a ketogenic lifestyle, also my blood ketone levels. In my case it is simply nothing more than to lose weight (and maintain that weight loss)and keep as well as I can for as long as I can. I exercise on an indoor bike and by doing as many chores around the house and garden as needs done. I’ve not been out on my proper (outdoor) bike for a while, so I may venture out again now that the weather is much finer.

          5. Thanks Grizz – according to her I don’t have insulin resistance although I’m type 2

    4. 25 years of appalling “low fat” High Carb” “scientific dietary advice” has given us an obese unfit population
      As for the vegan baby food the manufacturors should be taken out and shot

      2. Horrific to think of that being given to babies.
        The parents probably aren’t too bright to start with. 🙁

      1. Indeed.
        I did wonder whether it was tongue in cheek in that hate speech hunters are aiming there, as it’s easy to pick.
        Almost any comment that doesn’t praise diversity to the rooftops is treated as hate speech.

  72. Phew!
    If I vaporise in the next few minutes – or disappear in a puff of smoke – it’s because I’m on a new, whizzy laptop.
    It took my pet ‘pooter nerd nigh on 4 hours to track down and exterminate some ruddy glitch lurking in the old one that then caused problems with its successor.

  75. Bogey Five today.

    Wordle 696 5/6
    🟨⬜⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩
    ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Par here

      Wordle 696 4/6

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

    3. Finally back to par four.

      Wordle 696 4/6

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

    4. Par today.
      Wordle 696 4/6

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

  76. 371315+ up ticks,

    What a really nasty piece of work you WERE farage,

    Nigel Farage: ‘Brexit Has Failed’, Sabotaged by Useless Conservatives

    3. Who else has come closer to leading a party to ending the 2 party dictatorship we still have?
      3,881,099 votes, 12.6% of the voters. Any name that has done better will suffice.

      1. 371315+ up ticks,

        Evening M,
        In my book, controlled ALL the way on reflection it all fits, from his founder member days.

        Another founder member Gerard Batten
        for one year showed what could be done
        building a successful party but was closed down via the party nec / farage
        making way for the brexit party, we were suckered ALL the way.

        https://youtu.be/Fc7iuUHk3Yk

        1. Point out to me the time in that (oft posted) video where Farage says “Brexiteers and Tommy supporters are tattooed skinheads, racists and thugs.”

    2. I managed to resist the temptation. But the whole Goldfinger ‘skin suffocation’ thing was nonsense. And SHirley Eaton lived to a ripe old age…

      1. Geoff, Shirley Eaton is still with us. She and her builder husband used to be near neighbours of mine.

  78. Right – that’s me gone. A day of several halves. Cold morning – but was able to erect the shelves on which my beer bottles now stand. Colder early afternoon – from 4 pm warm enough to do some gardening. First outdoor tomato frame constructed.

    Have a spiffing evening – I’ll have a quiet one…{:¬))

    Time for a rewarding glass of cordial.

    A demain.

    1. If Harris wasn’t so useless she would be President, Biden would have been retired hurt.
      I’m not convinced MO would stand unless she was sure she could follow her, rather than his, agenda.

      1. I think that’s over-estimating her. We’ve certainly been sold this image of the hotshot lawyer, but all we’ve actually seen in public life is grifting – the job that existed only while her husband was governor, paid out of the public purse, some lightweight feminist activism and free trips to England to push her daughters at Prince Harry.

        1. I certainly hope that she disappears into well earned obscurity, butt (sic) given the way the Democrats work I won’t bet on it.

    1. Impressive stuff, commemorating very young men who put the modern generation to shame.

    3. He mentioned 29 Sqdn (my old sqdn) as a conversion unit (they are a front line sqdn) but the a/c in shot were from 12 Sqdn I think, then another sqdn (41) appears – save us from armchair experts. Nice video though , thanks

  81. Well, I deserve my glass of wine.
    Pool opened, cover off, gawd it’s heavy when it has roughly three cubic metres of water on it.
    Three lots of vacuuming, two lots of cover scrubbing, two filter cleans, all the bits and bobs up to the garage.

    My handyman handles the pump installation and the shower set up, I do the heavy lifting.

    The water temperature is approaching 18 so I might get a swim soon; the older I get the warmer it has to be.

    If I was a BoB I would be bathing in tea, let alone having a mug or three!

      1. Pools are very hard work, but worth the effort.

        Children are very very very hard work but worth it!

    2. I can remember pools overseas.. in Africa.. drowned lizards , stranded snakes , drowning scorpions , frogs , mole rat .. ughhh.

      Everyone had a gardener.. who looked after the pool.. dead little bodies laid out on veranda… ughhhhh

  84. Wanted!
    Someone to brush their teeth with me.
    Because 9 out of 10 dentists say that brushing alone won’t prevent tooth decay.
    No weirdos!

  85. I’m not saying they are stupid.
    I’m just suggesting that they have bad luck when it cones to thinking…

    2. There was a large uniformed RAF contingent in church on Sunday morning but no mention in the service.

      1. Perhaps their navigator had taken a wrong turning on the way to St Clement Danes 🙂

        1. Isn’t that a great church? Went there in my late teens with an elderly, now deceased, friend whose brother was in the RAF and was shot down and killed over Dunkirk. It was very moving to visit there with someone who had such tangible links to the service.
          This lady, Margaret, never married and I suspect she had a beau also RAF that she lost in the war.
          Brave men and women all of them.

    3. And for what? So their base can be turned into a haven for invaders and Nig be exhumed to be deposited who knows where else.

    4. I see that whole sunset parade at Scampton has gone missing.

      What are you doing, disqus?

  87. A woman’s place is in the kitchen…
    Sitting with her feet up, drinking a glass of wine and watching her husband cook dinner!

      2. Oh Spikey! In this house it’s ‘a woman’s place is in the wrong’! Men are never wrong…or at least they never admit it!! 🙄

        1. Sue, I have posted this so often….

          Advice to Husbands by Ogden Nash.

          To keep your marriage brimming
          With love in the loving cup,
          When you are wrong, admit it!
          When you are right, shut up.

          2. Thanks Lottie! That’s wonderful! Obviously I shall be pinning that on the bathroom mirror! Although after 40 years of marriage (next month) it might be a bit late!

    2. Well, that’s how my wife does it. 21 years together, she hasn’t cooked me a meal yet.

      Then again, I haven’t ironed a shirt or learned how to use the washing machine in that time either, so it seems to work.

      1. It’s what works for the couple innit? That’s a joke but my husband is a good cook with Asian type food. Trouble is, when he’s finished the kitchen looks as though there’s been a Viking raid.

        1. Ah, I’m more classical British myself. And I follow the Marcus Wareing approach, clear up as you go along. Clearing ups a lot easier before you eat than after you’re full.

          1. I will pass that along. Will it work?
            I tend to clear up as I go and I also try to do as much as I can in advance.

          2. It does for me. There are very few things on the hob (even less is the oven) that require undivided attention, so you have time to clear things up. When I go into the kitchen to cook something I always do the trivial things first, put the plates to warm, set the table or whatever, prep all the stuff that you think should wait until you’re nearly ready to serve. If all that stuff is already done the pressure is off, you can keep your eye on the meal cooking and clear up while you’re doing it. If that means starting 10 minutes early why not?

          3. Yes, that’s kind of how I go about it. However, we don’t have a formal dining area as such.
            Tonight we had hamburgers which was easy.

          4. Ha! We normally have trays on our knees! But you need to get the trays out.

          5. One must put one’s best tray forward. We even extend to napery…. a piece of kitchen towel as we is so posh;-)
            Edit for stupid missing words.

          7. One must put one’s best tray forward. We even extend to napery…. a piece of kitchen towel as we is so posh;-)
            Edit for stupid missing words.

          9. That was always my mother’s rule in the kitchen. I can wash, iron and sew but I’m a lousy cook. The last time I invited friends to supper, they arrived with takeaways. It’s that bad!

          12. Hot crusty bread and butter, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs. Wine.

            Come on Sue. Buck up !

          14. I do that as well, I do most of the cooking and always clear up as I go along. It’s far more practical. There’s nothing worse than a pile of washing up. Which I usually do as well.

    3. Q: Why are women’s feet shorter than men’s?
      A: So they can stand closer to the sink.

      1. Actually, that is true here- his are size 12 and mine are size 6. Feeble excuse though.

    4. Poached haddock , runner beans , cauliflower cheese, baked potato.

      Poached plums and custard for pud . Didn’t need sweetener on the plums.

      2. We had retro prawn cocktail for starter, then lightly smoked salmon fillets with leek & french beans. I did a couple of boiled potatoes but but didn’t have one.

        OH is watching Masterchef.

        1. Delicious . I love prawn cocktail salad with extra prawns and other fishy bits .. marinated anchovy

          Moh is asleep on sofa , and I am now watching Midsomer murders, nearly the conclusion.

          I have to put the younger dog on the lead for last minute garden wees. Hedgehog search.

        2. I luuuurve prawn cocktail. I’ll always order it if it’s on the menu.

  89. Evening, all. Never mind the aspirational young, the experienced patriots have no party to vote for either.

  90. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/16/clarksons-kaleb-cooper-charlie-ireland-downing-street/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/PortalPictures/april-2023/may-2023/335823333_Kaleb.jpg?imwidth=640

    I’ve never made a huge thing about folk being short. We can’t help our height, but Sunak just looks weak, spindly and pathetic. That is a man who has never done *anything* in his life except push paper around. He’s an imposed stooge we didn’t want, who knifed his elected boss and when he lost colluded to do in the victor – all for his globalist, Left wing paymasters.

    1. Personally, I think Sunak is ridiculous. He is not PM, he is an appointee. All politicians are beneath contempt.

      1. Yep, an imposed stooge who knifed Boris, did the same for Truss and all to get the job no one wanted him in.

      2. He doesn’t have an ounce of authority or leadership. When the media says things like “Britain’s first Asian Prime Minister” I just think “who? no he’s not a Prime Minister”
        One day we might have an Indian PM who would be a real leader and who would be good – Sunak’s not it.

      3. I agree, Lotty.

        Unless the ‘backroom boys’ eliminate Sunak in the immediate future, the Conservatives will be in the wilderness for a generation – or longer . . .

    2. There’s also no ‘rationing’ involved over salads. The growers asked for help with the phenomenal energy bills, the state said no, up yours. Thus we had a shortage. Not rationing. A shortage of energy that restricted our food supply.

      Anyone else seeing where this is going? We need energy. Masses and masses of energy and these fools are forcibly reducing that capacity.

      1. They aren’t fools, they are knaves. It’s deliberate policy to bring the West to its knees. We have to be brought down so that the far East can have its moment of industrialisation.

      2. They’re happy that restricting energy will bugger up the food chain, i.e., more control

    3. “The Prime Minister said he would slash red tape to make it easier for farmers to turn old barns into farm shops without the need for planning permission from local councils – something Clarkson later described as ‘extremely good news’.”

      Any slashing of EU red tape? No, I didn’t think so…

    4. That’s Clarkson’s factotum. What’s he doing, consorting with the enemy?

    5. He’s certainly no statesman. I cannot think of any U.K. PM being seen laughing their head off at a time of war. He’s just another clown.

  92. There are reports on alternative media that the Russians have targeted and destroyed at least two arms depots used to store the collective arms supplied by the US, UK, Germany and France. The explosions were massive and one likely containing the depleted uranium shells has left a giant crater. The Ukrainians are employing robots in the clean-up which suggests the area is contaminated.

    We have seen Zelensky jetting around demanding yet more armaments and supplies from anywhere and everywhere. He and his military advisors are so incompetent that they placed concentrations of weapons in vulnerable areas near to populations and in a War Zone.

    The only reason Sunak, Macron, Moroni and the collective WEF puppets continue to keep feeding the monster Zelensky is to protect their own political futures, or so they think. It is madness to keep throwing good money after bad. Russia is a super-power, we are not. It is fanciful to suppose that without the US we could effect global affairs or regime change in Russia. Even some Washington insiders wish to see an end to the war in Ukraine.

    I remain shocked, disgusted and ashamed at the actions of our government.

    1. It is beyond awful.
      I have seen the opinion that Russia is quite happy to let this conflict drag on as the US is losing more than the Russians through it, and Europe is being provoked to split away from the US. The Americans are happy washing their money through Ukraine, and the Chinese don’t care. Only the Europeans want it to end.

      1. I don’t look at lots of other media so the phrase “only the Europeans want it to end” doesn’t ring a bell with me at all. Do you have a link where this wish is expressed? Just that as far as I’m concerned U.K., Germany and France at least are sending munitions to Ukraine. I also thought the EU was in favour of supporting the clown.

    2. You’re right on every point. The idiocy of storing everything in one place is just moronic.

      I think the WEF and Sunak are using Ukraine as a ‘Busy troubled minds with foreign quarrels’.

      This picture sums it up. A corrupt commedian and a midget looking ridiculous in a helmet designed for an adult and both of them laughing at us: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/world-news/2023/02/08/TELEMMGLPICT000324720561_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpVlberWd9EgFPZtcLiMQf0Rf_Wk3V23H2268P_XkPxc.jpeg?imwidth=1280

      1. Idiocy?
        I think they are all working together at the highest level. They probably left it there in the full knowledge that the Russians would blow it all up.
        The objective on both sides is probably to use up their old stuff in order to feed the military industrial complex.

    3. Yesterday’s UK Column had video of one of the explosions. Huge mushroom cloud with successive explosions as the munitions went up that literally dwarfed the buildings near ground zero.
      Sunak is emptying our munition stockpiles to keep Zelensky on the warpath. He emptied our coffers during the scandemic: his profligacy knows no bounds when it’s other people’s money.

      1. I saw the same. I have also read that Russia has destroyed the defensive missile sites and has advanced technology to jam everything else.

        This bizarre debacle unfolding is contaminating land and air. Gamma radiation is likely from the destruction of the depleted uranium shells so many civilians will be harmed.

        We need men in charge of our decision making and foreign policy yet we have midgets and clowns masquerading as war leaders.

      1. Johnny- you can’t rely on America- period. The only special relationship the US has is with the US. Does not matter which party is in power.

    5. Most heartily agree with your last sentence. I just cannot believe what U.K. government is sanctioning. To say you couldn’t make it up doesn’t go anywhere near it.

  93. There are reports on alternative media that the Russians have targeted and destroyed at least two arms depots used to store the collective arms supplied by the US, UK, Germany and France. The explosions were massive and one likely containing the depleted uranium shells has left a giant crater. The Ukrainians are employing robots in the clean-up which suggests the area is contaminated.

    We have seen Zelensky jetting around demanding yet more armaments and supplies from anywhere and everywhere. He and his military advisors are so incompetent that they placed concentrations of weapons in vulnerable areas near to populations and in a War Zone.

    The only reason Sunak, Macron, Moroni and the collective WEF puppets continue to keep feeding the monster Zelensky is to protect their own political futures, or so they think. It is madness to keep throwing good money after bad. Russia is a super-power, we are not. It is fanciful to suppose that without the US we could effect global affairs or regime change in Russia. Even some Washington insiders wish to see an end to the war in Ukraine.

    I remain shocked, disgusted and ashamed at the actions of our government.

    1. Mother in Law was apparently working on radar that night and the following day.

      She could recall witnessing planes disappearing from the radar screen and the air crew being lost during both the raid and and the follow up reconnaissance flights.

      Naturally no mention of the dam busters over here in Trudeaus post nation state, although there were many Canadians in the crews.

  95. Evening all! Been out and about today – hedgehogs photos this morning, gardening in the afternoon, cooking & eating dinner, then sat down and read for a bit.

  96. Evening all! Been out and about today – hedgehogs photos this morning, gardening in the afternoon, cooking & eating dinner, then sat down and read for a bit.

  97. AIRCRAFT icons from the Second World War will take to the skies at a Dorset attraction next month.

    The Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster will be flying over The Tank Museum in Bovington, near Wareham, on Saturday, June 24, and Sunday, June 25.

    Ticket holders for the upcoming Tankfest will have the chance to see the historic warbirds on selected days, with the Spitfire and Hurricane flying on the Saturday and the Lancaster on the Sunday.

    The Spitfire was critical in defeating air attacks during the Battle of Britain, and the classic fighter, the Hurricane, also played an important role in the battle.

    The Lancaster bomber was the most successful of the British heavy bombers during the conflict.

    The planes will be flying thanks to an RAF initiative called the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which maintains the priceless artefacts and commemorates those who gave their life for their country.

    Head of marketing at The Tank Museum Nik Wyness said: “Tankfest is well-known as an event for military history enthusiasts to see some of the rarest running historic tanks in the world.

    “Now we’re giving tank nuts and aviation fans alike the rare opportunity to glimpse these Second World War planes soaring over their armoured vehicle counterparts.

    “We’d like to thank the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight for sharing another piece of history with our audience and helping us to honour those who fought during the Second World War.”

    1. Darn it. I booked tickets for Tankfest yesterday – I’ve booked for the Friday.

    2. When I was a student at Cranfield, the BoB Flight was quartered there. Regular revvings-up of Merlins on the airfild would be followed by the planes beating up the airfiled with low flying display. I recall once seeing a Spitfire, in plan view, as it passed between the Poplar trees that line the roads on campus! That was special…

      1. Good morning OB

        We are so darned lucky living here , we do appreciate vintage aircraft engine noise when we hear and see a flypast, either a Hurricane or a Spitfire .

  98. News from the slimey Times

    Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to make Labour the party of housebuilding by relaxing planning restrictions and allowing more homes to be built on the green belt.

    In an interview with The Times, the Labour leader accused the Conservatives of killing “the aspiration of homeowning for a whole generation” and warned that housebuilding was on course to fall to the lowest level since the Second World War.

    He said that Labour would give local authorities and residents more power to build on green belt land to meet local housing need. The government has pledged to enhance protections for green belt land.

    In regards to Labour’s prospects at the next general election, Starmer was emphatic — he is on course to win an outright majority and become prime minister. “I am confident,” he said. “I’ve always thought we could do it. We have just been quietly, incrementally, changing the party, improving and progressing.

    “My confidence we can secure a Labour majority government is based not just on the results this year, winning in the places we needed to win . . . but because I know that if we step up again, and are truly exceptional, this trajectory takes us up. I’m confident we can keep on that trajectory going up.”

    It is a message that Starmer has relayed to his shadow cabinet, telling them: “You’ve got to step up — everybody in this team has to step up again and be exceptional from these local elections into the general election.”

    Starmer is attempting to begin that process by moving his focus on to one of the most difficult issues for the Tories: housebuilding.

    1. Yup, we need to build more homes to house many farsands more illegal immigrants. It just so happens that the indigenous population is actually decreasing. Never mind.

      1. I’m not sure of my facts, but didn’t Sir Keir argue against preventing the limitless number of economic migrants?

    2. We don’t have a housing crisis, we have a population crisis, facilitated by the government trawling the Channel for invaders who hate us and our way of life.

    3. We have an established Greenbelt for a reason. It is necessary among other considerations, to provide an essential buffer between major cities. If it did not exist then Birmingham would eventually conjoin with a number of satellite cities and conurbations. This would result in an amorphous conglomeration or merging of densely populated ‘zones’ with no breathing space between them. The ancient Roman cities would be combined as presumably Metropolitan Districts, the last thing we need both culturally and politically.

      Everyone viewing our countryside from a train window imagines that Britain will never be concreted over. The reverse is that case and with idiots such as Gove levelling us all ‘up’ you may be assured that our country and countryside will be expunged very rapidly.

      1. In our area the local planning department is eager for houses to be built on Green Belt land, whilst the

        locals are keen for development to be carried out on thew many neglected brown field sites.

        Needless to say, the locals are being abused as Nimbies.

    1. Goodnight Bob. We watched the Dambusters Unclassified as recommended by David/Stig. Very good it was too.

      1. Could be, Mum, it’s what I’m currently experiencing, though Korky can see my posts.

        I could just be paranoid.

        Let’s see what happens in the morn with the daily story.

        2. What’s that old saying? Just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they are not out to get you!

          Your posts are coming in loud and clear. Looking forward to tomorrows wakeup missive.

    2. Me too, Ann. I hope you and the Gentleman of the Lake both sleep well.

  102. Good night, chums. A productive day for me today. See you all tomorrow.

  103. President Cyril Ramaphosa will join a group of African leaders who will soon be travelling to Moscow and Kyiv to meet with Vladimir Putin of Russia and Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, to help resolve the conflict between their countries.

    Ramaphosa said he had spoken with both Zelensky and Putin at the weekend where they discussed a possible peaceful solution.

    He said the two leaders agreed to having a delegation of African leaders to mediate between the warring parties.

    Ramaphosa will join President Macky Sall of Senegal, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo-Brazzaville, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.

    Both Putin and Zelensky said they were ready to receive the six African leaders.

    The impending visit by the six African leaders comes at the time South Africa has faced accusations by US ambassador Reuben Brigety of supporting Russia by selling arms to it.

    DA leader John Steenhuisen said he was in Washington two weeks ago when he put forward the case for South Africa that it did not support Russia.

    Steenhuisen said he wanted to protect the country from being kicked out of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa).

    Ramaphosa’s national security adviser Sydney Mufamadi was in Washington more than a week ago with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, to explain the country’s position.

    President Cyril Ramaphosa will appoint a retired judge to lead a probe into the docking of a Russian naval ship in the country that allegedly uploaded weapons and ammunition for the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

    This was after Ramaphosa slammed US Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety II for going public on the matter.

    1. It seems that the US and its lapdog the UK are becoming increasingly marginalised and obsolescent in world affairs.

      Good grief, how have we descended into such ignominy in double quick time? Crap politicians, self interest and treason for a few pieces of silver.

      What a frigging mess.

  104. Goodnight and God bless, dear Gentlefolk until the morning’s light.

    Which daily becomes earlier.

    1. Yes, Sir Jasper, I always set my alarm for 6 am but these days I am awake at 5 am or earlier. Anyhow, I hope you sleep reasonably well. If not, you can always post your “funny” and then go straight back to bed for a few extra Zeds.

    2. Yes, Sir Jasper, I always set my alarm for 6 am but these days I am awake at 5 am or earlier. Anyhow, I hope you sleep reasonably well. If not, you can always post your “funny” and then go straight back to bed for a few extra Zeds.

  107. When I logged in at 6:06 the comment count was 617: on the morning that those brave young men were returning from the Dams Raid.

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