Tuesday 21 June: Those harmed financially by strikes should have the right to claim compensation from unions

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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686 thoughts on “Tuesday 21 June: Those harmed financially by strikes should have the right to claim compensation from unions”

    1. Morning, Minty; morning all! Just nipping in as I am deep in Mattias Desmet’s “The Psychology of Totalitarianism”. Picked it up yesterday afternoon and read until about four, and it felt like a revelation, tying all the loose ends of what’s happening together, and freeing me from the worries of being a conspiracy theorist.

      Has anyone else read it? I would love to know what you think. Meanwhile, I have a book to finish. Have a wonderful solstice, everyone!

      1. Good morning m’Dear!
        Did you recover your vehicle from the garage and where abouts are you now?

        1. Hi Bob! Yep, car fixed and our paths crossed; am now in north Norfolk, heading south a bit today.

          1. I ought to have send to my phone number so we could have arranged to meet up!

      2. Good morning a&d, good morning all.

        Mattias Desmet was the main guest on The Highwire last Thursday. You can watch the hour long interview here

    2. 353396+up ticks,

      Morning AS,
      What was the name of that book that was mentioned early doors just after your morning greeting as now I am getting ” comment unavailable.”

      This is not a conspiracy theory question.

        1. 35339+ up ticks,

          AS,
          Could very well be, truth seekers rarely receive a smooth passage.

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Chillier start here, Happy Mid-summers Longest Day.

    awaiting to be corrected.

    2. When we drove back from Devon last week (303) there were already many camper vans parked close to Stonehenge I expect they’ll all be on their second or third coffee of the day by now.

    3. If I may be so bold as to correct you, Bob3 (good morning btw), my weather page suggests that this year June the 21st, 22nd and 23rd are of equal length and days begin to shorten from Friday the 24th. (Grizzly, in fact, will inform us both that we are wrong and that every day of the year lasts 24 hours because what we mean to say is not “days” but “hours of daylight”.) Lol!

        1. The name is from Latin/Greek halkyon, “kingfisher,” from hals “sea/salt” + kyon “conceiving/to swell” (compare cumulus). Identified in mythology with Halcyone, daughter of Aeolus, who when widowed, threw herself into the sea and became a kingfisher.

      2. From memory, 24th. June is the Feast of John the Baptist.
        Now where’s a pub quiz so I can really show off?

      3. From memory, 24th. June is the Feast of John the Baptist.
        Now where’s a pub quiz so I can really show off?

    1. No body ever take any legal responsibility or any action against these vile filthy POS monsters. Just in case it might cause a riot.
      This country is absolutely pathetic.

      1. “No Action” you say…….
        Not entirely true,early in this farrago a group of Sikh men well and truly “sorted” a gang of rapists preying on the children of their community
        Their reward from a grateful state?? 9 years chokey apiece for affray
        The ever damned to hell police were quick enough to act there……

        1. Point taken…..
          But didn’t it take about 10 years to get them behind bars. And still it continued else where. And still is happening.

    2. Epic rant, even by Mark Steyn’s standards! I missed this yesterday, so thanks for posting Rik.

      1. He was on very good form.

        He must be absolutely loathed by the PTB and the MSM

    3. As Neil Oliver is beginning to suspect none of these things happen by accident, The MSM and the PTB send us contradictions and absurdities in order to confuse us.

  5. Those harmed financially by strikes should have the right to claim compensation from unions

    After the last two years we laugh at a train strike.
    In my opinion it’s all part of the great reset, expect more shortages in the next few months.

  7. Lindsay Hoyle introduces new Westminster cat named after Clement Attlee. 21 June 2022.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/91049cf90f96d0f3673b75f5a2a45d5f95e03331358151ebf8cdf7e2a50bc197.png

    For the past few months, Westminster has been abuzz with little else other than Boris Johnson and his nine lives. Now, however, he may have a rival in that particular field: Lindsay Hoyle’s new cat, Attlee.

    The feline will follow in the steps of other parliamentary moggies including the Foreign Office’s Palmerston, Treasury’s Gladstone and Downing Street’s Larry.

    Although the Speaker has to resign his political allegiance, Hoyle has named the cat after the Labour prime minister from 1945 to 1951, Clement Attlee. Like many modern pet owners, he has set up an Instagram account for his cat.

    If this cat were made Prime Minister we would be no worse off than we are now!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jun/20/lindsay-hoyle-introduces-new-westminster-cat-named-after-clement-attlee

      1. They certainly want to get in the fee line when sinecures are being handed out.

    2. I expect the cat has carried out its natrual duties.
      I can’t think of one thing that Bore-us has achieved since he took office.
      Oh hang on a mo…..office party and choosing some wallpaper.

  8. Morning folks.

    Not in anyway wishing to spoil your longest day, this interesting snippet has yet to appear on the front page of the BBC’s website:

    From ZH (Zambezi Herald)
    ” The Russian Foreign Ministry has responded to Lithuania’s partial blockade of Kaliningrad, writing in a statement that they consider the “provocative measures” to be “openly hostile” and warning that the Kremlin may take action to “protect its national interests.”
    Kaliningrad is sandwiched between the EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Supplies from Russia are delivered via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania – which announced last week that it was banning the rail transit of goods subject to EU sanctions, which include coal, advanced technology, metals and construction materials.
    “If in the near future cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation through Lithuania is not restored in full, then Russia reserves the right to take actions to protect its national interests,” the statement reads.
    They have demanded that Lithuania immediately lift the ban on a number of goods to the Kaliningrad region.
    Earlier Monday, the Kremlin called Lithuania’s announcement “unprecedented” and “in violation of everything there is.”
    “The situation is more than serious and it requires a very deep analysis before formulating any measures and decisions,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a statement to the press.
    Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said they were simply complying with sanctions imposed by the EU, and that they were taken after “consultation with the European Commission and under its guidelines.”

    As Victoria Nuland once famously said: “Fuck the EU”.

    1. Yes I think I agree with Victoria Nuland.
      The Brussels mafia need a firm lesson in human relations.

    2. Could the blockade of Kaliningrad not be taken as a de facto declaration of war?
      If Russia then takes action to force supplies into the region, is NATO obligated to come to the assistance of Lithuania?

      1. Morning Bob. As I see it Ukraine has run out of steam. It looks as though their land forces have collapsed. Kaliningrad and the attacks on the Black Sea oil wells are a way of keeping it going!

        1. As I said about two days ago. Russia has won the war in Ukraine. All that is going on now is mopping up resistance and consolidating gains. It is worth watching Indian or other non aligned news sources to get a better picture of what is going on in Ukraine because you are certainly not going to get the truth from Western sources, who still like top pretend that Ukraine has a fighting chance.

      2. No. Like the Northern Ireland Protocol and the Good Friday Agreement, there is a reason to put a trade barrier between Russia and its Prussian outpost.

    3. I dont think Lithuania’s blockade would have been introduced without discussion with NATO, the consequences are blindingly obvious. The Generals are itching to get involved and sadly Boris is leading the charge. Things are going from bad to worse and soon the covid drama will seem like a minor inconvenience. No doubt it will be the usual nationalities on the front line and the usual suspects muddling around the rear areas looking on.

  9. Morning folks.

    Not in anyway wishing to spoil your longest day, this interesting snippet has yet to appear on the front page of the BBC’s website:

    From ZH (Zambezi Herald)
    ” The Russian Foreign Ministry has responded to Lithuania’s partial blockade of Kaliningrad, writing in a statement that they consider the “provocative measures” to be “openly hostile” and warning that the Kremlin may take action to “protect its national interests.”
    Kaliningrad is sandwiched between the EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania. Supplies from Russia are delivered via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania – which announced last week that it was banning the rail transit of goods subject to EU sanctions, which include coal, advanced technology, metals and construction materials.
    “If in the near future cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of the territory of the Russian Federation through Lithuania is not restored in full, then Russia reserves the right to take actions to protect its national interests,” the statement reads.
    They have demanded that Lithuania immediately lift the ban on a number of goods to the Kaliningrad region.
    Earlier Monday, the Kremlin called Lithuania’s announcement “unprecedented” and “in violation of everything there is.”
    “The situation is more than serious and it requires a very deep analysis before formulating any measures and decisions,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in a statement to the press.
    Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said they were simply complying with sanctions imposed by the EU, and that they were taken after “consultation with the European Commission and under its guidelines.”

    As Victoria Nuland once famously said: “Fuck the EU”.

    1. Surely this is a photoshopped banner, Rik. No-one could be that stupid, could they? Could they?

    1. Oh dear!

      The takedown of the notorious Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline will go down as one of this generation’s most monumental environmental victories. After more than 10 years of tenacious protests, drawn-out legal battles, and flip-flopping executive orders spanning three presidential administrations, the Keystone XL pipeline is now gone for good. The project’s corporate backer—the Canadian energy infrastructure company TC Energy—officially abandoned the project in June 2021 following President Joe Biden’s denial of a key permit on his first day in office. But the path to victory wasn’t always clear. Many had hoped that the disastrous project was finally done for in November 2015, when the Obama administration vetoed the pipeline—acknowledging its pervasive threats to climate, ecosystems, drinking water sources, and public health. But immediately after taking office, President Donald Trump brought the zombie project back to life, along with the legal battles against it. By the time President Biden took office in 2021, ready to fulfill his campaign promise to revoke the cross-border permit, the dirty energy pipeline had become one of the foremost climate controversies of our time.

      https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline

      1. NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) was founded in 1970 by a group of law students and attorneys at the forefront of the environmental movement. NRDC is a not-for-profit, tax-exempt membership organization incorporated under the laws of the State of New York in 1970.
        “NRDC’s lawyers are said by eco-observers to know more about environmental law than the government does.”

  14. Good morning all.
    A bright & sunny if rather cool start this morning. Very high light cloud, (stratus?) and not quite 5½°C outside.

    1. BoB, as we all on NoTTL seem to agree and has been said over and over and over: “The World Has Gone Maaaad!!!”

  17. Vladimir Putin fears ‘spark of democracy’ spreading to Russia, German Chancellor says. 20 June 2022.

    Vladimir Putin fears the “spark of democracy” spreading to Russia, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said, adding that he was trying to divide Europe and return to a world dominated by spheres of influence.

    “The Russian President must accept that there is a community of law-based democracies in his neighbourhood that is growing ever closer together,” he said in an interview with the Muenchner Merkur newspaper.

    Well it’s not spreading from the EU because there isn’t any!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/20/ukraine-news-russia-war-conflict-latest-putin-british-army/

  18. Good morning, all! A bit of morning levity

    A farmer named Bob was overseeing his animals in a remote pasture in Lancashire when suddenly a brand-new 2022 BMW iX, advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

    The driver, a young man dressed in obviously expensive clothes, leaned out the window and asked the farmer. “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”

    Bob looks at the man then looks at the peacefully grazing animals and calmly answers, “All right, why not?”

    The man parks his car, whips out his Apple i phone, and calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. He then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop® and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

    After utilising several other state-of-the-art gizmos, he then accesses an MS-SQL® database through an ODBC connected Excel® spreadsheet with email on his Galaxy S5® and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized H printer, turns to the farmer and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

    “That’s right. Well, yes you can take one of my calves,” says Bob. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as he stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then Bob says to him, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?” The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “OK, why not?”

    “You’re an MP”, says Bob.

    “Wow! That’s correct” says the man, “but how did you guess that?”

    “No guessing required.” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds’ worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you know sod-all about how working people make a living – or about cows, for that matter.”

    “This is a flock of sheep, now give me back my dog.”

  19. Good morning, all! A bit of morning levity

    A farmer named Bob was overseeing his animals in a remote pasture in Lancashire when suddenly a brand-new 2022 BMW iX, advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

    The driver, a young man dressed in obviously expensive clothes, leaned out the window and asked the farmer. “If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?”

    Bob looks at the man then looks at the peacefully grazing animals and calmly answers, “All right, why not?”

    The man parks his car, whips out his Apple i phone, and calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo. He then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop® and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany.

    After utilising several other state-of-the-art gizmos, he then accesses an MS-SQL® database through an ODBC connected Excel® spreadsheet with email on his Galaxy S5® and, after a few minutes, receives a response. Finally, he prints out a full-colour, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized H printer, turns to the farmer and says, “You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.”

    “That’s right. Well, yes you can take one of my calves,” says Bob. He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with amusement as he stuffs it into the trunk of his car. Then Bob says to him, “Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?” The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, “OK, why not?”

    “You’re an MP”, says Bob.

    “Wow! That’s correct” says the man, “but how did you guess that?”

    “No guessing required.” answered the farmer. “You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of pounds’ worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you know sod-all about how working people make a living – or about cows, for that matter.”

    “This is a flock of sheep, now give me back my dog.”

  20. 353396+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 21 June: Those harmed financially by strikes should have the right to claim compensation from unions
    A very vicious circle as undoubtedly union members are very likely to be
    lab/lib/con voters so the very same issue are on the regular roundabout.

    Man in the street / union member /striker / voter.

    Working, staying at home lab claimants vee tory (ino) government , then shortly working , staying at home , claimants vee lab (ino)
    government party war plenty of scam material there.financed by the money forest.

  21. Do we have a new ‘troll’ up-ticking this morning? I replied to ashesanddust and received an immediate up-tick from ‘Disqus Team’ that included two triangular signs with a yellow background and exclamation mark included.

  22. Sherelle

    “As Britain faces a “summer of discontent”, our ruling class has retreated

    to fantasy island. The country faces an onslaught of crises of historic

    proportions – from the worst inflation in 40 years to unprecedented

    travel chaos and the biggest rail strikes in decades. A new era of epic

    decline beckons, as Britain’s systemic weaknesses finally come to a

    head, from its sclerotic productivity growth to its atrophied dynamism.

    Britain’s politics is imploding, too: as the Government continues to

    botch Brexit, the country is without a safety valve to channel

    frustration into optimism”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/06/20/voters-wont-forgive-failed-ruling-class-plunging-uk-chaos/

    Several btl could be NoTTLers

    “The last two years have been so illogical, filled with

    bare faced lies, false medical science and the abandonment of

    established medical ethics, economic stupidity, consciously skewed

    statistics, repugnant censorship, restriction of liberties,

    international diplomacy only fit for mad house and damage to economies.

    At what point do we accept there actually is a plan and

    it is working to perfection – and that plan is the controlled demolition

    of our society, our currency and our economy?”

    And

    They don’t care!! They hate the ordinary people of Britain.

    They snigger as they impose all their eco lunacy

    they laugh as they condemn everything you do and say as hate speech

    They delight in introducing Woke everywhere

    They scoff as they facilitate Islam

    They chortle as they allow over a million in every year

    They talk drivel while refusing to reform the NHS

    They talk billhooks as they refuse to do anything about the BBC

    They talk tough while doing nothing to improve our defences

    They claim to be knowledgeable while destroying our energy security

    i could just go on and ad nauseum!! The people in charge, the entire political establishment just hate us!
    ‘Bout Right…..

    1. Morning Rik. I don’t myself believe anything will happen unless people start to go hungry though the state of mismanagement is now so high that this possibility cannot be discounted. It will be blamed on Vlad of course but how convincing is that? What we need to keep an eye open for is, The Man of Destiny! In other words Tony Blair riding in to rescue us!

        1. I would have thought that it is clear that he is evil and dangerous excrement but, oddly, opinions may vary.

          1. An increasing amount of the electorate were either children or not in this country when Blair wrecked us.

  23. ‘Morning, Peeps. Happy Summer Solstice! A dizzying 14°C here with a promise of 19° later.

    SIR – People have the right to strike, but they do not have the right to prevent others from earning a living. Those who suffer financially as a result of strikes and lose wages should also have a right, the right to claim compensation from those who call a strike. I would like to see this right set in law.

    Trevor Jones
    West Chiltington, West Sussex

    It does all seem a bit one-sided…I suggest all businesses should turn away known RMT members (other union members will shortly be available) and give them the cold shoulder wherever they show up!

        1. Au contraire, Rastus. If you check further down this forum you will see that I posted the very same song over an hour ago.

          1. I was scrolling down and found your post.

            Is there some sort of bizarre telepathic link between us?

    2. If one is expected to work at a rate that cannot even pay the bills or put food on the table, then there comes a point where one may as well resign, hunker down and live on what little one has left and be grateful, Working becomes not worth the candle if the choice is between destitution and destitution.

      As result, the supply of willing workers dry up, and supply and demand puts up pay, with or without strike action. This then feeds inflation, which is the true cause for this industrial action. We have only seen the start of it, as we enter precisely the same scenario as we had in the 1970s: a huge price hike in the energy sector (as in 1973) followed by the negligence of the finance sector to deal with it until it was far too late, forcing more draconian measures that decimated much of industry in the 1980s. Thatcher had the benefit of selling off assets and North Sea oil and gas coming on stream, and yet still most of Britain’s manufacturing capacity was torn down. What have we got now?

      1. The expectation that the price of goods from China may increase dramatically.

  25. SIR – After 22 years in the Royal Marines I moved seamlessly into the North Sea, where my diving experience was in demand.

    The platforms and drilling rigs were supplied by British tugs. The RMT union saw its opportunity and called a strike, believing that the oil companies would be desperate to get the rigs supplied and crews changed.

    The oil companies promptly negotiated with enterprises from Germany and the Netherlands predominantly.

    Within days new state-of-the-art supply vessels, with helicopter landing pads, arrived and they got on with 
the job.

    What the RMT was told when they asked to negotiate is probably not printable.

    Even today, 43 years later, you seldom see a supply vessel in Aberdeen, Dundee, Lerwick or Peterhead flying the Red Ensign.

    Captain Hugh Wiltshire RM (retd)
    Wareham, Dorset

    It matters not, Capt Wiltshire, to the politically-inspired bastards in parts of the union ‘movement’ – or lack of movement currently displayed by the RMT wreckers.

        1. A son, a Graduate Engineer, has worked 25 years firstly on rigs & now the wider oil industry etc – he knew there were great opportunities for him and his family and stuck in for the L O N G E R term.

          Between 5 to 20 years to retirement – retire at 51 with 30 years service (30/60ths of final salary) or anytime after that.

  27. SIR – I am a 69-year-old man, and was asked the same question as the male blood donor who refused to indicate if he was pregnant (Letters, June 20).

    I have donated 92 times and have written to the head of the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service.

    I also pointed out that the question about ethnicity offers the choice of “White Scots” and “White British”. “White English” and “White Welsh” are not included, which is unacceptable.

    Moreover, “White” anything does not denote ethnicity.

    Andrew H N Gray
    Edinburgh

    Good for you, Andrew Gray, but until the National Blood Service sees people like you walking away its rampant wokery is safe.

    2. I stopped being a blood donor because they persistently asked personal medical questions very loudly within the hearing of those waiting and often within the hearing of everyone as the donations are being collected in one big hall.

      1. I stopped being a blood donor because my veins started to collapse when they were trying to take a pint.

  28. SIR – Too-clever-by-half Conservative strategists have recently put it about that it will be a good thing for the Tory Party to lose the next election, so it can “refresh itself” in opposition. Reports in the Telegraph show the utter stupidity of this notion.

    Europe breathed a sigh of relief when Emmanuel Macron won the French presidential election. Now Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s insurgent Left-wing coalition has hobbled Mr Macron by removing his parliamentary majority.

    In America, Joe Biden was elected on the promise of bipartisan unity and a return to normality after the incessant drama of the Trump years, but Nile Gardiner (Comment, June 19) reports that the Biden administration now “offers the American people only more Big Government socialism, extremist and racially divisive woke ideology, open borders, striking weakness on the world stage, and a relentless vision of US decline”.

    The lesson is that behind every supposedly sombre, sensible centrist leader lurk viciously belligerent far-Left militants poised to blow past bewildered politicians and hijack the agenda.

    Short-sighted Conservatives who have been made complacent by Sir Keir Starmer’s apparent “dullness” and think that his Labour government would not be so bad have forgotten that Jeremy Corbyn has not actually left Parliament. His legion of Corbynites consider themselves robbed of their revolution in 2019, and their rage at their destiny denied has only made them meaner and more extreme. In the next election they’ll be back with a vengeance.

    The election in 2024 will be the most dangerous for Britain in decades. It is imperative that Conservatives throw all that they have into winning.

    Robert Frazer
    Salford, Lancashire

    Yes, Robert Frazer, but only after they have thrown Johnson overboard!

    1. If the Remainers can effectively castrate Boris Johnson’s Brexit then just imagine how the Corbynists will torpedo a Starmer government.

      The only way that the Conservatives could win the next election would be with David Frost as leader. But the Conservative Party’s death wish is too strong to allow this to happen.

    2. Blair is still waiting in the wings. And even Brown has popped up from his grave, see the Telegraph a couple of days ago…

    3. Oh dear, Mr Frazer. You appear oblivious to the impact that the globalists are having on the Conservative party and the Starmer led Labour party. Neither group will be working for the good of the people but for globalist outside interests in a fashion not dissimilar to Corbyn and his acolytes working for the Marxist cause. I would not want to see which of the two ideologies comes first in the ‘bad guy stakes’.

    1. The globalists are determined to push the people to the edge of the abyss by any means, including starvation and lack of energy. Johnson’s policies are in lockstep with the likes of NZ and Eire. Their intention appears to be to force the people into an uprising that then will be harshly put down with the result that society will be severely disrupted or destroyed. It’s time that both the police service and the military rank and file understand that in the greater plans of the globalists they too will be in the same boat as the people. Time that more people realise exactly what the government have in store for them.
      That’s my tin foil hat moment for today done and dusted!

  30. SIR – While I sympathise with Maie Osborn over the forthcoming closure of her branch of Barclays (Letters, June 20), she is incorrect in stating “the very purpose of their existence is to serve the public”.

    The “very purpose” of Barclays is to make money for its shareholders.

    Jonathan L Kelly
    Yatton, Somerset

    …is to make money by every means possible, including mis-selling?

    1. Almost right. The very purpose of Barclays is to make money for its executives and directors. They award themselves controlling shareholdings in order to outvote the independent shareholders at the AGM. This is the way of modern capitalism.

      1. They award themselves controlling shareholdings in order to outvote the independent shareholders at the AGM. This is the way of modern capitalism.

        Utter garbage.

          1. That was not an ad hominem it was a statement of the truth. They did not and can not do as you claimed.

            What you wrote most certainly was ad hominem and also wrong, in fact utter garbage.

          3. Of course I don’t.

            But are you seriously suggesting that sufficient are awarded to provide a controlling interest in a bank the size of Barclays, and do you seriously think that the existing shareholders would allow it?

            You clearly do not understand how the allocations work nor the huge number of existing shares in existence, none of the holders of which would be very keen to see the value of their holding being very significantly diluted.

  31. SIR —Can we not just ban striking for any essential service?

    Nick Rose
    Selsey, West Sussex

    Hey, Dean. is that you, dude? Nick R: man of the chalk cliffs? You speak with straight tongue, hombre. We Peelers were banned from striking by law, way back in 1919, man. If it’s good enough for Charlie Barlow to be gaoled for demanding more of the Queen’s Shilling, then it should be good enough for all those whom the nation depends on. What ya say, compadre?

    1. May I remind you that the Queen’s Shilling is defined to be worth 5p. What can you get for 5p these days?

        1. Good morning , Grizzly

          Were you ever a cub or a boy scout?

          When I was at a boarding school during the Easter school holidays we had to do Bob-a-Job. The mother of a friend of mine gave me 10/- and we then had fun inventing ten ridiculous jobs and fake signatures to fill in on the form.

          I wonder if the idea of sending 9 or 10 year old children out to knock on strangers’ doors and beg for jobs still is popular with parents. I remember as a child finding it horribly embarrassing

          1. Good morning, Rastus.

            I followed a family tradition of joining the St John’s Ambulance Brigade as a cadet. We learnt all manner of life skills, apart from First Aid and Home Nursing, in a similar manner to the Boy Scouts. I progressed through the ranks of Corporal, Sergeant and then parade Sergeant-Major. At the age of 15 I was giving First-Aid lessons to pensioners.

  32. Headline in today’s (somewhat trashy) DT:

    “The new must-have for midlife women, a male orgasm coach.”

    A new career beckons, chaps! Meanwhile the Sun and the Daily Mirror must both be wondering why the DT is on their turf!

    2. Didn’t the Victorians have something similar? A male-invented, male controlled mechanism of some kind.

    3. Didn’t the Victorians have something similar? A male-invented, male controlled mechanism of some kind.

  34. Good morning everyone

    Cloudy dull morning 11c.

    Sunak and Johnson are not listening .. they are cloth eared and are far too arrogant to understand the financial problems that ordinairy people are suffering from thanks to their crackpot green policies and tax rises.

    Here in our small villages , we are providing bicycles .. similar to the Boris bikes .. Fuel in our village costs nearly £2 litre .. in a low wage rural economy that is a colossal amount of money .. Caring in the community, even getting to work in the larger towns / shopping etc is causing lots of problems .

    Like wise with ambulances driving 12 miles from nearest hospital re emergencies , we have now at least 6 defib machines in different parts of the village ..

    There are also collection points where people can donate food , food banks are really needed. Families are really struggling . Rural economy coupled with an elderly population , buses run infequently, people need to visit hospitals etc , taxi fares are £40+

    Sunak and Boris HAVE no idea how stressed and worried people are .. We are talking about English people in little villages .

    Throwing money at blinking illegal boat people and the Ukraine war is an absolute insult to people who have paid their way in life and who have worked hard .

    This Tory government have got everything totally wrong .. I am feeling so cross.

    1. Morning, Maggie.
      Every which way you turn, the government seems determined to make or is spinelessly allowing, life to be become ever more difficult.
      Listening to my cousins on their travails to convert old farm buildings into a straw store and a cattle shed reveals a Kafkaesque word from which all common sense has fled. And it is costing us a good half of our income to maintain these parasites who are frustrating our efforts to earn a living or lead a normal life.

      1. Morning Anne

        Now that we are midsummer , of course we must make the most of the kinder months , but how cruel will the shorter days become ?

        I do believe our Councils and the lower tiers are under coercive control by the likes of Gove , Sunak and Patel , oh well , the whole lot.

        Our MPs sit in their lofty eyries.. no movement , no empathy, sweet b#### all.

        What are we all going to do?

          1. That’s what they rely upon, that feeling of powerlessness. Why – honestly – why must we put up with this abomination? Why can they refuse a fuel duty cut? Why can they refuse to scrap green taxes? Why can they build windmills rather than gas power plants?

            Why do they think they have this abandon to ruin our lives so? Why are they not leaping to obey our wishes for the good of the country?

          2. ‘Why do they think they have this abandon to ruin our lives so? Why are they not leaping to obey our wishes for the good of the country?.

            Because they can …..until…..

          3. They are of course following the socialist rule book. Bleed the productive class to enrich the ruling class and buy their client underclass. When the productive are bled dry and unable to produce, like Pontius Pilate they’ll wash their hands of the problem…unless they encounter the noose.

          4. That is where it will end, it is the logical conclusion. It won’t happen through the Courts of Justice.

          5. Because thir parliamentary salary is the least of the gains they hope to get (and in may cases already are getting, one way or another. Look at our recent PMs meteoric catapults into loadsamoney. Plus various MPs have made much more that their already outrageous “expenses”).

        2. Kill the feckers. I’m sorry, but nothing else is going to work. When the heads of department are removed from their smug offices and they find themselves marched to the gallows for their intentional machination, to see Sunak and Boris already pop eyed and red faced, swinging they will start to struggle and complain and then they swing too.

          The only way they’ll be brought to heel now is violence.

          1. How can we do that, in all conscience? We take to the streets with arms obtained from a friendly government, Libya maybe. We then face our own Armed forces. Young men barely out of school with pink faces, our kith and kin, wee Tommy from the next street, our own wee boy’s second cousin Alan, Fred who used to sing in the choir, Bill who delivered our paper, or Jack who did bob-a-job five years ago.
            We know that they will shoot us, they and all their generation have been thoroughly brainwashed before they joined the Army, and thoroughly trained since they joined. But we know stuff, we know the puppeteers are in charge, and our boys are just puppets, but they are still our boys. How can we pull the trigger?

          2. The state actively destroys all dissenting voices. It’s punishment for demanding freedom from it is oblivion. Thus that’s all we face them with.

            The alternative is that those kids don’t have a world to grow up into. Our society, our way of life, our very freedoms are obliterated by an uncaring, mindless, arrogant blob.

          3. Kids need to wise up…take their faces out of smart phones and wake up to the real world.
            It’s their future…..

          4. If they don’t want to face it, then feck them. They will have to learn the hard way. We can’t take everything upon our shoulders – we can only do what we can do. If they won’t listen, then they will have to learn.

          6. Interesting that it is the ladies of Nottle that have upvoted this comment. (Jo513 is probably a bot, no activity on the disqus acct.)

          7. Interesting that it is the ladies of Nottle that have upvoted this comment. (Jo513 is probably a bot, no activity on the disqus acct.)

          8. Well, violence has helped the slammers no end. That’s one of the reasons why they get what they want, no questions asked.

          9. The trouble is that they will get their lackeys (aka our former police force) to make sure that we swing before they get the drop. I used to respect the police. Many years decades ago. When I was a child.

      2. It’s more than that – the entire state edifice is determined to enforce this moronic fiscal policy. The solution is simple. The state simply won’t countenance it as that reverses their entire plan.

        The entirety of Whitehall needs to be flushed away. The entire state machine is the problem.

    2. Apologies, but you’re looking at it back to front. Ministers are irrelevant. The blob have taken over. They see no problem with petrol costs because it gets them tax revenue and achieves the intent of forcing people off the road. That helps them get net zero. They want massive uncontrolled gimmigration because, well, it doesn’t ever affect them except in creating a new client base for an ever bigger state machine. Big government likes that. High corporation tax is just to stay aligned with EU policy for when they force us back in. Energy costs are high and will be kept high to force people to use less.

      Mandarins don’t care, the greeniacs don’t care, they live off expenses. The blob are eager to head on to the supra national circuit on 8 figure salaries and horrific expenses on taxpayers.

      As for Johnson and Sunak – here’s an investment banker on a million quid salary. He gives that up to become chancellor, on about £150K. Do we think he did it for the pension? No! He’s a trougher. You can’t trough by going against the Treasury, so he’s gone with them – high tax, big state, tax and waste policies. We can’t possibly cut spending so we have to borrow more, oh dear, how sad, it’s only tax payers money. Make the proles work harder.

      It isn’t an accident. It isn’t a mistake of policy. It’s deliberate malice. They haven’t got everything wrong: they doing it on purpose.

  35. No no no. You don’t claim your costs against the unions. They’ll tie you up in court for ages. Besides, some people might support it and at the end of the day, the subscribers pay.

    No, you do it the other way around. You have the unions pay the striker’s salaries.

  36. If you can’t strike a deal with your employer then it’s not an issue for the Government.
    As Maggie Thatcher knew – it was just a miner problem.

    Morning all.

    2. This is where the rail franchises are so utterly absurd that the ultimate customer *IS* the government.

  37. I’m splitting my sides!

    A bit on the side?

    Reading about how the lawn tennis-player, Emma Raducanu, is suffering from a “side strain” reminds me — as an aside — just how little attention one’s “sides” ever get. A side of beef gets better media coverage. No one ever says of a comely woman, “Cor, look at the sides on her!”

    Sides need a better press: they are worth much more than a side order. Anyone siding with me?

    1. As usual, government is ‘leading’ with completely the wrong thing because that is what the blob want.

    2. Don’t these people come out with some crap.
      The BBC should be made pay to view, let them realise it’s what people want and not a compulsory licence fee for every one.

        1. My problem is I can’t watch some videos especially twitter on my PC but can on my mobile. Never been able to work that one out.
          But I totally agree with him.

        1. If Charles had any decency he wouldn’t land this country with all the upheaval, expense etc. of a coronation and all that follows, of a geriatric monarch, who would no doubt be even more incapable in a few years time. That is not what used to happen. That is not how it is meant to happen. We need something a bit fresher.

          An older person may be worth keeping in their current role because of their experience. A geriatric is seldom taken on for a new role.

    2. Is there context to that?

      I did hear he was suggesting praising countries that didn’t accept the monarchy and what not. Seems to be a case of kicking the box away while the noose is around your neck, but hey, his choice.

      1. I think he has acquired all his father’s rationality and acumen.

        Or maybe not? Perhaps, like Harry and his mother, he likes the money and the notoriety to which royal rank entitles him but would prefer to lead a quieter life out of the spotlight? Endorsing woke political causes is probably one of the surest ways of ending the monarchy.

        1. He’s probably trying to salvage what he can from countries that are determined to get rid of the monarchy anyway. China doesn’t want the Windsors messing around in any of their Belt and Road countries.

        2. …a quieter BUT VERY RICH life out of the spotlight. No royalty, no work, but still loads of dosh. What’s not to like?

  40. Police arrested Britain First Paul Golding recently for doing absolutely nothing disruptive.
    Why the hell don’t they arrest these communist union leaders for the outright damage and disruption they are causing to the whole nation ?

    1. Why has the NHS a head of sustainability? It’s just another rent seeker. These people have no value, no purpose, no function. They are parasites on the corpse the state has made of our economy.

      1. If there’s a ‘head’ of sustainability then it follows there is a deputy head and a department of minions doing SFA

    2. How many have died as a result of not seeing a GP? Phone calls lead to being triaged by someone whose last job was in a McDonald’s.

      2. When i last used E-Consult to speak with a GP i got a call 5 days later from a young Chinese woman who put me on hold because she was dealing with her two small children. That happened at 9pm on a Sunday night.

          1. No.
            She was totally ineffective and could only put in a repeat prescription. Which i could have done myself.

  42. BBC ushers in a new era of impartiality in ‘Newsnight’ shake-up

    Corporation hopes to end perceived Left-wing bias as it allows policy editor Goodall to leave the show

    ‘This is an important programme and one that it is vital we get right. We are determined to do that’

    BBC bosses believe they have solved the problem of perceived Left-wing bias on Newsnight, after Lewis Goodall announced he was leaving to join Emily Maitlis at a commercial rival.

    The Daily Telegraph understands that the corporation did not make a counteroffer when Goodall, the programme’s policy editor, told them he had been approached by Global.

    The departure of Goodall and Maitlis is being viewed as an opportunity to reset the programme and focus on impartiality after the pair were at the centre of damaging rows with the Government.

    Goodall, a former Labour activist who previously worked for a Left-wing think tank, will become the third presenter on Global’s political podcast cohosted by Maitlis and former BBC correspondent Jon Sopel.

    He will also become the commercial broadcaster’s analysis and investigations editor.

    BBC insiders said the BBC Two programme will move forward with a new team free from accusations of bias, and with a “scrupulous approach” to impartiality.

    “This an important programme and one that it is vital we get right. We are determined to do that, and when people move on it creates opportunities,” one source said.

    Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, announced last month that the Government’s mid-term review of the BBC will have a particular focus on impartiality.

    Goodall has had public spats with Sir Robbie Gibb, the former director of communications at No 10 and a BBC board member.

    In August 2020, he wrote an article for The New Statesman billed as an examination of “how the Government’s ineptitude created a lost generation”.

    Sir Robbie wrote at the time: “Is there anyone more damaging to the BBC’S reputation for impartiality than Lewis Goodall? This is so off the scale I don’t even know where to begin.”

    In January of that year, Sir Robbie criticised Goodall’s comments on Brexit. Goodall replied: “Thanks for this Robbie. Maybe one day, if I’m as impartial as you, I can get a knighthood, too.”

    Sir Robbie said: “My advice to you is to listen to constructive criticism and try and improve.” Maitlis was responsible for the BBC’S biggest impartiality row in recent years, when she delivered a 2020 Newsnight monologue about Dominic Cummings’s trip to Barnard Castle.

    Maitlis told viewers: “Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that and it’s shocked the Government cannot.”

    The facts were disputed at the time, and the BBC said the programme had fallen short of required standards.

    The presenter later told Press Gazette that the BBC had caved in to pressure from No10. Earlier this year, she was found guilty of breaching guidelines by retweeting criticism of Ms Dorries and the Government’s “tawdry Trumpian shabbiness”.

    The current presenting line-up for the BBC Two programme includes Kirsty Wark, Faisal Islam and Mark Urban. Emma Barnett left the show in February to focus on other projects.

    Goodall said his brief as Global’s analysis and investigations editor would be “to supercharge the organisation’s video output”.

    He said on Twitter: “It’s so important to keep yourself challenged and that’s what I’m doing here. The chance to create entirely new things was tantalising.”

    Goodall added that he would not be leaving the BBC straight away as the corporation was “rightly as always getting their money’s worth”.

    Global has made a concerted effort to poach BBC stars, and counts Andrew Marr among its recent acquisitions.

    Tom Cheal, managing editor of Global’s talk radio station LBC, said: “Lewis combines expansive knowledge of the inner workings of Westminster with brilliant storytelling and impactful, agenda-setting reporting which will be a core focus as we continue to enhance our video output.

    “Video journalism will play an increasingly important role in how we reach and engage audiences.”

    And pigs will fly! I shall not hold my breath as the BBC will inevitably bring in another Lefty to fill the void.

    1. I don’t mind. He can leave, and he’s going to a privately run competitor. When his ratings tank and no one listens then he’ll find himself squeezed and maybe then realise that his views are deeply unpopular.

    1. When half is tax, it’s very clear the intent of the state is to literally force people to stop driving.

    2. Just topped up with diesel after my trip. I was lucky to get away with just under £100!

  44. 353396+ up ticks,

    May one say,

    Tis my belief that this strike really is a major step towards self anhelation
    jobwise, many will fall to the workforce in waiting, arriving at DOVER daily
    they will do many of the jobs and the boys that have been voted into power will have them do it.

    .

    1. Ogga, if you think those criminal gimmigrants will ever be productive I have a bridge to sell you

      2. 353396+ up ticks,

        Morning W,

        Lets not chance a job on, there is always exceptions.

        Added to the fact I have been on a train with no driver at the front, quite
        unnerving.

        1. I don’t see why the country should suffer the criminality and violence of 10,000 to put up with the possibility one might be useful.

          1. 353396+ up ticks,

            W,
            I don’t see as you don’t see but that is what the majority vote calls for, not once or twice,thrice but every general election.

      1. 353396+ up ticks,
        Morning R,,
        Of course,really nothing new tis the old waiting crowd at the factory gate ploy.

    1. Because they are invited by our politicians – come here, take our children, our girls, free accommodation, free money you don’t even have to work for.

  46. I posted this last night and I am probably becoming a bit of a bore on the subject.

    These sudden inexplicable deaths always used to happen of course but why are there so many more of them now?

    Several of Caroline’s clients – if you can call a corpse a client – have died inexplicably in their 40s and 50s and Caroline has played the organ at their funerals.

    DM Story : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10935663/Tom-Mann-shares-heartbreaking-tribute-fianc-e-sudden-death-wedding-day.html

    X Factor star Tom Mann has revealed his fiancée Danielle Hampson died on Saturday – the morning of their wedding day. The singer, 28, shared a heartbreaking Instagram tribute on Monday as he revealed the love of his life and mother of his eighth-month-old son has passed away. The singer-songwriter – who found fame in the band Stereo Kicks – shared a photograph of Dani and their son Bowie as he revealed that he was feeling ‘completely broken’ but vowed to stay strong for the sake of their young son. Tom had just returned from a holiday with PR Executive Danielle, 34, in Sardinia last month. Danielle did not suffer from any known health problems and her cause of death is unknown. Tom auditioned for the X Factor as a solo artist but was put in Stereo Kicks, which made it to the final of X Factor in 2014.

    A tragic story. Her ‘vaccination’ status is not mentioned in the article but SADS (Sudden Adult Death Syndrome) is not at all rare nowadays amongst people who have been triple jabbed.

    1. It’s great that they think they’re explaining it with that label.
      What did she die of, so suddenly?
      It’s obvious, innit. She died of sudden death.

      1. Post mortems are not encouraged in France.

        You have to pay a lot of money to get one done and even then they often refuse to do it or schedule it to be done after the crematorium!

      1. I have always enjoyed Mark Stein’s anarchic outlook on life and watch his show on GB News whenever I can. I used to read his articles in The Spectator 30 years ago when he would have been in his early 30s.

      2. Mark was silenced by that paediatrician! He couldn’t get a word in! She’s right though.

      3. Mick Lynch: this year’s Arthur Scargill. Where is this year’s Margaret Thatcher to dismantle him?

    4. James Delingpole is re-tweeting stories of vaxx injuries and deaths every day. We mustn’t just let them slide under the carpet.

    5. Presumably, as they’d been to Sardinia, she was fully experimentally injected as well as experimentally boosted.

      1. Hurling looked pretty dangerous when I used to see it. Last All-Ireland Hurling final I went to was Galway v Kilkenny in Dublin in, er, 1988? I can’t remember much…

  47. Midsummer’s day and I can see the moon in the southern sky, with white fluffy clouds in a cluster hanging on a breeze to dry. 😀

    2. 18.4C here and mottled blue sky. A proper summer’s day for once. Still waiting for my oleander flower buds to open.

  48. Balancing on one leg may be useful health test in later life, research suggests. 22 June 2022.

    If you have difficulty standing on one leg, it could be a sign of something more serious than overdoing it at the office summer drinks party. Middle-aged and elderly people who cannot balance on one leg for 10 seconds are almost twice as likely to die within 10 years than those who can, research suggests.

    That’s it! I’m a Gonna! I tried both and failed. Of course only a cynical old dog like myself might think that poor balance like grey hair and wrinkles are an unavoidable consequence of advancing age and that mortality is by the nature of things inevitable.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jun/20/balancing-on-one-leg-useful-health-test-later-life-research

    2. Hang on! That comment was from the future! If they can do that then they may know something?
      Contrariwise, I can balance for more than 10 seconds on one leg, the other leg and on both legs. I know that I will die within 10 years. (Currently musing over suitable funeral music, selection of burial ground, writing my own eulogy, which suit to wear, and so on. Don’t really care about the purvey though.)

      1. Morning Horace. Of course. I’m 75. The actuarial tables tell me I have approximately another ten years regardless of however many legs I have!

    4. I see the “conditions” appear to have changed. I’m sure one was supposed to do it with eyes shut.

        2. I’d be the same these days. The gym instructor at police training school had us all adopting this position all around the gym. It was a competition to see who could remain in situ the longest before collapsing to the floor in agony clutching our thighs and calves.

      3. Hello Grizz
        My physio suggested that for me.
        Couldn’t do it as I have no cartilage between my knee caps and the tib/fib/femur and the pain and clicking of joints was more than I could stand.

        1. I am going to skid in at the last minute waving a large bottle of Pinot and a glass and shout. “Wow, that was a hell of a ride!”
          Probably won’t be able to get to the celestial bar as it will be full of Nottlers getting refreshed;-)

          1. That’s the way to go Ann.
            If you body is in pristine condition, when you die, you have wasted your life.

          4. St. Peter as a parkie; gates clang shut at 8.0 pm (5.0 pm after the clocks go back).

        2. As per Woody Allen – I’m not afraid of death, I just don’t want to be there when it happens.

    8. Stand on one leg while brushing your teeth (alternate legs) and you can improve your ability to do so, also your balance generally.

  49. Midsummer’s Day. It is cold and raining although yesterday was gloriously sunny and warm. Well, As Hillary said to Tenzing, “it’s all downhill from here”.

  50. A little gem to share with Y’all…..
    I emailed my dear friend in GA with the events of yesterday, especially the receptionist. Here’s the first line of her reply which caused me to choke on my coffee:
    “May the sweet receptionist get a boil on her buttocks for her kindness.”
    She’s a hoot.

      1. Tender but better, got a good amount of sleep and am taking it easy as ordered. Husband will be going to the shop later.
        Thanks, Sos.

          1. Yesterday afternoon, I think. I was self medicating when we got in from the hospital so not sure of time. Maybe mid pm.

          2. I’ll have a look – but very glad to learn that you are coping and thriving. We are all behind you, as you know.

    1. Lovelly! I do like regals – I used to get them from Vernons, but they retired and sold up to T&M a few years ago. They don’t have nearly as good variety. I still have some of the old ones alive. Must try to take some cuttings.

      1. Yes, Vernons were good. I think if you want the named varieties, then Fibrex are still the ‘goto’ place and haven’t sold out. I used to love the excitement of unpacking the selection I’d ordered. But these days, now I’m in my dotage, anonymous Ebay plants are good enough for me! I always also used to pay an annual visit to Arley Hall, to see their wonderful garden and herbaceous border where they also had a good selection of regals for sale.

        1. I’ve been impressed with the quality of the fuschias I’ve bought from Morrisons the last couple of years – all named varieties, very healthy plants and they are growing well and flowering. The ones I bought last year all survived the winter, some of them outside. They were £1 each. Excellent value.

          1. I try to support our own horticulturalists! I suspect the supermarkets will just buy in from the subsidised Dutch growers.

        2. Isn’t Arley Hall where they filmed Peaky Blinders? I bought a John Howells viticello clematis from their plant sale a while ago.

    1. “There’s no such thing as ‘fake news’; it’s outright dishonesty.”

      Can’t argue with that.

  54. Good morning. Perhaps we should not be surprised, given that Western government leaders have used the pandemic to indulge in an orgy of seizure of tyrannical power, to hear that using a declaration of emergency power, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has now banned all opposition voices, taken control of
    broadcast media and now today banned the second largest political party in Ukraine. [Radio Free Europe Link].

    Ukraine’s Opposition Platform For Life (OPPL) was the second largest political force in the Ukraine Parliament. As of today, the party is officially banned by a Ukrainian court at the request of the Zelenskyy Ministry of Justice. All assets, funds and property belonging to OPPL have been seized and transferred to the state.

    “The court satisfied the claims of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine: the activities of the Political party Opposition Platform – For Life were banned; the funds and other assets of the party, its regional, city, district organizations, primary organizations and other structural entities were transferred to the ownership of the state,” the statement reads.

    Ukrainian News Agency reported, the Cabinet of Ministers proposes to the Verkhovna Rada that the ban on the party be the basis for depriving the mandate of members of local councils.

    2. This will be a template for Johnson, his Communist party, and the WEF to gradually seize our property.

  55. Well, after finishing off putting a plywood base on the floor of the van, today I’m boxing in the wheel arches.
    Started at 07:30, got all the pieces of ply cut to size and I’ve just screwed the first one together and having a well earned mug of tea before screwing the second and doing minor fettling to get them to fit over the mastic bulges in the bodywork seams.

    Off to Basingstoke to see eldest daughter this weekend and then plan a few days in Kent visiting the Hoo Peninsular and Cliffe Marshes, then the RE Museum at Brompton Barracks and wherever takes my fancy.

    I see that the Women protesting against the Cocks in Frocks being allowed access to women’s spaces in Bristol at the weekend were VERY badly let down by the Police. Grahame Linehan has a good grasp on the reasons why.

    https://grahamlinehan.substack.com/p/why-did-the-police-fail-to-protect

    A few of the illustrations from his page:-
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b263dddd94dcd42c3334f17b4ede5896c8bd6b6f73054bf8f5d8293025b344ed.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8fc7e93e782a198c92ecdb3c4149d3a1848961d247e2da2ea221587500f8f74d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b1dc15ec4a86c2fece81de0ea107310d73be5afb4880fd2c8df98aa69e631192.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6cef01b51f822320d28783b35cc6566c209891d1d0dd03b3a0b79c3e048d71e7.jpg

    1. Don’t forget to fit the secret trapdoor so you have somewhere to stash your cache. Or cache your stash…

    2. Don’t forget to fit the secret trapdoor so you have somewhere to stash your cache.

    3. Did I see the four pride/trans flags arranged to form a swastika on here or another site yesterday?

        1. It made me laugh, because they are always so quick to call everyone else Nasties!

    4. I can’t tell. Is she talking about the green groups, the trans brigade – all 15 of them, the Scots, the gays, or the mob who will justifiably tear her limb from limb for typing in title case?

  56. Prince William’s 40th birthday photos offer clues as to what he’ll really be like as king
    The Duke of Cambridge’s break with tradition appears to show his reign will be different to monarchs before him.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/06/20/prince-williams-40th-birthday-photos-offer-clues-really-like/

    A couple of BTLs

    Most people accept that climate change exists and always has existed. What everybody does not accept is “that man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority and most ignorant of what he’s most assured” cannot do a thing about it. It is sheer hubris to think he can or should do it.

    and

    What Prince William needs for his 40th birthday present from his joker son, Louis, is a good toupée

    (Mind you, Mr Predergast in Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall said that once the boys discover that a master is wearing a wig it becomes almost impossible for him to maintain discipline.)

    1. William’s care for wildlife in Africa is good and I do support his work with Tusk. As for the rest of the greenwash nonsense it’s balderdash and if he doesn’t know it he’s even more stupid than he looks. Kate is his best asset. I don’t think he has the brains he was born with. Sadly he lost his brainpower when his hair fell out.

      1. That is because he can afford to do that.

        If I had the money , I would contribute to many causes , as long as I had a nice home to return to, warm shower , nice food , reliable transport , security , no bills and media coverage 😎🙂😉🥂

    2. He’s completely out of touch, doing his virtue-signalling posing with a Big Issue seller.

      All he’s doing is saying, Look at me, I care about the poorest in society. He has NO IDEA of the problems of the vast majority of the British people who are squeezed until the pips squeak to pay for the poorest in society.
      He should have read his Bible, which would have warned him not to boast about his good deeds.

      Just another out of touch rich barsteward who will happily sit in his luxurious mansions eating real meat and travelling by private jet and car while the rest of us are given powdered crickets and told to take the bus.

      1. ‘Twas ever thus – and they’re still at it. The Great Reset won’t benefit the masses, who will be unable to drive their cars, fly away on holiday, feed their one child on bugs, live short and unhappy lives.

      2. Yep. I was in a monastery one time, and there was a large mural of the Tyburn martyrs. Buckets of blood. We still do not accept the Monarch as Head of the Church so I am quite pleased that the disembowellings have ceased.

  58. Good afternoon. The US state department and NATO have started a land blockade of Kaliningrad- the Russian enclave on the Baltic with half a million Russians resident. This has nothing to do with Ukraine at all, and is a clear effort to widen the conflict into a NATO war with Russia. This bloody nonsense needs to stop. Now.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/06/20/nato-begins-land-blockade-of-russian-enclave-of-kaliningrad-little-russia-in-an-effort-to-provoke-further-conflict/

    1. I assume that’s related to the Russian parliament voting to take back the law recognising Lithuania as independent, a couple of weeks ago.
      I wonder if that was itself in response to some piece of aggression?

      This mad US/WEF administration pushing for a nuclear war is terrible to see. I believe that it is related to Putin’s rejection of the WEF-led reset.

  59. Moh playing golf in Sherborne , and also has a game tomorrow .

    Does anyone fancy joining me for a view of the sea and a crab sandwich ( The roads are hell on earth again)

    1. I’m joining you virtually with a cold chicken sandwich and some fruit. I’ll skip the sea view for now. My OH is watching the tennis but it keeps him happy.

        1. When the boys were around 12, we took them to Weymouth harbour for a drink and a sarnie. They still remember the crab sandwiches!

          1. I holidayed in Weymouth every year from 1970 to 1980. My Granny had a B&B in Great George St. The pubs around the harbour are all a bit rough now. Full of chavs.

    3. Too late. Had corned beef on a slice of instore M&S Sourdough which, contrary to some opinions I’ve seen, lists NO unexpected additives on the label.

      1. Happy memories. My granny would fill a crystal bowl of fresh crabmeat at least once a week. First time i had had some. It was heaven. And us kids could help ourselves. Granny was an excellent cook.

          1. She was lovely. She made Altar cloths for her Church which she would heavily crochet.

      2. Just the life I used to love when I was nursing at RNH Haslar, Gosport , and RNH Bighi in Malta.

        So long ago now and some really happy days .

        Moh doesn’t sail .

    3. I use Nord VPN, it works well and seem to be frequently recommended by those that claim to know about these things.

    4. Ccleaner and pay for upgrade to ‘professional. You get a VPN with it and, if I move to Scotland I’m going to have my VPN move me from Glasgow to Lunnon.

  62. The rail strike. I wonder what today’s younger generation, born well after the industrial action of the 70s and 80s, would make of pickets chanting “The workers united…”. No, really. It happened. Radio 4’s ‘The World At One’ has just featured a recording of this, though it was such a feeble and half-hearted effort that it might well have been staged for the microphones.

    I’m afraid I just laughed. And then another ‘United!’ chant wormed its way into my head – Jimmy Pursey and Sham 69. Same era, same nonsense, though listening to Mick Lynch talking, I’d suggest Jimmy had (and maybe still has) more functioning brain cells.

    Back to the 70s!

    1. Jimmy Pursey is 67 and barring illness, is probably compos mentis. Wiki has, “Pursey lives in the Surrey town of Chertsey. He is a part-time artist, and has been known to sell paintings to raise funding for the Hersham Hounds Greyhound Sanctuary”.

    2. I’ve already returned to the 70s. I have Lindisfarne playing in my car.
      Lose a bit of weight, rummage around in the attic and I might find a pair of patched flares.

        1. I wish I’d not read this,😔
          It’s rattling around in my head already.
          More Shiraz is called for, it might just dull the memory cells 🙄🙏

          1. Mine too.

            Edit I sold a load of LPs when we moved from central Cambridge, including Fog on the Tyne.

            I regret selling several including Sandy Denny who died tragically young in 1978.

            https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&hl=en-gb&q=Sandy+Denny+Like+an+Old+Fashioned+Waltz&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLUz9U3MCy0KMhS4gIzc-KNi3O0xLOTrfRzS4szk_UTi0oyi0usEnOSSnOLF7GqByfmpVQquKTm5VUq-GRmpyok5in456QouCUWZ2Tm56WmKIQn5pRU7WBlBABmA5OCXwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwja98LeiL_4AhXGWMAKHUSjDyIQ9OUBegQIOBAF&biw=414&bih=719&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:27d142d1,vid:FPTfP6yonL8,st:0

          1. I sold a number of LP’s to a record shop in King Street in Cambridge when we lived in nearby Victoria Street some thirty years ago. I wish I had kept some of them but not Fog on the Tyne, notwithstanding my affection for ‘Meet me on the Corner’ as favoured by Rastus.

            I wish I had kept Sandy Denny and curiously a couple of Planxty.

            This album is missed:

            https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&hl=en-gb&q=Sandy+Denny+Like+an+Old+Fashioned+Waltz&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAONgFuLUz9U3MCy0KMhS4gIzc-KNi3O0xLOTrfRzS4szk_UTi0oyi0usEnOSSnOLF7GqByfmpVQquKTm5VUq-GRmpyok5in456QouCUWZ2Tm56WmKIQn5pRU7WBlBABmA5OCXwAAAA&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwja98LeiL_4AhXGWMAKHUSjDyIQ9OUBegQIOBAF&biw=414&bih=719&dpr=3#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:27d142d1,vid:FPTfP6yonL8,st:0

          3. Thank you so much. I forgot my latest Amazon password but Carol has purchased the CD as a present for my looming 70th Birthday.

            Fuck me gently but where have the last twenty years gone? Do I exist or am I a mere traveller in Time. You know, quantum physics and all.

          4. Who knows where the time goes? From the answers to a question I posed to a science magazine, how far have I travelled through our Galaxy during my 60 odd years of free trips around the Sun, the answer was in the region of 350 Billion miles. One answer did in fact refer to travelling through the Space Time Continuum…..

    2. It is reckoned that the rolling stock waa hauled for many miles over sleepers to get to its final destination – if you get my train of thought?

  64. Just caught a bit of Abandoned Engineering on TV at lunchtime.

    The Fukushima tsunami triggered nuclear plant disaster has caused 1,600 premature deaths amongst the elderly due to the stress of having to abandon homes and relocate. Ironically, this far outweighs deaths that could be attibutable to radiation poisoning.

    I don’t know if the Japanese have managed to record deaths since 2019 as being attributable to COVID-19.

  65. Just in case you hadn’t enough to worry about, here’s something to really get you fretting:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/21/escape-alcatraz-prisoners-could-still-large-warn-us-marshals/

    “‘Escape from Alcatraz’ prisoners could still be at large, warn US marshals as they release new sketches

    The trio made it out after spending a year digging a tunnel with spoons, climbing up poles and evading guards

    By Verity Bowman 21 June 2022 • 11:34am

    Sixty years after an infamous escape from Alcatraz, prison police have released age-progressed images of the daring convicts.

    Clarence Anglin, John Anglin and Frank Morris broke out of the San Francisco prison on June 11, 1962, where they were serving time for armed robberies.

    They made it out after spending a year digging a tunnel with spoons, climbing up poles and evading guards before planning to take a raft back to the mainland.

    But whether the trio made it to the other side has been a topic of mass debate.

    The group, who were each serving time for armed robbery, dug a tunnel into the prison’s drainage system over a year-long period.

    They left behind makeshift dummies, made from plaster, paint and hair, as decoys to give them a ten-hour window between their escape and discovery that they were missing.

    After climbing along the prison’s roof they pushed off into the bay on a raft made from 50 prison-issued World War II-era raincoats.

    Once they were reported missing the prison went into a full lockdown and a massive sea, air and land search was launched.

    Federal officials concluded the group must have drowned after a sealed bag containing addresses and numbers was found in the water. A body was also spotted close to the Golden Gate bridge.

    Yet speculation has circulated for years that they could have survived and lived under aliases, after evidence that the raft made it to Angel Island and reports that a car was stolen that night by three people.

    The case, which inspired Clint Eastward’s 1979 film Escape from Alcatraz, was given new life after a 2013 letter from a person claiming to be John Anglin.

    The letter said he was alive but suffering from cancer, and offered to serve a year in prison in return for medical treatment.

    It remains unclear whether there have been any recent developments in the case other than the age-progressed photographs.

    “The ongoing U.S. Marshals investigation of the 1962 escape from Alcatraz federal prison serves as a warning to fugitives: That regardless of time, we will continue to look for you and bring you to justice,” US marshalls said in a statement.

    Those with any relating information are asked by the US Marshals San Francisco Office to get in touch.”

  69. Well, auction of Mother’s house opened with a bid at reserve, so the sale is actually happening! Yaay! At last!

      1. No, just get emails from the auctioneers on progress.
        At least someone bid! Thats the big hurdle crossed.

  70. Just had a great discussion with someone over the kitchen. She said ‘sod the estate agents. They want to make your place easy to sell for commission. Leave the kitchen alone – you do it up, first bloke who walks in doesn’t like grey, rips it all out and you’ve wasted your money – all to make their lives easier.

    But then I look at the burned draw fronts, the ones where I’ve sawn a draw off to get into it, the duff pipes….

      1. You are lucky, our housing market has collapsed because of rising interest rates and the constant media stories about the housing market being overpriced and ready to collapse.

    2. They wanted us to make our house completely uncluttered, not even a kettle left on the kitchen counter. Sod that, we left the house looking lived in.
      The place sold in two days – but I had to phone the estate agent to find out where the kettle had been hidden.

      1. One of the things that makes our house so attractive is the clutter in it.

    4. I more or less did the first one in a job interview. They were all “oh, we’re one big happy family of perfect Germans so do tell us all about yourself” and I was thinking “Shit! Being a single mother with four children is going to go down like a lead balloon round here.”

    5. My least favourite interview question is the lazy, “And where do you see yourself in 10 years time”? The last time it was asked was an annual appraisal and I did actually answer, “Probably retired”. My present boss now asks instead, “You’re not thinking of retiring”? We do acknowledge that it has to happen at some point and discuss ways of passing on what I’ve learnt just by doing the same stuff for decades.

      1. I retired in 2011 and I don’t regret it – I keep in touch with ex colleagues; don’t have to do the work or see the ‘customers’; have enough to live on; keep busy with hedgehog hospital admin and calendar production/sales; am part of a group organising a couple of events for Swift awareness week; have been able to go on some brilliant trips to various African countries……… and I can chat with the folks here and tell you all what I think about life without getting strange looks…….

  73. Good afternoon, folks! I’ve been incommunicado for several days while I was away, owing to having had the laptop lock up and turn its touch pad off. As I stupidly didn’t pack an external mouse (I knew I’d forget something!) I couldn’t get out of the loop and reset the setting. Have I missed much? Has WW3 kicked off yet?

          2. I tried posting the ‘Protect and Survive’ logo from the 1970’s government pamphlet on surviving a nuclear attack.
            Didn’t work, my ineptitude 🙄

    2. Not for the want of trying it hasn’t.
      Glad you got the pc untangled, Conners.
      All well?

      1. Yes, thank you. I did a tour of Derbyshire (Chatsworth and Hardwick), Nottinghamshire (Air Museum on ex-RAF Winthorpe), Lincolnshire (one night camping at Swinethorpe) and Leicestershire (Belvoir). Oscar was glad to be home. He’s curled up in his bed snoring and obviously dreaming that East, West, Home’s Best.

          1. No, I didn’t go near Bonsall. The only Lightning was a nose cone and cockpit in the Air Museum 🙂

  74. A bit like Connors, I too have been incomminicado for 24hours due to Travelodge’s arcane requirements to pay to use their Wi-Fi.Coverage

    Now staying in a delightful 2 bedroom, detached cottage in Moffat which, as Spikey has said is a bonny wee toon and quite busy with it. Dotty, the Chihuahua, has been made welcome everywhere.

    3. How long are you intending to stay in Moffat? Don’t forget to try their Moffat toffee!

        1. Sounds interesting, Tom.
          I assume you won’t be having the whole building..?

  75. Paul McCartney celebrates his 80th birthday with Stella in Mykonos. – Daily Mail UK

    You would think with all his wealth, he could have bought at least ONE bottle of Champagne.

      1. Mick Jagger’s father was an athletics coach. One of my friends, who was a javelin thrower, trained with him in the 1960s.

    2. I watch McCartney on the bbc it was a very piece of entertainment. I played along with some it.

  76. There are strong rumours that the Pope is about to resign. I’m off to the bookies.

    Anyone know the names of any Ukrainian cardinals?.

    1. “His Eminent Beatitude Lubomyr Husar Любомир Гузар
      Cardinal, Major Archbishop of Kyiv-Galicia”. Apparently.

      1. No final price yet, but at least one bid at reserve, so looking good, Sue.

    3. I expect someone is very proud of that lovely pair of young ladies.
      I’ll get me sun hat 🤠

  81. Putin says hypersonic nuclear missile capable of reaching Britain in minutes will be ready by ‘year end’. 21 June 2022.

    Nottlers will no doubt be pleased but unsurprised to learn that Vlad has said nothing of the kind. He commented on this new missile but said nothing of its targeting and which one suspects does not include the UK, which could be struck by much more modest delivery systems.

    Sorry. It is just that this perpetual infantile distortion gets on my nerves occasionally.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/06/21/russia-ukraine-war-latest-news-putin-odesa-nato/

    1. What Vlad doesn’t know is that Britain does have a secret weapon developed by our backroom boys that sucks out all the air in the locality using the vortex principle – a bit like Dresden but without the fire. The victims pass out from asphyxia from such powerful prolonged suction device and anybody finding themselves as a target of such a weapon would be Dyson with death.

      Delivery can be achieved rapidy at little extra cost. 😉

    1. Beats my Bogey Five, sweetie! … x

      Wordle 367 5/6
      🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    2. Me too…
      Wordle 367 4/6

      🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
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      ⬜🟩🟨⬜⬜
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    3. A fortunate 3 for me.
      Wordle 367 3/6

      ⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

    4. Me too. Happy with 4.
      Wordle 367 4/6

      🟨⬜🟨⬜⬜
      ⬜🟨🟨⬜🟩
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      🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

          1. #MeToo. Just gave all my gardening books away because i haven’t used them in years RHS encyclopedias among them. Went to a good cause though. My new gardener.

          2. The flowers here are lovely thanks to dedicated volunteers. I am not one. My two geraniums by the front door came through the winter OK but I haven’t done much else; other stuff to deal with.
            Maybe in a few days I can get some more done.

          3. I asked the new gardener if he was prepared to do other jobs like cleaning the guttering. He said ‘sure anything’. So i have a gardener and a handyman for £22 an hour. I must sack the window cleaner and Mrs Thursday!

          4. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcdefec29c064ad6ce1b1f28aac2b119dcbe1860bffc5b0825beac6e9805f473.png

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c98a5af8893e66f36278fd47c184c6d3b76cb1123c6d084f8f8d879029b37c99.png

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55a98495623c76ce91e7830873c7adf1758934013efefad1cd6bd0757f08459e.png

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13ebb84cb899e9f4ebba7c35bb7490484495df720d9383600463f6fe1f40b0dc.png These four varieties seem the closest to yours. The first one (named after a Polish Cardinal) seems the closest to me.

    3. Blandings Castle stories, P. G. Wodehouse.
      It was a young girl and her brother from London in a BBC episode that used exactly the same pronunciation for flowers.

      Sorry just my mind and trivia.

      1. Our missing Bill Thomas used the phrase ‘Bokay of Flahs’ on this blog. I thought it was funny.

        Actually, Bill and the MR are in Cap-D’Ail. Swimming in the Med. Lucky bugger.

        1. Cap D’Ail is pronounced Cap Daj. Lucky they are not in Cap D’Adge. That’s for nudists !

      2. And some rhymed Jars music with flars even if Beach did not approve.

        Mind you, in his youth Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe did something disgraceful with some prawns but we never found our what it was.

    5. I had a good display off my amaryllis this spring and tried pollinating some of the flowers by hand. It apears I was not only successful, with some seed pods developing and ripening, but a couple of the seeds I shoved into a tub of damp compost have spouted!

    1. This government absolutely stink, but were ever that information came from I’d be inclined to at least double.

    2. The SNP is blaming it on Brexit…apparently nothing else went wrong in the last two years.

    3. The SNP is blaming it on Brexit…nothing else went wrong in the last two years.

    4. There’s the Department for trade, transport, education, health, culture, climate change. Close them before we’re talking about 11bn. If the debt didn’t exist there’d be no bloody reason to insure it.

  87. I don’t quite know who are the biggest liars and con artists in the ruined festering mess of a country, the political classes or the trade union mafia.

    3. He was probably bullied for his big ears and his annoying personality rather than any ‘skin colour’.

    1. There will always be clueless muppets who chuck their hard-earned at Africa and its dictators who live the life of Mugabe Riley.

  90. Good evening, all. I’m away to attend the induction of our new Rector. I may or may not be back later, but hopefully, I’ll be able to log in tomorrow.

  91. Latest Breaking News, Lineker admits to getting Mid-summers day confused with April Fools Day

  92. Double bogey six today

    Wordle 367 6/6

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  95. Okay, time to water the garden .
    No sign of Moh yet , there will also be a golf dinner apparently .

    It has been a warm day , hasn’t it .

    1. Lovely and I sat outside for a while and actually read some of my novel. I love warm, sunny weather and we see far too little of it in the UK.
      Now, must go and find our Druid outfits….
      Edited for missing comma.

        1. Beach Music by Pat Conroy. As previously posted, his prose is poetic and he tells a damn good story. The only one I don’t like is Prince of Tides but the rest are superb.

          2. He’s a South Carolinian and writes about the deep south and Charleston SC too. Varied topics, people, drama etc. I didn’t think I would like The Lords of Discipline which is set in a military academy; I read it in one sitting. The Great Santini is another one I didn’t think I’d like but I did.
            I really like his books and once in, hard to put down.

    2. “there will also be a golf dinner apparently …”

      If there is a golf dinner, it would have been arranged weeks ago surely, Maggie?

    1. I am sure it was considered as an option. The weapons are in our arsenal after all. Considering using them and actually using them are very different things. These vids always hype things up because the reality of the situation is more mundane.

    2. Something of a non-story as RN warships have frequently carried nuclear depth charges to be used against submarines. It has not been UK policy to say where, when, or how often it happened. New Zealand had, I think, a blanket ban in place in respect of RN ships visiting NZ as they do not allow nuclear weapons in NZ territory. (As RN would not disclose whether or not the warships carried nuclear weapons, they did not visit, but stayed outside territorial waters and made faces.)
      However, it would be virtually impossible for them to be used against mainland Argentina. I don’t think that there was any way of getting them there.

      1. Weren’t they a maritime version of the low yield Davy Crocket sub-kiloton devices?

    2. Is that Michael Caine standing next to her? And is he saying: “Don’t blow her bluddy draws off!”?

  98. Oh dear; Lineker’s victimhood claim is not going down well in the Daily Mail.
    The kindest comments suggest that he’s suffered both the menopause and PMT.

      1. I think a large majority of people could claim they were bullied at one time or another. They don’t make announcements across media to get attention. It makes them subject to more bullying. Lineker is a wanker. That’s why he was bullied.

        1. I would be banned from the airwaves for ever if I voiced my opinion of Lineker.

        2. Yes. In primary and secondary school, there were quite a few darker skinned kids who did not come from any recent migrant background. There have always been slightly darker Britons. Only BBC weirdos obsess over skin colour.

    2. Ha ha, Seems the only people that like him is the BBC. You would think they would get the message.

      1. We have to be prepared for this kind of thing, exploding electric cars, buses including school buses, all elecric vehicles , on the roads and in garages exploding into volcanoes of flame that cannot be put out.
        It is the price of progress.

        1. And remember folks once the fire catches hold it only takes 7minutes before the heat become so intense that flash over occurs and it’s goodnight Vienna

      2. So it wasn’t an alien in that ET movie, it was just some Somali riding his exploding ebike off the top floor of a block of flats!

    2. Probably a very good friend of David Lammy, who was so traumatised by his other very good friend dying in Grenfell that he’s been living on the story every since

    1. The first few words of the Tammy Wynette song ‘Stand by your man’ spring to mind:-
      “Sometimes it’s hard to be a woman”.

      As proven by all of the creatures in that clip.

      2. I have yet to meet a transwoman who really understands what being a woman is about. Though there is one who posts regularly on Facebook who pretty much consistently comes across as feminine in the posts.

    2. We have a good old military war in Europe alongside a war on social norms and the morality that has evolved over the years. Western society is fooked.

    4. Next time you’re on Twitter and see Lineker bleating on about being bullied because he is “dark”, you might consider telling him he should be grateful.

      If he hadn’t been, the BBC would not have employed him.

    5. Some of them are beginner transwomen, and others look as though they come from a fetish group.
      I didn’t watch to the end.

    6. One of the tagiines says “Anyone can be a woman”.
      NO
      From the pictures, what would be the correct line is “Anyone can wear women’s clothes”.

  101. What a great time to be alive as a Lawyer…..!

    “GEICO to Pay $5.2 million to Woman Who Caught STD in Her Lover’s Car

    A woman caught a sexually transmitted disease, HPV, from her romantic partner while engaging in unprotected sex in his car.

    But luckily, her lover’s vehicle was insured by GEICO car insurance. Naturally, this lady contacted GEICO seeking a settlement “for her injuries and losses,” sustained while inside the vehicle.

    GEICO rejected the claim, because “damages claimed did not arise out of the normal use of the vehicle.”

    But when the case went to arbitration, the arbitrator ruled that the insured “negligently infected” his lover with HPV, and awarded the woman $5.2 million.

    And as ridiculous as it sounds, when GEICO appealed the ruling, the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed that GEICO must pay $5.2 million to the woman.

    What do you think— will an entire cottage industry of back-seat-related claims rain down on insurers across the US?

    Gee I wonder if our insurance premiums are going to rise as a result of such frivolous lawsuits…

    2. I wonder if he can also claim for the almost inevitable disease he will have caught from her?

  102. Still very tired and I have to be smart and with it tomorrow, so I’m saying Goodnight and God Bless.

    1. All the best for tomorrow, NTN. I hope it goes well for you. Do you have custody of Dotty?

  103. Re that twat Lineker.
    It would appear that he’s black, which explains why the BBC employed the useless wazzock, affirmative action.
    How else would he have got the job?

      1. Not a crime. However his ears are a crime. His feckless parents didn’t use pegs and elastic bands when he was a baby. Both they and he need a good beating !

        2. I wasn’t inferring it was a crime, I think it is highly likely that I have Jewish genes. I was explaining his swarthiness. Although I am not swarthy in appearance…! I agree about the ears.

          1. We are six degrees of separation from everyone else. Except Lawyers and Estate Agents.

          2. That was a great movie- Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing and Wil Smith- if I recall.

    3. I would love it if he were to appear on that ancestry program and found his distant relatives were slavers. Oh, how he would squirm.

  104. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10937475/How-Russia-FAKED-Covid-vaccine-trial-billions-way.html

    Everything, but everything the Russians do is wrong or a lie, and everything, but everything the West does is true. ha bluddy ha.

    How Russia ‘FAKED its Covid vaccine trial and made billions along the way’: Scientists find ‘ridiculous’ anomalies in Kremlin jab data and say there’s only a 0.02% chance trial results were genuine
    Researchers in Australia and Singapore say it’s proof Kremlin fabricated results
    Believe someone ‘manipulated’ data after study ended to paint jab in good light
    Sputnik V jab thought to have been injected in hundreds of millions worldwide
    Experts said their analysis ‘doesn’t necessarily mean the vaccine doesn’t work’

    my italics and bold.

    Yes the Russians probably faked their results, but please don’t try to tell me that big Pharma didn’t

          1. Sorry, I thought you were having a dig at those who claim only to look at the Times and DT

          1. Of course, I am quite good, now and again ;-)))
            Yikes, I think I am getting my mojo back.

  107. 6 year old granddaughter won a prize in a raffle – An hour’s music lesson today on the Saxophone. She being very small, the saxophone had to be placed on a chair and she had to stand on the first step of the stair – great fun was had!

      1. Her mum has a clarinet – which I’m sure she can practice on if she wants to

  109. Excuse me but …

    Has anyone heard of this ?

    The French fashion police aren’t just busy patrolling what women wear – they are also militant in demanding that men wear tight-fitting swimming trunks in public pools. A law outlawing boxer-style shorts in pools has been in place since 1903. Budgie smugglers are cleaner than loose-fitting trunks, as they can’t be worn for hours pre-swim, the argument goes. I suppose that makes sense. But it seems a strange thing to fixate on, considering swimming pools are generally full of chlorine. I suggest France sticks to what it does best. Please, mes amis: eat some cheese, drink some wine and stop worrying about what other people wear when they swim.

    1. My mum made my first swimming trunks or rather knitted them in wool.

      The darn things sagged and stank to high heaven following immersion in the yellowish tinged chlorinated water of the shallow end of Beau Street Baths, in Bath (now thankfully demolished).

      1. When I was at prep school in Bath we went to the swimming pool once a week.

        1. We had an expert swimmer in my class at school, Steven Sawyer.

          He was a member of the local club, Bath Dolphins (from dodgy memory) and was very muscular resembling a sort of whale in the water. To my knowledge, nobody won a race against him.

          I eventually learnt to swim properly years later at Clapham Pool. I am happy swimming in the Med but simply hate chlorinated pools
          and swimming baths. I suppose it is the memory of the truly awful Beau Street Baths.

          2. Yup, it put everyone with any sensibility off.

            Many years later I thought it a good idea to swim in the Serpentine on a particularly hot day. I worked in South Kensington at the time.

            The water was blackish and there was a small boat named Chlorin running around. This vessel was putting Chlorine into the Serpentine.

            That experience was my last attempting to swim in an English pool.

          4. Yup, it put everyone with any sensibility off.

            Many years later I thought it a good idea to swim in the Serpentine on a particularly hot day. I worked in South Kensington at the time.

            The water was blackish and there was a small boat named Chlorin running around. This vessel was putting Chlorine into the Serpentine.

            That experience was my last attempting to swim in an English pool.

          5. Yup, it put everyone with any sensibility off.

            Many years later I thought it a good idea to swim in the Serpentine on a particularly hot day. I worked in South Kensington at the time.

            The water was blackish and there was a small boat named Chlorin running around. This vessel was putting Chlorine into the Serpentine.

            That experience was my last attempting to swim in an English pool.

      3. I had knitted swimming trunks. Worn at the beach. Once wet they accumulated sand and chafed the inner thighs. Dreadful.

    2. Don’t know about French pools, but every, and I mean every, British pool I ever did scuba training in had, waving at the bottom, a sea of hair, several elastoplasts, and a disintegrating turd. Urine one cannot see, just imagine…
      Quite repulsive. Why I don’t swim in pools, just the sea nd rivers, where you expect that kind of thing.

  110. Am heading to bed now…made it this late. Slowly doing better and my husband has been so great- did a huge shop, some of which we didn’t need but he did well. He bought me some lovely strawberries which was nice- fruit is the one food that seems to go down well.
    I am positive that all the husbands, partners here are good to their other halves- mine has been so good to me, supportive and caring.
    Anyway, on that note, I am away and am sure I shall sleep- some sun, some wine and a little food.
    Sleep well Y’all.

    1. In this hot weather I am surprised you sleep in a nightie instead of in your birthday suit, Ndovu. But “Nighty night” and sleep well.

  113. News

    Inflation 10-11% just like the 70s.
    Train strike just like the 70s.
    Energy crisis just like the 70s.

    Fond memories of the time as a newly married couple with our first baby when not only could we not afford to buy oil to heat the home – it just wasn’t available. I couldn’t always get to work and when I did I had to leave MOH at home in the dark with scheduled electrical power outs.

    We had had to eek out in the cold with a paraffin heater and I rigged up a mobile floor standing lamp stand using a 12 volt bulb with a car battery on wheels at the base. Our neighbour waa furious that they had a power cut but thought we didn’t.

    1. Great, didn’t it?
      I recall them days. Dark was the standard, as were strikes and utter uselessness.
      But, out of the chaos came Margaret Thatcher – so maybe not all bad, then.

      1. The Left still hate Margaret Thatcher for thwarting their evil plans. Now they are at it again and we have no Margaret.

      2. I was thinking about MT and her adage that you can’t buck the market.

        Well I think the Government has distorted the markets but in the end. supply and demand will catch up sooner or later.

        The Government’s vehicle scrappage came along when MOH’s Daewoo Matiz just qualified. The dealer almost cried when he saw the pefectly serviceable car, with many years of life left, mandated to go to the scrapyard. A new one did make moe sense however with its dealer guarantees and more power but MOH didn’t like the colour of the vehicle we had to purchase.

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