Tuesday 18 March: Too many details are still missing from Britain’s plan to help Ukraine

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

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

598 thoughts on “Tuesday 18 March: Too many details are still missing from Britain’s plan to help Ukraine”

    1. 403442+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      Double it with banning halal, put MP Lowe leading the opposition to this SHITE and stand back, political tsunami of freedom & justice incoming.

    2. What we need is for this country not to have Eritrea and Pakiland poured into it. Get rid of them.

  4. Keir Starmer to unveil drastic disability benefit cuts despite opposition. 18 March 2025.

    Keir Starmer will unveil drastic cuts to disability benefits on Tuesday, despite deep opposition from Labour MPs and poverty campaigners, and warnings from economists against making kneejerk savings to hit fiscal targets.

    In the government’s most controversial move yet, it will announce a package of changes expected to affect some of the UK’s most severely disabled people.

    The Labour Party justifies its existence by assuming the role of moral superiority. We take from the Rich and give to the Poor is its credo. If it does not do this what is its purpose? Here it has chosen the most deprived of its charges and made their conditions worse. It could have cut the benefits of incomers, which would at least have had some support. It has chosen not to do so. This will be remembered long after this initial row. Starmer’s indifference to this may be put down to his complete lack of any form of human empathy.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/17/keir-starmer-to-unveil-drastic-disability-benefit-cuts-despite-opposition

    1. What defines most deprived? Far too many people – well over 20% of the indeigenous and over 70% of the diversity – do not work. They live on a vast sea of welfare. They are parasites, claiming more and more ever more generous welfare at my expense.

      I'm sick and tired of half my wage and more than half my company revenue going on wasters, dindus and scroungers. In my time I've worked with a blind fellow, a chap with no legs, a bloke with one arm, a raving lunatic (when he was off his meds). All of them worked as hard as I did to get the job done. Yes, some needed more support then others and adaptations to the workplace be those bigger doors or braile notices. They all worked.

      Nowadays we have abdul abadinding who washes up here, claims a free house, free money, breeds like a rat and has a job as a moped delivery driver. He speaks not a word of English and never will, just getting more and more cash under the counter while robbing me blind. He, and Kelvin the tracksuit wearing hoddy chav can sod off down a mine and dig coal for a power station for all I care. They contribute nothing. They're parasites. The only thing that'll change this country is to literally stop feeding the dross. Don't work? Slapped in a chain gang, Kelvin and abdul abudingding picking up the litter they've strewn about, cleaning the graffii they've sprayed. Don't like it? Shoot the swine. I don't care any more.

      Empathy is care for those who deserve it. Those polluting this country do not. Vomiting other people's money on utter effluent is not empathy. Making them work is. Some people cannot work – at all – and deserve all the support we can give them. But they are a tiny, tiny, infinitesimal minority of the sponging wasters infesting this country.

      1. I used to know a radio ham (now, alas, silent keys) who was blind and in a wheelchair. He still worked.

  5. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/03/18/try-leaving-london-phillipson-tells-school-critics/

    Yet again, the Left prove themselves morons. Despite all the evidence they refuse to accept that the dead hand of the state destroys everything in it's path.

    The Left see education as a way to control and indoctrinate. They demand that the independent schools they have destroyed continue to provide bursaries and free places despite destroying their incomes – monies Labour gave straight to the unions, mind.

    Now they complain that academies and free schools are not the solution when clearly the best schools are such. The best thing this dumb bint of an education secretary could do is resign, admit her incompetence and stupidity, close the department of education and make all schools independent through school vouchers. That also requires a complete abolition of welfare. It is wrong that the dross are paid to breed.

  6. Knesset is a proscribed terror organisation, but is powerful and has powerful friends, so that makes it ok then.

    1. 403442+ up ticks,

      O2O,

      At seriously guaranteed risk, of a well deserved right hander.

    2. Two tier justice. In reality, the vermin should have been sent to dog training classes and taught to walk at heel. When they can manage that we'll move on to more advanced training. Certainly they aren't deserving of being treated as humans.

      1. My crazed Teacher friend is being stalked by her neighbour, who videos Teacher at every opportunity, stands in her garden staring in through Teachers kitchen window at Teacher doing the washing-up, and makes my poor friend extremely uncomfortable, often screaming insults at her if they are both out on the street. It's very concerning, I am not there so cannot offer anything other than advice.
        This behaviour has been reported to Plod a number of times, and they actively do nothing, saying it's "domestic". Only now that Teacher has informed Plod that she is engaging Legal aid, have they started to become interested, suggesting she wear a bodycam… no mention of actually doing anything, though.
        Useless bastards. Will they get involved if Teacher is injured or killed by this mad woman?

    4. Paignton eh, no longer part of the English Riviera.
      We went there a few years ago from Dartmouth on the train.
      We only stayed around one hour.

    5. I'm sure many locals will be "speaking to" these scum. And the Police often appeal to the public for phone footage of a crime.

  9. Tom Wells, the former Leader of Malvern Hills District Council, and who is the most popular Councillor in Worcestershire, is also musical director of Powick Community Choir.

    Last Sunday, he expressed his concern about the state of the world, which scares him. "It is like the 1930s", and I do not think he is wrong. Even in civilised society, the sort of "Might is Right" fascism has become the accepted norm, not least among the supporters of the current American President and his sinister friends around the world, not least in Russia and Israel.

    Wells's response is to put on a concert for peace, with a peace theme, starting with the 'Benedictus' from 'The Armed Man' by Karl Jenkins. My nomination was 'O Peaceful England' from 'Merrie England' by Edward German and Basil Hood. This song, expressed by Queen Elizabeth I, takes on a piquant meaning when applied to the second Elizabeth, whose 70-year reign was entirely in peacetime.

    What makes me thankful that I am nearing seventy and won't be around for too much longer, is the thought that the Earth is overinfested with people, whose numbers have doubled in the last fifty years. God and Nature traditionally dealt with this by culling them with plague. Humanity, in its ingenuity, has largely found ways round this, so the alternative culling method is war.

    Exterminating 5 billion excess people is a tall order, but the systematic demolition tried out in Gaza could be rolled out around the globe and coming to a place near you, so we are assured by those with the money to pay for it.

    Is there an alternative?

    1. The problems in Gaza are caused by muslim. The problems here are caused by muslim, welfare, and are rooted in a massive, useless state.

      The solutions are not complicated: Nations must adopt a right minded, politically isolationist, globally trading attitude. Low taxes, no welfare, small government. Neuter the state, revoke it's ability to pay itself and like cancer in a corpse, it does.

      muslim had the opportunity to return the hostages it had taken. muslim didn't have to bomb Israel from microlights. muslim didn't need to use water pipes to make rocket launchers. muslim didn't need to site it's weapons emplacements in schools and hospitals.

      Just about every problem we have is down to obese, corrupt, incompetent, bloated government. If the dindus were put in an open air prison and not fed or just dragged back to france they would stop coming. If the welfare scroungers had no money to live off they would starve. If plod arrested the criminal and the criminal were actually punished there would be less crime. Repeated offenders must be properly punished, not let off repeatedly by Left wing judges.

      When you work, earn and save and see your roads are physically and literally unsafe because of psychotic drivers and dindu mopeds, let alone pot holes but there's plenty of cash to pay the CEO – executive of what, exactly? – council wonks over 12million for 10 jobs there is waste. Why does a bankrupt council management team, having hopped from wonk job to wonk job get to just keep moving around?

      A concert is a nice idea but will change nothing. Brutality does but it has to focus on the criminal, the indolent, the abuser of society. Instead, we have the absurd situation where if you work, save, look after your children you're punished. Demanding more from the state has you attacked by the very servants whose wages you're forced to pay.

      1. The civil administration in Gaza has just 24 bargaining chips left to hold back the intended total clearance of their land, ripe for redevelopment into the Malibu of the Mediterranean, and the expulsion of 2 million citizens into the desert and the mercy of the Pharoah. I don't have a lot of time for Muslim zealots, who may serve a purpose as a bogey warranting total extermination of the subhuman vermin (they said that of the Jews once) caught up in their web, but please spare a thought for the Christians there, who are associates of neither Jew nor Muslim.

        I think the problem with the State is that it is a receptacle, no more. If there is nothing in it, it cannot give out anything. It has to be filled, and if filled with good things, then it contains goodness for dispensation. If the snouts of the piggies are crammed in it, how is there space for anyone else to get at the goodies?

        Therefore, rather than throwing away the bucket, perhaps the answer is a sense of what is worth putting in the bucket, and then keeping the piggies out.

        1. It has taken hostages and started a war. Then muslim squealed 'poor us'. Eradicate them. Erase them from existence.

          Notably none of their muslim neighbours want them either.

          The state is a cancer. It sits there, waiting for a failure in society and then leaps at it, devours it and grows. Then it's damage spreads to other areas of the economy and it promises to fix them, as only it can – and then devours those, leaving behind chaos, mess and ruin. The body politic is erased and eventually the state starts dictating how things are to be and because it has done so much damage people don't question it – they're reliant on the poison.

          The way to control the state is to remove it's ability to raise or levy taxes or manipulate the money supply. If it can't do any of those things it is impotent. This is why they're afraid of blockchain based 'currencies'. Starve the beast and it cannot attack you.

          1. They said much the same of the Jews, and look where this led.

            Palestine is a grudge state with a huge chip on its shoulder over mass disposessions and forced transportations in the 20th and 21st centuries.

            Extermination may be a convenient final solution, since this also eliminates the grudge, but is hardly civilised.

            Nobody mentions the plight of the Christians there.

    2. Yet during this period when the earth is allegedly so overpopulated, we had the smallest percentage in modern times suffering from starvation during the recent era of global trade.
      The only information we have on population comes from the UN and other Agenda-2030 supporting international organisations. They lie about everything else, why would you believe them on the world population numbers?
      The left are pushing for war at the moment – peace is deemed to be a dangerous, far right extremist stance.
      All wars are funded by printing or borrowing money, so why not put the blame where it belongs, with international bankers and those who decide when the printing presses are turned on?
      Above all else, recognise and accept how much of what we believe is pure propaganda!

      A peace concert is a good move though – I want another peace march, I've got a blue flag with a dove on it in preparation!

      1. Did you ever see the epic German trilogy 'Heimat'? The first and third series chronicled the life of a fictitious German village between 1919 and 2000.

        One of the characters was the fiesty wife of the blacksmith, who fearlessly confronted the Nazi militia. She didn't care about giving them a piece of her mind – what difference would it make shortening the life of an old woman by a few years at most? Through the economic miracle of the 1930s, when Hitler delivered salvation and great prosperity to Germany, this lady snorted and said that it was all on tick, and that one day someone would have to pay for it.

        1. You have to be careful about going further than facts with that belief though. Money being printed to pay for stuff, leaving future generations with debt – that is traceable. Amorphous fears and superstitions about resources running out can very quickly go over into pagan superstitions that if we don’t pacify the earth god/goddess it will do something bad to us.

      2. Thus why we must simply leave the third world alone – and stop it getting here. They must be kept where they are and either improve, reducing their population as technology overcomes failure or simply die away.

        We, the advanced nations need to get old and see our populations shrink radically to accommodate our far more advanced nature.

        Instead the hard Left have forced London, replaced with Karachi and Darfor to spread everywhere around this country.

        1. I agree, but I don’t see the third world as an amorphous burden on the west. In the next economic cycle, the BRICS and aligned nations will be developed, and will enjoy the industrial revolution that Britain did in the nineteenth century. There are far more opportunities in those countries now than in most of the west, certainly than in Britain.
          Our biggest problem is this sickly printing money to give out in benefits, which attracts the worst scroungers from around the world and drives productive people away. Benefits are a scam; even in Britain’s richest era we never could actually afford them. They’ve always been paid for by racking up debt.

        2. It's "not fair" for some people to live in a shithole of their own construction, such as much of Africa, and we cannot expect them to sort it out for themselves, as Europe did hundreds of years ago. Instead, they must be allowed, over a period of hours, to transition to first world, with all the benefits and none of the effort.
          That way lies madness and destruction of everything.

    3. The current American president is pushing for peace, not war. The extermination of people in Gaza was not his doing.

      1. So he says, but do we believe everything the man comes out with? He is certainly pushing for a good deal, since that is what has always done, and why he was elected.

        The extermination of Gaza is 90% down to decisions taken by the Knesset (which are enthusiastically promoted and supported financially by Trump), and 10% down to idiots in Hamas thinking they would protect their citizens by mounting a raid on Israel kibbutzim, many of whom were sympathetic to Gazans and traded with them.

        2. Sorry Jeremy, but that is a total load of bollocks.
          First, WHAT extermination in Gaza? As has been pointed out here MANY times, prior to the current campaign the population in the enclave had steadily increased year on year. That's some campaign of genocide, innit?
          Second, Hamas have used, still use and will continue to use the Gazans as human shields and propaganda fodder, ESPECIALLY the children.
          Third, The October the 7th attacks were in no way intended as a "protection" of their "citizens", but rather to provoke the Israelis into responding so that the citizens of Gaza could fulfill their designated function as Human Shields and Propaganda Fodder.
          Fourth, where is this information coming from? Why from Hamas's own propaganda ministry. The same ministry that, in the immediate aftermath of the 7th Oct. atrocity, was spouting bullshite propaganda before the IDF had even responded.

          1. Just once Israel might respond without the shock & Awe approach of bombing Gaza – I don't know, maybe they could try getting Hamas to adopt explosive mobile phones…?

        3. It is my wish that they are wiped out. Two of the victims of this muslim horror attack were a woman and her unborn child. They shot her in the womb. Other babies decapitated in their cots.

          They are evil.

          1. It is amazing how some people allow the evil of Hamas to pass without censure and yet are filled with anti-Semitic hatred when Israelis defend themselves.

          2. Common psychopaths are capable of much the same. They should be dealt with by the same justice they deal out. I am quite wary of group liability though, since I consider this unjust.

            The exception might be those who swear loyalty to a psychopath cause by wearing or imposing their military uniform, and it could be argued, for example, that the burqa might qualify.

    4. “the second Elizabeth, whose 70-year reign was entirely in peacetime”? I believe that there has been just one year since the end of WW2 when a British serviceman was not killed on active service. Korea, Aden, Malaya, Cyprus, the Falklands, two Gulf Wars and Afghanistan, for example, weren’t peaceful.

      2. True, there were quite a few foreign adventures during the reign of Elizabeth II, but apart from The Troubles – more a local insurgency than a war, none have been in the United Kingdom.

        1. There has never been more than a tiny number of wars in the UK. It has always been better to fight our wars on somebody else’s real estate. Elizabeth 11’s reign was no different.

  11. Good morning on this gloriously sunny day. I'm about to make a cup of English breakfast tea and do my wordle in bed . Morning is the correct time for such endeavours .

    1. Lots of blooms here too but too early for my bluebell wood to be full of colours except snowdrops and crocuses .

    3. Soon, just a couple more days until the Vernal Equinox, 20 Mar 25 at 09.01 GMT.

    1. Carney – unelected
      Starmer – voted for by less than 20% of the population.

      Democracy is over.

      1. Sadly, it's been over for some time. It only really became clear in the aftermath of the vote to Leave.

    2. Carney appointed Governor of the Bank of England by gay-boy Cameron. Appointed Prime Minister of Canada by gay-boy Trudeau. Supported by gay-boy Macron. I know, all three are 'married', but can you see the connection?

    1. How about we respect them in their own country? They've no place here, they're nothing but trouble. Most of them sit on welfare not working. They are murderous, savage, abusive creatures.

      1. Yo Wibbless

        They are murderous, savage, abusive creatures.

        and there bad points?

        1. Their, dear – I'm sure some are ok. I know some muslims and they're perfectly decent fellows.

          But the majority are not. They don't work, don't contribute, don't integrate and they should not be here at all.

          1. There's a jolly good pharmacist in a nearby village …. um … er …….. I'm sure I'll think of another if I put my mind to it.

    2. Little white girls from Southport don't buy him clothes and posh glasses or possess posh pads near Covent Garden.
      Muslim "Lords" however …….

      1. Little white girls from Southport don't go around blowing people up, stabbing them or running them over with a car, either.

  16. Good morning, chums. Once again I overslept. Thanks, Geoff for the new NoTTLe site today.

    Wordle 1,368 4/6

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

    1. Good morning Elsie and all
      Wordle 1,368 4/6

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

  18. Good morning all.
    A beautiful bright sunny but still bloody cold morning!
    A tad over 2°C just now with a light frost giving the lie to the recorded minimum of 0.9°C. Either the thermometer is inaccurate or there is a cocoon of less cold air round the house.
    One lot of damp washing from yesterday already up the clothes line and a 2nd lot in the machine.

      1. I have a P.G.C.E. as does Caroline.

        I was once the head of English in a small independent school. Two of the most inspirational teachers in the department did not have teaching qualifications though one has a M.A. and the other went on to gain a Ph.D.

        What made them such great teachers was their love of the English language and English Literature and the infectious enthusiasm of their desire to pass this on to their pupils.

        1. I, too, have a PGCE. When I got into the classroom, I realised how useless the stuff I had to study was.

  20. Islamophobia laws are just censorship. Britain’s Muslims already have solid protection

    Another attempt is being made to invent special rights for just one faith group. Let’s hope it fails

    17 March 2025 5:37pm GMT
    Douglas Murray

    The noted theologian Angela Rayner has decided that this Labour Government should come up with a working definition of the term Islamophobia. She has now found a former Conservative, Dominic Grieve, to head the taskforce committed to solving this conundrum. For his part, Grieve has said that he hopes that the commission he is heading “will come up with principles in defining Islamophobia” which will “thus help support positive change in our country”.

    Allow me to make a prediction. Angela Rayner, Dominic Grieve and all the people involved will fail.

    Anybody could tell them that there are already more than enough laws in this country that protect people from abuse. And there are more than enough laws that prevent acts of criminality. For instance, it is already illegal to attack a mosque, like any other building. It is also already illegal to harass or harm someone.

    Furthermore, the woeful expansion of the “non-crime hate incident” as a part of the non-laws of this country has already allowed the police to come knocking on the front doors of people perceived to have said something mean online.

    But for those pushing for a definition of “Islamophobia” none of this is enough. They do not want more laws to protect Muslims or Islam. They want special laws to protect one particular religion – and this is intolerable.

    It would be as though there was a large drive in this country to protect the feelings and views of Catholics. If there was a vast push, led by the government, to come up with a special working definition of “Catholic-ophobia” then people might start to suspect something. And they would be right to do so.

    What would be the aims of such a move? Surely it would be to give extra protection to people of one faith? Protections above and beyond those which already protects citizens of any faith or none.

    What would be the societal repercussions? I can say with some certainty that it would introduce – among much else – a nervousness among elected representatives, newspaper editors and other public figures about exposing any mistakes or crimes carried out in the name of the Catholic Church, or by a Catholic.

    The average citizen in the pub or on social media would soon feel that pressure, too. Wonder about making a lame joke about all Catholic priests being child-abusers and you would have to wonder if there wasn’t going to be a knock on the door from some low-grade police official.

    So it will be if this push to define “Islamophobia” gets what it wants. After all, it is not as though there is already a level playing field when it comes to religious offence in this country.

    Ever since the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 every writer in this country has known that Islam is out of bounds when it comes to criticism.

    There is a reason why this age has not seen an outpouring of novels satirising the origin story of Islam. Likewise, cartoonists and others – who are often on the front lines of free-speech disputes – all know one thing above all: mock Christianity and attack Jews, but don’t under any circumstances draw anything that might offend the sensibilities of Muslims. Their slain colleagues at Charlie Hebdo in Paris stand as a stark reminder of what happens if you poke that particular hornet’s nest.

    In other words, none of this is theoretical. Everybody in Britain who has any care for using their free-speech rights in this country already knows that there is a religion and a subject which has been put assiduously off-limits by men of violence.

    And now comes the kicker. Which is that with that piece of censorship by the sword already put in place, this Government now seeks to put in place legislation which will without doubt prevent anyone from noticing the violent ways in which parts of the Muslim world already go about their business.

    If you were to notice that large crowds of Muslims in Bradford approved of the murder of Salman Rushdie would you be guilty of “Islamophobia”? What if you noted that after the 2015 massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo almost 80 per cent of British Muslims said they found images depicting the founder of Islam as offensive and 27 per cent of British Muslims said that they had “some sympathy” for the motives of the jihadists who carried out the attack?

    There will be softer cases which will come to hand even faster than these. Earlier this month there were huge celebrations in Piccadilly Circus with the turning on of the now traditional “Ramadan lights”. The Muslim Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was joined by other Muslim celebrities as tens of thousands of lights appeared across the centre of London celebrating a Muslim religious event. Mayor Khan told media: “If you had told me all those years ago that, within my lifetime, we would have lights in London celebrating Ramadan like we do Christmas, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

    Well, me neither. But I can’t say that I am especially thrilled by this “progress”. I don’t see it as especially desirable that a tourist travelling through central London should be under the impression that they were in Islamabad, just with better lighting. But that would almost certainly be “Islamophobic”.

    What of the football fans who have had to start to get used to the new tradition of the match stopping so that Muslim players can break their fast during Ramadan? Is this something to be desired?

    If Catholic players insisted that they had to halt the game in order to celebrate the Holy Eucharist would everyone be expected to accept this with equanimity? I don’t know. Try it at a Rangers-Celtic game some day. But in the meantime, people on the terraces will have to get used to the idea that feeling irritation (let alone expressing it) about this new tradition could itself become a crime. Say that you’re not keen on an ultra-religious Muslim being the new head of Ofsted and you’ll wade into equally tricky waters.

    Islam as a religion already has too many protections created by custom and fear. Muslims as people already have the same protections as everyone else. The “Islamophobia” commission will fail – as its predecessors have done. But its idea of “success” would be a defeat for everyone.

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

    Kate Wydra
    14 hrs ago
    The world has 6 major religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism. The only one that is a threat to western civilisation is Islam. Jews and Hindus have settled in the UK without any fuss at all. They practice their religion and participate in the life of the country without excluding themselves or making the indigenous population fear them. Moslems are required to distance themselves from non Moslems, so integration in western countries is impossible.

    We should be able to say this and express our disquiet. The Prevent program espouses equivalency with extreme Islam and the Far right. This is absurd. Whilst the Far Right is obnoxious and a threat to the well being of the country, there is a thousandfold threat from extreme Islamists. Everyone knows this. Islamophobia is a made-up concept. We are right to fear extreme Islam.

    George Smith
    10 hrs ago
    Yet the people in this country seem to be quite fine with the country turning Islamic. They seem to be more concerned with the football or getting drunk, or their hair or their nails or what recipe to cook. Just anything other than being seen to be ‘racist’ by the deranged woke elites.

    Even Reform won’t do anything to stop this. The country as it was is finished.

    But at least we weren’t racist.

    penelope simpson
    10 hrs ago
    Reply to George Smith
    Speak for yourself. I do my best lobbying and protesting

    ME Frew
    10 hrs ago
    Just home from crappy BA flight. Their in flight map thingy has Muslim prayer time and directions, barf.

    1. " a knock on the door from some low-grade police official." You mean having the door violently smashed in by an armed team of Hurty-words Crime squad and dragged off to the local nick?

    2. When Catholic priests were found guilty of child-abuse, their religious associations were considered relevant, though many appeared to be acting individually. Was the same done for the muz?

    1. Are you suggesting that he actually spoke a word without reading it from his usual paper work?

  23. Good Morning!

    As I say in today’s article, it’s very difficult to get folk to take any interest in merchant shipping, the second love of my life, but forget the accident – and that is all it was – off Hull and please do read T he Real Exploding Tanker Conspiracy f or a very real conspiracy, involving acts of state terrorism against international shipping.

    Part Four of Nanu’s humorous and well-written satire,  Life In The Bunker , on the efforts of the Remainiacs to keep us in the cursed EU is posted, along with an appeal for you all to read it, and comment, make suggestions and give advice, as he’s turning it into a book, to be published on the anniversary of the referendum. Who knows, it might even be made in a movie. Frederica’s piece, Alas poor Albion, on the origin of the name and the now lost glories attached to it is well worth reading if you missed it. Please read and comment and support our writers.

    Energy watch 07.30: Demand:  36.29 GW. Total UK Production: 28.87 GW from: Hydrocarbons 30.2%; Wind 25.1%; Imports 21.6%; Biomass 6.3%; Nuclear 9.9%. Solar: 3.9%.

    We are currently importing over 20% of our electric power requirements, mainly from France.

    freespeechbacklash.com

  24. Good morning Nottlers, it's 3°C on the Costa Clyde, with light winds and few clouds…again. it seems to have been this way all week.

    As to the headline, Britain has a plan to help Ukraine? I thought, now the adults – Trump and Putin – had begun to work on their peace plan, that Britain, the EU members, and Uncle Tom Cobley and all could return to the business of destroying their own countries. All this theatre in the vain hope of appearing relevant is only good for the travel expenses and air miles.

    1. I don't really understand what Starmer is trying to achieve. It's almost playing two sides against the middle in public and hoping neither will notice.

      2. He's labouring under the illusion that the UK is still a significant power. They all are. looking for some neo-colonial role. Cameron said that we should be a "World power in foreign aid". Get used to the idea we are no longer a World power. Stop using phrases like "British leadership". Nobody is following…

    1. I used to get dunnocks in the garden fairly frequently but in the past six years I've only seen one, briefly.

      It's the same with redpolls. Over the past week I've had a flock of over 100 siskins on the feeders but not a single redpoll (both species habitually flock together at this time of year).

  26. Good morning, all. Light frost at 06:00 chased away by the Sun rising in a clear sky.

    The madness continues: reports of Starmer's aims on conscription and the continuation of the "boots on the ground and planes in the sky" rhetoric. Comments are overwhelmingly against the ideas and the man.

    Now, another common thread is appearing that associates Starmer's continual 'peace keeping in Ukraine' idea and the policy disasters he is overseeing in the UK i.e. the most dangerous deflection tactic possible, prodding the Russian Bear to cover self inflicted disasters in the UK.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ebbc949c3be9574158079e241c062c9f94a913b5820103abdd44485b727dcd18.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae03e0a0d94aa48dc67a14a81130eb45acd6563503e6dd49001520a7018ee524.png
    Other options for Starmer's current passion exist.

    1. He'll probably enshrine it in law via a "Ukraine Peacekeeper Act" and then the Tories/Reform will pretend they can't change the policy. We've seen it all before.

    3. We have Ukrainian soldiers training with the RTR here in South Dorset . The tank ranges are busy , lots of activity .

      The Ukrainians have been here for months , probably a couple of years even !

      How much is that costing , £ millions I suspect.

    4. We're already in recession they just fiddle the figures. It's daft to pretend there would be any other outcome. The result of crushing legislation and high taxes always has the same effect.

    5. Conscription is fantastically expensive… just saying… the lads and lasses all need fed, clothed, paid, acommodated, equipped with bang sticks and panzers, rockets, etc, and so on. That ain't cheap!

    6. Perhaps it is just another ploy to remove British armed forces from the UK so that they will be in no position to react when the TTStarmer appointed Muzzie battalions are mobilized to take complete control of the British Isles?

  27. SIR – I have visited the United States many times, and lived there for a period. With very few exceptions I found Americans to be decent and generous people, courteous and with a strong sense of right and wrong. I am unable to reconcile the Americans I knew with their current president.

    Richard Hall FRCS
    Egginton, Derbyshire

    I had to read that letter several times , I wonder where he lived and visited , and was he a pal of Obama/Biden ?

    2. Why is everyone (including NoTTLers) so obsessed by Trump? Apparently, all the newspapers know what he's thinking and what he is about to do, and are sure it will doom us all to armageddon (they will be very disappointed when it doesn't). They all know the same about Vladimir Putin… yet, look for actual, factual news in the online papers, and all you get is crickets, dust and tumbleweed – all the efforts are on this fantasy called Trump & Putin. No reality news at all.
      This even infects local papers, but I'm glad to say Asker & Bærums Budstikka ( https://www.budstikka.no/ ) has an article on some bastards who damaged a transformer so that 500 litres of trafo oil leaked into our local river – and not only making an appalling mess, the stuff is highly toxic, so likely all the fish will die, the birds too. Good one, eco-warriors.

      1. I'm not a fan of Trump, never have been, but people seem to hate him because they think that he is going to be doing the right thing. Clear up all the garbage. As in supporting majority opinion and a brighter future for the majority.

          1. Even normal, level-headed folk get beside themselves when Trump does anything, even the things they have been moaning about for decades – example: There's too much state, too much government, so when Trump starts to cut it down, they scream blue murder because he's doing what they habe been whining about forever.
            Derangement is right.

    3. I see the writer is an FRCS. Most qualified, professional Americans are not Trump supporters. The core MAGA supporters are lower down the socio economic scale. Trump himself has called them "My poorly educated supporters".

  28. Morning all 🙂😊
    Sunny start chilly but warming through the week.
    Why would we have to help Ukraine we've already done our bit, now Europe can step in. They are closer, even neighbours and there are more of them.
    The hated globalist mob are behind all this curfuffle.
    They are trying to bring Vlad and Russia down because he and his well run country won't conform with all their crap.

  29. This insane story about ‘gay babies’ proves that woke isn’t dead

    Parents in the US state of New Jersey have been handed the most staggering questionnaire – and no one can believe it

    18 March 2025 6:00am GMT
    Michael Deacon

    The next time someone blithely assures you that “woke is over” now Donald Trump is back, politely direct his or her attention to the following story. In the US state of New Jersey, hospitals have been giving new parents a questionnaire to fill in.

    And this questionnaire asks them to specify their newborn baby’s sexuality.

    Yes, you read that correctly. Holly Schepisi, a Republican member of the New Jersey Senate, has shared a photo of the questionnaire on her Facebook page, after getting her staff to confirm that it was real. And here, verbatim, is how the relevant question is phrased.

    “Which of the following best describes your baby? Lesbian or gay; straight or heterosexual; bisexual; self-describes (please specify); questioning/unsure.”

    No matter how many times I reread the quoted passage, I still can’t decide which aspect of it is the maddest. The idea that a newborn baby can be gay. The idea that parents might think their newborn baby is gay. The idea that a newborn baby can “self-describe” anything, let alone his or her sexual orientation. Or the idea that a newborn baby is “questioning” his or her sexual orientation – as if, while in the womb, the baby was convinced that he or she was heterosexual, but now, a couple of hours after being born, is starting to have second thoughts.

    Even if the baby does happen to be wrestling with such extraordinary notions, it’s unclear how he or she would convey his or her conclusions. Coming out to your parents is hard enough for grown adults. So goodness only knows how a preverbal child is meant to manage it. Or perhaps the parents are just expected to guess. (“Our two-day-old son has yet to discuss his sexuality with us. But we have noted his passion for interior design and musical theatre.”)

    For a moment, I wondered whether the questionnaire might actually be part of some ingenious sting operation by the FBI. Any time a grown man ticks a box suggesting he thinks that very small children have sexual preferences, undercover agents immediately leap out and arrest him.

    But no. It would appear that there is no such plan. In reality, the whole thing is probably just a wild misunderstanding. A spokesman for the healthcare provider behind the form said that asking such questions is now “required by New Jersey law” – after local politicians decreed that healthcare providers must collect detailed demographic data about all their patients, including sexual orientation. I suspect that these politicians didn’t have the sexual orientation of newborn babies in mind. None the less, this is how their law has been interpreted.

    Whatever the explanation, though, the farce doesn’t end there. Because the questionnaire doesn’t just ask about your baby’s sexuality. It also asks about your baby’s gender identity.

    Among the wide variety of possible answers listed on the form are “male”, “female”, “genderqueer” – and, rather curiously, “trans woman” and “trans man”. In the context, surely it should be “trans baby”. But then, if a man can identify as a woman and a woman as a man, I suppose there’s no reason why a baby shouldn’t identify as an adult.

    On the plus side, the spokesman for the healthcare provider did make clear that parents are entitled not to answer the questions, if they so wish. This must come as a relief not only to the parents, but to hospital staff.

    After all, new parents tend to be irritable enough as it is, what with all the sleep deprivation and stress. Ask them whether their baby son is a lesbian, and God knows what they might do.

    Make prisoners pay
    From slashing foreign aid to cutting benefit payments, Sir Keir Starmer has recently adopted an unexpectedly conservative approach to public spending. I don’t know whether he’s looking for further ways to ease the burden on the taxpayer. But if he is, I have a suggestion for him.

    He should pay a visit to the Clink Prison Museum in London.

    There he will learn the history of the Clink, a gruesome medieval prison which was in use from 1144 to 1780. I happened to visit it at the weekend. And, among many other fascinating facts, I learnt that prisoners were required to pay for their incarceration out of their own pockets.

    They had to pay for their bedding, lighting, heating, food, water. They even had to pay for their fetters and chains to be attached to them. And then, at the end of their sentence, they had to pay once again to have the fetters and chains removed.

    No doubt some Labour MPs would be hesitant to adopt such a policy today. They might venture to suggest that, in the 21st century, it would seem a touch draconian, and liable to meet with a certain amount of resistance from human rights lawyers.

    All the same, the Prime Minister should at least try putting it to focus groups. Because I have a funny feeling that it would poll quite well.

    **************************************
    Aelfwynn Erin
    2 hrs ago
    Only a few years ago, the correct response to anyone taking an unhealthy interest in the "sexuality" of young children, let alone babies, was to call the police.

    Thanks to Stonewall & their equally deranged far-left activists, they now get government funding and flags flying over the townhall.

    If only the Police weren't captured by this insidious and dangerous gender ideology of Stonewall, we would stand a better chance of protecting our children from it.

    P.s. considering the desperate need to build new prisons because of the huge rise in criminal activity in recent years, charging prisoners for their keep while in prison sounds like a very good idea. Why should innocent taxpayer's have to pay for their crime twice over?

    1. Given the government's tyrannical actions last year, I'd be a bit cautious about calling for harsher conditions in prisons.

      1. Two tier prisons?

        White males – such as Tommy Robinson – may not receive the same treatment as non-white males.

    2. I believe that most prisoners were "on benefits" before incarceration and that those benefits get stopped.
      Those not on benefits tend to lose their jobs.
      Hardly covers the costs but it's a start.

    1. Someone, please, a friendly fire incident.

      No one will mind if that friendly fire is from 40 or fifty different angles.

      Maybe get the rest of the fools dolled up as well.

    1. Looking forward to the good wishes indiscriminatedly spread around for Easter… not holding my breath, though.

    2. Wadda loada bolero.
      Did she mention the barbary pirates of the 11 and 12 centuries stealing children from British shores to take back to Alhambra 'for the use of' and used to feed the pet lions after use ?
      Blood and Gold, a well researched TV series.

      1. We have to remember that it is only Britain which has an evil history as far as slavery is concerned.

        1. We seem to be too willing to take the blame for everything.
          I still believe that Africans were delivered to their destiny of slavery by there own people. There was never a single mention of that POS Mugabe in the news when he murdered 20 thousand people because he knew they would never vote for him. That was Wilson’s fault he interfered with and ruined well run civilised country.
          Now the slammers are kicking off again on the west bank.
          That didn’t last long did. But it seems our MSM have already decided that it must have been Israel’s fault.

          1. The traded blacks were either surplus relatives who might challenge the chief's authority or criminals.
            Imagine being paid to have your criminals taken off your hands. (Ponders deeply.)

    3. "Muslims have been part of this country for centuries. From the early sailors and traders…"

      Perhaps someone should explain to her they were raiding the British Isles for slaves.

      1. Robinson Crusoe was kidnapped by Muslims if i remember correctly. Granted he was a fictional character but these stories were based on true anecdotes.

    4. She ought to go alone at night provocatively dressed and wander around the area of Tower Hamlets.

      1. She ought to go alone at night provocatively dressed as she is (in Comical Alli's gift) and wander around the area of Tower Hamlets.

    5. I know she is a proven liar but that is ridiculous. One of the longest lies I have listened to. That or she is completely mental. Probably both.

      1. Chaucer's lustful Wife of Bath had several husbands and she stated that women have a preference for fresh rather than stale fish!

  35. Hundreds killed as Israel launches air strikes on Gaza
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/18/israel-hamas-gaza-war-hostages-latest-news/

    No civilised people want to see innocent people wantonly slaughtered but what should the Israelis do?

    BTL

    If Hamas really wanted the war to end it would release all the hostages.

    Hamas is still trying to use the retention of hostages as a bargaining chip but now it seems clear that they have murdered all the hostages so they are using corpses as their bargaining chip – corpses they have probably already destroyed.

    If the Israelis retaliate to Hamas's refusal to release either the hostages or their corpses the MSM will brand them as being just as bad as Hamas; if they do not react it will boost the morale of Hamas and prolong the evil bloodshed indefinitely.

  36. Hundreds killed as Israel launches air strikes on Gaza
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/03/18/israel-hamas-gaza-war-hostages-latest-news/

    No civilised people want to see innocent people wantonly slaughtered but what should the Israelis do?

    BTL

    If Hamas really wanted the war to end it would release all the hostages.

    Hamas is still trying to use the retention of hostages as a bargaining chip but now it seems clear that they have murdered all the hostages so they are using corpses as their bargaining chip – corpses they have probably already destroyed.

    If the Israelis retaliate to Hamas's refusal to release either the hostages or their corpses the MSM will brand them as being just as bad as Hamas; if they do not react it will boost the morale of Hamas and prolong the evil bloodshed indefinitely.

  37. The disparity of how many hamas killers were released for Israeli hostages was laughable too.

    If muslim has killed them then the entire area should be razed to the ground.

      1. 403442+ up ticks,

        Afternoon W,

        Supermans weakness was Kryptonite he couldn’t near it.

        Islamics is welfare, and halal, they couldn’t
        operate, far from it.

  39. "Net-zero ‘fantasy’ could bankrupt Britain, warns Badenoch" (The Times)

    But – you daft bint – your party in government was ALL FOR this bollox.

      1. Of course not – my point was that this sudden change of mind/direction is completely bogus. If she felt then as she does now – WHY didn't she say so and resign from the government?

    2. Many of them still are. Apparently some in the Tories are angry at her comments. This is part of the problem. They're rats in a sack, fighting one another.

      Worse, I fully expect there to be a screeching u turn as soon as office beckons. Once in, suddenly it all makes sense and they fall into line in the hard Left enforced decline plan.

    3. The more advanced my years become I find politician's pronouncements become more in words and thinner in substance. They now seem to take an age to say nothing at all.

    4. And the Bonking Buffoon was one of its keenest advocates as was Teraita May.

      BTW I have yet to find anyone who has a good word to say about Stanley Johnson, Boris's father, who was a Net Zero fanatic as well as being a wife beater.

    5. Martin Adamson
      2h
      Almost unique instance of a politician recognising an idea as being common sense only two decades after everyone with actual common sense recognised said idea as being common sense.

      Steve
      1h
      But she wont ditch the policy because the blob wont let her.
      So its just a few words about how insane the policy is but we will carry on regardless.

      Will the climate change committee be disbanded? No thought not.

      keith waites
      Steve
      1h
      That's it – the Blob.. all governments have to face the blob, which will stop them doing anything sensible (not that Spanner's box of frogs has any intention of doing anything sensible).

      1. How does she get past the Blob? Anyone with any common sense knows the Climate Change rubbish is a scam. Why are they all in thrall to this nonsense?

    7. Margaret Thatcher was Ed.Sec. in Heath's government. (And not a particularly good one.)
      The perennial argument is whether you do more good by staying in the Cabinet and gathering experience to advance informed arguments later or resigning and becoming a maverick who few listen to or dub you as mad.
      Enoch Powell's one very understandable mistake was to choose the latter course of action.

          1. By the 1970s, school milk was unnecessary.
            Diets and incomes had improved since the 1940s. It was a post war measure that had outlived its usefulness. The waste was criminal.
            I'm sure most of us can remember it either being left festering, or several bottles being drunk by a handful of greedy pupils.

          2. They used to bring ours in (frozen with the icy milk pushed up out of the top of the bottle) and store it by the stove. Result – yuk!

          3. When i went to primary school 1970/75 i had 5 older siblings. That milk was all i got in the mornings. Jam or sugar sandwich for lunch.

            I can understand Thatcher’s speech about society better now.

            I think she was saying we are responsible for ourselves and our family.

          4. Milk had already been withdrawn from Secondary Schools by the previous, Wilson, Government and the withdrawal from Primary Schools had already been planned.
            In other words she picked up the flak for carrying on with what Labour had already planned.

  40. John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, last pilot of ‘the Few’ who fought in the Battle of Britain

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2025/03/18/TELEMMGLPICT000230882935_17422787975680_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqFdGsDfymLFcjQJloyz371nug4wYlIWw9bC-S_TNNiFc.jpeg?imwidth=680
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2025/03/18/TELEMMGLPICT000230882930_17422795560920_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=680 Hemingway flew mainly Hurricanes: ‘He doesn’t feel as though he did anything special. But he liked the idea that he was last Irishman to have fought in the Battle’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/4570547ff1e25c7e

    "Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
    And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
    Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
    of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
    You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung
    High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
    I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
    My eager craft through footless halls of air….

    Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
    I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace.
    Where never lark, or even eagle flew —
    And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
    The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
    – Put out my hand, and touched the face of God."

    High Flight' by John Gillespie Maggee Jr. (1941)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb177078413f3acc2d72b47003693a5449229dc79a8b5af30cab24b733d25d0b.png

      1. This one got two:

        'Paddy' Finucane
        Irish fighter pilot
        Wing Commander Brendan Eamonn Fergus Finucane, DSO, DFC & Two Bars, known as Paddy Finucane among his colleagues, was an Irish Second World War Royal Air Force fighter pilot and flying ace—defined as an aviator credited with five or more enemy aircraft destroyed in aerial combat.
        Wikipedia
        Born 16 Oct 1920 Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland
        In June 1942, he became the RAF's youngest wing commander in its history.
        Died 15 Jul 1942 (aged 21)
        Shot down over the sea near Le Touquet, France
        Born: 16 October 1920, Rathmines, Dublin, Ireland
        Awards: Distinguished Service Order; Distinguished Flying Cross & Two Bars
        Rank: Wing commander, Royal Air Force

    2. In a way his obituary was the only thing of real note in todays Telegraph. He and the rest of the 'Few' will always be remembered. The rest of todays news will go the way of all ephemera.

    3. Those are Spitfires, though, not Hurricanes (lovely photo, by the way – my favourite aeroplane and an absolute delight to fly).

    1. They joined the Tory party because it was the only way they could experience power. So much for the efficacy of the Tory selection committees. They ensured that we would have a left wing party in power and another one in opposition.

      1. The constituency selection committees are bound by the dreaded CCHQ.
        Hague centralised everything.
        We then had the order to ensure 50% of the final four line-up was female. Boy, did we have to interview some clunkers who had obviously been several times round the parliamentary selection block. And yes, a CCHQ apparatchik lurked to make sure we adhered to the new rules – including not discussing the candidates with other committee members. Purely advisory ….. my RRs.

      2. Unless Rupert Lowe forms a party I might get behind the Tories but they would have to put Robert Jenrick in charge. I might sound like a racist, which I'm not. I'm just sick of this overrepresentation of non-English in charge of politics at such a critical time for our country and its native population. No matter who they are I do not feel that what is happening is vital to them because they always have another home to go to. This island. on the other hand, is our home and if we loose it we will become something like the native Americans or we will have enclaves, like Oriana, in South Africa, where those who can afford it continue to live on their dreams because reality has left them behind.

  42. Beebsplaining
    12h
    If halitosis was a person🙄
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ad70cce3562ebc2a9a868ab7887ef8cc1694c4b4c36ceadb4fd0ab47dac4061a.png

    Mike b
    10h
    Starmer's seen the Polls..Reform are coming for them…starting with Runcorn
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/677cfc87fdb13dea167d40c487ab14d2018caff86003e3766d813f28001e2300.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4e18fcad5a65c340d8a2136b042d608ae66425b9faa51ca22b8b8494084f135c.png
    MrVeryAngry
    Nowt better to do
    9m
    When you take into account fake companies and fake charities it is more like 8.5 million public sector bods consuming tax. None of them actually 'work'.

    Jan
    Nowt better to do
    10h
    Although British pensioners did pay their taxes and NI.Many worked since 15 and never claimed any benefits.

          1. Evil. He is the one responsible for torturing Tommy Robinson and persecuting people who dare write on Facebook.

          4. The evidence is in the photo. Confirmation is probably on his birth certificate.

          5. Well fed perhaps but that doesn’t explain why his shirt sleeves are about 7 inches longer than those of his jacket.

          6. Sartorial inelegance.

            As bad as those chumps who wear a tieless collared shirt with a suit. Scruffs need a slap!

          7. I agree with you but I fear that we are resisting an inexorable fashion. Personally, I find the increasing tendency for men of all ages to wear scrofulous Yasser Arafat-style beards equally disreputable.

    2. I'm happy to support pensioners. They've earned their money (although I'd prefer those who haven't worked didn't receive a full pension – even a few years working deserves the monies).

      I'm also happy to support the genuinely disabled who cannot work. They should be helped as that's just decent. However when we're talking about first cousin deformities those shouldn't be supported as the parents are wilfully culpable.

      If government invested NI as a pension fund, rather than spaffing it on nonsense no one wants or needs, such as unreliables and quangos. Serial welfarists, wasters and foreigners should receive nothing. I'm tired of sewage using children as a way to get a bigger property on my money.

      1. "I'm happy to support pensioners."

        Thank you, Wibbles. Much appreciated by THIS pensioner.

      2. I was rather shocked to see that they were using such things as: Can you use a microwave? And if you answer yes, that is grounds for denying you aid if you are incapacitated.

          3. Probably disqualifies you because the idiot who is scrutinizing you wont know what that is being recently from Abakaliki, Nigeria, two weeks ago.

      3. Sorry Wibbling ,

        Not being facetious , but I thought you were a pensioner , why because you are projecting your wife as some one much younger than you by virtue of the fact you have spoilt her and put her on a pedestal and allowed her to have childish moods and tantrums !

        1. Caroline and I are very happy together – as we have always been since we married nearly 37 years ago. I may put Caroline my lovely wife on a pedestal (where else should a man put his lovely wife?) but she is not spoilt and does not go in for childish moods and tantrums.

          There is an age difference between us of 16 years but this has never been a problem.

        2. Wibs talks about his company and the people he employs. Surely that would have given you a hint that he's still part of the workforce?

    3. The last one is so true, especially MrVeryAngry's observation that so many organisations hang exclusively off the public sector.

      I'm afraid a lifetime of paying taxes counts for nothing as the governments of the day spent all that money and a lot more – it's gone.

  43. Brown’s Bottom Continues to Bite as Gold Remains Above $3,000

    https://order-order.com/2025/03/17/browns-bottom-continues-to-bite-as-gold-remains-above-3000/#comments

    The billions lost by Gordon Brown’s decision to sell Britain’s gold reserves are mounting as gold prices have increased tenfold since that debacle. Gold touched $3,000 for the first time ever on Friday and has sat at around the same level since, peaking at $3,004.86 on Friday and $3,001.63 today. Would be nice to have some in reserve…

    Guido got out his fag packet to do some maths. Gordon Brown sold 12,712,000 ounces of gold for revenue of $3,500,588,920. That would today be worth $38,197,780,320. That’s a difference of $34,697,191,400. Exchanged to pounds that’s lost revenue potential of £27,168,547,397. Could fill a black hole or two…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96cf35db1c15bcb895fff3bf76b343c1134003535918ec1861f9c1ec7b6216b2.png
    Guido has long highlighted Brown’s stupidity in selling off the Bank of England’s gold reserves at their then level (Brown’s bottom) – the former Chancellor’s reverse Midas touch in action. FT economist and Guido’s old sparring partner on the Brown sell-off Alan Beattie has kept mysteriously quiet…

    March 17 2025 @ 17:35

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

    Joris Bohnson
    12h
    Let's all just thank Labour for all the great things they've done for this country. Let's openly celebrate the contribution the likes of Wilson, Callaghan, Kinnock, Bliar, Brown, Foot, Corbyn, Harman, Milipede and 2TK have made to our economy and social fabric. Where would the UK be without their game changing input? Oh, I know, much better off….

        1. I thought it was so the Labour government could get favourable terms with the IMF when eventually the shit hit the fan. As it always does under Labour.

      1. The Warqueen tends to wear trouser suits, although hers tend to be light colours and silk.

        She's also about 80 IQ points more intelligent than Reeves and much better looking. Not that I'm biased at all.

        2. Isadora Duncan, who was reputedly very beautiful, suggested to George Bernard Shaw that if they procreated together their offspring would have his brain and her good looks.

          "But imagine," retorted GBS, "if the children had my looks and your brain."

          2. I remember watching the TV Biography of her on BBC Television several decades ago.

      1. She's not unattractive, just a pity that her reputation puts people off her.
        I'd rate her a 3 pinter at the Brompton Stomp "Grab-A-Grannie" Night.

  45. Morning. Clear sky, cool.
    Wordle 1,368 4/6
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    🟨⬜🟨🟨⬜
    ⬜🟩🟨🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

  46. Make than 100 IQ points higher. Last time she was bored she came back with an IQ of 170.

  47. We don't tend to take too many photos – she lived her teenage/20s in front of a camera and I'm ugly, so there's no real need.

    Thankfully Junior got her brains, looks and my build, so as long as he doesn't get fat like his Dad, he'll be an absolute heart breaker.

    1. Wibbling! I keep meaning to recommend low-carb eating of some sort to.you. it WORKS.for weight loss, and it especially works for blokes, for some strange and irritating reason. Have you ever tried something like that?

      There are various options, but but basically you can fill.up on meat, fish, eggs (with mayonnaise if you want) cheese, cream bacon etc. The hard bit is coming off sugar and floor, but there are ways round those (like sugar-free jelly and low-carb pancakes). (Oh, and getting your family to keep their stashes of chocolate somewhere other than the kitchen cupboards…)

      You always sound so miserable about being overweight, and I have been meaning to suggest this for a while. I can give you more details / support if you'd like – Hertslass has my email.

      Katy

      1. Eating three boiled eggs and toast in the morning and i never snack on cakes and biscuits. You need to feel full but of the right things.

  48. Britain shaves £40m off benefits bill by sending pensioners to prison
    Campaigners push for payments review as the number of incarcerated retirees triples
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/labour-urged-pay-40m-state-pension-to-prisoners/

    This must be an accounting trick – transferring the cost of the benefits bill to the prisons dept. We are always being told how high the cost is of keeping someone in prison. This is very much higher than the cost of the state pension!

    According to the stats in 2022/23, the average cost of a prison place in England and Wales was £51,724 a year. How many OAPs get a £1,000 pw state pension?

    1. Correct. It costs £40,000 more per year to keep someone in prison than to give them the £11,502 full pension.

  49. Morning all. Sunny day and warm enough to open doors to let in the cool air. Rather nice.

    I'm sure some of you have already read Douglas Murray's excellent piece in the Telegraph today. But for the benefit of those restricted by the pay wall I reproduce it here.

    Douglas Murray
    Islamophobia laws are just censorship. Britain’s Muslims already have solid protection
    Another attempt is being made to invent special rights for just one faith group. Let’s hope it fails

    The noted theologian Angela Rayner has decided that this Labour Government should come up with a working definition of the term Islamophobia. She has now found a former Conservative, Dominic Grieve, to head the taskforce committed to solving this conundrum. For his part, Grieve has said that he hopes that the commission he is heading “will come up with principles in defining Islamophobia” which will “thus help support positive change in our country”.

    Allow me to make a prediction. Angela Rayner, Dominic Grieve and all the people involved will fail.

    Anybody could tell them that there are already more than enough laws in this country that protect people from abuse. And there are more than enough laws that prevent acts of criminality. For instance, it is already illegal to attack a mosque, like any other building. It is also already illegal to harass or harm someone.

    Furthermore, the woeful expansion of the “non-crime hate incident” as a part of the non-laws of this country has already allowed the police to come knocking on the front doors of people perceived to have said something mean online.

    But for those pushing for a definition of “Islamophobia” none of this is enough. They do not want more laws to protect Muslims or Islam. They want special laws to protect one particular religion – and this is intolerable.

    It would be as though there was a large drive in this country to protect the feelings and views of Catholics. If there was a vast push, led by the government, to come up with a special working definition of “Catholic-ophobia” then people might start to suspect something. And they would be right to do so.

    What would be the aims of such a move? Surely it would be to give extra protection to people of one faith? Protections above and beyond those which already protects citizens of any faith or none.

    What would be the societal repercussions? I can say with some certainty that it would introduce – among much else – a nervousness among elected representatives, newspaper editors and other public figures about exposing any mistakes or crimes carried out in the name of the Catholic Church, or by a Catholic.

    The average citizen in the pub or on social media would soon feel that pressure, too. Wonder about making a lame joke about all Catholic priests being child-abusers and you would have to wonder if there wasn’t going to be a knock on the door from some low-grade police official.

    So it will be if this push to define “Islamophobia” gets what it wants. After all, it is not as though there is already a level playing field when it comes to religious offence in this country.

    Ever since the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie by the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 every writer in this country has known that Islam is out of bounds when it comes to criticism.

    There is a reason why this age has not seen an outpouring of novels satirising the origin story of Islam. Likewise, cartoonists and others – who are often on the front lines of free-speech disputes – all know one thing above all: mock Christianity and attack Jews, but don’t under any circumstances draw anything that might offend the sensibilities of Muslims. Their slain colleagues at Charlie Hebdo in Paris stand as a stark reminder of what happens if you poke that particular hornet’s nest.

    In other words, none of this is theoretical. Everybody in Britain who has any care for using their free-speech rights in this country already knows that there is a religion and a subject which has been put assiduously off-limits by men of violence.

    And now comes the kicker. Which is that with that piece of censorship by the sword already put in place, this Government now seeks to put in place legislation which will without doubt prevent anyone from noticing the violent ways in which parts of the Muslim world already go about their business.

    If you were to notice that large crowds of Muslims in Bradford approved of the murder of Salman Rushdie would you be guilty of “Islamophobia”? What if you noted that after the 2015 massacre at the offices of Charlie Hebdo almost 80 per cent of British Muslims said they found images depicting the founder of Islam as offensive and 27 per cent of British Muslims said that they had “some sympathy” for the motives of the jihadists who carried out the attack?

    There will be softer cases which will come to hand even faster than these. Earlier this month there were huge celebrations in Piccadilly Circus with the turning on of the now traditional “Ramadan lights”. The Muslim Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, was joined by other Muslim celebrities as tens of thousands of lights appeared across the centre of London celebrating a Muslim religious event. Mayor Khan told media: “If you had told me all those years ago that, within my lifetime, we would have lights in London celebrating Ramadan like we do Christmas, I wouldn’t have believed you.”

    Well, me neither. But I can’t say that I am especially thrilled by this “progress”. I don’t see it as especially desirable that a tourist travelling through central London should be under the impression that they were in Islamabad, just with better lighting. But that would almost certainly be “Islamophobic”.

    What of the football fans who have had to start to get used to the new tradition of the match stopping so that Muslim players can break their fast during Ramadan? Is this something to be desired?

    If Catholic players insisted that they had to halt the game in order to celebrate the Holy Eucharist would everyone be expected to accept this with equanimity? I don’t know. Try it at a Rangers-Celtic game some day. But in the meantime, people on the terraces will have to get used to the idea that feeling irritation (let alone expressing it) about this new tradition could itself become a crime. Say that you’re not keen on an ultra-religious Muslim being the new head of Ofsted and you’ll wade into equally tricky waters.

    Islam as a religion already has too many protections created by custom and fear. Muslims as people already have the same protections as everyone else. The “Islamophobia” commission will fail – as its predecessors have done. But its idea of “success” would be a defeat for everyone.

    1. So multiculturism excludes free speech. Well we can clearly see what ideology is behind multiculturism then.

  51. From Coffee House, the Spectator

    After The Spectator’s Staff probe brought the rather alarming extent of government waste to light, the Labour lot have hastened their crackdown on frivolous spending. The latest target? Credit cards.

    Thousands of government credit cards will be cancelled in a bid to crack down on wasteful spending, the Cabinet Office has said. Whitehall departments and their associated agencies will be instructed to freeze their cards this week with ‘only a minority’ to be exempt from the cull – after figures revealed that over the last four years, credit card spending quadrupled. Sir Keir Starmer’s crowd is keen to reduce the number circulating by half as it ploughs ahead with its efficiency drive – after data showed a staggering £675 million was spent on government cards in 2024/25. Talk about sparing no expenses, eh?

    Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Pat McFadden lambasted the frivolous financing, remarking:

    It's not right that hundreds of millions of pounds are spent on government credit cards each year, without high levels of scrutiny or challenge. Only officials for whom it is absolutely essential should have a card.

    The new rules will mean any Whitehall mandarin that wants to hold onto a credit card will be forced to reapply for one and make the case for why exactly they need it. More than that, tighter spending controls will be brought in – with the top spend for hospitality splashed from a whopping £2,500 to £500, with director general approval required for higher sums. And Whitehall departments have been told to review spending on government procurement cards – with orders to take disciplinary action in the case of overspending and revoke the offending card. Civil servants aren't going to know what's hit them…

    Steerpike
    WRITTEN BY
    Steerpike
    Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

    1. He (Steerpike) is one of the reasons I stopped reading the Spectator. His gossip can be quite malicious.

      1. I stopped reading because it’s behind a paywall. I’ve enjoyed reading it for over fifty years.

        1. You have missed very little. By the time I canceled it I had stopped reading it for almost a year. But it's pretty cheap now. Probably desperate for readership.

    4. More like Musks DOGE than any Conservative government.

      I can just see some por sod on a business trip getting the Your Card has been declin3d message.

    5. Government says they will ‘do something’ about this, that and the other, but I’m sceptical to say the least.

    6. “Only officials for whom it is absolutely essential should have a card”. You can bet that the senior officials cracking down on the issue of credit cards will be the ones deemed to have an absolutely essential need for one.

      1. I must be missing something, I held corporate credit cards for at least twenty years and I never thought of abusing the system.
        There again. We had effective controls, we knew damned well that unauthorized charges would not be reimbursed.

        1. Is your experience gained in a business environment or civil service? In my decades in the civil service, I saw plenty of evidence that the mandarins looked after themselves. I was eligible for first-class rail travel and business-class air travel but felt it unnecessary and thought that the efforts to reduce such expenditure were pragmatic. However, those senior to me always claimed good reasons to continue the practice for themselves.

    7. I hope Reeves has had hers frozen, after all she has a history with credit cards, can't be trusted.

    1. Problem is, both Charles and Starmer are destroyers. Charles hasn't done anything to gain people's personal loyalty and neither has William. They both pander to people in Britain who will never support the monarchy and people abroad who want to implement a marxist one world government.
      Starmer is a wrong'un but what do we want to defend? I don't see the monarchy coming right in my lifetime.

      1. I would rather support the monarchy for its symbolism. I'm not that much interested in the actual monarch, they come and go. But as I have said before, much of this can be blamed on his mother. Wonderful woman but a do nothing to protect the monarchy. Queen for to long and her inaction on the constitutional front caused a great deal of damage. Furthermore the monarchy defined this country, it is an "organic" component of what it is to be English. Knock it down and you end the concept of England. We are a tribe and the King is the leader. That is why the Royal Standard always flies where the monarch is. I do not wish our myth destroyed.

        1. In principle I agree, but in practice, the monarchy sold out a long time ago, and we have arrived at where we are now. The Celtic nations (of which England is one, despite the mix of Anglo-Saxon and Viking) are far too easy-going – they would rather a day’s work and a beer at the end than get organised to anything uncomfortable. I don’t think the English would do well without leadership. But Charles is leading us to Godless, Net Zero perdition anyway.

          1. Starmer prefers Davos to Westminster and The Idiot King is also an enthusiast for the WEF.

            It seems that the actual welfare of British people is not a priority for either of them.

          2. I would just like a king that said Oi, layoff my Canada when he talks to the great orange threat.

            No need to send gun boats, just take the lead and act like a monarch in at least verbally defending Canadas sovereignty.

          3. My tuppenceworth is that after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, may she rest in peace, the monarchy should have started to consult with members of the Commonwealth about a phased withdrawal of Crown responsibilities; I see it as a ten year process, not overnight, but why on earth should Canada Australia and New Zealand need to maintain a historical link to a monarch thousands of miles away?

          5. Although Edward the Confessor was canonised, he actually facilitated the Norman invasion through his divided loyalties and over-the -top holiness. His subjection to the thuggish Godwin family merely muddled things further.
            His mother was Emma of Normandy; his father Aethelred the Unready.

    2. Problem is, both Charles and Starmer are destroyers. Charles hasn't done anything to gain people's personal loyalty and neither has William. They both pander to people in Britain who will never support the monarchy and people abroad who want to implement a marxist one world government.
      Starmer is a wrong'un but what do we want to defend? I don't see the monarchy coming right in my lifetime.

  56. 403442+ up ticks,

    Surely a new party under, if agreeable the leadership of Lowe / Habib / Brigden joint leadership is needed, prime issues, immigration / deportation / halal merciless killing, ALL are of prime importance in the take down of England.

    Ask Elon Musk for a party start up loan as time is also of major importance.

    https://x.com/reformuk_nyorks/status/1901904501906260118

    immigration

    1. I think that Elon has already offered and that Rupert has already spoken to him. So we are in the wait ans see phase.

      1. Endless startups won't make any difference, as the elctorate will have lost faith and no longer look at them. They'll say "Just another Reform / Brexit party / UKIP / etc.
        Plays right into the hands of the Blob.

        1. Don't think so because Rupert is very straight forward about what he intends to do. Mass deportations. Polls say 60% of the population is behind him and 99% of Reform support him.

          1. 80% of the population supported Enoch Powell. Some unions even went on strike in support. That did not stop him being cast into the wilderness.

          3. Times have changed. I’m old enough to remember Enoch. He was a visionary and like so many visionaries he spoke to soon because people in the establishment could not see as far as he did. Now what he prophesized is upon us and that, obviously, makes a great difference.

  57. I thought Kemi would put up a better performance than she has so far. OK – she ticks all the boxes as a black female but she's been a disappointment. She did well previously when she was Trade Minister and when she stood against others in the two or three leadership contests they've had in the last few years.

    1. Maybe. But, apparently, she is responsible for legislation that let thousands of her fellow Nigerians into this country. Not symptomatic of someone concerned about us, the English.

        1. Sorry I can’t find a citation. Google seems to only deal with what she has said about immigration since becoming leader of The Conservatives. But I know she was accused of precisely what I said because she was accused of being a hypocrite in calling for tough measures on immigration whilst letting her own people in. If I come across it I will send it to you because I swear I’m not making it up.

  58. Guido BTL

    Bunbury
    36m
    The problem, as ever with Net Zero, is that so much political capital has been sunk into it that the now inevitable process of extrication from this pointless act of self-harm is going to be long and painful. Remember, only five MPs voted against the Climate Change Act of 2008 and the accelerated (but wholly uncosted) decree issued as final spasm of the Maybot, was accepted by a mere murmuring of assent in the Commons, no vote being taken. A common refrain of Remain was "no one voted to be poorer" but with Net Zero, every MP, including Badenoch, (bar the heroic five and the recent Reform intake) has voted or assented to the population being poorer by several orders of magnitude greater than even the BBC's most feverish fantasies about Brexit.
    Europe's belated awakening to the need to provide for its own defence and Trump's unapologetic advocacy for fracking and drilling means Net Zero is going to die, but unless a new generation of politicians, untainted by the Greta-worship of the current lot, can take power very soon, it's going to be a slow process, hastened only by the most brutal realities confronting our complacent Clerisy.

    1. The green scam is the latest, most effective system the Left have invented for destroying human freedom.

      To think they'll let it go is a fantasy. If the political will disappears the laws remain, and those will be fought for, endlessly dragging any government into the pointlessness of constant legal challenge.

      Then there's the thick people who support it. They'll bring individual cases endlessly, bogging down in lawfare.

      Then there's the armies of quangocrats all entrenched in the hoax and getting nicely rich off it too.

      The Left have planned for this and made sure there ar emultiple battlements to scale and dismantle, all while keeping the enemy – common sense – under fire.

      It'll take at least a decade of constant fighting, of unchanged policy, of a dedicated set of politicians and policy managers, energy experts and rational minds to bring about any change whatsoever.

      1. I know some otherwise perfectly sensible people who support the climate scam. One of them is very sceptical and dismissive of the contents of "The Book Of The Foundation Of St. Bartholomew's Church In London" which Amazon describes thus, "This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it". My friend is unconvinced by that yet certain that in the last forty years alone the earth has heated up to dangerous and unprecedented levels. I think it more likely that the Blessed Virgin did appear to Canon Hubert.

        1. My vicar, normally a sensible person, is fully in agreement with net zero. I am continuing to put the case for CO2 as plant food.

  59. Going out now for a lecture about Mary Anning – the fossil collector. Back later.

    2. I promise that I only briefly thought that you will be the exhibit in a talk about aged legal beagles.

    3. Ask him/her what is the difference between Goniorhynchia boueti and Goniorhych rhynchonellia. It has been bugging me for years.

      2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3d1dc0b262ba0029cf8c7b55261af082bee4cf153aea833e3c33b5d9b8c4801.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cf652c994cb17e906abda79191e5f26bd00ae8c577e01009795f5f60a29c144a.png I have owned a little ornament for the past 30 years. It is a fossilised piece of limestone rock containing orthoceras shell fragments.

        Orthoceras is a genus of extinct nautiloid cephalopod restricted to Middle Ordovician-aged marine limestones of the Baltic States and Sweden.

        I have since discovered that the label on the back is incorrect by 200,000,000 years. They ceased to exist 450,000,000 years ago.

          3. They have been removed off my case of Château Latour 1961, which I’ve now poured down the sink.

  60. The yellow orb is still shining in the sky, we're doomed !

      1. He is too busy complaining that he cannot afford to pay for all of the USAID programs that have been cancelled.

        Trudeau apparently gave over $11 billion to overseas gender / diversity / inclusivity progams, now if only Gates could find a few dollars to repay our forced contribution.

      2. I wish Elon Musk would send Billy Goats up in a SpaceX craft to the sun, so that he can install a sunshade on it himself.

  61. SpaceX is ready to bring home Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, the two astronauts that have been stranded on the International Space Station (ISS) for nine months.

    It is a bit surreal that Elon is pulling off a real life space rescue right now and the news is barely talking about it. Why might that be?

    1. Don't count your astronauts until they open the hatch?
      In other words, let them quietly continue with the rescue without unnecessary publicity.

        1. Perhaps because if they don't survive re-entry the TDS media will place all the blame on Trump/Musk, claiming the whole thing was rushed; in the same way the Trump administration is blaming Biden for leaving them there for political purposes

          1. This sort of thing would have had non-stop wall to wall coverage.

            Elon should go after the media next…

          2. Space X are at the point where trips like this are routine. They used to get wall to wall coverage before they started making it look easy.

            They still get coverage on their new big rocket due to its high failure rate. Once it gets reliable, the coverage will move one, as in "nothing to see here".

    3. I certainly hope all goes well. The strength of mind of the 2 stuck up there for 9 months is beyond my ken.

  64. Beautiful drying wind and sunshine .

    4 loads of washing this morning, bedding nearly dry , pleased .

    Cleaned some windows , spilt a large bowl of water on living carpet accidentally but Moh vacuumed it up with the carpet cleaner , and now the whole lot should be shampooed and cleaned because the large area where the water was sucked up by the machine near the fireplace was very grubby, almost black .

    The big tidy up continues, because my 2 younger sisters are visiting the UK next month , first and foremost they are off on a Norwegian cruise from Newcastle with my younger cousins .. I do hope they have a smooth sea experience ..

    Have any of you been on a Norwegian fiord cruise? If you have please tell me more !

    1. Just to let you know, Belle! The female osprey, attractively named NCO, has returned to the Loch of the Lowes nest!

    2. I went their with the late Queen, she was on HMY Brittannia.

      I was on a Grey Funnel liner

    3. Four barrowloads of wood sawn and chopped.
      Day off tomorrow as I going to see stepson.

      1. London Terror Attack: Van Plows Into Crowd Near Mosque
        London is on alert again Monday after a driver rammed a van into a crowd of Muslim worshipers, in what police were treating as the latest in a string of terrorist attacks to hit the country.

        Far right terrorist of course.

  67. OK. I've glanced at the DM and decided to live dangerously.
    "Living in Wales could dramatically increase your chances of living to 100 and receiving a telegram from the King, new official figures have revealed."
    Or are you really only 23 but it seemed like a century?

    1. What about those of us who only live a few miles from the border on the English side?

  68. Yo and Good Afternoon, from a cold, but SUNNY, C d S

    More to change the life of Nottlers

    Britain shaves £40m off benefits bill by sending pensioners to prison

    Campaigners push for payments review as the number of incarcerated retirees triples

    Those eligible for the full new state pension are missing out on £11,502 a year while in prison, saving the state a potential £788,000 a week.

    The UK’s state pension began in 1909, but a law passed in 1911 means it is withheld from anyone serving a custodial sentence.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/pensions/state-pensions/labour-urged-pay-40m-state-pension-to-prisoners/

    Behave you oldies

    1. But offset the pension against the cost of keeping them incarcerated and there's no saving.

    4. Shirley it would cost more to keep a person in prison for twelve months than eleven thousand pounds, irrespective of being a pensioner or not.

  69. Holy Smoke. When WILL they give up on this farce?
    Just taken a call from the GP surgery offering MB and me "Spring Covid boosters".
    Presumably there are still gallons of the stuff sitting around.
    I was very controlled and politely turned down the offer, though I was tempted to mention heart attacks and a husband whose life has become somewhat restricted.

    1. Noticed this morning in my NHS record it says 'March 15th, covid booster program declined' without it seems asking me. They have got the message!

      1. Nah – it was another person who refused. The wanqueurs muddled the records. Happens all the time.

  74. Yvette Cooper’s Home Office ‘DOGE Unit’ Has No Staff

    The press dutifully lapped up briefings from the Home Office that Yvette Cooper was setting “up her own Elon Musk-style unit to root out Home Office waste.” Breathlessly reported to have “already started freezing contracts deemed to be a misuse of taxpayers’ money”…

    Apparently it is “modelled” on Musk’s own Department of Government Efficiency across the pond in DC. Guido finds this difficult to believe seeing as the actual DOGE has payrolled staff and a federal budget of $40 million. An FOI fired from Guido reveals Cooper’s sham unit has neither…

    The unit first met on 12 February this year and meets every week. In attendance are Lord Hanson’s staff, SpAds (McBride), Corporate and Delivery Directorate and the Commercial
    Directorate. The meetings don’t produce any formal minutes at all…

    Neither does the ‘unit’ have any full-time equivalent staff: “each member of the unit – including Lord Hanson – is also responsible for a range of other duties.” So the DOGE unit is just an off-record meeting of some otherwise occupied staff every week. Revolutionary…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de1dd84467e4345632ce300562aa1e9e3f1fd9a83d0f7249d0f644ad46c71ddc.png

      1. The Pencil Monitor has always been completely useless – and a useless politician, as well..

          2. Head Girl? She has that air about her.
            (As you may have guessed, I was not a head girl.)

  75. "In a statement, the force said a 26-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of drug driving and careless driving.
    Police said the incident, which happened at around 11:50am close to the entrance to King's College London and Somerset House, was not terror related."

    As it's Ramadamadingdong, drugs or dehydration/hypoglycemia?

    1. Come on, be fair. Just a young driver having difficulty in finding his way round London. Easily done – could happen to anyone.

  76. Well, well, well, now "The Science" has come down on the side of vegetarians/vegans, well, according to Dale Vince. Meat and dairy are unhealthy according to Vince, and we should eat more plants because Uni's are making the choice. It'll be a very cold day in hell when I would think about copying what today's Uni's and some of their dripping wet students advocate.

    BTL support is somewhat lacking for Mr Vince.
    https://x.com/DaleVince/status/1901702630709100931

    1. The human race has gone from a few ground dwelling apes to over 8 billion in a – relatively speaking – handful of years.
      Think of the numbers of us if we'd stayed up in the trees and chowed down on leaves and berries. The Earth would be over-populated.

      2. In certain areas of the world, that's pretty much what happened. Evolution is not universal, as the news proves every day.

    3. Dale Vince is a British green energy industrialist. A former New Age traveller, he is the owner of the electricity company Ecotricity -Wind farms.

      Vince is a vegan.

      While studying, Vince met and married Kathleen Wyatt, two years his senior and with a child of her own, in 1981. The couple subsequently became New Age travellers together, living off state benefits. They had a son together, Dane, in 1983. They separated some years later,

      Vince married Kate Lane, who worked at Ecotricity, in 2006; they have a son. They divorced in 2024

      Forest Green (His personal football team) raised the Palestinian flag during a match in April 2022 "in solidarity with the Palestinian people". Vince said "Palestine has been under siege by Israel – by air land and sea, for decades.

      Vince has made donations to both the Labour Party and the Green Party as well as environmental protest groups, such as Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

      Obviously a potential politician.

          3. Unfair to ar*es, if you’d written he is a liquid that pours out of rancid ar*ses I would agree.

          6. I would imagine that simply listing his achievements and income sources might seem to him to amount to defamation,

      2. I am always puzzled at how someone who has made such little positive and productive contribution to society becomes very rich. Good for him that he makes so many donations but where did the money come from and how?

        1. It all came from you and me in the form of Government subsidies and a rigged tariff structure for nigh useless intermittent 'renewable' electricity supplies.

    4. "Medical professionals agree"? Like red wine is good for you, red wine is bad for you, butter is good/butter is bad … etc.

  77. My sadly accumulating experience of A&E is that if you turn up there in a critical condition one of the first things the medics do is attach a cannula and feed in saline solution intravenously since there is an automatic assumption that dehydration is almost certainly contributing to your condition. Do Ramadanadingdong people refuse and does that render them untreatable?

  78. A brilliant lecturer. An hour's talk without a note. If any of you are interested in old fossils (and you wouldn't be here if you weren't!) – Dr Aaron Hunter is your "go to" (ugh!) man.

  79. Wordle No. 1,368 4/6

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

    Wordle 18 Mar 2025

    Pendulum for Par Four?

    1. Same here.

      Wordle 1,368 4/6

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

    2. Another great result from my starter word! A couple of days ago I had similar and went for eagle glory but bombed and ended up with a bogey.
      Today I bottled it and played safe with my second starter word – result, a simple birdie!

      Wordle 1,368 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟩🟩
      ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    3. Snuck in a birdie today

      Wordle 1,368 3/6

      🟩⬜⬜🟨⬜
      ⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Me too.

      Wordle 1,368 4/6

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

  80. I do my wordle first thing in the morning with my cup of tea in bed.
    That's UK morning and not US morning which is now for them .
    Did it in four today but failed yesterday with the silly cowboy word .

  83. Time for tea and a buttered crumpet, a bright sky but too cold for outside .

    1. They might have to fight on the streets to save it before the decade is out.

      Suppose Max does order the army to Ukraine. Will it refuse? One or two idiot generals might be in favour of a suicide mission but I'd like to see the rank and file stick up two fingers.

      1. I understand that elements of the SAS have refused to do anything unless and until the threat of prosecution is removed.

        1. Can you blame them? I did my time in the army, and like so many ended up in Ulster. In 1971 and 72 there was a lot of violence from the ira and sections of the ghettos that exist there, and it only through good luck that I and many of us are not being hounded by the lefties for doing what we were sent there for.
          So would I fight for them, no, but I would certainly fight against them.

          1. Of course I don’t blame them. I applaud their attitude. I come from a family with strong connections to the Royal Air Force, the Royal Engineers and the Royal Navy.

        2. Can you blame them? I did my time in the army, and like so many ended up in Ulster. In 1971 and 72 there was a lot of violence from the ira and sections of the ghettos that exist there, and it only through good luck that I and many of us are not being hounded by the lefties for doing what we were sent there for.
          So would I fight for them, no, but I would certainly fight against them.

        3. Given the betrayal of the armed forces over the last quarter of a century, they are absolutely justified.

  86. That's me for today. Very sunny (good) and very cold (bad). Still marvelling at the lecture this arvo. The chap was an enthusiast who clearly loves gathering and imparting information.

    Have a spiffing evening – preparing for the heatwave tomorrow.

    A demain.

  87. Eldest son arrived home early afternoon from his business trip to Sydney and Auckland.
    We've had a lot of photographs sent of wonderful places he visited. And the pictures also brought back many memories for us.
    After a cuppa and a welcome home chat with his good lady in the garden sunshine. He walked across the road where they live and picked up his two children from school. What a lovely end of the 27 hour journey and a surprise for his young children.
    G'donya matey 🤠
    He Was born in Adelaide.

  88. The Telegraph can sink no lower than to act as they now do the lying Greek chorus for the EU dead-head globalist warmongers.

    Their unadorned headline "Putin rejects immediate ceasefire" as if they did not know this was his position before and the rational reasons for it
    .
    By contrast the RT report:

    :17:28 GMT

    The Kremlin has reported that Putin and Trump had a detailed and candid exchange of views on the situation in Ukraine during their call. Putin informed Trump that Russia and Ukraine would conduct a prisoner exchange on Wednesday, based on a 175-for-175 formula.

    He also responded constructively to Trump’s initiative on maritime security in the Black Sea, the Kremlin has confirmed.

    Both leaders reportedly expressed a mutual interest in normalizing relations, recognizing their shared responsibility for global security and have agreed to maintain contacts.

    Putin reaffirmed his commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict and expressed readiness to work with Washington on a sustainable and long-term settlement. As a goodwill gesture, Russia will transfer 23 severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers to Kiev.
    17:28 GMT

    The Kremlin has reported that Putin supported Trump’s proposal for Russia and Ukraine to halt strikes on energy infrastructure for 30 days. He has instructed the military to implement this directive"

    Our media are really the pits now – bending the knee to the neocon globalist filth in a manner that has become as ludicrously obvious as it is evil.

  89. I realise I'm not addressing the Kemi Badenoch fan club, but this seems a pretty fair assessment.

    "For too long, we’ve coasted on the achievements of past generations. Britain has been stagnating. Labour is making things worse and taking us backwards.

    We need to tell the truth, and we’re starting with energy. Net Zero by 2050 is impossible. To achieve it would mean crushing living standards or national bankruptcy. No responsible leader should sell a fantasy that leaves families poorer or mortgages our children’s future — especially when the rest of the world isn’t playing by the same rules.

    How do I know this? Because I saw in my various roles in government that there’s never been a real plan. The Climate Change Act 2008? No plan. Carbon budgets? No real plan. Net Zero legislation in 2019? No plan. A multi-trillion, 30-year overhaul of our economy — pushed through in 90 minutes without a single vote. That has to stop.

    We are under new leadership and we’re going to do things differently by telling hard truths."

    1. I'd expect many in the real world away from all online echo chambers would appreciate the words from Kemi Badenoch. She is correct .

      1. It's more than a bit annoying that questions asked at PMQs are not direct and have not been previously scrutinised by the pms mob.
        We might get to the bottom of what is actually going on in our country.

      2. It's more than a bit annoying that questions asked at PMQs are not direct and have not been previously scrutinised by the pms mob.
        We might get to the bottom of what is actually going on in our country.

  90. This could be interesting.

    Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issues historic slapdown to Trump over deportation of 'monster' migrants

    '

    For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision,' Roberts said in a curt statement issued by the Supreme Court. 'The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.'

    By that, Roberts meant that if the administration has a problem with a judge's ruling against it, it should appeal and fight it out in court – rather than savage a Senate-confirmed judge in public.

    This appears to be about the judge not the deportations.

    1. At last, a leader who will tell the judiciary they are wrong. If judgements favour the needs of the individual over those of society, there is something wrong with the justice system.

      1. By and large, the US Constitution is set up to favour the individual as against society. The concept of "the common good" is something you do not hear in the US. It's very much where Thatcher was quoted – there is no "society", only individuals.

        In this case Roberts was correct. Trump tends to just publicly sound off against anyone who does not immediately agree with him. The presidency is set up to be part of a "triad" – President, Congress and the judiciary, all bound by the constitution. Which is why people who take public office in the US swear on oath to uphold the Constitution, not obey the president – Trump himself took that oath when he was sworn in.

        1. Agreed.
          But what I think has happened is that the judiciary has become too politicised, in major part by the appointment system.
          The balances and checks need to be restored.
          Leftwaffe lawfare has become a drag on progress.

        2. And PS, I would add that politics has become totally polarised, to the extent that neither side seems able to see any merit in anything the opposition might propose, rational debate has ceased to a great extent

        3. TY for the US info there Jack, but my philosophy is that the law is there so that we can live together as a society and not as individuals doing as we wish. However, I do accept your point about the US constitution particularly as I think you are of have been a resident of the US

      2. The judiciary should interpret and follow the law. (I will ignore political bias here)
        If the judiciary's interpretation of their law is wrong, then it's up to the politicians to change the law.
        Where it goes wrong, certainly in the UK, thanks to Blair, is that the judiciary appears to be writing the law, not interpreting/following it.
        Write poor law and don't be surprised if you get poor outcomes.

  91. From the Telegraph

    Everything historians hope to glean from the JFK files
    Donald Trump has promised to reveal the truth about Kennedy’s death. But it won’t be easy

    Susie Coen
    For decades conspiracy theorists have pointed to the US government’s refusal to release the John F Kennedy files as evidence of a cover-up of the former president’s assassination.

    So Donald Trump’s assurance back in January that “everything will be revealed” when he signed an executive order to declassify the trove of redacted documents will have set some high expectations.

    But experts on the Nov 22 1963 assassination in Dallas, Texas, unanimously believe those hoping for a “smoking gun” to rewrite history will be bitterly disappointed.

    The release, however, could provide some revelations to help shed light on how much the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) really knew about shooter Lee Harvey Oswald ahead of the killing.

    There are still around 3,000 redacted files held by The National Archives and Records Administration, including some 500 of which have been redacted in full, although most of these relate to tax returns for Oswald and his killer Jack Ruby.

    This is what experts and historians think could be gleaned from the release of the documents on Tuesday:

    The Mexico connection

    When more than 13,000 documents related to the 1963 assassination were released in 2022, JFK academics and theorists had hoped it would reveal more information about Oswald’s activities in Mexico City, where he met the KGB officer in October 1963.

    Oswald had visited Mexico City several weeks before he assassinated Mr Kennedy to obtain a visa allowing him to defect to Cuba.

    Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, said he hopes the files will reveal more information about the CIA surveillance of Oswald’s visit.

    Lee Harvey Oswald
    Lee Harvey Oswald travelled to Mexico City shortly before he killed Kennedy Credit: CORBIS
    The file he is most eagerly awaiting is a 50-page document he says includes Mexican intelligence information that was gathered on Oswald and provided to the CIA, of which 30 pages are currently redacted.

    “The CIA definitely has surveillance, maybe they had human assets, intelligence, an informant inside one or more of the [Cuban or Soviet] missions there,” he told The Telegraph. “What did they know about his visit? They’ve always said they knew very little.

    “Did they know that he took a pistol out at one point and slammed it on the desk of a KGB agent and the Soviet mission thought he was unstable? Did they realise that he was as unhinged as he appeared to be in Mexico City? Because, if so, what they should have done when he returned to the United States is handed it off to the FBI… They certainly didn’t do that.”

    “That would be terribly embarrassing for the CIA. Not only did it happen, but that they kept it under wraps for 60 years”, he added.

    The building in downtown Dallas from which Oswald shot Kennedy
    The building in downtown Dallas from which Oswald shot Kennedy Credit: JULIAN SIMMONDS
    Fredrik Logevall, history professor at the Harvard Kennedy School agreed such detail could be revealed in the classified documents.

    “It’s possible that the new materials will underscore what previous releases have shown: that US intelligence agencies knew more about Oswald and his activities than was originally known”, he said.

    “The CIA may have failed to report some of its knowledge about him to the FBI.”

    Targeting Castro

    The documents could include further details on the Special Group Augmented (SGA), which included Robert F Kennedy and former National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy.

    Professor Larry Sabato said the group’s aim was “to get rid of Fidel Castro and communism in Cuba before JFK’s re-election.”

    “This group met… more often than you might expect, given how busy things are in the White House and notes were kept, I suppose, because we were all busy, and maybe they forgot things”, he said.

    “But the release of some of this information has occurred, the problem is it tells us enough to tantalise us, and then redacts what we really want to know. I want to see the redactions now.”

    Fidel Castro with Nikita Khrushchev, then the leader of the Soviet Union, in 1964
    Fidel Castro with Nikita Khrushchev, then the leader of the Soviet Union, in 1964 Credit: AP
    Mr Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Centre for Politics and author of The Kennedy Half-Century, said the partially redacted documents suggest the group were plotting events in and out of Cuba to embarrass Castro.

    Fears of retaliation for CIA agents

    One of the reasons some of the documents remain redacted is because they are thought to contain information about informants working for the CIA.

    Although the majority will no longer be alive, there are concerns that publishing the names could put the former informants and their families in danger.

    “I want to know the names so I can do some research on them”, Mr Sabato said.

    “Obviously they’re dead, but you can research them, you can find out what is on the public record about them and maybe you can be led to others, children at the time, or grandchildren, or whatever, you can find out certain things… it’s better than knowing nothing”, he said.

    But Mark Zaid, a lawyer who has fought for the release records, says such names come into a category of documents Mr Trump cannot declassify with a stroke of his Sharpie.

    “I expect that there will be pushback from the intelligence community,” he says

    “Some of the records are because we have human assets who worked inside the Cuban and Soviet embassies in Mexico City… some of them were in their 20s.

    “They could be in their 80s, maybe 90s, and if you’re talking about… would Cuba or Russia take retaliatory action against someone who would be considered a traitor to their country even six decades ago?

    “You’d best expect that yes, they would, and they might even take action against their family members decades younger.”

    The secret Jackie Kennedy interview

    While they won’t shed light on the planning of the assassination attempt, Mr Posner expects the notes historian William Manchester took from his interview with Jackie Kennedy to be included in the unredacted files.

    Jackie Kennedy, centre, mourns her husband at his funeral in 1963
    Jackie Kennedy, centre, mourns her husband at his funeral in 1963 Credit: GETTY IMAGES
    Mr Manchester spoke to Mrs Kennedy after her husband’s death.

    The tapes of the interviews cannot be released owing to an agreement with the Kennedy family that they would not be made public until 2067, but Mr Posner says Mr Manchester’s notes could be unsealed.

    “They may not tell us anything about a grassy alt-shooter or conspiracy, but I think that people are going to want to know about that because it’s a human story, it’s not about ballistics and bullet angles.”

    Will ‘everything’ be revealed?

    All the experts The Telegraph spoke to were unconvinced that Mr Trump could unseal all the redacted files.

    A trove of documents have been declassified in recent years, but scores of them remained redacted during Mr Trump and Joe Biden’s administrations.

    In his order, Mr Trump directed his attorney general and director of national intelligence to give him a plan within 15 days “for the full and complete release of records” relating to the assassination.

    Mr Zaid said there are hundreds of documents he does not think the president has the authority to release.

    Donald Trump has promised to publish the redacted files
    Donald Trump has promised to publish the redacted files Credit: AP
    For example, tax returns are protected by statute, he said. There are also records which have been sealed by courts. To release them, the Justice Department would have to go to the courts directly and order them to unseal it.

    “The President can’t just flout an order of a court that sealed the records”, he said.

    There are also a number of items that are subject to deeds of gift and access is overseen by the Kennedy family. Such items include autopsy photographs and Mrs Kennedy’s dress from the day of the assassination.

    Mr Sobata is not confident Mr Trump will deliver on his promise to make everything public.

    “Unfortunately, I’m in my seventies and I’ll be dead before we know all the information, but I’ve got people who will come to my grave site yelling”, he said.

  92. Anyway, it was nice to share scintillating engaging conversation but alas I must cook my dinner . It is dinner, those who refer to dinner as tea are probably from upt North and supper Is a late night snack before bedtime. Tea is something you take in the morning and afternoon. 🙂

    1. Don't northerners call lunch dinner?
      I lived in the US when I was a nipper but I started school in Manchester, while I was visiting my family when I was nearly five. I used to go to my grandma's house for lunch but the teachers said I went home for 'dinner'.

      1. Yes, that’s how it was at home in York when I was growing up. Dinner between noon and 1pm and tea at teatime, which was 5.30 to 6pm. We always sat up at table too.

    3. As Ken Dodd used to say 'What a day for putting your husband's chips on the ceiling and saying 'How about that for High Tea?'

    4. Interestingly, I used to work with someone from an upper crust family. He would refer tothe midday meal as dinner, and the evening formal meal as supper. Supper to me was the late snack I had when I was a child.

      1. We had lunch and supper, I recall dinner as a meal one ate at school, at lunchtime, served by dinner ladies.
        Tea was a light snack and only appeared at the weekends.

      1. it will be a ritual humiliation. A couple of years ago I had a person of solid muscle riding for me who was 5'4" and weighed 9 1/2 stone. She was a slip of a thing – but her doctor told her she was clinically obese.

        1. At peak fitness I was a touch under 14 stone. BMI as overweight. Indiscernible body fat.

          Now I'm around 12 stone and BMI "healthy", some discernible blubber.

          Old me vs new me I know which I'd rather be.
          A lot of it's a nonsense.

          3. Bill, go to your room and think about what you've saying. Sos, the naugty step. Go on, both of you!

          5. Firstborn is overweight, according to the statistics.
            Thing is, he is a HUGE musclebunt, a massively strong bloke 5'8" high, legs like oak stumps and shoulders that get jammed in doorways.
            Doesn't fit the statistics.

        2. I'm 6'2" and 240 pounds…. well, I used to be (I've shrunk a bit and put on weight!)

          But even in my halcyon days, when I was as fit as a butcher's dog, I was 'clinically' obese using the BMI calculation – as are all of the current English International Rugby tight forwards (Front and Second row) – it's a nonsense…..

          1. The measurement appears to take no account of the underlying fitness.
            If it included things like resting and maximum pulse, blood pressure, core and extraneous fat levels and a host of other measurements it might have validity.

            If A.N.Other looks like a great fat blubber-wally, then they're probably obese and relatively unhealthy.

    5. There’s a set of NHS scales in my bathroom. I submit my weight three times a week via an app on the tablet provided. I’m not overweight. The aim is to use diuretics to reduce the fluid retention on my feet and ankles and success with that should be reflected in my weight.

      1. My lean weight is 120 kilos. I weigh 150 something. I am fat. I can feel it. I am trying to do something about it.

        I really don't need the NHS to tell me so.

        1. Same here. My problem is my restricted mobility. I can no longer walk the distances I used to or run up the hills as I once did. I might have a go at starting swimming again.

  94. A tiring day but what gorgeous weather! Even if the air temperature didn't quite match the sunshine.

    Four barrowloads of logs sawn, chopped and most of them stacked by Graduate Son.
    With a bit of luck, I should see the woodstack we're working on filled up by the end of the week.

    But a day off tomorrow as I'm off to visit stepson and might have a run down to Stafford with him.
    He'll probably head back to stoke by himself on the bus whilst I head back via Uttoxeter and Ashbourne.

    Enjoying a bit of music before I go for a bath:-
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7vGnKXrVYI

        1. My first thought too, but then I thought freezing to death might be more unpleasant

  98. from the Telegraph

    Putin needs a deal, but it won’t be easy for him to end the war
    The Russian dictator needs a story to tell his people

    Tim Stanley18 March 2025 6:55pm GMT
    Putin and Trump have spoken and no doubt burnished their egos: Putin let the phone ring, Trump reversed the charges. But what’s really changed after their historic chat?

    Little. A prisoner swap. A ceasefire against infrastructure, but not the total cessation Trump wanted. And an agreement to go on talking in the Middle East. In short, these were talks about talks, and that’s to be expected. The modern world demands immediate satisfaction, but peace is a process and it turns slowly, with many reversals. Just look at Gaza, where the hostage release has stopped and the Israelis are back at war.

    Consider what Trump and Putin have done thus far and what is to follow. Trump has got his ducks lined up: Ukraine has been humiliated into accepting the US lead in talks; Europe is building its coalition of the willing – one has to laugh – which at least means it’ll spend more on defence; and Zelensky has swallowed the minerals deal, which functions as America’s unofficial security guarantee.

    Climbing down for Russia, even though it is a dictatorship with no allies to placate, is arguably harder. Putin talked tough among businessmen before the call, claiming that the West is in decline etc. The White House readout hints at future bilateral economic relations: a return to normalcy for Russia that would imply he gets away with a criminal invasion. Vlad must be delighted that he’s having these talks with Trump, not a classic US Russophobe.

    But Putin’s the one with an unsustainable, militarised economy; the one who has to explain to his people why he invaded Ukraine, why so many of their children died, and what he got out of it. He really has to walk away from the table with a lot of land and assets to prove this action was worthwhile, and we’re not yet clear what such a “win” looks like given Ukraine’s long-term survival seems US-guaranteed.

    The West’s offer for peace strikes me as pretty transparent and generous. What will be Russia’s justification for failing to accept it? The Kremlin demanding that we address the underlying causes of this conflict is bizarre given the horror started with Putin sending his tanks in.

    Putin is the cause; it’s galling to have to ask his help to put out a fire he started. But that’s statesmanship.

    1. The fire was started by the EU, NATO and the globalists, long before Putin really arrived on the scene.

      1. Absolutely. Russia invaded the Ukraine to stop the government slaughter of 14,000 Russian speakers in the Donbass. Yet people say Russia was not provoked.

        1. True, but the problems we see now were set in train at the time of the breakup of the old Soviet Union.

          If the "West" had offered Russia cooperation and support, eventual membership of the EU, and even NATO, I think the world would have been a much safer and peaceful place than it is today.

          1. I'm not sure about the EU or NATO bit, otherwise agree. Russia should not have been the enemy, but I guess the pathetic wankers who are the top politicians needed an "enemy" to focus hatred on.

          2. MY point of view only, and I do not claim to be an expert.

            I look at it from the trading and defence perspectives.
            China from trade, Islam and China from defence.
            Russia is rich in resources the world needs, the more prosperous they had become the more capitalist they would have become and I suspect the left would have had nothing to look to, so woke might not have happened.

            Russia is far more Christian based, traditionally less susceptible to the Islamic invasion we have experienced, so possibly we might not have suffered the takeover we're seeing.

            I think there would have been fewer Islamic supremacies, driven by Iran and the Talibanalikes and the likes of Saddam and Ghaddafi would have been isolated, not supported.

            What country/pact in their right mind would take on such an alliance?

          3. Indeed, Sos. The “West” also promised not to expand NATO further East. They then poked the bear by doing so.

      1. It's the last Battle of Britain pilot to die, aged about 102 (I think, he was only 21 in the battle itself, astonishing)

        Edit; correction, he was 105 – not a bad knock ,eh??

        1. Ah – his obit has been online in The Grimes all day – and will appear (I hope) tomorrow in the print edition.

          We did comment very early on about this – especially that he only received ONE FDC.

        1. A commentator was suggesting MS should go on the Lions' tour.

          Idiocy, the man's a liability.

    2. It's unbelievably poignant isnt it?

      I know it's a hackneyed old phrase but unfortunately I think it is uncomfortably true.

      We will never see his like again……

      1. Managed over 100 years lifetime, despite being shot at a lot in the 1940s.
        Truly, God must have been his friend.

        1. It reads like a Boys Own story – God Bless him and may he Rest in Peace – he's bloody deserved it!!

      1. It seems that Bob makes good use of his chopper..perhaps there is a list of clients for his ahem wood!

        1. You may well be right.
          Is he on Trip Advisor or nooking dot com?

          Edit to avoid an accidental link

        2. You may well be right.
          Is he on Trip Advisor or nooking dot com?

          Edit to avoid an accidental link

  102. Labour’s Starmer intends to save £6 billion from the benefits of ailing and disabled persons then to blow £3 billion on his mates, the crooks in Ukraine.

    Who is Starmer working for if not the globalists? The fool is intent on taking the UK back into a failed EU whilst hurling sticks and stones at President Trump. This will not end well for Starmer and his cabal of non-entities.

    President Trump disdains Starmer, Macron and most of the leaders of EU member states. The people of the UK (and Europe) do not wish to see a British Prime Minister showing more interest in hubristic foreign wars than taking care of the concerns of the British people at home.

    3. Jizya, yes, but mainly because the object is to destroy other religions and impose islam everywhere. There's no point in going to a country where islam is already in charge.

    4. They are not seeking refuge. It is about domination and conquest, as their book tells them, for allah.

    3. It all reminds me how little has been done since the 60s space race and landing on the moon etc. 50 years FFS!

      2. I think they have been concentrating on trying to see what’s out there more than trying to get out there.
        The distances are so huge that I can’t see the point of much manned exploration.

        If we kill ourselves off, so be it.

    2. Mr Hurst is all too close to the truth.

      Although, Starmer do, please, give me a gun. There are thirty of us – the ones not maimed in Blair's egotistical war – who'd happily teach you what we do to dangerous, evil foreign government.

  107. Very busy day for us both sorting things our following our move.
    Council tax bill arrived. Up by £19 a month but Woking Council only 3%.

    1. If you're on min wage or less then 3 – nearly 4 – hours work. 4 hours of your life, stolen to pay for a bloated, incompetent, greedy state that provides very, very little for its cost.

      It is long past time councils were forced to compete with one another and the money they raised based solely on the profitability of local businesses.

  108. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/18/british-gas-boss-pay-jumps-29pc-households-hit-bills/

    The problem here is people will complain about his salary compared to their bills. This is disingenous. Energy is expensive because of government taxation. Those same appalling taxes make gas valuable because when the rigged market fails those able to provide energy can charge what they like. The failure here is entirely, completely down to the appalling tax scam called the 'climate change' act.

    2. That was something I've never seen before and to be able to watch it as it happened was extraordinary.
      Well done Mr Musk and all your teams.

    3. It is surprising that the capsule remains with the flat heat shield into wind rather than flipping to nose first on recovery. Perhaps there is ballast in the bottom like a sailing yacht!

  111. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/03/13/labours-food-banks-warm-rooms-full-of-freezing-pensioners/

    The problem isn't the removal of the winter fuel allowance. The problem is Labour have rigged the market for energy since 2008. Energy is 3 times the price it should be. Until a market for energy is restored the WFA would have to increase every single year by a huge amount. As usual, government has created a problem and had to find a fix. The Tories wouldn't upset their voters so Labour set about it.

    Neither addressed the fundamental problem: they've deliberately, spitefully made energy unaffordable.

    The damage will only get worse.

    1. The mere fact that eco energy is sold at the highest (strike price) is completely perverse and ensures that energy prices will never fall. Something that could be changed very quickly.

      1. No mention of Elon, but to be fair I had no idea that Space X had received a $2,600,000,000 development grant about ten years ago.

  113. Evening, all. Late because I had to chair a meeting and then write up the minutes afterwards (the secretary couldn't make it).

    "Britain" (as in the people) probably doesn't want a plan for Ukraine, except for a few unthinking adherents of the Bbc. The government on the other hand, doesn't have a plan because it's all about grandstanding. They a) don't have the money, b) lack the military capacity to be able to indulge their willy-waving and c) couldn't manage to organise a bunfight in a bakery, to put it politely.

    1. You're quite right, Conway. If you could find shelter from the keen wind, the spring sunshine was a fleeting pleasure, but that chilly breeze ensured coats on at all times. Tomorrow and Thursday, in.particular, should herald the arrival of spring weather, affording better gardening opportunities. You should find any needed extra lawn cutting more congenial in the next day or two.

      1. I only have one other lawn to cut. I may not be able to do it as the scaffolders are coming tomorrow to start erecting. I've needed my barge boards replaced since Storm Darragh and it's only now about to happen!

  115. Well, chums, I'm a bit late tonight because I watched the splashdown. So a belated Good Night to you all. Sleep well and see you all tomorrow.

Comments are closed.