Tuesday 17 May: The EU has not acted in good faith over the Northern Ireland Protocol

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

590 thoughts on “Tuesday 17 May: The EU has not acted in good faith over the Northern Ireland Protocol”

  1. Thatcher’s legacy

    The hate that Thatcher inspires among the Left is almost a compliment

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 16 May 2022

    If they attack one personally,” Margaret Thatcher once said, “it means they have not a single political argument left” – and within hours of a statue of the great lady being installed in her native Grantham, a man was spotted throwing eggs at it.

    The hate that Thatcher inspires among the Left is almost a compliment. Her administration was far more pragmatic than many remember, and she regarded herself as belonging to the One Nation tradition.

    But she also broke union power, privatised – and transformed – industries, cut taxes and allowed millions to own their own home. For decades it had seemed as if Britain were moving to the Left, and declining as a result. She not only arrested the creep but reversed it, and left us a country that was richer and more imaginative.

    What she loathed most was any hint that Britain was finished. Given how vast our state has become since the pandemic, how burdened the country seems to be with self-doubt, many of us would gladly have her back.

    An attack on a statue is a feature of our 21st-century neurosis. Another image of Thatcher, at the Guildhall Art Gallery, was decapitated in 2002. The Grantham statue was intended to stand close to Parliament but was rejected by Westminster Council, who said it was too soon after her death.

    Vandalism is an extension of the war on free speech: the Left doesn’t want to hear an alternative point of view, and it doesn’t want to see one, either. But the self-confidence of Thatcher’s conservatism is one of her greatest legacies, for she articulated, even embodied, a philosophy that will dominate the public square for years to come.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/05/15/thatchers-legacy/

    1. The egg thrower is employed by the state. As of this morning, he should find he isn’t. The entire image is representation of everything wrong with this country. A great leader behind bars, protected from the people she helped and those same spoiled, over paid wasters throwing things at her.

      That bloke should be put in stocks and flogged.

  2. Among Ireland’s elites Anglophobia is alive and well

    Sinn Fein’s recent success in becoming the largest party at Stormont has triggered another round of giddy bar room nationalism

    EILIS O’HANLON

    Shortly after Britain voted to leave the EU in 2016, the Irish Times in Dublin assured readers that it was all the result of a “collective English mental breakdown.” That has remained the consensus among Irish opinion formers ever since.

    But what if it’s actually the Irish who have been sent mad by Brexit? Last week, one academic in the country even put forward the idea that, should Sinn Fein achieve “electoral dominance” in Ireland in the next few years, it might prompt whoever was then UK Prime Minister – be it Liz Truss, Priti Patel, or some other “Tory with British imperial ambitions” – to despatch troops across the Irish Sea to “reclaim an island that some Tories believe belongs to Britain”.

    Speculative history is a respectable academic pastime, but it usually has to be anchored in some semblance of plausibility. The musings of Cathal McCall, professor of European Politics and Borders at Queens University Belfast, were so “bonkerooni”, as Michael Gove might say, that it read like a satire of the sort of conspiracy theories that throng the wilder fringes of the internet.

    What gave the article in question a spurious legitimacy was that it was published on the website of Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE, whose editorial guidelines commit it to producing content which is “honest, reliable, authoritative, accurate, impartial, fair and independent.” In accordance with such guidelines there was a disclaimer underneath that “the views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTE.” One would sincerely hope not.

    All editorial decisions involve choices, however, and it’s hard to believe that RTE would publish a piece which fantasised in equally alarmist terms about a Sinn Fein government imposing martial law, or decriminalising the Provisional IRA, or changing school text books to retrospectively endorse the group’s terrorist campaign. That would almost certainly be considered too provocative for publication. The only conclusion is that anything now goes when it comes to engaging in inflammatory rhetoric about the British.

    There has always been an undertow of Anglophobia in Ireland, for obvious historical reasons. As the country most affected economically by Brexit, some anxiety, even pique, was also forgivable in the aftermath. But the speed with which the country has succumbed to ancient tribal resentments in recent years suggests they weren’t as far below the surface of modern Ireland as many hoped; and Sinn Fein’s recent success in becoming the largest party at Stormont has triggered another round of giddy bar room nationalism.

    Right now, the airwaves and social media are filled with strident calls for the government in Dublin to urgently begin preparations for Irish unity. Paranoia about what Britain might do to thwart a united Ireland are part of the same trend, though the Belfast Agreement already lays out what would happen if people in Northern Ireland were to freely vote for unification with the Republic – namely, that it would be respected and legislated for.

    Suggesting otherwise is not only ridiculous, but dangerous. Because if Irish people really did start to entertain the idea that the British might try to subvert the democratic will in Ireland, then it’s not much of a leap to cast unionists in the North as the enemy within.

    The normalisation of that toxic suspicion can only benefit Sinn Fein itself.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/16/among-irelands-elite-anglophobia-alive/

    1. But the speed with which the country has succumbed to ancient tribal resentments in recent years suggests they weren’t as far below the surface of modern Ireland as many hoped…

      One of the most absurd delusions of the British is that the Irish actually like us!

      1. Morning all.

        Our son married an Irish Colleen in 2000 and 3 years later they lived over there. When they bought their house it was taking forever and when our family complained about it they were told “it’s because of the English, the way they set things up”. Our son apparently said something like “you’ve had 80 odd years to change it”. He has told us that when they were in pubs over there and the Irish heard his English voice there was definitely an atmosphere.

        Incidentally he was beaten up over there when he’d gone to a leaving do. Stepped outside, drunk, and 3 fellas were beating someone up. When he intervened they turned on him. Hospitalised, possible spine injury. Fortunately all turned out well but he says his memory has never been quite as good since he was kicked in the head. They came back to Guildford about a year later.

      2. The whole nation seems silly. How far back do you hold a grudge? What is the real cause? The famine? What about those ships trying desperately to break the blockade? Is it a religious sentiment? Then tough. Which side believe in what invented fantasy is just immature. If you want a jihad, get on with it and wipe each other out. It’s tiresome now.

        1. How far back? Before Elizabeth I, Cromwell, the Battle of the Boyne at least.

        2. I recently found out that there were over 20 mini-famines in Ireland in the 75 years before the big one. Makes me wonder why they didn’t get the hint and diversify.

    2. The DT is slightly missing the point.

      Sinn Fein certainly want the farms and factories of Northern Ireland, but they certainly don’t want the people.

    3. Ironic that Sinn Fein means “Ourselves Alone” – that’s exactly what we wanted when we voted for Brexit!

  4. Morning, all Y’all!
    Constitution Day in Norway today! Much parading, bands, flags everywhere. Ours was raised 06:00.
    Beautiful day, too.

  5. Watch me blossom as Doctor Who’s Rose, says transgender actress. 17 may 2022.

    Upon joining the show, Finney said: “If anyone would have told eight-year-old Yasmin that one day she’d be part of this iconic show, I would have never in a million years believed them.

    “This show has a place in so many people’s hearts, so to be seen as a trans actress by the legend himself Russell [T Davies], has not only made my year, it’s made my life. I cannot wait to begin this journey and for you all to see how Rose blossoms. Get ready.”

    No thanks! At the back of this Wokification of Doctor Who is a profound hatred and contempt for the White Working Classes and their traditional values. They don’t really care if I and others like me stop watching. That’s a victory of sorts as well!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/05/17/watch-blossom-doctor-rose-says-transgender-actress/

    1. It comes to something when the BBCmen are more scary than the Cybermen….

    3. Oh dear life. The BBC hasn’t learned a thing. The show is finished. One day they’ll understand ‘go woke, go broke’.

      1. They’ll never go broke.

        They have a never ending supply of money from the peasantry, some of whom haver never even watched BBC TV.

        Obviously if the Government disliked their political stance they would cancel this form of underhand taxation.

        1. Very true. There are also countless millions of vacuum-heads who won’t hear a word said against the BBC and who take everything uttered on it as verifiably true.

  7. The Partisan vs. Reality. 17 May 2022.

    One of the more difficult things for most people to accept is that the ruling classes of the West, particularly in the United States, are best understood as a revolutionary class, with the same utopian fantasies as past radicals. They imagine themselves as the vanguard of a revolutionary cast, ushering in the final phase of history. Instead of “Workers of the world unite!” it is “Build back better!”

    Yes! They are our enemies and the enemy of all that made the West supreme in everything from Law to Science and Music to Democracy. They are destroying everything that made the West what it was and is.

    https://www.takimag.com/article/the-partisan-vs-reality/

    1. Morning BB. One of the oddities of Marxism is that it appeals to the Intellectual and Cultural elites in democratic societies. Of course once it comes into power these are the first classes it destroys!

      1. It’s not just the wacky politics, did you hear the bit about them hardly doing any work??

    2. I don’t see how a business can complain it is ‘socialist’. Without capital, it has no income. Folk forget what the terms really mean.

      As for censorship, this was very obvious. All it shows is how terrified the Left are of dissenting voices. If their arguments are so fragile, frantically trying to silence every voice is just going to leave the Left frightened and isolated as they eventually realise how irrelevant and what a minority they are.

  9. Top news item in BBC Breakfast this morning – gay footballer coming out. Being praised by celebs etc.

    In other news – WWIII has started.

    4. The BBC suffers from groupthink in that being gay is something to celebrate, as if saying you are accompanied by fanfare and trumpets. In truth, no one cares. It’s his life, his choice. It’s called a private life because it’s just that.

  14. Good morning all.
    A bright start after a dry night with 7½°C outside.

      1. Firstborn was a member of his school band. Many a 17th May we had to be up early to take him to school so they could march round the locality 06:00 – 08:00, then breakfast at school, then back at 12:00 for speecifying, playing & marching. It was hard work… but fun.

    2. What is the Duke of Cambridge doing holding the Mace of the British Parliament? Is he a fan of Michael Heseltine? Lol.

  16. Some inconvenient truths about plucky little Ukraine. 17 May 2022.

    But this is no Agincourt, no Spanish Civil War, no battle between brave little David against a savage Russian Goliath. Carpenter shows that Ukraine is not a symbol of freedom and liberal democracy. Such pontificating is pure myth, useful for those in the West who seek to piggy-back off an Eastern European stand-off in the interests of their own expansionism and vast opportunities for profiteering.

    The reality is that Ukraine has long been one of the world’s most corrupt countries, way ahead of anywhere else in Europe. In January 2022, Transparency International’s Corruption Index ranked Ukraine 123rd out of 180 countries with a score of 32 out of 100, the second-most corrupt in Europe, notorious Russia only slightly worse at 139th with a score of 29.

    This corruption thrives in key areas of Ukraine society, with bribery rife in both public and private sectors which in 2022 becomes harder to blame exclusively on the country’s ‘Russian’ traditions. The highest levels are found in the police, health care, the courts and education; the OECD states that corruption is a significant barrier to doing business there. The main causes, according to USAID, are a weak justice system, a weak civil society, with an over-controlling government combined with business-political ties, some of which are detailed here. Bribery goes hand in hand with money-laundering. The US Money Laundering Assessment finds the problem in Ukraine significant. The World Governance Indicator – Control of Corruption has given Ukraine a score of 24 out of 100. There are laws against such misconduct, but the country’s weak judicial system limits any enforcement.

    I don’t suppose that this is going to appear in the MSM in the near future!

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/some-inconvenient-truths-about-plucky-little-ukraine/

    1. Funny, this culture of corruption didn’t put the top Dems in the US off from investing in Ukraine! Odd, that.

      1. Yes BB2, with Hunter Biden employed by one of the top companies in Ukraine you would have thought that he

        would have tipped off his father about the corrupt goings on.

  17. ‘Morning, Peeps. A pleasant sunny day is promised, with rain late evening. Perfick!

    Today’s leading letter:

    SIR – Simon Coveney, Ireland’s foreign minister, says the Northern Ireland Protocol was “freely chosen and jointly designed by the British Government and the EU” (Comment, May 15). He then disingenuously suggests that if the UK disapplied any part of it, this would be “breaking international law”.

    He disregards the fact that the very same Protocol allows for either side unilaterally to suspend parts of it, if it is leading to the kinds of serious practical problems we can see today.

    Mr Coveney also seems to overlook the part of the Protocol which requires both sides to act in good faith. There is a strong argument that, by insisting on the letter rather than the spirit of the agreement – for example, by refusing to remove checks on own-brand items destined for supermarkets that do not even have stores in the Republic of Ireland – the EU has itself already breached the Protocol.

    Mark Lichfield
    Blandford Forum, Dorset

    Well said, Sir. Obviously the bully-boys of the EU, and of the R of I in particular, have not read the protocol – or if they have they have yet to understand it.

    1. A couple of BTLs that made me smile:

      Ian Lander
      7 HRS AGO
      Re: Northern Ireland protocol. EU is miffed we chose to leave and is throwing toys out of their collective pram.

      P Lamb
      6 HRS AGO
      To continue the metaphor, the feeble UK Government is picking the toys up and putting them back in the pram, whereas what it should be doing is confiscating them.

    2. They are doing what the EU always does; picking the bits that suit their agenda and ignoring the rest.

  18. SIR – For those on both sides of the Irish border who, over the years, have quietly forged joint ventures in agriculture, security, tourism, sport and many other fields, with the hope of one day creating a truly united Ireland by consent in some form or other, it is a tragedy that current relations between North and South are so bad.

    Fashionable though it is to blame the Democratic Unionist Party for all ills besetting the Northern Ireland Assembly, in my view it is politicians from outside the UK – particularly in the Irish government – who are playing a very dangerous game with the Good Friday Agreement.

    Anyone with knowledge of Northern Ireland sees that, although it certainly could provide opportunities for those businesses with a foot in both the UK and the EU, the NI Protocol in its present form can never work while its administration is so heavily biased towards trade with the EU, to the detriment of trade within the UK.

    Still intent upon revenge for Brexit, the EU has instructed its spokesperson to thwart any reasonable proposal for reform from Britain and is now refusing to negotiate. Although friendship between Britain and Europe must be restored as soon as possible, pressure must be put on the EU to accept that Brexit is here to stay and Britain will never return to the fold. Petulance and vindictive behaviour, together with a worrying vacillation over Ukraine, have put paid to that.

    Politicians from all sides must grow up and behave in a statesmanlike manner. If not, we might really see Northern Ireland descend once again into violence which, in all sensible minds, should be unthinkable.

    Tessa Lefroy
    Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ireland

    1. Mrs Lefroy speaks a lot of sense.
      Culturally, a huge gap has opened up in recent years though, as the Republic has been taken over by wreckers and the North is the most socially conservative part of the entire British isles.

    2. An excellent BTL (as usual) from Martin Selves:

      Martin Selves
      29 MIN AGO
      Liz Truss is going to describe to the HoC tomorrow Plans to modify the NI Agreement. Her own plan, and that held by Lord Frost will not get a look in. Modest changes will be described and more time for the EU to respond. The DUP are openly furious They believe another period of dither and delay is about to start. They want some real change where the ECJ has no say in the NI Constitution and “Free trade” resumes between Country’s in the UK. This is obvious to everyone and what we voted for in Brexit.
      Boris remains unconvinced. Yesterday he said the way forward was to modify the Protocol and give more time. It is quite amazing that after 2 years of talking, after all the words of Lord Frost and Liz Truss, after he said a year ago the Protocol had no value, he still believes the EU will agree to a new one that will satisfy the DUP and the UK. The truth is the EU will never change a full stop or Comma, and he knows this full well.
      I wrote yesterday it is time for Boris Johnson to be replaced. We cannot allow him to continue talking for another year or another month on a subject the EU will not change anything.
      This is simply barking mad. His Hubris over Northern Ireland is clear to everyone. He cannot solve this black hole in our Constitution. I wrote last week this would happen because we have in Boris a Brino, and every month we see it more clearly. Further delay and capitulations will break up the United Kingdom. I am sure if this carry’s on for much longer we will see violence return to the streets. It needs someone to slap him in the face and wake him up. Tomorrow we will see Boris, via Liz Truss, carry on where Theresa May left off. Instead of a firm direction we will see, between the lines, another period of firm dithering.

    3. We should treat the EU as an enemy operation. It should never be trusted, never considered an ally, never a ‘friend. Any treaty should be considered suspect and corrupt.

      Oh my dear sweet Ms Lefroy. Politicians are not grown ups. They’re toddlers playing in a sandpit but it’s our cash instead of sand. The correct solution is to kick the EU out of NI and enact the policies the EU is so terrified of – sacking any civil servant who refuses them: massive tax cuts. A huge boom in industry. No capital gains, no VAT, no foreign aid (which goes to the EU to waste). Cut, cut and cut regulation until the scissors are blunt then get more.

      Start off with tax cuts though. Harsh ones. Stop taking money from some, then giving it back as in work credits. The entire system is moronic, just don’t take as much in the first place. Frighten the hated EU into obedience. Have them cower as we take advantage of Brexit rather than slavishly following their useless policies.

  19. SIR – When Jeremy Hunt became health secretary in 2012, the average tenure of his predecessors was two years and three months. He was secretary of state for six years. Only now has he identified that, during this time, the NHS was “a rogue system”.

    What is his legacy? He provoked a strike by junior hospital doctors. In his speech to the Conservative Party conference in 2016 he promised that the NHS would be self-sufficient in doctors by 2025. What steps did he take to fulfil this promise, and why last year were more doctors who had trained abroad registered by the General Medical Council than ones trained in the UK?

    He is rightly focused on preventing harm to patients. What steps did he take to bring about a change of culture? Did he ever hold a conference with all those involved – the presidents of all the royal medical colleges and medical and surgical associations, together with the patient safety commissioner and NHS Resolution? Why are there so few doctors among the employees of NHS Resolution? Two private medical indemnity companies, the Medical Defence Union and the Medical Protection Society, both have more than 40.

    Is it not a condemnation of his legacy that it fell to his successor, Matt Hancock, to order that fax machines be phased out? After the failure of the scheme to create an IT system across primary and secondary care in the NHS, which cost more than £10 billion, what steps did he take to address the inadequacies of the existing system?

    Doctors are marginalised in the NHS’s decision-making process. They are regarded as shop-floor workers, and are managed by people who have less training, less understanding of the NHS and, very often, less intelligence than those they are managing.

    These are just some of the political failures that Mr Hunt should be addressing. In the meantime, doctors and nurses are held responsible for the mistakes that lead to patient harm, when in reality the failings lie within the system.

    Hugh N Whitfield FRCS
    London W1

    It is all very well for Hunt to review his time as health secretary (“Not me, gov”) but in writing a book about it he has set himself up for a torrent of criticism, with much of it justified. He had an unbroken period of 6 years in office but failed to undertake a system that, even then, was in obvious need of reform.

    PS The failed IT system cost was in fact £12bn, not £10bn. Still, what’s a couple of billion in an organisation that requires around £120bn this year?

    1. Hunt is not the man to tackle the NHS blob – not enough character or courage.

      1. Good morning Bb

        I have the same mindset as you.. remembering Hunt from a few years ago , he appears to me to be a bit of a snake in the grass.

        1. I knew him at university. He was a weak rich boy, with the ability to get on well with people he saw as his equals (upper middle class). He appeared to lump everyone else into a sort of vast clump reminiscent of the cast of EastEnders. He had a habit of making slightly risqué comments to women that he clearly didn’t fancy (I think he only ever had girlfriends of Chinese/Far Eastern origin).
          At first, I thought he was likeable, but later I found him rather creepy.

          1. My observation of Jeremy Hunt is that he has glossy glassy staring eyes and has a rigid stance .. I just wondered whether he had a drug habit .

          3. His inability to remember the nationality of his wife might confirm that….

        2. When we saw Hunt and Boris at a leadership hustings, Hunt indulged in ad hominem attacks on his opponent.
          That showed a nasty, sneaky trait. You do not lead people by snarkiness.
          Whatever Bozza’s faults, that was certainly something he did not do.

    2. £12,000,000,000 for a database. For goodness sake. Why didn’t they design it as if it were for one hospital – heck, even one small department? Then gradually expand from there incrementally to the hospital. Then another, and another and so on in a phased trial over multiple years.

      1. Good heavens! That would take organisational ability and a desire for efficiency. Silly boy!

    4. I worked the NHS for a short time. There were a number of management groups and committees of which doctors were members. In general, they treated these things as comedy outings when they bothered to turn up for meetings. One or two clinicians had moved into General Manager positions. They were very poor. In one instance a General Manager, with managerial experience, was recruited to fill the post held by an incompetent clinician. That meant two full time general managers on the payroll in one department. (Couldn’t sack the useless manager, she was female, as was everyone in HR, “Clique-Claque”.

  20. SIR – I was in the Combined Cadet Force at school and used to rub soap inside the creases of my Army uniform trousers before pressing them with an iron (Letters, May 14).

    The sharpness of the creases was maintained for several weeks by leaving them under my mattress the night before a parade.

    Chris Yates
    Peasedown St John, Somerset

    Yes, but pressing the creases after soaping, with the iron on max and a wet cloth, gave even better results. And boy, those ‘hairy mary’ trousers required a lot of work!

  21. Covid jobs first to be axed in Civil Service ‘purge’ as unions threaten national strike. 17 May 2022.

    Boris Johnson gives ministers one month to come up with plans to slim down departments

    Covid jobs will be among the first to be cut from government departments, it is understood, as the UK’s largest Civil Service trade unions threaten a national strike over proposed cuts.

    The Telegraph understands that those leading the drive to reduce the size of the Civil Service are looking at shrinking units that led the UK’s response to the pandemic.

    This is bull. If anyone were actually interested (they are not) in reforming the country’s Administration and Civil Services it would require the wholesale sacking of thousands, the closing down of entire ministries and departments. Anything else is just public relations.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/13/covid-jobs-will-first-go-civil-service-purge-unions-threaten/

    1. I’m willing to bet that ‘public relations’ will somehow escape any reductions!

      ‘Morning Minty.

    3. Go on strike. When we don’t notice for a month, we’ll sack you. It is the opportune moment to utterly and permanently shred the state machine.

    4. It would be an extremely ill-considered move to sack specialised Covid workers. This selfless army of devoted Civil Servants has worked ceaselessly, tirelessly, to implement, improve and interpret the laws, rules, regulations, and restrictions imposed by the governments of the UK to mitigate the effects of this deadly pandemic.
      To lose this expensive expertise and knowledge now, would be a tragic mistake. Lives would be put at risk. We are facing the possibility, nay likelihood, of further devastating variations of Covid as well as the real possibility of new and even more dreadful pandemics. They must be kept in reserve, on the payroll, much like the Territorial Army of old. Ready to spring into efficient action immediately a new danger arises.

  23. This has to be the best headline in today’s DT:

    “Amber Heard denies defecating in Johnny Depp’s bed and blames his dog

    Actress tells the court that the animal had a history of bowel problems ever since it has accidentally ingested Depp’s marijuana”

    Lol!

    1. Telegraph should be ashamed of themselves covering this trashy story, which along with the footballers’ wives is just being used to distract the masses from issues like the WHO power grab.

    2. The pair of them seem vile dysfunctional characters. He’s an alcoholic drug addict, she’s.. err, an alcoholic drug addict. Neither have the integrity to walk away from each other because, at some level they were no doubt enjoying the chaos.

      They feed one another’s psychosis.

      1. Pots of money but very little brain. Never mind. The legal profession will no doubt relieve them of vast sums when this is all over…

        1. My learned friends are very grateful – and to Mrs Vardy and Mrs Rooney, as well.

          Depp-Heard appear to have forgotten that they are NOT making a film!!

    1. They can’t. Lady T beat them. She showed them up for what they are: nasty, bitter, verminous whelps.

      That bloke vandalising public property should be sacked from his post and flogged. He is the epitome of everything wrong with this country. A PM who brought prosperity and wealth has a monument sat behind steel bars to protect it from spoiled overpaid wasters paid by the public purse.

      That image sums up every problem this country has.

  25. Oh – there IS some news.

    I have decided to come out as heterosexual. I was inspired to do so by a teenage wendyball player.

    2. I’ve come to the conclusion that Queen Victoria was right. Women can’t do what men do and not enjoying what men do doesn’t make a woman a lesbian. Women have never been called upon to enjoy it. It’s about the preservation of the species, not self gratification. On that front, it must be admitted, I am a failure.

      1. I’m not sure what you are confessing to here, Sue, but where were you when JFK was assassinated?
        ;-))

        1. 1) My failure to reproduce, which was deliberate. 2) I was in the assembly hall at Carr Infants School, Acomb, for the Autumn Fair.

          1. I wondered if you’d been in Dallas that day… asking for a fbiend… ;-))

          2. I was home alone, with my then still married Mam & Dad being out for an evening, watching TV at 39 Northumberland Avenue, Newbiggin by the Sea and I broke the news to them when they got home and hour or so later.

      2. I’m not sure what you are confessing to here, Sue, but where were you when JFK was assassinated?
        ;-))

    4. Now that you have been brave enough to admit this I am prepared to state that I am heterosexual also.

  26. Meet the activists on the ‘right side of history’. Spiked 17 May 2022.

    One woman who did agree to speak to me on camera said: ‘If [people] want to be gender-nonconforming males, fine, go for it! But that doesn’t make you a woman.’ This appears to hit at the heart of the divide. It is no longer enough to take the liberal position of ‘you do you’ in relation to gender. Nothing short of declaring that ‘trans women are women’ is acceptable in mainstream discussion. And so people are expected to affirm what they do not believe to be true.

    #Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One’s standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.# THEODORE DALRYMPLE.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/05/16/meet-the-activists-on-the-right-side-of-history/

    1. A man dressing up as a woman is not a woman. These are facts. You cannot become something you are not through demanding others join your psychosis.

        1. The political class will jump on any bandwagon going – it’s in their nature. The trans and gays don’t seem to realise they’re just being used. Perhaps they’re happy to be as they think the ephemeral support of the politcos is to their advantage?

    2. The sooner trans people wake up and realise that trans activists are using them as a tool to destroy Society the better.

      2. And the political classes winging in to support the trans people when they’re just being manipulated.

      1. His wife leaving him as the Jeffrey Epstein issue arose stinks. It may be co-incidence, but they were far too chummy.

  28. “Driver pinches her OWN car back from thieves:

    Motorist foils crooks after finding her stolen vehicle parked on street

    1.9miles away from her home using GPS tracker”

    “She said: ‘I called the police again. They told me to get my keys and go

    and reclaim my car. I had thought they would go, but no apparently it

    was quicker if I did.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10821955/Land-Rover-Discovery-driver-pinches-car-thieves.html
    Hmm and if the lady bumped into the thieves?? What could possibly go wrong…………

    1. Plod probably too busy looking for hurty words online and recording non crime hate incidents?

    2. SOP for car thieves. Steal a car, change the number plates and park it up nearby and wait to see if it has a tracker in case it lets Plod track them to their own base.

      1. Bet the thieves sue for breach of privacy or hurt feelings or suffin’

    3. Apparently they stole her petrol, they didn’t really want the RR to expensive to run……only Joe King 😂

    4. Modern cars are very difficult to steal. Thieves go after the keys, and since many cars are now keyless locking and ignition, once you have bought the gizmo openly on sale on Fleabay or similar you are in business. Some years ago now I had a case involving the theft of two very expensive Mercs, the keys to which had been left on a table about 10′ from the front door. A fishing rod with a magnet on the end…and bingo! If you have ‘keyless’ the keys are best kept in a Farady wallet, and well away from view. Personally I can’t really see the need for ‘keyless’ but it can be turned off in some makes.

  29. A place like home: unlike many species, blue tits usually only rear one brood each year

    I hope that the tint of the fledglings are truly representative of UK TV Adverts

    1. It’s only tax-payer money.

      Perhaps very penny spent on welfare for asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, arms and armaments for “friends”, costs of embassies etc etc et bluddy cet should come from the foreign aid budget
      Given that charitable giving also gets tax relief, every penny of tax relief should also come from the foreign aid budget.
      And given that it’s generally urged by bleeding hearts, sack the civil servants and let the bleeders work without pay in its distribution.
      Oh, and the budget should be halved from the 0.5% not increased to 0.7%

      1. Disaster aid only. The countries playing on white guilt have had 60 years to sort themselves out. It’s not our fault they’re still drinking buffalo piss and breeding like rabbits.

        3. You want white guilt?

          Tube in for the BS that Prince Charles is about to receive from the first nations mob. They are already pontificating about how they will demand that the queen issues a personal apology for all of the past wrongdoing.

          Plus loads of cash of course, nothing eases trauma of their ancestors like someone else’s cash.

  33. Looks like Shree Longka is in trouble. Perhaps their new best friend in Bayjing will come to the rescue.

  34. I am amused by one of today’s advertisements on Nottle:

    “Human Resource Courses Might Be Easier Than You Think.”

    I doubt it.

        1. Even so – it’ll rot away. Around here, a lot of “eco-freak” houses are being cladded with “sustainable” timber. Knowing what 21st century timber is like – I’d give it ten years max…

          1. Would have to be well protected from rodents, I should think. What do you mean about 21st century timber?

          3. In the last century (remember that?), a brother-in-law who is a joiner described most timber, especially that bought at builders’ merchants, as rope. Anything decent had to be obtained from specialist timber merchants and the price reflected the quality.

          4. Given the upstairs floor isn’t level I’m inclined to agree. Stuff is made cheaply and badly. Replacing it then becomes nightmarish.

          6. I’m watching a couple of houses being built on the site of former bungalows. All the dormer windows seem to be installed in chipboard surrounds. One small crack in the coating and ……

          7. Firstborn’s house was built before the USA achieved independence, and is still standing perfectly well. It’s made entirely of wood – tree trunks, to be precise. That’s a bit nore than 10 years…

          9. Quite. That is what wood USED to be like. Now it is rubbish – rotting before ones eyes.

      2. It’s known as OSB Bill Oriented Strand Board.
        but there doesn’t appear to be any insulation inside the blocks.

    3. Just what they need in the US – until the first tornado or hurricane roars into town.

    1. I had a look at this late yesterday evening, as someone had shared it on the UK Lockdown Sceptics page on Facebook, saying that it’s now up to 97k. It went from 98k to 100k very rapidly and before my very eyes!

    1. Sad though that public swimming pools are closing , too expensive to heat.

      Every child should be given the opportunity to learn to swim or stay afloat at least

        1. As an 8 year old our class were taken to Mil Hill Out door (Brrrrr) pool, a few days after it had opened for the new season. We use to be told to get in the water in the 2′-6″ shallow end and the manager Ernie Elwood would kneel on the edge with a long bamboo cane and place it on the surface and shout “Right get under or get out”! Strange how I remember his name all these years on………

        2. I spluttered and gasped as I came back up and the other games mistress pulled me out.

      2. They should also be taught, that it is OK to pee in the swimming pool, in an emergency, but not from the Diving Boards

      3. We got swimming lessons for a single term. Onto a bus for a trip to Romford public baths and thrown into the shallow end.
        During the last outing we were expected to doggie paddle the length of the pool so that we could be awarded a nice certificate. Just in case we failed, the gym teacher walked along the edge of the pool with an enormous grappling hook but I am not sure if that was meant to save us or spear us.

        Absolutely no enjoyment and it certainly didn’t encourage any of us to start swimming regularly.

        1. My village raised the funds for a swimming pool at my primary school. Swimming every Summer. I loved it. They would open it up in the Summer holidays too.

        2. I loved it- took to it like a duck to water. Not keen on diving though and stopped swimming underwater some years ago. Really miss it now.

        3. Similar experience; freezing cold Garrison swimming pool.
          Lots of shouting and splashing.
          Put me off swimming for life.

      4. I was given the opportunity – in fact my mother paid for swimming lessons in Weston one summer. I managed to learn nothing. Then after changing schools we were taken swimming each week. After the games mistress pushed me in and I nearly drowned, my mother took pity on me and was quite inventive with the excuse notes. I still avoid swimming pools.

        1. Weston Super Mud? I’m not surprised you didn’t manage to learn to swim – the sea was always out! 🙂

          1. The lessons were at the Knightstone baths – and the woman apparently trained channel swimmers. She failed miserably with me. I used to stay with my aunt and uncle in the school holidays.

      5. I taught myself to swim (at an open-air lido). When I went to grammar school we had our own swimming pool – I loved swimming. It beat all other sports hands down.

  38. I meant to mention , younger dog rolled in fox poo… in our garden , under the bird feeders .

    His ears and collar were thick with black stickyy tar… first time ever have we seen fox poo in the garden .

    Moh , bless him , was so exhausted after his game of golf , but he kindly bunged on a pair of rubber gloves and did the deed with the Fox poo remover shampoo.. scrubbing doggie in the kitchen sink .

    3. Ours did that once she sat in the house before we’d noticed the stench it’s awful we took her out side and washed her with warm soapy water and hosed her off. She hasn’t done it again

  39. Canada still has vaccine mandates applying to all RAIL JOURNEYS and the UK is in on this (WEF -sponsored) “AgileNations experiment:

    When Will Trudeau End The Vindictive Vaccine Mandates?
    Answer: All Roads Lead to Davos

    David Sabine
    May 13

    To answer that question, one only has to ask why Transport Canada received an honourable mention on page 47 of WEF’s “Toolkit for Regulators”1. From December 2020, the document is so named: “Agile Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution: A Toolkit for Regulators”; and there in a happy little paragraph just preceding the bibliography is a special tip of the hat to “Transport Canada”.

    Why?

    The Open Question
    Not a day passes that a Conservative MP doesn’t stand in the House of Commons and ask when Justin Trudeau’s “vindictive” vaccine mandates will be repealed.

    Yesterday, again, Melissa Lantsman raised the question, and 4 days ago, and 7 days ago. And not only Melissa, but Arnold Viersen raised the same question 8 days ago. And Stephanie Kusie the same day. And not only the House of Commons, but Senator Denise Batters raised the same question in the Senate.

    And it goes on and on, day after day. And various Twitter users post news of other country’s when they drop their mandates (which is now EVERY OTHER COUNTRY).

    And pollsters and journalists (such as Anthony Furey and Rupa Subramanya) repeatedly point out that most Canadians agree the federal vaccine mandates should be repealed. The logic is simple: we pack thousands of football fans into stadiums across the country, but an unvaccinated Canadian isn’t allowed to board a flight to attend their mother’s funeral?

    Most Canadians would happily move on, and some Canadians just need to have a conversation with their former self to be reminded how monstrous and shameful are Trudeau’s vaccine mandates.

    So, why does Trudeau persist?
    Well, isn’t it obvious? It’s an open secret. A “regulatory experiment” is underway, in partnership with other countries and guided by stakeholders in the World Economic Forum.

    “But, but…that’s sounds like a conspiracy theory!” 😒🙄

    Yes. I have a working theory (yet to be disproven) that our government is cooperating with others to conduct Digital Credentials proofs of concept and/or pilot projects. It’s all there in writing in the “Agile Nations Work Programme Plan 2021 to 2022”2 published by the Government of United Kingdom:

    See that page for yourself.

    The Federal Travel Restrictions Are Not About Vaccines, They’re About Digital Credentials
    While most people are focused on the “vaccine requirements” at the border and in our airports — the real subject of the regulatory experiment is the ArriveCAN software. And we can be sure Trudeau will continue the “vindictive” vaccine mandates until:

    the project runs its course and a favourable report is given to Singapore and the UK; or,

    a Canadian court declares the border restrictions breach Canadians’ Charter Rights & Freedoms; or,

    Trudeau’s handlers suggest a more politically advantageous theme to replace “vaccine mandates” as they march toward (1) Digital ID, (2) Central Bank Digital Currency, and (3) mass surveillance. (And, btw, for anyone who understand blockchain, you know 1, 2, and 3 are one and the same.)

    Let’s Connect Some Dots
    It’s a complicated web, but I promise you there exists a direct line from the World Economic Forum’s “Toolkit for Regulators” to Joe Canadian showing proof of vaccination before boarding a flight or crossing a border.

    Using information that is publicly available, it is clear that our Liberal Government is actively engaged in policy experiments designed by other governments and multinational corporations. The results of those experiments are reported, routinely, to the unelected, unaccountable, designers of said experiments in the World Economic Forum.

    Fact 1
    “Agile Nations” is an initiative designed by the World Economic Forum
    The Government of Canada signed an agreement, in November 2020, with World Economic Forum and seven member countries called the “Agile Nations Charter”3. The stated goal of the Agile Nations collective is to create a “global regulatory environment”. The group meets regularly to prepare annual “Workplans” and “Work Programmes” that describe which “regulatory experiments” will be conducted, which countries will conduct each experiment, and to whom those countries will report the results of each experiment.

    (Terms above, in quotes, are from the “Agile Nations” initiative, described at https://www.canada.ca/…/agile-nations.html.)

    Fact 2
    Enter Nesta
    A “Centre for Regulatory Innovation” was established in 2018’s Fall Economic Statement and launched under Liberal Cabinet Minister Scott Brison, then Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat. (Note: he was named by the World Economic Forum of Davos, as one of its “Young Global Leaders”4.)

    Surprised? Me neither.

    The mandate for Canada’s Centre for Regulatory Innovation includes “regulatory experimentation”. And a “UK-based innovation foundation” called Nesta is credited by Canada’s government (here) as a designer of said experiments. The types of experiments include regulatory pilots, regulatory exploration, and regulatory sandboxes.

    Fact 3
    Nesta is not elected by Canadians.

    The regulatory experiments are not designed by Canada’s Cabinet Ministers nor by Parliamentary committees.

    The regulatory experiments, the documents show are designed by multinational corporations and political delegates appointed to the “Agile Nations” initiative of the World Economic Forum.

    Nesta works directly with Government of Canada through a “cross-government group of 18 policy entrepreneurs with the mandate to challenge existing ways of working on persistent policy and structural challenges in Canada”5.

    (I thought our elected Parliamentarians are supposed be doing that? You know, working on persistent policy and structural challenges?)

    Could a proper journalist please look into Nesta’s cozy relationship with Trudeau’s government?

    Fact 4
    Enter Jean-Yves Duclos and United Nations
    In 2018, while Scott Brison was launching the “Centre for Regulatory Innovation” in the Treasury, Jean-Yves Duclos traveled to New York “for the 2018 United Nations High-level Political Forum (HLPF) on Sustainable Development to present Canada’s first Voluntary National Review (VNR) report which highlights Canada’s progress to date on the 2030 Agenda both at home and abroad.”6

    Why is Jean-Yves Duclos important in 2018? He’s not. Not directly. Not until…

    Fact 5
    By 2020, Jean-Yves Duclos was the President of the Treasury Board and signed the “Agile Nations Charter”7 (see Fact 1 above) with other participating members of the World Economic Forum.

    (The “Agile Nations Charter”, full text, is at https://www.canada.ca/…/agile-nations-charter.html. That document is identical to the versions published by Denmark, Italy, Japan, Singapore, UAE, and UK.)

    Fact 6
    Jean-Yves Duclos is now the Minister of Health.

    Fact 7
    The Agile Nations “Toolkit for Regulators” gives special thanks to “the teams at Transport Canada”.

    Transport Canada is not mentioned anywhere else in the Toolkit, nor elsewhere in the “Agile Nations” documents (that I’ve seen, and I’ve seen MANY).

    Fact 8
    Enter “regulatory cooperation” on “mobility” and “enforcement”

    Despite Transport Canada being absent from the list of contributors, page 44 of the “Toolkit for Regulators” (depicted above) speaks of “regulatory cooperation” on “matters from foresight to enforcement and in domains from green technologies to mobility”.

    When Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Singapore, UAE, and UK simultaneously imposed lockdowns in 2020, curfews, restrictions on mobility, and some Canadians asked, “Are they all taking orders from the same global cabal?” it appears we have our answer. Literally within days of each other, despite different Covid19 case counts in each jurisdiction, different ICU capacity, different demographics, these countries (and others) appeared to working in lock-step. Because they were. They are.

    Fact 9
    The bibliography in the “Toolkit for Regulators” cites a “Handbook for Regulatory Sandboxes”8 from Germany. In it, they praise Canada as a “Regulatory Sandbox”. This term peppers the World Economic Forum website and the Agile Nations Toolkit.

    What Does It All Mean?
    First, let me warn: I used to think Justin Trudeau was a harmless fop. As Prime Minister for a few years, he couldn’t irreparably harm our great country, I thought.

    The trouble is brilliant strategists who do not have Canada’s best interests in mind surround Trudeau and the Liberal Cabinet. And not only surround them but supervise them.

    Yet, despite all the facts I share above, there is not a smoking gun that indicates why Omar Alghabra, Canada’s current Minister of Transport, doesn’t lift the travel restrictions immediately.

    It’s clear to everyone that Omar is NOT the decision-maker. He’s the receiver of instructions — but from who? Perhaps a real journalist would be inclined to submit a Freedom of Information Request so Canadians can learn all the correspondence our government has had with Nesta?

    In summary, the facts presented above indicate:

    Canada’s government has committed the country to regulatory experiments not designed by elected Parliamentarians, but instead by Nesta, WEF, and others. (e.g., Other government’s refer to Canada as a “Regulatory Sandbox”.)

    The “teams” at Transport Canada are participating in regulatory experiments conducted under the purview of the World Economic Forum’s multi-country initiative called “Agile Nations”. (Hence, special thanks to Transport Canada is given in the Toolkit for Regulators.)

    Among the experiments is the implementation of Digital Credentials (e.g., ArriveCAN app, refer to the UK gov’t “Agile Nations Work Programme Plan”).

    Why Transport Canada? Because restrictions on mobility are the experimental carrot/stick — the experiment may reveal whether this particular carrot/stick can be used to gain population-level support for Digital Credentials (e.g., the ArriveCAN app).

    Omar Alghabra is a useful idiot.

    Jean-Yves Duclos is likely his puppet master on this file.

    Nesta is writing essays that become whitepapers published by the World Economic Forum. The language of those whitepapers is then used, verbatim, in Government of Canada policy documents.

    Our elected parliamentarians are not calling the shots — they are beholden to agreements facilitated/managed by World Economic Forum, United Nations and other unelected bodies.

    1
    Agile Nations Toolkit for Regulators: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Agile_Regulation_for_the_Fourth_Industrial_Revolution_2020.pdf (Archived at https://archive.ph/P9UYF)

    2
    Gov.uk “Agile Nations Work Programme plan 2021 to 2022”. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/agile-nations-work-programme-plan-2021-to-2022 (archived at https://archive.ph/s1lZA)

    3
    Canada’s “Agile Nations” initiative: https://archive.ph/du1gC

    4
    Scott Brison. President of the Treasury Board and a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader”. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Scott_Brison&oldid=1082387027

    5
    “State of Change” global collective, Nesta + Trudeau’s government. https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/states-of-change-public-innovation-learning-programme-launches-in-australia-and-canada/ (Archived at ttps://archive.ph/Fg0Wn.)

    6
    Jean-Yves Duclos in New York. https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/news/2018/07/canada-highlighted-its-commitment-to-the-2030-agenda-at-the-united-nations-high-level-political-forum-on-sustainable-development.html (Archived at https://archive.ph/6DNl8)

    7
    Agile Nations Charter, archived at https://archive.ph/Jb7Y7

    8
    The Handbook for Regulatory Sandboxes https://www.bmwk.de/Redaktion/EN/Publikationen/Digitale-Welt/handbook-regulatory-sandboxes.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2 (Archived at https://archive.ph/UG9TR.)

    Subscribe to Canada: The Apartheid State 2021-22
    By David Sabine · Launched 6 months ago

    Canada’s vaccine passport is a gateway to DigitalID and mass surveillance.

    https://dnsabine.substack.com/p/when-will-trudeau-end-the-vindictive?utm_source=twitter&s=r

    1. Thanks for ruining my breakfast.

      Trudeau, Freeland and the lefty Singh holding this abomination of a government coalition together are all deep into that WEF membership so they certainly follow their ideals. As for Alghabra whatever the idiot is called, he is less than useless, he really fits in.

    3. The cost of furlough was only £70bn though. – about a months tax spending. inflation is soaring because of the taxes on energy – 40% of the cost, the taxes on fuel – 75% of the cost and the scarcity of energy due to inefficient, unreliable windmills, massive government debt, incredible borrowing – to sustain the spending levels and, worse, an increase in that spending.

      The solution, obvious to anyone, was for the state to say ‘spending over covid was unsustainable, and we’re going to reduce some services. These will be in the climate change office, which will be closed, the treasury where 10% will lose their jobs, the DVLA which will be privatised and the passport office, also to be privatised. The NHS will receive the same funding, but public health England will receive 40% less money because it was proven incompetent. In addition, over the next 7 years, child benefit will be phased out completely.

  41. Just listened to the ‘guy’ who came second in the EU warbling contest. He sings like Gary Lineker having his b*lls squeezed in a hot vice. Ryder (real name Sam Ryder Robinson) cites David Bowie, Elton John, and Freddie Mercury as his musical influences. A vegan hippy, he believes in aliens and claims that he once saw a UFO while in Hawaii as a child. He was selected to represent the UK by an anti-Brexit promoter and approved by the BBC executive.

    I wondered why he came so close to winning. Now I know.

    1. There were some people waxing lyrical about it on GB News last night. Sounded very dull, dreary and was instantly forgettable for me. No Waterloo or even Puppet On A String.

      1. He went to St John Payne Catholic School in Chelmsford. That might explain his squeaky voice. Can’t account for his veganism. His vegan cafe was in Coggershall – your area. That might explain it 🙂

        1. Is it? Coggeshall’s gone down hill since those days during the pea picking season, when it was England’s answer to Dodge City.

          1. Coggeshall once had a thriving ‘cottage industry’, if you get my drift.

            I did my pea picking in the Teys and Fordham area and bloody hard work it was, especially if it was a fine and clear day. Coggeshall always seemed a bit up market to a council house ruffian, as I was once described by a fellow grammar school boy’s mother. However, I never ended up in court like her spawn.

          2. I can hear a certain satisfaction in your last line…

            I was insulted the other week when I realised that certain members of my family regard me as a high achiever…because none of my four children have ended up as drug addicts or in prison! This is not because my family are criminals, it’s because I brought them up alone after ex f*k’d off. Cheek!

          3. The woman who insulted me and another lad in my class for being from a council estate had quite a reputation of being of easy virtue. The other lad went on to join the Royal Navy, served his Country in nuclear subs and reached the rank of chief petty officer. I had a very satisfying career in telecommunications, a long and very happy marriage and I have a very successful son, so yes, this ‘council house ruffian’ does entertain a, “certain satisfaction,” re his life. That incident is the only time that my background has been used as an insult and I have never forgotten it.

      1. Do listen to the winning entry – why should I be the only one here to have suffered the complete and utter bullsh*t rapped out by a bunch of apelike morons. It really is the pits… or something ending with ‘its’.
        .

          1. I understand. But you will be missing the experience of a lifetime… a very short one if you are holding a knife or a cutthroat razor at the time.

          2. As a lifelong fan of proper music (i.e. Blues, Jazz, Soul, Rock, Classical, Folk, Country, Pop, etc) I have never — in my life — watched a single minute of that contrived bollocks, which has nothing whatsoever to do with music.

            When NoTTLers go on about what happened in it, I simply move away to something that holds more interest for me. I would sooner listen to the music created by throwing a set of bagpipes into a skip and hitting a rap singer that had already been chucked in there.

    8. The winner is usually obliged to host the whole thing the following year but I suspect Ukraine will claim poverty/war etc so it will go to the second placed nation.
      Which just happens to be the UK. Stitch up or what?

  42. Just about to head back up the garden.
    So far I’ve done a bit of tidying up of bits of tree lying about, then shifted a load of stone I have stacked on top of the upper wall, it’s all intended for facing off the lower wall that I’m busy with now, and then I’ve tipped two large barrow loads of soil in behind the section of the lower wall that I’ve already finished.

      1. I know- he wears me out. I’m lucky if I get the washing up done ;-))

          2. We use the dishwasher – but OH is good enough to do the nasties and we reuse a lot of the cups & plates in between dishwashes – I don’t put it on till it’s full.

      2. Just shifted the rest of the stone heap and back-filled with another 3 barrow loads.
        I’m running out of soil! What I’m back-filling with now is what S@H dug out from t’other end of the garden, up towards Bonsall, where he’s sorting out the yard shed that he’s taken over!
        Once this lots gone, it’ll be back to clearing the verge between the road and the garden.

        1. I just opened a sack of compost and it has a white mould like substance all over it. I’m not chancing that.

          3. White Mold
            If you see a white, powdery substance on your compost that looks like it could be mould, it is more likely to be Actinomycetes. These are actually a type of bacteria that generally appear when your compost is getting hot and can build up over time. Beneath their top layer, they grow spider-web-like forms that extend through the compost.

            You definitely want Actinomycetes around; they specifically work to break down tough cellulose, like branches and bark. This organism is also responsible for the earthy smell of healthy soils.

    2. Ow!
      Accident book at Brother’s brewery some years ago had an entry “Stapled tongue whilst playing with stapling machine!”
      Clumsy.

    3. Obviously fake. Look – she’s holding the cutters at the correct end. (And no, I haven’t made my will yet).

  44. Well …. MB is watching the news. Apparently now that ConVid is losing its oomph, we must now worry about Monkey Pox.
    I didn’t realise that there was a ‘gay community’ amongst West Effrikans. I would imagine that they get pretty short shrift in the Congo etc….

    2. Why do you think they are in London? They can do gay as much as they like there.

    3. Don’t care if they’re gay. I do care that they’re here with a dangerous disease. They should have stayed in France and our border force should have towed them back there to prevent this outbreak.

    4. I recall Gates announcing that Smallpox would be the next plandemic. I was vaccinated as a teenager and according to the CDC in the US – though they will change their spiel to order – that gives 85% protection against Monkey Pox. Given the lower take-up for mRNA4, I fully expect to be told that it gives 100% protection against Monkey Pox. Or maybe 1%. Or maybe none at all but you should take it anyway.

      2. I was inoculated against smallpox as a teenager, too. The spot came up like a wart and I’ve still got the scar. I have never needed another jab – strange, that.

      2. I would seriously doubt, Maggie, that anyone on Sandbanks would be able to see the nudist beach at Studland Bay, even with a telescope.

  49. OKaaayyyy …… I’m common. Live with it.
    A reminder of the days when we could be tasteless and actually enjoy ourselves. Heck: we were even allowed to laugh.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-wag

    The rise and fall of the WAG

    Why has the Wagatha Christie case – the libel trial between Coleen Rooney and Rebekah Vardy – so captured the public imagination? Perhaps the answer is that it is a brief, exhilarating reminder of a bygone tabloid age – a time when footballers’ wives really could dominate the news.

    Let’s go back to the 2006 Germany World Cup, when an assortment of wives and girlfriends of Britain’s top footballers spent much of the tournament lounging by a hotel pool in Baden-Baden, south west Germany. The staff, wary of paparazzi attempts to snap their high-profile guests, decided to put up screens to protect their privacy. But these weren’t just any guests, and when the WAGs learned what had happened, they demanded the barriers be removed immediately.

    While their husbands were representing England on the pitch, the WAGs were busy representing the team in the British press. Newspapers back home were filled with carefully coordinated snaps of the players out with their partners, with just enough ‘leaked’ gossip to keep the column inches filled. Within a few weeks, Cheryl Cole, Victoria Beckham and Elen Rives were the darlings of Fleet Street, prancing around in England tops and designer handbags. This was the unapologetic modern British woman: bleached highlights and oversized sunglasses.

    Stagflation, Brexit, partygate. These tabloid phrases have come to define moments in our nation’s history. In the Noughties, that word was WAG

    Stagflation, Brexit, partygate. These tabloid phrases have come to define moments in our nation’s history. In the Noughties, that word was WAG. Perhaps the biggest misconception of the WAG is that these young women were forced into the spotlight by the big, bad tabloids. But to argue that would be to trivialise the sheer effort these women put into becoming national slebs. They were totally complicit in their rise to fame, with their boozy shenanigans and ladette attitudes, crawling up from the Z-list status conferred on them by their partners’ careers. Labelled ‘hooligans with Visa cards’ by the Spanish press, they were snapped dancing on tables and going on £60,000 shopping sprees. Isn’t there something glorious, almost aspirational, about the whole thing? Working-class women, the stars of their own success story.

    Fast forward 20 years and WAG is now a tired term. And feminism has progressed to such a degree that we no longer believe that wives and girlfriends of millionaire footballers are something to ogle, but are instead objects of pity. Sat on crushed velvet sofas twiddling their thumbs while their husbands earn vulgar amounts for not doing much more, our admiration for the WAG died around 2010.

    Alas, this week, WAGs are back on the radar. The Wagatha Christie libel, fought between Colleen Rooney, wife of ex-England captain Wayne, and Rebekah Vardy, partner of Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy, has shown exactly what bored housewives get up to when left to their own devices. Vardy is accused of selling stories about Mrs Rooney and her husband’s teammates to the tabloids, for what Rooney’s lawyer described as a ‘pretty penny’.

    Evidence shown to the court suggests Vardy did so at least once. In one instance she texted her assistant – what exactly she needed assistance with remains a mystery – to leak a story to the Sun. That story concerned the footballer Danny Drinkwater, who spent a night in the cells for driving under the influence. ‘I want paying for this’, she barked, as if she didn’t already have enough money. Meanwhile, Colleen Rooney, sick of the constant intrusion into her life, set up her own investigation when she realised that stories from her private Instagram account were being leaked. By process of elimination, sending fake stories to her close personal contacts, Colleen discovered what she believed to be the source of the leak. In October 2019, she publicly announced ‘It’s……. Rebekah Vardy’s account.’

    Where did it all go wrong for the English WAG? Their demise can partly be blamed on the fact that peak WAG occurred when there were only a handful of television channels. Most of us would have been lucky to have had one family computer and a dial-up internet connection. The iPhone hadn’t even been invented during that fateful 2006 World Cup. Footballers were national heroes because there wasn’t much else in terms of entertainment, so, by extension, we lapped up the spouses’ lives too.

    They have now been usurped by a kind of superWAG. A breed of WAG unhitched from the responsibility of being a wife or girlfriend of someone more established. Just look across the Atlantic to the Kardashians – famous, too, for not very much – but who are more glamorous, more entertaining, and more rich than people like Rebekah Vardy could ever dream of being. They launched real, lasting careers from thin air, one-upping their English counterparts who faded from relevance as soon as the divorce settlements were finalised. ‘Influencer culture’ cut out the papers, allowing would-be celebs to polish their own scripted, brand-conscious lives without being subject to the capricious judgements of newspaper editors. And most Instagram influencers now wouldn’t be seen dead in a boozy slagging match in a rowdy pub. So much the pity.

    The era of Heat magazine front covers is an anathema to the TikTok generation. And yet they, too, are enjoying the heady whiff of DKNY perfume and Smirnoff Ice – a cultural vodka shot of WAG nostalgia. As the lives of these once-famous women unfold in court, I can’t help but feel that we have committed a grave disservice to WAGs; abandoning them when they needed us most. Maybe, if we didn’t discard them like a spent lottery ticket, they wouldn’t be at each other’s throats in the High Court.”

    2. I don’t think they have captured our imagination; they’ve rather been relentlessly thrust down our throats.
      I would be quite happy to be awed by their pettiness if I weren’t distracted by an international fascist coup.

    3. It is a break from that other celeb couple going at each other in court.

      Surprisingly none of this has reached our news media, I need to check the Daily Mail for updates.

      1. They’ve already got rid of our border or have I got the wrong end of the stick.

        1. At this point it is clearly deliberate. The state, so angered at Brexit and having to do some work, ordererd border farce to bring the criminal gimmigrants here en masse. Border farce did so happily.

          No doubt a wishy washy nonsense reason was given to the Home Sec as to why we had to do this and the blob ensured it would happen.

          It is pure spite to destroy us and stick two fingers up to the public will. Those officials should be stuck on pikes. Here’s an idea – move all these criminals into the homes of home office staff. 5 or six to a room.

    2. “What happens when there isn’t anywhere to house them?”

      The Government requisitions YOUR house, Debbie.

    2. The drones I had reached 700 km per hour in 1.8 seconds. They weren’t tiny things like that. They were reputed to cost half a million pounds each. The most I had control of at any one time was about 30. They flew on a pre-programmed path and returned for refurbishment and reuse.

  52. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/05/15/boris-johnson-northern-ireland-protocol-stopping-us-tackling/

    What a monkey buggering excrement stain.

    A complete lie. The country doesn’t want state aid. It doesn’t want more government. Government is not the solution, it is the problem. The country needs lower taxes and smaller government. That’s it. It needs cheaper energy with no government interference. It need fracking, coal and oil. It needs an end to the nonsense propaganda over climate change. It needs the state to stop importing thousands of criminal welfare gimmigrants every day.

    It doesn’t need you. In fact, it wants far, far less you.

    1. They shouldn’t even be brought here! We’ve no obligation to them whatsoever. If France ignores international law to process and return them, then we should also ignore the law and get rid of the vermin.

      Hell, half a dozen were caught trying to rape kids within 6 hours of being here.

    1. Patron
      The reigning sovereign serves as Patron of the institute – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been Patron since her accession to the throne in 1952. She confers on Chatham House the benefit of her formal support through the institute’s Royal Charter, although she has no official governance responsibilities.

      from https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us/our-governance

      1. Chatham house was once a respectable think tank, but over the past few years, like so much, it appears to have turned very much leftwards.

        1. It is said to be the HQ of the committee of 300, shadowy figures behind the likes of the WEF.

    3. HM was looking good when she attended the Royal Windsor Horse Show. Maybe, as someone suggested, she gave opening Parliament a miss because she was fed up reading somebody else’s speech and pretending it was hers.

    1. Which reminds me. Colin the farrier or ‘Expensivo’ as I call him has returned to examine the Mare’s feet. The Mare’s leg’s back to load bearing, and the Warqueen is walking her slowly around the field.

      Which is good to see, as I think it’s the first time either have left the house in 3 days.

  58. Rumours of a food shortage at this year’s Spoonerism Awards.
    Turns out to be a complete lack of pies!

  60. ‘Mission accomplished’: Troops begin evacuating from Mariupol after holding up Russia’s advance during 82-day siege BBC and Dreary Fail

    What really happened was more than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were captured or surrendered and taken to Russian held territory. They include 50+ badly injured. The remaining soldiers are expected to surrender today. Another victory for the comedian/president, the UE, NATO and Biden’s controllers. I don’t think.

    2. Adnocicrg to a sutdy at Camrbidge Ueinrsvtiy , the odrer of the lrettes in a word do not matetr as lnog as the fisrt and lsat crahacters are ccrerot. Tihs is bcuease the huamn mnid has an ainazmg atbliiy to raed the leettrs.

      But yuor rghit in tihs csae.

      1. And that’s what happens when one puts one’s smalls in a 90 degree wash…….

      2. I always wanted to get up at the crack of Dawn but, hard as I tried, never achieved it.

        1. That’s because Spikey always beat you to it!

          It’s one of Spikey’s favourites.

    1. I dont have an issue with those who have these crazy views, each to his own. But it is those in authority that accept and accommodate these mental ideas that I despise. The madness can then affect me. Follow the science they say, Ha!

    3. And me.
      Wordle 332 4/6

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

      1. I’ve completely lost the plot. I’ve gone from Wordle Wizard to Wordle Gummidge in the space of three days! ☹️
        Wordle 332 6/6

        ⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
        ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛
        🟨⬛⬛🟨🟨
        ⬛⬛🟩🟩🟨
        ⬛🟩🟩🟩⬛
        🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Five for me today; I blame the eye surgeon …
      Wordle 332 5/6

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

      1. How did it go, Lacoste?
        Do we need to make jokes about parrots and pirates? Aaaaarrh!

        1. “Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest
          Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
          Drink and the devil had done for the rest
          Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum.…”

          For post op treatment, I am enjoying chili & lime prawns – accompanied by Prosecco & brandy cocktails …

          1. Almost worth going in for the surgery if that’s the post-op regime.

          2. Almost worth going in for the surgery if that’s the post-op regime.

    5. Got lucky today.

      Wordle 332 3/6

      ⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
      ⬜🟩⬜🟨⬜
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  64. It took ages to sign in today…!
    Does everyone have to sign into CAPTCHA before logging on to NoTTlers?

        2. When I open my web-browser, Google Chrome, I do a CTRL-SHIFT-T and it opens all the tabs I had open when I shut down the previous evening.

    3. No – I just click on the banner at the top or the newest one from yesterday (Geoff’s link) and go straight in.

    4. If you shut down your computer you will have to login afresh – If you put it to sleep it should just log in to Nottl automatically as you haven’t logged off.

        1. Pass – I don’t know what PC you have – others may be able to help…

    5. I have a Gmail account that I use for logging into sites and nothing else.
      I click on the ‘red’ G and select the email address and it logs me in without fuss.

  65. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10824815/Monkeypox-fears-prompt-STI-clinics-bring-social-distancing-BACK.html

    Monkeypox fears prompt STI clinics to bring social distancing BACK ‘as patients with virus’s unusual rash mistake it for syphilis’ — but experts insist we won’t see Covid-style levels of transmission

    Would these, by any chance, be the same experts who told us Covid would kill millions in the UK? If so, perhaps we should be worried.

    I would be interested to know the demographic make up and sexual orientation of all these sufferers.
    Anyone else recall how AIDS was regarded as a gay plague and was rife?

  66. Seems the WHO “treaty” is getting more exposure – this from a group called “Together Declaration”

    CALL TO ACTION – CONTACT BORIS JOHNSON RE: W.H.O. TREATY
    If you are concerned about the drive to sign a new World Health Organization “pandemic treaty,” please do the following ASAP:

    STEP 1: Copy and paste our text below:
    I am enormously concerned about your public statements and the drive to create a new ‘pandemic preparedness treaty’ with The World Health Organization as well as amendments being touted to the International Health Regulations. I would like to hear back regarding you taking these steps to ensure we get a proper open discussion about this:

    1. Full debate in both Houses of Parliament
    2. Independent Review that assesses the treaty, proposed amendments and implications – for we now know that what constitutes a “threat” varies greatly depending on how evaluated and assumptions used
    3. A Select Committee that can provide full scrutiny
    4. A Public Debate, televised live “Should Britain sign a new pandemic preparedness strategy with The World Health Organization” with speakers from Together Declaration represented
    5. An undertaking that you will not proceed with any agreement that substitutes British sovereign decisions and accountability to any supra national unaccountable organisation

    STEP 2: Send it to Boris Johnson via this web form:
    https://contact.no10.gov.uk/

    STEP 3: ON SOCIAL MEDIA please copy and POST the following URGENTLY to keep the pressure up:
    Today I wrote to @BorisJohnson @10DowningStreet asking him when will we have a full national open transparent debate about the relationship between Britain & @WHO
    We are a sovereign nation that must make its own rules, not steered by a supranational unaccountable entity

    1. Done – I think. The interface is so poor, it gives you no feedback about whether your message was correctly sent or not.

  67. HAPPY HOUR – Man’s Best Friend…

    Waddya think NoTTlers

    One in four Britons prefer their pets to their partners.
    Two out of three Britons say their pet is their best friend.
    They are special because they don’t judge and half think their dog or cat
    is more loyal than the humans in their life….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37512fa7694fbf62a96285bcf01fb8032bca1f2e4818fb7ed3a563a62e42f7e0.jpg
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10822579/One-four-Britons-prefer-pets-partners-dont-judge-poll-reveals.html

    3. Could explain why lots of pet owners take their pets to bed with them….

    4. My pet is my partner now. If I didn’t take him out for a walk I’d probably never meet anybody (except on here) most days a week.

      2. Our nearly twelve years old black Lab is one of the nicest and most honest ‘people’ i have ever known.

    1. Very nice. Remember when Wren church spires were the tallest things on the skyline…{:¬((

      1. From my journal:

        “One of the benefits of a booming economy is a vibrant construction industry. For those who don’t know, from Vauxhall to Tower Bridge is now a man-made canyon of high-rise buildings. Add in a strong wind and an ebbing tide and you have very choppy conditions. Add in HMS Belfast, narrowing the Pool of London by a third and a plethora of high-speed catamarans at 4:30 pm on a Friday afternoon and it becomes brown breeches time!
        Normally from the tiller I can see right the way through my boat to the cabin doors at the bow. However, on this occasion one of the bathroom doors had swung shut. Ordinarily this would not be of concern. However, when water began to appear under the bathroom door I really did wonder if a bow door had swung open. By now the boat was bucking like a very large seesaw. It was all I could do to hang on to the tiller and hatch rail. There was absolutely no chance that I could go below and find out what was going on.
        More and more water started coming over the bow. The boat seemed to be getting heavier in the water. I began calculating the swimming distance to the adjacent pier in the event that in the very heavy swell the boat might go under. Five more very tense minutes passed and then I was out from under Tower Bridge and the relative calm of the broader river. Once safely inside Limehouse basin, I was able to go below. Fortunately, the bow doors were locked shut. The force of water hitting them had penetrated the normal gaps in the doors. The small amount of water inside the boat was quickly mopped up. For the uneventful return journey early the next morning I taped up the bow doors with Duck Tape to prevent any water ingress.
        Looking back, I realised that I had had a full on rush of adrenaline for forty minutes from the start of the Vauxhall section all the way through to Tower Bridge.
        It wasn’t until I got back to the mooring and went to put the anchor away in the bow locker that I discovered I had shipped half a ton of very clear River Thames water.”

  69. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bc1c9c27bf7e479ef2e1e4b77c50e513883ee83d75aa653866793c2df9167964.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/34cd1437beeb4e4cff65e593bd78f785e2454910f3bb66333986f2aba84eb6ec.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/018893bf2144e2a001f693a617424d3845e80ad5b3ce1d3c90f29dcba4453c25.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/077b5f84558b878ec0278e8b22d51f1a1b9cd286ce20e00de0def022286bf2f1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/051fde8d883553a8d8b5b9bcfcc7fdadcfb476cdd97e51bfb87c17191d46f43c.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/627da9e260cbda0aa9cb44a772cf7d830b6358ebfbd9a12d604ddc93eb502033.jpg Just discovered a pair of common redstarts nesting in the garden. We get them nearby every summer but this is the first time they’ve taken to an old nest box fastened in a big hawthorn tree.

    1. We have had pairs breeding each year since we arrived, both red and black.
      They love the holes in the walls of the house and under the eaves. A disadvantage is that the little so-and-sos pull out insulation.

      1. I would love a black redstart in the garden. They are not common here though I’ve seen a good number in the UK.

        2. I’m becoming convinced that we have a few redstarts that stay here all year round, either that or pairs migrate at different times and their appearances overlap.

          Normally we have hoopoes, one of my favourite birds, but this year I’ve not heard any. It’s also the first year I’ve not heard the Orioles, although that might be due to having had to cut down several large poplars, the roots of which were damaging a neighbour’s property. I’m hoping both will appear soon as I know they are in the area, because friends have heard them.

      1. Fairly similar colours and not too distantly related (both are from the chat and robin family).

  70. That’s me for today. Exhausting work in garden. Greenhouse tomatoes planted. Ground ready for the outdoor ones tomorrow.

    Have a jolly evening trying to imagine what the Judge can think of saying about the Wagadrama. That isn’t rude.

    A demain.

    1. If it comes down to damages I hope he/she awards a penny and no costs, so it hurts them all badly.

    2. I threw the soil away after a misunderstanding and then went and scraped it all up back into a pot. Then re-potted my date palm. Out of breath now.

    4. I have just pricked out my seedling toms (the one I bought is in its grow bag).

  71. Re the constant fawning news about the gay footballer.
    Is he a passer or a receiver, a stroker or a hoofer, a keeper or a striker, a overlapping wing back or a central defender, a benchwarmer or a first choice?
    We should be told.
    On second thought why doesn’t he keep himself to himself, he’s definitely a wanker.

      1. My suspicion is that he was about to be outed very publicly and was advised by his agent to get his retailiation (sic) in first.

          1. ‘Rapaho? Isn’t that speech found in the less safe districts of Detroit?

      1. I’m not sure about that, but from what I recall when one of them scores they do seem to hug each other a lot with gay abandon….

        1. Thank you Sue; it went OK, but understandably, I have a sore eye just now … The surgeon and staff were wonderful.

    5. I couldn’t give a toss what he does in his private life but I don’t want to know about it, thank you.

      1. Don’t care if he’s a black belt in origami, either. That kind of information is irrelevant.

        1. A black belt in Origami could be quite useful in the team’s post match analysis ….

  72. Only Connect?

    Ten per cent….

    “Though I’m just a lowly grifter
    I could launder money swifter
    if I only had Ukraine.”

    Vigorish is the fee charged by a bookmaker for accepting a gambler’s wager. In American English, it can also refer to the interest owed a loanshark in consideration for credit. The term came to English usage via Yiddish slang, which was itself a loanword from Ukrainian or Russian.

  73. Evening, all. Just managed to get both lawns cut before the heavens opened. Why did anyone ever expect the EU to act in good faith? They made it quite clear they intended to punish us. We should have told them where to get off and that we were trading on WTO terms. Telling me that “we are struggling with hardline people in Brussels” doesn’t cut it – we are a sovereign nation and should act like one. After all, it’s what we voted for.

    1. It occurs to me that because the UK has to borrow so much money on the international financial markets we are not a sovereign nation. I suspect it has been made very clear to the PM and Chancellor (by prospective lenders and I include foreign governments) that if the Government kicks over the traces the UK will find itself in a spot of mega-bother.

      1. And whose fault is it the country is living beyond its means? Fiscal responsibility used to be a Conservative trait.

          4. Being forced to travel across town at 20 mph I can see certain advantages. For example when you see in the distance a queue of cars at a T junction waiting to join a main road by the time you eventually get there the queue has disappeared ….

          6. Brilliant! It serves the buggers right for voting for the politicians who brought in the 20mph limits (because I didn’t!)

          9. I had it a lot better (financially, but not in terms of stress levels) before I lost my spouse. The government and its taxes are causing the cost of living crisis.

          13. I had it a lot better (financially, but not in terms of stress levels) before I lost my spouse. The government and its taxes are causing the cost of living crisis.

    2. Absolutely right Conway, and the beeb at 1 o’clock (my old man was watching it 🙄) were almost traitorous in their coverage! “Ooh, the poor old EU! Naughty UK!” I was furious – just for a change!

    1. As Tucker Carlson pointed out, a hundred people were murdered in the US last weekend. Some of them were shot in a church for reason of their ethnicity, by a non-white person. Statistically, most of them were probably murdered by non-white people. but hey, the Biden administration has decided that what the world wants is a re-run of the George Floyd affair.

  76. Getting a bit worn down by all the showers in the West Midlands …. Trying to wash and dry clothes in preparation for my wife’s return from Poland … and boy do I need to tidy and clean the place …. woe is me (not a tidy person) …

    1. Don’t you have a sheila maid or a Hill’s hoist, Lewis? Otherwise it’ll be a case of draping things over the bath and on the radiators.

          3. “Oh, Dr Cameron, we’re havin’ the vicar fer tea tonight!”
            “Hmph! Make a change from kippers!”
            The series was filmed in Callender, not too far from here, and the doctors house is beautiful! Tannochbrae!

          6. I loved that series , so gentle and easy .

            You live in a lovely part of Scotland .. the air is so fresh and invigorating .

          7. At this minute,Belle the rain is hammering off the roof and Veluxes and it’s very warm! However it is very rural. We’ll be going up to Banchory on Deeside next week for the funeral of our best man.

          9. “Doctor Cameron – there’s a case of syphilis outside”
            “Bring it in, Janet – we’ll drink anything”

        2. Judging by his post he’s in the West Midlands 🙂 Okay, Hill’s hoists are Australian, but sheila maids used to be common over here (they’re the wooden slatted airers you can pull up to the ceiling).

          1. Ah! A pulley! We had one at home but you had to remember to take the washing down before cooking!

          2. We just had some strings that we could hitch up to the ceiling, but with no slatted things. Our clothes often used to smell of bacon……..

          4. We just had some strings that we could hitch up to the ceiling, but with no slatted things. Our clothes often used to smell of bacon……..

    3. It was nice here this morning – then after lunch it became excessively windy then we had a couple of heavy downpours.

    4. When is she returning ?

      Advertise / look for a cleaning company to give the house a blitz … easy peasy , just do it

      Nearest town might have a laundrette , machines and dryers.. a big wash would cost about £9 or less , drying is extra .. a couple of hours and alll the washing will be sorted .. people around here have one off cleaning blitzes before they market their homes .

      Don’t fret , there is always a way .

      1. We’d have to tidy up before the cleaners came – that’s what takes the time!

        We had a cleaner once- she did a great job but she didn’t last long.

        1. I’d struggle to cope without my cleaner. She’s a real gem (and no, I don’t clean up before she gets here – she knows what I’m like!).

      2. Problem is I need a massive declutter …. I have over-reacted to having zero books during my first years of life (and zero records) by steadily accumulating these beyond counting – quite a few thousand books and CDs … but, unfortunately, only a 3-storey terraced house to ram them in …. I find it difficult to have outflows exceeding inflows ….

        BTW my wife is also an accumulator …

  77. Warning to all on the south coast; have made chilli tonight and it’s quite spicy. Another warning- don’t mess with me tonight- I am in a foul mood, mainly because of the NHS.
    I am sick to death of their nonsense and I feel like we are mice being whacked by a huge cat paw.

    2. NHS Hospitals have a secret motto…

      ‘The Patients are dying to get out of here….’

          2. In the final analysis I think dying at home is 1000% better than dying in a hospital.

          3. That nearly happened to a friend of mine who fell off a ladder, broke six ribs and punctured a lung and had to wait six hours for an ambulance.

          5. Thankfully, yes, but he had a narrow escape; when he finally got to A&E they X-rayed him and wanted to send him home! Fortunately, the doctor sent him for an MRI scan and then they found all the damage and kept him in.

    3. 🤔 I know how you feel.
      Did you contact Pals ? Patient Administration Liaison Service ?

      1. It isn’t that Eddy- it is just that it all seems to be for the benefit of NHS and not the patients.

        PS- boy, I wasn’t wrong about the chilli…..

        1. But i contacted them regarding my terrible treatment and they sorted it out inside of a few days, you can also write to you MP they should hate it when people are being sidelined.
          I use to love chilli, but i can’t stand the heat any more 😆

          2. The problem with Chilli is the James Bond effect…tomorrow (it) never dies.

          4. Our MP is Tobias Ellwood- can you think of a bigger waste of space? I have emailed him 4 times in the last 2 years- he replied once and did not answer any of the questions I put to him. He’s a big doofus.

          6. Oh dear………. but you need to tell him he is absolutely useless, (as they all are) in the nicest possible way of course.

        2. I was due for some blood tests before Covid got to me in March .. and a pill revue ..
          So difficult contacting my doctor .. should I write a gentle letter to remind them?

          1. A written letter cannot be ignored. If you don’t get any joy, look up the upper chain of authority and write to someone there.

      1. Not much, just me whingeing. Anyway, the chilli was so hot I can’t speak. Sighs of relief from all on here.
        It was good though- the chilli.

  78. It seems Mr Musk actually understands economics:

    “Musk, who is currently in the process of acquiring Twitter, told a virtual conference that he believes the government has printed too much money in recent years.

    “I mean, the obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had, obviously,” Musk said, likely referring to COVID-19 relief stimulus packages worth trillions of dollars that were passed in recent years.
    U.S. inflation rose by 8.3 percent in April, compared with the previous year. That’s slightly lower than the 8.5 percent spike in March, but it’s still near the 40-year high.
    “So it’s like the government can’t … issue checks far in excess of revenue without there being inflation, you know, velocity of money held constant,” the Tesla CEO said.
    “If the federal government writes checks, they never bounce. So that is effectively creation of more dollars. And if there are more dollars created, then (than?) the increase in the goods and services across the economy, then you have inflation, again, velocity of money held constant.”
    If governments could merely “issue massive amounts of money and deficits didn’t matter, then, well, why don’t we just make the deficit 100 times bigger,” Musk asked. “The answer is, you can’t because it will basically turn the dollar into something that is worthless.”

    “Various countries have tried this experiment multiple times,” Musk said. He could have added And failed!

    “Have you seen Venezuela? Like the poor, poor people of Venezuela are, you know, have been just run roughshod by their government.”

    1. I was wondering about him – he went off in a huff a few weeks ago. I hope he’s ok. I wonder if Geoff has contact details.

        1. Ah – that’s good if you have his number. Give him my best…….he usually posts all the cartoons first thing.

      2. I think a while ago he said he’d been unwell. Don’t know any more.

  80. Moh is watching his life long team Southampton play Liverpool on a streamed thing via his laptop and by virtue of some plug in cable , screened magically on the TV.

    Half time a few minutes ago , and the adverts were Irish .. really Irish .. mortgage adverts , mixed marriage couples , Bank of Ireland , more Irish adverts all of them mixed marriages .. so strange hearing Irish accents , but adverts we don’t see here in the UK .

    The plan has become even more devious.

  81. I was obliged to disable notifications this morning. I received over a hundred false notifications supposedly in response to a comment I made days ago.

    Has anyone else experienced this nonsense?

    3. We’re not getting any upvote notifications – and replies are just going into ‘most recent’. I never use the email facility, just the blob.

  83. Serious question for the nurses.

    Small child in hospital ‘very weak’. Staff have difficulty in getting his temperature down, what practical measures are there other than cooling fans?

    Thanks

    1. Tepid sponging .. and IV perhaps .

      I saved Moh when we were in Nigeria , tepid sponging him every couple of hours, he had a terrible fever , his urine was black and he was delerious .. he could have died , the MO (Quack) was away for the weekend , and Moh needed antibiotics .. his tongue was also swollen and a terrible colour , he needed hydrating , I used an old fashioned real sponge to drip sterile water glucose and diluted salt into his mouth and dissolved aspirin, which is all I had available .

      The worst 48hrs .. sleepless .. Imagine the hot humid heat in Nigeria , power cuts , generators off and on , the air con wasn’t reliable , hell on earth .. Niger Delta , Port Harcourt , dripping heat , malaria mosquitoes , cockroaches , cicadas.

      I thought he was going to die . Thank goodness he has a strong constitution .

      2. I will tell this tale another day but I saved my ex- husband’s life also. And also current one- in some ways.
        Tales for another day.

  84. The Geography of a Woman as she ages:

    Between 18 and 22, a woman is like Africa .
    Half discovered, half wild, fertile and naturally Beautiful!
    Between 23 and 30, a woman is like Europe.
    Well developed and open to trade, especially
    for someone of real value.
    Between 31 and 35, a woman is like Spain.
    Very hot, relaxed and convinced of her own beauty.
    Between 36 and 40, a woman is like Greece.
    Gently aging but still a warm and desirable place to visit.
    Between 41 and 50, a woman is like Great Britain.
    With a glorious and all conquering past.
    Between 51 and 60, a woman is like Israel.
    Has been through war, doesn’t make the same mistakes twice,
    and takes care of business .
    Between 61 and 70, a woman is like Canada.
    Self-preserving, but open to meeting new people.
    After 70, she becomes Tibet.
    Wildly beautiful, with a mysterious past and the wisdom of the ages. An adventurous spirit and a thirst for spiritual knowledge.

    THE GEOGRAPHY OF A MAN
    Between 1 and 100, a man is like North Korea and Russia.
    Ruled by a pair of nuts!

  85. Life at Lake Lodge hasn’t been a bundle of laughs of late- but when I listen to old Tony Vivaldi… the world gets better. Is there any better music?
    And also your input and support.

  91. Very Many Happy Returns to our Tine, aka Hertslass.

    We thank you again for your thoughtfulness to issy and the other Nottlers – it really is appreciated. You are, of course, also the keeper of secrets e-mail addresses and part of the glue that keeps us together..

    We hope D will spoil you rotten today.

    Happy Birthday!

    1. We have actually managed to get a connection so well done for posting the Hertfordshire Lass birthday greetings.

      We shall try and post best wishes for Tom in a few days time and let us hope many others will do so too!

    1. I thought the general consensus was that folk here didn’t approve of Big Game hunting….

    2. I hope the swimsuit will be capable of being worn by all competitive ladeey swimmers

    3. A more sensibly shaped woman. Much better than those scarecrows they throw down the catwalks.

  93. Good morning my friends

    We have an internet connection!

    Wednesday 18th May 2022

    Hertslass – the lovely Lass from Hertfordshire

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07d0b06af98d24c223aa9bcaff542f51e4272525500b1e4d38eb58866156a051.png

    and very many joyous future celebrations of the day

    With Very Best Wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus


    We shall repost if can still get a connection when the new Nottlers’ site is up. (it is 7 am here in Turkey but only 5 am in Britain)

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