Tuesday 19 April: Boris is the only viable candidate to lead us through the current crises

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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762 thoughts on “Tuesday 19 April: Boris is the only viable candidate to lead us through the current crises”

  2. Good morning all. A bright start after a clear night that has dropped the temperature down to 1°C.

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    This item appeared in the DT late yesterday.  Now, being the old cynic that I am, it occurred to me that this is just a bit of kite-flying before the predicted meltdown at the local elections on 5th May.  Time will tell…

    * * *

    Government might scrap green levy that adds £153 to average energy bill

    Tory MP calls tax a ‘millstone around people’s necks’ as government source says further cost of living pressures could force the decision

    By Camilla Turner, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT18 April 2022 • 9:31pm

    A green energy levy that adds £153 to the average energy bill could be scrapped to ease the cost of living crisis, The Telegraph has learned.

    Government officials are examining whether the controversial levies – used to fund renewable energy subsidy schemes – could be phased out gradually or dropped altogether by the autumn when bills are expected to soar.

    A Downing Street source said they understand the strength of feeling on the backbenches about it and can see that scrapping the levy is an “attractive option”.

    Nearly 23 per cent of the cost of household electricity is made up of green taxes, including part-funding investment in renewable generation and paying energy companies to subsidise energy-efficiency improvement in poorer households.

    MPs have been calling on the Chancellor to cut the green levies first championed by the former Labour government, which have now continued under successive Conservative prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

    Robert Halfon, a senior Tory MP and select committee chair who has campaigned on the cost of living, called the levy a “millstone around people’s necks”.

    “It would really be welcome if the Government could do something further on the cost of living,” he said. “That is the thing that is most worrying the public, more than the parties. You can’t balance environmentalism on the backs of working people.”

    The Office for Budget Responsibility said its analysis of wholesale oil and gas prices suggested bills would increase by another 40 per cent when Ofgem reviewed the price cap later this year.

    The combined rises would mean price-capped energy bills would have more than doubled in less than 12 months, rising to almost £2,800 for customers on default tariffs, the body said.

    Rishi Sunak used his Spring Statement last month to provide £300 worth of support per household to help with an expected energy bills rise later this year, but resisted cutting green levies.

    He had previously announced support for households including a £150 council tax rebate and a £200 repayable energy bill discount.

    But he came in for a slew of criticism from fellow Tory MPs who felt the measures did not go far enough to ease the pressures households are facing with rising bills and inflation.

    A Downing Street source said that nothing has been ruled out, adding that dropping the green energy levies would not happen any earlier than the autumn when it would be “one of several options”.

    “We are a long way out from autumn and we wouldn’t rule anything out,” the source said. “Certain of our MPs really like it, we understand it’s an attractive option that some are pushing.”

    They added that at the time of the Spring Statement, it was decided that the levy should stay in place, but said this could change by autumn.

    “We were balancing lots of objectives, including the climate objective,” the Downing Street source said. “It wasn’t felt that it was the right thing to do in March. But we can’t rule out the situation being different later in the year.”

    Earlier this year, 20 Tory MPs and peers wrote to the Prime Minister urging him to intervene to address Britain’s cost of living crisis by scrapping taxes on energy bills.

    Five former ministers were among a group of backbenchers who argued that while a global surge in wholesale gas prices is contributing to the crisis, the UK is causing energy prices to increase “faster than any other competitive country” through “taxation and environmental levies”.

    It came as Richard Tice, leader of Reform UK, told this newspaper that net zero will be the new Brexit for the Conservatives and vowed to exploit Tory divisions over the issue at the May elections.

    1. Morning Hugh. May elections you say:

      “Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said more than one million train tickets would be reduced this spring.
      The Department for Transport (DfT) is hoping the move will help struggling households to afford trips across the UK and boost the domestic tourism industry.
      It comes after the highest train fare rises for nine years came into force for rail travellers in England and Wales last month.
      The sale is expected to bring some Manchester to Newcastle journeys down to a little over £10, while seats on some London to Edinburgh services will be slashed from £44 to £22.
      Discounted tickets will go on sale from Tuesday, with passengers eligible to travel for less on off-peak fares between 25 April and 27 May.”

      1. A reduction in rail fares isn’t much help if you haven’t got any money to spend when you have arrived at your destination.

      2. ‘Morning, Stephen. Yes, it looks as though a number of good news (so called) stories are being planted this morning. If only any of them were true…

      3. Elgin to Edinburgh costs £51, for half the distance of London to Edinburgh. A return costs £90.

    2. A green energy levy that adds £153 to the average energy bill could be scrapped to ease the cost of living crisis…

      £153 would be a minor ripple in the tsunami of price increses that are on their way!

      1. Significant though. Paying more for necessities is one thing, having 153 pounds stolen from you by the government to pay for unicorn fodder and the Emperor’s new clothes is quite another!

    3. A green energy levy that adds £153 to the average energy bill could be scrapped to ease the cost of living crisis…

      £153 would be a minor ripple in the tsunami of price increses that are on their way!

    4. Further to my original post I have just found this BTL. It’s a long list but if we only achieved half of them we would be doing well:

      Edwin Pugh
      4 HRS AGO
      My earlier post hinted at a posibility of government reduction in energy bills of £153. This would be much more if the following are implemented –
      1) All Carbon Budget targets should be suspended.
      2) Immediately abolish carbon pricing and the UK Emissions Trading System, which is already driving up power prices.
      3) Implement an Intermittency Tax for wind and solar generators, so that they bear the cost of standby and grid balancing, instead of electricity consumers.
      4) Implement a Windfall Tax on all recipients of Renewable Obligation Certificates, who currently benefit from high wholesale power prices in addition to ROCs, which currently cost consumers £6bn a year. The revenue to be used to offset ROC costs currently added to electricity bills.
      5) End all constraint payments to wind farms
      6) Put a stop to all new subsidies for renewable energy
      7) Fully commit to a long tern future for North Sea oil and gas, necessary to encourage development. This must include a recognition of the need for substantial amounts of natural gas in the medium term.
      8) End the ban on fracking, and lift all unnecessary restrictions which were previously in place.
      9) Extend the life of existing coal power plants.
      10) Fast track mini nuclear development.
      11) Immediately approve the Cumbria coal mine
      12) Guarantee that no new taxes will be raised, designed to “encourage” consumers away from high carbon consumption. In particular, no new tax on meat or gas.
      If these are done it will reduce household energy bills by £360 and cost the government nothing.

      * * *

      Mr Pugh, you are spot on!

  4. SIR – God help me, I actually agree with Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader (“PM has knowingly misled British people at every turn, says Rayner”, report, April 18).

    I thought at the last general election that I was voting for the Conservatives, only to find myself governed by a greeny, lefty, tax-hiking administration led by a gullible, rule-breaking, out-of-touch Prime Minister.

    Peter Yarnall
    Milnrow, Lancashire

    All of the other letters about Johnson today are against getting rid of him.  This, and the item I posted just now about the possible suspension or scrapping of the green taxes, begins to look like an attempt, if a rather feeble  one, to save his neck if the party turns on him after the local elections.

    1. Good morning, HJ.

      When the prospect of ridding the Country of Johnson’s perfidy and mania for both ‘green’ issues and U-turns cropped up, a common response was, “Better the devil you know”. Do we really ‘know’ what Johnson is about, what he believes in (other than Boris Johnson), his affiliations with globalism etc?
      To me, politically, he appears as a puzzle wrapped up in an enigma. When so much is failing in the UK he continues to waffle on about future prospects for all, grand plans e.g. additional nuclear power capacity; it’s all a lot of tosh from a most untrustworthy PM. The great sadness is that there does not exist anyone else who remotely appears trustworthy. By their deeds we will know them; that is the big worry emanating from our political class.

  5. SIR – I wish the Archbishop of Canterbury had used his Easter sermon (Letters, April 18) not for political grandstanding but to send a message to his flock.

    Here we have one very overworked vicar for nine churches, ministering to each of the small congregations. We would like to feel we matter, not just as a source of revenue, but as souls who need feeding and replenishing with words from the Church’s leader.

    Instead we got Left-wing political views from a man who closed churches during lockdown – a time when people needed them most – and refused us a chance to sit and be at peace with God.

    Janet Fisher
    Beaworthy, Devon

    Well said, Ms Fisher. I don’t know whether Welby intends to get involved in politics or is just very naive. Either way, the effect is the same and the time has surely come for him to be replaced before even more damage is done.

    1. Welby has been overtly political since he took up the office. His staff write in the tone of Labour party activists. Recent ordinands have the same tone, and speak in left wing clichés.

  7. SIR – When I first heard about the Government’s proposal to send asylum seekers to Rwanda, my natural reaction was one of shock and horror, but, ignorant of the details, I held my tongue. Since that time the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Keir Starmer and numerous humanitarian charities have condemned the proposed action.

    I do not know what is right but I do notice that not one of these critics has suggested how to deal with the horrendous problems of illegal migration and human trafficking.

    Paul Fulton
    Dereham, Norfolk

    SIR – I grew up in the pretty village of Bishopthorpe, home to the Archbishop of York (“Archbishop of York ‘appalled’ at Rwanda refugee plan”, telegraph.co.uk, April 17). He lives in a beautiful and enormous palace. It would be interesting to see if he has plans to accommodate immigrants.

    Chris Potter
    Otley, West Yorkshire

    Those who protest the loudest against the Rwanda plan are all conspicuous by the complete absence of any suggestions as to how we may stop illegal immigrants from breaking in to this country. And to make matters worse, many of them describe the boat people as ‘refugees’ which is plainly not the case for the vast majority.

    1. Why on earth should Paul Fulton be “shocked and horrified” at the idea of migrants being sent to Rwanda?

    2. As i said yesterday. All the economic migrants that have landed on our beaches and entered this country from France illegally should be rounded up at gunpoint. Forced onto P&O ferries and dumped back in Calais. This problem belongs to France. Not us.

  8. We’re ready to make Britain the safest place for children politicians online. 19 April 2022.

    One of the most heartbreaking parts of our jobs is having to hear children talk about the awful harm they’ve suffered online. In our roles as Digital Secretary and the Children’s Commissioner, we’ve sat down with the parents of young teens who’ve been directed by algorithms towards suicide chat rooms, bombarded with content on their social media encouraging them to drink bleach, or who have stumbled across extreme pornography.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE.

    John Connor. 10 HRS AGO.

    This isn’t about protecting children online, it’s about government censorship and control of political dissent.

    I thought to write something as scathing as I could concoct about this legislation and the specious nonsense being spouted here by Dorries but Mr Connor has summed it up beautifully.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2022/04/18/ready-make-britain-safest-place-children-online/

  9. SIR – There are two ways to try to ease the cost-of-living crisis (Comment, April 18). The Government could reduce taxation as much as possible, making the cost of living cheaper, thereby enabling people to buy more, and so increase the tax take.

    Alternatively, it can increase taxes and redistribute the money to more and more people, who have been reduced to poverty by high costs and redundancy caused by unprofitable business closures. This method has the advantage of creating jobs for civil servants, who are paid handsomely for coming up with ever more schemes to give grants and other aid packages.

    The first method should be Conservative policy. The second method could be described as the Cuban system. It seems to me that this Government is Cuban in its operation.

    John Snook
    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    I agree, John Snook. Whatever happened to the principle that reducing taxes generates economic activity, thus increasing revenue in the longer term, and prosperity with it? For Sunak still to regard the Tories as ‘the party of low taxation’ becomes more laughable by the day.

    1. How about a third method? Raise sufficient taxes to do the job demanded of them, and then spend them wisely, concentrating on value-for-money over prestige, empire-building, goldplating and waste.

      It demands quite a different mindset of course – that of canny thrift appreciating the value of money and that the better it is spent, the more things one can get with it. Who knows, there might even be enough left over for a rainy day or, God forbid, even not even having to demand quite so much of it from the plebs.

      Imagine two people given £100k to spend as they will on extending their homes.

      One buys in a top architect, employs a master builder who brings in contractors, all on top rates with market-competitive bonuses to match anything the Americans can pay. Then getting designer kitchens and bathrooms, and of course £3 cups of coffee from Starbucks, since building is thirsty work.

      The other goes online and orders in building materials as needed and after calculating the more efficient way to cut panels to keep quantities down. The design work is done on the backs of envelopes after extensive research online about building regs and standards. Trades are only bought in when one exceeds the level of competence or it takes too bloody long to get a job done that a professional can do in a week, and then if one finds an honest pro, then guard him like gold dust, look after him, do not quibble about a few extra quid, and pay him in full the day he finishes the job, so he doesn’t have to use up his energy chasing accounts. Oh, and use the teapot or coffee pot frequently, so that cups of tea or coffee are to hand without any trip to Starbucks.

      Who is likely to get the better home for the same money at the end of it?

    2. Morning all. vw posting here just on this topic. Alf isn’t down yet.

      Agree completely. And when it comes to family, every survey concludes that a married mother and father produce far better outcomes for their children. However, everything possible is being done to break up family life.

  11. BBC R3 has just reported on the death of Sir Harrison Birtwistle.
    Not a composer I’ve been particularly impressed by I’m afraid.

    1. Nor me. Someone once described his music as ‘the sound of ball-bearings falling down a drain’. Pretty accurate, I thought.

      ‘Morning, BoB.

    2. A great favourite of the BBC in the 80s and 90s. The Last Night of the Proms isn’t usually meant for experimentation but in 1995 it included the world premier of Birtwistle’s cacophonous ‘Panic’. This was the last act as Proms director of John Drummond, an unashamed musical snob who regarded the Last Night as a bit plebian.

  12. Boris is the only viable candidate to lead us through the current crises

    A crises, what crises?

    1. “A full throated apology”

      Does that mean he’s going to puke on us all again?

  14. Boris Johnson to make ‘full-throated apology’ to MPs over partygate fine. 19 April 2022.

    Boris Johnson is today expected to make a “full-throated apology” to MPs after he was fined by police for attending a birthday bash in breach of Covid rules.

    What is the value of an apology from someone who feels no regrets? If you Google the headline you get a list of newspapers (10) that are using it, so it is clearly just a publicity release.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/boris-johnson-mps-ukraine-prime-minister-dominic-raab-b994921.html

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        His attempts to be phlegmatic are usually a failure!

  16. Prince Harry breaks silence on secret meeting with the Queen as he puts positive spin on visit saying she would have ‘loved’ to be at Invictus Games and had ‘plenty of messages’ for UK athletes taking part. 19 April 2022.

    Prince Harry has broken his silence on his secret meeting with the Queen as he puts a positive spin on his visit by saying she would have ‘loved’ to be at the Invictus Games.

    The Duke of Sussex said ‘it was great to see her’ during a quick stop-off before his arrival in the Netherlands for the competition.

    The 37-year-old, who founded the event for wounded, injured and sick servicemen and women in 2014, said the 96-year-old monarch ‘had plenty of messages for Team UK’ when he met her at Windsor Castle last week.

    Self-serving C**t!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10728533/Prince-Harry-says-having-Team-Ukraine-Invictus-Games-despite-Russia-invasion-extraordinary.html

    1. I am inclined to agree with your last statement. He granted Her Majesty 15 minutes from his oh so busy self publicising schedule.

  17. Good morning, everyone. Off with nine wrinkles to watch OPERATION MINCEMEAT later today. Will report back at the end of the day.

        1. :@)

          I would be interested if it could match ‘Where Eagles Dare’ or ‘The Desert Rats’ or ‘Ice Cold in Alex’.

          1. Perhaps not as good, but EAGLES and ALEX were more action/thriller films than drama with MINCEMEAT. (I haven’t seen THE DESERT RATS.)

  18. Good Morning.
    Would I be right in thinking that none of the journalists, and quiz presenters, that the BBC have sent to the Ukraine are embedded with Russian forces, and that their information comes entirely from the Ukrainian side?

    1. About a week ago the Al Jazeera chief correspondent in Ukraine complained bitterly that all Press releases emanated from the President’s palace,

      and that Al Jazeera was the only station that tried to check the accuracy of these releases. He said that all the other correspondents happily

      accepted the Press releases without question or query.

    2. I’m not sure that the Russian military is allowing employees of an “enemy” government access to behind the scenes of their little expedition.

      Additionally, any coverage provided by such journalists not in agreement with the Kremlin would result in jail time.

      So… no.

      1. Are the Ukranians permitting fair and honest reporting of their ‘involvement’ though? The helicopter crash, the AA fire in the dark, that Mockba sinking that looked far, far too photoshopped, the building that had been destroyed by shelling, but was really a gas explosion.

        I won’t say Russia are all genuflecting heroes carrying olive branches in nice white robes being killed by evil Ukrainians, but the reporting so far has been staggering corrupt.

        1. Bit yummy aren’t they. They come from 1903 when the cycle race commenced. The shape is that of a bike wheel.

    2. I was always impressed that, for reasons of linguistic improvement, the master who operated our school library always provided a subscription to Paris Match for sixth formers to study alongside the Spectator, The Illustrated London News etc…

  20. The working classes are a volcano waiting to erupt. Spiked 19 April 2022.

    What is clear is that neoliberalism, which once promised gains for all classes, now means for most people an inevitable diminishment of living standards in ways not widely seen since the 1940s. We do not know when or if the volcano will erupt, but the prospect of it erupting will be with us for the foreseeable future.

    How I would like to think so! It’s quite clear that the only thing that can save the indigenous peoples of Europe and the UK is Revolution.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/18/the-working-classes-are-a-volcano-waiting-to-erupt/

    1. That’s why the most recent Bills’ in parliament have been passed in order to use as some form of suppression on us, we are many and they are few. Let’s hope the couch surfers stay at home and keep an eye on their bank statements.

    2. Well… what did they expect? Liberalism is just a marketing phrase for socialism.

  21. CASTING A SPELL

    Editorial, Daily Telegraph, 19 April, 2022.

    We can argue about the literary merits of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter oeuvre but on one thing most parents would agree: the books encouraged a generation of children to read. So when it comes to compiling a list of 70 influential books written during the Queen’s reign to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, there is, therefore, a strong case for the inclusion of a Rowling book. Indeed, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone did make the shortlist but was dropped from the final set. The exercise was organised by the BBC and The Reading Agency, whose mission is to get children interested in books, in which case Rowling’s exclusion is perverse. If it was done for political reasons, then the people behind it should be ashamed of themselves.

    “If it was done for political reasons (which it was), then the people behind it should be ashamed of themselves thrashed senseless!.”

    I have never been motivated or inclined to read any of Joanne Rowling’s genre. This could well change my mind and I am now more motivated to read her entire catalogue of scribbling just to piss off the woke twats.

    1. The list is much as I would have suspected given the organisations that compiled it – very multicultural and including many books that I’ve never even heard of, let alone wanted to read! Whatever the merits [or otherwise] of her books, the “cancelling” of JKR is appalling – as are the comments by the spoiled brats who starred in the films of her books and hugely benefited by so doing!

    2. On the other hand Miriam Margolies has supported her in the DT this morning. With friends like that, who needs enemies, etc…

      1. That’s not really such a big surprise since both Rowling and the Margoyle are inclined to lean to the Left.

      2. Miriam Margoyles is the poster girl whose publicity picture on Gay Pride publicity is likely to influence the most libidinous of male heterosexual Lotharios to become homosexual.

        2. The Margoyle had a bit-part, 42 years ago, alongside Antony Sher and Isla Blair in the BBC’s adaptation of Malcolm Bradbury’s [UEA’s creative writing professor] formidably excellent The History Man.

          She was as putridly ugly back then as she is today. I have that wonderful production on DVD so I may lust over Isla Blair’s sexy Flora Beniform before I vomit over the Margoyle.

    3. On the other hand Miriam Margolies has supported her in the DT this morning. With friends like that, who needs enemies, etc…

    4. They are well written and well paced children’s fantasy tales designed to appeal to the hopes and aspirations of 9-16 year olds, much as Blyton’s Famous Five and Secret Seven were earlier, as such I think you might find reading the ingredients list of a pot of mango and peach yoghurt more enlightening .

    5. I read the whole lot with my boys. I thought they went off the boil in the later books.

      Her HP novels had an incredible influence on children encouraging them to read and it is a complete disgrace that the morons who drew up the list think she must be punished for thinking that real women don’t have willies.

      1. The books are a very unoriginal mixture of Enid Blyton, Joan Aiken and the Worst Witch books, with a large dose of political correctness thrown in, I thought.

    6. Waterstone’s is offering a prize for the best book written by a woman with a penis and W H Smith does not want to be excluded and is offering a similar prize for a book written by a man with a vagina and breasts. Beautiful ecologically powered vibrating dildos – based on Tracy Emin’s and Damien Hirst’s designs – will be awarded to the runners up in both competitions.

      2. “Ecologically powered vibrating dildo” – reminds me of some fat chap who is masquerading as a Tory PM.

    7. I find it funny that the desperately Left wing BBC has chosen a book about an Indian bloke in a boat (Life of Pi), one about Muslim suppression of women (Handmaid’s tale) and other pap.

      It’s almost as if they haven’t actually read them and have no idea what they’re really about.

    8. She’s completely woke herself and would throw any of us under a bus for a moment’s virtue signaling any time. She isn’t opposing trans nonsense out of common sense, but only because she thinks that one victim group should trump another.

    9. She’s completely woke herself and would throw any of us under a bus for a moment’s virtue signaling any time. She isn’t opposing trans nonsense out of common sense, but only because she thinks that one victim group should trump another.

  22. The grass is green and shining with melted frost in the morning sun. The sky is blue. All is well with the world…oh wait! A rabbit is chasing a stoat across the lawn, very fast. The stoat jinks and weaves but the big rabbit is faster. Then the stoat is through the fence and into the thick grass in the field. Both are lost to sight.
    Two years ago I saw the stoat take three wee baby rabbits away from the warren, one at a time, in his mouth, to carry home to the kits.
    Looks as if the rabbit is not going to let that happen this year.

    1. HP..

      Thank you for such a wonderful mindflash description .. in an instant I pictured the drama unfolding, the rabbit was very brave .

    3. On the other hand, if you are hanging out with the herd lying prostrate whilst sunbathing on a West Country farm you might well get a pat on the back!

    4. Sadly, the effnics don’t tend to go ‘outside’. They conclave in cities. That’s why London, Birmingham, Sheffield, Luton are open sewers.

    1. He should apologise to the nation, on TV, and admit that it had nothing to do with health or science and that’s why he carried (no pun intended) on as usual.
      Lying bastard.

      1. Exactly. Parliament should be discussing why bogus rules were imposed on the masses in the first place and also stop pretending that Labour MPs didn’t party.

      2. Johnson and many other “leaders” from around the World are following a script laid down by globalists with a power grab agenda. Lockdowns, unnecessary masking, mass inoculation, travel restrictions etc are all manifestations of the ‘agenda’. “Safe and effective,” re the inoculations, is a hackneyed phrase used worldwide by lying politicians and politicised medical/health leaders. The truth re the Pfizer inoculations is being revealed by Naomi Wolf’s/Steve Bannon’s teams reading through the released documentation and unearthing the real truth; “S&E” doesn’t cut the mustard.

        1. I’m back from a club meeting. Two women on about keep testing themselves and their negative.
          I kept my mouth shut despite wanting to ask why they were testing themselves if they didn’t feel ill.
          I’ve given up with their lunacy.

      3. I’ve just seen this BTL from one of the Comments stalwarts:

        Matthew Biddlecombe
        31 MIN AGO
        I cannot believe all the posts, and published letters, that seem to think it was OK for our politicians to break their own rules whilst the rest of us had to observe rules that, in some cases, were extremely cruel.
        Let’s get this straight. Whether you agreed with the lockdown laws or not, they were forced upon us by our government in full support of opposition parties; indeed, the opposition frequently wanted even stronger lockdown rules than the ones that were imposed. These people arrogantly decided that it was to be one rule for them, and another one for us. For years, on these threads, I’ve seen posts from those complaining about how MPs don’t live their lives by the same rules as the ones we have to. Now, all of a sudden, because it was “only a party” it’s OK. No, it is NOT OK. Where do you draw the line in the laws that MPs can follow and not?
        If you have a government that makes rules, then breaks them with impunity, what does that say about moral compasses?

        * * *

        I find myself in full agreement with MB. And as for moral compasses, I think Johnson is using his as a fan…

          1. Ah, but the £10,000 fine was a forced deterrent to ‘send a message’. Which means the law is arbitrary and based on whimsy and wish. If you ask me, such a law is not worth following.

        3. Yes. I was a bit fatalistic thinking, oh well we might as well keep Boris, we’ll only get something just as bad, but now I feel that he deserves to go, and anything that causes them a bit of disruption is good.

          Sack Boris now!

        4. This is why MPs make themselves immune to their own legislation. From traffic violations, to internet censorship, they make sure they write in ‘MPs or former MPs are exempt.’

  25. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/848e46a1d0335e00e44f82067a8b44ece70acf4984b0bc1a9bcc760c30a9206c.png The Cost-Cutting Supermarket Swaps that Taste Just As Good. [Yeah, I bet they taste real good!]

    Aside from the banal American-slanted headline (commonplace, these days, in the DT), and despite the fact that this posed photograph is to illustrate the article. It really shows just how clueless the average modern human is when it comes to squanderng their hard-earned dosh on crap masquerading as ‘food’.

    Where is the real, delicious, nutritious and healthy proper food? Where is the fresh meat, the fresh fish, the decent cheese, butter, lard, fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, tea leaves, nuts, eggs, milk, cream and berries?

    And they wonder why they all suffer from a plethora of modern diseases and obesity unknown to their ancestors.

    1. I feel the same when looking at the contents of trolleys in supermarkets. The appalling, unhealthy tosh with which people are intent on feeding themselves and – worse still – their children.

      1. I used to find it was impossible to avert one’s eye’s from those trolleys when wandering around Morrison’s in Fakenham.

        It’s no different over here. I just substitute Morrison’s for ICA-Kvantum and Fakenham for Tomelilla. Same old, same old.

      2. I also view the contents of other trolleys with shock and horror ..
        Cereals that are full of sugar , bottles of pop , preformed chicken shapes , cakes , all sorts of strange things .

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/17/teachers-not-just-worried-growing-class-sizes-pupils-taller/

        Teachers dwarfed as pupils become taller and heavier
        Going to work ‘like walking into the land of the giants’, say staff as average size of schoolchildren has ballooned since the Seventies.

        2. One of my next door neighbours looks like an elephant. When she gets into her SUV it literally leans to her side she is so fat. She claims that she hardly eats. But each time she comes back from the supermarket her vehicle is piled high with crisps, biscuits and other snackable’s. I have often wondered if such people are really delusional about what they eat. If, somehow, the constant snacking goes down some sort of memory hole so that it is unconscious, they simply don’t realize what they are doing.

      3. When I buy a ready meal it’s because I’m not organised enough to have cooked that day and we need something simple to eat. I don’t like doing it, but we’re both busy and if I’m on site and she’s in London we’re out from 6-8 usually. I don’t know what the ‘correct’ answer is – do we not eat?

        I’ve tried making us a quick chicken salad but the three of us chewed through that and crackers and cheese.

        1. That’s what we’ve got jars of baked beans in the cellar for! Which are of course, a ready meal.

      4. But just think of the satisfaction that one gets from standing behind them in the queue mentally tutting at the contents of their trolley!

    2. Our ancestors also did hard physical labour. As a child I played outside with my friends. Ball games (which I was hopeless at) and riding pushbikes around the estate (where there were far fewer cars than one would expect today). We walked to school. No computer games. No being driven to school by paranoid parents.

      1. Gosh! We used to dream about being rich like you people – riding round on pushbikes and playing with a proper ball. We did have marbles though – about six each and some of them were made of glass too. 🙂

        1. Marbles? Made from t’glass? Eh, we had to make do with ball t’mud and if we were lucky, we’d not get t’ed pushed in t’mud by t’Father on his way home from t’pit where he dug ‘fifteen hour a day using nowt but t’finger nails.

          cue: ‘finger nails? Luxury!’

      1. Wrapped in plastic and probably flown in, devoid of all flavour, from Holland , Spain or South Africa.

        2. We have a huge hydroponic tomato growing plant just down the road from us in Bramford, Suffolk.

          Pictures here:

          https://www.google.com/search?q=bramford+tomato+greenhouse&sxsrf=APq-WBvw9OpfibWr6uRMXOJUt19SutpMyQ:1650380800856&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&vet=1&fir=BwowqB_kWgxzSM%252CXKvcS44g2FTXlM%252C_%253Ba7e9Q8-65AH8TM%252C_1TLtVZt6daKWM%252C_%253BCFavv81EZj0NkM%252CerKxgkqtpOwkcM%252C_%253BSm7f8PGHrsXL3M%252ChHUkk7nhzIzUiM%252C_%253BI1f2IoMS0uGFhM%252ClpGNAvyrtI5StM%252C_%253B2wj5hty3fVqCYM%252Cc9NJUqFxk1QJpM%252C_%253BoIFnZdYtrTC9-M%252CV6eAZc_6JHo9QM%252C_%253Bjd7oW6hmCGDEgM%252CeYOJuUOhp8gVUM%252C_%253BBQx0K_tzYSvqfM%252C-QIhcbQ7TJch3M%252C_%253B-xI8PZTtlHHGsM%252CL4iaTniZTz6DYM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kQlVnH3rndEB9UaYz0on_fjAEOgpA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn5IPLs6D3AhWugVwKHWIIDWIQ9QF6BAguEAE

    5. Well, Grizzly (good morning, btw) the answer to all your “Where is”-es is obviously at Chez Grizzly, aka Grizzly Towers. Your home-made mushy peas and sausages, just like my home-made marmalade and rhubarb crumble, are world-renowned. The only problem is the cost and time involved in getting them as the return flights from the UK to Sweden can negate all the cost savings! Lol.

  26. A curious phenomenon.

    The wind radar (three different sites) show a gentle but persistent NORTH wind. The sky shows the cloud mass moving determinedly driven by a SOUTH wind.

    I just don’t know which science to follow…..

      1. Looking out from the luxury of the Prem Inn Brentford, looks about right. A rather enjoyable day in the city yesterday. A lovely day for walking, fine with a cool breeze. Started off at South Ealing, only to find the line compleyely closed, just as well I wore my hiking boots. Dont yer just lurve public transport. Holland Park was rather colourful, never been before.

      2. Looking out from the luxury of the Prem Inn Brentford, looks about right. A rather enjoyable day in the city yesterday. A lovely day for walking, fine with a cool breeze. Started off at South Ealing, only to find the line compleyely closed, just as well I wore my hicking boots. Dont yer just lurve public transport. Holland Park was rather colourful, never been before.

      1. It is deffo from the south. The websites (apart from Hardcastle’s) are lying.

    6. Pressure patterns aloft are often different from those lower down, hence different winds. But If you have a curry house nearby, all bets are off…

    2. I suggested to a chum last night that we are all still slaves, we’ve just exchanged the oar for a keyboard and the overseer is now the state.

    4. Grattis på födelsedagen, John.

      Hope you are feeling better and enjoying a lovely day. 🎂🍷👍🏻

  29. Good morning, everyone. Lovely to have eldest granddaughter down for a couple of days.

  30. OT – a request for help. Calling all NoTTLers taking blood thinning medication.

    I have discovered that these tabs while doing one thing helpfully, also mean that a bleeding cut or nosebleed is damned hard to stop. Has anyone any tips about staunching the flow? I had assumed that one could buy a coagulant over the counter – but, apparently, not so.

    Ideas would be gratefully received.

    1. If it is a cut apply pressure. If a nose bleed stuff as much cotton wool up your nose as possible.

    2. How to stop a nosebleed yourself
      If you have a nosebleed, you should:

      sit down and lean forward, with your head tilted forward
      pinch your nose just above your nostrils for 10 to 15 minutes
      breathe through your mouth
      Holding an icepack (or a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel) on the top of the nose may help reduce the blood flow. But the evidence to show it works is not very strong.

      https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nosebleed/

      1. Thanks, Mags – I find that following that advice makes the blood flow faster!!

        2. If it is a persistant nose bleed Bill, good idea to go to A+E and get it cauterised, ASaP.

          Richard had a bad nose bleed when playing golf .. I dashed to the club to retrieve him , with a frozen leg of venison , wrapped in a towel , and whisked him off to A+E.. I had no peas or anything similar in the freezer .

      2. But be careful. Don’t do what I did while waiting in A&E a few years ago. I pinched for so long and hard that I damaged the interior of the top of my nose which still gives me troubles. All while waiting for the doc to find one of those silver nitrate sticks they use to staunch the flow…
        I don’t use blood thinners but being bleeders seems to run in the family.

      3. But be careful. Don’t do what I did while waiting in A&E a few years ago. I pinched for so long and hard that I damaged the interior of the top of my nose which still gives me troubles. All while waiting for the doc to find one of those silver nitrate sticks they use to staunch the flow…
        I don’t use blood thinners but being bleeders seems to run in the family.

    4. Use a Lateral Flow Kit, i.e. stick a finger up your nose? (Sorry, Bill, I just couldn’t resist that.) But hopefully someone on here can help you with what must be a miserable problem if/when it strikes.

    5. Oh, no – but then my blood’s not really normal stuff – and I’ve forgotten to take my warfarin yet again.

      I would suggest to your doc that your dose might be too high. When was your last INR and what was the figure?

    7. I take Vitamin K2…not sure if it helps, but It seems to.
      I bleed profusely & easily naturally.

    8. I take a few heart pills and aspirin. Reducing aspirin to alternate days reduces the number of nose bleeds. For relief I roll up half a sheet of toilet paper (unused portion preferably), depending on thickness of tissue, and stick that up the nostril. The paper has the right absorbency and the bleeding stops fairly soon.

        1. For cuts on the arms, place a tissue over and raise your arm so that the wound is above your heart. ‘Twill stop quite quickly. Having been on Warfarin since 2002, I’ve the chance to test it (unwillingly).

    9. When it happened to MOH (who was on Clopidogrel), the only advice was to pinch the bridge of the nose until it stopped (that from the paramedics as I had to call 999 after prolonged failure to staunch the bleeding – the bathroom looked like a slaughterhouse).

    1. Well, it is more than 185,000. AS it’s 185,000 a year.

      I don’t care if it’s a build the wall policy. The simplest and easiest solution they refuse to implement. Just don’t let them get here in the first place.

    2. Well, new laws are standard “kick the can down the road” practice.
      We already have laws, lots of them. If you don’t like them we have others*. It is not the lack of laws that is the problem, it is the lack of enforcement of the laws that we have. It is our cowardice when it comes to tackling the French and all the other countries who have facilitated the passage of these economic migrants across the whole of Europe to arrive on our shores.

      *Apologies to Groucho Marx.

  32. Good Moaning; in that it’s warm and not acksherley persisting down.
    Just off to be made even more stunningly beautiful than I already am. It’s a challenge, but my local hairdresser is a miracle worker.

    1. Good morning Anne

      What a nice treat for you .

      My hair is coming out in handfuls, Covid or jabs … but becoming thinner , ’tis a worry

        1. I developed a patch of alopecia at the front during/after my two moves (May 21 & February this year)…Im sure it was stress…I take a hair & nails supplement which has lots of trace minerals etc…but it made no difference.
          I’m hoping the sunshine & quiet will make a difference now.

      2. Our elder son has had the jabs, Belle. His male-pattern hair loss developed into something much worse, alopecia. He has large round patches where there is now no hair growth. He has shaved off the remainder but as his hair is dark you can still see the white patches. If it is coming out in handfuls it may well be a result of the jabs. My hair is getting thinner, too, but it is three or four hairs when I’m in the shower – regrowth is not as fast when you get older.

      3. That sounds worrying – are you getting thinner, or the hair? Mine’s very fine so I can’t afford to lose much of it.

    2. “More stunningly beautiful than I already am”? Good grief, Annie, is that possible? But you are already as good looking as me! Lol.

    3. Mine has closed. Endless lockdowns and pettifogging rules, and she was near retirement anyway. She is an irreplaceable hair genius, with encylopaedic knowledge.
      I currently have a home dye job which is OK, and a cut I did myself, which isn’t really, but at least I didn’t hand over a fortune to get my hair massacred.

  33. Hi All. Cold day but sunny. As for todays letter. God help us all if Boris Johnson is our, “only viable candidate to lead us through the current crisis.” We might as well be passengers on the Titanic if that is the case.

    1. Morning Johnathan. They at least had some lifeboats. We are pretty much screwed!

      1. As the Unsinkable Molly Brown said, “I stayed at table from soup to nuts.” Nice grub it seems.

  34. 352070+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    Boris is the only viable candidate to lead us through the current crises

    Whoever penned that surely has Lord Haw Haw as a role model and will be celebrating
    willies birthday on the 24th.
    A masterful stroke of undermining the remaining confidence of the decent British peoples.
    To my mind he has shown out as an eu asset since the May leadership farce, a natural follow on to may with a covert mission, his aim as in using the “deal”as an umbilical cord to brussels.

    IMO johnson is the semi eu reentry pilot.

    1. I can’t help but think that Boris isn’t so much leading us through, as into.

      Taxes at their highest level ever, an energy shortage, fuel costs soaring, the green thugs hindering lawful business, the adoption of yet more EU law, a flood of gimmigrants pouring across the channel, crushing inflation and suppressed interest rates, state debt up, state waste up, a truly destructive green agenda, a deeply unfair redistributive tax model (socialism) … is this leading us through?

      Every possible thing that could be done wrong, is being. It feels desperately as if the state machine is trying to do so much damage that we are forced to the IMF, and thus forced back into the EU – you can almost imagine the press now – ‘None of this happened when we were EU members…’

      1. 352070+ up ticks,

        Morning W,
        ALL so very true but will it change the close shop voting pattern.

        1. I shall not be voting in this year’s council elections. I don’t care if the local fellow does a good job keeping Labour at bay. Something has to stay STOP IT.

          1. And he doesn’t of course, infilling everywhere, blocks of flats replacing houses, all by central government decree, overriding local wishes….

          2. And he doesn’t of course, infilling everywhere, blocks of flats replacing houses, all by central government decree, overriding local wishes….

        2. I shall not be voting in this year’s council elections. I don’t care if the local fellow does a good job keeping Labour at bay. Something has to stay STOP IT.

      3. It’s not the eu we are being forced into, but the One World Government of the WEF/NWO. The eu was just a step on the route to that. The eu is simply being circumvented. That is where we will end up, the final destination for us all. It will solve all our problems… that is how it will be sold to us. But it will come at a price. They will get what they want.

        1. I am eager to discover how they will persuade China, India and Russia to join this One World Government.

          1. I think China’s already fully cooperative. Nobody’s going to flee to China. Russia and India are probably giving them a few moments of worry.

          2. I agree Blackbox. I think that China is the lab. The place where they see what they can get away with.

          3. China will only be “fully co-operative” if they are in charge. No Chinese leader will ever submit to second place in a hierarchy of WEF power-brokers.

          4. There is a theory that it was the western globalists who encourage China to go down the technocratic route. Our technocrats seem to believe that we will still care about China’s world domination plans when we’ve got no freedom worth defending.

        2. Such never, ever works. The Left think it does, because they never suffer the consequences of their tyranny however eventually they find themselves stuck with the mob they’ve impoverished and then it ends – nastily.

      4. I think it is designed to lead us into financial disaster. They have got the “solution” ready and waiting to be launched – a CBDC.

  35. Captured Britons paraded on Russian TV asking Boris Johnson to swap them for Vladimir Putin’s friend.19 April 2022.

    Two British citizens captured by Russian forces in Ukraine have been paraded on Russian state television appealing to Boris Johnson to exchange them for a close friend of Vladimir Putin held in Ukraine.

    Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, who are members of Ukraine’s 36th Marine brigade, asked Mr Johnson to arrange for them to be swapped for Viktor Medvedchuk in a report broadcast on Russia’s lunchtime news programme.

    Well if he’s as successful as he was with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe they are in for a long wait in Siberia!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/04/18/captured-britons-appear-russian-tv-appeal-boris-johnson-swap/

    1. “Russian television has falsely described them as “British mercenaries”.” Well what are they then if not mercenaries?

      1. “Both men are enlisted regular members of the Ukrainian armed forces who joined before the current war and are entitled to treatment as prisoners of war under the Geneva convention.”

        As prisoners of war they should not be expecting any special treatment or privileges which would not be afforded to their fellow PoWs.

  37. The demise of Harrison Birtwistle reminds me of PJ O’Rourke saying that to him all such modern music sounded like someone had kicked the china cabinet over. From what I’ve just heard on Radio 3, being unkind to the cat features as well.

    1. Cacophony in spades. No one will remember a note he wrote in 20 years (or 20 weeks).

      It was ludicrous that the beeboids should commission his rubbish, let alone play it. Like that other old fraud Havergal Brian.

        1. I am not musical, but if his music’s anything like that painting, it’s well worth avoiding! Badly executed, pretentious tosh!

  40. Laffs

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6954779460c87be25fcce35a3623e011e6f6c4e6d021f36b13a6bb96c4d727f2.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/584171b563b8787ef866c54029250e911ef0bf272211c507be8c172adcc986c4.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3308bdf5cb091853336e9ee79d5f0ca78723d6d09a33cb0df52e4bf4f3422e36.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/336846b0d216e978b0cfa12b9d7b5b0bac290c13f482dee65a48268d3b7b884b.jpg

    Not to worry,Dolly to the rescue!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff3556b142f096283bb0eb638442e9a80710ffa45752c908d07b9045c62f93e7.gif

          1. Many of the small red Macmillan editions had the swastika on the cover. All pre-1939, I think! My “Stalky & Co” has a roundel with an elephant’s head and swastika, from 1917.

  43. 352070) up ticks,
    Our semi secret islamic army the lab/lib/con coalition member / voters have assisting in constructing over the last three plus decades will have no travel cost as such only trouble being if a train or a bus is cancelled.

    Open supply lines calais to Dover tried & tested

    A full halal menu awaits in the parliamentary canteen as soon as the black flag is seen above.

    Islamic State Calls For Attacks in Europe Urging Followers to Take Advantage of Ukraine Crisis

      1. 352070+ up ticks,

        Afternoon TB,
        It comes across that many of the electorate supporting the lab/lib/con
        mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile umbrella coalition put the party welfare before the kids welfare
        thereby creating mental cases via
        childhood that is the legacy they are
        taking into adulthood.

        1. “Would it be racist of me to ask who invented effective contraception pretty well everything?
          Think that’s a tad more accurate.

        2. “Would it be racist of me to ask who invented effective contraception pretty well everything?
          Think that’s a tad more accurate.

  48. South Africa widens power cuts amid breakdowns. 19 April 2022.

    South Africa’s power company, Eskom, has expanded its planned nationwide electricity outage on Monday after further breakdowns in its generating plants.

    The state utility firm said it was implementing stage four load shedding, or scheduled blackouts, after it lost 4,000MW following the loss of two power units.

    “Regretfully, Eskom has just been forced to implement Stage 4 load shedding at 07:20 following Majuba Unit 5 and Tutuka Unit 4 tripping,” it said on Twitter.

    On Sunday, Eskom announced Stage 2 load shedding when it lost 2,000MW of power supply after the tripping of other generating units.

    Poor maintenance, rising costs, falling revenues, crumbling infrastructure, corruption and mismanagement have in the past been blamed for South Africa’s energy crisis.

    Eskom has since apologised, describing the power system as unpredictable on Twitter.

    Incredibly we are going to join these people!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-africa-60803132

    1. And Sri Lanka going bust. Funny how this happens to ex British colonies after we left them properly organised and run.

      1. Genocide, endless civil war, famine, plague, collapse of infrastructure, collapse of health care and education, religious persecution and partition – all these have occurred in the Sudan since the British left and where my father was the governor of the Northern Province.

    2. And coming to a country VERY near you quite soon – courtesy Carrion Causing Trouble.

      2. Only the very poor and the very inebriate cannot avoid having nine kids these days! 😲

      3. There was a very good reason for large families back in Victorian times. The childhood death rate was horrendous. Nowadays there’s no excuse.

    2. Why would you expect other people to provide you with a house big enough for a family of ten or eleven?
      Why are people so effing entitled?

        1. It’s been limited to two children for about two years now. Perhaps the mother in question had them before then?

      3. We should only pay for the first two. then no more. Then its pay yourself or its the pill and/or snip.

        1. Why for the first two? Why for one? Having a child should require you to plan for them, emotionally, financially, socially. If people won’t do that they they can’t have them.

          1. Young people need some help to bring up children if you want to . I would see help for the first two as reasonable. I know how difficult it can be . Do you ?How many children do you have.?

          2. When my elder son was was born there was no child benefit. For the second I received 90p per week.

          3. When my brother was born, you got nothing for the first child, Johnny. Then Labour got in and you got child benefit for the second.

          4. We had non for our first child and it was difficult paying our firsr mortage on our £2.800 first home.

        2. We should encourage people to have three, it’s a good number for replacement of the population. Two is cutting it fine.

          1. We need to cut down the population. Two is replacement and if people don’t have two (or any) then we are on our way to more sustainable numbers.

    1. If you wanted to spread your message more widely you should have held your placard much lower and posted on OnlyFans.

    3. I’ve often said that our politicians could even run a bath between them……….

  53. Tears of relief….just had the biopsy results in the mail and am so relieved. It is Bowen’s Disease which is a superficial low-grade pre-cancerous skin condition. Next step is to remove it which is good as it’s still bloody painful. However, it will be easier to cope with now I know for sure it’s not cancer.
    When you all open the bar this evening- please say cheers and celebrate with me!

          1. He’s doing quite well too and getting better follow up than I. Am feeling more optimistic than I have in a while.

    3. Oh congrats Lottie, big relief for you. They sure made you wait for the results. Anyway onwards and upwards now. Just need your husband to be sorted properly. Have a good old drink when your bar is open. Cheers

    7. A Great sigh of relief for all eh Lottie.
      My own consultation this morning with the cardiologist has left me in total confusion so many options i have but after spending a bout two hours checking them all out i am not really any the wiser. Amiodarone for the Afib was one, I’ve taken it before, but long term the side effects are quite worrying. Sun light can change skin colour to orange. And long term use can lead to a grey hue. The ticker is strong but the mechanics are up the creek. And teetotal might be the solution. 😒🙄

      1. Wish it had gone better for you, Eddy. Sometimes I think they deliberately try to confound you.
        Re orange….maybe you could apply to be Trump’s stand in ;-))
        Don’t like the idea of tee total.

        1. What was also nice, the Cardiologist is originally from Athens, I was able to thank him in Greek as taught to me by a (Panos) guy i worked with in Port Elizabeth SA all those years ago. “Thankful very much and this comes from the heart”. Quite fitting as he pointed out. In the Good books eh 🤗

      2. Hello.
        I have had a negative experience of Amiodarone. Not myself but my late sister. She was left on it for ten years (it’s only supposed to be a short term drug) – because her doctors kept changing & none wanted the responsibility of taking her off it.
        She had to keep out of the sun completely which is not healthy, & long term it did affect her liver adversely.

    12. Thank goodness. I’ll have a celebratory G&T when I’ve walked Spartie.
      Heck, make that a double.

    15. Perhaps an odd thing to say. But congratulations Ann on your disease. Lesser is better!

  54. Rikski laugh!!!

    A dwarf was drinking in a bar, when a sexy blonde walked up to him and said “I’ve always wanted to have sex with a little person.”
    The dwarf replied “I’m sorry, but I’ve had women say that before, then I go home with them and the husband or boyfriend finds out and I get beaten up.”
    “It’s ok,”said the woman, “my husband is working away until next week.“
    So, against his better judgment he goes back with the woman.
    They start having amazing sex, when suddenly the front door opens.
    “Sh1t, it’s my husband!“ she said.”Quick, hang out of the bedroom window and when he goes for a shower, you can climb in and get away!”
    So the dwarf climbs out of the window and hangs on the ledge by his fingertips.
    The husband comes in the bedroom, says “It’s cold in here!” slams the window shut and the dwarf plummets to the ground.
    The woman is distraught and calls an ambulance. A couple of days later she goes to visit the dwarf in hospital.
    “How are you?” she asked.
    “Well, my fingers are broken, I’ve got two broken ankles, a dislocated hip and severe concussion,”he said.
    “Oh dear!” she said. “Still, it could have been much worse.“
    “Much worse?!” said the dwarf. “How do you figure that out?”
    “Well,” she said, “you’re lucky that I live in a bungalow!”

  55. Putin plans legal challenge over frozen currency reserves. 19 April 2022.

    Russia is planning to launch a legal challenge to recover around $300bn (£230bn) of its foreign currency reserves frozen by the West.

    Elvira Nabiullina, governor of Russia’s central bank, told local media: “Of course, this is an unprecedented freeze, so we will be preparing lawsuits, and we are preparing to apply them, as this is unprecedented on a global scale.”

    Moscow is unable to access almost half of its more than $600bn in foreign exchange and gold holdings to help prop up the rouble, forcing it to roll out a string of tough capital controls.

    Russia has also threatened to sue if it defaults on its sovereign debt as a result of western sanctions.

    There’s no doubt these reserves were stolen. They were deposited by Russia in good faith under the implicit guarantee that they would be forthcoming on request. Since the West has committed this act of Grand Larceny along with the seizure of Private Property without compensation one cannot see them baulking at further criminality. They will certainly fix the courts so as to prevent them being returned to their rightful owners. The real price to be paid here is in the future as this permeates through the financial system and other depositors seek a safe haven for their assets that cannot be stolen on the whim of the United States and the UK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/04/19/ftse-100-markets-live-news-energy-oil-gas-economy/

      1. Afternoon vw. Yes! They’ve set a precedent here! Foreign reserves and private property were once sacrosant. During the Sikh Wars many of the opposition kept their cash in British Banks knowing that there they were safe; not least from their own rulers. This has now been thrown away. no one’s cash is now safe!

        1. At least then we’d be able to sieze the assets and property of those green fanatics, Lefties and troughers. Can you imagine Caroline Lucas’ face when her accounts are frozen, emptied and her 5 homes – troughed from the tax payer – were sudden;y taken from her, sold and the assests s[ent on a coal power plant?

          The state forgets that these powers it has can be used for good as well as evil.

  56. Great news from the National Health Service (clap).

    As I mentioned at the time, on 8 April, the MR saw a dishy Dr Michaelangelo who sorted out her problem and said that he would prescribe some medication that would be available at our GP surgery.

    Nothing has appeared at the GPs. Just now, the MR phoned dishy Dr’s secretary and said that nothing was known at the GP surgery. “That’s because I haven’t written the letter yet – and I can’t do it now because Dr M is on holiday and it will all have to wait until he returns. So FOAD”.

    Doesn’t this world-class service bring tears to your eyes?

    2. Am sorry about that. I have had to wait over a month for results. Good news is that MH is getting good follow up right now.

      1. I know it works well at times; it did for me, and saved my life.

        It is just the lack of efficient secretarial work to complete the process.

        The MR is phlegmatic – she has had the condition for several years, so, she says, another few weeks won’t hurt. But, then, she is a Limp Dumb, as well…!!

      1. Oh come on – she is working from home (loud dog barking in background). And that would require initiative.. Not to be expected in the envy of the world etc etc….

          2. Phizzee, on secretaries working from home, see my comment to Bill a few replies above.

          3. I have read it. There are good and bad. Mine even managed to lose a letter sent from my haematologist.

          4. I am sorry to hear of your wife’s condition. At least you have a good Doctor on the case.

      1. Exactly. To be fair, I suspect that he did do it pretty soon after the consultation – but his dozy doxy – working from home – doesn’t exert herself to deal with the typing.

        1. It’s not ALL bad
          My wife has a variant of Parkinson’s disease and her Parkinson’s consultant is a South African lady of Indian extraction. She, of all the different specialists we have seen in the last 5 years, has kept regularly in touch: first face to face, then, with Covid and Lockdown, by telephone. Now, with Microsoft Teams (think Zoom or Skype for the NHS), we can have semi-realistic half-hour video sessions every 3-4 months.

          Yesterday evening (Easter Monday) at 8 PM I sent her secretary by email my usual 1 page of A4, summarising what changes have happened and listing some questions I’d like answered on Tuesday 26th April when we ‘meet’ on Teams. The Consultant values this method as it keeps her fully updated in the 2 minutes it takes to read the A4 sheet and acts as an aide-memoire when she dictates her report of the consultation to my GP, copied to me.

          This morning at 6:05 AM her secretary (working from home, I guess as her boss was still on leave) replied that she had printed and passed my report to my wife’s file, ready for the Consultant to read on the day.

          Although a great deal of NHS admin is terrible, there are one or two outstanding examples of good practice and initiative. We should (and do) cherish them.

          P.S. it’s our 57th Wedding Anniversary today so that was a nice little present.

          7. Happy anniversary for tomorrow. It was 42 for us last year (our last anniversary). The answer to the meaning of life, the universe and everything.

          8. Congratulations! Second marriage here and we are at three and a half years now ;-))

      2. When I was a consultant to manufacturing industry, we managed to get the senior managers to ditch their secretaries and use computers, e-mail and WORD to get their messages across quickly and effectively.

        The NHS won’t let us in, similary the Post Office – both clasical examples of inefficient and incompetent organisations

    5. It took my GP 6 weeks to write a letter to a department about 4 miles from our Village surgery. And since i contacted him about the treatment that takes less than half an hour all in. It’s now going to be 3 months from start to finish before i can get the steroid injection in my arthritic knee.
      And he’s never at the surgery any more, god only knows what he’s up to all day.
      It seems FOAD was set up before the ‘pandemic’ because the government had already announced several newly appointed region directors of the NHS. All on around 200 k per year. Where did they come from i wonder ? ‘king Brussels ?

      1. And he’s never at the surgery any more, god only knows what he’s up to all day.

        (a) Private work;
        (b) Golf

        1. We have quite accidently discovered he has set up a private business with his wife.
          Which i guess means he is subcontracted to the NHS ??
          He’s not a member at ‘The Old Mid Herts’.

    6. I go in tomorrow for an operation. I confess that I feel very nervous because my confidence in the NHSW is so low. I have had a urine infection for almost 9 months because at least 5 doctors could not diagnose it. A nurse finally figured it out. It doesn’t make me very trusting in the competence of the person who will deal with me tomorrow that “experts” could not catch something so simple. No one has discussed with me how long I will be in there. I have been phoning all day to find out some essential things but all I get is an answering machine. It’s depressing.

        1. Thanks Eddy. But I think you can understand that the lack of communication does rather make you feel a bit restless.

          1. A couple of weeks ago I was sent another letter telling me that I had cancelled my appointment I went to same the department I attended this morning for my consultation and the receptionist found and printed off a letter for me, it was the letter I should have had. Some one else told me that the whole of our area of the NHS correspondence had ‘gorn more than pear shaped’. This was another phone call to another hospital, re another supposed cancelation.

          2. I rang up and cancelled an appointment and had it rescheduled. They rang me to remind me about my appointment (the one I’d cancelled). I told them again that it had been cancelled and re-scheduled. Next thing – guess what! They sent me a letter saying I’d failed to attend the appointment (the one I’d cancelled twice). Envy of the world …?

          3. That’s what happened to me as well. And they told me that because ‘I had cancelled it’ I would be removed from the waiting list and have to refer to my GP which is akin to talking to a brick wall.

      2. Pack a bag of essentials just in case. Make sure you have something to read. Best of luck. I will pray for you.

        1. Thank you Pip. I was going to take at least three or four books. I don’t read them one at a time.

        2. Good advice.

          I went into hospital for a quick Stent and home the same day. Instead I got told to stay and do nothing until I could be slotted into the schedule for surgery. It didn’t take long for the nurse to start bugging me about shaving.

      3. Go prepared for a week. Before the op – ask the chap if he has done it before. Tell them you are a legal consultant….

      4. The very best of luck Johnathon- you know you will be in our thoughts. The folk here are very kind and supportive. Keep us posted.

        1. I will post when I get back but not sure what day that will be. And thanks for the wishes. So pleased for you though 😊

      6. I’ll add you to the list I mention when we get to “those who are sick” tomorrow.

    7. My neighbour is waiting for an operation; she can’t have it because she’s been having problems with her breathing. She finally saw the chest consultant (who didn’t seem to know why she was there) and was given some anti-biotics. Neighbour asked if that meant she could have the operation now – apparently not. There are more consultations to come. I remarked it was as if they were playing a game of paperchase – one read a letter and then passed it on to the next, who did the same and this kept happening until it arrived back at the first person!

  59. Why aren’t we talking about the Islamist uprising in Sweden? Spiked 19 April 2022.

    Right now, in Europe, mobs of people are rioting. They’re hurling rocks and stones at police officers and setting fire to cars. Several cities have been shaken to their core by this riotous fury. A police chief says they are the most violent street disturbances he has ever known. Worse, this is an entirely regressive riot. It is not an angry uprising for democracy or liberty, but its polar opposite – it’s a screech of religious rage against the expression of certain ‘blasphemous’ ideas; it’s a fiery effort to suppress ‘offensive’ speech. Some of the worst riots in a country’s living memory, all to the end of defending archaic religious beliefs from challenge or criticism… why aren’t we talking about this?

    This is happening in Sweden. It’s been happening for four days now. On Friday there were riots in the city of Orebro. The violence spread to the city of Norrkoping, which is around a hundred miles south-west of Stockholm, and to Linkoping. Then there was street violence in an actual Stockholm suburb: Rinkeby. On Saturday violence rocked the southern city of Malmo. In some cities the violence continued on Sunday and Monday. Scores of police officers have been injured and dozens of rioters arrested. According to the BBC, Sweden’s national police chief, Anders Thornberg, says he has ‘never seen such violent riots’. He says the rioters ‘tried to kill police officers’.

    The spark for all this? Blasphemy. Specifically, blasphemy carried out by a far-right Danish-Swedish politician by the name of Rasmus Paludan. Mr Paludan leads an anti-immigration, anti-Islam outfit called Stram Kurs (Hard Line). He has a penchant for burning copies of the Koran. And he’s been doing it in Sweden in recent days, travelling from city to city to take part in anti-Islam rallies that involve desecrating copies of Islam’s holy book. The rioting has tended to follow this weird Koran-burning tour by an undoubtedly bigoted politician. For example, Paludan burnt a Koran in Malmo on Saturday and violence erupted soon after. There was vast destruction, including the burning of a school. You burn our holy book, we burn your schools – is that it?

    Even where there has been mainstream media coverage of the riots – apparently some of the worst riots Sweden has ever witnessed, remember – it has tended to obscure rather than enlighten. Euphemism abounds. The BBC refers to it as ‘unrest’. It labels the rioters as ‘counter-demonstrators’, imbuing them, whether intentionally or not, with a political legitimacy they surely do not deserve. Much of the coverage gives the impression that the true cause of the violence is Mr Paludan, which is incredibly infantilising of the rioters. Mr Paludan may well hold repugnant beliefs, but he has not thrown missiles at the police or set fire to cars or smashed shop and school windows. That has been done by the people who take umbrage at his speech, who feel alarmed by his blather. These people – mostly Muslims – are not children, however much the paternalism and pity that motor identity politics might try to convince us otherwise. No, they made a decision to use physical force in response to speech. They are not ‘counter-demonstrators’; they’re rioters, and they are using fire and fury to try to force out of the public sphere speech they find offensive.

    To be clear, Mr Paludan’s public expressions are offensive. He wants to outlaw Islam in Denmark. That’s an idea I find deeply offensive, given it would represent a grotesque assault on freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. He wants to deport all Muslims from Denmark, which is flat-out racist. And I understand why Muslims feel rattled by his ridiculing of the Koran. At various rallies in recent years, he has thrown it in the air, stomped it into the ground, burnt it. Is this necessary? Can one not criticise Islam without making a big show of destroying its texts and symbols? I have criticisms of the Catholic faith I was raised in, but I’m not about to go into a public square and behead a statuette of the Blessed Virgin.

    And yet there is a point of principle that soars above all of this. Above Mr Paludan’s vulgarity and the question of whether he should say the things he says; above the fact that some people view the Koran, as the BBC sympathetically says in its report on the Swedish riots, as ‘the sacred word of God’, and thus consider ‘any intentional damage or show of disrespect towards it’ as ‘deeply offensive’; above, fundamentally, people’s feelings and sensitivities. And that is freedom of speech. The right of every individual to say what he believes to be true, even if it upsets, outrages, disturbs. Let’s lay it on the line: Mr Paludan’s right to desecrate the Koran must take precedence, legally and morally, over a Swedish Muslim’s right never to feel offended. This is the enlightened way. This is the path of liberty.

    To their credit, the Swedish police seem to have some understanding of this point of principle. Can you imagine a British police force giving permission to a far-right rally with a public burning of the Koran? Swedish police chiefs have said that all people in Sweden must be free to ‘use their constitutionally protected rights’ both ‘to express their opinion’ and ‘to demonstrate’. This is exactly right: Mr Paludan and his weird minions must have the right to express their opinion that Islam is evil and those who feel offended must have the right to protest against them. And yes, burning objects counts as an expression of opinion. For decades, American warriors for freedom of speech have insisted on the right of people to burn the Stars and Stripes because, in the words of Nadine Strossen, even ‘deeply unpopular [and] offensive’ speech should be free speech. So Paludan should have the right to burn the Koran, and others should have the right to say ‘Don’t do this, please’. But rioting? That’s something else entirely.

    Sweden’s days of rioting are not ‘counter-demonstrations’. They are not ‘speech’. No, this is violence, and it is violence deployed to the end of shushing blasphemous commentary. This is an unstable, incoherent species of Inquisition, in which a menacing message is being sent: offend my religious sensibilities, offend me, and we will visit destruction upon you. No nation that believes in liberty should cave in to such threats. It would give religious fundamentalists a veto over what may and may not be said in public, over freedom itself. Whether it’s schoolteachers being hounded into hiding in the UK or cartoonists being murdered in France or far-right politicians being rioted against in Sweden, we are witnessing a rise in violent Islamist intolerance. Our response should be to defend freedom of speech to the hilt, for everyone and against everything – including Islam.

    The true problem here is an unwillingness among the European intelligentsia and political class to stand up for freedom and to make it clear to all social groups that their feelings carry less moral weight than the principles of freedom. In fact, too often the elites do the opposite – they send the message that some forms of speech are so hurtful, so ‘erasing’, that they may be legitimately sidelined or squashed, whether it’s ‘transphobic’ feminism, un-PC humour or mockery of Muhammad. This gives a green light to violent fury against allegedly ‘violent’ speech. Those riots in Sweden can be seen as a physical manifestation of woke sensibilities, of the regressive belief that certain people’s self-esteem should trump other people’s liberty to utter their ideas – a belief held as firmly by the cultural elites as by regressive religionists.

    Public discussion about Sweden is too often suppressed. Remember the trouble Donald Trump got into when he said Sweden was experiencing certain social problems? And yet he was right. A culture of instability is palpable in Sweden. Particular crimes rose following the influx of large numbers of migrants in 2015. There is an unprecedented number of gun and grenade attacks. And now there has been nearly a week of rioting because someone made fun of a religious book. The problem here isn’t Muslims – the vast majority of Muslims in Sweden are not rioting. No, it’s the reluctance of European societies to be honest about the problems they face and to make it clear that certain values are non-negotiable, however you might feel about them. Prime among those values is freedom of speech. Sweden should be congratulated for permitting the expression of offensive ideas, and for quelling the riotous response to those ideas. Violence is never an acceptable response to speech.

    I thought I would put all of this up as we hear little of Sweden in the MSM! Needless to say I’m a supporter of Mr Paludan!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/04/19/why-arent-we-talking-about-the-islamist-uprising-in-sweden/

    1. It does rather sound as though Mr Paludan is deliberately inciting these rioters as he knows that would be their reaction to his book-burning.

          3. What I find unutterably depressing is that the PTB (everywhere – apart from Hungary and Russia) ALWAYS blame the “winder-uppers” and NEVER the murdering slammers.

          4. The Left seem to delight in ignoring the problem. It must make their lives terribly simple.

          5. The winder- uppers do it for the violent reactions. They are not usually the ones who get the damage, the burnt-out cars, the damage to property and loss of life. Pim probably didn’t expect to be killed.

      4. It takes very little to enrage fundamentalist loonies. Perhaps his outrageous acts are an attempt to bring things to a head and expose extreme Islam for what it is. A death cult.

        1. Yet there are moderate, decent muslim groups. A group of decent fellows who would rather likely say ‘Exceuse me, would you mind not doing that, and explain how we have offended you so much to cause you to do it?

          Sadly, they’re massively outnumbered by barbarian savages who just want to cause trouble.

          1. Yes, i know there are. It’s why i said extreme Islam. The moderates aren’t the problem.

          4. There are no moderates. Even those who do not personally carry out the murders, bombings, stabbings etc think that they are justified.

          5. Are you sure? I would call them quiescent. They will not ever oppose the rioters, will they?

        2. There is no such thing as “extreme” islam – there is only islam. See Erdogan for details.

      5. Certainly he is. He is within his rights to do so. By acting within the law and provoking these savages he is demonstrating that they are savages, implacable and relentless and without charity, common sense, or decency.

    2. In due course as the violence escalates, and events suggests it will escalate, the authorities will be forced to resort to live ammunition to quell the most violent riot, and the subsequent ones which will follow on from the use of live ammo.

          2. Never held one; never possessed one; never shot one. I conducted my arrests by force of my personality.

            Well, I had fuck-all else to defend myself with!

    3. Muslims cannot seem to accept that other people might disagree with them. As for blasphemy, no, it isn’t. I disagree on burning a book of any sort, but muslims have got to learn to grow up and learn how to behave in civilised countries.

      1. Not going to happen. They turn everywhere they live into the shitholes they left behind.

        1. For some reason so very many people do not understand that. We have seen decent enough countries reduced to bloody shambles. Muslims have no sense of proportion. They will destroy civilisation with little prompting. We have seen ample evidence of this as they have moved West.

      2. Every where they are everywhere they go they cause so many problems. Remember it took 300 years to get them out of Spain and still it goes on.

      3. Muslims are taught that non-muslims are “lower than cattle” – Untermensch in other words. Their opinions are of no consequence and must be eradicated. The muzzies have been trying to bring in blasphemy laws here since about the nineties, if not earlier. We need to resist strongly.

      1. Throwing a bicycle at a police horse where it then bolts. The WPC rider hitting her head on a traffic light. The BBC have no shame.

      1. What is the point of the police having guns if they do not use them, and use them liberally?

    6. This reaction or the fear of it is why our politicians appease Islam at every turn
      They are literally shit-scared
      How’s that Batley teacher doing…………….

      1. If the authorities had slammed (see what I did there?) down hard on the protesters about Rushie’s book and those making death threats it might have nipped it in the bud. Too late now, they know that they can get away with murder.
        Similar is taking place with the extinction rebellion protesters, they will become bolder and bolder and then be untouchable.

      2. They won’t think twice about knifing us, burning us , slashing our throats, rubber tyreing us , beheading us …

        Stuff that happened to people when we were in the Sudan , Egypt and Nigeria .. the stories were horrendous , were not just stories either .

      1. I should hope not. You don’t want to get the far-right, foam-flecked alerted, do you?

    8. I mentioned the BBC coverage a couple of days ago. The BBC did not mention that the rioters are muslims. I’d take issue with this article, “The problem here isn’t Muslims – the vast majority of Muslims in Sweden are not rioting.”
      The problem is obviously and unavoidably muslims. All of them. No muslim has ever given evidence in a Western court against another muslim. There are no “good” muslims, or “bad” muslims. There are just muslims. They are all cut from the same seamless garment. They all follow the same book. This crucial point has been played down by Mr Spiked, obviously. No doubt because the problem is not a few rioters, it is millions of others prepared and wiling to take the same path.

    9. Whenever I ask the locals in my neck of the sticks if they have heard (or read) about the riots, they simply shrug in a completely uninterested way and say, “Yeah, I think there was a bit about it in the paper.”

      Swedes have elevated apathy to an art form.

        1. Tell them that and they just shrug. They’ve had their nappies changed so frequently by the nanny state for over 40 years they’ve forgotten how to think for themselves. They actually believe that a state-owned, highly-taxed liquor monopoly is a wonderful thing!

    10. Islam is NOT a race, so wanting to deport the violent adherents of this cult is definitely NOT racist – just sensible. Personally I have no problem with being intolerant of an intolerant ideology and banning it (and generally I am very much against banning anything). Tolerance will only suffer once islam becomes totally dominant – the price of safety is getting rid of islam.

        2. Rastus, go to You Tube and type in search “History Debunked” and up he will pop. He posts something almost every day. Loads of information and not exactly PC by a long shot.

        3. YouTuber Simon Webb as”History Debunked”, The guy has balls+++ for covering some very sensitive topics ( mostly race related) but always with unimpeachable sources, I’m amazed he hasn’t been banned/cancelled.

      2. More proof that the so called ‘reset’ will never work as if we don’t already know.

        1. Don’t you believe it.
          The great reset will work and then whitey will be the subject of an extinction that an asteroid would be proud of.

          My only consolation is that the retarded woke will be part of the slaughter.

          1. I really still have some faith in Man Kind to realise what is going on, they can’t be all happy with the changes happening to their lives.

          2. My fear is that the ones doing the changing are the ones with the power and they won’t stop until it blows up in their faces.
            Then it will be too late.

    2. Given the same interpretation, perhaps schools in England should be teaching Urdu or Punjabi.

      1. In some places they are probably teaching IN Urdu or Punjabi as there are no native kids in the class!

    1. More but dangerous Dopey Wokey’s ……….🎵You put yer left arm in, yer left arm out you do the dopey wokey and you shake it all about.🎵

    3. Apart from the obvious, it sounds highly suspect to me. More than an interest, under the guise of ‘we can’t cope’?

    4. A while ago someone posted some images on Nottle, which I found sickening, regarding an article about Epstein’s (I think it was) activities and celebrities, with children dressed up and with strange make-up. The police are almost certainly overwhelmed and need to concentrate on the perpetrators and the site “runners”.
      Then they can go for the regular, as opposed to accidental, like Nottle, users.

    5. Says an idiot who has no idea how to prioritise what is important and what isn’t.
      I didn’t realise you had to be that stupid to be a Chief Constable. How on earth did he get the job.

        2. on a vaguely related note:-
          “A recent campaign by Transport for London was criticised for including “staring” alongside other unwanted sexual behaviours, such as upskirting and touching.
          The proposals came following a 175 per cent increase in reports of sexual offences on Britain’s transport network since the end of lockdown.
          Det Supt Sarah White, who leads BTP’s sexual offences team, dismissed the criticism and warned that her force is receiving daily reports of individuals committing sexual offences, including staring, across the country”

          DS White who leads this team and seems to see male rapists and lewd starers everywhere just happens to have tucked away in her Linkedin profile her membership of a Gay Professions group.

          4. I wonder how many instances of women staring at other women or staring at men are ever recorded?
            None?
            As many as that!
            There’s equality for you…

          5. What is it with all these wimmin in senior positions in the Cop Shop. Doubtless she has a Common Purpose Diploma.

            Get back to your sink woman and let’s find a man who will step up to the responsibilities and accountabilities of taking down the paedophile groomers without fear or favour.

        1. Good evening Grizz
          I fear you are right. I would think the whole of the civil service, local government and any other ‘state’ organisations are infested with them. Oh yes let’s not forget Parliament.
          We are doomed.

    6. He appears to be on the same page as that woman who was selected for the USA’s Supreme Court last week. How can any sane and decent person turn a blind eye to paedophilia?

    7. Plod appears to have plenty of time and energy to investigate … er … Cakegate.

  62. 352070+ up ticks,

    Build Back Better Backtrack? UK Considering Scrapping Green Taxes from
    Energy Bills

    Are we seeing a freeze on the squeeze is johnson the stud on the wander he does remined me in a way not so much of Churchill as of King Enery the eighth when it comes to romance, very handy with the chopper & cutting liaison’s short.

  63. I came across this quote from Alfred de Musset “”Beware of a man who asks for a pardon; he can so easily be tempted to deserve two!”
    That’s the kind of man our Prime Minister is.

    1. I have been wondering to which lies he will be answerable. Partygate seems to be the least of his problems. I suppose like Hancock he will be eventually sent packing for something utterly banal and not have to answer to his greatest lies and crimes.

      2. Whoever succeeds Johnson must be held up to the mark by the backbenchers who owe their seats to the Johnson manifesto and realise they will lose their seats if the manifesto promises are not honoured.

        To my mind the best outcome needs something pretty dramatic to happen. For example 50 backbenchers must resign their seats in the very immediate future and stand again in by-elections as either Reform Party candidates or as candidates for The Real Conservative Party under the leadership of someone like Steve Baker.

        As things stand the present government under whatever leader will just limp along until the next general election and then suffer a very heavy defeat and be thrown out.

    5. Allegedly he’s not George Floyd’s brother.
      But given the way “they” put it about how can the authorities be sure/

  65. The bar is open at Lake Lodge as we celebrate. Shopping done for the invasion of the monsters and now a relaxing evening.
    Thank you again for your kind words and wonderful support. Thank you!!!!

      2. I have some Robert Munsch books to read them and Officer Buckle and Gloria too- and Tuesday by David Weisner. Plus crayons, colouring books and, if I have time, I will print out some funny pictures for them to colour.

      1. I would normally bake etc but don’t have the stamina right now…however I bought a choc fudge cake, a Victoria sponge and cupcakes. Vanilla ice cream and a packet of Smarties to go home with. Boing, boing.
        Then they leave with their parents…..:-))))

        1. Haven’t the faintest idea (or interest). Don’t know anything about the pastime.

          2. Nope. I like the challenge of cryptic clues – but my “skills” are limited. I can’t do the Ximenes type. The Grimes takes an hour – IF I can solve it. The DT 15 minutes.

    4. Phew! A Six …
      Wordle 304 6/6

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

      1. I failed too. There are dozens of words with the same two vowels at positions 2 and 4 and that particular consonant at position 5. Picking the right word from so many is always going to be a lottery.

        Wordle 304 X/6
        ⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩
        ⬜🟩⬜🟩🟩

        2. Bugger and damn, my first bloody fail.
          Wordle 304 X/6

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

  67. Mods: I’m seeing a few instances of ‘Content unavailable’. Disqus auto-censor at work?

    2. I seem to have been blocked by Lewis Duckworth but I cannot remember having a cross word with him.

    3. 352979+ up ticks,

      Evening ES,
      I receive blocks of six and put it down to lab/lib/con truth dodgers led by one bob stapleford, they do tell one when one is on target.

    5. I think it’s just a glitch. There’s no censorship as such – no naughty words here.

  68. That’s me for today. Maddening “north” wind blowing hard from the south-east. And, what is worse, it is a very drying wind. I have had the hose out for half an hour just trying to keep some of the flowerbeds damp. Dried out…grrr.

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. There was a pic posted a week or so ago (maybe while you were away) which looked like an open wound – someone suggested it was ‘coke nose’.

        1. 9 out of 10 places tested showed signs of cocaine. One of them just a few yards from the PM’s office. It has been normalised. For them.

          2. I have in the last two days seen both Macron and Zelensky sniffing coke. We are being governed by people who are off their heads.

        1. I replied to ogga’ s post from twitter. A tweet from Richard Braine with a pic of BoJo from Breitbart.

        2. I get that from time to time as well. Usually to jdgarfunkle’s comments. I wondered if I had said something to offend. Then the other evening, when I scrolled back up the comment suddenly sprang into life. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

    2. Thankfully I don’t eat crisps, so I won’t notice. Perhaps it will help the obesity crisis.

  73. So the EU, already in the middle of the worst energy crisis since the Arab oil crisis and likely worse, is now pushing to eliminate imports of Russian coal. Just so you understand the importance of Russian coal to Europe…

    Some 70% of Europe’s thermal coal comes from Russia. Coal accounts for about 20% of continental Europe’s electricity production (as of 2019; perhaps it is 25% now).

    It seems Brussels is finally getting around to Ms Nuland’s instruction: “Fuck the EU!”

  74. “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

    Radio 4 – A Today special

    Ukraine: Where’s the Line?

    Eight weeks ago it still seemed almost unthinkable that Russia would mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then the reality of the war – and the way it has been waged – has shocked and appalled the world. Mishal Husain and a panel of expert guests ask what it would take for NATO to confront Russia directly over Ukraine.

    Guests:
    General Sir Richard Shirreff who served in the Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq while in the British Army, before becoming NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe between 2011 and 2014.
    Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.
    BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, who has been reporting from Ukraine for weeks.
    And we’re joined from Washington by Douglas Lute, former US Ambassador to NATO.

    8pm tonight – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016rvz

      1. We used to sing different words to hymns at primary school- as I reckon most kids did. When I read your comment this came to mind…

        Fight the good fight with all thy might
        Get a stick of dynamite.
        Light the fuse and you will see
        The biggest bang in history.

        Is it only me or do others remember this trivia from childhood?

          1. I too have to dig deep and the only one I can remember is a carol:

            While shepherds washed their socks at night – and so on.

          2. I too have to dig deep and the only one I can remember is a carol:

            While shepherds washed their socks at night – and so on.

        3. While shepherds washed their socks by night
          All seated round the tub,
          A bar of soap came floating down
          And they began to scrub.

          1. No, no, ‘
            A bar of fairy soap came down. You didn’t go to school in London, did you?

    2. As the new leader of ISIS has said. ‘We should now use this opportunity while the West is distracted to attack the Western world’.
      My view is that we should use this opportunity to declare War on France and Germany.

    3. They have deliberately set the question boundaries very near going to war. People are crazy, this has nothing to do with us. Does the average Briton or British resident want to sacrifice their life or send their child to die for Hunter Biden’s Ukraine interests?

  75. “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

    Radio 4 – A Today special

    Ukraine: Where’s the Line?

    Eight weeks ago it still seemed almost unthinkable that Russia would mount a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Since then the reality of the war – and the way it has been waged – has shocked and appalled the world. Mishal Husain and a panel of expert guests ask what it would take for NATO to confront Russia directly over Ukraine.

    Guests:
    General Sir Richard Shirreff who served in the Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq while in the British Army, before becoming NATO’s Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe between 2011 and 2014.
    Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House.
    BBC Middle East Editor Jeremy Bowen, who has been reporting from Ukraine for weeks.
    And we’re joined from Washington by Douglas Lute, former US Ambassador to NATO.

    8pm tonight – https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016rvz

  76. Film recommend. The opening scene is somewhat disturbing but not more than ‘The cook the thief his wife and her lover’.

    On Iplayer at the mo. La Belle Époque.

    1. It may be an interesting movie, but it’s a confusing title.
      There is an Oscar winning film called Belle Époque (1992) which is a Spanish comedy-drama directed by Fernando Trueba.

    2. I’d better get in touch with my vet, then. We used to use Bute (even I’ve been prescribed it in the past!), but then the EU meddled and we had a heck of a job getting it authorised for use, even though we don’t eat horses – at least, not knowingly.

  78. Just wading through the repeats on TV this evening …

    If I see another cookery prog…I swear I’ll scweam and scweam until I’m sick?

    1. MPs will vote on Thursday on whether Johnson should be investigated for misleading Parliament over breaching Covid laws. They ought to widen their remit: immigration, energy, taxes…

      1. With an 80 seat majority, even with a couple of rebels, no investigation. They will just have legitimised lying to Parliament and lying by the Prime Minister.

        1. vw, let me not bore you with the details, but around twenty years ago Parliament legislated to permit lying.

          2. It matters not a hoot. The Tory bastards have applied a 3-line whip – so all the cannon fodder will dutifully support the Buffoon Posing As Prime Minister

          3. Really so. If a professional person, eg solicitor or chartered accountant, suspects a client of some offence such as unblacking funds, the professional is obliged to report that paying client to the authorities.
            If the client were then to ask said professional if he/she had denounced him, that adviser is authorised (compelled) to deny behaving like a Conservative politician.

    1. Oh, good.
      Lets hope for a female uprising about that statement. It’s completely unacceptable. He needs to update his CV.

      1. So I have read. However, MH is 6′ 4 ” and , if a little infirm, can and will defend me. Mind you, if we do go out after dark, we use a cab.

        1. With these new people from uninformed societies a tall man is what their partner needs.. Though it doesn’t always help. The Championship boxer Amir Khan had a gun held to his head and they demanded his watch.

          1. Sorry to be humorous here but I don’t wear my watch any more- can’t read the dial.
            No, in all seriousness, everything is out of control. It is all so sad and hearing the few clips from that moron pretending to be PM….well, it’s tragic really. For us.

          2. I do wear my goldish watch when i dress up for dinner with friends but if any of them asked me the time i wouldn’t know !

          3. I wear my Rolex all the time, but it’s a dreadful time keeper! Not its fault, to be fair; I have that effect on ALL watches. They always gain – it’s my animal magnetism 🙂

  82. Well, got a bit done today. Not a lot, just a bit of wood splitting using the sledge & wedge for a couple of large bits of ash and finishing off with the axe.
    Had a pop into Twiggs this AM to order a couple of replacement chains for the chainsaws and also picked up a replacement 7lb sledge after my old one snapped the head off yesterday.

    Coughing like buggery at the moment, so sat with a Lemsip augmented with generous dollops of honey & dark rum.

    I hope I#’m better by Saturday as were off to Wales for the week. Something t’Lad & Dr.Daughter have organised between them.

      1. Local Steel factors and general hardware & tools.
        Cheaper than B&Q or Wickes too.

    2. Step up your intake of vitamins C & D and it will be gone. Another early night will help too.

    3. Where about? I’m taking a mini break in North Wales with Oscar this coming weekend.

          1. We will be making trips out on the Narrow Gauge lines and at least one of the slate quarries as t’Lad is interested in their battery locomotive.

  83. Glad that you’ve had some relatively good news about your health LotL
    I hope by now you have had a good few glasses of vino in celebration of not needing to worry about the unknown.

      1. Do I still need to light a candle for you tomorrow or are you okay for the moment? 🙂

        1. Oh Conners- what a kind and wonderful thought of which I am not worthy. It is not cancer which is the best news and MH is doing better also. Maybe your kind words to HQ paid off.
          Save the candle for another day and thank you, dear friend.

          1. That is very good news – on both counts. Uncertainty is very wearing. Will still continue to remember you both so that the progress continues.

      2. I raised a glass of prosecco – with a splash of brandy – to wish you well, Lotty … !

  84. Evening, all. Been a lovely sunny day, but quite a cold wind. I decided not to do any more to the prep of my new seating area, but leave it until later in the week (when it will probably rain, knowing my luck!). If the headline is correct about Bojo being the only viable candidate, we are well and truly stuffed! Surely there must be SOMEBODY who could do a good job, even somebody who isn’t viable!

  85. “Make Uranus mission your priority, Nasa told. There are favourable launch opportunities in 2031 and 2032 that would allow a spacecraft to use a gravity slingshot around Jupiter to shorten the cruise time to Uranus to “just” 13 years.” (i.e 2045)
    So those Nottlers still around then with get a close up view of Uranus.
    According to this website I have a 1in 4 chance of living to see the close up (assuming our inglorious Pols don’t cock it up in the meantime!)

    https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/articles/lifeexpectancycalculator/2019-06-07

    1. According to that site, I can look forward to another 20 years. From what I hear, there’s a good chance that we’ll all be lucky to survive the next 20 days…

  86. A bit of amusement, Scottish Memes:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/346ce030f6c1555712c1c61777b197494b76beb3c92843902f5baf1a0a36aaa7.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fa06578e92a38ba9c2755edc7e5311743880de66ed2d2e94a487ba27f20cee35.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/100d5caf105c84e213193edd96704aaf243c31a7da7726f621f7c1741f2ba796.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cec50f07b24a3dd14903499e2d9295152be88a93efdadc736c8f76b65c739285.jpg

    1. Those of us who occasionally identify as penguins got a little annoyed with number 3 😉

        1. Looks like a penguin to me. But then- am no expert, just identify as one when the mood takes. Got any fish?

  87. Goodnight all. Off to bed quite early as am still tired but relieved on both counts.
    Words cannot express the gratitude I feel for all your wonderful comments of support and friendship. Truly not deserved.
    Bless you all and I wish you all a happy and peaceful goodnight.

    1. Recently arrived home. Sounds like things are looking up. Best to you and hubby, Ann.

    1. I was waiting for you to appear, John, in order to personally wish a (now belated) wish for a Happy Birthday.

      I can only just hope it was a good one and I raise a glass to your having another 364 happy unbrithdays.

    2. Wishing you a very Happy Birthday, John! Hope you had a wonderful day! 🎂🍾🎉

  90. A very Good and peaceful night to all our fellow NoTTLers and may God bless you.

    See you all again to-morrow.

  91. Good night, everyone. Eventually it was 12 of us who went to watch OPERATION MINCEMEAT at our local Curzon cinema. We unanimously voted it a “Thumbs Up” movie, although the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) site had mixed reactions since some thought that the romantic attachments detracted from and slowed down the main story of the anti-Nazi deception. I personally thought that the romantic and other relationship aspects added extra interest to the WWII story.

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